S - Daniel Pt. 5 (Daniel 5: 1-31)
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
Have you guys ever heard this term:
“Writing on the wall”
Do you know what it means? It means that if you look at the signs, things are about to get really difficult. Look at this way. When I was in college and me and some friends used to go to this river and there was this old bridge there. We would get on the bridge and jump off. We would jump straight into the river.
Every single time we jumped in, nothing happened. But then, there was a bit of a drought coming. In other words, it wasn’t raining as much. So the river would have less and less water every time we went. One time, someone jumped in and their feet barely touched the bottom of the river.
So guess what we did? We stopped jumping into the river because we were afraid we were going to get hurt. Sure enough, the following week someone had died from jumping into the water from that bridge.
What COULD have happened if we didn’t pay attention to the writing on the wall? What could have happened if we did not pay attention to the signs? One of us could have gotten hurt. Thank God we didn’t. But that was only because we paid attention to the signs.
Today, We are going to see a new King. We are no longer going to be learning about Nebuchadnezzar, today we are going to see how this new King disrespects God, and how that is going to make things very difficult for him.
1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them.
2 While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them.
3 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
So, we start off by being introduced to a new King and his name is:
Belshazzar
This new king remember that one of the king’s before him: Nebuchadnezzar had taken some golden and silver cups from the temple in Jerusalem when he took people into captivity. What does that mean? If you remember, king Nebuchadnezzar had taken Daniel and his friends into captivity or into a type of slavery. While he was there he also walked into the Temple in Jerusalem and took golden and silver cups.
So many years later, this new king takes throws a party and he takes those golden and silver cups and uses them for themselves. So, it doesn’t seem like a big deal but I want us to kind of understand what really is happening here. These golden and silver cups were used by the people of Israel to worship God.
I don’t want to stand up here and lie to you guys, I don’t know in what way they were used. But we do know that King Solomon made them specifically so that they could be used to worship God.
But this is what happens in verse 4:
4 As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.
This new king used God’s gold and silver to worship their own God’s instead. You know what’s scary about all of this? A few things.
The king knew where the gold and silver came from. He knew who it belonged too, but it didn’t matter to him. He used it for his own purposes.
The second thing that makes this whole situation scary is that God can see all of it.
How does this apply to us? Over the last few weeks we have been reading about how God is with Joseph. And we have learned that God is with us in the same regard. You guys remember our memory verse?
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
Where in the world can you and I go where God isn’t? God being with us no matter what? Praise God for that. But that also means that no matter what you and I do, God will see.
When are being kind to our neighbors and when we yell at our teachers. When we read our bibles every day and when we chose to ignore what God says. When we decide to behave like Jesus or when we decide to allow our emotions to take over.
See, this man chose to be openly disrespectful to God. And maybe that’s not us. We don’t come into the building and disrespect the things in here right? We don’t misuse the things that belong to God right? I really believe for the most part, we don’t behave like this new king.
But, we have sinned against God before right? I mean I sure have. I’ve lied, cheated, hurt people before. I’ve looked at things I shouldn’t before. I’ve listened to things I shouldn’t before. I have done things I shouldn’t. And God has seen me do those things. What has God seen you do?
we’ll what happens when God sees this new king sin against Him in this way?
5 Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote.
6 His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
7 The king summoned the enchanters, astrologers and diviners. Then he said to these wise men of Babylon, “Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple and have a gold chain placed around his neck, and he will be made the third highest ruler in the kingdom.”
8 Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant.
9 So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.
When God saw this man disrespect Him, he called him out. How? Verse 5 tells us a human hand appeared and wrote something on the wall. The king was afraid as he saw this floating hand. The hard part was that the king didn’t know what it meant, so he does the same thing that Nebuchadnezzar does. He reaches out to all of his friends, the smartest people in the kingdom, all government officials for help. God called him out on his sin and the new king was afraid.
But God doesn’t just call him out on his sin. God doesn’t just go out there and say: Hey, you’re sinning. You should stop!.
God tells the new king what his sin is.
13 So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, “Are you Daniel, one of the exiles my father the king brought from Judah?
18 “Your Majesty, the Most High God gave your father Nebuchadnezzar sovereignty and greatness and glory and splendor.
20 But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory.
21 He was driven away from people and given the mind of an animal; he lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like the ox; and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until he acknowledged that the Most High God is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and sets over them anyone he wishes.
22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.
23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.
God sends Daniel to talk to the king and he tells him: Remember Nebuchadnezzar? God gave him everything, God gave Nebuchadnezzar money, a castle, a kingdom to rule. But one day Nebuchadnezzar became arrogant. And his arrogance brought him to be humbled. But, one day Nebuchadnezzar reached out to God and God forgave him. And he walked with God.
You, new king, you are doing the same thing Nebuchadnezzar did.
God does the same with us. He calls us out on our sin. But he doesn’t just say: Hey you’re sinning. Please stop. Let’s be honest. How could we know what we’re doing wrong if no one ever tells us right? How can we better if no one helps us be better. God will reach out to us and tell us what it is that we are doing wrong specifically. God does it in a couple of different way. Sometimes He reaches out through the days like this. Where you and I will sit together, read the Bible and you will hear directly from the Bible where you might be failing.
Sometimes He’ll use daily devotions. You are reading the Bible with your friends and house parents and you feel like God might be talking to you and you learn where you are messing up. Sometimes, Go will send someone to tell us what we are doing wrong. It happens all of the time.
You want to know what our problem is? Or better yet, you want to know what my problem is? My problem is that sometimes I think I’m right even if I am wrong. Sometimes when people call me out I feel like I’m being singled out and I think “how come they don’t say anything to so-so when they do the same thing’?
My problem is that sometimes I spend to much time looking at other people’s sin and focusing on them, and because of that I can’t hear when someone else is correcting me. Another one of my problems is that sometimes God will use someone else to call me out on my sin, and I may not want to listen to that person because: They are too young, or too old, or I feel like they don’t know what they’re talking about and they need to leave me alone.
That’s tough isn’t it?
This is the order of things:
1. I do things I shouldn’t.
2. God calls me out on it.
3. I chose whether or not to listen.
If I chose not to listen, God let’s consequences take over. He let’s things happen to you that you’ve done to yourself. We saw that happen last week when Nebuchadnezzar’s sin drive him crazy. Now, this does not mean that your sin is going to drive you insane. But all sin has the same LONG TERM effect. You know what it is?:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
All sin will separate you from God. It will. And I don’t want us to miss this. Because while our sin separates us from God. That is not what God wants for you. God wants you to have eternal life.
Sin wants you dead, but God wants you alive in Him. God wants you to be able to walk with Him starting today and to continue to walk with you for the rest of your life and even into eternity. God wants to be close to you.
I used this example in our discipleship group:
Imagine for a second that I was cheating on Mrs. Stephanie with a different woman everyday. What would you tell her? To stay with me? Or to leave me?
Imagine for a second that I was beating on Mrs. Stephanie everyday. What would you tell her? To stay with me? Or to leave me?
You would tell her to leave. Why? Because She can’t be with someone who cheats on her and beats on her. God can’t be with people who cheat on him either. And every single time we sin, we cheat. So God says: “I want to be in a relationship with you, but I can’t until you put your sin down”
It works almost in the same way. I say almost because even when we sin, God can forgive us. When we mess up, God can still give you eternal life. But you must repent of your sins.
God looked at the new king and said: “You worshipped other God and you are like Nebuchadnezzar because you are arrogant. God called him out on his sin, what is your sin? What is God pointing out in your life that is wrong?
Are you willing to put it down for a relationship with Him?
29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.
30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain,
31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
The new King didn’t listen to God’s warning. God told him, if you don’t repent I can’t protect you. You’re consequences are coming. And since he didn’t listen the new king lost his kingdom to someone else very quickly.
This does not mean that your sin is going to kill you tonight. That’s not what I’m saying. But in the long run, your sin will separate you from God more and more. That is not what God wants. Truthfully guys, the writing is on the wall. you want to know another way God has reached out to us?
He sent Jesus. When He spoke to the new king, He only used His hand. But when He spoke to us, He came down directly as Jesus to talk to us. To tell us that He loves us, that He cares for us, and to die for us.
Sometimes I think we might feel frustrated with the message of the Gospel. Because it’s a message that teaches us that no matter what, God still loves us, God still loves you, God has died for you, and God wants you to put down your sin.
Well, why? Why won’t Jesus leave me alone, why won’t Jesus just let me do the things I want? Why?
If God didn’t love the new king, He would’ve let him die in his sin without a warning. If Jesus didn’t love you, He would let you die without letting you know. Sin is an awful sickness and Jesus has the cure. If Jesus didn’t love us, He wouldn’t provide us the cure for sin for free.
Today God sees you, in your sin and he says: will you put it down for a relationship with me?