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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

These Things We Know

Chris Holland

These Things We Know: God is Faithful

These Things We Know: God is Sovereign

These Things We Know: God is Good

These Things We Know: God Is the Relentless Redeemer

God Still Speaks Part 1

God Still Speaks Part 2

These Things We Know: God Wins

These Things We Know: God is the Deliverer

These Things We Know: God is the Great Teacher

These Things We Know: God is a Friend

These Things We Know: God Knows the End From the Beginning

These Things We Know: God is the Author

These Things We Know: God is the Finisher

These Things We Know: God is the Promise Keeper Part 1

These Things We Know: God is the Promise Keeper Part 2

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 1

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

These Things We Know: God Stands for Us

When there is no peace on earth, there is peace in Christ.

The 1 who gives hope, the 1 who gives strength, the 1 who gives shelter, The 1 who gives us that strength to live the lives he lived for all of us.

Father in heaven, we want to encounter the 1 who gives peace today.

We want to encounter the 1 who gives strength, the 1 who gives shelter, and the 1 who gives hope.

And so Lord I pray that you would speak clearly today and while I have prepared I pray Lord that you would give me the wisdom to leave out those things that need not be said and to say those things that do need to be said.

And I pray for everyone here that Lord we would have the ears to hear what the Spirit is speaking today we pray in Jesus name Amen This week on YouTube a video was released.

It was a video of an account that has almost 1 million subscribers.

The video addressed the statements of a pastor from about 3 years ago and a response from a major political commentator.

As it was posted it has been thrust to the forefront of the news this week.

The issue that was being dealt with in the video was essentially a debate over character and the supporting of political candidates.

The pastor had made some statements on how he could not endorse or support a certain political candidate because of the lifestyle they were living.

The political commentator on the other hand asked how you could support the other political candidate because of what they stood for and how what they stood for opposed the basic tenets of Christianity.

Interestingly enough, this week there were major political families who announced surprising endorsements for candidates and then a work union that also had an equally surprising endorsement of a political candidate.

And it leaves many of us wondering, what are we supposed to do?

Politician after politician, Saying 1 thing but doing something different.

More concerning is seeing the policies they promote, the principles that they support, but lives that they live that are in seeming opposition to what they say.

For me, however, there is a much deeper issue at hand.

And that deeper and more major issue is how do people view me?

How do we live versus what do we proclaim.

The sermon today is not about those politicians, but rather today taking a moment for personal reflection on how do we live our lives and what do our lives demonstrate?

Do others know who we are by what we say and what we do?

And so today as we continue to study in the book of Daniel, we will see that Daniel lived his faith and what the ramifications were of living out that faith.

If you have your Bibles with you I'd invite you to open to Daniel the fifth chapter.

It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom that they would be in charge of the whole kingdom and over them 3 commissioners of whom Daniel was 1 and these say that these satraps might be accountable to them and that the king might not suffer loss.

Then this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.

Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption in as much as he was faithful and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him.

Then these men said, we will not find any ground of accusation against this Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God.

Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to him as follows, King Darius, live forever.

I would like for us to take notice that here in Daniel chapter 6 we see a pattern that has been repeated throughout the book of Daniel and that pattern is as follows.

There were dire circumstances, a decision to be faithful to God, then living in accordance with that decision, and then God coming through and delivering in a very powerful way.

The Bible says here in Daniel chapter 6 and verse 3 that Daniel began to distinguish himself because he possessed an extraordinary spirit.

In the original language which here in the book of Daniel is Aramaic, the word distinguished is the Aramaic word to be.

It is the word hava, which is rooted in the Hebrew word haya.

It is the to be verb, which means that this was not something that Daniel had to make a checklist for but rather this was the very essence of who he was.

He didn't make a checklist and say, oh I need to distinguish myself with an extraordinary spirit.

No, he possessed an extraordinary spirit because it was who he was.

In the New American Standard, it says that he possessed this excellent spirit.

In the, excuse me, this extraordinary spirit.

In the New King James, in the King James, it says that an excellent spirit was found in him.

