Turn with me if you would now
to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 4. It's page 1109 in my Bible. Daniel chapter 4. Monday morning, I downloaded
the message from last Wednesday night because I was not able to watch
it while it was streaming. And I heard a very dear brother
deliver a very dear message on the absolute sovereignty of God. His sovereign will and purpose
in all things. All right, that's what I heard
Monday morning on my phone. His sovereign will and purpose
in all things. After I listened to that message,
I felt so thankful for what we get to hear. So thankful for what we get to
hear. So thankful for what has been
revealed to us. What we have been caused to know
and believe. Truly know and believe. And as
I was sitting there thinking about all that for a minute,
this thought went through my mind. I wonder what everybody
else is hearing. All right, that's what we heard. I wonder what everybody else
is hearing. I wonder all these other, you know, religious places,
what are they hearing? So I went to the website of a
false religious organization and I watched their last service.
And I don't recommend anyone to do this. It made me so angry. Honestly, it made me so angry. Everything about it was absolutely
despicable. Everything about it. Their music
was despicable. Their lack of reverence was despicable. It was so irreverent. Their motivational speaker, who
they refer to as their pastor, he gave his speech. It was not
a message. If it does not come from God's
word is not a message. But I listened to his speech
and it was on this subject. God is frustrated. And he used Matthew 6 for a text,
the precious Matthew 6, where our Lord taught his disciples
to pray, saying, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. And this is what he was saying
about that. He said, what God wants to be
done is being done in heaven. But it's not on earth. Clearly, it's not on earth and
it's frustrating Him. Can you imagine? And the point
of the message, or the point of the speech was, we need to
help Him out. That's the point of it. He said,
we need to pray, okay, after this manner, pray ye. He said,
we need to pray that we will have the strength to begin a
change that will conform this earth to do the same things that
are being done in heaven right now. We need to make this place
look like that place. And he said, we may not be able
to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves. And he was, you know, speaking
to his congregation. He said, as a congregation, and
this is, oh man, he said, we can give God a little slice of
heaven right here on earth. And he said, in doing this, we
will be able to love ourselves as God loves us. And cherish
ourselves as God cherishes us. You can see why it made me angry. I don't recommend anybody to
do that. Just don't do that. It ruined
my whole morning. It honestly ruined my whole morning. Everything that came out of that
man's mouth was a lie on God. And it was a lie to those poor
deceived people that he was speaking to. I feel so sorry for those
people. I just want to say run, run for
your life. Run for your life. After I fumed over that for a
little while and I calmed down, this thought came to me. But for the grace of God, there
go I. But for the grace of God, there
go I. If it weren't for God's grace, that is exactly what I
would be doing. I'd be trying to make disciples
in any way I could. We have so much to be thankful
for. Not lifted up in pride for, well,
now we know the truth and you all are ignorant of the truth.
We don't have anything to be lifted up in pride over. We have
so much to be thankful for. We have so much to be humbled
for. The grace and the mercy of God
has revealed the truth to us. The truth that actually sets
men free. What that man was doing was burying
people in condemnation. He was delivering the lie that
actually brings men and women into condemnation. The truth
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what we've been given.
And because of Brother William's message, and because of Brother
Rex's message from Sunday night, in Jeremiah 52 where Nebuchadnezzar,
this king, Nebuchadnezzar dealt kindly with the king of Israel. He quoted this portion of scripture,
Daniel 4. Because of all that, this final
thought came to my mind. When God reveals the truth to
a man, once I was very angry, but once I really did enter into,
but for the grace of God, there go I, I felt sorry for all of
them. I felt sorry for all of them.
And I pray that God in his mercy will reveal the truth to them.
And, uh, But if that happens, if that
happens, this question comes to my mind. When God reveals
the truth to a man, what does he see? We have all of this ridiculous
religion out there. It is ridiculous religion. When
God reveals the truth to a woman, what does she see? What are sinners
caused to realize and know and believe in their hearts about
the absolute truth of God Almighty? I believe this passage answers
that very well. What God revealed to this man,
Nebuchadnezzar, this is what God reveals to all of his people.
