Sunday, July 18, AM

Good morning everyone. Welcome to Sunnyside Baptist Church. This morning we're so glad that you are here to worship with us.

I hope everyone's enjoying their summer Sunday school sessions. They've been really good so far. If you weren't able to sign up for one of those, you are still welcome to attend those.

Just pick one of those classes. The list of classes are out there in the lobby, so next week if you want to come to Sunday school, feel free to join any one of those classes.

Before we get started with worship this morning, we have a few announcements. Come back tonight for our evening service at 530 here at the church, and then on Wednesday we'll have dinner starting at 545 in the

Fellowship Hall together, and then Bible study and prayer after that at 630. Next Sunday we'll have

Lord's Supper in the morning together, and then in the evening we'll have truth group for the young adults after our evening service next week.

The day before that actually, if you have signed up for the baseball game,

Oklahoma City Dodgers baseball game, this Saturday, Patty Hines says there's still about six tickets that are available, so if you weren't able to get some of those tickets but you're interested in going, please see

Patty and get however many up to six tickets that you can get for that game.

This week's fighter verses come from Ephesians chapter 6 verses 16, 17, and 18.

It says, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arts of darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the

Saints. We still have some needs throughout the year. We've been looking at Operation Christmas Child, what we can do to to help pack those shoeboxes in a more efficient manner.

School supplies are on sale right now, so things like nice pens, pencils, sharpeners, colored pencils, and scissors could be needed there.

The donation box is out in the foyer there. We still need some nursery volunteers for the month of July, so if you can help out there, please do.

And then the Sewing Ministry has a few needs. You can find those in the bulletin as well. Any other announcements before we get started this morning?

All right, it's good to worship the Lord together this morning. We're going to have a time to prepare our hearts, and then my dad will come up and open us in prayer.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the

Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. Almighty God, when we read these words from Psalm 24, it is a reminder that there is not one of us who has clean hands.

None of us have a pure heart. Every one of us lifts up our soul to what is false.

Only Jesus has clean hands and a pure heart, a pure soul.

And so Lord, our only means to come into your presence, our only hope, is

Christ our Redeemer. So Lord, as we gather this morning, we come in Jesus' name, not of our own power, not of our own righteousness, but standing only by faith in the righteousness of Christ.

And so Lord, we we come before you today thanking you for your goodness and mercy in Jesus our

Savior, and in whose name we come today to give you glory and honor and praise and blessing.

We thank you for Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, wonderful, merciful

Savior. We give you praise in the name of Christ.

Stir us this morning, Lord, to worship you with joy. And we ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Would you stand with me if you're able for our call to worship this morning?

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 68. We read in verses 32 and 33.

Read with me together. O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praises to the

Lord, to him who rides in the heavens, to ancient heavens.

Behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. Our first song this morning, first two songs this morning, is

God of grace and God of glory on page 292. And then also, blessed be the

Lord God Almighty. Cure thy children, teach them peace from death's world.

Blessed be this day, kingdom come. Blessed be this day, it is to come.

Good morning. Turn with me, if you will, to Amos 7, and we'll read the entire chapter.

Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, he was forming a locust swarm, when the spring crop began to sprout.

And behold, the spring crop was after the king's mowing. And it came about, when

I had finished eating the vegetation of the land, that I said, Lord God, please pardon.

How can Jacob stand? For he is small. The Lord changed his mind about this. It shall not be, said the

Lord. Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire.

And it consumed the great deep, and began to consume the farmland. Then I said, Lord God, please stop.

How can Jacob stand? For he is small. The Lord changed his mind about this. This too shall not be, said the

Lord God. Thus he showed me, and behold, the Lord was lifting, was standing by a vertical wall with a plumb line in his hand.

The Lord said to me, what do you see, Amos? And I said, a plumb line. Then the

Lord said, behold, I'm about to plumb line, put a plumb line in the midst of my people

Israel. I will spare them no longer. The high places of Isaac will be desolated, and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste.

Then I'll rise up against the house of Jeroboam with a sword. Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent word to Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying,

Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is unable to endure all his words.

For thus Amos says, Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly go from its land into exile.

Then Amaziah said to Amos, go you seer, flee away to the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and there do your prophesying.

But no longer prophesy at Bethel, for it is a sanctuary of the king and a royal residence.

