Sunday, July 25, 2021 AM

Here for those of you who went to the baseball game hopefully you've cooled off by now. But it was a fun fun outing for most of us to attend together as we get started this morning. Have a few announcements.

Come back for our evening service tonight at 530 and then after that there will be truth group for the young adults after the service tonight. So time of fellowship and learning for them coming up this Wednesday again we'll have dinner at 545 for everyone in the church fellowship hall.

And then Bible study and prayer meeting after that. And then looking ahead a couple weeks from now. August 5th and 6th we have another opportunity for abortion intervention ministry that you can take part in.

And then August 8th there's a special mission to magistrates magistrates. We'll probably hear more about that next week. This week's fighter verse comes from Philippians chapter 1 verse 6. And I am sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

A few needs still for operation. Christmas child. Some school supplies. Really good school supplies. Quality pens pencils sharpeners. Things like that colored pencils are preferred over crayons just because of the weight in terms of packing.

And then scissors. We don't have any nursery volunteers for the month of July. And then the sewing ministry still has some needs in terms of some supplies there. And then finally we had a reception a kind of a goodbye reception for the Nelsons as they were heading out.

If you would like to send them a letter or drop them a note in the mail. Their mailing address is in the bulletin as well. Any other announcements before we get started this morning. All right. We are going to prepare our hearts and our spirits for worship this morning.

Briefly and then after Jerry Brown will open us in prayer especially day of the.

Week when we can come and carry your word here you were well upon it. Just pray for Michael this morning that you open his heart to us and that we'd hear what you've shared with him. What you have shared with him that applies to each one of us individually.

Thank you for the gathering yesterday. For Tommy just thank you for his life and his testimony. Pray for Diane and that you just strengthen her and guide her in this new part of her life. Just pray for our fellowship today that we just have a sweet time together.

Just give us wisdom as we grow closer to you. Thank you for the Lord Jesus. Thank you for what he did. For each one that has accepted you Christ's name. Amen. Would.

You stand with me for our call to worship. Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 38. Excuse me 68 will be reading verses 34 and 35. Read with me together. A scribe power to God whose majesty is over Israel and whose power is in the skies.

Awesome is that God from sanctuary the God of Israel he is the one who gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God. Our first two songs this morning are on page 262. Holy holy holy. And then we'll sing lift.

Up your heads. Book of Amos chapter 8 verses 1 through 14 the entire chapter.

81 this is what the Lord God showed me behold a basket of summer fruit. And he said Amos what do you see. And I said a basket of summer fruit. Then the Lord said to me the end has come upon my people Israel.

I will never again pass by them. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day declares the Lord God so many dead bodies they are thrown everywhere. Silence. Hear this. You who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end saying when will the new moon be over.

That we may sell grain and the Sabbath. That we may offer wheat for sale. That we may make the Ifa small and the shekel great and deceitfully with false balances. That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals and sell the chaff of the wheat the Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob.

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account and everyone mourn who dwells in it and all of it rise like the Nile and be tossed about and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.

And on that day declares the Lord God I will make the Sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into morning and all your songs into lamentation. I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head.

I will make it like the morning for an only Sun and the end of it like a bitter day. Behold the days are coming declares the Lord God. When I will send a famine on the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea and from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord but they shall not find it. In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst.

Those who swear by the guilt of Samaria and say as your God lives O Dan. And as the way of Beersheba lives they shall fall and never rise.

Again you pray with me there such sobering words of your mouth that we.

Might dwell on these words and fear you to the utmost. You are God above all and by the word of your mouth we live and we die. Father you are holy perfect without spot or blemish. Help us help us Lord to repent of our sin.

To confess our sin personally as a nation as a people created by you we will fall under your judgment in one way or another. For those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior the judgment has fallen on him that it might not meet us in the last day even now your kingdom is here.

Help us to declare it to declare repentance turning back to God. Bless our time this morning. Bless Michael as he brings your word. Help us to listen with our ears to hear with our hearts and as we partake in the Lord's Supper around this table together declare the sufficiency of the blood of Jesus Christ to bring complete and total salvation that we might live eternally reconciled with you.

We ask all these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen please be seated in the garden. Even Adam and Eve sinned fell fell into sin and therefore each one of us are then born into sin. And in Romans Paul the Apostle Paul says for the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord. So that gift that God gives to the son Lord Jesus is amazing grace. Because of that amazing grace we have salvation and our chains of sin are broken and we can live in victory for the Savior.

