A Resilient Remnant: Losing to Gain (Daniel 4)

Intro

Prologue

Before we begin today I want to be very clear about one thing. Sickness and mental illness are enemies and not friends. However, God is able to take the worst of disasters and use them for good for the sake of his saints. Paul says as much in Romans.

Romans 8:28 NASB 2020

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Therefore we Christians must have a place in our theology for suffering and the sovereign will, the goodness, the mercy, and the graciousness of God. We must come to a place in our lives at which we trust that God is good and just more than we trust what we know, or think we know.

If God allows me to go through some suffering, it isn't because I'm unloved. I don't fully understand why God allows evil and suffering in the world. I have some ideas but we're not going to get into all that today. What I do know for certain, is that if a Christian is allowed to go through sickness or suffering, there is a purpose in it. God does love to heal us, but death is still a reality, and sin still dominates this world until Christ returns with the fullness of his kingdom. That present evil is what we are fighting against. We live in a broken world, but God will bend the brokenness of this world to accomplish His goodwill in our lives. He does not waste a thing. He will not even waste evil as it occurs in our lives.

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I'll never forget a time during my freshman year of college when I was feeling down. I had recently broken up with a young lady I had dated throughout my last couple of years of high school. A lot of things in my life seemed as if they were in flux. Many things felt unsure. I even wondered if my calling was real or if I had just dreamed it all up. I wondered if God really wanted to use an average guy like me. Somebody handed me a copy of a book written by John Piper called don't waste your life. One of the stories in that book was of a 70-ish year old man who gave his life to the Lord in his old age. Piper recounted that as the man pondered the reality and truth of the gospel, the man was happy to be in Christ, but he was also grieved to recognize that he had wasted the vast majority of his life up to that point on meaningless pleasures. The man cried out as he wept in the sanctuary that day, I've wasted it, I've wasted it. For the first time in his life he'd come to realize that true life, or perhaps better to say truly living, could only be accomplished in Christ. Anything which we do apart from Christ is a waste.

The Apostle Paul says in the book of Romans that whatever we do apart from faith is sin. There are an awful lot of people who are wasting an awful lot of their lives, and that's a shame. Therefore, it is an incredible grace when the Lord intervenes and interrupts our lives in order to turn our hearts towards the knowledge and understanding that true life is in Christ alone.

Romans 14:23 NASB 2020

But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.

Breaking Loose from that which desires to kill us.

True freedom is not the ability to do whatever I want, but rather my ability to say no to the poison which will kill me. The poison kills even when we don’t realize it, and the truth gives life even when we can’t see that either.

James K.A. Smith has written that you are what you love. The point of this statement is pretty clear. The things we love will shape our lives.

This is particularly scary when we see how self-absorbed our culture, and consequently we, have become. Even in the church few are thinking in the context of others and Kingdom. No, they focus on self-nourishment, and whether they got anything from the sermon or the worship. Even in church many of us are motivated by self rather than by love for God and one another.

In today’s world we worship the idol of me, and it is poison, the worst thing possible both for our own wellbeing but also for the wellbeing of everyone around us.

It is Christ for whom we were made. We talk a lot about the purpose of humanity around here. There's good reason for that. The question of what is my purpose is a critical question for every human being to ask of himself or herself. In fact, our understanding of purpose creates a great dividing line between us, who follow Christ, and those who follow the way of Adam in the world. You see, if we believe there is a God for whom we were created to put his Glory on display, it changes everything about the way we orient our lives. It changes the way we think about raising a family, our civic duty, our sexuality, everything. But if we Believe that we really have no purpose, that we exist for ourselves and to gain as much power and glory for ourselves. And comfort. And whatever we may think is important. As possible before we die then we will live very different lives.

But what happens if we live hedonistically and then we die and find out we were quite wrong?

Have any of you ever heard of Pascal's wager? Famous theologian, philosopher, and scientist blaze Pascal once posited that if God exists and we live for him there is great reward. Pascal also said that if God doesn't exist but we live by Christian principles, then we've lived a good life and we really haven't wasted anything. But if God exists and we refuse to follow his ways. We have much to lose. Pascal argued that the better wager if you're not sure is to follow God. You live a better life anyway, and you stand to gain a great reward because you walked in Christ.

God understands us. He knows the purpose that we were created for. He also knows the lie that we've believed. He knows that if we live according to the lie that Adam and Eve believed are only possible future is death and eternal separation from him in a place of agony that scripture describes as hell. But the Lord was so clear to Ezekiel the prophet. He said that he does not take the light in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked would repent. Christ came in order to deliver us from the death that we were in and Adam. And of course there's something is delivered is both delivered from somewhere and to somewhere. He delivers us from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light with the Father. Christ understands that we will always be living in a perpetual state of waste until our lives are found in him. He knows that if our lives are found in any other place they are lost. And God is not about to allow something so precious to him to be lost without a fight. That's the power of the cross. Sometimes it takes extreme measures in order to get a hold of a person. God's not so concerned with the here and now in our lives. He is concerned with our here and now but he's most concerned with our future. And he's very concerned about how the here and now relates to our future. We only have the here and now to get our lives right. The only way our lives can be made right is if we move into Christ. We can't do it on our own. And God loves his saints so much that he will let us go through great difficulty if that is what is required in order to get us to Christ. Because only in Christ is there the possibility that we will have life beyond this life, and we're talking about an eternal life that begins now, it takes roots in our heart now, but bears an eternal fruit that transcends this life. And if you don't have that life now, you have no hope for that life in the future.

