Man is notorious for being proud,
arrogant, and boastful. So much so that Paul wrote to
Timothy and told him, men shall be lovers of their own selves,
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy. Our text this morning will be
Daniel chapter 7, but I want to take a few moments just to
trace out some of the ways that man displays his arrogance and
his boasting and proud. And one of the ways that we see
that where man thinks so highly of himself is in religion. He doesn't realize just how bound
in darkness he is in the prison that he's in, in this flesh,
that he's really nothing in himself, and he can't do anything, and
yet he thinks that by his own free will, by the decisions that
he makes, that he can bind God and get God and move God to do
for him, to save him, and to move God to action. And man is
so short-sighted in this that he thinks that he can do this,
that he can act upon God's will, and so that he becomes God, and
God becomes his servant, and subject to whatever the fickle
heart of man might be. And he thinks that, you know,
some men think, well, that Christ somehow made it possible that
all men could be saved, so that if I just exercise my will now,
if I exercise what I want to do, and if I want to be saved,
then God's going to have mercy upon me, and he's going to save
me. But he doesn't realize that Christ didn't make it just possible.
Christ is salvation. Christ saves his people so that
Christ himself, God himself, is the author of salvation from
beginning to end. And man has no part in that salvation. Man doesn't fire up the engines
by his own faith or by his own works and by his own doing. And
some men will go so far to agree with you to some degree and think
that, yes, you know, it's by faith and faith is the gift of
God, but then they turn it around, they still twist it and say,
but God gives faith to all men so that all men for some amount
of time have an opportunity to save themselves. And he does
this because man is, by nature, he's boastful, he's arrogant,
he's proud, and he really doesn't know, when he's saying that,
he doesn't know what he is by nature. He doesn't realize just
the deadness that he is in by nature. He wants to be in control. Man is doing this because he
wants to feel like he's in control. He feels like God has done all
that he can. He's made it possible for salvation. He set it out
there for you to take it or leave it. And he does this because
he wants to believe in this God of his own imagination that somehow
he's in control and that at any time when he feels the need is
right or when he's about to expire that he can just turn to God
and say, all right, God, I'm ready. You can save me now. And that's
not at all how our Lord is. But our Lord tells us the reason
why is because this comes from the natural, carnal heart of
man. This is out of man's imagination. It's out of his own mind. So
he thinks these things. And this is really an operation
of the flesh. This is what we all are by nature
until the Lord teaches us and shows us what we are by nature. Paul told the Romans that they
that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but
they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. And so man's going to argue about
these things and he's going to contend. As long as he's staying
in his flesh, as long as he's working by the operation of the
flesh, and the Lord isn't working in him, he's going to remain
ignorant to the things of God and how God operates. Either way, it's still, it's
of the flesh. No matter what he thinks, no matter how he thinks
that God saves, this is of the flesh. Paul also wrote to the
Romans, for to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. And the reason why they insist
on this is because the carnal mind is enmity. The carnal mind
can't receive the things of God. The carnal mind can't enter in
to the reality that God saves whom He wills. And God is merciful
to whom He will be merciful. And to those that He's merciful
to, He's going to ensure their salvation. He's going to ensure
that they have all things needful and necessary for salvation. The scriptures declare that the
carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God. So the reality is, God is never
going to leave it to man to save himself. He's not going to give
man any part in salvation. Because the Lord is never going
to turn to the flesh and say, well done. Well done, you've
pleased me. This is a good work that you've
done." And that's what men believe though. When they're saying that
flesh is the operation of man, that man has to save himself,
that God is somehow looking at that work and saying, well done,
good job, good job. And the Lord is not going to
give any glory to man. God alone receives all the glory,
the honor, and the praise for the salvation of his people. And Paul tells us, the reason
why is that no flesh should glory in his presence. And he told
the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1.30, But of him, of God, are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it's written,
He that glories, let him glory in the Lord." So the Lord's always
going to shut us up to Christ. He's going to bring us to the
end of ourselves so that we see that we're nothing, and that
we have nothing to glory in when it comes to salvation. So that's
one way that man boasts in their flesh, and one way that man is
very proud and arrogant before God. Another way is Those who
would teach that after we are saved by Christ, that our rule
