Well, it's my distinct privilege
this morning to welcome our guest speaker, Brother Jim Byrd from
Allmont, Michigan, and his wife, Nancy. We're glad to have you
here. Brother Jim, you come and preach the gospel to us. Well, it's good to be back with
you again. I think it's been about, I believe,
six years since we were first down here and it's good to join
back with you again for worship and I want to commend you on
how things look around here. Everything looks good and I'm
thankful that God has led you to send forth the gospel of his
grace in the various ways that you're sending it forth now and
we're very thankful for that. I want you to look into the Old
Testament this morning to the book of Daniel and I've got a
story I want to share with you from chapter 6 and it's a story
that most of us are very familiar with. Daniel in the lion's den. Daniel in the lion's den. I think
we're all familiar with it. It's certainly one of the more
fascinating stories in the Word of God. I doubt that there's
anybody in here who hasn't heard of Daniel in the lion's den. And I'm going to go through the
story and repeat it to you a little bit this morning. And in so doing,
I'm going to emphasize some words. But what we're looking for is
the gospel. Whenever we open the scriptures,
In the Old Testament scriptures, I'm especially thinking about
now, we're always looking for Christ, or we should be, right? Because all roads lead to the
Son of God in the scriptures. So wherever we start at in a
passage of scripture, we're always looking for Him. We've got eyes
for the Savior. We're looking for the message
of substitution, satisfaction, We're looking for the message
of the gospel. Now, admittedly, while the Old
Testament is full of typologies and pictures and symbols of our
Lord Jesus Christ and his great work of redemption, whereby he
satisfied God's justice, enabling God to be both a just God and
a Savior, while the Old Testament is full of symbolism and pictures
and shadows that set forth our Savior, no one picture can fully
set forth the Redeemer. We know that. We know that. All of the shadows, all of the
pictures, all of the typologies, all of the symbolism concerning
our Lord Jesus Christ, all of them together make a beautiful
portrait of Him and His work of redemption. But just isolated
from one another, we just, we don't get the whole picture.
You understand what I'm trying to say. So here in this story
of Daniel in the lion's den, we're gonna see some of the gospel
here, and we'll put the rest of the gospel message into this.
And I hope that when you go away this morning, you'll go away
rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ and his work of redemption that
he accomplished on the cross that God might be just and justify
the ungodly, even ungodly sinners like us. Now, in going through
this story, and obviously it's 28 verses in Daniel chapter 6,
and I don't have the time to read all of these verses to you,
so perhaps this afternoon at your leisure you can read through
all of this, but what I want to do is use some trigger words,
maybe that would be a good way to express, just some trigger
words, key words that I want to give you. And just for the
sake of an outline, these are all alliterated. And I'll just
give them to you to kind of follow the story, and then we're going
to make some gospel application to it. First of all, there is
a person that we're looking at in this story, and his name is
Daniel. Daniel, his name means God is my judge. God is my judge. He was a Jew
of the tribe of Judah. And he was at this time, interestingly
enough, in his ministry, he was 90 years old. So he's by no means
a young man. at this point in his ministry
and he is a prophet of God and of course God inspired him to
write this very book so here's the person we're thinking about
this morning is Daniel the second word I want to give you is the
president or the if you read with me I'm gonna read the first
two three verses here Daniel chapter 6 it pleased Darius to
set over the kingdom and a hundred and twenty princes which should
be over the whole kingdom and over these three presidents of
whom Daniel was the first and the princes that the princes
might give accounts unto them and the king should have no damage,
that he should not suffer any losses financially from his investments
and from the various enterprises that were going on in the kingdom.
Verse 3, then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents
and princes because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king
thought to set him over the whole realm." So we looked at the person,
now here's the president. Now King Darius, or Darius, and
you pronounce it either way, and sometimes I may say Darius,
and sometimes I may say Darius, but I'm talking about the same
guy. The correct pronunciation is Darius. King Darius appointed
120 princes, and then over them three presidents, and Daniel
was one of the three. Now this is unusual, of course,
for a captive to be made a president. But that'll give you some idea
of the quality of the man that Daniel was. He was a man of integrity. He was a man of honor. Well,
these three presidents were entrusted with overseeing the various business
enterprises of the king so that the king wouldn't suffer any
financial losses. The third word I'm going to give
you is preferred. Verse 3. Again, this Daniel was
preferred. He was a man of such integrity
that he was given the preferred position. In fact, Daniel was
such an outstanding man. He was a man of such greatness,
a man of such honesty that the king had in mind to do away with
having three presidents and have just one president and Daniel
would be that president. Daniel is an example of a man
of power who also was a man of principle, a rare combination,
right? A man of authority and a man
of principle. God give us such men to lead
us. Number four, the word is plan. Verses four through seven. The
presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel
concerning the kingdom. They were jealous of him. But
they could not find occasion nor fault for as much as he was
faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.
