Now we are studying the book of Daniel, and in order that maybe some who have not been here through all of the messages, let me give you a summary before we go into chapter four. Daniel chapter four, a little summary. Israel reached its peak when Solomon was king. When he died, The kingdom split. 10 tribes went to the north. Two tribes remained in Jerusalem, Benjamin and Judah. The 10 tribes became involved with the false god Baal, B-A-L meaning master, the one who captivates you and puts you into his prison of life. The king married a woman named Jezebel, a Phoenician woman. She brought all her false gods down to the ten tribes kingdom. As time went by, the nation, even 200 years went by and In those 200 years, the 10 tribes were taken into captivity by the Assyrians. Then the Assyrians were captured by the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar, the son of the king of Babylon, that wicked nation came down and captured some of the most affluent and highly educated and abled Israeli teenagers. Daniel was one of them with his friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar did this. His father died. He became the king. He had a dream and it troubled him He had a bunch of hacks, a bunch of fakes in his bureaucracy. And they couldn't tell the dream, Daniel could. And the basis of the dream was that he told the wonderful thought that there would be four great kingdoms that would come into being. Babylon would be the head of gold. Then would come another one, was the Medes and the Persians. Then would come the third, the Greeks. Then would come the fourth, Rome. And the whole world now is really a split of the Roman Empire. And you and I are living in this, the days of the toes of that image that Daniel saw And I've been reading up on some of the things of the history of Israel and what they're going through and what they're going to go through. And the European Union, keep that in mind, that term, the European Union. The European Union says that Israel is to go back to the 67 borders Jerusalem is to be given back to the Muslims. They still control the Temple Mount. Muslims do. And they will control it until Jesus comes back and rules and reigns upon the earth. Now, Daniel has impressed Nebuchadnezzar, the king, and the word Nebuchadnezzar just so that you might wanna know what the meaning was. The book of Daniel was written not in the Israeli language, it was written in Aramaic. And that means that when I study, I've got to study about three times harder than I would if it were just in Hebrew. But the word Nebuchadnezzar means Nebo, protects. you, my son, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar. He's the false God, Nebo. Nebo protects you, my son, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebo was the false God worshiped in Babylon. He was the God of wisdom, they believed, the God of education, the God of writing literature and all the arts. And so he was named after this false God. He became the king and the first three verses, this is important. When you study the first three verses, all this is is a salutation, it is not. He did not believe these things. It was a nice way of greeting people, as since he was the most powerful man on the face of the earth, he was the king of the most powerful kingdom, Babylon. And so when you read those first three verses, he does not believe this. He's only being nice he thinks, and giving a salutation. That's all it is, so I'm not going to read it. He began to flourish because Daniel was by his side. He had the man, he had God's man by his side. And then so he said it in verse five, I saw a dream which made me afraid. Now, if you study the entire book of Daniel, you'll know that Nebuchadnezzar had a serious mental problem. As a matter of fact, before we finish the book, he'll go totally insane and go out and eat grass like an ox. And then he will accept the true and the living God But he hasn't yet, he's just making nice thoughts in the words that he said. Now, he is afraid, he has a vision that troubled him. Verse six, therefore made I a decree. He loved to make special demands. So what does he do? Just in order to show that they're fake, he calls all these bureaucrats back in again, and they can't do a frazzling thing. He knew they wouldn't be able to, but he brought them in just to show them how weak and useless they were. And so we find that he, verse eight, But at the last, now he didn't do it first. At the last, Daniel came in before him, King Nebuchadnezzar. And he had named Daniel with a Babylonian name, Belteshazzar. And this meant, Baal, the false god, will protect you, giving that name to Daniel. You see, it was a way of brainwashing. By giving these different names and things, they thought they'd be able to bring them over into their way of thinking. And so he gave him this name of Belteshazzar. And so he calls him in, in verse nine. Oh, Belteshazzar, master of the magicians. You're the head man in my kingdom. You're the smartest man in my kingdom. And he said, now I wanna tell you, I've had this dream. And what he dreamed, I'm not gonna go into detail on it, but he dreamed that he saw a huge tree that filled the whole earth. And this tree was full of fruit and it was good for every creature and every human being. And then suddenly some force comes and cuts the tree down and leaves only the stump. And Daniel is very, very troubled. He sees what this dream really