Address—Bruce Anstey
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Let's begin by singing #294.
294 Oh come thou stricken Lamb of God, who sheds for us thine own lifeblood, and teaches all thy love, then pain in life were sweet and deaf.
Were gained 294.
It's been a while.
Beforehand, grandparents were in the air.
Mountains. Are there anything exclusions anywhere that's a blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah?
Blah down there and by my voice followed by.
A little highlight and snakes. I don't know I'm busy with Your name, please.
And umm.
The rest of the rest of our gods and men and they'd be surprised, Pride and cry.
Together, I don't know what to do. And then I'm like, whatever, it's a lot of like, umm.
And outside changing and sunlight problem.
Really. I haven't heard a reply all the time.
Let's give thanks now and ask the Lord's help our God and our Father. We thank before this prayer Him and trust that it is the expression of our hearts, every one of us, that we would have the Lord Jesus as the one who would take our hearts and let them be closed through all but Thee. And we just pray that that would work in our souls this day this afternoon, to create exercise.
With regard to the path of faith, the Lord Jesus, Thou hast redeemed us, and we own this. And we pray that thy claims over us would be felt in such a way that we would want to honor thee in our lives. In every way, we pray for the young people, especially this afternoon, and ask our Father that they may hear things that would touch their hearts and motivate them to want to live for thee. And pray our God and our Father that as thy word is open, that thou would grant liberty by the Spirit of God to make the applications from Scripture for our lives.
And we pray above all our Father that the Lord Jesus would be before us and all of his glory, and that everything that we do, the motive would be.
For him. So we commit this time to thee, and we just thank you for the opportunity to open thy word. We ask thy help now and give thee our thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Let's open up to first Peter Chapter 5 for an introductory verse.
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First Peter, Chapter 5.
And uh.
Verse 8.
Be sober. Be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
We hardly need this exhortation because we're fully aware that we are in a spiritual conflict.
In this world and we have an enemy, the devil, who is seeking to.
Devour us in the sense that he mentions here, and to spoil our Christian lives so that we are.
Not effective in this world as a witness for the Lord Jesus.
And this is an exhortation for all the people of God. This message this afternoon is directed particularly toward the young. But I believe that the comments that we will make and the applications from Scripture and so on are broad enough for all of us. And so it's not just the young that have to be careful with regard to this enemy. And we've had it mentioned in our meetings that the Christian really has three enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil, an infernal enemy, an internal enemy, and a.
An outward enemy?
And umm, they work together. But my point in reading this and introduction is that, uh, we need to realize that this enemy is at work and he wants to devour us in the sense that's mentioned here. Now this is not referring to the loss of our salvation or anything like that because scripture does not support such an idea. But the word devour here is only used one other place in the New Testament I believe, and that's in Second Corinthians chapter 2.
Where it speaks there about a person being swallowed up with over much sorrow. Swallowed up is the idea of being devoured. And uh, I believe that the enemy is at work today to take not only the young but all the children of God if possible, and get them swallowed up in his system, in this world so that their lives amount to no spiritual good. And so we have to realize that this is what the enemy is up to. He wants to swallow us up in his system of things so that we're so taken up with.
Uh, this world's entertainment, this world's, uh, politics and uh, arts and whatever else it may be so that our lives are really rendered useless for the Kingdom of God and as the the devil is spoken of in the scripture, God of this world and also the Prince of this world. And there's two different aspects of his work as the as the Prince of this world, he's the head of a secular system. And uh.
Behind everything he is at work, and, as he is called, the God of this world as well, and there he is the head of its religious system.
And whatever it may be that is an interest to us, or where we may have a hankering in our souls, this enemy is at work and would delight to distract us and to swallow us up in His system. Now we're told from Second Corinthians chapter 2 as well that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices, that is the apostles and God has given to us in His word certain principles and warnings and exposures of this enemy.
And so that we are not ignorant of his devices, that we're fully aware of what he's up to and what he's trying to do with the young as well as the old. And I would like to look into a passage in the Old Testament that really discloses the the attempts of the enemy to to derail us and to swallow us up in his system. And I just think it's incredible that God would take time in His word to really unveil really the.
Motives that are behind the enemy of our souls, and to make it very clear to us exactly what he's up to.
So that we have to not we have no surprise as to what his line of attack is.
You know, years ago when Mr. Hayhoe was still alive, him and his wife Pearl had. We had the opportunity of having them in our home for a meal. And when we he got into the home, it wasn't very long and he spotted something on the counter that we had and that was a chess game with all the pieces set up. And he told us a very interesting story that I'd like to repeat to you. He said either when he was in Europe or he knew of this in Europe and one of the towns in Europe, there was this huge mural drawn on the wall.
