The Handwriting On The Wall

The judgment of God may be long in coming, but it can come with a vengeance. For ancient Babylon, that time came when Daniel foretold the doom of Babylon's king.

We in America should take heed, as Babylon's story might well be ours. From Chicago, we welcome you to The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching under the ministry of Dr. Erwin Lutzer. On this broadcast, we conclude a ten-part series on the church in Babylon, unleashing the power of a Spirit-filled witness.

Later, Erwin Lutzer takes us to Daniel chapter 5, as we relive the awful night when a king saw the handwriting on the wall. Our service today begins with singing. Because we know, surely, by our Christ's grace, God in life and God in spirit, Son of God, Lord of all our ways, Let us show, for we have changed, that he gave us and is whole.

Let us share our life together, as we shall come round this hall. We are called to be the servants, working in his work today, taking his own trust upon us, for his sacred words obey. Let us rise, to hear his sorrows, dare they claim to be our own. Let him make we great concern, into the land where now is home. I invite you to follow along with me in your bulletin as we read together selections from 1 Peter chapters 1 and 2.

Please read aloud with me on the bold print. This is God's holy word. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious, you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, Behold, I am laying in Zion a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Then the cries of victims go unheard in the land, and the scars of war refuse to hear.

We will stand for justice to empower the weak till their bonds of oppression are no more. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy.

For each cup of kindness to the weak did our gifts, gives an offering of person to the poor. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy. Christel eso, have mercy.

Christel eso, have mercy. Lord, we come today to repent of our sins and to hear from you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Break the heart and stormy ground, hell or unbelief. Plant your word down deep in us, cause it to their fruit. Hold it up our ears to hear, lead us in your truth. Show us Christ, show us Christ. Oh, how we hear your holy, through the preaching of your word.

Until every heart confession, Christ is Lord. Where else can we go? Where else can we go?

You have the word of eternal life. Where else can we go? Where else can we go?

You have the word of eternal life. Where else can we go? Where else can we go? You have the word of eternal life. Where else can we go?

Where else can we go? You have the word of eternal life. Show us Christ, oh how we hear your holy, through the preaching of your word. Until every heart confession, Christ is Lord. Oh, how we hear your holy, through the preaching of your word.

Until every heart confession, Christ is Lord. Oh, how we hear your holy, through the preaching of your word. One faith, one hope, one Lord, one church for which he died. One voice, one soul, we lift in praise.

To him who was and is and shall be evermore. There is one body, one spirit, as you were called to one Lord. One Lord, one diesel, one faith.

One God and Father above, one God and Father above, one God and Father above, who is new. One faith, one hope, one Lord, one church for which he died. One voice, one soul, we lift in praise. To him who was and is and shall be evermore.

Though we need many people, diverse with various fields, we are given to each other. For the unity of faith that keep growing, the knowledge of the Son of God in the fullness of Christ. One faith, one hope, one Lord, one church for which he died. One voice, one soul, we lift in praise.

To him who was and is and shall be evermore. One faith, one hope, one church for which he died. One faith, one hope, one church for which he died.

One faith, one hope, one church for which he died. One heart, one birth, one faith, one Christ that we may love, love, praise, and love. One heart, one soul, love, praise, and love.

Refreshed our souls, we ask again, we find ourselves close and close. We may love, love, praise, and love. We may love, love, praise, and love. In loneliness let us rise to rise. We may love, love, praise, and love. In loneliness let us rise to rise.

We may love, love, praise, and love. It's not possible to visit the sites of World War II without being impressed at the high cost of freedom. To be able to stand on Utah Beach and remember that it is here that a combined group of allies came together. And in the process lives were lost as they went across in difficult circumstances with minds virtually everywhere.

It's also interesting that we were able to stand not only on Utah Beach but Omaha Beach. And we were reminded there of the tremendous sacrifice, about 70% of all of the young men who came there ended up being killed. Because the Germans were able to just be on the cliffs and they were able to shoot and to kill everyone who was coming up.

What a price, what sacrifice was paid for that. And then of course we think of the cliffs, we call the cliffs Pointe du Hoc. And those cliffs were scaled by our American troops. If I remember correctly about 290 went up the cliffs and about 90 were alive and the others ended up being killed as they went up those cliffs.

We also thought of John Steele. If you saw the movie The Longest Day you know that he was featured because he was a paratrooper who landed on a church. And the church steeple caught him and even today he is memorialized there as sort of an effigy hanging from a church steeple. Well when the paratroopers came down they came down in the wrong place and they were just being shot by the Germans as they were landing.

