I pray, Amen.
Amen.
Daniel chapter 4, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads, Nebuchadnezzar the king
unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth.
Peace be multiplied unto you.
Now what's interesting about this chapter is that this is spoken by Nebuchadnezzar from
start to finish.
It starts out with the word Nebuchadnezzar in the same way that New Testament books would
start out Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, under the church of the Philippians, or under
the church of the Thessalonians, it's basically identifying himself as the author.
He's sending out this letter unto all these nations and peoples and tongues that he has
power over, and he's identifying himself at the beginning.
And then if we go all the way to the end of the chapter, it says in verse 37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
prays and extoll and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment,
and those that walk in pride he's able to abate.
So this chapter is coming from Nebuchadnezzar himself, putting out a literal proclamation
to his entire kingdom.
Now what's great about that is that it shows that God's word, or just the testimony of
the God of the Bible, is going out to all the people on the earth at that time in their
own language.
And God did this many times throughout the Old Testament, where he made sure that the
whole world heard about something, just to make sure that the people of the world knew
about the God of heaven, and they knew that there's a God in Israel.
And you'll hear statements like that all throughout the Old Testament, how all the nations would
look upon Israel and see the miracles that God did, or hear the preaching of the prophets
of God, and that was a testimony for them to seek after the true God.
And in the book of Jeremiah, it talks about Jeremiah going on tour, basically, and preaching
in all the nations under heaven.
And so God, in the Old Testament, cared about everyone in the world hearing his word.
It wasn't just all about Israel and the Jews.
No, Israel was supposed to be a light to lighten the Gentiles.
They were supposed to be a pattern nation, an example nation, and a nation that would
evangelize the rest of the world, and they failed at that, but that was always God's
intent.
And in the New Testament, God is using Christians to preach his word to all nations and all
tongues and all people.
So that's the same in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, that God cares about
all people.
He didn't only care about the chosen people in the Old Testament.
That's a false doctrine.
Another thing that's interesting about this is that this chapter of God's word, which
is obviously divinely inspired, it's the word of God.
This chapter is something that initially went out into all languages.
Now a lot of people have this idea that God's word can only be read in the original language,
and they lament the fact that we have to read it in English, and we miss so much of it,
and so much is lost in the translation.
But God's word has always been intended to be translated into all languages, and it doesn't
lose anything in the translation.
Now the proof of that is Acts chapter 2, because in Acts chapter 2, all of these men are speaking
as they're moved by the Holy Ghost in all of the native languages or native tongues
of those who are present in Acts chapter 2.
So if the Holy Ghost is the one that's leading them to speak God's word in various languages,
then we know that must have been a perfect translation, if it's the Holy Ghost that's
doing the translating.
And so God is not limited to speak one language.
In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Ghost spoke all of those languages.
And just the fact that the Old Testament is written in Hebrew and the New Testament is
written in Greek, that should be your clue right away that God's not limited to only
speak through one language, and that we can get God's word in any language.
And this Daniel chapter 4 that was shipped out to all these different languages, I guarantee
you it was just as powerful in those other languages as it was in the original Chaldean
language that it was written because of the fact that God's word has power in any language
as long as it's accurately translated.
And there are bad translations out there, but if it's a good translation, if it's a
right translation, you get the same thing that you would have gotten reading the original.
And people always say, oh, you always lose something in the translation.
And a lot of times the people who tell you that only speak one language.
I speak multiple languages.
You talk to a lot of other people that speak multiple languages, and they may have differences
of opinions about this, but if they have the other opinion of this, then they're just wrong.
It's that simple.
Because people who are actually good at translating understand that you can get the same point
across in any language.
An effective, efficient translator can get that done.
And so we don't need to go back to the original Hebrew to understand the Bible.
We don't need to go back to the original Greek to understand the Bible.
What we need to do is just reread our English Bible and believe what it says here.
We've got the King James Bible, and it's everything that we need.
We don't need to rely on some scholar or theologian to expound it to us from a foreign
language, especially because the vast majority of these so-called scholars and theologians
are not fluent in Hebrew, nor are they fluent in Greek, but yet they'll tell you supposedly
what those languages mean.
All they're doing is just parroting something that they read in a commentary or a lexicon.
