Verse by verse teaching - Daniel 5:3-4 "The Gods We Make"

Our message this morning, Daniel chapter 5, verses 3 through 4, the title of the message this morning is The Gods We Make. The Gods We Make. In the first two verses of this chapter, we learn that Belshazzar, a descendant of King Nebuchadnezzar, has now taken over as the ruler of the king of Babylon. And though the reigns of several kings have passed since Nebuchadnezzar passed away, the prophet Daniel is still alive during Belshazzar's reign. And and don't think, well, how could Daniel still be alive? You'd think he'd already been gone by now. No, no, no. You see, the after Bel after Nebuchadnezzar, the kings that came after him, they didn't reign very long. See, it's no different than us. We got people in here. You can count back many, many presidents ago, can't you? that you voted in many, many elections, right? Or when you were a child, you still uh remember uh so many uh elections. And it was no different for Daniel. Uh he lived and served the Lord through many reigns there in um in Babylon. Uh so we learned last week that although Nebuchadnezzar embraced the God of Israel, Eventually. Belshazzar did not follow in his grandfather's footsteps. Instead, we see him in chapter 5 committing an abomination to God. by commanding to bring the vessels that had once belonged to God's temple, that he might use them to worship false gods. The Bible says he issued the command to bring the vessels. Look now in verse 3. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God. So with complete disdain for their intended holy use unto the one true God They were dragging something clean, something sacred through the vileness of their filthy worship. of false gods. These were the vessels that had been taken out of the temple of the house of God. Look back in your text, which was at Jerusalem. When Belshazzar's ancestor Nebuchadnezzar raided the temple in Jerusalem and took those vessels to Babylon. This disdain for sacred things is demonic. It's the spirit of Antichrist that has been in the world since the very beginning of the fall of man. Watch how the Bible describes the people's disdain for holy things concerning the Old Testament law, and even worse, the disdain that people have for the Son of God, the Redeemer of mankind. In Hebrews chapter 10, if you're taking notes, verses 28 through 29, the Bible says, he that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment Suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing? and hath done despite, that means insult, unto the spirit of grace. There are people who have read that text, and there have been preachers who have incorrectly preached that And taught that text there in Hebrews that have scared Christians before. And they say, well, if you ever sin on purpose Then you have trodden underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant, where with you was sanctified an unholy thing and done despite unto the spirit of grace, and now there's no sacrifice for your sin. Y'all ever heard that taught before? Anybody ever heard that taught before? Nobody? Brother Shepherd has. You have? Yeah. We got other people shaking their heads. That's a lie. That's a lie. Is there anybody in here that's never sinned on purpose? I'm just curious. Anybody? Man, that'd get all of us, wouldn't it? The sin in the book of Hebrews that Hebrews was talking about was what they did to Moses' law. So when God gave the law in the Old Testament, God says, you're not going to have any other gods before me. You're going to do this, you're going to do that, you're going to do the other. And then what happens? Then Israel comes along. Israel says, we're rejecting that law. We are now going to serve Baal. We're now going to serve Ashtaroth. We're now going to serve these false gods. We're now going to build high places and worship our false gods. And now we're going to bring idols into the temple. And so they took Moses' law and they just insulted and despised it and said, nah, we don't need that. In the same way, the Bible says how much worse since God calls them to be, I mean, that's the reason they're in Babylon right now. Because they despise Moses' law. And many of them died without mercy. Now, how much sore punishment, the Bible says, do you suppose will happen to someone who takes the gospel and sets it apart too and says, nah, we don't want that. They count it an unholy thing. That means something that's not special. Not sacred. Nah, his death is no different than any other man's death. We don't need it. We're just going to set it aside. Now it was that same attitude. that Belshazzar had for the the vessels in the temple of God. They disdained them. They despised them. And they were dragging those sacred vessels to the vileness of their false worship and using them to worship false gods. And I and I don't understand what makes a person want to trample. over holy things that were given to them out of God's love and out of God's grace, other than the spirit of lawlessness and rebellion, but the devil gets his kicks out of it. He loves to uh to muddy and and uh and and and and dirty up holy things. This is the heart that Belshazzar had. He was getting his kicks out of it. So he took those holy vessels. Look in your text. And the king. And his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank in them, using them as vessels to celebrate his false gods. For the Bible says, look in verse 4. They drank wine and praised. So do you see that connection there? They drank and praised. There's a direct connection between them drinking out of the vessels and their praising their false gods. They drank wine and praised. And they weren't praising God. They were using true vessels to commit false worship, godly vessels for ungodly worship. And that has been since the very beginning of man. Remember Cain and Abel? Cain used a true altar to commit false worship To the true God. I'm going to say that again. Cain used a true altar to commit false worship to the true God. Cain had an altar. Abel had an altar. Cain had the one true God. Abel had the one true God. Everything's true. Just one missing piece. The offering that Cain made was not true. Abel took an innocent substitute and allowed that innocent substitute to die in his place. God says, I accept the innocent substitute that died in your place, Abel, therefore I accept you. Cain took fruit of the ground that did not die in his place, that did not shed its blood, that did not, was not a token. of the coming Savior. It was not a picture of the coming Savior. He had a true altar, but there's only one thing that was supposed to be on that altar, and that was a picture of Jesus Christ. So true altar, a true God, but no true gospel. And you can, and this this community is filled with quote-unquote churches. that had the true name church, worship the true Savior Jesus, the true God, and still cut the gospel out of it It's false. It's false. It sounds unbelievable, but it's just the type of worship the devil seeks. God, on the other hand, he seeks a different kind of worship. Jesus said in John chapter 4, verse 23, Jesus said, but the hour cometh And now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship him. Now did you catch that? Jesus said the true worshipers And that means there are false worshipers who do not worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Pharisees taught us that just because you worship the right God doesn't mean you have the right religion. You think about those, you think about those Pharisees. They had the right temple. Did they not? It was the temple God had them built. They had the right temple. They had the right God. They had the right Bible. They had the right everything. But like Cain, they had the wrong offering. Because when that offering came, they rejected him. It's amazing. Absolutely reject. When that Savior came, they absolutely rejected him. Excuse me. They worship the one true God, but they did not worship him according to his word. When the truth came, they crucified him. They worship the true temple of God, but they didn't have the truth of God. Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning. If you're taking notes, true vessels don't make true worship. True vessels don't make true worship. Belshazzar had true vessels in his hand, but false worship. A person can carry a Bible in their hand. A person can wear a cross around their neck A person can come in and sit in a true church and still die and go to hell. You can have all the right ingredients But I'm telling you, if you miss the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as your only hope for heaven, you're lost. So Brother Richard, I remember I've had so many people tell me this. I tell you, it makes me sick. Makes me sick. Here. I'm gonna stay away from everybody. I'm gonna come over here and watch this now. I've had so many people tell me this. This is a lot of people's salvation experience right here. You ready? They'll be sitting here in the pew. Pastor get through preaching, and they'll start having what's called an invitation period. And they'll call those steps an altar. They'll call them an altar. I was raised that way. Let me say. All the altar stuff, that was the Old Testament. That altar was a picture of the cross. In the New Testament, the only altar we have is the cross of Christ. But well they'll sit here and they'll be raised up in church like this. And that preacher be preaching about sin, about going to hell, about needing to be saved. Some of you people think you're saved and this and that and the other, and they'll have these people gripping the pew like this. And then they'll have the invitation time, and they'll all have to stand. Every head had to be bowed, every eye had to be closed, and all these other things, and they'll start singing, just as I am. Oh, here they go. That preacher will say, you know what? Some of you, if you don't come down this old-fashioned altar, give your heart to Jesus, you may die and go to hell today. And they'll step out. While they're singing just as I am, they'll come down to an old-fashioned altar. Let me tell you, that's a lie. There's nothing old about that. There's nothing old-fashioned about calling this an altar. All that's new. That's all invented by man back in the early 1900s. That's only how long it's been around. Ma'am, you can't read anything back in the 1800s past. They don't even know anything about that. And they'll have them come down to this quote-unquote old-fashioned altar. And they'll have an altar worker down there. And they'll get a and they'll come down here, and they'll bow down here, and they'll put their arms around them like this. And you just pray this prayer after me right here. Dear Father, dear father, dear Lord, dear Lord, I give my heart to you. Jesus, please come into my heart. Jesus, please come to my heart. Yeah. Now you just saved. And you know what I've had so many people tell me? One of two things. One of two things. I've had them tell me, watch this now. I've had him tell me, I believe that I was saved the moment I stood up and stepped out into the aisle to go to the altar. Has anyone ever. heard somebody say that they were saved the moment they stood up and stepped out in the altar to go down the altar. There's hands going up everywhere. Where's that in the Bible? The other thing that I've heard is this, because this is what the altar worker taught him And now they'll be down here like this. And by the way, the preacher will be up here. Song leader will be over here. And they'll say, sing another verse, brother. The Lord's still dealing with someone down here. See, you got someone trying to make the most important decision of their lifetime, trying to squeeze it in within four stanzas of just as I am. And everyone's staring at them. And this person's well aware of it down here. And they got the pressure of hearing the preacher tell them to keep going. And they know everyone's up here watching them and everyone's trying to go home to eat. And that altar worker says, now, if you ever doubt your salvation, you always go back to the day when you came down here to this old-fashioned altar and you prayed that prayer. I was told that. How many of y'all were told that? Bunch of hands. There's no salvation in that. There's no, there is no assurance of that. Now, can a person be saved on an altar? Yes. Absolutely. Can a person be saved on a Six Flags ride on a roller coaster? Can they? Sure can. But am I going to tell somebody to go to Six Flags to go to heaven? And am I going to tell somebody if they rode the shockwave, then they can know that they have eternal life? No. But it makes the same amount of sense. And so what happens is. We get all caught up in having the true church, the true this, the true that, but we miss the true gospel. And true vessels don't make true worship. I'm telling you, if your hope for heaven, if your assurance of salvation is based On you stepping out the altar, you're not saved. If your assurance for heaven is based on a prayer you prayed, you're not saved. If your assurance, however, is based on what Jesus did for you on the cross. Then you're saved. You see? And you're saved. And unfortunately, a lot of our additives. That we've added on is no different than Sarah trying to help the gospel out by giving Hagars her handmaid It's just man-made additives that obscure the gospel rather than just the pure, clear teaching of the cross of what Jesus has done I had fun in Sunday school this morning, by the way. We were preaching on circumcision. My, that's such good. Oh, that's The Bible's amazing book, folks. A person, again, can carry a Bible and wear a cross around their neck. They can step out of an altar. They can go down to uh uh uh step out of a pew then go down to an altar. That's why we don't have altar calls here. That's a good time to bring that up, isn't it? We have folks that visit and they may think how when we have altar calls. We don't have altar calls. Why? You won't see it in the Bible. We have a whole book called the Book of Hebrews. that's written to pull people away from the altars of the Old Testament. And I'll be doggone if we don't come build new ones In the New Testament, and then focus people and shh coming down to there. Leave it all at the altar. Man, the only place to leave anything is at the cross. The cross. That's where we want people to go to to be saved. The cross. They drank wine and praised, by the way. If someone wants to be a member of the church, here's what we do. Or if someone wants to be saved, here's what we do. First of all, I've learned over the years that if you preach the gospel, When people understand, they'll make the decision to believe in Christ as their Savior and to trust what He did. And they'll usually come tell me. In fact, I talked to one of the Genesis Jesus people on the phone yesterday for a long time. And you know what she said? She said, I don't understand everything, but I've learned this much. I've learned to keep my eyes on the cross. Yes. Yes. So when someone comes and says we put our faith in Christ and we baptize them, that they join the church, if someone comes and they visit And they want to join the church, we ask that they either go through the Genesis to Jesus class or that they read my book, knowing I'm saved. That way we know we're on the same page doctrinally. And if we're in agreement, we're on the same page doctrinally, then we accept them and they become members. All right? By the way, while I'm on the subject, none of this is in my notes, by the way. While I'm on the subject, I've been thinking and I'll be praying about having us a membership Sunday coming up pretty soon for folks that have gone through the Genesis to Jesus class. For folks that would like to be a member, but you know what happened? Sometimes people come and they don't join for one reason or the other, which is fine. You don't ever have to join. People have been here for years and years and never joined, and that's fine. But I think a lot of people would like to be a member and are not because they've come for years. didn't join for one reason or another and then after being here so long they'd feel embarrassed to come up and join. And so I thought we ought to have us a membership Sunday for those who meet the qualifications And they just all come down and we'll just recognize them officially as members. And then if we vote, they can actually vote in a in a meeting and be a member and all that good stuff. So I'll be praying about that, Yong, pray about that with me. Back to our text here in Daniel now. They praise, what did they praise? Look back to the text of the gods of gold. and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. They were worshipping six gods that night, the gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone. Aside from worshiping the true God in a false way, which is what we just covered, There is another age-old problem with man, and it is people have a tendency of making gods out of things that didn't make them. That's really what it boils down to. People have a tendency of making gods out of things that did not make them. They have a tendency of making gods of the things that they control. Who was in control of those golden vessels that night? They were. They captured the vessels Nebuchadnezzar did. They brought them to Babylon. They then put them in the storage of the house of their false God. They then fetched them out of the stores, they then filled them up with wine, they then started drinking out of them. They controlled the gold, and they praised what they controlled. Those were golden vessels, and gold was one of the gods they worshiped. So they praised the gods that they controlled. Gold didn't make men, but men made those golden vessels. Men want gods that they can control. It's it's it's It's counterproductive to have a God you can control. Nevertheless I mean I want a God that's stronger than me. Man, I'm telling you, I need a God bigger than I am But I I but men want gods they can control a lot of them, do I? I believe that's what's attractive about atheism I think atheism is the ultimate religion that puts men in complete control. It allows them to claim they created themselves on their own. It even allows them to create their own reality, their own story of existence. I believe Cain wanted to control God. Instead of have God control Cain, because he wanted God to yield to his rules of worship rather than him rule to God's, or yield to God's rules of worship. They made gods of the things that they controlled, and thus they worshiped the creation instead of the Creator. When God created man, God put the creation under man's authority. Remember? Let them have dominion. If man wants to cut a tree down, then he cuts it down. If man wants to dig up gold out of the earth, melt it. Purify it, whether it's gold, silver, brass, whatever it is, make things out of it, then he he gets it, digs it out, he does it. He's in control of it, so he worships and serves the creation rather than the creator. Speaking of rebellious men, the Bible says in Romans chapter 1, verse 25 that they are those, quote, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature. more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So false worship, another false worship, is to worship what's under us instead of the worship the God that's over us. Worship what's in submission to us. rather than us be in submission to who is over us. People love making their own gods because when you can make your own God then you can custom make a God any way you want to. Your own custom-made God. God makes man in his image, and then man makes God in his image. What a mess that is. The only problem is it's not real. Last week There was a uh one of my co-workers was sitting in a part of the courthouse. He was sitting down and there was a chair close to him. And uh he's over there by himself. And there's uh there's uh a nice place to sit up there at the courthouse. And the men are so respectful of me and if they see me walking out of my office, they know that if I'm gonna be in the lobby area, I enjoy sitting at that little spot and they'll hop up and they'll move and let me sit there. I don't ask them to. I usually tell them to keep their seat, but out of respect they usually do that. And um He hopped up and he walked over. Well, I didn't want him to sit by himself, so I did not sit in my favorite place. I went over to go sit next to him. And uh when I did, he's a joker. And when I did, he let me know that his pretend friend was sitting in that chair and I couldn't sit there. He said, oh no, so-and-so's there. You know, like a little boy, that's his pretend friend. You know, having a false God It's just like having an imaginary friend, except with much greater consequences Not only did they worship what they control, but they worshiped the physical rather than the spiritual. They worshiped what they could see, what they could touch what they they they they worship something that was tangible to them and by the way we do the same thing The Bible says that Jesus Christ, the Apostle John said, Jesus is that which we have seen, which we have heard, which we have handled. of the word of God. He said, we saw him. We touched him. We heard him We lived with him. We saw him die. We saw him after he was raised from the dead. You have our eyewitness testimony. We do not worship some type of fairy tale. We worship the one true God. We have in front of us the wood he created, the flesh and blood and bone that he created, the intellect that he created, and then we had the God who created us come down and document. his physical appearance, his physical death, his physical resurrection, and his physical prophetic return. Which we're waiting on. I've heard people say they will only worship something they can see. The Bible says one day every eye shall see him. But it'll be too late to worship him then for some folks. But if you're looking just to worship something you can see right now, well that's putting a lot of stock in the human eye. When we know the human eye could only detect certain wavelengths of light. At the courthouse, we have to deal with x-rays all the time. You know why? Our eyes won't pick up certain things. We've got to use x-rays. Our eyes can't see x-rays. They got to interpret those and then send them back to us within wavelengths our eyes can see. It's fascinating. But you know what? Those X-rays I can't see show me things that I know are actually there. People send stuff through. I think, oh, someone just ordered a pair of shoes today. I see them in there. You can open it up, sure enough, there they are. We we see within wavelengths of light from about seven, I'm sorry, 380 to about 750 nanometers. Outside of that, we don't see it. As wonderful as they are, God did not give our eyes the ability to see many things, and that includes the spiritual world. Some people only believe in physical things, but this spiritual universe, it had to come from something. And it all came from God, who is spirit. Only a fool will put his trust in what he or she can control because ultimately we'll learn that we don't control anything I watched a very good commercial one day. It was so good I have no idea what they were advertising, but I hadn't forgot the commercial A man, I love old westerns, by the way. I love old westerns. And a man had fallen into a pit of quicksand. Here he is. He's going down. He's going down. And and like Lassie, you know, you'd always have your trusty dog. Hurry, boy, go get some help But in this particular commercial, that cowboy that had fallen into the quicksand, he had his trusty cat. He looked at his trusted cat and he said, hurry boy, go get some help. Well you know what that cat did. That cat just looked at him. Yeah. A cat doesn't care. Cat just stared at him. The cat had no capability of rescuing that man When you're on your deathbed, you better have something better than a house cat. You better have something better than the gods of gold and silver and brass and iron and wood. You better have something better than the gods of human evolution. And survival of the fittest. You better have someone you can depend on who has the power of life and death in his hand. who has victory over the grave because he rose from it on our behalf. The gods we make only appear sufficient while we are strong, while things are going well. I saw a bodybuilder. recently who claimed that he was so strong the gods were even afraid of him. That will only last for a few years at best. Y'all remember Lyle Alzado? Anyone remember him? Big ol he was uh uh Raiders, wasn't he? Huh? Okay. Anyway, and if I can't hear what did you say? Broncos and Raiders. Broncos and Raiders. Okay. He knows everything. He does. He's amazing. When he got out of the NFL, he decided, you know, I'd kind of like to get back in and start playing again. Well, now he's old. I mean not that old, but he's too old for doing NFL stuff again. I think it was like his early 40s. I remember watching a special on him, a documentary on him when I was a young man. And he started going to this uh cutting edge science rehab where they were doing deep tissue massages and putting them on experimental steroids, anabolic steroids to build them up. And and he was getting strong and he said, when he was being interviewed, he said, I like the feel of crushing people and smashing people and and being strong. And he said this. He said, I got stopped by a highway patrolman the other day. And when I got out, I was standing next to him, and I remember thinking to myself, you have no idea that I could just crush you right now. And that's kind of how the how it ended. It just showed he was trying to get back in the NFL. And this is bef before they made the decision whether or not to accept him back in the NFL. Just a few years later, there was Oli all hunched over and his wife was having to guide him along. Y'all see that when he got sick All those steroids trying to reclaim his youth gave him cancer. And old Lyle's all skinny and weak. He can't even walk on his own without a woman helping him. The gods of muscles and sinew and bone, and human strength, the gods that we control only work when we're sufficient in our own strength and things are going well. But only the God who made us. is worthy of our praise and trust because only he can overcome our ultimate death our sin, the grave, and give us everlasting life. True vessels Don't make true worship. False vessels can never become true. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. Oh Father, the devil will distract us and turn our eyes on anything but Jesus. But Father, we pray this message will help us remember that Jesus is our everything. His precious name we pray, Amen.