A Daniel and The Food

So you move me closer to the water. Huh. If you have your Bibles with you, open them to the Book of Daniel, Daniel Chapter one, Daniel Chapter one. As we continue our series, one big story, if you remember the premise of this entire series, is that when we look at anything in the Bible, including Old Testament narrative, that what we're looking at is part of God's unfolding story, this one narrative that points to creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. We looked at the fact that Jesus says himself in Look twenty four on the Road to Amais that he is that figure that interprets all scripture, because when he speaks to the men on the Road to Amais he begins with Moses and the prophets, and he teaches them all things concerning himself, because he is the interpretive key to the entire Bible. We've looked at the fact that when we don't read the Bible this way, we are in danger of ending up pursuing works righteousness, especially when we look at Old Testament narrative, because now they just become stories like Esop's fables. And this person did this thing and it was good so do that and be like him. And this person did this thing and it was bad, so don't do that. Don't be like him, as though our righteousness is somehow wrapped up in our own ability. It was encouraging to hear so many times in the baptismal waters this morning, this one who thought they were a Christian or tried to be a Christian by good works, This one who grew up in a Christian family and thought that they knew how to do it right because of where they grew up, because of what they had seen. All of us are wired towards works righteousness, and as such, we read the Bible, especially Old Testament narrative, with that view of works righteousness, as though there is no good news but merely rules to be followed or people to be emulated. If that were the case, we would not have seen the coming of Christ. Christ came because that was not enough. And so when we read Old Testament narrative, we have to keep that in mind. And that is true as well when we read Daniel. Look at Daniel Let's beginning verse one. We're going to concentrate on that second paragraph, verses eight to sixteen. But in order to put it into context. We'll begin reading at verse number one. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, Nebachadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, King of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the House of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. Then the king commanded Ashbanhas, the chief Eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish of good appearance and skill in wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent, to stand in the King's presence and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hannonaiah, Michel, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah, and the Chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel he called Beltishazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrek, Michel he called Mishek, and Azariah he called abd Neigo. Now to our paragraph, but Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the Chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuch said to Daniel, I fear my lord, the king who assigned your food and your drink, For why should he see that you were worse? You were in worse condition than the youths who are of our own of your own age, So you would endanger my head with the king. Then Daniel said to the steward whom the Chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, hen Andaiah, Michel, and Azariah, test your servants for ten days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the King's food, be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days, And at the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine that they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. Amen. This is a very familiar passage. It's not just a familiar passage. It's a famous passage, and it's a famously misused and misapplied passage. One example of the misuse and misapplication of this passage can be found on the ABC News website. Listen to this. The New Bible for dieting is for many the Bible. The Daniel diet, inspired by the biblical prophet Daniel, has become a popular diet among some US Protestant congregations to help encourage healthy eating. ABC News No, this is not This is ABC News. According to two passages in the Bible, Daniel fasted twice. During the first fast, he ate only vegetables and water to set himself apart for God. For a second fast mentioned in the last chapter, Daniel stopped eating meat, wine, and other rich foods. Pastors across the country are encouraging their congregations to participate in similar fasts or diets inspired by these passages to kickstart weight loss and to strengthen their faith. In Hawaii, First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu holds annual twenty one day Daniel Fast for congregants to not only encourage healthy eating, but to help people keep their faith by refocusing their attention on their diet. The Saddleback Church, which has a congregation of at least twenty thousand, has launched a website and book co written by head pastor Rick Warren, to promote a long term version of the diet renamed the Daniel Plan. I'll stop there. I'll just but you see, this is what happens when we don't read the Bible as one big story. All of a sudden, this passage becomes a diet, and it's a well, anyway, we'll get there. Just let's look again. And in order to understand this and to understand it in its context, and to understand how it relates to redemption, and to understand that old testament narrative is not there to give us rules, like rules about how you would kick start a fast or a diet. We