Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, November 4th. Are you bold enough to stand up for what you believe? Today's podcast looks at the life of Daniel to give believers in Jesus the courage to stand by our convictions. One of the most frightening things that's happening today is the fact that we are raising a whole generation of young people who believe there are no absolute moral truths. That is, if you think it's wrong, it's wrong. If I think it's right, it's right. And so therefore, let's cast the Bible out. And right and wrong depends upon my circumstance, my situation, and what I want and what I'm looking for in life. There's no absolute truth.
There's no real standard. There's nothing solid to give guidance and direction. And as a result, our society has become unsafe, unhealthy, ungodly, immoral, and on and on the characteristics go that bring us to a place where inevitably God's judgment is going to come upon our nation. So, I want you to turn to the book of Daniel. And I want us to read, if you will, the sixth chapter for a few moments. And you'll recall for a moment that decree had been made that anybody who does not bow down to this particular king and acknowledge that he's like God, then they're going to throw them in their lines then.
So, if you will look at verse ten in the sixth chapter. 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 God as he had been doing previously, even though he was threatened to be throwing the lines then. And he continued to pray. And ultimately the king, I had to keep his word because the law of Medes and Persians was if a king made a promise, he couldn't violate his promise, he had to do it.
So, against his will, he does it. Then the king gave orders and Daniel was brought in and he cast in the lines then. The king spoke and said to Daniel, Your God, whom you constantly serve, will Himself deliver you. A stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles, so that nothing would be changed in regard to Daniel. Then the king went off to the palace and spent the night fasting and no entertainment was brought before him, and his sleep fled from him.
Then the king arose at dawn at the break of the day and went in haste to the alliance den. When he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice. The king spoke and said to Daniel, Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions? Then Daniel spoke to the king, O king, live forever. My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not harmed me in as much as I was found innocent before Him, and also to a Jew, O king, I have committed no crime. Then, of course, here's what happens in the twenty-sixth verse.
I make a decrease at the king, that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel. Now, I want us to think about this whole issue of our convictions. A conviction is something that I believe to be true and something I will stand by. Something I don't believe just comes and goes.
That is, it's a part of my life. And so, a conviction is a firm belief that something is true. To have a strong conviction is to be so thoroughly convinced in your mind and heart that something is true that you're willing to take a stand for it regardless of the consequences. So, you can't be wishy-washy and be a person of conviction.
And I would ask you, what is it that you believe that you do not compromise under any condition? What do you believe that you stand by? No matter how you may be threatened on your job or in your family, whatever it might be, you have certain beliefs that you're going to stand by because you know that they're absolutely true. And so, they're part of your conviction. Now, there are people who are very ungodly who have convictions.
They have conviction, the Bible is a false book and there's nothing to it. And so, people have all kind of convictions. But a conviction based on the Word of God. And so, when you think about this, this isn't a conviction just based on something.
It's convictions that you believe are absolutely true and so true, you're willing to risk whatever's necessary to stand by that. Well, I want us to look at the life of Daniel because he is a perfect example of someone who had strong convictions and who lived by them. And I want you to see what was the result of Daniel living by his conviction all these years.
So, let's look at a little bit of the background for a moment. Daniel was one of the young Hebrews taken to Babylon as a result of King Nebuchadnezzar invading the nation of Israel and destroying much of Jerusalem. And he took some of the young people back with him and was going to train them to be like Babylonians, I would say.
And so, what they ate, what they drank, what they taught that belonged to their language, he even changed their names. And so, in the process of doing so, he took Daniel and three of his friends who are mentioned here. And what I want you to see is this, Daniel, taken there as a young teenager, he lived through the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, through the reign of his son Belshazzar, through the reign of Darius the Mede, and through into the reign of Silas the Persian. He lived that many years through all of those different reigns. And in each of these reigns, here's what happened to him. He became, though he was a foreigner, he was a Hebrew, he in each reign became a person of great authority.
