Let's pray together just for a moment. The Bible
says that by one offering, once for all, He has
sanctified forever those who are His. I hope
you're one of His this morning, one of God's,
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If not,
you could not have heard the gospel more clearly
presented than in these moments, as we understand
that God has provided the Redeemer. A sacrifice
to die in our place, the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He died for you and for all of us.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for that sacrifice that
you've made on our behalf. And those of us who
have come to the cross and bowed the knee and
received you, rejoice this morning and we glorify
you. And we say indeed, worthy, worthy is the
Lamb. Amen. We open our Bibles together this
morning to the sixth chapter of the book of Daniel
as we think about the theme, how to avoid the
lion's den. I suppose that you parents would
like to have a dollar every time that you've
heard, for every time that you've heard the phrase,
that's not fair. We heard it in our home just
last night, again. Well, the fact is that not
everything in life is fair, is it? Because the
world is under the curse of sin. Sometimes right
is declared to be wrong, rather, is declared
to be right. And truth is eclipsed by a lie.
And the godly person is unjustly accused and
condemned. If this happens to you, just remember,
that it happened to the Lord Jesus and he can
sympathize fully with you. The New Testament
says, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving
you an example for you to follow in his steps,
who committed no sin nor was any deceit found
in his mouth, who also died for sins, once for
all the just for the unjust. So Peter in his
first epistle goes on to say, This finds favor
with God if for the sake of conscience toward
God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering
unjustly. We see that principle borne out in
the illustration of Daniel in the sixth chapter
of the book that bears his name. We have learned
in studying in Daniel that it's possible to go
too far in defiance blasphemy against God and
that is what Belshazzar did. He crossed the line
of God's patience and grace. He was slain in
the city of Babylon and the city and the empire
fell to the Medes and the Persians as God had
predicted, indeed appointed, that it should.
And so Cyrus the king of the Persians reigned.
He appointed in Babylon one whose name was Darius
to reign as his viceroy. We see in the last verse
of chapter 5, so Darius the Mede received the
kingdom at about age of 62. The word Darius literally
means royal one in the Persian language. It's
probably best understood as a title, something
like the title Caesar. which then came to be
applied to the person who was in the office.
The individual that was named Darius here is
likely to have been one named Guberu, who was
a Median general who served under Cyrus. Reigning
during the transitional period, after the fall
of Babylon until the Medes and the Persians could
fully establish their kingdom, This Darius sought
to bring the conquered territories into full
submission to Cyrus. Sixty -two years of age
he was when he received the kingdom, it says.
And in chapter 9 and verse 1 it says, he was
made ruler, implying that there was one superior
to him who gave him his authority, and that one
who was his superior was Cyrus. Now it says in
chapter 6 and verse 1, it seemed good to Darius
to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that
they should be in charge of the whole kingdom,
and over them three commissioners, of whom Daniel
was one, that these satraps might be accountable
to them, and that the king might not suffer loss.
And so we understand how he organized this transitional
time in the kingdom of Babylon. 120 men were
appointed as satraps. We do not know exactly
the size of their area of responsibility, but
120 of them fanned out to cover the empire, and
they answered to three men who then were responsible
directly to Darius. One of the three men directly
responsible to Darius was Daniel, who, as we
saw in the last chapter, just at the close of
the reign of Belshazzar was appointed the third
in power in that empire. So Daniel, this man
of God who is now in his 80s, has risen to power
in two different Gentile empires. This one being
the Empire of the Medes and the Persians. Now
we're going to see how Daniel was eventually
placed in a position of jeopardy. and his life
was endangered as he was thrown into a den of
lions. We want to first, this morning, look at
the way to the lion's den. That is traced for
us in the divisions of the narrative. We notice
Daniel's character, that he was observed as a
man with an excellent attitude. In verse 3, it
says, distinguishing himself among the commissioners
and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary
spirit, an excellent spirit. And the king planned
to appoint him over the entire kingdom. And so
very quickly, Daniel rose among the other three
commissioners so that he was going to be responsible
directly to the king himself. And then the other
two commissioners, or perhaps another appointed
in his place, would be responsible to Daniel.
