Dread dreams of things to come

[0:00] Well, do turn to Daniel chapter 2. To sleep, perchance to dream, there's the rub.

[0:12] For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. There's the respect that makes calamity of so long life.

[0:25] For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, who would these fardels bear to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose born no traveler returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others we know not of.

[0:53] Thus conscience does make cowards of us all. Well, once upon a time I could recite it by heart.

[1:05] I'm not sure if they still teach Hamilton schools these days. Perhaps it's been ditched as being not relevant, that old hat. And I guess, too, anything to do with the court of Denmark is a bit of bad odor at the moment.

[1:18] But whether he's been ditched or not, William Shakespeare certainly did understand the human soul. Conscience does make cowards of us all.

[1:30] It could be that on first reading of a chapter like the one before us tonight, we might say, what on earth does a story about a distant ancient king have to do with the Christian message?

[1:45] And what possible relevance could it have to Glasgow in the 21st century? That may seem a fair question. But if we dig a little deeper, I think we will find that this chapter has a message of universal relevance for men and women, regardless of where and when they live.

[2:06] And indeed, especially and particularly, a message of relevance for our own culture today. Because whether we realize it or not, or whether we like to think it or not, the reality is that, despite all the differences in personality, or in privilege, or in experience, or in apparent success in life, when all of that is stripped back and laid bare, when we're forced by some calamity, or some crisis, to confront the ultimate questions of life and death, the truth is that we're all just the same.

[2:48] The same frail human flesh. We're all prey to the same basic anxieties and uncertainties. We're all haunted by the same dreams.

[2:59] We're all seeking the same elusive answers to questions that sometimes we dare not ask. But when they thrust themselves upon us in a way that we can't avoid, and we have to face up to them, we discover we can't answer them.

[3:19] And nor can we find the answers anywhere in this world, try as we might. And so, like Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, we're tortured, often, by these ultimate thoughts.

[3:33] And like him, if we let them, they will trouble and disturb our minds. They may almost seem to drive us mad.

[3:46] And we know that the human conscience does have the power to trouble and to disturb and to torment, if we'll allow it. But we are cowards all, says Shakespeare.

[4:00] And so we tend to suppress our consciences. We repress it. We bury it. We fill our minds and we fill our lives with other things, with the noise and the busyness of the present day.

[4:13] Even with the present ills of this world that we'd rather bear than let our minds drift to the dread thoughts of what things might be after this.

[4:28] But whether you're the prince of Denmark or the emperor of Babylon or Joe Bloggs in Glasgow, there are those times when these thoughts come to us.

[4:40] They come creeping in. And often it is, isn't it? In the late hours, in the darkness, when we toss and turn and when we can't sleep. And then when, if we do sleep, we dream dreams.

[4:55] And in those dreams, all the subconscious anxieties and fears and dreads flood to the surface, unchecked as they normally are by our controlling consciousness.

[5:08] And we're exposed. We wake up in a cold sweat. And we all know something, don't we, of bad dreams. And we knew that usually we sleep badly and we dream badly if we're worried, if we're anxious, if we're upset, if something is wrong, even if it's not clear to us exactly what that thing is.

[5:32] That's why it's no accident that dreams and their study has been a great interest of all the psychologists. It was Freud, I think, if I remember rightly, that said, dreams are the royal road to the subconscious.

[5:45] There's a lot of truth in that. Although, of course, there's a lot of nonsense in Freud's views as well, mainly due to his own warped psychology. But this story here in Daniel chapter 2 begins with just that kind of situation that does reveal a very great deal about the anxiety and the dis-ease of the human mind, even of one who seems on the surface to be utterly in control of his own destiny.

[6:14] But it also shows us very powerfully that it's not psychology that provides the ultimate answer to these problems. Nor is it anything else in the world of human reason or human religion for that matter.

[6:30] Rather, the ultimate answer is the only answer that can bring clarity to the confusion of human thinking and that can bring hope to the dis-ease of the human spirit is a revelation.

