Well, good morning to everyone. Thank you for braving the cold and ice on the roads and making it here this morning. We appreciate having you all here.

Before we get to our message, I wanted to make a little announcement. I was talking to the elders, and we'd like to have on communion Sundays at the end of the month. Last year, we kind of did some fellowships through the winter, but I had an idea to do what I'm calling doctrinal discussions. So the basic idea is that we want you to be equipped and understand what you believe and why you believe it. 

What I'm asking you to do is if you have questions on certain topics, certain doctrines, to email me or give me a slip of paper or ask me—whatever. I'll just put together some different topics, and then on the last Sunday of the month, we'll have, after our communion service, a little coffee and cake or whatever, and we'll have a time of discussion to work through these doctrines. 

And then what we can do maybe is put together sort of a summary or doctrinal position, a page or two, that then people can have as well. And that way, when you're out in the world and you're talking to Christians and they say, “Well, what about, you know, can you lose your salvation?” you can say, “Well, here, let me share this with you and talk to you about what the Scriptures say about that kind of thing.” So be thinking about what you might like to study and get that to me, and then we will start that in January. Okay?

All right. Well, we're continuing our study of the book of Daniel this morning in chapter 2. The time of Daniel's training has come to an end in chapter 1, this three-year period of him being trained to serve before the king. And it came to pass at this time that the king had dreams. God gave Nebuchadnezzar visions in the night. 

And the king was greatly troubled, literally in crisis as we see. He was so troubled in his spirit that he called all of his wise men, all of his resources, to tell him the interpretation of this dream. But he does not tell them the dream. He asks them to make known to him the dream and its interpretation. 

And this becomes a problem for the magicians and astrologers, all the wise men of Babylon because they cannot know the dream itself. They were adept at interpretations, coming up with all kinds of fanciful explanations and ideas that would please the king. But to know the dream itself was impossible to them. 

They were great students of dreams. It was really quite an intricate system. They kept meticulous records, volumes of books and manuals about dreams and what came about in the lives of people who had them afterward. They developed patterns and believed they could predict what would happen if you had such and such a dream in the course of your life. 

So if the king would tell them the dream, they could go back to their research, their records, and find all the details and bring back an interpretation and a prophecy for the king. And of course, skew that to make the king happy. 

Some believe that Nebuchadnezzar forgot the dream that he'd had that greatly troubled him, and then God took the memory away. This may be at least partially true. It says, "the thing has gone from me." But I think more likely he was skeptical of all these wise men, the Chaldeans, and wanted to test them because he really desperately wanted to know the meaning of the dream. 

Perhaps it was a bit hazy in his mind, only remembering parts and pieces as goes often with dreams. This whole situation creates an incredible opportunity for Daniel and for God's purposes for Daniel in Babylon. 

At the end of chapter one, it says that he was gifted in interpreting dreams and visions. God gives this dream to the king, creating this crisis in Babylon, greatly troubling Nebuchadnezzar and his spirit, causing him to take these drastic actions. And then he uses Daniel. He gives to Daniel the knowledge of the dream and its interpretation. 

It says, for the sake of Nebuchadnezzar and for the sake of Daniel and his people, so that he might rise to the place where God wants him in the kingdom, and that they might know what is to come for Israel and the nations. We see again the sovereign hand of God in the affairs of men and his plans and purposes for his people. 

We see this great statement in verse 28: there is a God in heaven. When I studied through this, when I got to that phrase, "but there is a God in heaven," that just weighed continually on my mind. I was thinking about that in all kinds of different applications in our lives, but there is a God in heaven. 

We will see this morning in our text that there is the wisdom of man, there's all the resources of man, the corruption, the deception, the lying words of man, of our world, of Satan's system. There's the pride of man, believing that he is in control, that he by his own wisdom and resources can solve the problems of the world and the trouble in his own spirit. 

But the truth is, all of this comes to nothing. Man cannot, does not have the wisdom or power to solve the mysteries of life. I remember years ago, a friend of mine's dad, who I knew really well, I was trying to witness to him, and he said this to me, he said, "Don't you think that we are smart enough to figure out what is right?" My friends, we are not smart enough to figure out—we're not smart enough for much of anything. 

Only to go to the Word of God and see what God says can we know what is right. There is a God in heaven. This is the message of our text, and this is the answer to life and eternity. There is a God in heaven. He alone is wise, he alone has power and might to save and to deliver, and he offers life and salvation and grace and mercy to those who seek him. 

Well, I'm not going to read those 30 verses again, but we're going to cover them as we go through the course of the message. I've given you five points on your outline. First, we see a troubled king; second, the wisdom of the world; third, lying and corrupt words; fourth, with counsel and wisdom; and fifth, there is a God in heaven. 

Well, first we see in our text a troubled king, chapter 2, verse 1. Now, in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him. Then the king gave the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to tell the king his dreams. 

