All right, let's open our Bibles
to the book of Daniel chapter one. Daniel chapter one. I also would like for you to
turn to Isaiah chapter 46. Daniel chapter one, that's our
text. And then I want you to look at
Isaiah chapter 46 also. The last few verses of Isaiah
46. Now the title of this message
is Our Lord Rules. Daniel, that's what his name
means, it means God is my judge also, but Our Lord Rules. And the book of Daniel is a glaring,
beautiful, wonderful example of the Lord God of heaven and
earth carrying out, working out, according to his own sovereign
will, his own sovereign power, his purpose, the purpose of God. We often quote Romans 8, 28,
which says, all things work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called, which literally means the summoned, called by
the Spirit, the called according to His purpose. And what is the
purpose of God? Well, the ultimate purpose of
God is to glorify and honor Himself. We read two Psalms before the
message tonight, the one I read and the one Brother Joe just
read. Both of those Psalms spoke of the glory and the honor and
the majesty and the power of God who reigns. Our God rules. And the purpose of God is to
glorify himself, and the ultimate glory of God is found in his
purpose to save his people, called his elect, the elect remnant,
by his power and by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, it's not oversimplifying things for us to say that the
purpose of God I mean the whole purpose of all things, creation,
the purpose of providence, the purpose of salvation is wrapped
up and fulfilled in a way that it could never have been fulfilled
otherwise in the person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ to save God's people. by His grace through what He
accomplished on Calvary. That's the crux of human history.
That's the crux of God's history. That's the center of the purpose
of God. And the Bible's full of history that shows God working
all things after the counsel of His own will to accomplish
that purpose, and that's what the book of Daniel is. So, the
first six chapters, 12 chapters in this book, and the first six
chapters read like a story. But it's not really the story
of Daniel himself, even though Daniel is the main character,
it seems. But it's the story of God working
His purpose to bring Christ into the world. And I wanted to read
Isaiah 46, these last verses, because I always go to these
when we study biblical history, when we study a book of the Bible
that, you know, Daniel is considered a prophetic book, he's a prophet.
And it says in verse 9 of Isaiah 46, it says, remember the former
things of old, for I am God and there is none else. God distinguishing
himself. I'm God, there's none like me.
Don't try to compare anyone or anything with God. You can't
do it, there's none like him. Declaring the end from the beginning.
Most people don't realize the implications of that statement,
but that's the God of predestination right there. He declares the
end from the beginning. The only way a being can do that
is to be the determiner of all things. And I know people say,
well, I can't understand all that. It doesn't matter. This
is God. I mean, you know, just think about it. I can determine,
or I can declare, rather, the beginning from the end. I can
tell you what happened this morning, but I can't tell you what's gonna
happen two seconds from now. to say but now God he declares
the end from the beginning because he is the sovereign God of this
universe so he says declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying
and listen what he calls these things that are not yet done
what does he call the things that are not yet done does he
call them fate kismet Does he call them something like the
will of man? No. Here's what he calls them.
He calls them, my counsel. What is his counsel? He says,
my counsel shall stand. That's his determinations. That's
his thoughts, his mind, his purpose. And he says, I will do all my
pleasure. I'm going to do what I want to do. That's what God
says. I know people in religion today, they say, God wants to
do this, but you won't let him. Or God wants to do this, but
he can't because you won't cooperate. No, that's not the God of this
book. Daniel knew that. He said, I'll
do all my pleasure. He says, calling a ravenous bird
from the east, that's an episode in history. that God delivered
his people out of Babylon, which Daniel's about to get into here.
The man that executeth my counsel from a far country. God uses
means now. Don't, you know, people say,
well, if I believe that, then why preach? Why do this? Well,
God uses means. This thing is not just to accomplish
an end. This thing is for his glory.
God's going to be glorified. And in the salvation of his people,
he uses the means of the power of the Holy Spirit under the
preaching of the gospel in bringing sinners, bringing his people
to Christ. And he says, yea, I have spoken
it, I will also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Now that's history. That's past,
present, and future, actually. But now look at the purpose for
it all, verse 12. He says, hearken unto me. You
stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. You proud sinners
who are far from righteousness. You're far from qualified. That's
us. We're sinners. Born dead and
fell in Adam, ruined in Adam. Born dead in trespasses and sins. Far from righteousness. We do
everything we can in our power to make ourselves righteous,
but nothing works. Nothing will work. We get religious,
we make professions, we get baptized, we try to pray through, we do
this, that, and the other, but nothing's gonna make us righteous.
