And we will be reading all of
chapter three. A very familiar portion of scripture,
a very familiar event. One that is often taught to children. I remember it very well. I loved
it as a kid. Had no idea what it really meant,
but I loved it. And we're just going to go through it today.
So Daniel chapter 3 and we'll read the entire chapter. King
Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold 90 feet high and 9 feet
wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He then summoned the satraps,
prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates,
and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication
of the image he had set up. So all of them, the satraps,
the prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates,
and all of the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication
of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before
it. Then the herald loudly proclaimed,
this is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations, and
men of every language. As soon as you hear the sounds
of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of
music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that
King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Whoever does not fall down and
worship will be immediately thrown into a blazing furnace. Therefore,
as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither,
the lyre, the harp, and other kinds of music, all of the peoples,
nations, and men of every language fell down and worshipped the
image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. At this time, some
astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews. They said,
King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You have issued
a decree, O King, that everyone who hears the sound of the horn,
flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music must fall
down and worship the image of gold, and that whoever does not
fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing fire. But
there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of
the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who pay
no attention to you, O king. They neither serve your gods
nor worship the image of gold that you have set up. Furious
with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So these men were brought forth, brought before the king, and
Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the
image of gold I have set up? Now when you hear the sound of
the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and pipes, all kinds of
music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I
made, very good. But if you do not worship it,
you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. than
what God will be able to rescue you from your hand. So he's giving
him a second try, second chance. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves
before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing
furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it. And
he will rescue us from your hand, O king, but even if he does not,
We want you to know, O King, that we will not serve your gods
or worship the image of gold that you have set up. The Nebuchadnezzar
was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and his attitude
toward them changed. He ordered the furnace be heated
seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest
soldiers in the army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing
their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes, were bound
and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent
and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the
soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these
three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then
King Nebuchadnezzar leapt to his feet in amazement and asked
his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw
into the fire? They replied, certainly, O king. He said, look,
I see four men walking around in that fire, unbound and unharmed,
and the fourth looks like the son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar
then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God,
come out, come out here. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came out of the fire. The satraps, prefects, governors,
and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire
had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads
singed. Their robes were not scorched,
and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar
said, praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
who has sent his angel and rescued his servants. They trusted in
him and defied the king's command and were willing to give up their
lives rather than worship any god except their own god. Therefore,
I'd agree that the people of any nation or language who say
anything against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be cut
into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble.
For no other god can save in this way. Then the king promoted
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. So, incredible, incredible event,
first of all. One, again, it's very well known,
but there's so much to see here about Christ. And we hear that,
right? That is exactly what this entire
book is about. You look until you find Christ,
and when you find Christ, you stop looking. Because that's
what we're here to look for, and that's what this book is
written for us to find. And this specific chain of events is also included in that. This
is completely showing us a picture of what Christ has done, who
Christ is, and what he's done for his people. So when God had
sent the Jews into captivity back in this time, there were
obviously godly people taken with them. Among these were Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. They served in Nebuchadnezzar's
government in Babylon. And as often was the case with
such powerful men, any type of man, even nowadays it feels this
way, Nebuchadnezzar had so much power that he started to think
of himself as almost godlike, which is a common theme throughout
the scriptures. And sometimes I feel like we
can even see that now. began to think of himself as a god
worthy of worship. So he set up this golden image,
and many people believe this image was of himself, 90 feet
tall and 9 feet wide, and required all to bow down to the image
of him. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
refuse. They refused to worship even when given a second chance
to obey the king's command, and thus the opportunity to escape
the fire, to escape the wrath of the king. So in a fit of rage,
Nebuchadnezzar ordered the men bound, that's important, and
thrown into the furnace. The furnace was burning so hot
that the men who cast these three men into the furnace were killed
themselves. But as Nebuchadnezzar watched the proceedings, he was
astonished to see that there was a fourth man in the furnace,
and he looked like a glorious son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar
called for the men to come out, and it was discovered that there
was completely unharmed, these three men were completely unharmed
from this incredibly hot furnace. The scriptures described their
condition. And they go into great detail for very good reason.