of life is the Ten Commandments given by Moses. They think that
by these things that we now have a rule by which we can walk before
God, and please God, and be made more righteous with God, be more
holy, be sanctified by our keeping of the law. Paul told the Galatians
in 311, the just shall live by faith. So that if the just lives
by faith, then the just man's rule of life is faith, which
God alone gives. It's not the law of Moses by
which he lives. He's not going to make himself
more holy. Paul told the Romans, if you
look there in Romans 3 verse 19, He said, Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. And yet in spite of this, men
think that we enter in through the gate, which is Christ, and
no sooner do they get to the cross and look to the blood of
Christ to be washed from their sins, but they turn right back
around from Him who is life, and they turn right to the law
to make themselves more holy and to keep themselves in line. to keep themselves right, not
knowing and understanding that all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The Lord is not looking back
to the flesh to make yourself more righteous, to keep yourself
more holy, and to keep yourself in Christ. You know, we understand
and we look to Christ for our life. We realize that the law
has slain us, it's cut us down, it's death to us. And yet, why
do men then turn right back around to that ministration of death
and that ministration of condemnation, which is the law, and they're
looking to it that they might now be made more righteous and
more holy. And it's just foolishness that
they would think that that which slayed them the first time is
somehow they're going to be able to live by it now. That they're
going to live under that law. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So it's
not Justice the law doesn't justify us before God and many will admit
that the law doesn't sanctify us Make us more sanctified and
more holy and more pleasing to God We can't do it because as
soon as we do that as soon as we begin to look to the law The
very first thing that we do is we begin to boast about it You
ever notice that when when you're looking at the law and you start
thinking that this is something that you're supposed to do how
you begin to despise your brethren you ever notice that how your
heart gets hard and and you start to be angry and just frustrated,
and then when you think especially that you're actually keeping
the law, you begin to look at others, at your brethren, and
thinking, I'm doing this, why aren't they doing that? Why do
I have to do everything around here? And you begin to condemn
your brethren, and you begin to find fault with your brethren,
and you're not happy, and you become miserable, and you're
going to make sure that everybody around you is unhappy and miserable
as well. The law hardens. It doesn't make
that hard heart that we have by nature, it doesn't soften
it. It doesn't make us more loving and more kind and more gracious
to our brethren. The law hardens and it causes
us to become hard to our brethren and we become taskmasters of
our brethren and we want to whip them and we want to beat them
and we want to be telling people what they need to be doing for
the Lord. And it's interesting that they
would look to men in the scriptures and claim them as their own. If you think of Abel, Abel received
the testimony that he was righteous, and we know this because God
accepted his sacrifice, declaring him righteous, declaring that
God is pleased with the works of Abel, because Abel looked
to the Messiah, the coming Messiah, that promised seed that would
save him. And he didn't have the law. He
didn't have the law to walk perfectly before God. And we know of Enoch.
And Enoch didn't have the law, and yet we read that he was translated
by God because he walked with God and he pleased the Lord.
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. How did he know to be a preacher
of righteousness? He didn't have the law to direct him and to
guide him. And Abraham, Abraham believed
by faith. He believed God in faith and
followed him, and he didn't have the law. And then there's Paul,
who was accused by the Judaizers that he was teaching licentiousness
and teaching men that they didn't need the law and they hated him
for it. And the same men today that are accusing the brethren
of being antinomian and lawless ones, and because we're not teaching
that by the law we're made sanctified by God, they condemn us, they
condemn Paul back in his day. And yet, they look back at them
and they think, well, these are our brethren, we would embrace
them. But in reality, they would cast them out from themselves
because they're antinomians. Because they don't look to the
law of Moses to make themselves righteous, So that's another
way in which men like to boast and brag before God and make
themselves something when in reality they're nothing. Then
the other way that we see this is men who despise God, who claim
that they don't believe in the Lord God who created the heaven
and the earth. Psalm 14.1 says, That's said
in his heart, there is no God. And in reality, it says, no God. It doesn't even have the words,
there is no. So that men just declare with
their fist in the face before God, saying, whether there's
a God or not, no God. I won't hear you. I won't have
you reign over me. I won't listen to what you say.
I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be my own God.
