Daniel 5:1

As we jump back into the book of Daniel this morning, it really hit me that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were literally taken from their families. Nobody talks about what their parents felt when these kids were ripped apart from them and taken to Babylon. These kids were taken when they were in junior high or high school, and that was all they had. The foundation they had up until that point in God was all they had, and they remained faithful in Babylon because of the foundation their parents laid.

That is why we are so committed to doing things like Vacation Bible School and church summer camps. We love our youth because we have to raise up the next generation in Christ and lay that foundation so they can remain faithful in America. Amen? I am super proud of our counselors who went out there. Pastor Nick Brower, Maggie, Emily, Callie, and Daniel—if you see them, just thank them. They took a whole week off to be with your kids, and they were fantastic. We have the best youth team ever. I also want to mention Audrey, who is currently in Rome, so you won't see her for a while. But praise God for that. Amen?

With that, we are going to jump into the book of Daniel, chapter 5. Last week, Miles finished chapter 4 for us, which was really a testimony of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, the greatest king of Babylon. In his own dream, he was the head of gold. He was a king of one of the greatest nations on planet Earth at that time, and the Scriptures attest to that. Daniel also attests to that.

Even in the greatest kingdom, the most powerful kingdom on Earth at that time, this king was humbled by God. He ended up looking back to God and admitting that the Lord Most High rules the kingdoms of man and gives each kingdom to whom He chooses. In this chapter, we read about the demise of this great nation, Babylon. We read about the downfall of Babylon, which was predicted by both Isaiah and Jeremiah—the rise and the fall of Babylon, which is pretty interesting.

Now, some 30 years have passed since King Nebuchadnezzar was humbled and looked back up to God, saying, "I believe in God." Now we are with his grandson, not so much in bloodline but in royal line, who has now assumed the throne.

To throne in Babylon. However, he is not the king of Babylon as it may seem. A significant challenge for historians throughout history has been the fact that this King Belshazzar, whom we read about in chapter five, does not appear in secular history. We have records of Nebuchadnezzar, but Belshazzar was never mentioned. This raises the question: who was this King Belshazzar, the last king? According to our history books, King Nabonidus, his father, was the last king of Babylon.

In relatively recent history, archaeologists discovered what are known as the Nabonidus cylinders. These clay cylinders contain inscriptions detailing that Nabonidus was away on conquests and had given rulership of Babylon to his son, Belshazzar. Belshazzar assumed the role of king within the walls of Babylon at that time. It is fascinating that, with continued research, we find that what Scripture says is indeed true. Amen? The evidence is out there, and the Word of God is accurate, which is reassuring.

When we examine the demise of a great nation, we reflect on our own recent celebration of Independence Day. We live in a great nation, but we must not think for a moment that God could not, in one day and one night, point His finger at us, just as He did with the great nation of Babylon, and bring it to an end with just three words. God alone is sovereign over nations. He has given us a start date for our nation and an end date, though we do not know when that will be. Similarly, in your life, you had a birthday, but you do not know what day will be your last. It is wise for us to consider these things as we reflect on the hand of God in human history today.

Now, some thirty years have passed since Daniel chapter 4. We will pick up in chapter 5, verse 1. I will read a few verses for us, specifically verses 1 through 4. It says, "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 that the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought out, that the king and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought them in, and the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple in the house of God in Jerusalem, the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines all drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone."

We will stop right there for a moment. It is never a good idea.

For a great king like this to throw a party with all of his noblemen is unprecedented. If you're a Bible scholar at all, you remember the story of Esther. Just recently, we read about that story where King Ahasuerus gets the same inclination: he decides to throw a feast. He proclaims that it will be wild, that everyone will drink, and that they will have a great time with their wives and concubines.

Belshazzar's feast is essentially him giving a big middle finger to God, declaring that he will elevate himself to that level. It is never a good idea for kings to do that. In Esther, the king, after having been drinking, comes up with a great idea: to bring his beautiful wife out and parade her around. She responds with a firm "no," and she was righteous in her refusal. However, she lost her queenship and was kicked out of the kingdom, leading to a beauty contest in which Esther was chosen to be the new queen.

