Bible In A Year - Daniel (part 2)

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Theology You Can Use - The Sufficiency Of The Bible (part 3)

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I'm going to take the liberty to go back into the book of Daniel. So, if you'd turn there with me.
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I'd like to study a subject this morning that is very important because it is a situation, it's something that we would all experience.
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Of course, we did before the Lord saved us. And even being believers, being saved, we will experience and can experience this temptation and the desire to be lifted up.
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We're going to look at Daniel chapter 4 and look at the testimony of a man that God humbled and yet worked so marvelously in his life to bring him to a place where he recognized who
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God was. Daniel chapter 4, I'd like to read, let's see,
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I think I'd like to just read the chapter. Daniel chapter 4, beginning in verse 1,
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Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you.
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I thought it good to show you the signs and wonders that the high
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God hath wrought toward me. So, he's going to testify. This is his, you know how when we had in the personal evangelism class,
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I had encouraged some of you to, and of course you've known this, many of you, to write your own personal testimony.
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This is King Nebuchadnezzar's testimony. This is what God did in his life and this is what he's going to portray in these writings here.
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And he says in verse 3, 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.
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I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace.
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I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.
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Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.
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Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and I told the dream before them, but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.
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The idea is they could not. And when we read words, and your translation might be different, but when we read words like the astrologers, the soothsayers, and the magicians, we're not just talking about people who through sleight of hand, like magicians, make things appear to be something that they're not.
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Or astrologers, we're not thinking about people who just are talking about the zodiac and the horoscopes and the shallowness that we have today.
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What we're talking about is the wisest people in the kingdom. These are the people who, earthly speaking, had all wisdom, had all ability to instruct, to counsel the king.
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The king would go to them when they were making decisions because these were the learned people of the nation, and they could not interpret the dream.
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But at the last, Daniel came in before me, Nebuchadnezzar says, whose name is
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Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.
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And before him I told the dream, saying, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret trouble with thee.
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Tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen and the interpretation thereof. Thus were the visions of my head in my bed.
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I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. And the tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.
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The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all.
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The beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt under the bows thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.
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I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven.
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Verse 14, he cried aloud and said, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit.
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Let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches. Now think of this tree. I'm going to give you it ahead of time.
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So as you're thinking of this, this is Nebuchadnezzar, this tree. Nevertheless, leave the stump of the roots, verse 15, 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.
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Notice in verse 16, let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let seven times pass over him.
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Seven years, Nebuchadnezzar, his heart of man would be taken out, and he'd be given the heart of a beast.
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He would lose his understanding. Verse 17, this matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent.
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What's the purpose for this? Why did this happen to Nebuchadnezzar?
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That all, it says here, to the intent that the living may know, that the
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Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basis of men.
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The whole focus here is, the theme here, and one of the great themes of the book of Daniel, is the overruling sovereignty of the one true
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God, dealing in the kingdoms, as dealing with the kingdoms upon the earth.
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The overruling sovereignty of the one true God in his dealings with human kingdoms.
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And we see this in this book. There's other places you can go to chapter 2, and you can see where, in another dream, there was this statue with the gold head, the silver breast, and the iron, and the clay with the feet, and all of those speaking of and representing kingdoms.
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Nebuchadnezzar, the Persian Amid kingdom, Alexander the Great with Greece, and then you come in with Rome at the end.
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And what's very interesting, is it says in the time of the Roman period, at that time in verse 244, it says in the time of these kings, the
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Messiah is going to come, or he who is going to have an everlasting kingdom will come at that time.
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It's very interesting that it places, and it's speaking about and dealing with the kingdoms upon the earth from Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, all the way up to the coming of Christ.
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In 244, speaking of the time period that he would come, and that his kingdom would be greater than all, and his would be the one that would dash all the rest of the pieces, and he would be a ruler over all.
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And we're seeing the same thing being said here. The purpose for it, and you read the Bible, and you go to different places, even like Mount Carmel with Elijah, the whole purpose for that show -off there is not so everybody will look at the prophet
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Elijah and say, this guy is something else. Elijah, when he began to pray and he asked
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God to consume the sacrifice, or to show himself, and God did, he did it for the purpose that people might know that God is the true and the living
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God, that he served the true God, not the false God like the false prophets did. And here, the reason for this, the whole crux of the key even to this track that he's writing here, this personal testimony, is that the living, the people on earth, may know that God rules in the kingdom of men.
