4 Daniel chapter 4 in the Bible reads Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all people
nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied unto you I
thought it good to show these 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 therefore made I a decree to bring in
all the wise men of Babylon before me 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 Belt Shazar according to the name
of my God and whom is the spirit of my holy gods and before him I told the
dream saying Oh Belt Shazar master of the magicians because I know that the
spirit of the holy gods is in thee and no secret trouble at thee tell me
the visions of my dream that I've seen and the interpretation thereof thus
were the visions of mine head in my bed I saw and behold a tree in the
midst of the earth and height thereof was great the tree grew and was strong
and height thereof reached unto the heaven and sight thereof to the end of
all the earth the leaves thereof were fair and the fruit thereof much and then
it was meat for all 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 unholy one came down from heaven and cried aloud and said thus hew down
the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatters fruit
lest the beast get away from under it and the fowls from his branches
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 and let a beast heart be
given unto him and let seven times pass over him 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 men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and seteth up over
it the beasts of men the basis of men this dream I Nebuchadnezzar have seen
now thou O Belshazzar declared the interpretation thereof for as much as
all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the
interpretation but thou art able for the spirit of the holy gods is in
thee then Daniel whose name was Belshazzar was Astani for one hour and
his thoughts troubled him the king spake and said Belshazzar let not the
dream or the interpretation thereof trouble thee Belshazzar answered and said my
lord the dream be to them that hate thee and the interpretation thereof to
thine enemies the tree that thou sawest which grew and was strong whose
height reached unto the heaven and the site thereof to all the earth whose
leaves are fair and the fruit thereof much and in it was meat for
all under which the beasts of the field dwelt and upon his branches the
fowls of the heaven had their habitation it is thou O king that art
grown and become strong for thy greatness is grown and reached unto
heaven and that dominion to the end of the earth and whereas the king saw
watcher and a holy one coming down from heaven and saying hue the tree down
and destroy it yet leave the stump of the roots thereof 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 of
the field till seven times pass over him this is the interpretation O king
and this is a decree of the Most High which has come upon my lord the
king 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 an 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 which
given 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 thine sins by righteousness and
that iniquities by showing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of
thy tranquility let this came all this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar at the
end of 12 months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon and
the king spake and said is not this great Babylon that I've built for
the house of the kingdom by the power of my power and for the honor of
my majesty while the word was in the king's mouth their fellow voice from
heaven saying O king Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is
departed from thee and they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be
with the beasts of the field they shall make thee to eat grasses 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 whomsoever he will same hour was
the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did
eat grasses oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs
were grown like eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws and at the
end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes into heaven and my
understanding returned unto me and I blessed the Most High and 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 why do 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 extoll the honor the king of heaven all whose
works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in his pride in
pride he is able to abase let's pray dear Lord God thank you for this
church you've given us Lord I just pray that you bless pastor right now
as he preaches out of your word Lord and fill him with the Holy Spirit
Lord and just give us in the congregation ears to hear your message
that our pastors prepared for us tonight Lord we pray this all in Jesus name
amen amen okay we're in Daniel chapter 4 this evening look down at verse 25 it
says 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 they
shall wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times referring to
seven years 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 the time of
my sermon this evening is the humbling of Kings the humbling of Kings I want
to go over some of the Kings in the Bible who God dealt harshly with and
humbled greatly and it really caused them to reflect upon it change
their ways and God ended up using them in a great way and really what I
want to talk about this evening is the value of humility what humility can
do for you if you humble yourself in the eyes of the Lord and for lack of a
better way of saying of what humility can buy you okay the type of blessing
that can come upon you if you just decide to humble yourself in the eyes
of God and I think these kings that we're gonna look at this evening are
perfect examples of this principle let me read to you from 1st Peter
chapter 5 and verse number 5 says likewise ye younger submit yourselves
unto the elder yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed
with humility for God resisted the proud and giveth grace unto the humble humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in
due time so the Bible is very clear in the New Testament that in order for
God to bless us to exalt us to honor us to show favor on us you know
we need to be clothed with humility right almost as if you're gonna put a
garment upon your body God says that's exactly how I want you to put on
humility don't be a proud person don't be an arrogant individual don't be a
person that cannot be corrected or is unwilling to humble themselves under
the hand of God Jesus said in Luke 18 verse 14 I tell you this man went
down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that
exalted himself shall be a base in other words to be brought down low
right and he that humblest himself shall be exalted Psalm 75 and verse
number five says this lift not lift not up your horn on high speak not with
a stiff neck now the horn in the Bible is often referring to authority
okay you think of end times prophecy in the book of Daniel that talks about
that little horn it's referring to that authority that power and God is
saying here don't lift up your horn on high don't speak with a stiff neck don't
make yourself proud or arrogant or try to exalt yourself above the people he
says for promotion listen to this cometh neither from the east nor from the
West nor from the south but God is the judge he put it down one and
saideth up another the Bible tells us so it's specifically telling us that
you know no matter what arena you're in this could be at your job this
could be in a church setting this can be with your family or friends this can
be in any area in your life the Bible's telling us that any kind of promotion
that you are looking for actually comes from God it's God who exalts you
it's God who gives you that raise it's God who promotes you to honor and
majesty as we're gonna see with Nebuchadnezzar let me read you one
more verse here from 2nd Samuel chapter 23 and verse 1 these are the words
of David it says David the son of Jesse said and the men who was raised up
on high the anointed of God of Jacob the and the sweet psalmist of Israel
said the Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the
God of Israel said the rock of Israel spake to me he that ruleth over
men must be just ruling in the fear of God and this is obviously an
admonition to those who are gonna rule after him and he's telling them you
know if God gives you the opportunity to rule over a group of people to rule
over a nation to rule over people spiritually or politically you got to
make sure that you're ruling in the fear of God in other words be humble
understand that God is ultimately your authority you're gonna have to
account to God give an account to God for your actions and when we think
about humility and respect to leaders it's so much more important for them
and particularly Kings right why is that well because if you're a king
you're like the man okay you're like the most important person of the land no
one's gonna tell you what to do you're telling everyone else what to do you
pretty much can have anything you want you can make any type of decree
so it takes a great amount of humility to not become wicked with all
