Daniel chapter 6. Daniel chapter 6 is a written
record of something that actually happened. This is not a made-up
story. This happened a long time ago,
but it was true and factual, and as it's recorded in God's
Word, it is exactly how this happened. Now most folks know
this account as Daniel in the lion's den. I'm sure there's a better title.
But that's how we were taught. Most of us as children or how
we learned. But we're going to start and
just go verse by verse through this. And see what it says. Daniel 6 verse one begins. It pleased Darius to set over
the kingdom and 120 princes, which should be over the whole
kingdom. You know, God lets some men have some temporary rule
and reigning over his creation. It's brief and it's just a little
time, but he does it now and again. And it was Darius's turn. Over this kingdom he had. He's
just a man and he'll just rule for a time. But look at verse
2. And over these three presidents
of whom Daniel was first. Darius was the top dog, but he
set up three presidents, excuse me, and Daniel was the first.
That the princes might give accounts unto them, unto the presidents,
and the king should have no damage. Now, let me tell you what that
says in plain language. Darius knew that all these princes
and important officials and stuff, if they got half a chance, they
would steal from him. They would corrupt the law. They
would do what was best for them instead of what was best for
Darius. Does that sound familiar? Nothing's changed, has it? Since
Darius' day, it's still that way here. But God holds all men
and women accountable. And God keeps evil men in check
this very way. He showed Darius, Darius, you
know, you're not such a perfect guy and all these people under
you, if they get a chance, they're going to take from you. They're
going to steal. Look at verse three. Then this Daniel was preferred
above the presidents and the princes. because an excellent
spirit was in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole
realm." Do you see those two words, what set Daniel apart
from the others? He had an excellent spirit. There is one way among many to
recognize God's people. You know what they have that
other folks don't have? They have an excellent spirit. You say, how's that work? Well,
they tend to be gracious and kind. They tend to be truthful. They have integrity. You know,
folks who fuss and fight and lie and connive and are always
trying to figure the angles and this kind of thing. What's wrong
with them? They don't have that excellent
spirit. But God's people do, and that's why they're gracious,
they have an integrity, they have a work ethic, they're honest,
they're faithful, they get after it. And it's because God puts that
in His people. And it's one way you can, it
helps us sometimes as believers to recognize one another that
way. And on the other hand, when somebody's
not that way, now listen, we're all capable of anything. But
let's pray for one another that God would give us more of this
excellent spirit. All that leads to so many good
things. And, you know, a major goal of
the believer is that others find no fault. And that's what he
said here. Daniel behaved in such a way
that the king, when he was looking at all these presidents and princes,
and he said, You know, something different about Daniel. There's
something different about him. And I can't find any fault in
him. I can't find anything wrong.
What's that sound like? Do you remember that being said when
those fellas brought the Lord Jesus Christ before the judge
Pilate and they made all these accusations and accused him of
this and that and the other? What did the judge say? Pilate
said, I can't find any fault in him. There's nothing wrong
with this man. I don't know why you got him
here. Oh, that they'd say that about us. Wouldn't that be grand?
But that drew, you'll see how important this is later, that
drew Darius to Daniel. This excellent spirit. I know
God can always and everything find fault with us because of
our sins. Everything we touch is contaminated. However, God's people, listen
to this, don't behave a certain way so God will save us. No,
we only behave a certain way because God has saved us. The
only reason any of us have any of this excellent spirit in us
is because God has saved us. Then God gives this excellent
spirit after he saves his people. And look in verse five, what
happened next? I'm sorry, verse four. Then the presidents and
princes sought to find occasion against Daniel. They were jealous
of him concerning the kingdom, but they could find none occasion
nor fault for as much as he was faithful. Neither was there any
error or fault found in him. Gee whiz, what an accusation
that might be made about us. You know his problem. You know
what your problem is? Sunday morning you're in church
twice. Sunday night you're in church. Wednesday night you're
in church. You're always going to these conferences and stuff. You just worship God
too much. That's what they said about Daniel.
