me in your Bible for the book
of Daniel. Book of Daniel. You may have noticed in the bulletin
that I announced this morning's message and this evening. I may
try to start doing that in the bulletin for your sake, and I
may be forced to change it, maybe, at times. This evening's message,
I'm excited about it. I was very blessed in the study
of it, the preparation of it. So I hope the Lord will bless
it to you. But this morning's message is
found in Daniel, the book of Daniel. And first of all, we'll
be looking at chapter one. Now, I have begun reading through
this book of Daniel in my own personal readings. And very shortly,
just very soon after I started reading this book, I noticed
something very prevalent throughout the reading of this book. I've
gone through a few chapters now. One theme is very clear in this
book of Daniel, one theme, and it's really the theme of all
God's Word, one theme. And though I was stuck with the
nobility of this man named Daniel, of his character and his faithfulness
and all that, which, as I said this morning, only preachers
or teachers, so-called, will dwell strictly on that, on the
man Daniel. But what I see here is one thing,
that God reigns and rules over all things. God reigns and rules. As we said Wednesday night, the
theme of all of our preaching is this, salvation is of the
Lord. And that's the theme here in
the book of Daniel, as it is in every book of the Bible. Salvation
is of the Lord. Now, our story is in chapter
3, but we'll look here in chapter 1 in a minute. A very clear picture
of God's sovereignty and salvation, and also a clear picture of the
difference between false or modern Christianity, so to speak, false
religion, and true biblical salvation. A very clear picture. If you
stay with me, you're going to see something. You're going to
be blessed with this if you give me your undivided attention.
You'll see very clearly, if God helps us, a very clear picture
of salvation of the Lord and the difference between false
Christianity and true Christianity here. Now, here's the story.
rehearse it with you a little bit, so we won't have to read
all the way through this. There was a Babylonian king named
Nebuchadnezzar. Now, he had captured Jerusalem,
and he had carried the riches of Jerusalem back to Babylon,
back to a place called Chaldea. That's located in Babylon. That
is what is now, ironically, is now present-day Iraq. That's where Babylon is, Iraq,
today. But when he captured Jerusalem
and carried back all of these riches and so forth, back to
Babylon, he also, in God's sovereign providence, was led to take with
him the smartest and the most skilled young people. He called
them children. That's what he called these four
men we're going to look at. He was led by God. King's hand,
or Harry's in the hands of the Lord. He was led by God to take
back the smartest, most skilled young people from Jerusalem back
to Babylon, back to Chaldea, with him for his service. This kind of reminds me that
all of God's people are spread out all over the world. We are
your servants for Christ's sake. the scriptures say, as the gospel,
for God's will and purpose and for the spreading of the gospel.
But these men, these four men, were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. Now, we've all heard those names
from children. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I've got to say
this. I've got to get it off my mind.
It's on my mind. I've got to get it off. Somebody told me
they heard an old country preacher one time preach on My shack,
your shack, and a bungalow." We're talking about Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego here this morning, and Daniel. But anyway,
maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I just couldn't get off of
that. Maybe I will now. But there was these four God-fearing
faithful believers in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
a battle. Four faithful believers under
the rule of this wicked king. Now look at chapter 1 with me,
verse 17. They were skilled. Look at verse
17. It says, These four children, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego,
and Daniel, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and
wisdom. And Daniel, special understanding
in all visions and dreams. They were faithful. They were
understanding. They were discerners. They were
skilled. God gave it to them, the Scripture
says. They were no different than anybody
else by nature, but God blessed them. In the same way that if
you understand this story this morning, it's going to be God,
the Holy Spirit, that gives you the understanding. The only reason.