that power that's a lot of power it's a lot of influence that is a lot of a
responsibility that someone carries when being a king and so it's important
that the people who are placed in that type of position must have the virtue of
humility so as to not think themselves more highly than they ought to think
but obviously if you've read the Bible you've read the Old Testament you
see that many people were not able to actually have this virtue you know
Saul being the first king of Israel he blew it became prideful began doing
a bunch of wicked stuff and he paid the consequence because of it you know
but others did well right they were exalted to positions of authority King
David for example and he followed the Lord wholeheartedly behaved himself in a
wise manner but I'm gonna look through some of these kings this
evening and just learn some lessons from them now the first King that we're
gonna look at tonight is actually a king who's not a king in Israel okay
he's kind of like a wild card but the reason I want to highlight him is
because God actually liked this King afterwards and in fact to a point he
even called him his servant and the king that I'm referring to is Nebuchadnezzar
who's not a king in Israel he's not a king of Judah he is not an Israelite
he's a Babylonian but yet King Nebuchadnezzar is such an important
character in the Old Testament I mean many chapters are dedicated to
talking about Nebuchadnezzar and in the book of Daniel you have him in
the Chronicles you have him in the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah mentioning
King Nebuchadnezzar and his descendants but we're gonna look at the
beginning stages of his reign and how God used him to chastise his people and
the lesson we're gonna learn from him tonight is that sometimes God has to
abase you in order to use you okay he has to humble you greatly before he
can legitimately use you now you're in Daniel chapter 4 go to Daniel chapter 2
hold your place there in chapter 4 we're gonna come back to that in just a
bit now in Daniel chapter 2 obviously we're dealing with the Babylonian
captivity many of the children have been taken captive and you have many of
the children being essentially recruited to become Babylonians they're
taught the language of the Chaldees and they want to essentially educate
them in the ways of the Babylonians to make them Babylonians themselves and
so you have a lot of these Israelites who've been taken captive and kind of
grown up in Babylon right well God ends up sending a dream to King
Nebuchadnezzar and it's a really important dream I mean it's a dream
regarding end times prophecy but more specifically the world empires that
will lead up to that ultimate world empire known as the New World Order
okay and he you know he's obviously talking about Babylon the Medes and the
Persians he's talking about the Grecian Empire he's talking about the Roman
Empire so this dream that he gives was just an incredible dream right and of
course King Nebuchadnezzar wakes up he doesn't know the dream he wants people
to interpret it we were we talked about that this morning he asked for
all the astrologers the magicians they could interpret it Daniel comes in
he just explains it right away he's it not right away but he's able to
pray about it God gives him the interpretation look at verse 47 or
verse 46 excuse me then the King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face
and worshiped God no actually he worshiped Daniel and commanded that they
should offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him King answered unto
Daniel and said of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods and a
Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets seen thou couldest reveal this
secret then the King made Daniel a great man and gave him many gifts many
great gifts that made him rule over the whole province of Babylon and chief
of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon so you know Nebuchadnezzar
finally realizes that the one responsible for giving him this dream
is the ultimate God the one who is supreme over all deities and Lords but
yet he still doesn't come to the conclusion that this is his God right
or that it should be his his God and in fact he worships Daniel because of
it he says oh your God is great and you know many people myself included
believe that Nebuchadnezzar did get saved and I'm not really dogmatic about
that because we just don't know 100% and I don't really care because when I
go to heaven I'm not gonna be looking for like Nebuchadnezzar you
know like where's yeah you know I knew you were here really doesn't matter
but I think personally think he was I just don't think he was saved as of
yet at this point okay even though he's recognizing the God of the Bible as
being the one responsible for giving him this supernatural dream which by
the way you know this is just further proof that just because someone talks
about God doesn't make them a believer okay and we should never come to the
conclusion just because some celebrity or some politician talks about
God that automatically that makes them a fundamental Baptist Christian they
believe in the right salvation or something like that because they said
Yahushua or something you know they said Jesus they said they prayed they
said they believe in God you know people want these individuals to be
saved but you know many of the times they're not and so just because people
mention God doesn't mean they're saved and here's a perfect example he said
well how do you know that at this point Nebuchadnezzar was not saved well
because you know he gets the interpretation of the dream it's a
very important dream and obviously what the dream is about is the world
empires being you know the head of gold you have the chest and arms of
brass you have the belly and thighs of what is it gold and then you have the
feet of clay and iron and then he tells them like you're the head of gold
and it's like the only part that King Nebuchadnezzar is even concerned
with like everything else is important though you know what I mean like cuz
it's talking about these world empires but the only thing he cares about is
the head of gold because he says thou King Nebuchadnezzar art the head of
gold now you know if you're in the King Nebuchadnezzar if I was King Nebuchadnezzar
we'd think to ourselves man this is like really important this is
highlighting something in the end times you know we should convert to the
religion of of the Israelites but what does King Nebuchadnezzar do instead in
chapter 3 he makes an image of himself he the dream inspires him to make this
idolatrous image of himself he's just like say less I know what this means I'm
gonna make an entire image of gold and everyone's gonna bow down to it so he
makes this huge image of himself which is obviously a picture of the
abomination of desolation and he institutes this decree that says
whenever you hear these six instruments playing okay the sack bud and all
these other weird instruments he says when you hear these things play
everyone has to stop what they're doing and just bow down to the image okay
it's just like you missed the memo on what the purpose of this dream was
supposed to be about he's literally inspired to commit idolatry instead so
you know I think it's safe to say this guy probably wasn't safe at this
point and you know it's the famous story in Daniel chapter 3 where
everyone's bowing down except for Meshach Shadrach and Abednego and we don't
know what happened to Daniel during this time but I would assume that he
probably didn't bow down but he's probably he's probably given a little
bit of leeway here because he's important so he doesn't have to
participate but his friends are expected to and they don't want to bow
down and of course you had that whole discourse there they're thrown into the
fiery furnace it's turned up seven times hotter than what it usually is
and unsaved King Nebuchadnezzar says the fourth is like unto the Son of
God he sees a fourth man in the furnace and he says he's like unto the Son of
God now that's important right why because even unsaved people know that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God okay and you know you have people who can't
even who claim to be Christian who can't even come to that conclusion you
know they reject the eternal sonship of Christ and here we are you know BC
during the time of the Babylonian captivity you have this unsaved King
who's making an image of himself for people to bow down and worship and yet
even he knows and recognizes this the fourth is like unto the Son of God
okay but yet still I don't believe he saved at that point he just
recognizes this well you know God didn't take this very lightly he
wasn't happy about that because the dream was given to him in order to do
something about it spiritual to really convert him but instead he makes this
image so now in chapter 4 he decrees judgment on King Nebuchadnezzar gives
him another dream okay but this dream is not necessarily for him it's
for his enemies but he wants King Nebuchadnezzar to know about the
dream to basically know that I'm gonna judge you okay look at verse 17 if you
would have Daniel chapter 4 it says thus were the visions of my head in my
bed I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth and the height
