Sermon – “He Who Reveals Secrets”

I want to share stories that a pastor shared

that his church every spring would have a traditional grad Sunday where they would honor the high school seniors or the college graduates

in this one particular year a young senior high girl by the name of Edith Jackson. Shared her thoughts with the congregation and one of the listeners that day was a man named Howie Stevenson who at the time was a music professor at Westmont College and their church is part time minister of music eat a speech was short and to the point bus use one phrase that changed the course of how his life she said when your memories exceed your dreams life is over for you the pastor remember talking with Howie at the end of the service and he says John he says after Edith spoke he says I didn’t hear another word

he said You see at the time how he had fulfilled all of his life goals he had raised his family received his doctorate of music from U.S.C. had gone as far as he could go in teaching at the college however although these goals had been achieved he felt bored stagnant and empty Do you ever feel that way it was shortly thereafter that how responded to a call from Pastor Chuck Swindoll to become the music minister at Fullerton California or in Fulton California and that’s how he says these have been the finest most creative and fulfilling years of my life

my friends do we have dreams do we dreams of do we still have dreams of goals that we would like to set for God’s glory we ought to have amazing dreams of what God can do through us individually and through us as a church. We ought to have amazing dreams continually of what God can do to bring glory to him not to ourselves but to him you know over the years thinking of dreams and. There’s been so many times over the years when I’ve been working on a project whether it be carpentry wise a mechanical wise or whatever that I would be struggling trying to figure out how to do this how can I figure these angles out on this thing that I’m building or this problem and I have mechanically and I thought I was going to sleep on it so I would sleep on it Karen Sager heads he said happened many times I have to sleep on it and I don’t know if I had a dream or just thinking about it through the night but I’d wake in the morning I’m like I got it I got it thank you Lord but figured it out and God would give me the revelation that how to fix this problem that I find myself in or how to work it out so Speaking of dreams we’re going to be talking about dreams today have a challenge for you

I had a dream last night

I want you to tell me what it was

Isabel I had a dream last night tell me what my dream was you don’t know we me don’t know how to dream would you please tell me what it was Karen.

And I wouldn’t.

That’s crazy right is not a crazy request to tell me what I dream it’s a crazy thing but in today’s scripture it’s a long one but that is exactly what King nephew Knesset or ask his wise men magicians astrologers sorcerers and Chaldeans he asked them all he had a dream a dream that troubled him it is sleep or lifting he was so troubled by this dream if you’ve ever read Daniel you know it he had this dream of this huge massive image an image was made up of 5 different types of material gold in silver and bronze in iron and iron and clay and it was a survey huge image but then there was a stone cut out without hands there was cast down to destroy the Emmys so he had to know what this is meant what that does dream means and he knew that if he called in the wise men and the astrologers and said Here’s my dream now tell me what it means that they would just come up with something they would they would pull something out of Scott to tell him so he knew that they had to they drive so he knew that if there was anyone to tell him what the dream was an interpretation that it had to be true great plan

but none could do it then you however was not there that day I don’t know they only called the Babylonians a job the ins and not the foreigners but they could not do it they could not reveal his dreams so he made a decree that all the wise men astrologers magicians that have all be killed every last one of them and that’s where our story picks up today Daniel Chapter 2 begin with verse 24. Therefore Daniel went to Erakat whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon he went and said thus to him Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon take me before the King and I will tell the king the interpretation than R.R. quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him I have found a man of the captors of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation the King answered and said to Daniel whose name was Bell says are are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said the secret which the king has demanded the wise men the astrologers to magicians the Seuss sayers cannot declare to the King this is vital my friends Daniel says but there is a God in heaven who reveal secrets

he didn’t say yes I can but he said there is a God in heaven who can reveal the secrets and he has made known to King that because what will be in the latter days your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed were these as for you Okin thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this and he who reveal secrets has made known to you what will be but as for me the secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than any one living but for our sakes who make known the interpretation to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart you a king real watching and behold a great image this great image you Splendor was excellent stood before you in its form was awsome. This image’s head was a fine gold it’s just an arms of silver its belly and thought of bronze its legs of are its feet partly of iron and partly of clay you watched while a stone was cut out without hands which struck the enemy joints feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces then the iron the clay the bronze of silver and the gold were crushed together and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floor ground of the pieces where they would just what does the chaff do blows away it is gone that’s what happened to the image

