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Daniel chapter 6 verse number 1, the Bible reads, And it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom in a hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom, and over these three presidents of whom Daniel was first. Now, Darius has just taken over the kingdom. If you remember last week, we talked about Belshazzar, he saw the handwriting on the wall, he was killed that very night, and Darius the mead took the kingdom, and the Bible says that he was three score and two years old. He was 62 years old. Well, when he took over, he decided to restructure the government a little bit, there were approximately 127 provinces at that time in this worldwide empire that fluctuated up and down. So he basically divided it into 120 sections, and he put a prince over each of those 120 sections, and then over those 120 princes, he put three presidents, which were overseeing the princes, and then he was at the top of that pyramid of government. And so he sets up this government structure. Well, he puts Daniel as one of these three presidents, and he was actually the chief of those three presidents. So he's the second most powerful man in the kingdom. It's funny because in chapter 5, you remember that Belshazzar told me to be the third ruler in the kingdom. Well, then he died, and now he's the second ruler in the kingdom. So basically, everyone else in this government becomes very jealous of Daniel because not only is Daniel the top of these three presidents, well, Darius looks at his performance and decides that he wants to put him over the whole realm. He decided that, you know, he wants to put him over all 120 provinces because he did such an excellent job and had an excellent spirit, the Bible says. And it says in verse number 4, Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom. So they're trying to find something that he's doing wrong. They want to accuse him and find fault. And by the way, this is how it always is with anyone who excels at anything. Anyone who does a good job at work, anyone who does a good job at soul winning in the church, anyone who does great things is always going to be attacked by those who are jealous. And people always shoot at you when you're at the top. And people want to drag you down when you're making them look bad, so to speak. And so he was having so much success that they wanted to take him down a notch or two. So they tried to find something wrong with what he was doing as president. So they're basically looking for something that they could accuse him of, trying to dig up some dirt on him, and they couldn't find anything. I mean, he was just a righteous man. He was doing everything great. And then here's what they say in verse 5, Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. You know, would to God that would be said about us. You know, when we're on the job and when we're in our daily lives or in our family, we're going to be persecuted. The Bible says ye and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Anyone who's doing what's right, who's living a godly life will be persecuted, will be attacked, but hopefully it'll only be concerning the law of our God. You know, hopefully we're not suffering on the job because we're a slacker or because we're lazy or because we're showing up late to work or not putting in eight hours work for eight hours pay. Hopefully, if anybody has something against you, it's because of the cause of Christ. That's why we should be persecuted, not because we're just lazy or a poor worker and they searched and tried to find something wrong with Daniel's work and they couldn't do it. So they said we've got to find it concerning the law of his God. Let me tell you something. Any government who wants to is going to find something wrong with the law of God. You know, if you think about it, I mean, I guarantee you that a Christian who is living a godly life and doing everything according to this book, almost anywhere in the world is violating some law. I mean, we go out and knock doors and preach the gospel to every creature in the city of Tempe. You know, we're supposedly supposed to have a permit to do that. You know, ask me if I care. I don't need permission to do what God commanded me to do. And so we just go out and knock doors anyway. I knocked the door today and somebody said, well, I don't know if you're supposed to be doing this in this particular place where you're knocking doors. You know, are you sure you're allowed to be here? I said, hey, God gave me permission to be here. And she said, oh, okay, you know. That was okay with her. And you know what, it was okay with me too. But you see, the devil wants to attack God's people and he'll attack you even if you're doing everything right. Daniel was doing everything right. I mean, they tried hard to dig up dirt on him and they couldn't find any. He was squeaky clean. But did that save him from being thrown in the dead of life? Did that save him from being persecuted? No. They persecuted him for doing what was right. And so it's going to happen to you if you serve God. You're not going to go, don't listen to the prosperity creatures. You know, if you're going to do what's right, just expect people to be after you through it. I like what Paul said when he's talking about preaching the gospel. He said, for a great door is open unto me and effectual. He said, man, I feel like there's just a door open to preach to God. It seems like God is working. But he said this at the last little statement in that verse. He said, and there are many adversaries. You know, whenever the door is open, whenever God's doing great things, there are always going to be many adversaries, okay? And people are going to be against you. People are going to fight against you when you try to do what's right. And here's Daniel, just trying to live his life, just trying to mind his own business and serve God and serve his boss at work, as it were. Serve the king and it's not good enough. He's getting attacked, right? So they say, well, we're going to find something concerning the law of his God. You know, you can think of other things that are probably, you know, spanking your kids is probably illegal in certain places or they're trying to make it illegal. If they could, they'd make it illegal because they want every child to grow up and be an animal or a criminal or whatever. But they try to make it illegal. And I'll tell you something right now. I don't care what law they make. I will spank my children no matter what they say. Because God commanded me to do it and we ought to obey God rather than men. And so I'd rather spank my child and trust God to deliver me from the mouth of the lions than to sit here and, you know, give in on that and have my child grow up and be wicked. Because if you don't spank your children, you're going to raise a wicked child. That's what the Bible teaches. And so you have to beat him with the rod, the Bible says, and thou shalt deliver his soul from hell. And that's what the Bible says. So let's keep reading. It says, then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king and said thus unto him, King Darius, live forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counselors and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man for 30 days save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, is