The hair of their heads not even singed. Their cloaks were not
harmed. No smell of fire was upon them. There was no sign that they were
in a furnace. Not even the smell of smoke. These men can certainly And this
is something we should see. They can certainly be set forward
as an example of how we should live our lives. Faithful until
death. Now we don't have the power to
do that on our own. Faith is a gift from God. But faithful
until death is wonderful. It says in the book of Revelation,
it attaches great promise to such faithfulness. It says, those
who are faithful until death receive a victor's crown of life.
We should be glad, it almost scares me to say this, but we
should be glad to suffer for the one who suffered so much
for us. When the apostles were beaten
for their testimony, they went out rejoicing and said that they
were counted worthy to suffer for Christ. We believers in the United States,
we suffer very little and we haven't for a very long time.
There's no persecution for us to come here this morning. There's
nothing standing in our way. There's literally nothing slowing
us down or impeding us or making us even feel uncomfortable in
this country about worshiping our God. That is a blessing. That has not always been the
case. We live in a very blessed time that we can come and freely
worship Christ. We have benefited from the suffering
of generations before us, who stood in much harder days. And
in time, overthrew tyrants opposed to Christ, we benefited from
their faithfulness. But the time may come when our
faithfulness in Christ will be rewarded with persecution by
the world. There's a good chance of it. And that can mean a lot
of different things. In 2 Timothy, Paul wrote, yes,
all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. That's not necessarily the persecution
that we think of in Old Testament days, suffering physically or
being tortured or any of that. But there are ways to suffer
persecution outside of that. And it comes hand in hand with
living a life where you believe and have faith in Christ. He
was encouraging Timothy to remain faithful despite hardship, emphasizing
that persecution is a natural consequence of following Christ
sincerely in a fallen world that hates Christ. So that makes sense. We live in a world that hates
God. And if we're one of God's people
living in this world, there will be problems because of that. Those who purposely compromise
the truth of Christ escape the light and temporary suffering
that happens in this world, only to receive much, much worse in
the next life. Even now, many once-faithful
churches are bending to the pressure of society to conform. Denominations and churches that
once were determined to know nothing other than Christ and
Him crucified, as they went out preaching, have turned into almost
more social societies, giving themselves over to, like, helping
and alleviating worldly problems. temporal problems of men and
women, couples, marriages. Preaching has become psychological
counseling and life coaching. Their aim has become to make
men happy rather than to preach Christ and Him crucified. They are unwilling to suffer
the least earthly loss in order to remain faithful to the word
and the truth of God's Gospel through Jesus Just something
so small as a reduction in church membership Results in a change in message That's dangerous business They cater to men and thus they
receive praise from men and often Praise from men comes with the
wrath of God. We are so much like Elijah's
day in Israel, when the land was full of these prophets of
Baal. Ministers were designed to appease
the king and to keep the people happy. That's what their message
was designed to do. And that's what we see so much
of now. messages to keep the people happy. That is not what
we are here for. And I pray that that is not something
that ever comes out of my mouth. We are here to speak of Christ. We are here to speak of Christ
alone. I don't want to talk about anything
else. Nothing else can do us good. Only the message of Christ
can do your soul good. Would you rather have a message
that makes you feel good about how your life is going this week,
or would you rather have a message that tells you Christ can save
you forever? What's more important? But God did not record this story
primarily so that we could focus on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
There's things to learn there about faithfulness, sure. But
that is not what this story is really truly about. That's not
what it is set in front of us for, for us to hear, for us to
absorb. Their actions, however so good,
did nothing more, think about this, the actions that Shadrach
and Meshach and Abednego did, They're standing up in the face
of this evil king on behalf of their god. What did it get them?
Thrown in the fire. That's what their actions earned.
They got tossed in a furnace. The glory of this story is not
the characters of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but in the one
who is only mentioned twice, the fourth man in the furnace. The fourth man. So glorious was this person that
Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, it said. And given his ignorance
of spiritual things, because he was incredibly ignorant of
spiritual things, he incorrectly identifies the fourth man as
one of the sons of the gods. When in fact, We who know Christ
and trust in him know that this was not just one of the sons
of one of the gods of pagan idolatry. It was the one son of the one
God. Even the faithfulness of these
boys, if you think about it, couldn't confirm their salvation.