What God did for Nebuchadnezzar in the story, was a gracious interruption of a very proud man's life. Why God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to go through this difficulty is because God loved Nebuchadnezzar. And some of us may have gone through some difficulty too. Perhaps some of us are angry with God because he's allowed us to go through some difficulty. But God is good. God is just. God is gracious. God is merciful. God does not waste a single moment of The lives of the saints that he loves. That great pastor of old Charles Spurgeon referred to the Holy Spirit as the hound of heaven, because he will not stop until every last one of his holy ones are securely within the arc of Jesus Christ.

We'll see that Nebuchadnezzar was not bitter about his suffering, but he was very thankful for it. He saw the sovereignty of God, he saw the love of God, and realized that a good and gracious God was not going to stop until he had repented and believed in God. Nebuchadnezzar became a person who realized that the suffering that took him to Christ was better than the riches and luxury of the palace. And that's a mindset that more Christians in this world need to have. If we want to grow up with Jesus we have to stop blaming God for our circumstances and begin to ask God what he's doing in our circumstances. We have to come to a place where we look to God and ask him what are you trying to say to me. Instead of constantly being upset when he allows us to go through difficulty. Is this James says considered a pure joy my brothers when you go through various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

So before we begin today I want to encourage you and me to stop and let's ask the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit what do you want to teach me today about your character how about your will and about your goodness. What are you trying to teach me in the midst of my sufferings? Perhaps also we should spend more time thanking him for the broken roads that have led us to him. And I want to give Rascal Flatts credit for that line right there.

Truth

Some observations from Nebuchadnezzar’s story...

I. God cares about each person enough to deal with each one of us personally.

God is big, and He has a big schedule. Yet though He is busy holding the universe together, He makes time for you and for me.

God cares about working on us because He loves us and wants His glory to be manifest in us.

We were made to carry His glory and display it for the host of heaven. Though we have fallen from grace and our initial purpose, God has not given up on us.

Nebuchadnezzar knew who God was, but He did not yet know God personally.

Nebuchadnezzar had come to recognize the Lord externally, but he had yet to truly trust the Lord internally.

II. God cares more about our holiness than our happiness.

Nebuchadnezzar was happy and though all was fine, but something was very wrong in him (4). He was happy, but he was not holy and God knew that for Nebuchadnezzar to be holy he would have to endure a difficult and unhappy season.

The paradox here, is that when we are living a holy life in Christ, we find ultimate happiness which is rooted in joy rather than in our circumstances.

Many today would look at what God did to Nebuchadnezzar and think it is mean or even wrong. Would God really drive a man mad? If that's what it takes to save a man from himself then absolutely he would.

Contrary to popular belief, God cares more about our character than our comfort. He cares more about our holiness than our happiness.

Only God in His providence can truly know what it takes to save a man. To be saved, we must turn from self and to Christ. Nebuchadnezzar had learn to think less of himself and to see the goodness of God.

God drove Nebuchadnezzar to madness because God loved Nebuchadnezzar.

He wanted to bring Nebuchadnezzar to a place in which he could truly know and serve God alone rather than himself and his own reputation.

He wanted Nebuchadnezzar to live consistently with his true calling from the Lord, which is to be an image bearer of God and to live for God's glory rather than his own.

III. God is jealous for His glory in us

This is both for His sake and for ours.

The truth is, any life lived for a glory other than God's is a wasted life.

If God can shake us out of that and get us living for His glory, He is literally saving us from meaningless and from wasting everything He has given us.

Every one of us must be struck down low before we can rise up in Christ. The flesh must die. There is no way around that, nor is there a substitute for it. It's just for some it's harder than others.

Gospel Application

God is working in us both for our good and for His glory.

I would remind us again of Paul’s encouragement to the church in Romans 8.

Romans 8:28 NASB 2020

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

God cares deeply for us, and He knows that apart from Christ we would be in trouble. Jesus came to take our darkness, and turn us to light. In going the world’s way, we will only fall deeper and deeper into loss.

Mark 8:34–38 NASB 2020

And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

Whatever God must do to break us out of our self-absorption and turn our eyes to Christ, is a grace to us as it was to Nebuchadnezzar. God cares about you, and wants you with Him in eternity. He wants to teach us to walk with Him now.

Let us walk in Him them, with all that we have.

Challenge

I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have to become a grass eating cow-man in order for God to get my attention, but if that's what it takes I'd rather have Jesus than my sanity. What about you? What is it going to take for you to surrender to God?

Think of all of your hopes, dreams, and desires? Do you want Jesus more?

What if following Him means for you, that you have to let it all go into the wind like a dandelion being blown by a prairie windstorm? Is Jesus better than all of these things for you?

Remember when Christ asked Peter, “do you love me more than these?” I think that’s what He was after in Peter, and it is what He is after in us. He wants our ultimate devotion not only because it glorifies Him, but because it is what is best for us.

Nebuchadnezzar had it all from a human perspective and yet because He lacked a relationship with God he had nothing. Life is a vapor. Everything we are amassing for ourselves here will be tested by fire. Only that which has been done in the Lord will remain after this purification.

By calling us out of ourselves and rooting us in His glory, God is saving us from the propensity we all have to waste the one life we have been given to live.

Is God calling you to die to yourself today? It isn’t because He is mean, or doesn’t want you to have nice things. It is because He loves you and knows that until you are ready to let god and fall into Him, you won’t ever really live.

Mark 8:34–38 NASB 2020

And He summoned the crowd together with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what could a person give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”