Please almighty God to bless
us together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn
to the book of Daniel chapter 3 and read verse 28. Book of
Daniel chapter 3 and reading verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego who had sent his angel and delivered his servants that
trusted in him and have changed the king's word and yielded their
bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their
own god. The accounts of Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego is of course very interesting, we might say quite
fascinating to the natural mind. But of course it has a wonderful
depth and important truths that are contained in it. And one
of the great and important blessings and effects are to set before
us the faith that these men had in their God, in the Almighty
God, in the God that they trusted in. And we have the glorious
evidence of how their faith was honoured by Almighty God. But we see also the gracious
submission that was given to these three Jews, a wonderful
submission as they came before the King, And they spoke to the
king. And they said, now, as the king
had approached them and told them that when they heard that
music, they were to bow down and worship. And the king said,
and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Well, these three men, they answered.
And they answered very wonderfully, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not
careful to answer thee in this matter. We can realize that in
their answer they were just straight down the line. They weren't using
any guile. They weren't trying to produce
a situation which was not real, but here they were very honestly
speaking. And it's good for us today when
we realise that neither is for us to be honest and straightforward
in our answers. And so they said, if it be so,
Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning
fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King. But if not, be it known unto
thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
golden image which thou hast set up." So they had faith in
the Lord God, believing that he could deliver them, but if
it was not his will, then they would submit to that will and
to suffer death in that burning fiery furnace. It is a great
example for us in the day and age in which we live. To be able
to come in earnest prayer to our God, we may be faced, perhaps
not with this situation, but there may be difficulties in
our lives, trials and temptations, and we pray to God that he will
deliver us from them. And of course, we have in our
little minds a view of how that would occur. And no doubt, these
three men had the same view, that they realised, well, the
Lord could change the King's mind and they wouldn't be thrown
into the furnace. But you see, that wasn't the
King, the Lord's work. The Lord had determined that
a more wonderful deliverance would be achieved, something
that men could not produce themselves. And so these men were allowed
by God to be thrown into this burny, fiery furnace. And it
may be, therefore, in our lives sometimes that the Lord permits
us, as it were, to have our faith tested and to be thrown into
the midst of difficult situations, things that we hoped would not
really come. But in the midst of that position,
the Lord sends deliverance. And when the Lord brings deliverances,
it's in such a way that perhaps we could not have envisaged,
they would never have thought that they would not have been
affected by that immense heat in that furnace. But God was
with them. that surely is the great need
that we have today to know that God is with us and that God will
be a deliverer to us in his way and in his purpose if it is his
will. We always need to recognise the
will of our God and thinking of that to realise what the Word
of God says. True words, wonderful words,
as the Apostle said, and we know that all things work together
for good to those who love God and to those who are called according
to his purpose. And how true that is, therefore
in our lives to know that all things If we are part of the
family of God, part of the church of God, all things are working
together for your and my eternal good. Isn't that humbling to
think of that? To realise that our life's minutest
circumstances, subject to the eye of Almighty God, And he allows
things to come into our lives for our instruction, for our
benefit, for our teaching. It's not as though the Lord doesn't
know what's going to happen. He knows our path. He knows His
dealings with us. And He knows that what He has
purposed will be for our souls eternal good and for His honour
and for His glory. We must never lose sight of that
great truth. that our lives, the Lord's dealings
with us in our lives will be for his honour and for his glory
if we are his children. It may make our life sometimes
uncomfortable. It may make our faith put to
the test. Perhaps very often, but it will
be for his honour and for his glory. And so here we have the
submission of these three men to the will of God. and they were able to say, but
if not, be it known unto thee, O God, that we will not serve
thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
But of course today in our nation we don't really have to suffer
too much, although we can see the dark clouds of oppression
on the horizon. We say there are those enemies
of God who are latching on to every opportunity, to accuse
those who are the true worshippers, those who desire to do that which
is right and to stand fast and firm. There are many today who
are on the lookout to cause such to be persecuted and to be charged
with offending the laws of the land. So in some extent there
is still then this great need to have this great blessing that
we might be found amongst those who stand fast for the truth
of God. Now, it's all right to stand
fast, isn't it, when things are easy, when everything's nice
and smooth, when there's no opposition. Not very hard, is it, to stand
fast? But you see, when the opposition
arises, and when people accuse us wrongly and misjudge us, then
it's not easy to stand fast and firm for those things which we
believe are right in the sight of Almighty God. Well, what a
blessing then if you and I are given the grace that these three