So God's Word is for all languages, as we see here in Daniel chapter 4, verse 1.
So Nebuchadnezzar sends out this letter.
The purpose is given in verse 2, I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that
the high God hath wrought toward me.
How great are his signs, and how mighty are his wonders.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.
I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house and flourishing in my palace.
I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my
head troubled me.
So he uses this word flourishing because he's just trying to emphasize, I was doing great.
I mean, I was at rest, I was flourishing, I was thriving, everything was going perfect
for me.
I mean, he's the most powerful man in the world.
He has this great kingdom and excellent power and majesty.
But he says that this dream that he had made him afraid, and the thoughts upon his bed
and the visions of his head troubled him.
This is God shaking him up, because this dream comes from the Lord, and it's a warning unto
him to shake him up.
A lot of times, people are going through life and things are going great.
They're flourishing, they're thriving, but they're in sin.
They're living wickedly.
If God cares about that person, he'll often send that person a warning, a shot across
the bow, shake them up a little bit.
The Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
And so obviously, if you're a child of God, you know that God loves you.
You know that God cares about you.
If you're his son, nothing could separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
So he is going to chasten you, chastise you, and shake you up a little bit when you get
off the right path.
You don't want things to go well when you're living in sin, because we want to get right
back on the right path.
So here, God is doing Nebuchadnezzar a favor by shaking him up, warning him, sending him
this bad dream.
Now, Nebuchadnezzar is not saved at this point, so not every unsaved person is going to get
this kind of a warning.
But God is being gracious unto even an unsaved man, an unbeliever, someone who is not one
of his children, by giving him this warning, shaking him up, sending him this dream to
terrify him.
It says in verse 6, therefore, may I decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before
me that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream.
Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers, and I
told the dream before them, but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof.
But at the last, Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to
the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods, and before him I told the
dream saying.
Now, you can see here that this is Nebuchadnezzar's polytheistic nature coming out here, right?
Because instead of saying that the spirit of God is in him, he says, oh, well, he has
the spirit of the holy gods, plural, in him.
So this is before he knows the Lord, and it's debatable whether he ever got saved.
I believe that he did get saved.
I believe that he will be in heaven.
But you can't really prove that for sure from the Bible.
But we can see at this point in his life, he's talking about the holy gods.
Not only that, he says that Belteshazzar, excuse me, not only that, he says that Belteshazzar
is named after the name of his God.
Now, what are the first three letters of Belteshazzar?
Bel, Baal, Baeliel, Beelzebub.
This is the devil that is his God at this point, okay?
So he says that Belteshazzar is named after his particular God, but he believes in multiple
gods, because he talks about Daniel, oh, he has the spirit of the gods in him.
Well, the Bible's crystal clear that there's only one God.
But it's also clear that there are many that are called gods, as there be gods many and
lords many, but to us, there is but one God.
And we know that there is only one true God.
So whenever we see this word gods in the Bible, which you'll see that word a lot, actually,
with the plural S ending, when you see that word gods, we're talking about false gods.
We're talking about so-called gods.
And that's consistent if you study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
Any time we have plural gods, we're talking about false gods.
And it goes deeper than that, because false gods are not always just figments of people's
imagination, but rather, many of these false gods that they're worshiping, or idols that
they're worshiping, are demons.
They're devils.
The Bible tells in 1 Corinthians 10 that the things which the Gentiles offer and sacrifice
unto idols, they sacrifice unto devils.
And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils.
All of false religion is run by the devil.
I mean, who do you think's behind Islam?
Who do you think is behind Hinduism?
Who do you think is behind Buddhism?
Who do you think is behind perversions of Christianity itself, such as Roman Catholicism,
the Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses?
It's the devil who is behind false religion.
He wants to confuse people.
He wants people to worship idols, worship devils, worship carved statues and images.
And even sometimes, people who think that they're Christian are worshiping devils because
they have little carved statues of gods.
And just because they call it the saints or Mary or whatever they're praying to, they're
bowing down to an ancient image that is representative of a demon or a false god.
And so Nebuchadnezzar here is in a wicked religion here.
He believes in false gods.
He's worshiping devils.
His particular god is Satan himself, Baal, Baal, the Elzebub.
And it says here in verse 9, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that
the spirit of the holy gods is in thee, and no secret troubleth thee.
Tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen and the interpretation thereof.
Thus were the visions of mine head and my bed.
I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.
The tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight
thereof to the end of all the earth.
The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all,
and the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in
the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it.
I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, a watcher and an holy one came
down from heaven.
He cried aloud and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off
his leaves, and scatter his fruit.
Let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.
Now I want to point out one thing here in verse 13.
This is Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and he's terrified by it, this great tree, which later
in the chapter we learn, of course, that that tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself.
That great tree is this powerful king who is ruling over the earth, and has all of these
provinces underneath his giant empire of the Babylonian empire.
But it talks about the tree being cut down.
When it talks about who gives the decree, it says in verse 13, a watcher and an holy
one came down from heaven.
Now the first thing I want to point out about these terms is that they're both referring
to the same person.
When it says a watcher and an holy one, that's one person who is both a watcher and a holy
one.
That's why in the next breath it says, He, singular, cried aloud.
As we go further in the chapter, it becomes obvious again that those two terms are referring
to the same person.
Now what does that mean, a watcher?
That's kind of a weird term because it's only used in this chapter of the Bible to refer
to an angel as a watcher, and I believe that that's what this is referring to, an angel
coming down from heaven and making this decree, because this is very similar to a lot of other
stories and visions in the Bible where an angel comes down and makes these type of proclamations.
But that term watcher is unique to this chapter.
There are a couple of explanations for this.
One explanation could be, well, this is a language that Nebuchadnezzar is used to, or
this is the language that he knows angels by because he's involved in a false religion
and he's talking about the holy gods and everything.
So this term watcher isn't the word that God normally uses, but it's just being given to
Nebuchadnezzar in a language that he's familiar with in his culture or something like that.
Or it could be that this term watcher is just unique to this chapter.
I mean, God will sometimes just use a word one time and it's just unique to that chapter.
And so that's probably the more likely explanation is that God just happened to only use this
word one time in this chapter.
He's done that elsewhere as well.
This chapter is the only place you find it.
It's mentioned three times in this chapter.
But if we study the word watch throughout the Bible, the word watch usually means to
stay awake.
When we hear the word watch, we immediately think of looking at something and keeping
an eye on it, which that is a related meaning of the word watch simply because when people
stay up to stand on guard, they're both staying awake and they're watching for an enemy to
invade.
So that's why this word has those two meanings.
But the Bible tells us in Thessalonians, for example, therefore, let us not sleep as do
others, but let us watch and be sober.
When the disciples fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, they were told watch and pray.
He wasn't saying, hey, watch this.
He's saying watch and pray, meaning stay awake and pray.
So usually when we see the word watch in the Bible, the vast majority of the time and this
time included, it means to be awake, to be paying attention.
Now, why would God call the angel a watcher?
Well, if you remember, there are descriptions of angels in heaven praising the Lord, and
one of the things that it says about them is that they rest not day nor night, saying
holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come.
And so this watcher is an angel.
It could be because of the fact that they stay awake all the time.
They're always on guard.
They're always doing their job.
They're always doing what they're supposed to be doing.
And you could also make the case that angels are watching over us, like where the Bible
tells us that he gave his angels charge concerning us or that the angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him, which is like setting a watch around us.
So that's what that term means.
A lot of people get really goofy with this, and they, oh, let me tell you about the watchers.
And it becomes like a whole new category of supernatural being.
And some people, they try to insert a little too much Dungeons and Dragons type of mentality
onto the Bible, and they get really into the Nephilim and the watchers and the Book of Enoch
and all this crazy stuff.
Obviously, when God uses the term only one time, people are going to run with that and
say, oh, well, let me just create a whole body of literature about the watchers, the
holy ones, you know, and this and that.
As far as being a holy one, the term holy angels is used a lot in the Bible.
Angels are often described as holy, so that's really no surprise.
So this angel comes down from heaven, this watcher and holy one comes down from heaven,
and he says, cut this tree down.
Then it says in verse 15, nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even
with a band of iron and brass in the tender grass of the field and let it be wet with
the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.
Let his heart be changed from man's.
So now it's a personal pronoun about this tree that it's a person.
Let his heart be changed from man's and let a beast's heart be given unto him and let
seven times pass over him.
