Episode Transcript
Daniel chapter 2, and God willing, will be expounding verses 29 and 30 this morning.
The title of the message is, "That You May Know."
"That You May Know."
If you haven't been with us in the previous studies, King Nebuchadnezzar had just ordered the wise men of Babylon to be put to death because they couldn't tell the king the dream he had and give him the interpretation of it.
But in the previous verses, God revealed that dream to a godly man named Daniel.
And He gave him the interpretation of that dream as well.
And the religious leaders, the experts in sociology and science and philosophy and everything else they had there in Babylon at the time, They could not reveal the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had and they couldn't give him the interpretation of it.
Only God who gave the king the dream could give him the understanding of it.
And now in our next verse this morning, in verse 29, Daniel is standing before King Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful king on earth at that time, ready to, number one, tell him the dream he had, And number two, give him the interpretation of that dream.
But before Daniel reveals the substance of the dream, in other words, before he tells him what he actually dreamt, "Oh yeah, you were doing this or that or the other Nebuchadnezzar."
Before Daniel reveals the substance of the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel is going to give him the background of the dream.
That's what we're going to be looking at in these two verses.
Fascinatingly, when Daniel gives him the interpretation, Daniel doesn't begin with what the king dreamed, but why the king dreamed it.
To understand the significance of this dream, Daniel had to start at the beginning.
And the beginning doesn't begin with the dream.
It begins with the king who dreamed it.
Daniel said, look in your text, "As for thee, O king..."
Underscore the word "thee".
"As for thee..."
In fact, just underscore "as for thee".
"As for thee, O king..."
To learn the truth about God, you have to learn the truth about yourself.
To understand God's plan and the big scope of things in this world, you have to start with yourself and understand yourself.
Over the past several weeks, I've told you that the revelation of this dream to King Nebuchadnezzar is a revelation to us as well.
The revelation was given to the king, But the book of Daniel was given to us, and that includes that revelation.
And like Nebuchadnezzar, for us to understand God's revelation of Himself to us, for us to understand the big scope of things in life, which this dream is going to be revealing, we must understand the truth about ourselves.
I recently read from a Christian man, a godly man, who used to exercise with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And that's one, just one step below having the privilege of working out with Brother Shepherd.
One step below.
And he tried to speak to Arnold Schwarzenegger one day when he was young, about God.
And he said Arnold told him, "I am God."
What a foolish answer.
A man with a proud heart like that can't learn about God and understand the scope of things in life.
He's got to understand himself first.
Until a man learns how frail he is.
You know why a lot of people, they're all arrogant when they're young?
And they're not very religious when they're young.
But then when they get older and they start having health trouble, and death comes knocking on their door, suddenly a lot of them get a good dose of religion.
A lot of them start going to church.
I've spoken to so many older people who have told me how they regret not living for God when they were young.
But you know what?
That's the way it works a lot of times.
We're invincible when we're young.
And a lot of times, unless we're just an outright fool, when you get older, you start reflecting on life a lot more serious, because you realize the brevity of life and the importance of having an eternal future.
And so, until a person learns how frail he is, and how fleeting his life is, and how there has to be someone greater than him in control of this whole thing, and who brought all this about, then he's not going to be able to understand God and the scope of things.
The man who was exercising with Arnold said that he learned in those days that muscles were not everything.
He said, "Arnold no longer has big muscles.
He will eventually die and his only hope is Jesus Christ."
Now that is the truth.
And that led me, and when I read that, it led me to do a little research on Arnold today.
And I learned that he isn't as confident as he was when he was young.
Not near as confident.
Danny DeVito, another aging actor, a couple of years ago, he interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And in that interview, he asked Arnold a very sobering question, "What's in the future for us?"
I mean, two old men, "What's in the future for us?"
And listen to this question, What's happening from here?
Where do we go after this, Arnold?
This is where King Nebuchadnezzar was in his life at this time when he had this dream.
He was struggling with these questions.
He understood the brevity of his life.
Like Danny DeVito, he knew that life was fleeting.
