{"id":18390,"date":"2017-03-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-12T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-015-god-is-not-dead\/"},"modified":"2022-03-09T13:24:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-09T19:24:15","slug":"daniel-015-god-is-not-dead","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-015-god-is-not-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 015: God is not Dead!"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18390","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 015: God is not Dead!","sermon_date":"20170312","sermon_month":"03","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4453,"sermon_slides":4454,"sermon_mp3":20722,"sermon_id":"31217941495","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"5:1-12","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 SUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 15, God is not Dead!\r\n\r\nDaniel<\/a> 5:1-12, March 12, 2017\r\n\r\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Daniel, chapter 5.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is God is not Dead!\u00a0 And we\u2019re going to see evidence of it in the passage this morning, where a ruler, a king who thought God was dead, learns that He\u2019s not dead.\r\n\r\nIf you have been tracking with us through the book of Daniel we find ourselves in chapter 5.\u00a0 We know that Daniel was a special prophet that God raised up to help the nation of Israel during a very difficult time in their national existence; a time period when they were in captivity in Babylon, about 350 miles to the east of Jerusalem, which today would be modern day Iraq.\u00a0 And you can see the anxiety that the people would be under having been ripped out of their land which they had been in for 800 years as they are now under the discipline of God in a place called Babylon.\u00a0 So God raises up this man, Daniel to basically explain this new time period that the nation is in prophetic\u00adally, and he\u2019s also raised up as role model.\u00a0 How is the nation to behave when they want to live for God in a country that doesn\u2019t honor Him any longer.\u00a0 To some extent that sounds like the United States, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the book of Daniel is so instructive to us; it teaches us how to live on enemy territory.\r\n\r\nChapters 1-7 is historical; chapters 8-12 is prophetic, just reminding us of the big picture here.\u00a0 Chapter 1 was an introductory chapter, it kind of laid the foundation, set the stage for the events coming.\u00a0 And then we moved into chapters 2-7 which is organized like a chiasm, which is an ancient literary device.\u00a0 The western mind is not familiar with this literary device but it\u2019s all over the Bible, these chiasms, where essentially chapter 2 lines up with chapter 7; chapters 3 lines up with chapter 6, chapter 4 lines up with chapter 5 in terms of theme.\u00a0 And you kind of work your way inward and it sort of forms an X which is the Greek letter Kai, and that\u2019s why it\u2019s given this name, a chiasm.\r\n\r\nChapter 2, as we have studied, is a revelation of Gentile history; it\u2019s a revelation of the various empires that would trample the nation down during this difficult time period that the nation was now in.\u00a0\u00a0 That information is going to be recapitulated in chapter 7.\u00a0 Chapter 3 is a divine rescue operation as God rescues Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego from the fiery furnace.\u00a0 That theme is going to be recapitulated in chapter 6 related to Daniel and the lion\u2019s den.\u00a0 Chapter 4, which we completed last week, is a revelation by God to a Gentile king.\u00a0 This would be the first king of Neo-Babylonia, the first king that began to trample the nation down, a man named Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 And God, as we have seen in chapter 4 deals with Nebuchadnezzar by way of grace.\r\n\r\nAnd that moves us into chapter 5 which also is a revelation by God to a Gentile king; this king will not be the first king of Neo-Babylonia, it will be the last king of Neo-Babylonia.\u00a0 God is no longer revealing Himself to Nebuchadnezzar, He is now revealing Himself to a man named, as we shall see, Belshazzar.\u00a0 This revelation of God will not be a revelation of grace, as Nebuchadnezzar received in chapter 4.\u00a0 This revelation, chapter 5, will be a revelation of impending doom and judgment.\r\n\r\nHere is an outline, if you will, of chapter 5 as we start moving into chapter 5 this morning.\u00a0 This outline revolves around people making various contributions to a feast that\u2019s happening here in chapter 5.\u00a0 You have Belshazzar\u2019s contribution to the feast: verses 1-4, unrestrained sensuality.\u00a0 You have God\u2019s contribution to the feast: verses 5-6, the handwriting on the wall.\u00a0 You have Daniel\u2019s contribution the feast: verses 7-29, an interpretation of the handwriting on the wall which is an announcement of doom.\u00a0 And then finally as Babylon is overthrown that very night you have Darius\u2019s contribution to the feast, this Persian that came in as a conqueror and his contribution is the conquest of Babylon, verses 30-31, an empire that never thought it would come to an end and yet it did in this chapter.\r\n\r\nNotice, if you will, verses 1-4, we have Belshazzar\u2019s contribution to the feast, unrestrained sensuality, Belshazzar being the last king of Neo-Babylonia, and notice right there at the beginning, it says in verse 1, \u201cBelshazzar the king\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Belshazzar is not to be confused with Belteshazzar; Belteshazzar is the name that Nebuchadnezzar gave to Daniel.\u00a0 You remember that when Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews into captivity he took youths into captivity first, to sort of brainwash them and get them on his side, on his team, to talk the rest of the population into settling peaceably in Babylon.