In a similar way, Belshazzar decides to throw a grand feast and does something even worse than his father, Nebuchadnezzar. Belshazzar was not innocent; he knew exactly what had happened with Nebuchadnezzar. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar erected a giant gold statue of himself and commanded everyone to bow down to it when the music played, threatening those who refused with being thrown into the fiery furnace. Nebuchadnezzar made some pretty wild decisions. He walked about Babylon, a beautiful city and one of the seven wonders of the world, known for its hanging gardens, massive walls, and impressive infrastructure. It would have taken years and billions of dollars to build, and they felt invincible.

Belshazzar went beyond even what Nebuchadnezzar had done. He decided to take what Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the house of God—the gold cups and plates—and use them for his feast. Nebuchadnezzar, throughout his entire reign, never thought to do such a thing.

They were locked away, and that's why I say this: he actually committed the unparalleled sacrilege of his day. Sacrilege is taking something that's holy, that's set apart, that is devoted to God, and using it for something that is unholy. That's exactly what he did, and that's exactly why we're going to see that he was judged. God hates pride, and He hates idolatry.

So, you have this man who is drinking, gets drunk, and decides, "Oh, we're going to pull out all of the gold vessels, and we're going to drink from them." He thinks that if they are worthy for God to drink out of, then he can raise himself to that level and show his people that he can drink from them. That's the mentality. That's the pride. None of us struggle with pride in here, right? No? I mean, if you're married, you know you struggle with pride because your wife might say, "Yeah, you'd look terrible in that. Don't wear that out because it's just not going to work."

I've realized that I'm kind of camouflaged with the background. Christian made that known to me, and I'm like, "Well, we are talking about a floating hand, so I'm just a floating head and hand." So, in Daniel chapter five, we have this drunken king, right? Another drunken king, and he resembles more of Nebuchadnezzar in chapter three, who erected a gold statue of worship to himself. That's what pride is, right? It's really the worship of ourselves.

He takes these vessels that are holy, separated for God, and what he did was bad. What he did was really awful. But when we look at when all of this happened, it gets even worse, believe it or not. When all of this happened, if you look in history, we know that the city of Babylon, where they are, was under siege by King Cyrus, by the Medes and the Persians.

So, is it a great idea to throw this wild party with a thousand of your noblemen and all of their wives, all these women, and all the concubines—basically just temple prostitutes, people that were prostituting themselves and were probably ripped from their families as well? It's just sin on top of sin on top of sin. And then, "Hey, we're going to grab these golden goblets that are for God." They were made for the temple of God, these beautiful golden goblets, and now we're going to drink out of them. It's a great idea. It's a terrible idea.

When he did it, though, he was under siege, right? His city was surrounded by an enemy. When your city is surrounded by an enemy army, I suggest it's probably not a great idea to throw a big party for yourself. There are only a couple of explanations that I could come up with for why a king would decide to throw such a party when his city is surrounded by the enemy. Well, one, if we know our history well, we know that Babylon was a great fortified city. The walls of the city were huge; some scholars estimate that they were over 100 feet tall.

The city walls of Babylon were wide enough for six chariots to ride around. Other scholars estimate that there were about 250 watchtowers on this city wall. Belshazzar could have thought, "We can kick back and relax and drink all we want because we're well protected." His men were in these 250 watchtowers, ready to see everything the enemy army was doing. In fact, they had food stored up for 20 years. They were confident they could outlast any siege.

The city also had the Euphrates River running right through it, which provided a source of water and created a moat around the wall. This made it a very hard city to penetrate. The gates of the wall were said to be made of metal, which was incredible considering this was built 500 years before the time of Christ. It was an impressive feat for Babylon.

In his pride, Belshazzar might have thought that throwing a party was just a morale boost for his people, who were feeling down and surrounded. Nobody wants to be cooped up in a city, even a beautiful one. However, this could also be seen as a coping mechanism. When people are stressed, anxious, and pressured, they often turn to something to cope. How many of us, when faced with pressure, turn to alcohol, drugs, or other unhealthy coping mechanisms?

