God Is My Judge

Amen.

All right.

Well, let's dive into the text this morning.

If you have a Bible or an app, open it to Daniel 6.

We're going to be working through that together this morning.

On his 1996 released album, All Eyes on Me, West Coast hip hop artist Tupac Shakur debuted the song Only God Can Judge Me.

This mantra has become a popular anthem within urban culture.

It's meant to communicate that a person is outside of the critiques and judgments of fellow man and that only God has the authority to determine a person's ultimate fate.

However, the phrase is often used to sedate a guilty conscience and to evade any accountability for a person's choices and actions.

To declare, only God can judge me, and then live as though he is not the holy, sovereign, just judge over all creation is a terrifyingly foolish way to discover your ultimate fate.

Because as Tupac found out, yes, God is the only judge, and all his judgments are righteous and just.

The name Daniel is comprised of three syllables.

And each syllable is a word in the Hebrew language.

Dan means judge.

I, which we pronounce as E, right?

It means my, and El means God.

Daniel's very name means God is my judge.

And unlike those who carelessly use that phrase as permissiveness for their sinful and rebellious lives, Daniel lived his entire life in faithful submission to this sober reality.

In chapter 6, I think we're going to see that clearly this morning.

As we engage with arguably the most renowned story in the life of Daniel, Daniel and the Lion's Den.

While this story may stand apart for its defiant faithfulness, define dependence, and momentous drama, it carries within it a very familiar theme that we've already seen throughout the book.

And that central theme, it actually underscores Daniel's namesake.

God is my judge.

From the very opening lines of the book of Daniel, this theme is introduced and presented.

Right?

We read in Daniel 1, 1 and 2, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand.

Daniel's establishing from the very opening lines of this book, God is the judge over all of which he has created.

And even earthly judges reside within his sovereign palm.

He's the true judge, and he sovereignly appoints earthly judges.

And what we see throughout the stories that are told in Daniel 1 through 6 is the suffering and consequence of those while lives are marked by this prideful dismissiveness and rebellion toward God as judge.

And the blessing, favor, peace, and security of those who live in faithful submission to it.

And he's gained Darius's attention because the king had observed that an excellent spirit was in him.

Now, the Persian kingdom, to help us understand kind of the emphasis of today's message, we have to realize the gravity of this kingdom.

It stretched from India to Ethiopia.

It was the largest kingdom in human history.

And to rule it effectively, the king was working to establish a new system of governance that was supported by a bureaucracy of regional governors over these defined territories, right?

This is what we refer to in the text as satraps.

And they were overseen.

These governors were overseen by three presidents, with Daniel actually being one of them.

Now, Daniel stood so distinct from these other leaders that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.

Imagine that for just a moment, Daniel's position of power and prominence.

He's about to be number two in a kingdom that stretches from India to Ethiopia.

Like we can't fathom that, but we can try to insert ourselves into the narrative for just this morning.

Now, this position provoked jealousy among the king's other officials.

And so they collaboratively schemed to be able to bring Daniel down.

But there was one major problem with their attempts.

The text tells us they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him.

Right?

We've been talking about this throughout the series.

There's this reality where Daniel finds himself in this secular pagan culture, but his life is marked by this agreeable participation within it.

And that that prospers him, right?

That gives him influence, that gives him prestige with inside this kingdom, his agreeable participation even within a secular pagan culture.

And so much so that these who are conspiring against him cannot find a fault to bring accusation to the king.

And so they create something.

And they create it based on Daniel's devotion to the God of whom he serves.

Knowing Daniel's unwavering devotion to God, they tricked Darius into issuing this unjust decree.

For 30 days, no one could pray to any God or man except the king.

Or, if they did, they would face death in a den of lions.

But Daniel, he he's fearlessly resolute.

In verse 10, it says this when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber toward Jerusalem, open toward Jerusalem.

He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously.

We have to remember Daniel's position of power.

He understands the system, he was aware of the decree, and in response to it, what does Daniel do?

He he praised the God as he had always done.

I think there's a couple things that we need to observe in this.

And it's kind of umbrellaed under this notion that the decree did not determine Daniel's devotion.

The decree did not determine Daniel's devotion.

I think we can see that two different ways within the text.

Number one, the decree did not restrain Daniel's devotion.

Daniel was very unmoved by the decree.

But not just the decree, he was even unmoved by the consequence outlined if it was broken.

He did not restrain his worship for the period of 30 days in some effort of self-preservation, right?

Like, what would you do if you were in his shoes?

Right?

If you pray, if you worship, if you are seen serving your God, you're gonna be thrown into this den of lions.