[6:45] A revelation from beyond man and from above man. A revelation from the God of heaven. And a message about the kingdom of heaven. That and that alone is the answer to the things that might be after this.

[7:04] As verse 29 tells us, was the question that was at the root of all the king's bad dreams. Well, it's a long chapter. So let's look at it under three headings.

[7:15] First of all, let's look at verses 1 to 16, the king's threatening dreams. These verses are dominated by a picture of anxious confusion.

[7:25] the fretful dreams of a man who lives like a god and acts like a god and in all probability thinks he's a god. And yet, when he's forced to face up to these ultimate questions and confronted by the fears that haunt all humanity, he discovers that despite access to all the sophisticated reason of the world, the learning of a great cultural empire like Babylon, despite access to the multitudes of the religions of the world, to magicians and enchanters and sorcerers and Chaldeans, despite all the sycophantic attention of courtiers and all the servants in the world, there is no answer to satisfy his confused mind, to satisfy his troubled spirit.

[8:18] This great emperor is as helpless as the lowliest of his slaves. And he's very threatened by that. And when a great emperor is very threatened, then everybody else is going to get threatened too, as we see in the chapter.

[8:35] It's important for us to understand the cause of his dreams. Verse 1 tells us he was troubled in spirit and couldn't sleep. And clearly, when he did sleep, he was plagued by these terrible and perplexing dreams.

[8:48] Verse 2 seems to imply it was a repeated thing. He sums the enchanters and all of these to tell them his dreams, plural. But it seems that essentially it's one dream that's repeated again and again.

[8:59] And verse 3 seems to imply that although he's aware of the dream and he's troubled by it and unsettled by it, he can't seem to remember the detail. It's just eluding him.

[9:11] If only someone could tell him, it would all come flooding back. He just can't get it clear. You know that feeling. We've all had that, haven't we? I certainly do.

[9:23] In fact, I remember once I used to have for a long time a bad dream that kept coming back again and again. I could never quite remember it although I had a vague idea of what it was.

[9:33] Actually, one time I did remember it. But I'm not going to tell you what it was in case there's any budding Freudian psychoanalysts out there. And I should expose myself.

[9:46] But we're not told directly in these first three verses what's actually behind it all. The scholars will spectate. It was the second year of his reign we hear. Apparently his armies were out all over the empire.

[9:58] Perhaps he was worried and concerned for failure for a lack of glory for being seen not to be much of an ancient king. And that may well be but we're not really told.

[10:10] But what we are told later on in verse 29 is the real clue. God had told Daniel that behind all of this was something else.

[10:21] Do you see? To you, O king, as you lay in your bed came thoughts of what might be after this. He's thinking about the future.

[10:34] Not just about the immediate future but the distant future what would be in days to come. Perhaps the days of his children and grandchildren generations to come. And even I think of the ultimate future after all this after this life.

[10:52] Even an emperor who seems immortal may often think he is immortal in the dark of night when the thoughts come flooding in he knows he's a mortal man.

[11:05] And he shares the same basic insecurity of all humanity he has a fear for the future. Because the future is an enemy. The future speaks loudly of our mortality.

[11:19] And the truth is that we're all deep down seeking immortality. Woody Allen who said I don't want to achieve immortality through my work I want to achieve it through not dying.

[11:32] Well it's very amusing. But there's real truth there isn't there? Humanity fears the future. And we all share these subconscious anxieties and fears as individuals.

[11:46] They're suppressed yes they are but at times they break out into the open. and we all share these anxieties collectively. In the 21st century we are most certainly a people who have huge fears for the future.

[12:03] Who have lost confidence in the future. Who have huge insecurities about the future. Isn't that right? Just think of the world stage today.

[12:15] Just think of the things dominating our news. threats of the instability and the chaos in the Middle East. Iran and its nuclear pretensions.

[12:26] Israel and Palestine not to mention Iraq and Afghanistan North Korea and its weapons. Threats of rising oil prices and energy supplies running out.

