Mercy awaits us. God is a God of mercy.
Let's open our Bibles to Daniel chapter 4 as we continue our
series on how to live as believers in a fallen world.
Daniel chapter 4, one of the great passages in the Bible.
One of my favourite chapters, the prophet Micah says, you
know, often we go, well, what is God's will for my life?
And let me tell you, it's pretty.
It's pretty simple. It's in the Bible.
You don't have to go searching for it.
It's actually in black and white.
It's in the word of God, in the book of Micah, it says he has
shown your man what is good. This is what you have to do.
What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love
mercy and to walk humbly with your God?
There you are. That's God's will for your life.
You don't have to go looking for it anymore.
It's there. But there's something that
happens to all of us at different times, particularly us
in Australia. We're very proud people.
We say that. Well, yeah, we're strange.
We're proud. But there's pride and there's
pride and there's pride. The book of Samuel, Samuel the
prophet said, speaking on behalf of the Lord, You will save the
humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty.
God watches the proud people, He resists proud people that you
may bring them down. That's God's job.
God hunts down proud people. And Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8, King
Solomon said the end of thing is better than its beginning.
The patient and spirit is better than the proud and spirit.
We live in a world that empowers you.
Come on, go out and get it. You know, do this, you know, put
yourself ahead, you know, and all this sort of stuff and you
know, say who you are and, you know, be positive and all that.
And it has infiltrated the church because the Bible is
completely against that sort of way of life where it says we're
to be humble, we're to be looking after one another, We're
to put ourselves up down and put others in before us.
How many times in Scripture do we read of God humbling someone
who has allowed themselves to become puffed up with their own
importance, their own self worth?
We can think of Samson thinking of going into the book of Judges
after Daniel. Don't know yet, but we think of
Samson and Judges chapter 16. You know the story of Samson,
the mighty man, the mighty judge that God raised up powerful guy
and he fell for this lady Delilah and she was nothing.
He was a womaniser. The problem with Samson was with
was women. And anyway, you know, after all
the times he told her about this is where the strength of my hair
goes and where it comes from. And then finally he did tell the
truth in my hair. And eventually she cut his hair
and then she said, as previous times, Samson, Samson, the
Philistines are upon you. And so he awoke from his sleep
and it's one of the saddest verses in the Bible.
Judges chapter 16, verse 20. And Samson said to himself,
well, I'll go out as before, as other times I'll shake myself
free. But he did not know that the
Lord had departed from him. Imagine waking up.
God's gone. Then of course there's Peter.
We love Peter because we're all like Peter.
Matthew 2635, Peter said to Jesus even and I even if I have
to die with you, I'll never deny you Jesus Peter, you will three
times. As a matter of fact, one of the
greatest things that God must break, and I know because I have
it in the Australian culture before God can truly use us in
his Kingdom is our massive pride because we say how you going?
No worries, I'm good. We've seen it even in our
advertising. Remember the guys bogged and two
guys and other utes come up and he's in the bog.
And you, you need help, mate? No, just parking.
Just parking. No, I'm good.
That's us. That's classic ass.
I do that be broken down on the side of the road.
No spanners, no spares. You you got?
Yeah, I'm good, mate. Now she's right.
I'm too proud to ask for someone to help me.
We so often refuse help when we need it.
Now I'm going to sort it. We would rather struggle than
accept that we need assistance. Yeah, I did it myself.
Proverbs Chapter 11 verse 2 says when pride comes, then comes
shame. But with the humble is wisdom.
Proverbs 1618. Pride goes before destruction
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Peter would say later in his letter.
One Peter 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.
Be a humble person. God resists the proud but gives
grace to the humble. In other words, it's God.
When you're a proud person, you're going to all do things my
way. You flail your arms, I'm going
to do this. I'm going to do lead my family.
I'm going to be this and be that.
And God's put his hand upon your head and you'll, you ain't going
anywhere. I'm against you.
God's against you when you're proud.
I want to ask you a question and we'll get into Daniel.
Who holds the reins in your life this morning?
What do you mean reins? Reins, You know, horses, Who's
steering the ship? Who's got his hand on the the
till, the till of the rudder? When push comes to shove, who's
the king in your Kingdom? When it happens, who's the king
in your Kingdom? In other words, are you the
decision maker in your life, that of your family, are you the
one that is confident in yourself that you have all
things covered? Don't worry, I'll sort it out.
