{"id":18387,"date":"2017-02-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-012-an-attitude-adjustment-seminar\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:24","slug":"daniel-012-an-attitude-adjustment-seminar","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-012-an-attitude-adjustment-seminar\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 012: An Attitude Adjustment Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18387","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 012: An Attitude Adjustment Seminar","sermon_date":"20170212","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":20051,"sermon_slides":20052,"sermon_mp3":20053,"sermon_id":"212171119293","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"4:1-18","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nAn Attitude Adjustment Seminar\n\n2-12-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel<\/a> 4:1-18 \u00a0\u00a0Lesson 12\n\nIf we could take our Bibles this morning and open them to the book of Daniel, chapter 4 beginning at verse 1.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is An Attitude Adjustment Seminar.\u00a0\u00a0 Anybody here ever seen someone with a bad attitude?\u00a0 Have you ever had a bad attitude?\u00a0\u00a0 Not you guys, but other people might be like that.\u00a0 God has a way of getting our attention and straightening us out in times of bad attitudes.\u00a0\u00a0 The book of Daniel, as you know as we\u2019ve been teaching through it verse by verse is about a unique period of time that the nation of Israel has entered into, called the times of the Gentiles, essentially a period of time where the nation of Israel is outside their land, really for the first time in about 800 years, and they\u2019re being trampled down by various Gentile powers.\n\nThere is no king reigning on David\u2019s throne and the temple is about to be destroyed.\u00a0 And there really isn\u2019t a lot of prophecy that governs this time period and that\u2019s why God raised Daniel up, to explain the program of God during this very severe time.\u00a0 And also it\u2019s an ethical book in this sense, it furnishes a role model for God\u2019s people about how to live on pagan territory as we watch the role model of Daniel and his four friends.\n\nChapters 1-7 is historical, chapters 8-12 is prophetic and we are still in that historical section; I\u2019m hoping the rapture doesn\u2019t come before we finish it.\u00a0 But chapter 1 is really the foundation of the book, it lays the groundwork, it explains the captivity, and then you move into chapters 2-7 which is orchestrated and organized chiastically.\u00a0 A chi in Greek looks like an X, so this whole unit is organized like an X in a sense.\u00a0 In other words, chapter 2, the information therein is sort of repeated in a different way in chapter 7, chapter 3 and chapter 6 are linked semantically and so are chapter 4 and chapter 5.\n\nWe\u2019ve seen chapter 2 which is the revelation of events in Gentile history through a statue.\u00a0\u00a0 And we\u2019ve studied how the various body parts of the statue represent various Gentile or pagan kings that would trample Israel down during this difficult time.\u00a0 Chapter 3 is what I would call a rescue operation by God as Daniel\u2019s three friends are thrown into a fiery furnace that Nebuchadnezzar set up because they would not compromise and so chapter 3 ends on a great note of victory with a complete miracle of God whereby these three Hebrew youths were protected in the midst of this fiery furnace.\n\nAnd now, beginning in chapter 4, which we\u2019re starting this week, we move into the interior section of the chiasm where we have a revelation to a Gentile king.\u00a0 God is revealing Himself to a person that by and large has been an antagonist to the program of God.\u00a0 And what we discover in chapter 4 is God is going to reveal Himself in judgment but also grace to this first king of the Neo Babylonia that began trampling Israel down during the times of the Gentiles.\n\nAnd as we move out of chapter 4, down the road into chapter 5 God is doing the same thing with the last king of Neo Babylonia, a man named Belteshazzar.\u00a0 Chapter 4 God reveals Himself to Nebuchadnezzar; chapter 5 God reveals Himself to Belteshazzar but not with grace, just with judgment, chapter 5.\u00a0 And then when we move into chapter 6 it will start to sound like chapter 3 and chapter 7 will sort of start to sound like chapter 2.\u00a0 This is just kind of big picture stuff to get your arms around a book which can be very detailed.\u00a0 The antagonists all the way through chapters 1-4 is Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 God is dealing with this man.\u00a0 I believe that there\u2019s evidence, we\u2019ll see it today, that this man came to a saving knowledge of Yahweh.\n\nThere are no real chronological markers given in this chapter, chapter 4.\u00a0 Some have estimated that the material in chapter 4 would follow the information in chapter 3 by a few decades making Daniel, perhaps in his 40\u2019s at this time, late 40\u2019s; we can\u2019t say that dogmatically.\u00a0 So he\u2019s no longer a teenager as he was in chapters 1 and 2, and perhaps chapter 3.\u00a0 He\u2019s now in the middle age of his life and yet God keeps being faithful.\n\nAnd this is one of the great things about walking with God is the Lord, your God, never changes.\u00a0 The God that was faithful to you in your youth is faithful to you in your old age as we continue to walk with Him and trust Him.\u00a0 We may be changing, getting older, amen, but God is not.\u00a0 His character is immutable.\n\nSo here is a big outline of chapter 4 which we won\u2019t make it all the way through today obviously.\u00a0 Verses 1-3 we have an introduction.\u00a0 Verses 4-18 we have a dream described by Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Verses 19-27 Daniel will interpret this dream.\u00a0 And then finally at the end of the chapter, verse 28-37 this dream that Nebuchadnezzar had will be fulfilled by God immediately, actually within a year, a 12 month period.