Episode Transcript
Daniel chapter 5 verse 25.
The tile of the mesh this morning is numbered and weighed.
Numbered and weighed.
For the past few weeks we've been listening to the dialogue between King Belshazzar and the prophet Daniel concerning the handwriting of God that was written on the wall of the king's banquet house.
And we've learned a great deal in the past few weeks.
And this morning, if God allows, we will finally examine the message that God wrote.
Daniel said, look in your text, and this is the writing that was written.
Now, first, a great truth about this message.
First, it was, without a doubt, the message of God to man, right?
Look back with me in verse 24, please.
Daniel said, Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written.
So the part of the hand was sent from him.
The part of the hand was sent from God.
God sent that hand.
This is God's message to man.
Second, now that we've established that point.
Second, God used the agency of a human hand to communicate his message to Belshazzar.
Look back in verse 5.
In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand.
So understand God did not come down in a flame of fire and speak directly to Belshazzar.
God communicated his word to Belshazzar Through the agency of a man's hand.
People say, Oh, I don't believe the Bible, Brother Doug, because it was written by a man Well, I tell you what, yes, it was written by men, all right, but that's how God has communicated his word to us.
He sends his word through the agency of a man's hand.
And God uses the hands of men, which he created to write His word to the people he created.
Verse 25 says, this is the writing that was written.
Writing written.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
Throughout history, God's word to us has been preserved in written form.
Throughout history, God's word has been preserved to us in written form.
People say, I'm not gonna uh uh uh go by something written by man if God wants to talk to us and he can just come down here himself.
And he can talk to us so we can see him and we can hear him.
Well, you know what?
That happened about 2,000 years ago.
God came down in the form of a man in the person of Jesus Christ, and you know what the world did?
They crucified him Now to show you that sin, well as long if I heard God and saw God myself, then I'd believe him.
Well they didn't believe Jesus.
And and so uh Jesus, God the Son, was was guess what he was doing when he came He didn't come down and said, I am the Lord, listen to me.
That's not how he spoke.
Do you know what he did when he came?
Over and over again, when Jesus came, Jesus would be referring to God's word, and he would say, It is written.
Jesus confirmed God came in the flesh and confirmed to us that his word to us has been preserved for us in written word form.
When the Son of God quotes and points us to the written word of God, then you better know it is God's message to man that He is confirming for us that He has preserved His Word in written form.
After Jesus Resurrection from the dead.
Jesus was speaking with his disciples one day.
And he was explaining the purpose of his death and his resurrection.
And the Bible says in Luke chapter 24, verses 45 through 46, then open he their understanding that they might understand thee, say that word with me, Scriptures.
And thus said unto them Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.
Why did Jesus suffer and rise again the third day?
Because it was written that he would.
To know Christ, to know the salvation that He provided for us on the cross, we must understand the Scriptures, for we are saved by faith by believing what the scriptures say Jesus did on our behalf.
Now the word written by that hand on Belshazzar's banquet hall was just as expired by God as the word written by man's hand in the Bible that you're holding in your hand right now today.
For that word on the wall is now recorded in the book in your hand.
Isn't that something?
So that word was, let's go ahead and look now at the the words that God wrote.
God didn't write a sentence.
God wrote words.
He wrote three different words, and it says here that word was men, mene, tikalopharsen.
Now these aren't some strange words of some distant heavenly language unknown to man.
These are simply Chaldean words, the language that the Babylonians spoke.
And for whatever reason, the translators did not translate them into English Okay?
That's all they are.
They're just Chaldean words like the words that we've been reading in Daniel all along.
There are these Chaldean words here. that we've been reading the past few weeks that we're going to be reading after this writing.
And and so all the words before this writing and the words we're about to be studying after are all the Chaldean language, but Mene, Tikal, and Afarson were left untranslated.
So translating them into English is what we're going to do right now.
This verse literally says And this is the writing that was written, numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.
Okay?
So had they translated it, it would have simply said, this is what's written, numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.
Now, since uh because you may be wondering when we get to it uh in the uh next week, since uh Mene Tikul and a farcin are Chaldean words.
I don't believe these were the words that were written on the wall.
I believe this is Daniel's translation of the words that were written on the wall.
Make sense?
Alright.
So if they were the actual words written on the wall. then anyone that that read and wrote that that was literate that could read and write in there could have read them themselves. .
They may have needed Daniel to explain them the significance of them, but they wouldn't need Daniel to read them.
So I believe Manae, Tikal, and Afersim are either the translation of the words that were written on the wall, or they are the transliteration of these of the Chaldean uh words from a system of letters that were strange to the Chaldeans.
