Faith Baptist Church
Shutting the Mouths of Lions
My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions…
Daniel 6:22a NIV
Well good morning church, beautiful day right? And a good day to be a church, a good day to be together. I pray our farmers are doing okay out there. All right, I got a couple of head nods, good, good. Well, will you pray with me this morning? Lord, as we look into your word today, I pray you encourage your church. Breathe life into us through your word because we need it, because death surrounds us. So breathe life into us, Lord, lift our eyes to heaven. Lord, fill us with faith, hope and love that will remain in Jesus name, amen. I want to start off with kind of a funny story of my upbringing, all right? So I was the youngest of four brothers, and so raise your hand if you drove here in the middle seat or back seat with your siblings. We got a couple, all right. So we would bicker sometimes, I don't know if you guys can relate bickering with a sibling, but we were four competitive athletes that were not, we were growing in maturity, all right? With a lot of energy. And we had a rule that we were not allowed to say shut up, okay? My mom, if she heard that, she'd whip her head around from the front seat and say, we don't say shut up, okay? So we got creative with how we would say it. So we would say things like, shut your lips. That wouldn't catch my mom's attention. We just keep driving and you kind of got away with it. Close your mouth, stop talking. The most creative one was often directed towards me, which was Rob, you lost talking privileges. And it was said from my brother who was an accounting partner in a accounting firm, just very matter of fact, Rob. He lost talking privileges. And it was so calm that my mom had no idea what was going on back there. And I thought that was a thing that you can lose talking privileges. And so it's true, I would be quiet then. Now you think maybe that's not very nice to say and it kind of wasn't. But there's a lot of times in the Bible when God tells the devil, close your mouth. And I love those moments, I love those moments, because the devil has nothing good to say. All he speaks is lies and he does nothing good with his bite, but death and destruction. And there's times when God just tells him, you know what? Close your mouth. And we have a verse here today which talks about God closing the devil's mouth. And I just love that. I love that, because there's evil in our world, okay? There's death and destruction out there. There's lions prowling around. And as God's people, it can be a little intimidating and a little frightening. And I'm sorry it's a little crass, but sometimes as God's people, we can say, "You know what? Shut up." Because what you have to say is totally opposite of what God has to say. And that is what I want as the foundation of my life. We've been in the series in Daniel, and today is the last chapter in it. We've been traveling through chapters one through seven. And I wanted to let you guys know that this section, especially chapters two through six, it's all written in Aramaic, okay? The rest of Daniel's in Hebrew, but these six chapters that we've really looked closely at are intended to go together, okay? And we looked at chapters four and five last week. And these six chapters that are in Aramaic are set as a chiasm. And so what that means is that chapters two and seven went together. That was Daniel's vision of the kingdoms of the world that were to come. Last week we looked at chapters four and five. Those go together. That was Nebuchadnezzar and his son Belshazzar, each getting a warning. And then three and six go together, which is the fiery furnace, and then the Daniel and the lion's den. And this is the end of this section. This is it. So if the kings of the world at this time were reading along, traveling along in the scripture, they get to this chapter six, Daniel and the lion's den. And it's the pinnacle. It's the end of what they're intended to read about God's sovereignty over the world. And I've just fallen in love with this chapter. It's beautiful. It starts out mentioning this king Darius. He took over last week as Belshazzar got a warning and didn't heed the handwriting on the wall. And now the kingdoms transferred over to the Persians and the Medes. Darius takes the throne. There's a new ruler, a new administration, but the same arrogance. And he has 120 rulers over his kingdom. He decides that Daniel has been distinguishing himself so well that he's about to set him up as ruler over all of these 120 rulers. Now the 119 weren't too fond of that. Okay? As if there was an election poll going, Daniel was soaring in the lead. And those behind didn't like that. So they decided to try and do a smear campaign on Daniel. But they couldn't find any charges against Daniel in this conduct. They were unable to do so because he was found trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. So that wasn't working. They couldn't dig up any dirt on this guy. The only thing they could come up with, imagine getting this on your television or a letter in the mail to smear a candidate. All they could come up with was he prays. That's all they could come up with. He prays. And so they set a trap for Daniel and they get Darius to issue a royal decree that if anyone prays to a God or a person other than Darius for the next 30 days, they'd be thrown in the lion's den. And Darius agrees to this. Now we