Good evening. Let's turn, if
you would, to Daniel chapter 5. We're going to be spending most of
our time here tonight. I kind of want to just look at
this chapter, and there are a few things that kind of jumped out
at me, and I just want to talk about those tonight. The title of my message is, Does
the Bible Teach Spiritual Deadlines? And what we're going to find
is this king, Belshazzar, he crossed the deadline. And I want
to know something about that so that you and I don't do the
same thing. So I'm going to start reading
actually in the middle of the chapter, and then we'll kind
of back up and look at it. But in verse 18 of chapter 5,
it says, O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar
thy father a kingdom. and majesty and glory and honor. And for the majesty that he gave
him, all people, nations, languages trembled in fear before him.
Whom he would, he slew. Whom he would, he kept alive.
Whom he would, he set up. Whom he would, he put down. But
when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride,
He was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory
from him. And he was driven from the sons
of men, and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling
was with the wild asses, and they fed him with grass like
oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew
that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that
he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. And thou his son, O
Belshazzar, you've not humbled your heart, though you knew all
of this." So what we find here This is the story of the hand
and the writing on the wall, where this wicked king, he was
the grandson, actually, of Nebuchadnezzar, this Nebuchadnezzar we know that
was made like into a beast, and we'll read a little bit more
about him in a minute, but he had this drunken party, and that
wasn't the problem. The problem was he pulled out
the vessels of the Lord to do it with, because he mocked the
Lord in doing so, and what he found was The hand of judgment
was against him, and in this moment we find that he feared.
He was greatly troubled, and he sought to know the meaning
of the words that were written upon the wall. Yet that night
he was slain. He died that very night. Judgment
was executed on him swiftly. King Belshazzar awoke unto destruction. What do we believe was revealed
to him that night when he awoke in destruction? Well, I'm gonna
give you five things that all men and women everywhere will
know with regard to when we cross that, I really like that passage
Don read about the crossing of the Jordan. That symbolizes death,
us crossing over to the other side. When we cross that Jordan,
what are the five things You may know them on this side of
the Jordan, not all men and women do. But all will know this on
the other side of the Jordan. The first is, God is, God was,
and He shall be. There are men and women in this
world who believe in their idea of this God. There are people
who don't say they don't believe in God. I'm not really sure whether
I understand that or not, but they will find out that He is.
and that he is the creator. If it was made, he made it. They
will find out there's one way, there's one view, and there's
one opinion that counts, and that's His. It doesn't matter
what you or I think, or our interpretation of the scriptures are, all that
counts then is what did He say in His word. And do you stand
in Christ, or are you outside of Christ? Are you filthy, or
are you clean? Are you righteous, or are you
unrighteous? That's all that will matter in that day. He found
out that God's holy. He found out he's not like you
and I, but we're very different. He found out God is the judge
of all the earth. And now he stood before him.
He found out that God is sovereign. There's nothing that he could
say to him to influence him. There's nothing he could say
to save himself. He was in God's hands. So first, God is. It's the first thing that he
found out. The second thing that King Belshazzar found out is
that God manifests himself through his word. First, he manifests
himself through the law. This do and live. This tells
us about the holiness of God. And when we compare ourselves
to how do we stand before the law, we stand guilty. This lets
us know we are not holy. We cannot stand before him in
perfection. To violate in one law is the
same as breaking them all. So we stand guilty. Sin is manifested
by the law. The law was given to expose what
we are, not as a means for us to try to save ourselves. Secondly,
God manifests himself through his word through the person of
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the express image
of his person. He is God. He is all we will
ever see or know of God. We will never see the Father.
We will never see the Holy Ghost. In seeing him in the person,
he is the triune God. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace is that God revealed
the gospel to you. God saw fit to show mercy upon
you when he should have shown wrath. But God in his wisdom
found a means that he could show grace. Truth is that this man
eateth with publicans and sinners. The truth is he's not like the
world thinks he is. The religious people think of
the Lord Jesus Christ as like them. He's totally different.
He's not like them. He eats with publicans and sinners,
the worst people. Not the clean ones, not the religious
ones, the ones that have no reason to have anything to do with him.
