Let us open our Bibles to Daniel chapter
5, shall we?
Daniel chapter 5, it's good to see you
all out tonight.
Belshazzar the king made a great feast to
a thousand of his lords and drank wine
before the thousand.
Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to
bring the golden and silver vessels which his
father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple
which was in Jerusalem, that the king and
his princes, his wives and his concubines might
drink therein.
Then they brought the golden vessels that were
taken out of the temple of the house
of God which was at Jerusalem, and the
king and his princes, his wives and his
concubines drank in them.
They drank wine and praised the gods of
gold and of silver, of brass, of iron,
of wood and of stone.
In the same hour came forth fingers of
a man's hand and wrote over against the
candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of
the king's palace, and the king saw the
part of the hand that wrote.
Then the king's countenance was changed and his
thoughts troubled him so that the joints of
his loins were loosed and his knees smote
one against another.
The king cried aloud to bring in the
astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers.
And the king spake and said to the
wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this
writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall
be clothed with scarlet and have a chain
of gold about his neck and shall be
the third ruler in the kingdom.
Then came in all the king's wise men,
but they could not read the writing nor
make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled and his
countenance was changed in him and his lords
were stoning.
Now the queen, by reason of the words
of the king and his lords, came into
the banquet house, and the queen spake and
said, O king, live forever.
Let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let
thy countenance be changed.
There is a man in thy kingdom in
whom is the spirit of the holy gods,
and in the days of thy father light
and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of
the gods, was found in him, whom the
king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say,
thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers,
Chaldeans and soothsayers.
For as much as an excellent spirit and
knowledge and understanding, interpreting of dreams and showing
of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were
found in the same Daniel, whom the king
named Belshazzar.
Now let Daniel be called, and he will
show the interpretation.
Then was Daniel brought in before the king,
and the king spake and said unto Daniel,
Art thou that Daniel, which art of the
children of the captivity of Judah, whom the
king my father brought out of Jewry?
I have even heard of thee, that the
spirit of the gods is in thee, and
that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is
found in thee.
And now the wise men, the astrologers, have
been brought in before me, that they should
read this writing and make known unto me
the interpretation thereof.
But they could not show the interpretation of
the thing, and I have heard of thee,
that thou canst make interpretations and dissolve doubts.
Now if thou canst read the writing and
make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou
shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a
chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt
be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Then Daniel answered and said before the king,
Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give
thy rewards to another.
Yet I will read the writing unto the
king and make known to him the interpretation.
O thou king, the Most High God gave
Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom and majesty and
glory and honor.
And for the majesty that he gave him,
all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared
before him.
Whom he would, he slew, and whom he
would, he kept alive.
And whom he would, he set up, and
whom he would, he put down.
But when his heart was lifted up, and
his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed
from his kingly throne, and they took his
glory from him.
And he was driven from the sons of
men, and his heart was made like the
beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild
asses.
They fed him with grass like oxen, and
his body was wet with the dew of
heaven, till he knew that the Most High
God ruled in the kingdom of men, and
that he appointed over it whomsoever he will.
And thou, his son, O Belshazzar, hast not
humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this,
but hast lifted up thy shelf against the
Lord of heaven, and they have brought the
vessels of his house before thee.
And thou and thy lords, thy wives, and
thy concubines have drunk wine in them.
And thou hast praised the gods of silver
and gold and brass, iron, wood, and stone,
which see not, nor hear, nor know.
And the God in whose hand thy breath
is, and whose are all thy ways, hast
thou not glorified?
Then was the part of the hand sent
from him, and this writing was written.
And this is the writing that was written,
Mene, Mene, Tikal, Eupharsin.
This is the interpretation of the thing.
Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished
it.
Tikal, thou art weighed in the balances, and
art found wanting.
Paris, thy kingdom is divided and given to
the Medes and Persians.
Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with
scarlet, and put a chain of gold about
his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him,
that he should be the third ruler in
the kingdom.
In that night was Belshazzar the king of
the Chaldeans slain, and Darius the Median took
the kingdom, being about three score and two
years old.
