The King of love, my shepherd
is, Whose coolness, still and reverent, I nothing learn if
I am Him. ? And he is mine forever ? ?
Where streams of living water flow ? ? My ransomed soul he
leadeth ? ? And pastures grow ? ? With good
solace to feed it ? ? Perverse and foolish all die straight
? ? But yet in love ? He sought me, and on His shoulder gently
lay, And all rejoicing, all were true. And as dark veil I peered to
him, with thee, dear Lord, beside thee, thy rod and staff, thy comfort
still, thy close people to guide. Thou shreds of table in my sight,
? March and grace bestow it ? ? Amid the transport of delight ? ?
With which thy companions dwell ? ? All in the plains ? ? My goodness
faileth never ? ? Good shepherd, may I sing thy praise ? ? Within thy house forevermore
? Amen. Turn back again in your Bibles
to that fourth chapter of the book of Daniel. We read those first 27 verses. And now I want us to continue
and read the remaining verses. In verse 28 it says, All this
came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar. And 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? And while the word was in the
king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they
shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the
beasts of the field, They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,
and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the
Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar, And he was driven from men, and he'd eat
grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till
his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like
bird's claws. 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, mine 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." Now, I think it is very safe
to say that this mighty king was not looking for God. As a matter of fact, he had no
need, so he thought. And by his possessing of pretty
much everything in this world, he had nothing to seek after. And by his own admission, by
his own statement, He described himself as being at rest and
flourishing in his palace. He's at rest and he's flourishing
in his palace. And such he would have remained
all his days Until he entered into the great eternity had God
left him to himself. But as he has done so many times,
God interrupted him. As he did Saul of Tarsus, God
intercepted him. God interfered with his plans. And he sent to him by means of
a dream a divine message. He encountered a word from God
by this dream. And we might ask ourselves this
question, as many have, did God actually save this king? Well, I told somebody recently,
we can only say what the Bible says. We cannot say more. And we cannot
say less. And so I would have to say, most
of all, I don't really know. But I do know this. I do know
that I hope that is the case. And I believe that it could be
by virtue of some of the things that he says and confesses here. Especially when he says, He is able to abase. But whether or not He actually
was or not, God has obviously given Him as a picture or an
illustration of His sovereign grace. of omnipotent, almighty grace. And that grace that meets man
as he is. You and I are deluded, deceived,
and blinded by nature as to who and what we are and our real
condition. But God's not. And so in mercy
and grace, He does not deal with His people based on what they
think they are or what they think their situation is. But He deals with them and He
bases their salvation on what He knows they're in. Their real, true condition. And so grace meets man in his
pride and in his rebellious state against God. Because the nature
of man, which is simply the nature of sin, is which we everyone possess. You see, we may not be earthly
kings, but we think we are. We act like
we are. And there is no area that we
act like this anymore than we do toward God. That's what those Jews said. in so many words when they said,
we will not have this man to rule over us. We will not have him be our sovereign. And the reason for this is that
our fallen nature is simply one of self-love, self-righteousness, self-will,
self-worship, self-glory, self-rule. But the Bible, the Word of God,
speaks to our state and condition very accurately and very clearly. And it says that we are born
in sin and shapen in iniquity. It describes us as coming forth
from our mother's womb and speaking lies. And we begin to demonstrate almost
immediately after birth, not having to wait to some foolish
notion of an age of accountability. But we begin, even in the early
hours and days of our life, we begin to demonstrate this nature. And so among the very first words
that we learn, almost without ever having to be taught them
the very first expressions we may have to do with me and mine. See these little children appearing
so innocent, reaching out and grabbing from the hands of another
one a toy and just these words, And what men call free will,
that famous notion of free will, is nothing more than simply,
I will. And this is the very nature of
sin, and at the heart of it is rebellion against God as He is. the absolute sovereign of this
universe and more. And the truth is, Satan is the
author of such a notion. Because in Isaiah, let me read
that to you, in Isaiah chapter 14, because in Isaiah, we have
the very record of his fall and the reason for it, and it is
bound up in the same notion in Isaiah chapter 14 and verse 12,
where here he is called Lucifer. Isaiah 14 and verse 12, how art
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou
cut down to the ground which disweakened the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. You see all those I wills? Those are the notions of fallen
man and a fallen angel as they pertain to God. I will is simply what men call
free will. But look at the next verse. Yet
thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. You cannot rebel against. You cannot defy the divine will
successfully. You see, that's what men and
women are always talking about. I can do this, and I can do that,
and I can do the other. And you may be able to, but not
successfully. And that's what this king found
out. You see, this was his deception. And this was Satan's deception,
and this is the very thing in which Adam and Eve fell. Our
first parents fell in this very thing. Genesis says, For God
doth know that in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat. and gave also unto her husband
with her, and he did ease." We'll be as gods. We'll determine
what is right and good. We'll decide what we want to
do. And not only that, but this was
the very confession of a man whose name was Solomon. You read
it, Ecclesiastes, and he begins to describe by the Spirit of
God. He said, I got this, I did this,
and I did all these things, and I got all these things, and I
gathered them all up together, and now in the end, what I did,
what I got, he said, it's all vanity. It's nothing. Would to God we could hear that.
I wish some of these young folks could hear that. This is the
man who had more, got more, did more, experienced more than you
and I could ever imagine having or doing. And what does he say? It's all vanity. It's all nothing. It's all zero. And this is the folly that was
plaguing Naaman there in his leprosy. When he began to be confronted
with the truth of God, he said, but I thought. I thought this
was the way it was. This is what I wanted the prophet
to do. I wanted to say a few words and
wave his hand or something, his staff, maybe over my leprous
body. This is what I wanted. This was
my will in this thing. I thought this. This was the downfall of the
rich man. Luke says, he thought within
himself, saying, what shall I do because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits? And he said, this will I do.
I'll pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow
all my fruits and all my goods. And I will say unto my soul,
soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy knees
and eat and drink and be merry. This is what I'll do. This is
what I'll say. This is what I'll feel. This
is the way it'll be. Next verse. But God said unto
him, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee,
then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? You said, this is what I'm going
to do. This is what I've got. This is mine. This is how I'm
going to deal with it. This is how it's going to be.
But God said, oh no, it's not. And this was the case with Nebuchadnezzar. And God shows him to us as this
picture. of the omnipotent grace of God. In other words, if God saves
you or me or any son or daughter of Adam's race, he's going to
have to do to us that which he pictures in doing what he did
to Nebuchadnezzar. He's got to bring us to something.
He's got to teach us some things. He's got to remind us and show
us some things. And in this picture we see God's
dealing with this man. We see his exaltation and we
see his humiliation and then we see his salvation and his
confession. And he had to find out this and
this is what you and I'll have to find out. And that is that
God, in sovereign grace, raised him up where he was. That's right. God had raised him to the position
he was in. God was the one who had given
him everything he had, given him everything that he was enabled
to do. The Lord is the one who had raised
him up to that position. Is that right? Listen to what
it says in 1 Samuel 2. He says, The Lord maketh poor. And the Lord maketh rich, he
bringeth low, and lifteth up, he raises up the poor out of
the dust, and he lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to
set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon thee. Who rises up to such a position
as Nebuchadnezzar? Whoever the Lord ordains. It's
the Lord's to raise up. It's the Lord's to bring down.
It's the Lord's to give poverty to. It's the Lord to give riches
to. So that everything that we have
everything that we are. It is God who gives it. If we
have health, God is the one who's given that health. If we have
all these skills or mental abilities or natural skills or all these
things, if we live, if we are preserved, if we are restrained
from the wickedness that we are, it's because God did it. It is the Lord. And Daniel had already said this. He'd already, in chapter 2, he'd
already told this and declared this. And this is what it says
in the psalm, For promotion comes neither from the east, nor from
the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge. He pulleth
down one and sets up another. We are all bent out of shape
over elections and such as that. Do we not hear such things as
that? It says, he puts down one and
he sets up another. And God in mercy had just sent
this man another warning and his word through this prophet.
We read it in those first 27 verses. But listen to him a year later.
Listen to this king a year later. In verse 29 it says, At the end
of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of
Babylon. And 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? Look at me. Look at who I am. Look at where I am. But most
especially, look at what I've done. Look at what I've built. I've not done this overnight.
I've labored. I've been smart. Like people
say, I've stinted, and I've saved, and I've worked. I've done all
these things. That's why I'm where I'm at. I always want to say, let me
tell you this. There are multitudes of folks
who are smarter than you, multitudes of folks that have worked harder
than you have, multitudes of folks that have done more than
you've done or could do more than you're doing, and they don't
have what you have. So the only reason that you could
have what you have, be what you are, do what you are, is simply
because the sovereign God gave it to you. And here he is. Was he praying? Was he thanking God? Was he asking
for wisdom? Was he glorifying God? No. He was talking to his God. He was talking to himself. That's
what the Pharisee did. You remember in Luke's gospel,
it says he prayed thus within himself. That's what we all do. And we
fail to acknowledge that God is the one who's given this.
This is nothing less than saying what he's saying to himself,
and if in any way thinking toward God, thinking how favored he
is of God. That's the way a proud sinner
is. hands in his lapel and leans
back and says, I must be doing something right. Got a good family,
got a good home, got a good job, got a lot of successes, got money
in the bank, got all these things, done all these things. I must
be doing something right. That's how Nebuchadnezzar was
feeling. He didn't mind pointing it out. Here he is self-exalting
in this very essence of sin which is self-centeredness. Self is
at the heart of every idolatry. And because of it, men blot out
every thought of God, ignore all other things, do some absolutely
stupid and unbelievable things in order to satisfy themselves. How can a mother walk away and
abandon a child? Or a father walk away and abandon
a child? And all these things so unbelievable. I'll tell you why. Because of
love of self. That's what it is. And they have this love of self
before the love of anything else because they have this self-love
rather than the love of God. And his whole vision, his whole
concept of everything, his whole thought system is all wrapped
up and restricted to the material things of this life. His heart
is of the world, and where his heart is, that's where his eye
is, and that's where his treasure is. But all he has, God gave him. God gave him. Oh, he misjudges
greatness terribly. He said, oh, this great Babylon.
Babylon wasn't great. Babylon fell. Just like every
other nation, just like every other kingdom of this world,
Babylon fell. It wasn't great. But there's
a kingdom that God describes as great. There's a city of people
that God describes as great. That's Zion. The psalmist says, you walk around
Zion and look at Zion. That's greatness. Why? Because
God is in the midst of it. And here he is, he's making himself
the center of the whole universe. He's talking about I and my and
mine, all revolved around him and all about what he had done. That's the dead giveaway. Look at this great kingdom which
I have built. by my hands." Well, even in the natural sense,
I'm sure that wasn't exactly true. I seriously doubt he carried
or hewed one stone. or dug one shovel of dirt building
those hanging gardens, or planted one tree or plant. That wasn't
even true in the natural sense. But it's an illustration of what
you and I by nature all want to glory in before God. Look
at what I've built. And if we're left to ourselves,
If we're left with what we've built, we'll be found among those
that Christ talks about in Matthew 7, who said, look at us, Lord. Have we not
preached in your name? Have we not cast out devils in
your name? Have we not done many great and
mighty works in your name? And he says, depart from me,
ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. But that's the kind of righteousness
a man or a woman wants to present to God. It's either based on
one or two things or a combination of both. It is either based on
what I've done or what I've not done. Oh, look at what I've done. Or
look at what I've not done. I've not done as bad as they've
done. And he thought that everything
depended on him. In the continuance of it and
in the sustaining of it. But it didn't. I've always thought about what
I think it was the poet Keats wrote in something. I don't know
what it was. My literary exposure is limited. But I remember something he said.
He said this, my name is writ in water. Have you ever written
your name in water? Just write your name in water.
And it'll be just an instant before it's gone. Nobody will
remember it. And that's the way it is in this
life. That's the way it is in this world. And Paul described his own people
when the Lord had showed him the truth, revealed Christ to
him. Paul described his own people in this way. He said, they're
building. Oh, they're zealous in their
building. They're busy in their building.
What are they building? They're building a righteousness.
He said they have a zeal toward God, but it's not according to
knowledge, because they're going about to establish or to build
their own righteousness, and what? And have not... What is that word? Submitted. submitted to the righteousness
of God in Christ. You see, that's what it's all
about. It has to do with a proud rebel,
such as this king picture is being brought to submit to God,
to God's way, to God's righteousness, to God's Son, to God's authority,
bowing and acknowledging Him in all things. But Sovereign Grace had made
Him, given Him everything He had. But the other thing that's pictured
here is this, and that is that God in Sovereign Grace brought
Him down. We ought to read, you and I cannot
imagine the authority this man had. We cannot even fathom a
part of the kingdom that he ruled over, or the things that he possessed,
or the people that his word was spoken to, and they did it without
question. But no matter how high he got,
and no matter how high we get, there's one who's above us. Verse 31 says, while the word
was in the king's mouth. What word was that? Telling God
and Himself and anybody else who might have been present to
hear how great He was and what He had done and how glorious
He was. But as the word was in the king's
mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee." And when God gets through with
you, you'll look like anything but the creature you imagine
yourself to be. You're strutting your stuff there
on the balcony of the palace. You're dressed in your fine robes. You're scented down with the
finest of fragrances. You're looking so good and so
fine. But when God gets through with
you, and you're brought down to look like a beast of the field,
a ravening madman. And I believe that's actually
what happened to him. He lost his mind. And I have a feeling that over
the years, over the kingdoms of this world that have come
and gone, there have been a lot in authority, a lot in the monarchy,
a lot of those who led and ruled who simply lost their minds. As we say in the South, he went
crazy. He went and began to act and
look like a wild man. His hair grew down. His body
was unwashed. He's unclothed. Everybody is
looking at him as like, he's described here, a beast in the
field. And this is by his own admission. And when it came, it came all
at once. All at once. One day he's riding
high. One day he doesn't need anything,
anybody. One day he's in full control, and the next day he's
a beast of the field. Why? Because God has to show
Him and us just exactly what we are apart from His grace and
mercy. I have no doubt in my mind That
we are such in of ourselves that even a believer, even one who
the Lord has shown his grace and mercy to in Jesus Christ,
were he to turn us loose for a second, we'd be a Charles Manson or a
Jeffrey Dahmer or a Hitler, whatever. but for his restraining grace." Somebody said, well, we still
have the potential to sin. The potential to sin? We have
the tendency to sin. We have the bent to sin. And
we do sin and would sin worse were it not for God's grace. Did you notice what it says here?
It says, because God, he found out this, God is able to abase. God's able to bring us down.
I don't care who we are. I don't care how hard we are. I don't care how proud we are.
I don't care how religious we are. God is able to abase. if that's what it takes to save
us. And sadly, that's what it will take. He will bring us down. He will bring us down. Saul of
Tarsus, I'm sure they regarded him as the toughest, the most hardened religious individual
that lived on the face of the earth in his day. He described
himself as the chief of sinners. But God could obey sin. On that
road to Damascus, he brought him down. As one old writer said
years ago, he unhorsed him. He that walketh in pride, God
is able to abase. And this most likely went on
for seven years. All that represents is that it
took that required perfect time for God to do it. Whatever it
takes for you, whatever it takes for me, if it's His purpose to
save us, He knows just how long and just what it takes to abase
us. It's going to have something
to do with God's will. Just like old Herod. In the book
of Acts it says, 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's the voice of a God, not
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. But the word
of God grew and multiplied. He just let them think that. I know some preachers are almost
to that point. No. We're not even close to God. We may judge ourselves by ourselves. And I often think I've given
a lot of people a lot of a standard by which they can exalt themselves
and say, well, I certainly am better than that preacher. Sad
to say it's true. But I'm not the standard. The
standard is the man, Christ Jesus. And if God brings us to compare
ourselves with Him, there's just one way to go, and that's down
into the dust. And that's exactly where God
brought this proud king. Those who, like him, desire the
honor of men rather than the honor of God and wind up having
neither. But he stripped him, just like
he has to strip us, and he exposed him, and he strips him of every
hope and every possession of all his glory. Just like he had to strip Adam
and Eve of their fig leaf aprons. They couldn't say like Nebuchadnezzar
could. Look at this kingdom. They were
there in the pretty much naked creation at that time. But they'd
already been busy after the fall building themselves the fig leaves,
the aprons of self-righteousness. And He released him to show what
a beast he was. What a beast we are. He has to strip us and cause
us to know that it is not by works of righteousness which
we have done at any point But according to His mercy, He
saves us. Now here he is, seven years,
a ranting, raving madman. Looks more like a beast, acts
more like a beast than a man. What can he do? What can he possess? God in sovereign grace brought
him up. He has to bring us down because
the way up is down. He brought him up. There's a
wonderful statement. It says, and at the end of the
days. If there had been no end of those
days, he would have died in that state. But there's always an end of
days to those that the Lord is pleased to save in this business
of bringing them down and showing them what they are. When He brings
us to an end of ourselves, He brings us to a beginning, at
least in our experience of who Christ is. He brings us out of that darkness
to shine the light of the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if there is an end of the
days, it surely is God's mercy and God's grace. God shined upon him and gave
him understanding. Not only to see and to reflect
upon his own state, his own condition, but now God gives him an understanding. He gives him an understanding.
He brings him from an insane man to a man with understanding. That's what he did to that demoniac
in Mark chapter 5 that he met in the tombs. ranting, raving madman. And the
Bible says that when Christ spoke to him and caused him to sit
down, he sat down in his right mind. We're all, by nature, insane. Because a man or a woman with
an eternal soul who would look at eternity, the long eternity,
and think that they can stand in themselves before the thrice
holy God and be accepted by Him on the basis of something that
they are or do. That's an insane person. When are we in our right mind? when we're brought to look outside
of ourselves, to the one in whom all salvation is, all righteousness
is given as a gift, the one in whom God accepts everyone in
Him. And when we plead His blood,
when we are brought to bow before His way of salvation, and to
receive that salvation as a gift, free gift, which was His to give
or withhold, but in mercy He's given it to us, there's just
one thing to do. What Nebuchadnezzar did. He said,
now I praise and extol the God of heaven. I'm not talking about my great
Babylon that I've built. I'm not talking about the work
that I've done. I'm praising the God of heaven,
the God of glory, who rules over all things and rules over all
people. And there's nobody can stop him.
And he not only raises up a king who he will, he saves whom he
will. There are a lot of people who have
an imaginary king. They have an imaginary God. They
say God can do anything He wants to. That's not where the rub's
at. The rub is where we read what
God has done. What God, before the foundation
of the world, determined to do, not based on anything he saw
anybody else would do, not based on anything that any other power
or creature caused him to do, but what he would according to
his own sovereign free will. And that is be gracious to whom
he would be gracious and show mercy to whom he would show mercy. And I can't help but believe
He showed mercy to this king. If he didn't, he sure used him
as a picture as the only way he can show mercy to us. He said, I now praise and extol and honor the King
of Heaven, all whose works are truth and His ways judgment." That's what we set forth in the
Gospel. And that is a salvation through
the sufferings of Jesus Christ, who suffered for sin, who made
Himself an offering for sin, who satisfied every claim of
God's justice against those he saves. So all his works are truth and
his ways just. He's just and the justifier of
those who are brought to believe on Christ. And just like He gave
Nebuchadnezzar an understanding, John said He gives His people
an understanding, that we may know Him that is true. I now praise and extol and exalt
the King of Heaven. And that's what the Lord has
to do. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you. They're just things. But if we're found possessors, citizens, subjects of this kingdom over which Christ is the king, then all these other things don't
matter anyway. But God in grace must be acknowledged
as the one who's given us all things. And God, in His grace,
must bring us down into the dust, strip us of all our imagined
righteousness, and then He must give us understanding, lift us
up, and reveal to us Christ and Him crucified. And if he could do it to a king
of such authority and power, he not only can, but he will
do it to all his people. I would just imagine that was
a rough time, those seven years. All but the end result. May the Lord bring us, by His sovereign grace, to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we'll praise Him. We'll glorify. We'll thank Him. We'll have some
understanding. We'll know that it was He that
did it, and not ourselves. Our Father, this morning we give
you praise and honor and glory for that free and full salvation
by which you save all your people. Show them how that Christ is
the only savior, the only righteousness. His is the only lasting kingdom. His is only the true and free
gift of God. Everything else will fade away. And most will die in utter foolishness,
the foolishness of unbelief. But thank you for almighty grace. by which you reach out and save
your people from their sins. We thank you and praise you in
Christ Jesus. Thank you in his name. Amen.