All of his elect, yes. Salvation
is not a plan, it's a purpose. But anyway. Go with me back to Daniel chapter
two. Daniel two. I am going to try to do tonight
what the Apostle Paul told Timothy to do, which is preach the Word. I'm going to read these verses
to you. I'm going to make a few comments along the way. And I'm
going to pray that the Lord will make it to be a blessing to us.
You remember from chapter 1, that Israel was besieged by King
Nebuchadnezzar and taken captive to Babylon. And among the captives
were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, whose names were
changed. They tried to mix their idolatry
with God's grace, and they changed the names of these men to Belteshazzar,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were taken to Babylon and
they were put into prison for three years. That was the king's
decree. I want them in there for three
years and then they'll stand before me. And at the end of
three years, those four men were found to be exceedingly wise
men. And they were found in the favor
of King Nebuchadnezzar and he included them into his council
of wise men. Well, chapter two, verse one
says, and in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled
and his sleep break from him. This whole chapter is about a
dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, and he wants to know the interpretation
of it. And none of his magicians, his astrologers, his sorcerers,
or his wise men can tell him the interpretation of the dream.
They can't even tell him the dream. So he gets mad and he
says that he is going to slay everybody. And when Daniel hears
about it, he says, go tell the king that I will show him the
interpretation of the dream. I will show him the dream itself,
which as we read in the, in the scripture reading, that was his
demand. And I'll show him the meaning of his dream. I'll show
him the reason why he dreamed. what he did. And to get right
to the point, if you look at verse 28, Daniel 2, verse 28,
it says, there is a God in heaven. Nebuchadnezzar, you dreamed what
you did so that you might know there's a God in heaven. And through the interpretation
of this dream, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar, this is who God is, and this
is what he's going to do. Now tonight, we're going to look
at half of this chapter. You notice I stopped reading
before he said, he said, I'm going to tell you what it is.
And then I stopped reading tonight. We're going to look at half of
this chapter. We're going to look at the events leading up
to the interpretation of the dream, but we're going to see
that this chapter. is a representation of, this
is a picture of the moment that the truth comes to a center. The moment that God confronts
a center with the truth. We're gonna see this spiritual
picture as we read through this. Nebuchadnezzar represents sin. He represents idolatry. He represents one who is the
enemy of the Lord God. That's all men by nature, all
of mankind by nature. Daniel represents Christ, but
he also in this chapter represents a true preacher. He represents
a true messenger who holds the truth, holds the root of the
matter, the key to this mystery. And he is going to boldly declare
it no matter what consequences may come from it. Now let's read this story with
all that in mind. All right, Daniel 2 verse 1,
it says, in the second year of the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar, and I'm not going to bog you down with all
these details, but it was actually the fifth year. It's the second year after Daniel
and the men were let out of prison. They were in prison for three
years. And there's another scripture that tells us Nebuchadnezzar
took them in the first year of his reign. They were in prison
for three years. And then they were made to be
servants of the king two years into their service to Nebuchadnezzar. Verse one says, in the second
year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams
wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. He dreamed this dream. It was
probably a recurring dream. And it troubled him so much he
couldn't sleep any longer. He lost sleep over this dream.
He was troubled. And that's the place where God
puts a sinner when God is purposed to deal with a sinner. And I
was thinking about that That's a wonderful place to be. That's
a precious place to be. We all by nature are so lulled
to comfort. We are so lulled to sleep. We are so lulled to slumber.
But when God starts dealing with a person, he wakes them up by
bringing trouble. Trouble comes. God puts a sinner
in trouble. He makes that sinner in trouble.
