Tonight's message is those who walk in pride. Those who walk in pride he is able to bring down. Daniel chapter 4 and it's about Nebuchadnezzar the king. Daniel chapter 4 beginning to read at verse 1. Nebuchadnezzar the king to all peoples, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth. Peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me. How great are His signs and how mighty are His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace, I saw a dream which made me afraid. And the thoughts on my bed and visions of my head troubled me. Therefore I issued a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might make known to me the interpretation of the dream. Then the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers came in, and I told them the dream, but they did not make known to me its interpretation. But at last Daniel came before me. His name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God. In him is the Spirit of the Holy God, and I told the dream before him saying, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the Holy God is in you and no secret troubles you, explain to me the visions of my dream that I have seen and its interpretation. These were the visions of my head while on my bed. I was looking and behold a tree in the midst of the earth and its height was great, and the tree grew and became strong, its height reached to the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were lovely, its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it. The birds of the heavens dwelt in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher. a holy one coming down from heaven and he cried aloud and said thus chop down the tree and cut off its branches strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit let the beasts get out from under it and the birds from its branches nevertheless leave the stump and the roots in the earth bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let him graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth. Let his heart be changed from that of a man and let him be given the heart of a beast and let seven times pass over him. This decision is by the decree of the watchers and the sentence by the word of the holy ones in order that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men gives it to whomever he will and sets over it the lowest of men. This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen And now you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation, since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make me known the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the Holy God is in you. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for a time, and his thoughts troubled him. So the king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation trouble you. Belteshazzar answered and said, my lord may the dream concern those who hate you and its interpretation concern your enemies. The tree that you saw which grew and became strong, whose height reached the heavens and which could be seen by all the earth, whose leaves were lovely and its fruit abundant, in which was food for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and in whose branches the birds of the heaven had their home. It is you, O King, who have grown and become strong, for your greatness has grown and reaches to the heavens and your dominion to the end of the earth. And inasmuch as the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven, saying, chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave its stump and roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze in the tender grass of the field, let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let him graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him. This is the interpretation, O King, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord, the King. They shall drive you out from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven. Seven times shall pass over you "'til you know that the Most High rules "'in the kingdom of men "'and gives it to whomever he chooses. "'And inasmuch as they gave the command "'to leave the stump and roots of the tree, "'your kingdom shall be assured to you "'after you come to know that heaven rules. "'Therefore, O King, let my advice be acceptable to you. "'Break off your sins by being righteous and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, perhaps there may be a lengthening of your prosperity." All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke saying, is not this great Babylon that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you. and they shall drive you from men and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and he gives it to whomever he chooses. That very hour The word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men. He ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like bird's claws. And at the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding 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 is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? At the same time, my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me. I was restored to my