He was a man of flawless work. It says that the
commissioners and satraps who worked under him
began trying to find a ground of accusation against
Daniel in regard to government affairs, but they
could find no ground of accusation or evidence
of corruption inasmuch as he was faithful and
no negligence or corruption was to be found in
him. What a tremendous example Daniel sets for
all civil servants, for anyone who is in a position
of power in the government, to allow no taint
of corruption or negligence to be found in his
work. Daniel was a flawless man in his work for
Darius. But not only that, he was a devoted worshiper.
We know that about his character from what is
said in verse 5. It says, then these men said,
we shall not find any ground of accusation against
this Daniel unless we find it against him with
regard to the law of his God. So here is a man
with an excellent attitude, a flawless work record,
and a man who is devoted to God above everything
else in his character. And then we see the conspiracy
against Daniel. It begins in these verses we've
read and now begins to be fleshed out in verses
6 through 9. These commissioners and satraps
got together without Daniel and they made an
agreement and came to the king and they said,
King Darius lived forever. All the commissioners
of the kingdom, oh wait a minute. Not all of
the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects
and the satraps, the high officials and the governors
consulted together. Not all of them. All of them
except one man, Daniel. Obviously Daniel had
not been in their time of conspiracy and agreement
because they were after him. But they pretended
as though everyone, including Daniel, had been
involved in this agreement. It says, We have
consulted together that the king should establish
a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone
who makes a petition to any god or man besides
you, O King, for thirty days shall be cast into
the lion's den. Now O King, establish the injunction
and sign the document so that it may not be changed
according to the law of the Medes and Persians,
which may not be revoked. That was, of course,
a characteristic of the law of the Medes and
Persians. Once established, nothing could change
it. In that sense, the kings of the Medes and
Persians had less authority than Nebuchadnezzar
of Babylon, because Nebuchadnezzar could establish
a decree and then change it at his whim. But
not so among the Medes and the Persians. Once
a king spoke, that was it. Nothing, not even
the king himself, could change that decree. And
so no one was to pray or to seek any other god
except King Darius. for the next months. The
kings of that day were not uncommonly called
deity. Often they would declare themselves or
others would declare them to be gods and in this
way they were able to consolidate their power
in their kingdom and Darius obviously found this
very appealing not only for his own ego but also
because he was trying to consolidate the Babylonian
Empire as quickly as possible so that Cyrus would
be well pleased with him. Well, it says that
the king signed the document, the injunction,
and then in verse 10 we come to the courage of
Daniel. Now when Daniel knew that the document
was signed, he entered his house, now in his
roof chamber, he had windows open toward Jerusalem.
And he continued kneeling on his knees three
times a day, praying and giving thanks before
his God as he had been doing previously. We notice
that prayer was a matter of pattern, of continuity
in the life of Daniel. Indeed, I think we can
say that the one thing that saved Daniel from
the influence of the pagan cultures around him
for these some 70 years or more that he has been
in Babylon and now in Medo -Persia, was the fact
that he was a praying man. Prayer will spare
us from falling under the influence of a pagan
culture. And if we do not pray, we are then prey
for... the pagan culture around us. Because he
was a man of prayer, Daniel had not compromised
his convictions. Now at this point, it's possible
that Daniel might have rationalized some compromise.
He might have said, look, there is this decree
and I think it would be alright in this case
to at least close the shutters on these windows
so that no one can observe me. Or on the other
hand, he might have said, I think I will just
cease praying for a month. I mean, God will surely
understand. For all of these decades, I have
been praying faithfully three times a day. And
now if I just skip it for a month, surely God
would be patient with me. Or he might have said,
look, they know that I'm going to be praying
there. What I'm going to do is find a place where
I can close myself off and seek it, and I will
pray there. Or on the other hand, he might have
said, they expect me to pray during the daytime,
I'm going to get them, I'll pray at night. And
I'll pray three times during the night and no
one will know that I'm praying. But Daniel refused
to do that. Daniel did not compromise, he was
courageous. He refused any temptation in that
direction and determined to practice his devotion
to the Lord faithfully. So he made a choice to
be loyal to the Lord rather than to obey a godless
system of government that forbade his praying.
He practiced that New Testament principle that
we see that we are to obey God rather than man.
