Verse 1 tells us he dreamed these dreams "...in the second year..." of his reign. Someone may be saying, "SO WHAT?" We all have had dreams! Yes, but you had better pray to God that you never have a dream like Nebuchadnezzar had.
Of course we know that during Nebuchadnezzar's day there were no Bibles as we have Bibles today. At that time God often spoke to people. He used two methods.
(1) GOD SPOKE TO THEM THROUGH THE PROPHETS. Prophets would fearlessly stand before the people and personally point their sins out to them. For example,
Illus: Nathan stood before king David when he had committed MURDER and ADULTERY and told him, "Thou art the man!"
(2) GOD ALSO SPOKE TO THEM THROUGH DREAMS. We are told that every night we have dreams. Our dreams generally fall into one of three categories.
-SOME OF OUR DREAMS ARE FUNNY. When we awake from our sleep we tell others about what we dreamed and they laugh along with us.
-SOME OF OUR DREAMS ARE SCARY. We wake up and are glad we were just dreaming.
-SOME OF OUR DREAMS ARE RIDICULOUS. That is, they are so "far out" that we are embarrassed to tell anyone what we dreamed.
Often dreams we have come as the result of some event that greatly disturbs us, or from eating too much before we went to bed. The dreams that king Nebuchadnezzar had would not fall into any of these categories.
The dreams that Nebuchadnezzar had came from God. He had no doubt but what some serious message was in the dreams. Verse 1 tells us that after the dreams, "...his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him." Nebuchadnezzar wanted to find out what the dreams meant. This was going to be hard because not only did he not know what the dreams meant, but he could not even remember what he had dreamed.
In verse 2 we see that he called, "...the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans..." He thought they could tell him what his dream was and explain what it meant. Of course the first thing they wanted to know was what he dreamed about. He told them he could not tell them, they were going to have to tell him. They told him they would be glad to, but they were not able to do this. Verse 12 tells us that the king became very angry. He was so angry he commanded that all those men be put to death. Among the wise men was a man by the name of Daniel. Before the order could be carried out to have all the wise men killed, Daniel pleaded with Arioch to give him time to seek his God and ask Him what the dreams and the interpretation was.
Arioch allowed him time and Daniel sought his God. God then revealed to Daniel what had been dreamed, and the interpretation of the dreams. Then Daniel was brought before the king who had been deeply troubled by his dreams. In verse 26 he said, "...Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof."
Listen to the answer Daniel gave the king. Daniel was careful to let the king know that:
-He did not claim to know all things.
-That the astrologers, magicians and soothsayers did not know all things, then verse 28, "But THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN THAT REVEALETH SECRETS, AND MAKETH KNOWN to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days..."
In other words, there is a God in heaven Who KNOWS ALL THINGS. Daniel sought the Omniscient God and God revealed to him the dream and what it meant.
Daniel went on to reveal that God showed Him empires that would come into existence thousands of years in the future, and that those same empires would disappear years after that. Everything that God told Daniel would happen has happened just like God told him it would.
DO YOU KNOW WHY? Because the God of the Bible is OMNISCIENT - that simply means that God knows everything.
Illus: Mortal man is like a man standing by a river. He can only see that part of the river that passes by him; but he who is aloof in the air may see the whole course of the river - how it rises and how it runs. That is the way it is with God.
God knows everything, past, present and future. The omniscient God is not like man who has limited knowledge. For example:
Illus: We have METEOROLOGISTS who look every day at weather conditions and based on those conditions and what happened when they were like that in the past, they make their weather forecasts. Most of the times, based on those conditions, they are right.
Illus: We have INVESTORS who study the trends of the stock market and based on those trends in the past, they make their investments.
Listen, God does not operate that way. He does not have to STUDY CONDITIONS and TRENDS. He KNOWS what is going to happen tomorrow and He knows what will happen a thousand years from now.
God is omniscient, which simply means that God knows everything.
Let us look at how His omniscience affects us so that we might come to know this omniscient God in a greater way. Did you know that...
