{"id":18391,"date":"2017-03-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-016-to-whom-much-is-given-much-is-required\/"},"modified":"2017-03-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-016-to-whom-much-is-given-much-is-required","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-016-to-whom-much-is-given-much-is-required\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 016: To Whom Much is Given Much is Required!"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18391","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 016: To Whom Much is Given Much is Required!","sermon_date":"20170319","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4466,"sermon_slides":4467,"sermon_mp3":4469,"sermon_id":"319179482310","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"5:13-23","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 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 Lesson 16, To Whom Much is Given Much is Required! Daniel 5:13-23\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 19 2017\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to Daniel 5:13 and the title of our message this morning is To Whom Much is Given Much is Required!\u00a0 As you\u2019re turning there K.C. was telling people about a VBS planning session following the service at 1:00 and she failed to articulate the most powerful incentive for showing up to this session.\u00a0 You say what is that, eternal rewards?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 It\u2019s this incentive\u2014lunch is provided.\n\nDaniel 5:13, making it possibly through verse 23 today, maybe even beyond that.\u00a0 The title of our message, as I said before is To Whom Much is Given Much is Required.\u00a0 Coming to a church where there\u2019s a lot of information given we have a tendency to just sort of sit, soak and sour, forgetting the fact that the more light a person receives from God the more God expects a person to respond to that light.\u00a0 Belshazzar, as I\u2019ll be showing you today, the final king of Neo-Babylonia had light; he had truth.\u00a0 Everything was accessible, even things that happened to his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, were available to him, at his fingertips and yet he chose to live a life in conflict with that knowledge.\u00a0 He chose to ignore the knowledge and consequently we discover God dealing very aggressively with this man, Belshazzar.\u00a0 He becomes sort of a prototype, if you will, or a test case if you will, of the human being that receives light and knowledge but simply doesn\u2019t respond to it.\n\nGod, of course, has raised up this prophet, Daniel, at a strategic time in the nation\u2019s history during captivity.\u00a0 His ministry largely focuses on the fact that God is still in control; God is working out history in an ordered way even though the nation of Israel has gone through the great discomfort of being uprooted from their own land, being exported about 350 miles to the east in a place called Babylon (modern day Iraq), where they will spend 70 years in captivity.\n\nChapter 1 introduced the Book of Daniel to us; chapters 2-7, as I have been seeking to explain, are not written in Hebrew like most of the rest of the Old Testament is; they\u2019re written in Aramaic, the language of the day.\u00a0 And so consequently God is speaking to the Gentile nations in this section as well as His own people with a reminder that He is still in authority and in control.\n\nChapter 2 was the great vision of the giant statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw and what that meant.\u00a0 Chapter 3 is the divine rescue operation where God rescued Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego from the fiery furnace.\u00a0 Chapter 4 was God\u2019s revelation to a Gentile king, a man named Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 His story is actually going to be referred to in chapter 5, as we shall see.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, being the first king of the empire of Babylon, while Babylon was trampling down the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And then we move into chapter 5 where God is virtually doing the same thing He did in chapter 4, revealing Himself to a Gentile king but here\u2019s the basic difference: in chapter 4 God revealed Himself in grace to a rebellious Gentile king, yet in chapter 5 we discover God is revealing Himself in judgment in holiness to this Gentile king.\u00a0 So Nebuchadnezzar is no longer the central antagonist as he was in the first four chapters of the book; that \u201chonor\u201d goes to a man named Belshazzar, the last reigning king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.\n\nScholars tell us that the events of chapter 5 took place on a particular night, Saturday night, according to the chronology of Dr. Harold Hoehner, Saturday night, October 12, 539 B.C.\u00a0 This was an actual historical event that transpired in history; this is not Jack and the Beanstalk<\/em>, this is not some kind of tall tale, this is history as it unfolded on that particular evening.\n\nDaniel, by this time is no longer a teenager, he\u2019s in his early 80\u2019s and one of the things\u00a0 you\u2019ll discover is the Lord wants to use you as long as you\u2019re still alive.\u00a0\u00a0 Somehow in American Christianity we get the idea that well, I\u2019ve done my time, I\u2019ve served the Lord and now it\u2019s time for me to retire.\u00a0 I don\u2019t really find retirement in the Bible.\u00a0 Maybe we should change the word \u201cretire\u201d into \u201cre-fire\u201d re-fire people up because when you retire from your job all that does is free your time to be used elsewhere.\u00a0 So spiritual gifts are forever with us; the gifts and the calling of God are without revocation the Apostle Paul says, so whatever spiritual gifts you had as a new Christian you still have.\u00a0 And God wants to keep using those until your dying day.\u00a0\u00a0 As long as there is breath in your lungs and your heart is beating someway, somehow God wants to keep using your life.