Daniel chapter 2, we're going to start reading in verse 14 and I'm going to ask those willing and able to stand with me please as we share together in reverence the reading of the Word of God. Daniel of course is the author of his own story here and so he's writing about himself. He says in verse 14 Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Ariok, the captain of the king's bodyguard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He said to Ariok, the king's commander, for what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? Then Ariok informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. So father, we thank you for the opportunity to read your word today and to study it. Lord, apply it to our hearts. We need to hear again from You. We do every week. We gather together here and we do so because we understand we need to be refreshed spiritually. We need to be re-instructed from Your Word about what's important. This world in which we live today is constantly putting forth its ideas on how we ought to live and and its difficulties that sometimes interfere with our peace and our joy. But we come back now to your house to worship you, to study your word, to get reoriented again on what's really important in life, what's of eternal matters. So help us, Lord, to put aside any cares and worries that might interfere with our worship for you today and the study of the mighty word of God. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you and please be seated. So I don't know about you, but I'm in a little bit of a quandary because of the times in which we're living. I'm getting kind of amped up as our culture descends into despondency and into into a very sinful, despotic condition. I'm amped up about that because I realize that Jesus is going to come back, you know. And the Bible tells us, you know, things aren't going to be too good before Jesus comes back. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us, you know what, things are going to get kind of bad before Jesus Christ comes back. And so I'm looking around at our culture and I'm thinking, well, you know, we're certainly headed that way. But my quandary is this, at the same time, my heart is broken. My heart is broken over the lostness of people. I have a conflict because I see the chaos, and I see the confusion, and I see the consternation going around in our culture, in our society, in our state, in our nation, and all over the world. You see that Satan is the god of this world. You see it happening before your very eyes. Yes. Satan he is not the God okay is a God of this world Bible says this for the kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the nations Our Creator God is still in control. He rules over all the nations. And so I get excited about the soon coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I anticipate it coming with each passing day. So in spite of all the uncertainty that I see in our world today, In spite of all the craziness that I see in our world today, in spite of all the political confusion that I see in the world today, and all the upheaval that's taking place and the wars that are taking place upon this earth right now, before my very eyes, I know that God's in control. I know He's in control, folks. I tried to never lose sight of that. You know, one of the most heart-wrenching things that I see in our culture, and I think one of the things that crystallizes the depravity of our culture is school shootings. You know, we've just witnessed another school shooting. in our country. I don't think any other country, I don't know, I haven't checked up on it, I'm just speaking off the cuff here, but I don't think there's any other country on the face of the earth that has the number of school shootings that the United States of America has. You know, and I have to be honest with you, you know, another school shooting is taking place by somebody who has been deranged because of the very school system that they attend. When you really think about what's going on in our school systems today, the school system itself feeds our students this garbage and confuses them and these confused kids take up a gun and they start killing people and then they blame the guns when in fact it is the school system that is feeding them this confusion about who they are and what they are. And so you wind up with a bunch of students who don't understand who they are. They're hopeless and they're hallow, empty human beings, and they're just responding to that. That's what they're doing. The problem with the school shootings is the school system teaching lies for truth and kids buying into it because they have no foundation at home to build on. Are you saying that every school system in the United States of America is bad? I'm saying that they're getting that way if they're not there. I'm saying that the government will take control of them and they'll re-educate teachers and try to make them accept sociology as America defines it. Well, it's because of such atrocities as this that I believe, and because of what's coming in America, I believe that we more than ever as Christians need to understand the times in which we live. And I think we need to know how to live. And that's why we're looking at the book of Daniel. Daniel is our guide. You know, there's a lot of emphasis today on godly living and practicality of godly living, and I'm all for that. You know, I'm always getting stuff in the mail about marriage seminars and how to deal with your children and how to get along with people at work, you know, and how to invest your money and make the best of your resources. And we need to know all of that stuff, you know. We need to know how to live life in the here and now, you know. But I believe at the same time that we're making a