means. And so we go come to verse 17. This matter is by the decree of the watchers. You see, we just finished with what we call Halloween here in the world. He said, I saw all kind of spirits all around me as a tree was cut down. And I looked at that stump and I was, oh, may some shoots start coming out of it. And may that tree come back alive because the roots are still there. And so in verse 18, now we start with the interpretation of the dream. This dream I, Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. But thou, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof. I'd like to know, you're wise. You're the wisest man in my kingdom. You're able to make known to me the interpretation. Because you're able Daniel, you've proven it to me. These other hacks are no good. They're not getting good for me, they're an embarrassment for the whole country of Babylon. And then he makes a statement that is really blaspheming. For the spirit of the holy little G-O-D-S is in thee. That wasn't true, it was a true Holy Spirit that was in him. not the false spirit of the little gods. Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astonished for an hour. He was absolutely under the control of what does this mean? Dare I tell him the interpretation of this dream? Daniel was astonished and his thoughts troubled him. And of course it showed in his countenance. And the King, King Nebuchadnezzar spake saying, let not the dream or the interpretation thereof trouble thee, O Belteshazzar. Answer and said, my Lord. Now the word Lord here, I have to go back to the Aramaic, because this is not Adonai. It's not Yahweh. It is the word in the Aramaic language, me-ri. And it actually means one who dominates. So he calls, he says, my Lord, talking to Nebuchadnezzar, the dream be to them that hate thee, and the interpreters thereof are thy enemies." Now, why would Daniel look at this man, this king, and call him his Lord, the one who's in control of him? And so, now we want to go back and find out how are we, if we, If God uses us like he used Daniel and makes him a captive, makes him a slave to the Babylonian king, and he calls him by the Aramaic word, my master, what does the Bible say that if you and I, for example, maybe it's who you work for, who controls you? But Paul knows he had a superintendent. He had a school board. Somebody, you have to submit to somebody. And so what we're gonna do now is we're gonna fast forward to what the New Testament says, if we have someone that controls us, like Nebuchadnezzar was in control of Daniel. And so we're gonna go over, this is important. This is Bible and it is not followed by most of us today. But this is what the Bible says. If you are brought into a place where someone is your supervisor, someone controls you in some part of your life, how are you as a Christian As a follower of Jesus Christ, how are you to react to that person? So we'll go to the book of Ephesians, the sixth chapter, and we'll begin with verse five. Remember now, he calls this wicked king who made him a captive, took him away from his nation, and he answers to this king who has false gods. So what does the Apostle Paul say in the book of Ephesians, the sixth chapter, verse five? Servants, and actually the Greek word here is slave. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters, those who have control over you in some way. according to the flesh. Of course, they can't control your spirit. One of the things that bothers someone when we're going through our problems in the past, this person said, you offend me. You want us ordained as deacons? And you tell me that you're not gonna be bossed by me. Well, not spiritually. In the flesh, yes. I am to submit to authority in the flesh. Not in the spirit, that's only to God. But we're in the flesh. We're living in a human body. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh. With fear, that is respect, and trembling, in singleness in your heart. In other words, don't pretend that you're submitting to their authority. Don't be double-minded about it and put on a show and you really are not submitting at all. You're not going to allow You don't want them in your flesh to really control you. You're just doing what you have to do, but you're not gonna really honor them. He says, do it in a single list of your heart and do it, and this is rough, do it as unto Christ. The same way you respect Christ, Now, when I was in the military, there wasn't any problem. You submitted. One of the things that was so humorous to me when I was in basic training was that you were not allowed to eat anything out of the, like candy or things in those machines. The only thing you got to eat was what they served at the chow hall. I mean, you had to eat that and that only. Well, we had some guys in the flight. They were in basic training. And they sneaked out one night, went to those machines and got candy and soda pop. We call it in Arkansas. And they got caught. You know what they did the next day for eight hours? They took their toothbrush and they went on the sidewalk and brushed the sidewalk for eight hours. I don't think they ever just went back to those machines again. I think it was the chow hall and ate and glad to get it. Submit, not with eye service as men pleasers. Don't do it because you're trying to put on a front but as the servants of Christ. This is the Bible. Oh, don't you love John 3 16? How about Ephesians 6 chapter? Doing the will of God from the heart. You're going to impress this person because you're gonna submit and that person will be touched by your ability to submit. Verse seven, I'm still in Ephesians, the sixth chapter. I'm showing you that Daniel submitted to King Nebuchadnezzar. We submit to somebody that has authority over us. For example, I went to vote yesterday. I had to show ID. Hey, there are people who just are throwing a fit because you have to show an ID when you vote. For God's sake, why not? I have to show my ID everywhere else. So why not submit? But there are people who do not want to submit when they're voting to show an ID to prove that they're who they are signing their name to be. Verse seven, with goodwill doing service as the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall receive of the Lord. God will reward you for giving in and submitting so that you can get the love of God shown not by preaching to them, but by living it in front of them. Verse nine, but what about the boss? What's his responsibility to you? Ah, thank you, Lord. I'm glad you put the rest of this in here. Verse nine, ye masters, that is those who have authority over other people, ye masters do the same thing to them. Forbearing, threatening, and knowing that your master, the person who has authority over you, your real master is in heaven. Neither is there respect of persons with him. I think this is one of the great curses of the church is that we have respect for those who can produce. What about those that we have to produce for? What about them? Those that have a need? Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. That's how you want to be strong. and in the power of his might. And we're just gonna go through the rest of these verses. Then what are you to do? How are you gonna be able to do these things? I'm human. I'm weak. Well, here's how. But how many times have you seen what I'm gonna read to you now in context of what I have just read to you previously in the book of Ephesians? You haven't. Not many of you have. God bless you. But if you don't put it in context with what I've already read to you, you're not gonna be able to do what it says in the rest of these verses. Put on the whole armor of God. Why? Because you're gonna have to face some things and deal with some things that you don't want to deal with. So you're gonna have to have some help from almighty God to do what he has demanded you do. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. What are the wiles of the devil? To make you believe that you're the authority and that there is no authority but you, and you'll do what you want to, when you want to, and how you want to, and it's nobody's, I'll use it, I'll not put the word in, nobody's blank business. That's pretty tough preaching. But you got it, didn't you? Anybody miss that? Good. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Hey, you're not my problem. And I'm not your problem. The problem is that Satan gets into other people's flesh and blood. And are you gonna be able to stand no matter what's thrown at you, by who? Isn't that good? Isn't that good? For we wrestle, put on the whole armor of God. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities, that is demons that live in people. And powers against the rulers of darkness. of this world just got through having a big election. Isn't it gonna be interesting to see how all the problems of the world will be solved now? I could say something, but I know I'm not gonna get into politics. You get into it, okay? For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, But we wrestle against spiritual darkness in high places. We're foretaken to you the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day. There are going to be evil days. We don't live. I'll always remember one of my old members down Spiro, Sister Adalue Cook. She was a great believer. But she finally had to be put in a nursing home. I went in to see her after she had been put in a room. She had a nice room. And I said, Sister, I didn't know this is a beautiful room. She said, you know, people from the south don't pronounce my name like most people do. Brother Matthews, this ain't heaven. Now I'm gonna tell you, I hope you don't really mind, I'm gonna get real plain, okay? So get your seatbelts fastened. She took a laxative called black draught. And they wouldn't let her have it. And I mean, that was like taking snuff away from her, are some other addictive drug. And she never gave up. She would sneak around and get her some black draught. And then you know what the people who worked there had to do. Thank you for laughing. You know, church is not supposed to be someplace where you can't just be real. Let's get real. Standing therefore having your loins girded with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all things, above all that you've heard so far, taking the shield of faith, believing. wherewith ye shall be able to quince, put out the fiery darts of the wicked. Well, thank you tonight for letting me be a part of your life, and I pray I said something that'll be a blessing to you and will help you in your life and help you to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. As we stand to sing, if anyone needs to make a decision, the invitation is open for you right now. Just as I am without one plea was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come.