\n\nThe chapter divisions of this Bible can be organized according to various contributions to this feast that is happening on this particular evening. \u00a0We have Belshazzar\u2019s contribution to the feast, verses 1-4; God\u2019s contribution to the feast, the handwriting on the wall, verses 5-6; Daniel\u2019s contribution to the feast, an announcement of impending judgment, verses 7-29, and finally we\u2019ll run into somebody that\u2019s very difficult to identify exactly in history, a man named Darius the Mede, and his contribution to the feast will take place in the final two verses where he will actually conquer Neo-Babylonia in a single night without even so much as a war or a battle.\u00a0 That\u2019s how vulnerable Neo-Babylonia was to conquest, at a time when they thought that they were invincible.\n\nWe\u2019ve studied Belshazzar\u2019s contribution to the feast, verses 1-4; his contribution is simply unrestrained sensuality; sensuality which really knows no limits or respects things that are holy or of God.\u00a0 In fact, Belshazzar\u2019s brashness and boldness in verses 1-4 is so radical, it\u2019s so extreme that he actually retrieves the vessels from the \u00a0temple of God that Nebuchadnezzar had brought with him when he took the Jews into captivity and he begins to disseminate these vessels, which were used for holy purposes in God\u2019s temple, for this drunken bash that is taking place in verses 1-4.\n\nYou know, God has limits to rebellion. I\u2019m reminded of the Scripture that is given during the days of Noah in Genesis 6:3 where God says, \u201cMy Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he is mortal; his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.\u201d\u00a0 And when you study what that world was like prior to the Noahic flood you discover the level of sin and depravity was probably unmatched.\u00a0 And God allowed it to go on for a time period and finally God said you know what, My patience has exhausted.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that you can exhaust even the patience of God Himself and God, by virtue of His character as holy must intervene in judgment.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the great deluge came that we call the Noahic flood.\n\nAnd we have a similar occurrence here in Daniel 5, God finally says that\u2019s enough!\u00a0 It\u2019s not going to go on any more, and thus God contributes to the feast through this mysterious handwriting on the wall, verses 5-6.\u00a0 You have a generic description of the writing; the specific writing is not going to be described until later, verses 24-25, we just know that there is writing on the wall by a divine hand and we see the reaction of Belshazzar and his cohorts in verse 6.\u00a0 They naturally, as one might expect, fall into fear.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s a scary thing to discover that you are accountable to the God that made you when you\u2019ve lived your whole life as if He has never existed.\u00a0\u00a0 And so this fear grips Belshazzar as this handwriting on the wall appears.\n\nAnd then verses 7-29 we have Daniel\u2019s contribution to the feast which is the announcement of doom.\u00a0 He will explain exactly what this handwriting represents.\u00a0 Of course, Belshazzar\u2019s wise men, so-called, could not interpret the handwriting on the wall, verses 7-9.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:7-9, \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<\/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]\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s sort of common.\n\nThese people that Belshazzar turned to as reservoirs of knowledge were bankrupt as they have been all the way through this book.\u00a0 Only God has the knowledge to understand these mysteries.\u00a0 Then Daniel himself is summoned, and that\u2019s where we left off, I believe, around verses 10-16.\u00a0 [The 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 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. [12] This 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]\n\nWe\u2019ve already studied the queen; the queen most people believe is Belshazzar\u2019s mother, Nabonidus, Belshazzar\u2019s father, this would be Nabonidus\u2019 wife, and she recalls this man who was once very active in the affairs of going back to the days of Nebuchadnezzar, a man that God had gifted to interpret visions and dreams.\u00a0 And so this queen reminds Belshazzar that there is somebody in this kingdom that can understand this obscure handwriting on the wall.\u00a0 And consequently the king himself, that would be Belshazzar, requests now that Daniel be brought forward.\n\nAnd notice, if you will, verses 13-16 of Daniel 5.\u00a0 \u201cThen Daniel was brought in before the king. The king spoke and said to Daniel, \u2018Are you that Daniel who is one of the exiles from Judah, whom my father the king brought from Judah? [14] Now I have heard about you that a spirit of the gods is in you, and that illumination, insight and extraordinary wisdom have been found in you. [15] Just now the wise men and<\/em> the conjurers were brought in before me that they might read this inscription and make its interpretation known to me, but they could not declare the interpretation of the message. [16] But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear<\/em> a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that paganism itself, although it misinterprets the Holy Spirit, understands the power of the Holy Spirit in a person.\u00a0 You look at some of these descriptors here, Belshazzar acknowledges \u201cthat a spirit of the gods is in you\u201d that gives you \u201cillumination\u201d or the capacity to understand, that gives you \u201cinsight,\u201d that gives you, this Holy Spirit, \u201cextraordinary wisdom.\u201d\u00a0 It allows you to see things, this Holy Spirit inside of you, that all of the wise men of Babylon cannot see.\u00a0 It allows you to interpret; it allows you to solve difficult problems.\u00a0 It allows you to read the strange inscription and make known to me what it actually says.