Sunday, June 20, AM

Welcome to Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning and happy Father's Day to all of the fathers that we have in the congregation this morning, fathers, grandfathers, maybe some great grandfathers.

We are so thankful for each of you. Give our fathers a quick round of applause just to recognize them.

We are so blessed here at Sunnyside. A few announcements as we get started this morning.

Looking ahead, because it is Father's Day, we will not have evening service tonight, so enjoy that time with your family tonight.

On Wednesday, June 23rd, we'll have dinner here at the church at 5 .45 p .m.,

so be ready to eat. And then at 6 .30, we'll have Bible study and prayer time.

And then again, the TAG kids are on break, so they'll be in with us. It's been good to have them in and interact with them during Bible study time.

And then coming up next Sunday, communion in the morning and then truth group in the evening for the young adults in the church.

This week's fighter verse comes from 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

A few needs for Operation Christmas Child still going on. For the month of June, there's some girls' hair accessories that you can give, some small sports balls like basketballs or footballs, and then some ball caps for boys as well.

Sewing ministry has some needs you can find in the bulletin in there. And then note about summer

Sunday school session. First off, I was notified that we do not need substitute teachers for the kids' classes.

The DeForest have volunteered to kind of take all the kids on at once. So thank you

DeForest very much. So they're going to cover those kids' classes and combine them together.

And I'm sure they have great plans there. So don't worry about that. And then if you haven't picked your summer

Sunday school session that you want to be a part of, those sheets are on the table at the back.

You can get those after the service. Just check the box next to the particular class that you want to attend and print your name on the bottom.

And then you can give those to Dwight Smoot. Dwight, are you in here? Raise your hand.

Give those to Dwight after the service, and then we'll have those. That starts the first Sunday in July. So be ready to start our summer sessions in about a couple weeks.

And then we still need a few volunteers for nursery for the month of July. You can talk to Marla Hovarter about that.

All right. Any other announcements before we worship together? All right.

We're going to have a time just to prepare our hearts for worship. And then when we're done with that, Randy will come and lead us in prayer.

Father, we truly are grateful to be here this morning. I just thank you for the opportunity to come and worship you together.

And Father, I just want to express gratitude to the fathers, my own father, for bringing us up in a way to love you and to know you.

And I pray that you would encourage each father here to continue to be a soldier.

And Father, I pray that we would be warriors for our families in these trying times.

Father, I pray that we would lift one another up. And Father, I pray that you just prepare us today to hear from you.

I pray that your spirit would speak to our hearts. I pray, Father, that you'd make us witnesses for you.

I pray that you would help us to share the hope that we have in Christ with others.

And Father, I pray that, again, that you just bless Michael as he comes to share your word.

We just thank you for who you are, Father. And we thank you that you are a wonderful, heavenly

Father, that we can bring all of our concerns to you. And we just want to take this time to just bless your name.

And I pray that we would encourage one another in Jesus and ask it in his name.

Amen. Today being

Father's Day, we would ask that the men would come up and help us lead in the first song that we're singing this morning.

So, men, if you would come on up, please. And everyone else, we'll turn to our call to worship song,

Psalm, this morning is Psalm 67, verses 5 through 7.

And we'll have the words, Brother Edgar has the words up on the screen for us. All right.

Yes, please stand for our call to worship this morning. Thank you,

Paula. Thank you. Psalm 67, verses 5 through 7.

Read with me together. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God, shall bless us.

God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him.

And our first song this morning is Brethren We Have Met to Worship. We're going to sing all four verses.

Taking their seats. We're finding their places. We'll be turning to page 60.

Morning has broken. It's a special song this morning.

Born of the one, once a plague.

Raised with elation. Raised every morning.

God's recreation. The creation of a new day.

This morning from Amos the prophet.

Notice what God is looking for. And he repeats it. He repeats it.

Amos chapter 4. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan.

Who are on the mountains of Samaria? Who oppress the poor? Who crush the needy?

Who say to your husbands, bring that we may drink. The Lord has sworn by his holiness that behold, the days are coming upon you.

When they shall take you away with hooks. Even the last of you with fish hooks.

And you shall go out through the breaches. Each one straight ahead. And you shall be cast out into Harmon.

Declares the Lord. Come to Bethel and transgress to Gilgal. And multiply transgression.

Bring your sacrifices every morning. Your tithes every three days. Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened.

And proclaim free will offerings. Publish them. For so you love to do,

O people of Israel. Declares the Lord God. I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities.

And lack of bread in all your places. Yet you did not return to me.

Declares the Lord. I also withheld the rain from you. When there were yet three months to harvest.

