[0:00] The context of this passage that we read is a period almost certainly towards the end of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign in Babylon, at which time he, as has often been the case in the past, has dreamed a dream which he hasn't got an interpretation for.
[0:19] And so he asks for all the wise men and all the Chaldeans and the astrologers and all the ones who can interpret dreams to interpret it for him. But of course, as we're getting used to perhaps as we read through the book of Daniel, none of them are able to do it.
[0:35] But of course, Daniel alone is able to do so. And this dream concerns that which ends up being the case that Nebuchadnezzar enters a period of, to all intents and purposes, madness.
[0:48] A period of madness where he loses his kingdom. He is driven from his kingdom, no doubt by perhaps a coup from some of his nobles who take advantage of his mental instability.
[1:03] And he is driven out from the face of men. Some have speculated as to the mental condition that he might have been afflicted by.
[1:14] There is a particular name for it, which name I forget. But it is a particular condition which causes the afflicted thereby to believe themselves to have become an animal.
[1:28] And to behave accordingly, to emit the sounds that animals make, to eat the stuff those animals would eat, and so on. And it's a particular condition which is associated in legend with things like, you know, legends of werewolves and so on.
[1:42] People who cry out at night, believing themselves to be, and beginning to take on this sort of wild and rough appearance of the animal that they think they have become.
[1:53] And this is for a particular set period of time that Nebuchadnezzar is under this affliction. And then at the end of it, his reason returns to him, and he is restored to his kingdom.
[2:06] And the purpose of this, as we're told at verse 25, is so that he should know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
[2:18] Now, whilst this, of course, is the Bible, we know it to be God's truth, just by way of interest, there was found years ago, in the 18th century, an inscription in one of the history museums of the East India Company, in India itself, about the Babylonian Empire, written by the times of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.
[2:41] Nebuchadnezzar, and it gave an account that for four years of his reign, it says he didn't dredge the canals, he didn't undertake any great works, he didn't attend to the affairs of his kingdom in any way, and it details all the things that he didn't do.
[2:59] And this was unique in the annals of ancient kings, because no king, especially pagan kings, who were writing down the things of their reign, usually for their glory, usually so to say he won this victory, he expanded his kingdom this way.
[3:15] Nobody ever recorded an account of their own inactivity, of all the things that they hadn't done. And in that particular account, it was reckoned to be four years.
[3:28] Now, as far as the Bible is concerned, we reckon seven times to mean seven years, unless a time was simply a slot, maybe a six-month period, in which case that would make it, there were seven of them, and then that would make it three and a half years, and so it might be four years before he would actually get back to the ruling and the affairs of state, and so on.
[3:49] But it's interesting to have corroborated from a more secular source that this king, you can measure, had this period of years when he records himself that he did not do any of the matters of state and the things that a Babylonian king was expected to do.
[4:08] So we have this account here, and he loses, clearly, his reason. He loses the control of his mind. And the purpose of this is that Babylon, being at that time the world's superpower, the greatest empire in the ancient East at that time, and Babylon itself obviously had existed as a city beforehand, but under Nebuchadnezzar it was greatly enriched and expanded, and the building works and all the expansion of the palace and so on that was made, is that the walls of his palace were reckoned to encompass six miles, the walls of his palace.
[4:51] The great gates of the streets of Babylon were so massive, and the roadways and approaches to the centre of Babylon were so huge as to inspire awe, and this aggrandizement that under him had been built up.
[5:06] And as he says himself here, Is this not this great Babylon that I have built? For the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, that in all my empire, this city Babylon, it's like one house in a vast city.
[5:21] So like this city is like the house in the centre of the empire that I have built. And as soon as the word is in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee.
[5:36] However great or high man is raised, and nobody in the world of men was higher at this point in history than Nebuchadnezzar. God is always greater.
[5:50] And in order to overthrow Nebuchadnezzar and to humble him, God did not have to raise up a huge, vast rival empire.
[6:00] He didn't have to bring in a military power to challenge Babylon, have great battles and clashes, or sack the city. All he had to do was the mental equivalent of switching out the light.