kingdom and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, all of whose works are truth and his ways justice and those who walk in pride. he is able to put down. Shall we pray? We thank you, Lord, for your word that we've read, the word of God, the words of this man, Nebuchadnezzar. Amazing that we can read these words tonight here, thousands of years later, this man who was the king of the whole world in his day, yet brought to living like a beast in the field and then lifted up again to his kingdom and becoming a worshipper of the Most High God, his testimony. Lord, this is amazing and we pray Lord, the lessons that you'd have us learn for our own lives from the life of Nebuchadnezzar would be very clear to us tonight. Oh God, deliver us from the sins that caused his fall, the sin of pride, self-sufficiency, making ourselves into God, doing our own thing, living our own way. Deliver us from it, Lord, we pray. Have mercy upon us for the times that we've done this. And help us, Lord, we pray, to be the better tonight on hearing your word. And as we hear it and think about it, apply it to our hearts, Lord, and may your spirit press home to our minds those things we should know, because we ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, we're beginning a series tonight on seven deadly sins. There's more than seven. But this list started to be developed in a few hundred years after the founding of the church in Jerusalem. The Christians began to identify sins which were prevalent then, and of course which are still prevalent today. And it was actually formulated by one of the popes called Gregory, Pope Gregory in the fifth or sixth century, sixth or seventh century, So he listed them, seven deadly sins. And we're gonna go through one a week for the next seven weeks or so. And hopefully we can learn something from them. You can learn something and so can I as we think about sin and its dangers. Gregory regarded pride as the root of all other sins. Augustine, the famous church leader, not our friend at the back, but the famous church leader, he said that Augustine, he said, pride is the first sin. It's the sin of the devil. And of course, Adam and Eve, why did they take that fruit? Because they wanted to be like God. There are three ingredients to pride, at least, The first one is wanting to be God. We're not God. We are men, we are women, we're created in God's image, and that's a wonderful thing. The beasts, the animals are not created in God's image, we are. And that was not enough for Adam and Eve. The devil tempted them to be like God. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, what did Satan ask him to do? He said, I'll give you all the world if you fall down and worship me. Satan wants to be God. And of course, wanting to be like God, wanting to be God in your life is pride. That's one of the ingredients of pride. Another aspect of pride, selfishness. When you love yourself. You love yourself in an inordinate way, and you regard yourself very highly. Who hasn't done that? And of course, another aspect of pride, we see it in Nebuchadnezzar's life, boasting of your own achievements, talking about yourself, what you've done, and so on and so forth. Pride. Proverbs says this, Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride is an attitude of mind that God hates. Goliath, Haman, Peter, all sinned and fell through pride. Goliath, send someone to fight me. He defied the armies of Israel. Within an hour, on that 40th day, he was lying in the dust, and his head was taken from him. As he defied God, God smote him down. One stone, that's all it took. Haman, the story in the book of Esther. Haman, who is the man who the king delights to honor? And Haman in his heart, he thought, well, that's obviously me. And within two days, he was hanging on a gallows that he'd made for the godly Mordecai. And Peter, the great apostle, though all shall deny you, Lord, I will not deny you. And that same night, three times, not once, not twice, three times and once with oaths and curses, foul, Language denies his Lord. It's no wonder, is it? He couldn't bear to look upon him as Jesus looked at him at the trial. And he went out and he said, and he wept bitterly. You see, all of those men were proud and they fell as a result. And historically, if you look in history, pride has been a disaster. We were in France last week. And the French are very proud of a certain Napoleon. Napoleon took a Grande Armée, La Grande Armée, of 600 to 685,000, that's a big army, marched out of France into Russia. They fought the Battle of Borodino, the battle of which has more casualties than any other battle in history. The Russians lost more than the French. And the Russians retreated and retreated and retreated. And Napoleon got to Moscow and the place was empty, burnt down. And there was nothing there. And then the weather changed. And in the long retreat, thousands, tens of thousands, in fact, hundreds of thousands were lost. It was through pride he was warned But he felt he was great, went into France, came out. Do you know, there was less than 100,000 men of the over 600,000 who got back, and it said only 10 to 20,000 actually got back to France. What