I would send rain on one city. And send no rain on another city.

One field would have rain. And the field on which it did not rain would wither.

So two or three cities would wander to another city. To drink water. And would not be satisfied.

Yet you did not return to me. Declares the Lord. I struck you with blight and mildew.

Your many gardens and your vineyards. Your fig trees. Your olive trees. The locust devoured.

Yet you did not return to me. Declares the Lord. I sent among you a pestilence after the manor of Egypt.

I killed your young men with the sword. And carried away your horses. And I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils.

Yet you did not return to me. Declares the

Lord. I overthrew some of you. As when God overthrew

Sodom and Gomorrah. And you were as a brand plucked out of the burning.

Yet you did not return to me. Declares the Lord. Therefore thus

I will do to you O Israel. Because I will do this to you. Prepare to meet your

God O Israel. For behold he who forms the mountain and creates the wind and declares to man what is his thought.

Who makes the morning darkness and treads on the heights of the earth. The Lord.

The God of hosts is his name. Let's pray.

Father I thank you for your word. I thank you for how you faithfully declared your word.

Your intent. And how you looked to your people to return to you.

And yet they would not. Father I pray for us this morning.

Each of us. That we might continually continually look to you for all of our needs.

That even when we feel far away. Your invitation is always open. Come. Come.

The Lord Jesus has opened the way. And we have confidence in him. That we can boldly come before your throne of grace.

And offer up to you our concerns. Our troubles.

And we can commune with you. And give you praise and glory and honor and thanksgiving.

For all that you've done for us through your son the Lord Jesus. In his name

I pray. Amen. You may be seated. I'm thankful for Brother Michael and our other elders here at Sunnyside that lead our church in the paths of righteousness.

And to that point us to Jesus Christ. And our next two songs talk about the leadership of the

Lord Jesus Christ as our good shepherd. So if you would turn to pages 460 and also 461 singing about All the

Way Our Savior Leads Me. Luther's life has been mine.

All the way my Savior leads me. And then he leadeth me.

My Savior's tears thy hand hath leadeth me.

He leadeth me.

When by thy grace the victory won.

He does the way I will not quit.

He leadeth me. For by his hand.

Move my staff. Please open your

Bibles and turn with me to Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2. We'll be reading beginning in verse 14 here in a moment.

And let's go together to the Lord in prayer. Father I thank you so much for gathering us together on this day.

We do thank you that it's Father's Day. And Lord thank you for making fatherhood mean what it means.

We give you the glory for that. As we look at your word today I pray that you would give us a word from you that will encourage us and will shape us and guide us that we would rejoice in the revelation of your son

Jesus Christ. I pray that you would help us to submit our lives to him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And I pray that you would shape our hopes. That you by your word in revealing your son through the light of your

Holy Spirit that you would craft our expectations.

That you would give us the paths of wisdom. That you would bring us into your joy and your life and your loving communion.

And I pray that you would help us to rejoice in you in these ways. We look and ask for these things looking to Jesus Christ alone.

Amen. Daniel chapter 2 and we'll begin reading in verse 14 in a moment.

You recall the dam of God's judgment is breaking upon the ancient near east.

Babylon's river will not be contained because of the bloody evil of Manasseh, God states, particularly because of Manasseh.

The waters of punishment carve deeply into the clay of Judah, sweeping away even these young saplings

Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.

Replanted in foreign soil they reject the pagan grafts and they remain rooted, deeply rooted in the fear of the

Lord. An occasion arises when the starving owner of Babylon's orchard goes to inspect his groves of experts.

But what does he find? We see at the beginning of chapter 2. What does Nebuchadnezzar find in his cohort of wise men and and diviners and wizards?

He finds only rotted, immature, deformed fruit.

And in high disgust he sends his axmen to chop and burn it all down.

But with the four God -fearing saplings, good fruit, heavy, firm, and ripe is found.

Wisdom is justified by all her children. So what happens when

Ariok, the axman, comes to chop down Daniel and his friends, the class of wise men slated for execution by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon?

Let's find out. You stand with me and we'll read the words of our

Lord Jesus Christ through his spirit and his servant the prophet

Daniel. Verse 14. Then with counsel and wisdom

Daniel answered Ariok, the captain of the king's guard who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.

He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree from the king so urgent?

Then Ariok made the decision known to Daniel. So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the

God of heaven concerning this secret so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision so Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Daniel answered and said blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his and he changes the times and the seasons.

He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him.

I thank you and praise you O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you for you have made known to us the king's demand.

Therefore Daniel went to Ariok whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.

