Verse by verse teaching - Daniel 4:29-31 "Who Built Babylon?"

Daniel 4, verses 29 through 31. In the previous verses, the prophet Daniel revealed to the king of Babylon. That God was going to remove him from the throne and cause him to live in a lowly condition. Like an animal in a field, grazing out in a field. He would no longer have the understanding of a man. He would think and live like a beast until the the Bible said. that he learned his lesson, that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whoever he wants to, and it's not you, Nebuchadnezzar, who's in charge, it's God. Daniel recommended last week in our verses to Nebuchadnezzar that he break off his sin. And uh and uh by doing God's will, and perhaps God by by him doing that would be merciful to Nebuchadnezzar. He he he definitely would undergo what God said, but perhaps God would lengthen his days of tranquility and uh and and be uh kind to him on account of him uh changing his his life. and do what's pleasing to God. And I must say, if God told me that I was going to graze like a cow for several years, And a prophet told me that if I were to get my life right with God, then maybe he'd soften the blow of my sentence. I'd like to think that I'd clean my act up really fast. But that's often not what people do. And we're going to learn that this morning. For most people, once the fear wears off, The fake change of heart wears off with it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your precious word, and I thank you for every person here this morning. And God, we just yield ourselves to you today, and we pray, Father, you'll receive all honor and glory. You'll open the eyes of our understanding and teach us your word this morning. May all eyes be on you. May you receive all honor and glory, and I pray you'll feed your sheep. In Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. For most people, again, once the fear wears off, the fake change of heart wears off, we might call that jailhouse religion. A lot of people get it that have never even seen the jailhouse. They get the hospital religion. They get uh, you know, some some kind of uh the fear that strikes them and then suddenly they want to get right with God. Do you remember how Pharaoh responded whenever God would send a plague Pharaoh's way? Old Pharaoh was big and tough and didn't want to have anything to do with God and didn't want to obey God's word until he got those plagues. And once he got a good taste of those plagues, he'd say, all right, Moses, I'll let God's people go. Just ask God to take this plague away, to take the frogs away, to take whatever away, and then I'll let God's people go. And he was just tapped out. In each time, supposedly, Pharaoh had a change of heart. But when God removed the plague from the land, what did Pharaoh do? As soon as that plague was gone and everything was okay in Egypt, then Pharaoh would change his mind and he'd say, well, no, I'm not going to let God's people go after all. And the point being, Pharaoh never had a change of heart at all. You see, what Pharaoh had was this. Pharaoh did not have a change of heart. He had a change of circumstance. You see the difference? And that's what happens with a lot of people today. That's what happens to you and me sometimes, that we will be going a certain course in life. And there's something in our life that is contrary to God's word, and then something will happen To cause us to be afraid, like Pharaoh. We'll have a change of circumstance. A bad report from the doctor. Possibly our job. We're going to lose our job. Something that scares us. And then we'll say, God, I'm gonna get right with you. God, I'm sorry. God, I'm gonna start doing this. God, I'm gonna start going to church. God, I'm gonna cut cle my life up over here, but as soon as that circumstance changes And everything seems okay in life. A lot of times we'll go right back to the way we were. It's not a change of heart that we had. When that happens, it's a change of circumstance. When Pharaoh's circumstances were good, then he openly rebelled against God. But when his circumstances were bad, and when his his life was uncomfortable, then He would get afraid, and then suddenly he would get religion and and so to speak, and and he'd say, I'll let God's people go. And how Nebuchadnezzar responds to God in our passage today. And how Nebuchadnezzar responds to Daniel's advice that he gave him last week, it's a good lesson to us in how most people respond to God as well. And how God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar is a good lesson to us on how and why God often deals with us the same way. God didn't bring judgment on Nebuchadnezzar immediately. No, God waited a whole year. before he cut that Babylonian tree down. A whole year. The Bible says, look in your text. At the end of 12 months, man, a year can seem like a long time. At the end of 12 months, Nebuchadnezzar got the bad news. And I I could just imagine Nebuchadnezzar hearing that bad news that he was the tree, he was going to be cut down, he was going to be sent out into a pasture to graze like a cow for seven periods of time. And I bet he could go to, I could just picture him going to bed that night. Oh dear God. Oh mighty God of Daniel, be merciful to me a sinner. Being nice to the servants over here, treating the poor of the land better, making some changes in his life. And then nothing happens. Week passes by. Two weeks pass by. A month passes by. Next thing you know, he has a birthday and they're celebrating his birthday. He's got a birthday party. Next thing you know, they they that their regular annual holiday comes up. It's the 4th of July, so to speak, and they're out celebrating. Their national holiday. Then Christmas comes around and all the things they do comes around and everything is going just as it always has. Nothing's happened. And I can imagine Nebuchadnezzar at the end of that year. The fear wearing off. Everything getting back to normal. Barking at the servants again. Getting his proud heart again, forgetting about God again. Everything's all back to normal now. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 11. Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Isn't that amazing? What a verse that is. Because sentence is not executed speedily, the hearts of men are set on doing evil. Now, with man, that's a problem. With man, we need a swift sentence I believe the fact that someone can get a death sentence and sit on death row for 20, 30 years, that's a mockery of justice. And dragging things along with the the it's a mockery of justice. But the Bible says because an evil work is not executed speedily, it just drags on And people get the feeling, hey, I just do what I want to. But when it comes to God, God delays his judgment with people. He waited twelve months, and here's Nebuchadnezzar still at the end of the 12 months, and we're going to see that he's still walking around in his castle. Like nothing ever happened, like no prophecy was ever given to him. Why would God wait so long to do that? Why wouldn't God Do like Ecclesiastes says, and like he says in his word, because we should execute judgment speedily. Fairly, justly, yes. We should know what we're doing. We should make sure we don't meet out justice wrongly. But when we know we have someone guilty, I'm telling you, someone that has a uh they're on video and you catch them murdering somebody, I think by the end of the night they should be dead publicly make a big deal out of it But why does God wait? Like he did with Nebuchadnezzar. Well, if people were punished by God, As soon as they did wrong, then God would create a hot stove response in the world. That's what I call it, a hot stove response. People would learn not to do wrong because there would be instant pain. Just like if you you have a kid and You know, used to they would have uh I had a friend of mine, he he uh was a tree trimmer, and uh he had a wood burning stove in his house. It's the only source of heat he had. Because he had all the firewood he wanted. He made his living cutting trees down. And so I was in his house one day and uh he had that wood-burning stove going. And I'm telling you, it wasn't one of these safety stoves. This was the good old-fashioned kind that if a kid were to go up there and lay their hand on it, they'd leave some skin behind. But you know what happens? All it takes is to touch that stove one time in its immediate ouch! Get some ice, get some water, get some butter, whatever you put on your burn. And because it's immediate, that kid knows I'm not ever touching that again. Now if they touch the stove And maybe a month later, they're just walking down the road and ooh. They're not going to associate it to that. They may go back and touch it again and not realize that's what's causing the pain. And so if God punished everybody as soon as they did something wrong, if you reaped what you sowed as soon as you did something wrong, we would have a hot stove. uh effect here in the world, and people would learn not to commit sin. So why doesn't God punish sin instantaneously? Why did he wait 12 months before he cut down King Nebuchadnezzar? It's the same reason God made the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden pleasant to the eyes. Same reason. God does not want people following his word because of their fear. He wants them following him because of their faith. Think about it. Suppose it was a sin to touch a hot stove. How many of y'all think If it was one of the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not touch a stove when it is hot, how many of y'all think that you would probably do a very good job of keeping that commandment? I think everybody would have a real I mean they that some of them could probably boast I've never done that in my life. How many of y'all desire deep down in your heart to touch a hot stove and burn your? You you do? Jonathan, you're being silly. All right. I tell you what, we're going to have a hot stove service next Sunday. Y'all come. Bring your friends. Bring your friends. We'll have Jonathan. He'll be tried by fire, Brother Shepherd. But I don't have a desire to touch a hot stove. So I think probably even in my heart, if God made it a commandment, I might be able to say, you know what, I'm pure from that sin in my heart. But now let's change the circumstance. Let's say that every time you touched a hot stove, it was extremely gratifying. Say it was like cracked cocaine. It was a it was felt so good to touch that hot stove. A man could even get addicted to it Now you're going to have a problem. Now you're going to have a whole lot of people touching hot stoves in the world. You see the difference? God doesn't want people obeying him. Because of the pain. If that's the only reason you're not touching the hot stove, if that's the only reason you're not committing a sin, it's not because you're obeying. It's because you're acting out of self-preservation. Now In that case, if it was a sin for someone to touch a hot stove. And I believe the majority of the righteous people, seemingly righteous people, as soon as it was felt good to touch that stove, the ones who before refused to touch it, as soon as the conditions changed. on what the response was in touching that stove, I believe we'd have a lot of folks touching it. See, our obedience. is not tested by our avoidance of the pain of sin, but by our denial of the pleasure of sin. And we'll repeat that again. Our obedience to God is not tested by our avoidance of the pain of sin. but our denial of the pleasures of sin. Speaking of Moses in Egypt. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 25, that Moses was, quote, choosing rather to suffer affliction. You see that word affliction? With the people of God. Now do you see that association? Look what God did here. Watch this. Affliction and suffering is associated with the people of God. How about that? When God associates affliction and suffering with his people That immediately makes being a child of God not pleasant to the eyes He says Moses was choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy what? The pleasures of sin for a season. Talk about testing someone's obedience. Moses had to choose between earthly affliction in earthly pleasure. Earthly affliction in earthly pleasure. The affliction came with obedience, the pleasure came with sin He could have either chosen to identify, being raised in Pharaoh's house as a little Jewish baby. He could have either chosen to identify with the Egyptian people. And went along with their persecution of God's people and enjoyed the pleasures of sin that came with that. Or he could have chosen to identify with God's people and bring himself underneath the affliction of Pharaoh, which is the choice he made. But that's how God does things. God didn't want Nebuchadnezzar to obey his word because it was the comfortable thing to do, but because it was the right thing to do. God does not want you to obey his word because it is the comfortable thing for you to do. but because it is the right thing for you to do. So God let Nebuchadnezzar continue on in pleasure before God sent him to the pasture. And that's what God does with us as well. Several years ago, I was visiting a young person in the hospital who was battling some fairly serious health problems at the time. And that young person told me, I believe God got my attention this time. In other words, God has been trying to get my attention before. I have not been following God's will. I have not been living right with God. But this time I think God's got my attention. He's got me flat on my back in the hospital. Do you know what happened when that young man got out of the hospital? And things started getting back to normal in his life. He didn't start living for the Lord. No. I visited an old man once in the hospital, and he said, when I get out of the hospital He said, I'm going to I'm going to go to church. I'll come see you in church. And you know what he did? He got out of the hospital and he came to church one time and I never saw him again in church. You see, it's just a sad truth, but most people have no desire to live for God. None. And if they're living for God, so to speak, because of what they're getting out of it, they're not living for God at all. They're living for what they're getting out of it. I guarantee you, these shyster preachers that get up. By the way, that reminds me, someone asked my wife the other day. how we collected offerings because we don't ever talk about it. Well the offering plate's down here and there's one over there. And so we don't pass the offering plate. You just come up and put your offering in the offering plate. And we don't pressure folks, but every now and then I'll do this. This here is uh in Brother Doug someone asked Brother Doug the other day too, so I'll go ahead and address this while we're here. This is a check from a bank. So if you most banks have online bill pay. And so what you do, you you get your online bill pay and you set it up. And then it will uh you can type in Central Baptist Church, 116 West Mount Vernon Street, Maybank, Texas, 75147. And you put your amount in there once you get it set up, and then you just click pay, and then the bank prints out a check just like this bank did. And we have several uh church members that use their online bill pay at the bank. They just get on their phone and type it in and put the money in the what what value they want to send and then the bank sends the check to the church. We get those every week. Right? And sometimes I'll put the the the the uh uh checks in there that come, and sometimes I'll put the bills along with it. So that when people come, they'll see we got bills to pay. And they'll see what their money is going to. But the the the um Uh the pastors, the the the the religious charlatans that get up and they're always telling you to send them money for a seed offering. And uh, and uh, you know, and God's gonna bless them and you give and you're gonna get all this extra money back and all this stuff. I guarantee you. If if if they if the people quit giving them money and they started getting persecution instead, they'd find them another line of work They're not serving God because it's the righteous thing to do. In fact, they're not serving God at all. All they're doing is serving themselves. But most people have no desire to live for God. They only want to live for themselves, and by God allowing Nebuchadnezzar to continue on for a time, as if nothing was going to happen to him, a whole year. He allowed us to see Nebuchadnezzar's real response to what God had told him. And Nebuchadnezzar's real response to the godly advice that he had received from Daniel. Time is a great tester of faith. You know how long we've been waiting on Jesus to come back? 2,000 years, Miss Sheila. 