Be SURE that You are Saved. Daniel 4:34-37. [SERMON].

Church let's grab our Bibles we are going to finish up Daniel chapter 4 today it's been an amazing chapter so far and we're going to conclude the story of Nebuchadnezzar uh and see what happened in his heart we're going to try to probe into that mystery this morning let's go ahead and stand up for the reading of God's word we're going to again conclude chapter 4 of The Book of Daniel beginning in verse 34 we'll take it to the end of the chapter listen carefully now to God's inspired inherent and infallible word the word of the Living God at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever for his Dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom endures from generation to Generation all the inhabitants of the Earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him what have you done at the same time my reason return to me and for the glory of my kingdom my majesty and Splendor return to me my counselors and my lords sought me and I was established in my kingdom and still more greatness was added to me now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol in honor the king of Heaven for all his works are rights and his ways are just and those who walk in Pride he is able to Humble may God add his Blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word amen amen you may be seated well we are about to enter into debate season now as a nation I don't know if you're excited about that or not uh debates of late have not been all too thrilling so my expectations are somewhat tempered for this coming week but it is an important event you know debates used to be one of the great ways to exchange ideas a debate is a uh it's a wrestling match with ideas if you want to think about that way it's a a debate is a is a sword fight with ideas and ideologies and proposals and thesis and counter proposals and rebuttal it's really an amazing way to weigh and to sift worldviews when it's done well now unfortunately today we live in a day that is just so clipped by the media to win a debate today what you really need is just that 15c clip that's going to be the clip that plays on repeat on social media but but again that's the way done today but it used to be that a debate was a robust exchange of ideas and when they were done well the audience could actually be persuaded by ideas and actually change their minds on certain things now that's what we would hope for in a debate and more on that in just a moment why I'm bringing this up but let me just catch us up to speed here at the end of chapter 4 in the Book of Daniel we're going to come back to the idea of debate here in just a moment but as you recall this is sort of the end of the The Saga that is Nebuchadnezzar now he was the the king of Babylon he was the Pagan King and in the last few weeks what we've seen is that Nebuchadnezzar has had two great dreams and in both of these dreams they're sort of like projections of his own Pride his first Dream he saw that towering Idol which he ended up commanding people to worship an idol such as he fabricated very much like that dream in his second dream he dreamed of this great huge tree which again is a projection of his own pride and the lord gave him a very severe warning in this chapter wherein the Lord promised he's going to cut down Nebuchadnezzar at his pride and leave him like a stump on the ground and that's exactly where we left Nebuchadnezzar last week Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and in fact he was humiliated even we called it by the term of lycanthropy or zoanthropy it's the state of an animall likee existence is what God did to Humble Nebuchadnezzar he he drove him out into the Wilderness and the text says that he was wet with the Dew of the grass and his claws or his fingernails became like eagle claws and he ate the grass like a cat like cattle would and so Nebuchadnezzar has experienced this this great moment of humiliation just last week but all the while as we've been working through chapter 2 3 and four of the Book of Daniel I've been holding out hope I have for Nebuchadnezzar's conversion and all the while I've I've kind of been stalling this because I wasn't sure whether or not Nebuchadnezzar was true truly converted in all of this and so I I'm I'm kind of to the last bit of Nebuchadnezzar's life here and honestly I'm still not sure whether or not Nebuchadnezzar is savingly really and truly converted now there's certainly some signs that something good is happening here in Nebuchadnezzar's heart and yet and yet I can't go all the way at least my study won't let me go all the way to say he's truly converted here because as I read the commentaries and I study the theologians it's actually a fairly good debate as to whether or not Nebuchadnezzar is truly really and savingly wrought upon here even at the end of chapter 4 and so I'm going to present my sermon in a little bit of a different format today I hope you're all right with this but I'm going to actually hold something like a debate with myself it's going to be a one-man debate up here and I'm going to argue both sides of this equation on one hand I'm going to argue for you the case that Nebuchadnezzar is truly