Open your bibles this evening to the book of Daniel and we'll be reading together the entirety of chapter two. A little bit longer passage this evening, but we'll give our attention now to the word of God as we find it recorded in Daniel chapter two beginning in verse one. Give your attention now to the word of the Lord. In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans he summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king, and the king said to them, I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream. And the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will show you the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the word from 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. They answered a second time and said, let the king tell his servants the dream and we will show its interpretation. The king answered and said, I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time because you see that the word from 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, 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 demands. For no great and powerful king has asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean. The thing that the king asked is difficult and no one can show it to the king except the gods whose dwelling is not with flesh. Because of this, the king was angry. and very furious, and 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? in 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, made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Nazariah, his companion, and 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. In the mystery, was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. 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 now have made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the King's matter. Therefore Daniel went to Ariok whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king and I will show the king the interpretation. And 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. The king declared to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, 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 has 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 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 it 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 might be 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 exceedingly bright, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was a 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. 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. 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 you to the king the interpretation. You, oh king, The king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, 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, a bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks in pieces and shatters all 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 the 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. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on 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. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king's court. Thus far, God's word. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word that is true and powerful. And we pray that tonight you would open our minds and our hearts to receive that truth and like Daniel to rest ourselves fully upon the sovereign might and power and glory of the God of heaven. and his uncut stone who will reign forever and ever. And we ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen. Were we to take a moment and go around this sanctuary and ask you, have you ever had a bad dream? I'm relatively certain that most, if not all of us, would answer yes, we have. Sometimes we can remember those dreams. Sometimes it may even trouble us. What the dream was about may trouble us for a while, but usually when you have a bad dream, you don't think about it a whole lot. and shortly you will forget what the dream was about. Well, that is not the case in what happens here in Daniel chapter two with King Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had a bad dream, but that bad dream had such a tremendous impact upon him and upon Daniel and his three friends And not only that, my friends, this dream that Nebuchadnezzar had continues to this very day to impact each of us tonight. This was no ordinary dream. We're gonna look at four parts as we try to take on this large section of biblical narrative. But here are four things. Number one is Nebuchadnezzar's bad dream and troubled heart. Now who would think that one bad dream would have such a profound impact upon so many people. And yet, that is precisely what happens here. As I said, this is not just any dream. This dream was sent directly from God. He is the one who caused Nebuchadnezzar to see these things. Now, verse one says, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. Possibility that what it's communicating here is that the dream occurred more than once. And like I said, that is a possibility. And it had this tremendous impact upon Nebuchadnezzar. The dream was so bad So frightening that we are told that Nebuchadnezzar was deeply troubled in his heart, in his spirit. And Nebuchadnezzar has this dream. He is deeply troubled, so much so that when he lays down to go back to sleep, he can't get back to sleep. And each of us probably knows from experience when you lose a night's sleep things don't go very well from that point