{"id":18392,"date":"2017-03-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-017-the-folly-of-false-security\/"},"modified":"2024-08-27T12:12:30","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T17:12:30","slug":"daniel-017-the-folly-of-false-security","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-017-the-folly-of-false-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 017: The Folly of False Security"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18392","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 017: The Folly of False Security","sermon_date":"20170326","sermon_month":"03","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4482,"sermon_slides":4481,"sermon_mp3":4484,"sermon_id":"326171032186","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"5:24-31","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 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 Lesson 17, The Folly of False Security, Daniel 5:24-31 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\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 26 2017\r\n\r\nIf we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Daniel, chapter 5, beginning at verse 24.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Folly of False Security, as I\u2019m putting my false in electronics, that\u2019s a very relevant message, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Daniel 5:24, as God allows it we\u2019re going to try to make it through the end of the chapter today.\u00a0 And if you didn\u2019t have a chance to participate in the women\u2019s luncheon yesterday I would STRONGLY encourage you to take a look at Rachael Miler\u2019s testimony, which begins at about the 36 minute mark, if you want to move fast.\u00a0\u00a0 And it\u2019s just a tremendous testimony that she gave about God\u2019s grace, because I think a lot of time we feel that we\u2019re disqualified from His grace because of sins that we\u2019ve done or maybe sins that we\u2019re doing now.\u00a0 And it was just a tremendous testimony about how God reached out in grace and restored her and as Rachael will tell you, she has no corner on God and the grace that He bestowed upon her He wants to bestow on anybody and literally rebuilt her life, which was in shambles, as a Christian her life was in shambles.\r\n\r\nDid you guys all know that, that as a Christian your life can get messed up?\u00a0 And what do we do then?\u00a0 We have a tendency to stay away from God because we say Lord, I\u2019ve blown it and You\u2019re done with me and actually the opposite is true.\u00a0 Really, when we get to the end of ourselves God is most interested in working with us because that\u2019s when we\u2019re humble and we\u2019re ready to do things His way instead of our own.\u00a0 So I strongly encourage you to watch or listen to Rachael\u2019s testimony.\r\n\r\nOf course we are in the book of Daniel; Daniel was a very special prophet of God who was raised up by God during a very difficult time in the nation\u2019s history when the nation was in captivity.\u00a0 God raises up Daniel to explain this time period prophetically and he functions a lot like a role model, teaching people how to live for God in the devil\u2019s world.\r\n\r\nWe have navigated our way through chapter 1 and once you hit chapter 2 the language switches from Hebrew to Aramaic.\u00a0 Now there\u2019s going to be some Aramaic words we\u2019re going to read here in the passage; did you notice Ed read those?\u00a0 And I said Ed, we\u2019ve got to get together and work on the pronunciation of these, the operating theory being if we both equally mispronounce them the same way no one will know the difference, right?\r\n\r\nChapter 2 was the revelation of Gentile history in the form of a giant statue, when Daniel was 17.\u00a0 That\u2019s going to come up again here, as we\u2019re going to see Daniel\u2019s prophecy, given as a 17 year old, come to pass in this chapter, when he\u2019s in his 80\u2019s.\u00a0 There\u2019s a divine rescue operation in chapter 3, God; chapter 4, reveals himself to a Gentile king, Nebuchadnezzar, and now in chapter 5 God is again revealing Himself to a Gentile king, this time a man not named Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar is past, but a man named Belshazzar.\u00a0 God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar in grace, as we\u2019re studying he deals with Belshazzar in judgment.\r\n\r\nThese events happened October 12, 539 B.C., Saturday night (that\u2019s pretty specific, isn\u2019t it) according to the great chronologist Harold Hoehner, who could probably give you the exact second that Adam received his bellybutton.\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 He could chronologize anything in the Bible.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure how he did it but he sounded good doing it so he must be right.\u00a0 Daniel is in his early 80\u2019s at this time, he\u2019s toward the end of his life, and really this chapter can be divided into four parts.\r\n\r\nYou have different contributions.\u00a0 First you have Belshazzar\u2019s contribution which is total disrespect for God, as he takes the holy vessels of God that have been brought from the temple to Babylonia and uses them for profane purposes, a drunken party.\u00a0 Then you have God\u2019s contribution to the feast and it has to do with handwriting on a wall; we\u2019re not told the content\u00a0 yet of that handwriting but it startled everybody in the room to see this hand come out of nowhere and write on the wall; that\u2019s in verses 5-6.\u00a0 And where we left off last time is part 3, Daniel\u2019s contribution to the feast.\u00a0 Daniel is announcing doom here; there\u2019s no grace, as there was with Nebuchadnezzar, there\u2019s just a warning of doom which is going to be meted out this very night.\r\n\r\nThe \u201cwise men\u201d (I put that in quotation marks) tried to interpret the handwriting on the wall, and as you can imagine they got nowhere, which is common for these wise men; they\u2019re bankrupt because they\u2019re not tapped into the right source of power\u2014God.\u00a0 They\u2019re tapped into all kinds of other things, so they can\u2019t make heads nor tails of this handwriting on the wall.\r\n\r\nThey remember this man, Daniel, though, who\u2019s been in the kingdom for a long time, at least 60 years, and as a youth, as a 17 year old and as a 40 year old he had the capacity to interpret troubling dreams that beset Belshazzar\u2019s predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Daniel shows up and Daniel is not very, what I would call seeker friendly here; he launches into an immediate rebuke.\u00a0 He rejects the king\u2019s offering of a reward, verse 17.\u00a0 He reminds the king of what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, verses 18-21.\u00a0 And he rehearses Belshazzar\u2019s sins.\r\n\r\nBelshazzar\u2019s four sins that he had committed against God are described there in verse 23, which we covered last week, but his major sin is he should have known better, verse 22.\u00a0 He had the historical record before him, he should have known where pride leads simply by studying the life of his predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, and he chose to be ignorant of that information.\u00a0 There are a lot of people today that are ignorant of spiritual things and many times they want to be; they deliberately shut themselves off from truth.\u00a0 And the way God is dealing with Belshazzar is God is saying I am holding you accountable for information you know or should have known through due diligence.