insincerely saved and I'm going to make that Cas using our text today and perhaps some other verses from last week or so but then I'm going to rise to my own rebuttal and I'm going to tell you why that may very well be wrong okay and so at the end of the day you may be where I am sort of in a state of ambiguity as to what is happening with Nebuchadnezzar's soul and then we're going to try to apply that in the best way that we can so here we go a oneman debate are you ready I hope you have your Bible open with me here here's the first argument on behalf of his conversion if I was going to argue that Nebuchadnezzar is truly converted the first argument I would make is this his sanity was restored okay after his period of humiliation the way God debases him with that lycanthropy right that Insanity of that animall likee state look what happens in verse 34 at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar here he's speaking rationally again I lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me and I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever now just judging very charitably here that sounds like a Believer talking doesn't it and yeah it does because Nebuchadnezzar actually says three things here that I think are really helpful that would speak towards his being converted or being saved he says three things here first he says I lifted up my eyes to heaven now that's good that's very good we might even think of that if we're going to use reformed soteriological terminology here as his effectual calling because when the Lord effectually calls a person what they do is finally thank goodness look away from themselves and they look towards the god of Heaven this is very good this is very good for Nebuchadnezzar to stop thinking about himself and his pride and His glory and his power just for a moment and turn his eyes really and truly to the God who saves this is very good and not only that but what happens next he says I lifted up my eyes to heaven and my reason return to me we might say that that's something like the sanctification of his mind as God rescues him from his obvious Insanity at the end of the last section we were looking at here if he's experiencing regenerating Grace right what we would expect next is that God would sanctify his mind that he would give him clearer ideas of God's glory clearer ideas of redemption clearer understandings of himself and Nebuchadnezzar seems to testify that to that here my reason returned to me and then as if that isn't enough and I think this is very compelling evidence here I really do what does he do next he says I blessed the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever now if I'm looking for evidence that a person is truly and really saved one of the Hallmarks as that person that person becomes a worshipper of God there is no such thing as conversion if that person is is converted to being a non worshipper right I mean that's what conversion is it's turning us away from sin towards God so that we might give thanks and praise to his name so there very very well seems to be some strong evidence here okay that Nebuchadnezzar is rightly and truly regenerated here he seems to bless God praise God honor God what more would you want like that seems pretty compell and not only that but let me go further okay Daniel in his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream seems to indicates that that exact thing was going to happen go back with me to last week's text remember when this like curse is being placed upon Nebuchadnezzar in verse 32 of last week's text it says you shall be driven from among men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field that's that zoanthropy experience we were talking about or that uh ly anthropy you shall be driven from among men dwelling with the Beast of the field and you shall be made to eat grass like an ox and seven periods of time shall pass over you now here comes some good news the word until okay there's a change coming until what until you know that the most high rules the kingdom of man and gives it to whom he will Daniel seems to suggest that Nebuchadnezzar is going to wallow in this Quagmire of prideful Insanity until such a time there will be an end to this when God by his mercy and Grace gives him this relief of all of his sin right he's going to take this burden off of him and finally he's going to be restored to a right and true mental condition so I rest my first point here towards him being truly saved here so let me rise then and rebut what I just said are you ready sermon is going to be a little different today if that's true then why does he still speak like one who is insane with pride in verse 36 because listen to what he says next just a a few seconds later verse 36 at the same time my reason returned to me okay that's good for my glory of my kingdom and my majesty and my Splendor return to me now let me just ask you a question when you think about a truly saved and converted person do they go around talking about my glory my kingdom my Majesty my splendor is that the picture of saintliness in your mind I don't know about that because let's say you and I were going to have coffee together and I start talking like that if I start talking about gospel Fellowship is my kingdom what would you what would you think you'd think I was insane with pride wouldn't you or if the elders and I were interviewing somebody for membership and we're listening very carefully to their testimony to to hear what experience of Saving Grace God has wrought in their lives and they begin talking about my kingdom my glory my power my Splendor my Majesty I'm not so sure I'm talking to a Christian at that moment Christians don't talk like that Jesus can talk about that like that because he's actually the Son of God Jesus owns a kingdom everything he is the one who has majesty and Splendor and Glory but I'm not so sure that when Jesus talked about Christlike fa or I'm sorry childlike Faith or uh Dove like lambl likee faith that this is what he's talking about and so if Nebuchadnezzar here is talking inanity then I don't know what insanity is because he certainly seems like he's overwhelmed still with the disease of Pride all right so let me let me take it back again okay so here's my second argument in favor of his conversion you ready by the way what are you thinking so far you have an opinion yet all right let me give you let me give you some more data second argument for his conversion he makes an orthodox confession of faith in verse 34 in fact it's beautiful what he says look at verse 34 it should be set out in your Bible almost like a poem verse 34 and verse 35 have a poetic structure here Nebuchadnezzar has written his testimony of faith for us and I have to be honest with you I can find no fault in verses 34 and 35 it is truly a god-honoring doxology let's read it together for his dominion and is an everlasting Dominion his kingdom endures from generation to generation all the inhabitants of the Earth are accounted as nothing and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him what have you done now that is a glorious true biblical doxology of Praise In fact uh let's let's run a little mind experiment here if I just cut that verse out and I presented it to you and I said where does this come from in your Bible you might rightly guess that it's something from David's head and the Salter you might rightly guess that that sounds like something the Apostle Paul would say towards the end of one of his letters this is good stuff um if this was a praise song and the elders had to consider whether or not we were going to allow it to be sung at gospel Fellowship as we do with our praise songs I think we'd give this one a pass no question about that you could memorize this you could journal on this you could sing this if this was a Psalm and we sang this together this morning you would have no idea that this comes from the pen of Nebuchadnezzar this is solid Biblical Rich theology here I think that this is the kind of thing isn't it that seems to Spring forth from the heart of a person who's redeemed unbelievers don't talk like this this seems very much to come from the pen of one who is saved and loves the glory of God and I'll go further than that and when I look at this beautiful doxology in verses 34 and 35 not only do I doubt that it could come from the pen of an unbeliever but the more I studied verses 34 and 35 the more it revealed to me that the author of this little poem here does know the Bible pretty well here's why you ready for this because this is not necessarily an original composition but it has great texture illusion and glosses to other portions of the Old Testament for instance and hang with me here please this is important okay the first portion of verse 34 is a gloss of Psalm 145:13 and not only that but in verse 35 we have multiple references to other scripture we have a portion of Isaiah 40:1 17 that's referred to here we have another gloss of Psalm 115 verse3 also in verse 35 and then towards the end of that verse in this beautiful poem here we have another reference to Isaiah 14: 27 and then finally what seems to be a a loose quotation of job 9:12 now why do I bring all that up well because whoever wrote this has definitely been studying the Old Testament there's no way that you could just accidentally write that okay you've got a reference to to the Psalms to Isaiah into job whoever wrote this paragraph here has been studying the scriptures the very thing that we might expect from a person who is converted okay now you could say that maybe Daniel the author of The Book of Daniel wrote it and he simply kind of puts this in Nebuchadnezzar's mouth but that's not the plain reading of the text the plain reading of the text is that Nebuchadnezzar said this and that would seem to Spring forth from the heart of one who is redeemed now you ready for the rebuttal well that's very well and good but hasn't Nebuchadnezzar actually done something like that before in fact he has go with me back to chapter 2 we already covered this in a previous sermon but I just want to remind you in case you forgot that after Nebuchadnezzar was given the interpretation of his first dream when he saw that great Idol he likewise made an orthodox doxological confession of faith in chapter 2: 47 truly your God is God of gods and Lord of lords and a raler revealer of mysteries for you have been able to