that really true? Did all the presidents? No, because one of the presidents is who? Daniel. So they're lying to him. They lied to him and said, all the presidents have agreed with this. There's a consensus on the issue, you know. Everybody wants this, and they were lying. Now, O king, it says in verse 8, established the decree and signed the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which alter it not. Now, that's explained again a little bit later, but in their system of government in the Medo-Persian Empire, once the king made a decree, there was no way to change it. It could not be altered. He could not later rescind that or change his mind. Once he made a decree, it could not be changed. So he gets tricked into making this decree. He signs the writing, verse 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, so the Bible is very clear to tell us, Daniel knew that what he was doing was against the law. He went into his house, and he shut all the doors, and he hid under the bed and prayed. Is that what it says? No, it says, his windows being open in his chamber. God's telling us that for a reason, isn't he? Windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, not to make a show because of the fact that the writing was signed, but simply because, it says, as he did a fourth time. That's what he'd always done, and so nothing changed. You know, it's funny. You know the symbol that people put on the back of their car that's like the Jesus fish, so-called? Who knows what I'm talking about? The little molten image, the metal fish on the back of the car. Of course, the Bible says not to make any image of any fish that's in the sea or any fowl of the air. It's one of the Ten Commandments, in fact, not to make a graven image or a molten image, but I've said that to people. I said, you know, I don't like that image because it's an animal, and the Bible says not to make graven images, especially if it's supposed to represent our God or Jesus Christ or our religion, you know. I'm not going to represent that with the figure of an animal. And they said, no, no, no, you don't understand. They said, this came from back in the early days of Christianity in the Roman Empire, they're being persecuted, and so what would happen is, one of them would walk up and make like half of the symbol, just like an arch in the dirt. And then the other one would walk up and like make the other half, and then they'd know, okay, yeah, we're both Christians here, we can, it was like a secret code, like a secret handshake. Let me tell you something, God's people who are filled with the Spirit of God, they're not hiding, you know. You say, oh, the Christians in the catacombs, you know what, they were hiding, but you know what, God never told us to hide. He did tell us, if they persecute you in the city, flee ye into another. He did tell us that. He said, if it gets to the point where you're being persecuted so bad, you have to flee into another city, go to another city. But he never told us to hide, because our whole purpose for being on this earth is to preach the Gospel, is to be a light. He said, you're the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle to put it under a bushel without a candlestick, and to give it the light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Paul said, I'm an ambassador in bonds. He said that therein, he's talking about being in his bonds, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. He said, pray for me to be bold because of the fact that the temptation is there to hide and to pretend that we're not a Christian. But that was what Peter did when he denied Christ and was rebuked for it, for pretending not to be a Christian in a time when it was dangerous to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He pretended not to be and he went out and wept bitterly when he realized that he had let Jesus Christ down. So you think it's God's will for us to go around with secret handshakes and secret little symbols of animals in the dirt? No. And these kind of stories, they sound good. But you know, that's not in the scriptural. That's not good. You can't show me in the Bible where God tells you to hide what you believe. Pretend not to be a Christian. Be in the closet. No. Put the queers back in the closet and get the Christians out of the closet. And stand up for what you believe. Open your window, you know, and pray toward, you know, Jerusalem or whatever. Obviously, we don't pray toward Jerusalem. But you know what? Pray whatever. Pray wherever you want. But open the window for crying out loud. But he basically is just saying here that Daniel was not afraid of the king's commandment. As it says of Moses, by faith Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. Daniel was the same way. He basically knew that the writing was signed. He knew it was against the law. And yet he opened the window and prayed as he always did. Because he said, look, you can't make a law against praying to God. How can you make praying to God illegal? I mean, what if they made... And people say, well, you always have to obey the government. Well, what if they make a law that says no breathing? You know, do I have to obey that law too? What if they put... Well, you have to read the sign that says no breathing. You know, you're using... You're emitting too much carbon dioxide right now. You are, you know, you're only supposed to breathe a certain amount certain times a day or you're going to be taxed on your carbon footprint. You know, where does it end? You know, and these guys had made a law that was ridiculous saying that you cannot pray to any god. You have to worship the king or pray to him or whatever. And so Daniel didn't care. I mean, he did it anyway. And it said in verse number... Let me find my place here. It said in verse number 10 at the end, he gave thanks before his god as he did it four times. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his god. And you know, they knew that he was going to do it. That's why they even did this because they knew that it wouldn't stop him from doing it. And they were looking for a way to kill him and get rid of him. It says in verse 12, then they came near and spake before the king concerning the king's decree. Hast thou not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any god or man within 30 days save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true according to the law of the means of person which altereth not. Then answered they and said before the king that Daniel, that Daniel... You know, it's just funny how they refer to him, isn't it? That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but makest his petition three times a day. Now let me ask you something. Do you pray three times a day when it's legal? I mean, this man is risking his life and, you know, not just risking his life, but that's probably a pretty brutal debt. I mean, if you had to choose your form of execution, would you choose the den of lions? You know, I'd rather... I'd take a guillotine over that any day. I mean, the den of lions, he's risking his life. And here we have the freedom to pray whenever and wherever we want. Do we do it? Do we pray three times a day when it's free to do so, when we don't have to worry about being arrested? And Daniel did it when he was allowed to do