\n\nBut notice if you will this introduction, it begins with a public decree.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, chapter 4:1, it says, \u201cNebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, nations, and men of every<\/em> language that live in all the earth: \u2018May your peace abound!\u201d\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a greeting; it\u2019s a public decree, a public statement.\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting about this is you\u2019ll notice the name Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Apparently Nebuchadnezzar authored this decree that he wanted to announce to his kingdom in Babylonia and Daniel actually apparently took this decree of Nebuchadnezzar, which spans all the way through chapter 4, and he inserted it into his book.\u00a0 So chapter 4 is the only chapter in the entire book which is not written by Daniel, the primary author apparently appears to be Nebuchadnezzar.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that he says there in verse 1, that there is something that happened in his life that had a personal impact on him; that\u2019s the intimation he gives.\u00a0 And it was so profound that he had to talk about it; he had to write about it.\u00a0 He had to issue a public decree concerning it.\n\nAnd then we move to verse 2 where we actually have Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s personal testimony.\u00a0 Notice what he says here in verse 2, \u201cIt has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s giving a testimony, if you will; he is speaking from personal experience and we know that this is highly personal because he say this is something that \u201cthe Most High God,\u201d not the gods of Babylonia but the Hebrew God did \u201cfor me.\u201d\n\nAnd is that not what Christianity is all about.\u00a0 We talk about this frequently and we sometimes lose sight of it but it\u2019s about a personal relationship with God.\u00a0 What Nebuchadnezzar discovered here is not just objective truths about God, which can be recited on an exam, but he is revealing something that was highly personal to him.\n\nI\u2019m reminded of Matthew 7:23,\u00a0 where Jesus declares this in the last days at the final judgment concerning unbelievers.\u00a0 \u201cAnd then I will declare to them, \u2018I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 What, then, separates the believer from the non-believer?\u00a0 It has little to do with church attendance; it has little to do with denomination loyalty, it has little to do\u2026 nothing to do with amount of information a person knows.\u00a0 What differentiates a believer from a non-believer, a Christian from a non-Christian is intimacy with God, which is the purpose for why we exist.\n\nWe know from Genesis 3 that God would stroll with our forbearers, Adam and Eve, in the cool of the garden.\u00a0 Man is created for intimacy with God, a personal relationship with God.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what trusting in the gospel gives a person access to.\u00a0 This God is very personal in the sense that He wants to know us intimately.\u00a0 And there is a wide difference between knowing things about God versus knowing God.\u00a0 I can rattle off a lot of information about George Washington, he\u2019s one of my favorite historical figures in American history.\u00a0 I can tell you about the Scripture verse on his tomb.\u00a0 I could talk to you about His Mount Vernon estate.\u00a0 I could tell you about his wife, Martha.\u00a0 I could talk about His Christianity.\u00a0 I could talk about His role as the father of the\u00a0 United States of America but it would be very strange if I said I know George Washington personally, wouldn\u2019t it?\n\nKnowing things about God is perhaps a first step but that doesn\u2019t save anybody.\u00a0 A person has to trust in what Jesus has done and consequently enter into a personal relationship, a walk with God.\u00a0 This is why we, as the church, are called the what of Christ?\u00a0 The bride of Christ.\u00a0 Think of the personal intimacy between a married couple.\u00a0 That is God\u2019s design for His people, and that only begins to happen in a person\u2019s life when they trust in what Jesus has done for them.\u00a0 So Nebuchad\u00adnezzar is very clear here that God did something for me, not about me, but for me as a human being, for me as a person.\n\nYou go down to verse 3 and you discover a change of attitude that Nebuchadnezzar had.\u00a0 He\u00a0 says, verse 3, \u201cHow great are His signs and how mighty are His wonders!\u00a0 His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.\u201d\u00a0 You notice here that he is extolling, he is exalting the authority and the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 When we look at chapter 4, verse 30 we don\u2019t see him doing that as he\u2019s dialing back to his experience.\u00a0 In chapter 4, verse 30, which we\u2019ll eventually get to he\u2019s exalting himself.\u00a0 He says in chapter 4, verse 30, \u201c\u2018\u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself<\/u> have built as a royal residence by the might of my<\/u> power and for the glory of my<\/u> majesty?\u2019\u201d\n\nGod wants this man to understand that he is in the position of power that he is in because God put him there.\u00a0 That\u2019s why back in Daniel 3:37-38 Daniel is very clear to Nebuchadnezzar that the God of heaven has given the kingdom power and strength and glory to you, He has given them into your hand, He has caused you to rule.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:37, \u201cThou, O king, art king of kings, unto whom the God of heaven hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;\u00a0 [38] and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.\u201d]\n\nYou compare what God did to Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s attitude of I, I, I, me, me, me, me, my, my, my, and you see that this man had a revolution in his thought pattern.\u00a0 You look at verse 3, he\u2019s not talking about me, he says Him, His, and he extols the authority of God in terms of His sovereignty.