Most Christians Don’t Know THIS About Babylon

foreign is a place in Scripture it is also a metaphor it stands for the Godless secular systems of power in this world the rise and fall of Babylon is the story of History [Music] laughs Babylon is proud it's rebellious it says it has no need of God it is Shameless it corrupts Lords debauchery it mocks at virtue it cancels truth [Music] it is obsessed and we feel helpless because it will not be stopped it rises and it rises and it rises as every worldly weapon we raise against it seems to fail [Music] I want to talk about this theme Babylon and as you saw in the video just then Babylon is a place it is where the Prophet Daniel lived the capital city of one of the world's most prosperous Empires but babylon's Empire her government and her society that is the kind of place that she was the kind of power that she was it constituted an anti-god system of power and therefore Babylon in scripture also became a metaphor and it was a metaphor that was applied to places wherever this anti-god system of culture and power was found for example scripture calls the city of Tire Babylon at some point also Nineveh also in second Peter it appears to refer to Rome as Babylon and then of course we all know and maybe some of you are a bit disappointed right now because maybe this is why you came because you're an end times junkie uh there is a Babylon in Revelation and you thought I might be focusing on that and I'm not tonight focusing on that but there's a Babylon in Revelation a lot of debate about exactly where that is exactly what that is and all the rest of it I'm not going to get into it tonight but it is another one of these anti-god powers and we learn from scripture what it is like um now the quote Ken Ham which I'm told is a reliable source everything begins in Genesis chapter 1 to 11. even Babylon because the first Babylon was at a place called Babel or if I may translate Babel it was at the city of Babel or I will say Babel because well I'm Australian um and scripture tells us about this first Babylon at the city of Babel and it tells us about the last Babylon in the Book of Revelation and it gives us several clues in those descriptions concerning what this Spirit Babylon is like we learn a few things at Babel we learn that Babylon is proud this is the founding statement of her Philosophy from Genesis 11 4 come let us make a name for ourselves said the people of Babel before they established their City let me start drawing some connections straight away it is interesting isn't it that today and now modern sophisticated City one of the most influential political movements is a movement that marches under the banner Pride a banner that says like Babel I will exalt myself to make my self my sense of identity who I am as great as possible and to make the world revolve around that and I will say I am proud even when it goes against what God has said now that's not only Pride that's the next step from Pride which is rebellion and we learn also that Babylon is rebellious at Babel because in her Pride she was defying God you remember just prior to the Babel story what does God command He commands the people to spread out and of course what do they say they say oh no no we're going to dwell here in this place and make a city lest we be scattered abroad across the face of the Earth we're going to stay put and that is how proud they had become that they would rebel against what God had asked of them it's interesting when a culture defies God in this way it pretends to be confident but actually deep down it's very anxious and that's another feature of Babel they were actually anxious because God gave a command and then once they said no let's make a name for ourselves let's get God out of the picture suddenly fear struck because they looked out at the world of big bad forces beyond their control and they forgot God's providential care and God's securing hand and God's will in all things and they forgot therefore his promise of Genesis chapter 8 that while the Earth remains seedtime and harvest summer and winter and so on if they forgot that he was in charge and once they had forgotten that they said you know what in our own strength this looks risky in our own strength it looks like we could be scattered brought across the face of the Earth and we will face trouble and risk and threats so we need to stay put without God they sensed their own Frailty you know today I see a parallel in our own Society today the issue isn't that we've got this problem with the command of God that says spread out we've got a problem with the command that God made in almost the same breath which was to be fruitful and multiply and increase abundantly in the earth and multiply in it you know God has never revoked that command God has never said whoa whoa whoa that's enough abundance time to stop we've seen that but we've removed God because we've said we want to make ourselves great and all of a sudden we start to see that that is only risk we go well hang on surely the Earth can't cope surely the climate system will Doom us all surely climate change will destroy the place in a matter of years surely overpopulation will ruin us surely the resources can't stand it and notice we're very scared and all of a sudden we have this problem and this is this issue in Australia you know we have this phenomenon and the child psychologist will tell you about it where kids are walking out of the classroom of course it's all the climate extremist stuff and they're walking into the psychologist's office and what is this what are they doing they've got existential anxiety about the future of the planet fear but here's the thing and by the way some of this is just political power but some of it's genuine like I just described but the thing is um there is a deeper anxiety that comes when we throw God out of the picture every Babylon if I could put it that way has fears for their own security and I think today we've got this phenomenon where each one of each individual has more fears than at any time in Western history believe it or not and I know that because I know that the statistics tell us that this is the most depressed and anxious generation that the West has ever seen that doesn't surprise me because how can you