(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

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