Good evening. Open your Bibles,
if you would, to Daniel chapter 4. I'd like us just to kind of look
at this chapter in reflection of this is a letter from a king.
This is King Nebuchadnezzar. He was king of Babylon. And I
want us to look at what his dream was, his sentence that he was
delivered, and also look at his deliverance. What did he learn
from this? He was used as God's judge against Israel. We spoke
a little bit this morning about King Zedekiah and Jeremiah, how
he told him to get out of the city. And King Nebuchadnezzar
was the reason why he needed to get out of the city. He was
the king of Babylon. Babylon's located about, I think
they said, 54 miles outside of modern-day Baghdad. And they
equated King Nebuchadnezzar, just from a history standpoint,
as the greatest king of the East. They said that he was bigger
than what they feel Alexander even was. And the reason they
say that is because of all the ruins that they dug up around
that area. Nine out of ten of the bricks they found had his
name on it. So it lets you know this was no small warlord. He was king of the world at the
time. So God used him to judge Israel. So with that in, taking that
into respect, it's interesting what he learned, and I think
the Lord's in this, I hope, to share with you what he showed
me. So let's read here, starting verse 1, chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar,
the king, unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all
the earth, peace be multiplied to you. These are big words from
a big man. He was king of everything, all
nations, all tribes, all languages in the earth. And he says in
verse 2, I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that
the high God hath wrought towards me. And if the Lord ever does
something for you, you will share it just like he did. So the Lord's
done something from him and he has the means and desire here
to share that. You'll tell people And somebody
might be thinking, well, am I witnessing enough? You won't have to worry
about that if somebody asks you about who you know and about
what he did for you. The Lord's people will tell who
they know and what he did for them. I think the problem comes
in is when nobody asks, we have something to say. It's kicking
doors open that aren't necessarily open. In my own experience, I've
found if I wait, the Lord's in it, he'll open that door. And
we're to wait on him to open that. So in verse three he says,
how great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation
to generation. He had been shown something.
I, Nebuchadnezzar, take note of this, was at rest in my house
and flourishing in my palace. Now I find this interesting how
he describes himself at this point. He's at rest in his house
and flourishing in his palace. So you can go ahead and take
note that if you're at rest in your house and flourishing in
your palace, watch out, because the Lord exacted judgment on
this man for many of the things he did. He's basically saying,
I feel good, I've got lots of money, and I don't have a care
in the world. He's doing just fine, and so
what does he need? He doesn't need anything, he's
doing just fine. How high did he esteem God? What
did he need from him? He didn't need anything from
God. He and his own rights was God and himself and his own land.
What good is a savior if you don't need saving? And this is
where King Nebuchadnezzar was at this time. And in verse five
he says, I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts
upon my bed and the visions in my head, they troubled me. Now
this is me if there's anything. I'm afraid because I saw something. And why is it the only time we
fear, why is it the only time we take careful note of something
is when something pops out and grabs hold of us and scares us. Why can't we do that in the day
to day? Because we're distracted with
everything else. We're worried about where we're going to go
to eat, what we're going to do the next day, what clothes we're
going to wear, and what bills we have to pay. These are the
normal things we have in this life to worry about. But something
caught his attention here that the Lord did for him. So in verse
6 he says, Therefore I made a decree, after having this troubled vision,
to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they
might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.
So did he go to God for help here? Is God who he sought out
to help understand who brought this to him? No. He said he wanted
to bring out every wise man in the land to do this, so everybody
but God or anyone who knew him. So read on. Then came in the
magicians, and the astrologers, and the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers,
and I told the dream before them, but they did not make known unto
me the interpretation thereof. So we find in our own experience
here, often God is often the last resort we seek out after
we've exhausted everything else. Do we find that in our own experience?
