Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. There are awe-inspiring 80-foot fin whales in the northeastern waters of Canada, but most, like me, have never seen them. They swim in the deep, full of majesty, occasionally surfacing and spouting, and maybe rolling. But I'd never seen one until August of 2019. Two hours north of Quebec City, on a chilly, calm morning, our boat approached the deeps, when suddenly the guide blared, Look, off the right side, that's a Fenwhale Then another Finn, and a white beluga, and a Minky, and Even a wave of a fin whale's tail.
Glory. and it always had been there. unseen until the guide got us there. and point it. There's awe inspiring grace in the everyday waters of your life.
So I bless your spiritual eyes. To see what Jesus sees. and notice all he points to. There's glory in the deeps. may you catch a glimpse Today.
Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. The climax of the story for me, the good news of the Daniel story for me, is when the king comes and he says, Has your God saved you? What has happened? And he says, Oh, yes, he said, What happened was he sent his messenger, he sent his representative. God came in to the lion's den with me, and here's what happened: he said, I was found blameless, and then the mouths of the lion was shut.
That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series called Daniel, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now.
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But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. That's one fruit, or the other fruit has happened to so many millions and millions of people in our culture who have looked at our moralistic teachings and have said, I can't be that good. I don't want to try to be that good. I'll come up with my own version of right and wrong.
And they've left the church in droves and live their own rebellious lifestyle. What I'm saying is that moralistic reading of the Bible will lead you to religion or it will lead you to rebellion. And neither one of those will lead you into life. This story is part of the great story. And this story is absolutely awesome.
and pointing us. to the gospel.
So I would take a text like this. And after just enjoying the flow of a Great plot. that has God as the rescuer. I first often would look and say, where are the recurring themes or words that show up?
Well, the word that recurs, of course, over and over in here is the very name of Daniel.
Okay. And Daniel means God is my judge. Dan, judge, Dani, E means my, and El is short for Elohim. God is my judge. The very name Daniel, when you hear it, it means.
that there is a judge. And he is a righteous judge, and he is a judge over all. And that judge. Is my God? My God.
is my judge. It is to announce that the one who made me And the one who loves me, and the one who showed me all this favor, he is my judge. It is to announce that ultimately Nebuchadnezzar is not my judge, Belshazzar is not my judge, and Darius is not my judge. It is that God is my judge. And it is to announce that there is a judge.
That this means that there is a judge, there must therefore be justice, that there is justice that the world is founded on.
Now, the spirit of the age doesn't like the idea of saying that there is justice to the world and that the world is founded on good and evil and right and wrong. It's not a popular mentality, but it is in general revelation. Obvious to all thinking people that there is that which is good and there is that which is bad. It is a good thing to love people and help people. It is a bad thing to harm children and old people.
It is a good thing to care for people. It is a bad thing to hate people. We all know this. And here is the bottom line to this. If we have a world of which there is no judge, then that means there is no justice.
And if we live in a world that has absolutely no justice, meaning that good is never rewarded and evil is never punished, then what is the purpose of this world? And of what basis are we living? The very name Daniel Daniel, my God, my judge, is my God, and he is the judge over all things. You'll never understand the beauty and the majesty of the gospel until you come to this revelation that the world is established according to the principles of justice, that there is a God over all, and that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and we are all in the same predicament without some saving mercy from the Lord. We are all separated from God forever.
The wages of sin is death. What is rightly to be executed against every sinner is ultimate separation from God. This is the reality of the predicament of humanity. And you can start understanding the story just in Daniel's name. God is my judge.
There's a predicament then. that emerges in the plot. Did you notice this? The plot builds on the predicament of the law. Over and over it says, The law of the Medes and the Persians cannot be revoked.
The law stands. You can't just make a law. And then say, Eh, we'll ignore it for some people. Or else it's not really Allah. And yet the predicament is that Darius loves Daniel.
He doesn't want Daniel to perish. He doesn't want the punishment that the lawbreaker should receive. He doesn't want it to be executed against Daniel. And we don't want it to be executed against Daniel. But there's a dilemma.
It's raised and it's heightened in the drama. The law says you must be punished, but the king's heart says, I don't want him to be punished. And so there's a conflict and a crisis that emerges. What will the king do? Will the king just say, I'll just overturn the law?
