To turn back in your Bibles to
the book of Daniel, Daniel 3, as we are continuing in our Choice
Gleanings series, working our way through different passages
and asking the Lord to reveal His glory to us and remind us
how faithful He is to Himself and therefore to us. Daniel 3 is where we are today. I also want to say before we
get started, at 1.30 today, we will have our new members class.
If you are interested in becoming a member of Grace, you want to
find out about us at 1.30 in our children's church, we will
be, children's church, yes. Across the way in the portable,
we will be meeting at 1.30. Go get yourself something to
eat, come back, and we'll talk for about an hour as to who we
are and what we are about. Daniel chapter three is a very,
very popular portion of scripture for most people. It is one of
the joys of children in Sunday school class. It is one of those
remarkable accounts of things that cause you to question whether
or not it could be so. How could God do such a thing? Then on top of that, for people
who know something about trouble, about difficulty, about pains,
all summed up in the category of trials. Daniel chapter three
is extremely comforting to us. It teaches us about a God who
is able to deliver you from the utmost sufferings in the world. It teaches us more than that.
The title of our message is the fiery trials, the fiery trials
that reveal his glory. Now all over the world people
are suffering at the hand of what we have described here at
Grace, and this is not new to us, is called the system of the
beast, the beast system. They're suffering at the hands
of the beast on a political level, on social levels, on economic
levels, in some cases spiritual levels, but certainly On a larger
global scale, the beast is having his way with nations and peoples,
and people are really truly suffering today. With that thought in mind,
if you have any knowledge of global conflict and global trouble
and global difficulty, and you are aware of a biblical worldview
that says there is a maniacal system run by an entity called
Satan, whose system in the scripture is under the rubric of a Babylonian
system. This is a Babylonian system that
has enforced itself or usurped itself upon the citizens of the
human race. is in a very forceful way driving
men and women to damnation, causing them to suffer, suffer, suffer,
suffer. When you and I become more aware
of the news and media, the one thing we know is people are suffering
all over the world. Now, the first thing we want
to derive from that is a special sense of God's mercy in our own
life. I'm here to tell you that you
ought to be grateful to God for where you are and what you have. As children of God who have by
no right of our own, by no merit of our own, by no grace of our
own, by no accomplishments of our own, we are in a place where
God has been extremely good to us. There is no reason by virtue
of our ethnicity, by virtue of our knowledge, our prowess, our
skills, our accomplishments, that we can say that we are in
a better place than somebody else. But it is certainly true
that God has been extremely good to us. Can I get an amen? And I mean in such a way that
it should read down to the glory of God in the depths of your
soul that he has given you such an auspicious, such a favorable
tenor to live at this time in this place with the grace that
God has given you. We got people all over the world
that are starving to death. I mean, starving to death. I
mean, they labor little children to grown adults to get just a
little food in their system. And I can't understand for the
world of me how come God has been so gracious to me. This
is why this year for us, thankfulness is an axiom. It is a foundational
prism by which we interpret everything and make sure we give God glory
for everything because he's been so good to us. So absolutely
good to us. The trials that you go through,
the trials that I go through, yes, they try us. Yes, they tempt
us. But they are small in compare
to the sufferings that our brothers and sisters go through around
the world. So we're going to keep them in their perspective,
aren't we? We're going to exalt Christ and glorify God and laud
the King of glory and leave our trials right where they ought
to be. But at the same time, what we do understand is our
master told us universally all over the world, you shall have
tribulation. So we have our difficulties,
don't we? We be wanting to give up just
because we get a headache. or we lose some hours at work.
We have some reverses and we start wondering, is God on our
side? This is because of how fickle we are by nature. We need
help, don't we? And there's a God in the universe
for us today who is for us today the same as he was for these
brothers yesterday. Because he doesn't change. He
can't lie and he won't fail. So we can trust him like they
trusted him, can't we? God help us if we should ever
be put in a situation where we would have to go through such
extremity as these men. Give us grace, oh Lord, to stand
for you. So I wanna call your attention
to five things by way of redemptive application for our souls. First
and foremost, let us understand that the Babylonian captivity
that we find taking place in the Daniel account prophesied
in the book of Deuteronomy and it is again alluded to in the
book of Revelation. The Babylonian captivity is a
strategy of evangelism for God's glory. I want you to hear this
now because this is going to help us understand how we are
to dwell in this Babylonian system ourselves. Do you guys know that
you are in the Babylonian system right now? This world system
is a Babylonian system. We know about the geography of
Babylon in Iraq and Turkey over there in the Middle East. But
what we understand is that the Babylonian system is a spiritual
system. And we happen to be in that system
as well. And there are some things therefore
for us to learn as how to be in this world. but not of it. How to deal with the tension
of having a mission to roam the streets of Babylon, at the same
time, keep our identity in Christ. And then to be ready to suffer
for his glory, knowing that it is a strategy on the part of
God to use his people in the midst of Babylon to get glory
to his great name. By the time we ended this chapter,
We had the king himself glorifying God, didn't he? Do you know one
day every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Do you know that? Now
we be, I'm here to tell you, we talk like it, we talk like
it, we talk like it, we talk like it, but then when we get
the bad news, where's God at? Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 5
through 11 you can turn there I just want you to underscore
in your mind that when God says that you and I are in the Babylonian
system He wants us to make sure that we are there as a strategic
Evangelical objective on God's part that we are not in a Babylonian
system System that is not under the control of God Almighty God's
under God is in control of the Babylonian system that we are
a part of and we simply need to get a handle on it and so
that we can do God's will here. Jeremiah had the hardest time
letting his Jewish brethren know that God is going to drive them
into Babylon and that when they get to Babylon, they are not
to try to fight their way back to Jerusalem, toil their way
back to Jerusalem. They're not to go to Babylon
and wage wars and political upheavals and start coups and try to convert
the government. No. You know what he told him
to do Jeremiah chapter 29 Verses 5 through 11 now you listen to
this in Babylon. Here's what he said build houses
Dwell in them Plant gardens and eat the fruit thereof That means
you're getting quite situated in that place. In fact, you're
making that place your home for a season Your job is to get comfortable
in the providence of God for placing you in Babylon with a
specific mission Are you hearing what I'm saying? In other words,
you want to be agitated disrupted? Uh, uh cause to always be anxious. No settle down Settle down get
a job Get a job pay your bills Acquire those necessary things
by which you can exist because God has a purpose and then God
said get married This is what he told his people. You guys
get married. Don't be so anxious that you
stop dating and stop looking for spouses because God has a
plan that he started even before he brought you out of Egypt.