\r\n\r\nAnd Nebuchadnezzar immediately asserted authority over those\u00a0 youths by renaming them.\u00a0 Daniel\u2019s name was changed to Belshazzar, not to be confused with Belteshazzar who is highlighted in this chapter, the last king of Neo-Babylonia.\u00a0 And one of the things that the Bible does is it takes us from chapter 4 into chapter 5, from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar into the reign of Belshazzar and it gives you the impression that Belshazzar simply followed Nebuchadnezzar in terms of the dynasty or the succession of leadership.\u00a0 And that really is not the case.\u00a0 The Bible does not give us an exhaustive history of what happened between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar; we have to consult extra-biblical tradition to get the timeline down.\r\n\r\nEssentially Nebuchadnezzar died around 562 B.C.\u00a0\u00a0 He had a son named Evil-Merodach, who was assassinated after reigning two years.\u00a0 Then came a man named Neriglissar who reigned about four years and he died.\u00a0 And his son, I don\u2019t even know if I\u2019m going to pronounce this name, I\u2019ll just call Him \u201cL\u201d for short, here we go\u2026 Laborosoarchod I think is how you pronounce that, rules nine months before he was beaten to death.\u00a0 And the Co-conspirators who were involved in that incident put a man named Nabonidus on the throne.\u00a0 Nabonidus appointed his son, Belshazzar as co-regent, co-ruler in Babylon.\u00a0 That latter point becomes a big deal in terms of people using language in this chapter, as I\u2019ll show you, to discredit the Word of God.\r\n\r\nIf\u00a0 you\u2019re more interested in charts here\u2019s everything that I said in chart form and we have all of the verses where you can look up these various kings but we have to sort of piece together what the Bible says with what we know of Babylonian history and so the path from Nebuchadnezzar to Belshazzar was a path of turmoil, a path of political intrigue, but somehow in the providence of God this man, Belshazzar, arises over the throne in Babylon during the days of Daniel as a co-regent or a co-ruler.\r\n\r\nSo in chapters 1-4 the man that was the antagonist, the man that was behind the scenes, the man that God ultimately dealt with in grace is Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 He has now left the scene and now the subject of chapter 5 is this man, Belshazzar.\u00a0 And so when we read the words, \u201cBelshazzar the King\u201d that\u2019s the background of those words.\u00a0\u00a0 We continue on and it says, \u201cBelshazzar the king, held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The Bible Knowledge Commentary<\/em> says this and it\u2019s very interesting: Archeologists have excavated a large hall in Babylon, about 55 feet wide and 165 feet long that had plastered walls.\u00a0 The Bible Knowledge Commentary<\/em> indicates that this very room that has been excavated would have been sufficient to have a gathering like the type that is described here in chapter 5.\r\n\r\nIt is interesting to note that archeology over and over again, if interpreted correctly, does not contradict the biblical record but it corroborates the biblical record.\u00a0 It shows that the things that we read about in the Bible are not just like reading Jack and the Beanstalk<\/em>, but these are actual historical events.\u00a0 And as you study archeology you can sort of see the scenario coming into play where a very thing like this could have happened.\r\n\r\nProbably what I would communicate most aggressively about this feast and this man, Belshazzar, the two words that come to mind, three words really, are \u201cfalse sense\u201d (four words, I forgot the preposition, \u201cfalse sense of security.\u201d\u00a0 This was a man that was living in a false sense of security.\u00a0 Why do I say that?\u00a0 Because this very night the Persians were outside the walls of Babylon and in spite of the presence of the enemy this man has a giant party.\u00a0 Now why did he have a party?\u00a0 Well, for one thing he had (it\u2019s believed) about twenty years of supplies for survival.\u00a0 Secondly there were these giant walls around Babylon, he felt himself and his empire invincible and invulnerable.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s kind of like how Americans felt just prior to 9-11.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting how we felt so invincible and invulnerable and then some people with box cutters hijacked some planes and topple the great symbol of American prosperity, the twin towers.\u00a0 One of the great deceptions of human beings is we live with a false sense of security.\u00a0 We live as if we\u2019re invincible.\u00a0 We live as if we\u2019re invulnerable.\u00a0 It reminds me very much of the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd He told them a parable, saying, \u2018The land of a rich man was very productive. \u00a0[17] And he began reasoning to himself, saying, \u2018What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?\u2019 [18] \u2018Then he said, \u2018This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. [19] \u2018And I will say to my soul, \u2018Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come;<\/em> take your ease, eat, drink and<\/em> be merry.\u201d\u201d\r\n\r\nNow if you stopped reading the story at that point you would think this man is very successful; after all, it looks like he had achieved the American dream, he had accumulated resources that would allow him to live in what we would call retirement until a very, very old age.\u00a0 But verse 20 changes the tone because it says, \u201cBut God said to him, \u2018You fool! This very<\/em> night\u201d kind of like \u201cthis very night\u201d here in Daniel 5 something is going to happen, \u201cIn the same way this very night your soul is required of you; and now<\/em> who will own what you have prepared?