Believers are men and women who have been
brought by the Spirit of God and the preaching of the gospel
to see something of the majesty and wonder and glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. They have been brought to see
these things. They have been brought to know these things.
Not just in their head, but experientially. They know something about sin
experientially. They know what they are. It is
not just something in theory, but they know what they are.
They have been brought to see some things. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, now I am going to be preaching out of Daniel chapter
4, but I want to say some things to you before we get there. And
in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul tells us that there is a veil
that hides the glory of Christ from this religious world as
it did the glory that was on Moses' face when he came down
from the mountains. And God caused his face to shine. The glory of God was on his face. And they didn't want to look
at it. And so a veil was put on his face. And it hid that
glory from those false professors of faith. And Paul tells us over
here in this chapter, in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, if you'll study it
from front to back, that there is a veil that hides the glory
of Christ from this religious world. As they read the Scriptures
today, and as they go through the motions of worship, and they
go through those things, they don't see this glory. They've
not yet seen this glory. Just as they would not look upon
the face of Moses, they will not look upon the face of Christ.
And then in verse 16, He says this in that same chapter. He
said, nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall
be taken away. That which veiled the glory is
going to be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. There is
liberty. Liberty granted to fallen sinners
to see. Liberty to fallen sinners to
come and to enter into worship. There is liberty. But we all
with open face, that is, with unveiled face, the unveiled face
of Christ, beholding as in a glass, as a mirror, the glory of the
Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. That man who sees that unveiled
face of Jesus Christ is transformed. He's changed. He's changed. He sees it in the Word of God
and he sees it in the preaching of the Gospel. He sees these
things like looking into a mirror. He sees these things into a glass.
And as he sees them, he's changed. He doesn't go away like he did
when he came in. He goes away changed. He changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. So
then he starts out in chapter 4, therefore, that is based on
this spiritual and effectual work. Seeing we have this ministry,
we have this ministry before the people. We set these things
before the people for them to see. We have this Spirit. that
grants this liberty to come and to see and to trust and to hear. Seeing we have this ministry,
as we ourselves have received mercy, we faint not. We're not
telling you something we haven't experienced ourselves. But, he said, we have renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty. not walking in craftiness nor
handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God." Worldly religionists. Will you
hear me? I'm not trying to poke at you.
I'm not trying to offend you. I'm trying to tell you the truth.
So give me a hear. Worldly religionists and false
prophets are dishonest men. Most are not aware of it. They
are not aware of it. Most are victims themselves of
Satan's lying ways. Paul was. Do you realize when you read
these scriptures like this where Paul said, the hidden things
of dishonesty, that he wasn't a dishonest man. He was a Pharisee. The Jews only figured two people
to be saved and one of those was a Pharisee. He was one of them. He was not
a dishonest man in the outward affairs of his life. He wasn't
a con man or a He didn't go about purposely trying to defraud men
and women in his ministry as a Pharisee. By his own confession
over in 1 Timothy 1, verse 13, he said, I was before a blasphemer. But he didn't know that. And
a persecutor. He persecuted the Church of God,
he said, in Galatians 1 without measure. And he went about inflicting
injury. He was an injurious man. He went
about inflicting injury upon men. And he said, what I did,
I did in ignorance and unbelief. But it didn't change the fact
that it was dishonest. And so when he saw what he'd
done, he said, I renounced those things. He was a deceived man,
and when God saved him, he renounced those hidden things of dishonesty.
It's dishonest to give men and women a false impression of God. Brethren, you're going to have
to meet God for who God is, not who men say He is, for who He
says He is. And it's dishonest. False prophets
leave their hearers with the impression that God is not all-knowing,
that things take Him by surprise. I remember my little daughter
Cynthia. She was tiny. She was just probably
two years old. She wasn't very old at all. And
my oldest daughter was over next door riding on a three-wheeler. You remember the old three-wheeler? She wanted to go with sis, so
she was over there toddling around and they picked her up before
anybody knew what was going on, let her straddle the gas tank
and hang on. Some way when she throttled that
machine, her little finger went right in behind the throttle
and it locked on wide open. And the little girl that was
riding wasn't old enough really to be riding, and she didn't
know what to do except try to get it in neutral. And every
time she'd hit that pedal, it'd go into a higher gear. It went
right straight down over that hill and hit a pine tree about
that big round with her face. She was in intensive care. Her
head looked like a basketball with eyes and a nose painted
on it. There was nothing sticking out. Her head was so swollen
that it just looked like you painted it. on it. And I was
down at the emergency room. They took her to one of these
walk-in clinics because it was closed. And they actually threw
her clothes away. They gave her up for dead. But
the ambulance come and got her, and they took her into Alexandria
into the hospital. And wouldn't you know, by accident,
there was a world-renowned neurosurgeon there. And he treated her. And she's alive today and well.