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Of the city. And it was quite a famous mural. People from all around knew about it. They had been there for many, many years. And so they just passed right by it because everybody in town knew that mural. And on that mural was a painting of a chess game.
And on one side of the board there was a young man and on the other side of the board.
There was the artist's conception of the devil. You know what I'm talking about. People have their conceptions of what the devil is. I'm not saying the Bible teaches that, But this beast with this Longhorns and the and this red garment and a fork and all this, anyway, he was there on the other side of the board, and the pieces were arranged in such a way. On the board, Mr. Hale told us that it was seemingly impossible for the young man to get away. He was just a few moves from being checkmated. And if you looked at the board, you see there's just If you went this way, the devil would get him. If you went this way, the devil would get him. He went this way, The devil would get him. He was it was all but nigh done for.
And I.
He mentioned how that that's the way things are in this world very often with regard to the young, they have an incredible you young people have an incredible, uh, challenge in your life to live for God and God's principles, because the power of the devil seems to be more fervent than ever. And if you don't have the principles of God's word, you're going to be like that young man on that mural. You are going to be in a losing position and the devil is going to get the victory in your life so that you'll be swallowed up.
Into his system and you will be given to just promoting his cause in this world and it will be a very unhappy and unsatisfying and unrewarding life. And there are many Christians that have been swallowed up in this sense and that's why we have this warning here anyway. Mr. Hayhoe said that what happened was that there was a Grand Master chess player that came to town one day and he was fascinated by this huge mural that was on the wall.
In the city. And he stood for the longest time, and Justice gazed at it, and he looked at it, and he looked at it and he looked at it.
And finally, he declared, I have a way to deliver that young man and he knew certain moves because he was a master at the game. How he could divert the enemy's attack and get that young man free.
And he was told in the in the city, and apparently it was even published in one of their local papers, the various moves that could be done to get that young man out of that problem.
And he likened it unto the way in which the Lord, who is superior to our enemy for greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He knows the tactics of the enemy, and he has a way to defeat all of the ruses of the enemy of our souls.
And he's written him down too in this book that we're going to read this afternoon. And he is disclosed to us the various attempts of the enemy and his attacks whereby we can be delivered from his attempt.
To swallow us up in his system. And so we're thankful to God, aren't we, when we think of all that He's given to us?
This book that tells us all of our blessings and everything. It also warns us in the pathway.
And tells us exactly what the enemy is up to. And so I'd like to turn to a passage in the Old Testament by way of type.
And just see how that God has done that very thing disclosed to us.
The enemy's attempts and what we need to be careful of and weary of if we're going to be preserved in the pathway. Let's turn to the first chapter of Daniel.
This chapter is to do with the king of Nebuchadnezzar, and I don't have time, but I would like to take time to look at a number of enemy old Old Testament enemies of the Children of Israel, for many of them are types of the devil himself.
And to see what those enemies were up to are a mere image of what the devil our enemy is up to.
But we don't have time this afternoon to look at the mall. But we could see the King of Egypt, for instance, or the King of Sodom.
The King of Syria I've chosen for this afternoon. The King of Babylon. And I want to read just a few verses here in the first chapter and make some very.
Uh, needed applications, I believe. Uh for our souls. Let's read chapter one, verse one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.
Unto Jerusalem and beseeched it, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim the king of Judah.
Into his hands with part of the vessels of the House of God, which he carried unto the land of Shinar, in the House of his God.
And he brought the vessels into the House of God of his the treasure House of his God.
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And the king spake unto espionage the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel.
And of the King's seed, and of the Princess.
Children, I should read, youths in whom was number, blemish, but well favored, skillful in all wisdom and cunning, and knowledge and understanding science, and such as had the ability in them to stand in the King's palace, and whom they might teach their learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the King's meat, and of the wine which he drank. So he nourished them three years.
And at the end thereof that they might stand before the king. Now among these were the children of Judah.
Daniel, Hananiah, Meshel, and Azariah, and unto whom the king of the eunuchs gave names, for which he gave to Daniel the name Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah Shadrach, and to Michel Meshach, and unto Azariah Abednego.
We'll stop there.
Here we have an enemy of the children of Israel, and I believe that if we understand the typical teaching of this chapter, we'll see exactly what this enemy was up to. And as I said already, he's a mirror image of really what the enemy of our souls is up to, and it's very instructive for us. There are some six things I'd like to point out here that the king of Nebuchadnezzar did to the children of Israel, and that what he's trying to do with the use of the Lord's people today. Now notice the first thing that is mentioned in verses one and two.
And that is that the king of Nebuchadnezzar came up into the land of Israel and he deported God's people.
