Well, we do come to Daniel chapter 2 today, which contains the second of six stories going through Daniel chapter 6. And all of these stories involve Daniel and three of his friends. They involve a few different kings. And then the sovereign star of every story is the Most High God. And in the first story, in Daniel chapter 1, we learned that through God's sovereign providence, favor, and blessing, the teenagers, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, they were shown to be superior among all of the exiled Jewish youth who were enslaved by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. And moreover, for these youth, in every matter of wisdom and understanding, these four were found to be 10 times better than all of the Babylonian magicians and enchanters. Now, the events of Daniel chapter one really set the stage for the rest of the stories and the visions found throughout the whole book. And now before we're done this morning, I'm going to read all of Daniel chapter 2. But for now, I want to just read verses 19 to 23. And we're going to see as the main point of all of Daniel 2, is really to provoke and to quicken and to enliven us, to stir us up to worship the God of heaven. And so I just want to read verses 19 to 23 right now. Let me do that and then I'll lead us in prayer and then we'll move into what the Lord has for us. But here, the living word of God, Daniel 2 verse 19. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. And then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for 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 matter." And this is the word of the Lord. Let me lead us in prayer. O God of our fathers in heaven, you are the sovereign ruler of all people. You are the author of all history and the revealer of all mysteries. You know all things, including what's in the deepest and the darkest parts of our souls. You know our hopes and our fears. You know our sins and our burdens. You know our joys and our troubles. And you want us to know you through faith. You want us to worship you with trust and adoration and dependence and obedience. And so Father, by your spirit, would you please make known to us now what you have for us here in Daniel chapter two. Please teach and transform us that we might bless your name in Jesus Christ forever and ever. And please help and empower me in what you've called me to now in the preaching of your holy word. We ask all of this for your purposes in the Lord Jesus, amen. Well, perhaps the question is on your mind. What will be the outcome of November 5th, 2024 in the United States of America? What will be the results of the election on that day? And no doubt the biggest question on our minds in respect to this is who will be the 47th President of the United States? Will it be current Vice President Kamala Harris or will it be former President Donald Trump? Well, whoever it ends up being, we also have raised the questions, well, how is this gonna impact things both here in our country and around the world? Speaking of the world, of course, what are we to make of all of the wars and all the rumors of wars that we hear of? The conflict going on in Russia and Ukraine and the conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah and Iraq and others. Are we on the verge of World War III? And what does the future hold in all of this? And what will things be like for us, for our children if we have them, for our grandchildren? It can all seem quite overwhelming at times if we're honest, can't it? And so whether it's on a global level or a personal level, there seems to be so much instability and so much uncertainty in the world that it can easily tempt us to be smothered with anxiety and with fear. So how do we deal with people and how do we deal with events that are ultimately beyond our control? Well, the story of Daniel 2 gives us the answer. And really the main point of this chapter is this, that we are to worship the God of heaven whose kingdom conquers all. That's the main point of the whole chapter, that we are to worship the God of heaven whose kingdom conquers all. Now, as we get into Daniel chapter two, I'm planning to take two weeks to go through this chapter, because today I want to lay a little bit of groundwork. Now what goes on in the chapter is pretty basic and straightforward. God gives King Nebuchadnezzar a troubling dream and then God gives Daniel the interpretation of the dream. That's the essence of the whole chapter. There's a dream and there's an interpretation. But before we get into all of the details and the significance of this story, I want to pause and I want to say a little bit about the languages and about the structure of the whole book. And I think this is important and will be helpful for us. You know, when Lori and my son Zach and I were in Germany a few weeks ago, on one day, one of our hosts took us to an observation deck on the 40th floor of a hotel in downtown Berlin. And the benefit of that was being on that high deck, looking over the entire city, we really could get a perspective of the big picture of everything. And it gave some perspective to where all the various parts of the city fit in together. It was very helpful to me in that sense. And so that's really what I wanna do for a few moments here with the book of Daniel and especially related to the languages in which it is written and the structure of the book. to help us get oriented to see how things fit together and then hopefully this will be helpful for us in better understanding what's going on in Daniel chapter 2. So first of all, what were the original languages that the book of Daniel was written in? Well, you may know, but other than some very small parts of the book of Ezra in the Old Testament, Daniel