Verse 1, in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar,
Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled
and his sleep break from him. Then the king commanded to call
the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans
for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before
the king. When God troubles a man or a
woman, Usually the first thing he or she will turn to and run
to is religion. False religion. And religion is not the answer. Christ is the answer. But it takes the message of God
and it takes the servant of God to reveal that to a person. So
according to human nature, Nebuchadnezzar ran to his fleshly manmade council,
right here, verse three. And the king said unto them,
I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the
dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the
king in Syriac, the language that they spoke in. O king, live
forever, Tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. They said, you tell us what the
problem is, and we'll try to give you a solution to that problem. Now, I will tell you why I want
men and women to know this. I'll tell you why religion, false
religion, cannot help anybody. This is the reason why. This
is the root of the matter. It all comes down to this. The
religion of man cannot provide any help or any solution because
it has no idea what the problem is. No idea. If a man thinks he can remedy
his own problem, he does not know what the problem is. Man
thinks he's diseased when he's really dead. Religion has no idea what mankind's
true problem is. I sometimes don't do this, but
sometimes I get on the internet to see what some of these other
places are blaspheming about. And I'm telling you, they don't
know what the problem is. They just don't know. Wrong on
the fall, wrong on it all. It takes God to reveal the problem. It takes the spirit and the power
of God to reveal that to a person. But in Nebuchadnezzar's blindness
and in his ignorance, he goes to his man-made religion. Verse
four. Then spake the Chaldeans to the king of to the king in
Syriac, O king, live forever, tell thy servants the dream,
and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to
the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me. They didn't know Nebuchadnezzar's
problem, but Nebuchadnezzar didn't know his own problem. That's
the problem with man. This was the blind leading the
blind. Mankind naturally does not know
his own problem. He does not know his own sin. Man knows the word sin. And man knows a few little things
that he does that he's ashamed of, but mankind does not know
his sin. Mankind does not know his idolatries. Again, all of these places that
I just mentioned that, you know, claim to preach Christ, but don't. They claim to preach Christ,
but they don't. These are houses of idolatry.
That's what they are. These are places that are filled
with people who are idols, idol worshipers, but they don't know
it. They have no idea. Nebuchadnezzar's man-made religion
had no idea what the problem was. He had no idea what the
problem was. All right, verse five. The king
answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me. If
you will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation
thereof, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall
be made a dunghill. I wish more people would get
sick and tired of religion. I wish more people would get
sick and tired of religion. I wish more people would see
through false religion. There's nothing to it. And that's
what he said right there. If you can't show me this, I'm
done with you. Hirelings, that's what they are.
You just, what do you want us to say? What do you want us to
say to you and tell you? He said, if you don't, this is
what he's saying. If you don't bring rest to my soul, I'm getting
rid of all your phony lies. I'm getting rid of you. Verse
five, the king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is
gone from me. If you will not make known unto
me the dream with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in
pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill. But if you
show the dream and the interpretation thereof, if you can show me the
problem and the solution, If you can bring the truth to
me, if you can bring the gospel to me, that's how we would say
it, those who are called to see what this is. If you can show
me the cause of my trouble and the remedy for my trouble. Verse
six, he said, you shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great
honor. I'll glorify you. Therefore, show me the dream
and the interpretation thereof. Verse seven, they answered again
and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will
show the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I
know of certainty that you would gain the time. He said, I know
you're trying to buy time right now. because you see the thing
is gone from me. But if you will not make known
unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you. For you have
prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till the time
be changed. Therefore, tell me the dream
and I shall know that you can show me the interpretation thereof. He said, if you can tell me what
my problem is, I will know that you are telling me the true remedy
for that problem. I'll know that you're telling
me the true solution to that problem. And I'm going to tell
you this, this really struck me. That is where the assurance
and the rest of God's people comes from. We know that the remedy of this
word is true. The remedy of salvation, which
is Christ, sacrifice of Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ. We
know that the remedy of this word is true because we know
that the problem that this word so plainly declares to us is
true. We know it's true. This word
says you are a sinner against God. That's the problem. You are dead in your trespasses
and sins. That's the problem. Everything