Then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against
this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law
of his God, the way he worships. If we're going to find anything
wrong with him, it will be on this end of his life, in this
part of his life, the way he worships. So verse 6 says, then
these presidents and princes assembled together to the king
and said thus unto the king, King Darius live forever. All
the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes,
the counselors and the captains, have consulted together to establish
a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask
a petition of any god or man for 30 days save of thee, O king,
he shall be cast into the den of lions." And of course, that
was a lie. Verse 7, it says, all the presidents, all the presidents
weren't there because Daniel wasn't there. But this is their
plan. This is their plan. Go to the
king, suggest to the king that he make a law that if any person
ask anything of another man or another god other than the king
for a period of 30 days, that person would be thrown into the
den of the lions. Of course, that appealed to the
pride of the king. Cast into the den of lions. Not
a lion, not two lions, But several lines, because as we shall see
later on, these men who opposed Daniel, they finally wound up
in the den of lions. And the den of lions, there were
so many of them that they just gobbled up all of these men.
So there's several of them. The fifth word is precept. I'm
going quickly because I want to get to the very heart of the
message. Here's the precept. Verse 8, now King established
the decree and signed the writing. that it be not changed according
to the law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not. Any statute,
any precept signed into law could not be reversed. So generally,
they did not make laws lightly or thoughtlessly. Because once
a law was written, there was no way to change it. Once a law
was in effect, it was binding. This is very important to remember
this. Once a law was in effect, it was very binding. It could
not be reversed. It could not be changed. So generally,
they were very slow in enacting a law. The next word is the word
pride, verse 9. Wherefore, King Darius signed
the writing and the decree. This appealed to his pride, and
the king signed it into law. This is a man consumed with his
own self-importance. He's exalting himself. And in
signing this law, he has no thoughts of anyone else, certainly no
thoughts about Daniel, the most trusted man in the kingdom. The seventh word is perseverance.
Look at verse 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the
writing was signed, he went into his house, and his windows being
opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his
knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God
as he did aforetime. He worshiped toward Jerusalem
where the temple was. That temple was a picture of
Titus. of our Lord Jesus Christ, where God meets man and man meets
God. And Daniel, knowing the law had
been signed into effect, that didn't change his practice, his
worship. He bows, he looks toward Jerusalem,
that Jerusalem, that city where God was worshipped, where the
sacrifice was offered, where the blood was shed, that which
pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, that's where Daniel looked. He
persevered even in the midst of this danger. You notice the
first part of verse 10 when Daniel knew it wasn't that he was ignorant
that this happened. He knew the law had been signed
into effect, but that didn't change him from worshiping God.
That didn't change him from looking to Christ, to looking to the
blood, to looking toward the sacrifice. You might be thinking, well,
couldn't Daniel have worshiped standing up, not kneeling down? And maybe why not? Why not shut
the windows? Why not worship in secret? Be
ashamed of the gospel. Be ashamed of Christ Jesus. This man's not ashamed. He's
not gonna, he's not gonna show any weakness or any unbelief. See, a compromise here would
have brought reproach upon the name of the Lord. So he didn't
change what he was accustomed to doing. He just kept on worshiping
the Lord. Here's a good example of a man
who knows God, a man who believes God, and who will not compromise
what he understands to be the truth. Those of us who know the
gospel, we know how God saves sinners. We know it's by substitution
and satisfaction. Learn those two words if you
want to learn the gospel. Substitution. Christ took the
place of his people. Satisfaction. He satisfied all
the demands of a holy God in order to redeem us. Substitution
and satisfaction. He didn't take everybody's place.