2,000 years since Jesus looked at his early church. And said he's coming back. Since the angels told those disciples, this the same Jesus you saw go up in the clouds is going to come back in the same manner. 2,000 years we've been waiting and serving and dying waiting on him to come back. And I'm glad. I'm glad he hasn't come back yet. I'm glad he's waited a long time. Do you know why? Because the Bible says at the end of time, people are going to start saying. Everything's been the same since the very beginning. Where is the promise of his coming? He's not coming back. I'm glad that God allows us to go through suffering and heartache. and to experience the wickedness and the godless rebellion of the world we live in. And boy, we see it all the time, don't we? I'm glad he allows us to experience it and to wait for the promise of his coming, which is how the scripture tells us to do. We are to wait for the promise of his coming. I'm glad he makes us wait. Do you know why? Time tests our faith. And so we get to see Nebuchadnezzar's real response to the godly advice and the real response to the prophecy they had heard. And thus by looking at him, we get to see how pathetic our sinful nature really is as well. A full year after Nebuchadnezzar had received this prophecy, look back in your text, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. He wasn't grazing in a field. He was still walking in a palace a year later. He was feeling confident, and he was probably at this time questioning the legitimacy of the prophecy that he had received from God. In the words that he had been told about God ruling over the kingdom of men. I mean, why wouldn't he be the one ruling over the kingdom of men? How come God, why not Nebuchadnezzar? It's his palace. It's his kingdom. And as he's walking in this palace, twelve months after this prophecy came out, verse 30, the king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built? You see where his mind's going Man, look at just look at this place. I mean, I remember when I ordered this to be built over here. I remember when I did this over here. I remember when I did all this, it built built this infrastructure up and I organized this over here. It didn't I build this what is this about God ruling in the kingdom of men? He didn't say look at this great nation that God has built. Or look at this great nation that God has enabled me to build. I He said, isn't this the nation that I have built? He's still giving himself credit for what God has done. Nebuchadnezzar wasn't thankful, he was boastful. That's one of the condemnations of the world. The Bible says they neither were thankful. God gave him a palace to walk in. God gave him the two legs that he was standing on to walk on. God gave him the mind and the body to think and to do all that he had done. And I tell you what, I absolutely loved our nation going in and capturing Maduro and his wife and liberating those precious Venezuelan people. I love watching them celebrate in the streets. I listened to a woman this morning on the news. who was raised here in America, but who was from Venezuela and still had her family over there. And she talked about how her dad worked so hard in Venezuela. only to have the government seize his land and what he worked for. I'd be pretty bitter about that and I would be ecstatic if someone got that rascal out of office and would put someone that I elected in instead of someone who elected himself. But I tell you what bothers me. What bothers me is when I see some of our leaders get up and boast, no other nation but America could do this, by far. These are the fighting, the best fighters, these are this, these are the other. We did this, we did the other. When I hear that, Brother Shepherd, it's it it troubles me. Because I think of our story with Nebuchadnezzar. And I think, you know, men, what you need to be doing is getting up there instead of high-fiving each other and sticking your chest out, you need to be getting up there and saying, thank you, God. for keeping us safe and for giving this mission success. We want to give God the thanks, not us. God had given him the body and the mind to do all that he had done, and God had given his nation victory so far. And the God who gave him those things, as he was about to find out, could take them away just like that. And he can from this nation too Church, the next time you take pleasure in what you have on this earth, make sure that you take the time to thank the God who gave it to you. The God that allowed you. to gather the wealth, the prosperity, or the family, or whatever it is that you have and you're thankful for. Nebuchadnezzar said, is not this great Babylon that I have built, look back at your text, for the house of the kingdom. By the might of my power. I did it, and I did it by my own strength, my own power, my own might. Was not this by my power? And thus not God's. And look back in your text, and for the honor of my majesty This is my work done by my power for my glory. Look at Nebuchadnezzar's heart 12 months after this prophecy. That is the way a lot of people are today. I remember when 9-11 happened and those twin tires got knocked down in New