it, and he did it when he was not allowed to do it. And that's the way we ought to be. You know, we need to pray and take the opportunity that we have to exercise our freedom of religion. You know, it's funny. We have the freedom to knock doors and preach the gospel for the most part, but so many Christians won't do it. And there are people placed in this world where they would risk arrest or imprisonment or death for doing so. And here we have the freedom. We should be doing it more than anyone. And so Daniel prayed three times a day. David said, seven times a day will I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. You know, prayer should be something that we're taking part in throughout the day. We should be speaking to God, giving thanks, praying, which means asking Him for requests, making our petition before Him of things that we need. We should be praying and praising God. Daniel prayed three times a day. David prayed seven times a day. However many times a day, we need to be praying throughout the day. We need to be spending time with God. Then the king, verse 14, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself. So basically at this point, Darius realizes what he's done. He did not mean to get Daniel in trouble. He loved Daniel. He wanted him to be his primary leader in the kingdom. And now he realizes the trap that he's been tricked into as the king. And so it says, he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored till going down to the sun to deliver him. I think what he's doing there is trying to find some loophole in the law. He's going through all the laws. He's trying to figure out some way to get Daniel off the hook here. But the problem was Daniel had violated the law. I mean, he's looking for a loophole. He could not find one. I mean, the law said that he could not pray to God. That's what he did. He's guilty, you know, and he just could not find a way to deliver him. Then these men assembled under the king, verse 15, and said to the king, Know, O king, that the law of the maids and Persians is, that no decree nor statute that the king establisheth may be changed. They're basically calling him on the carpet saying, Look, the day's over here. The deadline is up. You haven't figured this out. He needs to be punished right now. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting. Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste under the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. And the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions. So Darius doesn't really have a lot of faith here. He's saying in a lamentable voice, thinking he's probably not made it. Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lions mouths, that they have not hurt me, for as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. And this is interesting. This is also a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, dead, feral, and resurrection. Remember when Jesus Christ died on a cross, and when he died, his soul went down into hell for three days and three nights, the Bible tells us, but his body was buried in a tomb. And you remember how when they put him in the tomb, they rolled a stone over it? And then if you remember, they put a seal on it. They also sealed it exactly the way they did here. So this is a foreshadowing also of Jesus Christ, where Jesus Christ, who was totally sinless, totally innocent, Bible says, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we should be made the righteousness of God in him. He bore upon him the sins of the world. And when he died on the cross, he paid for our sins. His body was buried in that tomb. They rolled a great stone over it. The seal was set. And if you remember, the stone was rolled away after three days. Early the first day of the week, before the sun was even up, they went there. The stone was already rolled away. Not so that Jesus could get out, because the Bible says that as soon as the stone was rolled away, they looked inside and nobody was there. And basically, the stone was rolled out so that they could see in and see that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. And so it's a similar story. They went to the tomb weeping, just like Darius went there weeping. And they found, of course, that Jesus Christ was alive. He had risen from the dead as he said, Matthew 28. So basically, while Daniel, you know, of course, the angel of the Lord shut the lion's mouth. He made it through the whole night. And so they took him out of the den of lions. Let me just pause here and talk about the king here, Darius. Now, you remember, he's very upset about this. He's grieving. And so that night, he couldn't sleep. And the Bible also says, neither were instruments of music brought unto him. Now, that tells me that usually, when he would go to bed at night, he would have instruments of music brought in. That was pretty much his evening entertainment. He would have some music. Back then, he didn't have a stereo. They didn't have television. And so in order to get music, people would play musical instruments to you. And only a very wealthy person or a king would probably have that available to him in that way. Now, turn if you would to Proverbs 25, verse 20. Proverbs 25, verse 20. Because I want to say something about the society that we're living in today and our culture here in the United States. And something that Christians have kind of bought into that I think is detrimental to their lives. Look at Proverbs 25, 20. Proverbs 25, 20, the Bible reads, As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nighter, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart. Now, let me ask you this first of all. Does anybody here have some kind of a scientific background that can tell me what happens when you put vinegar and nighter? Vinegar upon nighter. Does anybody know what that means? What's nighter? I don't know. Is this like the vinegar and baking soda or something? The foaming? Is that what that is? You know, like the science project where you make the papier-mâché volcano and mix the baking soda and vinegar or the little rocket, we have a little rocket where you do the same thing. I think that's what this is referring to. But I definitely understand what the first part of that verse is saying when it says, As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather. Now, let's say it's really cold and I'm really freezing, right? And somebody comes up to me and they're going to help me feel a little warmer so they jerk my coat off my body. Is that going to help me feel better? No. No, because this coat on a cold day is going to help me be warmer, right? So is someone taking away my coat on a cold day helping me feel better? Now, doesn't the Bible here say that that is like unto he that singeth songs to an heavy heart? Someone who's sad or someone who's depressed, is music the answer? Is music going to help them get right with God or feel better? Look at James 5 in the New Testament. Toward the end of the New Testament, James 5. Look at James 5. In James 5, the Bible tells us in verse 13, James 5, 13, Is any among you afflicted? Now, is being afflicted a good thing or a bad thing? Afflicted means things are going bad, you're feeling bad, you're under attack. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. Now, we have this idea today that when we're feeling down, what we need is music. And that's what people turn to. Have you ever known the people that were the most melancholic and down or the ones that seemed like they were the most into constantly listening to music today? Have you ever noticed that? You know, the Gothic crowd or just the really depressed people at school or the ones who always have their headphones in all the time? Have you ever noticed that? Because you see, music is not going to cheer you up when you're in a bad mood. And this is what Christians often turn to. Instead of prayer, which is where we ought to go, the Bible says if we're afflicted, we should turn to prayer. Pray to God. You know, Darius did not have musical instruments brought into him when he was upset, when he was grieving. And you know, we today as Christians listen to too much music. And you say, well, what authority do you say that? Well, I'll say this, the Bible never one time in this whole book, and this book talks a lot about music. The longest book in the Bible is a song book, the book of Psalms. And music is a very godly thing. I mean, it's something that's important to God. It should be a big part of our lives. Music should be a big part of our life. But we're constantly listening to music and the Bible never one time tells us to listen to music, never. Never will you find God telling you listen to music. And when you look at examples of people listening to music in the Bible, you know, like this, as a substitute for spiritual things, I think of Saul, the king. When King Saul had an evil spirit from the Lord that troubled him, his advisors told him, well, bring in a man who's cunning with the harp. He'll play for you and it will soothe you. And if you remember, the music was brought in, it soothed him temporarily. But the next time the music was brought in, it made him worse and he picked up a javelin and tried to throw it at the guy who was playing the music and tried to kill him. Do you remember? And David had to flee out of his presence. You see, music today is like a drug almost with people. They become addicted to it. It just becomes something that dominates their minds. And the problem is it's usually not God's kind of music. It's usually everything that's put out by the world, everything that's put out by our society that's not of God and we're pumping our minds full of worldly music and it makes people get even more down. You know, I mean, have you ever heard somebody tell you that if you play country music backwards, you know, if you play the record backwards, you get your dog back, you get your wife back, you get your house back, you get everything back, you know. Or like if you play Led Zeppelin backwards, it tells you to worship Satan and everything, you know. But the bottom line is that music today has become a substitute for real Christianity. People today will listen to Christian music on their radio and it makes them feel closer to God. But it doesn't really bring you any closer to God. Because if you really want to draw an eye to God, God explains to you how to do that. He says, draw an eye to God and He'll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter return to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up. He says, look, if you want to get close to God, you need to get on your knees and pray to God. You need to get on your knees with the Bible and read the Bible and really draw close to God, do the works of God, not just pump your mind full of a bunch of feel-good, emotional Christian music that might give you some kind of a temporary fix, but it is not the answer to your problems. The Holy Spirit of God is the Comforter. We ought to go to God's Word, we ought to go to prayer, and look to Him for comfort and not just play a bunch of music that will soothe our emotions on the surface. It's all throughout the Bible that, look, it's like taking someone's coat away on a cold day to sing songs unto Him that is of a heavy heart. He says if you're afflicted, pray. If you're married, sing songs. That's what God explains. And so you say, well, Pastor Anderson, I can't believe you're telling... I'm not telling you what to do. I'm just giving you some wisdom from the Bible because you know what? I don't care what you do. I mean, listen to music 24 hours. Go to sleep with your headphones on and wake up with them still playing for all I care. But I'm just telling you, as someone who used to be very addicted to music, I can tell you that when I was a teenager, it was an addiction. It was like a sickness. I'm not kidding. I mean, all my money went towards CDs. My headphones were in my ears practically 24 hours a day. I mean, the moment I rolled out of bed, the headphones were in my ears. I started getting an ear infection just from having headphones in my ear too long. I mean, I listen to music nonstop. I mean, in my job, I basically switched to doing another task because on that job, you were allowed to listen to music. So I could just listen to my music all day long. I mean, you can ask anybody who knew me. I was obsessed with music. And let me tell you something. It stunted my spiritual growth. Part of the reason was because I was so interested in listening to music, I would literally go to read my Bible and it was like, no, I need to listen to music. I would get in the car and pop in the tape of Alexander Scorby reading the Bible on tape. And it was like, no, I want to listen to this music. And music just kept taking the place of reading the Bible constantly. Music kept taking the place of prayer because I wanted to listen to this music. And it was taking the place of serving God. It was coming between me and God. And when I finally got rid of it, it was the hardest thing that I ever did to get rid of all the worldly music, because it was not God's kind of music. And I finally got rid of it. It was the hardest thing I ever did to break that addiction in my life. Quitting, there's never been a sin that was harder to quit for me than listening to a bunch of worldly music, a bunch of ungodly music. It was so hard to get rid of it. But you know, when I finally got rid of it, I started growing spiritually like never before. I started reading my Bible like never before. And I substituted that music with Bible reading and prayer, and I was able to grow to the next level. Now, you might not be able to relate to that, but I'm sure that there are some people that are in the auditorium tonight that can relate to that. Some people have never been that into music. But you know, I was one that was obsessed with music. Who would say, that was me, or that is me, or that's how I've been? Yeah, I mean, there are some people that can relate to me right now. Maybe that's not you. But there are several people here tonight that are like that. You know, it's just, we're all different. We all have different things. And that was me. And I thank God that I was able to move past that and learn this truth and just realize, hey, and you say, Pastor Anderson, so you're against music? No, I love music. But my music is scriptural. And let me tell you why. Remember how I said there's no verse that tells you to listen to music? There are hundreds and hundreds of verses that command you to sing praises to God. Have you noticed that? Did you know that of all the imperative verbs in the Bible, the command that is the most given is