a disaster that was through pride. The Titanic, that was 1812. The Titanic was 1912. This ship is unsinkable, didn't have enough lifeboats. God himself couldn't sink this ship, apparently one of the deckhands was to say. And of course the Titanic lies on the bottom of the Atlantic, a testimony to man's pride. And we can all remember, most of us, the financial crash of 2008 when all the world's money went pear-shaped and millions were affected financially. People lost their livings, people lost their businesses, people lost their homes. Again, there was warnings in all of these cases. Warnings in the case of Napoleon, warnings in the case of the icebergs in the North Atlantic, warnings in the case of the subprime mortgage debacle. And it was neglected. Bang. Pride goes before a fall. It's a harbinger. You know, you see those big clouds come over, and they're full of rain. And you look at the weather forecast, and that says rain. And it hasn't rained for a while. And it starts to get cold. And the temperature on your barometer goes down. All the signs are pointing to rain. And sure enough, we live in the west of the UK. You get rain. Because those signs are what's called harbingers. They're warnings of rain. And pride, when people become very proud, when you become very proud, a fall is inevitable. So that's why this is important. Pride today. Have you heard of the digital age syndrome? You see yourself as the main character in every story. Or do you have difficulty in admitting when you were wrong? How do you take criticism? Do you take it well or do you take it badly? Are you seeking status through brands? The best stuff, the designer clothes, the big cut, whatever it is. When you talk to others, do you talk about yourselves, yourself, or are you willing to listen to them? Do you talk about your achievements or theirs? For those of us with children, you talk about your children or you talk about their children. Do you look down on others and think that you are better? And of course Pride is the name of the modern anti-Christian LGBT movement. It's called Pride. It's not an accident. So Pride is a deadly sin. You need to be careful and so do I. We're going to look at a man in the scriptures called Nebuchadnezzar and one of the reasons this passage is written as he concludes his testimony All those who walk in pride, he is able to put down. We're going to see how God put this man, who was the world's most powerful man. He is the Donald Trump of the ancient world. He had bigger, better armies. better fortifications, you name it, it was better in Babylon, and God brought him right down, just like that. And that's what we see in this passage. So, let's go back to the beginning, and we just go through the text quite quickly. Who from? Nebuchadnezzar. I was looking yesterday, I was speaking at a conference and went to visit the first creation museum in the UK. It's in the Northwest here in Oswestry, not the first, sorry, but the one that's open at the moment. And there was a clay tablet there, and it was written by Nebuchadnezzar. It's not the same one, by the way, but it's a photograph, it's a replica. Joe Hubbard, who's coming to speak at our creation matters Tuesday night. Here's an archeologist, he's the leader of that, curator of that museum, and he'll bring some artifacts like that. What is amazing is that you can dig up stuff from Iraq that mentions Nebuchadnezzar. Real names, tablets and so on, you can see them in the British Museum that mention the characters of the Bible. Archeology confirms the biblical record. So this is from, this passage we've read, is written by Nebuchadnezzar. Now, he's the most powerful man on earth and he's very cruel, he's fierce, he's ruthless and he's completely unreasonable. He's a despot and he's a dictator. He destroyed Jerusalem and burnt down God's temple. He got the king, the king was descendant of David, King David had his eye as his sons killed and then put his eyes out and took him to Babylon. The last memory that man would have is of seeing Nebuchadnezzar kill his own children. He dismantled the Jewish state and took the Jews to Babylon as his slaves. This is Nebuchadnezzar. He's one of the bad boys of the Bible. He's a pagan idolater and a proud autocrat. In the Babylonian records, he has this title, King of the Universe. That's what he called himself. Titles who belong to God, he applied them to himself. Therefore, he is an Antichrist of the Old Testament. And Nebuchadnezzar is going to give us what's called a case study in pride. You want to know what pride's like? This is pride. This is what pride looks like. Who's he writing to? Well, he's writing to all people's nations and languages. Who's that? Everybody on planet Earth, okay? And if this was a press conference, you'd have all the microphones and all the cameras would be snapping away. Mics would be visible and people would be standing around waiting to hear what Nebuchadnezzar would say. Where's he writing from? Babylon. Babylon is full of biblical history and symbolism. It is the great anti-god city from Revelation, from Genesis right the way through to Revelation. In Nebuchadnezzar's day, it was a beautiful, it was the place to go on your holidays. Hanging gardens, a wonder of the ancient world. The Ishtar Gate, which, by the way, you can go and visit in the museum in Berlin. And the walls of Babylon, get this, 350 feet high, 100 meters. That's just here, almost up to the roundabout. 