\n\nThis, of course, is the great work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian, how he enlightens the mind and allows a human being to think in a spiritual manner that he could not think in without his presence.\u00a0 Jesus, of the Holy Spirit, says this: [John 6:12] \u201cI have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now,\u00a0 [13] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into\u201d 95% of the truth\u2026 sorry,\u00a0 it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cHe will guide you into all the truth;\u201d and you see, this is the great problem that Jesus had with Nicodemus.\u00a0 Nicodemus could not understand spiritual lessons that Jesus was drawing and so Jesus said to Nicodemus, here\u2019s the root of the problem, [John 3:3]\u00a0 \u201ctruly, truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cSee\u201d has the idea to perceive, it has the idea to grasp; it has the idea to comprehend.\u00a0 And without the light of the Spirit of God in your life you cannot grasp nor see nor understand the elementary principles I\u2019m seeking to communicate to you.\n\nPaul, in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 writes this: \u201cBut a natural man\u201d that would be the man without the Holy Spirit, \u201cdoes 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 he who is spiritual appraises all things \u2026.\u201d\n\nI\u2019m reminded of that famous story of the missionary; a missionary was out on his evangelistic endeavors and he ran across a person that said I\u2019ll trust in your Christ if you answer ten questions.\u00a0 The missionary looked at his watch, he saw that he had a prior engagement and he said I\u2019ll tell you what, I don\u2019t have time to answer your ten questions right now but why don\u2019t you trust Christ right now and I\u2019ll come back tomorrow at the same time and answer your ten questions.\u00a0 And the man said agreed.\u00a0 The man at that moment trusted in Christ and the missionary, as promised, came back 24 hours later and said okay, I\u2019m ready to answer your ten questions.\u00a0 And the man simply said oh, I don\u2019t have those questions any more, they\u2019ve all been answered.\n\nWhat happened to that man exactly?\u00a0 Did his intelligence suddenly go up?\u00a0 Not necessarily.\u00a0 What happened is something greater than himself entered him at the point of personal faith in Christ and allowed him to under\u00adstand and think in a way that he could not think before.\u00a0 He was no longer thinking in just a soulish way but he began to think in an spiritual way and he began to understand the elementary and perhaps even some of the deeper things of God.\n\nSee, we use this expression a lot \u201cseeing is believing.\u201d\u00a0 Actually it\u2019s the exact opposite, believing is seeing; a person believes and receives the Spirit of God and suddenly they can see the things of the Spirit and the things that God seeks to communicate.\u00a0 This is what put Daniel a cut above every\u00adbody else in the entire kingdom of Neo-Babylonia and it\u2019s what puts you a cut above your unsaved family, friends and co-workers, just by virtue of the Spirit of God inside of you, you have the capacity to grasp and discern spiritual things.\u00a0 That\u2019s why they\u2019re always coming to you (in private usually) for an answer to their life\u2019s problems.\u00a0 They understand there\u2019s something unique about you, something different about you and it\u2019s really related to your vantage point; it\u2019s not related to you in and of yourself, it\u2019s related to the fact that an omniscient God is now living inside of you and consequently He gives us the capacity for sight.\n\nWe go down to verse 17 after Daniel is summoned and we begin to have a rebuke by Daniel.\u00a0 The rebuke starts in verse 17 as he\u2019s now rebuking Belshazzar, and goes all the way through verse 23. Notice verse 17 were Daniel rejects the king\u2019s gifts that the king promised to bestow upon Daniel had Daniel properly interpreted the handwriting on the wall.\u00a0 It\u2019s a foreboding rebuke.\u00a0 Look, if you will, at verse 17, \u201cThen Daniel answered and said before the king, \u2018Keep your gifts\u201d what gifts would those be?\u00a0 Those are the gifts described in verse 16, \u201cnecklace of gold around your neck\u201d authority as the third ruler in the kingdom, being clothed with purple.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen Daniel answered and said\u201d verse 17, \u201cbefore the king, \u2018Keep your gifts for yourself or give your rewards to someone else; however, I will read the inscription to the king and make the interpretation known to him.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, your money is not good any more.\u00a0 Why would he say that?\u00a0 Because part of\u00a0 the interpretation of the handwriting on the wall is the Neo-Babylonian Empire is going to end this very night.\u00a0 Now if the Neo-Babylonian Empire is going to end this very night and be conquered by the Persians what good are these Babylonian gifts.\u00a0 I mean, what good is it to offer someone the next highest position in the kingdom when your kingdom is about to be taken away?\n\nI remember\u2026 I\u2019m not necessarily recommending this movie, maybe I am a little bit, but the Titanic<\/em>, I remember that incredible movie that was done and I remember as the Titanic was sinking I remembered the rich individual in the book, who was a bad guy, was trying to buy his way out of his problems, offering money for a prize seat on the boat.\u00a0 And I started to think to myself well, what good is his money\u2014the whole boat is sinking, the money is not going to be good for anything.\n\nAnd you see, people are like that with this world\u2019s goods; they think they have money and perhaps they do in the world\u2019s eyes and they think it\u2019s good to help them buy their way out of their problems or their predicaments, but what is the Bible telling us about this world system?\u00a0 It\u2019s like the Titanic, the whole thing is sinking.\u00a0 What good will be human currency as this ship (called the planet earth) comes into the judgment of God?\u00a0 Money is not good for anything.