Open your Bibles again to Daniel
chapter 4. I'll tell you that this message
was born from an experience I had last weekend. I'd been wondering
which passage to choose from Daniel to preach on. I had an
experience last weekend. I thought, well, I must preach
on this. Some years ago, it became a family
tradition of ours every December to go to ACC and see the play
A Christmas Carol. And our very favorite performances
to see were when Danny Mahan, he directed the play, played
the part of Scrooge. We loved it. He's fantastic.
Holly was in the play. She's a little girl. She was
in the play for several years. Jan and I often would stay for
rehearsals Maggie, you were in that play, weren't you? We saw
that play so often in rehearsals. We could have been the understudy.
If anybody got sick, we stood in for them. And it got kind
of boring, to tell you the truth. But we enjoyed, Jan and I talked
about this, we always enjoyed the songs that they sung in that
play, in the performance. Most of the songs that they sung
were the hymns we just sang, hymns with Great words, hymns
that have the gospel in them, telling us of the birth of the
Lord Jesus. Joy to the world. Joy, he's come. Oh, he's joy to the world. Hark,
the herald angels sing, the king is born. Silent night, Jesus,
Lord, at thy birth. And even though it was kind of
boring, you could have a short time of worship as you watch
those long rehearsals. Now we had not gone to see the
play for a number of years, and we decided this year we would
go back to the play. And it was very disappointing.
Much to my dismay, every one of those songs was removed from
the performance. There was not one mention of
the name of our Lord, with the exception of the many times the
man who played Scrooge took the Lord's name in vain. I love Christmas. It's a family time, it's a time
of giving gifts, and it's just wonderful. Christmas is not a
religious holiday at all. My complaint with the play is
not that they ruined a religious holiday. Christmas is not a religious
holiday. December the 25th is not the
birthday of our Lord Jesus. It's Lexi's birthday, but it's
not the Lord's birthday. Lexi, you don't have to share
your birthday. It's not Jesus' birthday. However, it is a very sad comment
on our society. When our society takes every
opportunity to remove the name of our savior from our everyday
lives, it's a very alarming comment on our society. But what brought
me to this particular passage to preach on this morning is
in the performance, they did leave a snippet of a song in
the performance. In the performance, there's a
scene where a young boy stands outside the window of Scrooge's
counting house, and he sings the chorus to the first Noel.
And this is what the boy sang. Noel, Noel. Noel, Noel. Born is the child of history. That's not the way that song
is written. The song is written, born is the king of history,
but the director Changed the word king to child. Well, I was
disappointed before. Now he's made me mad. To take
away the kingship of the man, Jesus Christ, is to gut the gospel. To deny the kingship of Christ,
to deny the kingship of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is to deny
the relationship that exists between Christ the king and man
the beggar. And I know why the director removed
all reference to Christ the king. I know why he removed those hymns.
And I know why he changed the word king to child and made the
Lord Jesus a mere baby and not the king. I know why he did it.
Because the natural man hates the truth that Christ is king
and you and I must bow to him. The natural man utterly hates
the truth that you and I are in the hand of the sovereign
to do with as he pleases. And nobody can question what
he does with us. We are totally dependent upon
the will of the sovereign God to either save our sinful soul
or damn our sinful soul. We're totally dependent on him.
There's nothing we can do to make God have mercy on us. There's
nothing we can do to earn mercy from God. Now, men hate that
truth. But it's the truth nevertheless.
And I don't care how many words to songs they change. I don't
care how illegal that they make it to use the name of the Lord
Jesus in our common everyday lives. They're not gonna deny,
they may try to deny the kingship of Christ, but you and I better
learn this lesson. Christ is King and we're gonna
bow to him. One way or another, our knee
will bow. in reverence before Christ the
King. I've titled the message this
morning, Just Who Is King Here Anyway? Just Who's King Here
Anyway? This is the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar learned in Daniel
chapter four. He tells us that. Look here at
verse one. He tells us what he learned. Nebuchadnezzar, the
king, unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell on the
earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I have thought it good to
show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward
me. How great are his signs, how mighty are his wonders. His
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation
to generation. Nebuchadnezzar learned this lesson.
I pray the Holy Spirit will teach each of us this lesson this morning.
