Daniel 4, Where Do You Look?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Daniel chapter 4, I'll be reading the entire chapter, hear the word of the Lord. King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you.

It has seemed good to me to show the signs of the wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders, his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace. I saw a dream that made me afraid as I lay in bed.

The fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me, so I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they may make known to me the interpretation of the dream.

Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation.

At last Daniel came in before me, he who was named Belteshazzar, after the name of my

God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And I told him the dream, saying,

O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw in their interpretation.

The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these. I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.

The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

Its leaves were beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

I saw the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a Watcher, a

Holy One, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus, Chop down the tree, and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, and scatter its fruit.

Let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches, but leave the stump of its root in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze amid the tender grass of the field.

Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beast in the grass of the earth.

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

The sentence is by the decree of the Watchers, and the decision by the word of the Holy Ones, to the end that the living may know that the

Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom He will, and sets over it the lowliest of men.

This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all these wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the

Spirit of the Holy Gods is in you. Then Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him.

The king answered and said, Belshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.

Belshazzar answered and said, My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its interpretation for your enemies.

The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful, and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and whose branches the birds of the heavens lived.

It is you, O King, you who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to the heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.

And because the king saw a Watcher, a Holy One, coming down from heaven, and saying, Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots and the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him.

This is the interpretation, O King. It is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord, the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling place shall be with the beasts of the field.

You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the

Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that the heaven rules.

Therefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the time of the twelve months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said,

Is not this great Babylon which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence, and for the glory of my majesty?

While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken.

The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the

Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will. Immediately, the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.

He was driven from among men, and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair grew as long as an eagle's feathers, and his nails were like bird's claws.

At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to 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.

All the inhabitants of the earth are encountered as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him,

What have you done? At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me.

My counselors and my Lord sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, what are you looking for?

As you two sang, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Of course, if you've ever suffered the frustration of looking for something, what usually happens, at least for me, you look for it, whether they're lost glasses, or wallets, or keys, and you retrace your steps, you think what's the most likely place it's gonna be, and you look at those places, often then you start looking in the same places all over you, in the same drawers, under the same bed, over and over again, because you don't know where else to look.

When that happens, you might think of another famous song from 1980 by Johnny Lee and then Waylon Jennings, Looking for Love in All the

Wrong Places. Whether it's lost glasses, or wallets, or keys, or love, your ability to find what you're looking for is determined by where you look.

You look where you think you can find what you're looking for. You look for the keys around the keyhook, maybe it's on the floor underneath something, or on the couch cushions.

You look for the love and the faces where you imagine, you hope, you'll find traces of what you're dreaming of.

I won't try to sing it. Where you're looking, where you're looking, tells us what you're looking for.

If you're looking for money, you'll be looking at the business, even on Sunday mornings.

And so, where are you looking? People scroll through social media, they're looking for connections, or maybe for causes to stand up for, or friendships, or sense of family, even love.

Sometimes, often, oddly enough, they'll be ignoring the people directly in front of them while they're looking through Facebook or Instagram, and they wonder why they can't find love.

You're here in church, so what are you looking for? Here. We hope, God, a relationship with the

Father, with Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, the truth of His Word, to be your part of the body of Christ.

But what if some people in church are really looking for something else? Psychiatrist M.

Scott Peck said that psychiatrists like him, psychologists, other professional counselors, rarely see really evil people.

In other words, the most needy people, he says, they don't see. The most needy people don't go to people like him.

They don't voluntarily look for help. They aren't looking for help, and so they don't go to places where they'll get it.

They don't go to places where they'll be confronted and asked to change. At the heart of what it means to be evil, if you're evil, and I guess you're not because you're here, but the heart of what it means to be evil is to not look to change.

And so he wrote that those kind of people will gravitate to places where they are likely to be told how good they are, to be affirmed, where it's positive and encouraging, where they are told that they're one of the good people, and they're being encouraged in their sin, affirmed as they are.

That's, after all, what they're looking for. What are you looking for?

Well, it determines where you look. Here in Daniel 4, we see a man, a powerful, highly successful man, looking for love and glory and meaning in all the wrong places.

First he looks in, then he's told to look out, then he looks down, and finally he looks up.

This chapter is in the form of a declaration, an official edict from the king. Likely it was dictated by Nebuchadnezzar and written down by either a scribe or maybe by Daniel himself.

It's sealed by the king with a signet ring. Like edicts of his time, it begins with a greeting in the first sentence, the first three verses, to all peoples, nations, and languages, to Americans included.