Those are the people he came to save. He's not like we think
he is. The third thing that King Belshazzar
found out was there is a message of truth and there's a message
of error. Now many profess to believe something
out of this book, yet I think if we examine it, not all are
saying the same thing when we look at it in truth. For instance,
these are kind of some familiar sayings, if it's God's will to
save all men, yet some wind up in hell, what does the will of
God have to do with salvation? Nothing. If Christ shed his blood
for the sins of all the world, Yet some wind up in hell? What
does the blood of God have to do with the forgiveness of sins?
If men have the ability to choose God, to believe, to accept His
work, to believe what He said, then why do those same men who
have this power to choose continue to sin against Him? And what
does that say about your ability to choose? And what does that
say about you that you would continue to sin? The fourth thing
King Belshazzar found out is that there is a heaven. Heaven
is less about the place. It's more about the person. Heaven
is being wherever our Lord is. Because to be with him, there's
no sin, there's no fear, there's no sickness, there's no more
tears. Everything is provided, just like we looked at this morning.
Remember when Peter dove out of the boat and went to the beach?
What was there? They were dragging the fish in,
but there was already a fire, there was already bread, and
there was already coals. Nothing to be brought, nothing
for you to bring, nothing for you to provide, it's already
been provided. This is heaven, uninterrupted
fellowship. We're safe, resting in Christ,
nothing more to do, it's been done. And this is the finality
of that, is us being able to actually see it. Rejoicing in
the presence of our Savior without sin. Everything and everything
we experience in life is through the glasses, if you will, of
the lens of sin. Everything we experience. So
we can never really even fully experience things to their fullness.
For instance, the closest we ever get to being free from the
presence of sin, if you will, is during hearing the preaching
of the gospel. There is no time that I personally
have more happiness and feel more at rest when I know that
the Lord is speaking to me and to my heart and I know that I'm
His. I'm His child and He'll never let me go. And that He's
done everything so that I can come to Him and that there's
no fear in coming to Him and that He is here and loves me.
This is what heaven will be like, except that part never ends.
Because when we hear that here, how many seconds? It's gone in
a moment. We see something, we start thinking about what we
gotta do later that day, your phone buzzes in your pocket,
something takes your attention away from that, it's gone. But
one day, our hope will actually become sight, and that is heaven.
The fifth thing King Belshazzar found out is that there's also
a hell. Now Belshazzar knows this. He's been separated from
the God that he once mocked. How earnestly do you think at
this time he desired to see that God's face that he mocked? For
one more opportunity to say, I was wrong for what I did. But
when he's at that point, it's too late. There is no more remedy
for sin. There's no more restitution that
can be made. Hell is also about separation,
so separated from God. It's also about memory. What
lost opportunity he had. He had Daniel. Daniel was the
chief of all these men in his court. Daniel, as we see when
you read through the book of Daniel, he's a clear picture
of a type of Christ. But Daniel was given wisdom,
power, the ability to see visions and to communicate God's word
and God's visions. He had him right under his fingertips. And yet, how many opportunities
were lost? Now you think about that with
regard to this place that we have here. Opportunities lost. There's times when I'm not able
to come hear the gospel or I'm distracted. I might be here in
body, but in mind I'm not. I'm somewhere else. It's a lost
opportunity. I don't want that. And I pray
for the Lord to give me his spirit and quicken me so that I'm alive
and can hear. So it's about memory. Hell is
also knowing that there is a permanence to the condition. There's no
coming back. Do you remember the rich man
that awoke in hell? The things that he asked for.
He didn't ask for forgiveness. He didn't ask for any of these
things other than go back and tell my family, tell my brethren.