In fact, the Lord said to the Pharisees, you make them further
from righteousness that way. Sealed in false religion, the
religion of Cain, Cain brought the best he could, the hardest
thing he worked for, the best he could do, didn't make him
righteous. So how does a sinner become righteous? Verse 13, I
bring near my righteousness, God says. Well, how does he bring
it near? He says, it shall not be far
off, and my salvation shall not tarry. And listen to what he
says, and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory. You know who he's talking about
there? He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. You want to
find righteousness? You lay hold of Christ. He is
the Lord our righteousness." Well, that's the purpose of all
history. God does this great work in all
things of history, working with the Jews, working with Gentiles,
and the book of Daniel is a great testimony of that. It's a great
testimony and example of how God is going to sovereignly fulfill
his purpose. Now, the name Daniel means our
Lord or our God rules, and it also means our God judges, or
God is my judge. He is the ruler, the judge of
all things. When we come to the book of Daniel,
you understand the scene. We just finished going through
the book of Zephaniah. Zephaniah was probably the last
of the prophets right up to this point. He was a prophet during
the time when Daniel came on the scene. And Israel and Judah
had sinned greatly against God. They had fallen into idolatry. They had fallen into disobedience.
They disobeyed. They ignored His law. They had
forsaken the law completely. You remember, under Josiah, he
rediscovered the book of the law through a priest that he
sent to clean up the temple. When the man said, I found the
book, and he brought it to Josiah, and Josiah said, well, man, this
is something. Remember, he tore his clothes
in repentance. But it wasn't long that they
lapsed back into disobedience. They rejected the worship of
God. They failed to trust God. They'd
forgotten His purpose and His promise, the very reason that
God brought them together, the main reason, there's many reasons,
but the main reason was to bring Messiah through that nation according
to the flesh. That was the main reason. And
they'd lost sight of that, they'd rejected that. God, by this time,
God had already, this time the book of Daniel begins about 600
years before Christ, to give you an idea. About 600 years. And by this time, God had already
destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel by bringing down His
judgment upon them through the Assyrian Empire. And God had
already prophesied that Judah, where Daniel, and Jerusalem,
where Daniel lived, that they would be conquered and they'd
go into captivity. God's judgment, God's justice
is true, is sure against all sin. God must punish sin. God cannot overlook sin. He cannot
ignore sin. Somebody says, well, then how
can He save a sinner? Through a substitute, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, in salvation by God's
grace, God doesn't ignore or look over or deny sin. He deals with sin. He dealt with
it on the cross. That's where God dealt with the
sins of His people. Now, if He didn't deal with your
sins on the cross, He'll deal with your sins at judgment and
then in hell. That's what the scripture teaches.
But God dealt with the sins of His people in Christ on the cross.
That's why Christ was made sin. And that's why His people were
made the righteousness of God in Him. But God does judge. He is our judge. He is on the
throne. He rules in judgment. The scepter
of His throne is a scepter of righteousness. And He judges
for His glory, but also for the good of His elect people. his
elect remnant in Christ. The book of Daniel, if you've
heard much, you may have read through it, you may have heard
some preaching on it. You may hear a lot of talk about
it today because there's a lot in the book of Daniel about the
future, even our future. In fact, Daniel is very much
so a book that is a companion to Revelation. One writer put
it this way, Revelation explains Daniel And Daniel lays the foundation
for revelation. But Daniel is all about the process
of God establishing His kingdom in this world. God's kingdom. Think about it. Do you know,
if we know and trust Christ, if we've been brought to Christ
by the power of God's Spirit, Our citizenship is not here on
this earth. We're in the world, but we're
not of the world. We're citizens of the kingdom
of God. And that kingdom has been established,
is continually being established as God calls his people into
that kingdom, and Daniel is part of that process. Everything that
happened in this book in Daniel, he is going to the court of the
king, a heathen king, a Gentile king in Babylon. And so Daniel's
all about the process of God establishing His kingdom in this
world upon the foundation of the redemptive work of Christ.
Many times Daniel was even a type of Christ. Daniel looked at Christ
as the promised Messiah. Look over at Daniel chapter 9.
