Daniel chapter 2 and beginning
reading there in verse 27, Daniel answered in the presence of the
king and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot
the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers
show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar
what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of
thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts
came into thy mind upon thy bed. What should come to pass hereafter?
And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall
come to pass. But as for me, this secret is
not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living,
but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation
to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart." Now, of course, I think you are pretty
much familiar with the back story to this. You should be. His brother
Al went through this book here a while back, but Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream and he asked his astrologers and dream tellers
and all these guys that supposedly had a leg up on the secret world
and they could see into the future and all of these things, and
so he goes to them And he told them to give him the interpretation
of the dream. But the thing was, he had forgotten
exactly how the dream went. And so he figured, well, if you're
really, if these wise men were really wise men and they could
see into the future and they could know all these mysteries
and stuff like this, if they could know what the dream meant,
surely they'd be able to know what the dream was. It makes
sense, doesn't it? I mean, if they could tell what
the dream meant, surely they should know what the dream was.
And so he said, well, they said, we can't do that. Nobody can
do that. And he said, well, if you don't
come up with it pretty soon, he says, I'm going to kill you
all. He said, bring all the wise men and the astrologers and all
these people together, and I'm going to slay them. Now they
were sweating pretty good, I'm sure. Of course, Daniel, he was
numbered among those, even though they had been brought there into
the kingdom. They were not natives of that
land. Yet they were numbered among
those, and they were going to be taken out and killed the same
way. Well, when Daniel found out about
that, he was not real excited about that either. He knew one who could do it. And he knew one that had those
answers. The only thing he didn't know
was whether or not he was going to give him those answers. So
he got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and he said, let's pray
that the Lord will give me the wisdom to know this thing. So
he goes into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar. He had said, ìDestroy not the
wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king.î
And I was showing to the king the interpretation. Now he said,
ìI am going to do this before he really knew if he was going
to do it or not.î But desperate times call for desperate measures,
and he cast his care on the Lord. And like I say, he got Shadrach
and Meshach in the bed and the goat to pray that the Lord might
give them. give him this interpretation. And so, he begins by telling
Nebuchadnezzar, these wise men can't show these things unto
you but, and that's a big but, but he said, but there is a God
in heaven that revealeth secrets. Now, That is the very essence of who
God is. He is a revealer of secret things. Now, men like to talk about secret
things, because if I'm talking to you about secret things and
you don't know the secret, then I can look and be pretty wise,
can't I? I mean, if I can tell you all these different prophecies
and tell you how all this stuff is going to happen, But if we
all die before any of that takes place, then I can die as a wise
man, and you think I was really smart, but you don't know for
sure if it happened or not. That's why the Lord said that
if a man claims to be a prophet, and what he says does not come
to pass, then you can be sure that he was not a prophet sent
for me. Because God is the revealer of secrets, and the things that
God says are going to be done. And He is going to send His Word
into the earth by the hands of those whom He is pleased to send
it, and in no others. And so it is that He says here,
there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. Now, if I
came to you today and I said, I'm going to reveal every secret,
that you've got, you probably wouldn't be too happy. I mean,
you know, we'd probably be saying, oh no. But you see, God is the
revealer of secrets. Now fortunately for us, fortunately
for us, He doesn't reveal those secrets to other men. He does sometimes. Be sure your
sins will find you out. Sometimes you might think you
hid something, but it turns out that it wasn't hid. But the Lord
always does that for your benefit. But look at what He says here
to Nebuchadnezzar. And He said that thou mightest
know the thoughts of thy heart. That's down in verse 30. That's
the last thing he said to him. He said, this is the reason that
the Lord is showing it to you, that you might know the thoughts
of your heart. Well, I know the thoughts of
my heart. Wouldn't we all say that? Well, sure, I know the
thoughts of my heart. Jeremiah said, the heart is desperately
wicked. Who can know it? See, we don't
even know our own thoughts. Nebuchadnezzar didn't his. I
mean, he had this dream, but he couldn't remember. Did you
ever have a dream and you knew you had a dream, but you couldn't
remember what it was? Well, sure you have. That's exactly
the state he was in. And the fact of the matter is
that even though we know many things about our thoughts, we
don't really know what our thoughts are, because we're our worst
enemy. We're the biggest liars to our
own self that ever lived. I mean, nobody's ever told you
more lies than you've told yourself. Isn't that true? I mean, I've
deceived myself far more often than anybody else ever has. And
the thing about it is we can convince ourselves that what we're saying and what
we're doing is the truth even though we know it's not the truth,
even though we know it's not right. We'll say it's right. So the Lord comes to Nebuchadnezzar
through Daniel. And he said, there is a God in
heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king
Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Now he is
going to reveal something to him that he is saying that the
reason the Lord gave you this dream was so that you might know
what would happen in the latter days, not the latter days of
the earth, but the latter days of Nebuchadnezzar's reign. He
says, I am going to show you the future, which he did. And what shall be in the latter
days? Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are
these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts
came into thy mind upon thy bed. What should come to pass hereafter?"