Your fate is determined by another.

And in our fear, we're gonna be defaulting into this sense of self-preservation, right?

I can I can hold out for 30 days.

It's only 30 days.

We can justify, like in our mind, our behavior and actions where we would pull back and restrain.

I I can I can with my my position with inside this structure and kingdom is more important, right?

If I just waited out 30 days and I can use that influence for a better and greater good with inside the culture, or or my family needs me more, or or my my my comfort is is secure here with all this stuff that I've been able to acquire, right?

I I can wait this out.

But but he didn't restrain his devotion in some effort of self-preservation of his prominence and his prosperity, nor did he seek to escape into the wilderness to be removed from persecution and to be able to worship freely, right?

Daniel didn't choose in response to this to become a separatist.

Like imagine the scope of that kingdom.

He could have gone anywhere and probably kind of flown under the radar, hidden someplace where he could worship his God freely, like I'm gonna separate myself from this hostile culture.

No, Daniel did neither of those things.

The decree did not make him restrain his devotion.

The second thing I want us to realize is the decree did not cause Daniel to release his devotion.

Here's what I mean by that.

Daniel didn't do anything revolutionary in response to the decree.

Right?

He didn't call his buddies like, look, we gotta, we gotta go worship in the town square.

They gotta know they can't do this to us.

Right?

We're gonna rally.

I'm gonna I'm gonna have this protest that they gotta know who they're messing with.

They can't infringe on what we need to do.

I'm gonna be more bold, more radical with my devotion.

Right?

You got people who who haven't prayed in six years coming out of the woodworks to march downtown.

You can't tell me how to worship.

I don't know why that voice was necessary, but you get the point, right?

Daniel didn't revolt by releasing some new radical expression of public worship.

Daniel did something more radical.

He remained faithfully consistent in what he had always done.

Like, think about your public life of worship to God.

Is it radical enough?

Think about these conspirators.

They know.

They've observed, they've seen, right?

It's like us coming to our monarch.

Look, I know where we can get him.

I know where we can get this brother.

He sits at table three in the cafeteria every day for lunch.

He eats apples and peanut butter and he opens up the text and he studies the Bible.

I know where we can get him.

I know his devotion.

I know his public worship.

I know how we can come against this brother.

Right?

Like Daniel's devotion was radical in its very nature.

Look at the verse 10, end of it.

As he had done previously.

You see, the decree never determined the outcome of his devotion.

Daniel persisted in the ordinary rhythm of prayerful communion with God because for Daniel, prayer was worth dying for.

You see, Daniel would rather pray than save his life.

Because ultimately, Daniel would rather suffer the judgment of man than to suffer the God who is his judge.

Think of how consistent and public Daniel's prayer life devotion had to have been.

His conspirators not only knew that they'd actually be able to catch him in this kind of trumped-up wrongdoing, but they even know when they would be able to catch him.

Like he was so regular in this rhythm.

And so they bring these accusations before King Darius, and though he was the text says the king was distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel, laboring till the sun went down on how to rescue him.

The king ordered Daniel to be cast into the den of lions.

Like you can sense the anxiousness and regret within sight of the king, right?

His sadness, but he has to be a man of his word.

He's the one who signed the decree.

He issued it for the people.

He's got to stand behind it, even if it's going to cost him his dear friend.

And so he orders Daniel to be cast into the den of lions.

And the next morning, after this sleepless night, Darius goes out to the opening of the den, which had been sealed by this stone, and he calls out, O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?

And to the king's joyful surprise, Daniel replies back to him, O king, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth, and they have not harmed me, because here's the why, here's the turning point of this, right?

Because I was found blameless before him, before God, and also before you.

O King, I have done no harm.

I want us to pay attention to both of those factors that Daniel communicates why he was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

It's because he was found blameless before the God of whom he serves, the one and true judge of all creation, and he was found blameless before the king, an earthly judge who was sovereignly appointed by the hand of God.

He lives in that tension.

We're gonna unpack that more throughout this, but I want us to keep that in our frame of thinking this morning.

God had delivered Daniel from the mouth of the lion, because he had lived in faithful obedience to both him as sovereign judge and to those whom his sovereign hand established to be judges.

Now, after Daniel had been drawn out of the den, you want to see God execute justice?

Even executing justice through earthly leaders of whom he has appointed.

It says this the men who had maliciously accused Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives, and before they reached the bottom of the den, the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces.

This is God's vengeance, this is God's justice on full display, even through wicked secular leaders for the good of his people.