To another land altogether, the land of the Chaldeans. And uh, what actually happened was he took them away from their inheritance that God had given them in the land of Canaan and took them far away to the land of Babylon where they were deported and deposited. And I believe this is a little picture for us of what the enemy of our souls is trying to do, just as this enemy here took the children of Israel away from their God-given inheritance.
The enemy of our souls is trying to take us away from the enjoyment of our inheritance.
You see, the land that flowed with milk and honey that God had given to them was God's portion.
And the inheritance for God's people. But where they were now taken away by the king of Babylon, they could no longer enjoy that.
They were in a position and in a state where they could not enjoy the milk and honey that flowed in that land.
And that's the very first thing that I believe that the enemy is trying to do in our lives, and that is to take us away from the enjoyment of our portion in Christ. If he can get us away from enjoying our portion in Christ, the other things that he's going to introduce in this chapter will will be relatively easy to pull over on God's people. And so it's a sad thing indeed, but this is what the enemy is trying to do, take us away from the enjoyment.
Of our portion in Christ, you know it says in first Peter chapter one that we have an inheritance in the reserved in heaven for you or could be translated a portion. And it's also mentioned in Colossians one and also in Acts I think 26 each time it calls it a portion or it could be translated in inheritance that we have. It's a spiritual inheritance of heavenly things that are ours and God wants us to live in the enjoyment of those heavenly things while we're here now.
And he's made every provision for us that we can by giving us the Spirit of God and the Word of God.
And the Spirit of God would delight to take of the things of Christ and to show them unto us, and to fill our hearts with the enjoyment of those things. But there's an enemy on the other hand, that is trying to spoil our enjoyment of our portion in Christ. Now isn't this interesting that the place that he took them to was called the land of Shinar? Do you know what the land what Shinar means? Shinar means casting off or to cast off.
And it reminds me of that verse that we have in Proverbs 29 that tells us that.
Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint, and this enemy of ours wants us to cast off all restraint that there is.
In the word of God and in our households and families and the Assembly.
And just to do our own will and independence of God.
And this land of Shinar was named that. I suspect it was named that probably because that was the character of things in that place, just casting off restraints. And so the enemy would like to encourage us to let go of the the moral laws and principles and standards that we have grown up with and get us to think outside the box, so to speak. And by by doing that, it will lead to the casting off of divine principles.
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How careful we have to be.
Not allowed this kind of thinking.
To sweep over us, you know, Daniel.
We'll find a little later here he stands against us. But right now we find that the book does not begin with Daniel. It begins with the operations of this king and what he was up to. We'll see in Daniel Howard to respond to it, and we'll look at a few principles there. So the first thing there is that he deported them from their land and that took them away from their land that flowed with milk and honey. The second thing you find that he did. Well, that's a change. There's a number of changes that I'm going to point out here first, if you change their location.
Next thing we find here is he changed their young men into eunuchs.
He changed their young men into eunuchs. Verse three says in the king spake unto Ashpen, as the master of the eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel who were under his hand the King's seed and Princess, and so on. And if you read in Isaiah 39, I think it's one of the last verses of that chapter, you'll find that when the king of Babylon came up, Isaiah was prophesied that he would make all of the King's seed and the children of Judah, the young man who would make them into eunuchs. And so we know that that's what happened here.
He changed the young men.
Into eunuch in Babylon. Now the thought of a eunuch in scripture is that one who is not able to procreate and he's not productive. And that's what the enemy would like to do in our lives too, is to make us unproductive in the Kingdom of God, to make us so that we are not of any spiritual benefit or profit because we have been swallowed up in the ways and system of our enemy, the devil.
And so we find here that he made them Unix in the.
Kingdom of Babylon. I don't have to tell you that. You should know very well dear young people, especially the young men who can be used of God to be a help in the assembly. That there is an enemy that wants to make you a big fat zero, to make you ineffective, to make you a eunuch so that you are not productive in the assembly.
God wants you to be productive. The New Testament bounds with verses that tell us that God would have us to be overflowing and being fruitful in every good work and so on. I could turn you to them if we wanted, but it would take too much time. Suffice it to be said that God wants us to be fruitful in our Christian lives, but the enemy, on the other hand, wants to make us unfruitful and unproductive in the things of God. Of course, you can understand the enemy's tactic here.
He didn't want the children of Israel to rise up and have a king and anoint him king and maybe have an insurrection in Babylon, so he made sure that they're all royal seed was taken out of Commission.
And the idea of the royal seat is ones who have leadership qualities, ones who are able to to to lead or have some capacity to umm, stand up and be counted and and lead some of God's people particularly that is the person that the enemy would like to render useless in his Kingdom. Now let's look at another point. Here we find that not only did he change the young men into eunuchs, but he changed the purpose of their existence.
Because it says here that he took those ones who had ability in science and in knowledge and so on.
