Would you turn back to Daniel
chapter three? While you're turning there tonight,
I'm going to speak at a second Corinthians chapter one, the
10th verse on the tenses of salvation. The tenses. Of salvation. And we're also going to observe
the Lord's table. I've entitled this message, No
Other God Can Deliver After This Sort. Daniel, his name means God's
judge. Hananiah, his name means he whom
God graciously gave. Mishael means, this is the third
man, He who is what God is. What a name. And Azariah, whom
Jehovah aids, is what his name means. These four children of
Israel have been brought with the children of Israel into the
captivity in Babylon. The land of Babylon means confusion. You remember the Tower of Babel?
Confusion. It represents man's religion.
Now those names of those men certainly seem to represent the
Lord Jesus Christ, don't they? Particularly that one, he who
is who God is. Nebuchadnezzar had promoted them
and they had become the most powerful men in the kingdom because
of the promotion of Nebuchadnezzar. And in chapter two, Nebuchadnezzar
ordered all these wise men, including these four men I mentioned, to
be put to death. because they were unable to interpret his
dream. Look in chapter 2, beginning in verse 17. Now this
is after he said, all these wise men in the land, I'm going to
have them all put to death. Then in verse 17, Then Daniel went to his house
and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions,
these four men I spoke of, that they would desire mercies of
the God of heaven concerning this secret, this dream that
no one could unlock, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish
with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret
revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. And Daniel blessed the
God of heaven. And you go on reading in this
passage of scripture, these four men were promoted in the kingdom
because of this to be the most powerful men in the kingdom. Now you can imagine all the jealousy
that created with the other wise men. They saw their jobs being
pushed aside. And these are the men that were
promoted. Now in chapter three, verse one,
Now, Nebuchadnezzar, now he's the most powerful man in the
world. If you lived, it was up to him. If you died, it was up
to him. I mean, he was king, and he was in control, so he
thought. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, made
an image of gold whose height was 3 square cubits, and the
breadth, that's 90 feet high, and the breadth thereof, 6 cubits,
18 feet wide. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province
of Babylon. A man-made God. And behind a man-made God is
a man. A man-made God. Verse 2, Then
Nebuchadnezzar the king sent together, to gather together
the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the
treasurers, and the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers
of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which
Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. They're going to have a religious
service for this thing, and they're going to have what they would
call a worship service, a dedicatory service. I mean, let's dedicate
ourselves to this man-made God. The irony is the God, the idol
that the king had set up. Obviously, man is in control
of what's going on here. Verse 3, Then the princes, the
governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, and the
counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces
were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that
Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they stood before the
image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then an herald cried
aloud, To you it's commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
that 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 golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king
has set up. Now, if you fall down and worship
that image that he set up, who are you worshiping? You're worshiping
Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 6, the threat. And whoso falleth not down and
worshipeth, shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning,
fiery furnace." Now, here we have human religion. A man-made
God, a God that's not like the God of the Bible, set up by man,
and what is behind it all is threat. If you don't worship
this God, You're going to be cast into the midst of a burning,
fiery furnace. It's a religion based upon threat
of punishment and hope of reward, what you'll get out of it. Now,
this is opposite to the gospel. You see, man's religion, you
listen very carefully to this. I've said this many times, but
I want you to hear it. I want to hear it. Maybe like I've never
heard it before. Man's religion ends with the
forgiveness of sins. If you do this, if you do that,
if you believe this, if you believe that, if you stop doing this
and start doing that, then you will have the forgiveness of
sins. The forgiveness of sins is a
reward for what you do. Now, if you don't do these things,
you're going to be punished. You're going to be in trouble.
But if you do these things, you'll be rewarded with the forgiveness
of sins. Now, that's human religion. That
is salvation by works is what it's called. Salvation by works.
The gospel. does not end with the forgiveness
of sins. If you do this, this, this, and
this, then you'll have the forgiveness of sins. The gospel begins with
the full, free, frank forgiveness of sins. It begins there. Not something you do to get it.
It begins with the declaration of what Christ did on the cross.
You're forgiven. If you're forgiven. You don't
do something to be forgiven. You find out you are forgiven.
