Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. Daniel 5 is surely one of the most dramatic stories in all of history. But what's the last verse of Daniel 5? That very night. The very night when the writing is on the wall, the very night when Daniel gives his interpretation, that night, that very night.
Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, is killed. Babylon false. Welcome to the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. In the book of Daniel, we see the dramatic final moments that lead to the fall of the Babylonian Empire. And in these fascinating details, we receive a clear warning about the judgment of God.
Today, we're discussing the crucial lessons to be learned from the fall of Babylon as we near the end of our study in Daniel.
Now, let's join Pastor John Monroe with this message: handwriting on the wall. You probably have heard of the expression, the handwriting is on the wall. Did you know that expression comes from the story we're looking at today? In Daniel chapter 5, a man called Belshazzar is now king of Babylon. He's a very self-indulgent individual.
and he throws a huge party. He thinks the city of Babylon is very secure. although their enemy, the Medes and the Persians, are knocking at the gate. In a moment, The life of Belshazzar is going to be turned upside down. Have you ever had that kind of dramatic experience?
going along in life, doing your own thing, living your own way. And then God intervenes. God is not mocked. The Bible says, Boast not of tomorrow, for you don't know what the day will bring forth. Listen to the story of the handwriting on the wall.
Today's message, then, is one of solemn warning. You know that the God who made you Is the same God to whom one day you will give. an account. That's not science fiction. That's not weird.
That's not old-fashioned preaching, that's the word. of God. And so I pray that this will be a wake-up call for us. The title to this message is Coming from Daniel 5: The Handwriting on the Wall. This morning, we'll think of the indictment.
We'll think of the verdict, and then we'll think of the sentence. First of all, the indictment against Belshazzar. Think of Belshazzar's sins and the sins of Babylon. In Daniel 5, verse 1, and have your Bible open in front of you, please. In Daniel 5, verse 1, Belshazzar is described as the king.
The indictment against Belshazzar lists several sins. First of all, look at verse 1. King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. The indictment against Belshazzar includes the sins. of arrogance and excess.
But there's more. In verses 2 and 3, we see the sin of blasphemy. Belshazzar, verse 2, when he tasted the wine. It's not enough for him. He commanded that the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple of Jerusalem be brought.
that the king, his lords, his wives, his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and all of the party drank. From them. Belshazzar Like many who live a life of indulgent self of selfish self-indulgence. wants to do something different.
He wants this party really to be memorable. Wants to do something outrageous. It wants to think out of the box, as it were.
Something that people remember. And so he says, Well, I remember the holy vessels. taken from the Jewish temple and Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar did that. Wouldn't that be wonderful if we could just bring them in?
And fill them up with booze and have a great time.
Now Belshazzar knew where these vessels came from. Verse 3: The temple is described as the house of the Lord. Here is blasphemy. Here is desecration at its highest. Belshazzar is openly.
Challenging. and defying God. Third, there's the sin of idolatry, verse four. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Instead of worshiping and serving the living and the true God, the Creator of heaven and earth, instead of walking humbly under this great God, Belshazzar and the Babylonians are praising and worshiping the false gods.
Belshazzar and Babylon are out of control, and God sees it all. What about your life? Do you realize that your life is in the very hands of God? This past week, have you lived for God? Or have you lived for yourself?
If we were to write the indictment against you, what sins would be on the indictment.
Now, what about Daniel's charge? Daniel, of course, is God's mouthpiece as he summarizes the charges against Belshazzar. He rehearses in verses 18 through 21, he rehearses what happened to Belshazzar's predecessor, Nebuchadnezzar, verse 18.
Okay. The Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, kingship, and greatness, and glory, and majesty. And because of the greatness that he gave him, all peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. And so on. But verse 20, but when his heart was lifted up and his spirit was hardened, so that he dealt proudly, he was brought down from his kingly throne, and his glory was taken.
From him. He was driven from among the children of mankind, and his mind was made like that of a beast, and his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. Belshazzar, you know better. You knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, but verse 22, you have not humbled your heart, and you, his son Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this. You knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.
You know the story very, very well, but your arrogance has continued. You've ignored. The lessons of history. and you think that you're in charge rather than God. He has committed blasphemy, verse 23, against the Lord of heaven.
And Daniel reminds Belshazzar, as Daniel had reminded Nebuchadnezzar, that God, the Most High God, is a ruler. over all of mankind. He has desecrated the holy vessels coming from the house of the Lord. of heaven. How foolish the Babylonians were.
They had been introduced to the true and living God by Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego, but what had they done? We read at the end of verse twenty-three. But you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath. and whose are all your ways you have not honoured. Belshazzar knows that the true and the living God, the God of heaven, has intervened several times in the history of Babylon.
He has been warned, but he continues. his lifestyle. of excess of arrogance, of blasphemy and idolatry. He has not glorified the true and the living God. Here is a very serious indictment then against Belshazzar.
He's committed grievous sins, he's ignored God. But God will be mocked, no. longer. And now God The God of heaven, who has seen it all, is about to give his verdict. First, the indictment.
