Terry said he felt like he read
a prayer there. And that was a prayer. It was
a prayer of David's, that Psalm 25. It was the prayer, and the
reason I chose that, too, is the prayer of a believer, a child
of God, a child of the King, in distress. He was in distress,
and he was crying out of his distress in faith unto the Lord,
because the Lord was his only hope. And that's the way we pray. We pray out of our distress and
even our blessings as we express our gratitude to the God of all
grace. That's what prayer is. It's worship.
It's faith. It's trust. It's not trying to
get God to change his mind because God's mind doesn't need to change. You know, if God's mind could
change, he wouldn't be God. You know, that's the bottom line.
You know, go home and think about that a little bit. But it's an
amazing thing, isn't it? Our God never changes. And He
tells us that that's one of the foundations upon which His mercy
is built. Where He says, I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Well,
we're going to be studying tonight out of Daniel chapter 6 about
a man who was in distress. a man named Daniel, one who was
way up in years at this time, one who realized not only in
the bad times, in the times of distress, but also in the good
times, that his hope, his only hope, was in the Lord, the rock
Christ Jesus. In this Daniel chapter 6, I've
entitled this message, Our Most Able Savior. our most able Savior. The question is posed here concerning
our God. Is he able? Is he able to save
us? Is he able to deliver us? Is
he able to protect us? Is he able to bring us to himself? This is probably the most familiar
story that people know in the book of Daniel, Daniel and the
lion's den. It's kind of ironic, though,
one of the commentators made this statement I think is so
appropriate about the way people read and study the Bible, which
most people don't. Most people don't read and study
the Bible, but they do remember being in Sunday school somewhere,
somehow, sometime, and hearing the stories of Adam and Eve,
and the stories of Noah and the ark, and the stories of Jonah
and the whale. Things like it and the story
of Daniel in the lion's den. And they know those stories.
They read about these as they call them great heroes of the
Bible. In fact, I think there's a translation
of children's Bibles called great heroes of the Bible. And they
know something about that Daniel was a man of God who was put
down in a lion's den and he survived it. And of course most people
come out talking about the courage and the faith of Daniel. Daniel
was a courageous man. I'm not going to take away from
that at all in this message. He was a very courageous man.
But he would have been and is the first one to tell you that
all the courage he had was of the Lord. It was in the hope
of salvation, Christ. But here, what's ironic about
it, what this commentator said was that Daniel, out of his whole
lifetime, he spent one night in the lion's den, he spent well
over 70 years in the court of idolatrous heathen kings. How
much more courage did that take? So, but we focus in on that one
thing. He was probably no more than
12 to 13 years old when he was brought to Babylon originally
in that first conquering of Nebuchadnezzar. A boy of 12 or 13 years old and
put into the court of the heathen king. And as you well know, God
Almighty, the sovereign God of the universe, gave Daniel and
his three friends whom we know as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
he gave them favor with the kings, not just one king, not just with
Nebuchadnezzar, but all the way through. And that's God working
His will, turning the king's heart, as He will, the scripture
says, to work His own will, to preserve His people. So God gave
Daniel favor with the kings, to preserve His people for their
own future deliverance, At this point in time when the kingdom
was conquered and began to be ruled by the Medes and the Persians,
the Babylonians were conquered, it was still called Babylon.
But the Medes and the Persians conquered and controlled it.
We read about that in Daniel chapter 5 when Belshazzar had
that drunken party and defiled the instruments of the tabernacle
that were set aside for the use of God's glory. Those things
that so preciously and beautifully represented and symbolized and
typified Christ, our great Savior, our most able Savior. and his
blood, his righteousness, his atoning work. And then the Medes
and the Persians conquered Babylon and they took over. And at that
time Daniel was probably about 80 years old. He was about 80
years old here in Daniel chapter 6. In fact, if you don't know,
The first six chapters of Daniel covers the history of Daniel
in captivity, and then chapter seven starts the prophetic part
of Daniel, what Daniel saw in the visions, and we'll be talking
about that later, but this ends the history of it. He stayed
in Babylon. You know, when the Medes and
the Persians conquered Babylon, God had an instrument that he
used named Cyrus, a heathen king, We've talked about Cyrus, read
about Cyrus. He is that ravenous bird from
the east that Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 46. And he used those,
Cyrus and men like this one, Darius or Darius, however you
choose to pronounce it. I think your pronunciation guide
in the scripture would say Darius, and that's okay. But they allowed
the people of Judah to go back to Judah and Jerusalem. and rebuild
the temple and rebuild the city of Jerusalem. And we've talked
about that in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The prophets Zechariah
and Haggai were prophets during that time. In fact, we're going
to pick back up with Zechariah, I believe, after I finish Daniel.
