God’s Sovereignty in Suffering (Justin Peters)

Today on The Wrap Report is Justin Peters' message from the conference that we recently had on suffering.

It was the Sanctification Through Suffering conference. Justin will go through Daniel, and this is really going to be helpful,

I think, for a lot of people seeing the message he provides out of Daniel with Daniel's friends.

Specifically, some of the things you're going to see of what they went through is going to be very, very helpful to us as we go through many trials in life, so get ready for this one.

Welcome to The Wrap Report with Andrew Rapoport, where we provide biblical interpretations and applications.

This is a ministry of Striving for Eternity. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

Okay, so today on The Wrap Report, we're going to give you a message from Justin Peters out of Daniel, and this is going to be extremely helpful for you.

Before we do, I just want to give a quick shout -out so folks are aware that this is a ministry of Striving for Eternity, this

Wrap Report podcast. You can help us. You can go to strivingforeternity .org

to give a donation there. What will that do? Well, one thing it's going to do is, by the time you're listening to this,

Justin and I are only a couple of weeks away from flying out to the Philippines. We're going to be going to help out.

The New Apostolic Reformation is running rampant over there, and Justin and I will both be going there to be able to train up pastors.

We'll be doing a workshop for many of the pastors there. I'll be doing something on church discipline.

Justin will be doing something on child conversion. Then I'm going to be leading another day,

I'll be doing an open -air evangelism conference. Then Justin and I will be speaking at the conference,

Snatch Them from the Flames, which will be a conference about discernment. We will do it both in Manila, and we'll have another one that we'll do in Cebu, Philippines.

So here's the thing. We need your help to get to the Philippines. We still haven't raised all of the funds to pay for the trip.

We're trusting God, and you could help us get there to help get the gospel and solid teaching around the world.

So you could do that by going to strivingforeternity .org and help us out.

Now without further ado, here is Justin's message from the conference, the

Sanctification Through Suffering conference. I hope that you find this helpful. Please share it with others and subscribe to this podcast.

Thanks. All right. So for folks who maybe weren't here last night, didn't hear us introduce

Justin Peters, for many I should hope he doesn't need an introduction, but ...

I'm a Justinite. You're a Justinite. So let me give you this as an introduction.

Justin and I coming back from the airport this Thursday night, I took a phone call of someone who ...

How many of you have seen the movie American Gospel? Okay, good.

Justin raises his hand. Justin saw it from the other side of the camera. I got to see it from the other side of the ...

Justin from the camera, because I was there when he filmed it. But we have a woman who was in Bethel Church and went to their

School of Supernatural ... I forget the full name of the school. Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.

Ministry, yeah. And so she actually was in there and watched that and she was going to refute it.

And she had her notes and she's taking notes and she eventually got to the point she put her notes down, just watched it and realized everything was right.

And so driving down, we got to talk to this 18 -year -old woman who really is sounding very, very solid in the scriptures, having been saved three years and much of it in false teaching and in the last three months has just been gathering as much as she can from Justin, from John MacArthur, from others, and is sounding really solid now coming out of the

NAR. And that's a big part of what Justin's ministry is. But you won't hear him talk about it here, because we don't let him.

And the reason being is he's one of the better exegetes of Scripture and I never want him speaking on NAR and stuff because he handles the

Word so well and people don't know that. So I want you to be able to sit under his teaching and hear how he exegetes

Scripture. He is a great brother. Those of you who've gotten to know him this week, that's why we like to do these smaller conferences, you get the time to sit and talk.

And so I'll give the rest of the time to you. Well, good morning.

Good morning. Good morning. Hope everyone is doing well this morning. It's a joy to be with you.

Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer and we'll begin. Father, we're so grateful to be able to come before your throne of grace.

We're so grateful for the fellowship that we have with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

And even though many of us are meeting for the first time, we love one another because we are family.

We are brothers and sisters. We have been adopted into your family by the merits of Christ. We pray that you would go with us now as we look to your word.

We pray that our mouths would be open so that you would fill them. And the word of Christ would dwell richly within us all to the praise of the glory of his grace.

