The scripture reading and the text which we will be looking at this morning is Daniel chapter six. If you'd like to follow along, I'm going to read the whole chapter. This is the account of that famous account, right? Daniel in the lion's den, classic in one. And as you will see, it just jumps off the page in way of application to us today. And in many ways, we could probably spend two or three more sessions Sunday mornings looking at Daniel chapter 6 and the different doctrines and truths that are very, very encouraging to us as well. So we're going to follow along then as I read Daniel chapter 6, starting in verse 1. It pleased Darius. Remember, the Medes and Persians had taken over. They'd conquered Babylon, right? Darius the Mede. It pleased Darius to send over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom the satraps should give account, so that the king might not suffer loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, oh, King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects, the satraps, the counselors, and the governors have agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber 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. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within 30 days except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, the thing stands fast according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king, Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or the injunction you've signed, but makes his petition three times a day. Then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed and set his mind to deliver Daniel. And he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. Then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king, Know, O King, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Then the king commanded, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. The king declared to Daniel, may your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den The king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lord's that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him. Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, He cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, oh Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel said to the king, oh king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths and they've not harmed me because I was found blameless before him and also before you, O king, I have done no harm. Then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his God. And the king commanded, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were 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. Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, 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. He delivers and rescues, he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And there is the word of the Lord. Once again, we see kind of an amazing thing. There are portions of Daniel, and this is partly of this one here, where a pagan king is actually preaching to his kingdom the truths, then, about God, about the living and true God, and giving glory to him, as Nebuchadnezzar had done after he had to learn, then, the hard way. Well, we'll want to look into this a bit more, then, this morning, and see what truths God would have us learn. Let's ask the Lord's blessing then on the ministry of his word. Father, as we come to look at your word now that we've just heard, we want to look at it in more depth. We pray, Father, that your spirit would open our eyes to what you put before us here, that you would teach us, that our faith would be increased, that every one of us would be a Daniel, as we live in a fallen, wicked, and sinful world, that we might always trust in you, knowing that you faithfully deliver your people from the devil's schemes. And we ask all of this in Christ's name. Amen. The book of Daniel is, in many ways, a unique book in scripture. Like most of the Bible, however, it has been attacked. It's probably been attacked by higher critics, maybe even more than many other parts of the Bible. These so-called wise academics, numbers of whom claim to be would claim to be Christians, insists that there's no way the book of Daniel could have been written by Daniel. In fact, that Daniel probably wasn't even a historic figure, but he's a fictitious one. And that surely the book of Daniel had to have been written after the fact by some unnamed author who claimed to be Daniel, made it sound like. But primarily, they make these claims for numbers of reasons, one of which, one of the chief reasons is that they don't believe in anything supernatural. They don't believe that God intervenes in the affairs of men. That's the primary message of the book of Daniel, though. The truth is that God does intervene, that he is sovereign, that he decrees everything that comes to pass. But the critics will say, well, no, surely. I mean, this book speaks so accurately in form of so-called prophecy that it speaks so accurately of events that have happened. You know, the rise of Alexander the Great and his Greek empire, and then the destruction of that empire, and then the Roman Empire, and so forth coming along. And so it had to have been written by somebody after those things had happened. They couldn't anyway know them in advance, you see. That's the approach that's taken. And so they come to the book of Daniel as they come to scripture with a mindset set against the very nature of the Bible, that it is a supernatural revelation of God, and that God, as Hebrew says, has spoken to us in times past in many portions and in many ways, through Moses, through the prophets, and through the apostles, and of course, through the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we hold to the fact that Daniel was a real person, that he really did write this book, that these events really did happen, and we have good reason to do that. One of which, as we've mentioned before, is that that's what Jesus believed. That's what Jesus taught. The best thing to do is go to, well, what did Jesus say about this? Well, here's what he said, Matthew 24. This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. When you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place, let the reader understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Now, you've got to do some real gymnastics there to say that, oh, well, Jesus still didn't believe that Daniel was a real person then, you see, and so on. Well, Daniel was real God. Also, as he spoke through Ezekiel, presents Daniel as being a real person, a historic figure. The word of the Lord came to me, son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it and cut off from it man and beast. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God. Now, unless we're prepared to say that Noah and Job were not historic figures either, which, of course, these kind of unbelieving critics of God's Word would say, well, you know, that's just fiction as well. All right, well, we're not willing to throw away Noah, because guess what? We could do the same thing. Well, what did Jesus say about Noah? And what did Peter say about Noah? He presented Noah as a real person and the flood as a historic event. I think there is a caution that we should take note of here at this point as we come to this account of Daniel in the lion's den, or even events like Noah and the ark and the flood and so on. We need to be very careful not to tell Bible stories in a way that maybe inadvertently then, but nevertheless communicate to children, as an example, that it's a kind of fairy tale. Now, that's easy to do. Well, children, let's sit down. You know, there once upon a time, there was this man named Noah. Once upon a time, there was this person named Daniel. And we go on, and the children in their minds are listening to We think we're communicating a Bible story to them, a Bible account, and they're listening to a fairy tale that's fit for Sunday school children, but later on in life has no relevance. So that kind of teaching is a mistake. We need to teach children God's word in very much the same way as we teach adults. All right, now that isn't to say, of course, that we might make a presentation. We do things to make scripture understandable to children. We explain things that they haven't learned yet. So we provide more explanation and so forth. But we need to take care about the tone. that we're using when we teach Bible accounts to children. So for instance, if we say, well, all right, and we say we had a Sunday school class for children, and we say, or you can do this in your home. Let's get a book, and the book is called Bible Stories for Children, all right? Now, think about that. Bible for children. Is it just for children? Is this story of Daniel and the lion's den just for children? Of course not. So you see how this kind of a thing can sneak up on us and then in our minds, for ourselves, it can become some story then for children, but this is a powerful, this is a powerful historic event that really, really did happen and that these people in this account, in this record are very, very, are very real just as the lions were. Another example, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but another example false attacks on the Book of Daniel being real history and really being then the Word of God. And by the way, it can't be the Word of God if it's a forgery. If someone wrote it claiming to be Daniel when they're not Daniel, it can't be the Word of God. And that's really what it comes down to. Is the Bible, is the Book of Daniel the Word of God? Or is it something that men have created? Their faith answers that question one way, and unbelief answers it then another. But another attack, and it's just amazing how many attacks, how much energy is given by these higher critical scholars to work to insist that Daniel, these events didn't really happen. This is not real history. Daniel's not a real person and didn't really write the book. But they've made claims like this before. For instance, they'll say, oh, here we have Darius the Mede. Well, you know, in secular history, Archaeological discoveries, there's never been a discovery of anything that contained the name Darius the Mede. Therefore, he never lived. This is an invention, you see. Well, that's a leap, isn't it? Archaeology has not discovered anything. If I'm not mistaken, I think for a long time, for instance, The higher critics and so on insisted that the Hittites were just an invention, you know, a fiction and so forth. And because we don't have any archaeological record of the Hittites existing, well, guess what? Eventually, somebody did discover that the Hittites were a real person. The bottom line is, do we believe God? Do we believe that this is his word or do we not? the author of Hebrews once again, and without faith, it's impossible to please him. For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And so if we don't approach God's word in that manner, it remains a closed book then to us. Well, let's look at, listen once again to the first five verses. And I put the little heading in here, Lawfare is nothing new, right? It is amazing to me, contemporary events that we're seeing played out in our own day, you know, Satan's book of schemes never changes. And the same thing that we see happening in Daniel's day, happening today. And knowing that, we can become wise. We don't have to be ignorant about the schemes of the devil. So, all right, listen again to the first five verses. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom. And over them, three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might not suffer loss. That's a critical statement. That's the purpose of this, so that the king might not suffer loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. The king recognizes this, and the king planned to send him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. All right. So here's Darius. He's just conquered the kingdom of Babylon, absorbed it into his administration, and he's going to appoint 120 of these officials called satraps to oversee the kingdom, probably each one assigned to a particular district and so forth, and to oversee the affairs of the kingdom in the name of the king. But the primary purpose here for all of this was that phrase, so that the king might suffer no loss. Now, he puts, and that is in regard to the three high officials of whom Daniel was one, so that the king might suffer no loss. What does that tell you? What does that tell you about what the king knew? I mean, this was a wise move on his part. He's about to act very stupidly at the moment, but at this point, this is a very wise move. He appoints these 120 assigned to different parts of the kingdom, probably in charge of collecting tax revenue, these kinds of things, and see that the laws of the king were carried out, but that the king might suffer no loss. What's happening here? The king was very much aware of corruption. Right? That's what's happening. He knew, all right, I've got these guys out here. They're supposed to be representing me, collecting taxes and so forth. But I'm no fool. Some of them are going to try to profit themselves off of this. They're going to try to profit. They're going to try to pocket some of the money for themselves, maybe overcharge the people, whatever, whatever. So to prevent corruption, He identifies three men that he particularly trusts to put them over. These are like the top administrators and their job is to oversee the 120 and to hold them accountable. It'd be like, okay, say trap number 43. We're going to audit your books right now. We're going to see what's going on here so that the king might not suffer then any loss. And then Daniel begins to, the Lord has given him so much wisdom and ability that it becomes apparent to the king and the king is planning to make him the head of everything, everything. And that had happened to him before under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. So, well, jealousy sets in, right? And notice that they make this reference. And this Judean, you know, this Hebrew, they're probably They're probably racist at one point, but they're also extreme. They hated Daniel, and they were afraid of him. And the reason they were afraid of him is because he's honest. He was absolutely honest, and they had heard probably of his record under Nebuchadnezzar, and they feared him. Why did they fear him? Because they were corrupt. They were corrupt. They intended to use their position to become rich, to become wealthy. And Daniel's going to stand between them and those ill-gotten gains, you see. It would be like, for instance, the president of our country appointing someone to watch over the economic affairs of the congressmen, right? We are going to monitor all of your stock trading deals. And we're going to see what's going on here. It's the same thing. That's what's happening then with Daniel. I mean, the fangs would come out, and they would try everything they could to dig up dirt on that person, to try to destroy them then completely. They would have to get rid of them then, you see. Well, so when we see this kind of a thing happening here in scripture, we can use it. And one important way for us to use it is to get smart. You know, let's be wise. When we see one person being attacked and accused by people who have been in their positions for a long time and have grown wealthy, far beyond the means of the salary that they're being paid, then we need to wise up. And it's time to suspect that these guys are corrupt. And that's why they're going after, then, this person. So there's wisdom here to be had. There's so many parallels between our time and what's happening then with Daniel. Now, these satraps, these wicked people, And maybe it even included the other two overseers. They're probably in on the deal too. They wouldn't like Daniel either, right? So they ran into a big problem. And the problem was, no matter how much they looked into Daniel's background, trying to find something dishonest that he had done or something to hold against him, they couldn't do it. He was actually squeaky clean. But they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Is there anybody like that, right? I mean, that is a very, very rare person. Daniel had an absolutely clean record. And these enemies were extremely frustrated because you can bet they would have tried really hard, really hard to find something then against him, but they couldn't. They failed. All they could find is honesty and integrity. How long would it take enemies to find some dirt against you or against me? They wouldn't have to look that far, right? But Daniel, Daniel had been maintained by the Lord as a righteous man, you see. Here again, we see the strategy of the devil. This is how the devil is going to operate. and we need to be wise about it or we'll be duped by him as well. He's going to use this method of trying to smear the reputation of a righteous person that they want to destroy, that the enemy wants to destroy. You're seeing it right now in the confirmation hearings that are going on in Washington, trying to attack, there's no substance There's no substance to it, so they try to attack the character of the person. You always see that in criminal courtroom cases. When the defendant has no, you know, he's guilty and he can't make a case at all that he's not guilty, so what do they do? They attack the character of all the witnesses and so forth, trying to smear their Well, this is Satan at work, and we need to recognize it's Satan at work when we see it happening. We don't want to get tricked into, oh, well, you know, the media is reporting this about Daniel. This is what they're saying about Daniel. And then to get drawn into that, it would be like, but they couldn't even go that far with Daniel. There was nothing they could, they could even remotely twist to make him look bad. But that doesn't stop them. Now they get on an even more evil course. We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel, unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. We're going to have to attack his religion and use it against him. Sound familiar? Right? Same thing, another tactic of the devil that doesn't change. They did it with Jesus. Here it is, Matthew 26. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony. See it? False testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death. because they couldn't find a true testimony, but they found none. They couldn't even find any false testimony, though many false witnesses came forward. But their testimony didn't hold water. At last, two came forward and said, this man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. Well, he did. He did say that. But that's what's happening. We're going to have to find something in Daniel that he says or does That is true, but we can use it against him. Somehow we've got to set this up, you see. So again, the parallels today are not hard to find. The enemy wants to destroy some righteous person. So in some might be a confirmation hearing or something else, it'll be, or they just want to publish it in the media. Isn't it true that you believe the Bible says homosexuality is a sin? Isn't that true? Didn't you say that, right, that kind of a thing? That's attacking a righteous person based upon their religion, upon the truth of God's word. Didn't you refuse to make a wedding cake for a homosexual wedding, right? Well, we're going to sue you and take you. We're going to destroy you, then, as we're finding a basis for accusation in connection with the law of his God. That's what the enemy is going to do. And it is satanic, then, you see. Now, here's another lesson from all of this. The more we are a friend of God, the more we are faithful to stand with Christ, as Daniel did, and refuse to be conformed to this world, the more the world is going to hate us and attack us. Here's this great verse from James chapter 4, you adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." And there it is, you see. Why was Daniel so hated by the world, by these evil people? Because he was a friend of God. He stood with God. He stood for righteousness. And they hated him for it with a murderous hatred. Well, here again, here's their plot. Verses 6 through 9. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement. Note that. We'll pick up on that in a minute. By agreement to the king and said to him, oh, King Darius, live forever. Flattery. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects, and the satraps, the counselors, and the governors are agreed. Well, now hold on a minute here. That was a lie. And this is why the king was so stupid in this, right? That's a lie. Oh, well, wait a minute. Is Daniel in agreement with this? You guys are saying all the high officials of the kingdom are agreed that the king should stand. Where's Daniel? Where's he at? But he doesn't consult Daniel, you see? We're agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes petition to any god or man for 30 days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and injunction. Fool. Right? He was fooled by these wicked people. They came by agreement. In other words, this is a conspiracy. It's a conspiracy. To translate that into terms of our day, have you heard of a RICO crime? You know, the Justice Department is going to bring a RICO case against somebody. This is what it is here. A RICO crime. is a racketeering offense that violates the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. RICO crimes are illegal activities which are part of a pattern of racketeering activity which is a type of organized crime. That's what this is. They've come together by agreement. It's a racket. you see, by conspiracy, actually in violation of the law. But they're going to conspire together for this. So they're political terrorists. And they come by agreement, birds of a feather, this kind of a thing, right? It's satanic. They're united together. It's called a racket. That's an interesting word. That's why English is so hard. It's got to be so hard to learn. A racket, how many meanings does the word racket have? Tennis racket, right? It's a noise. What's that racket out there? It's like, what does this mean? But here, it's an illegal or dishonest activity that makes money. And it's always about power and money. That's why you can say, follow the money. And you'll get to the truth of something. Well, that's what these enemies of Daniel were. They're racketeers, you see. They're guilty. This is what we would call. Here's another thing that's not new. Nothing new. Remember that about Satan. Nothing new in his tactics. And if we're wise, we'll know those tactics. What is this? Look. The kingdom, there in Daniel's time, the kingdom was ruled by a king. Or was it? Wait a minute. Who's really getting this legislation passed? Who's at the root of it? Well, today we'd call it the deep state. So even that's not new. Here's the rightful king. But back behind the scenes, here's where some of the real power lies, you see. Satan works in the darkness. He works in that deep and evil state. Well, the king, as we've said, is a dupe. He knew, he'd already recognized that in Daniel there was this excellent spirit, but he doesn't consult him. He just signs the petition. And the trap was sprung because the Medes and Persians were known for this law, this law about their laws. Once it's signed, it can't be revoked. Now, that's a stupid law. But that was the law in the Medes and Persians, you see. It's interesting here. Even