Before the world began, God loved
me then. He chose me for His own, and
there I'll stay. His rich, eternal love wrote
my name above. Thank God He included me. Yes, He included me from eternity. No wrencher bust have I, for
love self-righteous. But God in wondrous grace came
and took my place. Thank God He included me. Christ paid my debt one day. The only way. He died upon the tree. to set me free. In pure and sovereign grace,
Jesus took my place. Thank God He included me. In time the Spirit saw, and grace
was drawn. He took the word of God, the
mighty law. He broke my stony heart, and
it breaks in four. Thank God He included me. Yes, He included me for eternity. No room to bask have I. The lost have died. But God in wondrous grace came
and took my place. Thank God, He included me. But God, in wondrous grace, came
and took my place. Thanks be to God, He included
me. Amen. If you would open your Bibles
this morning to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 3. Most people think of the book
of Daniel as a book of prophecies and things pertaining to the end
times, and they make charts and such as that. But this book, just like every
other book in the Bible, is in some way about the Lord Jesus
Christ. I think you're familiar with
it, but I'll kind of set the scene here in what has taken
place. This mighty king, Nebuchadnezzar, has had a golden image made and set up in the plains of Dura. Great image, gold. And he has issued a decree. He has issued a decree that at
a certain time, that time being signified when there would be
a playing of all the instruments Everybody was to bow down and
to worship that image. And here on this occasion, when
that takes place and they sound the music, everybody in the kingdom
bows down except three men. They do not bow down to his image. They are three Hebrew men by
the name of Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego. And so these men were favored
of Daniel and the king hated the one thing to have them cast into the fiery
furnace. That was the punishment for not
bowing. Everyone that did not bow to
the king, according to his edict, would be cast into the fiery
furnace and burned alive. But he didn't particularly want
these men, they were outstanding in the kingdom, I'm sure. He
didn't particularly want these three men to have to die. So he said, he said, I'll give you a second
chance. I'll sound the music again. Perhaps you didn't hear the music
or you didn't understand my decree and I'll give you a second chance. But look in verse 15. He says, now if you be ready
at that time, at what time you hear the sound of the cornet,
flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
you fall down and worship the image which I made well. But if you worship not, ye shall
be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall
be able, that shall deliver you out of my hands? There won't
be a God anywhere that can deliver you out of my judgment concerning
you. But notice their response. Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. They said, we don't even have
to think about it. We don't even have to weigh it
and consider it. 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. We're not going to do it. We're
not going to follow your idolatrous acts and decrees. even if it
cost us everything, even our lives. Verse 19 says, then Nebuchadnezzar,
full of fury, And the form of his visage was changed against
Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego. Therefore he spake and commanded
that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it
was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty
men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. And then these men were bound
in their coats, in their hosen, and their hats and their other
garments and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. The king's command was urgent. Do it now. Do it quickly. There has been a lot preached
about the faithfulness of these three men. And rightly so, because
they exhibit the faith of God's elect. They exhibit the faith
that God gives. Courageous faith. Because believers, true believers,
true Christians, true people of God, they not only believe
on the Lamb, the Scripture says they follow the Lamb whithersoever
He goes, even if it's into the fire. But what I want us to notice
more closely today is in verses 19 through 27. Look at it again.
