Daniel 4 Christ Over Babylon

If we want to fix tyranny, injustice, all the wickedness that torments our souls like Lot in Sodom, the answer is one thing. The gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 4 teaches us one of the most crucial truths we could hear for our day.

Jesus Christ is the King of kings and all the kings of the earth must bow down to Him.

This is fundamental to our life as a Christian because what Kingdom are we living for? Are we living for this world and the Kingdom of Men or are we living for the kingdom of God?

We are going to hit three main points from this chapter.

Number 1. God rules over the kingdoms of men.

Number 2. The State is not God.

And number 3. The Kingdoms of men belong to Christ.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. God Rules Over the Kingdoms of Men

Daniel 4:1-3 King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.

Here we have Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, praising God.

And what makes this so amazing is that Babylon was a wicked nation. In the Bible it becomes a symbol for worldliness, rebellion against God, and the Kingdom of Darkness.

It was the epitome of the kingdoms of men and everything against God.

And here Nebuchadnezzar was saying that God’s Kingdom was greater than his kingdom.

In other words, if Babylon represented all the kingdoms of men and all that they are against God, then what you have here is the king of the epitome of those wicked kingdoms confessing God alone rules over the Kingdoms of Men.

That all nations, all people, all the kings of the earth belong to God.

How did we get here?

How did we go from Nebuchadnezzar building a golden idol to exalt his glory and his kingdom to Nebuchadnezzar saying, “My kingdom and my authority is nothing compared to God’s.”

It all starts with a dream.

Daniel 4:10-12...

Daniel 4:10-12 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

This language and imagery of a fruitful tree is commonly used to talk about the glory of kings and their kingdoms.

In fact, you see a lot of this same language is found in Ezekiel 31 where Ezekiel prophesies against Pharoah king of Egypt comparing him and his kingdom with the glory of Assyria which was like a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds (Ezekiel 31:3).

And so this tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is Nebuchadnezzar.

That’s how Daniel interprets the dream.

Daniel 4:20, 22 The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth...it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth.

So Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is this glorious kingdom. It reaches to the ends of the earth, beautiful leaves pointing to its glory, abundant fruit, shade, branches to bless the world with life itself.

Its a picture of Eden. But its a broken Eden.

Keep that in mind because we are going to come back to that later in the sermon.

The dream continues.

Daniel 4:13-16 I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: “Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven. Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him.”

Nebuchadnezzar sees a watcher, a pagan word for an angel, come down from heaven and pronounce judgment on the tree.

The angel says, “Chop it down.” Make it barren. Scatter its fruit.

This was God’s judgment for Nebuchadnezzar’s pride.

When he gives the interpretation, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar how he might avoid this judgment.

Daniel 4:27 Therefore, O king...break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.

In other words, humble yourself before God. Rule under His authority for His glory.

That’s what He raised you up to do. Serve God. Do not exalt yourself and rage against Him and His Kingdom.

But Nebuchadnezzar refused, and so this judgment fell on him.

A year after this dream, Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of his royal palace glorying in himself saying Daniel 4:30 Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?

And immediately, verse 31 says while the words were still in his mouth, God’s judgment fell on Nebuchadnezzar and He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws (Daniel 4:33).

But that was not the end. In the dream the watcher said verse 15: But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field…[until] seven periods of time pass over him (Daniel 4:15-16).

God was not just going to rip away Nebuchadnezzar’s Kingdom. He had a plan and a purpose.

Leave the stump. Bind it with iron.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that when you repent God will give your Kingdom back to you.

He just wants to teach you and the whole world who the true King is.

Daniel 4:17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.

Here was the point. God’s judgment on Nebuchadnezzar was to the end, or for the purpose of, making all the living know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.

That God is King.

That everything, including the greatest kingdom that the world had ever known at that point, was for Him.

For His glory and under His Sovereign and Wise control.

That God, not man rules the earth, and God wants all the living, every person who dwells in the earth to know that.

Now to see why this is so important for us today, I want you to put yourself in the shoes of the Jews who would’ve first read this book.

They were under judgment. In exile. Ripped from their homeland, the temple destroyed, and carried off out of the Promise Land to a Pagan nation.

They were waiting for the Messiah. Someone to deliver them.