the wind carried them away that no trace of them was found and a stone struck the image the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth this is a dream now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king you Oking are a King of Kings now want to pause there he is not the king of kings but he is a great king among the kings of the earth he was a great king of his empire was tremendous the the Babylonian Empire was huge the cities that he built were for that were just fabulous the river flowed through it the gardens It was such a magnificent city plus his kingdom expanded to many parts of the world he says for the God of Heaven has given you a kingdom power strength and glory and where ever the Children of Men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them

you are this head of gold but after you he didn’t like that after you did. But after you that’s done you know his kingdom is coming to and then after you shall rise another kingdom inferior to yours then another a 3rd kingdom of bronze which shall rule over all the earth and then the 4th kingdom shall be as strong as arm in as much as our in breaks in pieces and shatters everything and like ours that crosses that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others were as you saw the feet and the toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron the kingdom shall be divided yet the strength of the iron shall be in it just as you saw they are in mix with ceramic clay and as the toes of the feet were partly of Arna partly of clay so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw they are mixed with ceramic clay they will mangle with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay and in these days these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which was SHALL NEVER which shall never be destroyed Amen and how a 1000000 God’s Kingdom as a song said will never be destroyed and the kingdom Selby shall not be left to other people and it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms in itself stand forever and as much as you saw the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broken pieces they are in the bronze of clay the silver in the gold the great God as may know to the known to the king what will come to pass after this the dream is certain and its interpretation is sure thinking that we can as a felonies 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 have revealed the secret then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many get many great gifts and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise man of Babylon and also Dana petition to King and he said sad drag me shakin Abednego over the affairs of the problems of Babylon but Daniel sat in the gate of the king may God had His blessings to the hearing and reading of His Holy Word Daniel was when it says set in the gate he was part of the king staff he was over the whole province of Babylon I know that’s a long reading but we have to get to it

so how how did the children of Israel. Many of them not all some were left in the land of Drucilla him and Israel but many were carried off captive how do they want up there again what happened

what happened well when I ask a question if you have a teenage child

let’s say they are 16 and are driving 1617 they’re driving mom and dad

I’m going to can I go out Friday night have a date OK you need to be home by 11 o’clock the child doesn’t come home don’t like me I get child doesn’t come home til midnight and you say Oh did you have a good time and just patted on the back and all’s well you say nothing about their one hour tardiness couple weeks later Mom and Dad can have the keys again another day be home by 11 a car with this time they don’t get home the 1 o’clock oh I’m glad you had a great time well this is going to keep getting worse and worse and worse this is not if you do not discipline that child but if they come home at 12 o’clockne said you’re an air late you are going nowhere for the next month you’re not grabbing the next time they want to go out on a date they’re going to make sure they’re home by 11 o’clock right because you have discipline them them well that is what happened once again to the children of Israel God was discipline then this appalling them I can’t talk this morning because once again they began to warship the audibles the false idols the false gods like the neighbors around them and if God didn’t do something to bring them back they’d never it would just get worse and worse and worse like that child that keeps coming home later and later and later he listen in Isabel. You’re here because you’re opposed to driving on your own you go this near Mom and Dad’s going to discipline you so you don’t get out of hand that’s what they have that God had to do with the children of Israel he had to discipline them. Because they would have kept getting worse and worse and farther and farther away from him

in disobedience and unfaithfulness

that is how the nation or many of the people wound up captives in Babylon

but God it’s amazing how he will use even a heathen King

to bring this discipline upon his people

it just shows his sovereignty over all nations that He rules all the world and all nations and we should find comfort in that Soames 222-7228 says all the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nations shall worship before you for the king is the the kingdom is a Lord’s and he rules over the nations my friends not just nation he rules over all the nations God is in control

sometimes we shake your head in wonder but my friends God is in control of the nations

you remember another time that God gave a dream to a heathen CAIN Well Pharaoh remember God gave Pharaoh a dream about the 7 plump and strong and healthy looking calves and 7 other weak sickly looking cows came up out of the river and swallowed up the healthy cows but they were no stronger looking they were still just as weakens scrawny and terrible looking as before and 7 plonk been healthy grains of head grains of wheat and then 7 sickly dried up grains of wheat came and ate the strong ones and again they were still

sickly looking right.

