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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you All right, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bulletin. We'll go through a couple quick announcements here this morning. And our verse of the week is from Song of Solomon chapter 8 verse 7. The Bible reads, Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contented. And that's a great verse there. We are a family integrated church. Many children and infants are welcome during the services. We do have a mother baby room back there and our comfort room is up here in front. Remember, no eating during the services. Maintain a professional atmosphere. And keep the children from running and making noise during the church service. In the middle of the bulletin, our service time is listed. Our first service is at 10 a.m. If the first service ends early, which is probably unlikely, we're going to start early on the second service just because we have activities and stuff like that. I will try my best to shorten the sermon, but it just didn't work yesterday. But second service is at around 1130. So many times listed. 5 p.m. on Wednesdays meeting here at the church building. Then on Saturdays 10 to 12, lunch provided by church and then 2 to 4. Then Sunday afternoons, we do have soul winning this afternoon around 2.15 p.m. here today. Obviously we're still going to do soul winning today, but what we're going to do is probably shorten the length on it just a little bit. Anyways, salvation is listed there for our churches, birthdays and anniversaries. On the next page, our Bible memorization challenge. So ages 11 and above, you must quote a chapter perfectly, 8 to 10, 7 verses perfectly, and below 8, 1 verse perfectly to get your prize. The prizes are in a bag right there. We've got, nobody likes corn flavored Doritos apparently, because that's been sitting there for weeks. So we're not getting any new chips until somebody eats that, right? This is going to be snicker. That's just the way it's going to work, right? So we've got snickers and then one corn Doritos, okay? Trust me, kids like colors. They see it's green, they'll be like, yeah. Right? So, you know, just so you can give it to your kids as a prize or whatever. Anyways, upcoming activities. And so today is our married couple sweetheart banquet. Who's excited? Beside me. A few people, right? I knew last year that was the activity people enjoyed the most to be honest. Like everybody had a good time, right? I think everyone had a great time last year. I'm excited it's going to be a great time. And so obviously to participate in the game itself, you need to be married. If you're not married though, if you're not here with your couple, then you're welcome to stick around and fellowship and play games back there. I think a lot of the singles, you know, want to pay attention to the game. They're very interested to see what happens. Everyone's been trying to get me to join the game in my life. It's like I made the questions, right? So I know what the answers are. Right? Obviously we already reviewed it so we'd get a perfect score if we were put to the test. But anyways, we're going to have a great time here today. That will start after so many times. Next Sunday will be our prayer meeting. Then on Friday, February 25th, we have a soul winning marathon. Current and upcoming series. So we are in the book of Daniel. We're actually going to be taking a break from the false philosophy series because it's a super long series. And we're going to do a short series on principles of competition, or principles on competition. Then on Tuesday evenings we do have the book of Genesis, which is via live stream from Pompon Gets Preached. Information on the group chat. There is a place for the notes for the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song. First thing. Second. Second. Second. Okay. Okay. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. All the last. Daniel chapter 2, and as our custom we will be reading the entire chapter. Daniel chapter 2, please say amen if you're there. Amen. Daniel chapter 2 verse 1. And in the second year of the reign of the Phukat Nisar, the Phukat Nisar's dream dreams were with the spiritless troubled, and its sleep bricked from him. Then the king commanded him to call the magicians, the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king, and the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. Then spayed the Chaldeans to the king in Syria, O king, live forever, tell thy servants a dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me. If he will not make known unto me the dream, with interpretation thereof, thee shall be cut in pieces, and your house shall be made a dunghill. But if he show the dream and interpretation thereof, thee shall receive of me gifts and rewards in great honor, therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof. They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants a dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. The king answered and said, I know of certainty that you would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me. But if he will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you, for ye have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the interpretation thereof. The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can sure the king's matter. Therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that has such things as any magician or astrologer or Chaldeans. And it is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is none other that can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not his flesh. For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and he managed to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. Then Daniel answered in counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, which has gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and decided to the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Ananias, Michelle, and Zarias' companions, that they would desire mercy to the god of heaven concerning the secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the god of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. And he changed the times and the seasons, he removed kings and seteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that no understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things, he knoweth what is in the darkness, and that light dwelleth with him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou god of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hath made known unto me now what we desire to be, for thou hast now made unknown unto us the king's matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Ariop, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, Destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Ariop brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was God the Shazzer, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king the begotten desire of what shall be in the latter days. The dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came unto thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter, and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living. But for the sakes that shall make known unto interpretation to the king, that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, lost and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightest is excellent, stood before thee, and the former of its breath was terrible. The image's head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest so that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and break them to pieces. Then with the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broke into pieces together, and became like a shaft of the summer's freshen floors, and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings. For the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath given into thine hand, and hath made a ruler over them all, thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall rise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueeth all things, and as iron that breaketh all beasts shall it break in pieces and bruise. And wheresoever thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, but there shall be in it the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with mired clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And wheresoever thou sawest iron mixed with mired clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seat of men, that they shall not lead one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be let go on other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut off the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what hath come to pass hereafter, and a dream is certain, and its interpretation there of shore. Then the king that beguiled the Tsar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation of good odours unto him. The king answered unto Daniel, and said, O what's truth it is that your God is the God of gods, and a lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he sat Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the affairs of the province of Babylon, but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Blessed are your God, for thou art a great man. For God hath had nothing to do with this day to give unto us, and eternally blessed be the state of the future, and the future of the world, and the world of this day. We love you, Jesus. Thank you. Alright, we're continuing through the book of Daniel, and today's sermon is how to learn the deep things of God. How to learn the deep things of God. We're not going to finish Daniel 2, because next week we're going to get to the actual dream and the interpretation. And you know what? When you're reading the Bible, it's amazing because you can read a passage and kind of preach it in a lot of different ways. You can preach them about responding to difficult situations, because obviously Daniel and his friends are in that situation. But that's kind of all throughout the book of Daniel, so I'm kind of leaving that for Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 and other sermons. But we also see here in Daniel 2, how Daniel's able to learn the deep and secret things. So how do you learn the deep things of God? You say, what do you mean by the deep things? Well, here's what I'm saying. A lot of the Bible, and most of the Bible, when you read it, is very surface level. It's easy to understand. You don't have any questions. But then you read books like Ezekiel, or Isaiah, or Zechariah, and you're reading some of these books, and you're like, this is way over my head, right? I'm at this level of knowledge right now. This is like way up here, right? I'm a first grader, and this is advanced calculus. How do I understand this, right? And so I want to show you today what the Bible says of how we can actually learn the deep things of God. So before we do that, I'm just going to kind of expound these first five verses here, verses 13 through 17. Then we'll get into our points. So verse number 13, And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. So if you remember from last week, Nebuchadnezzar has this dream. He can't remember it. The wise men can't interpret it. Nebuchadnezzar gets mad, and he says, we're going to put all the wise men to death, and Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are within that mix, even though they're good people themselves. And so the decree goes forth that they're going to be killed. Verse 14, Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard. Now it says that Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom, and if you're answering with counsel, what does that mean? Well, it means you talk to other people about the situation. Right? You get counsel from other people. So it doesn't tell us explicitly everything that happens in these verses. What you're seeing is Daniel obviously talked to other people about the situation. I would say logic would say it was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So basically it's like a Christian getting counsel from other godly Christians. It's a very smart thing, right? And the multitude of counselors, there is safety, the Bible says, right? So the answer is with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and said to Arioch, the king's captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? You know, why is the king just quickly making this law and saying all of us are put to death? Why is he just jumping to this conclusion? Why is it so hasty? Verse 16, and then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. Now if you just read verse 16, it sounds like Daniel just kind of walks in and talks to King Nebuchadnezzar, but I don't believe that happened, okay? Because I don't believe you would have access to talk to the king. It would be kind of like if you're at a company and you've got a thousand employees and you've got a CEO and it's your first day on the job, you don't have the authority to walk into the CEO and just start talking to him, right? I mean, Nebuchadnezzar said all the wise men are put to death. Does he really get to let a wise man come in and just have a conversation with him? I don't think so. You could obviously interpret it differently, but my opinion is he desires of the king, but he basically talks to Arioch about it and says, hey, I desire that we're given time to answer this and we can tell you what the dream is. I don't think he just walked in to the king, to the head honcho, and talked to him. And maybe you do, but when I read that, that's what I think, that basically he talked to Arioch, and then there's kind of two possibilities with Arioch. Either Arioch talked to Nebuchadnezzar and said, hey, this much time and we'll get the dream, or basically Arioch just didn't talk to the king, but he's allowing the time to go by to wait to see if Daniel actually follows through. That's the way I see this. Verse 17. So here's the order of events when I'm reading this. Number one, the decree goes forth that all the wise men will be killed. Number two, Daniel and his friends talk about this because he answered to Arioch initially with counsel and wisdom. The Bible does not explicitly say he talked to them, but I think before verse 17, he