So they came and stood before the king, and the king said to them, "I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to know the dream." Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, "O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will give the interpretation." 

The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, "My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made an ash heap. However, if you tell the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation." 

They answered again and said, "Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will give its interpretation." The king answered and said, "I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there is only one decree for you, for you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the time has changed. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can give me its interpretation." 

The Chaldeans answered the king and said, "There is not a man on earth who can tell the king's matter. Therefore, no king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such things of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh." 

For this reason, the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. I'm not sure we can truly appreciate the greatness of Nebuchadnezzar and the power and rule that God gave to him. We have nothing like this in our day where a man has absolute power and sovereignty over such a massive kingdom with no restraint whatsoever. 

There was no law binding him, no constitution, no legislation—he was the law. He had absolute authority to do anything he pleased with any person at any time. And we see this in our text; he's extremely upset, troubled in his spirit by this disturbing dream that God sent him. He wants to understand it; he wants some explanation to be comforted in some way by its resolution, but in this state of panic, he's willing to kill and destroy all of his own government officials, all of his advisors, all of the wise men of Babylon, cutting them in pieces and burning down their homes, literally. 

And no one deigns to try to stop him, reason with him, bring some sort of sense to the situation. Ariok is commanded to start killing all the wise men of Babylon, and he does. There's no question to the power of Nebuchadnezzar, lest you too be cut in pieces. And God has given him this rule and reign, as we will see next time in the interpretation of the dream—Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold. 

So this is a very serious situation in the kingdom, particularly for all the various wise men, and this includes Daniel and his friends. Man is content to look to his own resources, to his own wisdom, to the men and experts of this world in the normal course of his life. But when a true crisis of life hits, when he's faced with his own mortality, when he becomes so troubled in his spirit that his sleep leaves him, it becomes apparent that the world and the men of this world have no answers. 

You've heard the expression: there are no atheists in foxholes. When there's an imminent death facing a man, he casts away all of the world's answers and calls out to God. My neighbor told me a story years and years ago about a man who lived down the road from us, and this man was a devout atheist and vocal about it. My friend had talked to him about God several times, but this man was militant in his hatred for God and the stupidity of anyone who would believe in God, so he kind of had this ongoing feud with this neighbor. 

And my neighbor told me that one night, late at night, the man came too fast around the curve in the road near his house, and he went into the ditch and rolled his car. And my friend ran out to see what had happened, and he said the man was in the back of the car hanging halfway out the broken back window, badly injured, and he said the man was crying out to God. He kept saying, "Oh God, oh Jesus, help me, don't let me die." And my friend was actually not a believer, and he's like, "Why are you calling on God now?" 

But this is an example. There are no atheists in foxholes. Nebuchadnezzar was content to operate in the worldly system, the wise men, the soothsayers and magicians who advised him in the normal course of life and prosperity. But when he became overwhelmed in his spirit by this dream, when the spirit of God troubled him, he demonstrated that he knew deep down in his heart that this was all a charade, that these experts and wise men of the world truly had no answers. 

So he not only asked them to interpret the dream, but to tell him the dream itself as well because he knew if he gave them the dream, they would spin some story to please him, but not truly answer his problem. In verse 8, it says, "The king answered: I know for certain that you would gain time because you see that my decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me, there’s only one decree for you— for you have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me until the time has changed." 

The jig was up, and the counselors were exposed in their impotence, and the king saw them as useless and commanded that they all be killed. On Thursday morning in the men's study in 1 Timothy 4, we were talking about deception and how Satan in the world and false religion is constantly seeking to deceive men, even believers, and how subtle this deception can be in so many ways that we do not even think about. 

The only weapon that Satan has is error, is lies, is deception, and the only answer to error is the truth, and the only place that we can find the truth is in the Word of God. So the challenge for us is to know the Word of God and to believe him, to evaluate every thought and take it captive to the obedience of Christ. This is a more difficult thing than we sometimes realize. 

What we see in our text is that it's only the God of heaven that can answer the cares and mysteries of life, the eternal and weighty questions that come upon us through the troubles of this world, the desperate condition of our souls. When a man is truly troubled, the wisdom of this world is exposed for what it is—lies, and corruption, and deception. 

The Chaldeans represent all the wisdom of this world, of men, the resources of men. But in the moment of crisis, the king knows there's no substance there, and he exposes this truth by testing them with not only interpreting the dream but telling him the dream itself, and they have nothing to offer, and so they will perish. 

It's the great tendency of man, as I have observed him, to look to an expert to solve his problems. But I believe many of the experts of our world in recent years, the ones we trusted in the form of government, politicians, scientists, doctors, professors, FBI, the CIA—you name it—many of these experts, these wise men, have been exposed for their lying and corrupt words and motives. 