\u2019 [21] So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe fact of\u00a0 the matter is in this world unless you\u2019re \u201cin Christ\u201d there is no safety, there is no security.\u00a0\u00a0 You may be deluded into thinking you\u2019re safe but think about this for a minute; we are one heartbeat away from eternity, one breath away from eternity and people live their entire lives as if God didn\u2019t exist at all because they\u2019re deluded into thinking they\u2019re safe, they\u2019re secure, they\u2019re materially prosperous.\u00a0 And this, of course, was the great problem with this man, Belshazzar.\u00a0 One of the greatest biblical chronologists I ever studied under was Dr. Harold Hoehner, and he went through in class at Dallas Seminary a great mathematical computation, it was so great I\u2019m not going to try to reproduce it, I don\u2019t know if I can remember it, but he stood on this idea that this event, everything we know about Persian history happened Saturday night (that\u2019s how precise he was), October 12, 539 BC.\u00a0 That is when this event that we\u2019re reading about here took place.\u00a0 This is when the Persians overthrew the Babylonians despite the fact that the Babylonians thought that their day in the sun would never end.\r\n\r\nAnd if Dr. Hoehner is right, and he had two doctorates so he must have been right, the nation of Israel was in captivity for 67 years up to this point in time, having gone into captivity earlier as we have studied and so within three years the captivity is about to end.\u00a0 And therefore Daniel is no longer a teenager, as he was in the earlier parts of the book.\u00a0 You remember chapters 1, 2 and 3 he was basically a teenager.\u00a0 Chapter 4 most likely he\u2019s in his late 40\u2019s, mid to late 40\u2019s.\u00a0 And now we\u2019re at the sunset\u00a0 years, if you will, of Daniel\u2019s life; he\u2019s in his 80\u2019s.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting the decisions that we make when we\u2019re young follow us our whole life for good or for bad.\r\n\r\nDaniel was the type of person, as we have seen, that made a decision that he was not going to compromise as a youth despite many opportunities to do so.\u00a0 And we see Daniel with that character formed as Daniel is now in his 80\u2019s with that same spirit.\u00a0 And I say Lord, I want to be just like that, I want to be just as vigorous and living for you in my old age as I was when I was younger.\u00a0 And many people have this sort of idea that well, you can just go out and so some wild oats and I\u2019ll get serious about God at some point.\u00a0\u00a0 You know it doesn\u2019t work that way, you have to start making conscious choices to live for God, even as a Christian.\u00a0 You may be saved but the temptation to compromise is all around us; the culture has all of us by the throat and we have to start deciding every day that we\u2019re going to live for God.\u00a0 And the type of choices we make now is going to determine the type of character we will have in our sunset years.\u00a0 Daniel is a great illustration of that.\r\n\r\nWe move into verses 2-4 where we see that this man, Belshazzar, has complete and total disrespect for God.\u00a0 Notice if you will verses 2-4, \u201cWhen Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was<\/em> in Jerusalem, so that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines might drink from them. [3] Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was<\/em> in Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. [4] They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.\u201d\r\n\r\nThis man here just thumbs his nose at the God of the universe.\u00a0 He took something that was sacred and made something into it profane because you remember back in Daniel 1:2 Nebuchadnezzar, when he laid siege to Jerusalem took the vessels, the holy instruments of God, from the temple and brought them into his custody.\u00a0 Daniel 1:2 says, \u201cThe Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And decades had passed with these vessels, most likely lying intact.\u00a0 And here comes Belshazzar with no heart for God, no sensitivity to God, taking something holy that was used originally for holy purposes and using it for a drunken bash.\u00a0 In fact, what he\u2019s doing here is idolatrous because in verse 4 it says, \u201cThey drank the wine and praised the gods\u201d little g and plural, \u201cof gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.\u201d\u00a0 This is idolatry, that\u2019s what this man is doing.\r\n\r\nOne of the things that\u2019s been very troubling to watch in the United States is the lack of fear of God in people.\u00a0 There used to be a day in this country where people, even if they weren\u2019t saved, had at least respect for the things of God.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid that that day is past.\u00a0 I remember the national endowment of the arts at taxpayer expense, I might add, took Jesus Christ upside down and placed Him in a bottle of urine.\u00a0 And I thought to myself, is there no shame, is there no blushing any more.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that they tell us don\u2019t bring religion into the public square, oh, unless you\u2019re going to trash religion, trash the Bible, trash Christianity, then not only can you bring it into the public square but we\u2019ll subsidize it and call it art.\u00a0 That is the mindset today of so many people.\u00a0 As the Apostle Paul says, \u201cThere is no fear of God before their eyes.\u00a0 [Romans 3:18]\u00a0\u00a0 That is Belshazzar.\r\n\r\nNow we have a problem though, because it says\u2026 did you catch this, now my daughter and myself read through this passage and she caught it so are you smarter than a ten year old?