Please turn your Bibles to Daniel chapter 2. And this evening we'll be considering verses 47 as well as chapter 3 and verse 1. Let's pick up the reading from verse 44. In the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. In as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain and its interpretation is sure. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him. The king answered Daniel and said, truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and the revealer of secrets. Since you could not reveal this secret, Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel petitioned the king and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Now over the last several weeks, Even as we have studied the book of Daniel, and in particular, the second chapter of Daniel, we have seen that the message of this chapter hinges around Nebuchadnezzar's dream. It was a disturbing dream, which made him anxious and robbed him of sleep. Nebuchadnezzar was very troubled about it, but also had a sense that it is a dream he needed to understand because it carried something of a message, possibly a consequential message. And so Nebuchadnezzar wanted to find someone who could tell him what his dream was, along with its interpretation. Daniel was such a man. And Daniel saw that the dream was about four empires. The Golden Empire, which stood for Babylon, the Silver Empire, which stood for Middle Persia, the Bronze Empire, which stood for Greece, and the Iron Clay Empire, which stood for Rome. He made it clear to Nebuchadnezzar that the empires, that is to say these four empires, were to succeed each other over a period of time. that the vision regarding these empires was of God and all will happen according to Daniel's prophecy. And furthermore that the empires would be enveloped in history which is the outworking of God's plan and therefore under his control. That is what Daniel saw. He also saw another kingdom, the kingdom of God, which was invisibly concurrent with the four kingdoms and which attained visibility during the Roman Empire, during the iron and clay empire. And through the coming of the stone, that is to say the Lord Jesus Christ, these four kingdoms would be destroyed. And this kingdom of God will grow and dominate the world. And it will be doing so throughout the reign of those four empires. Indeed, this kingdom has continued to grow to this very moment. Now this evening, I would like to look at what Nebuchadnezzar's response to this revelation teaches us about his faith. And I believe that in those two verses I read to us earlier on, we find an accurate expression of that. The king answered Daniel and said, truly your God is the God of gods. the Lord of kings and the revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret. And then in chapter 3 and verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits. You have to multiply something like 0.5 of a meter, half a meter, multiply that by 60 and it will give you an idea of how high this statue was and it's width 60 cubits, half a meter multiplied by six and he set it up in the plains of Dura in the province of Babylon. Those two verses tell us something about the faith of Nebuchadnezzar. And I want particularly to highlight three things about the faith of Nebuchadnezzar. Actually two to be specific. The last one is really an applicatory point. And as we think about that, the first thing I want us to observe is that Nebuchadnezzar had come to a true knowledge about God. Please note, I didn't say a true knowledge of God. I said a true knowledge about God, and there is a difference. When Daniel had explained his dream to him, we read here that he prostrated himself before Daniel in verse 46. Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face prostrate before Daniel and commanded that they should present an offering and an essence notice to him. He prostrated himself before Daniel and And he gave instructions that an offering be presented to Daniel. And he did that because he believed that Daniel's God was behind this. He knew he was in the presence of a greater wisdom than his own. Now notice the Daniel's God he confessed to be. Or if you like, the God he confessed. And it was none other than Daniel's God. What did he say about him? What did he confess about Daniel's God? Well, first he confessed that he was the God of gods. He was basically saying that I have discovered, Daniel, that your God is the chief of all gods. the God of all gods, the most important of all gods. In saying this, he was basically doing an injustice to his own gods. If they were truly gods and they had any divinity in them, he was doing an injustice to them. Because he was extolling the God of Daniel above all gods. And the God that the Babylonians worshipped was called Bel, B-E-L. Nebuchadnezzar worshipped this God and so did all the Babylonians. And in saying the God of Daniel was the God of gods, he was basically placing his own God below the God of Daniel. That is quite a confession. But that is not all. He also goes on to say that the God of Daniel was the Lord of kings. The master of kings. He claims for this God the supreme dominion, literally, over the world. For if he is the Lord of kings, and the people are under those kings, it follows that he is also the lord of all of those people. He is literally the lord of mankind, the lord of the world, because he rules their very kings or monarchs. He was admitting, wasn't he, that this God was also his Lord. And he would be the Lord of all the kings that would succeed him. He would be the Lord of Belshazzar and of Darius. He'll be the Lord of Cyrus and the string of kings who succeeded him in the Medo-Persian kingdom. He'll be the Lord of Alexander the Great. And he was really and truly great. And all the kings that would succeed him. He would be the Lord of Caesar Augustus and all the string of Roman kings who would succeed him. He was the Lord of the kings who had preceded him. And he would be the Lord of the kings who had been revealed to him in this