So the punishment that Nebuchadnezzar is going to receive here because of his pride, because
of his arrogance, because he fails to give God the glory and because he oppressed the
poor in his kingdom is that he is going to lose his mind.
And his heart is going to be changed from the heart of a man to the heart of a beast.
So he's going to have the mentality of an animal temporarily.
Now, this is going to go on until seven times pass over.
Now, what does that mean?
Seven times?
Well, time is a period of time, and I've heard people say this could be weeks, this could
be months, this could be years, but I strongly believe that this is referring to years, and
here's why I believe that.
Because elsewhere in the Bible, if we compare scripture with scripture, the Bible uses
the term a time, times, and half a time to refer to three and a half years.
One time plus times, that's three, and a half a time, that's put next to 42 months or 1260
days or 1290 days.
So if we let the Bible define itself, a time, times, and half a time is three and a half
years, so seven times, it makes sense that that would be seven years.
Furthermore, because we know that during this time that Nebuchadnezzar had lost his mind,
his hair grew like eagle's feathers and his fingernails became like bird claws, that's
not going to happen in seven weeks.
Some of you may not even cut your nails in the last seven weeks.
And even in seven months, you're not going to be to that bird talon mode.
Some of you have tested it.
But seven years later, it's going to be very extreme.
And so because of the extremeness of his physical appearance with the hair and the claws and
everything like that, I think it's pretty clear that he's out there for seven years.
Now this is one of the worst possible punishments that God can give to anyone is to lose their
mind, and let me tell you something, all throughout the Bible you'll find God punishing
people by taking away their sanity.
They're placed in the Bible where it talks about people being confounded, being struck
with madness, being astonished, and God giving them delusions.
And we know that today a lot of people, even in the United States of America, suffer from
delusions.
They're psychotic.
They're crazy.
And I did a whole sermon about that recently when I preached about ways to destroy yourself,
and I talked about drug-induced psychosis.
And in that sermon, I talked about people having delusions where their fears would come
upon them, whatever their greatest fears were, and it's very common.
And one of the things I mentioned was the cocaine bugs.
You remember that?
How these people, they lose their mind, and often they're using cocaine or using meth
or whatever, and something snaps, and they get this delusion where they feel that they
are infected and infested with parasites.
They believe that their whole house is filled with little bugs, fleas, and that they're
biting them and all over them.
And these people, they shower and they scrub and they scrub, and they can't get rid of
the bugs because the bugs aren't there.
It's all in their mind.
People even end up harming themselves and cutting into their own flesh, trying to remove
bugs that have burrowed down into their skin that aren't even there.
It's very common.
It's called parasitosis.
Well, I preached that sermon, and I was contacted by some pest control guys.
And this one pest control guy, and I talked to multiple pest control guys, but one guy
from West Virginia, he said, I deal with this about two to three times a year in my
line of work as a pest control guy.
And he said, everyone in our office has stories like this.
Everybody deals with it.
Now, look, that's one pest control guy in one office in this whole nation.
Imagine how many offices there are, how many pest control guys.
This guy says, I see it a few times a year.
Everybody in our office has dealt with it.
And he told me some really graphic, weird stories about some of the specific parasitosis
he'd seen and people trying to show him these bugs and burrowing into their own flesh and
things like really weird stuff.
And I'm telling you, that is not the blessing of God.
That's the curse of God.
It's a great reason to never snort cocaine.
It's a great reason never to take meth or any other drugs to just be sober and not put
that kind of poisonous garbage into your body.
Because God can punish you by sending you strong delusions.
Or you might just punish yourself by just poisoning yourself with chemicals and giving
yourself a delusion.
But God specifically smites people in the Bible with madness, astonishment.
He makes them go crazy.
And this is only one example of that.
It's a horrible punishment.
I mean, there are a lot of other things I'd rather have happen than for this to happen.
I mean, losing your mind, being outside, wet with the dew of heaven, living like an animal,
having the mentality of a beast.
And let me tell you something.
There are people like that even in Tempe.
You see these people that are just completely crazy.
Their brains are fried.
They're wet with the dew of heaven.
They're acting as a beast.
And it's a punishment from God.
It's a horrible place to be.
It's a warning unto all of us.
We shouldn't have to wait until it happens to us to be warned.
