Sermon Transcript

0:00:14.0

In our lifetime Chuck Colson is probably without question one of the most notorious converts to Jesus Christ.  Until his death in April of 2012, Colson served as the founder and board chairman for a ministry called Prison Fellowship.  You may be familiar with this international ministry that reaches out to prisoners, ex-prisoners, victims of crime and their families.  Colson founded that ministry, started that ministry, and then he passed away rather recently.  He didn’t always care for hurting people.  In fact, there was a time in Colson’s life when he cared more about putting hurt on people politically.  A portion of his biography from the Prison Fellowship reads as follows: “More than 30 years ago Charles W. Colson was not thinking about reaching out to prisoners, inmates or reforming the US penal system.  In fact, this aide to President Richard Nixon was ‘incapable of humanitarian thought’ according to the media of the mid-1970s.  Colson was known as the White House ‘hatchet man’, a man feared by even the most powerful politicos during his four years of service to President Nixon.  When news of Colson’s conversion to Christianity leaked to the press in 1973, the Boston Globe reported, ‘If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody.’  Colson would agree.  He admits he was guilty of political dirty tricks and willing to do almost anything for the cause of his president and his party.”  Colson served about seven months in prison for his involvement in the Watergate political scandal that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.  But just as he was entering prison, somebody introduced Charles Colson to Jesus Christ.  And he said he was born again.  He wrote a book by that title.  A lot of people were skeptical.  Just as they were skeptical of the apostle Paul 2000 years ago when this terrorist in the 1^st century said he was now a follower of Jesus, people were skeptical of Colson.  But his life since then proved that his conversion to Christianity was real.

0:02:43.2

He learned a very difficult lesson, albeit the hard way.  And that lesson can be summarized in two words.  Heaven rules.  And every member of the Nixon administration himself and Colson learned the lessons of pride and arrogance run amok the hard way.  Proud people rarely see how vulnerable they are or how close they are to a fall.  Pride is like kryptonite.  It’s like kryptonite to a faith that would otherwise stand strong.  And that’s true in your life and in my life even as followers of Jesus Christ.

0:03:26.5

Now, we’re in a study of the book of Daniel.  And even though Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are the main characters of this story, the sub-story up to this point has been about a king named Nebuchadnezzar, the reigning monarch of the Babylonian Empire 25, almost 2600 years ago.  And before we get to Daniel 4, I want us to stop off in a couple places in the scripture as reminders of what the Bible says about pride.  Today’s lesson, titled “Heaven Rules,” is a lesson about the dangers of pride.  That God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.  Proverbs 6:16-17 says this, “There are six things that the Lord hates,”…well, that’ll get your attention…“seven that are an abomination to him.”  Wouldn’t you like to know what those six or seven things are?  Well, at the top of the list are haughty eyes.  Pride.  God hates pride.  Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  1 Peter 5:6 is good for us to remember.  “Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”  It’s always good to humble yourself so God doesn’t have to.  And we’re encouraged to do that, to humble ourselves.  The lesson that King Nebuchadnezzar learned is summarized in verse 37 where he learned that “those who walk in pride,”…and Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful, boastful, bombastic king…“those who walk in pride,” Nebuchadnezzar learned, “God is able to humble.”

0:05:22.6

Now, let’s go to Daniel 4, and let’s review where we’ve been up to this point.  Again, we’re studying the book of Daniel.  We’ve been in Daniel 1, 2 and 3.  The main story is about how these Hebrew captives were taken captive by the Babylonians in 605 B.C. when the Babylonians besieged the city of Jerusalem and took with them the best and the brightest among the Hebrews, the young people who were the achievers and had the most potential.  Among them were Daniel and his three friends who were later given Babylonian names- Belshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  And we know them by those names.  We know Daniel, of course, by Daniel.

0:06:06.9

But the sub-story, again, is about King Nebuchadnezzar, who is a prototype, we learned last week, of the Antichrist to come.  You go all the way to the end of the age in Bible prophecy and to the book of Revelation and to the Tribulation period, well, this is a foreshadowing of that.  But Nebuchadnezzar was a real man and real king of a real empire 26 centuries ago.  And the hound of heaven, God Himself, was after this king.  The first time that Nebuchadnezzar gets some indication of the one true God of Israel was when he took captive these three youths.  And Daniel, the Bible says, resolved not to defile himself at the king’s table.  Remember that in chapter 1?  And we say, “Oh, way to go, Daniel.”  Dare to be a Daniel.  He drew a line in the sand, and he says, “I’m not going to compromise my faith.  I’m going stand strong here.”  That was the king’s first indication there was something different about these guys.

