This is what we read in the first part of chapter one in the book of Daniel. In the third year of the reign of Jeholkem, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jeholkem, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. Then the king instructed Ashfenaz, the master of the eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge, and quick to understand, who had the ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans. The king appointed for them daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank and three years training for them so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king. Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. To them, the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belshazzar, Hananiah Shadrach, Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. Abednego. Do you remember the commercial in the early 70s You remember when we were switching from vinyl to cassette? We actually went to 8-track, and then there was cassette. Remember 8-tracks? Most of us here probably remember 8-tracks. I remember mentioning 8-tracks to some of my students, and they were like, what? What is that? I'd show them pictures of them. Do you remember the commercial in the early 70s about the Memorex commercial? Is it live, or is it Memorex. You remember that? Ella Fitzgerald, the jazz singer. And the whole thing was this experiment. Let's put it in a sound studio, and let's see if Memorex, at the time, man, the newest technology, if cassette tape, if that cassette tape, Ella Fitzgerald's voice recorded on that cassette tape could break the wine glass. You remember that commercial? I mean, it was one of the most successful commercials of all time. Is it live? Or is it memory? Well, in a way, that's where we are as Christians. In a way, that's where we are as a church. Is it real? Or is it fantasy? Is it real? Or is it fantasy? You understand the difference between reality and fantasy, right? You've been around people who live in a fantasy world. You just want to shake them and say, hey, you need to wake up to reality here, man. You know? You understand that difference, right? In some ways, OK, I think we're slowly waking up. And if anything, over this past year, one of the things that I pray that COVID did was wake us up. I believe with all my heart it was a judgment from God. Still is. And I believe he was shouting, and he was shouting loud, the roar of the lion. And he's trying to shake us into reality here. Because for a long time, as believers in this culture, we've lived in a fantasy world for a long time. And I think the roar of the lion is to shake us into some reality here, to help us to see some things, help us to understand some things, the reality of where we are. Now, I've been accused of being pessimistic, I've been accused of being a downer, I've been accused of, oh well, you know what, as Christians and believers, we've been accused of this. You Christians live in a fantasy world. I mean, all you talk about is heaven and all this stuff, and you guys are just in this fantasy world, and get to the real world, and so forth. And I've been accused of that, and I want to say, look, let me tell you what the real world is, okay? Let me tell you what the real world is. This is my Father's world. This is His world. That's reality. The Gospel's reality. Life in Christ is reality. Life lived to the glory of this sinful, fallen world is not reality. It is a dangerous fantasy. It leads to destruction. But I think we're slowly waking up to this reality too. as believers, at least I hope we are. The world as we know it is over. The world as we know it is over. All we have to do is be discerning here. All we have to do is look and see exactly what's taking place. There is a flood. There is a tidal wave. There is a spiritual movement underway right now. And it's not a godly movement. But rest assured, it's a spiritual movement. It is deeply spiritual. And there is such a spiritual movement that is flooding through our culture. Not only our culture, but it's marching through all of our institutions. It's marching through not only just this culture, but it's marching throughout the world. And what it's doing is it's pulling up, plucking up, it's severing the roots of our culture, it's severing the roots of our history, it's severing the roots of our theology. And it's out to destroy the institutions God has set in place and said, these are institutions that I've placed here from the very beginning, from the very beginning in creation, government, family, the church. And make no mistake, this spiritual movement, its aim, its goal is to destroy, deconstruct, and pull all of that up. It's to pull it all up. They have made great gains. They've always been here. They've been laying in the weeds for a long time. But guess what? They're out in the open now. And they're marching. And they're so full of pride. And they're so full of arrogance. And they think they've beat us. They think they've beat us. Make no mistake, they're coming for the church. They're coming for it. You already see some signs of it. I don't know if any of you have been keeping up with some of the news that's happened in Canada. I believe it's in Alberta. James Coates is a pastor in Canada. He was arrested several months ago because he was continuing to have church. He was jailed. They eventually let him out. Just last week or a couple of weeks ago, the government, the Alberta