\u00a0 Something happened to this man to change his attitude, and what we\u2019re going to discover is God uses one of the greatest tools that He has in his arsenal to change people in terms of their heart and their attitude\u2026 it\u2019s called suffering.\n\nOne of my favorite verses in the Bible is the book of Jonah, chapter 2 and verse 7, where Jonah says, \u201cWhile I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 Jonah had an attitude problem too, didn\u2019t he?\u00a0 God said go to Nineveh, Jonah went the opposite direction on a map, to Tarshish which is modern day Spain.\u00a0 The man could not have been more out of the will of God.\u00a0 So God reached into his tool box, brought forth the greatest instrument that He has, the instrument of human suffering, incarcerated Jonah in the belly of the fish, vomited him out on dry land, and Jonah 3:1 says, \u201cNow the word of the LORD came to Jonah a\u201d what? \u201ca second time,\u201d and now you see a more compliant prophet.\n\nAs we move into verses 4-18 the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, he\u2019s going to make reference to\u00a0 a dream as he begins to explain this process of attitude adjustment; the whole thing started with a dream.\u00a0 And the dream starts getting described there in verses 4-18.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar will recite a dream and describe a dream; first he will describe it to his so-called (wise men) and I put the term (wise men) in parenthesis because these people aren\u2019t wise at all.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have any relationship to God; they have no power to interpret what Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream is about.\u00a0 But he\u2019ll try to describe it to them and then he will describe it to Daniel in verses 8-18.\n\nNotice, if you will chapter 4 and verse 4, it says, \u201cI, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.\u201d\u00a0 Well there\u2019s the problem.\u00a0 It is very interesting that we, in times of prosperity, do not have a tendency to seek God.\u00a0 I know from personal experience that when things are rolling along fine and I\u2019m on the mountain top I don\u2019t really concern myself that much with God at all.\u00a0 God, I\u2019ve got this one covered, I\u2019ll connect with You when I need You kind of attitude.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a delusion that we\u2019re under.\u00a0 We forget that we are finite people living in a fallen world.\u00a0 What an easy lesson to forget, so God has to send us a wakeup call, if\u00a0 you will, a reminder.\n\nThis is why I love Proverbs\u00a0 30:8-9, it says, \u201cKeep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my portion, [9] That I not be full and deny You and say, \u2018Who is the LORD?\u2019 Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God.\u201d\u00a0 That proverb says I don\u2019t want to become so rich that I am deluded into thinking I don\u2019t need You anymore.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s hard to pray for your daily bread when you own your own bakery.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to be so wealthy that I don\u2019t need You but at the same time I don\u2019t want to become so poor that I might discredit You by being tempted to steal.\u00a0 I just want to be right there in the middle.\n\nJesus spoke over and over again about the difficulty, how difficult it is if not impossible to praise God; with God all things are possible but how difficult if not impossible it is for the rich in this world , because the rich are used to relying upon their resources to buy their way out of their problems.\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019re not rich who you do you trust?\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to trust God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I like the fact that I\u2019m not rich, although sometimes I wish I were rich.\u00a0 I mean being rich doesn\u2019t buy happiness; it does make you more comfortable, at least I can be comfortable while I\u2019m miserable kind of thing.\n\nBut there is a curse associated with prosperity, not that God doesn\u2019t grant prosperity to people.\u00a0 And we talk often about how God, I want to be bless, I want to be blessed, I want more money, I want material goods, and they promote this doctrine on so-called Christian television.\u00a0 And we act like that\u2019s some kind of blessing, to have all of these fabulous resources and God says well, be careful what you ask for because if I give that to you I\u2019m going to have to send accompanying problems into your life to keep you in a state of usability because wealth and riches delude us.\n\nNebuchadnezzar was minding his own business, flourishing in his palace, not thinking about God at all.\u00a0 The delusion that Nebuchadnezzar is under is so powerful when you consider how God revealed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2, with the statue, and in chapter 3 with the rescue operation of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.\u00a0 And yet the prosperity that Nebuchadnezzar was experiencing caused him, over the span of several years, to just push those occurrences and experiences out of his mind.\n\nAnd so God steps into the picture, verse 5, as Nebuchadnezzar has a dream.\u00a0 \u201cI saw a dream\u201d Nebuchadnezzar says, \u201cand it made me fearful; and these<\/em> fantasies as I lay<\/em> on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.\u201d\u00a0 Is this not the pattern of God with Nebuchadnezzar?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t God wake Nebuchadnezzar up, figuratively and literally, with these recurring dreams?\u00a0 As you study God\u2019s dealings with Gentile pagan kings throughout the Bible you\u2019ll discover that God does this quite frequently.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He did with Abimelech in Old Testament times right up into the New Testament with Pilate\u2019s wife and other examples.