When we see that, we should take warning.
And say, whoa, I better make sure that I give honor and praise unto God.
That I don't get lifted up with pride.
Because I don't want to be smitten with this horrible punishment.
Now, go if you would to Romans chapter 1.
Because Romans chapter 1 is a place that we can find evidence of God punishing people
by destroying their mind and giving them the mentality of an animal.
The mentality of a beast.
And this is, of course, the reprobate mind found in Romans chapter 1.
And make no mistake about it.
The reprobate mind is a punishment from God.
It's a punishment from God.
What does the Bible say?
It says in verse 25,
who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the creature
more than the creator who is blessed forever, amen.
For this cause, God gave them up unto vile affections.
For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another.
Men with men working that which is unseemly
and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
Now, in Nebuchadnezzar's case, he was smitten with insanity that was temporary, right?
It only lasted seven years.
And then seven years later, his reason returned unto him.
Also, the type of insanity he was struck with was different
because he was given the mentality of an animal.
He thought he was an animal.
So he went and lived outside and ate grass and just was crazy in that way,
just living in the wilderness as a wild beast.
Whereas in Romans chapter 1, there's a different punishment here
where people who hate the Lord,
and I don't believe that Nebuchadnezzar hated the Lord.
There's no evidence of him hating the Lord.
It's just that, in fact, he had good things to say about the Lord in chapter 3.
But Nebuchadnezzar was prideful and arrogant.
So his punishment was different than for the God haters.
His punishment was to go out and live like a beast to be humiliated for seven years
so that he could learn not to be prideful.
But in Romans chapter 1, and I don't have time to preach through the whole chapter here,
but read it on your own.
It's about people who despise God.
They hate God.
They don't even want to retain God in their knowledge.
They don't even want to acknowledge him as the creator.
And because of that, they are punished by being given over to vile affections.
And they are given over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
Now, what does that word convenient mean?
That which is convenient is something that's pretty easy to get your hands on, right?
If we talked about convenience foods, we're talking about food
that doesn't take a lot of work to go find and get and receive.
It's something that's just right there.
It's at hand.
It's easy to get.
And I believe that what God means by this word convenient here
is that these are things that don't come naturally.
They don't just come on their own.
These are not the normal things that people would do.
Now, all of us have a normal sin nature.
It's pretty normal for people to be sinners
because that's our nature as sons of Adam, we sin.
And there's not a just man upon the earth that do a good and sin is not.
But these people in Romans 1 that have been given over to the reprobate mind,
they do things that are against nature.
I mean, it's natural for a child to lie.
That's why they have to be taught to tell the truth.
That's why they have to be disciplined.
It's natural for a man to lust after other women
and to commit that sin of the lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh
fornication, adultery, murder.
These are the type of things that in our sinful flesh we're capable of.
But these sins here, these are the things that are not convenient.
They don't just come naturally as part of the human condition.
Most people are repulsed by these things, disgusted by these things,
and would never desire these things in a million years.
So in order to explain how these people got that way,
the Bible tells us, well, God gave them over to vile affections.
Vile means gross, disgusting.
So God gave them over to vile affections.
God gave them up.
He gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.
So make no mistake about it, this is a punishment from God.
And it's a more extreme punishment than what Nebuchadnezzar experienced
because this is permanent.
With Nebuchadnezzar, it was temporary.
This is permanent.
And you know what?
This is also much more disgusting than what Nebuchadnezzar experienced.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather be out there eating grass
and having fingernails that look like a Hindu ascetic
and have my hair in dreadlocks and be out there acting like an animal
than to be one of these disgusting sodomites.
And let me tell you something, and this is talking about the homos.
Talking about the sodomites.
And let me tell you something about these bunch of sodomites.
They know that they're disgusting.
They hate themselves.
That's why they're constantly committing suicide.
Because they hate themselves.
They're disgusted with themselves.
They know how sick and filthy that death style is.
And you say, oh, well, these poor homos, they want to change,
but they just can't.
They're just born that way.
No, they weren't born that way.
They are that way as a punishment.
And it's the worst possible punishment to be given those vile affections
to desire something so sick and so perverse and so filthy,
but that's what they desire today.
What normal people are repulsed by, disgusted by,
and consider to be filth, they crave that.
