This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.

Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

We are going to look at the book of Daniel today. Today, next week we are looking at the book of Daniel, just a few little highlights here and there. But the Bible says that Daniel was a prophet. Now you may not find that word in the book of Daniel, but where would you find where Daniel is a prophet? How do you know that Daniel is a prophet? What would you use? How would you prove that? Well, let me give you a clue.

Take your Bible and look they’re in the book of Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24, and you’ll notice there is a verse there that Jesus said, Jesus said, as He’s talking to His disciples about the end times, telling what’s going to happen in the future. So He says in verse 15, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the what? The prophet. So Jesus says Daniel was a prophet. That means he prophesied not only things that were going to happen soon there, but also what was going to happen in the future, 2500 years later.

because it’s already been 2000 years and about 500 to 600 years since he wrote the book of Daniel. So we have a prophecy. So the book of Daniel is not just about Daniel in the three Hebrew children. It’s about a lot of things called prophecy and it’s about the times of the Gentiles. When the Bible talks about the times of the Gentiles. It means the times when Israel is without a king. You realize how long it’s been since Israel has been without a king over the king of Israel.

And you’re talking about a long, long time ago after Jack and I, God says, no one of his line would ever set upon the throne of Israel. Well, that’s been a long time ago. Now Jesus came, but he was rejected, so he never got to rule. So if Jesus doesn’t come back, Israel is forever without a king. But I got news for you. He’s coming back and he is going to be the king. So that is going to take place.

Now when you study the book of Daniel, you got 12 wonderful chapters. The first chapter through the sixth chapter is, well, it’s historical. It’s what’s going on where he was and what was happening at that time. And then from chapter 7 to the end of the chapter of the book, well then you’re talking about prophetical. So there is historical half of the book and prophetical the last half of the book. So you have a nice little outline of the entire book.

Now the book of Daniel was written in Hebrew Aramaic. and so it’s something to keep in mind because from chapter 1 to chapter 2 and 3 and then jump over there to chapter 8 and so on. It’s chapter 7 verse 28. It’s talking about what was written in Hebrew and then after that it’s Aramaic kind of in between some of those chapters. When you talk about Hebrew, that was to the Jews. Aramaic, which was a type of a Chaldean language, which was a Babylon, but also Syria, which is a Syriac, but that’s for the Gentiles.

So the book is written in two different languages, Hebrew and also Aramaic. So you have the book laid out in 12 chapters, first six chapters is, you know, historical and prophetic. and in two different languages. And so it kind of breaks things down, and it’s a very interesting book, because when you study about Daniel, many believe that Daniel and the Hebrew children that came was really young teenagers. Many believe they were at least 20 and under, under 20 years of age.

Some believe 14, 15, 16, but it’s really just a guess. But we believe they were young because the Bible says, So look there in the book of Daniel in chapter one. Daniel in chapter one. These fellows did have a pretty good testimony and they were looked up on as very different individuals. You see, a king would often conquer but he would take the choice ones that he could, you know, train in his kingdom. them. And so these young boys, well they were top-notch, they were noble.

So you look there in what he says in verse 3, and the king spake unto Aspenes, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes. Children in whom was no blemish, well-favored, skillful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongues of the Chaldeans.

So this is what they were after, and then they wanted to train them for about three years, and then after that they would be able to stand before the king. King. So they had about three years as we often say, three years of Bible college, but there wasn’t Bible college. But three years to prepare them. But they also wanted them to eat the King’s meat. And so instead of trying to figure out, okay, what’s cling me and unclean? That would be an issue.

That would be a problem. So they decided we’ll eat nothing but vegetables. So they had a little contest going on there, but look what he says in verse 8, just so that you know ahead of time. But Daniel purposed in his heart he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor would the wine which he drank. Wherefore he requested of the prince of the unique that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the Unix and the Prince of the Unix said unto Daniel, I fear my Lord the King who hath appointed your meat and your drink.

For why should he see your faces worse like him than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me in danger my head to the King? He said, don’t you guys understand? You’ve got to eat to a certain food because it’ll make you look good. And then when you stand before the king, they will see your countenance and all in your flesh and see how you look. And you’re not going to look too good. And so, Daniel says, well, why don’t we do this?

