In this thought-provoking episode, Sharon Otts explores the dangers of moral relativism as seen through the biblical story of Belshazzar. Drawing parallels between ancient Babylon and contemporary America, Sharon discusses the societal and spiritual consequences of abandoning God’s standards. This episode challenges listeners to reevaluate their understanding of truth and morality in today’s shifting cultural landscape.
Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Otts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And today’s message is timely and right on point. America weighed in the balance. In Bible days, a corrupt kingdom was placed on the scales of God’s righteous standards and was found lacking. Their failure to heed God’s warning brought the hand of judgment to literally right upon the wall of the king’s palace. You are weighed in the balance and found wanting. Today, America is being weighed in the balance of God’s word. So here’s the point. God is saying, don’t have an unjust scale and weights in your house because you might get tempted to use them. Amen. God says that these are an abomination to him. So let’s move along. What is the bag? God said the bag is his and the weights in the bag are his. So what is the bag? Anybody want to take a guess? Hold up your Bible. That’s the bag. And the commandments in there and the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of the epistles of Paul and the other apostles, they are the weights. Amen? They are the weights, but today people have one standard in the church and another standard outside of the church. And what has that done? That has devalued the authenticity of the Word of God. Amen. Now, let’s get this straight. It doesn’t change the word of God. It doesn’t alter the word of God. But in their sight and in the sight of all those around them, it devalues it. Amen? And so they begin to alter the word of God to the world’s standards. And God said, you are to conform your standard to my sanctuary standard. amen and that’s exactly what has happened the world America has rejected the Ten Commandments is stripped them out of the public square some of them been there for decades and some even longer amen but they’re removing them from society and I mean literally removing the granite that they’re etched in amen The standard of prayer and Bible reading stripped from America. And now it’s not only in the schools, now it’s in the military. How can you be a chaplain in the military and you can’t read the Bible and pray for people? Amen? There are places that if you wear a cross to work… They’ll tell you to take it off. And let’s face it, for some people, it’s just a piece of jewelry. They are no more thinking about Jesus dying on that cross for their sins than the man in the moon. Amen. But let a true Christian, let a real Christian come and wear a cross and all of a sudden HR is calling for them to come down. Tell them you need to take that cross off. Amen. And all the while we’re importing the gods of all the people coming to America. We’re importing their gods with them. Amen. They’re bringing their gods with them. Now, If they bring their gods with them, then what our job is to do is to bring them to Christ. To bring them to the Lord. And show them, like Paul did when he went to Athens, you are serving an idol. Can that idol talk to you? That’s a stone idol made with somebody’s hands. And you’re going to call that your god? But instead of us being able to do that, because now Christianity is being persecuted, ridiculed, and prosecuted. We’re no longer able to share our faith openly and publicly. So now we got the double whammy of importing idol gods into America and Americans now getting our hands tied and getting duct tape put over our mouth so we can’t share the gospel with them. Amen? You know it’s true. So we have changed our standards, listen to this, to accommodate our preferences. The standard of biblical truth is mocked because now truth is relative. Truth is relative. Whatever you decide is truth for you is okay. And whatever you decide for truth for you is okay. And so on and so on. And it’s okay for you even if it doesn’t fit with the societal norm. Even if your truth doesn’t fit what 98% of the society believes about marriage and other things like that. It’s okay. Your truth is your truth. even if it doesn’t fit with societal norm, and much, much less if it fits with the biblical standards that God said. We each can create our own standard of truth. Everybody gets to create their own standard. Now, just let me throw this out to you. If we all changed how many ounces are in a pound, what would we have in this country? We would have chaos. You wouldn’t know how much to pay for what. And people would start arguing and fighting and shooting because you overcharged them. Because your pound weighs so much and their pound weighs so much. And it’s the same way that we’re talking about now. When everybody creates their own standard of truth, you have chaos. You have confusion. All right, hypothetically, and I’m not great at math, so don’t hold me to this if I mess up, but this is hypothetical. Okay. I’ve thought of this on my own, so I’m not going to say it’s 100% correct, but let’s just say hypothetically that Baltimore city has made a decision that from now on, they’re only nine inches in a ruler. Okay? All Baltimore City is going to conform to it. We’re teaching in our schools there’s only nine inches to a ruler. It means all the stores, the Home Depots, the Lowe’s, et cetera, hardware stores, nine inches now is to the ruler. That’s the new standard. Okay? So now you live in Baltimore County, and in Baltimore County it’s still 12 inches to a ruler. But you need to buy some flooring for your house. And you decide to go to Baltimore City to buy it because there’s a store there that you want to go to to buy your flooring. Now, you need, if you go in Baltimore County and you’re going to be buying it by the square foot, how many square inches is in that square foot in Baltimore County?
