Well, good morning. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking. Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask. Through the worthiness of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. On March 17, 2020, Governor Kate Brown prohibited gatherings of 25 or more people, and in Executive Order 20-12 titled, Stay Home, Save Lives, the citizens of Oregon were told It is essential to the health, safety, and welfare of the state that, to the maximum extent possible, individuals stay at home or their place of residence, consistent with the directives set forth in my Executive Orders. To be fair to our governor, at the time, most of us didn't know whether COVID was the next bubonic plague or not. And to date, over 1 million deaths have been attributed to the complications resulting from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Most of y'all have caught the virus multiple times, some of you, and we all know someone who has either almost died or has died from it. And so by using this example, I'm by no means trying to imply that the last two and a half years haven't been fraught with fear and sadness and pain for tens of millions of people all over the world. And I'm not saying that the governing authorities' decisions were easy. Ruling in any capacity is hard and all rulers, all leaders have to make decisions to the best of their ability with whatever facts they have in hand. I don't doubt at the beginning of COVID most all rulers were trying to do their very best. They were trying to make the best decisions for the greatest amount of people possible. And yet, good motives does not wisdom make. In our story today, I don't doubt King Darius thought that he was making a decision and enacting a law that was going to be good for the Medo-Persian Empire. He had recently taken over as ruler of Babylon and in an attempt to quell division and bring a sense of unity to the people, he thought that making a law that would require everyone to worship the same gods would do the trick. If the safety and welfare of the state just needed 30 days to flatten the curve, then that was a sacrifice everyone should gladly make. Or so he thought. Darius didn't seem to take into account that while Daniel was obviously loyal to his king, he wasn't ultimately loyal to him. Daniel's loyalty was first and foremost to his God. And so when confronted with a decision as to who he must obey, Daniel didn't cause a stink, but he didn't waver. Like faithful Christians before and since, Daniel's decision was driven not just by a good motive, but by the ultimate good motive. Daniel's motive was to glorify God. And therefore, Daniel's decision and the way that he did what he did was driven by the word of God. As we'll see though, Daniel's decision, while faithful, may not have been the only faithful decision a God worshiper could have made during the days of Darius's decree. Daniel's decision was wise because he took into account God's Word and all the variables in his particular situation. So while he could have made another faithful decision in theory, The one that he made was written down for our instruction. And I think we can learn a lot from it. So, saints of RCC, if you're willing and able, I invite you to stand to honor the reading of God's holy word from Acts chapter five and Daniel six, where we see faithful men choosing to obey God rather than men, even men in authority. Hear God's word. The high priest rose up. And all who were with him, that is the party of the Sadducees, and filled with jealousy, they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life. When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach. Now when the high priest came and those who were with him, they called together the council, all the Senate of the people of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. When they brought them, they sat them before the council, and the high priest questioned them, saying, we strictly charged you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us? But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. And now Daniel six. It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom 120 satraps to be throughout the whole kingdom, and over them three high officials, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps should give account, so that the king might suffer no loss. Then this Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. The king planned to set him over the whole kingdom, Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. Then these men said, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel unless we find it in connection with the law of his God. Then these high officials and satraps came by agreement to the king and said to him, O King Darius, live forever. All the high officials of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors are agreed that the king should establish an ordinance and enforce an injunction that whoever makes a petition to any God or man for 30 days, except to you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O King, establish the injunction and sign the document so that it cannot be changed according to the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked. Therefore, King Darius signed the document and injunction. When Daniel knew the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. This is the word of the Lord. Oh God, add your blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the preaching of your word and grant us all the grace to trust and obey you. And the church said, amen. Please be seated. Despite what most people think or will tell you, most of us are more comfortable with law than wisdom. Law is easy. Law seems black and white, and law lets us define who's in and who's out, and we like that. There's a comfort to that, a security, a sense of control. Wisdom, on the other hand, makes us uncomfortable. Wisdom is hard, wisdom is gray, and wisdom requires a great deal of humility. Now, unfortunately, even though we've said over and over again, Daniel is a wisdom book, brothers and sisters have come to