God gave them the knowledge and the wisdom, and if you are a
child of God and a believer, God gave it to you. God gave
you that faith. Faith is the gift of God. In
Obree's four men, it says there that Daniel was the leader, But
Daniel was a man of deep insight and revelation, and he became
a prophet of sorts, a preacher of sorts. He became a prophet,
Daniel did, and King Nebuchadnezzar heard him out. Do you remember
the story about how he told Nebuchadnezzar his dream? How that the other
wise, so-called wise men in his country, in his land, could not
tell the dream, but Daniel could. God gave him a special revelation
of dreams. But anyway, one day after Nebuchadnezzar
heard Daniel, look at chapter 2 with me. Chapter 2, verse 47. After he heard Daniel one day,
after he heard Daniel preach the truth to him, he said this,
verse 47. King Nebuchadnezzar, chapter
2, verse 47, answered and said unto Daniel of a truth, of a
truth It is that your God is a God of gods and Lord of kings
and revealer of secrets. Your God's God, Daniel. After
he heard Daniel preach one day, that was what he came up with.
Evidently, Daniel preached sovereign grace in no uncertain terms. And the king, after he heard
it, he became a closet coward. He said, yeah, your God's God,
Daniel, no doubt of it, no denying it. It's right there. But he soon forgot this. Old
Nebuchadnezzar soon forgot this Calvinist, this sovereign grace
stuff, in favor of his name and reputation. Now listen, I liken
Old Nebuchadnezzar here to modern-day religion. That's how I'm going
to present him. I liken Nebuchadnezzar to organized
religion and all of its leaders. who toy around with the truth
every now and then. They toy around with the truth,
yet they, in the end, they reject it for their own fame and glory. I'll give you a perfect example
of that. This is reported to be a true story, that Billy Graham,
when he started out as a young preacher, that he started preaching
what we call sovereign grace. I don't know, but that's the
story. That's the way the story goes. He started out by preaching
some sovereignty. He started out preaching sovereignty. And his father or father-in-law,
somebody got a hold of him and said, son, took him aside. Said,
son, you'll never get anywhere preaching that. You'll never
get a hearing like that. You got to drop that stuff. And
so the rest The rest of the story, as Paul, what's his name? Paul Harvey said. And the rest
of the story is that Billy is big time now, big time religion. And King Nebuchadnezzar here,
I believe, represents modern day religion. He became rich
and famous. And look at chapter 3 with me. It says he set up, verse 1, he
set up an image of gold. He set up a huge idol. Now, it doesn't say what this
idol was. It's probably his image, probably his likeness, a bust
of King Nebuchadnezzar. But he set up this huge idol
that was 90 feet high. I vaguely remember somebody else
talking about seeing something 900 or 90 feet high. It was Oral
Roberts, you know, seeing a Jesus, and 90 feet high. But anyway, old Nebuchadnezzar,
He made him a prayer tower right beside Nebuchadnezzar University,
Nebuchadnezzar Bible College. He made this big prayer tower,
this big idol, and he set up some rules for his followers,
some rules. Look at this thing. Look back at chapter 2, verse,
no, I'm sorry, chapter 3, verse 7. He said, now at a time, a
certain time, When all the people hear the sound of the cornet,
the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, and all kinds of
music, all the people, nations, and language were to fall down
and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
He set out some rules, some regulations, that at a certain time of the
day when music was being played, everybody was to bow down and
worship. This kind of reminds me of the
Moslems. You know, they have certain prayer times during the
day where they point their eyes toward Mecca. At any rate, this
reminds me of modern revivals today. Look up at chapter 3.
It says the princes—no, chapter 3, verse 2. Nebuchadnezzar sent
to gather together princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers,
counselors, sheriffs, rulers, football players, politicians—gathered
together all these people to come to the dedication of the
image that the king set up. This reminds me so much of modern-day
religion, these so-called revival meetings with all their big names.
They got football stars, politicians, entertainers, all of them gathered
together at the so-called Billy Graham crusade or the Jimmy Swaggart
or whatever. Entertainers. And when the choir
sings, when the band strikes up the note, everybody come down
and bow down before Billy. I mean, God. That's modern religion. When
the band strikes up the note, when the music's played, when
the choir starts singing softly, as every hit's bowed. Accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. This is such a clear picture, that is. Such a clear
picture. Well, everybody loved it. They loved it. They said, this
is great. They loved it. And everybody bowed down. Everybody
said that in verse 7. Everybody bowed down. Almost
everybody. Not everybody. Nearly everybody,
but almost everybody. And everybody today is on this
religious bandwagon, aren't they? Everybody's on it. John, everybody's
in on this thing. It's religious, it's fundamentalism. With all its pop and show and
riches and man-centered theology. Everybody's in on it. Almost
everybody. I ain't in on it. I'm not in
on it. Everybody's bowing down to this
huge idol of religion today, aren't they? This huge idol they
call Jesus, which is another Jesus. Everybody's in on it.
