Did you say he's still in Sylva?
He's not got to Ashby yet? They haven't got him to Ashby.
They plan on taking him to Ashby. He's got some kind of issue with
his intestine. He's having some extended stomach
and so there may be a blockage down there of some sort. Plus
they, the coronary doctor yesterday at Sylva said that he's having
some heart issues. Don't know what they are. Could
be the fluctuation of the heart from the pain. that's going through,
we don't know, but eventually he's headed for Asheville, which I thought he
was going yesterday. That's when Arlene called me today. She said
she was having Cynthia pack her bag and get ready to go. But
they kept him over. But when I was over there, they
had got rid of the swelling in the stomach, and he was feeling
pretty good then. He was feeling like old Fred. But remember him
in your prayers, because we don't know exactly what's ahead for
him. Also remember Pat Sweeney's family. The funeral for Pat,
the visitation is at Longhouse tomorrow at 6 to 8. Funeral's
at 2 o'clock at the Longhouse Chapel on Tuesday. And I'll be
presiding in that service. So remember that family. Did
anybody say anything about them coming up here after the service?
No. Debbie was going to ask you.
Nobody said anything about it. I'm asking some of the family
that told me they were coming up here after the service. They
were? You think we ought to prepare? Well, I probably wouldn't be
able to find out. You think you could find out? Well, find out if we need to
do that, because we need to get on the stick and get it done.
OK. All right. Also, continue to
remember Dee Parks and your prayers and his family. And the others
who requested a prayer. Rain French, how's rain doing?
Sharon? He's doing better. Good. Good. Glad to hear that. Oh my goodness. Allie Smith. I had an aunt named Allie. We
called her Pokey. She used to tat. Y'all know what
tatting is? Making lace. I used to love to watch her do
that. She was really good. Lost Arch,
these things are. after service this morning we'll
have the Lord's table and no afternoon service. That's all
the announcements I think. So remember those who requested
prayer. Let's begin our worship service with hymn number six.
Hymn number six, Come Thou Almighty King. ? Come Thou Almighty King ? ? Help
us, I name to sing ? ? Help us to praise ? Father all glorious
? O'er all victorious ? Come and reign over us ? Ancient of
days ? Come thou incarnate word ? Gird on thy mighty sword ?
Our prayer attest Come and thy people bless, and give thy word
success. Spirit of holiness, on us descend. Come, holy comforter. Now who, almighty art, now rule
in every heart, and there from us depart, spirit of power. ? To the great one in three ? ?
Eternal praises be ? ? Hence evermore ? ? His sovereign majesty
? ? May we in glory sing ? ? And to eternity love and adore ? After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 129. If you have your Bibles, turn
to Daniel chapter 4. A year before what I'm going
to read you takes place, Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream. and the dream
was that there was a tree a huge beautiful tree out in the middle
of the world and a holy one from heaven came down and cut down
that tree but left the stump and the root and then that tree
flourished again and grew again and he wanted to interpret that
dream and he called for his diviners and his seers and they couldn't
come up with anything so he called for Daniel, who he had named
Belteshazzar, called for him and Daniel interpreted the dream. He said, that tree is you and
your greatness and God is going to cut you down. He said, and you're going to
go and be a beast for a season and then God's going to raise
you up again. Now, that was the interpretation of the dream,
and a year later, because human beings just can forget stuff
they don't want to remember. In verse 28 of Daniel chapter
4, the Bible says, All that the
prophet had said concerning him came upon Nebuchadnezzar, and
this is how it happened. At the end of 12 months, he walked
in the palace of Babylon. The king spake and said, Is not
this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom
by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? And while the word was in the
king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar
to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee and they
shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the
beast of the field now shall make thee to eat grass as oxen
and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the
Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he was driven from men, and
did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with dew of heaven,
till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails
like bird's claws. And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding
returned to me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? Let us pray. Our Father, we are full of wonder when we
read of your greatness and your majesty in this glorious book.