It was horrible. He landed there and pretended that he was dead and then he was captured by the Germans. But then he left, was able to escape and actually win many victories for the Allies.

He died in 1966, a great hero. This actually, the church is in Saint Mary, Anglese and it is a church that represents the fact that this was the first town captured in Normandy by the Allies. But the price paid was horrific. But I think the most moving thing that we experienced was the cemetery. The cemetery and it was there, the beautiful flowers of the American cemetery in France cannot obscure the tremendous price that was paid by our young men.

As you walk through the cemetery you look at the dates and you discover that many of these young men were only 20 years old. Many went into battle fearful, crying, weeping, but they gave their life that we might be able to have freedom. And how wonderful it was for us to see also a cross dedicated to the unknown soldier. It reads, here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God.

And most of us will die as unknowns. As many of you know, I was born in Canada but became an American citizen a number of years ago. And I have to say that as we were there in Normandy seeing the American flags and looking at nearly 10,000 graves, I was very proud to be an American and proud of the American flag. And you think of all of the families, all of the mothers and fathers, all of the relatives whose young people died and the tears that were shed, but they were shed for freedom and for that we are deeply grateful.

But I think it's true to say that we live in a country that is very different now than the country was back in 1940 and 45 and on. And that's why today I speak with a very heavy heart, a message entitled, The Handwriting on the Wall. The Handwriting on the Wall is actually the last in a series of 10 messages entitled, The Church in Babylon, Unleashing the Power of a Spirit-Filled Witness. I speak this message because, first of all, we have to know what God is doing here in America and how God deals with nations. But at the end of the message, also, I'm going to be giving some challenges to live for Christ and for that which is right in our present generation.

I pray that as I speak, I will speak with love, I'll speak with compassion, but I'll also speak truthfully so that we will understand that even in our own nation, we have to interpret the handwriting on the wall. The passage of scripture is Daniel chapter five. Daniel chapter five. You remember how we've been emphasizing the fact that Daniel was taken to Babylon as a teenager. When Daniel chapter five opens, he is now a man in his 80s. Sixty years, at least, have passed since those original days when he purposed in his heart to serve God no matter what. And as a result of that, Daniel is now going to stand once again for God, even as an old man. Daniel was alive during the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was the king, you know, who went insane.

He began to eat grass like animals and the whole bit until he came to the conclusion. And this is the last part of chapter four. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven. My reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from one generation to another. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he does according to his will in the army of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of the earth.

And none can stay as Anders say unto him, What doest thou? It's no question, but that I expect to see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven. But chapter five opens with his grandson, Belshazzar. In between, there were kings who were assassinated. It's a very complicated history. Belshazzar is a co-ruler with a man by the name of Nabonidus, and Belshazzar calls a feast.

We're in chapter five. It's the happy hour. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem to be brought. And they used these vessels to drink to their pagan gods.

Set the scene. They are basically drunk. And by the way, sometime I should preach on alcohol. You know, because the Bible doesn't condemn wine, but approves it in certain contexts, people often use that. And it's often a pathway for young people to become alcoholics. I don't want to pick on Germany, but when we were there last week, our guide told us that Germans discovered that those who are between 20 and 32 were drinking less beer. Now, you might think that's good.

Actually, a study showed that it is bad. The beer isn't strong enough. They are taking stronger things.

We're a nation that is addicted. But Belshazzar does two things. First of all, not only is he and the concubines, I mean, this obviously is an orgy of sorts. They are all drunk, but also he blasphemes God. He takes the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had brought from the temple of Jerusalem and he uses them to drink wine to his gods.

Clearly, he's shaking his fist in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, why is it that Belshazzar felt so confident that he could have this party when outside there were Medes and Persians gathered and had been there for a couple of months? He was confident because Babylon was impregnable. Nobody would be able to get into the city. Some people say that the walls were 300 feet high. I can't believe that.

I think that's an exaggeration. We do know, however, they were 80 feet wide, so nobody was going to come over the walls. Soldiers were up there guarding. They had supplies for food for 10 years, supposedly, and water ran under the city because the Euphrates River ran through the city.

They were absolutely confident that they would be there for as long as they wanted to be and could party. Well, that was the happy hour. Now there's a change and it becomes very much the perplexing hour, the perplexing hour. Verse 5, immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace opposite the lampstand. And the king saw the hand as it wrote. Then the king's color changed and his thoughts alarmed him. His limbs gave way and his knees knocked together.

