Man, this morning we talked about Daniel chapter number three with Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, and the fiery furnace.
And here we have another story involving Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor of Babylon,
the most powerful nation in the world at that time, and in fact, even a greater
kingdom in many ways than the Persian Empire and the Greeks and the Romans that
would come after.
This was a glorious empire in its day.
Now it starts out here in verse number one of chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar, the king,
unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied
unto you.
Now right away that verse is really interesting because it shows that this was some kind
of a proclamation that was sent out throughout his entire realm, throughout his entire empire.
It was something that was translated into other languages.
It was something that testified of the greatness of God even to the heathen at that time.
One heathen testifying to other heathen about the work of God.
You see, in the New Testament, the Gentiles have been brought nigh by the blood of Christ
and have been made into one with the saved Israelites, the Jews, and the Gentiles.
Now there's no difference.
They're all one in Christ Jesus.
And we've been made fellow citizens of the household of faith as Gentiles, but that doesn't
mean that in the Old Testament, God just didn't care about Gentiles or that no Gentiles
were saved or that no Gentiles heard the preaching of God's word in the Old Testament
because they did.
And God's intention was that Israel would be a lighthouse unto the Gentiles.
And then of course, ultimately it was Jesus who would fulfill that prophecy and be the
light to lighten the Gentiles.
But Israel, the nation, the Old Testament was supposed to be a pattern nation or an example
nation to spread forth the word of God into the rest of the world.
Of course, they failed at that, but that was always the plan.
And God has always so loved the world, not just a certain group of people.
And then he's like, okay, well, I guess the Jews don't like me, so I'm just gonna switch
to the whole world.
No, he always cared about the whole world, whether we're under the old covenant or the
new covenant.
God still loved people and there's still Gentiles getting saved and God's still
working in their hearts and lives, even hundreds of years before Christ.
And so here we see this proclamation going out into all nations.
Now you say, well, you know, do you have any historical evidence of this proclamation?
But anyone who asked that question just shows how little they know about ancient history
because of the fact that things like this don't survive.
Maybe nothing survives from this period, okay?
Very little, like if you could put a percentage on it of, you know, how many records or
how many documents or how many written pieces of paper, not that it was necessarily paper
that they were using, I realize that paper is more of a Chinese thing, but whatever
they were writing on back then, how much of it survived?
The answer would be 0.000 something percent, it would be some incredibly small percentage.
I mean, there's so little known about this period because when we talk about a
king like Nebuchadnezzar, you know, we're talking about like the sixth century B.C.,
we're talking about a time that there's very little historical information of or evidence
from.
It's silly to say like, well, you know, I want to see evidence of this.
Well, faith is the evidence.
I believe it because it says it in the Bible.
And so I don't need some archaeologist who has very little evidence to go on about anything
during this period in this place to tell me whether or not this proclamation happened
because it happened because the Bible says it happened.
And so clearly Nebuchadnezzar did convert unto a view of the Lord being the true God
and sending out this proclamation.
But here's the thing, that doesn't necessarily mean that the guy who came after him continued
in that tradition.
And in fact, we know that he didn't because later on in the same book, in the next chapter,
we're going to see that his, what the Bible calls his son or that Nebuchadnezzar's
his father, it's actually more like his grandson or even great grandson.
But his descendant is one who has totally disrespected the Lord and forgotten all the
lessons that Nebuchadnezzar learned.
And so this proclamation isn't necessarily to say that the Babylonian Empire just started
worshiping the Lord.
So this is one man, Nebuchadnezzar, who's ruling and he has this epiphany in his life.
And then he sends out this proclamation at one point, to tell about all the great things
that God has done.
And God used that in that time to get the Word of God in that time to other parts
of the world.
Okay, now, again, the evidence of that is that the Bible says that it happened.
Now, I would also say that there are probably tons of other incidents like this throughout
history that we don't know about, where different proclamations have gone out, or just where
missionaries have gone out, or people have gone out and preached the gospel and spread
the Word of God around this world.
I believe that the Word of God has been all over this world in every generation,
and it just doesn't necessarily survive to history because, hey, most things don't.
But God's Word has always been out there, the Holy Spirit's always been at work,
the gospel has always been preached, the Word of God has always been spoken by prophets
of God, and prophets of God have also always traveled throughout the world, bringing the
gospel to the heathen.
Men like Jeremiah, the Bible says, went around and traveled to every nation under heaven
and proclaimed God's Word.
So this is not an isolated thing in the Bible, it's one of many examples of a proclamation
of God's Word going out to the heathen.
And notice that it says, all nations and languages.
Now it's important that we understand that the Word of God is not limited to one language,
but that the Word of God can be proclaimed in all languages and should be proclaimed
in all languages.
No one should be expected to have to learn a foreign language in order to understand
the Word of God.
It should be put into their own tongue wherein they were born so that they can understand
it on the deepest, most visceral level.
They can hear God's Word in their own native heart language.
And so God's Word in Daniel chapter 4, which is inspired by God, this is an inspired
chapter of Scripture, went forth into multiple languages, a multitude of languages.
You know, was it any less God's Word in one language than another?
Or is it equally God's Word no matter what language it's expressed in?
As long as the translation is accurate, it is equally God's Word, whether you're reading
it in English, whether you're reading it in Greek or Hebrew or whatever, God's Word
is still God's Word when you translate it into another language, okay?
As long as the translation is right, and thank God, you know, we have the standard
right here, the King James Version in English, which is, I believe, the perfect Word
of God without error.