Then Amos replied to Amaziah, I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.

But the Lord took me from the following the flock, and the Lord said to me, go prophesy to my people

Israel. Now hear the word of the Lord. You are saying, you shall not prophesy against Israel, nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.

Therefore thus says the Lord, your wife will become a harlot in the city, your sons and your daughters will fall by the sword, and your land will be parceled up by a measuring line, and you yourself will die upon unclean soil.

Moreover, Israel will certainly go from its land into exile. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we're thankful today for yet another time that we can come together and worship you with other believers.

Lord, we're grateful for your mercy and grace on us that we don't deserve, and we're aware of that.

I just pray, Lord, that you would give us listening ears today. We thank you,

Lord, for that Tommy's pain is over and he's with you.

Thank you for the privilege of having known him. I just pray that you would be with Michael today as he comes to us, and pray that you would embolden him to speak the words that you've laid on his heart.

I pray that you'd give us hearts of flesh, that we would hear what he says, and be willing to apply it to our lives.

In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated.

Through life's challenges and struggles, it's very good to know that, as this next song says, he hideth my soul.

God, as a child of God, if you're his child, he has you in his grip.

And there's no other place better to be than in the grip of the Lord. And as Brother James is praying,

Tommy is with the Lord today. He is singing praises to the

Savior. So if you would sing with us, 496, he hideth my soul.

And then we also sing, Christ the sure and steady anchor, because he is our anchor.

In the cleft of the rock, where griefs of pleasure

I see, he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shatters a dry, misty land.

He hideth my life in the depths of his love and covers me there with his hand.

And covers me there with his hand.

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my

Lord. He taketh my burden away.

He holdeth me up and I shall not be burdened.

He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shatters a dry, misty land.

He hideth my life in the depths of his love and covers me there with his hand.

And covers me there with his hand.

With numberless blessings, each moment he comes and fills with his fullness divine.

I sing in my rapture, O glory to God, for such a

Redeemer as mine. For he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shatters a dry, misty land.

He hideth my life in the depths of his love and covers me there with his hand.

And covers me there with his hand.

When clothed in his brightness, transformed in a scoff,

I'll shout with a million voices, such pride is mine.

Christ the sure and steady anchor, in the fury of the storm, my sails have all been torn.

In the suffering, in the sorrow, when my sinking oars are filled, steady temptation flames the battle, and it seems the night has won.

Deeper still in my sleep than the ghost,

I will hold Christ the sure and steady anchor through the floods of unbelief.

Oh, boy, somehow, oh, my soul, now lift your eyes to Calvary.

There's my brother still to shore us, Satan's love forever more.

I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed.

Christ the sure and steady anchor, as we face the wave of death, when these trials give way to glory, let me draw our final breath.

We will cross the great horizon, left behind and unsecured, and the calm will be the banter for the storms that we endure.

Christ the sure of our salvation, ever faithful, ever true, we will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be removed.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Heavenly Father, we come before you today, and we thank you for this first day of the week, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The first fruits of the resurrection,

Jesus Christ who has died once and is alive forever more.

Jesus who holds the keys to death and the grave. Jesus who is our shepherd, who never leaves us or forsakes us.

We give you praise for this most wonderful day of the week. We gather in hope, and we ask

Father, for we are needy, we are weak. We need your mercies, we need your grace, we need your help today to worship you in spirit and in truth.

I ask for help today as I preach, and I ask for help for those who are here today as we all listen to your word.

Bring us into submission to its truth, and we ask that you would have your will in our lives, that you would do your work in your way, that you would make eternal, significant change in our lives for the glory of Christ.

And above all, comfort us in your Son, by your Spirit we pray.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 3.

Daniel chapter 3, and we'll be reading verses 13 through 30 in a moment, with a focus on verses 24 through 30.

The last two weeks, as we have considered what is here in chapter 3, we have been talking about statism.

Statism entails rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to God.

Rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to the church. Rendering unto

Caesar that which belongs to the family. In statism, the state takes on the roles of prophet and priest as well as king.

Rather than remaining a servant of Christ with a sword to punish evil, the state in statism seeks

Christ's own position at the right hand of God and more. So Daniel's friends are in this pagan empire,

Babylon, and the polity of a pagan culture is statism.

And they are now confronted with a do -or -die situation. They refuse, however, to fear man.

