If you will we're gonna be in
Daniel 6 this morning, but if you'll turn to Daniel chapter
4 Kind of bounce our way to Daniel 6 You got Jeremiah Lamentations
Ezekiel Daniel Get Jose he went too far I'm sure some of y'all
probably saw but Our brother, Luke Kopp, up in Sacramento,
or the Marysville area, is going to profess Christ and Believer's
Baptism there at Rescue on the 4th of February. I like hearing
that. That encourages me. The Lord
ain't out of business. They came to save one. That's
more than deserved, isn't it? That's a precious thing. I wanted to have a category,
just like my pastor did, or a series of messages, like whenever they
organize, Kimberly keeps everything organized real good on Sermon
Audio. So if you want a message out of Psalms, or I preach the
series out of John, or Galatians, or whatever, you can go on there
and it's divided up. And that's good. And I wanted to have a
series like my pastor had on popular Bible stories. Just these
stories that everybody knows, and what they tell their children.
And I got to thinking, and I got to asking around people, like,
well, what's some of your stories that you know? What's some of
your favorite Bible stories? And there's not much popular
Bible stories anymore. This whole nation, I keep seeing
article after article about how no one's going to church anymore.
And it's so, and normally whatever starts here about 15 years later
happens on that side of the Mississippi. And I know a whole lot of people
that say that they're Christians or they believe in God, and they
won't, even in false churches, they won't set an earnest somebody
preaching to them. Much less the truth, you know. And so I
thought, well, we ought to title it Bible stories that ought to
be popular. So how are they gonna know about
it? I'm gonna have to preach it, or I have to tell them, ain't
we? Maybe they'll read their Bibles. Daniel and the Lion's
Den. Daniel and the Lion's Den. There's
a whole chapter in God's Word devoted to Daniel and the Lion's
Den. All of chapter six. And you know,
I wonder why that is. That's a lot of real estate,
isn't it? It could be summed up in just a few words. Wouldn't
take many sentences. Daniel offended the king. He
broke the law. And the king cast Daniel into
the lion's den, and God delivered him. What's why some reasons
this could be long? One, this chapter shows the faithfulness
of God's servant, Daniel. He was a faithful servant of
God. He believed God, and he would
not worship the idols, even if it cost him his life. Daniel
was faithful to God and he believed God completely and would not
bow down. That's something this chapter
teaches us. Another thing we could see is that Daniel was
in a position of high status and responsibility. For some
reason, people think as soon as you become a child of God,
you got to be a pauper and live in poverty. That's not so. They're wealthy,
wealthy men. throughout scriptures and there
are men in charge. Abraham had 318 man servants. I know some people have one or
two servants and they're picked on for being wealthy. That's
a bunch. Job was the greatest man of the East. Joseph ran all
of Egypt. Daniel ran all of Babylon. He was the number two man. He's
the vice president. If those things, if they're God's
servant and they're put in those positions, will that tempt them
and take them away from God? Lord, no. God forbid. He'll keep them and sustain them
and use that. People have such trouble with
the government. I'm going to address that. No, you don't.
You have trouble with God who runs the government. It's so,
isn't it? He can sustain us. That's fine. We can see that. in this chapter. Another thing we could see is
the power of God to deliver his children from the worst trial
imaginable. Great fear, great sorrow, great
heartache, great struggle in the body or in the mind or in
whatever. He's able. He's able. I love it when Nebuchadnezzar
put those three Hebrew children, Hananiah, Meshiel, and Azariah
Remember those names all mean something, but then I've memorized
from birth Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You know what that
means in Persian? Nothing. That's what I remember it, and
I remember nothing. I got to commit them names to memory.
Nebuchadnezzar said, ain't you afraid? He said, I'm about to
throw you in the fire. And they said, our Lord's able
to deliver us if he wants to. And if he don't want to, he's
still God. That's what I want to be like.
I don't want to be a little chicken. I don't want to be a little fella
running around looking at me. I want to look to Him. And if He's pleased
to kill me today, that's just fine. Good. Daniel was the same
way. This king comes, Darius comes
and says, Is your God able to deliver you? He said, Oh, king. Bless your little heart. Yes,
He is. You ought to know Him. We can
learn that from this chapter. Our God's still God. But you
know, the main reason for this story, the main reason a whole
chapter is taken up in the Word of God is not just to show us
Daniel's faithfulness. It's not just to show us that
he's convicted in the face of compromise. It's not just to
show us that he can hold a position in government or in power. And
it's not just to show us that God's able to deliver. It's to
show us something more than that. It shows us how God can be just
and justify us. How He can be a just God and
a Savior. You want to put that in crayon?