So if you would with me sing amazing grace my chains are gone and then we'll also sing.

Grace greater than our sin for you. Today we thank you for these remembrances that.

We've had in our singing and even in our scripture reading Lord of how you view things how you see sin. And yet what grace that we have towards us by your Holy Spirit because of your son Jesus Christ.

And we thank you that today the first day of the week we rejoice in Christ's resurrection from the dead to make all things new. And that we are able today by your grace to come together with this meal fellowshipping with with Christ our advocate our mediator that we may fellowship with you and with one another all because of who he is and what he has done.

So Lord I ask that you would help us as we read your word together as we consider its truth as we as we weigh the power and authority of Christ in our lives help us to to bend the knee and to bow the heart that there would be a genuine amen in our lives as we consider your word from heaven Lord we confess our neediness and our weakness our hungering and our thirsting.

And ask that you would grant to us and supply to us most abundantly your son Jesus Christ so that we would know in his supremacy our absolute sufficiency. Forgive us father for looking elsewhere and for and for straying and for doubting.

And we ask that you would strengthen us and that you would root us firmly upon our Savior and our sovereign. We pray these things in his name. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Daniel. Chapter 4.

God Resists the Proud and Gives Grace to the Humble

Daniel. Chapter 4 the title for this section of this chapter God resists the proud. God resists the proud. We are a fourth of the way through the book of Daniel. It's 12 chapters. We finished three chapters.

When we finish this chapter will be a third of the way through. I'm trying to encourage you stick with it. Daniel. This first half of the book of Daniel is often described as the historical narrative portion the part where you have stories.

And indeed we do. And the second half of Daniel is described as the prophetic section of Daniel. And indeed there's many visions and prophecies there. But as we see on both sides there is story in the second half of Daniel and there are prophecies and visions in the first part of Daniel as well.

So it's not so quite a sharp as division as some might think. Daniel is a book full of riddles real-life riddles in which matters of statecraft place life and death on the line and also apocalyptic riddles in the fabric of dreams and visions which are which display the rise and the fall of empires and all of these riddles.

All of these riddles we see that try that wisdom triumphs over each one. And in fact the whole riddle of this book is answered in the manifestation of Jesus Christ. In chapter 1 we learned that wisdom was the principal thing facing all the different problems of paganism.

What we need is God's wisdom which begins with the fear of the Lord. Chapter 2 we observe that wisdom is justified by all of her children and those who fear the Lord will triumph with Christ in his kingdom.

In chapter 3 we are reminded that by wisdom Kings reign the government rests upon Christ's shoulders and statism ultimately fails when it meets Jesus. This morning we're going to begin reading in chapter 4 of Daniel and the confrontation long coming arrives in which the very arrogant profane and blasphemous Nebuchadnezzar finally has his come to Jesus meeting.

So if you'll stand with me I'm going to read beginning in chapter 4 verse 1 and we're going to read through verse 17. This is the word of the Lord Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples nations and languages that dwell in all the earth.

Peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are his signs and how mighty his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation.

I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace. I saw a dream which made me afraid and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore I issued a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of a dream.

Then the magicians the astrologers the Chaldeans and the soothsayers came in and I told them the dream but they did not make known to me its interpretation. But at last Daniel came before me. His name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my God.

In him is the spirit of the Holy God. And I told the dream before him saying Belteshazzar chief of the magicians because I know that the spirit of the Holy God is in you and no secret troubles you explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen and its interpretation.

These were the visions of my head while on my bed. I was looking and behold a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong. Its height reached to the heavens and it could be seen to the ends of all the earth.

Its leaves were lovely its fruit abundant and in it was food for all. The beast of the field found shade under it. The birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches and all flesh was fed from it. I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed and there was a watcher a holy one coming down from heaven.

He cried aloud and said thus chop down the tree and cut off its branches strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts get out from under it and the birds from its branches. Nevertheless leave the stump and roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze and the tender grass of the field.

Let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from that of a man. Let him be given the heart of a beast and that seven times pass over him.

This decision is by the decree of the Watchers and the sentence by the Word of the Holy Ones in order that the living may know the most high rules in the kingdom of men gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowest of men.

