The God of Heaven: Trusting in Divine Answers

Tremendous message and song.

Amen.

A lot of doctrine in that song.

Isaiah 53 comes to mind, doesn't it?

He was bruised for our transgressions.

He was wounded for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him.

By his stripes we are healed.

And it says there in the letter, in the chapter, for it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

Think about that.

God the Father bruising his own son, that Jesus took the wrath of God for us.

I was excited this morning too, to meet two couples this morning who visited our church for the first time this morning, having received a new members, a new visitor, bag on their door, new move in bag.

And so every once in a while, it's good to be mentioned that what the efforts and as we seek to reach our community, it works.

And they will from time to time show up.

I always get asked the question about our church and how we do our outreach.

And I say, again, I say none of our outreach programs work the best, but all of them together work like no one else.

Our church, we work hard at it.

And I'm so thankful for you who are so faithful to come out for organized visitation and outreach, but also faithful to invite people and your friends, neighbors, co workers, and that's what it's about.

It's about all of us reaching out to those around us.

And so just again was encouraging this morning to meet those two couples.

Turn, if you would in your Bibles to Daniel chapter two.

We're back in the Book of Daniel.

Tonight.

I'm going to leave you hanging.

So it's going to be great.

We're only going to go one through verse one through verse 30.

Of course, the rest of the chapter is about the statue and the prophecy.

And one commentator said that Daniel 2 is the key to God's entire prophetic program, that the ABCs of prophecy are found in Daniel and in Revelation.

The XYZ of prophecy is found.

And you cannot get to the XYZ until you understand the ABCs.

Again, the old Testament is the foundation of the New Testament.

And that truly and assuredly, absolutely comes to fruition when it comes to prophecy.

If you do not know your Old Testament, then you're going to find that you'll be off on the prophecies of the New Testament, because the Old Testament prophecies are the foundation of those prophecies found in the New Testament.

To know Daniel, Ezekiel, to know the prophets, helps us to know the book of Revelation.

So Daniel, what a great and wonderful book.

So we come through Daniel Chapter one.

We spent several weeks in Daniel Chapter one, and it's been a while since we've been in Daniel, so let's look at this.

We'll read the first 30 verses here.

So, y' all ready?

And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

Then the king commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams.

So they came and stood before the king, and the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream.

And my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live forever.

Tell thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

I love this.

The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me.

If you will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

Verse 6.

That's yeah.

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.

And they answered again and said, let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it.

And the king answered and said, I know the certainty that you would gain the time, 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.

For ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me till the time be changed.

Therefore tell me the dream and I will show.

Know, and I will, and I shall know, that ye can show me the interpretation of.

He said, you guys have prepared a statement already and you're just going to lie to me and I'm not going to put up with it.

I'm now giving the summary show.

Tell me what I dreamed.

Verse 10.

The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, there is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's matter.

Therefore there is no king or lord nor ruler that asks such things of any magicians or astrologers or Chaldean.

It is a rare thing that the king requireth.

There is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.

For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

And the decree went forth that the wise man should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

Apparently Daniel and his fellows didn't hang out with the other astrologers and magicians and wise men.

Chaldeans.

Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.

He answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king?

Then Arioch 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.

Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah and Mishael and Azariah his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven.

Concerning this secret.

I love that phrase of the God of heaven that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Verse 19.

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.

Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God, forever and ever.

For wisdom and might are his.

And he changeth 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 I praise thee, O thou, God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou hast now made known unto us the King's matter.

Verse 24.

Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon.

He went in and said unto him, destroy not the wise men of Babylon.

Bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.

Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus unto him, I have found a man.

I think he won a little credit, didn't he, of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

Maybe he's wanting one of those gifts.

The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar.

Remember, they changed the Nebuchadnezzar, changed the names of the Jews who came to Babylon.

Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof?

And 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 that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

Thy dream and thy visions of thy head upon thy bed are these.

As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed what should come to pass hereafter?

And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.

But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mayest know the thoughts of thy heart.

All right, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, bless the time again bless your word as you promised to do.

I pray, Lord, we'd see again the testimony of Daniel and Lord, we would see again the importance of our testimony and Lord, to give you the glory in Jesus name.

Amen.

