Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning
Good morning.
What are we doing today?
Let me pick up my own questions, so it took a little bit of time, but I think it's going
to be a lot of fun, so I'm excited.
And so it's more fun when you ask the questions and you don't have to participate, right.
growth.
And so, if you're not married though, obviously you'replay, so whether it be the board games
or the darts, you're welcome to stick around.
20th, so that's in two weeks. So I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Rafi lead us in another song.
O land of rest, for the eyesight, when will the moment come?
My heart, by and well, and peace at home, will work, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, and will be gathered home.
Till Jesus Christ I've bled for rest, he bade me sister home, and lean for soccer on his breast, till he conduct me home for us, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till
Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, will work, till
Jesus comes, will work, till Jesus comes, and will be gathered home.
And let us open our Bibles to Daniel chapter 2, Daniel chapter 2, right at the end of the
Old Testament. And this is our custom, we are going to read the whole chapter. Daniel chapter 2, please say amen when you're there.
And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams,
wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep wake from him. Then the king commanded to call
the magicians and astrologers and the sorcerers and the cideans for to show the king his dreams.
So they came and stood before the king. And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream,
and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spake the caldeans to the king in Syriac,
O king, live forever, tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.
The king answered and said to the caldeans, the thing is gone from me. If you will not make known
unto me the dream, with interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall
be made a dangle. But if you show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof, you shall receive
of me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.
They answered again and said, let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the
interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that you would gain the time,
because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will not make known unto me the dream,
there is but one decree for you. For you have repaired, lying and caught up to words to speak
before me, till the time be changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can
show me the interpretation thereof. The caldeans answered before the king and said, there is not
a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter. Therefore there was no king, lord, no ruler,
that asks such things at any magician or astrologer or caldean. And it is a rare thing that the king
requiteth, and there is none other that can shoot before the king, except the god whose welling is
not refreshed. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the
wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth the same, that the wise men should be slain,
and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom
to Adios the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon,
he answered and said to Adios the king's captain, why is the decree so hastily from the king?
And Adios made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he
would give him time, and that he would sure the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his
house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azaria, his companions, that they would desire
mercies of the god of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not
perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a
night vision. Then Daniel blessed the god of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of
god forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changed the times and the seasons. He removes
kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that no understanding.
He reveals the deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth
with him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou god of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might,
and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee. For thou hast now made known unto us the
king's matter. Therefore Daniel went into Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men
of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me before the
king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel
before the king in haste and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah that
will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name
was Belteshazzar, are though able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the
interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which
the king has demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers,
show unto the king. But there is a god in heaven that reveal his secrets and maketh known to the
king Nook, Nitzah, what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the vision of thy head upon
thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed. What
should come to pass hereafter? And he that reveal his secrets maketh known to thee what shall come
to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more
than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the invitation to the king and that
thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Though a king sauced and behold a great image,
this great image whose brightness was excellent stood before thee and the form thereof was
terrible. This image said was of fine gold, his words and his arms of silver, his belly and his
thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Though so still that a
stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay
and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken
to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer brushing claws and the wind carried
them away that no place was found for them and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain
and filled the holier. This is the dream and we will tell the invitation thereof before the king.
