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Announcer: This is Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. Today's message, a series in the Book of Daniel, Week 2, Part 4. Enjoy and remember you can always catch up with past messages and stay up to date with Hope Lives 365 and Pastor Mark by going to HopeLives365.com. And now, Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: Welcome and thank you for joining us again for another study in the Book of Daniel. You know, God does answer prayer. We stream these programs on Daniel, these Bible studies, on a system called Restream. And Restream streams the programs to YouTube and to Facebook.

Well, Restream servers were down. We clicked on, couldn't get on, and we got together with our team. There's three of us. Matt Gray is our media director, George Washington Deverage is one of our media directors as well, and he's responsible for this Restream. So we were seeing what can we do? We don't want to disappoint our audience. We know God has a special message for tonight.

And we just prayed and prayed that the Lord would miraculously get us back on Restream so we could stream this program. We were looking at other platforms, including Zoom and so forth, and three minutes before the program was to go on the air at 7:57 Eastern time, Restream came back on. And George said, "Restream's back on." And so, here we are with you. We know God has a special blessing tonight.

You know, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. The devil is doing everything he can, of course, to interrupt at times, but our God is more mighty. Well, welcome to Daniel Chapter 6. We'll study it tonight, verse by verse. But before we do that, if you have any questions, we want to put up where you can send your questions at info@hopelives365.com.

That's info@hopelives365.com. Any questions, if you have questions on the Book of Daniel or even questions on the Bible, feel free to write us your questions at info@hopelives365.com. If you'd like the study guides for this series, we have a study guide each evening, you can go to hopelives365.com/weeklybiblestudy. That's hopelives365.com/biblestudy.

Let's pray, and then jump right into the Book of Daniel tonight. Father in heaven, how we thank you that we can open the Word of God, and in this secular age, an age of materialism and godlessness, we're thankful that the Word of God still speaks. We're thankful that the message from the Word of God never gets old. So speak to us through your Word tonight, we pray Thee, as we open our hearts to receive your blessing, and we know you have a special blessing for us tonight. I pray that you touch each one that's watching through your Holy Spirit. In Jesus name. Amen.

Well, let's summarize the first five chapters of the Book of Daniel. Where have we come from so far? In Daniel chapter 1, we studied about a God that turns defeat into victory. Daniel's taken captive. He purposes in his heart to serve God, and he comes out ten times better in wisdom than all those in the Babylonian realm. God turns defeat into victory, turns our sorrows into joy.

You can do nothing against the truth, 2 Corinthians tells us, but for the truth. So the devil tries to attack, to destroy, to distort, but Jesus is more powerful. Daniel 1, God who turns defeat into victory. Daniel chapter 2, that great dream of the image with the head of gold, breast and arms of silver, thighs of brass, legs of iron, feet of iron and clay. The great rock smites the image. God's kingdom is set up.

Daniel 2 reveals the God who's the true prophet, the God who can tell the future. There is none like him who can tell the end from the beginning. And if God can tell the future of nations, your life as well is in his hands. And then Daniel chapter 3, the story of the king's image. Daniel 2 is God's image. Daniel 3 is the king's image. This image of all of gold, where King Nebuchadnezzar wanted Babylon to last forever.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go into the fiery furnace. Jesus delivers them. So Daniel 3 is the story of the God who delivers. Daniel 1, the God who turns defeat into victory. Daniel 2, the God who reveals the future. Daniel 3, the God who delivers and redeems his people. Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar wanders around, eating grass like an ox, like a wild beast. Then he turns to heaven.

His pride is abased, and Nebuchadnezzar recognizes that God is ruler over all. So Daniel 4 is the God who rules over all. The God who's sovereign, the God who's true king. So in chapter 2, he's the true prophet. Chapter 3, he's the priest. Chapter 4, he's the king. Chapter 2, he is the revealer. Chapter 3, he is the redeemer. And chapter 4, he's the ruler. We come to chapter 5.

In chapter 5, we see Belshazzar on his last night. Judgment hangs over the nation of Babylon. It has crossed the boundary of God's mercy. It has filled up the cup of its iniquity, and the judgments of God fall. You know, there are those people that say, God is love, he'll never destroy sin, et cetera. God is love. 1st John 4:8, God is love. But love has two sides to it. There's the side of mercy and grace and the side of justice.

