Atlantic Lyman conf.1972-02 Studies in Daniel 05 — Joseph Balsan

Daniel 5: Belshazzar and the Handwriting on the Wall

Let us open our Bibles to Daniel chapter 5, shall we? Daniel chapter 5. It's good to see you all out tonight. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand.

Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, 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 at Jerusalem, and the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon 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 and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another.

The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans and 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 shall be the third ruler in 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.

Now the queen, by reason 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.

There is 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 thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

For as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding, interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belshazzar.

Now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation. Then was Daniel brought in before the king and the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that 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 that the spirit of the gods is in thee and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee. And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known unto 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 and dissolve doubts. Now if thou canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing unto the king and make known to him the interpretation. 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, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he slew, and whom he would, he kept alive, and whom he would, he set up, and 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.

They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till 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, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines have drunk wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, and brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified?

Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written, and this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene, Tikal, Eupharsin. This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

Tikal, thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. Heras, thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old. May the Lord bless to us the reading of his word. You know this portion that we have read from the fifth chapter of Daniel is, you might say, a most fascinating story.

Belshazzar’s Judgment and Nebuchadnezzar’s Humbling

You might almost say it is a drama that you might read in some of the magazines that people spend so much time reading in the world. I think perhaps it is a very dramatic scene here that we find in Daniel chapter five, where we have this Belshazzar who is evidently the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible judgment that fell upon him.

You know there is quite a contrast between the fourth chapter of Daniel and the fifth chapter of Daniel. In the fourth chapter of Daniel we have a very proud king, who was lifted up with pride, but God spoke to him and God leveled him, you might say, to the level of a beast for seven years, until he should recognize that the Most High ruled in the kingdoms of men.

And when he did this, why the Bible says, when he lifted up his eyes to heaven, why his reason returned unto him, and he blessed God for what the Lord had done for him. Now Nebuchadnezzar was a very proud man.

Nebuchadnezzar was a very great man. He was a very mighty man as far as the world was concerned. He was the ruler of the first world empire that this world has ever seen. And yet my friends, that great ruler was humbled, and we believe that he was really converted and that he was turned to the Lord.

But here we find three generations later, we find his grandson Nebuchadnezzar, or Belshazzar, and we find a young man who does not repent. A young man who dies in his sins, and as it tells us here, Daniel in speaking to him said in the 22nd verse, And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.

Now here was this young man, he was privileged. He had heard about the tremendous change and experience that had taken place in the life of his grandfather. And though he had this witness born to him, yet he did not respond to it.

And as far as we know, Belshazzar died that night in his sins, impenitent. He died and today he is in eternity a lost soul. You know, just because we are born and raised in the Christian home, and because we see the effects of the gospel in the lives of those around us, and because we hear the message of salvation again and again, does not mean that we are going to be saved.

Because we have to avail ourselves of this salvation for ourselves. I remember a number of several years back, perhaps about seven or eight years ago, I was down in Florida for youth camp and I wanted to call up to Minnesota from Florida.

And so while I was waiting for the telephone booth, while there was somebody in the telephone booth and there was a man standing beside a car. And I said to this man as I gave him the gospel tract, Well I wonder how it is with your soul.

And he says, well he says, I hope it's going to be alright. Well I said, are you saved? Are you going to be in heaven? Well he says, you know, he says, my mammy was a Christian. And he says, my mammy has been praying for me for over sixty years.

And he says, I'll surely won't go to that awful place called hell when I've had so many prayers offered for me. I said to him, because his name was Tex, he told me his name was Tex. I said, Tex, how old are you?

Tex says, well I'm about sixty-four years old. I said, for sixty-four years your mammy has been praying for you and still you haven't been saved, still you haven't trusted Christ. Now Tex, unless you repent and unless you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, all the prayers of your mammy are never going to get you into heaven.

And I want to say to each and every one that is here tonight, you may have a Christian wife, you may have a Christian husband, you may have a Christian father or mother, you may have a Christian grandfather or Christian grandmother, but the fact of the matter is you may see and you may hear the wonderful message of salvation from them again and again, and yet you know it's possible for you to die in your sins just like this man Belshazzar, he died in his sins.

Repeated Reproof and the Danger of Hardening the Heart

Now we come to this story tonight because in it we have brought before us a living example of that verse that goes, He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

He that being often reproved, and hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Here we have this young, here we have this man, we don't know how old he was, but it tells us, Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.

Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein.

Now we have been following these chapters in Daniel, and we have been following how these chapters, from chapter 2 through chapter 6, bring before us the historical incidents that took place in the experience of Daniel, and how they foreshadow for us events that are going to happen in the end time after our Lord Jesus Christ takes out of this world those who are his.

The second chapter we have brought before us the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, in which God made known to Nebuchadnezzar that there would be four great world empires, and in the last stage of the fourth world empire, why a stone would fall from heaven and smite that image of gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay.

It would smite that image on the feet and destroy it, and the wind would come along and sweep it out of existence, and the stone would grow into a mountain filling the whole earth. And we saw how that picture is the four great world empires that the Bible said would come into existence, and those four world empires have come into existence just the way the Bible said.

The Babylonian empire pictured in the head of gold, the Medo-Persian empire pictured in the chest and arms of silver, the Grecian empire pictured in the thighs of brass, and the Roman empire pictured for us in the legs of iron.

But the last form of this Roman empire is yet to come into existence, a ten-kingdom empire that is to be headed by a man who is spoken of as the little horn in Daniel chapter 7. We'll speak about that on Sunday night.

And this great empire of men is going to be destroyed by the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the setting up of His kingdom. And then we saw in the third chapter how Nebuchadnezzar made that great image, how he commanded that all should worship, and if they did not, they would be cast into the furnace of fire, and how there were three young men who stood and refused to bow.

They dared to be different. They dared to be non-conformists. They dared to stand when everybody else was different, or bowing. You know, that must have been quite a thing. Three young men standing among thousands, and these were the most important people in all the empire of Nebuchadnezzar.

They were the captains. They were the great people. And yet in the midst of all these people, these three young men, because they believed God and because they obeyed God, they stood. They stood. And they were cast into the burning, fiery furnace, but the Lord was with them.

And instead of being consumed by the fire while their bonds were burnt, they were set free, picturing for us how in the end time the beast is going to have an image erected to himself. All are going to have to bow or receive the mark of the beast.

And those who don't bow, they are going to pass through great tribulation. And the Bible tells us there will be a remnant of Jews, 144 ,000 who will refuse to bow, and they will stand true, and they will be preserved, and they will be delivered by the Lord to enter into his kingdom.

Pride, Idolatry, and the Beastly Mind

And then in the fourth chapter last night, we saw that just as idolatry will characterize this great world power in that day, another thing that would characterize them is pride. Pride characterized Nebuchadnezzar, and it was pride that brought judgment down upon him, pictured in the cutting down of the tree and the leaning of a stump where they band about it.

And for seven years, Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind. For seven years, he ate grass like an oxen. For seven years, he was driven on from amongst men until he lifted up his eyes to heaven. And when he did that, his reason returned, and he was brought to God, and he blessed God, picturing for us how the Gentile nations lifted up with pride are going to be like the beast.

What do you mean? Well, you know the difference between a man and a beast? There was a Christian on a train, and he was talking to a young Jew who was a brilliant man, and he said, talking, I'm not going to go into the details of the story, but the closing part of the story was that this lawyer, Christian lawyer, he asked the Jew, what's the difference between your mother and a dog?

He says, my mother and a dog. Well, he says, there's a big difference between my mother and a dog. Well, what is the difference between your mother and a dog? Well, a dog barks. Well, can't your mother bark?

Oh, sure, but what a dog runs around on all fours. Well, can't your mother run around on all fours? Well, yes. Well, what is the difference, he says, between my mother and a dog? There's a big difference, I know, but what is the difference?

He says, when your mother gets into trouble, what does your mother do? Oh, he says, I've got a very godly mother. When my mother gets into trouble, my mother prays. He says, did you ever see a dog pray?

No, he says, I never have. You know what the difference is between your mother and a dog? Your mother has a spirit that gives her God consciousness. A dog has no spirit. He knows nothing about a dog. Now, there have been very smart dogs and horses.

You know, there used to be a gospel team that used to travel around Chicago where I used to live, and they used to put on shows, and they had a horse. I know this horse was a trained horse. Why, they would ask the horse, how many apostles were there?

And he'd stamp his hoof 12 times. And they'd say, well, how many baskets did Jesus take up when he fed the 5 ,000? And this dog, the horse would stamp his hoof 5 times. But you know, even though that horse could answer those questions and do that, I'm sure if they start talking to that horse about God, he couldn't understand.