Then Darius makes this new decree for the people of his empire.

He says, People are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever.

His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.

Listen to what Darius is proclaiming.

People are to fear God because he alone is the eternal king and only true judge.

This is what Darius is establishing as a decree in his empire.

That people are to have this fear of God.

Because ultimately God is the only true judge.

You see, the decree that the king had made after God had delivered Daniel from that den of lions, it was merely an echo of the life that Daniel had been faithfully living for the last 80-some years.

Daniel had this confidence, this rest, this peace because he ultimately lived his life in this faithful submission to his namesake.

God is my judge.

It was a life that was formed and shaped by God's very revelation of his personhood to his people.

He would have been meditating on the Psalms of David as he was standing there before the king.

Psalm 9, 7 through 8, which declares, but the Lord sits and throne forever.

He has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness.

He judges the peoples with uprightness, right?

That would have been shaping his worldview and his convictions, his understanding that he's not standing before the ultimate authority of earth, but he, that king, resides under the ultimate authority of the cosmos.

Daniel lived by this truth that God is his judge, and there is none who stands above him.

And any earthly judge is appointed by his sovereign will.

Psalm 75, 7, another one that he would have meditated on.

But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.

And in the midst of this tension, it's where Daniel lived.

But he lived in this trust-filled rest of who God is.

You see, he lives in honor and recognition that the authorities of this earth have been lifted up and appointed by the God he serves and worships.

And so he's able to function in this agreeable participation with them.

He's actually able to live out the scriptural revelation of the prophet Jeremiah about what a people sent into exile are supposed to live like, how they're supposed to function within society, right?

We love Jeremiah 29, 11, but what about the verses before it?

Jeremiah 29, 7.

It puts this onus, this responsibility on us.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.

There's God's judgment on his people, exiling them into foreign lands.

But what do we do to do when we're there, right?

Seek its welfare because it's in its welfare that you find your welfare.

Right?

He would have operated under this principle.

He would have entered into Babylon, he would have been to work, a servant of the culture, functioning in society in a way for its ultimate flourishing to be experienced.

And then look what God does, he just exalts him over and over again.

Yet Daniel also lives in the reality that there is a judge who stands above all earthly rulers.

And so he's able to be steadfast in this daring, defiant, and determined devotion to God.

No matter the bleak and disastrous outcome that lies before him.

You see, we have to realize Daniel was more immersed in secular life than most of us ever will be.

Like we can't comprehend the expression of secular ideology that just drenched the kingdom there.

Like we think we have it tough.

We don't understand that tension to the degree that Daniel had to function within it.

But yet he lived by a daring, defiant, disciplined devotion.

Because God was his judge.

You see, Daniel never feared the judgment of man.

He remained faithful to God even when the circumstance in front of him seemed terrifying.

And the loss of all things, even his own life, was at risk.

Yet he also never desired to become man's judge.

Daniel never attempted to wield his prominence and power as a means to alter the outcome or escape persecution.

He never tried to legislate a more favorable culture to his own devotion and worship.

Right?

The most radical thing Daniel ever truly did was to rest and trust in the reality that God is the only true judge.

Yet our story often fails to measure up to Daniel's.

But not just his story, it fails to measure up to his very name.

God is my judge.

So for us in this room, we kind of fall into one of two camps.

We either fear to be judged or we desire to become judges.

This is often where we find ourselves.

There's many of us who find ourselves with the life circumstances before us, unwilling or unable to fully trust God as the only true judge.

And so we respond to the circumstances that we face in this life with either a sinful fear causing us to cower back in this sense of self-preservation or in sinful desire, causing us to strive for control and authority.

Many of us, I think we can relate to the reality that we fear being judged by man.

We fear being judged by man.

And I get it.

I want you to understand this.

I'm not speaking at you, I'm I'm working with you.

And I've experienced this myself.

Like when you live in a hostile culture against your faith, there is a natural tendency to be afraid.

You see, Daniel had this unbelievably successful future in front of him.

Again, we we can't comprehend it, but this brother is about to be exalted and set over as number two the largest kingdom man has ever known in human history.

His future in front of him was unbelievably full of benefit and comfort.

All the influence, prestige, wealth, power, and freedom that he could have ever asked for.

This kingdom which stretched from India to Ethiopia, he had an unimaginable amount more to lose than any of us will ever obtain in our own life.

Like what do we fear to lose?

We fear to lose our regional assistant manager position?

We fear to lose our six-figure salary with benefits.

We fear to lose our four-bedroom home in the suburbs, our leased luxury vehicle, or maybe we fear losing our child's local association tournament championship.

