Well, this is a longer chapter, as I'm sure you're aware, and there's a lot of repetition in this chapter. And so it may sound like, man, why does it keep saying the same thing over and over again? But this is, like we've heard in the past, if you've been with us, it's an important part of how the biblical author Daniel and how, just generally speaking, ancient Near Eastern poetry and prose and Jewish literature is often, they often use repetition to be able to get their points across. And so we should pay attention to these things. We shouldn't check out when we hear the same thing repeated again. We should go, oh, that's telling me something. We should perk up when that takes place. But as we looked at last week, we started the first chapter, verses 1 through 18, and it was the telling of Nebuchadnezzar. He starts off the whole chapter by saying, you know, God most high, his kingdom is forever, it reigns forever. And so it's showing you, I, Nebuchadnezzar, say these things. And then he tells the story of how he got a second dream. and how that second dream, he needed the help of interpreting it, and so he goes to his guys to get interpretation. They couldn't help, and so he asked Daniel again, and then Daniel hears about the dream. Well, in this particular passage now, As we get the second half of the story, we know what the dream is, and now we're gonna get the interpretation of the dream, and we're gonna get what happens, actually, that the dream takes place. Last week, we talked about God and his kingdom being eternal from generation to generation, and that clearly, what was repeated last week, God is the one who rules over human kingdoms, and he is the one who gives the kingdoms to men. So this is something that is very important. It's gonna be repeated three times in our passage. It is the main point of the whole chapter, but we wanted to break the chapter up because there's a lot to it. So we'll be seeing a related theme, a related theme for today, but something more specific. So what I'd like to do is start again in 19 and just start making some observations as we go. So read with me in verse 19. Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, his Babylonian name, was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him. Why was this? Because he heard about the dream, and he knew that this dream was another one from God. Remember, he already dealt with this in chapter two, where Nebuchadnezzar got a dream, and it was bad news for Nebuchadnezzar. Yes, it's true, he was a king who was at the top of this statue, and he was the one of gold, but his kingdom was gonna be replaced by other kingdoms. That was gonna be replaced by other kingdoms, and it's gonna be replaced until God, the kingdom of God himself, would come in, smash the kingdoms of men, and God would replace his kingdom instead of the kingdoms of men. This was a very big, important dream that God gives to Nebuchadnezzar, of which basically telling him, I gave you your importance, but you're just going to be one of many kings that I'm going to overthrow later. So that was in chapter 2. Chapter 4, Daniel remembers that whole process and goes, oh no, another bad dream for Nebuchadnezzar. That's why he's dismayed. He's like, oh man, God really is reaching out to Nebuchadnezzar here. And so the king answers him and says, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you. And so Daniel, he then answers, my Lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies. Let me just pause here for a moment and say, you know, as we've been talking through and preaching through this book of Daniel, one of the themes that we should be reminded of is that Daniel is a Jew in exile. He's not in his land. He's in a foreigner's land. And in some real ways, the book of Daniel gives us an example of how God's people can live in a foreign land. They can live in a place that's not theirs, if you will. And that has a lot of connections to us now. New Testament believers, we are Not from this world. If we believe in Christ and our souls have been saved and our sins have been forgiven, then this world is not our home. Our home is, we're citizens of heaven. And so Daniel is an Old Testament teaching for us, even today, New Testament believers that, you know, it gives us an example of how can God's people be faithful in a foreign land. Well, in this particular moment, Daniel, I think it's instructive, it's helpful for us to notice that Daniel doesn't hate the king. Daniel is not looking to smash the king or to do things that would hurt the king. If anything, he works for the king, it's his boss, and he's trying to propagate the success of the king. And I think this is good for us to know because a lot of times we sort of struggle in terms of how do we engage with government? How do we engage with politics? Should Christians be involved in politics? How much should we? You could be too much. You could be not enough. What is the right understanding here? I think this is a good point to say, whatever our involvement is, we are not to hate governors or leaders, we should want them to prosper. Because often when they prosper, we prosper. So this is something that shows when Daniel gets this dream, he doesn't immediately go, you wicked king, so