I want you to listen to how Arnold Schwarzenegger answered Danny DeVito during that interview.
He said, quote, "It reminds me of Howard Stern's question to me."
Quote, "Tell me, Governor, what happens to us when we die?"
Remember, Arnold used to be Governor of California.
I said, "Nothing.
You're six feet under.
Anyone that tells you something else is a liar."
I said, this is Arnold speaking, I said, "We don't know what happens with the soul and all this spiritual stuff that I'm not an expert in, but I know that the body as we see each other now, we will never see each other again like that."
Arnold added, "When people talk about 'I will see them in heaven again,' it sounds so good, but the reality is that we won't see each other again after we're gone."
That's the sad part.
I know people feel comfortable with death, but I don't.
The strong man is scared to die.
And I thought it was fascinating that he says, "Anyone that tells you they know what's going to happen after they die, they're a liar.
The truth is..."
And then he tells you what's going to happen after you die.
We won't see each other again.
We're going to be six feet under.
It's just going to be over.
It's amazing how authoritative a person can be as long as they're not saying God's Word.
You can listen to them on that.
Both Howard Stern and Danny DeVito asked that same basic question, "What's going to become of us after we die?
How does all of this end?"
And understanding that our days are numbered helps us consider the grand scheme of things.
That's what Nebuchadnezzar was doing. said, "Okay, Nebuchadnezzar, let's start with you."
He said, look back in your text, "Thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed."
He said, "This is how this whole dream stuff started.
If you'll remember before you had this dream, you were laying in bed thinking about something. thoughts is not referring to what the king dreamt.
It was referring to what he was thinking before he had that dream.
While laying in bed one night, king, you started thinking and that phrase came into that mind, "thy thoughts."
See, not God's thoughts, thy thoughts.
We're not talking about the dream, we're talking about his thinking beforehand.
He said that your thoughts came into your mind and that It literally means that the concerns of King Nebuchadnezzar's heart, they ascended up.
Came into, that means ascended up.
They ascended up into your mind.
Not come down, but ascended up into your mind.
Nebuchadnezzar was wondering to himself, look back in your text, what should come to pass hereafter?
In other words, what's in the future for us?
What happens to us after we die?
And let me tell you, thinking about what shall come to pass hereafter is a much needed subject for us to think about.
It's good for people to think about the hereafter.
People who don't think about the hereafter can only live for the here and now.
And this world is full of people just like that.
They live for today.
They live and they can't see beyond the end of their nose.
They live for the moment.
And they don't think about the hereafter.
The king was thinking about the hereafter and that was very wise of him to do so.
But people who don't think about the hereafter, they can only live for the here and now.
And those who live for the here and now shall die in the hereafter.
Jesus said, "He that seeks to save his life shall lose it, but he that loses for my sake shall find it."
People, if this is all your life is about, is where you work, what you do, when you're going to retire, how you're going to build a new home, where you're going to vacation, how you're going to spend your golden years, you're blowing life, you're wasting your life.
And Nebuchadnezzar was thinking soberly on his bed that night.
What comes after this?
You ever think that?
If you never thought it, you better start thinking it because something is going to come after this.
Like any sensible person, he was probably questioning the significance of his life in the grand scheme of things.
Because we're only a drop in a bucket.
Man, I was bringing... it's good to have my in-laws with us and I was picking my wife and in-laws up last night and coming back through Dallas.
There's construction up there brother Doug, you ever notice that?
Man, there were so many cars and you know what?
We were just one little drop in the bucket.
Who are we in the grand scheme of things?
What will happen to us after, at the end of this world and how is this world going to end?
That's what Nebuchadnezzar's thinking.
Daniel was saying, "King, before you had this mysterious dream that you're wanting me to tell you about and interpret for you, I want you to remember that you were laying in your bed and you were wondering what would come to pass hereafter.
Do you remember that, King?"
"I do.
I do remember that.
I was thinking that."
Look back in your text.
"And he," Daniel says, "that revealeth secrets."
Underscore that word, "revealeth."
"He that revealeth "Secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass."