This is the Word of the Lord thanks be to God may be seated. This whole chapter is about God's resistance to human pride. God's resistance to human pride. And we need to draw some connections here with what we've already seen in this book of Daniel to consider the statism in chapter 3 statism wherein we render unto Caesar what belongs to God and render unto Caesar what belongs to the church and render unto Caesar that what belongs to the family.

Statism is the polity of a culture of paganism. But the question comes if paganism is the culture then what is the cult. The culture is downstream from the cult. What is upstream of all this mess that we've been reading about in Babylon and seeing for ourselves in our own nation.

And what makes for a pagan culture is the cult of the self. The cult of the self. Self worship is rampant and many have been turned over to a reprobate mind. Self worship you see is the fear of the self a strict reverence a strict reverence for the passions the preferences and the promotion of the self.

If there is one rule which seems inviolate if there's one if there's one creed which must not be blasphemed in our culture it is this that I will do what my passions dictate to me and I will maintain what my preferences demand and I will always promote myself.

And this is nothing but the fear of man. This is the fear of man. It is a reverence for the self the self being man and it is accelerated by the fear of death the self being so important. Then I must do everything I can to preserve the self against all threats.

Self-preservation. Do you remember that Jesus. Do you remember that Jesus called us to die to the self. You remember that Jesus called us to die to the self and to live to him. He said that those who seek to save their lives will lose them.

Those who seek to save their lives by by any means by the state or by community or by autonomy they're going to lose their lives. But only those who lose their lives for Christ's sake will save them. That's what he told us.

Christ is utterly completely opposed to the self exaltation which funds paganism and thus statism. We don't have to be too complex with this. The exaltation of the self is pride. The exaltation of the self is pride and God is opposed to the proud.

And Daniel 4 is a wonderfully interesting and helpful examination of just how God is opposed to the proud. As we come together around this table I think we should be reminded that this table is a humble one.

This table is a this is a humble place to come and it is welcoming to all who live in the grace of Christ. But this is not a table that we that we come to and elevate ourselves. This is a table we come preparing our hearts through confessing of our sins and reckoning ourselves as sinners in the sight of a holy God and and coming under submission to the authority of Christ and the Word of God being living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword cutting right to the heart of the matter and laying us open before the God with whom we all have to do.

This is a humble table. It's something to remember as we consider what happens in Daniel 4 as he resists the proud. There are many passages which have those sentiments. God resists the proud. We certainly see it here in Daniel 4 where Nebuchadnezzar is is exalted and lofty and powerful.

And it seems that all the people of the earth are dependent upon him and his glorious exaltation. He's so strong and mighty. And yet by the end of the chapter we see him like a beast in a field eating grass like an ox.

Proverbs 3 verses 34 and 35 says this. Surely he scorns the scornful. I think speaking of God God scorns the scornful but gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the legacy of fools.

So this is a wisdom and folly concern. It is wise to be humble. It is foolish to be prideful. God scorns the scornful. He scorns the prideful but gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory but shame shall be the legacy of fools.

James chapter 4 verse 6. But he gives more grace. Therefore he says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. And this passage is given to us in the context of resisting the enemy of being a being in in warfare and conflict against our enemy first.

Peter chapter 5 verse 5. Likewise you younger people submit yourself to your elders. Yes all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

So as we as we think of this theme as we think about this this reality it matters about legacy. It matters about longevity. It matters about how we resist the enemy. It matters of how we relate to one another in the church that God is opposed to pride and he gives grace and blesses humility.

I mean this this matters for everything. It matters for everything. And as we are going to see in our study of Daniel for God actually blesses us with humility. That God's grace is actually what makes us humble.

Humility you see is not a talent that we get really proficient at to catch God's eye. Right. That would be entirely oxymoronic. You know God God looks for the really talented people who are really good at being humble.

And then he shows them grace. That makes no sense at all. That makes no sense at all. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Yes. And also. And praise be to God. For this God resists the proud and his grace makes them humble.

So we're just gonna look at verses 1 through 3 this morning. And we're going to talk about how God conquers the proud by his grace. God conquers the proud by his grace. Chapter 4 of Daniel is very interesting.

It's a you know Nebuchadnezzar talking Nebuchadnezzar's decrees. Nebuchadnezzar talking about the Lord. Talking about what happened in his life. I mean imagine there was a Wednesday night gathering of biblical notables.

And it's testimony time. And all the most impressive Saints were there. You know Samuel Elijah John the Baptist the Apostle Paul. And those are the folks you're really wanting to hear from at testimony time.