And so they urged the people to worship God. Why did God preserve
That's what their message was, the message of those minor prophets,
the major message of the minor prophets. Why did God preserve
you? Why did God even put you here
on this earth? And most of all, why did He save
your soul from sin? Why did He send Christ into the
world to do for me what I could not do for myself? Why did He
do it? Not just to have a population
in heaven. God didn't do all this just to
populate heaven. He did it to glorify himself. That's Daniel's message. That's
the message of all the prophets. You know, that's the message
of the law. The law of Moses and the prophets and the godly
priests that existed during that time continually told the people
that this is why God brought us together for his glory. And
his glory shines forth in his way of salvation, in the glorious
person, in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
here, the people were allowed to go back and rebuild the temple
and the city, but Daniel, he stayed in Babylon. He was left
in Babylon and he remained there for the rest of his life. And
while he remained there, God continued to give him favor with
the king. Look at Daniel chapter 6, look
at verse 1. It says, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom
120 princes, which should be over the whole kingdom. These
were those who were going to be governors for him. And over
these, three presidents. Now these presidents were not
elected officials, except as they were chosen by the king.
They weren't elected by the people like our president. This wasn't
a democracy. This was a monarchy. But these
three presidents, that's a vice regent. So these were pretty
powerful men. You remember when Pharaoh made
Joseph second in command in Egypt? That means Joseph, by God's sovereign
providence, became one step down in the kingdom from Pharaoh.
Now they considered Pharaoh to be a god. And that's how high
up Joseph was. Well, Daniel has that same position
here. With two other men, we don't
know who they are, but it says, of whom Daniel was first. He
was the first among these vice regents. What favor that God
turned this idolatrous king's heart unto Daniel. What's God
doing here? How we figure this out? Where's
the wisdom? Well, God's preserving his people. God's gonna manipulate and control
this world in his ways to preserve his glory through his church. And no matter how bad we think
it's going to get, or is getting, or has gotten, and no matter
how discouraged we become, my friend, Christ is on the throne.
He's on the throne. We may be up on the top of the
highest mountain shouting for joy one day, and we may be down
in the bottom of a lion's den with a stone over the opening
another day, but God has not changed. And he's still on the
throne, we can take comfort in him. Look at what happened to
this man. This is amazing to me. In these
kingdoms. You won't read this in man's
history books. Because it just doesn't make
sense to man. Man, he perverts history to his own view. And
you think about that. But Daniel was first. He's looking
at verse two, he says, that the princes might give accounts unto
them. and the king should have no damage."