And he wants to continue that plan. And he tells his people
therefore to make sure that you marry, watch this now, and have
children. I want you to mark it because
we live in a Babylonian system which is a culture of death and
will kill every child it possibly could so that it can control
the masses. But the text says take you wives
and beget you sons and daughters and take wives for your sons
and give daughters to your husbands that they may bear sons and daughters
that they may be increased their watch this and not diminished. You know what God is doing? He's
saying in the midst of Babylon, I want you to continue to profit.
I want you to continue to prosper. I want you to continue to expand.
I want you to continue to grow. I want you to continue to influence.
In the midst of Babylon, I don't want you to dry up, atrophy and
diminish. I want you to continue to expand,
to grow, to abound in order to make an impact. See, because
the whole concept of proliferation and multiplying in terms of God's
original objective is to make sure we reach the destiny that
God has called us for. He told them, you're going to
be in Babylon 70 years. That's a long time. That's two
generations. Some of y'all in Babylon in that context, we're
going to die. Have some children and sustain
the linear objective that God has called us for. And that linear
objective for which God has called us is the coming of Jesus Christ. National Israel was the physical
conduit by which Jesus would come into the world. And even
though God is chasing Israel because it's rebellion against
the covenant, God still is going to fulfill his will through Israel
to bring Jesus into the world. So he says to his people, his
faithful believing people who have to go into Babylon because
of the unfaithfulness of those who were in Jerusalem, Wherever
you are, it don't matter because I run the universe, the world
is mine and you can still do my will wherever I place you.
Do you believe that? Wherever I place you. And this
is a very strategic point for the believer in Christ. And therefore,
the idea of building and marrying and increase and not diminishing
has to do with three fundamental realities. One is our witness
in the world. God meant for Israel to make
a witness impact in Babylon. And in two forms, you know, Jesus
said you are the salt of the earth. Remember that? And he
says you are the light of the world. Remember, these are indicatives
that are applied to the believer that first applied to Christ.
And they are they are strategies and methods on God's part to
use his people to impact the world. Now, when you and I are
called salt, we are called salt because we are Designed by our
union with Christ to make an impact in the culture just like
salt does upon food Now salt when it is mixed with food vegetables
or meats or what-have-you salt changes its form But it never
loses its properties so as a believer is to be in the world, but not
of it and He's not to be in the world as some foreigner dressing
funny and looking funny as if he comes from another planet
and talking in a language that doesn't know how to assimilate
with the culture. Salt assimilates, but salt never conforms. It always
maintains its natural properties so that substantively we are
the sons and daughters of God, but practically we live like
everybody else does. And this is an order that we
might rub shoulders with lost sinners in this world. Our job
is not to circle the wagons as it were and to block ourselves
off from the world and, you know, us against them. That notion
is antithetical to the gospel. The gospel is calling us to go
into the world. This is why Jesus had to teach
his disciples the whole new wine, new wineskin principle so that
they would be ready to leave Jerusalem instead of protect
Jerusalem. Because the gospel was never
meant to stay in Jerusalem in the first place. It was meant
to spread to every quarter of the world. Only at salt it's
a little shaky when God has to sprinkle some over here and sprinkle
some over there and sprinkle some over there Cuz you know
when God separates you from the little body politic that you
all comfortable with now You kind of out there all by yourself
with you and God in this strange city. I Way across the nation,
from California, from Hayward. Now you're in Texas. Now you
are in New York. Now you're in South Carolina,
by yourself. Now you're in Louisiana, by yourself. How is God going to keep you
the same way he kept you when you were with the body? He's
going to keep you that way then as well. And so the believer
has to understand that God has a purpose a lot of times, as
we're getting ready to see in our next point, for scattering. We are called to be salt. We
are also called to be light. Now what light does is it fuses
the darkness by virtue of implementing biblical truth into the context. What light does is it fuses the
darkness by implementing biblical truth into the context. Our world
is in spiritual darkness. It doesn't know God. It doesn't
know God's word. It doesn't know God's son. It doesn't know truth.
And the believer is designed to be ready to diffuse light
into the darkness, the truth of God's word into the culture,
the truth of God's word into the situation, whatever it is.