What a change. Have you ever wondered whether or not the Bible is really true? You know, you say you read these stories. Did they really happen? Did you know that archaeologists in ancient Babylon uncovered a room, also that seems to have been plastered, that was 60 feet wide and 170 feet long?

I think that's enough to get a thousand people in to have a party. And so they are there partying and suddenly they see, without a body, a hand right on the wall. And the king becomes absolutely terrified.

What a description of fear. And he calls in his astrologers and his charmers and says, what do this mean? And none of them knew what it meant.

They couldn't interpret it. Well, the queen mother, not his wife, she was already in the party, no question about that. But the queen mother, probably his grandmother, hears about this and remembers Daniel, who has been living in obscurity for the last 40 or 50 years. But she remembers that he was able to interpret dreams and visions, and he'd be able to interpret the handwriting. So this woman suggests that he come, and Daniel is offered a third of the kingdom.

Why a third? Because Belshazzar would have had a third, Nabonidus would have had the other part, and he's willing to give Daniel a third of the kingdom if he can interpret this particular vision, the handwriting on the wall. Daniel, of course, totally discounts it. He says in verse 17, let your gifts be for yourself and give your rewards to another.

Nevertheless, I can interpret this. But then he gives the king a speech. In verse 22, what he does is he rehearses what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, how that because of his pride, God humbled him, and he experienced a disease called Boanthropy, I hope I pronounced that correctly, where he actually acted like an animal until he repented. And Daniel rehearses that and says to Belshazzar, you knew about this, and you deliberately defied God. He makes three accusations against Belshazzar. Verse 22, And you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine from them, and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, a bronze-iron wood stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath.

Wow. In whose hand is your breath, that God you have not honored. Three indictments. First of all, pride. You refused to humble yourself.

You didn't learn from what happened to your grandfather. Secondly, you have blasphemy. You used the utensils and the vessels that were brought from the city of Jerusalem, and you used those to drink your own wine and praise your own gods, and then also you served your idols. And notice this. Belshazzar and his entourage did it knowingly.

Even though you knew this. You know, the Bible says in Romans chapter 1, those who practice debauchery, you know what it says. It says, who knowing the judgment of God, not only do such things, but take pleasure in them that do them.

They know better because the law of God is written on their hearts, but they take pleasure in dethroning God and substituting themselves. Well, we've gone from the happy hour to the perplexing hour, the fearful hour, and now we get to the last hour. Daniel says, I want you to recognize the words. And by the way, those words must have stayed on the plaster for quite a while because the soothsayers of Babylon were able to read them. Evidently, the words were still on the wall when Daniel got there and they called for him to interpret them. And these are the words and they're given to us there. Verse 26, this is the interpretation of the matter. Many, God has numbered your days and your kingdom is brought to an end.

In the vernacular, we'd simply say that Daniel said to Belshazzar, your kingdom is gone, your number is up, it's finished. Not only that, but trekel, I should say, means weighed. The imagery there is of a scale and you know how those ancient scales would go. On the one hand, there was a correct weight, say of one pound, and on the other side, you see whether or not it balances with one pound. God says, I put my righteousness on one side of the scale and you have come up light, you are deficient, you are not meeting the mark in your rebellion.

And then finally, Perez. And there are two different interpretations or two different spellings because there's a play on words going here. Perez really refers to also Persia, so Daniel is interpreting this as a reference also to Persia because he says your kingdom is divided and it's being given to the Medes and it's being given to the Persians. So that's the end of your kingdom, end of story. Now notice, verse 29, then Belshazzar gave the command, Daniel was clothed with purple, he didn't want to be, but the king said, put a chain of gold around his neck, proclamation was made about him that he should be the third in the ruler of the kingdom, last thing Daniel was interested in. And then verse 30, that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean was killed and Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old.

You know what happened? Herodotus tells us, thank God for historians. What he said was that the Persians diverted the Euphrates River.