glad you're going to get what you deserve. That's not what Daniel does. Daniel is dismayed. and he's upset. So much so that the king has to tell him, don't worry, don't be alarmed. The king has to console Daniel because he's like, oh no, king. What does he say? Let not the dream of the interpretation alarm you. My Lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies. I wish this wasn't true. I wish this on your enemies, not on you. And I'm only just pausing here to say, Sometimes in our understanding of how we should relate to government or leaders, it's true. Non-Christian leaders can be terrible. We could just say that. They can lead the land towards unrighteousness. They can do things that are not honoring to God, that are blasphemous to God. I mean, just look at King Nebuchadnezzar. He was a conqueror of the world. He had many people and tongues and languages, nations underneath his care. And what was he doing? He was erecting idols for people to worship. I mean, he was at Exhibit A on false idolatry and false worship. But interesting, even though that's true and we should hate that, we're not allowed to like idolatry, we're not allowed to condone it, it is instructive that Daniel doesn't hate the king. that he actually wants, he doesn't want the king to necessarily go through this particular thing. So I don't want to make too much of it, but I don't want to miss this, that if we have hatred in our hearts towards people because, and we justify it because of their evil actions, I mean, you could make a case that you could hate any sinner because of their evil action. We should hate ourself because of our evil actions. No, this is a good, I think this is showing the mercy in Daniel that he has towards those unbelievers around him, and his view that, you know what, I want their good. Isn't this exactly what God does in his common grace? God extends common grace to His enemies. He has the sunrise. He gives them the rain. He gives them beauty. He gives them mountains. He gives them families. He gives them access to things that actually bless them. Now, is He in any way condoning their wickedness? Absolutely not. Would He stand against their wickedness? Absolutely He would. But he's not quickly looking to smash his enemies. He actually wants them, he wants good for them. So I think we should be encouraged and instructed by that. Let's keep going in the story, verse 20. He's describing the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. This is you, this is about you and the greatness by which you are experiencing in your kingdom. So as we get into our points for this morning, we're gonna be asking very same, similar question from last time to try to help us understand and frame what we're supposed to receive, what teaching are we supposed to get? That's our question. What are we to learn about God? Remember, this is a book about God. What do we learn about God from this second story of King Nebuchadnezzar and his dream, just like we talked last week? So, if it's helpful, you can write this down, our first point, what are we to learn about God from this particular story, this second dream story, is this, is that our sovereign God rules the kingdoms of men, just like we talked last week, but more specifically this time, not only does he rule the kingdoms of men, he humbles the pride of men. God, our sovereign God, rules the kingdoms of men, and he also humbles the pride of men. And we're gonna see that very clearly in the life of King Nebuchadnezzar, one of the kings that God has given a kingdom to. And so verse 23, we see the interpretation, and in the words of the watcher, the angel is giving what's gonna happen as the dream is interpreted. Verse 23 says, and because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, this is kind of God's deputized messenger, what does God's messenger say? Chop down the tree, that tree that is you, Nebuchadnezzar, chop him down, chop it down, destroy it. but leave the stump and its roots in the earth and bound it with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, meaning he's gonna sleep outside, he's gonna be homeless. Instead of being in a wonderful, comfortable, luxurious palace, one of the best in ancient times, he's gonna be sleeping outside. He's gonna be wet with the dew of the grass. and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, he's gonna be like an animal. Instead of ruling over all the earth and all the peoples, including the animals, he's gonna become an animal, just like one, till seven periods of time pass over him. We mentioned this before, seven periods of time, it's not specific, but many people believe it's very likely seven years It probably wasn't seven days or weeks. It probably wasn't seven months. It was very likely years because there needed to be enough time for him to be humbled. And so this is enough time for all these descriptions of what took place to him that could happen. His hair, his nails, that takes time to happen. Verse 24, this is the interpretation, O King. It is the decree of the Most High. This is God's plan for you. It's His decree. It's His will. It will happen, which has come upon my Lord, the King. And look what it says in verse 25. It repeats to one of the main themes. It says, that you