0:07:05.1

In chapter 2 the king has a dream, a dream that frightens him.  He calls all of his wise guys together, the sum total of the best of human wisdom.  These guys failed him.  They can’t tell him what he dreamed or the interpretation of the dream, but Daniel can.  And Daniel interprets the king’s dream.  And it was a terrifying dream because it told the king that his empire would soon fail.  And what we see now as ancient history, back then with Daniel it was prophecy, from the time of the Babylonian Empire through the major world empires that we now read about in the history books.  But that was predicted prophecy in Daniel’s time.  From the Babylonian Empire to the empire of the Medes and the Persians, followed by the Grecian Empire, followed by the Roman Empire—which is now fallen—and even a foreshadowing of the revived Roman Empire at the end of the age—which we still wait for in Bible prophecy and we wait for in faith—and then ultimately the return of Jesus Christ as He sets up His millennial kingdom and rule on this earth, that was foreshadowed in the king’s dream.

0:08:15.3

And the king comes to the end of chapter 2, and he is amazed.  He extols the God of Daniel.  You almost think the king got saved that day.  But in chapter 3, probably two decades later we’re going to guess, the king erects an image to himself and calls upon all of his people to worship the image that points to him.  And we realize that King Nebuchadnezzar’s heart is still not converted.  He is still full of himself.  He is a prideful, boastful, ruthless king.  The story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is chapter 3.  These young youths are thrown into the fiery furnace.  The fourth man in the fire, a pre-incarnate picture of Jesus Christ, appears.  And again the king is amazed.  “Daniel and Shadrach and all these other guys, your God is amazing.”  But even years later the king’s heart is still not converted.  But the hound of heaven is after him.

0:09:12.6

You may try to put God off and put Him off and keep Him at a distance and say, “No, I’m not going to come to faith in Christ.”  God will never give up on you.  And praise God He won’t.  He is like the hound of heaven.  And in chapter 4 He comes after this king one more time, this prideful, boastful king, and teaches Nebuchadnezzar that those who walk in pride God is able to humble.

0:09:45.3

Let’s pick it up in verse 1.  I call this the preamble.  You’ll understand why in a moment.  “King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you!  It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.  How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!  His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.”  Now, if Nebuchadnezzar were a theology student, he’d get an A+.  That’s pretty good stuff, isn’t it?  Here’s what you need to know about Daniel 4.  It was written by Nebuchadnezzar himself.  Most Bible teachers and scholars see chapter 4 as really a state document that was in the possession of the Babylonians.  Daniel got ahold of it, but this was written by Nebuchadnezzar almost as a personal testimony to what God did in his life and to how God taught him that those who walk in pride He is able to humble.  And this is a summary of what King Nebuchadnezzar learned and the conclusion to which he comes.  And we would applaud him for all of this.  And it is indication that, perhaps this time, his heart was converted.  Basically, Nebuchadnezzar is saying, “After all these things and ways that God is trying to get my attention, I finally get it.  His kingdom, not mine, endures.  Heaven rules.”  Heaven rules. 

0:11:20.2

Up to that time Nebuchadnezzar is so full if himself, and he looks in the mirror and has others look at him and say, “Worship me, and look what I’ve done.  And look how great of a king I am.”  No, he learns the hard way heaven rules.  And he learns this through a second dream that we read about beginning in verse 4.  “I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and prospering in my palace.”  Beware the prosperous years, friends.  Learn a lot through adversity, but prosperity has a way of blinding you.  Nebuchadnezzar had prospered in his palace.

