Well let's turn to this portion
of scripture that we've read in Daniel chapter 2 and I want to direct you for
a short while before we turn to the Lord again in prayer to
the 28th verse Daniel 2.28 the words of Daniel before the king before Nebuchadnezzar
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
and so he tells him the dream and gives him the interpretation
we We see what the dream was there
in verses 31 through 34. This image that he sees made
of various metals, a golden head down to feet which are made of
iron and clay. And then he gives the interpretation
of the dream at verse 36 through 44. And what is represented here,
of course, are great kingdoms, empires of the world. The head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar,
representing then the great empire of the Babylonians. And then
the silver is there to represent what would follow the empire
of the Medes. and the Persians, the Persian
Empire and then the brass represents the the Grecian Empire the great
conquests that were made under Alexander the Great and then
we come to the iron and we have some detail concerning the strength
of the iron of the Roman Empire and then eventually the decay
of the Roman Empire represented by all that breaks up in the
feet that are made out of iron and clay, and then the stone
that falls upon the image, stone made without hands. It's the
coming, of course, of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's the establishment
of his kingdom, the kingdom that shall never end. Well, that's
the dream and its interpretation. The king had forgotten really
this dream and required the magicians that they should come, as I said,
to remind him, to tell him of what the dream was all about,
to give the true interpretation of it. And when they say that
that's an impossible thing that the king is asking, he's riled
and he passes that decree that all the wise men should be slain,
and amongst them, there we have Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego. Daniel's the one who desires
that there might be some time given. As we saw in verse 16,
he goes to the king and asks that he might have time and then
he would show the king the interpretation. And we have the record of that
remarkable prayer of thanksgiving when God revealed the secret
to him. Verse 19, Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in
a night vision. And Daniel, he blessed the God
of heaven, blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for
wisdom and might are his. And he changed the times and
the seasons, He removeth kings, and setteth up kings. Obviously
Daniel has understood, you see, the interpretation of this dream.
It is God who 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 to us the King's matter." This remarkable
prayer. Then he comes forth and he speaks
there at verse 27, speaking in the presence of the King, we're
told. He says, the secrets 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. In the words that I said we would
consider as our text how he speaks in of that God
who is the all-wise God that one who is the sovereign God
who knows the ends from the beginning verse 29 at the end of that verse
he says he that revealeth secrets, maketh known
to thee what shall come to pass." And we see ultimately the effect
of this upon the king at the end of the chapter, verse 47,
"...the king answered unto Daniel and said, Of a truth it is, that
your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and the
revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. But I want really to take for
a text the opening words that we have here in verse 28. I don't really want to spend
time considering the fulfillment of the prophecy
that he set forth in this particular vision that was granted to the
king, but really to consider these opening words of the 28th
verse and understand what is being said in a gospel sense,
the spiritual significance of such words He says at the beginning
then of this 28th verse, there is a God in heaven that revealeth
secrets. There is a God in heaven that
revealeth secrets. And the theme I want to address
is God's dwelling and then God's dealings. God's dwelling God
dwelling in heaven and God's dealings with men here upon the
earth. There is a God in heaven that
reveals secrets. And when I say the gospel interpretation,
the spiritual significance, I think of those words of the Apostle
in Romans 15 where he reminds us whatsoever things were written
afore time were written for our learning that we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope when we come
to these Old Testament portions we are surely to do more than
just make it a study and try to understand the literal significance. We want to understand what is
the spiritual meaning. How do these truths apply to
us? How do they relate to our lives and our experiences? So
I just want to deal with these two things. First of all, God's
dwelling in heaven and then God's dealings with men here upon the
earth. Firstly, We see here in the words
of the text how Daniel asserts his belief in the existence of
gods. He says, there is a God. There
is a God in heaven. Well, Daniel believes in gods. And of course, I'm sure we, as
we gather here tonight, we're all those who believe in God.
There is a God. And we recognize the truth of
the psalmist when on two occasions in Psalm 14, again in Psalm 53,
he says it's the fool who says there's no God. The folly of
atheism, the denial of God, when there is so much evidence all
about us with regards to the existence of God. We're all persuaded,
I'm sure, of the folly of men who deny that God is the creator
of all things. and they dream up their theories. And at the root of all their
theories, of course, is the denial of God. The awful theory, the
God-denying theory of evolution and what men say and take no
account of God. For we that sit as in the heaven
shall lie, the Lord has them surely in derision. Many a time
I think I've mentioned the experience of that great Scottish minister,
John Duncan, Rabbi Duncan, a most learned man, a great Hebraist,
a man who had a real love for the Jewish people and was a missionary
at one stage amongst the Jews. And he obviously had a great
mind, did John Duncan, but as a young man living there in Aberdeen,
he was bedevilled by atheistic thoughts, black atheism. He was
denying God. And he speaks in relating something
of his experience of the joy that he felt when he was walking
over the bridge of Day, the Brig of Day, and he realized there
is a God. Oh, there is a God. And he was
converted from his atheism to theism. He believed in God, just
as Daniel does here in the text. There is a God in heaven. Now, that was not the conversion
to Christ of Rabbi Duncan, it was the deliverance from atheism.
