If you would, please turn with
me to Daniel 4. Daniel 4. And I'm going to read verses
34 through 37 to begin with. Daniel 4, 34 through 37. 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. 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? At the same time, my reason returned
unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness
returned unto me, and my counselors and my lord 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." We first see in this book the
king himself, Nebuchadnezzar, telling the whole world what
God did toward this king. It says, unto all the people,
nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, in verse one.
But then in verse two we read, and this was, I just noticed
this, that it was Nebuchadnezzar speaking here in verse one. But in verse two it says, I thought
it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath
wrought toward me. The king then tells us not only
that God did these wonderful works toward him, but also what
it ended up revealing to him in verse 3. How great are his
signs and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom and his dominion, that is sovereignty, that word means
sovereignty, is from generation to generation. What happened to Nebuchadnezzar?
He was humiliated by God. The sovereign of this universe
made this man ashamed and to know he is a fool so that he
might then see who God really is. I come to you not as an expert. I come to you as one who has
been humiliated by God. God has taught me that I am by
nature that I'm nothing but shameful and a fool. This is what we call
a sinner saved by grace. If I am an expert at anything,
it is sinning. Because I am sin itself. So it
is no wonder that I am good at sinning. And this includes pride. What does our Lord tell us in
Mark? Mark 7, verses 20 through 23 we read, and he said, that
which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from
within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit,
lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. I come to you as one whose dreams
at night condemn me. Now, I haven't killed Elvis in
my dreams, Walter, but I have had a lot more worse dreams than
that. But it is far worse than just having dreams and them condemning
me. My dreams come from a heart that
is corrupt and proud. My dreams are an extension of
what I do every day in the old, endemic nature. The sovereign
Lord of the universe even knows what my dreams are, even if I
don't remember what they are. He will send his servant proclaiming
his words, that is God's word. God will reveal unto me the extent
of my corruption and that it goes far beyond my dreams. It
goes all the way to who I am by nature. You may be just as
it was with King Nebuchadnezzar in your house and flourishing.
Then God and his sovereign power will send you those providential
reckonings that cause you to be afraid and troubled. All the
worldly leaders or preachers will not be able to help you.
They cannot make out or interpret what has not been revealed to
them. But God will send you one who
has been given or revealed from God, and he will reveal him what
he has said, one that has been humiliated by God themselves.
God, if he is pleased in revealing to you what he is saying to you,
what is told him, what is told Nebuchadnezzar, it is thou, O
king, this is his dream, your pride. God is going to allow
it to get to a pinnacle. Once this happens, that will
be the stopping point. Pride will take us a long way,
but it will take us no further than what God allows. He may
allow you to stay that way all your life, but if you know God,
all of us here who know God, if you fear God, you know that
there is no good end to that. This world is full of pride,
and they know nothing of humbleness. To be humble, you must be humiliated
by God. Humiliated by someone else will
not do. There is enough pride there that
it will just raise its ugly head back up. But to be humiliated
by God is to be humbled. This world will shake its fist
at God. And let me tell you one thing
that shows men have pride. We've already heard it this morning.
Man has a free will. You know what this says? I will
make the decision to worship God or to not worship God. Nobody
will tell me what to do. This is my kingdom that I have
built by the might of my power and to my glorification. God
needs to see what I've done for him. Pride. Let's read verses
28 to 30. 28 to 30. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. 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? This is foolish talk, and it
is an attempt to ascend to the throne of God. What does Scripture
tell us in Psalms 14.1? The fool has said in his heart,
no God. There is, you can see it, it's
put in there, it's interpolated by the ones who did the Bible. It says the fool has said in
his heart, no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
So if God says it is one way and you say it is another, even
if it's just inside, that is in the heart, you are telling
God, no, it is going to be my way and my choice. If this is
the attitude or the thought or the deed you do, then you are
a fool. We know that Nebuchadnezzar was
a king with much pride, but he also was one that tried and did,
to some extent, with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
he was good at them at times. He put them over provinces and
stuff. Just because you are nice to
people does not mean you have no pride. There are people who
are proud of their wealth. There are people who are proud
of their poverty. There are people who are proud
of their worth and people who are proud of their worthlessness.
If you have anything about you that you think is worthy of honor
or in any way honors mankind, it is pride. God is the only
one worth praising and honor. But Nebuchadnezzar and his pride
was also gullible, you could say. His wise men were able to
manipulate him, if you read it. Think about that in your pride.
If you do not think that what he did was in pride, we can read
in the next chapter in chapter five, verses 18 through 20. O thou king, and this is Daniel
talking to his son, Nebuchadnezzar's son, and telling him about his
dad, Nebuchadnezzar. O thou king, the most high God
gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory,
and honor. And for the majesty that he gave
him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared
before him. That's Nebuchadnezzar. Whom he
would, he slew. And whom he would, he kept alive.