They do not fear death. And so Nebuchadnezzar casts them into the burning, fiery furnace.

They will not bow down to the golden image that he has set up. And so he throws them into the burning, fiery furnace.

And Nebuchadnezzar believes that he has made his point. He has boasted that no god can countermand his will, his purpose.

Nebuchadnezzar, seeing himself as the head of state, envisions himself as the chief upon the pantheon of gods and goddesses.

He thinks he reigns by his will, his wealth, and his warriors.

But he does not. Wisdom himself makes an appearance and refutes the king's folly.

Wisdom says this in Proverbs 8, verses 15 through 16. These are the words of wisdom.

By me, kings reign and rulers decree justice. By me, princes rule and nobles, all the judges of the earth.

Wisdom. I invite you to stand with me as I read. Let's read our story again.

We'll begin at verse 13 of the text. These are the words of Christ by his spirit and his prophet

Daniel. Verse 13. Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the command to bring

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them,

Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which

I have set up? Now, if you are ready, at the time you hear the sound of the horned flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which

I have made, good. But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning, fiery furnace.

And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our

God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace. And he will deliver us from your hand,

O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated.

And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.

Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace.

Therefore, because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace.

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. And he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors,

Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king,

True, O king. Look, he answered, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the

Son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning, fiery furnace and spoke, saying,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came from the midst of the fire, and the satraps, the administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power.

The hair of their head was not singed, nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own god.

Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amidst against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made in ash heap, because there is no other god who can deliver like this.

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. This is the word of the

Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. I'd like to say it's been a great comfort to our family, to mom and to Becca, the whole family, to have such a praying, caring, loving church.

I just want to say thank you for everything you do for us in our grief.

I know there have been and there still will be a lot of tears, but we grieve as those who have hope.

We grieve as those who have hope, and our hope in Christ is amplified by your words and acts of love.

So thank you. You know, it's in times like these that we are sifted. We recall that because we're made in the image of God, the worship switch is hardwired on.

We're always worshiping. Always. The question is who or what. We also recall that we live in a world where there is no neutrality.

No neutrality. And so rhythms of worship, which are inevitable, sift all our loyalties, which are unavoidable.

And we find our loyalty to Christ clarified, fortified, as God works out his grace in our lives, as he strengthens our faith in Jesus Christ, who is the resurrection and the life.

Suffering, like we see with Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Suffering, as we see in the lives of those who fear God. Suffering in the lives of Christians does not come apart from God, does not come from outside of God's control.

In fact, James clarifies that trials, which are necessary, necessary for our good, that these kinds of trials are good and perfect gifts, which come down from the

Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. This is important.

What we fear, we worship. Who we fear, we worship.

If we fear God, if in our suffering, if we fear God, if we think of God first, and we think of God most, if we fear

God in our suffering, we will worship the one who gives and who takes.

And we can say, blessed be the name of the Lord. We can say, blessed be Christ, who is the first and the last, who lives and who is dead, and behold, he is alive forevermore.

Amen. We can worship the one who holds the keys of Hades and death.

Here in chapter 3 of Daniel, we first thought about statism, mandated, the politics of worship in verses 1 through 7.

We watch as the people are forcibly gathered, strenuously instructed, horrifyingly threatened, and hawkishly watched.

We look at the worship there, prescribed at the beginning of chapter 3, we see it mandated, and we find that the glory comes prepackaged.

It's statism mandated. Then we saw statism resisted in the actions, the attitudes, the words of Daniel's friends.

They fear God, so they do not fear man. They fear God, so they do not fear death. And they remain faithful to God in their disobedience to the state.

Third, we saw statism enforced as death cults do their thing. How Nebuchadnezzar, it was all about death.

It was all about death. Because statism is the fear of man institutionalized by the fear of death.

Statism is the fear of man institutionalized by the fear of death. So Nebuchadnezzar said, we're all going to get together and bow down to the state, fear man.

And if you don't, I'll burn you. I'll kill you. You'll die. The father of lies has been a murderer from the beginning,

Jesus tells us. And states that are crafted in his image steal, kill, and destroy.

We come now to statism subverted, verses 24 through 30. And if the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

Nebuchadnezzar very arrogantly challenges Daniel's friends there at the end of verse 15. We highlighted that.

