Nebuchadnezzars Conversion

Well, we come to the conclusion of Daniel chapter four. We have been here for a while and we have learned much. But here in Daniel chapter four we get to the crux of the matter as we look, beginning at verse thirty four on to the end. And what I want to address today is nebucad Nezzar's conversion. Now, it's difficult for us to talk in terms of nebucad Nezar's conversion for a number of reasons. Let me outline just five of them. First, we generally think of conversion as a New Testament concept. We don't think about conversion in terms of the Old Testament. We don't think about people in the Old Testament being converted, if you will. We have pictures in our minds of the conversion of the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus. We have pictures in our mind of the Ethiopian eunuch who hears the Gospel and says, there's some water, you know. We have pictures in our mind of Cornelius hearing the Gospel, or of the Day of Pentecost message being preached, individuals being confronted with the Gospel, responding in faith, being baptized, united with God's people, but we don't generally think about that idea in terms of the Old Testament. Secondly, we think of conversion in the Old Testament exclusively in terms of the Hebrew people. Only in terms of the Jews. We think about God's salvation of his people Israel when we read the Old testament' that's what the Old Testament is about. It's about God redeeming his people, is it not? And so we don'tly think about God redeeming, God calling and God saving gentiles unless and until again we get to the New Testament, because after all, in the Old Testament it's really all about God saving the Jews, and it's not until the New Testament that we get to the age of the Gentiles, right, really, Ruth rayhab Nebuchadnezzar. Thirdly, we don't see Nebuchdzer's life after his conversion. He gets cut off. We're done at chapter four. So it's hard for us to think of him as a converted man when we don't get to see fruit of that after his conversion. We don't get to see a changed life. By the way, that doesn't bother us. For example, in the life of Cornelius. In the New Testament or the Ethiopian U we don't get to see their life, do we. And yet we still have no problem understanding that they've been converted. But in the Old Testament it bothers us. Fourthly, we don't see any fruit of his conversion. In Babylon's treatment of the Jews. We might say, okay, fine, he's been converted. His life has been changed. I mean, for whatever reason he's cut off. But certainly when we get to chapter five and we get to his son, certainly there are to be fruit in the life of his son as a result of the changed life of the father. But we get to chapter five and things go from bad to worse. Whereas Nebeka Nezzer took the items from the temple, bel Shazer blasphemes and defiles the items from the temple. Finally, although these things are difficult for us, conversion is the only word that we can use to describe what happens to Nebuk Nezzer and Daniel chapter five. What else can we say of a man who goes from where this man was in the first three chapters to where this man is by the fourth chapter. What other word pray, tell would you use to describe what has happened to him if not conversion? And so we look at the conversion of nebegond Nezer. First, we look at the evidence of nebek Nezer's conversion. The first thing that I want you to see is he has gone from pride to praise. By the way, that's the opposite of pride. Pride is making much of me. Praise is making much of God. Amen. So he has gone from pride to praise. We see this first of all in this pair of him. Really, if you look at chapter four, there is a frame in chapter four of Daniel, and there is a frame around the dream and its interpretation. So you have a hymn go with me to the beginning of the chapter. You have a hymn at the open of his letter there in the first three verses, and then in chapter four, after his hymn I Nebukudnizzar was at ease in my house and prosperous in my palace, there's the opening of the frame Nebukudnizer's hymn of praise to God and the picture of him at ease in his palace. Now we close the frame at the end of the chapter. And what do we find, Well, we find once again a hymn in verses thirty four and thirty five, and then in verse thirty six. What happens at that same time? My reason returned to me, and the glory of my kingdom, my majesty, and splendor return to me. What do you have? You have a mirror of the first part of the chapter. The first part of the chapter, there's a hymn. Right after the hymn, I'm at ease in my palace and things are great. Last part of the chapter, you have a hymn, and right after the hymn, I'm at my palace and things have returned to me. In the middle of that frame, if you will, there is the dream. Its interpretation, it comes to fruition. But the frame is hymnity. How do we know that it's hymndy? Well, for one thing, in your bible, as I lose a button here in your bible, what you will find is that it's sort of set apart as hymnity, just in the way that it's written structurally. But secondly, what you'll find is parallelism. Look with me, if you will, there being in eight, verse thirty four. At the end of the days, I Nebuca Nezar, now watched the parallels, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me. Then there's another pairing. Right after that, I blessed the most High and praised and honored him who lives forever. Then you have another parallel. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. He's saying the same thing to ways. Then you have another parallel. 