Notice in verse 17 how the boys respond to Nebuchadnezzar's threat.
It says, if we are thrown into the blazing fire, the God we
serve is able to deliver us from it. They don't say he's going to,
they say he's able to. God does what he wills. We trust
in him to do what is best for us. And if it is for us to burn
in this fire, then we will burn in this fire and go be with him
for the rest of eternity. But he's able to save us. That's
faith. Faith isn't expecting God to
conform to your plan. Faith is accepting God's plan
because you know that his plan is best. It says he will deliver us, but
even if he doesn't, They leave that door open, because they
don't know what God's going to do. They just trust that whatever
he does is good. We want you to know, your majesty,
that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold
that you have set up. They don't say, if you throw
us in, God is gonna save us from this fire. That's not what they
said. They simply say that our God is able to deliver us from
it. They even go so far as to say,
but even if he doesn't, their faith is in God and his will. whatever that might be. They didn't have faith that God
would do what they thought was best. They had faith in God and
trusted that he knows what's best for them in every situation. And quite often, it does not
line up with what we think is best. Which is good. Because we have very little understanding
of the true order of things. Their faith did not save them.
God saved them. It was not the faithfulness of
the three Hebrew children that delivered them from the fiery
furnace. It was not their faith. It was the fourth man. We have to resist the urge to
look upon the works of men and admire them, kind of like what
James read to us earlier. We talk about Peter stood up
in the face of confrontation. He only did that because of the
power of the spirit that entered him. We have to be careful to
look at men with admiration. We must instead focus our attention
on the works of God and that for one very good reason, we
should focus on the works of God. His works never fail. What work of man doesn't fail?
Think about that for a second. Everything every man has ever
done falls apart eventually. Time withers. How can we put trust in anything
a man does when it's proven that every aspect of everything that
man has ever built eventually fails? When everything that God
has ever done never fails. So we should never admire the
works of man. We should look only at the works
of God because the works of Jehovah never fail. whatever they might
be. They could very well be unpleasant
regarding our time here, but we have faith in the works of
God because they will accomplish everything that they are set
to accomplish, which is to save His people from their sins and
glorify His Son. He will not fail in that matter. In all the works of man there
is failure. None of man's accomplishments last. Nothing of man's efforts
endure. They all eventually fail. They
all eventually come to an end. Only the works of God are complete,
perfect, and therefore everlasting. Not all the faithfulness of all
of the saints of God from all time could have ever delivered
these three men from the furnace. All that their courage and faithfulness
could have gained them was a good reputation among men as those
who did not compromise their principles even in the face of
death. It was the fourth man who got
them out. And not only got them out, he
got them out unburnt, unscorched, unsinged, and unbound. Let's make two observations about
this story and then apply it to the two experiences of life
of a child of God. First of all, that is, it is
only in the furnace that the fourth man was seen. No one saw him go in and no one
saw him leave. He was revealed in his glory
only when the three men were in the furnace. Our Lord is glorious
in his person at all times. But it is only in the furnace
that we are able to truly see it. Outside the furnace of trouble,
we may learn some things about him. We can fill our minds with
doctrinal truth even gain some true understanding of who he
is and what he can do. But if we want to see Christ's
glory, we must be in the furnace. We must see him in the furnace,
for it is there that his saving glory, the fact that he is his
savior, is shown when we when it becomes so obvious that we
need saving in the furnace. This is true in the world, our
time here, as well as eternally. In this world, it is often the
case that we see God in our lives, we feel his love and guidance
during hard times. I know that's true for me. I
mean, the hardest points of my life is when I have felt God,
and I don't like to talk like that because I feel like people
throw those things around kind of frivolously, but I have felt
closer and understood and felt God in my life more in times
of absolute hardship, which is not uncommon. That's
when we need Him most. We need Him all the time, but
that's when it feels like we need Him most. His love and guidance
are always there, but often it is more obvious and noticeable
during times of difficulty. It is when we are in the furnace
that he becomes more visible. And spiritually, outside of this
world, eternally, it's exactly the same thing. When God softens the stony heart
of a man, he first shows that man their own depravity. When
God saves someone, the first thing this person has to be made
known, or made to understand, is that they need to be saved.