I. GOD KNOWS OUR SEVERE TRIALS?
We have Christians running around today saying, "I have a problem and I do not know what to do." They go to counselors, friends, and even write "Dear Abby." But, they find no answer to their problem(s).
The fact that they run to all these is probably the problem! They are like king Nebuchadnezzar. They keep turning to the wrong people for the answers. Nebuchadnezzar turned to the soothsayers, and magicians of that day, but they could not help him any more than they could help people today.
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, "BUT THERE IS A GOD IN HEAVEN THAT REVEALETH SECRETS." He is the One you should be turning to. He is that kind of God.
Illus: In the Old Testament, a dear old saint by the name of Job, suffered affliction like few have ever suffered. There was a time in his life when everything he did seemed to prosper. At that time his fair-weather friends were beside him all the way. But when bad times came, they began to claim the reason he was suffering was because he was not right with God. The Bible says that Job was a perfect and upright man and that he did not suffer because he was not right with God. Job was quick to respond, in Job 11:7-8, "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" In other words, do you, so-called friends, claim to be gods? That is, do you know as much as God knows!
One of the most over-emphasized things in the pulpits of America today is counseling. You ask, "Preacher, don't you believe in counseling?" Yes, of course I do. A minister could not be a minister of God's Word if he did not believe in counseling.
-Proverb 11:14 states, "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."
-Proverb 12:15 says, "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise."
If you think you heard me say that I am against counseling, you are wrong! What I said was that I am against the OVER EMPHASIS we are placing on counseling.
Illus: Listen, there are things that you and I face and no man knows why these things happen, or what to do about them, but THERE IS A GOD in heaven, Who has ALL the answers.
If you want to know WHY something has happened to you and HOW to get out of the mess you are in, get on your knees and spend some time before the omniscient God of the Bible! He will reveal WHY THINGS HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU and WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.
For example, He might show you that He has allowed a certain trial to come your way:
-So that your lost friends and neighbors can see your devotion toward Him in the good times and in the bad times.
-Because God wants you to "exercise your spiritual muscles" so you can grow spiritually.
-Because there is sin in your life and He is withholding His blessings until you are willing to get those sins out of your life.
God has never meant counseling to take the place of seeking Him, the omniscient God of heaven. Some folks have a hard time understanding that.
Regardless of why you are going through the trials you are going through, THE OMNISCIENT GOD OF THE BIBLE KNOWS ALL ABOUT YOUR AFFLICTIONS.
You may be looking at someone today who is wearing a smile, but that smile is only a camouflage that hides the sorrow in his heart.
That person may be here, today, thinking, "I am all alone, no one knows what I am going through." But, sad heart, you are absolutely wrong! The omniscient God of heaven knows exactly what you are going through.
Illus: When Israel was going through all kinds of afflictions at the hands of the Egyptians, God told them, Exodus 3:7, "...I have surely seen the affliction...and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows."
We can all be thankful that the God of the Bible is OMNISCIENT. If He were not, He would not be able to HELP US in our time of need, and He could not REWARD US for our faithfulness.
One thing for sure, there is not a trial that comes our way that God does not know WHY IT HAS COME, AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT IT.
God is an omniscient God! HE KNOWS OUR EVERY SEVERE TRIAL. Also...
II. GOD KNOWS OUR SECRET THOUGHTS.
Ezekiel 11:5, "And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said...for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them."
Illus: Arthur W. Pink says, "Though He be invisible to us, we are not so to Him."
In Psalm 139:2-3, we read, "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways."
Notice, the Psalmist said, "Thou knowest..." God knows what? He was saying that there was NOT ONE THING God did not know about him.
-In verse 2, we read, "Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising..." Our "downsitting" speaks of the end of day when we are ready to go to bed again, and the word "uprising" here, speaks of the time we get up in the morning.
The Psalmist was saying that whatever we do from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed at night, the omniscient God of heaven knows all we have done.
-In verse 2 again, we read, "...thou understandest my thought afar off."
Illus: Sometimes when people have been married a long time, they can tell what each other are thinking before they let it be known. God knows us so well that He knows what our thoughts will be years from now.
God said in Deut. 31:21, "...I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware."