praise. Praise the Lord. Praise God. Sing unto the Lord. Praise the Lord on an instrument of 10 strength. And so instead of listening to music, God wants to hear us sing praises to God. So I'm not saying that music shouldn't be a part of your life. But you should be singing praises to God or playing an instrument and praising God on an instrument. That's what God wants from you, not just a listening to someone, some paid professional musician. God wants to hear you sing. And that's part of why we come to church here. We sing. We sing about four congregational songs per service. And when we sing those songs, we are not just listening to music, but rather we're participating. The Bible says in the midst of the congregation, I will sing praise unto thee. And that's why I don't like the fact that most churches that I've been to, they'll have somebody come up and sing and you just sit and listen. You know what I'm talking about? They'll have the, you know, the professional come up and... You know, and you're in there in the seat and you're just like, okay, you know, to me it's boring. You know, because we live in a spectator society. We live in a society where everybody just wants to sit on the couch and become a couch potato watching a bunch of athletically fit guys run around and play sports and they say, we won today. You didn't win anything. You're sitting on the couch. You're lazy. You know, we don't go out and do something with our life. We just want to watch people play sports instead of playing ourselves. We want to come to church and watch the show and watch the musicians. No, come to church and pick up the song and sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing praise to God. Don't come and be a participant. I mean, come and be a participant, not a spectator, not on the sidelines, not a bench warmer. You know, come to church and participate. Sing it out. Pick up your Bible. Turn to the scriptures while I'm preaching. Participate in the sermon. And then when the sermon's over, go out and do something for God. And don't just be on the sidelines always watching everything. Watching the action. No, do something. But we live in a day where we're all just a bunch of mind-numb robots that just want to sit on the couch and just drool on ourselves and watch everybody else's life. And today, you're not even watching anything exciting. It's reality TV. You know what's better than reality TV? Reality. It's like, oh, reality TV. How about just reality? I remember they had a commercial when I was a kid. It was hilarious. It was on the... Remember that channel Nickelodeon? I don't know if they saw that channel. But when I was a kid, they had this channel called Nickelodeon. It was like a kid's channel on cable. And on this channel, Nickelodeon, they're talking about, you know, the newest invention. They said, like, it's better than virtual reality. It's actual reality. You know, when they show this kid, it's like, he's out on a basketball court, they're like, you actually feel the ball. You know, you can feel the wind. You actually do. You know, it was just like, it was basically like a message to kids. Hey, quit watching the TV that we're programming you with and go out and play, you know. Because of the fact that TV has become what people expect when they come to church. They expect to be like TV. Sit down, relax, enjoy the show. You know, instead of coming and singing praises to God, you say, well, I don't have a good voice. You know, your voice will improve with time if you sing. You know, a lot of people don't naturally just know how to sing. Some people have a natural musical ability. But did you know that the more that you sing, the better your singing voice will become? And the better you'll learn how to sing? And especially if young children are in church from day one singing, that will develop their ear for music. Because from a very young age, they're singing and being exposed to music and learning how to sing. Have you ever heard of vocal lessons? Like, people take vocal lessons because it is possible to improve your singing voice. And the best way to improve it is just by singing. But guess what? Even if your singing voice is horrible and it's never going to improve and it will not change, sing anyway. God is the one who formed your tongue and your mouth. God is the one that gave you the voice you have. He wants to hear you sing. And I think that God would rather hear a godly, separated, soul-winning, Bible-believing Christian with a so-called bad voice come to church and sing praises to God, singing it out at the top of his lungs. I think he'd rather hear that than some paid musician somewhere in Nashville that doesn't serve God, that doesn't love God, that doesn't even believe the Bible. God wants to hear his children sing. Look, I want to hear my children sing. You know, my children, when they're really young, they don't really form their words exactly right, do they? You know how children, when they're learning how to talk, they're at the certain stage where only their parents can understand them and others cannot. But guess what? I like the way they talk. I like to hear them talk. It's almost sad when they learn how to form the letters right. Because, you know, you like that stage, you know, it's cute when your little daughter is talking to you in that voice. Well, I like to hear my children sing. And it's funny when they sing it wrong, you know, when they think it's Christ is captain of the mighty thumb. You know, they get the words wrong in the song, they don't really understand it. You know, they think, you know, they thought he plunged me to victory. My kids, when they were little, they thought he punched me to victory. You know, you like to hear your kids sing. Well, God likes to hear his children sing. He's not looking for the smooth, sleek, perfect little singing voice. Let's just find the best singer, you know, so we can put our best foot forward for visitors. You know, nuts to the visitor if they think this is some, you know, Broadway or something. You know what I mean? We're going to all sing it out. And I'm not embarrassed of any visitor coming and hearing somebody with a bad voice belted out. Hey, if I hear somebody with a bad voice belting out, I'm just going to try to drown them out. And you ought to do the same thing. Just drown, if my kids are singing the wrong words, drown them out. Just turn up the volume. Just mask over it. And so I got to get off that because that's a very small part of this chapter. But it's an important subject today. We're so enamored with the world's music. You know, we went bowling a couple days ago for the, you know, the prize rest. And we walked to the bowling alley like nobody was there because it was the middle of the day on a weekday. And I walked up to the lady and I said, hey, since we're the only people here, can you turn off this music? You know, and she's like, well, we're not allowed to turn it off. You know, these people who are obsessed with just their little rules or what. I thought the customer was always right. Whatever happened to those things? That was a long time ago, huh? You know, we can't turn it off. So I was like, well, turn it down. So OK, so she turned it down. And that was nice. She turned it down so it wasn't, you know, as loud and obnoxious so that we could, you know, bowl in peace. But