I don't think that there is any error or mistake in the King James Bible.
I believe that it is the perfect, preserved, pure Word of God.
Now you say, well, is the King James Bible inspired by God?
Well, it derives its inspiration from the originals.
Obviously the originals are what were immediately inspired.
But because the originals are inspired, and this is a perfectly accurate translation of
those originals, ergo, this is inspired as well, okay?
Because just translating it doesn't remove the divine inspiration, okay?
Now that's not to say that translators in England were divinely inspired when they
translated this.
But I do believe that the providential hand of God worked through historical circumstances
so that the Bible could be translated into English and so that the best minds could
be put on the job, and so that the best manuscripts, the best readings and everything
would get in there so that we would end up having an accurate Bible, a right Bible
in the 21st century.
Why?
Because God is the one who preserves his Word from generation to generation.
That's why.
God providentially preserves his Word, okay?
So through human events and human interactions, God works through history to make sure that
his Word doesn't pass away.
He promised heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Word shall not pass away.
So I do not believe for one second that what we have today in the 21st century in front
of us is just, you know, pretty close or the best we've got.
No, I believe this is exactly what God said, and I believe this is exactly what this
proclamation said, and I believe that God's Word has been perfectly preserved from the
time that it was originally divinely inspired all the way up until now, and we can trust
every word of what's in front of us in our English King James Bible, and it's not necessary
to learn Greek and Hebrew in order to understand the Word of God.
And you know what?
This is coming from somebody who has learned Greek and Hebrew and has read the original
languages, and you know what I found?
It says the same thing.
That's why I found to be true.
If you want to learn Greek and Hebrew in order to get some exciting new revelation,
you're going to be disappointed because you're going to find that it says the same thing.
So all languages.
Now this part of the Book of Daniel, by the way, in the original language as far as
the scripture itself is actually not written in Hebrew, but it's rather in Aramaic, right,
which is the main language of the Babylonian Empire, right?
Syriac is another word for that.
Remember Daniel chapter 2, when they stand before Nebuchadnezzar, they speak to the
king in Syriac and say, oh king, live forever, and then they go on to say, tell us the dream,
we'll give you the interpretation.
Well here's the thing.
In Daniel chapter 2, and you know, this is before I get into the subject matter in
chapter 4, I just want to give you kind of this overview of the Book of Daniel, give
you a little bit of our bearings of this, where this book is in the Word of God.
When you're reading Daniel, if you would flip back to chapter 2 quickly, when you're
reading Daniel chapter 1 in the original language saw in Hebrew, okay, then when you
get to Daniel chapter 2 verse 4, it says, then spake the Chaldeans to the king in
Syriac.
Do you see that there in verse 4?
That's referring to what we know as Aramaic.
You could call it Syriac, it's the same language.
And then in the next breath it says, oh king, live forever, that's in Syriac.
And in fact, so is the entire rest of chapter 2, so is chapter 3, so is chapter 4, so is
chapter 5, so is chapter 6, so is chapter 7, and it's not until chapter 8 verse 1
that you go back into the Hebrew language.
So basically, in the Book of Daniel, chapter 1 is in Hebrew, chapters 8 through 12 are
in Hebrew, and then 2 through 7, specifically chapter 2 verse 4 through the end of chapter
7, are all in Aramaic, okay?
Why?
Because Hebrew is not some special magical language where God can only deliver his Word
in Hebrew, because even in the Old Testament he didn't deliver his Word 100% in Hebrew,
because he gave us part of his Word in Aramaic, right?
So even in the Old Testament it's not 100% Hebrew.
You also have a few chapters or parts of chapters from Ezra chapter 4 through Ezra
chapter 7 in that vicinity, all of chapter 5 is in Aramaic, part of chapter 4, part
of chapter 6, part of chapter 7, it goes back and forth between Hebrew and Aramaic
because it gives proclamations of the kings in the original Aramaic and then everything
else is in Hebrew.
And so you've got this Aramaic stuff in the Old Testament which proves that God is not
restricted to giving scripture in one language.
Why does that matter?
Because the New Testament is in Greek, which is not Hebrew, it's a totally different
language.
Now you have a lot of bozos these days that are saying, oh maybe the New Testament
was written in Hebrew and then later it got translated into Greek and we got to
go back to that original Hebrew New Testament and that is baloney, is garbage.
There's no evidence for that, there's no manuscript of some original Hebrew, it's
just a made-up fairy tale used to deceive the simple, okay?
The New Testament, I've done a whole sermon on this, the New Testament was originally
written in Greek, why?
Because Greek was the big language in the world at that time.
Now obviously when God's dealing with Israel as his flagship nation then yeah, he's
going to deliver the Word of God in Hebrew because that's where the most people
are going to read it and use it and preach it and believe it and use it to evangelize
others.
When we start getting toward the end of the Old Testament period, you start having the Word
of God go forth a little bit in Aramaic, which is broadening the audience to a group
of people that were prevalent at that time because Aramaic was like a universal second
language in that part of the world at that time or even a first language for many
many people.
And then when you get to the New Testament, who received the Gospel better than anyone
else in the Book of Acts?
Who just ate it up and got saved and where did the Apostle Paul have the most success
at founding churches and even the Apostle John and Peter reached all kinds of people
in the Greek-speaking world so it made more sense for the New Testament to be delivered
in Greek, not in Aramaic, not in Hebrew.
And by the way, the fact that the New Testament is written in Greek shows the shift
to the Gentile emphasis because if we're emphasizing the Jews, it'd be in Hebrew, it'd
be in Aramaic.