have to understand a few things. First, King Jakoniah was the son of Josiah. Now he was put on the throne by the Egyptian pharaoh Nko. When Josiah was killed in battle, the people enthrone Jehoiah Has. Now Jehoia Has was anti Egyptian, so he rebelled, and this rebellion lasted for three months while Niko in Egypt was busy fighting in Haran. Jehoia Kim was then placed on the throne by Niko as a vassal, someone who would do what Egypt wanted done. Nebukad Nezar gained control of the region in six oh five. Remember six oh five the Battle of Carchamish. It is one of those dates in history, whether you're a student of the Bible or not, it's one of those dates in history that helps orient other events because we know so well exactly when this took place. Eventually, in six oh one, Nebuka Nezer failed to invade Egypt, so Jehoya Kim again broke with Babylon and sought the support of Egypt. This disloyalty led to the siege of Jerusalem in five ninety seven, and that's how we get to where we are. During this siege that lasted over a decade, a number of people were taken off from Jerusalem. They were taken off to Babylon. For example, Jeremiah addresses this in Jeremiah twenty nine. Everybody's familiar with Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven, probably the most misused and abused verse in the entire Bible. I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord plans to prospet you, not to harm you, to give you a hope in the future. But most people don't know that that verse is actually situated within the context of a letter that Jeremiah wrote. So when we get to Jeremiah twenty nine, verse one and two, for example, we read, these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the Prophet sent to the priests, the prophets, and all the people who Nebuchadness had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jakariah, the Queen Mother, the eunuchs, the officials of Judah, and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem. Daniel, Hanna, and Aiah, Azariah and Michael were part of the group of people taken off early into Babylon. This education of theirs to stand before the king was part of this process of Israel going into exile in Babylon. In order to understand this further, we need to understand a couple of things. First of all, there's the Daniel myth, as I like to call it. The Daniel myth is that Daniel and his friends were small boys. In fact, they're sometimes referred to, you know, as the Hebrew boys. These were not boys. These were men, late teen's, early twenties. These were men. Another part of this is that Daniel and his friends gained their knowledge in Babylon. Well, if you read carefully that first paragraph, you realize they didn't gain their knowledge in Babylon. They were brought to knowledge for an advanced post graduate program because of the amount of knowledge that they already had in Israel. This is important to note because ultimately, the Book of Daniel is about the battle of kingdoms, about one kingdom believing they're superior because of their defeat of another kingdom. So what's the historical context. First, we need to understand the land of Israel and its strategic nature. We need to understand that Israel is basically a land bridge that connects Asia, Africa, and Europe. There is the Mediterranean on one side, the Jordan Valley on the other, and going up from Egypt all the way up into Europe was this road, if you will, called the King's Highway. It is one of the most contested pieces of real estate on planet Earth. There have been wars fought to control this area since the dawn of time. And what we see here is when the Babylonians decided that they would come and try to control this area. The Egyptians often controlled this area, the Meds and the Persians, and later the Greeks and the Romans would control this area because it is one of the most strategic pieces of land on planet Earth. It was strategic also because when the Romans controlled it, it became the base from which the Gospel spread to all the Earth. This is an important piece of real estate. That is one of the main reasons that there is a constant battle to see who controls it. We also need to understand the nature of war and conflict in the ancient Near East. There is a reason that Nebukan Nezra comes and takes articles from the temple and brings them before his god. If you'll remember, the Philistines did this as well. They took the Ark of the Covenant and brought it into their temple, and their god would fall down on his you remember that. But the reason that people did this because was because here's how they understood war. If we go to war with you, it is basically us calling upon our gods to defeat you, and you calling upon your gods to defeat us. And whoever wins the war has just proven that their gods reigned supreme. And so we bring your articles into our temple in order to say to you and to everyone, our god is supreme. Our God reigns supreme over your God. That's what's going through Nebaganezer's mind. Not only is our army superior to your army, not only is our technology superior to your technology, but we have defeated you because our god is superior to your God. This leads to Daniel's dilemma, the dilemma that's presented in this book, and that's answered in this book the dilemma that arises from the very concept of the exile of Israel, and that is this, will God's kingdom survive? Will God's Kingdom survive? Think about this. You live during a time, You live in an era, and you live in a place where people come and march, and when you go into war, you march and you take the ark of the Covenant with you into battle because God fights for you. And now you've been defeated and the temple has been sacked. And according to the worldview that you hold, this means