is the only Old Testament book that was written not only in Hebrew, which the majority of the Old Testament was written in, but it was also written in Aramaic. And so there's two languages that are used, original languages, in the writing of this book, Hebrew and Aramaic. Now what's interesting is that how these two languages appear. Daniel chapter 1 is written in Hebrew. And then Daniel chapter 2 verse 4 through the end of chapter 7 is written in Aramaic. And then chapters 8 through 12, the remainder of the book, are back in Hebrew. And so we immediately ask the question, why is this? Why does the human author, Daniel, do this with regard to the book? Well, there's been a lot of debate regarding the answer to the question, but I think the simplest answer And the clearest answer seems to be that since Aramaic was the common language of the Babylonian and other empires of that day, Gentile nations as they were, and since Daniel is writing this near the end of 70 years of captivity in Babylon, he's using both his native tongue of Hebrew and his adopted language of Aramaic. And the reason that he uses these two languages and goes from Hebrew to Aramaic and then back to Hebrew again seems to relate to the structure of the book. Now stay with me, okay? I'm not going to spend too much time here, but again, I think it's vital and important for understanding the big picture of what's going on. So we asked the question, well, what's the basic structure of the book? How is it that Daniel packages everything that he's written? Well, if you were to read through Daniel in one sitting, which I would encourage you to do, it's very helpful, but the basic structure can seem pretty simple. Chapters one to six are historical narrative, which contain these six stories about Daniel and his friends in Babylon. And then chapters seven to 12 are apocalyptic prophecy. And those chapters contain four visions about the end times, about God's future plans for the culmination of history. But here's the thing, Daniel's use of two languages adds some complexity to what seems to be a fairly straightforward structure. And this helps answer why I believe he writes first in Hebrew, then in Aramaic, and then Hebrew again. And so as I've mentioned, chapter one really sets the stage for everything that follows. So in other words, chapter one is introductory. It's sort of like a prologue to the entire book. And Daniel likely wrote it in Hebrew to emphasize God's sovereign work in disciplining his people, the Jews, by having them taken into exile by a pagan nation, by the Babylonians. Well, then in chapters 2 to 7, Daniel shifts to Aramaic because he's emphasizing the Gentile nations under which God is disciplining his people for their unbelief and their idolatry. And then when Daniel shifts back to Hebrew in chapters 8 to 12, he's emphasizing God's future plans and purposes for Israel and really for the whole world as well. Now within all of this Daniel chapter 7 actually has a transitional and an overlapping function. So Daniel chapter 7 which is Daniel's last Aramaic chapter is really both a climax to the six stories that precede it and it's also a preface to the four visions that begin in Daniel 7 and then go to the end of the book. And so the vision of Daniel chapter 7 is pivotal and it concerns the coming Messiah. It concerns the establishment of God's eternal kingdom which conquers all human kingdoms. Now keep these things in mind. Let me say one more thing about the Aramaic section of Daniel of chapters 2 to 7. This is intriguing because within these chapters there is a symmetrical and God-centered mixture of connections with the main themes of each chapter in chapters 2 to 7. And this is by God's design as he's inspiring Daniel in writing these things. What do I mean by this? Well, chapters 2 and 7 both tell of dreams, visions, and interpretations. And both of those chapters, chapter 2 and 7, share a main theme of the God who reveals. The God who reveals. Then chapters 3 and 6 tell of miraculous deliverances by God from a fiery furnace and a lion's den. And so these two chapters, chapters three and six, share a main theme of the God who rescues, the God who rescues. And then finally, chapters four and five, in the middle of this section, these two chapters tell of God humbling, wicked, arrogant kings, and they share a main theme of the God who rules. And so there's this symmetry by God's design of these chapters. Two and seven thematically go together, three and six thematically go together, and four and five thematically go together. The God who reveals, the God who rescues, and the God who rules. Now I hope you're tracking with me and if you're not tracking with me just let me know and I'll send you my notes and you can see this in a little bit more detail okay. But I hope you're tracking because all of this helps orient us then to what's going on in chapter two and really how it fits into the whole book of Daniel. because the dream and its interpretation in chapter two connect with the vision and its interpretation that God gives Daniel in chapter seven. And in all of this, the God of heaven is revealing himself again as the God who reveals, the God who rescues, and the God who rules. And so, beloved, we're to worship the God of heaven whose eternal kingdom conquers all kingdoms. Well with all of this in mind what I want to go ahead and do now is read all of Daniel chapter 2 and hear the story as it unfolds and then I'm going to wrap things up by making just a few observations of what we find in the first part of chapter 2. But I want to read the whole story so that you hear it all in its fullness. So let's begin in chapter 2 verse 1 God's living word once again. So in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled and his sleep left him. And then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell And so they came in, and they stood before the king. And the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. And then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the word for me is firm. If you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb and your houses shall be laid in ruins. But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and its interpretation. Verse 7, they answered a second time and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show its interpretation. Well, then the king answered and said, I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time because you see that the word for me is firm. If you do not make the dream known to me, there is but one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words before me till the times change. Therefore, you tell me the dream and I shall know that you can show me its interpretation. The Chaldeans answered the king and said, There is not a man on earth who can meet the king's demand, for no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asks is difficult, and no one can show it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. Verse 12, because of this the king was angry and very furious and he commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed. So the decree went out and the wise men were about to be killed and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Then Daniel replied with prudence and discretion to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon. He declared to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree of the king so urgent? Then Ariok made the matter known to Daniel, and Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time that he might show the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions. And he told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Verse 19, then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. And then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. And Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the King's matter. And therefore Daniel went into Ariok, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and he said thus to him, Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king and I will show the king the interpretation. Verse 25. Then Ariok brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him, I have found among the exiles from Judah a man who will make known to the king the interpretation. Then the king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, that's his Babylonian name that was given to him, are you able to make known to me the dream that I have seen and its interpretation? Daniel answered the king and said, no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king is asked but there is a god in heaven who reveals mysteries and he has made known to king nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days your dream and the visions of your head as you lay in bed are these verse 29 To you, O king, as you lay in bed came thoughts of what would be after this. And he who reveals mysteries made known to you what is to be. But as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your mind." You saw, O King, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. And then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream, now we will tell the king its interpretation. Verse 37. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beast of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over them all, you are the head of gold. Another kingdom inferior to you shall arise after you, and yet a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters things. And like iron that crushes, it shall break and crush all these." And as you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom. But some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw, the iron mixed with soft clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage. But they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end. and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, a great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain and its interpretation sure. Verse 46, then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel and commanded that an offering and incense be offered up to him. The king answered and said to Daniel, truly your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries for you have been able to reveal this mystery. Then the king gave Daniel high honors and many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made a request of the king and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. Those were his companions and that's their Babylonian given names. But at the end of verse 49, Daniel remained at the king's court. Amen. And this is the word of the Lord. Now again, the main point of all of this in Daniel chapter two with the dream that God gives to King Nebuchadnezzar and the interpretation that God gives to Daniel, the point of all of this is that all people must worship this God of heaven whose kingdom conquers all. Now, my plan is that next week, Lord willing, we're going to look more fully at the content of the dream and its interpretation, which is revealed in verses 24 through 49. But for the rest of our time today, what I want to do is try to summarize what we see in verses 1 to 23. And I'm going to do this by making three observations that are really three reasons that we must worship the God of heaven whose kingdom conquers all. And remember, I mentioned this a few weeks ago and I'll mention it probably many times moving forward as well. True biblical worship is faith expressing itself in adoration, in dependence and