already had a conversation because he's answering with counsel, meaning he's talking to somebody, right? So I think he talks to his friends about it. Then Daniel talks to Arioch and basically asks for time. And then once he talks to Arioch, he goes home at the end of the day of work or whatever, and he talks to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego again. So I think there's multiple conversations with his friends because he initially answers with counsel, okay? Let me just say this on a side point. This shows the importance of godly fellowship, right? I mean, he's answering with counsel, and the truth is sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. So what do you mean by that? When you're in the middle of a forest, you can't really perceive the situation. You've got to be kind of outside the forest, and you can easily see what's going on. And the reality is that when we're in situations, oftentimes we get emotional, and we just don't think very wisely. Sometimes you need just a godly person outside the situation to say, hey, this would be a wise solution. And I believe we all need that. I believe we all need to be able to go to somebody and just get advice because there's other godly people in this world just besides ourselves, right? Hopefully you have good friends at church that you can talk to that can look at the situation and just give you wisdom on how to handle the situation, okay? Point number one, if you want to learn the deep things of God, number one, you've got to worship God. You've got to worship God. Now, this modern day word of how we use worship kind of confuses what the Bible actually means by worship because when people here worship God, it's like our God is an awesome God. That's what people think, right? So I'm worshiping God, yeah. No, it's like you're at a sporting event or what? What are you doing, right? But it's like when the Bible says to worship God, because that is a biblical terminology, what it's saying is obey his commandments, go to church, go soul winning, read the Bible, basically just go all out serving God, right? When we're talking about singing to God, we're saying praising God. Praising God is part of worship, but praising God and worship are not the same thing. Praising God is a very important thing to sing praises unto God. That's what we do in our song service, right? We sing praises unto the Lord. That's an important thing. That is part of worshiping God. So is reading the Bible. We do the chapter reading. That's part of worshiping God. So is the preaching. So is the soul winning. So is the fellowship, right around other godly people. It's all part of that. But what I'm basically saying is this, worshiping God, obey what God says. If you want to learn the deep things of God, you better be doing what God says. It's not simply just reading what the Bible says. You better be obeying what the Bible says or God's not going to give you knowledge. Verse 18, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning the secret that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. So Daniel and his friends are begging God to give them this information, to know what the dream is. Here's the thing though. If Daniel and his friends were very ungodly, I don't believe God would have given the answer, right? He gives the answer because they're actually worshiping God. They're obeying God. It's not like these were really sinful people. Oh no, I'm going to be put to death. God, please just step in and save me. And just give me this hidden knowledge. Now these are people that are worshiping God on a daily basis. Go to James chapter one, James one, James one. See, here's what I'm saying. People have never had the Bible cover to cover, but they don't regularly read the Bible, but they want to know these deep things about the Bible. It's like, well, you don't come to church. You don't go soul winning. You don't regularly read the Bible. You don't do the things that you learn, but God's going to give you this hidden deep and secret knowledge. That's not the way it works, my friend. If you want to learn the deep things, you better just be obeying what God says. Obey the basics. If he says, thou shall not, you better not do it. If he says, read the Bible every day, you better read the Bible every day. If you want this deep knowledge, it starts with just doing what God says. Just worshiping God. Just obeying God. James one, five. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to giveth to all men liberally and it shall be given him. So, one thing you should be doing as part of your worshiping God is just praying to God on a daily basis. And part of that is just asking God for wisdom on things that you don't know the answers to. Right? Now, this verse can be applied a lot of different ways. And this verse is actually a verse that is applied in a lot of wrong ways. This is the most famous verse for the Mormon church. And the way they apply this is, well, if you're not sure if the Book of Mormon is the word of God, just pray about it and God's going to give you this burning in your heart. It's like, you know, it's called heartburn and you ate too much pizza or something like that. Right? But that's what they say. This is the most famous verse for Mormons. Just pray to God. It's like, I know you don't believe the Book of Mormon is the word of God, just pray about it. Just pray if Joseph Smith was a prophet and God's going to reveal it. He's already revealed it to me in his word that he's not. I don't need to pray about that. I don't need to sit here and pray is the Quran the word of God. Why would I do that when I already know it's not? Right? But I do believe that if you're not sure of something in the Bible that you're reading, you can ask God for wisdom or questions in life or things to do. Of course, you can ask God for wisdom. And it's something that God wants to answer. But once again, he's not going to answer that if you're not obeying him. Right? Go to James 4. James 4. Notice that the Bible does not say that if you want wisdom to go to Google and just type in, hey, what's the answer to this Bible question? You say, why? What's the problem with that? Because if you go to Google to get your answers, you're going to read from someone who does not believe once saved always saved. You're going to read from someone who's not saved. Wow, this answer sounds really good. It's just they're using the NIV. Yeah, it's a bit of a problem, my friend. Right? The problem is you're probably going to get a bad source if you go to Google. You're going to hear about what John Piper wants to say or Joe Osteen or Billy Graham or whomever or some other false prophet. You ought to get over to God and say, God, I don't understand this verse. I lack wisdom. Can you help me understand this verse? This is what we're talking about, about learning the deep things of God. If there's something you don't understand, guess what you should do? Pray to God to get wisdom about it. Right? But step one, just obey what God says. God's going to give wisdom to those that are obeying what he says. James 4 verse 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence even of your lust that warn your members? Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. Ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. See, many times you might not know the deep things of God. You just didn't ask God for the interpretation. Isn't that what Daniel and his friends do? They say, God, can you help us out with what this means? And many times people want to learn something. They don't know what the answer is. First step, Google. First step, YouTube. How about first step, praying to God? Say, God, can you help me out with this? That's what we see in the Bible. The problem is if you just spend your whole life just trying to be a student to learn from whatever source, you're going to learn a lot of wrong information and just believe the wrong things. It would be better not to know a false answer and wait until you understand the true answer. Right? Verse three, ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lust. See, one of the other major problems is this. People, they want to learn the deep things of God, but it's actually something that's a lustful thing. You say, why? Because they want to learn something from Ezekiel to go around to other people and say, hey, look at what I learned. And look at how smart I am. Right? That's the truth. Brother Chris was just preaching on Wednesday about people who are newly saved. It's like, I want to be able to get a Jehovah's Witness saved and learn how to debate Mormons and all this stuff. It's like, why not just read the Bible? Why not just go to church? Why not just memorize Romans 3.23 before you figure out a detailed plan to get a Mormon saved? Right? And look, I was the same way when I first got saved. Literally, I was like, man, how do I get a Mormon saved? It's like, I don't even know how to get anybody saved. Right? But I wanted to be able to debate Mormons. But here's the thing, that's consuming it upon your lusts. This is not the only application here in James 4, but we're applying this to learning the deep and secret things. Let me give you a principle. If you learn something from the Bible from another source, like a godly preacher or someone teaches you, don't pretend like you learned it yourself. If somebody at church shows you something great and interesting, don't just go around to other people and say, hey, look what the Bible says here. Right? And just pretend like you learned it yourself. Just give the credit what credit's due. Because you're doing that to consume it upon your lust to make yourself look so smart and look so educated. Look, many things I learned from the Word of God, I just learned from somebody else, and there's no shame in that. You learn from people that teach you things. Don't act like you just got it on your own. Go to 1 Kings 3. 1 Kings 3. A couple of people came up to me yesterday after the sermons on the second sermon I preached. They're like, man, that really just shed some light on the book of Hosea. I mean, I never understood that. And I said, yeah, I heard Pastor Hermanus preach it. You know, I heard that from a sermon. I was like, it really opened my eyes to the book as well. You say, what are you doing? Just giving credit where it's due. It's like I didn't learn it myself. I just learned it from somebody else. Now, there's many things in the Bible I have learned from myself, but there's many things I learned from godly preachers. There's many things I learned from the people that are preaching on Wednesdays. They preach something, and I'm like, man, never thought about that before. That's a good point. There's no shame in learning from other people. Don't act, though, like, oh, I got this information on my own. Because if that's your sort of attitude, God's going to be like, okay, I'll make sure not to give you any more information. Because you're doing it to glorify yourself rather than glorifying God. 1 Kings 3. Here's a great example with Solomon. And obviously, Solomon later in his life lives a very sinful life. But early in his ministry, he was a very godly person. He was doing what God said. He was obeying what God said. So God comes to him in a dream and says, hey, you know what? What would you like me to give you? Okay? 1 Kings 3, verse 5. In Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee. Now hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And thou art worthy of my God. Thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am but a little child. I know not how to go out or come in. Now, when the Bible says go out or come in, you know, this is literally a king. And when you went out or you go out, that's going out to battle. Okay? So that's basically conquering, winning a victory. But coming in would basically be like operating as a king and the organization and stuff like that. A symbolic application of church going out is soloing, getting churches started, doing a new work, right? Whereas coming in would be basically like just operating the church, preaching the sermons, organizing things, events and stuff like that. And Solomon says, Hey, I'm a new leader. I don't know how to go out and conquer like my dad did. I don't know how to operate this kingdom. It's like, I don't have that ability. You know, you're asking me where I want. I want some wisdom on how to do this. It's a difficult thing to do. Verse 8, And thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this, thy so great of people? And so Solomon says, you know, what I really need is an understanding heart. What I need is just wisdom on how to do what I'm supposed to do. Look, none of us are going to make all the right choices without God leading us. We're going to make bad choices. We're going to mess up our lives. We need to get wisdom from God. But here's the thing. Solomon's a man who's obeying what God says. Now go to verse number 14 and we'll see the link here. Verse 14, And if thou wilt walk in thy ways to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. You see, getting wisdom is also linked with doing what God says. Worshiping God. Obeying God. Here's the thing. God would not have come to Solomon in a dream if Solomon was a wicked person. Did he come to Rehoboam in a dream? Did he come to Jeroboam in a dream? Right? I mean, he comes to Solomon because Solomon's doing what God says. And God says, you know what? You're obeying me. I'm trusting you with the small things. You're just doing what you know. What can I, what do you want? And he says, can I have wisdom? Right? Very smart choice because the truth is most people today, what would you like? A lot of money. Right? A big house. A huge job promotion. Right? And Solomon says, you know what? More important than that is I just want wisdom. I just want understanding. Because this is why it's so great a people and you know what? I don't have the wisdom in my own flesh to actually do this. Go to Daniel chapter 2. Daniel 2. I mean 1 Kings 3 is really a great chapter to know if you ever go into ministry and you lead a church because this is the attitude we should always have that I'm not wise enough to do this on my own. Right? You're going to make a lot of mistakes if you don't have God leading you. You don't want to be like Nebuchadnezzar, look at this great kingdom that I have built. I think it was last year somebody showed me like a sermon from like a famous Baptist preacher here and he literally said this, like look at this great church that I have built. And it's just like wow, you know the wrong chapter of Daniel you've been reading. Right? It's like read Daniel 2 to figure out what to do. Nebuchadnezzar didn't do the right thing in Daniel 4. Right? Daniel 2 verse 19. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might are his. Now let me say this. I don't necessarily think that God's going to reveal to you information like this in a night vision but I will say this. I prayed for wisdom on things I didn't understand and I literally woke up the next day and it just clicked because the Bible's like a giant puzzle and you've got all these pieces that have to fit together and sometimes you have assumptions that are just a little bit off and you've got the puzzle piece and the wrong thing and you think well maybe this isn't actually here and once you move it around it's like oh everything just fits together perfectly. Right? And sometimes that's how we are when we're trying to understand something. We're just a little bit confused on some of the details. It messes up everything. Right? I mean when it comes to like the rapture most people are very confused because they think the tribulation and the wrath of God are the same. Right? And they just automatically assume well it must be a preacher of rapture because we're not appointed on the wrath. It's like the tribulation and the wrath aren't the same thing. But they come in with this bit and assumption and what those people always say is man revelation is so confusing. It's like it's the revelation. Meaning it's being revealed to you. Meaning the Bible's saying it's not actually complicated. But the reason why they're confused on that is they have a few of the puzzle pieces backwards. And a lot of times it's like that with the deep things of God. So here's the thing. If you're obeying what God says and you pray for wisdom I do believe God can and sometimes will reveal that information. It's possible though God says you have a good heart about this but before you know how to debate Jehovah's Witness I've got other things that are more important for you. Right? Daniel 2 verse 21. So point number one we need to worship God. And point number two which is very attached as well is wisdom. You need wisdom and knowledge. And you know what? That comes primarily from reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, hearing sermons and writing down the things you learn that are new. So you don't forget them. Right? You need wisdom if you're going to know the deep things of God. Daniel 2 verse 21. And he changeth the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and seteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. And God says you know what? I give wisdom unto those that are already wise. You say why is that? Well that's what we see with Solomon isn't it? Doesn't it prove that he had wisdom to be wise enough that he knew I need more wisdom? Right? That actually shows he already has wisdom the fact that he asks for wisdom. You see if he had asked for a lot of money that would show that he didn't actually have a lot of wisdom. But the fact that he asked for wisdom over money that actually shows he did have wisdom. And God's template is I give wisdom to those that are already wise. What you're seeing is God says in Daniel 2 verse 21 I'm not a communist. Because this communistic philosophy is everybody needs to have the exact same and equal but that's not actually what you see in the Bible. Go to Matthew 25. Matthew 25. So what are you trying to say? Here's what I'm saying. The people that get wisdom on the deep things of God are the people that have wisdom on the simpler things of God. And have the basic building blocks and know the things in the Bible. Look, if you're a five year old or a six year old in this room and we put up an advanced calculus problem up here you're not going to be able to solve it. You say why? You've got to start with addition. Then you move on to subtraction. Then you move on to multiplication. Then division. Eventually fractions. And eventually you can get to this point. But you know we didn't learn that when we were five. You take algebra before calculus. I remember when I was a math teacher and you know what? The students I taught, you know what? I don't know. I think it's just the dumbing down of this world where kids just don't know anything today. Because they have their cell phones and gadgets. I mean it's scary. But I was teaching algebra and when there's basic things like four times five it's just like they didn't know. Right? Now here's the thing. If math's not your thing, you know I understand that. But you know we should try and strive to be educated. But here's my point. The principal told me, he's like hey I want you to teach calculus next semester. I'm like they don't know what four times five is. How am I going to teach them calculus? Right? Maybe it's just different. But when I was a kid it's like multiplication tables up to twelve, you better know immediately. Twelve times eleven, you got to know like that. Everything and they would quiz you and test you on it. It's like they expect you to know information quickly. And I believe that in this world people are getting dumber today and not smarter. But here's my point. If you don't know four times five you're not going to be able to figure out calculus. Because things build on each other. Right? Now sometimes you come to a church like this and a lot of the information feels like it's up here. It's a bit intimidating. Right? I mean some of your old churches you're like I never learned anything new. Right? And I've been at churches like that where you hardly ever learned anything. Who's been there before? You've been at churches and you show up for church out of duty and you're like I don't expect to learn anything but here I am. And I remember how excited I'd be when the pastor told me something new. I'm like man that's a good point. Let me write that down. Right? But here's what I want you to understand. You don't have to be intimidated about not understanding everything because everything in life is just unti, unti. Little by little. You don't have to worry about I don't know how to do this. I mean a lot of this stuff is confusing because here's the thing. You start reading the Bible. You start going to church. Maybe you don't understand everything but you start learning more. And maybe the next time you read through Daniel you're like wow I understand some of these things. But it's not all going to click immediately. Then maybe the next time you read it you're like wow I'm starting to put the pieces together. And eventually you're like man this is making sense. It's little by little. Unti, unti. That's the way it works. Right? But here's the thing. You don't just jump to the top of the mountain from day one. You've got to climb that mountain and slowly get knowledge. Look it's good to want to know the deep things of God. I'm just trying to help you out. If you're newly saved or you haven't read the Bible much it's going to take you time. It's going to take you time to learn the deep things of God. You need to start on the basics and you let those things build up and eventually things are going to click. That's the way it works. If you read the Bible you're going to learn something new all the time. You learn new things and new things and new things and eventually you can learn some deep things that are not on the surface. Matthew 25 verse 28. Matthew chapter 25 verse 28. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto him which hath ten talents. Now talent here in Matthew 25 is a makalumong word for like para. It's like a type of money. It's not saying like talentos. It's saying you could make an application of that but what it's really talking about specifically in this parable is money. Okay? And what it's saying is this. There's someone with ten talents, five talents and one talent. And the person with ten talents ends up doubling the money and then the Lord of that person said let me give you more. Person who has five talents doubles it. Good job. The person with one talent was afraid you'd get mad if I, so I didn't do anything with it. And it's just like what God, in the parable he takes away that talent. I'm going to give it to somebody else that's going to do something with it. It's the same thing with the wisdom of God. Look, if you're not going to do what God says and use it for his benefit to glorify him, why is he going to give you that information? Look, if you're a regular soul winner, I believe God can give you the ability to get people saved that it's going to take some time. You learn new things. You memorize new verses. But if you never go soul winning and never preach the gospel, God's not going to give you the wisdom on how to get a Jehovah's Witness saved or get a Mormon saved. This is not going to happen. How to get a Hindu saved? It's not going to happen. You start with just getting normal people saved. You start with getting Catholics saved. And then eventually you can learn more and more information. That's just the way it works on everything in life. Verse 29. For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance, but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he hath. See, the concept of communism is everybody should have an equal amount of money. But is that biblical according to Matthew 25 verses 28 through 29? No. Because not everybody's going to do something with it. It's just common sense the business owner deserves more money because he built the business and has more knowledge. It's just common sense. If you hire an employer, you're not going to pay them the same amount as you make. Right? In your business. It's just common sense. Right? Daniel chapter 2. Daniel 2. So, wait a second. I want to learn these deep things. What's the secret? Well, you better be obeying what God says. You better worship God. Do what he says. You better get some wisdom. You better start reading the Bible. You spend two hours searching on Google for the answer. Why not spend two hours reading the Bible? You better start reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, and you do these things. You're going to start to learn. And let me just help you out with something. If you learn more from the preaching in this church than you do in your personal study of the Bible, you're not studying the Bible enough. You ought to learn more in your free time than you do from the preaching. I've learned great things in sermons through the years, but I have learned far more in my Bible reading and memorization where things just pop out at me. And I learn things and I know things. Now, if you're new at church, of course, you're learning a lot when you come to church. But as time goes by, the amount you learn in each sermon is going to be less and less because you already know some of the things. And when you develop this mentality of just, I'm at church to learn all this new information and that's the reason why, well, eventually you're not going to learn as much and you're going to be like, I don't find that preaching is exciting anymore. I used to learn a lot more. Well, how about just going home and studying the Bible for yourself? See, my job is not just to teach to you individually. This is not a one-on-one tutoring session. Right? If it was a one-on-one tutoring session, I'd find out, okay, what information do you not have, I'll try to help you out. But I'm preaching to a group of people. And people are at different levels. And look, if you're up here, if you have a lot of knowledge, a lot of this stuff is basic. If you're new, then obviously you're learning a lot of information. But what I'm saying is this, you ought to be studying and learning in your own time more than you are from the preaching in this church. Daniel 2, verse 22, he revereth the deep and secret things, he knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with him. So the deep and secret things are basically knowledge the Bible is saying, and God knoweth what is in the darkness. So picture going into a dark room, lights are off, your eyes have not adjusted, and then this is going to be one of the sweetheart bank of questions. All right? What's the one thing in this room, right? It's like you're going to have no idea because it's dark. It's impossible to know. But God knows what's in the darkness. But here's the point God's saying, God is light, and if you walk in the light and walk in the new man, guess what? It's all making sense. We're talking about obeying God's commandments. Walk in light instead of in darkness and you know what? Wow, it's making sense. What's that called? Worshiping God, obeying God's commandments, and reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, you know, getting wisdom, right? Verse 23, I thank thee and praise thee about God my Father, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desire to be, for thou hast now made known unto us that kings matter. Now go to 1 Corinthians 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And I'm going to show you another principle for learning the deep things of God or how to study the Bible, and we actually find it here in 1 Corinthians 2. This is not a complicated sermon. Worship God, meaning do what God says, go to church, read the Bible, obey his commandments, and then wisdom, meaning read the Bible, memorize the Bible, you know, worship God. Do what he says and study the Bible, learn new information, right? 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. But as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither been it in the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things. Notice this, ye are the deep things of God. Didn't we see the deep and secret things? So what are we talking about? We're talking about knowledge that is not surface level, learning the deep and secret things. And the Bible says the Spirit searcheth all things. So guess what? You need the Holy Spirit of God inside of you to understand the spiritual book. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Right? Verse 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Did you know God wants you to know his word? He's not trying to hide it from you. He's like, I want to reveal what's in the darkness, what you don't understand. But there's requirements. Worship God and get wisdom. Don't just have something you want to figure out in the Bible, but you don't obey God's commandments. You don't read the Bible. You don't study the Bible. You don't memorize it. Well, how are you going to end up knowing it then? Right? Well, just Google. Well, good luck with that. Right? You're going to learn a lot of false things on Google. Probably not a lot of good things, though. Verse 13. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth. Notice this. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So verse 13 gives us a template for studying the Bible. What it says is comparing spiritual with spiritual. What that means is we were in Daniel chapter 2 trying to figure out what it means. You look up secret things or deep things and then you get to 1 Corinthians 2. It sheds more light on Daniel 2, doesn't it? It's making sense. Right? You compare spiritual with spiritual. Meaning, if you don't understand this, look to other parts of the Bible that will help you understand that. I mean, if you want to understand Daniel, guess what the secret is? Revelation. Right. Because the information is being revealed. Revelation sheds light on the book of Daniel. Right? You're going to learn something, use other parts of the Bible. Spiritual with spiritual, not spiritual with Google. I mean, it's basic. It's very simple. And yet, this is what most people do. They want to figure it out and it's just like, man, how do I refute this Bible verse? Right? And then they just go online or whatever. It's like, what's the purpose of doing that? Why not praying to God, compare spiritual with spiritual, and look, as a last resort, you could try to find out from someone you know as a godly preacher or someone who knows a lot of information. Ask one of your fellow church members, but you should do first your homework of praying to God and trying to figure it out for yourself. You say, why, Brother Stuckey? I could never figure it out. Well, guess who my teacher is? The Holy Spirit of God. If you're saved, guess who your primary teacher is? Without me, I'm a secondary teacher. I teach you things. There's nothing wrong with that. You learn from other people preaching. Your primary teacher ought to be the Holy Spirit of God. And if your primary teacher is not the Holy Spirit of God that's teaching you all things, then there's a problem there. Right? Go to Daniel chapter 2. Daniel 2. Daniel chapter 2. And so point number one is worshiping God. Obey what God says if you want to learn the deep things of God. Point number two is just plain getting wisdom, getting all around knowledge of what the Word of God says. And many times there might be something that is up on this level, but to understand this level, you've got to get this information first. Things build upon each other. That's the way it works. Right? Point number three, you need to waive worship from you. Now, let me explain what I mean by waiving worship. I don't mean waive as in waiving. Waive as in W-A-I-V-E, like waiving the fee for registration to something or whatever. But it's kind of a mock-a-room on the way that the words describe, but basically the idea is this. Cornelius bows down before Peter, and it says he worships him. And then Peter says, stand up, I myself also am a man. And he's waiving worship. It's like etoc wheel, I think would be an appropriate word into God. Etoc wheel is kind of similar, but rejecting the worship basically. What I'm saying is this, that if you want to learn deep and complicated things of God, you better not use that information to say, well, look at how much I know. Because Daniel's in this situation. Nebuchadnezzar asks, where did you learn this information? Like, are you able to say it? And then Daniel's like, well, only because God gave me the information. Right? Daniel 2 verse 24. Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste. So meaning very quickly, he brings in Arioch, brings in Daniel, because Arioch likes Daniel, I believe. But also because Arioch's not doing what he was told by Nebuchadnezzar, I should say. So he could be in trouble if he doesn't do this. What's interesting is this, Arioch's interpretation, he just trusts Daniel. What does that call it? A faithful man that Arioch knows he can trust. If Daniel says he has the interpretation, Arioch's like, I can take that to the bank. He has the interpretation. And he says, all right, let's just go in before the king. Because they're going in in haste, that means very quickly. He's not stopping and saying, okay, this is great. What's the dream? What's the interpretation? He says, no, let's just go in right now. Right? He trusts him. Then he says this, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen in the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets. See, notice what we're saying in verse 28. We're seeing that he's basically waving worship away from him. He's not saying, hey, you know what, the sorcerers don't know this information. But guess what? I do, king. It's time for me to get a promotion because I have this hidden information. See, if that's what Daniel would have done, guess what? God would have never given him that information. The reason why God gives him the information is because Daniel is willing to use that to glorify God as opposed to lifting up himself. Here's what I'm saying. You know, let's say you study a false religion a little bit, which I don't necessarily recommend, you know, you doing that with your time. I think it's better just reading the Bible. But if your goal is to memorize all this stuff on Jehovah's Witnesses, to win a debate versus a Jehovah's Witness, I believe you're going to fail. Right? I believe you can learn a lot about false religions, and I preach against false religions and give various information. Here's the thing, though. I don't go out and debate Jehovah's Witnesses for an hour. Now, I'm confident I have the knowledge they don't actually know that much about the Bible, to be honest. But here's the thing. But here's the thing. The reason why I think this makes sense and clicks me is the fact that I don't waste it by arguing with the Jehovah's Witness. What's the point? Are they going to get saved by debating them for an hour? I've seen Jehovah's Witnesses get saved in my life, but they're always ones that are not hardcore Jehovah's Witnesses members. It's always nice to say, hey, I got a Jehovah's Witness saved. But here's the thing. You didn't get like a leader of the Jehovah's Witness saved. You got someone who's like not really sure about it. Same thing. If you had a hardcore Catholic, you're not going to get him saved. But most Catholics aren't hardcore. Right. It's the same thing with every religion. So there's nothing wrong with getting that information. But what's your purpose of using it? And Daniel uses this information not to glorify himself, but to actually glorify God. And it says in verse 28, But there is a God in heaven that reveres secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar, what shall be in the latter days? Thy dream and thy