[6:12] All he had to do was a little twist, a tiny little turn of the power of reason. And Nebuchadnezzar has lost all his ability to govern, to rule, to judge, anything.
[6:29] He has become, instead of a man, he has become a living beast because he has lost the control of his mind and his faculties. Now, one of the things this ought to cause us to think in terms of is what a mercy it is for us to have the use of our reason.
[6:51] This is what the commentator Matthew Henry Wiking in the 18th century says, you know, we ought to be for it, for our reason. How careful we ought to be not to do anything which may either provoke God or may have a natural tendency to put us out of the possession of our own souls.
[7:08] Let us learn how to value our own reason and to pity the case of those that are under the prevailing power of melancholy, nowadays we would call that clinical depression, or distraction, or are delirious, those whose loss of their mind causes them to be either sort of, you know, ecstatic, fanatical, or sort of wild in that sense, having to be restrained.
[7:34] There's the melancholy depression that makes you just internal sort of glue, or there's sort of the crazed power that one might have if you're driven mad in a more violent way, or are delirious, to be very tender in our censures of them and conduct towards them.
[7:50] And this is the thing that he writes as well. For it is a trial common to men, and a case which sometime or other may be our own.
[8:03] Now, he doesn't mean that we're all going to be committed to sort of asylums or anything like that. What he does mean is that the loss of our understanding and our reason is something which sets on a great many people as their years advance.
[8:19] And particularly now in this present day and age, it seems to be creeping in younger and younger and younger. the onset of what we now refer to as dementia or Alzheimer's, whereby the mind has gone.
[8:32] Now, it doesn't turn people into animals in that sense, but it does mean that a whole chunk of their lives is just missing. They no longer are the person they once were.
[8:43] In their own mind, they've gone back to childhood, or they're completely changed in some way or other. The loss of the control of our mind, the ability to discern as once we had, this can be taken from us either suddenly, as in the case of Lebu Codno, or gradually and by degrees.
[9:04] And it is something for which we ought to have sincere compassion and pity for us. Matthew, Henry says, it is a trial come to men. In his day even, you could see it around in society, people beginning to lose control of their minds.
[9:21] And the case which sometime or other may be our own. Now, this is one of the reasons why it is so vital that we close in with Christ whilst we do have control of our faculties, whilst we do have the focus of our minds.
[9:40] And I remember my father-in-law, a minister, of course, saying several years ago, pressing the need on his congregation to close in with Christ, saying, you know, people like to put it off, oh, I'll do that when I'm older.
[9:52] I'll do that in so many years' time. And the thing that he said, which surprised me, because I would think in terms of how do you know you'll still be alive, he said, how do you know you'll have your minds?
[10:04] That's exactly what Matthew Henry, the commentator, is saying here. And there is so much evidence of people losing control of their minds, control of the ability to think and to focus and to concentrate as once they were able to do so.
[10:20] How do we know we shall have our minds in so many years' time? How do we know we shall have control of our faculties and our lives? Let us see here.
[10:31] He says, what a mercy it is to have the use of our reason. Nebuchadnezzar, whilst he was a great king full of pomp and power and so on, he had no thought of the Lord.
[10:45] And then he was reduced to the status of a beast. And then when he awakened, as it were, from that condition, his eyes were opened and he understood things clearly.
[10:59] He understood the relationship between God and man. Why didn't he do that before? Well, one reason I would suggest to you is that he has his dream and Daniel makes his interpretation and then it says, you know, all this came upon Nebuchadnezzar, verse 29, at the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon.
[11:22] Now, a year is a long time. A year is a long time from when you have a dream and have it interpreted to then it coming to pass.
[11:32] You know, a week goes past. You think, well, it hasn't happened yet. No, nothing's happened. I haven't lost my reason. I haven't had the tree cut down. I haven't lost my kingdom. That's why then a month goes past. You think, well, this is fine.
[11:43] I'm beginning to forget about these things. Six months goes past. And everything is carrying on as before. Nine months goes past. Ten, eleven. And you think, this is great. And part of the difficulty is that whilst God shows great mercy to those who may yet turn to him, that very mercy hardens the hearts sometimes of those who are already lifted up in pride against it.