\u00a0 And God is like that with people, particularly people here in the United States who any time they want can have access to the gospel and the Bible.\u00a0 God is holding them accountable for what they know or what they choose not to know.\r\n\r\nAnd this leads to, now, Daniel actually interpreting the handwriting on the wall which he does there in verses 24-28.\u00a0 Notice the message that was on the wall, these strange words.\u00a0 It says, verse 24, \u201cThen the hand was sent from Him and this inscription was written out.\u00a0 [25] Now this is the inscription that was written out: \u2018MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UFARSIN.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 These are Aramaic terms; they represent parts of speech.\u00a0 First of all the word MENE, what does that mean?\u00a0 It means to number.\u00a0 So literally what this says is numbered number, and the reason number is repeated is to add emphasis.\u00a0 And then you come to this second word, TEKEL, which in Aramaic means to be found light, to be weighed in the scales of justice and to be found wanting.\u00a0 And then you notice the letter \u201cU\u201d which is a conjunction, like how we would say \u201cand,\u201d and then it ended with this ward UFARSIN, which means to divide.\r\n\r\nSo literally what this said on the wall is NUMBERED, NUMBERED, WEIGHED AND DIVIDED.\u00a0 Now what does that mean?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know, it\u2019s just words on a wall.\u00a0 But Daniel is able to not only translate it, he\u2019s able to explain its meaning and we get to the meaning there in verses 26-28 and notice what it says there beginning in verse 26, \u201cThis is the interpretation of the message: \u2018MENE\u2019\u2014God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it. [27] \u201c \u2018TEKEL\u2019\u2014you have been weighed on the scales and found deficient. [28] \u201c \u2018PERES\u2019\u2014your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhat does the whole thing mean, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UFARSIN?\u00a0 Well, notice verse 26, it says, \u201cThis is the interpretation\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 You might remember the giant statue in chapter 2; Daniel again there said, \u201cNow we will tell its interpretation,\u201d Daniel 2:36.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u201d Nebuchadnezzar \u201care the head of gold.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 2:36, \u201cThis was<\/em> the dream; now we will tell its interpretation before the king. [37] You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; [38] and wherever the sons of men dwell, or<\/em> the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them<\/em> into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold.\u201d]\r\n\r\nYou might remember the tree that was cut down in chapter 4, the vision that Nebuchadnezzar saw.\u00a0 It says, \u201cNow you Belshazzar\u201d that would be a reference to Daniel, his pagan name, \u201ctell me its interpretation.\u00a0 [Daniel 4:8, \u201cBut finally Daniel came in before me, whose name is Belshazzar according to the name of my god, and in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and I related the dream to him, saying,<\/em> [9] \u2018O Belshazzar, chief of the magicians, since I know that a spirit of the holy gods is in you and no mystery baffles you, tell me<\/em> the visions of my dream which I have seen, along with its interpretation. Daniel 4:8-9]\r\n\r\nNotice the repetition of \u201cinterpretation,\u201d all the way through the book of Daniel.\u00a0 The reason I bring this up is the Bible interprets itself.\u00a0 When you see something puzzling in the Bible it\u2019s just a matter of exercising patience and waiting to the point in time when the Holy Spirit interprets the vision for us.\u00a0 And I find that many people today, particularly on You Tube, (I don\u2019t recommend you get your theology these days from You Tube), are coming up with some of the strangest views I\u2019ve ever heard.\u00a0 They can tell you exactly what the ten toes represent, they can tell you what the ten toenails represent, maybe if there\u2019s fungus between the toes they could tell you what that represents, and people go on and on and on with these interpretations and you listen to it and they sound interesting but where are they getting this from?\u00a0 The answer is they\u2019re getting it from their own mind; they\u2019re making it up as they go.\u00a0 They might fit well on the Supreme Court these days, by the way.\r\n\r\nBut we ought not to be that way with the Bible; we ought to be patient with the Bible, we ought to be humble about the Bible, we ought to let the Bible interpret itself which it will for you if we simply exercise patience.\u00a0 Many times in the same context the vision will be interpreted.\u00a0 In fact, the late great Dr. John Walvoord, of Dallas Theological Seminary, in his commentary on The Book of Revelation<\/em>, identifies twenty-six times where a symbol is used and yet the book of Revelation will interpret the symbol for the reader.\u00a0 So God has not given us a book of puzzles to confuse us, He is speaking through these things.\u00a0 He wants us to understand these things.\u00a0 In fact, remember what the opening word is in the book of Revelation?\u00a0 It\u2019s \u201cThe Revelation,\u201d which is a Greek word apokalopsis<\/em>, which means to unveil or to disclose.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:1, \u201cThe Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,\u201d]\r\n\r\nGod has not written a book that only some people can understand; He\u2019s written a disclosure.\u00a0 And yes, some of the material we\u2019re studying is very symbolic but even that difficult symbolic material is interpreted for us.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need to rely upon the sanctified imagination to interpret the Bible; allow the Bible to interpret itself.\r\n\r\nSo what is meant by these words?\u00a0 MENE means numbered, and what that means according to verse 26-28 is the duration, Belshazzar of your kingdom is about to end. \u00a0\u00a0Your kingdom has been numbered, it\u2019s not going to last forever, it\u2019s about to end.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to come to a screeching halt, as we will see today, in verses 30-31.\u00a0 And he says that twice because God is emphasizing that your kingdom will not last forever.\r\n\r\nIt is interesting that when you study ancient empires and the writings that come from ancient empires, every person that was involved in an ancient empire generally believed that their empire would never end, their kingdom would never end.\u00a0 Even Adolf Hitler, his kingdom was supposed to last a thousand years, the Third Reich.\u00a0 And human pride is such that we think we\u2019re going to be here forever and what we\u2019ve built will last forever.\u00a0 In reality our days and even our kingdoms that we are involved in, our manmade kingdoms may be far more numbered or of shorter duration than we think.\r\n\r\n\u2018TEKEL\u2019 means to be weighed.\u00a0 Belshazzar had been weighed in the scales of God\u2019s justice and found wanting.\u00a0 God had taken this man, Belshazzar, and weighed his heart, weighed his life, and found him to fall short.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because of the four sins of verse 23, [23, \u201cbut you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand. But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified.\u201d]\u00a0 That he should have known better, verse 22.\u00a0 [22, \u201cYet you, his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, even though you knew all this.\u201d]\r\n\r\nSo Belshazzar wasn\u2019t getting away with anything as he was having this drunken bash God was weighing his life in His scales. \u00a0The \u201cU\u201d is the conjunction which means and, and \u201cFARSIN\u201d means to divide.\u00a0 And what this means is Belshazzar\u2019s kingdom was about to be given over to the Medes and the Persians, which was an empire which was divided, The Medo-Persian Empire.\r\n\r\nBabylon was about to be divided amongst this divided kingdom that as Belshazzar was receiving this vision the Persian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire was right outside the city gates, but because of the walls of Babylon Belshazzar thought he was invincible and that\u2019s why he\u2019s partying as if there\u2019s no tomorrow.\u00a0 In reality he was far more vulnerable than what he even understood.\u00a0 Now it is interesting that from the word FARSIN, the plural is PERES; PERES is a word play from Persian.\u00a0 So God, by using this word PERES, is not only speaking of division but He is making a reference to, through a word play, to the empire that\u2019s coming to cause the division, the Persian Empire.\u00a0 So what all of this means, according to Daniel\u2019s interpretation, is Belshazzar\u2019s kingdom was about to be taken away from him because he had been weighed in the balance of God\u2019s justice and found wanting, and this very night, as we will see, your kingdom is going to be divided.\r\n\r\nOne of the great distinctives\u00a0 of Christianity is the idea that this life ends in judgment.\u00a0 We don\u2019t simply get reincarnated and recycled endlessly, as some teach; there is a definitive judgment that is on the horizon, not just for the unbeliever, by the way, but also for the believer.\u00a0 The believer\u2019s judgment is not to hold us accountable for our sins, that sin debt has been paid the moment we trust in Christ, but God evaluates our lives, how we spent them in Christ in terms of giving or not giving us rewards above and beyond heaven.\r\n\r\nSo both the believer and the unbeliever there is an immediate judgment that follows in the next life.\u00a0 And this is a judgment that God is manifesting here, to this man, Belshazzar.\u00a0 Acts 17:31 says this: \u201cbecause He\u201d that Jesus, \u201chas fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe bottom line is people can meet Jesus as their Savior now or their Judge later.\u00a0 Who do you want to deal with?\u00a0 The Lamb or the lion?\u00a0 The fact of the matter is our sin debt is going to be judged one way or the other; it\u2019s going to be judged by what Jesus did for us on the cross 2,000 years ago or we will find ourselves under the wrath of God for all eternity, having died in unbelief.\r\n\r\nHebrews 9:27 puts it this way: \u201cAnd inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,\u201d the judgment of God, an absolute reality to biblical truth and the Christian world view.\u00a0 In fact, one of the verses that brings many, many people to Christ is Revelation 20:11-15, depiction of the Great White Throne Judgment, which is a judgment for unbelievers.\u00a0 And it is a frightening scene to behold, and it\u2019s designed to be frightening because God is telling us that if we find ourselves by faith in Christ we need not appear in that horrific judgment, the judgment of God.\r\n\r\n[Revelation 20:11-15, \u201cThen I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. [12] And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book<\/em> of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. [13] And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them<\/em> according to their deeds. [14] Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15]And if anyone\u2019s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.\u201d]\r\n\r\nNow when you watch the Discovery Channel, Mysteries of the Bible, A and E, The History Channel, what they will try to sell you on is this idea that the book of Daniel is not written in the sixth century B.C. but it was written in the second century B.C.\u00a0 And Daniel really wasn\u2019t written by Daniel, it was written by someone using the name Daniel.\u00a0 And the liberal mind has to go this direction because the prophecies that Daniel gave they think are just too accurate to be true.\u00a0 How could Daniel have known these things ahead of time?\u00a0\u00a0 This must be somebody pretending to be Daniel using the forged name Daniel, reflecting on history and pretending it\u2019s prophecy.\u00a0 That is the common liberal interpretation of the book of Daniel. \u00a0They have a big problem though with that.\r\n\r\nIn fact, they have many problems but let me give you one.\u00a0 Then who are the four empires?\u00a0 Remember the statue that was seen in Daniel 2, the head of gold, empire one, Babylon; chest and arms of silver, empire two, Medo-Persia; belly and thighs of brass, empire three, Greece; legs of iron, empire number four, Rome itself; feet mixed with iron and clay, empire five, the kingdom of the antichrist that is yet future.\u00a0 Empire number five, I hope I got my numbers right there, the stone cut without human hands which is the kingdom of God that will come one day at the end of\u00a0 the tribulation period.\u00a0 We have no problem explaining this from a sixth century point of view, do we?\u00a0 Four empires historical, two empires future; Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome have passed but there\u2019s a coming Revived Rome and then there will be a coming kingdom of the antichrist.\u00a0 I think I said five empires, I really mean six don\u2019t I?\u00a0 No problem.\r\n\r\nBut you see, if\u00a0 you date this book in the days of Greece, which is what the liberals do, then where are you going to get your four empires from, because as I count backward I only count three: Greece, back to Medo-Persia, back to Babylon.\u00a0 Their answer to that is this: well, really you have Babylon, then Media, then Persia, then Greece, and so there\u2019s our four empires.\u00a0 But notice the way this text reads; look at verse 28, \u201c\u2018PERES\u2019\u2014your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 Media is not one empire and Persia another, it\u2019s the same empire.\u00a0 They would come into existence simultaneously and be divided.\r\n\r\nYou\u2019ll notice also in verse 30-31, it says, \u201cSo Darius\u201d a man we haven\u2019t mentioned yet, the what, \u201cthe Mede\u201d part of that Medo-Persian Empire, \u201creceived the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.\u201d\u00a0 The fact of the matter is you can\u2019t make Media one empire and Persia another empire; it\u2019s the exact same empire.\u00a0 And so once people understand that then you\u2019ll begin to understand that the liberals really don\u2019t have the four empires that they need, their abracadabra notwithstanding.\r\n\r\nAs we move into verse 29, after this handwriting is interpreted, Belshazzar tries to make good on his promise.\u00a0 At least he\u2019s a man of honor in that sense, and he tries to reward Daniel.\u00a0 It says this, verse 29, \u201cThen Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put<\/em> a necklace of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now<\/em> had authority as the third ruler<\/em> in the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 A lot of good that\u2019s going to do, I mean, what does it do to be promoted to a kingdom that\u2019s about to disintegrate?