They were responsible to the king for the governance of his
kingdom and they were to give an account to the king so that
the king would not be hurt in any of his affairs of government. Verse 3, then this Daniel was
preferred above the presidents and the princes because an excellent
spirit was in him. Now this is the way the Babylonians
or the Medes and the Persians saw it. They didn't really understand
Daniel. They didn't really understand what was going on with Daniel,
but they knew there was something special about Daniel. God made
them recognize that much. And the way they described it
is the way that it's said here as the Holy Spirit inspired,
I believe, Daniel to write this down. There was an excellent
spirit in him. Well, we know who that excellent
spirit is. That's God the Holy Spirit. That's the perfect spirit. That's the third person of the
Trinity who indwells all of God's people. Yes, even in the Old
Testament. He didn't wait till the New Testament
to indwell his people. He indwelt them in the Old Testament,
too. And Daniel was a prophet, and he was an interpreter of
dreams. God gave him that gift because that was important back
then. God even communicated to these heathen kings through these
dreams, and Daniel was the only one in the kingdom who could
interpret the dream, just like Joseph back during the days of
Pharaoh. But there was an excellent spirit
in him. Oh, what an excellent spirit
that God gives to His people, His Holy Spirit. And the excellency
of the Spirit is shown in the glory of the Son. For in Him,
in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." That's
a good translation of that in Colossians chapter 2 and verse
9. That's talking about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You realize what that's saying
there? In Christ, in the God-man, in our most able Savior dwells
all the fullness of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. It's not denying the distinction
of persons in the Trinity when Paul wrote that by inspiration
of the Spirit, but it's showing that the excellency and the glory
of The Godhead, the Trinity, is shown forth and communicated
to our minds and our affections and our wills and our hearts
through Christ. You're not going to know anything
of the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit but through Christ,
our most able, able Savior. It says, and the king, look at
verse 3 again, he says, and the king thought to set over, set
him, set Daniel over the whole realm. So what's happened here?
Daniel's got the same position in the kingdom of the Medes and
the Persians that Joseph had under Pharaoh. Well, as you might
note, this made the other nobles, the other leaders in the kingdom
very jealous. And they sought to discredit
Daniel. They wanted to discredit him.
And how did they seek to discredit him? Well, look at verse four.
They went the way of Satan. It says, and then the presidents
and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the
kingdom. They sought to accuse him. Accusation. Line up with Satan, that's what
that is. An accusation. And it says, but
they could not find none occasion nor fault. What they were trying
to accuse him of, they couldn't do it justly. They didn't have
the witnesses, they didn't have the evidence, so what did they
do? For as much as he was faithful, Daniel was faithful, neither
was there any error or fault found in him. They're going to
try to accuse this man who was of impeccable character. That's
what he's talking about. And as I said, accusation is
the way of the devil. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. You know, that's why I read Romans chapter 8, one
of the reasons in this passage. Because we know what we are,
we know we're sinners. This is not saying that Daniel
was in himself a perfect man or anything like that. But he
was a man of strong moral character. He was faithful, by the grace
of God he was. And we know what we are by nature.
We know what we are within ourselves. We know we have a struggle. It's
a struggle for us to do what's right in the eyes of God and
in the eyes of men. But we take great comfort and
great assurance in the fact of this, that in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and upon the ground of his blood and righteousness alone,
No accusation thrown against us before God can stick. Now that's an amazing thing.
That ought not just fly over top of our heads. It ought not
just go in one ear and out the other. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ. I could be accused
of many things of which I'm guilty, but because I stand before God
in His court of justice in the person, and under the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall lay anything to my charge? God
justified me. Who can condemn me? Christ died."
These jealous nobles in Daniel's day, they sought to connive and
plot in a scheme to find a way to bring Daniel into disfavor
with the king. They couldn't find any other
way to accuse him, so they got together. Look at verse 5. It
says, "...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." And so what they're going to do is try to
get Daniel to deny God, the true and living God. So it says in
verse 6, these three presidents, or then these presidents and
princes assembled together to the king and said thus unto him,
King Darius, live forever. They began to flatter the king.
And that's the way accusation and conniving go together, you
see. In other words, you wanna get
somebody against somebody else, just flatter the one you want
on your side. And bring about the accusation
and just put the seed of doubt. Brother Tim James, he preached
a message, I think, years ago and I listened to it, called
Accusation. And it's really interesting because it shows how all you
gotta do is just plant the seed, whether it's true or not, just
plant the seed and Boy, it'll grow faster than a weed in a
garden. And that's what happened, so
they flatter the king. Verse 7, it says, "...all the presidents
of the kingdom, the governors, the princes, the counselors,
and the captains have consulted together to establish a royal
statute." Now, these men, they got together and they established
a royal law. And here's what it is, it says,
"...and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition
of any god pray to any god or man for thirty days save of thee."