Let me just show you this. This is one of my favorite passages
of Scripture. Daniel chapter 9. This is a prophecy
of the coming of Christ into the world. And he says in verse
24 of Daniel 9, listen to this, 70 weeks, and that's 70 weeks
of years, are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy."
Who's the most holy? That's Christ. Who's going to
do all this great work? Christ is. He says, "'Know therefore
and understand that from the going forth of the commandment
to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince,
shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. The streets shall
be built again, the wall even, in trebulous times. And after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. That's a
reference to the death of Christ for the sins of his sheep. He
was cut off. That means he was separated from
his father. Remember when he said, as recorded
in Matthew 27, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But, he says, not for himself. He didn't die to save himself,
he died to save his people from their sins. His name shall be
called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. His
name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God
with us. And the people of the prince
shall come and shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and
the end thereof shall be with the flood, and unto the end of
the war desolations are determined. And we'll get to that later,
but that's the prophecy of Christ. That was Daniel's hope. That's
the hope of any true child of God. Christ is our hope. Daniel
deals with nations and wars, the rise and fall of kings and
kingdoms in opposition to God, in opposition to Christ and his
kingdom and his church. And all these ungodly kings and
ungodly nations will fall before Christ our King. This speaks
of the triumph of Christ over Antichrist. It speaks of the
triumph of Christ's true church over Babylon. Babylon here is
a real country, a real empire, but it's symbolic of a wicked,
wicked nation. In fact, Babylon is described
over in Revelation chapter 17. Listen to this description of
Babylon. It's talking about, in verse
3 of Revelation 17, So he carried me away in the spirit into the
wilderness, that is, carried John away to give him this vision.
It says, and I saw a woman set upon a scarlet-colored beast
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked
with gold and precious stones and pearls appearing beautiful
outwardly. It's like the Pharisees, you
do indeed appear righteous unto men, but inward you're full of
dead men's bones. Having a golden cup in her hand
full of abominations, You see, the Golden Cup is appealing to
the natural man, but it's full of abominations, filthiness of
her fornication, and upon her forehead was a name written,
Mystery Babylon. Now, you know why she's called
Mystery Babylon? It's because man by nature can't see her for
what she is. If you see her for what she is,
this abomination, this wickedness, which what it is, it's false
religion. Babylon symbolizes all that is evil in false religion
and in the world. That's what it symbolizes. But
man by nature doesn't recognize it. Can't see it for what it
is. It appears beautiful, it appears
healthy, spiritually, life-giving, but it's deadly, and it's mystery
Babylon. If you see it or if I see it,
God must reveal it to us. Mystery Babylon the great, the
mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. So keep that in
mind as you go through the book of Daniel. What is he teaching
us? Righteousness will triumph over
unrighteousness. How? In and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at chapter 1 of the book
of Daniel. Again, this is 600 years before
the coming of Christ. It says in verse 1, in the third
year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, into Jerusalem and besieged it. Jehoiakim. Sometimes when you read of a
king named Eliakim, he's the same one. The same one. And he
was placed on the throne of Judah by an Egyptian pharaoh. It's
the one who conquered Judah and had Josiah killed. And he was
placed there to succeed his brother Jehoaz, Both of them were evil
kings. This Jehoiakim, he was one of
whom it was said he did that which was evil in the sight of
the Lord. He did not lead the people in
the ways of God. He did not lead the people in
the way of obedience to the law of God. He did not take his responsibility
as king of Judah to typify the king of kings and the Lord of
lords. He was an evil king. and his
brother before him was evil. They were both sons of Josiah.
Josiah, remember, he was a godly king who led the last revival
in Judah. But here comes God's judgment. God had prophesied of this about
a hundred years before through the prophet Isaiah, the prophet
Hosea, and Micah. And what happened was there Nebuchadnezzar
came down. He came down in three different
attacks. And the first attack, the first
wave, is this described right here in verse 1. This is the
first attack of Nebuchadnezzar and his army upon Judah and Jerusalem. And at that attack, they took
the city, they took Judah, but they didn't destroy it completely. They didn't do that until the
third attack. Three waves of attack. And here's
what they did. Look at verse 2. It says, And
the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand. Now,
did you notice that? The Lord, God who rules, gave
Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. This was the work of God.
