I want to just take a minute before we read. Go ahead and turn your Bibles if you would to Daniel chapter 5. I just want to take a minute and just say something to you Grace Church. If you are here today and you are a guest, welcome. I just want to say something to all of you people that always come and everything. You know I really like you. You say, well, don't you love us? Well, yeah, but that's by command. The Bible doesn't say anywhere, doesn't say anywhere that I have to like you, but I just want you to know that I really like the people of Grace Church. In fact, I don't know where Bonnie is back there, but we've talked about it before. There she is. That it is the greatest privilege of our life for us to be able to work with people like this because, you say, why do you like us? Well, I like you because you follow and you listen and you learn. I like you because you're hungry for God's Word. I like you because when we talk about giving, we talk about serving, we talk about going the extra mile and getting involved, I like you because you listen to God's promptings and it is very encouraging to be a pastor of a church where the people serve. I talk to pastors all the time and my fellow pastors are not blessed to the degree that I am at Grace Church. Many of them are figuring out how to lay off missionaries, how to lay off staff members. But we're not doing that. We're thinking about how we can pay off the debt so we can do more. And I like this church. I like you. And I just want you to know, thank you for coming to Grace. Thank you for being here. It's a tremendous encouragement to me. said that turn in your Bibles. Let me get a hold of myself here. Daniel chapter 5 I want to talk to you today about the fifth element in our character building series that we are talking about. How is it we are going to be able to stand strong in a world gone wrong? How can we when the King and culture is going one direction? How can we go another direction? We find ourselves in the setting of Daniel and three other Hebrew boys and perhaps many other Jews but these four we know. carried away to a far away place at a very young age and had to make some decisions that were going to affect a lifetime and thank God they did. And they stood strong in that world in a pagan culture with a pagan king and every influence was negative but they stood strong. And we likewise can stand strong in the world that we are in. So we've been talking about taking our stand with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I'll repeat, people who stand strong in public have first taken a stand in their hearts. I believe the key verse is that verse Daniel 1.8, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat or delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested that the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. He was a man of conviction and commitment. He lived on purpose. It all started right there. And as we always have said and repeated many times no doubt that the heart of all issues is the issue of the what? Heart. Say it with me. The heart of the issue is the issue of the? Heart. And that is why we are preaching this series because these are all issues of our heart. That is we have to first of all live with a commitment in our soul toward what we know God wants us to be. We live credible lives. We have to exercise courage. And then we have to show compassion to the world that is around us. Even those that we are announcing God's Word to we need to do so with a tear in our eye and with compassion. So Let's move on to the next character trait. It's written up here for you under the cross. And by the way, once again, the only way that we're able to exemplify these kinds of lives is through the power of the cross and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And so the next one is this trait of clarity. You say, well, that seems simple enough. It just means speak clearly, tell it like it is, just out with it, so to speak. That shouldn't be too hard. Well, that's easier said than done. in front of people who seemingly hold your health, wealth, and future in their hands. In other words, when coming out with the truth and just speaking and talking and telling the truth, when it becomes very expensive, then people are a little bit slower. do that. It is easier said than done. So let's take our Bibles we want to get ourselves located here in the passage. Let's stand we are going to read Daniel chapter 5 verse 17 to 31. A little bit of a lengthy passage but we can't preach from what we haven't read so let's see what God's Word has to say here. Now let's see if I can't get it right this time in the first service I started reading chapter 4 and everybody was just standing there. I've got it right this time. Daniel chapter 5 and verse 17, we'll read down through verse number 31. Let's read together. Then Daniel answered and said before the king, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another. Yet 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, a kingdom and majesty. glory and honor. And because of the majesty that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he wished, he executed. Whomever he wished, he kept alive. Whomever he wished, he set up. And whomever he wished, he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men, his heart was made like the beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. But you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all of this. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of his house 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, bronze and iron. wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know. And the God who holds your breath in His hands and owns all your ways, you have not glorified. Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written. And this is the inscription that was written, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Ufarsin. This is the interpretation of each word. Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. then Belshazzar gave the command and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain of gold around his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be third ruler in the kingdom. That very night, Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. Now, Father, I pray that you'd add your blessing to the preaching and teaching of your word. I pray that the anointing of God's Spirit, your Holy Spirit, Father, would rest on me and all of those who hear, so that at the end of the day, there would be benefit, profit, that there would be true learning And I pray that that learning would be changed and transformed into attitude and activity in our own lives. We have to pause and thank you for giving us the example of Daniel. Thank you for his three friends. Thank you for their strong stand when they were the only ones. Help us to draw courage from your faithfulness to them. And help us today as we learn something about speaking a clear message. In Jesus' name, amen. could be seated. So on the front of your worship folder it says, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. You say, Pastor Phil how do you know how to pronounce those words? I got on the Internet and I looked, looked, looked and found an Akkadian guide, Aramaic guide and I listened to it. That's how I learned how to say it right there. So on your worship folder it says, A Little Clarity Please. Well that's what they needed. They knew the words, they were written in Aramaic or Akkadian and they could read them, they just didn't know what they meant. They understood what the words meant in their simplest form, but what was the message? I pray today that you don't just hear my words, but I pray that you get the message and understand what we're talking about. So, we've identified these four character traits, commitment, credibility, courage, and now we need compassion. By the time we get to chapter 5 Nebuchadnezzar is dead, he died in 562 B.C. He has been dead now for a period of years and in fact this chapter 5 occurs 23 to 25 years after the events of chapter 4. And so Nebuchadnezzar died in 562 through 3 years after he had that whole event of becoming a beast. And so, just as the vision of chapter 2 had predicted, the Medes and the Persians, this other kingdom that is going to come after his kingdom, has gained all kinds of strength and power, and they are knocking at the door of Babylon. Literally, there are two full armies the Medes and the Persians that are right outside the door, they are ready to take the place over, there they are. And so you would think that since the prophecies that came to pass concerning the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar and other prophecies came to pass so quickly you would think that they would stop and listen to the other prophecies, not so much. So we need to develop the story and that is what you have at the first part for you to fill in some things here on your Scripture sheet. And I did not mention that Scripture sheet. In fact I have to stop and do something or I'm going to be in big trouble. Halt. Let's halt for just a moment and take out this sheet of paper. I am going to be in big trouble. Every staff member is going to have me over the whipping post if I don't get this out. So please take this out. Every believer, every person in this place today please take it out. On one side it says, Welcome to Grace, and it's for the guest. And we'd like you to give us your information. We're glad you're here. Thanks for coming. Welcome to Grace. And if you are a regular attender you don't even need to pay attention to this side. Just look on the side that says right in the middle, Member Attender. Just give us your name and your last name so that we as pastors can be up to date on who is here, and what's going on, and how we can bless you. If you have prayers and praises please include them. And then if you need to update your information you can do that. So, Pastor Paul will come at the end of the hour, he'll collect these. I'm sorry I meant to mention this right at the very first. are very important part of what we do every week. So get them ready and we'll pass those out. Also there was a Scripture sheet inside and at the top of that Scripture sheet it should say, Unmistakable clarity. I think on our screen it said something about the sermon from last week. Don't worry, it's not a repeat sermon. It's different. All right, so let's get right into it and let's see the movements. There's five movements in this passage, and verses 1 through 4 is the first one. The defiant pride. Defiant pride. So who is this fellow, Belshazzar? Who is he? Well, his name means, Bel, protect the king. Bel. Bel was one of the four main gods, or pagan gods, the people and he was named for him and his name meant Bell or this god, deity, protect the king. Well that's not going to happen because no one can protect anyone if God sets his mind to take that person down. So who is Belshazzar? Well he is the son of Nabonidus. You say, well who in the world was Nabonidus? Well Nabonidus was the guy who married Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. Nebuchadnezzar he didn't have any, he had a son that could rule but he got assassinated after a few months. But he had a daughter who married Nabonidus. Nabonidus came in and Nabonidus and his daughter had a son his name was Belshazzar. By the time of this writing Belshazzar is number two in the kingdom. He is in charge of all the province of Babylon and But all of the kingdom is still under the charge of Nabonidus his father. So there is a co-regency Nabonidus and this fellow by the name of Belshazzar. So to make it simple Belshazzar is Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. He is abominably proud and he is ready for a fall. I want to give you some thoughts about how we know when people are ready for a fall. First of all from the passage verses 1-4 indulgent people are ready for a fall. Indulgent with the Medes and the Persians at the gate. He decided to throw a party His motto is party on Doesn't make any difference who's at the gate. Doesn't make any difference what's happening on the outside. Doesn't make any difference the danger that the kingdom is in. His motto is party on. We're safe. Everything is good. So we find him with 1,000 of his nobles along with his many wives and his concubines and no doubt the nobles had their wives and concubines and they're just having a regular fiasco of an orgy right there in this great dining hall area. the palace there in Babylon. Indulgent people are ready to fall. You know if I could just stop and say that this was a time when they were ready to go over the cliff. You heard that word lately? They were ready to fall off the cliff. They were ready to be taken over. They were ready to be attacked. There was trouble on every side. But because of false security behind big walls, they felt like, well, nothing could ever really happen to us. These are all just the naysayers that always want to just complain about the way things are. The truth is what we need to do is just party on. Indulgent. Does that sound like any country that you know of? Indulgent people are ready to fall. Second, ignorant people are ready to fall. You say, are you calling me ignorant? I'm just giving you some thoughts here now. Don't take anything personally. Ignorant people are ready to fall because he was ignorant. He and his people felt that they were safe inside the walls of protection that Nebuchadnezzar had built. Some of these walls were 300 feet high. There was a triple wall in fact, one central wall and two, an inner and an outer smaller wall that had all kinds of water and things around it. And so there were some towers, there were towers of defense. I mean they had the armaments and the military. They had the state of the art of what could be had at that time to protect them. And so they felt that they were so well protected nothing could happen to them, so party on. They were indifferent to danger and disaster. They thought no one can touch us. triple wall of defense, there is a large stockpile of food. And besides that the Euphrates River runs right through the city north to south, guarantees plenty of water, and guarantees safety. So, he was counting on peace when war was at the door. 1 Thessalonians 5, 3 says, for when they say, this is talking about the end times, when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. ignorant people are ready for a fall. Next, irreverent people are ready to fall. Look closely at verse number 2 of chapter 5, verse number 2, And while he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and the silver vessels which his father, his grandfather actually, Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king, and his lords, and his wives, and his concubines might drink in them. Irreverent people, He tasted the wine and he made some foolish commands. Do you know what the Bible says about it? The Bible says that wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived by it is not wise or is just a fool. under the influence of his pride and his self-sufficiency, under the influence of his wine, he called for the gold, he called for the silver, the cups, the spoons, the snuffers and the dishes, bring them all in, those things from the temple in Jerusalem. Yahweh is a vanquished God, he thought, So let's praise our gods of Marduk and Bel and all the others. And let's praise them, Aku. Let's praise them with these vessels. And so what we have is a horrible orgy of idolatry, blasphemy and drunkenness that was going on there. And they were just very irreverent people. Can I just say to you this morning, God was not amused. We live in a day and age where it is becoming very popular to mock God and to make fun of Jesus. In fact Jesus and God has really become a byword more than anything else. You're more likely to hear Jesus' name in our society as a byword, or a curse word, or a slang word than you are to hear Him lifted up as Lord and Christ, aren't you? Irreverent people are ready for a fall. They were very, very irreverent. And so that is exactly who these people were. God was not amused, He is not amused today. I have a habit on a Sunday morning of clicking on CNN.com on my internet to just see what other thing the babblers have to say about religion in America. Today on CNN.com under the religion section which is the great window at the top of the center, I mean it was the number one story, it says, why has it become in vogue mock and tell jokes about Jesus. And they go on to give an article and it is all about joking about Jesus. And it is all about just making fun of Him and how that since 1970 it has been growing, and growing, and growing in America. And that it is very much in style to mock Jesus, and to make fun of Him, and to laugh and make jokes about Him. Do you think God is amused at the abuse of His Son Jesus? Do not be so ridiculous to think that God is amused at those kinds of things. Don't be ridiculous either as to think to defend wine and strong drink. A person is not weak because they can't hold their liquor. A person is weak who refuses to live by convictions. That's weakness. Alcoholic drink has many defenders, but no defense. I won't chase that rabbit this morning, but it was involved in this story. Maybe he wouldn't have done that had he not been in a drunken orgy. Next, write it down after this defiant pride, doom is declared, verses 5 through 9. Imagine the scene as the revelry of the moment begins to subside. People begin to get quiet, the noise diminishes and attention is directed against a great wall in the dining area where a great lamp stand, a tall lamp stand that is burning that lights the entire area, great lamp with many points of the light where the oil lamps are burning And behind the lamp, they see a ghastly sight on that wall. Goblets drop, hands raised to cover mouths or heart, and a deathly silence takes over the entire ballroom. Why? Because the finger of God is writing. In verse 5 it says that the fingers of a man's hand writing over against the plaster beyond the lamp site in the sight of everyone. Incredibly the fingers of the hand were seen and illuminated. The only sound that could have been heard would have been the scratching of that finger as it etched out on the wall three little words, Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parson. The words were common Aramaic, mene, numbered, tekel, weighed, ufarsin, peres, ufarsin is the plural of peres, divided. Everyone there understood what the words meant, but they were clueless to the meaning of the message. Everyone was dumbstruck by the hand and the finger. And I just want to pull over and say that the Bible says that it was the finger of God in creation that made everything, carved out the mountains and the rivers. Bible says it was the finger of God on Sinai that carved the tablets when Moses was there. The Bible says that it is the finger of God that does many things in His Word, but when He comes toward the end, when you get to Ezekiel and then again in the book of Revelation it is not the finger of God, the creative finger of God, but rather God reveals His arm. Interesting. You say, well God doesn't have fingers or arms because He is Spirit. Yeah, but so we can understand his power, he talks about what he does with his fingers and what he does with his arm. The fingers of a man's hand were writing. God's hand was writing. Second of all, the knees of the king are knocking. If you read verse 6, you find out his hips went out of joint. He was so scared. He didn't know what to do, and he was scared to death. His hips went loose, and he couldn't stand. His strength was gone. His knees were knocking. And then what else happened? The hearts of the wise men are melting. Once again, they called in that same old failing group, that same old round table bunch, that Sunday morning, Saturday night, Saturday afternoon, They got that bunch together to ask them what they thought, and of course they couldn't give an answer. They never can when it counts. And so these wise men fail. They don't know what to say. No matter how much reward is available and offered to them, they had no answers for the king. And history once again here is repeating itself. Nebuchadnezzar two times himself called for everyone but Daniel. And now comes Belshazzar his grandson and what does he do? He calls for everybody but Daniel. Could it be because he knew that Daniel was going to tell him straight the truth and tell him exactly what he needed to hear and that sometimes the message of God that comes from the man of God is not as pleasant as a person would like to hear? hearts of the wise men are melting. History repeats itself. The wisdom of the world is counted as nothing. And then the next movement is doom denied. Verse 10 to 12 of chapter 5, doom is denied. Why? Well never fear because Grandma is here. say, What? Well, Nebuchadnezzar's widow comes, she hears all the commotion and understands that everyone is dumbstruck. And so when they told her what was going on and that there was an interpretation of a dream, or an interpretation of a vision that was needed, oh, well that's no problem. She showed up and she did what grandmothers do, she tried to encourage her grandson. I saw a t-shirt just this last week that says, Grandma is my name, and spoiling is my game, and I'm good at it. Well, grandma, widow of Nebuchadnezzar showed up and said, look, don't worry. Belshazzar, what in the world is wrong with you? Don't mess with these silly wise men. They don't know what they're doing. They've never been able to do anything. But you do have a man in your kingdom, Daniel. He helped your grandfather twice. He'll help you. Call him in. Don't delay. You know, what is difficult to understand now is, as I mentioned a moment ago, why did both Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar, why was the man of God their last resort instead of their first choice in the moment of real need? Well, we do the same thing today. People try to find help and try to find answers everywhere but at God's feet from His Word and from His man. Why would they do that? Well, probably for the same reason that we do it. We look for advice anywhere but where the advice might not fit our fancy or might call for a life change or repentance. We would like any answer but God's answer, because God's answer means confess, repent, change, be different, obey Him. Well, he knew of Nebuchadnezzar. It goes on to say that, that in verse 22, he very much knew all about it. Daniel said, Belshazzar, you knew all of the things that happened to your grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar. You knew these things, but you haven't humbled your heart. You've just become more proud than ever. And so it's kind of like a doctor who you go in to see and you're not feeling good and the doctor looks at you and he does all the exams under the sun that he can and he looks at you and he says, well, sir or ma'am, I have to be honest with you. I think if you would just lose some weight, it would help all of your health problems. And you look at that doctor and say, come again? He said, sir, I would just like to say to you that if you would just go home and get some exercise and change your habits and eating habits, and if you would lose some weight, it would help all of your health problems. And you'd say, well, I'm going for second opinion. Verse 22 says Belshazzar knew about Daniel, but he chose anything but the Word of God to help him in this situation. Chapter 5, verse 13 to 29, the doom is described. The doom is described. Belshazzar knew Daniel, but he had chosen others to give him an answer before he called him. Daniel was available to him. Chapter 8 verse 1 and 27 says that Daniel was doing the king's business for Belshazzar when he had his own visions. So it wasn't like Belshazzar didn't know who Daniel was or what he could do. He just was going to look anywhere but to him. The doom is described by Daniel then in chapter 5, 13 to 29. It's the main issue of the sermon. Let me jump that and go to the last movement, verse 30 to 31, that is doom is delivered. That's everything in the chapter. It's everything that has to do with this story of pride, arrogance, and just wicked indulgence and intoxication. complete fall in a moment of time. Doom is delivered. This time there was no waiting. There was no 12 months of grace. There was no more time. That very night the proud king was slain. How? What about the walls, the gates, the guards, the defenses? No, it was an impregnable place. How did they die? Well, all of those things, the guards, the gates, the walls, the towers, they are worthless to defend against the decree of God. Cyrus had a general Cyrus of Persia had a general and his name was gubaru g-u-b-a-r-u This general gubaru gubaru following the plans of Cyrus diverted the Euphrates River literally army, dug trenches, dug it, finally built a dam, diverted the Euphrates River so that it went around the city instead of under the city. And then little by little as they laid things on the bottom of the river they walked under the two folding leaves of the great gate of Babylon, walked inside and person after person just poked the drunk people, including the king. Doom was delivered. was given the title by Cyrus of Darius the Mede, and he was made ruler over the province of Babylon. So when you read chapter 6 next week, please do, you are going to read about King Darius. Well that is who he is, he is Gubaru the general who has been made Darius which is a title of royalty in the Persian economy, and he was going to be the ruler now in the province of Babylon. And he is the one that is going to be tricked into putting Daniel the lion's den, but that's for another sermon. So this character trait that is needed to stand strong we find out about it when we look at Daniel's appearance before the King at a moment of national crisis. Now let's just stop and hesitate there for a moment. When do we find out, when does the character trait that is so important to a nation, when does it show up? Well it shows up in a moment of national crisis. everybody's talking about the cliff. How many of you heard about the cliff? Everybody's talking about the economy. Everybody's talking about the cliff. Everybody's talking about jobs. Everybody's talking, they're talking about everything. Let me ask you a question. Those are bad, but I think we're at a spiritual cliff. We're at a place where more and more people ignore and choose anything except the Word of God, the people of God, the man of God. They'll choose any information source except the one source that has real answers, they're ready to jump off the cliff. Now let me say this to you before we get into the last part of this sermon and that is that somebody is going to say, Pastor Phil were you excited about the elections this last week? Short answer, no. know we could have elected and won every single thing that we wanted. I could have got everything to turn out the way that I thought it would be and it would not have changed anything as far as the real problems in this nation because we don't have a political fix on the horizon. The only answer is a spiritual change in the hearts and minds of those that call Him Lord. Clarity of message. It's too bad that Belshazzar did not seek for Daniel's advice earlier. He didn't do that. The king needs to hear a message now. It's a clear message. We need to give a clear message. We need a commitment in our heart. We need to live credible lives. We need incredible courage. We need to say what we have to say, not out of hatred, but compassion. Yet when it comes right down to giving a message, whether it's from a pulpit or from on a Twitter account or whether it's in person at work or whether it's parents to children, sooner or later, love and compassion demands that you give a clear, unmistakably clear message person that you are talking to. What does it look like when God's people speak with clarity? And I'm talking about everybody from the preacher in the pulpit to the person in the pew. What does it look like? Well first of all the message is not about self. It's not about our self. Verse 13 to 16, could look at that passage there verse 13 to 16, Daniel was brought before the king and the king spoke and said to Daniel, Are you that Daniel? And so on and so forth. And then verse 15 he says, I brought all kinds of people in that they could help me but they couldn't. And verse 16 says, I've heard of you that you can give us interpretations. Now if you can do this, that, and the other I'm going to make you number two in the kingdom, put a gold chain around your neck, or number three in the kingdom, put a gold chain and a robe on you and everybody is going to recognize you as really somebody. Well they weren't offering him very much because he already was doing this if you remember. That shows you how much Bell Shazzer knew was going on. But beyond that what I want to say to you is this message is not, when we give the message to the world it is not about us, it is not about ourselves. These verses show how at the last moment Belshazzar when he was pressed tried to butter up Daniel in order for him to give Belshazzar some good news. He was infected with what all of us are infected from. We go to hear somebody give us some information and all we want to hear is good news, never tell us the truth if it is bad news, just soften it some kind of way. what Belshazzar wanted but he wasn't going to get that from Daniel. The message Daniel had to give was not about himself and we need to learn that today. The message that we must give is the message of the cross of Christ and Him The Bible says for 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 5, we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus our Lord. I want to say something to you today that the message of Grace Church is not about its program, and it's not about its pastors, and it's not about what all is going on over here, and how cool the youth group is, or how whatever, you know it's not about our buildings, or facilities, or denominations, it has nothing to do with any of those things. The message of this Church is Jesus Christ our Lord. It's about a Savior. Can I ask you a question? Do you think our nation is in a situation where it needs to be saved? Do you think individuals are in a situation where they need to be saved from their sins? Well then the message cannot be programs and ideas and pastors and it can't be about us. It's got to be about Jesus. Why? Because His name, Jesus, means Savior. He's the message. It's what we're about. This cross stands here because we can never get away from the preaching of the cross of Christ because it's the cross of Christ and what happened there. that makes the difference. This message is not about self. How sad that American pastors, many of us, have fallen for the personality cult idea. They start a church or a ministry and God blesses it. The ministry grows. They get a few invitations to speak. Then they write a book with somebody's help. Usually the book is about pop psychology or it's about prosperity and success. Then they appear on television because they've written a book. Pretty soon they are saying what they say in order to be liked by the public instead of being faithful to God and His calling. The message is not about us. If you want to give a clear message, it's not about you. It's not about how great you are or how faithful you are. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about Jesus. well the message is not about a denomination, a church, a program, properties, it's all about Jesus. The second thing, write it down, the message is not for sale. This message, our message of the cross and our message is not for sale. Daniel wasn't fazed by the offer of position and money, he was different. He understood that these earthly possessions and positions are doomed to destruction in this world just like everything else is. He was not fazed by But do you know there are plenty of prophets for hire today as there have always been. Who can forget Balaam who Balak king of Moab kept paying more and more to Balaam to get him to curse God's people. But he had to finally say to Balak, Balak I cannot curse whom God has blessed. Many today are making merchandise of God's people. They look at you as a commodity. In describing false brethren, people who do such things, Paul told Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, 5, Watch out for the useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth who suppose that godliness is a means of financial gain. From such, withdraw yourself. I wish I could convince you, get you to understand that when you're looking for something to watch on television, you turn on one of these television stations where somebody's talking to you about how you could just get wealthy and rich, and how God owes you everything, and you're gonna be wealthy in this world, and you're the king's kids, and king's kids are rich. If I could just convince you to change the channel, or shut the thing off and get your Bible out and find out the truth. Stop listening to these people. It's not the truth. Don't listen to that. That's not what God's Word has to say. You know, one of the qualifications of any pastor is he's not supposed to be greedy of monetary gain. I've thought many times, I say, you know, what would it take? Pastor, what would your message be? When would you change your message to accommodate people and make people feel good and stop preaching about sin and the penalty of it and salvation and the cross of Christ and the blood? What would it take? Well, folks, you know, I have to tell you that I'm not perfect. And I make mistakes, and I'm not the best preacher there is. There's a lot of things that I'm not, but I'll tell you one thing. I don't think there's any amount of money that could convince me to tell you something that I know is not true. How about you? How about you in your workplaces when they want you to sign something to say that here's what I agree to, I'm gonna, you know, you can keep your job and you can be promoted and you'll just sign this policy here that says that you totally agree with and you totally believe in the amoral society in which we're living, this society of diversity that accepts everything and everyone and every thought as equal. Well, the rubber meets the road. The message is not for sale. We're not supposed to sell the message. A messenger cannot allow money to be his manipulator. The third thing is the message will confront sin. It'll confront sin. This man's sin was ignorance, verse 22. The story of Nebuchadnezzar was not hidden from him. He wasn't uninformed, he just was unimpressed. He loved himself and his sinful ways. He didn't want a sovereign. He was his own sovereign. Belshazzar is sitting on the very throne where 25 years before his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar declared that the God he is now mocking was most high and could elevate or deflate anybody he wanted to. The story of Nebuchadnezzar was well known, but Belshazzar wasn't much for history. He didn't care about history. Neither are we. George Santayana said, great historian of the past, he said, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. His sin was willful ignorance. His sin was pride. We've talked about that. His sin was blasphemy. Oh my goodness. Do you know that he was tinkering and toying with that which was dedicated to God Almighty and to God Almighty alone? That's what he was doing. He had called for the vessels of gold and the vessels of silver and was lifting them up in a drunken orgy with nakedness everywhere and just having himself a time mocking the God of the Jews. God was not pleased. How appropriate to say that we are created for God's glory, both body and spirit, and we are intended to be the habitation of God. Do you know that when we play sexual games with our bodies, when we intoxicate and contaminate our bodies, and when we use our members like our mouth to blaspheme His name and to curse and to do all of those things, do you think that God takes it lightly? like to think about Him taking those gold vessels and profaning those vessels, but you and I as believers are the vessels of God. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, the glory of God in the flesh of humanity because the Holy God lives in us. Do you think it is a small thing if we profane it? His sin was idolatry. We do this too. We take God's vessel, our life and body, dedicate them to sinful indulgence and gratify our sinful desires. And we want to make ourselves feel content and comfortable. And when we do that, we're just worshiping ourselves. I've got to finish number four. The message will be spoken clearly. Verse number 26 to 28 is something really interesting. This is the interpretation of each word. You see that? interpretation of each word Daniel's job was not accommodation, addition, or subtraction from what God has said. We are not supposed to as Christians scale back or try to mollify what God has said. Don't soften what God has declared because in softening the message you have eliminated the message. You have to tell the truth. We believe in what we call plenary verbal inspiration of the Bible. You say, what does that mean, pastor? Well, we believe that the words are inspired, not just we believe in the plenora. We believe that this whole book is the breathed word of God. God carried the prophets along and they gave us his word. You don't mess with the words of God like Satan. Do you know when a pastor decides that he is going to accommodate the world in which he is living and accommodate the culture by trying to take God's Word and making it more applicable to the day in which we live? Or trying to take God's Word and fit it to the culture or to accommodate? We need a message for this culture. We need a message for this day. We need, no, you don't need a message. You need the same message that every society has always heard. You cannot accommodate God's word to the society. You better accommodate society and the culture to God's word or it'll cost you everything. In an effort to soften what God has declared, Satan set the example because he said, When Eve said, we were told we would die if we eat of this tree, and he giggled and he laughed. You won't surely die. Be careful when you read God's word and see what it says, and then try to mollify, soften, or change it so that it's more comfortable to the hearer. The message, once again, let me finish it The message once given will be completed suddenly, verses 30 to 31. I'm jumping a passage here, time's up. God is patient, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So God gave this message to him. He had all of those years from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to listen to the warnings that were given to Nebuchadnezzar, 25 years, but time was up. It was over, it was finished. He said to him, Mene, Mene, God has numbered your kingdom. Number's up, time's up, it's over, it's all finished, done. Tekel, you have been weighed in the balance. Do you know your little kingdom is also being weighed in the balance? kingdom of your heart, the kingdom of your life, it's being weighed in the balance of God too. Guess what? It's found wanting too. Because without the righteousness of Christ through Jesus Christ our Lord we have nothing to offer God. Divided. Well there was an earthly division of the Medes and the Persians but There's a greater division coming between the sheep and the goats, between the believers and the unbelievers, between the fish caught in the net that are good and between the fish caught in the net that are bad. And what does God do with those that are worthless? A dividing. So the message is going to be completed suddenly. You know our focus on standing strong in a world gone wrong. doing that we've had an example from Daniel and these three young men. We are suffering today with Christians that are giving mixed messages to a lost world. We muddle the message. You say, Pastor, how do we muddle the message? How do we give a mixed message? How do we cloud the message? This may be the most important thing that I say and I have to say it quickly. Listen, how do we muddle the message? How do we mess up the message even if we are a parent trying to give the message to the child? or if we're a pastor trying to give the message to the people, or if we're a co-worker trying to give a message to someone we care about, or if we're a wife or a husband, a husband for a wife, and on and on it goes. How do we muddle the message? Well, one, we profess things with our mouth that we deny with our life. We profess with our mouth what we deny with our life. We say we believe one thing, walk another way. Second, we pick and choose what we obey in the Bible. The Bible is a cafeteria line and we only pick those things that are sweet. We pick and choose what we obey in the Bible. What else do we do? We try to accommodate Scripture to the culture instead of announcing God's Word to the culture calling for repentance on the part of everyone. And then finally we try to soften the message. Oh, would you We try to soften the message instead of softening the messenger. Let that set on your mind for a moment. get in our mind if we could just make the message of sin and salvation, if we just make the message of God's righteousness, if we just make that a little bit more palatable to people in the day and age in which if they aren't confronted with sin, and if they can be deemed good enough to go to heaven through church membership, if we can just modify the message just a little, if we can soften the message it will make a big difference. Oh, but the truth is any hard truth can be given from a tender source. Hard truths can be given from tender-hearted people and people will receive it. It's when we stand up and scream and yell and throw fits and carry signs and we yell at people and scream at people and call them names, they don't want to hear anything you've got to say. But a tender-hearted, compassionate, weeping Jeremiah can give a message to anyone. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes for just a moment? What was the sin of Belshazzar? What was his great sin? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. Let me read one little verse. After he told him all about the gods of gold and silver and irons and bronze and wood and stone, he said, and the God who holds your breath in his hand and owns all of your ways, you have not glorified. The God who made you, the God who bought you, the God who sent his son to die for you, he says, you've not glorified him. He says, I'm weighing your kingdom, or I'm numbering your kingdom, I'm weighing you in the balances and you're gonna be split off from the land of the living. If you're here this morning and you're a believer, I want you to just stop and I want you to think. Our pianist is just gonna play for just a moment. But I want you to just stop and think. Am I living with clarity? Is my life believable? Am I speaking the truth in love?