huge mistake by just focusing on the here and now. I think that the here and now has to be undergirded by what God has planned for us in the future, what God's plans are ahead of us. Yes, we need to deal with the here and now, but I think that the here and now takes has teeth in it, when we understand that God has a future for us, and we have absolute faith in the fact that He controls our future, and that our future is in His hands. And I think when you look at the book of Daniel, you see both of those things. As I've told you before, many times the book of Daniel is divided into two parts. It is divided into the here and now, and the first six in the first six chapters, and then at the end, the last six chapters, deal with prophecy. Daniel ties together the here and now and what God's plan is for the future to give the here and now some meaning and some steadfastness. So I think we need to look at both of them, pie them together. So here we are, we're in the book of Daniel. Daniel is living under a totalitarian regime. Nebuchadnezzar is the dictator of the world. It is a one world government. It's not the one world government that's going to come. It is a one world government. And Daniel is giving us a preview of what very well may become our own reality over the next few years. The world has exhausted, just about exhausted, its ability to do evil. And that is, I think, especially demonstrated in the sexual perversion which we're seeing in the world today. We've gone about as far down the road of sexual perversion as we can possibly go in making sexual perversion acceptable. And with the invention of the A.I. now, and its potential for expediting evil, I believe A.I. is catapulting us into the future of evil like nothing else before. And I believe that, as I've told you many times before, because A.I. is going to be responsible for confusing what reality is. We're not going to be able to tell what reality is if A.I. continues on, and I believe that it will. So, it's a game changer. It's a game changer. So, the final part of the puzzle, I believe, in looking for the coming of the end of the world, is going to be the extermination of the plague of Christians. We need to be keeping our eyes open right now. This is nothing new. I mean, all down you look at history, and Christians have always been persecuted down through history. And there are examples of example after example of men who have tried to destroy Christianity. So you have to ask yourself then, why is Christianity such a threat to the world order? Because of this, all totalitarian governments are led by godless men. Mark it down, all totalitarian governments are led by godless men. And history is full of those examples. The Bible is a very political book. People don't accept that sometimes, but the Bible is very political. It has a lot to say about politics. As a matter of fact, let me give you a principle right off the bat. One of the principles that Jesus Christ gave, and He said this in His own words, this is the judgment. that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light. He's talking here about all men, and that would include those who are in political positions of authority. For their deeds were evil, for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. I'm telling you, if there's ever a verse that describes men in political positions, this is one of those verses that nails it on the head, folks. of what's going on in our country and countries across the world. Ungodly totalitarian leaders hate light. They hate the light. They hate that light is Jesus Christ, of course. And when you have ungodly men or ungodly women leading a country, they will hate Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ's principles expose their evil, sinful, wicked deeds for what they are. No political leader ever likes to have himself exposed. Period. Doesn't like it. It's a threat to them. We have a modern-day Nebuchadnezzar coming. It's called the Antichrist, right? The world is prepared. I believe that it's quite possible that the Antichrist is in the world today, somewhere in this world today. And just like Nebuchadnezzar, who had the authority to call arbitrarily for the death of the magicians and the cojourners and the Chaldeans, this Antichrist is going to have the authority to call for the death and for the Christian heads to roll. Arbitrarily. He's going to have that much power. He's going to have that much authority. He is going to do that. Now, while Nebuchadnezzar had the power to kill whomever he wished, and he did so on many occasions, God wasn't through with Daniel. And God wasn't through with Nebuchadnezzar. And so that's kind of where we're picking up the story this morning. God still has plans for Nebuchadnezzar, as evil and wicked as he was. God still had plans for Nebuchadnezzar, and He still had plans for Daniel. Now, there was a glitch in God's plan, and that glitch was that Nebuchadnezzar wanted to kill Daniel. But we know that God doesn't have glitches, right? God doesn't have glitches in His plan. Everything about this was set up by God to prepare to elevate Daniel to the second position in command of all the world, basically, at this time. So, we pick up the scene in verse 14. And the scene opens up in verse 14 with, then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Ariok. And it goes on and says that he was the captain of the king's bodyguard who had gone forth to slay the wise men in Babylon. And he said to Ariok, the king's commander, for what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? So urgent. Now, I look at these two verses and I see an incongruity here. I see something here that, in my mind at least, doesn't necessarily always add up. My version of the Bible says that Daniel replied with discretion and discernment. If