End Time Commitment

He was a top leader in the Babylonian government. This was the government that had killed his people, had obliterated Jerusalem. He served as the head of their sorcerers and their astrologers, whose God was Satan. He did well, and he will reign with Christ at his return. You live and study God's Word inside a Babylonian society, who God says, its God is none other than Satan. At the end of your life, God too expects you to reign with Christ in his kingdom. Between now and then, is your period of trying and testing? How well will you do in the time ahead? You and I are all intrigued by a period of time the Bible calls the time of the end. This time that's ahead is going to be very difficult, very challenging. Many times we fear living at this time because of what may lie ahead that we have to go through. Do you ever wonder how will I live? How will I live out my life and the time ahead? Will I be successful? Will I make it? I hear people expressing that quite commonly. I wonder if I'll make it through the end time. Well, what specifically will become of you in the years ahead that God has given you to live? What level of commitment will you maintain when times get tough? Well, today I'd like to examine a topic, end time commitment. Because when we think ahead and we think of the end time, we think of challenges that will go on in society in a time when Christ said would be the worst time that will ever be on earth. Do you have the type of commitment that will see you through such a time? I'd like to examine the concept of end time commitment and what it means. When you're alone, when you're isolated from other Christians, you're out in society in this modern Babylon-ish world, you're really living your personal faith. You're living out what you believe, what you are really committed to. You have human nature, you have temptation, and you also have God's Holy Spirit. And these are all at war within. When you're alone and you're out there at work, at school, at play, it's just you and them. You and your human nature and your carnality and temptations and God's Spirit. When I say it's you and them, that's what it's about. And where are your commitments? How do they really play out? It's time to decide when you're out there. It's time to live and be who you really are, to live your faith. And this actually happens every week between the Sabbath. We have our church day when we come and we're inspired by God's Word, but then we step out, don't we? Each of us step out into our individual roles. And at times or all the times, we go through the rest of the week and we live according to our own commitment. Sometimes our environment is pleasant and conducive to godliness, and sometimes it can be very, very tumultuous.

We know at the end time there is three and a half years of the worst of the worst to get through somehow. The Bible calls it the time or the time of the end. We often refer to it as the end time. It's the end of this 6,000 year reign of Satan, of mankind going his own way. Just as we have six days during the week where we do our work, then there comes another age. The end of the present age, this evil age the Bible calls it, is replaced by an age of God, a period of a thousand year reign of Jesus Christ and the saints. So this end time is talking about the end of the age where Satan rules the world. Do you have the level of commitment needed to see you through anything ahead? Now we can stand up here and think about this, and we can sort of think it and imagine it and do a whole bunch of what-ifs.

And maybe you can go home and say, well, I don't know. Well, I hope at the end of the sermon today you will know, and you can know if you have end time commitment in your life. Let's walk through an actual biblical end time scenario, and we'll see what is needed and see examples of the commitment that's required and come to realize it's very doable. It is very doable if we have the type of commitment that is required to see us through. We'll begin in Jeremiah 15 and verse 1. You have to imagine yourself in your country as being the prophet, the spokesman whom God is now prophesying and speaking to your country about. And the Lord said to me, said Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable towards this people. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth. Now, it's one thing to be the prophet and speaking these things or writing these things. It's another thing to be the local citizen, the resident, and know what's going to happen. And it shall be if they say to you, where should we go? Then you shall tell them, thus says the Lord. Such as are for death to death, such as are for the sword to the sword, such as are for the famine to the famine, and such as are for the captivity to the captivity. In verse 3, and I will appoint over them four forms of destruction, says the Lord. The sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. Jeremiah is a person of God, called of God, had the Holy Spirit of God, and what he's being told is, there's no way out. There is no way out here. It's death and destruction, and I will hand them over to trouble, to all the kingdoms of the earth, because Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. In verse 6, You have forsaken me, says the Lord. You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you. I am weary of relenting. And as these words were coming out, Jeremiah is beginning to shudder and shake and wonder, What's going to happen to me? How am I going to get through this? Am I going to be able to get through this? Verse 7, I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land, and I will bereave them of children. I will destroy my people. You know, it's pretty serious charges. Their widows will be increased to me more than the sand of the seas. I'm going to kill off all the young men. And here's one young man writing.