\r\n\r\nAnd it is interesting to me that Daniel has been faithful to God.\u00a0 Do we understand that Daniel\u2019s life is always on the line with these prophecies?\u00a0 Given the monarchs of the Ancient Near East we know that they could have beheaded or destroyed or killed Daniel at any time, and yet Daniel was more interested in the truth of God and relaying the truth of God than he was in his own survival.\u00a0 Does that describe you?\u00a0 Does that describe me?\u00a0 Are we more zealous for God\u2019s truth than we are our own preservation. \u00a0Gee, I\u2019d better not speak up too much about Jesus on social media, I\u2019d better not speak up about Jesus in the workplace because I might fall into disfavor with my pagan boss.\u00a0 Or I\u2019d better not raise my hand too much in class and talk about Jesus Christ because after all, the professor could give me a bad grade.\u00a0 I could fail the class, I\u2019d have a bad grade on my transcript, I won\u2019t be able to get into the graduate school that I want to get into, and these are questions that we deal with every single day concerning our stand for Christ.\r\n\r\nFrom personal experience as somebody who has been in the same trenches you are in I have discovered this in my life that when you stand up for God in a polite way, in a tactful way, in a Spirit-led way, following His leading and His guidance God has a way of taking care of us.\u00a0 Well, what if I lose my job?\u00a0 Maybe God wants you to have a better job.\r\n\r\nThe Bible teaches this is Matthew 6:33, test this and see if it is not true in your life, \u201cBut seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and\u201d what? \u201call these things will be\u201d what? withheld from you, it doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cwill be added to you.\u201d\u00a0 Well what things is Christ talking about there in Matthew 6?\u00a0 The things that we\u2019re always worried about, our perseveration, our survival, what are we going to eat, what are we going to drink, what are we going to wear, what kind of clothing are we going to have, are our needs going to be met.\u00a0 And Christ says seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things that we\u2019re so focused on and have a tendency to put first\u00a0 will naturally be supplied by the Lord.\r\n\r\nDaniel is a tremendous role model because we\u2019re now in chapter 5, where he has done this over and over again, he has stood for God as a young man and now as an old man, and isn\u2019t it interesting how Daniel keeps getting promoted, he keeps standing out, he keeps being provided for.\u00a0 The same exact pattern is here as Belshazzar, this corrupt king now issues and lavishes upon Daniel a reward, even though as we\u2019re going to discover that reward won\u2019t be very long-lasting.\r\n\r\nWe now move into the final part of the book where we have Darius\u2019 contribution to the feast, which is the conquest of Babylon, outside, this Saturday night, October 12, 539 B.C., outside of Babylon\u2019s walls was the enemy.\u00a0 The Babylonians never thought that they would be conquered by this particular enemy but the handwriting on the wall revealed that they would, and verses 30-31 is a description of that conquest.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 30, as we read about Belshazzar\u2019s death.\u00a0 \u201cThat same night Belshazzar the Chaldean\u201d that\u2019s another name for a Babylonian, \u201cwas slain\u201d\u00a0 He was killed.\u00a0 It is interesting to me that in the long run if things do not go well for the person that lives their life as if God didn\u2019t exist, oh, it may seem from the human perspective as if they\u2019re getting ahead from the human vantage point but the reality of the situation is when compared to what they will face in eternity, whatever victories they may have gained in this life are extremely short-lived.\r\n\r\nProverbs 13:15 says, \u201c\u2026but the way of transgressors is<\/em> hard.\u201d [KJV]\u00a0 To live one\u2019s life against the principles of God makes life difficult because you are living outside of the protective care of God, outside of the protective custody of God, you\u2019re living outside of the principles that the Creator Himself has designed, and so life becomes difficult, finances can become difficult, emotions can become difficult, relationships can become difficult.\u00a0 Even as Christians much of the suffering we experience, not all suffering but much of it we bring on ourselves because we\u2019ve made a choice to go back into the sin nature and \u201cthe wages of sin is\u201d what? \u201cdeath.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 6:23]\u00a0 Sin brings a consequence, it brings a price tag; the price tag is around long after the brief pleasure that we enjoyed in sin has long passed.\r\n\r\nBelshazzar, this night was in sensuality, disrespecting the vessels of God, pretending like God wasn\u2019t even there, partying as if there was no tomorrow, thinking that he was the one with all the power, all the authority, probably the furthest thing from his mind was that night he was going to die and be slain.\r\n\r\nAnd then what happens in verse 31 is Babylon itself falls.\u00a0 Verse 31 says, \u201cSo Darius the Mede received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019ll show you in just a minute, from some extra-biblical sources how the kingdom was stolen by the Persians from the Babylonians.\u00a0 All they did is they went upstream and they diverted the flow of the Euphrates River allowing the Persians to tunnel, not over the walls of Babylon but what?\u00a0\u00a0 Underneath the walls of Babylon.\u00a0 And they were conquered in a nanosecond without even so much as a battle.\u00a0 At the time when Belshazzar felt he was the most invincible and invulnerable, the fact of the matter is the ice was melting right beneath his feet.\u00a0 That is the allusion or the folly of a false sense of security.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this sermon The Folly of False Security<\/em>.\r\n\r\nThe fact of the matter is, we are one heartbeat away from eternity.\u00a0 This is what Belshazzar did not recognize.\u00a0 In fact, you might remember back in verse 22, Daniel says to Belshazzar the God who has in your hand your very life and breath and ways you have not honored.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:23b, \u201cBut the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified.\u201d]\r\n\r\nOne heartbeat away into eternity and\u00a0 yet many people will not honor, they will not glorify the God that made them.\u00a0 One fatality away from eternity, one thing goes wrong in my body and I am ushered into eternity.\u00a0 How many people do we know, even in this flock, that are here and then their life is quickly taken away; were we surprised when it happens.\u00a0 Why are we surprised?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t the book of James tell us that life is like mist, it appears for a little while and then it\u2019s gone.\u00a0 Tomorrow morning when you drink your coffee (and you can do that in this church, we\u2019re not Mormons) and you watch the steam rising off your coffee, watch how fast that steam disappears and dissipates.\u00a0 That\u2019s what our lives are like in the hands of an eternal God.