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And really, when it comes right down to it, we are as the drop in the bucket. We are insignificant.
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We are not in control. We are not on the throne. We are not the ones who are laying out and ordering our steps.
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God is ordering our steps. God is orchestrating all things for us. God is ruling over all, and he is the true sovereign.
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Well, let me go on and read this. This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, verse 18, have seen. Now thou,
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O Belshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, for as much as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation, but thou art able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee.
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Then Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, was astonished for one hour. Notice, even with the interpretation of this dream that Daniel was going to partake in, it just struck him.
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It was just so horrific. It was something that was going to be so serious and so devastating in the life of this king that for an hour he doesn't do anything, and his thoughts troubled him.
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The king spake and said, Belshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation thereof trouble thee.
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Belshazzar answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate thee and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies.
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Really, something bad is going to happen to Nebuchadnezzar, and that will cause his enemies to rejoice, basically what he's saying here.
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The tree that thou sawest, which grew and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth, whose leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation.
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And if you didn't keep reading on like we speak about when it comes to what does the Scripture mean, and one of the first things to try to interpret the
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Scripture is, of course, you hear it over and over again here, which is a good thing, and just keep reading. And notice it says,
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This tree, it is thou, O king. Thou art grown, verse 22, and become strong, for thy greatness is grown and reaches unto the heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.
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And whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one come down from heaven, and saying, Hew down the tree and destroy it, yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass and the tender grass of the field, and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let its portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him.
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This is the interpretation, O king, verse 24, and this is the decree of the Most High.
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This is what God is purposed to do here, which is, Come upon my lord the king, that they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as an oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the
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Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The purpose is
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Nebuchadnezzar is going to be humbled in this experience. Verse 26, and whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee after that thou shall have known that the heavens do rule.
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And what is so interesting here is, to me, is that there's a promise here of a humbling for Nebuchadnezzar, but there's also a promise in verse 26 of hope for him.
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It's not true with other men. You remember Herod in the New Testament who lifted up and he wanted to be basically worshiped as someone who should be exalted, and he was smitten, he died, and he was eaten of worms.
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But God is merciful to Nebuchadnezzar as we're going to see, and sometimes the humbling that God does, well not sometimes, when
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God humbles a proud individual and brings them to the place where they understand that God is the true and the living
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God and they come back into the real world or God's real world of the truth of who
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God is and their focus and attention is not on themselves and is on God, that is a good thing.
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Because Nebuchadnezzar could have lived all of his life as a high and haughty and arrogant king thinking he was the ruler of the universe and thinking that the whole world revolved around him and died and not only had that miserable life of living that way but a miserable eternity and yet God in mercy humbled this man and he brought him to the place where he actually would confess and acknowledge that God is sovereign and God ruled over him.
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We're going to kind of look at some of those details. As just to finish the reading, verse 27, Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility.
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And Daniel pleads with the king to repent, to acknowledge his sin and to repent.
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And of course we're going to see that the king does not do that. All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon and here it is.
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Here's the eye in pride. Nebuchadnezzar lifts himself up.
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The king spake, verse 30, 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?
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We'll get into that a little bit. While the word was yet in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king
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Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee and they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.
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They shall make thee to eat grasses, oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the
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Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will. You are going to be humbled,
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Nebuchadnezzar. You are going to become like the beasts of the field until you understand that God rules, that God is sovereign.
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And truly, isn't this what happens in salvation? I mean, if you really think about it, we think that we're something.
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We think the world does revolve around us. The whole perspective of our life being lost and outside of Christ and dead in trespasses and sins is that we are
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Lord. We are sovereign. We call the shots. We're the ones who should be looked at and congratulated and we're puffed up and we're lifted up in pride and yet God humbles us and shows us that we're full of sin and completely undone, cannot save ourselves.