that you do is drowning in sin. And we hear that truth and we
say, that's right. God's people will all say, that's
right. That's it. You've hit the nail
on the head. That's the problem. And then this word says there
is only one remedy for that kind of sin. And that remedy is Christ. The
blood of Jesus Christ, the only one who's able to bear the trouble,
put away the sin. That's the truth that God speaks
to his people. That's the true work of the spirit
that causes the sinner to say, this is no lie. This is no phony
manmade religion. Like that woman at the well said,
come see a man who knows every dark sinful truth that there
is to know about me. He's our remedy. He's our remedy. We cry truth like Syrophoenician
woman. Truth, Lord. I am a dog. We cry truth to all of our sin. Therefore, we cry truth to all
of his righteousness. All of his blood remedy for our
sin. So verse 8 says, the king answered
and said, I know of certainty that you would gain the time
because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will
not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you,
for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before
me. till the time be changed. Therefore,
tell me the dream and I shall know that you can show me the
interpretation thereof. Verse 10, the Chaldeans answered
before the king and said, and I'm going to tell you. As you
listen to some of these hirelings, you are every now and then gonna
hear a little bit of truth. Well, that was a little bit of
truth, you know. Little Levin, Levin's a whole lump, but they're
about to say the only true thing that they said. This is it right
here. Okay, verse 10. The Chaldeans answered before
the king and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can
show the king's matter. That's the only true thing they
said. There is not a man on this earth, including this man. There
is not a man on this earth that can naturally know the truth
of these matters. No man could ever get the glory
for this, the glory of this mystery, the glory of this revelation,
the revelation of the gospel, the mystery of Christ, the mystery
of godliness. If any man glory, it is only
going to be in the Lord, in the revelation of the Lord. Verse
10, the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, there's not
a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter. Therefore,
there is no king, Lord, nor ruler that asked such things at any
magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. Now watch verse 11. And it is
a rare thing that the king requireth And there is none other that
can show it before the king except the gods whose dwelling is not
with flesh. That shows their ignorance. Number
one, they said to gods, there's only one God. And thank God,
he was manifest in the flesh. Thank God he came down and he
dwelled with human flesh. He did not take upon him the
nature of the fallen angels, but he did take upon himself
the form of the seed of Abraham, the form of the children of Abraham,
the covenant elect people of God. He joined himself to his
people. He touched himself with the infirmities
of his people. But false religion will not and
cannot tell a sinner that. False religion cannot declare
the truth of the remedy in the person of the God-man. Christ
Jesus the Lord. Who He really is. Why He really
came. What He really accomplished in
His sacrifice and death on the cross. Who He really accomplished
it for. I want to tell everybody. Christ
didn't come to call the righteous. Everybody's so self-righteous.
He came to call that sinner who's too ashamed to show his face
because he knows he's a sinner. False religion cannot declare
that glorious news to a sinner. All that man-made religion can
do is leave a sinner lost in the darkness of his sin. with
no hope, no help, no assurance, no comfort, no rest, no nothing. Verse 12. For this cause the king was angry
and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of
Babylon. And the decree went forth that
the wise men should be slain and they sought Daniel and his
fellows to be slain. He said, I'm done with religion.
Nebuchadnezzar said, I'm done with all of it. Verse 14, then
Daniel, but God. After all other avenues were
exhausted, Nebuchadnezzar was emptied of all his own ways,
all his own efforts. Verse 14, then Daniel answered
with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard,
which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. This
man was headed out to start slaying. He answered and said to Ariok,
the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Ariok made the thing known
to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired
of the king that he would give him time and that he would show
the king the interpretation. Now Nebuchadnezzar has heard
from all of his false religion, and now he's going to hear from
God's true messenger. And we all need to hear from
God's true messenger, Christ the Lord, the revealer of the
secrets. represents Christ, but he also
represents the men that God has called to declare the truth of
Christ. God gives his true servants this
confirmation, this conviction that God is true and every man
is a liar. You know, the decree has gone
out against Daniel's head. The decree has already gone out. But he goes in with the conviction
and the confidence that the truth of God will stand. And when we get, I'm almost,
I'm getting close here, but when we get to the interpretation
of this dream, we're gonna see that Daniel is about to declare
to Nebuchadnezzar, there is a God and it's not you. That's what
he's gonna declare to him. There is a God, Nebuchadnezzar,
and it's not you. Daniel right here is about to
be given this message. And this is how it goes, all
right? This is how it works, okay? The
false men, we heard their story. Now this is a true preacher story
right here. Verse 17. Then 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, that Daniel and
his fellow should not perish with the rest of the wise man.
