Well, I invite you to turn today to the book of Daniel. If you are a visitor, we're working through this book and we're on our third sermon. The challenge of chapter 2 is that it's 49 verses. And I would have gladly preached for two or three hours, but you wouldn't endure that, I don't think. Maybe you would, I don't know. But I don't know, maybe I can't endure that either. but we're going to look at the first 23 verses today it does break up the chapter somewhat but i think it's important we'll be coming back next week to look at the interpretation of the dream of nebuchadnezzar how important it is for the book itself but this all sets that up today so we're going to look at the first 23 verses of daniel chapter 2 found on page 875 in the bibles that are in front of you let's give our attention this morning to the word of the lord In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. And the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. And the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, Oh, king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The word from me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, You shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation. They answered a second time and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show its interpretation. The king answered and said, I know with certainty you're trying to gain time because you see that the word from me is firm. If you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore, tell me the dream and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, there is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asked is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. Because of this, the king was angry and very furious and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out, and the wise men were about to be killed, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Ariok made the matter known to Daniel. And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belongs wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you. For you have made known to us the king's matter. There we'll end today the reading of God's word. Well, we saw this last week that the bill was before our governor and they're wrestling with, and most likely, I don't know if he signed it yet or not, that in the court in California, the cases of custody battles in the courts, in those cases, that they would side with the parent who affirmed their child's preferred gender as a way of protecting children. It's an evil bill that shows how far we have progressed into the lawlessness of our times, that also shows how prevalent custody battles are and divorce in our culture, so that this problem is now normalized and this is what we're dealing with. But immediately after this, this week, the senators called for Christians in California to leave. Republican State Senator Scott Wilk of Santa Clarita called on parents to leave the state warning that legislation like AB 97 would not stop at divorce proceedings. Well, that's interesting. The situation before us in Babylon is much worse for Daniel and his people. Much worse. I want you to imagine for a moment, I posted this thought this week, but I think it applies as we go into this sermon today. Imagine the breaking news today in Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar and Darius signed off on three new tyrannical bills. And here's what those bills sound like. Bill number one, tell me my dream and its meaning or you will die. Bill number two, whenever you hear my summons, bow down to the new golden image or you will go into a fiery furnace bill number three whoever prays to any other god than darius will go into the lion's den imagine if you were in california and that happened jewish officials we could imagine immediately called for judah to leave babylon problem Well, in that case, God had appointed 70 years for them to be there in exile. What do we find in the book of Daniel? We find something that we rarely see today in the midst of all this. How, and I think this is so instructive for us, how did Daniel and his friends handle things like this? What did they do in moments like this? And the surprising giveaway from our text, which shouldn't be a surprise, is they did something that didn't seem so revolutionary, did it? They gathered in prayer. They gathered in prayer. And asking, just like the apostles in Acts chapter 5 and 6, 4, that the Lord would give them boldness and deliver them. But Daniel prayed, summarizing the prayer. Blessed be the Lord, all wisdom and might are yours. You change times and seasons. You remove and establish kings. You might even say, even establishing Nebuchadnezzar. I thank you for you have helped us. That is before us this morning. This is the scenario before us this morning as the last verse of chapter 1 left off with that surprising sort of provocation, if you will. Thus Daniel continued until the first start of King Cyrus. Daniel stayed. Daniel was preserved, but not Nebuchadnezzar and not Darius. In a very short time, according to Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar and Darius are taken away in judgment and Daniel and Judah are the ones that are preserved. And that brings us to the central theme this morning that I want to engage with you for a few moments. And it is this great truth that I think we need absolute perspective of in our time because I'm not sure we appreciate this truth and have to have this simple truth set before us. And it is that God controls the affairs and the hearts and the minds of every ruler that is in authority the book is showing us how god is