not to come to this place, warn them. They have the Law and the
Prophets. If they won't hear them, they won't hear somebody
even if they came back from the dead. There's a permanent condition
because the angel and Lazarus said that there's a great gulf
fixed between us. So that people where you're at,
they can't come to where we're at. And we can't come to where
you're at. You're stuck. You're there. Hold your finger
here and let's look at a little passage here in Luke 12 that
kind of tells us a little more about this. And in verse 43 it says, "...Blessed
is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so
doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that
he will make Him ruler over all that he has. But, and if that
servant, say in his heart, My lord delays his coming and shall
begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink
and be drunken. Then the Lord of that servant
will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour when
he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint
him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his
Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according
to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that
knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten
with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given,
of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed
much, of him they will ask them more." So what this passage is
telling us, and this is in some ways, it's a frightening passage
because we are held accountable for what we've heard. We know
this because here in Daniel, he tells him this. He said, oh,
in verse 22, you've not humbled your heart after he tells him
everything that happened to your grandfather. Do you think he
went through life and didn't know those things happened? I
can guarantee you he knew. I can guarantee you his grandfather
probably told him. And he said, though you knew
all these things, yet this is what you did. So there is some
responsibility for having the knowledge of the gospel, for
having it preached and forsaking it. It says that you should be
beaten with many stripes. And that's frightening to me
because I, in my own experience, I've grown up hearing the gospel
all my life. And for me to fall away and to
have that hanging around my neck, I don't want that. I don't want
that for you either, but this is serious stuff. So let's look
a little bit more at this chapter and what happened, and then we'll
let it up to the end here. So in verse two it says, Belshazzar,
while he tasted the wine, he commanded to bring the gold and
silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out
of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, and the king and his princes
and his wives and his concubines might drink therein. Then they
brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple
of the house of God, which was in Jerusalem. And the king and
his princes and his wives and his concubines drank out of them."
So here he shows what little thought and what little regard
he had for the God of the Bible. He mocked him by getting drunk
out of the gold and silver vessels that were used in the house of
the Lord. We don't know what they were used for, but they
were used in some fashion of service in the temple. Drinking
is not what this is about. This is about not having a fear
and a respect for who God is and what He holds clear and holy.
This is what is going on in false religion today. There is no respect
and there is no reverence for who the God of the Bible is.
They change Him for what is convenient to serve their own lives and
they interpret things based on whether they like it or not.
because you certainly can't hold to the Bible as a whole and hold
some of the beliefs that people have. Any worship of God outside
what he's seen in the scripture is that of a false prophet. It
is not worship you're worshiping an idol. And here we have, they
drank the wine, praised the gods of gold, silver, brass, and iron,
and wood, and stone. And in the same hour came forth
fingers of a man's hand, and rode over against the candlestick
on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king
saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance
was changed, he feared greatly. And his thoughts troubled him,
so that the joints of his loins were loosed, his knees knocked
together. The king cried aloud, Bring in
the astrologers, the Chaldeans, the soothsayers. And the king
spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read
this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall
be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his
neck, and he shall be the third ruler in all the kingdom. Then
came in all the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing,
nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then
was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed
in him, and his lords were astonished. So fear took hold at this point,
and you can imagine why. He doesn't even know what this
hand has written. But he knows what he did was wrong. He knew
it was wrong before he did it. And this is pictures, false religion,
and people who have no respect for the God of the Bible. I believe
that they know what they're doing is wrong. I think it seems to
fit what they want to do, but nonetheless, they do what's wrong.
But here, he's called out on it. This illustrates the condition
of the natural man. No man could read the writing.
No man could interpret it. The wisdom of man could not be
used to find out who God is or what he said. This only comes
if God reveals himself in his word. He reveals himself through
his spirit and to his messengers. So these men that he called,
these were soothsayers, astrologers, wise men, they couldn't read
it. They didn't know what it meant. This pictures the condition
of natural men as dead and unable to come. Well, in verse 10, Now
the queen, by reason of the words of the king, and of the words
of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house. And the
queen spake and said, O king, live forever. Let not thy thoughts
trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed. And this is the only
words of wisdom you hear the entire time in here from someone
other than Daniel. There's a man in thy kingdom.
in whom is the spirit of the holy gods and in the days of
thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of
the gods was found in him whom the king nebuchadnezzar thy father
the king i say say thy father made master of the magicians
astrologers chaldeans and soothsayers For as much as an excellent spirit,
and knowledge, and understanding, and interpreting dreams, and
showing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found
in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now
let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.
So as I've said, again, the only words of wisdom spoken by any
of these Chaldeans comes from this man's wife, the queen, when
she comes in and says, these guys don't know anything. But
don't you, obviously she was around at the same time he was.
She said, don't you remember Daniel? How he revealed these
things to your father? And when we read these things
about Daniel, you can see what a clear type of Christ he is.
