Daniel 5

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If you will take your Bibles and open them up to Daniel, chapter 5.
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And I'm not going to have you stand up because it is a lengthy chapter. I will read it and then we'll walk through the text.
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Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles. And he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.
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And when Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which
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Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives, his concubines might drink from them.
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When they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was in Jerusalem, the king and his nobles and his wives and his concubines, they drank from them.
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They drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
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And then suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand of the plaster on the wall of the king's palace.
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And the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing. And when the king's face grew pale, his thoughts alarmed him, his hip joints went slack, and his knees began knocking together.
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The king called aloud to bring the conjurers, the Chaldeans, and the diviners. The king spoke, and he said to the wise men of Babylon, Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me will be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.
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Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king.
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And King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed. His face grew paler, and his nobles were perplexed.
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The queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles. And the queen spoke and said,
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O king, live forever. Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale. There is a man in your kingdom in whom the spirit of the holy gods.
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And in the days of your father, illumination, insight, wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.
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And Nebuchadnezzar, your father, the father of the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, the conjurers, the
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Chaldeans, and the diviners. This was because of an extraordinary spirit of knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas, solving of difficult problems were found in this
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Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar. Let Daniel now be summonsed, and he will declare the interpretation to you.
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Then Daniel was brought unto the king. And the king spoke, and he said to Daniel, Are you the Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king brought out of Judah?
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Now I have heard about you, that your spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight, extraordinary wisdom had been found in you.
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Just now the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me, and they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message.
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But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations, solve difficult problems.
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Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation to me, you will be clothed with purple, wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler of the kingdom.
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Then Daniel answered, and he said to the king, Keep your gifts for yourself. Give them to your rewards to someone else.
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However, I will read the inscription to you, king, and I will make known its interpretation to you.
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O king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory, majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father.
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Because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations, men of every language feared and trembled him.
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Whomever he wished, he killed. Whomever he wished, he spared alive. Whomever he wished, he elevated.
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And whomever he wished, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne, and his glory was taken away from him.
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He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling place was with wild donkeys, and he was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the
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Most High God is ruler over all the realm of mankind, and that he sets over whom he wishes.
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Yet you, his son Belshazzar, you have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all of this.
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But you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven, and you have brought these vessels of his house before you, you and your nobles, your wives, your concubines.
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You have been drinking wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, stone, which do not see, hear, or understand, but the
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God in whose hand are your life and breath and all of your ways you have not glorified.
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And the hand was sent from him, and the inscription was written out. Now this is the inscription that was written out.
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Mene, Mene, Tekel Ufarsin. This is the interpretation of the message. Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.
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Tekel, you have been weighed in the scales, and you have been found deficient. Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the
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Medes and the Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the order. They clothed Daniel with purple and put the gold necklace around his neck.
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He issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as third ruler of the kingdom.
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That same night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was slain. So Darius the
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Mede received the kingdom at about the age of 62 years old. Let's pray.
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Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you once again for the privilege and opportunity to preach your word.
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Father, I ask once again that you would keep me from error. I pray that you would have me to proclaim your truth to your people with the boldness that you have provided.
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I pray, Father God, that you would do what only you can do, which is to send out your word. And I pray that,
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God, it would not return void, but it would go out and accomplish that which you have sent it out to do. God, I pray today that as the
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Lord has preached, you say it is life unto life and death unto death. Father, my prayer today is that it would be life unto life.
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And for some in this room, it would be life and life eternal. Father God, once again, we love you.
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We thank you for the privilege of having the written word of God in our hands. In Christ's name, amen.
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Well, for those of you that aren't in Sunday school, if you would like to go hear God speak, Andy is down the hall doing
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Job. God is speaking in the book at this point. And you could hear, if you would like to come hear
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Daniel, I'm at the end of the hallway. I am actually, this is where I would have been consecutively teaching through the book chronologically.
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So I just decided I was going to go ahead and just preach this passage because this passage is one that can be preached standing alone on itself.
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So as we begin in verse 1, we have to do some historical things to bring you up to speed.
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It says Belshazzar the king had a great feast for a thousand of his nobles. First and foremost, for nearly 1800 years, there was no idea who
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Belshazzar was. Many thought that it was a myth or some type of made up thing within the
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Hebrew text. Well, it wasn't until 1879 they found the
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Nabonidus cuneiform and it placed Belshazzar as his son as being vice co -regent of Babylon.