Who's king here anyway? We need to find that out. The
message of the book of Daniel. is that God is king. Christ reigns
as sovereign monarch over everything. Now there are other kings and
rulers that he sets up on this earth and he sets them up for
his purpose. But Christ is king. Christ is king of kings and Lord
of lords. And since Christ is king, since
God is the king, here's my first point, God is king. He sovereignly
reveals himself to whomever he will. Look at verse four. I,
Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in mine house and flourishing in
my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid,
and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled
me. Therefore made I decree to bring in all the wise men of
Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the
interpretation of the dream. Then came in the magicians and
the astrologers and the Chaldeans and the soothsayers. And I told
the dream before then, but they could not make known unto me
the interpretation thereof. Now, when Adam fell, all mankind
died in sin. When we died, our hearts died.
Our minds died. Spiritually, we died so that
we cannot know God. We cannot figure God out. We
cannot love God. The only way a sinful man can
ever know God is if God the King decides in his mercy and grace
to reveal himself to that sinner. It's the only way we'll ever
know him. We're dead in sin. A dead man can't do anything. So we're totally dependent on
the sovereign to do something for us, aren't we? To reveal
himself to us. Now, Nebuchadnezzar called in
the magicians and the soothsayers and the astrologers They couldn't
tell him what God is saying in this dream because they don't
know who God is. You don't know what God's saying
if you don't know who he is. And false prophets today do the
same thing. You see them on TV and you see
that they're lying on God. They can't point sinners to Christ
because they don't know him. They don't know the sovereign
savior. They know this Jesus you gotta
accept and you gotta prop up, but they don't know the sovereign.
So they can't point him to you. And they don't know him because
God hasn't been pleased to reveal himself to them. But thank God,
he does, in his mercy and grace, reveal himself to somebody. Look
here at verse 8. And at the last, Daniel came
in before me. Now you'd think Nebuchadnezzar
already knew Daniel. You'd think he'd have called
him in first, but he didn't. At last Daniel came in before me,
whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God,
in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and before him I told
the dream, saying, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because
I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, that no
secret troubleth thee, tell me the visions of my dream that
I have seen and the interpretation thereof. Thus were the visions
of my head and my bed, I saw and beheld a tree in the midst
of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew
and was strong, and the height thereof reached into heaven,
and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth. The leaves
thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much. And in it was meat
for all. The beasts of the field had shadow
under it, and the boughs of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof,
and all flesh was fed of it. I saw in the visions of my head
upon my bed, and behold, a watcher. and a holy one came down from
heaven. He cried aloud and said thus, hew down the tree, cast
off his branches, shake off his leaves, scatter his fruit, let
the bees get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches. Nevertheless, leave the stump
of his roots in the earth, even with the band of iron and brass
in the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew
of heaven, and let his portion be with the beast in the grass
of the earth. Let his heart be changed from
man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let seven
times pass over him. This matter is by the decree
of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones,
to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth
in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and
setteth up over it the basest of men. This dream I, Nebuchadnezzar,
have seen, Now thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof,
for as much as all the wise men of my kingdom were not able to
make known unto me the interpretation, but thou art able, for the spirit
of the holy gods is in thee." Now the reason that Daniel is
going to be able to interpret this dream is because God has
revealed himself to Daniel. Daniel knows God. God has revealed
himself to him. And Nebuchadnezzar knew it. He
said, the Spirit of the Holy God is in you, Daniel. You know
God. But the only reason Daniel knows
God is God sovereignly chose to reveal Himself to Daniel.
And the lesson of this whole chapter is told us here in verse
7. Verse 17, this matter is by the decree of the watchers and
demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent, to the purpose
that the living may know that the most high ruler, God rules. And this is going to be the interpretation
thereof and Daniel knows it because he knows God, he knows God is
king. But I think it's important to see here, even Daniel needed
to spend time in prayer and study before he could speak for God
and give the interpretation. Look at verse 19. Then Daniel,
whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for one hour,
and his thoughts troubled him. They troubled him. Daniel had
to spend time in prayer and study before the Lord revealed this
dream to him. And that just shows us how we
are always dependent upon God. We always need him to reveal
himself to us. If the spirit doesn't give us
understanding of God's word, we'll never see Christ. We'll
never get a blessing from it unless the spirit's pleased to
reveal it to us. And I don't care who you are,
whether you're an unregenerate person or whether you've been
born again. We're all completely dependent on the sovereign to
reveal himself to us. the sovereign God will reveal
himself to whom he will. Second, and you know, and since
that's true, what ought we to do? Ask him to reveal himself
to us, shouldn't we? He's sovereign. Secondly, since
God is king, his eternal will shall be done. God always tells
us what he's going to do before he does it. And then he does
it so that we'll know this. This is God's eternal will. God's
not reacting to what we do. He's got to, you know, change.
