Good to see everybody. If you
will, begin turning to Daniel chapter four. Daniel chapter
four. I too echo what Angus said. There's
greetings from the brethren there in San Diego and from rescue
from John and Kathy Reeves and many others. He said, they'll
tell you hello. I realized as Angus was reading,
I have two messages for you today. I pray so, they're for your heart.
I want to visit with you. I want to talk with you and spend time
with you, but we're here to worship our Lord. And if that happens,
we'll have something in common and something to be happy about
and something to talk about, won't we? But, uh, both messages
I had three points for probably as brief and concise as I can
be. But here in Daniel four, we want
to see the Lord revealed and the Lord reveals himself to someone
and the sinner revealed that they're in need of a savior.
There's a reason they need a savior. And then there's praise given.
Praise God, and that's what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar. We'll
see that's what happened to a lot of the prophets of old that wrote
it down. And that's what's happened to
me. I'm just gonna tell you what happened to me and you'll echo
that too. That's what happened to you.
It's the same thing. And Daniel four, here in verse
one, it says, Nebuchadnezzar the king, so the king is speaking. unto all the people, nations,
and languages that dwell in the earth. King Nebuchadnezzar's
given a decree to anybody that'll read it and hear it. Peace be
multiplied unto you. Peace to you. I thought it good
to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought
toward me. Not that he does wrought, he
does work towards everybody, but I'm just gonna tell you what
he's done for me. How great are his signs and how mighty are
his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. His dominion is from generation
to generation. That's how the king begins this
decree. He said, I'm gonna tell you something.
This is what happened to me. And then he goes on, he says,
I had a dream. Daniel interpreted the dream.
And he said, the kingdom's gonna be taken from you. You're gonna
walk around on all fours. And then 12 months elapsed. And King Nebuchadnezzar forgot
everything that was preached to him. That happened. You ever
heard a message and you think, boy, that was wonderful. And
my heart was blessed. And then about two hours later,
he said, what was the text? I don't know. I can't remember. I can
tell you lyrics to a song from years, decades before I was born.
We forget, don't we? Don't feel bad. Someone asked
me about an hour after I preached the message, they said, what
was your text? We're gonna put on sermon audio. I said, I can't remember.
I studied it all week and then preached it. Isn't that a shame?
Well, Nebuchadnezzar forgets. A year takes place and right
as he was declaring wonderful things happened in his kingdom.
And he said, look what I did. Our economy's booming. I built
these buildings and all these things. Well, I've done this.
I've done a great job. At the end, he's on all fours
until seven was completed. And people waste time arguing
how long that was. If it was seven days, seven weeks,
seven months, seven years, it was complete. That trial lasted
on Nebuchadnezzar exactly as long as the Lord intended for
it to accomplish the task he sent it for. I'm gonna read down
to 34. Here's what he accomplished.
Daniel four, verse 34. And at the end of the days on
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes into heaven and my understanding
returned unto me. And I blessed the most high and
I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. He's not like me. I have one
generation. I'm gonna be here as long as
I'm here. And then my kingdom will be gone and some other kingdom
will come up. And he said, this kingdom is from everlasting. From before there was time until
after there will be time. He's revealed himself to me.
And that's necessary. The Lord revealed himself to
Nebuchadnezzar by the preaching of Daniel and through the trials
that the Lord sent to open his eyes. And he revealed that he's
the self-existent one, the everlasting king. He's God. He's the Lord
of Lord, the King of Kings, and this God is God. He's the most
high. He's not a God, He is God. And that's necessary for the
Lord to reveal that to someone because we were born into this
world with an instinct, a nature from Adam, and we think we know
God. Ask anyone, they'll have an opinion.
Good, bad, ugly, something, but they'll have an opinion. Oh,
I know, I know. No, we don't know. The Lord has
to reveal that. Pharaoh was honest. Whenever
Moses came to Pharaoh and he said, the Lord told me to tell
you, let my people go. Now you better do it. And Pharaoh
said, who is the Lord that I should obey him? He was honest. He was
honest. He didn't bow to him, but he's
going to reveal himself who he is to him. David wrote that in
Psalm 48, he said, this God is our God forever. Our brother
Maurice Montgomery said that years ago, he said, our God is
God. It's not a God, it tries to be God. The Lord we worship,
the Lord you worship is God. He lives up to his name, he does. And he revealed himself to his
people. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Godhead
in a body, is revealed in and to his people, and he won't miss
one. He won't be found wanting in
somebody and not another, and one's not gonna sneak in on him.
to be exactly to his elect, to those that he shed his blood
for, he won't miss one. And he's gonna reveal himself.
And when he does that, he reveals aspects of himself. We don't
know all of him and all about him at once. Paul, the great
apostle, who experienced so much and had so much revelation and
could explain things way better than I ever could think of it.
He said he saw through a glass dimly. Where does that leave
Kevin Packer? Where does that leave us, huh?
But the Lord reveals these things to us and teaches us these things.
He revealed himself to Moses before he sent him to Pharaoh.
He said, I am the great I am. You remember that Moses was there.
He saw a burning bush over on the side. And he said, how come
that bush is burning? It's on fire, but it's not consumed. And that's the rule of first
mention. The Lord said, you're on holy
ground. It's the first time holy is mentioned in the scriptures.
He said, take your shoes off. What is taking place here, you
ain't gonna fully understand, but that bush is providing itself
for the fire, but it's not consumed. It's not corrupted. Take your
shoes off, Moses. And he said, I am that I am.
And he said, thus say you say to the children of Israel, when
they ask you who sent you, you say, I am sent you. My people are here. Not I used
to be. Not someday I may be if someone
will let me. If you'll pretty please let me. He's not like us. There was a
time that I wasn't around. There was a time I wasn't born.
And I'm here and there'll be a time that I'm not here on this
earth. There was a time when time was not. And then the Lord
was, and He is right now, and He shall be. If you sit down
and try to, in mathematics, try to understand infinity. They
say, what's the center of the number line? What's zero? Well,
no, it's any number. If it goes on forever, you'll
go crazy thinking of those things. That's when mathematicians lose
their mind. The Lord's infinite. He's everlasting. We can't enter
into that. He's not like us. That's the exact words that Christ
used in the garden when they came to arrest Him. He said,
who do you seek? And said, Jesus of Nazareth,
he said, I am. And they fell back like trees,
just blown down. I am, that's who he is. He reveals
himself as that. And this kingdom, he's the king.
And it's from everlasting to everlasting. He has always been
on his, this is comforting to believers. He has always been
on his throne. He's on his throne reigning. and he shall be on his throne.
And just as brother Angus just read, the things concerning me,
I can't say it for everybody in the world. You can say that
for you. The things concerning me, it
shall be perfected. Lord does all things right. And
whatever, if it's rain, sunshine, trials or years of plenty or
years of famine, it doesn't matter. It's right. It's right. He's
on his throne. That's what the Lord was revealing
to Nebuchadnezzar. To this self-righteous, proud,
arrogant, stubborn king, the Lord revealed himself as king.
He meets us where we are. He meets us at our point of rebellion.
And that's different for everybody, but the Lord reveals himself
initially in those spots. Isaiah, you remember that well,
Isaiah six. He said in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted
up and his train filled the temple. And those seraphims were there,
they had six wings, two covered their eyes, two covered their
feet, and with two they flew around and they cried, holy,
holy, holy. God revealed himself as holy,
holy to Isaiah. He revealed himself to Job. Look
over in Job 38. If you find Psalm, turn left
one book, just a few pages. Job 38, verse three. The Lord decides to speak to Job
for a few chapters here. I read this often, I enjoy it.
Job 38, three. He says, gird up now thy loins
like a man, for I will demand of thee an answer thou may. Where
was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou
hast understanding. You tell me, where were you at?
And who hath laid the measure thereof that thou knowest, or
who hath sketched the line upon it? He starts talking to Job,
he speaks of the sea. I thought of that this week,
we were down there on a boat down in Tasmania, and those waves
were all over and crashing. And I thought, what keeps that
from just washing this island away? The Lord tells Job the
same thing he tells Jeremiah. He says, do you know how the
bounds of the sea are? He said, why don't you fear me? He asked Jeremiah.
He said, why don't you tremble at my presence? He said, I have
placed the sand for the bounds of the sea. All those waves that
just destroy ships and conquer anything that's out there in
it. The Lord used us to stop that with sand. Y'all have reservoirs
or dams here? Concrete, get it as thick as
you can get it. Put steel in there. I'll use sand to do it
and it can't come past unless I allow it. He's declaring himself
to Job as the creator and the sustainer of all things. Down
in verse 22, Job 38, 22. Has now entered into the treasures
of the snow Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hell which
I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of
battle and war? He's asking Job, he said, just
for imagery so you can understand these things, Job, do you have
a warehouse or a stockhouse full of snow and hell in case there's
a war and you feel like stopping that war for a day? The Lord
did that in our nation. It's only treason if you lose.