The theme of the book of Daniel is God rules in the affairs of men.

God rules in the affairs of men.

We remember again that Daniel and his companions were carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon, that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, came in and defeated the Israel and took them away.

There was like three different captivities.

And Daniel was carried away in the first captivity in 606 BC the best, the youngest, the brightest, the princes and those of royal line were all carried into captivity.

And when they were carried into captivity, they were put into Babylon University.

And there in Babylon University they were given new names.

They were given pagan Babylonian names, their Jewish names set aside.

They were immersed in Babylonian culture.

I mean, again, just sunk deep into the university and to learn all the ways of the.

Of the pagan Babylon.

But Daniel purposed in his heart, remember that he would not defile himself.

And he and his three companions stood for the Lord.

It's amazing again to me how that the impact of their parents and the teachings that they had, the impact that they had on these teenagers.

Again, Daniel was a teenager.

His three friends were teenagers, you know, around 16 to 18 years of age.

And yet they stood for the Lord.

Encourage you young people.

Again, some of you back from college, especially if you're going to a secular college, remember you're being immersed, I'm telling you, if you're in a secular college, especially you're being immersed in the world's culture.

There is a conflict there, there is a clash there, there is a gigantic difference in Worldviews.

And you have to stand for right, you have to stand for the Bible, you have to stand for what you've been taught.

Don't give up those truths.

And so Daniel stood for right.

And we're going to see that again in chapter three and four.

But here we see Daniel and is empowered of the Lord and to show, by the way, to show the superiority of the God of heaven.

Daniel's empowered by God to show the superiority of the God of heaven, the God of the universe, the self existent one.

So God is going to use Daniel as a means to proclaim his glory.

King Nebuchadnezzar has a troubling dream.

He sought the meaning of the dream.

The wise man failed.

I just love how it's all written.

He says, if you don't tell me the dream and the interpretation, I'm going to cut you in pieces.

And I'm going to make your houses.

By the way, that would include their families.

They're going to lose their families.

A dunghill.

Do I have to define what a dunghill is?

It's a power manure compost pile.

See now I went too far.

The wise men failed.

The king reacted violently.

He was only asking them, by the way, to do what they claimed that they could do.

They're the ones who lie and deceive, come up with pat answers that they all got together, you know, and put those together.

And that's why the king was saying, well, if I say this or say that, you're just going to change it.

You're just going to change the time.

Tell me the dream and the interpretation of it.

Satan has power, by the way.

We sometimes take that for granted.

The guys you see, whether it's on social media, wherever, who talk about casting out demons and all those kind of things.

I am telling you, there is so much more to that.

There is so much more power than these men ever, ever, ever will realize.

And that we will ever realize.

Be careful delving into that junk.

There's only one who can deliver.

There's only one who can cast out.

And that's the Lord.

That's the Lord.

No man can do that.

No person can do that.

But the devil has power.

We see this in Egypt when the magicians of Pharaoh, when Moses threw down his rod, it became a snake.

Well, the magicians threw down their rods and they became a snake.

Now whether that was a magic trick or whether it truly happened, we know that Satan has power.

They turn water into blood.

The magicians of Pharaoh, they have power.

Satan has power.

But apparently in this particular instance, we know he has power also because of the girl in the New Testament who could tell the future.

I'm just telling you Satan has power.

But in this instance, either Satan doesn't have that kind of power or God had kept it back.

And again to show his power, to show his power, their power was insufficient or their power was withheld by God.

All in discrediting, discrediting the gods of Babylon and magnifying the God of Daniel, all glory to him.

Amen.

Glory to the Lord.

Glory to the God of Heaven.

I love how it repeats that twice the God of heaven, God can use us to bring him glory.

Isn't that what our life's supposed to be?

I present my body, a living sacrifice, which my reasonable service, that my body is to bring glory to him.

My acts, what I do is to be a testimony to him and to others around me of Him.

Our lives are testimonies of his work.

Our response to crisis should be different than the world.

That's one of the greatest ways in which we as Christians can show the world that we're different.

And that's our reaction to crisis.

When storms come into our life, our reaction to those storms should be different than that person who does not know Jesus as their Savior.

Because we have.

We.

We know we have one we can depend on.