But they know it's disgusting.
They know what they are.
And that's why it's so depressing for them.
Oh, you feel bad for them?
No, no, because you know what?
That is what they deserve.
And God is just to give them that punishment.
You say, well, what do we do for these people?
How do we help them?
Here's how you help them.
You get them saved before they get to that point.
That's how you help them.
Because once they get to a point where the Bible says that they're reprobate,
reprobate means rejected by God.
They have rejected God and didn't even want to retain God in their knowledge.
So then God gave them out to a reprobate mind
to do those things which are not convenient.
And so at this point, they've crossed that line with God.
They're rejected.
They're reprobate.
Why don't we get to them before they get to that point?
And it's so funny how people today want to fall all over themselves
and, oh, how are we going to reach all these poor little reprobates?
What about the other 98% of the population that's not reprobate?
Have you reached them yet?
These bunch of holier than thou churches
sitting there looking down their nose at people like us,
calling us hateful and saying that we're a hate group and everything like that.
We need to love these people.
We need to reach these people.
Well, that's funny because our church is doing a ton of soul winning.
We're winning a ton of people to Christ.
We're knocking doors every single day.
We're accidentally giving the gospel to more homos
than these people are doing on purpose.
And they have the gall to accuse us of being unloving.
And you know what?
OK, you're right.
I don't love the 2% of the population that's a reprobate.
But at least I'm demonstrating my love for the other 90%
every single week of my life by going out and preaching the gospel
and trying to win people to Christ.
That's more than these bunch of bleeding heart liberals can say.
They claim they love everybody.
But you know what their works show?
Their works show that they don't love anybody except themselves.
When they're not aggressive about soul winning.
When they're backing down on preaching the whole counsel of God
because they want to be popular or for filthy lucre's sake.
When they're scaling back the soul winning programs.
When they're just sitting around and letting the whole world go to hell.
Their deeds demonstrate that they don't have love.
You know what?
Our deeds demonstrate that we do have love for 98% of the population.
And what I mean by that is we love those that are saved.
And we love the lost.
But we don't love those who hate the Lord.
Because the Bible says in Psalm 139 verse 21 and 22
Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
And I'm not I grieve with those that rise up against thee?
I hate them with a perfect hatred.
I count them my enemies.
That's what the Bible says.
Say, well I don't like that kind of preaching.
You don't like the Bible.
That is Psalm 139 verses 21 and 22.
You need a memory verse for this week.
You need two memory verses for this week.
You need a memory chapter.
It's Romans 1.
There's a whole bunch of scripture to support what I'm teaching right now from Romans chapter 1.
And it's crystal clear, but people don't want to see it because they've been brainwashed
by Hollywood and everything to think that that homosexual death style is normal.
Or that they're born that way.
Or that, oh, they're just like everybody else.
Or even now Christian pastors are getting up and saying, oh, well any of us could fall into that sin.
What in the world?
Hey, there's no temptation taking you but such as is common to man.
And that is not common to man.
That is a punishment from God.
That desire for the same gender is a punishment from God.
And it is the evidence of a reprobate.
And it is just as much a mental punishment as what Nebuchadnezzar experienced, except
it's way worse as permanent.
It's much worse.
The reprobate mind.
It's the heart of a beast.
Because what they do is even worse than what the beast would do.
Go back, if you would, to Daniel chapter four.
Daniel chapter number four.
And you say, oh, you know, I can't believe this kind of preaching.
I'm never coming back.
Good.
Well, I'm glad you heard it while you were here then.
Since you're not coming back, let me just make sure I send you a real clear message
while you're here.
Because this church has not bought into the media's propaganda campaign to promote sodomy.
And you know what?
YouTube can give us all the strikes that they want and delete all the accounts that they
want and try to make it to where only one viewpoint is acceptable and to say, oh, you
know, this is hate speech and just brainwash you.
You know, if I ever hear a Christian tell me I'm speaking hate speech, that just tells
me I'm talking to a complete idiot who has been completely brainwashed by the media.
That is not a biblical concept.
The Bible doesn't talk about hate crimes and hate speech.
You got that junk from the idiot box.
You got that stuff from Hollywood.
You got that stuff from Madison Avenue.
