Episode Transcript
Daniel chapter 2, is where we'll be at this morning.
Daniel chapter 2, and God willing we'll be expounding verses 24 and 25.
Daniel chapter 2, verses 24 and 25.
I love my church so much.
And I love coming up here and sharing God's Word.
I emerged from my study yesterday and I went and told my wife, "What a study!
What a study I had!"
I absolutely love God's Word.
Daniel chapter 2, verse 24 and 25, the title of the message this morning is, "I have found a man."
"I have found a man."
In the previous verses, God had given King Nebuchadnezzar a mysterious dream, and Nebuchadnezzar had summoned his spiritual advisors to explain the dream to him.
Nebuchadnezzar was troubled by his dream, and he knew it was important.
He knew it came from some divine power over him, so he wanted to know the meaning of it.
But there were two problems, and the first problem was Nebuchadnezzar would not tell his spiritual leaders the dream he had.
He wanted them to tell him.
And then he wanted them to give him the interpretation, which of course was impossible for them to do.
They told the king that he was being unreasonable.
They said, "Men can't know what another man dreamed.
It's just impossible, King, you're asking something absolutely impossible.
But the king knew, once again, that the dream came from some god, because they worship different gods.
And he knew the dream came from some god.
And he wanted the god who had given him the dream to give that same dream to his spiritual advisors.
That way, he would know that the God that gave him the dream was talking to them.
Instead of them just making some explanation up of the dream he said he had.
The second problem was King Nebuchadnezzar's spiritual advisors were a bunch of fakes.
They were religious charlatans.
They had no relationship with the God who had given Nebuchadnezzar the dream, so they had no ability to know it or interpret it.
So in a fit of rage, the king commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be put to death.
Not just the religious charlatans that he had spoken to about the dream, but all his spiritual advisors, all the wise men, all the scientists, everybody that he's supposed to go to for advice, he said, "Just kill them all."
And that included four godly men, captives of Israel. one in particular named Daniel.
And when Daniel heard about this, when they came for Daniel, he asked the king to delay the death sentence that he had just passed upon all the wise men.
He said, "King, you give me time to pray to my God.
I'll come back and I'll tell you the dream and the interpretation."
And God miraculously answered Daniel's prayer as we saw in the previous verses.
God gave Daniel the same dream and He gave Daniel the interpretation.
And now all Daniel had to do was explain that dream to Nebuchadnezzar and he and his friends could live.
Look back in your text now in Daniel 2.24.
"Therefore Daniel went in unto Ariok."
Now the first three sections of this sentence deal with a man named Ariok.
After that, it deals with things that were said.
And this is how we're breaking it down.
The first three sections deal with a man named Ariok.
The Bible could have said, "Therefore Daniel went back to the king and explained the dream to him."
Because that's what Daniel did.
But the Bible didn't have to mention Ariok at all.
God could have just skipped that part, but He didn't.
And I believe it's because God wants to remind us that there's a whole lot more going on than just the king and his dream, and Daniel and his fellows.
He would remind us there's a lot more people involved than what meets the eye.
Now you just think about what God is doing here.
God gives the king of the most powerful kingdom on earth a dream.
And everybody close to that king knows that he's troubled by it.
The experts couldn't tell the king his dream, so he condemns all of them to death.
The king, jaded by the felled wisdom of this world, condemns every advisor he has.
And the people in the kingdom have been watching all this unfold.
Don't you know there was a lot of rumble going on out there?
Everybody knows the king is asking these men for something that's impossible for them to do.
And the scene now becomes very tense, as the wise men are pleading for their lives.
So many lives are about to be lost, and chaos, fear, and panic spreads throughout the city.
The king never asked Daniel and his friends to interpret the dream, but since they were the wise men, they were about to be killed too.
The wise men told the king that nobody had ever required what they were asking of them from anybody.
But when they came to kill Daniel, Daniel told the king, "I'll tell you the dream and the interpretation.
Just give me time to speak to God."
Now don't you know, when Daniel told the king that, everyone really started talking.
"What?"
Because all these other wise men, "King, it's impossible, we can't do it."
And here comes Daniel, he said, "King, what do you want to kill all these people for?"
He said, "I'll tell you the dream you had, and I'll tell you the interpretation of it.