vision. And he continues to be the Lord of kings and presidents today. This God is the Lord by whose providence the world is ruled. That's another astounding confession. But there is more. He says he is the revealer of secrets. Truly, your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets. And that may not sound a weighty thing to say about God, but it is. Because this, if you read in another context, you will find is a proof of divinity. It is proof that the God of Daniel is truly God. It's a proof of divinity. And here, he does not only reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which was a closely guarded secret, he reveals the future. He reveals time beyond Nebuchadnezzar's time. All the kings and kingdoms that will succeed him, he reveals them before they came into being. And this is not something humans do in their own power. This is something God does. When Isaiah was trying to prove the existence of the one and only God, he appeals to the fact that he foresees all things. Just listen to what he says in Isaiah 43. From verse three, what does Isaiah say about this God? But now, thus says the Lord, reading from verse one of chapter 43 of Isaiah, Now says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you, and I have called you by your name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. And why will this be? For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba in your place. Since you were precious in my sight, you've been honored and I have loved you. Therefore, I will give men for you and people for your life." And then he says, fear not, for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the East, he's now revealing the future, and gather you from the West. Isaiah uses the argument of his ability to foresee all things, to foresee the future, to argue for his divinity. So when Nebuchadnezzar says he is the revealer of secrets, he is saying something very profound about God. Well, that's the first point. Nebuchadnezzar was a true believer about God. But secondly, Nebuchadnezzar was nonetheless not converted. That is why it's important for us to stress that preposition about God. He knew about God. He had come to see something about God. He didn't have a personal relationship with this God. He didn't have a saving knowledge of this God. He knew about God. Nebuchadnezzar was not converted. Well, how do we explain the fact that at this moment in time, he speaks so truthfully about God? Well, he experienced a religious conviction without a spiritual conversion. He was fascinated with the God of Daniel. You may be an unbeliever in God, but surely when you read about all that the God of Daniel did, not just for Daniel, but before Daniel even came to be, the Bible reveals him as one who created the world out of nothing and the one who sustains the world in the palms of his hand. The Bible reveals him as leading his people and healing his people and protecting his people. The Bible reveals him as one who removes kings and raises up kings. Surely that should fascinate anyone. And Nebuchadnezzar was fascinated with the God of Daniel. His heart was shaken, but it was not renewed. Instead of being renewed in heart, he had that same old heart, which yes, could acknowledge that God had done something great here. So there was a sudden fascination and a sudden interest, like a fire that momentarily seems under control, but suddenly explodes and becomes wild and out of control. Even so, Nebuchadnezzar momentarily could see flashes of God in his power and majesty. He seemed to have undergone a major change, but in fact was none the better. Unlike the Thessalonians, and I know you have read about the Thessalonians in chapter 1 and verse 9, they are said to have turned from idols to serve the living and true God. They were deeply steeped in the worship of idols, and they loved their idols. But when they encountered the gospel, They turned their backs on idols. And that is what we refer to as conversion. They were truly converted. They turned from idols to serve the living and true God. Nebuchadnezzar did not. And there are people who appear to change when they first hear the gospel, aren't they? The gospel impresses them. What Jesus did impresses them. The things he did while he was here on earth. And the things he did when he went to the cross. He was suffering. The heavy and cruel hand of his persecutors made him so uncomfortable. And yet, even while he hung there, he could forgive. He could forgive those who were putting him to death. and he could save another who hung on another cross, but who believed in him, he assured him that on that very day, he would be with him in paradise. And when he died, extraordinary things happened. People who had been long dead and had been in their graves were raised to life. There was darkness for a time. Those things impress. But more than that, when he died on the third day, he rose again. No one has ever done such a thing. There are people who change when they hear things like this. They're impressed. The gospel has what we would refer to as a moral persuasion upon them. It persuades them to change morally, to change their way of life. And for a moment, they're excited about that change. Alas, the change doesn't really touch their hearts. It doesn't really go as far as transforming them, changing them, changing their natures, changing their characters. and you know you haven't changed because your change doesn't really produce spiritual fruit. It can produce moral fruit. Some moral adjustments. It can give you some knowledge about God. It can move you enough to push you to join a church, to get onto their members list, get baptized and to begin to function in the church. But all the while, there is really no real change, no real transformation, no conversion, no spiritual fruit. You know nothing of what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 when he describes those upon whom the Spirit has worked and in whom he lives. They display love and joy, peace and patience, kindness and