\u00a0 And yet most of us don\u2019t think this way; we think we\u2019re so mighty, so strong, so independent, so invincible, so invulnerable.\r\n\r\nNow you might be saying well, I\u2019m sure glad we\u2019re through verse 31, I guess we can get out of here early.\u00a0 Well, don\u2019t celebrate yet because I want to make, as God allows it, five points about verse 31.\u00a0 Are you ready for these?\u00a0 Number 1 is the historicity of these events.\u00a0 Look again at verse 31, \u201cSo Darius the Mede\u201d that\u2019s the specific name, \u201creceived the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two,\u201d not sixty-three, not sixty-four, not seventy-two, not sixteen, not forty-six\u2026 sixty-two.\u00a0 Look at the specificity of that number?\u00a0 Notice the specificity of this man, he was an actual man.\u00a0 Of the divided kingdom he was more in the median line, he\u2019s called here \u201cDarius the Mede.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s why I shared with you the chronology of Harold Hoehner documenting that these things happened on a particular evening at a particular night at a specific time in history.\u00a0 Why does the Bible give us all this information?\u00a0 To show us that this is not some fairytale, nor is it a tall tale, nor is it a legend\u00a0 of some kind, nor is it some kind of bedtime story, like Jack and the Beanstalk<\/em>, or whatever, or Santa Claus, or the tooth fairy.\r\n\r\nThese are historical events that happened to real people.\u00a0 The Bible is not primarily a historical book but when it touches upon historical issues, and it does that quite a bit, it is absolutely ironclad in what it says.\u00a0 We don\u2019t read the Bible to get some kind of spiritual message that we apply to ourselves, that\u2019s part of it.\u00a0 But when we read the Bible we\u2019re reading about history and God, through history, is warning us that the same things that happened to these individuals can happen to us if we don\u2019t wise up under Him.\r\n\r\nNotice also something we\u2019ve mentioned a little earlier, the folly of the false sense of security.\u00a0 The point at which the Babylonians were most proud of their invincibility is the point in which they were most vulnerable.\u00a0 Who could have imagined what would happen to the United States of America on 9-11.\u00a0 What if I had stood up in pulpit a year before or two years before and said the twin towers, the symbol of American financial prosperity and industry, will be reduced to rubble by what?\u00a0 Some people that hijack airplanes with what?\u00a0 With guns?\u00a0 No, with box cutters.\u00a0 Think about how 9-11 sent a signal across this nation of how vulnerable we really are. Prior to that point in time we had this illusion that nothing could topple America and God is saying look how easy it could happen if I don\u2019t contain this nation with My hand of grace and blessing.\r\n\r\n1 Corinthians 10:12 says this: \u201cTherefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.\u201d\u00a0 If you see yourself as invincible, independent, the master of your own fate, the master of your own destiny, a self-made person, that I would submit to you is the part of your thinking where you become most vulnerable and that\u2019s the time when you ought to be asking God to help you to see things from His vantage point.\r\n\r\nThe historicity of the events, the folly of false security, we have number three, the reliability of predictive prophecy.\u00a0 Notice how soon these events happened, verse 30, \u201cThat same night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain.\u201d\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take a long time for these things to happen; it took just an evening and these things happened.\r\n\r\nLet me tell you something about predictive prophecy.\u00a0 I would not play games if I were you with the predictions of God.\u00a0 One of the things that disturbs me very much in the modern evangelical church is the callousness and the disregard that we treat God\u2019s prophetic Word, in fact, it\u2019s gotten so bad pastors don\u2019t even want to preach on the book of Revelation.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had a number of people come to me during this series and say thank you for covering the book of Daniel, this is the first time I\u2019ve heard this in my whole Christian life.\u00a0 How long have you been a Christian?\u00a0 Twenty years, thirty years, and yet you\u2019ve never heard an exposition on the book of Daniel, in depth like this?\u00a0 What does that tell you?\u00a0 There\u2019s a disease \u2026 we\u2019re anemic, we\u2019ve decided to only focus on some parts of the Bible.\u00a0 And yet we do that to great peril because of the reliability of predictive prophecy.\r\n\r\nHave you noticed that all of Daniel\u2019s prophecies happened in his lifetime.\u00a0 Daniel 4:28-29 of this says, \u201cAll this\u201d that\u2019s Daniel\u2019s prophecy of the tree being cut down, \u201cAll this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king.\u00a0 [29] Twelve months later\u201d here it only took twelve months, \u201che was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon,\u201d and the prophecy began to unfold. \u00a0\u00a0You might recall Daniel 2, the head of gold.\u00a0 Daniel, indirectly, predicts as a seventeen year old, sixty years earlier, the demise of the Babylonian Empire which was a worldwide empire, as that empire would give way to the chest and arms of silver, and Daniel there is showing that the days of Babylon are numbered exactly as an older Daniel says here, numbered numbered, weighed in the scales and found wanting.\u00a0 [Daniel 5:27, \u201c\u2018TEKEL\u2019-- you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting that Daniel received this vision when he was about seventeen years old, or interpreted it and at this time it took about sixty years, he\u2019s in his eighties and the whole vision is about to be fulfilled as the chest and arms of silver are going to replace the Babylonian head of gold.\u00a0 Sometimes it takes twelve months, sometimes it takes a night, sometimes it takes sixty years, but the fact of the matter is if God says something is going to happen it\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 If I were a betting man bet the farm on God because He is omniscient, He cannot lie.\r\n\r\nDid Nebuchadnezzar heed this warning?\u00a0 No he did not!\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0 you recall in Daniel 3 he built a statue of complete gold, honoring himself, from head to toe.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure exactly what it means but here\u2019s my theory: I think Nebuchadnezzar himself was rebelling against what this seventeen year old kid said; the Neo-Babylonian Empire won\u2019t last but a short time, it\u2019ll last forever, in fact, I\u2019ll take my head of gold and expand it to the whole body of the statue.\u00a0 And how wrong he was!\u00a0 Daniel 3:1 talks about that pagan statue that he manufactured.\u00a0 [Daniel 3;1, \u201cNebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAnd in fact God\u2019s predictive word is so detailed that as these events are happening God is fulfilling yet another prophecy, a prophecy given to Isaiah about 150-200 years in advance where in Isaiah 44:28-45:1 God mentions a man named Cyrus by name, and says this man, Cyrus, is going to be a deliverer of the nation of Israel, Cyrus being a Persian, God was going to bring the nation back into the land after the seventy year deportation through a Persian named Cyrus and not you start to see this prophecy coming into focus because the Persians are now in control, Cyrus being a Persian.