You want to make a cartoon out of that? This voice is important. This is eternal life and death,
isn't it? In other words, this whole scripture is about the
Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute. That's who this is about. Here's
the whole story of Daniel. Daniel was brought as a captive
into Babylon. And his name was changed. And
he had to learn a new language. And he had a new system of government
he had to learn. And he had new customs and courtesies
he had to learn. And there for a while, he had
a new diet he had to eat, didn't he? And he never griped about
it. He knew God. Doesn't that sound just like
Joseph? He was made a captive and had learned a new language,
was given a new name. Had to learn a whole bunch of
new things. And by God's power, Daniel was used to interpret
some dreams of the kings, wasn't he? A few kings, Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar bragged about all he had done and all the good
things he had done. And then God put him out to pasture.
Just like an animal. His claws grew out, or his fingernails
grew out like talons. The hair grew out and he got
down on all fours and he chewed the cud. Went and ate grass. He's a wild animal, a haven.
Nothing but just useful for slaughtering. For a long time, seven years,
perfection. So he perfectly knew that God's
the one that's on the throne. He's the king of kings. He's
the one whose will is done. And he taught him that. And Daniel
told him what dream he had was gonna be. He said, that's you.
He told him ahead of time, there was some worry with it. He said,
oh, king, I wish this on your enemies. But I ain't gonna lie to you.
It's gonna happen to you. There's another faithful prophet
told that to a king, said, you're the man. Ain't that why we're
here? Ain't that the first thing we're
supposed to preach? All flesh is grass. Why are you
picking on me? Be a good thing I tell you now,
then you find out in a judgment. Now, we got that covered, behold
your God. Daniel told him, didn't he? What was the result of that?
It came true. God's prophet said what was going
to happen, and then it came to pass. Look here at Daniel 434. And at the end of days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me. And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored
Him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. And His kingdom is from generation
to generation, and all the inhabitants of earth are reputed as nothing.
and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his
hand, nor saying to him, what doest thou? To say that from
a new heart, is that worth seven years of you eating grass? Buddy,
it is. It is, that's a good thing, isn't
it? Well, he died, Nebuchadnezzar died, and another king rose up
to power, Belshazzar. Y'all remember that, don't you?
He had a big drunken party. All his friends were over, and
they sent down and they got the vessels from the temple of God. And they filled them full of
wine, and they took these holy vessels, separated to the worship
of God, and they partied it up. Had a raging good time, didn't
they? Hooting and hollering, living after the flesh, doing
what was good for them, they thought. And all of a sudden,
a hand appeared on the wall. And it started writing. And nobody
knew what it said. And the king, who thought he
was in so much power and control, his knees started quivering.
He started getting real afraid. And he cried out for all of his
astrologers. And he cried out for all the soothsayers. And
he went and found the wisest man he could find. And nobody
could tell him nothing. And then they remembered old
Daniel. And they called for Daniel. And
Daniel said, I'll tell you what it means. You want to know what
this means? He knew the end of it, too. Look
here in chapter 5, verse 25. Daniel 5, 25. It says, and this is the writing
that was written, mene, mene, tekel, upharion. This is the
interpretation of the thing. That's what it says. I'll tell
you what it means. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, finished
it. Tekel, thou art weighed in the
balances and art found wanting. Pires, the kingdom is divided
and given to the Medes and Persians. He says, O king, you're weighed
in the balances and you're found wanting. And Tanat, This night,
your soul is going to be required of you. Your kingdom is going
to be taken from you, and it's going to be given over to the
Medes and the Persians. And that night, Belshazzar was
slain. Well, after him, another king
took over. There should always be a king,
don't there? That started a long time ago. There has to be a king. Darius was the next one. This
King Darius, he loved Daniel. He respected him and sought his
counsel, so much so that Darius decided to set up rule over Babylon. He set up 120 rulers, these notable
men, men of distinction, men of wisdom, to set up and rule
and govern this land. And over top of those 120, 40
each, he set a president. Those three presidents set up
to manage those. They had a chain of command.
And out of those presidents, Daniel was the head. He was the
head. He was number two to the king.
Number two to the throne. And Daniel was second in line
to all of Babylon. This man of God, this child of
God, this servant of the Lord, God's prophet, was there in captivity
serving the king. You see the picture there? You
see that one that came down here, who's one with God, but served
the father and his will be done. Faithful, didn't gripe, didn't
murmur, didn't bellyache. Well, there in Daniel 6 verse
5, out of these 120 men, the three presidents were over and
Daniel was the head. They despised Daniel. They hated
him because he was so favored by the king. Jealous, envious. I don't like that. You know what
they're saying? I will not have this man reign
over me. I will not have this man reign
over me. How good are we at submitting
to one another? How good are we at submitting
to the man that God put over us? Our nature don't like it, does
it? Well, these 120 didn't like it. And I said, we gotta get
rid of him. We gotta find some dirt on Daniel.