\n\nIt\u2019s actually what God did with Nebuchadnezzar back in chapter 2, you recall.\u00a0 Daniel 2:1 says, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.\u201d\u00a0 God is working on this man, Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Well, why would He work on him, he\u2019s a pagan king, he\u2019s spiritually insensitive.\u00a0 God is at work on him because God loves all people.\u00a0 2 Peter 3:9 says, \u201cThe Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for\u201d what? \u201call to come to repentance.\u201d\n\nGod designed man and woman for relationship with Himself and He\u2019s in this business of bothering, harassing, agitating people, even people in very high positions.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t a higher position over the earth that a man can be in than Nebuchadnezzar was in here, and He\u2019s bothering him because He wants a relationship with him.\u00a0 Just like He bothered you, He bothered me; this is the nature of God.\u00a0 Unfortunately for Nebuchadnezzar when he wants an answer he turns to the wrong sources.\n\nWe move away from Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s fear to the failure, if you will, of the so-called wise men.\u00a0 Notice if you will verse 6, \u201cSo I gave orders to bring into my presence all the wise men of Babylon, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.\u201d\u00a0 He should have known better than this because when you go back to Daniel 2:2 they couldn\u2019t furnish anything that he wanted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 2:2 says, \u201cNow in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; and his spirit was troubled and his sleep left him.\u00a0 [2] Then the king gave orders to call in the magicians, the conjurers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams.\u00a0 So they came in and stood before the king.\u201d\n\nAnd we went through that whole process of bankruptcy.\u00a0 It is amazing the things that people will seek truth in, other than the crucified Jesus Christ and His resurrection as revealed in His Holy Word.\u00a0 They\u2019ll seek truth in psychology, maybe these sages of the past like Freud, Young and\u00a0 Skinner and look at their lives sometime, they couldn\u2019t even fix themselves these guys are so messed up.\u00a0 And yet we think they\u2019ve got some kind of kernel of truth that can help me.\u00a0 And people are like this, they seek truth in one source and another source and another source and it\u2019s all so obvious that they\u2019re just looking in the wrong place, they\u2019re drinking out of the wrong well.\u00a0 God has revealed Himself.\n\nNebuchadnezzar, of course, should have known better.\u00a0 You go down to verse 7 and you see the absolute bankruptcy of these magicians.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners came in and I\u201d Nebuchadnezzar, remember writing this chapter, \u201crelated the dream to them, but they could not make its interpretation known to me.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You remember chapter 2, verses 2-13?\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar said tell me the dream, they came back and said well, you tell it to us first and we\u2019ll interpret it, and he said no.\u00a0 They went back, same thing.\u00a0 They went back a third time, the same thing.\u00a0 Why is there a record of three times where this happened in chapter 2?\u00a0 He\u2019s trying to point out the bankruptcy of the Babylonian system, the bankruptcy of man\u2019s systems.\n\nAnd yet there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, as we\u2019re discovering in this book.\u00a0 God, of course, is unique, He\u2019s different.\u00a0 He\u2019s not just one further deity in a string of deities. He stands above and beyond everything as we studied last week; He is the incomparable God.\u00a0 This is why Daniel in Daniel 2:20-23, which we\u2019ve already studied some weeks back, Daniel praises God because only God alone could reveal the mystery of the statue.\n\nSo given the bankruptcy of the wise men of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar remembers, well, isn\u2019t there this guy that used to hang around here a few years ago, he was just a kid if I remember right, is he still here, is he around here anywhere?\u00a0 He had answers because of his God.\u00a0 And so now Daniel enters the pictures and Nebuchadnezzar reports this dream to Daniel.\n\nNotice, if you will, verse 8, \u201cBut finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and I related the dream to him, saying,\u201d <\/em>so Daniel now enters the picture.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that Nebuchadnezzar, although there\u2019s a reference to Daniel\u2019s original Hebrew name in verse 8, he calls him by his paganized name.\u00a0 You might remember going all the way back to Daniel chapter 1, verses 6-7, Daniel and his three friends had Hebrew names\u00a0 which reflected truths of God.\u00a0 They had obviously come from very godly families and backgrounds and were named accordingly.\u00a0 [Daniel 1:6-7, \u201cNow among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. [7] Then the commander of the officials assigned new<\/em> names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name<\/em> Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.\u201d]\n\nAnd Nebuchadnezzar, right out of the gate in Daniel 1:7, renamed them.\u00a0 Their names became what we know them as today, Belteshazzar, that\u2019s Daniel\u2019s new name, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, as we\u2019ve studied all of them reflecting something about the Babylonian pantheon.\u00a0 And when we were in Daniel 1 I told you that this is highly significant because Nebuchadnezzar here is challenging God\u2019s authority.\u00a0 In the Bible when you name something you\u2019re asserting authority over what you named.\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole significance of God in Genesis 2:19 allowing Adam to name the animals that the Lord brought to him because back in Genesis 1:26-28 we learn that Adam had authority over the animal kingdom and this is why God allowed Adam to name the animals.