Now, I want you to remember that that Hebrew word translated "revealeth" it means to take clothes off of something.
Remember, it has that meaning, to take, to denude, to take clothes off of something.
Remember, we learned last week the future already exists.
We have a hard time understanding that because we're created in a time-space continuum.
Time, space and matter, that's the only way we can understand things.
But to God, He's outside of that time, space, matter continuum.
So the future already exists, but like clothes, what do clothes do?
God instituted clothing in the Garden of Eden.
To do so, because of the knowledge they had, God put on clothing to cover things that were improper for other people to see.
And we still use that today.
And so God, the future exists just as we exist, but God closed the future because it's not proper for us to see.
Because God wants us to experience the future through the medium of time, which God is not restricted to.
Now, the future is not clothed for God.
Brother Shepard and I were visiting last week, and the sermon brought a scripture to mind, which was a very wonderful scripture in Hebrews 4.13.
Remember, the word "revealeth" means to take the clothes off.
So the future is not clothed to God.
The Bible says in Hebrews 4.13, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest..."
"Any creature" means nothing of the creation, no part of creation at all that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are what?
Naked and opened unto the eyes of Him that is God, with whom we have to do.
So every bit of God's creation, including time, in the beginning, God started time.
God is outside of time.
God is eternal.
But God began time.
God created time.
Time is naked to Him.
It is clothed to us.
Every creature is naked to the eyes of God, meaning everything God has made, including time, including space, including matter, life and death, and all parts of it, is naked to the eyes of God who made it.
Job 26, verse 6 says, "Hell is naked before Him, and destruction hath no covering."
Hell exists just like the future.
Aren't you glad God has clothed it from our eyes?
I'm so glad, brother, I'm so glad I can't see that.
It's there.
God's covered it.
God's clothed it.
Proverbs chapter 15 verse 11 says, "Hell and destruction are before the Lord."
In other words, it's naked and open to Him.
How much more than the hearts of the children of men.
If God can see that which we cannot see, if heaven and hell are naked and open to Him, then how much more are our thoughts of our hearts?
Now they're clothed to you.
Why?
It's not proper for you to see them.
God has given me the privacy of being able to entertain my thoughts without you peering into them.
But it's naked and open to the eyes of God.
I'm glad you can't see my thoughts.
I'm glad I can't see hell.
I'm glad I can't see the future.
I'm glad God has clothed certain things and established some things to be proper for us to see, and others because of His divine order to not be seen.
But your heart and your thoughts are naked and open to the eyes of God.
He knows exactly what you're thinking, exactly every imagination and the thoughts of your heart.
He knows it and He knew what Nebuchadnezzar was thinking. before he gave him this dream.
God has clothed the thoughts of our hearts from the eyes of other people, but our hearts are naked to God's eyes.
God sees the thoughts of our hearts because God created our hearts.
God sees the future because God created time.
And prophecy, because the book of Daniel is a prophetic book, it's a book of prophecy.
Prophecy is God pulling back a piece of clothing from the future, so we can see certain things, which otherwise are not proper for us to see.
Daniel is letting Nebuchadnezzar know, God sees the thoughts of your heart.
And God saw what you were thinking before you had that dream.
And not only can God see what happened before you had that dream, what you were thinking, God also sees the future just as the same as the present.
It's all the same to Him.
It's already here.
It already exists.
And now the God who pulls back the garments of things, hidden from our eyes is revealing some of the future for Nebuchadnezzar and thus for us to see.
When at my job at the courthouse, we have to screen people going into the courthouse, and every now and then someone will come through, and for example, let's say they come through and A lady has on a pair of slacks and she has on thin, high-heeled sandals.
Women like wearing stuff like that.
And they walk through and my metal detector alerts down there on her feet.
You can't hide a shoe bomb in a thin pair of sandals.
But they do have nails in them.
Sometimes they go off.
You know what I'll do?
Ma'am, would you mind just lifting up your pant leg like that?
That way I can make sure she didn't have some kind of gun holster on or something on her ankle.
It's not proper for her to remove all of the clothing.
But at that time, that little bit of revelation is important for the time at hand.
And so what God is doing here in the book of Daniel, He's telling Nebuchadnezzar, God pulls the clothing back.
He reveals, He makes naked the secrets or that which is hidden from our eyes.
And he's going to just take the future and raise the pant leg on it.
And let us take a peek and see.
Alright?
Now let's move on.
I want you to notice that Daniel clarified to Nebuchadnezzar that there was only one God who can reveal what is covered to man.
He didn't say the gods that reveal the secrets, but the God who reveals the secrets.
And because God can reveal it, and because only God can show it, only God knows it, means only God controls it.
If God can reveal the future to us, and that future be known, and true and correct and never change until it's fulfilled.
That means God is in absolute control of the future.
That means when God gives us a promise today, it is good forever.
And we can rest our faith on Him.
Now in verse 29, we underscored "as for thee".
Now move to verse 30 and underscore "as for me".
See, let's get two things straight.
Number one, "as for thee".
This is what you were thinking.
This is the matter that God is addressing here.
And now let's talk about me, Nebuchadnezzar, "as for me".
See, Nebuchadnezzar had to understand that he was a mortal creature who needed an immortal God.
Daniel though had to understand that he was merely the messenger of the dream, not the maker of it.
Merely the messenger.
And both of these men were being used by God in a great way.
But neither of these men were anything apart from the amazing grace of God.
Daniel said, "As for me," look back in your text, "this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living."
He's saying, "King, I want you to understand I'm no smarter than the next fella.
I didn't figure this dream out on my own.
I didn't get some big chalkboard and start doing some kind of mathematical computation.
I didn't apply physics and statistics and logic.
I didn't do any of that.
He says, I'm no smarter than the next fellow.
I didn't figure this thing out on my own, and God didn't reveal the dream to me because I'm wiser than other people.
Look back at your text.
"But for their sakes, that shall make known the interpretation to the king."
That's a bad translation, by the way.
It would be better translated, "For the sake that the interpretation should be made to the king."
God did not give it to me because I was so smart, but for the sake that I might make the interpretation known to the King."
You know, when we were doing that scripture, as Brother Shepard said, "There's no accidents."
And Brother Doug got up here and he looked back at that memory verse, He's like, "I don't remember that.
That's not my memory verse."
And then we read it.
And it's not self-explanatory.
It's not one of those kind of verses.
But as we read it, I'm just soaking in the wonderful truth of it.
And then God takes that wonderful truth that He showed me, and He puts it on my heart to make sure you understand it.
And then I had a couple of people on there say, "Thank you for expounding that online.
Thank you for expounding that."
Were any of you all glad to have that scripture explained?
Okay, now I want you to understand, just like with Daniel, that wasn't given to me because I'm any smarter than the next fella.
I'm telling you, I am that.
I am still in my head that young twenty-something year old highway patrolman that was driving on the road one day and I told God, "God, you're the only one that can show me how to be saved.
I'm so stupid I can't figure this out."
I actually told God that.
I'm so stupid I can't figure this out.
I was in Jacksonville, Texas headed eastbound in my patrol car.
I said, "I'm so stupid I can't figure this out."
I'm telling you, I know who I am.
God wasn't giving this to Daniel because he was some great expert that could figure it out.
And God doesn't give these truths to me or to Brother Shepherd or to Brother Doug when he's preaching to those people out there.
But for your sakes, because God wants you to know the interpretation of His Word to you.
There's times when I study the Bible, I'll come out of my study at home, I'll come out and I'll say, "Tammy, man I had a good study.
Oh, that was so good.
So good.
I'm so thankful."
And you know what I think sometimes when I have that kind of study?
I think to myself, God sure does love those people.
That's what I think.
Because I know He's not giving it to me because I'm some kind of whiz.
I'm not.
Brother Shepherd, how many times do you open the Bible up, you come to some difficult scripture, and you think, "Man, I have no idea what that means."
A lot.
Brother Doug, a lot.
And how do we start out?
We start out by seeking God.
How did Daniel start out?
He started out by seeking God to give him the understanding, and to give him the dream.
And then when God gives it to him, he praises God.
And he makes sure that the recipient knows, "Man, don't give me any credit for this.
There's a God in heaven who loves you.
He knew what you were thinking.
He gave me this because He cares about you.
He wants you to get the answers to life that you need.
And I'm telling you that's why we come to church, folks.
We come to church not to hear me because I'm nobody, but because there's a God who loves you.
He knows the thoughts of your hearts.
He knows the concerns about your life.
And He wants you to get the answers you need.
And that is why it is such a sin to neglect the house of God.
Nebuchadnezzar had enough sense to listen to the message of God.
He said that thou, look back in your text, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of your heart, those thoughts you were thinking on your bed, Nebuchadnezzar.
That's what the dream was about.
Nebuchadnezzar, is it making a little sense to you now?
That's why you had that dream.
It's because God loves you so much, He gave you a mystery.
That He loves you so much, He gave you a teacher to help you understand.
And once he revealed that mystery to the king, it was obvious that it was true.
You can't see the understanding of it until it's explained.
But once it's explained, it's very obvious it was there.
And that's the way it is with the Bible.
God is...
My Bible's over here.
I've got my Bible on my iPad.
This book right here is God's dream to us.
There's so many mysteries in here.
And God in these mysteries solves every problem in life. has become my everything, my go-to source for truth and comfort and victory.
God didn't give me this dream because I was so smart.
So you could get the questions you were wondering about the hereafter.
They could be answered by God.
Now I want you to notice as we begin to close that God orchestrated this so that Nebuchadnezzar could not get God's answers without Daniel.
And Daniel did not get God's answers without Nebuchadnezzar.
Isn't that fascinating?
Daniel had to ask God for it.
It started with Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel would have never had this revelation without Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar would have never understood it without Daniel.
You see what we're learning here?
Nebuchadnezzar was a pagan Gentile.
Daniel was a Jew.
A child of the covenant promise of Abraham.
Nevertheless, Nebuchadnezzar could not get his answers without Daniel, and Daniel couldn't get them without Nebuchadnezzar.
Do you know why?
It's because the Gentiles cannot get the grace of God without the Jews, and the Jews do not get the grace of God without us.
God will not give it to them without us, but we can't get it without them.
Because the grace of God that brings salvation comes through the line of the tribe of Judah.
Daniel received the answers to that dream, the actual explanation, the actual understanding of the future.
Daniel received that from God first.
And then Nebuchadnezzar received those answers from Daniel. salvation is to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
You see?
Daniel said, "God gave me this information that thou mightest know the thoughts of your heart."
God cared enough to give that searching Gentile the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
That's what this dream is going to be about.
You'll see next week.
God cared enough to give that searching Gentile the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And God cares enough to give these searching Gentiles the knowledge of Christ today, and I want you to understand that God used his revelation to Daniel to give a searching Gentile the understanding of the kingdom of God.
Why?
To show us that the Old Testament is not just for the Jews, it's for us too.
It's for the Gentiles too.
God's revelation to Daniel gave the knowledge of Christ to both Jews and Gentiles and His message to them is still His message to us.
God willing, we'll begin studying the substance of this marvelous revelation next Sunday.
Can't wait to get into it.
Aren't you glad you have a Bible?
Praise God, I'm glad I have a Bible.
Father, we thank You so much for Your precious Word.
Thank You, Father, for all these precious people who are here today.
Lord, indeed, we have witnessed in your Word today a marvel of God.
We've witnessed your testimony to us that the teaching of God's Word is given to us because of your great love for your people.
So we can get our questions answered.
Thank you for giving us your Bible.
Thank you for giving us Bible teachers.
And thank you for reminding us that those who learn it and those who teach it are all in the same boat.
We all need Jesus.
And I can't get one without them getting it as well.
How wonderful, Lord, of a God we have.
Thank you for giving us the Jews.
And thank you, Father, for letting us Gentiles be partakers, Lord, of that wonderful grace.
In Jesus' precious name we pray, Amen.