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Well, we have to know why was he ruling. Well, Nabonidus was the king.
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When Nabonidus was actually the last king along with Belshazzar of the Babylonian Empire, the reason why he was serving as co -regent is because Nabonidus did not like Marduk.
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Marduk was the Babylonian god that everybody worshipped. He didn't like that god.
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He wanted to do something different. So he got with the people of his cabinet.
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He made some legislation to change it and then he whisked himself off to a beach in Delaware where the press could not talk to him.
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He whisked himself off to Haran and Teman and he began to rule from there because he wanted to worship a different god other than the god of the
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Babylonians. He set his son up, Belshazzar.
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Now, it says your father the king, Nebuchadnezzar. So I want you to understand that when you're speaking of ancestral men at times when they speak of your father, that could mean grandfather.
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And if you want to go back and check what I'm saying is true, you can look in Jeremiah chapter 26 and 27 as he is telling the people of God they're going to be hauled off into captivity.
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He says I'm going to take you into captivity. It's going to be for 70 years. And you're going to serve Nebuchadnezzar the king.
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You're going to serve his son and his grandson. And then the captivity will be over.
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So, Belshazzar would have been the last one to have been the ruler over the
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Babylonian empire when it would come to a fall. And I do believe that Daniel knew that long before this vision.
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So it says Belshazzar the king had a great feast for a thousand of his nobles and they were drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.
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But while were they having a party with a thousand nobles, Cyrus the Great had just dug ditches and canals.
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He was blocking off the Euphrates River. They were coming across from Susa. They had been conquering all the land.
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So Cyrus the Great, the Persian king, was basically knocking at his doors and at his gates saying either you surrender and submit to the
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Persian empire or we're going to come in and kill everybody in the city. They had rerouted the
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Euphrates River through canals so that they could then cross the river and just basically walk right up under into Babylon.
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And that is what they did on this night. And both Xenophon and Herodotus, Greek historians, say that on the night that Babylon fell,
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Cyrus the Great came in. He conquered the city with little to no bloodshed.
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The only one that they could find that was dead was Belshazzar himself. That's history.
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That's not even talking what the scripture says. That's history bringing actual light to what the
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Bible said was absolutely accurate. Why were they partying?
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Well, one, we believe that Belshazzar was trying to produce the gods of the
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Babylonians to maybe stay the execution of the city and save them from Cyrus. That might have been the reason.
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It says that when Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which
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Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem. What had happened when the
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Babylonians came in in the first deportation in 605 to 603, they came in, they hauled off Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel.
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That would have been the first deportation out. They took the vessels from the temple as tribute. They took all of its implements and they hauled them off.
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It wasn't until years later to the third deportation that the actual Babylon actually destroyed the temple of Solomon.
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So they, as an act of blasphemy and as an act of showing that the gods of Babylon are still greater than the gods of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Belshazzar decides he's going to mock.
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God. And he brings those in, it says, and then they brought those in, they began to drink with his concubines, his nobles, and his wives.
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It says they drank the wine and they praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
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It's interesting that all through the prophets, you see where these false gods get worshipped of bronze, iron, wood, hay, stubble, and it's always tickled me that here it is, these men, they take these big pieces of stone or gold or whatever they use, they either melt it down, whittle it, chisel on it, beat on it with a hammer, and then they have all the refuse that come down off of it, they sweep it up in a dustpan, they throw it in a garbage can, and then these fools bow down and talk to it.
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It just tickles me. It's like, do they not understand that these things are dumb and blind, and that is exactly what is said.
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They have no power, but he is honoring them as the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and stone.
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In verse 5 it says, and then suddenly, in this drunken party with his concubines and his wives and all these men that are yes men, that always say, oh king, you live forever, suddenly the fingers of a man emerged and he began to write opposite of the lampstand.
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It's interesting that it says lampstand. I don't know this for certain, but it is saying that we're bringing in all of the implements and all the vessels and things that were taken out of the house of God, and I think it's very ironic that Daniel says it's the lampstand that is lighting the very hand that's writing on the wall.
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I have no problem saying I believe that's the lampstand that was taken out of the temple. That's the lampstand.
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It was the very glowing light of that menorah that was showing the hand of God writing on the wall.
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It says, and it began to write on the plaster of the wall the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did it.
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And then we have a very interesting response by Belshazzar. It says, and the king's face grew pale.
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His thoughts alarmed him. I don't know about y 'all, but if I saw that, my face would probably go pale, and my thoughts certainly would alarm me.
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But then it says, his hip joints went slack and his knees began to knock together. Now, I don't, for one second, think, you know, he, oh, okay, that's not, that's not, that's the expression that the new
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American standard has tried to take the Aramaic and make it palatable. Were his knees knocking?
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Yep, Looney Tunes, they probably got it from here. Man was so scared, his knees were knocking together.
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But in the Aramaic, his hip joints did not go slack. Belshazzar pooped in his pants.
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Belshazzar messed on himself. Don't take my word for it.
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Look it up in the Aramaic. Our English versions have a lot of times tried to make things more palatable.
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And if I was Belshazzar, he should be pooping in his pants. He'd just come in contact with the very
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God that he mocked. And it says that his thoughts were alarming him, and his knees began to knock together.
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The king called aloud. I bet he did. He called aloud, and he said,
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You bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans, the diviners. And the king spoke, and he said to the wise men of Babylon, Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me will be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.
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Now, him being given a purple majestic robe and a golden necklace was just a way of giving him a fine gift.
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But the next part of being third in the kingdom, we say, Well, why would he have been third in the kingdom? Well, what we know from history is
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Nabonidus was the actual head king. His son was co -regent with him, making
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Daniel, if he or whoever this was, that makes the interpretation, this person will then be the third ruler of it.
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So that's how we understand being the third ruler. In verse 8 it says, And all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription, nor could they make its interpretation known to the king.
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It's interesting, if you read through, and we've been teaching through the book of Daniel, anytime the
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Chaldeans, the conjurers, the magicians, these men are absolutely useless to the king.
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They can never do what they ask. I mean, just like, hey, even when the death sentence came out, and he says, back when
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Nebuchadnezzar, he wanted them to give him his dream and the interpretation of the dream, and he says, Hey, if you can't tell me,
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I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill every one of you. And they were like, All right, Nebuchadnezzar, you know how this works.
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You're supposed to tell us the dream, and we just make something up. So that we can make you look good.
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So they have never been able to be beneficial to the king. They're yes men.
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And once again, they become deficient. And all the wise men came in, they couldn't read it.
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So then, King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed. His face grew even paler, the text says, and even his nobles were perplexed.
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I bet they were. I can imagine what they're looking at.
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Imagine you're just partying, having a good time, and then start scratching on the plaster of the palace.
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I would imagine the party came to a halt. And then all of a sudden, the queen entered the banquet.
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In verse 10, it says, She entered the banquet hall, the words of the king and his nobles.
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And the queen spoke and said, O king, live forever. Do not let your thoughts alarm you, or your face be pale.
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Now, we know from history this is Natachris. This would have been
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Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. She was married to Nabonidus. Nabonidus and Natachris had
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Belshazzar. So as the queen walks in, it's interesting that she's not there for the drunken fest.
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She's not there with him and all of his concubines, and all these smart guys that really don't know anything, partying. But she hears what's going on, and she comes in.
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And she comes in, and she says what all of them say. I want to say, stay in good standings with the king.
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O king, live forever. And then she says, hey, don't be pale. Don't worry about it.
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She says, there is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods.
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And in the days of your father, illumination, insight, wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods were found in him.
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Now, when we see where it says illumination, insight, and wisdom was in him, basically what they're saying is this dude is super spiritual, and he's really smart.
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What this man, there's a man in your kingdom that your father, your grandfather,
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Nebuchadnezzar put in place. This guy's super spiritual. He's smart. He's got the spirit of the gods in him.
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Whatever you need done, he can do. And she even says that your father, the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, chaldeans, and diviners.
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And another thing that's interesting is you read through the book, and you could read through Daniel in 15 minutes.
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Put down TikTok, YouTube, all that stuff on your phone, and read something that's real beneficial for you.
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Read it. Take you 15 minutes. It's only 12 chapters. You could read it, and you will see that every time these nutcases come in,
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Daniel's never with them. The conjurers, the diviners, the snake handlers, all of them.
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Daniel's never with them. He's always off doing something else, and he's got to be called in at the last minute. Even when he had to come in and give
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Nebuchadnezzar the interpretation and the actual dream that he had, they had to go find him.
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Ariadne was out killing people already, and they came across Daniel. And Daniel's like, hey, dude, I didn't know that all this was going on.
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I'll fix it. Same thing with this. He's not there. He's not at the drunken party, nor was he called.
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She says, this was because an extraordinary spirit was given to him. He had knowledge and insight.
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He could interpret dreams. He could give explanations to enigmas. The solving of difficult problems were found in this
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Daniel. Notice what she calls him. Daniel is not his name in Babylon.
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Belteshazzar was the name given to him by Nebuchadnezzar. She calls him by his real name.
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There is a man. There is a man who is full of the spirit. There is a man that has the ability to do that, and his name is
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Daniel, which your king named
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Belteshazzar. Let Daniel be summoned, and he will declare the interpretation.
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So as you get between 12 and verse 13, if you're reading this narrative, in my mind, and I know y 'all are far more sanctified than me, it says that Daniel was summoned.
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Well, here comes Daniel. In my brain, I hear, Here comes
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Daniel. And it says here in verse 13 that Daniel was brought before the king.
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The king spoke, and he said to Daniel, Are you the Daniel? Listen to this. Listen to the arrogance of this man.
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Are you the Daniel who's one of the exiles from Judah? In other words,
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I don't care what you know, you're still only an exile. You're still only a third -rate citizen here, and you're still a slave.
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You're an exile, whom my father, the king, brought from Judah. In other words,
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I didn't do it. My granddad did it. Now I've heard about you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination and insight and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you.
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Now just the wise men and the conjurers were brought in before me, and they might read the inscription to make its interpretation to me, but they could not do it.
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He said in verse 16, But I personally have heard. So here it is, once again, everybody has told, his mother has told him,
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This man can fix your problem. And he is so arrogant.
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Well, I heard, Maybe, if you are able, he goes on to say, to read the inscription, and make its interpretation known to you, you will be clothed with purple and wear the necklace and wrapped around your neck, and you will be third ruler in the kingdom.
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And I love Daniel's response. Keep your junk. Keep your gifts.
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Daniel answered him, verse 17, Keep your stuff. Give your rewards to someone else.
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But, I will read the inscription to the king and make its interpretation.
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Why did he tell him to keep his gifts and that he didn't want anything? Why? Because he knew that his kingdom was about as much value as pick and save stock.
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Dude, you are fixed to be a dead king. You are fixed to be worth nothing.
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Why would I want, whatever you give me is going to be worth absolutely nothing. But he says,
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O king, he doesn't say like everyone else, O king, live forever.
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What does he say? O king, the most high, granted sovereignty and grandeur and glory and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father.
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It's interesting. The older that you get, when you talk to old people, and you ask them for a favor, or you want to talk with them about something, they never right off the front end give you your answer.
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They always go into some other story related to what you are talking about. It's funny,
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Daniel being some 80 years old at this point, he's asked to give the inscription, the reading of the inscription that's on the wall, and Daniel's like, oh, hang on a second.
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Let me give you a history lesson. Before I tell you what you want me to do, I'm going to do what
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I want to do first. And that's I'm going to give you a history lesson as to what has taken place.
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O king, the most high God granted sovereignty, grandeur and glory and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father.
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He says that, look, Nebuchadnezzar your grandfather, the God of all creation, put him basically the king of all kingdoms.
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You remember earlier in the book, those of you who have read it, the big colossus that he sees, he is the gold head of that.
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He said, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head.
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You had the most sovereignty than any other kingdom in all the world.
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Whatever he said do, it happened. It even says that. It says, because of the grandeur which he bestowed on him, all the people's nations of men in every language feared and trembled before him.
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Whom he wished, he killed. That is true. Even when
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Nebuchadnezzar went in, he hauled them off into captivity. You had two men that refused to do what he asked them to do.
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And if you read, I think it's in Jeremiah chapter 27 or 28, he says that he took those men and he roasted them in the fire.
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He roasted them in the fire. And God even said in chapter 25 of Jeremiah, I am giving the kingdoms of the world into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar to do to it as he wishes.
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He will have dominion over every beast of the field. He will have dominion over every nation of the world, every ethnic group.
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Everyone will bow their knee to my servant Nebuchadnezzar. That's what it says.
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Don't take my word for it. Nebuchadnezzar knew that he was being used by God. Jeremiah told him that he was being used by God.
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But he was raised up with arrogance in his heart. He says, whom he spared, he left alive.
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Whom he wished, he elevated. And whomever he wished, he humbled. That is exactly what
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Nebuchadnezzar did. Nebuchadnezzar did what he wanted. No checks and balances with Nebuchadnezzar.
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You get into the next kingdoms afterwards, like to the Persian Empire, when the Persian king gave an edict, he couldn't back it up.
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How do you think Daniel ends up in the lion's den? He gives an edict. Whoever doesn't bow and worship anything other than the king and praise anyone else has to be thrown into the lion's den.
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Why? Because once the edict is given, nobody can go back on the law of the Medes and the Persians.
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Same things with the Greeks and the Romans when it was the Senate. They could not go back.
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They were bound by their word. Nebuchadnezzar, he could just change it on whenever he wanted. He had sovereign rule, he said.
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But when his heart was lifted up, Belshazzar, his heart was lifted up.
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His spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly. What did
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Nebuchadnezzar do? Nebuchadnezzar stood up on the roof of his palace and stood up and he said,
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The world is my oyster. Look what I have done with my hands.
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And God said, Wrong. Bad. I did that to you. I'm the one that raised you up.
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You know that God four times in the book of Daniel specifically dealt with the prideful, arrogant king.
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Four times. One, he gave him a dream that he couldn't sleep over.
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Daniel had to come in, save the day, tell him who it was, what his interpretation was. Then when he saw that he was the head of gold, he made a statue of gold of himself and had everybody bow down and worship it.
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But then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego says, Hey, we're not bowing down to no statue of a king.
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We're going to worship Yahweh. He says, Well, you're going to get in that fiery furnace. And he said, So be it. If our
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God in heaven so chooses to save us, great. If he doesn't, we'll burn. And he put those men in the fire.
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And then one, like the sons of the gods, was walking around. That's the second time that Nebuchadnezzar had direct contact with revelation from God.
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Then the third time was he had another crazy dream about this big tree and the birds of the air nesting in it and all of these things.
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And he didn't know what it meant. It said the tree was going to be chopped down. We're going to leave a stump. And then a shoot was going to come out.
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He didn't understand. He couldn't sleep. So who has to come in once again, save the day? Daniel. And Daniel says,
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Oh, king, oh, king, I sure wish that wasn't about you. I wish it was about your enemies.
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But it's about you. But because you're arrogant and because you're prideful, if you don't turn from your wicked ways,
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God's going to make you chew on grass. He's going to make your fingernails grow like claws.
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And the hair on your back is going to look like feathers. God knows how to humble people.
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Hey, wouldn't that be awesome if God humbled a
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Donald Trump that way? I would say Joe Biden, but he's probably so. He might go eat grass anyway.
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But to take an arrogant, prideful man and humble him. Look, if I see a world leader chewing on some grass,
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I'm saying God did it. Wouldn't that be awesome? Well, that's what was warned to Nebuchadnezzar, and he refused to hear it.
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Then, 12 months later, walking on the roof of his palace, he said, I did all this. God didn't do it.
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I did it. And it says, pay up. Payday. It's time to pay up.
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And Nebuchadnezzar was put off into the wilderness for seven times, it says.
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For seven years, how will you understand that? He kept his face in the dirt.
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Tell me that God doesn't know how to make a man bow. Four times he dealt specifically with Nebuchadnezzar.
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He was driven away like the donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle.
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Verse 21. His body was drenched with the dew until he recognized the Most High as the ruler over all the realm of mankind and that he sets over it whom he wishes.
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God knew how to get Nebuchadnezzar where he needed to be. He knew what size stick he needed to whack him with to get him to where he needed to be.
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But I want you, has anybody caught on to this? He ain't dealt with Belshazzar no way.
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Not one time has Belshazzar had a dream. Not one time has
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Belshazzar had Daniel have to come in any other time and give him an interpretation of a dream.
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Not one time. But who did Belshazzar have? He had the testimony of his granddad.
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He had the testimony of his father. That your granddad who mocked
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God, who thought he was the man, God's the one who humbled him.
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There is no way you can't tell me when they got around the table at feast time. You remember when granddad was eating grass?
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There is no way that was not part of folklore in Babylonian captivity.
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I mean in Babylonian empire. There is no way. The king was eating grass. But God didn't deal with Belshazzar that way.
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Was God obligated to deal with Belshazzar that way? God ain't obligated to nobody.
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God didn't have to put the inscription on the wall. But he did. God is not bound to give anybody any chances.
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I know Andy said something to the kids last week. So kids, I'm going to say it too. Because what he said was true.
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And I'm just going to stand on his shoulders this week on that. Your parents bring you here.
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You hear the word of God preached. You're in homes where your parents love the
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Lord. You hear the word of God preached week in, week out.
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Your parents read the Bible with you. Your parents show you what it's like to live a godly life.
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You know if you don't turn to Christ, you're going to be held accountable for that. You're going to be held accountable.
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God's not obligated to give you any more chances. Just as he didn't give
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Belshazzar any more chances. This is the night that he died. God's not required to give you another chance.
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God's not required to give you another opportunity. That goes for you too, old folk. God's not required to give you no other time either.
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I remember I'd share the gospel with a man. Custom house builder we were doing down in the
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King and the Bear. He was the tech stuff like these guys are doing.
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Whatever that is. Where they're making music work. And I didn't know that.
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I'd share the gospel with him multiple times. Foulest mouth. Adulterer.
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And this happened to be on a Monday. I'd share the gospel with him again. I said,
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Rick. I said, do you understand you're making a mockery of God?
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He said, I don't care. Shared the gospel with him again on Monday. Tuesday afternoon.
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We were wrapping up. I said, Rick. God ain't playing, man.
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God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that he will reap.
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He said, oh well. That was at 4 o 'clock.
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At 7 o 'clock. Head -on collision in his motorcycle. And that man stepped off into eternity. That shook me to the core.
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You can ask my wife. Man, that was just like. Oh, wow. That is almost unbelievable.
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God's not required to give you another chance. Oh, you're just trying to scare us. Yeah, if it means to scare the hell out of you.
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Yep, that's what I want to do. Jesus used hell as a way of scaring people. And so will I. God will not be mocked.
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God's not required to give you another chance. God's not required to give you another opportunity.
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God's not required to give you nothing. It will be payday.
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Someday. Verse 22.
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I'm sorry, verse 21. It says that he. He sets over whom he wishes.
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Look, it is the God of heaven that's in the heavens. And he does what he wants.
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That may not sit good with some people. God's the one who raises up kingdoms.
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And God's the one who throws them down. God's the one who raises up presidents. And raises up kings and throws them down.
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And I'm going to tell you. If you read your Bible correctly. This world is on a collision course with the
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God of all creation. And he will have his way. And we will win. The believers will win and win big.
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But it ain't this life. It's in the next. He says in verse 22.
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Yet you. His son Belshazzar. Have not humbled your heart. And listen to what.
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This is his mother talking. And you knew this. And you knew it.
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Kids. We can say that to you as parents. You're sitting here today.
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And you've heard it. And you hear it week in and week out. You're not going to be able to stand before God on the day of judgment.
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And say I didn't know. You know it. You know it.
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Adult. You know it. Some of you in here playing games with God.
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And you know you are. God ain't nothing to be joyful with. Kids.
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I pray for you. By name. Every day.
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You're not given another chance. Mom and dad. Grandparents.
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Obviously I spend more time. In prayer and reading with Andy and Keith and anything.
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And the prayer is that. All your children. And all your grandkids. To be with you in heaven.
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And that is my prayer for you. Because that's been taken from me.
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And I don't like it. But I'm praying for you.
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Because I want God. To be glorified. In your kids life. In your grandkids life.
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In the parents life. Kids you know this.
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And then it says in verse 23. But you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. And have brought the vessels of the house of God before you and your nobles and your wives.
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And your concubines. And have drank in wine. And you have praised these gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood and stone.
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We said it earlier. And they don't see or hear. You know what kills me?
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I love Muay Thai boxing and all that. But you know those guys go to Thailand. And they kick all these poles and stuff.
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And punch and all this stuff. And then they give this fruit to this god there. And then all these flies land on it and eat it.
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It's like they're giving it to something that can't do anything. And then it rots.
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They're giving live fruit to a dead god so that the fruit dies.
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And gets eaten by flies. That is what Belshazzar is doing. He's worshipping things that don't have life.
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And then he says here. He says it's not these silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood and stone.
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They can't see. They can't hear. But it's the god who's in heaven who has your very breath in his hand.
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Why does your heart beat? Because the god of all creation said so. We talk about involuntary actions.
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We breathe, blink our eyes, swallow to lubricate our throats so we can keep screaming at people.
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We breathe, heart beats. It might be involuntary on our part. But that's voluntary
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God's grace on his part. And he was talking about common grace.
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That's common grace. God is not required to let you have another second. And he does.
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And he does. And every time you don't bow your knee to King Jesus, every time you don't turn your life to him, you are storing up wrath for the day of wrath and the righteous judgment of God will be revealed.
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It's like putting that coin in the bank of wrath and one day it will compound interest daily. And if you don't bow your knee to him, he will pour it out on your head just like he's fixing to do on Belshazzar.
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He says this in verse 24. Then a hand was sent from him, meaning
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God, and its inscription was written out. The inscription was this.
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Mene, mene, tekel ufarsin. I know the question could be, if these men could read
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Aramaic, that was the lingua franca of the day, why couldn't they figure this out? Don't really know for sure.
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Maybe it was all written in one long line. I don't know if anybody's ever read old Greek manuscripts that were written in the first century and even a little before.
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They were all in majuscule, meaning uppercase letters, and just blah, blah, blah, blah, just like this. I don't see how they read it.
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I mean, maybe you know, Burns. I don't know how they read that Greek. There's no upper or lower case.
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It just looks like text. Well, maybe that was the case, and they couldn't read it.
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So, Daniel comes in and says, okay, I can make the distinction of where the break is.
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And here's what he says. Now, this is the inscription that's on the wall.
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Mene, mene, tekel ufarsin. This is the interpretation of the message.
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Mene. Three words. Mene. God has numbered your kingdom and found it.
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I'm sorry. God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. Mene is a way of numbering. So, basically, it says numbered, numbered, paid out.
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Numbered, numbered, paid out. Mene was a way of payment, a measurement. And then tekel.
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You have been weighed out in the scales and found deficient. This is the Aramaic way of saying a shekel.
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What was a shekel? It was a way of paying. But his shekel that he had been paying out was deficient. It was found light.
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What he was supposed to be doing as a king was to be acting as leading as a man under the authority of God.
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And he had not. So, your days have been numbered. It's time to pay up. And you're found short.
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I don't know about you. I get pretty angry when a person didn't pay me what they owed me.
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He owes God. And he don't even have the ability to pay it. And then he says paris.
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Well, the first word said ufarsin. So, what it is is paris is a play on words.
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Ufarsin is the plural way of saying paris. Paris meaning a half a mina or a half a shekel.
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But he uses it, Dan, he uses it as a play on words because it sounds more like Persia. So, here's what he says.
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He says, well, how does he interpret that? He says, because your kingdom has been divided and has been given over to the
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Medes and the Persians. So, he sold it. Numbered, numbered, paid out.
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You've been found deficient. It's time to pay up. And the pay up is your life.
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As I was reading through that, every time I read through it, get to that point, it reminds me of Luke chapter 12.
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You fool! Today your life is accounted for you. You remember the parable?
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The parable where he's, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to build barns, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. And it says, and then
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God shows up and says, you fool. Everything that you thought you wanted to do was not for me. Now it's time to pay up.
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Now you're hauled off into outer darkness where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.
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Payday someday. It's interesting, when you get to verse 29,
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Belshazzar doesn't ask for a second opinion. Belshazzar doesn't say, wait a minute.
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You know, this guy that was supposed to be able to tell me what was right or wrong or whatever's supposed to be, what he said's true.
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Go ahead. Bring in that stuff that ain't worth a pantry pride stock.
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Bring it in. Bring in the clothing. Bring in the necklace.
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Put it on his neck. I'm going to make a proclamation concerning him, how he should have authority as third ruler of the kingdom.
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Can you imagine how uncomfortable Daniel would have felt? I mean, it's like, this is the second time in his lifetime.