Though a king are a king of kings, for the god of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength
and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the folds of the heaven
hath he given into thine hand and has made the doula over them all. Though are this head of gold
and after this shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee and another third kingdom of brass which
shall be a rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron for as much as
iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things. And as iron that breaketh all, these shall it
break in pieces and loose. And wheres the source, the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part
of iron, the kingdom shall be divided but there shall be in it the strength of the iron for as much
as the source, the iron mixed with the mighty clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of
iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And wheres the source,
the iron mixed with mighty clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men but they shall not
cleave one to another even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the
god of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left
to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand
forever. For as much as the source that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that
it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold, the great god hath made
known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter and the dream is certain and the interpretation
that of sure. Then the king Nyguadnitsa fell up on his face and worshipped Daniel and commanded
that they should offer an oblation and sweet orders unto him. The king answered unto Daniel
and said of its truth it is that your god is a god of gods and a lord of kings and a revealer of
secrets seeing the goddess reveal the secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man and gave him many
great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief over the governors
over the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king and he said over the affairs
of the province of Babylon by Daniel said in the gate of the king. Thank you our father for the
bible, thank you for every word that you are telling to us and help us to be concentrated,
help us really to love you more and to do more your will and to lead more in your bible
and give us today understanding and also support over the cycle of preaching today and we pray in
your name. All right we are here in Daniel chapter 2 and we're only going to cover the
first 12 verses. This is a very long chapter and I want to try to bring to life this section of
scripture because I think oftentimes we can read over passages and there's a lot of great
information but we just kind of miss it and I can say there's a lot of great information in
these first 12 verses. I think all of us have heard sermons on Nebuchadnezzar because we know
stories like Daniel and I'll be honest with you I think Nebuchadnezzar's character is kind of
misrepresented in a lot of sermons you hear and I'll say this you know understanding that there
are three groups of people in this world you know children of God, children of the devil and normal
unsaved people that's something a lot of people don't understand. Most people look at this as
saved and lost and of course it is saved and lost it's just underneath the lost you've got children
of the devil which are permanently no matter what lost and then you've got your normal unsaved
people. Now the reason why I say that his character is misrepresented is because you often
hear it preached that he's like the most evil man in the world but then he gets saved two chapters
later. How could he be the most evil man in the world if he ends up getting saved because I mean
if he was a child of the devil then he could never get saved and yet you see that in Daniel 4 he
embraces the true God and he's he because earlier he sees these events take place and he's like
your God's great but then in Daniel 4 he's like this is my God now right so if he gets saved even
though he did a lot of bad things he couldn't have been a child of the devil. The other thing you see
is this in Daniel 5 and you don't have to turn there but Daniel speaks to Belshazzar who ends
up being the king later on and you can tell Daniel does not like Belshazzar. It's kind of like I got
a job I'll give you the interpretation and I'm glad to because you're done buddy. You can tell
he doesn't like him right but when he speaks to Nebuchadnezzar he's actually speaking respectfully.
Now I'm not sitting here trying to tell you and convince you that Nebuchadnezzar is the greatest
guy in the world but he does end up getting saved and even in Daniel chapter 3 I don't even think
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego look at him as being the most evil man in the world even though
he throws him into a burning fiery furnace. When you look at politicians in this world yes there
are a lot of bad politicians a lot of them might just be people in powerful positions that do some
bad things and make wrong choices and it's something everybody sees because it's front
and center okay. So what I want to show you in this sermon is that Nebuchadnezzar is not this
terrible evil person even though he does bad things but the people he speaks to are bad people
because what takes place is when you passively read over this you're like I feel bad for the
sorcerers like Nebuchadnezzar is like so strict and so harsh it's not fair to the magicians and
the sorcerers that the Bible says should be put to death right and we feel bad for the false prophets
well I don't really think that's how you read it in Daniel chapter 2. So let's just dig into this
Daniel 2 verse 1 and in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed
dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep break from him. So this is basically
a nightmare okay. It's basically a bad dream where basically you know you're in the middle
of the night sometimes you wake up and you know what you had a nightmare and you're kind of scared
you're looking around make sure nobody's in the house or something like that you know it's
happened to all of us right and Nebuchadnezzar has a nightmare he dreamed a dream and his spirit is
troubled and his sleep break from him he can't go back to sleep because he's afraid right.