you know, it's funny. I thought about it. And I was like, you know, when I used to go bowling as a kid, there wasn't any music. Because I remember, I have a vivid memory of just hearing the sound of all the balls hitting the wood and the pins knocking down. You just kind of hear the sounds of that bowling. Nowadays, you go to the gas station and they're blasting music outside. I went to a Walmart not too long ago. And they have a TV screen at the checkout. When you're standing in line, there's a TV screen facing you, you know, pumping you with whatever. I'm sick of it. Can I just think a peaceful thought in my life without it just being constantly controlled by music or TV? Sometimes we need to do like the Bible says and just be still and know that I am God, he said. We need a peaceful moment sometimes to be able to think and meditate. But today, people don't think. They're just constantly music, music, music. We need to take time to think. We need to take time to read the Bible. We need to take time to pray. And we can't do any of those three things while we're listening to music. And then once we've done those three things, you know what else we need to do? We need to sing praises to God on a daily basis. So by the time I've sung praises to God, prayed, thought, read my Bible, interacted with my family, and interacted with my job, you know, there's just not that much time to listen to eight hours of music a day. And so you've got to get off that cave. If that's something that you're struggling with, trust me, I know what you're going through, but you got to get off that stuff. It's just a brainwashing anyway. But anyway, let's hurry up. Where were we in the chapter? What does this have to do with the lion's day? Oh yeah, that's right. King Darius, he knew what I'm talking about because he didn't bring in the instruments of music. He spent the night praying. He spent the night begging God to spare Daniel. And guess what? God answered his prayer and spared Daniel. Said in verse 21, Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lion's mouth, they have not hurt me. For as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceedingly glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God. And the king commanded, and they brought those men, which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, their children and their wives. And the lions had the mastery of them, and break all their bones in pieces, for ever they came into the bottom of the den. Now, there are always people who try to explain away the miracles of the Bible. Like, we were talking about this. Remember, we were talking about how in Bible seminary, they told you that, you know, Jesus didn't really walk on water. There was this underground ridge, and he was walking. He's learning this, and this is what he learned in Bible college, you know. Jesus was just walking on an underground ridge, and Peter got on the same ridge, but then he had a sinkhole. That's what they said. I saw a thing on, there used to be this TV show when I was teenagers, Mysteries of the Bible, and they would explain how the Red Sea was really the Reed Sea, and it was only up to the knee in water, and that's where the children of Israel crossed. I promise you, every single person that's here today that has a Bible with maps in the back, if you turn to the map in the back of your Bible right now, none of them show the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea ever. I got maps in my Bible right here. I look at it right here, and it shows them crossing above the Red Sea through the Reed Sea. It shows three options. It says these are alternate routes of the Red Sea crossing, and none of the three crosses the Red Sea. None of them. Here's three possibilities. Well, the funny part is, how did Pharaoh and his armies drown in ankle-deep water? That's the dumb part, because if you remember, whenever they tried to follow them, they all drowned. So it must not have been the Reed Sea. It was the Red Sea. And they tried to explain how there was a cool spot in the fiery furnace. They tried to explain how it was just really windy in part of the Red Sea, because the wind blew, and Napoleon was there, and it did it for nine seconds one time, and, you know, they just make up all this. They talked to all these experts and theologians, but whenever you read the miracles of the Bible, it's like God always shows you they were real. Like, for example, you remember when Jesus turned the water into wine? It tells you exactly how big the jars were, because they were huge, because of the fact God wanted you to know that these were huge jars of water, and it makes it clear that they were filled up to the brim just to make sure you know that he didn't throw in some kind of an additive or something, you know? He dropped a little pill in or something, you know? There's a little Kool-Aid packet or something. It turned into water, because if it was this huge thing and it's filled up to the brim, that's going to be a lot of scoops of Kool-Aid, you know, that's going to do that, and it always makes it clear. Like, for example, when they were thrown into the fiery furnace, the men who threw the men were burned, because it was so hot, so it couldn't have been some cool spot. Even the guys who dropped the men burned to death, okay? And here he makes it clear by showing us Daniel was in there all night long with these lions, and they did not touch him, multiple life, and then when they threw in, the conspirators, they chopped through their, they bit through their bones before they even hit the bottom of the den. So it's not that the lions weren't hungry. It's not that the lions, you know, or whatever kind of way you can try to explain this away. You know, of course, if somebody really wants to scoff at it, they'll probably just say, oh, there's something in Daniel where he didn't taste good, you know, that's what I was trying to say, like, he smelled bad, and you know, they were, he played dead, like, whenever he landed the bomb, he was like, you know, he played dead, and he was in love. But you say, why were the wives and children thrown into the den? Now, first of all, it's not that God is saying that that's what should have happened. See, the Bible is recording what happened. It's not saying, yeah, you know, God, you know, threw their children. Look, this heathen king, Darius here, he said, throw their wives in and their children, throw them and their whole family in. Basically, the conspirators who made this idea of getting Daniel thrown into the den, he said, throw them in. And look, that's what happens in this world. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. What goes around comes around. They wanted him to go into the den of lions? Well, guess what? They ended up going into the den of lions and their wives and their children. Now, God makes it clear in his law that the children should never be punished for what the parents have done and that the parents should never be punished for what the children have done. He said, every man shall bear his own burden. But the facts of life are that when you sin, other people will suffer for your sins, period. Whether it's fair or unfair, that is the way the world works. Even though it's not God's law, even though it's not what God tells us to do, it's a fact. Look, if I'm a drunk, don't you think that's going to harm my wife and my children? Don't you think that's going to adversely affect them? Any wicked thing that I do, if I went out and committed adultery, isn't that going to harm others? If I went out and committed murder, I mean, there's not a sin you can commit where other people are not affected by it. Everything you do that's negative has an effect on other people around you. And so here, these wives, for all we know, were innocent. These children were innocent. Yet they were eaten by lions. They died a brutal death because of the decision of the parents. How many times you'll knock a door and the parent will come to the door and you'll try to give them the gospel and they'll reject it and the child is behind them and guess what? They might even be rejecting it for that child. That's right. Because of the fact that if they would get saved and come to church, you know, their child will probably get saved too. But if the child sees the parents rejecting Jesus Christ, embracing atheism or humanism or whatever other wicked paradigm, the children will follow in those wicked footsteps. And so we need to take it seriously as parents that when we make decisions, we're making decisions that affect our family. If we commit a wicked sin, that's going to affect our family. That's going to affect our wife. That's going to affect our child. And you know, one of the good things about getting married as a young man is that it sobers you up. Because when you get married, and I'm saying figuratively speaking, I've never been one to drink. But when I got married, boy, I got a lot of sin out of my life right away because it started to impact me that, hey, wait a minute, I'm responsible for her now too. And then when I had a child, it was a whole other level of responsibility. I said, wow, the things that I do are affecting not only my wife, but also my child here. And boy, that made me get serious about serving God and getting the sin out of my life because I didn't want other people to suffer for my shortcomings. And here these people did wrong and their whole family suffered. Their whole family died a brutal death at the mouth of these lions that ate them alive and break all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den. Then King Darius wrote unto all people, this is verse 25, nations and languages that dwell on all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble in fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast forever and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his dominion shall be even unto the end. Look, men ought to fear and tremble before God today. The problem with our generation is that there is no fear of God today in this world. In America today, we've lost as a whole the fear of God. People have no concept of being afraid of going to hell or concept of God's wrath. It's just eat, drink and be merry. It's just anything goes. I was talking to my dad and he had dug out an old record of an old sermon that was preached in 1969. And he was there at that sermon. He was just a young 19-year-old man, 20-year-old man. He was at that sermon and it was a sermon about hell. And he'd been present for it and he had the record for it. You know, I mean, I'm talking LP. I'm talking a black round thing that you put in the record player with the needle and everything. And he had this record of this old-time preacher preaching the halls of hell. And my dad said, he said, I was there at that sermon, he said, and when these guys would come in and preach, he preached that sermon on hell. He said, people that were there that were unsaved walked out of that sermon. Unsaved people walked out shaking. They literally were shaking. I mean, and it wasn't some weirdo charismatic service. I mean, they walked out shaking because they were scared. I mean, they were shook up by it. It freaked them out to hear what the Bible said about hell. And my dad was saying, man, they could really preach back then. But you know, I listened to that sermon. It was a great sermon. But it wasn't really just the most unbelievable sermon in the world on hell. And I told my dad, I said, dad, I don't think it was necessarily just that that sermon or that preacher was so great. What I think, and it was a good sermon. But I said, dad, it was a different generation. It's just today people don't have the fear of God. That's right. I mean, you could pray. I bet you if that man would come back from the dead and preach that same sermon today in most churches, it would not necessarily have the same impact because people don't have the fear of God because we've been lied to that God is just this lovable fuzzball up in heaven. Let me tell you something. God is a God of wrath. And I don't care whether no other preacher will preach that. I'll preach to you right now. God is angry with the wicked every day. And we ought to get back to realizing the God of Daniel chapter 6 that say, hey, fear and trouble before my name. Get on your knees before me because I'm the God, that's what he said, I'm the God of the universe. I created you. Your breath is in my hand. But today people don't know that God. They know a God that's all inclusive. They know a God that's a long-haired hippie. You know, they think that's Jesus, some long-haired peacenik. It's Jesus. Wrong. That's not who Jesus was. Read the Bible and give the Jesus Christ to the Bible. It's nothing like the image that Hollywood will portray of him. Nothing at all. And don't kill the messenger tonight. I'm telling you the truth about it. Jesus looked at the corruption of his day and the false religion. He saw them buying and selling in the temple. He chased them out with a whip. Is that the Jesus of Hollywood? Is that the Jesus of Hallmark? Is that the Jesus of the Christian bookstore? No. They have a Santa Claus that basically, you know, whether you're bad or good, he's going to give you the presents anyway. It's false. God's a God of wrath. Now look, being saved is easy. Going to heaven is just by believing on Jesus. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. You know, you don't have to be good to be saved. None of us is good. We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. If you believe on Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. You know, but let me tell you something. The unsaved, the unbeliever is on his way to hell tonight. And he ought to be fearing and trembling. And those of us that are saved, we can never go to hell because we've already been saved. We already believe. I couldn't go to hell if I wanted to. I'm saved. I'm passed from death unto life. But let me tell you something. We ought to tremble to commit wicked sin because we know that God will judge us in this life. Even though we're going to heaven, he'll bring chastisement and punishment in this life. That ought to cause us to fear and tremble before God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Bible says that Job was the most righteous man in the world at that time when he feared God and eschewed evil. And so we ought to fear and tremble before God. And this world needs to fear and tremble before God. And when you have a bunch of preachers that have lied to people and given them a different God to worship for years and years and years, and now today we knock on the door and tell people about hell and they don't even know what we're talking about. That's right. You can mention hell to people. It just goes in one ear and out the other. But when you actually stop and explain them hell, they're shocked. That's right. They can't even believe it. I've talked to people that have been in church for years and they couldn't believe it when I explained them what hell was really like. And they've been Baptists for decades. It's an unbelievable thing today how we've turned the Bible into something that it's not. We've turned it into just an all-positive, feel-good religion. It's not. But let's hurry up and finish here. He said, Men need to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, and steadfast forever in His kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even at the end. He delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth. Who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Real quickly, let me just point out one thing. It says in verse 25, Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth. Peace be multiplied unto you. This is a common theme through the book of Daniel where these proclamations of God's word and God's power keep going out to all languages. Have you noticed that? That's because God can speak all languages. We saw that the day of Pentecost when He spoke in every man's language. We were out knocking doors today. Scott was with me, and we knock on a door, and this guy, we're invited by this guy to church, and he's like, Oh, yeah, you know what I'm saying? He said, I believe the Bible, you know. He's like, I don't really like the King James version, you know. He said, you know, I read the, he said, I read the original Greek. He said, I read it in the Greek. I mean, I read it in the Hebrew. And I said to him, I said, Oh, you speak Greek? And he's like, no. He's like, but they have translations of it, you know. And I'm like, Yeah, I think I'm holding one of those. I think that's what the King James version is, isn't it? Guy's like, yeah, you know, I don't read the King James because I read the original Greek. You speak Greek? No. But they have translations of it. Oh, oh, so you're reading a translation of the Greek. Isn't that what every Bible in English is? I mean, it was just weird, but that's how people are. You know, it's all like, oh, go back to the Greek. And listen to me. And I hope maybe somebody hears this sermon out on the internet somewhere or on a CD somewhere someday. Because listen to me and listen to me good. Whenever you run into one of these preachers who always has to, you got to go back to the Greek. And if you go back to the Greek, just go up to them because I've done this before and this works every time. Just ask them to count to 20 in Greek. That's all you have to do. Count to what? Count to 20 in Greek. Just say, count to 20 in Greek. Because they can't do it. They pretend to know a language that they don't know. And come on, is there anything more basic? I mean, I'll bet you that there's a lot of people in here who don't even speak Spanish. But they could probably count with me. Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, dios. You know, but you know what? Ask these Greek scholars. I was in church one time. I was 16 years old. And I was learning how to speak Greek. As a 16-year-old, I was studying it. And I was having some questions about it. And there was this guy in the church who was always going back to the Greek whenever he preached. And they said to me, you should ask this guy to help you because he is a Greek expert. He has a master's degree from the seminary. He knows the Greek. He's constantly going back to the Greek. So I walked up to him. And I was on like page 12 in this book on learning Greek. It was just a basic book. And I was on like page 12. And I walked up to him and I said, hey, I'm having trouble understanding this part. And I wasn't trying to be smart. I was just trying to get some help with it. So I said, yo, I'm having trouble understanding this part. Can you explain this to me? And he's like, uh, I have no idea. And I was like, I thought you spoke Greek. And then, you know, he did all this. He's like, no. He said, you know, actually, he's like, I just know how to use a Greek dictionary. Let's go to a Greek-English dictionary. So we've got, so the King James is a copy of a copy, right? According to these people who don't believe that God can speak his word in any language and that God's word can be translated into any language like it always has been from the beginning of time. They are going back to the original by going to a language they don't understand and then getting a dictionary and then bringing it back into English and then going back. It's like, look, you're losing something, buddy. When you go to your little Berlitz travel guide Greek dictionary or your Greek lexicon. Oh, it's a lexicon. So what's a lexicon? A dictionary. Thank you, it's a dictionary. But if you call it a lexicon, you know, then you're much more educated. It's a dictionary. Go get the one from Berlitz that tells you how to order a pizza in Greece or something. It's the same thing. And then it's like, go back to the Greek. And he said, you know, he said, this is all I know in Greek. He said, I can quote the alphabet. And he said, and I know how to look things up in the dictionary, but he said, that's all the Greek I know. And they said, this guy was a scholar and an expert. But just ask them, I've done it before. Just ask them, just say it. Can you count to 20 in Greek? Because, I mean, isn't that the most basic thing of learning a language, just learning your basic numbers, right? Ein, zwei, drei, thier, konk, sek, siegen, auf, no. You know, and I can even count to 20 in Greek. Ein, dieu, tria, tessera, pende, exi, epta, octo, anya, veka, emdeka, doedeka, you know, oh hey. But you know what? They can't. And I don't even go back to the Greek because I believe that this is the word of God that I'm holding my hand to King James Bible because yes, God can speak English. Yes, God can speak Spanish. Yes, God can speak any language in the world. And God's word in Daniel 6 was proclaimed in all languages. And Daniel chapter 4 was proclaimed in all languages. And the day of Pentecost it went out in all languages. And so don't fall into this trap of saying, oh, well, unless you're reading the Greek, you're not getting the true meaning. You know, I know your Bible says five, but you know, in Greek it's pende. You know, that's different. It's the same thing, folks. And so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much that we have the word of God in our own language. I thank you that even back in Daniel's day, you used this great event of Daniel being spared from the lion's den actually to get your word sent out to 120 different provinces in hundreds of languages or however many languages. He said it went out to all languages. And God, today I pray that your word would continue to be preached in all languages, not just in a certain Greek or Hebrew, but rather that you would preach your word through us and through the Bible in all languages, dear God. And Father, I pray that we would have the boldness of Daniel help us to have his courage and strength, not to buckle and give in to the pressures and the persecutions, dear God, but help us to be like a modern-day Daniel. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.