If you would turn with me this
morning to the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel, Old Testament
book of Daniel, right after the book of Ezekiel, Daniel chapter four. When Moses went before Pharaoh
in Exodus chapter five, he said, thus saith the Lord of Israel,
let my people go. Pharaoh, in unbelief, asked this
question, and I'll take this question as the title to the
message this morning. Who is the Lord? That's a good question. Who is
the Lord? Pharaoh said, who's the Lord
that I should obey his voice? And this morning, it is my earnest
desire and prayer to answer that question from the scriptures.
Who is the Lord that you and I should obey him? Here in Daniel
chapter four, we have a very accurate description of the God
of the Bible. And these most inspired words
concerning God were not spoken by the deliverer of Israel named
Moses, nor were they spoken by a minor or major prophet. They were not spoken by the psalmist
David, but by Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king of Babylon. God taught Nebuchadnezzar like
he did Jonah in a most unusual way. Now here in Daniel chapter
four, we see that this pagan king was not only a great man
as far as the world would value him or consider him, but he was
a very proud man. And you know what Peter said
about the pride when he wrote, God resisted the proud and he
giveth grace to the humble. And he most certainly does. Verse
30, Daniel four, the king spake and he said, is not this great
Babylon that I have built? I have built for the house of
the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my
majesty. And God did just what Peter said. He resisted this proud man and
we're told that while the word was still in the king's mouth,
he didn't no more get the last syllable out of the last word
that God spoke in judgment to him. Look at the last line in
verse 37, the last verse in the chapter. It says, those that
walk in pride, he, God, is able to abase. And he certainly is. And those come from the words
of Nebuchadnezzar and the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar himself. God,
as you know, took Nebuchadnezzar's mind He became an animal. He didn't become just like an
animal, he became one. His hair grew long like eagle's
feathers, his fingernails like bird's claws, and he ate grass
like a beast in the field. And when the Lord restored his
mind, God taught him some very important things, some things
about God and some things about himself. And that's the way the
Lord does. To those that He reveals Himself
to, He teaches them some things about Him and some things about
themselves. Verse 34. And at the end of the
days, the end of what days? The end of the days of his experience
when God restored Nebuchadnezzar to his right mind, he lifted
up his eyes into heaven and he said, 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,
and his kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he, the Lord, doeth according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand, or saying to him, what
doest thou? Now, the first thing that God
revealed to this proud king was the sovereignty and the greatness
and the self-existence of God. What did Nebuchadnezzar learn?
First, he learned that God was the most high. That's what he
said. I praised and exalted the Most
High." And that's who God is. He's the Most High. There's none
higher than Him. He learned that God lives forever. He learned something of the eternality
of God. God revealed His dominion, His
rule as everlasting, never coming to an end. God's rule never comes
to an end. It had no beginning, it had no
end. It's always been. God revealed that his kingdom
is forever. And to this proud, arrogant,
self-sufficient king, God revealed his sovereignty and his greatness.
And if we're to ever know God, he must reveal himself. You know,
I was thinking back on the Old Testament. God revealed himself
to Moses eternally. in his eternality. In Exodus
chapter three, when the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning
bush, it was there that Moses said unto God, behold, when I
come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, the
God of your fathers has sent me unto you, and they shall say
to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto thee? And
God said, I am that I am. I am that I am. Thus thou shalt
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And God didn't say I was, and
God didn't say I shall be. God said, I am that I am. There was a time, friends, when
time was not. And there was a time when heaven
was not. And there was a time when the
world was not. And there was a time when angels
were not. And there was a time when man was not, but God has
always been. I am, I am. He's the ever present one. God
is eternal and always I am. In the garden of Gethsemane,
when the soldiers came to take the Lord away. He asked them,
who do you seek? And they answered, Jesus of Nazareth. And the Lord Jesus said, I am,
I am. And as soon as he did, they fell
backward. They went backward and fell to
the ground. You see, none can stand before the great I am. No mere man, no mortal man can.
God said, I am the Lord, and there is none else. I am. God revealed himself to Isaiah
in a different way. He revealed himself to Isaiah
in his holiness. You remember that passage in
Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up. And the seraphim. They covered
their faces and they cried unto one another, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. The earth is full of his glory.
Friends, this God, this great God, this sovereign God, this
self-existent God is holy. He's holy, first and foremost,
He's holy. The Lord is in His holy temple. Let the earth keep silence before
Him. God is glorious in His holiness. Even the heavenly beings here
covered their face in His holy presence. And we've mentioned
this so many times, let me just remind you. His word is called
the Holy Bible. His messengers are holy angels.
His prophets were called holy prophets and holy men. His tabernacle
was called the holy place. He resided among men on earth
in the holiest of holies. God is called the Holy Father. Christ is called the Holy One.