Have you ever had a dream where it's some sort of nightmare and you can't close your eyes because
you're like then the person might come in you know you have a dream about being robbed or someone
trying to harm you and then you don't want to close your eyes because you're afraid right and
you have trouble going back to sleep well that's Nebuchadnezzar he has this dream and he has
trouble going back to sleep. What we're going to see in this dream though is Nebuchadnezzar not only
has a nightmare but he doesn't really remember what it is right. I'm sure we've all had that
where you have some sort of dream or nightmare and you kind of know what took place but not
really and you can't really remember that dream well that's what takes place in Nebuchadnezzar
he has a nightmare but he does not remember what it is. Verse number two then the king commanded to
call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the caudians for to show the king
his dreams so they came and stood before the king so he calls basically these false prophets these
magicians astrologers sorcerers caudians who in their religious empire magic was a big part of
it we're going to see that later on i'll read an article to you but magic was a big part just like
in you know the book of exodus you know i'm reading exodus right now with the ten plagues
and there's sorcerers there's magicians and they were people that were very high up in government
and trusted in religious leaders very powerful well here's the thing you would expect if you
forget a dream that a magician should be able to figure it out right we're talking about people
that deal with like psychics necromancers soothsayers and all these things if somebody
should be able to figure it out i mean if you're some sort of psychic and you can commune with
devils just tell me what my dream was it's actually not that unreasonable given what
they supposedly can do now look don't misunderstand me i do believe that people that commune with
devils can sometimes get inside information and that's a scary thing but at the same time
god can prevent that from happening as well and so these sorcerers and magicians are called in
and Nebuchadnezzar is like okay tell me what the dream is okay verse number three and also one
thing to note is in the first verse it says in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar
secular history will tell you that Nebuchadnezzar when his was in his late 30s when he started
to reign which of course we don't know for sure but let's just say that it's basically accurate
it probably is but he's in his second year and even if he's in his late 30s and he's not a young
guy he's also kind of a new king when you're in your second year he hasn't been the king for 10
years or 20 years he's relatively new in terms of running a kingdom okay and that's important
because what you'll see is the sorcerers talk down to Nebuchadnezzar as if they're above him
and it's kind of like they're teaching him well hey this is how it works it's like I'm the king
what do you mean this is how it works it's like I tell you right and so verse number three and the
king said on to them and this is the key verse Daniel 2 verse 3 is the key verse to understanding
this passage and the king said on to them I have dreamed a dream and my spirit was troubled to know
the dream when he says my spirit was troubled to know the dream he's saying I don't know what the
dream is that's important to understand what's taking place he's saying I'm calling you in
because I had him I had a dream you're a sorcerer a magician we pay you good money I mean talk to
the stars or the sun or whatever you do take your crystal ball out whatever I had a dream and you
know what my spirit's troubled to know the dream I can't remember it I mean we've all had times
where we have a dream and we forget it we're trying to remember it and it's very frustrating
sometimes you're able to sometimes you're not or maybe you have a dream and you kind of remember
some of the details but not real clearly right and he says I don't remember what the dream is
verse number four then spake the Chaldeans to the king and Syriac
oh king live forever so they start off sounding respectful oh king live forever
tell thy servants the dream and we will show the interpretation it's like are you Bobo
I just told you I don't know what the dream is don't worry about just just tell us what the dream
is we'll tell you what the dream is about then it's like what are you missing I just told you
my spirit's troubled to know the dream I don't know what the dream is and then they start off
with this flattery oh king live forever just tell us what the dream is we'll tell you the
interpretation right I mean what what is what a stupid response and you know what
Nebuchadnezzar realizes these guys are trying to pull a fast one on me right they're sitting here
saying hey we're here to help you with whatever you want hey just tell us what the dream is and
then we'll tell you what the interpretation is so basically we're still waiting on you
king you gave us orders but actually no no no we're waiting on you right look when you
read this passage and understand that Nebuchadnezzar tells them I don't know what the dream is
and they're arrogant and stupid response you can see why Nebuchadnezzar gets very mad with them
because it's it's not like they say you know what give us some time like Daniel says and we'll let
you know what it is they just say no no just tell us what the dream is we'll tell you what
the interpretation is verse five the king answered and said to the Chaldeans the thing is gone for me
so he's saying once again I do not know what the dream is as I just told you the thing is gone
for me okay if you will not make known on me the dream with the interpretation thereof
ye shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill now later on in this chapter and
in this section we're going to see that what Nebuchadnezzar is saying is not actually that
unreasonable when you understand why he's saying it and basically what Nebuchadnezzar is doing is
putting these guys to the test you're a magician you're a sorcerer well let's see what I'm paying
you for because I'm a new king I haven't seen you in action and here's your first chance let's see
you in action you didn't do very well in Daniel chapter one right when Daniel came out let's see
you in action and see how you do because you're very powerful you get paid a lot of money in our