May the Lord bless to us the reading
of his word.
You know this portion that we have read
from the fifth chapter of Daniel is, you
might say, a most fascinating story.
You might almost say it is a drama
that you might read in some of the
magazines that people spend so much time reading
in the world.
I think perhaps it is a very dramatic
scene here that we find in Daniel chapter
five, where we have this Belshazzar who is
evidently the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and the terrible
judgment that fell upon him.
You know there is quite a contrast between
the fourth chapter of Daniel and the fifth
chapter of Daniel.
In the fourth chapter of Daniel we have
a very proud king who was lifted up
with pride, but God spoke to him and
God leveled him, you might say, to the
level of a beast for seven years, until
he should recognize that the Most High ruled
in the kingdoms of men.
And when he did this, why the Bible
says, when he lifted up his eyes to
heaven, why his reason returned unto him, and
he blessed God for what the Lord had
done for him.
Now Nebuchadnezzar was a very proud man.
Nebuchadnezzar was a very great man.
He was a very mighty man as far
as the world was concerned.
He was the ruler of the first world
empire that this world has ever seen.
And yet my friends, that great ruler was
humbled and we believe that he was really
converted and that he was turned to the
Lord.
But here we find three generations later, we
find his grandson Nebuchadnezzar, or Belshazzar, and we
find a young man who does not repent.
A young man who dies in his sins,
and as it tells us here, Daniel in
speaking to him said in the 22nd verse,
And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not
humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this.
Now here was this young man, he was
privileged.
He had heard about the tremendous change and
experience that had taken place in the life
of his grandfather.
And though he had this witness born to
him, yet he did not respond to it.
And as far as we know, Belshazzar died
that night in his sins, impenitent.
He died and today he is in eternity
a lost soul.
You know, just because we are born and
raised in a Christian home, and because we
see the effects of the gospel in the
lives of those around us, and because we
hear the message of salvation again and again,
does not mean that we are going to
be saved, because we have to avail ourselves
of this salvation for ourselves.
I remember a number of several years back,
perhaps about seven or eight years ago, I
was down in Florida for youth camp, and
I wanted to call up to Minnesota from
Florida.
And so while I was waiting for the
telephone booth, while there was somebody in the
telephone booth, and there was a man standing
beside a car.
And I said to this man as I
gave him a gospel tract, well I wonder
how it is with your soul.
And he says, well, he says, I hope
it is going to be alright.
Well, I said, are you saved?
Are you going to be in heaven?
Well, he says, you know, he says, my
mammy was a Christian, and he says, my
mammy has been praying for me for over
sixty years.
And he says, I'll surely won't go to
that awful place called hell when I've had
so many prayers offered for me.
I said to him, because his name was
Tex, he told me his name was Tex,
I said, Tex, how old are you?
Tex says, well, I'm about sixty-four years
old.
I said, for sixty-four years your mammy
has been praying for you, and still you
haven't been saved, still you haven't trusted Christ.
Now Tex, unless you repent, and unless you
accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior,
all the prayers of your mammy are never
going to get you into heaven.
And I want to say to each and
every one that is here tonight, you may
have a Christian wife, you may have a
Christian husband, you may have a Christian father
or mother, you may have a Christian grandfather
or Christian grandmother, but the fact of the
matter is, you may see and you may
hear the wonderful message of salvation from them
again and again, and yet you know it's
possible.
It's possible for you to die in your
sins just like this man Belshazzar, he died
in his sins.
Now we come to this story tonight because
in it we have brought before us a
living example of that verse that goes, He
that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall
suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
He that being often reproved, and hardeneth his
neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without
remedy.
Here we have this young, here we have
this man, we don't know how old he
was, but it tells us, Belshazzar the king
made a great feast to a thousand of
his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to
bring the golden and silver vessels which his
father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple,
which was in Jerusalem, that the king and
his princes, his wives and his concubines, might
drink therein.
Now we have been following these chapters in
Daniel, and we have been following how these
chapters from chapter 2 through chapter 6 bring
before us the historical incidents that took place
in the experience of Daniel, and how they
foreshadow for us events that are going to
happen in the end time after our Lord
Jesus Christ takes out of this world those
who are his.