It wasn't something that he needed to conjure up.

And in fact, the word spirit, which in the New American Standard is called an extraordinary spirit, in the King James and the New King James, it says an excellent spirit.

That word spirit is the Aramaic form ruach.

It is the same word used by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes in Ecclesiastes 12, 7.

Describing when someone dies, then the dust shall return to the earth as it was and the spirit, Ruach, will return to God who gave it.

This is that which composed the entirety of the mind and character.

This extraordinary spirit was given by God, developed through the life of Daniel.

Some commentators allude to the fact that this is a reference to Daniel being exceptionally talented, but the very original words allude to something far deeper.

Daniel was a man of high extraordinary character.

In fact, Daniel chapter 4 verses 8, 9, and 18 and Daniel chapter 5 verses 11, 12, and 14 say that he was full of the Holy Spirit.

Daniel was a transformed man who lived and walked in the newness of life.

The Holy Spirit did not wait until the New Testament to give individuals his presence, aid, and direction.

No, Daniel was a man full of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit had led Daniel not only to solving the various issues that had been presented to him, but also led him and empowered him to be a man of unquestionable integrity, unwavering faithfulness, loyalty to duty, and living out the words that he spoke through the actions he lived.

Daniel demonstrated the proclamation that he made.

Daniel thrived in the University of Babylon.

Daniel rose to become third in the kingdom of Babylon.

Daniel weathered the overthrow of Babylon by the Medo-Persian Empire and unlike what typically happens, Typically those leaders of that high of rank would have been disposed of and executed just as Belshazzar was executed but no Daniel survived that and on top of that Daniel was a leader from a conquered nation so he wasn't even Babylonian.

Daniel survived all of that and now he had risen to the point where he was being considered as the chief administrator of the new empire.

Dire circumstances throughout the life of Daniel.

He purposed in his heart to be faithful to God.

And time after time, he lived in accordance with that decision and time and again God delivered Daniel in a very powerful way.

And once again Daniel now finds himself in dire circumstances.

The politicians tricked and took advantage of King Darius.

All things being equal they actually betrayed the trust of the king.

And so they tricked the king into making a decree.

Let us be clear that there is no scriptural injunction that says that 1 must pray 3 times a day with your window open facing Jerusalem.

There is no such command in the Old Testament.

However, that was clearly Daniel's pattern, his habit, and how he lived.

And now with a new decree, he did not change how he lived.

The Bible says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works.

And God saved Daniel just as God saved Daniel from the mouth of the lion, he will save us from the mouth of the lion.

Darius saw evidence of who God was in the life of Daniel.

And my dear friends, as we look at Daniel 6, We must understand that Christianity as a religion is in fact a religion of demonstration.

God demonstrated his own love to us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

And according to the Scriptures, those who want to follow Jesus must repent and be baptized.

They live out the fruits of the Spirit, a demonstration which is ultimately why James himself said, faith without works is dead.

We need to understand, and I want you to listen to what I'm saying clearly so you do not misunderstand.

What I mean is that had Daniel not been faithful he may have been lost because of that decision.

Series

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God is the Deliverer

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Plenaries with Norman McNulty

Adventism and the Vindication of God

53m

Richard O'Ffill - God the Comforter: the Holy Spirit's Role in Your Life

God the Comforter, Part 2

54m

The Doctrine of Personal Ministries

Part 3 - The Church of Acts

1h 18m

The Art of the Christian Conversationalist

The Art of the Christian Conversationalist- Part 1

49m

Crisis At the Close: Gethsemane

52m

What Jesus Said

11. Holy Spirit Baptism

1h

Origin Stories: Creation vs Evolution

The Seduction of False Science

59m

Going ABOVE and BEYOND

Daring to Ask for More - Part 5

53m

The Second Conversion of Peter

1h

Path to the Heart

5-Jesus, Not Condemnation

26m

SWYC 2006 Plenary Sessions

Fatal When Taken as Directed

38m

The Humanity of Christ is Everything to Us

1h 10m

Sound Doctrine