Billy Graham- Is the Handwriting On the Wall, America?

now today i want you to turn with me to the fifth chapter of the book of daniel the book of daniel the fifth chapter of the book of daniel i suppose more than any other book in the bible this book predicts the future unless it's the book of revelation and when you read the book of revelation always read the book of daniel the book of daniel in one hand the book of revelation in the other and then in front of you the daily newspaper and they all tie in because daniel is a book of prophecy but the thing that i want to talk about daniel today is an incident that happened in his life that i think bears on what we see happening today in our world some time ago if you remember about two years ago now the shaw of iran gave a great party the vice president of the united states went barbara walters went many distinguished americans went to that great party celebrating 2500 years of the history of iran or persia and it was my privilege just a year ago this month to visit with the shah of iran in his palace in tehran and i reminded the shah that the first prime minister of ancient persia was daniel because daniel was the first prime minister when the medo persians came in and took over in this particular chapter the fifth chapter then you move to the sixth chapter of daniel and you find doris making daniel his first prime minister and that is a tremendous tie-in with what is happening in the middle east and in the world today and all the concentration of forces that are gathered there and in this chapter that we're turning to i won't take time to read it to you i'll tell it to you it's the story of daniel already in babylon he'd been carried to babylon from jerusalem jerusalem had come under the judgment of god as jeremiah had predicted all the judgments that jeremiah predicted all the judgments that the prophets predicted have all come true or they're yet to come true this is god's word it is an infallible word and in many places in the scripture the bible predicts that future day of judgment and that future period of judgment that is to come upon the world well jerusalem had been judged as jeremiah had predicted he said unless jerusalem repents of their sins they will be judged and judgment came and among those that were carried captive away by nebuchadnezzar to babylon 1500 miles away with young daniel and his friends they were just in their teens and they were carried over to babylon and daniel had been one of the young men that had been chosen especially by nebuchadnezzar to be taken to babylon and trained in his court and trained in all the arts and sciences of the babylonians now when this chapter opens nebuchadnezzar is dead daniel had been a friend and a prophet and a prime minister for nebuchadnezzar the great king but now he's in more or less been forgotten because a young man is now on the throne by the name of belshazza who was the grandson of nebuchadnezzar the great king now babylon at that time was the greatest empire in the world it was the most powerful nation in the world it was the richest nation in the world and the bible pictures bill shasta the king as young rich powerful but at the same time egotistical self-centered and the bible teaches that god hates pride he loves humility all the way through the scriptures pride is listed as one of the greatest of all sins the scripture says in proverbs 17 and he that exalteth his gay secret destruction obadiah four though thou exult thy selfish eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars i will bring you down saith the lord now belshazzar was young egotistical filled with pride and filled with his own self-importance and jesus was to say years later in matthew 23 and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased if you try to tell how great you are and leave god out or if you act as though you can solve your own problems and arrange your own life without the help of god god says i'm going to bring you down i would like to say that to the leaders of our world you the leaders of our world that do not give god the glory and do not put your trust totally in him and think that you can solve the problems yourself you're going to come down according to the scriptures and the scripture is very clear about it whosoever shall exalt himself shall be brought down said jesus matthew 23 12. and then he was a man that was very carefree he was a playboy he loved ease and he loved pleasure and the bible says woe to them that are at ease we in america ids in comparison to the rest of the world we have an energy crisis and you would think the whole roof has caved in the whole country's gone because we have to turn our thermostats down to 68. we've gotten so used to ease and luxury and fine foods and being rich americans that when you go to india and go to africa and go to other parts of the world and realize that we're only six percent of the population of the world but we own so much of the wealth of the world we're wealthy we're rich and when you read about a rich man in the bible in comparison to the people jesus was talking about it's talking about nearly all americans even the people we call poor in america are considered rich in bangladesh rich in india you talk about poverty in some parts of the world you have to you have to really explain what you mean because they don't understand american poverty because american poverty is wealth compared to great hordes of the people of the world and so belshazza had just won some military victories and his father who was a great general was out on the frontiers leading them from victory to victory and so he decided that he wanted to celebrate and he decided to have a great feast and it would be the greatest feast that babylon had ever seen babylon with all of its glamour babylon with all of its wealth babylon with all that it had he said we'll have the greatest feast in the history of the world so he ordered the finest dances the finest wines the best foods and he sent an invitation to a thousand of his lords and ladies throughout the empire to come and in their jeweled chariots they came and that evening as they were feasting and dancing and whining in the low-hanging gardens that nebuchadnezzar had built for his midian wife one of the seven wonders of the world belshazzar became intoxicated he became guilty of pride he became guilty of immorality he was guilty of desecrating the holy vessels of god because he ordered the holy vessels of god that had been captured in jerusalem and used in temple worship he had ordered them to be brought into the banquet hall and shocked the guest at his sacrilege he was guilty of drunkenness and the bible says a great deal about drunkenness well unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow strong drink that continue until night till wine inflames them there he was king of an empire master the banquet the center of all attention dancing the night away but the bible says be not deceived god is not mocked for what server remains sowing that shall he also reap belshazzle watch out judgment is coming you're going too far there's a point beyond which the patience of god will not go there's a line drawn among nations and among