\r\n\r\n[Isaiah 44:28, \u201cwho says of Cyrus, \u2018He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, \u2018Let it be rebuilt,\u2019 and of the temple, \u2018Let its foundations be laid.\u2019\u201d\u202f 45:1, \u201cThis is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:\u201d]\r\n\r\nThere are many prophecies in the Book of Daniel that are yet future.\u00a0 Why should I believe those?\u00a0 Because I have a track record, I have the track record of history.\u00a0 It would be like me standing in front of you at the free throw line and making nine straight free throws (I don\u2019t think I could do that anymore, I don\u2019t think I ever could really) and I just ask you a question, can I make the tenth one, and of course you\u2019re going to say yes because you can see my track record, if I\u2019ve made nine I\u2019ll probably make the tenth one.\u00a0 That\u2019s what prophecy is; prophecy is a reminder that when God speaks He moves heaven and earth to fulfill His Word because He cannot lie, and if all of His prophecies have happened in such a meticulous nature why wouldn\u2019t the prophecies yet to come also not transpire.\r\n\r\nJesus said this in the Upper Room, John 13:19, \u201cFrom now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.\u201d\u00a0 One chapter later He says, John 14:29, \u201cNow I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.\u201d\u00a0 The historicity of these events, the folly of false security, the reliability of predictive prophecy, number four, the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 What did God say all the way back in Daniel 2:21, Daniel is praising the Lord for the revelation he did receive, and sixty years later, as a mere teenager Daniel, in his praise to God says this: \u201c\u2026He\u201d that\u2019s God, \u201cremoves kings and establishes kings.\u201d [Daniel 2:21, \u201cIt is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men And knowledge to men of understanding.\u201d]\r\n\r\nWhat have we just seen sixty years later in Daniel 5?\u00a0 God tells one empire it\u2019s over, and that night He puts into place another empire.\u00a0 What a message of encouragement this would be to the nation of Israel as they\u2019re being trampled down by these various empires during the times of the Gentiles, a reminder to them that these empires, as powerful as they are, as strong as they are.\u00a0 The Neo-Babylonian Empire was no lightweight empire, that was the key empire of the day stretching throughout the known world.\u00a0 Yet these empires are just puppets, silly-putty if you will, in the hands of God.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a tendency to look at governments of the earth, captains of industry as if they\u2019re somehow invulnerable and invincible and in fact God, by just moving His little finger can change the direction of a business, He can change the direction of a corporation, He can change the direction of a country.\r\n\r\nAnd how foolish we are not to be on our knees praying for people in power.\u00a0 I am extremely pro Christians involved in politics, I will probably preach that until my dying day but the fact of the matter is all of that political activism stuff, that is not the source of our power.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s wrong to be involved in that, I think we should be involved in that, but if you really want power, if you really want Christian influence in public policy you get on your knees and you begin to pray for people and watch God put one person in power and take another person out of power.\r\n\r\nI remember back in California there was this education superintendent, I think his name was Bill Honig, if I remember correctly, and he began to sort of wage a war against, (at that time) The Institute of Creation Research, he began to tamper with their accreditation, and I watched all of the Christians get involved in letter writing (which has its place) voting (which has its place) but I remember I was in a different event with a missionary who was a missionary to another part of the world and he just started to pray; he prayed that this man, who was mocking the things of God, would be removed from his position.\u00a0 And that prayer request, I was very young in the Lord at that time, kind of went in one ear and out the other, and it was about a year or two later that Bill Honig was exposed for all kinds of scandals that he was involved in, all of the scandals that he was involved in came to the surface and he was removed from his position.\u00a0 And immediately when I saw that in the newspaper, this was back in the days when people read newspapers, I immediately remembered the prayer of that missionary and the Lord really used that to impress upon me, don\u2019t get mistaken here as to where true power is, it\u2019s in the sovereign hand of God.\u00a0 Or else why does God tell us over and over again to pray for those that are in positions of authority.\u00a0 \u00a0So supplement, not replace but supplement your political activism with the true source of power that you have, prayer to a sovereign God.\r\n\r\nThe historicity of the events, the folly of false security, they reliability of predictive prophecy, the sovereignty of God, one more here, number 5, a reminder of Babylon\u2019s future.\u00a0 Have you ever studied the prophecies related to the destruction of Babylon?\u00a0 Isaiah spoke of these all the way back in 740 B.C.\u00a0 Jeremiah spoke of these all the way back in 680 B.C. long before this handwriting on the wall chapter is discussed.\u00a0 Isaiah describes the fall of Babylon as \u201cthe day of the LORD,\u201d he analogizes it to cosmic disturbances, global judgment, it will be equal to the incineration of Sodom and Gomorrah.\u00a0 Once Babylon is destroyed she will never be rebuilt.\u00a0 And then universal peace will break out upon the earth and the nation of Israel will be back in faith.\r\n\r\nThe fall of Babylon in Isaiah\u2019s prophecies is described as interstellar activity amongst the constellations.\u00a0 In fact, Isaiah says that when Babylon falls man will become scarcer than gold.\u00a0 [Isaiah 13:12, \u201cI will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir.\u201d]\u00a0 Jeremiah says the same thing, when Babylon falls it will fall suddenly, it will fall completely, in fact it will fall so badly that no one will be able to use Babylon\u2019s rebuilt materials ever again to rebuild anything.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 51:8, \u201cSuddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.\u201d]\r\n\r\nAny believers located in Babylon at that time will flee and Israel will be regenerated.\u00a0 I have a problem though, because when I study how Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians, Saturday night, October 12, 539 B.C. I don\u2019t see any of the details of the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah coming to pass.\u00a0 Herodotus writing within a hundred\u00a0 years of Babylon\u2019s historic fall says, \u201che,\u201d that\u2019s the end, the Persian, \u201cconducted a river by the channel to the lake\u2026and so he made the former course of the river passable by the sinking of the stream. When this had been done, the Persians who had been posted for this very purpose entered by the bed of the river Euphrates into Babylon, the stream having sunk so far that it reached about to the middle of a man\u2019s thigh.