Alright, we'll be looking tonight
at the book of Daniel, chapter 5. Daniel, chapter 5. And the title
of this message is, Weighed in God's Balance. Weighed in God's
Balance. And of course that title, if
you've read this chapter and if you haven't recently, you
probably are familiar with it. The title is taken from the last
verses of this passage, this story, this biblical narrative
of history wherein this heathen leader, this heathen king was
throwing a drunken party And then he was brought to account
by Almighty God through what we call the handwriting on the
wall. Read the writing on the wall.
That's where that phrase comes from, from this passage here.
And Daniel coming in to interpret what was written. Look at verse
25 of chapter 5. He says, this is the writing
that was written, and is written in that language of Aramaic. He says, meeni, meeni tikal ufarsin. And then he interpreted, meaning
spoken twice, means God has numbered the kingdom and finished it.
You heard the phrase, your number is up, that's where that comes
from. God has numbered the kingdom and he's finished it. Tikal,
that means thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. God's standard of judgment. The
Bible teaches that all men and women by nature, if we were weighed
in that balance based upon what we are or what we do, we would
be found wanting. That means lacking. That means
we don't measure up. And then Perez, verse 28, that's
the singular of upharsin, the same word. It means thy kingdom
is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. That's the
downfall of the Babylonian kingdom. the Babylonian Empire. But anyway,
this chapter sets forth many of the most fundamental truths
of the whole Bible, even the gospel message itself. The gospel
of salvation by God's grace for sinners, in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord our righteousness. You can look at it in different
ways, but all these ways are valid for us First of all, it's
the story of a man, a man named Belshazzar. Look at verse 1,
Belshazzar, the king, the king of Babylon. And he was a man
who, like his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar, was lifted up with pride, self-righteousness,
self-importance. He was a man who declared his
independence from God. Now, who does that sound like?
I'll tell you exactly what it sounds like. It sounds like Adam
in the fall and all of us by nature. His story is our story
because it's typical. He's typical of all men and women
by nature. By nature, we're all lifted up
with pride and self-importance, self-righteousness. We all think
we, like Belshazzar, we all think we deserve or have earned God's
blessings in some way to some degree, but in reality the truth
is the only thing we can earn and deserve based upon our best
efforts to obey God or to do anything is death, the wages
of sin is death. So this is a story of fallen,
ruined man, man ruined in Adam. And one of the saddest things
I think you'll see in this story, this passage, is this man knew
better. This man sinned against light.
And that's sad. It sort of reminds me of people
sitting under the preaching of the gospel and yet do not take
heed to what they hear. You know, the Lord said that
take heed how you hear, what you hear. That's important. Don't just assume just because
you're under the sound of the gospel of God's grace, which
I believe is a rare thing and getting even rarer. Don't assume
that you believe it. Now, that's not legalism. That's
not something to scare you, but it's a commandment of God for
us to attend to His Word, to take heed to the things we hear.
And let me tell you something, you know, any warnings in Scripture
for God's people, they're not legal warnings. They're warnings
for us to flee even more to Christ, to rest even more in Christ,
to believe and trust even more in Christ. It's not legalism,
see? So don't get that confused. But
that's what this is. It's a story of a sinful man.
Secondly, it's the story of the fall of a nation. Right here
in chapter 5, what you're reading here is the fall of Babylon.
Now, we're not given all the military details of this. We're
given them in other places, and I'm going to deal with that mainly
in the next message. But it's a story of the fall
of the nation Babylon. It's a testimony that all earthly
kingdoms will eventually be destroyed. all earthly governments. Look
at verse 30. After all this happened, it says
in the last two verses of Daniel 5, it says, in that night, the
same night that all this happened, was Belshazzar the king of the
Chaldeans, that's the Babylonians, slain, and Darius the Median,
Darius the Medes and the Persians, the Median, took the kingdom,
being about three score and two years old. So that was the, this
is the downfall of the kingdom. And so, in being the downfall
of this earthly kingdom of Babylon, it's also prophetic. This is a prophecy in history. It's a historical prophecy, you
could say, of the eventual fall of spiritual Babylon and that
great enemy of the church. And I'm going to show you in
the next message how there's some similarities between the
fall of this physical nation and the fall of that spiritual
idolatrous nation of Babylon. And never forget this now, Babylon
is all, and not only was there a physical national people empire
called Babylon, Babylon is also a spiritual enemy of Christ.