But no, no, no, it's in Greek because it's all about the Gentiles now, okay?
They had their chance.
They blew it.
The individuals among the Jews can get saved and join Christianity all they want
and they're welcome because there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
But ultimately it is the Greek who is more important and the Greek just representing,
you know, all the Gentiles that it becomes more important in the New Testament so the
Greek language becomes the important language and so that's why the New Testament is delivered
100% in Greek with a couple of little Aramaic phrases sprinkled in for good measure.
Now, you know, fast forward to the 21st century and it's pretty obvious what the most
important language in the world is right now in 2022, should be obvious to anyone,
is English, okay?
Sorry, Chinese speakers and Spanish speakers, but English is just bigger, okay?
Deal with it, okay?
Because if you count people who learn it as a second language, English is the main
second language of the world.
I mean, if you count second language learners and speakers, it's like 2 billion people,
okay?
And it's growing every day.
I mean, it's getting to where lots of parts of the world like Europe, more than half
the population or even 60, 70, 80% of the people speak English as a second language.
Don't think God knew that that was gonna happen, that English was gonna be the big
one, okay?
And by the way, it doesn't look like that's changing anytime soon.
English is still picking up speed, still picking up steam, and so 20 years from now,
50 years from now, English might even be more important than it already is right now as
other languages die and are consolidated and English just gets more and more powerful
every day.
But who knows what the future holds right now, English is the big one, okay?
What about historically over the past few hundred years?
Who's done the most soul-winning?
Who's done the most preaching?
Who has been the greatest number of Baptists taking the Word of God all over the world
and even translating it into other languages?
It has been English speakers that have been the big-time missionaries and soul-winners
and preachers over the past few hundred years, I mean, bar none, English is the
big one, okay?
Therefore, God in His wisdom, God in His providence allowed us to have this magnificent
translation, the King James Bible, so that His Word would be preserved and also so
that His Word would be propagated to the masses in our modern times, God has used
English in that way.
Yeah, you look at some of the Bibles that came out of the Protestant Reformation,
and they're translated by one guy, they're translated by two guys, they're translated
by five guys.
You know, the King James Bible though, you look at it, it's 54 expert scholars who
are already building on previous work of other great translations that came out in the
16th century, that when you get to the 17th century with the King James Bible, it is
the culmination of all this effort and you got all these expert scholars spending years
and years and years, that's why it's better than some of these other language Bibles
say, well, it's not fair.
Well, you know, obviously life isn't fair and obviously the Word of God has never been
distributed equally in this world.
But it's not God up in heaven just being like, oh, you know, I just don't really like
the way, you know, French sounds or whatever, you know, so I'm just gonna use English
speakers more.
You know, I, you know, I, God doesn't care.
God would love for French speakers to just start going crazy with the Word of God and
going crazy with soul winning and just preaching and turning the world upside down and
make that a big evangelism language and winning souls all over the world in French
or Spanish or German or whatever.
He doesn't care.
God's not a respecter of persons, nations don't matter to him, okay?
God is willing to use anybody, any tongue, any language who steps up to the plate and
says, here am I, send me.
And so God is not restricted to a certain language and God's Word is not restricted
to a certain language.
The most important biblical language was Hebrew, then it was Greek.
And you know what?
Today, the most important language in the Bible just happens to be English just because
this is the Bible that's printed all over the world more than any other Bible.
I mean, what Bible is getting used more than any other Bible right now?
It's not a Greek New Testament, because unfortunately, Greek people, most of them aren't
saved.
It's not a Hebrew Bible because unfortunately, most Hebrew speakers aren't saved.
But there are millions and millions and millions of English speakers who are using
this book to win millions of people to Christ.
And so this is the book that God is using right now more than any other, this English
King James Bible.
So don't let anybody pooh pooh the King James Bible to you or act like, oh, what's
so special about the King James?
Oh, I don't know.
It's just the best selling book in the history of mankind.
I don't know.
It's just the Bible that God has used more than any other Bible translation in
the history of mankind.
Other than that, no big deal.
And so yeah, obviously, the Greek and the Hebrew originals are the inspired, perfect,
preserved Word of God.
But if you have an accurate translation, you have what you need.
And so this book ends up doing the same thing.
And in fact, being used more great.
It's like Jesus said, you know, the works that I do, shall you do and greater works
because I go to my father, Jesus looked at his disciples said, you will do greater
works than me.
Does that mean make the disciples better than Jesus?
No, it's just the reality of the fact that the disciples are going to have more decades
to do the work.
There are more of them.
And so ultimately, they're going to reach more people in their lifetimes than Jesus
Christ reached in his short three and a half year ministry that was pretty much restricted
to Palestine.
And so he says, the works that I do, shall you do and greater works.
Obviously Jesus is greater than them.
But yet they did greater works, not greater in quality.
You can't do greater works than Jesus and quality, but they did greater in quantity.
Well guess what?
The King James Bible has done greater works than other Bibles throughout history doesn't
make it better necessarily.
But it does mean that it's been used in a greater quantity, which is significant.
And that didn't happen by accident.
God knows what's going on.
And he knew that English speakers were going to use it.
And guess what God's going to give the tool to the people who are going to use it.
Okay.
And so you wonder why certain nationalities don't have a very good Bible in their language
or they just have one that was done by one guy.
It sounds like they didn't really care that much, you know, to impanel 54 experts
and do a really good job.