[12:41] Threats of economic meltdown in the future. Threats of global warming. And of climate change. Of the polar ice caps melting. And all of these things.

[12:51] Threats today of bird flu. Now in France just across the channel. Threats of a pensions crisis. And on and on and on and on. Fears.

[13:03] Insecurities. Anxieties. About the future. We live in a world where the rapidity of global change and the currents of geopolitics seem to be unstoppable forces running out of control.

[13:20] And we're asking. We're asking more and more loudly. What will be after this? That's what causes these bad dreams.

[13:33] That's what causes sleepless nights today. That's what causes so much anxiety and uncertainty and angst. So much depression. So much dis-ease in our modern world.

[13:47] That's why Prozac is the fastest selling drug in the history of the world. We fear the future. But dreams also reveal something else, don't they?

[14:00] It's not just the fact that we fear the future, but the reason that we fear the future. Because dreams tell us about the present and about the past. It's conscience that makes cowards of us all.

[14:16] We fear the future because when we're forced to be honest, we must admit that our dreams tell us who we are and what we've been as a society and as a human race.

[14:28] And that gives us reason to fear the future, doesn't it? And dreams, however vague, they speak of empires, of men, grand designs and grand powers, rising and proclaiming greatness, but always, inevitably, coming crashing down through fatal flaws and weaknesses.

[14:53] We know as human beings what we are. We know what we've done as human beings who have thought like gods and acted like gods.

[15:05] And we have reason, therefore, to fear for the things that will be after this. We've built great statues, great empires, haven't we, in our history?

[15:17] Think of the great empire of nuclear technology with all its promise to harness limitless energy, but oh, the horrors and the fears that that brings us now.

[15:33] Think of biotechnology technology, with all its promise for man to harness and control nature and even life itself. But oh, the horrors in store for us there, with cloning and eugenics.

[15:47] fascism, and we've seen already, haven't we, in history, what we've seemed to have forgotten so quickly. The experimentations, the perverse manipulations of eugenics and cloning and these things in the past, in the Nazi Third Reich.

[16:09] Think of the great empires of ideologies that have arisen to promise utopia on this earth, fascism, Marxist communism, and see where it's all led.

[16:24] Where might we fear for the future? Humanity is desperately seeking immortality, but our dreams betray the truth about the present and about the past.

[16:39] And conscience rises up to make cowards of us all. No wonder today we fear the future. No wonder today we live as a society marked by the loss of trust.

[16:51] We don't trust anyone. Just try opening a bank account today. It's almost impossible. I find this week it's almost impossible to get a bank right across the road from this church to open an account for the church and for them to believe that it's actually for God's work, not for planting bombs for Osama bin Laden.

[17:10] It nearly drove me nuts. But it's not funny, is it? Because where there's no trust, there can only be suspicion.

[17:23] There can only be fear and anxiety and apathy. when we've seen so many dreams turn to ashes, all utopian quests vanish into sheer fantasy and crumble.

[17:44] When you've seen all of that, we can no longer look to the future at all, can we? We have to suppress any thoughts of the future. We have to suppress the future. because it's also hopeless.

[17:59] So we have to live only for the present. Of course, that cuts away the very meaning of life. If there's no future, there's nothing to live for. There's no direction, there's no goal, there's only the present and its fleeting pleasures.

[18:14] So we're more and more, aren't we, a culture of the present? Spend now, forget the future. So we've got a spiraling problem of debt. But just don't think about the day of reckoning.

[18:27] Seek pleasure now and forget the consequences. Don't think about the future. So, the great quest of sexual freedom, for example. Don't think about the future, the rampant rise in disease, not to say the tragic, colossal problem of abortion.

[18:49] Live, but what empty lives, what meaningless lives. Yet we suppress it all. But sometimes, when the darkness comes, and when the thoughts come, and the dreams torment, we have to think about it.