If he took everybody's place, everybody's going to wind up
in glory. Right? If he died for every single person
of Adam's race, then hell will be empty. Well, who did he die
for, preacher? He died for his elect. He died
for his people and made satisfaction to the law of God for his people. And we're not ashamed of this
message. Rather than keeping the message
in behind closed doors, we're trying to get the message out,
aren't we? The Savior said, go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel. And that's what y'all are trying
to do. It's what you're trying to do
on the television, on the radio, on your website. And this is
our responsibility. God has given to us, He has entrusted
to us His blessed truth. The truth of the gospel. of how
God, in a righteous way, saves sinners. That's entrusted to
us. It's a treasure. And it's our responsibility to
send it forth. We can't make anybody believe. But we can sure sound the message
out, because how shall they hear unless somebody tells them? Somebody's
got to tell folks, right, what Scripture says. That's why you
men get up here. That's why you invite preachers
in. That's why you have Brother Bill
on television, on radio. That's why these other faithful
servants of the God. That's why we stand behind the
pulpit and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. His substitutionary
work over and over and over again because God has his people out
there. And when the message comes across
to them by the power of the spirit of God, the spirit of God gets
their ear. The sheep perks up. It gets their
heart. Gives us a love for the gospel,
gives us a taste for the dainties of the gospel, the gospel bank. It just suits my spiritual taste
buds, doesn't it, Jude? This is the bread of life that
I feed on. And I don't want to feed on anything
else. Daniel, he wasn't ashamed. He's not going to get behind
closed doors. He's not going to change anything. He's still worshiping the Lord,
even though he's worshiping by himself. His attitude was, well, I'm willing
to sacrifice everything. I'm gonna worship God. You know,
we can compromise and we can fill this building up if you're willing to compromise
the gospel. That's what a lot of people do. You wouldn't do that, would you?
God help us to never compromise. I said, well, we could get a
whole lot more people in here. Look at these other religious
enterprises. They're just packing them in.
They are. There's one built, renewed, a big built, bought
a building and renewed it and developed it up above us, and
now they got about twice as many as we got. Somebody in town said,
well, you got new competition up there. I said, that's not
competition to me. These other folks in town, this
church over here, they got competition. That's just another goat barn.
That's all that is. That's just another goat barn.
This is where the sheep come to graze. And I tell you what,
when the sheep, when the green grass of the gospel of God's
redeeming grace of Jesus Christ and his blood and his righteousness,
when that's put out in front of the sheep, The sheep just
graze, look up a little bit, get a drink of water, keep on
grazing, right? We love this message. Don't compromise. God help us not to compromise. Daniel didn't. Stood fast. He said, I'm just gonna keep
on doing what I've been doing. I'm not gonna change anything.
So, the next word's prosecution. He's in trouble now, verse 11.
Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making
supplication before his God. And they said, we got him now.
They came near and spake before the King concerning the King's
decrees and said, now, King, almighty King, hast thou not
signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of
any God or man within 30 days save of thee, O King, shall be
cast into the den of lions? And the king said, yep, that's
right, because I'm the man. I'm the man. I'm the top man in this kingdom. This thing is true, and he says,
according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth
not. Then answered they and said before the king, that Daniel,
add Daniel, which is of the children of the
captivity of Judah, he doesn't regard you, O king, nor the decree
that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day.
And then the king, when he heard these words, he's upset. Now, let me ask you this. Even though it was a bad law,
here's the question. Did Daniel violate the law? Well,
the answer is yes. He did violate the law, didn't
he? He violated the law. He broke the law. Now, you can
say, well, it wasn't a fair law. It wasn't a good law. You're
correct. But the law couldn't be reversed.
And there's a death penalty attached to it if you violate the law.
Daniel has no defense. Huh? He got no defense. He's
guilty. Guilty as charged. This is their
prosecution. And Daniel gives no defense because
there isn't any. He broke the law, so he must
die. You with me so far? He broke
the law, so he must die. Here's the next word. Predicament.
Verse 14. Then the king, when he heard
these words, was sore displeased. And I'll give him credit for
this. He's sore displeased with himself. He didn't blame it on
anybody else. He didn't blame it on another
politician. He didn't blame it on somebody else in his administration. He didn't have anybody to blame
but himself. And he set his heart on Daniel
to deliver him. That's the same word is saved.
He wanted to save him. He wanted to rescue him. He wanted
to deliver him. And he labored to the going down
of the sun to deliver him. Oh, this is his predicament. How can I honor the law and save
this man that I love? We're getting close to something
here, huh? I'm going to come back to that. You hang on to that though. How
can he show mercy to a man that he thinks the world of and yet
not compromise his law that he signed into effect? Oh, that over a little bit. He
doesn't want Daniel to die, but he can't violate his own law.