And in order to do that, God shows them who they really are. puts them right in the furnace, giving that man the realization
of his need for Christ and Christ alone. It is when we are shown
that we are in the furnace that we finally have the sight to
see the fourth man, to see the Savior, to see that we are in no danger
from God's fires of wrath, of justice. This sight shall be sealed to
our souls only if we see him in the furnace with us. That
is a saving sight of the glory of Christ can only be had while
we're in the furnace. If you don't believe you truly
need a savior, you will never see Christ as the savior that
he truly is. And the only way you can be made
to know that, to see Christ as the perfect, glorious Savior,
is to be shown that you need one. And that's all done by the Spirit
of God. Nebuchadnezzar saw him in the
furnace, but he was not in the furnace. He was outside the furnace.
He was impressed by what he saw, but he was not humbled himself
to need the fourth man. He was impressed, and you can
see after he came out, he decided that he wanted to help that God,
get the word out. Anyone that's truly seen God
and understand Christ, the last thing you feel like you need
to do is help him. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
didn't come out of there thinking, I need to help Christ. I need
to help the fourth man. They know that they have nothing
to offer him. That's the difference of being
in the furnace and outside the furnace. For the three men, this was a
test of their faith. They trusted God, but he did
not appear to them until it was too late for them to reconsider
their confession. So it was a true test of faith.
He was there all along, but he did not appear until they were
in the furnace, until every hope of escaping this place on their
own was gone. And that's the truth for us.
As sinners, we have no hope of escape on our own. And until
you are shown that, the fourth man does not appear to you. Secondly, let us take note of
the effect of the furnace on the three men. It did absolutely
nothing to them. Special notice is given in the
scriptures to describe it very plainly and very clearly that
there was no sign of fire, not even the smell of it. No singed
hair, no scorched clothes, no smoky smell. The fire, for all
its fierce heat. And it talks about how they made
it seven times hotter than usual. The number seven throughout all
of scriptures is used as a symbolism of perfection, completion. This
was no ordinary fire. This was a symbol of God's wrath.
God's perfect, just, Condemnation of sin. The ultimate fire. Which is why the number seven
is used. But even that fire, for all the
fierce heat, had no power over them. And here's the most amazing
thing to note. Not only, the only thing the
fire did accomplish, think about this, the only thing the fire
did accomplish for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was to
unbind them. They went in there and they made
special consideration in the scriptures to write very detailed
about how the strongest men in the area tied them up and bound
them. It wasn't just like they tied their hands up. The strongest
men that they could find tied these guys up and bound them.
They were bound. And they came out free. That's the only thing the fire
did to them. It set them free. They went into the furnace abound
and they came out free. Who but the Lord God could not
only preserve from the danger of fire these men, but use the
fire to bring them salvation. The story of the furnace and
the fourth man is an illustration of eternal salvation. We are
just like the men in the furnace. We're in trouble beyond our means
to remedy it, beyond our ability to escape, to fix. Our sins have
merited us eternal woe in the fire of God's hell. That sounds
harsh, but it's true. That's what our sins have done
to us. That's the place where they have
put us. And just like these three young
men, we had no way of escape. No amount of works can remove
the awful judgment that awaits every man and woman at the end
of their life if they are found with sin. But for some, there is a fourth man in the
furnace with them. The son of God himself. It is this man, the man Christ
Jesus, who saves us from the wrath of God. Without him, there is no salvation. And with him, there is perfect,
unfailing salvation. It is commonly said that faith
saves, and in a sense it does, but it saves only in the sense
that faith lays hold of the Savior. But we must never think that
the act of faith actually has any saving virtue. Some think
that John 3.16 teaches that salvation by faith as though faith is the
power and deciding factor of salvation. But actually John
3, 16 teaches the opposite. Listen carefully to this scripture.
