Let's pray once more. Lord, we pray that you'll be pleased to use the preacher in weakness this evening, make him a conduit of your grace and mercy and saving power. We pray that you would be pleased to make this ministry a ministry which does our souls good and makes us love Jesus more and depend on him in these dark days. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well we've seen the mightiest man that was alive in his day, Nebuchadnezzar, that great king who in his pride desecrated the temple and took Israel's finest young men and sought to manipulate them and remould them into his image. We saw him, this great man that if you'd been brought before to stand before you'd be shaking at your knees, you'd be quaking. We've seen him quaking by a mere dream. And we saw, if you may remember a while back, how even the greatest men are but putty in the hands of God, are fragile. And it's so important that we remember that. Men and women are so fragile, aren't they? We're living in a day where people are proud and arrogant and self-reliant. We do not need God, I do not need God in my life. They do not realise they even need the Lord to even say that. The enemies of the gospel, the enemies of Christ in this day and age, the enemies in the government, they need the mercy of God to oppose God. And so dear friends, what we are seeing in Daniel is that we can trust the Lord in these days. We can trust him, we can depend on him. Because even the enemies of the truth can be so easily shaken. And he wasn't just shaken, the whole kingdom was shaken. He wants to understand, the interpretation of this dream, it deeply alarms him, so he gathers around him all the wise men and not a single one of them can help him. And Nebuchadnezzar is brought very quickly to see the futility of men. Ultimately the world cannot deal, can it, with the deepest problems. The world cannot give perfect peace. The world cannot answer the question of how can I have peace? Chola was speaking of this morning, how can I know true comfort? There's no answers in the world. And so often it's true, isn't it, that the Lord has to bring people to see the utter emptiness. So often we say, how bad are things gonna get? Maybe until, if people aren't calling on the Lord yet, they maybe have to get a whole lot worse. For people to realise, Apart from the Lord, there is no peace. The Word of God says there is no peace for the wicked. No peace. And any peace they have is fleeting and superficial and so easily shaken. The world was bankrupt. There was nothing that they could do. Contrast that with Daniel. Daniel gets told pretty bad news. I wish I could have the confidence that I would respond as Daniel did if someone knocked on my door and said we've come to take you away to kill you. Daniel just calmly says, why is this so urgent? But he wasn't just messing around, he wasn't just playing for time. Daniel had a fundamental conviction that God had put him here. and that he was in the will of God. And that's what we need to know, Christians. We need to know that we're in the will of God in these days. We are just where we need to be. You know, some Christians are daydreamers, aren't they? I mean, I used to be a bit like this. I think it comes with youth, and I think you gradually grow out of it. But you spend all your time thinking about what you want to do in the future for the Lord, or where you want to be in the future, and actually overlooking the fact that you are where you need to be now in your life. And Daniel has that conviction and he has a confidence that he's been put here for such a time as this and that what actually might seem a frowning providence is actually an opportunity to glorify the Lord. So he seeks God, the mercies of God, for the dream and its interpretation. The answer is given. And so now we come then to this great encounter, this great conversation, this great dialogue between Daniel and and Nebuchadnezzar. The first thing I want you to see is this, understand that God uses the weak. Understand that God uses the weak. Can you hear, in verse 26, can you hear the disdain in Nebuchadnezzar's voice? You have to try and imagine this because all the wise men of Babylon, all the magicians, All the astrologers, all the soothsayers, all of them have had nothing to offer Nebuchadnezzar. And this Jew comes and says, I can give you an interpretation. I believe you need to hear almost a mocking tone in this question to Daniel. Are you able to make known, you Daniel? Which I have seen. You see, proud men stumble before the truth. You know one of the great obstacles to faith in Christ for many is that they think to themselves how is it that you're suggesting Daniel that you are right and all of them are wrong. They said it's not possible and you have the audacity and the arrogance to say that you are right. And today this is one of the great problems people have as an obstacle to believing the truth. They go to the church, they see the weakness of the modern church, they see the fragility of the modern church, and they look at the weak believers and go, are you suggesting that all the experts, the high and the mighty of our societies are wrong, futile, and don't have the answers? And you know the answers. And we're right in this moment, aren't we, in history? 