The Hands of the Living God (Hebrews 10:31)

of the darkest day.

Christ on the road to Calvary.

Tried by sinful men, torn and beaten and then nailed to a cross of wood.

This the power of the cross.

Christ became sin for us.

Took the blame for the wrath.

We stand forgiven at the cross.

In love became perfect and man to bear.

On God he took my sin.

By his death I live again.

He got me to rest.

He took my sin.

By his death I live again.

By his death I live again.

Are we on?

Good morning. We love to celebrate

American Independence Day, but my favorite day is when I became a slave to Christ.

So, and the two are compatible, unless you get weird. And everybody knows me and knows that I never get weird, so.

Now, who was that? Okay.

Well, welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School. We're in the book of Daniel. Today we will be starting chapter six, which is, if you remember, actually we'll start with prayer and then we'll launch into a little bit of review, because there's often a couple of weeks between times when each of us teaches our section, our book.

Jess was with us last week on 1 Samuel. So let's open in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity to look into your word. It is the lifeblood of our existence, and it is because Jesus Christ is the word.

And as we look today, we are going to see that you have always been in charge, have always been sovereign.

You will continue to be so. And that in the time of Daniel, when the Jewish nation needed a picture of your sovereignty more than ever, you provided that in love.

And so, Lord, we need to be reminded of that today in your church, that the

Father is sovereign, that the Trinity is in control of everything that happens and that nothing surprises you.

So illuminate us today. Help us to see through Daniel how we can apply these truths today in our lives so that we might honor you, we might lift up the

Lord Jesus Christ and spread your word to those who need to hear this message, for it is a message of truth.

And we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. So we'll start with Daniel chapter 6.

We're going to read the first 15 verses. We're not going to get to lions today,

I know, but there's a petting zoo in Spokane, so if you need that. However, the next time we're together, we'll get to what is arguably called the most famous chapter in the

Bible or the most famous story in the Bible. I think that probably the story of Christ is more famous than that, but everybody you can talk to knows has heard of, pretty much everyone has heard of Daniel and the lion's den.

So we'll look at the lead up to that today. Chapter 6 verses 1 through 15.

It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps, that's governors, over the kingdom that they should be in charge of the whole kingdom.

And over them three commissioners, of whom Daniel was one, that these satraps might be accountable to them and that the king might not suffer loss.

Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.

Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs, but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.

Then these men said, We shall not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his

God. Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows,

King Darius, live forever. All the commissioners of the kingdom and prefects, the prefects and satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any

God or man beside you, O king, for 30 days shall be cast into the lion's den.

Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed according to the law of the

Medes and the Persians, which may not be revoked. Therefore, King Darius, sign the document that is the injunction.

Actually, that's where we're going to stop. Bait and switch.

We're going to stop at verse 10. So in this chapter, 80 year old, 80 plus year old

Daniel, as a result of his earlier stellar performance in his life previous in the

Medo, in the Babylonian Empire, after the takeover, he is placed in another significant position of importance and responsibility.

This immediately results in jealousy among the political appointees of the empire.

Scurrilous men form a dark, evil plan to destroy Daniel, which results not only in his miraculous deliverance, but in the consolidation of Daniel's influence over this new kingdom.

It is a wonderful, almost too good to be true historical narrative that shows Jehovah's complete sovereignty over the

Gentile kings. Peter, if you can get, I have the PowerPoint on the

Google Drive. I forgot to give it to you. But if you can navigate to that and put slide 87 up.

Yeah, I realize it'll take a minute. That's why I'm going to speak very slowly.

The opposite of an auctioneer. So when we, when we studied chapter two, we noted the size of the

Medo Persian Empire, and I have a map coming very soon. It is considered, it was considered the most, actually it's considered the most powerful of the ancient empires.

At its height during the reign of Darius I the Great, it controlled more than 2 .9 million square miles of land and spanned three continents,

Asia, Africa, and Europe. Its control extended eastward into India and reached all the way westward into Greece.

Its capitals were Persepolis and Susa, with its kings sometimes residing in Babylon.

For comparison, the lower 48 United States cover an area of about 3 .1 million square miles.

So it's approximately the size of the current United States, lower 48. It is estimated in 480

BC, yeah, 87. That's really cool.

And I'm drawing a blank as to why that would be. Okay. Well, it's not important. It was just a map.

It showed the giant Persian Empire all the way from Greece clear to India. It was huge.

That's one of them. That'll preach. Yeah. Well, 85.

We'll take 85. Do I hear 86? So you can kind of see it goes clear from Libya and upwards near Macedonia all the way over into ancient

India. It is estimated that around 480 BC, the Persian Empire had 50 million people in it under their control.

This huge amount was roughly equivalent to 44 % of the world's population at the time.

That makes it the largest world power ever in terms of population percentage.

So it was a monstrous empire and Darius came into it. Darius Cyrus came into it with a plan to work at administrating, creating an administration over this monstrous empire.

So with that as background, let's look at Daniel chapter six. So verse one, it seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom that they should be in charge of the whole kingdom.

So at this point, the new king takes over Babylon. It becomes clear that in order to properly government, he will need a great deal of help.

So the appointment of 120 satraps, which in Persian means protectors of the realm or governors, you could call them governors, although there is a word used for governors, which means a lower level functionary as well.

His appointment of those satraps is the first order of business. So each one of these men would be responsible for an area approximately the size of West Virginia, about 24 ,000 square miles if each of the satrapies were equivalent in size.

So as Cyrus Darius, Cyrus slash Darius set up the kingdom for purposes of order, taxation and general welfare, he was careful to give honor to the

Babylonian gods. He even stated that Marduk himself, which was their main god, the main

Babylonian god. He even stated it on a cylinder that has been found that Marduk himself chose

Cyrus Darius to conquer Babylon. Many would have looked at this as a correction of the final ruler

Nabonidus, who was not giving proper homage to Marduk. Indeed, because of Nabonidus frequent trips and long sojourns outside of the kingdom capital, the temples of the main gods of Babylon had fallen into great disrepair.

Remember, he was, Nabonidus spent a lot of time out of the capital, and so Belshazzar was appointed co -regent to cover that part of the empire.

And Nabonidus was busy building temples to the moon god, and who wasn't as cool a god as Marduk.

So, there are some who question the accuracy of the statement that Daniel makes about the appointment of 120 satraps.

This was not an unusual concept in ancient kingdoms. And in the book of Esther, which the writer there notes that there were 127 provinces in the

Persian empire of that day, Esther 1 -1. Now, it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the

Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces.

So, this was indeed not an unusual concept. Often, ancient kings would appoint sub -regents, sub -rulers over their large extensive holdings, because it's not like today where things are communicated in a lightning -fast method.

They're communicated by horseback or by camel or by caravan or carrier pigeon maybe.

But it took a long time to get a letter from Ethiopia to Susa. It would be like walking from Texas to Ontario.

So, how are you ready for doing that? Would that be a good day's journey or a good month's journey?

So, that's how long it would take. In short, again, the critics take exception to this simply because they don't like the fact that Daniel is a book of the

Bible. And so much of it is prophetic and so accurate. And for those of you that haven't been here, we've often discussed the fact that the main critic concern about Daniel is that it predicts things and is too accurate.

Therefore, it must have been written afterwards because nobody could be that accurate. Yeah, but what are your actual base reasons?

Oh, that's our reason. It's just too accurate. It can't be true because we say it can't be true. Oh, okay.

But it is true. And all of these things, in short, there's no reason to dismiss this verse.

And in fact, it is part of the narrative that explains Darius, King Darius' trust in Daniel.

When we get to the Lion's Den, it's the part, I know you've all read it, so I'm not stealing any punchline.

We remember that, you all remember that Darius was really upset that he had done this dumb thing and sent

Daniel to the Lion's Den because he liked Daniel. And the laws, and we'll talk about this when we get more into the section, but the laws of the

Medes and Persians were unrevocable. They did not have the same kind of plenary power, complete power that the

Babylonian kings. If Nebuchadnezzar had done this and then changed his mind, said, oh, I've changed my mind. I don't want him in the

Lion's Den. And it would have been over. He wouldn't have been in the Lion's Den. But not with the kings of the Medo -Persian Empire. Their system of government was different.

When a king made an edict, it had to stand. And we'll talk about why and how today the same thing is happening.

Whenever men set themselves up to be God, this is what happens. Evil occurs, gigantic mistakes occur, human life is lost and suffering occurs.

Men are not God. Did you all know that? Okay, I'm seeing some head shakes, that's real comforting.

Any comments about verse 1? Verse 2. And so we've got 120 satraps appointed to cover this entire 2 .9

million square mile kingdom. And over them, three commissioners, which would be the next step up.

