Good morning, everyone. Good
to see you here this morning. The title of today's message
is in the form of a serious question. That question being, can your
God deliver you? I know many of you are familiar
with the Bible story of Daniel in the lion's den, as it's recorded
for us in Daniel chapter 6. And if so, you'll recall how
after Daniel had been thrown into the den of lions, that early
the next morning, King Darius Anxiously, hoping that Daniel
had been spared, he approached the lion's den and he cried out,
saying, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom
thou service continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? And so, likewise, I ask today,
can your God deliver you? Well, we know from the story
Daniel's God was indeed able. to and did deliver or save him
from being devoured by the lions. And Daniel's God, the one true
and living God of this Bible, he was not only able to deliver
Daniel from the lions, but likewise he is able to deliver or save
his people from their sins. And so it's with that thought
in mind that I ask each of us today to seriously evaluate whether
my God, whether your God, your God as you see God to be, is
he able to deliver, eternally deliver, or save you from your
sins? This is important. We're talking
about a deliverance, an eternal deliverance from eternal death
unto eternal life. Well, in this story of Daniel
in the lion's den, we have a wonderful picture of God's way of salvation. That's God's gospel of grace
that is very unique, for unlike any other way of salvation, it
shows us how God's justice is perfectly satisfied in His saving
of ungodly sinners such as you and me. So with an eye for that,
for His satisfaction made to justice. Let's consider this
interesting story of Daniel in the lion's den. A little background,
the story takes place after Daniel and his fellow Jews had been
taken captive into Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. And although
Daniel was among the captives in this foreign land, due to
the extraordinary gifts that God had given him, he quickly
distinguished himself before his captors. He was held in high
esteem as a prophet of God. And prior to chapter 6, earlier
in the book of Daniel, we learn how he had interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar's
dream. Then, as we get to chapter 5,
just prior to our text for today, we read how he interpreted the
handwriting on the wall for King Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans. Now, that was also part of the
Babylonian Empire. We read about that in the last
part of chapter 5. Daniel revealed or interpreted to the king what
was written, informing Belshazzar, God hath numbered thy kingdom
and finished it. Thou art found, thou art weighed
in the balances and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided
and given to the Medes and Persians. And then at the very end of chapter
five, we read how Belshazzar in gratitude to Daniel, he honored
him, he made him the third ruler of his kingdom. And that very
night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, he was slain, and Darius
the Mede took over, just as Daniel's interpretation here had foretold. And that brings us to chapter
6, where we read how King Darius, he reorganized the kingdom by
establishing 120 princes to manage or administer over the affairs
of it. And then he established three presidents up above those
princes, and he made Daniel the first, or the chief president. In verse 3, we read how Daniel
was preferred, that's the word used there, above the other presidents. He was so much preferred that
King Darius was thinking of putting Daniel in charge of the entire
realm. Well, that provoked jealousy
and envy. among the other presidents and
princes. So they sought some way to discredit Daniel before
the eyes of the king. And we read of their initial
frustration because, you see, when it came to Daniel's faithful
management of the affairs of the kingdom, they could find
no fault whatsoever. So they concluded the only way
to discredit Daniel was to take advantage of his steadfast faithfulness
as it pertained to his religion and to the law of God. They knew
Daniel regularly worshipped God. They knew he prayed to his God
three times each day, and so they came up with a conspiracy
to appeal to the pride of the king in such a way that would
persuade him to issue a royal decree or a statute And they
had that all written up. It was a decree that would mandate
no one in the kingdom could pray or petition any god or man other
than King Darius for the next thirty days. And that decree
further set forth the capital punishment that would be inflicted
upon any violators of this law. They were to be cast into the
king's den of lions. Daniel's enemies, they were very
clever as they approached the king. They didn't mention a specific
god. It did not say that no one could
pray to Daniel's god or the god of the Jews, for example. They
mentioned nothing that would tip the king off so that he might
recognize their malicious intent toward Daniel because they knew
that the king favored Daniel. In fact, they lied to the king
when they told him, they said, all of the presidents and all
the other officials of the kingdom, which would have included Daniel
himself, that we consulted together in bringing this recommendation
to you. Well, their appeal to the king and his pride was effective. They already had the law written
up and ready to be signed and they, as they presented it to
him, they reminded King Darius that according to the law of
the Medes and Persians, a law once signed by their king could
not be changed. That provision of the law presumably
was to honor the sovereign king and his unfailing wisdom. A king's
edicts were considered immutable, unchangeable because an all-wise
sovereign would never enact a law that would need to be reversed. And we See that first mention
in verse 8 when it reads, they said, Now, O King, establish
the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according
to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. And remember
now, King Darius was a Mede. And make a mental note of this
provision. I want to address the significance of it a few
minutes later on here. Well, without much forethought,
King Darius, he signed the proposed decree. And as the story unfolds,
Daniel behaved exactly as his enemies had anticipated he would.