And the psalmist says, have the workers of iniquity no knowledge. What are they thinking? Even
Pilate said to the Lord, what is truth? And he was staring
the truth he who is truth right in the face when he asked that
question That's how dead man is by nature and yet he thinks
that he's something when in reality He is nothing So, man may think
that he's got this world by the tail on a downward drag and he
thinks everything's going well, but in reality, he's heading
for a day of judgment when he'll stand before holy and righteous
God. The psalmist asks, why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? They're willfully
ignorant. that God is, that He created
the heavens, that He created the earth. They think that while
they try to convince themselves that this all came into being
by chance. And so they thrust God out of
their minds and they want nothing to do with God. Or they think
that when they stand before God they're somehow going to negotiate
with Him and somehow going to be able to get one over on God
in that day. And they don't realize that when
they stand before God and they see holy righteous God, that
they're not going to have anything to say. You remember how sometimes,
especially when we were young, and I know as a boy, and I thought
I was going to go in the next day and beat somebody up, and
I was sure that when I saw him the next day, I'd fight and I'd
show him a thing or two, or maybe you, today as adults, we think,
you know, when I see that person again, I'm going to give them
a piece of my mind. I'm going to set them straight. I'm going to tell
them exactly what they need to hear, and I'm going to make sure
that I'm the one to do it. And then you see them, and then
nothing happens. You just keep your mouth shut,
and you don't really say anything. Because most of us, by nature,
we don't like confrontation. Can you imagine? That's just
a human. Can you imagine standing before a holy, righteous God? What are we going to say then? I mean, what are we going to
say in that day when we're standing before Almighty God? And Paul
asked, he said, in Romans 2.4, he says, despisest thou the riches
of God's goodness and forbearance among suffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after
thy hardness and impenitent in heart treasurest up unto thyself
wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous
judgment of God. who will render to every man
according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance and
well-doing seek for glory and honor, and immortality, eternal
life. But unto them that are contentious
and do not obey the truth, but obey in righteousness, indignation."
So that man, remember man is proud, he's arrogant, he's boastful. And Peter tells us, he warns
us that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night
into which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also
and the works that are therein shall be burned up. We saw it
even when Pharaoh released his slaves, when he sent Israel away
into the wilderness to worship God, he had a change of heart
and decided to pursue after them. And he goes after them, and the
Lord parts the Red Sea, and the children of God go across on
dry land, safe and secure, and then the Egyptians pursue after
them, and then in an instant, In a time when they expected
it not, He brought the sea upon them, and He crushed them and
destroyed them in an instant. And the entire army of the Egyptians
was destroyed, so that the Israelites cried out, saying, Who is like
unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious
in holiness, fearful in praises? doing wonders and so brethren
it's important that we realize just what we are by nature that
we not forget how arrogant we can be and that we think that
we're something when we're nothing and you who don't know the Lord
listen up listen to what the Lord has to say what he's saying
and that salvation is by the Lord Jesus Christ and by him
alone because you're going to stand before God Almighty in
that day and you're gonna have nothing to say When we see it,
even as a child of God, we tremble knowing that it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. And I don't want
to stand before Him without the blood of Christ. I don't want
to stand before God Almighty in my own righteousness and looking
to the works that I've done. Because that's going to be a
fearful day when men are crying and gnashing their teeth because
they'll realize that all this time, all the opportunities that
they've had to hear the gospel, and to look for the Lord and
to seek the Lord, they despised him and would not have anything
to do with him." So look there in our text in Daniel 7 in verse
9. So Daniel 7 verse 9 says, "...I
beheld, till the thrones were cast down, And the Ancient of
Days did sit. Brethren, isn't that a majestic
title of our God? The Ancient of Days. Just think about that. The wisdom
and the power and the dominion and the authority that He has.
He's the Ancient of Days and there is none beautiful like
Him. There is none as glorious as Him. He makes all this world
and all its fancies pass away into nothing before Him. who
is, whose garment, it says, was white as snow, and the hair of
his head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream eschewed
and came forth from before him. Thousands and thousands ministered
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
The judgment was set. and the books were opened." Just
think, what are men going to say in that day when they are
standing before the Ancient of Days and they see Him in all
His glory? What vanity, Lord, realize our
lives have been, and all the pursuits that we've gone after,
and all the things that we've tried to do, and all the buckets
that we've filled in our lists and done everything, all that's
going to come to nothing before God who is and was and is to
come, the Ancient of Days." And then as Daniel's looking at this
site, as he's beholding the site, he hears this annoying little
chatter, this annoying, and he says in verse 11, I beheld then,
because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake, He
hears that ridiculous chatter just coming from something that's
boasting itself to be something when it's nothing at all. But
here's what happens. I beheld even till the beast
was slain and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame.