Take me before the king and I will tell the king of the interpretation. Then Ariok quickly brought

Daniel before the king and said thus to him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king is to the interpretation.

King answered and said to Daniel whose name was Belteshazzar, are you able to make known to me the dream which

I have seen and its interpretation? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the king has demanded the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king.

But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and he has made known to king

Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these.

As for you O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this.

And he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret was not, has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living.

But for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.

This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. 250 years prior to this story, the great, great grandson of King Solomon reigned in Jerusalem.

His name was Jehoshaphat. And on one occasion, all the armies of Moab, Ammon, and the men of Mount Seir gathered together in a great host to bury all of Judah in dust and blood.

Faced with pending annihilation, the king led the people in prayer.

This is part of the prayer. Second Chronicles chapter 20 verse 12. O our God, will you not judge them?

For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do.

But our eyes are upon you. And word came by God's prophet that he, that God would win the day.

God would win the day for his people. And here was part of that message. Verse 17.

You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the

Lord who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed.

Tomorrow go out against them for the Lord is with you. And so Jehoshaphat and his people responded in humble praise and thanksgiving to the

Lord because of this promise, because of this assurance. And then they followed God's instruction on the day of battle.

And here's what they did. Verse 21. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the

Lord and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army and were saying, praise the

Lord or hallelujah. Praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever.

And this looks from a distance, absolutely foolish. This doesn't make it into the military textbooks.

The choir leading the army, the praise team taking point for the seal team.

This does not look wise, but it is wisdom because they feared the

Lord. How did they fear the Lord? Two things we see in this story, 250 years prior to the one we just read about in Daniel.

Two things in this story that we also see in our story. One, the people plead with the

Lord for help, for salvation. They plead with him. And upon receiving the answer, they respond in great praise and worship to God with great thanksgiving.

Now, those are evidences of wisdom, evidences of the fear of the

Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. That they would plead for God's help and then praise him and give him thanks when he blesses them.

Well, the end of the story was that God went before them and he set the Moabites and the

Ammonites and the men of Mount Seir against one another. And they bit and devoured one another until they were consumed and God was glorified.

Sometimes wisdom looks like folly because sometimes fearing man appears to be more sure.

Fearing man seems to make more sense than trusting in the Lord. And we see that evidenced in our passage.

And very often this is manifested as complaining upon complaining.

Here is an awful situation that I did not sign up for.

Something is happening that is unrighteous, unjust, unfair.

This is totally wrong. And if we fear man rather than fearing God, it comes out as complaining.

And then when nothing happens, or maybe the bad situation goes away, we're left with this outcome that feels dry and sick.

And we complain again. Why did we ever have to go through that? Complaining upon complaining.

What we see here is looking to the Lord for help, for salvation, for deliverance, pleading with the

Lord for his mercies, and then responding with praise. So you're responding with thanksgiving.

See those are the evidences of the fear of the Lord. And these are the expressions of wisdom. When all the children in the marketplace play wedding, it looks foolish not to play along.

When all the children in the marketplace play funeral, you look foolish if you don't lament with them.

But Jesus says wisdom is justified by her children.

That we don't jump in with the complaining. We don't sing the tunes of the world.

Our way of operating doesn't look pagan, but we give praise to the

Lord. When your world is coming apart, wait upon the Lord. Trust him.

Fear him. And in this way the wisdom of God alone makes sense of his world. Verses 1 -13 we saw fools in their folly, as first Nebuchadnezzar trusted, and then tested, and then turned against his experts.

In verses 14 -30 we are presented with the light of the world. The pagans are in despair.

The king is slaughtering all of his experts. Why? Well as they told him, there is no man with a word from above.

As they told him, the gods do not dwell with man. So the pagans are in despair because they knew not

Christ. Not even his shadows. The best experts the empire could train.

The best system that they could design. The best minds applied in concert have all failed.

How many Babylonians does it take to screw in a light bulb? They don't even know what light is.

Because none of them fear the Lord, chaos reigns in their darkness. Well we find

Daniel and his friends pleading with God in a God -fearing way. Pleading, even coming before the king and his civil magistrates with a plea, but fearing

God all the way. The wrath of Nebuchadnezzar is broken through. It comes against his experts.

And his next man, Ariok, goes forth swinging this maker of kindling.

And he is going to destroy the lives of the experts and all their scraps are going to be sold off for the king's treasury.

Will anybody restrain Nebuchadnezzar's hand? Who is going to say to him, what are you doing?

Yes. God's man is going to speak God's word and God's going to do according to his will in heaven and on earth.

So there's a plea to the king, verses 14 -16. Then with counsel and wisdom Daniel answered

Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree from the king so urgent?

