Daniel 6 Mark of the Beast Connection | Pastor Mark Finley

We will study Chapter six But before we do that let's go to the end of Chapter five Daniel Chapter five verse 30 and 31 That very night Belshazzer King of the Chaldeans was slain and Darius the Mede received the kingdom being about 62 years old Now notice Belshazzer was the young king of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar faded into insignificance Nabopolassar came on the scene He ultimately faded into insignificance at his death And then you have Belshazzer But after Belshazzer is defeated by Darius and Cyrus the Kingdom of the Meads and the Persians now rules Now here's something very fascinating that will want to notice with that background as we enter Daniel Chapter six verse one and to the Scripture puts it this way It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be over the whole kingdom Now who did Darius defeat Do you remember Who was that That's right It was Belle Shazzer So Darius off the meads defeats Belshazzer of the Babylonian As Darius defeats Belshazzer he restructures the government as he restructures the government he does it this way He places ah 120 satraps What's that word Satraps means that's not set a trap Incidentally satraps that's princes So he sets 120 princes to be over the whole kingdom But we continue And over these three governors or presidents off whom Daniel was one that the satraps or princes might give account to them so that the king would suffer no loss Now notice what's taking place there 120 princes over these princes There are three governors or presidents and Daniel is one That's incredibly amazing In fact it's rather fascinating Let's suppose that the King of Babylon is ruling with the King of Babylon ever at all Bring a somebody from Darius from the meats and the Persians to be over Babylon Not at all Or maybe I could even make it plainer than that Let's suppose for example that the United States of America overthrows Russia Are they gonna bring Putin in as one of the chief chief political advisers of the United States president I don't think so So it's really strange and unusual that Daniel from the Babylonian Empire who is a Hebrew and one of the leaders in Babylon Now it's rather strange that he would be brought into the governing group the Cabinet of the Meads and the Persians Really strange But notice what it says here Why was Daniel brought in Daniel Six Verse two It says Daniel was one of these governors or presidents over 120 princes that the princes might give account to them The king would suffer no loss In other words each of these presidents was responsible for these princes Daniel was brought in specifically because of his honesty Because of his integrity These princes were responsible for collecting the revenue from each of the provinces And Daniel was to be sure that they didn't have their hands in the till that they weren't taking money out to ingratiate themselves Daria saw in Daniel a man of integrity People of honesty people of integrity are still valued today Do you remember that famous saying of DEA genies Diogenes walking through Greece And he has in his hand a candle and people gather around him and they say What are you looking for And D A genie says I am looking for an honest man men and women today of honesty men and women today of integrity Men and women today who have morally pure consciences are still valued in our society and still very difficult to find I love the way one of my favorite authors puts it She says the greatest want of the world it's the want of man and we could add in women whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle is to the pool Men and women will stand for the right though the heavens fall Have you made a decision in your life In your business you are gonna be as true to duty as the needle is to the pull You're gonna be a man a woman of honesty a man a woman of integrity that you will not sell out your conscience when you are pressed to tell a half truth to ingratiate or gain for yourself Have you made that decision in your life that you will be honest that you will serve God at any cost when others are telling off color immoral jokes Are you a person of purity who will turn from that discussion when others are criticizing somebody else unnecessarily Are you one that will become an attorney to the absent for the absent and represent that person and say something positive about um are you one in your life who's gonna look for the good in others Are you a person who when others are looking at pornography that you were gonna turn away from that So the purity of Christ will feel your heart mind Daniel was a man like that And God bless this Daniel abundantly in amazing ways as we're going to see in our chapter this evening Now here's the organizational structure of the meter Persian Empire First you've got King Darius and then you have these three governors or presidents under them You have these 120 satraps or princes Now Daniel is the chief of these three governors This what the Bible says Daniel Six verse three Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him and the king gave him the gave thought to setting him above the whole realm Now notice Daniel distinguished himself because an excellent spirit was in him The spirit of God filled his life The spirit of God flowed from his mouth The spirit of God gave him words of honesty integrity The spirit of God possessed him and changed him and made him at that last part of his life as he was all of his life Committed to God making God number one in his life I love the way Jesus said in Matthew six Verse 33 see ye first the Kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you When the king saw in Daniel that man of honesty and integrity he thought of making him president over the whole realm Now what do you think The other two presidents and