We can have a smear campaign. Politics is an old profession,
too, isn't it? We'll have a smear campaign. We'll dig up some dirt
on him. We'll get him out of his office. And then we can go
back to doing the way things we like. We can go back to the
good old ways and the good old days and everything we had nice
before this guy showed up. Start changing everything. We
don't like him. Find some dirt on him. Well, guess what? They
couldn't find no dirt on him. They couldn't look here in Daniel
6 verse 5. 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. We got to get him on the gospel.
We can't find nothing wrong with it. We have to trap him up in
his words. You see our Lord in this? He
came from a far place. He was favored of the Father.
The heavens opened up. He said, this is my son, whom
I'm well pleased. Hear him. Hear him. What would mankind say? He says
he's God. Remember what they went to Pilate? They said, don't put that he's
king of the Jews. He said he's king of the Jews. He said, I've
written what I've written. I ain't backing off of it. Good for Pilate.
Good for Pilate. I've said it and it's done. He
came and he was hated, hated of his own, wasn't he? Because
he was favored of the Lord and nobody could stand him. Well,
verse six. Then these presidents and princes assembled together
to the king and said thus unto him, King Darius, live forever. Long live the king. All the presidents
of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counselors
and the captains have consulted together to establish a royal
statute. They've made a confederacy. We've
talked about this, now we're gonna come talk to you about
it. And 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. Nobody can
pray to any god, they can't make no petitions, they gotta go through
you. That's what mankind does. They make man the mediator between
God and men. The Lord said that, watch out
for them, that forbid marriage. Well, you all can't get married
till you come through my counseling sessions. Mm-mm, that's bad. God says so. That's wicked, that's
what that is. It's putting a man between God
and men. Instead of a man sitting there telling you what marriage
is. That's Christ and his church. Nevertheless, You husbands love
you wives, what Paul said, wouldn't it? They told him, I said, nobody's
gonna pray excellence, they go through you, O King. And if they
do, they're gonna get cast in a den of lions, verse eight.
Now, O King, establish the decree and sign the writing that it
may not be changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians,
which altereth not. This is a picture, all these
pictures, nothing's perfect, only the Lord is, but we were
given these pictures to teach us something. Old Darius was
flattered. And he had no idea they were
doing this to entrap Daniel. So he went along with it. And
he signed this decree into law that for 30 days if anybody in
the kingdom asked a petition of any man or God except the
king, except him, they'd be cast in the lion's den. And that law
of the Medes and Persians, it couldn't be changed. It couldn't
be altered. Once they signed it, that's it. Might as well
be in stone. Verse 10 says these men knew Daniel was gonna pray. And it says, now when Daniel
knew that the writing was signed, he knew good and well it was
signed. He went into his house, his windows being opened, in
his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three
times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did
aforetime. Nothing changed. Nothing changed. And these fellows was waiting.
They said, we got him. We got him. Oh, this is great
that the Lord did. He did something. honoring God
and the Pharisees were against him. He healed folks on the Sabbath. Was that wrong? They thought
it was, didn't they? Well, maybe they ought to hush
in what they think. When they say, I think, that's
called heresy. That's the literal translation
of heresy. Opinion, right? They thought that he was breaking
the Sabbath. There's the Lord of the Sabbath. Maybe we ought
to watch and listen and ask God to teach us something, huh? Well,
Daniel's breaking that law. No, he's praying to God. That's
always legal. Anyway, they caught him. They
found him praying and they went running to the King and they
said, King, Darius, Daniel's breaking the law that you signed,
this law that cannot be altered. And it says if any man's praying
or asking anything to God other than you for 30 days, if he does
it, he's got to be cast in lines then. There's a payment for that. Didn't you say that, King? You
wrote it. Is that your signature? Is that
your signet on there? Daniel's got to go to the lion's
den. That's what has to happen. Verse 14, And the king, when
he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself and set
his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the
going down of the sun to deliver him. It's called Darius's dilemma. What a dilemma that is. If he
lets Daniel go, his title as king is tarnished. If he lets
Daniel go, he'll lose everything. He'll lose the respect of his
men. He'll be a laughingstock. He'll be mocked. But if he upholds
that law, he's just, Daniel's gonna suffer the lines then.
If that law's upheld and the king's still the king, the one
that he loves is gonna be tore up. He's gonna die. Certain death. He wants to be merciful. but
he must be just. We understand those things, don't
we? You ever see something like your children ain't listening
to you, and like, I've lived through that, I know exactly
what they're going through, and I wanna be merciful to them. But if I
do that, I'm soft and I'm wishy-washy, and I'm not doing what God tells
me to do, so I have to be just, and I have to keep chasing them.
I can't be both. Darius couldn't be both, could
he? He wanted to stay up all night long, verse 18 says. They'd
come in, try to play music to him. He couldn't even hear it.
Couldn't even just stop playing music. I love music, and that
always happens. If I'm really upset, I can't
listen to music, or if I'm late. If I'm running late, I don't
know why I turned the radio off. I'm listening to my music. Important
things are going on. You know, that's the dilemma. How can God be just and justify
sinners? He's a holy God, and we're great
sinners, isn't he? Even old Bill Dad. Bill Dad was
a miserable comforter. He was a horrible legalist, and
he'd come to Joe, but even he had something that was right,
didn't he? How then can a man be justified with God? How can
he be clean that's born of a woman? I wish more people asked that
question. That's the oldest, chronologically, the oldest book
we have in the Bible, or in time, that was written first or whatever. 4,000 years old, that's a good
question. People ought to ask that, not, how do I better my
life and improve my financial position? How am I a better father
and parent to my children? How am I a better husband or
wife? We're gonna have some lessons on that. You need to know how
God can be just and justify sinners. were sinners. The law must be
upheld. Look here in verse 16, Daniel
6, 16. And the king commanded, and they
brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king
spake and said unto Daniel, thy God, whom thou servest continually,
he will deliver thee. He will deliver them. Christ
served the Father continually, didn't He? Do I serve Him continually? Day in, day out, every thought,
every dream, every action. We do some, don't we? Once we
see His blood and that milk of the gospel comes across our lips,
that drives every decision we make. What we wear, where we
live, how we interact with our neighbors, everything. We see
it through that lens of His blood, don't we? But it ain't continually. Christ served the Father continually
for us. Isn't that something? Doesn't
that make you happy on the inside? Won't that turn a frown upside
down? Or we just grit our teeth and
get mad at him? I could have done it myself. A natural man
does, isn't it? And a stone was brought, verse
17. A stone was brought and laid
upon the mouth of the den. We'll be there Wednesday. Aaron
John 19, a stone was rolled over our Lord's grave, wasn't it?
Where he was forsaken. After he was brought down from
the cross, a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the
den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet
of his Lord's that the purpose might not be changed concerning
Daniel. This is the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of
God coming to place right here. Verse 18. Then the king went
into his palace and passed the night fasting, couldn't eat.
Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep
went from him. Then the king rose very early
in the morning and went in haste into the den of lions. And when
he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto
Daniel. He was weeping. The king spake
and said unto Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, Is
thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the
lions?' Then Daniel said unto the king, O king, live forever.
My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lion's mouth, so
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. And the king was exceeding glad for him, and commanded that
they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken
up out of the den, and no matter of hurt was found upon him, because
he believed in his God. Do you see substitution in that?
Well, it was Daniel by himself down there with the lion. That's
substitution. Daniel's a picture of Christ
down there. And also, Daniel's a picture of us. That's bifocal. We can see both of it. We've
broken the holy law of God. And we must die. People that
want to be under the law, have you not heard it? Does everybody
in here that has a house, do you have a railing on the top
of your house? Have you ever ate a medium well steak? God
says you'll go to hell and die forever. Well, I ain't never
killed nobody. Have you ever been so mad at
a brother you just didn't talk to him for a day or two? That's
killing him. God says so. When you actually murder somebody,
that comes into play a little bit deeper. You see it more thoroughly.
It's a hard thing. We've broken his law. Have we
honored God in everything we did? Do we obey our parents and
have a long life because of it? No, no. We've broken God's law. We gotta die. We have to die. We're found guilty. The wages
of sin is death. And Christ our great Daniel,
looking to his father in full faith and assurance who said,
you ain't gonna leave my soul in hell. I know so. This body ain't gonna see corruption.
He willingly, Daniel wasn't kicking and screaming, was he? Just like
when they took Aaron on top of that hill, just like when Isaac
was taken up a hill, just like a bunch of other things, he wasn't
kicking and screaming. He willingly went into there.
