Daniel

Well, we've heard a little bit about David this morning, maybe we can learn something about this Daniel. So I'll read with you in Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1 and verse 1, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon into Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar into the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God.

And the king spake unto Azpanez the master of the eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of Israel of the king's seed and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science. And such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning of the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

Now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names, for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belshazzar and to Hananiah Shadrach and to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednego. Now notice verse eight, but David purposed, excuse me, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. Nor with the wine which he drank.

Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs and the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king who hath appointed your meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse like and then the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Malzahar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had said over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, prove thy servants IBCC ten days and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink.

Then let our countenance be looked upon before thee and the countenance of the children that eat the portion of the king's meat as thou see us deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days and at the end of ten days their countenance appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. So there's no need for the king's sons to be lean.

Thus Malzahar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. As for these four children God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. It says in verse 21 Daniel continued.

That's as much as I want to read. Now this little book of Daniel is a prophetic book and it describes future course of world reign and world rule. It describes the rise and the fall of the Babylonian empire and it describes the rise and the fall of the Medo-Persian empire and the Grecian empire and the Roman empire and soon to come the revised Roman empire and the thousand-year reign of Christ.

You can read all about that in this little book of Daniel. In the opening pages of this book point to a man by the name of Daniel. The word of God affectionately calls him this Daniel.

I take it that Daniel was a teenager in those days and he was a teenager in Babylonian captivity that wouldn't be too comfortable. As a young man with his companions taken prisoner into a place called Babylon it must have been a bit frightening to him. It must have been very intimidating kind of like the world that you and I are moving through today.

It can be very frightening and it's very very intimidating. Babylon is present-day Iraq and Babylon in that day is like our world today the world that you and I are moving through. It's characterized by idolatry.

It's characterized by immorality. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. All you have to do is open your eyes.

All you have to do is put your finger on the pulse. All you have to do is open your ears and it's clear to understand that the world that you and I are moving through is a world of idolatry and it certainly is a world of immorality. And yet in the midst of all this here's this young man with his companions Daniel and he's purposed in his heart to please God.

So I take it that if he was able to do that in that day certainly you and I as a people of God today indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God are well able to purpose within our hearts to please God in a world of idolatry and immorality. He didn't want to defile himself with the king's meat. You know the king's meat is everywhere.

It's all around us. It's everything that this world has to offer. That's the king's meat.

All this pomp and all of its pleasure and all of its sin and all of its sorrow. That's the king's meat. And here is a young man.

He's not an old man here. He's a young man here. You know it's interesting in my mind if you read about this man later on at about 85 years of age he's thrown into a lion's den.

And he was just as faithful to his God and he had just as much purpose in his heart as an old man as he did when he was a young man. So the convictions that he had as a young man obviously carried him through his life. And when he became an old man you know sometimes us old men we get a little weak in our thinking and so on and so forth.

And maybe there's a little tendency to give up the convictions that we had when we were young men. But not this man Daniel. As a young man he purposed in his heart to please God and as an old man at 85 years.

I guess that's old. I'm 70 now and I don't seem as old as I did when I was 17. Well anyways an older man let's put it that way.

Be kind in case there's someone of that age in the room. He had just as much conviction. He had just as much purpose in his heart then as he did when he was a young man with his companions and captives in the land of Babylon.

He had a desire in his heart to please God. The writer of the Roman epistle makes it crystal clear to you and me that they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So there's anyone in this room today and you're not saved.

You're not born again the Bible way. You're not washed in the precious blood of Christ and you have never come into the good of God's grace. You stop and consider that because if there's ever going to be a time or a moment or a period of time in your life when you're going to please God you're going to have to be born again the Bible way in order to do that.

So it's something to go in for. That is something real. That is something lasting.

That is something that will stand you in good stead in this scene of time and in eternity as well to please God and the only way you can is to be born again. You do well to listen to the message of the gospel. It is the greatest news that you could hear in this world today.

They that are in the flesh cannot please God. You know we have an opportunity in our lifetime to do just that and not only that whether we're saint or sinner we have the potential. There is tremendous potential in this room this morning because there are a lot of young people and we're glad to see them just as our brother has already mentioned.