Like, what are we so afraid of losing?

You see, he had unimaginably more to lose, yet he remained faithful.

And ultimately, we struggle with faithfulness because we struggle with fear.

We ultimately fear being judged by man because we're afraid of what we might lose.

And we're afraid of what we might lose.

Because deep down, if we're able to be honest with ourselves, what we fear losing, we consider more valuable than having God.

And this causes us to be an unfaithful people.

You see, Daniel's life echoed the life of the apostle Paul, who was able to declare this in his letter to the church at Philippi.

He said, Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ.

Look at the emphasis of what Paul's declaring here, right?

I can lose anything.

Why?

Because everything I ever had, my influence, my identity, my protection, my comfort, my power, whatever it might be, I counted it all as this heaping pile of you know what, in comparison to knowing and having Jesus.

That's his framework of thinking, his understanding, his conviction that's driving him day after day.

I don't fear because there's nothing I can lose, because I've gained everything in knowing and having him.

And like our life doesn't echo that.

And so we're afraid about losing our careers and our salaries and our homes and our benefits.

And so what do we do?

We restrain back in this act of self-preservation.

I don't have to be that Christian, do I?

And that temptation is going to just continue to grow and grow as you find yourself more immersed in a hostile culture that is against your faith.

You see, there's a surpassing worth in knowing and having God, but when we fail to realize that, we fear being judged by man because it jeopardizes the loss of all of our precious stuff.

The loss of our identity, our comfort, our privilege, our influence, our security.

Let the list just continue to go.

So, how do we live in the absence of the fear of man's judgment?

We live in the presence of God as the only true judge.

And like I would argue, I would bet that that reality doesn't shape our day-to-day experience.

God, the true judge, who gives us, this is the beauty of our relationship with him, right?

He gives us the fullness of himself when we live in a healthy fear of who he is.

He gives us himself, which unimaginably surpasses the worth of all of our stuff.

Hear the words of Jesus to his disciples.

In Matthew 10, he says, So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

That's judgment, right?

That's that's judgment language.

What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, fear him who can destroy both body and soul, and body and hell.

Jesus is instructing his disciples to have a healthy, conscious, present fear of who God is.

The true judge of all things.

And if we live in light of that, if we live aware to that truth, our fear of being judged by man, it's going to diminish over time, more and more so.

Maybe some of you can't relate to that.

Like, I'm not, I don't fear anybody, right?

That's cool.

Here's you.

You desire to be man's judge.

And all of us might be able to relate to this in certain ways.

We love authority, control.

We love determining outcomes.

And so we operate as the judge of others.

There's something again, I'm going to call us one more time to keep in perspective when engaging with this story.

Daniel was one of three presidents over Persia, and the king had planned to set him over the entire kingdom.

We cannot, again, fathom his prominence and power.

Yet what we what we observe is that in response to an unjust decree that would cost him his life, Daniel never wielded his authority in attempt to change the circumstances before him.

Daniel does something arguably more radical.

He quietly and peaceably submits to the king's authority while faithfully and defiantly lives in devotion to God's ultimate authority.

That's the tension.

I would submit that the scriptures call the Christian to live within.

I get it.

We're born in this rugged individualism, this pioneer spirit, this self-fate-determining culture.

And the sad part, though, is that we often read our culture's values and convictions into the scripture to inform them and to justify our own behaviors and actions rather than allowing the scriptures to read our story and to cause us to submit to the truth that they declare for us in our life.

This is something we have to understand.

And look, I'm I get it.

Some of you are gonna hear things I never said, some of you are gonna outright disagree with what I have to say this morning, and I want you to know I don't have time to unpack all of this today, right?

There's conversation to be had, but let me tell you this the Bible knows nothing, nothing of your democracy.

The Bible knows nothing of your liberties, the Bible knows nothing of the governing institution of this country.

The Bible knows nothing of America.

And I can say with full confidence, it has no desire to learn about it.

Because our existence will never change or dictate the truth and reality of the scriptures of which have been revealed.

So I get that we get frustrated.

I understand that we get restless striving to live in this tension because we have this sinful desire for control, to determine outcomes, to alter the culture, to be more favorable to our way of life.

We exist in a fundamental culture of defiance, but it's not expressed in this quiet faithfulness unto God.

No, it's expressed in unpeaceful protests, brute force, weaponized militias, political power.

Go on and go on, all because if there is going to be a judge in this land, it is going to be me.

And as I said, this cultural tone, it often forms our convictions, our worldview, and our societal participation more than the scriptures do.

