May God bless us together as
we turn to his word this evening. We'll turn to the chapter we
read in the book of Daniel and chapter six, and we'll read together
verse 22. Daniel chapter six and verse
22. These of course are the words
of Daniel to the king. My God hath sent his angel. and has shut the lion's mouths,
that they have not hurt me. For as much as before him innocency
was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no
hurt. Daniel 6 and verse 22. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
upon earth, he told his disciples, he told us these words, in the
world ye shall have tribulation. You have good cheer, I have overcome
the world, he says. But it's a truth, in the world
ye shall have tribulation. Peter, writing his first epistle
in the second chapter, writes this, for what glory is it if
when you are buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently?
But if when you do well and suffer for it, you take it patiently,
this is acceptable for God. He says, when you do well, you
may suffer for it. In the world ye shall have tribulation."
And Daniel proved both of those texts to be true. He had tribulation
in the world, and when he did well, he suffered. Just consider Daniel for a few
minutes with me this evening. Daniel was many miles from his
homeland. He had been taken from Judah,
from Jerusalem probably, to Babylon. He had been taken as a captive.
Though high up in Judean society, he had been taken as a captive.
But he had been blessed and favoured and he had been brought into
the palace of the King Nebuchadnezzar. And there it had been decided
with him and at least the three friends he was with, that they
would be trained especially into the culture and the ways of the
Chaldeans, the empire of Babylon. And Daniel prospered in that
work. And he learned well, and he was
obviously a wise and very intelligent man. And he served the kings
well. He served Nebuchadnezzar well. He then served Balthasar very
well. He was faithful to him. Of course,
he also served Darius, the king, well. He was respected in the
kingdom. He was respected by the kings,
though he originally had been brought a captive from Jerusalem. We could see that very clearly,
couldn't we, in the chapter we read. Darius set Daniel up preferred
above the presidents and princes, second really to the throne. And Darius was clearly greatly
upset when it became apparent that he would have to have Daniel
cast into the lion's den. He had great respect for him. He greatly honoured him and needed
him really in the kingdom. Daniel was faithful to these
kings. But more than that, Daniel was
faithful to his God. Now consider he was a long way
from home. a long way from his people, as
it were, a long way from the temple, the worship of God in
Jerusalem. He could have easily given up
with his faith. He could easily have joined in
with the culture and the religion of the Chaldeans, have fitted
in amongst the people. The temptations were there. The
pressure was there. And yet Daniel, from the very
beginning, remained faithful to God. Straight away we see
him refusing to eat the meat of the king's table, for it had
been offered to idols. Straight away making a stand
that they would just have the vegetables and the water. And
of course we know that God honoured that. He was faithful when he
read the writing on the wall to Balthasar. And he was faithful
in the way that God had opened it to him. Well, he told him
the truth. He didn't try to hide it. He
didn't try to pretend something else. He was faithful in what
God had revealed to him in that writing. And of course, when
we come to chapter 6, we read of Daniel being faithful to God.
in his constant prayers. Daniel had prayed before. It
is clear that Daniel had this routine of opening his window
and looking towards Jerusalem three times a day and praying
to his God. And of course that was something
that these people realised they could attack him from. This here
was his weakness, the fact that Daniel prays to a foreign god. But Daniel continued to pray
and through that we are again reminded of Daniel's faithfulness
to his god. He did what was right. He did what was right to his
earthly masters. He did what was right to his
heavenly master. He served him rightly and faithfully,
and he sought and had a good relationship, if I can put it
that way, with his God. He walked closely with him and
he prayed to him. And yet Daniel, despite his faithfulness,
despite his good works, he suffered. He knew opposition. He knew persecution. And he knew persecution to the
extent that he finds himself being lowered down into the lion's
den, facing a certain death. This is the opposition that he
faces for being faithful to man and to God. Now, Daniel, of course, is a
great example to us. an example of faithfulness, an
example of godly living, and how we should also, as the Lord's
people, strive to obey our God as Daniel did, strive to do His
will, to be concerned about what He would have us to do and to
faithfully do it. It should be our concern to live
rightly. as God has directed, not to displease
him, not to walk as far away from him as possible or to walk
as close to the world as possible. Daniel makes a stand instantly. He's such an example, I believe,
of faithfulness to God and yet walking in an ungodly and heathen
society. Not really that dissimilar to
us. The vast majority around him
were not believers. They followed heathen gods. They
followed pagan religion. And yet he didn't allow those
influences to stop his faithfulness to his God. And we also walk
in a heathen society, you could say. Generally around us, the
people are not believers. They follow a different God.