the law that they get passed is foolish on its face that whoever makes a petition to any God or man for 30 days except you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions. Well, now, look, if this is a good law, if it really is a bad thing for people in my kingdom to be making a petition or prayer or something to anybody besides me, if that's a bad thing, why limit it to 30 days? It should be perpetual, but they limit it then. Well, just 30 days. That'll be long enough then. Once he signs it, that's it. The ink's on the document, and it can't be changed, you see. Once more, let's think about some parallels here. The purpose of thinking about the parallels is to become wise about about these kinds of tactics of the devil, because that's our real enemy, right? So what's an example of the law of the Medes and the Persians being signed by the king today? It's the presidential pardon, right? Presidential pardon. There it is. That can't be revoked. Presidential pardon, yep, guy's absolutely guilty and so forth, but hey, nothing you can do about it. Law of the Medes and Persians. It can't be revoked, you see. Well, a presidential pardon is meant to be a good thing. And there have been some good presidential pardons. But see, here's the enemy. If we can get the king to sign this, then nothing, you know, this criminal, one of my boys can't get in trouble over this, see? And we'll get him off. Well, they proceed and they launch their, what would you call it? They go to spy on Daniel, right? If they would have had social media then, they would have been monitoring all of Daniel's communications there, right? Because now think about this. As they got this law passed for purposes of destroying Daniel, they knew that it was going to, they knew a couple of things. They knew that the king favored Daniel, right? And so they had to trick him into signing this thing. But they also knew that it had to be irrevocable or else when the king found out about this is going to mean Daniel is going to be thrown in the lions. And Daniel was in favor of it with the king while the king would have revoked it. So they knew that. They also knew. that Daniel was not going to alter his prayers, he was not going to yield, he was not going, he was going to remain faithful to his God and he would continue to pray just as he had. They also knew how and where he prayed. And here we read about, listen to it again here, verses 10 to 13. When Daniel knew, see there's the key, when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he knew that that law was in effect. He went to his house where he had windows, open, open windows, could see through, in his upper chamber, 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. Then these men came by agreement. See, there's the conspiracy again. They're spying. And found Daniel making petition and plea before his God. Then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction, O king, did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any God or man within 30 days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, basically, well, Of course, I just signed that, right? The thing stands fast. According to the law, the Medes and Persians, which cannot be revoked. Then they answered and said before the king, it's like, ah, we got him now. Daniel, who's one of the exiles from Judah. See, there's their racism. Who's one of the exiles from Judah, right? Pays no attention to you, O king, or to the injunction you've signed, but makes his petition three times a day. So here's Daniel, and he knows that this law is in effect. And what we have here is a perfect example of rightful civil disobedience. I'm going to continue to worship God, and no matter what prohibitions the government puts upon me, I'm going to, well, Peter would say it later, centuries later, we must obey God rather than men. And that's what Daniel does. Now, put yourself in Daniel's place, which we are meant to do. What temptations would come to you when you heard that that law had been signed and you had been faithfully confessing Christ and praying and making no secret of it. Now this law is passed, prohibited. This would be kind of like surely similar to what Christians in China or somewhere must face. Well, what would you be tempted, in what ways would the enemy come and tempt you at that point, right? Well, I'm going to keep praying, but I'll close the windows. I'm going to keep praying, but I won't pray out loud. So then nobody can hear me. Apparently, he prayed out loud. They heard him. I won't pray as often. I'll pray at night instead of in broad daylight. Now, it's possible, as a Christian, if you're following your conscience, in some of those situations, that some of those alterations might not necessarily be sinful. For example, in the persecutions under the Roman Empire, Christians met in the catacombs, right? They didn't openly, they met secretly. And that wasn't sinful. Calvin fled from France. from the Roman Catholics who wanted to kill him. Luther's friends basically kidnapped him and took him into hiding in that tower. But each Christian has to follow their own conscience. And in Daniel's case, he could not in clear conscience alter his behavior then, you see. Here is, and this is another entire theme that goes through the Book of Daniel. We've seen it over and over again. The Christians' experience and faithfulness in a fallen, sinful, wicked world. How are we to proceed? What is wisdom? How does faith trust the Lord, even when you're faced with a fiery furnace or a lion's den? then, you see. So these would be these temptations. In Rome, in the Roman Empire, Christians were ordered to say, Caesar curios, Caesar is Lord. But the Christians declared, Jesus curios, Jesus is Lord. And they wouldn't, if they were faithful, They refused to burn incense to Caesar. They wouldn't do it, even if it meant imprisonment or being killed. So these are the kinds of things that Daniel faced. And we see his faith in operation here. He knows that God is God in Babylon, not just in Jerusalem. He's king of kings and lord of lords. Now in our day, theoretically, we enjoy some freedoms that Daniel did not have. And these are constantly under attack by the devil as well. We call them the Bill of Rights, you know, those first whatever amendments to the Constitution. Here, I think this is like the first one here. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Congress can't say the Church of England is the only permitted church in England. It can't do that. Or prohibiting the free exercise thereof of religion, or abridging the freedom of speech. They all go together. or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That's the First Amendment to the Constitution. All of those aspects of the First Amendment have been under attack in our nation by so-called liberalism. Daniel, he lived in a time under the law of the Medes and the Persians, and it was the king, the monarchy, and he was to be obeyed. And if he said no freedom of religion, then there was not any freedom of religion then. You see, he didn't have this. That's why this freedom of religion, this First Amendment Constitution in our nation, was such a new thing, a very unique thing. in the world. Well, then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered. Wait a minute. Oh, yeah. Okay. I wanted to read this because this had happened before. Nebuchadnezzar violated human rights and freedom of religion in the same way. Of course, it didn't exist. And he had done that. We read about it back in Chapter 3, remember? He builds this great big image. He's like, you know, Daniel had just interpreted his dream in Chapter 2 of that big image whose head was gold. Well, it went to his head, all right, and he says, No, there's not going to be a secession of empires. My empire is going to be the only one. And so I'm going to make this giant image, and the whole thing's going to be gold. And it's always going to remain gold. And furthermore, we're going to get together and we're going to have an orchestra. And when the orchestra strikes up my national anthem, everybody here is going to bow down and worship this golden image. And if you don't, you're going into the fiery furnace. So it's the same kind of thing. It's like we said at the beginning, lawfare is nothing new. the law of the nation to oppress people then, you see. Well, the king realizes at this point he's been a fool because he really did highly regard Daniel, but he'd been tricked. He knew it, and there's nothing he could do about it. Verse 14, then the king, when he heard these words, was much distressed. and set his mind to deliver Daniel, and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him. We've got to find a loophole here somewhere. We've got to do it. Well, he was unable. He couldn't do it. It couldn't be changed. It was the law of the Medes and the Persians. And then the whole night goes by, and he's fasting. Generally, fasting goes along with praying. And you've got to wonder, well, listen to what he says when Daniel's thrown into the lion's den. Then these men came by agreement to the king, said to the king, no, O king, that it is a law of the Medes and Persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed. Then the king commanded, you see it reluctantly, grievously, and Daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions. And the king declared to Daniel, may your God whom you serve continually deliver you. So we're going to see in a moment then just what's going on with this king. In fact, we might even ask the same question about him, can't answer it, about him as we've asked before about Nebuchadnezzar. Are we going to see these guys in heaven? because they end up praising the God of Daniel. And it might be, it might be, you see. We will find out. But he's thrown into, the king couldn't do anything about it, Daniel's thrown into the lion's den. Apparently it must have been some kind of an an opening here, like on a level floor, but below it was this cave or whatever. We don't know for sure, but they throw Daniel into it and then we're told that they put a stone over the top of it. And so that's in verses 17 to 19. And a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Now that's all stated in those terms to show us that everything man could do to destroy Daniel had been done, right? The full power of the king and the kingdom had been brought against Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting. No diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him. Then at the break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. You know, here's another lesson for us. It's very plain. God frequently, even you might say characteristically, brings his people into situations that are impossible. This Daniel in the lion's den, covered with the stone he's thrown in, nobody ever comes out of the lion's den. Nobody ever comes out of there. The stone's over it. The thing is sealed. Nobody's going to touch it. Nobody's going to sneak him out of there that night. The thing's impossible. It's Moses and Israel up against the Red Sea with Pharaoh armies bearing down. No escape. No escape. And yet God orchestrates it, and he brings us into those. He did it with Job. If you're a Christian, if you know the Lord, you can expect sometimes to get thrown into the lion's den and the stone placed over the top, and there's no way of escape, right? Paul talks about that. I think I get 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians on this mixed up. I think it's 2 Corinthians. where Paul's talking about the God of all comfort. And he talks about the fact how God has brought him into these situations where there's no hope. And he says, because he wants to teach us to stop trusting in ourselves and trust in him. When Daniel's in that lion's den, There's nobody that he can trust in except the Lord. That's it. And that's the lesson that God wants to teach each one of us. And we don't learn those lessons real easily. But he is faithful then to teach us then those things. Have you noticed, and maybe you've noticed this already, there are clear parallels between Daniel and the Lord Jesus Christ. Very clear parallels. His enemies hated him and sought to put him to death. They could not find any grounds to accuse him. He was buried in a tomb and a stone was put over the opening. And as we will see, Daniel rose again, right? And that's plain for us that we're to see Christ in Daniel then. Well, the break of the day comes. King has been fasting all night and so forth. And as soon as the sun came up, he gets up and he runs to the den of lions. And this is another one of those times, if you could, if you had a time machine and you could, you know, which account, which event in the Bible would you have choose to be present at? This would be one of them, right? This would be one of them. The king runs then to the tomb. And we see here that we're being taught that, as the king is being taught, there's only one God, King. Isaiah 43, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I've chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord. And besides me, there is no savior." That's what Darius needed then to learn. Well, there's this glorious outcome. Here it is. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, Oh, Daniel, servant of the living God. See, this is almost like Christian talk, you know, biblical talk here. Servant of the living God. Has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? And here's the moment, right? A voice comes from the tomb, right? And then Daniel said to the king, oh, king, live forever. My God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths. And they've not harmed me because I was found blameless before him. And also before you, O king, I've done no harm. Now, there's an element here. It must have been that because Daniel was still alive, this has kind of been like, and this might have been an element of the law of the Medes and Persians, If you get thrown in the lion's den for some crime, and you're still alive the next morning, you must be innocent, right? And that's kind of what we're seeing here. I've done no harm. The king was exceedingly glad, commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God. were tempted to think that, and you know, sometimes artwork is done of Daniel and Lyonton and so forth, and some of the pictures we'll have, here's Daniel, he's sitting down and the lions are sitting by him and he's petting them and everything like this. I don't think that's what happened. I think that all that happened was They were still savage lions. And that angel sealed their mouth and protected, they were bound. They couldn't harm, they could not harm Daniel then at all. And then, and here's another parallel between Daniel and Christ, because just as Daniel's enemies are cast into the pit, so the Lord Jesus' enemies will be cast into the pit as well. Verse 24, the king commanded, those men who had maliciously accused Daniel, it was proved he was innocent, he's still alive, were brought and cast into the den of lions, they, their children, and their wives. And before they reached the bottom of the den, see, they didn't hit the bottom, but what the lions were on them, overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces, and that was it. Now, you also see here, and we don't have time to go into detail on this, but it's an important point, because it occurs repeatedly in the Bible. It wasn't just these wicked men that had come up with this plan to get thrown in a pit. Their wives and their children are thrown in with them. And that strikes us as, that's not fair, right? But we see it over and over in the Bible. Noah, his family was preserved, but everybody else, children, everybody perished in the flood. Where else? Korah's rebellion. Korah's rebellion. He and his wife and children were all thrown. They were all then destroyed. We know that everybody is a sinner as soon as they're born. There's no such thing as an innocent baby in that sense and so on. But why does God do this? It probably relates to the doctrine of election. That would be another reason. But I think there's something else that we should glean from that. And that's this, that while no one is saved, because their parents are Christians, and they happen to be born into a Christian home. Nevertheless, there is truth in this statement. Ungodly parents can take their children to hell. And it's a sober truth, except for God intervening and saving. Lots of us grew up with ungodly parents or whatever, but the Lord saved us. But nevertheless, this should impel us to be certain that we are godly ourselves and that we raise up our children in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. Because there's also a truth in this respect. In some way, don't take it as absolute, but nevertheless, there's truth in this. And that is that godly parents can take their children to heaven. Well, it closes, the account closes then with the king talking about, he's addressing all the nations. King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that, and this one there's no 30-day limit on, all right, that in all my royal dominions, People are to tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever. And get this now, his kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And there is a great truth proclaimed throughout the known world at that time by a pagan king because of the testimony of his servant, Daniel. Father, we thank you for these lessons from your word, these truths. We pray that each one of us would be a Daniel. and stand firm no matter what this wicked world hurls against us. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.