I will bring against them, against the mother of the young men, a plunder at noonday. I will cause anguish and terror to fall upon them suddenly. Terrorists, we think about terror or terrorism and all of that mushrooming today. In the future, we see the potential of terrorists' attacks going nuclear. And we begin to wonder, as we see the prophecy of the Bible, can I get through this?

And this is exactly what Jeremiah is facing himself as he is writing this. In verse 13, your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder without price because of all your sins throughout all your territories. And I will make you to cross over with your enemies into a land which you do not know. You're going to go into captivity, for a fire is kindled in my anger which shall burn upon you.

In chapter 16, in verse 12, And you have done worse than your fathers. Behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to me.

See, there's something here with this society. No one's listening to God. And therefore, verse 13, I will cast you out of this land to a land that you don't know.

Neither you nor your fathers. And there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor. Okay, so we transpose ourselves through Jeremiah's eyes into an end time of it. This was the end of the kingdom of Judah, and he sees it unrolling right before him. What does he say? Let's look back in verse 15 of chapter 15.

Oh Lord, right in the middle. Oh Lord, you know me. Remember and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors, and your enduring patience. Do not take me away. Why? Know that for your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them. And your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of your heart. For I am called by your name, O Lord of hosts. Something was different about Jeremiah, wasn't it? And you'll find that when all this destruction fell upon Jerusalem, Jeremiah was right there in the middle of it. At the same time, Ezekiel had gone with the early captives to Babylon, and he was writing the prophecies of the destruction of Judah from Babylon. Jeremiah, in a sense, was trapped. And yet at the end of Jeremiah's life, he was miraculously spared, and allowed to, I believe, go to Egypt for a short time and live.

So we learned right off the bat that while these prophecies are about the civilization that is sinning against God, there are people who are committed, who ate God's Word. It was the joy and rejoicing. He was called by their names. Verse 17, I did not sit in the assembly of mockers. I'm not part of this. I am living my life in a committed way.

It's a very good example that the godly are always living their faith.

Jeremiah didn't say, oh, maybe I need to wake up. No, he had always been living in a committed way his whole life.

In such a circumstance, what would your spiritual condition be? If it all fell in right now and you just got the Word, it's like, oh! And all these prophecies that Christ said are going to happen to the world around us, what would your situation be or mine? It's a good question. Let's look at the life of a person who lived securely in the church, the church previously, and then went through its end time, and then became a captive in another country, and then went through a second end time. The end of the captive, or the captor's country, came, and he was there as well. Can you imagine the kind of chaos?

In Jeremiah 21 and 3, we'll set up the scene that really took place, and we'll see real people with end time commitment that saw them through, and God was with them.

Jeremiah 21, beginning in verse 3, Jeremiah said to them, as he's been told to by the Lord, Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, and on back to the king, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands. In other words, you have an army, but I'm going to turn your weapons back on yourselves, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besieged you outside the walls of Jerusalem, and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.

You're going down. Jerusalem had been besieged. It hadn't been taken, but the outer territories had been taken and already fell, but they felt confident that the walls of Jerusalem were going to save them. But verse 5, I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast.

They shall die of a great pestilence. Here's Jeremiah again. He's going to be there. And afterward, says the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hands of those who seek their life.

And he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them or have pity or mercy. There was only one way to get out alive. Now, you shall say this to the people, says the Lord. Verse 9, Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, by pestilence. But he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans, to the Babylonian army, he shall live and his life shall be a prize to him. And it was up to people in the city at that time to make a choice.

Some did defect, and imagine what it was like to be a defector under those circumstances to go outside and give yourselves up and not be there to support those, not be there to help defend the city. But some defected. For I have set my face against this city for adversity and not for good, says the Lord. And it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. In Daniel 1 and verse 6, we pick up the story of a teenage boy, actually four teenage boys. How many of you here today are 16 years old? Girls and boys. Any 16-year-olds? We have one 16-year-old. Okay. Who's about to turn 16 in the next day or two?