Whatever it is, many of the ancient texts also only have Manae written one time.
Not two.
Simply numbered, weighed, divided.
And that's why when Daniel starts explaining the writing on the wall, He doesn't explain Manay twice.
He doesn't mention it but once.
So that may help you understand.
So this is probably why Daniel only quotes Manay once But now let's go ahead and look now at the interpretation.
Look in verse 26.
Daniel says, this is the interpretation of the thing, Mene, or this is the interpretation of the thing numbered.
So at this point, it's going to be good for us to understand the difference between translation and interpretation.
When Daniel says in verse 25, this is the writing that was written, Mene, Mene.
Tikal of Farson, Mene, Tikal, and Abfarson are the translation.
For Daniel was translating the writing on the wall. from from whatever language it was written in into the Chaldean language for the Babylonians.
That's the translation of the writing.
Now Daniel is going to give the interpretation of the writing.
Alright?
So it the Bible you're holding in your hands, it is a translation of God's word to man.
It's not Hebrew, it's not Greek, it's not Aramaic.
Or Chaldean, same thing.
It is English.
So the writing in your hand is a translation of God's word.
The sermon you're hearing is what?
An interpretation of your translation.
It is an explanation would be another way of using that word interpretation there.
All right So Daniel's going to interpret the writing on the wall.
That word interpret, it literally means to open it up.
Boy, you've really opened the scriptures up or opened their understanding like Jesus did for those disciples.
Now that we have the translation of the Chaldean language. .
What did the arrangement of these three words, numbered, weighed, divided, what did they mean to the Chaldeans? .
What is God telling them?
So now Daniel explains the word manai, numbered, saying, look in your text, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.
So to put it in modern terms, Daniel told Belshazzar the words numbered means Your days are numbered, Belshazzar.
Your kingdom is finished.
It's over and done with.
Belshazzar had been drinking wine and blaspheming God like there would never be a day of reckoning.
Like he and his merry men would just go on like Like that forever, but that's not reality.
There's an old country and western song.
All my rowdy friends have settled down.
Well you know what If that song were to be rewritten today, they'd say all my rowdy friends have died.
You know, they sure they're gonna settle down, they're ultimately gonna die.
Life's not just gonna go on like this forever.
You just can't live uh wild and fancy-free and never think that there is not going to be a judgment day.
And if anyone ever tells you that age is just a number, don't believe it because that's not true.
Age isn't just a number.
Age is a reminder that our days are numbered.
They're coming to an end.
And the sooner we figure that out, the better off we're going to be.
Psalm chapter 90, verse 12.
Psalm 90, verse 12 says So teach us to number our days.
God wants us to number our days.
God wants us to understand that we are not just going to live forever.
Our days are numbered.
We only have so long to live for God So long to do what God put us on this earth to do.
So he says, teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
In other words, that we may seek your word, your will for our lives, and get it done.
Here's a kingdom of truth for you this morning.
Our days are numbered, so we better learn to make them count.
Our days are numbered, so we better learn to make them count.
Belshazzar had come to the end of the line.
He didn't number his days.
So the days he lived did not count for God.
He wasted his life.
And now his life and his kingdom were coming to an end.
And now Daniel interprets or he explains the next word, tikal, which means weighed.
So he said, the first word is numbered.
Your days of your kingdom are numbered.
They're finished.
It's coming to an end, Belshazzar.
Now, as far as the word wade that's written on the wall, Belshazzar, He says, it means this, thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting.
Our days are numbered And when the number of our days run out, we will afterward face the judgment Pure and simple.
Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27.
Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27 says this.
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
In other words, it's appointed in men for their days to run out, the number of their days to run out, and after they run out, judgment is going to come.
They are going to be judged.
And this judgment we learned here in the book of Daniel, by the way, we had someone uh write in, I saw this morning uh on our uh YouTube. uh uh page and uh thanked us for providing the teaching to the book of Daniel.
Not sure that man was, but I'm grateful that it's blessing somebody.
So the judgment here, we learn the book of Daniel, this is very important what we're learning here in this book this morning, that judgment consist of us being weighed in the balances by God.
This is how God judges.
God told Nebuchadnezzar Belshazzar, you are weighed in the balances and you're found wanting.
All right?
And we're going to explain that here in just a minute.
But this gives us an understanding of how God weighs or judges man.
Now notice that Belshazzar had been weighed on God's scales And he was found wanting.
Now that word wanting doesn't mean he desired something.
That means he lacked something.
Okay?
This is a word that we use today, but it it it has different meanings, especially the time this was translated.
He says You have been weighed in the balances, which is why we I brought these balances in here this morning.
All right.
We got a set of balances here this morning.
You've been weighed in these balances, Belshazzar, and God says you've been found lacking.
You've come up short, Belshazzar.
It is appointed a man once to die, and after this death, after the days, the numbers of his days run out, comes the scales The scales.
That's what the Bible tells us.
He says, Belshazzar, your days are numbered.
They're done.
God's done with your kingdom And you've been weighed by God.
The life you live has been weighed by God.
And Belshazzar, you've come up short.
The Bible says in Romans chapter 3 verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
That's another way of sin.
All have sinned and are found wanting.
All have been weighed in God's balances and are found wanting.
Belshazzar had been weighed, and he came up short. of becoming the glory of God.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
That's because you and I were created to bear God's glory.
When God made Adam, God said, Let us make man in our image.
Now our God is a glorious God.
God is a God of glory.
And when God made us in his image, that means he made man to be on earth, to bear on earth the glory of God in heaven.
We were made to bear the glory of God.
And the woman that God made was to bear the glory of man.
It's a beautiful thing.
We reflect God.
The wife was supposed to reflect the man who was a reflection of God.
It's just glorious.
It's wonderful, just as the moon gives off light, because it reflects the glory of the sun.
That's what we were supposed to be.
First Corinthians chapter 11 First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 7 says this, for a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God.
Now he's not talking about putting a hat on your head.
He's talking about growing out long hair and covering your head like a woman The Bible says a woman's to have long hair, man is to have short hair.
And the reason is that man isn't made to look like some woman.
He's made to bear the glory of God.
He's made to look like a man Oh gone, boy, I tell you what, we went and watched a rodeo the other day.
My wife had never been to a rodeo.
I told her one day I was gonna take her.
We took her to a rodeo.
And it was so nice.
To l watch real men just get out there and be men.
Wrestle them steers, you know, and all that.
All of them had good hair.
There wasn't any sissy fied looking men, there wasn't any Fabians out there.
It was some men out there, and I tell you it looked nice.
We were created to bear the glory of God, but all have sinned, and when we sin, we then come short of God's glory.
The word sin literally means to miss the mark.
So if God's glory was right here And we come sh we sin, that means we're not going to properly represent our glorious God, right?
So we come short of his glory.
And so we are found wanting.
Now, let me explain the weighing process, and then we're going to close this morning.
You are weighed in the balances, God said, and you're found lacking.
So let's explain this weighing process this morning.
If you could think of the glory of God, the righteousness of God as weight And by the way, in the Bible, when you're looking at something glorious, it has the idea of weight.
Do you know that?
It has the idea of weight.
Righteousness, glorious, has the idea of weight of substance.
So if you could think of the glory of God as being a hundred pounds.
A hundred pounds.
Think of having that much significance. 100 pounds.
For us to Y'all hide your eyes now.
It's bright.
That's the glory of God.
All right.
Now we're going to put the glory of God right here.
There you go.
For us to be the glory of God If we were right here, watch this now.
This is our best attempt Of trying to achieve the glory of God through our obedience.
If I were to obey God's law, his glorious, perfect law, because that law was glorious, the Bible says it was.
If you'll remember when Moses came down from that mountain, his face shone with glory.
Do you remember that?
Why did it have that on there?
Because God's law represents God's glory, his holiness.
God's glory is his holiness.
God's glory is his goodness.
God's glory is his righteousness, his mercy, his grace, his truth.
And all of that is confined into the law.
So when Moses came down, if you remember, his face was shining.
People couldn't look at him.
And the Bible says in the New Testament, you think that was glorious.
Man, you just wait for the gospel.
So if we could perfectly obey that glorious law To do this would mean we were more glorious than God, wouldn't it?
To do this means we come up lacking and we don't reach the glory.
We come short of it.
But to do this and make it equal?
We've reached God's glory, you see.
God put Nebuchadnezzar in the balances He stuck him on that side of the scale and look what happened.
He came up wanting.
He came up lacking.
He sinned and thus come short of the glory of God.
You able to get that on camera, brother?
Thank you.
Come short of the glory of God.
Now, let's say that we could Man, let's see here.
Boy, let's say that we really got with it.
I mean we worked harder.
We did better.
We did the very best we could.
You're still gonna come short.
Let's say that man, we we had uh we had uh Nelson Mandela, people like him, people like the Pope, people like everybody.