He openly prayed and he gave thanks to his God just as he
had every day. We read that Daniel actually
had in some way, by some means, learned of the king's newly enacted
law. But in spite of that, with his
windows open, He prayed unto his God three times each day,
just as he always had. And, of course, Daniel's enemies
were standing by so they could witness Daniel breaking the king's
new law. So then they went back before
the king to inform him of Daniel's disobedience to the law. We read
of that in verse 12. It says, Then they came near
and spake 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, except thee, O
king, shall be cast into the den of lions. And the king answered,
and he said, the thing is true, according to the law of the Medes
and Persians, which altereth not. You notice the king, he
just stepped right into it. Continuing in verse 13, And 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. 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. King Darius, he wanted to save
his preferred president. But as sundown came, Daniel's
enemies again approached the king and they repeated to him
how the provision found in the law of the Medes and Persians,
how no decree which he, the Mede king Darius, had established
could be changed. And so with no alternative under
his own law, he reluctantly commanded that Daniel be cast into the
den of lions. They brought Daniel before the
king and he spoke to Daniel saying, Thy God whom thou service continually,
he will deliver thee. So they tossed Daniel in with
the vicious lines in compliance with the prescribed death penalty
for Daniel's clear violation of this law. We're going to read
how the king, he passed a sleepless night in his palace, fasting
in his distress over Daniel's predicament. And then early the
next morning, the king rushed to the lion's den, and as we
reach verse 20, we read, and when he came to the den, he cried
with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, that is, in grief, and
apparently fearful of the worst. And the king spake and said to
Daniel, as I read earlier, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is
thy God, whom thou service continually, able to deliver thee from the
lions? And what relief he must have
felt when he heard Daniel's voice, as Daniel answered there in verse
21 saying, O King, live forever. My God hath sent his angel and
hath shut the lion's mouths, that they have not hurt me. For
as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before
thee, O King, have I done no hurt. Well, as the chapter closes,
read of the king's joy and Daniel having been spared. Then King
Darius had those very men who had accused Daniel, he had them
cast into the den of lions with their families. And as further
evidence that this was truly a miracle of God, a deliverance
by God of Daniel from the den, lest we think those lions had
somehow maybe been fed earlier or they were It says that those
vicious lions devoured them, breaking all their bones into
pieces before they even hit the bottom of the den. You know,
as kind of a side notice, we see some poetic justice, I guess,
when evil men fall into the very traps that they laid for others.
You remember the story in Esther, how Haman was hung on the very
gallows that he had built for his enemy Mordecai. I just thought
that was an interesting observation. But more to the point, there
are six observations that I want to share with you from this story
wherein Daniel's physical life was preserved. And then I want
to address how these same observations might be applied to a far more
important deliverance, the deliverance of lawbreakers such as you and
I, a deliverance from our sins, an eternal deliverance. The first
observation is this. As we read, the law was unalterable. On three different occasions,
we read two of them, but on three occasions in Daniel chapter six,
this provision found in the law of the Medes and the Persians
is emphasized. From my study, I learned that
the governing documents or whatever they call them of the Medes and
the Persians How it set forth this provision, it's believed
in tribute to the assumed nature of a sovereign king, as I mentioned
earlier. A true sovereign, whatever a true sovereign, a king, decided
was to be considered just and right simply because he, the
king, said so. The king could do no wrong. And
this law, which said that once the king had put his seal upon
a decree that it could not be changed, it was in deference
to the presumption that his wisdom, see, was flawless. The Medes
and the Persians apparently adopted this provision by reasoning there
would never be a need to unmake or reverse a law that an all-wise
sovereign had enacted. In their view, that would be
an awful reflection on the king. It would suggest that the original
decision had been an unwise one. And so by their way of thinking,
they could not attribute to the sovereign king of their land,
not according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, that
any such unwise decision had been made. It would be an admission
he had been wrong. So we see in this story, though
it was a foolish law, once Darius signed it, According to their
law, it was as good as written in stone. It could not be altered. The second observation is justice
demands perfect satisfaction to the law. The law's precept
must be obeyed, and if not, the law's penalty must be executed. And the penalty for breaking
this law was an intended death sentence by a prescribed means,
that is, by being cast into the den of lions. And so if true
justice was to prevail, the king here, he really had no choice.