Mystery Babylon, we read about that. And Babylon, I could go
into all kinds of detail on this, but Babylon, basically, it's
false religion. That's what Babylon is. It's
salvation by works. That's what Babylon is. That's
the mark of Babylon right there. And so, this is the story of
the fall of the nation, but it's prophetic of the fall of mystery
Babylon, which we'll read about in Revelation next time a little
bit. But now here's another important lesson. This message here in
Daniel 5, and listen to this now. It's a testimony, thirdly,
that God is going to bring all people to account. My friend,
there is a day of reckoning. There is a day of judgment. All
will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. And the question
is this, how shall we stand before God in that day? Thou art weighed
in the balance. Whose balance? God's balance.
Not man's balance, not man's scale. Man's scales are false
balances. Man's scales are sinful. God's
balance is a true balance. It's never off one degree. Thou art weighed in the balance
and found lacking. How will I stand before a holy
God in that day? in ourselves, and will I stand
in myself? Oh, if I do, I'll be no better
off than Belshazzar and his kingdom. Or will I stand by God's grace
in my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? That's what taking this
supper is all about. Am I in Christ? Am I washed in
his blood and clothed in his righteousness? That's the issue. Fundamentals, see. This is the
heart of the gospel. Fourthly, And this is a testimony
of the fact that there is a standard of all righteousness and sin,
and it's God's standard. And that's the standard we have
to be interested in, that we have to deal with. Our only hope
now and forever is to find and to know and to submit to that
standard before we stand before God. And my friend, you know
as well as I do that that standard is Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. He is the standard. How many
times have you heard me quote Acts 1731, whereupon God, talking
about the ignorance of the Gentile nations for so many thousand
years, hundreds of years rather, under the Old Covenant. but how
God now commands all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed
a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath chosen, ordained, anointed in that he
hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised him
from the dead. There's two things you've got to understand about
that verse. Number one, that Christ himself, because of his
mediatorial accomplishments in the salvation of his people,
he is the judge. He is the judge. The Father hath
committed all judgment unto the Son. And secondly, he is the
standard of all judgment. He is the balance. And the only
way that we're going to be weighed on that scale of God's balance
and see things equal out is to be found in Him. So with that
in mind, let's just start in Daniel chapter 5. The first thing
we see here is Belshazzar's pride. And that is the sin of all men.
It's the sin from the beginning. It's the sin that brought Adam
down and the whole human race. We sinned in Adam. Belshazzar's
pride. It says in verse 1, Belshazzar
the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords. That's
a lot of lords, isn't it? A thousand of his nobles. And he drank wine before the
thousand. Now this Belshazzar was actually
the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. His father was another man named
Nabonidus, who was actually the king of Babylon. Belshazzar was
sort of like second-in-command. He was a co-regent. But Nabonidus
was off in warfare at this time. He was off conquering other lands.
And Belshazzar was taking his place. He was the king in that
sense. And so he was second-in-command.
That's why when he promises Daniel some some material things, he
says, Daniel, I'll make you third in command. Because Belshazzar
himself was second in command. So this is the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. And it's important at this time,
at this very time that Belshazzar the king made this great feast,
his kingdom was under siege by the Medes and the Persians. And
that's what we read about over there in the last two verses.
They were attacking him at this time, but the walls of Babylon
were so strong, and he felt so self-confident, he was going
to have a wild, drunken party. It's almost like he was spitting
in the face of his enemies, saying, well, come and get me. I'm going
to have a party. And that's what was happening
here. So, what a great picture of fallen,
sinful human beings. The Bible says that he that believeth
not, the wrath of God abides on him. And inside his own little
kingdom of self-righteousness and self-love and religious pride,
he feels confident, he feels okay. Oh, he just knows he's
safe from the storm, but we're under attack. And pretty soon,
the storm's going to come down. It's coming. Belshazzar's pride,
he thought the city was invincible. That's like man by nature, he
thinks he's safe and secure in his false refuges, refuges of
lies. And look at his main pride there,
look at verse 2. Here's how far his pride reached. He said, Belshazzar, whilst he
tasted the wine, He commanded to bring the golden and silver
vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar, and that's his forefather, that's
literally, or some translations say grandfather, but literally
it's forefather, which his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had taken out
of the temple. the temple of the one true and
living God remember Nebuchadnezzar say he's the one who conquered
Judah and Jerusalem he destroyed the city destroyed the temple
and he took these vessels he actually took these vessels back
in the first wave of people that he brought with Daniel and it
says he that Belshazzar had taken out and got these vessels that
Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem,
the city of peace, the city of David, the city of God, that
the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines might
drink therein." The temple of the same God who
had dealt with his grandfather back there in chapter four. That's
what he was doing. Maybe He reasoned that he was
better than to drink of the cups of his own weak gods and he could
drink of the cups of that really great big God who had brought
his grandfather down and put him out in the desert. These
vessels, these vessels, now listen to what I'm saying here. These
vessels were holy vessels. Now you say holy, and mainly
when we think of the word holy, we always think of the word,
we think of something being morally pure without sin. But that's not what holy means.
The Bible calls these vessels holy vessels. They're sanctified. What does that mean? It means
they were set apart. They were set apart for what
purpose? To be used for one thing. and
that is in the worship of and service to God alone. These vessels
were commanded by God to Moses for the artisans to make to put
within the tabernacle, and they were to be used in the holy place
there by the priest in their service to God. And Belshazzar
He used them for sinful purposes, though he knew better. Look over
at verse 22. Now, he knew what had happened to his grandfather
Nebuchadnezzar. He knew these things, and Daniel
says this to him. He says, And thou, his son, talking
about Nebuchadnezzar, O Belshazzar, hath not humbled thine heart,
though thou knewest all this. You knew what happened to your
grandfather. You knew about these things. He knew better. Look
at verse three. He says, then they brought the
golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house
of God, which was at Jerusalem, and the king and his princes
and his wives and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine.
They praised the gods of gold. See, they didn't praise the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of all grace, but the
gods of gold and the gods of silver, the gods of brass, the
gods of iron, the gods of wood, and the gods of stone. They cloaked their sin in an
act of worship, but it was idolatry. They veiled their blasphemy in
the name of religion. There's six things listed there.
Somebody said that's significant. Six is the number of sinful man,
imperfect man. The Bible says, for as much as
you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. Don't praise the gods of silver
and the gods of gold. They won't do you any good. But
with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, these vessels of the temple, they were made
of gold. That's typical of the deity of Christ. They were made
of silver. That's typical of redemption,
redemption by His blood. These things were pictures of
the glory of God and the salvation of sinners by His grace through
Jesus Christ. And Belshazzar cared not, had
no regard for that. He praised the gods of gold.
the gods of silver. Look at verse 5. Now here's God
pronouncing judgment on Belshazzar. He says, Now, that's a lamp I don't know if that's the actual
candlestick that was in the holy place. It probably was. I believe
it was. It doesn't say so particularly.
But you know, in the holy place, in the tabernacle, there was
the table of showbread, there was the brazen labor with water,
and there was the golden candlestick. And that golden candlestick,
as you know, was a great picture of Christ, the light of the world.
And I believe what's being shown here is that this hand, this
vision of this hand riding on the wall is going to shed some
light on the situation. It's the light of God's truth.