Read verse 12 again. He has an excellent spirit and
knowledge and understanding. Interpretation of dreams, or
just an interpreter. Showing of hard sentences. You
know, those things are revealing Christ out of the Word. This
is what the messenger, God's messenger does. So in a way,
some of this is also describing us quickening together with Christ
and having these abilities. Men and women have this book
in many buildings here in Lexington, but yet only, this is the only
place we know of, but God's not going to reveal Himself through
His Word, through what is preached. And so here we find Daniel described
as this man who can interpret the Scriptures, dissolving of
doubts, whom the king named Belteshazzar, and he will call and he will
show the interpretation. Well, how did Daniel get this
way? Was he just smarter than the
rest? No. He got this way because God put
His Spirit on him. Was there anything in Daniel
that made him better than anybody else that God did that? No. God chose to exalt a man who
was low, he was nobody, but yet he brought him up high and gave
him abilities so that he could be used to help his people while
they're in captivity. The Holy Spirit gives us eyes
to see. The Holy Spirit gives us ears
to hear. We couldn't see God in His Word
if He didn't do that. I couldn't hear the preaching
of the gospel and rejoice in it if He didn't quicken me with
His Spirit and give me that new nature that enables me to love
God and to see Him. Men don't understand it, but
yet, to those who's been given this ability, we see Christ in
the scriptures. We'll pick up in verse 13. Then
was Daniel brought in before the king, and the king spake
and said unto Daniel, Art thou Daniel, which art of the children
of the captivity of Judah, whom the king, my father, brought
out of Jewry? I have even heard of thee, and
that the Spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light, and
understanding, and excellent wisdom is found in thee. And
now these wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me,
that they should read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation
thereof. But they could not show the interpretation
of the thing. And I have heard of thee, that
thou canst make interpretations, dissolve doubts now. If you can
read the writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof,
Thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, have a chain of gold about thy
neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom." So here
we find the king attempts to entice Daniel to interpret the
writing. Now on a very fleshly level,
Why not just make something up? Because how would he know? So
that's kind of what was my thought when I read that. How would he
know? Nobody else knows either, so just say something, you know.
But this is used to illustrate something greater in this next
verse. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let thy
gifts be to thyself. Give thy rewards to another.
Yet I'll read the writing unto thee, and make known the interpretation."
What this tells us is three things about God's servant. First is
that he can't be bought. He's not in it for the money.
The hireling will say what you want him to say. As long as you
keep paying him to say what you want him to say, he'll show up
and he'll tell you exactly that. God's servant is not in it for
the money, so he can't be bought. And Daniel tells us this by rejecting
these things. The second is, he understands
and can discern the Word. So he says, I'm going to make
this writing known unto you. Through the power of the Holy
Spirit, the Lord revealing this to him, he was able to make this
known. So he can't be bought. He understands
the Word. And third, he's going to make
it known. He's not holding anything back. And this is key here. Just because you understand the
Word, that's part of it. But to hold something back, to
not tell the Scriptures as they are, the way they're represented
as God is, to hold back election because people don't like that,
to hold back that we're sinners and we're guilty and that we
should be punished outside of Christ, to hold that back for
men, to tell them that they're dead and nothing, why would you
hold that back? Because people don't want to
hear that. And so it goes back to the hireling that will take
his wages. So a true prophet of God is not
in it for the money. He understands the word and he'll
make it known. And in verse 18, O thou King
Nebuchadnezzar, most high, God gave thy father a kingdom, majesty,
honor, and glory. So here we see God gave this
kingdom. The only reason Nebuchadnezzar was sitting on it is because
God put him on the throne. There was nothing special about
him. He allowed him to conquer Israel and take everything out,
but God did this for a reason. Next, in verse 19, the majesty
of he gave him all the people, nations, and languages Trembled
in fear before him, and whom he would he slew, whom he would
he kept alive, whom he would he set up, and whom he would
he put down. He gave him majesty and honor."
There was nothing majestic or honorable about King Yggdrasil,
but he'll raise even a beggar up to sit on the throne. He did this to David. King David,
he was nobody. He was just a keeper of the sheep,
but yet he can take even somebody like that. and raise them up
to be a leader for his people to accomplish his purposes. and
he may take any one of you, take you and raise you up for a purpose.