100 meters high, that's the walls. And wide, you could get chariots on the top. felt to be impregnable. On every brick, his name was printed. This is Nebuchadnezzar. But it was a place of cruelty, of immorality, and it was hostile to God's word. So what's that got to do with us? Well, today in the Western world, we live in Babylon. intellectually speaking. In the scientific world, atheism rules. The schools and universities, they've all been captured by secular thinking. In our health service, judiciary, police force, and those in government are all secular. People are sacked for disagreement with the current philosophy. Christians are under pressure. We're living in Babylon today. Adultery is normal. Immorality has replaced chastity. LGBT is celebrated and if you don't you're in trouble. Paganism is back and abortion and euthanasia are being legalized. Abortion is legal and we're talking about legalizing assisted suicide but we're going to be praying against that later. Pride is here and it's one of the great sins of our day and generation. Christians are affected. And in the Bible, we've got this case study of Nebuchadnezzar, what God thinks of pride and how God deals with it. So in the text, you get this introduction, which is verses one to three. You then get from verses four to 27, a disturbing dream 28 to 33 a fearful fulfillment and then verse 34 to 37 hope for the proud unexpectedly ends with Nebuchadnezzar being converted a disturbing dream so You've got the king of the world. He's beaten everybody. There's nobody else to fight. He's in an impregnable fortress and he's troubled because he has a dream. A dream is nothing, isn't it? It's not an army. It's not a spear. It's not a shield. It's not a man with a sword. A dream is thought and yet that troubles him so badly that he calls for the academics of the day the ancient world, the magicians, but like the academics of today, they haven't got any answers. What does that teach us? Human thought, unaided by revelation, can't solve anything. Whether it's the climate crisis or whatever it is, without God, we're not gonna solve these problems. He talks to Daniel, brings Daniel in last of all, perhaps because he knew that this was bad news and he didn't want to hear the truth, we don't know. And Daniel says, the dream is a warning. You, Nebuchadnezzar, need to repent. You need to break off your sins. You need to stop doing sin and be kind to the poor and practice righteousness and it just might be that these things won't happen. He doesn't listen. Verse 28, right down there towards the end, sorry. And therefore, all this it says, came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. And he's on his palace one night, looking out, walking about in the royal palace, Puffing his chest out, is not this great Babylon that I have built full of himself, full of his own accomplishments, full of his own pride? And God just deals with him. Before he's finished his sentence in his mouth, he's lost his mind. He's mentally ill. He's afflicted with a disease. People have speculated what that mental illness was. There are such diseases that do turn people to behave like beasts, and that's what he appears to have. He thinks he's an ox, and he goes out and he starts eating grass outside in the fields. He doesn't go back in to go to sleep. He stays out and he sleeps, because that's what the beasts do. He's been changed from the king of the world to being like a beast. He was driven from among men. I don't know if they had bathrooms those days, but he didn't use them because he's just like a beast. The servants in the palace would whisper in hushed tones, have you seen what's happened to Nebuchadnezzar? No. What's happened? He's lost it completely. He's out there in the grass, look. And there would be Nebuchadnezzar with his hair all long and his nails long. And he looks like an animal, the king of the world. Seven years. And that's what happens. That's what God can do in an instant to pride. What do these lessons, what do we find from here? Well, first of all, doesn't it show man's sinful heart? Nebuchadnezzar is warned, but he doesn't heed the warning. How many times does God have to speak to you and me before we do it? That's a big lesson here. What does it take to get you to listen? It's what it took to get Nebuchadnezzar to listen. What does it take to get me to turn from my sins and you from yours? Breaking with sin is what God wants from Nebuchadnezzar and he doesn't do it and the judgment comes upon him. What a need there is to be a repentant Christian to be one who examines your ways before the Lord and who repents. Do you know, I'm not talking to everyone who's a Christian tonight. There might be people here who are not yet Christians. You've never repented once. Do you realize what danger you were in? God could do this to you tonight. We need to repent and be in a right state with God, lest these things happen to us. Fear the Lord and