have confidence in anything when God doesn't exist how can you have confidence in anything when it's all up to you and your strength and your power and your ability to scream your own identity and make everything else submit to it of course you're afraid of course there's problems of course Babylon is scared and we have no confidence in anything deep down today and although we are proud we are afraid another feature we learned from Babel is that Babylon is in competition with God you think to yourself gosh how could that be it's interesting every time one of these Babylon systems is judged in the Bible whether that be in Revelation whether it be in Isaiah I think it's 14 where God speaks a judgment against the king of Babylon or whether it be what God says to Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel and I think it's in chapter four any one of these places you will see the same language he will say God will say something along the lines of your sins have reached heaven and or you have made yourself like the most high and here in Babel what happens they're building a tower which is a monument to their pride and their rebellion and where's it reaching heaven and what this is telling us is that these people are so proud and so rebellious that they're now trying to get inside God's jurisdiction in other words they're trying to do stuff that's God's job they're trying to do stuff that is God's job let me explain what I mean by that with examples well let me put it this way what is it that unites critical race Theory radical climate Politics the pride movement abortion radical feminism euthanasia transgenderism and so many other things in this category of concerns that we have about the ideologies of our day what is it that unites those things because something does unite them I put it to you that all of them are competing with God's Authority as creator every one of them puts man and man's systems of power in God's place to Define what he has already defined trying to do so in our own strength for example who define marriage God have we got the same I think the same people in the room it's Tuesday night here we go okay these guys know the answers who defines marriage God defines marriage exactly and we said God said one man one woman for life do you know long before we got away with the sexuality and the gender requirements of marriage we did away with the permanency of marriage and we did away with God's command to hold marriage and honor long ago heterosexuals did that we defied God or indeed who says who defines how many human races there are God defines how many human races there are and there is one race but see once we get rid of God and we look at our external differences we say oh dear there's more than one race and now we've got ourselves into this horrendous position where we think that our exp our shared humanity is so limited that we are actually unable to stop oppressing one another and there is no solution and I tell you you read any book on critical race Theory and that kind of thing by people like Robin D'Angelo and that's what they teach there's no ultimate solution now that is a Lie from hell it's not true We Are All One race under God and we are all equally saved in the Lord Jesus Christ and conformed to his image and that unites us but of course we do away with that truth and we go all wrong who gets to Define what is the or who gets to control the ultimate Destiny of the planet exactly and I can tell you we need to give out Med prizes or something here I wish I had brought up some lollies to throw at you oh lollies you don't know what they are sweets is that what you call them candies candies oh my goodness Australian translation I can't do it um you're going to think that's the funniest word lollies right that's what we call Candy lollies I'm not joking um where the heck was I oh yes the reality is it's not that the planet hasn't ended yet because we haven't destroyed it yet the planet hasn't ended yet because God's not done with it yet simple as that Genesis 8 as I said seed time and harvest cold and winter summer day and night cold and winter et cetera Etc shall not cease so long as the Earth remains it's in God's hands um there is one preacher who says this is a bit cheeky but if you think we're messing up the planet now you wait till you see what Jesus does with it when he gets back um who gets to say when life begins God he made it he authored it and he told us in Genesis make life don't take it I'll require a reckoning for a life he says but as for you be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth be makers and nurturers and champions of life don't be those who destroy it and take it away I could go on this is no surprise by the way see all these things are people in their pride and Rebellion competing with God and the reality is that we are co-opting all of our powers our education systems our institutions our health care System to try and secure ourselves in these rebellions just like Babel tried to build a city to secure themselves in their Rebellion I mean bluntly how can we behave sexually the way that we do because of the sexual health clinics right it's technology it's Enterprise how is it that they keep up this lie about gender identity and that your gender is who you are in your head because of the education system that's an indoctrinating young people the systems and the powers of our day are securing ourselves in a rebellion against God himself and that was Babel's sin now that's what we learn in um oh by the way this is the teaching of the whole Bible Romans 1 says this it says that we worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who's blessed forever and we seek to put ourselves in his place that's why Paul uses the sexuality example next because he says we want to rewrite God's laws God's rules God's creation mandate so it's the teaching of the whole Bible and also this is the clue as to why Babylon every Babylon will tolerate many gods every Babylon will seem very pluralistic almost Democratic they won't mind Muslims they won't mind Hindus they won't mind atheists they won't mind all sorts of ideals and philosophies and ideas but there's one ideal they cannot stand and it is the belief in the one true and living God the creator of