self-control and gentleness. Things that they don't ascribe to any work they have done but things they ascribe to their encounter with God, with Christ, with the Holy Spirit. And they find they don't just have a character change. They have a certain attitude toward the truth, toward the church, toward other people who are born again. They are not indifferent to them. They feel united, joined to them. And they want to be with them. They want to worship with them. They love them. And they want to serve them. And they find them acting like the early church in Acts chapter 2 verse 42. They are devoted. to the apostolic teaching. They are devoted to the fellowship and they are devoted to prayers. They are devoted to the Lord's Supper. These are things they might not have been interested in before, but something has happened to them that has united them to this community, that has united them to the truth of God. They want to be a part of that experience. Have you experienced change and have you experienced these things? Can you really say your heart has changed? You are no longer worldly. You don't love the things of the world. the thinking, the music, the entertainment, that that has changed. Your heart has changed. Other things make you happy and joyous. Your character is different. These things didn't happen in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar. These things didn't happen in the heart of Judas Iscariot, who was part of the apostolic band and sat at the feet of Jesus. He remained unconverted. These things didn't happen to Simon Magus. You read about him in Acts, in chapter 8, who was intrigued and fascinated by the apostle's ability to mediate the coming of the spirit upon the people of God. And he became a believer. But we know as we go on reading about his life, that he hadn't truly changed. We were reading about the rich young man this morning. who had a familiarity with the God of Israel and with the laws of the God of Israel, and from youth he endeavored to live according to those laws, but clearly he knew nothing of a heart change. Do you count among these who have been fascinated with God? sometimes even with his word, certainly fascinated with his miraculous feats, but know nothing, nothing of transformation. Let's come back to Nebuchadnezzar. How do we know that he was not converted in spite of extolling the God of Israel? How do we know? Well, his non-conversion is illustrated in three ways. And we begin with a way that appears more like a hint to the fact that he really wasn't converted to God. He acknowledged Daniel. And that is why I kept stressing that at the beginning. Then Kim Namgyong fell on his face, prostrate before, not God, but Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and an incense, not to God, but to Daniel. And yes, he had this sense that it is the God that Daniel had spoken about who had done these things. But he couldn't keep away from Daniel. Truly, your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and the revealer of secrets, since you could reveal this secret, even in the midst of praising God, he must come back to Daniel. Could this indicate that his heart was as human centered as it ever had been despite the revelation of the Lord? Very human-centered, very man-centered, not God-centered. We can be engaged in some kind of acknowledgement of God, can't we? And yet be man-centered. Haven't we found sometimes in modern Christian worship there is something of God in the worship? It is so man-centered. It extols the feelings of people and the wonderful experiences of people. It never stops to extol the majesty and greatness and power of God. Well, this is a hint that something was lacking in Nebuchadnezzar, the acknowledgement of Daniel. Secondly, we also find proof of his non-conversion in his blatant blasphemy on the plain of Dura. We read about that in verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king, made an image of God. This is a man who had just acknowledged the fact that God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and the revealer of secrets. Here he is now. He made the image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He made an image. He made an idol. and it was an image of gold. Why did he make an image of gold? You remember that when Daniel interpreted his dream, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, which was on a statue The head was made of gold, the chest going down to the thighs was made of silver, the thighs of bronze, and the legs, the feet of iron and clay. He doesn't make a statue made of bronze, silver, iron, clay, and gold. He makes everything of gold. Why does he do that? In other words, although he has seen this interpretation, he has understood what Daniel was saying in the interpretation of his own dreams, that there will be different types of kingdoms. His own kingdom will end and another one will succeed to it. That will end and still another one will succeed to it, and so on and so forth. This was confirmed. This was a fact. Nebuchadnezzar was not willing to accept that fact. How can there be other kingdoms apart from his own? How can there be a silver kingdom and a bronze kingdom and an iron and clay kingdom? That's unacceptable. He must have been thinking. there will only be a kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar. There will only be a kingdom of gold. And this is why when he makes this giant of a statue, it is all made of gold. There will only be Nebuchadnezzar. All the kingdoms will be his, his kingdom. It is his kingdom alone. It is his kingdom that will last forever. There will be no kingdom of silver or bronze or iron. There will only be a kingdom of gold. There will only be Babylon, my kingdom. And that kingdom will last forever. Essentially, he was making himself the beginning and the end. And because what he is making here is an image, an idol, something that he will later call others to worship. He was essentially making himself God. A true convert of the true God cannot do that. But