\n\n[Genesis 2:19, \u201cOut of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.\u201d\u00a0 Genesis 1: 26, \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground.\u2019\u00a0 [27] So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.\u00a0 [28] God blessed them and said to them, \u2018Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.\u201d\u2019]\n\nThat which you name you have authority over.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we name our children, parents name children, not grandparents.\u00a0 I know we have some very controlling grandparents at times but that\u2019s not the responsibility of a grandparent, it\u2019s the responsibility of a parent to name a child because the parent has authority over that child.\n\nSo Nebuchadnezzar here is not referring to him by the name that Daniel originally had; he\u2019s referring to him by his paganized name, which shows me that Nebuchadnezzar is still on the seat of authority in his own life.\u00a0 He\u2019s still calling the shots.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me that he takes Daniel\u2019s gifting and reinterprets it through a polytheistic framework.\u00a0 \u201cBut finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belteshazzar according to the name of my god,\u201d see that?\u00a0 \u201cmy god\u201d is in control here, not your God, and therefore how do you explain Daniel\u2019s gifting if that\u2019s your preconceived bias.\u00a0 He says, \u201cand in whom is a spirit of the holy gods;\u201d he misinterprets the role of the Spirit in Daniel\u2019s life and simply refers to the Holy Spirit as \u201ca spirit of the holy gods,\u201d taking truth and re-packaging it according to your own worldview.\n\nThat shows me that Nebuchadnezzar had a massive, despite earlier revelations from God, attitude problem that God here, in this chapter, is about to rectify.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that chapter 3 lines up with chapter 6 in our chiastic outline and it\u2019s interesting to me in Daniel 6 and verse 3 the same thing is said about Daniel in the lion\u2019s den concerning the role of the Holy Spirit inside of him.\u00a0 Daniel 6:3 says, \u201cThen this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an excellent spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 There is something different about this man, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar is saying.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it is, I\u2019m trying to understand it through the grid of my own Babylonian polytheism but there\u2019s something unique about him.\n\nWe know what\u2019s unique about him, it\u2019s the Spirit of God inside of him.\u00a0 And may I just say that the Spirit of God that was in Daniel helping him with understanding, the Spirit of God that was in Daniel helping him with courage, is the same Spirit that\u2019s inside of you, and it\u2019s inside of me.\u00a0 You say well, wait a minute, I\u2019m a Christian but I don\u2019t have the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Well then you\u2019re not a Christian.\u00a0 I used to think, when I looked at Christianity, I said well, there\u2019s the\u00a0 Presbyterian Christians over there, there\u2019s the Methodist Christians over there, there\u2019s the Baptist Christians over there, oh and by the way, there\u2019s the born again Christians over there, thinking that being born again was just a sect within Christianity.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is there\u2019s only one type of Christian, the born again Christian!\n\nRomans 8:9 says, \u201cHowever, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.\u201d\u00a0 This is why Paul writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:7, and he says, \u201cFor God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but love, power and a sound mind.\u201d\u00a0 So what the Holy Spirit did for Daniel in these chapters is what the Holy Spirit seeks to do with you.\u00a0 He seeks to make you stand out.\u00a0 He seeks to make you different.\u00a0 And\u00a0 your unsaved co-workers and family members look at your life and they see something different but they repackage it\u2026 I\u2019m glad you found enlightenment with your guru, or whatever.\u00a0 But we know exactly what it is, it\u2019s the Spirit of the living God that\u00a0 Jesus told us in the Upper Room that would reside in us forever.\u00a0 That\u2019s what gives you spiritual life, that\u2019s what gives you a relationship with God and that\u2019s what gives you the capacity to understand the deep things of God.\n\nVerse 9 he says, \u201c\u2018O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a<\/u> spirit of the holy gods\u201d see how he\u2019s misconstruing, \u201cis in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me<\/em> the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretation.\u201d\u00a0 I remember when you interpreted for me, revealed and interpreted that statue back in chapter 2.\u00a0 And a few decades earlier this is what Nebuchadnezzar said, \u201cThe king answered Daniel and said, \u2018Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So surely you, Daniel, can help me with this terrifying dream that I\u2019ve been having and what they mean.\n\nAnd consequently now Nebuchadnezzar begins to describe this dream to Daniel that he had. Verse 10, it says, \u201c\u2018Now these were<\/em> the visions in my mind as I lay<\/em> on my bed: I was looking, and behold, there was<\/em> a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was<\/em> great.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and in the dream I saw a tree he talks about it here being tremendous in terms of size and this tree is actually residing in the midst of the earth.\n\nVerse 11 says, \u201cThe tree grew large and became strong and its height reached to the sky, and it was<\/em> visible to the end of the whole earth.\u201d\u00a0 So it\u2019s strong, it\u2019s high and its visible, this tree.\u00a0 Verse 12, \u201c\u2018Its foliage was<\/em> beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was<\/em> food for all.\u00a0 The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures fed themselves from it.\u201d\u00a0 This tree was not only in the midst of the earth, it not only was strong and high and visible but it actually met needs.\u00a0 We see words like abundant fruit, shade, folks or animals dwelt within its branches, people were fed by it.\u00a0 There\u2019s a repetition there in verse 12 of the word \u201call.\u201d\u00a0 This tree was meeting a need of virtually everybody in the known world at this time.\u00a0 That\u2019s why in the missions moment Brent, when you read, when you talked about a tree saved your life this is the first verse that popped into my mind.\n\nBut then notice what happens in verses 13-14, suddenly this tree is cut down.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018I was looking in the visions in my mind as I lay<\/em> on my bed, and behold, an angelic<\/em> watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Who is this watcher, who is\u00a0 this holy one?\u00a0 It\u2019s an angel.\u00a0 Did you know that angels are revealed all over the Bible.\u00a0 When I was teaching at the Bible College one of my classes, part of it dealt with angelology, the study of the angels.\u00a0 Have you ever tried to study that?\u00a0 If you try studying it you\u2019re going to get tired looking up verses.\u00a0 It\u2019s just mindboggling how God uses angels constantly.\u00a0 He\u2019s used them in the past, they witnessed creation, they even brought judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, they brought forth the Law, they announced the birth of Christ, they strengthened Christ, they announced His resurrection, they observed His ascension, they brought messages.\u00a0 That\u2019s an abbreviated list there.\n\nWhat are they doing now?\u00a0\u00a0 Protecting believers, delivering God\u2019s answers to prayer.\u00a0 By the way, did you know, according to Luke 16:22 that when you die an angel comes and takes\u00a0 your soul to heaven.\u00a0 [Luke 16:22, \u201cNow the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.\u201d]\u00a0 They\u2019re even involved in human government \u2026 to that I say praise the Lord!\u00a0 And then there\u2019s a future program for angels, the rapture with the voice of an archangel we learn.\u00a0 We are actually going to sit in judgment over angels, I would assume that\u2019s the fallen angels in the millennial kingdom, they\u2019re the ones bringing forth all of the tribulation judgments that we read about in the book of Revelation.\u00a0 They\u2019re actually coming back with Jesus and they\u2019re going to take Satan and incarcerate him in a place called the abyss for a thousand\u00a0 years.\n\nGod is dispatching and using angels constantly in His work and that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 an angelic watcher, a holy one, descended from heaven\u201d and what does this angel do in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream?\u00a0 Verse 14, \u201cHe\u201d that\u2019s the angel, \u201cshouted out and spoke as follows: \u2018Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip off its foliage and scatter its fruit; let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches.\u201d\u00a0 The angel comes in this dream and takes this tree and cuts it down which means all of the needs that this tree was meeting, in terms of birds and the branches, shade, provision, all of that is subsided.\n\nAnd then fascinating there in verse 15, part of the tree remains.\u00a0 \u201cYet leave the stump with its roots in the ground, but with a band of iron and bronze around it <\/em>in the new grass of the field;\u201d cut it down but don\u2019t uproot it; cut it down but leave part of the stump.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I was very fascinated when Bret talked about how a tree that he wanted to cut down saved his life.\u00a0 And what is this anticipating here in verse 15?\u00a0 Just to kind of dial forward a little bit it\u2019s speaking of the momentary discipline of Nebuchadnezzar and his restoration.\u00a0 The remaining of the stub and the roots in the ground is anticipation, not just of the discipline of Nebuchadnezzar but ultimate his restoration because what we\u2019re going to learn at the end of this chapter is after God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar and he went through his attitude adjustment seminar God not only put him back where He took him from originally but gave him greater and glory.\n\nAnd I hope we see this in God, that God is a God of justice and judgment but He\u2019s also a God of grace.\u00a0 I love those two attributes of God, how they work in harmony with one another.\u00a0 Yes, God can be very harsh (it seems from the human point of view, very severe), but He also is very gracious.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re going to discover is this lesson that Nebuchadnezzar learned was not allowed to continue beyond the learning curve.\u00a0 In other words after his lesson was learned God called off the dogs, so to speak, and restored him.\n\nYes, He\u2019s a God of judgment but He\u2019s also a God of grace.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll see that all the way through the Bible as you go through it, in virtually every story, Old Testament and New Testament.\u00a0 I think of the flood that engulfed the entire world the book of Genesis says and yet we read in Genesis 6:8 that \u201cNoah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.\u201d\u00a0 We know that Noah preached the message of coming judgment for 120 years, Genesis 6:3 says.\u00a0 We know that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, 2 Peter 2:5.\u00a0 [Genesis 6:3, \u201cThen the LORD said, \u2018My Spirit shall not strive with\u00a0 man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.