should be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you. And notice what it says, what's the purpose of this humbling? Till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom He will. The purpose of this humbling is for knowledge and understanding, right? Nebuchadnezzar is going to get humbled significantly so that Nebuchadnezzar will know God. He will understand God. That you think it's you and your power and your might and your wisdom. It is God's power, God's will, God's might who places you in this position of power and authority. And God deserves to be understood as the one who does this. not self-acclaim. I appreciated this quote here from Ian Dugan, and he says, speaking about this exact thing, who he really is, who God really is. It says, discontent and disaster, or at least the profound personal discomfort, are very often the necessary precursors of spiritual growth and change. As long as we are comfortable and at ease in this world, we are not normally ready to examine our hearts and institute deep changes. On the other hand, when God disturbs the calm waters of our lives, we begin to be ready to seek different paths to pursue. It is often when our career hopes are dashed, our marriage relationship is in shreds, or the doctor announces that we only have a few more months to live, that we are finally persuaded to become serious about spiritual things. If that is true, however, it suggests that we should approach these troubled times in our lives with a far more positive outlook than we normally do. These shattering experiences should prompt within us the expectation and hope that God is going to do something important in our lives. It is precisely through the storms of life that God will show us who we really are, and even more importantly, who He really is. God is showing his sovereignty in the life of King Nebuchadnezzar by first giving him all of this glory and dominion and power. He blesses him. Notice that God's relationship with even his enemies is one that is full of blessing. God is constantly blessing his creatures, the people that he's made, and even his enemies, he's blessing them. He gives them good things. And his enemies, even pagans, can say, we have good fortune from God or from the gods. But God is not looking to have his glory shared with anyone or with any other gods or with any other human. God is looking to bless so that he might be appropriately glorified. And so, God uses, like we see in this example, pain, humiliation, deep discomfort, removal from office, destruction of a person's body, even destruction of a person's mind as a judgment from God to teach a lesson for the point of showing them who God really is. And so I think as we look at this passage and as we seek to learn from it, what are we to learn from it? That's our question. This is all about God. It's about his sovereignty, it's about his rulership, it's about his strength, his control, his plan, his decree, his methods, his ways. And really what we should be doing is meditating on God and asking a question like this. How often does meditating on God's sovereignty the aspect of his complete rulership, his ownership and rulership of all things, how often does meditating on God's sovereignty help you grow in your humility? This is something that we are called to do. If we are creatures of the one creator, we must not get the script flipped and thinking we're all that hot. No, God is the one who made us. God is the one who calls us to live in this world the way that he calls us, and we should be meditating on God and saying, God, powerful, wise, mighty, in control, I can't just do whatever I want. I can't just say whatever I want. We are so often, not just in our day and age, this is a human problem, we are so preoccupied with our own freedoms, quote unquote, our own abilities to do things or to not do things. We are so obsessed, we are drunk on needing to express our own autonomy. We're drunk on being able to take credit for things that God gives us. I mean, we should all be thinking of these things, saying, wow, God does not put us on this earth so that we could steal from Him. God put us on this earth so that we can honor Him, we can trust Him, we could receive from Him, we could thank Him, we could point to Him, we could live a life with Him. And what happens is, God blesses us, He blesses His enemies, and people just take those blessings, they run away, they give Him the middle finger and say, I'm outta here, I'm gonna do whatever I want with this. And this should be sobering for us. God rules over all the kingdoms of men. He rules in all areas of life. And they belong to Him, they're for Him. And He humbles people. He humbles the pride of people. even the highest. Think about this. Nebuchadnezzar is the highest of the persons in the land. He's the king of kings according to the earth. He owns all the places, he rules all the earth, and he can make a decree, and everybody must listen. If God can humble the highest of high, don't you think that this applies to us too? That God can and does humble people just like us when we don't consider God's sovereignty? when we try to take credit for things that aren't ours, when we aren't acknowledging God and what He's seeking to do in and through