\u00a0 And this is a great warning to people in this world that happen to have money.\u00a0 God, for whatever reason, chooses to bless some individuals with more of this world\u2019s goods than others and Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:17, \u201cInstruct those who are rich\u201d and by the way, it\u2019s not necessarily a sin to be rich, the issue is not do you own money but does your money own you?\u00a0 But the problem with worldly wealth is we think that it\u2019s permanent. \u201cInstruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.\u201d\n\nThe Bible is telling us that worldly wealth is very transitory; it\u2019s very ephemeral, it\u2019s not lasting.\u00a0 And when you have money and you\u2019re able to do certain things with money and buy your way out of certain problems you sort of, as the Bible predicts, become somewhat conceited with it and think that it\u2019s permanent.\u00a0 And we have to understand that whatever purchasing power we have is very, very temporal.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to forget that.\u00a0 Belshazzar had no concept of that; he thought that these positions of influence and resources and power that he possessed are things that would be there forever and he\u2019s trying to offer Daniel this and offer Daniel that and the fact of the matter is Daniel turns down the gifts abruptly because the gifts will have no purchasing power at the end of this evening, is what Daniel is saying.\n\nWhat a great warning for us as we look for, not the gold of this world but the streets of gold that God Himself will bring into existence in the New Jerusalem and the eternal state.\n\nNow one of the things that\u2019s very interesting here, verses 18-21, is now in the process of this rebuke Daniel give Belshazzar a history lesson.\u00a0 He reminds him of history which was accessible or knowable or he should have known it.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verses 18-21 as he begins to describe what happened and how God dealt with his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar.\n\nVerse 18, \u201cO king, the Most High God granted sovereignty, grandeur, glory and majesty to Nebuchadnezzar your father. [19] Because of the grandeur which He bestowed on him, all the peoples, nations and men of every<\/em> language feared and trembled before him; whomever he wished he killed and whomever he wished he spared alive; and whomever he wished he elevated and whomever he wished he humbled.\u00a0 [20] But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit became so proud that he behaved arrogantly, he was deposed from his royal throne and his<\/em> glory was taken away from him. [21] He was also driven away from mankind, and his heart was made like that of<\/em> beasts, and his dwelling place was<\/em> with the wild donkeys. He was given grass to eat like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he recognized that the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that<\/em> He sets over it whomever He wishes.\u201d\n\nThe value of history!\u00a0 The value of going back into the historical annals and remembering what happened to somebody whose heart was lifted up with pride, just like your heart, Belshazzar, is currently being lifted up with pride.\u00a0 One of the things that we have lost in our culture and one of the things that we have lost largely within evangelical history is the value of history, the significance of history, remembering how God acted and behaved and moved in other similar circumstances in the past.\u00a0 That\u2019s why on the Fourth of July I love to talk about American history; I love to talk about the fact that this nation that we are in is not some kind of accident, it\u2019s not a bunch of atheists that got together and read a bunch of Greek philosophers and brainstormed and this country miraculously popped out.\u00a0 What a perversion of history.\n\nThis country wouldn\u2019t exist had it not been for the hand of God.\u00a0 I love to document that through historical sources because only when you discover things in the present through the perspective of history can you see how badly we\u2019ve fallen.\u00a0 One man put it this way: an ounce of history is like a pound of logic, you can argue logically but a little bit of history can be substituted for logic and it removes all the necessity of longwinded logical arguments.\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of what God did with Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, that\u2019s a history lesson that Daniel is bringing to Belshazzar\u2019s attention.\u00a0 Of course, these things with Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4, happened about forty years ago, three or four decades ago.\u00a0 Belshazzar had decided to push that history lesson out of his mind.\n\nWhat does Jesus say to the churches, I believe this is the church at Ephesus, the church that lost its first love?\u00a0 What does He say to them exactly?\u00a0 \u201cTherefore, remember from where you have fallen,\u201d\u00a0 See, he accuses them, in Revelation 2:4 of the fact that they have forgotten their first love.\u00a0 He says in verse 4, \u201cBut I have this against you, that you have left your first love.\u201d\u00a0 Now what you do in that case?\u00a0 \u201cTherefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place-- unless you repent.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 2:5]\n\nHe\u2019s saying go back into history, go back to our first relationship when we first came together, go back to the things\u00a0 you used to do and remember those things and compare it to your condition today and only through an analysis of history will you see how far you\u2019ve fallen.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s one thing to say that the United States of America has fallen; it\u2019s something completely different to prove it through historical sources.\u00a0 That\u2019s the value of history.\n\nWhat happened to the church at Ephesus? What is the meaning here in Revelation 2:4 when it says, \u201cYou have left your first love.