Isn't that a glorious thing to find out you're forgiven? That's
hearing the gospel. Now, the gospel begins with the
full, free, frank forgiveness. It seems in this thing of operating
out of hope for reward or because of threat of punishment, That's
anti-gospel. That's anti-grace. It's wrong. But that's what human religion
is all about. And we see this so clearly. A man-made God. A
religion of promises of reward if you do this, and punishment
if you don't. Human religion. Now, put yourself
in their place. If you don't bow down and worship,
you're going to be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. Verse 7. Therefore, at that time,
when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people, the
nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the golden
image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Well, I guess they would. They're
scared to death of what will happen if they don't. Wherefore, at that time, certain
Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. Now, these are the
fellows that were jealous of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. They had been demoted, and these
fellows had been promoted, and they were jealous. They were
upset over it. Now, verse 8. Wherefore, at that time, certain
Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. They spake and said
to the king, Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever. They start
playing on his vanity. Thou, O King, hast made a decree,
that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute,
harp, sackcloth, psalter, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoso falleth
not down and worshipeth, that he should be cast into the midst
of a burning, fiery furnace." You made this rule. Verse 12,
there are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of
the province of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded
thee. They serve not thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Could this
accusation be made against me? Could this accusation be made
against you? No regard for this false god. Verse 13. And they didn't. They refused to worship. Verse
13. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury Commanded to bring
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before
the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true,
O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do not ye serve my gods, nor
worship the golden image which I have set up? Now, if you be ready, he knew
these men. Remember, he put them in the
position they were at. But his vanity was such that he couldn't
deal with them not worshiping what he said to do. I mean, he
couldn't deal with it. Verse 15. Now, if you'd be ready
that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbutt, psaltery, and dulcimer and all kinds of music, you fall
down and worship the image which I've made? Well, but if you worship
not, You shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning,
fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out
of my hands?" Now, I'm sure that Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego could come up with reasons to not be quite
so dogmatic about not worshiping this false god. They could have concluded it
was useless to resist, and it was. He couldn't throw them in
a fiery furnace. They could have said, it's an
idol. We know that. We're not going
to worship it in our heart. We might bow down, but in our
hearts, we know better than that. They could have said, you know,
we have a position of influence here. I mean, we've got authority
and we can infiltrate Judeo-Christian principles into the government
and so on and try to make things better. We can have some authority
and if they kill us, that's over. It can't happen. They could have
said, well, the other Jews are bowing. I mean, nobody's going
to notice this. They could have made all these
conclusions as to what they were going to do. Now, look at their
answer. After he says, who is that God
who will deliver you out of my hands? Verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful to answer thee
in this matter. It's not like we even have a
decision to make. We don't have to be anxious over what to do.
We're not careful to answer thee over this matter. If it be so,
if it's his will, our God whom we serve, is able to deliver
us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of
thy hand, O King. He's going to deliver us one
way or the other. But if not, if he decides to let us be burned
up, if he and his glorious, sovereign will and purpose sees fit to
not deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace and let us be thrown
into it, If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver
us from the burning fiery furnace, and he'll deliver us out of thy
hand. 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." Now, here we have the very foundation of faith. Our
God is able to deliver us. Now, this is the very foundation
of everything we believe Regarding the gospel, it has to do with
the ability of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is able. The foundation of faith, He's
able. He's able to create. He's able
to make something from nothing. He is able to control all of
providence. He's saying to Nebuchadnezzar,
you're a puppet in His hands. And He can do with you whatever
He's pleased to do. You make some kind of vain statement
like, who's the God that will deliver you out of my hands?
Nebuchadnezzar, you're in His hands. You're His puppet and
you're going to do His will. They believed God was sovereign,
didn't they? He's able to save. I love that passage of Scripture
in Jude 24. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless. Do you hear that? Now unto him
the table to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Now my God
is able to make me faultless, without fault before him, holy,
perfect, without sin. Now, what God can do that, the
living God? He makes me faultless. Not just forgiven, not just cleansed,
but faultless. Well, how does Nebuchadnezzar react to this? Verse 19, Then was Nebuchadnezzar full
of fury, And the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego. Now, he used to like these fellas.
They did him some good. I mean, he promoted them high.
They were good rulers. But when they wouldn't worship
his God, when they said his God was nothing, and that they would
not worship his God, his attitude toward them was completely different.
He now was mad. Now look what happened. He commanded, verse 19, he commanded
that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it
was one to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty
men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That's what man's religion seeks
to do. It binds people. And he commanded
them to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them
into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in
their coats, their hoes and their hats and all other garments.
They were just tied up and were cast into the midst of the burning,
fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's
commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot, The flame
of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego. I mean, you think it was so hot that the men who threw
them in died? They burned up just getting close
to it. And there they throw these three men bound into the midst
of the fire's furnace. Now, why is it? What's the difference
here? Why were these men killed and these Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego weren't? Well, let's go on reading. Verse 23. And these three men,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst
of the burning, fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king
was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto
his counselors, 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 hurt. And the form of the fourth is
like the Son of God. Now, I've always looked at that
passage. Now, he's a heathen, Nebuchadnezzar.