Just give me some time to pray to God."
The king's looking at Daniel, and everyone else is looking at Daniel.
Next thing you know, they start talking and whispering and news starts spreading.
And I bet King Nebuchadnezzar probably thought that Daniel was just stalling for time.
Give me a little bit.
And the people in the palace probably thought the same thing.
The wise men, the rest of the wise men probably thought the same thing.
But you know, the king really wanted to understand this dream, so he postponed the mass execution, and he gave Daniel some time to pray.
And then, everybody waits.
I've got this old wind-up clock in my study, and I like to listen to it tick as I'm preparing my message sometimes.
And I was thinking about it ticking yesterday as I was working on this message.
Everyone's waiting.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
What's going to happen when Daniel runs out of time?
What's he going to do out next?
Break out a hat and a cane and tap and dance, try to stall for time?
Everybody waits, and everybody's eyes on Daniel, and everybody's eyes on the God of Daniel, the God of Israel.
The king is watching to see what Daniel and his God will do.
The wise men are watching to see what Daniel and his God will do.
The servants are watching to see what Daniel and his God will do.
The citizens of Babylon are watching to see if Daniel and the God of Israel will pull off the impossible.
Time passes by and Daniel's time is running out.
The people grow anxious and then suddenly, Daniel emerges from his house.
And he comes to this man named Ariok, look back in your text, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon.
Ariok had been given the difficult task to ensure that all the wise men were slain.
Now these wise men, they were highly educated people.
They were skilled in all kinds of knowledge and science, but they were all condemned to die, every one of them.
And except for their false religious views, these men were valuable to the kingdom.
Ariok didn't want to kill these men.
If he did, he would have never allowed Daniel to speak to the king to begin with.
He would have just killed him.
And Harriach wondered if Daniel's God could show him the king's dream.
And when Daniel finished praying, look back in your text, "He went and said thus unto him," now underscore the word "said," "said."
From this point forward, the Scriptures draw our attention to the things that were said.
Daniel emerged from his house and said, here's the first thing he said, "Destroy not the wise men of Babylon."
Watch what's taking place here.
When Daniel came out of his house, Daniel didn't start pleading for himself.
Daniel didn't start pleading for his friends.
Daniel emerged from his house and pled for the lives of every man that was condemned to die.
"Destroy not the wise men of Babylon," he said.
They all had a universal condemnation, and God sent them all a universal Savior.
"Destroy not the wise men of Babylon."
God provided salvation to those four Jewish men, and the salvation He sent to them was then extended to the rest.
You see what's happening?
God gave salvation to these Jewish men, and then the salvation He gave them is now extended to the rest.
His salvation, the salvation that God provided those Jews that day, It was Daniel and his three friends who had been praying to God for this dream.
And the salvation that God supplied those Jewish men that day was literally to the Jew first and then extended to the Gentiles.
His salvation was to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles.
Now this is a picture of our salvation to the Gospel.
Romans chapter 1 verse 16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, or to the Gentile."
Here's a kingdom truth.
God gives salvation to the Jews to give salvation through the Jews.
God gives salvation to the Jews to give salvation through the Jews.
On this day, God used one Jewish man to save all men who were condemned to die.
God used one Jewish man to save all men who were condemned to die.
As Daniel pled for the deliverance of every man.
So Jesus stands in the presence of God today pleading for sinners, saying, "Destroy not these sinners who are condemned to die."
That's what His sacrifice on the cross pleads.
"Destroy not these sinners."
In Charles Wesley's song, "Arise, My Soul, Arise," he wrote these words.
Five bleeding wounds he bears, one, two, foot, foot, four, one on the side, five on the cross.
Five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary.
They pour effectual prayers.
They strongly plead for me.
Forgive him.
Oh, forgive, they cry.
Nor let that poor ransom sinner die.
Daniel emerged from his house with salvation for all, crying, "Destroy them not!"
And Jesus emerged from the tomb with salvation for all, crying, "Destroy them not!"
Daniel said, "Don't destroy the wise men of Babylon."
And then Daniel said, look back in your text, here's the next thing he said, "Bring me in before the king."
The first thing, he says to the executioner, "Don't destroy the wise men of Babylon."
Then he says, "Bring me in before the king."
So Daniel first spoke to the executioner, and then Daniel spoke to the authority behind him.
You see?
Daniel first addressed the executioner, what was causing the men to die.
And then Daniel speaks to the authority and addresses the authority that was over their condemnation.
You see, it wasn't enough that Daniel emerged from his house with the power for men to live.
But he had to take that power to the throne.
Daniel said, "Bring me in before the king."
And when Jesus came out of that grave, he didn't go to the Sanhedrin court.
He didn't go to Caesar's palace.
He didn't start walking the streets and preaching again.
Jesus came out of that grave with power for men to live and he said in essence, "Bring me in before the king."
That he might take the power for us to live to the power that was over what was causing us to die.
The power over our execution, our condemnation.
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says, "We should be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." bring me in before the King.
That's exactly what Jesus did.
Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24 says, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands," talking about the tabernacle in the Old Testament, "which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
Jesus Christ with his nail pierced hands and feet, Jesus Christ who was crucified as a lamb of God on that cross, is now before the King pleading, "Destroy not the people for whom I died."
Nobody but Daniel had the power for those men to live, and And nobody but Jesus has the power for us to live.
Daniel said, "Bring me in before the King, not somebody else."
And there's only Jesus who could go before the King and plead for lost sinners.
"Bring me in," he said, look back in your text, "and I will show unto the King the interpretation."
I will show unto the King the interpretation.
Now here's what you have to understand.
I had to get more into this in the next few weeks, so I don't want to get ahead of myself.
But this dream and the understanding of this dream is not just the fact that the king is going to understand the dream.
It's the revelation of God's long-term plan to the end of the world in what He's going to do at the end of it.
And so right now, the king doesn't know, the king doesn't understand what's taking place.
When Daniel reveals this to the king, he makes it revealed to us, And in so doing, He's showing us what's going to transpire, and how God's going to win in the end for His people.
In so doing this, as the revelation is made of the truth, it is all the same as God accomplishing the truth that He's revealing.
Do you understand?
It's as if everything in the mind of people at this point is going to stay the same.
Nebuchadnezzar is going to stay on the throne, his son is going to take the throne after him, his son after him, and they're always going to continue to be the great nation in Babylon, and there's always going to be kingdoms of this world, and wars fighting, and things like that.
That's all the people know.
And so the revelation is not just the knowledge of what's coming to pass, but by being revealed, it's as if it is the facilitation of what's going to come to pass.
By revealing it, God is controlling it.
Does that make sense?
And so as we're seeing this here, this revelation that's going to take place is the proclamation of God's victory for His people.
We'll see that as we continue on in this book.
So right now, it's important that the king knows the interpretation because the revelation of the dream is all in the same as the fulfillment of it.
You follow me?
So he says to Arioch, who's been ordered to condemn them, Don't destroy the wise man.
That's the first thing he says.
He pleads for the wise man.
And he says, "I will show unto the king the interpretation."
And I bet Arioch's eyes got about this big when he heard this.
You're serious, right?
You really know what this man dreamed and he didn't tell you?
Is it possible that one man could know the dream in another man's head?
Arioch has to be thinking.
Could this be true?
Or is it another stall tactic?
And if it's true, and not some Hail Mary attempt to get lucky and try to guess the King's dream, if that's what Daniel's going to do.
If Daniel really knows the King's dream, and he really knows the interpretation, if I'm about to witness this, then we're about to witness a miracle today.
We're about to witness the act of Almighty God.
And he knew that.
In church, when Jesus came out of that grave, he did what Daniel did.
He did the impossible.
He did the impossible.
Only one thing could satisfy King Nebuchadnezzar, and only one thing could satisfy God, and both were impossible for men to do.
Man can't overcome death.
Man, we've been trying and trying and trying.
Jack LaLanne, Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons.
We've been trying and trying and trying.
And we can't overcome death.
And Daniel, the only way he could save these men's lives was that if the impossible was done.
And the only way Jesus could save our life was if the impossible was done.
When Daniel went to the king, everybody knew it was the work of God.
And when Jesus came out of that grave, and he stood before the king of kings, everybody knew it was the work of God.
Man can't do what these men did.
With time ticking away, the Bible says, verse 25, Then Ariok brought in Daniel before the king in haste.
"Let's go Daniel.
Let's hurry Daniel."
They ran to the king, for Daniel had the answer to set men free.
They ran to the king, for the king was greatly troubled and needed answers.
And the wise men were greatly troubled and needed salvation.
Now let's look at the next thing that was said.
The Bible says, "Ariok rushed into the king and said unto him," the next thing being said, "I have found a man of the children of Judah," I'm sorry, "of the children of the captivity of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation."
Take your pen and underscore these precious words, "I have found a man."
I have found a man.
Oh man, I found a man who can do the impossible and deliver men from death.
You wouldn't think there'd be a man anywhere like that.
Here's a man that can deliver men from death.
Here's a man that can reveal what's going to happen in the future and as if it is setting these actions in motion by the authority of God.
And so not only setting the wise men free for the moment, but the redeemed free for all eternity.
You see what's taking place here?
I found a man!
Who can do it?
The world was looking for a man to save them that day.
And Ariok had found that one and only man.
In John, the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 45, the Bible says, "Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
Boy, the whole world had been looking for a Savior.
All these hundreds of years and thousands of years the world had been looking for a Savior that God had promised back in the Garden of Eden.
The one and only man who could do the impossible that the King required.
Who could overcome death.
Who could satisfy the penalty of sin.
Who could raise from the dead and set God's captives free.
Just like the children of Israel.
And they had looked and they had and they've been looking for millennia and nobody could find the man who could do it and finally at the appointed time Philip comes to Nathanael and says we found him.
We have found him of whom Moses in the Old Testament and the prophets wrote about.
It's Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.
Church I can promise you one thing Babylon was no happier to find Daniel that day than we were to find Jesus.
Amen.
I have found a man makes me think of that song.
I found a friend who is all to me.
Someone find that if we've got in our hymn book would you?
We'll come back to in a minute.
Saved by his power.
That's a good one.
Brother Shepard will find that.
"I found a man," Ariok said, "not a man of Babylon."
There wasn't any man in Babylon who could set these people free.
It was a lowly man of the captives of the children of Judah.
The leader of a world empire is visibly shaken.
His advisors were condemned to die and no man was able to deliver these men from death.
Men are weeping because they don't want to die.
Wives and children are weeping because they don't want to lose their husbands and their fathers.
The kingdom is in a state of shock and horror, for there is no man who can do the impossible, who can reveal the future and give the interpretation.
It's as if God had closed it up, and nobody can break those seals and reveal it.
And just when everyone thought the situation was hopeless, Ariok comes before the king and says, "I found a man.
He's of the children of Judah.
He can do the impossible.
He can unseal the mystery of this dream and set these poor men free.
God ordained one man from Judah to unseal the mystery from Babylon, and because God has ordained one man from Judah to unseal the mystery for us.
Revelation chapter 5 verses 1 through 5.
Revelation chapter 5 verses 1 through 5.
The apostle John says, "And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne," here we go, here's the king, And we're dealing with the man that came out of the grave to do the impossible.
Same scene.
"I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals."
There's knowledge, there's a mystery, but it's all sealed up.
"And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy?
Who is able?
Who can open the book and loose the seals thereof?'
And no man in heaven, nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon."
So here's John weeping.
There's nobody.
Nobody!
And about that time, it says, "And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."
There was a mystery in Revelation that needed to be revealed concerning the future of the world.
And there was a mystery in the book of Daniel that needed to be revealed concerning the future of the world.
And by the way, it's the same mystery.
It's the same story that's in Daniel that is in Revelation.
And God willing, we're going to take back up with this next verse next Sunday.
And I tell you what, man, I haven't found a bad book yet in the Bible.
But every book in the Bible, when you take the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and you stick it in that book, and you turn it, it'll unlock the meaning to that book.
Every time.
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
We thank You, Father, that Jesus Christ is the one and only man who could do the impossible.
He's the narrow way that leads unto life.
And Father, I thank you for letting us find that wonderful way.
Thank you for the gospel.
Thank you for His love.
And thank you by reading these stories in the Old Testament for reminding us that you are in control of every age.
In Jesus' wonderful name we pray, Amen.
