Daniel 5:1-9. 17-31 A King's Last Night on Earth
I. A NIGHT OF DRUNKENNESS - 1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
Pro 20:1; Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Pro 23:29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again
Eph 5:18 be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit
II. A NIGHT OF DEFIANCE - 3 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. 4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
Defying God:- (The Bible, the church, the Lord's Day, the Lord's Name. etc.)
III. A NIGHT OF DISCOVERY - 5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote
It is a message of Rebuke, for disregarding the past (Nebuchadnezzar)
It is a message of Reproof, for disrespecting the pure (holy vessels)
It is a message of Reproach, for delighting in the profane
It is a message of Retribution, in declaring the punishment
IV. A NIGHT OF DECLARATION
(a) His Mother - 10 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 for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed: 11 There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods;
(b) His Preacher 13 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?
(c) His Letter - 25 this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. 26 This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. 27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. 28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.
A. The Fact of God's Wrath - He will judge sin!
26 MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
B. The Focus of God's Wrath
27 TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
C. The Finality of God's Wrath
28 PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Belshazzar is told that he has been numbered, weighed and divided.
V. A NIGHT OF DOOM
30 In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
A. Belshazzar Died a Sudden Death “In that night”
Heb. 9:27 it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment
B. Belshazzar Died a Sinner's Death -
30 was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