[12:10] Ecclesiastes chapter 8 tells us at verse 11, because sentence against the evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
[12:24] They think they are getting away with it. Like David and Bathsheba, it was ages afterwards that Nathan the prophet came to him. She'd already had the child. The child got sick.
[12:34] The child was about to die and so on. That's when Nathan came to him. And it was long after the event and he must have thought, I'm getting away with it. But God speaks and God remembers.
[12:46] But one reason why God delays is for mercy. To give opportunity to repentance. Daniel says in verse 27, Wherefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee.
[13:00] Break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. If you would turn to the Lord in penitence and faith, then it may avert this disaster or it may put off the evil day.
[13:18] And, you know, we've got biblical evidence that that can be done. In Jeremiah, of course, the Lord says through the prophet, Here for a nation upon whom I have pronounced evil will turn and repent, then I will stay off the evil.
[13:32] And I pronounced against him. You've got the case of Hezekiah who was told by the prophet Isaiah, Put your affairs in order because you're going to die. And he turned his face to the wall and he wept and he pled with the Lord, Lord, remember how I've walked before thee in justice and in trying to be faithful and doing my best to be diligent and trust in you, believe in you.
[13:51] And he wept and the Lord heard his prayer and he told Isaiah to turn around and go back to him again and say, The Lord is adding 15 years to your life. It didn't stop him from dying in the end but it put off the day because he had asked, he received and God had mercy upon the prayer of faith.
[14:10] And he was granted, Nebuchadnezzar is granted, 12 months, a year, in which he might change, in which he might adjust his life.
[14:22] You know, Jesus tells the parable about the fig tree in the vineyard. And when the master wants to pull up the fig tree because it's not bearing any fruit, the steward of his garden says to him, he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it and if it bear fruit well and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
[14:48] Let it alone this year also. And the Lord in his mercy gives Nebuchadnezzar this year also, this one year in which he can turn, in which he can change, in which he can have mercy on those who he is oppressing, no doubt by making slaves of those and he's supposed to do all his great public works or conscript people into his army or oppressing the food in his conquered lands or whatever it is that he is guilty of.
[15:19] He can turn to the Lord. He is given time. But the difficulty is that where a heart is already hard against the Lord, sometimes the giving of time and the stay of execution simply causes it to be harder still.
[15:34] And they think, hey, I've got away with it. Nothing has happened. The axe has not fallen yet. So we have Nebuchadnezzar here desiring to be, seeking to be, more than a man.
[15:49] Believing himself above all nations of the world, above mankind itself, more than a man. And therefore God justly makes him less than a man and puts him upon a level with the beasts.
[16:03] He who had set himself up for a rival with his maker is made not now more than a man, but less than a man. So the verse I'd like us to focus upon this evening particularly is verse 34.
[16:18] At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the Most High and praised and honoured him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
[16:41] Verse 36, At the same time, my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom, my honour and brightness returned unto me. My counsellors and my Lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom.
[16:52] What's the reason for that? Because when he lifted up his eyes to heaven, his understanding returned and he blessed the Most High and praised and honoured him that liveth forever and ever.
[17:05] Now what do we see here? We see that when the times appointed have been fulfilled, Nebuchadnezzar, who has had his eyes cast down like a beast of the field.
[17:18] And all beasts of the field are like that if you think about it. You know, you put down your food for your pet dog or whatever it is, eating up its food. You put down your sauce of milk for the cat and there it is, lapping away.
[17:29] You look out, the sheep are all constantly grazing away and there they are. They won't budge for the card or anything else. They won't get out of the way unless you treat the horn. They're constantly eating glass, always head downwards.
[17:40] All the beasts of the field are facing downwards. Even the eagle soaring in the heavens, it is always looking downwards, looking for its prey. It is a characteristic of the beasts of the field.
[17:53] They are ever always looking down. Because they're only ever thinking of the food supply is a characteristic of mankind that he is enabled to look up.
[18:05] That he is enabled to think the things of heaven and of eternity. To look no longer down, but to look up as a man.
[18:16] Jesus said to his disciples, remember in Luke 21, in verse 28, when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.