Now these things were revealed to you, he said, in this dream. They were set forth, but you
do not know what they were. But he that revealeth secrets
maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me,
and of course Daniel, he does not build himself up. He said,
I did not come to you to show you how smart I am. Now, when
men come and they are telling you things in order to cause
you to think about how smart they are, or how wise they are,
or what a great prophet they are. See, Daniel was a great
prophet, but he didn't come saying, I'm going to show you what a
great prophet I am. No, he said, the Lord didn't
show me these things so that I could come and build myself
up in your eyes. He said, as for me, this secret
is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than
anybody else. I don't know anything, basically
what he says. He says, I don't know what you
dreamed. He says, I don't have any way of knowing what you dreamed.
But he said, the Lord chose me to come and tell you what you
dreamed. Now, that doesn't make any sense,
does it? Because men figure that if a man comes telling somebody
the truth, it means that he has figured it out himself. They
figure that he has spent many hours laboring in word and doctrine,
and so that by doing so, He comes and the things that He says are
true because He knows them. You see, the Lord is able to
speak His Word in such a fashion that those who know, who speak
it, are not necessarily the ones to whom the message is given
to them to understand it. Now, Daniel says it right here
to Nebuchadnezzar. He said, these were your thoughts.
The Lord gave you the thoughts. Where do thoughts come from?
Have you ever wondered about that? Some people think they
think up their thoughts. Well, if that be the case, then
why don't you just think up the cure to cancer? I mean, if you
control your thoughts and you can just think of stuff, well,
just think up something. Think of how to make a million
dollars and share it with us. We'll go out and do it. No, your
thoughts are given to you by God. But yet your thoughts, you
don't even know your own thoughts apart from the grace of God to
reveal to you and give you an insight into what it is and how
you would think about these things. So Daniel said, this secret is
not revealed to me so that I might show forth that I have more wisdom
than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the
interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts
of thy heart. Now this is the work of the Spirit
of God in men that we might know our thoughts. that we might know
what we are by nature. Now the Lord said when the Spirit
of God has come that he will convince the world of three things,
sin, righteousness and judgment. Now every man by nature thinks
that he has got some righteousness, every one, we do. We're constantly
trying, even though we have been taught in our mind and heart
that we don't have any righteousness, we do from time to time keep
trying to go back and figure out there's something that we've
done that is a good thing. Because men do not want to face
the fact that there is no righteousness in them apart from the grace
of God to show you your thoughts and teach you what you are by
nature. And so the Lord comes to convince
the world of sin. Now sin is in our thoughts, is
it not? But we don't call it sin. I mean,
it would be sin if it was in somebody else, but in us, we
can kind of make it where it's not as as bad in us as it is in somebody
else. If somebody else did it, it would
be terrible, but we have a good reason for it. And we can reason
that out, and we can make it in our mind to be something that
it's not, even though in our thought process we know that
it is. Well, when the Spirit of God comes to convince a man
of sin, then there's no place for that man to hide. See, when
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar his dream, Nebuchadnezzar remembered. He said, Yes, you're right. That
is exactly what it was. Else how would he have known
that Daniel was telling him the truth? He said, Yes, that jogs
my memory. And so when the Spirit of God
comes to convince men of sin, He jogs our memory and He reminds
us. Just like when the Lord told
Andrew, I believe it was Andrew, Or was it Philip? One of them. Anyway, he said, I saw thee when
thou wast under the fig tree. Now, I don't know what Philip
was doing under the fig tree. I don't know if he was doing
something good or if he was doing something bad or if he was just
meditating or what. But whatever it was, Philip figured
he was the only one that knew he was under the fig tree. And
when the Lord said, I saw thee when thou wast under the fig
tree, he said, well, there wasn't anybody around. How did he know that?