He heated the furnace seven times hotter than it had ever been heated
or that it was made to be heated. He had the mightiest men in his
army to take hold of these men and to carry out the task. And
they not only carried it out, but they bound them up with all
their garments to make sure that they were fuel for the fire. And at Nebuchadnezzar's urgent
command, they cast them down into the midst of the burning,
fiery furnace. They fell down into the fiery
furnace. And then in verse 24, it says,
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, or astonished,
and rose up in haste. This king stood up at the sight
that he saw. And he spake and said unto his
counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst
of the fire? They answered and said unto the
king, True, O king! He answered and said, Lo, I see
four men, loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have
no herd, and the form of the fourth is like unto the Son of
God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near
to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth
and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors,
and captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered together,
saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was
an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed,
nor the smell of fire had passed on them. They didn't even have the smell
of smoke. And the Spirit of God gives us
this picture, this account, to show us much more than a good
story. When you look in the Bible, oftentimes,
oftentimes, Fire is used in the Scriptures to symbolize God's
judgment against sin. That was the way it was in Sodom. God rained fire and brimstone
on the city of Sodom, and it said it was like a furnace of
fire. The same is true about Elijah's
sacrifice on Mount Carmel. The fire fell from heaven and
consumed the sacrifice and all the water that had been poured
on that sacrifice. Fire consumes the sin, the sinner,
And it will be the final judgment of God upon this world because
of sin. Let me read you just a verse
in Matthew's gospel. Matthew chapter 13 and verse
42. Listen to what he says, or 41
and 42. The son of man shall send forth
his angels and shall gather out of his kingdom all things that
offend and them which do iniquity. and shall cast them into a furnace
of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. All that which offends, and them
that work iniquity." And in order to understand what
iniquity is in God's sight, We have to realize that this iniquity
has to do with inequity. In other words, all that does
not meet God's requirement, all that's not equal to His judgment,
to His character, all that offends will be destroyed by eternal
fire. Look over in Matthew 13 and verse
49. So shall it be at the end of
the world, the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from
the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Our Lord talks about them that
work iniquity in Matthew 7. And it's plain from that text
that He's not talking about all the people who did all the so-called
bad things that we see in this world. All the murderers and
rapists and such. He's not talking about that exclusively. He's talking there to them who
in their minds cry out, Lord, Lord. In their religion, they
cry out, Lord, Lord. And they say of themselves, Lord,
we have done many wonderful works in your name. We've cast out
devils in your name. We've prophesied in your name. And he says to those individuals,
depart from me. I never knew you. I never loved
you. I could never receive you. Ye
that work iniquity. all they did morally, all they
did in their religious exercises, all that they believed, all that
they did so far as benevolent work, all these preaching, he
said, it's iniquity. It's iniquity. And the fire of
God falls on iniquity. So Peter says, the day of the
Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that
are therein shall be burned up. Our God is a consuming fire. But what I want you to see this
morning is the union of Christ and His people when He endured
the judgment of God for our sins. The judgment that God had appointed
to Him because he made him the surety of his people, the judgment
that they endured being in him. Look back down at verse 24. When they fell down into that
furnace, and this king looked and was forced to acknowledge
what he saw in his astonishment in that burning fire, in that
burning furnace, he said to his counselors, didn't we cast three
men down in there? Oh, they said yes. They would
have said yes if he said five men. They were just yes men. Like these preachers today, just
yes men. What do you want to believe?
What do you think? Yes men. Oh yes. We cast three down in
there. He says, but I see a fourth.
I see a fourth. And the fourth one is like unto
the Son of God. I wonder why he was able to discern
that. It's because he was such a distinct
individual, such a glorious individual, so much different from these
others that he had cast in the fire. He was just a picture,
if not Jesus Christ himself. And there he is, united with
his people, joined to his people in that time which so represented
the judgment of God, their defiance of a decree, and their sin. And here is what I want you to
see. Being in Christ is the only way
to escape the fiery wrath of God. God is going to punish sin. He's going to punish my sin.
He's going to punish your sin. He's going to punish every sinner's
sin, which is everybody in the whole world, none excluded. But not only is He the only way,
Look what happened to the men on the outside in verse 22. It says, therefore, because the
king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot,
the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach and
Meshach. They weren't even cast into the
fire. They just got near enough to
the fire to throw these men in, and they themselves were consumed
and killed instantly. They didn't have to even go into
the fire. And that's going to be the way
it is with every sinner outside of Christ. They say, well, I'm going to
tell God this and that and the other. Make a deal with the Lord
at that hour. I'm going to do this. No, you're
just going to be consumed immediately at His slight presence. Who can stand His presence? Who can stand His dwelling, the
Scriptures say? And so these men were cast, they
cast everybody else in there as they cast these people of
God into the fiery furnace. They were themselves consumed
by God's wrath, God's judgment. But there's something else. And that is, if you were in Christ, If God has put you in Christ,
if He had chosen you and included you like that song Betty sung
this morning, if He had in covenant mercy and love put you in Christ
Jesus and made you an object of God's grace in Him and blessed
you with all spiritual blessings in Him, when the fiery wrath fell on
Him. And that's what the cross is
all about. God, in order to save His people,
as a just God and a Savior, causing His wrath to fall on their substitute,
on their surety, And they, therefore, enduring that fiery wrath in