thereof was great the tree grew was strong and the height thereof reached
into 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 the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowls of the
heaven dwelt in the bows thereof and all flesh was fed of it so
basically he's having this vision of this large tree what the tree
pictures is King Nebuchadnezzar okay and the representation is symbolic
nature behind this tree is the fact that this tree is so massive as
Dominion over its particular area well in like manner King Nebuchadnezzar is
essentially a man who has a lot of Dominion over the geographical area
that he's in he's very important it says in verse 14 he cried a lot and
said thus hew down the tree cut off his branches shake off his leaves and
scatter his fruit let the beast get away from under it and the fowls from
his branches nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth even with
the 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 beast in 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 so what's
being taken what's taking place here he's saying look we're gonna cut down
this tree cut him down to size but we're not just gonna uproot the tree
it's not gonna be plucked up by the roots right it's not gonna be twice
a stump shall be left there in and he's saying that the heart of a beast is
gonna be given to it right and he says that seven times shall pass over
meaning seven years shall pass before this particular tree will grow
once again to become a legitimate tree and God will reinstate him back
to his original authority as being King now he doesn't know this
interpretation so he's explaining this and and of course or excuse me
Daniel's explaining this and then he gives him the interpretation he's
basically telling like you're this tree this vision is for your enemies
God's gonna punish you he's gonna chastise you he's gonna leave a stump
but you're gonna be you're gonna be chastised and punished for seven years
why because of his pride and God is gonna use him in the future but in
order for God to legitimately use Nebuchadnezzar as his servant as it
says in Jeremiah he's got a humble him okay now one of the reasons I like
Nebuchadnezzar is because God likes Nebuchadnezzar later on and he uses him
to whoop Israel amen you know what I mean he's using them to like chastise
Israel and to chastise these Jews and you know God is favoring him and
he's saying this is my servant who I'm using to chastise you look at verse
27 of chapter 4 wherefore O king after he gives him this vision he says
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 he says look based upon this vision
here's my advice to you you know what you need to do is make sure that
if you don't want this to happen to you you need to run the kingdom more
righteously you need to show mercy to the poor and by the way I don't
think he's talking about salvation at all this has nothing to do with the
salvation of Nebuchadnezzar and him getting saved this has to do with him
ruling righteously okay because God is dealing with a magistrate dealing with
the king and he wants him whether he's a believer or not to run the kingdom in a
righteous manner oh but he doesn't have it doesn't matter if he doesn't
have the Word of God I mean he's getting the Word of God right now he's
giving him the warning look this is what you're supposed to do whether
you're saved or not you know cuz God's not gonna impose salvation on any
person he's not gonna impose salvation on any magistrate but regardless of that
he expects men to be just he expects them to be righteous he expects them to
be to have equity and to even fear God yes because even unsafe people fear God
like you should meet the bare minimum requirements of just that you
understand so this is why Daniel's not saying hey believe on the Lord what is
he's gonna break you off your sins by righteousness
thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor and it may be a lengthening of
thy tranquility all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar so you know you
would think Nebuchadnezzar after he hears this he's like well Daniel was
right about the first one he's rather you must be right about this one so
all right well let's just start you know exercising righteousness in the
land let's stop worshiping false gods let's be just let's take care of the
poor and the widows and the strangers and the afflicted let's rule in the fear
of God but no look at verse 29 at the end of 12 months he walked in the
palace of the king of Babylon 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 so let me
just take a break real quick and just show you how merciful God is okay at the
end of 12 months so God gave him an entire 12 month you know a year to
kind of like think about it right gives him this vision it's just like
I'll give you 12 months to think about this now just keep in mind you
know you maybe you're in the tenth month and you're not right with God
yet maybe you're in the sixth month well the 12 month is right around the
corner understand what I'm saying and don't mistake God not doing anything
immediately for him just not willing to take care of business when it needs to
be taken care of it's called the long-suffering of God it's called the
fact that he's being merciful and gracious to you he's giving you listen
to this space to repent he's giving you time to mull it over a little bit to
think about it because this dream was given to him a year ago and you know in
the mind of Nebuchadnezzar he's probably thinking in six months nothing's
happened yeah I'm good to go you know forget the poor you know just
keep living like a Babylonian living wickedly oh but hold on a second the
12th month is right around the corner though so on the 12th month a year
after and the year anniversary of the dream he goes into the can just
begins to just mouth off and boast of his so-called you know
accomplishments claiming that he's the reason why Babylon is great what is this
is pride arrogance see he's exalting himself but as we read in the as I
quoted in the prior verses you know it's God who gives that promotion
though so you know Nebuchadnezzar should have said you know isn't this
Babylon great because God has made it great you know isn't all this that
which the Lord has done and all the majesty and honor comes from God no
he's accrediting the success of Babylon to himself look at verse number 31 while
the word was in the king's mouth he's about to utter like some other stupid
thing right because he's like for the honor of my majesty and he's just
like their fellow voice from heaven saying so he's not even gonna send a
prophet at this point he's like I'm gonna talk to you directly Oh King
Nebuchadnezzar to be it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee and they
shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be the beast of the
field and 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 the
hair his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like birds claws
now let me just mention something real quick I don't believe he turned into an
animal I think that's important to know because people believe that that
he like just like he just became like a bird it's giving us this
depiction of how you know wild he became because he's essentially someone
who just basically lost his mind God made him go crazy he sent him a
strong delusion and when it says that his hairs were grown like eagles
feathers it basically means he didn't get a haircut so his hair is just
really grown it's very lengthy and it says that his nails were like birds
claws how many have ever seen videos of women here know where I'm going with
this who like let their nails grow and they're like it just curls you know
you it's disgusting yes and they actually get a painted and stuff like
you guys ever seen that it looks like I don't know like some like crustacean or
something like some ocean crustacean or something it just looks disgusting
right and some of them been growing it out for like 10 years or whatever
well you know he's not cutting his nails for seven years so yeah you
could say I guess like bird claws or something you know because they're
curling it's just long and he's in the field eating grass as oxen and
this is actually something that can legitimately be observed when some
people lose their minds they start eating grass like animals because they
just completely lose their mind and I think it I believe it's just a strong
delusion that God sends to people or he just you know flips the switch in
someone's mind and then they just behave like a wild person okay now this
is very embarrassing because when it's saying here that he's driven from men
it means that he started acting crazy in his palace to the point where his men
are just like get this guy out of here you know he's probably acting like an
animal he's getting all crazy so he is the most important man in the land
this is the supreme ruler of the land and all of a sudden he's a base
to acting and behaving like an animal now you say well why did God do that
because Nebuchadnezzar was prideful that's why and I don't think you
understand how prideful he was you said how prideful was he well put it this
way it took seven years to humble him think about that it's not like all
week not like a day not like a month not like a few months it took