There's nothing he could do. So here's the next word, penalty.
Penalty. Verses 15 to 17. The men assembled
and they said, no, old king, the law of the Medes and the
Persians is no decree or statute which the king established can
be changed. So the king sins for Daniel. Cast him into the lions. A stone
was brought, verse 17, laid across the mouth of the den. Into the
den of lions, Daniel was cast. This is the penalty. This is
a penalty. The penalty for breaking the
law is death. Right? The penalty for breaking
the law is death. Next word is preservation. verses
18 through 20. King went to his palace. He passed
the night fasting. He couldn't sleep. Neither were instruments of music
brought before him. His sleep went from him. All
he tossed and turned all night long. Then the king arose very
early in the morning, went in haste to the den of lions. When
he got to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice and said to
Daniel, Or unto Daniel, and the king spake, and said to Daniel,
O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest
continually, able to deliver thee from the lies? There's that
word deliver again. So far it's been used four words,
twice in verse 14 and once in verse 16. We're talking about
deliverance now. Can your God deliver you? Verse
21, Daniel said, O king, live forever. My God sent His angel,
His angel, the same angel that was in the fiery furnace with
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the angel of the covenant, the
angel of the Lord, the messenger of God, yea, the Son of God. Here's the Son of God again.
My God sent His angel, His messenger, and shut the mouths of the lions
that they have not hurt me. For as much as before him innocency
was found in me, and also before him, O King, I have done no hurt. He's innocent through the innocence
of Jesus Christ. Huh? He's righteous through the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. I know I, you look at me, be
around me very long, you say, that's a sinful man. You're looking
at a righteous man right now, do you know that? I'm a righteous
man in Jesus Christ, who's the Lord of my righteousness. There's
no innocence. There's only innocency in Daniel.
I tell you, the people of God, we don't have any sin. I said
this morning, God sees us in his son. That's why he sees us with delight. Oh, children of God, listen,
God's not mad at you. He ain't never been mad at you. All the wrath that your sins
deserved and merited has poured out on Jesus Christ the Lord.
God smiles on you. He takes delight on you in His
Son. Isn't that right? That's why
the script says, come boldly to the throne of grace. You say,
well, I'm not fit. No you're not, but Christ is. He's your fitness. He's your
worthiness. He's your righteousness. It's preservation. Verse 23,
the king said he was glad. He's glad. They took Daniel up
out of the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him, none
at all. Well, next word's punishment.
Verse 24, the king commanded, now, uh-oh. Something's gonna
happen to all these enemies of Daniel. Those men which had accused
Daniel, they cast them into the den of lions, and not only them,
but their children and their wives. Everybody who rebelled against
the king. Lions had the mastery of them,
break all their bones in pieces wherever they came at the bottom
of the den. That's the punishment. These
were not old toothless lions. These were lions that devoured
these folks. Then the proclamation, verses
25 through 27. King Darius wrote, unto all people, nations, and
languages that dwelt in all the earth, said, Peace be multiplied
to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom,
men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel. He's the living
God, steadfast forever. His kingdom, that which shall
not be destroyed. His dominion shall be even unto
the end. He delivereth and rescueth. He
worketh signs and wonders in heaven and earth, who hath delivered
Daniel from the power of the lions. This guy's a better preacher
than most preachers today. He knows more about God. This
guy knows God reigns. He knows God's sovereign. His
heathen king. He knows more than most preachers
know today. I'd rather listen to him preach, wouldn't you? That's the proclamation. And then there's prosperity.
Last verse. You know, I've heard this story
since I was a little boy in Sunday school, and about every time
I heard it, Daniel set forth as an illustration of a man who
believed God, and he did believe God. That's a fact. He did believe God. There's in that hymn book that
we sang out of, there's a song in there, Dare to be a Daniel.
Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose
firm, dare to make it known. Well, we should believe God.
We should be faithful to his cause. But is that all there
is to be seen in this story? This story is not about honoring
Daniel. The Lord told the Pharisees concerning
the scriptures, These are they which testify of me. We got to
see Christ in this scripture now. Otherwise, we've not really
looked at this this morning the way we ought to look at it. You
see, God the Holy Spirit has devoted an entire chapter to
Daniel in the lion's den. You reckon the Spirit of God
would devote an entire chapter of Holy Scripture and have no
gospel in it? That can't be. Let me show it
to you if you hadn't seen it already. The ninth word I gave
you was predicament, if you jotted them down. Another word for predicament
is dilemma. This is the predicament or the
dilemma of King Darius. That'd be the title of this message.