[19:11] And that's true too on a personal level, isn't it? Conscious makes cowards of us all. when we turn to the ultimate questions about the future, about what may come when we shuffle off this mortal coil, when we have to think about that undiscovered country from whose born no traveler returns, when we have to think about what Daniel calls in verse 28, the latter days.

[19:38] If we fear for the future of humanity, because deep down we know that all man's utopian dreams have come crashing down with feet of clay, because we know that history rises up to condemn us, and condemn all man's best efforts, then the truth is we fear our own future for the same reason.

[19:56] Our conscience rises up to condemn us. Our personal history, what we are, deep down inside, what we've done, buried from all public gaze, but rising up, in the thoughts of the night.

[20:20] It's all these things that are in our fretful dreams. They rise up to condemn us. It's confused, perhaps it's a haze, it's an anxious, fearful confusion.

[20:37] But we sense that all is not well with our soul, and we sense that unless we get an answer, something, some force, some great boulder is going to crush us, and bring us to ruin.

[20:51] And so we look for an answer, we say, tell me my dream, and its meaning. But there's only silence because the world has no answer.

[21:04] And that's what's going on here with King Nebuchadnezzar. It's the anxious confusion of the human heart, seeking answers to the great questions of the future, and finding that all the wisdom of this world and all the spirituality of this world and all the religion of this world is utterly impotent.

[21:25] The world cannot answer the confused anxiety of the troubled human conscience, either as a whole, as a race, or in the life of a single man, whether he's a king or whether he's a beggar.

[21:41] And these verses not only show up the sheer impotence of the world of men to answer these questions, it openly ridicules them. Nebuchadnezzar has surrounded himself with all these magic men, all these gurus, all these life coaches.

[21:56] But not only can't they give a solution to him, they can't even get the diagnosis. They can't even tell him his dream, let alone what it means. Verses 6 to 9 seem to suggest that it's absolutely plain that he knows they're all phonies.

[22:11] They're fakes, they're charlatans, he knows it. You're just playing for time, he says, you're going to tell me any old thing. And yet for so long he's colluded with the entire charade.

[22:22] Isn't that astonishing? Yeah, it's just the same today, isn't it? Look at the vast industry that there is about telling the future, where otherwise sane and sensible people pay good money for horoscopes, to visit mediums, to look at crystals, all kinds of mumbo-jumbo.

[22:41] And we collude in it. But when the real test comes, when the ultimate issues arise, it's all exposed.

[22:55] And the writer here is mocking the whole lot of them, and so should we. We should mock all that mumbo-jumbo. Although they get one thing right in verse 11, do you see?

[23:07] This is a thing they say that requires real divine intervention. Only a god can give this answer.

[23:19] But like so many today, they follow it up with a very quick rider, but of course that's impossible. God doesn't dwell with mortals. Real gods, if they do exist, they couldn't possibly speak to human beings.

[23:32] We'll see about that in a minute. But just notice the result of all the inability to find satisfying answers in the world of men for these ultimate questions. See what happens.

[23:44] We look for answers everywhere, even when we know deep down we're colluding with sheer nonsense. And we find no peace, we find no satisfaction. And what happens?

[23:56] Well, Nebuchadnezzar's frustration turns to anger, to irrational rage, to hostility, to violence, to murder. That's what you do. That's how you work out your feelings if you're a powerful dictator.

[24:09] Nebuchadnezzar has the power to order instant death to all of these men. That's what you do if you're a Stalin, or if you're a Pol Pot, for whom death is merely a statistic.

[24:21] Or if you're a Saddam Hussein, who modeled himself, by the way, on Nebuchadnezzar. Remember that picture of him just shooting indiscriminately, members of his parliament, just to make a point? That's what you do with your angst.

[24:37] If, on the other hand, you're a disillusioned teenager, with nothing but apathy because you've no hope for the future, no trust in the present, well, you work out your angst in a different way, lightish behavior.

[24:54] Graffiti, and street violence, and stabbings. I believe we're the stabbing capital of Europe here in Glasgow. If you're a bit more highbrow and you're into the arts, well, you work out your confused anger and anxiety in your arts.