there is something else that shows that he wasn't converted. He effectively rejected the kingdom of God. Now notice that in the dream and its interpretation, there wasn't just a revelation of the four kingdoms, the four empires. There was also a revelation of the kingdom of God. Note that again in Daniel chapter 2. And in the days of these kings, the kingdom of heaven will be set up. The kingdom of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. And as much as you, Nebuchadnezzar, saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain. and its interpretation is sure. And what I want you to see here is that he was given a vision of the four empires, but he was also given a vision of the kingdom of God. Indeed, we can narrow down that further. He was given a vision of the kingdom of Christ. A Christ who will come at some point in the future. He had the privilege of knowing this long before it happened. He would come as a stone. Yes, the builders will reject him. When he arrives, there won't even be room in an inn, but he will come. And when he comes, he will consume the other kingdoms, and his kingdom will stand forever. Now if what Nebuchadnezzar really wanted was to stand forever, to be great, He should rather have united himself to this stone that will grow into a mountain and that will fill the earth, that will have influence in all the earth forever. He wasn't interested in that. Basically when he says there will be no silver kingdom and no bronze kingdom and no iron or clay kingdom, there will only be a gold kingdom, he is also saying there will be no kingdom of God. There will be me and my kingdom. And God, if you are expecting me to worship you, forget it. I will make an image that I will erect and call everyone, all my officials, all the politicians, all the administrators, all the citizens, they will all be called to worship this image. No, Nebuchadnezzar was not a converted man in spite of acknowledging God. So the lesson, all lessons we learn here are clear and I want to end with that. Let us learn, and here I'm quoting John Calvin, let us learn from this passage how insufficient it is to celebrate God's wisdom and power with noisy declamation unless at the same time reject all superstitions from our minds. End of quote. In other words, it's not sufficient to know about God. Maybe the kind of faith you have is about knowing about God. You have no personal relationship with him. You know about him. When you read the Bible, it tells you about him. When you read some other Christian literature, they tell you about him. You know about him. But you don't know him. And you may know about him while still clinging on. to your own superstitions, to your own gods, whatever form they take. If you would truly know God, if you would truly relate to God, if you would truly have a relationship with God, You must reject those superstitions. You must reject those gods. You can't worship God and Mammon. You can't worship God and Bell. You can't worship God and whatever other gods you keep in your closets. You must reject them if you would know God, if you would walk with God, if you would worship God, if you would follow God. No amount of verbal acknowledgement of God can replace a true relationship with God. Do you wonder why your relationship with God is so weak, so unexciting, so powerless? It might be that you don't really know him. It might be that you are not really converted to him. That's why. Look inside your heart and inside your life. Is there something you love more? Something you worship? Something you actually worship? It's not the true God you worship. There is something else that has gripped your heart. There is something else that moves your heart. There is something else that you love. There is something else that your heart has sold itself to. And not the living God. Unless you dethrone that, unless you reject that, you cannot really be said to be converted to the living God. God must be first. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. God must be first. it is not sufficient to know about God. You have to reject the things that have held your heart enslaved. Secondly, let us believe in the stone and the kingdom of God. You know, when the kingdom of God comes into your life, you come under the rule of God. When you have this encounter with Christ, and he saves you from sin, and he makes his dwelling in your heart, You cannot at the same time entertain other kingdoms. So you wish to know how you can get rid of all these other influences? that compete with God will have God in your heart. Have the Lord Jesus in your life. Let him rule over your life. Reject sin, reject idols, reject any other superstitions and have him rule there. And it will be difficult for any other rivals to come close. I want to say a third thing. And it's of a political nature. Let's pray for the faith of the president. Let us pray for the faith of our new president. That it will be the right faith. Not a confused one. not a multi-faith one, the right faith, the faith of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We will not be blessed when we have a multiplication of gods. We will not be blessed when we are acknowledging idols and false gods. There is only one God. We shall have no other. And blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. If our God would be the Lord, our president, must believe that God. We must pray for him to know God, to be truly converted, to follow this God, to resist idols, to reject superstition. Only this Only this is right. And only that will bring true blessing. We've been called to pray for our political leaders. And we are grateful for a new president. We are grateful for who he is. We are grateful for the fact that he acknowledges God. But is he also converted? Let's pray that this God he acknowledges would break through to his heart and the hearts of all who rule with him and win over those hearts and influence those hearts and have them bring their wisdom in submission and subjection to that God. Amen.