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 3 says, knowing this first, scoffers, scoffers, people that mock, mock God, mock his word, scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were. I actually remember talking to someone in Bexley Heath on the street, with Chola actually, we were on the streets, and I actually remember talking to a young man, and he said, you keep saying Jesus is going to come again, but people have been saying that for generations. That's that of 2 Peter 3. Are you telling me that the Bible is true about eternity, heaven, sin, a holy God? That I need to repent before this God? A judgment day? Christ coming again? I need to be born again completely? And you have this knowledge and the world doesn't. Now of course what the unbelievers don't understand is that when we say these things we're not saying these things because we're clever. We're not saying these things because we're wiser. We're not saying these things because we claim to have worked something out that the world hasn't worked out yet. And Daniel has the humility to recognise that straight away. He says, doesn't he, in response, look, verse 27, the secret which you've demanded, look, yes, the world, the magicians, the soothsayers, they couldn't solve this. But he's very quick to give glory to God, isn't he? He's very quick to disconnect any sense that this ability comes inherently from himself. This understanding, this insight, this knowledge is of himself. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets. Look at verse 30. As for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living. You see that? You see what Christians are basically saying is, I was once blind! But now I see. I was once deaf, but now I hear. I was once lost, but now I've been found. We are a foolish people, aren't we, by nature? We are just like the rest of men and women. We were lost in our trespasses and sins, completely deaf to the call of God. And he's revealed these things. to us. This is how the Apostle Paul describes how he viewed himself, this great preacher of the word of God. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 8 to 9 he says, for I am the least of the apostles who am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. And so we claim to have answers to the real needs of the soul. But these answers would have been completely ridiculous to us before the Lord opened our eyes and our understanding. So as the world says, well how can I have perfect peace? How can I have certain hope beyond the grave? How can I overcome death? How can I ease my guilty conscience? How can I change my nature and my desires? We say to the world, you can gather up all the world's wisdom. You can study Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche, Locke every day of every week and you will still get no closer to knowing God savingly. You can listen to Jordan Peterson on repeat and you will still be no closer to the Lord. You can follow the teachings of Hinduism and Islam and Buddhism perfectly and you will still be as lost and in darkness as you were when you first started. We say, but there is a God in heaven. There is a God in heaven who reveals the truth. And he's revealed it to me. And that's all I can say. And if you'd known me before he revealed this to me, you would know I didn't, you would know that only God could have done this in my life. Listen to what one Corinthian says about this. And this is what the world finds so difficult to accept when they look at the church. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? You see, men in their arrogance think they can come to a saving knowledge of the truth. But God says, no, it's all foolishness. I think one of the worst subjects a man can study is philosophy. What a waste of time. Because you could spend three, four years doing a philosophy degree only to realise you don't understand anything. You'd be more confused than when you first started. In fact the only benefit to studying philosophy is to realise you need to know the truth through Jesus Christ. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God. You cannot know God through wisdom. Through men's wisdom, through world's wisdom. That was shown to Nebuchadnezzar and all his wise men. It pleased God. through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. And what I'm saying is, dear brothers and sisters, it is at times like this, when the world is looking for answers, when the world has been shaken like Nebuchadnezzar, and when the world is wondering what will be in the future, what is going to happen to the West? I was talking to a young man fairly recently, and he said to me, when I get married and I'm older, I'm going to leave the country. I said, why are you going to do that? He said, because I don't want to raise a family in the United Kingdom. There's a sense that this nation is going down the pan, but it's at a time like this, when people are out of options, that we as weak and foolish people can say, you know, there is a God in heaven who speaks the truth and it's changed my life. You see, how do I know that this book is true? Well, there's lots of ways I could answer that question, so my answer tonight is not an exhaustible answer, it's one answer that can be given. One of the reasons I know this is the word of God, it's not because of the manuscripts. I'll tell you why I know. Because this is the only book in the world ever written that speaks so highly of God and speaks so terribly of man. You know every other faith says that man is not perfect but man is basically good enough that through a bit