Alright, back in Daniel chapter
4. I've entitled the message tonight,
A Lesson in Humility. A Lesson in Humility. Now, I
hope that you read along with Brother Stan as he was reading
that passage. about that strange experience
of King Nebuchadnezzar. What a story. And this is not
a fake story. This is history. Biblical history
told from the viewpoint of God Almighty. This magnificent, great,
this powerful king, the king of the most powerful empire in
the world at that time, brought down, driven from his own kingdom,
and forced down into the pasture in the woods to live like an
animal. What a story. And Nebuchadnezzar's
experience, as you know, as I've already preached on the first
part of this chapter, on the tree of pride cut down, this
was the result of a dream that God gave Nebuchadnezzar. God
does reveals some things of himself even to the heathen we know that
we looked at several scriptures where that was true but God gave
Nebuchadnezzar this dream of a tree of a great tree back over
there in verse 10 he said thus were the visions of mine head
in my bed I saw behold a tree in the midst of the earth and
the height thereof was great the tree grew it was strong God
gave him this vision and a dream of this great tree that was high
and strong and how this tree grew and prospered. He said in verse 12, the leaves
thereof were fair. And then, in this dream, it was
the command of God that that tree be cut down. This was a
tree that if you had it in your yard, you wouldn't want this
one cut down. But God said, cut it down. Look at verse 14. He
cried aloud and said thus, hew down the tree and cut off its
branches. and shake off his leaves and
scatter his fruit. This is the tree brought down.
And of course, Nebuchadnezzar brought his brain trust in, the
magicians and the soothsayers and the astrologers of Babylon
to try to interpret the dream. They had no idea what he was
talking about. That's the wisdom of man is nothing. 1 Corinthians
1 says the wisdom of man is really foolishness in the eyes of God.
They had no idea what he was talking about, and they would
probably just take things like that and use them to pump up
the pride of Nebuchadnezzar. They don't want to say anything
negative to the king, you know. We don't want to be the bearer
of bad news, even if it's true. It's like some preachers today.
They want to speak peace, peace, when there is no peace, because
that's what pleases the crowd. And they don't want to tell the
truth because that would just, you know, it's like a preacher
told me one time, he said, if I preached what you preached,
I'd run everybody off. And I said, well, maybe that's
what they need to hear. Have you ever thought about that?
Why didn't it run you off? Why didn't it run me off? Because
the Spirit of God has brought us down. That's what humility
is all about. But Daniel came along, he called
for Daniel, Daniel appeared on the scene, Daniel told him what
it meant. He said, oh king, that tree, that beautiful, tall, powerful,
flourishing tree is you. And you're gonna be cut down.
But not totally destroyed, remember he said he's gonna leave the
stump and it's gonna have a band of iron and brass, iron and brass
representing the strong, powerful judgment of God. But then Nebuchadnezzar
was gonna come back and have his kingdom again for a little
while. Now that doesn't mean that that empire was gonna last
forever. He'd already said in another dream, in Daniel chapter
two, that that empire was gonna be destroyed by another empire
and taken over. But Nebuchadnezzar, in this experience,
he wasn't gonna lose the kingdom totally. He was gonna learn a
lesson. A lesson in humility. And look at verse 27. Before
all this happened, here's what Daniel told him. He said, Wherefore,
O king, or for this reason, O king, let my counsel be acceptable
unto thee. Now what he means is believe
what I'm telling you. Believe what I'm telling you. And break off thy sins by righteousness. In other words, what he's saying
there is be a just king. Be a fair king. and thine iniquities
by showing mercy to the poor, what a king should do. And it
may be a lengthening of thy tranquility, of peace in thy kingdoms, what
he's talking about. And of course all those had to
do with temporal blessings that God would use to bless Babylon
in a sense, or to do good under Babylon in order to preserve
his people Judah. This is the way God works. And
it's an amazing thing, isn't it? I mean, you know, we can't
figure it out. We wonder, why did God do it
this way? Or why did he do it that way? Why didn't he do it
that way? Or if I had been there, I'd have done it this way. You
see, that's why we need to be brought down and submission to
the will of God. But God, through this, this is
how God is preserving Judah for 70 years in captivity. And he's
going to preserve Judah even further than that, even in time.
Because the scepter's not going to depart from Judah until the
Messiah comes, Shiloh comes. But this is his way. Well, you'd
think that Nebuchadnezzar would have heard him and thought about
these things, but I don't know what transpires between Daniel's
interpretation of this dream in verse 28. All we're told here,
look at verse 28, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar, it
happened. This wasn't a maybe here. It happened. And the dream was fulfilled.