And when was we in our obedience to Christ by his grace, share
the word of God, we are cutting the lights on. Have you ever
been in a situation where you were in a realm or a group or
on a job or at school and you know that the whole dimension
spiritually was darkness and you opened your mouth and cut
the lights on? Do you understand what happened
the moment you said, thus saith the Lord? You divided the light
from the darkness, the day from the night, and God saw that it
was good. because in that division you
are doing what God wants you to do and that is, watch this
now, you are seeking out God's elect in the midst of Babylon. This is the extraction process
I'm talking about now. The reason why we are in Babylon
is to seek out God's elect. The reason why he scatters us
abroad in Babylon is because God has an elect people in Babylon
who must hear his voice and who must come to him. Other sheep
have I that are not of this fold, they too must be brought in and
there will be one fold and one shepherd. We have to have that
perspective when it comes to our work. We have to have that
perspective when it comes to our school. It's not about us,
it's about him. Which brings us to our second
point. Secondly, Babylon is God's whip for the nations. Jeremiah called him God's servant. Habakkuk, we learned this a few
weeks ago, said that they were a angry and hasty nation. Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter
28 that they were a people of stammering lips. and babbling
tongues, and they were as swift as the eagles and as fierce as
the lions. And Daniel's vision in Daniel
7 painted Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon as a great and fierce
lion. And God used Babylon to discipline
the world. When you read your Bible, there
will be two great, what we call political metaphors in the scripture. Babylon, the great, and then
Jerusalem. the great. These are the tensions. These are the battle lines that
are drawn. Either we are of the city of
Babylon or we are the city of Jerusalem. Either we dwell in
Jerusalem or we dwell in Babylon. These two cities never can ultimately
merge. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
They are at war perpetually until the end of time. And just in
case you didn't know, when all the smoke clears, ladies and
gentlemen, the only city that will be standing is the city
of Jerusalem. And I'm not talking about that
little piece of real estate over there in Palestine either. So
you and I have to know who we are. We have to know where we
are. We have to know why we are where we are. And so Babylon
is the whip for God. And it's the whip for God to
accomplish one purpose. Now mark this now. The exaltation
of the son of God. See, all things were made by
him and for him. And without Him, nothing exists,
nothing consists, nothing sustains. God's glory is going to be manifested
in this world through Jesus Christ, by whom and for whom He made
all things. And we have learned in biblical theology that Jesus
Christ is the subject of Scripture, isn't He? But He's also the subject
of history. He is the one coming in the volume
of the book is written of Him to do God's will. it doesn't
surprise us that we see Jesus coming in our text does it because
it's always been about him and so you and I need to know that
what God is going to call our attention to now are three Hebrew
boys three Hebrew boys point number three Babylon is also
that political spiritual kingdom of what I've told you and I want
you to I want you to see this in verses three through seven
of our text, Daniel chapter three, verses three through seven. I
just want you to see the context before we are introduced to these
boys and work our way through it in verse three through seven
of Daniel chapter three. Then the princes, the governors,
the captains, the rulers, the judges, the counselors, all the
rulers of the providence were gathered together unto the dedication
of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they
stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then an herald cried
aloud, to you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
that at the time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you shall
fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the
king had set up. Do you understand what we call
this? This is called the call to worship. The music is played
and all the peoples of the nation are to bow down to this one centerpiece. This one centerpiece is this
giant golden idol. This golden idol represents this
world system. It represents humanism. It represents
a man-centered attempt and agenda to be like God. I have taught
you years ago in the book of Daniel that much of the language
of Daniel, the syntax of Daniel is structured in a pseudo evangelical
mode. In other words, the goal of the
enemy is to build a system that looks like God's system and acts
like God's system, only it's a false system. So you will hear
in the book of Daniel language like every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. That's the universality of the
peoples who are targeted by the gospel. Well, guess what? The
enemy has a gospel too. And his gospel is a gospel of
idolatry. It's a gospel of humanism. It's
a gospel of secularism. It's a gospel of pluralism. It's
a gospel of self. And it's energized by Satan to
cause the whole world to bow down to it. And many women do
just that. This is remarkable because, you
know, again, if you were to deal with the topology, the historical
context, the geography, one could imagine this massive image. Some
says it was about 90 feet tall, massive 90 foot image. We don't
know what it's like. You can speculate if you want
to, but it was large enough to be a centerpiece for all the
heads of state, all the heads of state, all the representatives
of every country. Certainly not all the nations
here that are spoken of were there, but their representatives
were. What we mean by representatives, we're talking about heads of
state. You see, God set up the situation where he has what is
called a federal headship plan. This is why he speaks in the
Bible about the father being the head of Christ and Christ
being the head of the man and man being the head of the woman.
This structure, this hierarchical structure runs all the way through
the scriptures and in body politics, our leaders are our representatives. They are our federal representatives. And you can imagine that there
were thousands of federal representatives there. This is a big assembly. Are you hearing me? of dignitaries
and rulers and despots and crooks like we have today and they all
are going to bow down all at once on their knees with their
face to the ground in utter homage and prostration to this one humanistic
idolatrous system called Babylon at the call to worship and so
once the music was set forth We don't know what it sounded
like. I call it a cacophony. Because that's the kind of Babylonian
sound we got going on today. But it has enough resonation
with lost men and women that they worship this world system.
They bow down to it. So I want you to watch this vision
as we move into point number three. All the dignitaries bow
down in one fell swoop. And the astrologers, these are
the wicked, preachers in the Babylonian system who like to
lie to the king. For some reason, they didn't
bow down because if they had bowed down, they wouldn't have
noticed that in the whole assembly, there were three brothers who
didn't bow down. Three brothers who stayed standing
up. Three brothers who ignored the
king's command, the king's idol and the king's doctrine. Three
brothers standing up. You know they stuck out like
a sore thumb. But if everybody else had been
worshiping, they wouldn't have seen those three brothers. If
it was me, I would have said, King Neb, before you deal with
them, deal with these knuckleheads who saw them. Because apparently
they weren't worshiping either. Which is a little bit of an aside
for you. You are not worshiping when you
come to church. and look to your left and look
to your right and get preoccupied with the person around you. True
worship is one person to one person in the room, you and an
audience of one, which is God. You have not entered into worship
until you have blanked everybody out and your soul's mind has
fixed itself on the glory of God and the word of God that's
being preached to you. You get to looking to see what
folk is wearing and who showed up today. You're not worshiping. Sorry. As we get to point number three,
here's what I want you to understand. The men who are called Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego are a great type of the church of Jesus Christ. See, we believe that the Bible
is a unit. From Genesis to Revelation, it
runs through with a singular truth, and that singular truth
is relevant to all of God's people at all times. We don't divide
the Old Testament and the New Testament up in terms of its
eternal principles running through it. We recognize the end of the
Old Covenant and the establishing of the New, which gets rid of
all types of temporal and earthly things, but there are perpetual
principles that run through the Old as well as the New. This
here is what we call the Eternal Covenant. That eternal covenant
has to do with God's purpose of grace and the saving of sinners
from both the Old and the New Testament. And by the way, for
those of you who don't quite understand sound doctrine, the
saints in the Old Testament are saved exactly the same way the
saints in the New Testament are. By faith in Christ alone apart
from words. They are saved by grace through
the finished work of Jesus Christ, just like we are in the New Testament.
They were given grace to look forward, we are given grace to
look backwards, but God saw it all the time because He's the
great I Am. We are all saved the same way. and therefore the object of faith
for the believer from Adam to the last man in the world is
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Are you hearing me? Thus we heard
it this morning by our elder. Those things that were written
aforetime, they were written for our learning. They were written
to us for our consolation and our comfort upon whom the ends
of the world have come. So we can read the Old Testament
and extract the typology, the symbolism, the metaphor, the
allegory, the redemptive truth that applies to us and get our
souls blessed. So here's what I'll tell you.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, as they are called, I'm going
to explain that in a moment, are type. of the faithful church
of Jesus Christ. Oh, may God give you and I the
grace to be like these brothers. This is no joke. Listen, the
Babylonian system has always had cremation systems to consume
their enemies. Fiery furnaces made up of coals
and wood and all sorts of flammable and combustible elements by which
it would take men and women and throw their bodies in there to
incinerate them. Listen, this is exactly what
Jesus meant when he said, don't fear him that can kill the body,
but fear him that can kill both body and soul in hell. Now it
takes a lot of faith fixed on a God of glory to be willing
to deal with that. And this was what our brothers
are going to teach us here about here. And that is what faith
does in the face of trials. Three men, a type of the true
church given to us in verse 12. Notice what it says. There are
certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the providence
or the province of Babylon. Certain Jews, do you see that?
Searching these are the these are the folks who was telling
on the Jewish brethren certain Jews Over the affairs of Babylon. You've set them up. Oh king and
king. They haven't regarded you They haven't served your gods
and nor are they worshiping the image which you have set up Now,
don't you know these brothers? Have chosen on this day to get
into trouble You know they have Because they had been told that
this day was coming. In the scriptures, in terms of
the tribulation, it's called the hour of trial. And we have
had these hours of trial all throughout history. You know
the hour of trial? It's the hour that you know is
coming but isn't here yet, that your heart has to be prepared
for, so once it comes, you can do the right thing and stand
faithful before God. These men were ready for this
hour. These three men were ready for
this hour. How do we know? Notice the language.
Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, commanded to bring
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before
the king. And I want you to mark this now.
I want you to hear what's getting ready to say. The narrative is
going to teach us something about how this Babylonian system would
love to redefine who you are. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said
unto them, is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, do not
ye serve my God, nor worship the golden image which I have
set up. I want you to understand something
here, ladies and gentlemen. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
as the Babylonians called them, have real names given to them
by God. In the first chapter, which I
want you to go there, and their real names are Hebrew names. with Hebrew connotations, underscoring
their real identity. Now, Nebuchadnezzar met these
brothers in chapter 1 and 2, because when he was in trouble,
struggling with a vision, it was these brothers along with
Daniel that opened his understanding. And he was highly privileged
of them for helping him understand the vision. But he had to come
to know that these three men, along with Daniel, Daniel chapter
1 and Daniel chapter 2, were four brothers who were not given
to eating the king's meat. Are you hearing me? See, one
of the things that political powers do when they bring you
into captivity to their system is they change your identity.
Their job is to transform you. We call it the dialectical process.
It's what goes on in our culture presently. where your mind is
transformed and you are made to think like the Babylonians
think, love what the Babylonians love and do what the Babylonians
do and ultimately worship the God of the Babylonians. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? This is a manipulative system
that has been going on for decades upon decades, millenniums here
in our world. And in our world, it happens
through education. It happens through media. It
happens through entertainment. It happens politically. It's
no wonder our present world looks the way that it does. It is a
Babylonian system designed to create a Unitarian construct. And what I mean by that is the
global agenda of a one world government, which we have the
prelude to it in the book of Genesis chapter 9 through 11.
where Nimrod, the mighty hunter, established Babylon, Assyria,
Nineveh, and those early ancient nations. And we've been learning
about that in Sunday School class, chapter 11, verses 1 through
9. They all assented. being under
one language to build a city and build a tower to heaven.
You guys remember that? That's called a united front.
That's a unitarian objective where everybody agrees upon this
agenda. And the text tells us they were
of one language. Now I want you to mark this now.
Their goal was to build a tower and build a kingdom all the way
to heaven to make a name for themselves. This is what we mean
by humanism. This is what we mean by a man-centered
objective. This is what we mean by the flesh.