And so, it's interesting what happens. For example, in Daniel two and verse forty-eight, listen to what the Scripture says. Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel made requests to the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king's court. Then if you look, for example, in the fifth chapter, that was under Nebuchadnezzar, fifth chapter, and look, if you will, in the twenty-ninth verse. Then Belshazzar gave orders, and they clothed Daniel with purple and put necklaces of gold around his neck, and issued a proclamation concerning him that he now had authority as the third ruler in the kingdom. But this is Nebuchadnezzar's son. And that night, Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain, so Darius the meek received the kingdom at about the age of sixty-two.
And then if you look in the sixth chapter and the twenty-eighth verse, look what's happening. Verse twenty-eight, so this Daniel enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And so, as a result of that, no matter what was going on, this young man, because he had convictions and stood by them, I want you to see what happened in his life. And even more than that, I want you to see that his unwillingness to compromise his biblical convictions was being taught from the book of Moses, which primarily was the book of the law, which was Deuteronomy. As a result of that, he stood very firm in his testimony before those kings.
Now, I want you to watch, this is very important. The first test that he had was the test of a teenager. And the test was something sort of simple, what you eat and what you drink. And so, in the very beginning, Daniel said, I'm not going to eat food offered to an idol. I'm not going to drink wine offered to an idol.
That does not fit who I am as a follower of the one true God, Jehovah. He began by holding to his convictions. And this is why it's so very important for us to teach our children and our grandchildren that holding to convictions will either destroy your character or it will build it.
Depends upon what you're holding to. And so, as a result, he began his life in Babylon saying, no to disobedience, yes to Almighty God. He stood by his conviction by what he ate.
Somebody says, oh, wait a minute now. Surely, eating the king's meat and drinking his wine, what's that got to do with his faith? Because the law of Moses said you're not to do it. You are a Hebrew. We are God's chosen people.
And we, there's certain things we don't do. And even though he was in a foreign country under the edicts of a king, of a pagan heathen king, and not knowing really what the consequences would be, he said, no, I'm not going to do it. The second thing I want you to notice about his convictions and he courageously stood was this. He was convicted that he should be a godly example to the others who had been taken to live in this heathen society. So, for him to be a good example to them, then he had to stay with the truth that he'd been taught. And so, once again, he was true to his convictions. And his conviction was to certainly impact and to influence them.
A third thing was this. He had a conviction about this, that God would hear and answer his prayers. And that was evident because when he talked to the king's representative and said, we're not going to eat, we're not going to drink these things, they went to the Lord. And so, he had a conviction that God would hear and answer his prayers.
Let me ask you a question. Do you have a conviction or a wavering thought? Do you have a conviction that God would hear and answer your prayers when you come to Him seeking guidance and direction or whatever it might be? Do you have a conviction about that?
Do you have a conviction that God is committed to answering the prayers of His children when we walk in obedience to Him? If you don't have a conviction about it, then you'll wobble. If you don't have a conviction, then your faith will not be strong. A conviction is something that I believe, I stand by, and I hold to regardless of the consequences and the circumstances. And then notice about him also, he was committed to being true to the Word of God no matter what the situation was.
So, here was one of the situations. And that is Nebuchadnezzar had these dreams and all kind of things going on. So, Daniel was called to interpret it.
And listen to what he said. For example, then Daniel, whose name is Belshazzar. Now watch this, his name is Belshazzar. It's the same as Nebuchadnezzar's son, Belshazzar. He's Belshazzar.
He was appalled for a while as his thoughts alarmed him. The king responded and said, Belshazzar, do not let the dream or this interpretation alarm you. And so he replied, My Lord, if only the dream had applied to those who hate you and its interpretation to your adversaries, that would be one thing.
But here's what he says. He says, It is you, O king, for you have become great and grown strong, and your majesty has become great and reached to the sky, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. In that the king saw an angelic watcher, a holy one, descending from heaven and saying, Chop down the tree, and so forth.