He says, who is the God? Who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? It's one of those moments that you just shake your head and wonder at the mercy and sovereignty of God.

That he doesn't just strike him dead right there. Like, oh my goodness, back away from the throne.

There's a lightning bolt incoming. But he keeps him alive. We know from chapter 4 of this book that God has a purpose in keeping

Nebuchadnezzar alive. He has a purpose in raising Nebuchadnezzar up. God will show his power in Nebuchadnezzar.

God will spread his name through all the earth. Through the humbling and the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar.

For now, in verses 24 and 25, we see the king's will, the king's will is confounded.

Verse 24, Then king Nebuchadnezzar was astonished, and he rose in haste, and spoke, saying to his counselors,

Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king,

True, O king. Look, he answered, I see four men, loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.

And the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Nebuchadnezzar thought himself in control.

He wasn't really in control, he was being controlled by his anger. I mean, there's this whole narrative. He pretended to be in control.

But we see in verse 19, he loses even the appearance of being in control. As his face changes, he can't even, he can't maintain control of his anger anymore.

And so in rage and fury, he casts Daniel and Daniel's friends into the burning, fiery furnace. He heats it seven times hotter, so hot that he kills his own soldiers who take them up.

And they're just on the edge. Is he satisfied? Is Nebuchadnezzar now calm and at peace?

He's not finished with this, is he? He hasn't brushed his hands off and moved on to the next point on the agenda for the day.

What is he doing? He's sitting there, brooding, staring at the flames.

What does he see? Are his eyes playing tricks on him? No, no.

We threw three in, but now there's four. We threw them in bound, but now they're loose. We made it so hot that the soldiers on the edge died, but there they are in the middle of it, and they're unharmed.

What went wrong? Everything went wrong. This is not the way that it was supposed to be.

There was no doubt in Nebuchadnezzar's mind that he could kill whoever he wanted to and keep alive whoever he wanted to. But now his will is confounded.

And thus, as the King James Version has it in verse 24, Nebuchadnezzar was astonied.

Astonied is the same as astonished, but without the S -H. He was astonied.

Actually, the word comes from the ancient Chaldean. For your frame of mind, just after you fell a 100 -foot pine through the middle of your house, calculations had been made.

The trajectories had been plotted. You ask your chainsaw -bearing buddies, didn't we notch the tree that other direction?

Didn't we put the wedges in to angle it the right way? Didn't we have this thing winch to fall away from the house?

Yeah, yeah, we did. I don't know what happened. Didn't we throw three men into the fire?

Weren't they tied up? Wasn't this thing hot enough to melt human flesh instantly? What went wrong?

And there's an additional reason why Nebuchadnezzar is astonied. There's a fourth man.

There's a fourth man in the fire. All the calculations had been made.

The trajectories had been plotted. There was no way out for Daniel's friends.

This was it. But there's a fourth man in the fire. The three were bound, but now they're loose.

There's a fourth man in the fire. The flames are hot enough to kill men on the edges, but they're unharmed in the middle.

There's a fourth man in the fire. The flames are supposed to be seven times as hot, but there's a fourth man in the fire.

And he's brighter than the flashing flame, and he's stronger than the roaring heat. There's a fourth man in the fire.

And Nebuchadnezzar, to his physical eyes, he appeared to be a son of the gods.

But to our eyes of faith, he appears as the Christ, the son of the living

God. Calculations were made. The trajectories were plotted.

There was no possible way for Daniel's friends to come out winners against the power and the strength of Nebuchadnezzar.

There was no way human flesh could survive that burning, fiery furnace.

The state had spoken. The science was settled. The experts had decided. There was no way. But there's a fourth man in the fire.

Back out a little bit. Why are Daniel and his friends in Babylon anyway? It's because Judah is under judgment.

Good King Josiah is dead. The nation of Judah is in a horrible dive, falling into all kinds of immorality, idolatry, and injustice.

Jeremiah is already preaching of the coming judgment of God. There's no avoiding this.

The state is in an upside -down stall. The flaps don't work. The last engine is sputtered out in smoke.

There's just no pulling out of this. Judgment is the word. The calculations have been made.

The trajectories have been plotted. Jerusalem would be a smoking ruin. The temple would be a dung heap.

And Babylon would be the fire heated sevenfold to consume this nation. And their whole plan was to come and eat everything that was there and totally obliterate this nation, to utterly consume them like the beast they were.

But there was a fourth man in that fire. And a remnant was saved.

A basket of very good figs, Jeremiah called them. And they are brought to exile.

But are they consumed? No. They are fruitful and they multiply. They build houses and live in them.

They plant gardens and grow food out of them. They get married and have kids. And then they have their kids get married and have more kids.

And they multiply. And they're fruitful. And they're believing. And they believe that God will bring them back to the land.

And so He does. How did they ever survive that fiery furnace of Babylon?

Because there was a fourth man in the fire. Isaiah 63, 9. In all their affliction,

He was afflicted. And the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and in His pity,

He redeemed them. And He bore them and carried them all the days of old. And so a remnant of hope remained.

And He brought them back to that city and to that land. And He kept all of His old covenant promises in His new covenant parameters.

Jesus Christ. So Judah would go through the furnace. But those who rejected the idols and trusted in God's Messiah, they remained unharmed.

They passed through the waters, but He was with them. And through the rivers, but they did not overcome them.

They walked through the fire and were not burned. Nor did the flame scorch them. Because there was a fourth man in the fire.

In our suffering, in our grief, in our sorrow, in our difficulty, whether it comes as persecution or just suffering in the world, we still worship.

The rhythms of worship continue. It's inevitable. But this is when our loyalties are sifted.

And that's unavoidable. So, Christian, God -fearer, in your suffering and in your grief, in your weaknesses, in your sicknesses, in your mourning, it may seem like all the calculations have been made and the trajectories have been plotted.

It's just more pain ahead. It's just loneliness. It's only difficulty.

There's no way that this gets better. No way out of the problem. And friend, you may be here and you may look at the mess of your life.

The bed that you have made that you have to sleep in every night. A bed of snarled barbed wire created by sin.

And for you, it seems that the calculations have been made and the trajectories plotted. There's no way out.

It's just more and more of the disaster. But there's a fourth man in the fire.

There is a good shepherd in the valley. There was a second

Adam on the cross. And he is now our faithful mediator at God's right hand.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Be a stone -eat,

O sinner. Be in wonderment, O saint. That Christ has drank the cup of God's wrath down to its very dregs.

That he bore our curse. That he suffered what we deserve. And he unites us together with himself by his

Holy Spirit. And he is with us in every tribulation. And he is for us in every trial.

And so he will never leave us nor forsake us. There is a fourth man in the fire.

Secondly, the king's senses are confronted in verses 26 and 27. Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying,

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came from the midst of the fire. And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered together.

And they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power. The hair of their head was not singed, nor were their garments affected.

And the smell of fire was not on them. Nebuchadnezzar gets up from where he's at.

And he approaches his pet Inferno with some care and trepidation. He has to get a little closer so he can be heard over the roar of the fire.

But he can't get too close because these flames are mortal. They are deadly.

He calls out Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, whom he has renamed, whom he has had renamed in the honor of his many gods.

But he identifies them accurately as the servants of the

Most High God. He calls them out. What they said is true. They told him, our

God is able to deliver us from your hand. Our God is able to protect us in your burning, fiery furnace.

And so it was. And he acknowledges that. He calls them out of the flames. Notice what happens when these men come out.

You see this list of people who gather around? The satraps, the administrators, the governors, the king's counselors.

Where were they just prior? They were all around the big golden statue.

As instructed, bowing down and worshipping the state, the golden image which

Nebuchadnezzar had set up. When the music played just right, that's where they were.

They were doing that thing. But when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out of the fire, having faithfully disobeyed the state, and there's not even the smell of smoke on them, now all these same folks that were gathered around the golden image, they're all gathered around Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Here is a real wonder. Here is something truly impressive. Here's something that catches our attention and we're not forced to do so.

This is a wonderful sign. Their senses and the senses of the king are confronted with the completeness of this sign.

Notice how statism is subverted when the God -fearing believers worship

God, worship the Lord, are faithful to Him, and God does

His work. He does His mighty power. And all of a sudden, they're not gathering around the state idol.

Now they're gathering around the sign that God has given. This is where statism is subverted.

I mean, the mighty men of valor died just throwing these fellows in, but these guys are totally unaffected.