Katie. Okay, let's have you two stand up for just a minute. We want Katie and Aaron Meininger. Katie Knudsen and Aaron Meininger stand up. Okay, turn around, face the audience. Everybody look. This is what's 16-year-old. This is how old Daniel was. Thank you very much. This is how old Daniel was. Daniel walked outside the city with a few of his teenage friends and gave himself up.

And it happened that in Daniel chapter 1, verse 1, in the third year of the reign of Jehoa, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoa, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God right out of the temple, which Nebuchadnezzar carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God. Then he brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. And then the king instructed Asphinaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men, in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace and to whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

So from among the young that came, the young boys that came, certain of them were selected. And they had to be sharp. They had to be gifted. They had to be good-looking. They had to then be taught the language of the Babylonians, Chaldean, and also the literature and the writings, which was pagan, very, very steeped in paganism. And the king appointed for them daily provisions of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank and three years training. Daniel came at age 16, it is believed, and so at age 19 he would have finished his three years of training and would be ready for, well, we'll see here in a minute, that time they might serve before the king.

Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananil, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who we often refer to as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But these four Jewish lads were selected. Verse 7, to them, the chief of the eunuchs, uh-oh, that doesn't sound good, gave names. And he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah, Shadrach, and to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah, Abednego. Now, these names were names dedicated to Babylonian gods, as an example. Daniel in the Hebrew means, God is my judge. That's a wonderful name. One of the wonderful names that a person can have, God is my judge. But the name they changed it to was Belteshazzar. In Chaldea, it means the Depository of the Secrets of Baal. In other words, I am the repository of the Secrets of Baal. That's my name. And everywhere I go, I am called, oh, repository of the Secrets of Baal. What do you have for us? What can you tell us? Imagine being a child of God and end up in that position. It gets worse. In chapter 2, we find that Daniel actually was thrust into being in the position of the nation's chief sorcerer. We don't tend to think of this, but it was a lifetime position. Now, in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. The dreams troubled him. And notice, the king, verse 2, gave command to call these people. The magicians, would you like to be a magician of Baal? No.

The astrologers, would you like to be an astrologer of Baal? No. The sorcerers, would be a sorcerer of Baal? No. And the Chaldeans. Are you a Chaldean? No. He's a Jew. And yet, Daniel was in that group. So you can see what they considered him to be. So they came and stood before the king, and the king said, I have had a dream, and my dream I am anxious to know. My spirit is anxious to know the dream. Then the Chaldeans spoke to him in Aramaic. O king, live forever. I don't think Daniel spoke Aramaic. Tell your servants the dream will give the interpretation. But the king answered and said, Oh, no, no, no. My decision is firm. If you do not make known the dream to me and its interpretations, you shall be cut in pieces. Your houses shall be made in ash heap. However, if you tell me the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts, rewards, and great honor. Therefore, tell me the dream and its interpretation. You talk about being in an end-time situation where you've been taken captive along with those who disobey God, and now you're not only in a foreign country, but you've somehow managed to become part of Baal, part of the pagan system. You're associated with that. In verse 10, the Chaldeans answered and said, There's not a man on earth who can tell the kings matter. There is no king, lord, or ruler who has ever asked such a thing, notice, of any magician, astrologer, or Chaldean. It's a difficult thing the king requests, and there is no one who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh. So for this reason, the king was angry and very furious and gave the command to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree went out and they began killing the wise men. Okay, you guys? Line up. And they're chop, chop, chop. And they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. Why? Because Daniel and his three friends were considered magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and or Chaldeans, which they weren't the latter. That's what they'd been trained for, and it was their time to die. Do you have the character, the commitment to see you through whatever the difficulties are ahead? We see here Daniel living it out for us, and he's given us as a great example, a wonderful example. In verse 16, So Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the decision no to Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret. So Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Eventually, Daniel would find release from this because of God's favor. There was a reason why God favored Daniel, and I'm sure why God actually had Daniel placed in this particular situation. Daniel was a righteous man. He obviously wrote the prophecies here, and things went well for him. But consider the odd position he is in. The odd position he is in. Verse 46, Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, prostrate before Daniel, and commanded that they should present an offering and incense to him.