It teaches us about you and how you do things. It teaches us
what you've done and shows us clearly that the poor creatures
of this earth that you have created have no rule over you, have no
influence over you, but you rule even to the point of taking a
great majestic king and turning him into a beast of the field
and then returning him to his right mind and restoring his
kingdom. Father, we praise you and are
thankful that in your great wisdom and purpose you took on human
flesh and dwelt among us without sin and died in the room instead
of your people, finished their salvation, redeemed them by your
blood, made Christ to be in them wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. made them accepted
in the beloved gave them inheritance where they are heirs of god and
joined heirs with jesus christ and all because of your love
and grace and mercy and nothing from them that could have contributed
or could have caused it to be brought about we pray to you
that we can this hour say with joy in our hearts Jesus Christ
is all our salvation and all our hope and all your glory. Help us now to worship your Father.
We pray for those who are sick. Remember especially Brother Fred
as he's awaiting some kind of answer to his problem. We pray
that you'd be with those doctors and give them great skill. Be
with Arlene and the rest of the family and minister to them.
Pray Father for The family of Pat Sweeney should be with them. Cause them to look to Christ.
We know that death is the end of all things. It's the end of
human life as we know it. It's the end of the flesh. We
know it's not by accident. It's only by appointment and
purpose. So with this death, you once
again call people together to hear the gospel. Give me grace
to preach. Father, this day, as we take
the Lord's table and commemorate the death of Jesus Christ that
settled our situation forever, as we hear the gospel, as we
spend time together around the table, let us do so with joy
in our hearts and full knowledge that we are your children. your
beloved. That you have loved us with an
everlasting love and because you loved us you drew us to Christ
and taught us. Let us ever be thankful. Let
us love one another and love you supremely. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Hymn number 129. And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I? At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rolled away
It was there by grace I received my sight And now I am happy all
the day Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the
tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And love beyond degree At the
cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden
of my heart rolled away. It was there by grace I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well might the sun
in darkness hide, and shut his glories in, when Christ the mighty
maker At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burnout of my heart rolled away,
it was there my grace I received. I am happy all the day. But drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away
? All that I can do ? At the cross, at the cross ? Where I
first saw the light ? And the burden of my heart rolled away
? It was there by grace I received my sight ? And now I am happy
all the day Next, Stan and Steve to receive
the auction this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again, we
come in the name of Jesus Christ, the blessed name, the blessed
gift, the perfect gift that came down from the Father of lights,
in whom there is no variables, no shadow of turning, freely
given to all your children, and with him freely given all things
to them. What a thing to think that you
came to this world and gave yourself to folks like us. And with that,
gave us everything. As we return to thee, that which
you've given us, that which rightfully belongs to you, let us do so
with joy and thanksgiving that you have granted us such a grand
privilege to be a part of the work here and in other places.
We thank you, Lord, in Christ's name. Amen. and and Yeah. I invite your attention back to
Daniel chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar has seen some
things that ought to make a man think about
everything he does and think about God before he does
anything. In chapter 3, he built a great idol in the plain of
Dura, some 70 feet tall and made of gold, and sent out a decree
to the people that when they heard the sound of sack bolt
and psaltery and music everyone in Babylon was to come and fall
down and worship this idol that he had made in the plain of Dura and everybody came except three
young fellas named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and they
wouldn't go And some Chaldeans who hated the Jews came to Nebuchadnezzar
and said, there's three fellows over here that's not worshiping
this God. And so Nebuchadnezzar called Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego and said, you've got to fall down and worship. And
they said, we're not going to do that. He said, well, I'll put
you in a fire furnace if you don't. They said, well, you may
put us in a fire furnace. It'll be all right. It ain't
the way we'd like to go, but that's how God has said we're
gonna go. But know this, King, we're not gonna bow down to your
idol, because we worship the true and living God. Nebuchadnezzar
was mad, and he told them to put more rocks on the fire, to
put more wood in the fire, to build up the fire furnished so
hot that the people who were actually feeding the fire got
singed and died. And then they threw Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, three boys, and they were boys, in
their teens who had been made eunuchs, so they never had a
future of a family or anything like that. They threw them in
that fire. Nebuchadnezzar had got his justice.