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about what happens to a couple when they meet and they fall in love and how the feelings of love are so strong that all you can think about is the other person, and all you want to do is spend time with that person.\u00a0 And then what happens to any married couple is you get married and life happens, kids come, bills are due, careers take off, and what happens in marriages is what happens in our relationship with God; its activity starts to slowly but surely\u2026 by the way, this word \u201cleft\u201d here, the way it reads in the Greek language is this was slowly happening to them.\u00a0 Activity slowly happens upon a couple and it replaces intimacy and pretty soon they find themselves business partners rather than the romantic couple that they once were.\n\nWhat is the solution to that?\u00a0 It is history, go back and recall your first love.\u00a0 Go back and remember your first love.\u00a0 This is what Jesus is saying to the church at Ephesus, forget all this activity, and they had plenty of good activity in Ephesus, but your problem is not a lack of activity; your problem is a lack of intimacy and I want you to go back to the beginning and remember what it was like when I first entered into a relationship with you.\u00a0 Remember what it was like when your first prayer request was answered as a Christian.\u00a0 Recall the intimacy, the love, the fervor that you once had with Me and how activity has replaced that.\u00a0 And how can you do that without remembering the heights from which you have fallen, the value of history, the value of journaling, the value of going back to written records that you yourself may have produced, either about your marriage or your walk with the Lord.\u00a0 And this is what Belshazzar ignored.\u00a0 The record of history was there if he had wanted to see it, because he was lifted up with pride as his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, had been and God dealt with that situation.\n\nThe last time I checked God is the same yesterday, today and forever.\u00a0 God is not a respecter of persons and if God dealt aggressively with Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, if you had known history and studied history you would have known that God is not going to let you off the hook either because of your flagrant reveling and pride and taking the things of God that are supposed to be sacred and turning them into something profane.\n\nYou slip down there to verse 22 and Daniel, in this rebuke, begins to give Belshazzar a record of his sins.\u00a0 Look, if you will, at verse 22, it says, \u201cYet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart,\u201d now look at this last expression here in verse 22, \u201ceven though you knew all this,\u201d that\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message To Whom Much is Given Much is Required!<\/em>\u00a0 You knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, at least you should have known.\u00a0 The record was there and yet you chose to ignore history, you chose to go down this path of arrogance and since God is not a respecter of persons, since God is the same yesterday, today and forever, how can the discipline of God, how can the judgment of God be withheld from you?\n\nWhat you discover in Daniel 4 is before the judgment came Daniel gave Nebuchadnezzar a warning. Daniel 4:19 says this: \u201cThen Daniel, whose name is Belteshazzar, was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him. The king responded and said, \u2018Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or its interpretation alarm you.\u2019 Belteshazzar replied, \u2018My lord, if only the dream applied to those who hate you and its interpretation to your adversaries!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Remember the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel 4, of the tree being cut down and how that is a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s life and how his kingdom and his power is about to be taken away if he doesn\u2019t humble himself and repent.\u00a0 Before that judgment came God sent a warning.\n\nIn Daniel 4:27 it says, \u201cTherefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.\u201d\u00a0 Before judgment came God used Daniel in a strategic way in Daniel 4 to give a warning.\u00a0 What\u2019s going on here in Daniel 5, as you read verse 22?\u00a0 There is no warning!\u00a0 Daniel is not dealing in grace with Belshazzar; he\u2019s dealing in judgment.\u00a0 There\u2019s far more grace in Daniel 4 than there is in Daniel 5.\u00a0 In Daniel 4 there\u2019s a warning; in Daniel 5 there is no warning.\u00a0 Now why is that?\u00a0 Is it because forty years have passed and Daniel is older and a little bit more on the grumpy side?\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s a possibility I guess.\n\nBut I think the answer to this issue is found right there in verse 22 where it says, [5:22] \u201ceven though you knew all\u201d of these things.\u00a0 End of verse 22, \u201ceven though you knew all this,\u201d in other words, the warning has already been given.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s called history.\u00a0 The Babylonians, we know from the Babylonian Chronicle and other documents, were very good at documenting history.\u00a0 The historical lesson was there;\u00a0 you should have gleaned a lesson from history, you should have been a good steward of history and the warning is there.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there is no warning given here in Daniel 5.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar didn\u2019t necessarily have the history because he was the first king of Neo Babylonia; now we\u2019re at the end of the Neo Babylonian Empire where we have the last king of Neo Babylonia, a man named Belshazzar, and there\u2019s a paper trail.\u00a0 There\u2019s a historical track record that you should have been aware of.\n\n\u201cTo whom much is given much is\u201d what? \u201crequired.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, did you know your Bible actually says that?