us, this is an important lesson, a very significant lesson for us. In fact, how are we to appropriately meditate on God? It's through Scripture. We are to look to God and look to His Word and be reminded of these truths, who He is, what He does, how He operates, and meditate on those things and glory in God. Be, wow, God, that is you. Some verses that maybe are an example of this. Jeremiah 32. Verse 25 says, ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth. By your great power and by your outstretched arm, notice the glory that God is getting in this way, nothing is too hard for you. These are the exact type of scriptures and meditations that we are to internalize, that we are to believe. We're not to get stuck in lower level thinking and lower level belief, as if something is too hard for God, as if God is not ruling the earth, as if something is outside of God's control. When we get worried or we get... tired or we get cranky at God because things aren't happening the way we want, as if this is our kingdom for our purposes. No, no, no. God, you have made the heavens. You have made the earth by your great power, by your outstretched arm. There's nothing too hard for you. This humbles us, does it not? It humbles us. Another example, even from Jeremiah, the same book, 31 and 32, says this, behold, what does God say about pride? Behold, I am against you, O proud one. God is opposing those who take strength in themselves, declares the Lord God of hosts, for your day has come. the time when I will punish you. The proud one shall stumble and fall with none to raise him up, and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and I will devour all that is around him. God is the one who has all power and might and rules the earth, and God is not okay with the pride of men. That is unacceptable. And so he will deal with it. He absolutely will deal with it. And so these are important for us to meditate on, to be humbled, to be, oh God, you are God. I am not God. Thank you. I trust you. I believe you. Help me to fall in line. Help me to love you and to follow you. Psalm 103 is a wonderful psalm, praising God for his goodness, for his benefits. And there's something that even the psalmist says to himself when he's praising God. He says that God knows all things. He says that for he knows, God knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field and the wind passes over it and it is gone. We're here and we're gone. And its place knows it no more. How often does your meditating on God's sovereignty help you in your humility? If that's not something you're regularly doing, this is something that this Daniel chapter four is calling us to be doing. In the same way that Nebuchadnezzar was prideful, was self-willed, was not acknowledging God. If God can and will and does humble the highest of high, he will humble us too. This is not meant to scare us. This is meant for us to be aligned with God and to renew our minds, to be able to say, oh, this is reality. It's not uncommon, we say something in our house like, you know what, reality wins every time. If you're trying to go against reality, you have a really short window before you think you're winning when reality actually wins. Gravity is one of those things you just got to deal with, and you can kind of defy it for a little bit, or you can even defy it and take a picture of you defying it, like you jump in the air, and you go, look, I was defying gravity, I'm so cool. You're like, that was like a second, and then you were on the way down during that picture, right? This is kind of how it is with God, like, oh, wow, Humans, we're so prone to pride. We're so prone to forget God. We're so prone not to acknowledge God. We're so prone to this. Our hearts, we sang this morning, be thou my vision. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. This is an important lesson from us to be reminded of. God wants us to know. that He is high and mighty, and that He controls the world and the kingdoms of the world, and even if those people who are proud, He will oppose them. So this is important for us to know. Let's look at our second point as we continue to move on in our passage. What are we to learn? We're to learn that God rules the kingdoms and that He humbles the pride, the pride of men. Let's look at our second point. It's that our most high God, in His humbling, the prideful, He also, though, does something merciful. He provides space for sinners to repent. There's good news here. God is a God of justice. God is a God of power. God is a God who will not share His glory with anyone. He is sovereign, and He will humble those who are prideful. But good news, He doesn't just smash people immediately, though. Good news, He gives space for them to repent. He is actually patient and merciful, not just righteous and justice-oriented. He is. He will not violate those things, but he is also long-suffering. We're gonna see how this is true from the story. Verse 26. and as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, right? The watcher is saying, hey, we gotta humble this man by chopping his tree off, right? But we're not gonna chop it all the way down. We're going to leave the stump there so that the roots are still intact. That was a