Now it might be to teach the gospel to somebody else, to witness
his son. It might be to support the gospel,
the preaching of the gospel. The Lord uses each of his people
differently. We're all given different gifts.
They're all different, but the Lord has a different purpose
for each of us, even the wicked in his day of power. So he's
raised this man up and made him majestic. But obviously, and
I won't read all the verses here, but here we find with Nebuchadnezzar,
his heart was lifted up. He said, you know, isn't this
Babylon, the great Babylon that I've made for myself here? His
heart was lifted up, and when men exalt themselves, the natural
outgrowth from that is that God is held in low esteem. When I
can look at myself and be like, look at my accomplishments, I'm
somebody, look what I did, I'm not looking to Christ. I'm not
seeing God as He is. I'm looking to myself, and that's
a devilish faith. That's what Satan did. He tried
to exalt himself above God. That is a devilish faith, to
look to ourselves and to exalt ourselves, being what we are.
And it said his mind was hardened in pride. When our minds are
hardened in pride, that's the complete opposite of humility.
And God hates pride and will and will cast down. So his spirit
was strengthened in this arrogant pride and the Lord cast him down.
And in verse 21 it says, he cast him down until he knew, a few
things here. First, that God rules in the
kingdom of men. And secondly, he giveth it to
whomsoever he will. You're a pawn in this. You're
givin' it because I gave it to you and that's the only reason
you had it. It's for no other reason. And men don't wanna hear
this because this teaches a sovereign God who does what he wants, with
whom he wants, when he wants. And there's nothing you or I
can do anything about it. Let's look at this quickly, this
little, in chapter 4, this account. And in verse 30, he says, the
king spake, this is his grandfather, is this not great Babylon that
I built for the house of the king of the might of my power
for the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king's
mouth, immediately there fell a voice from heaven saying, King
Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it's spoken, the kingdom is departed,
they'll drive thee from men, Thy dwelling-place will be with
the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen. Seven times shall pass over thee, seven years, until
thou knowest that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men,
and giveth it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing
fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from men, and
did eat grass as ox, and he was wet with the dew of heaven, until
his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like
bird's claws. And at the end of the days, end
of seven years, you can imagine that, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted
up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned unto me.
And what's the first thing that his understanding let him know?
I bless the Most High. And I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. His
kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And there's none can stay his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? At the same time, my reason returned
unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and brightness
returned unto me. and my counselors and lords sought
unto me, and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent
majesty was added unto me. And now, to sum this whole experience
up, he tells us right here, I, Nebuchadnezzar, I praise and
extol and honor the king of heaven, all whose works are truth, and
his ways are judgment, and those who walk in pride, he knows just
how to handle them. He knows how to abase them. So
what he tells us here is that he has some understanding of
the sovereignty of God, and when we see who God is, and his power,
his majesty, his sovereignty, his holiness, then we can look
back at ourselves and say, uh-oh. I see who I am before him." And
that's what he had some understanding here of, is he was nothing. He
could have squashed him like a bug if he wanted to, but yet
he chose for the excellency of that kingdom to raise him up.
And so this whole story was recounted by Daniel to King Belshazzar. And he said, you knew all this. You don't think that he heard
this at some point in his life as his grandson? He told him
about his seven year experience and the whole kingdom knew this.
You knew this and yet you did this anyway. You didn't humble
your heart. What an impact it must have made
to him when he was a boy and he heard this. This was a legendary
story. And now no doubt others had told
him as well. If praise to be given, praise
the Lord. To whom belongeth glory and power
and honor? To the kingdom of heaven. His
grandfather said, he's true and I'm false. His way is just and
mine's unjust. Is there any who walks in pride?
He knows how to deal with them. Look at what happened to me.
And here's his charge in verse 23. You've lifted yourself up
against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels
of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, and thy
wives, and thy concubines have drunk wine in them, and thou
hast praised the gods of silver, gold, brass, and iron, wood,
and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in
whose hand and thy breath is, and in whose all thy ways hast
thou not glorified. Belshazzar's charges are that
he mocked God. He praised the rocks, the metal,
the wood, the fake gods that he had. And the God in whose
hand and thy breath is and whose all thy ways are, you've not
glorified. And this will be to the charge
of all those who are in false religion. To all the false prophets
that spew their messages of lies, this will be their charge. To
all those who sit under it and who praise those gods that are
described in those means, this will be their charge. And this
is the charge. Isaiah 42, eight says, I am the
Lord. That is my name, and my glory
will I not share with another. The Lord will not share his glory.
