Good morning. Where did the time
go? It just goes so fast. All right, it's nice that we
have Joy. Joy Grubb is here this morning, Delfus. Delfus has to
go home tomorrow, but Joy will be with us through the week,
which will be nice. So we're going to do some of our favorite
hymns when we have an accompaniment. Hymn number 21 from your spiral
hymn book, let's all stand together. The Covenant, Ordered and Sure. God the Father and the Son and
the Spirit, three in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast, God my Father chose his own in the person
of his Son. and ordained that I should be
one with Him eternally. God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly stood
as my great surety. For my price he offered blood
to appease the wrath of God. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen, purchased race. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
? For God's covenant will endure ? ? It is sealed by God's own
word ? ? By his spirit and his blood ? Blessed Holy Covenant
God, I am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God above. Please be seated. Good morning. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Genesis chapter 43. I want to read a couple of passages
of scripture briefly before we begin that have to do with that
hymn we just sang. We refer to a surety as a cosigner
today. A cosigner is someone who puts
their name on the bill in case the other person can't pay it.
But in the Bible, a surety was not just a cosigner, he was the
person who paid the debt. He paid it all. Everything necessary,
he paid it all. Look what Judah says to his father
Israel. in Genesis chapter 43 verse 8
and Judah said unto Israel his father send the lad with me and
we will arise and go that we may live and not die both we
and thou and also our little ones and I will be surety for
him. Israel didn't want to let Benjamin
go back to Egypt in fear that he would lose him and Judah stands
up and says I'll be surety for him. I'll make sure. Now look what Judah says. Of
my hand shall thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now Judah was speaking prophetically
for the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord in the covenant
of grace, we just sang this, stood before the father, I'll
be surety for them. And you blame me. You blame me
if I don't bring them back safely to you. Is it possible for the
father to blame the son for having failed? And yet, that's the message
that's being preached in religion today, that Jesus made an offer
of salvation. He wants to save everybody, but
is not able to do it. Oh, no. No, he didn't fail. He accomplished what he came
to do. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter Chapter 6, Proverbs Chapter 6. Reading the Proverbs has been
such a blessing this week. Back before we heard the gospel,
we only understood, I'm speaking for myself, I only understood
this admonition in Proverbs Chapter 6 to keep your promises. If you make a promise, if you
strike hands with someone and commit yourself to them, keep
your promise. And that's true. That's true.
We ought to keep our promises. But the gospel application is
so much greater and beyond that, isn't it? Look what the Lord
says to his son. My son, if thou be surety for
thy friend, we have a friend that sticks closer than a brother. If thou be surety for thy friend,
if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, the Lord Jesus
Christ in the covenant of grace committed to the father to strike
hands with those who are at enmity with him, his bride, his church. Thou art snared with the words
of thy mouth. Thou art taken with the words
of thy mouth. Do this now, my son, and deliver
thyself when thou art come into the hand of thy friend Go humble
thyself and make sure thy friend. Keep your promise and it'll be
the surety of your friends. Give not sleep to thine eyes
nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from
the hand of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Oh, how thankful we are that the Lord Jesus Christ was faithful.
to keep his promise to the Father and be our surety, paying everything
necessary for our salvation. That hymn we just sang is a wonderful
hymn. I just thought I'd read those
two passages to give some meaning to what we were just singing.