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And as a matter of fact, we do not reign and we do not rule in our life and we must bow the knee to Jesus Christ and we must confess, as we heard last week, that Jesus Christ is
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Lord and call upon the name of Christ Jesus the Lord to be saved. And when we do, at that point in time,
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God has revealed to us that we have been deposed as king and he has set up as king and lord and master in our life.
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And that's what happens here in Nebuchadnezzar's life. We're going to see the little description. Notice, it says in verse 33,
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In the same hour, or immediately, was this thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and the nails like bird's claws.
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At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven. This is after he's come to the realization and God has taught him this lesson in his mercy.
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He opens up his understanding and he says, And mine understanding, or my reason, returned unto me, and I blessed the
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Most High, and I praise and honor him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
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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,
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What are you doing? or What doest thou? So nobody can stop God. Nobody questions God. Nebuchadnezzar was in that place as the high monarch.
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I mean, he was the king. Nobody could stop Nebuchadnezzar. Nobody was better than Nebuchadnezzar. Nobody ruled over Nebuchadnezzar.
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Nobody told Nebuchadnezzar what to do, and nobody asked Nebuchadnezzar, What are you doing? What's going on?
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He was the one who called the shots, but now this has all been turned around, and he sees that God takes that rightful position.
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God is on the throne and not Nebuchadnezzar. And at the same time, my reason, verse 36, returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and my lord sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
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Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment or just, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
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Those that walk in pride God is able to humble. And this is Nebuchadnezzar's experience.
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This is what took place in his life. As we look at this, we see that God stepped into Nebuchadnezzar's life.
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It was a personal and a private intervention of God in the life of this king.
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And really, when you think about it, all who are arrogant, all who are prideful, all who boast in themselves, all who think that they're sovereign, what they need is an intervention of God.
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We need for the Lord to step into our lives. And I mean, some of us are probably thinking, yeah, I look back on my life, and I am so glad that God came and rescued me.
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God broke into my life, and God came and arrested me and stopped me on the path that I was in and revealed to me who he was or who he is.
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This experience brought Nebuchadnezzar to his knees in humility, and then he was able to open his mouth in praise.
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This is his personal testimony, as I said. This is what God did to and did for Nebuchadnezzar, and it's a matter of public record here.
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I mean, Nebuchadnezzar has this recorded, and of course God had it recorded for us, and it's kept for all time.
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And it's a wonderful example of like a personal testimony, a track, so to speak.
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And we can learn from this, first and foremost, as we think of this subject of pride.
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And I talked about, as I introduced the class, I was saying not only as an unbeliever but as a believer we can struggle with this also.
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We can look at the things that we have, look at the things that we do, look at the accomplishments, the ministries, the successes, the victories, the things that we're able to build or do or put together, and if we're not careful, we can be lifted up in pride also.
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We must be so careful to always check ourselves and do as the Apostle Peter said, to humble ourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.
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And it's this position of humility that we are to maintain all the days of our life, never to be lifted up before the
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Lord. What can we learn from this? Nebuchadnezzar's problem or issue was his pride, and his pride was a form of insanity.
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When someone is insane, they are out of their mind, they have lost touch with reality.
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And anyone who is lifted up or lifts up themselves in pride before the one true sovereign
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God of the universe has lost touch with reality because God is in control.
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God is the sovereign. He is the one who needs no counsel. He is not influenced from any external source.
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He is the sole ruler of heaven and earth, the ruler of the universe, and anyone who lifts themselves up or tries to lift themselves up in the presence of God and to tell
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God what to do. Think about that, telling God what to do. It's kind of like one of the babies in the nursery coming out.
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Remember when we had the elders up on the platform and Pastor Mike, I don't know who it was, said something about, kiddingly said, to be an elder in the church, you've got to be over six feet tall.
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Well, can you think of one of the little toddlers coming out of the nursery and walking through the door, coming up on the platform, and they said, you elders don't know what you're doing,
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I'm going to call the shots. That's kind of like the idea here. Nebuchadnezzar, and I know the proportionally,
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I mean we're talking far greater, Nebuchadnezzar before the sovereign king of heaven and earth saying that he did what he did, and he is what he is because of his own strength and because of his own power and because of his own abilities.