Then Ariok made the decision known to Daniel. So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him some time, give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation.

Here is a very high stakes riddle, as you remember, Daniel is a book full of riddles. This is a very high stakes riddle.

Something has happened in a closed room somewhere that has resulted in you being labeled as an enemy of the state, slated for execution.

You weren't in the room. You have no idea what happened. You had nothing to do with it. But now you're an enemy of the state.

What do you do? You're just a sheep ruminating in your fold. And then you hear it's slaughtering day.

Now what? Well, complaining seems legitimate. You know, this isn't my fault.

I didn't ask for this. What did you do, God? Bring us out here to Babylon to die in the wilderness?

Time for some murmuring and disputing, right? If you fear man, yes.

There's a lion in the streets. And so fearing God says, well, let's go find out what he wants.

Why is there a lion in the streets? Let's go find out why he's roaming to and fro seeking someone to devour. Let's go find out what's going on.

You see, the righteous are as bold as a lion. So a lion can meet a lion. So Daniel goes to Arioch and says, what's the deal, man?

Why is the king's decree so hasty? It's a good translation of that same word.

Why is he demanding that all the wise men of Babylon die immediately? What is going on?

And so Arioch reads the injunction to him and explains that the Babylonian health department has determined that the wise men were vermin which needed to be exterminated.

Daniel says, well, what's the rush? You can kill me in a couple of days. How about I have a little bit of time to work on this for the king?

Maybe we can help him. So Daniel goes into the king. Remember, this is the king who just said all wise men will die yesterday.

I want them all dead. Daniel is one of the wise men and he walks in and says, can we have a little time?

Now, if you fear a man, you don't even do this. You don't even come out from underneath your bed where you're writing your last will and testament full of complaints against the tyranny that is ending you.

But he goes and he asks the king for more time. What reason, what possible reason could

Daniel have to think that Nebuchadnezzar, who has said more than once his decision is firm, this man who is the most powerful man upon planet earth at the present time, the one who wants everybody dead and will have his way, what makes

Daniel think that he can go into the king and ask him as one of the ones slated for execution for more time, which the king has denied specifically?

Why does Daniel think that this is going to work? The king's heart is in the hand of the

Lord. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, like rivers of water.

He turns it whichever way he wishes. So Daniel's not saying the same thing

Esther said, but it fits. If I perish, I perish. This is the right thing to do.

We must do this, and it's really not in the hands of the king.

It's in the hands of God. So he goes and he asks, and lo and behold, the king

Nebuchadnezzar says, okay, you get some time. So the plea to the king was really trusting in the king of kings.

And now Daniel went to his house, verse 17, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the

God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

So Daniel goes from pleading with the king to going home with his friends and pleading to the king of kings.

They consider together this riddle before them, and then they say, we've got to go to the Lord. There's no other alternative.

We have to go to the Lord and ask for him to come through. The civil magistrate threatens to kill them and all the wise men of Babylon, unless someone can tell the king what is in his head and what it means.

And only the God of heaven can reveal that, and he does. And he does.

And notice the contrast here. Nebuchadnezzar is just a king. It would be legitimate to call him an emperor as his empire constituted many kingdoms subservient to his rule.

But he is entirely outclassed by the God of heaven. What is

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, compared to the God of heaven to whom Daniel and his friends pray, from whom they seek mercy?

Nebuchadnezzar holds sway over many broken subservient kingdoms on the earth, but the God of heaven has a throne which presides over the entire universe.

The God of heaven not only knows what is in the mind of Nebuchadnezzar, he also knows what it means.

Not only that, but the God of heaven put the whole thing into the mind of Nebuchadnezzar in the first place and hid from Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of it.

To put him in the tizzy that he is now in. That's who the God of heaven is.

So the meaning of the dream, when it finally comes out, is entirely consistent with the entire situation.

Lo and behold, the God of heaven is sovereign over all the empires of the earth. So Daniel and his friends appeal to the

God of heaven to solve this lethal riddle posed to them by a king on earth.

The state is bleeding. They're going to bleed out.

This whole empire is going to come crumbling down. So when Daniel goes to the king and pleads with the king, we need some time.

A tourniquet is placed upon the gushing wound, but that's the best that man can do.

You could put on another tourniquet, another one, but eventually Gingreen's going to set in.

The only hope, the only healing, the only way forward is for the

God of heaven to get involved and heal what is broken.

God's wisdom alone makes sense of his world. So Daniel and his friends don't fear man, they fear

God. And in this, we should take Christ's words to heart.