Alcohol can fog the mind and slow down the process of coping and healing, making it difficult to make good decisions. Belshazzar's actions seemed to be a defiance against God, as if to say, "I am so great that I can throw a party while my city is being besieged." That is a clear example of pride. Meanwhile, he was praising the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood—everything that his city was made of.

Then, immediately in verse 5, the finger of God, the finger of a human hand, appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. The lampstand would have likely been taken from the temple, adding to the significance of the moment. It is striking to picture the king, completely drunk, in the presence of such a divine message.

That's next to this plaster wall, which is probably taken from the temple, lighting up the hand of God, writing on the wall that he's doomed. As soon as the king sees this, he sees the hand as it writes. The king's color changed; he went pale. His thoughts alarmed him, his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. It's a funny picture, really.

But more accurately, what happens when you're like this? What happened? Was that an accurate description of what happened with the king? I think it is. When you go into the original language, it actually says more like he soiled himself. So when I ask what happens when the hand of God appears, the hand of judgment appears in your life, I say, well, it depends. At least the king—there's my dad joke for the day—wished he had worn his pants that day.

Now you have this soiled king who just crapped himself, and he's freaking out. His knees are knocking together, and he's instantly sober. He's instantly thinking, somebody needs to tell me what this means. The hand of God, though, appears throughout the pages of Scripture. The hand of God appears from the beginning to the end. That same finger of God that wrote on the plaster wall in the king's palace is the same hand of God that had written before and is going to write again.

In fact, I could do a whole message on the finger of God appearing throughout Scripture. It's pretty incredible when you think about it. The same finger that spelled out doom for Belshazzar earlier had spelled out doom for another great king, namely Pharaoh in Egypt. When all of the plagues were falling on Egypt, Pharaoh called his magicians back into him, the wise men of the day, and he asked them, what the heck is going on? They said, this is nothing other than the finger of God.

Not long after that, we see in Exodus chapter 31 that God handed Moses on Mount Sinai the two tablets with the Ten Commandments that were written by the finger of God. We see the finger of God appear even in the New Testament. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus stated that when he was challenged because he was casting out demons by the finger of God, the hand of God has the power to cast out demons. Amen? He said, but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then you know that the kingdom of God has come upon you.

The same finger, the finger of God, stooped down in the dirt and wrote when the evil religious leaders of the time caught a woman in adultery. Why they were looking through a window, we don't know, because you needed two or more witnesses to witness the act in order to accuse her and stone her. But here's my theory: this poor woman was thrown right before Jesus. She had been caught in the act of adultery. The religious leaders said, "Jesus, your scripture, your law says we can stone her." They were all riled up, asking, "Jesus, what do you say?"

Jesus stooped down to the ground and simply wrote. The scripture doesn't say what he wrote, but some scholars, and I agree with them, suggest that he was writing out the sins of each one of those Pharisees. After he had written out the sins of those watching him, he said, "Now any of you who is without sin, cast the first stone." That is what the finger of God does.

We see the hand of God, the finger of God, pronounced judgment in the Old Testament, right? The law in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, we see the hand of God touch lepers—something nobody else did—and heal them. We see the hand of God raise up people who could not walk, allowing them to walk and dance on their feet again. We see the finger of God heal the sick. We see the hand of God make bread and fish for 5,000 people. Throughout scripture, we see the hand of God doing incredible things, casting out demons and freeing people from their past sins.

The same hands of God that performed all of those miracles are the same hands that were pierced for your transgressions on that cross. The same hands of God that you will see one day in heaven when you meet Jesus face to face and he shakes your hand will be the nail-scarred hands. That is powerful to think about—the hand of God throughout time.

That same hand of God wrote through the prophet Isaiah, "I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols." Belshazzar learned that the hard way. He was praising all these craven images, the gods of gold, silver, iron, bronze, wood, and stone—all things made by God. When you don't worship the Creator, you end up worshiping the created. Always.

We are religious beings, and we are going to worship something. Belshazzar had a very good reason to fear because the scriptures remind us that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Amen? It is a fearful thing to...