And as he looked in the fire, there was a fourth person in
the fire. And he said, lo, I think that's
the Son of God in that fire. and Shadrach, Meshach were not
only not burned, their clothes were not burned, they didn't
even smell like smoke when it was all over with. You'd think,
boy, if I'd seen something like that, if I'd seen something like
that, surely I'd be thinking about God. But he didn't. Then he had that dream that I
told you about, that Daniel interpreted, a dream that told him that the
kingdom was going to be taken from him, that God was going
to come down from heaven, the Holy One come down from heaven
and cut him down. and then his kingdom would be
restored. But first he's going to be cut down. He saw some things
this man did. He heard some things. He dreamed
some things. He'd seen some things that had
made him go full on religious. Every time he saw something like
this he praised and extolled God. But the way with human beings
That's the way when they see something that's beyond the scope
of their intellect, understanding, or imagination, they speak in
terms of the sublime. I've heard men say when confronted
with a wonder of such magnitude that they are overwhelmed, there
must be a God. There is a God. Well, that's
just a religious utterance. That's all that is. It's not
a confession of faith or an adherence to truth. It's just a regurgitative
and one that's dumbfounded. Nebuchadnezzar has seen Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego joined in the fiery furnace, but one
likened to the Son of God. He's seen the young men come
from the furnace not smelling like smoke. He's heard their
refusal to bow to the gods of Babylon and gets downright theological
when he sees all this. Look at chapter 3 in verse 28
and 29. These are the words of Nebuchadnezzar after Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. Then Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that
trusted him and have changed the king's word, because the
king had made a law. and yielded their bodies that
they might not serve nor worship any god of their own. Therefore
I make a decree, make another law here, that every people,
nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the god
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their
houses shall be a dunghill, because there is no other god that can
deliver after this sort. Now there are gods that can deliver
after some sort, I'm sure he's thinking, but not this way. But
he extols and he gets plumb. He gets plumb theological. Those
are good statements. Those are good statements that
he makes. Was he a believer? There's no indication of that.
There's no indication of that. No, the first verse of our text
reveals that. He was a man whose best laid
plans were thwarted, whose law had been shown utterly useless
and had to say something to cover his tracks and feigned humility
is the tried and true escape of those who are caught. and here in the fourth chapter
he has a dream about a great tree in the midst of the earth
that was cut down by a holy one that's what it says the holy
one from heaven and the remaining stump once again flourished again
and Daniel interpreted the dream for the king saying it's your
kingdom it's you you're going to be cut down and he heard his
future asked for an interpretation he got the interpretation so
he knew what was ahead of him he knew what was coming I expect that it kept him in
check for a while, probably, but after 12 months, it's a little
different. Oh, the difference a year can
make. Oh, how the mind can overcome fear when things prophesied did
not immediately come to pass. An observance of pleasant circumstances
can anesthetize the memory. Over in Ecclesiastes, the preacher
said because judgment doesn't come speedily. Men set into their
heart to do evil. Verse 30 is the BEGINNING of
the FULFILLMENT of the DREAM that he had. It's an ILLUMINATION
of verse 17. It says, and said, It 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. Back in
verse 17 it says, This matter is a decree out of the watchers
and the demand of the word of the holy ones to the intent that
the living may know that the Most High ruleth the kingdom
of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will and setteth up over them
the basest of men. That's a fulfillment. My power,
my majesty, my kingdom, the basest of men. This story is a picture
of conversion by sovereign power. Conversion is being translated
from one kingdom to another. Here it's done twice. He's translated
from the kingdom of man to the kingdom of beast and then from
the kingdom of beast back to the kingdom of man. Lot's wife
was translated from the kingdom of humanity, the kingdom of a
being, to the kingdom of salt, to the kingdom of minerals. She
became a condiment there. That's a true conversion. What
does it say of us who were once in the realm of the darkness
of light? It says our Lord has translated
us from the kingdom of darkness, to the kingdom of his own dear
son that's a conversion that's a conversion and this is Nebuchadnezzar's
own story showing and honoring the power and majesty and sovereignty
of God it's the story of the holy one from heaven coming down
and cutting people down and then raising them up again that's
what this story is about And if you're true in what you know
about your own situation as far as what God has done for you,
this is what happened to you. He cut you down before He raised
you up. Now before He cut you down, you were something else.