The terms mean something different in their language than they mean in ours. Commissioners were more powerful than governors.

I'm sure some of our commissioners wish that they could be more powerful than our governor, but that's another story. Over them, three commissioners of whom

Daniel was one, that these satraps might be accountable to them and that the king might not suffer loss.

So the satraps answered to the three commissioners and were responsible to bring reports and keep order in the geographic area that they presided over.

And it was very, very bad juju if you didn't keep order in your satrap because you were responsible.

And if the king had to do something about your mismanagement, it might include you losing your head and a new governor, a new satrap being appointed.

So they answered to the commissioners. They were also responsible for the purposes of taxation and whatever due process the

Medo -Persian Empire offered. They were also responsible to make sure that nobody plundered the stores of the king in their particular satrap.

They were to be making sure the king was kept whole, was kept from being abused, whether by funds or by intrigue or plots or anything like that.

So they had a lot of responsibility. Verse 3, Then, as we might have guessed, this

Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.

So Daniel would be about 80 years old right now. And even so, he began distinguishing himself, as the scripture says, showing himself to be the most able administrator in the kingdom.

The terminology used here to describe him is the same as used by Belshazzar's mother the night before the downfall of Babylon.

Because of his abilities, Cyrus Darius decides to appoint him over the entire kingdom as a sort of sub -regent to the king.

How do you think the other 122 men took that? Oh, Daniel's a great guy.

Yeah, he's the one that should be in charge. Political appointees, with very, very minor exceptions, never.

All of them are always on the climb to be something more than they deserve. And so as it always is, so it is here.

Never forget that political appointees of every age will often look for ways to ingratiate themselves with the authority over them.

Bribes will be used, selective information will be carefully targeted against enemies, and general dishonesty will be used to target those who are in the way of ambitious men.

As Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. The same kinds of things that you see today in politics have been happening since about 4400

BC. Which is, if all of you have been studying the Bishop of Usher's timeline, you know that that was about 12 seconds after creation.

Well, or 12 seconds after the fall, I should say. Because not after creation, it was all good then. So any comments about those two verses, or questions?

Verse 4, Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs, but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.

So would it be, wish it could be, that we had men and women today in government, or I should say more, there may be some, who no matter what kind of search is made, you can't find something to hold against them.

That's rare, that's extremely rare. And this man of God, that's one of the reasons that God was able to use

Daniel in so many mighty ways. Because his first and foremost desire was to serve

Jehovah, to serve Jehovah God. And so the first thing these wicked men tried to do was to find something improper

Daniel was doing that they can report to the king. Oh king, Daniel said something mean, he sent out a mean tweet.

But because they believe all men are like themselves, the reason that they must be able to find something in Daniel, that is the reason they must be able to find something

Daniel is doing wrong. They know themselves, they know what they would do in a position, if they were in Daniel's position. Here's how

I'd handle it, here's what I'd do, I'd do this and I'd do that, and pretty soon I'd be indispensable to the king.

And so because they believe that, because they know that about themselves, they assume Daniel is the same.

So they're looking for a way to nail him. It doesn't say how many of the commissioners and satraps were involved, but likely both other commissioners and any satraps that they had influence over were certainly involved.

They would have looked over his reports, audited his tax information, talked to his friends and enemies and generally investigated

Daniel, hopefully without him knowing. My guess is that Daniel knew what was going on the entire time.

Scripture doesn't say that, that's just an inference of mine. The text does not tell us why these men wanted to get rid of Daniel.

It is likely because his integrity stood in the way of their machinations to enrich themselves or to garner power for themselves or both.

It is possible also that it involved antisemitism as verse 13 of this chapter states.

They reminded the king where they reminded the king, Daniel is not one of us. So let's look at verse 13 really quickly, just so you can get some context here.

Then they answered and spoke before the king, Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah pays no attention to you,

O king or to the injunction which you signed, but hope keeps making his petition three times a day. So that they're making sure the king knows he's not one of us.

He's one of those Jews. So there's very possible antisemitism in this, but most likely it was simply that this man of integrity, this one man of integrity stood in the way of them enriching themselves and empowering themselves.

And so it is in every age, if you can find men of integrity or women of integrity, they can be used by God to stop a great many evils.

But these guys are really serious about what they're going to do. So chapter verse 5 says, then these men said, we will not find any ground of accusation against this

Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.

It must've been incredibly irritating to these men that they could find no ground of accusation.

They most certainly knew that they themselves were subjected to the same scrutiny.

If they themselves were subjected to the same scrutiny, much could be used to bring them down from their positions.

The only option they had was to set up a situation where Daniel's integrity would be his downfall.

Now, isn't that ironic? Where his integrity and his faithfulness to Jehovah would be his downfall.

And in that comes a test for Daniel and we'll see that test. We'll see how he responds. But every person who names the name of Jesus Christ will at some time or sometimes in their life be put in a position where their integrity would possibly be their downfall.

If they won't stay true to the Lord Jesus Christ, they may, if they won't stay true, then they may advance.

If they will stay true, they may lose everything. They may lose their life. And this is what happens to Daniel.

It's no different today. The only operation they had would be to, the only option they had was to set up a situation where Daniel's integrity would be his downfall.

They had to provide a legal means for his destruction. It would have to be something that his conscience would not allow him to do that would not allow him to do anything different than he was known for doing.

It would have to be a conflict between official regulations and the law of God. Does that sound familiar?

Boy, I'm sure glad that that doesn't happen today. We don't have to live under that.

Interestingly though, interestingly enough, it would have required them to study the Old Testament, to study the scriptures of the times, to know how to get

Daniel as well as watching him. Or to at least inquire with possibly some of the disreputable

Jewish exiles that they might have access to. In any event, it required them to find something that Daniel could not in good conscience violate because they knew he would not violate the word of God or his conscience.

And so they searched around, they cast around and they come up with a plan. Then these commissioners, they came up with a plan and it's going to be, it's going to be laid out here for us.

They came up with a plan. The commissioners and satraps, verse 6, came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows,

King Darius, live forever. If I was King Darius, I would have probably thought something's up.

But unfortunately, Darius was a man and he was subject to the same,

I say unfortunately, what else would he be? Dumb statement. Unfortunately, he was subject to the same problems that all men have.

If you're going to, if you elevate them, they like it. It's hard for all of us. When someone else gets the credit for something we did, how do you feel about that?

You know, it's just tough. That's a different situation than here. But anyway, King Darius, live forever.

That was a fairly well -worn greeting for kings of the day. It is not known how long the plotting took, but it must not have been too long after the conquering of Babylon.

The co -conspirators now cozy up to the king and begin to buy his favor with well -chosen words.

I'll bet you they wrote this out. They planned it. No, we can't do that. Crumpled up papyrus and threw it away and etched another one.

No, we can't do that. Or probably a cuneiform on a cylinder. That would be a lot more difficult, wouldn't it? Okay, so I'm getting carried away.

They wanted to buy his favor. Unfortunately, many rulers and people in positions of responsibility who wish to do the right things for those they will for think that their underlings have the same mindset.

Often, this isn't true. The underlings are looking for ways to advance themselves. Jockeying for power, money, and position generally occupy the minds of many of those who are under the authority of others.

The Persian word translated came by agreement has the idea of coming together tumultuously, kind of like falling over each other and in disarray and disorder.

So these guys came together in the king's throne room and it was like they filed in and they hurried in and they bumped into each other.

That's the idea behind this. One commentator thought that this was perhaps was on purpose to make it look like something of an emergency was happening that needed to be dealt with immediately.

It would startle the king. It would make him possibly less attentive to the things that were going on, less thoughtful about what was happening.

If he's got an emergency, if there's an emergency, we got to handle this. We got to take care of this. Emergencies are the tools of those kind of people.

The idea would be to communicate urgency to the king and hopefully prevent him from asking a lot of questions which would be difficult to answer.

So verse seven, all the commissioners, here's what they say, King Darius, oh live forever.

All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects, the satraps, the high officials, and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man beside you, oh king, for 30 days shall be cast into the lion's den.

Moms, have you ever had your kids say, but mom, everybody's doing it? No, you're not.

I remember when my mom said, you want a spank? Or something like that.

Using a variation of the time -worn phrase used by children everywhere, but mom, everyone's doing it, those who came to the king begin by implying that all of the commissioners and satraps and their underlings had agreed to what they were about to propose.

That would be so far from the truth. Today, you could almost make a case for it with electronic communication, but back then,

I'm sure many of these governors hadn't made it back to the capital for this. Some of the more officious and appropriate ones were probably still in their homes making sure the king wasn't plundered in their area.

More than likely, so they begin by implying that all of the commissioners and satraps had agreed.

It is unlikely that all had agreed. More than likely, many of them were not even in on the plotting, since they were often, because of their duties, scattered about the kingdom.

We know one who didn't agree, don't we? Who was that? It would be Daniel. So if I was the king,

I'd like to think this, at least. If I was the king, and someone came in and said this to me,

I'd want to know what my most favored commissioner had said.

But probably because they presented it as an emergency in this situation,

Darius was stricken, unable to think properly.

I don't know. I really tried to think this through, and he didn't ask questions.

He didn't ask any questions. So nevertheless, the group petitions the king and described to him an apparent result of meetings they had to give him great honor.

So he would have liked that part. No one can pray to any god or man except beside you,

O king, for 30 days. And then any who does shall be cast into the lion's den.

This would have appealed to Darius' natural vanity and wished to be looked upon as more than he was.

By the way, it was not a requirement of the Persian religions that people look at the king as actual deity.

It wasn't a requirement in their holy books. But it was required they at least look at him as a direct representative of deity.

So this would have been a step above what the religion required, and it would have played to Darius' vanity.

The heart of the scheme was to require prayer only to the king for 30 days. Obviously, the conspirators had observed

Daniel's habit of praying to Jehovah three times a day. The penalty would be to be cast into the lion's den.

Remember, the Babylonians used fire often to destroy their prisoners and enemies. But the

Persians worshipped fire. It was one of their gods. And so they used a different method for killing lawbreakers.

They used lions. It was just as effective, by the way. And it cut down on kitty feed.

Darius, believing the commissioners and satraps, assented to their suggestion without so much as a question.

He didn't even ask them any questions. And the scripture would have had those questions if they had and God deemed them necessary for us to hear.

There were no questions. He just assented to it. Possibly at this point in his kingship, he was still getting to know the officials he had appointed, and he assumed the best.

Now, I'm conjecturing on that. That's not in the scripture. So everyone's clear on that. I'm just assuming that he assumed the best.

We all know what happens when we assume things. Verse 8. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it may not be changed according to the laws of the

Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked. I would have...

I mean, if you heard someone say that to you and then they reminded you of your own law that if you do this, it can't be revoked, that might open some suspicions in my mind,

I hope. So the petitioners knew that unlike Babylonians whose kings had ultimate power to make or break law,

Persian law, once invoked, was irrevocable. Any law the king made must be followed to the letter, even by the king himself.

And they remind Darius of that as they present this idea to him. The Persian word used for sign, sign the document here, and in verses 9 and 10, has the idea of to write, to draw up, to draft.

And it implies a bit more work than just reading and penning your signature to a document.

The Persian word for revoked includes the idea that something cannot even be altered a little bit.

So Daniel... This is silly, but Darius couldn't have said, okay, I can't revoke it, but I now pass a law that our best warriors have to put muzzles on the lions.

Good luck with that. Or something. He couldn't even do that. Not only could they not revoke it, they couldn't alter it at all.

It had to be carried out as written. And he would have put his signature on it, and the officials, the most important officials would have put their signature on it.

Whose signature would have been missing? We're still not suspicious.

Darius, you dimwit. One commentator explained how this concept probably gained favor in the ancient

Mideast, this idea of the laws of the Medes and Persians being irrevocable. This custom grew out of the opinions which prevailed in the

East in regard to the monarch. His will was absolute, and it was a part of the system which prevailed then to exalt the monarch and leave the impression in the mind of the people that he was more than a man.

He was infallible. And could not err. Nothing was better adapted to keeping up that impression than an established principle of this kind that a law once ordained could not be repealed or changed.

To do this would be a practical acknowledgement that there was a defect in the law, that there was a want of wisdom in ordaining it, and that all the circumstances were not foreseen, and that the king was liable to be deceived and to err.

With all the disadvantages attending such a custom, it was judged better to maintain it than to allow that the monarch could err, and hence when a law was ordained, it became fixed and unchanging.

They wanted the people to look at their monarch as either a deity or a perfect representative of the deity.

That doesn't happen today, does it? I'll leave that to your imagination or your scriptural study, which would be better.

If the king ordained something and then changed his mind, well, maybe he made mistakes on other things too.

That could never be allowed to get into the minds of the people under the control of the monarch.

So, in one historical chronicle of the Persian kings, the story is told of an Athenian warrior named

Charidemus who gave the king, he was a good warrior and he had worked very well in a recent campaign to subdue some of the king's enemies.

And so the king gathered a bunch of people and he gathered this guy because his tactics came to the king's attention.

This is an ancient chronicle, it's actually recorded in a historical chronicle. So it's an

Athenian warrior named Charidemus, he gave the king advice regarding an upcoming military tactic.

The king's advisors disagreed with his advice and Charidemus lost his temper and slurred the advisors commenting on the

Persian's lack of manliness. This angered the king who ordered Charidemus to be put to death.

He, in a fit of anger, ordered this good warrior to be put to death. The king had misgivings once he cooled off, but he could do nothing.

The chronicle states this this way, here's how the history states it. Once the king's passion had cooled, he promptly regretted his act and reproached himself for having made a serious mistake, but all his royal power was not able to undo what was done.

So, this laws of the Medes and the Persians figures very well in the

Jehovah God setting up this situation where Daniel is obviously going to die.

There's just nothing that can stop this, he's going to die. And there would have been a lot of people sad about this and a lot of people happy about this.

And Jehovah is setting this up again, as we've seen throughout the book of Daniel, to show his sovereignty over all the actions of men, whether Jewish or Gentile, all the actions of men.

Verse 9, therefore King Darius signed the document, that is the injunction. So without further ado, without any questions, without any inquiries, without any research,

Darius simply signs after he's drafted it. It's very possible that he helped draft or drafted the document.

It may very well have been that these commissioners and satraps brought in a previously drafted document for him to sign, but there's more to him than just signing it.

He must have read it, he may have, who knows, but at any rate, he signs the document. And it is noted that it is not just a document, but that it is in a legal sense a decree, an interdict, something that cannot be undone.

So even in the documentation that he signed, even in the wording that he signed, it's also noted that it can't be undone.

It was to stop something prescribed in the document, and that something was the very thing that Daniel was known to do faithfully every day.

One commentator explains this historical context, which shows that Darius' signature on this document was perfectly in line with his known character.

He says this, speaking of Darius or Cyrus, that from his character as given by Xenophon, a man of weak mind, a man passionate and peevish, a man given to wine and women, we are not to expect much wisdom.

Of this man, we are not to expect much wisdom. There is nothing stated here by Daniel which is inconsistent with the character of such a man.

Again, the critics attack this verse. How would we know? And we have other historical documents that talk about the character of this man.

But one of the things that bothers me the most is if the pagan secular world can't find something that says something that the

Bible says, then the Bible must be wrong, even if it's the only book that speaks on it. But in fact, it has been proven again and again and again to be the most reliable document we have for history.

So it's simple peevishness as a characteristic of Darius that causes them to reject what the scripture says if they can't document it in some historical document.

But in this particular case, it was. At this time in the narrative, the plan is in place.

Daniel will, in the eyes of the plotters, be at least neutered, at best destroyed.

One thing the plotters didn't anticipate though is first Jehovah's sovereignty over every action that happens on this planet or in the known universe or in the unknown.

One thing they didn't anticipate, the second thing they didn't anticipate though was the king's care for Daniel himself.

Had they known that, they might have changed their plot. I'm not sure they thought this through. What if Daniel survives this?

They wouldn't have to think that through. Had anybody ever survived being thrown into a lion's den, ever in the history of lion's den -ishness?

Any? No, they became lion food every time.

So they would have not thought through that all the way. Had they known though, they might have changed their plot, but God was setting this up in order to demonstrate his sovereignty over the

Gentile kings. He was also going to show his care marvelously for the

Jewish exiles. He would be taking care of their most beloved person at the time,

Daniel. So we will look at, that's where we're going to stop today and the next time

I'm with you, we will look at the actual narrative of the lion's den. It's funny that many commentators who write on Daniel skip some of these middle chapters and just write on the ones that have prophecy, but there is so much to be gleaned from this to understand the sovereignty of God, the way that God orchestrates things.

This was all under the sovereign hand of God set up to put

Daniel in a position that he would show his integrity, which would speak to multitudes and that also he would be delivered miraculously and show

God's sovereignty over Gentiles, over Jews, over all, and put

Daniel in a position where he was very, very important and even more important than before in the kingdom.

So with that, are there any questions or concerns or other comments about this first chapter, nine chapters of verse six?

How about nine verses of chapter six? That was a, what do you call that?

Dyslexic revelation. That was a dyslexic, yes. Yes. A hand, yes.

Right. That's a good point.

He's asking, he pointed out that Daniel was guilty of no lack of integrity, no lack of, verse four, no ground of accusation, including in regard to government affairs.

And he had lived for decades under Babylonian rule and so well understood Babylonian rule. How long had he been under the

Medes and the Persians to understand Medo -Persian rule? Is that your statement? I didn't have time to develop a doctrine on that.

So it would have been pointed out that it would have been because there were surrounding nations, these were some of the surrounding nations, there would have been interaction with them and they would have had to study each other's laws to some degree to know how to properly react.

Would that be the gist of your statement? Yeah. It's like,

I understand a little bit about the Canadian constitution because there are neighbors, there are 4 ,000 mile border neighbors and a little bit about the

Mexican constitution because I've studied some of the concepts relating to immigration and border crossing.

And I'm not a high level official, I'm just a dimwit who lives in Idaho. But so Daniel, most likely, springing off of Ben's statement, would have had occasion to deal with diplomatic issues between other nations.

And so he would have probably had some knowledge of their laws, probably knowing Daniel as officious and proper as he was.

He probably knew their constitution. They didn't have a constitution. He probably knew their laws better than their king did.

Jim? Yes. So Jim points out that Daniel would have lived, he lived under Hebrew law before the

Babylonians and so his compass was the word of God and using that, he would have been using both that and trying to navigate the

Babylonian law while remaining in fidelity to God's law and he's doing the same thing.

And actually it's his downfall, downfall in quotes, in Medo -Persia because he's trying to navigate

Medo -Persian law. Can you imagine how easy, how bad it is to be able to just enact a law that quick?

That's one of the reasons for all of its problems, our particular form of government, it's really difficult to enact a law and it should be.

It should, I mean, Jim? Right. Both.

Right, twice in his law and his life, he ran afoul of man's law, the Medo -Persians and prior to that, the

Babylonians with refusing to eat the food. So to end this, unless there's other observations or comments, the decision

Daniel makes, as we will see, sort of becomes, sort of?

Let's leave out the word sort of. Becomes a template for Christians down through the ages to consider whenever confronted with the wicked edicts of the pagan governments.

Whenever the secular rulers require something that the people of God, in order to do, would have to violate scripture and their conscience in order to submit to, they have often looked to Daniel's example and we need to continue to do that.

We need to continue to look to Daniel's example. It is not always death that awaits at the end of faithfulness, but throughout the ages, many times, it most certainly was.

And so today, as we look through this book and continue studying this book, what can we glean from the life of Daniel that God would want to incorporate into our lives so that we will remain faithful to him, no matter the cost?

And let us observe that little phrase, no matter the cost, carefully.

Counting the cost is an important thing. It's an important thing. It's one of the things everyone must do when they become a

Christian and throughout their Christian life. Count the cost. The cost, in this case, would be to defame

Jehovah, to bring down the glory of God. And Daniel was not willing to do that.

We'll see. No, we don't know if he's not willing yet. I haven't got there. Boy, I sure hope Daniel stands up to the challenge, don't you?

Let's pray. Father, thank you for these wonderful examples you give from scripture that are real history, that have happened in your sovereign control.

Although you were sovereign over this, Daniel, under your sovereignty and by your grace, remained faithful to you.

Might it be so in our day today with those of us who love you. And we'll thank you for strengthening us toward that end.

In Jesus' name, amen. May the tongue of those who say we're not done

Because of the same witchy long staff

You decide

Honestly, I seek you, thanks for you

As in a dry and weary land Where there is no water, teach you every

Behold us your steadfast love

Is better than life, my lips appraise you So I will bless you as long as I live

In your name I will lift up my hands My soul will be satisfied

And meditate on you

In the watches of the night In the shadow of your soul

My soul clings to you Your right hand upholds me But those who seek to destroy my life

Fall into the depths of the earth They shall be given

They shall be a portion for jackals

But the king shall rejoice in God Teach me,

O Lord, and I will keep

Into the earth give me understanding

That I may keep your law

And lead me into your testimonies

And not to selfish gain

In serving your promise

That you may be feared

Turn away the rift that I tread

For your rules are good Behold us for your precepts

In your righteousness Give me life

Just May God be gracious to us

And bless us And make his face to shine upon That your way is yours

Let the nations be glad And sing for you

Judge the people with equity And guide the nations

The earth has yielded its increase

God our God shall bless us God shall bless us

Let all the earth praise you

Lord you have searched me and know

You know when I sit down And when I rise up You discern my thoughts from afar

You search out my path When I lie down And are acquainted with all my ways

And are acquainted with all Even before Behold, O Lord, you

Together You heal me in Behind and before And lay your hand upon Such knowledge as to It is high

I cannot attain it

It is high I cannot attain it

Where shall

I flee from your presence I ascend to help you

There If I take the wings of the morning

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea

Even there Your hand shall lead I say surely the dark about me

The darkness Is not dark to you

The darkness is light with you

Where shall I Where shall

I flee from your presence If I ascend to you

Form my enemy together

And my My frame must not

Must be in me How precious to me

Are your thoughts How vast is the soul

If I would count them They are more

Ascent I wait Still with you

They speak against Such as Intent Your Please take your name in Do I not

Preserve me O God For in you I take refuge

I say to the Lord You are my Lord I have no

From you For the saints in the land

They are the excellent ones In whom is all my

Delight The sorrows of those

Who run after Another God Shall multiply

Their drink Offerings of blood I will not pour

Games on my The Lord is my chosen portion

And my The lines have fallen Indeed I have

Beautiful Beautiful Gives me

Counsel In the night Also my heart Instructs me

I have set the Lord on Because he is in my right

Head I shall not

Be shaken Therefore my heart is glad and My whole being

Rejoice My soul to she

Oh Good morning everyone

Let's stand together and worship the Lord Welcome to Kootenai Community Church The power of Jesus' name

Let angels prostrate fall Bring forth the royal diadem

And crown him Lord of all

Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him

Lord The chosen seed of Israel's race

To ransom from the fall Hail him who saves you by his grace

And crown him Lord of all Hail him who saves you by his grace

And crown him Lord of all

In dread every tribe On this terrestrial bond

To him all majesty ascribe And crown him

Lord of all To him all majesty ascribe

And crown him Lord of all

Mystery of the cross

I cannot come The agonies of Calvary To the perfect Holy One As your son

Drink the bitter cup Reserved for me

For God has washed away my sin

Jesus, thank you The Father's wrath Completely satisfied

Jesus, thank you Once your enemy

Now seated at your table Jesus, thank you

By your perfect sacrifice I've been brought near Your enemy, you made your friend

Pouring out the riches Of your glorious grace

Your mercy and your kindness To no, no end

Your blood has washed away my sin

Jesus, thank you The Father's wrath Completely satisfied

Jesus, thank you Once your enemy

Now seated at your table Jesus, thank you

Lover of my soul I want to live for you

Lover of my soul I want to live for you

Lover of my soul I want to live for you

Lover of my soul I want to live for you

Your blood has washed away my sin Jesus, thank you

The Father's wrath Completely satisfied Jesus, thank you

Your blood has washed away my sin Jesus, thank you

The Father's wrath Completely satisfied Jesus, thank you

Once your enemy Now seated at your table

Jesus, thank you

You may be seated.

Catches them by surprise every week. Just a couple of announcements. Our church campout is coming up July 21st to 24th, and so there are sign -up sheets on the table outside on the welcome table.

The first one you pass as you walk in, and if you plan on joining us for either the barbecue or the camping, please put your name there and let us know how many people will be there and what events you plan to attend.

That is also our baptism service, and that starts at 2 p .m. And then tomorrow night at 6 p .m. is our men's fellowship right here at the church, so if you want to be here for that, that is in this building.

Turn now, will you please, to Psalm 115. Psalm 115.

Read together the entire psalm. Before we begin reading, as you're turning there,

I just want you to notice the way in which the true God, Yahweh, is contrasted to idols in this passage, and notice the tone of mockery that is used of the idols of the nations, the idols of the pagans.

Psalm 115. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your loving kindness, because of Your truth.

Why should the nations say, where now is their God? But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever

He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak.

They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they cannot hear. They have noses, but they cannot smell.

They have hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat.

Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in the

Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us.

He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great.

May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth he has given to the sons of men. The dead do not praise the

Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But as for us, we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forever.

Praise the Lord. You stand with me as we pray. Let's bow our heads.

Our Father, you are the giver of every good gift. You are the one who has life in yourself, and you give to all things that have life and breath.

And so we are dependent upon you for that gift. We are dependent upon you for our spiritual life. You have blessed us immeasurably in Jesus Christ with blessings that we have yet to realize in full.

We thank you for our calling and for our election, for the sealing of the spirit, the redemption that is by the blood of Christ.

We thank you that in Jesus Christ, all our sins can be forgiven because of what he has done. We thank you that you have called and saved and secured everlastingly a people for your own glory.

And we thank you that we are able, by your grace, to call upon your name and to worship you this morning. And we pray that the meditation of our hearts and the words of our mouth and the thoughts of our minds may be pure before you today, that you would help us to fix our hearts and affections upon Christ and upon your word, and that we may receive from you today truth and food for our souls, that you would be glorified through all that is said and sung and done here this morning.

We ask your blessing upon these things, and we praise you for your immeasurable and immense and eternal gifts in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Like the ocean's tide I will lift my voice

To worship you, my King I will find my strength

In the shadow of your wings

Your love, O Lord Reaches to the heavens

Your faithfulness Stretches to the sky

Your righteousness Is like the mighty mountains

Your justice flows Like the ocean's tide

I will lift my voice To worship you, my

King I will find my strength In the shadow of your wings

Will lift my voice

To worship you, my King I will find my strength

In the shadow of your wings I will lift my voice

To worship you, my King I will find my strength

In the shadow of your wings Your love,

O Lord Reaches to the heavens And your faithfulness

Stretches to the sky Could tell my

Savior's love What song of angels could describe

Could endless praises be enough To echo fullness, sacrifice

How worthy is the Lamb of God Beyond all might or skill or man

Still we profess our strength towards Such mystery and magnificence

My Savior's love

My Savior's love What could compare

What tongue could tell My Savior's love

What tune could carry on its wings The beauty of that final breath

What words dare paint the awesome scene When God stood in the stead of man

When Jesus Christ, the radiant one Took on the shadows of our hate

Then rose again just as the sun With light and power and fullness grace

My Savior's love My Savior's love

What could compare What tongue could tell My Savior's love

When His death and stone is still My song of life has reached the end

Though as a flower I may wilt This everlasting truth will stand

No death or life could separate Me from the love of Christ my

Lord This hope is sure from age to age My song will be forevermore

My Savior's love My Savior's love

What could compare What tongue could tell My Savior's love

My Savior's love My Savior's love

What could compare What tongue could tell My Savior's love

My Savior's love

To see the dawn of the darkest day

Christ on the road to Calvary Tried by sinful men

Torn and beaten then Nailed to a cross of wood

This the power of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Dunk the blame for the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross

To see the pain written on your face

Bearing the awesome weight of sin

Every bitter thought, every evil deed

Crowning your bloodstained crown

This the power of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Dunk the blame for the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross

Now the daylight flees Now the ground beneath Quakes as its maker bows his head

Curtain torn in two Dead are raised to life

Finished the victory cry

This the power of the cross

Christ became sin for us

Dunk the blame for the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross

See my name written in the wounds

For through your suffering I am free

Death is crushed to death Life is mine to live

Won through your selfless love

This the power of the cross

Son of God, slain for us

What a love, what a cost

We stand forgiven at the cross

You can all be seated.

Turn now please to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 and we're going to read together verses 26 to 31 before we pray.

Hebrews chapter 10 beginning at verse 26. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace.

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay and again the Lord will judge his people.

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Let's pray together. Our Lord we ask that you would help us to understand and to rightly heed the warning of this passage today.

We pray that you would open our eyes and our hearts to your word for we believe that when your word is rightly preached your voice is truly heard and may that be the case today.

May we all who are here see the solemnness of this warning and heed it. We pray for any who are not in Jesus Christ this morning that they would heed this warning and that they would see what their eternal state will be without a

Savior. We pray for us who have come to Christ already that you would encourage our hearts together by reminding us again of the great sacrifice and weight that has been borne on our behalf for us so that we may have eternal life.

Be glorified here through our time we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Hell is a rather unpopular and unfashionable subject in the modern church today.

You can hardly get any one of the tattooed, ear pierced, soul patch sporting, skinny jean wearing raconteurs that occupy most pulpits in most churches today to even mention hell let alone to explain it and to warn people of it and to describe it and to defend that doctrine.

If you just joined us for the first time within the last eight weeks you may be wondering if that's the only thing we ever talk about.

And it's not. In fact, somebody commented to me today and this was not by way of a criticism but by way of a compliment.

They said, there are not many pastors who would spend this many weeks on a warning passage. And I said, that's true.

But there are not many congregations that would tolerate this many weeks in a warning passage. So I'm not sure if you are to blame or I am to blame for this debacle but maybe we'll share the blame together.

I am camping a little bit on the subject of eternal hell and eternal damnation because we are in this passage that is one of the longest and severest and most sobering passages that speak of eternal judgment that you find in the

New Testament. In fact, the warnings of eternal judgment are found all the way through the Gospels, the teaching of Jesus and all the way through Scripture.

And so to deny that there is a hell or to deny that sinners go there and spend eternity there in eternal conscious torment is to deny the clear and unequivocal teaching of Scripture.

Yet despite the clarity of Scripture on this subject, people are very hesitant to talk about it.

Partly I think because it is an uncomfortable subject, is it not? To spend any time thinking about it or to sit down and say to a sinner over dinner, maybe you do this this afternoon or this evening, over dinner, that look, if you are not in Jesus Christ on judgment day, your sins will return to visit you and the cost will be eternal damnation.

That is enough to make you the most unpopular person at the Fourth of July celebration this afternoon.

It is very uncomfortable to tell people that. It is also that some people feel like they need to apologize for God, as if the doctrine of eternal judgment embarrasses

Him. As if we need to sort of wring our hands and present it in such a way so as not to make people think ill of the

God who created hell and will send sinners there if they do not repent. God is not ashamed of the doctrine of hell and neither should we be ashamed of the doctrine of hell.

If we understood justice and righteousness and holiness and the depth of our sin the same way that God does, we would not be ashamed of the doctrine of hell.

We would preach it boldly and loudly. We would welcome that doctrine of eternal judgment because it is the vindication of God's name.

God is not ashamed of the doctrine of eternal justice. And yet the way some people talk about judgment and hell, it is almost like they think that they need to protect

God from having His rep blemished in some way. Protect Him from... What would people think of God if they knew that there was a hell?

Well, they might think that He is holy and righteous and just and angry with the wicked all day every day and that if they do not seek a remedy for their lost condition that they will perish in everlasting flames.

Maybe that is what they would think if they knew that there was a hell. Or some people feel as if the doctrine of eternal judgment is incompatible with the message of God's love and grace and compassion.

I mean, after all, God is a loving God and a loving God would never send sinners to hell, would He? And people who think that way never stop to ask themselves what they would think of an earthly judge if an earthly judge let guilty people go free and they would not certainly call him a compassionate or loving judge, would they?

No, in fact, it is the goodness of God and it is the grace of God. It is the compassion of God and His righteousness that will secure the eternal judgment and damnation of those who are impenitent and unsaved.

That is the goodness of God that will send them. Because He is a good God, He will send them to hell. It is difficult for some people to get their minds around.

Because God is just, we must tell people that there is a judgment to come. And faithfulness to Scripture requires that we be unapologetic and clear regarding the clear teaching of Scripture.

Spurgeon tells the story of a church that was once looking for a pastor and one of the men who came to candidate at this church was one of what

Spurgeon called sort of the modern pastors or the modern men who were all caught up in modernism and denied that hell existed.

He believed that the doctrine of eternal judgment and damnation was a benighted idea that belonged to a bygone era, a bygone age.

And so this man got to this church and he candidated. He was asking the church to hire him. And the church responded and said, well, you come here to tell us that there is no hell.

If that is true, we don't need you. If that is false, we don't want you.

And either way, we can get along just fine without you. Because that church understood that being faithful to the word of God requires that we be clear on this doctrine of eternal judgment and justice no matter how uncomfortable it makes us.

If we're going to be faithful, we have to be clear and communicate to sinners that if they will not repent and if they refuse the grace that is offered in Jesus Christ, they face nothing but, in the words of verse 27, the terrifying expectation of judgment because it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. And that is our text this morning. Verse 31. Mercifully, we will get all the way through the end of verse 31 before we're done today and get on to what you call more cheerful.

I'm not sure there's more cheerful subjects. Well, yeah, there are more cheerful subjects. I'm not sure I can present them any more cheerfully than I'm presenting this, but we'll get on to different subjects,

I guess we should say, in verse 32 next week because the warning passage continues all the way through the end of verse 39, but there is, between verses 32 and 39, no real mentions of the judgment.

At least, that is not the emphasis of those verses. The author changes his focus a little bit to move off of the subject of eternal damnation onto the marks of true regeneration and the ultimate perseverance and preservation of his people, of the true believer.

And the next mention of that judgment is in verse 39. Look at it, the last verse of chapter 10. We are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.

And there, the ultimate destiny of both the make -believer and the real believer are mentioned there.

We're not of those who shrink back to destruction. We are those who persevere to the preserving of the soul. And that's the next mention of judgment as the author clearly delineates between these two groups of people, those who pull back from the truth and perish and those who persevere in the truth unto everlasting life.

But verse 31 is our topic or our text for this morning. And we're going to examine three elements of this verse.

First, the description that it gives us of God, that he is the living God. Second, the description of the plight of the sinner, that he falls into that God's hands.

And then third, the description of the judgment that the sinner faces, and it is one word, terrifying. So you can see that we're kinda gonna back into the verse as we're going from the end of the verse back toward the beginning as we look at God and then the plight of the sinner falling into the hands of that God and then that description of his judgment, which is terrifying.

And the reason for that is because we have to understand who this God is and what his essential nature is before we'll understand why it is that falling into his hands is a terrifying thing.

If your notion of God is wrong and you think that he is just a big, a vuncular deity in the sky who is never worried about sin, who never exercises righteousness, who is never concerned about eternal justice or any of those things, then of course you will never think that falling into his hands is a fearful thing at all.

But once you understand what it means that God is a living God and who this God is, then we can understand why falling into his hands is a terrifying thing.

So first, the description of God that we have in verse 31. He is called the living God. This phrase, living

God, is used of God four times in the book of Hebrews. It's interesting how the author uses it. He uses it back in chapter 9, verse 14 to describe true believers who serve the living

God. Hebrews 9, 14. How much more would the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

God? There he describes the difference, the distinction between serving dead works, even if that means idols, and serving the living

God. In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 22, he uses the term living God to describe the one who possesses and indwells the city that we have been given.

Hebrews 12, 22. You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the myriad of angels.

That is our eternal abode and our eternal blessing. Then he uses it twice in warning passages, once here in chapter 10, verse 31, and once back in chapter 3, verse 12, where he says, take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living

God. If you fall away from the living God, what will become of you? What will happen to your life? Where will you stand?

What will you do? And that's the warning passage that deals with the children of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt, and he describes them as an evil and unbelieving generation, and he warns us about having an evil and unbelieving heart.

That generation, by the way, I said something in regards to that generation last week, and I need to correct this as an aside.

I said in a comment that I kind of came off of the cuff. I said that Moses and Joshua and Caleb were the only ones who were alive who had come out of Egypt and entered into the land of promise.

Everybody else had died. That was not true. Someone pointed this out to me, for which I am very grateful, that that judgment fell on those who were 20 years old and above, so there were people who were under 20 who would have come out of Egypt and entered into the land of promise, and they would have been 49, 50.

Yeah, you do the math on that. My job is not math. My job is preaching, so that's the correction. Now, this description of living

God, this is an attribute that God possesses, and it is impossible to distinguish between an attribute that God possesses and an aspect of his essential nature.

If God has an attribute, it belongs to him in fullness and to an infinite degree, and it is an attribute that encompasses and coordinates with and is in concert with all of his other attributes, so anything that we can say that is true of God describes not just how

God is toward us, but how God is in his nature and in his character. It describes his essence, his substance, and here he is described as the living

God, which means a number of things. I'm going to walk through this a little bit. It means some things that we are familiar with and probably some things that we maybe don't think about as often.

First of all, that means that he is the source of all physical life. Everything that moves and lives and has its being derives its life from God.

Everything that lives lives because he wills it to live and because he gives it life, so all life that we have, physical life, is all derived from the

God who is the living God, and every day of your life from the moment of your conception to the moment of your death, all of those days were written for you in his book before there was yet one of them.

He has scheduled the day of your birth. He has scheduled the day of your death. Nothing can alter that. Nothing will alter that.

You live today because he wills you to live today. You will die someday because he wills you to die someday, and he no longer wills for you to live that day, so all physical life comes from him.

All creatures own their life to him, men, women, children, all that lives, all of the created animals, all the angels, everything that has life and breath, everything that lives derives its life from him because he is the living

God, so he is the source of all physical life, and then he is also the source of all spiritual life because we are fallen in Adam and born dead in our trespasses and sins, and we are without any life in this world and without any capacity inside of our spirit and soul to commune with this

God who is the God of life. We are dependent upon him to give us that spiritual life, and so all people must be born again.

They must be raised from the dead, and it is the work of the spirit who causes us to be born again, who regenerates us, and our only hope for having any spiritual life is that the spirit of God by his sovereign will in accordance with the will of the father and the son will regenerate us and give us new life and turn us from our sin and create in us the faith to believe that message.

That is necessary for salvation. Otherwise, we will remain dead in our trespasses and sins.

So the sinner's only hope is the regenerating work of the spirit, and the spirit is able to do that and give spiritual life because he is the living

God. But third, and something that you might not think of as often, the fact that he is the living

God means that he is the underrived source of all life. In other words,

God does not derive his life from other sources. Jesus described this in John 5, verse 26, when he said, just as the father has life in himself, even so he gave to the son also to have life in himself.

Notice that Jesus doesn't say that he's just the living God as if he got life from someplace else, but he has life in himself.

There's nobody and no thing to which God can give credit for giving him life.

He has life in himself, by himself, of himself, and it is impossible for the one true and living

God to be anything but life in himself and by himself and unto himself.

He has underrived life. He doesn't derive it from anyone else. He doesn't take it from anyone else.

He didn't begin to live. And Jesus, in John chapter 5, when he was describing that, that the father has life in himself, even so he gave to the son also to have life in himself,

Jesus was arguing in John chapter 5 for his own divinity. It's in that chapter where he says, the father's been working until now and I am working, and I do nothing except everything that the father gives me to do, and I do everything the father gives me to do, and I do nothing that the father does not give me to do.

And Jesus said in that passage, John chapter 5, that he was given judgment over all mankind, and he says in John chapter 5 that he gives life to whomever he wishes, so that that life -giving ability is something that the son has as well as the father and as well as the spirit.

All three persons of the Trinity have life in themselves. That's why Jesus said in John chapter 10, nobody takes my life from me, but I lay it down in my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to pick it up again. He has life in himself. He has power over his own physical life.

All that lives lives because of him, and nothing that lives lives apart from him. So in Acts chapter 17,

Paul said that in him we live and move and have our being. In him we live and move and exist. We only live and have life because it is in him and in his life.

So all of our life is derived from him, and he derives life from nobody else. Instead, he upholds all things by the word of his power, and he gets his life from none, so that all that exists owes its existence to his will and to his life.

Now we describe God as the living God, and we describe you as a living person, but when we use those two terms, even though it's the same word, we must necessarily mean two entirely different things.

We can say God is a living God, and we can say Jim is a living man. That's true. We are both living, but we are living in two entirely different senses and in two entirely different ways.

All my life comes from him. I only live because he gives me life, but he derives life and receives life from none other.

He depends on no one for his living, and he is the only one that that can be said of.

The angels owe their existence and their life, whatever that is, for them to him, and if at any moment he willed to do so, the angels would cease to exist, and the sinner will owe his life for all of eternity and his consciousness and for all of eternity to that God who will keep him and sustain him and uphold him in existence even in eternal damnation.

God does not receive life from another. He never began to live, and he will never cease to live, which means that the sinner can never outlive him, and the sinner can never outlast him, and the sinner can never escape him.

Because he is the living God, there will be no end to his existence, and because he wills it to be the case, the sinner will live an immortal life where he will live, in a sense, forever in a state of spiritual death, not having any kind of spiritual life, but he will be alive and conscious and in existence for all of eternity, and so will us as believers, so will we as believers.

His life is never ending, and never ebbing, and never beginning, and never waning, and he never comes close to ceasing to exist, and he was never close to beginning to exist.

He has life in himself. That's what scripture means when it describes him as the living God, and often that phrase living

God is contrasted, it's used in contrast, to contrast God, the real God, with idols.

The author of Hebrews uses it four times, but elsewhere in scripture we see God referred to as the living God, oftentimes in context where he is contrasted with the dead works or the deadness or the impotency of the idols of the nation, the pagan idols.

For instance, remember in Acts chapter 14 when Paul and Barnabas went into the city of Lystra and they healed the man and went in there to preach the gospel and all the people used to worshiping their idols came out and began to try to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas and they called

Paul Hermes and Barnabas they called Zeus, they called Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker of the two, he was doing all the speaking, and so they came out and tried to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas and Paul rushed out into the crowd in Acts chapter 14 verse 15 and he said, men, why are you doing these things?

We're also men of the same nature as you and we preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living

God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. Notice Paul's contrast between the vain things, the emptiness of the idols, the dead idols, and the living

God. Paul says to them, we're preaching the gospel to you that you would turn from the deadness of these idols which can do nothing and turn instead to the living

God. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, Paul says, of what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God. Notice the contrast, idols, we're the temple of the living God. Our God is different.

He is in contrast to the deadness and impotence, the powerlessness of the pagan idols of the nations.

We saw that in Psalm 115 which we read earlier. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. No idol can say that.

That cannot be said of any idol that He does whatever He pleases. Because the psalmist goes on to say, the idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands.

They have mouths but they cannot speak. They have eyes but they cannot see. They have ears but they cannot hear. They have noses but they cannot smell.

They have hands but they cannot feel. They have feet but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them.

Everyone who trusts in them. Psalm 115 says that the idol worshiper becomes like that which we worship.

This is why it is essential that we have a right concept of who our God is because every worshiper becomes like the thing that He worships.

And the idol worshiper becomes just like the idol that He worships. Dumb, stupid, ignorant, powerless, and useless.

That's the point of Psalm 115. And everyone who worships the idol becomes just like that dumb object that they worship.

There is an immutable law of the soul and law of nature that mankind has created to worship and we become just like that which we worship.

We fashion ourselves after it. This connection with God and idolatry is also seen in Deuteronomy 32 that we looked at last week.

You remember verse 30. Vengeance is mine I will repay and again the Lord will judge His people. That comes from the song of Moses. In Deuteronomy 32 this is a passage that Moses wrote to warn the people of their apostasy and to describe to them the judgment of God that would fall upon the nation for their apostasy.

That quotation from those two quotations from verse 30 come from verses 35 and 36 of Deuteronomy 32.

Listen to the very next passage verse 37 of Deuteronomy 32. This is where God speaking to the nation of Israel mocks them for turning from Him the living

God to serve the idols of the other nations. Listen to what God says. This tone of mockery. Moses writes and He that is

God will say where are their gods? The rocks in whom they have sought refuge.

Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you. Let them be your hiding place.

Hear the mockery there? When God brings judgment upon the nation of Israel for their apostasy God's going to say oh yeah, yeah where's your gods?

Have them deliver you. Those gods that you offer your drink offerings to do they drink them? Those gods that you offer your meal offerings to are you expecting them to eat them?

You put the little bowl of rice down in front of the statue. Does He actually eat the rice? I can't do that. Yeah, well call out to that God and see how quickly

He comes to deliver you from my hand. Verse 39 See now that I listen to the language of this passage from Deuteronomy 32

See now that I I am He and there is no God besides me. I have wounded and it is

I who heal and there is no one who can deliver. Indeed I lift up my hand to heaven and say as I live forever if I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on justice

I will render vengeance upon my adversaries and will repay those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword will devour flesh with the blood of the slain and of the captives.

That's the language of Deuteronomy 32. That's God Himself saying turn to dead idols and I will judge you and then you'll call out for deliverance from your idols but it will be to no avail because there is no idol who can deliver you from my hand for I am the living

God and I take vengeance on those who hate me. So that the judgment suffered by the apostate the one who turns from the truth is truly a just judgment because they turn from the living

God to serve a dead idol and what do they get in keeping with that sin?

They get death. Eternal spiritual death. Not a cessation of existence. They will exist forever but they will be cut off from all of the love and the grace and the kindness and the goodness of God for all of eternity.

You want to turn to dead idols? You want to turn to the deadness of sin? Then you get deadness for all of eternity and you get to suffer spiritual death for all of eternity.

But those who find their refuge in Jesus Christ do not have an idol but the true God and He is the living

God. No one should fear falling into the hands of an idol. Right? No one should fear falling into the hands of the idol.

What's to fear? What can the idol do to you? He can't deliver you in good times. He can't bless you in bad times.

He can't do anything to you at all. So who would fear falling into the hands of an idol? But to fall into the hands of the living

God? That's the description of God. He is the living

God. That should strike fear into the heart of those who would choose death instead of life.

Now look at the description of the sinner's plight that he falls into the hands of this God. It's interesting language.

It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God, to fall into His hands. It almost suggests like an accidental incident, doesn't it?

If I were to stumble and fall down the stairs or if I were to fall into a pit or fall into a ditch, it kind of suggests something that I didn't intend to do but I did accidentally, didn't see it coming.

Is that true of the apostate? The apostate does not, it's not accidental.

This judgment is not accidental to the apostate. Remember the apostate is one who goes on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

He doesn't stumble accidentally into God's judgment. He chooses intentionally God's judgment because bowing the knee to the king of heaven, as gracious and loving as he is, is unthinkable to the apostate.

And so he rejects the truth and instead chooses willfully to sin against what he knows to be true.

This is what makes him an apostate. So this is not an accidental falling into the hands of the living

God. The apostate is not going to wake up in eternity under the judgment of God and think to himself, phew,

I didn't see that coming. No, he will say, I saw this coming. I was warned that this was coming. I was told that this was coming and my conscience bore witness to the fact that this was coming.

This is no shock and no surprise whatsoever. That word falling into means the definition of it is to, and not the

English word but I'm talking about the Greek term that is translated falling into. It means to experience something, to be delivered into a condition or to come under the power of something.

It's used in Scripture of falling into temptation and a snare, of falling into a pit, of falling into condemnation and reproach and of falling into the hands of robbers.

And you can see in each one of those usages how the word has the idea of coming into a condition or situation or being delivered into the power of something so that you experience that thing like falling into the hands of robbers.

It's used of God's hand and the hands of others positively in Scripture. I should say the phrase falling into the hands of somebody or the hand of something is used positively.

Ezra 8 verse 31, and the hand of our God was over us and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the ambushes by the way.

Notice there that God's hand, His power, His active blessing was over them and delivered them from the hands of enemies so that they are in the condition or under the power of one hand and therefore kept out of the condition or power of another hand.

Ezra 8 verse 22, the hand of our God is favorably disposed to those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against those who forsake

Him. Notice the contrast there between the hand of God which is favorable to those who seek Him and the power and anger of God which is against those who hate

Him and are against Him. Then it is also used in Scripture negatively like Judges 2 verse 14, the anger of the

Lord burned against Israel and He gave them into the hands of the plunderers who plundered them and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

There the idea is that they are delivered over or given over into the hands of other people who are able to do with them as they please and nobody can deliver them from that hand.

They have complete control over them because they have been given over into their hands. Sometimes that phrase and that idea is used together both positively and negatively.

Psalm 138 verse 7, Though I walk in the midst of trouble you will revive me, you will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand will save me.

God stretches forth His hand against the enemies of God's people and He uses His right hand to come and to save those who trust in Him.

Hand here is obviously an anthropomorphism. It's a figure of speech used to describe an attribute or an action of God in a way that you and I can relate to because we are familiar with the idea of hands.

Hand is usually something that symbolizes the instrument of power or activity or work or endeavor.

We speak of putting your hand to something. We speak of delivering into somebody else's hands or your fate is or we would even say your fate is in the hands of another.

We use language like that to describe being given over into the condition of somebody. It describes somebody's initiative or their prerogative, their control, their rule or their sovereignty.

And so to fall into the hands of this living God means that you fall under, come under the power, the control, the authority, the work and the activity of this

God and that is ultimate power and ultimate determination. To fall into the hands of an enemy is one thing but to fall into the hands of the ultimate enemy who lacks no power and no ability and will show you no grace whatsoever, that is indeed a terrifying thing, is it not?

That's what it means to come into His hands or to fall into His hands. It is to be given over into that condition of His control,

His power and then He does with you as He pleases. And that doesn't mean right now that God is not sovereign and that we are not all in somebody's hands but just the imagery here is being used of that final judgment where one is turned over into hands that are in no way favorable to them.

Third, this is used to describe the sinner's judgment and there's just one word that's used terrifying. It's the same word used in verse 27.

There no longer remains a sacrifice of sins but a terrifying expectation of judgment. Same word. And here that word is used terrifying.

It means fearful, frightful, dreadful. This is a cause of great dread. The fact that the apostate does not fear the judgment of God, that he goes on in this life and he doesn't lose sleep every night and tremble every night at the thought of falling into those hands shows just how deceived and hard -hearted and impenitent and bald -faced the apostate is in his hatred for God and his despising of the truth.

And the reason it is terrifying is because as the author says in chapter 12 verse 29, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. Those who reject Him have nothing but the terrifying expectation of a judgment that is to come.

Let me read you a few verses from the Old Testament. Nahum 1 verse 6. Who can stand before His indignation?

Who can endure the burning of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and rocks are broken up by Him.

Psalm 76 verse 7. You, even you, are to be feared and who may stand in your presence when once you are angry?

Psalm 90 verse 11. Who understands the power of your anger and your fury according to the fear that is due you?

Jeremiah 10 verse 10. But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King and at His wrath the earth quakes and the nations cannot endure

His indignation. Do you hear that? Our God is the true God and the living God and the nations cannot endure

His indignation. Isaiah 66 verse 6. A voice of uproar from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the

Lord who is rendering recompense to His enemies. Deuteronomy 7 verse 10. He repays those who hate

Him to their faces to destroy them. He will not delay with Him who hates Him. He will repay Him to His face.

And then Jesus came into the world and He corrected all that misunderstanding from the Old Testament, right? He showed us love and grace and said, don't worry, it's totally different.

All those Old Testament prophets, Moses, those guys, it was just, they kind of got it wrong about the

God that truly exists. Is that what Jesus did? John the Baptist when he announced the coming of Jesus, he said in Matthew 3 verse 12,

His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor. He will gather His wheat into the barn and He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Matthew 5 verse 29. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. It is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Matthew 18 verse 8. And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into eternal fire.

Matthew 10 verse 28. Do not fear those who kill the body and are unable to kill the soul but rather fear

Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 13 verse 41. The Son of Man will send forth

His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 13 verse 49. So it will be at the end of the age the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous and will throw them into the furnace of fire.

In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 22 verse 13. Then the king said to the servants,

Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 25 verse 41.

Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me accursed ones into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

That's Jesus who is meek and mild. That's Jesus the eternal judge. He is the judge.

And he will do this. He will execute judgment on behalf of the father against all of the wicked because that is the role and the prerogative that the father is handed to the son.

So that the son will execute judgment on behalf of the father. Jesus claimed this to himself in Matthew 5 verse 22.

Not even the father judges anyone but he has given all judgment to the son so that all will honor the son even as they honor the father.

He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. Paul said in Acts 17 God has overlooked times of ignorance in the past but he is now declaring to all men everywhere that they should repent because God the father has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness and he has furnished proof to all men by raising that judge from the dead.

That one who is the judge of all the living and the dead he is also the refuge from that judgment. This is the glorious irony of the gospel.

That the one who is your refuge from the wrath of God is the one who will execute judgment and justice on evil doers.

He is both the judge and the refuge from that judgment. So Psalm 2 verse 12 says Do homage to the son that he not become angry with you and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled but how blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Do homage to the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way his wrath will soon be kindled so take refuge in him.

You run toward the one who threatens to destroy you in judgment because he is both the judge and the refuge from that judgment.

To those who find their refuge in him Jesus promises in John chapter 10 verse 27 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

If Jesus Christ is the object of your scorn and your rejection and your hostility for the brief years of this life you will be the object of his scorn his reproach and his wrath for the endless ages of the life to come.

But if Jesus Christ is your savior from sin and the wrath that it deserves in this life you are safe and secure in his hands and no one can pluck you out of them.

If you are a sinner who heaps your scorn on Christ and rejects the truth there is no one who can deliver you from his hand when that day comes and if you are a sheep who is trusted in him and been given eternal life there is no one who can pluck you out of that hand before that day comes.

This is a glorious truth so that this attribute of God that he is the living God he is the savior and he is the judge this is both a terror to the unbeliever and an unbelievable and unspeakable comfort to the believer.

Why? Because the unbeliever has to fall into those hands and those hands are not in one iota kindly disposed to that unbeliever who has lived his life in reproach and hostility against so gracious a

God. But for the believer who is trusted in Christ there is nothing that can pluck us from his hand.

We have fallen into his hand by God's good grace and we can rejoice in that so that all men are in his hands.

The unbeliever no one can deliver you from his hand. The believer no one can pluck you out of his hand because he is the sovereign and living

God. Comfort or terror? On which side of that fence are you?

If you've not trusted Jesus Christ for salvation I've got nothing to say to you except it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. You've heard the truth today you know it. There is a savior who lived a perfect life and he died a perfect death on a cross so that in his living he might have the righteousness that you need to step into eternity and stand before a righteous and holy

God. And he offers you the benefits and the blessings of his sacrifice for sin on the cross if you will repent of your sin and trust in him.

Come to the one who is the refuge for sin. His sacrifice is sufficient to pay your price. His sacrifice is sufficient to save you.

He invites you and offers you to come to him and if you will not turn to him you will stand before him and he will judge you.

That is his promise to you. And his promise to you also is if you will come to him he will not cast you out. Instead he will welcome you he will give you eternal life and he will raise you up to everlasting life on the last day.

That is his promise. He promises you that if you come to him he will not turn you away and no one will pluck you from his hand.

You will be safe and sanctified and secured all the way to eternity to the last day. So unbeliever repent and believe and trust

Christ if you have not. If you do not there is nothing but the terrifying expectation of judgment.

Believer all of your sins have been paid for in the person of Christ. So now as Romans 8 verse 1 says there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

None. Because you are in Christ you will never see the frown of God for any sin you have ever committed. Why? Because somebody else has borne all the wrath for that sin.

All of that sin has been paid for on the cross in the complete finished perfect and infinite work of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And so there is no debt left to be paid for you on your behalf so that when you stand before God there will be nothing but welcome and joy and pleasure and delight and no condemnation at all.

There cannot be because all of your sins have been taken out of the way as far as the east is from the west put behind him and he remembers them no more and because of by virtue of your repentance and your faith in Jesus Christ you have been not just only forgiven but you have been granted and given as a gift of grace his perfect unblemished and uncorruptible righteousness.

So that when you stand in the presence of the Father it is not just in a forgiven state but in a righteous state as if you have done all of the good deeds that Jesus ever did and had done none of the bad deeds that warrant your eternal damnation.

Christian this is the glorious news of the gospel and this is what we celebrate when we celebrate communion. We remember the price that was paid the sacrifice that was given so that we might be delivered from the terrifying expectation of judgment and from the terrifying prospect of falling into the hands of the living

God. We want to be picked up plucked up and kept and made secure in the hands of that Savior and not to fall into those hands with a heaping weight of sin upon our shoulders.

There is only one way to avoid that and that is to come to the faith in Jesus Christ. Before we partake of communion

I'm just going to give us a couple of moments to pray and to pause and to confess our own sin.

I always have to warn you I always should warn you that we don't partake of communion in a lighthearted manner or with sin on our hearts and unrepentant sin and being disobedient.

We come to the Lord and we confess our sin and we acknowledge it before Him and then we partake with glad and joyful hearts knowing that all of our sin is taken away because of what these things symbolize the death of Christ and His resurrection for us the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood and then

He was raised again three days later so that we might have eternal life. This is what this symbolizes. So I will ask the ushers to come forward at this time and we'll stand up here and give a couple of moments for us to pray quietly and then

I'll lead us in prayer before we partake. Alright, let's bow our heads.

Our Father we acknowledge that we are unworthy sinners and if you were to give to us what we deserve what our sins warrant we would suffer eternal damnation and judgment and yet by your grace you have delivered us from that by the sacrifice of your

Son and so we can do nothing but praise you and thank you for the good gift of that salvation.

We confess to you our iniquity we pray that you would sanctify us through this means of grace that we would walk in holiness and that we would find new comfort and new encouragement in these elements and that you would be glorified through our time here as we reflect upon our great sin and the great sacrifice which made our salvation possible.

Thank you that you are both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus and we thank you for declaring by your grace righteous those of us who are still in a sinning state.

We thank you that our ultimate reward our ultimate sanctification and perfection is yet future and we long for that day when we will have no inclination to sin but we will only do that which is righteous and pleasing in your sight.

Thank you for those spiritual blessings and thank you for this time that we can remember the great cost of our salvation in Christ's name.

On the night that our Lord was betrayed he took the bread and when he had broke it he said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me.

In the same manner after supper he took the cup and when he had given thanks he said take this drink it in remembrance of me this is a new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's pray together. Father it was a great sacrifice of sin and a great cost to yourself that you have purchased the people for your own glory and we thank you for that salvation and we thank you for that sacrifice and for Christ who has died in our stead.

We pray that you would continue to draw your people your sheep to yourself calling them out of darkness and into light giving them eternal life.

We look forward to the day when we will stand in your presence and rejoice and praise you forever more for the great gift of our salvation.

May you be glorified and honored in our lives as we live in obedience to you we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Stand with us as we close.

Thank you for joining us today and have a great week and hopefully we see you next