You know, a horse, an animal, has no consciousness of God. Its eyes, its head, are always toward the earth. You look at a hog, you look at a cow, you look at a horse, and their heads are always toward the earth.

That's the way it is with the beast. But man is able to look up because man can recognize there's a God. And when it tells us that Nebuchadnezzar became like a beast, it means that God was ruled out of his mind.

All he was occupied with was what is going on down here. And my friend, I want to ask you tonight, are you like the beast? All you're occupied with is what is going down down here, the things of this world.

You never lift up your head. You never ask yourself the question, what about God? How am I going to stand before God? How am I going to answer to God? Well, the Bible tells us that in the end time, the Gentile nations, which have rejected the gospel, are going to be given up to apostasy.

They're going to be given up to a lie. They're going to believe the lie of the Antichrist. And the only hope, the only object they'll have is to make this world a better place to live in. They're getting farther and farther away from God.

But there will be some who have not heard the gospel. And then like Nebuchadnezzar who was restored, there will be Gentile nations. You can read about them in Matthew 25, Isaiah 66, Revelation 7, and other parts of the world who are going to be turned to God.

So we find that idolatry is going to be a characteristic of the time of the end. Pride is going to be a characteristic of the time of the end. But here in Daniel 5, we have two more characteristics. Do you know what they are?

Pleasure, Profanity, and the Handwriting of Judgment

The love of pleasure. Here's Belshazzar. Now history tells us that Belshazzar was co-king with his father Nebunad. And Nebunad was on a journey. He was leading an army against the Median Persians in other parts of the world.

And Belshazzar did not know that his father had been captured and that his father had been incarcerated in a prison and was held a captive in a prison. And the armies of Babylon, the armies of Medo-Persia under Darius and Cyrus, came against Babylon and they surrounded Babylon.

Now you know, Babylon was a city with walls that were so thick that you could have had the equivalent of two automobiles right around that city on that wall. Why, those walls were thicker than the very walls of China that have been so prominent to our thinking and vision in the last few months.

And those walls seemed to be impregnable. There seemed to be no way that Babylon was going to fall. But you know, God had said that the empire of Babylon would be succeeded by another empire, the empire of Medo-Persia.

And so the armies of Medo-Persia under Cyrus and Darius were surrounding that city. They laid siege to it, but they couldn't take that city. Week after week, and month after month, and you know, so secure did the Babylonians feel in their city that here, Belshazzar, made a great feast.

And the city as well as the palace was given over to drinking, to riotousness, to pleasure. And you know, that's the way so many people think today. We're living in a day when people are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.

Their only thought seems to be pleasure. But then, you know, they did something else. In the height of their revelry, in the height of their drunkenness, in the height of their debauchery, while we find that Belshazzar sends forth the command, bring the holy vessels, bring the silver and gold vessels that were taken out of the temple at Jerusalem, and bring them to us so we can use them in our rioting and in our drunkenness.

And so those golden vessels and those silver vessels that had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem were brought into that palace. And they lifted these vessels and they filled them with their wine.

And as they were filling them with their wine and drinking and praising their gods of gold and of silver, and they were blaspheming to the God of heaven, suddenly something happened. You know, they didn't have electric lights in those days.

They had these torches on the walls and perhaps these torches in the midst of the palace. And there in their drunken debauchery, those thousands of lords and women and concubines who were half drunk or all drunk, suddenly they saw against the light.

They saw the fingers of a man's hand and began to write and just wrote four words. And those four words were mini, mini, kiko, eupharsin. And you know the Bible tells us that when the king sought, the king's countenance was changed.

His thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. Just think what he saw as he saw the fingers of a man's hand. That's all he saw. And as he saw those words inscribed upon the wall, his face fell.

He was filled with fear, so filled with fear that his knees began to smote together. He was so terrified at what he saw. The hour had come. The moment had come and Belshazzar didn't realize that this was going to be his last night upon the earth.

He did not realize that while the whole city was being given over to drunkenness and debauchery, he didn't realize that the Medo-Persians had secretly diverted the river that flowed through that city.

They had besieged the city. They had tried to take it. And finally they decided the only way to get into that city is to divert the river that goes right through the middle of that city and come in on the riverbed.

And while the city was given over to drunkenness, to rioting and pleasure, my friends, they were diverting the river and preparing to enter in and destroy all in that city, all in that palace. Now when Belshazzar saw that writing, why, Belshazzar called for the wise men.