Matthew 10 verse 28, he says, do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

God, Jesus says, don't fear man, fear God. Don't fear man, fear

God. Recognize who God is. And when we're united to Jesus Christ by faith and Christ being the sum of all wisdom, when we're united to Christ by faith, we live forever in his life, his life given for us to satisfy the holy eternal justice of God.

We are to bring every fearful riddle, which plagues our hearts into submission to Christ. And then we find in him,

God's answering mercies. Wisdom teaches her children to appeal to the

Lord for his mercies. And then she is vindicated in his grace and vindicated in the subsequent praises of her children, which sound forth both in prayer, in private, and also in public.

The voices of the children of wisdom drown out the chaos of the games in the marketplace.

This is what we're going to see not only in Daniel 2, but also Daniel 4 and following.

So we have God fearing, please, in verses 14 through 19, but then

God fearing praise in verses 20 through 30. Notice, first of all, the praise that God, that Daniel offers to God in prayer, verses 20 through 23.

Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his.

And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and light dwells with him.

I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you.

For you have made known to us the king's demand. The dream that Daniel had, we're going to look at.

The dream that Daniel had is one in which the empires of the earth shift and change, rise and fall.

But what remains the same is the name of God. Who remains the same is the

Lord God. He does not change. And he prays to the God of my fathers, because he was as much

God in the past as he is in the present as he is in the future. And Daniel praises the unchanging

God. God is not a man that he should lie or change his mind.

God is not a man that he should change his character, his nature. God is not a man that he would oppose himself.

He's forever their God of wisdom, knowledge and light forever and ever without the slightest shift of any shadow.

We are to praise our God in his sovereign immutability.

He does not change. And if we would praise him for his unchanging sovereign power, what a torrent of folly we would avoid.

The tyranny of capricious states. Is unbearable and unassailable.

We live in a world where states use diverse measures and perverse weights.

Their justice is not justice. And their books are cooked.

And it's unbearable and it's unassailable, except that we praise our unchanging

God. We praise our unchanging God. Notice, Daniel has received what he has asked for by a show of hands.

Has God ever given you in his mercy what you asked him for?

Yes. Isn't that marvelous? God hears our prayers and in his mercy he answers.

And notice that when he has received this wisdom and might, this insight and authority,

Daniel does not then, notice, he does not hurry off to report to the king.

Everything stops for Thanksgiving. There's a holy pause for praise.

Remember, the whole empire is on edge. The whole empire is on edge. Nebuchadnezzar's finger is twitching on the trigger.

Arioch went home and sharpened his axe for the next day's work. Let's go,

Daniel. Get to the office and fix the crisis. No.

This story would read very well if we skipped verses 20 through 23. You just read verse 19 and blast away off at verse 24.

You don't even notice that any step was missed. But look how important it is.

Look how important it is. What God does for Daniel in this moment is what

God does through Christ for all his own. God gave not to Nebuchadnezzar the understanding.

Not to the experts the understanding. He gave it to these youths.

These youths. Matthew 11 verses 25 through 27.

At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father.

He stops. In the chaos and the swirl of the busyness of Jesus' ministry, lepers calling out for healing, demon -possessed people rolling around, sick people begging for help, people who haven't eaten in a day, starving, hungry, weakened, critics coming after him trying to get him to say something that'll get him arrested, disciples quarreling with one another about who's the greatest.

And Jesus just stops. And he says, I thank you,

Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and have revealed them to infants, to babes, to youths.

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight. Why did you do it this way?

Because God liked it that way. Because it pleased him. All things have been delivered to me by my

Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the

Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him.

The grace of God. Jesus just stops everything. He said, we're going to have a, we're going to have a, we're going to put everything on a holy hold.

We're going to put the whole universe on hold for a moment, and we're just going to give thanks.

We're going to praise God for his grace, for his revelation of wisdom. Will you put everything on such a holy hold to offer thanks and praise to the

God of heaven who has saved you through his Son? That's wisdom.

That's wisdom. The story about Spurgeon explaining the gospel to a woman, and she was just right at the edge dealing with her sin and the salvation in Christ, and she burst out and said, oh,

Mr. Spurgeon, if the Lord saves me, he shall never hear the end of it.

Yes and amen. Yes and amen. In our prayers, let's put things on hold, and let's be people of praise and thanksgiving to God for all of his mercies, all of his grace in our lives.

Christ is worthy, not only in prayer, but in public.

Christ is worthy. Verses 24 through 30. And as we read through, we're going to hear

Daniel deflect praise away from himself to God, even as you hear Ariok happy to take the credit for saving the empire.

Therefore Daniel went to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to them, to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon.