Or have you come to a place of reckoning, a place in your life,
usually after we have a great fall, A place in your life that
you don't trust yourself anymore.
You know why? Because you've hurt your wife,
you've hurt your kids, you've hurt your finances, you've hurt
yourself. And you go, I don't want to do
that again. You come to realise you don't
have all the answers, that you now realise you are flawed, that
you just don't know what to do most of the time.
And you now lean on God for every matter, every turn, every
battle. How to be a father, how to be a
mother. You know that as a husband you
need help. As a wife you aren't superwoman
and you've waved the flag of surrender.
Finally, as you know I'm involved with the AFL, have been
for 25 plus years now and I like researching AFL.
It's they say the games got faster now and a physicist has
calculated that when 100K AFL footballer running at full speed
collides with another 100K footballer travelling at full
speed, the resultant kinetic energy is enough to move 29,359
kilos, 3 metres. Think of that we would call that
physical impact. That would be a hit with a blow
approaching 1000 GS. That is 1000 times the force of
gravity. If you compare that with an
astronaut who when they take off experience approximately 10, 10
GSA pilot normally blacks out at about 20 GS, then AFL football
is quite violent. That's a physical impact.
But what about a spiritual impact?
What happens when a force greater than any of these
collides with your life? That is your soul, who you
really are. We would call this truly deep
impact. This is exactly what one man
experienced and he tells his story here, a Gentile king.
He gives his personal testimony of how God hid him with such
force that he was knocked from the Kingdom of humanity of
mankind into the animal Kingdom. Why would God do such a thing to
a man? Well, let's hear from the man
himself, King Nebuchadnezzar tell you in his own words.
Verses one to three, we'll see words of wonderment.
Verses 4 to 28 we'll hear words of warning, and verses 29 to 31
we'll hear words of woe. And then verses 34 to 37 we'll
hear words of a worshipper. So verse one of Daniel 4
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 you the signs and wonders that the
Most high God has worked for me. He's going to name 4 things.
Four point sermon here in this very first few verses.
How great are his signs, the God of Israel?
How mighty are his wonders too? His Kingdom.
He's going to say His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.
He's in the prophecy now, and his dominion .4 is from
generation to generation. In other words, it doesn't
matter who comes and who goes. God, it is going to rule over
every coming generation. King Nebuchadnezzar wanted all
the world to know what God had done to his soul.
It was his testimony he was a new convert.
He became a great witness to both the Jews who were held in
captivity in Babylon and to the rest of the Gentile world.
He was the most powerful dictator man in the world.
He was the king of Babylon. It has been said that if you are
no witness, it is doubtful that you have experienced the
conversation. In other words, if your family,
your friends, your people, in your sporting team, in your
class, if no one knows that you're a Christian, it is very
doubtful if you really have been given your life to Christ.
In in the book of Acts chapter one, verse 8, Jesus said these
things to the church. But you shall receive power when
the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
Why? So I can do hand stands and run
around the church and act stupid.
No, that you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria, and until the end of the earth.
In other words, you can tell everyone wherever you go about
who Jesus Christ is and what he's done to your life and how
he's changed you. That's why the Holy Spirit was
given to you. Nebuchadnezzar wanted everyone
to know what had happened to him.
This is true of every person who truly gets saved.
You have to tell people you want to tell people.
Helen and I, we got saved on a Tuesday and we that coming
weekend before we went to church on Sunday, we went out Saturday
and visited all our family and we told every one of them, all
my brothers, all Helen's side of the family as well.
Guess what's happened? We received Christ, We became
born again on Tuesday evening. We want to tell you it's the
greatest thing that ever happened to us.
You know what they said? That's nice, good for you.
It's good that you got yourself involved in something.
But we had to tell them. No one told us to.
We just, we're off. Guess what?
And we told everyone, you've got to tell everyone, like the woman
at the well, when Jesus spoke to her and he changed her life
there and then she ran into town to everybody.
You got to come and listen to this guy.
He's the Messiah. You see, that's what a Christian
does. When they become born again,
they have to tell everyone, you can't not say I'm not a
Christian. You have to tell them, you know,
I'm a believer. You know, I believe in God.
Did I tell you that I'm a Christian?
There are no secret Christians. Whoop.
Someone might see me going to church.
Turn the other way. Wait for a bit.