It says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son in order that those who believe in him would not perish but have
everlasting life. The scripture does not teach
that faith makes Christ's work effective. Rather, it teaches that Christ's
work makes faith effective. It does not say that Christ came
into the world so that folks can choose to believe on him
and thus gain salvation if they want. Rather, it says Christ
Jesus was sent so that all those who believe in him would not
perish. If Christ had not come, Believers
would perish just like everyone else. The believing is not what
saves you. It's Christ who saves you. But
he did come in order that everyone who believes on him would be
saved. So strictly speaking, it is not
faith, but Christ who saves. It's Christ who is glorious. By God's sovereign purpose, a
chosen race was predestined to grace and glory in Christ Jesus. The Bible teaches that over and
over with force and clarity. But election is also not salvation. Election does not solve the problem
of sin. God is just and must find salvation
for his just nature. He cannot be satisfied unless
every sin receives its just punishment. How can a just God find righteous
satisfaction against the sins of his chosen ones without killing
them in the process? How can he honor his own righteousness
and his own grace at the same time? It is by the work of the fourth
man. God sent his son, the fourth man, into the world and in him
all God's elect entered the fiery furnace with him. Entered God's wrath at Calvary. All that God could do against
sin All of it, nothing was held back, was poured out on Christ. And when that happened, they
were in the furnace with Him, all of God's people. And all that God's people's time
and passage through God's wrath worked on them was to consume
their bonds consumed how they were bound and set them free. It is impossible that any who
are in the furnace of judgment with Christ at Calvary should
ever suffer the least punishment for their sins. It is impossible.
just as there was no smell of smoke and no singed hair in that
furnace because Christ was with them. Anyone who believes in
Christ, who is one of his people, entered the tomb with him, entered
God's wrath with him, and came out free without a singed hair, without the smell of smoke. We can confidently say that at
all times and in all circumstances, the Lord is my helper. I will
not be afraid. The fourth man is with us in
every furnace. Because this works for temporal
troubles too, for the world's troubles. Those times of testing. of discipline that come to us
from the hand of the Father, should we assume that the one
who actually entered the fiery furnace of God's wrath, a furnace
that has been seven times hotter than any furnace of the world's
problems, that he, in these lesser times of trouble, would withdraw
his presence and not be with us? Of course not. Is there no fourth man in your
daily struggles? I guarantee whether you know
it or not, there is. He's never not with you. Which is, when you really think
about that, one of those mind-blowing moments. For God's people, he is never,
Christ is never not with you. In every furnace, every hard
moment, you are never alone. And even when you feel like you
might be, you can't imagine what it would actually feel like were
he not with you. We can confidently say, again,
the Lord is my helper. The flame of trouble may cause
pain, but it will not do damage to me in the end. we will come out of the furnace
freed from fleshly bondage that sent us there without so much
the smell of smoke upon us. All praise, all praise goes to
the fourth man who goes with us in all our troubles
and sanctifies them to our good. and protects us from all real
harm. You'll have some temporary issues
and problems and harm in this world, but all things happen
for the good of those who love him. And that is always true. So through your daily furnaces,
you are never alone. And more so, and so much more
important, in the fire of God's wrath, you, if you are one of
God's people, have already been there. And you've come out. Perfectly fine. Completely unharmed. Not even the smell of smoke.
And the only thing that changed is you went in bound by your
sin. You came out free from your sin. All 100% because of the glory
and perfection and amazingness of our fourth man. He is everything. All praise to him. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, we come to you We're
so thankful that we can come to you. We thank you for this book. We thank you for everything that's
in it. We thank you for pieces of scripture like this that teach
us who we are, that teach us the furnace we're in, and teach
us to have zero fear. To fear nothing because you have
done it all. To doubt nothing. because to
doubt any work done by you would be to doubt you. And you are, it's a waste of
time to doubt what you've done. We thank you for the truth, Lord.
We ask that you impress it on our hearts, that it stays with
us every day, that we can remember this, that all faith and all
praise goes to you because of what you have done, And we thank
you. We thank you for who you are
and everything you've done for us. In your name we pray. Amen.