The Dilemma of King Darius. He loved Daniel. He thought the
world of Daniel. But Daniel broke the law. And
I know it was a bad law. I know it was an unfair law.
But it was a law nevertheless. And the king tried his best to
figure out how he could honor the law that demanded the punishment
of the guilty while at the same time freeing the man that he
loved. And we read that he labored to
the going down of the sun to deliver him, to save him, but
he couldn't do it. This story is not about exalting
Daniel. And Daniel would be the first
one to tell us. This is not to be, that he's
not to be honored or exalted. Let's see if we can see a vital,
absolutely vital gospel truth here. And here's what I want
to show you. The dilemma of King Darius is
the glory of God. Huh? Is the very glory of God. What he couldn't figure out a
way to do, God did do. in his infinite wisdom. Let me
give you a few things here. Number one, God has loved a people,
all of his Daniels, from old eternity. It says in verse three
that Daniel was preferred. My friends, God has a preferred
people in this world. They're called his elect. chosen
in Christ Jesus from before the foundation of the world. God
told Jeremiah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
in loving kindness have I drawn thee. Paul said in Ephesians
1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. The Lord told his disciples,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. God said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. God has a preferred people in
this world. A preferred people. They are
the spiritual seed of Abraham. They are the sheep of Jesus Christ. They are the very elect of God.
There is such a thing as the election of grace. And the elect are as many as
the stars in the heavens or the grains of sand on the seashore. There's a remnant even now according
to the election of grace. We keep preaching the gospel
because we're on the trail of the elect. We're on the trail
of God's sheep. I don't know who they are. You
don't know who they are. But the gospel will find them.
The gospel will search them out. Just preaching Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. The righteousness of God in Jesus
Christ. Just preaching this salvation
by grace. Salvation in Jesus Christ. The
blood of Christ. The righteousness of Christ.
Just keep preaching this message. It'll find them lost ones. They
won't find the message. The message will find them. That's right. Here's the second
thing. Something awful happened. These
people that God has loved with an everlasting love, these people
who are the preferred people of God, we fell in Adam. We're
sinners. We've broken God's law. We're lawbreakers. As Daniel broke the law of the
king, we have broken the law of the king of heaven and earth.
We're lawbreakers. Romans chapter three, the law
pronounces us all guilty, right? It shuts our mouths. It doesn't
give us any wiggle room. Now the law of God is good and
just and holy. The law of King Darius was not
a good law. It was not a just law, but God's
law is. Nothing wrong with the law. There's
something wrong with us, though. We're sinners. We got a heart problem. And sin's
not just the wrong that you do and the bad things that you say.
Sin's what you are. It's what I am. We're born in sin. The children
here this morning, you're sinners. When we were babies, we're sinners.
A little one growing up, you don't have to teach him to lie.
Do you? You don't have to teach them
to be stingy. You have to teach them to share.
You have to teach them to tell the truth. You know why? They're
little sinners. They're little sinners. Like a rattlesnake, a big rattlesnake,
that's dangerous. What about them little ones?
They grow up to be dangerous, too. We're rattlesnakes in our
hearts. That's what I'm saying. We're fallen sons and daughters
of God. We're all infected with this
horrible disease of sin. We've all violated God's law. Love God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbors yourself. We're lawbreakers, aren't we? Come on now, we're lawbreakers.
I suspect you're kind of like me. In society, I think lawbreakers
ought to be punished, don't you? I think I'll be punished. Who's
that we heard this guy execute and put before a firing squad?
That's just. Oh, I think that's too hard.
No, that's just. And I tell you, we're rebels
against God Almighty, deserving of going before the firing squad.
Isn't that right, brother? That's exactly right now. Which brings me to the third
thing. There's a price to pay for breaking the law. When Daniel
broke the law of the king, there was a consequence to breaking
that law. He's cast into the den of lions.
The death sentence was upon him. We've broken God's law. God said,
be ye holy if I'm holy. Well, I'm doing the best I can.
God said, be perfect. Leviticus 22, 21 says, it shall
be perfect to be accepted. And that hadn't changed. God
Almighty cannot accept anything less than perfection. He never has and He never will.