I want us to ask the Lord's blessings on our time together this morning
and also want us to pray together as a church family for little
Oliver, He's here this morning for his first time of many, many,
many times, Lord willing in his life to sit under the gospel
and how hopeful we are that the Lord be pleased to have mercy
on his soul, save him. So let's pray together. Our merciful
heavenly father, we're so very thankful that we have a surety,
an advocate, one who did everything necessary for our salvation. We ask, Lord, that you would
send your spirit and power to cause our hearts to be drawn
to him. We pray that you would bless
us with the gift of faith that we might trust the Lord Jesus
Christ for all the hope of our salvation. We pray that you would
open the eyes of our understanding and cause your word to be living
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And Father, we do pray for little
Oliver and we thank you for him. Oh, the miracle of birth surely
is a work of your grace. And Lord, we pray for his new
birth. We ask that you would give him ears to hear. We pray
that as he sits for years under the gospel, that you would soften
his heart, cause him to believe. We pray for each of us as a member
of his church family, and particularly for his immediate family, that
you would give us wisdom, discernment, and grace to be an example to
him in every way. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. We open your Bibles with me,
please, to the book of Daniel. Lord willing, for the next several
weeks, I'm gonna try to bring one message from each chapter
in Daniel. So we're not going to go verse
by verse, but we're going to summarize each chapter in the
book of Daniel. The summary of this first chapter
has to do with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being a
picture of Christ and His church being taken exile into Babylon
That's the picture. And I want you to notice in verse
2, and the Lord gave Jehoiachin, king of Judah, into the hands
of the Babylonians. So this was the Lord's doing.
The Lord's the one that sent the Babylonians into Jerusalem
to take the children of Israel captive into Babylon Daniel at
this point in his life is about 14 or 15 years old. And the scripture
makes it clear that Daniel lived in Babylon until the first year
of the King of Cyrus, which was 70 years later. So Daniel lives
70 years. Now what is 70 years in the scriptures? Three score and 10. That's the
life of a man. And so Daniel spend 70 years
exiled in Babylon, dies in Babylon, never comes back to Jerusalem,
dies an old man in Babylon. And the picture that I want us
to see this morning is that nothing has changed. Nothing's changed. You and I live in Babylon. We
do. And the Lord put us here. We're
strangers. That's the title of this message,
strangers. When Peter opens up his epistle,
he refers to the church as strangers. The scripture calls us sojourners. We're in a foreign country and
we speak a different language. And it's the Lord's doing. It's
the Lord's doing. Now, I want to preface this message
by saying that I'm very, very thankful that I live in the United
States of America. I am. I mean, I've traveled a
lot of places in this world. There's no place I'd rather live.
I'm thankful for the freedoms that we have here, thankful for
the prosperity that we have here. And believers in whatever culture
they live in ought to be the best citizens of that culture.
Romans chapter 13 makes it clear that we're to obey governing
authorities, that God put them there. To not obey governing
authorities is to stand in rebellion against God. Scripture makes
it clear that we're to give unto Caesar that which belongs to
Caesar and unto God which belongs to God. We're to be faithful,
good citizens, paying our taxes, obeying authority, giving honor
to them which God has honored by putting them in positions
of power. And we ought to honor everything from policemen to
our president in that regard. Show deference and respect. uh... that's the attitude that
believers ought to have now all of that being said all that being
said anybody that has any thought of this being a christian nation
is completely missing what it is to be a christian we live
in babylon babylon that's where we live but god put us here God
put us here, put us here for a reason. What is Babylon? Well, it goes all the way back
to the Tower of Babel, doesn't it? When God confused the speech
of man because he attempted to build a city up into heaven. It's a picture of works religion. They had bricks for stone and
they had slime for mortar and they desperately attempted to
access God by the works of their own flesh, mixing with their
works the atonement. That word slime that's used in
the scripture for what they used as mortar in the city of Babylon
is the same word for pitch. It's tar is what it is. And that
word pitch is spoken of when it comes to the ark, Noah's ark,
isn't it? The ark was pitched. It was covered
inside and out in order to make it watertight. And tar works
really good as a water repellent. It doesn't work good at all,
especially in a hot environment as mortar does it. But that's
what men do. The word pitch or slime is a
reference to the atonement, the covering of the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what do men do today? They
mix the atonement. with their works. They have bricks
for stone and slime for mortar, and that's Babylon. And they
all have a confusing speech. They're all saying different
things, aren't they? This group says, oh no, you've got to do
this, and another group says, oh no, you've got to do that. What
a picture! And the destruction of Babylon
is seen so clearly in the book of Revelation, isn't it? When
she's called She's called the mother of harlots. And if you
read Revelation chapter 17, next time you think that we live in