Boy, if you think the Pope's the glory of God, you got a real problem.
That guy, man, he doesn't know his Bible.
He just doesn't know his Bible at all.
But let's say that, let's say that we could get somebody that was super, super good person.
And let's say that they just managed to budge that up just a little bit.
Are they equal?
They're still coming up wanting.
Hey, let me ask you this.
If you were at a store and you were going to buy a hundred pounds of wheat in the old days And they shoveled weed on here on this side and it looked like this.
Would you think he was getting a hundred pounds?
No, sir But if it looked like this, would you think he was getting 100 pounds?
No, sir.
If it looked like this, no, sir.
You'd say, you keep putting it on there, keep putting it on there, keep putting it.
Finally, that's good.
I'll take that right there Until then you're coming up short.
It is unacceptable transaction And no matter what we do in life, the Bible says all have sinned come short of the glory of God.
It's an unacceptable transaction So what do we do?
We have to understand that when God put Belshazzar on that scale, he came up wanting God is going to put you and me and everybody else on that scale.
He doesn't put He doesn't put Doug on one side of the scale And Richard on the other.
Maybe we're pretty two pretty good old boys.
You know what?
God's not judging me based on how well I represent Doug.
He said, well, you know, I'm I'm better than that fella down there in the jailhouse.
That fella down in the jailhouse, uh, he he's he's uh He's up there and I'm down here.
I'm better than that fellow in the jailhouse.
God's not judging that fellow in the jailhouse or you better on how y'all represent each other.
God is judging us on if we come short of God's glory or if we equal God's glory.
Now look, y'all ever heard the word iniquity?
That word iniquity has a prefix of IN N.
It has a root word equity.
Now, if you have equity in your house, let's say that you buy a house for $300,000.
Can't believe I'm saying that.
When you think about how much I paid for my first house.
But if you buy a house for $300,000, and let's say you've got $100,000 you've paid toward it You've got $100,000 worth of equity in the home, but you are still coming up short of the balance that you owe.
And so that means though you have equity in the home, you are yet not equal to what you owe.
You're wanting.
You're lacking.
The word iniquity, so like if you said, well, that's conclusive, I can come to a conclusion with that.
Or you could say that's inconclusive, not conclusive, you see.
So iniquity means not equal.
When you see the word iniquity in the Bible, think of this right here.
Not equal.
You've been weighed in the balances, Nebuchadnezzar.
You're not equal.
You come up short of the glory of God.
And so God's going to put every one of us on that scale.
And every one of us are going to come up short.
You say, oh, but I try, but you're short.
You've been found wanting your no better than Belshazzar.
I don't care if you're a preacher I don't care if you're a Sunday school teacher.
I don't care if you've been grow raised up and faithful to the church all of your life.
I was a preacher before I became a Christian.
Doesn't matter.
What matters is if you can equal the scale and not be found wanting.
Now There's only one thing, only one thing that can equal that scale.
Amen.
The only thing that weighs this much is this.
Make sense?
All of us, the Bible says all our righteousness is filthy rags.
It's all this.
Look at that.
Didn't even move it without this on there.
Sure not gonna move it with it on there.
So the only thing that equals this is this.
And that's why God came down as a man in the person of Jesus Christ.
Think back to the scriptures All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You know what the Bible says?
You know what the apostles said of Jesus?
And we beheld his glory. as of the glory of the only begotten of the Father.
That's why when Jesus came up out of that water The Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Jesus equaled the righteousness of God.
Jesus is and was the righteousness of God.
Jesus is and was the glory of God.
The Bible says in the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God.
The Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
The Bible says all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was. made the Bible then says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and so the glory of God became a man.
And that man did not come short of God's glory.
He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
So, I don't have two of these But let's say that we still have God's righteousness here, God's glory here on that side of the scale.
Did you know the only thing that you can possibly have on your side the skill that can equal God's glory is the glory of the only begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth, as the apostle John put it.
So when we're born, we're born like this.
We're born with us on one side of the scale and God on the other, and we're born short.
And all of our life, we continue short of God's glory.
I've been preaching the Bible.
I've been teaching the Bible.
I've been trying to follow the Bible.
Ever since I became a believer, I love God's word with all of my heart.
I want nothing more in my life to do what God wants me to do.
In spite of all that, I still come up short.
I'm still miserably, disappointingly aware of my sin.
And so at some time in our life, we have to realize we're weighing the balance and we come up lacking.
And then we hear the gospel.
And we hear that God sent a substitute to live a perfect life in our place.
Jesus always obeyed the Father.
Jesus never had a bad thought cross his mind.
Jesus was never envious of anybody.
Jesus never spoke a word out of turn.
Boy, my mouth has got me in trouble so many times.
Jesus loved the Lord his God with all of his heart, and he loved his neighbor as himself, and he proved that at the cross.
And so Jesus doing this fulfilled all of God's law.
He gave God a hundred pounds. for a hundred pounds required.
Does that make sense?
And in so doing, Jesus became our substitute.
He lived and died in our place so we could get credit for how he lived and died.
You see, right now, if you were to die and stand before God without Christ This is how you would be judged.
You on the scale coming up short of what God required for you.
That's why the gospel of Jesus Christ provides you a way out.
A way for God to give you mercy and grace, and at the same time for God's law to be completely obeyed, in his glory to not be diminished one bit.
And it's this way That the God who became a man, Jesus Christ, lived that perfect life for you, died that perfect death for you, your sin, look here now.
On the cross, here's what happened.
On the cross, Jesus was weighed in the balance is you.
When Jesus went to the cross and he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Do you know why God forsook him?
Because God put your sin on Jesus.
And Jesus was weighed in the balance. and found lacking, not in himself, but in you.
You were weighed and balanced on the cross and found lacking.
And Jesus was condemned in your place.
So God gave Jesus credit for how you lived so that you could get credit for how Jesus lived and died for you.
And so God gives you the option.
And this is what salvation is.
You ready?
You're on this side of the scale.
And you realize you're a sinner.
You realize you come up short.
But you realize what Jesus did for you so you wouldn't be short anymore.
So you can be accepted by God as if you have never sinned at all because Jesus never sinned at all.
So you can be accepted by God without any fear of condemnation for your sin because Jesus was condemned for your sin.
And so before your number of your days runs out, you make a wise decision before judgment day.
And you say, God.
I'm not gonna get caught like this.
I'm not getting caught like that I recognize what Jesus did for me.
I'm not even going to stand before you and what I've done.
I want to take the truth of what Jesus did for me.
That gift.
The Bible says, For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves.
It says it is a gift of God, not of works.
Here's your works right here.
Not of works.
It's a gift.
What Jesus did was a gift.
He lived a perfect life for you.
He died a death for you in your place and took your punishment.
And you take that gift.
You say, God.
Judge me, not on the basis of what I did, but on the basis of what Jesus did for me.
And look there.
When God looks at you He can say, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
Not because of what you did, but because of what Jesus did for you.
That's salvation.
So if you want to know if you're saved, it's as simple as this.
What do you put on your scale?
Do you know what Cain did?
Cain and Abel?
Well, Cain put all kinds of stuff on his altar.
God looks and says, you've been weighing the balances you've been found wanting, lacking.
Do you know what Abel did?
Abel took a spotless lamb.
And let that lamb die in his place, showing God that he was trusting in the fact that one day the true lamb would come die in his place.
And when Abel put that lamb on the altar, The Bible says he was accepted.
Cain was rejected.
Abel accepted.
All because of the Lamb.
In the same way, we are accepted or rejected all based on what we do with the Lamb, all based on what we put on our altar.
There are so many people who say, well, I believe I'm going to heaven because I've done this and I've done that.
I was this in the church.
I was that in the church.
I came down to an altar and I prayed a prayer.
I got baptized.
I I I lived the very best life I could live for God.
And they just keep piling and piling stuff on and and and no matter how much they pile on they still come up short because the Bible says there is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.
It is not your name, it is not my name, it is the name of Jesus Christ.
He alone can be put on the scale to take your iniquity away.
If you come to this church, and in your heart, you've been thinking I am saved and God accepts me because of XYZ Verses, I am saved and God has accepted me because of one thing.
Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures If something other than or in addition to Jesus Christ has on your scale, you're lost.
And you need to repent and believe the gospel.
Wipe your scale clean.
And have the only thing on your skill that can take sin away, and that is the blood Jesus shed for you.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
I thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, God, that although I come up short, Jesus does not.
I thank you, Father God, that I can risk confidently, Lord, that although my weight of obedience goes up and down each day, each moment of my life.
The weight of Jesus righteousness is consistent yesterday, today, and forever.
I thank you for the rock solid confidence of giving us a rock to place our faith upon, Jesus Christ.
And I pray if there's any here today that do not know him as their Savior.
That they have not placed their confidence in him by putting him alone on their scale.
I pray, Father, that they will do so today and never be found lacking again.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen.