This was the judgment of God upon Judah and Jerusalem for
their sin. And God gave him over. There's
no way that Jehoiakim could have won this battle. Because this
was God's judgment. Man cannot stand against the
judgment of God. And you say, well, is there any
hope for me then? There's only one hope for any
sinner. And that's to stand at the judgment
of God in Christ. Washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. That's our only hope. Because
you see, the judgment of God has already taken place for His
people in Christ. Nobody can withstand the judgment
of God. Jehoiakim couldn't do it. God
judges according to truth. And so the Lord gave Jehoiakim
king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house
of God. That's the vessels of the temple.
You remember those vessels that were in the tabernacle and later
on in the temple. Those vessels were to be used
by the priest exclusively for the service of the temple. They
were sacred in that sense. The book of Leviticus calls them
holy. But now understand the word holy
there doesn't mean morally perfect. There's nothing morally perfect
about a cup or a dish. It means separate. It means that
cup or that dish or that vessel was to be used for one thing
and one thing alone and nothing common. It wasn't to be used
later on. You know that one of the kings
used them at a party, at a drunken party. using it for unholy uses,
using it for common uses. No, sir, this was to be used
for the service of God. This was the part of the temple
worship. This is part of that which typified
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And my friend,
you don't mess with that. You don't take that. That's no
common thing there. That's why we should think of
this about the truth of God, the worship of God, and the church
of God. It's no common thing. We cherish
it, we revere God, we fear God, not with an ungodly fear that
brings legalism, but with a reverential respect for God. Well, Nebuchadnezzar had no respect
for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so he took part of
the vessels of the house of God, and it says, which he carried
into the land of Shinar, that's modern-day Iraq, to the house
of his God, his idol. They had several idols in Babylon. You know where the name Babylon
comes from, Babel, confusion. And it says, and he brought the
vessels into the treasure house of his God. These things evidently
were valuable to him somewhat, but he dedicated them to an idol
and not to the true and living God. What an abomination! What
a great picture of Babylon! Mystery Babylon, the great harlot,
taking the things of God. How many people today take the
truth of God? the doctrines of God and misuse
them and misrepresent them and will not lay them out just as
they are as God has given but turn them in you know it's like
what most people call today grace which is really a cleverly disguised
system of works because man is going to get his glory he's going
to get his part in there he's got to do it but God is a jealous
God he will not share his glory well look at verse 3 It says
here that the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs. Now these eunuchs were men who
were made eunuchs because the king wanted them to have one
purpose in this world and that was to serve him, to serve the
king. And he says that he should bring
certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed, that's
the house of Judah, that's the descendants of Judah, the royal
line. and of the princes, that's the
nobles. In other words, what happened here, Nebuchadnezzar,
he wanted to take the best of men for himself to train them
to be his advisors and his servants. And he said, and Daniel and his,
and three of his friends, you know about Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, incidentally, that's not their Hebrew names, you'll
see that here if you already read this. But Daniel and his three
friends were taken in this way. They were made eunuchs. And that's
a fulfillment of prophecy. Look back at Isaiah 39. Let me
show you that. And what happens here is Nebuchadnezzar
commissions the master of his eunuchs to brainwash these men.
In other words, he wants to take the best of the best in Judah,
in Jerusalem, and turn them into Babylonians. That's what he wants
to do. So he makes some eunuchs. Well,
that's prophesied here in Isaiah 39. This is about a hundred years
before. Look at verse 6. It says, Behold,
the days come that all that is in thine house and that which
thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day shall be carried
to Babylon. Nothing shall be left saith the
Lord and of thy sons that shall issue from thee which thou shalt
beget Shall they take away and they shall be eunuchs in the
palace of the king of Babylon Well right here that prophecy
is fulfilled And like I said it was an attempt
to to brainwash them to make them Babylonians But what you're
going to see here is something as that's astounding And that's
this, no man, no matter how powerful, not even if his name is Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, the most powerful empire, no man can change what
God has done. No man can do it. You think Nebuchadnezzar
could change Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Not if
God, not if they belong to God. You say, God's in control. He's
in control. He's working all things after
the counsel of His own will. My friend, don't you ever...