It's that same light. Over here, let me read this to
you. Over here in John chapter 3, listen to this. This is when,
you know, John the Baptist, he came and he spoke of Christ being
the light of the world, the light of his people. And it says in
verse 19 of John 3, now listen to this, it says, And this is
the condemnation, that light is come into the world. Now that's
what's happening right here with Belshazzar, light is coming in. God's going to shed some light
on this situation. He's going to show what's happening
here. But here in John chapter 3 and verse 19 it says, This
is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men
love darkness. rather than light, because their
deeds were evil. This is a light of God's truth
that exposes evil for what it is. It exposes sinful man for
what he is. And men by nature love darkness
and hate the light. Verse 20, for everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. You see, that's what's happening
back here. There's a light going to be shown. and it's over against
the candlestick look at verse five again in daniel five upon
the plaster of the wall the king's palace and the king saw the part
of the hand that wrote in other words he saw what that hand wrote
on the wall he saw it and so when we talk about the light
god shedding light on the situation let's pray let's pray that the
light of christ truth is a comforting light to us It's a warming light,
enlightening us to the reality, to drive us to Christ and not
a condemning light. But now to Belshazzar and his
people here, it's a condemning light. Exposes them for what
they are. So here it is, the hand of God.
A message from God being written on the wall. Verse 6 says, then
the king's countenance was changed. Now think about this. He was
making merry. He was happy. He was partying,
wasn't he? Reveling. Now something's happened. His thoughts troubled him so
that the joints of his loins were loosed. What the picture
is, he couldn't even hardly stand up. And it says, and his knees
smote one against another. He was so frightened. He was
overwhelmed with fear. And then verse 7, it says, the
king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, bring in my
astrologers, the Chaldeans, that's the priest of Babylon, bring
in the soothsayers, those who claim they can tell the future.
And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon, whosoever
shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof
shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about
his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Be third
in command. Nabonidus first, Belshazzar second,
this one will be third. Verse eight, then came in all
the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing. Underscore could not. They couldn't
do it. They could not read the writing,
nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. It was
in their language. I don't know why they couldn't
read it, but I know they couldn't read it, and I'll tell you why
they couldn't read it, because this is teaching a lesson. That
apart from the revelation of God, you may read the words,
but you don't know the meaning. Isn't that right? Apart from
God turning on the light switch, by the power of the Holy Spirit,
you can read the words, but you don't know the meaning. Natural
man, out of pride and rebellion, always, always is blinded by
his own self-righteousness, self-love, and religious pride. So they
couldn't make known the interpretation. The king, he sought help from
all of his advisors. That's a picture of natural man
seeking help where there is no help. There's no help from man,
from man on his own. Always seeks truth and peace
in himself and not in God. You remember when Nebuchadnezzar,
when he was brought down, he had to do what? In Daniel 4,
34, he had to lift up his eyes to heaven. Calling for his astrologers
and his soothsayers wouldn't do any good. But these guys could
not interpret it. It may be they couldn't translate
it, I don't know, but they couldn't interpret it, they couldn't tell
the real meaning of it. It's like, look over in John
chapter five. It's like men reading the scriptures. And our Lord taught this lesson.
You know, and realize this now, John 5 and verse 39. Realize
the people who he's talking to here. You know, when I was in
my rebellious search for the truth, that's why, I think it's
the best way to label, my rebellious search for the truth. I thought,
you know, I wanted to go to seminary because I thought if there's
any place I can learn what the Bible means, what's in the Bible,
it's in seminary. And these fellows here that the
Lord's speaking to, these are the kinds of guys that would
have been teaching in the seminaries. These were the Pharisees. These were the doctors of the
law, the scribes. They were the ones who wrote
scripture down and wrote commentaries. The scribes were. That's the
kind of lawyers they were. They weren't lawyers like attorneys
today. They were lawyers in the law
of Moses. That's why when Christ said, we'll be under the lawyers,
he's not talking about attorneys. Well, he's probably talking about
some, but anyway, but he's not talking about that kind of attorney.