Because when he revealed this dream, it was just incredible the way God did it through him. And the king answered Daniel and said, Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you could reveal a secret. Notice how Daniel, even by the king, is associated with God. All this time Daniel has a commitment to God and being godly. And the king associates Daniel with God. Then the king promoted Daniel. Oh, this is great. He got many great gifts. And he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon.

Already defined for us as the magicians, the astrologers, and the sorcerers. And he's the head. And Daniel petitioned the king and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Here's some history of this period. Within 30 years after Nebuchadnezzar's death, the empire of Babylon was crumbling. We leap forward now, some time, about 60 years. His son, Nebuchadnezzar's son, Nebodenas, who held the throne for 17 years, actually preferred archaeology to ruling.

Now, this is where it gets interesting for me. If you like archaeology, you're back. He's back doing archaeology in Sumer, or the land of Ur, where Abraham is from. He's actually probably digging down into Sumerian and Sanskrit tablets. He's doing archaeology going back 1,600 years from now. Go back 2,600 years ago. We're digging up stuff, and we think it's cool. He's 2,600 years ago. He's digging up stuff that went back probably to the years 2300 to 2200 B.C.

And Nebodenas, who's the king, the ruler, is having a good time doing archaeology. I wonder what he was digging up. It must have been really cool stuff. To him, it was about 1,000 years old. That's pretty exciting. 1,500 years old?

I guess it was more like 1,500 years old stuff. He was pulling out of the ground, and these ancient civilizations, the first writings in Sanskrit or Sumerian, and that empire fell, er fell, right after God got Abraham out of there. It fell in 2004 B.C.

Here's Nebodenas. He's just enthralled for 16 years, 17 years. He's letting his government go. He let it go over to his particular son, Belshazzar. Belshazzar's in charge of the Babylonian government. You know how it is when somebody starts a business, they start it with a passion, and they sacrifice, and they build the business. Kind of like a country, Nebuchadnezzar, he really gets Babylon into the first empire. But then the kids come along, and especially the grandkids always unravel a business. Because the grandkids come in, and they just want the cars, and the money, and the jets, and the fun.

And they don't really care about the business so much, they spend it all. And so that's basically it. Belshazzar, he's the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, and he's partying. In fact, he's having a party the night when the writing on the wall took place.

The army fell into disorder over time. People then got involved in materialism, and trade, and money, and what it could buy, and pleasure. Babylon, which had a big fortified wall, couldn't be beaten, wasn't very well protected. They forgot how to fight. The army forgot how to go to war. The priests usurped a lot more of the power, and it kind of became a religious quasi-materialistic state.

By this time, 66 years had passed since Daniel came at age 16. He's now 72 years old, or something, sorry, 82 years old. 82 years old. And he now sees another end time. How was Daniel's commitment holding up through those 66 years? Had he gotten cushy? Had he gotten into materialism? Had he gotten into the sort of the religions that he was supposed to be overseeing? Or was he still committed?

Let's look at Daniel 5 and verse 16. Daniel 5 and verse 16. This writing takes place on the wall. Bini, meenie, tikal, yufarsin, bell shazur has been brought up. Look in verse 12. Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting, dreams, solving riddles, explaining enigmas, will have found him this Daniel, whom the king named bell tishazur. Now let Daniel be called and he will give the interpretation. Isn't he a brilliant sorcerer, magician, and astrologer? That's how they're viewing him. So Daniel is brought in.

The king said to Daniel, are you that Daniel who is one of the captives from Judah, whom my father the king brought because he defected? I have heard of you, that the spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they could not give the interpretation of the thing.

And I have heard of you that you can give interpretation and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, you shall be clothed with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck and become the third ruler of the kingdom. And Daniel said, oh yea, oh yea, oh yea, I want gold around my neck, clothed in purple, and I want some of the power of this kingdom.