seven years to humble King Nebuchadnezzar to bring him to a point
where he realizes like okay I submit now this is not the point of this
particular point but let me say this is that you know sometimes we wonder why
hasn't God chastised this person in my life or this person that I know you
know why is God letting him get away with it you know some people are
just prideful and arrogant and you know sometimes God is long-suffering and
he's patient with people and sometimes it takes years to humble them why
why doesn't God just strike him dead now well because maybe God in his
foreknowledge knows how long it takes to humble someone and he needs to
bring them to a point where they realize like okay I'm done I yield I
yield right with King Nebuchadnezzar took seven years let me ask you this
how long will it take God to humble you for you know if you're so
stiff-necked if you are a prideful arrogant stiff-necked individual you're
just not willing to listen will it take seven years for God to just
chastise you and punish you to get you to a point where you realize I yield
I'm wrong God you're right I should have changed a long time ago but thank
God that he was merciful to King Nebuchadnezzar and you think to
yourself like or you think of Nebuchadnezzar and the fact that you
know he was taken in one hour from being the most important person to
living like an animal of the field like how can that even be restored but
you know God can do that though and in fact look at verse 34 it says at the
end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up my knives into 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 this is one of
the reasons why I think that like God actually really liked Nebuchadnezzar
because if Nebuchadnezzar was just like a wicked reprobate he could have
just left him in that state got another ruler to take over and take over
Babylon and that's it but he's like purging Nebuchadnezzar so obviously
God can see into the heart of Nebuchadnezzar he sees what's really
there he's just dealing with the arrogant prideful person and it came to
a point where he's just like you know what it's God God is the God of
heaven and he blessed the Most High God verse 35 says and all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth and none can
stay his hand or say to him what doest thou at the same time my reason
returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom my 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
that's powerful that kind of shows me that God did favor Nebuchadnezzar
because not only did he humble him which by the way you know he
chastises people who whom he loveth he chasteneth right but even aside
from that he like restores him and even adds more majesty to him once he's
restored as the king I mean the only other person I can think of that he did
that to was who? Job. Where he took everything from Job but then you know
Job's ladder in was like better than his beginning like God added more
into him because he humbled him so greatly and so this is a great lesson
for us as Christians that you know what sometimes in order for God to exalt us
at our job in order for him to exalt us in front of others and use us he has to
bring us down pretty low but it's all based upon how prideful and arrogant
you can get and you know what I'm prideful I get prideful because I'm a
human being I'm sinful I just don't want it to take seven years to humble
me though so I think as Christians what we need to do is just shorten
that that span of time that God has to humble us for right if God is
chastised I mean I think if Nebuchadnezzar is being chastised you know he's
like eating grass he could easily just be like I'm sorry you know it was your
glory you did this but obviously he's not because at any time based upon the
divine nature of God we know that once we turn unto the Lord he restores us
immediately and it's all based upon you so Nebuchadnezzar took him seven
years to do that now verse 37 is one of the reasons I believe Nebuchadnezzar
was saved says 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 now obviously it's speculation we don't
know at best at least he recognizes the God of the Bible as being the true
God recognizing that that is the God who essentially placed him in his
position of authority and he wants to rule according to the dictates of God's
word I mean that's good enough for a king understand and so and of course in
Jeremiah 27 it's I mean God literally calls Nebuchadnezzar his servant all
right now go to 1st Kings chapter 21 1st Kings chapter 21 1st Kings chapter 21
the first point that I'm making here with King Nebuchadnezzar is the fact
that you know in order for God to use you to help you to win many people to
Christ to do great exploits for the Lord to receive that promotion the one
of the most important virtues that you can learn is humility be humble don't
think so highly of yourself hey if God has enabled you or endowed you
with skill and gifts and abilities and capabilities you know make sure you
deflect the praise unto God make sure you give God the credit give God the
honor if God has endowed you with knowledge certain people are just are
smart you know they just have knowledge they have wisdom they have
physical prowess you know there's certain things that people just have
innately so to speak they just are able to learn faster they get
stronger faster you know just different qualities that a person can
have make sure you deflect the praise unto God and never just accredit
yourself for being successful in that area you know no you're not built
differently you're built like every other human being with flaws and at any
time God can send you in the field to eat grass like a vegetarian okay and
you know make your hair grow so it'll be a shame unto you make your nails
grow so you look like an animal and a beast and shame you to a base you to
bring you to that realization so you know no Christian should ever say you
know I'm just built different because at the end of the day we are as
workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God at the fore
name that we should walk in them yes we're fearfully and wonderfully made
but you know what don't take that too far though okay the creator is the
one who should be accredited for whatever gifts that we have and you
better be using them for the Lord too and so you know I don't want to be a
King Nebuchadnezzar I want to make sure that if I am able to accomplish any
great things in my life which I hope to and I believe that I will I believe
that our church myself you will accomplish great things in this lifetime
we just got to make sure that we're constantly crediting God and others
for those successes and never just say you know it's by my might and my
power you know my majesty look at this great whatever that I've built look at
my souls I've won look at me people I've discipled look at me great things
that I've accomplished Oh chill out King Nebuchadnezzar before God has to
humble you and make you like a beast of the field make you make you a
vegetarian calm down before God makes you a vegetarian it's an insult okay
the second King that we're gonna look at tonight is King Ahab okay now if
you've read your Bible for any length of time especially the Old Testament
that should just immediately ring a bell to you and you're just like King Ahab
is just a piece of crap that guy is like one of the worst kings of the
northern kingdom of Israel and there's a lot in the Bible to be said of King
Ahab and most of it if not all of it is just not good the guy's just the
worst example of a king ever okay he had a horrible wife so who's his wife
Jezebel need I say more he was henpecked okay he was run by his wife his wife
basically was the one who controlled the kingdom through him he was a man who
threw fits all the time when he didn't get his way he's a spoiled
little brat of a king you know he wanted a Naboth's vineyard and when he
couldn't when he asked Naboth for it he was like no you know this is part
of my family's heritage I don't want to sell it he goes and he whines he goes
to his bed and just cries on his bed he won't eat bread he's literally just
throwing a fit because he couldn't have a vineyard it's like dude you're a
king get yourself together don't make a better vineyard than
Naboth has don't let people see you like this and the only one who
could cheer him up is his wife his wife is just like why are you crying
you know she's like I'll get it for you stop crying you know stop
whining you know I got it and then she ends up I'm giving you like the the
abridged version you know he she ends up hiring these these these reprobates
children of Belial to bring up a railing accusation against Naboth he
ends up getting stoned and killed and therefore Ahab was able to take over his
vineyard I mean this guy was just bad and you know obviously he was
essentially the arch nemesis of Elijah the Prophet along with Jezebel he
is a man who's worshiping false gods he's setting up images he is just anti
God he's just a horrible he's like Biden he's just not he's not even a
Republican at that yeah he's a Republican you're like okay maybe
they're leaning towards what the Bible this guy's not even that he's
just so what are you doing in Israel right it's like Biden why are you the