He's talking about those who interpreted the Scriptures. These
were the men that knew the ancient language. These were the men
that studied the history. These were the experts. And listen
to what Christ says in John chapter 5 and verse 39. He says, search
the Scriptures. You do search the Scriptures.
That's the sense of it. For in them you think you have
eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. That's the same as Belshazzar's astrologers and soothsayers.
They could read that writing on the wall. They could look
at it, but they didn't know the meaning of it because they didn't
have the key. It's like men and women who read
the scriptures without knowing Christ. Look on. He says in verse
44 of John 5, he says, How can you believe which receive honor
one of another? and seek not the honor that cometh
from God only. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom you trust." They didn't trust in Moses personally.
They trusted in the law of Moses, their works. That's what that
means. But he says, for had you believed Moses, you would have
believed me, for he wrote of me. Moses wrote of me. That's
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. What was Moses writing of? He
was writing of Christ. And what is he saying? There are things in those first
five books of the Bible that you'll read, study, but everything
has its foundation upon and summarization in Christ. And the accomplishment
of redemption for the salvation of his people. Moses didn't give
the law to make Israel righteous by their works. The law was given
by God through Moses to drive sinners to Christ for righteousness,
for relief, for salvation. He says in verse 47, but if you
believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? So
that's the lesson here back here in Daniel chapter 5. They could
not read the writing. Look at verse 9. He says, Then
was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed
in him, and his lords were astonished. That's the word astonished, but
it comes from a word that's almost like you turned to stone. That's
what it means. It's like you're speechless,
you can't move, that kind of thing. Well, Daniel, God sends
Daniel. And he gives the interpretation.
Listen how he does it. He talks about the queen here.
Verse 10, Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and
his lords, and that's probably the queen mother. That's probably
Nabonidus' wife and Belshazzar's mother. The queen, by reason
of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet
house and the queen spake and said, O king, live forever. Now
there's another empty, empty words of man, praise of men. She was aware of Daniel. Belshazzar
acted like he wasn't, but I believe he was. Daniel was probably about
80 years old at this time. The time of this happening here. And here she comes and says,
let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance
be changed. There is a man in thy kingdom. in whom is the spirit
of the holy gods now now she says that out of her idolatry
and her ignorance but we know the truth daniel he didn't have
the spirits of the holy gods he had the spirit of god the
holy spirit of god who is god the third person of the trinity
and it said in the days of thy father light and understanding
and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him We
know it was the wisdom of the true and living God. Whom the
king Nebuchadnezzar, thy father the king, I say thy father, made
master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. Daniel
was the head of all this. For as much as an excellent spirit
and knowledge and understanding, interpreting of dreams and showing
of the hard sentences, the ones you can't figure out, dissolving
of doubts. He was a dissolver of doubts.
were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar.
Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation."
And when I read that verse 12, I thought about, that's a good
description of a sinner saved by the grace of God and enlightened
by the Spirit of God and the Word of God to Christ. Excellent
spirit, for the Holy Spirit is an excellent spirit. He is God. And knowledge and understanding,
it's knowledge of our sin, knowledge of who God is, knowledge of Christ,
how God can be just and justify the ungodly, how God saves a
sinner by grace. That's an understanding that
only God can give. The Son of God hath come and
given us an understanding that we might know Him. That is true. And then the showing of hard
sentences. You know, there are a lot of hard sentences in this
book here that we're reading. I'm serious, you know, it's not
an easy book. I've often told you, you know, the gospel is
a simple message. It's a very simple message, so
much so that a little child can understand. But the Bible's not
an easy book. There's some hard sentences.
And I may not know the interpretation of every hard sentence in here,
but I know the key. And I know if I focus on that
key, Christ and Him crucified and risen, someday the Lord might
open my understanding to that hard sentence. And then the dissolving
of doubts. How are you going to dissolve
that? Do we have doubts? Yes. What is a doubt? It's lack of
faith. Isn't it? I mean, God said it,
we believe it. Why would we doubt it? Because
we don't really believe what God says. How do you dissolve
doubts? Look to Christ. Just focus your
attention on Him. Rest in Him. Plead His blood
and righteousness. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame. Now, if you trust any sweet frame, you've got good
reason to doubt. But I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Somebody told me one time, they said, well, I don't doubt Christ,
I doubt myself. And I asked them this, I said,
well, when did the gospel ever tell you to look to yourself?