men were blessed with. Now, as we've read, together
they were cast into the furnace, and God was with them in that
furnace in a most amazing way, and as Nebuchadnezzar spoke when
he came near to the mouth of the furnace and spake and said,
ye servants of the most high God come forth and come hither
because he'd seen them there in that furnace and he'd seen
them there and there was with them as it were that fourth person
like unto the son of God and well it amazed Nebuchadnezzar
and so they were brought forth. And then Nebuchadnezzar spake. This is what he said. He said,
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who hath
sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in
him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies,
that they might not serve nor worship any god except their
own God. Now the solemn truth is that
although Nebuchadnezzar was able to make such a statement as this,
if you read it carefully there's no real evidence that Nebuchadnezzar
was a worshipper of this true and almighty God. He had observed
a wonderful miracle and he acknowledged that they had been brought out,
they'd been delivered by those who trusted in their God. But he made no claim to that
God being his God. It's a very vital point, isn't
it? You see, we can read such an
account, and it's a very solemn thing when people observe the
truth of God, observe the miracles of God, can acknowledge that
there's something really supernatural, but it does not touch their hearts. They are not moved by the great
and glorious work of God. therefore they are unaffected
and they are not brought to that great and blessed knowledge of
their Saviour, the need for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
have here this statement. You see, Nebuchadnezzar said,
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. He doesn't
speak of that God as being his God. He's speaking of the God
of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. My friends, you and I need to
go farther than that. We need to be able to speak that
such a God is our God. That we worship that God, the
true God. That we're not just interested
in making statements about things which have occurred but that
we are joined together with those who have been delivered, those
who have been blessed with precious faith, that we may come and bow
down and worship the same Almighty God as our God. And so we have this statement
by Nebuchadnezzar. Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered
his servants that trusted in him." Well, that was so true.
What a wonderful blessing it is today if you and I are given
that grace to trust in the Lord. The Word of God tells us to trust
in Me at all times. All times. a blessing if we find
ourselves in times of great stress, times of great temptation. There
will be times, my friends, of great stress when our religion
will be tested. We'll have to stand firm. You
know, Daniel was a man who had to stand firm. He was greatly
tempted. You know, we read right in the
end of This book of Daniel, the very last word Daniel was told
by God, but go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest
and stand in thy lot at the end of thy days. He was to stand
firm in that lot that God had given to him, that place that
God had placed him in. He wasn't to wander away. The
blessing, God was with him. What a blessing that would be
for you and me to know today that God is with us and he gives
us that faith therefore to trust in him. I believe if God gives
us that faith to trust in him like these three Jewish people
and Lord give us that living faith then to commit our way
unto him and to believe that what he has done and what he's
doing for us will be good and will be right. and delivered
his servants that trusted in him. The Lord does. He knows how to deliver us from
all times of temptation. And there will be times of temptation. Times of temptation when sometimes
we're tempted to give in to our flesh. Tempted to give in to
our flesh. My friends, that won't bring
any profit to our souls. It may be an easy way to our
flesh. We're tempted to take that path. You know, in Proverbs
you read on two occasions, the solemn words, there is a way
that seemeth right to a man. You and I might ponder the things
and think, well, let's go this way, this will be the easy way,
this will be the right way, this may encourage this one and that
one. But it's a way that seems right. It's not the right way.
It just seems right. But the end thereof are the ways
of death. It's not the way of life. We're
not to follow a way that seems right. We're to follow the way
that is right. These three men, they followed
the way that was right. And what was that way? That way
was to stand firm for the truth of God and not to bow down to
those idols. Sometimes there may be idols
in our lives. God brings idols sometimes in
our lives. And it may be that we are bowing
down to them. I don't mean necessarily idols
of wood and stone, those physical things, but there may be idols
in our lives. And the Lord may have shown you
and me what those idols are. And we may therefore have been
found, as it were, bowing down to those idols. Has it been beneficial
to our soul? Has it brought us nearer to God? The devil is very active in trying
to turn us out of the way. The devil is very keen to direct
us into the broad way, that way that seems right. And yet you
see, there's no life in it. All there is, is death. Death
to the soul. Well, these three men, they follow
the way which to nature would seem the wrong way. They could
have bowed down to these idols, or would have been plain sailing.
But you see, they would have had that conscience to answer
to. My friend, sometimes God brings
us in the times of testing. We're brought, as it were, to
stand before a holy God. And as we stand before our holy
God, he speaks to us and directs us so that we have to examine
our motive and to see whether it is God
honouring or whether we're bowing down to some idol. And the idol might be the idol
of self. If we were faced, as these three
men were, with certain death, And we had the option of just
changing our views, going a different way. You know, the tests were
very great and very real, wouldn't it? No man hates his own flesh. What difficulty it would be.
