Look, if you got a copy of scripture, go ahead, turn with me to Daniel chapter five. All right? Daniel five's where we're gonna be today, and we're just gonna continue like you just saw in the bumper. We're continuing in this series that we're just calling thriving in Babylon, where we're looking back at this ancient empire called Babylon that was actually 2,600 years, the largest, the most strongest, and the most opulent empire that the world at that time had ever [00:00:30] seen. Yes, we're looking at it as an empire, but also we're carrying it forward into our world to say that while Babylon has fallen, and we're gonna see that today in chapter five, the spirit of Babylon lives on. The spirit of Babylon is this idea and this culture of anything that stands against God. It's a culture that wants to revolt, wants to worship idols, wants to do its own thing, and it's the idea that that spirit [00:01:00] will live all of the way until the time that Jesus returns.
And what we're saying is, is that we're y - we're tracking with Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abindigo, but we're pulling how they're standing, how they're shining, and how they're proclaiming who God is. We're pulling that into our world, into our Babylonia, or as we have called it, our Wescabalonia, all right? Because there's a lot of similarities in that [00:01:30] day and today. Now, listen, if you haven't been here the last couple weeks, let me just kind of pull into context where we are. Daniel chapter one, King Nebuchadnezzar comes to Jerusalem and overtakes Jerusalem, brings back with him the best and the brightest and begins to indoctrinate them, to make them his little servants. Well, Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didn't bow to the idols of Babylon. They stood for the king. They stood for God. [00:02:00] And as a result of that, God did what he always does.
He gave them his favor, gave them his favor, gave them strength, gave them knowledge, gave Daniel the ability to interpret dreams, which actually helped out in chapter two, because Nebuchadnezzar the king has this dream from God that he couldn't understand. The wise men couldn't understand it, but Daniel did. And Daniel explained to him that this dream was a forcoming [00:02:30] that his kingdom would fall. Why is that? The dream said, "Because all earthly kingdoms are gonna fall." The moral of the story is, is that we don't put our worth in our earthly kingdom. We don't put our worth in earthly things. We put it in God's kingdom because God's kingdom will stand. Well, Nebuchadnezzar doesn't listen, although he realizes that it was God that gave Daniel the strength to do this. And in Daniel chapter three, he builds this monument to himself in the [00:03:00] desert, this monument of gold, this massive monument of gold that everybody has to bow down to in Babylon.
Well, that is everybody except for Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo. They knew that you don't worship idols, you don't worship anything but God. And as a result of that, Nebuchadnezzar gets angry, throws them into the fiery furnace, but Jesus does what Jesus always does. He meets us right [00:03:30] in the middle of the fire and Jesus delivers them out of the fire. And even this, you would think Nebuchadnezzar would turn to God, but he doesn't. He doesn't. And that brought us to last week in Daniel chapter four. Daniel chapter four is Nebuchadnezzar's testimony. He's bringing himself before God as the strongest, as the most powerful. And God brings him down through God sending this dream, God's sending him to [00:04:00] the wilderness. But at the end of Daniel chapter four, what we see is that finally, the strongest and most mightiest king that had walked on the earth till that point, finally Nebuchadnezzar gives his life to God.
And we said last week that pride can lead us to places that we don't need to be, but God is the giver and the taker away [00:04:30] of authority. Now that brings us to Daniel chapter five today. All right. Now look, Daniel chapter five, as we flip the page over there, it seems like it just comes out of nowhere, all right? It really does. The people are different. This doesn't seem like it's a empire that loves God. It doesn't seem like it's an empire that just had its king delivered over into God's hands. But just as in between chapters two and three that there was a 16 [00:05:00] year gap, in chapters three and four, there was a 20 year gap. In between chapters four and five of the book of Daniel, there's actually 25 years that go by, okay? I need you to understand something about Daniel.
