to the book of Daniel and chapter five. Daniel chapter five, be reading the entirety of the chapter tonight. So let's give our attention now to the word of the Lord. Daniel five, beginning in verse one. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he had tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, be brought, that the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them. And they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem. And the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and bronze and 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. 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, the astrologers. The king declared to the wise men of Babylon, whoever reads this writing and shows me its interpretation shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then all the king's wise men came in, but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation. Then the king, Belshazzar, was greatly alarmed, and his color changed, and his lords were perplexed. The queen, because of the words of the kings 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, 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 you 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've heard of you that the spirit of the gods is in you, 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.' "'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, 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, He was brought down from his kingly throne and his glory was taken from him. He was driven from among the children of mankind and his mind was made like that of a beast and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. 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, 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. Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. And this is the writing that was inscribed, Mene, Mene, Tekel, and 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 had 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. That very night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old. May God add his blessing upon this reading of his holy word. Let's pray together. Our God, we thank you for the wide range of truth and practical wisdom you have recorded for us in the Word of God. Help us tonight to see and to understand the glories of your ways, the power and the majesty that you alone as the most high God possess. Help us, Lord, each and every one to humble ourselves before you and to acknowledge that you are the giver of all good things. And we thank you for this evening. We pray for your blessing upon us in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, every parent in this room knows that one of the greatest challenges in raising children is to teach your children to make wise choices, especially when it comes to the friends that they make and the people that they choose to hang around with. Now, even if you're not a parent, You probably heard something like this from your parents, that we don't want you to spend so much time with this person or that person because we don't believe they're a good example. In their attitudes, in their actions, in the words that they use, they are not a good influence for you. And so we want you to avoid them, or at least not spend as much time with them. In much the same way, we find that the scriptures largely are devoted to setting before us good examples. Men and women that we can follow, that we can observe, and we can imitate. And so we are called upon to follow the faith of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the courage of Joshua, the obedience of Elisha, the persistence of the Syrophoenician woman as she comes again and again to the Lord Jesus and will not give up. We're called to take heed to and imitate the evangelistic zeal of the Apostle Paul. All of these are good examples. But my friends, the Bible also does not shy away from pointing out bad examples that we should not follow. And that is exactly what we see in our texts this evening. We are introduced to this Babylonian king named Belshazzar. This man appears rather abruptly on the scene. We're not told who he is, where he came from. We're not told anything really about him, except that in verse two and several other verses, references made to Nebuchadnezzar, your father." Now, being 21st century Americans, when we hear that, Nebuchadnezzar, your father, we automatically think, well, that makes Belshazzar the son of Nebuchadnezzar. Well, that is going to cause a couple of problems. Number one, historical documents tell us Nebuchadnezzar did not have a son by that name. Secondly, we find that the historical records do not list in all the kings of Babylon a man by the name of Belshazzar. Is this an inaccuracy in the Bible? Well, I think we know the answer to that. No, it's not. And the best explanation is probably this. Number one is the fact that the scriptures use the terms father and son in a very broad sense. We think of son and father as an immediate and close relation. That's not the way the scriptures use the term. So, for instance, in John chapter 8 and verse 39, the Pharisees say, Abraham is our father. We're talking about someone who lived 2,000 years before they did. It is used in a very broad sense. Abraham being the father of the Jews in the first century is a clear indication of that. We might see another example of this in Ruth chapter 4 and verse 17, the whole exchange with Ruth and Boaz and Naomi. And we read in verse 17 that the women of the community said, let's rejoice because a son has been born to Naomi. But the son was not literally Naomi's son, it was Ruth's son. One thing you might want to take note of is that the term grandfather is never used in the Bible. This term father and son is used loosely, we could say. The list of kings for Babylon. The last king named was a man by the name of Nabonidus. Nabonidus was not a very popular king and so he took the opportunity to leave