These princes were mad at him. And they couldn't find anything
wrong that he did except that he spent too much time worshiping
his God, the true and living God. In verse 5, then said these
men, we shall not find any occasion against him, against this Daniel,
except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. What a, oh man, I don't think
you'd have to look that far to find my fault. Daniel apparently
conducted himself in such a way that when examined by all these
men who wanted to do him in, and they just went, there's nothing
wrong with him, except he just worships his God too much. Then these evil and envious men
thought to set a trap for Daniel. They had identified the only
way they knew how And look what happened in verse six. Then these
presidents and princes, they assembled together to the king
and said thus unto King Darius, king live forever. And I think
brother Dale used to say, don't ever let somebody flatter your
to your face. That's a good saying. When somebody
comes to you and go, wow, you're just the best person I ever met.
Look out, look out. And that's what these fellows
did. And poor old Darius, bless his heart. Not like he didn't
get enough attention or something. But they came in there saying,
Oh, King, live forever. You're just so wonderful. And
he bought it. Look what happened in verse seven.
All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, the princes, the
counselors, the captains. Notice everybody's in on this.
Except for the grace of God, we'd be in on it, too. We've
consulted together to establish a royal statute, make a law,
to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God
or any man for 30 days, save of thee, unless they're asking
you, O King, live forever, if they ask anything else of anybody
else, O King, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, what's
this about? You know, we've got laws, and
we've got police, and we've got military, and we've got courts,
and jails, and things. And when somebody does something,
they, you know, they arrest him, and they put him in jail, and
they come before the judge, and they make the accusation. They
have a trial, and they bring witnesses, and they do it. You
know how it worked back then? King Darius told some fellows,
dig me a big pit down here. And this pit was about 15 feet
by so many feet. And he said, send some fellows
down to Africa there and bring me back a pile of lions. And
they come back with 15, 20 lions. And he said, put them in the
pit. They said, fine, okay, they did. And he said, make a lid
for it so they don't come out. And make it deep enough they
can't just jump out. And then the first time somebody came
in front of Darius and they said, they caught this fellow stealing
from this widow over here. And you know what Darius said?
Is that true? A bunch of them said, yeah. He
said, throw him in the pit. That was justice. He was the
absolute sovereign king. What he said, that's what was
done. These fellows came and said,
Old King lived forever. Anybody who asks anybody, anything,
anywhere for anything except you, we'll throw him in the pit. He
said, sounds good to me. It was signed and decreed and
sealed. That's the law. Folks, let me
tell you, we're making a lot of laws in this country and all
over the world and everything else. Here's the law. We got it, don't we? Everybody
knows the law. It's gonna be true if you break
the law, there's one punishment. It's just like in Darius' day.
When the time comes, open the books. If you've broken the law,
we got one pit to put you in. This is pretty serious, isn't
it? What we're living through. Look here. Verse six, then the
presidents and princes assembled together to the king and they
said to him, Oh, live forever. And they all came up with this
decree in verse eight. Now King established the decree
and signed the writing that it might not be changed according
to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Once it's
signed, it can never be changed. Wherefore, King Darius signed
the writing and the decree. They appealed to the vanity of
Darius, and they tricked him into signing this decree. for
an evil purpose, which we'll see. And we got verse 10. Now,
when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, poor old Daniel,
you think he's the head next to the king, he's the head dog.
You think he didn't know what these fellows were up to? You
think he didn't know about this before it went down? He did. He did. Verse 10, now Daniel
knew that the writing was signed and he went to his house. What'd
he do? and his windows being open as they always were in his
chamber, open towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three
times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did
a fourth time. Wait a minute now, these fellas
just set me up. It says up there Daniel knew,
doesn't it? These fellas set me up and yet
he went home and prayed and gave thanks Yes, he did. Daniel knew. Let me tell you
who else knew. God knew. If we think for a minute,
God doesn't know what these other guys are all about or those who
are after us or would do us wrong. He doesn't know the things we're
thinking. Children, God knows what we're thinking. Right now,
He knows what we're thinking. Every one of us, He does. Be
assured, no one ever set about some evil purpose towards Christ
and his people that God is not fully aware. He knows, he knows. He knows their plan and their
purpose and their intent before they ever know it. And be assured,
God has, you know what he's already done? He's already got the solution
ready too. He's got the solution ready before
the plot was hatched. Four evil men can bring about
their purpose. So what did Daniel do? The same
thing we should do when a trial comes. You know what that is?
Get down on our knees and pray. And give thanks. That's pretty
tough. Doesn't matter whether it sounds
tough or not, it's what we ought to do. That's what this is teaching
us. You know there's trouble. We
all know about trouble, don't we? Everybody knows about trouble. You kids know about getting in
trouble? Yeah, you know about it, don't you? It doesn't seem
to take much, does it? It's real easy to get in trouble.
All you gotta do is just open your mouth a little bit, you
know? When your parent says, do this, and you go, huh? Uh-oh. Now we got trouble, don't we? It doesn't take much to get in
trouble. We all know about trouble. But listen to me now, there's
trouble And then there's real trouble, real trouble. These are two different things.
Daniel, right now he's in real trouble. He has broken the king's
law. Once you do the same thing we
ought to do when we get in trouble. Get on our knees and pray and
give thanks. I'll tell you what kids, I'm
gonna let you in on a little secret. When you're in trouble,
you want to know the best thing to do, the absolute best. I don't care how big the trouble
is, the best thing you can do. If you're in trouble with your
dad or your mom, the minute it comes to light, look up at your
mom, go, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I won't do that
anymore. It'll go further than just about
anything else you can do. And I'll tell you what, too,
you're not too young, no matter how small or great the trouble
seems, you're really not too young to ask God to help you. You're not too young to pray
and say, Father, help me with this, help me. I'm sorry I did
it and I know it's wrong, help me with it. It's okay. And us
adults, that lesson applies to us. We get ourselves in all kinds
of trouble, don't we all? And no matter how hard we try
not to, we get ourselves in trouble. And when we do, ask God to forgive
us and to help us. Give thanks that he's brought
it our way, because the only problem is we don't know yet
for what purpose. Well, let's see what purpose
it was with Daniel. In verse 11, we read. Then these
men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication
before his God. They thought they got him now.
And they came near and spake before the king concerning the
king's decree. Here's what they said. Has thou
not signed a decree, O king, that every man that shall ask
a petition of any God or man within 30 days, save of you,
O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? And the king answered
and said, the thing is true, according to the law of the Medes
and Persians, which altereth not. Then answered they and said
before the king, that Daniel, which is of the children of the
captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree
that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition Three times a day. Folks, don't be surprised when
people figure out that you worship the true and living God, they'll
hate you for it. They'll despise you for it. They'll
want to do you in for it. I'm sorry. Do you see what they...
Can you get the venom in that, Oh King, live forever. That Daniel. That Daniel. You know what that
reminds me of? Our Lord Jesus Christ was on
trial. He hadn't done a thing. And the
judge turns to the Jews and they go, that man. We will not have
him reign over us. That man. Do we see nothing changes? And that's what's a picture of
here. Look at verse 14. Then the king, when he heard
these words, He was sore displeased with himself and set his heart
on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the going
down of the sun to deliver him. Well, they'd sprung the trap,
hadn't they? And this earthly king, you know, another illustration for you
kids is, you know, it's one thing to what we used to call it, play
a trick on somebody. But you kids call it what? Pranking
somebody? Is that the term you use? You
prank somebody? You know, it's one thing to kind
of prank each other. And I would counsel you not to
be cruel about that. And don't embarrass one of your
other friends at school and stuff. And those things can be hard
to get over. But I know it happens. And the
consequences usually aren't much. But let me ask you kids this.