[25:11] So, Tracy Emin and her ridiculous designs of unmade beds and dirty underwear. Or films full of gratuitous violence and nihilism.

[25:22] You see, it's not so different. Robbie Burns was right. A man's a man for all that, whether you're a king or a potentate or a young lad in the street.

[25:34] Nebuchadnezzar is one of us. He's just working out his angst in that Babylonian dictator's way. But there's more to this dream than just the display of Nebuchadnezzar's angst and fear.

[25:48] It was that. But in the midst of it, God was using it to prick his conscience. God was awakening him to a reckoning. Not just with earth, but with heaven.

[26:00] God allowed his dream in order to break into his world with a word of truth. With a revelation of real truth and real hope and real mercy. Not just for him, but for the whole world.

[26:14] Because the only answer, the only answer for the confused anxiety of any human being about the ultimate issues of the future lies not in man or even anywhere in the world of men and women.

[26:29] But it must come from above man, from the God who does indeed contrary to what popular opinion says. Who does indeed come down to reveal secrets to flesh and blood humanity.

[26:45] reality. Now it brings us from the king's threatening dreams to the Lord's revealing vision. In total contrast to the anxious confusion, verse 31 following gives us a picture of absolute clarity.

[27:01] The calm and precise revelation of one who really is God in heaven. One who made all things, who controls all things, as verse 21 says, times and seasons.

[27:12] the setting up and the removing of kings and empires. And who therefore alone is able to reveal all mysteries with absolute clarity.

[27:25] And his is a word of revelation that alone explains all of human history. And therefore his word alone is able to offer any man hope for the future and peace in the present.

[27:37] The middle part of the chapter tells how Daniel intervenes and calmly tells the king that with a little time he will bring the interpretation.

[27:49] And clearly the king recognized in Daniel that this wasn't playing for time. He really meant business. So he agrees. Daniel prays to God and God gives him the answer. In verse 24 he goes to Arioch and says, hold back the knife, take me to the king, I've got the answer.

[28:06] So Daniel faces the king. And he is able to answer his dream and give him the answer to his troubles about the future.

[28:20] And the answer lies in two parts. Both are absolutely and abundantly clear. The first is simply this, the fact of a unique sovereign God.

[28:31] Look at verse 27. No one on earth can tell the king this mystery. But there is a God in heaven who can reveal mysteries and who does reveal mysteries.

[28:43] And in verse 28 he has revealed this mystery concerning the latter days. Verse 18 Daniel sought this God, the God of heaven. Not by magic, not by astrology, not as though he was far away as the Chaldeans thought, dwelling not among flesh, but no by humble prayer.

[29:02] God of heaven. That's the only way you can approach a truly sovereign God. You can't control him. You can't magic him up. He must condescend to reveal himself to humankind.

[29:17] That's what this God does. Verse 28. He has made known what will happen in the latter days. And only in such divine revelation from a unique sovereign God can there be any certainty about life and about the future and about ultimate things.

[29:41] If future history is just the unpredictable outcome of the machinations of men, there can be no certainty, only anxiety. If the future is just the unpredictable outcome of the interaction of multiple gods and spiritualities and powers, there can be no certainty, only fear and anxiety.

[30:06] But if everything is in the hands of one who is the God of gods and the Lord of kings, then the future is secure, utterly, in his hand. And that is the answer to all the anxious and troubled dreams and worries of humankind.

[30:27] The fact of a unique sovereign God who reveals the truth. But there's more than that because the truth that he reveals is the story of a unique saving God.

[30:43] That's what God reveals in the vision. That's what he explains with absolute clarity to Daniel. not just saying to Daniel, here's a vision, Daniel, see what it means for you. No, God explains in words, this is exactly what this vision means, Daniel.

[30:58] It's God's interpretation. God speaks words that human being can understand. And it's a story of a kingdom that he has set up, as verse 44 says.

[31:10] It's a kingdom which will never be destroyed. It's a kingdom which will shatter every other kingdom on earth so that at the last this kingdom and this kingdom alone will stand forever.