Thirdly, the law was broken. I know many of you heard the
story of Daniel and the lion's den probably, especially if you
grew up in church. That story is often emphasized
with praising the virtue and the character of Daniel. And
you know, Daniel is certainly a wonderful example for us. And
you know it's also true that any human law that would infringe
upon God's revealed will, it should be disregarded. And so
Daniel was right in defying this unjust law of man. A law, listen though, that was
only unjust in the sight of Daniel's God. But be clear, under the
law of that land, Daniel was guilty as accused of having transgressed
it. You know, in studying this, I
try to study various commentators to get different insights on
these stories. And I ran across the writings
of a famous old preacher. He's been dead for, I don't know
how long, over 100 years or so. But he's one that's often quoted
in sovereign grace circles. And so I was disappointed when
I read this. He said, Daniel chose to defy
the law. Because he felt the risk of being
put into a den with lions was nothing compared to the risk
of being put into hell. Now the suggestion there is,
by Daniel's decision to pray to his God, as he should have
done, that he could avoid the pit of hell. And look, don't,
and that's a popular, that would be a very popular viewpoint of
this passage. But don't fall for what is suggested
by that. Daniel, as admirable as he was,
he was a member of Adam's fallen race, just like you and me. He was a sinner. And as sinners,
there's no honorable decision or meritorious act of any kind
that Daniel or any of us could ever perform that would remove
the just wrath of God against our sins. As this very story
teaches, you see, we need a Savior to deliver us. Daniel showed
great faith, but his faith, your faith, my faith, it would not
shut the mouths of these lions, and that faith will not satisfy
the justice of a holy God for any sinner. Not my faith, not
your faith, not Daniel's faith or anyone else's faith. For all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Which brings
me to the fourth observation. Deliverance was needed. As Daniel
told the king in verse 22, deliverance was provided. He says, My God
hath sent his angel and hath shut the lion's mouth that they
have not hurt me. most credible commentators believe
that the angel spoken of here is a pre-incarnate appearance
of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That means Christ appearing before
his time, before he was actually born of the Virgin Mary. He,
Christ, is called in Malachi 3.1, he's called the angel or
the messenger of the covenant. So this angel, he was the same
one had we began reading earlier in the book of Daniel, he's the
same one that delivered Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego from
the fiery furnace. And here's where we see the common
ground from which we can draw some parallels to the eternal
deliverance of sinners. You see, for this angel, he's
the same one who would later be miraculously born of the Virgin
Mary and live and die as a substitute for his people. to save or deliver
them from their sins. Fifthly, we observe a declaration
of innocence. Look at the last part of verse
22 where Daniel continued saying there, for as much as before
him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king,
have I done no hurt. Daniel experienced a line then
with the one who delivered him. He was there with him, but it
was God's angel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shut the lion's mouth. By Christ's deliverance, Daniel
is declared innocent. See, his Savior provided a way
whereby the law's demands were met. The penalty executed. He was thrown into the lion's
den. But the guilty is now declared
innocent. based upon his deliverance from
death unto life by his Savior." Well, the last observation is
an obvious one that answers the king's question, could Daniel's
God deliver him? And of course, as the story tells
us, he most certainly did. You know, before ordering Daniel
into the lion's den, I read to you where Darius had suggested
to Daniel that his God would deliver him. As the king, with
anxious apprehension, he approached the den early that next morning
to inquire whether or not Daniel's God had, in fact, been able to
deliver him. We see the uncertainty in his
mind when he posed that question. But clearly, as the story shows
us, God had delivered Daniel. And that brings us to the more
important issue at hand as I again pose the question, can your God
deliver you? Well, let's take those six observations
that we've made in this story of Daniel's deliverance to God's
one way of eternal deliverance by this same angel of the covenant,
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a way that is set forth
in God's gospel of grace. First, just as with the law of
the Medes and Persians, God's law is unalterable. And when
I say God's law in this context, I'm referring to God's revealed
will for all of us, including how we should live. And so I'm
not restricting this to the law of Moses under the Old Covenant.