that never could Nezsar's God is stronger than Yahweh? What about the Covenant? What about our future? But even if you do believe that Yahweh is the god of God's there is another issue that is raised here because God has allowed the Babylonians to take you into exile. So even if you answer in the affirmative that God's kingdom will stand, the other question is will God forgive us? Or will He turn from us and choose another nation, another people. This is the dilemma in Daniel. Daniel's Overall Narrative answers this dilemma in a couple of ways. First of all, we see in the second half of Daniel Daniels divided in half. In the first half of Daniel is its narrative. The second half of Daniel is prophetic. And in the second half of Daniel we have prophecies that basically foreshadow what is going to happen for kingdoms and nations until the end. And Daniel answers the first question, Yes, God's kingdom will stand. Amen. Other kingdoms will rise and they will fall, but God's kingdom will stand. But there is the second question, will God forgive our sin? Will we still be His people? And in the first half there are a number of vignettes that answer this question. In the affirmative, we see Daniel and Hannah and I and Azraiah and Michel in captivity, and it's no coincidence that they're from the tribe of Judah. Amen, They're in exile. And yet time and time again we see God's presence, we see God's favor, and we see God's deliverance. Will his kingdom stand, yes it will. Will he forgive his people? Yes he will. That's good news. Amen. What about Daniel's individual circumstance that leads to this scene here? In the second paragraph of chapter one. Here is Daniel, a young man, let's say, in his late teens or early twenties. He has witnessed the siege of Jerusalem. He has witnessed the onslaught of Nico from Egypt, and now Nibopalasar and Nebucha Nazar. So he's seen this. He sees the rise of the meetle person in pert. He sees all of this, and all of a sudden, on every side, God is bringing Israel's enemies to bear breathing down their neck, until eventually he is carried off into exile, just like it was promised. Habakuk said it was going to happen in Habacca Chapter one. In Habacic one five, behold, I am doing a thing in your day that people would not believe if they heard it. What was the thing that he was going to do? Raise up the Chaldeans to take his people into captivity and into exile. Daniel has seen it happen. He's in captivity, he's in exile. He's gone a long way from home into a foreign land with a foreign people, with a foreign language, learning foreign science, foreign mathematics, foreign language, foreign music, so that he can stand before a foreign king and serve him. His name has been changed, His covenant name that pointed to him as one of the covenant people of God has been changed, and he has been given a pagan name, a pagan identity. The temple's been sacked. And those things that he holds dear, those things that remind him of who Yahweh is, that remind him of the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that remind him of the glory days of David and of Solomon who built the temple, all of those things are now gone. And they sit in a temple in Babylon, and they symbolically say our God is stronger than your God. And now they even say, here's the food you eat. This was a bridge too far. And it is as though Daniel says, listen, you defeated us in war. Good for you changed our names. Then we can do about that. You're gonna call us what you want to call us. He sacked our temple, And while that hurts, there's not much we can do about that because we are here in exile because of our own sin. But if God would be merciful, we're gonna have something to say about what we eat. It seems like a small thing, but in situations like this, sometimes small things are all you have left. Amen, And so he raises his objection. But what was his objection? The text says Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he's drank. Therefore, he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And because of this word defile, there are many who have surmised, you know what it is that Daniel is saying here, And it's very important. How we answer this question is important because how we answer this question determines what we think about what's at stake here, and it also determines what we think about holiness and righteousness as it relates to the things that we put in our bodies. Some have argued that the issue here was eating meat and wine. First of all, it's not necessary from the context. What's interesting here is meat is never mentioned. You realize that meat is never mentioned here, and so people think again, this Daniel diet that people often refer to as though somehow this was about nutrition and it wasn't. Well, we'll get to that in a moment and Daniel diet. One of the things that I find interesting is that people when they do the Daniel fast, they eat fruits and vegetables and drink water. No, they just ate vegetables, not fruit. You don't get fruit. No, no mango, no papaya, no strawberries, no grapes, no apples. No, you don't get fruit, just vegetables. Ah, wait a minute, because I know what you're thinking. That's okay. You know, I take some vegetables. I'll make me some relish. I'll be fine. You know, I ask some relish in mine Shima. You don't get in Shima. That's not a vegetable. You don't get rice. Huh. Technically you don't even get tomatoes because tomato technically is a fruit. Still want to do this just vegetables and water? Was Was this a nod towards vegetarianism. It amazes me that there are people who, you know, move toward vegetarianism as though vegetarianism is holy and it's holy, because look even here they just state vegetables and water. Yeah, but vegetarians eat