\u2019\u201d 2 Peter 2:5, \u201cand did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;\u201d]\n\nIn other words, even though the world and that generation experienced a horrific cataclysm, resulting in the destruction of every life other than eight, God was gracious in the midst of it, gave ample warning, and even saw fit to further and continue the human race through the preservation of Noah and his wife and their three sons and their respective wives in the ark.\u00a0 Or take, for example, the whole golden calf incident where God was getting ready to wipe out the whole nation of Israel and almost did it had it not been for Moses\u2019 intercession\u2026 God, let me remind You of Your promises.\u00a0 God says those aren\u2019t a problem, I\u2019ll kill everybody else and fulfill it for you, problem solved.\u00a0\u00a0 But then Moses began to plead on the basis of the grace of God and how the nation of Israel was spared from divine discipline when they were, in fact, building a golden calf.\u00a0 You manufacture a golden calf you\u2019re only contradicting the first two of the Ten Commandments and God was about to bring justice and yet grace came forth.\u00a0 Judgment and grace!\n\nBut something is about to happen to Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 What does this chopping down of the tree actually mean?\u00a0 You look at the second half of verse 15 and into verse 16 and this is what it says: \u201cand let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him share with the beasts in the grass of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 16, \u201cLet his mind be changed from that of<\/em> a man, and let a beast\u2019s mind be given to him, and let seven periods of time pass over him.\u201d\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, your mind is about to be altered.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it sad when human beings act like animals?\u00a0 I was watching a show the other day and they were describing an argument that broke out in a governing group in another country and they showed these politicians literally physically hitting each other, have a full on melee when they\u2019re supposed to be governing their nation.\n\nThe capacity for mankind to act like an animal is within all of\u00a0 us when we remove ourselves from the God that made us.\u00a0 If you are removed from the God that made you, you don\u2019t understand your worth, you don\u2019t understand your dignity, you don\u2019t understand the authority that God has given to humanity and we become, in a certain sense, animalistic.\u00a0 And what are we telling everybody today in the American educational system?\u00a0 Well, you\u2019re just a naked ape, you went from the goo to the zoo to you over billions of years.\u00a0 And we tell kids constantly that they are related to the animal kingdom and then when they act like animals we\u2019re shocked.\n\nWhen a speaker comes, as I saw this week on the news, to a college campus, a well-known college campus, and the students don\u2019t want the message there they loot, they pillage, they burn, they destroy, they result to intimidation, and lo and behold on this very cable show I was watching, I don\u2019t recommend you watch these cable shows unless your blood pressure is okay, there are the teachers who are supposed to be guiding these students giving excuse for them, egging them on, minimizing what the students are doing\u2014they\u2019re acting like animals.\u00a0 That\u2019s what man becomes when he is removed from God, He descends into animalistic behavior.\u00a0 He does not understand any longer, devoid of the Scripture, that he was created to rule over the animals.\u00a0 He becomes just like that which he was originally given authority over.\n\nThere\u2019s going to be an alteration in your mind and you\u2019ll see the grace of God here because God could have allowed this alteration to continue on indefinitely.\u00a0 God is very clear that this is only going to last for seven periods or seven times, my understanding of seven times is it\u2019s seven years.\u00a0 A time in Hebrew, which is somewhat connected to Aramaic, is a Jewish year, consisting of 360 days.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why you see this expression in Daniel 7:25 of the antichrist\u2019s empire at the end of the seven year tribulation period lasting for a time, times, and a half a time, which we know from other Scriptures is 42 months or 1,260 days or 3\u00bd years.\u00a0 A \u201ctime\u201d is a Jewish year, \u201ctimes\u201d is two Jewish years, and a \u201chalf a time\u201d is half a Jewish year, and most of you are saying what time is it now so we can get out of here.\n\nAnd Daniel 9:27 talks about how the nation of Israel is going to go through a season of testing for seven years.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\u00a0 You see, what God is doing here with Nebuchadnezzar is a microcosm of what God is going to do with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Nebuchad\u00adnezzar is sent into a seven year ordeal and then he\u2019s restored.\u00a0 What\u2019s going to happen to the nation of Israel in the seventy weeks prophecy, which we will at some point be getting to?\u00a0 We may never get out of that prophecy; you might say our pastor has been in Daniel\u2019s seventy weeks longer than Daniel was.\u00a0 But according to that prophecy the nation of Israel goes through the exact same thing.\n\nRight now they\u2019re in a state of insanity.\u00a0 How can a nation, with the Hebrew Bible, not recognize Jesus?\u00a0 It\u2019s a state of insanity.\u00a0 It\u2019s a state of blindness.\u00a0 It\u2019s a state of pride.\u00a0 God will send the whole nation of Israel into an attitude adjustment seminar for seven years.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what God is doing here with Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 But at the end of the seven years it\u2019s not to annihilate, it\u2019s not to destroy, which God very easily could have done, but He\u2019s not just a God of justice and judgment, He is a God of grace and He will restore the nation of Israel to her rightful place as head over the nations in the millennial kingdom\u2026 the head and not the tail.