But they were going to have to wait just a little bit longer because in a few chapters Daniel prophesies about new kingdoms of men that would dominate the world and he pictures them as terrifying beasts who crush and tear everything in their way.

And here God is saying, He’s the one in control. All these kingdoms are His. And they are all accomplishing His purpose.

How much of a comfort would this have been to remind them, and us today, that God really is the one in control.

That the world is not chaos.

God is the master of History.

Isaiah 46:10 He is the God who declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

In the middle of all their chaos and exile, God made this wicked pagan king, even the king that destroyed Jerusalem and razed the Temple of God to the ground, praise Him.

What greater proof could there be that Proverbs 21:1 is true: The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

God rules the world. And He is bending every aspect of history to His will.

The world is not chaos. It is in the sovereign hands of God most high who rules all things in perfect wisdom.

Yes. We have wicked rulers who hate God and hate His Law. It looks like wickedness prospers everywhere you look.

But do not be dismayed.

God’s got this.

He rules the earth, and while we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, Hebrews 2:8, we know Psalm 110:1 All of Christ enemies are being made a footstool under his feet.

He's got the whole world in His hands down to even the smallest detail of every single one of our lives, and He is working everything according to His divine will to accomplish His sovereign purpose.

That truth should be the ground of our faith. We do not need to fear evil or the raging of the nations, wicked rulers and corrupt governments because God rules them all.

They all belong to Him.

That takes us to point number two, and it is something that is desperately needed in our day.

God rules over the kingdoms of men and because of that...

II. The State is Not God

This is so crucial for Christians to understand because one of the greatest religions in our world today is Statism.

The absolute faith, trust and expectation for the State to provide for us, to give us life and blessing. To wield absolute authority over our lives.

But I thought we were supposed to submit to the government? We’ll get there.

Nebuchadnezzar fancied himself a god.

He lived for his glory and called all peoples, languages, and nations to worship his glory too.

This was nothing new. It is the bent of fallen human beings and fallen human governments to try to make themselves equal with God.

Outside of the grace of the gospel, without whole nations being saved and discipled to obey Christ through the Great Commission sinful man will always drift towards rebellion against God and tyranny over citizens.

Daniel 4:10-11 The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth.

When Daniel says its top reached to heaven that is not an arbitrary detail.

That is a direct reference to the tower of Babel.

Babel has been in the background throughout the whole book of Daniel because Babylon was planted in the land of Shinar.

The same place the tower of Babel was.

So there’s this undercurrent that Babylon is the fulfillment and culmination of Babel.

Well, what happened?

Genesis 11:1-5 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

So Babel was a city, a kingdom of men.

And like all kingdoms of sinful men, it was a city that hated God.

First, they disobeyed what God had commanded them to do.

God has commanded us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

But they, in rebellion, settled in Shinar, and they said let’s build a city and a tower lest we be dispersed over the face of the earth.

So their kingdom, was built, fundamentally on rebellion against God’s commands.

Second, they tried to make themselves like God.

That’s what the top of the heavens is all about.

The heavens was the dwelling place of God, so they wanted to build a tower to invade heaven, make themselves equal with God, and kick God off the throne.

Third, the point in all this was to make a name for themselves.

God wanted man to have dominion over the earth to glorify Him.

And in Babel, men were saying we will have dominion to glorify us.

These are the things that mark sinful kingdoms of men.

They disobey God.

They claim to be God.

And they do it all to glorify themselves and worship the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. (Rom 1:25).

Its the same thing Adam and Eve did at the Fall.

Its the same thing Nebuchadnezzar did in Babylon.

And its the same thing governments try to do today because they are dead in their sins and need the gospel.

But God clearly teaches, the State, the kingdoms of men are under His authority no matter how much they pretend otherwise.

He says so in Daniel 4, and even in the Tower of Babel God shows us. Verse 5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.

They tried to invade heaven, and they didn’t even come close. God had to come down to even see it.

That is how much higher God is over the Kingdoms of Men.

Babel is the mold and every kingdom follows its pattern.

Because of sin, governments will always be tempted to serve themselves instead of God. Their power and their glory.

Because of total depravity without the grace of Christ, every Government will rebel against God, step out of its lane, and try to control more and more aspects of your life.