We know we have one that will never leave us nor forsake us, one who will never fail us.

And so we should trust him.

And one of the greatest ways in which we can glorify God is through those trials and through those detours of life that others see Christ in us.

So here Daniel was having the opportunity to glorify God, to glorify him.

By the way, our lives again ought to be live for the glory of God.

Our children ought to see it.

Our grandchildren ought to see it.

Our spouses should see that.

Our co workers, our neighbors, our friends, they should see Christ in us.

The vision that Nebuchadnezzar was given the statue again that he's describing next Wednesday night, next Sunday night, we'll cover that.

But boy, what do we see going on the news today?

What if the battle Agog and Magog is about to happen?

That's again, scholars are not real sure about the battle of Gog and Magog.

Does that battle take place before the Rapture?

Does that battle take place during the tribulation?

It seems to indicate it might happen before.

Interesting, isn't it?

As we read and as we look through our.

I got written down Fox News and I put laugh out loud because that's what I.

That's where I get my news.

Our newsmax or wherever.

But boy, isn't the Bible.

Isn't the prophecies of the Bible so true?

Every prophecy concerning Christ's first coming were true, every one of them fulfilled.

The prophecies of his second coming will be true as well.

Now the second coming of Christ versus the Rapture are two separate events.

And we can cover that again.

And we have and reviewed it.

But the Rapture is the next thing to happen on the prophetic scale, on the prophetic timetable.

The trumpet's going to sound.

It could happen today.

I am telling you we are.

This is.

Of course this is true.

We're closer today than we were yesterday.

But I'm telling you, what a time to live in.

What an exciting time to live in.

Can I remind you that God is on the throne?

He will not forget his own.

God rules and the affairs of men.

We have nothing to fear.

God's in control again.

Daniel is such a wonderful book and an abc, if you would, of a prophecy, a foundation to prophecy.

And we'll cover some of that next Sunday night.

And here we have the king's dream.

And the problem.

He begins to.

He dreams a dream at night.

Maybe more like a nightmare.

Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, mightiest empire in the world at the time.

There is more said of Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament than any other pagan king.

Apparently this was a reoccurring dream.

Reoccurring.

And it definitely shook him up.

I always like to point out again that in the Old Testament, God spoke in dreams and envisions.

To do what?

To reveal himself to mankind.

Not only to reveal himself to mankind, but to give his word to mankind.

When Joseph dreamed the dream of the sheaves bowing to his sheave and the sun, moon and stars bowing to him, that was God speaking to him.

That was God telling Joseph, hey, someday your parents and your brothers are going to bow to you.

That was the word of God.

It was just as accurate and just as true as the Word I hold in my hand.

And in Old Testament times they would have viewed it that way.

They would have viewed it just like we view this.

When they received a dream or when they received a vision, they would have viewed it as if it was indeed the inspired word of God.

Because that's how God spoke to them.

Or he spoke through them, through a theophany, God appearing to them.

So just remember that that's what happened.

That is Old Testament Covenant, That's Old Testament program in the New Testament.

The Bible makes it very clear, according to 2nd Peter 1, verses 17 through 21.

Also Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1, that God no longer speaks that way in the New Testament.

Covenant, the New Testament program.

But God speaks through what His Word.

When that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be done away with.

And that in part being done away with is tongues and prophecies.

All those were done away with when the word of God was complete, around 100 A.D.

just a good reminder.

But we know that God was speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar.

He was disturbed and troubled.

The Bible says.

Have you ever been there?

Sometimes we need to be careful what we take to bed with us.

What?

Our head.

What's in our head.

Amen.

You lay your head down at night and you're troubled about things, get out of bed and get on your knees.

Or if you're like me and it hurts too bad, stay in bed and pray.

Pray.

Bring that care to God.

Bring that trouble to God.

King Nebuchadnezzar called for the wise men, the magicians and the soothsayers and astrologers and man a kingdom given wholly over to the occult.

In verse three, it speaks about.

It says they spoke in Syriac.

It's the same as Aramaic.

So from chapter 2, verse 4 through chapter 7, verse 28, this was originally written in Aramaic.

Just a side note for you scholars who'd like to know that.

Then we see verses 4 through 13, we see the wise men's problem.

Do you think they had a problem?