Have a test just for 10 days. Now, some people take this seriously and think, well, you know, if I to eat nothing but vegetables. Would I be healthier than if I eat meat? So we have vegetarians and we have meat lovers. There’s one guy he shot a deer and was eating it. And this vegetarian came up and says, what are you doing? He says, I caught him eating your food. So you can have all kinds of interesting little things you know you can say about certain people.

But we’re not to condemn others who don’t have the same mind and don’t agree. Try to find out what’s good for your own body. And if you want to eat pork and have high you know blood pressure and cholesterol then go ahead. My stepdad, my stepdad, He’s a big man. He’s about 260, something like that. He ate all the grease he wanted. He ate… You know, a pork, all the bacon, fried it in grease, looking at the grease, and he would just eat all that stuff.

And he’d go to the doctor and his cholesterol, he never had to take anything cholesterol was now, never had high blood pressure. He’d ever bit of it. And some people hated him because they could look at it and their cholesterol goes straight up. Not everybody’s body is exactly the same. But you’ve got to find out what will help you to be healthy. But anyway, this is what they did. So he says in verse 11, Proth thy servants, I beseech thee ten days.

And let us give us pulse to eat, which means believe us beans or vegetables eat, and water to drink. So pretty simple little diet. And he says, and then you look at us in ten days. So maybe you want to go on a 10-day trial and just see what would happen. Well, in 10 days, something did happen. And it says there in verse 17, as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understand it in visions and in dreams and all those things.

So, and at the end in verse 18, at the end of the days that the king had said, he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them, and among them all was none found like Daniel, Hennania, Michelle, and Azariah, therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and in understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm and Daniel continued even until the first year of Kings are.

So there was a difference. There was a difference in their countenance and everything about them. You see up there in verse 15 where he makes a statement about what they ate and at the end of 10 days their countenances appeared fair and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat. So it made a difference in their countenance and how they looked and their flesh and all that. So maybe it’ll make you look better.

You watch everyone of y’all are gonna leave this morning and you say I’m not gonna touch another piece of meat and I want to see how nice I’ll look. Try it, I don’t care. The other night they had some food for little kids And it’s very difficult if you just ate nothing but vegetables to come to some of the things that we have Because they had pizza They had hot dogs And so it’s either I eat some of that or I’m gonna die So I enjoyed it anyway Take your Bible and look there in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 Hebrews chapter 11 You’ll notice that in Hebrews chapter 11 even though the name isn’t really mentioned there in the Hall of Faith chapter.

You would think of all these people. He would have been mentioned, but in Hebrews chapter 11 it does have a hint that you would assume this is who he’s talking about, verse 33, who through faiths of dude kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, and notice these words, stop the mouths of lions. Now there’s only one that we know that did that, and that was Daniel. And how did that happen with Daniel? Well, because he was thrown into the lion’s den.

And you ever been in the lion’s den? I haven’t. I’ve had a lion after me. The Bible says that the devil has a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour. So Satan is always after you. And you just can’t see him. A lion is on your trail and he’s trying to do you in. Take your Bible look in the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah in chapter 39, chapter 39.

You all just studied a little bit about Hezekiah not long ago, but in Isaiah, chapter 39, There’s a portion of the scripture that kind of continues after Hezekiah had, well, messed up. He was real sick, remember? And he wanted the Lord to give him some extension of life. So how many years more did he give him? And by now? 15 more years to live. And did he use those 15 years real wisely, not exactly. Now he did have another kid that became king after him, in Manasseh, but here you have Hezekiah and he had some visitors from some foreign country.

You know what foreign country that was? They came because they heard Hezekiah had been sick. Isn’t that wonderful that somebody cares so much that they would travel 800 miles one way because you were sick and they come to see how you’re doing. By the time they got there, how long you think it took? Say, two months later, hey, we heard you were sick. We thought we’d come and see how you’re doing. Well, he’s dead. We buried him a month and a half ago.

Not really, but so I’m going Isaiah wasn’t excited about these visitors that came. So he asked them the question, look there in verse 2, and His Achaia, because they had heard that he would have been sick, and His Achaia was glad of them and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious ointment and all the house of his army, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house.

