Well, I invite you to turn, if you're a visitor this morning, we are in the book of Daniel, making our way through this book, and today we come to the end of the narrative section as we look at Daniel, the well-known, one of the most well-known stories in the Old Testament, Daniel in the lion's den, and we're going to be considering this chapter. Page 882 in the Bibles that are in front of you, let's give our attention this morning to the word of the Lord. Beginning at verse one, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom and over them three high officials of whom Daniel was one to whom the satraps should give account so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no fault for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, o king darius live forever all the high officials of the kingdom the prefects and the satraps the counselors and governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes a petition to any god or man for 30 days except to you o king shall be cast into the den of lions now o king establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians which cannot be revoked therefore King Darius signed the document and injunction when Daniel knew that the document had been signed he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his god then they came near and said before the king concerning the injunction oh king did you not sign an injunction that anyone who makes petition to any god or man within 30 days except to you oh king shall be cast into the den of lions the king answered and said the thing stands fast according to the law of the medes and persians which cannot be revoked then they answered and said before the king daniel who is one of the exiles from judah pays no attention to you o king or the injunction you have signed but he makes his petition three times a day then the king when he heard these words was much distressed and set his mind to deliver daniel and he labored till the sun went down to rescue him then these men came by agreement to the king and said to the king no no o king that it is the law of the medes and persians that no injunction or ordinance that the king establishes can be changed then the king commanded and daniel was brought and cast into the den of lions the king declared to daniel daniel may your god whom you serve continually deliver you and a stone was brought and laid on the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet with the signet of his lord's that nothing might be changed concerning daniel then the king went to his palace and spent the night fasting no diversions were brought to him and sleep fled from him then at break of day the king rose and went in haste to the den of lions and he came near to the den where daniel was and cried out in tone of anguish the king declared to daniel oh daniel servant of the living god has your god whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions then daniel said to the king oh king live forever may god my god sent his angel and shut the lion's mouths and they have not harmed me because i was found blameless before him and also before you oh king i've done no harm then the king was exceedingly glad and commanded that daniel be taken up out of the den so daniel was taken up out of the den and no kind of harm was found on him because he had trusted in his god and the king commanded that those men who had maliciously accused daniel were brought and cast into the den of lions they their children and their wives and before they reached the bottom of the den the lions overpowered them and broke all their bones and pieces then king darius wrote to all the peoples nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied to you i make a decree that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble in fear before the god of daniel for he is the living god enduring forever his kingdom shall never be destroyed and his dominion shall be to the end he delivers and rescues he works signs and wonders in heavens and on earth he who has save daniel from the power of the lions so this daniel prospered during the reign of darius and the reign of cyrus the persian and there ends the reading of the scriptures well at the end of chapter one it was stated there at the end of chapter one that daniel continued until the reign of king cyrus and you'll notice the connection here that closes out the first major section narrative section of the book that says that Daniel continued and prospered during the reign of Darius reign and the reign of Cyrus the Persian so Daniel Daniel's the one being preserved here and Daniel has been preserved now through the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel has been preserved through the reign of Belshazzar and Daniel has been preserved now through the reign of darius and it ends on the note of cyrus which is the end of their time in babylon and the great pressing issue of the book so far is to show god's preserving power of his people in exile and in times of difficulty and even persecution i believe this concept of preservation is where uh this this end section here is leaving us at the end of chapter six Daniel was preserved through the most scary and difficult of times. Kingdom changes. Think of all these kingdom changes that happen. Under new reigns, it would be like a nation, a foreign nation coming and taking over Washington. Couldn't even imagine it. This is what they're living in. Well, today he ends up in the lion's den. That may be the worst of thoughts to us, the worst of fears, to be fed to a group of hungry lions for our faith but this last chapter of narrative is extremely important today not just because it's one of the most well-known passages in the scriptures popular but because of what it's saying to us and because of what it's showing us and what who it is showing us before we jump into the apocalyptic stuff of Daniel beginning next week in chapter 7 which will be fascinating even if the whole world turns against us even if the worst kind of persecution broke out against christians we are meant to see something in this book we are meant to see in our exile god's preserving power that god is sovereign over this all and that in this life whatever is happening whatever's happening is all coming from the throne room in heaven to showcase the glorious kingdom of His Son. That's the kind of perspective we have to have through all the seasons of life in this world. Even if all the world turns against us. This is God who has done this. God is doing something in the earth. That's what we've been seeing in Daniel. and