God's revealed will cannot change because, as with the king of
the Medes and Persians, it would reflect on the sovereign of this
universe. See, God truly is all-wise, and
He changes not. Darius, he was fool, so he enacted
a foolish law, but God's not foolish. God's all-wise, and
His law is holy, and it's just, and it's good, for He truly is
the all-wise, omniscient, sovereign of this universe. His infinite
wisdom is not something men mistakenly attribute to him as the Medes
and Persians would their kings. The true and living God really
does not make any mistakes. In my study of this, I found
it was interesting to learn of the contrast between how the
Chaldeans attempted to honor the sovereignty of their kings
as compared to the Medes and the Persians. as I've already
explained, by declaring in their law that there was no decree
of the king that could be reversed. The Medes and Persians attempted
to magnify the wisdom of their sovereign kings. If you recall
at the beginning I commented on how the Mede king, Darius,
had come to power. It was following Daniel's interpretation
of the handwriting on the wall for the Chaldean king, Belshazzar,
the one who was slain that very evening after the writing had
been interpreted. Well, I learned under the Chaldean
Constitution, or whatever their equivalent articles of governance
might have been called, that their kings, such as Belshazzar
was, they could freely make a law and then later they could just
as readily unmake it or reverse it. You see, from their perspectives,
the Chaldeans were also magnifying the sovereignty of their kings
in this way. that being a king, a sovereign,
he can do as he pleases. The thought being a true sovereign
can do as he pleases, when he pleases, and all that he does
is right because he's the king. So what we have here are two
different perspectives of sovereignty, but there's only one true who
is the sovereign of this universe. And listen, this God is sovereign
in every aspect. God, we talk about God as being
holy. The holiness of God, that speaks
to the perfection of every attribute of His character. He is immutable. He changes not, for if he changed,
that means he'd have to learn something he didn't know, or
he'd have to get better, or he'd have to get worse, and that's
not a description of deity. God is all-wise, and He makes
no mistakes. Listen, God is sovereign in all
things, including in the salvation of sinners, as He declares to
us in Romans chapter 9. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy." Consider his own words as he speaks through the
prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 46 verse 9, saying, I am God and there
is none like me. Now he's telling us here, now
here's a distinction that's like no other. Declaring the end from
the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done, saying, my counsel." Now his counsel is his infinitely
wise purpose. So what he has been pleased to
do within himself as a product of his infinite wisdom. His counsel,
he says, it shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel
from a far country. Here he's saying, I even use
a heathen king. to accomplish what pleases me
in my infinite wisdom, my counsel. Most think that that ravenous
bird is referring to King Cyrus, who was part of leading, taking
the Jews captive into Babylon. And it's kind of an interesting
thing in reading this, I learned that King Darius and King Cyrus
were, most people think, were closely related. But others think
that they may be referring to one and the same. I don't know,
but I just thought that was interesting to share with you. But the point
is, is God even uses the heathen to accomplish what he intends
to accomplish. He says, yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will also do it. And we have
many passages similar to this on the sovereignty of God. But
here in this one passage we see God's sovereignty both in that
He will do His own pleasure, like the Chaldeans thought of
their kings, and in the truth that His purpose shall not be
altered or changed, as the Medes and Persians attributed to their
kings. God does exactly as God has determined to do. There are
no do-overs with God, He makes no mistakes, and for any sinner
that God purposed to save, That sinner is going to be saved. He purposed it. And Almighty
God will do it. Remember God's words is recorded
in Malachi 3.6. He said, For I am the Lord, I
change not, therefore, because I change not. Ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Jacob, the name means supplanter
or cheat, sinner. whose name was changed to Israel,
meaning a prince of God. In other words, you've chosen
sinners, are not consumed. The point is God's purpose shall
take place or else He is not God. God does not attempt or
try to do anything that can possibly fail to take place. Now that's
a God that can deliver you. The second observation was that
justice demands perfect satisfaction to the law, and so it is with
God's holy law and justice. And God's law requires more than
mere outward obedience. Christ made that clear, if you
remember, in his teachings on the Sermon on the Mount. He taught
there how it reaches even to our thoughts and our motives. Recall Paul's words to the church
at Galatia, false teachers had crept in and were influencing
them to go and look again to their own obedience to the law
rather than looking by faith to Christ alone. And we see there
in Galatians 3.10 the perfect requirement of God's law when
he says, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. Now you
and I, we cannot deliver the perfect continual obedience mandated
there. In James 2.10 we read, for whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, just
one point, he's guilty of all. You see, God is that holy. He's
infinitely holy. He cannot commune with any sin. It goes, if the law goes to the
heart, to the thoughts and the motives, Think of that. That
means the least ill will toward your worst enemy that you've
ever held would make you guilty of all. Perfect satisfaction
really must be rendered to God's holy law. And we as fallen sinners,
we cannot produce that. We need someone to do for us
what we have no possibility of doing for ourselves. God's word
tells us that the purpose of the law was to be our schoolmaster,
to make us look to Christ for our salvation. To the one who
would render the perfect satisfaction to God's justice that only he,
the God-man, would, could render and has rendered for his people
on Calvary's cross. As I noted from the story of
Daniel, if justice is to be served, the precepts of God's law must
be obeyed. And when it's not obeyed, when
the law is broken, as it is by all of us, the prescribed penalty
of the law must be executed. The debt owed due unto the sins
of sinners, such as you and I, it must be paid, and it must
be paid in full if God's strict and inflexible justice is to
be satisfied. if that sinner is to be declared
not guilty. And look, if that's not so, God
would be unjust. God said through the prophet
Ezekiel in chapter 18 verse 20, the soul that sinneth it shall
die. Romans 5 And 21 teaches us, moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. There's that schoolmaster.
The law was there. The law was never intended for
someone to obey it in order to gain their salvation. The law
was there to show us how much our offense abounded, the impossibility
of us meeting up to God's standard of holy perfection. But where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. that as sin hath
reigned unto death. See, sin demands death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life. By whose righteousness? By Jesus
Christ our Lord. Righteousness. Righteousness
refers to, means the perfect satisfaction which Christ rendered
to the justice of God. And that demands life, eternal
life. The scriptures tell us that saved
sinners are redeemed by the blood of Christ. That is by His death
on the cross. That means the penalty due unto
the justice of God was paid in full for every sin that Christ
bore on the cross. And that means if even one for
whom our Savior died They're the redeemed ones, remember?
If they could possibly perish in hell, God would be an unjust
monster. Why, he killed his son, allegedly,
for their sins. God the Father, he sent Christ,
God the Son, to die for their sins, but the presumption of
multitudes is that that shed blood just wasn't quite enough. For you see, they imagine, as
I once did, God sends most of them on to hell anyway, thinking
Christ died for them all. They'll say, oh, but they wouldn't
believe. That negates any notion of God's justice needing to be
satisfied. God's justice demands perfect
satisfaction, and Christ rendered it for a people. And if he didn't,
we'd all be goners. And just as that satisfaction
he made, his righteousness, demanded that he come out of that grave.
It also demanded life for all those on whose behalf he made
that satisfaction to justice. And listen, that's life eternal,
for his righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. The third observation
from Daniel was that he broke the law. Likewise, we've all
broken God's law, as Romans 3.23 makes so clear, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin is a transgression
of the law. It's a breaking of it. Here this
word means sin is a word that means falling short or missing
the mark. And the mark, the standard, is
the perfect obedience, even unto death, that only the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man, could and did render as a surety and as
a substitute, living and dying in the place of all those He
came to save." See, justice had to be rendered. A death had to
take place, and before a holy God it took a death of infinite
value, His precious blood. Fourthly, deliverance is needed. The fourth observation was that
deliverance, salvation itself, is needed. Now why? Well, as
we just covered because we're sinners and we fall miserably
short of the perfection that a holy and just God requires. And so we would all justly perish
in hell unless someone has done for us what we cannot possibly
do for ourselves. Now if you ever conclude that
you'll be a mercy beggar, you'll need mercy then. We desperately
need a Savior. And it's got to be one who's
willing and who's able. It took the God-man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the angel or messenger of the covenant to fulfill the
terms of the everlasting covenant of grace, to fulfill God's purpose
to save a people of His choosing. His preferred ones called in
the Bible His elect, chosen in Christ unto salvation from all
eternity. And if you have any doubt of
that on your own, please go study the first verses of Ephesians
chapter 1, where the language is unmistakable to that account. As Paul wrote in Galatians, beginning
in chapter 4, verse 4, he said, But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, deity, made of a woman,
humanity, the God-man, made under the law, put under the same jurisdiction
of us. Why? to redeem them that were
under the law, to pay in full the penalty for their sins due
to the justice of God, that we might receive the adoption of
sons, that blessing that has belonged to them from all eternity,
that we might be made aware of it. Deliverance is needed. Consider these words that were
directed at Job in his misery and in Job chapter 33, beginning
in verse 23. It reads, if there be a messenger
with him, now this is, again, is speaking of Christ, the angel
or the messenger of the covenant. There be a messenger with him,
an interpreter. And my understanding of that
word in this context is the interpreter is one that reconciles things,
just like an interpreter of language would reconcile one language
to another. to be a messenger with him, an
interpreter, one who reconciles, one among a thousand, to show
unto man his uprightness. And I believe that's speaking
of God's uprightness. How God can be right, do right,
be just, perfectly just, and still reconcile an ungodly sinner
unto himself, a holy God. Says, then he is gracious unto
him and saith, deliver him from going down to the pit. I, God,
have found a ransom. That speaks of redemption, a
payment made in full. Like Daniel, we need a deliverance,
an eternal deliverance from the pit. We justly deserve as sinners,
as lawbreakers. God provided himself a ransom. in the person and substitutionary
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fifth observation was that
innocence was declared of Daniel by his Savior. And so it is with
all those who God delivers eternally. Just as God imputes, that's the
biblical word, He imputes our charges to the account of Christ
The demerit of all the sins, past, present, and future, of
all his chosen people, in order that he might pay the dead owed
to God's justice for those sins, well, likewise, God imputes our
charges to the account of these same folks, those for whom Christ
died, the entire merit of his perfect obedience unto death,
his perfect everlasting righteousness. We read of that in 2 Corinthians
5.21, which we so often quote here. For he hath made him to
be sin for us, him who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Now what a great exchange. Their sins made his, his righteousness
made theirs. And that's real. It's a real
imputation. It's a real reckoning and judgment
in the mind of God. And it's so real he killed his
only son for imputed sin. It's so real that those whom
receive his imputed righteousness as all, we don't receive his
imputed righteousness, he imputes righteousness and did long before
any of us were ever born. But those sinners will remain
sinners now until the day we die, we leave this body of flesh. But yet, here's how real imputation
is. Having the very perfect righteousness
of their Savior imputed to them, I want you to hear how these
reconciled sinners are described in Colossians 1, 21 and 22. Paul
wrote, "...and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, you sinners, yet now hath he
reconciled." in the body of His flesh through death to present
you, listen, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight."
My, my. They're declared and presented,
sinners like me and you, innocent in Christ. They have His merit. Think of that. Hebrews 7.26 describes
Him this way, we have the merit of one who's holy. and harmless,
and undefiled, and separate from sinners." Well, our last observation
from Daniel 6, in answer to the question from King Darius, was
that most certainly Daniel's God was able and did deliver
him from the lion's den. And that brings us back to that
all-important question, can your God deliver you? Well, the answer
is clear. Your God can deliver you if you're
God's Daniel's God, the one true and living God of this Bible.
Daniel believed in the one true and living God. After King Darius
had heard from Daniel how Daniel's God had sent his angel, the Lord
Jesus Christ, to shut the mouths of the lions and thereby spare
his life, we read this in verse 23 of chapter 6. Then was the
king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should
take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of
the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him because he
believed in his God. Now, I didn't want to gloss over
and leave this verse out because I know where the minds of folks
like myself in years past would go when I read that. You see,
back when me and others like me here, when we were ignorant
of or not submitted to the righteousness of God. That's perfect satisfaction
to justice. When our doctrine, see, actually
denied the necessity of God's justice being perfectly satisfied,
I would have probably jumped all over this phrase and I'd
said, oh look, see, Daniel was spared because, and there would
have been my emphasis, he believed. You notice I left off his God
there. Many think that Christ's work
on the cross, as I once did, was universal. That he died for
everyone without exception, that God loves everyone. And so, by
that doctrine, there's no way for God's justice to be satisfied. You see, they're reduced then
to imagining that their believing is what will save them. Not the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, who they're commanded to believe
upon. Their Savior is actually their faith, whether they recognize
it or not. I certainly didn't recognize
it. I would say Jesus Christ was my Savior, but my doctrine
said otherwise. Because, you see, at that time
I didn't believe Christ truly saved anyone. I would say He
did, but not by what by God-given faith we come to know to be His
redemptive. justice satisfying, finished
work of righteousness on Calvary's cross, nothing added, nothing
taken away. You see, they just don't see,
as none of us do apart from God-given faith, we don't see His work
in that light, in the light of justice to a holy God being satisfied. But know this, faith cannot be
separated from its object. Daniel believed But believing
a faith has no meaning without an object. He believed in what
and in whom? He believed in his God. And Daniel's
God is the one we've been reading about today. He's the one revealed
in the scripture. He's the one revealed as both
a just God and a merciful Savior. In Isaiah 45, beginning in verse
21, God says that of himself as he declares, There's no God
else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside
me." He's saying, that's my uniqueness. And he says, so you look unto
me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. He
said, for I'm God and there's no one else. There's none else. Look unto me and be ye saved,
too, to a just God and a Savior. As our pastor friend Jim Byrd
pointed out in an excellent message he preached from this passage,
called the Dilemma of King Darius. He mentioned how the king labored
all day long trying to find a way that he could spare Daniel from
the lion's den without dispensing with the just execution of the
law. And as we saw in the story, he
could not. But the King of Kings has no such dilemma. You see,
for in His infinitely wise way of salvation by grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ, we see how God can be true to Himself
as both a just God and a Savior. And Daniel's faith is meaningless
apart from a consideration of the God in whom he believed.