kingdom let's see if you're worth it right and he says well here's the thing not only the
interpretation tell me what the dream is and the interpretation or I'm going to kill you
verse six but if you show the dream and the interpretation thereof ye shall receive me gifts
and rewards in great honor therefore show me the a dream and the interpretation thereof so basically
two choices hey you either tell me the dream the interpretation and you'll get rewards or you're
going to be put to death okay now you say brother sucky that does sound very harsh but what you're
going to see in this passage is Nebuchadnezzar realizes if these guys aren't the real deal
they're bad people and look this is something that we can actually understand as safe people
because we realize that people that are false prophets and leaders of false religions they're
bad people the average catholic is not a bad person what about the average catholic priest
right now here's the thing Nebuchadnezzar is just smart enough and wise enough to actually
understand this and he's saying hey if you're not a the real deal then you're actually a bad person
he understands that we're going to see that from his words later on he understands these people
verse number seven they answered again and said let the king tell his servants the dream
and we will show the interpretation of it he said brother second didn't we just read that
i mean these guys are bobo i mean they need to hear it over and over again i mean it's like
they're not getting it it's like i just told you that's the second time now he's already told them
hey i don't know what the dream is no problem just tell us what the dream is
and we'll tell you the interpretation okay now go to first peter chapter two real quickly
and as i said this will be a shorter sermon for for sake of time i want to get done on time and
we don't have a long section i just want to bring this to life so the next time you read daniel too
because i'll be honest i've heard in churches about Nebuchadnezzar he's the reason why this
is often preached is because people are trying to make it look really good like Nebuchadnezzar
was the worst man in the world and then he got saved so that means even the worst of the worst
even a serial killer can end up getting saved that's kind of the way they present it well but
we don't believe that understanding the doctrine of children of the devil and so if Nebuchadnezzar
was truly the worst person in the world he would have never gotten saved now i'm not saying that
he's a great guy he does a lot of bad things we're going to see that over these next several weeks but
at the end of the day you've got to reconcile the fact that if he ends up getting saved
he couldn't have been that bad he did a lot of bad things but his mind and conscience wasn't
seared is what i'm trying to tell you okay first peter two verse 17 honor all men
love the brotherhood fear god honor the king servants be subject to your masters with all fear
not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward one thing i teach and preach at church and
this is something that's not always very popular is that we should actually follow the authority
of the government and i believe it's very clearly taught in this passage as long as they're not
asking you to sin okay now i'm not saying i always agree with the government i'm definitely not
saying that but at the end of the day the bible does say that even to the froward we should be
respectful to and servants be subject to your masters with all fear because at the end of the
day even if i don't agree with their rules if i can get in trouble with it if that's what the
rule is you have to kind of just follow it now of course if the government asks you to sin you
should not do that we understand that you don't obey authority if they're asking you to do wrong
right you say brother stuck yeah i don't like this doctrine of you know i got to obey my husband
he's the leader it's just like well look as long as your husband's not asking you to to rob a bank
or he's giving you a package you can't open it i can't tell you what's in it but they're going
to give you two hundred thousand pesos for this package it's like all right he's probably trying
to get you to deal drugs okay but that's probably not the case with most people but if it's something
very basic like hey can you just make this for dinner well the bible says you should obey that
there's an authority structure that's listed throughout the word of god and it says that you
know what if you have a master or a boss even if they're the froward you should obey so here's the
thing whenever kenezer gave them a request to begin with even though they didn't like the request and
they're like oh we don't think we could do this they should have been like daniel and said hey
can you give us time and we'll let you know what it is instead of trying to trick the king now the
reason why they don't want to do that is they realize they're not going to be able to do it
so i don't blame them i mean you're a false prophet you got yourself in a bad situation i mean
there's nothing really you can do except hope that the devil is going to give you some sort of
response right because they realize that we're not able to do this right we're not able to figure it
out and of course they're doing a lot of demonic stuff and sometimes they're getting inside
information i believe but that doesn't mean that they can just whatever they want automatically
get it right i do believe that when you look at you know modern day magicians sometimes they do
stuff that is demonic and beyond the realm of possibility but at the same time there's a limit
to it it's not something that even though it's it's impossible and it can be there's still a
limit to how crazy it is and even though they're able to get some inside information this they say
we can't do it we're not able to do it go to first samuel 18 first samuel 18 first samuel 18
a great example of this is david before he's the king underneath king saul because
you could certainly say that king saul was a froward leader right i mean the king is trying
to get him killed he's trying to kill him later on but at first he's just trying to get him killed
notice what it says in first samuel 18 verse 25
first samuel 18 verse 25
and saul said thus shall you say to david the king desireth not any dowry but in hundred
four skins of the philistines to be avenged to the king's enemies but saul thought to make david
