Sunday, June 6, 2021 AM

This morning. We're glad you're here to worship with us at Sunnyside Baptist Church this morning. We'll begin with a few announcements this morning. Come back this evening for our evening service at 530 here at the church and then Wednesday we'll have dinner at 545 for everyone and then at 630 Bible study and prayer for the adults and the tag ministry for the kids.

All right and then coming up we've got Father's Day coming up on June 20th on Sunday and then the 4th of July that's a Sunday. We're gonna have our summer sessions begin that Sunday. I'll have a little bit more to share about that in just a second.

This week's fighter verse is from the Psalms Psalm 86 verses 5 through 7. For you O Lord are good and forgiving abounding and steadfast love to all who call upon you give ear O Lord to my prayer listen to my plea for grace in the day of my trouble I call upon you for you answer me.

We're still giving towards Operation Christmas Child. There's some needs for the month of June girls hair accessories like barrettes and hair bands and things brushes combs for boys or girls and then small like sports balls for the boys.

Regarding summer session I mentioned that that's going to start on July 4th. In your bulletin you should have received a little insert kind of detailing the classes that are going to be available. Those these classes are available for grades usually seventh grade all the way through adults and you are welcome to choose from any one of those four classes just the one that you pick at the beginning try and stay in that class and try not to jump around to other classes just to help the teachers out a little bit.

But there are four sessions to choose from build on solid ground with Brian Barslow, Reformation Truths with Ryan Mounts, The Book of Job with Dwight Smoot, and then the Sunnyside Bible Study Method with Michael Dearum.

So you are welcome to fill that out. Yes you're going to be attending that session and print your name at the bottom of it and then you can turn those in to the offering plate on the back table. That's how we'll gather those as well.

In addition to that if you would like to give some of the Sunday school teachers particularly for the kids a break during the summer so that they can attend some of these Sunday school sessions you can talk to Kristen Barnett, Lisa Barslow, Holly Smith, or Jenny Bender.

Those are the classes that normally teach the kids so you might give them you know a month and a half off or so. We still need some volunteers for the nursery in the month of July. You can contact Marla Hovarter if you're willing to help with that.

Alright are there any other announcements before we worship together? Okay well we are going to prepare our hearts for worship just through silent.

Prayer and then after that Michael will come up and open us in prayer. Heavenly.

Father we come before you this morning and we thank you and give you praise. We honor you as you have given us your Son Jesus Christ as our Savior and as our Sovereign and send to us your Holy Spirit through whom we have fellowship with you adopted as your children.

We worship you today our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are humbled before your majesty and the mystery of your three persons in one essence. The fullness of all that we need, our life, our meaning.

You have created us to worship you. You have made us to glorify you and here on this day, first day of the week, we rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his work to bring about a new creation and I pray that you would do your work in us and as we praise you and glorify you as we sing these songs to you as we pray together and hear your word together that you would have your way.

You would be honored and glorified and Lord I pray that you would do your work in us in such a way that it would not be contained within this moment or within our own households but it would overflow throughout the week and throughout the world.

Only you can do this and so we look to you and we confess our need for you and our request that you would make your mercies and your majesty known through our church, through us. We pray.

These things in Jesus name. Amen. Would you stand with me for our call to.

Worship? Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 67. We'll be reading verses 1 2. Read with me together. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us that your way may be known on earth your saving power among the nation.

Our first song this morning is found.

On page 103. Blessed be the name. Thus says the Lord for three transgressions.

Of Moab and for four I will not revoke its punishment because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime so I will send fire upon Moab and it will consume the citadels of Keroth and Moab will die in tumult with war cries and the sound of a trumpet.

I will also cut off the judge from her midst and slay all her princes with him says the Lord. Thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Judah and for four I will not revoke its punishment because they rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his statutes.

Their lies also have led them astray those after which their fathers walked so I will send fire upon Judah and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not revoke its punishment because they sell the righteousness for money and the needy for a pair of sandals.

Those who pant after the very dust of the earth on the head of the helpless also turn aside the way of the humble and a man and his father resort to the same girl in order to profane my holy name. On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.

Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them though his height was like the height of the cedars and he was strong like the oaks. I even destroyed his fruit above his root below. It was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt and I led you in the wilderness for years that you might take possession of the land of the Amorite.

