The W. A. Criswell Sermon Library

I. "Without hands"

There are influences in the universe other than human. Things that come down from above.
cf. Pseudo-science, so haughty, the modern untouchable sacred cow, beyond reproof or criticism, then drops from a tone of great boasting into an abject confession of know-nothingness when confronted with a demand for an explanation of the innermost sequences of life, you never saw a figure more limp, drenched through with invisible rain, bedraggled and poverty-stricken, than science (capital S) when it has come to the mysteries of common existence. No undertaker overwhelmed by a great deluge outside a pauper's funeral ever cut a less imposing appearance than Science when it seeks to explain things done without hands.

(1) The sun rises in the a.m. without hands. Earth turns without hands.
The least, littlest flower warms itself by the great fire, lifting its head--without hands
Little faces of the pansies painted without hands. God dips his brush in the colors
that brighten them out my study window.
Butterfly wings decorated--if under microscope, one of a kind . . .

(2) Of human souls: convictions, impressions, inspirations, urgings we cannot explain. Without hands.

(1) Of the wicked, judgment, written on the wall without human hands
For the righteous, God's servants

(2) I. Cor. 5:1--We read of a house not made with hands. Home in heaven.
This earthly tabernacle--without hands, secret parts of David. Ps. 139:14-16
The heavenly tabernacle--without hands, the creation of God

Thus the Lord builds the house
Thus the Lord keeps the life
Thus the Lord ministers to us.

II. "A Stone"--The climax of the dream, that stone.
Gen. 49:24
Ps. 118:22 = Lk. 20:17; 20:18 = Acts 4:10--I. Pet. 2:4, 6-8
Isa. 28:16; Matt. 16:18; I. Cor.10:4
Jesus the Messiah Christ here appears.
In His birth, no human agency
In His resurrection no human hands
Only in Christ the symbol realized, verified.
"Smite the image upon his feet."

III. The Time of His Appearing

1. After the course of empires had passed away
The 10 toes of iron and clay

Never a universal kingdom again.
cf. the most powerful effort, nearest to successful, Napoleon’s alliance with Austria . .
2:47 "seed" marriage--1810, divorced Josephine to marry Maria Louisa.
Europe seemed to lie prostrate at his feet. Cup of universal dominion raised to his lips. But God expressly said otherwise--600 B.C. and 2500 before birth of Napoleon.
The waters of the Borodino engulfed his invincible battalions. The soft, white, silent snows of Russia became winding sheets to half his army. The bones of the rest bleaching and buried on the plains of Waterloo. He who fell asleep a monarch with 600,000 bayonets bristling to protect him, died a refugee and in exile on the rise of tomorrow's sun. [Hitler]

2. Smite--the 10 toes.
The focus, the revelation in the stone. 2:28 "the latter days." A future consummation. Not smite in time of the golden head, silver breast, brass thighs, iron legs. Not say a power introduced into Roman Empire that should spread, But the stone to strike the toes, the image of its last stages.

IV. The Character of His Appearing--"Chaff of the threshingfloor"

1. A destroying, annihilating power. The stone crushes.
Not a converting power.
cf. Matt. 24:29 sun--imperial power
Rev. 1:7 moon--satellite power
Rev. 18:11-13 ff. star--rulers in church perish
This is the superseding of "the times of the Gentiles" by a kingdom set up on earth by the God of heaven . . . eternal
The system of gov. Nebuchadnezzar knew to be completely and certainly abolished, supplanted by one of an entirely different character-- supernatural, superhuman in origin, purpose, providence
cf. the astonishing doctrines of the Scripture
-- [Virgin birth] the Incarnation: a visible God, a man, the man Christ Jesus
-- Resurrection of the body (not immortality of the soul. Greek)
-- The only kingdom in this earth

2. A restorational power
cf. Rev. 21:1; II Pet. 3:13
A renovation--cf. Revelation sermon
The judgments of God break the kingdoms of this world to make room for the eternal kingdom of God.
cf. Browning--"God's in His heaven, all's right with the world"
"God's in His heaven, and will right the world"

The eternal kingdom of God--
cf. man: armies as means of creating peace--
God--armies, navies, useless--peace in hands of God
" Prepares to reform society by reforming its circumstances--God to change society by changing man
Man--Man begins at the circumference, works inward
vv.--God begins at the heart, works outward, a revolution within, a reformation
God--without
--Man to give man something he has not
--God to make man something he is not
--Man to give the patient a softer bed
--God to cure the sick man himself

K. citizens in our hearts--waiting for the Prince of Peace.

3. An eternal, universal kingdom power
"a great mountain" cf. Jer. 51:25
An inscription in a tablet referring to god Bel Merodach as Shadu-Rabu, "the great mountain."
A title that once belonged to god Enlil whose most ancient temple was at Nippur.
But Babylon conquered Nippur, so the god Merodach greater than Enlil, so the title to him.
As Nebuchadnezzar and Magi listened--the power bestowed on successive kingdoms destroyed for the eternal kingdom of the true God.
"cut out of the mountain"--out of Deity
"without hands"--by divine instrumentality
"fills the whole earth"--"stand forever"

V. Our Longing and Waiting
Isa. 64:1
Babylon, the great apostasy of the earth, will be utterly consumed, the smoke of her fire rising forever
The Jews will be gathered to their own land.
Jesus the Messiah shall reign on this earth–shine, glory, before the whole earth.
The dead be raised for the trumpet shall sound
We who are alive and remain . . .
No more tears, sorrows,
All creation at one with God

Rev. 1:7; Isa. 66:1

Our Hymn: Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending - Charles Wesley, 1707

Lo, He comes with clouds descending,
One for favored sinners slain,
Thousand thousand saints attending,
Swell the triumph of His train:
Alleluia, alleluia!
God appears on earth to reign.

Every eye shall now behold Him,
Robed in dreadful majesty;
Those who set at naught and sold Him,
Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,
Deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
Shall the true Messiah see.

Now the Saviour, long expected,
See, in solemn pomp appear;
All His saints, by man rejected,
Now shall meet Him in the air:
Alleluia, alleluia!
See the day of God appear.

Yea, amen, let us all adore Thee,
High on Thine eternal throne;
Savior, take the power and glory,
Claim the kingdom for Thine own:
O come quickly, O come quickly!
Alleluia! come, Lord, come.