Take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation. Then Ariok quickly brought Daniel before the king, and said thus to him,

I have found a man of the captives of Judah. I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation.

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, are you able to make known to me the dream which

I have seen and its interpretation? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king.

But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these as for you, O king. Thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this, and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be.

But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living. But for our sakes, you make known the interpretation to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart.

The pagan riddle has been unraveled. There is a God in heaven who does commune with man, who does reveal truth.

Ariok is like, I found the solution! But Daniel says,

God is the solution. Nebuchadnezzar sits in darkness.

He sits in a dark room, but he's about to see a great light. And as it is, he asks a question that is soaked with darkness.

Are you able? These experts weren't able. Maybe you are the expert who can solve it.

Maybe you have it within you to tell me what's going on. Daniel simply walks to the middle of the room, starts screwing in the light bulb into the empty socket.

It's still dark. He says, no, no man is able.

No man is able. He walks over back to the switch, flips it on, and here light confronts

Nebuchadnezzar's pagan eyes. As Daniel explains, there is a God in heaven who reveals these matters.

He is the source of power. He is the provider of the light.

I'm not the one you should focus on. Your problem is you don't know God. Your problem is you don't know the

God of heaven. The reason why you're in darkness and in despair and there's chaos in your empire is because you don't know the

God of heaven. And isn't this the way it is with so many who live in denial of God, a denial of God in our world?

Their lives are full of darkness and chaos simply because they don't know God. They don't know him.

They don't know his word. They don't know his son. What wisdom it is to point them away from us to him.

Oh, it's so nice when somebody whose life is falling apart because of sin takes a look at your family or takes a look at your life and says, wow, man, your kids are great.

You know, things are going so well for you. Well, you've got a lot of friends, but look what's going on in your life.

And you're like, yeah, thank you very much. Why? Why do we do that?

Because isn't it the fact that when you begin to publicly give credit to the

God of the Bible, to Jesus, for everything good in your life, every single time somebody tries to point at you as the solution, that they just cringe and wince?

Isn't that the most, like, most cringe thing ever when someone's trying to compliment you on your marriage or your children or on your thinking or on your generosity or whatever, and they're trying to compliment you on that.

And you're like, you know, it's totally of God. I mean,

I can't take credit for anything here. It was really God's grace in my life. You know, I would be an absolute mess.

It would be atrocious. I don't have anything really to offer here. It's totally the work of Jesus of Nazareth, the

Son of God in my life. It was turned everything upside down. It's all about God. It's that the

Holy Spirit in my life, producing the fruit of God's character in me, nothing to do with me.

And just and then when you just rattle on, you can just watch them going, I'm sorry

I brought it up, but they don't know God. They don't know the

God of heaven. They don't know where light comes from. They don't know where joy comes from. They don't know where life comes from.

They don't work. They don't know where any of it comes from. And we've got to tell them it is wise.

The children of wisdom in the marketplace to say it's

God. It's the God of heaven. It's his power. It's his grace. It's his blessings because they've got to know.

They've got to know. That's wisdom. Praise, pleading with God for his mercy and praising him.

These are expressions of wisdom. They are the follow through of the fear of the Lord. God's wisdom alone makes sense of his world.

And a final note about something that Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar that will prepare us for the next passage.

Notice that Ariok brings in a captive of Judah. That's how he's described as a captive of Judah. Daniel's Babylonian name is mentioned,

Belteshazzar, but his Jewish name remains predominant. It's Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.

God is my judge. God is my judge. As the

Jewish name and his origin remains in focus, so also does his understanding of the dream.

When Nebuchadnezzar, if he knew his dream was simply about the rise and fall of the empires in pagan society, he would think of it in pagan terms.

Oh, this is the war between the gods. Babylonian gods are dominant for a while, and then Persian gods are dominant, and then

Greek gods are dominant, and then Roman gods are dominant. He would have thought about this whole timeline that we have in Daniel 2 in terms of paganism.

That's not how Daniel is thinking about things. Daniel understood that God was shepherding all of history into the fold of his glory, and that fold was shaped in the

Messiah. Everything in history coming into the fold of God's glory, and that fold is in the shape of Messiah.

And so Daniel clarifies that God has revealed to Nebuchadnezzar what will be. Very general, you know, this will be the future.

He even is more specific when he says that God is revealing to you what will happen after this.

Meaning, you know, from this point forward, you've got a, you know, so we have a more specific starting point.

But notice that Daniel uses the phrase latter days in verse 28. In verse 28, he says there's a

God in heaven who reveals secrets and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.

Latter days of what? Not the former days, not the middle days, the latter days.