Surely not all, but many of those in power have proven themselves to be willing to let the masses suffer, to deceive and manipulate for their own gain and their own ambitions. Because my friends, the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Who can understand it? And to trust in the wisdom and pure motive of man is a fool's errand. 

And this is true in religion and theology as well. There's only one source of truth, only one place we can go to understand the world, to understand man, to understand ourselves, to solve the riddles of this life and bring assurance to our hearts, and that is the Word of God and to the God of His Word. 

There is a God in heaven. Verse 13: so the decree went out, and they began killing the wise men, and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then, with counsel and wisdom, Daniel answered Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, "Why is the decree from the king so urgent?" And Ariok made the decision known to Daniel. 

So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 

Well, this is a monumental crisis. The king's out of his mind. He's angry. He's furious. He's in despair. All the wise men of Babylon are running around like chickens with their heads cut off; some of them quite literally. All are facing imminent death. The king has sent out Ariok and his men to kill them all, and they come to Daniel for this very purpose, to kill him and his friends. 

How does Daniel respond in such a situation? It says he answers with counsel and wisdom. He's not panicked. He's not out of control. He says, “Let's hold on a minute now. Tell me what's going on, and let's work through this thing.” He's calm, cool, and collected in this serious situation. He does not panic like the others. He seeks a resolution, speaking with wisdom to those in authority, and his only resource is God and His revelation to Daniel. 

Notice it says that Daniel goes to Nebuchadnezzar and seeks time. Now, this is the very thing the Chaldeans had asked for, time. But the king knew their hearts, that they only sought time so the king's mood might change or that they may come up with some deception to appease him. He does not give them time, but he does give Daniel time. 

And it was quite a courageous thing for Daniel even to go to the king. I'm guessing everyone was avoiding opening the door to the king's quarters at this time. He was in an unpredictable mood with everyone's head at stake. But Daniel goes to him, and he grants Daniel time to seek God, and that's the very purpose of Daniel in his heart—his only resource. 

He and his friends pray and seek the God of heaven for his mercies in resolving this matter and revealing the secret to Daniel. That's just a lesson here for us in this moment—to think about God's perspective and what's going on. Because from Daniel's perspective, on earth, in a worldly sense, man, everything's falling apart, everything's unraveling. They’re getting ready to kill him. They're killing all the wise men. 

So if you become consumed with that and what's going on and you forget about God, what's God's perspective in this? God has raised up Nebuchadnezzar and Neo-Babylon, defeating Assyria and Egypt, to place him into power to go to Jerusalem and bring Daniel back to Babylon to put him in the very place he is. 

He has given this dream for the very purpose of troubling the king to then give the interpretation to Daniel to exalt Daniel to the place of prominence and authority for God's purposes. Is God wringing his hands at this moment when Ariok's running around? But if we can think God's thoughts, if we can see God's perspective, if we can trust and believe Him, then we can be calm, cool, and collected in a crisis like Daniel is. 

And God answers their prayers as he intended all along, verse 19. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. You see, Daniel's recognizing what God's done here. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 

He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king's demand." 

Therefore, Daniel went to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon." It's interesting there. Daniel has compassion on them. He doesn't want to see them—I mean, that would have been like his opportunity, right? Get them all. "Don't destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation." 

Ariok gets very excited, right? Then Ariok quickly, with haste, brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, "I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation." The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?" 

Now, notice Daniel's answer, verse 27. Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. Be honest about the situation, king—all of your wise men, all of your advisors can't tell you anything, but there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days. 

Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these: as for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this, and he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be. But as for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart." 

There is a God in heaven; He will tell you; He will reveal it—only He can do it. We see here again in the book of Daniel that God is sovereign, that He is working out His plan and purpose, not only in the unfolding of His salvation plan throughout history, as we're going to study, but individually in the lives of believers each and every day. 

What He wants from us is to believe Him, to trust Him, to look to Him in every circumstance. We so often look to our circumstances rather than to God. It's so easy to get caught up in the things of the world, to set our mind on earthly things, and to despair in the muck and mire of life in this cursed world. But this is not the reality of how things are. 

We must set our mind on heavenly things; we must look to the Word of God, what He says is true, and we must believe Him. It's hard for us to even fathom the circumstances that Daniel found himself in, the hopelessness of his situation from a worldly perspective. 

But Daniel had full confidence in God; he could be faithful, he could be so bold as to go to Nebuchadnezzar in this time of crisis and ask for time, tell the king that he could tell the dream and its interpretation, and go back to God and his friends and pray and seek truth, revelation from God, and trust Him that He would work out His will and handle all the details. 

And God put Daniel right where He wanted him and used him for His purposes for all those years as He worked out His plans with His people Israel. We see this same important lesson in the life of Paul in the New Testament. Think of the circumstances of Paul, the trials that he endured. 