mercy from God. Just think about that. God could have very easily removed the stump, taken Nebuchadnezzar out of being king, humbled him, and never to return. But God was giving him space to be able to experience his dumbness so that he could come to realization. What am I doing? What am I doing? Just like the prodigal son. He's eating the slop of the pigs. What am I doing? What am I doing of defying my Father? I had it so good in my life with my family. Why am I a slave? And at the bottom of the bottom, oh, you got to come to your senses. But it often takes these difficult, even self-imposed difficulties that God pushes us into and leads us into. But He's gracious to allow for space, not to just judge us completely. He gives us space to learn and to grow. But notice what it says, your kingdom shall be confined for you from that time that you know heaven rules, that heaven rules. Remember, the point of these difficulties, the point of these punishments, the point of these humblings is so that we would have our minds renewed so that people could truly know that God is God and we are not, that heaven is the one who rules and that we don't. makes it really clear. Verse 27, therefore, O king, let my counsel, now Daniel speaking, be acceptable to you. Since God gives you space by not completely taking out your stump, how thou shall we live then if God gives space to you? We should repent, right? That's exactly what Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar. Break off your sins. Since your stump is not gonna be completely uprooted, and since God has given you space to know who he really is and to get your right view of yourself, break off your sins by practicing righteousness. Stop doing what you're doing that is opposing to God. Start doing what would be in line with God. and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed," remember, he's just selfish, doing things for himself, he's not helping those whom he's supposed to be helping, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity. Daniel doesn't even promise this, but he does allude that, you know what? Repentance is good, and God may lengthen your success. He may not just quickly take it away. This is what God is teaching Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel. And so this is important for us. But it doesn't just land here. I mean, God has already given the dream the first time through Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar. It was bad news. There's been time that has passed. He now gets a second dream. It's a similar one. Hey, you're gonna be humbled. The first one was your kingdom's gonna go, it's gonna be replaced. And this one's now, you're gonna get, you're gonna experience humbling. I'm gonna bring you back, but you're gonna experience humbling. And so, and he's told explicitly, break off your sins, quit doing that, start doing the right thing. There's time, there's space to repent. And what does he do? He goes, oh, praise God for this grace and mercy. I'm gonna follow God from now on. No, it's not what he does. In fact, look at this. This probably will resonate with many of us. Verse 28, all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. And what does it say in verse 29? At the end of 12 months, a year later, so he gets this dream, he gets this warning, he gets this opportunity, and what does he do with it? Nothing. He just keeps on doing what he was doing before. For how long? Not a day, not a week, not a month, not a quarter, a year. It's like 12 months later, what happens? He was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, in verse 30, and the king answered and said, he's on the roof, he's looking at his kingdoms, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence for the glory of my majesty? Notice all the me and the my and the I. A year later. By the way, we do this too, by the way. God gives us grace, gives us mercy, gives us space, and we just sit on it. We do this too when we read our Bibles and we don't obey it. when we're called to pray or to love or to serve and we don't. We thought we got away with it. I mean, that's what's going on. He gets this warning, and what's the lie that he believed? It didn't happen that day or the next day. Nothing happened the day after that. Nothing happened the third day or the fourth day. By the time you get in day five and day 10, day 20 and day 30, what's the lie that it's easy to believe? I guess God's not gonna do it. I guess God's not gonna keep his word. I guess I can keep doing what I wanna do. Right, this is a very human experience. But God is not a liar. God will always fulfill his word. And he will humble the prideful. And he will, and he did humble. Nebuchadnezzar. Look what it says in verse 30. The king answered and said these things. Is it not this great Babylon that I did? Let me ask our second question. Do you rightly praise God for his kindness and mercy? Notice God gives us kindness and mercy to repent, to follow him. He gives us space to do that. Do you praise him for it? Do you see that you have grace from him? to repent, to follow His ways? Do you listen, do you see it, do you praise Him? And then do you seek to kill your sin? Do you seek to obey God because you're grateful that He loves you enough