You speak English, you speak Mandarin, whatever. There are all of them that dwell in the earth. Peace be multiplied to you.

Nebuchadnezzar is still speaking to us. Its purpose, in verse 2, its purpose is very clear.

I mean, there's no, like, ambiguity in Daniel chapter 4, and he declares it right off in verse 2, to tell people about the

Most High God, to tell people how great are His signs, how mighty

His wonders, His kingdom that is His rule is everlasting, His dominion that is

His rule endures from generation to generation. That's his theme, the theme of the whole chapter.

Most of the people he was addressing would have believed in some kind of gods, but Nebuchadnezzar, probably all the people really in that day would believe in some kind of gods, but Nebuchadnezzar here says he has to tell them about the highest

God of all, the eternal God, the God who rules, has dominion.

This is the highest God. His rule is everywhere for all time. So that, then, from the outset, like the subject line of an email, is the purpose of this passage, to tell us where to look.

Or, to put it another way, who has sovereignty, who rules? And so if you're looking for the

Most High God, then you should find Him here. He begins the account in verse 4, telling us that at first, you know, life is good.

He's relaxing in his house, got his mansion, he's got his palace, he's kicking back, he's chilling, good entertainment, live bands playing, good food, good drink, the money is rolling in.

He talked about how he's prospering. So in his, it happens to be tax money, but, you know, that's a good line to work if you can get it.

He has everything he wants, but he's looking in the wrong places. He's looking in.

He had a dream in verse 5. The dream made him afraid. He's lying in his luxurious bed.

You've heard of king -size beds. He's got an emperor -size bed. And he's in the quiet of the night, but the things he sees in his mind alarm him.

The ideas that stayed with him the next day are disturbing. He didn't know clearly what the things he saw in his own mind meant, but he knew that they were fearful.

Now many people fear looking inward, having quiet times. So now, with our technology, what we do is we can spend every moment with some kind of distraction.

And we, the TV on, or the radio on, or music playing, or our phone playing something,

Bluetooth -connected speakers, or have people around, have noise and activities. Many people fear moments, maybe in the morning when they're just waking up, or at bedtime if they go to sleep, when there are no distractions.

So they'll fill those too. Now they can program their radio or their phone to wake them up, playing something. So from the moment they wake up, there's some noise going on.

And then when they go to sleep, at bedtime, they can program it to, you know, stay on for like a half hour, an hour.

And so to fill their mind and their soul, so that all times they're listening to something, there's never any quiet.

Quiet. They have to look inside, and that's a fearful, empty place to look.

But others don't know that. Their lives are empty and sinful, but they are confident that the answer is within.

That's a common theme in what used to be called, I don't know if we use this phrase much anymore, but the New Age movement, which is really just the old

Asian religions kind of repackaged for modern American and European people. What they're looking for, what you're looking for, they say, is enlightenment.

And you can find it within. Look within. Like kind of Star Wars.

Don't look at your senses. Look within. The answer's within you. What we're looking for, they say, is the enlightenment that you can find in yourself.

And you can find it by clearing your mind, what they call meditating. Now, not meditating on something, like a verse of Scripture, you're meditating and thinking about it, what it means.

But meditating on, for them, meditate on nothing. You just clear your mind, they say, and you just let the light and the truth that's already in you rise up.

You need to stop being fooled, they say, by the illusions of this world and by the depressing message that you need to search for something outside of you.

Don't be fooled by that. Look inward, they say. That's where the answer is. Every religion that offers people something, a clue, an insight, key to unlock something that is already within you, it says the same thing.

The key is in you. The power to believe is in you.

It's just in your will. You can make yourself choose and believe the right thing.

You can muster up the faith all by yourself and gift yourself eternal life. You can turn your own life around.

You can save yourself or be saved. You're a drowning man. No life preservers out there.

You can reach out and grab it. It's up to you. It's within you. Salvation depends on your will. God helps those who help themselves, they say.

Christ, like the army, helps you be all that you can be. So look inside.

That's where the answer is. But Nebuchadnezzar has something arise within him that has him frightened. He can't find anything within him to solve the puzzle.

And so he reaches out, as before, to all the wise men, the magicians, the chanters, the Chaldeans, and then the astrologers.

And they're brought to him to decipher the dream in verse 7. This time he actually tells them the dream.

The gurus, the Zen masters, the spiritual people of the world, the people who are convinced that what you are looking for, you can find within.

That they have the power to unlock it by the right incantations or the right disciplines, the right, the secrets.

They have the code that unlocks the meaning, maybe, of the stars.