bread too. On this diet, you don't get bread because bread altogether not a vegetable. Are you beginning to see how foolish this is not only that, but the idea that meat is somehow wrong, that meat is somehow unholy. Now, listen, I love Jesus with everything a man. He is my lord, my savior, my master, my king. And if Jesus said meat was wrong, he'd have to help me. He'd he'd have to help, but he'd I'm glad that he didn't. Amen, somebody, he didn't say that meat was wrong and meat was bad. We could eat meat. You are not more holy if you're a vegetarian. Vegetarianism is not godly. If you don't like meat, don't eat it. But don't sit there and tell other people that you're more godly because you don't eat meat. Amen, somebody, Well, it's you know, let's beat the animals. You have a problem with that. You have a huge problem with that. It's the animals. You shouldn't kill the animals. You have a huge problem with Israel. They killed a lot of animals. You've even got a problem with God because in the garden he kills one. When Adam and Eves sin, the priests ate the meat of the sacrifice, and it is called holy. In fact, everything that the meat of the sacrifice touches is called holy. So no, that this is not Daniel saying meat is unholy. Meat is unrighteous, So I don't want to eat meat. That this is that. Nothing could be further from the truth. Well, how about the wine. No, Wine played an important part in Israel's history. While Nazarites those who took a Nazarite vow avoided wine, Israel in general did not. In fact, Exodus chapter twenty nine, verses thirty nine and forty one, lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the lamb you shall offer at twilight. And with the first lamb a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hen of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hen of wine for a drink offering. Is God saying I want you to use that which is unholy in your worship. Is that what Jesus did and that last supper? Use that which is unholy? No, it's also a sign of God's presence and blessing. Deuteronomy seven thirteen. He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, and your wine and your oil is the sign of the blessing in presence of God. No, Daniel is not saying these things are unholy. Therefore, please don't give us these things. Well could it be the fact that it was the king's food that he doesn't want the food that comes from the king? Ivp By background commentary makes this important note that if that was the case, he would have a problem even with the vegetables, because the vegetables would have been allotted to them as well by the king. So it couldn't be that it's problem because it comes from the king. Well is it because it violates Jewish dietary laws? Again, Jewish dietary laws have to do not only with what you eat, but with how what you eat is stored and prepared. So even the vegetables that they ate would have more than likely violated Jewish dietary laws unless they were growing them themselves and preparing them themselves, which they want. Aren't What could it be the fact that these were offered to idols? Ernest Lucas makes this comment. The food may have been offered to idols, However, in Babylon only the king himself and a few senior temple officials could partake of food and drink that had been specifically offered to deity. So no, doesn't appear to be that either. Well, is it just for a healthier diet? Give us vegetables, because that's a healthier diet, and you'll see after ten days that we're healthier and better off. There are a couple of problems with this. First of all, with the way people use it. Notice you notice that the people here who use the Daniel diet, they use it as a diet plan to lose weight. But after ten days, Daniel and his friends were fatter. Huh. But here's the other problem with that. If this was just about nutrition, you missed the whole point of the Book of Daniel. If all Daniel is saying here is hey, feud us feed us fewer calories for ten days than those people, and at the end of ten days, because we've eaten fewer calories, will weigh less than they do. Praise y'all way, He is the most awesome god. Our gods are nothing. Why because people who eat fewer calories lose weight? Come on, that's nothing. That's nothing. Certainly, the Chaldeans knew how people lose weight. Amen, this is not about nutrition. This is about God. This is God's supernatural intervention here. Ultimately, this is about Daniel taking a stand. This is about Daniel in the midst of this battle, because this entire book is about a battle between your God and our God, your worldview and our worldview. You think you're superior because you've defeated us, but you've only defeated us because Yah Weigh allowed you to and he is still in control. And I'll show you how in control he is. Give us an inferior diet for ten days and will be better off than those people. That's what's happening. It wasn't a superior diet. It was an inferior diet. And after ten days of an it was ten days of malnutrition. And after ten days of malnutrition, they were fatter and looked better than the people who ate the choicest food in the world from the pantry of a king. That's what happened. And this idea of a Daniel diet or Daniel playing whatever, it's absolutely ridiculous. Not only is it ridiculous, but it robs God of glory. This is not about nutrition. This is about something more Daniel's vindication. We see his vindication even in the way that the text is organized. If you look at this paragraph that begins in verse eight and ends in verse sixteen, you see that there's a frame around it. Look at verse eight, Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Then you come down to the end and what happens. So the steward verse sixteen took away their food and the wine