Listen, as in the case of Daniel, this is a scriptural truth. Whosoever
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved." But to believe
on Christ is to look to Him alone for all your salvation. That
would exclude any notion that it's your believing that makes
the real difference. That's not faith in Christ, but
faith in faith. It's to look to His doing and
dying on the cross alone, not to your doing, not even your
exercise of faith. See, that treats your act of
faith as if it's the real, final, determining factor in your salvation.
It attributes to faith that which God's Word exclusively reserves
for the finished work of Christ, the Savior. Don't dare place
your faith in a position of rivalry with the precious blood of Christ.
That is a widespread and popular notion in our day. But it is
contrary to very clear scriptural passages, such as Ephesians 2,
8, and 9, where we're told, for by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. If you think your exercise or
profession of faith is what makes the difference in your being
saved, then you do not believe in Daniel's God. the true and
living God as he set forth in this Bible. In fact, what you
believe would deny him as the sovereign King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. Think about it. That's to worship
a reactionary God, certainly not one who does everything according
to the counsel of his own will, whose counsel his purpose will
stand. Not one who determines the end
from the beginning, as we read, but rather a supposed God that
has to wait to see if you'll do your glory-robbing part to
save yourself. God forbid. See, God's main design
in all that He does, it's about Him, not us. All His design in
everything, including in the saving of sinners, is His own
glory. It's the revelation of who He
is, what He's like, that He might be worshipped as He is. as typified
in the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den, and more importantly,
as confirmed by the truth of other doctrinal passages that
speak directly to the eternal deliverance or salvation of sinners. I hope you've seen the vital
importance of these six observations today. God's law cannot be changed,
it must be fulfilled. God's justice demands perfect
satisfaction to his law. The law was broken. All have
sinned. So, fourthly, deliverance is
needed. You need a Savior. And, oh, fifthly,
His people, all those He saved, are declared innocent, not guilty. That's what it means to be justified. As the Scripture says, He justifies
ungodly sinners through His shed blood. So His innocence, His
very righteousness, is made to be theirs. Lastly, Daniel's God
can deliver you. How do you know if you're among
those whom the sovereign God purposed from all eternity to
save? For whom he sent Christ to live
and die? For whom Christ rendered perfect satisfaction to God's
justice on Calvary's cross? Those whom God delivers from
their sin and from their adversary the devil, who's described in
1 Peter 5, 8 as a roaring lion who walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. Well, the answer is, again, obvious.
Do you believe in Daniel's God that would cause you to look
to this Savior, Daniel's Savior, and to him alone for your deliverance,
this angel or messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who shuts the mouth of Satan, that roaring lion who
would accuse us before the justice of God and would devour us? Well,
if you believe in Daniel's God, thank God. for graciously giving
you that blood-bought gift of faith, to cause you to look to
this Christ and to Him alone for all your salvation. You see,
thereby you can know of your own deliverance, even from the
pit of hell, which we all would otherwise deserve. Yeah, that's
the sure, certain assurance of true God-given faith, as Christ
declared in John 6, 37, saying, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Flee to him for all of your salvation."
I pray, Daniels, God is your God and if so, rejoice with me
because that God, the one true and living God, He not only can
deliver you, He has delivered you.