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And you know what, everybody look at me and he's basically not only self -congratulating himself, but he wants other people to congratulate him also in everything that he's done.
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He's kind of tooting his own horn and he wants everybody to toot their horn for him too because he thinks that he's the greatest thing, as they say, since sliced bread.
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I mean, he is everything. There is a relationship between those two words, pride and insanity.
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They go hand in hand. If you are proud and haughty and arrogant or if you act or speak in this way before God, mark it down, you are living in an unreal world and God, as it says in James, is opposed to the proud and God knows, as James said,
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God knows how to humble the arrogant and the proud. And we see this in Nebuchadnezzar's life.
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God does this here before us. Nebuchadnezzar's pride was insane. Nebuchadnezzar embraced, as it were, a
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Romans 1 lifestyle. Probably some of you are thinking about that as you've ever read
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Romans 21 through near the end of that chapter. Those people who did not honor
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God, they were not thankful to God, they professed themselves to be wise but they became as fools, they changed the glory of God, of the incorruptible
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God, into the image of a corruptible beast and it says that they worshipped idols, became idolaters, they changed the truth of God into a lie, verse 25 in Romans chapter 1, and then in 25 it says they worshipped and served the creature more than the creator.
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Now isn't that what Nebuchadnezzar was doing? Basically lifting himself up, he's the one to be worshipped, he's the one to be honored, he's the one that everybody should be boasting in.
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And in Romans chapter 1, what did God do to those people who dishonored him and in a pride and arrogant, they worshipped themselves or worshipped the creature more than the creator?
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It says that God took his hands off of them. God just took his hands off of them and they were going to go in the course that they were going to go and he gave them over to a reprobate mind and they did those things which were unspeakable, fulfilling all manner of evil before God.
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But what happened was is God just took his hands off of them and so to speak when it comes to Nebuchadnezzar's life,
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God took his hand off of Nebuchadnezzar and it says there that his heart of man or his mind or his reasoning or his thinking as a man was taken away and he was given the heart of a beast and really when
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God takes his hands off of anybody, it's a dangerous position for that person to be in and if a person sets themselves against God, being opposed to God and fighting against God like the child coming out of the nursery, going against the elders so to speak at the church,
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I mean basically who's going to win? I mean to say if they were going to have an arm wrestling match, the same thing with someone coming out of the nursery and the elders.
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I mean come on, there's just no way it's not going to be possible. The strength of the older is greater than that of the younger and of course when it comes to the powerful
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God, the God of might, the God that is the true and the living sovereign
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God of scripture, when anybody is opposed to God, I mean Gamaliel said it right in Acts chapter 5, when the disciples were kind of put off to the side and the religious leaders said, you know what are we going to do with them?
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And these guys just keep preaching this Christ, this Jesus, this way that we hate and Gamaliel said to them, he said you let them alone.
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He said if this wisdom or if this counsel be of men, it will come to nothing. But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it lest you be found fighting against God and that's what
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Nebuchadnezzar was doing and that's what anybody else does who fight, who lifts themselves up in pride is they are fighting against God and it is insane.
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Pride is insanity and what we see here is people who reject
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God and they act and speak and think opposite as God created them to be.
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What is the purpose? What is the reason why God created us? What is the chief end of man?
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To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Nebuchadnezzar was not doing that.
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He was enjoying himself, wasn't he? And he was glorifying himself and he wanted other people to glorify and boast and brag upon him and he was going the way opposite of what
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God intended as He created us and when people do that, they are acting like animals.
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They are acting against that which they've been created for and basically God says to Nebuchadnezzar here,
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Nebuchadnezzar, you want to think and speak and look and act like an animal, then you will be one and he is humbled before God and he is on his face for seven years like an animal and when men fail to worship
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God, they have fallen and they are no better than the beast of the field and how tragic because there is something wonderful and there is something glorious in what
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God has done to take mankind and enable us through His regeneration and through the salvation in Jesus Christ that we can become people who will worship and love and adore the
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God of heaven, the Lord God our Savior and to live for Him and to boast in Him and to worship
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Him and to love Him and adore Him. That's what it is supposed to be like.