You didn't get that from the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God will teach you that sodomy is an abomination and that it's worthy of
death.
And you know what?
YouTube can go to hell.
And Facebook can go to hell.
And Twitter can go to hell if they don't like it.
Bunch of perverts and weirdos running our country.
Bunch of perverts and weirdos running the internet.
Running this whole nation.
And let me tell you something.
Nothing will ever stop me from preaching what I'm preaching right now.
It never will.
You know, they're going to have to beat me and put me in jail and kill me.
But they'll never stop me from preaching.
It's the filthy sodomites.
And you know what?
If you're sitting in this church expecting me to back down on that issue, well, you know
what?
You might as well just hit the road, Jack.
And don't you come back no more.
Because I will never change on that issue.
I hate them more in 2018 than I hated them in 2017.
Oh, get out of here, you fag-loving idiot.
There are plenty of people here who know what the Bible says and haven't been brainwashed
like you.
Who don't think that these bunch of disgusting perverts are normal.
And all God's people said, amen.
But let's go back to Daniel chapter 4.
The Bible says in Daniel...
I got all fired up for watching Brother Jimenez's documentary.
You'll feel the same way tomorrow when you watch it.
So Daniel chapter 4, the Bible says...
And let's skip forward here to the interpretation.
It says in verse 24, this is the interpretation, O king.
And this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the king, that they
shall drive thee from man, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and
they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven,
and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots, thy kingdom shall be sure
unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule.
Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness
and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility.
So here he says that even though Nebuchadnezzar is going to completely lose his mind and go
out and dwell in the wilderness with the animals, that his kingdom is going to be sure unto
him, meaning that someone else isn't going to take over and he's going to lose everything.
It's sort of just waiting there for him for the seven years.
So some of his other deputies or lieutenants or whoever apparently take over and they run
things while he's gone, and seven years later when his mind comes back, they're ready to
put him in charge again.
There's a great welcome back, you know, and they put him right back in charge, and he
rules once again in the kingdom of Babylon after that, once he knows that God is the
one who's in charge and once he's been humbled before the Lord.
Now Daniel here gives him advice, and I want to point this out especially.
He says, Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy
sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be
a lengthening of thy tranquility.
Now a little bit earlier on, it says in verse 19, Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,
was astonished for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him.
The king spake and said, Belteshazzar, let not the dream nor the interpretation thereof
trouble thee.
Belteshazzar, that's Daniel, answered and said, My lord, the dream be to them that hate
thee, and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies.
Now we see here that Daniel, even though he's working for a boss that's part of a false
religion, even though he's working for a boss that doesn't know the Lord, he's still respectful
to the legitimate authority figures in his life, even in spite of that.
You know, when you go to work or other areas of life where you have someone who's your
boss or someone who's an authority figure, you want to be respectful to that person and
have a good attitude toward them and seek for their blessing.
You know, it isn't right for you to work for a company and not want the company to succeed.
If you don't want the company that you work for to succeed, you need to get a different
job.
It's wicked to work somewhere and not have a desire for the company to prosper because
you're being hired to bless them and to help them.
So Daniel, because he is working for Nebuchadnezzar and because that's his job, that's what role
he plays in this kingdom and God has put him there, basically he desires the peace of that
kingdom and he wants Nebuchadnezzar to prosper.
He is troubled by the dream because when God reveals to him this interpretation, it's bad
news to Daniel because he says, man, I wish that this would be to your enemies.
I wish it would be to those that hate you.
He tries to help Nebuchadnezzar by giving him advice of how he could possibly stay the
wrath of God by cutting off some of his wicked deeds and doing some good things so that God
wouldn't just wipe him out.
Now look what the Bible says in verse 28.
All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
At the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
The king spake and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of
the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?
While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, oh, king
Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken.
The kingdom is departed from thee.
Now notice 12 months go by, so God gives him a grace period.
He gives him 12 months to get his act together, to straighten up, but apparently he completely
forgot about that.
Even though this dream bothered him at the time, 12 months later, he's forgotten about
it.
He's more puffed up and arrogant and prideful than ever.
Now we need to be careful that we don't do the same thing.
A lot of times, we could be sitting in a church service and hear the word of God, and God
gives us a warning from the scriptures, or maybe we experience some chastisement of God
in our life, and we think to ourselves, man, I need to fix things in my life.