But a couple of the neighbors came down and they said, now,
we know you're a preacher. Don't you blame God for this? I said, I'm not going to blame
God for it. I'm going to thank God for it. It's dishonest to give men and
women a false impression of God. They leave their hearers with
the impression that God's not all-knowing. He's all-knowing,
Russell. He said, I declare the end from
the beginning. Who can do that who don't know
everything? Who can do that who has not fixed
everything from here to there? He said, I declare the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I'll do all my pleasure. There God reacts to circumstance
and events as though he didn't know they were coming. They leave their hearers with
the impression God can change. I see bumper stickers all the
time, prayer changes things. Oh, no it don't. I beg your pardon. It's not going to change anything.
It's not going to change anything. For God to change would admit
of some weakness or flaw in His character. Just think with me
for a minute. What is there in God that would
cause Him to change? Something he didn't know was
coming, but that can't be because he's all-knowing. Something that
took him by surprise, something that overcome his will. He's
sovereign, he's omnipotent. None can stay his hand. So why
is it God would change? There's no reason for him to
change. He said, Russell, every good gift and every perfect gift
cometh down from above. It comes down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no bearableness, neither shadow of turning." And
then if that's not solid enough for you, he just flat out told
Israel, he said, I am the Lord, I change not. That's pretty clear,
isn't it? False preachers also lead men
with the idea that God's love is a mere emotion, and it can
be one day and the next day be gone. But the Bible says his
love is everlasting, and that whom he loves, he loves to the
end, and that nothing can separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And false preachers talk about
a God who's not sovereign. His sovereignty is limited by
man's will. He can do anything he wants to,
but he can't violate man's will. If man's unwilling to bow, unwilling
to repent and believe, unwilling to serve the living God, there's
nothing God can do about it. I've heard them say that. I'm
not telling you something I think or giving you some false impression.
I've listened to a man say it from the very pulpit. God's done
all He can do. What He has, you're in trouble.
You're in trouble. Deceived men tell folks about
a God whose holiness, righteousness, and judgment are things that He is willing to
compromise in order to fill the seats of His synagogues and populate
the Kingdom of God. All of these things are dishonest.
These men are lying on God. They're telling men and women
things that simply cannot be. And I'll tell you something else
the believers learned. Dishonest men walk in craftiness. You know what he said? He renounced
the hidden things of dishonesty, and he said, not walking in craftiness,
nor using the Word of God deceitfully. There's no end to what a false
prophet will say or do to fill this house with tithers. He'll
hire a Hollywood evangelist. He'll hire the most talented
singers he can find. He'll get famous guest celebrities
to appear, give their testimony. He'll build schools. He'll offer
sports programs. They use the Word of God deceitfully. What do I mean by that? Well,
I mean they take bits and pieces of scripture and quoting these
things out of context, they use it deceitfully. You can make
the Bible say anything you want to if you take bits and pieces. Judas went out and hanged himself,
go ye and do likewise. You can make it say anything
you want to. Let me give you just a few of their most well-known
quotes. Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap. Boy, if that's true, you don't
have hope. You don't have hope. Christ reaped
what I sowed. He died in my stead. He reaped
what I sowed. Actually, the proper context
of that verse has to do with giving. And it just simply says
if you take your offerings and your money and your time and
you use those things for your own comfort, you'll reap the
benefits of it. You'll get to sit in that big easy chair in
that big castle wherever it is and go out on your yacht and
you enjoy all them things. If you take that and you sow
it to your spiritual welfare, then you're going to reap the
benefits of that. That's what that verse has to do with. They
use it in relation to a man's works of righteousness. But if
the believer reaps what he sows, Christ died and banished. There's
another scripture they misquote all the time. God is not willing
that any should perish. He wants everybody to be saved.
Is that what that verse says? God's not willing that any should
perish, but all should come to repent. If God is not willing
for any to perish, then none shall perish, because He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. Actually, that verse there in
2 Peter 3, verse 9, which is to show the reason for the preservation
of this evil world, reads like this. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackless, but is long-suffering
to usward. You go back in that book and
you find out who the us word is. It's believers and God's
elect. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. And then here's another one.
God loves the whole world. That's the great canon of the
Arminian, John 3.16. Well, if He does, there's no
reason for judgment. Because nothing can separate
you from His love. John 3.16 is quoted out of context
more often than any other verse in the Bible. The word world,
as it's used in the New Testament Scriptures, was used because
of a Jewish bias concerning the promises of God. Up to that point,
there wasn't anybody else included in the Kingdom of God but Jews.
And now, in the New Testament, having this mystery of the Gentiles
revealed to them, now they're going to go out into all the
world and preach the gospel. The Gentiles all through the
Old Testament, they were considered to be the world. And when he
uses that word world, it's in relation to the bias, to that
Jewish bias. Those Jews hated that. They hated
the very thought of it, that God would include the Gentiles
into His church. And it wasn't to the giving of
the Holy Spirit that that mystery was fully declared. John 3.16 simply says that God
has a people He loved and sent His Son to redeem out of every
nation, people, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven. And
believers are not blind. They are not blind. They are
not ignorant. They have been brought to see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. They know God. They know His true character
and they know how God saves sinners. And now they renounce those hidden
things of dishonesty. And they refuse to continue on
in that craftiness of religion. And they do not interpret the
Word of God as being deceived. They don't interpret these things
that way. If you'll turn with me to Daniel
chapter 4, there's a man in this chapter who's just a wonderful
picture of what I just told you. His name is Nebuchadnezzar. He was the king of Babylon. I love the way Tim James pronounces
that baby land because that's what it is. Babylon in the Scriptures
is the name of false religion. I don't have time this morning
to go through the Scriptures and prove this point to you. But this afternoon, if you want
to, you can read Revelation 17 and 18. And then I think most of you
were there the night I brought that message on the Tower of
Babel. And this man is king in Babylon. He's king. That's what religion does. It
makes a man a king. It makes him a sovereign over
his own destiny. Everything that he does, his
walking down the aisle, his walk in life, his profession of faith,
his good work, all of those things, he's like Nebuchadnezzar. He
looks back over his life and he says, it's not this great
Babylon that I built. Huh? By the strength of my hand,
by my might, for my glory, for the honor of my name, isn't this
what I've done? That's what religion does. It
makes a man a king. It lifts him up. It lifts him
up. He personifies the sinner in
the height of his glory and religion, glowing in his station and glowing
in his achievements and glowing in his person. And all that his
eye could see and his mind could imagine, he said, was his. It
was built for the house of his kingdom by the might of his power
and for the honor of his majesty. If there's a better confession
of false religion in the scripture, I'm not aware of. That's exactly
what it does. But Nebuchadnezzar was one of
God's own. This was God's man. And on the
day of his great confession of self-glory, and while the words
were still hanging in his mouth, a voice fell from heaven saying,
O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, thy kingdom is
departed from you. You're not going to be king anymore. You're not going to be king anymore. Everything of which your pride
now boasts and your ego feeds upon is going to be taken away. And God took this great proud
king and caused him to crawl around on all fours like a beast. He made him take his place with
the beast of the field. Made his hair to grow like eagle's
feathers and his nails like bird's claws. And He continued like
this until seven times passed over Him. I don't know what these
seven times were, but the number seven I know has to do with completion
and satisfaction. God left Him out there until
He was made complete, and He left Him out there until He was
satisfied He knew. But we're told what took place
out there, Daniel 4, verse 32. Until thou know that the Most
High ruleth, in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will." Now, you just sit out there and crawl around with the
beast until you can come back and tell me who I am. And there's not a child of God
who's ever been called by grace who ain't going to own exactly
what old Nebuchadnezzar owned up, the most high ruling. And He'll give it. He'll give
His Kingdom to whosoever He will. Let me give you several things
from this passage this morning that men and women are brought
to know in the sweet experience of grace. The first thing that
this proud man learned is the majesty, greatness, and absolute
sovereignty of God. His name is Jehovah Elyon, the
Most High God. That's what this man sought.
That's what he saw. He was a proud king. He was the
most powerful man on the face of the earth in his day. Nebuchadnezzar. And God snatched that kingdom
from him and took away his proud face and his proud look and his
proud heart and let him go out and crawl in the grass like a
beast. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 15 says,
Behold, the nations are but the drop of a bucket. Some of you
in here are old enough to know what that means. Had that old
well and you'd flip that lid open and you'd let that bucket
down in there and you'd pull it back up and you'd take your
water and you'd pour it into a pitcher. What was left? What'd you do with that? Huh? What'd you do with that last
drop of the bucket? Threw it back in the well. It wasn't worth
fooling with, was it? God said, that's how the nations
are before me. They are but the drop of a bucket.
