Turn with me, if you will, to
Daniel chapter 3. There is nothing more pleasant,
comforting and assuring than to pick this Bible up and begin to read it and for
the words to come alive in assurance instruction and
screaming the work of Christ on our behalf. I want you to
read with me two verses, three verses to begin with. We'll touch
on a lot of things in the chapter, but verse 16 reads like this. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful
to answer thee in this matter. 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 you've set up. Now this is a Bible story that
you've heard about since you were a kid, probably. You may
have had, I did, I think I recall having one, an illustrated Bible
story book that had the story of Daniel in the lion's den,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast into the furnace. Everybody's familiar with it.
Probably one of the most familiar stories in the Bible. It's a story of three men, brave men in my estimation, and their desire was to honor
God, the true and living God, not the idol that Nebuchadnezzar
had set up, the golden idol. They wanted to honor the only
God. Their Babylonian names was, is,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But those were names that were
given to them after they went into captivity into Babylon. Turn to chapter one and look
at verse three, if you would. It says, and the king spake unto
Asphenaz, the master of his eunuchs, Nebuchadnezzar's talking to the
master of his eunuchs. that he should bring certain
of the children of Israel, certain of them, and of the king's seed
and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, well-favored
and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding
science. And such as had ability in them
to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the
learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. These three men possessed
special physical traits and knowledge. They were smart guys. They were
wise, humanly speaking, able to learn, able to comprehend,
able to function socially and intellectually. Verse five, and the king appointed
them a daily provision of the king's meat he provided for them. He said, I'm gonna feed you the
meat from my table. And of the wine which he drank,
so nourishing them for three years, that at the end thereof,
they might stand before King Nebuchadnezzar. Now in verse
seven, just below, we see that their Jewish names, when they
were, before they were put into the house, this royal house of
Nebuchadnezzar, their names was Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. But they were given these Babylonian
names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they were assigned
to Nebuchadnezzar's palace, so to speak. Hananib, the name that
Shadrach had before he was renamed, means this, it means God has
favored or he is the recipient of grace. Meshach, who was Meshach,
his name is a godly man. And Abednego means, or Azariah,
I'm sorry, who became Abednego, means God has helped. I think
it's important here to notice that these names aren't given
to be ignored. They were special men to God,
and it's illustrated by their names. They were men who pictured
the elect of God, all of them, all of them. The elect people
whom God has favored, those who have received grace, remember,
that's the name of one of them. Those who are like God is, that
was the name of one of them. And those whom God has helped,
that was the name of the third one. They are peculiar men, and they're
special to God, and that is a picture of God's people as His elect. This great king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar,
was an absolute monarch. By that I mean his word was the
law. You didn't disobey this guy.
Though he had previously I believe it was in chapter two, acknowledged
the God of these Jewish men. He, at this point in time, in his reign, sets up this idol. Now, this thing is not something
that you can sit on a shelf. It was 90 feet tall. It was nine feet square at the
bottom and it was gold. I can't fathom that. It was a huge idol, the god of
his imagination, that's what it was. It was gold and he gathers
all of the princes, all of the potentates of his whole worldwide
dominion at that time to bow down before this image. And in
his mind, he just couldn't figure how and why anybody would disobey
him in his order to bow down before that God, that idol. Especially if you consider the
consequences that he mandated for not doing so. And yet there
were three guys, three Jews who refused to bow down. Try to make you appreciate the
crowd was there a little later, but once before these three had
refused the meat of the King's table because of their being
Jewish, they were commanded not to eat unclean meat. And they
refused to do so that meat, that unclean meat that the King was
serving to them because it was unclean. And though they ate
nothing after that, Daniel came up with the idea and talked to
the head eunuch and said, hey, just feed them pulse. Look at
verse 12 in the first chapter. Just feed them pulse. You know
what that is? It's beans. Just seed, beans. And three years later, they were
healthier than anybody else. Israel at this point in time
is now captive in Babylon. And we all know, and I want us
to realize that what Babylon symbolizes in the Old Testament
and in the New is false religion. Babylon is named as the great
whore in the book of Revelation. That great whore being false
religion, the religion that's accepted by the world In Daniel 2 and verse 47, you
don't have to look, the king seems to honor the God that these
men worship. But in the very next chapter,
in chapter 3, where we are and will be, we find him building
this idol that's over 90 feet tall. False religion, Babylon,
always says nice things about God. But those who promote this
works-justifying religion seek to control men by a God of their
own making. They'll pay homage to God, and
then they'll add their rules to it. It's always a God that
can't save, but it's always one that threatens judgment. And
like all other idols, this one couldn't save anyone, but it
could sure put you in the fire. In other words, if you don't
do what I say, God's gonna get you. Nebuchadnezzar, his herald, he
delegated this to his preacher, so to speak, his herald. His
preacher is a picture of the false preacher. Notice in chapter
two and verse three, it says, then the princes, did I get that
right? Nope. What'd that do? It's 3 in verse 3, chapter 3
in verse 3. It says, then the princes and
governors, the captains, the judges, the
treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers
of the provinces were gathered together unto the dedication
of the image that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, had set up. And they
stood before that image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. What does that mean? If that's
false religion, that's the megachurch of our day. All the rulers, all the sheriffs,
all the counselors, all the politicians, all the military, and all the
movie stars were all endorsing this religion. And there they
were all gathered. Everybody important was there,
especially those that the king had put in office. the king had
appointed. He made them what they were,
so they honored the God that he demanded that they honor.