Now they couldn't divert the whole thing but they built a tributary and kept it blocked like with a dam and then they took the dam away and the waters flowed over here and the water went down far enough that the soldiers were able to cross under the walls. And so you have all of these soldiers who are going under the walls because the Euphrates River was low enough and they come into the banquet hall where Belshazzar and all of his friends are having this party and he is beheaded in the year 539, October the 11th and the 12th. End of Babylon. What a story but how does it relate to us? What should we take home today for ourselves so that we are transformed by this story and understand our role in our world? The first lesson which is very obvious is that when we reject God, we invite his judgment. When we reject God, we invite his judgment because blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and when God is relegated to the margins, when God is no longer acknowledged, there's going to be judgment of some sort. Occasionally people say to me, Pastor Lutzer, do you think God is going to judge America? I have to point out that God is right now judging America.

Right now we are under judgment. All sin, whether it is national or individual, has immediate consequences. When you and I sin, there are some immediate consequences and through confession and so forth, some of those consequences might be mitigated.

Thank God that he forgives us when we confess our sins. But all sin has immediate judgments connected with it and nationally that's true as well. Sometimes God is judging us and I think the most obvious way in which God is judging America is through the destruction of the family. As long as we accept what is known as marriage equality, as long as we accept pornography and easy divorce and immorality and 20 million children going home tonight with only one parent to put them to bed, children crying for their daddies and for their mothers and angry because of what is taking place, taking all of that into the next generation, that is part of the consequences of God's judgment. Now sometimes God may judge a nation because of external forces. Certainly he did that in the case of Belshazzar.

Suddenly the kingdom was over because another nation invaded and won a war. Sometimes God's judgment is the rot within led to its normal conclusions and predictable conclusions. Sometimes the judgment of God is from without. But when a nation forgets God and neglects God and defies God, judgment of some sort is absolutely inevitable.

In the case of Belshazzar, his pride, his blasphemy against the living God, his defiance of God, his acceptance of idols caused the end of his kingdom. There's a second lesson, and that is simply this, that no defense can save us. No defense can save us when God says, your number's up. You know, you stop to think of it. You remember what Daniel said to Belshazzar.

The one in whose hand is your breath you have not honored. And God can, so to speak, pull the plug. No constitution can save us. No weapons can save us.

No organization can save us, though I'm in favor of all of the above. The fact is, when God says it's over, it is over. Very sobering. The Bible says, in the book of Isaiah, it says that the nations of the earth are like a drop in a bucket. God says the nations of the earth are like dust held in your hand, and when God goes, it's over.

We don't know what the future of America will be, but if we continue on in this particular way, we know that its future cannot be good, because it cannot be good if you don't have good families, if you don't have good values, and if the gospel be hidden in the transforming power of Christ, no matter what happens, we simply cannot turn the ship around. The gospel is what people need. There's another lesson, and that is, and this gets very sensitive here, but I'm going to plow ahead. It is necessary for us as believers to read the handwriting on the wall, the handwriting on the wall. Now, you and I can't read Aramaic like Daniel was able to.

These words are actually Aramaic. We can't read that, but we can read English, and it's not just that God only wrote this with his finger. He wrote the Ten Commandments with the finger of God, it says.

Furthermore, God inspired an entire book or a book that is filled with books. We've read the New Testament, and we know that God has revealed his will, and we can read that, and so we can also read the handwriting that is on the wall. I venture to say that today in the great city of Chicago, there is going to be a gay rights parade, and I understand, according to the media, that about a million people are going to be along the sidelines cheering them on. When we think of this, we should not see these people as our enemies by no means, but we should see them as captives to the blinding absorption of sin, and we know that once marriage is desecrated, as it is going to be along the parade route, I heard what was going to take place on the news this morning, as it is desecrated along the parade route from my heart to yours. You and I know that the handwriting is on the wall, and as we stop to think of it, when the time comes when marriage is desecrated and thousands of people accept it and cheer it on, we know how it will end because we've read Romans chapter 1 in God's book. We don't need to read it in Aramaic. We just need to read it in English, and once you have laws that are enacted that restrict our freedoms, we also know that the handwriting is on the wall, and once the Bible itself as we proclaim it is known as hate speech, we know that the writing is on the wall, all of this happening and celebrated. Once you begin to celebrate those who are captive and you begin to celebrate various pathologies, you know that the handwriting is on the wall. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, what do we do? I'm so glad you asked that question, by the way. Isn't that what you were thinking?

It should be. I want us to take a page today from Daniel himself. You have to love Daniel. He's a teenager, and he purposes in his heart that he will fully follow the Lord and not compromise his deep convictions. And now he's an 80-year-old man, and he's still standing strong for the truth. If you were brought up in Sunday school, you probably know that we all love to tell the story of Daniel in the lion's den. Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose for him, and dare to make it known. I pulled that out of my childhood. Do any of you remember singing that, here today?