It's in his name. Amen. Amen. Well, I invite you to take your copy of God's word and open to the book of Daniel.

Daniel, we're going to go OT this morning. So, book of Daniel.

This is a message I've entitled Sovereignty and Suffering, Sovereignty and Suffering.

So Daniel chapter one, we'll read the first eight verses, time permitting.

We may work our way through the rest of the chapter, but let's read the first eight verses here. Daniel chapter one.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God.

And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his

God. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court.

And he ordered him to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and he appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service.

Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them, and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.

But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank, so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself."

May God bless the reading of his word. So to set the setting here just a little bit, the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the

Assyrians in 722 BC. Israel, of course, was the northern kingdom.

Judah was the southern kingdom. So Israel fell to Assyria in 722 BC. Judah held on a little bit longer.

They fell to the Babylonians beginning in 605 BC. There were three waves of Babylonian captivity, and as Daniel opens, we are opening here in 605

BC, the first wave of Babylonian captivity, the second one, and the third one.

The third one would be completed in 586 BC. So this is the first of the three waves of Babylonian captivity, and we're looking at Judah, the southern kingdom, and a contemporary here of Daniel was the prophet

Jeremiah. Already been mentioned this morning, the weeping prophet, and the reason that Jeremiah was weeping is that he had been warning

Judah for years and years and years to repent of their sin, and they would not do it, and because they would not repent, then

God brings them judgment, and this is what we're seeing. This is God's judgment coming for the unrepentant sin of Judah beginning in 605

BC. So that's the setting here. So let's look at the text. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

The first thing that we need to know about this Babylonian captivity, about this judgment, is that it was because of sin, and their suffering,

Judah's suffering, was a direct result of sin, and dear friends, we need to acknowledge the role of sin that sin plays in our suffering.

We must acknowledge sin's role in our suffering. Jeremiah did not hesitate to put

Judah's suffering squarely where it belonged, and that was on her sin.

In Lamentations chapter 1 verse 5, Jeremiah says that this suffering, this captivity came because of the, quote, the multitude of her transgressions,

Judah's transgressions. That's why this was happening, and that she sinned so greatly.

Her sin was so great that it outpaced the sin of Sodom, he says in chapter 4, and as wicked as Sodom was,

Jeremiah says that the sin of Judah was even more so, and so Jeremiah does not hesitate to place the responsibility of this suffering, this captivity, squarely at the feet of Judah because of her sin, and so we must recognize the role that sin plays in our suffering.

Now, not all suffering is directly related to our personal sin.

All suffering in a general sense is related to sin because we live in a fallen world, and the reason that I have cerebral palsy is because of sin, not my personal sin, but the sin of Adam and Eve, and so all suffering is a direct result of sin, but it's not always our personal sin.

Many times it is, but not always. John chapter 9, the man who was born blind, Jesus and his disciples were walking along, and they saw the man, and the disciples said,

Master, who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind? The disciples just assumed that the reason this fellow was born blind had to be because of his sin or his parents' sin, and Jesus says neither.

It was neither this man's sin nor his parents', but it was so that in order the works of God might be displayed in him, and yet in the aggregate, in the whole, all suffering is a result of sin, living in a fallen world, and dear friends, we speak of the mercies of God.

You hear a lot of people talk about God's mercy. You hear even sometimes the prosperity preachers will talk about the mercy of God, but the mercy of God makes no sense until we first understand the wrath of God, and it is only when we understand the wrath of God that the mercy of God becomes precious to us.

If I were to come up to one of you, let's say, Jimmy, I met you last night, right, for the first time.

I said, Jimmy, I've got great news for you. I'm going to give you mercy. Jimmy would look at me like, what are you talking about?

I haven't done anything to you. Why would you give me mercy? So it is not until we understand that our sin has earned

God's wrath that the mercy of God becomes precious to us, and so when we consider suffering, we've got to understand that all suffering is a result of sin, and even though my cerebral palsy may not be a direct result of my personal sin,

I'm still a sinner, and I have broken God's laws. Only God knows how many times

I've broken His laws over the course of my life, and because I am a sinner,

I am not owed anything from God. I am not owed mercy.