Fall into the hands of the living God. And that's exactly what Belshazzar did. He called for the magicians, the Chaldeans, the sorcerers, the enchanters, and the wise men of the day. These were the people who had been called twice before for Nebuchadnezzar, and now, for the third time, we see them to be absolutely useless. The wise men of the day lacked the spirit of God within them, rendering them incapable of discerning the will and purpose of God.

One might wonder if they ever learned their lessons. Do we ever learn from history? Why were these men even still around? Every time they were called for the most significant matters, the king summoned them, offering to make them second in command only to him in the kingdom. He promised to clothe them in purple and put a gold chain around their necks if they could just interpret the writing and tell him what it meant. Yet, none of them could.

In the midst of all this commotion, we see a shift in the scene. In verse 10, the queen enters. In some translations, she is referred to more accurately as the queen mother. She was likely Nebuchadnezzar's wife who had survived him. If Daniel was still alive, it is reasonable to believe that this was indeed Nebuchadnezzar's wife. She had assumed the role of queen mother, acting as a mediator between the people and King Belshazzar. Her purpose was to provide guidance and counsel to the king.

However, it is noteworthy that she was not present at the party. When she arrived, having heard the commotion and the news that the king had lost his color and was in distress, she approached him. She informed him that there was a man in his kingdom, in whom dwelled the spirit of the living God—namely, Daniel. She urged him to call for Daniel, as he could interpret the writing and provide the answers needed.

I believe that this queen mother had witnessed Nebuchadnezzar's journey from the height of glory in his kingdom to a state where he acted like an animal, eating like a donkey. Eventually, he repented, recognizing the Lord Most High, the King of Kings, who is above all. This King of Kings has the power to place individuals in positions of authority or remove them as He chooses. When Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that God was in control and recognized Him as Lord, he was transformed.

Restored back to His throne, I believe that this queen mother witnessed all those things and shares a very good possibility that she is going to be one of the people we meet in heaven. She was not at that party, and I believe there’s a good chance that she worshiped our Lord.

Now, we know a couple of things here because she shows up and says, "Call for Daniel." Daniel does show up, but I have to ask the question. When I read stories like this, I see how God was so gracious and merciful with Nebuchadnezzar. He allowed Nebuchadnezzar to be brought low and humbled, and then He restored him. After Nebuchadnezzar basically said, "I am like God; I created Babylon," God immediately struck him down and humbled him.

Now, why then, with Belshazzar, do we see that he shows up in one chapter and one chapter alone? By the end of the chapter, he is gone; he has been judged. God did not give him a year of grace.

Point number two on your outlines is this: we dare not presume upon the grace that God has shown to others. It is important that we realize this because what happens is we often say, "Well, God was so gracious with them; I can just make my life right when I'm old." Have you heard that line of argument before? "I can just make my life right when I'm older."

Did I hit point one? Did I skip that? I think I might have skipped it. I'm so sorry. Okay, point number one—I'm just getting ahead of myself, as I do—is that God's hand of judgment does not show up without just cause, which we are seeing too.

We often say, "God is not fair," right? If we're judged, we all have a line that’s crossed. They say if somebody crosses that line, whatever that line is, "I'm going to punch them." If someone crosses that line, I want them just to be judged. If somebody speeds past me on the freeway, I want that cop to pull them over. We all have that line in our lives where, if something's crossed, we want judgment.

God has a line, and Belshazzar found that line when he committed the ultimate sacrilege by taking what was devoted and dedicated to God and using it for unholy purposes, elevating himself to be like God. He knew what he was doing. So, God's hand of judgment does not show up without just cause.

And then we come to this next point.

We don't presume upon the grace that God has shown to others. We don't say, "Well, God has been so gracious with all these other people. He gave them years. He gave them so much time to repent. I'm just going to take advantage of that. God's gracious, so if I just commit this little sin over here, God is going to be so gracious to forgive me, and I'll just repent, and everything will be fine." Then, I might just do it again and again. The Apostle Paul warns us not to live like that. Don't do that. Don't live your life in such a way because you're cheapening the grace of God.

