Joseph Prince - What Daniel's Story Tells Us About Grace and Judgment
Grace is not natural. What is natural is this. Do your best to please God, and one of these days, if God sees that you are sincere enough, you are earnest enough, you know, maybe you’ll be more complete than John over there, than Lucy over there, you’ll be better off, hallelujah. I’m telling you, I might exaggerate a little bit here, but that’s what people think. It boggles your mind to say you are complete to start off. Now, with a sense of completeness, walk out. In John 19 is a story of the cross, right? What did Jesus cry at the cross towards the end? «It is finished»! All right? «It is finished,» John 19, verse 30, he cried, «It is finished». Am I right? That’s where it all starts! Where he cried «finished,» we start. We start our Christian life with the finished work.
When Jesus says it is finished, what is finished? The cup, that he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane full of our sin, full of our curse, full of our judgment. He drank, he drank it, he drank it dry to its very last dregs. Finished, the judgment is gone, there’s no more judgment for you and me. What about God’s law? Satisfied! What about God’s holiness? Magnified! Because God’s holiness says, «If you sin, you die». Somebody died. God did not say, «Okay, never mind, I’ll compromise my holiness». No, Jesus died in our place. God’s holiness is magnified. God’s love expressed for man, for sinful man. It’s finished! We have to look at Jesus. Every disappointment comes when you compare yourself with somebody else. Do you understand this? This is the sequence. It starts with, «It is finished». Amen, church?
Now, there was a man who was caught in a breach of the law of his land. It was obviously a breach of the newfound law, okay, newfounded law. And he himself did not deny he broke the law. His enemies admit he broke the law. His friends would say, «It is the law». But one thing about this guy, the culprit, he’s not too particular about the fact he broke the law. He is almost at peace. The only one who is concerned is the king who loved him, the king of the land who loved him. I’m talking about the story of Daniel. Daniel has King Darius, the Medo-Persian emperor, King Darius. In fact, you can even see his face in history. They have notched his face into clay tablets. You can see in the museum.
That’s the King Darius of Daniel. King Darius loved Daniel. But his satraps, his governors around him, his leaders around him, they were jealous of Daniel because the king kept on promoting him, and Daniel was not even a Medo-Persian. Daniel is a Jew. He was a captive from Jerusalem. When Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem, all right, he took Daniel and all his people with, with him. But of course now, Darius has conquered Babylon, and the Medo-Persian took over. And King Darius loved Daniel because Daniel was able to interpret dreams, give him counsel, sweet spirit, and the Bible says that in Daniel was found an «excellent spirit». And the king thought to put him above all the satraps and all the governors of the kingdom, so they were jealous of him.
So one day they came and they realized they have nothing against Daniel. Daniel was faithful, the Bible says. The only thing, the only fault they can find with Daniel with is God. So they came to the king, and they told the king, «King, why don’t we do this, all right? For a certain length of time, let’s have a law in honor of you that no man in your kingdom, in your realm, should make a request or pray to any man or any God except to you. How about that»? And King Darius, being a busy man as he is, you know, with other things on his mind, he just agreed, all right, and put a signet on the law, the clay tablet. One thing about the law of the Medo-Persians, it cannot be altered. Once it is made law, it cannot be changed. And true enough, they waited for Daniel to pray.
And the Bible says Daniel, knowing that the law was enacted, he went up to his upper room chamber. Before all of them, he knelt down and prayed towards Jerusalem. He prayed, the Bible tells us, openly. And straight away, they went to the king and said, «King, you have this law, don’t you»? And the king says, «Yes». «That anyone should not make requests of any man or deity except to you». And the king says, «Yes». And «Well, Daniel». The moment the king heard, «Daniel,» the Bible says, «The king,» read carefully, it says, «The king was displaced with himself,» not with Daniel. The king loved Daniel. The king realized that he was set in a trap. And they told the king, «And remember this, King, oh Majesty, oh most noble one, whose flatulence is as a perfume of the night, oh most noble one, the law of the Mede Persian cannot be altered. The king has put his authority on it».
And the king understood that. And the Bible says the king labored all day until sundown. That’s in the Bible. It says he labored all day to try to find a way to deliver Daniel out of the lion’s den. Oh, by the way, the consequence is that whoever does that will be thrown into the lion’s den. So the Bible says, «He labored all day until the going down of the sun». And towards the evening, other governors came to him and says, «Remember this, oh Majesty, we are concerned for your kingdom. The law of the Mede Persian cannot be altered». At the end of… so, so, so we have a king here whose law and his heart does not match. His heart was all for Daniel, one direction. His law was going another direction, to throw Daniel into the lion’s den. To keep both, he cannot. He must either do violence to his heart, his love for Daniel, or satisfy the claims of justice, his justice. But to do both, he cannot. At the end of the day, justice won. The king reluctantly says, «Go ahead, take him».
So they took Daniel, and they threw him into the den full of lions. By the way, these are ferocious lions. These are not pussycats. They’re not meow, okay? These are ferocious lions. How do I know that? Because later on, when the enemies were thrown in, even before their bodies hit bottom, their bones were crushed by the lions. And the Bible says that night, after Daniel was in the lion’s den, the king could not sleep. They didn’t bring dancing women before him, one translation says that. They didn’t bring music before him. His sleep departed. He could not sleep. Early in the… by the way, when he took, he took, he took Daniel into the lion’s den, Daniel, last words Daniel heard was this, the king says, «Your God, whom you serve continually, he will deliver you».