\u00a0 In the book of Luke, chapter 12 and verse 48 it says, \u201cFrom everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, the more light a person has the more knowledge a person has, the more God expects a response.\u00a0 The person in this world that is in the biggest trouble before God is a person that sits in an orthodox Bible teaching church, like this one, and hears week after week after week the truth of God and yet chooses to not do anything with it, either not trusting Christ for salvation, not allow the work of the Scripture to change their life in any way, it\u2019s just in one ear and out the other, there\u2019s no change of life, there\u2019s no change of behavior.\u00a0 Let me tell you something, you\u2019re on thin ice with God if that\u2019s your posture today.\n\nThe basic biblical principle is \u201cto whom much is given, much is required.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s why God is dealing differently with Belshazzar than he dealt with Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Jesus, in Matthew 11:20-24 said this:\u00a0 \u201cThen He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. [21] \u2018Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. [22] Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the<\/em> day of judgment than for you. [23] And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. [24] Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the<\/em> day of judgment, than for you.\u201d\n\nA very interesting set of verses.\u00a0 Chorazin and Bethsaida are headed off into judgment just like Tyre and Sidon.\u00a0 Chorazin and Bethsaida being New Testament cities, Tyre and Sidon being Old Testament cities but Christ says when the judgment hits Chorazin and Bethsaida, of the New Testament, are going to be judged more strictly.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Chorazin and Bethsaida saw something that Tyre and Sidon never saw; they saw the incarnate Christ, they saw His teachings, they saw His miracles and Christ said you know, if Tyre and Sidon had seen what you guys are seeing they would have repented a long time ago, yet your heart is unchanged, therefore it\u2019s going to be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.\n\nAnd he goes on and he starts talking about Capernaum, a New Testament city and He compares it to Sodom.\u00a0 Sodom is a really bad Old Testament city, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 And he says both Capernaum and Sodom are headed off into judgment but when judgment hits Capernaum herself will be judged more stringently than even Sodom and Gomorrah.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0\u00a0 Because Capernaum saw something that Sodom never saw\u2014the incarnate Christ with His teachings in their midst and His miracles and yet Capernaum had that insight and never repented; Sodom would have repented a long time ago, Christ says.\n\nBe careful about the acquisition of spiritual knowledge because the acquisition of spiritual knowledge renders a person to a higher threshold of accountability on the day of judgment.\u00a0 \u201cTo whom much is given, much is expected.\u00a0 [Luke 12:48, \u201cFrom everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.\u201d]\u00a0 Many people look at this Bible almost like an encyclopedia; they can give you facts, figures, information, they\u2019ve got all kinds of notes on this column and that column, they\u2019ve gone to every Sunday School class, every midweek group, accumulating, accumulating, accumulating; what is God saying?\u00a0 You better be careful about that because there\u2019s an accountability.\u00a0 To whom much is given much is expected.\n\nBelshazzar had a lot but he volitionally made a decision to reject what knowledge was available; he chose not to live consistently with it.\u00a0 This is why the human race before God\u2026we talked about this in Sunday School this morning, is guilty before God.\u00a0\u00a0 Do we realize that, that the whole human race is guilty before God?\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because God has disclosed Himself in creation.\u00a0 Paull writes in Romans 1:18 and following, \u201cFor the wrath of God is revealed\u201d that\u2019s the Greek noun apokalopsis<\/em>, which means unveiling, it\u2019s the same noun we find in the book of Reve, \u201cFor the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteous\u00adness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, [19] because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. [20] For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through that which He has made,\u201d look at that next clause, \u201cso that they are without\u201d what? \u201cexcuse.\u201d\n\nGod has revealed Himself.\u00a0 How has He revealed Himself exactly?\u00a0 Through creation.\u00a0 Every human being should instinctively know that God exists and should search for God because God has given the human race a disclosure called creation itself.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is of the seven billion people on planet earth no two fingerprints are alike.\u00a0 Of all of the snowflakes that have fallen throughout human history when examined under a microscope no two snowflakes are identical.\n\nThe world that we are living in is screaming with design.\u00a0 In fact, in our heliocentric solar system as we travel around the sun, as the earth is moving around the sun isn\u2019t it interesting that we are not so close to the sun that we burn up, or so far from the sun that we freeze to death.\u00a0 Why is it that we travel exactly at the exact orbit that\u2019s necessary to sustain life?\u00a0 The world that we\u2019re living in is screaming with design; you can\u2019t have design without a what?\u00a0 Designer.\u00a0 And because of this disclosure of God in creation humanity is obligated under God to search for God, not to ignore Him the way Belteshazzar was doing, not to depress Him the way Belteshazzar was doing but to humble themselves before God.\u00a0 God, I know You\u2019re out there, there must be something for me.\u00a0 And I believe when that\u2019s the prayer of a person\u2019s heart God moves heaven and earth to get that person the gospel.