0:12:00.8

And he says, “I saw a dream that made me afraid.  As I lay in bed the fancies and the visions of my head alarmed me.”  Again, he is sleepless in Babylon, and he is frightened by a dream.  “So I made a decree that all the wise men of Babylon should be brought before me, that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream.  Then the magicians, the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers came in, and I told them the dream, but they could not make known to me its interpretation.”  King Nebuchadnezzar has another dream.  It frightens him, and his default is to go back to his own old ways, to bring together the wise guys of Babylon.  You know, the sum total of the best that human wisdom can offer- the astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans.  To put it in our terminology today, he picks up the psychic hotline.  He reads the horoscope page.  He is looking for answers, for somebody to interpret his dream.  Now, this time he doesn’t say, “You need to tell me what I dreamed and then later the interpretation.”  He just gathers these guys together and says, “Tell me the interpretation.  I’m desperate here.  I’m bothered by this dream.”  And like the sum total of all human wisdom eventually does, it fails Nebuchadnezzar.  They can’t even interpret the dream.

0:13:21.9

So what does he do?  He reaches out to his friend Daniel. Verse 6, “At last Daniel came in before me—he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god.”  He still calls Daniel by his pagan Babylonian name.  And he says, “And in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.”  Now, here is where I want to pause and just say this.  Nebuchadnezzar was still pursuing and still deep in what we would call pluralism.  He didn’t care what God you served as long as your god could help him.  At first he reaches out to the enchanters and the astrologers, thinking, hey, maybe these guys can help me.  They failed me.  Oh, let’s go to Daniel over here.  He seems like a real spiritual person.  He has the spirit of the holy gods in him.  Sounds like an Oprah show, you know, where she just parades all of these spiritual people.  You know, “you seem real spiritual, like you have a connection to God.  Maybe you have an answer for me.”

0:14:30.8

Verse 9, “O Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and that no mystery is too difficult for you, tell me the visions of my dream that I saw and their interpretation.  The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold,”…and here he goes on to tell the dream…“a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great.  The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.  Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all.  The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.”  He goes on to say, “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.  He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit.  Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches.  But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field.  Let him be wet with the dew of heaven.  Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.  Let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him.’”  What a daunting dream.

0:16:03.9

Verse 17, “‘The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end,’”—now, listen to this—“‘that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’”  “There is a lesson to be learned here, Nebuchadnezzar, that heaven rules.  You’re not all that.  You didn’t built this because you're come hoity, hoity.  No, heaven rules, and I’m tired of you walking around taking all the credit for this.”  I’m paraphrasing.  Verse 18, “This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw.  And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

0:17:04.3

You ever have somebody come up to you and say, “You know, you seem like a real spiritual person.  Can you help me?”  But it doesn’t really indicate that they’re really a God-follower or have a converted heart.  They’re just looking for something.  We live in a very pluralistic culture, if you haven’t already figured that out.  You can talk about spiritual things and have a conversation, and that’s just fine.  But the minute you go from pluralism to the specificity of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, oh, that’s where the conversation goes off the rails.  Okay to be spiritual.  I’m okay, you’re okay.  Whatever works for you works for you, whatever god works for me works for me.  That was King Nebuchadnezzar in his Babylonian pagan culture, which is not far from the culture in which we live where we are very, very pluralistic.

0:17:53.0

Well, we go from the king’s second dream here, now to Daniel’s interpretation.  And we pick it up in verse 19.  “Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,”…again, his Babylonian name…“was dismayed for a while, and his thoughts alarmed him.  The king answered and said, ‘Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation alarm you.’  Belteshazzar answered and said, ‘My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you and its interpretation for your enemies!’”  In other words, “King, this is not good, and it’s not going to go well for you.  You may wish this to happen to your enemies, but this is not good.”  Verse 20, “‘The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived— it is you, O king, (0:19:00.0) who have grown and become strong.  Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.  And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,’ this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you,’”…here it is again…“‘till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it (0:20:00.1) to whom he will.  And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules.  Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins…’”  He gives him a little instruction here.  “‘Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.’”