\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Look at this last sentence, \u201cthose Babylonians\u201d that would be Belshazzar and his partying crowd, \u201cthose Babylonians who dwelt\u201d in Babylon \u201cin the middle did not know that they had been captured\u2026\u201d \u00a0\u00a0[Herodotus, Histories<\/em>, 1:191 (450 B.C.)] Where\u2019s the cataclysm?\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t even a war if I\u2019m understand\u00ading this correctly.\r\n\r\nThis is the Cyrus Cylinder, an archeological find; it\u2019s a boasting of Cyrus and how he conquered Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s been translated for us in a book I have in my office called ANET, which simply means Ancient Near Eastern Texts, and this is what the Cyrus Cylinder says: \u201cWithout any battle\u2026 sparing Babylon \u2026 any calamity.... I am Cyrus...king of Babylon....When I entered Babylon... under jubilation and rejoicing ... troops walked around Babylon...\u201d there was no war when Cyrus took Babylon, in fact, the Babylonians, to a large extent, were glad that Cyrus was there.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 in peace, I did not allow anybody to terrorize (any place) of the [country of Sumer] and Akkad. I strove for peace in Babylon...and in all his (other) sacred cities....I returned to (these) sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been in ruins for a long time, the images which (used) to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries.\u00a0 I (also) gathered all their (former) inhabitants and returned (to them) their habitations. Furthermore, I resettled... unharmed, in their (former) chapels, the places which make them happy. May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me...all of them I resettled in a peaceful place... ducks and doves,...I endeavoured to fortify\/repair their dwelling places . . . \u00a0[The Ancient Near East Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 315-16.<\/em>\u2019]\r\n\r\nCyrus, when he entered Babylon didn\u2019t want to upset the Babylonian deities.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because Cyrus was a polytheist, he believed in many gods, so he made sure that these idols were undisturbed so they would bless him all his days.\u00a0 Where\u2019s the cataclysm?\u00a0 Where\u2019s the destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah?\u00a0 It never happened.\r\n\r\nYou know, Isaiah says that when Babylon falls her destruction will be so final that no one will dwell there again.\u00a0 Beyond that people will never be able to reuse, Jeremiah says, her building materials.\u00a0 Jeremiah 50-51.\u00a0\u00a0 [Jeremiah 50:13, \u201cBecause of the indignation of the LORD she will not be inhabited, but she will be completely desolate; everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will hiss because of all her wounds.\u201d \u00a0Jeremiah 50:39, \u201c\u2026And it will never again be inhabited or dwelt in from generation to generation.\u201d]\r\n\r\nI have a problem with that because as I look at Babylon today, modern day Iraq, people are living there.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s a long history of Babylon after her fall to the Persians in 539.\u00a0 Herodotus went there and gave Babylon\u2019s measurements.\u00a0 Alexander the Great later visited Babylon.\u00a0 Seleucid seized Babylon, Strabo pronounces Babylon\u2019s hanging gardens as one of the seven wonders of the world.\u00a0 Do you know there were Babylonians present at the day of Pentecost that heard the gospel, and went back to Babylon to preach it?\u00a0 Acts 2:9, [\u201cParthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,\u201d] a great document called the Babylonian Talmud was promulgated from Babylon.\u00a0 Babylon was later given a new name and names throughout history.\u00a0 Where is the prophecies of her total desolation so severely that she will be forever uninhabitable?\u00a0 I don\u2019t see that happening here.\r\n\r\nJohn Walvoord, a great prophecy scholar, says, \u201cAs far as the historic fulfillment is concerned, it is obvious from both Scripture and history that these verses\u201d that\u2019s Isaiah and Jeremiah \u201chave not been literally fulfilled. The city of Babylon continued to flourish after the Medes conquered it, and though its glory dwindled, especially after the control of the Medes and the Persians ended in 323 B.C., the city continued in some form or substance until A.D. 1000 and did not\u2026\u201d\u00a0 \u201c\u2026and did not experience a sudden termination such as anticipated in this prophecy.\u201d\u00a0 [The Nations in Prophecy<\/em>, 63-64]\r\n\r\nWe\u2019ve got a choice here, both commentators say this: well, you\u2019re reading it too literally, don\u2019t you understand hyperbole?\u00a0 Well, I praise the Lord Isaiah 53 is not a hyperbole.\u00a0 I praise the Lord that Jesus was literally pierced for me.\u00a0 What gives me the right to convert things into figures of speech that aren\u2019t so intended.\r\n\r\nNow when you study, this chart helps, Jeremiah 50-51 and line it up with Revelation 17-18 do you know what you\u2019re going to see?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to see the prophecies of Jeremiah in that end time Babylon fulfilled.\u00a0 Both sections of Scripture talk about a golden cup, Babylon dwelling on many waters, intoxication the nations, you\u2019ll find the name Babylon and how it\u2019s analogized to a stone sinking into the Euphrates, her sudden destruction, her destruction by fire, her final uninhabitable condition, the fact that when she falls she\u2019ll deserve it, and God\u2019s people will flee.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the book of Revelation God says to His people, \u201ccome out of her.\u201d\u00a0 Did Daniel come out of Babylon when Babylon fell?\u00a0 No, he continued on as government administrator in the empire of Persia; the heavenly rejoicing is described in both chapters.\u00a0 [Revelation 18:4, \u201cI heard another voice from heaven, saying, \u2018Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;\u201d\u2019]\r\n\r\nWhat are you saying pastor?\u00a0 What I\u2019m saying is this:\u00a0 if Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 mean what they say Babylon has to be rebuilt.\u00a0 Babylon has to become the center of world authority under the antichrist so she is destroyed by the final bowl judgment and that\u2019s when Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 are going to be fulfilled.\r\n\r\nHave you ever studied Isaiah\u2019s oracles against the nations; he mentions all of these nations and in the list he mentions Babylon twice, once in chapters 13-14 and once in chapter 21.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t mention Assyria twice, Philistia twice, Moab twice, Egypt twice; Babylon is mentioned twice.\u00a0 Why is Babylon mentioned twice?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the answer, I believe, because chapter 21 was fulfilled in Daniel 5; Isaiah 13 and 14 will not be fulfilled until the bowl judgments of the great tribulation period.\r\n\r\nWhat am I trying to say?\u00a0 This world is not finished with Babylon.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that history has sort of moved from west to east.\u00a0 Where did we\u00a0 used to fight our wars?\u00a0 Europe and things began moving gradually eastward to Korea, Vietnam.\u00a0 Where\u2019s the focus of the world today?\u00a0 Iraq, the exact thing that the Bible says would happen in the last days.