I think they did.

This is either the king really forgot, but the indication here is probably that he didn't forget, that he was just testing them.

And you got to kind of read between the lines.

And the Hebrew kind of indicates that as well.

So we don't know.

But maybe he was testing his wise man.

But the typical tyrant king again said, tell me the dream again, I'm going to cut you in pieces, make your houses a dunghill.

They made excuses.

Maybe they weren't so wise.

And in that excuse, they're very arrogant, like Lord, nobody, I mean, King nobody's ever asked of their wise man this.

There is no one.

There is no man who can answer and fulfill that question.

No one can do it.

Not even the gods who are not, who don't dwell in flesh.

And he just kind of.

They just kind of go on and on and on about it.

And what happens is the king just keeps getting madder and madder in Other words, they revealed that they were frauds.

And what happened?

Well, the king followed through.

He is the king.

A decree was put out to kill him, kill all the wise men.

What's interesting to me, look at verse 13.

It says, the decree went forth that the wise man should be slain.

But notice there is a.

It points out Daniel and his compadres, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain.

Again, it seems to indicate, and scholars agree, that Daniel and his friends weren't there.

And we know this because they had to be told what happened.

Apparently, Daniel and his friends didn't hang out with the other crowd, which is a good lesson for us.

Reminder to us, you hang out with a bunch of skunks, you're going to smell like a skunk.

Used to be a sermon.

It was a famous sermon when I was a kid called why hang out with turkeys when you can soar with eagles?

Some of y' all remember that one.

It was a good teen camp sermon, and it's true.

And Daniel and his friends apparently didn't hang out with the others.

And so it was pointed out that they sought to kill Daniel and his friends.

And then Daniel.

We see the.

Daniel's promise and desire.

Daniel's promise and desire.

We see this in verse 14.

He says, Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch.

Notice, he answered discreetly.

He answered with wisdom whom the king had ordained to destroy.

The wise man then answered, I'm sorry.

And answered Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.

And he answered and said.

And he goes through the.

Again, we've already read it.

So Daniels makes a promise in verses 4 through 16.

And he tells his compadres, his companions, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

He says to them, let's pray, let's pray.

What was his prayer?

What were their prayers?

The prayer was for mercies.

Notice it's plural.

Look at verse 18.

That they would desire mercies of God.

It's always good to begin your prayer with praise, number one, but with repentance, mercies.

Lord, thank you for not giving me the punishment I deserved.

Thank you for not giving me what I deserve.

Lord, thank you for giving me what I don't deserve.

That's what they did.

Prayer is as we pray we should come humbly before him.

I repeated this to somebody the other day that the acrostic.

A good, easy acrostic to remember is pray P.

R A y praise him when you come to God to pray.

Number one, praise him.

Take time to praise him for who he is and what he is.

Take time to thank him and be a thankful person.

God loves that praise and thanksgiving.

And then number two, repent.

PR Repent.

Repent of your sins.

Hello.

The Bible says God doesn't hear the prayer of a sinner.

That's pretty tough.

Pretty tough.

So we come to God, we need to repent of our sins.

And sometimes, like David, we just need to say, lord, as I said this morning, lord, show to me, reveal to me.

See if there be any wicked way in me.

Sometimes you got to go to the Holy Spirit and just say, lord, reveal to me the sin in my life.

Repent of those sins.

And then ask.

Pray.

P R A Y means ask.

So if you don't ask in your prayer, did you really pray?

Well, not by definition.

You didn't.

Because I get that all the time too.

People say, well, I just don't feel like I should.

I should ask when I go to prayer.

Well, but prayer means to ask.

God is your father.

He desires to give you things.

He wants the best for you.

Pray.

Ask, and then why is yield.

Yield to his will.

Yield to his answer, whatever that may be, whether it's yes, no, maybe, or later, but yield to whatever God wants in your life.

Pray.

Here we see Daniel and his friends praying, praying for mercies, believing.

And we talk about fervently praying, praying specifically.

Sometimes we pray in such vagueness, we never know if we got an answer or not.

If you're going to God in prayer, ask specifically what you would ask.

By the way, when you do ask, you ought to ask for others first.

Take some time to pray.

Intercessory.

Pray for others.