And the Bible says he did not sleep that night. The next morning he got up. He went quickly, the Bible says, to Daniel’s lion’s den, and he says, «Oh Daniel, has your God delivered you»? Let’s follow the story here, «Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. When he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, 'Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? '»
Next, «Then Daniel said to the king, 'O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.' Now the king was exceedingly glad for him,» not just glad, you know, he loved Daniel, «and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken out of the den, and no injury whatever was found on him, because he believed in his God». But watch this, next, «And the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions: them, their children, their wives; and the lions overpowered them, broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den».
So I told you these are real ferocious lions, had not eaten for days. Now, the Bible records twice, the accusers came to the king and reminded him the law cannot be changed. Now, supposing for the sake of illustration, look up here, just for the sake of illustration, okay, I’m closing with this: just suppose that between the first coming, reminding the king, and the second coming, in between, the king actually threw Daniel already in the lion’s den, okay? But this, accusers do not know. So the second time they come to the king and they say, «King, we just want to remind you that the law cannot be altered». The king says, «Yes, definitely not». They look at the king. «And the law says that you are to judge Daniel and throw him into the lion’s den». He says, «I certainly will not».
Now remember, we’re talking about after he has thrown, nothing has happened to Daniel, and he brought Daniel out, and they did not know. So the accusers come, okay? And he says, «Of course not». «But, but you just said that the law must be kept». «Certainly»! «Daniel broke the law». «Yes, he did». «You have to throw him»! «I most certainly will not». «King, oh thou, whose toe jam is a delicacy of the poor,» you know how they flatter the king, «Oh king, we are concerned and jealous for your honor! This will put a block to your name, to your dynasty, and it will be a lasting disgrace upon the honor of your excellent name if you don’t throw him». Said, «No, I’m as righteous yesterday when I threw him as today. I’m as righteous in not throwing him in. You know why? Because he has served his sentence».
Now, stop here, and let’s bring this to a close. What happened to Daniel has happened to all of us by substitute. Jesus is our Daniel. He went to the lion’s den for you and I because the law cannot be broken, but all of us have broken the law, the law of the King, all of us, okay? And but instead of us going, Jesus went on a… that’s what I mean, Christ died for us, what is for us as us instead, instead. In English, «instead» means «in the place of,» us. So like Daniel, Jesus went into the lion’s den, the cross, took all the judgment that was meant for you and I because of the broken laws in our lives. We have violated God’s commandments, amen? He took our place. He was punished to the fullest extent for all our sins, and then he cried, «Finished»!
And the King, God the Father, raised him from the dead out of the place of judgment, the lion’s den, amen? And he did it all not for himself, he did it for you and I, so now the accuser, usually it’s through the mouths of people, but the person behind the accusation is actually the devil, who is called the accuser, use the mouth of people. They will come and say, «But so and so broke the law». Even today, come to you, «But so and so God, he has done this, he has done that. He must go»! And God says, «No, he will not. And when I say, 'He will not, ' I’m as righteous as when I send my Son to the tree to die for their sins. Today I’m righteous in not condemning my people. If I condemn my people when their substitute was condemned for their sins, it is a miscarriage of justice. I will be unrighteous, I will be unrighteous.
So, I cannot be unrighteous. It will be a blood on the name and the throne of the Holy God who created the heavens and the earth. I cannot judge them. I cannot condemn them when they have belief on my gift, on my Son, their substitute. And because of that, I’m as righteous in clearing them from guilt as I am in sending their substitute on their behalf». Can you understand that? And we know who the Lion is today, who goes about as a roaring lion, but the only ones that he can devour based on this verse is other ones who accuse others. In other words, they are like him, hm? Another thing, you should not accuse yourself either, and all the people said amen. Now, in closing, you know I’ve been wanting to do this as much as I can, but time is really of the essence here. I want you to sit back. Once again, I’m going to show you that video that we did for more than a year of Jesus on the cross, and I want you to sit back and watch this and remember that what he did was for you and I, amen.
Praise the Lord. The reason why you can never allow the devil or anyone to condemn you or receive accusation, you see, when you are not conscious of all these truths, when you are not listening to the gospel on a constant basis, it’s not one time hearing, but constant hearing, you’ll not be strong in what Jesus has done for you. When you’re not strong in that, that’s when the devil can put things on you, on your children, on your family. Even sickness was borne by Jesus. When you realize that it’s a revelation, you stand up and say, «If he was sick in my place, I receive my healing». It was paid!
Will you receive the gift of righteousness? It’s yours. The reason why we are saying there is no condemnation, is, present tense, now, no condemnation for you and I, who are believers in Christ, the reason we can say that is because God is holy. God cannot punish the same sin twice, and all your sins and all my sins was borne by Jesus Christ and were already punished long before we commit them, even before we were born. God saw our sins and put it on him. Because they have been condemned, because our sins have been punished, there is therefore now, because God is holy, no condemnation for you and I in Christ. Can I have a good amen? Now, listen, does that make you want to sin? No, it makes you want to love him and learn more of this wonderful Savior who gave his life for you and I, amen?