And whom he would, he set up. And whom he would, he put down. But when his heart was lifted
up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly
throne and they took his glory from him. So what he did was in pride.
It says his mind was hardened in pride. But here in our passage
he goes through the account of this dream he had. None of the
wise men could help him on interpreting the dream. Then Daniel comes
in and is astonished once he hears it. For an hour it says.
A few things I can see from this as to why he may have been this
way. First of all, he has to tell the king that his kingdom
is going to be taken away. That's kind of scary. He might
have wondered what was going to happen to him once this happened.
Because when a king goes, a lot of people come in and take their
place. But that he is also seeing God
saying, he puts men in place and he takes them out. And can
also put them back in place again. This is astonishing to the mind.
These are things that could have astonished him, although we are
not told specifically why he was, but the king told him not
to be afraid and just tell him what the dream meant. So that's
what Daniel did. Daniel proceeds to basically
tell him the kingdom he thinks is his, God will take from him
for seven years. In this time, he will be in the
field eating grass like oxen, his hairs growing long as eagle
feathers, his nails will grow like bird claws. He would be
out there day and night completely, all the time because his body
would be wet with the dew from heaven. This is that majestic
king which it says God gave him majesty. But this king was turned
into a beast of the field, you might say. I would say this is
humiliation. All we read here involved a whole
kingdom. I mean, what was worked out by
God involved a whole kingdom. To bring this to pass, it affected,
you might say, more than one or two people. All this was done
at least by what we are given, it was done because of one man's
pride. Pride is pleasure or satisfaction
of what one has done themselves. In scripture, it is ascribing
satisfaction from doing something for yourself or to yourself when
it is in fact God that has done it. So let's look at some things
in scripture concerning the pride of man, where pride comes from,
what does pride produce, humiliation or destruction in pride, some
examples. where pride comes from. Again, in Mark 7, verses 20 through
23, we read all those things where Christ told us what defiled
a man. And all these things come from
man's heart. So as we can see, pride defiles
a man. It's one of those listed. It
is because the heart he is born with has this in abundance to
put forth. If there is any pride that could
possibly be had, it would be pride in our corruptness. And
I believe there are a lot of people who are proud of their
corruption, and it's getting more evident as time goes along.
Jeremiah 17, nine says, the heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So this which
is our heart as we are born in Adam, when it says our heart,
what's it talking about? The heart, the meaning of this
word, and it says this from Strong's, where it tells us the meaning
of the word, that this word is used for feelings, the will,
and even the intellect. It is the center of caring of
something willingly. So what is the center of care
for our heart that we are born with in Adam? I mean, what is
it that we are willing to do? Our heart cares for deception. Deception to who? This to ourselves
and anyone else it can find to deceive Because it is desperately
wicked and no one can know it But Christ tells us what else
comes from this heart that we all have by nature Evil thoughts
if you think you have never had never had an evil thought your
heart is deceiving you adulteries of all kind fornications murders
Have you ever been mad at someone so bad that you thought something
in your mind that you thought, how can I think something like
that? It's in there. Thefts, covetousness, and this
is the one that I can kinda miss a lot of times because we just
don't think about it too much, I don't. Wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. This is what
comes from this heart which we have by nature. But we do not
all know we have it. But this defiles us. This heart
is so depraved it will tell us we love God because we made a
decision a long time ago. But never think about God at
all. It will tell us we are okay because we believe in God. But
we do not believe God. We manifest that when we speak,
we manifest that when we speak against his word. Because pride
from this heart defiles us and hardens this old heart that we
have, no other person will be able to convince us otherwise.
Because it is hardened in pride. You know what pride will tell
us? It will say to you right now, you know, talking to me,
I am smarter than he is, and I know that is not what God says
in his word. Even though I've just read you
every word God himself says, this is how we are. You might
tell someone else, don't listen to him because he is lying to
you, when all I have done is given you what God says about
it all. I am no expert, but I have been humiliated by God. I can
be proud in my humbleness. But we must remember it is God
who has to do the humiliation. If he has done it, then it is
something we have received of God's hand and nothing for us
to boast in. 1 Corinthians 4, 7 says, for
who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that
thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? There is
no boasting, for it is God that gives us everything that he requires.
So what does this kind of pride produce, or what are some of
the results of this pride? 1 John 2, verses 15 and 16, we
read, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of this world. Pride is of this world and we
are told not to love the world, neither the things in the world.
If you do love this world and the things in it, the love of
God is not in you, it says. There is no place for pride before
God. Pride is a part of this world
and it will produce love for this world. Proverbs 16 and 18
says, pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall. Pride will never take you to
a good place. If you are not one of gods, one
of those whom he will eventually, if you are not one of gods, one
of those whom he will eventually humiliate, destruction will follow
your pride. If you are a believer and pride
wells up in you, get ready for a fall. We are told these things
in scripture so that we might look to God for our help. He
is the only place we can go for help. God's people know this,
but like everything else, we must be reminded of these things.