0:20:33.2

No wonder Daniel said, “King, this isn’t going to go well for you.  This dream that you have is a prediction that you personally are about to fall.”  You know the old saying, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”?  Well, there wasn’t anybody bigger.  There wasn’t anybody bigger than King Nebuchadnezzar.  He was the reigning monarch of the greatest superpower, the greatest empire on earth at this time.  But he was full of himself and full of pride, full of arrogance.  At least three, even four times in this chapter Nebuchadnezzar is reminded that it is the Most High that sets up kings and brings them down.  “How dare you, Nebuchadnezzar, say, ‘Look what I have done?’  No, heaven rules even though you’re the greatest king and the greatest ruler on this earth.”  Don’t say, “Look what I’ve done.”  Don’t say, “I’ve pulled myself up by my own bootstraps.  Look what I’ve done world.”  No, that’ll get you a visitation from God, because He opposes the proud, the Bible says, but gives grace to the humble.  That’s really startling.  I don’t want to be on the opposing side of God, the opposite side of Him.  But the Bible is clear that God hates pride.

0:22:04.1

Now, there are two kinds of pride, just like there are two kinds of cholesterol.  You’ve been to your doctor.  Your cholesterol is high.  There is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol.  Amen?  Right?  Doctors, am I right on that? Likewise, there is good pride and bad pride.  You can have pride in your kids.  You know, you’re really proud of what they’ve accomplished.  You can have good old American pride in our flag-waving American here.  There is nothing wrong with that.  That’s kind of good pride.  Unless that pride leads you to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, to think that you're better than other people.  Now you’ve slid into the kind of pride that is not a virtue but a vice, and the kind of pride that heaven opposes and stands against.  Heaven has had enough of prideful, boastful, “look at me,” “worship me” Nebuchadnezzar.  Sent the guy a dream, said, “Nebuchadnezzar, you're coming down.”  But I love verse 27, how’s there is just a little measure of grace there.  Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, “Break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.”  Before the dream becomes a reality Nebuchadnezzar has one last opportunity.  Basically, says, “Nebuchadnezzar, repent of your sins, practice righteousness, and show mercy to the oppressed.  And if you do that, maybe the God of heaven will put a stay on this dream becoming a reality.”

0:23:49.3

Well, that’s the interpretation.  We go from the interpretation, now to the king’s fall and his humiliation beginning in verse 28.  It says, “All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.”  Now, keep in mind, he’s writing a first person narrative here of what happened to him.  The king wrote this.  Let me just pause here and remind you.  This is his personal testimony.  Have you written out your personal testimony?  When you’re sharing your personal journey, do you have a testimony that takes people through how God got a hold of your heart and turned what might have been an otherwise prideful, arrogant self into somebody who was humble enough to come kneel at the foot of the cross?  Do you have a testimony like that?  That’s what we’re reading here.  Nebuchadnezzar goes on to say, “At the end of twelve months…”  Now, think about that.  Twelve months had passed from the time Nebuchadnezzar got the interpretation of the dream, another indication of God’s grace.  Twelve more months passed.  Never presume upon God though.  Never presume that you’re going to have another day.  But God is a god of mercy, and He extends grace, a grace period for Nebuchadnezzar to respond, to repent of his sins, to practice righteousness and to show the oppressed mercy.  But twelve months passed.  “At the end of 12 months, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon, and the king said, ‘Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?’”  What a prideful, arrogant, boastful statement.  Circle the first person pronouns there “I” and “my.”  Nebuchadnezzar says, “Look what I’ve done.”  He takes a walk out on the palace balcony, looks around, and he says, “Look at great Babylon and look how great I am.”

0:25:55.4

You know, you don’t have to be the king of a major world empire to think of yourself as an empire-builder.  Maybe it’s that business you’re building, and you're wanting to build an empire, an empire to yourself.  You wouldn’t say it that way, but maybe in your own self-talk it sounds something like what Nebuchadnezzar says here.  It kind of reminds me of William Ernest Henley and a line from his poem Invictus.  “It matters now how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”  No, you’re not.  And neither am I.  But it’s easy to think that way.  I’m the master of my fate.  I’m the captain of my soul.  Look what I’ve done, pulling myself up by my own bootstrap.  If you only knew where I came from.  We’re not that far from Nebuchadnezzar.  Pride rules its ugly head within the human heart.  That’s why it’s number one on the list of six or seven things that God hates.  He opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble.”

0:27:12.9

Verse 31, “While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, ‘O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.  And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.’  Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.  He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.”  What a fall!  The rise and the fall.  We’ll get to in a moment the eventual rise again of King Nebuchadnezzar.