Daniel is not a historical account of the Babylonian kingdom, all right? There's a lot of those that have been written, written. You can go read them. Herodius, other historians do that. That's not Daniel's intent. Yes, all the history is right, but [00:05:30] Daniel's intent is not to give us every stop in the history of Babylon, just like your life. If you were writing a memoir of your life, you would have large seasons of your life where it's just like every day obedience. You got up, you drink your coffee, you do your deal, you wash some clothes, you go to bed. You don't write that in your memoir, right? Well, Daniel is not pointing out history. He's pointing out the fact all the way through this book is that God alone is the God that we worship. God alone [00:06:00] is the one worthy of praise and nothing else.
So here we go into chapter five, 25 years after Nebuchadnezzar has given his life to God. Now, as a result of that, what I need you to hear is that Nebuchadnezzar has died already in chapter five. He ruled for 42 years. He died. He passed the kingdom of his son. Somebody took him out, assassinated him. His son, the, was an infant at that time, the next son down, they took him out [00:06:30] as an infant. That's how gnarly the Babylonian culture was. And today, we're actually going to meet one of the most contested historical figures in the Old Testament, all right? But chapter five is big. Personally for them, it's big. Personally, for us, has some great principles. And today we see the Babylonian Empire fall. All right? Let's jump into the text. Januel chapter five, verse one. Here's what it says, and then we'll walk through and pull some principles.
[00:07:00] It says this. It says, King Belshazzar, all right, circle that, you're gonna need it later. King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and he drank wine with them. All right. Now first, I want you to notice the new king is named Belshazzar. So now what kind of big deal is that? Oh, it's a huge deal if you know history. Let me see if I can explain it to you. For hundreds of years in our culture, all right, actually up until [00:07:30] about the mid 1920s, for hundreds of years, this passage in Daniel chapter five was used by scholars, was used by academia and used by skeptics as one of the passages that they tried to use to discredit the Bible, to discredit the hiserosity, there's a word for you, of the Bible, and to discredit the fact that it does not have errors.
You say, well, Matt, why is that? Here's why. Historically speaking, the last King of Babylon, [00:08:00] what we're about to see, the last king before it fell was a king named King Nebunitus. All right, King Nebunitus. But what you're seeing in the text right here, the last king is actually King Belshazzar. You say, Matt, how do those two things go together? That's what the skeptics were trying to say. They were trying to say that Daniel is a fairy tale. Daniel just makes up details to make a point. Daniel just is not a true thing. And they really doubled down. Every bushy, bushy-tailed, [00:08:30] wide-eyed freshman in college, some professor would try to use this to say the Bible is not real, all right? Until. Oh, you're gonna like this. Until in 1854, in 1854, there was a archeologist that was discovering the ancient city of err in Iraq.
He dug up these cylinders in Iraq in the town that Nebunitus was reigning in. I got a picture of them for you here. He dug up these cylinders [00:09:00] called the Nebunitus Cylinders. These were written 2,600 years ago. You can actually go see them. Melissa and I had to go see him because I'm a total nerd in the, in the British Museum in London, you can go see these things. He dug up these, these cylinders written by King Nebunitus and then scholars doubled down. They were like, "See, we told you the Bible is not true." But catch this. These cylinders were written in a quiform ancient language. They knew Nebunitus wrote them, but in 1920, [00:09:30] we actually figured out how to read this language. And on these cylinders, the last king, King Nebunitus, is praying for his firstborn son that he gave co-kingship to named Belshazar.
Oh, are you seeing where this is going right here? He said, Man, what does it have to do with me? It has everything to do with you. Why? Because checkmate God watch this. At this point, it reconciled history in the Bible and [00:10:00] showed that every one of those professors just needed to probably keep their mouth shut. Why? Here's the principle, given enough time, science and history always confirms the Bible. Man, are you seeing this? Who's our guy? We meet King Belshazzar. Now, what did we just read in the story? Well, King Belshazzar has thrown a rager, all right? That's really what we just read, right? Many scholars actually would define it [00:10:30] as quote a drunken orgy. Kids, if you don't know what that means, ask your parents at lunch. They'll tell you. Um, here, here's what it means. All right, so listen, uh, there's like a thousand nobles that are at this party.
It's like a thousand nobles. All of the officials are at this party. This was a common thing of the day. They invited all of the who's who. The only rule was there's no rules. It's actually historically exactly what was happening. All of Belshazzar's wives, that's just plural, you heard it right, [00:11:00] are there. All the concubines are there. Don't know what that one is. Ask that one too. Later on, the best of the best are there. Think Academy Awards. There's an open bar. Drinks were unlimited and Belshazzar is going for it. Listen to me, listen to me closely. Our Babylon did not create drunkenness and open sexuality. Now we may have perfected it, but we didn't create it. It's been there from the beginning. Watch what happens in verse two though. It says this, while Belshazzar was drinking [00:11:30] his wine, the implication there is that he is not just drinking wine, but he's gone.
All right, that's what it means. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave the orders to bring the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar and his father, Nebuchadnezzar, his father, all right, that word father there means grandfather. They don't have a word for grandfather in ancient Hebrew. Nebuchadnezzar's father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles and his wives [00:12:00] and his concubines might drink for, from them. Verse three. So they brought the gold goblets that they've taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem and the king and his nobles and his wives and his concubines, they drank from them. And as they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone. Now look, there's a lot there, so let me unpack it for you. The whole upper level of government is there.
The party's going on. They've thrown every [00:12:30] bit of morality out and away. And if that's not bad enough in their drunken pride, in their drunken arrogance, and in their drunken ignorance, does that sound like any situation that you've ever seen in this, right? They take it up even another notch. And what do they do? It says here that King Belshazzar, in this situation, he calls out for his servants to bring in the golden items, the holy items, the set apart items that were to be used [00:13:00] only for God. Now, if you remember, right, in chapter one, Nebuchadnezzar had stolen these items from the temple of God. You say, Matt, what does this have to do with anything? Has everything to do with it. Listen to this. The temple in the Old Testament represented the presence of God, did it not? Yes. That's where God reigned, that's where God was worshiped.
That's where, that's where God was on the earth. The vessels, the tools that were used were set apart, holy [00:13:30] tools that were used to worship the God of the universe only. And now, Belshazzar has called out, not only have they stolen these things from God, now he's called out to bring them into his presence so that they could mock the God of the universe by drinking wine in their drunken party from them. They're mocking God. But oh, church, listen, make no mistake. God will not be mocked. [00:14:00] He won't be mocked. Now, so Matt, what does this have to do with me? Here's what it has to do with me, with us. In the Old Testament, the presence of God was in the temple of God. In the New Testament, the presence of God and the holines of, of God re - is represented and lived out through who?
Through us. Are you seeing the connection here? We are the set apart vessels for God. We are the temple of God. Why? Because the [00:14:30] Holy Spirit is in us. The temple is in us, and our whole lives are set apart. Our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our vessels, our tools that should worship God only. In fact, write this principle and I help you understand it. Never misuse what is set apart and holy for some temporary worldly pleasure or evil. Students, listen to me, you're set apart. You've been made holy. Never misuse your life for something that is temporary [00:15:00] pleasures. Listen, the Apostle Paul said it like this in one Corinthians six, verse 19. He says, "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you've received from God? You're not your own. You've been bought with a prize, therefore honor God with your bodies." Man, let me ask all of us this question.
Are we using what is holy? That's us now, right? It's not some goblet, that's us. Are we using what is holy for something that it was never [00:15:30] intended to be used for? That's the message here. You say, "Matt, I might have been holy at one point, but I'm not anymore." Let me tell you something. Listen to me. Listen, God can make you holy and God can reestablish your presence standing in front of him no matter what has happened. You see, how do I do that? First John one: nine says it like this. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and forgive us of our sins and what? And will purify us from all unrighteousness. No matter where you fall on this whole schedule of what you [00:16:00] have done with yourself, God's just saying, "If you'll turn back to me, I'll make you into what I made you to be." So don't miss it.
That's what's happening here, okay? This was happening at the party. They brought out the vessels. Now, let me give you some context here because during this party, what's happening outside the party is that the Mito-Persian army for the two months before this had been surrounding the city for two to three months. You can read it in history. It's all over it. And they're still having this party. They're still doing [00:16:30] this. They're still meeting while they know they're being besieged. There's no doubt Belshazzar knew this was gonna happen, but they partied anyway. Oh, man, church, doesn't pride make us so stupid?
Here's the principle I though about this week. Pride actually blinds us to the reality of how small and vulnerable we really are before God. It blinds us, doesn't it? It makes me tell me that I will never be brought down. I will never be taken. Another [00:17:00] way I kind of put it this week is when you feel invincible, you're probably about to fall. That's what happens in Belshazzar's life. He felt so secure in himself. He felt so secure in his city. He felt so secure with the walls that no one could penetrate. He felt so secure in his kingdom. Let me ask you something. Is that where your life is right now? Do you feel so secure? Maybe it's because of your job, maybe it's your status, maybe it's your, your following, maybe it's your confidence is on the rise. What could go wrong, right?
[00:17:30] Listen, only God gives the confidence to stand eternally. In fact, watch what happens when pride gets us. Watch what happens. Watch what God does in the rest of the text here. It's probably the fastest drunk sobering up in history, right? Because this party, it's about to pause faster than parents pulling into the driveway. Look at this in verse five, okay? Watch. Verse five says, "Suddenly, suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and rode on the plaster of [00:18:00] the wall." In my mind, it's like a foam finger from the Braves game riding on the wall, right? I don't know why. Near the lampstand. In other words, this is where the king would have sat. That's where the biggest lights in this building were, in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it rode. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking.
Now watch how automatic this is. Watch how fast this old belches are. He's the host of the gala, right? He's large and in charge. He's untouchable, even though [00:18:30] all this is going on around him. And then automatically God sends this hand to write this message on the wall and boom, Belshazar loses every bit of color. He's so scared. The Bible says his knees are knocking. It's like Scooby-Doo, right? Remember that in that show, right? And most commentators say the language refers to him losing his bowels. I'll let you define that later on, but you can see what it is. In other words, he needs another outfit. That's what that means, right? He sees the writing on the wall. He calls [00:19:00] for his enforcements because that's what he needs to do. And in verse seven, it says the king summons the enchanters, the astrologers, the diviners.
And then he said to the wise men of Babylon, Whoever reads the writing and tells me what it means will be clothed in purple, have a gold chain placed around his neck. He will be made third highest ruler in the kingdom. Why? Because Nebunitus, his father, was ruling outside the kingdom in Arabia, right? He's ruling inside the kingdom in the palace, that's him, they're co-regents. And now whoever does this will be number [00:19:30] three. Verse eight, then all the king's wise men came in, but they couldn't read the writing and tell the king what it meant. So Belshar Czar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale and his nobles were baffled. You read that last sentence, he became even more terrified. I'm not real sure how much farther you can go from losing your bowels, but evidently there's another step. And now the wise men, they can't help.
They can't do anything. I don't know if you've seen the theme in [00:20:00] the book. They can never do anything. Don't know why we call them wise. And Belshazzar's beside himself. He's not used to having no as an answer. He's not used to getting the best and the best wisdom. But oh, remember church write this principle on the wisdom of this world often cannot make sense of the handwriting of God. Do you see that? Say, man, I don't know where you're going with that. Let me see if I can explain it. Here's what it means. You can take the smartest of the smartest, you can take the most gifted of the gifted, [00:20:30] but unless you have the spirit of God, you can't understand all the things of God. That's what it means. You ever notice when you lean into somebody that doesn't know Jesus about what Jesus is doing in your life, they kind of look at you like, "What are you talking about?" That's what that means.
In fact, the Apostle Paul says it like this in one Corinthians 2:14, he says, "The person without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, but considers them foolishness." That makes sense, right? You ever tried to talk to somebody about God, about what he's doing [00:21:00] in your life, how you're giving your life to him, how you're giving your money to him, how have you given your service? And they're like, "Why would you do that?" That's it. Watch this, "But considers them foolish and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the spirit." What does that mean? That means you gotta give your life to Jesus to understand what it means for Jesus to lead you and give you his wisdom. So here in the text, what's happening, this, this, this hand has [00:21:30] wrote this message on the wall and nobody can understand what it is to which if you're like me, you're like, "Why?
Why can't anyone understand the message on the wall? Why can't anybody read the wall? Matt, tell us why they couldn't do it." Listen, I looked all week long. Let me tell you why they couldn't read it on the wall. I don't know. All right. I don't know. All right. I have no idea why they couldn't read the writing on the wall. Neither does anyone else. If you ever hear any commentators say they do, they don't. All right, they don't. They're just making an assumption. The best answers [00:22:00] are, well, maybe it was written in a language they didn't know. Maybe it was written in a script they couldn't read. Maybe they were so drunk they couldn't read. I read that one this week. Not sure you can get there, but I don't know, right? All that we know, the point is, is they needed God's wisdom.
That's the point. And there was no God's wisdom in the house. So back to the text, what happens? It's always good when the adult walks in. Look at verse 10. It says this, "The queen, [00:22:30] the queen, hearing the voices of the king and his nobles came into the banquet hall. May the king live forever," she said, "Do not be alarmed." She says, "Don't look so pale." Right? I love the queen mom's like, "Hey, Belsizar, get yourself together," right? Like I said, it's always good when the adult shows up, but I notice the queen's not at the party. It's not her kind of thing, right? Why? Because real adults don't act like this, right? Real adults, [00:23:00] not even on special occasions, not even on my bachelor party, New Year's, my birthday, Matt, that's what, when I can really let loose. No, no, no, no. Be the adult in the room.
Be the person that points to God in the room. The queen walks in. Now, this is either Nebuchadnezzar's wife or Nebuchadnezzar's daughter. We're not really sure which. She walks into the room and she remembers Daniel. Oh, I love this. Now, at this point, Daniel's in the retirement home, all right? I mean, not literally, but you see what I mean by that, right? At this point in the message [00:23:30] right here, Daniel, he is not at the party, all right? This is not his kind of scene, but I want you to feel something about Daniel here, because I think it's a goal that all of us can live towards. Daniel is the one that beyond everybody else in the kingdom, somebody with reason say, wait, there is a person that knows God, that loves God and has the wisdom of God. Let me ask you something. Are you that person in people's minds?
Actually, write this principle down. Be the person that others know [00:24:00] without any question has the spirit of the living God in you. Have you ever though about how people define you? It's a scary exercise, isn't it? Have you ever thought about what people think when they first hear your name? Are you the person that walks in and everybody goes, "Oh yeah, that's Charlie. He knows God. Oh yeah, that's Susie. She loves Jesus. Oh yeah, that's Greg. Greg has the power of God living in his life." It's exactly [00:24:30] what happens. Are you defined by wow? They love Jesus. Watch what the Queen Mom says right here in verse 11. She says, "There's a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him, and in the time of your father, he was found to have insight, intelligence, and wisdom. Is that you?" "Like that of the gods, your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians and chanters, astrologers, diviners.
He did this because Daniel, whom the king called Belshazzar, was found to have a keen mind and knowledge and understanding and [00:25:00] also had the ability to explain or interpret dreams, explain riddles and solve difficult problems. "Call for Daniel and he will tell you what the writing means. Verse 13," So Daniel was brought before the king, and the king said to him, Are you Daniel? One of the exiles my father, the king, brought from Judah. "See that he knew. "I have heard that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that you have insight and intelligence, outstanding wisdom, the wise men and enchanters that [00:25:30] were brought before me to read the writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it." Now I've heard that you're able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. If you can read this writing, tell me what it means.
You'll be clothed in purple, have a gold chain placed around your neck, and you will be made the third highest and the ru- ruler in the kingdom. Now, if you've been following this, this series, here we go again, right? Daniel, he's put again in another hard [00:26:00] place, two dreams for an ebuchadnezzar. He had to stand, he had to tell him what it is. Now he's about to have to deliver some pretty hard news to this new king. So what does Daniel do? Daniel jumps right in. Now look, Daniel's not intimidated by this knee-knocking little dirty pant king, right? He is just not at all intimidated by him. Why? Because Daniel, at this point, he's in his 80s. You get that, right? By the time you're in your 80s, if you've lived with wisdom, people should listen to you. You got [00:26:30] something to offer. Can I get a little witness from some of our older saints in the house, right?