reveal this mystery now that is true as well and you know what the reason why we know that that's hypocritical is because the very next thing Nebuchadnezzar does in chapter 3 is he makes the idol He commands people to worship it falsely and he threatens people with death death by burning in the fiery furnace if they won't uh worship the idol that looks like him Nebuchadnezzar so Nebuchadnezzar appears to be very good and in fact experienced at saying things that are that are theologically true that do not actually comport with the state of his heart so there's my rebuttal to that argument now let me make the third argument here so if you're tracking with me we're going back to the four side here the four side says that we should largely speaking take people at their word and in verse 37 here as we begin to round out the text it certainly seems like Nebuchadnezzar has learned his lesson look at verse 37 and listen to his own words now I Nebuchadnezzar speaking in the first person I praise and extol and honor the king of Heaven for all his works are right his ways are just and those who walk in Pride he meaning God is able to Humble now that's good because he doesn't blame shift for what happened to him in the last section he doesn't blame God he doesn't blame his uh astrologers who failed him he doesn't blame Daniel for rebuking him he he he blames essentially himself and he says I've learned my lesson God is able to Humble the proud and so I here I stand before you praising and extoling the honor of the king of Heaven now what can you say to that well well here's one final rebuttal and then the debate will be over yes but in verse 36 he's still talking in the same breath about his own greatness look at verse 36 my counselors and Lords sought me and I was established in My Kingdom still more great greatness was added to me and not only that but in verse 37 when he talks about God humbling the proud one of the things that he conveniently leaves out is whether or not he was among the proud he simply says it theoretically God humbles the proud well Nebuchadnezzar is that you or not leaves us wondering and so as the debate concludes here um I leave you I think unless you've been convinced by either side and that's fine if you have but I leave you in a state of of educated ambiguity as to the condition of Nebuchadnezzar's Soul now why okay so let's begin to process this together why would God who is the author of all of scripture and and we not only that but we um we believe that scripture has the attribute of perspicuity which is that it's understandable it's intelligible to us it's not like remote Mysteries that no human mind can probe why would God leave Nebuchadnezzar's Soul ambiguous to us though we've tried our best to see what's happening here let me give you three possibilities first sometimes when things are ambiguous in the scriptures the very purpose is to drive us into the text right so that we're not content with superficial readings of scripture but whenever we come to a hard passage what it forces us to do as a reader is to really dive deep into the text and its words itself now I don't know about you but I probably would not have done the study that I did on verses 34 and 35 that little poetic paragraph there had I not been driven to want to know whether or not his conversion was real and so this dilemma ironically drove me further into the biblical text rather than allowing me to be content with a superficial reading so that's one benefit okay here's another benefit possibly the fact that we have to sort of agonize about the meaning of salvation here is probably a good thing because we as reformed Bible believing Christians we definitely want to understand what true saving faith is and what real conversion looks like and so the fact that we have kind of a um a a dilemma here like we have with Simon maggus in the book of Acts like we have with King Saul even at times that forces us to really grapple with the nature of saving Faith like on one hand we want to avoid don't we legalism which would be so strict that we hardly ever acknowledge anyone else to be truly saved we want to avoid that that's a that's a pit that's a ditch that I want to avoid and on the other hand there's like easy believism and there's anti- nomianism and things that like make almost any sort of decision make it look like it's real salv like the truth is in the middle okay real Saving Grace brings about real change in the life of the person it's not legalism and it's not antinomianism but it's the real work of the holy spirit so the fact that we have sort of a dilemma here forces us I think in a in a way that's good to really consider the nature of what it means to be born again and truly savingly wrought upon by almighty God and that brings me to this and I'm going to dwell here on this for a little bit of time so hang with me here probably most importantly of all Nebuchadnezzar's spiritual condition forces us I think to really look inside to our own selves and begin to ask ourselves some really difficult questions especially as it pertains to our own Souls okay so I think it would be wise for us to take our friend Nebuchadnezzar and set him aside for a moment so that we can talk