fall by the hand of the philistines so in this verse saul gives david a request and i don't
understand why he makes this request but he's trying to get david killed that's kind of the
key thing to keep in mind he's trying to give him a really hard task so he's going to end up
getting killed and then it says in verse 26 and when his servants told david these words
it pleased david it pleased david well to be the king's son-in-law and the days were not expired
and he does twice as much we actually see in the story here's a here's an example of having a king
having a boss that is giving unreasonable requests but he's pleased to just be given a task by the
boss pleased to just be given a task by the king sometimes at work your boss gives you an
assignment and you don't like it it's a hard assignment it's stressful and difficult but
actually you should have the attitude i'm thankful that they chose me for this task
right go back to daniel chapter 2 daniel 2
now look if you're not capable of doing the task though well then you're not going to be happy
about it right like let's say you lied on your resume and you got a job as a computer programmer
but you don't know how to do that well you're not going to be too happy about the task because he
can't do it and that's kind of the situation that the sorcerers and the magicians are in
where it's like we have no idea whether or not we're going to be able to get this dream and
tell them what it is we don't know and they're trying to pass on the responsibility so they've
already done this twice and the king is is even more direct with him and he explains here in these
next couple verses why he's basically giving them this ultimatum the king answered and said
i know of certainty that you would gain the time because you see the thing is gone for me
what he's saying is this if i just you know let you pass and just wait until i remember the dream
you're going to gain the time because the thing's gone for me i'm not going to be able to remember
it i won't be able to remember it and you're going to get off scott free and you what i'm assuming
the sorcerers and magicians have been able to do this sort of thing before they basically get out
of responsibility and it's like oh no i'll do whatever you ask just let me know what the dream
is first and the king's like well you're going to gain the time because i don't remember the dream
right verse number nine but if you'll not make note on me the dream there is but one decree for
you for yet prepared lying in corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed and what
he says is this you know what if you're not going to tell me what the dream is and the interpretation
i know that you're here just to deceive me i know you're here to lie to me and give me corrupt
words here's the thing he's right now i'm not saying king Nebuchadnezzar is a good guy but
actually he's a smart guy he he actually knows a lot of things that you know it took me years to
be saved to understand that hey if you're not as a religious leader if you're not saved you're
actually a bad person he seems to already understand that he's like i understand that
if you're here and you're not going to do it you've prepared lying in corrupt words try to
deceive me try to to pull the wool over my eyes try to trick me he's right about that he's 100
percent right now where Nebuchadnezzar goes wrong is he lumps Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego
in with these sorcerers and of course that's not accurate not right and we're going to talk about
that over the next couple weeks and later on at the end of this sermon the difference between a
wise man biblically and a wise man in terms of the world standards of a wise man but he's right
about this you've just come here to deceive me and to lie to me till the time be changed so basically
until i change my mind because if i have a nightmare then when i first have that nightmare
it's going to be important for me to remember what it's about but you realize as time goes by
i don't really care so much anymore right and he understands that and Nebuchadnezzar is basically
and look i'm trying to add life to this i'm also trying to put myself in the shoes and be there
because we're also getting a snippet of the conversation i don't believe this conversation
lasted 20 seconds because if you're reading the bible you read over those verses like this
right but in the bible there's conversations and the bible just gives you the highlights for
example soul winning conversations in the bible they seem pretty short right what must it do to
be saved and they said believe in the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved well that's the
right answer but that's just a summary of what they told them i mean if that's all you say out
soul winning is just 12 words it's not going to get the job done but here's the thing our bible
is already long enough if every single word was written in every single conversation you're
looking at a super super long book that we would never read right new testament cover to cover in
january new testament cover to cover in 10 years and you'll get your prize right so this is a
snippet of the conversation but neba kenezer told him clearly i don't remember the dream and
these sorcerers fire the first shot at neba kenezer it's not him firing the first shot at
them if you actually read closely from verse three they fire the first shot where basically
they just ignore what the king said okay and he says you've prepared lying and corrupt words to
speak before me till the time be changed now let me read you this article about magic in mesopotamia
to help us understand what it was like in this culture with sorcery and these kinds of things
magic is here defined as those activities involving supernatural forces that are
undertaken to serve the needs of the individual members of society to deal with their difficulties
and to counter forces that bring evil upon them given that in many societies especially in the
west the distinction between religion and magic is that one is legitimate the other not it must be
stated at the outset that in mesopotamia magic was regarded as legitimate and as part of the
established religion now of course we don't we believe in miracles taking place that god can
perform but we don't believe that hey i'm going to perform some magic up here and do something
we believe god performs miracles but what it's saying here in this is that magic was part of that