And he wanted them to be fitted to his system so that they could stand in the palace of Babylon and promote its cause. Now that's not at all what God had given for his people, Israel.
That was in God's purpose. If we turn back to Isaiah 43 and verse 10, I think it is.
21 verse 21 It says, This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise. That's what Jehovah formed the children of Israel for. That's what he called them for, and that's what he redeemed them for, that they may be vessels to show forth his praise. And it's just the same for us. God has picked us up and saved us, because he wants to use this to transmit his glory to this world and to demonstrate Christ before this world. And but this enemy, he had a completely different program for them. He wanted them to get involved with his school there in Babylon, and he wanted them to.
To the end that they would stand in the King's palace and promote the cause of Babylon in this world. And I can tell you that the devil, the enemy of our souls, wants us to build up this system, get so wrapped up in it, and get so involved with the various things in life, that we may further the cause of things in this world. But the things of God are left undone. And so it tells us here in this fourth verse that.
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It was particularly the ones who were skillful and wisdom and knowledge and ability that he particularly wanted to master the eunuchs, to separate and to put them through this system whereby they would be fitted for the cause of promoting Babylon. And I believe that if you have wisdom, or at least an understanding and knowledge, you're a smart person, you're good looking, you've got some some ability in life, you're the one that the enemy is particularly targeting. And I can see a lot of nice good looking young persons here in this room this afternoon.
You have a target on your back. Satan has designs on your life. He wants to take you and form you and mold you to his system so that in the end the net result is that you are pretty much useless in the assembly. And it says here that he was he was going to put them through three years of this and it just shows us that the enemy is fully understand that it takes time to fully corrupt the people of God. A little bit here, a little bit there, until finally we are thoroughly indoctrinated with the ways and principles of this world.
How this just tears the cover off of Satan's ways.
When we look at this in this typical significance, it's amazing to me.
Well, there's more than that. We find that not only did he change the purpose of their existence, but he wanted to change their language. See, it says there that he would teach them the uh, the learning of the tongue of the Calibans, the Chaldeans.
He didn't want them speaking the Jews language Hebrew.
In Babylon, because that would have.
Been counterproductive and would have kept them together by themselves. We see that when communities from Europe move over here or from Asia, that uh, if they don't learn the language, the English language. What happens is it has a tendency of keeping them together in a community by themselves. But this enemy didn't want that at all. He wanted to fully integrate them into the system of Babylon. And so he didn't want them speaking that language anymore. He wanted them to learn the tongue of the Chaldeans so that they would speak like the Chaldeans and so they would be.
Further integrated into the Babylonian society.
And I believe that the enemy of our souls wants to do the very same thing. He wants us to talk like the world. Not just think like the world, but to talk like the world. And to have that same disrespect And to be cool, You know, to speak rough and tough and all this kind of thing and use the world's phraseology and slang and all the rest of it, so that we don't stand out as being different from the people of this world. And this chapter is quite good for us at this time of year, because I know many of you young people are going back to school and to college.
And this is a little picture of the children of Israel being at school in this place called Babylon.
And we need to have the exercises that Daniel and his three friends had, that we might be preserved from the uh inroads of the enemy and his tactics and ruses.
And so I feel for you young people as you go back. There is such a thing as peer pressure. We all know about it.
And the enemy of our souls wants to apply the pressure so that we conform to the system.
And he wants us to speak like the people of this world and use all their phraseology and so on, so that we fit in and we feel like we belong. And it's not wrong to want to belong, but with whom do we want to belong? There should not be, of course, those who are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. So we changed their language. Not only that, he changed their diet.
He changed their diet. Verse five tells us that he wanted them to eat the things of the Babylonians we're eating and how. Uh.
Much this speaks to us of what the enemy of our souls is trying to do to get us to feed on the same things that the people of this world feed on.
The King's meat and a portion of the wine, I believe it says.
The things that sustain this world socially and so on. The enemy of our souls wants us to be feeding on that. And you know, with all of the advances in technology and so on, we're just bombarded with all these devices whereby they have their, if they're in, held in unconsecrated hands, they have their way of just bringing the world right into our souls. I mean, you can feed on the things of this world, whether it's just music and it's entertainment.
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You think of all the DVD's in the iPods and the things that they have today that we didn't know anything about when we were younger. All of those things, if they're held an unconsecrated hands.
Can be used as the enemy to defile your soul. And that's exactly what the enemy wants you to do. He wants you to feed on it from morning to night.
And the net result will be that you'll become spiritually weak and it'll break down your constitution spiritually, so that you'll have no spiritual energy or power or even will or desire to do the things of God. Is that what you want for your life? Is that what I want? Surely not. Well, we have to be careful then what we eat. So they wanted to change their diet. Lastly, he changed their names. Change their names.