[18:29] And he was thinking in terms of when you see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of glory with all the holy angels with him, and those who are not the Lord will be inclined to run away and hide, and to shield their face and say, see the mountains fall on us, and the hills cover us.
[18:45] He says, when these things begin to happen, you don't need to do that. You don't need to run away and hide. You look up, because your redemption is drawing nigh. You demonstrate that you are men and women in all the fullness of humanity, because you belong to the Lord.
[19:03] You know your God as your true Savior. And he doesn't just look upwards, as it were, to the sky. He's not just becoming a man again.
[19:16] There's more to it than this. He looked up as a devout man. He looked up as a penitent man. He looked up as a humble petitioner for mercy, being perhaps never till now made sense of his own misery.
[19:36] Now, he had been told, as we see at verse 25, that this affliction would happen to him till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
[19:52] He had been told, he continued his forlorn case till he should know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men. And here, we have seen him, as it were, brought to that knowledge, brought to that state of affairs, where, as we see, at the end of the days, I lifted up mine eyes to heaven, and mine understanding returned to me.
[20:16] His understanding returned to him. And he saw that the Most High rules over all the kingdoms of men. This is, of course, what we read in Revelation, chapter 11, at verse 15.
[20:30] The seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
[20:46] Now, it's not that they finally become that at the end of time in the book of Revelation. The kingdoms of this world always were the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. They always were under his control.
[20:58] Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as well as just King and Head of the Church. He was always in supreme control over all these kingdoms.
[21:08] It's just that men refused to acknowledge it. They had a foolish idea that by being at the top of their little anthill, at the top of their little dumb pile, and waving their flag, they were somehow supreme.
[21:21] They were behaving as though there would never be an eternity that they would have to face. There would never be the onset of death, much less the loss of their mind or faculties or powers, as though now established, they would reign forever.
[21:36] We think of this even subconsciously, don't we? When we think in terms of how that cycle of history has gone, and then we think, well, now look at this state of it.
[21:47] Now look at what society has come to, as though the age and the moment in which we live were the full stop at the end of the sentence, as though there's not going to be more of history yet to unfold, as though the cycle will not go round again, and things will not change, and things may go back to the opposite of what they are just now.
[22:08] We always think that our day is the ultimate state of modernity and sophistication. We say, well, that's what they did in the 60s or the 70s, but look at us now. Now we are this, now we are that, now we are the next thing.
[22:21] This is the pinnacle of human sophistication. There's much more to come, we assume, in the providence of God. How men can imagine that they are as gods if that is what they believe, God will reduce them to the status of beasts.
[22:40] Those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not bless and praise God. Nor do men ever rightly use their reason till they begin to do so.
[22:56] In other words, to bless and praise the Lord. Nor do they truly live as men until they live to the glory of God. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me.
[23:14] What is the evidence of that understanding of return? And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
[23:31] You know, this courtiers would sometimes say to him, O king, live forever. But no king on earth lives forever. No man on earth lives forever.
[23:42] But God and his kingdom is forever, that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
[23:53] All this time, Nebuchadnezzar has lived with the status and with the lifestyle of a beast of the field, of an animal.
[24:04] And yet, all that God has really done is reduced to the most extreme example, that which he had already begun to be.
[24:18] What do I mean by that? I mean that man without God is effectively in the state of an animal. Animals, however, highly developed, have no sense of any supreme being.
[24:33] They are not worshipping creatures. If you think about it, you know, whether it's monkeys in the trees or whether it's lions in their pride on the plains of Africa or whether it's, you know, big elephants or big cats or, you know, hyenas and dog packs or whatever, you don't see them gathering to worship anywhere.
[24:55] You never have these nature programs observing them all gathering for an act of worship. They don't worship anything. They are not worshipping creatures. They have no sense of any supreme being.
[25:08] They have no religion to put it in those terms. And yet, the most basic or savage or primitive cultures of human beings worship something or someone.
[25:22] However pagan their worship rites and rituals might be, however savage, however cruel, whatever may be the false gods that they worship. They worship something.