Who revealed that dream Well God did through Joseph through Joseph

Joseph is the best one that God used to reveal to Pharaoh that there were going to be 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of drought and famine God used heathen Pharaoh

to reveal his dream to

but you know there’s no better example of God’s ultimate control in all of history than this passage that I just read from Daniel that God reveals to never can as Or that his kingdom will not last forever he lists the 5 different materials that will show them who will follow never can as Or of course we know the head of gold represents can have now became as hers and the Babylonian Empire thought to be the greatest and most powerful kingdom of the ancient times Babylon ruled from 636 B.C. to 539 B C Jeremiah in Jeremiah 517 called Babylon a gold cup in the Lord’s hand

that head of gold a go cup in the words hand the breast and the arms a silver represent the Mido Persian Kingdom under the rule of their eous the Meade who conquered Babylon even though they were inferior they were able to conquer Babylon the belly and the bronze were the Grecian kingdom in which Alexander the Great was the leader of he established what was probably the largest empire in ancient times not the greatest I say but the largest covering more territory than any others he was without a doubt the best military commander of all times

his brutal tactics earned him the reputation of being very fierce.

It times he would go in and conquer an entire city without having to kill a single person that’s how fierce his reputation was so whenever they heard that Alexander was common they just got out their white flags and started waving the white flags right there ain’t no sense going against him because we know we’re going to be defeated we’re going to be squashed right they surrendered he didn’t have to raise a sword against them

the legs of iron and feet of iron and clay represent the Roman Empire I represent strength but Clay represents weakness the Roman Empire was strong concerning the law when organization and military might but the Roman Empire also included many different people groups and neck created a weakness because they had a mixture of people

on notice Frankie shirt the same morning said America united we stay in

my friends what a word for any nation but today for our nation because divided we will fall but you 9 to friends we will stand

that’s what happened to the Roman Empire they were divided different peoples different ideas that was their weakness

Daniel said in verse $43.00 as you sow are in mix with clay they will Mengal with the seed of men but they will not adhere to one another just as iron does not mix with clay

that’s what led to their downfall What a lesson for us today

this image and interpretation also my friends has a future fulfillment

and that is the destruction of the image the destruction of the great world powers. Yes many of them have already fallen but it’s also a future prophecy that the kingdoms of this world will fall Psalms $11822.00 says a stone which the builder rejected has become the Chief Cornerstone Matthew 2143 and 44 says Therefore I say to you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it and whoever falls on this stone will be broken and who whom ever it falls it will grind him to powder my friends there’s the future fulfillment of it will grind into powder be like chaff and be blown away the kingdoms of this world I don’t care how great they are that stone is going to crush them and they will be blown away in Revelation 1911 through 16 now I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no one no one except no one knew except himself he was close with a robe dipped with blood in his name is called Word of God and the armies in heaven closed in white linen final and white and clean followed him on white horses now out of his mouth go this sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations and he himself.

My friends he himself will rule them with a rod of iron he himself treads the wine press of the fiercest fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and he has on his robe and on his style I a name written KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS that is who Jesus Christ is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords His kingdom will never be destroyed I don’t care how great the world’s armies are how powerful the nations are they can all join together in one it will not stand against the King of King and The Lord of Lords because he will crush them and they will blow away like the chaff the church we must understand this that we are here is yes we live in this earth were to obey the law all set forth by our government

and he says that we are to obey them but we must understand that we are His people we are His children we are the flock of this pastor if you will that he is our king that he is our all timid authority

and we should be comforted by this with the promise that hell shall not prevail against the church

you receive that today my friends hell will not prevail against the Church Jesus was speaking to Peter he says that he is a rock that the church will be will be built upon and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it so no matter the chaos all around remember that we are His We are children of the righteous king who will rule all the earth

on the other important point in our passages prayer when Daniel found out the reason for the king’s decree to put all the magicians astrologers and Chaldeans to death because of their inability to tell the king is during.