president of a country that you hate says in God we trust but you're just such a
wicked person right so that's Ahab okay and and time will not permit for me to
go through all his evil exploits in the Bible and all of the bad stuff that he
did but look at 1st Kings 21 he said what's the lesson that we can learn
from Ahab well Ahab actually humbles himself before the Lord and the
lesson that we're gonna learn from him is that God extends mercy to
wicked unsafe people as well and they might not sit right with you but let me
just remind you that the Bible tells us that God sends the rain on the just as
well as the unjust because and here's the thing here's the reason why it
might not sit well with you it's because when we think of God's mercy
we automatically associate it as only being extended to God's people or
people who need it for our salvation right you know not by works of
righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us
but you have to understand that God is literally just merciful to the
entire world you understand that there's billions of people out there whose
heart is beating because God allows it to they're able to breathe because God
permits them to they're able to eat food and pay their bills and work jobs
even though God is not in all their thoughts even though they don't give
glory to God or worship God God allows the Sun to rise upon them he
allows them to enjoy their children to enjoy their jobs to have housing to
have possessions he does all that why why does God do that to them
cuz he's a merciful God that's why and he's gracious what is grace getting
what we don't deserve what is mercy not getting what we do deserve and you
know what God extends both of those qualities to both saved and unsaved now
we get like the the potent stuff okay cuz we got salvation and we're
God's children and so I mean we got it made in the shade okay we have like
the superior grace and superior mercy from God because he loves us and he
will never stop loving us but you know what even the unsafe people this world
who do not even claim to be Christian they don't even claim to believe the
Bible they also get the taste of the mercy of God as well and when it
comes to the magistrates of this world keep in mind because I don't know
if I made this clear enough is that when rulers in this world rule their
kingdoms or they're over the authority of their specific geographical
location God wants people to be saved but at the end of the day he just wants
these rulers to do their job here's what I'm saying and what is their job
to be merciful to love the poor to provide for the widows to exercise
righteousness according to his decrees now the best way I can think about
this is like let's say you're a boss of a particular business and you have
all these employees that are working for you right you know it'd be nice if
you like knew some of those employees personally and you were actually good
friends with them like you actually had a good relationship even outside of
the business that would make it great right but at the end of the day
the boss only wants you to make sure that you're doing your job though
that's how basically God views the magistrates of this world like he
would want them to be saved of course because he's not willing to
any should perish he wants all men to be saved but at the end of the day
whatever King or president that exists he just wants them to do their job
correctly and so he extends mercy and grace even to some of these magistrates
and rulers of this world okay now with that being said look at first Kings 21
in verse number 20 this is after Ahab has just done the most wickedest of
wicked things and look at verse 20 it says an Ahab said to Elijah has
stuff found me oh mine enemy and he answered I found thee because thou has
sold thyself to work evil on the side of the Lord behold I will bring evil
upon thee and will take away thy posterity referring to his children
and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall and
him that is shut up and left in Israel it will make thine house like
the house of Jeroboam the same son of Nabat and like the house of
Basha the son of Ahijah for the provocation wherewithal has provoked me
to anger and made Israel to sin so God is sending Elijah to tell him you're
dead dude you're toast I'm gonna destroy you and your descendants
because you're such a wicked King because you made Israel to sin you
provoked the Lord to jealousy you provoked the Lord to wrath therefore I'm
gonna judge you verse 23 and if Jezebel he's on by the way your
woman also spake the Lord saying the dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of
Jezreel as cold that's a cold statement right there you need a cold
emoji for that one right there cuz it's like what does he mean by that you
know the dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel well later on if
you've read the story you know Jehu encourages admonishes exhorts the
eunuchs of Jezebel to throw off the balcony and we don't know how high
it was but it was high enough that she just splattered you know in the blood
like splat on the on the on the horse's bridle and then Jehu just walks in you
know he doesn't even care he just he's like throw her down you know and
then he basically said to himself like like later on after he's done doing
his business upstairs I don't remember if he was eating or something like you
just chilling upstairs in her room he's like you know what we should
probably bury her because she is like you know someone of importance so
someone go down there and bury her but by the time they got down there they only
found like a couple like hands in her feet because the dogs had already eaten
her up why cuz God's prophecy was fulfilled okay so not even a proper
burial was given to Jezebel cuz she was extremely wicked woman so that's
what that prophecy was the verse 24 says him that dieth of Ahab in the
city the dog shall eat and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of
the air eats but there was none like Ahab which did sell himself to work
wickedness in the sight of the Lord whom Jezebel his wife stirred up so you
know that's another reason why Ahab was a henpecked person is because a lot
of the evil stuff that he did you know was done by his wife his wife
was the one who's telling him like hey you should do this stirring him up
to work wickedness so this prophecy is being given to him look at verse 26
and he did very abominably in following idols according to all things as did
the Amorites whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel and it
came to pass when Ahab heard those words so he's listening to Elijah preach
against him sending him all this judgment and he's like man my wife's
gonna die I'm gonna die like nothing good is gonna come upon me he hears
this that he rent his clothes meaning he tore his clothes put sackcloth upon
his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and listen to this and went
softly what does that it's humility so it's just like when he hears this he's
just fear strikes his heart and he's just like oh man so now he's like
humbling himself because sackcloth and ashes in the Bible is indicative
of humility and then the Bible says that he's going softly meaning that
he's just probably treading carefully he's answering people softly you know
he's not trying to like be abrasive to anybody as his manner was he's not
behaving himself wickedly now you think to yourself well he's still toast
God's not gonna listen to that that doesn't care but you know what look at
verse 28 and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying see
is that how Ahab humbled himself before me because he humbled himself
before me I will not bring the evil in his days but in his son's days will
I bring the evil upon his house you know most people were like what kill
them this guy's wicked but I'm just I'm just telling you what humility can do
for you though and I don't believe this means that Ahab was saved at all
though I don't believe this means like oh he believed on Lord now he's
justified he's a child of God no I just think he expressed himself in a
humble way and God values any ounce of humility than anybody shows because
it's important to him especially when it comes to magistrates now it doesn't say
see it's not how Ahab humbled himself therefore I'm gonna save him tomorrow
him and his sons will be with me in heaven you know now he's forgiven of
all his sins then the mercy that he extends to Ahab is that the evil shall
not come in his days in other words it's gonna be long after he's dead
that this judgments gonna come upon his descendants and the descendants after
him he's not gonna see that amount of evil in his days and that's still an
extent of mercy right I mean think about previous kings or previous rulers
previous presidents I mean think about Bill Clinton a lot of
controversy surrounds that man and his Jezebel wife I mean it oh dang that's
like that's like Ahab and Jezebel right there that's like Ahab and Jezebel
because they're murderous you guys know what I'm talking about right I mean
these people are wicked and it seems as though Hiller is the one who's
always you know pushing it to Bill to do those things you know they're
evil and I mean they're so evil that you would think that God should just
judge the nation immediately because of all the evil that he's done and I'm not
saying he's humbling himself but you got to take into account that that's
happened a long time ago and our nation hasn't necessarily seen the
judgment that it deserves for having such a wicked ruler but also let me
say this is that sometimes God doesn't judge a nation based upon its ruler
because of the fact that he still loves the people in that nation so like
the evil that he wants to bring upon them sometimes he's merciful not
because of the ruler but because of the inhabitants of the ruler as well
there's righteous people there's people who need to be saved to know
about the Lord but this does not mean that he was saved what the point
that I'm making here is that any magistrate can humble themselves before
God go softly humble themselves and show God that they are sorry for what
they've done not even for salvation just as a matter of an employee of the
Lord ruling among men and God will extend mercy to that person okay but at
the end of the day you know King Ahab does die and I'm explaining to you why
go to chapter 22 look at verse 1 so it says in verse 1 of 1 Kings 22 says
and they continued three years without war between Syria and Israel and it
came to pass in the third year that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came
down to the king of Israel referring to Ahab and the king of Israel sent
him to his servants know ye that Ramoth and Gilead is ours and we be still and
take it not out of the hand of the king of Syria so basically saying is like
why don't we just conquer these people so obviously this man has a
problem with greed and power he's like man it's still we're not even
taking it we should be conquering them and he said unto Jehoshaphat wilt thou go
with me to battle to Ramoth Gilead and Jehoshaphat said to the king of
Israel I am as thou art bad words by the way dude what do you do we talking
about my people as thy people my horses as thy horses Jehoshaphat is a
godly king what are you doing running with such a wicked person such
as Ahab and one thing this is not the sermon one thing you'll notice when
you read these stories is that Jehoshaphat is a godly king who just
always has bad company around him you ever know someone like that who's just
they're a good person they're a godly person but they just always around bad
people they just surround themselves with really bad people and you're like
you're such a good person you're such a godly guy you're such a godly woman
why do you be friends such bad people why do you got bad people
around you Jehoshaphat why are you best friends with Ahab why are you
saying that you're just like him you're nothing like him Ahab is super
wicked and by the way if you're Jehoshaphat I don't think anybody in
here is but if you're Jehoshaphat stop hanging around Ahab you know Ahab's
over here trying to get him to get involved in a war that he should not be
getting involved in and this is one of the reasons why he's wicked number
one he's greedy for power he wants to conquer more land and he's inviting
God's people Jehoshaphat who's a good king to join him in this battle you
know he's trying to encourage him in the evil matter in other words Jehoshaphat
sent him to the king of Israel inquire pray the word of the Lord today
so this is why Jehoshaphat is actually a really good king because he's like oh
you know you want to go with me to Ramoth Gilead and he's like yeah but
you know why don't we inquire the word of the Lord like let's hear some
preaching about this subject so what is what is Ahab do? He's like yeah for sure
you know he turns on you know what's the worst preacher out there I don't know
Billy Graham's he's in hell let's let's get someone living
John MacArthur he's like let's get John so he gets all these John
MacArthur's Paul Washer's he gets all these false prophets he's like oh yeah
I got some really good preaching for you to listen to right because Ahab
actually brings all of these false prophets and you know they're listening
and they're like yeah go do it you got it you know you're God's chosen people
you know you're gonna be able to conquer Ramoth Gilead but Jehoshaphat
even though he's kind of stupid he's got enough discernment to say you know
what is there anybody who can inquire of besides these guys and what he's
saying is like I'm not I'm not into Calvinist preaching this preaching
kind of like you know I'm not into this kind of preaching here is there
someone else we can inquire and Ahab knows he knows the good and the
bad prophets because he's been confronted with good good prophets his
entire life so even after Elijah you know there's another guy called Micaiah
he said this one guy but I hate him and he hates him because he always
tells it he always tells him the truth he said oh this is there's one
preacher out there but you know I he he believes you you know you can hate
people or something you know there's this guy in Arizona that I know about so
of course Micaiah comes and then there's this whole discourse and he's like tell
me the truth because you know Micaiah just kind of messing with us yeah go
for it yeah you got it because he knows Ahab's wicked he's like see you just
never want to tell me the truth huh and he didn't tell no truth he's like you're
you're under arrest he's like I can't believe you know he's just you can't
win with Ahab so then he they arrest Micaiah and Ahab and Jehoshaphat end up
going to war well what happens to Ahab a man throws a
bow at a venture and he smites him and he ends up dying in that war okay
and to the point where like he's bleeding out in his chariot and the
dogs come and they lick up the blood from the chariot you know God
allowed that to happen to him because he's such a wicked person so what
happened to Jehoshaphat well he's kind of let go scout free and in fact in order
for them not to kill Ahab Ahab asks Jehoshaphat to essentially look like
Ahab so then when they come and get killed Jehoshaphat he's just like no
it's me it's Jehoshaphat they're like oh you're not the one we're looking for
we're looking for Ahab so he's kind of let go free and you know he
doesn't die okay now look at verse 37 so the king died and was brought to
Samaria and they buried the king Samaria one washed the cherry the pool of
Samaria and the dogs licked up his blood and they washed his armor
according unto the word of the Lord which he spake and it says now the
rest of the acts of Ahab and all that he did in the ivory house which
he made good night ivory house and all the cities that he built are they
now written in the book of Chronicles of the kings of Israel now go to
second Chronicles 19 real quick second Chronicles 19 because yes you know
what God showed mercy to Ahab even though he's just a really wicked person but
let me just show you beyond a shadow of a doubt that like Ahab was not saved at
all I know you don't think he was but less you confuse God's mercy on Ahab's
life as an indicator that maybe he was saved I'm gonna show you based upon
what the story that we just read that he's just not saved because going back
to Jehoshaphat Jehoshaphat has a tendency to run with people who are
bad people get involved in fights that don't pertain to him and you know what
God's always corrected him for this and in fact here's the famous verse
that we all know in verse 1 it says Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned
to his house in peace to Jerusalem this is after that battle and Jehu the
son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him and said to the king Jehoshaphat
shouldest thou help thee ungodly and love them that hate the Lord
therefore wrath is upon thee from before the Lord now who's he talking
about talking about Ahab because Ahab did hate the Lord he said then why did
God show mercy because he is the God of mercy that's why everyone
experiences the mercy of God yes even the wicked reprobates of this world
are currently experiencing the mercy of God right now because they're not
even dead in hell as of yet they're eating meals they're paying their
bills and it's not because the Lord loves them it's just that everyone feels the
effects of God's mercy in this world God's mercy extends throughout the
entire world and everyone just gets to benefit from it whether you love the
Lord or not now obviously the mercy when it comes to salvation is different
but even then that's extended to the entire world and so this is a
perfect example of you know even a wicked King humbling himself before God
going softly and God says I'm not gonna bring evil upon you but you know
what Ahab because he's just an evil person greedy causing the men of God to
stumble he ends up dying a horrible death anyways and you know what no one
mourns because of it it's not like God's sad because of it and in fact he
corrects Jehoshaphat and says don't help the ungodly and love those who
hate the Lord I'm gonna bring wrath upon you if you do that okay now go to
Romans chapter 9 if you would Romans chapter 9 and you know and by the
way with Jehoshaphat later on he doesn't learn his lesson he ends up
joining Ahaziah which is another wicked King and it again it's just like man
what are you doing and he's trying to like fight he's trying to make an
alliance with Ahaziah to fight against the foreign nation and they end
up constructing boats and then God ends up just destroying those boats and
bringing that device to not because it's not God's will for Jehoshaphat's
life okay and so stop you know running with your unsaved wicked friends
your unsaved wicked friends who have no agenda of serving God they mock the
Bible it's not the kind of company you should keep companion of fools will
be destroyed now look at Romans 9 verse 17 it says for the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I
might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all
the earth therefore hath the mercy on whom he will have mercy and on whom he
will hardeneth thou will say then unto me why doth he if I in fault who
has resisted his will nay but oh man who are thou that replies against God
shall the thing for him say to him that form that why hast thou made me
thus look at verse number 22 what if God willing to show his wrath and to
make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath
fitted to destruction that he might make known the riches of his glory on
the vessels of mercy which he had a for prepared unto glory basically saying you
know when it comes to rulers such as Pharaoh they don't have to be saved
for God to use them you know and he could extend mercy to any ruler in
this world it doesn't mean that he's favoring them that he loves them more
than God's people he just wants them to do their job and sometimes he does
that because of the fact that he's just a merciful God okay go to go back to
second Kings if you would second Kings actually go to let me let me skip a
couple things here where am I at go to second Kings 21 second Kings 21 I'm
gonna skip Hezekiah for sake of time but with Hezekiah's situation the
lesson we can learn from that is humility can extend your life as we saw
with Ahab Hezekiah was a godly King and you know Hezekiah was basically
just sick and the way of all the earth was gonna come upon him he was gonna die
Isaiah came to him and said hey set your house in order and you're gonna
die you're not gonna live and it's just like the way things happen you
know you're just you're sick you're gonna die and it just didn't sit
well with Hezekiah so what does he do he basically lays down faces the wall
and he cries he's crying unto the Lord and he's saying you know you know I
loved you I've walked in all your ways please don't forget this and God is so
touched by the tears of Hezekiah that he says all right I'll give you 15
more years what it's just just like that so I'll give you 15 more years
that's got to show you how tender God is towards the humility of man where
man is just like I don't want to die let me you know I loved you I've
served you I've done everything I could to please you let me live and God's like
you know what I see your because he tells as soon as Isaiah walks out of
the door God says go back in and tell him that I saw his tears which by
the way let me just say this God sees your tears amen you know when you
are devastated and heartbroken you think that no one can see your pain and no
one can see your sorrow you know God sees the tears you may not have an
Isaiah come to you but just picture me as Isaiah telling you right now that
God sees your tears because he saw the tears of Hezekiah and he said you know
what he was touched by Hezekiah's humility and he says I'll just give
you 15 extra years I mean that's a lot of time now you know it probably
would have been best if he just died there though he probably should have
just not taken the 15 years because then later on he becomes prideful and
then what happens is he becomes so prideful that the Babylonians had
heard about him getting sick so they come and give they bring gifts to
Hezekiah and then he's like come in let me show you my house you know MTV
Cribs let me just show you and he shows him his refrigerator you know he
shows him his entertainment system all the gold and silver that he has his
armor he just there's nothing in his kingdom that he didn't show the
Babylonians and the Babylonians are just like uh-huh what else and how many
of those do you have you know and the guy's so prideful that he's just blinded
by the fact that it's just like these people are taking inventory of you
they're gonna conquer you because of this so he shows them everything and
then Isaiah comes he was like did these men what did these men come for
he's like you show them everything he's like all right you're done I'm just
telling you right now they're gonna destroy you they're gonna come destroy
they're gonna make your children eunuchs I mean he pronounces this judgment
upon them because he showed them everything in his house because of his
pride he's trying to flex before the nation's they all look at all the stuff
that I got look how much gob and I got 15 years you know but his his pride
and here's the scary thing folks listen to me you may think yourself
well I'm not being punished yeah but you know what your future descendants
might be punished though and that's the scariest thing because you can't do
anything about that because once you're gone off the scene there's nothing you
can do right now hezekiah didn't really see it that way because you know
Isaiah gives him this prophecy and he's like what's good that you know I
shall have peace and truth in my day oh what a great attitude hezekiah so
he's like well at least I got it made you know his pride was his
downfall but the point that I'm making with hezekiah is the fact that you know
what God is even willing to answer the smallest of prayers and don't think
there's there's there's a heartbreak that you have that's too small for God
he sees it all and he's moved by it he's touched with the feelings of
our infirmities he understands he's acquainted with our grief and he will
answer prayers you're in second Kings 21 here's the last one and I'm done
is King Manasseh King Manasseh is just another one this guy's bad cuz you
know hezekiah he's a descendant of hezekiah he's a son of hezekiah and
Manasseh just kind of like undoes every reform that hezekiah brought in
the land cuz hezekiah did a lot of great things he brought a lot of reform
a lot of revival took place under his leadership Manasseh just basically
undid everything that hezekiah his father did and just worshiped false
gods and just did the worst of everything look at verse 1 it says
Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and reigned fifty and five
years in Jerusalem his mother's name was hezekiah and he did that which is
evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen whom
the Lord cast out before the children of Israel verse 3 for he
built up the high places which hezekiah his father had destroyed and he
reared up altars for Baal and made a grove as did Ahab king of Israel and
worship all the hosts of heaven and serve them he built altars in the
house of the Lord of which the Lord said in Jerusalem I put my name verse
6 and he made his sons pass through the fire so he's worshiping false gods
he's desecrating what his father had built he's building up altars to
Baal he's doing all this wicked stuff and then to add insult to
injury he's participating in infanticide as well killing his sons I mean he's
just doing wickedly he's provoking the Lord to anger he's setting up graven images
and on top of that he's also because he's the king of the southern kingdom
Judah he's one of the really bad kings of the southern kingdom but on
top of that he his his evil extends even into Israel where he's causing
Israel to sin as well so Israel is like wow look at all the stuff they're
doing there and they're being provoked into evil works and worshiping false
gods as well we see that in verse 10 he's shedding blood I mean this guy is
just a super wicked person go to 2nd Chronicles 33 2nd Chronicles 33 he shed
very much blood you know he filled Jerusalem with dead bodies people are
just dying everywhere doing a lot of wickedness you know God is just fed
up with his what he's doing so he decides to chastise him verse 10 it
says and the Lord's victim in asking to his people but they would not
harken wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the
king of Assyria which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him with
fetters and carried him to Babylon so he allows him to be taken captive
right now I want you to notice verse 12 think about this though this guy's
pretty wicked and when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his
God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed unto
him and he was entreated of him and hurt his supplication and brought him
again to Jerusalem into his kingdom then Manasseh knew that the Lord he
was God and I think the important principle that we can learn here is
that people can get pretty far without becoming a ripe debate cuz
sometimes we were like oh man that person is like super wicked but you
just never know sometimes some people can go pretty far without being beyond
the hope of salvation now I will say this you know sometimes I see this a
lot on social media and I'm sure you've seen it too we're just like Satanists
get saved I'm talking about this Satanist got saved he was a high
ranking Satanist but I've never now you may have heard of one but I've
never heard of one I've never heard of a Satanist give a legitimate gospel
the right gospel presentation or a great testimony of their salvation that