He said, this has to happen. He willingly went into that lion's
den. Who was in that lion's den? What's in lines then? Lines,
right? That ain't a hard one. Who's
the line? Who's the line? Peter said, be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring
line, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Our great accuser, Satan, was
in there. Death was in there. Hell was in there. Sin was in
there. We ain't no match. People, there's a horrible, horrible
hymn in this hymnal. Dare to be a Daniel. People always
in religion says, oh, dare to be a Daniel. Dare to go down
and face that? No way. Dare to be a Daniel and
trust in God no matter what, that's a good thing. Pick yourself
up by your bootstraps. That's ridiculous. You ain't
no match, so don't ask for it. Don't go find a trouble, trouble
find you. Leave it alone. This picture
of Christ, isn't it? In there with that line. Well,
somebody might ask, Kevin, I thought you preached that Christ is the
young lion that had all the energy, and he's the old lion with all
the wisdom. He's the lion of the tribe of Judah. That's exactly
right. He is. But Satan transforms himself
into an angel of light, doesn't he? Why is he called a lion? He wants to look like Christ.
He wants to be seen as powerful. No marvel for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light, Paul said. Well, he went
in there. Whatever happened inside, do
you know what says here that happened? It don't. Do you know
what happened in that tomb when Christ was laid in it? We don't
know. We know he'd come out. He'd come up, wouldn't he? Why
did Christ come out of that tomb? That's the proof that God has
been just and we have been justified. That's good, we have an empty
tomb. That bloody sacrifice, that propitiation, that burnt
offering, had been accepted. That payment, we got the receipt. It's an empty tomb. That's good,
isn't it? Daniel was commanded to be brought
up out of that den. Commanded, not like, well, you
can leave if you want to. The law's been fulfilled, come out.
Come up out of that den. Our Lord came and ascended on
high, didn't he? You see that? That's a picture of Christ. How's
Daniel a picture of us, us bi-folk? Well, look here in verse 21.
Daniel said unto the king, O king, live forever. My God hath sent
his angel. Daniel really went into the lion's
den. And he woke up that next morning just scratching that
lion underneath the jaw, purring. How did that happen? How did
he live? My God hath sent his angel, and
hath shut the lion's mouth, and they have not hurt me. Do you
notice their angel is singular? Was that a legion of angels?
Was that 144,000 angels? It was one angel. Singular. Singular. There's too many to
list. I'll read you one. The angel
of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed. Daniel's in there, right? That
bush was burning. The law was completely fulfilled
and enacted and carried out, but he wasn't consumed. why the
angel singular was with him. Christ was with him. Christ went
in there and fought his enemies and bore his burdens and carried
those things out and us in him. That's the same as us, isn't
it? Could you imagine being forsaken of God? I don't even want to
think about it. I can't think about it. I don't
even know what that, we can't enter into what that means. I
don't even want to think about it. He willingly, without kicking
and screaming, went in there and bore that sin for us. That's
important, isn't it? Isn't that something? Do we worship
him because of that? Do we honor him? What about Daniel's enemies? Christ had some enemies. We have
some enemies, don't we? When we dealt with, look at verse
24. Daniel 6, 24. And the king commanded, and they
brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into
the lion's den, them, their children, and their wives. And the lions
had the mastery of them and break all their bones in pieces wherever
they came to the bottom of the den. Christ didn't have a bone
broken. Daniel didn't have a bone broken. Them enemies will be
crushed. Then King Darius wrote unto all the people, nations,
and languages that dwelt in all the earth, peace be multiplied
unto you. Peace that wasn't peace before,
what we have now, peace with God that we've offended. The one we broke his holy law,
we now have peace with him. Make a decree that in every dominion
of my kingdom, men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel,
for he's the living God and steadfast forever. And his kingdom, that
which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even
unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and
he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So Daniel prospered
in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian."
Hmm. I asked that on a message recently. Isn't that better than having
some confidence and pushing through and leaning on your faith, it's
done. And he's received all the glory
in every language, in every corner of this earth until the end.
That's a good thing, isn't it? Let's pray together. Father, we think so often we're surely consumed by lines. We think we're surrounded and
we're going to perish and oh Lord, we're looking to ourselves
and we're looking to lions. Make us look to Christ who's
conquered all for us, who's came and shut those lions' mouth and
who's dealt with them and use that to conquer all of our enemies
and make us praise him. Lord, make this message effectual
to our hearts and bless it and encourage your people, comfort
them and teach them as you only can. Thank you for this hour
and be with us next and be with our brethren that can't be here
with us and give us words of encouragement and comfort for
them too, Lord. Thank you for this hour and forgive
us for what we are. It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen. All right, we'll meet back at
1030.