Trinity Baptist Church

 

I'm talking to you on the subject "Can God Deliver?" That's the great question, answered in this chapter. You may recall in our studies in the book of Daniel, Daniel came to Babylon, modern Iraq, when he was just a young man taken captive. He was placed in a special training program to prepare him for government service. We have followed the career of this young man all through the changing of a variety of governments. And as kings come and go and as governments come and go, the Bible says about Daniel that Daniel continued. I think about a verse in the New Testament when I think of that. First John, chapter 2, verse 17, says, "And the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Daniel, God's great man just continued and he moved right along. 

 

Now we come to this Daniel, chapter 6, which I think probably is the most familiar chapter in all the Bible and in all of the book of Daniel. Over in our children's building, we have Daniel in a den of lions, and the children act it out. In this chapter which gives us the account of his being cast into the den of lions, there is a question which is raised in verse 20. You will notice in verse 20, just pulling the question out of that verse, here is the question. "Is thy God able to deliver thee from lions?" That, of course, is the great question, is it not? Is our God able to deliver? 

 

When we study this chapter we're going to find that this chapter and the experience of Daniel is a great testimony to the power of our God to deliver. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what den of lions you may be experiencing in your own life, but whatever it may be, God is able to deliver you. So let's just move through this chapter and I call your attention to first of the all,

 

I.      The King's Decree

King Darius evidently was a very wise leader. He seemed to have some understanding of the basic principles of administrative organization. We are told in verse one that he organized the entire kingdom, the entire land of Iraq, under the leadership of 120 princes. Over those princes, he put three presidents who were to supervise and direct their work. Then the Bible says that he is taking this man Daniel, and he is going to be first among those presidents. He's going to be the number 1. He's going to be the point man. 

 

This is indeed an amazing thing because by the time we come to Daniel 6, he is no longer a young man. He is probably nearing the age of 90. Isn't this a remarkable thing? Here is a guy who ought to be retired. Here is a guy who ought to be out playing golf every day if he's able to swing a club. And yet the Bible says he is put in a position of leadership.

 

I'm sure the reputation of Daniel must have somehow made its way up there to the offices of the king. You should never let age be a barrier to serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Bible tells us in verse 3 that there was an excellent spirit in Daniel. Though the outward man was perishing, the inward man was renewed day by day.

 

I hope that you will make it your commitment to the Lord that as you move along in the process of life and in the process of aging that you will never, ever, ever, ever, let yourself become old and bitter and cantankerous and miserable to everybody around you. Make up you mind to be an optimist and make up your mind to serve the Lord all of the days of your life. I don't want to be with a pessimist. I want to be with an optimist. I don't want to be with a sanctified obstructionist. I want to be with those who are optimistic about the Word of the Lord. 

 

I heard about an old guy in his eighties who got married, and he bought a 4-bedroom house near an elementary school. Now that's the kind of spirit I like in an old guy. You can serve the Lord when you're old. 

 

I spoke about aging some weeks ago, and I pointed out that some men did their best work in the latter years of their life. J. C. Penney went to work every day at the age of 95. Dear old Dr. Criswell stood in this very pulpit here and in his nineties proclaimed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Did you read in the newspaper a few weeks ago about a man in Ponte Vedra, a college professor, who has just written a book? He's 98 years old and he plays golf two days a week. So you see, age doesn't have to be a barrier in serving the Lord.

 

Dr. Jerry Falwell told me over the weekend that Mickey Rooney was going to be coming by his church today and Mickey Rooney has been saved, he's been converted.   He was coming by there with his eighth wife. Mickey says that he wished he had been converted 50 years ago so he wouldn't have to be paying so much alimony now. So I want to encourage you to live for the Lord and serve the Lord in your life.

 

Here is Daniel and there is an excellent spirit in him. God is still using him and God is still blessing him. He is put at a place of authority and responsibility even in these years. 

 

Of course, you know, promotion can bring it's special problems because, when Daniel was promoted, the Bible tells us in verse 4 that the other presidents looked for some way to find an occasion against him. The more successful you become, the more you may be an object of the jealousy of other people.   The birds always pick the tree that yields the most fruit. It is the guy who is running the ball who always gets hit. If you are successful and if God is blessing you, you can expect that people will look for ways to discredit you and ultimately to destroy you. 

 

The Bible says in verse 4 that they sought to find occasion against Daniel. In other words they made up their minds that they would try to get something on him and get him out of office. They decide that they will find something in his past or some dark secret in his life. They would use this to discredit and destroy him. So I can almost imagine that they typed his name into the search engine on the Internet to see if they could find something in the past. The looked to see if they could find some sex scandal or some illegitimate business deal. They searched and they searched looking for something to discredit him.

 

If you live for the Lord and if God blesses you, they'll study your life as well. They'll look at you and examine you. They'll check out your daily behavior. They'll look at your character. They'll listen to the words that you say. They'll watch the places where you go. They will do anything to find some flaw in your life. It is not how you behave on Sunday when you go to church that matters. It is how you behave during the week that really matters. Your daily behavior and daily deportment is what people are going to study. 

 

They searched and they searched and they searched and they couldn't find one thing that they could put their finger on in the life of Daniel. You will notice in verse 5 they come to the conclusion that they can't find anything wrong with this Daniel except, they said, "we find it against him concerning the law of his God." They knew that Daniel was a religious man. They knew that Daniel didn't worship their gods, while he passed their gods in silent scorn every day. He didn't go to their religious festivals. 

 

There was something different about this man Daniel. Daniel had a faith in the God of Heaven. Daniel had a faith in a different God. The God of Daniel was not the God of the Babylonians. The God that you and I worship is not the god that the peoples of this world worship either. 

 

They decide that they will try to find something they can attack Daniel on relative to the law of God. We're living in a world kind of like that tonight. We're living in a world where it is not politically correct to let your faith be known in a public way. As long as you keep your faith privately to yourself and as long as you confine your faith to the walls of the church you attend, then that's perfectly all right. But if you dare to bring your faith out into your public life, if you dare to go public about your faith in the Lord, then you become politically incorrect.

 

Chief Justice Roy Moore, in Alabama, scandalous it is indeed that he was removed from his office. All that he was doing was what the constitution of the State of Alabama said that he was suppose to do and that was to give an acknowledgment of God. He gave an acknowledgment of God and they kicked him out. Do you know why? This world of ours does not want you to be public about your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

So they're looking. They're going to find something. They say, "We've got to find something about the law of his God." Then it must have dawned on them that they were looking at the wrong man. So they decided now that they will propose this to Darius. "Darius, we're going to make you God for a month. For a solid month nobody can pray to any god but you alone."

 

Think about that for a moment. Think about the ramifications of a decree like that. For 30 days nobody sick could pray to the God of Heaven for healing. For 30 days no mothers could talk to God about their wayward sons and daughters. For 30 days nobody could pray to God for salvation and ask to be saved. The sad thing about that is a lot of people today, if you issued a decree that for 30 days they couldn't make a prayer to God, it wouldn't bother them. Do you know some people who go days without praying? They go weeks without praying? They go months without praying? When's the last time you really prayed? When's the last time you really talked to the God of Heaven in prayer? 

 

But here's the decree. The king liked that. That ministered to his pride. So he writes out the decree and he stamps it with the official seal. For 30 days there will be no prayer to anyone but to him. The kings decree.

 

II.     Daniel's Devotion

I want to move to verse 10 and talked to you about Daniel's devotion. Now when the decree comes out our attention now turns to Daniel again. And I want you to see in these verses Daniel's devotion. Look in verse 10 and following. Notice what it says in verse 10. It says, "Now when Daniel knew." In other words when Daniel got the word about the decree, 30 days with no prayer to any god, all prayer has to go to the king, Daniel might have weighed some alternatives.

 

Now there's a crisis here. The crisis is will he obey God or will he obey a king? Will he do what God has taught him to do or will he do what the decree of the king says for him to do? Think about what he could do. Maybe he could have said, "Well, let's not go overboard about this thing. Let's not make it a big deal. Thirty days is not a long time. Surely I can go 30 days and not stir up the waters. Maybe I can just back off for a little bit. Maybe I've been going overboard with all this praying anyhow." Or maybe he could have said, "I don't have to be so vocal about it. Maybe I can go down in the cellar and pray where nobody can see me." Or maybe he said, "I can close my window and I can lay on my bed and I can pray." Or maybe he said, "I'll just pray in my heart. God will hear me. I don't have to pray out loud."

 

When he knew, he had a decision to make. He had a crisis on his hand when he knew about the decree. It says, "his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem." Now I like the fact that Daniel was an open-window believer. Don't you like that? Don't you think you and I ought to be open-window Christians? You don't have to obnoxious. You don't have to make a fool of yourself. But it is time for God's people to be open-window Christians and to not be ashamed of Jesus Christ. You, young people, don't be ashamed of Jesus Christ. You, men and ladies, out there in the business world, don't be ashamed that you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Be an open-window Christian, praise God! 

 

The Bible says he opened the window toward Jerusalem. There was a specific reason why Daniel was doing this. He wasn't trying to be a show off. Let me read some verses in II Chronicles, chapter 6. God anticipated that every bit of this was going to happen. In II Chronicles, chapter 6, it says in verse 36, "If they sin against thee, and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near, yet if they bethink themselves in the land wherever they are carried captive, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, we have sinned, we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly, if they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whether they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city (that's Jerusalem) which thou has chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name, then hear thou from heaven." 

 

You see Daniel was just claiming the promise of God. So he opens up that window and he prays toward Jerusalem as God taught him to pray.

 

By the way, you learn a whole lot about prayer from Daniel here. You learn, for instance, about the place of prayer. He's praying before an open window. Do you have a place where you pray? You learn about the posture of prayer. The Bible says that he kneeled. You don't always have to kneel when you pray, but it might do some of you good to get down on your knees when you get home tonight before you get in your bed and have a good long talk with the Lord. When you get up in the morning, get down on your knees and humble yourself before the Lord and have a good long talk with the Lord. He has a posture of prayer. He has a place of pray. But that's not all. The Bible says he had periods of prayer. Three times a day he prayed. Psalm chapter 55, verse 17, says, "Evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and thou shalt hear my voice." Morning, noon, and night he prays. But that's not all. He's persistent. Notice that it says, "he prays as he did aforetime."   Keep in mind. Here's what's going on. He's got these enemies around him and they're watching every move. They've got their secret emissaries and they're just around him everywhere. Here's Daniel and it comes time to pray he gets down on his knees before that window pointing toward Jerusalem. They caught him! Caught him doing what? They caught him praying. 

 

Has anybody ever caught you praying? Mom and Dad, have your children walked in and you were praying?    They caught him praying. Notice what they do. They're just tickled and thrilled to death. They run over there to the king and the say, "We caught him. Yes, sir; yes, sir." Look at verse 13. Look at the scorn and derision, "That Daniel which is of the children of the captivity of Judah." What they're saying is "That Jew." Talk about anti-Semitism! There it is right there. That Jew, that Daniel! 

 

Now the king realizes he's been tricked. He realizes he has been duped. In verse 14 it says, "Then the king when he heard these words was sore displeased with himself." Evidently he had learned to have real affection and appreciation for this man Daniel. So he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. In other words he said, "I've got to try some way to deliver this man Daniel." So the Bible says in verse 14, "He labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him." Verse 15 basically says that there was no way. He had pulled in all of his team of lawyers. They had looked for every possible loophole. They had looked for some way to get out of the decree, but there was a law of the Medes and Persians that said, "No decree of the king could be changed." So he realizes what a dreadful mistake he has made. Verse 16 says, "Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and they cast him into the den of lions." The rest of the verse says, "Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, thy God whom thou servest continually, He will deliver thee.'" The king becomes preacher and comforter. He's lamenting what he's having to do. It says in verse 17, "A stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel." 

 

In those days they tell me that lions' dens had two compartments with a moveable wall between the compartments. They would put the food on one side of the compartment. They would lift that wall and the lion would go over to eat the food. They'd drop the wall, they'd clean that part of the pit where he was; and when he finished eating, they would lift the wall and he would move back over. They would seal it with a stone. There is a stone now over the entrance of this pit. Daniel is in the lion's den. 

 

I wonder if I speak to someone tonight and you're in the lion's den. It's not a literal lion. There are other kinds of lions. In 2 Timothy, chapter 4, and verse 17, Paul said, "Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known, that all the Gentiles might hear." He says, "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." Now we know 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 8, says, "Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour." There are other lions besides literal lions. Do I speak to anybody tonight and you're in the lion's den? Maybe you're in the lion's den of health problems. Maybe you're in the lion's den of difficulties on your job. You may even be in a lion's den of family issues. Some of you may be in the lion's den of persecution at school where you attend. 

You're in the lion's den. And the question is, can God deliver from the den of lions?

 

III.    The Lord's Deliverance

Look at verse 18. The attention of the narrative now moves from Daniel back to the king again. Notice what it says in verse 18, "Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting, neither instruments of music brought before him and his sleep went from him." We're told three things about that night of King Darius. This verse says he didn't eat. He spent the night in fasting. He had no appetite for food. No instruments were brought for him. He had no desire to be entertained with music. He was not interested in music that night. Sleep went from him. He went through the whole night and he couldn't sleep. Notice verse 19, "Then the king rose very early in the morning and went in haste to the lion's den." He's desperate. He's thinking that all he's going to hear is the growling of well-fed lions.  In verse 20 it says, "And when he came to the den he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?"

 

Can your God deliver? Is God able? Do you have a God that can deliver you from the den of lions? Verse 20 says, "Then said Daniel unto the king, O King, live forever. My God has sent his angel and has shut the lions' mouths that they have not hurt me, forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me and also before thee, O King, I have done no hurt."

 

Isn't that something? Did you know God has all kinds of angels? God has earthquake angels. When the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, the Bible says that the angel came down and that there was an earthquake and the stone was rolled away in front of the tomb. That wasn't to let Jesus out; that was to let the disciples in.   God has His earthquake angels. But that's not all. God has His prison door opening angels, too. Old Simon Peter was in jail and God sent one of His prison-door-opening angels, and we have the first automatic doors in the history if the world. God just opened up the doors and let him out. That's what the angel did for him. Well, you see God has His lion-taming angels, too!   That angel came down there ahead of time, I guess, and said, "Now listen, boys, come here just a minute." The God, who created the lions, can manage the lions. I can almost imagine that the Lord's angels said, "Now come here, boys. I want to tell you something. Now one of the Lord's special servants is about to come in here and spend the night and I don't want you to lay a paw on him. I don't want you to touch a hair on his head. I want you to give him your shaggy mane for a pillow and see to it he has a real good night." Daniel comes in there that night. He didn't walk in there alone. The same God who walked into the fiery furnace with His three friends is the God who walked into that den of lions that night. I can almost hear Daniel as he walks in. He's singing, "All day, all night, angels and lions watching over me." And he says, "Leo, I'm going to lay on you tonight. How about switching your tail and keeping the flies off of me while I sleep." We have a God who can tame the lions and can deliver from the lion's den. Aren't you glad we have a God like that?

I don't know what den of lions has hold of you, but God is able to deliver you from your lion's den experience.

 

It says in verse 23, "Then was the king exceeding glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him (not a scratch) because he believed in his God."

 

Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 33, says this, "Through faith he stopped the mouths of lions." It is faith that brings the God who can deliver into your den experience. Now you see what happened to the accusers in verse 24. They brought the accusers, cast them into the den with their children and wives. The Bible says, "That it brake all their bones in pieces before they even got to the bottom of the den." 

 

If you don't know the Lord you're headed for a den of lions also. One of these days you'll head for that den of sickness, but there will be no God to heal. If you don't know the Lord one of these days you'll head for that den of death, but there will be no God to walk through the valley with you. And if you don't know the Lord and die outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll go into the den of hell, but there will be no God who can rescue you. It says in verse 28, "So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian." "He that doeth the will of God abides forever."

 

Now, what's the main point of this passage? You say, "It's the great miracle that God delivered." I don't think that's really the great lesson of this passage. Because you see in that same Hebrews 11 where it says, Through Daniel's faith, the mouths of lions were stopped, in verse 36 it says, "And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with the sword, and they wandered about in sheep's skins and goats' skins being destitute, afflicted, tormented." In some instances God chooses to deliver. But in other instances, which reside in the realm of His omnipotent sovereignty, God has other plans. What really matters is that you're in the will of God, and what really matters is that whatever comes in your life, just keep your eyes on God.

 

Charles Stanley told a story a number of years ago when he first went to First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. He had quite a lot of difficulty.  And he said as he was going through some of those real, real tough times that there was an elderly lady in the church who asked if he would come over to see her. And he did. He said while he was there she pointed out to him a picture on her wall of Daniel in the lions' den. You may have seen it. It's a well-known picture. Janet and I used to have one of these pictures. It's a picture depicting this scene of Daniel in the den of lions. And the lions are all around him. I had it for several years before I really saw it. And she said, "Dr. Stanley, pastor, what do you see in that picture?" He said, "I see Daniel and I see the lions, and Daniel's praying." And she said, "Yes, but what else do you see?" And he looked a little closer and he saw what I took a few years to see, that there was also in that picture, a window and there was light, shafts of light coming into that window, the opening of the den. And she said, "Now, what do you see, Dr. Stanley." And he said he looked and he looked and he saw about all he thought he could see. And she said, "Pastor, I want you to know this. Look at the picture and tell me, is Daniel looking at the lions or is he looking at the shaft of light?" If you recall the picture he was not looking at the lions, he was looking at the light. What really matters is when you find yourself in the den of lions, don't look at the lions, look at the light.

 

 

Let's bow our head in prayer.