This flesh, as I said last week, if you give it an inch, it will
take a mile. We must always fight to mortify our members. We cannot
do this without God giving us the power to do it, the knowledge
and the wisdom to do it, or even the desire to do it. What else? Proverbs 13, 10 says, only by
pride cometh contention, but with the well advised is wisdom. You want where you go to be absent
of peace? You want where you live to be
without peace? You want what you do to be without
peace? Pride will bring contention.
Do we have any examples of pride taking occasion on us in scripture
that show us just how far it will take us if God allows us
to go on in our pride? And this is just one example.
1 Corinthians 6 verses six through eight we read, but brother goeth
to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore
there is utterly a fault among you, because you go to law one
with another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer
yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud,
and that your brethren. When it comes to brethren, remove
pride from you, mortified. There is no reason for us to,
in pride, think the thought, I don't care what happens, I
did not do anything wrong, and I'm not going to let them get
away with that. And I'm talking about brethren.
The only thing that will cause is division, and you will end
up biting and devouring one another because of your pride. You want
peace, then mortify pride of your flesh. And I'm not saying
this is easy. It is not easy, and I speak from
experience. This is for me and all of God's
people to constantly be reminded of. Pride bringeth about contention,
and not in any way good contention if there isn't such a thing.
I must say this just to be sure
no one misunderstands me. This will be done by the power
of God and not of any power or might in us. He must work in
us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do not think you are
a pretty good person because you swallow your pride and take
the wrong. This is that pride in your humbleness, which is
not humbleness at all. Who maketh you to differ? The
apostle says, and let's look at some examples of pride now,
that is examples of God humiliating some and God destroying others. Humiliation or destruction in
pride. So first we have our passage,
our text. We have Nebuchadnezzar who was
in his pride said, 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? And God took him
down in humiliation to where he then said, 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. But next we have another king
in Acts 12 verses 21 through 23. And upon a set day Herod,
arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an
oration unto them. And the people gave a shout,
saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of a man. And immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory,
and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. If you set
yourself up in the place of God, you are looking for God to deal
with you. So what about another example
that are not Kings? 1 Chronicles 13 verses 8-10 we
read, And David and all Israel played before God with all their
might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries,
and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets. And when they
came unto the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put forth his
hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger
of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he smote him, because
he put his hand to the ark. And there he died before God. Uzzah, in his pride, thinking
he was going to help God out, put his hands to God's work.
They were not doing things the right way anyway to begin with. God had said to do it the way
God had said to do it, they did not do. And then Uzzah presumes
to help out God just by sticking his hand out and touch the ark.
This is pride when you think you are going to add something
to God by helping him out. You do not add to God's work.
If you think that your supposed free will will save you, you're
adding to God's work. You are saying that what Christ
did at Calvary did not pay enough of the price and you must pay
the rest. You are deceived. But we see
in the New Testament where another one who was full of pride, he
was in fact going about breathing out threatenings and slaughter
against the disciples of Christ. He thought he was serving God,
but he was serving self. Yet God brought him down in grace,
and that is Saul, or Paul, the apostle. Don't presume that because
God did it one way with one person that he will do it that way for
another person. We have looked at two passages
where there was a king and the outcomes are very different.
We have Nebuchadnezzar where God brought him low and revealed
to him who he was. Then we have Herod where God
destroyed him where he sat. We have Uzzah who just put his
hand up to steady the ark and God kills him. and we then have
Saul or Paul that was killing the people of God or at least
putting them into prison and God saved him by grace. If you
are depending on anything you do for salvation, it is nothing
but pride. God does not need any help. He
has in fact already accomplished salvation in his son dying on
the tree. What is happening now is letting
those for whom he died know who he is so that they might believe
by faith. This they must and will do by
his power. But God will do this by abasing
you. He will humiliate you before
him. You will come to see just as
Nebuchadnezzar did that all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing before him. because he is in absolute sovereign
control. You will not be able to fight
him or that has changed God's mind about anything. God does
not change his mind. The only thing we can do is bow
down before him. He will humble us And humbleness
is something that happens on the ground. The word in our text
where it says, God abased Nebuchadnezzar means to humble, to humiliate,
to bring low, subdue, or that is, being under control. Or to
bring under control, I should say. Now as it concerns our passage
and as it concerns the scripture, God will in mercy humiliate some
and the end of it will be the knowledge of God. But scripture
is clear that we are all gone out of the way and that there
is none that seeketh after God. Do not think you are smart enough
and clever enough to figure out God. I pray God will cause you
to let go of that pride because if he does, If he does not, you
will die in your pride. Now if you would, turn with me
to Psalms 73. Psalm 73. Psalm 73 in verses
one through six. Truly God is good to Israel. even to such as are of a clean
heart. But as for me, my feet were almost
gone, my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at
the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are
no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They
are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like
other men. Therefore pride compasses them
about as a chain, violence covereth them as a garment. Those to whom God gives a new
heart give him praise. Woe to you if everything seems
to go good for you all the time. It may just be you have pride
in your way and not God's. No one born of Adam will ever
seek out God. In their pride they think they
look good, that is holy or perfect. Psalm 10 4 says, the wicked through
the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God
is not in all his thoughts. It says the pride of his countenance. And this word countenance means
snout. I just really wanted to give
the meaning of that just because it says that. But it really does
say that. This is one of the meanings of the words. Now, it's
an indication of their faith. So they think they look good
before God. They have no reason to seek God
or anyone else because they themselves have it all under control. Salvation
to them is covered by their decision and not God's work and His decision. Oh, but how far from the truth
they are. Proverbs 8, 13 we read, the fear
of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogancy and the evil
way and the froward mouth do I hate, God says. Jeremiah 49,
16 says, thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride
of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that
holdest the height of the hill, thou that shouldst make thy nest
as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from bents, saith
the Lord. God hates pride in man, for it
is pride that at the very first Satan thought himself equal with
God and would have ascended to the throne of God to kill him. But God is not likened to his
creatures, great or small. Here one more verse on pride.