They've got to ask your permission, O king. He shall be cast into
the den of lions. They've got to ask your permission
to pray to any god. In other words, what they're
doing is they're flattering the king to say you're above any
god or any man. You're above. So in other words,
for me to pray to my god, I've got to ask Darius' permission
because he's above my god. That's the issue. And so it says
in verse eight, now old king established the decree, signed
the writing. See, king derives, he didn't
have to sign it into law, but he did. It says that it be not
changed. This is the law according to
the law of the Medes and the Persians, which altereth not.
Once that king signed this into law, he couldn't go back on it,
not even himself. It's like he's speaking ex cathedra
here. He's got, it's done deal. That
was the law of the Medes and the Persians. He couldn't go.
So verse 9 says, So there you have it. Now Daniel, he knew
this decree of the king was against the law of God when he heard
about it. So what did he do? Well, he openly
defied the law of the king. Look at verse 10. It says, now
when Daniel knew that the writing was signed in the law, he went
into his house and his windows being opened, and he didn't go
hide now. He opened the window. His windows
being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem, toward the city of
God, the city of David, the city of peace. He kneeled upon his
knees three times a day. Now there's no law that says
you gotta pray three times a day. We're not Mohammedans. But Daniel,
he's gonna make sure, he's gonna test this law, he's gonna make
sure that people know that he serves the true and living God
and no other God. He prayed three times a day and
he prayed and he gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime,
just like he did before. He didn't change, verse 11. It
says, it says, then these men assembled and found Daniel praying
and making supplication before his God. Then they came near
and spoke before the king concerning the king's decree. 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 answered and he
said this, thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians,
which altereth not. Then answered they and said before
the king that Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity
of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou
hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day." Daniel's
breaking your law. Daniel's breaking your word.
Well, this displeased the king because he really thought highly
of Daniel. How highly? Well, he made him
second in command. He was one of those three presidents
and he set Daniel above all of them. Why did he favor him? Because
God turned his heart to do so. So, he was displeased because
he highly favored Daniel. But here's the thing. Now listen
to this. Don't let this get by you. Now here's the reason for Daniel
and the lion's den. Here's the reason for Daniel
chapter 6. Here's the message of it. It's
not just there to be a Daniel. It's not just Daniel's courage.
All that's there now by the grace of God. It's there. And what
a man Daniel was. But that's not the issue. Here
it is. The king was displeased because he highly favored Daniel,
but he could find no way out. He signed the law. He couldn't
be chained. The law was broken. The penalty
must be paid. He could not find any way out
but to put Daniel, whom he highly favored, under the penalty of
the law and leave him to the hands of his God. Look at verse
14. It says, Then the king, when
he heard these words, he was sore displeased with himself,
and he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored
till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Oh, look at this. He says, Then these men assembled
unto the king and said unto the king, No, O king, that the law
of the Medes and the Persians is, that no decree nor statute
which the king established may be changed. You cannot change
it. You see, if Darius had changed the law or gone back along, he'd
lose his kingdom. None of the laws would mean nothing.
He'd lose his honor. He'd lose his glory. It'd be like saying, King, why'd
you sign that to begin with? Were you a fool? You're the king
of this land. You're the representative of
the people. And were you foolish? Well, should
we follow you in anything? You see what I'm saying? Verse
16 says, then the king commanded and they brought Daniel and cast
him into the den of lions. And now the king spoke and said
unto Daniel, thy God, whom thou service continually, he will
deliver thee. Verse 17, a stone was brought
and laid upon the mouth of the den. There's apparently some
kind of a hole that led down to the den of these lions. And
they laid the stone on, and the king sealed it with his own signet,
and with the signet of his lords, it was law that the purpose might
not be changed concerning Daniel." He did that so that in case he
got jittery and changed his mind, he couldn't go back on it. Now, what we're faced with here
is a picture or an illustration, however you want to put it, of
the great dilemma of the whole universe. The great problem of
eternity. And it goes like this, God is
holy. God is righteous. God is just. His law, when you think about
the law of God, God's law is a reflection of his nature. Did
you know that? God doesn't make laws that are
foolish. He doesn't get trapped like old Darius. Darius, he was
trapped by these accusers of Daniel, these false accusers.