Almost everybody. We've got a few different ones.
We've got a Shadrach Rick. We've got a Meshach Sheasley. We've got an Abednego Joe. Everybody's
not in on this thing. God, by his mercy and by his
grace, has chosen a people. And that's what it says here.
Look over chapter 6. Let's see. Look at chapter 6 with me. Chapter 6, verse 5 with me. Some of these Chaldeans that
helped the king bring back the Jews. Now, the armies of Chaldea
in Babylon captured Jerusalem, and they brought these Jews back,
some of these Jews back to Babylon with them. And some of these
Chaldeans hated those Jews. They hate them now. And they
hate God's people. Religious people hate God's people.
But they hated these Jews. But they couldn't find anything
wrong with them. Like Daniel. Look up here in
chapter 6, verse 5. They hated them. They wanted
to kill these Jews. They wanted to kill Daniel. But look at verse
5. It says, These men, they said, we cannot find anything against
them. No occasion against this Daniel
except We find it against him concerning the law of his God.
We don't like his God. That's what it amounts to. In
fact, that so-called church said to Danny Blair, it's not a matter
of whether or not it's in the Bible or not. It's just not in
our church covenant. And we just don't worship the
same God. That's all there is to it. Well, Christ said marvel
not. Marvel not, brethren, if the
world hates you. You know that it hated me before
it hated you. He promised it would come. He
promised it would. He said the time will come when
they will cast you out of the synagogue. And they that cast
you out, he said, will think they're doing God a service.
They'll do it in the name of Jesus, in the name of Christianity. They'll do it. And look back
at chapter 3, verse 12. Chapter 3, verse 12, with me.
And there are certain Jews, now these Chaldeans came back to,
you remember now, Nebuchadnezzar made this this decree that everybody
was to bow down to this religious idol, everybody. And the Chaldeans,
who hated these Jews that they brought back with them, came
running back to the king and said, There's some fellows now
here who aren't doing what you told us to do, told us to do.
Verse 12, There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs
of the providence of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
These men, O king, have not regarded thee. And they don't serve your
God, nor worship the golden image which you have set up. Certain
Jews, you see that word? Certain Jews, a particular people. These are peculiar fellows. Just
a little remnant over there, yeah, a remnant according to
the election of grace. And if you, by God's grace and
mercy, are not bowing down to this religious idol today, you
are a certain Jew. You are a particular people.
You are a peculiar people, you're a remnant according to the election
of God's grace. And by His mercy and grace, you're
not bowing down to all this stuff. Well, they haven't regarded,
these fellows said, these men haven't regarded nor worshipped
our God. So old Nebuchadnezzar got furious.
Look at verse 13. In his rage and fury he commanded
to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they brought them
in before the king. Now, look at verse 14, "'And
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, do not you serve my gods, and worship
the golden image which I have set up?' He said, I hear you
fellows are trying to start trouble. You've got some sort of cult
down there, don't you? You're not worshiping like us, are you? He said, surely you don't think
that you are right and everybody else is wrong. Come on, three
guys? Look at this crowd. Everybody's
doing it. Surely you don't think you're
right and everybody else is wrong. Can all these wise and intelligent
people, wisdom of the world, can it be wrong? Yeah, it can.
God has made it foolish. If you don't straighten up now
and join the bandwagon God's going to judge you. Now come
on. In the fiery furnace. Now drop
this sovereign grace step and join the crowd. We'll receive you back with a
certain amount of. Chastening. What do you say to
yourself? Huh? Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego,
what do you say to yourself? These fellows didn't have to
think for a minute how they would answer. Do you remember when
Christ said to the disciples, he said, there's going to be
a time when they're going to bring you before kings and rulers? And he said, I say unto you in
that day, take no thought for what you shall say, for it shall
be given to you in that hour what you shall say. Now look
at it with me. Look at verse 16. Well Shadrach
and Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
We're not careful to answer thee in this matter. We're not stopping
to think about it a minute. There's no question. Don't have to think
for a minute. No decision to be made, King.
We cannot but speak the things we've seen and heard. Now, whether
it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God,
you judge, King. We've got to say what we've heard
and seen. If we yet seek to please men,
we're not the servants of Christ, O King. We're not stopping to
think about it. They say, now if it be so, if
it be so, if we suffer for truth's sake, and he said it would, he
said we would. If we're hated, though we're
hated by all men and we're the only ones doing it for his name's
sake, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because we
believe God is God, King. We believe salvation is of the
Lord, O King. We believe our God is able. And no man can be saved except
through our God. Okay. That's what we believe. We believe he's able to deliver
us from the fiery furnace. God is able. God's on the throne. Man's in his hands and Christ
is our own help. That's what we believe. Now stop
for a minute and think about that. Now consider the options. Not at all. Man can't save himself. Only God can save. That's the
message. No other message. And they probably
got out their New Testaments and read Romans 9 to him. And
old King inevitably got furious after he heard this. They said
in verse 18, Be it known unto you, O King, we will not serve
your God. Not going to do it. No worship
the golden image which you set up. We're not going to do it
because we believe that there's none other name under heaven
whereby we must be saved, none other name, than the Lord our
Righteousness." And then they probably read Ephesians 1 to
him, and he got furious, started gnashing his teeth at the verse
19. Then when Nebuchadnezzar, full
of fury in the form of his business, was changed, his old religious
smile dropped. You know that silly grin? Dropped. And the blood went out of his
face, and his smooth words, honey-coated silk word, brother, dropped,
and his teeth started gnashing. You ever seen this look on a
religious person's face? I've seen it. Talked to a fellow
yesterday. Came over here to the office.
Oh, he was so old. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah,
brother. He was such a fine Christian brother. How you doing? How's
the church? Praise the Lord. God bless you. When he left,
he was looking at me like this. He could have said, damn you,
brother. If I'd have known his thoughts. That old silly religious
smile dropped. And his teeth gnashed. And this
was Nebuchadnezzar. That this visage was changed. And he said against Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, he spake and commanded heat to furnace. Heat the furnace. Seven times
hotter than it's ever been heated. That's what he said, didn't he? It's destroying. He sought to
destroy these three religious fellows, and just like the religious
Pharisees did it to Christ, the Pharisees today will do it again.
Just like these fellows did it to these three fellows, the fellows
did it to Christ, and I stood at the teeth of Him when they
heard His message of God's sovereignty and man's depravity, and they'll
do it today. Yeah, they will. If we're bold
enough to stand up for the truth, they'll do it today. That's their
teaching. And he commanded that his strongest
men, verse 20, he commanded the most mighty men that were in
his army to bind them. Bind that Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego and cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. This kind of reminds me of the
doctors and the lawyers that the Pharisees sent to catch up
Christ in His Word. Binding. Find something you can
find fault with it. And Paul said it there in Galatians,
didn't he? False brethren privately sneak
in to privately spy you out. A minute. We want to hear what
you have to say. Well, these three men were bound and cast
into the furnace. These strong men, says verse
21, were bound in their coats, their hosin and their hats. They
threw them in the fire with their shoes on. and their other garments,
and were cast in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. And
verse twenty-two, look at it. Look at it. Verse twenty-two.
Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the
furnace was exceeding hot, and the flame of the fire slew those
men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These fellows that
cast them into the fire were themselves burnt. just for throwing
them in there. And to be sure, God says vengeance
is mine, says the Lord. Anybody who touches God's anointing,
they're going to be cast into the fire. They themselves are
going to be destroyed by God. Anybody who hates God, hates
his word, hates his gospel, hates his people, and seeks to sow
discord and to spread lies and rumors and speak a word against
the gospel of God's Holy Spirit, that's the sin against the Holy
Spirit, and no man will be forgiven. cast in the lake of fire, destroyed
themselves in the name of religion, in the name of the King. Is it
so? Yes, it is. But nevertheless,
these three went through the fire. Although they had the truth,
they went through the fire. Oh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
verse 23, these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down,
bound into the midst of the burning, And it was terrible. It was hot. It was terrible. It was a fire
trial, and they became cast down. Down cast. Cast into the furnace.
Well, old Nebuchadnezzar, he thought he'd gotten rid of these
fellas, didn't he? Not like the Pharisees of old. Not like Pilate. Thought he'd
washed his hands, you know, in innocence. He thought he'd gotten
rid of these troublemakers. And he thought that since he'd
cut off their support, He'd take the Southern Baptist Convention,
you know, had pulled their support, left them independent by themselves.
He'd starve them out. He thought he'd cut them off
and cast them out of the church. That'd be the end of this old
bunch. The end of this little cult. They'll never make it.
It's split, you know, this church's split. And that'll be the end
of it. And he watched them anyway. He
kept his eye on them. He watched them. And he gloated
in their trials and afflictions. And this religious world, they'll
gloat in your troublesome trials. If you had more faith. See there? But as he watched them, something
happened. He began to watch them, he kept
his eye on this thing. I don't know what it was, a big
open pit or whatever. But anyway, he was able to see
this whole thing before, and as he watched them, it says there,
verse 24, he became astonished. He was astonished, and he rose
up in haste, and he said to his counselor, didn't we cast three
men into that fire furnace? Huh? And they said, yes, King,
we did. What's wrong? He said, well,
he answered, verse 25, he said, Lord, I see four men. Four men in there. walking in
the midst of the fire, and they're not hurt. As a matter of fact, they're free,
loose, free, forever. Then the fourth, verse twenty-five,
is like the Son of God. What's going on here? Jesus Christ himself was in the
midst of it. There it is. That's a prophecy
of the Son of God. That's a picture. A true story. Christ himself. Who else is the
Son of God? That's Christ. Who was the angel
of the Lord that changed Jacob's name? That's Christ. Who was
the angel of the Lord that told Abraham, I'll bless you, I'll
give you a seed? That's Christ. Right? Christ. This was Christ in that fiery
furnace with his three fellows. And even that old wicked king
recognized it. And God saved this old boy later on by seeing
this. But this was the story. Jesus
Christ himself was with that little group right in the middle
of the fire. Do you see the picture in all this? Do you? That's it in summary. But here's
the picture in all this. This whole thing started with
an idol, didn't it? It started with an idol. Old
Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol, a man-made god. And man has made
a god. Today's religion has made himself
an idol. made of God. Man has imagined
all sorts of things about a God, laid up a God of his own imagination,
a worship of God after their own imagination. That word imagination
comes from the word image, right? You know, through the scriptures,
through salvation, the gospel sees God making man after his
own image. The false gospel, the man-made
religion, has man making God after his own image. You see
the difference? God's salvation makes man after
his own image. Man's so-called salvation makes
God after his image. That's the difference between
what we preach and what this world is preaching, a man-centered
salvation. But men have made up a God of
their own imaginations, a God they can understand. a God that
they can see and worship their way, a God of convenience, right?
Right. In the Mass, Catholicism is just
that, a religion of convenience. As I said last week, they can
just stand all they want on Saturday night and come Sunday morning
and have it all absolved. Well, that's convenient, isn't
it? Real convenient. But the God of the Bible is our
God. The salvation that we preach is of the Bible. salvation of
the Bible. The God of the Bible is our God,
and the God of the Bible is everybody's God, whether they know it or
not. He's everybody's God. He said, though you have not
known me, though everybody doesn't know it, He's still their God,
isn't He? Even though people don't bow
before Him and reject Him, He's still their God. The Scripture
said, now our God, His ways are pass-finding. It says His ways
are pass-finding. It says His ways are not our
ways. that his thoughts are not our thoughts. If the God of the
Bible says, I'm from above, you're from beneath, then the scriptures
say God is in heaven and we're upon the earth, so our words
are to be few, aren't they? All this religious talk needs
to stop, doesn't it? It needs to stop. Our God is
holy, just, sovereign, righteous, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient,
omnipresent. Our God is all these things.
God over all, reigning, ruling over the hearts and lives and
destinies of all men, He's sovereign. That's the God we preach. We're
in His hands, His hands to do with us. He pleases, aren't we?