That’s called Tyranny, and tyranny happens because the government believes it is God and it knows best.

This is why, by the way, a limited government with checks and balances is biblical. It recognizes the blessing of government, but also the temptation of sinful men.

So the Christian position towards the government is that it is instituted by God. It is good. It is a blessing.

When it functions as God intended it, righteousness fills the land and we get to enjoy life, freedom and peace, and serve God in what he’s called us to do..

But at the same time we need to be wary of it and we need to be wary of sinful leaders who do not worship God because government stops being a blessing when it starts to serve the Kingdom of Men rather than the Kingdom of God.

That’s why Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

Now you might be wondering, How can you say that the State is trying to make itself God? We are a secular society. If anything its atheist.

Not so fast.

In a secular atheistic society, man elevates himself to the throne.

What can be known about God is plain to us in the things He has made, namely his eternal power and divine nature, and so we know we are called to worship whatever holds the most power and authority in our life (Rom. 1:20).

Well, when you kick God out of the Kingdom, all you are left with is man, and the most powerful man is collective man, human government.

Just because you stop worshiping God doesn’t mean you stop worshiping.

That’s is why civilizations that do not know Christ or reject Christ drift towards Statist Totalitarianism.

We need a God, and our favorite one is ourselves.

And make no mistake, our government, today, believes it is God.

We could spend all day going over every single way the State has overstepped its bounds and claimed authority that belongs to God alone.

But I want to focus on just two areas where the State makes itself equal with God instead of submitting to Him.

1. Rights and Justice.

2. Life and Salvation.

Rights and Justice

The government’s responsibility, their sphere of sovereignty, is to recognize and protect rights given to us by God and protect them.

Romans 13:1-4 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God...

Later Paul says the government is God’s servant for your good.

God’s deacon.

In other words, the authority given to the government is to serve God and His purposes which is to wield the sword.

To be the minister of justice.

That’s why verse 3 says For rulers are not a terror to good conduct but to bad…he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

What is the definition of good and evil in this verse. It is God’s Law.

So the government’s job is to uphold justice in the land by recognizing the rights given to us by God as His image bearers and protecting those rights with the sword when those rights are violated.

For example.

Thou shall not murder. You have a right to life so murder is a crime.

Thou shall not steal. You have a right to private property God has blessed you with, and when someone steals it they should be punished.

Thous shall not lie. If someone goes back on a contract, you need some recourse to get what you are due.

The problem comes in when the government stops seeing itself as God’s servant to protect rights and starts seeing itself as god who gives them.

There is no such thing as reproductive rights or a woman’s right to choose because abortion is murder.

It directly contradicts God’s Law. And yet our government says otherwise.

The government does not have the authority to allow homosexual marriage or people to define their own gender because there is a higher authority that has said marriage is between one man and one woman and He made us male and female.

When the government believes it gives rights instead of recognizing and protecting them its assumed the place of God.

And therefore its definition of Justice, such as social justice and equality, is actually injustice because it defines justice based on man’s law not God’s Law.

It stops being God’s servant and builds a tower to invade heaven.

Life and Salvation

What about life and salvation?

We’ve seen over the last few years how the government sees itself as sovereign over life and death by how they handled the pandemic.

This shouldn’t have been a surprise because they had already said they were sovereign over life and death by letting Roe v. Wade murder over 60 million babies, and we let them.

But the government also sees itself as a savior.

It sees the brokenness of the world and says I can fix that.

Climate change. Broken families. Education. Racism. All the groanings of creation.

No matter what it is, Statism says if we just had bigger government, better laws, better policies we could finally kick this whole sin thing to the curb.

We can build a utopia. We can build the Kingdom of God without God in it. We can save this world as long as everybody does exactly what we say.

That’s why you see them encroaching more and more on your life.

The State really does believe it knows best for your life, and that if we only had better government we could fix this world and save ourselves.

Its a demonic lie. A false savior that says the world isn’t broken because of our sin. Its broken because we just need to do better.

We can build a new heavens and new earth all by ourselves.

So salvation comes, not by faith in Christ but by submitting to the government.

Putting all of our hope and trust in it.

The government is the answer to all of our problems.

But here’s the problem with all that.