Zephaniah 3, Zephaniah 3 verses 11 and 12. In that day shalt
thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed
against me. For then I will take away out
of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou
shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. I will also
leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and
they shall trust in the name of the Lord. Here we read this
passage, it says, shall no more be halted because of my holy
mountain. Now I see this two ways, or there
is built into this statement two aspects, if you will. We
are halting because of his holy mountain. God's utter righteousness
this flesh despises, and it will always rise up against his holy
mountain in pride, thinking itself to be something when it is nothing.
But it is also because of his holy mountain that we shall no
longer be haughty. This is the gospel. What a place
to be in God's holy mountain. That is the place where I cannot
get to on my own. What is his holy mountain? Jesus
Christ our Lord and him crucified. This holy mountain has come.
It is because of this holy mountain that we shall no more be halting. Oh, can you thank God for that?
I can hide in this mountain under his perfect robe of righteousness.
Now that's something to be proud of. Pride in his mountain. Nothing that I have done, but
everything that he has done. This mountain is high and lifted
up. He was high and lifted up on that tree, being my substitute,
paying for all the pride of my wicked heart. Perfect holiness
paying for all those things that defile me that come from my wicked,
evil heart. He is high and lifted up to the
uttermost in life, seated at the right hand of God, saving
us to the uttermost. Because of his works, which are
worthy of pride and praise, I can then be enabled by this same
mountain to look to him. Can you see him? Look. Can you
look? Do you want to look? Christ says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. So the works of Jesus Christ
our Lord are worthy of praise. So back to our passage. What
is the result of being humiliated by God? After all of this, what
does he do? Some men, when God shows them
his might, still lift their fist to God in pride in their little
puny attempt to thwart God, which though they think they can do
this, they cannot. What does Nebuchadnezzar do?
He blesses or thanks God. He adores and glorifies him. Verses 34 through 37 that we
read to start with. It says he acknowledges God as
eternal and he acknowledges God's sovereignty. Seeing that God
is eternal, he also knows his sovereignty is eternal. I mean
absolute sovereignty. His sovereignty covers all time
from generation to generation, it says. Not only does he come
to know himself as nothing, but all that dwell on the earth are
regarded as nothing. He also knows that God's sovereignty
not only covers all who dwelt, do dwell, or shall dwell on the
earth, of which he does with them as he wills, but also with
the armies of heaven. No one can stop him. No one can
even ask him what he is doing. Where are you gonna go or how
would you go about asking God what is he doing? And I think
this is more, it's said more in the sense of I don't like
what you are doing, why are you doing it? Imagine asking God
that. The one to whom to look upon
means certain death to us. But Nebuchadnezzar now then adores
and lifts up his eyes and honors the king of heaven. All his works
are truth. Those who walk in pride he is
able to abase. We see in this chapter sovereignty,
humbleness, honor, praise, astonishment, adoration, and also humiliation. And you could probably go on. I pray it is God who does not
allow me or does not allow you or anyone who might hear me to
go on in pride. I hope he is pleased to bring
you low, humble you, that is, subdue you. This is where God
puts us, and when I say us, I mean his people, the chosen of God,
his elect. He gives us a broken heart and
a contrite spirit. You will come to God no other
way because he will abase you. He will show you what you are
when it comes to this mighty God. He will show you who he
is, which will show you who you are in humiliation. Amen. Dear Lord God, thank you for
allowing us to be here, to hear your words. Bow us down to your
word, to your son, dear Lord. All these things we ask in your
name, amen.