As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion
taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. And what this is, is the time
just before, leading up to when Christ our Savior would be born
into the world. When He, as the Messiah, as the
coming Messiah who would deliver His people, when He would bear
the flesh of His people, it's talking about those kingdoms
that were leading up to that. Babylon which we know came and
went and then there was Persia and Media the Medes and then
the Roman Empire that would that would be raised up in which our
Lord would come into this life in the flesh bearing the likeness
of the sinful flesh for his people though he himself is God Almighty
and he in need of nothing yet his mercy that he had upon us
and bearing our coming in the likeness of our flesh, and in
bearing our sin and taking it up to the cross before Holy God,
before His Father, and there despising the shame that would
be brought upon Him, He went nonetheless and did that work
for us which we could not do for ourselves, in putting away
our sin. and shedding His blood so that
we are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ and washed from
our sins, which would prevent us from ever being able to stand
perfect and secure and holy before Almighty Holy God. He did all
that work for us. But here, these kingdoms, they've
come and they've gone. And it says that their dominion
was taken away, yet their lives will be prolonged for a season
and a time. So that if you're just looking,
even in a carnal sense, you can see that that very word has continued
to this day. You see Iran, where there's Babylon,
its dominion is taken away. It's really not much of anything
in the world today, and yet it continues. And then you have
Iran. In Iran, its dominion was taken away, and yet it continues. And so it's exactly as the Lord
said it would be. And then we read in verse 13,
I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days,
and they brought him near before him. And there was given him,
our Lord Jesus, dominion and glory and a kingdom that all
people Nations and languages should serve him. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away in this kingdom,
that which shall not be destroyed." The title this morning is, The
Ancient of Days, and we'll just go pretty quickly through three
points. The majesty of our God, the troubling
of the child of God, and the son of man. We see that man, so long as he's
left in nature, he's blind to the things of God. He doesn't
understand the things of God. He doesn't behold these things.
I mean, even declaring the Ancient of Days, some of you, your face
is lit up and you rejoice to think of God. the beauty of your
God and the holiness of your God, and you rejoice in Him.
And then there's those here that hate God, and they don't care,
they don't believe it, they want nothing to do with that. And
yet, they're in their blindness, and that's what we all are by
nature, as we think of the God of our own imagination. We don't
hear Him, we don't think about Him, we don't give Him the glory
and honor that's due His name. And Christ said the reason is
because except the man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom
of God. And man doesn't know how blind
he is. But unless he's led by the Spirit, when the Spirit comes
upon a man, then the Spirit takes out that hard, cold, dead, stony
heart and he gives a fleshy heart that hears the Lord and that
trembles before his God. It says of Daniel in our text,
Daniel 7.15, I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit, and in the midst
of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. He was affected by what he saw,
and that's how the Lord does it for all his people. He brings
us to see and behold that we are nothing in ourselves, so
that we shut our mouths, we stop our boasting, we stop believing
in this free will, I forgot to even say this before, you ever
notice how the one cardinal doctrine that all dead sinners seem to
know is free will? You ever know that? When you're
preaching, when you're talking of the grace of God, the one
thing we all seem to do is say, wait a minute, I know that man
has a free will. As if that's some carnal doctrine
that all men seem to know and believe in, like that's what's
pumped into their brains, this dead, carnal religion. But when the Lord brings you
to see what you are, that your nature is bound and dead, and
you're in darkness, and you have nothing to boast of, then you'll
tremble before Him, when you behold the glory and the power
of God. This happened to Job. Remember
when Job was saying, Oh, if God would just come down and I could
just talk to him, then I'd make my case known, then I'd plead
my case before him and he would hear me. But then the Lord did
come down and the Lord did speak to him. And then Job said, I
have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. But now mine eyes
seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and
ashes." And it wasn't just unique to Job as well. But Manoah, the
father of Samson, he and his wife, they didn't have a child,
and they didn't know that the one who was speaking to them
was the angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. But once his
eyes were opened, and he knew who he was talking to when he
went up in the fire of the sacrifice, Manoah turned to his wife and
said, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. Moses himself,