The law no longer matters. And if he does that, Then he's going to put at risk all of the law and all the sense of justice that the Medes and Persians have built their empire on. But if he But if he keeps the law, Then Daniel, his favored Counselor This man, this 80-year-old man, who served so well for all these years and never harmed anybody, he will die. What will he do? And we tend to think Then there's got to be either You keep the law, and he dies.
Or you overturn the law, he lives, and yet the place of justice is diminished. In other words, How could there possibly be both justice And mercy. And if you start thinking that way about a story like this. Then everything on the inside of me starts getting excited. Because now you're coming up to the edge of the gospel.
Because this is our story. God loves us. He is your Creator. And yet he had said to the very first human beings, You could eat of all the fruit of any of these trees. Just don't eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
For if you do, then death will come. And they ate of it. And everyone has been born in Adam and Eve. And God Has, if there could be such a thing, a dilemma. wherein He wants more than anything else to demonstrate his love.
And his mercy And yet Because He is no liar. And his word will never fall to the ground empty. He cannot violate his own word. He's got his word, which says that sin must be punished, and his heart that says, I don't want the sinner to be punished. And every form of religion.
that has ever been crafted by man Has made an attempt. To solve it from our side. Here's what we need to do so that God will bless us. But our great story, just like the story of Daniel, is not a story about any wisdom, craft, skill, or righteousness of our own. But instead, it is a story of a God of so much genius.
That he found a way to be both just and merciful. He found A different way. not overturning the law, and yet not executing the sinner. He found what the writer of Hebrews says a new and living. Wait yeah.
It's why Jesus came. Did you see Jesus in the story? Oh, what a good Palm Sunday text. right there in the middle of Daniel. Sixth century B C Well The satraps conspired against Daniel.
And so it was that the chief priests and elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, according to Matthew 26, and they conspired to arrest Jesus. By stealth. Daniel's conspirators could find no corruption in Daniel, and Mark 14 reports the chief priests and the whole council were looking for testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none. And as Daniel was convicted by trickery, so was Jesus. Matthew 26, the high priest tore his clothes and said, He's blasphemed.
Why do we still need witness? Daniel was found guilty of transgressing the law of the Medes and Persians. According to John 19, Jesus was found guilty of transgressing the law of the Jews. It says, we have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die because he's claimed to be the Son of God. Darius unsuccessfully tried to save Daniel.
Just like Matthew 27 says Pilate unsuccessfully. Try to save Jesus. Daniel trusted in his God and Jesus trusted in his Father. And Daniel descended into the pit, a grave-like Then And Jesus' body was laid in a tomb. Daniel's grave was covered with a stone.
At Jesus' tomb was made secure. They took moist clay around Daniel's den around that stone and they put the moist clay and while it was still soft the king put his signet ring into it, along with all the Lords.
So then when it hardened, there was the symbol of the king's authority. It was to say that if anyone breaks this seal by moving this stone, then you are under the penalty of the king's authority, for you'd be breaking the king's seal. It was saying, No one will be authorized to move this stone but the king. And there's a big deal made of it in the New Testament. that Jesus' tomb, Matthew 27, was made secure.
By sealing the stone. No one would be authorized or allowed to move that stone. The king. He rose in his angst and in his haste at the break of dawn. to see What was going on in Daniel's tomb And Mark 16 tells us that very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.
where the angel told them that Jesus had been raised just like he said. Daniel prospered after God had saved him, and Jesus prospered after being raised. And Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me. And then the stories begin to diverge. Though similar now, you see that Daniel was but a shadow.
For Daniel claimed that he was blameless, but we know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet Jesus was, according to Hebrews 4, the sinless Son of God. Daniel faced the possibility of dying while Jesus actually died. And Jesus rose from the grave. Unlike Daniel, who would one day die, Jesus would never die again.
And God prospered Daniel and put him in a highly exalted position. position in the government. But Philippians 2 tells us that God highly exalted Christ and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's what this story is about. When Jesus was talking to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and their eyes were open, he began to show them all the scriptures concerning himself.