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, none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? This is a hymn of praise. This is Hebrew parallelism, prototypical Hebrew parallelism here from Nebica Nezar. But there's something more interesting. As you reach it's amazing as you continue to walk with a text, and I pray that you guys are walking with these texts over the course of the week. But as I walk with this text over the course of the week, I noticed something. This hymn of praise parallels almost exactly the lord's prayer. Look at it. The Lord's prayer in Matthew chapter six, beginning of verse nine, How does it begin, our father, who are in heaven, for those of you who learned it in the older versions, Our Father in heaven. What does Nebekanzer say? In chapter four, verse thirty four, I neb Cazer lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the most high well. The lord's prayer continues, hollowd be thy name. Nebukanezzer's him continues and praised and honored him who lives forever. The lord's prayeringntinues, Your kingdom come never connesss him continues for his dominion as an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. The lord's prayer continues, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Never. Canniz's him continues, All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. There it is. How do we not call this a conversion? The man's prayer the Lord's prayer. Before the Lord's prayer is the Lord's prayer. Do you see that this man has been converted? There is evidence that this man has been converted. There is repentance, and repentance is essential to our conversion. This, after all, was the message that Jesus came preaching, was not Matthew Chapter three and verse two. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matthew chapter four, verse seventeen. From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Matthew, chapter eleven, verse twenty. Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. Mark chapter one, verse fifteen. The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Mark chapter six, verse twelve. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. Luke chapter thirteen, verse three, and also verse five. No I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Acts chapter two and verse thirty eight. And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts Chapter three, verse nineteen. Repent therefore and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out eight verse twenty two. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and prayed to the Lord, that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. Acts Chapter seventeen, verse thirty. The time of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Acts Chapter twenty six, verse twenty. But declare first to those in Damascus, then in all Jerusalem and throughout all the regions of Judea and all the Gentiles, to all the gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. Repent, repent, repent, repent, repent. We don't hear that much, you see. When we talk about conversion, or we talk about generally this idea of being born again, what we talk about is accepting Jesus, asking Jesus into your heart by the way phrases that you will find no where in the New Testament, nowhere in the New Testament. Will you find that salvation is about accepting Jesus. Nowhere are you called to accept Jesus. Nowhere in the New Testament. Will you find that salvation is about asking Jesus into your heart? Nowhere in the New Testament are you told to ask Jesus into your heart? Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere, It's not there. What you are told again and again and again is to repent and believe, to turn from your sin and turn to Christ. That's what we're told. That's the picture of conversion, repentance, a turning from sin, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we see in the life of Nebuka Nezar. We see repentance, turning from his pride to praise the exact opposite of the sin that marked his life. That's the picture of repentance. That's the picture of a one hundred and eighty degree turn repentance. Have you repented of your sin? That's the question. I didn't ask you if you ask Jesus to come into your heart. I asked you if you'd repented of your sin. I didn't ask you you accepted Jesus. What does that mean? To accept Jesus I asked you, if you turn from your sin and turned to Christ as your only hope of salvation, that's my question to you. Not only do we see repentance, but we also see restoration. Notice this, and again this odes well for the idea that nebecud Nezzer has actually been converted. In chapter four and verse twenty seven, Daniel tells him the dream, and he warns me, and he says, therefore, O King, in light of this, because this is what's coming down the pipeline for you. Therefore, O King, let my counsel be acceptable to you. Break off your sins. By practicing righteousness, there's repentance. Turn from your sin, turn to righteousness and your iniquities. By showing mercy to the oppressed, there's repentance. Again that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity. Turn from your sin that God might lengthen your prosperity. Now think through this for a moment, God's prophet comes to Nebecud Nezzer. God's word comes to nebecand Nezzer first through this dream, not through the interpretation of God's prophet Daniel. Daniel interprets this dream and calls Nebuchadnezzar to repentance, and he says, God is going to remove your kingdom and remove