of effort and self-reformation man can reach God, man can know God. And so in that system of faith actually the irony is in Islam for example they claim that Allah is transcendent but the reality is in their system of faith you can be a sinner but through your own good efforts you can bridge the gap to Allah. But what the Bible says is no, no. God is so transcendent, so holy, so above you, so perfect that there are none who are good and you are all guilty and will stand before him condemned on the judgment day. And the only way of salvation is through his mercy and his grace and through the provision that he has made in his son. Now let me tell you friends if this book had human origins they would not come up with a narrative that so exalts God and so debases man and humbles man and says you are at the position of a beggar. Man is a beggar and man is owed nothing and entitled to nothing yet God in his grace and mercy says this is the way to be saved. And that's what we need to say to men and to women. You know, people have always mocked the truth, haven't they? In Noah's day, people mocked Noah. Building an ark, Noah. Flood, I've never seen rain. But it didn't change the fact that God had spoken to Noah, did it? And that was all that mattered to Noah. And there came a day when the whole world alive then saw that Noah was indeed a preacher of truth and righteousness, but it was too late. God had shut Noah and his family in the ark and the door was no longer opened. Hear the disdain of the proud. Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen? You? And it was no different in our Lord's day. Son of God comes into the world God incarnate, God in human flesh, fullness of Godhead dwelling bodily. He expressed brightness of the Father's glory. He spoke as no man spoke. He went about doing good. He cast out demons. He healed the sick. He cleansed the lepers. Can anything good come from Nazareth? If you're the son of God, come down from that cross and show yourself to us. Call a legion of angels down. Is he not the son of Mary and Joseph, and are not these his brothers and sisters? Surely the truth can't be with one so weak, so feeble, so powerless. Men through wisdom knew not God. And yet to those whom God was pleased to reveal the Son to, he is the wisdom of God, the power of God, and the salvation of God. I want you to see that the absolute necessity to being a man or a woman who has insight into the truth, and this applies whether you're a Christian or not Christian, something you have to continually remember as a Christian, is the need for Daniel's humility. That recognition that apart from the work of the Holy Spirit and apart from the Lord, you can know nothing. You know, you get people, don't you, that say, I'll believe in God if he shows himself to me. I mean, who do you think you are? If God does that, then you're God. Because God has had to bend himself to your demands. That would make you above God. No, no, no, it won't be like that. God will reveal himself to us when, as Daniel and his friends did, they seek mercies from the God of heaven. We come to God and say, I need you. I need you to teach me. I'm so blind. I don't understand myself. Around us, God has chosen what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Are we a humble people? Are we a teachable people? For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He will beautify the humble with salvation. That was my first point, the Lord uses the weak. Secondly, recognise that the human predicament lies with God alone. There are a lot of problems with England today, whether it be the crossings in the sea, whatever it is, the NHS, and there are probably human solutions to many of these things. But the issues of the soul, the mind, the heart, the trouble that we have that like Nebuchadnezzar robs us from sleep, we need the Lord. And we are being told, Church, regularly that we are an irrelevance to society. And what I want to say to you is to undermine that with all the strength I can muster to say we are the most relevant institution in the United Kingdom. Because we are the only ones, by God's grace and mercy, that knows the answer to the predicament. And actually that's what Daniel's doing here. He's witnessing to Nebuchadnezzar's soul. He's saying, look, you have yourself seen the impotence of man, but there is, verse 28, a God in heaven who reveals secrets. Look to him, Nebuchadnezzar. As one has put it, this secret, no sages, astrologers, enchanters, can show unto the king, let not the king therefore consult them anymore. Don't put your hope in men, and we need to say that. You know, there is a need even with mental health, sometimes yes, sometimes to see a doctor, but we need to recognise that we're body and soul. We need to say to people, you need to think about the needs of the soul. Do you know, all of our trials, all of our problems, all of our predicaments, and this is true whether you're a believer or not, All of them are designed by God to fundamentally bring us to that same realisation as Daniel that I need the Lord in my life. It's so true. One of the things we're told in Deuteronomy 8 with Israel is the Lord says, I cause thee to hunger. I cause thee to hunger, why? So that you would know that man lives not by bread alone but by every word that comes from God. I cause thee to hunger so that you would learn to depend on the promises of God. and the Lord, and we need to say to our neighbours and our friends when calamity strikes in their lives, we need to say, this actually could be a blessing in your life. This is a disturbance to realise that you need the Lord. You need the Lord. The third thing we see here is the need to rely on God's care in perilous times. This verse, verse 30, I've read this book many times over the years, and I never noticed this little clause. Obviously I've read it, but you know, you just read, don't you, sometimes. and don't notice detail. Mind-blowing. As for me, Daniel's speaking here, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but for our sakes. Rely on God's care in perilous times. What Daniel's saying is, The reason that God gave Nebuchadnezzar this dream was in order that Daniel would receive the knowledge of the dream and its interpretation, thereby glorifying God and himself being promoted. What is Daniel saying? And it's not pride, it's humility to recognize the hand of God. Daniel was saying, God has dealt with the king for the sake of his people. Do you see that? This is such a comfort to us. We live with godless governments. The Lord is able to deal with our governments for our sakes. That's what we're seeing here. You know, what Daniel was saying, it's a hymn says, behind a frowning providence hides a smiling face. This was a frowning providence. When a death squad comes to your door, that is a frowning providence. That is something that doesn't look good. You look at the clouds and think, this is a bad day. But behind this frowning providence was a smiling face. God was orchestrating all of this for his sake and his friends' sake. Think about that. The Lord deals with the most mighty man for the sake of four small, weak, and insignificant men. And might I add to that the whole nation because the future of Israel in exile very much hinged on these men and their influence at court. Do we view our trials like that? Do we view the troubles that are on the horizon for the church only through a despair? Or do we realize that the very things which at first glance seem to be so terrifyingly bad may in fact be blessings from God that may turn out for the glory of God and the advancement of his cause and his church? We pray for revival. But whoever said if revival comes, it's gonna come without some trauma. It may come when some Christian has gone to prison, or a minister, and they preach in court, or they testify in court, and they're on the news screen. We may look at things and think this is bad, but we do not know how God is working this out for the good of his church. It was through this awful situation that came to Daniel and his three friends that he was given an opportunity to glorify God and prove him and demonstrate the truth. You know, in Peter, when Peter writes and tells the believers that they need to always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is within them. Think about that. For someone to ask, what's the reason for the hope that is in you, what needs to be going on for them to ask that question? Tough times, friends. The question is, if things are going well for you, no one's going to even see that you have a hope. Hope is something that is manifested and seen to be hope when people look at your life and see no reason to hope. So this question, I don't know about you, I have not been asked this question much. Now that may well be because of the weakness of my hope but it may also just mean that my life hasn't yet reached the levels of calamity that Christians over the centuries have known. But should we face trials like our brothers and sisters all around the world are knowing in North Korea and China, and we manifest a Christian trust and a Christian composure and a faith, that question might then come. What is the reason for the hope that is within you? Remember those who Peter was writing to were losing their properties, they were being called evildoers for doing good. So hard times and a changing world are also opportunities to glorify God. Now, if you're a true believer, and you might say this saying, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief, there may be much weakness in you and sinful weakness that kind of a coil to it, but deep down, you want Christ to be glorified more than anything else in your life if you're a real believer. You want Christ to be glorified rather than an easy life. And therefore, we can rely on God's care in perilous times. He will not forsake us. He will be dealing nationally with a view to his church. One of the reasons I genuinely believe that thus far this land has been spared what you might call calamity on an extreme scale is because we have a remnant in this land. We are his church. Now many of these other countries that are knowing tremendous strife don't have a remnant like we do here. Might have a few pockets of people. And the Lord therefore is being gracious to the rest of the population because he has a church here. And that's a mercy. Now fourthly, see with me, know who controls history in perilous times. Daniel tells the king, Verse 29, that God has revealed this dream to him to make known to him what will be. For God to reveal what will certainly be requires absolute control over everything, doesn't it? As I go on in my parenting experience, I am making way less promises than I used to. For a number of reasons children are great at holding you to your promises and life is good at making it hard for you to keep your promises. If I say to my children I will take you to the park later I may mean it but a lot can happen after I make that promise that's out of my control to make it impossible to take them to the park later. And so, of course, Luke's sermon's been very helpful recently. There's a nice caveat we can make. Lord willing, I will take you to the park later. There are so many variables. The only way I can really, you know, the only way you can actually make a cast-iron promise about the future is if you control all things, to be quite frank. which is why we should say, Lord willing, I will do this, or I will do that. Now what's unbelievable, and I'm not sure what time I started preaching tonight, we might have to save the dream for next week, but what's unbelievable about this vision he has, this statue of the gold, silver, the bronze, and the iron, it speaks of four kingdoms. And the unbelievable thing is, is the accuracy with which that vision, that dream, transpired in history. So Daniel says to him, you are the head of Babylon then, for the Babylonian Empire is the head of God. And then he goes on and works through the dream. And secular historians They cannot accept because they cannot believe in predictive prophecy. They cannot believe that Daniel could have been so accurate because they don't believe in a God who can reveal such things or a God who controls history. And therefore they just put it away as it being written a lot later. But that's just not possible from the evidence. He predicts the rising and falling of empires before they even exist. He predicts the rise of the Roman Empire before it has even come into conception. because he controls the future. Let me quote Stuart Elliot on this. None can infallibly predict what he does not entirely control. Perhaps something might go wrong. Somebody might put a spanner in the works. Somebody might choose in a way for which the predictor have made no allowance. You cannot see the future unless you control the future. I'm going to finish it because lastly, then recognize the kingdom which endures forever. So you have the dream. Be really quick with this. Head of gold, chest of arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay. And then running parallel, you have a stone cut out, not with human hands. That stone smashes the iron and clay feet, and the whole statue comes falling down. That's the dream. And then the interpretation. Daniel's very clear, he speaks of four kingdoms. The first kingdom, the head of gold, is Babylon. The chest and arms of silver represent the combined kingdoms, and that's why it's chest and arms, the combined kingdoms of the Medes and the Persians, who overthrew the Babylonians in 539 BC. The belly and the thigh of bronze represents the Greek Empire, led by Alexander the Great, who wept because there were no more kingdoms to conquer. And notice, actually, it says, doesn't it, of the belly and thigh of bronze, that they shall rule over all the earth, verse 39. And they defeated the Medes and the Persians at 331 BC. But interestingly, particular attention is given to the fourth kingdom because it is during the fourth kingdom that the stone that was cut out without human hands will smash its feet and thereby destroy all the kingdoms of this world. And who is the fourth kingdom? It is Rome. It is the Roman Empire. In 146 BC, this power from the West smashed the Greek world and Alexander's empire. And what's interesting is this Roman Empire, in one sense, it's unbelievably powerful. It's iron. In verse 40, it crushes everything in its way. That was what the Romans did. By the time of Christ's coming you have the Pax Romana, you have this worldwide peace because the Romans have basically destroyed everyone, there's no opposition anymore. But there's hints, isn't there, that this kingdom, though iron, was also weak. It was iron mixed with clay. And we know that the Roman Empire was so vast, it had so many different peoples, and we're seeing this in our country, different cultures, different religions, and it wasn't a unified whole. But the biggest weakness of Rome, we know from Romans chapter 1, was its moral collapse. Its moral decadence. By the time the barbarians invaded and smashed the Roman Empire, the soldiers weren't even defending because they were too busy involved in debauchery and all sorts of things. The Roman Empire actually parallels very much what we're seeing in the Western Empire. This moral collapse. weakening its strength. But particular emphasis is given to the fourth kingdom because of course it is during the reign of the fourth kingdom of Rome that a stone is cut out. Who is that stone? Who was born during the Roman Empire and who was born at the point at which Rome was at its strongest? Caesar, Augustus, ordered a census and it was during his reign that Jesus the Messiah was born. And his birth, dear friends, is the end for the kingdoms of this world. He came and preached, repented for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He is, according to the apostles, the stone that the builders rejected. but he has now become the stumbling block. You either worship him or you stumble over him, you are crushed by him. Notice what it says about Christ's kingdom, verse 44. It's an ancient kingdom. Notice it says, in the days of these kings. In other words, this kingdom God was quietly establishing even under Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. So it's not just new when