You know, maybe they don't have it because God didn't really bless because God just
kind of knew that they weren't going to do as much with it.
So you know, he's going to really give the super quality work to the ones who are
going to use it the most.
And so there are a lot of reasons why it makes sense that the King James Bible ends
up reigning supreme in 2022, whether all the scoffers like it or not, and they can
mock that or laugh at that and act like that doesn't make any sense, actually makes
perfect sense that, you know, why would it be in English?
I mean, why English?
Oh, I don't know, because English is the most important language in the whole world.
I mean, why would God care about just giving it in English?
Two billion people.
And by the way, if you if you can speak English, Spanish and Chinese, those three
languages, you can talk to half of the people on this planet.
Think about that.
It's pretty amazing.
So that's verse one.
OK, and we're going to go through this whole chapter.
You know, I'm kind of going off on verse one because I just really like verse one.
And I think it's time well spent because of the fact that, you know, we need to
understand where our Bible came from, why we believe the Bible.
And it's so important that we have the utmost faith, not just in the Bible in
general, but that we have faith in the King James Bible, you know, because if you
don't trust the Bible, they're actually reading.
That's a problem.
You know, having faith and trust in the Greek and Hebrew original is a start, and
I'm glad that you believe that those are inspired by God and that those are the
perfect, preserved, pure word of God.
But, you know, in the day to day, what really ends up mattering practically is that
you actually believe that the Bible that you're reading in front of you is actually
giving you the word of God.
And after four hundred and some years, we have a lot of confidence.
We've seen what God has done.
It's clear this thing has stood the test of time, you know, and people have
attacked it and fought it.
And here it is.
It's still still when I go on YouTube and type in whatever the chapter this the
number one suggestion is always if I type in Daniel four into YouTube, it's like, oh,
you mean Daniel four KJV who knows what I'm talking about?
You go on YouTube and you type in such and such the book, such and such the
chapter, and the first suggestion is always like that with the KJV.
Why?
It's not that YouTube just loves the King James.
Somehow, I doubt their affection for this beloved book, but it's because that's
what people are searching for all day long.
And so their computer algorithm says this guy probably wants the King James.
This guy's surfing YouTube, not just looking for cheap entertainment.
He's looking for the word of God.
He's probably a serious student of God.
He's probably into the King James.
And so you'll find that the Google search term as well, if you go on Google
trends and look at the search term, the KJV is the number one getting searched on Google.
OK, so even if the NIV might sell more copies for people to use as a doorstop or
to use as a as a prop that they carry around to their liberal fun center church on
Sundays or or that they give as a little precious moments to a baby when they're
born or something, the one that people actually read is the King James when people are
actually studying it, researching it, Googling it, looking at it, listening to audio of it on YouTube.
They go for the King James.
It's the word of God, trust it, believe it.
And so Nebuchadnezzar sends out this proclamation to all peoples, nations and languages.
But this has come down to us in Aramaic.
OK, that's the language that it was translated from into English.
So in 1611, when the King James Bible came up, you know, that's that's English translation from Syriac, from Aramaic.
When it comes to Daniel, Chapter four, OK.
Now, what's really interesting about the Book of Daniel, two chapters, two through seven, is that these six chapters sort of form a special unit in the Book of Daniel.
OK, and the way this works, you can think of it this way, is that basically it goes A, B, C, C, B, A.
And here's what I mean by that, that if you take the outermost chapters, chapters two and seven.
And you compare those chapters and then you move in one click, three and six, and you compare those chapters and then you move in one more click and compare four and five, you'll find that they match.
And so this is called a chiastic structure.
And so basically, if you think about chapter two, it's about those four kingdoms.
Remember the statue with the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, those four kingdoms are in chapter two.
Well, guess what chapter seven is about? Four kingdoms.
Four animals this time, but it's still four kingdoms.
And then you think about chapter three, you've got Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego going into the fiery furnace.
OK, it's corresponding chapter, chapter six, you have Daniel going into the lion's den.
Very similar story.
So that brings us to the middle here, which is chapters four and five.
In chapter four, you have Nebuchadnezzar being filled with pride and mouthing off and being judged by God.
And then in chapter five, you have his descendant, Belshazzar, mouthing off, being prideful, being arrogant and getting humbled.
The difference, though, is that in Daniel, chapter four, Nebuchadnezzar actually repents and gets right with God,
whereas Belshazzar just gets killed.
And we don't really know if he had any kind of change of heart.
The Bible doesn't record anything like that.
He dies, whereas Nebuchadnezzar ends up living and not only surviving God's judgment,
not only making it through God's horrible punishment unscathed,
but actually thriving and being blessed even after this incident that happens in his life.
Because what happens here is that he has a dream.
And in the dream in chapter four, we just read it before the sermon.
There's this great giant tree and all the fowls of the heaven are lodged in it.
It's just this massive, amazing tree that is just a blessing and it's a shade and a cover to a lot of creatures and so forth.
And this represents Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian empire, you know,
the greatness of his kingdom that basically rules over and governs such a large region.
And this tree ends up being chopped down.
But when it gets chopped down, there's still left the stump of it that survives, okay?
And so of course, Nebuchadnezzar is going to get chopped down.
Why? Because he's filled with pride.
And then when he's chopped down though, he still ends up surviving
and he ends up eventually being restored to his former greatness.
So let's just look at a couple of highlights in the short time that we have tonight
about this great chapter, Daniel chapter four.
It says in verse number two, I thought it good.
And this is so interesting because it's coming from Nebuchadnezzar.