\u00a0 In other words, she is going to be given even things that go beyond the majesty of Solomon\u2019s empire, which was glorious.\u00a0 Israel is going to be given things beyond that; her glory is going to be enhanced just like with Nebuchad\u00adnezzar, who goes through this ordeal and yet not only is he restored to his throne, he\u2019s given greater things.\n\nWhat a God this is.\u00a0 And the reason I had Ed Jones read verse 17 is because verse 17 is the chapter lesson.\u00a0 If you want to understand what is chapter 4 about it\u2019s all contained there in verse 17.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThis sentence is by the decree of the angelic watchers and the decision is a command of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and He bestows it on whom He wishes and sets over it the lowliest of men.\u201d\u00a0 What\u2019s the point of all of this?\u00a0 You are not in control, is the point, Nebuchadnezzar, you never have been in control.\u00a0 I understand it, all the angels understand it, it seems like Nebuchadnezzar everybody gets the picture but you; you are deluded because of your sinfulness into thinking that you are where you are because of something within you.\u00a0 So I will reach into my tool box and I will bring out the greatest tool I have to communicate this lesson to you that you have no control over your life at all.\n\nIn fact, you will say in Daniel 5 to Belteshazzar your very next breath is dependent upon me.\u00a0 Think about that.\u00a0 We wouldn\u2019t even have the capacity to inhale and exhale the next breath if it\u2019s not for the grace of God.\u00a0 The grace of God, Colossians 1 tells us that created the world, the grace of God that redeemed the world, is the same grace that\u2019s keeping the whole world going.\u00a0 What is keeping the planets from revolving around the sun at just the right length so they don\u2019t collide with each other?\u00a0 What\u2019s keeping this little tiny earth in its perfect order around the sun, not so close to the sun that we burn to death, not so far away from the sun that we freeze to death but the orbit is kept perfect so life is sustained.\u00a0 Think of the mathematical improbabilities of that happening by chance and yet man can\u2019t see the authority and sovereignty and the control of God in that?\u00a0 How insane have we become?\u00a0 Apparently very self-deluded and the only real cure for it is tribulation.\n\nAnd yet the tribulation that we go through is not designed for our destruction, it\u2019s designed for our improvement.\u00a0 It\u2019s designed to bring us to our senses.\u00a0 And so Nebuchadnezzar then gives a request, which we\u2019ll close with, here in verse 18.\u00a0 After he explains this dream he says, \u201cThis is the dream which<\/em> I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, tell me<\/em> its interpretation, inasmuch as none of the wise men of my kingdom is able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able, for a spirit of the holy gods\u201d plural, little g, \u201cis in you.\u201d\u00a0 Rehashing the familiar theme of the bankruptcy of Jeanne Dixon, the psychic network, the astrologers, the psychologists, the palm readers, all these people we think are endowed with such power, the bankruptcy of them to reveal fundamental questions like what is this dream and what does it mean.\n\nDaniel, we learn from Daniel 1 and verse 17 was actually given a gift by God of interpreting dreams.\u00a0 Daniel 1:17 says, \u201cAs for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 1:20 says, \u201cAs for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he\u201d that\u2019s Nebuchadnezzar in relation to the four gifted Hebrew youths, \u201che found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm.\u201d\n\nDaniel has the answer, not because he graduated from the best seminary, not because he had the highest score on the SAT test, there was nothing in his natural self that gave him this ability.\u00a0 It was something that God gave him and that\u2019s something very important to understand.\u00a0 As we move into our giftings we have a tendency to become somewhat inflated with ourselves and yet we call these spiritual gifts, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 If it\u2019s a gift that means it\u2019s something God gave me that I didn\u2019t earn, and thus the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians, why do you boast as if you had earned this.\u00a0 And Nebuchadnezzar is not getting the picture here because he is continuing to assert his own authority, he continues to call Daniel by his paganized name and he continues to interpret Daniel\u2019s gifting and the spirit within him through a worldview of polytheism.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he keeps saying the spirit of the gods is in you.\n\nAnd then Daniel has been given the information and now he\u2019s about to interpret it.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see his interpretation; it\u2019s not going to be fun Nebuchadnezzar, in about a year all hell is about to break loose in your life.\u00a0 But at the end of that time period your sanity will be restored and you will be returned to your position of authority and given even greater things because God is not just a God of discipline and judgment, He\u2019s a God of grace.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we are grateful for the things that this unit of material, although written back in the 6th<\/sup> century, reminds us of and we see the same pattern in our lives.\u00a0 Make us people, Father, that are breakable and then flexible and then usable, that we\u2019re not so lifted with pride that we can\u2019t even see the hand of Your work in our lives.\u00a0 Make us, through the tribulations that we go through, pliable, usable, flexible, dependent vessels.\u00a0 We invite You to do this work in our lives in our midst. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus, name.\u00a0 And God\u2019s people said\u2026..","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t