What if you pranked your teacher? How's that going to work? I think
we're moving from trouble towards real trouble, aren't we? But
what if you kids were to not prank a friend or prank your
teacher, but prank the principal of the school? Oh, oh, oh, oh,
wow. Now we're now we're talking real
trouble, aren't we? Hmm. I'll tell you. These poor guys
didn't understand the princes and the powerful and all the
captains and everything else. They didn't realize who they
were pranking. I mean, they were trying to pull
a fast one on the almighty king, the one who said, throw him in
the pit. See verse 15, then these men
assembled unto the king and said unto the king, no king that the
law of the Medes and Persians is that no decree in our statue,
which the king established may be changed. Then the king commanded
and they brought Daniel and they had to cast him into the den
of lions. Now the king spake and said unto
Daniel, thy God, whom thou service continually, he will deliver. This king, having made the law,
could do nothing to change the law because he had said it can't
be changed. And he said, I would say, Daniel,
but I can't do it according to my own law. Let me warn you children and
adults as well about this. Beware those who want the law
applied to you or to others. but not themselves. You know
what they are? They're false preachers and they're
Pharisees. They're lying to you. They're
telling you that if you're good enough, if you just do enough
good stuff, God's going to forget about the broken law, the law
that we broke. It's a lie. It's just a lie. It's not true. God calls them
workers of iniquity. Daniel may have technically broken
the law of Darius, But you know what these men were interested
in? They were trying to humiliate the king. They wanted Daniel
to fall. Who do you think would be next
on the list? Darius. Darius. That was their real problem.
It wasn't with Daniel, it was with Darius. And in our day,
the problem is not with anything but the God who reigns. Verse 16. Then the king commanded
and they brought Daniel then cast him into the den of lions.
Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, thy God, whom thou service
continually, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought
and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with
his signet, and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose
might not be changed concerning Daniel. What made Darius say this about
Daniel? He said, thy God, thy God deliver
thee. Apparently, you see, Daniel had
been talking to Darius. And you know who he was talking,
not of what he was talking to him about. It was who he was
talking about. Daniel, when he had an opportunity,
would say, Darius, I worship the true and living God. He said
simple things to Darius that made Darius understand, I'm in
trouble in a way, and Daniel is in a way that we can't fix
this. I can't fix it, even though I'm almighty in my little realm.
I can't fix this. Only God can. Oh, that we might come to the
place where we reach that place where I can't do anything about
the mess I'm in. I have sinned. I think I'm short
of the glory of God. Unless God does something for
me, I can't be helped. So, Daniel goes into the pit. What does King Darius do? Look
at verse 18. Then the king went to his palace and passed the
night fasting. Neither were instruments of music
brought before him, and his sleep went from him. What can we do
when a brother or sister in Christ is in trouble, in real trouble?
What can we do when we're in real trouble? What can we do?
What can we do? I would suggest that we do the
same thing Darius did here. He did three things. Do you know
what he did? It says here that he passed the night fasting.
Are we not pretty much consumed with what we eat next? Anybody
skip breakfast? Maybe a few of you. No, we go
to bed thinking about it. We get up thinking about it.
Anybody here thought about lunch yet? Maybe we could stop that fast,
just for a little bit. And then the next thing he did
was, you know, we could turn off the TV or the computer, couldn't
we? He went without music that night. Apparently he liked it.
He enjoyed it. That's probably the best they had in the way
of entertainment back then. Maybe we could do that. And then
maybe we could do what he did. He went most of the night without
sleeping. He was praying to God to deliver Daniel. And we could
sit or lay in the night for a time and beg our God to have mercy
on our dear sister or brother in Christ who's in real trouble.
Y'all, there's some of you here right now in real trouble, aren't
you? I don't know, I may not know about it. And it's okay,
you know, to let our brethren know about it when we're in some
real trouble, when we need their prayers and their wishes and
their help. It's okay, it's okay. That's
what this is teaching here. But then look at the night passed
in verse 19. Then the king arose very early
in the morning and went in haste unto the den of lions. And when
he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto
Daniel. And the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant
of the living God, is thy God whom thou service continually
able to deliver thee? You see that term lamentable
voice. I can't picture this perfectly,
but That king, apparently it had to go around the clock, and
when the sun came up, he could go to Daniel, to the den, and
have him get the stone out of the way, and he cried with a
lamentable voice. He said, Daniel, Daniel, Daniel,
are you alive down there, Daniel? Oh, that we could cry for one
another like that? That we cared enough about each
other that we could cry out to our God, have mercy on my plan.
Who's in trouble? Oh, have mercy. Have mercy. Daniel? Daniel? Somebody here's
in real trouble. Let us know so we can cry before
our God for help for you. Well, what happened? Verse 21.
Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. Now those other fellows were
like, Who King live forever? Daniel was like, oh King, oh
King, live forever. I know who put me in this pit
and I know who's kept me alive while I'm in the pit. And I know
who's fixing to get me out of the pit. And look, in verse 22,
maybe my favorite verse in all this, Daniel said, my God, my
God has sent his angel and has shut the lion's mouth, 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." I'm down here with them, these lions, and they didn't
do a thing to me. They didn't hurt me in any way or shape. Why is that? Daniel said, my
God, my God. his angel. My God, shut the lion's
mouth. My God, he wouldn't let him hurt
me. My God, found innocency in me. My God, has caused them to do
no hurt or harm to my king. My God. God the Father sent God the Son
to shut the mouths of our accusers. And the day comes, you come before
God, they open the books. We know that book's full of all
my sins. Things I've done. You know what
we need? Somebody to shut that mouth.
Somebody to close that book and say, it's taken care of. You
know who can do that? The Lord Jesus Christ. When He went up
Calvary, that's what He did. He took care of every single
one of those. And there's nobody who can go,
well, open the book and see what it says about Him. Because when
you open it, it says, oh, he's with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
with his God. You accuse him of, oh, my God
took care of that. My God's already taken care of
that. Daniel went into the lion's den
guilty. But he came out having the consequences
of his sin satisfied. That angel, he said there was
an angel in there with me. You know who that was? That angel
was the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember Daniel? Listen to
me. Daniel knew how to recognize him. You know how I know that?
Because he was around when those three fellows, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, they broke a king's law too, didn't they? And what'd
they do with them? They threw them in a fiery furnace.
And do you know what that king said? He looked in there and
went, Whoa, there's not one or two or three, there's four fellas
in there. There's four men in that furnace. And when those
fellas came out, you know who they said was in there with them?
An angel, by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you
read the book of Revelation, the proof of it is that when
the ones who went there and saw Christ on his throne, you know
one way they recognize him? They are told about him, John
said, You know, there was a lot to say, but his feet looked like
they'd been burned in a fire. Why was that? Because they had.
He went in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, just like
he went in to the pit with the lions and Daniel. Verse 23, read
it. Then was the king exceedingly
glad, 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. Our King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, he's glad for us, too, just like the king was, and we
should be glad and thankful. Our King, Jesus Christ. He's
exceedingly glad for us because Daniel and believed in his God.
Look at the last line of verse 23. Because he believed in his
God. Notice this. Daniel did not cry
out or start believing God when he found out he was going to
get thrown into the pit. No, no, no. God prepares his
people long before the trouble comes. Faith and believing is
not given when trials comes. It's just revealed. He reveals
it. Long before the trouble, this
real trouble, God had revealed Christ to Daniel so that when
the time came, Daniel knew exactly who his hope was in when he was
cast into that pit. And it went something like this.