But that's not our God. You see, His laws are reflections
of Himself, His nature. He's just. Shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? Yes, He will. In every case,
every way, at all times. And He judges according to truth,
not a lie, not conniving. See, there's no loopholes in
the law here. There's no lawyers and politicians
who can get around it, under it, or over it, or this way or
that way. This is law. God is holy. God is righteous. And listen,
He must punish sin. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Why? Because God is just. That's right. The wages of sin
is death. There's no other... Listen, there's
no lighter penalty for sin. And then man is a sinner. We're
ruined. We fell in Adam. And what do
we deserve? We deserve death. We deserve
hell. We deserve the grave. We deserve
eternal damnation. Man is a sinner. We can talk
about this sinner, that sinner, that kind of sin, this kind of
sin, how much sin, who sins, where... It doesn't matter. It's
God's law. The decree has been made. So what is the dilemma? Here's
the dilemma. How then can there be any deliverance? How can there be any redemption?
How can there be any salvation? How can God save me from this
penalty and still be God? He can't change His law. If He
changed His law, He would change His glory. His glory would diminish. He would not be God. Do you know
for God to leave one sin unpunished would be to deny Himself, His
honor, His glory? How can there be any salvation? Here's the great spiritual truth
of Daniel in the Lion's Den. This is what this chapter is
about now. Daniel, he was a bold man. Should we be bold? Yes.
But God cannot save me from my sin based on my boldness. Daniel
was a faithful man. He prayed three times a day with
his windows open. Should we pray? We should be
people of prayer, we should be people of constant prayer. Prayer
shows our dependence upon God, our loyalty to God, our worship
of God, our faith in God in Christ. We come to the Father, to the
throne of grace, praying through the Son, our great high priest,
because of what he accomplished on Calvary's cross. But our prayer,
I don't care if we prayed 30 times a day, that could not pay
for our sins. That could not enable God to
save me from my sins. tears of remorse, tears of repentance,
pilgrimages to Jerusalem, or they call it the Holy Land, getting
baptized in the Jordan River, that will not solve this problem,
this dilemma, this eternal question. Daniel was a diligent man, a
courageous man, but all his diligence and all his courage could not
solve this problem. That's the great spiritual lesson
of this episode of history, God's history, God's recorded history.
How can God be just and justify an ungodly sinner? Now, as I said, Daniel himself
was not a perfect man. He was a sinner. Look over at
Daniel chapter 9. Listen to what Daniel says of himself. This
is one of the visions that Daniel got during his stay Babylon it
says in verse 3 now listen to this and let me tell you something
prayer Daniel prayed prayer is a sinner seeking mercy that's
what prayer is so if Daniel were a perfect man he wouldn't need
to pray it says in verse 3 and I set my face unto the Lord God
to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and
ashes what a sackcloth and ashes me That's remorse, that's repentance,
that's sorrow over what? I'm a sinner. I have no right
and title to appear before God, to talk to God or expect anything
good from God except that which He freely gives of His grace
and mercy in Christ. And he says in verse four, and
I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said,
O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and
mercy to them that love him. You see, Daniel was praying for
mercy here. If he weren't a sinner, he wouldn't
need mercy. And to them that keep his commandments, we have
sinned. We have sinned, not they have
sinned, we have sinned. and have committed iniquity,
and have done wickedly, and have rebelled even by departing from
thy precepts and from thy judgments, neither have we hearkened unto
thy servants." This is Daniel's confession. "...which spake in
thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people
therein, O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee." Not to
me, but unto God. If I have any righteousness,
It's His given to me as He imputes and charges to me and I receive
it by faith. Look at Daniel chapter 10. Here's another vision of Daniel.
He's left alone by himself with a great vision of the glory of
God. In verse 8 he says, therefore
I was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained
no strength in me. I have no strength. For my comeliness,
my beauty, my vigor was turned in me into corruption and I retained
no strength." Daniel was not a perfect man in himself. But
I want you to notice something back here in Daniel 6. According
to the king's law, the decree that Darius had signed and could
not change, Daniel was guilty. He was a guilty man. The law
can't be changed. The penalty was plain. The lion's
den, that's what the penalty was. Death by the lion's den.