The second chapter we have brought before us
the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, in which God
made known to Nebuchadnezzar that there would be
four great world empires.
And in the last stage of the fourth
world empire, why a stone would fall from
heaven and smite that image of gold, silver,
brass, iron, and clay.
It would smite that image on the feet
and destroy it, and the wind would come
along and sweep it out of existence, and
the stone would grow into a mountain filling
the whole earth.
And we saw how that pictures the four
great world empires that the Bible said would
come into existence.
And those four world empires have come into
existence just the way the Bible said.
The Babylonian empire pictured in the head of
gold, the Medo-Persian empire pictured in the
chest and arms of silver, the Grecian empire
pictured in the thighs of brass, and the
Roman empire pictured for us in the legs
of iron.
But the last form of this Roman empire
is yet to come into existence, a ten
-kingdom empire that is to be headed by
a man who is spoken of as the
little horn in Daniel chapter 7.
We'll speak about that on Sunday night.
And this great empire of men is going
to be destroyed by the return of our
Lord Jesus Christ and the setting up of
His kingdom.
And then we saw in the third chapter
how Nebuchadnezzar made that great image, how he
commanded that all should worship, and if they
did not, they would be cast into the
furnace of fire.
And how there were three young men who
stood and refused to bow.
They dared to be different.
They dared to be nonconformists.
They dared to stand when everybody else was
different or bowing.
You know, that must have been quite a
thing.
Three young men standing among thousands.
And these were the most important people in
all the empire of Nebuchadnezzar.
They were the captains.
They were the great people.
And yet in the midst of all these
people, these three young men, because they believed
God and because they obeyed God, they stood.
They stood.
And they were cast into the burning, fiery
furnace, but the Lord was with them.
And instead of being consumed by the fire,
why, their bonds were burnt, and they were
set free, picturing for us how in the
end times the beast is going to have
an image erected to himself.
All are going to have to bow or
receive the mark of the beast.
And those who don't bow, they are going
to pass through great tribulation.
And the Bible tells us there will be
a remnant of Jews, 144,000 who will
refuse to bow, and they will stand true,
and they will be preserved, and they will
be delivered by the Lord to enter into
His kingdom.
And then in the fourth chapter last night,
we saw that just as idolatry will characterize
this great world power in that day, another
thing that would characterize them is pride.
Pride characterized Nebuchadnezzar, and it was pride that
brought judgment down upon him, pictured in the
cutting down of the tree and the leaning
of a stump where they band about it.
And for seven years Nebuchadnezzar lost his mind.
For seven years he ate grass like an
oxen.
For seven years he was driven on from
amongst men until he lifted up his eyes
to heaven.
And when he did that, his reason returned,
and he was brought to God, and he
blessed God.
Picturing for us how the Gentile nations lifted
up with pride are going to be like
the beast.
What do you mean?
Well, you know the difference between a man
and a beast?
There was a Christian on a train, and
he was talking to a young Jew who
was a brilliant man, and he said, talking,
I'm not going to go into the details
of the story, but the closing part of
the story was that this lawyer, Christian lawyer,
he asked the Jew, what's the difference between
your mother and a dog?
He says, my mother and a dog?
Well, he says, there's a big difference between
my mother and a dog.
Well, what is the difference between your mother
and a dog?
Well, a dog barks.
Well, can't your mother bark?
Oh, sure, but, well, a dog runs around
on all fours.
Well, can't your mother run around on all
fours?
Well, yes.
Well, what is the difference, he says, between
my mother and a dog?
There's a big difference, I know, but what
is the difference?
He says, when your mother gets into trouble,
what does your mother do?
Oh, he says, I've got a very godly
mother.
When my mother gets into trouble, my mother
prays.
He says, did you ever see a dog
pray?
No, he says, I never have.
You know what the difference is between your
mother and a dog?
Your mother has a spirit that gives her
God consciousness.
A dog has no spirit.
He knows nothing about a dog.
Now, there have been very smart dogs and
horses.
