I please God to bless us together
as we meditate in his word this morning. Let us turn to the book
of Daniel and the second chapter and we'll read the first clause
in verse 28. The book of Daniel chapter 2
and read in the first clause in verse 28. But there is a God
in heaven that revealeth secrets. The book of Daniel is a very
remarkable book and it has some wonderful accounts of God's deliverance
and of God's mercy and of God hearing and answering prayer. And we should be very thankful
today that we still come to the same God, that God that Daniel
prayed to, that God that the people of God in the Word of
God pray to, and the same God that you and I can pray to today.
And to realize, therefore, that we have a God who does not change. People change. God does not change. We're told, Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, and today, and forever. We're told in Malachi,
I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. So we should be very thankful
today that as we read, such an account in this book of Daniel,
in this second chapter, that the same God that wonderfully
appeared to Daniel is the same God today. And that should be
an encouragement to us. That should be an encouragement
to us to pray and to pray believing. And how important it is that
when we pray God gives us that faith to believe that we are
praying to a God who hears and a God who answers prayer. We're
not coming to the unknown God. You remember perhaps in Paul's
days when he went to Athens and he saw there a plaque saying, to the unknown
God. And here of course declared to
the Athenians that The true God was the one that he worshipped
and it wasn't an unknown God. So what a blessing it is for
us today if we pray to a God that we believe in, a God who
has given us faith to believe in, and a God who that we believe
will hear and answer our prayers. Now it may not always be in the
way that we expect our prayers to be answered. You see, we pray
with perhaps a certain answer in mind. But remember, God has
a greater view of our life than we do. And God knows what is
best for us, and God knows what he will do for us. And so we
must never limit God, and we must never come to think, well,
my prayer must be answered in this particular way. Because
God answers prayer, and sometimes when God answers prayer, He answers
it and says no. We expect God always to say yes,
don't we? Sometimes God says no to our
prayers and therefore we shouldn't be disappointed if we come and
receive an answer like that. But it wasn't so of course in
the case of Daniel in this occasion. Now he was in a great need. Sometimes we're in a great need.
He was in a great need and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, you will remember they were of course Jews and they'd
come in and they'd been taken to speak before the king and
they passed the test in the first chapter and therefore they were
now before the king and they were classified as men of learning
and understanding and wisdom. And now you see there'd been
this dream and no one First of all, could tell what the dream
was. And secondly, of course, they could not interpret it.
And Nebuchadnezzar was very angry because of that. He obviously
felt that the magicians, etc., should have been able to have
brought about an interpretation to the dream that they weren't
aware of. So it was really an impossible situation. And therefore
the decree went forth that all those who were in that category
of wisdom should be destroyed. And Daniel and his three friends
came under that category. So we know that Ariok had gone
to Daniel and had told him what the situation was. And it was
obviously a concern. And Daniel then, he went in and
desired of the king that he would give him time and that he would
show the king the interpretation. So what do you think Daniel did? He just hoped something might
happen? He might just suddenly get some idea? Daniel went to
his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of
the God of heaven concerning this secret. They obviously were
to pray to God, that God would grant them, would grant Daniel,
so that he would know what was the interpretation. It wasn't
a small thing, was it? It was a great thing, really,
because there was, first of all, the dream to be shown, and then
the interpretation. But these men came and they were
blessed with faith to believe that as they prayed to God, he
would appear, he would show Daniel what was the dream and what was
the answer. And so having done this, we're
told, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.
And then what was the result? And it's important you and I
notice the sequence of events and how this thing was unfolded
and how throughout this account the God of heaven was honoured
and glorified. And it's important today in our
lives. Sometimes we may pray, sometimes
we may receive answers. But we are to respond in a right
way to truly thank God, not just accept them and press on. And
so here we have the result of what Daniel did. Daniel answered
and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for
wisdom and might are his. And he changes the times and
the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth
up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise
and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the
deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness
and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee. And praise thee,
O thou God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might,
and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for
thou hast now made known unto us the King's matter. He acknowledges
from the very beginning it was the Lord that had revealed it
to him. And throughout this account,
Daniel takes no credit himself. And how important that is for
us today, to never take credit ourselves when God hears and
answers our prayer. Whatever that may be, maybe with
regard to our natural life, maybe with regard to the things that
we do with you young people, maybe with regard to your exams
that you take at school, or at university, and to recognise
that God has heard and answered those prayers, you're never to
ignore those answers, you're never to think, well, it's because
of my own ability. I sometimes say, we must always
remember that everything we have, including our natural ability,
God has given to us. Never assume that you and I have
a right to claim any virtue or any wisdom ourselves. It all
emanates from God. And we have this clearly set
before us here in the life of Daniel. We should be very thankful
that there is such an account to encourage us to realise that
we can come to this great God. And therefore, having spoken
in this way then, Daniel goes to Ariot the king, whom the king
had ordained to destroy the wise men. And he said, destroy not
the wise men, bring me before the king and I will show the
king the interpretation. And again we see here in the
next verse something to be avoided. We see that Ariok makes a pretension
that it was his skill He says, then Ariad brought in Daniel
before the king in haste and said unto him, I have found a
man of the captives of Judah. Well, he didn't find a man at
all. He was trying to impress the king. My friends, never try
and impress people with something that God has done. Always give
God the honor and the glory. Never take it to ourselves. And so the king then questions
Daniel, rightly so, I think wrong with that. Are thou able to make
known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation
thereof? And then Daniel answers in this
right and good and God-honouring and gracious way. He says, the
secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men The astrologers,
the magicians, the soothsayers, shards of the king, well Daniel
knew of course that they were not able to. And he tells us
this wonderful statement. But, there are many buts in the
word of God. And here is an important but.
But, there is a God in heaven that revealed secrets. And this was the great blessing. And we see here then that Daniel
tells the king this to start with. He doesn't end up with
this. He starts in this way and he tells them very clearly there
is a God in heaven that revealed his secrets. And so what a wonderful
thing it is if you and I are able to speak in this way and
to come and to acknowledge that there is a God in heaven that
revealed his secrets. It's good for us today, in our
lives, to be able to testify the wonder of this truth, that
there is a God in heaven that revealed his secrets. Now, this
of course has really quite a large range of thought and consideration,
because it is not just that which is concerning natural things,
but to us it is also that which is relative to our spiritual
life. Now we have a very wonderful
statement in the Psalms. In the 25th Psalm we're told
And the fourth verse, the secret of the Lord is with them that
fear him, and he will show them his covenant. The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. Well, Daniel was a man that feared
God. And God, therefore, had wonderfully
heard his prayer and had showed him this secret. But the wonderful
thing for us today is this, that there is a secret with God concerning
ourselves, concerning our own lives, concerning our natural
life, concerning our spiritual life. And of course it is more
important with regard to our spiritual life that we do come
to know, by the grace of God, the secret of the Lord which
is with us, with them that fear Him. So I suppose we should really
ask the question this morning, do we fear God? Do we fear God? How important it is that we don't
view God as just another person like ourselves, but we view God
as the Almighty God, the Great God. the one who has created
the heavens and the earth, the one who has made all things,
and the one who controls our lives today in every single detail. And what a wonderful blessing
it is. If the Lord therefore has come and given us the fear
of the Lord, you know we're told the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. The beginning really of spiritual
understanding. And it's a gift from God. It's
not something that you and I can earn. It's not something that
you and I can learn. It's that which God gives to
us. That fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. Because if the Lord gives us
that fear of the Lord, that fear of the Lord will be to seek his
face. It will be asking him to reveal
himself to us as he does not unto the world. It is that secret. And you may say, well, why is
that necessary? Why should I need that? Why should
I want that? It's very simple really. Everyone
was born into this world is a sinner. Sin commenced of course in the
Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve when they listened to the
ill advice of Satan and took of that fruit and disobeyed God
and sin entered into the world and then sin entered into all
mankind. So all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And if we are a sinner, which
we all are, we shall need to be forgiven of those sins. That means we shall need to have
those sins taken away. You may say, why? Why do I need
my sins taken away? I'm happy to live with them,
they don't seem to trouble me very much and I just carry on. Well, I'll tell you why. Because
the people of God believe that there is that we all possess
an eternal soul which never dies. And that soul will either spend,
therefore, an eternity in the glory of heaven or in the terrible
misery of hell. There is no alternative position. And if we are to be found in
heaven, we cannot be found in heaven with any sin, because
heaven is a holy place, heaven is a sinless place. There is
no sin in heaven. So therefore you and I need to
have all our sins removed from us. And that's something that
naturally you and I cannot do, because we are born in sin and
shaped in iniquity. We are sinners. We cannot free
ourselves. from our sin. And that's why
we need this blessed secret to be revealed to us. And the only
one who can reveal it to us is the God in heaven. There is a
God in heaven. There is a God in heaven who
is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it is, therefore,
so needful that the Holy Spirit reveals to us, first of all,
our condition before a holy God as someone who is unrighteous. We're not righteous. We might
think we are. We're unrighteous and we need, therefore, someone
to make us righteous. And we can't do that ourselves. We have no ability. And what
a blessing it is, therefore, The Lord reveals to us our condition
before a holy God. And that will make us cry out
that we might know what it is to have our sins removed, our
sins taken away. And how can that be accomplished? Well, the Bible tells us, and
it's good when our spiritual eyes are opened to read the Word
of God and to discover there in the Word of God that that
is only accomplished through what the Lord Jesus Christ has
done. It was his great and glorious
work which was carried out upon when he was on this earth to
fulfill that which his Father in heaven had given him to do.
He kept the law of God without sin. No sin. The Lord Jesus Christ
never sinned. And he kept the law on behalf
of all his people. And then he willingly gave his
life as a sacrifice to take away the sins of his people. And that was prefigured. The
picture of the Saviour as giving himself as a sacrifice was prefigured
right throughout the ages right from the day when the gracious
God clothed Adam and Eve with animal skins and clearly blood
was shed to atone for their sin. And we see the picture right
through the Word of God of sacrifice and blood shed to take away sin. Now you and I may Perhaps have
read the Bible, you and I may have understood in a natural
way, but when the secret of the Lord is revealed to us, when
we realise there is a God in heaven who reveals this to us,
that we individually need a saviour. We need to live with Jesus Christ.
We need to know that he died to take away our sins. He's not just an historical figure. He is to us far more than that. He is the one who gloriously,
wonderfully died to take away our sins. And if you think of
it, there's this vast world today with billions of people. They've
been through the ages since Adam and Eve, many born and died,
billions of people. that the Lord Jesus came to save
his people, those for whom he died, those for whom he prayed. You know the Lord Jesus tells
us something of this when he was concluding his sermon to
the disciples in the upper room, having instituted the the Lord's
Supper after having partaken of that last Passover, and then
he prays to his father, and he prays some very glorious words,
and he tells us how he prays, he says, And now I come to thee,
and these things I speak in the world, they might have my joy
fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, revealed
his word to our hearts. And the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world even as I am not of
the world. And so we have this wonderful
truth that the Lord Jesus speaks to his Father in this wonderful
prayer recorded for us in the 17th of John. He tells us also,
he says, For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest
me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I
came out from thee. And they have believed that thou
didst send me. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me. For they
are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them. Now that is a great and glorious
truth. And that is a blessed revelation. And that is the secret of the
Lord that is revealed to his people. And Lord Jesus Christ,
God's Son, prays for us. That's very humbling, isn't it?
As we think of the vast multitudes in the world and to know the
Lord has decreed that there would be those whom he would call,
that he would die for, that he would pray for. And what a blessing
today if we can find in our hearts the wonderful evidence that this
is true, that there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets,
that One who has revealed Himself to us as our Saviour. It's a wonderful revelation,
it's a wonderful blessing, because if Jesus is our Saviour, then
He died that we might live. He gave His life for us, nothing
less than this would do, and He was so willing that Jesus
should die, that we fellow sinners might live. The life they could
not take away, how willing was Jesus to give. He gave his life,
a ransom. He gave his life so that you
and I might receive life. Now this is this great and glorious
secret, which was revealed to God's people. On this occasion, Daniel had
the secret of this dream revealed to him. But how important it
is for us today to know that we can agree with what Daniel
spoke here and said, yes, I know by the grace of God that there
is a God in heaven. There was a time when I didn't
know this God. There was a time when I thought
nothing of the condition of my soul. There was a time when I
was unconcerned and I lived in this world as though this was
my home. But what a blessing if the Lord
has come and therefore revealed the secret of his love toward
us to think that the great God should condescend to love people
like you and me. We don't deserve any love, do
we? Because the Bible tells us it's not that we loved God, but
that he loved us. What a secret that is to come
to realise it was God's love toward us. His love. Wonderful, isn't it? Did we deserve
it? Did we earn it? No, not at all. We never deserved it. And we
can never earn it. It's freely given. The love of Christ. And that love, my friends, so
great. To think that he loved us so
much that he was willing to die for us. He was willing to die
in our place. Willing to take away all our
sins. There are wonderful truths in
the Word of God and we can just refer to one or two words in
the 16th chapter of Romans. It's the very last chapter in
Romans. We have in the last verses the
Apostle Paul He says, now to him that is of power, to establish
you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret
since the world began, but now is made manifest. And by the
scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting
God, made known to all nations the obedience of faith. To God,
the only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. And so if this has been revealed
to us that the Blessed Saviour came into this world to reveal
Himself to us as our sin-atoning Saviour, isn't that reason to
honour and to glorify our God and to come and conclude with
Paul and say to God, only wise be glory through Jesus Christ
forever. My friends, I'm sure that the
Holy Spirit reveals these secrets to our heart. We will go on our
way rejoicing, blessing God for what he's recorded in his word.
Blessing God for that secret which he has revealed to us.
And thankful to know that that is so, that we haven't been left
We haven't been left on one side. You know, when the Apostle John was on the isle
of Patmos, you may remember, he was blessed with a wonderful
revelation. The Lord came and spoke to him
with regards to the seven churches which existed in Asia in those
days. They're not existing today, but they were then. They've all
disappeared. And yet, in those days, the Lord
spoke to these seven churches, and he spoke like this when he
came and spoke to one of the churches, this church at Smyrna. And he said, he that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And
I would encourage you to read the second and third chapter
in Revelation, because there the Spirit of the Lord spoke
to John, the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, and after
all those, the various words spoken to each church, these
words were spoken. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. How good it is. Well, here it
is at the end of this Statement he that hath an ear let him hear
what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh
Will I give to eat of the hidden manna? And we'll give him a white
stone and in the stone a new name written Which no man know
saving he that receiveth it. So what is the hidden manna? I expect we know what the manna
was that was given to the children of Israel when they traveled
through the wilderness for 40 years. It was that food which
came down from heaven as dew and rested on the ground and
they were able to go and gather it for six days, not the seventh,
not the Lord's day, but for six days and they were able to gather
it and it was that food which lasted and did them kept them
alive for those 40 years and it was called manna now my friends
you and I also need spiritual food spiritual manna as it were blessed
to us and the Lord reveals to us these secrets this hidden
manna the hidden secrets and the Word of God which speak to
our heart, speak to our soul. And what does it do? It makes
us rejoice in the great plan of salvation. Realize how wonderful
it was that we have such a God who planned it and such a God
who is so condescending to look upon us and have the evidence
in our own heart that we are amongst those whom this secret
The secret of the Lord is revealed. What a blessing, my friends.