individuals and in families and in communities job said they that plow iniquity and so wickedness reap the same keep on plowing your iniquity keep on sowing your wickedness you're going to someday reap it hosea said for they have sown to the wind and they shall reap a whirlwind jeremiah said they've sown wheat but they shall reap thorns and so in the middle of this banquet belch has is dancing with a beautiful sexy young girl and all of a sudden everyone is quiet you can hear a pin drop his face turns white the bible says he begins to tremble because over on the wall an armless hand starts writing and everyone sat there trembling wondering what this was what strange thing this was and bill chester tried to read it he couldn't read the message so he said let's call the astrologers and the soothsayers and the chaldeans let's call the magicians let's call all the people that can read this type of thing and they came in and that's where we're turning today we're turning to the occult we're turning to the astrologers oh please tell us what the future's going to hold what do you see in the stars what do you see in the palm of my hand is it good or bad was i born under a good star or bad star what is my sign in our moment of crisis we are turning to the same people that belches did but just as in his day they couldn't read it because you see god is doing a work in our world that they don't know anything about how back i said lord please tell me what you're doing and god said no i'm not going to tell you habeka because if i told you what i was doing you wouldn't believe it if god today told us what he's doing in the world we wouldn't believe it don't you think god's given up and god's abdicated and god's left the throne he hasn't he's still on the throne and those of us that know him put our trust in him and him alone i don't put my trust in washington i don't put my trust in the united nations i don't put my trust in myself i don't put trust in my money i put my trust in the lord jesus christ when all the rest of it fails and crumbles and shatters he'll be there and we have an assurance of the future to come they couldn't read it belshazzar was even more afraid the writing was getting lighter all the time and more brilliant people were frightened and his mother heard about it and his mother incidentally was not at the party but she came in and she said son what is this i hear about a strange writing and he pointed over to the wall she said i know a man that can read that writing his name is daniel he's a great prophet he helped your grandfather interpret dreams he was prime minister under your grandfather he's been living in sort of semi-retirement perhaps you don't know him you notice daniel wasn't at the party either that wasn't daniel's crowd the bible says be ye separate from the world saith the lord and touch not the unclean thing friendship with the world is enmity with god we are to live a separated light from the evils of the world now we're to live in the world we can't help that jesus moved with publicans and sinners and he was criticized for it we can't withdraw from the world but we're not to participate of the evils of the world daniel was not at the party but they sent for him and he came in and balchester said daniel you see that writing if you'll read that writing i'll make you the third rule in the empire i'll put a gold chain of authority around your neck and i'll put royal robes on you and you'll be a member of the royal family next to me daniel looked at the writing and he recognized it immediately that was his father's handwriting that was god the father's handwriting and he had studied god and lived with god all these years and he knew that that was god's writing he said belches i can read the writing but keep your gifts i don't want them give your gifts to somebody else you see belshazzar o king you have lifted yourself up against the lord of heaven [Music] and they have brought the vessels of god's holy house before thee and you and your lords and your wives and your concubines have drunk wine in them and god is offended and thou hast praised the gods of gold and silver and brass and iron and wood and stone that see not and hear not to know not and the god in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways thou hast not glorified yes bel shasta i'll read it notice one thing daniel does not charge belches with drunkenness though he was drunk he doesn't charge him with immorality though he was immoral he doesn't charge him with sacrilege though he was profane he doesn't charge him with lasciviousness though there was evidence all around but he charged him with this the god in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways thou hast not glorified god had given belshazza everything he had even the ability to laugh his food his drink his power his riches everything had come from god but he hadn't thanked the lord for daniel said all right here's the writing meaning meaning tackle you farsen this is the interpretation meaning god has numbered your kingdom and finished it belches you're finished your last day has been spent on this earth tackle you have been weighed in the balances of god and found wanting peris thy kingdom is divided and given to the medes and the persians and while they win the banquet unknown unknown to the babylonians the great euphrates river was being changed in its course and the medo-persian army slipped under on the dry riverbed and that night babylon fell to the medes and the persians belches was killed daniel remained and became prime minister in the next empire both empires respected him for his wisdom and his faith and his purpose and his godliness is god writing on the wall of america tonight meaning meaning tackle you farsi have we gone that far the word many also re means remembered god remembers god remembers our sins god sees our pornography he sees our obscene films and he sees these new films that are coming out making fun of jesus christ he sees our lying and our cheating and our corruption that goes all the way through our society he sees it all and the scripture says be sure your sin will find you out but he remembers something else too it's not too late god remembers to forget when any group of people any nation will repent of their sins and turn to the lord he'll forgive their sins and heal the land that's the promise of the lord and that happened to nineveh nineveh had the handwriting on the wall jonah preached repentance and the people from the king all the way down repented of their sins and god spared nineveh if we in america will repent of our sins and turn to the lord god will spare us if we don't the judgments will continue and i'm saying the judgments will continue because we're under judgment right now the events of this past year and the events of this present hour [Applause] would indicate to me that we're already experiencing judgment upon judgment upon judgment that will continue unless we turn to god we're dealing with the living god and our god is a consuming file the scripture says

Channel: Wise Christian Channel

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Id: Bm8MW37GgrM

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021