I bet you took this story. I bet you this was one of them. Let me tell you guys what Daniel was really All about It's about Anu A living way, a third way that nobody had dreamt of. What's interesting is that Psalm twenty two The text that says prophetically, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? and describes this great anguish of an anointed one who suffers.
that Jesus Is so identified with Psalm 22 that it is what he quotes as he cries out in his anguish on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That Psalm, Psalm 22, also contains these words: Many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of bashion surround me, they open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. Because what was happening at the cross? Was it this time Not by Not by any pagan ruler's decision, but by his own set purpose. his own unflinching resolve that this was his mission.
The Son of God hung on the cross and subjected himself to all the roarings of the lion. That all of the enemy's taunts, and all of the mockery, and all of the judgment. It all was coming to bear upon the Son of God. He faced the lion. And As the lion roared God Allow justice.
to be executed. Since was punished. Sin was punished severely. The sinless Son of God taking upon Himself the sin of the world. And as the lion roared, At Golgotha.
roared as if in great triumph. And every demon of hell had their playday. On the Son of God. While all that was happening, and Jesus was ingesting and becoming our sin, and taking upon himself the righteous judgment of God. While that was happening.
The way was being opened up. And the earth was shaking. And the veil that separated the Holy of Holies. Was rent asunder, and a new and a living way was burst forth. And when Jesus came out of the grave, Burst forth by the authority of the king himself, who rolled away the stone.
He came to live, behold, forevermore, so that whoever would believe in him and receive him by childlike faith, simply believing that he has paid the price, that God is still just, but that the punishment landed upon Jesus, so that we might be found blameless in his sight. Then the truth of 1 John comes to pass: that God is faithful and just to forgive our sins. He's faithful because his steadfast love endures forevermore. And he's just because the sin has been paid for. And it would be unjust to make two people pay for the same sin.
Jesus has paid for your sin. Oh, people of God, you have been therefore found blameless in his sight. And so the climax of the story for me, the good news of the Daniel story for me is when the king comes and he says, Has your God saved you? What has happened? And he says, Oh, yes, he said, What happened was he sent his messenger.
He sent his representative. God came in to the lion's den with me. And here's what happened. He said, I was found blameless. And then the mouths of the lion was shut.
The point of this is that You see, you'll never overcome your sin by moralism and by simply trying harder to live under a system of law. But when you discover yourself through Jesus Christ's shed blood, And through His righteousness to be found blameless in him. Then when the lion comes and says, Look at you, With all your sin. and all your problems. Look how messed up you are.
Look at the people you've hurt. Look at the folly. Look at your addictions. Look at How do you think that you're going to be blessed? When you hear that voice, And you live under the law.
You go. Yeah. I'll try harder next time. Or else you say Yeah, I might as well give up, not try at all. But if you come into the new and the living way, the way of Jesus Then you turn to the roar of the lion.
And you can say Shut your mouth. You're trying to convict me. But I have something to say to you. Danielle, God is my judge. And in Jesus Christ, He has already announced that I am not guilty.
And that is the gospel. Amen? Hallelujah. Um Alan Wright. And today's teaching, Shutting the Mouth of the Roaring Lion.
Maybe you're like many Christians in America today. You're stunned by how fast a nation's culture has turned away from God. The values of our country have changed. Suddenly, most people don't go to church or have a biblical worldview. It can make you feel like an alien in your own culture.
There's a lot to learn from Daniel when he was exiled to the pagan land of Babylon. Through our special offer this month, you can learn to live under the favor of God in an alien culture the way Daniel did. When you give before the end of the month, we'll send you Pastor Alan's audio series, Daniel, a Favored Foreigner. You may feel like a stranger in this world, but as God showed favor to Daniel in his foreign land, God's grace is upon you as well. Your donation will not only help you navigate through these troubling times, but it will also help someone else.
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Well, we've made it through. The series on Daniel. And we finally come to the story about the lion, right? That's right. That's right.
Well, it's just the most famous Daniel story, I guess. And what a vibrant picture, though, of our enemy, the lion who seeks to devour. And a powerful thought that there is a way that through the gospel's power, we can shut up some of the constant accusations that are. it bombarding us from the enemy all the time so this is powerful fodder for the spiritual battle Is to know who you are in Christ, know what's been done for you, and to lay claim to it. There is no.
Condemnation left for anyone who's in Christ Jesus has already, as our advocate, stood in our place. And when you know this and you meditate, this becomes strong stuff in the spiritual battle. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