He has set Him, Christ, on His holy heel. His temple is called
the Holy Temple. His spirit is called the Holy
Spirit and the Holy Ghost. Holy and reverend is His name. His saints are called holy people.
Male believers are called holy men. Female believers called
holy women. His covenant is called a holy
covenant. And Moses stood on holy ground. His commandments are holy commandments. Our speech, the believer's speech,
is holy conversation. And our faith is holy faith.
And his apostles were referred to as holy apostles. Everything
that has to do with God is holy. Holy, first and foremost. God revealed himself to Job. In another way, in His creative
power and providence. In Job chapter 38, I'm not gonna
turn you to all these. I wanna go through them though. In verse four, he said, where
was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you
when I created the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof,
if thou knowest? Or who had stretched the line
upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
there fastened? The earth is hanging out in space. Who connected it? Who's got it
strung up there? Who laid the cornerstone thereof?
Who shut up the seas with doors? Who made the garments of the
clouds? Who said the ocean to come here and no further? Huh? Who did that? Who has seen the
treasures of the snow? Who has seen the treasures of
the hail? Who divided the course for overflowing
waters? Who made a way for the lightning
of thunder? Who causes it to rain on the
earth where no man is? Who causes it to rain in the
wilderness where there is no life? Who satisfies the desolate
and waste ground? Who causes the tender herb to
spring up? Does the rain have a father?
He asked. Who has begotten the drops of
dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? Who generated the hoary frost
of heaven? Can you lift up your voices unto
the clouds so that the abundance of waters may cover them? And
who can number the clouds in wisdom? Who can stay the bottles
of heaven? Friends, the Lord God omnipotent
has done all these things. And God reveals this to his people. We spoke about it in the first
hour in Romans 1. Men and women without excuse,
because we can look at the creation, the wonderful things that God
has made, and we know something of his power and his majesty
as the creator of all things. God revealed himself to Jeremiah
in his sovereignty. He said, Jeremiah, let's go down
to the potter's house. And it was there that Jeremiah
saw that the clay was in the potter's hands. Friends, that's
where we are. We're in God's hands. One vessel
of clay that the potter made was marred in the hand of the
potter. So he made another vessel, the
scripture says, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, O house of
Israel, can I not do with you as this potter? Sayeth the Lord
God. Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel."
God is sovereign. You know, when Tricia and I first
moved to New Caney, and I was the pastor there, the name of
the church there, as you well know, Brother Jack Shanks pastored
there, was Laird Street Baptist Church. I soon discovered that
the city of New Caney, Texas had done away with the street
name Laird Street, and that the church now had a totally different
address. So, we had a church named after
a street that didn't exist. And knowing that this would and
could more than likely cause some confusion for any possible
or future visitors, the men and I decided to change the name
of the church to Sovereign Grace Church. It's called that today.
That's a good name, by the way. And we put up a sign in front
of the church with the new name and the new address upon the
sign. And not long afterwards, I had a lady who saw that sign
and asked me, she said, how do you pronounce the name of your
church? And I responded, Sovereign Grace
Church. And obviously, it wasn't the
words grace or the words church that she wasn't familiar with.
It was that word sovereign. And that became more obvious
when she asked the next question, and that was, what does sovereign
mean? You know, I thought I was a bit
taken back. I thought everyone knew what
that word meant. But there was a time that I didn't. And I have
since come to realize that that's the case with many in our day.
Many have no idea how to pronounce the word or to even Have any
idea what the word means? Not familiar with the word sovereign?
And there's good reason. Not many hear much about the
word or the subject. Not in preaching today. You know
it and I know it. Our English dictionary defines
the word sovereignty or sovereign as a supreme ruler, a monarch,
an emperor, one possessing supreme or ultimate power. But in that
definition, there is no mention at all of God. None. But the
world doesn't have a problem referring to those on earth who
are kings and queens and princes and lords as being sovereign.
But you declare and you preach the One who is truly sovereign
and truly supreme and truly the King of kings and the Lord of
lords. And as Arthur Pinck once said,
people will declare that you're speaking in an unknown tongue.
And it's true, the sovereignty of God was once an expression
of truth that was preached in the majority of pulpits all across
this country. At one time, C.D. Cole was interim
pastor at the First Baptist Church here in town. And he preached,
he wrote a book on the sovereignty of God. And if he was here today
and preached that message, he'd get thrown out. It's the truth. It's a message that brought great
comfort to the hearts of believers, and it still is. To know that
my God is ruling and reigning and working all things together
after the counsel of His own will, and all things together
for my good and the good of every believer, that's such a comfort
to me. But today men have made God to
be one who's helpless and pitied instead of revered and worshipped. Sovereignty means simply that
God is God. That's such a simple definition,
but nonetheless true. God is God. God's not trying
to do something. God doesn't want to do something.
God does what He wills in the armies of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said.
No one can thwart His purpose. None can defeat His counsels.