government, they met again. They met for Easter Sunday. And what they did, I think it was the week following Easter, the government showed up and built a fence around the church, and padlocked the fence, and said, you will not worship in this church. Wait a minute. That's Canada. That's up there. Those Canadians are weird anyway. It's Western culture. It's Western culture. Make no mistake, the reality is This is the world in which we live now. And it's not going away. We can't stick our head in the sand. And what we've been trying to do, what I've been trying to point out, since we finished the book of Revelation, is that what do we do as believers, what we must do as believers, is we have to engage this. We have to engage it. God's called us to do that. Then the question comes, then how do we engage it? How do we engage this? What I want to try to do over the next several weeks is I want to try to take one of the prophets, the minor prophets. Now Daniel's not considered a minor prophet. Why do you have major prophets and minor prophets in our English Bibles? It's because major just simply means they're long books. Okay, Isaiah's a long book. So they're considered major prophets. And then you have minor prophets. There are 12 of those. Daniel's really not considered one, but we're going to add him. because Daniel speaks powerfully to this. And if you were to look at Daniel and say, okay, Daniel's 12 chapters, Hosea's 14, why would Daniel not be considered minor, Hosea? It's because Daniel's about seven pages longer. The distinction between major and minor has everything to do with the length of the book, not the importance of the message. But we're going to add Daniel here because Daniel speaks powerfully to this. And look, get comfortable. Get comfortable, get relaxed, because we're going to go through the whole book of Daniel. And we should be finished sometime this afternoon, hopefully to have you home in time for supper. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We've already been through the book of Daniel. Remember several years ago, before we got into the book of Revelation, We went through this verse by verse. Those sermons, those messages are still on Sermon Audio. So if you want to go back and dig deeper into this, you can. What we're going to do now is we're fixing to take about a 10,000 foot flyover. And we're going to take a quick glimpse at the book of Daniel, and we're going to look at this and answer the question, how do we engage a post-Christian culture? Because that's the world in which we find ourselves. Daniel was engaging a hostile culture to his faith. That's what he was engaging. He found himself pulled up, plucked up out of his home, plopped down into Babylon, 17 years old. And over the next 70 years, he engages hostile cultures. He engages hostile religions to his own religion. And how did he do it? How did he survive it? One thing that just rings when you read Daniel, one thing that just rings out clearly is the wisdom of Daniel. The wisdom, not only of Daniel, but his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The wisdom that they had in engaging this. And their deep, deep, deep, deep understanding of the sovereignty of God over all things. His sovereignty over all things. Let me just say a quick word about prophets as we start this, okay? Because what I want to do is I want to try to attempt this. Let's take a prophet each Sunday. and look at it and draw some things out and answer the question, how do we engage a post-Christian culture? How do we engage the world in which we live in right now? We find it. We have to live in it. We don't have an option here. Right? Unless you've got enough money and you're going to go buy an island and it's just going to be you. You might take your wife, but I guarantee you if you're going to live that way after a while, you're going to suspect your wife. We can't bury our head in the sand. We can't just isolate it. We have to engage. So how? Daniel, I think, helps. I think these prophets will help us in doing that. So exactly what was a prophet? Real quick, here's what a prophet was. Most people think of the prophet as, oh, they're predicting the future. Oh, we need to read the prophets and figure out what's going to happen in the end time. That's just a small slither of what they did. The basic role of the prophet was to speak the word of God. They were called to come into certain cultural situations, and they were called to come in and address those situations, address those concerns, and speak the word of God. Thus saith the Lord. That was the role of a prophet. You had writing prophets. We have their messages written down for us. You had oral prophets like Elijah and Elisha. Their messages are just recorded. They're not written down for us. And so these prophets would come, and sometimes they were called seers. They weren't called seers in the sense that, oh, they could predict the future. There were all kinds of false prophets, and all the religions had their prophets. And we see the encounters of the false prophets and the true prophets of God. throughout this. We're going to see some of that in Daniel. And sometimes they were called seers. Why were they called seers? It's because they could see reality. They didn't live in a fantasy world. They didn't live in a fantasy world. They engaged cultures. They engaged Judah. They engaged the Northern Kingdom. They engaged the people of God at points