You had some majesty in your mind, some might and power in
your mind until God cut you down in a dream. That's how it happened. Never gets another found out
about it. God spoke in those days in this manner, but no longer. Hebrews 1 said God who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets
hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son or in his Son
or in Son that is the language that is talked about in Zephaniah
chapter 3 when he says I'll turn them to a pure language. Visions
and dreams are extra biblical. People talk about them a lot.
If you have a dream and it comes true I'm thankful for that. My
grandmother was kind of a dreamer, and sometimes she had dreams
that come true. I never, no use to question that. It's like,
have you ever seen a ghost? Well, I ain't gonna tell you
whether I have or not, but I'll tell you this, a lot of people
have seen ghosts. There's things in this world we can't explain,
and we're not to go there, to be honest with you. What is explained
to us and is necessary for our understanding is here in this
book. Everything else is fluff, trust
me on this. extra biblical things people
say God told me and I used to say this because it sounded so
preachery and religious God has led me you know God has led me
to the I don't know I like what Oral Barnard said God or somebody
give me this message and that's how it is but people talk about
being led by the spirit show me you can't do it our life is
healed with Christ and God We don't know what the heck we're
doing most of the time. We're floundering about in this
world. God gives us an instance here and there where we go back
to his book and call out on his name and get centered and see
things as they really are. But most of the time we're floundering
about. Our minds are going everywhere. Spirit led me. God told me. If somebody says that, watch
out. They're after you. They're after your wallet. They're
after your money. Our Lord said, he that hath a dream, let him,
the prophet that hath a dream, let him tell his dream in Jeremiah
23, let him tell his dream. But he that hath my word, let
him preach my word faithfully, for what is the wheat to the
chaff? My word is like a hammer and
like a fire. He said, if you have my word, you preach my word.
You don't preach your dreams, you don't preach your thoughts,
you don't have these extra biblical revelations that come along.
It's what God has said, this is what we have, this is all
we have. But he had a dream. That's the
way God operated back then. He visited men in dreams. But
we walk by faith and not by sight. And in this dream Nebuchadnezzar
was shown these things by a watcher. That's how he's described a watcher
who is a holy one. That's how he's described. No
doubt that these point to the Lord Jesus Christ. The root of
both words is angel, which means messenger. An ANGEL is a MESSENGER. Christ is the ANGEL of the COVENANT.
That is how He is described. The ANGEL is the MESSENGER. He
is the MESSENGER. If you read HEBREWS, you will
find that He is the MESSAGE and He is the MESSENGER. He is BOTH
the MESSENGER and the MESSAGE. Christ is the ANGEL of the COVENANT,
the MESSENGER. He is called, named in John 1 as the WORD of
GOD. He, a PERSON, is the WORD of God. In the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and
we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father full of
grace and truth. The WATCHER who is a holy one.
Watcher means one that never sleeps. That is how Christ is
described in Psalm 121. He never sleeps and He never
slumbers. The Holy One is the title that belongs to Christ
alone. That is how He is described to Paul. Paul, you will see the
Holy One. The Holy One. So Nebuchadnezzar was shown what
was to come by none other than Jesus Christ Himself. The Holy
One came down from Heaven. The WATCHER! The MESSENGER! cut down the tree. When one is
privileged to hear the gospel and be converted, the course
of their life is laid out before them. This is what you learn
about how God saves sinners when you hear the truth. Three things. A great rise. Now men are under
the illusion that they are captains of their own destinies. That's a sentence that's an oxymoron. if you have a destiny, you can't
be captain. Now think about it, if you have
a destiny, that means it's already set. This is how you're going
to end up. So how can you be the captain
of it? If you don't have anything to do with it. So when people
say, well I'm the captain of my own destiny, that just proves
one thing. They're dumber than a bag of
hammers because that just can't be settled. You're not the captain
of anything. Maybe you're the captain of the
dunghill you live on. I don't know. Maybe that. But men are
under that delusion. They believe that if they have
risen to great heights that they are responsible for their sin.