\n\nBut don\u2019t let this last verse escape your attention, the end of verse 20, \u201cso that men are without excuse.\u201d\u00a0 This is why you have a harsher, more aggressive Daniel in chapter 5 than you have in chapter 4.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, to a certain degree, could plead ignorance.\u00a0 Belteshazzar with the whole Babylonian history available at his fingertips could not plead ignorance and make a similar excuse.\n\nAs we move into verse 23 what you start to discover is an articulation of Belteshazzar\u2019s sin, his ultimate sin being a rejection of known truth, but when a person sets their posture to reject known truth other sins soon follow and we have those itemized for us in verse 23; there\u2019s four sins that Daniel calls to Belteshazzar\u2019s attention.\u00a0 \u201cBut you\u201d that\u2019s Belteshazzar \u201chave exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels\u201d that\u2019s number two, \u201cof His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have\u201d number three, \u201cpraised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand.\u00a0 But the God in whose hand are your life and breath and all your ways, you have not glorified.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s number four.\n\nWhat was the problem here with Belteshazzar?\u00a0 Number 1, he, according to verse 23, exalted himself.\u00a0 He did exactly what Nebuchadnezzar had done even though the record was available telling Belteshazzar he was on dangerous ground.\u00a0 The second thing Belteshazzar did is he abused the sacred vessels, vessels which are designed for holy purposes he used them for common purposes, profane purposes, even idolatrous purposes.\u00a0 He used them rather for religiously exalting reasons, he used them for a drunken bash.\n\nIt reminds me of what the Corinthians were doing.\u00a0 You know the Corinthian church, they took the communion table, they took something that is supposed to be sacred, something that is supposed to be holy, something that is designed to call one\u2019s attention to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and when you study 1 Corinthians 11 they took that holy institution that Christ gave to His church and they used it for profane purposes; they turned it into a common meal.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Paul says don\u2019t you have homes to eat your meals in?\u00a0 They turned it into a pay for play scenario where if you had resources you could participate at the Lord\u2019s table but if you were poor you could not participate and consequently Paul says Christ has become divided by what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 And if all of that weren\u2019t enough there were people coming to the Lord\u2019s table in a drunken inebriated condition.\u00a0 I mean, how low can these people go?\n\nAnd this is why 1 Corinthians 11: 30 says, \u201cFor this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number have fallen asleep.\u201d God didn\u2019t let them off the hook with this any more than He let Nebuchadnezzar off the hook; any more than He let Belteshazzar off the hook.\u00a0 He moved in with discipline to the point where some of their lives were terminated prematurely.\u00a0 You have exalted yourself, you have abused the sacred vessels.\u00a0 Number 3, you have praised idols and yet what can these idols really do for you in the end?\u00a0 They\u2019re just made of iron and wood and stone, they don\u2019t hear, they don\u2019t understand, they don\u2019t sacrifice for you, they don\u2019t love you God says, the way I love you.\u00a0 They don\u2019t answer\u00a0 your prayers, and yet you\u2019ve substituted a relationship with me for this idol which has no power to help you at all.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that when you study idols in the Scripture\u00a0 you\u2019ll discover that this is what God brings up over and over again.\u00a0 You\u2019re worshipping something that has no life in it.\n\nRevelation 9:20 says, \u201cThe rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;\u201d isn\u2019t it interesting how many people\u2019s security is in their bank account, or the social security trust fund, or the prosperity of the United States of America, or the fact that there\u2019s a Republican in the White House, or whatever the issue may be.\u00a0 We\u2019re trusting in all of these things yet when push comes to shove who\u2019s going to come through for you?\u00a0 God is.\u00a0 The only thing you\u2019re going to have left if push comes to shove is your relationship with God.\u00a0 He\u2019s the one that\u2019s going to help you.\u00a0 These idols, these things that we exaggerate in our own minds as some great savior, they\u2019re not going to be able to help because they can neither hear, nor see, nor walk.\n\nI love Isaiah 46:1 where God condemns the nation of Israel for idolatry.\u00a0 He says, \u201cBel\u201d that\u2019s the Babylonian idol, \u201chas bowed down, Nebo stoops over; their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, a load for the weary beast.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re so wrapped up in these idols that you\u2019re carrying them around everywhere you go and yet the very act of you carrying them around is wearing you down.\n\nIsaiah 46:4 says, \u201cEven to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re carrying around these idols and you\u2019re exhausting yourself in the process, Isaiah 46:1.\u00a0 Did you know, God says, that you\u2019re not getting any\u00a0 younger and the day is going to come where you\u2019re not going to have the strength to carry these idols around anymore?\u00a0 And guess what I\u2019m going to do for you as you get old?\u00a0 When you can\u2019t carry your idols around any longer I will carry you.\u00a0 How foolish it is to become idolatrous, worship things which are just exhausting us when the reality is God knows the day is coming where we\u2019re not going to be able to carry anything, we\u2019re going to have to be carried.