They follow a different way. and how easy it is for us to
be sucked into it and still have the name of Christian and even
the outward form of Christian and yet our heart is going towards
that way. We are wandering as far from
God as we can in good conscience. While Daniel's example is to
continue to walk close to his God and yet still serve faithfully
in a heathen society. And we are also to serve faithfully
in our society. We are also to be good citizens
of our country. And yet the struggle is, the
balance is to do that whilst walking as close and faithfully
to our God as we can. And that, of course, is the struggle
that we have. But what we should strive for.
Daniel's great example. And yet, as I say, he was opposed. And we might think, well, if
we walk well, if we are faithful to our rulers and into our society,
and if we are faithful to our God, then all will be well and
all will be easy. But Daniel's example is that
that is not the truth. Daniel's life shows us that there
will be tribulation, and he found himself opposed, and God's people
find themselves opposed. Now, we do face outward persecution. We don't particularly in our
country, in our society, though we may in certain ways and certain
forms have outward persecution and opposition. Of course, people
in other parts of the world have it far more. But one thing the
believer always does have is the opposing one, that is, the
devil. And we will find that as we try
to walk and seek to walk closely to the Lord in obedience to him,
the devil will not be far away. He will oppose. He will persecute. as Daniel found he was opposed
and he was persecuted. So how was Daniel opposed then? How was Daniel opposed? And what
lesson does that have for us more specifically when we think
about the work of Satan? Well, Daniel was opposed by jealous
people. People who didn't like that he
was preferred above them. They wanted to bring him down.
They wanted to have him destroyed. It was their own pride. They
wanted the position. They wanted a way with him. They
couldn't find any fault in him that save his religion. They
were jealous. And as we know, they brought
this new law through the king. They really puff up the king's
pride to make him think that he is a god. No one should pray
to any god or any man except for the king. The king is the
head. The king is the god. We should only come to the king.
They play on his pride. And the king signs, really without
thinking it would seem, signs this decree. A decree that couldn't
be changed once it had been signed. He clearly hadn't thought of
the implications. He hadn't thought of Daniel.
The king signs the law. And then, of course, they have
Daniel in their hands, don't they? Because they know what
he will do. They know he will remain faithful
to his God. They know that he will continue
to pray as he has done before. And they assemble together at
the right time and in the right place. And, of course, lo and
behold, there is Daniel praying and making supplication before
his God. They knew where he would be.
So they come near and they accuse him. They tell the king, you
have signed this law. And he agrees, of course. Yes,
I have. I remember doing it. And they say, well, Daniel. Daniel,
which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth
not thee, O king. It's very interesting, isn't
it, how they work around the king. He is no longer Daniel,
the preferred president in the kingdom. He is Daniel from the
captivity of Judah. In their minds, they're putting
him down. He's a foreigner. He's a captive. He was a preferred
president in the kingdom, but no, in their minds, and they're
seeking for Darius now, no longer look upon him as a respected
advisor. Now look upon this man as a children
of the captivity of Judah. Well, they accuse him. And the
king has to act. The law has been signed, the
decree has been made, the king must be faithful to the law and
Daniel is brought before him and the judgment is made. The
king commanded and they brought Daniel and cast him into the
lion's den. Sometimes we can forget the reality
of these words. We know the account so well.
Perhaps we see the children's books with Daniel, with a few
friendly lions standing around him, and we think it looks like
a very quaint scene. This would have been terrifying. This would have been a horrendous
punishment. As far as Daniel is concerned,
I know his faith is in God. I know he believes that God is
able to deliver him, but Daniel does not know what will happen.
And Daniel, as he is lowered down into this pit of lions,
faces a horrendous, painful, certain death. It's a terrible,
terrible way. And yet there he is, being lowered
down into the den of lions. And it seems that these accusers
have won the day. They've accused, they've been
brought before the king, and now Daniel is got rid of. So that is what Daniel faces
as he finds himself then in this lower down into the lion's den.