The only thing that I am owed, the only thing that my sins deserve is wrath, and I was having lunch with my pastor a couple of years ago, and he and I were talking about all matters theology, and we were talking about sin and how so many people don't understand that they are sinners.

They don't understand that they deserve the wrath of God, and my pastor, Jim Osmond, said, he said,

You know, that may sound harsh, but you know what?

That's right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right.

That's what you deserve. That's what I deserve, and that's why the mercy of God becomes so precious when we first understand the wrath of God, and so when we consider suffering, we need to keep in mind that all suffering is a result of sin, and none of us is owed anything but judgment, and so anything short of hell in our lives is

God's mercy. Anything short of hell is the mercy of God, so when we suffer, no matter how difficult the suffering may be, dear friends, it would behoove us to keep in mind that we do not deserve anything less.

When we suffer, we do not suffer unjustly. Anything short of hell is

God's mercy towards us, so let us acknowledge sin's role in suffering.

Verse two, the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand along with some of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his

God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God. Now, the writer here, Daniel, is being very careful about the names that he uses, and the name that he uses for Lord here, when it says the

Lord, this word Lord is the word Adonai, and Adonai means ruler.

It means boss. It means one who is in control, and it says that the

Lord, Adonai, the one who rules the universe, he gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into the hands of the evil king

Nebuchadnezzar. This is not something that caught God off guard. This is not something that took him by surprise.

In the mindset of the ancient Near Easterners, when ancient Near Easterners, people back in this day and age, when they looked at war, when two opposing forces came in to do battle, whichever side won the war had the stronger gods.

That was their mindset. So whoever won the war, you know, that team has the stronger gods.

So put yourself in the shoes of someone in Babylonian captivity, and you look up and Judah in Jerusalem has been besieged by a pagan nation.

For all the world, it would have seemed like to you that Yahweh had been defeated, that the

Babylonians had the stronger gods, because Yahweh, Adonai, had been defeated.

But no, the writer here of Daniel is being very, very careful. He is saying this is

Adonai. This is the one who is in control. This is not something that Adonai just permitted to happen.

This is something that he caused to happen. This is something that he orchestrated.

This is something that he did. Adonai, the ruler, the boss, he is the one who is doing this.

He is in control. And dear friends, when we go through suffering, we need to remember that no matter how bad it is, that God is in control.

No matter how circumstances may be, no matter how much circumstances would seem to indicate otherwise,

God is in control, both in the world at large and in our own personal lives.

And you know, sometimes when you look at the world at large, when you look at our society, it almost seems like we're in just a moral freefall, right?

I mean, it was just 10 years ago that even California voted down homosexual marriage, and now,

I mean, it's written into law. I mean, nobody, hardly anybody even questions it now. And now we look at what some states are doing, like New York and Virginia.

There was another one, I think, here recently. And they're actually encouraging babies to be left to die who were born alive.

It just seems like our country is in just moral freefall, and it almost seems like the wheels are coming off, doesn't it?

But no matter how bad things may seem, either in our country or the world at large, no matter how bad the doctor report may have been, no matter how bad the family situation may seem,

God is in control, working behind the scenes in ways that none of us can understand.

This is not something that caught God off guard in Daniel chapter 1, and nothing that comes our way catches

God off guard today. God is in control, even though it may not seem like it, even though circumstances might seem to indicate otherwise.

God is in control. It is only through a healthy understanding of the sovereignty of God that we can truly face trials in our lives.

I want to read a few verses to you. Let me begin with a quote from Thomas Boston, a

Puritan preacher. Thomas Boston said this, he said, God has, by an eternal decree, immovable as mountains of brass, appointed the whole of everyone's lot, the crooked parts thereof, as well as the straight.

In other words, the pleasant times and the difficult times, all of these things are appointed by God, and they are as immovable as mountains of brass,

Thomas Boston says. Job 23, verse 14, Job says, for he performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with him.