Someone has said, I wonder what would happen
if we were as eager for the approval of God as
we are for the applause of men. Daniel wanted
the approval and the blessing of God upon his
life and therefore he refused to compromise his
praying. Now as Daniel was meditating and praying
we know what Daniel was meditating about. He
was meditating about the fact that 70 years were
now accomplished for the captivity of the people
of God. In the ninth chapter, in the second verse,
we have this record. It says, in the first year
of his reign, that is the reign of Darius, the
very time we're talking about, in the first year
of his reign, I, Daniel, observed in the books,
the scrolls, the writings of the Old Testament,
the number of the years which was revealed as
the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet.
for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem,
namely 70 years." So Daniel tells us exactly
what was on his mind during these days. He realized
that Jeremiah had spoken the exact number of
years that the people of God would be in captivity.
And the thing that was exciting him and stimulating
him in his prayer life was that the time was
now up. And I believe that because he was a man
who read the books, he was also a man who was
familiar with the writings of Isaiah the prophet.
A hundred and fifty years before this time, Isaiah
was given the name of the man who had released
the Jews from their captivity. And he names him
in the 45th chapter of his book, calling him
Cyrus. Calling him indeed Cyrus my servant because
God was going to raise up this man who was yet
to be born when Isaiah spoke the words to be
his servant to release the people of Israel from
bondage in Babylon. And Daniel realizes that
now Cyrus is reigning. And the man that God had
prophesied of 150 years before was there before
him. This was no time for compromise. Daniel
determined to be faithful. We see the charge
that is brought against Daniel beginning in verse
11. The men came by agreement and they found
Daniel making petition and supplication before
God. We can know what Daniel was praying. Oh
God! Release your people. Redeem them from their
captivity in Babylon. God, the time is up. God,
Cyrus is reigning. Remember your promise. Well,
they approached and spoke before the king about
the injunction and said, Did you sign this petition,
King? And the king said, Yes, that's true, I
did. And they answered and spoke and said, Daniel,
who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no
attention to you. O King, or to the injunction
which you signed, but keeps making his petition
three times a day." And so there is the charge
against Daniel. It's not really a fair charge,
because Daniel did pay attention to the King.
He was a man who was flawless in his work. They
had misrepresented him before to the King, saying
that Daniel was in on this agreement when he
had not been. And now they come unfairly and
accuse Daniel of praying. Notice the king's response.
He gave orders. Daniel was brought in and cast
into the lion's den. Believe me, this grieved
Arias. The verses intervening there show that.
He did everything in his power to keep Daniel
from having to go through this. He tried to find
a way to get around his own decree, but he could
find none. And so the command was given that
Daniel should be cast into the den of lions.
A stone was brought after Daniel was placed in
the den. It was placed over the mouth of the
den. The king sealed it with his own ring and
the signet rings of his nobles. That was according
to the law. Nothing was to break that seal. Daniel
was to pay the price. And then it says in verse
18, the king went off to his palace and spent
the night fasting. And no entertainment was brought
before him, and his sleep fled from before him.
Darius did not want to see this trusted advisor
slain, but he had no choice. And while Daniel
was there in that lion's den, He walked his floor.
He turned in his bed. He could not sleep. He
waited until the dawn. And then when the dawn
came, the king was the first one out of bed and
went out to the lion's den. When he had come
near to it, he cried out and he said, Daniel,
servant of the living God, has your God whom
you constantly serve been able to deliver you
from the lions? He must have waited then for
that sound. Is Daniel going to respond? And it
wasn't long before Daniel responded and said,
O King, live forever. My God sent his angel and
shut the lion's mouths and they have not harmed
me in as much as I was found innocent before
him. And also toward you, O King, I have committed
no crime. The king was very pleased and gave
orders for Daniel to be taken up out of the den.
And so Daniel was taken up out of the den and
no injury, whatever, was found on him because
he had trusted in his God. And then the king
commanded that those men who were involved in
the plot against Daniel should themselves, along
with their wives and their children, be cast
into the lion's den. And Daniel records for us
that their bodies did not even touch the bottom
of the den before all of their bones were crushed
and they were killed. Darius then made a decree.
He says, may your peace abound, as he writes
to everybody in the land. I make a decree that
in all the dominion of my kingdom, men are to
fear and tremble before the God of Daniel. He
is the living God and enduring forever and his
kingdom is one which will not be destroyed and
his dominion will be forever. He delivers and
rescues and performs signs and wonders in heaven
and on earth. Who has also delivered Daniel from
the power of the lions. So this Daniel enjoyed
success in the reign of Darius and in the reign
of Cyrus the Persian. Seems as though Daniel
remained in position for several years until
he retired. And perhaps about four years after
this episode, Daniel began to collect the writings
that are in the book bearing his name. And he
records for us exactly what happened to him.