[25:35] And that is one means by which mankind is distinct from the animal kingdom. The animal creatures, however sophisticated or capable or highly organized they may be in terms of their life in this world, are not worshipping creatures.
[25:53] They have no consciousness of any divine nature, no consciousness of any supreme being. They do not worship. Mankind worships.
[26:06] However basic or primitive this culture may be, he worships. He worships something or someone, however imperfect, however savage, however cruel, however idolatrous his worship may be, he worships something.
[26:23] It is wired in to our DNA. it is part of the mark of humankind. It is when human beings become obsessed with their own importance, their own achievements, their own sophistication and progress and prosperity, not unlike Medjugorje Medjugorje.
[26:46] And not unlike our own day and age, that this inward looking narcissism disconnects them from the reality that is everywhere around them.
[27:00] That is what we have nowadays, that is what we have for the past 150 years in Western society, that is a disconnect between mankind and his supposed achievements and sophistication on the one hand and the reality that is everywhere around him on the other.
[27:18] So much so that he becomes absolutely wedded to theories that he calls scientific, which have no scientific evidence whatsoever.
[27:31] And when the very opposite has all the scientific evidence stacked up in his favor, he will not look at it. He will not go there. Such is his self, obsession, his narcissistic inward-looking concern only with himself.
[27:49] Now if we had somebody who was only concerned with their own little world, let's say for example you had your sort of professor who was stacked up with books and he studied, he didn't eat properly, he didn't sleep, he barely washed, he never went out or mixed in any society, he just lived in his libraries and his books and so on.
[28:10] It would be for him like you know, like Festus says to Paul in Acts 26 as he spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad.
[28:26] Now we'll come to the unpacking of that statement in just a minute, but clearly for him to even say that, it indicates that it was known to the Romans and the Greeks that if one spent so much time simply steeped in books and manuscripts in the world of supposedly intellectual investigation, there becomes a disconnect with reality.
[28:48] And when we have the disconnect with reality, that is when we begin to think and talk in terms of the mad professor. Now the mad professor is not mad in his own eyes, he is completely focused and obsessed on his subject of study, but he just has no time or interest in the world outside his ivory tower.
[29:10] He is only concerned with the world in his own research and books and study. The rest of the world does not interest him. He has no concern with it. His disconnectedness from reality causes the world around him to say he's mad.
[29:24] He's insane. And this is what Festus says about Paul. But Paul answered, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
[29:38] for the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner.
[29:49] He's talking about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Public events that were a matter of public record had been witnessed and known by people in the Roman Empire.
[30:00] King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. In other words, Paul in his studies of the scriptures, in his immersion in the things of Christ, is not disconnected from reality around him, quite the reverse.
[30:22] He is plugged into that reality and he sees the need for that reality to be transformed by the power and presence that only God can give.
[30:36] Mankind is not fully man. Human beings are not fully human until they are fulfilling the purpose for which they were created, to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
[30:53] At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me.
[31:04] And what is the fruit of that? And I blessed the most high and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, his kingdom is from generation to generation.
[31:16] As Matthew Henry said, those may justly be reckoned void of understanding that do not bless and praise God, nor do men ever rightly use their reason till they begin to do so, to begin to praise and bless the Lord.
[31:36] Nor do they truly live as men until they live to the glory of God. Now it is perfectly possible, of course, that over much prosperity and over much self-contentment and self-satisfaction, in other words, the very things that God has showered upon us may cause us to think that we have no need of the God who supplies.
[32:03] And it's rather like if you have a child and from day one you give it absolutely everything it wants, everything it could ask for, it just has to say, I want, and you say, yes, yes, of course, and you give it.
[32:17] You say, I want this, yes, there you go, I want that, yes, there you go, and then when it grows up it says, I want a house of my own, a flat of mile, I want my own car, and it's yes, yes, we'll buy all that for you.
[32:28] And they have no sense, the child grows up with absolutely no sense of cost, or of reality, or of responsibility, because all that they have had to do is say, I want, and they get.
[32:44] Now in a sense you could say, not that there is ever any fault on the Lord's part, that the Lord in the ancient days of Israel had been so good to Israel, that they had become spoiled.
