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Amazing Facts

Commands of the King

Doug Batchelor

Commands of the King, Part 1

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

Did you know it's against the law to doze off under a hair dryer in Florida, to play hopscotch on Sunday in Missouri, to hunt camels in Arizona, to insert a penny in your ear in Hawaii, to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole in Atlanta, to catch mice without a license in Cleveland, to put a skunk in your boss's desk in Michigan, to detonate a nuclear weapon within Chico, California city limits, which carries a punishment of $500, to bathe less than once a year in Kentucky, to pawn your dentures in Las Vegas.

Yes, there are about 2000000 laws in the U.S.

And if a person could review them at a rate of about 2 a day, you'd be qualified to act as a law-abiding citizen in about 6, 000 years.

Yet the Lord was able to summarize the entire duty of man to God in just 10 simple precepts that contain about 325 words.

Jesus said God's law boils down to 2 crucial principles, Love for God and love for our fellow man.

Join me now, friends, as we consider the relevance of God's law in our lives today.

♪♪ We're just so excited about this subject tonight because we're gonna be dealing with some very practical things from the Bible that are often neglected.

Now the title for our presentation tonight is the commands of the king.

And as our custom, we're going to begin with a story in the Bible.

It's 1 of the famous stories that you find in your Bible in the book of Daniel chapter 6.

You remember we talked when we talked about the empires that Babylon fell to the Medo-Persians.

And when Babylon fell to the Medo-Persians, the Persians, they wiped out all of the former administrators that had served the Babylonian king, with the exception of Daniel.

Because Daniel was an honest man, he was a very capable administrator, they knew that he had really worshipped Jehovah and his allegiance wasn't to any Babylonian king they not only preserved him but the Bible tells us in chapter 6 that the king Darius was so impressed with Daniel he thought to set him over the whole kingdom he had him as 1 of his chief administrators.

And he was thinking of making him the prime minister.

Will that really bother the other politicians in the kingdom?

They said, well, this Daniel, he's from Judah.

And how are we going to be, you know, extorting money?

And how are we going to be getting our kickbacks?

And if he's watching the books all the time, he's too honest.

And they really began to resent how much the king trusted in Daniel and that relationship.

And they said, we've got to get him out of the way.

They hired spies to follow Daniel around but the Bible record is that he was spirit filled and he was faithful in everything he did.

They put you know cameras everywhere to try and catch him.

They checked his file box to see if he was paying his taxes.

And in every detail of his life, Daniel was faithful.

You wonder what would happen if people followed us around and spied.

Are we the same people in private that we are in public.

They said, we know how to get rid of him.

We're not going to find anything against him concerning, you know, the kingdom or doing anything unlawful, but maybe on religious grounds we can get rid of him because he's a very religious man and he doesn't worship our gods.

So they went and they assembled before the king and they said, King, we got an idea.

Since we've now just conquered all these new nations and Persia has grown, we think that It'll help solidify the kingdom if we make a law that nobody is to pray to anybody but King Darius for 30 days.

And you might think, well, that's a pretty arrogant law to make.

But it was common in ancient history that when a king wanted to unite people, if he couldn't do it through their language or their culture or their race, they could do it through common religion.

How is the devil gonna try to unite the world in the last days?

He compels them all to worship, common worship.

It wasn't an accident that Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar and Alexander the Great declared themselves to be deity.

I mean, they got tired and hungry and sore like everybody else, but they thought if the people think this, It'll help preserve the integrity of the kingdom." So they talked the king into it and he said, okay, yeah, we can do that for 30 days.

And they said, of course there's a penalty if they break it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course there's a penalty.

And they talked King Darius into signing this law.

According to the law of the Medes and the Persians which does not change.

And then the Bible makes an incredible statement in Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10.

We read, now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed this law, He knows that he's going to go to the lion's den if he's caught praying.

He went home and in his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem.

Why were his windows open towards Jerusalem?

Because Solomon said If you are carried away captive to another land, if they pray towards this place, then hear in heaven and answer their prayer.

It says he knelt down on his knees in his upper room where everybody could see him.

And he opened his windows there in the courtyard where everyone could see.

And he prayed out loud where everybody could hear.

He did absolutely nothing to show that he was worshiping Darius.

He wanted everyone to know, my custom is not gonna change.

You know, the Bible tells us that this was his custom from his youth.

Daniel read in Psalm 55, verse 17, where King David said, morning, evening, and at noon will I pray and lift up my voice.

And Daniel not only read the Bible, you can read in the book of Daniel where Daniel says, I was reading the book of Jeremiah.

He read the Bible and he lived out the Bible.

So when the king makes this law that says you can't pray to anybody but the king for 30 days, Daniel's got to make a choice.

Do I obey the law of the government or the law of God?

Do I worship the way the government is telling me to worship or the way God is telling me to worship?

1 of the 10 Commandments says you shall not have other gods, right?

And so Daniel said, I'm not going to disobey.

I've spent my whole life serving Jehovah.

Whatever the consequences, if I go to the lion's den, I go to the lion's den.

It would have been so easier for him to just leave his windows closed for 30 days.

But he said, these people all know that I'm like a cuckoo clock.

And if they see me close my windows, they're going to think I'm compromising my love for God, and I'm not going to let them see that.

He could open his windows and look like he was just sniffing the flowers and prayed in his heart, but he got on his knees.

So in his posture they'd see he was praying.

Then he prayed out loud and they could hear what he was praying.

Well sure enough, the men assembled and they saw what Daniel was doing.

He knelt down on his knees 3 times that day and he prayed and the other amazing thing is it says he prayed and he gave thanks.

Now if you were about to become cat food would you thank God?

He he was thankful in everything give give thanks the Bible says he prayed and gave thanks before his God as was his custom since early days." Now, this is a very important study because we're going to be dealing with the law of God and how it relates to prophecy in the last days.

Well when the king realized these men who had trapped Daniel, they went in before the king and said, didn't you sign a law that said if anyone prays to any god or man for 30 days, he's going to the lions then?

Well, that Daniel from the captivity of Judah, he prays and makes his petition 3 times a day.

The king tried to change his law, but he could not.

It says 3 or 4 times in that chapter, chapter 6 of Daniel, the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not change, it does not change, cannot be altered.

And the king got his lawyers together and he said, is there any loophole, any way that we can save Daniel?

Commands of the King, Part 2

1 of the more bizarre laws in Minnesota forbids any game where participants chase a grease pig in order to catch it.

It's also illegal to throw knives at men wearing striped suits in Natoma, Kansas.

In West Virginia, using your ferret for hunting can land you in jail for up to 100 days.

And you better not transport ice cream in your pocket in Kentucky.

It's against the law to gather seaweed at night in New Hampshire.

And in Vermont, a woman needs written permission from her husband before she can lawfully wear false teeth.

Doesn't it seem like humans excel at making things unnecessarily complex?

On the other hand, God's moral code is streamlined, simple, and totally practical.

The 10 Commandments are also a perfect reflection of the loving character of God.

They help us to see sin in our lives and to point us in the right direction.

So join me today as we look deeper into this essential law of love.

Pastor Joe Cruz used to share this illustration that the shrimp out there in the ocean, when they molt as they grow, they slough off their old skin.

They have to swim down to the bottom of the shore, and they grab a piece of sand.

And with their little hands, they've got a crevice in their head with a little pocket in it.

And they push a piece of sand down in there, and it's called a status stone.

And what happens is when the shrimp are getting beat up in the waves and the currents and they're all swirling around they always know how to swim right side up because they got this little piece of sand in their head it helps them keep their equilibrium and so that they know which end is up.

Well a marine biologist got a bright idea.

He got an aquarium and filled them up with shrimp, but in the bottom of the aquarium there was no sand.

He put little iron pellets, and when it came time for them to molt and to replace their status stone, they went down there, not finding any sand, They all grabbed a little piece of iron They stuck it in the crevice with their little claws and everything was fine But this marine biologist had a sense of humor, so he got a large electromagnet And he put it across the top of the aquarium It was like a bar and he flipped the switch and turned it on and as soon as he did all the shrimp spun around and began to swim upside down.

And he watched that, he turned it off and they swam normally, turned it back on, they flipped upside down, he thought this is amazing.

He said, I wonder what will happen if I take a normal shrimp that's got the normal rock in his head and drop him in with the other shrimp.

Will he flip upside down to fit in or will he swim appropriately?

It was a normal shrimp with a piece of sand in his head with all the other shrimps that had rusty iron in their heads.

And this 1 shrimp, he swam right side up.

And all the other shrimp began to talk about him.

I don't know if that's true, but you can imagine what they were thinking.

He was actually the only 1 that was swimming right side up.

That's what's happening in our world today.

We got people everywhere swimming upside down, and since everyone else is swimming upside down we think we're supposed to flip upside down too.

Someone once said because a million people believe a dumb idea it's still a dumb idea.

Moses said do not follow a multitude to do evil and we're being just bombarded by media with the idea that we're supposed to sacrifice our principles so that we could fit in with a culture today.

We will not be judged by the culture, we're gonna be judged by the Word of God.

You might be thinking Pastor Doug in a prophecy seminar like this why are we talking about the law of God?

Let me give you 3 quotes from the book of Revelation book of prophecy in the Bible last book in the Bible Revelation chapter 12 verse 17.

The dragon was wroth with the woman and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed that keeps the commandments of God.

The ones who keep the commandments of God.

You look in Revelation chapter 14 verse 12.

Here are those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.

Last chapter in Revelation and said, blessed are those that keep his commandments that they might have a right to the tree of life and And enter in through the gates of the city.

So here's 3 times in Revelation It says that the people who are going to be successful and survive are the ones who are obedient.

Indeed, when you look at the messages of Jesus to the 7 churches in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, it says, to him who overcomes, to him who overcomes, to him who overcomes 7 times.

God wants his people to be an obedient people.

Now I believe, in case there's any question, I don't want you to doubt this at all, we are saved by grace through faith.

But I believe when you are saved by faith, you will obey.

Some pastors are making it sound today like if you believe in or talk about obedience, you are automatically a legalist.

The Bible teaches that we are to be obedient to God.

He wants to save us from our sins, right?

John 15, verse 10, Christ said, I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

The Bible says, Thy word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

According to the Bible, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So we're not talking about that there's no hope for anyone, because we've all broken God's law.

What is the punishment for living a life of sin?

And when God saves us, He doesn't want us to just cut down on our sin, because sin is deadly.

The Lord can help you stop the things and the addictions that are a problem in your life.

And even in Christian churches, they say, Pastor Doug, now you're getting legalistic.

I remember John Lomacain and I were doing an interview, a debate on television, Channel 42, oh, it must be 30 years ago, with some other ministers about the commandments.

And these ministers said, we're not under the law, nobody can keep the law.

And I said, are you telling me that nobody can keep the 10 Commandments?

I said, so God gave people a law, told them to keep it, and then punished them for not keeping it, and he knew they could never keep it.

He needed them to understand that they couldn't do it, and so he was just going to have to forgive them through Jesus.

I said, you don't think we can keep any of the commandments?

I said, how about the seventh commandment?

I said, do you believe the devil can tempt us to sin?

I said, but you don't think Jesus can keep us from sin.

So in my book, Jesus said, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

Got all these bumper stickers out that say Christians aren't perfect, they're just forgiven.

And while I agree that Christians may not be perfect.

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Commands of the King

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Commands of the King, Part 1

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Commands of the King, Part 2

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