a Christian, anybody says we live in a Christian nation. And
I don't, the one thing I don't want to communicate in the comments
that I'm making is that we have some sort of commune attitude
where we separate ourselves from the world or we stand in judgment
of the world. I just want us to be realistic
about the world in which we live. and the position that we have
in this world as strangers, as pilgrims, as sojourners. This
world is not our home. We're in the world. We're not
of the world. We're different. But we're not to create some
sort of adversarial relationship with the world. We're not to
have a defeated attitude. We're not to have a martyr syndrome
about our relationship with the world. Daniel and the children
of Israel didn't have any of those attitudes when they were
in Babylon. We're not to have some sort of
conspiracy theories about how the world is operating against
the things of God. The world is against the things
of God. It just is. Every part of it, from education
to politics to philosophy, everything in this world is contrary to
the things of God. Everything. That's the world
we live in. And we're not to get involved
in some sort of militant political movement to try to change the
world. The only thing Christian in this world is the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only thing Christian. I made those statements about
not being, I come from a Catholic family, you all know that. My
loved ones, my family members are all Roman Catholic. You read
the book of Revelation, particularly Romans chapter, Revelation chapter
17 is a clear description of the Catholic Church. The organization
that's been most adversarial against the gospel, the most
anti-christ organ is a two organizations in the world Catholicism and
Judaism. Next time somebody tells you
we live in a Christian nation you just remember that six of
the judges on the highest court in this country are Roman Catholic
and the other three are Jews. and God has put them there. God
has put them there. Revelation chapter 17 is a clear
picture of the Catholic Church and what she looks like, where
she is, built on the city of the seven hills, which is Rome,
but she's called the mother of the harlots. The mother of the
harlots and the mother of the harlots has many, many children. And all the children of this
harlot woman are Babylonian. They speak a different language.
They have a works grace gospel. Now I know the things I'm saying
right now are going to be very offensive to some people. And
I say these things not in order for us to stand in opposition
against them. You're not going to change the
world. This is the way the world is. God has given the world over
to the prince of the power of the air. But here's the thing
about it. The devil is God's devil. Babylon
is God's Babylon and here we are living in it And well the
point that I'm trying to make from rep from Daniel chapter
1 is that we're not of this world We're not we're just like Daniel. We're just like Shadrach Meshach
and Abednego We're we're in a we're in a strange land and one day
this world's gonna be destroyed and the only thing's gonna be
saved is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, who are under the
atonement and the atonement only. They don't have bricks. They
don't have bricks for stone. They've got the rock of ages
on which they're standing. They've got the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I hope that's clear. You know, when Luke wrote the Gospel of Luke and when he
wrote the Acts of the Holy Spirit. He addressed both those letters
to Theophilus. Theophilus was a Roman governor.
And one of the points that Luke's making in both those letters
is he's saying to this Roman governor, don't believe the accusations
that are being made about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are not seditious. They are not trying to overthrow
the government. They're your best citizens you've
got, and here's the story. And so he addresses his letters
to most excellent Theophilus. And that's the way it ought to
be. The Lord told Pilate, he said,
my kingdom's not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
my disciples would fight. No, my kingdom's a spiritual
kingdom. And that's the kingdom that God's
people belong to. We're in this world, we're not
of this world. the Lord Jesus Christ said in
this world you shall have tribulation you're going to be in your your
your your philosophy your your everything that you believe is
going to be completely contrary to Babylon but be of good cheer I've overcome
the world I've overcome the world Babylon's already slated for
destruction and you're not a Babylon. And when the Lord describes Babylon
in the book of Revelation, he concludes his description of
her by saying to his people, come out from among her and have
no part with her. Have no part with her. And that's
what the Lord does, doesn't he? Brings us out of Babylon. And yet we live in Babylon. Just like Daniel. Turn with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Verse 19, for it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? Let me ask you a question. Has
God made foolish the wisdom of this world in your heart? Has
He? If He's made you to differ, if
He's made you to differ, You know that God made a difference
between the Israelites and the Egyptians. And if he's made you
to differ, you realize, you know what? I live in a foreign land. I'm a stranger. And I'm not here to try to change
the world. I'm here to live for Christ while
he has me in this world and to look to Christ. I want you to see how foolish
this world is so that you not be deceived by it. For after that the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them which believe. The world
by wisdom knew not God. They've got a Babylonian religion.