He didn't worship the God of the Bible. How did he know when
he's a... First, can you imagine how this
must have freaked him out when they saw these guys walking around in
this burning, fiery furnace? The flame had no hurt, had no
power over them. And he says the fourth man with
him is like unto the Son of God. How did he know he was the Son
of God? How did he know? If you ever see him, you'll know. And if you don't know, it's because
you've never seen him. It really is that simple. You
ever see who Christ is, you'll know he's the Son of God. What
think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? Well, let me tell you what I
think of Christ. Whose Son is He? He's the Son
of Mary. He's the virgin-born Lord Jesus
Christ without a physical father. He's the Son of Mary. He's the
Son of David. The promised Messiah. He's the
Son of God, the uncreated, eternal, sovereign Son of God. And what you believe is determined
by who you believe. Well, I believe that Jesus Christ
made salvation possible. Sit down, you've never seen Him.
You've never seen Him. You ever see him, you won't use
foolish language like that, you know he's God the Son and whatever
he does must be successful because of who he is. He's the Son of
God. Do you believe he's the Son of
God? Do you believe he is God the Son? That's what that Ethiopian
union believed. What hinders me from being baptized?
If you believe with all your heart, you may. He said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He saw that one. He saw who he was. I see that
fourth one like the Son of God walking. Can you imagine witnessing
this? Well, this is just a story. Well,
you can say that if you want, but it's real. It's called real. Verse 25, He answered and said,
Lo, I see four men loose, free, not bound. Oh, if the Son shall
make you free, you're free indeed. What is this freedom? Well, when
He said it is finished, listen to me. When the Lord Jesus Christ
said it is finished, I was set free. I don't owe anything. All my sins are blotted out.
My God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is able to make me to be faultless,
faultless, without fault before God. Verse 26, Then Nebuchadnezzar
came near to the mouth of the burning, fiery furnace and spake
and said, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, He's servants of the
Most High God. Come forth and come hither. Then
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth out of the midst of
the fire. Can you imagine saying that?
I mean, these fellows walking around in the fire. They have
no power over them. And here they come out. Verse 27, And the princes, the
governors, the captains, the king's counselors, all the big
shots, being gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies
the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed,
neither was their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed
on them." Now, here's a description of what God does for somebody
when He saves them. Now, what was the difference?
Remember those fellows that threw them in? They were burned up.
They didn't make it. They were killed. And yet Shadrach and
Meshach and Abednego, they could actually be in the fire and walk
around with no power. What was the difference? The
question is, who is the difference? The Son of God. The Son of God. And they were loose. They were
set free. And the fire had no power over
their body. Now, this is a miracle indeed.
This is a miracle. You think of some men walking
around in a burning, fiery furnace. I had no power over them. But
if all I see of this is one of those Old Testament miracles
that are really miraculous and seems like stuff like that doesn't
happen anymore. That's the way people look at that. But the
fire had no power over them. What I thought about was Elijah.
You remember when he made that sacrifice and the worshippers
of Baal, they made their sacrifice. And he said, dump water over
them and so on and three barrels of water. And he said, you call
on your God, not I call on my God. They spent all day calling
on their God. He never answered. And so he called upon his God.
And the scripture says the fire came down from heaven and consumed
the sacrifice and the rocks and the dust and the water. And when
that fire came down from heaven and consumed everything, when
it came back up, nothing was left. It was totally consumed. The fire had power over everything. When the Son of God was nailed
to that cross, the fire of God's wrath came down upon him. But
unlike that sacrifice that the fire consumed, this time the
sacrifice consumed the fire. so that there's none left. The wrath of God came down upon
him. He consumed it. And now, because
of what he did, the wrath of God has no power, no, nothing
to condemn me for. I stand perfect before God. No, there's therefore now no
condemnation. Right now, there's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now, this is the power of His
sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy
Son of God, who never sinned, who never committed a sin, who
knew no sin, the only man to never sin. When he was nailed
to that cross, the sins of God's elect became his so that he became
guilty of them. God's wrath came down upon him.
He was punished and he put away the sin. And now no father has
power over anybody he died for. Isn't that wonderful? Look what
it says next. Verse 28. There wasn't even a
hair of their head singed. There wasn't a hair of their
head singed. I remember when I was a kid, I used to like to get,
with the fire for the cook, I'd put my arm up, watch the hair
singe. That's weird, I know. But I always liked doing that. You know what it does? But these
fellows were in this furnace without even a hair singed. Look
what it says next. It says neither were their coats
changed. There wasn't a, you know, the
coat they, they had a coat that they bound them up in, threw
them down. Now this coat, what is this coat?