when he stood on the Mount Sinai and witnessed the fire and the
burnings and the lightnings and the trumpets going off on the
mountain, said, I exceedingly fear and quake. And then Isaiah,
in a passage we know pretty familiar, when the Lord converted his heart
and then used him to write some of the most beautiful and glorious
things concerning our coming Messiah, in Isaiah chapter 6
said, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne. high and lifted up, and his train
filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, and
with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And
one cried unto another, remember thousands upon thousands are
ministering unto him, and one cried unto another and said,
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of his glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts." And that's what happens when the Lord gives
you sight to see who He is and to behold Him, and you realize
that you're nothing, you've got nothing to boast in, nothing
to glory in. that He is all. If you have any
hope of salvation, it's in that one right there. It's in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one who He has provided, and He must
give us sight to lay hold of Him. Turn to Revelation chapter
5. Revelation 5 and verse 1. This passage is a good companion passage to
Daniel chapter 7. Revelation 4 and chapter 5, but
we'll look at chapter 5 here, verse 1. And I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on
the backside sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel
proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof? Verse 3, And no man in heaven
nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book,
neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. Why do you think John was weeping?
Because he didn't get to hear what was in the book? Because
someone was there to read the book to him and he wanted to really
hear what was in the book? No, John wept because it's a testament
of what man is by nature, that there's none worthy, there's
none righteous, there's none who's able to do that work, the
work that only God himself can do. And so that's why John wept,
because it declares what we are, what he is. He was standing right
there, the Apostle John standing right there, not worthy. Not
worthy. None worthy. So when a wicked
man is brought to see who God is in all his glory, only then
will he stop boasting. Only then will his mouth be shut
and he'll realize that he's got nothing to say before holy God.
And then when he's made to see who he is, then he'll rejoice
in him and be glad all by the power and the work of the Spirit
of God. Alright, our next point. The
troubling of the child of God. Our Savior said, Your Heavenly
Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. So that the Lord will come and
he'll trouble his child. He'll bring them to the end of
themselves. He'll sanctify the troubles that
he brings them. He'll sanctify the troubles to
us so that they are good for us. Our flesh doesn't like going
through the things that we go through, but they are good for
us. When the Lord does it, when the Lord brings us through these
things, and strips us of our own self-righteousness, strips
us of our own carnal flesh, and worldly thinking, and the love
of this world, and brings us to see that there's nothing profitable
in this world. There's nothing lasting. It's
all passing away. It's all fading away. It's not
going to do us any good. And it'll make that law rise
up and it'll slay us. It'll cut us down so that we
have nothing to boast in. We'll be brought to having no
hope in ourselves. Sometimes some of the brethren
feel like they're going out of their mind because they don't
know what to do. And the law has cut them down.
And every time they go back to the law, it just brings them
down lower and lower and lower so that we see that there is
no goodness, no righteousness in ourselves. As long as we think
that there's something in us that recommends us to God, we're
going to keep leaning on that. So the Lord's got to kick those
things out. He's got to take those things away. And He does
that by bringing us low within ourselves. So that we stop trusting
in ourselves and in our works. And He makes us to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, to see that in Him and in Him alone is righteousness. And that's the only righteousness
which God will receive. It's the only righteousness which
God pronounces good and right and just. It's in Christ alone
that He's pleased, and that's where we must come to God, is
in Christ. He's the propitiation for sin.
We read. And what that means is that if
you're going to be saved, if you're going to be cleansed of
your sin, that's the one that you go to, right there, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's where God will meet with
His people, is in the person of Jesus Christ, in His work,
in what He's done. Trust in Him. Rest in Him alone. Don't look to your works. They're
deceiving, they're deceitful, and they'll sink you down like
a heavy rock down into the ocean. And you'll never rise up unless
the Lord delivers you. It's not going to be by flesh.
So that Paul declared, we through the Spirit wait. We through the
Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. The Lord's going to
bring you to nothing, but you're going to have to wait upon Him.
