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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