I saw that a lot lately. But Washington crossed the Delaware
and the British couldn't come because of the snow. They froze
it. Where'd that come from? Well, George Washington got lucky.
No, the Lord sent that snow. He said, be thou on the ground.
He breathed and that temperature dropped and the water froze.
The Lord controls those things. Down to verse 35. He said, can
now send the lightning that it may go and say unto thee, here
we are. There's so many things, and Job,
this is the oldest physical book many scholars believe in existence,
about 4,000 years old. And in science, they said, well,
light actually has a sound wave to it. In spectrum analysis,
they found this. Job said the stars sing. He understood
that. And then in the 80s, I remember
the cameras got so fast, they recorded storms, and they said,
you know, actually, lightning, we thought, come from the sky,
but it actually comes up from the ground. The bolt travels
upward through the electricity. The Lord said, can you say, Elatna,
be over there? And it says from the ground,
here we are. We can't do that, can we? The
Lord revealed himself to Jeremiah as the sovereign of salvation. He told Jeremiah, he said, you
go down to the potter's house. Just like that article in the
bulletin. He spoke to him and said, go. What am I going to
do down there? I didn't tell you what you're
going to do down there. I said, go. And he went down to the potter's
house and he saw a potter making pots, taking clay. And he made
one vessel of honor, one vessel of dishonor, one to drink water
out of, one to use as a spittoon in the bathroom. And he said,
oh, house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? Doesn't
he have the right to do with his own as he sees fit? If we
thank ourselves more than clay, proud and self-righteous, what
would the Lord do something like that? But he says, you're nothing
but clay, I'm the potter. I'll do with you as I see fit.
He said, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. To Ezekiel,
the Lord revealed himself as the one that made that covenant
of love. You remember that in Ezekiel 16, that was a baby.
Instead of being aborted in a nice room in a hospital like they
do now, those days they threw them out in the field. So it
was a baby born and it was just tossed out in the field naked.
No defenses, no way of surviving the elements, no way of feeding
itself. Completely helpless and hopeless, laying in a field.
Polluted in its own blood. That's something to understand.
We'll see in a minute. It's a tongue polluted in its
own blood. And the Lord said, when I passed by thee, I looked
upon thee. You didn't know I was walking
past. You weren't looking upon me. And behold, thy time was
a time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee.
And I covered thy nakedness. And I swear to thee, and I entered
a covenant with thee. How could a day old baby entered
into a covenant? I'll hold up my hands. No, you
don't know what your end is. The Lord said, I'll make a covenant
with you, saith the Lord, and because that, he said, you became
mine. Because I covered your nakedness
and I washed you and I cleaned you and I clothed you and I provided
for you. Why? He wanted to. He was capable
of it. It was his right to do so. He
was related to us like that kinsman redeemer and he was willing.
He willingly did so. It was a time of love. The Lord taught Nebuchadnezzar.
He said, I'm the king. You understand this kingship
thing. I'm the king, I'm the sovereign, I'm holy, I'm majestic,
and I have all power. And he revealed that to an earthly,
proud, boastful king. But that wasn't all that he revealed
to Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord showed himself who he
is, but he also showed Nebuchadnezzar who he was. Look back in Daniel
four, verse 33, And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding
returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised
and honored Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and His kingdom from generation to generation. and all of the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing, nothing. The Lord revealed himself
and his holiness and his majesty and his sovereign power and his
sovereign love and everyone that isn't him is nothing. Now because that's me and that's
anybody I talk to. were nothing. All the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And I just went through and told
you about how the Lord revealed himself to Isaiah as holy and
to Job as the creator and sustainer. You know what Isaiah's reply
was when the Lord revealed himself as holy, holy, holy? It says,
I said, woe is me, for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. He increases and I'm
decreasing. I'm nothing. That's what Isaiah
said. I'm nothing. Nebuchadnezzar says
all the inhabitants of the earth is nothing. This is the Lord. Job replied. He saw that creation
and the creator and his power and all those things. And he
says in Job 40, I answered the Lord. I said, behold, I'm vile.
What shall I answer? The Lord said, you're on holy
ground. I'm speaking to you from this bush. I'm holy. I'm eternal. And Moses hid his face for he
was afraid to look upon God. That's not some boastful flip
up person that comes into the house of God and says, I'm here
to get a blessing today. We're going to have a prayer
meeting and we're all going to gang up on God and perform a
mutiny and bend his arm to do what we will. No. Not when the
Lord reveals himself, who he is and who we are. All flesh
is grass, behold your God. That's a humbling experience.
Paul said, we're the circumcision. We worship God in the spirit,
we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have no confidence in the
flesh. None. We read in Isaiah, he said, behold,
the nations are as a drop in the bucket and counted as a small
dust on the balance. Just like that raging Southern
Ocean that's connected to the Pacific and connected to all
the others, right? And the Atlantic. If I went out
and found a drop inside of a bucket I took out of that sea, what's
that? It's a measure. If you've got
to weigh something on the balances, if I want to go on a dot, I may
try to do that. I get on a scale and I don't The Lord said, that's what all
the nations of the earth, all these great kingdoms and these great
powers and principalities that mankind's so worried about. He
says, nothing, that's a spitting image. He said, all the inhabitants
are reputed as nothing. The Lord says the nations are
as a drop. John answered, John the Baptist said, a man can receive
nothing, nothing. We are nothing and we can receive
nothing except the Lord gives it from heaven. whether that's
our breath, our bread, our jobs, or whatever it may be. Pilate
told the Lord, he said, why don't you answer me? He said, don't
you know that I have the power to let you go or kill you? And
Christ spoke to him, he said, thou canst have no power, you
have nothing against me, except it was given thee from above.
I'm the vine, you're the branches, he said in John 15. He that abideth
in me and I am him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. We're
going to do good things, serve the Lord, honor him, praise his
name, love our brethren, believe Christ. For without me, you can
do nothing. Nothing. Paul told Timothy, he
said, we brought nothing into this world that certain will
carry nothing out. And if a man thinks himself to
be something when he's nothing, that's what we are, he'd deceive
himself. The Lord has to reveal that,
that he's almighty, all powerful, holy, sovereign, legit, worthy
of praise, and we're nothing. Lord, help us be with us and
make us praise you. We believe, help our unbelief.
We trust your promises, not as we ought. We worship, not as
we want to, but be with us. I broke down just the I wills
and they shalls of the scripture. Angus touched on that too. Every
time the Lord said, I will and they shall. I will be their God
and they shall be my people. I will walk in them and they
shall bring forth much fruit. It's his doing. We are nothing, peace, holy,
sovereign, eternal savior, the creator, the author of that covenant
of love. And we're nothing. Verse 35 in
Daniel. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will an army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He doeth according to his will
and all. Well, you got to let go and let
God. The Lord's wanting to do something and you got to let
him. That's a ear that doesn't hear and a mouth that doesn't
speak correctly. There's a speech impediment. And that's what I've
been able to talk about today. I don't, there's people I've
known for decades. I don't know a man's heart. I
don't know a lady's heart. The Lord looks on the heart.
I can't know somebody. You can't know my heart, but I can know
what comes out of the mouth. If you hear the same thing over
and over, eventually everybody will tell you what they think,
you know, what's in them. But the Lord doeth as he sees
fit. The Lord's always performed.
That's the perfect tense, doeth. He's always done what pleased
him, his will. He's doing right now. Anything
that takes place is exactly according to his will. And it shall be,
shall be, whatever comes to pass. And he changes not. Knowing that
and understanding that, that we're nothing and he is, he's
everything. Then we read Romans eight and
we know that all things, to them that love God, to them who He
called according to His purpose. This Lord, this Sovereign, this
God who is God, He does things on purpose, on purpose. Some of you say, well, I'm saved.
Well, was it an accident or did the Lord do it on purpose? Well,
He did it on purpose, didn't He? All things, all things. We read that in Colossians 1,
for by Him are all things created in heaven and earth, visible,
invisible. thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things
were created by Him and for Him. That's for our good and for His
glory. Now it's easy for these mankind
born of Adam, that's nothing, to be concerned on what's for
our good. I like good, do you like good
things? I want what's good for me, you
want what's good for you, don't you? But instead of just looking
for a blessing, and as the Lord teaches these things, we look
to be a blessing. Instead of just looking out for number one,
we call that with them in the army. What's in it for me? What
can I get? It's for our good, but it's for
Christ's glory. Is that paramount? Do we seek
first the kingdom of God? He'll make us one. He'll make
us. Finally, Nebuchadnezzar. The
Lord revealed who he is to Nebuchadnezzar. He's an everlasting kingdom.