[31:22] That's the story that God reveals to Nebuchadnezzar. That's the story he reveals here to the whole world. Remember, this whole section is in the Aramaic language. It's in the language of the known world.

[31:34] This is for the whole world. It's a revelation from God to man of the glory of the gospel of his kingdom.

[31:47] It's the hope of the future. It's the hope of glory. It's the security of knowing that his indestructible kingdom, his kingdom will be everlasting and triumphant and will fill the whole world.

[32:01] That's the answer to the anxiety of man. That's the only answer to the anxious fears and to the troubled dreams of all human worries about the future.

[32:15] The God of heaven reigns and he will build that kingdom that lasts forever. The interpretation that's given there in verse 36 and following isn't some weird and bizarre source for millennial madness.

[32:33] When you read some of the commentaries on this, you'll find that the whole meaning seems to be in the ten toes of this statue. The number ten isn't even mentioned anywhere in the text.

[32:45] No, what he's talking about is the history as it unfolds from the time of Nebuchadnezzar until a time when God reveals that something decisive will break into history.

[32:59] As verse 44 says, decisively inaugurating and beginning a kingdom that will be everlasting. The scholars are in some doubt about the exact historical identification of these earthly empires.

[33:16] I have to say it's mainly from scholars who just can't believe that anybody could tell the future and therefore this must have been written after the time. But unless we believe that, there's no real reason to doubt at all that the first kingdom is Babylon.

[33:31] That's stated clearly. The next is Medo-Persia. The next is the Grecian Empire. And finally the Roman Empire. And of course we know that it was during the Roman Empire that at last the Son of God himself, the mighty rock not cut by human hand, no mere man, but God himself burst into the scene of human history and said the kingdom of God is upon us.

[34:01] Don't let's get bogged down in the minutiae of these dreams so that we miss the great central affirmation, the word of God from heaven even in Daniel's day, that already God is in control.

[34:16] That even then he is setting up his kingdom. That every earthly power may rise and fall but in the end everything is in his hand.

[34:29] verse 44 says that he is doing this in the days of all these kings, that is all the kingdoms mentioned including Nebuchadnezzar's may be hidden behind the rise and fall of human empires but that rock is already rolling and it is on course to fill the whole earth and how much more so today.

[34:53] And one day that rock will appear publicly to destroy forever all enemies and to rule triumphant. It began two thousand years ago in Palestine when Jesus said the kingdom is upon you and his glorious cross and resurrection won him the right to rule over all his enemies.

[35:15] it will be completed at the last when he comes having made all enemies his footstool and the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.

[35:29] That's the revelation of the unique God of heaven. That's a unique sovereign salvation and that alone is what can give us a theology of history to explain to us the dis-ease of this world and its shifting kingdoms.

[35:49] To explain to us the past and the present of a world that is set up against the God of heaven and therefore is inherently unstable and which must come crashing down in every generation and ultimately will be destroyed.

[36:06] That's what explains the dis-ease of the human heart. Of hearts that have set themselves up against the king of heaven as rulers omnipotent in their own lives and therefore are inherently unstable and must be humbled by God.

[36:25] This is the answer. It's a theology, an explanation of history. And it's a theology of hope, hope for the future. The world is not in some endless, meaningless, samsaric round going round and round in circles.

[36:43] Nor is it careering out of control, heading for destruction. At least human kingdoms may be. They all have feet of clay, but no, God is in control.

[36:56] He allows these human kingdoms to totter and fall. Indeed, he will shatter every one of them to make way for his everlasting kingdom. And Daniel says, verse 45, a great God has revealed this.

[37:17] The dream is certain and the interpretation is sure. It's a theology of history. It's a theology of hope. Is there anything more desperately needed in our 21st century world than that?

[37:32] That brings me to a closing thing. The prophets, faithful words. These middle verses of the chapter speak, don't they, of an authoritative confidence.