SPEAKER 1 :
144.
SPEAKER 01 :
I said inches. And how many know how you get the area? Come on, you know, remember. How do you get area? Length times width. 12 times 12 is 144. So you’re going to get 144 square inches in Baltimore County. But you go to Baltimore City and their ruler’s 9 inches. So how many square inches are you going to get in their square foot?
SPEAKER 1 :
81.
SPEAKER 01 :
But you’re paying by the square foot. And even if they both charge the same amount, $2 a square foot, even if they both change that, let’s make it easy, $1 a square foot. But when you go to Baltimore County, you’re going to get a lot more for your square foot. When you go to Baltimore City, you’re going to be cheated. right you’re going to be cheated nine square inches for every square foot is that correct am I right so far because it’s a three inch difference so you’re going to pay different amounts in Baltimore County you’re going to pay for a hundred square foot if it’s a dollar square foot and you need a hundred square foot how much you’re going to pay a hundred times one Right? It’s a dollar a square foot and you need a hundred square feet. You’re going to pay how much? That’s y’all got these funny looks on your face. Am I telling the truth? Come on, Benny. Is that right? Okay. But if you go into Baltimore city and you want to get the same amount, but now you are short, right? So how much you’re going to pay in Baltimore city? to get the same amount. Anybody know? Come on, somebody knows. I did on 200, so I’m real quick here. On 200, I knew that you were going to get less because it’s short. You were going to get only 63 square foot to the same 100 square foot in Baltimore City. Anyway, I was going back to the $2 a square foot. Let me just get cut to the chase. You’ll pay $200 in Baltimore County, but when you get to Baltimore City, you’re going to pay $326 for the same amount. Amen? Based on $2 a square foot, and you need 100 square feet. Now, don’t get hung up there in the rest of the sermon. You’re trying to figure out if I’m right or wrong. I’m pretty sure I’m right, but, you know… I don’t claim to be a mathematician. I want you to see how that you are cheated. Amen? And let’s bring it into the spirit where we are. If we change the standard of truth and we let it vary from person to person or group to group or even state to state, what kind of problem are we going to come up with? We’re going to come up with corruption. amen think about a seamstress who has got a she’s wants to make a dress and we know that when you buy it by the yard material by the yard so if you live in Baltimore County it’s going to be 36 inches to a yard but if you live in Baltimore City it’s only going to be 27 inches to a yard how’s that going to mess her up in calculating how much she needs to make the dress that she needs how many see what I’m saying it corrupts everything and And I say to you that a society and a nation that changes its values of truth is of no spiritual value because they have become corrupted. Turn with me to Daniel the fifth chapter and we’re going to see what God has to say about a kingdom that has become corrupted. Daniel 5 and looking at verse 1. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple, which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem. And the king and his princes, his wives and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. How many knows this is not good? So Belshazzar was technically the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar. And you remember we talked about this recently that Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem, tore down the city walls, ruined the city, tore down the temple and took all of the holy instruments and furnishings out of the temple and took them to Babylon. And now here’s his grandson, who’s king now, and he’s having a big drunken party. And while he’s in the midst of this, he says, hey, somebody go get those golden goblets and silver goblets that my granddad got from the temple in Jerusalem and bring them out so we can drink out of them. And they were not only drinking out of them, they were laughing and mocking and worshiping the gods of silver and gold. And I tell you what, God wasn’t going to sit up on his throne and let them get away with it. Look at verse 5. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins, his loins, his hips were loosed and his knees smote one against another. I bet they did. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers. And the king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck. And listen to this and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king’s wise men, but they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished. Oh, how quickly their revelry, their mocking, their laughing, their drunkenness. I mean, he got sober in a heartbeat. Amen. He was scared to his hip joints came loose and his knees were knocking against one another. And then he brings in all the wisest men and the astrologers and all of those people and said, you know, if you can tell me what I don’t, you can’t even read it. It’s in a language I can’t even read, but if you can read it and interpret it, I’m going to give you scarlet clothes and robes and gold chain and make you the third ruler over my kingdom. And nobody could do it. None of them could. They couldn’t even read it, much less interpret it. and he was even more troubled now and all his lords and all their wives and prince and princesses they were astonished and the word means they were alarmed and they were perplexed verse 10 now the queen by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house and the queen spoke and said oh king live forever let not your thoughts trouble you nor let thy countenance be changed Because there is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him. Whom the king Nebuchadnezzar, thy father, the king I say thy father, made master of the magicians and astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers. for as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences or riddles and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Belteshazzar not to be confused with Belshazzar two different names it was what Nebuchadnezzar called him now let Daniel be called and he will show you in the interpretation so The king said, okay, all right, call for him. Call him right away. Bring him in. Amen. So they brought in Daniel and the king repeated about, I’ll give you a gold chain and scarlet robe and I’ll make you third ruler. And if you can tell me, Daniel said, I don’t want your gifts. I don’t want your rewards. I don’t want nothing to do with them. But I will tell you what it says and I will tell you the interpretation of it. And he began, first of all, by reminding Belshazzar about his grandfather and how his grandfather had come under the judgment of God. Amen? And let’s pick that up and let’s drop down for sake of time to verse 20. But when his heart was lifted up, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him. And he was driven from the sons of men. He was driven from human beings. And his heart was made like the beast and his dwelling was with the wild asses. They fed him with grass like oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till he knew. that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appoints over it whomsoever he will. So Daniel boldly reminded him, before I tell you what it says and what it means, let me remind you about your grandfather. Amen? How that he had gotten lifted up. And look at verse 22. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, although you knew all this. He knew that his grandfather lost his mind. He went insane. He acted like a beast to the point he was driven out of the palace, driven out of the city, driven around from human beings and went out in the field living with the donkeys and the oxen. There he is down on all fours eating grass like an ox. And his body was covered in, it says, dew. And I don’t know if he got hairy. I don’t know what happened. I’m not going to try to make it like Hollywood special effects and turn him into something the Bible doesn’t say. But suffice it to say, he was insane and he thought he was an ox and he acted like one and he ate like one. He went out there with the asses, donkeys, amen? He was stubborn, and he withstood God, and this is what happened to him. And I didn’t check this fact out, but I believe he was out there seven years. And then, after that, God delivered him from that. He was returned to his throne. And boy, he sang another song when he got back. A whole nother song. He was praising the God of heaven. And he exalted Daniel. Daniel became the prime minister of the land. And he was in charge of all the wise men. All the wise men. Daniel was their governor. Now how could Belshazzar forget that so soon? He had forgotten so much about it, he didn’t even remember who Daniel was. It was his wife that said, don’t you remember Daniel, the one that told your grandfather about the image that he saw? That image, and he told him the dream and interpreted it. So here this man, he has been so corrupted that he forgot what happened to his grandfather and about Daniel. So now Daniel’s brought in now he’s going to tell him what’s going on 23 but you have lifted up yourself against the lord of heaven and you have brought the vessels of his house before you and your lords and their wives and their concubines have drunk wine in them and you praise the gods of silver and gold of brass iron and wood and stone which cannot see nor hear nor know and the god in whose hand your breath is and whose are your ways you have not glorified Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. And this is the writing that was written. Mene, mene, tekel, eupherson. This is the interpretation. Mene, God has numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you are weighed in the balances and are found wanting. Perez, which is what eupherson is. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. imagine imagine seeing a hand just a hand appear on the wall up there the white part of the wall and start writing something you know we’ll say hebrew start writing hebrew letters up there now first of all if you if you don’t pass out from seeing a disconnected hand If you manage to survive that or you faint, you come to. And then you see this writing up there and you’re thinking, what does that say? And what does it mean? Because obviously it means something very important that I need to find out. Amen? And so Daniel was able to read it and tell him what it meant. Mene, mene. And that word means… You are numbered and finished. And whenever you have a doubling of the word like that, it’s intensifying it. Intensifying it. Teckle. You were weighed in the balances and found wanting. Now here we get the picture that I’ve already described. God has his scales. God has his weights and he has one scale and one weight for everybody. Doesn’t matter if you’re a king or whether you’re a fool. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter what nation you’re from. It doesn’t matter what background you’re from. God has one scale and one bag of weights. And he put Belshazzar on the scale. and then he took out his just and righteous and holy weights and put them on the scale and when he did that went way down like this and belshazzar went way up here and god said you see all that you’re wanting you’re lacking you’re lacking righteousness you’re lacking holiness you’re lacking truth What a scary thing. How scary that must have been to be there when God placed him and his kingdom on one side of the scale. Amen. And he said in verse 30, And that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain. That very night. That Daniel came and gave him the interpretation. He was slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom. And if you know your history, you’d have to dig this out of the history. Because I talked about Cyrus not too long ago. Remember when I talked about King Cyrus? He was king of Persia. And Darius is king of Media. And guess what? They were uncle and nephew, so they split it up between the two of them, and one took one part and one took the other part. So it came to pass, just like the handwriting on the wall says you will be divided, because the word Perez means to divide something in two, to split it. And it happened in that very, very night. Amen? He had made his decision. He did not care about the word of God. He had forgotten completely who Daniel was. And honestly, tell me, how can you forget about a man who was thrown in the lion’s den and wasn’t eaten and came out? Amen. How can you forget about this guy? Amen. But he was so corrupt and he made his own choices and he was weighed in the balances of God’s judgment. Why do I say this to us? Why do I bring this out? Because saints, when I look around and see how the standards of America have changed so rapidly. They didn’t like gradually. I mean, we’re reeling. We reel over one thing and something else hits us. Amen? It’s been happening rapidly. And you know this verse, but you might want to turn there to Isaiah 520 and you’ll see how this is how you change the standards. This is how people change the standards of God’s word. Isaiah 520. We’ve been quoting this a lot lately. We quote this verse more now than the last year or so that I heard it quoted the whole time I was growing up in church. Isaiah 520. Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Look at verse 23. Which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him. Now this is how you change your standard. You take God’s standard that says this is good and this is evil. And you start calling the good evil and the evil good. When we heard this when I was growing up, really we thought it was far-fetched. We didn’t really think anybody would really be that stupid. Okay, so you don’t want to serve God. So you don’t want to go to church. Okay, but you don’t go around calling good evil and evil good. You still knew. You still understood righteousness and unrighteousness, good and evil. You may not have been ready to surrender to God and serve him, but you still understood what his word required. Amen? And you still called good good and evil evil. But this is what is happening. Now listen to what the prophet Micah said, and he was a contemporary of Isaiah. He said, who hate the good… and love the evil. So now we’re progressing. It’s getting worse in America today. There have always been people who did evil from the time of Cain. There have always been people who did evil, but now people love evil. Amen. There have always been people who do evil, but now they hate good. And now they hate those who do good because they justify the wicked for reward and they take away the righteousness, the right judgment for the righteous. Amen. This has been a radical change that is occurring in America, changing the standards, the moral values of this nation that were built on biblical concepts. And no matter how they try to deny it, it is what it is. You don’t have to dig very long and very far to see that America was founded by godly men using biblical concepts. Amen, what an eye-opening word of the Lord. America weighed in the balance. God said it was an abomination for his people to corrupt the temple standards of measures by having two sets of weights in the bag, one honest and the other deceptive, so as to cheat people into getting less product for their money. Every scale and set of weights in Israel was to conform to the set of weights in the house of God. But dishonest sellers had two sets of weights in their bags, using the heavier set when they sold their merchandise. This is where the term double standard comes from. And when you change the standard, the weight of something, you change its value. God said in Proverbs 16, 11, the bag and the weights in the bag are his. The bag is the Bible and its laws are the weights, the standard of right and wrong. and America was founded on these Judeo-Christian standards. Today, there is a double standard in America and in the church. People have created their own set of corrupt weights, devaluing the truth of God’s Word. We’ve come to the place, as Isaiah prophesied, when they call evil good and good evil. And when a society changes its standards, it then must change its laws to facilitate the new standards. This necessitates redefining words to conform to the new laws. Sin is a weakness, a disease. It’s an alternate lifestyle. What was once a personal preference, such as homosexuality, is now the new standard for which the law was changed to legalize same-sex marriage in America, and God’s standard for marriage was struck down. It has opened the door to prosecute Christian vendors who will not participate in same-sex weddings. Men can change standards, laws, and dictionaries, but it won’t change the reality. God holds the scales and the weights in his bag. America weighed in the balance is a fresh word in due season, and it’s available today on CD for your love gift for the radio ministry of $10 or more. Request SK201. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or shop online at soundoffaith.org, where you can order on MP3s. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10, request SK201 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Saints, I hope you will order the CD and even shop our e-store for other timely messages by myself and my dad, Brother Hardy. But if not, I urge you to send your best donation to help us with the cost of airtime on this station. If you are inspired, informed, blessed and refreshed by our program, we want to hear from you and your support can help us stay on this station. Until next time, this is Sharon Knott saying, Maranatha.