your prosperity. By the way, this has nothing to do with the idea that salvation equals prosperity. Let me say that again. This has nothing to do with the idea that salvation equals prosperity. And people who talk that trash have not met their brothers and sisters in third world countries who have nothing and love God with every fiber of their being and still have nothing. But in its context, it makes all the sense in the world. Nebec Nezzar is the greatest king in all of planet Earth. Why because God placed him there so that he might use him in order to purge his people Israel. So Nebucanzar's relationship to God, by the way, everybody had relationship with God. Amen. Well, being a Christian is about having a relationship with God. No, you have a relationship with God. Non Christians have a relationship with God. Amen, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. They're not going to like it when it manifests itself on the day of judgment, but they do have a relationship with God. Everybody has a relationship with God and a relationship to God. Nebukon Nez's relationship with God is based on the prosperity of his kingdom. So when Daniel says God is going to remove this prosperity from you, Daniel's not teaching us a lesson about the relationship between prosperity and Christianity. Daniel's teaching nebuka Nez' something about his relationship with God and about how God is going to judge him specifically and particularly. Now why is that important? Well, because look at verse thirty eight. At the same time, again, this is after Nebucana's experience that we might not be comfortable calling conversion. At the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, nebuk Nezzer, praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. If nebuc and Nezzer wasn't converted. Why did this happen? Repent or everything goes Nebgan Nezzer, No, I won't repent. Okay, I'm gonna give you your stuff back, but that dog won't hunt. The only way that there is restoration is if there is repentance. There has been repentance, and the evidence of that is the restoration. Nebucha Nezzar has been converted. But listen, even if he hadn't experienced the restoration of his kingdom and the increase of his prosperity, he would still have been converted. How many of you know that you can get saved in your life, again, speaking temporarily physically get worse. Does the term martyr mean anything to you? The apostles love the Lord served him were genuinely converted godly men, and their rewards were things like beheading, crucifixion upside down, run through with a spear in one instance, beaten to death with the branch from an olive tree in another instance. Again, don't buy this lie that says your salvation is connected with monetary increase and a decrease in problems and difficulties in your life. That is simply not true, and so we cannot read that into Nebuchanezic's experience here, but we can see that there is a picture of his conversion. We don't have anything after his life. What we do have is God restored him. Secondly, we look at the means of nebkan Asra's conversion and this is significant. First, Nebkanesra didn't turn to God because he hit rock bottom. Amen, somebody, Nebukanzer didn't turn to God because he hit rock bottom. That is a therapeutic term. Okay, that term comes to us from our friends and organizations like alcoholics, anonymous and so on and so forth, and that a person is really not going to get any better and they're really not going to want to get better unlessen until they hit rock bottom, and then when they hit rock bottom, they are finally ready to look for help and receive help. Folks, That is not biblical. Nebukan Nezar did not turn to God because he hit rock bottom, Nor is it necessary to hit rock bottom in order for an individual to experience genuine conversion. Amen, hear me. Children, you need to thank God every day for parents who raise you in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. You need to thank God every day for parents who catechize you. You need to thank God every day for the fact that you may be a little foggy when it comes to telling people exactly when it was that you were converted, because ultimately, what happened is you were so immersed in these truths that as you walk you merely looked up one day and realized that you weren't just mouthing them anymore, but you actually believed them. They were real in your life, and you've been changed. Don't believe the lie that you have to hit quote unquote rock bottom in order to be ready to turn to God. Here's the other thing. You don't know what rock bottom is? He hit rock bottom? No, actually, there was worse. Amen. No matter how bad things get in your life, remember this, it can always be worse. So no, nebucan Nezzer didn't turn because he hit rock bottom. But why is this significant because and we're going to get to this in a moment here, but there's a theological issue here. And the theological issue is a See I'm going to argue for a reformed, calvinistic understanding of what happened to Nebgan Nezzer, that it had nothing to do with his will, nothing at all, That it was purely the sovereignty of God in spite of nebecan Nezer, not because of, or even in partnership with Nebekanezzer. It was monegistic, not synergistic. God alone saved nebucon Nezzer. Nebukan Nezer did not help God save him, nor did God merely tweak his circumstances so that he would eventually cry out to God. Folks, think about this for a moment. Seven years of what we would now commonly call schizophrenia. The argument from the Semipelasian Armenian side goes something like this, God sent him through that because he knew that was what it would take for Nebuca Nezer to finally turn to him. Well, what does that say about people who don't turn to God that God couldn't figure out how to get them? I mean, think about that for a moment. Think about how far God goes if you look at it from that perspective, Think about how far God goes in order to get nebeca Nezar, and how many people lived their life as decent human beings. In quotes, Okay, decent in quotes. Okay, the old lady down the street, she's nice to kids, she gives them candy, she's as sweet as pie. God has never taken her to the gutter. God has never taken her through painful experiences. God has never sent her out to eat grass for seven years, and she doesn't know Jesus for the man in the moon. She dies and goes to hell. Do you mean to tell me that the only reason she didn't come to Christ is because God couldn't figure out how to torture and torment her enough to make her turn to him. That just doesn't work, folks, That just doesn't work. Or here's the other way that you'd have to look at it, that there's some people that, no matter what God did, they were never going to turn to him. So he just gave up. But it was because of them, not because of God. Because no matter what God would have done, by the way, who made them that way or the accident till he made that way? Is God in heaven going? Oh? If I could only have tweaked that one a little bit before he left the factory, Because if he'd been tweaked just a little bit, all it would take is a few years of eating grass and he would have turned. But as it is, that one is so bent that even inflicting that on him won't turn him to me. Did you follow? See? Nebeker crushes that theory. He kills it once and for all. This is pure monarchism. Nebican does not help God save him. He can't. He's out of his mind. He can do absolutely nothing. He knows nothing, He wants all. He wants his grass. He doesn't want God. He doesn't have sense enough. He didn't turn because someone reached his intellect. His intellect was unreachable. Nebukad Nezar didn't turn because someone reached his intellect. In fact, nobody talks to him. Thirdly, he doesn't turn because somebody met him where he was. Somebody didn't get out there, climbed down on all fours eat grass with him so that they could relate to him, so that somehow, you know, the Gospel could be clearer to him in his grass eating circumstance. Nebukudesser was converted supernaturally and doctrinally. We call this regeneration. Charles Hodge says, of regeneration, it is the subjective change wrought in the soul by the grace of God. When Gruden puts an even finer point on it, in the work of regeneration, we play no role at all. It is instead totally a work of God. Folks, Regeneration is the new birth. Think about it. Did you have anything to do with your first birth? No, nothing at all. You weren't born because you wanted to be born. You weren't conceived because you wanted to be conceived. You had absolutely nothing to do with that. James Boyce expands on this in connecting regeneration and conversion. So what he says, the scripture teach that regeneration is the work of God changing the heart of man by his sovereign will, while conversion is the active man turning toward God with the new inclination thus given to his heart. And so people say, well, what are you saying? Regeneration is completely an act of God. You're saying we have nothing to do with regeneration, none whatsoever. I don't have to cry out to God, I don't have to repent, I don't have to believe. You just told me I had to repent and believe. Now you're saying that I got What are you talking about Yeah, that's conversion. That's not regeneration. You can only experience conversion because of regeneration. You have to be born again in order to even have a desire to respond to God. There is nothing in you that wants God. All you want is you all day, all the time. By the way, if you believe otherwise, then you believe that there is something meritorious in you that does not reside in others, so that when you stand before God in heaven, you will have reason to boast. What do the scriptures say of this clearest expression? John chapter three? Jesus answered him verse three. Truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. You can't even see the Kingdom unless you're born again. Some would have us believe that we're born again because of our response to the kingdom, because of our desire for the kingdom. The Bible says, you can't even see the kingdom unless you're born again, let alone want the kingdom. Nebukanezra said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womban be born? Jesus answered truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. You can't enter unless you're born of water and the spirit. You can't enter unless you're born twice. You can't enter unless you have a spiritual birth. You don't have a spiritual birth in order for you to enter. You don't make that happen. That which is born of the flesh is a flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the spirit. It's like the wind. You hear it sound, but you don't control it, and you don't see it. That's the new birth. The new birth is not you bending your will towards God. The new birth is God making you new and giving you a will bent toward Him that you then exercise by God's grace. Ephesians chapter two, verses one through five. And you were woefully sick, almost look like you were dead. No, you were dead in trespasses and sins dead dead. Well, you know, God does most of the work, but you have to do your part. You're out there drowning and they throw you a life preserver. Two problems with that illustration. Number One, the Bible doesn't say I'm drowning. The Bible says I'm drowned. I'm not in the process of dying. I'm dead. Here's the second problem. Dead men don't grab things. Dead Men do nothing unless they're made alive first. Only having been made alive can they do anything. Regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration comes first. It is supernatural, and you have absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever. Titus Chapter three, Verses four and five. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Does it get clearer than that one Peter one three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead one Peter one, twenty two and twenty three, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth of for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. One John chapter five makes it clear that those who believe believe because they have been born again. This is the new birth. This is what the scriptures teach, so that when we read about man's response to God, what we are reading about is a response that is enabled by the new birth. It is only because of the new birth that is what happened with negagand Nezar. Now, this has been debated for a long time in the history of the Church, the most significant of those debates. Again, we think about it from the standpoint of Calvin and Arminius, but even before that there was Luther and Erasmus, and even before that there is Augustine and Pelagius. How did the Augustinian and Pelagian debate even start? Augustine pray to prayer. That prayer was, Oh, God, command what you would, and grant what you command. God, command what you would and grant what you command. This jumped all over Pelagius, who's a British monk. Pelagius wrote a response. He even wrote to Rome and tried to get Augustine. Now again, Pelagius is in Britain, Augustine is in Africa, and Pelagius writes to Rome basically to say, you need to do something about this African monk because he's talking nonsense. Pelagius responded, are you saying, Augustine, that God has the inherent right to command anything that he so desires from his creatures. Nobody is going to dispute that God, inherently, as the creator of heaven and earth, has the right to impose obligations on his creatures and say that, and say thou shalt do this, and thou shalt do that, command whatever thou would. It is perfectly it is a perfectly legitimate prayer. So Pelagias says, I like the first part of your prayer. I get the first part of your prayer. I agree with the first part of your prayer. However, it was the second part of the prayer that Pelagius abhorred. When Augustine said, grant what you command, his response was what are you talking about. If God is just, If God is righteous and God is holy, and God commands of the creature to do something, certainly that creature must have the power within himself, the moral ability within himself to perform it, or God would never require it in the first place. It sounds reasonable, didn't it. What's the basis of Pelagius's belief. Basically, he believed that man was not completely marred by the fall, and that there was enough residue within man to be able to find within himself that goodness left over after the fall to respond to God. In fact, Pelagius argued that the fall of Adam really only affected Adam directly, and that there's no such thing at all as original sin that mars the rest of us. Arsie Sproul writes, in the fifth century, the Church condemned Pelagious as a heretic. Polagianism was condemned at the Council of Orange, and it was condemned again at the Council of Florence, the Council of Carthage, and also ironically at the Council of Trent in the seventeenth century. In the first three anathemas of the Canons of the Succession. So consistently throughout Church history, the Church has roundly and soundly condemned Polagianism because Polagianism denies the fallenness of our nature. It denies the doctrine of original sin. Why is all of this important? Here's why. Because Pelagianism, at least semi Polagianism, is the predominant view in the Church today. The overwhelming majority of people who call themselves Christian are Pellagian. They do not believe in monarchistic salvation. They do not believe that regeneration precedes faith. They believe with Pelagion that there is enough of man unmarred by the fall, And so they had this idea that Jesus dies in hopes of saving everybody, but recognizing because of man's free will, only some are going to take him up on his offer. We all believe in limited atonement. The semi Pelagians believe that man limits the atonement. The Augustinians believe God limits the atonement. I want to read to you just a few of the canons of the Senate of Orange. Why do I want to read these to you because I want you to see how nothing has changed. These are the things condemned by the Church as heresy, and these are the most commonly held beliefs in the Church today, in our culture and around the world. Listen to them. Canon number four. If anyone maintains that God awaits our will to be cleansed from sin, but does not confess that even our will to be cleansed from sin, will to be cleansed comes to us through the infusion and working of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit himself, who says through Solomon, the will is prepared by the Lord Proverbs eight thirty five, and that salutary work of the Apostle for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Does that sound familiar? Anyone maintains that God is waiting for our will to be cleansed, He's there, He's waiting. He wants to save you. Jesus is waiting. But what he's waiting on is you. He's waiting on you to enact your will. He's waiting on you to find it in yourself the desire to be cleansed. Because, after all, and this is going to sound incredibly familiar, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman. He'll knock on the door, but he won't kick it down. They haven't read my Bible. My God's not running for God. Canon five. If anyone says that not only the increase of faith, but also its beginning and the very desire for faith by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly and comes to the regeneration of holy baptism or salvation. If anyone says that this belongs to us by nature and not by a gift of grace, that is, by the inspiration, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, amending our will and turning it from unbelief to faith and from godlessness to godliness, it is proof that he is opposed to the teaching of the apostle. For Blessed Paul says, and I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion the day of Christ Jesus Philippians one six and again, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own doing. It is a gift of God. Let's look at another one. Canon six. If anyone says that God has mercy upon us when apart from his grace we believe, will, desire, strive, labor, pray, watch, study, seek, ask, or knock, but does not confess that it is by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit within us that we have the faith, the will, or the strength to do all these things as we ought, or if anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man, and does not agree that it is a gift of great itself that we are obedient and humble. He contradicts the apostle who says, what have you that you did not receive? But by the grace of God, I am what I am. There are more, And I would comend to you to read the Canons of the Senate of Orange, because what the Church has condemned as heresy for centuries now is the most popular theological position abiding in the Church today, and it has been roundly condemned as heresy because it does not line up with the scriptures our own Confession, Second London, the Bastian Confession, Chapter nine, paragraph three. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, have wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation. So as a nat man being altogether averse from the good and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself. And I love this line, or prepare himself thereunto. Not only can you not convert yourself, you can't even get yourself ready for conversion. So, finally, what's the fruit of Nebukan conversion? What's all this mean? First, it means all praise goes to God and God alone. God does not share his glory in the conversion of a sinner, when it is God who does the conversion apart from the sinner. And nebka Mesure's condition is there to highlight this doctrine for us, So that if there's any other place in the scripture where you wonder what man's mental capacity and man's mind and man's will has to do with his conversion, there is always Daniel chapter four that says to you, Oh, in case you were wondering, here's a man eating grass who gets saved to God. Be the glory great things he has done. Amen. By the way, I don't care how God found you spiritually, you were on all fours eating grass. Secondly, we see God's kindness and mercy toward Nebekan Nezzer. God is not looking at Nebekan Nezzer, you know, like you'd look at a baby and say, I'm just drawn to you because you're just so cute. No, God looks at Nebekan Nezzer and sees nothing in him whatsoever that would please him or draw him to Nebkan Nezzer. And it was the same of you. You are no better than other people. There was not some light in you that somehow you had maintained that other people had not maintained. You did not go and do extra work to kindle the flame that other people have access to, so that God looked upon you and said, oh, my child, you are so much better than this one over here, because you actually, no, absolutely not. The only oh my child that issues forth from the Father is issued toward his son, who makes you who you are. That's the only one. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. There is none other with whom God is pleased. And he is only pleased with you when you are found in Christ. And you will only be found in Christ if God, by his grace wakes you from the dead. Thirdly, we see that Nebican Nezzar is now a trophy of God's grace. Throughout the ages, Nebuican Nezzar does not stand as a monument to the will of man being exercised towards God. He stands as a monument to the God of grace, who saves men in spite of themselves. That's what the Augustinian doctrine does. It makes trophies of grace for God's glory and not for our own. I did not exercise what I found in myself, but I exercised what I had been given by God, and both the giving and the exercising or by God's grace, and as a result, those who are saved are trophies of God's grace. Finally, Nebuka Nezzar stands as an encouragement all of us engaged in evangelism, because he says to us, you don't have to be smart enough, you don't have to be slick enough, you don't have to be tricky enough, you don't have to be crafty enough. Just share the gospel. By the way, do you feel a burden lifted? I was trained in evangelism from an Armenian perspective, and I cannot tell you the burden that comes with actually thinking that a person being saved is dependent upon you saying the right thing, the right way in the right time. I cannot tell you the burden that that brings. In fact, many of you right here in front of me don't evangelize because you're afraid to say the wrong thing and you are overwhelmed by the pressure that comes from thinking that you have to say the right thing and the right way at the right time. Otherwise somebody can be lost forever because you weren't intelligent enough, articulate enough, slick enough, or whatever enough. But what Daniel chapter four says to you and to me is that if God can save a man who's on all fours eaten grass, he can certainly use you. Amen, God can use you. Just share the gospel. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God unto salvation for all those who believe the jew first and also the Greek. Just share the gospel enough already. Now does that mean that we don't need to be as clear as we can and as articulate as we can, and as wisome as we can. Okay, I'm not saying that I'm not saying that you need to go out of here like Jonah, the worst evangelist in the history of the world. You stink of fish, and you walk around saying to people repent. In forty days, he's gonna wipe you out repent. And forty days he's gonna wipe you out. Repent. I sure hope you don't. And forty days he's gonna wipe you out repent. I don't like you. I don't want to be here. I wasn't even coming here. But what I smell like is the fish who spit me out on you ashore. I hate you people repent forty days is gonna wipe you out. See, I'm not saying that you need to be that guy. But here's a newsflash. God use that guy to save a whole city. Worst evangel list ever and God used them to save a whole city. Why Because it's not about how articulate you are. It's not about how winsome you are. God saves sinners. God saves sinners. Now let me get to the other side of the corner. Because you never preach a message like this without having people come to you with some version of this conversation. I understand that it is God who regenerates us and God who saves us. I just don't feel very regenerated. I think I'm not elect Well what have you been doing, I've been sitting there waiting to feel regenerated. Well, what's the evidence that you've been regenerated. Well, then I turned to God in repentance and faith. Okay, turn to God in repentance and faith. Well, I really don't want to turn to God in repentance and faith because then I think that might be my flesh. Well, but God says that that would be regeneration. Yeah, but I'm really scared that it would be my flesh. So I don't want to do anything because I'm afraid that it would be my flesh. Yeah, but it's Him who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So what you just said to me is God has given you a desire to be saved, a desire to turn to Him and repentance and faith. But you won't turn to Him in repentance and faith because you feel like doing so would be dishonoring to the God who gave you the desire to do it in the first place. Help you cry out to God, call upon Him while he is to be found. Turned to him, repent of your sin. Trust in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation. I plead with you to trust in Christ. Oh wait a minute, why would you plead with me to trust in Christ? If you think that God is the one? Yes, he uses the preaching of the Gospel, and I want you to be saved. I want you to turn to Christ. I desire that Christ would have the full reward for which he gave his life. And I know that He uses the frailty and weakness of preaching of the Gospel. And so I say to you, through tears thing dies, turn to Christ repentance. Believe you don't have to figure out how God did it. Just know that God has been gracious to you, and come to Him by faith. This doctrine is not designed for you to sit around and navel gaze as to whether or not you're the elect. This doctrine is designed so that when you cry out to God and when he saves you, you might not glorify yourself, but you might recognize that you did what you did by the grace and to the glory of Almighty God himself. That's what this doctrine is about. Nebeka Nezzar doesn't sing a song about how he was regenerated. He just sings a song about the goodness of the God who saved him. There is a time and a place for digging deep into these doctrines. But if you believe that digging deep into the doctrine and understanding it exhaustively is the prerequisite for you being saved, you've just denied the doctrine. Do you follow me? You just created a prerequisite. Now I am born again because I have sufficiently plumbed the depths of the doctrine of regeneration. All praise be to me at my doctrinal study. Grace, Are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, and as a gift of God, not as a result of works, So that no man can boast. Turn from your sin, Turn to Christ, go from pride to praise, Trust in Christ alone for your salvation, and know that it is He who has worked in you to even desire such a thing. Don't you dare become one of those navel gazers who constantly questions whether or not he's one of the elect when the fact that you're worried about. It would be evidence that you are amen. Praise God for the way that he saves us. Praise God for his electing, regenerating chrace. Praise God for the finished work of Christ. Praise God for snatching us by the scruff of the neck and dragging us into the Kingdom. Praise God for all of that. Now, repent of your sin, cling to Christ, and be saved. Let's pray