Daniel, the king says, put him in the pit. And they put Daniel
into that pit, covered it up, and the sun goes down. And Daniel,
I don't know whether he just stood there or he sat down or
what happened, but we have to realize at some point, Daniel
opens his eyes and here's what he sees. He sees a 900 pound
lion. Big maned, whoever the boss lion
was down there looking at him. And he goes, I don't like that
sight. And he turns over here and looks. And here's three 700
pound females, maybe with cubs. And they're just looking at him. And then Daniel
turns again and there's lions everywhere. But suddenly he realizes
that he sees something. At first we see the lions. All
of a sudden, Daniel goes, there's somebody between me and all these
lions. There's a person down here with
me, between me and all these lions. Do you know what that
person was doing? He was standing there making
the lions keep their mouth shut. It wasn't a lion in the place
that roared at Daniel. Not a one. Not a one. Have you
ever seen that movie company that roared at the big lion and
the thing he grabbed? Didn't happen in the lion's den.
They could not open their mouths. Now, do we know who that person
was down there with Daniel? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we ever come into the
same place Daniel was, which was the judgment of God come
to bear. We want that same person between
us. And we need to know the Lord
Jesus Christ at that time. Because Daniel said he said my
God sent his angel. He sent the Lord Jesus Christ
into that pit with me for me. And so Nothing happened to Daniel. He
was safe and secure. And we are eternally in Christ. If we've seen him, that's all
we need is to know him. So did these evil men get away
with this, trying to destroy Daniel and trying to over-trick
the king? Look at verse 24. This is kind of hard to read,
but it's the end of the story. And the king commanded and they
brought these men who had accused Daniel. What did they do with
them? Oh, they cast them into the pit. But it's worse than
that. They cast them into the den of lions. Them, their children,
and their wives, and the lions had the mastery of them and break
all their bones in pieces over ever they came to the bottom
of the pit. I tell you, it's terrible that
folks let their children not come here. I mean, don't we think
we would have to see how important it is? Bring your children, bring
them as if their life depended on it. It does. It really does. Their very life depends on you
bringing them here so that they can know the one who was in the
pit with Daniel, as you know him. That's why we come, is to
worship Christ, to seek Christ, to hear about him again and again.
I tell you, this group's been around long enough. Where have
you seen the third and fourth generation yet on occasion? It's a good thing to bring. When
God wraps up this earth and this world as we know it, there'll
be two things that'll be happening. Christ will be glorified, and
God's people will be rescued, delivered, and will rest in Christ's
glory. And here's the end of the story,
Romans verse 25. Then King Darius wrote unto all
people, nations and languages that dwell in all the earth,
peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that in every
dominion of my kingdom, that men tremble and fear not before
me. Did you catch all that in the
early part of this, who everybody was afraid of? It was Darius.
And everybody came into Darius's company, said, Oh, King, live
forever. And in their heart, they're going,
man, I hope I said the right thing. I hope he's not mad at
me. And was Darius saying here that I make this decree that
ended that in every dominion of my kingdom in tremble and
fear, not before me, but before the God of Daniel. You know that
God, he is God. He is the living God. and steadfast
forever, and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed in his
dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth,
and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel
prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the
Persian. I realize that We want our children
to prosper, don't we? We want each other to prosper,
okay? But the world's measure of prosperity
is not the measure of this book. Prosperity in this book, in the
kingdom of heaven, is that we know Christ and He crucified. And that's what we ought to spend
our time teaching our children and doing, and that's what we're
doing here this morning, is trying to get another glimpse of the
God of heaven from the Lord Jesus Christ. I think a better title
than Daniel and the Lion's Den might be Jesus Christ saves Daniel
from the lions. Okay, I appreciate being here
and seeing all y'all. I appreciate Frank having me.
Okay. It's been a good morning. Thank
you, Bob, for bringing those two messages. Let's turn, stand,
and sing 256. Trust Christ. It is well with your
soul. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed Asherah that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my
soul. Listen now. My sin, O the bliss
of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole. is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sighed, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. you