they believed on Jesus Christ it's always like a false gospel every single
time and here's my opinion on Satan is getting saved I'm talking about like
the high-ranking Satanists okay not these ones who are just kind of like
you know they're doing it cuz it's like a cool thing or it's edgy to do
like a we're out sowing last week and I knocked on the door and it's just
like hey you know I'm from First Works Baptist Church want to use it he's
like oh I'm actually I go to the I'm a Satanist I'm like excuse me he's like
I'm a Satanist I was like oh okay he's like yeah I'm like so you go to the
Church of Satan he's like yes that's where I go I was like oh okay and I
was gonna start like grilling him on it cuz I know based upon his answers
like he did it I'd probably knew more about the Church of Satan than he did
and so I said okay well are you 100% sure that if you died today you go to
heaven he's like well you know I'm gonna go down to be with my master I
said oh you're saying you're gonna go to that you're gonna go to hell when
you die and he's saying he's like yes I was like okay and you made you
made peace with that he said I mean yeah I have I'm like okay well we'll
see you later you know nothing else to say and you know that person I don't
think he's like a high-ranking Satanist I think he probably just doesn't like
Christians he was expecting me to be like oh oh oh man oh you know well I'm
a Christian and for me it's just like you're just like any other unsafe
person you probably don't even attend a Church of Satan temple you know you're
just doing it cuz you want to be edgy listen to heavy metal death metal or
whatever and that's it you probably listen to AC DC Led Zeppelin or
whatever and that's why you just are saying this because you don't like
Christians you you thought you were gonna get a reaction out of me but you you
don't need to tell me that you're saying is to educate me that you're
going to hell I already knew you're going to hell but you know these
high-ranking Satanists though one of the reasons I believe that they give
like these false gospels or they have these these phony conversions is
because I literally believe God does that to them I believe God allows them
to believe in a false gospel because you know what he's not happy with them
living this life of Satanism mocking Jesus Christ mocking God making that
their full-time religion and job and then all of a sudden they claim to
believe in Jesus Christ no you know you people don't seem to understand that
God often mocks people when they convert you know oh man prince became a
Christian no he became a Jehovah's Witness that's God's joke on Prince to
let him think that he's like a safe person the guys in hell right now oh
man Michael Jackson you know he's Jehovah's Witness yeah yeah so you're not
in good company and so anytime you have these like high-ranking Satanists
claiming to be safe you know you listen to their gospel presentation and
those and most of the time they're just like then I saw a vision you know
get out of here this guy on the other hand you know he's probably involved
in a lot of wickedness here well based upon his testimony he's being
afflicted God could have just easily destroyed him but he's humbling him and
he's coming to the realization you know what God is the Lord okay and then
later on it begins to strengthen the military he tears down the idols he
reinstates the altars of the Lord but go to Jeremiah chapter 15 that's
the last passage he brings about just incredible Reformation towards the end
of his life and he just does a complete 180 okay and I would say you
know a great principle that we can learn from that is you know just
because a person is a former gang banger who you know did drugs and
maybe was involved in a lot of violence doesn't mean they can't be
saved they can be saved you know just because they're Hindu doesn't mean
they can't get saved they can be saved Buddhists can be saved Catholics can be
saved you know and we shouldn't think that oh man this person was just grew up
so wickedly it's impossible for them to be saved they can be saved okay but
here's the problem with Manasseh is that doesn't matter how much reform he
brought to Israel to Judah he did irreparable damage look at verse 3 and I
will appoint over them four kinds saith the Lord the sword to slay and the
dogs to tear in the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour
and destroy and I will call them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the
earth why because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah for that
which he did in Jerusalem so even though Manasseh got right with God you
know God is not gonna allow America let's say we just let's say Trump gets
back in office because you know he brought out the Bible the King James Bible
he's bringing he's bringing revival he's bringing hey Cody read out of the
Trump Bible to give me that Bible real quick oh he won't even read out of it in
church he's usually like another is it that sacred for you brother he's not
he read this this is this is the Bible he read out of the scriptures
right here and then he closed it and he puts it in a box and then he
reads out of another one you know hey Trump brought this and this is an I
still need to get mine but this is a really nice Bible God bless the USA
you know make America pray again and you know this because you know they
said they were gonna put the Constitution the Bill of Rights in
there and all this stuff and they did but they put he puts it in the back
though you know he puts awesome but it's in the print is really nice
it's an awesome Bible and you know what it might even bring about just a
small percentage of reformation in this land it might bring some Christians
to actually start reading the King James Bible and you know what we'll take it
but let me ask you something let me take this go go put it back in your
shrine let me let me ask you this though because that's that's great you
know a bunch of Republicans are actually going to start reading the legitimate
Bible instead of their NLT NASB or whatever else false versions that
using you know they're probably gonna even start idolizing the King James put
it on their coffee table you know let me ask you something you think that's
gonna stop God from judging America from because of previous crimes no
Manasseh still Manasseh create a lot of irreparable damage and America
still has to pay and so you know obviously when you get saved you
believe on the Lord you know you're saved you have your sins forgiven but
there's certain things that there's certain things that you kind of have
still have to pay for this side of eternity because sometimes you do
irreparable damage and you know Manasseh hey he might be in heaven I
would hope that he's in heaven would be a great testimony of someone who you
know just did a 180 and believed on the Lord and he was afflicted and he
humbled himself and it makes for a great story but you know what Israel
had to pay thereafter even after he passed off because you know what God
keeps great records he keeps account of everything and humility your humility my
humility the humility of Kings can benefit us in a lot of ways but you
have to understand there's certain things that God God is still the
judge of all the earth and you know what there's times when you sin there's
times when I sin and God doesn't punish us for it you understand that
he doesn't punish us sometimes he doesn't punish us at all he extends
mercy or sometimes he doesn't punish us right away he allows that punishment
to come further down the road because some things need to be paid for
now thank God with salvation everything's already paid for you know
we got heaven we have eternal life and we never have to worry about that ever
again but you know what there's other things that might have people might have
done irreparable damage in their relationships in their marriages with
their children with themselves in their bodies there's nothing could be done
about that and so you know what's the lesson that we can learn this evening
regarding these Kings is the number one lesson is this humility is so
valuable have humility in yourselves don't think yourself more highly than
you ought to think don't exalt yourself abase yourself humble
yourself before the mighty hand of God because it has great
repercussions to them there's a lot of good results that you can get from just
humbling yourself before God in your heart I'm not talking about this outward
humility by the way I'm talking about the inward humility when the only person
that can hear you is God think of yourself very lowly in here speak of
yourself very lowly and abase yourself in here unto the Lord and
watch what God does let's pray father we thank you so much for your word
thank you for these examples help us as your people to be humble stay humble
get humble Lord before you have to humble us and I pray we take these
examples of these Kings Lord take them to heart help us Lord to always
deflect the praise of success in our lives to you and to others and not to
think of ourselves more highly than we ought to Lord we love you may you
bless our week in Jesus name we pray Amen
please turn your songbooks to song number 135
song number 135 I know I am saved this is a short song so we'll sing it
twice over