If Darius did not carry out his laws, as I said, he'd lose his
kingdom, he'd lose his honor, he'd lose his authority. None
of his laws would be worth anything. Well, my friend, think about
this when it comes to our case. When it comes to our sin, in
ourselves, we're guilty. Are we? And God's law cannot
be changed. So what's our only hope? It's
to find the solution to this problem. It's to turn to God. God alone. And do like that psalmist
did in Psalm 25. Beg for mercy. Beg for mercy. Remember what Darius said there?
I'm going to leave you in the hands of your God, Daniel. I
can't do anything for you. Only thing I can do is just carry
out the penalty of the law. You're guilty. Go down in the
lion's den and in case, because I like you, in case I change
my mind, I'm going to put a stone over there and seal it with my
signet so they know if I change my mind and take you out of there,
then it's going to be my honors at stake. Derise couldn't do
anything. So what did he do? He said, I'm
going to leave you in the hands of your God. Well, my friend,
that's the best place any of us can be, right there. Oh, don't
put me in the hands of men. You know what men will do? They'll
accuse you. They'll abuse you. That's right. So beg God for
mercy, but understand this, God cannot show mercy without justice. Look at verse 18 of Daniel 6.
He says, then the king went to his palace. He passed the night
fasting. Oh, he was in sorrow over this.
Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep
went before him. He didn't sleep that night. Then
the king arose 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. And the king spake
and said to Daniel, O Daniel... I don't know all about this.
God doesn't reveal everything. Somebody said, well, didn't Darius
expect Daniel to be dead? Apparently not. He apparently
believed, listen to what it says, it says, O Daniel, Daniel, O
Daniel, servant of the living God, he calls Daniel's God the
living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able
to deliver thee from the lions. He knew some things about Daniel's
God, Maybe he'd heard about what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and
what happened to Belshazzar. Maybe he'd spoken to Daniel.
I don't know. Maybe Daniel witnessed to this man. I don't know. But
here's the question the king asked. Is your God, whom you
serve continually, is he able to deliver you from the lions? And that's the question, is our
God able? What's the issue? What's the
dilemma? How can God be just and justify me? How can God take
a sinner like me into His communion and presence and bless me and
save me and justify me? How can He do that? How can He
declare me righteous? who in myself and my comeliness
melts into corruption. How can He declare me righteous
and still be true and right and just and holy? He's not going
to play like. Now don't listen to these preachers
that tell you that justification by an imputed righteousness is
God playing games. He's not playing any games here
now. See, this is serious business. This is life and death right
here. How can He do it? Is our God able? Well, He is
able. And how is He able? He's able
through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's able to save to
the uttermost them that come unto the Father by Him. He's
able to save because of Christ, the God-man whom He sent into
this world. God sent forth His Son. made of a woman, made under the
law, the law that could not change, to redeem them, to buy us back
with the precious price of His own incorruptible blood. For what the law could not do,
just like the law here could not relieve Daniel, God sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh, Christ was condemned under the guilt of
the law. The guilt of sin charged to him. He was made sin. He became responsible
for the sins of his sheep. He said the good shepherd gives
his life for the sheep. Blood was shed, the penalty was
paid, the law was kept, righteousness established, and God is just
to justify his people. He's honored. In fact, not only
that, but the greatest honor that God has in eternity is the
salvation of His people through the blood and the righteousness
of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Problem solved. By God, not by man, not by my
works, not by yours, not by our prayers, not by our baptism,
by the obedience unto death of the Son of God incarnate. Is our God able? Look at verse
21. It says, Then said Daniel unto
the king, O king, live forever. I don't know what Daniel had
in mind when he says that. Usually it's an empty empty promise. Some people say they believe
Darius even became a Christian here. I don't know. I'm not going
to get into that. But I know he acknowledged. Actually,
what Darius acknowledges is really more than even Nebuchadnezzar
before him acknowledged in the last of Daniel chapter four.