We preach sovereignty and creation, as most people will admit to
that, that God made all things, but we don't stop there. We preach
sovereignty and providence, that God reigns and rules over all
things. Nothing is by luck or chance, nothing. He said, I form
the light and create darkness. I make peace and I create evil.
Every affliction known to man, God is the cause of it, is the
root. God's behind it. Everything. God directs all things. That's
what we preach. No accidents with God. And above
all else, we preach salvation in the hands of a sovereign God.
Salvation that He has mercy on whom He will. He saves whom He
will. And he will be gracious to whom
he'll be gracious. That salvation is all in the
hands of the Lord. That's what we pray. Somebody
says, somebody that may hear this or hears it now says, that's
not my God. Well, it may not be, God, a pure
imagination, but it is your God. No mistake about it, he is their
God. And I see here, too, they set up this huge idol, and the
modern religion has set up this huge idol they call Jesus and
call Christianity and call the gospel. And I see here, too,
I see modern worship. These people, they worship this
idol for one reason, no, two reasons, actually. They worship
this idol because they fear the king. King said, I'm going to
throw anybody who doesn't worship the idol into the fiery furnace. And men today are worshiping
for the same reasons. Stay out of hell. But everybody who does
worship, I'll bless them. Well, you don't want to go to
hell, do you? This is the Romans' road. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? No, I don't. You want to go to heaven, don't
you? Yeah, I do. Believe on Jesus. Sounds like a good deal to me.
I'll bow. Right? That's modern worship today.
These people back here didn't want to go to the furnace. They
wanted favor and riches of land and so forth, favor of the people.
They didn't want to be different than anybody else. Well, everybody
else is doing it. We don't want to be different,
do we? Well, modern religion is a religion of duty, a religion
of fear. It binds men with regulations.
These people were bound, didn't know it. They thought they were
loose. Old Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in the
furnace. And they thought they were bound.
But they ended up loose. Explain that. We're under the
yoke of Christ. Can you explain that? Bound to
get free. Can you explain that? Well, modern
religion is a religion of duty. It binds men with regulations,
with laws, with superstitions, with religious guilt. You know,
touch not, taste not, handle not, beggarly elements and so
forth. Binds them. Binds men. Men are religious
to keep out of hell. Men are religious to gain favor
in this world, to get what they want. You know, you hear it all
the time on TV. Send your seed faith. Seed faith. Tithe. God will bless you. Send
the seed faith. Send the ten dollars and God
will give you a thousand. Man! That's good. Ninety percent interest
on your money. That's great! Who wouldn't do
that? Man, be a fool not to. Then you see, God will bless
you. If you do this, God will bless you. If you don't, you'll
suffer. Isn't that man's religion? God's
religion is the other way around. It's the other way around. You
follow God, and you'll suffer. You take up the cross and follow
me, and you'll die. You'll suffer. You'll go through
much tribulation. If you don't, you'll have the
witches and the wealth and the favor of this world. Right? It's exactly the opposite. Exactly
the opposite. Religion, modern religion today,
is a religion of the mouth. Christ said it. He said, These
people draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far
from me. Listen to this. Listen to this.
He said, The wisest man of the preacher said, Keep your foot
when you go to the house of God. Be more ready to hear than to
give the sacrifice of food. The fellow I talked to, all he
wanted to do was talk about what he was doing. Talk about what
he was doing. Led this person to Christ, led
that person to Christ. That's all he wanted to talk
about. Be more ready to hear than to give a sacrifice of fools,
which is what? Being rash with your mouth. Let
not your heart be hasty to utter anything before God. God's in
heaven, thou upon the earth. Let your words be few. Fools'
voice is known by a multitude of words. Man doesn't know. God's ready to see. Testify,
isn't he? Ready, let me up there. Man,
he does come to know with fear and respect. God, he's not so
ready. He's not so quick. He shuts his
mouth. God shuts his mouth. Yeah, he
does. That's the religion of the mouth.
Oh, boy. Turn over with me to 1 Samuel.