God's not playing a chess match with us. You know, we do this
so God doesn't know. God's always accomplishing his eternal will. Look at verse 19. And Daniel,
whose name was Belteshazzar, was astounded for one hour, and
his thoughts troubled him. And the king spake and said,
Belteshazzar, let not the dream nor the interpretation thereof
trouble thee. Balthasar answered and said,
My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation
thereof to thine enemies. The tree that thou sawest, which
grew and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and
the sight thereof to all the earth, whose leaves were fair,
and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all, under
which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches
the fowls of the heaven had their habitation, it's thou, O king,
that art grown and become strong. For thy greatness is grown and
reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.
And whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from
heaven, and saying, Hew down the tree and destroy it, yet
leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with
a band of iron and brass and the tender grass of the field,
and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion
be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him.
This is the interpretation, O king. And this is the decree of the
Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King, that they shall
drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast
of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,
and they shall wed thee with the dew of heaven, and seven
times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he
will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree
roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt
have known that the heavens do rule. Now here's how I know Daniel
is a true servant of God. He tells the truth no matter
who's listening. Daniel preached the message that
God gave him and it didn't matter who the audience was. The audience
didn't change his message. Now you think about what Daniel
did right here. Daniel just gave bad news, gave
very humbling news to the man who ruled the entire earth. He ruled, Nebuchadnezzar ruled
everything. You and I are used to living
in a democracy and we just cannot imagine Nebuchadnezzar's sovereign
power. I mean this man did as he pleased
all the time. And nobody ever dared say, King,
don't do that. King, that's not a good idea.
There's no voting on him. He didn't, he, Nebuchadnezzar
not one time in his life ever looked at an opinion poll because
he didn't care. There was no appealing to the
court to make him do something different. He did as he pleased. And if you just made him mad,
you just, He had a bad day, got him on the wrong side of the
bed, he'd just tell them, lop your head off, and they'd do
it. And there'd be no recourse. He just did what he wanted. And
Daniel told him, you're gonna fall. Nebuchadnezzar, you're
gonna fall, because even the king, even someone who's got
everything you have, is nothing before God. You're just a brute
beast. Now just who's king here anyway?
It's not Nebuchadnezzar, is it? It's God. And that's the message
of the gospel. It's not that we're going to
fall. Brethren, we've already fallen. We've fallen in sin to
the point we're no better than a brute beast. I mean, the ox
knows his master and knows his master's crib. The brute beasts
are smarter than us. You know, we say we're just as
bad as a brute beast. That's an insult to brute beasts everywhere.
They know who the master is. We don't. And nothing can be
done with us. You can't change that nature.
You can't reason with it. The only thing that we're good
for is to be cast into hell. That's it. That's what our nature
deserves. Now, God is king over us. We've
fallen and he's king. He rules over us. In all of human
history, you read your history books, you know what it is? It's
God's eternal purpose playing out in time. That's exactly what
it is. The weather. Oh, isn't it nice?
We're having springtime in December. I know who sent it. God did.
They can talk about El Ninos and El Nonos and all that. God's
in it. I mean, you're healthy, feeling
good today or feeling bad today. God's in control of that. He's
in control of whether we live or die. Roy Dennison didn't live
one second longer or one second too short. The Lord called him
home at the exact moment of his eternal purpose. God's in control
of our life and our death. Take care of your body. God gave
you a body and a mind to take care of it, but now you're not
going to live one moment longer than God wills. It's His will.
What are you going to eat for lunch this afternoon? God determined
that before the world began. You're going to eat chicken.
God determined that before the world ever began. And we're completely
dependent upon Him to supply everything we have. Now you know
God's sovereign in salvation. He's sovereign in all things.
You know, it's obvious to us. We can, we can read Genesis one.
We can say, you know, God's sovereign when he created the world. I
mean, there, there was no matter. God didn't take matter and put
it together to make the world. There was nothing. And God said,
let the earth appear. And it did. God's sovereign. He's sovereign. I mean, God put
Adam, God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathe
life into him. God's sovereign. You know, God, just as much on
the throne. He's just as much in absolute
control when Adam fell as when Adam was naming animals. That's
so. God's just as much. That didn't
take God by surprise. Now, you and I can't see this.
We can't believe it and we can't love it unless God reveals it
to us. But Adam's fall was God's eternal purpose. Even though
God's not the author of sin, Adam's fall was God's eternal
purpose. God allowed Adam to fall for
this purpose so that he could save his people through the second
Adam, through the righteousness and through the sacrifice of
the second Adam. And that was wise and good that
God did it that way. If Adam hadn't fallen, you and
I'd stand on our own. And Todd asked you this Thursday
night, how are you doing standing on your own? Not too well. But
since we are fallen in Adam, since we're fallen in Adam, our
representative, we can be saved through the second Adam, through
Christ, our representative. See, God's eternal will is always
done, isn't it? Now, God tells us he's gonna
send judgment for sin, just like he's gonna have Nebuchadnezzar
fall here, he's gonna send judgment for sin. And God, in his mercy,
in his wisdom, always gives space for repentance. Look at verse
27. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee,
and break off thy sins by righteousness, and not iniquities by showing
mercy to the poor, if it be a lengthening of thy tranquility. Now, God
gave Nebuchadnezzar space to repent, didn't he? Just like
Nineveh. Remember when Jonah finally showed
up on the banks of Nineveh, and he preached the message God gave
him to preach, didn't he? What, the king of Nineveh heard
that? And he sent out a demand. He
said, men, let's shave our heads, let's put on sackcloth and ashes
and cry for mercy. It could be. God spares. Maybe he'll show mercy. And God
spared that whole city, didn't he? He gave space for repentance.
He always does. Now God's sovereign. And man
is responsible. Wayne, both of those are true,
aren't they? Both of those are true. You and I are responsible
to repent and come to Christ. That's God's commandment to us
and we're responsible to do it. And if I don't, if I don't repent
and I don't come to Christ, God's going to send me to hell and
I'll have nobody to blame but myself and my sin. And if I do
come to Christ, God's going to save me. He will. He promised
he will. And that's gonna be all God's
doing. It's him choosing me first. It's him drawing me to his son.
It's him revealing himself to me. And Nebuchadnezzar's gonna
have to learn that. He's gonna have to learn, he's
gonna have to have this great fault. It's like God said he
would. And when he does, he can have nobody to blame but himself. He can't blame Daniel, can he?
He can't blame God. It's all on him. So here's the
third point. God is king and man is absolutely
nothing. Verse 28. Now all this came upon
the king Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, God
gave him a whole year to repent. God gave him a whole year to
seek mercy. At the end of 12 months, he walked
in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king spake and
said, it's not this great Babylon. that I've built for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of
my majesty." Poor old Nebuchadnezzar, he's so full of pride. He could
not not say how wonderful he is. He just had, he couldn't
help himself. And you'd think after the warning
that Daniel gave him, you'd think he got this warning from God
Almighty. that he'd keep his mouth shut,
that he'd humble himself, but he couldn't. He could not help
himself. He couldn't humble himself. That
remind you of anybody? That reminds me of me, because
I got the same nature he did. You and I are sinners. We can't
not sin. Even though we've been warned
by God what our sin will bring us, We can't help ourselves. We just continue to sin against
our own souls. And look what happened. 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
thee, and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall
be with the beast of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know
that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and he gives
it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men. Indeed, he grasped
his 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. Now, Nebuchadnezzar, the man
who ruled over the entire world, became an animal. Nebuchadnezzar
couldn't stay in the palace. They drove him from the palace.
He was driven to the place. He couldn't have any contact
with anybody because he wasn't fit for it. They probably put
him in some sort of nature preserve. Maybe one of those big gardens
he had, you know, they put him in some sort of nature preserve
and pinned him up like an animal in the zoo. Start telling where
he'd go if they didn't pin him up. And you know that his mind
was gone. He couldn't be controlled. He
couldn't be reasoned with. They couldn't do anything with
him but just beat him up. And that's exactly what happened
to you and me in Adam. When Adam fell, we die. Our mind
is gone. We can't be controlled. We can't
use the law to control one another. The carnal mind that we've received,
it's not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. There's no point in me up here
trying to use the law to keep everybody living right and doing
the right thing because it's impossible. Now, man does have
a will. We do. Nebuchadnezzar still had
a will, didn't he? But his will now was not to live
in the king's palace and not to do all the engineering feats
that he used to do. His will now was to eat grass. That's his will, and that's just
exactly what he did. You and I have a will, and we
do it. What our Lord say is our will.
You will not come unto me that you might have life. That's our
will. Our will is in bondage to sin and we can't quit sinning. Just like Nebuchadnezzar was
in bondage now to the nature of an animal and he couldn't
quit acting like an animal because that's the nature God gave him.
Oh boy. And you think the condition that
God put this man in for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar lived in
shame. He lived like an animal. He was
given the heart of an animal, not the heart of a man. He was
given a new heart, the heart of an animal. That's our natural
heart. It's a heart of sin. We don't
have a heart of innocence like Adam had. We have a heart of
sin. That's what we received from our father, Adam. And for
seven years, Nebuchadnezzar lived like that. For seven years, he
didn't get a haircut. His hair just grew like animal's
fur. For seven years, his fingernails and toenails weren't cut. They
looked like animal's claws. For seven years, Nebuchadnezzar
didn't eat at the king's table. He ate grass like an animal. And those counselors that were
with him all the time, They probably tried to hide him from public
view. This is too shameful to allow anybody to see the king
like this. I mean, this is the king of the
world. What happened to his brilliant
military mind? What happened to his brilliant
political mind? What happened to his brilliant
engineering mind? He created all these things.
Oh, it's so shameful. We can't let the kingdom, we
can't let the people see this. And when we look at man today,
isn't that what we say? Oh, how shameful. You know, we
go out in public and we're trying to hide the shame of what we
really are. What is left of Adam that God
made? Look how far man's, God made
Adam upright. Look at him down in the muck
and mire. What happened? Look how far man
has fallen. So shameful. We live a life of
shame. And I'll tell you this, we've
never seen a true view of ourselves until we really see our shame,
until we're ashamed of ourselves. We've not seen ourselves as we
are. Sin is shame. I mean, it's not something we
just ought not have done that. It's shame. The filth of our sin is
shame. The shame of our inability to
do anything good or anything God requires ought to just leave
us with a blushed face all the time. Can you see how we're nothing? Look back at Isaiah chapter 40.
That man is nothing. God's going to have to take the
starch out of us so we see ourselves as we are. Isaiah 40 verse 15. Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket. You know what that is? You got
a bucket full of water, you're washing the car or something,
you're done, you turn the bucket over, you turn it right back,
right side up, down there at the bottom, there's a drop. Well,
you don't worry about getting it out of there. It's insignificant. But all mankind together, all
together, That's what we are. We're the drop of a bucket. Insignificant. We're counted as the small dust
of the balance. The small dust of the balance,
you know, the grocer would have scales, you know, two sides,
and he'd put the weight, you know, on this side, then he'd
weigh out corn or meat or, you know, whatever. And over the
course of the day, some dust, you know, might settle on that
scale. But they didn't bother brushing it off. It's just so
insignificant. it won't change the outcome.
That's us. We're so insignificant, we don't
even affect the scales. Men are nothing. And God's king. Now, it's true, God raises men
up, doesn't he? Puts them in positions of power,
and he gives them minds to accomplish things, you know, for the good
of the earth. God raises men up, and God casts them down,
too, to accomplish his eternal will. Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh
both learned that lesson, didn't they? What did the Lord tell
Pilate? You don't have any power over
me except what my father gave you. You can't do anything except
what you're allowed to do. And you and I are the same way.
Now we're nothing. We can do nothing without God's
express permission to do it. He's gotta give us the ability
to do it. And if God's gonna save anybody, if God's gonna
save sinners, but He saves sinners. God's gonna bring us to the point
that we see ourselves as nothing before He'll ever have mercy
on us. As long as we think there's some reason that God would have
mercy on me, I've not been brought down low enough yet. But when
we see ourselves without any hope, when we're just in despair
because there's no reason for hope, Then God will be merciful. That's the object of mercy. Those
who have no hope in themselves. Man is nothing and God is everything. Fourth word, since God is king,
salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is completely of the
Lord. And when we say that, this is
what we mean. The Lord's the only one who can save. God's
going to have to purpose salvation for His people. Their dead mind
never will. God's going to have to execute
salvation for His people. They don't have the ability to
do it. He's going to have to do it for them. God's going to have to
send the Spirit to apply that salvation to the hearts of His
people. They're dead in sin. They can't
do it. God's going to have to protect and preserve His people.
and ultimately perfect that salvation, because man can't do any of that.
We're totally dependent on God to do it for us. That's what
happened to Nebuchadnezzar. He says here in verse 34, at
the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes to heaven,
and my understanding returned to me. Look at verse 36. He says, at the same time, my
reason returned unto me. Well, how'd that happen? Did
Nebuchadnezzar just find, you know, I'm gonna make a decision.
I'm gonna have the heart of a man now, not the heart of an animal
now. No, he didn't decide that, did he? He was perfectly content
being an animal when God gave him the heart of an animal. Well,
did somebody, one of those counselors, did they go out and teach Nebuchadnezzar
some, they taught him some table manners, and they went out and
taught him some language, you know, so he could speak some
human language, and maybe we can educate him. Well, we'll
just reeducate him until he's smart enough to be king again.
No, they didn't do that because Nebuchadnezzar couldn't be taught
anything. You can't teach a cow table manners and you couldn't
teach Nebuchadnezzar anything either. You can't teach a cow
table manners and we can't teach each other anything spiritually
either. God's gonna have to do it. What happened to Nebuchadnezzar? God the sovereign moved in power
and he gave Nebuchadnezzar a new heart and a new mind so he could
be king again. God did that. Well, now, what
happens when a sinner is born again? Somebody could come here
many, many, many, many times, hear the gospel many times, and
be unaffected. One day, Brother Mike Walker
was telling me about this woman. She heard the gospel for years
and years and years. And one Sunday, she just came
to him crying. Lord, save me! What happened? All these other years, I'll tell
you what happened. The spirit came and gave a new
heart, a new nature, a new mind. God did that. Remember the prodigal
son? Took his inheritance, went off
to a far country, wasted it all. There he sits in a pig pen, eating
a husk as they feed the pig. What's he doing there? That's
his nature. And suddenly, he came to his
senses. And he said, you know, I'm going
to go back and ask my father if he'd just make me a servant.
My father's servants live better than this. What happened? God
finally put the right mind in that boy. That's what happened.
And that's the way God saves sinners. We don't decide to let
Jesus into our hearts and then we're saved. The Lord doesn't want to dwell
in your old, cold, stony, dead heart. He didn't even want it.
Salvation is the Lord taking that stony heart and throwing
it away. and giving you a new heart, a
heart of faith and love. And we can't buy that new heart.
We can't buy it by our faithful attendance and by our prayers
and by our giving. You can't buy it. You can't earn
a new heart by, you know, doing, keeping the law or doing some
good deeds or something. You can't earn it. You can't
make yourself a new heart. You can't just will it to happen. You can't make, do anything to
make God give it to you. God must give it freely of his
sovereign will. Salvation is up to the Lord. Salvation is not being educated
into the kingdom of God any more than Nebuchadnezzar was educated
back into the kingdom, back into being the king. Salvation is
not coming to the doctrines of grace. I hope you believe them.
I hope you think those things are true. But salvation is coming
to Christ. It's coming to him. It's receiving
life in him. It's being washed in his blood
and clothed in his righteousness. Salvation is what he's done for
his people and in his people, salvations of the Lord. And then
fifth, since God is king, what are we to do? He's to be worshiped. Verse 34, at the end of the days,
I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes into heaven and my understanding
returned unto me. And when he had understanding,
what did he do? He blessed the Most High, and I praised and
I honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. 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.
Excellent majesty," look how he talks now, was added unto
me. He didn't say, look how majestic
I am, he said, he was added to me by the king. 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's able to abase. He's the king. God is king. Now he's to be worshiped. You
and I are nothing. We don't have any right to question
what God does. No right whatsoever. When we
don't understand, what are we to do? Not questioning, bow and
worship. Eli received word, God's gonna
kill your sons. What did he say? Well, God, no,
that's not fair. He didn't start bargaining with God. He said,
it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
He's king. I'm gonna worship him. That leper
came to the Lord and worshiped him. He knew who's sovereign
here. He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And you'll
notice he worshiped him before the Lord ever did anything for
him. Because he's to be worshiped regardless of what he does with
me. God is King, so He's to be feared,
He's to be referenced, He's to be acknowledged in all things.
And that's what bothered me so greatly about removing these
songs of the Lord's glory and His coming into flesh to save
His people from this plague. He's to be acknowledged in all
things. God is King, so He's to be obeyed. God is the one
who rules. Our job is not to give Him suggestions
as to how to rule. Our job is to obey and serve
Him. And God is king. So he's to be
trusted. Now he's able to do everything
he said he'll do. And I'm thankful God does as
he pleases. I know the natural man rebels
against that. God does as he pleases. I don't
like that. I do. Would you listen to what it's
pleased the Lord to do. Now verse 24, verse one. It pleased
the Lord to bless Israel. Oh, Israel's gonna be blessed.
I'm thankful God does as He pleases. Verse Samuel 12, 22. It hath
pleased the Lord to make you His people. God's gonna make
somebody His people. I'm so thankful He does what
He pleases. I won't be His people unless
He makes me. Isaiah 53, verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
you. It pleased the Father to bruise,
Thrush his son as our substitute so his people will live. Like
I said, every one of us is gonna learn this lesson one way or
another. God's king. We're either gonna learn it in
destruction. Pharaoh in the Red Sea finally
learned God is God, didn't he? Or we're gonna learn it in mercy
like Nebuchadnezzar did. And our people just love to argue
and debate about whether Nebuchadnezzar was saved or not. I don't know.
I hope so. I don't know. But I do know this. You won't find a prophet preaching
a better message on the kingship of Christ than Nebuchadnezzar
did. And I pray God taught that heathen king this lesson. I pray
God will teach us that lesson in our heart this morning. I
pray that God will abase us so he'll lift us up in his grace.
And in closing, let me ask you this question. How do I know
if I have the right view of God's sovereignty over me? I know God's
sovereign over the whole world, but I'm talking about how do
I know if I've got the right attitude, if I really learned
that God's sovereign over me? Well, if hearing that God is
king, if that makes you beg him for mercy, you've got a right
view of the kingship of Christ. And if hearing that God is king,
that he does according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody can stop
him. Nobody has the right to ask him
what you're doing. If that makes you fatalistic,
say, well, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. I won't do anything
then. Well, you got a lot to learn now about the kingship
of Christ, if that's your attitude. If knowing that God is king makes
you think Are you thankful God's in control, not you? If you are,
you've got a right understanding of God's kingship over you. But
knowing that God is King, that He can do with you as He will,
if that makes you mad, if it makes you say that's not fair,
friends, you got a lot to learn about the kingship of Christ.
And I pray that the Lord will give us a heart to believe Him
and to bow to Him as King, because He is King Let's bow in prayer. that bow to our Savior as the
Sovereign and that you do indeed do everything you please. And how we thank you that it
pleased you to save your people through the sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, give us a heart, give
us a new heart that believes Him and bows to Him and serves
Him as our King and our Savior. Father, we thank you for this
food that we're about to eat and the time of fellowship that
we're about to have. We thank you for Lexi. We thank
you for giving her to us and this time to celebrate her birthday.
Father, how we, how we beg of thee mercy for
Lexi and for our children. Oh Lord, be merciful. We're thankful
that Thou art able. We're thankful to bring these
things to the feet of the Sovereign and leave them there, knowing
Thou doest all things well. Thou art able. Bless us, Father,
we pray. It's the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, Christ our King, we pray. Give thanks and give thanks.