Not your typical biblical author, is he?
But then again, who wrote a lot of books of the Bible, right?
A lot of the Bible is anonymous, okay?
Who wrote the rest of the book of Daniel?
We have no idea.
Certainly it wasn't Daniel himself.
It was other men of God, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
This particular chapter is written by Nebuchadnezzar, which is remarkable.
It says in verse two, I thought it good to show the signs and wonders
that the high God has 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.
Of course, these are great themes of the book of Daniel
and times and God's kingdom and so forth.
I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my 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.
And of course, no one can interpret the dream.
He calls in Daniel and Daniel comes in and interprets the dream for him
and explains it to him similar to what I explained to you a moment ago.
But let's get a few more details.
Verse 16, or let's start in verse 15.
Nevertheless, leave the stump of his roots in the earth,
even with a band of iron and brass and the tender grass of the field
and let it be wet with the dew of heaven.
And let his portion be with the beasts and the grass of the earth.
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.
And of course, Nebuchadnezzar, you know, he doesn't know what this means.
Daniel explains to him what it means.
It says in verse number 25 that they shall drive thee from men
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.
Now, what is this saying here seven times?
Because I've heard people sometimes debate how long is a time,
you know, is this just some random amount of time?
Are these weeks, days, months, years?
Now, it's important because in the context of the rest of the Book of Daniel,
times and time and half a time,
these numbers come up again in regard to end times prophecy.
And of course, the time is a year.
And when it says time, times and half a times
or half a time, we're talking about three and a half years, okay?
But how do we know that seven times passing over him are years?
I've heard some people say it's months, okay?
Here's why we know that.
Because at the end of the seven times,
his fingernails have grown like bird claws.
And that doesn't happen in seven days.
That doesn't happen in seven weeks.
That doesn't happen in seven months.
Some of you haven't cut your fingernails in seven months.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, some of you kids, you know,
need to go home and cut your fingernails, right?
But the point is that in order to really have your fingernails
become like bird claws, it's going to take seven years.
Not quite seven years,
but it's definitely going to take more than seven months.
Seven months isn't enough.
And of course, you've seen the Hindus, right,
where they take all these strange vows
not to cut their fingernails.
And the Hindus will sometimes have fingernails
that are very much like bird claws,
that are very hard and tough.
And they start like spiraling
and doing all kinds of weird things, okay?
So I'm, you know, I'm thankful to the Hindus
for providing us with that example, you know,
because even things that man means for evil,
God can use for good.
So even some weirdo Hindu letting his fingernails
grow super long, like I appreciate that
because no normal person would do that
and then we wouldn't get to see what it's like.
And so it kind of helps the Bible to come alive.
Thank you Hindus for showing us that.
You have a purpose in life.
Now hopefully they can get saved,
hopefully they can believe in Jesus,
then they can actually have more of a purpose
than just being a bad example.
But hey, I'll take what I can get.
And so seven times passing over, seven years.
Now this is pretty much the worst punishment
that I can imagine being handed down from God,
losing your mind.
I mean, look, I would rather lose any part of my body
than my mind, and I mean that.
I mean, think about it.
Which part of your body would you prefer to fail?
Your mind or fill in the blank?
I mean, the mind is the thing that matters most.
And so man, I'd rather lose a hand, a foot, you name it.
I don't want to lose my mind.
Losing your mind is the worst possible punishment.
And so this is a very serious punishment
that God makes him go insane,
and he goes from being at the top position in the world,
the most powerful man in the world,
to being out eating grass like a cow outside,
sleeping outside, wet with the dew of heaven,
acting like a wild animal,
being out there for seven years.
And then seven years later,
this is the part that always intrigues me.
Seven years later, he wakes up and realizes where he is
and what he's doing.
I mean, can you imagine that?
You've been out there acting like an animal
for seven years with the heart of a beast.
There's no higher reasoning going on.
And then all of a sudden you wake up
and you look at your hands
and you're thinking about what you've been doing.
You kind of spit the grass out of your mouth
and you're like, whoa.
And it's like the last seven years
just kind of comes flooding into your mind.
Seven years.
I mean, that's a long time.
You know, I believe that God probably allowed him
to remember some of the beastliness of those seven years.
And he probably remembered a bunch of the nasty,
weird stuff that he did during that time
and just the animalistic things
that he did during that time.
And just the shame and the humiliation
put him in his place.
And so he got right.
But what was it that made God so mad in the first place
that this even happened to him in the first place?
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've built
for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power
and for the honor of my majesty?
You know, God hates that attitude.
And if you think about it,
there's a little bit of a parallel here
with Romans chapter one,
where the Bible talks about when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful, okay?
And so thankfully, Nebuchadnezzar doesn't go
all the way off the cliff and become a reprobate.
God still leaves that stump, doesn't he?
He still leaves that chance,
that hope for him to come back.
So he didn't really punish him by making him a homo.
That would have been way worse.
He didn't make him get too gross.
He just made him act like an animal
and eat grass and do whatever,
not the really sick things that we see in Romans one.
But you see, it's a similar idea though,
of when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful.
And so here Nebuchadnezzar, he knew God,
he didn't glorify God.
Thankfully, he didn't go all the way down the road
and go all the way off the cliff
and to where it became too late for him,
because God still preserved him.
But he was on that path.
He was on that dark path.
And in fact, the fact that God did this to him
was actually God doing him a favor.
God actually saw something redeemable in him, okay?
Because if God would have just really hated Nebuchadnezzar
and just really wanted to destroy him,
he would have just destroyed him
because he did that to other people, didn't he?
I mean, there are times when God looks down
and he doesn't like somebody's attitude
and he just kills them and he just destroys them.
And guess what?
In the next chapter, that's what he's going to do.
He looks down and sees Belshazzar
and just says, this guy's toast and he killed him.
And you know, chances are, of course,
the Bible isn't super explicit on this.
I would say that chances are,
Belshazzar is burning in hell right now.
There's no indication that he got right
or they believed on the Lord
or called upon the name of the Lord.
He just got rebuked and died the same night.
You know, God, but even if you don't like that example,
God destroys people all the time in the Bible.
Yet we see here that God is actually,
in a sense, chastening Nebuchadnezzar,
which actually shows love,
because by doing this to Nebuchadnezzar,
even though it's pretty much the most horrible
earthly punishment you can imagine,
short of God giving you all the way over
to the reprobate mind to do those things
that are really not convenient, short of that,
you know, losing your mind for seven years
is one of the worst things that could happen.
And yet it was a blessing,
because God ends up using this to ultimately lead
to Nebuchadnezzar's conversion and ultimately into him,
you know, I believe being saved,
worshiping the true God, believing in the true God,
obviously can't really be 100% dogmatic on that,
but it appears that Nebuchadnezzar got saved.
That's what I believe.
And so therefore this was actually a blessing in a sense,
because it got him right.
And so Nebuchadnezzar had this prideful,
arrogant attitude and God brought him down a notch.
And then he was ready to receive the truth.
He was ready to be humble in the sight of God.
And of course, being saved not only requires acknowledgement
of the one true God, but it also requires the humility
of accepting his free gift of salvation,
as opposed to believing that you somehow
on your own merits can earn your way into heaven
through your own righteousness or keeping the law
or turning from your sins or turning
from your sinful lifestyle and becoming a good person
or some kind of a garbage like that.
There's a false gospel because none of that,
that's filthy rags, my friend.
Jesus saves.
And so we see here that he has this attitude
that I have built great Babylon by the might of my power
and for the honor of my majesty.
But that's not really true because actually God lifted
up Nebuchadnezzar for his purposes.
God used Nebuchadnezzar to judge the children of Israel.
That was his plan.
And not only did he use Nebuchadnezzar
to judge the children of Israel,
if you study the books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
he also used Nebuchadnezzar to punish
a whole bunch of other nations too.
And we have all those oracles in Isaiah,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, especially Jeremiah about Babylon
coming to punish even other nations.
And so God used Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar for his purposes.
It wasn't just that Nebuchadnezzar was just that smart
and that great of a leader.
No, because God actually lifts up sometimes the basis of man.
Look at verse 17.
This matter is by the decree of the watchers
and the demand by the word of the holy ones
to the intent that the living may know
that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of man
and giveth it to whomsoever he will
and seteth up over it the basest of man.
He sets up over it the basest of men.
I mean, Joe Biden's proof of that, amen?
He sometimes allows some bozos to be in charge.
It's not necessarily the smartest guy,
the guy with the most charisma,
the guy with the most talent,
but often God will allow the basest people of this world
to get in positions of power just for his purpose,
for his honor and glory.
Now, I don't know if God had some special purpose
why creepy Uncle Joe became our president
or whether that's just our own wickedness as a nation
that brought that upon ourselves.
I don't believe this teaching that says
that God picks every single leader.
That is a misinterpretation of scripture.
And I could prove that from the Bible
and I have in other sermons,
but God, he lifts up one and puts down another.
He has the ability to do that.
He sometimes does that,
but he's not sitting there picking every weirdo
in that Congress, okay?
Because the Bible even,
here's a great verse in Hosea where it says,
well, they set up kings, but not by me.
You know, I mean, is God gonna handpick the Antichrist
and put the Antichrist in power?
That's stupid.
Cause the Bible says the dragon gave him his power.
The dragon gave him his seat.
The dragon gave him great authority.
That's Satan.
So don't tell me that God is the one
who inaugurates every leader.
He's not gonna inaugurate the Antichrist.
He's not the one who chose the Antichrist.
No, but God does often raise up certain people
for certain purposes.
And it doesn't mean that they're good.
It doesn't mean that they're cool.
It doesn't mean that they're righteous.
It doesn't mean that they're the best.
It just means that God has a plan.
And so ultimately all things work together for good
to them that love God.
And so I believe that even the presidents that we have,
that we look at and say, what in the world?
I believe that ultimately,
Barack Obama and Donald Trump and Joe Biden,
them being president is ultimately gonna work together
for my good as a born again, child of God.
So at the end of the day, whoever gets elected in 2024,
whether it's someone conservative or liberal,
whether it's some total socialist weirdo
or some super hard leftist,
or whether it's some godly Christian conservative,
which I don't know if that exists in politics
at that level.
But the thing is at the end of the day,
I'm not worried about it for one second
because I know that whatever it is,
it's gonna work together for good for me.
People that don't love God, nuts to them.
If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema maranatha.
That's a Bible verse by the way.
So don't act like, well, there you say nuts
to people who don't love God.
I said nuts to people who don't love God.
I said nuts to people who don't love Jesus Christ.
Nuts to them.
They're doomed.
Hey, all I care about is are things gonna work together
for good for those who love God?
And the answer is every single time.
No matter who gets elected, we're gonna be okay.
We're gonna do great.
It's gonna be awesome.
I don't care.