to extend grace and mercy to you, and so you listen? This is something, we're clearly seeing this example in Nebuchadnezzar, and it's all about the person of God. It's all about God's sovereignty and God's ability to rule over the earth and rule over kingdoms, the kingdom of man versus the kingdom of God. But we can learn from this. We often presume on God's kindness. We often do not listen to the voice of God through his word. We often do not give it its due weight. We often make, excuses for sin, or we don't think sin is very important, so we think, well, I'm just always going to struggle with this sin. I know I shouldn't, but, you know, maybe we presume on grace and kindness in a way that is not honoring and fitting to the Lord. You know, in fact, in New Testament, we're going to speak about how this all connects us to Christ, of course, but, you know, in the New Testament, you would think, well, this sounds like law. It sounds like you're preaching law right now, Pastor. No, I mean, I guess I am in the sense of this is God's moral law. This is how God interacts with all of his creatures, both those in his covenant people and those who are his enemies. This is just what it means to be a creature. And this is the expectation, and this is the appropriate relationship that creatures have with their Creator. There's more to it than that, of course, but this is appropriate to talk on these levels, to talk on these terms. Paul does. Look at what Paul in the New Testament, New Covenant, New Covenant minister says in Romans chapter two, verse four, or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? This is not just an Old Testament, like, oh, that's just how God dealt with Israel, that's too much law. No, no, no, God requires us to follow Him, even in the New Testament. One, because we're His creatures, two, because we're bought by Christ, we're gonna talk more about that. 2 Peter says a similar thing. 2 Peter 3, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises, just like Nebuchadnezzar probably thought, oh, he's not doing it, oh, okay. But look, but as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. God's kindness is for the purpose of repentance. God's space and mercy is for the purpose of bringing blessing into your life, and that blessing is found only in Jesus Christ, of course. It's not like we're earning anything. Again, we'll get to that. James 4 is an important New Testament text that brings this all together. Do we praise God for the kindness that he gives us in allowing us space to listen to him and respond? Do we thank Him and then do we actively move towards Him? James 4 says, starting verse 6, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. So then what's the next part? Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. What does he say? Cleanse, notice all these, we preached this before. These are commands. Draw near to God. Humble yourself. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts. Apparently Christians, we're talking about Christians now, we're called to follow these commands in how we deal with our sin. We're supposed to hate our sin. In fact, I've mentioned it before, it's worth mentioning again, true repentance is not just, you know, winking an eye at our sin and just looking, moving past it and going, well, God will give me grace. No, repenting of our sin is much deeper work than that. Puritan Thomas Watson has a very well-known book, The Doctrine of Repentance. He gives his six important ways in which we are to rightly deal with our sin. He says we must see our sin. We must have sight of our sin. Sometimes we don't see it. We need to see it. We need to have sorrow for it. Not just sort of like, oh, okay, I do that, well, he'll forgive me. No, we must, oh, I feel terrible about this sin. What am I doing? Why? I'm so wicked. You must see our sin, must have sorrow for sin, we must confess our sin, we must agree with God and say, that was wrong, I shouldn't have done that, that was so dumb. Lord, please forgive me. Forgive me again through Christ. If you're in Christ, you have access to Christ in his blood. You have access to forgiveness through coming to him through prayer, pleading for mercy and grace. And guess what, he hears our prayers. He hears our prayers. but we must see our sin, be sorrowful for sin, have confession of sin, have shame for sin. We're so allergic to shame nowadays, but shame is actually meant to push us through a process of hating our sin and feeling the disgust that comes from that sin so that we won't do it again, so that we will be repulsed from our sin, not keep it as a pet. Not keep it as something that we want to, you know, well, nobody's perfect, and like, I kinda like this one, I don't wanna give this up. Maybe we wouldn't say it out loud, but that's often how we live. We need to see our sin, be sorrowful for sin, have confession of sin, have shame for our sin, have a hatred for our sin, and turn from our sin. That's exactly what James is speaking. And so, is that a part of your process? If you're here today, this morning, and you're a believer in Christ, you actually have, by the power of the Spirit, the ability to understand these things, and the ability to partner with God to repent. Praise the Lord