Episode Transcript
The title of our message this morning is The Writing on the Wall.
The Writing on the Wall.
In the previous verses of this chapter, we saw that Belshazzar who ruled Babylon years after his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar had ruled, he didn't follow, excuse me, the faith of his grandfather.
But he worshipped false gods instead.
And on one particular day, we saw that he was having a big feast with all of his lords, a thousand of them, the Bible says.
And he committed the atrocious sin of having God's holy vessels brought in to their false worship and they drank the Bible says in Daniel 5. 4 it says they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
And I told you last week that the gods we make Did not make us.
That just that's just logical, isn't it?
And a God that didn't make us is a God that cannot keep us The gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, stone, the gods of atheism, the gods of exercise, whatever we place our hope in in, they are in no way going to be any help in the day of trouble.
They are false, fair weather gods that are worthless when real trouble comes.
Brother Shepherd and I both took martial arts when we were young.
And both being in law enforcement and having been in law enforcement, we've had to uh to handle, manhandle people. uh in our career.
And because of that, uh we know by experience there are some things that work in a real life struggle between two people, and there's some things that don't work in a real life struggle between two people.
And there are some things that may look impressive. that may make people feel protected, but they're really not genuine self-defense tactics.
They're no help in the day of trouble.
And from time to time, I'll see on on social media so-called martial arts teachers that pop up on my social media feed and they have no idea what they're doing.
But they have people who follow them and think that somehow that's going to protect them when that time comes.
Brother Doug, let me assure you of this.
If you see someone going, that won't help at all, will it, brother?
That's not going to get anybody.
All that stuff right there is a bunch of silliness that may work in movies, but uh I assure you uh some big bad fella is gonna hurt you if you try whipping that out on him.
They're going to hurt you.
And it's the same thing with a false god.
Your Hindu gods, your little Buddha statue.
Your belief in atheism, whatever your false gods are, they may give you some comfort as long as you're feeling well, as long as you're not on your deathbed.
You know, they give you some comfort as long as Jesus isn't appearing in the clouds and the judgment day comes.
They'll give you comfort up till there.
But when that time comes and real judgment comes from God, there'll be no help to you at all.
And Belshazzar and his gang, they they felt well protected by their false gods.
They felt very secure as they were praising those gods drinking out of the vessels of the house of God.
But when they they drank from the vessels of the real God, you know what happened?
There came real trouble.
God's judgment was about to come on Babylon in the manner in which God's judgment came upon them that night. is a representation of how it will come upon all the world.
God doesn't record these prophecies and these historical uh writings of Babylon for nothing He does them because and records them for us and preserves them for us in his word because they directly Teach us about our day and time, our relationship with God, and God's coming judgment upon our generations, generations to come.
In the next two verses, we're going to see three things.
We're going to see number one, God's judgment comes suddenly.
God's judgment comes suddenly, if you're taking notes.
Number two, God's judgment comes openly.
God's judgment comes openly.
Number three, God's judgment comes frightfully.
God's judgment comes frightfully.
So first, God's judgment comes suddenly.
The Bible says, look in verse 5, in the same hour.
Underscore the word same.
In the same hour, at the same time, is when God's judgment came.
When God's judgment strikes, it often strikes suddenly.
Unexpectedly.
God waited for Belshazzar to be right in the middle of his big celebration.
When he was feeling proud, secure, invincible, and then he brought this judgment upon him when he least expected it.
You know how Jesus said it was going to be in the last days?
He said people would be eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage and everything just going to be going right along Persecuting Christians, feeling good.
We got finally got on top of the church, on top of the The people of God and and the irreligious people, the ungodly people are going to feel like they finally got things under control And then suddenly, just like that, God's judgment's going to come.
God's judgment comes Suddenly.
Now, this is the second time we've seen this in the book of Daniel, because that's how it came on Nebuchadnezzar.
Do you remember that?
This is exactly the way God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar in the previous chapter.
Nebuchadnezzar was in the middle of bragging about his power. in his glory and how he built up the kingdom of Babylon for himself and not for God when God's judgment fell on him.
Look in Daniel 4.
31 The Bible says, While the word was in the king's mouth, now this time about Nebuchadnezzar, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee.
Well now that changed Nebuchadnezzar's attitude real fast.
This happened to King Herod also in Acts chapter 12.
Verses 21 through 23.
The Bible says, and upon a set day, Herod arrayed in royal apparel. sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a God and not of a man.
Bore Hared like that being called a God.
Verse 23, and immediately, immediately, the angel of the Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
In other words, he died.
God has a way of striking his enemies suddenly. quickly, unexpected, unexpectedly, in the act of their sins with the element of surprise Speaking of God, the Bible says in Psalm 73, verse 18.
Psalm 73, verse 18.
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places.
Thou castest them down into destruction.