You've got to see this. 1 Samuel chapter. Keep your place
there in Daniel. 1 Samuel chapter 2. Do you know
this verse? Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel chapter
2, and unlike today's religion, which is a religion of the mouth,
God's true salvation does this. Look at verse 3 of 1 Samuel chapter
2. She said in her wisdom, talk
no more exceedingly, so exceedingly proudly. Let not arrogance come
out of your mouth, for the Lord God is a God of knowledge. He
isn't listening to what you're saying. by him, actions away. He's watching
what you're doing and why you said what you said. Right? I get tired of this religious
mantra. Don't you? And every time somebody comes
up to me and starts this religious stuff, I automatically am... I automatically suspect them.
Anybody walks up to this person, It starts all this stuff. I'll
make her think, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I don't know about
this stuff. You don't? You know what I'm
saying? Sure you do. God's people have a mouth that's
meek. He said, take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. I'm meek. and lonely. He'd say
to Christ that he'd not cause his voice to be heard in the
street, didn't he? He wasn't going around saying,
I'm the Messiah! I'm the Messiah! And God's people weren't going
around saying, I'm a good Christian! I'm a good Christian! Do they? No. No. It leaks out on them. They find out. People find out. I'm just telling it like it is
now, for I'm not trying to be hard. I'm telling it like it
is. I get sick of it. It's nauseating to me, and it's
nauseating to God. Christ himself said it. He said,
I'll betray you. It was written, this people draw
near to me with their hearts, with their lips, and their hearts
are far from me. And he said it four times there in Mark 7.
Full well they reject the Word of God for their own silly superstitious
belief. Full well. True believers. Here's the motive. of true believers,
their religion, their worship. True believers worship God out
of fear, all right. But it's fear for His person,
all in respect of the person, not the place. There's a big
difference between fear in hell and fear in God. Oh, yes. The difference is between salvation
and damnation. You can fear hell and not fear
God. You can teach a child to be afraid
of hell, you show him a film, right? That doesn't mean he fears
God. That's not godly fear, is it? Godly fear is coming to know
this holy God, and bowing down and worshiping this holy God.
This just one who will by no means clear the guilty. Seeing
that you have offended a holy God, that's the fear of the Lord. And that will bring repentance
unto salvation, godly fear that needeth no repentance. That's
the fear of the Lord. And God's people worship him
out of love and admiration after God, through his law and through
his word, shows them his holy character and their sinful condition. And then he reveals the gospel
of his grace through the righteousness and the shed blood of Christ.
Then, they worship Him out of love and admiration. The admiration of the person
of Christ. And they praise God for His electing love. They love
election. They see it as it relates to
God's mercy and grace. They love it. And they bow down
and they pray. Read that article on the back
of the bulletin this afternoon. And they thank and serve Him
out of gratitude. True believers never follow Christ
for personal gain. He said there would be none.
What happened to these fellas? They were thrown in the fire,
for the truth's sake, weren't they? Well, he said the same
thing about you and me, didn't he? You'll be hated, for my name's
sake, he said. You'll be thrown in the fire,
if you follow me. Yeah, so, so, you must prove
my stipulation. And false religion promises deliverance
from trials and wealth. It promises wealth and prosperity,
but Bible salvation, discipleship to Christ, promises trials and
troubles and deliverance from riches, but eternal prosperity. Now,
you only know what I'm talking about with experience. False
religion binds people to rules and regulations, binds them. You must do this, you must walk
this way, talk to people, but you must, or else. Right? Bible salvation sets us free.
Sets us free from ordinances, from weak and beggarly elements,
gives us all things richly to enjoy, not to set our hearts
upon them, but it points us to Christ who sets us free by showing
us that he was the one that met the conditions for salvation.
And we're not to meet the conditions that he did. And salvation, listen to this
again. These three fellas, these three fellas were in that fire.
What was, what determined their salvation? What was it? Why were
these fellas, why were these fellas saved from this fire? Why? Their fourth name is somebody
with them, right? Why is anybody saved upon this
earth? What is our hope of glory? Christ
in you, or with you? Your hope of glory in it? Huh?
The only reason these men were saved was because the Son of
God was with them. It wasn't because they were stronger. No, the king
got the strongest men he could, much stronger than... They overpowered
old Shadrach and Meshach, and they had greater faith. But they got burned. They wasn't
the guys that were the strongest. These strong men burned them.
and cast them into that fire. Was it because of their strength
they got saved? No. No. They were weak. They were overcome.
Was it because they held on to the inn and held on to the door?
No. It wasn't because they held on. Because Christ was with them.
It wasn't because they were stronger than the rest of the people.
Because Christ was with them. Right? And because Jesus Christ
came to save them. Because he went through the fire
with them. That's the reason they were saved. And God, the
Scripture says, was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.
In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of woman,
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the curse
of the law. Right? And the only reason anybody's
saved is because Christ is with them. The only reason anybody's
going to stand before this Holy God is when Christ is with them.
Right? Not because we have more faith
than there's somebody else. No, because Christ is our faith.
Because He remains faithful, the Scripture says. Right? Because
Christ is with us, because all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, and all are under the law guilty, all under
the wrath of God who is this consuming fire, how are we going
to keep from being consumed by the fire of God? Because Christ
is with us, and he's got us wrapped up in his asbestos robes of righteousness,
and the flame can't touch us. When we get in the presence of
this God who consumes people, just being in his presence, it'll
not touch us, nor come nigh us. Because Christ is with us. He
sent his son into the fire. He sent his son made of a woman
in the likeness of sinful flesh. Right? But without sin. Without
sin. Sent him down here. And he took
the wrath of God. He went in the fire and he took the wrath
of God against our sin and against the broken law. And he delivered.
He saved us from the fiery trial that would have awaited us, didn't
it? There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are
in Christ, whom Christ is in them, and they in him." Well, let me read this in closing.
Look back at the text there in Daniel 3. Look at this in closing. Look at verse 26 with me. Well,
old Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of that fiery furnace,
and he said, Meshach, Abednego, you servants
of the Most High God, come forth and come hither." I want to hear
it once more. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
they came forth out of the midst of the fire, and the princes,
and the governors, and the captains, and the kings, and the counselors
being gathered together, they saw something. And everybody someday is going
to see something about God's people. Okay, verse 27, they
saw that these men, They saw these men upon whose bodies the
fire had no power, no power, nor was the hair of their heads
singed, neither were their coats changed, had stained clothes
on, nor the smell of fire. And contrary to modern religion
today, imagine religion, there's no judgment awaiting a believer.
Christ took our judgment. He took it. We're righteous before
God. Not one sin is going to show
up. It has no power over us. Our sins have been judged. Not
one sin will show up. Our clothes are never going to
be changed. We're going to wear the same robe throughout all
of eternity. The robe of Christ's righteousness.
Don't need to change it. It's spotless. No fire on it. No sin on it. And no smell of
it either. Not even a smell. You remember
that story over in Genesis 27 when Jacob dressed like a weasel? And their father said, come up
here. Oh, Isaac, or Israel, said, come
up here. I want to smell of you. Well, that's us. We got to come
near. We got to draw near to God someday in his presence. And if he smells one scent on
us anywhere, if he can drag up the record against us with one
mark against it, we're going to hell. But there's no smell
on us. Why? It's covered. Sins are covered. Even God can't smell sin on us
because it's covered. It's under the blood. It's under
the blood. No smell of sin. Crucified with
Christ. Saved by the blood of God's Son. And the right road in His righteousness.
Now, this is a story. It's a story. unable to give it like I like
to, but that's the story, and it's my story, and it's the gospel
decree. Listen, look at verse twenty-nine. That's the story, and this is
the decree. Therefore, verse twenty-nine,
I make a decree. O King, if you go on to read
this, O Nebuchadnezzar, he finally over there in chapter four, verse
thirty-five, he saw who God was. I believe the Lord saved us,
O boy. He said this, he made this decree
that every people, nation, and this is the gospel decree, every
people, every nation, every language which speak anything amiss against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in
pieces and their houses shall be made of dunghill because there
is no other God that can save after this sword. And neither
is there salvation in any other name. There's no other God. There's no other salvation. This
is salvation after God's way. This is salvation after this
soul. Well, I hope you got something
out of that. I hope so. Stand with me.