He can speak to this. "Oh, but listen to me, older saints. I want you to notice something. There's no semblance of Daniel here saying, Oh, somebody else can serve. Somebody else can do it. I've served my time. Let the young bucks have it. "He's serving. Look at verse 17. Watch what Daniel does. Then Daniel answered the king," You may keep your gifts for yourself and give your rewards to somebody [00:27:00] else. "Nevertheless, Daniel says," I'll read the writing for the king, and I'll tell you what it means. Your majesty, holy verse 18. The most high God gave your father, Nebuchadnezzar, sovereignty and greatness, glory and splendor because the high position he gave him, all the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put it to death. Those who wanted to spare, he spared. Those he wanted to promote, he promoted.
Those he wanted to humble, he humbled. "Verse [00:27:30] 20, we saw this last week. But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne. He was stripped of his glory. He was driven away. He ate grass like the ox and his body was drenched with a dew of heaven until. And this is why I believe that he really, Nebuchadnezzar really did give his life to God until he acknowledged that the most high God is sovereign over all the kingdoms of the earth and sets over them [00:28:00] anyone he wishes. Look at verse 22. But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, although you knew all of this. Let me see if I can pull a principle from this because I think this is ri - where we are. You can write this down. You can't claim ignorance when you have heard about God's power and you've chosen to ignore it.
That's what we're seeing right here, right? You see, Obelchazar knew about his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar. He knew about his Nebuchadnezzar turning. [00:28:30] He knew about the fall that pride was in his life, but just because he knew it didn't mean he turned. Just because he knew it didn't mean he did anything. And now old Daniel is standing before him going, "Listen, you can't claim ignorance. You knew what happened. You knew who God was." And listen to me, church, we can't either. You do realize that the book of Romans in chapter one tells us that none of us without, are without excuse. You realize the fact that we have the whole written word of God in our hands, the whole revelation [00:29:00] of God in our hands and we can't claim ignorance like Belshazzar. We have no excuse from turning to God, no excuse from knowing who God is.
There's no telling how many times most of us in this room have heard the gospel, have heard the love of God, had heard how we should repent, but have we given our lives over to the King Jesus?
The greatest sin is not ignorance. It's willful rejection. [00:29:30] And we're gonna be judged for it. And look at it in verse 22. Watch what Daniel says to him again. He says, "But you, Belshazzar, his son, put yourself in Belshazzar's shoes here. You have not humbled yourself, though you knew all of this. Instead, old is this point to your life, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple [00:30:00] brought to you, you and the nobles, your wives, your concubines drank from, wine from them. You praise the gods of silver and gold and iron and wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, or understand, but you did not honor. This is the key, this is the key verse. We have one every chapter, but you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life in all your ways.
[00:30:30] So Daniel, this whole time, he knows what the writing is. Man, when he walked in the room, he knew exactly what he is. But like any good preacher, he needs an intro, right? He needs to build the pressure, right? He needs to build the momentum and the problem. He calls out Belshazzar. And in what we just read, basically Daniel stands before Belshazzar, stands before all the nobles and says, King Belshazzar, you stand so proud. You stand so proud with no humility. You stand up against God and [00:31:00] think you can make rules not from God, but based on your own opinion and your own feelings. You're more involved with what you feel than what God feels. You worship whatever you want to and you think there's never gonna be a consequence. Does this sound like the West Cobalonia we live in? Yeah, it does. Let me bring it into our context just for a little bit.
I'm really the God of my life and in charge of my life and I'll do what I wanna do based on how I feel. [00:31:30] I am the God of all sexuality in my life and I will do what I want based on how I want and how I feel. I am more involved and I'm more in love with my stuff, my satisfaction, my spending, my sports, my status and my sex than I am with the God of the universe and I am the true God of my life. It's the same demons, just a different day. It's the same things that we put before God, just a different time period. [00:32:00] Even though God keeps saying all those things can't fulfill you, all those things will never give you life. All those things will never fulfill you because verse 23, God says, I am the one that holds you in my hands and I'm the only one that can give you life.
For some reason we and Belshazar still keep chasing the thinking that I'm in control. It's God. It's in control. [00:32:30] So Daniel gives his intro there and then he finally gets to the inscription on the wall. Let me read Daniel's words here. Here's what it says in verse 25 and 26. It says this is the inscription that was written. Many, many, tickle parson. And here's what these words mean. Thank you, Daniel, because we needed that, right? Many means that God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to [00:33:00] an end. Now feel this. Look, two times on the wall, it literally says many, many. What does that mean? It means that your belches are, your days are numbered. You don't think they are, but your days are numbered. You think your kingdom's gonna stand, your days are number. What does that mean? That means Belchizar, your ticket is about to be called.
Ever been to the DMV? You know what I'm talking about, right? Your number is about to show up on the screen and you and your kingdom are about to fall. That's what the first one means. Look at the [00:33:30] second one, verse 27. It says this, tickle. That means you have been weighed on the scales and now found wanting. Let me see if I can explain that during this time period, they used these scales that were a balance, right? On one side they put the item on the other side, they put a weight on it to tell you what it means to have that weigh, to tell you what you were going to pay. What this is saying is, is that you have been put on the scales, Belshazzar, and you think you're weighty. You think you've got something. You think you're gonna [00:34:00] win, but you have no spiritual weight.
That's what it means. You have no, what it would mean is you have no God substance in your life. God is not in you and you have been found lacking. Let me walk us back through it. Your number is up. Here it is. You're going down. On this side, you've been weighed. And now that you've been weighed, there's no weight of God in your life. And here's the last one, therefore, verse 28, Perez. It [00:34:30] means your kingdom is divided and it's given to the meads and Persians. In other words, your number is up, you've been weighed, and now your kingdom that you thought you would have forever is about to be given to the jokers that are surrounding this city that you thought would never take you. Now, this is a sobering message, is it not? I mean, think about it, especially what was going on at the party, especially all the little G idols that Babylon [00:35:00] worshiped.
It is not looking good for Belshazzar, right? It's not. Let me ask you this, but what about for you? 'Cause here's the deal. This is not just a warning for Belshazzar. This is not just a warning for ancient Babylon. These are not just words that we should read like some historical document because the reality is, do you realize this, that your and my days are numbered? They're numbered. [00:35:30] Hebrews 9:27 says, "Just as it is appointed for man to die once, after that comes the judgment." And also, not only are our days numbered, let me make the context here, church, we're also, one day, every single one of us are gonna be put on the scales of eternity to see where the weight of God is in our lives. We're gonna be put on the scales of eternity to see where the weight of Jesus is in our lives.
[00:36:00] The weight that's gonna matter is not the weight of the world. It's not the weight of our family. It's not the weight of our career. It's not the weight of our following. It's not the weight of our popularity, but do you have the weight of Jesus? Do you have the presence of Jesus, the substance of Jesus, the knowledge and the grace and the saving power of Jesus? Do you have the weight of the forgiveness and the freedom and the life and the lordship of Jesus? Why? Because our number's gonna be called. The only thing that matters is what we do with the weight of Jesus. [00:36:30] And if we don't give our hearts and lives to Jesus, what's gonna happen? We're gonna be divided and our kingdom one day is gonna be given away. I've never seen anyone take anything with them.
It's gonna be divided away from God. Church, this message is not just a sobering message for Belshazzar, it's all of us because God is the eternal bookkeeper and it's not only the finger of God that we have seen write the message, it's the person of Jesus Christ that we've seen [00:37:00] live the life that I should live, die the death I deserve to die and give me the opportunity to know him and follow him and have all of the weight of him in my life. But my question is, have you turned to him or are you still turning to yourself? Are you more interested in the party or are you more interested in the weight and the substance of Jesus that can rule our lives? Give us hope, give us life and secure our eternity one day. Have you turned your heart to Jesus?
[00:37:30] Are you trusting in him? 'Cause here's the deal, Belshazzar, he got a warning this night. He got a warning just saying, "Hey, it's coming, but we may not." Given your heart to Jesus. So Daniel, he breaks this news to Belshazzar. I'm breaking it to all of us today. I mean, you're like, "Ooh, thank goodness, man. Thank goodness he got there in time to, so Belshazzar coul turn his life to Jesus." No. It's not [00:38:00] how the event ends. In fact, look at verse 29 and 30. Watch what it says here. It says, "Then, at Belshazzar's command, Daniel was clothed in purple. A gold chain was placed around his neck and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom." Well, man, Matt, that's great for Daniel. Now when you read the next verse, because it only lasted for like 30 minutes, right? Verse 30, "That very [00:38:30] night." We just circle those words that very night.
You know what that says to you and says to me? It says that we're not promised another day. The preachers of all would say it like this, "If you were to die tonight, do you know 100%, 100% that you were spending eternity in the presence of King Jesus?" I'm not sure why we died at night, but maybe it's from this passage, right?
"That very night, Belshazzar, the king of the Babylonians was slain. And Darius the mead took over [00:39:00] the kingdom at age of 62. "Do you see it? The prophecy was given, the prophecy was fulfilled, and that very night, the kingdom that never was supposed to fall, fell. Say," Man, are you sure about that? "Oh yeah, I'm sure about it. Why? Do you realize that what happened right here is the most documented event in the history of the Persian [00:39:30] and Babylonian Empire? You can read it in hundreds of historical sources, what happened that night in 539 on October the 11th. What happened was is the Mito-Persian army had already surrounded the city. They dammed up the Euphrates River that came right through the middle of Babylon. It was the lifeblood of Babylon. It ran right under the walls of Babylon all the way through the city, gave them life.
Nobody could ever get in. The cache of food was there forever and ever. No one could take this town down [00:40:00] until they damned up the river. It went down so low, the whole Mido-Persian army could literally walk into the city while the thousands of nobles and their drunken stupor is having a party. They walked into the city, conquered all of Babylon with most scholars saying without even a fight. King Belshazzar was killed on the 16th day of Tarshi. That's October the 11th, 5:39 BC. [00:40:30] You see, Matt, what does that have to do with me? I think it has everything to do with us. And here's why, because there's a little bit of Belshazzar in all of us. There's a little bit of it's all about my kingdom and all of us. There's a little bit, it's all about my pride in all of us. And every time I think I'm in charge and every time I think that I'm secure, apart from God, I'm [00:41:00] stealing the glory away from God and we think that we're untouchable.
We think that we're untouchable, but listen, God will only let it go so long. You say, Matt, that's pretty judgy. Well, maybe until you think about it like this, you realize that the same hand, here's the last principle when we're done. You realize that the same hand that wrote the judgment is the hand that was pierced for our salvation. Do you realize when you say, well, that's pretty [00:41:30] judgy of God, God's looking at us going, listen, I've given you the examples of the people of old. I've given you the examples of people that have given their life to you and I've given you my son that not only wrote on the wall, here's the warning, but showed us what it looks like to give us life. And do you realize that all we have to do is turn from ourselves and turn to him and he will give us life.
Listen, church, [00:42:00] this is not a tomorrow thing. That very night may be tonight.
The writing's on the wall. The question is what will we do with it? Oh, listen, don't fall into the trap. This is just some historical thing in the Old Testament that Daniel's showing us. See it like this. God's written on the wall. The question is, will I respond? The [00:42:30] question is, will I find myself with the weight of Jesus so strong in my life that other people go, oh, that guy, that girl, they know Jesus. They love Jesus. They walk with Jesus and no matter what comes their way, it'll be filtered through the person and the life of King Jesus. Let me ask you something. Have you given your heart to him? I'm not talking [00:43:00] about you. Have you, have you gone to church or have you gone to life group or did you go to VBS? But have you truly surrendered your heart and life to Jesus to save your soul, forgive you of your sins and give you his weight?
Do you need to do that today? I'm gonna be standing right over here in just a second, man. I'd love to pray with you. I'd love to pray over you. I would love to ask God today to radically come into your life and give you hope. Maybe some of you, you do [00:43:30] know Jesus, but if you're honest with yourself today, you are that unclean vessel that you need Jesus to take you off of the throne and put him back on it and cleanse you. Man, we'd love to pray with you. We'd love to walk with you. Do you see yourself in the story today as Belshazar or do you see yourself as Daniel?