The dream was fulfilled in Nebuchadnezzar's life. Now, let me get something
out of the way before I start in on these verses. And that's
this. When you read commentaries on
this part of the book of Daniel, or you hear preachers preach,
you'll hear different views on Nebuchadnezzar himself. Men will
argue. over whether or not Nebuchadnezzar
was converted, that is, born again by the Holy Spirit, to
be a Christian. Now, I want you to understand
something. When you look back in the Old Testament and you
say, well, this person was a believer, this person was converted, that's
the same as saying that person is a Christian. You understand
that? I could prove that to you, but
I don't have time to go to these scriptures. But let me tell you what Christ
told the Pharisees. He said, Moses wrote of me. Didn't he? John chapter 5. He
said, you do search the scriptures in verse 39, in them you think
you have eternal life, they are they which testify of me. He
said, I didn't come to condemn you, and he didn't come to condemn
them. He said, you have one who will condemn you, even Moses,
in whom you trust, meaning they trusted in the law. But he said,
listen, Moses wrote of me. Moses wrote of Christ. Moses
was a Christian. He was a believer. He had faith
in Christ. He'd been brought to repentance
of dead works. He knew his only hope of salvation
now and forever was the blood and righteousness of Christ.
And Moses saw Christ as the promised seed, the promised Messiah, the
promised lamb, the promised surety, the one to come. Abraham was
a Christian. John chapter 8, Christ said,
Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. So
understand now, when you talk about a person being a believer,
being a Christian, you're not just talking about somebody who
knew a little truth or a lot of truth. You know, I heard a
message years ago on this passage here talking about how much a
person can know and not know Christ. A person can know a lot
of truth and still not know the truth. Christ is the... But,
people argue over this, whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was converted.
I personally don't believe we have enough information in this
passage to make that claim. And history certainly doesn't
bear it out, but I want to tell you this much. In Nebuchadnezzar,
we see a glorious acknowledgement of the absolute sovereignty of
the God of Daniel. The God of... Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And this revelation came from
God through Nebuchadnezzar's experience. But it stated, at
times we know God will reveal to the heathen certain things
about himself, especially his sovereignty and his power and
all things. Why does he do that? Why did he do it to Nebuchadnezzar?
Because this is the way God preserved his people Judah. And why did
he do that? Because he made promise to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob that the scepter would not depart from Judah.
And why did he do that? Because he'd made a promise to
his son before he ever created this world in the everlasting
covenant of grace to Jesus Christ himself, the second person of
the Trinity, to whom he gave a people before the foundation
of the world. And what's he doing? He's working his will right there
in Nebuchadnezzar's life, in Daniel's life. He's working his
will in your life, in my life. As I said, I don't really see
anything specific here that would lead me to believe that Nebuchadnezzar
came to a saving knowledge of Christ. I hope he did. How about you? I hope he did.
But I don't see anything here to say that. But nothing changed
in his kingdom and nothing recorded in history seems to indicate
it. However, now listen to me here. In Nebuchadnezzar's experience,
we can certainly see a picture of true conversion. of how God
brings his people down from our sinful, selfish, religious pride
and brings us to submit to Christ, brings us to a saving knowledge
of Christ. Listen to what it says about
Nebuchadnezzar. In these first few verses, what a great description,
not just of Nebuchadnezzar, but of all of us by nature in our
thoughts of ourselves. Like that tree, man by nature
we think so highly of ourselves. That's our problem. By nature,
we're like Adam. That's why we fell with Adam,
ruined by the fall. The pride that lifted Adam up
to say, I will be as God, just like Satan, when he said, I'll
send her the most high. The pride of ever thinking that
anything we could do could save us or bless us. Think about that. Man in his
natural pride and self-righteousness, that tree of pride. And that's
so whenever sinners imagine they can be saved by their works or
their own will, they're no better off than Nebuchadnezzar. Listen
to it. Verse 29, at the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace
of the kingdom of Babylon. Now you've studied about Babylon
and Nebuchadnezzar. You've heard about the hanging
gardens of Babylon. They're called one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world. Couldn't you imagine how much
pride this man took in all that? All the kingdoms that he conquered
and destroyed. He spoke, verse 30, 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." You see what he's done? And I want to remind us
of something here that's really important for Christian living.
The Christian life is a life of humility. But the book of
Ecclesiastes is clear. There is absolutely nothing wrong
with a man or woman being proud of their accomplishments, their
abilities. But when that pride lifts us
up like Nebuchadnezzar, see here's the problem. Nebuchadnezzar said,
by the might of my power, we have no power. There's so many
people in this congregation that are gifted in so many different
ways. but my friend where did you get
those gifts from? Who gave you those gifts? God
did. You didn't get them by your might
or your power or your goodness. And that's what Ecclesiastes
says. We can enjoy the fruits of our labor. We can take some
pride, not ungodly pride. But we realize that all of this
is to lead us to worship God and to serve God and to seek
God. That's what he's talking about.