If God would allow sin to go on forever, that would not be just. And love is just. Love is fair. And so, in the destruction of Babylon, we see God's appeal to Babylon. Daniel had been in that nation for years, over 60 years. He had been giving God's call to that nation, just like Noah gave God's call for 120 years. And the Babylonians by and large rejected the call of God, and judgment fell.

So in our world today, God has a message going out to prepare the world for the coming of Jesus. As Jesus said in Matthew 24 verse 14, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, then shall the end come." So Jesus will not return until every human being on planet earth has had some intelligent possibility to accept his love and respond to his grace.

Of course, he's working on human hearts through his Holy Spirit, drawing people to himself. He's the light that lights everybody that comes into the world. He also is working through the providences of God. He's arranging circumstances in our life. He is also working through the beauties of nature. Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glories of God." And day unto day utters speech, night unto night utters knowledge.

Romans 1 talks about the fact that even the heathen can sense the majesty of God through nature. So God is doing everything he can through nature, through his providences, through his Holy Spirit, through his written word. He's doing everything he can to win everybody he can. But he respects freedom of choice, and the decree will go forth one day. "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still, and he that is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." So the decree one day will go forth. Judgment will fall.

Now, we come with that background. Did you get it? The first five chapters? I think you've memorized them, haven't you? Daniel 1, the God who turns defeat into victory. Daniel 2, the God who reveals the future. Daniel 3, the God who delivers his people. Daniel 4, the God who rules over all. Daniel 5, the God of justice and judgment. Now, we come to Daniel chapter 6. And Daniel chapter 6 is the end of the historical section of the Book of Daniel. Starting next week, we go into the prophetic section of the Book of Daniel that deals with end events. You don't want to miss that, of course.

Daniel 6, verse 1. It pleased Darius. So the Medes and Persians conquered the Babylonians at the end of chapter 5. At the end of chapter 5, that mysterious hand writes upon the wall, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting." You come now to Daniel 6. Medes and Persians have overcome the Babylonians. Darius is the king of the Medes, Cyrus of the Persians.

So, it pleased Darius, that's the king of the Medes, verse 1, Daniel 6, to set over the kingdom 120 satraps. That's princes, to be over the whole kingdom. And over these three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them, so that the king would suffer no lost. Verse 3. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him, and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.

So, let's think about this. Here you have King Darius. Here's the organizational chart. You have King Darius. Below King Darius, you have three governors. They report directly to the king. Then, you have these 120 princes that have different responsibility in the empire. Now, I want you to think about this. When one nation overthrows another nation, the prime minister of the nation that's been overthrown is not promoted to be prime minister of the nation that overthrows them.

There was something in Daniel that Darius saw. He saw the Bible says an excellent spirit. He saw in Daniel a man of integrity. He saw in Daniel a man that would not siphon off the revenues that were coming in. So, each of these 120 princes were responsible to govern for the king, but they were responsible for collecting the revenues, the taxes, and other revenues from each of these provinces.

When those revenues came in, they would be counted by these three governors and then go on to the king. If these governors were dishonest, they could be siphoning off, they could be stealing from the king, embezzling his money. And so the king knew he had to put Daniel there. He saw in Daniel a man of integrity, a man of honesty. I remember reading in Greek philosophy about Diogenes. And Diogenes walked through the streets of Athens with a candle in his hand, and somebody said, it was that dark night, he said, "What are you looking for?" And he said, "I'm looking for an honest man." Honest men and women always rise to the top. God blesses them abundantly. We may have some setbacks if we're honest, but God honors, God says, "Them that honor me, I will honor."

Announcer: We'll be right back with Pastor Mark Finley. We thank you for listening and hope you're enjoying today's message. Our mission is to attractively present the Christ-centered biblical truths of Scripture in a practical, relevant way to people around the world so that they may experience the abundant life that Christ offers, and effectively share with confidence his life-changing truths with others. You can support this ministry and help us reach even more by going to HopeLives365.com/donate. And now, back to Pastor Mark Finley.