and times and different times. after times of great blessing and times of deep sin, but they would address them and there was one word, if you want to know, if you want to sum up the prophets, if somebody said, give me one word that sums up the prophets, it's this, repent. That's one word that sums up all of the prophets. This section of scripture. In the Old Testament, in the Old Covenant, there was the prophet, there was the priest, and there was the king. Those are three Old Testament offices. All three of those offices, the prophet would speak the word of God, the priest, he would make sacrifice, and the king, he would rule and reign. All three of those offices, just like all of the Old Testament, all of the Old Covenant, pointing to Christ. He fulfilled all three of those. Christ came as our prophet, speaking the word of God to us. He came as our priest, what did he offer? his own life, right? He came as king, king of kings and lord of lords, because I need somebody to rule over my stubborn rebellious heart. And he does that. Not only does he rule over my heart, but you know what? He rules over all See, that's what Daniel and his three friends understand. Daniel's a book of two halves. The first six chapters are stories. The last seven, chapter 7 through 12, we get into this apocalyptic literature, and when you read it, you go, my gosh, I see. This is like the book of Revelation. But not only that, but it's a book of two halves because it's written in two languages. It's written in Hebrew, and then in chapter 2, down through chapter 7, a certain part in chapter 7, it's written in Aramaic. It's written in Aramaic. So it's written in Hebrew, and it's written in Aramaic. So, let's just jump into it. How do we engage a post-Christian culture? How do we live in times of oppression? Oppression is coming. It's already here. It's real soft right now. But if you understand anything about the history of this world, when it starts, It never goes back. And understand this, when you understand the history of this world and the sovereignty of God, and it comes through in Daniel, because he raises up nations and he pulls down nations. Eventually, this mess is going to implode. It will implode. The question is going to be what's left in its wake. What's going to be left in its wake? So how do we engage it? How do we act in times of oppression? How do we act in times where this growing hostility becomes apparent and it becomes clear? Well, in Chapter 1, here's the first thing. Alright? Here's the first thing. And that is that we need to understand that we have been set apart. This is what sanctified means. When you read in Leviticus, for instance, you read the holiness code of Leviticus. When God starts that with Moses, he tells Moses, you tell the people they're not to be like the Egyptians they just came from. And they're not to be like the people in the land where they're going. They are to be set apart. They are to be different. That's what holiness means. We like to sometimes just talk about moral issues when it comes to holiness, and that's there. But the basic understanding of being holy and sanctified. We're called to be holy. Why? God is holy. We're sanctified. What does all that language mean? It means we are set apart. We are set apart for God's purposes. As a believer, as a Christian, you remember Paul said in Philippians, for me to live is what? That's exactly what he's expressing. I have been saved and born again, and I have been saved and set apart for the purposes of Christ. Not my own purposes. Not my own. And you see this early in Daniel. You see this in chapter one. Daniel's plucked up out of his homeland, 17 years old. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians, come in. They come in in three waves. This is the first wave. They come in in 605. They take some people out. They take them back to Babylon. We get this list of the ones that Nebuchadnezzar wanted. He wanted the good ones, the one who could come and contribute to their culture and their society. They come again in 597. Then they come again in 587, in which they completely destroy the southern kingdom. And it's over for Judah at that point. So Nebuchadnezzar comes in. Daniel's part of this group. He's 17 years old and he's going to spend the next 70 years in these pagan nations. He's going to spend the next 70 years in these pagan nations. They want to re-educate him. Remember reading that in the first part of chapter 1? They rename them. They want to re-educate them. In chapter 1, we see they're going to give them this food, the delicacies from the king. This is what is intriguing to me, is that why does he draw the line at food? He takes the name. Why does he draw the line at food? I don't know. But here's one thing that's for sure. He's drawing a line. And the reason he's drawing a line is because of verse 8. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. God blessed Daniel. He said, I'm not going to eat the food of the king. Bring us vegetables. He brings him vegetables. There's his test. After a while, Daniel and his three friends are healthy. And this one who's over this says, OK, we're going to continue to do this. In verse 17, as for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill and all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. God blessed him. But here's the first thing. If we're going to engage a post-Christian culture, we have to understand that we have been sanctified. As a Christian, as a believer, I've been set apart I've been set apart by Christ and the world, but not of it. I have been saved. You have been saved. You have been set apart by God for His purposes. And when we look at a post-Christian culture, and when we look at a culture that is going down the tubes and not only lying to us, but demanding that we give obedience to the lies and participate in the lies, we draw the line and we say, we will not defile ourselves. We have been set apart for the purposes of Christ. You see, that's the first thing in engaging. We have to come to understand, we have to have that mindset, that we've been set apart for God. You're not your own. You've been bought with a price, we're told. What's that price? It's the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He purchased us with. You look at chapter 2, we see the second thing. And that is that we're to seek God above all else. So we've been set apart, and we've been set apart not to seek our own things, but we've been set apart to seek God above all else, and to seek His truth above all else. Nebuchadnezzar has this dream. This is his first dream. Man, it's a wild dream. And this is the crazy thing about what Nebuchadnezzar does. Nebuchadnezzar calls his wise men the world's wisdom. Just picture the world's wisdom. We've seen that on display over the last year, haven't we? Oh, man, they come in all shapes and sizes, don't they? So he calls the world's wisdom in, and Nebuchadnezzar says, OK, I want you to tell me the dream. Not only tell me the dream, I want you to tell me the interpretation. And at least they were wise enough to go, hang on a second. Once you tell us the dream, then we'll tell you the interpretation. That's usually the way this thing works. Nebuchadnezzar says, no, no, no, no, no. I want to find out if you really are wise. You tell me the dream and the interpretation. And they go, there's nobody can do this. Nobody could possibly do this. And so Nebuchadnezzar gets upset. And when he does, he issues his order that he's going to kill all these wise men and so forth. In verse 12, for this reason, the king was angry and furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out and they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. And Daniel says, hold on here a second. Wait a minute. Verse 14, it says, with counsel and wisdom, Daniel answered Arioch. He was carrying out this order. He says, what's going on here? And so he's informed. This is what's happened. The king's mad. The king can't find the interpretation. And he says, hey, tell him to hold on. Tell him to hold on. And so Daniel, verse 16, so Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Daniel went to his house and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his three buddies. and His companions. And they, listen to this, verse 18, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret. What do they do? They immediately go and they seek, they seek God. They seek His truth. They seek His wisdom. Threatened with their lives, they immediately go. And what happens? God grants it. Verse 19, and the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. And what did they do? They immediately praise God. They immediately praise Him. When you see these praises, even from some of these pagan kings, the central part, the central thrust of these praises are the sovereignty of God. Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For wisdom and might are His, and He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness. And light dwells with Him. I thank you. I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. For you have given me wisdom and might. And have now made known to me what I ask of you. For you have made known to us the King's demand." What do they immediately do? They seek God. They seek His truth. How does it turn out? Daniel explains the dream. Daniel goes, he not only explains it, not only gives the interpretation, he gives the dream. He gives the dream and the interpretation. And he tells the king, verse 27, Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers cannot declare to the king, but there is a God in heaven, O King Nebuchadnezzar. There is one over you, O King Nebuchadnezzar. There have been, over the last month or so, and I am so thankful for this, there have been a few of our elected government officials, few, who have stood in the halls of Congress and have basically said this same thing. There is a God over this Congress. And it's that God that we're answerable to. We need to pray for more boldness like that. We need to pray for more of that. He tells Nebuchadnezzar, he has made known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what the latter days will be. And he interprets the dream. The dream has to do with the statue that Nebuchadnezzar sees, and the statue has to do with Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and these empires that will rise. And then he mentions this stone that's cut out of the mountain, not cut with hands. What is that? That's the kingdom of God. That's the gospel. Fast forward to the New Testament. Who is that? It's Christ! It's Christ! He crushes all these kingdoms! Where is Babylon today? Where is Rome today? If the Lord tarries another 500, 600 years, where will this mess be today in the ash heap of history? But who will still be ruling and reigning? You see it here, the sovereignty seeking after that. This is what we're after. We're after that truth. So he interprets the dream. Nebuchadnezzar then is all excited. You got to be careful with these pagan gods and they're giving all of this praise to God. They weren't converted. They weren't. It's like our government sometimes declaring days of prayer and fasting and all this, and at the same time carrying on the most immoral things you can imagine. It's just lip service. But here it is. Okay, we're set apart. We're set apart. We seek God above all else. We seek His truth above all else. And then chapter 3, there's no hesitation. No hesitation whatsoever. Now who takes center stage? It's His three friends. What happens here? Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold. He makes this image of gold, and basically they come and they say, you know what, you gotta bow down, you gotta worship this thing, you gotta believe this lie, you gotta participate in this lie, you gotta dedicate your lives to this lie, because if you don't, we'll counsel you. We'll make sure you don't work, we'll make sure you don't have anything if you don't buy into this lie. What did the three friends do? They wouldn't buy into the lie. They refused to do it. You see verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said, to the King. O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. We don't have to think about it. We don't need time. There's no hesitation here. You're demanding an allegiance that's solely reserved for God. And there is no hesitation, no question about what we're going to do. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O King. This is the most amazing thing to me, though. That is a statement of faith, but it's this next statement that's amazing. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. God's going to deliver us, but if he doesn't, if he lets us be killed, it makes no difference. Life or death. Isn't this what Paul said in Philippians? Whether by life or by my death. We're set apart, we seek God, we seek His truth, and when it comes, when the line is drawn, listen, the line has been drawn already. And when the demand comes, there's no hesitation on our part. What this means is that we've already resolved in our hearts and minds. If you have not resolved it in your heart and mind, you need to go home, pour over the Word of God and pray and pray that God give you this resolve. Because if you don't have it, you're going to wake up and go, my gosh, what did I just do? I just compromised everything. I just compromised everything. There's no hesitation here. None whatsoever. The fourth one's a bit surprising in chapter four. Nebuchadnezzar has a second dream. These kings and their dreams, right? Man, they have these wild dreams. So Nebuchadnezzar has a second dream. And this second dream's a wild one. The second dream's a crazy one. And again, he's like, you know, I need an interpretation here. And who comes on the scene? Daniel comes on the scene. He has this dream of this cosmic tree and all this crazy stuff that's going on with this. But I want you to look at verse 19. Because when Daniel comes to explain the second dream, this is what we read. Then Daniel, whose name was Belshazzar, was astonished for a time. He was astonished. Something's troubling him about this dream. and his thoughts troubled him. You see, by this time, Daniel has established some sort of relationship with Nebuchadnezzar. He's a pagan king, but there's a relationship here. And what I think we're seeing here, is when Daniel realizes what this dream's about, the pride of Nebuchadnezzar, and what's going to happen to him because of his pride, he's going to be made like a beast! It bothers Daniel. This is compassion. Daniel could have very easily said, you pagan, dirty, rotten, pagan king, you're getting what you deserve. But there's compassion here. We've been set apart. As we engage, we've been set apart. We understand that. We seek God. We seek His truth. We do. There's no hesitation on our part, but there had better be some compassion on our part, because what we are looking at is people made in the image of God. And if they don't turn to Christ and they're going to face the wrath of God for all eternity, that's the reality. These judgments that God sees that we see in the word of God, it should bring about some compassion on our part. Enough of this arrogance. Looking at this world and saying, yeah, just let this world go, these dirty, rotten rascals. There should be some compassion. What do I see when I see someone who's saying, I'm just so confused about my sexuality. I'm just so confused about it. I know I was born a man, but I really think I'm a woman. What do I see? Ah! Away with them! Chop their head off! They should be locked up! What I see is a person created in the image of God. who is bought into the lie and trapped by the lie and participating in the lie and about to be destroyed by the lie. And the only thing that's going to release them is the gospel of Christ. And it should be my compassion that confronts them with the gospel. They may turn away and they may reject and that's on their head. I've been set apart. I seek God. I seek His truth. There's going to be no hesitation on my part. But I had better do it with some compassion. Paul tells us we're to speak the truth. But we're to do it how? In love. In love. Chapter 5. We don't love this world. We don't love this world. Belshazzar, who's Nebuchadnezzar's son, comes