And that king understood that language. He knew what that meant.
And he realized that him and everyone else and anything he
put stock in, his advisors, his counselors, other kings, nothing. Christ is all, is what was revealed
to him. And that produced something.
Nebuchadnezzar was taught to praise the Lord, not give lip
service or go to church or say your prayers. He praised God. Look at verse 34 again. At the
end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven.
My understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High.
And I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to
generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
And he doeth according to his will the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? And at the same time, my reason
returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor,
and my brightness returned to me, and my counselors and my
Lord sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and
excellent majesty was added unto me. Same thing happened to Pharaoh. Did you know that? We're going
through the plagues there back in San Diego. And Pharaoh, the
flies came, and Pharaoh said, Moses, pray to your Okay, I will tomorrow. So he
got the next morning, prayed to the Lord. Lord took the flies
away or wherever the curse was. And boy, Pharaoh was happy. Everything
was restored to him. He had a problem and the problem
was resolved. And then he hardened his heart right then. And so
Nebuchadnezzar, the same thing went through to him. And he said,
well, my reason came back to me. I got my counselors back,
my kingdom's restored. I'm back on the throne of this
earthly kingdom. But verse 37, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the king of heaven, whose works are a
truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride
he's able to obey. He's on his throne, and he says,
now I'm gonna do something. Instead of building great buildings
and furthering my kingdom and my name, making statues to me,
I'm gonna praise the Lord, the king of heaven. I'm gonna extol
his name, I'm gonna honor his name. And all of His works are
truth. What He does is right. His ways
are judgment. They're final and they're good. His law is majestic. His words
are infallible. It's perfect. And those that
walk in pride, I'm gonna tell you what happened to me is what
He said in the first few verses. I walked in pride. When I was
a young fella, I grew up in the right church with the right preacher
and the right gospel, and I had the cold dead letter doctrine
in my head. And I would fight you tooth and
toenail. And like old Barnard used to say, my doctrine was
as straight as a gun barrel and just as empty. And I was fighting
a systematic theology. And then the Lord revealed a
person to me. A lot of good doctrines to adhere
to are something theologically accurate according to scripture.
He revealed a person to me. Mankind can't do that. If I could
get a funnel and put it down people's throats and pour the
gospel in there, and then they'd be a child of God, that's like
with the baptism. People don't believe that. If
you believe throwing water on somebody made them saved, I'd
buy a fire truck and just spray everybody walking down the street.
You put your money where your mouth is, don't you? I can't
do that. You can't do that. We pray for
people. The Lord's able to abase. He's able to bring one low and
exalt Christ high. He has to. We declare it. I thought, too, of Nebuchadnezzar.
You know the story. He was down on all fours. His
claws grew out. He had coarse feathers coming out of him, eating
grass, chewing the cud. Would you choose that for one
of your loved ones that doesn't know the Lord? You said, Lord,
bring them. Damn. Be hard on them. Put them in
a mental institution for seven years. Make them crazy. I wouldn't
think to ask for that. Would you ask that for yourself?
Lord, it seems like you've hid your face from me. Bring me low. Strip me and take everything
from me so I see Christ high and low. I wouldn't ask those
things, but his ways are not our ways. And he's the faithful.
I'm the one that's prone to wonder, like we just said. He's the faithful. He is. What if the Lord's pleased
to save someone or reveal Christ in them? I thought of Romans
11, you can turn there if you want, we'll close. We see these things take place
after the fact. Hindsight. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable is his
judgment and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind
of the Lord or who hath been his counselor. or who hath first
given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again. For
of him, that's the source of all things, creation, providence,
salvation, perseverance, glory. Of him and through him, that's
the means by which it comes to pass, the power it takes to make
this happen. And to him, that's the recipient
of all the praise are all things. to whom be glory forever. Amen. You wanna pray or you want
me to? Let's pray together. Father,
thank you for this word that you've given us. This truth. These scriptures that declare
your Son, Lord. Thank you for the work that he's
accomplished at Calvary for his people and that he intercedes
for us now. What a glorious thing that is.
Lord, thank you for your power to abase proud sinners and exalt
Christ for his glory and how happy we are, Lord, when we see
him high and lifted up. Thank you for this testimony
of King Nebuchadnezzar and of each of your prophets. Thank
you for the work you've done in the people here. Thank you
for the work you've done in this center to show us what we are
and show us who Christ is and where he is now and what's been
accomplished.