town, as it were, and go fight with the Medes and the Persians and fight battles outside of the city and he left his son Belshazzar to reign as co-regent in Babylon. And this also would explain why Belshazzar offers as a reward to the man who can read the writing and interpret its meaning, not second place, but third place in the kingdom. because his father, Nabonidus, is actually king. Belshazzar has the second place as a co-regent and Daniel is offered the third place. Now those are some technicalities but help us to understand how the language is used here. The main focal point for us to see tonight is that here we have a very vivid picture of a man who categorically rejected the living God, a man who rejected the word of the Lord's prophet, Daniel, and consequently he was a man who died without hope. and entered a Christless eternity. My friends, here is an example for us not to follow. This is what you don't want to do. But nevertheless, the scriptures use this man and give us a record of his life and his words and activities. So we're going to look at three things. We're going to look at Belshazzar as an example of God's decree, as an example of man's sin, and as an example of the Day of Judgment, particularly the Day of Judgment. without God, without hope, and without Christ. So let's begin with our first main point, Belshazzar, as an example of God's decree. Now perhaps a number of you can remember, it wasn't that long ago when we were working our way through Romans 9 in the morning, and Paul is addressing the question or the reality when God says, Jacob, I have loved, But Esau, I have hated. Not an easy question to address, but Paul addresses it by quoting Exodus 33 and verse 19. And there it is Moses who hears from the Lord, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now brothers and sisters, we're not told why. Why does God show mercy to one and not to another? When we think about this, we cannot say why God does this. Why does he show mercy to one but not to the other? Why does he love one and hate another? Well, we can't say why, but we can say that one of the reasons for it is not that the person does good or bad. God makes that very clear when he says, before the children were born, before they had done any good or evil, that the decree of God's election might stand. That was his answer. It's not because one was better than the other. It's not because one was good and the other was horrible. It is simply this, that God is the sovereign God. And he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will harden whom he will harden. Now the situation in our text is very similar to that. Because when we look at this man, Belshazzar, We find a man that's not very different from Nebuchadnezzar. And we've heard all about Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel one through four. And we look at Nebuchadnezzar and we look at Belshazzar and the two men are not that different. They both rejected repeated revelations of the true and living God. They both turned a blind eye to the words of God's prophet. They both were interested merely in worldly pleasure and honor and riches. They both were consumed with the lust of the eye and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. So once again, what we are seeing is the theme of the book of Daniel, and that theme is God is sovereign. He does according as he pleases in the kingdom of heaven and on the kingdom of the earth. Here is the sovereign God. In Nebuchadnezzar, what we see primarily is that God is sovereign in his power. And so Nebuchadnezzar comes to that place at the end of his life when he says, I bless the most high and I praised and honored him who lives forever. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth No one can restrain his hand or say to him, what have you done? For Nebuchadnezzar, what he had to learn was God is sovereign in his absolute power over heaven and earth. But then, he's also sovereign in his mercy. With Nebuchadnezzar, God was patient beyond conception. For years, he put up with this man. He endured with much long-suffering, one who deserved to be destroyed. But God had mercy upon him. God worked mightily in him. He persuaded him, not so gently necessarily. But he persuaded Nebuchadnezzar to realize who God was. God showed mercy. God wrought salvation in this man's soul and gave him a new heart and a new life. But with Belshazzar, we read a very different story. We realize that from chapter four and verse 37, to chapter 5 and verse 1, a decade has passed and now Belshazzar is on the throne. And though Belshazzar knew what had happened to Nebuchadnezzar and how God had worked, that knowledge had no effect upon Belshazzar whatsoever. Belshazzar had Daniel and Hananiah and Mishael and Azariah living in his kingdom. But according to verse 11 in chapter 5, Belshazzar didn't even know who Daniel was. He took no counsel from these men. He did not value their counsel. He had rejected God. He had ignored what he knew about Nebuchadnezzar and how God had worked in him. He ignored Daniel and his friends. And so God had not yet opened this man's eyes. He had not opened his heart to receive the truth. I think we can stop at this point and ask, has God opened your eyes that you can know God is sovereign in his power and in his mercy? He had not done that for Belshazzar, and when he does reveal himself here at the end, It is not a revelation of glad tidings. It is a revelation of judgment, of the fact that your life is over and you stand guilty before the judgment seat of God. My friends, take a moment, and as we started thinking about those blessings God has bestowed, take a moment and consider the kindness and the mercy of God to you. If you're here tonight and you know the living God, you know the God of the Bible, and you know His Son, Jesus Christ, the Savior and Lord, my friends, God has in mercy taken you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, and He's given you life. He's made