This is what we mean by people bent on their own glory. And
you know what the text tells us? And God looked down and saw
their plans and saw their schemes. And he says, now, if I don't
do something about this, these people will be free to do whatever
they want to do. And it tells us the power of
unity when people are left alone. Isn't that right? When people
ultimately are able to cohere and agree and take on the same
mentality and the same attitude and the same agenda. Watch this
now. And that agenda is not God's
agenda. They have become a united force
against God. God saw that. God understood
that. And here's what God said he would
do. And I'm going to share a principle with you here. When God sees
a system getting set up that's designed as a united front to
obtain glory for itself and not the true and the living God,
you know what God will do and must do? Scatter it. Scatter
it. Frustrate their plans. Frustrate
their schemes. Frustrate their whole objectives
Demolish their whole system. That's what God did. It said
he came down after for morphical terminology We know that God
doesn't come down except he did in the person of his son God's
everywhere present He came down in his Providence. He came down
in his power and scattered their agenda. He scattered them to
the four winds now Why would God do that? Why wouldn't God
just destroy them? Can I tell you why I want you
to get this now because God has a plan he has a purpose and And
we do this in our diabolical ignorance. We try to build these
institutions and these structures, and we do it with all of the
carnal fleshly objective of self in view. Are you hearing me?
We don't really have God's glory in view. Now, if God loves us,
are you ready? He's got to scatter it. He's
got to demolish it. He's got to knock it down. And
watch this now. He had to knock it down in the
Genesis account because among those Babylonians who are all
speaking one language, guess who was among them? God's elect. God's elect. Abraham, Sarah,
Lot, and in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the 12 tribes. So in mercy,
God scattered the whole thing in order to divide their tongues
in order that he might preserve his elect. So sometimes we got
to pray that God would enter in and bust up a thing. order
to preserve his elect am I making some sense now I know this because
he does it all the time he does it all the time now watch this
this is the principle if God lets the thing go and build and
accomplish its purpose and that thing is not of God there's because
there is no one of God's elect in it did you hear me See, when
God doesn't have an interest in the redemption of the souls
of the people in it, he will let it run its course in order
to show his glory in the destruction of the whole thing. So we have
that model of man attempting to rise to heights of glory and
success without God for him to destroy it and scatter it. And
now here we have Babylon all over again and Nebuchadnezzar
all over again seeking to do that. He has went through and
he has brought the Jewish people in, especially the tribe of Judah,
of whom we are now particularly dealing with. And it was Daniel
and his three brothers that they tried to make eunuchs out of.
In fact, they made eunuchs out of them. But you know, the way
that the Babylonian system works is when they bring you under
his auspices, they actually will give you things that will make
your life better. Like this Babylonian system will
give you wealth. It will give you fame. It will
give you prominence. It will give you prosperity.
In fact, that's the reason we are in chapter 3. Because Nebuchadnezzar
exalted Daniel and the three boys for showing Nebuchadnezzar
the dream. Nebuchadnezzar was glad to meet
what he said in Daniel chapter 3 was the God that reveals secrets. Who can reveal secrets like the
God of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? By the way, that's
their Hebrew names. Look at it with me over in verse
six. Now among these were the children
of Judah, chapter one, verse six, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah. Do you see it? Unto whom the
prince of the eunuchs gave them names. See what I'm getting at?
change their identity, give them a whole new persona. He gave
Daniel the name Belteshazzar, Hananiah Shadrach, Mishael Meshach,
Azariah Abednego. Now, do you understand what they
did? They laid upon these guys pagan names of pagan gods to
change their identity. But I already told you when God
calls us to be salt, the outward form may change. but the inward
properties remain the same. You want to give me a suit to
go to work for you, that's cool, but I'm not going to worship
your God because you buy me a suit. You want to give me a title on
my door as an executive of this branch, that's cool, but I'm
not going to bow down and worship your God because you make me
a CEO in your institution. You might want to give me a nice
retirement package. That's cool. But I'm not going
to bow down and worship that retirement package because I
know whose I am and I know who I am. See, now in this system,
I want you to get this. This is called the dialectical
process. And this is why you've got to train your children right.
And you've got to be taught right. See, however you are thinking
will constitute who you serve. And you cannot be merely a church
goer and call yourself a Christian. A Christian is one who thinks
God's thoughts after him. Having been born of God, quickened
by his spirit, renewed in his mind, his affections and hearts
are set on God and Christ. And he loves the word of God.
That's a Christian. You guys got that? That means
he or she is equipped now to go into this Babylonian system
as a self-secret agent for the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you hearing
me? Because they refuse to buy into
the dialectical process. They refuse to buy into it. You
can exalt us all you want. Neb said, I really appreciate
you, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego for revealing to
me my dream. There is no God like your God
that can reveal secrets. He was jazzed by the God of revelation. Jazzed by the God of revelation. But you know, Nebuchadnezzar
is just like our world system. He was what we call a pluralist,
polytheistic. And what that means is while
he appreciated the God of Daniel, Mishael, Hananiah, and Azariah,
he didn't worship that God, nor did he view him as exclusively
the true and the living God. This is the reason for the mess
that Neb gets into just in the next chapter. It would seem reasonable
that once God reveals his glory in the revelation of the dream
to the man, that he would fall down, worship the true and the
living God, and abandon all idols. No, he was a pluralist. And I
wanna share something with you with that concept. You will meet
people who will tell you, yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus
also. Yeah, I believe in the God of
the Bible plus. And politicians do this all the
time with forked tongue. Did you get that? Politicians
do it all the time. This is what we call ambivalence.
This is the duplicity of politicians. They will pretend to be Christian
today, and Muslim tomorrow, and Hindu the next day, and then
atheistic when they need to, and just kind of hodgepodge them
all together. This is your ecumenical movement. Are you hearing me?
In other words, they serve the God that's convenient to advance
their cause today, tomorrow, the next day. So this is why
in chapter three, When Nebuchadnezzar gets the news that our three
brothers, Daniel, and Daniel's going at this time, but the three
Hebrew boys are not bowing down to worship this pagan dead idol,
that he's enraged. He's enraged because he thought
that the promotion of these three boys would have corrupted their
character and corrupted their principles and caused them to
compromise biblical truth like a lot of people do. Are you hearing
me? It didn't faze them. Listen, they were so glad to
be living large, riding in those golden chariots, singing hallelujah
to the Lord, worshiping Jehovah over in Jerusalem while they
were in their air condition, not air condition, somebody was
waving fans on them. But they were living large, set over the
whole province. And Neb thought he just had him
some soldiers on his side. But what Neb is about to find
out, which you and I must know, is that the God of revelation
is the God of deliverance also. The God of revelation is the
God of deliverance also. Neb acts a fool over in chapter
3 verse 14 when he says these words. Chapter 3 verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar
spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, that you do not serve my God, nor worship the
image which I have set up? Is it true? Now, if you'd be
ready that at what time you hear the sound of the corny flute,
harp, sacred, sultry, dulcimer, and all the kinds of music, you
fall down and worship the image which I've made, it'll be well. You know what Neb just did? Neb
re-established the conditions, said, now, y'all might have not
heard the call to worship. So, so, so. I know your God is the God of
revelation. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna have them
to do the call to worship again. I was a little worried about
how muzzled the noise was. So I'm gonna get them to crank
up the noise. This time around, you know, just come on through
for a brother, just come through. But if you worship not, watch
this ladies and gentlemen, you shall be cast the same hour. into the midst of a burning,
fiery furnace. Now here's the question that
he raises that the boys are gonna answer. And what God is there
that shall deliver you from this? See it? We believe that Christ
is the revelation of the invisible God. He is the expressed image
of his glory. He is the only way we know the
Father. He is the precise and accurate
truth of God by which men come to know God. There is no knowing
God apart from Christ, no comprehending God apart from Christ, no witnessing
to God apart from Christ. All who say they know God apart
from Christ are liars. You cannot bear record of the
invisible God of glory apart from the image of God in his
son, Jesus Christ. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
For us who are born again, we have had a revelation of his
glory. He has manifested his glory to
us in the gospel. For God has caused the light
of the glory of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ
to shine blisteringly in our hearts and in our minds. to make
known Christ to us. We are persuaded, are we not?
He is the God of glory. Absolute effulgent glory. There's none like him. None like
him. We are fully persuaded of that.
And so are these boys. Now watch this. That same God
of glory we call Christ is not only the glory of God, but he's
the power of God too. To salvation for everyone that
believes. Watch how this works. These three
boys say this, over in verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said unto the king, Onab, that's my version. You
know, if we were in the hood, this is how we, we cut these
syllables way down in the hood, don't we? We cut them way down.
Onab, now I want you to mark what they say. We're not trying to find a way
out. We're not trying to strategically
get out of the consequences of faith in Christ. We're not trying
to finagle our way out of the consequences of a foolish command
that you have given to cause the whole world to rebel against
God. In fact, we are several hundred
years before our brothers Peter, James, John, and them who said
in the book of Acts, you determine whether it's right to obey God
or man. But as for us, we're obeying
God. What these three boys were saying
is we're not going to even answer you on this. Watch this. We are
ready to manifest whether the true and the living God able
to say and if he doesn't save it don't matter anyway cuz we
still love him do you see that do you see that these boys are
fixed in their knowledge of God, fixed in their purpose for being
there. They understand, these men understand that they were
called to this hour, that this hour was unavoidable. It was
necessary for them to bear record to the true God. And they're
getting ready to demonstrate that the true God is the only
true God in the universe. And that's going to come out
of Neb's own mouth. Furious is Neb. I mean furious. The text says his continence
changed. You know you mad when your face changes. Verse 19,
then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his
face was changed. Again, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, he hated those boys, because they publicly testified
to allegiance to Christ. Which in our outline, there are
three things I want you to mark with that, under the three men,
a type of the true church. First and foremost, commitment
to the true and the living God. That's a non-negotiable. Are
you hearing me? That's what we saw in chapter
two, verses 46 through 49. They are committed to the true
and the living God. Secondly, they maintain their true identity.
You guys got that? Refusing to go through the dialectical
process and be changed. See, and I'm here to tell you,
professing Christian, you got to stand for something or you're
not going to stand for anything. Either you're going to affirm
the reality of grace in your life as a child of God in the
midst of trouble, or you're going to compromise. And these men
would not compromise. So this set them up for God to
be glorified in their life. Now what this means, ladies and
gentlemen, is this. All that live godly in Christ Jesus are
going to suffer persecution. You need to just settle that.