They accused him. They persecuted him. They hounded
him, you could say. They connived events so that
he was bound to be found guilty. They had their aim in mind, the
downfall of Daniel. And then they worked out how
they could do it. and it seems that their plan
had come to pass, had been successful. Well, the devil attacks God's
people, accuses them, persecutes them,
and the devil seeks, rather the devil comes in different guises. We often think, don't we, of
those two words, a roaring lion seeking who he may devour, and
an angel of light. And we have the two ways, the
two different ways the devil can sometimes come to attack
the Lord's people. But be sure of this, whether
he comes as a roaring lion or whether he comes as an angel
of light, he is always seeking to devour. This is his aim, to
devour the person he attacks, however he may come. This is
his aim. to attack, to oppose, to bring
them down. Not that dissimilar from the
aims of these people. And the devil, you see, is like
a hungry lion. These lions were clearly hungry. They clearly were eager to attack
by nature. We see that because when the
other people were lowered down into the den of lions, when Daniel
was rescued, they cast them into the den of lions and they break
all their bones in pieces or ever they came to the bottom
of the den. These lions were clearly ready to attack. Their
nature was to attack. They were bred to attack. That's
what they would do, lest the Lord's hand was upon them. And
this is what the devil is. ready to attack like a hungry
lion, desperate to attack God's people, and of course through
them attack God himself. This is his aim. This is what
he goes about doing, to accuse, to persecute, to attack God and
his people. Well, how does the devil attack
today then? These people had this plan to
bring down Daniel. Well, how does the devil attack
the Lord's people today? We know he must, we know he does,
because otherwise we wouldn't be exhorted to take on us the
whole armour of God that we may withstand the wiles of the devil
or the attacks of the devil. We need the armour because there
are attacks. So how does the devil attack?
Well, the Bible shows to us a number of ways that the devil attacks
the Lord's people. Firstly, he attacks through open
persecution. Like Daniel, open persecution. Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,
open persecution. He attacks to frighten the church,
to seek to even stamp the church out, to stamp out religion, to
cause it to go to nothing, so that it's not seen in the world
anymore. You see, you think of what the
devil does in countries such as North Korea, where we see
it as an extreme example. His aim is to stamp religion
out, take it out of society, take it out of the country, stamp
it out so that whoever is found considering the Lord at all will
be executed, will be arrested. And therefore there's fear. No
one wants to know, no one wants to hear. Of course the wonderful
is that the Lord is over and above all of these things. He
uses the persecution the devil brings so often to breathe life
into the church. But the devil uses this open
persecution to seek to bring the church down, to attack. We're told this when the Lord
speaks to the church of Smyrna in a revelation. He says, fear
none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil
shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried. The devil
will cast some of you into prison. He is behind it. He is attacking
you when you feel the force of open persecution. The devil will
cast you into prison to frighten you. to bring the church to a
weak place, a weak state. So he attacks through open persecution. But he also attacks in the lives
more individually of people. He attacks by bringing trouble
and problems into our lives themselves, ourselves. You think of the example
of Paul, can't we? The thorn in the flesh, the messenger
of Satan sent to buffet me. Now we know that the Lord used
the thorn for his good. We know that through the thorn
in the flesh, Paul was able to prove God's grace all the more. But the devil brought the thorn. The devil attacked in his own
life. Whatever the thorn was, there
are various speculations as to what it was. We're not really
told. Whatever it was in Paul's life, the devil, the messenger
of Satan, to Buffet. And again, he attacks through
difficulties in our lives. Wants to discourage us. Wants
to cause us to give up. following and praying and serving
the Lord, wants to bring us down in our own estimation so that
we feel that we are lost, so that we feel that we have no
strength and no hope anymore and we give up in our faith. Whatever it may be, be it physical
or emotional problems in our lives, these things will come
to attack us. The devil also attacks by deception. He deceives us. He would have
us believe a lie, have us believe, or not believe, rather, the Word
of God, to doubt it, to turn away from it, or to say that
much of it is not applicable to us, to reject God's Word. And this is, in one way, when
the devil shines as an angel of light, he shines to deceive
And of course there are many things today which are taught
as fact. The theory of evolution is the
obvious example to use. It's taught as fact. And it's
really a device of deception to take us away from the truth
of God's word and how very successful the devil has been through that
means. The vast majority of people deceived
brought to a place where they feel it is legitimate and it
is wise to reject the Word of God. And the devil attacks the
Lord's people in the same way. He would deceive us. He would
bring things and thoughts and ideas into our lives, into our
minds, so that we start to doubt, we start to reject God's Word,
and then the foundations start to be removed. He attacks through
deception. We don't hardly notice it. We
don't see it as a major problem. And yet it's from the devil,
because it's taking us from God's truth. How else does he attack? Well, he also attacks, of course,
through temptation. Temptation to sin. The obvious
example of that is, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ himself,
who was led into the wilderness by the devil to be tempted. And he was fasting without water
and without food for 40 days, and the devil comes to him with
those powerful temptations. We won't go through them today.