I know sometimes, you know, I get down on myself because in witnessing
and preaching I'll mess up. I'll go back and I think, man,
I wish I'd have said that a different way. But I have this consolation. I know that as long as I preach
Christ and lift Him up, I'm not going to be a stumbling block
in the way of God. I'm not going to hinder God's
purpose. He's going to save His people. Look at verse 4. He says, "...children in whom
was no blemish, but well favored..." This is what Nebuchadnezzar wanted
to be his servants, you see. "...children in whom was no blemish,
but well favored, skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge,
Understanding science, the word science means knowledge. In other
words, he didn't want any dummies here. And he says, and such as
had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom
they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
The Chaldeans, the Babylonians. Remember, Abraham lived in Ur
of the Chaldeans. That idolatrous land, that was
Iraq, that's where this is. So it's almost like they're going
back to the land of Abraham's natural birth, his birth in sin. They're going back to the land
of Abraham's shame. Remember what God did when he
came and got Abraham. He says, you get out of this
country. I'm going to change you. And they wanted him to learn
the tongue, the language of the Chaldeans. Again, they wanted
to brainwash him. Look at verse 5, he says, "...and
the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat
or meal the food, and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing
them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand
before the king." Now this was the commission of King Nebuchadnezzar
who said, take these men, make them eunuchs, and feed them this
food that I'm providing for them. And that would have included
food that was forbidden under the old covenant. You know, they
had dietary laws. And that was not only just for
health reasons, that was part of it, but it was to show their
dedication to God. That's what it was for. Under
that old covenant. That rebellious people. But it
also had to do with food that was devoted to idols. To idols. For Daniel and his friends to
eat of that food would be to disobey God. It would be even
to deny God. We're not under those restrictions
today. The old covenant is abolished
by way of fulfillment. But back then, to the nation
Israel, these were in effect. And I'll tell you, this is a
good picture. We can liken this to those who eat the food and
the drink, the wine of false religion, false Gospels. In fact, the Bible many times
kind of describes it that way, when they drink the wine of whoredoms,
or they drink the wine of idolatry, meaning false doctrine, false
gospels, works, salvation, free willism, all of that, you see.
It would be to deny God. That's what it is. Men, and men
use compromise and false gospels to achieve what they see in religion. Well, we can water that down.
We can eat a little bit of their food. You see, we don't want
to be mean and unkind and elitist. We can eat a little bit of their
food and it'll grow our church. It'll be healthy. You see, this
is what Nebuchadnezzar said. If they eat this food for three
years that I provide for them, they'll be healthy young men
and they can stand in the court of the king. They'll be worthy. But look at verse 6. It says,
now among these, these children of Judah, there was Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael and Azariah. Now that's their Hebrew's name.
As I said, Daniel. He was probably about 15 years
old at this time when he was first taken into Babylon. His
name means God rules or God is my judge. And then Hananiah. His name means God has favored
or God has loved. Their name spoke of their spiritual
condition, didn't it? That's not always the case with
men, is it? Then Mishael, his name means who is as God, who
is like God. There's nobody like God. And
then Azariah, his name means Jehovah has helped, God my helper. This was their names. And it
says, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs, verse 7, gave names.
Now the Babylonian prince of the eunuchs gave them new names.
He gave them Babylonian names, Chaldean names. And it's kind
of like, it's like surface religion. They think, well, if you change
your name, you'll be a different person. That's not so. You remember
Jacob had a name change. But you know what God did before
he changed Jacob's name? He changed Jacob. He changed it from cheater, supplanter,
conniver, to God prevails, the Prince of Israel, the Prince
of God. So this eunuch, this master of
the eunuchs, he gave him names, and for he gave unto Daniel the
name Belteshazzar. You know what that means? Well,
there was an idol in Babylon, they called him Bel, B-E-L. And Belteshazzar means Bel's
Prince. They took this man, whose name
meant, God is my judge, and changed his name to a prince of Baal. And then it says Hanani. To Hanani,
he changed his name to Shadrach. There was another false god in
Babylon. His name was Aku, A-K-U, and
this name Shadrach means command of Aku. I'm in the command of
Aku. Whatever he says, I do. That's
what that means. took this man whose name meant
God has favored and turned it into an idolatrous name. And
to Mishael, they changed his name to Meshach. Meshach means
who is what Aku is. You see, Mishael means who is
like God. They changed his name to who
is like Aku. And then it says, and to Azariah,
they changed his name to Abednego, another false god named Nego,
and his name means servant of Nego. What are they trying to
do? They're trying to brainwash these
men. They're trying to make them idolaters. That's what Mystery
Babylon does today. Tries to infiltrate the church
and turn the people of God into idolaters. Not just by giving
them a new name, but by creeping in with that poison of false
doctrine, false gospels, compromise. taking our minds away from the
simplicity that's in Christ. Now what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians
11, I fear lest by any means Satan, who deceived Eve with
his subtlety, should deceive you and remove your minds from
the simplicity, that singleness, that focus on Christ as my whole
salvation. And get your minds in other places
and your hope and your trust in other things other than Christ
and Him crucified and risen again. That's what Nebuchadnezzar is
trying to accomplish here. But look at verse 8. Now listen
to this. He says, But Daniel purposed in his heart that he
would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat,
nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the
prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. You
see that? Daniel purposed in his heart
Why did Daniel purpose this in his heart? What does that mean,
he purposed in his heart? It means he made up his mind.