visions, the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter? And he that reveals secrets maketh known to thee, what shall come to pass to you? But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living. Daniel's saying it's not like I was born with some hidden wisdom and I'm a super smart person above anybody else. It's not because of that. But for their sake that shall make known the interpretation of the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Now go to Psalm 75, we'll close up, and we're doing good on time, which is good because the second sermon will probably be long and we have activities here today. I mean it's not super complicated sermon, but if you apply this you can actually learn the deep things of God. Next week the sermon on Daniel is going to be deep and complicated. It's going to be a lot of information on history in the last several thousand years, because that's what the dream is about, right? But here in Daniel 2 is very basic. You want to learn the deep things? You want to learn the sermons like next week where it's all good? Because you know what I found in life is when you hear a sermon on something complicated and deep, you're hearing this and it's all making sense, but unless you really write it down and think about it, you get only a little bit of the information and you forget. Have you ever been reading the Bible and you're like, I remember there's an awesome explanation of this verse, but I don't remember what it is. That's happened to me before. I'm like, man, I wish I could remember. It was like really great information, but I don't remember. I completely forgot. And with the deep things of God, you know what? Honestly, the first time you hear it you're going to be like, oh wow, that's really interesting. But it's kind of like learning a math problem. It doesn't mean you're ready to teach how to solve a math problem. You might be able to arrive at the right conclusion, but it doesn't mean it's just perfectly making full sense to you. It's going to take some time. And so if you want to learn these deep things, number one, worship God. Just obey what God says. Number two, get wisdom. Read the Bible, memorize the Bible. It could require reading the Bible through three, four, five, six times. There might be information that you're not able to figure out by spending one hour reading the Bible. It might take you reading through the entire Bible and just kind of looking for that idea or comparing spiritual with spiritual and cross-referencing and things like that. It might take some time. I've been things I've studied out in the Bible just like a couple verses, but I was confused and you're comparing spiritual with spiritual and it's like over the course of a week and 15 hours later, I got it. Sometimes it takes time. It's not always easy to try to figure out all these things. It's difficult. And number three, you got to waive worship from me. You mean rejecting, you know, glorifying yourself. And this is not always an easy thing to do. You know, sometimes I preach sermons and people will say something like, that was a great sermon, right? And people are trying to be nice and there's nothing wrong with that, but you got to be very careful not to just be like, yeah, it's pretty good, right? You got to be very careful with this, especially, you know what, when you're new at church, all this stuff's new. You don't have that information, but as you're at church, you start learning a lot of stuff. And look, you know, you learn a lot of stuff at this church, you might start developing this attitude. Yeah, man, my old church, they don't know anything about the rapture. I know so much information and that's only because you heard a priest in a couple sermons, but you're not actually reading it for yourself. There's a problem there. Psalm 75, we'll close up here, and as I said, we'll get started in the second sermon early if we're done on time here, just a 10-minute break. But Psalm 75, verse 5, Lift not up your horn on high, speak not with a stiff neck, for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the judge. He put it down one and setteth up another. And what God says is this, you know what, and you know what, this is not only promotion for work, I mean, it's often used in that application, but just throughout in life, this principle that basically you humble yourself and God will exalt you. That's what we see with the Publican and the Pharisee, that if you exalt yourself, you're going to be humbled, you're going to be abased. But if you humble yourself, you're going to be exalted. And when it comes to knowledge, it's the same way. Look, if you learn deep things from God and you explain it, and someone's like, wow, you know so much, you should respond with something like, well, you know, I've heard sermons on it and, you know, been able to learn from other people, and yeah, it's really interesting, right? You know, sometimes people come to me and say, man, you explained this in the sermon. I've never heard that before. You know, you need to respond in a humble way and not have this attitude about look how smart and spiritual I am. That's the wrong attitude. And this is often a big thing you see in Baptist churches where there will be people that basically try to make themselves look like they're really smart. And what I mean by that is they use words that nobody understands. Right? For example, they'll say, well, today we're going to be studying soteriology. And then people are going to be sitting in the seats like soteriology. And it's like 30 minutes through the sermon, it's like, oh, I think I know what soteriology is. Let me help you out. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Just say the study of salvation. I'm going to preach a sermon on eschatology. Eschatology. Like, you know, it's the study of the end times. Okay. See, my goal is not to try to make myself look smart. My goal is actually to make myself not look that smart. To make this information just seem so simple that everyone realizes I can learn this by myself. And here's the truth. You can. You see why? You have the same Holy Spirit that I have. Same teacher that I have is the same teacher that you have. My goal is not to try to make myself look good. My goal is actually if people try to compliment or whatever, just say, hey, you know what? I mean, I just, you know, heard it from a sermon. I saw this in the Bible. It is very interesting. Right? But not to say, well, yeah, you know what? I'm just really smart and look how spiritual I am. You better make sure you're not trying to get deep information to lift yourself up, but that you're using it to glorify God. Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see you on this topic. And ask you to help us apply this to your lives. God, help us as a church to strive to know the Bible, including the deep things, God, but help us just be consistent with obeying you and reading your word and memorizing your word and being faithful to the church, God. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. For our last song, let's turn to hymn number 169. Hymn number 169, let's sing the song Calm Thou Fount. On a verse. On a verse. On a verse. On a verse. On a verse. Amen. .