Well Daniel chapter 5 weighed and found wanting and we come back to this chapter today having moved into it last week and the true and historical events that are recorded here concern a as we've seen the defiance and judgment of King Belshazzar of Babylon and the downfall of the Babylonian Empire. And this happens in 539 BC, which is 23 years after King Nebuchadnezzar died. And history tells us that King Nebuchadnezzar, who is prominent in Daniel chapters 1 to 4, that he was followed by four other kings before Belshazzar assumed the throne. I wanna read all of Daniel chapter five and then lead us in prayer. And as I did last week, I actually wanna start back in chapter four, actually a little bit earlier in chapter four than where I started last week. I wanna do that because of the God-exalting testimony of King Nebuchadnezzar and how this gives us some context and it also provides a shocking contrast to the self-exalting King Belshazzar. So, let's hear the living word of God. I'm gonna start in Daniel 4, verse 34, and then continue on through all of chapter five, and then I'll lead us in prayer. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done? And at the same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my Lord sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right, and his ways are just, and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. And now fast forward more than 23 years to chapter 5, verse 1. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, that they be brought, 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, the house of God in Jerusalem. And the kings and his lords, 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. Then 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 in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the astrologers. And 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 the third ruler in the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or make known to the king the interpretation. Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed. Verse 10. 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 color 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 Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will show the interpretation. Then Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answered and said to Daniel, you are that Daniel, one of the exiles of Judah, whom the king, my father, brought from Judah. I have heard of you, 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 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 a chain of gold around your neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Verse 17. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. Nevertheless, I will read the writing to 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 languages trembled and feared before him. Whom he would, he killed, and 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 and was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken from him, 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. He was fed grass like an ox, and 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 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, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways you have not honored. And then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed, and this is the writing that was inscribed, mene, mene, tekel, parson. This is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a 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 Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. And this is the word of the Lord. Let me lead us in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your holy and unchanging word. And we thank you for the fact that you so loved the world, that you gave your only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. And even as you rule over us and hold us all accountable, Oh, we thank you for the salvation from your judgment that belongs to all who believe on the Lord Jesus. We pray, Father, that you would please speak to us now, that you might strengthen each one in the hope and assurance of your saving love in Christ known by faith. Please help and enable me by your spirit to preach your word faithfully. We pray all this for your glory in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Well, tomorrow, as you know, is a very significant day. Because you know tomorrow, Monday, January 20th, 2025, is the day that my youngest son, Tyler, turns 27. And I know you all are eagerly awaiting that. Well, perhaps you also know that tomorrow is the day that a man, a man named Donald J. Trump, is set to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States of America. And in light of that, how timely it is for us to be reminded, even as we were at the beginning of our service, when God called us to worship him, that God alone is the king of all the earth. And that God alone reigns not only over the USA, but over all nations. Now, you know that the practice of fact-checking has become commonplace in our world of just constant information, this practice of fact-checking. Fact-checking, if you don't know what it is, is the needed process whereby any piece of information, any statement, any claim, any report is verified to be true, accurate, and reliable. In fact, pun intended, in fact there are numerous online companies such as Snopes or PolitiFact and many others that exist solely to check and verify facts. Well, let me give you the fact of all facts, which is eternally true and accurate and reliable. And this fact has been permanently verified by the most high God in Daniel chapter five and throughout all of scripture. And here's the fact, here it is. God rules and he holds all people accountable. God rules and he holds all people accountable. And this fact is the key lesson. It's the main point. It's the big idea of what we're going to see in Daniel 5 this morning. God rules and he holds all people accountable. And this means that the Most High God rules you, and He rules me, and He rules every other human being in the world. His activity rules over our activity, and we are all accountable to Him. Now, if you were with us last week as we introduced Daniel chapter five, we only looked really at the first 12 verses. And in those first 12 verses, in the opening part of the scene in Daniel five, we saw four actions of the interplay between human and divine activity. And so we saw first of all, the brazen human rebellion of Belshazzar. And then second of all, we saw the sudden divine terror of God with the handwriting on the wall. And then third, we saw the futile human desperation of Belshazzar in reaction to the alarming handwriting. And then fourth, we saw the merciful divine intervention of God with the queen mother telling Belshazzar to call for Daniel. That's what we looked at last week. Well, this morning, we're gonna look at the rest of the story in verses 13 through 31, and we're gonna see four more actions of human and divine activity. So we're just expanding what we saw last week as we continue on with the rest of the story in Daniel 5. So here's the first of this next four group of actions that we see. It's the action of foolish human bribing. The action of foolish human bribing. And this is what we see in verses 13 through 16. And so verse 13 tells us that the terrified, desperate Belshazzar has Daniel brought before him. Now Daniel is an old man at this point. He's probably in his early 80s and he's been in Babylon for more than 65 years. And the king says that the king knew that Daniel was an exile that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from Judah. A fact that the queen had not told Belshazzar. And this indicates that Belshazzar had knowledge of Nebuchadnezzar's experiences with Daniel and with the God of Daniel. And that is a fact that contributes to Belshazzar's guilt, which Daniel is going to later expose. Well, the king goes on then in verses 14 and 15 to affirm what he's heard about Daniel's supernatural abilities to interpret and solve problems. And he mentions the inability of his own wise experts, as it were, to do the same. And then at the end of verse 16, the king offers wealth and power to Daniel. He offers rewards to Daniel to be the third ruler in his kingdom if Daniel can indeed decipher the mysterious handwriting. And with that, what Belshazzar is doing is he's foolishly trying to bribe Daniel, just as Belshazzar had done earlier with his enchanters and astrologers, presumably in the hopes of a favorable interpretation. Well, tragically, this last ditch effort by the evil king reveals his total blindness to the desperateness of his situation. Because he arrogantly and foolishly thinks that with his own resources of power and of wealth and of charm, that he can bribe, that he can buy, that he can bargain his way out of the consequences of his own sin. That's what he's trying to do, to bargain his way, to bribe his way out of the consequences of his own brazen sin. And sadly, he's completely blind to the reality of the situation. He's completely blind to his smallness and to God's infinite greatness. And he's blind to his inescapable accountability before this unchanging, most high God. Now just imagine, and for some of you children, you'll really have to imagine this because you don't have your driver's license yet, but imagine that you're driving and you get stopped by a police officer for speeding. And you try to bribe that officer so that he or she won't give you a ticket. You know, if you try to do that, you know that's just plain arrogant and foolish. Because you probably know that bribing a law enforcement officer is a felony for which you'll likely be arrested and spend time in prison. Because it's illegal to try to manipulate justice and escape your accountability to the law. So bribery is foolishness. And yet, don't we sometimes foolishly think that we can somehow bribe God, that we can somehow buy Him off or bargain with Him with our good works? Oh God, I'll go to church more. I'll read my Bible more. I'll give more money away. I'll do more good deeds for people. And if we think that way, however subtle it may be, we're foolishly trying to bribe God so that we can avoid the consequences of our sins, so that we can escape God's judgment. Listen to the words of Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 17. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe. So there must be no foolish bribing with God but only humble repentance and faith that humbly receives God's lavish gift of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't bribe God. And that's ultimately what Belshazzar was trying to do with his offer of rewards to Daniel in interpreting the dream. So that's the first human action we see, foolish human bribing. Well this leads to the second action of unmistakable divine revelation. And this is what we see in verses 17 to 22 with what Daniel has to say. Unmistakable divine revelation. And by unmistakable, I mean that divine revelation is evident, it's obvious, and it's plain. And so notice in verse 17, Daniel begins his answer by saying that he wants nothing to do with Belshazzar's bribe. He says, keep your gifts for yourself, give your rewards to another. And then Daniel goes on and promises to read and to make known the interpretation of the handwriting. But before he does that, Daniel gives a little history lesson to the king, which is what verses 18 to 22 are all about. And as you see, this history lesson has a powerful, penetrating, personal point for Belshazzar. And so with the force of a rocket, really, Daniel says in verse 22, and you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart. Now, here it is. Though you knew all of this. You see, the king knew it because God had unmistakingly revealed it through Nebuchadnezzar's own testimony. Now Nebuchadnezzar's own testimony is what is revealed and given to us in Daniel chapter 4. And that testimony from King Nebuchadnezzar is given as an official proclamation or decree. It's in the form of a royal document that was likely copied by scribes and distributed throughout his kingdom. and even beyond. And so his testimony as it begins back in Daniel 4 verse 1, we won't read the whole chapter, but he says in Daniel 4 verse 1 at the very beginning, King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations and languages that dwell on the earth. This is a royal proclamation that he's making, an official document of his kingdom. So that's why I say that this was and it is God's unmistakable revelation through King Nebuchadnezzar which Daniel knew that Belshazzar knew all about. And so then in verses 18 to 22, what Daniel is saying is, Belshazzar, you knew that it was God who gave King Nebuchadnezzar greatness, glory, and majesty. You knew that it was God who made his kingdom great in size and authority and power. You knew that it was God who humbled King Nebuchadnezzar when his heart was lifted up in pride. You knew it was God who taught King Nebuchadnezzar that the Most High God rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over at whom he will, as he says in verse 21. And so, O King Belshazzar, you can't plead ignorance about the Most High God of heaven. And you can't plead ignorance about your failure to humble your heart before Him. You see, the point he's making is that God has unmistakably revealed His reality, His authority, His glory, and His power to you. He's made His revelation plain to you. And Belshazzar, you have no excuse for not humbly worshiping Him. And let's just say by way of illustration, just imagine for an instance, you've been stopped by a police officer because you're speeding. Just imagine. And that officer, he or she tells you that you were doing 70 miles an hour in a 40 mile an hour zone. And so as they're saying this, you think to yourself, well, I can't really try to bribe this officer because I know that's wrong and that wouldn't be a good thing to do. So what should I do? I know what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna plead ignorance. And so you say to the officer, oh, 70 in a 40 mile an hour zone? My goodness, I didn't realize this was a 40 mile an hour zone. I never saw any signs. And as soon as you say that, the officer points out the speed limit 40 miles an hour sign that's 20 yards behind where you just pulled over. The sign was there. The sign was there. And that speed limit sign is the unmistakable legal revelation that you're expected to know and to adhere to. And you've probably heard the saying, ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking the law. Well, in a far greater way, spiritually, No one, no one can plead ignorance to God's unmistakable divine revelation. Because God has revealed himself in the fullness of his immense creation. He's revealed himself in the fullness of the 66 books of scripture, his written word that he has given. And he's revealed himself in the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the living word that God's written word reveals. And this means that I know that you know, and you know that I know, and we all know that everyone knows that there is a God who created us, who deserves our worship, and to whom we're accountable. Listen to what the Apostle Paul, God himself through the Apostle Paul, says in Romans 1, verses 18 to 20. I know that Terry did an overview of the book of Romans in our equipping hour today, so this may be echoing some of that. But listen to what is said, Romans 1, verses 18 to 20. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. for His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so that they are without excuse." That's Romans 1, 18 to 20. And that brings us to the third action that we see in Daniel 5. Not only foolish human bribing, not only unmistakable divine revelation, but here's the third action, the third reality, and that is the action of inexcusable human guilt. Inexcusable human guilt. Listen again to what Daniel says in verses 22 and 23, as he bluntly exposes Belshazzar's inexcusable guilt. Verse 22, 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, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath and whose are all your ways you have not honored. You see, in Belshazzar, you knew it, but you blew it. Notice how this indictment is framed by what the king had not done at the beginning of verse 22 and at the end of verse 23. So at the beginning of verse 22, he says, you have not humbled your heart. And then at the end of verse 23, he says, you have not honored the God who gives you breath and the God who rules your life and destiny is the meaning of what he's saying there. So he's telling him what he has not done. That's what frames the indictment. But then in between those statements of what the king had not done, Daniel then exposes what he had done. So he goes on to say in verse 23 or says there, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. He's saying you've misused the holy vessels of God. You've misused God's stuff. Just to paraphrase that. And with that, you have praised the false and the lifeless gods of creation. And so you see how he's exposing and speaking to Belshazzar's inexcusable guilt. And this is instructive for us because friends, the nature of sin, the nature of our sin is both passive and active. In other words, sin involves both what we have not done and what we have done. Regarding what we have not done, sin is a passive failure to humble ourselves before God and to honor Him, to worship Him. And sin is also an active lifting up of ourselves against God in rebellion, actively misusing God's stuff as it were. In other words, misusing the life that he's given us, misusing it for our own proud and selfish pursuits rather than for the glory of God. And it means ultimately whether we identify it as such or not, we're worshiping the creation rather than God who is the creator. Go back to Romans 1, or at least listen to this in Romans 1, continuing on from what Paul goes on to say there. Verses 21 to 25. Listen to this. He says, for although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie. and they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is forever blessed. Amen. You know in our day among many manifestations of sin Think about all the gender confusion and all the sexual perversions that there are in their many forms. All of those are ultimately a misusing of God's stuff. It's the misusing of human bodies that God has given to us, made in his image as male and female, going back to Genesis 1 and 2. It's a misusing of those things that are to be used for the worship and the honor and the glory of God who is our loving creator. That's just one example of the manifestations of sin. And oh, the inexcusable guilt of sin. Well, in Daniel 5, we see the actions of foolish human bribing. We see the reality and action of unmistakable divine revelation, as well as inexcusable human guilt. And this brings us to the fourth and the final action in Daniel 5, the action of inescapable divine judgment. Inescapable divine judgment is what we see in verses 24 to 31. Belshazzar's guilt was inexcusable, and God's judgment was inescapable. And so Daniel interprets the handwriting, which is the pronouncement of God's judgment. See that in verses 24 to 28. Verse 24, then from his, God's presence, the hand was sent And this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed. Mene, mene, tekel, parson. And this is the interpretation of the matter. Mene, God has numbered the days. God has numbered the length, the duration of your kingdom and brought it to an end. And it's thought that that term is repeated twice, probably for emphasis, to just emphasize the certainty of what God is saying through Daniel. Your kingdom has been numbered, the days of it, and it's brought to an end. Babylon is finished, O king, it's over. Verse 27, tackle. You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Belshazzar, your days are over. God has weighed you. He's measured and evaluated you and you don't measure up. You are a lightweight. Says Proverbs 16 verse 2 says, All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. And then verse 28, Perez, your kingdom is divided, meaning it's dissolved, it's destroyed, and it's given to the Medes and Persians. And do you see with these statements, how direct, how complete, how inescapable is the sentence of divine judgment? How does Belshazzar respond to what he's just heard from Daniel? Well, it seems that he's unfazed by Daniel's words. Perhaps the earlier fear and terror he was experiencing has dissipated somewhat, and it seems he sort of carries on with business as usual. So verse 29 tells us that the king makes good on his promise to reward Daniel, which in God's providence, elevates Daniel to a strategic place in what will soon become the Medo-Persian Empire. And this sets the stage for the events that we're going to learn about in Daniel chapter six. But it's interesting that the absence of any other response from Belshazzar to Daniel's words of judgment, the absence of any other response, it seems to imply, in my own mind anyway, perhaps a passive but scornful reaction. In other words, as Daniel hears these words, I'm sorry, as Belshazzar hears these words from Daniel, I can kind of imagine the king perhaps sort of rolling his eyes and maybe saying under his breath, that'll be the day, that'll be the day. Well, we know it was the day, wasn't it? It was the day. And so verses 30 and 31, that very night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old. And that statement really will lead us into chapter six when we get there next time. But oh, the horror, the horror of God's sudden, complete and inescapable judgment This is like what Proverbs 29.1 says, he who is often reproved yet stiffens his neck will suddenly be broken beyond healing. I remember a number of years ago, a pastor I knew, an acquaintance who was back in the East, back in the Northeast, was telling me about a church discipline situation they had with a man who was sadly professing to be a believer, but was unrepentant. His sin was well known, it was well documented, it was very objectively verifiable, but he did not repent, and ultimately, sadly, tragically, grievously, had to be put out of the church. And the pastor told me with tears in his eyes that some seven or eight months after that happened, this man who otherwise was in absolutely perfect health, he was in his 40s, literally just dropped dead. God is faithful to his word and we ought not to play games with him. What happens to Belshazzar is like the greedy, self-reliant rich man in Luke chapter 12 that Jesus uses as an illustration. This man who builds giant barns to store all of his goods and his treasures and then he kicks back to relax and to eat and drink and be merry because he has so much stuff and he thinks to himself he's gonna be able to use this stuff for years to come. But we're told there in verse 20 of Luke 12, God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you. That's what happened with Belshazzar. Tragically. This is amazing. Belshazzar was the fulfillment of God's prophecy through Isaiah about the fall of Babylon more than 150 years earlier before it happened. So listen to this in Isaiah 47 verses 10 and 11 and tell me if it doesn't sound like Belshazzar and Babylon. Isaiah 47 verse 10 and 11, you felt secure in your wickedness. You said, no one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray and you said in your heart, I am and there is no one besides me. But evil shall come upon you, which you will not know how to charm away. Disaster shall fall upon you, for which you will not be able to atone. And ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know nothing. Listen, don't laugh off the fact of God's coming and inescapable judgment. Hebrews 9.27 says, it's appointed for man once to die, after that comes the judgment. The question is, are you ready? Are you ready? You know, we know whenever there's a destructive catastrophe like the fires in Los Angeles or the hurricane floods in North Carolina last fall, We often hear people who are impacted by those catastrophes saying very understandable things, but things like, you know, we're gonna recover, we're gonna rebuild, we're gonna come back even stronger than before. And we can empathize with folks in that situation to an extent, and certainly we should pray that that's the case. But listen, friends, when God pours out his inescapable judgment, there will be no escape. There will be no recovery. There will be no rebuilding. It's eternal. So are you ready? And you might even ask or be thinking to yourself, well, how come it seems, if this is true, how come it seems that evil, unbelieving people can seem to be not experiencing the judgment of God? In other words, they're not being killed instantly like what happened with Belshazzar. They in fact seem to keep going, even prospering, flourishing in their sin. Is God not going to judge them? And we can wrestle with that at times when it seems like we see the wickedness and the evil that just seems to go on without any kind of accountability. And we wonder what's going on. Well, back to Romans chapter one, one last time. Because the fact is that God is already judging unbelievers with what theologians have termed his judgment of abandonment. His judgment of abandonment. And we actually heard this already in Romans 1 verse 24. Therefore, God gave them up. God gave them over. He's abandoning them, as it were, in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Listen, before God executes final, eternal judgment in death, He gives unrepentant unbelievers up. He abandons them to the very lusts and impurities that they desire. They've deserted God, so God deserts them. He abandons them to the very sin they crave, which serves to sink them deeper and deeper into their sin and into God's judgment. And so this is what Paul goes on to explain in verses 26 to the end of chapter 1. He uses that phrase, God gave them up three times. First in verse 24, as we heard, and then listen to verse 26. And I'll just read to the end of the chapter. Verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they didn't see fit to acknowledge God, here it is again, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. Then he gets very descriptive. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They're full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, Disobedient to parents. Kid, you think disobedience is no big deal? It's a real big deal. He goes on to say, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them. Oh, how frightening is God's inescapable judgment, including his judgment of abandonment, giving people over to the very wickedness that they crave. It's terrifying. So beloved, it's the fact of all facts, you see, that God rules and holds all people accountable. And so, as I said, are you ready? Another way of asking that question is, what will be your experience regarding God's coming judgment? Will you be weighed and found wanting, or will you be weighed and found in Christ? It's our only hope. If any of us, if it was on our own merits and on the basis of our own presumed righteousness or anything, we would all be weighed and found wanting. Our only hope is Christ, to be weighed and found in Christ. Because the eternally secure and profoundly comforting hope of salvation in Christ is that at the cross, God poured out all of his righteous judgment on Jesus as a substitute for inexcusably guilty sinners who repent and believe on him. We've heard that already today. We've sung about that today. John 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. A little bit later, John 3 verse 36, whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Romans chapter three, verses 23 to 25, Paul says, God says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified, are declared righteous by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. That big word propitiation means that he appeased God's wrath. satisfied God's justice so that God is no longer wrathful toward those who are trusting Christ because God put all that wrath upon Jesus in the place of those who would trust him. And Paul says that's to be received by faith and the glorious statement of Romans 6 verse 23, for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So in many ways, the whole lesson of Daniel chapter 5, the whole exhortation is don't be a Belshazzar. You're a sinner, inexcusably so. You're under the wrath of God, but you can repent and you can trust God's provision in Christ. If you're not trusting Christ, be warned, be afraid, repent, and come to Jesus in faith. God rules and he holds all people accountable. If you are saved through faith in Christ, by God's grace, then rejoice and give thanks to him and keep growing in the hope of the gospel and walk worthy as you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, tell unbelievers how they can escape God's judgment. and how they can have eternal hope in Christ. Let me lead us in prayer. Oh Father, you know your purposes in all that you have spoken to all of us about this day. May those purposes be realized and may each one hearing your word know the full hope and joy and peace of eternal life through faith in Christ, of being not only delivered from your wrath, but delivered into the fullness of your blessings in Christ, and all that it means to be reconciled to you and to know you as our Father through faith in Christ. God, may those purposes be realized for your glory in Christ. Amen and amen.