him, they've already been delivered
from the wrath to come. They need not have any fear. Because all of those who were
in Christ, or as it is in this picture, with Christ, he on their
behalf endured everything, every jot and tittle, and every ounce
and degree of God's wrath in his own person on the tree. The prophet said, awake, O sword,
and smite the shepherd. And the picture in my mind's
eye is that the sword of God's wrath, somebody sent me a message
this week, had a little thing on it, says, the way to a man's
heart is between his fourth and fifth rib. Speaking of a sword. But you can just imagine, if
you will, the sword of divine justice. It didn't just nick
Christ. It didn't just, in some way,
cut off a finger or something like that. God buried his sword
of justice to the hilt in our Lord Jesus Christ. And we were all, all in Him,
all saved by Him, and all delivered in that hour by that work, by
that death. And that's sufficient. God doesn't have any more wrath
to display against those who are in Christ Jesus. He has vented
all of His holy displeasure against their sin and made it to rest
on the head of Christ and brought Him to this substitutionary death
in their place. And they can rejoice in that. That kind of love demonstrated
cast out fear. If you notice in this text, it
says that those three men that he saw, actually all four men
that this king saw, they'd all walking around and they had been
loosed. They had been loosed. They had
been loosed from the debt of their sin. They had been loosed
from every other kind of bondage. They had been loosed from the
captivity of Satan. They had been loosed over and
over and over abundantly from everything that bound. Now, I know how we are. I know
how I am. I have those sins that I consider
sometimes to be the worst sins. And I look back in my life and
I count these various occasions and acts and I say, oh, I wish
I hadn't done that, but I did. I know I can understand maybe
how God can forgive this, that, and the other, but I don't know
about that one. That's the most horrible thing.
It haunts me. I can't escape it. But the truth is that everybody
in Christ They endured God's wrath against every sin and all
their sins, regardless of what they were and are, all the way
through that death on the cross. Either he did or he didn't. There is never any middle ground
spoken of. There is never any partial salvation
spoken of in the Bible. And the preaching of the gospel
is used to deliver his people who've been taken captive by
deceivers and by their own works. And notice them, they're all
walking around alive. You see, when they were cast
into that fiery furnace, they were as good as dead. And what has the fire done to
them? The only thing the fire has done
is burned off their bindings. If any man be in Christ, he's
free. The Spirit of the Lord is the
Spirit of freedom. The Lord, in other words, all
these things that bind our hearts and bind our minds, the Lord
came to set the captivity free, the captive free, and to lead
captivity captive, the Bible says. They're walking around lying.
Alive with Him, alive in Him. You can't stay dead in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And they came entirely all the
way through the fire. They made it. We have an expression that says
He's got it made. Maybe not. Or she's got it made, or I'd
like to have it made like they do. Maybe not. But everyone who
identifies with the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the shedding
of his blood for their sins, the putting away of sin by the
sacrifice of himself, every one of them has got it made. Because In that death, he made
peace with God on their behalf. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. You think about Noah. Noah underwent
the judgment of God just like everybody else did. We fail to
realize that at times, but the same rain and the same flood
and the same judgment of God fell on Noah and his family just
like it did everybody else. The difference being that Noah
was in the ark. A God-provided, God-appointed
way of deliverance from that judgment. A, actually, deliverance
through that judgment. And you look at him on the Mount
Ararat. The ark is perched up there on
the top. And Noah has made it through.
The judgment fell on him. The wrath of God fell on him,
the rains and the floods and the storms and the winds, but
he was safe in the ark. And that ark, like this fiery
furnace and Christ in it, is a type of Christ. God appointed
him to endure the wrath for his people in his own body on the
tree. He says, I lay down my life for
the sheep. In Matthew 20, and verse 22, it says that Jesus
said, you know not what you ask. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I shall drink up and be baptized with the baptism
I am baptized with?" And they said unto him, we're able. They weren't. They didn't. The first time that the heat
came on Peter, he denied the Lord three times. He couldn't
even make it into public testimony. But Christ says unto them, you
shall indeed, you shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized
with the baptism that I'm baptized with, but to sit on my right
hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it shall be given
to them who it is prepared of my Father. He said, you're going
to do it, but you're not going to do it
the way you think. You're not going to endure enough
to be saved. You're not going to undergo enough
persecution to be saved. You're not going to do all these
things. You can't drink this cup I'm
drinking on your behalf. You can't be baptized with this
baptism that I've got to be baptized with, which was a baptism of
fire, judgment. We can't do it. And thank God
we don't have to. Look over in Romans chapter six. Romans six and verse three. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? Therefore, we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection, knowing this. How do we know this? Because
God says it. We know it because He gives faith
to believe it. Knowing this, that our old man,
all of our associations with the first Adam, all of our sin
before God, all of that old man, and the word here is really was. Not is, it's was. It's past tense. was crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. He went to the cross. He yielded
His life as an atonement for sin. He died the death of the
cross that God had appointed for all His people's sins. He
died and He then rose again. He's that fourth man. Nebuchadnezzar says, I think
I see a fourth man in there. He's a little different than
them. He's likened to the Son of God. I don't know how Christ
appeared or how His type was pictured there, but I know that
all their salvation depended on Him. If He hadn't been there, In that
fiery furnace with them, they would have every one perished. But in that type of Christ crucified,
we see them loosed, we see them alive, and we see them walking. To the wonder of this king, and
all the world. Boy, I don't see how he can have
any hope. Bob, I don't see how you could
ever go to heaven. Ladies, I don't see how you could.
You're good ladies, I admit it, but not that good. But looking into the fire. Looking
into that picture of Christ crucified, I can see how the chief of sinners can be delivered. And that is all through and by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you look at them, these
men, they were totally delivered, totally saved, their clothes
still intact, they were unsinged, and they didn't have even the
smell of smoke off. And that's the way it is with
those who've been made righteous. They've been clothed in the robed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now they're judgment-proof. They're safe in Christ crucified. They're saved in His garments
of salvation. They're safe. They're unscathed. They've already made it through. So that Paul says in Romans 5,
I just love this verse. Much more
than being now justified by His blood, by that work that He accomplished
in the shedding of His blood before the justice of God, and
so satisfied God on every behalf. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. You see, that's exactly what
water baptism symbolizes. It speaks of our identifying
with the death and burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. His death is our death. Death
to sin and death for sin. And God was glorified in all
this. He was glorified in all this. Look at verse 28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and
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. If you notice, God used the second
time in that verse is in capital letters. God as it's used in
the previous reference is in small letters. Because their
God was the only true and living
God. That is the deliverance of all
God's people, of all who trust in Christ alone. God was glorified. They were
saved. His enemies were destroyed. I guess everything was perfect
then, wasn't it? Well, before God it was perfect. But I'll guarantee you, these
same three men who had been delivered in this way, they all probably
had families, they all had their own weaknesses in the flesh,
and they all had other trials. Just like we are. Peter said, Beloved, Think it
not strange concerning the fiery trial which shall try you, as
though some strange thing happen to you, but rejoice inasmuch
as you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory
shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you suffer a little bit, if
you suffer for Christ's sake, if you suffer heartaches, He
said, don't forget you're already a partaker of Christ's sufferings. We have many, as the Bible calls
them, fiery trials. Many fiery trials. Oh, we'll
be burned up in this one. I'm not gonna make it through
this one. Oh, I'm just, this has just overcome me. It's devastated
me. I'll never make it out of this
world alive. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. He says, Fear thou not, for I
am with thee, and be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen
thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. If He brought us through the
cross, what are these trials and these
tribulations? Though they weigh heavy on our
weak flesh, what are they to Him? Number one, as He was with these
three Hebrews on that occasion, He'll be with His people. And number two, no matter how
severe the fiery trial, He will bring them through. You say,
it's gonna kill me. Well, if it does, He will really
have brought you through. He will really have brought you
through. Isaiah 43, God says, But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by my name,
and thou art mine. Done, deal, settled, everything. Next statement. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through
the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon you. Just like these Hebrews. Christ says, I'll be with you because I've been with you. I've
been with you already through the worst. Through the worst. I'll never leave you or forsake
you. Never. I suppose that These Hebrew men might have had
some anxiousness in the flesh, but they had the resolve of faith.
They would not bow to an idol, even if it meant their death,
because God was able to deliver them. He's delivered his people
from the wrath to come. He's delivered them from this
present evil world. Salvation is the deliverance. And what a wonderful picture
of it. With Christ, through the fire. Our Father, we thank you in this
morning in the name of our glorious Savior, our strong Redeemer,
Our mighty God, we thank you for your mercy to us. And we
pray that you would call out and make this truth and this
glorious fact known to your people. Cause them to see that who were
in Christ in that covenant of grace,
And they were especially in Him when He went to that cross, when
He went into that furnace of affliction. They were with Him,
in Him, and He brought them all safely through. We shall be saved
from wrath through Him. May you be praised for your grace
and mercy to us. worlds without end. For we pray
in Christ's name, Amen.