We know how the Lord was tempted, and we are no different. He tempts
God's people to sin. When Ananias and Sapphira lied
to the apostles, God judged them, but they were told that they
were lying through Satan. completely accurately, but they
were messengers of Satan through these things. Ananias said, Peter,
why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? He
had been tempted to lie through Satan, had put that temptation
into his heart, a temptation of greed, and he lied. You see, and he still works the
same today. He will cause us to sin. And
he would attempt to make sin look attractive, and appealing,
and not harmful. A thing that we can get away
with it, or that God won't notice. He will make sin attractive. And often the devil works in
this way, that is, from the lesser to the greater. It's only a small
sin. It's hardly a sin at all, he
will say. And then gradually as we hear
his words, we will find ourselves working up from the lesser to
the greater. This is how he attacks to sin. He also attacks really
after the temptation to sin, he then attacks in a temptation
to despair, to despair. Because once we have heard the
temptation and we have heeded his word to sin, he then comes
in and will say, well, now you have sinned, you must despair
of any hope, despair of any grace, despair of any mercy of God.
Because you have sinned, because you listened to my voice, because
you fell, now you despair. You think of Peter when he denied
his Lord. And when his heart was struck,
his conscience was struck, and he goes out and he weeps bitterly,
he felt his sin. Satan hath desired to have thee,
that he may sift you as wheat, says the Lord to Peter. And he
was sifted, and he fell, and he sinned, and then he felt the
weight of that guilt. And I'm sure he had the devil
at his hand, saying, there's no hope anymore. Tempted to despair
so you see the devil attacks in many ways here It was an open
persecution, but the devil attacks God's people in many ways in
our lives the temptations Deceptions and so forth We are constantly
under attack or under threat of attack Sometimes we can feel
that like we're we're being lowered into the lion's den and It's
all around us, at our right hand to resist us, tempting us in
wrong ways, and we feel our weakness in going after those temptations
as well. And we say, will we be destroyed? Will he be able to drag us right
down? Would we even willingly go down
with him if left to ourselves? Is my heart so weak that whenever
he comes I will fall? Will he devour me like these
hungry, starving, roaring lions at the bottom of the den? Will
he devour me? Will I die? Will I perish in
the end? Because he's a strong enemy.
I'm no match for him, like Daniel in himself was no match whatsoever
for these lions. This is the opposition, the persecution
that he faced and that God's people face today. Daniel was delivered. Daniel was delivered. He was
lowered down into this pit. The stone was put on the top
and it was sealed. It was certain Daniel was there
and that was his fate. And yet Daniel didn't have a
scratch on him. Daniel was not marked in any
way from his night amongst the lions. Their mouths were shut,
though naturally they were hungry and trained to kill. Their mouths
were shut, though Daniel was there. How could that be? Well, Daniel tells him, my God
has sent his angel and has shut the lion's mouths that they have
not hurt me. My God has done it. I wonder here, can we Consider
that this is the same who was the one like unto the Son of
God in the burning fiery furnace, walking with them in persecution.
Is this the same angel, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who came
and shut the lion's mouths? I also wonder here, there's no
indication that he only came for a moment and shut the mouths
and then went. You wonder if Daniel spent the
night in the lion's den in the presence of the Son of God. He walked with them in the flames.
And Daniel, I wonder, spent the night with the Lord himself down
in that den. That was the best night Daniel
had ever had. The most blessed experience he
had ever had down in the lion's den. You see, the persecutors
may attack. They may think that they have
prevailed. And the lions may roar as they
take Daniel to his death. And yet all is stopped. The plan is brought to nothing.
And the lion's mouth is shut by his God. My God! Daniel's God, who he prays to,
who he serves faithfully, and yet here he proves certainly
he is my God, because he has sent his angel and shut the lion's
mouths. God delivered him from the persecutors. Well, the devil may roar at us,
The devil may tempt us. The devil may attack us. The
devil may frighten us. And he will. And he does. God's people are not immune.
God's people are not freed from all attacks and all temptations.