when we appreciate that when we understand that all of our frets and all of our worries and our attempts to think about this to stop all the evil that's happening in the earth well we're not in control of much are we we're not in control of much are we kind of like a child running down the aisle when he gets away from their parent you're not really in control of that are you well you should be a little bit i think but you know michael's doing a good job well this is the best place to be today i want to look at daniel's persecution and daniel's perspective through this all and then daniel's deliverance so you remember last time darius had received the kingdom having been 62 years old god had brought an end to babylon babylon was done as we know it in history and that was god's doing god had uprooted them god had sent remember darius in as they were partying in belshazzar's kingdom and now the medes and the persians under darius are ruling the kingdoms of the earth as nebuchadnezzar's vision had said just what would be has now come but we read in chapter one that it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps major rulers over the whole kingdom he's establishing the kingdom's greatness he's establishing the kingdom's power in the earth and three over three sort of presidential figures and one of these figures was Daniel who's now an old man probably in his 80s verse 3 makes clear that he had Daniel had distinguished himself above all the governors and the satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. God had so blessed Daniel that even in the Persian kingdom, he's recognized. He has a place in the Persian kingdom and he's set over the realm. Now this is important to note as we've been saying, we're not revolutionaries. We're not those who are seeking to overturn kingdoms. Daniel, in serving wicked kingdoms of this world, is a good citizen in that kingdom. He's laboring in that kingdom. He respects the king. Did you notice? O king, live forever. That's not a just king. He's not a revolutionary. He's somebody who believed Romans 13. And what became evident even to the king is god's blessing was on this man but he being different he being a jew he did not sacrifice his faith did he he being a righteous man all of a sudden he has provoked great jealousy among the medes and the rulers in the kingdom so what we have described is a is a giant conspiracy against daniel the governors the satraps they tend tempt to bring a charge against Daniel but notice the language here at the first part they could find no charge against him because he was faithful in all things we read nor was there any fault found in him now we've been looking at what happens in nations you know this gets very personal here now the the text zeros in on Daniel and we're looking at what the evil one does when he begins to persecute the righteous and it's quite a moment to study mark it understand it i'm sure you're weary of what happens in our times to political leaders when they run for office you can all expect that whatever skeleton has been in their life whatever they did even maybe back in high school is going to be drug out and it will be brought out to ruin their reputation and their ability to run for office we're so used to this now we're so used to this but it's just dog eat dog in our party party line atmosphere they're going to pull out whatever's in your past it's an age-old problem that happened right here it's exactly what they're trying to do to daniel they're trying to find some kind of moral failing in daniel's life according to their own laws first because there is a natural law there is a law of things in kingdoms some fault some scandal some theft some taking of money whatever it might be anything that they could to ruin him didn't pay his taxes you know what if the government began persecuting us what if they conspired and they started going through your bank accounts and they started searching computers what if they wanted to study your whole private life that they have access to to find something to ruin you could they could they what would they find in your life would anyone be free from the scrutiny would you have a blameless and perfect life when god blesses his servants in society this is what the wicked one wants to do he wants to discredit the faith and discredit the figure by finding something in life to rule them out and this is why paul would say and all things show yourself to be a pattern of good works and doctrine showing integrity reverence incorruptibility sound speech that cannot be condemned that one who is an opponent may be ashamed having nothing evil to say of you i think he had this in mind if someone looked what would they find here's the point they found nothing in daniel what a figure innocent of all charges i mean we don't even believe this about our political figures that it's possible tactic two that's tactic one tactic two then is this we're going to get him the only way is they get together if we're going to get him is if we can find something against the law of his god so so so notice this in other words notice carefully tactic two here of the evil one notice carefully tactic two that's happening here what are they saying we're gonna have to rig a scenario now where the law of the state becomes something that directly conflicts with the law of his god that's acts 5 29 that's what we're gonna that's what we're going after. So this is the great persecution tactic of the evil one throughout history. Make the law of the state conflict with the law of God, and then we'll really test their devotion. We'll really see if they're just paper Christians. See if they're real. We'll see as Satan said with Job. Does he fear God for nothing? Let's see how committed they really are. In our day it would sound something like this. You cannot buy or sell in our society any longer if you hold to the Scriptures. Or if you hold to this idea that marriage is between a man and a woman that's done your ability to go to the store is over daniel's situation's worse they go to darius to directly take down daniel and they say long live the king oh all the governors of the kingdom the administrators the satraps the counselors and inviters we've had a meeting established and we have a statute that we've written we've put together the law. This didn't even come from him. This is written by the leaders in the kingdom to press now upon the king to sign it. We have a law and you're going to like this law, O king. Don't even think about it. We are putting into law that anyone, if anyone prays