And if we have had this revealed to us, We ought to be so thankful
for that. We ought to sincerely be so thankful
for that. What does the truth reveal to
sinners? What will men and women see when
the truth is revealed to them? Well, Nebuchadnezzar was a sinner
who had the truth revealed to him. And Daniel chapter four is his
experience in his own words, all right? Verse one says, Nebuchadnezzar,
the king, unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all
the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. Nebuchadnezzar is the
writer of Daniel chapter 4. And that's amazing to me. God
allowed this man, this king, who did so many terrible things
to Israel for so long, he allowed him to be one of the penmen of
his Holy Scripture. And in this account, Nebuchadnezzar
tells everybody, this is what God revealed to me. He is recalling
what happened in the past, okay? And he's saying, this is what
God revealed to me, and this is what will be revealed to every
sinner that has the truth revealed to him or her. In this chapter,
I'm not gonna read it, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. and it disturbs him. He dreams about this tree, this
great tree where all these animals took shelter under it and all
the birds lodged in it and it gets cut down. But the stump
remains. And none of his magicians or
his astrologers or his soothsayers could interpret the dream for
him. But finally, Daniel is brought to him and he interprets the
dream. And if you look at verse 24,
Daniel 4 verse 24, Daniel said, This is the interpretation,
O King, and this is the decree of the Most High, which is come
upon my Lord the King. that they shall drive thee from
men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field,
and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall
wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over
thee till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom
of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. and whereas they commanded
to leave the stump of the tree roots, thy kingdom shall be sure
unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do
rule. Wherefore, O King, let my counsel
be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness,
and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may
be a lengthening of thy tranquility." What he's saying is repent. You
repent before the Lord. He may have mercy on you. Verse
28 says, all this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar one year
later. It all came upon him one year
later. A full year went by from the
time that Daniel prophesied of it till the time that it happened.
Plenty of time went by for Nebuchadnezzar to think, that's a bunch of foolishness. Where is the promise of that
coming? It's been a whole year, nothing's happened. Nothing's
happened for a whole year. Verse 29, at the end of 12 months,
he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king
spake and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for
the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the
honor of my majesty? Me. It's all about me, my strength. What I have done, what I will
do, look what I've created. There's no frustration here because
I did it. Verse 31. While the word was
in the King's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O
King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is
departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from
men and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field.
They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall
pass over thee until thou know that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The
same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was
driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was
wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles'
feathers, and his nails like birds' claws." Again, this is
Nebuchadnezzar telling what happened to him, telling his own story. And he said, that's what God
did to me, and this is what he taught me in it. That's what
God did to me and this is what he taught me in it, verse 34.
And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven
and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the Most
High and I praised and honored him that liveth forever whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion And his kingdom is from generation
to generation. This is what he said. He said,
when God restored me, when he quickened my mind and opened
my eyes and he caused me to see, he caused me to realize. He said,
this is the first thing I saw. God's absolute sovereignty over
all things. God's absolute sovereignty over
all things. He said, the first thing that
I realized was God is not frustrated over anything. God is not frustrated over anything. There is no tug of war going
on with God. Him trying to pull everything
over to his side, which is what people, and that's what that
speech was all about. He is not the king of heaven
who is also trying to be the king of earth. God doesn't try to do anything.
He doesn't try to do anything. Nebuchadnezzar said, after God
broke my pride and broke my foolish arrogance and humbled me, after
He broke me from everything I thought I was capable of doing, This is the first realization
of truth that was revealed to me. Thy God reigneth. That's what happens when God
comes. That's what he tells sinners. Your God reigns. Behold your
God. That's the first thing a sinner
will see when the truth comes, when the truth comes. Lord, let
the truth come. That's what I pray. I pray that
God will send this gospel out. It'll sweep through the land
and the truth will come. Behold your God. Your God reigns. Your God is God. Who is God? Jesus Christ. The King over all
dominions and all generations. Same king over all generations.
That's who the sovereign God is. How do you know that Nebuchadnezzar?
I know that because he brought me down. I can tell you he brought
me down. There was a time in my life when
I thought a whole lot more of myself than I do now. All of God's people can say he
broke me. He humbled me. That's how I know
he's God and I'm not. That's how I know that. Here's the next thing that Nebuchadnezzar
had revealed to him. Every sinner will have this revealed
to him or her when the truth comes. Verse 35, he said, and first he said, he lives forever. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. And here's the next thing. All
the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He said, that's the next thing
I learned. God is God and I am nothing. I am not God's helper. I'm not the one who is going
to receive the strength to do anything for God. All of our
strength is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our strength and
our song and he has become our salvation. It's in Christ alone. Hold your
place right here in Daniel and turn over to Isaiah 40. Isaiah
40 verse six. The voice said, cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? Here it is. All flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Who is the
Word of God? That's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Look at verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come. You see that capital L, lowercase
o-r-d? The Lord Jesus Christ, our God,
will come with strong hand. and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him
and his work before him." He is coming to accomplish a work
and he will do it. Verse 11 says, he shall feed
his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom. and shall gently lead
those that are with young. That's Jesus Christ. He is everything
and everything else is nothing. Including me and you in our flesh,
we are nothing. We are nothing. Look at verse
15, Isaiah 40 verse 15. Behold, the nations are as a
drop of the bucket. You know what that is? One man
described it this way. Back in these days, they used
to drop a bucket in a well, and they would fill it with water,
and they'd draw it up, and they'd pour that bucket into another
bucket and carry it on with them. And you know how this happens.