And in verse five, this herald of Nebuchadnezzar,
this preacher, when you hear the instruments, he said, you
fall down. When you hear all the music,
you fall down. And he holds judgment over everybody,
everyone that refuses to do so. And that's how these religionists
control the people that they have. Fear, it rules in Babylon. The great horror of false religion,
and it's not godly worship. The great horror of false religion
says worship or I'll kill you. And there's no voluntary worship.
Attendance is mandatory. And there's no constraining love
at all in that religion. False worship is purely motivated
by fear of death. And you refuse, you burn. An ungodly, hateful bunch. That's what it makes of all of
us. Hebrews in chapter two says that this,
it says, our Lord came that through death, he might destroy him that
had power over death. That is the devil, that's Nebuchadnezzar. And delivered them and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. That's how the living God gets
people to worship. Voluntarily. Not out of fear,
not out of constraint. Only by the constraint of love,
I'll put it that way. To avoid that furnace, all you
had to do was show up. And if you don't show up for
this mega church meeting, somebody in there is going to watch you. And if you don't do it, they're
going to report you. the deacons and the enforcers
who put you under discipline and report your behavior. I have
a friend who went through that one time and thinking about this,
I decided that I'd tell you about it. He was put under discipline
and observance because of something that they didn't appreciate that
he said or did. And so the deacon came The deacon
came to his house to visit with him and straighten him out, all
that stuff, after he was reported by somebody
that was holier than he was. And he called my friend by name
and he said, tell me about the sin in your life. My friend kind of looked down
at the floor and he looked up kind of timidly and he said,
oh man, you go first. Now they kicked him out of the
church and he was never allowed to go back. Couldn't darken the
doorway. Next thing happens here is Nebuchadnezzar
starts this music. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't go down on one knee. They
stood up. And then comes these tattletales
to report them to the governing body of that megachurch. Look
at verse 12. There are certain Jews, Nebuchadnezzar, whom you've set
over the affairs of the province of Babylon. You put them in office.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded
you. They serve not your gods, nor
worship the golden image which you've set up. Out of all those
in attendance, these were three certain men. One who was favored
of God, another one who was a godly man, And the other one whom God
had helped, the name of God was on every one of them. They were
God's people, God's elect, and they refused to bow and worship
this Christless, government-backed, celebrity-endorsed God. They refused to. Now, who are
these three men? They're slaves in Babylon, slaves
in Babylon, but they're servants of God. That's what their names
say. They refused to bow. And in Daniel,
the first chapter, you don't have to turn there, they had
been put under the supervision of the chief eunuch in Nebuchadnezzar's
house, which means they probably, were made eunuchs when they were
put under his rule and under his service. I don't want to be, but I will. Eunuchs, they were made eunuchs.
That means they were castrated. As a result of that, they could
be trusted not to threaten any of the women in the household.
That's how they were controlled. The king didn't have to worry
about their activities as they labored as slaves. And these
three were offered, but they refused the best of the king's
food. Why? Because it was unclean meat.