to any god or man for 30 days except you oh king he must be cast into the den of lions oh king establish the decree sign the document sign it this is good for you it's good for your kingdoms and and darius knows once he signs this it would be binding according to the law of the medes and the persians and i'm sure darius thought this is a great idea this is a great idea without thinking about it it's going to unite together my new kingdom it's going to show coherence and power in my kingdom. It's going to be loyalty to me and my kingdom. So off he signs. Now here's the important moment I think. Here's what they knew about Daniel. What do they know about Daniel? Why did they write this law? Because they knew he was a praying man. That's not unimportant. Imagine this for a moment. Lions are seven times more powerful than humans. I think their bite is something like 650 PSI. Imagine in every city if a lion's den were set up and the same decree went out. We don't want you praying to any god for 30 days except to Joe Biden. Now you guys laugh at that, but Darius and Cyrus were a lot more powerful than Joe Biden. What would we do? Well, for many, maybe it wouldn't matter because we never pray. Maybe some would say, it's just 30 days. Just 30 days. i mean just go back stay under kids come here just don't draw attention to yourself we don't want any conflict here with the government just go back stay under the radar it's just prayer or maybe we all of a sudden get really pious in this moment you know we really shouldn't be praying out in public anyway didn't jesus say that our faith should be private matter just close the windows for 30 days just close the windows God still sees God still hears close the windows everyone look at verse 10 now when Daniel knew that the document had been signed he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem he got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God ready as he had done previously I mean I'm sure the prayer wasn't like we pray remember my story when I was in Linden one time. And I didn't fold my hands in the congregational prayer. And a man was so disturbed about that. He walked up after. He says, you pastor need to fold your hands when you pray. And I said, dear brother, you need to close your eyes when you pray. Eyes lifted up. On his knees. Praying toward Jerusalem. The hope of the world. catch the last line nothing was different he didn't purposely go do something he wasn't doing before he kept doing what he had always been doing because his faith had always been evident before all here's the point the decree may have come that changed nothing in his walk with the lord look at how centered the man is he's just centered isn't he nothing phases him this one pastor said when prayer becomes fashionable praying in secret may be a good thing right head on out to the football field score the touchdown you bow down in front of everyone yeah that didn't cost you much that's pretty showy but But when prayer becomes proscribed or forbidden, to pray in private becomes an act of cowardice. We have lived in America trying to keep our religion private matter. Most of us are embarrassed to pray at the restaurant. We're embarrassed to pray in front of anyone seeing us pray. Prayer really is not fashionable these days. We've lived privatizing our faith to the point no one even knows we're believers aside from the hour and Sunday. Why? Because we don't want to be seen as fanatical. Weird. Everything about our faith should be just private. Not for Daniel. It couldn't be captured and put in a box. A light couldn't be put under a bowl. he was a fragrance of life and death to everyone he came around notice here daniel had a practice of prayer and i think the important thing to notice is he's so confident in the sovereignty of god here's the point he is so confident in the sovereignty of god this doesn't faze him a bit the lion's den doesn't faze him wouldn't you love to be here where you're so trusting in the Lord's sovereignty no matter what they say no matter what they do it doesn't faze you childlike trust God's got this He's in control of everything He ordained this so I don't have to fear and in that regard notice how confident he is what an encouragement to prayer in our lives you may be really struggling as all of us do with sin with failure with defeat i'm not laying a law of praying three times a day on you but i am saying you would do well to receive a lot of strength from the lord on your knees he'll give it not even a lion's den is facing him and there's a reason he had been praying the whole time what do you think he's praying he's praising god he's praying for the deliverance of israel he's praising god for his sovereignty that he rules over the kingdoms of men that's what we've seen well in the worst of scenarios this these men are spying on daniel and they see him praying so they go to darius and they said you know what he's doing he directly defied your decree which can't be changed darius you have got to throw him in the lion's den king is totally distressed he knows how great a man this is he knows it's unjust what they've done to him you're in verse 16 that the command came to cast him into the lion's den and darius last words are may your god whom you serve deliver you big stone is laid over the mouth of the den the king seals it with his own signet ring i don't know if there's too many ways worse of dying than to be eaten by hungry lions one lady records being attacked by three lions it was its weight was immense forced me into a twisted crouching position she says i felt the lion's hot breath on the back of my head as its jaws closed around my scalp, dragging my head down close to the ground. I don't remember making much noise. I felt strangely dislocated from reality from this strange upside-down position. I saw the other two lions moving toward me. I could feel teeth now, the male chewing on the back of my head like a dog toying with a bone. This is it, I thought. It's over. She was delivered. I think what most impresses me here is Daniel's calm resolve. What are we stressed about? What are we worried about? I think of Hebrews. You've not resisted yet even to bloodshed and you're striving against sin. And then he says, by faith they stopped the mouth of lions. We've never really even faced this kind of persecution. I tell you what, if it came, Christianity is going to be sifted through pretty quick from those who were just culturally attached to it. Just culturally attached to it. With no real commitment from those who are true believers. It