And I'm sure at times we're all bedevilled with black, atheistic
thoughts. The devil is such a clever foe,
such a wily foe. It's the fool who denies God.
Go, God, deliver us then from fall. but when we look at these
words there is a God in heaven surely we recognize that the
dwelling place of God also tells us something with regards to
God's character and two things in particular with regards to
God's character we're reminded are we not of God's holiness
He is the Holy One when we pray. The Lord Jesus tells us how we
are to order our praying, how we are to dress God as our Father,
which art in heaven. And then the very first petition
that we are to bring before Him, we are to say, hallowed be thy
name, let thy name be hallowed. Oh God's dwelling place in the
highest heavens is a holy place. Heaven is that holy, happy place
where sin no more defiles, where God unveils His blissful face
and looks and loves and smiles, says the hymn writer. All we
know it's a holy place. When Isaiah has that remarkable
vision that's recorded there in his book in chapter 6, when
he sees God's throne in the heavens, And he sees the angels, the seraphim,
the burning ones about the throne of God, those pure creatures,
and how they cannot bear the sight. They veil their faces
as they cry out, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts. All where God is, that is the
holy place. and there in Job 15.15 we read
those words, J the heavens are not clean in his sight even sinless
angels tremble before him, they veil
their faces, they cover their feet the ground is holy ground,
they are in heaven and so what Daniel is saying here reveals
to us something of the character of God, his attributes He's the
Holy One. But also, of course, when we
read of God being in the heavens, we're reminded of His absolute
sovereignty. In fact, later in chapter 4 and
verse 26, Daniel utters these words again to Nebuchadnezzar,
the heavens do rule. Those four words there at the
end of that 26th verse in chapter 4. He reminds Nebuchadnezzar
the heavens do rule. And it's in that chapter of course
that we see how the Lord God humbles the pride of that haughty
man. He was one of the great kings
of the earth. Why the head of God is representing
Nebuchadnezzar, he is the head of gold, says Daniel here in
his interpretation. And now he's there admiring Babylon
and the wondrous hanging gardens, one of the seven wonders of the
ancient worlds, Babylon. And then his reason's taken from
him and he behaves as a wild animal. And then in his goodness
God does restore his reason and he's brought then to acknowledge
again the true God just as he acknowledges him here in chapter
2 in his pridelessly he sets himself up in that fourth chapter
but he's brought again to the place of submission verse 34
there at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my
nose unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed
the Most High, and I praised and honoured Him that liveth
for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His
kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven. And among the inhabitants of
the earth And none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest
thou? All we confess is the sovereignty
of God. The psalmist in Psalm 115, Our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased. Well, this is the God, is it
not, that the prophet is speaking of. There is a God in heaven,
the Holy One. and that one who is sovereign
absolutely ruling and reigning over the affairs of men and of
nations. Again the language of Isaiah
in chapter 40 of his book it is he that sitteth upon the circle
of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. Behold the nations are as a drop
in a bucket and find dust on a balance. All he does according
to his will. God then is that one who is being
confessed and that God who is sovereign in all his ways, in
all his dealings, who always accomplishes his goodwill and
pleasure. But then turning in the second
place to God's dealings What is it that Daniel is confessing? Well he says there's a God in
heaven that reveals secrets. And here he's revealing something
of course to this man Nebuchadnezzar. Remember back in Daniel 29.29,
we're told, aren't we, the secret things belong unto the Lord our
God, but the things which are revealed belong unto us and to
our children. God does reveal things. He reveals
His secrets. He reveals them here in His words. He has dealings with men. And
what is He revealing? Well, in a sense, I suppose we
might say in this vision he is revealing how things are going
to work out in God's sovereign providence over many centuries
through many different empires, great empires of the earth. As we said in the interpretation,
we see that. First the Babylonians then the
Medes and Persians, then the Grecian Empire, then the Roman
Empire, but all ultimately leading up to him whose kingdom is not
of this world, that spiritual kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But thinking of God revealing secrets, in particular here,
He reveals secrets. What are the secrets that God
really reveals in a spiritual sense? Well, I want to mention
two things. First of all, man is known to God. The condition of man is altogether
known to God. Remember the words that we have
in 1st Samuel 16? that man looks on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks upon the heart. The Lord looks upon the heart.