[32:59] When they were in the wilderness, they complained and moaned that they didn't have the things they needed, and they moaned against God, and God supplied them what he needed. And when they came into the holy land, into Canaan, God blessed them to such an extent, that in the end they began to turn against him.
[33:15] But God had warned them against that. He said, look, when I give you so much of this good thing more than you could even cope with, then beware, lest you fall into this trap. Deuteronomy chapter 8, we read, lest one now has eaten and art full, and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein, and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, then thy heart be lifted up, just as Nebuchad answers was, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage, and thou say in thy heart, my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth, but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he sware unto the fathers, as it is this day.
[34:13] Scientists and men of study and investigation, Isaac Newton and Galileo and all these others in the past, those who achieved great social change like William Wilberforce or Lord Shaftesbury or whatever, these were all men of faith, men of God.
[34:33] They were those who understood that all that they were able to discover, all that they were able to learn, all that they were able to do was itself a gift from God and to be used in accordance with God's revealed will and commands.
[34:48] When we believe it is all of us and not of God, when we have shut out the worshipful nature that is wired into our DNA, instead of becoming more than man, we become less than human.
[35:07] We have become now as brute beasts or worse. The first act of Nebuchadnezzar's returning reason was to praise and glorify God.
[35:24] This is the great end for which our reason and understanding is given to us. It is the distinctive characteristic by which we are human, that we are not only made in the image of God, but we are wired in such a way as to instinctively desire to worship.
[35:50] Now, men in their pagan state, when they do not know the true God and the living God and the grace of God, they worship the inventions of their own minds. They worship the sun or the moon or the stars, or they say the rock there beside the river is a god, or they say the river itself as a god or the fields are filled with gods that give fertility or whatever.
[36:12] They make gods to themselves, but they worship nevertheless. But as we have unfolded to us the true nature of the living God, we see something not only of the wonder of creation, but also of the beauty of holiness.
[36:31] The first act of Nebuchadnezzar's returning reason was to praise and glorify God, and this is the great objective and end for which our reason and understanding is given unto us.
[36:47] And only when that foundation was in place could there be built upon it again the enjoyment now of all his previous benefits.
[36:59] They were the gift of God, verse 36, at the same time my reason returned unto me. And for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned unto me, and my counselors and my lords sought unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me.
[37:20] In other words, I was more glorious at the end than I was at the start. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven.
[37:32] All whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to love this. He realized that despite all that his courtiers would say, oh king, live forever, no king on earth lives forever, but now he knew that God is eternal.
[37:54] And those that think highly of God cannot help but think meanly of themselves by contrast. This was an affliction that Nebuchadnezzar was compelled to undergo.
[38:09] But when God gives such afflictions, afflictions shall last no longer than until they have done the work for which they were sent.
[38:21] God does not just afflict Nebuchadnezzar for the fun of it or out of some sadistic pleasure. it is so that he, at that time the greatest king on the face of the earth, might come to understand what truly great kingship is.
[38:38] A great kingship is to recognize that there is an ultimate king, a king of heaven and earth, to whom we must give an account.
[38:51] It is the mark of returned reason that one gives glory to God. Think of the man out of whom the legion of devils were cast, of whom it says they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the devils were departed sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were at night.
[39:16] Clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus. Is that not where we ought to be? Is that not where reason and understanding will bring us?
[39:29] When we will understand by the grace of God the nature of true and ultimate kingship. It is written in the word of God that we are made kings and priests to God.
[39:43] And we understand true priesthood and we understand true kingship when we come to know who is our great high priest, who is the king of kings and lord of lords.
[39:59] Pray God it take not what Nebuchadnezzar was compelled to undergo, but rather we might as it were, if we can say it reverently, fast forward to that stage which he arrived at after so much pain and affliction.
[40:16] Verse 34, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the Most High and I praised and honoured him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
[40:42] This is the generation in which the Lord has placed you. this is the day in which the Lord has placed your life. This is the day of opportunity and the Lord's kingdom is very present.
[40:59] If we would come to understand, like Nebuchadnezzar, what true kingship is and who it is who is the ultimate king of kings.
[41:11] want to great thanks to