the princes may have thought of this Very obviously They were jealous And so they began to develop a plan We find that in Daniel six and verse four So the governors and Saturdays Princes sought to find something Some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom They checked his royal emails They checked his instagram account You say passes They didn't have one Well if they would have had won they would have checked it They checked all his royal mail They checked everything he said They said We have to find something about this man that we can condemn him before the king But the more they tried the more they could find nothing If the secrets of your life were unlocked what would be found there But they could find what Daniel six Verse four No charge or fault because he was faithful Nor was there any error or fault found in him Daniel was a man of integrity Daniel was a man of honesty Daniel was a man of moral purity Daniel was a man According to the Bible that no fault was found in Daniel had nothing to hide Is there anything in your life that you wish that other people did not know Are there skeletons in your closet When we come to Jesus he not only pardons are passed but he empowers our present Grace not only delivers us from the penalty of sin but it delivers us from the power of sin Whatever skeletons there are in your closet whatever things in your past that are hidden coming to Jesus we could have a new life because he is the God of new beginnings We don't have to worry about what somebody is going to find out about our life We don't have toe worry about some secret that's gonna be unfolded because when we come to God we can go to sleep at night and rest Well because we have nothing toe hide in our lives So these governors and satraps thrown before the King They said to the King King Darius live forever They were playing with his ego playing with his pride O King we have something to tell you that will exalt you in the Empire King live forever All the governors of the kingdom the administrators the satraps the council is The advisers have consulted together to establish a royal statue in to make a firm decree We met together whatever Whoever petitions any God or man for 30 days except you Oh King shall be cast into the den of lions See they're playing with his ego But what do you know about that statement when they come And they say all of the presidents have met or one thing you know immediately is this is a bold faced lie All of the governor's did not meet because Daniel was not present No it's really fascinating When you start toe lie it leads you then to compromise and then make a decision to go further And when you look at what happened in Daniel Chapter six among thes satraps you find it in Daniel Chapter six The first thing is you notice that they in verse four that they want to find some charge against Daniel Their jealousy leads them to be so envious they want to find some charge against him Then we look down and when they confined no charge against them Now notice Jealousy leads to envy Envy leads toa lying when they say all the governors of the kingdom lying leads to scheming to find something wrong with them When they find Daniel praying as we shall see they want they go back to tell the king So the king can put Daniel to death There may be something little in your life but that jealousy can lead to envy that ending going to lead the lying that lying can lead you to do things you never dreamed you would do Sin in our lives never get smaller It only gets larger The drug addicts in new York City have an interesting story that they tell and then this parable they tell the story of a man walking through Central Park in New York And as he's walking through the park it's a parable Of course he sees this little monkey playing and as he sees this little monkey playing he thinks it's so cute So he bends down to pick up the monkey puts the monkey on his shoulder and the monkeys petting him you know on the cheek and the monkey jumps from his shoulder runs around his feet Then the monkey apparently gets hungry So this man goes and he buys a banana from the banana stand at the edge of the park He gives it to the monkey The monkey eats the banana and the monkey so hungry he wants another one So the guy buys another one Pretty soon he buys a whole bunch of bananas He keeps giving him to the man giving him read through the monkey giving him to the monkey and the monkey grows and grows and grows And pretty soon the monkeys midsize and pretty soon the drug addicts say the monkey has become a big gorilla and the monkey This gorilla now puts his arms around the guy's neck and he begins squeezing squeezing squeezing squeezing at his He's squeezing with his arms around the neck The guy falls down and the the old gorilla tramps on him crushes him and kills him And the drug addict says that's exactly what drugs were like You start taking them a little bit the one banana and you have to have more and more and more until they ultimately kill you That's the way sin is We start playing around with it It's just a little bit of dishonesty just a little bit of cheating just a little bit of criticism just a little bit of immorality a little bit And sin never stays at a little bit because sin never gets smaller Sin always gets bigger and the larger it gets the more it can destroy you and kill you If you've been fiddling around with something in your life that the only spirit impresses you that is not right Why not tonight Make a decision You gotta turn loose of that thing By the grace of God you are gonna let go with that thing So the scripture says Daniel Six Verse eight Now oh King established the decree signed the writing so that it cannot be changed according to the law the Meads and the Persians which does not alter now Here's what they knew They knew that if they could get the king to