The most fragile parts of their person are unharmed. Not even a hair singed.

Not even a hair singed. And although they had been cast into the furnace with all their clothes on, the fabric had not absorbed even the least amount of smoke.

The defeat of the king's order was total. The deliverance was total.

The sign was complete. I mean, Christ's servants here, they were slated to die.

And the state sought to consume them. And Nebuchadnezzar thought he could do that because he reigned by his will and his wealth and his warriors.

But what happened? His warriors died. And his wealth is no longer very impressive.

That big gold statue. And his will has been utterly countered.

They walked through the fire and were not burnt. The flame did not kindle upon them. And the one who calmed the storm on the sea is the same one who made an oasis amid this flame.

And although King Nebuchadnezzar, by his voice, had condemned these men to die,

Psalm 29 .7 says, The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire. The voice of the

Lord divides the flames of fire. And through those parting curtains his servants safely emerged.

I want you to consider what it means that not a single hair was burnt, and that the smell of the smoke wasn't even on their clothes.

What is this fire? Why was there a fire? Well, the fear of man in statism is institutionalized by the fear of death.

So the state says, Thou shalt, and if you don't, here comes death.

Fear man or else death's coming. So that's what this fire was about.

He could have had an execution squad standing by with swords.

He could have had some other interesting way to kill people. He had a burning fiery furnace.

That was his instrument of death. What happened though? Look what happened.

Look what happened. The servants of Christ are cast into the pit of death, and they come through it and out of it, and they don't have a single micron of evidence upon them of death.

Isn't that amazing? Jesus Christ in his resurrection and ascension is

King of kings and Lord of lords. 1 Corinthians 15 .25 says, He must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.

The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. What's that going to be like?

Verse 52 of the same chapter says it will happen in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, in the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised, notice, incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then,

O saints, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our

Lord Jesus Christ. There is a fourth man in the fire.

There is a companion in death. We are not alone when we breathe our last.

The good shepherd holds the keys of death and Hades. We're not alone in the dark.

We're with Christ in the light. We're not lost and cut adrift. We're anchored with Him, even into the holy of holies.

And He brings us through death and unto Himself. But does death leave its mark on us?

Does death leave its evidence upon us? Does it have its form of victory over us?

No. Not at all. Not in the least. Christ reigns in perfect wisdom until all of His enemies are defeated, the last of which is death.

And He defeats death forever, raising us up from the dead. And what will our new bodies be like?

Incorruptible. Immortal. Not a scrap of death upon us.

In other words, over our resurrected bodies, death has no power. And the hair of our heads will not be the least affected.

Nor will our white robes be the least stained. And the smell of death will not be upon us.

Because there's a fourth man in the fire. Well, what happens to death?

I mean, where did it go? Death and the grave are cast into the lake of fire.

Pepe Ganeza had a furnace. He had a fire. He heated it as hot as he could possibly get it. And it does not consume.

It does not consume unless God says so. Our God is the consuming fire.

Hebrews 12. That's how we fear God. Not man. Not death. Not the state.

We fear God. And into his lake of fire, both the devil and death itself are cast forever.

Matthew Henry writes, Those who suffer for Christ have his gracious presence with them in their sufferings, even in the fiery furnace, even in the valley of the shadow of death.

And therefore, even there, they need fear no evil.

Well, the king's worship is countered in verses 28 through 30.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in them.

And they have frustrated the king's word and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own god.

Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amidst the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made of ash sheep, because there is no other god who can deliver like this.

Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Clearly the gods of Nebuchadnezzar, the gods of the

Babylonian state, could not save their own worshippers from being burnt at the mouth of the furnace.

But the God of Israel saved his servants from being burnt even in the midst of the furnace. And why did

God save them? It says so in the text, because they refused to worship any other god.

They refused to worship any other god. And then Nebuchadnezzar, because he's still a committed statist, makes a very large and deficient proclamation.

Here's what he does. He makes blasphemy against the

God of the Jews a capital offense. I will kill you and destroy everything you have if you say anything bad about the

God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You know, like I did earlier before the whole thing. Jesus had something to say in Matthew 10 about this.

He said, very simply, beware of men. Beware of men.

Do you see the capriciousness of the state? Do you see how unstable it is? One day this is wrong, now it's right.