society and this exists in the world today you look at witch doctors that live in a village and
they're basically like the king of the castle there they're the ones that are trusted so this
still exists today right i mean to a light extent i mean the pentecostal preachers that are casting
devils in and out they're dealing with this sort of stuff i mean this exists in cultures
but magic was part of their society but this doesn't necessarily mean that Nebuchadnezzar
was fully on board with that he's in his second year and to me it seems like here's the opportunity
to put these guys to the test he wants to know what the dream is but he's also kind of like okay
when we've arrived at this situation i want to know that what the dream is you're trying to get
out of it i don't really believe in you guys anyway i want to see if you're the real deal
so i'm going to put you to the test let's just find out are you a good person or are you an
evil person he seems to understand this that's my perspective reading it okay go to matthew
seven real quickly i'll show you a passage on this matthew seven once again i'm not trying
to convince you that Nebuchadnezzar is a great guy but at the end of the day he ends up getting
saved a couple chapters later so we have to reconcile that with what we see in daniel two
and understand he can't be the most wicked man in the world even though he's doing bad things
one thing to help you understand this is that we looked at king david briefly we looked at him
last sermon even and king david does a lot of terrible mistakes but a large reason why he did
that is he knew he could get away with it because he's the king nobody in this world is designed to
have that much power it's not a good thing for you god doesn't have a system of a king it's the
people that said let us be like all the nations and have a king god says no i've got a system of
judges there's limited authority there is authority structure but nobody can handle being
the ruler of the world it's not a good thing for you if that took place today and you became the
most powerful man in the world if you became joe biden right the new president of the u.s or
whatever i don't know or that the head of this secret society that's controlling all the actions
of the world if that's i have no idea maybe that's true but here's the thing that wouldn't be a good
thing for you because since you're above you basically feel like you're above the rules even
though you're not right and basically you'll see with king saul who's a safe person you see with
king david he's a safe person well wouldn't we expect the same from an unsaved king if he's the
most powerful man in the world and he's actually more powerful than david or saul because he
literally is the most powerful man in the world right that's not a good thing for anybody much
less someone who's saved you know of course they're going to be built up with pride okay
that doesn't necessarily mean that they're a reprobate though matthew 7 verse 22 many will say
to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils
and in thy name done many wonderful works so in verse number 22 here's a group of people that are
going to claim they believe in jesus because they say they prophesy in thy name and they're going to
say well you know we've we've done these wonderful works in your name we've cast out devils in your
name we've preached or prophesied in your name we've talked to people about you and then while
i profess some of them i never knew you so what jesus says is they were never saved but not only
that he says depart from me ye that work iniquity he doesn't say hey you're unsaved depart from me
you are a sinner just like everybody else who said no no no you work iniquity he said you're
not a good person verse 22 they're boasting about how good they are and then jesus says no actually
you're a terrible person you work iniquity say what does that mean it means you live to sin and
do wrong and they claim that they're good but they're not and see with these false prophets
and sorcerers in daniel too what are you saying well you're saying religious leaders that are
actually bad people look people that are false prophets not members of churches i'm not saying
a member of a jehovah's witness church i'm saying the leaders of those churches 99 percent of the
time they're bad people can there be some exceptions there can be rare exceptions paul
the apostle is obviously a very religious person who ends up getting saved that's not a very common
thing though most times when someone's a religious leader they are a bad person i mean look you go
out soul winning today and i ask you hey how did it go it's like hey great you know i got two people
saved it's like great you know what was their religion well they were catholic i explained the
gospel they believe they got saved great but if you go out today and you come back and you say
oh and great i got two catholic priests saved what
i mean i'm sorry but i won't believe you i don't buy that you say why because we know that they're
bad people right the average person in religion is not necessarily a bad person but the average
leader is and these sorcerers and false prophets we actually understand this neva kenezer is one
of the few people especially unsafe people that understand this there are other people in this
world that understand this there are other people in this world that do not believe religious
leaders are good and they think man these are corrupt and bad people and they see through that
it's usually easy to see it with the pentecostals like the kenneth copeland's because they're so
over the top like benny hen you know he got the videos where he's taking off his suit and he's
just like beating people they come up and it's like bam and he hits the next one and it's just
like okay i always knew that was weird right growing up i always thought okay this guy has
possessed himself this is crazy right but neva kenezer seems to understand even with your average
false prophet he seems to have that belief daniel too go to daniel too daniel too
in fact i think we see it in this passage because these guys are acting very
filled full of flattery right i mean they try to act like they're really respectful to the king
when in reality they don't care what the king says and they just try to get out of the
responsibility they're acting like they're respectful oh king live forever just tell us