They've gone now. I'll go.
What of your salvation? Do you have a witness to tell of
the wonder of what God has done in your life?
Every believer does. You know why?
Because he saved you. A Wretch like me.
He saved you. He's changed you.
You're no longer going to die and go to hell.
Now you are born again. You have life, you have hope.
You know what's going to happen. You can read the Bible, you can
understand it. God speaks to you.
Almighty God who created heaven and earth.
We had a little baby I saw this morning.
You want to know about miracles? Just going to have a look at
that little baby. A little baby Mariah.
God created that child. There was no child and now there
is a child. God is the giver, creator of
life. And you know what Jesus says?
I have come to give you life. Not church, not religion, but
life more abundantly. If you come in here and sit here
like it's a funeral, then you got the wrong deal,
Nebuchadnezzar said. Peace be multiplied.
He said, hey everybody listen up and he's going to tell them.
I, I not a great story about himself.
You matter of fact, you kind of like something.
Well, don't tell everyone what happened to me that I was insane
for a period of time. No, that's hush, hush.
He recognised that there were many in the Empire who are not
at peace with God and he longed in his heart that they might
have peace, which he experienced.
So we see the words of warning. Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my
house and flourishing. I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in
my house and flourishing. Now I want to stop there.
Guess what? That word flourishing.
And I only learnt that this time in my study of Daniel means to
be green. It's when you describe a plant
and it's and it's flourishing with lots of extra green leaves.
Very interesting. It means be green like growth,
green leaves on a tree. 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 the dream. Then the magicians, that
actually is the word scholars, the astrologers, the Chaldeans,
the soothsayers came in, told them the dream, but they did not
make known to me its interpretation.
But at last Daniel came before me.
His name is Beltashazzar. Notice he calls him the Hebrew
name. This time first Daniel,
according to the name of my God, and him is the spirit of the
holy God. I told the dream before him,
saying Beltashazzar, king of the chief of the magicians, because
I know that the spirit of the Holy God is in you.
No secret troubles you. You explain to me the visions of
my dream that I've seen and it's 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
it's height was great. The tree grew, became strong,
it's height reached to the heavens.
It could be seen to the ends of all the earth.
Man, it was known by everybody. It's leaves were lovely, it's
fruit abundant in it was food for all.
The beasts of the field found shade under it, the birds of the
heavens dwelt in its branches and all flesh was fled, fed from
it. Notice Nebuchadnezzar was at
rest. He was flourishing, he was
green, his life was lush with growth.
He was doing well, in other words.
But it was a false rest. This is where Australia sits at
the moment. Our nation sits at a false rest.
We've just signed all these agreements.
We got mining going to kick off again.
We got, you know, submarines going to be built with this
millions and billions of dollars sign here and works going to go.
And you know what? We've lost God with a we, we
have, you know, a young kid can leave school and go to work on
the mines and end up earning hundreds of thousands of dollars
and have great wealth, but we have the highest suicide rate in
young men in Western society. Why is that?
Nebuchadnezzar was at risk. A false risk, a deceitful risk,
one that like the rich farmer Jesus told the story of who
said, man, I'm, I'm doing well, man.
What crops are good? I'm going to build bigger barns.
And that night an Angel came to him and said, no, you're fool.
You're living without God tonight.
Your soul is required. And he died.
He'd taken no thought for his soul, the farmer, his future,
his eternal destiny. Nemukanezar had defeated all his
known enemies. No more nations to conquer.
Walking on the roof, his palace, he thought, man, I am the man.
If he had braces, he would have been flicking them around.
You know, he was proud, arrogant, completely full of
himself, a a self made man. Don't we say that man?
That guy's a self made man. Good on you.
So God sent him a dream to arouse him from his false
security because God loves this man.
Nebuchadnezzar had many previous powerful encounters with God.
Daniel and his three friends. He'd seen how how wonderful they
had come and appeared even though they hadn't eaten all the
food that he they were supposed to eat.
Daniel had told the king his dream and his interpretation.
Remember, he had that first dream.
Daniel revealed it to him, astounding the king personally
after he built the golden image and witnessed the miracle in the
fiery furnace of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Staying alive in the furnace. And he had seen another person,
a fourth form in the fire, a person like under the Son of
God. So he was not ignorant of the
miracles of God. Yet here was the king with all
his power, all his possessions, but he was in poverty.