He went to the captain of the guards and said please give me time give us time to pray he did not pray alone in verses 17 and 18 that I didn’t read says Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hannah not a shell and as a write his companions that they might seek the mercies from God concerning the secret so that Daniel and his companions may not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon my friends do not the goal act to ask others to join you in prayer don’t think you have to do it on your own but ask others reach out to others pray with me be united in prayer in Acts $114.00 these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication were talking about the church the new Christian Church they joined together in one accord in prayer and supplication with the women in Mary the Mother of Jesus and with his brothers

Matthew 181819 says again I say to you that if 2 of you agree I’m talking about unity on earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by my Father in heaven for where 2 are 2 or 3 are gathered there my name I am there in the midst of them awesome we must be united

and when the answer came to Daniel when Aaron say King I’ve got it I figured it out no he gave credit where credit was due

he said to the king there is a God in heaven to reveal secrets and he has made known to King to begin as or what will happen in the latter days he gave God the glory a my friends anything that we do we should be given God the glory. Because he is the giver of all wisdom knowledge and understanding and strength and power and a man

have you ever taken credit for something you didn’t do now don’t you know how to raise your hand if you’ve ever taken all the credit for something you only had a hand in

I can think in back as I was thinking about this to my rear early days on the railroad we painted the locomotives did a complete paint job we would change them over from being over western Maryland to that then new justice system paint scheme which is old now but so back then of course you know computers were.

Not there they weren’t in the picture so everything was.

Recorded on paper so we never do this whole process which would take 2 and a half to 3 days from start to finish to completely paint an engine and you had we had painters on 247 so there’s our paperwork everyone signed off what they do so we found out that there was a painter own daylight an older gentleman that if the engine was completed on his shift that he’d go through and erase out other guys’ names and put his name in their own jobs that he didn’t actually did so but we just laugh about it because it’s like you know I like the old fella the old part anyway but you know he was taking credit for things he couldn’t do he did have a bad hip and it was a lot of things he couldn’t do but he was he was a he was a neat guy cool guy but you know he wants take credit for some you didn’t do he did.

But I liked him anyway but then you and his friends they were faithful to God faithful to give him the credit to give him the glory this do his name right.

Because of their faithfulness. Because of the faithfulness remember the 1st chapter in Daniel to keep the law as a god to not defile themselves to not worship idols because of their faithfulness they experience favor in a foreign land under a heathen King they experience the faithfulness of God My friends we can experience God’s faithfulness no matter the situation in our lives

do you imagine a king felonious face before Daniel

King Nebuchadnezzar one his face and he says truly your god is a God of gods in the lord of kings and the revealer of secrets but we must point something now I must point something now I must point out the King’s fault his fault was that he said with his mouth that your god is the God of God and the King of Kings but it was only in his mind that he knew this and only because Daniel revealed the dream interpretation he did not say it from his heart which is the word say of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks he did not say it from his heart though he did not say he said your god has revealed it he was not able to say My God my friends that’s what we must do we must be able to say from our heart ma god is the King of Kings ma god is a load of Lords friends ma god is a reveal or a secrets my God rules the nations My God will crush the empires of the world we must make it personal my God Not your god or his God but each and every one of us must make it personal Our God is the revealer of secrets.

Whether we are peace or whether we are struggling whether we are free whether we are slaves whether we’re young whether we’re old whether we’re rich whether we’re poor we can still say ma god my god is god Katherine Marshall told a story that there was once a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace many artist tried the king looked at all of the pictures but there were only 2 that he really liked

he had to choose between the 2 of them one picture was of a calm lake the lake was a perfect mirror of peace of it for a peaceful towering mountain that was behind it

overhead was a blue sky with white fluffy clouds all who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace we’ve experienced that we’ve seen a beautiful lakes with the trees and that wow how peaceful right but the other picture it had mountains also but these were rugged and bare mountains above was an angry sky

from which rain fell and lightning played a crossed down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall This did not look peaceful at all but when the king looked very closely he saw all behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack of the Rock and in that bush a mother bird had built a nest and there was she and her little birds and there they set in perfect peace which picture you think won the prize.

He chose a 2nd and do you know why because explain the king piece does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise trouble or hardwork peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart

that is the real meaning of peace friends that’s a perfect picture of society that we live in today right

all that is going on that we can have the peace that passes all understanding can we not because of our God Philippians 46 and 7 says Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God in the God of Peace which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus

the king found the answer to his dream that troubled him but he did not find the peace because he did not allow the God of peace to enter Reece hard

there are so many out there today in the world that are troubled I mean look at the newspaper look at the drug epidemic their trouble because they won’t allow the God of peace to enter into their hearts to fill that void in their hearts my friends the God that reveal secrets the God that is all knowing wants to live and dwell in the hearts of all men we have the good news we must share the good news we must introduce people to the God of peace that they too can find the peace that we have in our hearts may we give him the glory every day man.