Right? Now this really shows Daniel's character in how he responds. Daniel answered and said before the king, Let your gifts be for yourself, and give your rewards to another, and yet I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. Now look in the 30th verse and find the fall of this. In reality, this is the second end time because it was the end of the Babylonian Empire, and Daniel was once again right in the middle of it.

Armies in collision. People were going to change orders, and some of them were going to die. From history, Babylon became ever richer, making it a tempting target for invaders, but they did not adequately protect themselves. And eventually, the Persian king Cyrus surrounded the city. But you can't break into Babylon. And so Belteshazzar was having his party, and it really didn't matter.

Because the thing about Babylon was, it was a huge city with a big wall around it, and it had the River Euphrates running right through the middle of it. Therefore, they could just go on eating, they could catch fish, they could grow crops, they could happily just keep on with their gardens, and sort of laugh at anybody who drew up outside and wanted to besiege them, starve them out.

So it was impenetrable. From World News and Prophecy, this verse 25, that is written, Mene Mene, Tychil, you farce and Daniel boldly interprets it as, Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. And Mene is repeated twice for emphasis. God has numbered your kingdom, and it's done.

It's done. Tychil, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. In some ancient societies, there are murals that show when a person dies, they are put in a balance or on a scale, and they are weighed to see how worthy they are as far as judgment goes. And this may have been a term that they would well understand in that Chaldean society, because you are found wanting.

Perez, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. So what happens here is Cyrus diverted the Euphrates River. One of his generals actually was smart enough to figure out there had been an ancient riverbed of the Euphrates, and he simply diverted the river upstream into that ancient sea bed, or riverbed, and it went around the city. And if you are in the city, you don't hear the river stop. It just sort of gets a little quieter and a little lower, and the troops came in underneath. Quite a few of the Babylonians actually welcomed the troops in and opened the gates, so it was really a done deal.

Those who inside the walls had opposed Belshazzar's rule opened the gates on October 12, 539 B.C. And the next morning, Daniel was suddenly under a new government with a new religion. His faith would be tested again right away by jealous rivals. The Life Application Bible states, at this time, Daniel was over 82 years old.

I'm sorry, he was over 80 years old. He was probably 82. And he was working with those who did not believe in his God. It's tough to dwell in the end times, in a society that is ungodly, among people who try to pull you different ways and expect different things from you than you are living.

In Daniel 6, 3, this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. And the story goes that the governors and satraps then were jealous. They wanted to get rid of him. And so they came up with an idea. Okay, king, we need to pass a decree that for the next 30 days, nobody can pray to anybody except you. You have to be the only one.

And if anybody is praying to anybody else, they have to be thrown into a den of lions and just shredded. O king, verse 8, now establish the decree in Sihan and writing, so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which does not alter. They pressured the king, and he probably didn't realize what was going on, but okay, he signed it.

Verse 9, he signed it. What we find next is very troubling. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. That's a tough day. You knew that was coming. You saw it coming. What did Daniel do? He just kept doing as he should. He saw it coming. He heard the king had signed it, and he simply went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he prayed. Now, why would windows be open toward Jerusalem? Just keep your finger here and go to 1 Kings 8, verses 27 through 30. 1 Kings 8, verses 27 through 30.

We find here the dedication of the temple by Solomon. I'm going to read verse 27. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? He says that in verse 23. God is no God like you. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot continue. How much less this temple which I have built? He says, Yet regard the prayer of your servant in his supplication, O Lord, verse 29, that your eyes may be open toward this temple night and date, toward the place of which you said, My name shall be there, that you may hear the prayer which your servant makes towards this place.

And may you hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place, here in heaven, here in heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive. So here is Daniel, back on Daniel 6. And he opens his window toward Jerusalem. He knelt down on his knees three times that day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. This is nothing new in Daniel's life.

He's just doing what he's done since he was a child, and he just continues to be committed to being a godly person, no matter what the consequences. He went home every day and prayed three times a day, and this day would be no different.

In verse 12, they went before the king, have you not signed a decree? A person should be cast into the king of lions. The king said, yes, this is true. Verse 13, so they said, this Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, you know, 66 years later, he's still known as a captive from Judah, does not show due respect to you, but he makes his petition three times a day. Now, verse 14, notice this.