When we finally find that we think we have some strength,
we try to bring it into submission. Or maybe I'll look at the problem
and apply some intelligence to it. I want a clever way to get
around this. I think I can get around it this way. And this
is what he was doing by trying to bring in all these wise men,
because some were soothsayers, some were astrologers. He's gonna
throw everything he's got at this at this point. Even money,
he's saying that fixes anything. Or the other way we can address
it is just ignore it altogether. But he's bringing in all these
people to try to address this. So in verse eight, But at the
last, I'm at the last resort because they couldn't tell me
anything, 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 me, And no secret troubleth
thee, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and
the interpretation thereof. Thus were the visions of mine
head in my bed. I saw and behold a tree in the
midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew
and was strong. The height thereof reached unto
heaven, and the side thereof to the end of all the earth.
The leaves thereof were fair, the fruit thereof much, and in
it was meat for all. The beast 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. And I saw in the visions of my
head upon my bed, and behold, a Watcher and an Holy One came
down from heaven. And he cried aloud and said,
thus, hew down the tree, cut off his branches, shake off his
leaves, scatter his fruit, and let the beasts get away from
under it and the fowls from his branches. Nevertheless, leave
the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a 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 beasts
in the grass of the earth. and let his heart be changed
from a man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and
let seven times pass over him. So now, we've heard what the
dream was, so he's explaining what it is. So now I want us
to look at the next verse, which tells us, here's the purpose
of the dream. Verse 17. This matter is by the
decree of the watchers, and the demand of the word of the holy
ones, to the extent that the living may know that the Most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and He giveth it to whomsoever
He will. And he setteth up over it the
basest of men. And these are what I'm gonna
be the next three points that we look at here, these three
things that we're told. That in verse 17 it says, to the intent
that living may know, the first, the most high ruleth in the kingdom
of men. Second, he giveth it to whomsoever he will. And third,
he setteth up over it the basest of men. So first, the most high
ruleth in the kingdom of men. That means that he's king of
kings. That means there's nobody over him, and that if there is
anybody that's powerful in the earth, he's their king. All will
bow before him. Now, some will bow willingly,
and some will be bowing because they're made to bow. But either
way, he's still the king. Every knee will bow at the name
of Jesus. Things in earth, things under
the earth, things above the earth, but they'll bow to his name.
Why? They'll bow because he's God's
son, the anointed, the most highly favored. They'll bow because
he's the savior. He paid with his own blood for
a lost people. He ransomed them, gave his life.
They'll bow because he's the conquering king. Because he's
crushed the devil under his foot. When he died on the cross, he
put away sin. The devil has nothing to say
to me. He also holds the keys to sin and death. There's no
more power sin and death can have because he rules over sin
and death. Because the strength of sin is the law. And he fulfilled
the law, so sin and death have no power here. Now some kings
will rule by might. They rule because they're strong,
stronger than somebody else. Some kings will rule by right. It's because their order in which
they've been born into the family and it's their right to rule.
Both are true of him, but he possesses a greater and a third
attribute in that he's the king that we desire. He's the king
by might. He's the king by right, but he's
also the king because we love him. and we want him to be our
king. There's never been a greater
king, there have never been worse subjects than us, his people.