This coat is the same coat that every believer wears. Fine linen. clean and white, the righteousness
and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, the coat of shadow. That's
what this coat is. And it wasn't changed. It wasn't
changed in any way. You see, it can't be the righteousness
of Christ. It can't be added to. It can't
become better. It can't be taken from. The same
coat they went in with, they came out with. And that's my
salvation, the righteousness and the merits of the Lord Jesus
Christ is this glorious coat that every believer wears this
covering that makes me perfect in God's sight. And it's not
a this is the glorious thing about this coat of the Lord Jesus
Christ is righteousness. Now, you see my ring here. You
can't see that because it's covered, but it's still there. It's still
there, just covered. The covering of the Lord Jesus
Christ makes my sin, when it's covered, that means it's not
there anymore. It's not there anymore. It's not like it's there
but covered. That's foolishness. That won't do anybody any good
at all. I can't have my sin simply covered,
so it's still there, but God can't see it? Yeah, He can. If
it's there, He can see it. The righteousness of Christ makes
it to where I have no sin. God looks at me, and he's well
pleased with me. Now that's the gospel, isn't
it? That's the gospel. Their coat wasn't changed, and
look what it says next. It says in verse 28, nor the smell of
fire passed on them. You know when a fire, you smell
smoke, and it's an awful smell, and it's a strong smell, but
you couldn't even smell smoke on it. And the salvation of Christ
is such that you can't even smell sin. There's not a smell of sin
on any believer, righteous altogether. You know, a lot of people, a
lot of religions, they say, well, salvation is by grace. Salvation
comes from the blood of Christ. But you'll be rewarded in heaven
higher if you're more obedient, and you'll have a kind of a lower
place if you're not quite as obedient. You know what that
smells like to me? It smells like sin. That's all
it smells like. The smell of sin is still there.
But in God's salvation, there's not even a smell of sin. It's
altogether righteous grace. However holy Christ is, that's
how holy I am. That's the gospel right there.
And not even the smell of sin. Now look what it said in verse
28. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake. After witnessing all this, he
said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. who hath sent his angel, and
delivered his servants that trusted in him, and hath changed the
king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve
nor worship any god except their own god. No mere man could deliver somebody
like this. They trusted in him to the point
where they yielded their bodies to refuse to worship any other.
Don't you want to be like these fellows? I want to be one of
them, don't you? Verse 29. Therefore, I make a decree. that
every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against
the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in
pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there
is no other God that can deliver after this sort." Time will be over. We live in
today. We think about yesterday and
what's going to happen tomorrow. But one of these days, all that's
going to be blotted out. And I'm going to stand before
God in judgment. And he's going to look me over. And there'll be no sin. I'm going to be perfectly conformed
to the image of Jesus Christ. And there ain't anybody that's
going to look at me and say, boy, he must have been a really
good guy. I mean, what a man he is. No, when you look at me
and see me perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, when
I look at you, And I see you perfectly conformed to the image
of Christ. I'm not going to say, boy, they
must have been really good people. I'm going to say there's no God
that can deliver after this sort. This is the work of the Lord
God only that can take a sinful, weak human being and make them
perfectly conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. No
God. can deliver after this sword
except the living God. Now, is your God able? Is your God able to make you
to be thoughtless? I'm not talking about just forgiving.
I'm not talking about, you know, well, I forgive you, you know,
I forgive you. That's good, but that's not what I'm talking about.
That's not what the Bible is. Is your God able to make you Where
you really are, it's not just make believe, it's not just a
paper saying you are. Is your God able to make you
faultless? Without fault before his throne,
to where you're actually not guilty? Turn to Colossians chapter
2. Colossians chapter 2. Now here is the ability of my
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, one of my, one of something
I love to roll off my tongues is this, Jesus Christ is God.
I love hearing that and I love saying it. Jesus Christ is God
Almighty. To this extent, he said, he that
has seen me has seen the Father. Isn't that glorious? He's so
able. In Him, in the Lord Jesus Christ
dwelleth all the fullness, the fullness of sovereignty, the
fullness of holiness, the fullness of omnipresence, the fullness
of omniscience, all that God is. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are What? Complete. Lacking nothing. Perfect in Christ Jesus. Now,
this is the heritage of every believer. You are complete. Now, how many times do you feel incomplete. By that I mean, you think, why
am I like this? Why am I so sinful? Why does
it seem like I'd be getting better? Listen to me. I understand that. But you are complete. Lacking nothing. perfect in Christ
Jesus. Now the only way you can get
hold of that is by faith, not by sight. By faith. Believing that who He is and
what He did is all that's needed to make you perfect and complete
before God. Do you believe that? Do you believe
He's able to make you faultless? Now, that's no God can deliver
after this sort, but the Lord Jesus Christ. What's unique about
the gospel? The Son of God. You can try to figure out everything,
try to figure out whether or not the Bible is the word of
God. You have all your doubts about that. And then can you
even prove God exists? All that kind of stuff people
struggle with. But here is the thing. What do
you think of Christ? Whose son is he? He's the son of Mary. He's the
son of David, God's promised Messiah. He's the son of God. Let's pray.