Nor in all of his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. Wasn’t that wonderful of him to show how good God has been to him? How God has blessed them and let these enemies from a foreign country see everything they had. You think they might have got an idea? Come back and get it. So in verse 3, then came Isaiah the prophet, under King Hezekiah, said unto him, what said these men? From whence came they unto thee? Hezekiah said, they are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.

Then said, he, what have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, all that is in thine house have they seen. There is nothing among not treasures that I have not showed them. And then said, Isaiah the Hezekiah. Here the word of the Lord of hosts, Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this name shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, said the Lord.

And of thy sons, that shall issue from thee, which thou shall beget shall they take away and they shall be eunuchs and the palace of the king of Babylon.” That’s why they were made eunuchs. And he says, then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, good is the word of the Lord which Doth have spoken. He said, moreover, for there shall be peace and truth in my days. As long as everything is okay in my day, that’s after me. I’m not worried about it.

You know, that’s the way a lot of people are. And I’m concerned about what happens to the kids and the grandkids and he just told them what’s gonna happen because of what you did. Well, it’s a shame but that’s what goes on. Now, we often talk about these three Hebrew children, be shaked, you shake none of the bed we go. When I was talking to little kids and I’ll say, have you ever been afraid and I’m talking about it?

And then some people call it my shack, your shack in the bungalow. but it’s a Meshach Chadrach and Abednego, three individuals. But now here in the book of Daniel I want you to see what God says about this man a little bit about his character. Look what he says in verse 14 of chapter 2. There’s no way we can cover the whole book of Daniel in two Sunday’s few lessons. So we’re just hitting the highlights of the man. So in verse 14 then Daniel answered with counts on wisdom.

And he says to Aria, the captain of the Kingsguard, which was gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He answered and says to Aria the Kings captain, why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Aria made the thing known the dangle because the king was going to kill everybody who could not tell him the dream that he had. They said, tell us the dream and we’ll tell you what it means. He says, no, you tell me what I dreamed.

Then I’ll know that you got the interpretation right. Well, he saw through that. So he says here, give me some time. And he says that he would desire of the Lord. Now look in verse 19, then was the secret revealed under Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might or his. And he change the times and the seasons. He removed kings and seteth up kings.

He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that no understanding. He revealeth the deep and the secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness and light dwelleth with him. So the Bible is telling us, look what Daniel thought about God. And then maybe you’ll understand why God thought about Daniel and God used them in a great way and he allowed these different people to have visions. Then they’d have to go to Daniel to find out what it meant.

And in all these cases, it kept elevating Daniel in the kingdom. And next thing you know, he got to be ruler over and over again and keep places, keep positions. So he was moving right along doing a real good job. Now notice what he says here. I want you to look there in Daniel, chapter 6. Daniel chapter 6. This is the one that we have over there in the book of Daniel in chapter 11 verse 33 when he talks about stop the mouths of lions and this is where this story comes from in Daniel chapter 6.

Now is it possible for people in place of leadership to pass laws for the specific purpose of taking down God’s children because they wanted this law to be passed where you couldn’t pray to anybody unless you prayed to the king. Well Daniel wouldn’t pray to no king. So if he didn’t pray to the king then he would be thrown into the lion’s den. So you look at what I said in verse 1 chapter 6, it pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 princes which should be over the whole kingdom.

Because she now you didn’t move from the Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, now you’re up into the Medes and the Persians and where you have a different one that was Cyrus and Darius. And he says in verse 2, and over these three presidents of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give a count unto them and the king should have no damage. In other words, you had key people in place of leadership. They were like shock absorbers on a car. You know, you want the car to run smooth, so you’ve got wheels that come into contact with the road.

Well, if you got shock absorbers, it absorbs the shock so that it gives a car, shall I? Smooth right. Well, in a ministry you want that. In a home, you want that. You want the dad to be able to absorb the shock so that the family runs smooth. And when the family’s not running smooth, something’s wrong and you don’t have the shock absorbers that you like to have. And sometime a shock can go bad. Do you ever have a shock go bad?

It seems like they really you want to charge an awful lot for a shock. But it all depends on just how smooth a variety you want. Well, in a family you need shock absorbers, people like a dad and a mom that know how to absorb pressure, but not let it destroy the home. In a church, you want to have shock absorbers. You’ve got elders and deacons that are like shock absorbers because you’re dealing with people of all walks of life.

And so not everybody is spiritually minded and sees everything the same way and on the same page and people got problems. So you want people who can help solve a problem. So like in a church, people of leadership are supposed to be problem solvers. If it wasn’t for you being able to solve a problem, you couldn’t get a job. Everybody who has a job is solving somebody else’s problem. That’s why they pay you. They pay you to solve a problem.

True? And if you don’t have any skills in solving a problem, you probably won’t get a high-paying job. So if you go to McDonald’s, you have sometimes younger kids that are just trying to find a way to make a little bit of money. They don’t make a lot, but they make a little bit. But they have to have supply and demand. Somebody has to come in there and demand some food and they have to supply it. Somebody has to serve it.

Somebody has to take the money. So it’s supply and demand. And if nobody demands the food, they don’t have any food to supply. So they don’t need each other. Now, when you develop more skills, there’s somebody who wants to pay you for that skill. So serving the Lord, you learn more about the Word of God, and a lot of people have a lot of spiritual problems. The more you know, the more you can resolve some of their questions and problems.

So you’re able to be used by the Lord because you are a problem solver. You help solve problems. And so whenever somebody finds out that you can solve problems because you have some wisdom and understanding, then more people will come to you for counseling, for advice. Now this is why if you give them advice, wouldn’t it be a shame if they took it? And it was wrong advice. That’s why you want to say, well, God says, God says, always keep between them and God.

And you help solve the problem by getting them to the Lord. Somebody ever comes to see me. I do the first thing I can try to get them to the Lord. I had a man come to see me yesterday. So he was checking my heart and I was checking his heart. And before he got out of here, he trusts the Lord. But he had a problem, but he didn’t even know he had the problem. problem. But I knew he had a problem.

He had a spiritual problem. He didn’t know where he was going when he dies. When he left he did. So you solve a person’s problem. And this is what we do. This is why God uses certain people who put them in place of leadership so that they can solve a problem. I don’t know what he says. In verse 4, then the presidents and the princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the king. Now there was There’s nothing wrong with his leadership.

There’s nothing wrong with Daniel’s character. It’s just that they didn’t like his God, and it looks like, well, if he was made to be first, hey, this guy come from someplace else. He’s not even from us. He’s not even from one of us. But the king was looking for somebody that wouldn’t do the job. So Daniel, who had this wisdom that God had given to him, was able to meet needs, solve problems. So they wanted to get rid of this problem solver so that they can get so greed is a terrible thing.

Jealousy is an ugly sin. Envyen, they would do whatever it took to get rid of him. So they had the king pass a law saying that he can’t do something according to his religion. So that’s how they got him. Now we finally got rid of this man. Well, he as in verse 4, they were looking for an occasion for as much as he was faithful. See that verse? Part of the verse and verse 4, for as much as he was faithful, neither was there any air or fault found him.

They couldn’t find anything against this guy that they could, you know, paddle on him. In verse 5, then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against Him concerning the law of His God. So now you know there’s a reason why they were doing they didn’t like Daniel. He was in place of leadership they got to bring them down. And this is what a lot of people are doing today. They’re passing laws that targets believers, targets Christians.

So if they can just get us to compromise, well see then we’ll just sink into the would work and nobody would even know and will not say anything against them anymore because we don’t want to suffer the consequences. Hello, this is Peter Amato with Bibleline and we hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We’re so thankful your support of Bibleline and we would like to offer you a free gift. During this month, for a gift in any amount, we’re going to send you Dr.

Arnold’s teaching series on the book of Colossians. Paul writes to a concerned pastor about false teachings that are entering his church. Some were teaching that one could find additional and greater knowledge outside of Jesus Christ, which is not true. Paul teaches that Christ is the head and we are complete in him. This teaching series is certain to help you in your spiritual growth. So email, call or write to us today to receive your CD series on the book of Colossians.

mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and don’t forget to include your mailing address as well. God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bible on. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4081 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. friend one day it will happen the trumpet will sound and we will be changed.

caught up to meet the Lord in the air so live today and every day believe in that the Lord is coming soon just keep looking up