Revival Sermon Ghostly Hand

I want to share a story with you today, friends, of a story about ancient Babylon and a reckless king who threw a lavish party for his friends at his palace, which soon turned into a drunken orgy that offended a holy god, and how it ended badly for this foolish king. I've been at some college parties which have gotten out of hand. Anytime booze and drugs are present, then trouble is right around the corner, and this party that king Belshazzar throws quickly turns into a scene of debauchery and desecration.

My story today takes place in the Bible's air now, friends. Daniel is one of the exiled Jews in Babylonian captivity, and he is now an old man of 80 years old. We will pick up our story in chapter 5 of Daniel in verse 1. Here now is the word of God, and may the spirit of the Lord attend the reading of his holy word.

Belshazzar, the king, made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand. Let me pause here to say, can you imagine the size of that banquet hall to hold 1,000 partygoers? A great feast means he spared no expense in putting on the shindig. He has provided the best food and the most expensive wine available.

There are musicians and dancers in that hall, entertaining the crowd. It's one big party, and everybody is having a good time, but then things quickly deteriorate from there. Old drunken Belshazzar does a stupid thing.

He brings in the holy vessels and desecrates them. Booze will make you do some regrettable things. If you've had some trouble related to alcohol, then you know what I'm talking about.

When I was in college, I went out one night with a fraternity brother, and we went to a bar to shoot tequila. How we got back to the fraternity house, I don't know. We were so drunk.

Once inside the fraternity house, I picked a fight with a football player who was twice my size. First, I insulted his manhood. Then I picked up a broom and began to hit him on the head with it.

The next thing I knew, he punched me so hard, I fell back into a door and took it off its hinges. They had to pull him off of me before he killed me. The next day, my shirt was torn, my face black and blue, and my ego was badly bruised.

Well, I quit drinking alcohol that day and haven't had a drop since. That was over 40 years ago. But my point is, things can go from bad to worse when booze is involved.

And that was exactly the case for this drunken king by the name of Belshazzar. Listen to what takes place next. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father, Nebuchadnezzar, had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines, might drink therein.

That was a big mistake, friends, a big mistake. These cups and bowls of gold and silver were the sacred instruments of worship to Jehovah God. And this bass king makes them bass drinking mugs for his rowdy friends and female lovers.

Soon, it becomes a despicable scene of debauchery and desecration. But then to top off that infamy, off he goes. He uses those sacred vessels to toast his pagan gods.

In verse 4 we read, they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. They profaned these sacred things while they mocked God by praising idolatrous gods of their own making. Through his idolatry, this drunken king openly and publicly defies the one true God.

Then a strange thing happens which unnerves the king. He sees a bodiless hand that floats in the air. It suddenly appears before him and this ghostly hand begins to write on the wall.

In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another.

As king Belshazzar watches that suspended hand write on the wall, the blood drains out of his face and he's so terrified his knees go to knocking. And that's what will happen to every sinner who one day will stand before the great white throne in a common day of judgment. Well, all hell breaks loose in that banquet hall as the invited guests see strange handwriting appear on the wall.

What was moments ago a drunken revelry now turns quickly into a train wreck. The once proud king is sitting there crumpled, screaming and crying like a terrified child. No one can calm him down.

He is hysterical with fear. He starts hollering for the servants to go and get and bring in the astrologers and soothsayers to interpret the handwriting. We see this in verses eight and nine.

Then came, you know, the king's wise men, but they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were astonished. Well, the queen mother steps in.

She comes into the room and tells a story about a man called Daniel, who in the days of king Nebuchadnezzar had the power to interpret dreams. When the king hears this, he summons Daniel to appear before him and he tells him, I have heard of thee that thou canst make interpretations and dissolve doubts. Now, if thou canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shalt be the third ruler in my kingdom.

Well, we know right here that Daniel wasn't a Baptist preacher because he turns down the king's rewards and says he'll do it for free. I've known some Baptist evangelists who would have been all over that. They would have gotten so excited they would have told the king, yes, put the gold around my neck and blow the trumpet and let's have a parade in my honor, because in their ministry they parade themselves for they are into self-exaltation.