Here's the character of a person. The king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased within himself, and he set his heart on Daniel to deliver him, and he labored to the going down of the sun to deliver him, to find a way to deliver him. And the king, the men approached the king and said, oh, we know what you're doing.

We're trying to deliver him. He said, but know that the law of the Medes and Persians, that no decree or statue which the king establishes may be changed. So the king gave the command, they tossed him in to the den of lions. But notice, the king spoke to Daniel, middle of verse 16, your God, whom you serve continually, he will deliver you.

See that commitment in the continuity? It had always been there. This is the lesson for what we might call end time commitment. It's not a commitment you have when you get to the end time. It's not something you do when you're, oh, no, times are changing, things are getting bad.

I guess I better turn into something else. In verse 19, then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. This is a great king. And he's concerned. And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions? And Daniel said, Oh, king, live forever.

My God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths so that they have not hurt me, because I was also found innocent before him. And I have also, oh, king, done no wrong before you. Now the king was exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. And so Daniel was taken up out of the den. And no injury whatsoever was found on him because he believed in his God. In Daniel 12, verse 13, it's an amazing statement.

Daniel lived his life, his adult life, in a very pagan environment. And he was expected to do all manner of things. And yet Daniel was committed to godliness through it all. And in the 12th chapter of Daniel, verse 13, the last verse of the whole book, Daniel is told, But you go your way till the end, for you shall rest, you will die, and you will arise to your inheritance at the end of the day.

In other words, Daniel will be resurrected at the end of the end time and be one of those reigning and ruling with Christ. That's a wonderful tribute. Wonderful tribute. What is God saying about you? What is he saying about me? Are you and will you live your life, your faith, with a commitment, as Daniel did? Always, no matter what?

Well, you can know. And the answer to that question is, have you been? Have I been? In other words, are we? Are we? God is not going to leave us or forsake us if we are committed. In chapter 8, verse 23, Daniel looks to you and me. He looks down to our time, another end time. He was given a prophecy for us, and in a sense, he could see what he went through. He was probably wondering how you and I would do. It says in verse 23, In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features who understand sinister schemes.

And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power, rather Satan's power. And he shall destroy fearfully, and he shall prosper and thrive, like Nebuchadnezzar did during Daniel's time. He shall destroy the mighty and also the holy people. There will be tough times. It's going to be a repeat conquest by Babylon, very similar to what Daniel experienced. Verse 25, Through his cunning he shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule. He shall exalt himself in his heart. He shall destroy many in their prosperity. He shall even rise against the Prince of Princes. His armies will fight against Jesus Christ. But he shall be broken without human means, just as God reduced Nebuchadnezzar.

You can read all about this in Revelation chapters 18 and 19. Verse 26, And the vision of the evenings and the mornings which is told is true. Therefore, Daniel, seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future. Those days will be the three and a half years of great tribulation. In 539 BC, Daniel viewed our era. He viewed our end time that's coming. And it says in verse 27, And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick for days when I thought what you would be going through. Afterward I rose and I went about the king's business. End times are tough times. There's no doubt about it.

The prophesied time at the end is nearing. It's your turn to live and work in a revived Babylonian society. Living amidst its system of government, religion, commerce, education, lifestyle, entertainment. Moving towards the uniting of a ten-nation government that will dominate, led by a false religion. How are you living your faith in a modern Babylonian society? Do you have end time commitment? That's a good question I ask myself. I hope you'll ask yourself. Are we living that each day? What would Daniel think of you and how you're living?

We don't know if one day you and I may end up like Daniel alone, individual. That the church may be scattered. We know it will be shattered. In Daniel 12, verse 7, it says, Then I heard a man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, When he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, And swore by him who lives forever, that it shall be for three and a half years, a time, times, and half a time.

This is a great tribulation. And when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished. What does that mean? The power of the holy people shall be completely shattered. I don't have an answer for that, specifically. Is that the power to preach the Gospel? Is that the organization? Is that the structure? We don't know. We could all end up like Daniels. Many will ultimately go into the place of safety that is promised in many places in the Bible.