obedience. That's what true worship is. It's a constant sense of faith expressing itself in adoration, dependence and obedience. So based on what we see in verses 1 to 23 of Daniel 2, why must we and every human being, why must we worship the God of heaven? Well, let me give you three reasons. Here's the first. The first reason is because God in heaven is the God who is able to terrify pagan political rulers. He's the God in heaven who is able to terrify pagan political rulers. Now in Daniel's day, the Babylonian kingdom was the largest and the most dominating kingdom of the day. And this King Nebuchadnezzar that we hear of was the most powerful. He was the most intimidating. He was the most totalitarian king imaginable. And he's mentioned a number of other places in scripture as well. But even from just this story in Daniel chapter 2, we can see that he was a rogue, vicious, unstable nutcase. And yet he was the guy in charge. He was a despotic tyrant. And so we learn of him here in these early verses that on a whim, when his trusted experts confess that they can't tell the king his dream or its interpretation, on a whim, he explodes with rage and he commands the death of all the wise men in Babylon, which includes Daniel and his friends. And so talk about political power that has gone out of control. Nebuchadnezzar was a godless, ferocious bully. But do you notice what the starting point of this entire story in chapter two is? It's about the God in heaven who terrified this king with a dream that he could not figure out. And so in this, God is revealing his absolute power, his absolute control, his absolute authority and sovereignty over King Nebuchadnezzar and over all pagan political rulers. And this is a word for us to embrace today, is it not? Now, praise God that there are some politicians, both in America and around the world, who seem to both confess and give evidence of genuinely fearing God, of genuinely being born again through faith in Jesus Christ. And praise God for that reality, and may their number multiply. But of course, we wrestle with what are we to do when we're facing pagan political leaders who seem to be out of control, who seem to be addicted to their own pride, their own selfishness, and their own greedy agendas. What do we do? Well, the answer, as we see this reality that God is the one who is able to terrify pagan political rulers, is fundamentally we worship this God. We worship this God in heaven who is in sovereign control over all people and over all history, including all pagan political rulers, including every human being. Yes, including you and including me. The response is to be one of worshiping him. And in worshiping him then like Daniel we must faithfully do our part in whatever particular context and ways that God has placed us in this world. There's much to be learned from how Daniel responds to this crisis situation with this nutcase king. But we like him must trust the God who is in heaven and know that this God is a God who is able to terrify pagan political rulers. Well, this leads to a second reason that we see in the text for us to worship God. Not only because he can terrify pagan political rulers, but second of all, because this God in heaven is able to silence, he's able to silence pagan influential experts. He's able to silence pagan influential experts. And really, this is what we see and what transpires with all these people that the king calls to try to get an interpretation for his dream. And so with the troubling dream that God gives Nebuchadnezzar, and then the total weakness and inability of any of the known experts, if you will, to interpret it, What God is doing here is exposing the futility of all human knowledge, wisdom, and religion. And you see, all of these wise men in Babylon that are called upon, the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans, who, by the way, the Chaldeans were an elite religious group of priest scholars who were within Babylon. They were kind of the elite of the elite of the religious scholars of the day. Daniel also mentions the astrologers. So all of these wise people, they're all regarded as the intellectual and the religious influencing experts of the day. They were the leading experts that were called upon to give their professional interpretation of the king's dream. What does God do? He totally silences them. He totally silences them. And so by their own confession there in verses 10 and 11, they declare that there is no human being on earth, not a single one, who can show the king his dream and its interpretation. And you see that confession is acknowledging the futility of human knowledge and human effort and human religion. And it reveals the complete inadequacy, the complete ignorance, the complete impotency of all human man-centered knowledge, wisdom, and religion. And in Daniel chapter two, God's silencing of these pagan influential experts then becomes the platform for the supernatural revelation that God sovereignly gives to Daniel. And boy, this is a word we need to embrace today as well, isn't it? The God of heaven, the God of heaven. He is not known by way of human knowledge, by way of human reasoning, by way of human superstition, philosophy, or religious works or rituals. He's not known by any of those ways, he's known only by faith in the revelation of His Word and ultimately of the Lord Jesus Christ whom His Word bears witness to. This is what the Apostle Paul is referring to in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 in the passage that Jason read earlier in verses 6 to 16 and elsewhere. You see, Christianity is the life-giving truth of God's revelation in Christ. It's not about the soul-killing lies of man-made philosophies, ideologies, and religions. And