Secondly, the verdict. The writing on the wall. In the midst of the revelry and the blasphemy and idolatry, the fingers of a man's hand suddenly start to write on the wall. Where where it would have been the most Visible. Can you imagine being at that feast?
In the middle of your drunken orgy, The hand comes. and writes on the wall. It strikes sheer terror into Belshazzar. Verse six. The king's colour changed, his thoughts alarmed him, his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
The very foundations of his life, the very foundations of his kingdom are shaken. He immediately knows that something supernatural is going on. And as I read this, I thought, why was it that Belshazzar, who had been worshiping and praising the Babylonian gods, why did he not think that the Babylonian gods were trying to communicate with him? Why was he so alarmed? Why was he so alarmed that he could hardly think or even stand?
Do you know the reason? Guilds. guilt. Whenever that hand began, He realized that he had turned his back on the revelation of God. And he knows that the sovereign lord of the universe is now speaking to him.
But now the meaning of the writing is revealed. Here is Daniel's interpretation. Isn't it interesting that Daniel is not at the feast? I'm glad he wasn't there.
Some would have said, Well, go to the feast, Daniel, and you can be a good witness for God. But Daniel understood what Paul is going to write in 1 Corinthians 15: bad company ruins good. Morals. Daniel is not. at the drunken feast.
The Queen Mother, however, knows of Daniel's reputation. He has a supernatural quality about him.
Now he's an old man, now he's in his 80s, but he's still walking with God. Do you have that kind of reputation where you work? as a follower of Jesus Christ. When people are in crisis, When there's a need, when there's a trauma, When some disaster comes on people or they go through some difficult situation, they come to you because they recognize in you. As a woman of God, as a man of God, as a student, as a boy or a girl, that there's something different about you.
And they say, I need to tell you my situation. Perhaps you can give me some help. or wisdom. Daniel. was like that.
Daniel, of course, is never intimidated by Babylon. Why? Because he knows God. And God gives him the interpretation, verses 26 through 28. This is the interpretation of the matter, king.
Minay, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Tycho, You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. Perez, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Belshazzar, your number is up. God has numbered your kingdom and is going to put an end to it.
Belshazzar, Babylon is about to fall and you're going to fall with it. You've been given many, many warnings. You knew what happened to Nebuchadnezzar, but still you did not humble yourself. Your idolatry continues and your number is up. Secondly, Belshazzar.
You've been weighed. In God's balances, and you're found to be too light. Verse twenty-seven. You've come short of God's divine standards.
Some of you will remember the old scales that the grocers used. You'd go in and Order a couple of pounds of sugar or a couple of pounds of butter, and they put it on the scale, and then there is the standard, there's the weight. The standard Used. to weigh The item. Belshazzar, you've been weighed against God's immutable standard, and you've come up terribly short.
Thank you. Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and the Persians, just as I prophesied to your. Forefather Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 2. Babylon, the head of gold, is about to fall and is going to be replaced by a divided kingdom of silver, the Medes and the Persians. Belshazzar, You've rejected God, you've blasphemed against God, you've exalted yourself against God, and now God is acting, you're without excuse, judgment is about to fall, and there will be no escape.
The verdict. What about God's verdict? On us. Is our country here in the United States With all of the wonderful beginning. of this country.
The wonderful principles. on which this country was founded by our founding fathers. Where are we today? Isn't it true sadly? that we're not all that different.
From Babylon. This country, let's face it. is an immoral disaster. I know we've got economic problems, but they to me seem small compared with our moral. problems.
We have a health care bill. That health care bill contains massive funding for abortion. Do you know the fuss in our country? If there was a pregnant whale beached in Florida, Do you know that pregnant lobsters are protected here in the United States? but the most innocent of all life, the unborn babies, are not protected.
In fact, not only are they protected, that if some of our leaders got their way, they would be using taxpayers' money to kill the unborn. No, you don't need to tell me. that we are in a moral disaster. And the great crime today in America What you cannot do is to show any anger against these sins. Then you're called intolerant, you're called bigoted.
We're told it's hate speech. How long is it going to be before our country tries to stop ministers of the gospel like myself in preaching these truths from our pulpits?
Something that our forefathers surely in this country would have been absolutely horrified with. And think of the moral Downfall. In modern day United States. of America. Why do we think that we would be exempt from the judgment of God.
Our Bible history tells us otherwise. The history Of this world tells us, whether it's Rome or the Third Reich or the British Empire, that those who turn their back on God are inevitably judged by God. Our days are numbered. The hourglass, I feel is running out. And it's running out on us as individuals.
You, my friend, will not live forever. The Bible says, It's appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, no exceptions. One out of one dies, you too. And this country has been weighed in God's balances. The standard is not other people.
The standard is not your own moral code. The standard is not your sincerity. The standard is not what Congress says. With all due respect to our leaders. The standard is the same standard that measured Belshazzar Hundreds and hundreds of years ago in ancient Babylon, it is still the standard.
of God's immutable. Justice. and righteousness And holiness. And we have been weighed surely as a nation in God's balances, and we've come up short. The indictment, the verdict.