working in the midst of opposition and in the midst of lawless times that god first that god appoint has appointed us to be in babylon for a time and we look at that um as revelation develops that theme and i think the bible will come more to that but that he also wants to display for us that we would live in confidence he has all power and wisdom to preserve us in the midst of the worst of times and the worst of trials. God is that powerful over the king's heart. But even more importantly, the Lord is actually doing something. Remember what we said last time, he's working in surprising ways. He's actually doing something surprising here that he is actually stirring up the hearts of rulers, stirring up kingdoms of this world to bring turbulence at time, to bring turbulence for a very important purpose that when he does this he's about to showcase his christ that he rules in the midst of his enemies psalm 110 and that's what really is before us today as now the lord begins to provoke the king he provokes the king's heart and from this we learn our responsibility and place in moments like when we are living when times we can't flee really what's happening. Our calling is to look to the Lord in prayer and to trust that what is happening along the way is his way of stirring up things to showcase the kingdom of his son. We're simply onlookers at his wisdom and his power as we trust him in prayer. So we begin today with Nebuchadnezzar's tyrannical demand that ignites the persecution in Babylon. It really is tyrannical. this is craziness this provocative summary Daniel was preserved until Cyrus not Nebuchadnezzar but now the turmoil begins that's the tie verse 1 now we read that in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him what we read here, what we should read, is that God begins to harass the king so much so that his sleep is lost. You know, God is even in control of that. He gives his beloved sleep, and you can pray for that. But now he's harassing the king. As I've said, God has this much control over and power over all the rulers that he has appointed he is in their minds if he wants when they sleep he's in their minds when they sleep and we're going to see next week this dream was a preview of coming attractions God was showing Nebuchadnezzar that his kingdom is about to be broken into bits by the power of Christ and his kingdom and that it a kingdom that is coming that'll never be thrown down that's really the heart of the vision that we're studying next time but his proposal is madness imagine this for a minute he says i've had a dream and my spirit is anxious to know the dream the charlatans of course seize opportunity don't they the charlatans in the kingdom take opportunity to step forward and make their prayer to their king oh king live forever that's not a little prayer it had just been said that daniel would be preserve not nebuchadnezzar you will live forever o king you are the king of kings the contrast here then really becomes between god's prophet who prays to the lord and nebuchadnezzar's magicians who pray to him calvin says they're just a bunch of windbags that's absolutely right look at their arrogance Nebuchadnezzar doesn't even know the dream himself I don't know if you caught that the Chaldeans prided themselves at this time on being able to interpret dreams it was a big thing that they sought to do and Nebuchadnezzar had all these magicians and astrologers and the chaldeans whom he had set up in the practice of magic in mediums and seances and all these things that are condemned in the scripture to get into dreams the realm of the dead all that stuff was there and here he rehearsed this dream and had nebuchadnezzar rehearsed the dream he knew that they could simply play the charlatan role and come up with some bogus interpretation. But I thought as I read this this week and stood back from this and gave reflection on it that it showed the limitation here of the king. Are the kings of this world, the rulers of this world, the presidents of this world, they have little control over anything? They don't know much of anything. Are they really in control of their kingdoms? Is our current president really in control of America? Is it really Bidenomics? Well, the wise men say, tell us the dream. And we will give you the meaning of the dream. And here begins the tyranny in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar doesn't even know the dream. So he makes a decree knowing that he's dealing with charlatans. You're just playing games with me. You just want time, he says. You tell me the dream itself and the meaning or else there's one decree for you. There's one thing coming for you. I will rip you apart limb from limb. There's something important, I think, here up front that has to do with revelation. A prophet in the last chapter had just been established in Babylon. And think about the prophet Daniel that had just been established. And here are his wise men. And a prophet, they all know, communicates the mind of God, the will of God, the voice of God, the speech of God, all those things. They're not prophets. Nebuchadnezzar is so weak. He has no light. He has no revelation. he's clear here his darkness that he's in his kingdom is about to fall and what was revealed in the dream was so troubling that it immediately threw him into panic by the time the dream was over he couldn't even remember it he didn't even know it all he knew was something bad had just been revealed in a dream to me and i've got to get down to the bottom of it no revelation from god that's the truth of our leaders ultimately they have no clue this is what you're frustrated