The Ruler Over the Realm of Mankind – Selected Scriptures from Daniel

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to the book of Daniel, please, in the Old Testament, the book of Daniel. And in case you're not familiar with where that might be located, it is for the end of the

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Old Testament. It's the 13th book, right at the end of the major prophets, the book of Daniel.

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When you found your place there, let's pray together. Father, it is our desire today that your word may come alive to us and that we may see it, not that it is not alive, but that we would be able to apprehend that quality of it, that it would impact our hearts and our minds, that we would be conformed to the image of Christ, that you would use your word to change us today and help us to think biblically about all things that pertain to life and godliness and life in this world.

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We pray that you would use your word to fix our hope and our attention on things above and not on things of this earth, and that you would comfort us, your people, and conform us, we pray, to the image of Christ.

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Again, we ask this in his name, amen. Well, I don't know if you've heard or not.

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Maybe you already have, but there is an election coming up this coming week. It is all the rage.

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Everybody's talking about it. If you go on social media, you might see a post or two about it. If you search the internet, you might find a news story or two about it.

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Everybody's talking about it, so I figured I might as well talk about it. As if this year could not get more crazy than it already is, we have a global reaction to a virus that has caused every civilized world, a country in the world, to decide to shoot itself in the foot and cripple itself and wreck and destroy lives.

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And then on top of that, we have an election that is thrown into the midst right about the same time as we seem to have a

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Marxist revolution taking part in our streets. And the election, of course, means that there is the potential for all kinds of chaos and violence and disruption and disturbance.

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And our hearts and minds are all tied up into that because we live in this world. And so I figured it would be good to take a break from the book of Hebrews to address this topic that I think is on our minds and at least help us to think biblically and Christianly about how we ought to be approaching this week and what we ought to be thinking about and what it is that we're gonna fix our hope and our attention on.

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I wish these things wouldn't be on our minds. I truly do wish that we lived in a world where whoever was elected president of the

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United States really didn't matter. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Like you could just not care if somebody got elected and they would have so little influence in our lives, so little power to get into our lives that we just would think, oh, that's interesting.

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It's a reality show winner, that's fine. Or a show host or a movie actor or a peanut farmer or a community organizer, whoever it is, we just don't care.

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Let's just go all back to our lives and go on about our business. And they're gonna have so little impact and so little effect upon our lives that it really doesn't matter.

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That's the world I wish we lived in, but that's not the world we live in. We live in a world, unfortunately, where the people that we elect or vote for or vote against end up having so much control and so much influence into every area of our lives that it does concern us.

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And the more power they have, the more consequential they are and the more consequential they are, the more consequential they want to be.

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And history does not record the names of people who acquired positions of power and then left other people alone.

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History doesn't record, can you name one? Somebody who acquired a great position of power over many people's lives and then just said,

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I just don't wanna have anything to do with any of it. I just wanna leave people alone to live their own lives. Can you name anybody in the history of humanity?

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We can't name those people, but we can name the people who acquired positions of power and then said, now I want to change things and I want to make all of humanity after my own image.

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I wanna control this. I wanna exercise and wield this power. I mean, obviously I wouldn't have this power if I weren't wise enough and good enough to use it for the wisdom and good of all people.

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That's not the world that we live in. This can be a subject that causes us great angst and hand -wringing.

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I mean, the hand -wringing in our culture right now is almost a fever pitch, is it not? Within recent weeks, we saw people melting down on video over the death of a

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Supreme Court justice and then posting that to social media, multiple people.

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That is what happens when peak narcissism meets peak idolatry. And those are in the same person.

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When you have an idol that has fallen and you are so narcissistic that you melt down over that and then broadcast your narcissism and your idolatry to the rest of the world, that's the culture in which we live.

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We are in interesting times. So the hand -wringing in our culture and our society is a fever pitch because we are told every election cycle that it's the most important election, what?

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Of our lifetime. Have you heard that before? Yeah, I heard that. 1980, I heard that. 1984, I heard that. 1988,

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I heard that. 1992, I heard that. I heard that again in 96. Again in 2000. Again in 2004.

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Again in 2008, again in 2012. I think I heard it 2016. And if memory serves me,

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I think I may have picked up a few people in this election cycle saying, this is the most important election in our lifetime.

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We have heard that. And it certainly feels as if it is. Just looking around us, looking around us at what's going on, it feels as if we're in the middle of a civil war, at least a cold civil war.

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It feels as if we are on the brink of cultural collapse, on the brink of persecution, and worst case scenario, all three of those things at the same time.

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I don't think that the hand -wringing amongst our congregation, is it a fever pitch? So I think it's on our minds.

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So let's jump into Daniel chapter two, and here's what we're gonna do today. I'm not coming into Daniel chapter, well, it's not just Daniel chapter two, it's actually the whole book of Daniel.

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You can believe that or not, but we're gonna go through most of it. Here's what

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I wanna do. I wanna remind us today of God's view of rulers, kings, and nations. That's what

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I wanna do. I'm not up here to tell you how to vote, tell you that you should vote, that's your patriotic duty, it's your Christian duty, none of that.

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And listen, amongst us as a congregation, I don't think that the hand -wringing and the anxiety is at the fever pitch that it is amongst the rest of the culture.

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For this reason that we as the people of God, and we understand the sovereignty of God. You hear the sovereignty of God preached every

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Sunday, you hear it prayed every Sunday, you see it modeled every Sunday. We're not in panic, we're trusting in Him.

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This is a congregation that lives and breathes that air, that oxygen. This is the waters in which we swim are the waters of divine sovereignty where this is part of our theology, it's part of our philosophy of ministry.

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It is simply how we interact with one another. It is our environment here at Kootenai Community Church. So consequently, we're not constantly out in the foyer arguing with each other about which candidate we're gonna vote for or what policy we want to see put in place or whether we should or we shouldn't vote.

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And that I believe is the work of the Spirit of God amongst us as His people. That that's not what we gather here to do.

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We have a different purpose, a different focus, a different worldview, a different mentality here than it is elsewhere out in the culture.

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And I want to help foster that again here this morning. So I simply want to remind us of God's purposes,

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His power and His sovereignty because though I live in a world where I cannot choose how much elections matter,

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I do live in a world where I can choose how much I'm going to worry about elections. That I can control.

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I do live in a world where I can choose whom I trust and how much I trust Him and what I think about these things.

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And I can live in a world where I can choose to have my mind and my heart informed by Scripture concerning all of the issues of this world.

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So that's what we're doing here in the book of Daniel. I got permission by the way from Cornell before I dove into this this week.

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Because if you're thinking, this sounds a lot like Sunday school and it's going to for a few minutes. I got permission from Cornell to dive into this because I didn't want to steal his thunder.

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I've been falsely accused of that in the past. And I'm not doing that. I'm just, we're going to actually go through a theme and not a particular passage in the book of Daniel.

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And I want to show you a theme that is repeated over and over again. It is illustrated.

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It is portrayed. It is lived out. It is boldly stated in every conceivable way.

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And the theme is this. That the most high God is the King of heaven and he is the ruler in the realm of mankind.

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The most high God is the King in heaven and he is the ruler over the realm of mankind. That is the theme of the book of Daniel.

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And you don't necessarily really pick it up if you're just reading through Daniel and you're kind of visions of animals, weird animals and statues and fiery furnace and lions dens.

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Those are the things that tend to grab our focus and grab our attention in the book of Daniel when we're reading it.

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But when we go through it as I'm about to go through it with you, you will see that Daniel is driving at one thing.

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The most high God is the King in heaven and he rules over the realm of mankind. And Daniel repeats this from every angle he can repeat it from.

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He states it every way that he can state it. He illustrates it every way that he can illustrate it. That is what the whole book of Daniel is written around.

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That one theme. That our God most high rules in heaven and he is the ruler over the realm of mankind.

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And I'm going to say that over and over again so that we get that into our hearts and into our minds. Daniel chapter two.

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Let me give you just briefly a background of Daniel and Cornell's going through this in Sunday school. So I don't need to repeat this.

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I'm just going to give you the high points. Daniel was written around 530 BC. He lived during the fall of the

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Southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, that was his kingdom. He lived to see the end of that Davidic monarch in the

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Southern kingdom of Judah. As the Babylonian empire came in and laid siege to the city and deported a group of young, handsome, wise, brilliant, smart, articulate young men,

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Daniel and several of his friends, there was a large number of them that were deported to the city of Babylon, which was hundreds of miles away.

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So Daniel was removed from his land, removed from amongst his people and his family. And he was taken to live in a foreign city under a foreign monarch.

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And there he ended up serving the king. And probably he was a teenager at the time that the Southern kingdom fell and Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took him to Babylon.

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So Daniel was probably in his early teens, possibly as old as 15 when that happened. Imagine being ripped from your family when you're that age and taken to a foreign land to live amongst a foreign people who speak a language that you've never spoken or heard before.

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Well, that was the story with Daniel. There was another deportation. The first one was in 605, the second one in 597.

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And then there was a third one in 586. Nebuchadnezzar set up these little puppet kings, these little proxy kings to rule in Judea.

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And their job was basically twofold. Their job was to collect taxes. And keep peace. And if they didn't fulfill either one of those tasks, they were executed and replaced by another king.

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So there was a series of little puppet kings that sort of ruled there under the auspices of Nebuchadnezzar after 605.

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Daniel, in the book of Daniel and Daniel's life covers the 70 year Babylonian captivity.

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So if you go back to the book of Jeremiah, you'll see that Jeremiah had prophesied that the Southern kingdom would fall, that would be taken captive by Babylon and that they would be exiled to another land for 70 years.

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And so we refer that as the Babylonian captivity. It was a 70 year period of time. Daniel was alive at the beginning of that in 605

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BC. He lived all the way through almost probably to the end of that 70 year captivity, dying at probably the ripe old age of 85 or more at the end of that 70 years.

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So Daniel lived through that whole captivity, which started under Nebuchadnezzar and ended under another kingdom.

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And so that's the scope of the entire book of Daniel. And this, by the way, raised a pressing question for all the

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Jews that lived at the time of Daniel. And the question was this, all the way through from the time of David, all the way through until the end of that kingdom,

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God had promised us through the prophets and to David, a kingdom that was to come.

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It was supposed to be a Messiah. He was supposed to set up a kingdom. He was supposed to rule and reign forever. He was gonna come and free us from Gentile dominion and domination and he was gonna establish a kingdom and rule was gonna be prosperous and it was gonna be beautiful and it was gonna be peaceful.

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And we were to enjoy this and we were to be the apple of God's eye and none of the Gentile powers would oppress us.

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That was what they had expected, but then that never came to pass and the kingdom crashed and they were exported to Babylon.

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And so now what's the pressing question? The pressing question is, what about those promises to David? What about the promises of a kingdom and a

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Messiah? What about the promises of a rule and reign? Are those still a thing? Are those still happening?

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Which is why, by the way, when you get into the prophets who lived during the exile and after the exile, they kept going back to this one theme, there's still a kingdom to come.

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It's that promise is still on the table. God will still fulfill that, he'll fulfill it in his time and his way, but that kingdom is still going to be established.

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And we see this theme in the book of Daniel. Daniel ends up in the court of a Gentile king who thinks he is

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God and he rules as if he is God and that creates a perfect backdrop for God to say, no, you're not

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God, I'm God. And to show the kings who think that they rule as God, that they are not God and that there is a

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God most high who rules in the heaven and he rules in the realm of mankind. That's the theme of the book of Daniel. Now, Daniel chapter two.

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So after all of that introduction, are we really gonna have time to go through all of this? No, but you have nothing else to do this afternoon, so we might as well spend the time here.

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In Daniel chapter two, by the way, Daniel chapter one is the story, remember of Daniel being conscripted into the king's service and there is that conflict over the food and Daniel wouldn't eat the king's food.

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And so God in a very subtle way ends up demonstrating to the king that he is sovereign even over those things.

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And so that basically takes up chapter one. In chapter two, the king has a dream and he asked the people, his conjurers, his magicians, his astrologers, his charlatans, everybody else who would have a program on TBN today.

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The king gathers all of them into his court and he says, tell me the dream and tell me its interpretation. And of course they can't.

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They say, what kind of a request is this? Tell you the dream? How are we supposed to know what you had a dream of last night?

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You see this anytime anybody shares a dream with me and they say, hey, do you wanna know what I dream? I always say, no, I don't wanna know what you dream. I'm not interested in hearing your dreams.

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I think dreams are stupid and I think the only thing stupider than dreams is sitting down and listening to people tell you about their dreams.

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So I kind of wish that my wife would say, hey, tell me about the dream I had last night and then tell me its interpretation.

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And then I could say, you didn't have a dream last night. It was only in your imagination. Didn't exist. Let's go on with our day.

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So the king says to his conjurers, his magicians and all of his TBN stars, tell me about the dream that I had last night.

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And they say, we can't do that. Nobody's ever been able to do that. And he said, then all of you are executed. If any of you had the abilities that you claim as magicians and soothsayers and sorcerers and these intellects, you would be able to do this.

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If you were able to tap into the divine realm as you claim that you can, you would be able to tell me what my dream is.

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So he orders their execution. And the word comes to Daniel that the king has ordered the execution of all of them.

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And Daniel says, hold on just one second. Give me a chance to petition God to see if God might reveal to me the king's dream.

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So Daniel and his friends do that. And the Lord does reveal Daniel's dream to him. So that brings us up to verse 17, chapter two, verse 17.

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Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter so that they might request compassion from the

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God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

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Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in the night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And look what he says. This is where our theme begins, at least explicitly stated in verse 20.

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Daniel said, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him.

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It is he who changes the times and the epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings.

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He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding. It's he who reveals the profound and hidden things.

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He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and power.

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Even now you have made known to me what we requested of you and for you have made known to us the king's manner. So God had revealed this.

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I want you to notice what Daniel says. For wisdom and power belong to him. All power and all wisdom belongs to God.

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Now, if you do not understand the power of God and the wisdom of God and the goodness of God's nature, then the next statement that Daniel makes should terrify you.

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It's he who changes the times and the epochs. He removes kings and establishes kings. There's one in heaven who determines who is going to be king.

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And if you don't understand that everything that God does is according to his infinite, perfect, and loving wisdom, that thought should terrify you.

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Why? Because you and I are not the ones who determine who's gonna be king.

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You see, the minute we take something out of my hands and put it in somebody else's hands, then we start to ask what? What kind of a person is it that's making these decisions?

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We better hope that he is good and we better hope that he is wise. That is infinitely good and he is infinitely wise, which is why you and I can rest that he is the one who puts up kings and removes kings.

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He is the one who changes, in the words of verse 21, he is the one who changes the times.

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And here's what we see in the book of Daniel. There was a time for Babylon to be in charge. Then there was a time for Medo -Persian to be in charge.

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Then there was a time for the Greeks to be in charge. And then there was a time for the Romans to be in charge. And then there's gonna be a time when another is in charge.

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And God is the one who has established all of this and he changes it. When it's time for Babylon to go away and the

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Medo -Persians to become the ruling, dominating kingdom of the world, it happens like that.

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And God is the one who just removes Babylon and establishes the Medo -Persians. That's all under his sovereign control.

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He is the one who removes kings and sets up kings. Daniel gives the king the interpretation.

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Here's the vision. Verse 31, you, O king, were looking, and behold, there was a single great statue. That statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.

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The head of that statue was made of fine gold, the breast and its arm of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

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You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands and it struck the statue on the feet of iron and clay and crushed them.

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Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found, but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

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That was the dream he had. Then Daniel goes on to give the interpretation of the dream. Look what he says in verse 36. This was the dream.

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Now we will tell this interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings to whom God of heaven has given the kingdom and the power and the strength and the glory.

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Who gave Nebuchadnezzar the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory? Who did that? God of heaven did it because he's the ruler in the realm of mankind.

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And so in raising up a king, which Daniel said earlier in the chapter, in raising up a king, he appointed

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Nebuchadnezzar to rule. Was Nebuchadnezzar a righteous man? He was a wicked man. Listen, if you think that either of the two candidates that we get to choose from, if you think that they are wicked, they are choir boys compared to Nebuchadnezzar.

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They're pastoral quality compared to Nebuchadnezzar. Not pastors in this church, but I mean, you know, other places maybe.

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Incredibly wicked. God appointed him as king. Look at verse 38.

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And wherever the sons of men dwell or the beasts of the field or the birds of the sky, he, that is God, has given you, them into your hand and caused you to rule over them all.

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You are the head of gold. Then Daniel goes on to describe that the chest of silver and the other parts of that statue, he assigns them to each of these succeeding kingdoms that would come after him, taking him all the way up almost to the time of Jesus with the

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Roman empire being the last of that. There is a divided kingdom, which is the two legs and the divided kingdom that is weak in some ways and strong in other ways.

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That's the feet of clay mixed with iron. And there is probably there a reference to a future kingdom as well in that.

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But look at verse 44, and this is still future to us. All of those kingdoms are passed to us. This part is still future to us.

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Verse 44, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. Remember, what was the pressing issue at the time of Daniel?

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What about that kingdom that we were promised as a nation? What about that? Here's the answer to it.

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Daniel in captivity, no more Judean empire, that's gone, the throne of David, the Davidic monarchy.

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It is a thing of the past. It didn't exist anymore in those days. Nobody could go into Jerusalem, walk into the king's palace.

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There was no Davidic monarchy in Judea at the time of Daniel. There was no physical kingdom there, but here's

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God's promise. In the days of those kings, that is those kings who were represented by the feet mixed with iron and clay, the

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God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. And that kingdom will not be left for another people. In other words, there's this succession of kingdoms that come right after another, but there is coming one final kingdom that will not be left to another people.

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It will not be superseded or replaced or conquered by anybody else because it will never be destroyed.

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It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it itself will endure forever. And as much as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great

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God has made known to the king what will take place in the future. So the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.

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What was Daniel doing? Giving the king a preview, saying the vision that you had is a succession of kingdoms that were gonna come, but there is a final kingdom.

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We're gonna look at that in just a bit later on in the book of Daniel. There's a final kingdom that is going to come. That kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom.

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It's not gonna be superseded by anybody else. By the way, the king of that kingdom will not be elected. We don't choose that king.

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You won't wanna choose that king. In other words, you won't want that king, his rule to be determined by human election or human choice.

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That king is the sovereign king. We'll look at that a little bit later on. In chapter three, there is the story of the fiery furnace where Nebuchadnezzar demands what belongs to God.

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Chapter three, Nebuchadnezzar, having had that vision, thought, hey, that statue in my mind, in the dream, looked wonderful.

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Let's make it a real one. So he builds a real statue, makes it all of gold, and tells everybody to bow down and worship him. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say, no, we're not doing that.

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You've asked of us something that doesn't belong to you, so we're not gonna give you that. And at the end of that, you remember how they responded to the king's demand?

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It's in verse 16 of chapter three. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.

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If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will deliver us out of your hand,

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O king. But even if he does not, let it be known to you, O king, we're not gonna serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.

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That was their response. Listen, you can only respond to that way, to a king, when your life is on the line, when you believe that there's a

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God in heaven who rules in heaven, and he rules in the realm of mankind. If you don't believe that, you cannot give an answer like that.

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These men understood that, which is why they can answer the way that they did. They believed that there's a

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God who establishes, sets up kings, and he takes down kings. Then in chapter four, we have what

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I think is the most beautiful condensation of all of this, the condensing of all of this theme that we have anywhere in the book of Daniel.

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Daniel chapter four, look at Nebuchadnezzar's confession. Now look, and he was a wicked man. Keep in mind, he's a wicked Gentile king.

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Chapter four, verse one, Nebuchadnezzar, the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every language that live in all the earth, may your peace abound.

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It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the most high God has done for me. This is an odd confession coming from a pagan king, is it not?

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Well, Nebuchadnezzar is gonna tell his story about what happened to him through chapter four. Verse three, how great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders.

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His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. Here's Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan king, recognizing what?

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There is a God who rules in the realm of mankind because he sits in heaven and he rules there. And this most high

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God has a kingdom, it is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. Now, Nebuchadnezzar tells the story of how he had a vision, a dream, in which there was this big tree, and this big tree gave shade to all the beasts of the field and all the creatures on the earth, and it was a massive tree, it was a glorious tree, and all the birds would land in the branches of this tree, and it gave food to the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, et cetera, food and shelter.

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And then in steps an angel and determines that this tree is to be cut down. Verse 13, I was looking in the visions in my mind, and I lay on my bed, and behold, an angelic watcher, a holy one descended from heaven.

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He shouted out and spoke as follows, chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit.

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Let the beasts of the flee from under it and the birds from the branches, yet leave the stump and its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it in the new grass of the field, and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

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Now we start suddenly move from talking about a tree to talking about a person, right? Let the tree be cut down and let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him share with the beasts in the field.

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Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let a beast mind be given to him and let seven periods of time pass over him.

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This sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers and the decision is a command of the holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.

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Man, that's a magnificent declaration of the sovereignty of God. The most high is the ruler over the realm of mankind and he bestows it on whom he wishes.

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That should terrify you unless you believe that God is infinitely wise and infinitely good in his choice of who rules us.

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That should terrify you. But God is infinitely wise and he is infinitely good.

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And therefore we can trust that what? He will set over it the lowliest of men and it will be according to his will and according to his goodness.

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It would be whom he wishes. Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and then Daniel comes in to interpret the dream for him and look it down in verse 24.

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You'll see verse 24. This is a decree of the most high God which has come upon the Lord, the king.

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Daniel says to the king, you are that tree. It's gonna be cut down. The stump will remain in the ground and the roots in the ground because God's gonna preserve your kingdom for you.

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But look at verse 24 or verse 25. You king will be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field and you'll be given grass to eat like cattle and drenched with the dew of heaven and seven periods of time, seven years, will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes.

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And in that it was commanded to leave the stump with the roots of the tree. Your kingdom will be assured to you after you recognize that it is heaven who rules.

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Nebuchadnezzar, your sovereignty will be stripped from you but your kingdom will remain until you recognize what? That the most high is the ruler over the realm of mankind and he bestows it on whomever he wishes.

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This is the object lesson. This is the lesson. This is the big idea of Daniel chapter four. You must recognize that heaven rules and God rules over the realm of mankind and he bestows all over mankind, whomever he wishes.

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It's his intentions, his purposes. He is sovereign in it. This vision is fulfilled 12 months later when

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Nebuchadnezzar is wandering around on the roof of his palace. He's looking out over all that he had built and he says to himself, "'Self,' verse 30, the king reflected and said, "'Is this not

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Babylon the great which I myself have built "'as a royal residence by the might of my power "'and for the glory of my majesty?'

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"'While the word was in the king's mouth, "'a voice came from heaven saying, "'King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared, "'sovereignty has been removed from you.'"

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Notice the language that is used. Sovereignty is taken from you. Who makes him sovereign over his realm?

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God does. And who takes it from him? God does. Nebuchadnezzar, your sovereignty has been removed from you and you will be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field.

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You'll be given grass to eat like cattle and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and he bestows it on whomever he wishes.

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You see a theme developing in chapter four? You gotta learn something, Nebuchadnezzar. You don't rule by your own might or your own power.

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God grants you this. He has bestowed this over you. Immediately, verse 33, "'The word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled "'and he was driven away from mankind "'and was eating grass like cattle "'and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven "'until his hair had grown like eagle's feathers "'and his nails like bird claws.'"

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I think that that disease, the mental disease is called lycanthropy. What Nebuchadnezzar was stricken with. And for seven years, he crawled around in the dirt, eating grass like the cattle until he recognized that the most high is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes.

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Well, Nebuchadnezzar, at the end of that seven -year period of time, confesses in verse 34, "'I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised,' at the end of that period, "'I,

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Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven "'and my reason returned to me "'and I blessed the most high "'and praised and honored him who lives forever, "'for his dominion is an everlasting dominion "'and his kingdom endures from generation to generation.

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"'All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. "'He does according to his will in the hosts of heaven "'and among the inhabitants of the earth, "'and no one can ward off his hand "'or say to him, what have you done?'

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Nobody can drag God before their tribunal and say, "'You give an account for those "'whom you have put into authority.

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"'You give an account for how you have distributed "'sovereignty and power and glory. "'You tell me what it is that you have done.'"

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And Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world, all the glory, all of the wealth, all of the majesty that you can possibly imagine, probably approaching what

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Solomon would have enjoyed in his heyday, but ruling over far more territory than Solomon ever would have conceived of ruling over.

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The most powerful man in the world says, nobody can ward off his hand. Nobody can stop God's hand from accomplishing what

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God is going to accomplish. Verse 38, at that time, my reason returned to me and my majesty, my splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom.

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And my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out. I was reestablished in my sovereignty. Sovereignty was removed. He was reestablished in his sovereignty.

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Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, pray, exalt and honor the king of heaven. Did you learn his lesson? Yeah, I did.

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My suspicion, I can't say this for certain. This is my sanctified speculation. My position is that Nebuchadnezzar will be in heaven.

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I think this is a conversion experience. This is his last statements, the last thing we read about him. And in chapter five, we fast forward 20 years or so to the reign of his son,

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Belshazzar. This is a fantastic story that's worth three or four sermons just by itself. But Belshazzar took over the rule of Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom.

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20 years later, Belshazzar is having a feast. Of course, the Medo -Persian empire was all gathered around outside the city of Babylon.

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Belshazzar is throwing a feast that he takes in, he brings in to his drunken orgy, all of the vessels that his father

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Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem. And they began to drink wine and praise the gods of silver and the gods of wine and commit blasphemy with these articles that have been used in the worship of the one true

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God in Jerusalem. And suddenly there's a hand that starts writing on the wall. You've heard the phrase, the handwriting on the wall comes from Daniel chapter five.

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There is this mysterious hand that starts writings, etching something on the wall. Belshazzar's knees begin to shake and they knock against each other.

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And he says, what can this be? He probably recognizes that this is not something that is good and he's asking other people about it.

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And finally, his mother, the queen walks in and says, look, your dad, when he experienced things like this or weird things like this would happen, there was a man named

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Daniel that your dad would consult. Why don't you call in Daniel? So he calls in Daniel and he says to Daniel, I'll give you the signet ring.

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I will give you a purple robe and I'll make you third ruler in all of the kingdom if you can tell me the interpretation of what is written up there on the wall.

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And what did Daniel say? I think Daniel took one look at what was written on the wall and he said, you can keep your robe and your signet ring.

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I don't want to be a third ruler over anything tonight. I don't want to have anything to do with that.

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And then Daniel gave him a little history lesson beginning in chapter five, verse 17. Daniel answered and said before the king, keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else.

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However, I will read the interpretation to the king and make the inscription known to him. Now, while Daniel had the king's ear, he didn't just go straight to the interpretation.

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That's later, verses 25 and following. Instead, while he has the king's ear, he reminds him of something that happened.

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Verse 18, O king, the most high God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar, your father.

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Because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the people's nations and men of every language feared and trembled before him.

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Whomever he wished, he killed and whomever he wished, he spared alive. Whomever he wished, he elevated and whomever he wished, he humbled.

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But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his glory was taken away from him.

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Look at the language that is used. Not that he lost his authority, but what? He was deposed and it was taken from him.

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Somebody else is ruling over these kings. It's the picture. Verse 21, he was also driven away from mankind and his heart was made like that of the beast and his dwelling place was with the wild donkeys.

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He was given grass to eat like cattle and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the most high God is ruler of the realm of mankind and he sets over whomever he wishes.

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That sounds like a familiar theme, doesn't it? All the way through chapter four to chapter five. What is Daniel saying to Belshazzar?

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You should have learned the lesson that your dad learned, but you didn't. Belshazzar, you remember those, remember when you were a kid, those seven years when dad never showed up at your birthday party?

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You remember that? And after you blew out all the candles on your cake, you'd look out the window of the palace and you'd see dad out there crawling around on his hands and knees eating grass with the cattle.

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Remember that? You'd wave to him and maybe go out on weekends and pet dad. You remember that? Remember that when that was going on? You know what he was learning?

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That the God in heaven, the most high God is the ruler over the realm of mankind and he sets over whomever he wishes and he establishes over the realm of mankind the lowliest of men.

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That was the lesson he should have learned. God himself is the ruler over the realm of mankind.

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That is why Daniel uses language like your sovereignty has been taken from you. You have been reestablished in your sovereignty.

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Dominion is given to you. Dominion is taken away from you. All the way through this, there's one common theme. God is the ruler over the realm of mankind.

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He is sovereign over the affairs of the nations. Stephen Charnock in his book on the attributes, the existence and attributes of God in his chapter on God's dominion, he describes

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God's dominion this way. Listen, his dominion extends over men. It extends over the highest potentate as well as the meanest peasant.

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The proudest monarch is no more exempt than the most languishing beggar. He lays not aside his authority to appease the prince nor strains it up to terrify the indigent.

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He accepts not the persons of princes nor regards the rich more than the poor for they're all the work of his hand.

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Both the powers and weaknesses, the gallantry and peasantry of the earth stand and fall at his pleasure, period.

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America stands or falls at the pleasure of God. Get that into your head. This is not our home.

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This nation stands or falls at God's pleasure. It became a nation by the pleasure of God.

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It became the most powerful nation in the world by the pleasure of God. It became the freest nation in the world at the pleasure of God.

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It became the most prosperous nation in the world at the pleasure of God. And America will fall at the pleasure of God in this time.

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He changes the times and the seasons and the epochs. It's all under his sovereign control. He sets up kings, he takes down kings, he establishes nations, he raises up nations, he puts down nations.

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It is all under his sovereign control. 2 ,500 years after the time of Nebuchadnezzar, friends, nothing has changed concerning God's sovereignty.

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How many of the monarchs, chiefs, kings, rulers, and potentates do you think have perished whose names and memories and accomplishments have been lost to time and to memory?

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Far more than we can remember. Most of us probably would be hard -pressed to name 20 or 30 potentates that have lived and ruled throughout human history that have affected anything.

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And tens of thousands of times that many have gone and been vanished into history.

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And God rules over them all. His kingdom endures, his dominion is everlasting. From generation to generation, he does according to his will in the host of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth.

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And no one can stop him or ward off his hand or say to him, what have you done? Why have you done it this way? Now you may say, what is

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God doing then as the ruler over the realm of mankind? Is he just establishing kings and taking down kings? Because this thrills him.

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Is it just random? Does he just pick somebody from amongst all of mankind and give them a kingdom?

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Is that how he does this? Is there any goal or end in mind? There certainly is. He establishes kings and he removes them.

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Speaking of God's dominion again, Stephen Charnock says this, it extends over angels and devils, over wicked and good, over rational and irrational creatures.

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All things bow down under his hand. Nothing can be exempted from him because there is nothing but was extracted by him from nothing into being.

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All things essentially depend on him and therefore must essentially be subject to him. The extent of his dominion flows from the perfection of his essence.

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Since his essence is unlimited, his royalty cannot be restrained. His authority is as void of any imperfection as his essence is.

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It reaches out to all points of the heaven above and the earth below. Other princes reign in a spot of ground.

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Every worldly potentate has the confines of his dominions, but God has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all, close quote.

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His dominion is everlasting from generation to generation. He rules over the realm of mankind.

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He sets up kings and he establishes kings. Sometimes God uses our votes to do that in the modern world.

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Sometimes God does that by having kings be conquered. Some of them are killed. Some of them are replaced.

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Some of them are term limited. Some of them are voted out. Some of them die in office, but God is the one through all of those means who sets them up and takes them down, establishes them, gives them sovereignty and removes their sovereignty from them.

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And God knows infallibly who he is going to appoint as president of the United States next. He knows this infallibly.

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We're not gonna change his mind on Tuesday. That doesn't mean that we don't do what we would do to affect the good.

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That doesn't mean because God is sovereign does not mean that we're not responsible to do what is good and right with the opportunities that we've been given to advance righteousness or to vote if that's what you want to do.

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It doesn't mean any of that. We're not talking about just pulling our hands back and saying, well, if God's sovereign, he's already appointed and I don't have to do anything.

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God appoints his sovereign choice through the means that he has also appointed. He accomplishes his end through God ordained means.

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He ordains the end, he also ordains the means. So this is not a plug for not voting because I'm gonna go out and vote.

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And if you even remotely follow me on social media, you know who I'm gonna vote for. You know what I stand for.

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And so I use my opportunity as a vote always to try and limit whatever evil I can limit with whatever

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God has given to me to limit it. I'm not voting for personality, I'm not voting for a party. Voting to try and limit evil.

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And I think that that's what we're left to do in today's world. We're just trying to slow down evil. We're just trying to rescue people from evil.

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It's sad that it's come to that, but I truly believe that it has come to that. So God establishes kings and he removes them and he sets over mankind.

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According to chapter two or chapter four of Daniel, he sets over mankind, the lowliest of men.

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Let's just sit and just ponder that for a while. God establishes over mankind, the lowliest of men.

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The lowliest. Can I get an amen to that? Don't you look at those who rule over us from the local offices to the president of United States.

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Do you ever look at that, all of those people and think to yourself, surely we could do better.

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Surely out of 330 million people, we have to have some better options.

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That ever enter into your head? God sets over this nation, the lowliest of men.

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And with rare exception, I think that has been the history of America. With rare exception, I think that's been the history of the world.

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What made Nebuchadnezzar special? Was he righteous? God established him, he put him there.

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There's a Jewish proverb that says, if you want to know what God thinks about money, look at the people to whom he gives it. And I think that we could paraphrase that and say that if you want to know what

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God thinks about kingdoms and nations, look at the people he puts in charge. It's the lowliest of men. Now the rulers don't believe that.

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The rulers believe that they are something, something special, something to be reckoned with. They think they rule by their own authority, their own knowledge and political prowess.

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They think they rule because of their constituency or their votes or their craftiness or their cleverness or the amount of money that they spend.

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They don't rule for any of those reasons. They rule because God puts them in power or he takes them out of power. And God's wisdom is key to all of this.

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This should comfort us. God is the one who established his kings and puts them down. Who else would you have rather do that? Would you rather have

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Congress make that decision? Would you rather have the people of this country make that decision? Who else would you put in charge of doing that?

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I take comfort in the fact that God is the one who does it. But here's the question, where's all of this headed? Establishing kings and putting them down, where's that all headed in the end?

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Is God just blindly pushing towards something or is there an end in view? Is there a reason he's doing it?

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Is he accomplishing something by this succession of kings and kingdoms? And he is. In Daniel chapter six, this is the story of Daniel in the lion's den.

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And again, Darius the Mede who took over from Belshazzar. He was the ruler of the Medo -Persian empire because at the end of chapter five, look at chapter five verse 30 real quick.

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That same night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king, the one who saw the handwriting on the wall, he was slain. So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62.

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He received the kingdom, he didn't take it, he received it. Whom did he receive it from? The one who rules in the heavens, who rules in the realm of mankind.

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Darius the Mede received that kingdom of Babylon, that night when Belshazzar was killed and executed.

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And by the way, that's why I think Daniel said, look, you can keep your robe and your signet ring, don't make me third ruler over anything. I don't wanna even be in the food chain when

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Darius the Mede comes under the wall and starts looking for the guys wearing the purple robes. I don't wanna be wearing that at all.

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So then in chapter six, Darius has to learn the same lesson that Nebuchadnezzar had to learn and that Belshazzar had to learn. And he does when he is forced to try and kill

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Daniel by the law. And he says in verse 25 after the lion's den incident, in verse 26,

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I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel, for he's the living God and enduring forever.

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And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed and his dominion will be forever. So there Darius confesses the same thing that Belshazzar should have confessed, but didn't.

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And the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar ended up confessing. Now back in chapter seven, chapter seven goes back into the time of Belshazzar where Daniel records his vision because Daniel's not necessarily, the book of Daniel is not necessarily laid out chronologically or sequentially.

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So he goes forward a little bit to the rule of Darius the Mede, but then in chapter seven, we go back into the time of Belshazzar and Daniel records a vision that he had.

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And this is the vision of these four odd looking animals. Turns out that the vision that Daniel had is very parallel to the vision that Nebuchadnezzar had back in chapter two.

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And so Daniel is given the interpretation of the dream, which is that these four animals that he sees, these very odd animals represent a succession of kings and kingdoms.

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So then after he sees this in verse nine, Daniel says, I kept looking until thrones were set up and the ancient of days took his seat.

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His vestiture was like that of snow and his hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames and its wheels were burning fire.

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A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him and thousands upon thousands were attending him and myriads upon myriads were standing before him.

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The court sat and the books were opened. That is a scene of judgment. There's fire, there is angelic worship there.

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He takes his position on the throne. He opens up the books. The court sat down.

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He's taken his throne. There's judgment that is about to be meted out, which takes place in verses 11 through verse 12, where the ancient of days judges the beast of the earth, the little horn, and throws him into the fire.

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Verse 13, I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, one like the son of man was coming.

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This is Jesus, that title, son of man, is the title that Jesus uses most frequently of himself speaking in third person when you read through the gospels.

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It's the title that he used of himself all the way through all the gospels. That was his favorite way of referring to himself. It comes right here out of Daniel chapter seven.

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He is using here this phrase, Jesus does, because this son of man figure in Daniel seven is a divine being.

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And he came up to the ancient of days, that is the son of man does, and he was presented before him. So Daniel sees

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God sitting on his throne and one like the son of man, a divine person, like the son of man, like a man, stepping up and standing before the ancient of days.

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Verse 14, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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And there the ancient of days gives to the son of man a kingdom, same kingdom described back in chapter two.

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He gives that to the son of man. That all the peoples and the nations and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion. As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, verse 15, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

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I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things.

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These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. But the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all the ages to come.

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That's the money paragraph right there. That's what you've been waiting for. Ever since chapter two, he sets up kings, he establishes kings, he puts over at the lowliest of men,

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Babylon, Medo -Persia, Greece, Rome, a divided Roman empire, finally a kingdom that we're all longing for.

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The whole point of God establishing these kingdoms and taking them down is not so we can say, oh, that's kind of neat, how there's just this succession of kingdoms all over the world, but rather so that we as the people of God might look at all of human history and say, our hope is not in kings and rulers.

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God sets them up and he takes them down. He establishes them and eliminates them all according to his sovereign purpose.

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And it ought to create within us a heart that just says, can all of this end?

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Can we just be done with all of it? Can we just have a kingdom established that is truth and righteousness and holiness where the saints can possess it?

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Where truth and righteousness reign and rule. That's what a heart should be crying out for.

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Then we read in verse 17 or verse 18, the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all the ages to come.

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Saints will possess the kingdom. What kingdom? Babylon's, Nebuchadnezzar's, Belshazzar's, Darius the

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Mede, Alexander the Great, United States. What kingdom is this is being described?

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It's the kingdom that's given to the son of man by the ancient of days. It is everlasting. The establishment of this kingdom will mean the ruination and the destruction of all the other kingdoms of the earth.

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It will mean the judgment happens and that righteousness is done. And he will rule and reign in peace and truth and righteousness.

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And his enemies will be made a footstool for his feet. And that kingdom will be established in this world.

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It will go through a judgment period of time at the end of it, and it will continue on into the new heavens and the new earth. And the saints of God will possess that kingdom and it will endure forever and ever and ever.

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Later on, more interpretation of that vision is given. Look at chapter seven, verse 27. Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one.

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His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the dominions will serve and obey him. That's what we get to look forward to.

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I think that's thrilling stuff. I think that's thrilling stuff. That's what I want. Ultimately, that's my desire.

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We're gonna possess the kingdom and it's gonna go on forever and ever for all of eternity. And we will be with him.

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That kingdom will be ours. We will rule with him and reign with him forever and ever and ever. That's what we get to look forward to.

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That's thrilling stuff. Now, in the meantime, I'm going to go vote and I'm gonna sit down and watch the results come in.

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And I'm gonna see who it is on Tuesday night that the Lord has appointed to be president for the next four years. That's a biblical perspective.

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I'm gonna do my part and I'm gonna wait and see if God should overrule my desires or if God will vote the same that I vote.

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That's what I'm waiting for. But whatever it is, I just wanna pass on to you a few verses from the

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Psalms as we close. Psalm 115, verse three, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.

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Psalm 103, verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 95, verse three, for the

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Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.

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Loving kindness and truth go before you. That's Psalm 89, verse 14. Psalm 47, verse eight, God reigns over the nation.

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God sits on his holy throne. Daniel four, verse 17, just two verses from Daniel. Daniel four, verse 17, that the most high is the ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whom he wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.

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And Daniel 7, 18, that the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all the ages to come.

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So what are you gonna do with that? Wring your hands, lose sleep, be in angst, go out and have a parade, picket, protest?

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I'm just gonna rest in God's sovereignty. What can I do? Oh, I can do, I can do what I can do, but then

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I can't do any more than I can do. I'm gonna do what I can do, then we trust and we rest. We accept the results and we serve and honor the

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Lord God. Understanding whatever he has appointed is ultimately for our good and for his glory.

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He does it because he is the wise God and with him rests all power and all wisdom. He is the king of heaven who rules over the realm of mankind and he appoints over it whomever he wishes.

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And no one can say to him, what have you done? Who are you to do this? Why is he doing it?

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Because there's a kingdom coming and he is putting them up in the exact succession that is needed to establish that kingdom and accomplish his purposes.

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Let's pray. Our father, we do pray that you would give grace to us, your people, help us to trust you during these trying times.

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We constantly look to you as the giver of every good gift, as well as the one who rules over the affairs of men, accomplishes your purposes.

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We worship you for your benevolence, for your wisdom, for your grace, for your glory, because of who you are. You exercise dominion over all things and you are worthy of our obedience and worthy of our worship.

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And we confess again that you are the ruler over the realm of mankind. We know that you are sovereign.

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We know you have appointed all things that come to pass. We pray that you would comfort our hearts with those truths and help us to realize that everything that you do, you do for the good of your people and for the glory of your great name, where you are accomplishing those good purposes, which will end up for our glory.

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We will someday possess the kingdom and we will rule and reign with you and enjoy the blessing of that eternal kingdom everlastingly.

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We will have that for all the ages to come. And when we contemplate that how short this life seems and how small and insignificant the kingdoms of this world are, they're accounted as nothing before you.

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Help us to remember that. To do what we can to do good, to advance righteousness as far as you've given it to us to do, but then to rest in your sovereignty and your grace.