Thirdly, as we conclude, the sentence. The sentence comes very, very suddenly. Though his ancestors Have been warned, and through Daniel, Belshazzar has been warned, but he has ignored these warnings. Babylon the Great at the time of of Daniel five seemed very secure. But Belshazzar, in his arrogance, seemed to forget that even as he is partying, the Medes and the Persians are besieging Babylon.
Babylon is under siege. No problem. Because of our walls, because of our gates. We are so strong that no enemy can penetrate us. Food, they had food for years.
Water, the great Euphrates flowed right through ancient Babylon. They were all right. Babylon the Great seemed impregnable. It seemed absolutely secure. And although the city is under siege, Belshazzar is throwing a party.
But what's the last verse? Of Daniel 5, that very night. The very night when the writing is on the wall, the very night when Daniel gives his interpretation, that night, that very night. Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, is killed. and Babylon.
False. What happened? History tells us, Herodotus tells us that when the Babylonians are partying in the city of Babylon, the Medes and the Persians, you know what they're doing? They're damning and redirecting. the river Euphrates.
And as the level of the river falls, The soldiers, the Medes and the Persians. With the river to their waist. Walk in under the wall, open the gates, and their army falls in. killing Belshazzar. and overthrowing the Babylons in one.
Night. As Daniel had prophesied, Babylon will fall. God has acted in judgment. The sentence is executed. Judgment is coming.
It's appointed unto men once to die, and after this, the judgment. What was the flood? Judgment. What was Sodom and Gomorrah? It was judgment.
Judgment is coming. And none of us can withstand the judgment of God by ourselves. The Ruba'at of Umar Khayyam reads: the moving finger rights, and having written moves on. Nor all your piety, nor witch shall lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all your tears wash out a word of it. No, the handwriting is on the wall, and you can't erase it.
Today Hear the word. of God. God's judgment for you, my friend, may come very suddenly. A car accident, a heart attack. And you immediately go from time into eternity.
The hourglass of our life is running out. All of us come short of God's standard of perfection by ourselves. There is no place of safety but today. I can present the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ. That God in His grace, that amazing grace that we heard about, God in His amazing grace has stayed His judgments.
and presents to us The only place of safety. The only one Who bore the judgment of God? Our Lord Jesus Christ. The judgment of God that we deserved fell on our precious Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. He took our sins, He died our death.
He experienced the judgment of God so that all of us Who deserved God's judgment can be eternally safe. That's why the Bible says that the only place of safety is found in Jesus Christ.
Well, you do what Belshazzar didn't do. Will you repent of your sin? Will you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God? Paul says in a brilliant verse in Romans 8, verse 1, there is now, therefore, no condemnation. To those who are in.
Christ Jesus. I deserve condemnation. You deserve condemnation. This great nation deserves God's judgment, obviously, with all that's going on. But there is today a place of safety.
Rather, a person of safety. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Just as those who were in the ark were saved from the flood, so those who are in Christ are eternally saved. Therefore, today, come. to Jesus Christ.
He's the only way of salvation. He's the only place of safety. He's the only one who can protect you. There is no other one who can take you safely through death and into God's eternal kingdom. Presence.
Without Christ, You're in a place of danger. You're weighed in the balances and found. One thing. One night. You're out in a terrible storm and there's no place to hide.
The wind and the rain are very, very fierce. And you're out on your own, and you can't escape from the storm, but then you come to a house. But the door is closed. Inside, a voice shouts to you, open the door and come in, and you open the door and take one step. over the threshold.
You go from the storm. Into the place of safety, a place of warmth. a place of fellowship. Jesus Christ. Today, welcome, sir.
into the father's house. Into the place of safety. Will you take that step, that one step? From being exposed to the judgment of God, which will, I tell you, come. Will you take that step to Christ?
The old hymn says, only A step. to Jesus. Then why not take it now? Come. And I sinned confessing, come and receive a blessing.
That's it. Take that step. And be eternally saved. As the Lord Jesus said, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What did it profit Belshazzar, though he was the king of Babylon?
In so doing, he lost. His soul. Today Will you come? Will you come? to Jesus Christ.
And believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. and be saved. This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever.
but to find truth and certainty about who we are and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource, John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at the verdict. org.
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The verdict is a ministry of Calvary Church in South Charlotte. We're located on the corner of Highway 51 and Ray Road. If you've been looking for a church home or a community to help you grow in your walk with Christ, We invite you to join us for our Sunday services. For more details about Calvary and our service times, visit theverdict.org.
Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Are you living life to the fullest extent, but in so doing, have you forgotten God? This is a warning to all of us. Has God spoken to you? Has a friend or family member confronted you?
Don't ignore the voice of God. Today, get right with God before it's too late. God is gracious. God is patient today. You have an opportunity now to repent and return to God.
Join me next time as we see Daniel in the Lions Den. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies. Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