He will roar and frighten. But we can be certain that he
has been overcome. He has been defeated. The Lord
Jesus Christ has come and shut his mouth. Shut his mouth so
that he cannot hurt me. Shut his mouth so that he cannot
devour me. He cannot kill me. He has sent his angel and he has
made his people eternally safe from the attacks of the devil.
Yes, we will be attacked. Yes, we'll be tempted. We'll
know his power. But we cannot be eternally defeated. We cannot be eternally destroyed
by the power of the devil because he has sent his angel, he has
sent the Lord Jesus Christ to shut his mouth so that he cannot
hurt me. when the Lord gave the promise
to Adam and Eve that there would be enmity between the seed of
the woman and the seed of Satan. That he would bruise his heel,
but the Lord's seed of the woman would bruise, crush his head.
And that is what we see today. And this is a great encouragement
for us today. He bruised the heel of Christ. He thought he'd defeated him.
And Christ suffered greatly. But yet Christ defeated, destroyed
the devil. And he continues to bruise the
heel of God's people today. He continues to seek to bring
us down, to cause us to suffer, and to tempt us to sin. He continues
to attack, to feel like he's bruising our heel. But we can
believe that through Christ, his head is crushed. He is defeated
and cannot destroy us. Defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. God has sent his angel and has
shut the lion's mouth that they have not hurt me. He was defeated
when the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth and suffered on
that cross. He was defeated, as Paul says,
or the writer to the Hebrew says, for as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also, that's Jesus, himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death. That is the devil. Through his
death he destroyed the devil. He bore the curse that his people
deserve and suffered in their place, and then destroyed that
when he rose triumphant from the grave. Death itself was broken. The curse and sin was destroyed. And the devil who brought the
curse in through his temptations, his hold was broken. He no longer holds God's people. His grip is broken because the
grave has been defeated. Christ has risen again. His mouth has been shut, you
see. He can roar, he can attack, he can frighten, but he cannot
kill. His mouth has been shut. Christ has burst the gates of
death. Christ has come. He has defeated
the devil. He has set us free. So through Christ, he has sent
his angel and shut the lion's mouth. But the Bible also tells us the
devil will be finally judged and will be finally condemned. The devil is loosed for a season. He is allowed still to go about
his work to an extent under God's authority. And yet we're told
that one day, at the end of the world, the devil that deceived
them, the great deceiver you see, the devil that deceived
them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and
night for ever and ever. Here, of course, is a text as
an aside, which answers all of the questions about whether the
wicked are annihilated. Clearly, there is a tormenting
for ever and ever. The devil will be judged and
cast out into this place, the lake of fire and brimstone. There is a final certain end. God's people are safely received
home, and the great accuser is finally cast out, and they shall
know him no more. He may be loosed for a season,
but he shall be destroyed. And the certainty was sealed
when Christ came out of that tomb. The certainty of final
destruction was sealed when Christ rose from the dead. And therefore,
you see, he cannot eternally harm God's people. He cannot
drag them into hell with Him. He cannot cause us to fall out
of God's grace, because we've been bought. We have life through
His life, and His resurrection is a finished and completed work. He has sent His angel, and they
have not hurt me. He has sent Christ, and the devil
cannot hurt me. Oh, he can injure me, he can
attack me, but he cannot hurt me. His mouth is shut. Well, Daniel's God, those many,
many years ago, is the same God today. Daniel's God, if we're
a believer today, is our God. Christ's victory is our victory. Christ's life is our life. And Satan can attack. But as
Paul says, the God of grace shall cause Satan, shall bruise Satan
under your feet shortly. Under our feet. For we, by his
grace, shall be with him where the devil can never accuse. Well, may we know Daniel's peace. Daniel, in this place of blessing,
even in the lion's den, may we have those moments, even in this
world, with still the great deceiver, Satan himself at our right hand,
may we have these moments of peace. in the presence of the
Son of God and be able to rejoice that it's not in our strength
that we rest in. It's Christ's strength. It's
Christ's victory. It's His work. And with His help,
we shall stand. We commit ourselves to Him. May
we all commit ourselves to God. as Daniel committed himself to
God. He continued to pray, though
he knew what would happen. He committed himself into God's
hand. Even the king acknowledged he
believed God would deliver him. And as he was lowered into that
pit, I believe he committed himself, whether he would live or die,
into his God's hands. So may we commit ourselves into
God's hands and prove that by his grace we are eternally safe
in him because God has sent his son and he has crushed the serpent's
head that he cannot hurt us. May we all know that and may
God add his blessing. Amen.