How did Nebuchadnezzar say such fine things, and yet remain an unbeliever? We see this constantly. You see this even in somebody as great – as far as this country is concerned – as Winston Churchill with his contribution in the war, the magnificent things he did. The war ended, and the moment everything was over and it was really finished, what did he do? He went into the debating chamber to the House of Commons and made the announcement, and immediately led the entire House of Commons over the road to Saint Margaret's, Westminster, the House of Commons church, right next to the Abbey, and there the clergy came on duty and held a service of worship. Yes, he would lead them into that, and he would say fine things. He would make a broadcast, and the first words in the broadcast were thanksgiving to God, and they were repeated two or three times in his speech on the BBC. But he didn't really believe, and it didn't change his lifestyle, and he personally wasn't a worshipper of God. Yet he read the Bible every day, and he used this great language and said some wonderful things about divine deliverance. It can happen. People can say all these things without themselves having any personal commitment or having their lives affected. Why did he behave like that? Well, it was the age. It wouldn't happen today. We are in an atheistic age now. Politicians can't be bothered even to pay lip service to God. Rather, they are openly against these things, but you see in a polytheistic age when all the people were deeply superstitious and religious, even the emperor would use pious language. He has had a great shock, and he has come to realise that the God of Daniel and of the Jews exists and is powerful. So he is going to extend credit to him, but he is not going to change his ways and stop believing in his own gods.
There is a strange contradiction in the heart of the worldling when he puts his trust in the world. He knows that the world has let him down, that it has limited knowledge and inadequate solutions. He sees that it is out of its depths when it comes to the real problems that man faces as a fallen creature, in the grip of sin and facing death. And yet he wants to believe in it, to take comfort in its consolations, to believe in its solutions, because he does not want to go to the living God for help. If he did so he would have to come on God’s terms or he would receive nothing, and that he will not do. His problems may not be solved by the world’s solutions, and he half knows that it is giving him a lie, but it is a comforting lie, and for the time being he can pretend to himself that it can give real help. In the end, both he and his worldly comforters will perish, but then nothing can be done. Men may choose their counsellors according to what counsel they want to hear.