for that. And that only comes because Christ purchased us through his blood. It's good news because of Christ. But let's keep reading here. Daniel 4, 31. He didn't get away with it, even though God gave him space, a year. The words fell from from heaven. It said, This has been repeated three times now. The whole purpose of this chapter is to clearly teach God is the God of all, He's the kingdom is over all, and God rules the kingdom of men, and He gives the kingdom of men whatever they have. And Nebuchadnezzar was not knowing that. He was not living that way. Verse 33, immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men, he'd eat grass like ox, his body was wet with dew of heaven. So everything that God said was gonna happen happens exactly the way he said because God is sovereign. And his body was wet with dew and heaven till his hair grew as long as eagle's feathers and his nails were like bird's claws. You know, as we talk about God's sovereignty, talk about His plans and how He humbles people, there's more that we can learn from here. It's this, it's all about Him. Our third point for this morning is, our Most High God, what are we to learn about Him, will receive the praise and honor that He deserves. Our Most High God will receive the praise and honor that He deserves. This is supposed to be a very majestic chapter, a very humbling chapter in the mightiness and the epicness of God. Look at how God so decisively humbles Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 34, this is moving towards the end of the chapter, which is really the pinnacle of this section of the book. And what does Nebuchadnezzar say? At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, meaning he had his eyes off of himself, and he now lifts his gaze up to heaven, acknowledging God as he should, like it says, Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. This is what he's doing here. Bless my eyes to heaven and my reason return to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? Look at this high and mighty king brought low for seven years, eating grass, being homeless, hairy like a beast. You can picture him snarling. You can picture him, oh, not... You can't even see his human form anymore. You just go, oh, look at that. Shadow of a man looks more like an animal. Verse 36, at that time, my reason returned to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my majesty and splendor returned to me, and my counselors and Lord sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Boy, how much more kindness is here? I mean, the worst of the worst, and God is still so kind. Still so kind. To restore him and to give him more than he had? Now verse 37, now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. These are the last words of King Nebuchadnezzar that we will read in this book. And we are to take these words seriously. And we are to understand that God is God and we are not. And we must ask, why are these in here? Why is chapter four in here? What are we to learn? Well, we're learning God's high and mighty. He's ruling over kings and kingdoms, and he humbles those who oppose him. And he will get his praise. God will not be mocked. What does this teach us? What are we to do with this? One, well, just remember who was the audience. It was the Israelites. They were under the king's oppression. This actually should be very encouraging for God's people, especially when they are feeling oppressed by those in the world. When we're feeling like God's people are getting mistreated by wicked people in the world. We should say, well, God is God. God is sovereign. God knows all things. God sees all things. God can handle those wicked oppressors over us, those evil rulers who do things to stuff their own pockets, as we are made more and more aware of what's going on even in our own political day of all the corruption, and the misuse in our own government, all the millions and even billions of dollars that have been stolen from taxpayers to be used for things that are inappropriate. I mean, people could go, why, Lord? This is just terrible. Why is this happening? And it's just a small example to say, God's in control. God knows all things. God's going to get praise from these people. God's not done. God is leaving space for repentance, which is why we should pray for repentance, which is why we should pray for repentance in our own hearts, but we should be praying for repentance for those people who are not following God. We should, like God in his wisdom and in his mercy, be like Daniel. We should not want the destruction of the wicked. We should pray for God's grace to take place, and if it ends up being that they're destroyed, then we trust the Lord that that is exactly what needed to happen. But we're gonna plead, and we're gonna want God's grace to fall on them, and we're gonna pray for it. In fact, we're called to pray for it, right, in the New Testament. Pray for kings and those people who are in high places so that they may get saved, and we might live peaceful lives instead of being under their oppressive thumb. But really, as we look to these things, this could feel maybe scary to us, like God's gonna smash us. No, if you're in Christ and you're a child of God, then God loves you. And