And so he knew what he was. And he revealed to him his thoughts
even in the same fashion. So the Lord comes to convince
men of sin. He comes to convince men of righteousness. Now righteousness is that which
all men think they possess until the Lord shows them what sin
is. Because you see, sin, A lot of
people think sin is not keeping the Ten Commandments. I mean,
if you ask an average person what is sin, they'd say, well,
it's not keeping the Ten Commandments. If you keep the Ten Commandments,
you won't sin. Well, that's a poor understanding
of what sin is. David understood what sin was
when the Lord convinced him of sin. Did he not? Now, when he
looked on Bathsheba, He wasn't thinking about sin. He was thinking
about Bathsheba. But when the Lord brought the
prophet to him and He declared to him his faults, then he knew
what sin was. And he knew something of what
righteousness is. Because you see, sin, when a
man is revealed, his sin, then he has also revealed that he
is not righteous. Isn't that true? And David was
brought to that place when he said to the Lord, against thee
and thee only have I sinned. Now you see, that's what sin
is. It's not just that it's something
we've done wrong, but it is that we have spat in the face of God. that we have offended God, that
we have gone contrary to the way of God. It's not that we've
just done a few things wrong. It's not that we're just now
not going to get a star by our name on the chart of behavior,
but it's that we have offended the God who has created us, the
God who has directed our steps, the God who has called us And
we have gone contrary to His way. And so that's in our thoughts,
is it not, when the Lord shows us what sin is? Because a man
that doesn't know himself to have offended God can't know
he's a sinner. Now he can know he's done some
wrong things. Everybody, every bum on skid row knows that they've
done wrong things in their life. But very few of them are sinners.
in their thoughts because they all got a reason for why it was
when my wife left me or my partner went off with all my money or
whatever. I mean, every one of them has
got a story to tell you, do they not? Every one of us have a story
and a reason for why we've done the things that we've done, but
when the true reality of the matter is and God reveals to
us our thoughts, all that stuff kind of just fades away, does
it not? because we see our thoughts that
we just make excuses for our own sin. It doesn't have anything
to do with all of that. As much as we'd like to blame
somebody else, it's not them that's caused our problem, it's
us. And He reveals our thoughts.
And so He convinces us of sin, but He convinces us of righteousness.
And the righteousness which There's only one. See, people think that
you can do righteous things. In fact, I was just reminded
about a song that a fellow had written a little piece about
it, and I hadn't even thought of the song in years, but it
brought it back to my mind. And the song says, Take time
to be holy. That's the word. Now, how would
a man take time to be holy? Because holiness is not something
that's acquainted with time. It's not something you can perform.
It's not something you can do. You can't take time to be holy
because there's only one way that a man can be made holy in
the sight of God, and that's to stand in the holiness of Jesus
Christ. He is our righteousness. if we
have any, there is only one standard of righteousness. And so when
the Lord reveals to man his own thoughts and shows him that he
has no righteousness of his own and that if he would stand before
God in righteousness, there is only one place that he can stand
and that is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And he cannot
stand there except by the grace of God. And so the work of the Spirit
of God is to bring us to that place that we might know our
own thoughts, to know the thoughts of thy heart. Sin, righteousness,
and judgment. Now it is appointed unto man
once to die and after this to judgment. And of course people
think of judgment and they think of the impending doom of the
final day of judgment. And well, we should because there
is a coming judgment of the quick and the dead, the living and
the dead, the small and the great going to stand before the throne
of Almighty God. But there is a judgment that
is of greater import to the children of God than the judgment of that
great final throne judgment. And that is the judgment that
has fell upon Jesus Christ in our behalf. Now, that's a more
telling thing. I mean, it's only right, is it
not, that men should stand before the Lord and be judged and condemned. I mean, can you think of any
reason why any man on the face of the earth should not stand
before God and be judged a sinner. Is there a reason? Do you know
of somebody who in thought, mind, deed, heart has done everything
within his power to magnify the name of Christ forever, ever
since he's been born, every word that's come out of his mouth?