the dream they're saying it in a nice way in reality neva kenezer can see through the flattery
and can tell they're fake and look some people are better at this than others some people can
spot a fake person from a mile away right others can't some people are very good at this right
others are not now neva kenezer seems to be very good at this he seems to understand these guys
are fake they're phonies i can tell they're lying and give me corrupt corrupt words daniel 2 verse 9
daniel 2 verse 9 but if you'll not make known on me the dream onto me the dream there's but
one decree for you if you have prepared lying corrupt words to speak before me till the time
be changed therefore tell me the dream and i shall know that you can show me the interpretation
thereof what neva kenezer is saying is this why would i trust your interpretation if you can't
tell me what the dream is make sense it's like you're telling me i've got to figure out what
the dream is and then whatever you say it's just automatically right and he's just like
how am i going to know if what you say is right unless you're able to tell me the dream that
actually makes perfect sense to me he seems i mean i'm not saying he's a good guy i'm not trying to
do that but i'm just trying to get this proper balance he just seems like he understands he's
just like hey you know what if you don't know what the dream is i'm not going to trust your
interpretation because both of these things are miraculous sort of things that aren't every day
right if somebody has a bizarre dream or something like that and you're trying to make an
interpretation we're not going to be able to do that right i mean the story of joseph and pharaoh
in the book of genesis and he has this story with the corn and everything i mean how are you going
to be able to figure out what that is and so here neva kenezer is saying this well you know what i'm
going to trust your interpretation once you can actually just tell me what the dream is that's
step number one and then yeah you know what i'll believe what you say that actually makes sense
right verse number 10 the caudians answered before the king and said there is not a man
upon the earth that can show the king's matter now i mean that's right there is not a man upon
the earth that can do this obviously daniel does this but that's because god gives him the power
but nobody in their physical normal state can do this but notice this afterwards there's not a man
upon the earth that can show the king's matter therefore there is no king lord nor ruler that
asks such things that any magician or astrologer or caudian that is such a bastos statement to make
to the king i mean they are talking down to the ruler of the world right on an earthly standpoint
i'd be pretty mad too it's like i'm the king and you're talking down to me it's not just nobody
can do this therefore there is no king it's like we understand neville kenezer you're new at this
you're in your second year of your reign but this is how it works right no king would ever ask that
sort of question is actually out of bounds it's like who's the ruler here all right do you see
what i'm saying when you're reading this passage like i'm not saying neville kenezer is a great guy
but these guys are arrogant lifted up obviously very lazy people obviously they always get out
of doing whatever and it works for them neville kenezer is like yeah i know you don't you don't
know who i am i am in the second year my reign i'm kind of a little bit tougher than my dad right
it's just like if you're not going to tell me what the dream is i'm just going to kill you because
this is a perfect time to put you to the test whether or not you're good or bad right that's
the way i read it and in verse 10 there's no other way to read this except these guys are arrogant
therefore there is no king lord nor ruler that is a super rude statement to make to the person who's
the leader look i've had jobs where my bosses have asked things that i thought were ridiculous
an assignment where it's like this is this is crazy this is going to be so hard it's going to
take so long right i remember an assignment i had it's like we were at an important you know board
meeting with a company in kansas and we had like this video conference and i've been working on
these graphs and this presentation for a long time because i was going to go to the business meeting
with my boss and then we've been presenting it and you know you kind of give short presentations
to the person who's kind of ahead of it via video conference and then you're preparing stuff and
then he gets back to the other people that he talks to and then you make the final details
and then you have a big business meeting because the reason is we're trying to get a new client
so we basically put in the time in hopes we get this big million dollar client and so i put in
all this time and everything and then at the last one we had many conference calls he said man this
is great i love the graphs and he's like there's just one thing i'd like changed in the graphs
and then he's just like a couple people on our board are colorblind so can you just
can you just change the colors and just put something else in it instead and my boss looks
at me and i'm just thinking i have absolutely no idea because we had we had microsoft excel merged
in with publisher so you make the changes on excel and it goes to publisher and i i know that there's
ways to do that but it's like it wasn't it wasn't a simple thing it sounds simple just remove the
colors i'm like oh no the amount of overtime i did you know to get the project done but he asked
me it's like are you and we have we have the big conference in like a week so it's like we got to
have this finished at least i thought we had to have it finished but you know i i i spent all that
time over that weekend i mean it was a tough assignment but what else am i going to do now
when we get to the conference like my boss was very charismatic which is rare in the actuarial
field so he didn't even go over the graphs at all he just you know was very suave and then they're
like all right we're gonna use you it's like i spent hundreds of hours on something or it's
like didn't even need to but what i'm saying is sometimes you're gonna get requests and it might
be a very difficult thing to do but you just got to do it right verse number 11 and it is a rare
thing that the king requireth and there is none other that can show before the king except the