He called for the astrologers. He called for the Chaldeans and soothsayers. And he spake and said to the wise 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 shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Talk about fairy stories. Talk about fairy stories about the young princess who wants to win the young prince and if he does this, why, he'll become the ruler. Why, my friends, here's a wonderful story.

Belshazzar says, The one who interprets this to me, why, I'll make him the third ruler in the kingdom. I'll give him a chain of gold about his neck. He'll be clothed with scarlet. He'll be fixed for the rest of his life.

But you know the wise men couldn't interpret it. Oh yes, they could read the words all right. The words were in Chaldean. The words were words that he could understand. Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided.

But what could the king make of that? Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided. What does that mean? Give me somebody who can tell me what this means. But the wise men, my friend, weren't able to tell him.

He says, No, we don't know. We can't interpret it to you. And there in his dismay, why, in walks the queen Dowager. Perhaps she was Nebuchadnezzar's wife. Perhaps she was this young man's mother. But she was separate from all the pleasure.

It wasn't his queen. And she says, There's a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the gods. He can tell you what this means. His name is Daniel. And so he hurriedly sends for Daniel. Where is Daniel?

Daniel’s Faithfulness and the Meaning of the Writing

My friends, by this time, Daniel was an elderly man. Years had passed since as a youth he had interpreted the dream to Nebuchadnezzar. Years had passed since Nebuchadnezzar had died and reigned and died.

And years had left their mark on Daniel. But you know, Daniel is separated from all the rioting and all the drunkenness and all the debauchery that was going on there in Babylon. And so when this Daniel comes into the presence of the king, he says, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Judah?

I have heard of you. Can you tell me the interpretation of this? And if you make known to me the interpretation, I'll give you a garment of scarlet, I'll give you a chain of gold, and you'll be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And Daniel says to him, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another. Yet I will read the writing unto the king and make known to him the interpretation. And he says, O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor.

And then he recounts for this young man, for this man, he recounts what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar. And he says to him, And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.

Now what was it that brought this handwriting on the wall? What was it that brought this act when God wrote on the wall numbered, numbered, weighed, divided? You know what it was, friends? It was when he took the holy things and he mixed them with the unholy, profane things.

And when he mixed these things together so that nobody could tell what was of God and what was not of God, God says, It's time for judgment. This is as far as I'm going to go. What do you and I see today?

What do you and I see the world doing today? And what do we see Christians so-called doing today? You know what we see them doing today, my friends? We see them where they're mixing up the things of God with the things of the world in such an unholy mixture that people are getting to the place where they don't know anymore what is of God and what is not of God.

Mixing Sacred and Profane Things

Look at, for instance, the theatrical world. Now you know I used to go to the movies before I was saved. And I used to enjoy the movies. But my friends, I knew that they were of the world. But what is the world doing today?

You know, they're taking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and they're taking the story of the Lord Jesus Christ and they're corrupting it and they're mixing it up with their most unholy and their most sinful practices so that when people look at this thing like Jesus Christ Superstar, they don't know whether it's truth or whether it's error, whether it's of God or whether it's of the devil.

Think of their songs, for instance. I picked up Time Magazine not so long ago and I looked through the music section and I found that 8 out of the 10 top songs were about religion, about Christianity.

They mixed up Christianity with their unholy, ungodly, sinful, wicked, adulterous lives and they sing about it as though they're honoring the God of heaven. And Christians go along with it. Christians think it's alright.

Christians think it's okay when the sinful, licentious, ungodly, drunken world takes these sacred things and mixes them all up together so that our young people don't know whether it's of God or whether it's of the devil.

And what is the object of the devil? You know why? What his object is? His object is to mix these things up so completely that you can't tell what is of God and what is of the devil. And if you can't tell what is of God and what is of the devil, you won't know how to live for God.

You won't know what God's will is. My friends, they are taking... Oh, when I was a lad, people used to wear sweatshirts, Mickey Mouse. They had Mickey Mouse watches and they had all these things when I was a kid.

Now what do they have? They have Swetsworth with Jesus on it. They have Jesus watches. They have all kinds of Jesus banners. But you notice, they always talk about Jesus. They don't talk about the Lord Jesus.

They're always talking about Jesus. They're always glorifying Jesus. And the devil doesn't mind if you glorify Jesus just so you don't confess Jesus as Lord. The Bible says to the Corinthians, how can you discern the Spirit of God and the Spirit that led you before you were saved?

He says, this is how you can discern it. He says, no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed. And no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. You know, this unholy mixture of divine things, of the precious gospel and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ with all of these sinful things means that people have got so low and their conscience has become so hard and callous and insensible that nothing can touch them.

Nothing can reach them. And of course, we know when we turn to the third chapter of Revelation that the last stage of the church's history on earth, Laodicea, he says, thou art lukewarm. Because thou art neither cold nor hot, but because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth.

You know how you get lukewarm things? You get lukewarm things by taking hot water and then mixing in the cold. And as you bring in these two elements, you get lukewarmness. And here's a young person, here's older persons, they get all warmed up and heated up as they listen to the Word of God and then they go home and they're all occupied with the world and cold things come in.

And the result is lukewarmness. And God says, because thou art lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth. I want nothing to do with you. A mixture of holy with unholy. A mixture of that which is of God and that which is of the devil.

And the handwriting appears on the wall, mene, mene, tika yufarsen. There's only one thing ahead for that state of things and that is judgment. Judgment. And so, Daniel comes into the presence of the king.

God’s Weighing of Human Lives

And when Daniel comes into the presence of the king and he's not persuaded by the king's reward. Why? What good is the king's reward? Well, he was going to lose his wife that night. He was going to lose his kingdom that night.

But Daniel interprets it and notice what he says. He says, this is the writing that was written, verse 25, mene, mene, tika yufarsen. This is the interpretation of the thing. Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.

God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tika, thou art weighed in the balances and are found wanting. Belshazzar, you've been weighed. God has weighed you, Belshazzar. God has weighed you in his balances and God has found you wanting.

And then he doesn't interpret yufarsen. He gives another form of it. Yufarsen means to divide or will be divided, but instead he gives the past tense. He gives the word Paris. And this word means thy kingdom is divided because at that very moment the armies of the Medo-Persian Empire were swarming under the wall of that river bed and they were flooding into the city and the people in the city, the guards they say, were drunk.

The guards were given over to vice and licentiousness and lasciviousness, immorality. They thought they were secure and the armies of Medo-Persia swept in. And while Daniel was interpreting the words, he says Paris.

He says thy kingdom is divided. It's already done, Belshazzar. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. And you know Belshazzar, he heard the message, but you know it didn't impress itself on him.

Well, that's a nice interpretation. And so he commands and they bring forth the garment of scarlet. They put the chain of gold upon Daniel's neck. They make a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And then notice the next verse. In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. Why even as Belshazzar was investing, Daniel with all these honors, the armies of the Medes and Persians were swarming into the palace and Belshazzar met death that night.

That night Belshazzar's kingdom, Belshazzar's life, Belshazzar's soul was lost and Belshazzar met death listening to a message from God through his servant. My friend, as you sit in this meeting tonight unsaved, these four words apply to you tonight.

Mene, mene, numbered, numbered. My friend, your days are numbered. Your opportunities are numbered. If you're sitting in this meeting tonight, who knows what the number of your days is. If God should tonight say, finished, I wonder tonight, where would your soul be?

The Brevity of Life and the Certainty of Death

You know, I picked up the paper the other day. I read four young people, 13, 14, and 15 years old. I don't know what hour of the night it was or what hour of the morning it was. Their fathers and mothers thought they were in bed until they heard the sheriff knocking at the door and saying, is your son so and so?

Why, yes, where is your son? Oh, my son's up in bed. No, he's not in bed. He's in the morgue lying on a slab. He's been killed in an accident. They thought their children were in bed, but there those lads were, 14, 15 years old, and they had met eternity.

Their days were numbered. You don't know how your days may be numbered tonight. God has given you so many years. God has given you so much time, numbered. Let me ask you tonight, how many days do you have to live?

How many days are you sure of here? Your days are numbered. But not only that, he says, Kiko, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting. Thou art weighed in the balances. Yes, my friend, there isn't a single one of us tonight that hasn't been weighed in God's balances.

If God was to put you on one side of the balance, and He was to take His commandments one by one, and He was to put them in the other side of the balance, I wonder, my friend, how you would stand. If He was to take that very first commandment, Thou shalt have no other God before Me.

And He was to put that in the balance. How would you weigh? How would you measure up with that commandment? Have you loved the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength?