I Dare You: Speak Out! - Part A

You see, secret discipleship doesn't really work very well.

It's an oxymoron. You can't have a secret disciple because eventually the discipleship will demolish the secrecy or the secrecy will destroy the discipleship. Jesus said we are the light of the world and that we can't put our light under a basket.

Today Skip Heitzig shares why it just doesn't work for you to be an undercover Christian. But before we begin, we want to tell you about a resource bundle that will help you love to study God's Word. So it's another new year and you've resolved to study through the entire Bible again. Very often, somewhere around 2 Chronicles, that wonderful goal can grind to a halt.

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That's connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Daniel chapter two today as we join Skip for today's teaching. When it comes to our attitude toward the world, there's really only a couple of options we have.

Option number one is to escape the world, to turn away from it, to sort of have a blind eye, wash our hands of it, so to speak. The other is to engage in it, not to escape it, but to engage by serving it, rolling up our sleeves, and figuring out a way to integrate what we believe with where they're at. Now, part of doing that is sharing a witness with them vocally, or what Peter called giving to every man an answer, a reason for the hope that lies within us.

When I first met my wife, of course, she wasn't my wife when I met her, but when we were dating, we decided to go street witnessing. Actually, I asked her on a date and I said, tonight, let's go share our faith on the street. And she said, what does that mean? So we're going to actually go out on the street, in this case, the Huntington Beach Pier where a lot of people are coming and going, and I'm going to walk up to them and I'm going to share my faith with them.

Are you up for that? And she goes, I guess. You know, that was just so awkward and strange to hear. And I said, tell you what, you don't have to say anything.

All you have to do is just stand at a distance and just pray for me and just kind of watch what happens. And it was a wonderful evening. And by the end of the night, she thought, I want to try it.

I want to try it. It's my turn now. And she turned into a fiery little evangelist. What's interesting is that in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was shot, it took the world about two to three hours to get the news.

In 1999, when John Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash off the East Coast, it took the world two to three minutes to get the news. Here's the saddest part. Jesus died on a cross 2,000 years ago, and a huge chunk of the world still hasn't heard the message of redemption. And so the dare here, as seen in the book of Daniel, is to speak out, as Daniel does to this king. You've heard it said on a few occasions, if you've come here, that a church that does not evangelize will eventually fossilize.

Now, that's true also for individuals. If you, personally, don't share with other people the hope that is in you, you, too, will become relegated to fossil status, silent Christianity, secret agent Christianity. Jesus spoke of those who put their light under a bushel, and He said, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. You see, secret discipleship doesn't really work very well.

It's an oxymoron. You can't have a secret disciple because eventually the discipleship will demolish the secrecy or the secrecy will destroy the discipleship. In the second half of Daniel chapter 2, we're going to look at 26 verses. Now, these are long chapters, especially this one. It's 49 verses, so I've cut it in two. And even today, 26 verses is a large chunk to tackle. So I want to talk really fast, if that's okay with you.

We're going to read this, and we're going to make an application. But of these 26 verses, 20 of them are Daniel speaking out to King Nebuchadnezzar. So if this were a red letter edition where the words of Daniel were in red, the pages before you would be, like, all red. It is Daniel's speech.

He is speaking out to the king, and we're going to analyze the way he speaks out to Nebuchadnezzar. And it's all based upon a dream that the king has, a remarkable dream, a time machine, as he takes a sweep of history into the future and looks at a succession of world governing empires. From Nebuchadnezzar all the way to the second coming of Christ, some of what we read is history. It's already taken place. Some of what we read is prophecy.

All of it is practical. So we're going to begin in verse 24 of chapter 2, and we're going to note four ways that Daniel, this young prophet in Babylon, spoke out to Arioch the ambassador and to Nebuchadnezzar the king. Number one, he spoke out with authority.

Listen to what he says. Therefore, Daniel went to Arioch whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and he said thus to him, do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Take me before the king, and I will tell the king the interpretation. Arioch quickly brought Daniel before the king and said thus to him, I have found a man. You liar, Arioch, you didn't find anybody. He came to you, man.

But here's a typical scenario of somebody trying to hone in on the reward that he wanted to be a part of. I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation. What is noteworthy here is Daniel's confidence. Notice it says in verse 24, I will tell the king the interpretation.

Scoot down a little further. Look at verse 36, verse 36. Now he's speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar. He says this is the dream and now we will tell the interpretation.

Go down a bit further, verse 45. The dream is certain, the interpretation is sure. There's no hesitation in Daniel's voice. He doesn't say, did I get it right, Mr. King, sir? I hope I did because I sort of felt this impression that what you dreamed was and what it means is none of that. There's a ring of authority in his voice.

Why? Because this is the word of God he's speaking. He got a direct revelation from God probably the night before and now he goes to the king with what it is and what it means. He heard from God. In the early days of the Billy Graham Crusades, when he was filling stadiums all around the world, he came to Dallas, Texas, and every night filled the stadium to overflowing 70,000 people poured into that great stadium. In the following days, one of the newspapers in Texas decided to run an article about the events with Billy Graham and one of the journalists wrote an article in which he said, how can a young man without any seminary education draw such a crowd of people when some of the highly educated and robed downtown ministers preach to half-filled churches on Sunday mornings? Then the journalist answered his own question by writing, it's because Billy Graham preaches what the Bible says. He has a note of authority in his message, a thus saith the Lord.

Sayeth the Lord. And he does, he did, he always has. One of his trademarks is, and the Bible says, and then a couple sentences later, the Bible says, and he believed that the Bible was God's truth. That ring of authority is what the prophets had.

415 times in the Old Testament is that phrase, thus saith the Lord. One of the most notable things about Jesus Christ was the same ring of authority. As he was speaking to the crowds, preaching the Sermon on the Mount, when he was done, the crowd marveled, the scripture tells us, the Bible says.

The crowd marveled because he spoke as one having authority, not like the scribes. We keep reading the book and we find that the followers of Christ had that same authority. Acts chapter four, the early church was threatened by the councils. They hit the streets of Jerusalem after praying, and the Bible says, and I'm quoting, they spoke the word of God with boldness.

There's Stephen in the book of Acts, that's chapter six. He stands up before the council, and it says they were not able to resist the spirit and the wisdom by which he spoke. All of them spoke with boldness, with clarity, with authority. Now, by authority, I don't mean arrogance. I mean confidence. Arrogance is one thing, confidence is yet another. Arrogance is the know-it-all attitude, you're a pagan, I know everything because I'm enlightened.

Nobody wants that. But confidence that the message you share is God's truth, that's yet another thing. The most effective people in sharing their faith are those who are confident in the believing of their faith. They believe what it says in Hebrews, the word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword. It pierces, it penetrates between the soul and the spirit.

It reveals the thoughts and the intents of the heart. That's Daniel. This is the interpretation. It is clear. I will tell the king. He speaks with authority. Second thing that is noteworthy is that Daniel spoke out with humility.

Now we're going to balance out the authority. Look at the very next verse, 26. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen in its interpretation?

Now stop right there. Daniel has a vulnerable moment right here. He has the answer in his hip pocket. He knows what the king has dreamed and what it means. He could easily have promoted himself and say, well, yes I do. I happen to be the man of all men, the wisest guy on earth.

But I want you to notice his humility. Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king has demanded the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers cannot declare to the king. In other words, there's not a man on earth who can tell you what you want to hear. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days, your dream, and the visions of your head upon your bed were these. As for you, O king, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this. And he who reveals secrets had made known unto you what will be.

But as for me, the secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living. But for our sakes who made known the interpretation to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart. Can you see the contrast between Arioch and Daniel? Arioch says, I found a man. Daniel is the man, comes before the king.

Are you the man? No, God's the guy. There's a God in heaven who knows everything.

And I'm not better or smarter or wiser than anybody else, but God has revealed this to you and he's revealed to me the interpretation. So it's not me, it's God. Arioch would say, it's not God. God isn't even mentioned in Arioch's speech.

It's all about me. Daniel has humility. There's an old saying, empty trucks make the loudest noise.

Arioch is an empty truck, making lots of noise, bringing Daniel before the king. Daniel, on the other hand, with notable humility. You see, humility will make a hard message softer, makes you believable.

There's an old saying, you'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Sweeten it up a little bit, soften it up a little bit, humble yourself. When you speak to an unbeliever, humility is so important. Authority needs humility. If you have authority without humility, you are arrogant. So you need the mixture, the blend of authority and humility. And when you blend those two together, you have integrity, your message will stick.

What does it mean practically to us? How do you have humility? Well, if you're talking to somebody, if you're speaking out God's truth in a conversation, listen to them every now and then. Find out what their questions and their concerns are. It doesn't help a thirsty person to have you open a fire hose on them.

You're thirsty, give it to them in doses, in increments. Don't point to yourself, point to him. So Daniel speaks out with authority, but he also speaks out with humility. Number three, and here's probably the most noteworthy part of the whole chapter as far as historians are concerned and people interested in prophecy, is that Daniel spoke out with accuracy. That is, what he interprets the dream to be actually was, these things actually happened in history. And we're going to begin in verse 31 to get that rendering. You, O king, Daniel continues, were watching. And behold, a great or a colossal image, this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you and its form was awesome.

So he was a California prophet. This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron, partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of the iron and the clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found, and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. Now about this time, Nebuchadnezzar is riveted in his seat with his mouth partially open as he realizes, bingo, that's exactly what I dreamed.

This kid nailed it. That's what I saw in my dream, a polymetallic image standing in front of me, completely stationary until suddenly out from nowhere like a missile from heaven, like a sci-fi movie. This stone hit the bottom of it, destroyed the image, and in its place was a mountain that filled the whole earth. A couple of noteworthy things before we continue. Don't you find it interesting that what he saw was a statue?

What's noteworthy about that? Well, they're in Babylon, the capital of idolatry. There are statues everywhere. God speaks to an idolater in a language an idolater can understand. He would be familiar with the imagery, and so he sees an image.

Second, it's an image of a man because we're dealing with man's rule, man's kingdoms, the times of the Gentiles, as Jesus called it. A third thing that is notable about the dream itself is that it's top-heavy. It's heavier on top than on the bottom. The specific gravity of gold is 19. The specific gravity of silver is 11. The specific gravity of bronze is 8.5.

Of iron, 7.8, and the specific gravity of clay is around 2. That means this image is unstable. It's top-heavy, and that is how every nation and kingdom of man on the earth is. It's top-heavy.

It's unstable at best. As you work your way down the statue from the gold from the top down to the toes, the clay, there's a decrease in value from gold being the most expensive to clay being like worthless. As you decrease in value, however, you increase in strength, except for the very last one, that is the clay. The iron is stronger than the bronze, which is stronger than the silver, which is stronger than the gold being the softest.

So we have a decrease in value, a decrease in specific gravity, but an increase in strength. Now, let's continue. Verse 36.

This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all.

You are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth, and a fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, and as much as the iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and the toes partly of potter's clay, partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron, partly of clay, so the kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile.

As you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as the iron does not mix with clay. And in the days of these kings, those final kings as represented by the toes, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and the kingdom will not be left to another people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. In as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that a broken piece is the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God, notice the great God. He's speaking to a king who worshiped 13 different gods as the chief deities of Babylon. The great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain.

The interpretation is sure. Now I need your attention because I'm going to work quickly through what he sees and what this means and what has happened with accuracy as Daniel peers into the future from Nebuchadnezzar's time onward. We'll revisit it at other times in Daniel.

We'll get a snapshot today. We begin with the head of gold. Daniel says that's you, king. You're the head of gold. You're the king tuna. You're the big enchilada. You're the big kahuna.

You're the guy. You're the world governing empire, and he was. He was at his peak of glory at this time, governed the whole world. Of a nation and of a city that was called the city of gold, about 90 years later, the historian Herodotus visited Babylon and said this city has more gold than any other city I have ever visited in my life. Gold leaf on the palaces and on the public buildings. It oozed, he said, out of every pore of Babylon.

It was the golden city. And Nebuchadnezzar had reign over that city until 539 BC, when another coalition of kingdoms came together against it. As represented in verse 39, after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours. Nebuchadnezzar probably bristled at this point.

He had built Babylon to last forever. And now this young upstart says, here's your dream. That was right. Here's what it means. You're going down.

Another one's coming up. We're not told who that is here. We will be told who that is in subsequent chapters. It is the Medo-Persian Empire, a coalition of Medes and Persians. Under Darius the Mede, who will take the city and oust the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, that's chapter five, and Cyrus the Mede, or Cyrus the Persian, excuse me, will reign over the kingdom in a dual capacity. What's interesting is Darius the Mede will establish a new form of government called the tribute, where every one of his captives will be demanded that they pay him in silver. Silver was the metal of that empire. It will be much larger geographically.

It will be much inferior or weaker because it will lack central government. And it is that weakness that a young Greek yuppie named Alexander, who thought he was really great, will take advantage of. And Alexander the Great will be the next world governing leader, as also mentioned in verse 39, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over the earth. That wraps up Skip Heitzig's message from his series, I Dare You. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can keep these messages coming your way to connect you and many others around the world with God's Word. Well, it's vital to remember that God is our Father in heaven. It reminds us that we have a sovereign and personal God who works in our lives.

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