gods whose dwelling is not with flesh well once again just communicate with the gods then i mean
you're a magician isn't that what you do right i mean isn't that what a sorcerer does they
communicate with spirits and everything it's like okay well then why can't you do this
right only the gods can know this okay well you communicate with devils and spirits that's what
you do right that's what a sorcerer magician does right now i know modern day magician is just a
magician trick usually but it's like well they're saying here a sorcerer magician they're
communicating with these gods or spirits or whatever they're going to call them in their
culture is like well you should be able to do this thing right verse number 12 for this cause
the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of babylon now go to
daniel chapter 12 daniel 12 you see very sucky are you saying the Nebuchadnezzar did nothing
wrong in this situation honestly i think the only thing he did wrong is he lumped daniel shadrach
meishak and abednego and all the wise men together actually that's i think the only
thing that he did wrong because i really think he's just kind of testing them like this is the
perfect opportunity where he's just like hey i want to know what this is tell me what it is
and he realizes well this is a moment of test because you're a bad person who's prepared lying
in corrupt words if you're not going to do this and you're going to try to deceive me so i actually
don't think he did now i probably wouldn't have handled it the same way but honestly we're talking
about false prophets sorcerers magicians these are people biblically that should be put to death
they are biblically bad people okay what's the difference though between a wise man biblically
speaking and then in terms of what the bible says the bible says the wise men daniel 12 verse 3
and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn
many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever one big aspect of being wise is winning
souls to the lord turning people to righteousness you know turning them from the wrong belief to
putting their faith in god and they're imputed with the righteousness of god the bible says he
that winneth souls is wise soul winning is what makes you a wise person that's a major thing if
god were to say hey here's a wise person part of that's going to be they're a soul winner because
what more important thing can you do in this world right what more important information
you explain than that go to verse number 10
many shall be purified and made white and tried but the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the
wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand when it says the wise shall understand
we're looking at people that have knowledge of the scripture have knowledge of the bible
so being a wise person biblically speaking is someone who wins souls and someone who reads the
bible someone who goes to a church like ours someone who studies the bible that's what a wise
person is now the world standard of being wise is different they're looking at sorcerers as being
wise or you look at someone like you know stephen hawking was a famous atheist richard dawkins
all these people are so wise they're so wise like 13.8 billion years ago there was this random
explosion from nothing and here we are today wow man he's smart yeah i'm sure that guy does well
on a science or math test but it's like you're just an idiot to believe something like that
and yet the world will say they're wise and see what i want you to understand is this there's
a big difference between wisdom from the world standards and god standards and this sort of
dividing line takes place all the time on things where basically the the people that believe in god
and serve god our view is just totally different than what the world standard is they'll say these
people are so wise these magicians and astrologers they're not they're phonies they're bad guys and
they should be put to death biblically speaking nevican ezer obviously he's not biblically
speaking a wise person he's not saved he doesn't know the scriptures but i'll just say in terms of
having common sense and having logic and being able to read people he's actually got it down
he understands these people before me are bad people now here's the thing if daniel shadrach
mishak and abednego had been there with the rest of the group i'm sure they would have said
something like hey just give us some time and we'll get the interpretation and you know what
they would have actually presented themselves in a respectful way not only do these guys not know
the information they're rude so you got a boss you got authority even if you don't agree with it you
can at least be respectful but they're talking down and quite honestly that's probably a large
reason why nevican ezer was like okay i'm not going to take this i'm not going to have you
talk down and be arrogant to me i'm the leader not you so once again i'm not saying nevican ezer was
a great guy but he's a guy who ends up getting saved so we're not looking at the world's most
evil person who ends up turning to the lord that's not what we're seeing what we're seeing
is someone who is an unsaved person who has a lot of power and does some bad things but he does end
up getting saved a couple chapters later let's close in a word of prayer dear heavenly father
thank you for allowing us to be here today and get to see your word on this topic help us to
learn and study the book of daniel and apply these things to our lives god help us to be
people that are able to read people and and understand situations god but i was just to
know this book and love this book help us to be wise people biblically speaking who just
go soul winning and read the scriptures and want to serve you and do right god we pray this in
jesus name amen
ready sing
is
allegiance bloodhearted and free
blessing for me oh jesus lord and savior i give myself to thee
for
no other master my heart shall be thy throne my life i give is for to leave
leave oh christ for leah lord on the second living for jesus who died in my place
is
such love constraints me to answer his phone
is
no other master my heart shall be
oh
for jesus
wherever i am
is
conflict
lord and savior
me
my heart shall be my life i give is for to leave
is
my dearest pleasure and light of his smile seeking
me
i give myself to
i know no other master my heart shall be my life i give is for to leave oh christ for
i'm
amen