As you pour in it, that one drop, or however many drops, runs down
the bucket to the bottom, and it falls down on the ground.
Are you going to spend your time and your energy trying to regain
that drop? That's nothing. That's counted
as nothing. Verse 15, he said, the nations
are as a drop of the bucket and are counted as the small dust
of the balance, the dust that floats in the air, no weight
to it, and finally lands on the scale. It doesn't affect them
at all. There's nothing. Behold, he taketh up the isles,
the islands, as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient
to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted
to him less than nothing in vanity. Amen. Don't we say amen? Don't you love hearing that?
I tell you why God's people love hearing that. It's because it
makes their God to be all. If we are nothing, He is all. And that's what we want. We want
Him to be all. And He is all. Turn over to Psalm
50. I've loved this since the first
time I ever saw it. Psalm 50 verse 10. I can't help
but smile every time I read it. Our Lord said, for every beast
of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
I know all the fowls of the mountains and the wild beast of the field
are mine. Verse 12, he said, if I were
hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the
fullness thereof. If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. I wouldn't come begging to you for food. You are nothing and you cannot
do anything for me. That's what he's saying. When
the truth comes, That's what men and women realize. God is
absolutely sovereign over everything and I am absolutely nothing before
him. Here's the third thing that all
men and women see when the truth comes. Go back to our text. Daniel
4 verse 35 says, Daniel 4 35, it says, "...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? Thy kingdom come," Matthew 6
says, "...thy kingdom come His kingdom has come. When Christ
came, the kingdom of God came. The gospel of the kingdom came.
The glory of the kingdom came. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done. His will has been done. In the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. He right now is doing according
to His will and no one can stop Him. Oh, how thankful we are
for that. He is creating light and creating
darkness. He is creating peace and creating
evil. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. Everything is happening. according
as he has predetermined for it to be done. If someone is wounded,
the Lord did it. If someone is healed, the Lord
did it. If someone dies, the Lord did
it. If someone is made alive, the
Lord did it. And although that's all true
physically speaking, just think of the blessing spiritually speaking. If the Spirit of God comes and
pierces the heart and wounds, God did that. And then if that
threat of the gospel heals, God did that. If a sinner is slain,
God did that. Quickened to life, God did that.
Whatever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and in earth,
in the seas, and in all deep places. He has done what it has
pleased Him to do. What did it please him to do?
I'm almost finished. What did it please him to do?
The scripture says it pleased the Lord to make you his people. That's amazing. The scripture
says it pleased the Lord to make Christ to be the sin of his people. The scripture says it pleased
the Lord to bruise Christ in the winepress of the cross. And to cover his people in the
blood of the lamb that ran down from that cross. That's what
he did. It pleased God to choose a people.
So that's what he did. It pleased God to make Christ
to be sin for his people. So that's what he did. It pleased
God to bruise Christ for that sin and to robe His people in
the righteousness of Christ. So that's exactly what it did.
It pleased God to raise Christ from that death. So that's what
He did. It pleased Him to seat Christ
on the throne of His glory and to robe all of His people in
the righteousness of Christ's glory. So that's what He did.
Whatever He purposed to do, that's what He did. And here's the thing
about it. This is what I want everybody
to know. He did not struggle in doing it. He didn't struggle
one bit. Never was He frustrated or even
discouraged in doing it. And the reason is because never
was there even a possibility that He would fail in doing it.
Never. God is God. I am nothing. And He does whatever He wants
to do. And what He wanted to do is our salvation. Oh, and
His goodness. He foreknew us because He wanted
to foreknow us. He predestinated us because He
wanted to predestinate us. He called us because He wanted
to call us. He justified us because He wanted
to justify us. And He has glorified us because
He wanted to glorify us. That's the truth that all of
God's people have revealed to Him. God in salvation, in mercy,
in grace, did for us what He wanted to do for us. That's what he did. And this
is the result that that realization brings every time. OK, in closing,
verse 36. at the same time my reason returned
unto me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness
returned unto me and my counselors and my lords sought unto me and
i was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added
unto me 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 is able to abase." Here's
what he said, not unto me, not unto man. We are not going to
praise and extol and honor man any longer, no more. Now, he said, it's unto the King
Eternal. Immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, our Savior, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. May God reveal that truth to
us. May He cause us to know it, believe it, truly, for Christ's
sake.