You young people, if you get good grades, I hope you do this
year, but I'm going to tell you something. Who gave you that
brain? You ever known any brainless people? You could be just like
them. You run faster than anybody?
Who gave you those legs? Who can take them away? You see,
there's nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of our life, but we
realize it all comes from God. That's what man by nature doesn't
know. It comes from God. He didn't
deserve it, and he didn't earn it. And listen to what he says
in verse 31. While the word was in the king's
mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it's spoken, the kingdom is departed from him, taken it
away from him. God gives, God takes away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Job was talking about life and
death there. Daniel had already told Nebuchadnezzar that you
have what you have because God gave it to you. My friend, what
a picture of salvation for a believer. What do we have? We have everlasting
life based on a righteousness that we did not produce and did
not earn and do not deserve. We have the forgiveness of sins,
complete forgiveness, no sin charged to our account. Why?
Because Christ was made sin. Had nothing to do with my works
or my intentions or my will. You see what I'm saying? The
reason that salvation does not depart from us is because God
has secured it in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's
this man. The kingdoms departed from you.
And not only that, look at verse 32, and they shall drive thee
from men, just like Adam was driven from the garden, from
the presence of God. Thy dwelling place shall be with
the beast of the field. He went from the beautiful garden
of Eden into the sinful world. They shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, that's seven
years. Until thou know that, and here's the key, until thou
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will. Nebuchadnezzar's dealing with
a kingdom on earth. But isn't that where God brings
every one of his elect children to? To see that he rules from
heaven, He doeth as he pleases, he's working his will, and he
gives salvation to whomsoever he will in Christ. He said, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I'll be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. You see, what's he talking about?
Conversion is submission to the will of God, not just in earthly
kingdoms, but in the salvation of a sinner. It's like that leper. who said, Lord, if thou will,
you can make me clean. I know you're able, if you will. It's up to your will, not mine.
I want to be clean. And that's the thing. What does
God do for his people? He brings them down to submission
to his will. And he makes them willing in
the day of his power. That's an amazing thing. Oh,
Lord, I have no hope of salvation. but that which comes from thee.
And it says in verse 33, the same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, did eat grasses
oxen, his body was wet with the dew of heaven, he was like an
animal, crawling in the grass, till his hairs were grown like
eagles' feathers, clumped up, looked like feathers, and his
nails like birds' claws. I thought about If we could really
see ourselves in our sin the way we really are, it would be
a sight that's sickening, wouldn't it? But this was the innermost
spirit of a fallen sinner named Nebuchadnezzar right here coming
out on him now. This is what you really are,
no better than the beast. In fact, worse off than the beast.
I think about Isaiah when he spoke to Judah in the days of
their rebellion and their idolatry. And he says, you're worse off
than the ox and the ass. They know their master's crib.
They know who feeds them. They know their master's voice.
You don't even know that. And that's man by nature in our
sin. None righteous, no not one. None
that doeth good, no not one. None that seeketh after God,
no not one. Think about it, man brought down
from his pride. How was he brought down from
his pride? Well, remember what he said here? Back up here in
verse 31, it says, while the word was in the king's mouth,
there fell a voice from heaven. That's how man is brought down
in his pride. It takes a voice from heaven.
In a believer's conversion, in a sinner's conversion to faith
in Christ, it takes the Holy Spirit by the Word of God to
bring us down from our high horse, from our religious pride. That's
what it takes. Man's word won't do. It takes
a word from God, the Holy Spirit, under the preaching of the gospel
that exposes our sin. The word of God used in the power
of the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin and show us what we
really are in our need of grace. Daniel expressed that over in
Daniel chapter 10 in verse 8. Let me just read it to you. He
said, Therefore I was left alone and saw a great vision, and there
remained no strength in me. He saw a vision of the majesty
of God, and here's what he said. He said, in light of what I saw
of the glory and majesty of God, my comeliness, my beauty was
turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength. God
shows me what I really am. I have no beauty, I have no strength,
nothing but corruption. Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up in the temple, his train filled the temple and he
said, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, that's what the
seraphim said. And Isaiah said this in verse
five of chapter six, he said, then said I, woe is me, for I'm
undone, I'm cut off. I don't even have a right to
approach this holy God, I'm a sinner. I have nothing to recommend me
unto God. I'm undone because I'm a man
of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips." Now, the people didn't see Isaiah that way. They saw
him as a holy man. They saw him as a prophet. They
saw him as a moral man. But this is how Isaiah saw himself
when a word came from heaven by the power of the Spirit. He
said, "...for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
when Peter approached the Lord in his pride and Christ brought
him down. Remember what he said in Luke
5 and verse 8? He said, Depart from me, O Lord,
I'm a sinful man. I have no rights. False religion
teaches man to assert his rights. The Holy Spirit, by the Word
of God, teaches man that he has no rights. Paul said it this way, Romans
7, 24, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? He said, this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. The psalmist wrote in
Psalm 130 in verse three, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, who would stand? Not me, not you, none of us. And it's out of that position
where God brought this tree of pride down from his high horse,
this man who declared his own power and his own strength and
his own goodness, which is such a great picture of man in his
own religion, coming to God like Cain on his own works. Brings
him down. What did he teach him? Well,
look at verse 34. First of all it says, and at the end of the
days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven. First thing we learn is that
salvation has to come from above. It's not going to come from within
me. It's not going to come from the
earth. It's not going to come with the help of man. It must
come from God. Like Jonah said, salvation's
of the Lord. First thing he did at the end
of the days, he lifted up his eyes unto heaven. The scripture
says the law came by Moses from Mount Sinai, but grace and truth
comes by Jesus Christ from heaven. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. 1 Corinthians 15 says that's
Adam. The second man, the last man,
is from heaven. He says in my understanding,
look at verse 34, my understanding returned to 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. My understanding returned unto
me. What's he talking about? He's
talking about his reason. Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind,
that's what he did. He became insane. Well, spiritually
speaking, that's what we all are by nature, spiritually insane.
Look over at Isaiah chapter 1 with me. That's why the command and
call of the gospel reads this way at times. Look at Isaiah
chapter 1. Look at verse 18. When the Holy
Spirit brings a sinner under the preaching of the gospel,
And he gives that sinner spiritual life, eyes to see and ears to
hear. Here's where he brings us to
under the command of the gospel, verse 18, come now and let us
reason together. Now somebody said, well, we can't
reason men into the kingdom of heaven. That's exactly right.
Man cannot reason you by man's reason into the kingdom of heaven.
But I want to tell you something. The power of God can reason His
people right into the kingdom of heaven by bringing them to
Christ. He gives you a good reason to run to Christ. And that good
reason is I'm a sinner, I have no goodness or righteousness
to recommend me unto God. The only place I'm going to find
any goodness or righteousness for my salvation is in the person
and finished work of Christ on the cross. Come let us reason
together, he says, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though we're such sinners
that it's like a scarlet color. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as well." How's that possible? It's through the
substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's through
that one who was made sin, Christ who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. We who are in Christ
are washed clean from all our sins in the blood of the Lamb
of God. We who are unjust by nature and
ungodly stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ
imputed. And God is unable to be true
to himself, both a just God and a Savior. What reasoning? You see, that's not man's reasoning.
That's gospel reasoning. That's God's reasoning. Look
back at Daniel 4. And when a sinner comes to see that glory of God
in Christ, what does he do? Well, what did Nebuchadnezzar
do when he was brought down? He said, I bless the most high.
That means I worship God. I look unto Him, a just God and
a Savior, and I praised and honored Him. See, before, Nebuchadnezzar
was praising and honoring self. And he said, I praise and honor
Him that liveth forever. Only God has eternal life. There's
no eternal life apart from God, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom was
temporary. This world is temporary. The
kingdom of God is forever and ever in Christ. And his kingdom
is from generation to generation. Verse 35, look at this. You see
what he did? He submitted to worship the Lord. And then in verse 35 it says,
and all the inhabitants of earth are reputed as nothing. That's
us. That word reputed means reputation. We spend our lives trying to
build up a good reputation before men, and that's fine. We ought
to have good reputations. We ought to be known as honest
people, faithful people. But here's what it... When it
comes to our salvation and recommendation to God, our reputation is this,
nothing. There comes a big nothing. That's
what it is. We're nothing. But my friend,
and this is what I'm saying about Nebuchadnezzar, there's nothing
here that indicates that he saw his sinfulness so as to drive
him to Christ, but I hope it happened, but here's the thing
about it. When the Holy Spirit brings us to see our nothingness,
what does He show us? He doesn't leave us in that nothingness.
He doesn't leave us in a void. He doesn't leave us in our sorrow
and our sin, like the flu of the spine. What does He do? He
drives us to Christ who is everything. He drives us to Christ who is
all. All my life, all my righteousness. I'm nothing, Christ is everything.
What did John the Baptist say? I must decrease, Christ must
increase. And that's the life of a believer.
You want to talk about Christian living and humility? There it
is. I must decrease, Christ must increase. That's what it's all
about. He goes on, he says in verse
35, He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth. Oh, if we could just live
in humility before God, knowing that His will is always the best. God's working His will. This
world is not in chaos, though it may appear so. This world
is not out of control, though we may think it so. This world
is not turned upside down, though the headlines might read so.
God is in control. You remember I told you about
a preacher I heard on TV who said that he didn't believe God
was in control. I mean, he said that outright. In fact, here's the way he said
it. Let me tell you exactly how he
said it. He said, Christians for centuries
have believed a lie. And he said that lie is this,
that God is in control. Well, old Nebuchadnezzar knew
better, didn't he? Even old heathen idolatrous Nebuchadnezzar
knew better than that. Listen again. He doeth according
to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. He's not just working his will in heaven and not in
the earth. He's not just working his will in the earth and not
in heaven. He's working his will in the whole universe. That's
what that means. And he says a nun can stay his hand. I wrote
an article for the Bulletin. I may have mentioned this to
you, but I've titled it, God is not playing chess. You know,
most people, their view of God is like he's some kind of a cosmic
chess player. And he's up there with his chess
board, making his move, planning his next move, and then we make
our move, and then that changes God's move, and he has to go
around this. No, sir, God's not playing chess with us. None can
stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And I'll tell
you what, there's nowhere that that's more applicable than in
the salvation of his people. None can stay his hand. None
can stop him, or even question him. God is going to glorify
himself in the salvation of his people. Christ said it this way,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And he said, This is
the will of him that hath sent me, that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the
last day. You see, we need to get a hold of this truth. That
righteousness demands and secures the life of every sinner for
whom Christ died. That's right. Justified before
God in Him. Justified unto eternal life,
he said in Romans chapter 5. Look at verse 36, he says, "...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 Lord sought unto me." Now that's his brain trust now. In other words, what happened
here is Nebuchadnezzar was sent out in the woods, in the fields,
to act like an animal, insane, and his reason returned unto
him, and he was brought back to his kingdom and surrounded
by his counselors. His lord sought unto him, and
verse 36 says, and I was established in my kingdom, you remember God
said, The tree would be cut down, but the stump would be left,
and it would be covered by that band of iron and gold. God's
going to judge it, bring him down, but he's going to give
him back the kingdom, Daniel said. He said, it won't be utterly
taken away from you until you die. And then he says here, I
was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added
unto me. He was given back his kingdom.
Now, as far as we know in history, that kingdom remained Babylon,
an idolatrous kingdom. My personal belief on this issue,
if Nebuchadnezzar was truly converted here, that kingdom would have
changed. But now you take it wherever
you want to go with it on that. I don't believe he would have
allowed the idolatry that continued on into that kingdom. But that's
not the issue here. Here's the issue. What we have
here is a picture of the blessings of God's people in Christ. When
God saves a sinner, oh, what honor and brightness come to
us, not of our own power and goodness, but in Christ, who
is our glory. When God brings a sinner to Christ,
that sinner is established in a kingdom, the kingdom of God,
the heavenly Jerusalem. And we cannot be taken out, for
we're saved to the uttermost by Him who shed His precious
blood. and gave us His righteousness
by which He rules by His scepter. We're established. Excellent
majesty is given to us for it's the majesty of God in Christ.
We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And it's not an earthly kingdom
like Babylon. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
an eternal kingdom that'll never, never be destroyed. And then
verse 37, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the
king of heaven. Now, Nebuchadnezzar, just like
he did before, you remember he did this before now, in Daniel
chapter 2. He recognized that Daniel's God
is something to behold. He praised and extolled Daniel's
God back then. But to understand now, in this
culture, they had many gods. They had big gods and little
gods. They did. They had major gods
and lesser gods. And I believe what Nebuchadnezzar
is saying here is Daniel's God is powerful. He's above all the
other gods. He could see that. He said, all
whose works are truth. That's the God of salvation,
isn't it? and his ways are judgment, he's
truth and judgment. God must be just when he justifies
the ungodly. God saves his people from their
sins and he remains true to himself. He's both a righteous judge as
well as a merciful father. How can he be both? Through the
blood and righteousness of Christ. That's how. Through the death
of the substitute who was made sin for us, Christ who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And those that walk in pride, He is able to abase. Think about it. How does God
bring His people to a saving knowledge of Christ? He brings
us down from our pride and from our self-righteousness. And He
brings us into submission to Christ and His righteousness
as that which alone saves us and blesses us and brings us
unto glory. That's what that picture is.
All right.