We're really glad to see you're here today. I know there's a lot of other places that you could be today. You could be enjoying the king's meat.

Well you're going to enjoy something far better than the king's meat. It's going to be food from the word of God and it'll sustain you and keep you and encourage you and correct you as you move through this world. It's good for you.

It's good for me. It's good for all of us. I take it that this book teaches us that prophetic truth is closely associated with practical deportment and personal devotion because that's something that you see in these young men.

Daniel and his friends. You see a practical deportment in their lives. Certain things that weren't permissible in their lives and they understood that and they knew that and they stood for that and not only that but personal devotion to God.

It makes me think about Simeon. Doesn't it remind you of Simeon? In Luke chapter 2 and verse 20. What is it? Verse 25.

It says of Simeon that he was a just man and devout and that's what God would have his people to be today. That's his young people today and older people today. He'd have us to be just.

He'd have us to be devout. He'd have us to be just in our dealings with our fellow travelers to eternity and with the government of the land associated with taxes and so on. He would have us to be just and not only that he would have us to be a Simeon of old devout in our dealings as Simeon of old was with God and that's what I see in this young man Daniel and potential in this room this morning.

For people that can be just and devout as Simeon of old and as Daniel and as Daniel and his friends of old as well. The saved and the lost alike have a responsibility to resolve in their hearts regardless of whether you're saved this morning or you're not saved this morning. We all have a responsibility to resolve in our hearts.

Certain things are not permissible. There are just certain things that I cannot permit in my life if I am going to retain some kind of dignity in my life. If I'm going to retain some kind of discipline in my life then I'm going to have to resolve in my heart and make up my mind that there are just certain things that aren't permissible and that is vital.

It's vital for any kind of progress in anyone's life whether they're a saint or whether they're a sinner. They need to maintain some kind of discipline in their lives and they need to maintain some kind of dignity in their lives. I think it's a sad thing but I think it's a true thing that there are very few, notice I use the word few, saints that ever reach their full potential for the glory of God.

Perhaps it's the reason being is that some just lack the grit to ignore the criticism of their peers. Those people that are so taken up with the king's meat in this world today that try to affect your life and try to affect my life and they criticize your life and they criticize my life and sometimes we just don't have the grit to ignore the criticism and some just seem to choose rather to go with the crowd and drift down the stream. It's so easy to drift down the stream and drift is so subtle that you can hardly see it.

It's so absolutely silent but drift there is indeed. You know I think that Daniel is really what most of us, me especially, deep down in my heart would like to be. If I really look into my conscience, into my heart, this is what I'd really like to be is like this Daniel.

He was a young man of purpose. He was a young man of determination. He wasn't interested in outward show.

What was important to him was not the outward show but the inner man. That inner man. That man that God sees.

Not so much that man that man sees. You know men rise like rockets and they fall like rocks. That's an outward show of a man.

He was a man of poise. This Daniel and that I mean by that what I mean by that is he was balanced in his thinking. God would have you and me to be balanced in our thinking.

He was a man with pluck. He was a man with backbone. He had the courage.

He had the conviction. He had the purpose to stand shoulder to shoulder with God in a world of immorality and idolatry. I wonder do I. He was a man of purity.

Pure mind, pure mouth, pure motives, pure movements. That's Daniel. He was a man of power because he was a man of self-control and that takes power.

He was a man of courage. He was a man of integrity. And you know what he became? A prominent man and God recognizes him in the Word of God.

A prominent man in the Word of God. And you and I have the same potential and the same opportunity that Daniel had years ago in the land of Babylon. The land no different than the land that you and I are moving through today.

You know Daniel it wasn't it wasn't it wasn't something difficult for Daniel it wasn't he didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out he didn't have to be college educated to figure this out it was just really very simple horse sense he would not allow himself he would not lower himself to be defiled by the fashions and the standards of that society he just simply wouldn't allow it did you know it's interesting in my mind that he found companions with the same convictions it's good to have companions if you're a young person in this room today or any person in this room today be careful about your companionship have seek out companions that have the same convictions that you do good convictions proverbs 13 verse 20 he that walks with wise men shall be what wise but a companion of fools what shall be destroyed far better to seek your companions among wise men than among fools you know the prince of the eunuchs changed their names in an effort to change them that's what he wanted to do he wanted to change them not just their names but if i can change their names i can change them that was his thinking maybe that's the thinking of the world today you know nebuchadnezzar got him out of palestine but he never got palestine out of them because they were spoiled for anything else you know a week ago i heard a young man take up a verse of scripture in john chapter 6 and it goes something like this will ye also go away you know we're living in a day and age when people are leaving they're going away and they're leaving and going away for some reason or another you know years ago they'd come back and the reason they would come back is because they were spoiled for anything other than god's assembly today they're leaving they stay away they don't come back something's wrong they leave the place where god has chose you can't get around if you can't deny this to place his name willing to leave the place where the lord says this is where i'll meet you that's really simple where two or three are gathered together unto my name there am i in the midst of them that's not a claim that we make that's a declaration that the lord makes he said it we leave it we leave him we leave the people of god we leave the precepts we relieve the principles we leave the pattern that god has left in the word of god that he recognizes as a gathering place where he is willing to place his name how can it be i'm not trafficking an unfelt truth this is the only place if i was to tell you tomorrow morning i'll meet you at mcdonald's for a greasy hamburger and you got up in the morning and you went to hardy's don't expect to see me there because i didn't say i was going to be there well that's pretty simple concept isn't it where two or three are gathered together unto my name gathered by an outside power not a force but a power the power of the holy spirit of god that brings a person into assembly fellowship that's where he's at you you know all over this world they can claim that christ is here but he declares his presence in a scripturally gathered assembly that is following a pattern he doesn't declare his presence anywhere else just think about that these young men were spoiled for anything else and if anybody has ever really seen the truth of the gathering center they are spoiled for anything else daniel's name means god is my judge shall not the judge of all the earth do right he does do right even when i think he isn't doing right and wonder why he's doing what he's doing he's doing the right thing he never does the wrong thing and i may not see it now but i may see it later on and you know it doesn't have to be so later on it doesn't take long and you begin to see that god really did this individual a favor you know everybody in this world is going to meet christ in one of two ways gonna meet him as savior or meet him as judge at the great white throne judgment or at the beam of seat it's pretty awesome to think about it because every one of us in this room is going to leave this world one of these days i wonder which one of us is going to be the first one and we're going out to meet god and we better be absolutely certain and sure that we have met him as a savior god in this world or meet him as a judge christ at the great white throne judgment in a future day is pretty important folks verse 8 he would not three little words he would not he had courage he had conviction you know what he had the courage and convictions to say one simple two-letter word no that's all just no we owe this to the savior we owe this to our parents we owe it to our dignity we owe it to our self-respect we owe it to the assembly testimony the world's purpose is just this to defile our minds our mouths our manners but god had a purpose as well and he has the same purpose for you and me in the room today verse 17 god's purpose is to give them knowledge and wisdom and skill that's what he wants to give you and me reminds me what i read in matthew chapter 6 and verse 20 or 33 is it seek ye first the kingdom of god and all these things shall be added unto you knowledge and wisdom and skill wonderful verse 19 it says the king communed with them did you commune with the king this morning did i commune with the king this morning when the king of kings communes with us will he find us upstanding will he find us outstanding will he find us understanding will he find us looking onward looking upward looking inward with a purpose in our hearts to please god what a wonderful purpose what else really matters think about it now what else really matters when we reach death's door isn't it interesting isn't it nice to read about enoch in hebrews 11 and verse 5 enoch had this testimony that he pleased god here's listen to this that he had pleased god when had he pleased god he pleased god in his lifetime and you have that opportunity i have that opportunity you have the potential of doing that and so do i and it could be said of us in a future day he she had this testimony that he or she had pleased god what a wonderful way to leave this world and leave it we will each one in due time we'll either leave it by the way of the coffin or the way of the catching away to be caught up to be with the lord what a comfort what an encouragement what a motivation in your life and mine as we move through this world to please god and then in that future day to get that well done thou good and faithful servant and having an abundant entrance into the kingdom of god enoch had this testimony that he had pleased god may that be ours as well