And so as we look at this account, what is the
way to the lion's den? The answer to that is
very simple. The way to the lion's den, that
is the place of persecution, The point of suffering,
the way to the lion's den, is the way of uncompromising
faithfulness to the Lord. It is Darius himself
who twice said regarding Daniel, you constantly
serve the Lord. That was his reputation before
the king, a man of faithfulness, and Daniel would
not compromise that. That is the way to the lion's
den, but the fact is that most of us want a different
message this morning. Most of us want a message
that says, how do I avoid the lion's den? How
can I avoid suffering? How can I keep away from
persecution? And so I want to address that subject
in the remainder of my time this morning. How
do we avoid the lion's den? I have four suggestions
for every one of us who is concerned about that.
For every one of us who does not want to come
to that point of risking our lives. For those
of us who want nothing to do with suffering for
God or being persecuted for our faith. Here's
how you do it, four suggestions. Number one,
keep a low profile in spiritual matters. That's
how you do it. Just melt into the mediocre mass.
Don't stand out. Don't be vocal or visible for
Jesus Christ. Go along with the current of things.
Agree with the majority in the world around you.
Hide your light under the bushel. Be rational,
not radical in your faith and in your religious
commitment. Say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.
Shoot for the lowest common denominator. Daniel,
after all, should have practiced his faith in
private, should he not? How dare he leave his
window open so everyone else could see him? He
should realize that faith is a personal matter
and not to be paraded in public. Rather than
living a spiritually integrated life as he did,
he should have compartmentalized his life, separating
his secular political duty from his religious
experience. We have a marvelous example of what
I'm talking about in those people today who say,
my convictions are against abortion, but I don't
want to force that on anybody else. I wouldn't
bring that into the public arena, though that's
the way I feel about it privately. That's the
kind of person who gives us a marvelous example
on how to avoid the lion's den. Keep a low profile
in spiritual matters. Secondly, I would suggest
compromise convictions to avoid detection. Daniel
should have... tried to fit in with the pagan
culture. He should have at least for 30 days
set aside his convictions. When confronted with
the possibility of public confrontation for your
faith, I want to encourage you to immediately
back off if you want to avoid the lion's den.
Do nothing necessary to expose yourself. Do anything
that will make you acceptable to the pagan culture
around you Compromise your convictions to avoid
detection and you can avoid the lion's den a
third suggestion Correct any reports that may
emerge about your faith Daniel should have done
this When the report came to the king, he should
have immediately gone to Darius and exposed the
whole plot. He should have said, I had nothing
to do with this. And you can't throw me into
the den of lions. He should have corrected the
reports from those men. That's what we ought
to do to avoid the lion's den. We should prove
ourselves as one of the gang. We should use the
same kind of language that they use. We should
do the same kinds of things that they do. We
should send out a press release, a bulletin,
to communicate any misunderstanding that has
occurred that we're not the Christian that we're
purported to be. We can avoid the lion's den.
A forced suggestion to do that is to employ any
desperate method to reverse the threat of suffering.
I mean recant. I mean throw overboard your profession.
I mean disassociate yourself from your heritage.
Pass amendments on your convictions. Change them.
Just like Peter did at the fire when he was accused
of having been with this person on trial. He
denied it and said, I don't know who he is. And
when again he was accused, he cursed and he swore
and he said, I don't know the man. That's how
to avoid the lion's den. Do not follow the example
of one polycarp who was a disciple of the Apostle
John and who was placed at a stake to be burned
to death in 155 AD and who had one final chance
to avoid the flames. If only he would recant.
If only now he would use this desperate method
to avoid the threat of suffering. When asked
to recant he said, 86 years have I served him
and he has done me no harm. Why should I forsake
him now? And with those words he looked upon
the flames that were lit and praises were on
his lips as he died for Jesus Christ. You see,
you can avoid the lion's den if you choose to.
As a matter of fact, it's not hard to do that.