And that's, and that's where you can get the answer. So the counselor who says, today, counselor say, reflect on yourself and try to go deeper and deeper, helping you find yourself.

That kind of counselor doesn't have the answer, they say. You do. And the counselor there will just help you find the answer that you know.

It's in you somewhere, but he, but he'll help you find it. It's not, not from outside, it's from inside.

But what if you find yourself? You know, you need to find yourself, we're told. What if you find yourself and you find that you're evil, that you're sinful, that you need salvation?

Of course, the truth is that people won't find that on their own.

They're unable to find that truth on their own. That will not come, that knowledge of that, of their evil, of their sinfulness will not come up from within them.

Just as these wise men of Babylon are unable to help Nebuchadnezzar find the meaning of the dream, the counselors today are unhelpful and helpless because what we're looking for, what they're looking for,

Nebuchadnezzar's men are looking for, isn't within him or in them or within us.

Well, having proved the world helpless and unhelpful, verse 8 begins, at last, notice that, at last

Daniel came in before me. Nebuchadnezzar says, at last. So tired of these people with no answers.

At last, there's Daniel. He's been looking for truth. Nebuchadnezzar's been looking for truth in all the wrong faces, those of astrologers and fortune -tellers, his own priest, every religion that the world has to offer, but they couldn't help.

At last, Daniel comes. He was able to interpret the previous dream, remember back in chapter 2, when the others couldn't.

In verse 8, he's called Belteshazzar, named after Nebuchadnezzar's gods, and he's described as someone in whom the spirit of the holy gods is in.

That's Nebuchadnezzar's point of view. That's the way he describes it. So, he recognizes there's something truly spiritual about Daniel, that he has a gift, but the only way he knew to describe that was in the terms of his ideas of his native religion.

He described Nebuchadnezzar as someone blessed by the holy gods, and at last, after the rest of the world, the rest of religion has tried and failed,

Daniel shows up. Look to him. So, Nebuchadnezzar tells Daniel the dream, starting in verse 10.

There's this large tree. It's beautiful. It's tall. It's full of fruit. It hosted all kinds of animals.

Now, some people think we should interpret all those little pieces of information, how tall it was, and the animals, and the branches.

I don't think that's the point. Talking about the animals and the fruit it has is just a way of illustrating how huge it was, how large it was.

But then, suddenly, a being from heaven, a watcher. That's kind of interesting. Heaven has watchers.

It's like a watchman. The cities in that day had to stand out on walls, right? They'd stand out on the cities, but all have walls.

You have a watchman on top, scanning the horizon for any threatening foreign armies.

A watcher. Heaven has watchers. Come down, in verse 13.

And he proclaims, the watcher proclaims, that the tree is to be cut down and stumped left. The purpose is stated, verse 17, that the living may know that the

Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it, that is the kingdom, that is authority to rule.

Heaven, God, gives authority to rule to whom He will. His will is done.

God is the kingmaker and sets over it, that is over the kingdom, over the nations, the lowliest of men.

Like Romans 13, all authorities have been instituted by God.

They say this chapter is very obvious about what it's saying. There, in verse 17, is the theme of the chapter. Daniel knows what it's about, specifically.

He doesn't want this to befall Nebuchadnezzar. He cares about him and knows that this is a difficult thing.

He wishes this experience, portrayed in the dream, would come on Nebuchadnezzar's enemies. There would be a curse on them, in verse 19, because it is divine discipline.

What Nebuchadnezzar saw was his own humiliation. He was the mightiest man in that part of the world, providing security and living for many people, but he was going to be cut down.

That's what the animals and the fruit portrays, like a huge tree, going to have lots of fruit and animals living in it.

Nebuchadnezzar produces lots of fruit, and so lots of people got their living off of him and their security. He's going to be cut down and he's going to be made, well, humiliated, and not even just like an ordinary person, where he's a peasant and has to go out and farm like anyone else, but he's going to be made like a beast, like a cow in the field eating grass, completely out of his mind, thinking in his insanity that he's an animal.

There's a certain psychological term for this, but there's a condition some people, yeah, they think they're animals. And so he's going to let his hair and nails grow for the right amount of time until, in verse 25, he's about, he's willing to admit the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it, gives the kingdom, the authority to whom he will.

Nebuchadnezzar has been looking in on himself as the one who rules this vast empire, but he's being told that he's not even going to have the power to rule his own mind, to rule himself, until he's ready to see that God rules the earth.

Because of that coming judgment, Daniel tells him in verse 27, here's the second part, look out to others.

Instead of being broken off like that tree was broken and cut down, break off, he tells

Daniel chapter 4, verse 27, break off your sins.

Do right. Show mercy to the oppressed. We've already seen he can be kind of brutal, he's threatening people to tear them limb from limb and he throws them into furnaces, that kind of thing.

He says, you know, stop doing that kind of thing. Punish criminals like you should, but don't just be cruel to people because you don't like them.

Use your power to bring justice to people. If so, perhaps God will withhold the humiliation.

Instead of looking in, Nebuchadnezzar, look out on others and love them, do right to them, give them mercy.

Look for opportunities to love in all the right faces, the faces of the poor and the oppressed whom

God expects rulers to protect. A religion that doesn't look out on the oppressed people, like that old religion that got along very easily with slavery and segregation, that kind of religion

God will cut off. Well, the Lord tells him to stop looking in at your own feelings and egos, look out for others, especially the oppressed.

And that's why being involved in ministry to others, like our Jim Jr. and Jim, isn't just good for them, it's just good for the kids, it's good for you.

Do something for others. Provide a ride or snack or teach them the gospel.

Do something for others. Look out. Well, that's the invitation.

Stop looking in, look out. Nebuchadnezzar answers next when he looks down.

He's been given the challenge, look out, be merciful, be right, be just.

But one of the hardest kinds of people to break through to are those who are just totally wrapped up in themselves.

They're impressed with themselves, especially when life is good. People sometimes having a prosperous, good life, everything is going great, the business is booming, you're wealthy, and family is great, the house is perfect.

Sometimes that could be the greatest curse. They have the job, they have the house, the money, they have everything they want.

They think they don't need to look out? They sure don't need to look up. And that's

Nebuchadnezzar. And a lot of prosperous people all around us.

So after a year, God gave him a year of warning to repent, to change. After a year being told of the coming judgment,

Nebuchadnezzar answers in verse 32. That's interesting. We think of an answer as a question.

You ask a question and you give a reply. Here Nebuchadnezzar has been given this warning, this is what's coming, and his answer in verse 30 comes when he's strolling on the top of a palace.

His palace, he's looking out on this impressive city where he has built one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, you know, the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The city is surrounded by a double wall. There's one wall, Babylon had two walls, about 20 miles long, wide enough, the wall was wide enough for a chariot drawn by four horses, think of four horses abreast, able to do a

U -turn. I don't know how big that is, but that takes a lot of, it takes some width to be able to, four horses harnessed together to be able to do a

U -turn. Well that's a city, the capital city of an empire that reached all the way, his empire reached all the way from Iran on the east side of it to Egypt on the western side.

And so he's looking in, he won't look out, and now he looks down and thinks,

I have built this, this city, I have built it by my mighty power, for the glory of my majesty.

His mind is full of self exaltation, knows the I, the my, looking down, his heart is full of pride.

He thinks he's done this all by himself, it's his brilliance, it's his wisdom. And he looks down as if everything were beneath him, as if there were no one above him, as if there were no one greater than him.

A proud man is always looking down on things, on people, and of course as long as you are looking down, you cannot see what's above you.

Well here pride makes him praise himself for what he's done, in verse 30. Look at what I have built by my great power, for the glory of my majesty.

Pride makes us look down. Pride is what C .S. Lewis called the great sin. It's the sin everyone hates in others, and you encounter it in others, but you never see in yourself unless God grants a miracle.

Here we see the powerful man, proud of his power.

Lewis wrote, power is what pride really enjoys. That's why you have so many people want to be presidents or prime ministers in places, have power.

They can tell people what to do. Many people would sacrifice their money for power. Power is what pride really enjoys,

Lewis says. There is nothing makes a man feel so superior to others as being able to move them about like toy soldiers.

Well here Nebuchadnezzar was looking down and relishing his power.

Pride is the great sin, and being a spiritual sin rather than a sin of the flesh is the hardest to detect and uproot.

Indeed, people may even be moral and religious, not because they want to please God, looking up to him, but precisely because they want to look down on others, like the

Pharisees in the temple. I'm glad I'm not sinful like that tax collector. Pride is this slippery, slimy sin that so easily oozes its way into everything we do.

It's the one sin that may even beat down other sins. This is the sin that'll often make people turn away from other kind of overt sins.

It makes us feel good for having it. Sometimes it makes us feel righteous and religious and noble or better than others because of this sin, and it leaves us worse off than before.

You know, there are people that will beat down their temper or control their lust or sacrifice their greed, not because they want to be holy, although they may think they do, but because they are so proud.

They think they are above losing their temper, having a fit of anger.

They don't want to be seen doing that, losing their temper and their anger, and so they'll control it.

They think it's beneath them to be lustful. They don't want to be caught looking at pornography or in an affair, and so they'll avoid it.

Not because they care about holiness, but because they don't want to be embarrassed. They'll sacrifice making more money, not because they are content with God, but because they're content with themselves.

They would rather look good being in church before those other people who see them.

Look at how religious he is. They would rather look good being in church than make more dollars, not because they love

God, but because they love their image. They want to be able to look down.

Pride is a spiritual cancer, and the devil will gladly cure us of our spiritual colds if he can give us this cancer instead.

Well, Nebuchadnezzar looks down because he can't imagine that there's anyone to look up to.

But then in verse 31, a voice speaks to him from above when he's in the midst of exalting himself, relishing his own pride.

The voice comes from above, notice that in verse 31, where he's not looking and says, the kingdom as the authority has departed from you.

What an interesting phrase. The kingdom has departed. You know,

God gave him the kingdom. God gave him the rule, the authority, and God can take it away.

He said earlier in Nebuchadnezzar's dream that he can give the kingdom to even the lowliest of people.

Nebuchadnezzar thought that he had the kingdom because he earned it. He's just so noble. People recognize that he's the one that should have the power, that he built it all by his mighty power, by his glory.

He made the right decisions. He was wise. He was shrewd. He was a good politician. He did the right things, born in the right family, whatever.

He thinks it's because of him. And God says, no, I gave you the kingdom and I can give it to the lowliest of people.

And so God will show him where the kingdom comes from. He won't even be able to rule his mind until he realizes that there is a most high

God who is over him. And immediately, it was done.

He went insane. He thinks he's an animal. And so living like an animal out in the field, he's grazing on grass, he's unkempt, he's wild, he's uncontrollable, looking down from his palace full of pride in his accomplishments, when suddenly

God makes him look down like a cow on his hands and knees, all fours, looking down at the grass, humiliated.

God will humiliate those who will not be humbled. It's often when our career goals are in shambles, we're not going to have this great career and all collapses, when we're unemployed, when we're desperate, or our marriage is broken, or the doctor has announced that we only have a few more months to live.

It's often then that finally you start to look up, no longer thinking the power is within you, looking down on others in our pride.

Just earlier this year, a local good old boy who had scoffed at the church, didn't go, think it was all a bunch of hypocrites, didn't think he needed it, got leukemia and was dying, and in those final few months finally started to take it seriously, finally started,

I hope, to look up. Some of the hardest to reach with the gospel are often those who are the happiest, the most successful, everything seems to be going right for them, like an emperor who thinks that they have it all together.

God may cut them down to get them to look up. Well, when the time was right,

Nebuchadnezzar finally looked up. He's been looking in to himself, refusing to look out to others, and looking down in pride, and now finally in verse 34, he looked up and praised the

Most High. He sees two things looking up. We see that little psalm in verses 34 and 35.

By looking up, he sees God's, first his sovereignty, and then he sees himself,

Nebuchadnezzar, in light of the sovereign he sees up.

He sees who he really is in comparison to the God who was sovereign. Well, he sees

God's sovereignty first. Sovereignty is not a word we use in common language. It's defined as supreme and independent power or authority.

It means the right, the power to control, to make the final decision.

A coach has sovereignty over a team, a teacher over a class, a government over a country, but none of those are perfect illustrations of sovereignty because even the coach has to answer to the law, can't execute a player that he doesn't like, or to referees, or the parks director, or the school, or a company he works for.

A teacher has a principal in the school board to answer to. Even a government can be said to have committed, you know, crimes against humanity.

None of them perfectly show the sovereignty that God has. Sovereignty, though, is perfectly illustrated here in verse 35 where Nebuchadnezzar says,

God does. Here's sovereignty in verse 35. God does according to His will.

Why does God do what He does? Well, it's because it's His will. He has sovereignty. He does whatever He wills.

Nothing stops His will. And He says no one can stay or stop His hand.

And He wants to move His hand. Nothing can interfere. Nothing can slow it down, alter its course.

He does what He wants to do because He is sovereign. This is the sovereignty of God that many people today don't understand because they think, many people today think, well it's their choices, my choices, my will, my rights come first and last, that they are sovereign.

They think I'm sovereign over my soul. I'm the captain of my fate that God has to, they think, my permission to save me.

Salvation depends on my will, they think. So if they choose, if I choose not to believe, then

I can stop God's hand. That's what they think. Now God may want to save them.

God may want to save me, they say. But if I choose not to allow Him, then

He can't. There's nothing God can do. You know, it's in the movie, that great theological movie,

Bruce Almighty. The one thing God can't violate is free will. Our wills are free, they say.

But many people think, assume all the time, our wills, my will is free, and so my will is sovereign, not

God's. Oh God has His wish, He wishes I would believe, He wishes I would repent,

He wishes I would be saved, but He can't do anything about it except maybe invite me. Some say that over that most important work of God, salvation, that we are sovereign.

I'm sovereign because it depends on my choice. God wishes He could save everyone, wishes

He could save me, but some aren't saved because we stay, we stop

His hand. Contrary to verse 35. So they think we sovereign people choose something, me and my sovereign will chooses something that frustrates

His will, that stops what He wants to do. That whole way of thinking assumes that God has to submit to my choices, to our choices.

It's what proud people who don't know who rules believe.

But that is the opposite of what Nebuchadnezzar says here, especially verse 35. He says

God is sovereign. It's what he started out saying in verse 2, remember? He is the

Most High, He is sovereign. There's nothing over God to which He has to obey.

Nothing restrains Him. He gets His will done. And for us now, that means that if God wants to save you, your free will can't stop

Him. When Nebuchadnezzar looks up and he sees finally a

Most High God who does whatever He pleases, and we're not in a place to question

Him. We just look up and praise.

Nebuchadnezzar sees the sovereignty of God and now looking up he sees self. He sees someone, that he is someone, not who built this great city all by himself.

My glory, my majesty, look at that. He sees not that, but someone who was given a kingdom as a gift.

He sees that he's an inhabitant of the earth who is accounted as nothing. In verse 35, he's the lowliest of men.

He realizes that nothing he's done, nothing he's built, nothing about him can impress the

King of Heaven. Now, finally, he's looking up.

Looking inward, we can think the answer is within ourselves. So wrapped up in ourselves, there's no reason we think to look outward.

We have the will, we have the light, we have whatever the power. Looking down, we can think we've accomplished so much.

We've been, look how moral I've been. Look how religious I've been. I've gone to church so many times.

So impressive. But actually, be so full of the rot of pride, layer by layer to our very core.

But when we look up, we see a sovereign God, a King of Heaven who rules forever, who if we've ever done anything good, we've ever accomplished anything, we've ever built anything from an empire to a

Lego toy. It's all because He gave us the power to do it. And so we see, looking up, finally, we see ourselves.

We see the pride that deluded us. We see our inability to save ourselves from it.

So we're humbled and we don't have to be humiliated. That's why Martin Luther wrote, quote, a man cannot be thoroughly humbled until he comes to know that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsel, endeavors, will, and works, and absolutely depending on the will, counsel, pleasure, and work of another, that is, of God only.

That's where Luther learned to look. When we look up, we see a sovereign

God, and we see ourselves in complete dependence on His grace.

So when we look up, we praise and we extol and we honor, as Nebuchadnezzar did in that last verse, we see that if we've gotten a blessing, we've gotten anything good, it's not because we, well, we mastered the secrets, we had the power within us, we looked into ourselves, we found the ability to do it.

No, it's because the King of Heaven gave it to us. We see that if we've done anything good, it's not because something good in us, but that the

Most High God, who could just as easily count us as nothing, that He decided, for reasons we cannot understand, to be good to us.

We praise and rejoice that the Lord is King.

Rejoice the Lord is King. And He is a King much different than Nebuchadnezzar.

The Lord from the beginning, from the beginning, looked out and He did right and was merciful and just.

He created not just an empire or a wonder of the world, but the whole world, and He could justly left us to suffer the miseries of our own sins, who could have looked down on us rightly in condemnation, and then simply have looked away, counting us as nothing.

But instead, He came down, looked down, became one of those

He could count as nothing, became even one of the lowliest, not an emperor in a capital city, but a carpenter in a remote province, the

King of Heaven, came to be a subject of cruel, unjust, earthly kings.

He set up Herod and Pontius Pilate. He gave them authority. He decreed that they would do exactly what they did, and then

He submitted to the cruelty and the mercilessness that He had decreed.

He was the lowliest of men, dead in a grave, but raised up and given the kingdom.

The highest became the lowest so that we could be raised up with Him.

And that King, Jesus, told us, fear not, little flock, for it is your

Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

So rejoice. The Lord is