One day this is right, now it's wrong. All over the place. Why is that? Because the state grabs at the role of prophet and priest as well as king.

Who knows what the state will say is true or false from day to day? Who knows what the state will say is holy or unholy from day to day?

From year to year? From decade to decade? Beware of men, Jesus says.

But Nebuchadnezzar is duly impressed again. Now he knows from chapter 2 from Daniel that this

God is a revealer. Now he knows he's a redeemer. Man, this God is pretty impressive.

So don't talk bad about him. And that's as far as Nebuchadnezzar is ready to go thus far.

But chapter 4 is coming. In the meantime, I want us to pay attention to Nebuchadnezzar and really all of his servants.

Look how impressed these pagans are by what

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did with their bodies. I mean, they are very impressed.

All of these government officials came around them, and they're checking out their hair, and they're sniffing their clothes.

Nebuchadnezzar makes it very clear. They yielded their bodies.

But notice, they yielded their bodies that they should not serve, they should not bow, nor worship any god except their own god.

He is so impressed with what they did with their bodies. They did not use their bodies and bow down to the state.

Rather, they willingly gave their bodies up in fidelity to God.

Do you see that? That caught everyone's attention. What a testimony to paganism, both ancient and modern.

What God -fearers do with their bodies. Now, statism is the polity of paganism.

We have a pagan culture and a statist polity. And we live in this dynamic, a statist polity, a pagan culture, which claims ownership of our bodies.

The state assumes ownership of our bodies, and mandates where we may put them, and at what distance, and then mandates what we must put on them, and even mandates what we should put in them.

In a statist culture that enforces these claims with the fear of death, what a testimony it is when believers yield their bodies not to the state, but to God.

Why? Our bodies are for the worship of God, not the worship of the state.

Why? Our bodies are bought and paid for by Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6, 19 -20. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the

Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, which are

His. Our number one consideration in what we do with our bodies, our number one consideration with all the precautions and prescriptions that we may consider, is to think of God first, and to think of God most.

Christ is worthy, so we gather. Christ is able, so we trust

Him. Christ is risen and reigning, so we follow Him. And this is where it is so important that we have our unity and liberty, rather than uniformity under tyranny.

When we fear God, when we fear Christ, when we think of Him first and think of Him most, we may be led in our conviction, according to our conscience, to wear a mask or to not wear a mask.

We may be led by our desire for Christ and our love for Him to get vaccinated or not get vaccinated.

And we can love one another and be in unity in this liberty that we have in Christ, because we think of God first and God most.

The alternative is to fear man and fear death, and the only thing left for us there is uniformity under tyranny.

And everybody must do the same or else. But when we fear God, there's liberty and unity.

If we fear man and fear death, there is only uniformity under tyranny left. 1

Corinthians 7 .23 says, You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men.

Let us take that to heart. Let us take that to heart. We were bought at a price.

God owns our body. We are not to be slaves of men. So we are never to negotiate the decisions of our lives without reference to and submission to that all -important, all -encompassing transaction.

We have been purchased. We are not our own. So the main consideration we have in thinking of God first and thinking of Him most is what does

God want me to do with my body? Man may think he has us over a barrel, but he'll soon find out we're not for sale.

We're already bought and paid for. May God deliver us from capitulating to the fear of men and the fear of death.

May He grant us the wisdom to live in the light of the worthiness of Christ.

There is an answer to statism. It's the fourth man in the fire. No matter what blasphemous, arrogant, foolish mandates the state may attempt to enforce, we live in the reality of the resurrected

Son of God. People don't know what time it is. It is the 2021st year of our

Lord Jesus Christ. You can tell me the calculations have been made and the trajectories have been plotted, and I'll tell you there's a fourth man in the fire.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You so much for Your Word. I thank You for the encouragement that we see.

Believers, even of old, face with the very same concerns and issues that we face today.

We thank You that Your Word is sufficient to answer all these matters, and I thank You that we don't have to fear man and death, but we can fear

You and make our decisions out of a love for Jesus and know the freedom in Him.

And Lord, I pray that You would help us to remember that in all of our suffering and grief, we are not alone.

You did not leave us, but You are with us, and so we praise You and give You thanks. And we pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen. Would you stand with me for a song of benediction?

We're going to sing again, Jesus shall reign where the sun. We'll sing verses 3 and 4.

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May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.