they were to drink. There's the frame. The frame is on the one end of it, and the beginning of the paragraph, Daniel says, We're not going to partake of this, And at the end of it, the steward says, you don't have to protect of this. Why because you know nutrition better than we do. No, because your God took care of you in spite of the fact that you didn't have the nutrition that those people had. This is the vindication of God, not the science of nutrition. This is the power of God on display. So in our time that we have left, because the other both have said, I need to remember we get out of here the time that we have remaining, let's hold How then would this apply. If the application is not, if you want to be healthy and increase your faith to attend day Daniel fast, Amen, and we're green. If that's not the application of his texts, Amen, there is no good news in that. That is not what redemptive history is here to tell us in this passage. So what is it here to tell us? Number one? It's here to tell us that Yahweh is God. Indeed, Amen, Yahweh is God. Indeed, in spite of circumstances, Yahweh is God. Indeed, the Babylonians believe that they had defeated Yahweh. They had not. They had sieged his city, they had defeated his people, they had sacked his temple. They believed that they had just demonstrated not just the superiority of their culture, but the superiority of their gods. And this text says, your gods are nothing. There will be other encounters to come. But before he shuts the mouths of lions, and before he sends the fourth man into the flames, he says, let me show you that I have control not just over the big things, but of the small ones as well. Yahweh is God. Indeed, whether or not he is God. Is not determined by our circumstances, our situation, our environment, or our experience. God is God. Secondly, the God of Israel remembers his covenant and his covenant people. The God of Israel remembers his covenant and his covenant people. God chasens his children Amen. In fact, the other Hebrews tells us he chasens every son that he receives. The chasening is a sign of love. I remember this as a child. I remember this as a child, and I said I would never say it to my children. I remember, you know what I'm about to say. I remember my mother saying to me, Bo, why I do this because I love you? And I remember I never said it, but it came to my mind, and I was wise enough to never let it come out of my mouth. But in my mind, I was saying, Mama, I wish you didn't love me so much. Sometimes I didn't understand it. I didn't understand it. Now I have children, and I said i'd never say it. I lied because as a father, every once in a while it's important to remind him, listen, I do this because I love you. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't care about your disobedience. I wouldn't care about your folly. The child down the street acts a fool, I don't discipline him because I'm not his father, And the fact that I don't discipline him is indicative of the fact that he doesn't belong to me. But I discipline you because you belong to me, because you are mine, and because I'm not satisfied with this, I want more for you. And so God chastens his people. He disciplines his people, and just people go off into exile number one so that they know how serious God is about sin, and number two so that they can be purified and refined by fire. Well, what about the fact that he uses this godless nation. I've said it before, I'll say it again. You can't worry about that. Why Why would God use this ungodly nation in order to discipline Because there are no godly ones. There are no godly ones. If God is going to discipline his covenant people, who's he going to find to do it. He's going to use an ungodly one. Because that's all there are. Amen, That's all there are. Why did God give you ungodly parents? Why did God give you imperfect parents, because there are no perfect ones. Amen, there are no perfect ones. We also see that God's kingdom will survive and God will forgive. If we continue reading in Jeremiah twenty nine, we begin in verse ten, that verse eleven we know and love so well. Look at the paragraph in which that verse is found, we find something amazing. God says, and remember this is a letter that was written to people like Daniel. For thus says the Lord, when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. That's by the way. You read that. You hear that, and you may say, wait, that's actually not good news. Seventy years maybe seven, but seventy years. I mean in seventy years, I'll be dead. By the way, the seventy years only gets us to the edict that allows them to go. They're actually in Babylon more than one hundred years, which means that no one to whom this promise was made would be alive when the promise was fulfilled. Hold that thought, I will fulfill my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. That's not a promise to an individual. That's a promise to the covenant community. That's God saying, my kingdom will stand. Your entire generation will be gone, but my kingdom will stand, and my covenant will stand. My people. Israel going to come out of exile. Yes, God's kingdom will stand, and yes, God will forgive his people. By the way Christ is both the fulfillment and the continuation of this promise. Will God's kingdom survive? The person and work of Christ screams, Yes, God's Kingdom will survive because Israel goes into exile. What are we worried about when Israel goes into exile. Will the promise seed eventually come? Yes, the promise Seed does eventually come. And the person of Christ, who is of the tribe of Judah, just like these who went into exile, Christ is God's hearty amen, and yes to the question, will my kingdom survive? Yes it will, Yes, it will. Christ is the answer to that question. But not only is he the answer to that question from that standpoint, but from a spiritual standpoint. The same question was asked when Christ was crucified. God himself is wrapped in flesh. The second person of the Trinity, lives a perfect life, and then he dies, and he's in the grave for three days, and the question comes, will God's kingdom survive? It survived as Syria, it survived Babylon, it survived Persia, it survives Greece, it survives Rome, and it survives the grave. God's kingdom will stand. What about the other question, will God forgive his people again? Historically Christ stands as the answer to that question. He is faithful Israel, and as faithful Israel, he keeps the whole mosaic law. Where ethnic Israel failed. Christ the god Man, keeps the whole of the law and so the exile is over, the punishment is removed, and forgiveness comes. Why because Israel has been made perfect in Christ. And now all of us who are found in Christ are abraham Seed heirs according to the promise, and we are forgiven in Christ. Will his kingdom stand, Yes it will. Will he forgive his people? Yes he will? But what about you? And I'll India, my time is gone. But I would be remiss if I didn't speak to that Christian exile. What about you who walk through these waters of baptism years ago and yet have gone astray? What about you, who right now is experiencing what Israel experienced, and you're in your own exile, far away from God. You know, the easy thing for us to say when something like that happens is, oh, I must not have really been a Christian. Listen to this from our Confession, Chapter seventeen, paragraph three. And though they may, through the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins for a time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened, and their conscience is wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgment upon themselves. Yet they shall renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end. Listen, Christians can sin grievously. Christians do sin grievously, and it's an easy out for us to always say, Ah must not have been a Christian or that wouldn't have happened. There's two problems with that. Number one first problem is this, what you're communicating is that sanctification is something that's finished in the here and the now. It's not. The Scripture is clear, it's an ongoing process, and we fight against sin. But here's the second thing that you do. I cringe every time I hear that testimony. You know, I made a profession of faith in Christ, and I lived in that profession of faith in Christ, and then all of a sudden, the sin happened, and an awful thing, and you stand up before the people of God and you say, you know, I really wasn't converted, but then I was really converted. That may be true, But here's why that worries me, because it says, to you, who have assurance of your salvation, you don't need to be scared of sin because that just happened because they really weren't converted. You're really converted, so that could never happen to you. Yes, it can. Watch fight and pray. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Don't ever become complacent Christian. Don't ever believe that you can't experience with Israel experienced. Don't ever believe that because your experience with God was so powerful or your faithfulness is so great, that you don't have to watch yourself. Because you do. You do. And for you who have fallen into sin, hear me, God's kingdom will stand and God forgives his people repent repent. Well, I don't know if I was really a Christian. Let me ask you this. If you sin grievously after your profession of faith, your baptism, if you sin grievously and you weren't really a Christian, what do you need? Repentance and faith? If you sin grievously and you weren't a Christian, what do you need repentance and faith. You don't have to know when your conversion actually took place. What you have to know is that you are trusting in Jesus. Now trust him, now, trust him now, turn from sin? Now trust him now, Because for many people, what that ends up doing is there's a cycle. And so here it was, I was a believer, I was a believer. I really wasn't a believer because I fell in the sin, and so now I'm really a believer. And then all of a sudden you fall into sin again. Well maybe I wasn't really wasn't a believer the second time? Well, what do you need? Do you need to be more sincere? Do you need to believe harder? Do you need to try harder? You need christ, You need repentance, and you need faith regardless of where you find yourself on that journey. You need repentance and you need faith. I was deceived. I thought I was a Christian as I wasn't. Repent believe, I'm I actually was a Christian, but I just fell into grieve of sin. Repent, Believe I happened again. Repent, believe. Because you are not dependent upon your faithfulness, you are utterly dependent upon a God who can be nothing but faithful, He does not fail. His kingdom will stand, and he will save his people. Assyria couldn't stop. That, Babylon couldn't stop. That Greek Empire couldn't stop that, the Roman Empire couldn't stop that, The Zambian Empire can't stop that, the American Empire can't stop that, the British Empire can't stop that, and any empire yet to come in the future can't stop that. God's kingdom will stand and he will save his people. How dare we reduce that to an eating plan? Father gret by your grace that we might glory in Christ and in Him alone. Thank you for reminding us of your faithfulness to your covenant people, your faithfulness to your covenant promise. May we rest in it, and may Christ be glorified as your kingdom expands, and as you save your people. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen,