Judgement and Grace | Daniel 5

Amen.

Please stay standing for the reading of God's Word.

We're going to be in Daniel chapter 5 here this morning.

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, I hope that you do.

We're going to be in Daniel chapter 5.

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

It's on the screen if you don't.

It's going to be a little bit longer passage.

It's fascinating, but it's longer, so feel with freedom to sit down if you need to.

We're in chapter 5, starting in verse 1.

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in the front of thousands.

Belshazzar, when he tested the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, and that the kings and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.

Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple and the house of the God in Jerusalem.

And the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines drank from them.

They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand.

And the king saw the hand as it wrote, and the king's color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him, his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.

The king called loudly to bring the enchanters and the Chalchaldeans and the astrologers.

The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck, and shall be third ruler in the kingdom.

Then all the king's wise men came in, but none could read the writing or make known the king the interpretation.

Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed.

The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banqueting hall, and the queen declared, O king, live forever.

Let not your thoughts alarm you, or your colors change.

There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.

In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.

And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans, and astrologers.

Because an excellent spirit, knowledge, and understanding to interpret dreams, explain riddles, and solve problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belchazar.

Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation.

Then Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king answered and said to Daniel, You are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom my the king my father brought you from Judah.

I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you.

Now the wise men, the enchanters, have been brought in before me to read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not show the interpretation of the matter.

But I have heard that you can give the interpretations and solve problems.

Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple, and have chains of gold around your neck, shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.

Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another.

Nevertheless, I will write read the writing of the king, and make known to him the interpretation.

O King, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father, kingship and greatness, and glory, and majesty, and because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and language languages trembled and feared him.

Whom he would he killed, whom he would he kept alive, whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he humbled.

But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened, so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him.

He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys, and he was fed grass like an ox, his body was wet with the dew of heaven, until he knew that the most high God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.

And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all of this.

But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk drink wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold and bronze and iron and wood and stone, which you do not see or hear or know.

But the God in whose in whose hand is your breath, those are all your ways, and you have not honored.

Then from his presence the hand was sent, and the writing was inscribed, and this was the writing that was inscribed, many, many, tickle and parson.

And this is the interpretation of the matter.

Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

Tekal, you have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting.

Paris, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.

Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold, and was put around his neck, and the proclamation was made about him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.

And that very night Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed, and Darius the Mead received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

Let's pray.

Father God, your word is alive and active.

I pray, Lord, that you would speak through your word this morning as you always have promised to do.

It cannot return void.

Cut our hearts, illuminate our eyes.

God help us to see you more clearly this morning.

God, fill our hearts with worship and bring us to a place of humility and seeing you more clearly.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

We're gonna pick up in the same spot uh that James left off last week.

And uh in order to do that, we're gonna say a phrase together that I'm gonna actually have us interact with all together today that James left us with last week.

And it's found three different spots in Scripture, uh, but we're gonna be using the version uh from 1 Peter chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

It says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Let's say that together.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

One more time.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

April 14th, 1912, in the North Atlantic Sea near midnight.

The air was clear, the sea was calm, in fact, it was so calm they said it was like a sheet of glass.

But the problem was the cloud cover blotted out the light of the moon, so they could see nothing.

The massive ship called the Titanic was cruising at 25 miles per hour through 28 degree Fahrenheit water.

The outside air was brisk and filled with the sea foam that would kind of get on your face and you could taste the salt water.

All from the spray coming from the massive 117 million steam, million-pound steam engine-powered ship cruising at a speed that it should never have been able to reach.

The band was playing big band waltz while many passengers were up and enjoying the late night dancing, and many others were fast asleep in this massive leviathan of a vessel, and all seemed like a placid cruise among this Irish-built unsinkable ship.

But then the tranquil night would soon be filled with tragedy.

At 11:39 p.m., an iceberg was seen by the crew, but they only had 30 seconds to react.

Because of the light of the moon being blotted out by the clouds, they couldn't normally see the small waves that were hitting up on the icebergs, and also because the sea was smoke so smooth there were hardly any waves to even be seen.

The ship attempted to make a turn, only resulting in hitting the iceberg on the side of the ship, causing a massive breach in the hull.

The boat immediately began to fill with this frigid water.

Chaos began and panic ensued.

Everyone's lives on that ship were about to be changed forever.

And in the next two hours of that dreadful moment, the most state-of-the-art, the most beautiful, the most costly, the most expensive ship, the biggest and most captivating, the most unsinkable ship ever built would be plummeting to the seafloor to be lost forever.

Fifteen hundred people would lose their lives while 700 survived.

It was one of the most colossal sea disasters of all time.

And here's the really tragic thing about all this is the whole thing could have been avoided.

Starting on April 7th, April 7th, days before, boat after boat leading up to the Titanic's departure, sent warning after warning after warning, saying, Hey, there's ice, there's ice, there's ice, beware, look out, there's ice, do not go, beware.

Warning after warning.

And yet the leadership of the Titanic was so prideful, and they full well knew of these warnings, and they went anyway.

The boat was designed to hold 64 lifeboats that would have been able to hold 4,000 people, yet they only took 20.

And only 18 would actually make it.

The boat could have slowed down and stopped, yet the decision was made to barrel through this unseeable sea at 25 miles per hour, which was way too fast to be traveling with zero visibility.

Warnings were given, yet they were ignored.

Safety was an option, yet it was over.

Looked, timelines were not important, yet they were in a rush.

And the Titanic, the world's unsinkable ship, now sits forever, 12,000 feet under freezing cold water, not because of any design flaw, but because of the pride of man refusing correction and warning.

And that's what we're gonna see today in Belshazzar's story.

So we're gonna start with these warnings that are ignored.

So here we are now in Daniel chapter 5, and which is decades later, after that moment that Nebuchadnezzar turned his life towards the Lord.

Daniel 5 · chapter mention

As we learned last week, Nebuchadnezzar was giving war giving warnings about his own pride and selfishness.

He was afflicted and removed from his kingdom, but the grace of God humbled him, and he humbled himself before the Lord and repented, and because of his repentance, God granted him his kingdom back and full restoration.

Let's say that line again.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

But Belshazzar's story, though he had the same types of warnings and opportunities to repent and humble himself, ends very differently and tragically than that of his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar.

In verse 1, we see that Belshazzar is throwing a massive party with thousands of people.

Let's look at the context here for a second.

Fifth century scholar and geographer Herodotus, who was alive during the later part of the reign of Darius, who came right after Belshazzar, estimated that the walls of the city of Babylon were over 300 feet high and 80 feet thick.

If you want something to compare that to, that's as tall as the Statue of Liberty and deeper than this room is.

That's massive.

Now, a lot of ancient theologians and geographers agreed with this assessment of the wall, and modern-day research shows that that may have been exaggerated a little bit, and they think that the walls were at least a hundred feet high and sixty feet deep.

Regardless whose estimations and accuracy is correct, the walls were massive.

They were impenetrable, impregnable.

There was no way anybody could contend with these walls.

And on top of that, Nebuchadnezzar had also geniusly designed the city of Babylon around the Euphrates River so that there was constant feet of water and life going through the middle of the city.

And then on top of that, he said, All right, now we're gonna have enough food and storehouses of food and grain and sustenance for 20 years.

If we completely close the massive gates, we'd be fine for at minimum 20 years.

It seems like an invincible city, an unsinkable city, just like the Titanic.

You see, here's the issue with this party that was being thrown.

We know from history that Babylon was losing.

Y'all, literally, Babylon was under siege.

The Medes and the Persians had been outside of the walls of Babylon trying to get in for 20 months.

It's not like they snuck up and the Babylonians were like, oh, look, there's an army.

I didn't know that.

No, they'd been there for almost two years trying to get in with zero success.

But Belshazzar ignored the warning signs because of his pride, which would then turn into mockery of God.

So now we have these corrupted vessels that we saw in the next few verses.

It's really interesting.

Once Belshazzar had drunk the wine, he commanded that the vessels that were taken from the temple when his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel be brought in, not only used to get drunk with, but in order so that they would use them to worship the gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone.

The very same vessels that were used in the temple for glorifying God, for worshiping God, for the confession of sin, were now being used for debauchery and pride instead of honoring God with them.

Church, I need you to hear this.

God will not let this kind of evil stand.

But before you get really excited about that, I got a question, I'm curious.

God had meant for these vessels to be holy and set apart.

He had instructed his people how to care for these vessels and to protect them.

These vessels were meant to glorify God.

Does that sound familiar to you at all?

It should.

Look what Paul says in Romans 12:1, starting in verse 1.

Romans 12:1

I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by the testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

But then sin entered the world and we chose it.

The vessels that Belshazzar corrupted had no choice but to be corrupted.

They're inanimate objects.

But you know what?

Every time we sin as human beings, we not only corrupt the vessels that were being made in the that were made in the image of God, but we do so willingly and knowingly that we are corrupting image-bearers ourselves.

We were fearfully and wonderfully made, yet we fill our minds with the constant feed of rubbish instead of the word of God for the renewal of our minds.

We craft ourselves to look and act and sound and function like the world in order to remain relevant and trending, yet we fail constantly because we are nonstop being conformed to the world instead of being conformed to the image of Christ.

We treat life as if it belongs to us.

And we fail to recognize and realize that our lives are not our own.

We are no different than Belshazzar, are we?

In fact, we might be worse.

James Allison put it this way this week, and we were discussing this passage.

Belshazzar's sin was not merely that he drank too much.

He took what belonged to God and treated it as though it belonged to him.

God had given Belshazzar breath, authority, influence, wealth, and position.

Belshazzar had received everything but God, but used those gifts to glorify himself.

Church, God will not tolerate when his sacred and holy vessels are polluted with evil.

There will be judgment, and it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

God, uh God, the wrath of God against evil is very real and very much coming.

Now, if we just stopped right there today, that would be a really sad spot to stop.

But there's something else that's true that I need you to hear.

Even though we are corrupted image bearers, even though we have rebelled against our Creator, even though we constantly take what He made for good and use it for evil, even though we are deep, dark sinners, alienated and separated from God, Romans 5.8 is still so true.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

No matter what you've done, no matter the corruption that you choose and chose, Christ knowingly went to the cross to forgive you, to cleanse you, to restore you.

And now for those of us who are in Christ, we get to bring him glory because he restored us when we never once deserved it.

And if you're in this room this morning and you are not belonging to Christ, this is the day to repent and turn your life to Christ like Nebuchadnezzar did.

Repent and humble yourself before him so that God can restore you and cleanse you and make you new and give you a hope that is eternal, not temporary.

But Belshazzar's story unfortunately does not end in restoration because of his own pride and mockery of God.

Daniel records, starting in verse 5, that all of a sudden in front of these thousands of people a human hand appeared and wrote on the walls the massive wall of Babylon, uh opposite of the lampstand.

Now, why is that detail in there?

Why is that important?

Because back then, when it was nighttime, these lampstands would cast light outward.

And this was not a private correction and conviction in Belshazzar's heart.

This was a public admonition and correction.

God made it for all to see.

He did it opposite of the lampstand so that the lampstand would illuminate God's message to everyone who could see it.

It terrified the king to the point his his knees knocked together.

Now, I don't know if you've ever been around someone who's genuinely scared of something.

I'm not talking about like, you know, at the beginning of the summertime when your kids are, you know, they're kind of wanting to put their foot in the water and they're like, ah, it's cold, I'm scared of the water, ah, it's gonna be really cold.

Ah, I don't know.

I'm not talking about that kind of fear where you as a parent, you know, just like, okay, let me let me gently help you with this fear and pick them up and just throw them in the pool.

I've never done that.

What are you talking about?

Um, no, I'm not talking about that kind of fear.

I'm talking about deep, psychologically, physically manifested fear.

What happens when this type of fear happens is your heart rate increases rapidly in order to pump as much blood to your muscles, to your body for that fight or flight mode.

Your pupils will dilate in order so that you can see any possible thing hidden in any dark corner possible.

And all of the blood from the surface of your skin will rush away from your skin and go directly into your muscles to try to give you strength to fight whatever's coming at you.

This was the moment that Belshazzar was terrified and it caused him to lose his color.

It said three times that Belshazzar lost the color in his face, and that's important because we needed to know that Belshazzar, the king of the most massive and amazing city ever, was terrified and shaking and just completely cut to his core.

Terrified, he immediately calls his counselors who he thought could interpret this writing.

He even told them that they would become the third ruler in the kingdom that he was about to lose if they could interpret what this meant.

Y'all, he was making an empty promise to empty souls who had no ability to interpret what God said.

The queen, likely his mother or his grandmother, came in to remind him of Daniel's ability to interpret dreams and that Daniel had the Spirit of God in him.

He absolutely should have known Daniel, y'all.

He absolutely should have known him because Daniel was a prominent figure and a chief of counselors to Nebuchadnezzar decades prior, yet he was, he had clearly been cast aside and forgotten about for a long time.

Daniel was now in his somewhere around his 80s, still faithful to the Lord, but unknown to Belshazzar.

Daniel was no longer dining with Babylon's king, but he was continuing to dine with the king of kings.

And we're gonna see again, let's say that phrase, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Let's say it together.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The queen reminds him of Daniel, and he immediately calls for him to be brought in.

He tells Daniel, if he can interpret this writing, he's gonna be the third ruler of the kingdom.

Yes, Belshazzar was a king, but his father, Nabonidus, Nebuchadnezzar's son-in-law, was still king.

Belshazzar was what's called a co-regent with his father, which means they ruled the kingdom together and shared sovereign rule of the kingdom.

Get that word, they shared sovereign rule of the kingdom.

Belshazzar did not have sole rule of the kingdom, he shared it with his father-in-law, which means he couldn't just make any decision that he wanted to make.

But yet he continued to function that way.

You see, Belshazzar was trying to offer Daniel something that he had no authority to offer.

It was an empty promise as the Medes and Persians were at his doorstep.

He's still acting like he owned the place.

Daniel rejects these worldly gifts because he had no need for worldly gifts when he had the eternal gift of divine eternity.

He tells the story of what James preached last week about how Nebuchadnezzar was a mighty king, ruling with ultimate authority in Babylon.

God brought him down from his Throne, humbled him.

Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself before the Lord, and he was restored.

Belshazzar already knew all this, as what Daniel said.

And yet his heart remained hardened.

It says in verse 22, And you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them, and you have praised the gods of gold, silver, and bronze, and iron, and wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath and the god and whose are all your ways you have not honored.

Woo! That's a pretty strict and stern warning and correction.

That's a pretty hard call out.

He is publicly calling out the king that really had no, that he had no relationship with for his evil and corruption of the vessels that were meant to honor the Lord and were now being used in prideful and sinful ways in front of thousands of the king's people who were closest to him.

But then it gets worse.

Daniel really lays the hammer down.

Then he says this.

Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed.

Many, many teckle and parson.

This is the interpretation of the matter.

Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

And I'm going to say it again because it was said twice in Scripture.

Many, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

It's said twice for emphasis.

Tekal, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

And Paris, which is the singularity form of parson, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Man, God was so gracious and protective of Daniel in this moment when Daniel was so faithful to the Lord.

Think about this.

Daniel, an 80-year-old prophet, cast aside and forgotten about for decades, comes out of nowhere and calls this king out of the most largest and powerful city in the world in front of thousands of his own personal guests.

He literally told him his life was over, his kingdom was over, and he was arrogant and prideful.

Belshazzar in that moment could have absolutely had Daniel murdered right then and there.

But yet God was continuing to show his power.

Here's what's so very interesting about the next part of this story.

Jay Vernon McGee told a story in one of his books about how our days are numbered.

He recalls a man who was being peer pressured into getting on a flight to California with some of his friends.

He didn't want to go because he was scared that the plane could crash.

Now, his friends told him not to worry because he doesn't decide when his number is up.

Now, for those of you who are older in the room, you probably have heard that phrase more than those who are younger that people used to say, well, your number's not up, or your number might be up.

That's just basically a way of saying we don't decide when we die, right?

And so he says, His friends tell him not to worry because he doesn't decide when his number's up.

And he said, Well, I'm not worried about my number being up.

I'm worried about the pilot's number being up.

Very interesting perspective.

But here's the truth of the fact that was mentioned twice to Belshazzar for emphasis.

Our days are numbered, church.

I'm gonna say it again.

Our days are numbered.

Did you know that by in the time that we've been sitting in this room this morning, about 7,200 people worldwide have died?

That's the worldwide average of deaths per hour.

That's super encouraging today.

We're not promised tomorrow here on earth, church.

None of us are, no matter how young or how old you are, you are not promised tomorrow here on earth.

But in Christ, we are promised eternity with him, and we are promised to live with him in the new heaven and new earth.

But while we are here, our days are numbered.

And Belshazzar, unfortunately, squandered his days by dishonoring the Lord and alienating himself from the love of God.

After Daniel tells the king, the king that his days are numbered, he then tells him that no matter how much he'd been given, no matter how important he thought he was, no matter how much power he thought he had, nothing outweighed the glory of God.

He had been given the kingdom literally of the most polarizing, the most powerful, the richest kingdom that ever existed in all time.

We've thought about it before.

Who's the richest person in scripture that we know?

And it was Solomon, right?

Well, guess what?

Guess who owned all of Solomon's stuff now?

Babylon.

Plus all of the other kingdoms that they conquered.

Belshazzar literally had the most vibrant culture and city in all of history.

But it wasn't enough.

Belshazzar's quench for more power, more glory, more fame led him to the deepest prideful rejection of honoring the Lord.

And when the Lord measured him up to his standards, he was found insufficient.

He was a lightweight.

And guess what?

I need you to hear this.

No matter who you are, no matter your reputation, your education, your bank accounts, no matter what you've done in this life, none of us have the sufficiency of God's standards.

Not a single one of us can earn the sufficiency of God's standards.

The only way we can be found sufficient is through the identity that Christ Jesus gives us.

When our identity is found in Christ and in Christ alone, the scales are tipped so much that nothing else in this world can contend with the weight of our God-given identity of child of God.

After that, then Daniel tells him that it's over.

He tells him that his kingdom is about to be divided and given to the Medes and the Persians, yet that didn't even phase Belshazzar.

Y'all, literally, the hand of God appeared out of nowhere and wrote on the walls of Babylon in front of Belshazzar and all of those people who were there.

And yeah, he was terrified in that moment, but then he's like, I'm fine.

I'm good.

I don't know about you.

If the hand of God appeared in front of me, it would bother me longer than a few minutes.

He still thought he was invincible.

Even after seeing the hand of God writing the message of impending doom, he still thought he was invincible.

His heart was so hard he couldn't see that the grace of God was giving him a warning.

The grace of God was saying, stop what you're doing.

Warning, you are headed for destruction.

Stop.

He ignored the warning.

He refused to see.

Here's that phrase again.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Let's say that together.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The king neither reacted negatively nor violently towards Daniel.

In fact, in this moment, he actually kept true to what he had promised.

He commanded that Daniel be brought a king's robe and a gold chain be placed on his neck, and he called him the third ruler of the kingdom, and told everybody that he was now the third ruler in the kingdom.

Daniel was once again delivered from the hand of an evil tyrant and granted the power he never sought.

And that very night, Belshazzar was killed and lost his kingdom.

Why?

Didn't Daniel go there to humble him and to warn him?

Wasn't the king gracious to Daniel?

Shouldn't he have been given like a pass?

You see, we often can read a passage like this and miss it.

This is a very different outcome than that of his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, Nebuchadnezzar was given the opportunity to repent, and he did.

And God blessed him.

But was Belshazzar not given the same opportunity?

At first glance, it may seem like he wasn't, but he absolutely was.

There's a few things from the text that tell us a very different story.

In verse 22, as we read, Daniel drops that truth bomb that Belshazzar already knew all of this stuff about Nebuchadnezzar.

He already knew that when a king becomes prideful, God will tear them down.

He already knew it.

And yet he ignored it.

He refused the humility and cast aside the history along with Daniel.

He's then given the opportunity to repent of his ways, and because the Lord didn't strike him down in that very moment that Daniel read the inscription.

God was being gracious to him.

There was enough time in between the interpretation and Belshazzar's death for him to process it all and make Daniel a ruler and to make a proclamation.

You see, he had time to humble himself.

But he didn't.

He ignored it and defied God's very handiwork.

God told him that he would lose his kingdom, just like he told Nebuchadnezzar.

When Nebuchadnezzar repented and was restored, Belshazzar defied the warning and still pridefully declared that his kingdom was impenetrable and invincible.

He believed that he still owned it by making Daniel a ruler of a nation that was literally surrounded by thousands of soldiers.

He refused to let go of his pride and surrender to the Lord.

And Darius the Meadow knew that he couldn't penetrate the walls of Babylon by force of almost two years of trying.

He craftily figured out, though, a way to penetrate Babylon without ever even trying to get through the walls.

See, he took the Euphrates River and very craftily redirected part of the Euphrates River so that slowly the river, the level of it, would come down.

And what that allowed the Medes and the Persians to do is be able to wade through the river underneath the massive walls of Babylon and take it from the inside.

They literally went straight through the life source of Babylon and didn't even try to penetrate the walls anymore.

And they took down Babylon.

The walls that screamed out, We are invincible, were now simply just bypassed because of the pride and arrogance of an evil king, and thus was the end of ancient Babylon.

Daniel, once a prominent leader and head of Nebuchadnezzar's counselors, had been forgotten about, and now he was an old man, been kind of cast aside in this retirement mode for a long time.

I can only imagine what Daniel, having been a faithful servant for almost a century to the Lord, must have been thinking for all those years he'd been cast aside after Nebuchadnezzar.

I can only imagine Daniel sitting, sitting at home, you know, having been retired for 20, 30 years, hanging out in his recliner.

I don't know what they did back then.

And, you know, he hears a knock at the door, and he's like, what the heck?

All right.

Gets up out of his recliner and goes to the door, and there's like these two Babylonian soldiers.

They're like, hey, Mr.

Daniel, I know that you're like super old and no one knows who you are anymore, but there was like a hand that appeared in the middle of the air and uh started writing stuff, and King Belshazzar is like super freaked out now.

Uh we don't really know what to do, and we heard that you can like interpret stuff.

Can you come with us?

You know, I don't know.

Maybe Daniel was like, yeah, sure, let's go.

Or maybe he was like, another prideful king.

Okay, here we go.

Either way, Daniel went willingly, still faithfully to the Lord, even still abiding in Christ and still cared for by the Lord while he was wasting away with untapped wisdom and power.

But then the king who had forgotten him called him in for help, and Daniel was faithful not only to the Lord, but to the country in which he lived.

I wasn't going to tell this story, but some of the guys on our preaching team encouraged me to tell it this week.

Many of you know the continued story I've shared regarding my dad, Roy.

So over the past several weeks, we've had to make some difficult decisions to move him out of the memory care facility he's in because of some really hard circumstances that we really can't even make up.

A little over a week ago, I had to have a really difficult, maddening, disheartening, and saddening conversation with one of the staff members of his current facility.

I was walking out of that office frustrated and angry and disheartened.

And then I hear my name called twice.

I'd walked out of that office and I hear Andrew, Andrew, and I turn around and I'm like, oh, yeah, I recognize her.

She's worked with my dad some.

She comes up to me and puts her hand on my shoulder and says, I've got to tell you something about your dad.

I'm like, okay, here we go again.

What's the bad news today?

And she said, something happened that just really cannot be explained outside of the power of God.

She says that she saw my dad in the facility, and he comes up to her and he offers to pray for her.

First of all, the guy can hardly communicate.

I mean, 99% of his communication is gone.

When he does communicate, it's just gibberish.

Sometimes coherent words come out, but they're all just jumbled together and it doesn't make sense.

He's very far down the road of dementia.

But then he offers to pray for her.

When he prayed, she said his words were as clear as day.

They all made sense together.

He stops and prays for her.

He prays for her family.

He prays that her husband would be healed and be able to provide for his family again.

He finishes his prayer and goes back to normal, not being able to communicate.

If you haven't believed in the power of God to give us what we need in the moments we need it most, then you hadn't listened.

You know what's crazy?

That's not the craziest part of the story.

She tells me that, and then she says, Andrew, I don't know how to explain this.

I haven't told anybody, and I certainly have not told him that my husband was sick.

He got sick a few weeks ago and has not been able to return to work and has not been able to provide for his family.

Roy had no idea any of that was going on.

Even if he had, he would have forgotten it already.

In the moment that God, in the moment that Roy needed God most, God shone through and gave Roy the words to speak in the moments that he needed it the most.

Daniel, even though he had been cast aside and forgotten about, the Lord was with him and worked mightily through him.

Daniel was faithful in the midst of Babylon, just like Roy was faithful in the midst of dementia.

And you know what?

God gave grace to both of those men to give them the power to speak God's word when they needed it the most.

Let's say that line again.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Let's say it again.

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Y'all, we will all face that moment that Belshazzar did.

When worldly wisdom and worldly joy are fleeting.

The question is when we face that moment, when we receive the godly wisdom and joy or just continuing to pretend that everything's fine when it's not.

We're all gonna face that question of who's gonna win in the end?

Is it Babylon or the kingdom of God?

Is it sickness and disease or is it the power of God?

Is it the glory of man or the glory of God?

We have hope, Christians, that Belshazzar never believed.

We have strength that Babylon cannot contend with.

We have forgiveness that will outlast every kingdom.

We have grace that outweighs all of our debt.

Church family, hear this today.

The very same hand that appeared out of nowhere and wrote on the mighty walls of Babylon that the days are of evil are numbered is the very same hand that pulled Peter out of the water when his face was weak.

It's the very same hand that was nailed to a cross for a payment of debt that we could never afford.

It's the very same hand that inscribed our names into the book of life when we never once deserved it by calling us sons and daughters forever.

And it's the very same hand that is so strong that nothing can pry you from his grasp.

The hand of Jesus is powerful.

With him we have hope, with him we have redemption and forgiveness and restoration.

With him, we will dwell in a kingdom that will never be defeated or conquered and that will never end.

Our hope is not in the walls of man-made protection and kingdoms.

Our hope is not in rulers and kings and presidents and politicians and finances and better circumstances.

Our hope is in the finished work of Jesus Christ that will not only abolish all evil but grant us everlasting life with him in eternity.

So, church, let's be a people who are not focused so much on our little kingdoms that we think as long as we do this or that, we're good and unsinkable.

Let's be a people who adhere to godly correction and warnings.

Let's be a people who are so focused on eternity like Daniel was that we will be faithful to do what the Lord has calls us to do no matter the circumstances.

That we will always share the gentle and the difficult truth with everybody we have been called to share it with and call others to repentance, and who will humble ourselves before thee, King, so that we may have life in his name.

Babylon will fall, but the kingdom of God will stand forever.

Amen.

Let's pray.

God, thank you for your faithfulness to us.

Thank you for the fact that no matter what we've done, no matter what we do, your forgiveness is so much stronger than our sinfulness.

But God, when we hear correction and warnings from your word, oh Lord Jesus, would you convict our hearts to the point of humility?

Would you grant us the hearts of repentance?

And God, would you make our paths straight?

Lord God in heaven, we know that you will abolish all evil.

So Lord, those of us who are in Christ, encourage us and convict us to stop living as if we're not.

For those in the room who are not in Christ, God, let them hear the warnings that unless repentance and humility before your name happens, that destruction is in their path.

And God, I pray that you soften their hearts today to hear the word of God that there is life only in your name.

Lord, we love you.

We thank you for this time together.

And in Jesus' name.

Amen.