That’s idolatry.

Submitting to the government in absolutely everything with no questions flips Romans 13 on its head and basically makes the government equal with God.

Yes. We are called to submit to the government, but that does not mean the government has the right to do whatever it wants and call it obedience to God.

The government serves Him.

Its job is to humble themselves before God, and serve Him as His deacon.

That’s what Nebuchadnezzar saw. God judged him that he would know God rules over the kingdom of men and that he sets over it the lowliest of men.

That’s exactly what Nebuchadnezzar learned when God redeemed him. Verse 37, those who walk in pride, He is able to humble.

Kings of the earth are called to humble themselves before God so that they would rule according to His Law and not rule in pride and their own self interest.

This is why God promises to break the nations with a rod of iron if they do not submit to Him.

If they are not humble and depend entirely of God, they will rule wickedly and, in doing so, forfeit the right to rule.

They are His servant.

Application

So what is our responsibility.

Well, A. We need to submit to them. Honor our leaders.

That doesn’t mean we don’t call sin sin or evil evil. But it means we seek to live in peace, tell the truth, and live with a clear conscience before God and men.

We Pay our taxes even though God says paying even 10% in taxes is oppressive (1 Samuel 8:4-19). I think all of us would love to be oppressed with just 10 percent.

But these are what God calls us to do.

B. We need to disciple the nations. We need to teach other citizens and the government that Christ is King and they must worship him.

But that won’t happen if they aren’t first saved through the gospel.

No one can submit to God if they do not have a new heart first. So we baptize them and we teach them.

And finally, C. We pray for our leaders. That’s what God commands us to do.

Well how do you pray?

This doesn’t mean we can’t pray imprecatory Psalms regarding our wicked rulers. Ones like break the teeth of the wicked. Bring them down to the dust.

But this story in Daniel gives us exactly what we should be praying for our rulers most of all whether they are righteous or wicked.

God would humble them. Humble them. Make them submit to you.

Whether that’s humbling them like you humbled Nebuchadnezzar and give them repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ.

Or humble them by destroying them. Bringing them to nothing. Absolute ruin. Let their wickedness return on their own heads so that, in our nation, Christ would be honored as King of kings and receive His glory.

That’s what King of kings means. All kings of the earth should worship and obey Him.

The state is not God, and it is not our Savior.

There is only One God and One Savior and His name is Jesus Christ.

And that takes us right into the third point.

God rules over the Kingdoms of Men.

The State is not God.

And...

III. The Kingdoms of Men Belong to Christ

This is how God describes Nebuchadnezzar’s Kingdom.

It was a great tree. The very center of the earth. And it was so tall that covered the very ends of the earth.

Its leaves were beautiful and fruit abundant just like in Eden. It gave life and shelter to everything in the earth.

Now if you were a Jew reading this for the very first time in the time of Daniel what would this make you think?

This was who Adam was supposed to be.

This was supposed to be the Kingdom of God and paradise.

And here we are stuck with this broken Adam. This wicked, pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar.

You’re in exile, under judgment, the Temple’s destroyed and here you are reading about some pagan Eden, thinking this isn’t what its supposed to be.

Where’s the Messiah? The King of David who would sit on the throne forever and bring true life, blessing and peace to the world?

Where’s the True Adam? The True Kingdom? The True Tree?

His name was Jesus.

In Matthew 13:31-32, Jesus gave a parable about His Kingdom. He said...

Matthew 13:31-32 The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

The birds of the air making nests in its branches is a clear allusion to Nebuchadnezzar’s tree.

Jesus is saying, this is the true Kingdom. This is the Kingdom with beautiful leaves, abundant fruit, shade and shelter for all.

My Kingdom is the New Eden. My Kingdom is salvation from sin and the curse.

And Jesus’ point in the parable is that His Kingdom starts small.

As small as a mustard seed. The smallest seed there was.

But that Kingdom grew and grew and grew until it was larger than every plant in the garden.

In other words, until it was over every other kingdom covering the world in the shade of its blessings.

This sounds so amazing that its easy to doubt.

Will Christ’s Kingdom and salvation really grow in this world to cover the earth?

Will the gospel really make disciples of all nations?

Well what did God say?

God gives the Kingdom to whom He will and he sets over it the lowliest of men.

That can only be Christ.

The eternal Son of God became the lowliest of men.

He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men (Phil 2:6-7).

He was obedient to the point of death, the most humiliating death there was, death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).

God has given the Kingdom to Christ.

But that still doesn’t answer the question. Will the Kingdom of Christ grow to cover the whole earth? Will it really be greater than every other plant and tree in the garden?

Look what Nebuchadnezzar says...

Daniel 4:34-35 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to 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; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Notice it says God does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

In other words, God accomplishes exactly what He purposes. No one and nothing can stop what He wills.

Well we’ve already seen what He purposes in the book of Daniel.

In Daniel 2, God revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in another dream where there was a statue representing four kingdoms.

A Nebuchadnezzar saw a stone, not cut with human hands strike the feet of the statue and smash the whole thing into dust.

And then that stone grew until it became a great mountain that filled the whole earth sort of like the mustard seed growing into a great tree.

And Daniel said Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of those kings [in the days of the Roman Empire so when Christ came to earth] the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever.

Christ’s Kingdom is growing into a mountain that fills the whole earth. How?

Through the preaching of the gospel!

He doesn’t conquer the nations like the kings of this world shedding the blood of his enemies.

He conquers the nations by shedding his blood.

All we need to ask is who can stay the Lord’s hand? Who can stop what God has purposed?

And God has purposed that Christ would rule the nations.

Look at Psalm 2.

Psalm 2 starts by saying Psalm 2:1-3 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

This is Babel all over again.

The Kingdoms of Men do not want to submit to God. In Acts 4, the Apostles pray this Psalm and tie it explicitly to Jesus crucifixion by saying in Acts 4:27 For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.

A little farther down in verse 7, the Psalmist says...

Psalm 2:7-9 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

Now we have to ask, when did God say, You are my Son; today I have begotten you?

Well this is a coronation Psalm sung when the King of Israel sits on the throne.

When did Christ sit on the throne? At His resurrection and ascension.

Acts 13:33 This he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “ ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”

So when Jesus sat on the throne did he forget to ask the Father to make the nations his heritage and the ends of the earth His possession? No!

How do we know? Because He said so in the Great Commission!

Matthew 28:18-19 All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.

Acts 1:8 You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

And what will be the result?

Psalm 72:11 Let all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him.

That sounds amazing to us, but that’s what God promises.

Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan and greatest American theologian that has ever lived, quoted Isaiah 49:23 which says Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers, and said this.

In that day...Kings shall employ all their power and glory, and riches, for the advancement of the honor and glory of Christ, and the good of his church...Then shall there be peace and love between rulers and ruled. Rulers shall love their people, and with all their might seek their best good; and the people shall love their rulers, shall joyfully submit to them, and give them that honor which is their due. (History of the Work of Redemption, Works Vol. 1, Banner of Truth, 610).

The kings of the Earth will bow down to the King of kings. They will serve Him and the righteousness of Christ’s Kingdom will fill the earth.

And if not. He will break them with a rod of iron.

God has purposed it

And because Jesus promises to be with us to the end, and because he has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to accomplish that mission....

We should have every expectation that the gospel will conquer the world, Jesus will receive His inheritance, and all nations will worship Him.

Conclusion

As we carry out the Great Commission all we are doing is proclaiming to the world the end of Psalm 2.

Psalm 2:10-12 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Our great hope is that God will do exactly what He promised.

Bless all the families of the earth in Jesus Christ (Gen. 12:3).

To grow the Kingdom of Christ into a great mountain that fills the whole earth.

That Christ would receive the nations as His inheritance.

That is why we pray Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

We want the Kings of the earth and all people to submit to Christ.

To worship Him. Honor Him. Glorify Him.

Because outside of Christ’s Kingdom there is only sin and death. Thorns and thistles.

But in Christ’s Kingdom there true shade, true food, true life, and true shelter.

Our great hope and all of our labor is so that one day Psalm 22:27-28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

Amen. Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Psalm 72:1-2, 6-11, 16-19 “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!... May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth! In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound...May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! May desert tribes bow down before him, and his enemies lick the dust!...May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!”...May his name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun! May people be blessed in him, all nations call him blessed! Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!”

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