Believe Him by the faith which He's given to you, to trust in
Him. So that he does the work. He's
going to bring you to see, to know just how cold and how dead
and how lifeless your heart is. So that he is the one that gives
you life and warmth and warms your heart to come to him. He's
going to let you feel the fierceness and the hatred of your enemies
that you might see all around you, what's coming against you,
that you might know that he himself is the one who delivers his child
out of every everything that comes against us. The Lord's
gonna let us go through those things so that we might know
that. He's gonna let us feel our need of Him. He's gonna make
us hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we might find that Christ
alone is the one who satisfies that longing heart. The Lord
does this. He does this purposefully so
that we see that we are nothing in ourselves, but that He is
everything. He knoweth our frame, he remembereth
that we are dust. So He fits us with the Spirit.
He's not looking to this flesh or putting any trust or confidence
in this flesh to now turn things around and to repent and to start
doing things. Yes, we repent, but it's by His
Spirit turning us away from self. Not back to the flesh, but away
from self and to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the flesh doesn't
get it. The flesh doesn't understand
the things that we're going through, why we're going through the things
that we're going through. And yet, this is the way that the
Lord does it. He said to Isaiah, I will bring
the blind by a way they knew not. I will lead them in paths
that they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. And he doesn't stop there. Thankfully,
he doesn't forsake us or give up on this work. He follows through
with it. He continues the work that he
started in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he continues it even as Paul
said to the Corinthians when he said, But we are the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we might not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raiseth the dead." So that we continue to
see our need of Him, to see that we're nothing apart from Him. He's going to keep us, He's going
to trouble us as often as is necessary, so that we don't boast,
we don't have confidence in ourselves, we don't trust in our own works,
but we continue to have confidence and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. Alright, our third point. The Son of Man. So look back
there in Daniel, in Daniel chapter 7. Daniel says, verse 13, I saw
in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came
with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days,
and they brought Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, near before Him.
Isn't that how the Lord went up when He left His disciples?
Went up into the clouds, and they closed upon Him, and there
He is before the throne of God. And then remember, you're there
in Daniel 7.13, and then we saw in Revelation 5.2, it said, And
I saw a strong angel proclaiming, with a loud voice, who was worthy
to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. And remember,
there was no man found in heaven that was worthy. And so John
was weeping, and in verse 5 there of Revelation 5.5, it says, And
one of the elders said unto me, Weep not. Behold the line of
the tribe of Judah. The root of David hath prevailed
to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And
I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, right there before
the Ancient of Days, and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders, did a lamb as it had been slain. And he came,
verse 7, and took the book out of the right hand of him that
sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
everyone having them harps and golden vials full of odors, which
are the prayers of the saints. That's all the congregation of
the Lord there before him, saying this, verse 9, And they sung
a new song, saying, Thou art worthy, to take the book, and
to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on the earth." So that there in
Daniel we see the authority and the dominion which is given to
the Lord Jesus, Daniel 7.14, And there was given Him, our
Lord, dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations,
and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed. So brethren, Let us look to the Lord. Let
us rejoice in Him. He has dominion. He is conquering,
going forth and conquering and triumphing over the hearts of
His people. He's given life to dead sinners. He saved us. He's delivered us
from the kingdom of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of His Son, where He rules over us and reigns over us and all
people, even the wicked. He has them for His own purpose,
to do His own will. Look to the Lord. Don't boast.
Don't get caught up in boasting and building up your kingdom
in this world. It's coming to nothing. But look
to the Lord and serve the Lord. Rejoice in Him and what He has
done. That's the only work that is lasting that shall go on forever
and ever. And we'll continue to rejoice
in Him both now and forever when He comes and returns and brings
us back to Him. So don't boast in, I don't know
why men boast in their free will, they boast in what they're doing
in the law and what they can do, or in their own fleshly wisdom. But rather, be thankful if God
has brought you low so that you have nothing to boast in of yourself,
but rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord, Father, forgive
us. When we are proud and heartened
and lifted up and think that we are something, Lord, we ask that you would remind us. Humble us, Lord. Bring us to
see that we are nothing in ourselves and that Christ is all, that
we might rejoice and be glad in Him and in Him alone. We pray
this in Jesus' name, our Lord and Savior. Amen.