\u00a0 She said why does it say Nebuchadnezzar, his father?\u00a0\u00a0 And it couldn\u2019t be his father because, remember the chain that I went through; Nebuchadnezzar died in 562, there\u2019s multiple people that come onto the throne and leave and Belshazzar is now a coregent.\u00a0 Why would it says \u201chis father\u201d?\r\n\r\nAnd the reason I bring this to your attention is because when you watch A&E, the history channel, Mysteries of the Bible, Discovery, they grab these little things and they say well everybody knows that Daniel was not written in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C., we know it was written in the 2nd<\/sup> century B.C.\u00a0 And they do that, as we have studied, because they can\u2019t handle the fact that Daniel makes prophecies or predictions so he must have written after the fact.\u00a0 And they make this case that the book of Daniel is filled with errors, it\u2019s not a credible doctrine, well, look, right even here it says Nebuchadnezzar, his father, ha ha ha, we all know Babylonian history and tradition that Belshazzar was not in a son\/father relationship to Nebuchadnezzar.\r\n\r\nAnd the thing of it is your grandchildren and\u00a0 your children who are watching this are going to ask your opinion on it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you go to that church, don\u2019t you go to that Bible church where they talk about things like this?\u00a0 I was just watching this program and they discredit the Bible; what do you say grandma?\u00a0 What do you say grandpa?\u00a0 And most Christians just sit there bright-eyed and flatfooted because they\u2019re not in a church where their pastor equips them for this ministry.\u00a0 That\u2019s the reason I bring these things up.\r\n\r\nThe answer to it is this:\u00a0 In the ancient world successive monarchs were often identified as the sons\u00a0 of famous predecessors, even when there was no dynastic or genealogical connection in the relationship.\u00a0 In other words, if we stop thinking 21st<\/sup> century and start thinking 6th<\/sup> century B.C.\u00a0 this is a normal way of speaking.\u00a0 Someone comes to the throne is often referred to as the son of someone that occupied the throne a long time ago.\u00a0 After all, isn\u2019t Jesus called, Matthew 9:27, \u201cthe son of David.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 9:27, \u201cAs Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, \u2018Have mercy on us, Son of David!\u201d\u2019]\u00a0\u00a0 Well, how could Jesus be the Son of David?\u00a0 We all know that three is a thousand years between Jesus and David.\u00a0 Well, you\u2019re thinking 21st<\/sup> century; you\u2019re demanding a 21st<\/sup> century understanding be applied to an ancient text.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how the ancients talked.\r\n\r\nThere is an interesting archeological discovery called the Black Obelisk of Shalmanesar III.\u00a0 On the Black Obelisk of Shalmanesar III Jehu is called the son of Omri even though there\u2019s no relationship between Jehu and Omri, and Jehu is responsible for wiping out the Omri line.\u00a0 That\u2019s your answer to the history channel, is this: these answers are not hard to discover, it just takes a little bit of energy and effort.\u00a0 With that standard we could actually call George Bush the son of Gerald Ford; we know that there\u2019s no father\/son relationship there but they both occupied the same throne, the same place of leadership at different times.\u00a0 The ancients would refer to one as the son and the other as the father.\r\n\r\nAnd isn\u2019t it shocking that people will hear this word of doubt and just based on that word of doubt will reject Christianity because of this one thing.\u00a0 And yet there are such simple answers and these answers are so easy to come by in our age of technology and the internet, it takes very little ability to come to a correct answer.\u00a0 All of the commentaries that we have, all of the scholarly articles, all of the theologians, and isn\u2019t it not incumbent upon us to become aware of some of these things, if not for the sake of our children and grandchildren whose minds are bombarded with doubts about the Word of God?\u00a0 That\u2019s Belshazzar\u2019s contribution.\r\n\r\nWell, what about God\u2019s contribution?\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked, verses 5-6, God\u2019s contribution is the handwriting on the wall.\u00a0 God\u2019s contribution, you think I\u2019m dead but I\u2019m not dead.\u00a0 You\u2019ve written Me out of your life but I\u2019m still here.\u00a0 We have the writing and we have the reaction.\u00a0 Notice, if\u00a0 you will, the writing, verse 5, \u201cSuddenly,\u201d I love that, \u201cthe fingers of a man\u2019s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall\u201d remember the archeological remains in the room that was discovered with plaster, it talks about plaster here doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cSuddenly the fingers of a man\u2019s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king\u2019s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhat does it mean in the ancient world where a severed hand shows up and starts to write?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean much to us, it\u2019s not a miracle, it means something to us in that respect, but we don\u2019t understand the significance of this.\u00a0 In the ancient world a severed hand meant death.\u00a0 In fact, casualty counts were made in wars, following wars, cutting off the right hand of the dead.\u00a0 How many people died in this battle?\u00a0 How many people died in this war?\u00a0 Well, how many severed hands do they have?\u00a0 In the ancient world a severed hand meant death.