The Shield of Thanksgiving

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

I wish that I could tell you exactly or trace for you exactly where some of the ideas that make sermons come from. The trace by which they come is more complicated than I can follow myself sometimes because they come from a lot of different angles. In this case, today, it’s a combination of having watched carefully the events that are going on in the world at large, the events in our own country, and seeing coincidentally to be approaching Thanksgiving, and also coincidentally to be having just started a new series of radio programs on the Book of Daniel, which I began just a little over a week ago and have done the third one in that series now. Don’t ask for them. They’re not available yet. We don’t want to burden the staff down. We’ve got too many things going on to introduce a new series to them at this point in time. But it was out of that and a combination of things that somehow brought me back to Romans the first chapter again, as I have been here again and again and again, and I noticed something in a way that I had really not much noticed before. I suppose there’s nothing really unusual about that because when you look at the Bible from a lot of different points of view, from different times of life, different circumstances of life, it just doesn’t look the same. In Romans 1, verse 18, Paul is waxing eloquent about the ungodliness and the unrighteousness of men, saying that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against these people because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. That which may be known of God, he said, is manifest to them. It’s plain. God has showed it to them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power in Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Then he says this, Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Now, did you notice the elements in this? They knew God. They did not glorify him as God, and they were not thankful. These are the three elements that are there. The result of this was they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. That last phrase, their foolish heart was darkened, really ought to make our blood run cold. to realize that you could be, by a rejection of truth, by a rejection of what God has revealed to you, end up wandering around in the dark, falling over things, running into things that you can’t see. Now, I want to give you an example of what this means. And you begin to follow me on the course of events from Daniel, the fourth chapter. It’s not an unfamiliar passage of Scripture, but one I don’t think that’s been studied by many of us in very great depth. Nebuchadnezzar, it begins, the king unto all people, nations, and languages. This is Daniel 4. All nations and languages that dwell on the earth, peace be multiplied to you. Now, does anything immediately strike you as odd about that salutation? Anybody, anything strange there to you? This chapter was not written by Daniel. It was written by Nebuchadnezzar. Moreover, it’s not written in Hebrew, because I’m sure Nebuchadnezzar didn’t speak Hebrew or write it or read it. It’s written in Chaldean. Now, you should ask yourself why this is here and how it got that way. Why is it here and why this way when you read it? What is a pagan king doing writing a chapter in the Bible? The answer is testimonying. It’s a fundamental principle of biblical law that you have to have two or three witnesses, in any case, for the testimony to be accepted to be believed. You can’t convict anybody because one guy says, I saw him do it. You’ve got to have at least two witnesses, preferably three, for it to be believed. Now, Daniel is only one witness. And so the question then is, how do we establish in people’s minds this really did happen and It really is meaningful. There really is something here that I want you to pay attention to. Well, we’ll go on with this. Daniel is one witness. Nebuchadnezzar. himself is the other witness on this event. So in Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar says this, “…I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God has wrought toward me. How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation to generation.” The interesting expression, the high God. Nebuchadnezzar hasn’t turned loose of the idea that there are all kinds of gods in the world. He just has figured out, as a result of the second chapter of Daniel, that there is one who’s bigger than all the rest. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house and flourishing in my palace. Life is just great. I saw a dream that made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. You would think that this man dreamed a lot because of the second chapter, but for some reason, God has decided to take an interest in him, gave him the one dream, which was very meaningful, and has now given him another one, which is just as meaningful. So I saw a dream, it made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. Therefore I made a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me to make known to me the interpretation of the dream. There’s nothing particularly unusual about this. I think that was probably common in the ancient world. That’s how these Chaldeans and magicians made their living. Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers, and I told them the dream. He didn’t tell them the one in the second chapter, but he did tell them this one. And they couldn’t make known the interpretation. They couldn’t tell me what the tree, what it meant. But at the last, Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. Notice the plural. And I told him the dream, O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you and no secret troubles you. Tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen and the interpretation thereof. Now at the time of the events described in this letter of his, this man is a rank pagan still. Daniel is considered by him to be a master magician. Daniel’s God outranks all the other gods, but he hasn’t gotten rid of the other gods by a long shot yet. Thus were the visions of my head in my bed. I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth. The height thereof was great. Now we are in dream, mind you. Anything can happen in a dream. The tree grew and was strong. The height thereof reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to the end of the earth. This is a tree so high it could be seen to the ends of the inhabited world. So it was there. He said, Comprehensive. Comprehensive. Now I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven. He cried aloud and said this, Cut down the tree, cut off his branches, shake his leaves, scatter his fruit, let the beasts scatter away from under it and the fowls scatter from his branches. Nevertheless, let’s leave the stump of his roots in the earth, put a band of iron and brass around it, And in the tender grass of the field, let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. But he goes further than this. Let his heart be changed from a man’s. Let a beast’s heart be given to him and let seven times pass over him. Now, this is the well-known time, what is often called the time of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity, seven years in which this man was out of his mind, completely insane. Actually, I have read somewhere that they have actually seen evidence of this in the annals of Babylon, that there was a period of time in which Nebuchadnezzar was not doing anything. This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand of the word of the holy ones to the intent. Okay, now here comes a very important consideration. to the intent that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whoever he will and sets up over it the basest of men. Now, most of us have very little difficulty in believing that. We have a very low opinion of politicians and rulers and kings and dictators and what have you. And that is believable. Now, it’s intriguing that Nebuchadnezzar uses the Chaldean word for watchers. He doesn’t use the word angel as we would use it. He calls them watchers. Of course, he uses a Chaldean word, not a Hebrew word. And it’s the only place you find this word in the Bible is in this chapter. Other translations than King James will use the term angels for them because that’s what they perceive that it means. If it were in Greek, it probably would have been written that this was an angel that came down. This dream I, Nebuchadnezzar, has seen. Now, you, Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation of it because not a single one of my wise men has been any help to me at all in interpreting it. But I know you’re able because the spirit of the holy gods is in you. Then Daniel was stunned. He sat there stunned for an hour, staring into space, considering what had happened. And the reason for this, Daniel saw immediately what it meant, and it put him in shock. The whole world was about to be turned upside down. And for Daniel, the implications of it were pretty heavy, and so all he could do is speechless, just speechless. The king spoke and said, Belteshazzar, don’t let the dream or the interpretation trouble you. And Daniel said, my lord, the dream should be to them that hate you, And the interpretation thereof to your enemies. The tree that you saw which grew and was strong and the height reached to the heaven. And the sight thereof to all the ends of the earth. Whose leaves were beautiful. The fruit was plentiful. And it was food for everyone. Under which the beasts of the field could dwell and take shelter. Upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven could make their nests and have habitation. It’s you, O king. Nebuchadnezzar, by the grace of God, had created a Pax Babylonia, a Babylonian peace that encompassed all the world that mattered. The Babylonians had conquered it. Their police were everywhere. Their soldiers were everywhere. And consequently, people were able to live in peace. Merchants could sell their wares. People could exchange their stuff. Trading caravans could go back and forth without fear because of the government of the king of Babylon. Evil can only be subdued by great power. And this is a fact of life that I think all of us are in the process of witnessing right now in Iraq. We saw it in Afghanistan. And I think anyone who’s paying attention understands that there is not going to be any immediate or short-term solution to this problem. Evil can only be subdued by great power, and that great power has to remain there or evil will rise again. It’s just as simple as that. Later, the Roman Empire would play the same role, creating what was called the Pax Romana, which made it possible for the gospel to be spread throughout all the world that mattered. If it hadn’t been for that, the travels that Peter and Paul were able to do couldn’t have happened. But it was the peace that God had allowed Rome to establish. Babylon before them had established it. Alexander had held it. Each of them had held this world empire that created a Pax Babylonia, Pax Persia, a piece of Alexander, and finally a piece of Rome that enabled the world to have some kind of cohesion during this whole long period of time. Well, whereas he says the king saw a watcher and a holy one come down from heaven saying, cut the tree down and destroy it. Leave the stump in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass around it, in the tender grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts of the field until seven times, presumably seven years, pass over him. We have a banded stump. The band to hold it together so it doesn’t erode and fall apart. This is the interpretation, O king. This is the decree from the Most High which has come upon my Lord the King. They will drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They