sign that writing that according to the law of the meats and the Persians it could not be changed even by the king because it was an indelible law So the king signed it into law They knew they had Daniel exactly where they wanted him they said Therefore King Darius signs this written to create and as he signs the decree Daniel knows that it's signed because he is one of those presidents Daniel six Understand now When the king when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went home and in his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem What did he do He knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God As was his custom Since the early days the decree did not influence Daniel didn't influence him at all Why not Because he knew that where there was no prayer there was no power He knew that his strength came from God Daniel would not allow his obedience to Darius Break up his relationship with God Daniel knew that if he stopped praying he would have no power no power to deal with the issues in the media Persian Empire So Daniel at home and prayed Daniel at home and sought God has your prayer life become weakened today Is there a baroness in your soul Is there a spiritually emptiness in your life Jesus invites you through his spirit like he did Daniel to come to come in the quietness of your home the quietness of that room to seek him there We find that whether is no prayer there is no power And we lose our spiritually power when we neglect our prayer life Daniel six Verse 11 Then these men assembled They found Daniel praying making supplication before God Can you imagine that Here's Daniel this stalwart man of honesty and integrity This great spiritually giant this man of huge intellect He's kneeling by himself His windows are open toward Jerusalem and he's praying And here are these these conniving jealous deer are these thought less He's here Are these egotistic proud princess and they're crawling presidents They're crawling on their hands and knees They're hiding behind the bushes They're looking up a Daniel saying "There he is, There he is" what a contrast one has his windows open in transparency and the other hiding behind bushes They see Daniel praying What do they do The Bible tells us Daniel Six Verse 12 They went before the king and spoke concerning the king's decree Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions and he got or man within 30 days except you O King shall be cast into the den of lions The king answered and said The thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians and the king even ads which does not alter And what do they do They say We've got him now We've got Daniel exactly where we want him Now Notice what's going on here First issue is God's law versus man's law Who's more important The king or God God's Law versus man's law Second thing that you notice is there's a conflict over worship Who would be worshiped supreme Would it be Durai ous or to be the God of Heaven Third thing we notice here is was a time element where within 30 days now when you think about these things remember Daniel Chapter three Ah Universal World leader Nebuchadnezzar passed a universal world decree that all those that were not would not bow down to the image inviolate The second commandment So the law that the issue is commandments and the issue is worship you about under worship would be thrown into the fiery furnace And of course Daniel knew that story well And he gained faith from God's intervention earlier And so But we find the interesting parallel on Daniel three and Daniel six What is God telling us here If you read the Book of Revelation You know that in Revelation 13 it talks about a beast power and that piece power would rise and whoever would not worship the beast would be killed again There would be a conflict over worship again In the Book of Revelation there would be a conflict over the law of God We find that in the Book of Revelation Chapter 14 and there in verse six Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven The angel flies There's an urgent message having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth to every nation tribe tongue in people So there's a message that goes to the ends of the earth leaps across geographical boundaries goes to every language or cultural group it says Fear God and give glory to him For the hour of his judgment is come Last days Averse history The clock has struck the our judgment Worship him Who made heaven earth to see in the fountains of waters No notice There's Theophilus toe worship him who made heaven or see the fountains of waters Who is that The creator So here's a call toe worship the creator now notice Revelation 14 9 that a third angel followed him saying If anyone worships the beast so notice you have to worships worship the creator Worship the beast in Verse 12 The Bible contrast these two worships here is the patience of the saints That's believers Here's the endurance of the believers In other words for patients is endurance Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus So notice Verse seven Worship the creator Verse nine Do not worship the beast 1st 12 All of this comes into focus in the commandments of God We see these central principles in Daniel three and and Daniel six So in Daniel six what we really have is an illustration that's gonna be played out in the Book of Revelation So Daniel is facing a death decree It end times a death decree Daniel will not violate the commandments of God The first commandment says thou shall not have any other gods before me Daniel won't violate those Daniel will not worship in the prescribed way So in the last days of verse history God's people won't worship in the prescribed way They won't worship the beast They worship the creator They will not violate the commandments of God They are in full allegiance to God