Mark Finley: And so here, Darius recognized in Daniel something special. But the governors weren't too happy about that. Verse 4, so the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom. But they could find no charge or fault because he was faithful. Nor was there any error or fault found in him. I'm interested in this phrase, "he was faithful."

Daniel was faithful. Faithful to whom? Faithful to God. He determined in his heart to do nothing that would displease God. You remember what it said of Jesus, John 8 verse 29, Jesus said, "I always do those things that please him." So Jesus made a decision in every aspect of his life to be faithful to the Father. Daniel made that decision. He was faithful. Faithful to what? To whom? To God. Faithful to what? To the truths of Scripture.

Daniel would not violate the truths of Scripture. He would not bow to social pressure. He could not be bought or sold. It reminds me of a statement that I read, "The greatest want of the world is the want of men or women who cannot be bought or sold, whose commitment to God is stalwart." The greatest want of the world is the want of men and women who can't be bought or sold. Somebody said, "Everybody has their price." That's not true.

Daniel did not have his price. He would not sell out cheap for the pleasures of this world. Daniel was faithful, faithful to God, faithful to divine truth. So these three men meet. There is something that I want you to see here, and I call it the cascade of evil. The steps down on the pathway of perdition. There are four steps that these men take. First, they allow jealousy to fester in their hearts.

Second, they begin to scheme. Secondly, they enter into deceit. So it's first jealousy, then it's deceit. Jealousy leads them to lie to the king, and you'll see that. Then they begin to scheme of how they can get rid of Daniel, and ultimately they are ready to commit murder. So there's jealousy, deceit, scheming, and murder. Let's look at that.

Jealousy brings forth the fruit of deceit. Deceit brings forth the fruit of scheming to get rid of the one who you want to destroy. And the ultimate result of that is murder. Let's look at those things starting with Daniel 6. So the governors and the satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they couldn't find any charge. Why? They're jealous.

Verse 5. Then these men said, "We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of God." They're very jealous. So they go into the king with a plan. And what's their plan? They say, verse 7, "All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any God or man for 30 days, except you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions."

All the governors of the kingdom and the administrators and satraps have met to establish a royal decree that if you don't, if you worship any other God, you're going to be thrown in the den of lions. Look, that's a bold-faced lie. That's totally dishonest. It's falsehood. Why? They say all the governors of the kingdom have met and the administrators. Did all the governors meet? Certainly not. Daniel did not meet with them. They didn't have Daniel's input from this. So this is a lie.

So what do they do? Verse 8, they scheme. So jealousy has led to deceit. Deceit is leading to scheming. Verse 8. "Now, O King, establish the decree and sign the writing so that it cannot be changed." They're scheming. "We want to get rid of Daniel, but we're not going to tell the king." According to the law of the Medes and Persians. Therefore, king, sign the decree. Therefore, he signed a death decree for Daniel.

Now, one of the things that we want to study about tonight is how the human heart works and how the devil attempts to get rooted in the human heart so that things that we ourselves didn't know were there surface, and that they're lurking there and they came out at the right time. Keep your finger here in Daniel chapter 6, and we're going to go over to Hebrews chapter 12. The devil is a great schemer. The devil plants things in the human heart, and then those things come out at the right time.

I've heard somebody say to me, "Oh, this person made me angry." No, they didn't make you angry. Your angry words came out because there was anger in your heart. If there was no anger in your heart, those angry words would not have come out. Some people say, "Oh, everybody's doing it, so therefore I did it too." No, that desire was in your heart, and that desire was manifest in your actions. So, look what Scripture says.

Hebrews 12 verse 14 and 15. "Pursue peace with all men and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking diligently lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, by this many will be defiled." So the root of bitterness is there all the time, but it springs up. And that root of bitterness springs up in envy. That root of bitterness springs up in jealousy.

That root of bitterness that springs up in envy and jealousy leads to deceit, and that deceit leads to scheming, and that can ultimately lead to the do away with the one who's the enemy. So roots produce fruits, rather roots produce shoots, and shoots produce fruits. So there are two kinds of fruits. Galatians chapter 5. There are the fruits of the Spirit, and there are the evil fruits of satanic, the works of the flesh, the Bible calls them, the fruits of the Spirit and the works of the flesh.

So Galatians chapter 5. When the Spirit of God fills our heart, he roots out bitterness, he roots out envy, he roots out jealousy, he roots out lust, he roots out intemperance when the Spirit of God fills our heart. Galatians 5, "But the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love, joy, grace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Against such there's no law. So the fruits of the Spirit are the positive character qualities of love and joy and peace and long-suffering.

But there is another aspect too, verse 24. "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the passions of it." Because in verse 19 of Galatians 5, it says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident. They're adultery and fornication and uncleanness and lasciviousness and idolatry and sorcery and hatred and contentions and jealousies." Wait, the fruit of the flesh is what? Jealousy.

So, the governors had the fruits of the flesh. Jealousy that led to deceit, that led to scheming, that led to murder. That was a fruit of the flesh. Daniel was faithful, what did he have? The fruits of the Spirit. Love and joy and peace reigned in Daniel's heart. What is the lesson for us in all this? What's the lesson for us? The lesson for us is to search our own hearts. You remember what David prayed, "Search me, oh God, and try me to see if there's any wicked thing in me."

We pray God, "Is there any root in my heart that I have not surrendered to you? Is there any root deep within me that needs to be rooted out by the Holy Spirit so that the fruits of the Spirit can be manifest in my life?" Daniel knew that if he gave up his prayer life, he would give up his relationship with God. So we go down now to the death decree has been passed. Daniel 6 verse 10. "Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed," so he knew it was signed. Daniel knew that. He knew the writing was signed. He went home.

"And in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem," he wasn't hiding that. "He knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom very early." Daniel's prayer life was not spasmodic. It was not something he did today and let go tomorrow. He knew the writing was signed. But there are times when as the Bible says in Acts chapter 5, you ought to obey God rather than men.

Civil government has legitimate authority, but it does not have authority to pressure and force us to violate the law of God. It does not have that authority. And so here, the Scripture says that Daniel would not violate his conscience. He would not violate the law of the living God. Daniel knew that the writing was signed, and he went home. And in his upper room, he knelt down on his knees three times a day, and he prays. And he's seeking God.

So the argument that they use is that Daniel's relationship to God was not showing the king due respect. That Daniel was an outlaw. He was one that didn't go along with the laws of the kingdom. And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself. Why? He saw he had been duped. He saw that he had been tricked. He saw he had been fooled. And he was greatly displeased with himself. He wanted to deliver Daniel.

And so he asks his lawyers and attorneys and his key men to find out if there's any way the law could be changed. And they say, "There's no way." Verse 15. "Then these men approached the king and said to the king, 'Know, O King, that it's the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes can be changed.'" So the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But notice what the king says, "Your God whom you serve continually." I love the word "continually." "He'll deliver you."

Announcer: You've been listening to Hope Lives 365 with Pastor Mark Finley. We hope you've enjoyed today's message and remind you that you can find more in our many ministry resources at HopeLives365.com. And you can support this ministry by going to HopeLives365.com/donate. And now, a final thought from Pastor Mark.

Mark Finley: God cares for the challenges you are facing right now. God cares for the trials that you are going through. God cares for the difficulties you are facing. God cares for the struggles that you have. And God's reaching out to you right now. God wants to touch you. He wants to give you strength to go on, hope for the future. He has an amazing plan for your life. He will not let the lion gobble you up. Although we fight against and wrestle against flesh and blood, we have a mighty Savior who's much mightier than them all.

Let's pray together. Father in heaven, wherever we are tonight, we bow our heads to pray. And we thank you that from the stories of Daniel, we can find lessons for our lives. We thank you that no challenge is too great for you, no difficulty too large for you, no problem too great that you cannot unravel. So Lord, give us wisdom, we pray, to know how to face the future. Give us strength, give us courage. For somebody who may be struggling watching this program tonight, I pray that they would sense right now the touch of the Holy Spirit, and they would sense your power in their life. And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.