You know, there used to be a gospel
team that used to travel around Chicago, where
I used to live, and they used to
put on shows, and they had a horse.
I know this horse was a trained horse.
Why, they would ask the horse, how many
apostles were there?
And he'd stamp his hook twelve times.
And they'd say, well, how many baskets did
Jesus take up when he fed the 5
,000?
And this dog, the horse would stamp his
hook five times.
But you know, even though that horse could
answer those questions and do that, I'm sure
if they start talking to that horse about
God, he couldn't understand.
You know, a horse, an animal, has no
consciousness of God.
Its eyes, its head, are always toward the
earth.
You look at a hog, you look at
a cow, you look at a horse, and
their heads are always toward the earth.
That's the way it is with the beast.
But man is able to look up, because
man can recognize there is a God.
And when it tells us that Nebuchadnezzar became
like a beast, it means that God was
ruled out of his mind.
All he was occupied with was what is
going on down here.
And my friend, I want to ask you
tonight, are you like the beast?
All you're occupied with is what is going
down down here, the things of this world.
You never lift up your head.
You never ask yourself the question, what about
God?
How am I going to stand before God?
How am I going to answer to God?
Well, the Bible tells us that in the
end time, the Gentile nations, which have rejected
the gospel, are going to be given up
to apostasy.
They're going to be given up to a
lie.
They're going to believe the lie of the
Antichrist.
And the only hope, the only object they'll
have, is to make this world a better
place to live in.
They're getting farther and farther away from God.
But there will be some who have not
heard the gospel, and then like Nebuchadnezzar who
was restored, there will be Gentile nations, you
can read about them in Matthew 25, Isaiah
66, Revelation 7, and other parts of the
world who are going to be turned to
God.
So we find that idolatry is going to
be a characteristic of the time of the
end.
Pride is going to be a characteristic of
the time of the end.
But here in Daniel chapter 5, we have
two more characteristics.
You know what they are?
The love of pleasure.
Here's Belshazzar.
Now history tells us that Belshazzar was co
-king with his father Nebuned.
And Nebuned was on a journey.
He was leading an army against the Median
Persians in other parts of the world.
And Belshazzar did not know that his father
had been captured, and that his father had
been incarcerated in a prison, and was held
a captive in a prison.
And the armies of Babylon, the armies of
Medo-Persia under Darius and Cyrus, came against
Babylon, and they surrounded Babylon.
Now you know Babylon was a city with
walls that were so thick that you could
have had the equivalent of two automobiles right
around that city on that wall.
Why, those walls were thicker than the very
walls of China that have been so prominent
to our thinking and vision in the last
few months.
And those walls seemed to be impregnable.
There seemed to be no way that Babylon
was going to fall.
But you know God had said that the
empire of Babylon would be succeeded by another
empire, the empire of Medo-Persia.
And so the armies of Medo-Persia under
Cyrus and Darius were surrounding that city.
They laid siege to it, but they couldn't
take that city.
Week after week and month after month.
And you know so secure did the Babylonians
feel in their city that here Belshazzar made
a great feast.
And the city as well as the palace
was given over to drinking, to riotousness, to
pleasure.
And you know that's the way so many
people think today.
We're living in a day when people are
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.
Their only thought seems to be pleasure.
But then you know they did something else.
In the height of their revelry, in the
height of their drunkenness, in the height of
their debauchery, while we find that Belshazzar sends
forth the command, bring the holy vessels, bring
the silver and gold vessels that were taken
out, that were taken out of the temple
at Jerusalem and bring them to us so
we can use them in our rioting and
in our drunkenness.
And so those golden vessels and those silver
vessels that had been taken from the temple
in Jerusalem were brought into that palace and
they lifted these vessels and they filled them
with their wine.
And as they were filling them with their
wine and drinking and praising their gods of
gold and of silver and they were blaspheming
to the God of heaven, suddenly something happened.
You know they didn't have electric lights in
those days.
They had these torches on the walls and
perhaps these torches in the midst of the
palace.
And there in their drunken debauchery, those thousands
of lords and women and concubines who were
half drunk or all drunk, suddenly they saw
against the light, they saw the fingers of
a man's hand and began to write and
just wrote four words.
And those four words were, Mene, Mene, Kiko,
Eupharsin.
And you know the Bible tells us that
when the king sought, the king's countenance was
changed, his thoughts troubled him so that the
joints of his loins were loosed and his
knees smote one against another.
Just think what he saw.
He saw the fingers of a man's hand.
That's all he saw.
And as he saw those words inscribed upon
the wall, his face fell.
He was filled with fear, so filled with
fear that his knees began to smote together.
He was so terrified at what he saw.
The hour had come.
The moment had come and Belshazzar didn't realize
that this was going to be his last
night upon the earth.
He did not realize that while the whole
city was being given over to drunkenness and
debauchery, he didn't realize that the Medo-Persians
had secretly diverted the river that flowed through
that city.
They had besieged the city.
They had tried to take it.
And finally they decided the only way to
get into that city is to divert the
river that goes right through the middle of
that city and come in on the riverbed.
And while the city was given over to
drunkenness, to rioting and pleasure, my friends, they
were diverting the river and preparing to enter
in and destroy all in that city, all
in that palace.
Now when Belshazzar saw that writing, why, Belshazzar
called for the wise men.
He called for the astrologers.
He called for the Chaldeans and soothsayers.
And he spake and said to the wise
of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing and
show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed
with scarlet and have a chain of gold
about his neck and shall be the third
ruler in the kingdom.
Talk about fairy stories about the young prince
who wants to win the young prince.
And if he does this, why, he'll become
the ruler.
Why, my friends, here's a wonderful story.
Belshazzar says, The one who interprets this to
me, why, I'll make him the third ruler
in the kingdom.
I'll give him a chain of gold about
his neck.
He'll be clothed with scarlet.
He'll be fixed for the rest of his
life.
But you know, the wise men couldn't interpret
it.
Oh yes, they could read the words all
right.
The words were in Chaldean.
The words were words that he could understand.
Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided.
But what could the king make of that?
Numbered, numbered, weighed, divided.
What does that mean?
Give me somebody who can tell me what
this means.
But the wise men, my friend, weren't able
to tell him.
We can't interpret it to you.
And there in his dismay, why, in walks
the queen Dowager.
Perhaps she was Nebuchadnezzar's wife.
Perhaps she was this young man's mother.
But she was separate from all the pleasure.
It wasn't his queen.
And she says, There's a man in your
kingdom in whom is the spirit of the
gods.
He can tell you what this means.
His name is Daniel.
And so he hurriedly sends for Daniel.
Where is Daniel?
My friends, by this time, Daniel was an
elderly man.
Years had passed since as a youth he
had interpreted the dream to Nebuchadnezzar.
Years had passed since Nebuchadnezzar had died and
reigned and died.
And years had left their mark on Daniel.
But you know, Daniel is separated from all
the rioting and all the drunkenness and all
the debauchery that was going on there in
Babylon.
And so when this Daniel comes into the
presence of the king, he says, Art thou
that Daniel, which art of the children of
the captivity of Judah, whom the king my
father brought out of Judah?
I have heard of you.
Can you tell me the interpretation of this?
And if you make known to me the
interpretation, I'll give you a garment of scarlet,
I'll give you a chain of gold, and
you'll be the third ruler in the kingdom.
And Daniel says to him, Let thy gifts
be to thyself, and give thy rewards to
another.
Yet I will read the writing unto the
king, and make known to him the interpretation.
And he says, O thou king the most
high, God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom
and majesty and glory and honor.
And then he recounts for this young man,
for this man, he recounts what had happened
to Belshazzar, to Nebuchadnezzar.
And he says to him, And thou his
son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart,
though thou knewest all this.
Now what was it that brought this handwriting
on the wall?
What was it that brought this act when
God wrote on the wall, numbered, numbered, weighed,
divided?
You know what it was, friends?
It was when he took the holy things
and he mixed them with the unholy, profane
things.
And when he mixed these things together so
that nobody could tell what was of God
and what was not of God, God says,
It's time for judgment.
This is as far as I'm going to
go.
What do you and I see today?
What do you and I see the world
doing today?
And what do we see Christians so-called
doing today?
You know what we see them doing today,
my friends?
We see them where they're mixing up the
things of God with the things of the
world in such an unholy mixture that people
are getting to the place where they don't
know anymore what is of God and what
is not of God.
Look at, for instance, the theatrical world.
Now, you know I used to go to
the movies before I was saved.
And I used to enjoy the movies.
But my friends, I knew that they were
of the world.
But what is the world doing today?
You know, they're taking the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and they're taking the story
of the Lord Jesus Christ and they're corrupting
it and they're mixing it up with their
most unholy and their most sinful practices so
that when people look at this thing like
Jesus Christ superstar, they don't know whether it's
truth or whether it's error, whether it's of
God or whether it's of the devil.
Think of their songs, for instance.
I picked up Time Magazine not so long
ago and I looked through the music section
and I found that 8 out of the
10 top songs were about religion, about Christianity.
They mixed up Christianity with their unholy, ungodly,
sinful, wicked, adulterous lives and they sing about
it as though they're honoring the God of
heaven.
And Christians go along with it.
Christians think it's alright.
Christians think it's okay when the sinful, licentious,
ungodly, drunken world takes these sacred things and
mixes them all up together so that our
young people don't know whether it's of God
or whether it's of the devil.
And what is the object of the devil?
You know why?
What his object is.
His object is to mix these things up
so completely that you can't tell what is
of God and what is of the devil.
And if you can't tell what is of
God and what is of the devil, you
won't know how to look for God.
You won't know what God...
My friends, they are taking...
Oh, when I was a lad, people used
to wear sweatshirts, Mickey Mouse.
They had Mickey Mouse watches and they had
all these things when I was a kid.
Now, what do they have?
They have Swetsworth with Jesus on it.
They have Jesus watches.
They have all kinds of Jesus banners.
But you notice, they always talk about Jesus.
They don't talk about the Lord Jesus.
They're always talking about Jesus.
They're always glorifying Jesus.
And the devil doesn't mind if you glorify
Jesus just so you don't confess Jesus as
Lord.
The Bible says to the Corinthians, how can
you discern the Spirit of God and the
Spirit that led you before you were saved?
He says, this is how you can discern
it.
He says, no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed.
And no man can say that Jesus is
Lord but by the Holy Ghost.
You know, this unholy mixture of divine things,
of the precious Gospel and the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ with all of these
sinful things means that people have got so
low and their conscience has become so hard
and callous and insensible that nothing can touch
them.
Nothing can reach them.
And of course we know when we turn
to the third chapter of Revelation that the
last stage of the church's history on earth,
Laodicea, He says, thou art lukewarm because thou
art neither cold nor hot but because thou
art lukewarm I will spew thee out of
my mouth.
You know how you get lukewarm things?
You get lukewarm things by taking hot water
and then mixing in the cold.
And as you bring in these two elements
you get lukewarmness.
And here's a young person, here's older persons,
they get all warmed up and heated up
as they listen to the Word of God
and then they go home and they're all
occupied with the world and cold things come
in.
And the result is lukewarmness.
And God says, because thou art lukewarm I'll
spew you out of my mouth.
I want nothing to do with you.
A mixture of holy with unholy.
A mixture of that which is of God
and that which is of the devil.
And the handwriting appears on the wall, mene,
mene, tika yufarsen.
There's only one thing ahead for that state
of things and that is judgment.
Judgment.
And so Daniel comes into the presence of
the king.
And when Daniel comes into the presence of
the king and he's not persuaded by the
king's reward.
Why, what good is the king's reward?
Well, he was going to lose his wife
that night.
He was going to lose his kingdom that
night.
But Daniel interprets it and notice what he
says.
He says, this is the writing that was
written, verse 25, mene, mene, tika yufarsen.
This is the interpretation of the thing.
Mene, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished
it.
God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it.
Tika, thou art weighed in the balances.
And are found wanting.
Belshazzar, you've been weighed.
God has weighed you, Belshazzar.
God has weighed you in his balances.
And God has found you wanting.
And then he doesn't interpret, he doesn't interpret
yufarsen.
He gives another form of it.
Yufarsen means to divide or will be divided.
But instead he gives the past tense.
He gives the word Paris.
And this word means, thy kingdom is divided.
Because at that very moment, the armies of
the Medo-Persian Empire were swarming under the
wall of that river bed and they were
flooding into the city.
And the people in the city, the guards
they say, were drunk.
The guards were given over to vice and
licentiousness and lasciviousness, immorality.
They thought they were secure.
And the armies of Medo-Persia swept in.
And while Daniel was interpreting the words, he
says, Paris.
He says, thy kingdom is divided.
It's already done, Belshazzar.
Your kingdom is divided and given to the
Medes and Persians.
And you know, Belshazzar, he heard the message.
But you know, it didn't impress itself on
him.
Well, that's a nice interpretation.
And so he commands and they bring forth
the garment of scarlet.
They put the chain of gold upon Daniel's
neck.
They make a proclamation concerning him that he
should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
And then notice the next verse.
In that night was Belshazzar the king of
the Chaldean slain.
Why, even as Belshazzar was investing, Daniel with
all these honors, the armies of the Medes
and Persians were swarming into the palace and
Belshazzar met death that night.
That night Belshazzar's kingdom, Belshazzar's life, Belshazzar's soul
was lost and Belshazzar met death listening to
a message from God through his servant.
My friend, as you sit in this meeting
tonight unsaved, these four words apply to you
tonight.
Mene, mene.
Numbered, numbered.
My friend, your days are numbered.
Your opportunities are numbered.
If you're sitting in this meeting tonight, who
knows what the number of your days is.
If God should tonight say, finished, I wonder
tonight, where would your soul be?
You know, I picked up the paper the
other day.
I read four young people, 13, 14 and
15 years old.
I don't know what hour of the night
it was or what hour of the morning
it was.
Their fathers and mothers thought they were in
bed until they heard the sheriff knocking at
the door and saying, is your son so
and so?
Why yes, where is your son?
Oh, my son's up in bed.
No, he's not in bed.
He's in the morgue lying on a slab.
He's been killed in an accident.
They thought their children were in bed, but
there those lads were, 14, 15 years old,
and they had met eternity.
Their days were numbered.
You don't know what your days may be
numbered.
God has given you so many years.
God has given you so much time numbered.
Let me ask you tonight, how many days
do you have to live?
How many days are you sure of here?
Your days are numbered.
But not only that, he says, Kiko, thou
art weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Thou art weighed in the balances.
Yes, my friend, there isn't a single one
of us tonight that hasn't been weighed in
God's balances.
If God was to put you on one
side of the balance, and he was to
take his commandments one by one, and he
was to put them in the other side
of the balance, I wonder, my friend, how
you would stand if he was to take
that very first commandment, Thou shalt have no
other God before me.
And he was to put that in the
balance.
How would you weigh?
How would you measure up with that commandment?
Have you loved the Lord your God with
all your heart, with all your mind, with
all your soul, with all your strength?
We were preaching in Kansas City one time.
We were preaching on the Ten Commandments.
And as a woman went out, she says
to all tonight, for the first time I
found out that a little white lie is
just as black as the blackest lie that
a person can tell.
God says, Thou shalt not bear false witness.
My friend, if God was to put that
in the balance and put you in with
that commandment, let me ask you, how would
you measure up to that commandment?
Can you say I've never lied?
Can you say I've never told a little
white lie?
Can you say, well, I've never, as it
were, just held back the truth just to
deceive somebody?
My friend, thou art weighed in the balances.
Every one of us who are in this
meeting tonight, the preacher included, have been weighed
in God's balances and were found wanting.
And that's why, my friends, we need the
Savior.
That's why the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world.
And that's why the Lord Jesus died on
that cross.
Oh, how thankful we are for the Gospel.
How thankful we are for the Good News
that although we have sinned and although we're
weighed in the balances and found wanting, and
if God was to divide us in our
sins, if we were to die in our
sins, because, my friends, that's what death is.
What is death?
You know what death is?
Death is division.
Death is not ceasing to exist.
You know what death is?
Death is dividing the spiritual part of man
from the physical.
Death is simply the leaving of the spiritual
part of you, the real you from that
body in which you live.
That's what death is.
Death is a division.
It's a division between the real you and
the body that you're living in.
And if that was to take place tonight,
where would you be?
Would you be with Christ?
Would you be in heaven?
Because Jesus died for you?
And because Jesus took your place on the
cross?
And because you have personally accepted Him as
your own personal Savior?
Because, my friend, if you don't accept Him,
there's going to be a division.
There's going to be a division in families.
Yes.
Christians at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ are going to be taken to be
with Him, and unsaved are going to be
left behind.
And if you're not saved in this meeting
tonight, and the Lord Jesus should come, there'd
be a division.
Those who are Christians in your loved ones
would be taken to be with Christ, and
you'd be left behind to go into this
awful time of tribulation, this awful time of
the end.
And then there's going to be a more
awful division.
You know what that is?
When people are going to be sent into
the lake of fire.
And the Bible says this is the second
death.
They're going to be divided.
They're going to be separated from all that
is good, all that is of God, all
that is of blessing forever and ever to
be alone for all eternity.
Mene, mene, numbered, numbered, your days are numbered,
your kingdom is numbered.
Ketho, your weight and the balances in your
found wanting.
You've been tested.
You've been tried.
You've been found wanting.
Having had us divided, there's going to come
a division.
This crowd tonight is divided.
It's divided between those who are saved and
those who are lost.
You know, some years ago I visited the
home of a maiden lady with another brother
that I was preaching with.
It was in Waterloo.
It was the sister of our brother Oliver
Smith.
And as we were down in the room
there downstairs, she says, you know, right here
is where I found out I was lost
and I needed the Savior.
She says, I want you to come upstairs
with me.
And so she took us upstairs and she
took us into another room.
She says, right here is where I trusted
Christ as my Savior and I was saved.
Downstairs is where I was lost and she
says, right up here is where I trusted
Christ as my Savior and I was saved.
Well, I says, you know, that reminds me
of the young fellow that I talked to
one time.
And we were looking at John 3.36.
It says, He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life.
And he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him.
And I says, in which of those two
classes are you?
Are you in the upper class?
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life?
Or are you in the bottom class?
He that believeth not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him.
Well, he says, I'm in the bottom class.
I says, do you want to stay there?
He says, no, I don't.
I says, how are you going to get
out of that class?
He says, I'm going to get into the
top class.
I'm going to believe.
I'll believe on Him right now and right
then and there.
That young man believed on Christ and he
was in the top class.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life.
He that believeth not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him.
Which of those two classes are you in?
Are you still in the bottom class?
Or are you in the upper class?
Are you a believer?
Or are you an unbeliever?
Where?
If the division took place tonight, if Christ
came tonight, would you be taken or would
you be left to go into this awful
period of tribulation?
Because my friends, just as in Babylon fell
that night, just so religious Babylon is going
to fall in that tribulation period.
Religious Babylon, which is going to come into
existence after the Lord Jesus takes His true
church to be with Him.
And we know how religious Babylon has mixed
the sacred things of the gospel with the
unholy things of heathenism and the world and
they've mixed them up together and given people
a false peace, a false security, which is
going to end in the judgment of God.
Oh friend, where do you stand tonight?
Thou art weighed in the balances.
Thou art found wanting.
If you would be saved, why not?
Brother Cal, will you close the prayer please?
We thank Thee
for this faith and
to Thee we thank Thee for the flesh.
He that believeth, believeth not the Son, shall
not see life.
May these truths burn into the hearts of
everyone.
May we who have accepted Christ so much
years and years ago, may we appreciate more
and more the fact that we've been delivered
from the wrath to come and may it
be an incentive in our lives to tell
others about this, that they too may have
this great salvation which is free and which
they too can have and enjoy upon the
meeting as we close.
And for all of this we shall be
careful to give Thee all the praise of
the Lord and give Himself to Thee.