York. And I remember the Democrats and Republicans both stepping outside, joining hand in hand outside of Congress, singing, God bless America. Boy, how religious everybody got. And now what are they doing? Now they got a Muslim running you You know, if it wasn't for the Bible, it wouldn't make sense to me, Brother Doug. But because I have a Bible and we understand the evil heart of man. What has changed? Not America's heart. America's heart didn't change. America's circumstances changed. And that is why they have a Muslim mayor there in New York City. And that is why people still hate God in the United States of America. This is for my honor and my majesty, and not God's. And whether he thought that out loud or not, the conclusion is the same. I am the one who built this city by my power, by my majesty. uh uh for my majesty and my glory. The Bible says in Proverbs 16, 18, that pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Here's a man lifted up in pride. He stilled that tree way high up in the heaven. Not by God's might, but by mine. Not for God's glory, but for mine. This is not God's kingdom. It's mine. And so he's boasted himself up into God's place. And the Bible says that pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit, a high-up spirit. Before a fall. The tree's about to come down. Verse 31. While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven. It's like kings up here celebrating. God interrupts. While he was still speaking these prideful words, the God of heaven spoke, saying, Oh King Nebuchadnezzar. To thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. It's gone. And just like that, his kingdom was taken from him. Speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, there's an ancient Greek historian, Abedninus. And he said, listen to what he said about Nebuchadnezzar. Now this is many, many years after Nebuchadnezzar's fall, because he was a Greek historian. But he's writing back on the history of the Babylonian people. And he says, on ascending the roof of his palace, He became inspired by some God and delivered himself as follows, Babylonians, I, Nebuchadnezzar, foretell you a calamity that is to happen. Which neither my ancestor Bel nor Queen Beltus can persuade the fates to avert. In other words, our gods can't stop it. There shall come a Persian mule, one having parents of different countries, having your own gods in alliance with him And shall impose servitude upon you with the head of a meade, the boast of the Assyrians. Now that's secular history. Secular history says Nebuchadnezzar ascended up to his palace and suddenly a god inspired him and told him, Your kingdom's going to fall to the Medes and the Persians eventually. And they did. And then after making this prophecy, the Greek historian said that Nebuchadnezzar. disappeared. Not that he became invisible, that he he went out of sight. And so some believe that this is the point when Nebuchadnezzar went out to the field. But some God, and we know who that God is, it's our God who gave them this understanding of what was to come in the future. So quickly, man can go from boasting of his own might to falling in his own weakness. It can happen to us so quickly. Who builds Babylon? God does. Who built what you have in this life? God did. Who can take it away? God can. And ultimately, if you don't give God the glory, God will. Every one of us have a Babylon, so to speak. We all walk in a palace. When I'm in my house, I thank God I've got a home and a roof over my head. That's my little palace. But I tell you what, I'll tell you right now, God built that palace. It may be a little one-bedroom efficiency apartment, but you know what? If God has given me a roof over my head, it's God that's done it, not me. If God keeps your heart beating, it's God that does it, not you. I was watching Dick Van Dyke the other day. He turned 100 years old, and he's still exercising it. And he said, a hundred years is not enough. I want more. That's what he said. 100 years is not enough. I want more. And so he's going to try to keep exercising, try to keep dancing, try to keep a young wife like he's got. He's going to try to get more Hundred years old, he doesn't have more time at all. He's got a little bitty bit of time. Whether it's a few years or a few days, it's not gonna be long And he needs to acknowledge that God has given him this life. And bend his knee before his creator and confess his son is his savior. And he won't be trying to stretch out a few more. measy little years and a decaying body, but he'll be able to live forever. So quickly we can boast of our own might. And then fall in her own weakness. Who builds Babylon? It's the same God who builds the man that rules it. It's God. Truly the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and he gives it to whomsoever he will. America should learn this lesson. We should learn this lesson. And Nebuchadnezzar ultimately learned this lesson, and we'll find out as we continue this incredible story. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. Thank you, God, for delaying our judgment. Thank you, God, for testing our obedience. And thank you, God, for warning us that that's what you do. You make the forbidden fruit pleasant to the eyes. You delay your judgment that you might test your servants. We are grateful. In Jesus' precious name. And Lord, thank you for the food we're about to receive next door as well. Let us serve you out of true humility and true obedience to your word. In Christ's name. Amen.