about they have no clue when it comes to spiritual things if they have not embraced christ they have no understanding in these things but they have no ability to control their kingdoms they have no ability to control their lands as much as they try to they have nothing they can't control the future it's completely dependent and i think that's what's being shown here powerfully it's all completely dependent upon the lord who raises up kingdoms and tears them down they know nothing apart from the lord revelation that's true and that's why i think we can look at our leaders today and see how blind they are in their causes they have no true light no understanding and that what they are doing in the decisions that they make constantly is that they are in distress this is what leaders do they sit alone and they're in distress about holding on to their kingdoms and so they make the worst of decisions god has harassed him here and he is thrown into panic in this first section so here's what he does he commands all the magicians the astrologers the sorcerers the chaldeans to tell the king his dreams i remember reading years ago when hillary clinton was in the white house she contacted a medium to talk with the dead she um she said i occasionally have imaginary conversations with mrs roosevelt to try to figure out what she would do I don't know how that went Mary Todd Lincoln Nancy Reagan at least these are the reports turned to spiritual practices like seances and astrology in their positions of power to get light to get revelation they didn't call in Pastor Gordon for some reason to pray for him. I'd have gone. I'd have paid for the plane ticket. Same situation. Nebuchadnezzar has decreed death. What a dilemma. It's an important point. When rulers turn to tyranny, it knows no favorites. It knows no favorites. It's madness across the board. And the wise men of Babylon are now all put in the predicament they answer him and they say there's not a man on earth who could do this how i mean no king has ever demanded this in the history of mankind you're demanding that we get into your mind think about this and we we not only give the interpretation but we go through the fine details of the dream itself who's ever demanded that what astrologer has ever accomplished that what magician the gods notice this little interjection here the gods whose dwellings are not with man who don't dwell with flesh they only can do that what a little provocation in the midst of all this where is god Is there a God over all the earth? Is there a God, the God, the only true God over all the heavens and all the earth? And does he communicate with us? Because this is exactly where people are without him. The larger issue comes to the surface. What we don't realize is what brought this provocation. it was God himself we look at everything so wrong wrong I think we're panicked by the changing times and the changing seasons we look at the evil that happens in the world the lawless tyranny of leaders the crazy laws they make what has brought them to this point it's all desperation these are desperation responses you ever look at the madness and in society and the madness in the world and the things that go on and the lack of reason we're constantly saying this makes no sense and we're showing how this makes no sense as crisis responses crisis responses because god is bearing down on them in their kingdoms now what is the our response at the moment to what we perceive as lawlessness well there's different responses to all this one is flight it's one response that was out God had appointed 70 years in Babylon they couldn't flee to another safe place in a state to get away God had come precisely to raise the forefront the greatest issue in Babylon God's people were there like the Egyptians the Babylonians were about to learn something this is where i think this this this is so helpful for us beloved the babylonians were about to learn something they were on the brink of learning something really big they were going to learn what rahab and all the inhabitants of the world so far had learned remember what she said when we heard of it how god delivered you our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you for the Lord your God. Now listen to this claim. The Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. That's a huge claim. All the inhabitants were learning it. Babylon hadn't learned it yet. You ever stop and realize that all this evil and lawlessness is happening because the rulers and their kingdoms of the earth are sensing the crumbling of their kingdoms? Does anyone think the United States is doing well right now? It's crumbling. Why? This nation shouldn't be crumbling. The most resourceful nation on the face of the earth. The most powerful nation on the face of the earth. Why? It's crumbling because somebody's intervening and he's about to do something through the witness of his servants. I think that's how we have to look at things. Why are things going the way they're going? Because Psalm 110's happening. Christ is ruling in the midst of his enemies. Here's how he does it. He's breaking the kingdoms when they go beastly like this. We've looked at that principle in Revelation. When the kingdoms of this world begin to overexert themselves against the Lord and against his anointed, he begins to showcase his power in surprising ways. When you understand this, you don't fall into the extremes that we're doing right now. The king's decree has gone into effect. and it includes Daniel and his friends. So they come after Daniel and his companions to kill them. Daniel hears of it, and he goes to the king, and he