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We see the covers or the doors so to speak of heaven ripped open and we see the elders and the angels and all those that are the created beings before God and they are saying honor and glory and majesty and wisdom and power belong unto
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Him. I mean they are worshiping God. That's what it's all supposed to be about and Nebuchadnezzar would not live this way.
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He had a high opinion of himself and he lightly regarded the glory of God. And in Daniel 4 in verse 30 what do you think of the words in there that stand out to you?
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In Daniel 4 in verse 30 what words stand out to show you Nebuchadnezzar's problem?
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I and my and your translation might be my or me or mine but it is
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I. I have built the house of my kingdom by my power.
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He exalted himself in arrogant pride and what's so amazing is is even after God had warned him with the dream
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God had sent him the dream said that this tree is going to be cut down Nebuchadnezzar that's your life.
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You're going to be cut down to nothing and you're going to be so humble and everything you have will be taken away from you.
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And isn't that so true the promise that God gives? I mean God is opposed to the proud but he knows how to humble those that lift themselves up.
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I mean the scriptures tell us that. Daniel? Yeah, the idea there is that's the idea of the surety that he wouldn't be totally wiped out.
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It has something to do with that God would seal it. It's almost like the idea that the roots won't be cut out.
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There's going to be the the idea is that God is going to spare his life in this thing.
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He's going to humble him. He's going to cut him way down. But it's almost like God puts that ban there and that seal and you can't go past that.
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And it's going to and his kingdom will be sure. And we see that that's what takes place because after he comes to the realization that God is sovereign
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God restores him back up in verse 36 and everybody, we see him flourish back again.
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Life coming back to the tree and the branches going out and the fruit being there and people coming back to him like before.
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Who among us can do anything without God's mercy? I mean, who can do anything without God's grace or enabling?
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Everything that we have everything that we will have every ability any piece of wisdom any accomplishment any achievement any good thought any ingenious plan that we might come up with and the carrying out of all of our plans any victories all of it is
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God given. And not only Nebuchadnezzar as a lost man had this sin of pride in his life
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I think as believers we need to be careful also that we never lift ourselves up. We understand that without Jesus Christ we can't do anything.
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Without the hand of God in our life without God's graciously favoring us and strengthening us and enabling us we won't amount to anything we won't have anything we won't be anything because as Paul wrote in Romans 11 he says of him and through him and to him are all things not us but him.
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Nebuchadnezzar said I have built it. I mean, Nebuchadnezzar was a man who was known for his building projects one of them was that he built a 400 foot high mountain terraced with flowing water and hanging gardens for his wife and it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
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We see in the beginning of the book that he builds this high this big statue that everybody is supposed to bow down to.
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I mean, he is known for his projects and he's known for these great abilities and for these wonderful sites but the problem is is he attributes it to himself and he said
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I did this and everybody look at me at what I did and you know what I'm clapping my hands at myself and he's all puffed up in himself but he wants everybody else to do the same thing.
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He says not only did I do it by my might in verse 30 but he says and for the honor of my majesty
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God's not going to get the glory for this and does he know about God already? Yes. He's had the experience of Daniel all the way from chapter 1 and then in chapter 2 with Daniel with the other dream with the statue and what
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God told him about that and then in chapter 3 with the Hebrew boys the same thing. We see that he knows but he refuses to acknowledge
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God as sovereign he refuses to bow and submit himself before the
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Lord and it's devastating to him. God is the sovereign king and he alone should receive all the honor and Daniel as I said earlier called the king to recognize his sin and repent but he refused and so Nebuchadnezzar's sin turned him into a beast and the sin of pride has its consequences.
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It's very devastating. He is temporarily insane God changes his heart like I said in verse 16 some of your translations in mine in particular the
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King James says let his heart be changed from man's to beast's but then in verse where the word heart is used there in 16 and verse 34
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Nebuchadnezzar's testimony is is that my when I after these days when
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I lifted up my eyes to heaven he said my understanding or my reason returned unto me the same word in the
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Hebrew for heart in 16 and understanding or reason in 34 the heart is not the pumping organ in the body that can confuse people sometimes it is the reasoning it is the part of the heart of course is the understanding it is the mind it is what we're thinking about and Nebuchadnezzar was not thinking properly his mind was out of control it was not focused right it was lifted up and pointed at himself and of course he is a beast but God gave him his reasoning back and isn't that wonderful when you think about that that didn't happen to everybody can you think of other people that are devastated in the scriptures because of their sin and there was no recovery do you think of any?