Because there is an objective on the part of God when you become
a faithful Christian witness. And the objective on the part
of God for you to become a faithful Christian witness is for God
to manifest His glory in your life. But He manifests His glory
in your life most frequently through trials. Hence the title
of our message, The Trials That Reveal His Glory. They were committed to the true
and the living God. They maintained their identity and they embraced
the fire that reveals true faith. Neb, do whatever you want to
do. I'm reminded of exactly what Peter said in first Peter, chapter
one, verse seven. I want you to see this before
we close out in our fifth point. First, Peter, chapter one, verse
seven. Listen to what he said, the apostle Peter using the same
metaphor of a fiery trial speaks to the believer's faith. And
he says in verse seven, that the trial of your faith, do you
see that ladies and gentlemen? That the trial of your faith,
now we all profess to have faith, but we don't really know if we
have faith, true faith, saving faith, God-given faith, Christ-exalting
faith, God-glorifying faith, until we go through trials. Have
you figured that out? Have you figured out that it's
only in the trial that God shows up to be faithful to you? to
show you that he is faithful to you. And so Peter says the
trials are designed being much more precious than that of gold.
Now gold is placed in a furnace, isn't it? To be what? Purified
and purged. Though it be tried with fire. There it is. Faith is designed
to be tried. But here's the objective. I want
you to get the objective now. It's designed to be tried in
order that it might be found unto, here it is, praise, honor,
and glory, when? At the appearing of Jesus Christ. I submit to you, let's go back
to our text and work this, that what Peter is saying in 1 Peter
1, 7 is about to occur right now. What's about to occur right
now is the God of glory and the person of Jesus Christ is going
to show up. in the midst of their trial to
affirm their faith and obtain glory for himself. Listen to
how this works. It tells us in Daniel chapter
two, over in verse 21, then these men were bound in their coats
after Neb had cranked the fire up seven times. You know he mad. Then these men were bound in
their coats and in their hoses and in their hats, don't ask
me what that is, garments, and were cast into the midst of the
burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's
commandment was urgent and the furnace was exceeding hot, the
flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. See, you gonna get in trouble
when you lay your hands on God's servant to try to throw them
in the fire under Nebuchadnezzar's command. Now watch this. And these three men fell down,
bow in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Now, before I
unpack this last point, I just want you to get this. Nebuchadnezzar
was so furious that he cranked the furnace up seven times. He
made sure that those guys had on all their clothes and that
they were bound by the mightiest men in the army. I said to myself
when I read that verse, why on earth does he need to go get
mighty men to bind men who are voluntarily wanting to jump into
fire? But there are redemptive messages
here you must know. What we have here is an illusion
on the part of the devil, this is the spiritual reality of the
text, whose job it is to always bind the people of God. His objective
is to bind you, control you, determine your destiny. He is
to bind you up so that he could destroy you. And so Nebuchadnezzar,
in his fury and in his rage, sent his mightiest men. This
is all a public show, a public show. Bind them up. After all,
these were some of the echelon leaders, weren't they? This is
like real believers in the White House being Secretary of State,
Secretary of defense and what have you are you hearing me speaker
of the house finally turning on the whole house and they're
being apprehended and they were thrown into the fire I want you
to hear this now they were thrown in bound they didn't have the
dignity of walking in the enemy was so furious with them that
he threw them in bound they tumbled into this flaming fire verse
23 bound in the midst of the burning fiery Flame so all of
a sudden the heat is going And the people are way back there
because the flames are so hot only a few people get to watch
The king is sitting there in his sort of sadomasochistic Mindset
he can't wait because he's seeing thousands of thousands of people
incinerated in seconds in these kinds of flames Aha, we're gonna
see now throw them in I'll show them that my God reigns They
get thrown in And the king looks he goes Ain't nothing happening
That's strange Let me let me go take a look and he he bends
over he looks in he says wow, that's Hey, didn't we didn't
we did we bind these boys up? I I mean, bind them up, tie them
up. Weren't they bound up? I actually
see three men loose in the fire. Did you hear that? That's a whole
nother hour preaching. And the one who is giving glory
to the God of deliverance is Neb. He's preaching to the whole
nation. Loose! the midst of the fire
now watch this walking in the midst of the fire walking these
brothers giving them some exercise the Jewish theologians said no
they were dancing they were praising God in the fire I don't believe
that they were walking cuz the text says so but that's a big
difference than being bound isn't it But you know what the Bible
tells me? That over a hundred and fifty
years earlier, the God of Covenant, the faithful God of Covenant
said concerning Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, when you pass through
the waters, it will not overflow you. And when you go through
the fire, now you know what the word he uses in Isaiah chapter
43? When you walk through the fire,
Walk through the fire. You mean God had already saw
them loose before he let him go into it? He's the God that
speaks those things that are not as if it was. He sees the
end from the beginning. He's the God that liberates us.
Is he not? He's the God that is able to
get glory to himself in the midst of the fire. He had already declared
their deliverance before they were born. God didn't even see
him bow. He saw him lose. Loose! Liberated from the power and
authority of pagan rulers. Now watch this, but they weren't
loosed because of themselves. Don't ever steal God's glory. Don't ever open your mouth and
say it was because of your strength, because of your wisdom, because
of your knowledge, because of your cunning. Neb Bonta lost
it when he said, hey, and then I see another brother in there
too. Didn't we throw three in? Why are there four brothers in
the fire? And this fourth one looks like
the Son of God. Now, Neb is preaching the gospel
to the whole nation for Christ. Point number five. In the fire,
Christ is exalted. In the fire, God is glorified. In the fire, the gospel is spread.
Do you hear me? In the fire, Christ is exalted.
In the fire, God is glorified. In the fire, the gospel is spread.