Why would you want to change the names of these children of Israel? It was because he wanted to hide their identity.
If he walked around, uh.
Babylon with the names of, you know, Daniel and Hananiah and Michelle. These were Jewish names that made a person.
Immediately identified that they were Jews. But this enemy did not want them to be identified in that way. He wanted to hide their identity, so he wanted them to have a different name, and he gave them different names so that they would fit in with all the rest Just.
And go along with it.
And I believe that the enemy of our souls wants us to fit in with the people that we rub shoulders with, whether it's at school or whether it's at work, so that we don't look like Christians. We don't stand out as being different. He wants us to be closeted Christians, if I could use that terminology. Secret disciples like Joseph of Arimathea, so that nobody knows that we are Christian and that's what the enemy is up to. He wants us to keep our mouths shut and not identify ourselves.
As belonging to the Lord Jesus. And so the idea of changing the name was to to, uh, to hide the identity of these dear children of God. So I think here in these six things we have really a real disclosure, a real expose of what the enemy of our souls is trying to do in his attempt to devour us or to swallow us up in his system. We have no there's nothing that should surprise us, really.
When we have the book open the word of God because we're not ignorant of his devices if we.
Read these things and to meditate on them. God has fully shown to us what He has in mind. Now what you have in Daniel and his three friends, of course, is a an exercise that we all should have. We all need to have an exercise like Daniel that made him to be a man of God, and he is a true overcomer in the day when things were being overcome. And in one sense, we're all we're either an overcomer or we're among the overcomers. We're either overcomers or we're overcomes.
We're either rising above the norm of the day because there's some exercise, or we are.
Compromising in some way.
I want to point out four or five things here that Daniel did that gave him to have the courage to stand up against this that we need in our lives.
But before I do, I'd just like to mention.
That Daniel, he had a choice to make, and we do too. He could have compromised and he wouldn't have been criticized by his brethren because the mass of them had given in to the king of Babylon and said it's no use where conquered people. We might as well just go along with it. And after all, Jeremiah prophesied in his 29th chapter of Jeremiah that when you're taken away by captive by your captures into that city, seek the peace of the city and.
Don't rock the boat. You can read about it in Jeremiah 29. He told them that when you get carried away and your enemies take you away, seek the peace of the city. And you could very easily interpret that as let's not rock the boat. If the king wants us to do this, let's just go along with it. After all, the prophet told us to do that, and so Daniel, he could have opted and taken that road of compromise if he wanted to and he wouldn't have been criticized, I don't believe, by the mass of his brethren.
Because after all, they were doing it.
But Daniel wouldn't do that. He could have taken another angle of compromise, and that is, uh, in the book of Deuteronomy, it tells us that when thou comest into the land, I don't know how many times it talks about the land. The 11Th chapter alone, there's something like 25 times it mentions in the land, in the land. And the book for Deuteronomy, as you all know, is instruction for the children of Israel when they come into the land.
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And it tells us many things they were to do. One of them is about the food list that they were, their dietary laws and so on is chapter 14 in Deuteronomy, I believe.
And Daniel could have very easily said well.
It's true that we as Jews have all these laws and customs that we are to follow, but it says in Deuteronomy that thou shalt do that when thou comest into thy land, that we are not in our land anymore. Therefore it doesn't apply and we should just not go in with those things. Let's just go along with what the these Babylonians want us to do, and you'd be hard pressed to find criticism with that kind of argument.
And such it is. I believe that God does test us with regard to whether we want to please the Lord. And there are many reasoning mind. We all have reasoning minds, but they're very plausible arguments that can be brought forward that we should go along with things of this day. After all, we don't live in the days of the apostles, and we don't live in the days of the Brethren from a century or two ago, And that we have to make our living in this day of 2008, and therefore there should be some.
Way of of interpreting scripture that it would allow us to make a way through life. You know, God allows us to be tested in these things.
And we can take these options as well.
I don't believe it's right, but I'm just saying that such are the ways of our hearts, and there are many who will teach us that it uh, we need to go along with things as they are in this world, because of where we are and when we've been called to live. But Daniel would have none of it. It says in verse 8, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile or pollute himself with a portion of the King's meat, nor with the wine that he drank.
And therefore he requested with the kings the eunuch, the Prince of the eunuch, that he might not defile himself. He had an exercise. This is the first thing.
He had an exercise to keep himself separate.
From the corruptions in Babylon, and it came from his heart.
He purposed in his heart. Daniel had a heart to want to please the Lord, and it resulted in him trying to keep himself separate.
From all those corruptions that were in Babylon, he probably full well knew of the arguments that were out there that were compromised.
As I've mentioned to you, but he would have none of it. He wanted to keep himself separate from it for the sake of the Lord. And I think it think it's beautiful that he had such an exercise. And I believe that we're going to be an overcomer. This is where it begins.