0:28:13.4

The bigger they are the harder they fall.  And Nebuchadnezzar fell hard.  He was banished out into the wilderness somewhere.  I don’t know how long seven periods of time were, but it’s referenced several times here.  In fact, long enough for the king to grow his hair long and for his nails to be like the claws of birds.  It takes some times for that to happen.  And he had lost all reason.  His mind was no longer sharp like a human.  His mind was like the beast of the field.  And this was Nebuchadnezzar.  You just wonder what people were saying about him.  “Whatever happened to this king?”  Well, he had to learn a lesson.  That God is able to humble those who walk in pride.

0:29:02.3

Verse 34, “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 host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” All right.  We’re back to giving Nebuchadnezzar an A in theology.  Sounds like he’s learned the lesson well, has he not?

0:29:39.6

He says, “At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned 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 and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.”  What a story.  The rise, the fall, and the rise again of King Nebuchadnezzar.

0:30:19.7

What do we learn from a story like this?  Just a couple things by way of application.  I call these heaven’s unbreakable rules.  And I’ve already alluded to number one.  Pride goes before a fall.  It just does.  Pride goes before a fall as much as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.  You can just count on it.  That is one of heaven’s unbreakable rules.  Likewise, God gives grace to the humble.  It’s almost like two sides of the same coin.  You choose which side of coin you want to look at and which side of the coin you want to be a part of your life.  Pride goes before a fall, but God gives grace to the humble.  And even to the prideful.  He gave Nebuchadnezzar chance after chance after chance to repent, to practice righteousness, to be merciful to the oppressed.

0:31:19.6

Nancy Leigh DeMoss made some insightful observations about the difference between pride and brokenness.  Listen to this.  “Proud people,” she says, “focus on the failures of others.  Broken people are overwhelmed with a sense of their own spiritual need.  Proud people have to prove they are right.  Broken people are willing to yield the right to be right.  Proud people,” she says, “have a critical, fault-finding spirit.  Broken people can forgive much because they know how much they’ve been forgiven.  Proud people don’t think they need revival, but they are sure everyone else does.  Broken people continually sense their need for a fresh encounter with God and the filling of the Holy Spirit.”  That’s pretty good, isn’t it?  It’s possible you sit here and say, “Oh, this is a sermon for somebody else.  I’m not very proud.”  You know, humility is one of those slippery virtues.  As soon as you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.  Isn’t that true?  Beware the man or woman who writes the book How I Became So Humble, you know, and goes on the book tour.  It just doesn’t work that way, right?  Humility is something you don’t see in yourself, but it’s something we see in Jesus Christ over and over and over again.

0:32:45.3

Let me take you to one place.  Philippians 2:5, “Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And Jesus, being found in human form, humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Jesus had every reason to brag, to flex his cosmic muscles to come to this earth and say, “I’m God.”  But He didn’t.  He emptied Himself.  He laid aside some of His deity; 100% God, 100% man, but laid aside some of His privileges as God and humbled Himself before us.  Can you imagine that?  And God exalted Him due time.

0:33:49.2

The writer of Philippians goes on to say, “God exalted him and bestowed him so that the name is above every  name, so at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  God opposes the proud.  He gives grace and He exalts the humble.

0:34:12.8

Are you a proud person?  Too proud to come to the cross of Jesus Christ and admit that you’re a sinner in need of a savior?  Are you a proud person or a broken person?  I’ll leave you just with this such from Psalm 51:17.  This from King David.  It took David a year to confess his seen with Bathsheba.  But when he did, in Psalm 51 he writes, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  God despises the proud.  He hates pride and arrogance that would live oneself up in his or her heart higher than the Almighty Himself.  I am the master of my heart.  I am the captain of my soul.  No, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.

0:35:22.2

Anybody broken here today?  Anybody need to learn from the lesson of King Nebuchadnezzar?  Anybody here too proud to come to the cross of Christ and admit that you’re a sinner in need of savior, a Savior who says, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am humble and gentle in spirit, and I will refresh your soul.”  Come to this humble Jesus who possessed all power, all glory, and all honor, but loved us enough to humble himself, taking on the form of a servant, clothing Himself in human flesh.  Oh, the humiliation of God to be clothed in the dust of the earth because He loves you and He loves me.  And He invites us to come to faith in His son today.

0:36:35.9