It's very easy to do that. But just remember
that in doing so, there are some things you forfeit
as well. Before you make the decision to take
this route, just remember that in taking it,
number one, you lose your personal honor. The
apostle wrote to the Philippians and he said
to them, On behalf of Christ, it is given to
you as an act of God's grace to suffer for Him.
In other words, it is the highest honor that
a Christian can have to bear the name Christian
and to suffer for it. Not for wrong he's done,
but for the sake of that name, because of his
faith. Not only do you lose your personal honor
by avoiding the lion's den, but I would just
remind you that you also lose your future reward.
For the New Testament writer says that if we
suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him.
Suffering precedes glory. If we avoid the suffering,
we lose the glory. But you can avoid the lion's
den. You can do that. But if you do, You're not
worthy of the Christ that you claim Would you
rather today Determined by the grace of God to
be faithful and to accept the lion's den Even
if it means everything lost for his sake your
job Your material goods your security, your future
with the corporation, the fulfillment of your
dreams, your reputation, your acceptance by your
peers, even life itself. It is when we suffer
unjustly or because of righteousness that God
is greatly glorified. Peter, who after that terrible
denial of his Lord, later gave his life for Christ,
wrote these words. To the degree that you share
the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing,
so that also at the revelation of his glory you
may rejoice with exaltation. If you are reviled
for the name of Christ, you are blessed. because
the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer,
or a thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler.
But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him
not feel ashamed, but in that name, let him glorify
God. The people of God in every age have been
called upon to suffer. if they would be faithful.
Those who choose to live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution, says the apostle. We
have looked in the book of Daniel at the prophecy
concerning Antiochus Epiphanes, and we will see
him again in a couple of weeks in another prophecy.
When Antiochus took the city of Jerusalem, in
the second century, Antiochus or the third century.
Antiochus sought to defile and to destroy the
Jewish religion and the Jewish temple. The book
of Second Maccabees records a time when Antiochus
demanded of a family that they eat pork. and
thus deny their God. And of course, the law of
their God forbid them to eat pork. A mother and
seven sons were gathered, and they all refused.
Antiochus took the eldest of the sons, pulled
out his hair, pulled all the skin off of his
head, cut off his hands, cut off his feet, and
then put him in a frying pan. and fried him before
the mother and the six brothers. And then turned
the second eldest of the sons and said, Now,
will you eat some pork? And faithful to his God,
as was his brother, he experienced the same death
before the eyes of his remaining brothers and
his mother, his mother exhorting her son to suffer
death for the sake of God. And the story goes
on until every son was ultimately killed before
the eyes of the mother and she herself then was
slain. You can avoid the fire. You can avoid
the lion's den. But to avoid it means loss of
one's personal honor and loss of future reward.
So how much better? to understand how to walk
the way to the lion's den, and determine in our
hearts to be men and women who will be uncompromising
in our obedience to Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
I would hope that that reflects your attitude.
your heart's desire, your determination to be
faithful, faithful, obedient, continuously so.
Would you tell the Lord if that is true? Lord
Jesus, hear the words of our hearts as we seek
to follow the example of Daniel and go to our
own lion's den, that place of suffering, of risk,
of persecution perhaps. But let us be a faithful
people. and be worthy of the name Christian.
In Jesus' name, amen. And when he went on breathing,
he laughed and scorned God and said, see, there
is no God. But there came a moment when God's
time was up for this man. And like all who preceded
him, judgment came, and he was taken in death,
and there was nothing that could deliver him
from the hand of God. When God's moment of judgment
arrives, nothing can provide escape. It was true
with Belshazzar that night when he got the message
by the handwriting on the wall. A few days ago
when I was in the home of some friends, I picked
up an issue of Life magazine with pictures from
the last 50 years in the magazine. One of the
pictures was a picture taken covertly in the
mausoleum in Moscow of Lenin and Stalin. And
it showed them there in their death pose. their
bodies being carefully preserved by the communists.
And it struck me again what a truth this is.
That when God's moment of judgment arrives, there
is nothing that can provide escape. Lenin and
Stalin both denied that there was a God. They
lived for the here and now materialistic world
and sought to enforce their dictatorship over
the masses and they did. A dictatorship which
is now beginning to crumble as we know. A system
that is passing away because it's so irrelevant.
But they were very powerful men who defied God.
But when the moment of judgment came, there was
nothing that could deliver them from the hand
of God. That's not only true of atheists and
of communists. It's true of wealthy capitalists
too. Was it just two weeks ago or three weeks
ago that Malcolm Forbes, one of the richest men
in the whole world, who threw a luxurious, extravagant
party for his 70th birthday last year and flew
people in from all over the world on Concord
jets that they might celebrate with him. The
rich and the famous and the wealthy. But when
God's moment came for him to die, he died. and
there was none who could deliver. We dare not
take for granted God's compassion and God's patience
so that we might live as we would choose. But
rather we must heed His gracious call to repentance
and live in such a way as would please Him. For
someone here today that may mean a moment of
salvation for you, an opportunity yet today to
trust Jesus Christ. It may be that you have defied
God openly, or it may be that outwardly you have
been a very religious person, but there has not
been that submission to God that is genuine faith.
My friend, if you persist in either overt or
covert rebellion against God, judgment will come
inevitably. The handwriting is already on the
wall. Someone has written a poem that says, They
were seized with consternation at the hand upon
the wall. See the brave captive Daniel as he
stood before the throng and rebuking the haughty
monarch for his mighty deeds of wrong. As he
read out the writing, "'Twas the doom of one
and all, for the kingdom was now finished,' said
the hand upon the wall." So our deeds are recorded.
There's a hand that's writing now. Sinner, give
your heart to Jesus, to His royal mandate bow.
For the day is approaching, it must come to one
and all when a sinner's condemnation will be
written on the wall. When God's moment of judgment
arrives, it's too late. And there's nothing that
can deliver one at that moment. Behold, today
is the day of salvation. Now is the time of salvation.
Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon
Him while He is near. But I don't want to close
before I come to another important application
that we see in this text today. It is possible
to be a Daniel. By that I mean a person of integrity
and a person of purity in the midst of a pagan
anti -God culture. That does not happen automatically.
Daniel was taken as a young teenager into this
culture. It is obvious that his parents had done
quite a job nurturing him in the law of the Lord
and the knowledge of the true God. Because that
nurturing had been so effective when he was taken
away from them, from their home, from his homeland,
from his culture, and put into the midst of a
pagan culture, he was able to stand and did that
very first year, you recall, when he purposed
in his heart he would not defile himself with
the king's food. It is possible to be a Daniel
in the United States of America in 1990. Whether
one is a teenager or one is an old, older person,
a senior, it is possible to be a Daniel, a person
of purity, a person of integrity. What obligation
there is to those of us who are parents to so
nurture our children that as they are raised
up, they will become Daniels. But if we're going
to be a Daniel, it also requires our own personal
spiritual development. It means taking courage
to walk the unpopular path if necessary, to be
the one who will stand alone. It means having
commitment to lay everything on the line, to
consecrate one's whole life to the Lord alone,
and to refuse the spoils. of a culture that is
falling. The purple robes, the gold necklaces,
and the positions of power offered by our culture
today are nothing. For as surely as Babylon was
under the judgment of God, so is this culture
we live in. And it is passing away. and will
one day and one day soon, I think, be no more
as we know it than how wise to be a Daniel, as
the writer of the children's song said, dare
to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to
have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. I
call upon all of us today who have knowledge
of the true God to purpose in our hearts to be
men and women who are like Daniels in the midst
of our culture. Let's bow together in prayer.
With our heads bowed, I wonder just how the Spirit
of God would have you to respond. If you're a
child of his, I would hope that you would in
your heart right now purpose before God and say,
I want to be like a Daniel. In the midst of a
culture that is likewise pagan, as was his, that
is likewise under the judgment of God because
of its debauchery, its immorality, its murder,
and its wickedness. In the midst of all of this,
I purpose by the grace of God to be a Daniel,
a man, a woman of God who would even stand alone
to be faithful. I would shun what the world offers.
I would turn away from the spoils of the culture
which entrap. and be God's man and God's woman
where he's placed me. Oh, I would hope there'd
be hundreds of us today would respond that way.
Maybe there's someone here who is facing the
handwriting on the wall. Your time is about up.
Your days have been numbered. You have been weighed
in the balances and you're wanting, you're lacking.
And yet there is an opportunity, because of God's
grace, His love, for you to repent and to trust
Jesus Christ, to live your life for Him. Will
you do that? Will you tell Him that today? Will
you give yourself to Him without reservation,
in faith and in love?