God's grace is here for us, and we can run to Him because He was nailed to that cross, bearing the punishment and the penalty of our sins. This means that we should be running from our sins to the grace of God, not to the grace of God so we can sin. We need to be careful about that. The devil loves to come into our lives and say, "You can just go ahead and sin because God is so gracious. He'll forgive you so fast." It sounds so good, and then we do it. Afterward, the devil comes back and says, "Well, grace was going to be really easy for you to find."

Then we might say, "Okay, I committed this sin. I feel guilty. I'm a Christian, and I just did something I shouldn't have. I touched something I shouldn't have. I did something with somebody else that I shouldn't have." The devil then whispers in your ear, "Yeah, you are a terrible person. Guess what? God doesn't want anything to do with you. You aren't a real Christian. You can't turn back to God." He makes God's grace and God's forgiveness seem unreachable.

That's why we don't presume upon the grace of God. We don't know the number of our days. We like to think that we have years and years left, but we do not know the number of our days. The God who formed us in our mother's womb, the God who knows the number of hairs on your head and knows your thoughts, also knows the last breath you're going to take and the last night that you're going to have. Therefore, it's good for us to live every day as if it were our last.

Now, the queen mother appears again, and Daniel is brought in. I encourage you to go back and read this whole story because I won't be able to go verse by verse through the entire thing. Daniel was brought in before the king. The king answers and says to Daniel, "You are that Daniel." This started off interesting. The king is probably looking at Daniel and thinking, "Okay, what's up?" He says, "You're that Daniel." Daniel responds, "Yeah, I'm that Daniel. The one that my father brought from captivity from Judah." Daniel is probably thinking, "Yeah, and a little more than that. Your father also castrated me and made me learn a new language and tried to make me worship other gods."

Belshazzar saw Daniel as just a captive from Judah. Christians, sometimes people will view you as someone who is chained to God. They want nothing to do with you or what God has to offer through you. Belshazzar acknowledged that Daniel was one of those exiles from Judah whom his father had brought. He said, "I have heard that you have an excellent spirit in you, the spirit of the gods, and that light, understanding, and excellent wisdom are found in you."

Here is where Belshazzar actually condemns himself. He admitted, "I knew about you, and I wanted nothing to do with you in my kingdom. I knew what you did for Nebuchadnezzar, and I knew all these things, but I wanted nothing to do with you because I am prideful."

He then called for the wise men and enchanters, but they could not provide the interpretation of the matter. Belshazzar turned to Daniel, saying, "I've heard that you can solve these problems and interpret this." He offered Daniel a reward, stating, "If you can interpret these, I will clothe you with purple, give you a gold chain around your neck, and make you third in the kingdom." His father, Nabonidus, was the king who was away on conquest at the time, so he could only offer the third position in the throne.

Daniel responded, "Thanks for your offer, but I am not going to take any of it. In fact, I don't want any of it because I don't want you to think that I am influenced by what you are about to give me." Sometimes, people offer us great things, and we might feel compelled to say anything to get what they have to offer. However, Daniel made it clear that he was not influenced by the king's offer at all. He stated, "I am influenced only by what God has said on that wall. It is my job to be faithful and tell you exactly what that says and to interpret it for you."

This is exactly what we do here at Cross Connection Church every week. We look at the Word of God written on the pages of Scripture and interpret it for ourselves so we can grow in our faith and become more like Jesus. Amen?

Daniel answered before the king, "Let your gifts be for yourself, and your rewards for another." Daniel understood that the king had nothing to offer because he knew, even before the king did, that his throne and kingdom were coming to an end. He realized that this king would be dead by the end of the night.

He had nothing, therefore, to offer because it was nothing; he had nothing to give. His time had ended. When we go before God, we're going to have nothing to give, right? We can't say, "I can give you something, God. Wait, here, hang on, I can give you something." No, the only thing we can say is, "I followed your son, Jesus Christ."

He says this: "Nevertheless, I will read the writing of the king and make known to him its interpretation. O king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father, kingship and greatness and glory and majesty." Because of the greatness that God gave him, all peoples, all nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. This is to attest to the greatness of Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold.