-In verse 3 of Psalm 139, we read, "Thou compassest my path and my lying down..." This speaks of man as he is lying down. A lot of bad things have been thought of in the minds of men as they lay down on their beds at night. Notice, the psalmist said it was like a group of Indians on a warpath, circling a covered wagon. God circles our lying down and there is not a thing that crosses the path of our minds that God does not know about.
-In verse 3, we read again, "...and art acquainted with all my ways." These words speak of the omniscient God!
Illus: We can have every psychologist in town pulling his hair out, trying to find out what makes us "tick" and not one ever will, but the omniscient God of the Bible is "acquainted" with all our ways.
We live our lives every day knowing that we have certain things CONCEALED from others. We know that if some folks knew certain bits of information about us they would take that information and destroy us. So, we are constantly having to conceal things from others. But, we do not have to hide anything from the Lord. He already knows all, there is nothing He does not know about you and I. The Psalmist said, "Thou knowest..."
Remember how it was when you were a child. You did wrong and you knew you did wrong, and your parents knew you did wrong and they called you in for some interrogation. They demanded that you confess what you had done. You tried to make it sound as good as you could, but actually, no matter how hard you tried, you could not make it sound as innocent as you wanted it to sound. So, as difficult as it was, you dumped out your sins before your parents.
Why did your parents make you do this? They already knew what you had done and you knew what you had done, so why the humiliation? Because, even though you and your parents knew what you had done, they were wise enough to know you had to put it on the table before it could be dealt with.
Today people have things in their lives they have hidden from everyone, but listen; they may as well quit thinking they can hide those things from God. God already knows about them. It doesn't matter how sinful those things are, or how hard it is to confess them, you may as well get them on the table and deal with them because God knows all about those things. The Psalmist said, "Thou knowest..."
Conclusion: God knows OUR TRIALS and OUR THOUGHTS, but listen, here is something we need to consider before we close this message. Did you know that GOD KNOWS WHAT OUR LIVES WOULD HAVE BEEN LIKE HAD WE OBEYED HIS COMMANDS.
Illus: We often hear parents say of their children, "We have a child that could be almost anything he wants to be if he will just apply himself. He has the talents to really do something with his/her life."
That parent is saying that he has enough foreknowledge to realize that child could really accomplish something with his life if only he would try.
In Isaiah 48:18 we read, "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." If Israel had obeyed God, they would have had peace like a river!
One day everyone is going to see what they could have been had they obeyed the commands of God. God already knows and that is why it breaks His heart when He sees the way some of His children are wasting their lives away!
He not only knows what we COULD HAVE BEEN, He also knows if we really LOVE HIM!
Illus: Jesus asked Peter, "Lovest thou me," three times. Peter was quick to respond that he did. He said that perhaps the others would forsake Him one day, but that he never would. But, when the time came when Jesus was going to be crucified, and the disciples thought they might be next, they all fled like scared rabbits. Peter denied the Lord before a lost world. Later Jesus appeared to him and asked Him again if he loved Him and this time Peter said, John 21:17, "...Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee..." In other words, "Lord I thought I loved You when you asked me before, but look what I did! You know all things - 'thou knowest'."
Preacher, what are you getting at? If we were to ask each of you in the auditorium today if you loved the Lord, all of you, like Peter, would say, "Yes, I love the Lord!" But those same ones who profess to love the Lord walk out of here week after week and deny the Lord you claim to love. Perhaps not so much in your words, but in your actions, which speak louder than any words, telling the world you do not love the Lord.
I am here to tell you, on the authority of God's Word, that the God of the Bible is omniscient, and He knows which of you here today love Him!
-Jesus said, "If you love me you WILL (not maybe) keep my commandments."
-Jesus said, "Love not the world, neither the things of the world, if any man love the world the love of the Father IS NOT IN HIM."
Now you can argue with that if you want to, but God's Word states that is the way it is. And based on that, a lot of people who claim to love the Lord do not really love Him! You must stop playing games with the omniscient God. HE KNOWS.
I. GOD KNOWS OUR SEVERE TRIALS.
II. GOD KNOWS OUR SECRET THOUGHTS.