It means his mind, his affections, and his will was toward God. This is a determination in his
heart. It's a conviction. This is a
conviction now. It's a conviction of one. Listen,
why do you think Daniel purposes it? Is it because Daniel was
a better man than the rest of us? Well, you ought to read the
visions of Daniel. He says otherwise. One time he
had a vision. We'll read about this in later
chapters. He had a vision where he saw the glory of God and he
said, all my comeliness, my beauty, my strength melted into corruption. You see, Daniel was a man who
knew that he was a sinner and that if God gave him what he
deserved and what he earned, he would get eternal death. Daniel
knew, like all of God's people, that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's why we can't earn God's
favor. Daniel purposed this in his heart, not because he was
better than anybody else, not because he was even less obstinate,
naturally. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, they're
spiritually discerned. Now you can't read that passage
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and then put a little byline on it
and say, except Daniel. or accept me. Daniel purposed
to accept. Why did he do that? I'll tell
you what, this is the determination of one who's been given a new
heart. One who's been born again by the Spirit of God, convicted
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. One who's seen his
utter sinfulness and depravity and who's been driven to Christ
for all salvation. by the Holy Spirit under the
preaching of the gospel. This is one who's been given
not only circumcision of the flesh, for he was a Jew, but
he was circumcised in the heart. Paul said, we're the circumcision.
We worship God in spirit. We have confidence in Christ.
We rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.
Daniel was a man of God. He was a man whom God chose.
Yes, he chose God, but God chose him first. He was a man who'd
been redeemed based upon a promise of one to come who would go to
the cross and die for his sins. Daniel was a man of grace. Daniel
was a man of faith, trusting in the Lord and not in himself. The Bible says, the preparations
of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are clean
in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Commit
thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
Proverbs 16, 1 through 3. That's what Daniel's doing. God
prepared his heart, and therefore he purposed in his heart to serve
God. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2
and verse 2, he said, I determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This was a man who before God
brought him to saving faith in Christ had only one goal in life
and that's to wipe the name of Jesus of Nazareth off the face
of the earth. What changed? His heart changed. Who changes the heart? Not man.
You can't change your heart. I can't change my heart. No preacher
can change your heart. No amount of persuasion. Oh,
I could beg and plead and we could play the organ softly,
but that won't change your heart. It takes the spirit of God to
change that heart. That's why God said under the
new covenant, there's not going to be any unbelieving, idolatrous
rebels like there was under the old covenant because that was
with a nation. But he said, I'm going to put my spirit within
them. I'm going to give them a new heart. I'm going to take
that stony heart out and give them a heart of flesh, one that's
pliable. God's going to make them bow.
That's what happened to Daniel. And he took a bold stand for
God in a heathen court. His motto was not, when in Babylon,
do as the Babylonians do. He walked by the power and the
mercy and the grace of God in Christ, and he determined not
to be conformed to this world of idolatry. Daniel was in the
world, but he was not of the world, and that's only by the
grace and power and mercy of God. It's of the Lord's mercies
that we're not consumed. That includes Daniel. Sometimes I used to hear, when
I was a boy, stories about Daniel as if Daniel was just a better
man than everybody else. That's the way it kind of came
across to me as a young child. Daniel and the lion's den, the
three Hebrew children in the font. They were just better men
than everybody else. Listen, none of this is because
Daniel or these three friends of his were better men. It's
all owing to the grace of God in Christ. And their convictions
and their boldness and their bravery, and it's there, was
not of themselves, it's by the Spirit of God. Daniel and his friends represented
in their day the Jewish remnant that God had in all ages. How
is that remnant described in the New Testament? Romans 11
and verse 5. Even so then at this present
time there is a remnant according to the election of what? Grace. That's the power of grace
right here. That's the power of Christ through
His Spirit who comes and births us again Convicts us of things
that we wouldn't have any value for naturally and not even understand
naturally Look at verse 9. He says now God had brought Daniel
into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs You
know normally what Daniel said there when he said I'm not I
don't want to eat of the king's meal And drink of the king's
wine normally that would have been death I've been death for
Daniel But God intervened here and gave Daniel favor in court.
It's not the first time God ever did that. Do you know that? Remember
Joseph? He got favor in the court of
the Pharaoh, didn't he? God intervened. The king's heart,
we'll see later on, it's the same thing with Nebuchadnezzar.
The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord to turn it as he
will. He did it with Esther in Persia. Remember, Esther gained
favor with the king in Persia. God's in control. And verse 10
says, And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord
the king who hath appointed your meat and your drink, for why
should he see your faces worse liking than the children which
are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger
my head to the king. What the man is saying is here,
if you don't eat this and you appear before King Nebuchadnezzar
after this three years over, and here your comrades, your
fellow Jews who did compromise and eat, they look healthy and
strong and well-fed, and here you are coming in all starved
and looking sickly and all that. He says, the king, if that happens,
he's going to have my head. Well, look at verse 11. It says,
then said Daniel to Malzahar, this was this man's name, the
prince of the eunuchs, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set
over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel says in verse
12, he says, prove us, prove thy servants, put us to the test.
I beg you, I beseech thee, 10 days, and let them give us pulse
to eat. Now pulse, some say it is vegetables. Others say it's wheat and barley,
I don't know, could be both, but it's something that you would
think that if you eat this, you're not going to be strong like if
you have a good hearty meal. He said, give us pulse to eat
and water to drink, verse 13, then let our countenances, how
we look, our health, how we, you know. He says, "...be looked
upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the
portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest, deal with thy
servants." In other words, if you see me in this time, if you
see me that I'm looking sickly and unhealthy, then you deal
with me however you think's right. In verse 14 it says, "...so he
consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days." He
gave them just ten days. Number 10. It's symbolic of the
number of perfection and completion of God's will and God's works. Like you have 10 commandments.
That's the completed revelation of God's law in that moral code. So you had 10. So what Daniel,
I believe, is saying when he says 10 days, I don't think it's
stepping out on a limb to say he's saying God's going to do
a great work here. And it's going to be fulfilled,
it's going to be completed, there's no stopping it. It's like David
said, my salvation is based upon a covenant that's ordered in
all things insure. There's no stopping it. Satan
can't stop it, sin can't stop it, Christ is my surety. So he says, let's give it 10
days. And that's Daniel's wisdom, the wisdom that God gave him.
And what Daniel's saying here, I can't compromise the glory
of my God. I can't compromise the gospel.
But you know, sometimes in dealing with our opposition of the world,
we have to use some wisdom, don't we? I think about Christ when
he sent his disciples out. He said, I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves, but be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. Look at verse 15. Now listen
to what happens. He says, At the end of the ten days their
countenance has appeared fairer and fatter. Now that's a good
fatter. Today we don't think about any fat being good, but
this is a healthy thing here. Their appearance, listen, Daniel,
and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their countenance appeared fairer
and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the
portion of the king's meat. And it says here in verse 16,
it says, then Melzar took away the portion of their meat and
the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. He let them
go ahead and eat what they wanted to eat. Well, I'm going to pick
up there next time, but let me show you what that means. My
friend, it's better to feed upon the pulse of God's holy word
in his gospel than it is to partake of the lavish meals of the world. It's better to believe the gospel
of God's grace, which is so simple, nothing fancy, The simple message
of Christ and how God justifies the ungodly. So simple. Somebody
said, told me one time, I make it real complicated. I don't
make it complicated. Men make it complicated because we got
to put in our part. And that's what, the lavish religions
and false gospels of the world, to eat those is to court death. but to feed upon the simplicity
of Christ and Him crucified, the gospel of God's grace, that
pulse. My friend, you'll be ten times
healthier and fairer. You want to know why? Because
that's God's complete work. That's God's finished work, and
it was finished on the cross of Calvary by the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know why we'll appear fairer
and fatter before God than all the rest who feed upon the lavish
fruits of the world? Because we'll stand before God
washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness
alone. And there's nothing better, there's nothing fairer or healthier
than that. And that's what Daniel's saying
to us today.