you alive. He's revealed his word to you. He has blessed you with the knowledge of the way of salvation through faith and through grace. He has blessed you with a church family tonight, with the fellowship of the saints. The riches of God are lavished upon us. We don't deserve it. but God has graciously and mercifully blessed us. Our hearts should be full of praise to God tonight. The sovereign God has in his wisdom and purpose and decree chosen us to be his people and blessed us with the way of salvation. He did not do that with Belshazzar. Secondly, Belshazzar stands as an example of man's sin. Now this man, like his father, like his grandfather for most of his life, was proud. He was arrogant. His entire life was marked by the works of the flesh. When you read Galatians 5 and you see the stark contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit, which one most resembles your life? For Belshazzar, it's clear. It was the works of the flesh. This man cared nothing at all about God, the true God. He did not care about his commandments for a holy life. He did not care about the needs of his own soul. He little knew that that very moment his kingdom and his life were on the line. You realize that it was at this very moment, this night, which Daniel 5 is describing, that Cyrus and the Persian army were doing something that had never been done before. They could not get in to the strong-walled city of Babylon, and so they diverted the river Euphrates into a channel. And the army was able to walk through the riverbed into the city of Babylon without anyone even knowing they were coming. Literally, what we see is this man's life was about to come to an end. But all he could think about was having a big party. Now some of us have relatively small homes and if we entertain, we can handle maybe 12, possibly 18 or even 25 people. But if you had a massive home and you could handle 50 people or even 100 people, you wouldn't even come close to what we're talking about here. has a party with a thousand people. All these different lords and wives and concubines and all the different people, a thousand people are gathered and they're all drinking wine profusely. They're drinking wine and they're praising their lifeless idols, their gods of gold and gods of silver. But it wasn't just that. Belshazzar wasn't content just with his wild party with a lot of drinking and a lot of women. Belshazzar calls for the vessels, the holy vessels that his grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem. Now, Belshazzar knew what these vessels were. He knew that they had been dedicated to the honor of the Lord. And by his actions, my friends, he's not merely doing something that was forbidden. He's mocking God. He's saying, my gods, these gods of gold and silver, they're greater than your God, Israel. They're greater than Jehovah because we conquered you and now we're gonna take his holy vessels and we're gonna use them in our drunken party. And we're gonna use them to honor and praise our idols. He is mocking God. Daniel describes it well in verse 23 when he tells Belshazzar, you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. So don't just think this is a grand party or celebration. This is specifically geared to mock God and to declare that his gods are greater and they're gonna use these holy vessels to honor them. Well, most of us know what happens. Suddenly, a human hand appears in thin air and begins to write upon the wall. Well, rightly so. Belshazzar is alarmed. He calls for his magicians and his astrologers and the Chaldeans, and they can't even read the writing, much less tell him what it means. Finally, Daniel is called for at Belshazzar's wife's suggestion. And Daniel is offered, in verse 16 and 17, he's offered riches, he's offered honor, he's offered the third place in the kingdom. Daniel says, keep your gifts. I don't want them. But I will tell you the writing and what it means. So beginning in verse 18, Daniel recounts first what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. Notice, as we pointed out earlier, that Belshazzar knew this. Look at verse 22. But you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. Belshazzar knew what God had done in the life of Nebuchadnezzar. The point is, Belshazzar knew, he knew what God had done for Nebuchadnezzar, he knew that Daniel was his prophet, he knew that the vessels had been set apart unto God, but still this man raised himself up, lifted himself up against the Lord of heaven. There was no fear of God in this man's eyes. At the end of the day, there was no one to blame for this but Belshazzar. It's interesting that in verses 22 and 23, the word you or your is used 14 times. You did this, you knew this, you lifted up yourself. Your wives, your concubines, your lords, all of you, you are to blame. Now my friends, I think it's significant we realize this is not just something that happened thousands of years ago. This is relevant to us tonight. This was a problem in the first century. The words here are strikingly similar to the words that the writer of Hebrews uses in chapter 10, in verse 26, when he says, if we sin willfully, if we know this is wrong, and we persist in it anyway, if we, like Belshazzar, say, I don't care about God, I don't care about Nebuchadnezzar, all I'm interested in is myself, and I say, this is good, and I'm gonna do it, I don't care. When we sin willfully, the writer tells us there's no more sacrifice for sin. There's only one sacrifice for sin. There's only one remedy. There's only one answer for sin, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary death upon the cross. His shed blood is the only remedy that we can turn to. And so when we look at Belshazzar and we see these presumptuous sins where he knows it's wrong, he knows what's happened, he knows who Daniel is, and it doesn't matter. He's going to do it his way. My friends, how do we avoid that kind of willful disobedience to the commandments of the