Then I raised up some of your sons to be prophets and some of your young men to be Nazarites. Is this not so O sons of Israel declares the Lord. But you made the Nazarite drink wine and you commanded the prophets saying you shall not prophesy.

Behold I am weighed down beneath you as a wagon is weighed down when filled with sheaves. Flight will perish from the swift and the stalwart will not stalwart will not strengthen his power nor the mighty man save his life.

He who grasps the bow will not stand his ground. The swift of foot will not escape nor will he who rides the horse save his life. Even the bravest among the warriors will flee naked in that day declares the Lord.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father we're so grateful to be here today and grateful for your people. I just pray Lord that you'll bless this time that we're here together. I would pray with Michael that your spirit would so flow through us uninterrupted that it would spill over to those around us and everywhere we go.

I just pray Lord that you would help Michael as he comes to speak to us that you would give him the strength he needs to say the things that you've laid on his heart this week. I just pray Lord that you would help us to be willing to willing to let the words change our lives in the necessary ways Lord.

Just pray that you would be with us as we're here. In Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. The Apostle Matthew records in his gospel in the Gospel of Matthew records the words of Jesus. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but my words shall not pass away.

So our next song this morning is page 42 our Black Hymnals hymns modern ancient God's Word.

Shall stand forever. We thank you for this day. Thank you for the ways in which.

You have already provided for us to be gathered here. We thank you for the joys of this last week. The many answers to prayer. The ways you have shown yourself not only to be faithful but generously so abundantly so.

We thank you for the trials of this last week. The difficulties that have also come by your hand. Our good and perfect God who knows what we need and works your will in our lives in a perfect way. We thank you for the way you sustain us and teach us and we are always dependent upon you.

Never able to handle it ourselves. Never able to understand it ourselves. But we are independent upon you. Thank you for teaching us that we are not to boast in our might or our wisdom or our wealth but to boast in you.

To boast in the things in which you delight. I pray that you would be with us in this time as we look at your word. Grant us wisdom through your son Jesus Christ. Scatter your wisdom abroad upon the fields of our lives.

By the work of your Holy Spirit that we bring forth great abundance of praise and glory and honor to you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Daniel chapter 1.

Daniel chapter 1. We'll be reading verses 17 through 21 in a moment. This will conclude our look at the first chapter of Daniel. We've been talking about wisdom. The principal thing, Proverbs says, is wisdom.

Solomon says to his son, the principal thing is wisdom, therefore get wisdom. We're going to talk a little bit today about how to get wisdom and to see why it is so vital. Daniel and his friends are well known for their stories of the lion's den and the fiery furnace and the book of Daniel is well known for its many prophecies of kingdoms and times of the Messiah.

But when we look at the book of Daniel we see that it is a book full of riddles. Riddles either in terms of the world, riddles in terms of statecraft, riddles in terms of personal choices, riddles in terms of prophecies and dreams and visions.

Daniel is a book full of riddles and the one thing that continues throughout the book to unravel every type of riddle is the wisdom. The wisdom of God. The wisdom of the Lord that begins with the fear of God and culminates in Jesus Christ.

We see the need of Daniel and his friends in Daniel chapter 1 to engage in a God-fearing resistance to the pagan state and it is God who brought about the need for that resistance in his sovereign shake-up where he brought Babylon to preeminence in the land, in the world, in the ancient world and brought Israel and Judah under the judgment of Babylon so that some of the nobles including Daniel and his friends were taken away captive to Babylon.

It was a judgment of God upon Judah that resulted in among other things Daniel and his friends being taken captive by a pagan king but this was according to God's sovereign timing and saving purpose. He has a plan.

Daniel and his friends were wise to resist the pagan power play. He and all the other God-fearing captives were scheduled for immersion, subversion, and conversion to the Babylonian pluralism to be lost to the Chaldean chaos but Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself and this is the starting point of a godly battle plan that we're looking at right now.

Daniel begins to make appeals to lesser magistrates until he finds a favorable answer so that he does not have to defile himself and he and his friends by resolving to hold fast to the Lord then become God-fearing agents in the midst of a pagan power structure and whereas they were scheduled for subversion they end up subverting the pagan state and where we see the results and the true nature of this godly battle plan in Daniel chapter 1.