But then before anybody else gets the chance this really odd duck stands up and dominates the whole first part of the meeting. Hi my name is Nebuchadnezzar. I'd like to share with you what the Lord has done for me as Daniel 4.

This is his testimony of how God changed him and how good God is here at the verse to hear the introduction again. Chapter 4 verses 1 through 3. Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples nations and languages that dwell in all the earth.

Peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are his signs and how mighty his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation.

So when is he saying this. And a few more verses we're going to hear that Nebuchadnezzar was at rest. He was flourishing in his in his reign. Later on in the chapter we're going to hear how he was surveying all that he had built.

We find him later on in his reign we find him surveying the litany of accomplishments to feel pretty good about himself. Look at everything that I have done. Look at all the look at all the handiwork that I have.

And in achieving this kind of supremacy it is not a stretch when he addresses all people's nations and languages that dwell in all the earth. Babylon was the superpower and he was the head of state. And he had a platform from which to address all the people's nations and languages because that was the level to which he had attained now he was very proud about that.

But here he's saying things that don't comport with his earlier claims his earlier behavior and really the behavior that he talks about in his own personal testimony. Something's changed about Nebuchadnezzar and we can tell that from verses 1 through 3 he's up.

He wants to declare a most important declaration to to to all of the world. And the main thing that he wants to say is that the Most High God is wondrous and authoritative and powerful. He's great. He's amazing.

This is a totally different Nebuchadnezzar than with whom we have encountered before. The king of Babylon just got on the Royal intercom and said now hear this now hear this. And he praises God. Apples of gold and settings of silver praising God.

How great are his signs and how mighty his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation. That's kind of surprising to hear from this pagan tyrant. That's really surprising to hear it would be like a press release from Kim Jong-un.

Like what just happened. That is not normal. He sounds totally different here he is now imagine he's giving a declaration to all people's nations and languages that dwell in the earth. He's not. He's not really using hyperbole.

This is an official royal declaration. It's something that would have been put upon a a steel. A steel was an obelisk of pottery or stone. It was engraved with a message. It was maybe enhanced with an image and it was written in the common language of the day and placed in the prominent a prominent place in the capital.

And it was really important like this copies of the steel will be made and delivered to other population centers throughout the Empire. He is publishing this all over the place. And this is rather surprising.

Nebuchadnezzar was known for devouring nations. He was known for his ruthless destruction of of Judah Jerusalem and the temple he was. He was known for taking the sacred artifacts out of the temple and taking them and putting them in the house of his God.

Because he was showing his supremacy over the God of the Jews. That's what he's known for profanity blasphemy arrogance paganism. And now he's dishing out sacred poetry like he's King David or something.

He's totally different here. How. Let's count the ways. First of all his focus is outward and upward rather than inward. We see in chapter 3 he's organized an entire worship service around his greatness.

Hey everybody you come here and bow to the image that I have set up. You owe your reverence to me. And in chapter 4 he's saying hey everybody worship and fear God. He's amazing. I'll testify to it. That's quite a switch.

That's quite a turn. He's not gathering in the Empire to elevate himself. He's directing their attention to God. Secondly we see that Nebuchadnezzar is issuing peace to his subjects rather than furious threats.

Prior he's he says you know if if anybody gets out of line I'll burn you alive or I'll destroy your house and turn it into a dung heap. And here all of a sudden he's like peace to all of you. Wow. What happened.

Also notice his definition of good has changed. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. I thought it good this his definition of good has changed. Prior the good was in the exaltation of the state.

Now the good is in the exaltation of God. And then we see that prior Nebuchadnezzar thought that God was really useful. Now he's really handy to have around. In chapter two Nebuchadnezzar had this dream that none of his none of his wise men or astrologers could could tell him what it was.

But Daniel could. And Daniel said well this is that this is the Lord God who's revealed this to me. And here's the meaning of the dream. And Nebuchadnezzar said well he's real useful to have around. Wow.

What a great God to have as part of our pantheon. Right. He's an excellent tool for our tool belt. Isn't he so. I mean he's complimentary to God but he's looking at him as just you know what can what can God do for me.

Kind of approach. It's not really fearing God. He's you know he's a fan of God. Begin the chapter 3 and he knows that the the God of the Jews is a revealer. But then he watches as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego are unharmed by his fiery furnace heated seven times hotter and they come out of it without even the smell of smoke on them.

None of their hair is even singed. And now he knows that God is more than a revealer. He's a Redeemer. Wow. He could. He can deliver his people. Look how powerful he is. He's super impressive. Best. None of you all say anything bad about him.

Or I'm going to kill you. So certainly not. He's a big fan now. But he's not fearing God. He's certainly one you want to have around and you don't want to be on his bad side. But you know. But now something's different.

Nebuchadnezzar is not trying to advantage himself by somehow virtue signaling in God's direction. He's about to give a testimony in which he shows himself to be the stupidest of all men. He gets told by angels from heaven and by the Prophet Daniel of whom he has utmost respect that he better not keep on being prideful and arrogant and he better repent otherwise.

He's going to be like a cow in a field eating grass. He hears it he hears it and he does not follow through. He's not trying to bring exaltation to himself by virtue signaling towards God. He is praising God.

He he's doing more right than a complimenting God and restricting hate speech against God. He's actually praising God in a very robust manner. Just to skip to the end of the chapter which is an inclusio a bookend a fitting bookend for the beginning of chapter 4.

What does what does Nebuchadnezzar say in verse 34. And at the end of the time I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven and my understanding 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 is from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth no one can restrain his hand or say to him what have you done.

And throughout his testimony you can see Nebuchadnezzar's humility. This is what has been missing the entire time. There hasn't even been a shred of humility in Nebuchadnezzar this whole time. And now he's ready to praise God at the cost of his own image his own reputation.

This change can only be explained by the grace of God. Certainly God exposed Nebuchadnezzar's folly. He scorned the scornful he resisted the proud and by his grace God has made Nebuchadnezzar humble and he's brought him to faith.

This is good news that God resists the proud and his grace makes them humble. He doesn't have to do that. He who hardens his neck he who often hardens his neck will be just suddenly destroyed in that without remedy.

And that is righteous and just. But it's also it's gracious and merciful from for God to make us humble. Nebuchadnezzar deserve to be obliterated in a tsunami of judgment. And yet here God has set him aside as a vessel of mercy.

God resists the proud he does. And look here he conquers Nebuchadnezzar through grace. Nebuchadnezzar had seen Christ himself in the midst of a burning fiery furnace. He'd spent quality time with four God-fearing believers.

He had seen in a dream the coming victory of Christ the rock uncut by human hands. And until God broke him he had rejected that stone. But it's different now. The stone is chief in all his thinking and he rejoices and he is glad the work of God is marvelous in the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar.

Now now he wants the whole world to know about the good news of this kingdom. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation. These are the praises of psalmists and prophets and angels and apostles.

And we find these same praises now in the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar whose heart has been changed heart has been changed. Do you know that change. Do you know that change. I hope you do the change where there is joy in our humbling before God.

Or it is a it is a good and pleasant thing for us to praise the Lord in the same time confessing our own shortcomings our own sinfulness our own inabilities. We don't have to cover anything or hide anything or build anything up.

We're gonna exalt Christ and may his and we want his glory to be magnified against the backdrop of our inability and our sin and our waywardness. Do you know that change. Are you more than a fan. Do you actually fear the Lord.

We're gathering together around this table. Nebuchadnezzar want everybody to know what. Everybody to know how good God was. Well we're gathering. We're gathering at a monument here. We're gathering at this ordinance that declares God's abundant peace to all people's nations and languages that dwell on the earth.

Right here I mean even today through throughout the earth people of God are declaring the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're declaring the great and mighty salvation of the Most High God that he has worked for us.

And it's here that we pledge our allegiance to our sovereign. We eat the bread and confess that his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. We drink from the cup and confess that his dominion is from generation to generation.

We declare that God resists the proud but that his grace has led us in humility to this table to make this global declaration. Psalm 66 verses 1 through 4. May this be our hearts as we take this meal together.

Make a joyful shout to God. All the earth sing out the honor of his name. Make his praise glorious. Say to God how awesome are your works. Through the greatness of your power your enemies shall submit themselves to you.

All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you. They shall sing praises to your name. Let's continue in God's grace and humble ourselves before him with praises for his mighty salvation. Father we thank you for your work of grace.

Lord if you you could save the the likes of Nebuchadnezzar and Saul of Tarsus. Oh praise be to God. We thank you for your grace. Thank you for your power. Help us.