But he is the king because we love him to be the king. So the
most high ruleth in the kingdom of men. If it's done, it's because
he did it. The second thing that King Nebuchadnezzar
was given to learn was he giveth it, the kingdom, to whomsoever
he will. Now I wanna give you a little
illustration here before I speak about this with regard to he
giveth the kingdom to whomsoever he will. So in my backyard, I
decided one day that I was gonna build a raised garden. You know
where I chose to put that garden? Right underneath my deck, because
that's where I wanted it. And I built it the way I wanted
to build it. I used four by eights, built
it one way, and then made a square raised garden. I put dirt in
it. And you know, I decided what plants that I wanted in it. And
those are the plants I decided to put in it. And I watered it
when I wanted to water it. I didn't do it every day, but
I did it when I wanted to. And when fruit came up from my
garden, I choose what fruits I wanted to eat. And then when
I had my fill, I left what was there. Let the rest of it rot
at the end of the season because I didn't want all of it. But
at the end of the day, this was my garden and I can do whatever
I want with it. That's pretty clear from what
we would experience in our own life and the way we think about
things like that that you would do in your own life. Looking
at this in respect to we are all God's creatures. We're His,
and He can do with us whatever He chooses to do with us, because
we're His, whatever He's pleased to do. And what did He do? He
took some of those people and He put them in Christ. And He
put them in Christ to preserve them, so that when this world
was, they would be preserved, so that He wouldn't have to exact
judgment on them. That's what He chose to do with
His people. This is called election. He elected
a people, put them in Christ before the beginning of the world,
and in time, he calls them to salvation, and that work that
he's done in them, he'll give them a new heart, and he'll raise
them again. It is his work to preserve them. Otherwise, they
would be lost. Now, we have no strength to believe,
no strength to keep the law, and we're condemned outside of
election. It's the only way you can be
saved. And anyone who doesn't love election or the God of election
is outside of Christ. That can't be more plain. God
can do with his people as he's pleased. He's God. He has that
right. So the Most High giveth the kingdom
to whomsoever he will. The third thing King Nebuchadnezzar
was given to learn. He setteth it up over the basest
of men. Is this you, the basest of men? Basest of men just means the
lowest. It means you're nobody, you didn't deserve it, you weren't
strong enough to get it, but he's saying he set it up over
the kingdom with the basest of men. Now if you're ever to be
in the kingdom of heaven, this better be you, the lowest, because
that's the way up in the kingdom of heaven is to go down. If you
will, turn with me over to Luke chapter 4. In verse 18, this is the Lord
reading the Book of Isaiah, when it was delivered to him in the
temple, he said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath
sent me to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
the sight of the blind, and to set at liberty them that are
bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. This is probably
not the way that you and I would do it. This is probably not the
way that the people that we would choose, the poor, the broken-hearted,
the bruised, the blind. These are people really nobody
wants, because really all they can do is be dependent upon somebody
else. They can't do anything for me. So these people are a
burden, but yet these are the people that the Lord chose to
say, these are the people I came to save. These are the people
whom I have an interest in. Aren't you thankful for that?
So he's saying he sets the lowest up in the kingdom. Who is set
on high? The basest, the lowest. Not the
most devout, not the smartest, but the lowest. And this king,
King Nebuchadnezzar, he had to learn this. How did he learn
this? Well, we read it already. They
said cut down the tree. So if we'll pick up reading in
verse 20 here. The tree that you saw, this is
Daniel speaking to him, which grew and was strong, and whose
height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof unto all
the earth, whose leaves were fair, 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 heaven had their
habitation. It is thou, O King." You see,
this tree grew and it got strong, and he said, and thou art grown
and become strong, and from thy greatness is grown, and it reaches
to the heavens, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. We're
looking at the picture right now, this tree, and how this
represents this king, and what attributes we see about this
tree describes him as the man. So first it says the tree grew.
We know that the tree got very large. Now, everyone in here
in their own mind has gotten large in your own mind. How many
things in your life have you not given God the glory for what
you've accomplished in your own life? You've quickly said, you
know, I did pretty well at that. And you've done that. Everybody
has. But that's what this man was
doing. He has grown large. So God is not getting the glory
in here. It also says that he's grown
strong. This speaks of self-righteousness, speaks of presumption, how that
we can provide our own works that God can accept. So it's
saying, I'm strong enough to be able to do this. I can stand
on my own. I have the ability and the power
to do so. What else to say about the tree?
It says the tree was very high. When we think high of ourselves,
what word comes to your mind? Pride came to mind. This man
was prideful. He thought a lot of himself,
and I think we'll see later from his words, it's clear. It says
that he was seen by the whole earth. The word seen jumps out,
lets us know that's vanity. He was a show. Everything about
him was big, king of all the earth, king of all languages,
biggest kingdom there was. Crushed every army around him,
so he had thought a lot of himself. He was vain. And it said underneath
it was fruit and meat for all, all the beasts and fowls of the
air lodged in it. He has no need for God. He has
everything he needs. Meat's there. Shelter's there.
What does he need God for? He's king. He's got everything
he needs. This reminded me at least of the parable the Lord
gave about the rich man. He said his barns were full.