What temptations it would be. And yet here we see the wonderful
example of these. who trusted in the Lord. What a blessing for you and me,
my friends, if we're found trusting in the true God, the real God. And Nebuchadnezzar tells us,
he says, these had changed the king's word. That means they
wouldn't obey the word which is not in accordance with the
will and word of God. No, they changed the king's word. The king had said they should
do this. They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't
obey it. And instead, they were willing
to yield their bodies. Yield their bodies. Give up their
natural life. Yes, they had a greater desire
to serve the Lord. To do God's will and to please
themselves and to serve themselves, we have, do we not, a wonderful,
great and glorious example in our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. What did he do? He yielded up
his body. He yielded it up in order to
do the will of his Father. He submitted himself to the law
of his gracious God. He obeyed him, knowing what was
before him. These three men were blessed
with a similar grace, weren't they? And my friends, may you
and I be blessed today with that similar grace, choosing rather
to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season. Yes, choosing rather to suffer
affliction, opposition, persecution, hardship. My friends, the Lord
walked that path. The Lord sets us a great and
glorious example, does he not? What he endured, we can't comprehend,
as he bore Our punishment. The punishment that was so due
to you and me. The Blessed Saviour came and
He bore it. Yielded their bodies. Yielded
their bodies. The ultimate test, isn't it?
The ultimate test to yield our bodies. To do the will of Almighty
God. There will be times without any
question in our lives when there will be an option set before
us. That's whether we will serve
the Lord or no. Whether we will take the easy
course, or whether we will be blessed with that same willingness
that Moses was, to suffer affliction with the people of God. The Word
of God tells us a very great and glorious Word. If we suffer
with Him, we should also reign with Him. What does that mean? It means this, united to Christ
in this world and united to Christ eternally. And so therefore we
should count it a privilege and count it a blessing to be found
walking in the way of Almighty God. Yes, following Him, His
great and glorious example. And following the example we
have of these three men who yielded their bodies. Well, my friends,
we may not have to yield our bodies as such. We may have to
do things which we have to yield to. Things which may be very
painful for us. We may dread doing it. We may
fear the consequences. But if God be for us, who can
be against us? Do we desire to be on God's side?
Or do we desire to just follow the flesh and be on the side
of the devil? We're either really on the side of God or on the
side of the devil, aren't we? We can't be on both sides. Yield to their bodies that they
might not serve and worship any God. What a favour it is if you
are enabled to be found serving the true God. Serving and worshipping
the great God. And if we're serving him, if
we're blessed with that true worship, it would be to come
and desire that his name may be lifted up and honoured and
glorified. And as we may be able to realise
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, how willing was Jesus to
die that we fellow sinners might live. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is
willing to die, that you and I might live. Oh, what a favour it is then
to be willing to die for his sake. That means perhaps to die
to self. May not be to die physically,
but to die to self. Not walk in that way which we
want to go in, which we hope may prove to be the right way. You see the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked and so very easily we
can be tempted. We can be tempted to do that
which is not truthfully God's way. We hope perhaps it may prove
to be the right way, but yet deep down I believe in our heart
we may know that it's not the right way. That what we're effectively
doing is fighting against God. It's a very solemn thing to fight
against God. By nature that's what we do.
We fight against God. We don't want God to rule our
lives. We don't want to submit to his gracious counsel. But it is a wonderful blessing
to be able to fall down before our God and in the words of the
Saviour to be able to come and say, nevertheless, not my will
but thine be done. Not my will but thine be done. There is that great example,
isn't there, when the Lord Jesus Christ was in that garden of
Gethsemane. Yes, that great agony that he
entered into, knowing what was before him. Remember, my friends,
he was carrying the sins of his church. He was weighed down with
that great weight, that weight of your sin and my sin. Being in agony, he prayed more
earnestly. Oh, what a favour it is to be
found, perhaps in an agony ourselves. An agony perhaps of not knowing
what to do. Agony of needing strength to
pursue the narrow way. Agony desiring that God would
help us and support us. Sometimes it all brings us into
these situations to make us pray more earnestly. Prayer then ceases
to be just a mere form of words. It takes on a different aspect.
There is reality. There is a cry from our very
heart. There is a desire that will strengthen
us and give us might in a man, give us grace to follow that
way, his way, to not be looking to self, but looking out of self
unto our great and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. These
men, you see, they looked out of themselves. They looked to
their God, their God. He is able to deliver them. on a blessing to have a faith
like that. He will deliver us out of thy
hand, O Lord, but if not, yet they will not serve thy God,
willing to suffer whatever the outcome in accordance with the
will of Almighty God. It is a very precious example
we have before us here in what is no doubt to all of us a familiar
account, and yet to realise the great importance of it the relevance
of it to you and to me. It's not just a story recorded
in history. My friends, it's a blessed account
of the work of God in the lives of these men to direct us today
to walk in that right way and as we have examples before us
to follow that gracious and good example. They would not bow down.