Think about brother Richard Gross in the hospital.

He's sure been in the hospital a lot in the last couple years.

He needs our prayers.

Go to intercessory.

Go to prayer on his behalf.

Ask God to intervene.

Amen.

Take time to pray for others.

Pray for your children, pray for your grandkids, and then ask for yourself.

It's not wrong to ask for yourself, but God absolutely looks on the heart and we ought to pray in humility with a contrite and broken heart.

I always remember hbc, humble, broken, contrite, easy to remember.

Nobody got that one.

Heritage Baptist Church.

Billy even got that one.

He was like, I got that one preacher.

I'll use that one.

Humble, broken, in contrite spirit that we ought to have when we go to God in prayer.

Take time to pray.

And he said he prayed to the God of Heaven.

We have a God in heaven, our Heavenly Father, who loves us, who shows us abundant mercy and grace every day again, giving us what we do not deserve.

Taking out of our life what we do deserve.

It's amazing, isn't it?

The grace and mercy of God.

And verses 19 through 23, we see his praise.

By the way, this outline, I borrowed it from John Phillips.

We see verses 4 through 16, the promise, in other words, Daniel's promise.

And then verses 17, 18 is his prayer.

Verses 19 through 23 is his praise.

He says about blessed.

Look at verse 19.

Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in the night vision when Daniel blessed the God of Heaven.

That word blessed there is speaking of praising the God of heaven.

Blessing the God of heaven again.

Praying without praise is ingratitude.

We ought to praise him.

We know that in the last days, perilous times shall come.

Timothy tells us.

And one of the signs of the end times is people will be ungrateful.

That's part of that list that he gives.

Ungrateful.

We need to be people who are absolutely thankful.

Thankful.

A thankful people is a thankful people.

Right?

There is a God of heaven that revealeth secrets.

He said, I love that.

Verse 21 says, he revealeth or he removeth kings and setteth up kings.

Look at verse 21.

He changes the times and the seasons, by the way, that changes the times and the seasons.

Speaking of God's impact in history, he's the one who changes.

He's the one who puts up and puts down rulers and kings and changes and guides history.

He setteth up kings.

He giveth wisdom unto the kings and knowledge of them and knowing, understanding.

And again remind you that God is in control.

God is the one who sets up presidents and puts them down.

It's God who puts kings in place and puts them down.

Amen.

We can trust him.

We can trust him.

We see his proclamation again.

There is a God in heaven that revealeth.

Daniel gave credit to God.

He gave glory to God.

God loves to receive the glory.

He loves to receive the glory from us.

In other words, to ascribe unto him credit, to describe him credit.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.

Lean not unto thine own understanding.

Remember, this was our theme verse in all thy ways.

What?

Acknowledge him.

And we went through that study of that verse again.

I pushed this a lot and talked about it acknowledging him.

Acknowledging him is not just saying, lord, I know that I need to put my trust in you.

And you will guide me.

But it's ascribing him credit, just like David did.

David and Goliath.

He said, you come to me with a spear and a sword.

I come to you what in the name of the Lord, Joseph?

The very same thing.

When he interpreted the dreams, he said, I'm summarizing.

But he said to Pharaoh, I can't interpret your dream, but I know a God who can.

And we see the same thing here with Daniel ascribing credit to God for the revealing of this dream.

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart.

Lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways, acknowledge him.

Give him the glory.

Give him credit in your life for what he's done for you, all the things he's done for you.

And he will guide you.

You ascribe him credit.

He will guide you.

He will lead you.

There is a God in heaven.

Daniel was pointing the king, even a pagan king, in the right direction.

There is a God in heaven.

Can I remind you, tonight there is an answer to your problems.

You just got to go to the right source for answers to your problems.

King Nebuchadnezzar didn't know.

He went to his magicians and his sorcerers, and.

And Daniel said, no, that's not where you need to go.

The one who will answer your problem, give you peace, is the God of heaven.

And I want to tell you tonight, the one who will solve your problem, give you peace, answer your prayers and meet your needs, whatever those needs may be.

Financial, relational, deliverance from sin, remind you there is a God in heaven.

There is a God in heaven.

Go to him, and he will answer your prayers.

Let's all stand.

We'll have a verse.

The Lord of.