about our own souls and here I'm going to give you three applications to the debate first application call this a if you can't be sure of Nebuchadnezzar's salvation you should be sure of your own salvation right say that again if we can't be sure about Nebuchadnezzar's spiritual condition I would hope that you would be sure about your own spiritual condition now God does not want to leave us in the Quagmire of uh IND discernability when it comes to our own State whether or not we are saved okay I believe and I think the Bible very clearly teaches that the Lord wants us to have Assurance of our Salvation he doesn't want to leave us in despair or doubt the Lord wants us to have a strong Foundation of Faith so that we can know for sure that we have in fact been saved here grab your bulletin with me turn back with me to the cover of your bulletin I want you to look again to that paragraph from Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 18 that we recited together okay it says some very important things here this paragraph does first westmin 18 acknowledges though that some Hypocrites and unregenerate men do vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions what does that mean it means some people think they're saved and they're not not because they're Hypocrites and they're liars and they're not really worked upon by the grace of of God and His holy spirit however okay however notice here that the goal the aspiration the desire is that those who truly believe in him look at the next line and love him in sincerity endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him May in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God which hope shall never make them ashamed this is important because whatever else we can say about Nebuchadnezzar you and I are in the room not him and you can have Assurance of your saving experience in Grace how how do you get that is it by looking inside yourself is it by taking the temperature of your feelings every day I feel saved well well maybe I don't feel saved the next day is it does it go by your feelings does it go by your performance I think I was really strong in my faith no it's not about you it's not about your feelings it's not about your performance or your subjective whims every day Assurance of Saving Grace happens in as much as we cling to Christ and him alone listen carefully when God saved his people he did so by certain definite events okay these events are not contingent or conditional in any way they're saving events what events are they the birth of Christ The Life of Christ the death of Christ the resurrection of Christ the as the Ascension of Christ to the right hand of the father believer if you want to have Assurance of your salvation cling to the definitive acts of God in Christ herein can your salvation be known okay do not judge it by your feelings your feelings are liars do not judge it by your experiences your experiences can deceive you if you want Assurance of your faith cling to the definitive acts of God in Christ I.E his life death and Resurrection the more you cling to the cross the more Assurance you will have that he has done everything that you need do you want to be assured look to the Cross that's where we get Assurance now I've preached this before so bear with me if you've heard this but I think this is important when Jonathan Edwards was in the time of the Great Awakening one of the things that Edwards had to do is he had to discern or help people to discern what true saving Faith looked like okay as the Revival is sweeping through the land people are claiming to be saved some of are some of them aren't and Edwards comes up with what I think is a helpful rubric for analyzing whether or not saving faith is real and he he came up with five questions and I'm going to pose them to you if Nebuchadnezzar was here I'd ask him but he's not here I'm going to ask you Edward says that there's five loves I'm sorry four loves and one hate that should be evident in your life if you're truly saved here are the four loves and the one hate do you love God yes or no no do you find yourself loving and adoring God yes or no if you say yes that's good if you say no not so much do you love Christ specifically second love do you love Jesus again do you adhere to what he has done for you if so good third love do you love his word if you you love his word it's a very wonderful thing because Believers love his word fourth love do you love the truth even when the truth speaks against you even when the truth testifies against you as in the law right do you love it do you love God love Christ love his word and love the truth if so that's wonderful there's one hate though Edward says you should check whether or not you hate sin and specifically your own sin set that other guy aside do you hate your own sin if you have those four loves and that one hatred in your life Edward says there's a very strong ground of assurance for the Salvation that we have in Christ so be sure of your own salvation by clinging to Jesus second application we'll call this be okay very important leave no room for ambiguity in your test okay because here we are 2,600 years later and we're talking about Nebuchadnezzar today right and we've done several sermons on him and we've analyzed him every which way from Sunday and we put his own words up in the microscope and we've put his actions in the microscope and we've we've we've put uh his conversations in the microscope and 2,600 years later with all of the help of the biblical commentaries and all of the help of the theologians even as we pry into the heart of Nebuchadnezzar here we are still in a state a state of uncertainty as to what God did in this man's life we don't know I don't know maybe you know I don't know that's sad I think it's sad that a person can be so ambiguous as to whether or not they're even a believer I think I find that sad I was hoping that we'd come to the end of this and I'd say that this is the Apostle Paul of the Old Testament look at what a wret he was and look at what he is now but I can't say that so what about like so what about you make sure that your testimony is not ambiguous okay look around at the people that that know you your co-workers your family your neighbors they should have no doubt about who you are make it so how do you do that well for one thing you got to stop speaking out of both sides of your mouth all the time that's a bad thing you know we pick that up from the culture don't we the culture the cultural moment today is that you would say things that mean nothing on purpose right so that it can be interpreted variously like a wax nose that could be in shaped into anything that the person wants to hear people get very good at that they do it all the time don't be like that don't prevaricate quit speaking in ambiguous terms if you're going to be a Christian you need to speak like a Christian you need to believe like a Christian you need to talk like a Christian you need to act like a Christian and whatever else the world thinks about you fine so be it but speak clearly about who you are and what you believe Do You Believe In Christ good then tell somebody about it you believe in truth very good we'll stand upon it then my goodness make sure that people have no doubt about who you are and what you believe don't be rude don't be a jerk you don't have to be mean to people but be clear on what you believe this is a time in which there is a calling for clarity in the church and you need to be clear and when you speak clearly about Christ and sinid and the world and death and hell and judgment and the devil you speak clearly and truthfully on all those things then by all means please live according to the things that you believe so there is no ambiguity your worst enemy listen to me your worst enemy the person that hates you should at least be forced to testify that at least you're a Believer right like even your enemy should say yeah but he was a Christian I knew that as obvious leave no room for ambiguity and third that and we'll end it up here if there is any contradiction in your life or your character you must cut it off soon for the sake of clarity now listen we all have things in our lives which contradict the profession of our faith because we're still Sinners and we're not fully Sanctified Nebuchadnezzar wasn't either so we'll give them a little bit of margin there right and any Fair objective analysis of Our Lives could reasonably look at who we are what we say what we do what we think and could point out contradictions in us to the extent that probably all of us in the room are liable to the charge of hypocrisy it's true okay we don't want to admit it but it's true people could point to me and say everard I thought you were a pastor man I thought you were a Christian and here you are doing X Y or Z and they would charge me with hypocrisy and in that moment they may be right fairly enough but when those contradictions are pointed out what do you do well either you can run to an irrational defense of yourself which is probably what a prideful Nebuchadnezzar would do or you could run to the throne of grace and ask the Lord to continue to sanctify you so that those contradictions are finally beveled out of your life and the goal would be that the further on you walk with Christ the further on you follow after him the more you love him and serve him and honor him the more christlikeness and childlikeness and Dove likee lambl likee Spirit would emanate from you so at the end of the day I mean in a best case scenario charges of hypocrisy fall right off the chest so we can't be certain about Nebuchadnezzar at least I'm not certain but you should be certain about you and other people should be certain about you too let's end with that help us heavenly father because all of us at times U we look too much like Nebuchadnezzar speaking pridefully acting arrogantly and yet Lord if we are going to profess that we truly honor The God Who has all Dominion Dominion whose realm is Everlasting in from generation to generation the one who no one can stop his hand or say what have you done then Lord please may Our Lives be in concert with that profession help us we pray in Jesus name amen

Channel: Matthew Everhard

Views: 1,538

Keywords: Matthew Everhard, Presbyterian, Reformed Theology, PCA

Id: jLz0uNfl7LI

Length: 35min 22sec (2122 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 24 2024