will make you eat grass like an oxen. They shall wet you with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over you until. Isn’t this fascinating? until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whoever he will. You’ve got to understand this now. God gave the king of Babylon his kingdom. He gave Alexander his kingdom. He gave the Persians their kingdom. He gave Rome their kingdom. He did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it and how he wanted to do it. After all, he is God. He can do that. Now, Daniel avoids the basest of men term expression here because, after all, he’s talking to the man face to face. Whereas, verse 26, they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots, your kingdom shall be sure to you after you shall have known that the heavens do rule. We got this straight? You know, you’re going to have to learn this lesson. God rules. And you’re going to be out there living outdoors, no shelter, no roof over you. When it rains, you’re going to get soaking wet. When you’re looking for something to eat, there will be grass. You’ll be away from people. Now, what Daniel says next is really fascinating. And Since it is written by Nebuchadnezzar and included by Daniel in his book, we have our two witnesses to it. Listen to what Daniel now says. It may be a lengthening of your tranquility. a lengthening of your time of peace. How? Break off your sins. How do you do that? By righteousness. Break off your iniquities. How do you do that? By showing mercy to the poor. That if you repent, it may well be that your tranquility, your peace, will be prolonged. Now that’s fascinating. It’s a call to repentance. And what’s also fascinating is that the repentance is not merely a state of mind. It required acts of righteousness and active mercy to the poor. Notice that? To get out there and do something about it. These are fundamental values of the faith of God found throughout the Bible, these things are. For example, in Matthew 25. Very familiar scripture to all of us. This has to do with the return of Christ. It says when the king comes in all of his glory, he’s going to separate people from him like someone separates the sheep from the goats. And when he gets them all separated, he’ll have the sheep on his right hand. He’ll say, come you blessed of my father, Matthew 25, verse 34. Come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Because I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty. You gave me drink. I was a stranger. You took me in. Naked, you clothed me. Sick, you visited me. In prison, you came to me. You want to know what you’re going to have to have in order to enter the kingdom of God? Here’s a list. Very simple list and very straightforward. And what does it have to do? It has to do with doing good works to other people. Then the righteous will say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? We didn’t do these things. And he shall say, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it to me. So you see, what Daniel is telling Nebuchadnezzar is just good old fundamental biblical law. One of the ways you repent and show your repentance is by the way you treat other people. And it’s also in the writings of Paul. There’s an interesting little passage in Galatians, the second chapter, verse 9, where Paul is recounting how that he had to finally go down to Jerusalem and talk to the people there because of the confusion that had arisen over his ministry to the Gentiles. And in chapter 2, verse 9, he says, They would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do. Now, as I said, this is fundamental. It is in the Bible from beginning to end. The oppression of the poor, taking advantage of the poor, failing to look after the needs of the poor is one of God’s consistent condemnations upon Israel down through all their generations of time. The collapse of their justice system. The unfairness of their justice system where they took advantage of the poor and favored the rich. All these things God came down on them again and again and again. It had to do with the way they treated people. Not only person to person, but government to person as well was where the big problem came in in God’s mind. So Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar, turn this around. Repent and do good to the poor. All this, it says in verse 28, came upon Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, so there’s a year that passed in here in which the man could have done something and apparently didn’t. At the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. And the king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and by the honor of my majesty? I have done this. the man said. Now, it’s inescapable. Nebuchadnezzar is writing this thing down, remember, after it’s all over. And he realizes that his vanity and his pride had done him in. He says, I did this. I stood up there and I said all these things. And it says, while the word was in the king’s mouth, before he even got through saying this, a voice from heaven came saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken. The kingdom is departed from you They shall drive you from men. Your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like the ox. Seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whoever he wants. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men. He ate grass like an oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven because he was out there in the fields. He was not in any house anywhere. Couldn’t be trusted, I guess, to be in there. He was there until his hairs were grown like eagle’s feathers and his nails like bird’s claws. You can sort of imagine this pitiful creature wandering around the landscape, seen probably here and there by different people, who wouldn’t let anyone come near him, who never let anybody cut his hair, who ate grass, who stayed outdoors through all kinds of weather. Poor guy, he became a madman, a pitiable creature. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes unto heaven and my understanding returned. One minute he was this way, the next minute he was back. And I blessed the Most High. I praised and honored him that lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can stay his hand or say to him, what are you doing? Now this is the object lesson of the entire exercise. Nebuchadnezzar learned the lesson deeply and profoundly. And candidly, out of this whole thing, a little understanding began to grow in my mind as well of the great image of Daniel 2 and the whys and wherefores of the revelation of what this image is, what it is all about, and what it is for. that these were the great empires that maintained peace in the world during the period of time when God was doing certain things that he had to get done. And for his plan to come to pass, for men to be able to live, to learn, to do the things they needed to do, there had to be something other than chaos in the world. And the only way that chaos could be avoided was by power. Pure and simple. John Glove, writing about the Arab peoples, made a statement I’ve never forgotten. He said, the Arab peoples have never in all their history been united for any period of time except by force of arms. And I haven’t, you know, that’s very clear that’s true in history. And when you watch things, you can kind of see why that is so. And you think it’s not just the Arab peoples, it’s peoples in the world in general, left to themselves, will go completely into anarchy and chaos. Unless there is somewhere some power that God has put in position to keep that from happening. He said, at the same time, my reason returned to me, verse 36, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness returned to me and my counselors and my Lord sought to me and I was established in my kingdom and excellent majesty was added to me. And another interesting thing, this could never have happened this way if events were left to themselves. Someone would have killed this poor creature out there long before this, lest anything like this ever take place. Any man with his power had enemies. And as a result, it could never have happened if it hadn’t have been for God wanting it to happen. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven, whose works are truth, his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. You know, that really comes in like a rocket into a man’s heart and mind to realize that you can get proud of yourself. You can start patting yourself on the back. You can start being pleased with the things that you have done, but you should never forget this. Those who walk in pride, God is able to take down. And take them down, he does. Any man who has walked with God over any long period of time knows what it is like to be taken down. Because you just can’t walk that way. You can’t go that far. You cannot serve God. It’s like Paul said on one occasion. He said, you know, because of the abundance of the revelations that were given to me. And this man had them. He had revelations from God. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure because of these revelations. And the temptation when you’re used by God is to become exalted. But he has his ways of seeing to it that doesn’t happen. To take you down. So you want to be careful about that. And the words of Paul, which I started out with echo all the way through this episode, I will remind you of them. He says, because when they knew God. They didn’t glorify him as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Now, what is the antidote to the poison? Because there is a poison in all of this. Well, the antidote is glorify God and be thankful. That’s what Paul said. He said very clearly they were not thankful. They didn’t glorify him as God. And therefore, you know, this happens. These two things existed. Therefore, out of these two things follow their foolish heart was darkened. And this terrible litany of what happened to these people as a result of this is contained in the first chapter of Romans. So the antidote for you and for me, glorify God and be thankful. And remember what Nebuchadnezzar said, those who walk in pride, he is able to abase. Those who are not thankful, he is able to abase. It’s something to keep in mind on Thanksgiving Day this year. I’m thankful. beyond words for the fact that we’ve had national leaders in this country who were thankful to God for this great land of ours. They were men who never would have imagined for a moment that they alone had done what has been done with this country. You can’t imagine George Washington walking around Washington boasting himself in the words that Nebuchadnezzar did, look what I have done. He’s just not that kind of a man. God did not bring that kind of a man to that place. And so it was with Thomas Jefferson and all these men. They were cocky. They were men of some ego. But they always recognized divine providence. And they believed, for the most part. There were exceptions, I have no doubt. But you could almost say the body of men who led this country in its earliest years accepted the fact and believed in the fact that we were who we were, doing what we were by divine providence. We could have been led by arrogant, prideful men who did not give God the glory and whose foolish hearts in turn were darkened. But with all of their foolishness, with all of their mistakes, they still gave God the glory. And somebody, I forget now exactly, there’s some dispute exactly how it got started, gave us Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday. And I am amazed to this moment that we still have it. Would you care to imagine what our country might look like if it were otherwise? If we had been led by prideful, boastful men? Well, take a look at Afghanistan before we got there, if you want to know what we might look at. Take a look at Iraq before we got