along. It's always the second generation, isn't it? It's always the second generation. I mean, you look at the history of most businesses. Second, third generation, what happens to the business? They're gone, aren't they? Man, great-grandfather built it up, and it's great. It's thriving, great reputation. Then their grandson comes along, and what? I ain't had that story played out. There's been movies, books written about this. Well, Belshazzar comes along, this is Nebuchadnezzar's son, and he's brazen, he's arrogant. If Daniel had somewhat of a relationship with Nebuchadnezzar, he has no relationship with this king. He has no relationship with his son, with Belshazzar. In fact, he has this dream, he's worried, he's not sure, and the queen comes, possibly his mother comes, and says, hey, you know what, there's this Daniel guy, and he helped your father. And this Daniel, he's the one who showed your father these things, and so Belshazzar finally calls him, verse 13, that Daniel was brought in before the king, and the king spoke and said to Daniel, are you that Daniel? This is with contempt. The language is one of contempt. Are you that Daniel? Okay, I guess I've got to deal with you Christians. Alright, we'll deal with you. Are you that Daniel? Who is one of the captives from Judah? And then he offers some gifts. Hey, give me the interpretation. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to make you third ruler. There's an interesting reason why third ruler. Because, well, we won't get into the history of that. Verse 17, 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 dream and majesty and glory, honor. He gave him a kingdom. And because of that majesty that he gave him, all people's nations and language tremble and feared before him. He was a great king. But when his heart was lifted up, when his heart was full of pride and his spirit hardened with pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne. Now, guess what's going to happen to you, old king? He sees the handwriting. This is what he's seeing. He's seeing the handwriting on the wall. And nobody can read it. And so Daniel comes in and says, I'm going to read it for you. And let me cut to the straight of it. This is what the handwriting says. It's over for you. You're done. Mene, mene, tekel, farsan. It's done. Numbered. Weighed. Divided. You're finished. You're finished. We don't love this world. They're going to offer us the kingdoms of this world. Didn't Satan offer Christ the kingdoms of this world? He is the prince of the air. He is, in a sense, over this mess right now. They're going to offer it, but we don't take it. We don't love this world. King, keep your gifts. Keep your gifts. Chapter 6. Then we see just this strong faith. What happens with Daniel? See, by this time, Daniel, we're on in the years here. Darius, the Persians have taken over. We're only just a few years before the end that Jeremiah prophesied, this is only going to last 70 years, and then you're going to go home. And we're almost to the end. Daniel could have played out the stream here. Daniel could have just buried his head in the sand and said, Jeremiah said, it's almost over. No, he's living by faith. Darius is the king. Darius the Persian king. By now the Persians have taken over. And this is the lion's den. You remember what happened here? There was the group who said, listen, you know, issue a decree, issue a law. And the king can't change the law. Issue this law, that if they don't worship you, if they don't, verse six, so these governors and satraps thronged before the king and said thus to him, King Darius, live forever. All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators, satraps, counselors, and advisors have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days except you, what's going to happen? Throw them into the lion's den. This is the amazing thing about this account. Because when it says Daniel finds out, Daniel knew about it. He hears about it. And what did he do? What did he do? He goes home in front of an open window. Why an open window? So everybody could see him. And what does he do? He prays to the God of heaven. And what do they do? O King, O King, He's arrested, and we even see Darius torn over this. I want to let you go, Daniel, but I can't. I've got to throw you the decree. That's the way. That's why we can't be saved by politicians. That's why we can't be saved by politicians. Oh, we want to help you Christians out. We want to let you go to church, but... What happens? He's thrown into the lion's den. You know the story. King runs down there, O Daniel, Daniel, are you alive? And verse 22, my God sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth so that they have not hurt me because I was found innocent before him. And also, O King, I've done no wrong before you. Faith. Faith. This devotion, this life of faith. It's just a few years and Daniel probably could have been home. He could have avoided all this. But he's asked. The line had already been drawn and he's asked to do something or asked not to do something. And he says, huh, this is not a life of faith, a life of faith. Regardless of circumstances, consequences, regardless, it is faith in Christ. You see these six things here, sanctified, set apart, seeking God, seeking his truth, no hesitation, compassion, I don't love this world. I'm not going to love this world. John tells us don't do that. Why? It's passing away. I'm going