Look at people who are in great power. They have this This air
of dignity and majesty and arrogance and hubris about them. You look
at them and you think, these people have made it. You can
tell when they walk in the room. They ain't walk in the room like
I do with my head hung down and looking up under my glasses like
that. They walk in there with their head held high and they
walk in there like they're somebody. Because they believe they are.
And on the human scale, they are. Among human beings, they
are, big time. But what if they're not risen
to great heights? Well, they believe it's not because
they're not worthy in their own mind, but they're being held
back by circumstance or something. It's holding them back from what
they could really be. That's what all this self-help junk
is today that's traveling in the pulpits of America where
they're using this book as a self-help guide. you know, things are holding
you back, you don't have enough faith, you don't have the spirit,
you really need to get these things going and you'll reach
to great heights. The highest you'll ever be in
this world is when you're on the belly, on your belly, in
a wagon rut, praising God. That's the highest and noblest
thing you'll ever be. The fact, however, is that it
is God who puts men where they are read Psalm 40. It's God who puts men where they
are. He puts princes on the throne
and takes them down. No use to gripe about who's president
right now, though I do gripe about it, like I griped about
the last one, like I griped about the one before on certain things.
There's no use to gripe about it. You know why? Because though
we voted, we didn't put them in office. God did. We were tools
in this situation. You say, well, Did he make a
mistake? No, he didn't make a mistake.
He left his throne. We might all ask the question,
where are we when this is the leader that God has put on the
throne? But promotion neither comes from
the East nor the West. Scripture says it comes from
the Lord. It comes from the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar was great, there
was no doubt about it. Nebuchadnezzar was a great man
as far as men go, but he was great because God made him great.
God said he would and he did. It was all according to God's
purpose. In his case he was made great
to be brought down and then be raised up again as an example,
as a picture of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. The issue with Nebuchadnezzar
is the issue with all men and all women by nature, and that
is pride. Pride is one useless thing. One
useless thing. It's one of the things God said
He hates in Proverbs. A proud look. Pride, conceit,
these things are products of humanity that turns them away
from God and causes them to refuse to acknowledge God for who He
is. Pride. now all pride is not evil it's
okay if you have pride in your work that is if you do a good
job it'll make you do a better job if you take pride in your
work it's okay even commendable to praise your children for their
efforts in sports and things like that if they do well in
school you can be proud that's alright that's alright the pride
that is spoken of here is pride before God in the face of a clear
declaration from God that this was going to happen is being proud about something
you had nothing to do with that's a very important to understand
vain pride empty pride useless pride erroneous pride is pride
in something that you had nothing to do with that comes in four
categories or three really face place and race. Let's add a fourth. Grace. I've seen some people who are
so proud in grace that they think they're theological geniuses. And all that's useless. If you
have a pretty face, God gave you a pretty face. Or you could
be like me and not have one, but God gave me the one I got.
If you're in a special place, whether it be geographically
or whether it be in society, you didn't get yourself there.
God did. The community didn't. The world didn't. God did. And race. I'm what is commonly
called a eunuch. On this earth, I'm a white man. I'm proud to be a white man.