The Jesus that is preached today in much of the evangelical church is a Jesus that has come to fix your life, to give you comfort, to meet your needs. The Jesus that's preached in the charismatic churches is a Jesus who has come to heal your ailments, make you rich and happy and materially blessed. 

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, "There is a different Jesus. They preach a different Jesus." Paul was perhaps our greatest human example. Follow me, he said, as I follow Christ. What did it mean to be a servant of Christ? What did it mean to be perhaps the greatest, most faithful servant ever? What were the circumstances of Paul in his effective ministry for the gospel? 

Let's look at 2 Corinthians 11, at verse 23. Paul's dealing with false teachers in Corinth here. He says, "Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one; three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I've been in the deep. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, in toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And besides these other things, what comes upon me daily? My deep concern for all the churches." 

And yet, with all of this, Paul could say, "In whatever state I am in, I have learned to be content in Christ." My circumstances are irrelevant because my focus is Jesus Christ. My passion is the gospel. My heart is for the salvation of men. My desire is for the growth of the church. What do circumstances have to do with any of these things? Nothing. 

Let's look at Philippians 1. Philippians 1, here Paul sits in prison, chained to a Roman soldier. Can you imagine? My brother, my sister in Christ, I sometimes think about what it would be like to be so persecuted for your faith, what it would be like to go to prison. And not the kinds of prisons we have today, as terrifying as that would be, but a first-century Roman prison, chained to soldiers 24/7. And the brethren were so concerned about this. 

I mean, Paul is in prison. The movement has stopped; the church is finished. No. Circumstance does not matter because Paul has an eternal perspective, and those Roman soldiers are chained to him as well. The gospel has no less power in a prison. And Paul preached and continued to preach until they cut off his head. 

In verse 12 of Philippians 1, he says, "I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel." So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. 

And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this, I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. 

And in verse 21, he says this: "For to me, to live is Christ." I believe this is one of the great lessons for us from the life of Daniel and of Paul and so many faithful servants. What is it for me to live? We've been studying—the women's study—and we've studied some of this word "abide." And this is really the meaning of the word abide—to live. An abode is where you live. Abide in me, Jesus said, and you'll bear much fruit. Live in me.

Now we live in this world, but we are not of this world. Daniel was in Babylon. He could have despaired. He could have said, “Poor me.” He could have succumbed to his circumstances and said, “What can I do? I'm a teenage boy, a slave in the center of the pagan world. I live in Babylon, in Nebuchadnezzar's court.” 

He may have physically been in these circumstances, but his life was God. His heart, his mind, his passion was his God, Jehovah. Paul lived in that Roman prison, but his life was Christ. He was abiding, living in Christ, and Jesus was the vine, supplying all his need in full sufficiency. And God was the vine dresser, pruning, working, conforming Paul in order to produce abundant, amazing fruit, so that even Caesar's household knew the gospel of Jesus Christ, and many were saved. 

How could Daniel live such a life, be so faithful in such an impossible circumstance? How could Paul press on with the gospel and preach to those Roman soldiers, and all who came to him, as God provided some freedom for guests to come to Paul and for him to have his parchments and so forth? 

How could he bear fruit in such an impossible place, such difficult and painful circumstances? I want to read you a quote from a book we've been reading; it's called No Longer I. It's insightful for us, I think, in this realm, in understanding the Christian life. 

The author writes, "Paul's starting point is Jesus Christ, His finished work, and our new life in Him. All things that remain unseen and therefore require faith to access. Our starting point has been ourselves, the unfinished work, and our old life in the flesh. All things that we can easily see and require no faith at all. Maybe it's time that we take Paul's lead and learn to walk by faith and not by sight." 

Our starting point should be Jesus Christ—the new life, the new creation, who we are in Him, His sufficiency for us. We're going to move into some of the great prophecies of Daniel next week and throughout this book and see God's salvation plan unfolding through the times of the Gentiles. 

But I hope you will think on these things, that you will ponder the man Daniel—the boy really—who set his mind on things above, who believed and depended on God, looking, anticipating what he would do to produce amazing fruit in Daniel's life for God's glory. 

And with Daniel and Paul, I pray for each one of us that we could more and more come to the place where we can say, "For to me, to live is Christ; my life is Christ." It doesn't matter if I'm milking cows or working at the plant or in prison for my faith, for to me my life—where I start, where I think, where I live, where my passion is— is Jesus Christ. He'll handle the rest; don't worry about that. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you for the salvation that we have in Jesus. We thank you for your Word, your Holy Spirit, who continually teaches us and guides us into all truth, and thank you that you renew our minds with your truth. It's so hard for us to believe, to hold on to, to comprehend the things that you have said are true about us, about who we are in Christ and what you've done in salvation and the plans you have for us. Help us, Lord, to trust you, to believe you, to look to you, to think about you, and have a great desire to learn to know you through your Word and to sing your praises, to speak well of you, to witness about the good news of the gospel.