Oh, my soul. what's left in the bucket when
it's empty. And they're counted as the small
dust of the balance. They don't even bother to wipe
it off because it's not going to affect the outcome. Don't
even bother to wipe it. You know them old balances you
see? That's what he's talking about. The small dust don't even
affect the outcome. They just leave it alone. Behold,
he taketh up the isles as a very small thing. He said, he sitteth
upon the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are grasshoppers. Just grasshoppers. I'm somebody. No, you're just a grasshopper.
That's all you are. All nations before him are as
nothing, and there counted to him less than nothing and vanity. Our God has but one interest
in this world, and that is His redemptive purpose of grace in
Christ Jesus. That's His interest in this world.
Everything else is grasshoppers. Everything else, everybody else,
He endures as vessels of wrath with long-suffering until He
makes known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy
which He had aforeprepared unto glory. You can read about that
on Romans chapter 9. In Daniel 4.35, when the king's
understanding came to him again, he said, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, whether they're kings or popes,
whether they're princes or beggars. Their reputation before God is
nothing. And he doeth according to his
will. in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. Those who know God know Him as
sovereign. He does what He pleases. The
issue is not what you're going to do for God, but what is your
God going to do with you? What's He going to do with you? Is He just going to endure you
as a vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction? Or will He take
you into His fold and mold you and make you a trophy of His
grace? What will He do? He's the Potter.
He's the Potter. He said, it's not of Him that
willeth. False prophets running from one
end of this country, one end of this world, to the other end,
telling people, it's all up to you. Man has a free will. You have to make a decision.
It says here, it's not of him that willeth. Will if you want
to. You can't will yourself into
the fold. You can't will yourself into
regeneration. You can't will yourself into
the kingdom of God. It's not of him that willeth,
and it's not of him that runneth. Boy, you've got to work and labor.
You've got to work for this thing. This thing is not a gift. You've
got to work for it. You have to earn it. You have
to deserve it. I thought he said it wasn't of works lest any man
should boast. Huh? It's not of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy. That's who it's of. Of God who
showeth mercy. And those who know God know Him
as sovereign. Sovereign in creation and sovereign
in providence and sovereign in salvation. And then the second
thing this old king learned is the nothingness of man. All the
inhabitants of the earth, he said, were reputed as what? Nothing. Boy, that's as empty as you can
get, isn't it? Nothing. What did you find in there? Nothing.
I remember one of our young men was going through a hard time.
Oh, he was just trying to find the work of God Himself. I said,
where are you looking? He said, well, I'm looking in
here. I said, you're looking... There's nothing in there. That's
an empty box. You won't find anything in there.
Your hope's up here. Oh, this is what Nebuchadnezzar
learned. It's what every child of grace learned. The nothingness
of man. There's nothing in him. There's
nothing in him. Man at his best state, David
said, is altogether vanity. Listen to Paul in Romans 3. They
are all gone out of the way. They are together. Now listen,
become unprofitable. There's none that do it good,
no, not one. Our Lord said, out of their heart,
this is what He preached, this is what He said, proceed evil
thoughts, murderers, adulterers, fornications, thefts, false witness,
and blasphemies. It's not His filthy hands that
defile Him, it's His filthy heart. It's not what goes in His mouth
that defiles Him, it's what comes out of His heart. The nothingness. This old king sat out there in
the grass and crawled around and took his place with the beast
until he learned something about the nothingness of man. He's
nothing. He's nothing. His heart is a
cesspool of iniquity. The king said they're all reputed
as nothing. We've got nothing to recommend
us to God and nothing to offer God and nothing that he wants
and nothing of which to barter with God. The hymn writer said,
in my hand no price I bring. Can you say that? Then you haven't
learned yet the nothingness of man. Simply to his cross I cling. So here's the first thing. Believers
know the majesty, greatness, and sovereignty of God. And then
secondly, they know something of the utter depravity and nothingness
of man. And then thirdly, believers know
something of the righteousness of God. Listen to this here in
Daniel 4 verse 37. He said, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works
are truth and His ways judgment. God taught him something about
who He was. God's righteous. His judgments are true. His promises
are true. His declarations to men are true. God deals in truth with men. The righteous God will not bend
His law or compromise His righteousness to save any man. How do I know
that's true? Because He spared not His own
son. I'm telling you, I've got children,
and I can tell you there ain't but one reason why I'd spare
a man. If I was going to spare anybody, I'd spare my son and
my daughter. God spared not His only son. He didn't spare Him. There's only one way the God
of glory can be propitious to a sinner, and that is through
the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how
God saves sinners. And the reason he does so, he
tells us in Romans 3, 26, is to declare his righteousness
that he might be just and justifier of all them that believe. This
is why he does it that way. Believers know that. They understand
that. They're like him. All his ways
are truth and judgment. We know that. And you can go on listening to
those aisle walkers and decision makers and infant baptizers and
catechizers and all the rest of them, but this is the only
place you can learn this and the only place God will impute
His righteousness. And that is on the cross of Christ. All believers are brought to
see God's ways of truth and righteousness and judgment. Here is something
else the old king learned crawling around in his humility out there.
