Don't let pride drive you crazy
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Pride and Humility
Pride and Humility
(Polar Opposites)
When you think of things that are polar opposites what do you think of? There are things that are and in our lesson today we are going to look at the effects of polar opposites on the life of Nebuchadnezzar.
Pride and humility are polar opposites .
Pride can make you forget; humility remembers so not to repeat
Pride forgets wisdom; humility dwells in wisdom
Pride is self-reliant; humility is God reliant
Pride can drive you crazy; humility can bring you peace and bring a proclamation (as you will see today.
Only a two-point lesson this morning.
Pride brought judgment (Dan4:28-33)
God brought restoration (Dan4:34-37)
Pride brought judgment
Pride brought judgment
Nebuchadnezzar has another dream and it made him afraid (Dan4:4-5). He shared the dream with expectation of interpretation (Dan4:10-18). Dream was interpreted (Dan4:19-27) and that leads us to our first section today, the dream fulfilled (Dan4:28-33)
28 “All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. 29 “Twelve months later he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon.
30 “The king reflected and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’ 31 “While the word was in the king’s mouth, a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is declared: sovereignty has been removed from you,
32 and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.’
33 “Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.
So the dream has been told and the interpretation has been made known and even a begging for repentance so it does not have to be
27 ‘Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.’
Time has passed and memory seems to have faded (v.28-30)
Nebuchadnezzar may have forgotten the dream, but God had not, a time for repentance had been granted but not taken so it was now time for judgment
Commentator Jim McGuiggan says
“Time destroys memory and sense of urgency!Time strips away the veneer and reveals the character”
Time is limited to respond to the gospel, for “today is the day of salvation.” (expand a little more)
The veneer is something that covers over something, covers the sin, the image what we want people to see vs. time that will reveal the true character.
Pride takes undue credit (v.30; Dan2:46-47, 3:29, 4:2-3)
Nebuchadnezzar takes credit for what God had done he claims might, the power, the honor and the majesty, things that only belong to God
He forgot that God handed the kingdom over to him (Dan1:1-2)
Now Babylon was a great city, it was a preeminent city of history, in fact Alexander the Great was even going to make it the home of his kingdom prior to his death.
Nebuchadnezzer because of pride forgot the proclamation he made before (Dan2:46-47; 3:29 or even 4:2-3)
Truly your God is the God of God’s the Lord of kings
There is no other God who can deliver
or even most recently
2 “It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. 3 “How great are His signs And how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom And His dominion is from generation to generation.
Don’t let pride, or time make you forgetful (Gen6:3; 2Pt3:9; Ecc8:11)
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
With the days of Noah it was 120 years, how about with God He waited 40 years after Christ before destroying Jerusalem and the temple. And as for now, God is waiting, God is not slack
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Or just one more to consider
11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.
the sentence, the judgment regardless of time was coming on Nebuchadnezzar and will be delved out on the world one day.
With Nebuchadnezzer he went from
From being prideful to being humiliated
From being able to reason, to loosing his mind and senses
From living with man to living as a beast
From bragging to munching and we may need to remember too
Pride comes before the fall, so watch out (Pro16:18)
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.
Driven out for 7 periods of time (v.32)
7 days, 7 years?
7 number of completion (until the lesson is learned)
32 and you will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle, and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes.’
Look at the last part, until you recognize that . . .
But until then there is (v.33)
33 “Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.
Judgment was on him!
(Transition) there is another part of the dream (Dan3:26) the stump, roots of the tree that was banded for protection and are there to promise a restoration.
God Brought restoration
God Brought restoration
God is all about restoration, to restore is verb bring back (a previous right, practice, custom, or situation); reinstate. God wants to restore man, and God promised restoration to Nebuchadnezzar.
34 “But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
35 “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’
36 “At that time my reason returned to me. And my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom, and my counselors and my nobles began seeking me out; so I was reestablished in my sovereignty, and surpassing greatness was added to me.
37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”
Let’s look at some items to pull from the scripture then will get into looking more at it.
What did Nebuchadnezzer do at the end (v.34)? - lifted his eyes.
When we are at the end of the line, when we are at the end of the road, what did we do? We lifted our eyes
What did he realize, or was reminded of about God (v.35) - that He does according to His will!
Man can plan a plan but God is still in control and will do according to His will.
Look at (v.36) you can see the restoration of Nebuchadnezzar
what was restored?
Glory of the kingdom
His honor as well as his splendor
His wise men and nobles returned
and then look at (v.36) at the end, what was added?
excellent majesty, why? - because it was not his it was God’s, and how do we know that? look at (v.37) He gives praise and extol and honor to God
(transition) God brought restoration to Nebuchadnezzar
Restoration for Nebuchadnezzar was comparable to what we see on the Prodigal son when he came to his senses (Lk15:17)
17 “But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!
Restoration happened when he looked to heaven (Dan4:34; Rom10:9-12; Act22:16)
Restoration for man always comes when we look to, call up the name of the Lord.
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
you cannot call on someone you don’t know that you don’t believe in, so calling has to come with belief
16 ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’
Calling comes with obedience to allowing God to do His work, it is surrendering to Him, it is not our work, but His work that restores us.
Restoration comes when humility and knowledge (Isa40:26; Ps121:1-2)
Lifting your eyes was stated and displayed in Isaiah
26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.
and that came from a place of knowledge
1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Restoration brought exaltation (Dan4:34-35)
maybe better give those verses again and look at the exaltation
34 “But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation.
Exaltation because he knows he is blessed, meaning he knows God gives blessings
Exaltation gave praise and honor to the eternal Most High God.
Exaltation was for all people, all times in all generations because God’s kingdom would endure forever
Our passage shows theology (study of God) and doxology (pattern of praise) mixed together. You can find something similar in Rom11:33-36, may we stop and consider that for a moment.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
35 Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
IN this you have the acknowledgement of God (the theology)
Then the doxology; the exaltation, patter of praise, giving all the glory to Him because of the theology received, believed and applied.
Restoration came from humility that replaced pride
Restoration can happen when we realize we cannot save ourselves and we need to be saved (Isa59:2; Rom6:23; Rom3:23; Mt5:3)
When we know that our iniquities separate us from God
And we all fall short of the glory of God for we all sin and the wages of sin is death
When we realize we are broken hearted then restoration can happen and we can be blessed, restored, redeemed, justified!
This is the God that will not share his glory with anyone and Nebuchadnezzar was glorifying himself and God humbled him. This God is the God who wants us to walk in step with Him. This is the God who wants us to have a relationship with Him through the Son, maybe this passage is just a reminder to be humble or be humbled by God, but look how it ends and see what we can learn, apply from it.
37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.”
We should praise, exalt and honor the King of Heaven
Why? Be cause we know His works and ways are true
Don’t let pride drive you crazy, come humbly, boldly before the throne knowing He is there to help you in your time of need (Heb4:16).
16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(mercy grace picture inserted here)
Prayer and close (end recording)