asks for a moment. He asks for a moment that he might tell the interpretation to him and give the meaning of the dream and tell the dream. It's a beautiful moment because I think what we see here is faith in Daniel and his friends. They could have done many things at this point. They could have tried to flee Babylon. They could have tried to run and hide. They could have tried to call down curses on Babylon. They could have revolted in Babylon. They could have tried to Hebrew nationalize Babylon. Daniel doesn't even call for the burning up of the astrologers. Did you notice that in verse 14? Don't destroy them. Here's the crucial thing that's so important. What does Daniel see? Where's wisdom in the midst of all this? Where's true wisdom in the midst of this? Daniel knows one thing. God has ordered all of this. Now, maybe that God had decreed that Daniel would die. Blessed be Daniel. He goes to be with the Lord. But Daniel seems to clearly believe He's been established as a prophet. So he goes to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And what do they do? What do you do in the craziness of our times? Everyone's chatting. Everyone's talking. What do we do? Verse 18. That they might seek the mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret so that they may not perish. They prayed. Anytime, beloved, you're in a place of fear, anytime you're in a situation that is absolutely impossible, anytime you're overwhelmed and distressed, we should be in prayer all the time. But how amazing is our God that He says, in these moments, come to me. Come to me. When you are in a place even of total distress and maybe persecution, we come to the Lord. Remember the apostles when they were threatened? Don't you ever speak in the name again. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. Here's the prayer. Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David. Why do the nations rage? Psalm 2, the people's plot in vain. The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed. Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Did you hear that? They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, O Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand and heal and perform signs and wonders to the name of your holy servant, Jesus. You know what happened after that? The ground shook. The ground shook. God has so ordered everything. God has so ordered everything in this life that he would, in his moment, showcase in a powerful way his wisdom through the faith of his servants. So what does Daniel do? He flees to God in prayer. I was doing a recording with Dr. Gottfried this week on some of these things. He made an interesting point. When COVID was happening, the churches fell into the war of how the government was handling it. Very little thought was given. Was this a test sent upon the world from God? What did we see little of from the churches? I'm guilty just as much as any. Gathering together for prayer. Very few people calling out to the Lord for help. For him to intervene, for him to turn the circumstances. This is such an important point here. Wherever you're going to see God turning situations to showcase the coming of his kingdom, it's not going to be without the prayers of his people. We're not praying. It's kind of pointless to stand around and criticize the government all day, isn't it? Verse 19. Immediately, the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. There is a God that none of the Chaldeans know. Yet, the God of heaven and earth, who does reveal his secrets to us? Has he not? you know do you know how much light you've been given in this world do you know how much he's told you this is why i pray the sabbath is our court day when god talks about stewardship in the kingdom on that day and the stewards who buried their talents one of the best stewardships will be evidenced in the response of gathering on the sabbath to come and hear the light of his word That's what's happening. You're not burying that. We shouldn't bury that. What has he told us? Everything we need to know. Think about this hope in the midst of all this today. You know the true God of heaven and earth. You are told you belong to a kingdom that can't be broken, that does not fade away. Every other kingdom of this world will crumble. It was interesting, the Wall Street Journal had this article, and it's kind of gone somewhat viral now. Everyone's asking, interesting, about Rome. How much do men think about Rome? Well, what happened to Rome? Where's Rome? That's the fourth kingdom that is about to be revealed here that will be broken. Where are they today? Gone. Gone. The most powerful kingdom on the world at that time. Nobody had seen a kingdom like Rome. Where is it? It's in your history books. You belong to the one kingdom that can't be crushed. That's the time you live. That's the peace you have. But I want to close with this. Daniel's point here. Daniel praises God. And he captures, I think, the heart of this book. Here, of the perspective of Daniel. What is his perspective through times like this? How did he think through times like this? Did he panic? Was there fear? This is Hebrews 11, faith. Here it is. So Daniel, blessed the God of heaven. Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. Listen to this. You change times and seasons. What kind of season are we in right now? Remember the good days, you think? Well, they weren't as good as you think. God's in control of the times and the seasons. You change the times and seasons. All times are in your hands. You appoint the good seasons and the difficult ones. Providence. You ordain them and you change them when you see fit. Then listen to what he says. You remove kings and raise up kings. That included Nebuchadnezzar. He saw God as so sovereign, he appointed Nebuchadnezzar for this moment and would soon tear him down in a moment. This must be what Paul was looking at when he wrote Romans 13. There is not an authority that has not been appointed by God. Must be. Because that's what Daniel just said. You believe providence like that in everything? This is an important question for me, an important question for you. Someone just wrote this. It just may be that this emerging moment of cultural weakness is God's gift to the church. You say, how? What? Listen, what if it's an opportunity for the God-revealed opportunity for God to reveal the crucified Jesus in this moment and to press his people into the shape of the cross. What if that's what he's doing? What if the Lord of the church is grieved when we strive for power and agitate to control the course of history? What if? What does providence say? God's providence is his almighty and present power. Now listen to it. Whereby with his hands he upholds all things. Heaven and earth and all creatures. You think anyone's existing today without the Lord upholding their heartbeats? He so governs them that leaf and blade. Think about that. Look at the leaves out there. Leaf and blade. Rain and drought. Fruitful years and barren years. Food and drink. Health and your sicknesses. Riches and your poverty. Indeed, everything comes to us not by chance, but from his fatherly hand. Have you really thought about that? That'll change everything. That'll change your prayers. That'll change how you look. That'll change what you do in the midst of these things. Daniel says, the Lord gives wisdom to the wise. Notice that in these moments. And knowledge to those who have understanding. God provides us everything so that we learn to live through the times that he has appointed. He's not just leaving us to figure it out. He's giving you revelation and wisdom. This is happening right now. You know, that's the beauty of worship. And his kingdom comes not with sword, but with wisdom. And here's the blessing. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what's in the darkness. Did you hear that? He knows what's going on in the White House in the darkness. He knows what's going on among rulers in the darkness. He sees all of it and light dwells with him. He sees everything that happens in the darkness and so guides and directs us in the light through these things that you don't have anything to fear. So Daniel praises God for such a provision and that the Lord has answered him to answer Nebuchadnezzar. You have that too, beloved. He's told you everything you need to know. What a marvel of God's love and powerful preservation in your life. He has the power over it all. He calls us to live by faith through these times. But I want you just to whet your appetite for next week and we'll close. Just to whet your appetite. Look at verse 34. These four kingdoms are about to be raised. And all of a sudden in the midst of this, look what he raises. You watch Nebuchadnezzar and a stone was cut without hands, which struck the image on its feet and broke them into pieces in the days of these kings. who is that who's about to knock over nebuchadnezzar's kingdom your jesus your king and then he says the god of heaven will set up a kingdom which can never be destroyed think about this and a kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall break into pieces and consume all the kingdoms of the earth. That's what he says. It shall stand forever. That's Jesus' kingdom. That's your Messiah's kingdom. And he has to answer the wise men. Here's the marvel of it all today. This God did come down and dwell with flesh. Didn't he? Became one of us. What God is there that's ever done that? Yours. Jesus took our human nature and came down to us as the revelation of God to speak peace to us, to tell us, don't fear, I've got a better kingdom for you than this. You belong to me. I'm telling you as my friends everything you need to know. You belong to me and I promise you this, I will topple every kingdom that stands in my way. He is showcasing in the next section, Jesus. And that's the kingdom that he has that you belong to. So I think this first section of Daniel is calling us to have confidence and faith. For our God does dwell with us. Our God has spoken to us. Our God controls the heart of the king. He turns it whichever way he wants. And he's told us everything we need for salvation, for life, for peace in our brief sojourn in Babylon. So may then, in all of our current distressing season, go to the Lord in prayer. May we be a people of prayer. And may we see his kingdom come with power as his servants cry out to him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great revelation of your sovereignty over history and over the kings and kingdoms of this world. Forgive us, Lord, for at times our faithless responses trying to push you to control history, to control the moments when what you are doing through them is ruling in the midst of your enemies in ways to showcase and shape your people into the form of the cross so that the witness of Christ would go out. Help us, O Lord, to have this perspective. And in whatever it is, may we pray with Daniel. You, O Lord, know all. You know best. You are sovereign. You are righteous. You determine the end from the beginning. You hold the king's heart. You set up and tear down. You control the seasons. And so we bless you, O Lord, for giving us this answer today. For it is enough. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.