None can resist His will. How different is the God of the
Bible from the God that is preached by most today? Greatly different. Greatly different. The God that
is preached today is a God of men and women's imagination. That's what the Lord Himself
told David. He said, thou thought, you imagined,
that I was altogether such a one as yourself. You see, that's
men's problems. They've imagined God to be like
them. They've imagined God to be maybe
a little souped up version of themselves. They imagine their
God to have a little more power than they have themselves so
that they can call Him supreme, meaning that He's just a little
bit more supreme than they are. But that is a God that is a far
cry from being the God, the sovereign God. Brother Mahan once said,
the throne is the Lord's. Our place is to obey. It's God's
to govern. It's ours to serve. It is God
to do His will. It is ours to delight in His
will. Whatever happens in this world,
the believer says, even so, Father, it seemed good in my sight. Because he always does what's
right. God always does what's right.
When God revealed to young Samuel that he was about to slay Eli's,
the high priest, two wicked sons, Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. And that's the attitude of every
child of God. It is. It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good
to him. Abraham said, shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? After losing all his possessions
and all of his children, Job said, the Lord gave and the Lord
had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Perfect submission. Perfect delight,
we sing. Is God now governing the world
and everyone and everything in it? You better believe he is.
Or will men choose to believe that God's actions are like ours,
regulated by the change of circumstances? You can't thwart His purpose,
no sir. God determined and purposed before
man was ever created. That's what Paul wrote. He said,
before you were ever born, before you ever done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand. God
is on the throne. God's ruling and reigning. What
He purposed shall stand. None can thwart His will or His
counsel. What sayeth the Scriptures? What
does this book say? God's Word declares that God
is one who works all things after the counsel of His own will,
Ephesians 1.11, and therefore He's working all things together
for my good, Romans 8.28. And God declares the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done, saying, now listen, my counsel shall stand. Not it might stand, not if you
cooperate it'll stand, but it shall stand. And I will do all
my pleasure. Unbelieving sinner, why would
anyone not submit to his sovereignty? when it's His sovereign purpose
to do His people good. God revealed Himself to Ezekiel
as a God of love. Speaking of the child of God
in Ezekiel chapter 16, the Lord said, well, your birth and your
nativity is of the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and
your mother a Hittite. And God said, in the day that
you were born, your navel was not cut. Neither were you washed
in water or salted, inspected. You weren't salted or swaddled
at all. No eye pitied you. No compassion
was found upon you. You were cast out in an open
field and loathed, hated. No one gave you any attention. He said, and when an eye passed
by you, When I passed by you, when I
saw you polluted in your own blood, I said, live! And you lived. That's my experience. God said, when I passed by you,
when I looked upon you, behold, your time was a time of love. And I spread my skirt, I spread
my righteousness over you. And I covered your nakedness
with my perfect righteousness. and I entered into a covenant
with you and you became mine. Oh, I just love to read that.
Thou becameest mine, God says. And God revealed himself to Solomon
as a righteous judge. In Proverbs 124, God says, because
I have called and you refused and I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded, But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
and would none of my reproof. I'll laugh at your calamity,
I'll mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation,
and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish cometh upon you, then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer. They shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me, for that they hated knowledge and did
not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel.
They despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices."
And that's why believing men pray very often in these church
services, Lord, don't let me have my way. I don't want my
way, I want your way. Friends, be not deceived. God
is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh
shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. So we see that the
first thing that God showed Nebuchadnezzar was his greatness and his power
and his sovereignty and his self-existence and his eternality. He's the
most high. His dominion, his rule is everlasting. His kingdom is forever. He does
according to his will in heaven and in earth. And then the second
lesson that the Lord taught Nebuchadnezzar was the nothingness of man. I hope that doesn't offend you
because it's true. You and I are nothing. Verse 35, in all, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. These words were confirmed by
the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 13,
it is written, who had directed the Spirit of the Lord? Our being
His counselor had taught Him. With whom took He counsel and
who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment and
taught Him knowledge and showed to Him the way of understanding?
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as
the small dust of the balance. Behold, he, God, he taketh up
the ales is a very little thing. All nations before God are nations. All nations and all that are
in them are like that unnoticed drop left in a water bucket. You don't pay any attention to
it. Not enough to drink, not enough to quench your thirst,
not enough to wash with, not enough to do anything, just a
drop, just a drop, just nothing. Every single person born of a
woman is like the dust of the balances. The dust is nothing
that would cause the balance of the scales to read inaccurately. It's just dust. It's just nothing. It's not like, oh, well, we need
to get an accurate measurement here, weight here, so let's dust
that dust off. No, it's insignificant. It doesn't
matter. That's what we are. The dust
of the balance amounts to nothing. All nations before Him are as
nothing, and they are counted to Him, to God, as less than
nothing. Huh. First you tell me I'm nothing,
then you tell me that I'm less than nothing? No, that's what
God said. It's what He says about you,
that's what He says about me. That's what He says of every
man and woman born that's ever lived. We are not only nothing,
we're less than nothing. That's what Paul said. He said,
I'm less than the least of all things. In John 3, verse 27,
God's Word tells us that a man can receive nothing except it
be given him from heaven. You see, we are nothing, we have
nothing, we can do nothing, therefore we can receive nothing from heaven
except it be given to us by God. In John 15, five, our Lord Jesus
said, I am the vine and you are the branches. He that abideth
in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For
without me, you can do nothing. We can't receive nothing except
God give it. I know that's a double negative,
but we can't. We can do nothing except Christ
do it for us. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 7, Paul
wrote, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain
that we can carry nothing out. We'll leave this world the same
way we came in it, with nothing. Nothing. If a man thinketh himself
to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. What great
instruction that is. If you think yourself to be something,
when God tells you that you're nothing, you're doing nothing
but deceiving your own self. Let's go deceive ourselves, friend.
God says we're nothing, we're less than nothing. Our goodness
is nothing, our righteousness is nothing, our accomplishments,
they're nothing. Christ is everything and we are
nothing. Christ the God-man came in human
flesh, and He came alone. Christ obeyed the law of God
perfectly, and He did so alone. Christ interceded in Gethsemane's
garden for His people, and He did it alone. Why, even His most
trusted disciples couldn't watch and pray with Him for one hour.
They fell asleep. He was alone. Christ faced judgment
alone. He stood before Pilate alone.
Christ walked up Calvary's mountain alone. Christ took the cruel
nails in His hands and His feet, and He took them alone. Christ
was alone, forsaken of His heavenly Father. What did we have to do
with any of it? Nothing! Nothing. And thirdly, God showed Nebuchadnezzar
what He showed Jeremiah. And that is that God is sovereign. He does what He wills. He does
what He purposes in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth. In Ephesians 1, verse 5, having
predestinated us, His people, unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of what?
His will. Not my will, His will. My will is not to come. Verse
9, Ephesians 1, having made known unto us the mystery of His will
according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself. That's all God. It's His will, it's according
to His good pleasure, and He purposed it in Himself. Verse
11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Men and women want to talk about
their will. I know that men and women are
not robots. I've had people tell me that. Well, you think men
and women are just robots. Well, if we are, we're God's
robots. And I know that we're just not dead logs. I never said
that man doesn't have a will. What I said is man doesn't have
a free will. The Lord said that man has a
will, but man's will is not to come to Christ that he might
have life. And Pilate delivered Christ to
man's will, and what did they cry? Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Our will's not free. It's in
bondage to our sin nature. It's not our will, but God's
will that saves us. Not my will, but Thy will be
done. I don't want my will. Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Aren't you glad? For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord please,
that did He in heaven, and in earth, and in the seas, and in
all deep places. What did the Lord please? You
can find it right here in this blessed book. It pleased the
Lord to make you His people, 1 Samuel 12, 22. It pleased the
Lord that in Christ all fullness dwell. Colossians 119. It pleased
the Lord to reveal His Son in me and in you. Galatians 116
and 17. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. God's still in the saving business.
Salvation is of the Lord still. And then lastly, God showed Nebuchadnezzar
that his will is irresistible. None can say his name. None can
say unto him, what doest thou? Irresistible. When a criminal
is arrested of a crime, you put them in handcuffs and you question
them, right? You can't put a sovereign God
in handcuffs. You can't question God's right
to do what He wills. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
He wills. Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. With Peter we say, nevertheless,
that thou wert professional fishermen, fished all night, didn't catch
a thing. They're pulling in their nets.
The Lord said, let your nets down on the other side. I picture
Peter being a bit like me. I'd been a little frustrated. You know, fished all night. You know, this is my profession.
This is what I do. I'm a fisherman. But then he
said, nevertheless, it I will. Oh, if we just bow to that. Nevertheless, it I will. What
you say is all that matters. Who are we? Well, we're nothing. We're reputed as nothing. We're
less than nothing. But that's not the question this
morning. Who is the Lord? He's the sovereign, omnipotent,
self-existent God with whom we have to do. Every soul is manifested
in His sight. All things are naked and opened
unto Him. And again, verse 37 here in Daniel
4, Nebuchadnezzar said, He's the King of Heaven. Who is the
Lord? He's the King of Heaven. Who's the Lord? All His works
is truth. All of them. Who is the Lord? All His ways are judgment. And those who walk in pride,
He is able to abase. So, dear sinner, humble yourselves
in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. There's
no need to fight and kick and rebel against this God. Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He'll lift you up.
Humble yourselves, therefore, into the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time. And may God be pleased
to make it so for His glory, for our good, and for Christ's
sake. Amen.