you have the ESV version of the Bible, it says that he replied with prudence and discretion. If you have the King James version of the Bible, it says he replied with counsel and wisdom. And then when you get to verse 15, when you get to verse 15, you find out that the question that he asked is the definition of all those adjectives. The question, the question, why is the decree of the king so urgent? It may say harsh in your particular version of the Bible or something to that extent. And so when I'm looking at it, I'm trying to harmonize in my mind the fact that Daniel is answering with discretion, discernment, prudence, counsel, and wisdom, and it's all Comes to one little question here of what is the reason For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? Obviously the king has become very impatient particular time and he's annoyed because nobody can tell him what he wants to know and what he wants to hear which is Which really is a characteristic of all of all tyrants and all dictators They want to be told what they want to hear period You know, that is part of being a tyrant or a dictator. You become irrational. You become impulsive. You become hasty. And those are the characteristics that Nebuchadnezzar is showing in our text this morning. You say, why? Why do they become that way? Because power is addictive. is addictive. You may be saying to yourself, you know I'm not a tyrant. I'm not a dictator. I don't have a lot of power. You just stay with me. Just stay with me. We'll make it applicable. You hear me out right now. Power is addictive because once you have it, and once you have tasted it, you want to keep it. Listen to me. That is human nature. That is true of everybody in this room. That is why politicians keep running year after year for offices. They like power. Now maybe they didn't start out liking power, you know, but once they tasted power, they found out that they really liked it. Maybe they didn't initially run because they wanted power, but once you have tasted it, you want more of it. Once you have experienced it, once it gets in your blood, your next question is this, how can I keep my power? I'm telling you the sequence. the road that this goes down. Once you have tasted power, the next question is, how can I keep my power? That is part of the sin nature. And this is invariably true of probably, if not all, all strong political natures. They want to hear how good they are doing. There's a mutual understanding between a powerful leader and his staff and his minions. The minions know that their leader wants to hear how good he's doing. And the minions and the staff know that if they don't tell their leader how good he's doing, then the probability is he's going to fire them. Okay. Probability is, if a powerful leader doesn't hear what he wants to hear, and he's not being built up, but rather his minions and his staff are trying to, are going against him, he's not going to like that, and he's probably going to do his best to get rid of them. That's just the nature, that's human nature, that's how it works. responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths because of his great leap forward policies. I can almost guarantee you that he did not know how destructive, overall destructive, his policy was and how many millions of people died on it. Putin is known for his brutality and for his tyrannical power. And if you've been listening, if you've been watching the news agencies, you know that strange things have happened to Putin's staff. How some of them have disappeared, you know, and how some of them have been killed in the most unusual way. Why? You know, Putin wants to hear the good about what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And the truth is he probably doesn't really understand how bad it is. And if a powerful leader does know how bad it is, he justifies it because he's doing it for the good of the nation, right? He's justifying it because he's doing it for the good of the country. So he'll issue his threats. And he will be oppressive. That is human nature. Now. None of us here are on that grand scale of authority, right? I mean, we're pretty normal people, right? Living day in, living day out. But let me just be a little vulnerable for you this morning, or perhaps maybe about myself, and maybe not so much about you. But I have an image I want to protect, okay? I have an image that I want to I want to project toward you, and I want to keep a good standing before you. And so, you know, there's a part of me that says, you know, I don't want to know the truth. I don't really know all the truth about me. And I think some of us are, I think some of you are that way as well. We want to hear the good things about us. We want to hear the good things about what we've done. We want to hear the good things about how wonderful we are and how right we are and how smart we are and how pretty we are and how beautiful we are. And we want to hear all of those things because We want to protect our image. Right? Our sin nature is talking to us, and it's very self-centered, the sin nature that we have. And fortunately, though, for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who can kind of control those feelings when we have those feelings, and bring a sense of reality to us, and convict us of our sins, and convict us of our self-centeredness, so that we can repent of it, because we know that the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sins. And so we run to Him with repentance, of our self-centeredness and we get right with God and we seek his forgiveness. So let's look at Daniel's question. For what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? So that question then houses Daniel's discretion, Daniel's discernment, Daniel's wisdom, Daniel's counsel, Daniel's