That's why we embrace the trial. Because in the fire, Christ is
exalted. He's exalted as the ever-present
One, protecting His people through whatever they go through. He
is exalted as the One that is there as their mediator, as their
surety. their substitute, as their insulator,
as their deliverer, as their king, Captain Shepard, as their
go-between, as their deliverer. Christ is with them. Christ is
there to let the world know that nothing can harm his people no
matter what it is that they go through. You and I are secure
in Christ in the midst of the fire because Christ himself has
endured the midst of the fire. We believe that the believer
is eternally secure for heaven because of his union with Jesus
Christ. that when Jesus Christ accepted
the terms of the covenant before the world began, God sealed our
eternal destiny, making Christ our substitute, so that when
Christ went to hell, we had already gone to hell in Him. The fire
that came upon Him hit Him, but it didn't hit us. In other words,
we were in Christ. As these boys are in the fire
now, the fire isn't even touching them. Are you hearing me? The
fire isn't even touching them. The fire isn't even... All it
did was burn up the ropes, liberate them, free them to worship God. Listen to what they're doing.
In the midst of the fire, they're having communion with their Savior.
They're talking with their Savior. They're fellowshipping with their
Savior. Their Savior is comforting them, keeping them in the midst
of the fire. Does anybody know what I'm talking
about? Do you know what it's like to go through trials? And
for Christ to show up as your comforter, your paraclete, the
one that speaks to your soul and tells you it's going to be
alright. In the midst of the trial, when sometimes that trial
is so burdensome that it would lay you low, but then God in
a supernatural way gives you strength. Strength! so that even in the midst of
the trial, it really means little at all. In fact, you are glorying
in the fact that this trial is not as heavy as I thought it
would be. In fact, I kind of like it this way because it's
drawn me closer to Jesus Christ. Am I telling the truth? Am I
telling the truth? I kind of like it this way because
I had never seen the glory of God like I'm seeing it now. I
didn't see my Savior in the burnished brass of his accomplished redemption. He's more glorious now than he
ever was. Glorious. Now, Lord, if you want
to deliver a brother, that's fine. But I'm glad to be here
because wherever you are, I'm all right being there too. Are
you hearing me? Now, what this teaches you as
I close with my final aspect of this point is you don't have
to run from trials and you don't have to always pray, Lord, get
me out right away. Here's what you want to pray. Lord, in the midst of this trial,
show up. so I can behold your glory. Show
up so I can learn something about who you are. Show up and manifest
one of the multitudes of your name by which I know the Lord
is my shepherd, I shall never want. Show up and teach me something
about how great a Savior you are. And then, if you want to,
if you want to, that's if you want to, Because it's so good
being with you right now. If you want to, you can take
me on the glory. But if you want me to hang out
another day, then raise a brother up out of this place and put
me back on my track. So let's hear how it goes. Nebuchadnezzar said, this is
Neb talking. This is amazing. I love Neb.
Look at Neb. Neb, verse 24. Then Neb, the king was astonished,
rose up in haste. He said to his counselor, didn't
we cast three men bound into the fire? They said, yeah, yeah. He said, but I see four men lose,
walking in the fire, and they aren't even remotely hurt. And
the fourth one is like the son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came
near the mouth of the burning furnace and spake and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Oh, here it is. See, now, it's
like a lot of pagans. They love to see a good show.
This jazz now. I mean, he was like, whoa, I
ain't never seen a God like this. Oh, Shadrach. Oh, Meshach. Oh, Abednego. You brothers, servants
of the most high God. Watch this. Come on out. Come on out. Isn't that crazy? He don't want to throw him in.
He gonna say, come on out. And the spirit of God writes
the scriptures this way. As I taught our men last night
that the hand, the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord
to turn it with us. So ever he will, because God
is sovereign in your thoughts, in your words, in your deeds.
There is no knowledge. There is no wisdom, no counsel,
no understanding against the Lord. It all works together for
good to them that love God. And he turned that man's heart.
to say to those boys, come on out. Now, when they came out,
they prophesied the great picture of our resurrection. See, the
Hebrew writer said in Hebrews chapter 11, some suffered torturing
and some suffered fires, willing to experience a better resurrection. Now, here's what I want you to
get out of this. Our hope as believers is in a
God who can raise the dead. We don't serve any less a God
than the God who can raise the dead. Any God less than that
is a knockoff. He's a phony God. He's a God
not worth serving. He's a God not worth bowing to.
If you don't serve the true and the living God that can raise
you from the dead, you are in trouble because death is certain. either death by natural causes
or by the enemy. I need a God who can raise me
from the dead. And I need to be raised from
the dead again and again and again and again and again. But
because I have a Savior who lived and died and rose again, I know
because He lives, I shall also live. He is the resurrection
and the life. He is the resurrection and the
life. He is the resurrection and the
life. And the one that believes on him shall never see death.
And those that believe and die, they shall be raised again on
the last day with him as well. These boys have come out of that
trial, not for themselves, but for the exaltation of Christ,
for the glory of God. And do you know what happened
right here? The gospel was spread all the way through Babylon by
the command of the king. You know what that knucklehead
said? The God of these three boys is bad. Don't you say nothing
about their God. Leave him alone. Leave him alone. Leave them alone. The fiery trials that reveal
his glory. See, this is about him. It's
not about us. It's about His glory, and sometimes His glory
must be manifested in our weakness, and sometimes His glory must
be manifested through our trials. If you are a true believer in
Christ, you must understand that this is the way God works, because
it's designed to exalt His Son, who suffered the greatest trial
anybody could suffer. God poured His wrath, a fiery
furnace, infinitely more furious, than these little earthly flames
that Nebuchadnezzar or any tyrant could pour on us. And Christ
swallowed up the wrath of God in himself for his people, for
those that would trust him, for those that would look to Christ
as their only hope for glory. Do you trust him today? Do you
believe Christ is your resurrection? Are you trusting Christ today?
Amen. Amen. Amen.