But God has a purpose and a role for all of those who obey and fear Him and are committed. And whatever that purpose is, God will work it out, just as He did in the life of Daniel in a very unique way. We don't know our individual, specific futures, but we do know about our world today. We all live in a revived Babylon. We live alone by ourselves much of the week, like Daniel. Our teachers, our bosses, our leaders, our system often go against the Word of God.

Our own nature tries to conform us to the world around us more than to godliness. And the God of this world opposes us and tests us and tempts us, tries to finish us off. So whether or not any of us live into those last three and a half years, we are in an end-time environment, and we are struggling for our spiritual survival. But if you always live your faith without question, without compromise, without doubt, if you're convinced, you're assured, you're confident, you're positive, you're optimistic, you're a spiritually godly-minded person, believe it or not, you can progress in any situation, just like Daniel did, in probably one of the most impossible situations you can imagine, and he was able to flourish.

It reminds me of a young lady in the church. Her name is Caitlin. I got to talk with her at camp for an extended period of time. She's been going through her little end-time scenario. A father dying slowly of a tough cancer finally died. A young lady, older teenage, who works in an environment that's very ungodly, where the staff around her just laughs at her for being virginous, for being religious, for keeping the Sabbath when they are working, pressures from her bosses.

The fact that when times get tough, she has been discovered by somebody who opened the door, actually praying in the stockroom, made a laughing stock up, and horrified to find that she had a Bible in her purse, which she would read at breaks, instead of going and gossiping about all the immorality that the other ladies at that place are involved in.

But I asked her, I said, you know, I love hearing this, how, like Daniel, you're living God's way no matter what, you're just plowing on through. She said, what does your company feel about you as an employee, as a contributor to the bottom line of the company?

She said, oh, well, let's see. They trust me. I said, how many keys do you have in the company? Well, I have a key to this and a key to that. She says, what about the others? Oh, they don't trust them at all. Everybody, as you leave work, all the women as they leave work have to open their bags and show them to security because they're trying to steal the company blind.

But she says, every time I come up, they always say, oh, not you, not you, Caitlin, you go on through. Oh, I'll show you. No, no, come on, get out of here. Never show my bag. You know that, again, it's like Daniel, isn't it? Well-respected. And yet, if you and I will live our life with that godly commitment, we will be just fine.

In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6, it says, For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness. Imagine what that means. Light. Jesus Christ living in you gives light to the world, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power might be of God and not of us. It's really not about you and me. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. Notice, always, always, carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus always might be manifest in our body.

That's us. We're Christ-like. We're going about the business of being Christ-like. In chapter 5, verse 1, we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We can die. We can go and perish. For in this we grow in earnestly, desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. Verse 9, Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to God. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

In conclusion, your opposition is Satan. He wants you to lose confidence in God. He wants to destroy the family of God before it ever gets off the ground. He wants us to doubt. He wants you to run into self-centered survival mode when things get tough. But you're not going to do that. You're not doing it now. And you don't stand for that.

Your foundation is that you know God. You know Christ because they live in you. And they're working out their purpose in you and in your life. You strive to obey them under any circumstance, any situation. This is living by faith and by trust and by deed. This is what you and I do. It is in-time commitment for all times. I'd like to close with Romans 8 and verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are of the called according to His purpose. Are we learning from what God is doing? Are we listening to Him? Verse 31, it says, What then shall we say to these things if God is for us? is a mistranslation.

If you look in your margin, you should say, Sense God is for us. The Greek word ei can be rendered sense. Sense God is for us. Who can be against us? What will take the love of God out of you and me? Well, God's not going to do it. It didn't come out of Daniel. It didn't come out of His three companions. It didn't come out of Jeremiah. It didn't come out of any of the apostles who lived through the end of the Jewish state before Rome crushed it.

I would posit to you that if you are living, committed to godliness every day, and you're praying like Daniel did every day, and you're considered to be a person devoted to God and godliness every day, that you will continue that for the rest of your life through any circumstance in any situation, no matter how big, no matter how small, no matter how scary, you will have end-time commitment.