Christ appears, it's already been in progress. but it's a kingdom which is indestructible, verse 44, victorious. It shall not be left to other people and it is universal. It shall consume all these kingdoms, verse 44, and it shall stand forever. You wonder what it must have been like for the Jewish people, how exciting it must have been. on the one hand terrifying, but as one empire fell and another empire, they must have had this vision in their minds, and you can imagine when Alexander's armies, when the Greeks fell to the Romans, you can imagine most of the Jews, if they were really looking, people like Zacharias, that kind of person, like Zacharias, would have been thinking, we must be close now, close to that stone, cut out without human hands. You see, what you need to see, friends, Daniel says this is the vision that was most surely going to come to pass. We can look back and go it was fulfilled to absolute precision. Proving that God is the Lord of history. He brought about his purposes. Now friends, now he has come and proven that he can be trusted. Should we not trust him for all that will come? When we're told in the Word of God that as in the days of Noah, so will be in the coming of the Son of Man, men and women will be given in marriage, they'll be feasting and partying, but Christ will come, the trumpet will sound, and God will judge the living and the dead. Friends, we should look at these things and go, if all of that was fulfilled, All the rest will be fulfilled. And what we've seen really is that these four kingdoms really just are symbolic of every worldly kingdom. That's why it's one statue, one image. They represent all the kingdoms that have been and will be. And Christ outlives them all. Adolf Hitler. What did he predict? A thousand year Reich. How long did his kingdom last? 10 years. Christ is immutable. His kingdom is irresistible. And Nebuchadnezzar, this dream was given as a mercy to Nebuchadnezzar. Put simply, to say to Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar, you are gonna have a collision with this kingdom. And you're gonna come worse off. There are echoes, aren't there, here with Psalm 2, kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way. Or Psalm 1, the ungodly are like chaff blown by the wind. Do you know every single one of you in this room is one day going to have an appointment with the King of Kings. Every one of you in this room. And what we're seeing here then is that the next great event is an appointment with the King of Kings and the Rock of Ages. And we're being told that if we resist him here he will destroy us then. It's been put by one like this, are we like children building sandcastles with our backs towards the advancing tide? You may have heard of the Puritan reformer, Andrew Meville, who regularly upbraided the bishops in the presence of James VI. Listen to what he said, how he spoke to this king. Sir, we will always humbly reverence your majesty in public. But since we have this occasion to be with your majesty in private, we must discharge our duty or else be traitors both to Christ and you. Therefore, sir, at diverse times I have told you, so now again I must tell you, there are two kings and two kingdoms in Scotland. There is King James. The Lord of the Church, sorry, there is King Jesus, the Lord of the Church, whose subject James VI is, and of whose kingdom he is not a king, nor a lord, nor a head. We will yield to you in your place and give you all due obedience, but again I say, you are not the head of the church, you cannot give us that eternal life which we seek for, even in this world, and you cannot deprive us. What we're seeing here is in dark perilous times you need to keep in mind and keep before your eyes the kingdom which shall last forever and ever. As you see Christendom, as it's been called, collapsing around you, as you see Western civilisation, maybe we are going to be smashed by the Chinese and the Russians, I don't know, but as we see Western civilisation crumble, if you're a Christian, it doesn't matter. Really, we're sad because we love our brethren and our families and our nation. But ultimately, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken. Our citizenship is in heaven, not here. And that will help us remain faithful. You know, if any of us are called to stand before a court for biblical principle, and they want to threaten us and say, we'll take your kids from you, we'll do this to you, we need to keep in mind the stone. that will crush every kingdom in its way. Have you responded to this king? Nebuchadnezzar gave him an outward respect, but he didn't worship this king. He didn't embrace his kingdom. And in the end, he did stumble over the rock, over the Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible to hear of Jesus and to pay him outward respect. You know John the Baptist, we're told he heard him gladly. Herod heard John the Baptist gladly. He did many things, yet he went on in his sins. There will be many in the church who will one day say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? And this king, this rock, this stone will say, depart from me, I never knew you. Where are you in relationship to this king and this kingdom? Are you still in the kingdom of this world? Are you still more concerned about your earthly material life here or are you seeking the kingdom which is above? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and the rest.