prudence, depending on which version of the Bible you're reading, of course. And I don't know about you, but the question doesn't seem deeply spiritual. The question doesn't seem extremely wise. It doesn't seem extremely prudent. It doesn't seem extremely discerning. But notice that it is a why question. It is a why the why question. Why the why question. Because why questions slow things down. Why questions slow things down? When things are happening impetuously, when things are happening without thinking it through, oftentimes we go the wrong way very quickly. And there are times we can save ourselves a lot of grief, a lot of regret, and a lot of sorrow if we'll just stop and ask ourselves, why are we doing what we're doing? Why are we thinking what we're thinking? Why do we want to go the way we're going? Why are we planning what we are planning? Why are we doing what we are doing? Why question? This why question was from God, and everybody here has done something without thinking about it, and it cost you. It cost you money, it cost you time, it cost you relationships, because you did not think about it, you did not slow down, and you did not ask yourself why. So Daniel wisely asked Ariaka a question, Why is the king being so hasty? Or why is the king in such a hurry? Depending again on which version you have, it might say harsh there, I don't know. But as you look at the context here, I believe Daniel is asking the question because he was thinking to himself, why hasn't Nebuchadnezzar come and asked me? At this point, he and Nebuchadnezzar have not had an exchange. Daniel sees that what the king wants to do is unwise. It's imprudent. It's an imprudent decree. Now, I want you to understand that Daniel is not saying that Nebuchadnezzar is imprudent or that Nebuchadnezzar is unwise, but he's saying that what Nebuchadnezzar wants to do, his decree itself, is unwise. It is insolent. It's an insult to Daniel. Basically, it's my take on what's going on here. The king hadn't used all of his options. One of his options was coming to Daniel. That was an option. Why do you say that? Well, go back to chapter 1. Look what it says in verse 19. The king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Meshael, and Azariah. So they entered the king's personal service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and cojourners. who were in all his realm." Daniel knew that God's hand was upon him. Daniel knew he had already to some degree established a little bit of a rapport with the king and everybody else in the king's court. And that would include Ariok and all Daniel was saying, give me a fair shake. Give me a fair shake. He just wanted an opportunity to talk to the king. Why? Because of what we just read in chapter one. Daniel knew that he had the gift of interpretation. Daniel asked the question because he was confident of what God could do. He was confident what God could do. His faith was in what God could do. Verse 16, then. What does God do? So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. So what did Daniel do? The Bible says he appeared before Nebuchadnezzar. What does he do? He says, I want you to give me some time. Does this remind you of anything? Like chapter 1 maybe, where Daniel said to the commander, I want 10 days. Right? Daniel said to the commander, hey, I don't want to eat the king's food. I want to eat, you know, water and vegetables. That's all I want to eat. I want to do that. And the commander said, no, we can't do that. And Daniel said, what? Just give me 10 days. Just give me 10 days and then take a look at me and see what you think. Just give me some time, right? Only this time, Daniel doesn't have 10 days. Okay. At this particular point, Daniel has one night and the king granted his request simply because Daniel assured him that the next morning he'd come back with an answer. Okay. He was positive of that. So, you know, beloved, I really believe, I really believe what you're looking at here in this particular passage of scripture is something that you and I may very possibly, and I believe, I believe that this is something that you and I are probably, not just possibly, but everybody here who is a genuine talent of God is probably going to be in Daniel's same position. Our circumstances are going to be different. Positions are going to be the same. You say, what do you mean? What did Jesus say? Jesus said, And you will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, Do not worry about how or what you are to say, for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. Your day may be coming. Daniel asked to talk to the king. You, on the other hand, will be brought before the king to give him an answer. Listen, there are tons of lessons that we can learn from these verses. I'm only going to give you a few lessons this morning. Number one, as I've just pointed out to you from the words of Jesus. that the day is coming, quite probably, when we will be brought before government authorities. We are heading down the road of a godless government before the Antichrist comes. It is clear from the Scriptures that Christians are going to be singled out as troublemakers and divisive, okay? And we're going to be divisive because we're not going to go along with all the immoral sexual approval You know, we're not going to go along with killing of the babies in the womb or outside the womb. And they're going to hate us because we're not going to bow. We're not going to bow before any human king. We're only going to bow before one king and his name is Jesus Christ, the Lord of Lords. They don't like that. They will not like that. We don't need to be afraid of them. When that time comes, because Jesus says, we're going to answer them, and you know what you're going to say? You know what the Holy