Sermon Tone Analysis

Worthless Labels

Have you ever wondered why there are so many worthless labels on products today?

Really, you have to wonder what happened that would force the manufacturers to be required by law to put such descriptive labels on something.

Duraflame fireplace log — Caution: “Risk of Fire”

Batman costume — Warning: “Cape does not enable user to fly”

bottle of hair coloring — “Do not use as an ice cream topping”

Cardboard sun shield — “Do not drive with sun-shield in place”

Portable stroller — “Caution: Remove infant before folding for storage”

When you think through the purpose behind those labels you are left wondering if somebody really did that and now all of humanity is plagued with the absurdity of stupid labels.

Good, old common sense would say those labels are worthless…anyone of any kind of intelligence ought to know better right?

Are we completely unable to consider the ramifications of our actions that there needs to be a label warning us of the outcome?

Well what is the answer?

The answer depends upon whether you and I are going to be observant enough to read the writing on the wall that says those who do not learn from the past are bound to repeat it...

or are we going to continue to blunder around in our pride, making stupid and foolish decisions with arrogant defiance of God’s standards, until God deems us spiritually worthless?

That is where we find ourselves in our study of Daniel today…turn in your Bibles to Daniel 5.

Daniel 5 is the fascinating historical account of the last day of Babylon’s rule in God’s time of the Gentiles.

In this text, God speaks in a cryptic fashion to the king of Babylon and tells him that he has been deemed spiritually worthless and his kingdom was over.

We need a little historical context for this chapter to make sense to us...

Historical Context to Daniel 5

Daniel 4 ends with Nebuchadnezzar as the king and Daniel 5 begins with Belshazzar as the king…

King Nebuchadnezzar likely died in 562 BC.

His son succeeded him and ruled for only two years...2 Kgs 25:27–30; Jer 52:31–34

That king was murdered by his brother-in-law, who succeeded him and he ruled for four years...Jer 39:3, 13

He was succeeded by his son who was assassinated after two months on the throne.

He was replaced by Nabonidus, the son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar, and he ruled from 556–539 BC.

Belshazzar was the eldest son of Nabonidus.

He was appointed by Nabonidus as a co-regent.

By the way, the book of Daniel has been criticized for years as being a work of fiction for one reason that Belshazzar’s name could not be found in the Ancient works…until God saw fit for man to discover ancient Babylonian records that revealed Belshazzar ruled as a co-regent under Nabonidus.

We are given a view into the palace window but what is happening outside the palace is just as significant…In this chapter Babylon is surrounded by Cyrus the Persian's armies.

Also we know this historically too, Cyrus will capture the seemingly impenetrable, and impregnable city by a stroke of genius.

His armies have been working upstream for years in the Euphrates River to divert the flow of the Euphrates River.

The Euphrates River flowed through Babylon.

His armies then walked in the riverbed, about knee deep, and then walked under the walls of Babylon in order to take Babylon without a fight.

A seemingly impenetrable fortress, Cyrus conquered easily.

What we have here in Daniel 5 is a depiction of the last day of the Babylonian Kingdom...when Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian Empire.

The narrative moves the events of Dan 4 forward by about 23 to 25 years…this is a marvelous section of Daniel’s narrative in which God miraculously communicates a very powerful message to a spiritually worthless king…it is a message that fits our day as well...

Main Point: All Who Live In Pride Are Spiritually Worthless.

The point of God’s message to King Belshazzar is in Dan 5:25-28, so lets look at that portion of the text first and then we’ll go back and see why God made this conclusion.

Read Dan 5:25-28

Belshazzar hosts a drunken feast that magnifies the stupidity of his pride and God writes a message to him that causes him to shake in his sandals…this message is well known and often quoted as “the handwriting is on the wall” signifying what is about to happen is going to happen and there is nothing that can be done to change it.

The message written on the wall in Aramaic is MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN…Daniel clearly tells us what these words mean…these words were terms used for measuring quantities, weighing goods on a scale for purchase or trade, and apportioning items.

The first word is repeated for emphasis

MENE is translated “number,” and it is repeated— Belshazzar had been measured, counted, and scrutinized

TEKEL simply means “weight.”

Belshazzar had been weighed according to God’s standards of righteousness and was seriously lacking in that department...The term “wanting” denotes “lacking, deficient.”

UPHARSIN/PERES (v.28) (PERES is the singular form of UPHARSIN) , and it means “divided or halved” The kingdom of Babylon is now to be divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

Placed together it was a cryptic message that said “Numbered, Weighed, Divided”… the Babylonian wise men could not understand it in their present context and that is why they needed Daniel.

God judged Belshazzar to be spiritually worthless and the time had come for his kingdom to be replaced.

Now hopefully after reading this portion of the text, we are left pondering the thought of “I don’t want God to consider me spiritually worthless.”

As I think about this text from a corporate setting, as the pastor, I would not want God to send this disembodied hand into our worship center and write on the wall…Maranatha Bible Church is Spiritually Worthless would you?

Belshazzar, in his pride, committed some pretty serious blunders that brought God to the conclusion he was spiritually worthless...

Let’s examine four blunders of pride that makes us spiritually worthless so that we can avoid them.

The first blunder of pride is...

Pride Clings to Worthless Things.

Read Daniel 5:1-4

Worthless Thing #1 — False Sense of Security

Babylon was surrounded by the armies of Persia, and he's throwing a party...why?...because he believed he was safe inside his walls...

The city of Babylon was surrounded by a complex series of walls, some of them over three hundred feet high and wide enough it is said that four chariots could ride side by side, numerous defense towers and fortified gates.

With what is happening outside the city, we are left with the impression that Belshazzar is trying to communicate a confidence that Babylon will survive all this, so let’s do everything we can to be happy…we’re secure with our wealth, we’re safe within our walls…we can live however we want to live, nothing can harm us in here.