Where did the gospel ever command you to depend upon and trust
in yourself? If you're looking to yourself,
you ought to doubt. In fact, you ought not really doubt, you
ought to be sure that it's deadly. Look to Christ, the author and
the completer of our faith. That's how you dissolve death.
Well, this was found in Daniel. Look at verse 13. He says, Then
was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spoke
and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which are of the
children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king, my father,
brought out of Jewry? And here's the king's promise,
he said, I've heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is
in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found
in thee, and now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought
in before me, that they should read this writing and make known
unto me the interpretation there, but they could not, underscore
could not. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me to draw him, Christ said. They
could not show the interpretation of the thing. And I've heard
of thee that thou canst make interpretations and in dissolved
doubts. Now if thou canst read the writing
and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed
with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shalt
be the third ruler in the kingdom. There's the king's promise to
Daniel. Look at verse 17, look at Daniel's response, look at
his answer. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let
thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another. You know, it's one of the few
times in the Bible that the word rewards is used in the plural. And they're rejected by a child
of God. You know, people talk about rewards
in heaven. And what they're talking about
is rewards we earn by our obedience. I don't believe the Bible teaches
that. I believe that God never puts
himself in a place where he owes us anything. based upon our meeting
some condition or doing some work. The Bible speaks of reward
singular and it's the reward of grace that all believers will
receive equally in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
the scripture teaches. Very rarely will you see the
word rewards plural in the Bible. This is one of them. What does
Daniel, the child of God, say? Give your rewards to somebody
else. I don't want them. I don't want
them. He says, yet I will read, will
I read the writing unto the king and make known to him the interpretation
He says, O thou King, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar
thy father a kingdom. Now here's what he does, he goes
right back, he says, now you remember what happened to your
grandfather. Remember this, you see. And he
says, Thou King, Most High God, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar
thy father a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor, that's that
earthly kingdom now. And for the majesty that he gave
him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared
before him. Whom he would, he slew. That's
Nebuchadnezzar now. Who Nebuchadnezzar would, he
slew. And whom he would keep, would
he kept alive. And whom he would, he set up.
And whom he would, he put down. He had that kind of authority
and power. Who gave it to him? God did. That's what he says
right here. God gave. Underscore in verse
18, God gave. That's God's work. He says in
verse 20, But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened
in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took
his glory from him. We read about that last time.
We know what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. And he was driven from the sons
of men, and his heart was made like the beast, and his dwelling
was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass like
oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew,
God's teaching him a lesson, a lesson that he needed to learn,
till he knew that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men,
and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. And thou
his son, O Belshazzar, and listen to these charges. Number one,
you've not humbled your heart, though thou knewest all this.
You knew all that. You hadn't forgotten that. You
don't forget something like that. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,
out in the field eating grass like a donkey, you don't forget
something like that. You just didn't regard it. You
didn't heed it. You didn't listen to it. It meant
nothing though you knew all this. Oh, the sin against the light.
Think about it. That's one of the most tragic
things about this whole story right there. He knew better.
I began to think about that a little bit myself. And I asked this
question of myself, do I really understand God's word? Now, to understand God's Word
is more than just to know it, know what it is, rather. It's
more than just to agree with it. It's more than just to admire
it. It's to believe it. It's to heed it. It's to love
His Word and make it as was described in Daniel chapter 1, the purpose
of my heart. Daniel was a man of understanding.
Belshazzar, he knew better, but he had no understanding. The
scripture says, the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they're spiritually understood, spiritually discerned.