They don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we've been
reading the book of Proverbs every day. I hope you've been
doing that. It's been such a blessing to me. And one of the things
that's so clear in those early chapters of the book of Proverbs
is the admonition that the Lord makes to young men to be careful
of that harlot. now before we ever heard the
gospel we knew that was we knew that's what that was talking
about uh... and and and it is true it is
true but have you not been struck by the fact that there's no warnings
in that in those passages for young women to be careful of
deceiving men see there's a spiritual picture
here the harlot that's being spoken of in Reveille. Yeah,
it's the prostitute and the woman that would deceive a young man,
but it's more than that. It's the false church. She's
the great mother of the harlots and the Lord's warning his people,
men and women, be careful for her. Don't be deceived by her
because the whole world, the whole world has given over to
her. They're all following after her. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. The Jews are looking for a miracle.
The Jews represent the religious. The religious are looking for
a sign. The irreligious, the Greeks, consider the gospel to
be foolishness. Why would you be so concerned
about spiritual things? We live in a world that's to
be, you know, you only go around once in life, you know, grab
for all the gusto you can get. Some of you older people remember
that Schlitz commercial. But there it is, you know, isn't
that the way? That's the philosophy of the
world, isn't it? We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto us, which are called both Jews and Greeks is the power
of God. Christ, the power of God and
the wisdom of God. The foolishness of the world
is a foolish world we live in. May God give us the wisdom to
discern the difference between the truth of the gospel and everything
else in this world that's sold over to Babylon. God sent Daniel
to Babylon for 70 years. God's got you and me in Babylon
and we're going to be here the rest of our lives. And Babylon's
not going to change. It's not going to change. It's
going to be the same. One day she's going to be destroyed.
The people of God are going to praise Him. That's where I want
to be, don't you? All right, go back with me to
Daniel. Babylon, God has sent Babylon
to invade Jerusalem and take, take Daniel, whose name translated
means judgment, Judgment, the judgment of God
was exercised when the sword of God's justice plunged into
the very heart of the Lord Jesus Christ and satisfied all the
demands of God's holy law, putting to death once and for all, shedding
his precious blood. That's the judgment of God. That's
who Daniel's a picture of here. Hananiah, Hananiah's name translated
means grace. Oh, it's only by the grace of
God. All the Jewish names had reference to God. They had reference
to God. And their names are going to
be changed, aren't they? The Babylonians are going to give
them Babylonian names and all the Babylonian names refer to
God as well. I'll show you that in just a
moment. Michiel translated means strength and Azariah means help. When you were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. Oh, come before the throne of
grace that we might find help, help in our time of need, grace
and mercy. So, verse 1 of Daniel chapter
1, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiachin, king of Judah,
came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, besieged
it. and the Lord gave Jehoiachin king of Judah into the hands
and part, listen to this, part of the vessels of the house of
God were taken back and put into the house of the gods of Babylon. Now what is happening today?
What is happening today? They take the precious things
of God. They take the word of God. They
take the name of God. And they carry it back to their
Babylonian God. And they mix truth with error. You see, this is our life. Daniel,
2500 years ago, more than that. It's where we live. God has sent
Babylon to take the vessels of the things of God. and carry
him into Shinar, the land of Shinar, into the house of his
gods. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his
gods. And the king spoke to Ashpenaz,
the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the
children of Israel and of the king's seed. and of the prince's
children, in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful
in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science,
and such as have the ability in them to stand in the king's
palace." Who's that? You see the spiritual picture
there? We have understanding in Christ, in the gospel. We
have understanding. We can discern the difference
between that which is in error and that which is true. We can
see the foolishness. of the world and of Babylon and
the truth of the gospel and the glory of Christ. We have some
understanding and we're able to stand. We're able to stand
in the presence of the King. Come boldly. Come with confidence
to the throne of grace. Come into my presence. We have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one.