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Herod in the New Testament and he fits really well to the example doesn't he? because he did the same thing he lifted himself up and God smote him killed him and he's eaten of worms and he had no window of mercy and time of grace anybody else?
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Daniel? you mean he changed his mind after the fact?
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or before the fact? before he's an animal God is sovereign no matter what anybody believes or no matter what anybody thinks here's
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Nebuchadnezzar as an individual and he knows that he's been presented with that truth he sees that Daniel tells him that Daniel tells him he's sinful and he's wrong in his life and he is accountable for what he's about to do he's not going to recognize
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God he rejects God in this position like in Romans chapter 1 and he's accountable and he's brought it upon himself he will not repent it is sinful he's lifted up in pride he's fighting against God he's going to lose and what
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God says okay Nebuchadnezzar that's the way you want to be God just does this to him you know?
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well he does have a decision I mean he is thinking he is reasoning it's not that he has a free will to do whatever he wants to do to choose for good or to choose for bad all he has is the ability to choose for bad because he's locked in his fallen nature he's like a fish in water the fish in the water can't say
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I'm going to get up and live on the land because it's locked by nature into the nature of being a fish
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Nebuchadnezzar is locked in a fallen nature he's a man whose will is depraved and his mind is depraved and his thinking is depraved and his whole life is depraved before God and yet in so doing that he is still accountable that's all he's going to do unless God intervenes and gives him a different heart and in the case of salvation if God were to totally leave all of us to ourselves none of us would choose for good
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Romans 3 says there's none that understands there's none that seek after God they are all gone out of the way they are together becoming profitable and if God doesn't intervene like I said at the beginning of the class if God doesn't step into our lives and do something for us and to us to change us then we will all perish in our sins and we will all step off the cliff as it were and go headlong into hell we will all do that but God in his mercy has those that he has chosen before the foundation of the world that none of us know and God is going to save those and God is going to do something particularly unique in their life he's going to regenerate them and their nature is going to be changed and their will now will be different their will will be that they will desire to seek the
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Lord because God did something in their life God gave them a new heart like in Lydia's case in Acts 16
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God opened up her heart so that she could embrace the gospel and that she would believe upon Christ and receive
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Christ and be saved in Nebuchadnezzar the same thing happens to him but what's so neat about this is is like the other instances we were talking about those people
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God did not save God did not God did not come to them in the way that he did to Nebuchadnezzar and Herod is smitten and yet Nebuchadnezzar why is
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Nebuchadnezzar I mean is Nebuchadnezzar any smarter than Herod? I mean is he any better?