break off your sins, Daniel said. That was the word of the prophet, and he didn't do it, and therefore, this judgment came upon him. Years go by, and then one day, one day, it changes again. At the end of the time, verse 34, at the end of the time, Suddenly, he lifts up his eyes to heaven. An ox or a cow or a dog never do that. A beast never does that. They have no consciousness of God. They're just focused on the next meal, on the grass, whatever it is. When he starts looking to heaven, he's got his mind back and he's thinking again, he's becoming God aware. and his mental disease, whatever it was that God had judged him with, has gone. And suddenly, he stands up, and he's in his right mind, and God has restored him. And he says, I lifted my eyes to heaven. My mind, my understanding returned to me. What does he do? I blessed God. I bless the most high and praised and honored him who lives forever. What a different Nebuchadnezzar to the proud despot who strutted around his walls and on his palace those years before. He's humbled by seven years of mental illness, realizing there is a God in heaven to whom he must bow. Change of focus. This man, now converted, gives us a three-point sermon. God's ways are just, verse 37. God's works are right. And God is able to humble the proud. Well, we couldn't do that better tonight, could we? A Spurgeonic sermon there, three points and a conclusion. from Nebuchadnezzar as he stands up and blesses the God of his creator. So just take back, what would the Jews in Babylon make of all this? They'd been captured there, their kings being blinded, their temple is burned down, their state is destroyed. What an encouragement to think that the man who'd done all this has now become a worshipper of the God of Israel. Wow! That would encourage them, wouldn't it? And it did. And They were enslaved and discouraged and tempted to doubt God and his word. But this conversion of Nebuchadnezzar is amazing for them and they would praise the Lord. And this would reassure them that God is still on the throne. And Daniel prays, doesn't he? He's praying, looking to where the temple used to be, praying three times a day. And eventually through the prayers of Daniel, they are restored back and of course that's how the book closes with Daniel praying for, the first part of the book closes with Daniel praying for a return to Jerusalem and they got it. We live in similar days when it seems that pride is all around in so many different ways and within and we should be encouraged in the sovereignty and sovereign power of God who can change it in an instant. Wouldn't it be great if the wicked of this world were converted and became those who praise the Lord, if the great atheists of the day would realize there's a God in heaven and would come to praise him. That would be a great thing. We shouldn't rule it out. He is able. Some lessons then to finish our thoughts on seven deadly sins. The first one is this. God resists the proud. Nebuchadnezzar has said this in his testimony that Those who walk in pride, and he's talking about himself, God is able to put down. God resists the proud. May the Lord deliver us from pride because God resists the proud. And God gives grace to the humble. Nebuchadnezzar, now lifting his eyes to heaven, humbled by his experiences, worshipping the Lord, God puts him right back up there on the throne. And it says, he prospered, I was restored to my kingdom, my counsellors and my nobles resorted to me. There could have been a coup d'etat, there could have been anything that could have finished him off, but God was gracious to Nebuchadnezzar and it was all given back to him. And excellent majesty, it says, was added to him. You see, although Nebuchadnezzar is a wicked man and God brings him down, when he's a converted man, God lifts him up. Amazing grace. And God saves the undeserving. Do you know what? There are other bad boys in the Bible. We've thought about Goliath. We've thought about Haman. You could think about Herod, the great Pharaoh. And they weren't saved. They were like Nebuchadnezzar. They were wicked and God didn't save them. And Nebuchadnezzar's like them, wicked, Proud, egotistical, cruel, an idolater, one who would have you killed for nothing, unreasonable. He's all of the things that they are, but God saves him. He saves the undeserving. This is the God of the Bible. This is the God we worship. If you are saved today, it is not because you deserve it or me. He saves the sinner. He saves the undeserving. Let us be very grateful for our salvation tonight. There is a contrasting virtue with every one of the deadly sins. And the one that contrasts with pride is humility. Three verses from the book of Proverbs written in the form of a chiasm. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. If you want to avoid pride, that's what you've got to do. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't try and work it out yourself. Trust in Him. In all your ways, every day, acknowledge Him. Commit the day to Him. Give it to Him. He will direct your paths. Don't be wise in your own eyes, that is pride. But fear the Lord and depart from evil. That is the way to avoid the satins of Nebuchadnezzar.