Latter days of what? Latter days of Nebuchadnezzar? No, he'll be long gone before the events in the dream play out.

Definitely not the latter days of Daniel. Not the latter days of human existence.

What is the latter days to which? See, Daniel is using a phrase that he did not invent.

He's using a phrase that has all kinds of other biblical passages that tell us what the latter days are.

Daniel, by the way, does not abandon a God -fearing vocabulary when talking to a pagan.

He uses a term that is full, chock full of biblical truth, and there is an entire context of meaning behind that phrase that is found already in the passages written in the

Old Testament by the time Daniel was a young lad and hearing them read to him at home in Jerusalem during the revival of Josiah.

So what do the latter days mean? We should take it in the plain and biblical meaning of the text.

I think we all want to do that. What are the latter days? Well, the latter days are the days of Messiah, and that's what the passages that talk about latter days that Daniel knew about say.

So Daniel says latter days, that's a phrase full of meaning from passages he's grown up studying and learning.

So what did Daniel mean when he said latter days? What are the other biblical passages that give us understanding of that?

Well, there's several. We'll look at three. Genesis 49. In verse 1 of Genesis 49,

Jacob, whose name had been changed to Israel, Jacob called his sons and said, gathered together that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days or latter days.

Okay, so what's going to happen? Well, one thing is going to happen is this. Verse 8, Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise.

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children shall bow down before you.

Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who shall rouse him up?

Lion of Judah. Anybody know who that is? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the people.

We know who the lion of Judah is. We know who Shiloh is. That's Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the one to whom it all belongs, the one to whom the obedience of the people belongs, because he's king of kings and lord of lords, and all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him.

And Jacob says this is going to happen in the last days. They're the latter days.

Of who? Of the, well he's talking to his children who are the children of Israel.

Let's build on this. Isaiah chapter 2 verses 2 through 3. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the

Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills.

So the prophetic picture is what? The mountains of the earth are all arranged, you know, like this in a circle, and then the mountain of God is placed on top.

This is when my sons play with blocks. And the mountain of God is sitting on top of all the other mountains.

And what are these mountains? Well, it says, and the nation shall flow to it.

The mountains and the hills are all the different nations, all the different peoples, and on top of it all is the mountain of the

Lord. And then get this, they're flowing up. They're flowing up.

He says this happens in the latter days. Many people shall come and say, come let us go up to the mountain of the

Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Okay, so somehow

Mount Zion, Jerusalem, the mountain of the Lord, the house of God, the temple, all of it is right here on top of all the other nations, and they are streaming out of their place into his place.

Do you see the vision? Now, the question is, is

God talking about the moving of Everest and K2 and so on and getting the granite pillars just right because he's going to create another physical mountain to be placed on top of them?

Is that what this is talking about, or is this talking about what the author of Hebrews is talking about? You have come to a mountain, not one that can be touched, he says, very clearly.

You have come to Mount Zion. Who is the, you all, all y 'all come to Mount Zion. You've come to the heavenly

Jerusalem. You have come to the church of the firstborn, and we are gathering together in Zion.

From where? From the nations, from the mountains, from the hill, all nations flowing into it.

We've got Chinese, Korean, Australian, Kiwi, we've got

South Islanders, we've got people from Latin America, we've got people from Africa, there are people from every nation, tribe, tongue, and backward across several centuries gathering into the church, gathering into Christ.

Hallelujah! This happens in the latter days.

The latter days are the days of Messiah, and the New Testament echoes the

Old Testament and says it's a mountain of the Lord. It's Mount Zion, and the peoples are coming in.

Point of the Great Commission, what did Jesus say? Well, go preach the gospel to all the nations.

They all got to come in. They all got to come in. Micah says the very same thing in chapter 4, and then goes further.

This, this is glorious praise to Christ. Micah 4, verses 6 through 7.

In that day, says the Lord, I will assemble the lame.

I will gather the outcast, and those whom I have afflicted. I will make the lame a remnant, and the outcast a strong nation.

So the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on, even forever. And Micah 4 says these are the latter days as well.

What's happening here? Look what God says. I will assemble the lame, outcast, those whom

I have afflicted. When you see Jesus walking around Galilee, Judea, he sees lame, blind, demon -possessed, starving, mourning, grieving, people oppressed by every kind of form.

What is he seeing? Those whom

God has afflicted. Why has God afflicted them?

They have been unfaithful to him. Unfaithful. They are breaking the old covenant.

And God is being faithful in afflicting them with all the curses he told them about in Deuteronomy 28 and so on.

And then Jesus comes, who is the, the, the one who brings the new covenant in his own blood.