I need to get some sin out of my life.
I need to get right with God.
But isn't it easy when things go well to just forget about that three or four days later,
a week later, two weeks later?
You remember when 9-11 happened, and even the bars were putting up signs that said God
bless America, and everybody was praying and seeking the Lord for like two days?
And then all of a sudden, it's just back to the normal wickedness, back to forgetting
the Lord, back to forgetting God.
That's what we see here.
You know, Nebuchadnezzar is troubled, but 12 months later, he totally forgot about that.
Make sure that when God speaks to you through preaching, or God speaks to you through reading
the Bible, or God warns you through the events of life, that you don't forget about that
during the good times, and that you meditate on that, and keep reminding yourself to serve
the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, even during the good times.
And so after this grace period is up, he starts to praise himself, and while it's coming out
of his mouth how great he is, a voice comes from heaven telling him that the kingdom is
departed from him.
Verse 32, and they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts
of the field.
They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until
thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whosoever
he will.
The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men,
and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs
were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws.
And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine
understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from
generation to generation.
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, What doest thou?
At the same time my reason returned unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor
and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and my Lord sought unto me, and I was established
in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works
are truth, and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
We don't want to have to learn this the hard way like Nebuchadnezzar.
We don't want to have to go through some kind of a humiliation or severe chastisement in
order to be humble and realize that God's the one who's in charge.
And if we get lifted up to high positions of authority, or high positions of power,
or high positions of status and wealth in society, we better not let that go to our
heads because God can abase us any time he wants.
He can snap his fingers and destroy your life at any moment.
He can cause you to lose all your wealth.
He can cause you to lose your health.
He can cause you to lose your very mind.
Now thank God if you're saved you'll never become a reprobate because that's a punishment
that is reserved for those who hate God and don't even want to remember that he even exists.
They don't even want to retain God in their knowledge.
But I believe that even a saved Christian who knows better and goes out and gets drunk
and takes drugs and does a bunch of stupid things can be punished with some kind of a
psychotic episode, they could receive a drug induced psychosis.
I don't believe that Christians are immune from drug induced psychosis.
I think if you're a born again child of God and you go snort a bunch of cocaine, God might
allow you to get drug induced psychosis.
You may be plagued with cocaine bugs or whatever other strange delusion that could come upon
you.
You know there are a lot of things that God could do to humble us and put us on our place.
We better make sure that when things are going good, when we're flourishing in our palace
and when we're at rest, that's when we need to seek the Lord.
Give him all the glory.
Give him all the praise.
Give him thanks every day instead of getting private.
Oh man, I'm so good in business.
Look at this business empire I've created.
No, it ought to be that we say, boy, thank God he gave me the power to get wealth.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the father
of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
And if we'll praise God and thank him and appreciate things and stay humble when things
are good, God won't have to just destroy us and wipe us out and humiliate us and, and
make us go through things like this to get us in our proper place.
Let's just make ourselves humble by learning from other people's example and not making
God do this to us or something like this to us and different people experience different
kinds of chastisements and different kinds of lessons.
But the key is at the end of verse 37 there, those that walk in pride, he's able to a base
and it doesn't matter who you are.
He is able to a base you.
I don't care how diversified your assets are.
I don't care how many vitamins and supplements you take.
I don't care what you do to protect yourself.
He's able to a base you or he's able to exalt you.
The Bible says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he'll lift you up.
Do you want to be exalted by God?
You want to be lifted up, then be humble.
The way up is down.
And if you want God to wipe you out and humiliate you and make you look like a fool, then be
puffed up and prideful because that's the path to getting there.
Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer.
Thank you, Lord, for this great chapter and thank you for the example of Nebuchadnezzar,
Lord, and we thank you that he eventually did give you the glory and that you were able
to restore him to his position and to give him some of his glory and majesty back and
allow him to retain that kingdom and even for excellent majesty to be added unto him,
Lord.
Help us to learn from the story and understand the importance of humility, Lord, not to be
lifted up with pride, Lord.
And help us, Lord, to learn from the Bible and not have to go out and take the drugs
and get drunk and experience the punishments for ourselves.
Help us to learn from other people's bad example and not have to be a bad example ourselves.