Spirit's going to lead you to do when you stand before these human kings? The Holy Spirit's going to lead you to say this, I've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I have forgiven of my sins because I have repented of them and put my faith in Him as my personal Savior and His blood on the cross. And dear King, you need to repent of your sins and you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ who died for you. on the cross who can pay for your sins. And you're going to say, I believe that Jesus Christ rose up from the dead and I believe He's alive today sitting at the right hand of Heavenly Father. And dear King, if you do not repent, you will spend eternity separated from God because Jesus Christ is the only way you're going to get to Heaven forgiven of your sins. That's what you're going to say when you stand before that King. You're going to testify to Jesus Christ and His power in your life. The Holy Spirit is going to empower you to do that. You're going to be prepared. You see, Daniel was surprised, but he wasn't shocked. Daniel was surprised, but he wasn't shocked. And you may be surprised, as some have already been surprised, when they come knocking on your door and busting down your door and hauling you off. Now, you may be surprised, but you don't need to be shocked. when that happens. See, Daniel didn't see it coming, okay? He didn't see it coming, but he wasn't shocked that it actually happened because his faith was in God. And his faith was such that he knew that God was going to take care of him. And his faith was such that he would ask this particular question that he did in our study this morning. He knew that all of this was part of God's plan for his life. He knew that. He understood that. And he was confident in God's will. So yes, you may be caught off guard, but you don't need to be shocked into intimidation. You don't need to be shocked to where you become speechless. You have an answer. You have an answer. You give them that answer as Jesus Christ. Don't go into a tizzy. Don't go into a tizzy at all. Your faith is in the will of God, in His hands. And number three, number three, sometimes you just need to ask why. You need to ask why. You need to slow down. Why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you doing this? You need to take a deep breath and you need to ask yourself, is this necessary? Is spending all this time on social media necessary? Is spending all this time in front of the TV set necessary? Is spending all this time playing games and entertainment, is that all really necessary? Is that all really accomplishing something good? Is it doing anything except serving your own fleshly desires? Why are you doing what you're doing? Number four, you need to start preparing for the future. You say, how do you do that? By putting your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior this morning, you are not prepared. You will spend eternity in eternal hell because our Father is so righteous that that's only just punishment for rejecting Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus Christ came to this earth and He died on the cross. And He shed His blood there so that every one of your sins would be paid for forever and forever and forever. So that you would have the assurance of eternal life. And He said, I'm going to prove to you that your sins are forgiven. I'm going to raise Him from the dead. I'm going to bring Him out of the tomb after three days in the tomb of being dead. I'm going to raise Him up into a glorious body. I want to prove to you that Jesus Christ has power over sin, death, and hell. And that nothing can keep Him from saving you. And His blood on the cross is enough to cover every single sin. And if you don't have Jesus, you need Him. There is no other way. There is no other way. I'm going to ask Brother R.D. to help us with an invitation hymn this morning. As God prepares our hearts, Christ paid for your sins, He paid for your sinfulness, and listen to me, Christ wants you to have eternal life. He doesn't want you to go to hell. He wants you to have eternal life. He really does. Would you stand with us please? Let's pray together. Father, we come before You in need this morning. We cannot save anybody. As much as we love people, as much as we love each other, we realize we can't save anybody. We don't have the power to do that, but Father, we can pray for the salvation of the lost. We can lift them up to You, Heavenly Father, and pray that the conviction of Your Holy Spirit will come upon them in such a powerful way that it relentlessly drives them toward Jesus Christ. That they may understand their true poverty and their true brokenness before You, and how that they cannot in any possible way make it on any merits or goodness. They don't have any. So Father, we beg of You, we pray of You this morning that You would come upon us. And those of us who know You would drive us into a closer relationship with You. And help us to understand, Heavenly Father, that no matter how dark this old world gets, we're going to shine its lights for You. And we're not going to bow to any man. We're only going to bow to one, and His name is Jesus. And we're going to call Him Lord. And not only are we going to call Him Lord, we're going to live like He is Lord. But Father, there's so many souls in this world. It's evident so many souls in this world need Jesus. And we need to be part of that solution. We are to plant the seed. God, give us great power and wisdom. Help us to be like Daniel and ask those questions that need to be asked. Of why we're doing something and is it really necessary for us to do it? Is there something more we could do for the Lord than what we're doing for ourselves? Help us, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.