They would not serve or worship any god. That's an important
consideration. There are many little gods in
our lives. Little gods which jump up and
down and present themselves to us. If we're not careful, we
bow down to them. We worship them. Well, these
men, you see, they would not. They would not serve nor worship
any god. There was only one God whom they
would serve, and that was their God, their own God. My friends today, have you and
I the blessing of being found worshipping our own God, the
true God, the real God, the creator of all things, the one who is,
yesterday and today and forever. Well, it does not change. Are
we worshipping that God today? We've come here, you know, come
here this morning, and by entering into this building and gathering
together, we are effectively saying that we are worshipping
the true God. The Lord knows whether such a
statement is true in your life and my life, whether we are this
morning worshipping the true God and that God is our God. Now, if it is so, we will acknowledge
the Word of God is true. We will acknowledge, no doubt,
that we have not done that which we should have done, but perhaps
we've done that which we should not have done. And therefore
we may need much strength and much grace to be able to do the
right things, to be found before our God, worshipping him as our
own God. And if we are bowing down and
worshipping our own God, who is it? It's that great God who's
brought salvation. It's that great God who's looked
upon us and had mercy upon us. It's that great God who's revealed
himself to us as our almighty Saviour, has shown to us himself
and all that he's done, that great work to save our souls,
wretched undone, hell-deserving sinners, and that the Lord has
given us grace to come to him. We've been burdened, we've been
heavy-laden, to realise those great and glorious words, the
Saviour says, come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden,
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto
your souls." My friends, have we heard the blessed word of
Jesus? Have we come to Him? Have we
desired that we might be able to be yoked, that means to be
joined together to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are we at a distance? Are we saying, well no, I really
can't We don't want to be joined, we don't want to be yoked. I
think the cost may be too high. Yes, the cost was high for these
three men, wasn't it? The cost was such to be burned
alive. They didn't count their life,
dear. They were more concerned to honour their God. What a blessing
for you and me today. if we're more concerned to honour
our God and to worship him and to bow down to our own sense
and reason. To be lifted up above the poor
things of this world and to look to the Saviour and to view him
and to realise that in him It's all my hope of salvation. My friends, if you and I are
to say that, it's because the Lord gives us a view of the value
and the cost of our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ, he did
all that was necessary. He paid the price for our redemption. And that price was his death
upon that cross at Calvary. He shed his most precious blood. My friends, how do we value the
death of Christ? What think ye of Christ is the
test. Try both your thoughts and your
scheme, you cannot be right in the rest. unless you think rightly
of Him. How do we view Christ today? Do we view Him as our great and
glorious Saviour that shed His blood, that we might live that
blood which was the atonement for sin? Oh my friends, how needful
it is to come, to come to the cross, to stand before the cross,
to look up to the cross and to view there the suffering Saviour. These people, these three men,
they were worshippers of the true God. As this King was able
to say, they might not serve nor worship any God except their
own God. You see, we're worshipping our
own God. If we come before the cross of
Christ, And we viewed Him there enduring the wrath of God for
us. Yes, the wrath of God which is
upon us. We deserve the wrath of God to
cast us into eternal hell because of our sin. The soul that sinneth
it shall die. We're under the condemnation
of Almighty God. We need a great and glorious
Saviour to redeem us. from all our sin, and that Saviour
is the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my friends, this morning,
is He precious to you and to me? Do we look to Him? Do we realise that all our hope
is there? We understand the great faith
that these three men were given. My friends, we need the same
great faith today. to believe in that great and
glorious work, the finished work of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the effectual work, the wonderful work, and to come and
to be able to be blessed with that faith, to look to Him, to
trust in Him, that our souls are safe and that we are safe
in the arms of Jesus. Oh, to realise that underneath,
in these times of temptation, There will be that deliverance
because underneath are the everlasting arms. They never fail, they're
there forever. They support us in our every
hour of need. They supported Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego, so they were strong in the Lord. may you and I today
be strong in the Lord, thankful for his grace, his mercy and
his favour and to be able to come in and to realise that it
is true of us that we are amongst those who are worshipping the
true God, trusting in the true God and that one who has delivered
and will deliver and to be found therefore a true follower of
a despised and crucified man, submitting ourselves unto the
great and glorious and blessed will of God. There's no greater
blessing than to be given that will and that strength to submit
ourselves unto God, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may
exalt us in due time, casting all our care upon him. for he
cares for us. Amen.