it, and this passage in particular, to make laws that they then impose on others. I've heard Daniel 6 used to argue both sides of the debate when we should or shouldn't obey governing authorities. Some of our brothers and sisters use this text to show that when an ungodly magistrate makes an unjust law, particularly around worship, we have an obligation to object loudly and publicly. Other brothers and sisters have used this exact same text to say that we are only permitted to disobey when the laws enacted are enacted to target Christians because they're Christians. And so they each apply their law, not from the text, but from their presuppositions that they brought to the text. If you disobeyed the government and if you stayed open, you don't love people and you're a rebel without a cause. If you obeyed the government and didn't continue worshiping exactly like us, you don't love God and you're a yellow-bellied coward. Now I confess, it's really hard for me not to fall into that latter group, but if and when I do, it's not because of a careful exegesis of Daniel 6. It's pride. I think there are enough nuances in Daniel's story that don't allow either position to be the position. Rather, Daniel's story gives us one wise response among many, and we can and must learn from his example. As our nation becomes more godless and enacts more unjust laws, We're all going to be faced with decisions as to how to best glorify God in the face of a lot of difficult and complicated situations. My prayer is that we at RCC would grow in wisdom and humility such that we see that while we do obey God rather than men, how we obey him might look differently depending on the particular situation each individual finds themselves in. And I hope that because we recognize wisdom can take many faithful forms, we can all be blameless and pure in the midst of a crooked generation, even while making different decisions in the process. So we're going to look at Darius's law and see exactly what he's trying to get everyone to do and see that it's not altogether different than some of the laws passed in our day. And then we're gonna look at how Daniel responded to the law and discuss some of the reasons Daniel might have done what Daniel did. And then finally, we're gonna look at how many of you may find yourself in similar situations and might have to consider how to wisely disobey, which could look different depending on where you're at. So first, Darius's law, which isn't as heavy handed as you may have previously heard. Let's set the timeline to get our bearings. We are in year 538 or 539 in the 69th year of the Jewish exile, which Jeremiah said would last 70 years. Daniel chapter 5 ended with God killing the head of the golden and lion-esque kingdom Babylon and giving it to the silver bear kingdom of Medo-Persia over which Darius the Mede ruled. Daniel 6 begins with Darius setting up 120 satraps or governors over the various provinces in the empire, but that's actually a round number. We know from Esther 1 and 9 that the number was 127. And we know from Ezra 1 that this is gonna be the year that God's people are sent back into Jerusalem to begin reconstructing the temple. But those events are just around the corner. For those of you, shameless plug, don't come to adult Sunday school, now is a great time to jump in because Devin is already back in Jerusalem laying out the historical details that Jeremiah and Daniel prophesied about. Now we're going to dig a little more into those details in two weeks when we get to chapter 10, but Adult Sunday School is where you're gonna get a deeper dive into what I think is one of the most neglected time periods in Jewish history and one of the most significant if you're gonna understand your New Testament. So Adult Sunday School. Today, we're in Daniel 6. And the timeline is the first year of Darius, the Mede, and Cyrus the Persian. And we'll talk about who those are in a couple weeks if I have time to figure it out. He has just set up his governors and his rulers. And apparently, just as he's always done, the now 80-something-year-old Daniel quickly distinguishes himself. And so, just like many men and women who live a long time, Daniel gets to see history repeating itself. Just like when he outperformed the Babylonian wise men, these wicked state officials are insecure, and so they draft a law aimed directly at Daniel, but not because he worshipped the God of the Bible. This story cuts the legs out from under those who would say, you must obey the government unless they're persecuting you because you're a Christian. These guys were seeking to persecute Daniel, but not because they didn't like his God. Daniel had something they wanted, power, and he was about to get more. Daniel was about to be put over the whole kingdom. And so these greasy politicians started digging into his past. They looked at his punch card, but he was always the first one in the office and the last one to leave. They searched his internet history, but even though he didn't have covenant eyes, his computer was clear of evil. They even got ahold of his tax records. found out he hadn't cheated the state out of a single penny. In fact, one time they made an error and gave him too much money back and he repaid them with interest. Okay, none of that. None of that actually happened. Those are just anachronisms for those of you who want to try to be above reproach, like Daniel. But these guys did search high and low to see if they could find something, if they could find anything to hold against Daniel. But there was nothing. His work life was without spot or blemish. And so the only thing they could do was come up with a law they knew he wouldn't keep and then pounce on him when he broke it. These guys would have made great lobbyists. They knew that if they were going to get Daniel to trip up, they would have to pit his allegiance to his God against his allegiance to his King. And so they come to King Darius, and they get him to sign an executive order stating that for the next 30 days, everyone had to forsake praying to any God except Darius, And if they did pray to or petition any other God or man, they would be thrown into the lion's den. Now, if we read carefully, we see this law wasn't requiring anybody to pray to Darius. The law simply said, if or when someone prays, then it needs to be to Darius. Now again, in all likelihood, Darius is thinking about this law being good for his country. He's not directly targeting Daniel's religion because he's against Daniel's religion. He's not persecuting Daniel for his beliefs. Darius is simply making a temporary law to bring the nation together. And once everything is under control, then everybody can go back to praying to whoever they want, whenever they want. It's a pluralistic society. Polytheistic, I mean. Remember, these people, they have just been through perilous times of war and bloodshed and division, and the people's loyalties are all divided. And so to unite the kingdom, to show that we're all in this together to bring peace and prosperity to the land. Everyone needs to lay aside their personal loyalties and display their loyalty to the empire. Not forever, just for 30 days. We have to get through this rough patch and if you're really loving, If you really care about the nation, you'll cease praying to your God, just for a bit. You don't even have to say there's no King, but there is. You can still love your God in your heart, but right now you need to love your neighbor. It's just for 30 days. And then you can go back to your regularly scheduled worship and pray to whoever you want. Again, the law didn't go after God's people because they were God's people. The law didn't require them to pray to Darius, and the law was only temporary. The law simply said, if and when you pray, pray to Darius. So that's the law. And as you can see, it's not altogether different from the laws we were being asked to keep. The country is in turmoil. If you love your neighbor, you'll do this. This isn't targeting Christians for being Christians. This is only temporary. You can still worship God in your heart. And when this is all over, you can go back to what you were doing. When you read what the actual law is in Daniel 6, many of our brothers and sisters might have argued that Daniel should have obeyed. You can imagine how they would have tried to convince him. God said, Daniel, while we're in Babylon, we're supposed to seek the welfare of the city. And if this will bring peace and safety, then for 30 days, just stay home and pray to God in your heart. Then go back to normal, Daniel, and pray in public. They probably would have sent him the latest Gospel Coalition series on how Christians need to obey the single greatest command in the entire Bible, don't upset your neighbor. When Daniel says he's not going to obey Darius' decree, they accuse him of being unloving and legalistic and divisive. There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to pray every day out loud in public, Daniel. You're being so rigid, Daniel. You must be one of those frozen chosen Presbyterians. Daniel, are you in the CREC? You know those guys worship Doug Wilson and not Jesus, right? Okay, Daniel. But if you don't obey Darius and love your neighbor, we're gonna spread lies about you every chance we get. You know that, Daniel. Okay, maybe it wouldn't have gone down like that either. That scenario I painted wouldn't have happened in a million years, or at least not for 2,557 years. But despite how light-handed the law was, and how easy it would have been to just disobey in his heart, Daniel didn't just disobey the governing authorities in his heart. Verse 10 tells us that once Daniel knew the document had been signed, He went to his house where he had the windows open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees and prayed three times a day, giving thanks to and praising his God, just like he had done previously. We get the sense that not only did Daniel disobey the law, he disobeyed it in a very intentional way. When you read it through, verse nine says, Darius signed the document. When Daniel learned that it had been signed, he goes immediately to his house to do what he did. Daniel hears, Daniel goes, Daniel defies. But he doesn't defy Darius like an immature teenager throwing a fit on the palace steps. He simply goes home and does what he's always done. There's a sense of meekness. There's a sense of restrained strength to his defiance. I kind of imagine it like when Sarabi in Lion King is leaving Scar's presence and all the hyenas are nipping at her heels. She doesn't freak out, she doesn't cause a scene, but she's unflappable in her defiance. You can see it all over her face. Much like with Jesus and the apostles, there is a dignity to Daniel's defiance. But make no mistake, it is high-handed defiance. There is nothing in the Bible that says you must pray toward Jerusalem. There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to pray three times a day. And there's nothing in the Bible that says you have to pray with your windows open. In fact, you could probably twist Jesus's words and say that Daniel should have been praying in his closet, not where anyone could see him, especially during the 30-day moratorium. And I actually think that Daniel very well could have gone into his house, shut his windows, and prayed to God in secret. and that wouldn't have been sinful. I imagine that there were all sorts of faithful Jews who did that very thing, and I have no doubt God was pleased with them. But Daniel chose to disobey a law that wasn't necessarily targeting him for his faith in a very specific, very public way that God didn't command. Again, this goes against the notion that unless you're being asked to do something God forbids or not do something He commands, then you have to obey the government. Daniel would have been treated quite badly in our modern culture by Christians even. All right, we're skipping that part. Again, not every Jew had to do exactly what Daniel did. And in fact, it might've been foolish for them to have done so. But Daniel did what Daniel did because of who Daniel was. Daniel was a leader and had been for a long time. So people are looking to him for courage. Daniel was a single man. in his 80s, so he didn't have a wife and kids to look out for. And Daniel was wise and experienced enough to remember the last time a king tried something like this. Nebuchadnezzar had gone even further than Darius and required everyone to bow to his image and everyone who didn't would be thrown into the fire. Almost 50 years had passed, but back then Daniel defied that king, was thrown into a fiery furnace, and was delivered by an angel without so much as a thread on his garment being singed. And so because of who Daniel was, when he took all the variables into account and placed them in subjection to the word of God, Daniel chose to do what he did. If it were another man, even another wise man, he might have done something different. But Daniel chose high-handed, public, godly, humble defiance. And just like that, the politicians pounce. They gotta. Probably quicker than they even thought they might. Verse 12 through 24 record what happened next. The guys go get Darius, and they explain what Daniel had done. The king, who not only seems to value Daniel for his wisdom, but actually cares about him, is now incredibly distraught. He's been tricked and he knows it. Even though his motives were good, his lack of wisdom, his lack of knowledge and putting God's law into place kept him from seeing the potential consequences of his actions. Much like our own lawmakers are doing now, Darius frantically tried to clean up the mess that he'd made. But he didn't have the wisdom for that either. Instead of making a law that said a king could overturn a law, he went and threw Daniel into the lion's den. The next day, he ran out to see what he was sure was a tomb by now and cried out for Daniel. And Daniel responds. He responds by telling Darius, that angel that was with him in the furnace had come back and shut the mouths of lions because God weighed Daniel's actions, measured them against his word, and found Daniel glorious. And so knowing that his friend had been delivered from death, he lifted him out of the tomb and restored him to prominence. And then doing his best Nebuchadnezzar impression, he threw those wicked men and their families into the dark abyss where there was undoubtedly weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then chapter six closes with the conversion of Darius. Just like Nebuchadnezzar, Darius pens an epistle to all the peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth. Listen to his testimony. Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in all my royal dominion, people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. He is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end. He delivers and rescues. He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions. And so this Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian. And then he sends him to go build the temple. Now typically we'd close by drawing out ways that this story testifies to Christ. And it wouldn't be too difficult to do. Like Daniel, Christ stood up to the authorities in his day in a wise, godly, humble, high-handed way. The Jews were very much like the satraps and the wicked politicians in that they manipulated the Roman authorities into doing their dirty work for them. They conspired against Jesus, hid behind the law, and under the guise of political peace and the well-being of the state, had Jesus thrown to the proverbial lions. Like Daniel, the same day Jesus was betrayed, he prayed in an upper room. And like Daniel's three friends, Jesus's friends fell asleep. Like Daniel, the friends that ran to the tomb to see if Jesus was still alive were given the task of discipling the nations and telling people from every tribe, tongue, and nation about their risen Savior and God. And that would be fun, and I think we would all be better off for it, but Daniel 6 gives us a chance to think through some things that we don't get to address every week because we're trying to stick close to the text and not our personal agendas. Many of you are very much living in a Daniel 6 world, and I don't just mean on the macro national level. You've been living at a Daniel 6 world at your jobs for some time, and if we can reach back to Daniel 3, things are heating up. You're being asked, maybe not to deny Christ, but you're being asked to check your religion at the church door. You're being required to put things in your body you're not sure about. You're being required to attend diversity training, put pronouns in your email signatures, and refer to someone with a five o'clock shadow as ma'am, even though women in the office won't let you call them ma'am in Oregon because that's sexist. I didn't know. You don't have to agree, they say, but you do have to submit. You can pray to your God on your own time, but while you're in our kingdom, you will obey us for the sake of unity and love, you know? Now, some of our well-intentioned brothers and sisters would tell you that for the sake of the gospel, for the peace and prosperity of our land, do what you're told. Don't disobey your governing authorities or God by violating Romans 13. Don't go to worship. Wear your mask, get your shot, call hymns hers and hers hymns, and give your rulers a bunch of money so they can pay people to come get abortions. You know, for Jesus and the gospel and stuff. But then, You hear other Christians, again, brothers and sisters, telling us the complete opposite. Don't back down. Get loud. Do a flash mob psalm sing at work during diversity day. Leave those blue states, move to our red state where you can worship God and country in public. Oh, and buy some chickens. I don't know what it is with these people and chickens. But beloved, both camps, and again, there are brothers and sisters, but they're making laws unto themselves, and then they're judging every situation by it. Contrary to what they might say, they're more comfortable with law than wisdom. Maybe an atheist stopped hating God and started loving Him because they found out some Christian somewhere wore a mask while watching church service from home. Can't wait to meet Him in heaven. And maybe dealing with the Texas heat is better than putting up with Oregon politics. Okay, it's better. But that doesn't mean you should move there. Whether you think of it as a mission field to save sinners or a trench warfare where you take the long haul approach and wear them down, moving won't change Oregon and her wicked say traps. Now sure, if someone requires you to disobey God, you choose death over disobedience. It wouldn't be the first time. But most of the time, people aren't requiring us to blatantly disobey God. They literally don't have the power to make anyone disobey. Even when they try, though, there are countless ways to disobey and defy and still be faithful. Don't feed their ego by running away or throwing a wall-eyed fit and getting yourself fired because you think that's what you have to do to please God. Now maybe you're a leader and people are looking to you for courage. Maybe like Daniel, you're single, and you're close to retirement, so you publicly and high-handedly defy ungodly rules and rulers, and you get fired for your unfaithfulness. Praise God. But maybe you're 42, and you have a wife and four kids, and you need to support them, so you get a shot. God be praised, you chose wisely. Maybe you have family in another state and the cost of living is crazy here. And you can get a job at a Christian company in Texas that will be so great to work for until they go woke, so you move. God be praised for his provision. Or maybe you decide not to go. You stay. You're forced to put pronouns on your email. But you raise up a gaggle of Christian kids who marry Christian spouses. Maybe they follow your example of trench warfare and they stay and they have a bunch of kids. The dads work hard and lead well. The moms saturate the kids with God's word and teach them wisdom. Maybe our generation recovers some of that old RCC chutzpah that got homeschooling legalized and we get back into serpentine politicking. Your family serves the church every chance you get and does good wherever you can. And maybe this Oregon Trail wilderness generation drops dead. But one day, I don't know, 69 and a half years from now, because you stayed and were wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove, crafty, faithful, defiant. Maybe our kids' kids and the people that have converted to Christ and had kids, They outnumber everyone who doesn't understand the math behind same-sex relationships, and so they reclaim the state for Christ. So in the meantime, you become an accountant that's so good at your job, your Darius-like boss gives you more slack than anyone else. Or maybe you start your own business where you employ other Christians. Maybe you go to law school, and even though it's hard, You bite your tongue and call him's hers long enough to become a judge and then you judge justly. Maybe you get super up to speed on God's word and his law and you study the great thinkers who have worked out what a just society would look like and you start helping the rest of us know when and how to vote. Maybe you become a nurse or an electrician or a businessman. Whatever the scenario, if you stay and if you go, you're going to need wisdom if you're going to prevail faithfully in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. You'll need wisdom. And wisdom is found in a multitude of wise counselors. You're not Daniel. And there's no one way to obey God and defy wicked rulers. So get godly counsel from wise men who will help you lie faithfully so you can sleep with a good conscience. Use us. I know, and you know, a lot of people freaked out during COVID and fought like cats and dogs, but we had fun. Session meetings were like a strategy session on how to obey God, defy the state and do both faithfully. It was fun. Maybe I'm sick in the head, I don't know. When we decided in late April and early May of 2020 to resume in-person worship, I called the sheriff and let him know what we were doing. I explained why and that we didn't want to cause them heartache or paperwork, knowing that they hate paperwork more than heartache. I've made sure to say paperwork a lot, but we were convinced that we had an obligation to provide for people spiritually during scary times, even if that meant defying our governor. If there was a way we could do it, I told them, without causing them too much trouble, we would love to accommodate them, but we're going to worship. We've done so ever since. And you know who gave us the most grief? Not the sheriff, not the health officials, Not our unsaved neighbors who I walked around and told, by the way, and invited. Other Christians. Those examples I gave weren't just because I have a good imagination. And yet God seems to have blessed us and blessed you. People and their children have come to Christ And many of you have come along to join us in our journey, so let's just keep going. As we do, let's be guided, not just by our motives, even if they're good ones. Let's be guided not just by our conscience, for our consciences are only as good as what are informing them. And let's not be guided by the talking heads on TV and the internet, even if those talking heads are our brothers and sisters. They don't know you. They don't know the specifics of your situation, and so they don't know wisdom for you. By all means, trust in the Lord with all your heart, but lean not on your own understanding. If God has drawn a clear line, by all means, let us tow it with courage. But those lines aren't always clear as we think. So let's do our best, Johnny Cash, walk the line together, most of you know what I'm talking about, for the glory of God and the life of the world. Amen? Let's pray. Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the Old Testament and for revealing him as the fulfillment of all these things in the new. Give us your spirit so that we might understand these words and the fullness of your truth as you have revealed him to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory now and forever. Amen.