But Daniel tells the king to keep his gold and he goes on to reveal what the handwriting says, but because Daniel is a man of integrity, because Daniel is a man of God, before he explains the writing he exposes the sin, embellishes our life, and he rebukes the king. Daniel begins his speech with a review of king Belshazzar's predecessor, who was king Nebuchadnezzar, and of whom God humbled by deposing him from his throne, and how he lived like a beast of the field, as men would have nothing to do with him. We will pick up Daniel's speech in verse 21.

And his dwelling was with the wild asses, they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointed over it whomsoever he will. And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven, and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them, and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, brass, iron, wood, and stone, which are not, and which not hear, nor know, and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose all thy ways hast thou not glorified. Well, Daniel reads the king, the Riddick, so to speak, and makes sure he understands how he has sinned grievously against the one true living God.

Notice, friends, how God keeps a detailed record of all grievances against him, as Daniel repeats them one by one back to the king. Well, Daniel goes on to interpret the words written on the wall, which were, Many, many, teckle you for sin, and he informs the king that many means numbered, and the word teckle means thou art weighed in the balances, and are found wanting. In other words, God had numbered the days of Belshazzar's kingdom, its time was up, the party is over, for in verse 30 we read, In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom.

The term, that very night, was October the 12th, 539 B.C., that's when Babylon fell to the Persian army. Well, this passage tells the story of the sovereignty of God and the fall of the wicked. It also tells us that there is an approaching day of a future judgment where every mother's son will stand before God and give an account of himself.

A day where we can't hide as sin is exposed and our life story told. Hebrews 9, 27 declares, And it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this to judgment. How about you, friend? Will you end up in heaven, or will you end up in hell? God requires perfection to get into his holy heaven, and no man is perfect, but all of sin, comes short of the glory of God, and that means you.

At that judgment, you will stand before a righteous God, and he will hold up his strict and unbending law against your life as you lived it. And if you stand there in your own merits, you will fail that test. You must stand in the merits of another, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen, friend, I know I am a sinner, and I need a substitute for sin, and so do you, friend, so do you. The only hope I have is when I look yonder to Calvary and fasten my eyes on a bloodstained savior from sin. The only hope that this poor preacher has is that Christ's life is laid down and applied to me.

You've heard about Jesus, but do you know him? There's a vast difference between hearing about him and knowing him. Does he know you? What do you know about him? Do you know that Jesus came down here so we can go up there? Well, let me tell you about Jesus. Jesus came into the world doing good, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, even raising the dead to life.

He fed the hungry and brought joy to the weary. Yet what happened? Men cried, away with him, and nailed him to a cross. They pounded nails into his hands and into his feet as they crucified him like a common criminal.

That cross was a bloody scandal as he hung naked, crucified between two malefactors. Look at that man on the cross as he rips and wiggles and excruciates in pain. Look at that man on the cross.

See him there with his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him. He says, come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See him there, straining under the weight of sin.

On that cross, he bore the weight of sin, becoming a curse for us. Look at that man on the cross, friend, as he reasons. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they should be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they should be as wool. Look at that bloodstained Savior from sin as he cries.

If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Jesus endured the humiliation of being beaten and spit on and a crown of thorns placed on his head.

Look at that man on the cross as he hangs there. When all is against him, his love flows out to a world of guilty sinners. The cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him, but by his death, it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord.

The gospel is for the hungry, the weary, and the thirsty. Let me ask you, friend, are you hungry for God? Are you weary of your sins? Are you thirsty for Christ? Then come to him and believe on him. The duty required is to come, and he has a pure gospel promise to all who come.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. If you've not trusted this blessed Savior, receive him now before it's too late. Soon he will come in judgment on this world when his anger shall burn as an oven, and then you shall meet him as your judge.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Repent before it's too late.