would be made clear real quick. Nothing fazed Daniel. nothing changed no wavering of commitment to the lord i mean how many how many of us get mad at god for our circumstances that change and we blame him for them over the littlest of things because we expect a smooth sale from god we've been told in the health and wealth messages of this land something's wrong with your faith if you're not getting rich and you're not happy and you're not fulfilled. God would never do these things to you. Well, Darius, after a terrible night himself, crying over Daniel, calls out to Daniel the next morning, has your God been able to deliver you? It's as if Daniel had the restful night of sleep, cuddling with the lions. O king, live forever. my god sent his angel and shut the lion's mouth so that they have not hurt me because i was found innocent before him and also king i've done no wrong and daniel was taken out and no injury whatever was found on him darius makes a decree to all the nations in the earth that the god of here we are again another king the god of daniel is the living god his kingdom is not destroyed his dominion shall endure forever he delivers and rescues he works signs and wonders on earth he has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions what a message you know for today there was a sermon written years ago in our federation of churches titled the lion won't bite the innocent they made it all the way to a synod and there was a big debate because this particular sermon suggested that if you are innocent, you will escape the judgment. And it troubled a lot of people in the church, true believers who were trying to wrestle through how we're right with God and justification by faith. And I thought about this today. Is that the message here? What if the message today was that, you know, if you are as righteous as Daniel, you will not face the judgment. I've laid a pretty heavy burden on all of you today. I mean, seriously. Remember? Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Wade, Wade. It's just before this. Your life's weighed in the balances. And it's found in wanting, and now it's divided. Do you really think this book is aimed to be just a moral story? I've encouraged you to prayer. I've encouraged you to look at your life and never worry about a thing. Do you think your pastor does that perfectly? You know me, you know I'm kind of a worried mess. I have to repent of it constantly. I've told you never to fret. I've told you if the lion's den were set in front of you today and you were told, right, not to pray, it would be pretty easy to close the window. Pretty easy. This last narrative section of Daniel, beloved, tells us we need to be delivered from the metaphorical lion's den ourselves due to our rebellion against God. We worry about the Nebuchadnezzars of this world. We worry about the governments of this world, the Belshazzar's decree, Cyrus's. Is that what people are worried about? Changing times and trying to save the nations of this earth? Should we not be much more concerned with the greater judgment already rendered? All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That den of judgment is where everyone is headed without a Savior. And then you begin to see what this book is showcasing. Daniel shows us a righteous man in the kingdom. Whoa! A man in exile. Of all the oppressed people, a righteous figure whom everyone knew in the kingdom was innocent of all transgression. If they looked in their life, there was never anything. Teaching us something. And he was maliciously lied against. And they set up false witnesses against him. And they lied about him. And they lied about him the whole time. For what reason? Because of his righteousness. He was constantly found praying. You ever read the high priestly prayer of Jesus? Do you know when that happened? When he was heading to the lion's den for you. He's going to die and on his mind is your deliverance. Unjustly put in the tomb with a giant rock sealed over it just like Daniel. And after three days, the thing bursts out. He comes out of the tomb. Death could not touch him. And God has declared to the ends of the earth, to all the nations of the earth, whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And he prays for you because he loves you. This is your concern. The wrath and judgment of the great King who sits over all. Who gave His righteous servant to deliver you from the power of sin and death so that in Him the lions will never touch you. All nations need a righteous, humble King like this to save them from the wrath of Almighty God. I say these things frequently in an attempt to preach Christ. These aren't just nice stories that interest us. They're not just nice stories for us and our children. God is showcasing for us one story in the whole Bible. What happened to the men that conspired against Daniel? Verse 24. Now the king commanded and they brought those men who had accused Daniel And they cast them into the den of lions. Listen to this. Them, their children, and their wives. And the lions overpowered them and broke their bones into pieces before they ever got to the bottom of the den. Instead of doing that to you and your children, this is what it signifies. God saved you. Because the lion did bite the innocent. And that innocent one was Jesus for you. So I say, repent and believe the gospel. Best news ever. And then begin to enjoy this kind of peace with God that he intends for us in this life. That then we begin to see the kind of character of Daniel of trust. He's going to keep us. Because we have a righteous king who saved us in the gospel. And that gospel is the power of God for all who believe. And he wants you to enjoy that peace with God today that you have. Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful story. A story that showcases the great story of redemption. Bless this to our hearts and minds today. Encourage us in your love. Let us see what we've been delivered from. And let us not fear in this life for we belong to the Lord. Lord, if our lives were put out on the open, what shame would be brought out before all? What a wonderful truth that you cover our shame. That you take a giant robe of righteousness and throw it over us like that prodigal son so that all the filth of our lives, all the disgusting things we've done is covered up in the righteousness of Jesus. Thank you for giving us hope today. And thank you for blessing us through the study of this wonderful book of Daniel. Thank you for showing us this Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.