However, when this king's heart, in verse 20, was filled with a spirit that was so hard that he dealt proudly, he got puffed up with pride. The Lord brought him down and made him low. The glory was taken from him, and he was driven from among the children of mankind. His mind was made to be like that of the beast, and his dwelling was like that of the wild donkeys. He was fed grass like the ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven until he knew that the most high rules the kingdom of mankind and sets over it whom he will.

Daniel doesn't start with, "Here's the interpretation of mini, mini, tekel, parson." He starts with a history lesson that condemns Belshazzar even more. He says, "Belshazzar, you knew about all of this. You knew about what Nebuchadnezzar went through, the greatest king of Babylon, and you decided to do nothing." None of us are going to be innocent when we face the judgment of God.

Then, in verse 22, he says, "You, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this. But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have all drunk from these vessels from the house of God. You have praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know. But the God in whose hand is your breath—everyone breathe in—God just gave you a breath. The God in whose hand is your breath and whose are your ways you have not honored."

The Bible says that we make plans, but the Lord establishes our ways. He establishes our steps and directs us where we're going. Yes, we have free will.

God is also sovereign over the affairs of mankind, including the affairs of America and all the nations around us. Daniel spoke this truth to this young king. The real tragedy in my heart, when I read this, is that Belshazzar doesn't repent. We never see anywhere that Belshazzar repents. This is what makes him a foreshadowing of the Antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist. He doesn't repent. He does not recognize that there is a God who rules the King of Kings.

Then, in verse 24, we read that from His presence, His hand was sent, and the writing was inscribed: "mini, mini, tekel, and parson." The interpretation of the matter follows. God has numbered your days, and the kingdom has been brought to an end. Tekel: you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. And Perez: your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, given a golden chain around his neck, and made to be the third ruler in the kingdom. But that very night, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king, was killed, and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.

The writing meant numbered, weighed, and divided. Remember, we had the head of gold in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and the second image was the chest and the arms of silver, meaning you have a divided kingdom. The two arms of the kingdom represent the Medes and the Persians. It has been divided. Daniel spoke these words to the king as the enemy was already in their city. That's pretty wild. I don't know if Daniel knew that the enemy was in their city, but when he spoke these words, the enemy had already come through the city. They had diverted part of the Euphrates River so it did not run into the city, allowing the troops to come in on dry ground under the city walls.

Some scholars and historians actually say that these troops were welcomed by the people of the city because they despised King Belshazzar and his nobles. When we have rulers and leaders of nations that despise their own people, we should not be shocked when the people welcome in an enemy army to take over. They are essentially saying, "You guys are terrible. You treat us terribly. You're having this big drinking party while we're surrounded. You're not trying to protect us; you're trying to please yourself. You're looking out for yourself, not your people."

Now, Daniel told Belshazzar plainly his sin and why he was being judged. It was a very swift judgment because Belshazzar mocked God. All sin is sin, but guilt and...

Punishment is proportionate to the knowledge that we have of right and wrong. Does that make sense? All sin is sin, and all sin leads to death—the ultimate death, right? We're all going to die because we've sinned. We've been born into sin. All sin is sin, which leads us away from God. However, guilt and punishment for that sin are proportionate to the knowledge that we have.

Here's the deal: Belshazzar knew better. He had knowledge of King Nebuchadnezzar, and he knew better. Yet, he remained willfully ignorant. The Apostle Paul talks about people like that, who, even though they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, were given over to their own desires. They knew of God but did not glorify Him as God. It's like Belshazzar knew of God, but he decided, "I'm not going to glorify You as God. I am God. I'm Belshazzar." That's pride.

Peter also discussed this, noting that people choose to be willfully ignorant. Though they know the truth of God, they despise that truth and allow it to escape them because they want it to. Does that sound like the generation we're living in today? We tell this generation the truth, and they respond, "I don't want to listen to that truth. I have my truth, and that's all that matters." Your truth is relative to you, and they choose to follow their own path. We say, "Okay, but you're allowing truth to escape you." So, you're being willfully ignorant, and God is going to judge you for that. God has a spirit of truth that He gives to each one of us—the Holy Spirit.