So God sets his enemies in slippery places.
He casts them down into destruction.
And the idea is this.
The idea is of a person standing tall and proud and feeling very confident.
And he's walking along in his life, everything seems to be going his way.
But there's a little slick spot up ahead that he doesn't know about.
Y'all ever watch someone just completely wipe out?
They're just walking so proud and whoop away they go.
And so the Bible says that God sets his enemies in slippery places so that they're walking so proud, so confident, and then one step.
That God set at a particular time, and their foot slips right out from under them, and they fall to their destruction.
This is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar.
This is what happened, thank God.
He repented.
This is what happened to Belshazzar.
This is what happened to Herod.
This is what is going to happen when you look in Revelation chapter 6.
And you see the Lord coming back, and suddenly people are saying, fall on us on rocks, hide us on mountains from the face of Him that sits on the throne.
Everything's going to be going just fine, they think.
And then suddenly, unexpectedly, God's judgment comes.
Belshazzar thought he was standing on solid footing when he sinned against God.
But God said his s that sinner's feet in slippery places and this was his day to slip and fall.
And if people would only realize that they are not immune from the judgment of God as they think they are In 2024, I don't know if y'all saw it, there was a rapper, a hype man.
I think Brother Doug and Sheila listened to him.
His name was Fat Man Scoop.
Did y'all listen to him, brother?
Y'all?
Okay.
I didn't listen to him either.
But his name was Fat Man Scoop.
And he was a hype man.
He would go to these concerts and get everyone all hyped up, get ready to party and enjoy the rap concert that they were going to have And I watched the video when it took place.
He got that microphone and he said, if you came to party, make some noise And those were the last words he ever spoke.
You can still get on YouTube and probably go home, look up Fat Man Scoop.
If you came to party, make some noise, and you can probably still see today and watch him die.
Because they had it all out on the on the internet whenever it took place.
He said, if you came to party, make some noise.
It's kind of how it went, just like that.
And he just fell over dead And then the people that were out there on stage, they just kind of looked.
Like, what do we do now?
His feet were in slippery places.
He stood to party, but he fell off into eternity And that's why it's so important that we stand on the rock Jesus Christ, who alone took our judgment on the cross.
If you're standing on Jesus, your foot is not in a slippery place.
Every step that we walk with Jesus is on sure and solid ground promised to us in the everlasting covenant.
We cannot slip.
We cannot fall.
Now, God's judgment comes suddenly.
Next, God's judgment comes openly It comes openly.
Look back in your text.
In the same hour, the Bible says, came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick. upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.
Now they didn't have lights, they didn't have electricity like us, so they would have uh candlesticks or torches or whatever.
But they they would have in this case they had candlesticks on the wall and they'd be placed in various places to give light inside the room.
And in that same hour when he's drinking, there comes fingers of a man's hand.
Now we've got a light right over there, so we're going to use it for an example, okay?
And there's plaster up here, so we'll use it for an example.
Let's say that all y'all are out here feasting.
Feasting to your false gods.
And then suddenly there's a hand.
Hang on here Suddenly there's a hand, not an arm, not a man.
Just a hand.
And there's a hand starts writing up here on the wall, writing a message up here on that wall.
Now, would that get your attention?
Yes, sir.
But notice where the hand was.
The hand was over next to the candlestick.
Do you see that?
Do you know why it was next to that candlestick?
Huh?
So it could be seen.
That's exactly right.
God want to make sure everybody in there saw that hand Everybody in there saw the message that hand was writing up on the wall.
Now next week we'll actually get into the actual message that was written on the wall and what it means.
And it's got great significance for us today too.
It shows us the mind of God in judgment.
But right now, just to understand, God did not send a letter through the Babylonian mail.
God did not send a prophet to cry at the city gates when this took place.
God didn't send an angel to make appearance around town.
God got right in the middle of Belshazzar's business.
God dealt with him directly.
God dealt with him personally.
God bypassed the I'm sure there's a great security detail outside.
And around that palace that he was in.
And God went right past that security detail, right into the middle of that party where all those high-ranking officials were.
And he then went right next to the candlestick where that light was so everybody could see.
And through the agency of a human hand, he started writing on the wall of the king's palace.
Now you can imagine a stranger walking in to a big gun-totin Texas homeowner's house.
And writing on that homeowner's wall.
Did you imagine that?
Boy, that handwriting wouldn't last long in my house.
Not if I could help it.
Someone walk into your house, just start writing on your wall.
If someone walked in the church right now and took something and started writing on the wall here, we'd all try to stop them There wasn't anyone stopping this hand.
This was in your face All of these high-ranking men belonging to the most powerful nation on earth at that time, and there wasn't a thing in the world they could do to stop that handwriting on the wall.
And by the way, if you've ever heard the old expression Seeing the handwriting on the wall, it came from right here in the book of Daniel.
God's judgment was direct, personal.
And open before all, and there wasn't a thing anybody could do about it.
And that's how God's judgment is.
Now listen, Jesus said.
That when he went to the cross, he said it was going to be the judgment of this world.
He said, Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
That's how he described his coming death on the cross.
He described it as the judgment of this world.
And how did that judgment come?
Was it was Jesus crucified secretly?
No, he was crucified openly.
He was crucified publicly.
He was crucified so that it would be a matter of the government record of that day, both Jew and Gentile.
He was crucified before all people.
When Jesus defeated the devil and set man free from his sins and rose again, the Bible says in Colossians chapter 2, Verse 15, it says, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he that is Jesus made a show of them. openly triumphing over them in it.
That word spoil, spoiling principalities and powers, it's a term of war.
It's where the warriors would go to an enemy country and they would conquer that country and they'd just take their stuff.
Kind of like beating up a kid and taking his sandwich.
That was the spoils of war.
They'd go in, they'd conquer a nation, they'd take their stuff.
And so that's what Jesus did, the Bible said in the book of Colossians He spoiled principalities and powers.
And he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
In other words, when Jesus was on the cross, he beat the devil up and took a sandwich.
He he he judged the world, that world that was in that that that rebellious world kingdom, that rebellious world system. that started in the Garden of Eden with Adam, that continued throughout Nimrod and throughout all the rebellious Gentile world against God.
Jesus, when he was on the cross, that was the judgment of this world.
He beat them up and took away their sandwich.
He re he took the the power of death from the devil, took the power of hell took the power of the grave away.
He took everything that sin had taken away from us and he he conquered them and he took all that That God had given, that sin had taken away, he took it back for us as a spoil of war.
And he won the victory on the cross.
But Colossians says he did it openly.
Triumphing over them in it.
Before all, nothing was done as a secret.
In fact The Bible says it wasn't done in a corner.
In other words, it wasn't done privately.
And when Jesus comes again, he's going to come the same way, just like that hand on the wall.
So everybody can see him.
When Jesus returns, listen, don't don't get the idea That people are going to be driving around their cars one day and suddenly cars are going to start running off the road in the ditch because this secret rapture took place.
And people are going to be, well I wonder what happened there.
Airplanes falling out of the sky because there's a Christian pastor flying uh Christian excuse me pilot flying the airplane and it's and this crash and everyone's gonna be going, Well I wonder what happened.
We've even had some Christians that have come up with the idea that the devil is going to make people think aliens stole us.
That's nowhere in the Bible, but Christians come up with some of the silliest concepts.
Did you know there's nothing in the Bible about a secret rapture?
Nothing whatsoever about suddenly people just disappear.
Had a pastor tell me one time that uh one day he woke up from a nap and he started doubting his salvation.
He said that he was so scared, he thought maybe, because it was quiet, he thought maybe he missed the rapture.
And all the Christians went up and he was lost and he missed the rapture and he was lost.
He said he was so scared That he went and got in his car and went out to the cemetery and checked someone that he knew was a Christian to make sure they were still engraved.
Now that's pretty bad.
That's when you really don't know the Bible.
And he was my pastor.
He was my pastor.
When Jesus comes, it's going to be like that handwriting on the wall.
Every eye is going to be able to see.
Won't be anything secret about it.
He's not going to slip through the back door.
He's going to come openly before the world.
Revelation chapter 1, verse 7.
Revelation chapter 1, verse 7 says, Behold He cometh with clouds, and say it with me, every eye shall see him.
And they also which pierced him, and all kindred of the earth shall wail because of him, even so amen When you go there in Revelation chapter 6, and then you're going to see him come.
And that's when the dead in Christ rise.
And that's when the other people say, Fall on us, O rocks, and hide us, O mountains.
He's going to come back openly.
There will not be a secret.
The world will know.
God's judgment comes suddenly God's judgment comes openly.
Third, God's judgment comes frightfully.
With great terror.
The Bible says, look in your text now.
In Daniel It says, and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Again, can you imagine seeing not a man But just a hand writing something up on the wall.
That would scare anybody.
I want to share with y'all something.
I know this on with first hand experience.
First hand experience Years ago, my mom and dad owned the Texas Gospel Music Hall in Athens.
They had some wonderful gospel concerts there.
And my mom, during the middle of the day, she would be in her office there preparing for the next concert.
And every now and then she would have a friend come over and help her stuff envelopes, flyers, things like that to advertise for the concert.
I was working for the state at the time.
And uh I happened to be in the area, and so I pulled in to the parking lot of the music hall to say hi to my mom And when I opened the door to walk in, I could hear my mother and a lady named Betty McLean.
They were both in the music hall, in my mom's office together.
They were alone And your pastor has an incredibly terrible sense of humor.
And my old wheels started turning.
Because you know what popped in my head?
I started thinking about Belshazzar and that hand on the wall.
There was a table like this.
That was standing, I mean that was sitting right next to the threshold of that door.
And so I climbed up on that table.
I'm not gonna climb on this, but I climbed up on that table.
And I went over to the threshold of that door and I ran my hand across the top of that door.
If y'all could picture, if y'all could picture.
How do we do this here?
I ran my hand, now they're inside, and I ran my hand across the top of that right there.
And then I dangled my hand down right in the middle of that door.
So the only thing they could see was that hand dangling from the middle of that door.
They couldn't see my arm.
They couldn't see my person.
Man, it was beautiful.
And so they're in there talking, and I'm just doing my hand like that, and I finally get it down like this, and I just have my hand down like that, and I have my fingers gently moving like that.
And they're just sitting there, do-do-do-do-do what women do.
And finally, I heard Betty say, Francis, what is that?
And she says what?
She goes, look.
And I heard my mother go, oh do you remember that mama?
Oh man.
My mom can tell you firsthand experience. that this would scare anybody.
I won't tell you that king was afraid.
Because that king saw that handwriting, verse 6, look down verse 6.
Then the king's countenance was changed.
You ever seen someone all proud and smirky?
And then somebody says, wipe that smile off your face, boy.
I want to tell you, God just wiped the smile off of Belshazzar's face.
God just took those proud, rebellious, godless people.
He took their time of celebration and he Threw cold water all over it.
The Bible says and his thoughts troubled him.
In other words, he's thinking, what on earth can this be?
You know what I bet he was thinking?
I bet he's thinking, boy, I'm in trouble now.
Boy, are we in trouble now?
The Bible says he was so troubled.
In fact, look back in your text, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against the other.
One against another.
His knees started knocking together.
One moment he was the life of the party.
The next moment he was literally shaking in his boots.
The man was terrified.
And the Bible says in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
People who aren't afraid of God, the Bible speaks of them, says there is no fear of God before their eyes.
I tell you what.
It is healthy to have a good dose of the fear of God.
Do you know someone told me one time, they said They said, I'm not sure that I'm really uh that I can really be saved.
I said, why not?
They said, because I'm not sure my motive is right. in being saved.
I said, what's your motive?
They said, well, I'm scared of going to hell.
I said, that's a good motive.
That's a good motive.
You ought to be scared of going to hell.
They say, Well, I I I believe I should love God and I should come to God because I love him.
Listen, you can't love a lost person can't love God as they should.
But I tell you what When God came down on Mount Sinai, do you know what he did?
He didn't put a big rainbow up over that mountain He made that mountain shake.
He made fire come out of it.
He made the earth shake.
He caused smoke to come up And God thundered out his voice with like the sound of a loud trumpet.
So all those people, those Jews, they ran back and told Moses, You go speak to God for us.
We don't let him speak to us anymore lest we die God took that law and he wiped any smile off anybody's face.
He removed any confidence that anybody had in their ability to keep that law.
And then God gave them a priest. to make a sacrifice for the sins that they committed.
Every one of us should understand That apart from Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, we all have calls for our knees to shake and knock together.
Apart from Jesus Christ, we should be very, very afraid.
God's judgment comes suddenly.
God's judgment comes openly.
God's judgment comes frightfully.
One day, God's gonna say enough.
I'm not putting up with this anymore.
My patience with the world has run out.
It's time for judgment to come.
And when that time comes, Jesus is going to appear in the sky.
Every eye is going to see him.
The dead in Christ are going to rise to miss God's judgment.
Because we're not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
God's people are gonna go up and God's wrath is gonna come down.
It's gonna be a dreadful time It's going to come suddenly upon the world.
It's going to come openly to the world.
It's going to come frightfully to the world.
You don't believe that?
Just read the book of Revelation.
You don't get anything else, you get a good scare.
But because of Jesus, that sudden judgment for the world will be our sudden rescue.
Because of Jesus, that open judgment to the world will be our open deliverance And because of Jesus, that frightful coming will be a delightful coming.
Don't go through this world.
Standing in slippery places.
Go through this world standing on the gospel rock, Jesus Christ.
So that when he comes, his sudden, open, frightful judgment will be his sudden, delightful rescue for you and me Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
We thank you, Father God, for these incredible stories that you've given us of what took place, Lord, back in that kingdom of Babylon, not too long ago.
And Father Lord, we thank you that it is a picture of what's going to happen not too long from now.
Thank you, Lord God.
There were people shaking in their boots that day.
But there was a man named Daniel who came walking in confidently to explain the handwriting on the wall.
And Lord, like Daniel, because we wait on Jesus, we wait confidently as well while this world's shaking.
We thank you for him.
And we ask these things in Jesus' precious name, Lord.
Go with us this week and bring us back safely the next Lord day.
Amen.