on You lose two nights sleep and things get really bad That's exactly what's going on here Nebuchadnezzar is not going to be an easy guy to get along with for the next while He's losing sleep, he's deeply troubled So he calls the wise men, the magicians, the astrologers, and he says, I want you to tell me what this dream is and what it means. And they say, fine, just tell us the dream. We'll interpret it for you. And he says, no, that's not the way this is going to work. Nebuchadnezzar is very suspicious of these wise men and magicians, and he thinks that if they really have power to interpret the dream, they can tell him what the dream is, too. And of course, the wise men respond, and now, not just Nebuchadnezzar is deeply troubled, But all the wise men are deeply troubled because Nebuchadnezzar says, if you don't tell me the dream and its interpretation, then every one of you and all your households are going to be killed. And so, this is a very difficult situation. And magicians respond in verse 10 and they say, this is crazy. No man living can tell you what the thoughts of your head were. You need to tell us that so we can interpret it. And Nebuchadnezzar stands firm. Now my friends, there are perhaps a lot of things that we could say at this point, but I want to zero in on a very telling aspect of this whole situation. It is one with a vital message for each and every one of us here tonight. And do you understand what's happening? We are talking about Nebuchadnezzar. Most likely, this is the most powerful man on the planet at this moment. Here is this King Nebuchadnezzar who is ruling over a massive empire Humanly speaking, he has everything his heart could wish for He's got riches, he's got servants to do his every whim He's got possessions, he's got power, he's got pleasures untold. But there's one thing he doesn't have, and that's peace of heart and conscience. He's got everything, everything this world can provide, but that can't give him peace in his soul. There's no joy to his life, to his riches, to his possessions. There's no satisfaction of life because his soul is troubled and disturbed. And perhaps the worst thing about it all is there is absolutely nothing that he can do or that anyone else can do for that matter to change that situation. He is very troubled and disturbed. He is miserable and there's nothing he can do to change that. Now, my friends, don't miss this main lesson here because Nebuchadnezzar is a prime example of the fact that an abundance of things cannot and will not make you happy. I don't care how much money you make. I don't care how much people praise you, what kind of position you have, honor and glory and recognition. I don't care what you've accomplished in your life. Without God, none of that matters. And Nebuchadnezzar is a clear illustration of that. Only God can and only God will make you happy. Many of us are familiar with Augustine, the church father. in the fourth century in his book, His Confessions, where he just reflects upon his life and many elements of that life. And perhaps one of the most famous quotes that he makes there, he says, thou, speaking of God, thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee. My friends, Nebuchadnezzar, did not yet know the God of heaven. He did not have the God of heaven in his heart. He was without God, and without hope, and without peace, and without joy, and without satisfaction of life. And so, he's in a very difficult frame of mind and soul. That brings us to the second point, and that is Daniel's wise response, which helps Nebuchadnezzar, and it exalts the God of heaven. As we consider this next part, I want you to keep in mind, remember, Daniel is still a teenager. Okay, so think teenage boy. And that makes his next actions even more remarkable. So if you were in the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar and you hear, okay, kill all the wise men, kill the magicians, kill the astrologers, kill them all because they're worthless to me. What would you do? How would you respond? in that type of desperate situation. Well, think about how Daniel responds. He hears the decree. And you know what the first thing is he does? He goes straight into the presence of the king. Crazy. How would you think that's a sane response? But Daniel goes to the king. And he says, give me more time and I will make known to you the interpretation. But then, and this is the real heart of it, Daniel goes home and he calls his closest friends together, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And he says, I need you over here now. And he calls them together so that they could seek the God of heaven and seek his mercy. They get together to pray about this situation. And one of the things that we're going to see in exaggerated poems is that Daniel is no stranger to the realm of prayer. We'll find in chapter six that he observes at least three distinct and designated times each day for times of prayer. But this is an especially urgent and special situation. Literally, we could say the executioner is standing outside the door. He's ready to start putting these men to death. And he's been looking for Daniel and his three friends. Daniel does not say to his three friends, you guys know any good hiding places? He doesn't say, maybe we should form a pact and take up arms against this insane ruler. He does not say any of these things, but he says, brothers, let's pray. Teenage boy calling his friends over, come now and let's pray together. He doesn't say simply, Lord, help us. though that's a perfectly legitimate prayer, but Daniel and the three friends begin seeking the God of heaven. As Alistair Begg's little book puts it, pray big. And Daniel, these four teenage boys are praying big because they are asking God for a miracle. and they're believing that he's going to give it. Ladies and gentlemen, young people, teenagers, younger children, listen. This passage is screaming at us. When you're in trouble, pray. When your mind is full of questions or doubts or fears, pray. When you need wisdom to make the right decision, pray. When you're struggling and facing some powerful temptation, pray. That's what Daniel and his friends did. They called on the name of the Lord. He prayed and God answered his prayers. But then notice what Daniel does after that. You might think that the first thing he would do is say, oh, we got the answer, let's go tell Nebuchadnezzar. Let's get out of this situation as quickly as possible. That's not what Daniel does. Daniel goes back to God with praise and thanksgiving. he goes back to remember God's great and mighty answers. Like Psalm 103 warns us, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Brethren, we need to be careful and not forget when God answers prayer to praise him for it. Daniel's words are are excellent for us to learn even as a way to pray. We read in verse 20, Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. Wisdom and might are his. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have no understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers, for you have given me wisdom and might and made known what we asked of you." Daniel's heart and mouth is full of praise to God. And then he goes now to Nebuchadnezzar, and he says, I have your answer. God has revealed this to me. He's given me understanding, not because I'm such a smart guy, not because I'm so gifted and so talented. It has nothing to do with me. All the praise goes to God. The understanding that God has given Daniel is for his own glory. Well, let's look thirdly at the dream as it is described and interpreted. Now, beginning in verse 31, Daniel describes the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Without having any information to go on, God has revealed this dream. So in verse 31, he says, you, O king, were watching. And behold, a great image, an image that was full of splendor, and it stood before you, and its form was awesome or frightening. So Nebuchadnezzar sees this great image and Daniel goes on to describe it. The image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. And at the end of verse 35, he says, the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream. So Daniel describes in detail what Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed. Now, we've seen Daniel is a book that is filled with prophetic imagery, it's filled with apocalyptic in time images and illustrations and things of that nature. If we did not have the rest of the chapter, we might say, who in the world can possibly understand this image? this great image with a gold head and silver chest and bronze thighs and feet of iron and clay. What does that mean? Well, if you had your trusty Schofield study Bible, you would see that, I hope you don't, but you would see that Schofield, who was a leading dispensationalist in the early 1900s, says that the 10 toes of the statue are 10 kings, 10 kings that are gonna be destroyed at the second coming of Christ, and then will usher in the Millennium Kingdom. Well, the only problem with that is The text says nothing at all, at all about 10 kings or about a millennium. It says in the days of these kings, God is going to set up a kingdom. And we're gonna interpret that in just a moment, but maybe you oughta tuck away this little phrase that Jesus uses in Matthew 12, in verse 28. When he's casting out demons, and they say, you're casting out demons by the prince of demons. He says, if I'm casting out demons by the spirit of God, the kingdom of God has come to you. It's here now. Now let's look at the interpretation because, my friends, we have the rest of the chapter. And this is where I said you need to let the text interpret the image and not add to it or import 21st century American thought into it. What does the text say? God not only reveals the dream to Daniel, he reveals what the dream represents. And in short, the image that Nebuchadnezzar sees represents kings and kingdoms. That's the end of it. The image represents kings and kingdoms, beginning with Babylon. And so in verse 37, he says, you, King Nebuchadnezzar, you're the head of gold. This image is a picture of kings and kingdoms, and it starts with Babylon. It starts with Nebuchadnezzar. You're the king of all. And after you, another kingdom is going to come, not as strong as yours. Then a third kingdom that will rule over all the earth. And lastly, there will be another fourth kingdom. a strong but divided kingdom. And finally, all of that will be broken by a fifth kingdom that will last forever. The striking thing about this language written around 600 BC is to consider the history of the world from the time of Daniel to the time of Christ. What follows the Babylonian Empire? The Medes and the Persians. Darius, Cyrus are two kings that the book of Daniel mentions. What follows the Medes and the Persians? The Greeks. Alexander the Great. Perhaps you've studied him. Sinclair Ferguson quotes the passage that describes Alexander the Great in his 20s, weeping because there were no more nations to conquer. He was ruling over the entire Mediterranean world. And then what follows? the Greek empire but Rome. Rome became the strong empire but it was deeply divided and disrupted because its leaders were immoral, godless men with a lust for power and all they could think about is killing one another so they could have total rule. They thought of themselves as Caesar did, that they were divine beings. You talk about delusion, that was the state of politics in the days of Rome. But here's the amazing part of Daniel's interpretation. He cites the fact that all these kingdoms are going to be broken in pieces, not by some powerful earthly king but by a stone that was not made with human hands. I think we could call it the chief cornerstone. This stone is the one to whom God would give a kingdom, in verse 44, that will stand forever and ever. Once again, my friends, do you see the centerpiece of Daniel's prophecy is not Nebuchadnezzar. It's not Daniel. It's not Alexander the Great. It's not the Roman Empire or Julius Caesar. The centerpiece is the stone that breaks all other kingdoms and grinds them to powder. The centerpiece is Christ. And that brings us to our fourth and final point, the uncut stone and his everlasting kingdom. Note what Daniel says in verse 44. In the days of these kings, kings of the four kingdoms, in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. This fifth kingdom is unlike any other kingdom that's ever existed or will exist. This kingdom is going to stand forever. This kingdom which God will set up, notice the language, will not be left to other people. It's not that my son's going to take over after me and after him, his son, and we're going to continue the line of kings. No, this kingdom and the king endures forever and will not cease. It will not be left to other people. This uncut stone will become a great mountain, as described in verse 35, and will fill the whole earth. You know, I could be wrong, but I would not be surprised if Daniel, as he's telling Nebuchadnezzar these things, was singing number 169 from the Trinity Hymnal. Setting of Psalm 45, listen to two of the verses. Now gird you with your sword, O strong and mighty one. In splendid majesty, arrayed more glorious than the sun, triumphantly ride forth. For meekness, truth, and right, your arm shall gain the victory in wondrous deeds of might. Your strength shall overcome all those that hate the king. Under your dominion strong, the nations you shall bring. Your royal throne, O God, forevermore shall stand. Eternal truth and justice wield the scepter in your hand. is speaking of Christ and a kingdom that God would set up that would stand forever, that would bring all nations and all powers under its reign and authority. My friends, this is just a little glimpse that we have of Christ and his everlasting kingdom in the book of Daniel. You realize, just a few verses speaking of Christ. We see the same thing in the prophets like Isaiah 53 and verse 6, all we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. One verse in Zechariah 9, in verse 9, behold, your king comes to you, meek and lowly, riding on a donkey. Just one verse. One verse here, one verse there. Psalm 2, Psalm 45, Psalm 110, Psalm 72 that we sang earlier about Christ. But just glimpses here and there throughout the Old Testament of the coming king and his eternal kingdom. My friends, do you realize what an unspeakable blessing it is for us seated here in this room tonight that we have the full, clear revelation of the king and his glory and his kingdom that will last forever? And we see it all as best we are able in human form. What an incredible blessing God has bestowed to show us the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings in the New Covenant. This King has come. This King has established a kingdom that will never end. It's not founded upon a political agenda. It's not sustained or supported by military might. This kingdom is the kingdom of God. It's a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It all comes down to this, my friends. Are you part of this kingdom? Do you know the king? Are you serving that king right now, this night? The scriptures make it very clear Christ is the king And it calls each and every one of us to bow the knee to King Jesus. This king, this kingdom is from everlasting to everlasting. It was promised 3,000 years ago in Daniel chapter 2. It was realized 2,000 years ago in Matthew 28 and verse 18 after our Savior's resurrection. And he says, all authority, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He's the king. And therefore, As we began this evening with those words of Hebrews 12, 28, therefore, since we received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace that we may serve God with reverence and godly fear. If you're not part of this kingdom tonight, don't leave here without bowing before Jesus and confessing him to be your Lord and master and king. And you will enjoy fellowship with him forever. Let's pray together. Our God, what a glorious picture you have given us here of the kings and kingdoms of this world that only lasts for a short period of time and then are replaced. We pray, our God, that you would give us a love for the kingdom that will last forever. and will fill the whole earth. And we ask our God that you would grant us much grace as we seek the king and his favor tonight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.