Sleepless in Judah Part 4 RDS5D

God has an encouraging word for each of us through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton on the Tuesday edition of The Encouraging Word. And as we study the Word, we're available for you keyboard to keyboard on our website at www.tewonline.org and on the phone at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Morality will take a backseat to power. In America today, we've got many expressions of that.

The bottom line, power. Who says what? Morality is not the issue.

We don't care how a person governs. What's at stake here are issues that are relevant but not pertinent. By the way, some people have asked me about dreams and visions today. Now, folks, this is a tough area to get into because I don't want to stand up here and say that you and I do not have dreams and visions.

We don't wake up sometimes in the mornings disturbed by or delighted by things that we thought we dreamed about. But I am going to say to you folks that the use of dreams and visions as far as God is concerned is redundant. It's over. It's no longer necessary. God no longer uses that. And the reason is because of His Word. God has given us the full revelation of Himself through His Word. God no longer needs to utilize dreams and visions to motivate people. I say to you without any apology whatsoever that if you've had a dream or a vision related to spiritual matters, it's probably just that you didn't take your Alka-Seltzer before you went to sleep.

I cannot stand here tonight and make a definitive statement about dreams and visions. But I am going to tell you that God, according to Hebrews chapter one, in times past, spoke to us through His prophets. But now He has spoken to us through His Son, of which we have the complete and full revelation of Jesus Christ through His Word. This is the revelation of God. This is the vision of God. And so it is that the king moves from his dream to his decision.

I want you to notice who he called in, his cabinet. This king was surrounded by some very interesting people. First of all, they were the magicians. The magicians, according to the ancient literature, were the scholars. These were the very people who analyzed and dissected information, had a very high level of understanding. The second group were the astrologers. They were the stargazers. The third group were the sorcerers. They were the Medians. These were the palm readers. These were the people who had special 900 numbers.

Do you know, folks, that today there are multi-millions of dollars being spent by ordinary people like you and me who are calling this kind of witchcraft that flies in the face of a loving God. Do you realize that there are people in California, New York, and New Orleans sitting there, rubbing their hands together, reaping the benefits from a nation that has gone berserk, a nation that finds themselves in the midst of a dream, a nation that is being led by a cabinet that is called to make decisions outside of the boundaries of the principles and precepts upon which God stands. I've tried to analyze the king's decision. It seems to me that King Nebuchadnezzar, this insecure, hostile man who craved for power gathered around him his cabinet.

He immediately began to seek advice. And what he did was he called in his advisors. Who were they? They were the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers. And by the way, don't forget the Chaldeans. You'll remember where Abraham came from.

You all remember? Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans. That was the seat of wisdom. That was the learning center, the great mathematical centers of understanding. This was the root of Pythagoras and every rider that has been affixed there too. This was where the great theorems of the world began to rise up, the physiological understanding of man's anatomy. This was where principles and precepts were founded and grounded.

And so it is that this king Nebuchadnezzar finding himself in a predicament immediately began to gather to himself those who would help him to arrive at a decision. May I just make a little side remark here? Be very careful about the people to whom you go to, to help you make the decisions that you need to make. I would say to our young people, as I always do, but not just to our young people. I would say to our business people, men and women. To our pastors and ministers, to moms and dads. God has privileged us so much in a community like this because Spartanburg is filled with men and women who have spiritual godly wisdom. I want you to know that I'm very grateful that God brought our family into a community where our children go to a school where even the superintendent of the school system is a godly man. I'm grateful for that, folks. I'm grateful for the godly teachers that God has raised up in this community.

The counselors. I'm grateful for the churches that we have across the board here in Spartanburg County where our people can go, where they can seek and receive godly wisdom and counsel. I'm grateful for moms and dads of integrity who are willing to make a stand and to take a stand. I had a family say to me this afternoon, pastor, we've only just started going to church.

But I tell you, in the last four months, we've been coming morning, noon and night. They're sitting here right now. And I commend them for being here in the house of God.

Why? Because God has surrounded us with the places and the people to provide us with godly counsel. That's a privilege. That's a privilege. I thank the Lord for my mom and dad and for my parents-in-law. This afternoon, driving over here, I called my father. Not just to say to him, how are you doing, Pop? And what's going on down on the other side? And did you enjoy the services where you were this morning?

It wasn't just about that. It's so that I can listen to my father's voice. Because when I listen to my father's voice, I am surrounding myself with God's cabinet. The greatest counsel God gives to me is my wife.

I take very seriously. There are so many jokes and little asides and this and that. Folks, I tell you something, the person that I know who speaks the most wisdom to me is my own wife. It's amazing. Boy, she can tell me things that nobody else does, especially about my preaching.

I love it. We go home sometimes and I say to her, well, what do you think of the service this morning? And she said, oh man, Steve, just is he tremendous? And I tell you, the choir just did such a good job and on and on, you know, whatever is appropriate. And then I'll wait a little bit more and then I'll just wait and I'll say, and what did you think about the whole service, you know? You know, and she'd say, oh man, I tell you, I just enjoyed when the chairman of deacons got up and closed the service in prayer. I'll say, yeah, wasn't that great?

And what did you think about the rest of the service? And we'll exhaust every avenue and opportunity of the whole thing. And I'm still asking her what she thinks and we eventually get down to where she's got nowhere else to go. And I'll say, well, what did you think about the preaching girl? And she'll say, yes. I say, what do you mean yes?

What does that mean? Yes, yes, yes, no, yes, up, yes, yes. She say, no, no, it was, it was, and I liked your tie, I loved your tie. That's the point at which I turned to her and say, well, what do you know about preaching anyway? I'm so glad that God has given to me in this church, some men who have become so very dear to my own heart.

I sometimes don't see them for days on end. And yet that gap makes no difference, they there, they there to counsel. Counseling is not just something that's said, it's a presence. It's not just an affirmation, it's not just a yes, it's a no and it's a yes, it's an up and it's a down.

It's a truth, it's a reality, it's a love, it's a joy, it's a camaraderie, it's a oneness with, it's an understanding, it's a feeling, it's an empathy, it's a oneness. And I'm going to say to you that King Nebuchadnezzar in this predicament did what the world does. He went and he consulted with his cabinet. So here's the question tonight. Who is your cabinet?

Who are you consulting with? Please forgive me for the statement, but I'll never forget when President Carter was president of the United States. I still believe to this day, I didn't believe it as much back then, but today I certainly do. That this man had tremendous principles and character and I might not have voted for him back then or whatever the situation and circumstance. But the one thing that I was always disappointed with about President Carter were the people that he surrounded himself with.

I'm one of those people who take an interest on the inside things. I'm interested in the kinds of people that the president nominates to be a part of his cabinet. And it absolutely appalls me in the name of accommodation and compromise. The type of people and the character and the framework out of which some of these people come, that our leaders from the state government to the White House surround themselves with. But it's no different to you and me.

Who are you consulting with? Look at the king's dream and the king's decision. But notice the king's dilemma. His dilemma was that he dreamed a dream and then he forgot what the dream was. You know, folks, if you don't mind a little humor here, I think God just decided he was going to nail his hind leg to the wall. See, God understood Nebuchadnezzar. I think God understood this man's ego. I think he realized what it was that was going to rock his boat most of all. I think that God understood that he needed to have his treasury threatened to the highest level of irritation. I believe it was that God looked down and said, I'm going to use this godless man who thinks that he owns and runs the world. And I'm going to rattle his bones, sleepless in Judah.

We must be reminded that in oriental culture, a forgotten dream was a bad omen. That made things 10 times worse. So let's look at the king's dramatic test in verse five. He put his people, his cabinet to a dramatic test. That's what he did. He called them into a cabinet meeting and he said, I don't care what anybody says, I didn't do it. So go out there and tell everybody I didn't do it.

They went out and said he didn't do it. When the king speaks, everybody listens. You see a dramatic test of this nature with a basic underlying spiritual foundation demonstrates three things. Number one, it demonstrates the failure of mankind. Verse 10, there is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks. Number two, it demonstrates fraud, which is just a nice way of saying theft.

People living in a masquerade. And number three, it demonstrates the fickleness of ungodly leadership. Verse 11, these people said, listen, this thing is far too difficult. King, you're putting a number on us.

You're making things go beyond the pale of reason. You see, basically what happened, folks, that the king spoke out one side of his mouth. King Nebuchadnezzar did not believe in his own system. And so we look at the king's decree in verses 12 and 13. This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men in Babylon. I want to submit to you tonight that Satan inspired Nebuchadnezzar just as he does today to rid the world of a man like Daniel, a man who would not compromise.

May I make the statement that I made at the beginning of the study tonight? If you are living for the Lord Jesus Christ, you become a prime candidate to be squeezed out. Satan is after you. He wants to trip you up.

He wants to destroy your life, your business. And he's going to use whatever means at his disposal. I want you to note a pattern here that is not unlike the pattern that Satan uses in our lives.

According to scripture, he has a definitive plan. Do you know that Satan even uses the things that God puts in our hearts and minds? In this case, there was a dream. God put that dream there.

Satan used it. Number two, there's a violent temper that follows. Satan's plan always results in destruction. Dreams always change to destruction and they ultimately result in death.

There is an extreme penalty that waits for those who succumb to bad advice. So what does this teach us tonight? Well, I want to suggest three things that this teaches us tonight. First of all, that no man can of himself understand the revelation of God. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. A very, very important passage of scripture. No man can of himself understand the revelation of God.

Listen to this. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God.

For they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Now folks, I want to say this to you tonight. I want you to listen to me very carefully. If you are here tonight or you are listening to my voice by way of radio and you do not understand these things, they're going over your head, they're bypassing you, you're struggling, you're grappling with them. They don't make sense. In fact, you found yourself sometimes saying, Oh, that's just a lot of nonsense. That's preacher talk.

You know, why do you keep on relating this back into our day and age? And this is just a lot of nonsense. Here's what the Bible says to you. The Bible says to you that the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. You'd say to me, pastor, what do I need to do about this?

Here's what you need to do. You need to give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the greatest thing you can ever do. Now what will happen is that immediately you give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. God by his Spirit immediately begins to give you spiritual discernment. Now spiritual discernment literally means that God gives you the means to be able to interpret, quote unquote, your dreams from a spiritual perspective. You automatically begin to see things in a spiritual light, not in a human light.

There have been many times in my life that I've gone up to somebody and I've said to them, let me show you this verse, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, or a verse like this, and I'll read it to them. I'll say, what does that mean to you? And they say, oh, I don't know.

It just doesn't really make sense to me. Then that person gives their heart and life to Jesus Christ. And you go and read them the same verse and say to them, what does this mean? And they say, wow, I can't believe this.

I've never seen this like this before. That's spiritual discernment. You know what's happened? You've moved out of the way and God's moved in.

God by his Spirit has taken over. Now folks, what happened here with Nebuchadnezzar is that his cabinet in reality were making a pronouncement about spiritual discernment. They didn't know that. If you'd gone up to those astrologers and palm readers and diviners and everything else in between and medium hunters and all the other things and said to them, do you know that you're making a spiritual statement about spiritual discernment? They would have said to you, say what? But God was using them.

Is it possible that God could use magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans to speak his message to those that he wanted to hear it? Well, listen to what they said. They said a time without number here in chapter two. They said what the king asked is too difficult.

No one ever asked such a thing. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods. What were they doing? They were making a spiritual pronouncement about spiritual discernment so that godly people like Daniel could pick up the banner of God's truth and march forward into the prophetic future of a God who loves us and who gave us everything that we have at our disposal. What a dramatic irony.

What a dramatic irony. Number two, a Christian man is a man on earth able to touch the things of heaven. All right? Here we go.

This is it. How many of you tonight would say with me, Pastor, despite myself, I know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and he lives in my heart. Would you raise your hand?

Thank you. Please put your hands down. Now folks, listen to me. Here's what the Bible says about you.

Because you are a Christian man, a Christian lady, you are able to touch the things of heaven. You are a conduit. You're a channel. You're a lightning conductor.

That's what you are. You have the capacity to pass on God's message to the world. A Christian is a man on earth able to touch the things of heaven.

What a privilege. Now what prevents us from touching things in heaven? Our sin prevents us.

So how do we clear the fog? How do we make it possible for us to touch the things of heaven? Confessing our sin. Telling the Lord, that's why it's important to say, Lord Jesus, I've sinned against you. What God does, he cleanses us from all our unrighteousness. He enables us to touch the things of heaven. It's a most dramatic, most dramatic thing, this issue of spiritual discernment.

Folks, listen to me. I'm praying more and more every day that more and more people every day at First Baptist Church are going to be people of spiritual discernment. That you're going to be able to understand what a privilege we have. Parents here today with your children, your teenagers, listen, God will give you spiritual discernment even when you don't know what to do next. When you lose your job and you're worried about that and you're exasperated, God will give you spiritual discernment, understanding. When you're faced with a predicament at work and you don't know what to do about it, God in his timing will give you spiritual discernment and understanding.

Why? Because God will enable you by his grace to touch the things of heaven. Now the world cannot do that. Number three, you cannot touch the things of God and the things that God does unless you have God living in you. Now what are the things that God does? Joy, happiness, peace, love, these are the things of God, these are the things of heaven and God's word says to us, wait a minute, I want to take you beyond the realm of the astrologers and this cabinet that surrounded the likes of King Nebuchadnezzar and I want to give you the privilege of being able to touch the things of God.

Folks, let me just close by saying this to you. When we give our lives to Jesus Christ, we become adopted to be joint heirs with the Son. We are included in the family of God. We are given all the basic fabric of what it needs to be a co-equal partner in the rich grace of God.

Paul spoke about it in Romans chapter 12 verses one and two. He said, I beg you in view of God's mercy or that another way of saying that is based upon the outpouring and the availability of the bottomless reservoir of the riches of God's mercy. I have given it all to you.

I want you to have it. And when I give that to you, I'm able to give you strength and encouragement, joy. I'm able to give you spiritual discernment. I'm going to help you to understand when you lose a loved one, I'm going to give you in the middle of your grief, a spiritual understanding. Folks, I can't tell you the difference between a family who loses somebody who doesn't know Jesus Christ and a family who loses somebody who does. Both families grieve. Both families go through agony.

But a Christian family sees it with spiritual discernment. That's real hope. That's real hope.

Amen. If you've been praying with a pastor and the Lord has stirred your heart, and perhaps you want to take it a step further, maybe you have some questions we can help answer from the Bible itself, give us a call. We stand ready to connect with you 24 hours a day at this number, 866-899-WORD.

Jot it down, store it in your cell. We'd love to connect with you and pray with you. That's 866-899-9673. Or meet us online at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. And next up, the most important thing a pastor has to share today is next. God has spoken to you, hasn't He? And you're ready to give your heart to Jesus.

I'd love to help you right now. Will you pray this prayer with me and accept Jesus into your heart and life? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know that Jesus loves me and died for me on the cross. Right now, I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come into my heart and save me today and forgive me for my sin. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. If you've prayed that prayer, we'd love to get alongside of you and celebrate with you and send you some literature and help you as you begin to grow. And I want you to know that I love you very, very much. And by the way, don't leave. Don't go away, whatever you do, because I'll be right back.

Oh, if God has spoken to you, let's talk about it. Let's pray about it. Let's put free resources in your hands for the next step. You can meet us online at tewonline.org.

That's tewonline.org. Or give us a call, 866-899. Word is the number.

That's 866-899-9673. And before we get away, a word from Dr. Don about what it is to be an encourager. Hello, my friends. I want to speak to you personally today from my heart to yours. I don't think there is ever a better or more important time for us to respond to our world by standing up for righteousness. Now, with this in mind, I would like to invite you to become an encourager ministry partner. You see, together, we can impact lives both now and for all time and all eternity. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry. So that you are standing with me financially enables me to move forward with confidence to do the work God has called me to do. So please call the number and just simply say, I want to become an encourager. Thank you so much for helping me. That number again is 866-899. Word, that's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org Thank you so much for sending me the daily encouraging word devotional. I passed it on to a friend from Kenya and now he's sending it to his sister in Kenya.