He was frightened. Poverty of his soul, just like
the Church of Laodicea. That's the modern church today
in many places. Jesus said of the modern church,
Revelation 317 You say you're rich, you've become wealthy, you
have need of nothing. Jesus is outside of that church,
the Church of Laodicea, knocking on the door, telling people to
come out and meet him, and you do not know.
He said to that church that you are wretched, miserable, poor,
blind and naked, Frightened, Nebuchadnezzar turned to the
wrong source again. He asked for the wise men,
didn't help the wise men filed as before.
Psalm 118 verse 8 says it is better to trust in the Lord than
to put confidence in man. Psalm 11 says blessed is the man
who walks not on the counsel of the ungodly.
Who do you seek counsel from? I hope you get it from the Lord.
You know the Bible says he is the wonderful counsellor and ask
me, I don't have a clue. I still can't work out what
colour to paint the fence. I've no idea.
People say, well, I need to come for counselling.
Well, all I'll do is go. What are you telling me about?
I we find that here. Let's see what it says to do
about that. But Daniel came.
They say he calls him Daniel. Nevu Caneza shares his dream to
Daniel in the hope of relief. What does it mean?
The key character or element in this dream?
I have a dream. It's about a tree.
A tree? Yeah, the tree that's cut down.
Daniel verse 13. I saw in the visions of my head
upon my bed, and behold, A watcher that's an Angel, a holy
one, came down from heaven. As he's telling the dream.
He cried aloud and said thus cut down the tree, cut off.
Now notice this and he's talking about a tree.
But notice how they change from the neuter pronoun goes to the
personal pronoun. Cut off his branches, shake off
his leaves, scatter his fruit, let the beast get away from
under it, and the fowls from his branches.
The Angel, the Watcher is sent and seen and heard by the king.
Nebuchadnezzar is fearful. Verse 15.
Nevertheless leave the stump so after the tree is cut down in
the dream, so the stump is left roots in the earth still there.
Bind it with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of
the field. Let it be wet with the jewel of
heaven. Let him notice, Speaking of the
tree, 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, Let 7 times Passover him
seven years. The band of iron stop the stump
from rotting, stop it from being removed.
And it's a symbol that Nebuchadnezzar is going to be
bound for a period by insanity. The tree was not to be
completely uprooted and destroyed because it will be
revived. The stomp and the roots were to
be left in the earth. There is hope, a prospect of
hope for the man. Restoration is available, Mercy
is available. There is hope and a future for
all. For seven years he would have a
derangement, living as an animal, as a beast.
But during that period of time, God would accomplish his work in
the heart of the man and then return his sanity.
So what's the reason for the dream?
It tells us in verse 17 to teach a much needed lesson.
This matter is by the decree of the watches and the demand by
the word of the holy ones. Why?
To the intent that the living may know that the Most High
rules in the Kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will,
and sets up over it the basis of men.
In other words, God rules everything.
Nebuchadnezzar was to learn. There is one ultimate ruler.
It's God. That this ruler is greater than
all men, and that this ruler is more powerful than all men.
And in his hands rest the dividing and disposing of all
humanity. As you and I watch the political
scene, we see Albanese, we see Trump, we see Putin, we see
Starmer in the UK, we, we see all these different governments
around the world. You know what God's doing?
He's putting all the pieces where he wants them.
People vote. But God's going like this
because his plan, and we've been through it in Revelation.
It's, it's coming to pass. And what's the centrepiece?
Israel, Israel, the church has a task at the moment where to
witness. And then when the church is
taken out the plan, the clock ticks back, which we'll get to
later in Daniel Chapter 9. And Israel will become again as
it is the real focus again of the world, anti semitism, I'm
afraid. And I'm sad to say it's just
going to grow worse and worse and worse.
Israel, we see a piece and I sent it out of my devotions this
week. I pray you get our devotions
both past Israel's and mine. Points 19 and 20 of the Trump
plan, not made by Trump's government, actually by two
billionaires, did the planning with the government of Israel.
And points 19 and 20 say that there will be a unification of
all faiths, that there will be a tolerance and that Palestine
will eventually be recognised. Palestinian.
There will be a 2 state set up. Just read the Bible this piece
at the moment it's only for a moment.
James chapter 4 verse 6 it says, but God gives more grace where
he says God resists the prayer, but gives grace to the humble.
