Sermon Tone Analysis
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*The Height of Insanity; A King’s Testimony*
*July 11, 1999 Daniel 4*
* *
*Introduction:*
The three messages that we have had so far in the book of Daniel; Success without Compromise, Facing the Future without Fear, and Dependence Day, all suggest the over-riding theme in the book so far.
And that is that God is in control.
And if God is in control, then those who belong to him can be confident in standing for righteousness, they can be confident in facing future events, and they can be confident in depending upon God.
Three times so far there has been a showdown of sorts with the most powerful king in the world.
But the showdown has not been primarily between the king and Daniel or his friends, it has been between the king and God.
Daniel and his friends are merely God’s agents of revelation and truth.
As important as that is, it is God who is supreme.
Now, one last time, the king will find that out.
This time he will truly receive it – but notice what it takes.
The lesson will be for the whole world to observe.
So far the king has only admitted God, albeit a very powerful God, into his pantheon of pagan gods.
But this time will be different.
What makes this time so different?
It is God’s discipline.
When God speaks, he will not be discounted.
When God goes after a man or a woman, he will not be rebuffed.
God is truly loving, faithful, merciful, gracious and good.
But he is also holy, righteous, just, all-powerful and sovereign.
Who is man to exalt himself in the face of God? Who is man to compete with God?
That would be the height of insanity.
For some of us, that is what it takes – coming face to face with the insanity of disobeying and dismissing God.
It has been said that the insane asylums would be mostly emptied if somehow the residents could find some way of having peace with God.
They may be the ones who refuse to learn.
God has been speaking, but have we listened?
Perhaps we have heard, but we do not truly believe what God is capable of.
God is in the faith business – he can make a believer out of anyone he wants to.
After all, he is sovereign.
This is a king’s testimony about that process of believing.
You say, “God is slow?”
/2Pet.
3:9-10 ¶ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.
The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare./
God takes his time to build his case, and when our world comes crashing down, the lesson then is plain and irrefutable.
But better to believe at first light.
Then the day is right before you without the soon coming of the night.
But praise God for the light when it comes.
God is in the faith business.
You are God’s business.
He loves and cares for you too much to let you go on forever in your sin of pride.
Did you know that all sin is pride?
Yes it is.
It is a proud heart that does not yield to the hand and the voice and the will of God.
The Siamese twins of King Nebuchadnezzar and his pride are about to become surgically separated by the Master Surgeon.
There is the diagnosis of the dream, the one year of surgical preparation, and the seven years of surgery.
Never fear, God has the time.
The question is whether we have the time.
Let us investigate the story.
*I.
The king’s decree to praise the Lord (4:1-3)*
So this is the king’s testimony about his experience of faith.
It is bracketed at the beginning and the end by praise.
It is written by the king himself as an official Babylonian document.
We all have a story to tell about our faith journey.
This is the story about how a very powerful man came to know a very powerful God and what he learned about God in the process.
It is about what the king wants us to know.
I believe the address in verse one is intended to span time.
It is therefore also for us since he proclaims God’s kingdom as eternal and his dominion as durable.
We may be further down the road, but it is the same road.
People of every age must learn the same lessons.
God effectively influenced the most influential man in all the earth at the time.
But your story about the truth of God is none the less important because every person saved is important.
And you too are influential where you are.
But God also has the purpose here of preserving his people who are under Nebuchadnezzar’s care at the time.
God saves and God preserves.
*II.
The dream reported, and the search for an interpreter (4:4-18)*
Notice how the king opens his account of his dream with his state of mind before the dream.
He was contented and prosperous.
He was self-satisfied.
The problem is he was too contented and prosperous.
He thought he was a forest of one.
You’ve heard the quip that ‘you can’t see the forest for the trees’?
Well, Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t see the forest for the tree.
He couldn’t see the larger picture because he himself got in the way and blanked out everything else.
When we have no other source of strength in our own minds than ourselves, we can become easily intimidated.
Remember how last week we learned that Nebuchadnezzar showed several signs of being insecure?
He says now that this dream made him afraid – even terrified.
So he naturally wants to know more about what he dreamed.
So guess who he calls?
Daniel?
You’d think so after the episode with the last dream where Daniel was the only one who could state both what the dream was as well as interpret it.
But the king calls out all his other wise men again.
He is still holding on to the false hope that he doesn’t have to face God.
He is still seeking the false ahead of the true.
None of the others can interpret it, so we see here the words, ‘finally Daniel’ in verse 8.
The king even calls him by his Babylonian name which shows us that his heart has slipped from past lessons.
He also places Daniel’s godly spirit in the category with other gods.
This king has a hard noggin.
He is hard headed.
Oh, it takes so much time and so many lessons for some of us to come to true faith, doesn’t it?
But we will if God is after us.
He is relentless.
But as we come into the content of the dream beginning in verse 10, it seems fairly obvious to us what the interpretation must be.
This time they were told what the dream was and couldn’t interpret it.
Personally, I don’t think that any of the court magicians wanted to believe the truth and interpret the dream.
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