so don't listen to the pagan influential experts, but listen to the God of heaven who has revealed himself in his word. So you see friends we must worship the God of heaven because first of all he is the God who is able to terrify pagan political authorities and second of all he is the God who is able to silence pagan influential experts. And this leads to the third reason we see of why we are to worship this God in heaven because he is the God who is able to establish his eternal indestructible kingdom. This is the third reason. He is the God who is able to establish his eternal indestructible kingdom. And this is what we see in the events following the exposure of the inadequacy of all of these experts with God then working through Daniel and his friends to bring this supernatural revelation. And even through the answer, he gives to their prayers. And so following Daniel's prudent and discreet appeal to interpret the king's dream, and then following he and his friends' prayers for God to be merciful, and then also following God's answer in revealing the king's dreams, the king's dream and interpretation to him, what happens is that Daniel erupts with worship. He erupts in verses 19 to 23 with adoration, thanksgiving, and praise. And indeed, we can and we should linger long upon all that Daniel expresses in verses 19 to 23. But for now, what I want you to do is just notice one of the truths that he declares of God in verse 21. This is just one among a fullness of things he declares about God. He says in verse 21, he changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. What he's acknowledging there is that God is the one who governs, controls, and writes all of history. He's the one who sovereignly removes kings. He's the one who sovereignly sets up kings. And this truth really informs the entire book of Daniel with all of its historical stories with all of its apocalyptic visions. God is the one who removes kings and he sets up kings. So everything that God is revealing to and through Daniel here and ultimately revealing to us is that he will ultimately be removing all human kings and kingdoms and he will be setting up his own eternal messianic king who will rule over his eternal and indestructible kingdom. That's really the storyline that goes through the whole book what God is doing in his sovereign providence and how this unfolds and what it means for the Jews how this unfolds and what it means for Gentiles what it means for the whole world that God is establishing his eternal kingdom in the Lord Jesus Christ. And really the focal point of all of this as it unfolds in the book of Daniel is centered in these statements that come in chapter seven, verses 13 to 14. And this is within the context of a longer vision that God is giving to Daniel. But listen to what is said in verses 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days. There's that phrase and was presented before him and to him to him was given dominion. and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one, that shall not be destroyed." We're to worship the God of heaven, whose kingdom conquers all. And with that prophecy and with those promises given there in Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14, they help us understand that presently for us, we live in what is known as the already but not yet fulfillment of this promise as the Son of Man, Jesus Christ has already come once to accomplish redemption. He died on a cross. He rose from the dead. He's ascended to heaven. But he's not yet come again as is promised. But he will come again. And so we live in the already not yet fulfillment of this promise. And it's only through faith in Jesus Christ, through trusting him and trusting the merit of his sinless life, substitutionary death and glorious resurrection that we are forgiven and counted righteous before God. It's only through faith in Christ alone that God delivers us from the domain of darkness, from the domain of the kingdoms of this world and delivers us into his eternal indestructible kingdom, the kingdom of his beloved son, as Paul speaks about in Colossians chapter one. And so in light of all of this, let me circle back to that question I asked near the very beginning, what will be the outcome of November 5th, 2024? in the United States of America and beyond. You know what it will be? It will be exactly what our God in heaven has ordained and determined it will be. And whatever that is, God's infinite sovereignty will never change. Nor will his power, nor will his purposes, nor will his promises in Jesus Christ. They'll never change. And so, beloved, don't worry. Don't be anxious. But worship the God of heaven whose kingdom never fails. Let me lead us in prayer. Father, like the man in the gospels who cried out, Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. That's probably the response of most of us, if not all of us. God, give us grace to see you as you are, as you have revealed yourself to be in your word and in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. May your saving kingdom purposes in him be known by all. For those who belong to you now through faith in Christ, by your mercy and grace, strengthen and purify that faith all the more. If there are any among us who are yet in the kingdom of darkness, who are living in alienation from you and under your wrath, may today be the day of salvation, when they would hear you through your word, calling them to repent and to believe on you, to worship you, and to trust you and adore you and depend on you and obey you through all of your love and provision in the Lord Jesus Christ. God, we thank you for your word, for its timeliness in all of our lives. We entrust ourselves to you in the name of Christ. Amen and amen.