Daniel went into these other three men and he did not say,
All right, y'all, let's all put our heads together and figure
this thing out. What do you guys think? He didn't
say that. He went to those three men and
he said, pray with me. Let's all call on the God of
heaven to have mercy on us and to speak this word. If we speak
any word, let it be the word of the Lord. That's what truth
is, the word of the Lord. Christ is the truth because Christ
is the word of the Lord. False religion is the word of
men. False religion seeks the word of men. Nebuchadnezzar sought
his man-made religion, and he said, you tell me. And then it
was just a ridiculous circle of foolishness. False religion
said back to him, Nebuchadnezzar, you tell me. And he said, no,
you tell me. And they said, no, you tell me.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, they said, Lord God of heaven
and earth, you speak to us. Would you speak to us? Speak,
Lord, and by your grace, we will listen. We need to hear from
God. We need to hear from God. The
truth comes from God alone. The only word that saves is the
word of God alone. And for God's people who desire
the word of God alone, our Lord said, if you ask, I'll give it
to you. Remember that. If you ask, he said, I'll give
it to you. Daniel asked and God gave it
to him. And Daniel's response to receiving God's word, right?
This is the message. He's going to give the interpretation.
This is the message of God's word. And this is what every
child of God will believe and cling to and cry when they hear
and receive the truth of this. If God ever opens blind eyes,
if he ever saves a soul, this is what the soul will cry. Verse
19. Then was the secret revealed
unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of
heaven. It was revealed. And Daniel blessed
the God of heaven. That word blessed means praised.
Daniel praised the God of heaven for revealing the secret of his
truth. And this is what he said, verse
20. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God. What is his name? Jehovah is
his name. Emmanuel is his name. Jesus Christ
is his name. Verse 20 says, blessed be the
name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are his. All wisdom, all strength, all
honor, all glory, all of it belongs to Jesus Christ. Verse 21, and
he changeth 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. Does that not
sound like what Nebuchadnezzar ended up saying at the end of
chapter 4, what I quote all the time? Just look at it real quick. Daniel 4, after God truly dealt with Nebuchadnezzar,
Daniel 4 verse 34. 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." Don't you love it when
God conquers a sinner? Don't you love seeing God bring
one of His enemies to His footstool? 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 is from generation to generation." Sounds like the
Lord revealed some things to Nebuchadnezzar. And all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. He's talking about himself. 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? None. Verse 37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works
are truth, and His ways judgment. And those that walk in pride
He's able to abase. That is the message of Jesus
Christ, the true and living God. And that's the response that
all of God's people have to the message of Jesus Christ. That's
what all of God's people will cry when the truth comes, when
Christ comes, the truth concerning the person and this all-powerful,
sovereign, finished work of Jesus Christ. All right, very quickly,
back in chapter 2, verse 20 says, Daniel answered and said, Blessed
be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are
His, and He changeth 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 hast given me wisdom and might,
and hast made known unto me now what we desire of thee. For thou
hast now made known unto us the king's matter. Therefore Daniel
went in unto Ariok, whom the king had ordained to destroy
the wise men of Babylon, he went and said thus unto him, destroy
not the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king and
I will show unto the king the interpretation. Now I'm going
to stop this message right here, but I'll go ahead and tell you
so we can get excited about it. With this message that Daniel
received, he brought intercession to a whole bunch of sinners. The decree had gone out, slay
all the wise men. And Daniel cried unto the Lord
for the true remedy of good news, and God gave it to him. And Daniel
immediately cried. Verse 25 says, he ran with haste. They went literally running to
the king, crying, slay not the wise men of Babylon. I found
their ransom. They were all a bunch of sinners,
ignorant sinners. They were all just sinners against
God. That's what we all were. That's what we all are in this
flesh. There's nothing good in any of
us. But in Daniel's love and his mercy, he ran to the throne
of judgment, crying, deliver them from going down to the pit.
I hold the truth that will set them free. That's what Christ
did. All of God's people say with
Daniel, blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank God for the intercession
of the truth. Like Manoah's wife, she said
if he was going to kill us, he would not have told us all these
things. He wouldn't reveal all this to
us. If the Lord is willing, next time we're going to look at Nebuchadnezzar's
dream and the interpretation of it. Come the end of it, we're
going to say with Daniel, there's a God in heaven. There's a God
in heaven. We bow to him. All right. Amen.