His glory is who he is. His glory is what he's done.
We are the trophies of his glory. He saved us, and he went through
the humiliation of becoming a man. He did all these things. We are
his glory, and he will not be robbed from his glory. The Lord's
prayer in it, he says, for thine is the kingdom, speaking to his
father, the power and the glory forever. Herod, you remember
King Herod, he was killed on the spot. Worms ate him up and
he died immediately because he didn't give God the glory. When
the crowd was impressed with the speech that he gave and he
said, it's the voice of a God, it's the voice of God. He didn't
say no, no it's not. He was happy to stand there and
take that praise. God killed him immediately. He
will not have his glory be given to another. And in verse 26,
And then 25, this is the writing that was written, mene, mene,
tekel, ferasen. This is the interpretation of
the thing. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.
Tekel, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. And peres, the kingdom is divided
and given to the Medes and the Persians. So what we find here
is, and the takeaway we see from this is you're found in the balances
and you're wanting. The balances, you know, we have
these statues in front of courtrooms, you know, Lady Justice, she's
holding the, you know, blindfolded weights and balances in front
of her. And if we're just, it will be a just estimate. What
is equal on one side will equal the other. When we stand before
God, my righteousness has to be equal with that of Christ's.
If my righteousness is not equal with Christ's, I'm found wanting.
If I have sinned before Him, I am found wanting. My righteousness
must equal that of Christ. And the only way that can happen
is if I'm united to Him. I can come up with no righteousness
of my own. And you know what? Even if I
could, I still couldn't balance it out. So what good does it
do me even if I could? Our righteousness must be the
righteousness of Christ. It's the only one that there
is because it's the only one He will accept. So he was found
in the balances wanting. When the God of glory comes looking
for you, how will he find you? Because you've heard. You've
heard just like Belshazzar did. You know the story. Most of you
here have come here most of your life. You know. And so the same
charge will be said to you and to I if we're found wanting in
the balances. My only confidence is found in
this. When his body was broken, when he died on the tree, he
fulfilled the law so that I didn't have to. I couldn't live the
life that he lived. That has to be my life because
that's the only way that I have any righteousness before God.
Any other way, I'm done for. The only cup that I will drink
from is his blood, because it's the only thing that God can be
satisfied with to cover my sins. It's the only way that they can
be purged, not just covered, but purged. They're removed.
They're gone. His blood is the only thing.
These are the only things that I have any confidence in with
regard to my salvation. So what confidence can I have
that he did this for me? In his word, he says, my sheep
hear my voice, and they follow me. Do you believe? Is Christ enough? Is it enough
for you? Is it the only thing that you're
coming to God with? The gospel's in this story, and
you and I are without excuse, just as Belshazzar was without
excuse, because he knew. You knew. God killed him that
very night. Now you're to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ empty-handed. You've got nothing to bring.
We're seeking help. And the beauty about seeking
his help is he sells us sin that cometh to me. I wouldn't know
why I was cast out. So you go to him for what you
don't have. So our prayer is may God keep
us humble by showing us daily what we are. but also keep us
coming unless we despair. You knew the words from your
grandfather and you and I know the words of the gospel. May
the Lord use this to save our souls and to reveal himself through
his word unto us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray to you
in the high and holy name of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Lord,
how glorious are you and how, Lord, we seek to see your face
that we might see more of our sins so that we can always know
that you're deserving of the glory and the honor and the power. Lord, keep us coming. Lord, we
despair so quickly. Lord, give us eyes that can see,
ears can hear, and a heart that believes. Lord, we can't do any
of these things. And Lord, we look wholly to you
to cleanse us from our iniquities and to cause us to come. All
of our salvation is found in your son. We're so thankful for
him and for the sacrifice that he gave. May we come back week
after week here and not fall away where we look to you to
keep us and to show us the way. It's in Christ's name we pray,
amen.