And then in verse twenty-fourth. This is the interpretation, O king. So, what he's saying is, look, king, if this interpretation had been somebody you hate, that'd be one thing. But he's standing before the king and his life is hanging in the balance because of what he's getting there to say to him. This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the king, that you be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place, be with the beast of the field, and you be given grass to eat like cattle, and be drenched with the dew of heaven. And listen, seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He will. And in that it was commanded and so forth.
He talks about many other things. All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. Twelve months later, he was walking in the roof of the palace and all of a sudden he went crazy. He was in the field, harried long, dew, all the things that he prophesied. What I want you to see is Daniel stood by his promise to be true to God. God gave him the interpretation and it was a terrible interpretation because he said, You're going to lose your mind. You're going to act like a beast.
You're going to lose it all. But he told him anyway. And he had the courage to stand by what he knew was right even though the king could have said, I don't believe that, and eliminate this, Daniel. What is it that you believe that you're willing to suffer for because you know it's the truth? It is our lack of conviction that has weakened our nation. And we have been weakened to the point that before long, we're going to suffer the judgment of God. There is no way for God to overlook the way we have laid our convictions down about the Word of God, about Almighty God, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about morality. We have compromised so much of what's made us the nation that we are.
Listen, I'm going to say it again. If you can be bought off, you don't have any character. And if you have a place of authority that God has given you, and you let somebody buy you off, either it's by a threat or something financial to prosper you, there's something wrong with your character. And so, Daniel did not do that. He said to the king who could have taken his life at that moment, here's what's going to happen to you.
And so, of course, he didn't take his life and he understood that Daniel was telling him the truth or he didn't fully understand all that. He also had a conviction that he was not going to bow down to any other god. They'd make images and, you know, that's how the Hebrew children got thrown in the fiery furnace because they refused to bow down. You remember they built this statue and said, you either bow down or you'd be thrown in the fiery furnace. I don't know where Daniel was at this point, but his three Hebrew friends, they didn't either. There's some things in this passage in Scripture you need to write down or to memorize it.
And so, when they came to the Hebrew children and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the king said, here's what we're going to do to you. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied unto the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. He's, we don't even need to answer your question if we're going to bow down or not. If it's to be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, listen to that, watch that.
We're talking about conviction. Even if He does not deliver us, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. You want a beautiful example of absolute unwavering courage and conviction, that's it.
He said, you know what? We don't even have to answer that. We don't have to even answer what you're asking us. We are not going to bow down before you.
Throw us in the fiery furnace and even if we're consumed in the instant or we come out clean, we're going to trust God. Let me ask you a question. How much does it take to bow you off? What does it take to convince you to vote against something or for something that you know deep down in your heart, soul, mind, and body?
It is absolutely wrong. How much authority do you desire? How much of a position are you willing to sacrifice your character and your convictions for? Because when you lay your convictions down, the real you is gone. This is why we as parents and grandparents, we need to be strong and firm and unwavering in what we believe. Because this is the reason today people are where they are. What's happened to our character that we can be bought off out of fear that somebody is going to take our job or whatever it might be? Where there is no stand and where there is no conviction, there's no character. What is it that you believe so strongly? You can't be bought off, you can't be convinced, and you can't be frightened into doing something else. We're where we are because people have laid down their convictions and it doesn't matter anymore.
They'll say, well, you know, I don't want to be different. Well, if you're going to be a believer, you're going to have to be. And so, when I look at this passage and see how God worked in the lives of these young guys, and then He was convinced us, He was fully persuaded that God would protect them no matter what. And so, when I look at Daniel's character, I just think God make us like Daniel. And there's a song I remember when I was a kid growing up in Sunday school, Dare to be a Daniel.
I didn't know what it meant then, but I know what it means now. Dare to be a Daniel, that is, dare to have convictions you will not sell, you can't be bought off, you can't be frightened into, and you can't be scared to death because of what somebody says they're going to do. As long as it's right and based on the Word of God. Thank you for listening to The Courage to Stand by Your Convictions. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