there with the murders, the gassing of his own people, rape rooms, mass graves. Just take a look and see what happened. Look at what they have done in these places to women and to children. They have destroyed the lives of women entirely. They are there for breeding purposes, I suppose, and not much else. And their children are educated in nothing, nothing, nothing except the Koran. and hatred for Israel, and hatred now for America. I don’t know if any of you saw the spectacle that surrounded the funeral of Yasser Arafat. It was, I didn’t actually see it, I’ve only saw film clips of it, but I gather it was astonishing, unbelievable to anyone in this country that it could happen. There’s something I thought very appropriate about the bulldozers having to clear away rubble to find a place to bury this man, this evil man. And words can’t describe the bedlam, apparently, that surrounded his coffin when they were trying to get him from the helicopter to the place where they’re going to put his crusty old body in the grave facing Mecca. It called to mind the funeral of Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran when the mob took over his coffin and were carrying it all around the place and finally dumped his body out by accident on the ground and had to put it back in the coffin again. Now, these people, their leader was everything, and their dignity is gone. Their discipline has departed from them. Now, if you want to contrast this with the state funeral of Ronald Reagan, and you will see examples of two very different kinds of people. And somebody ought to ask the question of why it is so. What has led to this situation? Why are we like we are? Why are they like they are? Reagan was honored greatly at his death. But even he was a reminder of the frailty of men with the disease that afflicted him in his later years. All of us have got to realize we are mortal, we are here for a time, and then we’re gone. And we are God’s servants. We serve him to the best of our abilities over what period of time that he has given us. We do our best, but we must never think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. I think Reagan was a man who, though apparently not greatly religious, honored the God of the Bible. I think he knew that he was not the great one. So he was buried with dignity and respect. Arafat was buried in a frenzy of chaos and confusion and the adoration of a mob who didn’t even know how to handle his body with respect. I didn’t say with the respect he deserved because I don’t think he deserved any. There were some prophecies about these people in the Bible. In Genesis 16, I think it’s pretty widely known that the Arabs consider themselves to be the descendant of Abraham’s other son, Ishmael. Abraham is their father. And certain prophecies were made in the Old Testament about Ishmael, what he would be, what he would be like, and what he would do. In Genesis 16, verse 7, the angel of the Lord found Hagar, Ishmael’s mother, near a spring in the desert. It was the spring that is beside the road to shore. He said, Hagar, servant of Sarah, where are you come from? Where are you going? I’m running away from my mistress, Sarah, she answered. The angel of the Lord told her, go back to your mistress and submit to her. I will increase your descendants so they will be too numerous to count. The angel of the Lord also said to her, you are now with child and you will have a son and you shall call him Ishmael because the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild ass of a man. His hand will be against everyone, everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers. It’s here. It’s written here. You want to see what it looks like? Get a film clip of these funerals in that part of the world and you get a glimpse of it. Look at what’s happening now in Iraq. They don’t even know how to fight this. There is no weapons discipline. All of it is every man for himself. They grab some kind of a weapon, any kind of a weapon, and go out and see what kind of damage they can do with it. Wild ass of a man, so it has been. Islam is a religion of the Arab people, by the way, and they carry it with them. Islam carries it, that same spirit, wherever it goes. Late in human history, there will be a day when the vials of God’s wrath are poured out upon this earth And the sixth of those vials is described in Revelation chapter 16, verse 12. The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east should be prepared. And our boys right now are fighting right by the great river Euphrates. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth to the kings of the earth and the whole of the world to gather them together to battle of that great day of God Almighty. So the demonic element in this cannot be dismissed, cannot be ignored. It is always there. It’s always present. And there are times when we ought to feel like people who are walking across the crust above flowing lava, hoping that it won’t break through and plunge us into the hell that’s beneath. Jesus said, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Now the striking thing about this is that it is unclean spirits that gather the kings of the earth together for battle in the great day of God Almighty. I don’t like to dwell on this, but there is something decidedly wrong and evil in this world that you and I have to live out our lives in. There is a spirit of irrational hatred that infects and kills like the Black Death killed across Europe and across England in the Middle Ages. What is the shield against this evil disease? Blessed is he that watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. How do we do this? Well, here’s Paul again. Because when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, neither were they thankful. They became vain in their imagination, and their foolish heart was darkened. So I would say we need to take up the shield of thanksgiving and give glory to God.