We can come into the very presence of the King. without fear of
judgment, without fear of wrath, and whom they might teach the
learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans, might God enable us to hear what
the Chaldeans are saying so that we can discern the difference
between that which is wise and that which is foolish. And the king appointed them a
daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he
drank, so nourished them three years, and at the end that they
might stand before the king. And among these were the children
of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Meshiel, and Azariah, unto whom the prince
of the eunuchs gave names, for he gave the name of Daniel the
name of Belshazzar. Now Baal was one of the Babylonian
gods. So just like their names were
named after the God of Israel, now their names are being changed
to the gods of Babylon. Hananiah, Shadrach. Rack was one of the gods of Babylon. And to Michiel, Meshach, Shack,
was one of the gods of Babylon. And to Azariah, Abednego, Nego
was one of the gods of Babylon. So the Babylonians saw them as
one of themselves. They couldn't, they just believed
that they were just like us. They were just like us, but they
weren't. They weren't. You know, we live
in a world, people didn't know that the Lord Jesus Christ was
any different from anybody else. They're not gonna see, you know,
the difference, but we have a name. We have a
name. The Lord changes names of people
in the Bible, doesn't He? Abram changed to Abraham, Jacob
changed to Israel, and Saul changed to Paul. The Lord changes the
names in order to show them the promises of God. But Daniel purposed
in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion
of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore
he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not
defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into
favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. Ah, might our associates, God
brings us into favor, doesn't he? And the prince of the eunuchs
said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king who hath appointed your
meat and your drink and why should you see your faces worse than
the other children which are of your sort? Then shall you
make me endanger my head to the king." So the prince of the eunuchs
says, no, I can't cut you off from the king's meat, otherwise
you're going to look bad because you're not eating well, and when
the king sees you, he's going to blame me for it. Then said
Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech
thee ten days and let them and let them give us pulse to eat
and water to drink." Now pulse is vegetables. So the children
of Israel on a vegetarian diet. And the unbeliever will read
this and say, well, that's the best diet. And we should be,
yeah, probably a vegetarian diet is good. But if you're not on
a vegetarian diet, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. And if you are, don't boast about
it. Then let our countenance be looked
upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the
portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest, deal well with
thy servants. What's the spiritual? We eat
the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? We don't
eat the same meat the world eats. We're not eating the meat of
the Babylonians. We're not eating a works gospel. We're not even
nibbling on it. We're not swallowing it. And what happens? What happens
to Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel? Their countenance
is fatter." Look what he says. So, he consented to them in this
matter and proved them 10 days. So, okay, I'll put you on that
diet for 10 days. And at the end of the 10 days, their countenance
appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which
did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus, Melzar took away
the portion of their meat and the wine which they should drink
and gave them pulse. It's not a very appetizing diet for
the worldly. Oh, but it's all the children
of God need. It's all the children of God need. As for these four children, God
gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and
Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the
end of the day, that the king had said he should bring them
in, then the princes of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar
and the king communed with them. And among them all was found
none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Hazariah. Therefore stood
they before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding,
the king required of them. He found them 10 times better
than all the magicians and the astrologers that were in his
realm. And Daniel continued even into
the first year of the King of Cyrus. That was 70 years later.
So Daniel spent his whole life there. You and I live in Babylon. We're gonna spend the rest of
our lives here. Babylon's not gonna change. This is not gonna
become the kingdom of God, not in this world, not in this world. May God give us favor and keep
us as strangers in a foreign country. All right, let's take
a break. Thank you.