in spite of the death decree So what happens to Daniel The Bible says that in the last days a human leader to is gonna unite church in ST He's gonna pass a decree that forbids genuine worship What happens to Daniel Daniel Six Verse 12 They went before the king and they spoke concerning the king's decree Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any God or man within 30 days except you O King shall be cast into the den of lions The king answered and said The thing is true according to the law the meats and the Persians that does not alter see what's more important law the meats and Persian law of God And then what do they say They say So they answered and said before the king that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah see they're downplaying Daniel He does not show due regard for you Oh King See what did a What's this talk about this Daniel This Daniel who is a treble rousing He's He's making trouble He's stirring up difficulty He doesn't respect the laws of the land He doesn't respect you O king What does the Bible then say it says Or the decree that you've signed but makes his petition three times a day so they try to paint Daniel as one who is in opposition to the Qing one was not obedient to the state laws Now the King is in a very difficult position because he's learned to respect Daniel Had he not learned to respect Daniel he would have not put Daniel as one of the three presidents and wouldn't have been considering To put Daniel in charge of the entire realm is the Bible says So he's learned to respect Daniels learned to appreciate Daniel He's learned that Daniel is a man of sterling integrity and of of of of honest character He does not want to lose him but he knows he signed a law that cannot be altered To try to change that law would have put the king's throne in all of me to Persia in jeopardy 514 00:00:00,undefined --> 00:25:32,66 So in Daniel six Verse 14 the Bible says the king when he heard these words was greatly displeased with himself In other words he knew he had been fooled He knew he'd been duped He knew that they had tricked him He set his heart on Daniel to deliver him He labored to the going down of the sun to deliver him He tries to figure out Is there any way he calls in his legal specialists He calls in his best minds his most brilliant thinkers and they say King you cannot do this king It's not possible So that night he goes home Then these men approached the King and said to the King King Oh no Oh King that it's the law that means in Persian Sea They appeal to the law that no decree or statue which is the king established maybe changed So they're saying King you can't even changed this law So the king gave the command and they brought Daniel and cast him into a den of lions But the king spake saying to Daniel Your God who you serve continually he will deliver you even the king new in the power of God Even the king knew that God could work a miracle Incidentally have you ever hugged a lion You know when I was with it is written television I never do Daniel Chapter six without remembering my experience with the lion when I was with it it's written television for those 14 years I am We were doing a Siris on Daniel in the lion's den and my mentor pastor George Bannerman said But Pastor Mark I think we should make Chapter six of Daniel Really interesting Why don't we rent a lion from Hollywood and bring that lion into the studio And why don't you tape with the lion I don't know whether that was a good idea or not you know But we agreed Now there are two working lions At least there were at that period of time in Hollywood You know the lion that does the the MGM programs You hear the big roar and there's another lion that did Cadbury Cadbury chocolates commercials Well anyway one of those lions name was Joseph So they brought the lion into our studio the night before I was toe work with the lion and tape the program on Daniel Chapter six So they bring the lion in Everybody was cleared out of the studio Even the camera people and they threw lion trainer brought him in and he was on a chain He was kind of pulling him along And I was there in the studio with this lion trainer and the lion trainer had a big hunk of meat on his side And so he said to me Now I don't want you to be nervous at all I said Okay sir And he unchained the lion and the like I was looking at me and I wasn't looking at him too much But the lion you know and he he took this thing of meat He said Now Pastor Mark you don't have to worry And he took this big hunk of bloody meat and he threw it across the studio and and the lion jumped on it He just grab that thing He said no Look if anything happens I'll just take my meat out and throw him and he'll come after you after me Not I mean after the meat Not after you And I thought Yeah this is gonna be great So then he was teaching me how toe approach the lion He said you never wanna walk up to the lion when he's looking at you Now I'm telling you this in case you meet a lion tomorrow See So anyway he said you don't wanna walk up straight and look at the lion Because when you look at him I toe I he thinks you're going to attack him I said don't worry I'm not He said look he'll jump right on you So you always come to the side So you come around the side and he said I want you to get real close And so I was kind of like at first like this you know I'm kneeling down Say nice line and nice line you know But then finally hey say closer, closer So I got you know this thing was about 500 plus to 600 pounds and I can still remember my heart beating on And I put my legs right into him you know And I could feel the warmth of that line And then I used to just stroke it stroke it And if he if he really likes what you're doing he's gonna flip over and open his mouth But don't get nervous So in practice he didn't But the next day we were