If you would stand with me I'm going to read verses 17 through 21. 17 through 21 this is the word of the Lord. As for these four young men God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Now at the end of the days when the king had said they should be brought in the chief of the units brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. When the king interviewed them and among them all was found none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Therefore they served before the king and in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.

Thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. The old story of slowly boiling a frog in a pot of water seems appropriate for the paganism in which we now simmer and we truly do not know the absurdities we tolerate unless we are extracted from the bubbling swill and given a proper opportunity for assessment and that is afforded to us by the God-fearing, Christ-ruled, spirit-filled reading of the Bible.

And so we should consider the ways and claims of our pagan culture in light of Jesus Christ. Our analytical tool for resisting paganism is the wisdom of God in Christ and God brings Daniel and his friends far from their home when they are very young to this pagan empire 20 years before the destruction of Jerusalem to put in place these men who fear him who will be filled with his wisdom and who will be operative in the pagan state to which the exiles are coming but he brings them there beforehand because God has a plan for his people.

Daniel and his friends are going to be God-fearing agents in this pagan state but without that original resolve of wisdom when you sit down to the king's tables consider well his delicacies and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite for his delicacies are deceptive food.

They apply the wisdom of Solomon, the wisdom of Proverbs, the fear of the Lord to the situation before them and they realize they will be subverted and defiled if they eat from the king's table. They have an original resolve of wisdom fearing the Lord that is essential for them being of any value whatsoever moving forward.

They have to have this original resolve and so they depend upon the Lord for the success of their God of their endeavored resistance. They ask for something else to eat. What else is there to eat? They ask for pulse, fodder, the stuff fit for animals, nicely translated vegetables in some of our translations.

That which would only be subsistence and barely that menial living but they asked for that in water rather than the king's delicacies not because the king's delicacies weren't full of nutritious value but because they knew that there was a cost to that and then God took pulse and water and so blessed his God-fearing servants that they within ten days looked fatter in the face than everybody else gorging on the king's delicacies.

I don't know what they were having. I don't know if it was smoked ribs. I don't know if they were guzzling the king's wine. I don't know what they were having but they should have looked fatter in face but no this thing this thing that the the Babylonians so valued that Ashpenaz and his unit and his servant were looking for they wanted the appearance to look right.

That was what mattered to Nebuchadnezzar. Pulse and water should not make one fatter face especially not in ten days but God took his supply and made it work because they feared the Lord. So we see that rich delicacies from the Emperor's table cannot compare with what God has ordained for our sustenance.

Fearing the Lord that's wisdom. Now what about these abilities? We see the amenities in verses 15 and 16. What about these abilities in verses 17 through 20? The heart of this chapter really is about this test that is performed and then passed.

Everything is concerning this test. It is a test to see whether or not Daniel and his friends will be worth anything moving forward. Are they going to resist now when the stakes are low so that they will resist later when the stakes are high?

Will they fear God now in the smaller things so they will fear God later in the greater things? This is an essential moment and will God be faithful to his people even though they are far from the land, far from the city and the mountain where he has placed his name?

Will God still be God over them there in Babylon? And the answer to all of this is yes and they will not eat the king's delicacies. Now remember that the delicacies were to be given to them over a three-year re-education camp.

They had the wrong worldview according to Babylon. They needed the right worldview and so they are taken away for their own good and they are brought to a re-education camp where for three years they will be given the proper worldview, a much more healthy worldview for them.

Now what will they do? What will happen to them? They need wisdom. Wisdom is the principal thing. They must get wisdom. Where are they going to get wisdom? Verse 17 says, as for these four young men God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.

Young men, the Hebrew word is children. Children. We biblically and experientially we associate wisdom, knowledge, understanding, skill with those of silver hair or no hair. Those who have lived a long time that's not always the case but even in the case where an elder has to be rebuked what are we told to do it most carefully.

For those who have lived a long life before the face of God and have gone through trials and triumphs submitting to Christ we see there a lot of wisdom, a lot of a lot of a lot of grown faith, matured faith from which we can glean and benefit.