Like, what are we doing?

You see, when we fail to trust God as the only true judge, we will be tempted to respond to life's circumstances in sinful ways, whether it's through the fear of being judged or it is a desire to be a judge.

We sinfully pursue, this is how it distills down, in either way you understand yourself.

We sinfully pursue self-preservation and an ultimate trust in ourself.

But thank God there was one who rejected this desire.

This desire for self-preservation, and praise God, there was one who embraced the full outcome of the circumstance before him.

You see, Jesus submitted himself to judgment.

Can we revisit this tension for a moment just one more time?

I believe that this same tension is most clearly observed and seen in the life of Jesus.

Like, no matter where we stand this morning, can can we all in this room agree on one thing?

There has never been a human in all of history who had more power than Jesus.

Fully God, fully man, he walks on water, he stops the storm, he raises the dead, he cleanses the leopard, he performs miracles of casting out demons, right?

Like no one had more power than Jesus.

Yes.

All right, good.

We have theological classes led by Pastor Rick.

If you if you need help on understanding that more.

Yeah, here's what we consistently see Jesus do.

Jesus consistently both affirms and submits to the authority of earthly judges and to the ultimate authority of his Father, the only true judge.

Whether it was paying taxes to Caesar, honoring centurions, functioning within legal structures, and ultimately even submitting to an unjust trial, Jesus perfectly lived in this tension.

Here's something I want us to really wrestle with this morning.

In the life of Jesus, we never see him walk into the temple of the imperial cult and tear down the statues of the emperor.

But we do see him enter the outer court of the temple and flip over the money changers' tables.

Now, wrestle with that truth.

I think it's fascinating that the man who had omnipotent power didn't walk into the institutional, secular, governing powers of this land and just start tearing them down.

And what's remarkable about Jesus' approach is that his submission to earthly authority wasn't based ever on the worthiness of those in power.

It was solely based on his understanding of his father and sovereignty over all human institutions.

And so Jesus submitted himself to the judgment of man.

Jesus was falsely accused for his obedience to God and faced unjust opposition for his defiant devotion to the Father's will.

Yet he remained faithful even unto death.

But he didn't just submit himself to the judgment of man, Jesus submitted himself to the judgment of the Father also.

And church, this is where our ultimate hope resides.

Jesus submitting himself to the outcome of God's holy, sovereign, and just judgment in our place.

You see, the reality of our sin is that we would never be able to stand underneath God's holy judgment.

But the good news of the gospel is that Christ hung beneath it for us.

And in Him, we are able to stand upright before the God of all creation.

You see, Jesus submitted himself to the ultimate judge.

And in that submission, he entered the den of the lions of sin and death.

And because of his unwavering faithfulness, just as God had delivered Daniel from that den, he raised Jesus from the grave, securing for us salvation for all who would trust in him.

Again, Jesus is the true and better Daniel for us, his people.

So my prayer for us this morning, church, is that we would live as though God is my judge.

Here's what I see in Daniel's life most clearly.

Living in that sober reality of that statement, it just brings so much trust and rest to Daniel's life.

Like our lives are filled with anxiety, worry, fear, stress, this desire for control and authority, right?

Like we're just riddled with these things.

Why do you think we're so riddled with those things?

I believe it's because we don't trust in God, the only true judge.

And we have a greater trust in ourselves, but then the flip side of that is we know our own inabilities and shortcomings to actually do anything about our situation.

We are mental.

We're sin-filled.

You see, you don't have to fear being judged by man.

Because when we know God, when we are able to proclaim like Paul, I have counted all things as lost for the surpassing infinite worth of knowing and having Jesus, then there is nothing that anyone can ever take from you.

Because Jesus holds us white knuckled within his hand.

What can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?

Here's the answer: nothing.

And so we don't have to fear being judged by man because man can do nothing to you.

And we don't have to desire to be man's judge because vengeance belongs to God.

Do we realize, like, the dude who is sitting in the oval office right now, it's because God appointed him there.

And that's not salvific or some type of Messiah complex.

This is truth.

It didn't matter who was sitting in that oval office because three years from now, or whatever the timeline is, we're functioning in, that dude is going to be there because God appointed him there.

He raises up authority and leaders and judges.

It is his sovereign will.

And like, here's a question for you: do you trust in that?

Like if there's another man sitting in that chair, would you trust God?

You see, we don't have to desire to be man's judge because God is their judge.

We just get to rest.

Doesn't that life sound better?

Maybe it's just me.

Church, I pray that we're able to live in this sober and beautiful reality.

God is the only true judge.

Let's pray.