And the Psalmist tells us, He knoweth the secrets of the heart.
All we know is the secrets of your heart, He knows the secrets
of my heart, He knows the secrets of all the hearts of men. When we see that remarkable vision
that John has of the Lord Christ glorified in heaven, again exalted
to the right hand of God, his eyes a flame of fire, those burning
eyes, those all-seeing, all-searching eyes, how he sees us. He knoweth the secrets of the
heart. And of course Psalm 139 in particular
mentions the truth of God's omniscience, the all-knowing one. Thou knowest
my down-sitting and my up-rising, says David. Thou understandest
my thoughts afar off. There is not a word upon my lips.
The Lord thou knowest it all together. He knows before ever
we speak what we're going to ask of Him. We don't come to
inform God of any matter, but we pray to Him because in His
goodness and mercy He has granted to us such an ordinance as prayer. And the wonder of that, that
we can come and speak with Him and plead with Him. He knows. But really, do we know ourselves
at all? Such is the deceitfulness of
sin within us, Such is the native unbelief of our hearts that we
scarcely know ourselves. Remember the words of Jeremiah,
Jeremiah 17, verses 9 and 10, The heart is deceitful above
all things, says the Prophet, and desperately wicked. Who can
know it? For our heart is so desperately,
your heart, my heart, so desperately wicked, who can Know it. I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the rains to give to every man according to the fruit of
his doing. What of that of the heart of
man? Again, the language of the wise
man, not in Proverbs, but in Ecclesiastes. Here, Ecclesiastes
chapter 9 and verse 3. Yea, the hearts of the sons of
men is full of evil. And madness is in their heart. Madness is in their heart. That's what it says there in
Ecclesiastes 9-3. That evil that is in men, it's
madness. Out of the heart, says the Lord
Jesus, every wickedness, every evil proceeds. And are we not reminded of the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ even in the state of His humiliation
when He was here upon the face of the earth? There in John chapter
2 and verse 25 we are told, He needed not that any should tell
Him of man. He knew what was in the hearts
of all men. He knows the hearts of all men.
and when He deals with us how wondrous it is what a mercy when
the Lord shows us something of ourselves that Samaritan woman
again in John chapter 4 this time in verse 29 when she says
to her fellow citizens come see a man which told me all that
ever I did is not this the Christ? or that the Lord would come then
and have such dealings with us He knows the conditions of men But when God, or when we think
of God as that one who knows the secrets of all hearts, is
it not a wonder that God has made known the gospel? He has revealed the covenant
of grace as a provision for that sin that is so deep-seated in
our souls. That's the wonder of it. there
is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and immediately reading
these words should not mind go to the language of the Psalmist
in Psalm 25 14 the secret of the Lord is with them that fear
him he will show them his covenant well we reveal secrets And there,
of course, in the psalm, we have those parallels that are such
a peculiarity of the Hebrew poetry. And the secret answers to the
covenant, the secret of the Lord. It's with them that fear him.
He shows them his covenant, all the secrets of that blessed covenant. When we think of the nature of
that covenant, It is a divine covenant, isn't it? It's God's
covenant. We're told how the council of
peace shall be between them both. It's a Trinitarian covenant.
It's that covenant that God has entered into in the fullness
of his triune being. It's a council of peace between
the persons in the Godhead. What a great wonder of that!
how the Father has covenanted with the Son and the Son with
the Father in that covenant how the Son has become the willing
servant of the Father in order to redeem the sinful sons of
men and how the Holy Spirit also in that covenant is the one who
comes to make application of all that great work that was
accomplished by the Son to redeem his people. It's a divine covenant. It's Trinitarian. And it's spoken
of, isn't it, in the Psalms. Those Messianic Psalms. The language
that we have, for example, in the 89th Psalm concerning that
covenant. Verse 3, God says, I have made
a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever
and build up thy throne to all generations. Or the promise of
God to David. That is David's greatest son
there in the covenant. And again look at the language
of verse 19. Then thou spakest in vision to
thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed
him, with whom my hand shall be established, mine arm also
shall strengthen him. or the promise that the Father
is making to the Son as He executes His covenant offices? Verse 34,
My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone
out of My lips. Once have I sworn by My holiness
that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever,
and His throne as the Son before Me. it shall be established forever
as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah. All this is what God has done
in that covenant, the nature of it. And the language really is the same
as we have here in Daniel 2. Verse 44, In the days of these
kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall
never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms,
and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou saw'st that
the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that
it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver,
and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall
come to pass hereafter, and the dream is certain, and the interpretation
thereof is sure. Oh, isn't this our comfort, how
insignificant we are, how few we are, and yet that we should
have an interest in this covenant, God's covenant. And because it's
God's covenant, of course, it's an eternal covenant. It's an
eternal kingdom. I will make an everlasting covenant
with thee. Even the sure mercies of David,
he says to the prophet Isaiah. And David, even as he comes to
die, this is where he rests, he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant, order in all things and sure. This is all my salvation
and all my desire. Oh, it's divine, it's eternal,
it's sovereign, isn't it? There are many devices in a man's
heart, says the wise man. Oh, all the devices of men, all
the machinations of men who think they're all powerful, many devices
in a man's heart, nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord, that
shall stand, we're told, in Proverbs 19.21. The nature then of the
covenant, the secret of the Lord, that's with them that fear him.
There is a God in heaven, that revealeth secrets. And so, not only the nature,
but the necessity, the necessity of this covenant. What is man? We've said something
with regards to the hearts of men that God knows all about. What is man in nature? He's dead
in trespasses and sins. He's spiritually impotent. His
condition is a hopeless condition. no help in himself. God sees
the wickedness of men, great in all the earth, every imagination
of the thought of his heart, evil, continually. Man's mind, man's natural mind,
the carnal mind, it's enmity against God, it's not subject
to the Lord of God, neither indeed can be. We know these truths,
the natural man, Receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
their foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. The God, you see, deals with men here upon the
earth. This God in heaven revealeth secrets, makes things known,
as He's revealing something here to King Nebuchadnezzar. Thou
dost not deal with sinful men, Well, there's that purpose that
God fulfills in and through His holy law. There's a ministry
of the law. We know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them under the law, says Paul, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. There's no justification
under the law. no righteousness that men can
perform to justify themselves before God by the law is the
knowledge of sin that's the minutiae of the law all we know that what things
whoever the law saith it saith to them who are under the law
that every man should be stopped the law is good if a man use
it lawfully knowing this that it's not made for the righteous
man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and sinners for
the unholy and the profane that's the ministry of the law to show
men what they are and where they are and it serves therefore as a
schoolmaster says Paul, to bring the sinner to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, that's its great ministry, to bring the sinner to Christ. Look at what Daniel is saying
here in verse 19 of the chapter. He says,
Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.
Then Daniel blessed the gods of heaven. God revealed it. God
revealed it to him. And then he says in verse 30,
As for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom
that I have more than any living. It's nothing really of himself. It's all of God, it's all of
the goodness of God and the grace of God. And remember how the
Apostle Paul preaches that great mystery of
the Gospel when he's explaining to the Corinthians what his ministry
is. He preaches Christ, he preaches
Christ crucified. We speak the wisdom of God, he
says, in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which
was ordained before the world unto our glory. What is this
mystery, this secret that was hidden, that has now been revealed? Well, it centers in Christ. the great mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh well this is the message that the
apostles are preaching throughout the Acts of the Apostles and how in his epistles Paul
is unfolding these things to them even the calling of the
Gentiles is part of that mystery that has now been revealed and
how He goes on, doesn't he, to say something more concerning how men come to an understanding
of that secret. He says, God hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what? Man knoweth
the things of man other than the spirit of man that is in
him, even so the things of God. knoweth no man but by the Spirit
of God." Oh, it's a spiritual kingdom. These truths that have
to be revealed. And Paul knew it, of course,
he knew it in his own experience. He pleased God, he says. When
he pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb to call me by His grace and to reveal His Son in me,
it's a revelation. All this blessed truth of the
Gospel, this secret that was hid for generations but is now
being revealed with the coming of Christ, this stone cut out
of the mountain without hands, this secret of the Lord. There
is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. And the secret of the
Lord, where is it? It is with them that fear Him.
Always with them that fear Him. How are we to fear Him? And then
He will come and He will show us His blessed covenant. He will
make these precious truths known to us and real to us. And the
comforts and the rejoicing of our hearts These words then that we have
at the beginning of this 28th verse, Daniel's confidence, or
Daniel's conviction, Daniel's belief that there is a God in
heaven, the Holy One, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the
Covenant, the Sovereign Lord over all things, and reveals
His secrets when He comes and has gracious dealings with those
who are the objects of His love and His mercy. Oh, that the Lord
might be pleased then to bring us into that blessed secret,
that we might be those who know what it is to live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself for us. There is a God in heaven that
revealeth secrets. May the Lord bless His word to
us. Let us, before we turn again
to prayer, sing that lovely hymn of Joseph Hart, I'm the man that
feared the Lord, the man that feared the Lord, In every state
are blessed, the Lord will grant whate'er they want, their souls
shall dwell at rest, His secrets they shall share, His covenant
shall learn, guided by grace shall walk His ways, and heavenly
truths discern. 832, the Tunis Den is number
26.