know that we should never pray to a person or to a spirit, to a president. Should never pray to an immaculate virgin. We pray to God and to God alone who is worthy of our praise and our prayers. And Daniel knew this and so he continued to pray. In the face of death, in the face of death, he was willing to pray. Not off the bat there, I'm challenged by that. We're exactly 30 days out from an election. I think we should be praying. I think we should be praying. Not just for a specific president, but just for our country, right? Because at election time we debate about what's wrong in the world, I'll tell you what's wrong. Our hearts and knees are not submitted to Christ, that's what's wrong. And so we need to be praying for our country and for our nation. And a lot of us won't, Daniel in the face of death wouldn't stop. He knew that that was his lifeline. You see this is his like third or fourth king he served under. He's learned the key in lesson of what lasts forever. It's this eternal God bringing the eternal kingdom. And so he keeps praying to that king, staying close to that king and he knew that that'd be the safest place, is in the middle of God's will for him. The safest place for him was obedience in a lion's den, because that wasn't God's will. And God did keep him safe. It says that when Daniel learned about this decree, he went home as usual, went to his upstairs prayer room, facing out towards Jerusalem with his windows open. He's looking out at Jerusalem thinking about the promise of that God told him that after the people of God that they would return to Jerusalem from Babylon, from their exile. He had that hope and that faith and he'd stare out there into the promises of God and he'd pray in places hope there. It says he'd give thanks to his God just as he'd done before. He was praying and asking God for help. And they caught him. They brought him before Darius and they said, "Daniel deserves to die in the lion's den." Darius was deeply distressed, determined to rescue Daniel. They caught him. He was in the mouth of the jaws of that lion and the law demanded justice. Darius wanted to overturn the law, but he couldn't. He had to be a good judge and he had to give justice. And so in verse 16, the king gave the order and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lion's den. The king said to Daniel, "May your God whom you serve continually rescue you." A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of the nobles so that Daniel's situation might not be changed. Funny thing is, is the situation does change. See, Darius doesn't have the final word and the lions don't have the final word. They don't have the final say, they don't have the final roar. Even though the king thought so. In these verses you'll notice he's put in this den of lions into the jaws of death and a stone is rolled over. What's soon to be a tomb? Let me ask you, do you think he's going to come out? Do you think he's going to come out? Is he going to rise out of that tomb? Will he overcome the agents of death and destruction? Do you think he'll rise out and a royal decree will go out of good news in the gospel to all the world that there is a God who is alive, that there is a kingdom that endures forever, that he rescues and he saves, that he performs signs and wonders, and that he rescued Daniel from the power of the lions. Do you think that's about to happen? Well, the king didn't think so. The next day he came in anguish, assuming Daniel to be dead. The disciples of Jesus didn't think so either. They had a sleepless night just like this Darius, verse 18, the king, he went back to his palace without eating, without entertainment, without sleeping. He was crushed. He thought that it was over. God has the final say as to when it's over. For those who are in Christ, in faith in Christ, it's never over, because God gets to tell these lions, "Shut your mouth." Verse 19, I love this, just parallels the gospel so clearly. At the first light of dawn, the king got up and hurried to the lion's den, just like Mary Magdalene running to the tomb, and he runs there, and he comes there to the den, called Daniel in an anguished voice, he didn't dare look in, he didn't dare look in, he was afraid of what he might see, but he calls and says, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God whom you've served continually? Has he been able to rescue you from the lions?" Mary had the same question at the tomb. Many of us had the same question whenever we go to a funeral, "Can God really save from the power and jaws of death?" Verse 21, I wonder if how long Daniel waited. If he chipped right in, or he just let the dramatic pause go for a little while. Daniel says, "May the king live forever, for my God sent his angel." This is the polite way of saying, "Shut up," he says, "and he shut the mouth of the lions." Amen. They have not hurt me because I was found innocent in his sight, nor have I ever done any wrong before you, your majesty, and just like Mary, the king was overjoyed. The king was overjoyed. He gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den, and when Daniel was lifted from the den, no wound was found on him because he had trusted in his God. Instead in verse 24, those who put this plot were they themselves thrown into the den, and just to show that the lions weren't actually tame, they ripped them to pieces. Truly, it was a miracle that God closed the mouths of these lions. And so in verse 25, 26, Darius writes a decree of good news, a royal gospel, to the whole known world. He says, "For he is the living God, and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed, and his dominion will never end." This phrase appears in just about every chapter at Daniel so far. It's the point of the book written in Aramaic so that the whole known world won't understand that the things here that we put so much emphasis on, they rise and they fall, but it makes us wonder what really lasts forever. And so I'd like us to read this decree together, just like we did last week, to make sure we get it. Starting at the back in verse 26 where it says, "For he is the living God, if you humor me with that." So one, two, three, "For he is the living God, and he endures forever. His kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end." Thank you. Hallelujah. Verse 27, it even continues, it says, "He rescues and he saves. He performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions." Can you imagine if a president issued that national television? This continues to happen over Daniel's life. You think God's forsaken his people as they go into exile, and really he's just using them to spread the news of who he really is. Now I want to show you a connection here. So this story of Daniel in the history of the Hebrews is pretty significant. People of God really take his example to heart as the centuries go by because they continue to be in exile. And in the writers of the New Testament, it would have been on their minds and on their hearts. Actually the whole world would have been thinking about this God who is alive with an internal kingdom who saves, who can ride someone out of a tomb. And so I want to bring us to Peter to Paul and the Hebrews, which I'll use this imagery of a lion. And best as I can see, the only way they're going to find this imagery is from this story in Daniel. And so in 1 Peter, he writes to the Christian exiles and he says this, 1 Peter chapter 5, "So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up. Give all your worries and your cares to God, for he cares about you. Stay alert and watch out for the great enemy, the devil, for he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. To stand firm against him and be strong in your faith. How do you stand firm? Stay in faith." If you do that, as he's looking for someone to devour, he can't touch you, because God tells him shut your mouth. Now if you're not in faith, then you're in the jaws of a lion. And I beg you, I beg you, get out. God has provided a way to get out, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. The end of chapter 5 of 1 Peter, he even says, "Your sister church here in Babylon sends you greetings." Paul, he makes comment about these lions. He says in 2 Timothy chapter 4, "That the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, and I was delivered from the lion's mouth." As far as we can tell, he's not talking about a literal lion, but about the evil that went to attack him. And he says in verse 18, "This is wonderful." He says, "The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack, and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom." To him be glory forever and ever, amen. What confidence, what confidence, that the Lord will save me from every evil attack. You see, faith in that produces faithfulness. Daniel had it, he saw it time and time again. He had faith that God was sovereign, and therefore he responded in faithfulness. It's the logical thing to do, and so often we fear. So often we let the things of this world control and move and shake us. So often we let the things of the world shut us up. When the only lion we should be looking at is the lion at Judah, who has an everlasting throne. Someday we're going to meet up with him, we're going to let loose all this stuff. We're going to be as we should be with him forever. It's going to be wonderful. And just like Daniel, we look out our window towards that heavenly home that God has promised. We stay in prayer, and we watch, and we wait. That day is coming. We're going to join in that together. The last scripture I want to end with is out of Hebrews 11. It's in the Hall of Faith, talks about faith being confident in what we hope for, certain of what we do not see. Mentioned heroes of faith through the Old Testament, and it gets to the prophets, Daniel being included. And it says that the prophets, who through faith quenched the fury of the flames, who through faith shut the mouths of lions. We do that today. The evil that's around you, through faith, in faith in Christ. We tell that great lion, you may not devour. Christ has placed his royal seal on me. He has decreed over me that I am his. And in prayer over these next 30 days, we pray for our country. I say, "No, Lord, deliver it from evil." We pray that over our church, say, "No, this church is sealed with the Holy Spirit." This is God's country. And those who come here, may they always meet face to face with that lion and Judah, the everlasting king. We claim the promise, "The Lord will deliver us from every evil attack," as we trust in him, and bring us safely to his heavenly eternal home. We claim that over Israel, for God fights for Israel, the Lord will deliver them from every evil attack. We claim that over our families and over our children, as we intercede to the blood of Christ for them, as we claim protection over them in Jesus' name. [BLANK_AUDIO]