As I've said already, they chose to eat beans instead at the suggestion
of Daniel, I might say. And the chief eunuch agreed to
it. And that being so, they're already suspect anyway with their
supervisors. And of all the people in this
crowd, these three were the ones that refused to bow to the king
and his 90 foot golden idol. Now verse 14 in chapter three
begins the narrative of Nebuchadnezzar offering them a second chance. You ever heard that? He gave him a second chance.
False religion always does that. You know, it always offers second
chances, but the offer ends just like every offering of false
religion. If you refuse, you burn. You've got hell to pay. That's
what that means. Who is that God? He said there
in verse 15, the last part of it. If you refuse, who is that
God who shall deliver you out of my hands? Notice the word
God there. It's capitalized. He's acknowledging
the God of these men and said, even he won't stop me. Even he
won't stop me. This proud, arrogant, self-deifying
monarch has said, God's not gonna stop me. And verse 16 and 18
is their answer to the king. They said, king, we're not careful. We're gonna answer you straight
up. Straight up. If it makes you mad, it's just
gonna have to make you mad. And here's that furnace. They
can feel the heat off of it, I'm sure. They gotta be in proximity
to it anyway. And they're not even concerned
with softening or polishing the answer that they're about to
give to this king that can kill him. They say, if it be so, in verse
17, our God's able. Do you hear what they're saying
in response to the king's threat there? Who's going to save you? He can
if he wants to. That's what they're saying. He
can if he wants to. That's faith. Yes, sir. That's
faith. He can if he wants to. Remember
that? Remember over in the New Testament? The woman, the Lord
called a dog. She said, true Lord, but even
the dogs get scraps from the table. The leper, Lord, if you will,
you can make me whole. That's the faith of God's elect. If he wants to, he can. But even
if he doesn't, verse 18, we won't serve your gods. We bow to our
God, not the one you built with your own hands. Now all of you
know this story. Their answer infuriated King
Nebuchadnezzar. And he gives command and he turns
on the fans of that furnace to make it seven times hotter than
normal. It was so hot that the guys throwing
the three men into that furnace died in the process. They burnt
to a crisp. The king then, in looking into
that furnace, was astonished at the sight of four men in the
furnace. Look at verse 24. Not three men,
but four men. He was so astonished. Now notice
this. He called his counselors, the
ones that advised him. What four? In my opinion, is to ask one
of the dumbest questions anybody could ask in the whole of scriptures.
He said, didn't we throw three men into that furnace? And there's
four there. Well, I mean, obviously these
intelligent guys said, yeah, it was only three. He said, I see four men in verse
25. And the form of the fourth is
like the son of God. I have no idea what the significance is of what I'm
about to say, but I want you to know something. I find it
interesting and it's occupied my mind for the last three days
and I've got nothing to expose, nothing to say about it, I just
want you to know. That phrase, Son of God there,
look at it, capital S, of God, capital G. That's the only place in the
Old Testament that those three words can be found next to one
another. It's the only place in the Old Testament that Son
of God is used. That in and of itself, I can
tell you, is a revelation of the knowledge of Nebuchadnezzar.
Now, he may not know what he was saying, but he was saying
the truth. I could speculate about it more,
but it wouldn't be nothing but speculation, so I won't. In verse
26, they walked out of that furnace. They didn't even smell like smoke.
Not a hair on their head was singed. and their coats weren't
even scorched. The ropes had burned off of them,
and they were walking around, had not been consumed, because
they walked out of the furnace at the command of Nebuchadnezzar.
He told them, come on out. And they did. They walked out.
And I'll tell you how they walked out. They walked out as free
men. F-R-E-E. I'll show you that in
a minute. I want to look in that furnace. I want you to look inside of
it. By looking at the words of this
king, and I want you to see the gospel of God's glory. Can you picture that in your
mind? Just look in that furnace. Fire was in that furnace. And
fire is always typical in the scriptures of judgment. Metaphorically
and in picture, these three men were delivered from judgment. They were delivered from the
judgment of God. But I want to notice carefully
that they were not outside of that furnace. They were in it. And the Lord was in that fire.