But here these are children. These are children who have wisdom and understanding and skill, knowledge. And I want us to be very clear on this matter because it is not clear in our day. These youths do not gain insight and cognition and prudence and mastery from their Chaldean courses in astrology and witchcraft and idolatry.

They don't get their wisdom and knowledge and understanding and skill from all the most accepted sciences of their pagan hegemony. That is not where they get their wisdom from. From whence comes these abilities.

What does the text say? As for these four young men God gave them. God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom. Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams and Daniel would be clear as Joseph was from whence comes this understanding.

God gave to his children, he gave to those who feared him all they needed to exercise dominion in every area of his creation. It doesn't matter that they're captured vassals of Nebuchadnezzar. They're made in the image of God and they would proclaim his truth and they would work his will no matter where they were at.

God gave them the wisdom to do that. God gave them the skill to do that. He gave them understanding. Daniel and his friends would engage with a plethora of information cast in the Babylonian mold. They would be reading all kinds of Chaldean literature but God gave them something prior to that by which they exercised mastery over the material.

They were not mastered by the pagan worldview. They were not alchemists synthesizing the pagan worldview with what they learn from back home. They had the wisdom of God that God had granted them and then they came to this three-year re-education camp and did they take anything from the king's table?

Did they take a sip of wine from Nebuchadnezzar's feast? Did they take a scrap from Nebuchadnezzar's table? Even the crumbs that fell to the ground? No. They would not eat from the king's table so we also thereby understand they would not glean from the Chaldean worldview either.

Purposing in their hearts to be undefiled by simply not even eating from the king's table. How much greater the offense if they go into this Chaldean re-education camp and say, oh there's a lot of value here.

Oh look at this. We can get a lot of wisdom out of this. How inconsistent would that be and how false and hypocritical to say we're not going to eat from the food served us by the king but we're going to imbibe great heaps from your pagan worldview.

That would be a totally inconsistent reading of the text. This is the common Hebrew expression from the lesser to the greater. The food is the lesser thing. The theology, the philosophy, the belief system is the greater thing and if they would not be defiled in the food they ate how much more would they not be defiled in what they believed and how they operated in their faith, in their view of things.

John Calvin writes, Daniel and his associates were so brought up among the Chaldeans that they were not tinctured with those mixtures and corruptions which ought always be separated from true science.

You see when Daniel and his friends went to astrology class and they were told that this group of stars are this way because of this god or goddess and you notice how that thing's moving in the sky. Well we call that so-and-so and every time we see her dancing around so-and-so over here then that means this thing and all their best astrologers were explaining to Daniel and his friends how the world worked.

Daniel and his friends said yeah isn't it interesting how that happens on such a set pattern and how we see stars in these parts of the sky at certain times of the year and how we can how we've based our whole calendar and in watch time go by based on all of these stars these lesser lights that govern the night.

Isn't that interesting? You know God made all of that as a giant clock to mark the seasons and times and years of his faithfulness. You see? Yes it's true that all of this happened like a big clock. Yes great observations but all the rest of that where you're talking about this God or this goddess or this some sort of pagan interaction and then we've got to go have this feast and offer up this you know this sacrifice over here all that is bunk means nothing but I'm glad you observed that it all works like a clock because that is the point.

That is an example of how to come to a pagan worldview with the wisdom that God supplies us in his word and give a right explanation of it. There is nothing that Daniel and his friends could gain from any kind of pagan synthesis.

The Babylonians were full of that which God had forbidden. Deuteronomy 18 verses 9 through 14. God says this, when you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

Moses is preaching to the second generation and of course they did. They made a great study of how to be canonized. Who shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire?

As Amos rebuked this morning. Or one who practices witchcraft. What is witchcraft? Well witchcraft is as the sin of rebellion remember. Witchcraft is simply looking at a thing and trying to turn it into another thing by using words.

It's rebellion because God has said thou shalt and thou shalt not and then and then if you practice witchcraft and you're saying well I'm going to change the definitions of everything. Witchcraft is simply looking at something and there's the definition that God has given to it that's sin or that's righteousness or that's a man or that's a woman and then you change you try to change what it is through the force of words.

That's witchcraft. Or a soothsayer or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer or one who conjures spells or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead. This is all in Babylon by the way. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.

An abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. That sounds like Daniel purposing in his heart not to be defiled.

He starts with the food and certainly carries the principle on to all of the pagan sorcery witchcraft astrology and so on that he's being taught. This was the reason why his land was under judgment. It was the reason why in 20 years the rest of them would be exiled if they weren't outright killed.

Verse 14 for these nations which you will dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners but as for you the Lord your God has not appointed such for you. So is Daniel going to be listening to the soothsayers of Babylon?

Coming away saying oh I've got more wisdom now. No. No. Babylonians spared no expense in supplying Daniel and his friends with the king's own rich and nutritious fare but they would not be the king's men.

The Lord gave them all the nutrition that they needed despite their meager diet and so also the Babylonians immersed Daniel and his friends in three years of pagan education. The state once again sought to be provider, father, and God.

However the Lord gave Daniel and his friends their knowledge, their skill, their wisdom, and their understanding. So they take up the education of the Chaldeans and apply God's truth to it and everything is to be submitted to the fear of the Lord according to the abilities that God has provided.

In this way we're saying that our analytical tool for resisting paganism is the wisdom of God in Christ. If we're going to make God-fearing appeals, God-fearing appeals to lesser magistrates so that we can obey God, we can obey Christ, we need to do so as God-fearing agents depending on that which the Lord has given to us.

Whether his resources or the abilities that he gives, we must be ever reliant upon the Lord as we seek to obey him. Otherwise we're not going to be God-fearing agents. James 1 17 says, every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation nor shadow of turning.

God does not change. There is no variation in his truth. The wisdom he gave to Daniel is the wisdom that he offers to us. It is the wisdom of Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God does not change. God is not growing up. God is not getting constant updates to his antiquated metaphysic that all of a sudden we are discovering the hidden value of witchcraft and paganism. Oh, there's so much to glean from evolution.

There's so much to glean from critical race theory and intersectionality. Oh, there's so much wisdom here. Much, much talk has been given to baptizing all kinds of pagan ideas into the Christian vernacular.

You know, when we think about the kinds of things that are proclaimed today as wisdom, this is the wisdom of today. This is the best we have to offer. That which seems to be a given an amen, an agreement, and enforced upon all right-thinking people everywhere.

Are we to take that up? And as the illustration is given again and again and again. Oh, there's a lot of bones in that fish, but there's some meat we can get out of those bones. You know, there's some general revelation truth there that we can really benefit from.

So we're just gonna pick out the flesh from the bones of that fish. You know, God does not commend to us the insights of those who rage at Christ. He laughs them to scorn and calls them to humbly repent.

There is no wisdom in giving credence to or selecting from or synthesizing with paganism. Paul says they're always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. As Janice and Jambres resisted Moses, the sorcerers of Pharaoh.

Did Moses look at the sorcerers of Pharaoh and say, oh well, we need to gain some insights from the Egyptian worldview. No. So also do these resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved concerning the faith.

They will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was. And then Daniel, by the way, by the time we get to chapter 2, the very beginning of chapter 2, the folly of all of the astrologers and magicians in Nebuchadnezzar's realm is obvious.

It doesn't take long to prove that they have no answers. And they're so useless, Nebuchadnezzar's ready to kill them all off. Now let's look in the contrast here between the ways of the world and the fear of the Lord, the wisdom of God.

Verse 18, now at the end of the days when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. Then the king interviewed them and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Therefore they served before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.

You have a test, the test of ten days, ten day test, and they come out, their appearance looks better. Now at the end of the three years, their understanding, their wisdom, their skill is ten times better, ten times better than anybody else.

And notice, these are the youths that have been taken from Jerusalem. These are recent captives and they've been brought through the re-education camp, but they are still shrugging off their Babylonian names.

They're still Daniel, Azariah, Hananiah, and Mishael in conversation with Nebuchadnezzar and because they're shrugging off the paganism and they're refusing it and they have purpose to not defile themselves, thus they are ten times better.

Thus they are ten times more helpful. Thus they are ten times more wise, ten times more understanding, ten times more knowledge than their compromised and paganized contemporaries. They could give an actual account for their mathematics, for their logic, for their morality, for their observations, for their counsel.

They could point it all back to the God who made all things. The God who made all things. And the God who created all things and governs all things remains forever faithful, unchanging, and true. Thinking of him first, thinking of him most, Daniel and his God-fearing friends are ten times more cogent, ten times more consistent, ten times more clear, and exhibited ten times better character.

These youths, these God-fearing youths, better than all the magicians and all the astrologers of the entire realm of Babylon. What a contrast. What a contrast. Today we're being told that the best way to make ourselves of use to the world is to synthesize Christianity with the world.

But this is the exact opposite. Exact opposite. So wisdom is the principal thing. We see how wonderful wisdom is. How do we get wisdom? Remember that earlier in the chapter God had given Daniel mercy or favor with Ashpenaz, and this is a fulfillment of God's promise to bring favor for the captives in faraway lands that would turn back and pray toward his name established at his temple in his city, 1 Kings 8.

So we were reminded that Daniel from his early days had this habit of praying toward Jerusalem, praying to where God had manifested his name as a shadow of Christ. Not only did Daniel and his friends receive favor from their captors because of the Lord keeping his promise, because they were praying and fearing God, but also wisdom comes this way.

Proverbs 2, my son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding. Yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Now let's be clear on this. There is a combination of both study, memorization, meditation, grabbing hold, and actively requesting, asking for this wisdom and understanding. There's a combination of both here.

But notice it is not found as a source in anywhere but one place. Verse 6, for the Lord gives wisdom. Same thing here in Daniel. The Lord gave them. God gave them. Here, the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Sound familiar? All right. That's why Daniel is a book about wisdom. How did Daniel and his friends get wisdom? Praying to the Lord. Wouldn't you be praying to the Lord? Taking captive away to this foreign land, what are we going to do?

Praying to the Lord for wisdom. There is an unmistakable admonition from Solomon to his son to angle the honoring of his father ultimately toward a prayerful, reverent dependence upon the Lord. I try to teach my children to ask their father for what they need.

Don't just go grab it. Ask your father for what you need. I want to take that and angle it towards them doing that in their life for the rest of their lives. Ask your father for what you need. Daniel and his friends need wisdom and they're seeking that wisdom and God is the one who provides that wisdom.

Proverbs 2 verse 7 through 9, he stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of his saints. Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity in every good path.

Look, these blessings are for you. These blessings are for you, church. James says, do any of you lack wisdom? What do we do? We pray and ask of the Lord in faith and God gives generously, abundantly and ask in faith for the wisdom that we need to resist the paganism in which we live.

The knowledge and understanding and wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord is ten times better than even the most lucid speculations of Christless men. Now you take, you take Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro or whatever.

Do you find any value there? I tell you there is tenfold value in those who fear the Lord and believe his word. The knowledge and understanding and wisdom that comes from the fear of the Lord is ten times better than the abhorrent syntheses brewed by various practitioners of wokecraft.

Why this baptizing of James Cone and Ibermex Kendi and Robin DiAngelo into Christian parlance? There is tenfold value in those who fear the Lord and believe his word. Why were Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael ten times better in all wisdom and understanding than the others?

Because of what God supplied them. Remember they grew up in the revival of Josiah. They grew up in the revival of Josiah where the Word of the Lord was recovered and proclaimed and read and the idols were destroyed and the people had turned back to God and so their parents rejoiced in the Lord and gave their children God-honoring names and they've been brought up in the Word of the Lord.

This is why they were ten times wiser, ten times better. They were not ensnared by the fear of man. They were not enslaved by the fear of death, playing at witchcraft, babbling astrologers, philosophical con artists in the throes of demonic influence, preaching absurdity and sanctifying evil.

But enough about Bethmore. Our analytical tool for resisting paganism is the wisdom of God in Christ and we're given opportunities. Notice verse 21, thus Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.

Thus is saying, Daniel who was a youth, he was a child, he was taken captive, he should have been malleable and moldable, totally caught up in all of the the pagan re-education, but no, he fears the Lord and God preserves him and Daniel outlasts all of Babylon.

Babylon, one of the four mighty ancient empires. In fact, the one that gleamed the most, the golden head. Daniel outlasted the whole thing because God preserved him and he, in the fear of the Lord, saw the end of Babylon.