And he comes, and he starts taking them out of the curses.

You're no longer blind. You're no longer lame. You're no longer demon -possessed.

You're no longer leprous. You're no longer hungry. You're no longer thirsty. And he's grabbing all of these that God has afflicted, and he's bringing them to himself because he's shedding his blood very soon to bring out the new covenant.

The new covenant in which he bears our curse.

These are the latter days. The last days, the latter days, are the days of Messiah.

The days of Messiah. Well, hang on a second.

Latter days, last days. They said the last days of Jesus. He's just getting started. Well, you're right.

Last days of what? What is the great concern of the prophets who are preaching the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people of God?

The great diminishment of them. What is the great concern of those who are in exile and trying to figure out how the promises of God are ever going to get fulfilled?

Their attention is turned to the new covenant because there's one coming Messiah who is going to rescue them, deliver them, and bring about all the promises of God.

And so they're rejoicing in that. But the coming of the substance by necessity ends any reason for the shadow.

Hebrews says the bringing about of the new covenant by necessity means the end of the old covenant.

The new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete, Hebrews says, and ready to pass away.

And you see it in the work of Jesus as the gospel goes to all the nations rather than just one, which is a change from old to new.

And he buries the curse and starts pulling all sorts of cursed people out of the failure that they had in keeping the old covenant.

So it's the latter days of what? It's the latter days of the old covenant. The latter days of the old covenant.

The days of Messiah bring the new covenant, which means there's no more need for the old. The days of Jesus, the days of Messiah, are the days of the latter days because he brings the new.

And there's no more need for the old. That's actually good news.

That's good news. It's good news that we're not trying to pour new wine into old wineskins. It's good news that we're not trying to sew new fabric onto an old garment.

This is good news that the old covenant has passed away, that Christ has borne our curse, and he's a fulfillment of all

God's promises. In verse 44 of this chapter,

Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar when Messiah comes.

In the picture of the vision, we'll talk more about it next week as the

Lord wills. But verse 44 says that this happens in the days of these kings.

In the days of these kings. When did Jesus come? He didn't come during the days of Babylon.

He didn't come during the days of Persia. He didn't come during the days of Greece. He didn't come during the day... He came during the days of Rome.

Correct? He came during the days of Rome. And how is this coming envisioned in the text?

As a stone from heaven, uncut by human hands, that crashes into the fourth kingdom, the dysfunctional fourth kingdom.

And then what does it say? What is the image? In the days of these kings, this heaven -cast, uncut stone is established and then it grows into a what?

A mountain. That's the language of Isaiah. That's the language of Micah.

Daniel's not inventing things. The image that God gave to Nebuchadnezzar isn't brand new. This is built upon generations of prophets and passages throughout the

Old Testament. So it's in the days of these kings that Christ's kingdom is established and then grows into a mountain that fills the whole earth.

To put it a different way, the whole clock of creation runs on Jesus' time. The whole clock of creation runs on Jesus' time.

Daniel calls the latter days the days in which Jesus shows up and begins the new covenant in his blood and ends the old by his reign.

So our times, however tumultuous they may be, are to be understood by the clock of Jesus, which

I think helps us silence our complaints and I think it primes our praise.

We recognize that the times in which we live are all really ultimately all about Christ. Let's close with the word of prayer and a hymn.

Father, we thank you for the time you've given to us. Thank you for helping us. I pray that we would respond to you not in folly of complaining, but that we would respond in the wisdom of pleading to you when we need mercy, coming before your throne of mercy and grace in our time of need, and that we would give you praise, that we would put things on a hold, stop, consider your goodness, and give you thanks.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?

We're going to sing again, I know that my redeemer lives. Glory, hallelujah. We'll sing all four verses.

I know that my sweet sentence gives.

Glory, hallelujah. Shall I pray on where draining ground.

Glory, hallelujah. The dead's alive and the lost is found.

Glory, hallelujah. He lives, he lives who once was dead.

Glory, hallelujah. He lives, my everlasting head.

Glory, hallelujah. Shout on, pray on where gaining ground.

Glory, hallelujah. The lost is found.

Glory, hallelujah. He lives to bless me with his love.

Glory, hallelujah. He lives to plead for me above.

Glory, hallelujah. Shout on, pray on where gaining ground.

Glory, hallelujah. The dead's alive and the lost is found.

Glory, hallelujah. He lives all glory to his name.

Glory, hallelujah. He lives, my

Jesus, still the same. Glory, hallelujah.

Shout on, pray on where gaining ground. Glory, hallelujah.

The dead's alive and the lost is found. Glory, hallelujah.

May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.