And he said, soul, take thine ease. Your barns are full. I'm
going to tear these down and build a bigger one. And the Lord
said to him, thou fool, this night thy soul should be required
of thee. Then whose things will those
things be that you've saved up? So you see, he's looking to the
wrong reasons here. He's looking to everything around
him, his accomplishments. He's looking to his things and
who he is. So we're seeing pride, vanity.
strength, standing on his own. And in verse 22, he's saying,
King, it's you. With regard to everything we've
said here, pride, vanity, no need for God, strong on our own,
which of these charges are you not guilty of yourself? We can
look at him and say, yeah, he's guilty of that. But in your own
heart of hearts, if you're honest with yourself, you can say you're
guilty of every one of these as well. In verse 23, 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 and even with a band of iron and
brass and 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
of the field until seven times passed over him. Now jump over
to verse 30. And the king spake, and this
is a little bit later after he's heard all this, 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? There's no pride going on here.
While the word was yet 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 place shall be with the beast of the field, and they
shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall
pass over thee, until thou knowest that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men, and he giveth it to whomsoever he will. Now
with regard to yourself, And with regard to this man we see
here, all God has to do is to take his hand off of you, and
you will be wilder than any beast that this man became. Do you
know that about yourself? That except for the Lord's restraining
grace on you, what you would be? He took his hand off of Nebuchadnezzar,
and he made him lose his mind, and he wandered out in the fields
and in the grass for seven years. What he thought or did during
that time, we don't know. But what we do know is it tells
us the trial was for seven years, this trial that he brought in
his life. Why seven? Seven, we know, is the number
of perfection, the number of completion. So then, why does
the Lord send his children these trials? I believe we'll find,
if you turn over to Ephesians chapter four, this lets us know
one of the reasons why the Lord does this. In Ephesians 4, in the first
half of this verse 12, he says, it's for the perfecting of the
saints. What is the perfecting of the
saints? The perfecting of the saints is the maturation, the
maturing of our faith, the maturing of our walk, the maturing of
our view in this world. Now, if you are saved, you are
holy. You're never more holy. You're
never less holy. To be very clear, this has nothing
to do with sanctification. You're either sanctified, which
is holy, or you're not. There are no degrees of holiness.
There are no degrees of growth in sanctification. So that has
to be clear from the outset. But what we do have is growth
in this world because you have your flesh, you have your new
man. What do you know today and what
faith, the strength of your faith today is different from maybe
the first day you ever heard the gospel? There's growth there.
There's time, there's experiences, there's things you learned. This
is what the perfecting of the saints is. And I believe this
is what the Lord here was performing to Nebuchadnezzar during this
trial. We're never more holy, we're
never less. There's nothing else required for our entrance to
heaven. If you're holy, then you can
only be holy. Yet the Lord bestows his blessings
on his people through envelopes with black borders. He uses trials
in order to teach us. Sometimes it's the only time
we listen. And when he can block out all the other nonsense that
I'm distracted by, kind of as I said earlier, what causes me
to be afraid is when something grabs hold of me. I quit worrying
about what I'm going to have for dinner tonight, where I've
got to go to work tomorrow. Do I have clothes ready? Are
my bills paid? All these other things that distract
us really don't mean anything. but yet the Lord can grab hold
of you." And he shook this tree. He cut this tree down, brought
him down low so that he could see what he was and who the Lord
was. Now, for a believer, the Lord
uses this for perfecting the saints, to growth in grace, maturing
in the faith. But to someone who is not a believer,
who's not one of the Lord's children, they're gonna get mad. Probably
get mad at God for the trial and for the difficulty in their
life. These people get mad and they leave. They want nothing
to do with the Lord. If this is what it costs in order
for me to be associated with the gospel, if that's what they
associate this with, they'll leave. So the Lord's people won't
do that. The Lord's people, it'll cause
you to pray more, It'll cause you to seek His face more. How
sweet is the gospel when you're in the midst of a trial. You
may have nothing else that you can rest on, that you can lean
on and say, I've got some comfort in this. But you know when you
come where the gospel's preached, where the Lord's promised he'll
be, that's where I go for comfort. That's where I go for a word,
that's where I go for a cool drink so that I can know that
I'm the Lord's and he's loving me and I'm gonna be okay. Even
though I can't see it at the time, but we go to hear that,
the Lord's people. It doesn't drive them away from
God, it drives them to God. And so this is what it does for
the Lord's people. What would you know of mercy had you not
needed it? Had the Lord shown you that you
couldn't bail yourself out, and apart from him doing something
for you, you won't even know what mercy is. That's what mercy
is, is knowing that he's gotta do it for me. And I am completely
reliant on him, and if he doesn't do it for me, I won't have it. What would I know of mercy apart
from him putting me through that experience to feel that? What
would I know of the patience that I've learned, which is not
a lot, but what would I know of patience had the Lord not
been silent? What a trial that is when the Lord feels that he
shuts off communion with you. He's just silent. You don't feel
like you hear your prayers, you don't feel like you're able to
worship when you come to services, but yet it causes me to wait.