They were in the fire with the Lord. Our sin, my sin, your sin,
must be judged and paid for in that furnace of judgment. That furnace of God. Our sin
has to be paid for. You have got to pay for your
sins. Are you hearing me? They, these three men, were
in that fire, in that judgment, but they weren't alone. The Son
of God was in the fire with them, with them, and for them. He absorbed their judgment for
them. He died for us. He was made sin
that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He died for us. He consumed the
fire for them. The servants were burned up and
consumed. Why? because he bore our iniquities. He didn't bear their iniquities. They burnt at the entrance of
that judgment. He didn't die for theirs. He
died for ours. Scripture says we are healed. We are healed by his stripes.
He was wounded for our transgressions, not theirs. This is a picture
of substitution. He was made sin for us, and we
were in the fire with him. We were in Christ. Our sins were
punished. When he died, we died. The believer can say, I'm dead.
My sin's been paid for. And you might say I just don't
see and understand that in light of the sin of thought and word
and deed that I experienced day in and day out. I know that. I do. I can appreciate that.
Just as you can. That doesn't make me different.
But what you see and what God sees is two different things.
And the way God sees it, it's reality. That's the way it is. I'm dead. My life is hid with
Christ and God, yours, if you're a believer. That cannot be seen
except in the eyes of faith. And those eyes have to be given
sight by our Lord Himself. Galatians, Paul said in Galatians,
I'm crucified with Christ. Was he? Yeah, he was. Because that's the way God said
it was. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live, in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me." Gave. These three men came out
of that furnace of judgment completely healthy. They died, yet they
live. In Christ I died, yet I live.
When they were judged, they suffered no hurt, no injury. And John said herein, as our
love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because as He is, so are we in
this world. Believers have come forth as
brands out of the burning. Religionists would have us to
dread the judgment, but we have nothing to dread. Not the believer. We have no injury, no hurt, and
no punishment to dread because we suffered in and with our substitute. The Lord Jesus, as he is, that's
what that verse said. As he is, so are we. Let me ask
yourself, ask yourself this. How is he as he is? How is he? Well, I can tell you
this. He died, he arose, and he ascended
into heaven. So how are we? We died. We arose and we ascended with
Him. You believe it? Well, it's a fact whether you
can appreciate it or not. It's so. That's the way God sees
it. In Christ, we have not one sin. We don't even smell like smoke.
In Christ, I have not one sin. You and I as believers smell
like the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley, we smell
just like Him. Because as He is, so are we in
this world. Christ is our substitute. We have no
sin, and any man outside of Christ who has merely one sin, one,
will perish. Now, in winding this up, I want to ask you a question.
How many men came out of that furnace? Three. You know that. Three went in and three walked
out. Not a one was lost. Our Lord said to a bunch of religious
hypocrites in his day, I give unto them eternal life, and they
shall never perish. And neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand, not one of them. But there was four men in that
furnace. I want you to see this now. One
was like unto the Son of God. What happened to him? He didn't
come out. There is no mention of him leaving
or coming out of that furnace. Why? I'll tell you why. Because he died. Huh? He died in the fire. But it wasn't from the fire.
I want you to see that. When they walked out of that
fire, having been made free men, absolutely free, walked out. Can you hear our Lord cry in
a loud voice? It is finished. And he gave up the ghost. He died in that fire, but not from that fire. that
was due those three and all of his elect. Understand what I'm saying here.
God didn't kill his son on that cross. God punished his son for
our sin. And Christ, having voluntarily
paid our debt, he gave up the ghost. He voluntarily gave it
up. No man killed him. Men tried
to kill him, but they couldn't. He gave up his life. He gave
up the gospel. He did. When they spit in his face, he
didn't even turn his head. You try that sometime. It's an auto response for you
to turn your head when somebody spits in it. As our judgment is done, ours
is done. We, his people, will never be
judged again. Never. Nebuchadnezzar's statement
in verse 29, in the last phrase of it, if you want to look at
it, he said, there's no other God that can deliver after this
sort. Now that's the story of this
whole book. Cover to cover. Not one charge can be laid to
any of God's elect. If that were possible, God's
a failure. Listen to this. Here's God's
promise. I don't know who, I don't know whether this story of Nebuchadnezzar
and these three men was written before the book of Isaiah or
after. I'm not sure which, but I find
it very interesting that Isaiah made this comment. He said, when
you walk, When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burnt. Neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee. I hope the Lord can give us assurance
in his word by these things.