Heaven and Earth that's what they can't stand because it is with him that they have a problem and that explains to you why hostility is often so specifically directed against God and against sadly even within churches sometimes without them knowing it God as creator that's the day in which we live now we learn those things at Babel and we say well that's pretty contemporary I want to give you a couple of things two things from revelation in Revelation and you can go and read it yourself it's not very family friendly so we haven't read it this evening but I'll just make some references to it and you can go and see that what I'm saying is correct the first one is um in Revelation we find that she this Babylon thing is a great demonic strongholds it is a Dwelling Place of demons it is referred to as she and she is this demonic stronghold which infiltrates Earthly systems of power to turn them against God and it's a great battle of the ages uh you know culminating in this Revelation example and we see two things about her we see that she takes these human powers and structures and societies and cultures to do two things against the people of God in particular so we've got the basic structure in Babel now you say well what is what does Babylon do to the people of God number one persecutes them she is drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus she persecutes them now we're very fortunate in Western countries that we don't have Martyrs of the kind that many societies have endured through the ages including Daniel's Babylon but I'll tell you what we do have we have the same root hostility just starting to rise again in our day and I know that there are many examples in this country of what we might call cancel culture there are many examples in this country of people losing opportunities maybe even losing careers maybe even facing worse hostility because of their confession of Jesus Christ or their public testimony of their Christian faith um this is the sort of thing Jesus talked about in Matthew 5 when he said that um we could expect to be reviled and persecuted reviled means you know people are angrily disgusted with you you know you you bigot you're homophobe all this kind of stuff you hater we hear those insults and you know what they they heard a bit because it ain't true this is very big problem in my country or when people speak evil against you on account of Jesus the Same root hostility the Babylons of this world won't tolerate the testimony of the one true and living God and it's got so bad in my country uh that you know I can cite laws that have recently passed and our second most populous state in Victoria where the city of Melbourne is or Melbourne to translate to American where the city of Melbourne is by the way if you want to talk like a local when you go to Australia say Melbourne and they'll think you're local it's just m-e-l-b-n we like to shorten things where was I um if you go to the state of Victoria you can see there that there is legislation that has been passed and this is the literal implication if you are a parent and you have a child who comes home from school where they've been learning all about gender Theory and all the rest of it and Harry says mummy Daddy I don't think I'm a boy I think I'm a girl and I want to do this that and the other and mummy and daddy say well how about not today you know how about we just wait and see because probably this will pass that simple act and I kid you not and this is legally analyzed in the state of Victoria can get you imprisoned for up to 10 years now that's the kind of root hostility that's starting to emerge in my country that's the kind of root hostility you see in Canada that's the kind of root hostility you're seeing in California that's the kind of root hostility that is encroaching on Western Nations more and more but Babylon doesn't only persecute God's people she seduces them as well notice the Dwellers of the earth and I won't go into detail but for family-friendly reasons but Revelation 17 2 we see that the Dwellers of the earth become drunk with her wine which is full of what basically luxury glamor wealth Comfort The Good Life sin sexual Temptations perversions money pearls economic Prosperity popularity reputation fast cars nice perfumes big boats TV Hollywood YouTube it's full of bread and circuses the American dream The Good Life and Babylon says you know something I've got a lot to offer you all you need to do is drink this wine and of course what happens when you drink too much you go to sleep and you will go to spiritual sleep this is the spiritual scourge of our time we're aware of the persecution but we're not aware that there's a war of loves in our heart a love of this passing world and all that she offers and the temptation to compromise to get it and give up our love of the next world and the kingdom of God as Jesus said to the church at laodicea he said you say I am rich I have prospered I lack nothing they probably were prosperous but that created a deception in their hearts he says you don't realize that you are wretched pitiable poor blind and naked you don't realize that you are in a spiritual mess because of your own comfort and prosperity there's a war of loves in our heart and you know one of the greatest evidences of this in our day I think a lot of us sometimes are more concerned about the about saving Babylon than we are about saving Souls we're more concerned about the loss of the good things in our culture in our culture that we've enjoyed for so long than we are about the spiritual condition of our neighbors we're more concerned about living with people who believe the same as we believe politically and less concerned about reaching them with the gospel there's a lot of that going on in our day there's a war of loves in our heart what will you go out of your way for will it be for Babylon and all that she offers will it be for the Greater King ladies and gentlemen Babylon is rising she's here in the modern West and the question comes to us how shall we therefore live what shall we do it's no use just you know there's a lot of this sort of attitude the sky is falling attitude you know everything's falling apart everything's getting worse it's like chicken little running around if you know the reference saying the sky is falling the sky is falling the sky is falling well yeah maybe the sky is falling but it's not good enough to stop there you need to know what to do about it we need to know how to live and it's great to have an example in this regard it's great to have someone to look to we've got Daniel a man who lived in ancient Babylon in a society that was surprisingly like ours and Babylon was proud Babylon was rebellious Babylon was in competition with God and that's there in God's dealings with Nebuchadnezzar who is persecuting God's people I mean this guy ended up in the lions den and trying to seduce them with a good life and Daniel shows us how to navigate it all and so much of how to navigate it all comes out of Daniel's first day which we heard in the scripture audio just before and Daniel's first day is introduced to us in the context of a crisis and the context of the crisis is simply this God's Nation had been swallowed up inside of Babylon Babylon had come along and wiped out Judah taken the remainder of the people and those people were no longer living in God's Society they were now living in a Babylon Society and that wasn't supposed to happen because they were God's chosen people they were special they were protected by the hand of the Living God for so many centuries and he delivered them from the land of Egypt and he took them out through the Red Sea and he preserved them against the odds in the wilderness he protected them in battles he gave them victories against the odds he put the fear of this little ancient Hamlet and that's all it was into the Nations and the empires of the world and they were a testimony to the nations of who God was and what God was like and their existence seemed crucial to the world order this was the living God's people and his Temple was there and no one touched that and got away with it you touched the Ark of the Covenant zap you are dead this is who they were good Nations like this one don't go under to make it contemporary woke pagans don't beat Christendom that's not how it's meant to go until of course it does Babylon wins that that wasn't meant to happen and Daniel suddenly has to navigate a Babylon culture an anti-god system and he's quite alone him and a few friends but the thing is God let this happen it says God gave jehoiakim king of Judah into Nebuchadnezzar's hands along with some of the vessels of the house of God in other words they walked in there and took him and nothing went wrong extraordinary how can Babylon rise in a Christian Nation how can churches fail an anti-god institutions win how can how can it get this bad and maybe get worse do you know I think Daniel's Faith would have been really tested because so much of the Jewish faith was bound up in the fact that this shouldn't happen and I want to ask a question how much of our faith is bound up in the fact that this shouldn't happen how much of our faith is actually the Cry of Babylon that says Comfort peace prosperity no hardship The Good Life how much of our faith is actually in that where did you learn that I'll tell you this you did not learn that in the New Testament and I say this carefully the New Testament teaches the Dead offices the New Testament teaches that well actually we need to face a world that will give us trouble Jesus says in the world you will have trouble Jesus says if the world hates you remember that it hated me Jesus promises that it won't be easy Paul says to Timothy he says all who seek to get live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution isn't that tough or all there's a test for us how much do we suffer and Daniel is able to admit long after the fact that you know what God isn't always like that sometimes God allows the trouble sometimes God has a bigger and a better purpose through trouble and this is a great comfort what Daniel is actually doing is he's confessing God's sovereignty in all things and maybe it makes us wince when we hear would God do this yes we say partly because we've got a wrong view of God but partly because we're running away from one of the most important doctrines we're running away from the notion that God is in Ultimate control thinking that we're kind of saving God's character somehow but let me tell you this far from needing to run away from that Doctrine we need to embrace it and we need to embrace it because it is only then that you will have peace in trouble it is only them that you will have peace when everything is I was going to say going to custard I don't know if you have that expression when it's all falling apart right you could say it's okay God's in control and do you know what it means if God's in control it means that evil will never serve Evil's ends it can't God's sovereignty means it's impossible everything including evil itself will serve God's good and perfect ends isn't that awesome and Daniel I'm sure in his crisis of Faith was saying this can't happen is God real all those sorts of questions but do you know something as he puts This Record down on paper he's quite happy to say God did this because he now knows that all this God had a greater good to do by bringing This Disaster upon his people Daniel just couldn't see it at the time but he could see it after the fact that was the work there was a work of Grace that God was doing in the lives of Daniel and his friends and the work of Grace was seen in the fact that he didn't liberate Daniel from his Babylon experience but he asked Daniel to walk through that experience by faith and he asked Daniel and his friends to prove his faithfulness to us in this room tonight because we're reading his story through thick and thin and every trial and every trouble and that's the I think we might face tonight that maybe God won't Deliver Us from so much of what's going on in our world but maybe he will ask some of us or even maybe all of us to walk through a Babylon experience by faith and he will do a good work and it'll be a good work that we look back on when it's done and say God was in that and we'll have peace about it this work of Grace in Daniel's life began with a fake a fake offer of Good Fortune Daniel actually got an incredible opportunity no he got an offer of a place in Harvard University or the equivalent in the ancient worlds he got an offer of a special King sponsored education program and what was the point of all that he was to stand in the king's Palace at the end in other words he was going to go to Washington DC it was going to be one of the powerful ones he was going to have all the influence he was going to get a lot of money he's going to have a good life he's going to be very comfortable everything Babylon could possibly have offered Daniel it was on a silver plate and they're saying here you go mate take it amazing and I'll tell you what as he comes from little old Judah and he's going through the countryside towards Babylon it would have been quite a sight to see he wouldn't have seen a metropolis like that in all his days I would have been 100 meter high walls all around the city or if it was 100 meters high skyscraper in the middle of the city called the ziggurat I think it was called the house of the foundations of the heavens and earth the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were there Nebuchadnezzar's great palace complex one of the seven wonders of the ancient world called The House of the foundations of mankind the processional way was a 20 meter wide paved Street the walls I mentioned before phenomenally High covered in Sapphire Blue tiles and white dragon mosaics this guy would have thought wow look at the opportunity we've been given come through all this hardship and God is blessing us God is giving us an opportunity here it's the stuff of dreams and Babylon is saying this could be yours it's like Revelation isn't it drink the wine of my luxuries and glamor and opportunity come on belong here look what you can have isn't it enticing and he gets brainwashed as well he's trained in the literature and language of the Chaldeans so notice that's the important bit no longer Jewish now cold Ian that's what they want to achieve a little bit like today isn't it the education system what's it doing it's replacing effectively judeo-christian ideals with a new set of ideals and it's not about reading writing and arithmetic it's really about philosophy and politics and ideologies and so there's a brainwashing exercise and notices this brainwashing exercise is so comprehensive that these young people Daniel and his friends get new names I just want to show you the significance of this you know Daniel means God is my judge his new name Belta Shazam means protect his life and Marduk is the chief of the Babylonian Gods hananiah means the Lord shows Grace his new name Shadrach means command of Aku and Aku is the moon God Michelle means who is like God Meshach his new name is intentionally a Blasphemous play on that name who is like Aku Azariah means the Lord helps and his new name Abednego means servant of Nabu who is the son of Marduk language is being used to erase the good and the true and their Hebrew names even are gone to replace with a new language that promotes ideology and lies and paganism we're seeing a very similar thing in our day I was in Bangkok a while ago believe it or not for a Christian Conference it's a strange place to have a Christian Conference but I was staying at a hotel for this conference and over the road there was a um it was like a bar and it was called scene s-e-n and the marketing slogan was sin and be seen it's extraordinary that bar was not trying to repel people they fully understood their Western clientele and they wanted to entice them in you know Once Upon a Time sin was an abominant abominable thing but now it's something enticing but it goes beyond that what about a word like gay or queer completely changed your meaning what about a word like Pride once a the sin by which Satan fell from heaven is the legend attached to Pride right what is it now what's a political movement to be embraced what about equality hasn't that changed in meaning what about truth you know now we used to say the truth what do you hear now my truth by the way that's another one of those competitions with God to say that actually the truth is vested in me not vested in the Creator God who made it I think the first time I was talking to someone about this the other day and we both thought that the first time we ever heard that phrase my truth was from Oprah Winfrey back in the like early 2000s late 90s um and it's really caught on or what about uh the meaning of love love used to be all about serving someone's highest and best interests now it's about making them feel nice right it's about pandering to their feelings tell that to Jesus who looked on the Rich Young Ruler and loved him then spoke to him and he walked away sad how does that work with a modern idea of love all right Jesus loved him enough to tell him what he needed to hear which had very little to do with his feelings these words have all changed in meaning and the idea behind them is to kill old ideas and maybe even in the realm particularly at the moment of things like mother father notice it's always parent or you've got this rubbish about mothers being birthing persons and all this garbage um change of language Erasure of words that are good and right to remove old ideas and promote new ones but notice something all these words are being disconnected from their god-given definition and they are instead starting to be defined by our own feelings I'll give you an example harm there's no longer anything objective that's no longer that is now to harm someone is to upset their sense of self that's harm that's hate speech you see how that the definitions change so that it's rooted in the person or gender it's now separated from biological reality or God's creation order it's now all about my state of mind how I feel about myself if you go through these words it's a consistent theme and the point is it's turning people away from objective truth and The God Who is the author of that objective truth to subjective truth and the self who is the author of that subjective truth now that is a form of paganism Babylon was a pagan society and that's what Daniel was contending with and in a pagan Society people worship created things not the Creator right today we also worship created things we don't worship gods of wood and iron and bronze and all that kind of stuff like they did in Daniel's day and we don't worship animals and so on our Idols are not created things like kangaroos and peacocks and dogs and bears and all the rest of it our creative thing is something else it's a word and it's called identity we worship our identity our identity is the pillar and the foundation of our whole life our identity is the pillar and Foundation of how we interact with the world even of our politics and our political activism and young people are taught that in classrooms in Australia so I know that they're taught it here as well that is a form of paganism academics would call it Neo paganism to worship the fact is today I am the creature I worship I am the creature I worship and that is incredibly attractive to the young mind that is incredibly enticing to a young person it says that you can be at the center it says that you can determine your own life you can be you can be whatever you want and moral boundaries are minimal because it's your truth that matters and you can redefine those self-interest is Paramount it's all about you it's all about your identity you can rebel against whatever you like in the name of pursuing that identity and that is unbelievably attractive that is unbelievably seductive to them to the young mind and it is an indoctrination therefore that exploits the sinful nature that wants to rebel and wants to love self over God and over others This Small Wonder that into this Society the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so objectionable because what is the first thing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ says about the identity it is sinful do you know the cross of Jesus Christ is an absolute offense to the identity because the very very fact that there had to be a cross at all is a monument to how sinful yours and my identity truly was therefore Christ had to Die For It Christ had to die for who I really was and when you come along with the gospel into this generation and you say the first thing you need to know is your own sin and your own need of Salvation and repentance that is objectionable and actually our young people are being immunized against the gospel itself which is a worrying thing I say all of that just to say the Temptation for Daniel was so real and the Temptation for us today is so real and we might not go in I was going to say the whole bucket of chicken we're not going to go all the way into this ideology but we let it shape us we let it color our thinking as the song there's an old there's a song somewhere that says it's a slow fade when you give yourself away black and white gets turned to gray choices are made people never crumble in a day piece by piece or as they there's an English expression salami tactics one slice at a time little bit by little bit the world starts to impact you and Daniel has the same voice of Babylon saying believe our attractive philosophy have everything that we offer it's all here it's an easy life if that's the point there's always an if if you play your cards right and notice that threat of hostility is just lurking in the background there'll be a cost if you don't come along with this buddy you will stand out you're gonna look stupid you're gonna lose your career you're going to lose your opportunity You're Gonna Lose oh how about this the chief eunuch says well actually the king is going to have our heads how's that for some hostility there's always an if and Babylon is demanding her price from us today the university and college campuses and all this rubbish about sororities and fraternities what are they doing demanding their price young person you can be one of us if if you sin if you compromise if you show us that Babylon is your lord and not Christ the true king or indeed your friendship groups and sadly this is even in Christian friendship groups what's the price of belonging sometimes what's the price of maintaining those friendships just compromise just go along with it you don't want to be the stick in the mud The Fish Out of Water you don't want to be the weirdo or indeed corporations and this is a big one corporations and politics so many people in corporations not prepared to make the right decisions not prepared to stand on what is truth because Babylon is demanding her price most of these woke corporates they don't really believe it they just know that that's the price of belonging and prospering in Babylon why is it that in my country we cannot get a single politician to stand up on the fact that young people are going into gender clinics by the teeming thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and going on irreversible hormone therapies that's destroying their lives even up to the point of surgeries and there is a humanitarian crisis happening in the health institutions of our country in every city and it's out of control why won't one of them even those who agree with us stand up because babylon's price is shut up don't say it that's the world we live in Daniel said has a day where he has to give such a small price he just has to eat the food and such a great offer Huawei couldn't be greater and Daniel said no he just said no you imagine he would have had his critics it's your first day not now like come on man play your cards for a while or this old one which you've often heard wait till you're more influential wait till you higher up the tree where you can make change you don't want to compromise this god-given opportunity do you right you know what Daniel didn't make it so complicated and beware if you're making it complicated it might just be the voice of the old serpent in yoria saying has God really said because it's very simple Daniel said you know what I can't sin that's the line and it is that simple you know what they said Daniel stop praying in your window Daniel said you know what if I decide on the basis of that to stop praying in my window that's a wrong decision I can't make the wrong decision I can't sin and that was that it's truly remarkable that he did that it's truly remarkable that he found the strength to stand because these days we so often lack that strength and I think it's for this reason and this is one of Daniel's key differences Daniel didn't try to engineer outcomes in his life he let God do that what do I mean you know sometimes you say well if I take a stand there will be a cost if I make that decision I'll lose something if I say that to that person I'll be ex thrown out of that group or I won't be able to run for politics next year like I wanted to because it might get in the media and so on and so on and so on those are the concerns that we have and so therefore we compromise sometimes it's wise to think about the future but never in this scenario never when it is a decision about doing the right thing especially a decision about resisting sin Daniel understood that in those moments he wasn't the master of his destiny he understood in those moments he needed God on his side so he served God and made God's decision and let God be the architect of his destiny and you know when he took this stand on day one in the king's Palace he should have lost everything he actually should have not got past his first 10 days in that program and yet he actually became probably the most decorated individual from that program he served six Kings he was there until Cyrus he had an extraordinary place in the Kingdom now why because God intended that for him and so long as Daniel had God on his side nothing could stop it not even the Lion's Den and that's the kind of trust we have to have today that we can't plan our future better than God can and by the way if you think that your life is the product of some master plan cooked up in your own brain you're very naive it doesn't work that way the decisions you make often have unexpected outcomes and better that you trust those unexpected outcomes to God by making the right decision today and trusting God for tomorrow my grandmother died over 100 years old and her favorite verse in the Bible was I was young but now I am old and I have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging for bread it's a great testimony to us as kids um and it's true my dad always said to me growing up you'll never be worse off for doing the right thing uh the first time that happened was when I asked if I could stay home from church to study for an exam I was really stressing and he suddenly he just stood there in silence for a while and he goes well I guess you'll never be any worse off for doing the right thing and then just went about getting ready for church and when he went down to the car to go to church of course who was in the car me um and it was true I was no worse off for doing the right thing Daniel's stand should have cost him his opportunities in Babylon but he realized that Nebuchadnezzar wasn't his King and Babylon wasn't his true Allegiance and that wasn't where his treasure was but actually his treasure was in heaven and God was his true king we do a couple of practical tips before I close because I actually have no idea when I started I'm sorry I didn't check um just a couple of practical tips number one notice something about Daniel this is very important I think for the younger people in the room it says about Daniel that he purposed in his heart in other words Daniel made a decision and he stored it up for when he needed it he decided I won't do that thing and when the day came and he was asked to do it eat the food he sort of already decided I won't do that it's a very good principle of wisdom because In the Heat of the Moment you will often make bad decisions In the Heat of lust and Temptation and peer pressure and all these sorts of things you will often make bad decisions if you haven't thought about it first make your decisions now draw lines in the sand about what you will do about so many of these things about money and alcohol and church and prayer and and sexual issues and accountability and stick to them draw lines in the sand because it's always just a little compromise and then days go by and you you've compromised completely but if you've got a Line in the Sand even if it seems like a high bar it's a great protector it's a great protector and I had to do that when I went out to a big secular University I had to draw lines in the sand and it was because I had Drawn Lines in the sand although I think God preserved me on my first day at University I remember going to the campus and it was this orientation week thing that they have before you get into your program your course and you get up you go to orientation week and there's all these Market stalls and there's all these things going on and I remember stepping on campus and hearing this awful music um and I thought what is that all for music anyway I walked into the main Court of the university and there were this band of guys up on stage dressed up like just like Japanese geisha girls all white face paint and hair and you know and these um kimono dresses and singing this perverse music and doing all sorts of things and I thought to myself whoa I don't know what I've never seen anything like that and I left the great court and then I wandered through the market stalls and I thought to myself my goodness gracious this is brazen and I wandered through those stores and then a couple of other things I won't go into happened which were quite shocking and confronting to me and I got a point of the day where I just thought you know what I don't know what's going on here but I'm not ready for this and I went to my car hopped in the car and drove home and I sat in my room at home and I prayed to God and said I'm gonna have to go back and I need help and I'm going to make these decisions one two three four and you know God honored that and helped me to keep those decisions and a lot of you in this room are going to be stepping into universities workplaces friend groups opportunities in life and you need to have those decisions ready because the Daniel moment will come where they will say just come along with us and you can have an awful lot you need to say no I trust God simple as that another tip again before I close and this is the last tip is it the last tip better be I'll go a bunch but I'll just choose one and the one I want to choose is this notice something about Daniel which is really important under Darius there was a whole bunch of guys who wanted to bring Daniel down and so they did a full-blown CIA investigation against this guy they got every single so every single uh operation they could against him to find out what was wrong in his life and you know what they turned up blank it's a really important principle for all of us Christian Life is the life with nothing to hide Jesus talks in Matthew 6 about your secret life over and over again he says your heavenly father who sees in secret you know serve him honor him and it's the important principle that Daniel lived by which is that he lived for an audience of one right I told this story on Tuesday there's a guy in Australia who was the Deputy Prime Minister of the country so the second most powerful politician and he's a Christian and he was Deputy Prime Minister about 25 years ago and he said he had a helpful moment every morning when he was up in Parliament House where a colleague of his would bang on his door and no matter what he was doing he'd throw the door open and yell inside hey John remember today you're playing to an audience of one and he'd slam the door and walk away and for a politician that's an extraordinary thing because he's got the media watching him especially as a Christian he's got his constituency watching him he's got the power Brokers and the factional bosses in his political party watching him he's got everyone watching but the reminder every day was you're playing to an audience of one that was one of Daniel's secrets in those moments he thought of God and he did what was right before him and that extended into his secret life a life of Holiness that was Without Blame it's really important thing for us to work on and now I'll give my closing piece finish with a word about Daniel's Legacy in Revelation 18 the angel Cries Out fall and fall in his Babylon the great come out of her my people lest you take part in her sins that's what Daniel did he came out of Babylon not physically God asked him to walk through that experience by faith but he came out of Babylon spiritually by refusing to take part in her sins and that was the secret of Daniel's Legacy for God in Babylon he was salt that means he didn't compromise and you should always start there don't compromise and he was light everyone knew he was a Christian he was famous for his faith right in the last king belshazzar what did the queen mother say get Daniel in that man is a spirit of the holy God everyone knew who he was everyone knew him for those things and God was able to work through Daniel because of that King Nebuchadnezzar was saved because of Daniel's testimony yeah it was a rocky road and there's some ups and downs but he got there and Daniel had to be a testimony to King Nebuchadnezzar multiple times before that man folded and confessed God as the one and only true God isn't that extraordinary don't forget to pray for your leaders don't forget to pray for Joe Biden Carmela Harris yeah because it was a lot worse believe you me he was saved I mean emperor Constantine of Rome saved King Manasseh the worst king of Israel or Judah saved at the end of his life it's extraordinary God's grace is Limitless Nebuchadnezzar was saved and I'm sure many others were transformed by the power of his testimony in Babylon but his testimony endures today because we're reading his book and he speaks to us and he's testimony endured for hundreds of years after he finished up his time in Babylon because what happened when Jesus was born Magi came from the East what a magi wise men astrologers interpreters of science why would they be in the east well in the Far East Babylon Daniel was the chief of the Magi throughout the Babylonian Kingdom why would they be interested in the coming of Christ into the world Daniel was a prophet all the pieces fit Daniel's Legacy lived on and there were Gentiles in the Far East who were waiting searching and yearning for the savior of the Worlds and you know Daniel lives tonight though he be dead because he built treasure in heaven and he earned from Jesus the statement well done good and faithful servant he didn't own that statement from belshazzar or from Darius or from Nebuchadnezzar and he didn't build Treasures on Earth but he was one of those as it says at the end of Daniel one of those who who are wise and shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever and he stood firm and with this I really am giving my last point I promise um you say but when I stand firm it'll be hard just note this from Daniel's life God was at work most powerfully in Daniel's life in the fires there was a fourth man in the fire right Jesus there was an angel in the Lion's Den right who shut the mouth of the lion Nebuchadnezzar was converted through these fiery moments I want to make this point we need some Daniels today who are prepared to stand for Christ and with Christ in the fires because it's in those fires that you'll very often find that that is God's power at work in you to be a testimony to a world who looks on and says that's amazing and God is at work and how do I know that God works most powerfully through the fires of our lives and the and the pits and the troubles and these high-stakes moments when we're called on to make a stand and we say yes I'll make the stand and God works I can tell you from my own life I can tell you from lives of friends I've witnessed but I can tell you from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ because he went all the way to the cross and he went through the deepest darkest Agony of the soul and that looked like the worst thing that the human race could ever ever ever have done to crucify the Son of God and to reject their very own Creator and you say that's the worst thing that could have happened but you know what that was God's moment of greatest power in all of human history because he worked through that Dark Night of the soul of Jesus to reach and save a world and he bore his cross and we are asked to carry our cross in this world it's shame and reproach gladly bear because when we face those fires we can rejoice as the apostles would say because he is at work in us and you know when it comes to that final day I think one of the things we'll realize is that he bore the cross for me in what fires did I stand what crosses did I bear for him may God Empower us to be more like Daniel so that he can reach this Babylon in which we live today let's pray

Channel: Answers in Genesis

Views: 617,815

Keywords: answers in genesis

Id: G7J_NGncv5s

Length: 61min 36sec (3696 seconds)

Published: Mon May 15 2023