All right, if you raised your hand, that says something about you. Do you know that Daniel in the lion's den, he was over 80 years old, probably at least 85. That's the next chapter. The next chapter is Darius, and what happens is there are some people who hate Daniel, so they go to the king and say, why don't you say that if people pray to anyone else other than you, they have to be cast into the lion's den? And Darius falls for it. And he issues that decree, and that decree is issued, and lo and behold, Daniel is in a box. He hears of the decree. Chapter 6, verse 10. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went into his house where he had his windows open in the upper chamber, open toward Jerusalem.

He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. Now Daniel might have said, well, there's no use me praying publicly, and I'm not saying that you should parade your own righteousness publicly. The world doesn't need more self-righteousness. The world needs more brokenness and humility and tears on our part.

That's what we should be doing as we think of our society. We should be weeping. As I mentioned, they aren't enemies. They must be seen as captives. And this is true of all people who don't know the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that Jesus came. Jesus came to set the captives free. But Daniel, God bless him, he continues on with his own habits of praying to Jerusalem three times a day. And you know the rest of the story, how that he is thrown into the den of lions and God sees fit to protect him. Not everyone thrown into the den of lions has been protected. You can look at the early chapters of church history.

You can go through the circus maximum in Rome or the Colosseum and remember that there were lions there that tore the Christians apart. But in this instance, God protected Daniel and you all know the story. But from my heart to yours today, we've talked about the role of the church in the world.

The role of the church in the world ultimately comes down to the world and the Christian living individually for Christ. Now collectively, we gather for strength, we gather for encouragement, but it's you as an individual. Daniel didn't have anybody standing with him.

Thousands of people in the Medo-Persian empire, but only one Daniel so far as we know. You may be the one person in your office and you're expected to celebrate marriage equality and all the implications that come with that, but you don't. It's not that you're being self-righteous or pointing your finger, but you have your convictions and you're going to stick with them. You may be in an instance in which the idea that Jesus is the only way to the Father is anathema and you are really branded as some kind of a radical of some sort that really doesn't even fit into society, but there you stand. And you say, here I stand, I'll do it lovingly, without spending a lot of time trying to judge others, but here I stand, I can do no other. You see, when it comes to history, you have to recognize that the people whom we admire are the ones who stood alone. And I appeal to you today as a believer, stand alone like Daniel did and take the consequences, whatever those consequences may be. You see, Jesus stood alone, and he is a better example than Daniel.

When it came time for him to die on the cross, all of the disciples forsook him and fled, and they went their way, and Jesus was essentially alone, though later on his mother and John returned to the cross. But there he obeyed God, and he had to obey God alone so that you and I might be redeemed. Are we willing to stand alone knowing that God stands with us?

That's our challenge. And if you're here today and you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, just know that Jesus Christ is the one who went to the cross alone, died for our sins so that you and I can be forgiven, and we offer this eternal life to everyone, everyone, no matter their sexual orientation, no matter their history. We admire the fact that Jesus Christ died for sinners.

He died for us, and that's the message that this world has to hear. But it means often that we simply stand alone. That's why I loved it when the choir this morning sang Embrace the Cross.

That's what it means. As Bonhoeffer said, whom we celebrated when we were in Europe so recently, when Jesus Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. The question is, will the Church, will we as individuals stand with Christ in the midst of a culture that is getting more and more like the culture in Babylon? That's our challenge. Let's pray. Our Father, we want to thank you today for this true story, and it reminds us that Daniel stood alone in the midst of great pressure. We pray that we might stand alone. Lord, you've called us from diverse backgrounds, diverse cultures and races and vocations, and we come together to celebrate, to worship, to give you ourselves.

But tomorrow morning, we'll be alone. Inspire us, Lord, by the determination of Daniel and the saving work of Jesus Christ to be willing to stand alone no matter the cost. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour, Dr. Erwin Lutzer spoke on The Handwriting on the Wall, the final message in a ten-part series on the Church in Babylon, unleashing the power of a Spirit-filled witness. The Church is under attack like never before.

Rites we once assumed we had are being torn away. Erwin Lutzer has written an explosive new book, We Will Not Be Silenced, to help us respond courageously to our culture's assault on Christianity. This book will be sent with our thanks for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001.

Ask about We Will Not Be Silenced when you call 1-800-215-5001. Or you can write to us at The Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Dr. Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.