There was one who did, the Lord Jesus Christ, who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth. And yet the judgment of
God fell on him. Now, dear brethren, that's a
glorious thing to think of. And it is of greater consternation
to us when we think of the judgment that fell on Christ than it is
that God should stand and judge the world. Now, most people think
they're going to stand in judgment before God and they're going
to give their defense. They think they're going
to have time to say, Lord, and then they're going to reason
it out with the Lord. Well, brethren, there's not going
to be any time such as that. The Lord is going to show a man
what he is, and he's going to judge severely. How do we know that? I know that
because if he withheld not judgment on his only begotten Son, who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, who went
about every day of his life seeking to do the Father's will, who
had even in the hour of his own death no other thought than to
fulfill the purpose of his Father, If God who is holy beyond the
imaginations of men should take the knife and wound his own son
and slay his own son upon the altar, how does any man think
that they have any hope of standing before Almighty God except that
they stand? in the righteousness of that
one who has borne that judgment in their behalf. Dear brethren,
what a folly it is for men to consider that somehow or other
they can find a place that they could stand before God and they
could say, well, Lord, I always did this or I always did that. You know you haven't. You see,
the Spirit of God is the discerner of the thoughts. As we read over
here in the book of Hebrews, He says, the Word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder
to the thoughts and intents of the heart. A discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart, dividing asunder soul and spirit,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. You
see, the Spirit of God through the Word of God does bring to
bear upon the children of God such an understanding. What a
sweet thing it is that the Lord would reveal to us our thoughts
and that He would give us thoughts that wherein we would recognize
that we have no hope in ourselves. We have no hope in anything we've
ever done, said, or thought. apart from the righteousness
of Christ being imputed to us. What a glorious place for the
sons of God to stand. What a glorious place did Nebuchadnezzar
stand in when the Lord revealed to him the thoughts of his heart. But that pales in comparison
because you see, I believe Nebuchadnezzar I believe the Lord, in my estimation,
brought Nebuchadnezzar to a place of repentance. Because he ate grass like the
ox in the field, but the Lord brought his understanding back
to him and he said, when my understanding returned to me, he says, I praised
the living God and I said that the most high rules in the army
of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, there is none that
can stay his hand. or say what doest thou? He said, I want to
worship Him. Now, dear brethren, that is the
work of the Spirit of God in a man, is to bring him to a place
where he desires to worship God, not desires to worship some god
somebody made up. Now, I'm not interested in worshiping
some god that somebody made up, and there's plenty of them. You
see, there is the God who He's going to give everybody a square
deal and a fair chance. He's going to look on the good
that some people have done, and he's going to weigh up those
things, and he's going to think of all the mitigating circumstances.
I'm not interested in that one. The one in whom we declare, the
one whom Nebuchadnezzar became aware of, the one whom Job became
aware of, Job knew a lot about God, didn't he? I mean, he was
way better off than his friends. He had more understanding of
who God was than all of his friends. And yet in the end, the Lord
said to Job, Job, where were you? when I did all these things
at Job, after it was all said and done, and he's sitting there,
and you've seen, there used to be a commercial on one time,
and a guy's sitting in a chair, and his hair's blowing back,
and he's like he's going, you know, the wind's blowing by him
at a thousand miles an hour, and he's just holding on for
dear life. And that's just how Job was. I mean, he's sitting
there, and his eyes are wide open, and he said, I have heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear. Now I've heard about God
of a sort ever since I was knee-high. But by the grace of God, who
is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, He
has by His grace shown me who God is to some extent. Maybe
not yet as much as Job, but enough because Job was brought to the
place where he said, I abhor myself. And I repent in dust
and ashes. Dear brethren, when the Lord
is pleased to reveal to you the real thoughts of your heart,
by the same grace He will reveal to you who the Lord is and what
you are by nature. And only in that revelation can
a man ever have any hopes of having a knowledge of the Savior,
sinners, the Lord of glory. He is that one. And He saves
such as call upon His name. And He gives men those thoughts.
What causes a man to seek the Lord? Does he just decide? Now, if you listen to all these
preachers, or not all of them, but a bunch of them today, they'll
tell you that, well, you just need to decide to do it. I mean,
here's the facts. You're a sinner. And this is
the trouble you've got and you make a decision and bingo, everything
is great. Well, brethren, a man won't seek
the Lord unless the Lord discerns the thoughts of his heart and
teaches him what he is by nature and shows him the source of all
life being in Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us such a revelation
and teach us to know the thoughts of our hearts.