God loves His children. And He wants to live in a relationship with us in a way that is good and right and loving and trusting. And so God is patient with us. Good news, He humbles us. And boy, He doesn't let us get away with stuff. I don't know if you've experienced that yet, where you were doing things in your own sin and they got exposed later. You thought you were getting away with it, but it's not. And if maybe you're now in one of those places where God is saying to you, hey, it's time to give that up, it's time to confess that sin, it's time to kill that that quote-unquote besetting sin that you think you're gonna have the rest of your life. Like, no, no, don't give excuse for sin. Give it to God and say, Lord, kill it for me. Please help me. Give me the strength by the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ to do this. And this really is pointing us to a truer and better king and a truer and better kingdom than Nebuchadnezzar. Right? And this is pointing us to the King of Kings, to the Lord of Lords, who does reign over all. We're talking about Christ. And we're talking about how God is going to get His glory. Look at what Philippians 2 says about how Christ is this King. It says, therefore God has highly exalted Him, Christ, and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that's everyone everywhere, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Boy, this reminds me of Nebuchadnezzar. This is exactly what Nebuchadnezzar was doing. He was bowing the knee to the Most High God, saying, you are God of God, you are king, and your kingdom rules over all, and he's gonna get his praise. Praise the Lord that God takes his enemies and makes them his friends by dying for them. And so when we look at our sin and we look at our need to be humble, we should realize that Christ gave himself up so that the power of sin could be death in us, that we don't no longer have to be slaves to sin, but that we can walk in newness of life because Christ died for us to remove the stain of sin, to remove the power of sin. That happens by faith, that happens by grace. It's not something that we muster up in ourselves, but it's something we partner with Christ. Christ is our King, and therefore He subdues our enemies. He's the one who helps kill the sin that we need. But part of how we do that is we trust Him, we love Him, we praise Him, we adore Him, we spend time with Him. And so we say, Christ, help me. Humble me. It's exactly what we see at the end of the Bible in Revelation 5. God is getting his due and his praise. His people are saying it loud and proud. Revelation 5, 12 says, saying with a loud voice, this heavenly host and this heavenly group, worthy is the lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. God's gonna get his praise, and he's gonna get it in the person and the work of Christ, and he's gonna get it from people who are humbled by Christ. who are believing in Christ, who are looking to Christ. They're not looking to themselves, to their own lives, to their own strength, to their own abilities. They're looking to Christ and His strength and His abilities. That is the gospel. Look to Christ. Place your life in His hands. Trust that He will take you across the line. Follow His ways. Follow His commands. For his sake, from the heart, verse 13, I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne, to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever, amen. This is what we will be saying and every creature will be saying at the end of time, but here's the good news for us who are believers. We can say that now today. We can say that now with a humble heart. with a heart that is so grateful that God gives us space to repent and he sent Christ so that we could repent. And so if this is you today, if you're here and you're a Christian and you need to be reminded of God's sovereignty and maybe you're encouraged by the fact that he knows you, he sees your frame and he's got your life planned out, you can trust him. Be encouraged today. Be encouraged today. If you're a Christian who's reminded that you can't dabble with sin and you can't be prideful to think that you can get away with stuff, God, be encouraged today. God has given you space to repent. He loves you. Repent. If you're a non-Christian here today and there are things that He's called you to do, to believe in Him, to follow Him, to be baptized, to trust in Him, Good news. There's space. Repent. Look to Christ. Believe in Him. God gets the glory and we get blessing. So let's do that now. Let's bow our heads. Father, thank you for this wonderful teaching. You are God of God, King of kings. You rule the earth and you give to humans all their power and all their dominion. You give it to whom you will, you take it from whom you will. And Lord, that encourages us, Lord, because we want your will. Help us to want your will more and more and more every day. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So Lord, thank you for this passage. Thank you how it points us to you and to Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and how he deserves all praise and glory, and how we can give that to him now. So help us to do that, even as we continue to worship today. It's in his name we pray, amen.