Supposed to be, but didn't work out so well. I love being a Baptist. I'm a Baptist on purpose. There's a church in Ocoee. What is it? The one up by my old house. The Round Church. Oak Level. Drop the name down. They're Oak Level Church. Yeah, they still, on their website, they're still Baptist. They're still affiliated with the Sub-Baptist Convention, but they dropped the name Baptist because it's offensive. It offends me not to be proud of Baptists. Don't ever, ever, ever stop reading this day in Baptist history. Those guys are people worth remembering. I am Baptist on purpose. We are not Protestants. We never have been. We are Baptists on purpose. And I really enjoy the Vista and Baptist History Corner. Thank you for doing that. I worked hard on it. You're welcome. It took me a long time to get that information. You do a good job. All right. There's too many toys up here. I can't keep everything straight. One thing I can't see as good as I used to. Where is it? There it is. Come on. There it is. Daniel chapter number two, please. Daniel two is a long chapter. We are going to move quickly. If you have a question or you want me to slow down, raise your hand. Unless your name is Wade and then just deal with it. Daniel chapter number two. Verse 1, In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep break from him. I'm curious, just out of passing, how many of you regularly have nightmares? Raise your hand. You're fortunate. I have nightmares every night. Every night. There's no exception. I was hoping maybe some of you might have some insight on that, but every night I have just terrible dreams. I wake up the next morning, sometimes I have to remember this, sometimes I can't. Occasionally, I'll have a dream that is so real, I will remember it six months later as though it really happened. There are certain dreams I have on a regular basis. But if you don't... You're in. I'm sorry. I'm normally not this crude, but dad told me I had to. So verse number two, then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were probably the Babylonian priests for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. Verse 3, The king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Verse 4, Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac. We're going to pause here for just a moment to give you a little bit of history on the book of Daniel. It's all going to be on the screen. Don't worry about writing it down. It's a lot of information, but I want you to be exposed to it. Okay? So, just in passing, at this point, Daniel switches from Hebrew to Aramaic through chapter number 7. Now, this is very, very interesting. We're talking about going back to the original manuscripts where Daniel actually penned it. Up until chapter 2, verse 4a, up until the word Syriac or Aramaic, Daniel had been writing in Hebrew. He then, at this point, when they start speaking in this language, changes the way that he pens it and begins writing another language. No different than if you were writing a document in English, then suddenly started writing Spanish, and continuing the document non-stop. And then at the end of chapter 7, you start right back up in English again. Now, there are several theories on this, and I'm not going to go into that, but there are some observations I do want to point out. He uses Hebrew for matters involving the Jews and Aramaic for matters pertaining to the Gentiles. It's thought that possibly the chapter 2, verse 4, B through chapter 7 was actually part of the Babylonian official history. And that's why he used that. But he doesn't come right out and say it. I personally have a different opinion on it. I noticed that the Aramaic is not the Western Aramaic of the Maccabean period, but the Eastern Aramaic of the 6th century BC. Now, why is this important? There is a common theory that the book of Daniel was not written in the 6th century like it claims, but that it was written during the Maccabean period. Writing in the Western, I mean the Eastern Aramaic disproves the theory that the book was actually written much later, nullifying most of the predictions, especially chapter number 11. Chapter 11 is an exciting chapter. I can't wait to get there. It writes history almost in a daily fashion. It's very, very, very detailed, but it's written 400 years before the events. People can't swallow that kind of prophecy. They say there's no way that Daniel could have known that unless there's a God in heaven. And it's possible, in my opinion, that Daniel switched from Hebrew to Aramaic, and he might not have even known why, but maybe God was saying, I'm going to show these people what I can do. But it's just interesting that he switches from that. Then spake the Calvians to the king of Syriac, O king, live forever, tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me. If you will not make known to me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. And we thought we had it bad. Can you imagine that? We complain about our government because they want to force us to buy health insurance. Thank God you live in a country to where they don't just show up at your house and kill you for no reason. Our society is very unique even in today's world. Be very, very, very thankful for Barack Obama. Be even more thankful that 200 years ago they fought to control Barack Obama by writing documents that would limit government and by all means continue to vote. because it ain't always going to be this way. Your houses should be made of gung-ho, literally killing their entire families if they can't reveal the dream and what it means. Who wants that responsibility? Who wants to tell me what I dreamed last night? If you don't, I'm going to kill you all, and your families, and I'm going to make your houses gung-ho. Tell me what I dreamed. Come on, anybody. Anybody care to take a guess? That's a nightmare for us and you. Thank you. Thank you. I've had dreams about the fellowship meeting to where I was at the House on Matador. And I was a song leader at that time. And service was ready to start, and I could not find a tie for anywhere. And unlike Wade, I thought you had to wear a tie whether you were doing a job or not. not just if you're in front and couldn't find my tie. And I had to sneak in the back of the church because in the prophet's room I had some extra ties. Well, in the trip between the Matador house and the prophet's room, I lost all the rest of my clothing as well. And I got inside and dad had just, the night before, wanted to impress the fellowship, which he likes to do. He wants the place to look nice. He had reconstructed the entire building. I couldn't find the auditorium. But I did find the auditorium that seated 5,000 and they were everywhere. And he was getting madder and madder and madder because it's now 5 after 10, 6 after 10, 7 after 10. Now last night I dreamed, never mind it doesn't matter. Verse 6, "'But if you show the dream and the interpretation thereof, you shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore, show me the dream and the interpretation thereof.'" He wasn't playing. And you've got to understand, they knew they were going to die if they didn't do what he said. Verse 7, "'They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation thereof.'" The king answered and said, I know of a certainty that you would gain a time, or you're stalling, because you see the thing is gone from me. But if you will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you. There's only one possible way that your future's going to hold. Ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak for me till the time be changed, hoping I'll change my mind. Therefore, tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. Do not. Serve a God that will not help you when you need Him. Don't do it. Now make no mistake, I'm not saying that if He don't give you everything you want like Santa Claus that He's not helping you. But there are people in this world that will serve things that absolutely do nothing for them. Most of them are chemicals. Verse 10, the Chaldeans answered before the king and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's manner. Therefore, there is no king, lord, nor ruler that asks such things as any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. King, you're being unreasonable. It can't be done. But the king said, wait a second. You guys are supposed to be my priests, my magicians. You're supposed to be able to speak to the spirit world and do all these fancy things, and you can't even tell me this one little simple thing? Don't serve a God that can't do what's important in your life. It's a rare thing that the king requires, and there's none other that can show it before the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. They just showed their hand. They're saying, we really can't talk to God. Up until this point, they pretended. They used parlor tricks. They used all kinds of different little snake and oil shows. And he actually rewarded them and gave them good livelihoods. And they just said, hey, wait a second, we really aren't God's representatives. Makes you wonder one day when preachers around the world stand before the throne of God, how many of them will really have been speaking his words. For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel and his three friends were not here. Daniel and his three friends had not risen to the rank of Chaldean. They weren't important enough. They were just teenage boys probably at this point. But they were about to suffer some consequences. Verse 13, the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Here we have a massive, massive problem. All of us, on occasion, face massive problems. The question is, how do we respond to the problem? Daniel, remembering, probably still a teenager, gave an appropriate response. Verse 14, Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Ariok, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Ariok, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Ariok made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. Daniel did not freak out. He did not go get drunk. He gave God time to show what he wanted. How many of us freak out? How many of us, under tremendous stress, actually do go get snockered? How many of us, when troubles get big, we forget God altogether? What am I going to do? Your little friend in your wallet? That's God to a lot of Christians. I don't have the money for this!" No praying and asking God, what should I do? No praying and asking God, should I even buy this thing? Pull the plastic out. An appropriate response is typically opposite of your natural inclination. Remember that. By the way, the king had a big problem. He had a bad dream. What was his response to the dream? He became very, very mean. and angry and try to commit murder. You want an answer? Yeah. Is that an appropriate response to a problem? No. Give God time to show you what He wants. Most of the time the problem will take care of itself. Most of the time it will. Verse 17. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon." You see anything strange there? It took me until yesterday to pick it up, and I had to actually alter my slides to get it in. Daniel wasn't trying to rescue everyone. Daniel was saving Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Why? Why did Daniel not try to rescue all of them? He knew them, and he knew they deserved to die. He knew Babylon would have been better off without them. He wasn't trying to rescue them. He was trying to rescue him and his three friends, God's probably only representatives before the king. 19. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision, or a dream. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel did not freak out at this problem. He didn't go get drunk. He gave God time to show what he wanted. Now he does not rush to fix the problem. Think about this. He's got the answer. His neck is on the chopping block. Our first inclination is right in front of him. Get this problem solved. He didn't do that. He first praises God. This was important. This past week in making this lesson, I was very, very backed up. I don't know how I used to make four in a week. Doing one a week, it takes up all my time. And I got behind this past week and I began stressing. And there was a point where it was very clear God gave me a span of time. And I was so happy that I stopped and said, There's something I'm forgetting here. And I remember I had just written this the day before. And I said, God, thank you for this extra time. If it was not left, it would have occurred to me to thank God. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desire of thee. For thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter." Folks, God owes us nothing. We talked about this last week. He owes us nothing. When He gives us anything, we should take time to say thank you. Anything. Anything. It would be real easy for Daniel to say, you know what, I'm a good kid. In last week's lesson, we saw that they physically mutilated him to the point where he could have died. And he could have said, you know what? God's blessed me for all the good that I did. God owed Daniel nothing. Had God allowed this to go unanswered, and Daniel had been murdered with all the rest of the wise men, God would have been entirely just in Daniel's life. We need to get out of this entitlement mentality that our whole nation is getting into. We're not depending upon government so much as we're dependent upon God's generosity, and we expect it. And God only takes so much for that. There'll come a time when He says, you know what? You're not quite as important to Me as you think you are. Verse 24. Therefore Daniel went unto Ariok, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. His response is now, he did not freak out, he didn't go get drunk, he gave God time to show what he wanted, he didn't rush to fix the problem, he praised God, next we're going to see, he then faced the problem. How often do we run from problems instead of dealing with problems? Daniel could have said, I'm going to sneak out of here. I'm going to go hide somewhere. Face the problem. What if the king didn't like what God had to say? Think about this now. Daniel says, hey king, I figured you'd dream me out. Here's what it means. King says, I don't like that one. That's what they did to Jeremiah. They told Jeremiah, stop telling us things from God. They tried to kill him. Don't give us no more messages from God. They told Moses the same thing. You talahachers, don't let God talk to us. Daniel faced the problem. There's the one man in this room that faces problems because he has to, and that's that guy right over there. We give him a gun. We give him tools to do it. But what would it be like if whenever he was kind of afraid, he said, I'm not going to deal with that. How long will we continue to pay his paycheck? God has invested in us the blood of His Son. He expects a return on that investment. And sometimes that's us facing a problem that He has set in front of us to accomplish something for Him. Verse 25, Then Ariad brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captains of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven." Oh, I love this passage. There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets when it's necessary. He doesn't reveal them all. But when it's necessary, He will show up. Don't serve a God that won't show up. There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon my bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into the