Why would I be proud to be a white man? I had nothing to do with
it. Why would you be proud to be a Native American? You had
nothing to do with it. God made you that way. You're at the place
God made you, the race God made you, and you have the face God
made you. And if you're fortunate, you
have God's grace. Pride. Nebuchadnezzar had seen things
that ought to have taught him something. He had seen the power
of God in the furnace. He knew that his plans had been
thwarted by God. He even said, God, change my
word. He had been told in a dream that
his pride would be his downfall. A mighty tree in the world is
going to be cut down. Pride in the face of God is hearing
that God saves sinners only by the blood and righteousness of
Jesus Christ and believing that there shall somehow you have
a better way or you have another way. That's what pride is. The height
of pride is to say that Jesus Christ's work on Calvary's tree
is not effectual unless I believe it. or unless I will to believe
it, unless I make a decision on it. That's the height of human
pride and it's despicable and it's an abomination. This is
the story of humanity, however. Adam was great. He was made great.
He was given dominion over all that God had made, yet pride,
belief that God would not do what he had threatened to do,
and believes that he had a different way brought the whole human race
to ruin. Pride. To refuse to bow to God
in the face of the clear declaration is pride. It's pride. It is, in truth, to claim deity
for self. Make no mistake here. Everyone
either believes that God is God, and this is just so, or they
believe themselves to be God. one of those two things if you do not submit to god in
somewhere down deep inside you believe you believe that he submits
to you that your will is greater than
his will Nebuchadnezzar believed that when he said oh Babylon great
Babylon that I have made my majesty and my power. Conversion from kingdom of man
to kingdom of beast took place to this fellow. Look around you. Look around
you. Those who don't know Christ are
still yet in the kingdom of beast. David said that, but don't compare
yourself with somebody else, some other fallen creature. That's
not going to do any good. cuz I know who you'll pick. You
won't pick somebody that thinks above you. You'll find somebody
in the gutter to talk about. Joe Smoll over there. I ain't
like him. Compare yourself with the only
real and perfect human being that ever walked the face of
the earth. There's where humanity is. Jesus Christ was a perfect
human being. He is humanity. He is what humanity
is and should be and ought to be. How do you stack up against
him? he who lived a totally selfless
life. Everything he did, he did for
somebody else because he loved people. I don't do so good in
that category, do you? He gave himself his life that
those who despised him might live or would live. He walked in this world and never
had a sinful thought or an evil thought. Never sinned. Had no sin. How do you compare to that? It's
like the old fella that said about evolution. He said people
look at monkeys and say, look how far we've come. When you
ought to be looking at God and say, how far have we fallen?
How far have we fallen? No wonder David said, David said
this, I was a beast before thee. He said that. The sweet psalmist
of Israel. Listen, if God has designs on
you for your recovery, you will be brought down. You will be
brought to the end of yourself like the prodigal son. You'll
be brought to the place of ruin and humiliation. One man said,
actually it wasn't a white man, it was a woman named Hannah.
She said before he makes you alive, he's going to kill you.
Before he puts clothes on you, he's going to strip you naked.
Before he brings you up, he's going to bring you down. O King,
that mighty tree is you. I'm going to cut you down. Then I'm going to bring you back
to life. All this will be for a singular
purpose. When you are clean gone. When
you have nowhere to turn. When you are like a beast and
can no longer communicate with those around you if you are his.
you will be brought to a singular place until you know. Until you know. How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of men that bring good tidings,
that publishes peace, that publishes salvation, that say unto Zion,
Thy God reigneth. That's the first thing you go
find out. Nebuchadnezzar knew some stuff.
He had seen some stuff. Listen to his testimony. Verse 34, At the end of the days,
I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes into heaven. My understanding returned to
me, and I blessed, eulogized, said great things about. I blessed
the Most High, and I praised and honored Him, that liveth
forever, whose dominion, power over everything, is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is forever, it's from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth, all of them are reputed as nothing. that I have built by my might, I am nothing. That's quite a leap, isn't it?
That's quite a leap from that place to this place. But that's
where God has brought him. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. Isaiah said he sat upon the circle
of the earth and viewed all its inhabitants as grasshoppers. And he doeth according to his
will, not according to my will, His will in the army of heaven. That means He rules in heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. That means everybody
who walks and talks and breathes upon the top side of this planet.