The text here says that he invites the nobles to participate…as if to say to them“folks we’re okay, I’m the King, we’re safe here, don’t worry, be happy”.

Even the queen is not alarmed… “do not let your thoughts alarm you…don’t look so scared”…in other words, things aren’t as bad as they appear to be…she probably believed Daniel would give a favorable interpretation of the writing…even she clung to this false sense of security.

Your pride tells you that you are fine just the way you are and there is no need for change, pride says there is nothing wrong with you…pride says you don’t need Christ, you don’t need to read your Bible, you don’t need to be in church, you don’t need to be concerned about what you say, what you do, where you go…pride says you are good enough so don’t worry about that holiness stuff…pride tells you you are safe and secure without the need to consider God’s viewpoint...

Worthless Thing #2 — Fallacy of Worldly Pleasure

This is not just some “let’s get together and watch some football or play some hoops” kind of party…this was a massive, sexual, alcohol driven, sacrilegious party…thousands of noble men, etc.

Throughout the text you see Daniel telling us about them drinking wine…the words he used indicate drunkeness.

The king himself violated the protocol by drinking with his lords…in those days, the king would abstain from wine at banquets in order to maintain an aura of authority and self-control in the presence of their subjects…even Solomon warned kings against becoming intoxicated…Prov 31:4-5

In most Ancient Near Eastern cultures, men and women had very little public interaction with each other and were often separated on social occasions…in Esther 1 we see Queen Vashti holding a separate banquet for the women.

When this protocol was violated it often meant that sensuality was involved…again in Esther this is what got Queen Vashti in trouble with the king…she would not leave her banquet to come parade around in front of the other men.

Pride says this life is yours, live it how you want to…pride says “who does that preacher think he is telling you you can’t do that...”Pride says go for it, enjoy life to the fullest, you deserve your indulgences who cares what God thinks about them?

Worthless Thing #3 — Worship of Fake gods

the text says that he and his nobles drank and praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, stone…as if to say these gods will protect us…

The word for praise here implies the acknowledgment of high status to the recipient...

As if his idolatry was not bad enough, Belshazzar employs a special kind of stupid, that special kind of stupid is mocking God…and friends you don’t have to be drunk like Belshazzar to be guilty of mocking God.

he sends for the vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the temple in Jerusalem and uses them in their idol worship…

instead of holding those vessels and giving praise to God for what He did for Babylon, Belshazzar uses them to worships his false gods and while he is enjoying the drunkeness and debauchery…

His actions here are in complete defiance and desecration of God and all things associated with Him…Belshazzar openly defies the God of Israel in his idolatry…It would be equivalent in our day of our pride flipping God off and saying “I don’t care what you think God, I don’t believe in you, I am my own king.

You are a nobody God, you are worthless to me...” that takes a special kind of stupid!

Pride parades these fake gods around to us as objects worthy of our praise and pursuits…money, sex, sports, work, houses, recreation, comfort, relationships, and the list is endless…Pride makes those more important than pleasing God and when faced with a decision of priority the fake god wins out…it is at that point you have gone down the road of Belshazzar and you are one step closer to being deemed spiritually worthless by God.

What a sad picture…

What worthless things are you clinging to?

Is the road Belshazzar was on the same road you want to be on?

Pride tells you “your good to go, your safe, no need to change anything”…it tells you that you don’t need God or that you are “holy enough”…pride convinces you that you deserve all the “good things” in life and that God is just this “cosmic kill joy” who doesn’t want you to have any fun…pride lifts the glass to all the fake gods we pursue with greater passion than we do the one true God…pride whispers in your ear that a little indulgence here is just what you need… Pride never tells you to consider God’s point of view first, only your opinion and comfort matters.

The pursuits and idols that we desire more than God are worthless and put us in the center of the road of Belshazzar...Stop clinging to things that are worthless…Easy Street is Paved with the Pursuit of Worthless Things.

The second blunder of pride is ...

Pride Looks For Answers in All the Wrong Places.

Stop looking for answers in the “wisdom” of man.

Belshazzar calls for his wise men…remember these men were the best the world could offer…they were the most educated men in all the Empire and God once again shows us how inept man’s knowledge is when it comes to finding real answers.

Man’s “wisdom” is the last place we should want to turn to for answers to life’s problems…man’s wisdom says evolution seems right, psychology seems right, the political establishments seem right, the experts seem right…whenever something happens the world scrambles for its experts trying to explain it.

The experts are really ignorant to the truth...The world calls for its soothsayers when a terrorist attack happens...The world calls for its magicians when political unrest occurs.

The world calls for its diviners when men and women cannot determine their gender identities anymore...

The world’s experts are often paraded in front of us as if they have the all right answers to life’s problems; when the reality is, they are nothing more than talking bobble-heads who have no light of true wisdom and knowledge within them.

Why do we search for answers among the people who now tell us it is wrong to identify a baby’s gender when they are born…we are told it is now appropriate to leave that box on the birth certificate unchecked so they (theyabies) can determine their own gender?

That is man’s “wisdom”.

Remember these experts are using man’s “wisdom” which does not account for the greatest problem of all…sin and the separation and destruction it caused between us and our Creator...GOSPEL

Look to God’s Word for answers.

Why did the queen mention Daniel?…Read Dan.

5:11-12 …Daniel had a reputation for solving problems…Daniel did not apply the wisdom he gained from the Babylonian schools, he used what He recieved from God.

If Belshazzar wanted to know, he could have turned to the scrolls of Jeremiah who prophesied some fifty years before Babylon fell.

A northern kingdom would conquer the city — Jer.

50:1-3; Jer 50:9