Daniel was a separated man and it made him a holy man and will find that it will end up making him a useful man.
In a time when God would need a man in those situations in Babylon.
And so I I just want to say to you young people that this is a good place to have an exercise before the Lord from your heart that you want to please the Lord. And it would be in simply, you know, you're young, you may not feel you can do that much as far as service and preaching and so on, but this is something you can do. You can keep yourself separate from the things of this world and keep thyself pure, as Paul told Timothy. And that's something that's of a great value with the Lord. He values that, those kinds of exercises. And we find here that that's why the book of Daniel, or at least one of the reasons why the book of Daniel has been recorded.
Because God saw this man and he was going to use him.
And I'd like to say to your young brothers particularly and sisters as well, that God wants to use you today. There's a tremendous need among the people of God and uh, it's going to need for you to start with this particular exercise of uh.
Not defiling yourself with the King's meat in the next series of verses in the chapter. I won't read it.
You get the the thoughts here that umm.
He influenced three other men, for it does not tell us that they had this original exercise, but when they saw him standing up and desiring to keep himself separate, that they were influenced by it, and it says that they wanted to do it as well. And his three friends as we know, verse 11, they became his companion.
And I believe that if we have the strength of our courage to stand, the courage to strength to stand for our convictions that we have.
That God will use us to influence other persons and uh it will get easier because God will provide others to to walk within the pathway. And then we find all a little bit later in the chapter that uh, God rewarded this exercise that they had and he gave them a prosperity in their health.
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Tells us that they were fairer and fatter than all the others that were there, and they prospered in their health. And this is a type of if we walk in separation, we are going to, and we feed on the things of God, things of Christ, that we're going to prosper in our souls spiritually. No, it doesn't mean that you're going to be healthy like this prosperity doctrine of Brother, I replied was telling us about no, I'm speaking from this chapter for its typical significance.
And how that they are seen here as being.
In in good physical health is a little picture of being in a good spiritual state and healthy. And so this is what we see results from them feeding on the things that were given for the people of God see the pulse or the kind of like a porridge I guess of greens mixed up and that's what they fed on. Well, that was something that the children of Israel were supposed to eat, you know, but the King's meat that had been defiled by.
Its connection with idols and the mixture of things that they were not allowed to eat, they refused.
Now let's look at another point here in chapter 2, verse 17 and 18.
And Daniel went into his house and made the thing known to Hananiah and to Michel and Azariah. His companions noticed that his companions. I want to emphasize this, that they would desire the mercies of God from heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows, known as Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the men in Babylon. Well, what happened in the second chapter is there was a crisis in the Kingdom. The king had a dream, and he forgot it. And he wanted not only the wise men in Babylon to not only to interpret the dream, but they they had to come up with and find what he forgot.
So they had to know what the dream was about and also give an interpretation. And the threat was out that if they didn't, they were going to be all killed. And Daniel and his friends were going to be lumped in that group and they were going to be killed. And so there was a crisis in the Kingdom, and we find that Daniel resorts to his house with his three friends and they pray together and they seek the face of God. And God gave them the answer. But my point here is simply this. Daniel had good companions. He had good.
Friendship. It says here his companions verse 17, his fellows verse 18. And this is another thing that I believe that gave Daniel to be an overcomer in that day. Not only did he have an exercise to be separate from the defilements that there were in Babylon, but he sought out and good companionship and they were a help to him in a number of different ways. And let's just say that if you want to be an overcomer, that's another essential thing that you need.
Good companions, you know, It says in Uh, let's see, it's Psalm 119. It says I am a companion of all them that fear thee and keep thy precepts. That tells us what kind of companions we need to have.
Them that fear thee as they have a fear of the Lord in their lives, but also that them that keep thy precepts. You see, a precept is something is the very smallest detail in the law, and here there are fastidious and wanting to keep it. So they're really zealous about not only fearing the Lord, and the first fear of the Lord is to depart from evil, we're told from Proverbs. But the second is that they were fastidious in their desire to keep the word of God and to obey the word of God, even right down to the smallest details and precepts.
That was the kind of companion that is the kind of companions that the psalmist had. And it's the kind of companions that we need to have. We need to surround ourselves with godly individuals that will be like an insulation from the world. It's for encouragement, for preservation times of of of of support and trial and discouragement. Our friends can be a tremendous help for us. I think of David's men. I don't want to turn over there because it would take too much time. But in First Samuel, I think it's 25 and it's a story about naval.
You'll find there that David's young men, they were like a wall to Nabel's young men out in the field while they were shearing their sheep. And they came back and reported that to Abigail, their mistress. And they said that all the while that David's men were with us, they were like a wall unto us from the the dangers in the desert. Because, you see, when they're shearing sheep, that's the time when all the robberies go on, because the desert bands and so on would come in.
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Wait for the shepherds to shear all the sheep and scoop it up and go. And all the while they were carrying on this way these young men of David were like a a wall of protection for nables, men, young men. And they reported that. And I like to think of that, you know, is that we can be a wall of protection to our dear fellow friends and companions. Maybe there is a weak moment and they get discouraged and think about doing something worldly or something they know that is not right or is questionable. We can be right there to be a help, and they can be there a help to us.
As I look back in my Christian life, I can be thankful.
For young brothers that were my age that we could be an encouragement to one another.
You need good companions. There's no such thing in Christianity as being an island Christian. You know what I mean? Guy off on by by himself on an island, you know, on an island is sitting out there by itself, not attached to any piece of land. Heinz Brinkman used to tell us there's no Robinson Crusoe Christians in in the Bible. God doesn't want us to be off by ourselves. No Christianity is to do with a community of fellowship, and there's tremendous things that we can benefit by being in the fellowship.
Of God's people. And so even amongst the young people, think about that. OK, let me look at another point here as we pass on.
Yet an exercise to keep themselves separate from the pollutions. In Babylon, he was a man that sought out good companions. And then we turn over to Chapter 6. Here you'll find that.
He was a man of prayer.
Chapter 6 and verse 10. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went to his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled down on his knees and three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did afore time. As Daniel was a praying man, he was a man that spent time in the presence of the Lord, and that's essential as well. You know, we don't have our link in prayer with the Lord. It's our line of communion with Him.
Everything is going to get out of sync. Even though we might want to stand on right principles and stand for right things, we need to have a living link of communion with the Lord, and it's a daily thing. I don't say you have to get together in your closet to pray three times a day, as he did, although it tells us in Psalm 55 that the Psalmist did the same thing. Maybe that's where Daniel learned it, but the idea is to spend time alone with the Lord every day. If you don't have a quiet time in your life where you spend time alone with the Lord today, there's something desperately missing in your Christian life.
You need to have a quiet time in your Christian life. It is absolutely essential and prayer is something that is being neglected in this day. Bible reading is being neglected too, but I think prayer is being more neglected than Bible reading.
It's the habit very often.
Of us to read a chapter in the morning, but we don't really spend much time praying. And prayer is something that is. Being more and more relegated to something is not important in the Christian world. And I can prove it to you because the churches across the land, as well as the gathered Saints, when it comes to the midweek meeting, when they have a prayer meeting, half the Saints don't show up or even less. I've gone past many, many churches driven on those nights and you see.
Are on the Lord's Day, and I'm not picking on any Christian group at all. In particular. I'm just saying you may have two or 300 people on Thursday morning to go to the worship hour or whatever they call it. But on Wednesday night, when they have a little prayer meeting and it says it on the board, so I know that's what they're doing. There's only five or six cars there, the pastor and his faithful few or whatever, and we can't point fingers at them. It's exactly the same among the gathered Saints.
Exactly the same.
Why? Well, our lives to say that. You don't need me to tell you why. Our lives are saying we don't really think it's that important.
It's one of those optional things. No, it's not. It's one of the four anchors, you know, in Acts Chapter 27, a little picture there of the ship that was going through the sea, you know, the Apostle Paul, you know the story, and eventually fell on rocks. It was all destroyed. Well, and when they got near the rocks, they got afraid. And what they did was that they, when they realized that they were going to hit the rocks to keep themselves away from the rocks, they threw out the four anchors, it says. And that kept them from moving and being.
Pushed by the currents into the rocks and they were preserved for a time.
And if you go back to the to the second chapter of that same book of the Acts, I believe that God gives us what those anchors really typify.
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And it says there in Acts 242, and they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers. There's four things that God gave to them right at the very beginning that we're like anchors that they needed to have in their lives. And now at the end you find that there was danger that they were falling upon the rocks. They threw up the anchors and that preserved them from getting into the rocks. We need those anchors in our Christian lives. Dear brethren, dear friend, young people, I know you've got school, work, and you got all kinds of responsibilities.
But if you have the faith to push those things aside for the hour and go to the prayer meeting, you're going to profit in your soul and the Lord is not going to let you down.
Well you know what happened in that story in Acts 27, they got a bright idea, it was a bad idea. But they got this idea that if they were going to get to land, what they should do is cut off the anchors and then thrust the ship into the shore. And it says it doesn't say in the King James Version, but if you read in Darby's it says they cut the anchors and they made their way towards shore. And you know what they did? They hit the rocks and the whole ship got smashed to pieces.
If we cut out the four anchors in our Christian life, we're headed for the rocks. We're headed for shipwreck. It's as simple as that. Perhaps you say, Well, that's true if we let go all four anchors, But you know, if you just let one you cut 1 anchor off. Maybe things would be OK. Maybe just the prayer meeting, You wouldn't cut off the breaking of bread. Or maybe just the prayer meeting. Well, we'll start to drift. We need to be at the meetings that are for.
Apostles, doctrine, fellowship, and breaking of bread and prayers. And we need all four anchors in our Christian life. And the illustration is right there in Acts 27. When they cut them off, they went into shipwreck. Well, we got a couple more minutes here. Let's look at another point, and that is in Chapter 9.
Verses one and two. It says In the first year Darius the son of Ahaziuris of the seed of the Medes, which made the king over the realm, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans. In the first year of his reign. I, Daniel understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in desolations in Jerusalem. This is interesting. We've learned from this that Daniel was not a man also he was not only a man of prayer.
He was a man who read the books of God's Word.
He says I understood by books and he mentions by name the prophet Jeremiah.
He was reading chapter 24 and 25. If you look at it, you'll find that God tells us there that there would be these 70 years of desolations more by the land with life according to its Sabbaths and so on. My point is this. Daniel was a student of Scripture. He was not only a praying man, but he was a student of Scripture. He poured over the writings of Jeremiah, which was Scripture, and he learned some very valuable things.
He learned that in this, after 70 years of desolations, there was going to be a grand rest of the.
There's going to be a recovery at least. And on the doors of Babylon, we're going to be open and there was going to be a return to their land. More than that, it's very interesting that the first year of Darius is 68 years into those 70 years. So he knew that in two years.
There was going to be a release from Babylon and so he became an enlightened man as a result of reading the word. Isn't that interesting because he was a separated man? It made him a holy person, a holy man.
His exercises and separation made him a holy man. His exercises with regard to good companions made him a happy man.
His, uh, prayer life made him a dependent man, but his being a student of scriptures made him an intelligent man, an enlightened man. He knew of what God was about to do and he could accord himself in regard to that. And so I just want to encourage you, you know, don't get the idea that reading the scriptures and being a student of scriptures is for the older brothers. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous.
Time to start studying the scriptures is when you're young and to get into the truth and to learn it and have Christ before your soul. He's the answer of really learning the truth and what pertains to his glory.
And there's many things that you can read to be a help, and God would like you to be an intelligent person here. One more thing I'd like to turn on to the end of the ninth chapter.
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I won't read it, just take time forsake of time. But the we find that the Lord reveals to him as he casts himself down before the Lord something what we call the 70 weeks of Daniel. And it says in this verse is here that at the end of the 70 weeks of Daniel all of God's purposes to bless Israel would be accomplished and the Kingdom will be set up and the Messiah would return and the temple of worship and so on would be again.
Reestablished and the anointing of the most holy and song would take place as they'd have a temple again.
And so this was fascinating to Daniel, and it gave him to be an energetic man in his service in Babylon, because what he had before him, and what this speaks to us of this point I now want to bring before you, is that he had God's glorious end before him.
He had God's glorious end before him, and it gave him energy to serve in view of that. And we need to have God's glorious end before our souls as well. Now, God's glorious end for the church is far different than for Israel. That's not the point. The principle of it is that we need to have our hearts set forward to God's end in view with regard to the calling and hopes and destiny of the church and what we have before us, that it's moments away. It's only a shout away, as they've often said, because the Lord is coming.
And when we think of that and put it in that perspective, it should give us to be energetic, uh, men and women of God at a time when there's such a need. And so I just see these various things that characterize Daniel that gave him to be an overcomer that we need in our life. So let us be exercised this afternoon by what we've read here with regard to Daniel the overcomer, and may it be so in our lives as well.
And so I just want to close your young people by just entreating you.
That you know very well that there's an enemy that's after your soul that wants to swallow you up in his system. You know that. And uh, there's only one way in which you're gonna be preserved and kept from it, not knowing it. That's not enough. We need to have a mirror image of the exercises that Daniel had and to cast ourselves on the Lord to keep us. And he'll use you too. There's so much to be done to to be to be done in the Kingdom of God while we wait. And he wants to use young people.
As well for further his cause in this world, Let's pray.
Our father will look up to thee. We thank thee for this exposure of the ways of the enemy of our souls by way of type and the movements and the uh plans of the king of Babylon on the children of Israel in that day. We thank thee for exposing it for us, and we thank you for the model that we have. And Daniel is the one whose faith we can follow. We pray for the young people that they would have these mirror image of these exercises of Daniel and they would prove a blessing and they would be a blessing our God.
So we connect them to the and thank you for this time together, and we thank you for their desire to be here, and we pray that they would profit from it. Our God.
We ask it all now in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.