\r\n\r\nThat is the whole significance of 1 Samuel 5:3-4, which says this: \u201cWhen the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon\u201d that\u2019s an idol, \u201chad fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. [4] But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD.\u00a0 And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe reason that God allowed the hands of this idol to be broken off is God is showing this thing is dead, I killed it.\u00a0 And what happens here is a hand, which represents death, is very much alive in Daniel 5.\u00a0 In fact this hand is so alive it actually begins to write on the wall.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I have entitled this message God is Not Dead!\u00a0 \u00a0God is alive.\u00a0 You see, the doctrine of humanism teaches this, and I\u2019m almost quoting this verbatim from their own writings.\u00a0 Humanism, of course, the worship of man; humanism, of course, the dominant doctrine that\u2019s being taught today in American public institutions and public schools, the humanist themselves say God, if He exists at all, is irrelevant.\u00a0 Even if God exists it doesn\u2019t matter, because we are the center of the universe, we are our own gods.\u00a0 America, your typical American thinks just like Belshazzar thought.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter who God is, it doesn\u2019t matter if God exists.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter anything about these sacred vessels, in fact, I don\u2019t even care, I\u2019m going to actually profane them and my conscience is not bothered a bit, the doctrine of humanism.\r\n\r\nAnd how unsettling it is for people to discover that God does exist who think he doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 Look at the reaction here in verse 6, \u201cThen the king\u2019s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together.\u201d\u00a0 You know, on the day of judgment that is going to be the reaction of an awful lot of people.\u00a0 And at least Belshazzar had the reaction before it was too late for him to do anything about it.\u00a0 Some people are just going to have their reaction too late, but how important it is to be hit with the fear of God this side of eternity because that way I have an opportunity to change my destiny by trusting in Christ and Christ alone.\r\n\r\nIt is a very troubling prospect to those who have pushed God out of their collective consciences to discover that he exists.\u00a0 I have people in my life, in my family, extended family, that live as if God didn\u2019t exist at all; in fact, they have bought into philosophies, whether it be atheism, agnosticism, which gives them an excuse to live the way they want to live without God.\u00a0 And it is a burdensome stone for me to think about them actually eyeballing it with God on the other side of eternity when it\u2019s too late.\u00a0 You know, God loves us so much that He bothers us before it\u2019s too late; that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here with this man, Belshazzar.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019s a lot of judgment in this passage but I think that grace is coming here as well because this man is being given a chance to correct his ways.\r\n\r\nSo that leads to Daniel\u2019s contribution to the feast which is an announcement of doom.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t bring a very happy message here; he doesn\u2019t bring a message of this is your best life now or whatever the big bestsellers are.\u00a0 This is a message that he is faithful to, as an old man, of imminent destruction.\u00a0 And this section is somewhat long, I doubt we will even get through all of this this morning, but the first part of it is the inability of the Chaldeans to interpret the writing on the wall.\r\n\r\nNotice verses 7-9, it says, \u201cThe king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men\u201d I would put \u201cwise\u201d in quotation marks there because these people aren\u2019t very wise at all, \u201cto the wise men of Babylon, \u2018Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have<\/em> a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u2019 [8] Then all the king\u2019s wise men came in, but they could not read the inscription or make known its interpretation to the king. [9] Then King Belshazzar was greatly alarmed, his face grew even<\/em> paler, and his nobles were perplexed.\u201d\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s bring in Jeanne Dixon, let\u2019s bring in the horoscope, let\u2019s bring in the Oprah Winfrey network, let\u2019s bring in the whatever and let\u2019s get this figured out.\u00a0 And I bring those things up because look at how many people today go into those things to find truth, into sources of bankruptcy, palm readers, soothsayers, Ouija boards, these kind of things dominate the thinking of people.\u00a0 And it\u2019s an empty cistern; it cannot reveal what the Creator and the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, can reveal.\u00a0 And so many times we\u2019re looking for truth in the wrong sources.\u00a0 God is saying just turn to me\u2026 just turn to Me?\r\n\r\nThis must be a theme in Daniel because this has already happened before with Nebuchadnezzar, they couldn\u2019t interpret his dream, Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream in Daniel 2, through these various exchanges.\u00a0 You remember chapter 4 and verse 7 related to the vision that Nebuchadnezzar saw that we studied last week, it says, \u201cThen the magicians, the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners came in and I related the dream to them, but they could not make its interpretation known to me.\u201d\u00a0 The bankruptcy of the Babylonian system!\u00a0 This system, nation of Israel that you are so intimidated by, is bankrupt.\u00a0 In fact, this very night that system is going to be virtually destroyed.