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that most of the world\u2019s oil supply is located in Iraq and surrounding nations.\u00a0 Think if the antichrist could come to power, take over Iraq and annex the surrounding nations in a heartbeat, he could control the economies of the world.\u00a0 I don\u2019t follow the trend of modern scholarship; I don\u2019t believe God is speaking figuratively or hyperbolically in Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51.\u00a0 I think He is making statements that transcend what happened to historic Babylon and is describing an eschatological end time destruction of Babylon.\r\n\r\nNow you say this in academic circles and wait for the jeers, wait for the criticism, oh you wooden literalists, how could you take the Bible this way?\u00a0 Just a quick reminder, those same jeers and ridicule and criticism were given to people prior to 1948 who said someway somehow the nation of Israel has to become a nation again.\u00a0 In fact, when you study commentaries people were saying that centuries before we knew anything about the Jewish nation.\u00a0 And then you read a few people that jeered but others said no, I think God means what he says and says what he means.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting who\u2019s vindicated in all of this?\u00a0 The person who stands on a literal interpretation of the Bible.\u00a0 You think this interpretation is ridiculous, makes no sense, too literal, I\u2019ll remind you of the regathering of the Jews into their homeland in 1948 exactly as God said.\u00a0 The ridicule, the mocking, the condescension, the criticism stops when God moves His hand in history and literally fulfills His Word.\u00a0 I think God is about to do the same thing with Babylon.\r\n\r\nYou know, I look back and I delight on literal commentators, and I want people to look back on my life and delight in someone like myself and\u00a0 yourself that believed God when it looked like God couldn\u2019t do what He said He was going to do.\u00a0 Be careful about this allegorical symbolic approach to the Bible; let God say what He wants to say.\r\n\r\nOne other thing, this takes us beyond number five, number six, who is Darius the Mede?\u00a0 When you watch A & E, Mysteries of the Bible, Discovery Channel, they\u2019ll laugh at this too and they\u2019ll say there\u2019s no historical evidence outside the Bible for Darius the Mede; who is this Darius the Mede?\u00a0 Well the issue is we\u2019ve got some options here.\u00a0 This could by a reference to Cyrus.\u00a0 You say Cyrus, it doesn\u2019t even say Cyrus.\u00a0 Did you know that in the ancient world it\u2019s common to have two names?\u00a0 Did you know that Solomon himself had two names.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find them described in 2 Samuel 12:24-25, he\u2019s called Solomon but the Word also names him \u201cJedidiah for the LORD\u2019S sake.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[2 Samuel 12:24-25, \u201cThen David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved him [25] and sent word<\/em> through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the LORD\u2019S sake.\u201d]\r\n\r\nJust because people don\u2019t have two names today, I guess we do in a sense, a first name, a middle name and a last name, doesn\u2019t mean they could not have had two names in biblical times.\u00a0 Others say this is a general called Ugbaru, also having two names, Governor of Gutium appointed by Cyrus, after this general conquered Babylon.\u00a0 This could be a reference to Cyrus\u2019 general that had two names, or it could be a reference to Cambyses, Cyrus\u2019 son that very easily could have had two names.\r\n\r\nI bring this to your attention because people will discount the Bible on something like this and yet I think that\u2019s such a heady frivolous reason to discount God\u2019s prophetic word.\u00a0 Some way, somehow we will discover archeologically exactly who this Darius the Mede is; it\u2019s just a matter of time and it\u2019s best to stand on the authority of God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 I honestly believe God gives us these kinds of things as a test\u2014are you going to trust what I say or not, because if My word can have mistakes in it at the archeological level, at the historical level, then how in the world can you trust it when it talks about angels, demons, heaven, hell, the plan of salvation. It is a dangerous business to get into this subject of discounting the Word of God.\r\n\r\nAnd it could be you\u2019re here today and you don\u2019t know Christ personally.\u00a0 Hebrews 11:6 says, \u201cWithout\u201d what? \u201cfaith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 At some point we have to get beyond our questions and trust God as the One who one day will answer our questions.\u00a0 I can\u2019t guarantee that this side of eternity every one of your questions is going to get answered and I think God has designed it that way because if all of my questions were answered I wouldn\u2019t have the walk of faith and yet the Bible is clear that without faith it is impossible to please God.\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:6, \u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.\u201d]\r\n\r\nBecoming a Christian is not a twelve-step program; it\u2019s a single step, it\u2019s a single condition of faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 At some point you stop trusting in yourself, trusting in\u00a0 your own works, trusting in your own religious system and you trust specifically in the promises of Jesus Christ for your eternity and the safe keeping of your soul.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is we call this the gospel because it\u2019s good news, Jesus did all the work; He died on a cruel Roman wooden cross 2,000 years ago to pay a sin debt we could never pay and He rose bodily from the grave to vindicate exactly who He was and He leaves humanity with a simple message\u2014don\u2019t trust yourself, trust My work for you.\u00a0 Don\u2019t trust in your own work, trust what I\u2019ve done for you.\r\n\r\nAnd you can do that now as the Spirit of God places you under conviction, without raising a hand, joining a church, walking an aisle, giving money, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, where the Spirit places\u00a0 you under conviction that you need to do this, and you respond by way of faith which simply means trust or confidence in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 Becoming a Christian, becoming a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is as simple as that.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word of God you\u2019ve changed\u00a0 your eternal destiny.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you\u2019re struggling with and you need more information on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\r\n\r\nWhat an interesting evening, an interesting feast.\u00a0 Belshazzar\u2019s contribution, God\u2019s contribution, Daniel\u2019s contribution, and then the contribution of Dairus, the Persian, the Mede.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\r\n\r\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this chapter, help the information in it to seep deep into our souls, our hearts as we walk with you this week by way of faith.\u00a0 Be with us Father, next week, as we move into the incredible chapter of Daniel 6, a well-known chapter, Daniel in the lion\u2019s den.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 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