But listen to what he said. This is Daniel speaking now,
verse 22. My God hath sent his angel, his
messenger, and hath shut the lion's mouths that they have
not hurt me." Who do you reckon that angel is? He's the same
as the fourth man in the furnace. Another pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ foretelling and for bringing forth the glory
of His incarnation to come. This is Christ. And what did
Christ do? He shut the lion's mouth. On
the cross of Calvary, Christ shut the law up. He established
the law. He fulfilled the law. He removed
our guilt and our defilement and brought us in righteous before
God. That's what he did. He shut the
mouths of the lions that they have not heard us. The lion of
God's law, the lion of sin, the lion of sin. They cannot hurt
us in the courts of God's justice. They cannot condemn us. He says,
for as much as before him, innocency was found in me. Now think about
it. How is innocency found in us? In Christ. It's not because we're
not sinners. It's not because we get what
we deserve and what we... It's because of Christ. And he
said, "...and also before the old king have I done no hurt."
We didn't dishonor the law. That's what Daniel said. I didn't
dishonor your law. I came down here. The penalty
was, you know, you did the best you could to exact the penalty.
I didn't do anything. Well, see, when Christ died for
my sins, The law was not damaged or dishonored. He kept it perfectly. God was honored in every way.
Verse 23, he says, Then was the king exceeding glad for him,
and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den.
Just like there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who comes
to repentance. Take him up out of the den. Take
him up out of that lion's den. My friend, we were taken up out
of condemnation by the blood of Christ. even our victory over
hell and the grave. It says, so Daniel was taken
up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, not
even a scratch from the claw of the lion. And you know what
it says here? Because he believed in his God,
or he believed his God. God promised. This is the issue. Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of
this, when it's talking about the faith of the children of
God. In verse 32, what is that faith? It's looking to Christ,
resting in Him. And the writer of Hebrews writes,
and what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, and of Jephthah, and
of David, and of Samuel, and of the prophets, who through
faith, that is by looking to Christ and resting in him, subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, how did they work righteousness?
They followed Christ. That's what they did. Obtained
promises and stopped the mouth of lions. Who's that talking
about? Well, we know Daniel's included.
Daniel's included. And it says here, he believed
his God. Do you believe God? Faith is
the gift of God, isn't it? Well, look at the king's response,
verse 24. And the king commanded, and they brought those men which
he had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions.
Them, their children, and their wives, and the lions, had the
mastery of them, and break all their bones in pieces, or wherever
they came, at the bottom of the den. Now, you might look at that
and say, well, that seems awful cruel. Well, let me tell you
something, that's the penalty of the law to all who are connected
with Adam without Christ. You remember Christ told the
Pharisees, he said, you glory in Moses, you brag in Moses and
Moses will condemn you. These men, they gloried in what
they thought was their law keeping and they themselves were condemned.
Verse 25, then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and
languages that dwell in all the earth. Now listen to what he
says, this is interesting. He says, peace be multiplied unto
you. I make a decree. that in every dominion of my
kingdom men..." Now see, Nebuchadnezzar didn't even do this that we know
of. when he learned humility before God. But Darius did. He
made a decree in his kingdom that men tremble and fear before
the God of Daniel. Now, there may be some significance
here. He didn't say, before my God. He said, before the God
of Daniel. I suspect what he's doing here is just saying that
among the gods, Daniel's God is the greatest. I don't think
he's really denying his idols here, but I don't know that for
sure. We don't have anything in history to support a renovation
or repentance or anything like that of the kingdom that all
the idols came down but he does recognize that this god of daniel
this is the he is the living god he's the he's the greatest
he's the most powerful and he says for he is 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 Darius couldn't deliver Daniel, but
Daniel's God did. And he worketh signs and wonders
in heaven and earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power
of the lions. And listen to verse 28. Now this
is the end of the history of Daniel right here, and then chapter
7, I said, picks up with the prophetics, the prophecies of
Daniel. It says, so this Daniel prospered
in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Daniel prospered. Well, all God's
children prosper under the reign of our most able Savior, our
King, the Lord Jesus Christ. All right.