Christ said to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot
see, understand the kingdom of God. He cannot enter the kingdom
of God. We know that the only way we're
going to have any understanding of God's Word is through the
power of God in Christ. We read of those false preachers
in Matthew 7 verse 21, When Christ said, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What
is his will? Look unto the Son, follow the
Son, rest in the Son. James said in James chapter 2
and verse 17, therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth
it not, to him it is sin. I think about people all the
time who read the scriptures and claim to be Christian, who
heed not the word of God. They're no better off than Belshazzar.
Look at verse 23 of Daniel 5. Here's the second charge, he
said, but you've lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, you've
stood against him. Christ said, he that is not for
me is against me. You can't be a fence straddler
here. Here's the third charge, and they have brought the vessels
of the house before thee, and thy lords and thy wives and thy
concubines have drunk wine, and you've scorned the Lord's goodness,
the Lord's mercy. All those things that typified
his grace in Christ, the forgiveness of sins by his blood, the justification
of a sinner by his righteousness, the one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ. You scorned it. You've treated
it as something common, even evil and wicked. You've used
those vessels that were set apart for the service and worship and
glory of God, and you've used them for your own, to fulfill
your own fleshly lust. Here's the fourth one. You've
praised the gods of silver and gold and brass and iron and wood
and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know. These dead gods,
they don't see, they don't hear, and they don't know. And fifthly, he says, in the
God in whose hand thy breath is. Listen to that. You realize
your breath, my breath, is in the hand of God? The next breath you take, is a gift from God. We don't even think about it,
do we? I don't sit around thinking about the breaths that I take.
Have you ever been out of breath? You think about it then, don't
you? It's in the hands of God. And
he says, the God in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all
thy ways hast thou not glorified. You've not glorified God. You've
not reverenced God. And then was the part of the
hand sent from him, and this is the writing that was written."
Here it is, verse 25. This is the writing that was
written. And he says, mene, mene, tekel,
upharsin. This is the interpretation of
the thing, mene. God hath numbered thy kingdom
and finished it. Your number's up. Belshazzar. Your time is up. You're about
to meet a holy God. The nation, her number is up.
The psalmist wrote in Psalm 90 and verse 12, So teach us to
number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Have you
numbered your days? You don't know how many days
you've got. I don't know how many days I've got. But I know this, they're
numbered. And one day my number is going
to be up. What's the point of it? To apply ourselves to wisdom. Who is our wisdom? 1 Corinthians
chapter 1 tells us that Christ is both the wisdom of God and
the power of God. Apply our minds, our affections,
our wills, our times, our hearts to Christ and Him crucified. Verse 26, or verse 27, Tekel,
thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. I'll deal
with this more in the next message, but here's what he's talking
about. There's a scale. There's a balance. It must equal
out. My works won't do it. Your works
won't do it. All of our works collectively
will not balance the scales. There's only one thing that'll
balance the scale. There's only one thing that'll
pay the full payment for all our sins. There's only one thing
that will make a sinner righteous before a holy God, and that's
Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen again. If we don't
have Christ, it's gonna be said of us, we're found lacking. You
say, well, I may not lack as much as oh, so and so, but it
doesn't matter. If you're found lacking, you're lacking, and
that means eternal damnation. Isn't that right? Weighed in
the balance. Oh, I want the balance to equal
out. I want the scale to equal out. How can it be? What's he
saying? He's saying, Belshazzar, you
don't measure up to God's standard. You think you do. You think you've
got it all. But you really have nothing.
You're lacking. There's no righteousness to be
found among men. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. And there's the balancing of
the scales. He says in verse 28, Perez, again which is the
singular for Ophiris and Samor, thy kingdom is divided and given
to the Medes and Persians. The kingdom divided and given
up, conquered. A house divided cannot stand.
And this kingdom will not stand. My friend, what's this teach?
Our only hope is to be judged by God in Christ. That's why
the Lord says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather,
is risen again. In Christ, we're not lacking.
In Christ, we're complete. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. Nothing
lacking. Our only hope. The grace of God
in Christ. Okay.