[37:45] We see the powerful presence of a man who stands for the God of heaven. A man who stands for Jerusalem in Babylon. A man who seeks the God of heaven, who listens to the God of heaven and therefore is able to speak with authority from the God of heaven to a confused and troubled world of men that without him would have no answers, no solutions to these great questions of life.

[38:14] Tell me the dreams and their meanings, says the world. Tell me what will be in the times of the end. And here's Daniel, a man who is a recipient of divine revelation from the throne of heaven.

[38:25] He hears and understands the truth of God. The truth about history, about the future. The truth about time and eternity.

[38:36] Because he's in touch with the living God. As chapter 11 verse 32 says, he's a man who knows his God and therefore is strong to do exploits.

[38:49] There's nothing complex about his relationship. There's no ceremony. There's no magic. There's no mumbo jumbo. What does he do? Verse 18, he's a man who prays. He seeks mercy from the God of heaven, not just to save his own skin, but that God's name may be magnified, that God's name may be known to the king of that pagan empire.

[39:10] He's a man who holds God's name in honor and seeks God to glorify it in prayer. He's a man of the word, a man with a big grasp on God.

[39:21] As his praise psalm of verse 20 and following shows, he's got a big theology. He's dug deep into God's revelation about himself. He knows his God. That's why he can stand firm in a pagan world.

[39:35] That's why he has authority and confidence to speak. He's received the revelation of God. God. And he proclaims the revelation of God in all its fullness, in all its glory.

[39:53] He speaks, yes, with prudence to Arioch and to the king. Yes, he speaks with all tact, but he speaks with all truth. He speaks the full gospel about God's salvation and his judgment.

[40:08] His mercy and his certain destruction of all his enemies. He shall break in pieces all these kingdoms, O king. That includes yours.

[40:22] A man who receives great truth from God and who speaks the whole truth from God to men with authority, with power.

[40:35] Friends, that is the greatest need in every godless pagan empire, full of troubled and confused people. With no Daniels to speak for God, confusion and anxiety still reigns.

[40:55] Daniel's faithful word is the model for the Christian preacher. Isn't that right? He's a man gripped by a big God. He's got a big gospel. He's a man whose prayers are focused on the big issues of God's glory and his name and his kingdom.

[41:12] He's a man who's determined to stand for God, whatever the cost. Therefore, he's a man who speaks and isn't silent.

[41:23] He's a man who's not absent from the pagan world of Babylon. But he's in it with confident authority. He's speaking to men from God.

[41:37] The only answers that there are for the world's dreams and fears and anxieties and nightmares. That's the Christian preacher. Isn't it?

[41:49] That's what we need today more than anything else. And by the way, I'm not speaking about me. I'm speaking about you. Daniel wasn't a preacher.

[42:01] Daniel was a civil servant. Every single Christian believer here tonight has more revelation of truth than ever Daniel had. We have the wonderful fullness of the revelation in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[42:16] We have the full understanding of the stone who is now the chief cornerstone, the rock of ages whose kingdom is filling the earth. We have the revelation from heaven.

[42:33] The problem is we're not always proclaiming it to the world, are we? Friends, the Bible, God's revelation, is given to the world for proclamation.

[42:49] And believers are in the world for proclamation. How will the Babylonians of today with its kings and rulers ever know the truth of verse 47 that our God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings?

[43:09] Unless in our day, too, there are people like Daniel who have the revelation from heaven and who speak the revelation from heaven to a troubled earth.

[43:21] Daniel says, as for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than the living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known, that you may know the thoughts of your mind.

[43:41] We must pray that God will grant us the spirit of Daniel, that we, too, may speak words of heaven to earth to the restless anxieties and the dreams of our day.

[44:01] We have the answer. We've seen the glory of heaven. The question is, will we tell out with all our souls and our might the glories of that word?

[44:17] Let's pray. Let's pray.

[44:47] We, too, will be lost in confusion and doubt and despair. Help us, we pray, to so stand and to so speak for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[45:05] Amen.