Pride is a problem for God. It is one of the seven deadly sins and is always an issue for Him. Yet, we all deal with pride at some level in our own lives. The question then becomes: What areas in your life are you proud? One of my favorite authors, G.K. Chesterton, if you ever read his writings, was a brilliant guy. He said that if he had just one sermon to preach, it would be a sermon on the sin of pride. I thought, man, that is so true because ultimately, I think pride is the root of all other sins. It starts with the idea that pride is very much like the reason the devil was kicked out of heaven. In his pride, he said, "I can be like God. I can be worshiped like God." And that's pride. Even today, there are people who identify as Satanists.

Those who worship in the Church of Satan may claim, "I don't worship Satan." However, what they actually worship is the same thing that Satan worships: pride in themselves. They elevate themselves to the level of God, believing they can decide what is right and wrong for themselves. God hates that sin.

So, what is the opposite of pride? It is humility. We can either humble ourselves and look up to God, or we can be humbled by God on the day of judgment. There are really two different options. We might wonder, what does being humble really mean? Our generation struggles with humility. Everyone wants to be heard, but nobody wants to listen. We all have something to say, yet no one is willing to listen. Does that sound accurate?

This is why platforms like Twitter are so popular; everyone has something to say to the whole world, but then nobody wants to listen. Humility is about listening, particularly listening to God and His Scriptures, the Word of God, the handwriting on the wall. If you are humble, you are not thinking less of yourself, as C.S. Lewis points out. Some people mistakenly believe that being humble means thinking, "Oh, I'm just so terrible." That is not humility; that is false humility.

Real humility, as C.S. Lewis says, is thinking of yourself less. It is about thinking less of yourself and thinking more of God and more of others. This aligns with the two greatest commandments: love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This means you are focused on God and on others. That is why we live life in connection with God, one another, and the world. That is humility.

If you do not worship the Creator, God, then you will end up worshiping something that is created. The Scriptures tell us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We will all one day give an account before God for our sins. God will judge us, and everything that is hidden in our lives will be made known on that day. You might think, "Oh, there are things I've done that nobody knows about," and believe you will be fine. But God knows, and nothing in your life is hidden that will not be revealed on the day of judgment.

Hebrews chapter 9 reminds us that it is appointed for men to die once and then to be judged. The day we breathe our last breath will also be the day we breathe our first breath before King Jesus. Point number three is that we all have a day of judgment. We all have a day of judgment.

If you knew that you had five days left to live, who would be the first person you called? What would be the first thing you said? Who would you need to reconcile with? It's a really good exercise for Christians to think like this because those are the things we ought to have been doing already: reconciling with people and apologizing for things we've done.

Consider what affairs you would need to get in order if you knew your time was limited to five days. We don't know the number of our days. People die in car accidents, from flus, illnesses, and all sorts of things that can be completely random. We do not know what day will be our last. We all have a day of judgment, and that day will be different for each of us. It will be the day we breathe our last and stand before King Jesus, giving an account for all that we've done.

That's why I say thank God for Jesus. As Christians, we can stand before God the Father in heaven as if we were Jesus, with the righteousness of Christ, because Jesus stood before God the Father as if He were you, bearing your sin, guilt, and the punishment you deserved. He took it on the cross, and that's why His nail-scarred hands will be in heaven. He stood before God as if He were you, and that's why He bore that cross for your sins.

If you are not confident about what will happen on the day of judgment, I suggest that this morning you try to get right with Jesus. He wants you to reconcile with Him. He is a gracious and forgiving God.

The second group I want to address this morning, as we close with point number four, is that King Jesus is in the business of cleansing unholy vessels. We just read about a king who took vessels from Jerusalem to Babylon to be stored away because the people of Jerusalem were captive. They took the best of the best to Babylon. We might say, "I can't believe that Belshazzar did this and that at that party with those dedicated cups, those cups that were holy to God." But I would ask, as the church, who are the sacred vessels today?

Who are holy, dedicated, and set apart today? You and me. When you believe in Jesus Christ and He comes into your life, He gives you a new heart, a heart that's worthy of being the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. He makes you new because He is in the process of making all things new. Now, you are a temple of the living God; your body is that temple.

While I could point out what others have done with the articles taken from God's temple, I ask you, what are you doing with your body? Do we use our bodies for unholy things? Yes. The good news is that Jesus is in the process of making all things new. King Jesus is in the business of cleansing unholy vessels. Whether you believe in Him or not today, He can cleanse you.

If you believe in Him and recognize that you have done some things with your holy vessel that are unholy, you are not alone. Many of us have done things we shouldn't have done. Perhaps you drank too much, self-medicated, or engaged in conversations you knew were inappropriate. You may have had impure thoughts or looked at things on your phone that you shouldn't have. We think of all these actions and realize we have made our holy vessels unholy. Yet, King Jesus is in the process of making you holy. This process is called sanctification.

Paul tells us this in 2 Timothy 2, and I will invite the worship team up here in a minute. In 2 Timothy 2, verses 20 and 21, it says, "Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some for honorable use, some for dishonorable use. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself of what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work." That's good news. Amen?

You might say, "Okay, but I've done this and this and this, and I feel really guilty about these things. What if somebody called it out?" This feeling is what I call imposter syndrome. You sit in church and wonder if you are a real Christian. You think that if someone knew what you had done with your body, they would call you out. Imposter syndrome is a psychological idea where you worry about being exposed as a fraud.

This is why Jesus says that in the body of Christ, we need to confess our sins to one another.

That way, we can be forgiven of those sins. Many of us, as Christians, believe in Jesus, but then we trip. We have that mountaintop camp experience where we recommit our lives to Jesus Christ or commit our lives to Him for the first time. We say, "I am all for Jesus. King Jesus is my King."

But then what happens is we come down from the mountain, just like the disciples came down from feeding the 5,000. We get into the water, and there's a storm, and then we freak out. We mess up. We sin. Then we say, "Okay, but now I've done something that's unholy with my body. I fell back into a sin I know I shouldn't have fallen into." What happens is we get chained to this guilt of our past. We get chained to this guilt so we can't even enjoy the present or look forward to the future.

A lot of us have said, "I'm not going to serve in the church because I feel like I'm still guilty." Does that resonate with any of you? Like, I don't feel like I'm good enough to serve. I say, "No, we need to break that chain of guilt from our past because King Jesus is in the business of cleansing unholy vessels."

At Cross Connection Church, we have a commitment to serve one another. That's why, again, I'll mention VBS. We do need people to teach our youth. We need your kids in that VBS to learn about Jesus, not only to learn about Him but also to befriend other kids who don't know Jesus. You see, that has generational impacts. It doesn't matter how dirty you've made your vessels; King Jesus can make them clean.

I'm going to invite the worship team up. We're going to play a song, and during this song, I want you to really think about what you need to repent of. What in your life, whether it be pride or some other sin, are you tied to? What are you tethered to that's holding you back from enjoying the present fullness of God right now and looking forward to the future where He will use you as holy vessels, sacred and set apart for good works? Amen?

Perhaps some of you are not yet committed to serving God because you feel like you're too dirty. You think, "God could never accept me." No, God is in the business of cleansing unholy vessels.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I lift up, Lord, those who do not yet know You. Lord, those who have not made Jesus, the King, the Lord of their life. Perhaps today is the day that they would commit to following Him as their Lord, as the King of kings, as the God who numbered the hairs on their head, the God who made them and fashioned them from their mother's womb special, who made them for good purposes, Lord.

And they need to turn to You and repent. Lord, they need to confess their sins before You and commit to following You all the days of their life until they see You face to face. I pray that You would stir their hearts. May today be the day that they surrender to King Jesus. May they not be like Belshazzar and fail to repent.

Father, there are those of us this morning who have been Christians for a long time, perhaps. However, something in our past, something we still feel guilty about, is holding us back from living in the fullness that You have called us to and being used for good works. Lord, would You free us from those chains that hold us back? Would You cleanse us and send Your Holy Spirit to fill us up afresh?

Lord, weed out any areas of sin in our hearts and lives. Send us forth with the spirit that Daniel had—the excellent spirit—so that others can see that we know God. Give us that excellent spirit, Lord, that Daniel had, the excellent spirit that King Jesus had.

I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's worship Him. Amen.