taping live and I'm stroking him stroking him and he flipped over and opened his mouth We couldn't use that take because I almost died I thought I would I mean you won't imagine when you have that close to a lion and he's face to face with his mouth open It was really funny because one of my friends um said to me You looked a little nervous on that set When you were taping with the lion I said Yeah good thing you weren't taping with them You had a heart attack You know it's easy not to be nervous when you're not taping But Daniel was thrown in with lions not a lion but lions And they weren't estamos my lion And these lions were fierce And the Bible says so The king gave the command and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den alliance But the king spake saying to Daniel Your God who you serve continually he will deliver you now The king went to his palace and spent the night fasting and no musicians were brought before him and his sleep went from him You know I imagine the King Darius walks into this palatial a state this magnificent palace And he walks in you know and they begin to play The Royal Orchestra begins with no music tonight They bring him his tea in his evening meal I don't want anything to eat tonight His give him his royal pajamas He puts on those silk pajamas but he tosses insurance all night he doesn't sleep and I imagine him there His head is pounding sweats coming down his face His stomach is in knots It's all tourney up because he knows that he's put an innocent man into the lion's den I imagine Daniel is in the lion's den and he puts his head on some big cat and he falls asleep that night Daniels in that lion's den and there with those lions Jesus is in there with him and every lion's mouth is shut Jesus can shut the lion's mouth that roar in your ears when the lion roars in your ears The lion of anger the lion of bitterness the lion of lust the lion of dishonesty the lion of impatience the lion of in kindness the lion of intemperance with you know the Bible says in first Peter chapter 5 the devil walk it about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour when the lion roars in your ear Jesus is a lion tamer You know The other thing that I think about is this Peace comes from God not from things Daniels in a stinky smelly dirty lion's den He's there is stinky smelly dirty lions then and as he is there he falls asleep and the king is in some wealthy palace and he has everything that money can buy everything to tempt the taste and delight the eye But this king can't sleep Things never provide you with peace peace peace coming down from the father above that will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon the because he trusts in the God alone can give us peace When you know God you received piece that enables you to face unusual circumstances with joy What are you going through in your life now What's troubling you in your life What's really stressing you out What's giving you worry and anxiety When you know God he gives you perfect peace The Bible says Daniel Six Verse 19 Then the king arose very early in the morning and he went in haste to the lion's den The king has had a sleepless night and Daniela slept all night The king comes to the Lions name and when he had come to the Danny cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel the King spake saying to Daniel Daniel servant of the living God has your God whom you serve continually been able to deliver you from the lions Daniel speaks out My God has sent his angel to shut the lion's mouth so that they have not heard me hurt me I love with the way the Psalms puts it the angel of the Lord camp with round about them that fear him and delivers them God sends his angels at the right time to deliver us in the greatest conflicts and crisis of our life When the lion's roar in your ears and they roar in your life God is a lion tamer and those wicked men were thrown into the lion's den and immediately consumed in the last days of verse history When church and state unite in the last days of verse history when God has men and women that air faithful to him and through his grace and by his power keep his commandments God will divinely protect them He will provide them with nourishment Azi did with Elijah when the Ravens sporting food as he did with the Israel lights as they wandered in the wilderness and the rock opened and they got water And as the bread rain down the Mannering down from heaven God will miraculously protect them when the death decree has eventually passed to destroy God's people God will enter in to the arena of human affairs The earth will shake Lightning will flash from east to the west and Jesus will come streaming down the car to the sky Jesus said Let not your heart be troubled There is trouble Is times coming There's perilous times coming There's difficult times coming But Jesus said Don't be looking at those perilous times Men's hearts failing for fear Luke 21 But Jesus said when you see these things come to pass look up because your redemption draws nigh We are in the hands of God Our lives are in the hands of God He tamed the lions then and he contain aim The wicked vicious forces against us In the future we're secure in his hands were safe in his hands Would you like to say tonight Jesus I want to surrender you my life like Daniel did I want to give you my life because I know that I am safe and secure in the arms of

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Keywords: Daniel 6, mark finley, unsealing Daniel's Mysteries, the book of Daniel, understanding daniel, part 6, bible, prophecy, christianity, Hopelives365, pastor mark finley, seventh day adventist, seventh day adventist beliefs, seventh day adventist church, mark finley daniel, bible study

Id: vidItIXV548

Length: 36min 43sec (2203 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020