Peter says, Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand
of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
Napoleon Bonaparte at the battle of Waterloo.
On the morning of the great battle, the little general stood
gazing upon the field of battle, and he described to his
commanding officer his strategy for the day.
For that great campaign he said, We will put the inventory here,
the cavalry there, and the artillery here, and at the end
of the day England will be at the feet of France.
Wellington will be the prisoner of Napoleon.
After a pause, the commanding officer with him said, But we
must not forget that man proposes, but God disposes.
Napoleon responded Understand Sir, that Napoleon proposes and
Napoleon disposes. Victor Hugo the historian went
on to ride of the situation. And from that moment that
Napoleon said that Waterloo was lost because God sent driving
rain and hail so that the troops of Napoleon could not manoeuvre
as they had planned on the night of the battle.
And it was Napoleon who ended up prisoner of Wellington and
France was lost to the feet of England In verse 18, this dream
I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen.
Now you Belteschezzer, declare the interpretation.
Tell me about it, because I know the wise men aren't able, but
you're able, for the spirit of the holy God is in you.
Verse 19, Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar was astonished for
one hour because he knows the dream.
He goes, ah, yeah. And his thoughts troubling.
He said, I wish this dream, If you read through, I wish this
dream was about your enemies, O King, and not about you.
And Daniel pleads with the king to change.
It's a warning from God, O King, you kind of change.
Here was the impact #1 Daniel spoke the truth.
And love the most powerful person in the world.
It was a warning from God. Have you ever been warned by
God? I have.
Listen carefully. Daniel shared the truth with a
man he served and loved, Nebuchadnezzar.
He didn't go, oh, I can't tell you.
You know, as a brother and a sister in Christ, there are
times where you'll need to share truth to say what you're
planning. You know, I know you're planning
to do this or this is how you're living.
You can't do that. You don't say, you know, you
shouldn't be doing that. You should know better.
God gives us warnings. People don't care how much you
know until they know how much you care.
Daniel cared about the king, and he said, king, I wish it was
about your enemies, but hey, I got to tell you this is a
warning. Verse 21 Daniel was fearless,
whose leaves were fair, and the fruit, the tree thereof, and in
it was meat for all under the peace of the field.
Verse 22 Hear what he says, King.
You imagine him saying this. You're the tree.
Then when Nathan said to David, you're the man, King, you're the
tree. You're grown, you've become
strong, your greatness has grown, it's reached into heaven.
Your dominion covers the earth. Babylon is a powerful empire.
Wherefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable.
Notice what he says he says. He says it with love with it.
Break off the sins. Hey, God knows you're in trouble
and he's trying to warn you. Break off your sins by
righteousness, your iniquities, by showing mercy to the poor.
And if it be a lengthening of your tranquilly that the Kingdom
listen. Daniel's words rolled off
Nebuchadnezzar with little impact.
So it appears one year later, verse 28, look what happened,
Daniel 4 verse 28, one year later, all this came upon King
Nebuchadnezzar at the end of the 12 months.
He was walking about the royal palace of Babylon.
The king spoke saying, look what he's doing.
Is this not great Babylon? I am the greatest that I've
built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honour
of my majesty. Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar thought
that Daniel was wrong and that God had forgotten.
If God is, if God speaks to you, it stays.
It's not like, oh, it doesn't matter anymore.
When God speaks to you, you better.
Nothing's going to change in your life until you sort out
what God has told you to do in that time.
You can pray for everything else, but he's saying nothing.
You're back here, nothing, nothing more until this gets
sorted. The city with 11 mile long outer
walls. So thick was the wall that you
can ride 2 Chariots abreast around it.
Proverbs 29. One says he that being often
reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy. The warning, beware how you and
I treat the patience and long suffering of God.
Well, if God lets you sin and continue to sin, it's not God.
God. Oh, that's OK, don't worry about
it. No, it's bad.
Verse 28. All this came upon King
Nebuchadnezzar at the end of 12 months.
And while the word was in his mouth, verse 31, a voice fell
from heaven like that King Nebuchadnezzar to you would have
spoken. The Kingdom has departed from
it's gone now then, and they shall drive you from men.
Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, they shall
make you eat grass like oxen, and 7 * 7 years shall Passover
you what there. But there's an end part until
you know that the Most High God rules in the Kingdom of men, men
and gives it to whomever He chooses.
Verse 33 The very hour the word was fulfilled concerning
Nebuchadnezzar, he was driven from men and ate grass like
oxen. His body was wet with the jewel
of heaven till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and
his nails like bird's claws. If you look and examine how long
a duration it takes for the hair and your fingernails to grow
like that, it is 7 years. While the word was in the King's
mouth, there fell a voice from heaven.
The king is departed from you. The judgement of God fell
instantly. God shall not be mocked.
As soon as the voice stopped speaking, the king became
irrational. It's called in the dictionary.
You can look it up. Lycanthropy today.
A psychiatric syndrome. It's when a person believes they
have been transformed into an animal.
Nebuchadnezzar thought and lived as though he was an oxen.
It's said that in that seven years they kept him within the
walls of the Palestine, but in the fields where he ate and
grazed, and that it was Daniel who cared for him over those
seven years. And Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach
and Nabinagar ran the Kingdom of Babylon all this time so that no
one knew what was happening to the king to guard him.
In one minute he went from wearing the royal robes of
monarch to crawling on all fours and eating grass.
So 7 long years rolled over Nebuchadnezzar's life.
Seven years of judgement, but there was to be an end.
And that's the good thing. You know, God doesn't just
discipline you and nail you and that's it.
That's it. Look at the prodigal that came
home. The dad didn't say, well, no,
no, come on, I don't want to see you.
That was the problem with David. Remember with Absalom, when
Absalom wanted to see David, they said, I don't want to see
you. And just Absalom's rebellion
grew more and more and more. David was not a good father.
When sin entered the heart of this man, his gaze was diverted
from heaven, from looking up to earth.
Now in Isaiah chapter 4522, a great verse, you should know it.
It's the very verse that a young Charles hadn't Spurgeon between
the age of 17 and 18 heard in a little church with about 18
people and the preacher said, Isaiah 4522, look to me and be
saved all you ends of the earth, for I am God.
There is no other and he pointed to young Spurgeon.
He said can you look, Can you look?
You can look, look to God be saved.
This morning, young man Spurgeon was saved on the spot.
That's all you have to do is look.
But then came words of worship, the evidence of a change.
Pride was gone and the most High now surrounded his praise.
Look at verse 34. Now at the end of the time, I,
Nebuchadnezzar noticed, lifted my eyes to heaven, no longer
looking down on the grass, and my understanding returned to me.
And I bless the most high and praise and honour of him who
lives forever. For his dominion is an
everlasting dominion. His Kingdom is from generation
to generation. It's interesting that all
animals look down to the only man.
Humanity looks up. Every Sinner who turns to God
has learned that he who hates and judges sin is ready and
willing to receive and save sinners.
You know, if you're a Sinner here today, and I was like you,
a Sinner, I'm a Sinner saved by the grace of God.
But at one time I sat in a church being a Sinner.
And Psalm 86, verse 5 says this. For you, that's you.
For the Lord, you Lord are good, ready to forgive.
God just is waiting, ready to forgive.
He's plenteous in mercy. He offers me.
He's not here to judge you. His judgement for you fell upon
His Son on the cross. He's here to give you mercy.
He's plenteous in mercy. And to all them that call upon
you, all you have to do is say, Jesus, receive me.
Verse 35. Nebuchadnezzar attributes
absolute power and authority to the King of heaven, whose works
are true, His ways of judgement. So here he is after these seven
years, confessing to what God has done in dealing with him was
right and just. Is that that was terrible what
God did to me? No, and saved him from himself.
He also admitted that he'd walked in pride and had been
humbled by this amazing experience testifying of the
change that God brings to a man. When you come in a relationship
with God, God changes you. To Corinthians 517, all things
are passed away. Behold, all things become you
when you become a creature in Christ.
He learnt he was nothing and that God was everything.
You know that this morning Nebuchadnezzar, it's believed,
lived for one more year after this amazing transformation.
So what does it mean? This story of this man in 2025
for you and I as believers today, you and I, we also need
to realise that God's patience with us has a limit.
Some of you may be testing the limit.
You know, kids test the limit when you or I ignore the
prompting of the Holy Spirit. And that's when the Holy
Spirit's been telling you the same thing over and over and
over and over. You go, well, yeah, I will, I
will. Turning you towards repentance
and whatever sin is plaguing us, our heavenly Father will reach a
point when he sees that change will come with only some tough
love, discipline. You know, people go to gaol
sometimes. God sends them to gaol.
God allows them to go to gaol because it's there.
They wake up. You know, sometimes something
will happen to you and God's got to go.
I've got to, I've got to shake you out of this because it seems
if I let you go, you're going to continue to live how you are
living. There are times when things
happen in our life. We go, man, I, I didn't see this
coming. And it's God going hello, hello.
When hard times come upon us, we should always prayerfully
consider whether it is any change we need to make to the
way we live. What am I?
Is this a message for me? Are you telling me something
about this, whether the origin of our struggle is the
discipline, disciplinary hand of God, or just the fact that we're
living in corruptural bodies in a fallen world, Sorrow has its
purpose. Storms that come upon our lives.
God allows the storms to come. It's always a purpose for the
storm. God came to Nebuchadnezzar at
full speed, man. He knocked him from humanity
into the animal Kingdom. It took seven years to re blow,
recover from that blow. But verse 36 says, And notice
when Nebuchadnezzar came back, how much better was he?
An excellent majesty was added. In other words, my Kingdom
became greater and my wisdom became greater than before.
That's always the point. When you stick to God's will, it
always works out better. Your will doesn't work that way.
And here's the deal. You know you and I would give up
on one another. You could give up on someone.
You know What's the bother? God's tenacious.
He didn't give up on you. He won't let go.
I want to ask you this morning, have you been living like
Nebuchadnezzar? I just been gone about my
business. Look what how how well I've done
to some of you. This passage and Daniel is a
warning. Your pride is redlining.
It's dangerous, would Daniel say to you through our text this
morning, hey, you're the tree. You're the tree.
For some of you, God has allowed already for you to be cut down
all that you thought you were, all that you had, all that you
work for. It's in ashes.
It's gone. You've lost everything.
There was a sickness within the tree.
And if it was allowed to fester and spread, everything would
fall apart for good. The tree had come down.
But remember, don't take the stumps out.
The roots are still on the ground.
There's still hope. There's mercy.
God says he wants to restore you.
Mercy awaits you and I. There's always hope.
For He loves us, each one of you.
To you who are proud, God's going to just stand in front of
you and he's gone. You ain't going anywhere until
you change. I'm going to stand and block
you. Block your life, block your way,
block everything you try to do. I'll resist you.
His desire is to stop you from walking the path of danger.
That's why he's blocking you. How often kids go well.
Why, why, why wouldn't you let me do what all the other kids
do? Why can't I do that?
You're going because I want to keep you safe.
I don't want you to get hurt. And to you who have been cut
down, if you were like Nebuchadnezzar is today, today
is the day for you to lift your eyes to the Lord.
Deliverance, blessing, salvation, peace will be yours
immediately as you surrender. It's a hard thing to do to
surrender. You know.
We stand with their hands lifted up their their praise, but also
their surrender. This morning.
When you choose to surrender, that means as Jesus said, if you
want to follow me, you deny yourself.
You take up the cross. What does a cross do?
It kills you and follow me. I surrender all.
You know that hymn written 1855 All to Jesus I surrender all to
Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him
in His presence. Daily live.
I surrender all. I surrender all, all to thee, my
blessed Saviour. I surrender all, all to Jesus.
I surrender humbly at his feet. I about.
Sounds like Nebuchadnezzar, doesn't it?
Worldly pleasures all forsaken this morning.
Mercy awaits us all. There is hope.
God's patience is great, but it's not unending.
As the worship team comes forward, God will save his
righteous children from the coming wrath that's about to
fall upon their world. Seven years of judgement, The
judgement of God called the great tribulation, and the rest
of humanity will endure 7 years of suffering.
Verse 37 Nebuchadnezzar said Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and
extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are
truth, His ways of justice. What he did with me was right
on. And those who walk in pride, he
is able to put down man. I know that mission
accomplished, God sought to humble this mighty king, and the
mighty king was indeed humbled, and I believe many people say
otherwise, saved. God gave the Kingdom back to
Nebuchadnezzar better than it was before, and I hope one day
to meet him in glory. King Nebuchadnezzar, if you're
here today, what has God spoken to you about?
You haven't had a dream and you've had the Word, and the
Word sits with you now. Where do you sit?
What is now your action? What is your reaction?
God stays the same. He loves you.
His mercy is there for you. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And whatever He's doing, He's
trying to do to benefit and bless you.