\u00a0 An idol won\u2019t do that for you; God will do that for you because God is alive, He\u2019s living, He is the same yesterday, today and forever.\n\nSo you\u2019re exalted\u00a0 yourself, you\u2019ve abused the sacred vessels, you\u2019ve praised idols and the last thing God says is you never glorified Me.\u00a0 You never returned to Me the rightful glory that I deserve.\u00a0 Did you know that God deserves glory.\u00a0 Revelation 4:11 puts it this way, this is a worship song in heaven:\u00a0 \u201cWorthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power;\u201d\u00a0 Why does God deserve glory, honor and power?\u00a0 Revelation 4:11, \u201cfor You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.\u201d\n\nDo you know what kids in the United States of America ought to be doing when they learn science?\u00a0 They ought to be so overwhelmed at what God has made that they should be praising the Lord in class.\u00a0 Do you know what we ought to be doing when we look at the complexity of the DNA molecules, the complexity of our solar system, the majesty of creation?\u00a0 We ought to be praising the Lord because God has revealed Himself in creation, and yet what are we doing with these truths?\u00a0 We\u2019re saying they\u2019re cosmic accidents; we\u2019re saying that these are the product of billions of years from the goo to the zoo to you.\n\nAnd I want you to understand this theologically.\u00a0 When you move into that way of thinking you deprive God of the glory that is rightfully His.\u00a0 You know, when you read a Shakespearian masterpiece and you read how that author puts all of that information together and weaves all of those sub themes and sub plots together, you get to the end and you say wow, that Shakespeare is just a tremendous writer.\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t it be that way with God?\u00a0 I mean, shouldn\u2019t we look at this world that we\u2019re in and instead of pretending like God doesn\u2019t exist shouldn\u2019t we glorify the author and give Him majesty and praise and dominion.\u00a0 And yet that\u2019s not the natural posture of the human race.\u00a0 At the very end, men are without excuse because they take the clear revelation of God and they suppress it.\n\nI would say to you that this is exactly what Belshazzar has done.\u00a0 This is why the disciplinary judgment hand of God at this point in his life cannot be averted.\u00a0 And what a powerful lesson this is for\u00a0 us in the godless, wicked, arrogant, prideful age in which we live, where we ought to be people of humility, we ought to be people glorifying God and we ought to have an understanding what the human race, as I speak today, is careening, literally careening for the judgment of God.\u00a0 How can God be silent given the pride of humanity.\u00a0 The deluge in Noah\u2019s day came but you know what?\u00a0 There was a way of escape.\u00a0 The way of escape was made of wood, it was the ark.\u00a0 By faith had a person entered the ark they would have been spared from the calamity and the judgment of God.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting today that God has designed things in such a way that there\u2019s a way of escape made of wood\u2026 the cross of Christ, because in the crucifixion all of my sins and all of your sins have been atoned for, they\u2019ve been taken care of.\u00a0 The wrath of God has been satiated, it has been satisfied.\u00a0 We call that propitiation and if I will simply receive a free gift, what Christ has done for me, the wrath of God is satisfied, I\u2019m no longer a candidate for the imminent judgment of God, I\u2019m declared a work of grace by His hand, not based on what I have done but based on what He has done.\n\nThe fact of the matter is Jesus Christ entered into history to pay a debt for us which we could never pay ourselves.\u00a0 We call this the gospel which means good news because Jesus paid for it all.\u00a0 And even as I am speaking right now you can be spared from the judgment of God by trusting, another word for believing, what Jesus has done.\u00a0 What that simply means is your confidence for your future and the safekeeping of your soul rests totally in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 You\u2019re no longer trusting in\u00a0 yourself, you\u2019re no longer trusting in your own denomination, you\u2019re no longer trusting in your own good works, you\u2019re no longer trusting in your own press clippings or accolades, you\u2019re trusting in Christ.\u00a0 And as the Spirit of God places many of you, no doubt, under conviction even as I am speaking you can trust in what Jesus has done, no longer being a candidate for His wrath against pride the way Belshazzar was, but a candidate for His grace.\u00a0 And as the holiness of God is satisfied there\u2019s only one attribute left for God to manifest toward you throughout the days of your life, which is love and grace.\u00a0 1 John 4:8 doesn\u2019t tell us that God is loving because \u201cGod is love.\u201d\u00a0 As His wrath has been satisfied because of what Christ has done the only attribute left for Him to express towards me is His love.\n\nThe question is, are you like Belshazzar, headed for judgment?\u00a0 Or are you a product of the grace of God having trusted in the gospel of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s something you can do right now even as I am speaking.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more information on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 And as we continue to move into Daniel 5 next week we\u2019ll look at that very enigmatic writing on the wall, what it means to that generation and what it means to us as well.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we are grateful for the truth of Your Word; some are harder to absorb than others.\u00a0 We\u2019re grateful for the historical record of Your dealings, not just with Nebuchadnezzar but with Belshazzar.\u00a0 Make us people of humility, Father, recognizing Your right to rule sovereignly in our lives, helping us to recognize our need for Your grace.\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 Amen.","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