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Early on, you remember when Nebuchadnezzar, when he gave him the interpretation, do you remember what
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Nebuchadnezzar did? Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and he bowed down to Daniel.
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Now, this other king, basically relinquishing his kingdom to Daniel.
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This is it. And in verse 30, that same night, Belshazzar, the
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Chaldean king, was slain. And it just ends like this.
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Belshazzar was dead, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of 62.
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I don't know about y 'all, but it's like, can I have some more information? I'd like to know what else happened that night.
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It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what else happened that night. You know why it doesn't matter?
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It's because what God said he was going to do, he did. How he did that, none of my concern anymore.
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He did what he said he was going to do. He said, it's going to be payday someday. Someday he's going to pay up.
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I don't have to give him any more revelation than what I've already given. I don't have to stand at the foot of his bed giving him another dream.
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I don't have to do any of that. I've already given him enough to condemn him, and all he had to do was look at his parents, look at his grandparents.
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God said, I'm done. And it ends in just kind of, Belshazzar was slain, and Darius the
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Mede, whom I believe is Cyrus the Great, takes over the kingdom.
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You know what it would be at this point? The night that Belshazzar died, the captivity was over.
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Daniel had been looking for this day. Maybe not looking for the day this guy was being killed, but he certainly was looking for the day of the end of the
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Babylonian Empire. He was certainly waiting, because he knew, hey, when this is over, man, we can go back, go back to the land, we can go back to worshiping
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God in the place where he had prescribed for us. So, the question to you, young man, young woman, old man, old woman, wherever category you fall in, does
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God got to write something on the wall? He's already written it.
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He's already written it. And you're not guaranteed another breath.
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You're not. Why do we act like, oh, it's no big deal. It's no big deal.
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Young kids, I'll just wait till I'm old, like 30. I remember my middle son told me that.
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He said, Dad, maybe when I'm old. I'm like, well, how old's that? He's like, 30. Maybe not.
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Maybe not. You know, every time you hear the voice of God or the prompting of the Holy Spirit within you, and you suppress that, you are searing your conscience.
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Do you know that? Why do you think the command of God is, quench not the Holy Spirit?
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Quench not the Holy Spirit. And that's even to the believer. Hey, you think that you can, this is what
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I should be doing, and I'm going to go, you know what, I don't care. I'm going to do it my own way anyway. Well, you continually going down that path, and you sear your conscience.
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The Bible talks about what a seared conscience can do. It can lead you into other acts of sin, which can then lead to the detriment of your life and even the destruction of the flesh that your soul may be saved in the day of judgment.
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So it's not just a message of salvation to a life. It's a message of, is my life right with the
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Lord? Am I living my life in such a way that I'm bringing honor to Him? Hey, one thing we can look at Daniel.
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Daniel, from the time of 16 to probably 86 years old, that man lived a stellar life.
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We find him praying. We find him doing exactly what God had told him to do. Even when he gets these visions about the persecution of his people, and he's sad, and he's sick to his stomach.
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He couldn't sleep for days. He was throwing up and all this. Know what it says he did? He got up, and he went on doing the king's business because that's where God had put him, regardless of his circumstances.
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So, what else do you need to know? What else writing do you need?
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Are you submitted to the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you submitted His way?
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Because His way is the only way that works. You can't do it your way. Until you start being able to give out prophecies, predict your death, predict your resurrection, and predict when you're coming back, then you probably should be trusted in the person that does.
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And the only response to any time the
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Word of God is preached is to bow the knee to King Jesus. Let's pray. Father God, thank
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You so much for Your Word. Father, thank You that You raise up kingdoms and You throw down kingdoms.
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Thank You, Father, that You raise up leaders and You throw down leaders. Father, it's a clear reminder that You are the
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God in heaven and You're the one that reigns from the heavens and You do exactly what You want. Father, we thank
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You that You are a sovereign God and that You rule and reign over all the affairs of men and that none of Your purposes can be thwarted.
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Father, as we come to the time of the table, I pray that You would prepare our hearts.
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Father, I pray that You would have us search our hearts, see if there would be any unclean way in us, that,
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Father, we would repent of that and prepare ourselves that we would take this table in such a way that it would bring honor and glory to You and worthiness to our own self.