And nobody can stop Him. Nobody can stay His hand. He
puts His hand out and you cannot turn it back. When He puts His
hand to a thing, you cannot stop Him. He is unstoppable. People
think that they can, by their deeds and by their actions, somehow
thwart God's plan. They don't. He can't be stopped. And not only that, nobody, nobody
can ask why or what are you doing. I saw this thing about, Debbie
read me this thing about this influence of so-called progressive
Christianity that's going on today in the world. It's a big
deal. And one of the things is that you must be a critic of
the scripture. You must be able to question
scripture. You must be asked why. You must deal that way.
You must be a critical thinker when it comes to scripture. No,
we're an obeyer and a bower when it comes to scripture. Now we
may have critical thinking about every other thing in the world,
and have debates and have conversations and have differences about things.
But here, it's believe or bow! Believe or burn! This is God's
book! Nobody can say that! Nobody can
ask God, What are you doing? Why did you do that? He doesn't
give account of His matters. That's what it says in Job 33.
He doesn't give account of His matters. He's not going to tell
you. It's none of your business. Not
only that, you probably wouldn't like the answer. He's God and
you're not. At the same time, my reason returned
to me. And for the glory of my kingdom,
my honor and brightness returned to me. My counselors and my Lord
sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellently
His majesty was added to me, and now I am Nebuchadnezzar.
praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works
are truth, his ways are judgment, and those that walk in pride
he is able to obey." He is able to obey. It started when he was a beast and
God opened his eyes and he looked away. He looked away from the
fields and the grass. He looked away from the claws
and the hair on his back like feathers. He looked away from
all that. He looked away from Babylon. He looked away from
the kingdom. He looked up yonder. He looked
at him who sits at the right hand of the Father on high. He
said, that's when my understanding started to come back. My understanding
returned to me. Oh, that we'd practice that.
We'd learn to practice that. Our lives are troubled. To say
they're not is just, would be foolish. Troublesome times we
live in, scary, weird. I mean, God has given for the
last probably 50 years, he's given us children to tell us
what's right and wrong. And we listen to him. Trouble on every hand. wars and
rumors of wars all these things are taking place what are you
going to do? I tell you if you want to keep
really really busy just watch what's going on our direct TV was cut off I didn't have any TV for two weeks
and I didn't suffer and I wasn't angry I didn't get
mad. It's a cruel, cold world. Look
away. Lift your eyes to the Son of
God. He's perfect. He doeth all things
well. And He is running this show,
doing according to His will. in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth and he can't be stopped and he
can't be questioned and he knows how to abase the
proud thank God for who he is he's raised up he's raised up
his ways truth judgment mercy and grace. That's his ways. Thank
God for it. We're taking this table because
of the king of heaven. He came down and died in the
room instead of his people, and reviewed himself to his people,
cut him down, and raised him up. And he did it for the glory
of God and for the good of his people. And he accomplished salvation
fully and freely. When we commemorate his death,
we take him to the table, the Lord's table. And we're saying,
this is what my hope is. This is why I'm a child of God. No other reason. And the fact that he died in
Irene's table. His death is my life. What a
wonder that he is. That's why we receive this table.
This table is for those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ. This table
is for sinners and saved by rain. None of us are worthy to take
this table. This table is in declaration
of His willingness to be praised. And so as we take the Lord's
table today, let us be filled with joy and thanksgiving, knowing
that He has fixed the situation of our sin forever, with the
thrice-worthy God. We praise you for that death
that you died, that accomplished our redemption and our salvation,
and gave us life that is eternal and will never end. We bow before
you for who you are, for your sovereign majesty, for your wondrous
purpose in the salvation of the world. We thank you for the body
and blood of Jesus Christ. In his name we say amen. He took the bread and break it
and gave it to his disciples and said, Take ye, this is my
body, go from here. So all the nations did agree. The same night he took the cup, and after
he blessed it, he said, This cup, is the new covenant, the
new testament in my blood. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you shall feel my death, until I come again. Do this for me, Lord Jesus. And then the record says they sang
a hymn, and the Lord went out to them, and they were betrayed.
They stand again. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.