Look, you say, well, how in the world
could God putting the basis of men
at the presidency of the United States,
how is that gonna help us?
I didn't say it's gonna help our country.
I didn't say it's necessarily gonna help the economy.
I didn't say it's gonna help our morality in this nation,
but you know what?
It's gonna work together for good for me
and for you because we love God.
And at the end of the day, isn't that what matters?
Because if any man loved not our Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema maranatha nuts to him.
Right?
He doesn't matter.
Now, if he gets saved, he can start mattering.
Anybody who wants to can matter by getting saved.
By getting saved.
People who don't get saved ultimately don't matter.
That's why ultimately they get thrown
in a great big trash can called hell.
If they mattered, then they wouldn't get thrown away.
Now, obviously they matter to Jesus enough
for him to die for them.
But guess what?
If they don't get saved and if they persist
in that unbelief, they don't matter.
And that's why ultimately they're not part of his plan.
And ultimately they get discarded.
And you know what God compares that to, by the way?
He compares it to a net that's cast into the sea.
And that net, so don't act like I'm making stuff up here
because this is all straight out of the Bible.
A net cast into the sea and it gathers up all kinds of stuff.
I mean, if you throw a net in the sea,
guess what's going to be in it?
Good stuff.
Fish, shells, whatever, you know, trinkets, treasures.
But there's also going to be a lot of trash.
You think that trash in the ocean is a modern phenomena?
Well, apparently even in Jesus' day,
there was trash in the ocean.
People were littering even in Jesus' day.
People have always been litter bugs ever since,
you know, a man sinned in the Garden of Eden.
Cain probably littered all over east of Eden, you know?
It's probably just throwing his trash everywhere, stinking Cain.
Okay.
But here's the thing.
You know, the net's full of things that are good and bad.
You know, things that, I mean, think about it.
If you throw a net in the sea, you're going to get some cool stuff, right?
You're going to get like some fish that can be eaten.
You're going to get some cool shells, some cool animals, some cool stuff, whatever.
But you're also just going to get like those little things that hold a six-pack together.
Is that even still a thing?
Do they still sell six-packs of soda like that in the little plastic things?
They're different?
I got to check that out.
I'm not familiar with that.
Okay.
Is it safer for the birds?
Is it safer for the fish?
I don't know.
But the point is that, you know, you're going to find that kind of stuff too, right?
Just trash and junk and worthless stuff.
And so he says that, you know, when you throw that net into the sea, you bring it
ashore and you go through it and you gather the good into vessels, right?
You got your keep pile and your throwaway pile.
And you gather the good into vessels and cast the bad out of the way.
The Bible says that's how it's going to be in the end of the world.
Okay.
That basically the trash that gets discarded, God's going to gather out of his kingdom,
all things that offend and those which do iniquity and shall cast them into a
furnace of fire.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
That's what the Bible says.
Okay.
So ultimately unsaved people are going to hell.
And so whatever happens to them on this world is not even that relevant compared to their
eternity in hell.
Am I right?
Therefore, whatever happens to them on this earth happens to them because if they're
going to hell, whatever happens to them on this earth isn't that bad anyway compared
to where they're going.
And when it comes to those of us that are saved, that love God, all things work together
for good for those that love God.
So who cares who gets elected?
Well, how can it work together for me for good?
Well, here's the thing.
You know, I feel like as our country gets weirder and as we have presidents and leaders
and senators that promote all kinds of filth and immorality because let's face it,
friends, the left in this country pretty much worshiped Satan at this point.
You know what I mean?
Sorry, but they kind of do.
You kind of have to be satanic almost to even be liberal right now, to be a Democrat right
now, because the Democrats are for like murdering babies.
They're for homos.
They're for all kinds of just transvestites and weird stuff.
I mean, and they're pretty much like anti-Christian at this point, you know.
But here's the thing.
When people like that get elected, when people like that get in power, these super
wicked people, you know what it does?
It actually causes Christians to wake up.
And I feel like having Democrats, liberals, godless type people in office, I feel like
it actually helped our church grow because basically all the people who kind of felt
like Faithful Word Baptist was like a little too radical.
When our country gets this weird, they're like, now what was Pastor Anderson saying
again?
All of a sudden, Pastor Anderson doesn't sound crazy anymore.
You know, it's like, you know, you go, you back up to when I first started preaching
and people are like, oh, this guy's crazy, you know, over the top radical.
But now people are kind of like, yeah, that's about right.
Now they listen to my sermons about the sodomites and they're like, yeah.
That's spot on.
There we are.
See what I'm saying?
So you can see how God can use these things for good.
And then maybe they'll make some libtard policy that messes up the economy.
But sometimes it'll still put a fat check into the pockets of all the big families
with all the stimulus, you know, before the hyperinflation takes over.
At least, you know, we got extra stimulus for being fruitful and multiplying.
Amen.
So the point is that ultimately, God is the one who gave anyone on this world who has
any power.
He either gave them that power or he at least allowed them to have that power.
And it doesn't necessarily mean that they're great.
Even the Antichrist who's put in power by Satan.
God is still allowing that to happen.
He's still sitting back and letting that happen ultimately for his own purpose.
A guy like Pharaoh is raised up so that God can take him down.
The Antichrist is allowed to rise up so that God can take him down and be glorified.
And so therefore, we see that, you know, all of these things that are happening
in this world, you know, God can use these things for his honor and glory.
And so if you ever find yourself thriving, flourishing, doing well, prospering,
you better realize that it's not because you're so great and you're so wonderful and
you're so much better and smarter.
You know what it is?
It's the grace of God.
It's God's mercy that has allowed you to be where you are or even put you where you
are, or at least allowed you to be where you are.
And you know, you should fear and tremble before the God who lifted you up and the
God who can take you down.
And the Bible says that if you're prideful, you will be abased.
But if you humble yourself, you will be exalted.
And so I feel like the biggest takeaway from Daniel chapter four, as I look at this
is don't ever have this attitude that Nebuchadnezzar had that says, well, I did this myself.
And, you know, I've even I've even heard Christians say things like this, even to my
face, where I said to somebody, Hey, God gave you everything you have.
I mean, God has really blessed you.
Wow, you're really blessed by God.
Look at what you're doing financially.
Isn't it amazing how God's bless you?
And I just said it in a friendly way, a kind way.
I wasn't trying to make some point or anything.
I was just like, you know, I mean, we as Christians, isn't that just we say stuff
like that, right?
We see a fellow Christian thriving and being blessed.
And so we might say something like, man, God's really blessing you.
You know, sometimes when I've seen somebody, and they're way younger than I think, I've
said to them, man, God's really keeping you young.
Right?
God's keeping you young.
God's keeping you healthy.
Man, God's really blessing you.
I mean, isn't that just a natural reaction when we see God's people being blessed?
But I've had somebody say, I've said to somebody, you know, hey, God's really blessing you,
and had them say something along the lines of like, well, I don't think it's necessarily
God.
It's just that I worked hard.
I mean, that's a scary thing to say, am I right?
And by the way, you know, one of the works of the flesh that Christians can commit
is blasphemy.
Am I right?
I mean, that's listed as one of the works of the flesh.
In Galatians chapter five, if we walk in the flesh, one of those sins that we can
commit is blasphemy.
And by the way, that's blasphemous to say things like that, to basically to say
things like God's not involved, God seeth not.
I mean, these are things that the Bible specifically warns.
Don't say this.
Don't say that God's not watching.
Don't say that God seeth not.
Don't say that you did this by yourself.
Don't, you know, give God the glory.
I mean, what if I said to somebody, man, God's really keeping you young.
And they said, well, God has nothing to do with it.
It's just my diet.
It's my skin cream is my healthy lifestyle.
I'm staying out of the sun or whatever, which I go in the sun as much as I can.
Amen.
But, you know, I'm going to give God the glory if, you know, if I achieve anything,
if I'm blessed by anything, man, I'm just going to give God all the glory.
And you should be scared to death to say something like, well, I got here by working
hard, not necessarily by the blessing of God.
I don't know how God, how involved God even is in my life.
Well, you may not know how involved God is in your life.
I believe you that you don't know because I don't always know exactly what God's doing
in my life either.
Usually looking back, it makes sense, but at the time you don't always know.
But you know, here's what you do know that every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above and that anything good that's going in our life, God is the one who allowed
that and the hairs of our head are numbered.
So whether he's necessarily involved super directly or not, he could be involved whenever
he wants.
And anything good that's happening is from the hand of God and God could take it away
in a moment.
And so you are very foolish to ever not give God the glory in your life.
Always give God the glory with your lips, but especially in your heart.
You know, I don't even think that Nebuchadnezzar is necessarily even saying this to another
person.
I mean, he walked in the palace of the king of Babel.
I mean, maybe he's saying it to other people, but maybe he's just saying it to himself.
I think the point is that this is what he thinks.
This is how he feels.
And so don't ever even feel this way.
Don't ever even think this way.
Always acknowledge God.
Give him the glory.
It is God that gives you the power to get wealth.
Deuteronomy.
It is God who holds your breath in his hand.
It is God who gives every good gift and every perfect gift.
Anybody gives me a gift.
I thank the person who gave me the gift, but I'm also even thanking God even more.
Say, well, hey, you don't give God the credit for what I gave you.
Yes, I will.
If you give me stuff, I'm going to thank God.
Not saying I'm not going to thank you, but I'm going to thank God first and foremost,
because ultimately God is the one who allowed you to be in my life to give me that gift.
And so it came from God.
Uh, any success I had at my job back when I worked a secular job,
it wasn't just because I was smart or talented or effective.
It was because God blessed me because you know what?
There were some days that God didn't bless me and things went very poorly.
And it doesn't matter how smart you think you are.
You can have problems at your job.
You can lose everything.
Even a righteous man like Job could lose everything.
From one day to the next.
And so can you.
So you better be fearing and trembling before God and thanking God every single day.
And don't ever get this attitude, because even if God loves you,
even if God cares about you, even if you're a child of God,
which means that God loves and cares about you and you're a saved child of God,
you're born again, you could never lose your salvation.
You've been passed from death to life.
God could still mess you up on this earth.
God doesn't just send people to hell.
He has other ways of hurting you.
I can never go to hell because I'm saved and nothing can ever change that.
But God has other ways of hurting me.
And so I don't want to get filled with pride no matter what.
I want to stay humble no matter what.
Let's borrow this enough.
Word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Thank you for this great chapter.
And I pray that these things would sink down into our ears, Lord.
First of all, I pray that we would have the confidence
that our Bible today is absolute truth and that the King James Bible
that we hold in our hand is the word of God without error.
And Lord, also that we would learn from it to be humble
and to always give thanks, Lord.
It's Thanksgiving week.
Help us to be thankful.
Help us not to get this unthankful attitude that refuses to give you the glory.
And in Jesus name we pray.
Amen.