Lord? Can you just decide, well, I know this, so I'm not gonna do it? I think most of us know that doesn't work very well. It's not that we shouldn't desire it, but we don't have the strength in ourselves to stand and be true and faithful to the Lord. I think the first thing that we have to do is pray. They have to pray like the psalmist prayed in Psalm 19 and verse 12 and 13, when he says, cleanse me, Lord, from secret faults. Cleanse me from those sins that I'm not even aware of. But then he prays a second prayer. Keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. My friends, have you ever prayed that? back your servant from presumptuous sins, sins that I know are wrong and that if it were up to me, I would still do it. Lord, you by your grace and power, by the work of your spirit, keep back your servant from those presumptuous sins. Do what others have done and found success, humble yourself. Confess your sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Seek that cleansing through the blood of Jesus. My friends, to those that will look to him and look to his son, God promises mercy and salvation. So don't be a Belshazzar. Don't follow this man's willful rebellion against the commands of God. Be like Daniel. Humble yourself. Cry out and pray to him. We don't have time to turn there, and it'll be several weeks before we get there, but look at Daniel's prayer in chapter 9, when he says, Lord, you are the Lord God, great and mighty. You are the glorious king of all the earth, and we We have sinned. Oh, Lord, hear. Oh, Lord, forgive. Oh, Lord, hear and act." They needed God, and they called upon God. They humbled themselves. They confessed their sins, and they found God's favor. Well, that brings us to our last point, Belshazzar and an example of the Day of Judgment. After rebuking Belshazzar for his sin, Daniel proceeds to read the writing and interpret the message. So in verses 24 and following, Daniel says, this is the writing, this writing, and the hand was sent from God. It is God's word to you tonight. And it's this, mene, mene, tekel, and farsen. This is Hebrew. Three verbs means to number, to weigh, and to divide. God has numbered your days and your kingdom and brought them to an end. God has weighed you, Belshazzar, in the balance and you are found wanting. God has brought your kingdom to an end and divided it among the Medes and the Persians. In short, Daniel tells Belshazzar, time's up. No more opportunities to change. No more opportunities to repent. No more time to change the way you've lived your life. Here, Daniel makes it very clear the judge is standing at the door. Literally. This very night, Bill Shazzer, would be killed. Brothers and sisters, young people, let's bring this home. Each and every one of us here tonight probably are thinking, I've still got time. Maybe I think I've got many more years yet. There'll be time for me to change things that need to be changed. There'll be time for me to repent later. Right now, I just want to enjoy a little bit of my sin. There'll be time later for me to get serious about a relationship with the Lord. You remember what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 2, today is the day of salvation. Not tomorrow, not the next day, not next month, not next year. Now, now is the accepted time. That's the message that Belshazzar failed to see and would not get an opportunity to act on. Belshazzar was weighed in the balance and found wanting. It's too late to change. Your life is going to be taken away. Now here's the real core. My friends, maybe you think you're gonna have a lot of time yet. many years to live, many years to address these issues. But what if before this night is over, you were taken out of this world and there would be no more time? and there would be no more opportunities to change, no more time to address the things that need to be addressed. What if you, tonight, were weighed in the balance? Here's God's law, and here's your life. Would you be found wanting? Don't think that you somehow could have enough good works to outweigh the bad works. Nobody puts it better than David Dixon when he writes and he says, I have made a heap of my bad works and a heap of my good works and I have fled them both to Jesus. No amount of good works that you could do will counterbalance your sin. There is only one thing that can counterbalance that sin. And the only way we could stand before God if we were called out of this world tonight and be confident and know that we would be accepted by Him is if you are clothed with that perfect robe of righteousness that belongs to Jesus Christ. If you have acknowledged Him and confessed Him to be the Lord of all, the only way we can be accepted is in the beloved Son of God. And that's what Paul talks about in Ephesians 1. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He chose us from before the foundation of the world. He predestined us to adoption as sons. In Him, in Christ, there is redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. And only then, and by Christ, are we accepted before God, accepted in the beloved. My friends, Belshazzar died this night, and he went into a Christless eternity. You don't have to do that. Tonight, today, is the day. Now is the accepted time to put your trust in Christ. If you haven't already, if you have rejoice that you are accepted in the sight of God, not for your own righteousness, but for the righteousness of Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you. We thank you that you set before us even examples, bad examples, and tell us not to go that direction. But you give us good examples. You've given us the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He is the life eternal. Oh Lord, may there not be one tonight who leaves here not knowing him, trusting him, confident in him. And we ask that you will do it, not for our sake, but for the glory of your great name. Hear us, we pray, for Jesus' sake, amen. carefully about these words.