No exceptions. Be ye holy if I am holy. That's
what God says. I'm trying to do the best I can. God says, Behold, all souls are
mine is the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son,
the soul that sinneth, it shall, what's the next word? Die. The law's not gonna change. Which brings me to say this,
ask this question, can anything be done to spare sinners the
death penalty? Remember King Darius, he set
up trying to figure out a way to reconcile law and grace, truth and mercy. He couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. He could not
find a way whereby he could uphold the integrity of the precept
and save Daniel's life. And he threw up his hands in
frustration and commanded Daniel to be cast
into the den of lions. I'm sorry, Daniel. It's the law. You gotta die. God Almighty, He gave His law
just, holy, and good. We broke that law. And here's
the question of all questions. The issue of all issues. How
can God Almighty uphold the integrity of His law that requires death
for sin and at the same time spare the guilty who have violated
His law and who have brought death upon themselves? How can
God punish the guilty and save the guilty at the same time?
This is asked throughout the book of Job. How can God be just
and justify? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How? How? Man who's a sinner
by birth, by choice, by practice, how can that man be justified,
righteous? before a holy God, to where God
doesn't even charge him with guilt. King Darius could not
figure out a way. Can God Almighty come up with
a solution to this problem? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Bless his name. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his son. made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law. Good news for
sinners. We were under the sentence of
death, but God did something. God did something. We can't do
anything. Nobody else can do anything for
us, but Almighty God can and did. He did, because the scripture
says in due time Christ died for the ungodly. And you know
what Christ did? In keeping with this text, he
went into the den of lions. You read in Psalm 22, he talked
about the lions that were after him. He dealt with the lions. Satan, that roaring lion who
goes about seeking whom he may devour, he got his head crushed
when the Savior died on the cross. The lion of the tribe of Judah
crushed his head. And the lions of God's justice,
hungry, hungry to devour those that have violated God's law.
The Savior went in among the lines of God's justice. Oh, but
listen, they didn't devour him. He devoured them. He took all
the condemnation. He took all the wrath. He took
all the justice of God that was due to our sins and consumed
it all. And there were no more lines.
So there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment to
them who are in Christ Jesus. He died in our stead. Back to
the gospel. Back to substitution. The law has been upheld. God didn't lessen his demands,
did he? No, sir. He spared not his own son, but
he delivered him up for us all. What King Darius could not do, God could do and did do to the
praise of the glory of His grace. I tell you, this is good news
to poor, guilty sinners. This is good news. Yonder, 2,000 years ago, the
debt was paid. And justice was satisfied. And it's settled. Once for all, it's over with. For all of God's people. The
Spirit of God brings us to believe this Lord Jesus Christ. Trust
Him. This is good news for sinners.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save, to save sinners of whom
I'm chief. Several times in this text, you
read Daniel 6 again when you have an opportunity, look at
that word, deliver and delivereth, save. Christ came and He saved
us. He saved us. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus, for he shall save. It's not that he'll try
to save or he'll attempt to save. He'll put forth a good effort
to save. He shall save his people from their sin. Bless his name.
He did it. It's over. It's over. Jesus paid it all. All the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. That king said, Daniel, look
at verse 20 again, I'll quit. He said, he came to the den and
he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, and the king spake
and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is
thy God whom thou service continually able to deliver thee from the
lions? Can your God save? That's what I'm asking you. The
God you worship, can your God save? Well, He can if we let Him. You got the wrong God. The God
of the Bible saves through the blood and righteousness
of His Son. He saves in such a way as the
integrity of His honor is intact. God is glorified and salvated.
Oh, behold the wisdom of God. God came up with the means whereby
he would reconcile unto himself all these preferred people. He'd
do it in a righteous way. He don't set righteousness aside.
He doesn't set truth aside. He saves us and he's still holy
and righteous as he's always been and he'll always be. He
saves us through the righteous obedience of Jesus Christ the
Lord. Oh, may God enable us to look
to this blessed Savior and just hug up to Him and find sweet
peace and rest. There's no rest anywhere else.
All your striving and trying and working and just be done
with all those dead works. May God enable us to repent of
all that junk and realize Christ is the Savior. Christ is the
Redeemer. Christ is all. We're complete
in Him, are we? Who of God has made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according
as it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. All
right. Thank you for listening.