He learned something about the grace of God. Listen to this. I disappeared out of his vocabulary. He sat back there on the palace
floor that day and it was all I. My kingdom and my this and
my that, my glory, my strength, my name. All of a sudden, I disappeared
out of his vocabulary. It just plain is, they shall
drive thee out from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the
beast of the field. And they shall make thee to eat
grass like an ox, until seven times shall pass over thee, until
thou know. Are you listening? Until thou
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, watch
it now, and giveth it. to whomsoever He will. That's
the grace of God. He didn't have to give it to
anybody. He didn't have to. Somebody said, well, He's only
obligated one time. He's not obligated at all. If
He gives you anything, it's by His free, sovereign grace. That's how you get it if you
get it. You may not get it. I may not get it, but if I do,
it will be by His grace. You learn this lesson, and you're
going to confess it. Old Nebuchadnezzar confessed
it. He knew it. He learned it. He giveth it to whomsoever he
will. You don't decide you want it.
You don't do something to obligate God to give it. You don't earn
it. You don't deserve it. You don't bribe God to give it.
He giveth it to whomsoever He will. It's not free will that
saves a soul, but free grace. And being justified freely by
His grace, Paul said, through the redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in His blood. It's all of grace. And if it
be by grace, Paul said, then it's no more works, otherwise
grace is no more grace. And he said, by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourself. Moses said to
the Lord, show me your glory. He approached that burning bush,
and it wasn't consumed. And this voice spoke to him out
of the bush. I don't know exactly how all
that worked, but I do know what he told him. And here's what
he told Moses, he said, show me your glory. And the Lord said,
all right. He said, I'm going to pass by
before you and I'm going to declare my name to you. And here's what
he told him. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. That's my name. I'll be merciful
to whom I will be merciful. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. That's my name. That's my glory. That's my glory. Salvation front
to back, from beginning to end. It's all of God and it's all
of grace. And every man that God saves
knows the God of all grace. And then the old king learned
lastly, this is the fifth thing, that those who walk in pride,
he's able to bring down. He's able to obey. He'll bring
them down. How many times have you talked
to friends and relatives and people and you say, He's beyond
help. Oh, no, he ain't. I don't care
how proud he is. I don't care how high his standard
is. I don't care how high he walks.
God will bring him down in a heartbeat if he's pleased to do it. At the end of Paul's statement
of the doctrine of justification, he asked this question, Romans
3, verse 27, where is boasting then? You notice we don't have no Wednesday
night testimonials, don't you? I do that on purpose. All that
is is a bunch of boasting. People standing up bragging on
what they did for the Lord. He said, where is boasting then?
In any part or portion of grace, in any of the means provided,
or in the faith itself? Where is boasting? Paul said
it's excluded. It's excluded. And that's why
we don't include it in our worship services. Every child of God
knows what it is to be brought low. And he does this, listen
to this, 1 Corinthians 1.29. He comes to know this, that no
flesh should glory in his presence. No flesh. That's why he called
those. He said, you see your calling,
brethren. Not many mighty. Not many noble. Not many strong
men. Not many wise men are called.
But God has chosen the weak things of the world. The base things
of the world. Why? That no flesh should glory
in His presence. And I tell you this, of the seven
things He mentions, here's the number one thing that God hates.
A proud look. I'm going to tell you something,
and I hope you've got enough experience to understand what
I'm telling you. There's three kinds of pride. There's pride
of face. Look in the mirror. Boy, that
is one handsome man. Look in that mirror. And there's
pride of race. Boy, I'm glad I ain't that color. But the worst of all is pride
of grace. Pride of grace. A man who says,
my hope is in the grace of God, and then looks down his nose
at the guy next to him. Huh? You better be careful. You better be careful. You're
going to be out there with the king, crawling around in the
grass, learning this lesson again. God's able, that proud man, He's
able to abase him. And He will. He will.