What would I have ever learned of waiting if he had not put
me through that and made me to wait? What would we ever know
about being gracious to others had someone else not been gracious
with me? There are times, many times,
that I've said really stupid things with my mouth that I shouldn't
have said or done things that I shouldn't have done, when by
all rights, I deserve to have somebody come down on me for
it. But somebody dealt kindly with me. They didn't come down
on me. They dealt graciously with me.
That lends me to see that I'm to be gracious to others. What
would I know of my other inability? had he not shown me my weakness.
And the Lord shows that in a lot of different ways. But I think
specifically when we're given sickness, it shows us how quickly
the strength's gone. He lays you on your back in a
bed and you don't realize how frequently we should be praying
for, Lord, give me strength for the day. Something we don't even
think about often. And it can be taken from us so
quickly. You look at the other side of
that is, we have no spiritual strength whatsoever. If he doesn't
give it to us, that's why we pray for the Lord, send your
spirit here when we preach the gospel, quicken your people.
Because if he doesn't, it's just words. We're just sitting here,
and what are we doing? We can't worship, we can't hear. I need that strength. I need
him to do that for me. I wouldn't trade the experience
of being separated from that because it's taught me how precious
it is when I do have it. What would we know of the sweet
had we not tasted the bitter? And this is what the Lord puts
his people through in this life when he goes through trials.
These things are precious because they're learned through experience.
For some, perfecting may come on the road to Emmaus, when the
Lord was walking with those disciples, and He enlarged their spiritual
understanding by expounding the Gospel to them, telling them
who He was, showing Himself in the Scriptures. There was spiritual
maturing going on. That's how the Lord used that
experience in them. But for others, it might be being
dragged by the hand out of a burning sodom. I've found more so that's
my experience. I have to have the Lord drag
me through a trial because I don't know any better what to do. So,
whatever it is, we have to look at, what are we learning through
this perfecting? It's not, at the time we can't
see it, but when the Lord brings us on the other side, it's always
for our spiritual betterment, so that we can trust more. What would you know more about
your faith? And for his faithfulness, had
he not caused you to wait on him. So what did King Nebuchadnezzar
hear? Because he's the one who's been
through the trial we're looking at here. What did he learn through
this experience? Well, in verse 34, he says, at
the end of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven,
and my understanding returned unto me. His understanding. What was the first thing that
he did once his understanding returned to him? He said, 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. The first thing
that he did was bless the Lord God. And he praised and he thanked
him for who he was. That's the first thing he did.
He understood to give God the glory in all that he did, even
though we're pawns in his hand. But yet everything that he's
doing in this life is all built around the salvation and perfecting
of his people. Everything that he does. We might
not see it. It might not be about me. It might be about somebody
else over here that I'm affecting, and that the Lord's using that
for their spiritual perfection. He learned from this, in this
first verse, he learned to be thankful. He learned to be thankful
for God to provide it for him and to bring him out of this
trial. The second thing here in verse 35, 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? Did he have a high view of himself anymore? These words
here are not somebody who has a high view of himself anymore.
He understands, me included, the king of everything in the
world here, reputed as nothing. He said, I'm nothing. The Lord
taught this man humility, taught this man his place. He was bowed
down sinner. And that's what this man learned.
He was reputed as nothing. When you're nothing, you don't
have any problem being the lowest. You have nowhere to go because
you're already nothing. When you're nothing, you have
nothing to look up to. And he said he doeth according
to his will. He held no judgment on God for
what his providences were. he doeth according to his will.
Not my will, not my wishes, not what I want. It's what his will
is. He was resigned to the Lord's
will and not in a way where he's resigned ungratefully saying,
I know it's the Lord's will. That's not what we're called
to be. We're called to say, Lord, thank you for whatever your will
is and trust him that it's for our good and for his glory. And
he said, none can stay his hand. His purpose and his will will
always be accomplished. What of the Lord's promises?
Name one that's ever not been fulfilled. There's not one. He
brought this heathen king into Jerusalem and he's taken this
heathen king and he's turned his heart. And he was thankful
for this. Consider this, he has the power
to make you clean. If He cleanses you, washes you
from your sins, and He makes you clean, is there anyone, is
there anything that can make you unclean? The devil himself
can't. The people of this world can't.
And even you yourself, even if you look at yourself and you
say, I'm in my flesh as I am right now, I don't see it. I
feel unclean. I'm clean if He says I'm clean,
whether I see it or not. He has the power to make me clean.
And the next thing he learned, his reasoning in verse 36, at
the same time, my reason returned unto me and for the glory of
my kingdom, my honor and my 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. The Lord will bless
his people, even turn the heart of this heathen king." If he
can turn the heart of this heathen king who this Belteshazzar named
for Daniel, that was the name of one of his gods. So he, I
mean, this was a heathen king that he turned his heart to see
who the Lord God was. He wasn't one of the gods. He
was the God. He turned his heart, he gave
his reasoning, and he's seeing that in everything the Lord did
for him, and the Lord didn't have to do any of these things
for him. In verse 36 where he said, he gave him the glory of
his kingdom, his honor and his brightness, his counselors went
to him and he added excellent majesty, was added unto him.
These are things for more than what he had before. The Lord
didn't have to do those things, but the Lord is gracious and
full of mercy. He learned those things about
the Lord during this time when the Lord turned to us. And now
in verse 37, he says, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, extol,
and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and
his ways are judgment. And those that walk in pride,
he's able to abase. He said, Now I see his works,
they're the truth. My works, salvation by works,
anything that has nothing to do with my works, the logical
inference there is it's not true. The Lord won't accept that, but
His works, everything that He does, that's truth, and His ways
are judgment. When we look at His ways, we
can see how He can be just and justify our sins. His ways are
just. How He sees me, if He says I'm
clean, even in the moment that I'm sinning right now, I'm clean
and He's just for it. Because He paid for those sins
and that's how I'm seen in Christ. And King Nebuchadnezzar goes
on to say, all those that walk in pride, well he knows just
how to deal with them. He goes, look what he did to
me. Made me walk as a beast in the forest and lose my mind.
So the Lord knows just how to meet our pride on the grounds
that we approach. Now, how precious are his trials
that he sends for the perfecting of his saints? Now, we can't
see them often as precious at the time, because it's a trial.
It's meant to be a trial. But yet, on the other side, just
as King Nebuchadnezzar here saw, after he brought him out of the
trial, he thanked the Lord for him. He thanked the Lord for
blessing him, for restoring him, and for giving him a right view
of who God was. Even though temporarily, often
on the other side of trials, sometimes we're not maybe as
good a situation as we were before it. Outwardly, but inwardly,
the gold that's been wrought in your heart by the Lord teaching
you through that trial, there's no price for that. There's no
price for being able to trust His faithfulness because He was
faithful to you when you needed it. None of his children will
ever trade knowing more of his faithfulness, knowing more of
his long-suffering, and knowing more of his love for his people,
or of his mercy, which endures forever. Now this was a letter
from a king, King Nebuchadnezzar. I pray God would give you the
same spirit that he gave this king. Cause us to be thankful,
cause us to know that he's on the throne, and cause us to know
that all the things that he sends in our lives are for the perfecting
of the saints.