to live a life by faith. Faith doesn't tell me to stick my finger in the wind and lick my finger and stick it up and see which way the wind's blowing. Faith doesn't tell me to calculate this and calculate that. Faith just says live for Christ. Let God handle the consequences. You get to chapter 7 and 12 and then all of a sudden it changes. You get these visions of evil. You get a large section of history from Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and you get all this language of these visions, these hybrid creatures. They're evil. What you see is this vision of evil, but you also see this vision of victory, because interwoven in that is not only things about the Antichrist that John picks up in the book of Revelation, But Daniel chapter 7, you will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds. You're going to see Him coming. The second coming. All of this woven into this section. And what we're being told in this section is God rules history. He's the ruler of history. We're also told in this section, and we see it in the book of Revelation too as well, judgment is certain. It's coming. And there is no escape. There is no escape. Trevor Longman said, you look at Daniel chapter 7, you see verse 9, where he says, I watched till thrones were put in place and the Ancient of Days was seated. Who is this? It's God. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire, and a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him, and thousands, thousands ministered to Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him, and the court was seated, and the books were opened. Judgment is here. Trevor Longman said, Daniel's looking into the abyss of evil. And he's seeing this evil. And then he raises his eyes and looks into the very throne room of God. And it's changed. Didn't John have similar experience? God's sovereign over all. Judgment's coming. It's certain. He will bring it to an end. He's going to bring it to an end. Another interesting thing about this section is chapter 9. It just doesn't fit. I mean, it's like, man, all this apocalyptic literature that's at the end of this book, and then you get chapter 9 and there's this passionate plea, Daniel's prayer for the people, this intercessory prayer in which he confesses sin and says, oh God, you've got to save us. You've got to save us. Let's cry for deliverance in chapter 9. How do we engage? Well, we understand that God is sovereign over all this, right? He is sovereign over it. He rules history. We are here not by accident. We're here because He's allowed us to be here. And we're called to engage. We can't just sit back and think this is going to blow over. We can't sit back and think, oh, well, hey, look, two years, midterm elections are coming. We'll get it back. This isn't about politics. In four years, we'll get this guy out. This isn't about politics. This is a spiritual battle that we've engaged in. And we're set apart for Christ. We seek God. We seek His truth. There's no hesitation on our part. We know there's been resolve in our hearts. We do it with compassion. We don't love this world. We're going to live a life of faith. I want you to turn to 1 Thessalonians. Because what Daniel is doing in this is he's bringing great comfort to the people of God at the time. And this is what we read in First Thessalonians from Paul. You know, in chapter four, he's talking about the second coming of Christ. And he ends that section there, chapter four, when he says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. And then in chapter five, he says this, verse one, but concerning the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. But when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as a labor pains upon a pregnant woman. and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night or darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night. Those who get drunk are drunk at night. Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath. He did not appoint his children to wrath. As believers, we've not been appointed to wrath. Christ took our wrath. When I put my faith and trust in Him, and I turned to Him who died on a cross, was buried, and raised the third day, God poured out on Him the wrath I deserved, and raised Him the third day. When I come to Him, my sins are forgiven. They're removed, the language of the Bible, as far as the East is from the West. But understand this, believer, we've not been appointed to wrath. But we may live through it. But its design is not for us. Do you understand that? Its design is not for us. Unless You've never come to Christ. If you are not in Christ, you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then the very wrath that's being poured out, you are destined for that. How do you avoid it? You turn to Christ. You turn to him and say, here I am, save me. You know what he'll do? He'll save you. You see, this is reality. This is reality. This is not the fantasy world that this culture wants us to engage in. This is reality. Now, let's stand and engage. Don't back up. If you back up and you hesitate, it will blow you over. It will destroy you. It will destroy your family. It will destroy your career. It will destroy everything you've worked your life to build. And it'll be gone in an instant. It may still be gone. But if we engage and live by faith, right? the perspective of Daniel, I'd rather have Jesus than what? Let's pray. Father Daniel,