What a blessing. It was to Daniel. And so we should be very thankful
today that he, under the Spirit's influence, was able to record
a statement like this. But there is a God in heaven
that revealed his secrets. Now may such a statement be an
encouragement to us. Because the Lord gives us to
know his will concerning us with regard to our spiritual standing. And it is between our soul and
God. It's not something which is revealed
to another person. It is a personal secret, a personal
revelation. And that's what It does our heart
so much good to know that Almighty God, let us never underestimate
the greatness of this God, this Almighty God comes and reveals
it to you and to me, that we are one of his children. And
if we are one of his children, when we leave this earth and
the time comes for our death, we should go and to be, as the
Apostle Paul says, to go and to be with Christ which is far
better. It's a wonderful prospect and
it should be that which we should be looking forward to. Looking forward to that great
day as that secret is revealed to us. The Apostle Paul when
he wrote to Titus and towards the end of the second chapter
he tells us this, teaching that denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts we shall live soberly, righteously and godly in this
present world, looking, looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort,
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." Well,
what good words these were to Titus, written by the Apostle
Paul. What good words they are to us today, to realize that
by his grace, as we realize there is a God in heaven, And my friends,
we all have to deal with this God in heaven. There's no such
thing as annihilation. There's no such thing as everything
just disappearing. But the whole of mankind must
stand before the judge of all the earth. You and I will stand
before that judge. What a blessing therefore to
know that this God, who is a true God, who is alive forevermore. He will not die. He's alive forevermore. We must not trifle with God.
We must not think he's just like one of us. We must recognise
how great and wonderful and powerful he is. And realise, yes, there
is this God in heaven that revealed his secrets. And as this God
in heaven revealed this secret to Daniel, you know he revealed
secrets to the Apostle Paul. You remember when he was in that
hurricane on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a desperate scene, it
was a desperate situation, as what was going to happen. They
were driven up and down, day after day. But what did the Apostle
Paul tell us? What did he do? Well, he sought
unto the Lord his God. He prayed unto Him. And he tells
us what happened. He says, now, after long abstinence,
Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, sirs, you should
have hearkened unto me, and not of Lucifer and Crete, and to
have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of
good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among
you but of the ship. For there stood by me this night
the angel of God, whose I am. and whom I serve." What a good
thing, you see. He was able to declare he was
one of God's children, saying, "'Fear not, Paul, thou must be
brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them
that shall with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer,
for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.'"
Daniel believed God, even as it was told and revealed to him.
And what a blessing today if you and I believe God. Believe
God as he is revealed to us in the Bible. We are wonderfully
privileged to have today the Bible in our language, translated
for us now for so many years. Today people trample it underfoot,
they ignore it, they count it of little value. But my friends,
if the Lord speaks to our hearts. You'll value the Bible, you'll
bless God for it, because in it you'll find that that refers
to the need we have of a saviour, and reveals to us the saviour,
reveals to us a suffering saviour, a crucified saviour, and one
who died upon that cross at Calvary to redeem our souls, so that
we are able to declare by the grace of God, those glorious
words, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Well that is
a secret of the Lord which is revealed to his people. And so
today as we think on these words and let us not forget they were
spoken and Daniel was able to tell the king. You see he was
in the presence of the king, the king who could have killed
him, taken his life, But Daniel was also in the presence of the
King of Kings. Let us not forget that. We are
in the presence of the King of Kings. And therefore, before
whoever we are, we should always acknowledge what the Lord has
said and what the Lord has done for his honour and for his glory. And so be able to come and say
like Daniel. But there is a God in heaven. People who see today mock those
who believe. Expect to be mocked. Expect to
be mocked. Christ was mocked. Why shouldn't
we be mocked? Therefore, be not surprised if
we are mocked. But just remember that we have
many references and people in the Word of God who were able
to stand firm and to testify of the truth of God. And here
we have Daniel. before Nebuchadnezzar, speaking
these words. And may they have a wonderful
application to you and me today, that we may realize, yes, these
words are true. And I know they're true because
of what God has spoken to me. Amen.