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any more powerful? is there something about that God when he looked down through the corridors of time and he saw
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Nebuchadnezzar and he said Nebuchadnezzar is going to write a good gospel track about me being sovereign and I'm going to choose him no it's not that there's nothing in Nebuchadnezzar there's nothing in Herod and there's nothing in us of ourselves that influences
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God to choose us it's all because of his pleasure and it's all because of his sovereign choice he can do what he wants as it says notice in verse 35 the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and God does according to his will
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God does whatever he wants to do our God is in the heavens the psalmist said psalm 115 .3
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and he does whatsoever he pleases he's in charge he's on the throne and that's what
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Nebuchadnezzar learned Glavine yes yes
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I would and in that case there it's apparent that we have we have those that are believers someone who is you know at least part of the church looking unto
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God submitting there under the teaching and yet the same thing there's something
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I mean we as believers just because we're believers even though our nature has been changed even though we have the mind of Christ doesn't mean that we're perfect and we will never sin we will sin and sin has its consequences
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Lewis an issue that every knee is going to bow right
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Philippians 2 when are you going to learn it? you're going to learn it very good right right all his family everybody else that could have you know here he said for seven years wandering around out in the fields out there and nobody tried to help him that is amazing it's just a wonderful display of mercy in this judgment
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I mean it's like it's just incredible and Lewis is right when he says that everybody in Philippians 2 it says you know that God has highly exalted his son
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Jesus Christ and and and everyone every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of God the Father and it will either be when you're alive and breathing or unfortunately for many it will be after you stop breathing and you face the true and the living
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God and you understand and see but it's too late and there's no more opportunity of mercy
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John yeah I'm just going to say I think it was the course of events interpretation
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Daniel calls and does not so God is still sovereign in the whole thing it would be like you telling them you should believe and they continue in their way so at the time
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God didn't act until the second and it was not so right I love that I may have heard that question and he was still but he was still accountable the whole time for it and this was this experience taught him that God was on the throne and Nebuchadnezzar was not on the throne
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God and God alone is sovereign God is to get all the honor and everything that we are and have flows from God's sovereign hand and God does know how to humble those that are lifted up in pride and what's amazing with Nebuchadnezzar is we see something and some people debate whether or not
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Nebuchadnezzar truly was saved I'm under the persuasion that he was that this is something that God marvelously intervened in his life and saved him and I believe that because first of all
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Nebuchadnezzar gives God the glory publicly openly he confesses that God is sovereign and it's at the expense of his own humiliation
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I mean he wrote this and it's preserved and for everybody to know I mean if you think about it historically when something tragic happened in a kingdom especially in the ancient world here in this area of the world they pretty much covered it up they didn't want people to know about the failures and the defeats of battle but here
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Nebuchadnezzar puts it forward for everybody to see I thought I was something but I'm nothing and God is everything now and this once proud monarch no longer believes that he is the greatest king upon the earth but God is king in chapter 3
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Nebuchadnezzar defied the God of the Jews with the three Hebrew boys but now he acknowledges
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God is the true God of heaven who holds Nebuchadnezzar's destiny in his powerful hands and lastly
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Nebuchadnezzar who was his selfishness his self -glorification his self -congratulating gives way to a genuine concern for the glory of God and we see that in the last three verses or so God is to be extolled
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God is to be glorified and let everything that hath breath praise the
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Lord everything that's what the psalmist says and Paul wrote to the Corinthians he said whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do do all to the glory of God it is to be so that God is magnified and glorified a much needed lesson for us to remind ourselves about and as we're dealing with other people we look at the issues in their lives and the situations that they're going through pride is a devastating sin that is prevalent in everyone's life something that we all battle and particularly those that are outside of Christ do not
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I mean just the message of the gospel is something that humbles the pride of man and men don't they want to have a part even in churches today people want to have a part of their salvation they want to cooperate with God they want to God does this and I'll do the rest because they don't want to say if I'm going to be saved it's all of God or I will not be saved like Jonah salvation is of the
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Lord it is all of God and yet people want to have a piece and part of it and it can't be can't be on our terms and it can't be to where we are it's
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Ephesians 2 .8 and 9 isn't it that no one will boast nobody will brag about being saved let's pray
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Father thank you for this time we've had together thank you first Lord for in your purposing for our lives before we were even born to be able to be in this place this morning you knew that it would snow you knew that it would be difficult to travel and yet you you purposed to bring us and you did and you allowed us to have your word preserve for us this lesson for this class at this time
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I pray that you would just bring it home to our hearts and we're so grateful as we see in the judgment that came upon Nebuchadnezzar in this humbling experience
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Lord that you were so good to do that to him some would look at it and say it's a very harsh thing for God to do to somebody upon the face of the earth but Lord if it had not been done
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Nebuchadnezzar would have gone on in his arrogancy in his pride and he would have died having been too late to recognize and to submit and bow the knee to your authority we're thankful that you did that to him and we're thankful that you've done it to your people and we pray that we might be a people who are careful not to be lifted up in pride and that all that we do and all that we say and all that we think and all ministries here at BBC would be for the glory and the honor of Christ and Christ alone we thank you and praise you and ask you to bless the remainder of our time together and all those that are traveling for journey mercies in Jesus name