\r\n\r\nAnd this is a reminder of the fact that God is in control even though His nation is outside of the land and their temple has been destroyed.\u00a0 So you think that somehow God has lost control of the universe?\u00a0 But pastor, I got laid off from my job.\u00a0 Pastor, I went to the doctor and he gave me this negative report because he saw this on my test.\u00a0 But pastor, my spouse left me, my children are in rebellion against me, you don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 And you\u2019re right, I probably don\u2019t understand the full gamut of that.\r\n\r\nBut the reality of the situation is God has not lost control of anything\u2026 anything!\u00a0 We think He\u2019s lost control because we don\u2019t look at it from the right angle, we\u2019re so busy analyzing things from the human perspective that the study of the Bible gets us up to the 10,000 foot level and shows us that everything is happening according to an orchestrated plan.\u00a0 God simply asks us to trust Him in the midst of it.\r\n\r\nNo extra charge for this, but you\u2019ll notice that Belshazzar offered Daniel, or his soothsayers first, a reward if they could interpret the handwriting on the wall.\u00a0 The reward consists of being clothed with purple and having a necklace of gold.\u00a0 Purple and gold!\u00a0 I bring this up because when you turn to the book of Revelation\u00a0 you\u2019ll run into a prostitute or a harlot that has on her forehead the title, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH [Revelation 17:5, \u201cand on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, \u2018BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.\u201d\u2019] \u00a0And throughout the millennia commentators have scratched their heads trying to figure out who this harlot is.\u00a0 What does it say here, \u201cBabylon the Great,\u201d literal interpretation.\u00a0 When you see the word \u201cBabylon\u201d in the Bible what does that mean?\u00a0 Are you ready for this; this is deep!\u00a0 When you see Babylon in the Bible it\u2019s\u00a0 used 300 times, every time you see the word \u201cBabylon\u201d in the Bible it means Babylon.\r\n\r\nThis is talking about the empire of the antichrist that is going to be rebuilt in the very vicinity where these events happened in Daniel 5; that\u2019s what it\u2019s talking about, in my opinion.\u00a0 I get that from literal interpretation.\u00a0 And people have, throughout the centuries misidentified the harlot and they say this: it\u2019s got to be the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 Do you know who started this idea that it was the Roman Catholic Church?\u00a0 It was Martin Luther, the church reformer who was in a contest, theologically, with the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 And what an easy way to dismiss\u00a0 your opponent and simply call them the great harlot of Revelation 17.\u00a0 So this became sort of a newspaper (if I can put it that way) reading of the Bible.\u00a0 And Luther would say look at the garments of the priests, look at how they\u2019re draped in purple and gold.\r\n\r\nAnd then that interpretation is passed down through the generations and so Christian generation after Christian generation has followed that interpretation, misinterpreting who the harlot is.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say Rome, does it?\u00a0 It says Babylon.\u00a0 Where is Babylon?\u00a0 Babylon is in the East.\u00a0 Where is Rome?\u00a0 It\u2019s in the West.\u00a0 Babylon is between the Euphrates and the Tigris, that\u2019s where the tower of Babel once stood, where the Garden of Eden most likely existed.\u00a0 That\u2019s not Rome; Rome is a different direction, Rome is in the West.\u00a0 And so I say well why did he use the name Rome if it\u2019s the Roman Catholic Church?\u00a0 Well, you see, they didn\u2019t want to use that name because that would invoked the wrath of Rome.\r\n\r\nLet\u2019s think about this for a minute; are you telling me the biblical writers never used the name Rome?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t there a whole book in our Bible called The Book of Romans?\u00a0 Nobody in the Bible was scared of using the word Rome.\u00a0 If John wanted to say Rome he would have said Rome; they know how to say Rome.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say that, he says Babylon.\r\n\r\nWell if that\u2019s true then how do you interpret the purple and gold?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t it just say right here in Neo-Babylonia that if Daniel or his Chaldean associates interpret the handwriting on the wall they will be clothed in what?\u00a0 Purple and gold.\u00a0 What do we find in Revelation 17:4?\u00a0 What is the harlot draped in?\u00a0 \u201cThe woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations [and of the unclean things of her immorality].\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 18:16, \u201csaying, \u2018Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.\u201d\u2019\r\n\r\nRather than adopting a newspaper interpretation of the harlot why not follow the imagery in the Old Testament.\u00a0 In fact, if you do that you\u2019ll discover that it\u2019s a dead giveaway who this harlot is.\u00a0 You see it on many waters, my goodness, that sounds like Babylon, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Psalm 137:1 [\u201cBy the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, When we remembered Zion.\u201d]\u00a0 She\u2019s called \u201cBabylon the great.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the same title that Nebuchadnezzar thought he built, Daniel 4:30.\u00a0 [Daniel 4:30, \u201cThe king reflected and said, \u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nShe\u2019s called the source or mother of all harlotry, only one area of the world started all harlotry, Babylon, through the tower of Babel.\u00a0 \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon,\u201d that\u2019s how Babylon is described in Isaiah 21:9.\u00a0 [Isaiah 21:9, \u201c\u2018Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.\u2019 And one said, \u2018Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.\u2019\u201d]\r\n\r\nShe will not see widowhood, Revelation 18:7, that\u2019s how Babylon is described in Isaiah 40:7.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Revelation 18:7, \u201cO the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, \u2018I SIT as A QUEEN AND I AM NOT A WIDOW, and will never see mourning.\u201d\u00a0 Isaiah 40:7, \u201cThe grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass.\u201d]\r\n\r\nLook at her colorful attire, purple and gold.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what Daniel was to be clothed in and it indicates this not once, not twice, but three times in this chapter.\u00a0 Her sorcery, Revelation 18:23, [Revelation 18:23, \u201cand the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s how Babylon is described.\u00a0 Isaiah 47.\r\n\r\nDo\u00a0 your own work on this and\u00a0 you\u2019ll find, I believe what I\u2019m saying is true.\u00a0 Don\u2019t run off to a popular interpretation of something, track the imagery into the Old Testament.\u00a0 You say well, I knew it, pastor\u2019s going soft on the Catholics.\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 By the way, I want to be soft on the Catholics, I don\u2019t want to be soft on Catholicism.\u00a0 See the difference.\u00a0 I still believe that Roman Catholicism is a false religious system, but guess what?\u00a0 That system is bad enough without me having to tell them that they\u2019re the harlot of Revelation 17.\u00a0 I mean, their system is bankrupt enough without me having to concoct, as Martin Luther did, an artificial interpretation.\r\n\r\nRoman Catholicism is not the mother harlot, she\u2019s a daughter, one of many daughters.\u00a0 But Revelation 17 is not describing a daughter, she\u2019s describing the mother, the source.\u00a0 And what else does it say here in verse 7, towards the end, \u201cDaniel,\u201d first of all, these Chaldeans, if they interpret the handwriting on the wall you will be made, what does it say? End of verse 7, \u201cthird ruler in the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 5:7, \u201cThe king called aloud to bring in the conjurers, the Chaldeans and the diviners. The king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, \u2018Any man who can read this inscription and explain its interpretation to me shall be clothed with purple and have a necklace of gold around his neck, and have authority as third ruler in the kingdom.\u2019\u201d]\r\n\r\nOh my goodness, here comes the history channel, here comes Mysteries of the Bible, here comes \u00a0\u00a0A & E, here comes The Discovery Channel, what ridiculous literature this is, third ruler of the kingdom; we all know very well that the next available slot would be the second ruler in the kingdom, and how people just laughed and laughed at the Bible over this until 1854, then they stopped laughing.\u00a0 What was discovered in 1854?\u00a0 Through the work of an archeologist named Taylor in southern Iraq there was discovered something called the Nabonidus Cylinder which is an inscription written by Nabonidus; Belshazzar was Nabonidus\u2019 oldest son, and what the inscription reveals is Nabonidus entrusted kingship to his eldest son and the two of them, Nabonidus and Belshazzar reigned together in a coregency form of government, meaning Nabonidus ran the military, Belshazzar ran the rest of the province of Babylon.\r\n\r\nSo when Belshazzar says to his soothsayers whoever interprets the handwriting on the wall they\u2019re going to get the third position in the kingdom, that is a statement that is archeologically accurate because that was the next available slot. \u00a0Do you see that?\u00a0 The question is would you have believed God\u2019s Word even before 1854?\u00a0 I think God puts those certain things out to us as tests; are we going to follow the mockers and the deriders or are we going to place our confidence in the Word of God.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how archeology, over time, has an ability or a propensity to come alongside the Bible and vindicate what it says.\r\n\r\nYou know, these prophecies in the Old Testament about the gathering, like Ezekiel 36, the gathering of the nation of Israel from the four corners of the earth, these Jews returning back from the four corners of the earth back into their own homeland.\u00a0 Look at the commentators and what they say about those prophecies\u2014they are obviously not literal, this is obviously speaking of figurative language, anybody who takes these literally obviously has two brains, his first brain is lost and his second brain is out looking for the first brain.\u00a0 What kind of flat earth society member would understand those prophecies literally?\u00a0 That goes on for almost 2,000 years of derision.\u00a0 I could point to you commentators that did take those literally in those early years; those are my heroes because they believed what God said.\r\n\r\nAnd then the Zionist movement starts and then it climaxes on May 14, 1948 where the Jews return from all over the world and go back into their homeland and people stopped laughing.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Would you have believed God prior to 1948?\u00a0 I hope I would have.\u00a0 Would you have believed the record here in Daniel 5 prior to 1854?\u00a0 These are tests that God gives.\u00a0 I just know this, that God loves His Word, honors His Word above His name.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know everything there is to know about God, I wish I did, but I know God honors this book and He is oftentimes asking us do you honor it, do you respect it, the same way I do?\u00a0 Let\u2019s see if you pass the test; let\u2019s see if you could believe something when there\u2019s no corroborating evidence.\u00a0 And then the corroborating evidence comes in and we look back with shame or we look back with WOW, I passed the test.\u00a0 Be careful about writing off the Bible.\r\n\r\nVerses 10-12 and we\u2019re finished.\u00a0 Daniel now is summoned, \u201cThe queen entered the banquet hall because of the words of the king and his nobles; the queen spoke and said, \u2018O king, live forever! Do not let your thoughts alarm you or your face be pale. [11] There is a man\u201d what man, you mean that 80 year old guy that hangs around here still?\u00a0 \u201cThere is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, illumination, insight and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, conjurers, Chaldeans and<\/em> diviners.\u201d\u00a0 That happened in chapter 2, by the way.\u00a0\u00a0 [12] \u201cThis was<\/em> because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Let Daniel now be summoned and he will declare the interpretation.\u201d\r\n\r\nNow the queen comes in. Most people believe that based on her understanding of what happened earlier this would be Nabonidus\u2019 wife, Belteshazzar\u2019s mother.\u00a0 And she says you know, you need not fall into fear about this, you need to consult a higher source of power, and I remember there was this guy, years ago, decades ago, that was given enigmas and he could understand them and interpret them.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because there was a spirit of the holy God inside of him.\u00a0 Now she\u2019s making reference there to the Holy Spirit but she is misinterpreting it through her polytheistic framework, she says in verse 12 this man, Daniel, possessed \u201can extraordinary spirit,\u201d the spirit in Him is what made him different.\r\n\r\nCan I just say something to you?\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what makes you different.\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes you stand out amongst your friends and your family.\u00a0 It\u2019s what makes \u00a0you stand out in your work place.\u00a0 It\u2019s why everybody could be laughing at a dirty joke around the water cooler, you come in and everybody is quiet all of a sudden.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s something different about you that the unsaved world can pick up on.\u00a0 And just as this Holy Spirit inside of Daniel allowed him insight into things that the unsaved world does not have.\u00a0 That same Holy Spirit allows you insight into things that the unsaved world doesn\u2019t understand.\u00a0 Why do you think it is that they\u2019re always asking your opinion about things?\u00a0 Why is it that when the chips are down and something tragic happens you\u2019re the person they want to call to talk to?\u00a0 Because they recognize something abnormal about you\u2026 the Holy Spirit.\r\n\r\n1 Corinthians 2:14-15 says, \u201cBut a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.\u00a0 [15] But the one who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The \u201cone who is spiritual\u201d makes judgment about \u201call things.\u201d\u00a0 The one who has the Holy Spirit has the capacity for discernment and understanding that is a mystery to the unsaved world.\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s why Daniel\u2019s name is brought up from the dust bin of history here by this queen.\u00a0 That\u2019s what made Daniel valuable; that\u2019s what makes you valuable.\u00a0 And maybe you\u2019re here today and you\u2019ve never received the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 You receive the Holy Spirit through a one-step process of faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 We call this the gospel; gospel means good news and we call it good news because Jesus did all the heavy lifting.\u00a0 Everything that\u2019s necessary to bridge the gap between sinful humanity and a holy God has been accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross 2,000 years ago.\u00a0 That\u2019s why He said in His final words on the cross, \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s over.\u00a0 There\u2019s no more labor or work to be done,\u00a0 you as a human, we as humans just rest or trust in what I\u2019ve done for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s the gospel.\u00a0 The story of the Bible is not what we do for God, it\u2019s what God has done for us and we respond to it by way of faith.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s possible someone could be here today, or listening via streaming, that\u2019s never trusted in Christ; they\u2019ve done all the religious stuff, they\u2019ve done all the ritual and routine but there\u2019s never reached a point in their lives where they\u2019ve come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and responded to that conviction by trusting Christ alone.\u00a0 Our invitation is for you to do that right there where you\u2019re seated; it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you\u2019re no longer trusting in yourself, your good works, your rituals, you\u2019re trusting only in what Christ has done.\u00a0 You\u2019re trusting Him and Him alone for the safekeeping of your soul.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s something you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word of God you\u2019ve changed your eternal destiny.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0If it\u2019s something you want more information about I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\r\n\r\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for Daniel 5 and what it reveals to us and teaches us.\u00a0 Help us to walk by faith this week trusting the work of the Holy Spirit inside of us to direct us and guide us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t