The decrees of God, Psalm 33, verse 11, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation.

If you've never done a study on the attributes of God, as we've mentioned, please do yourself a favor and do that.

One of God's attributes, his immutable attributes, is his decree.

Everything that happens, happens by the decree of God. Now I'm going to read a couple other verses for you, may make you squirm a little bit.

Amos chapter 3, verse 6, If disaster befalls a city, has the Lord not done it?

Lamentation chapter 3, verses 37 through 38, Who is there who speaks, and it comes to pass, unless Yahweh has commanded it?

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?

Does that make you squirm? Isaiah chapter 45, verse 7, I am

Yahweh, and there is no other, the one forming light and creating darkness, causing well -being and creating calamity.

I am Yahweh who does all these things. Does that make you squirm?

Makes me squirm a little bit. Because God is not the author of sin, right?

That's right, he's not. God cannot do anything that's evil, right? That's exactly right.

That's exactly right. And yet we see in these verses that God is the one who does all these things.

He creates well -being, he creates calamity, and from his mouth, both good and ill, some translations say evil, go forth.

This is God speaking. And yet 1 John 1, verse 5 says, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

So how do we square these things? Dear friends, God is not the author of evil.

He is not the author of sin. Oftentimes we think in terms that God can do anything.

He can't, can he? There are some things that God cannot do. God cannot lie.

Not that he won't lie, he can't lie. If God lied, every atom in the universe would cease to exist.

All of us would be vaporized instantly. God cannot sin.

Not that he won't, he can't. He can't sin. God cannot change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So there are some things that God cannot do. So how do we make sense of this? Even though God is not the author of sin, and he does not create evil in some way, in ways that our finite minds cannot understand, somehow in God's eternal decree, even though he's not the author of these things, he still is sovereign over them.

And even evil, even suffering, is part of his eternal decree.

And yet he's not the author of it. Now, does that scramble your brain a little bit?

It scrambles mine. You know, Charles Spurgeon said, as well as might a finite creature seek to come, as well, no, he said, as well might a gnat, g -n -a -t, as well might a gnat seek to drink in the ocean, so might a finite creature seek to comprehend the eternal

God. And I'm really, really glad that Deuteronomy 29, 29 is in the

Bible. The secret things belong to the Lord. There are some things that we just cannot understand this side of heaven.

It's like the Trinity. God is one, and yet he's three persons. My finite brain,

I can't fully grasp that. God is sovereign in salvation, predestination, election.

He has his people, his sheep, his elect, predestined and chosen from before the foundation of the world.

And yet man is held responsible. And no one will go to hell because God has sent him there.

Man will go to hell because he wants to go to hell, and he chooses to go to hell because he loves his sin, he hates the darkness, or excuse me, he loves his sin, he hates the light, chooses darkness, and so he will go to hell by his own free will.

Man is responsible, but yet we're chosen. How do you make sense of that? God makes sense of that.

Both of these things are true because the Bible teaches both. They're both true.

And so we just have to resign ourselves that we're not going to fully understand everything this side of heaven.

But here's what we do rest in, the sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of God.

And nothing can come our way, dear ones, that does not pass through his sovereign hand.

God did not just allow this come to Judah. He caused it.

And you know, I don't take a great deal of comfort in a weak, passive God.

I take great comfort in a strong, sovereign God. And God is strong and he is sovereign, even in our suffering.

And our suffering comes from him. Sin is responsible and yet it comes from God.

Selah. We rest in that. Verse three.

Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court.

And he ordered him to teach them the literature and the language of the Chaldeans. So what is going on here is that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, he had sent his forces down into Judah, laid siege around Jerusalem, besieged it.

And so Jerusalem is now captive. And what Nebuchadnezzar wanted to do, as was common with the

Babylonians, when they conquered a people, they would take some of their people and bring them out of their home country and take them back to the king's palace.

And this is what Nebuchadnezzar was doing. He got some of the young men of Judah, the cream of the crop.

These were some sharp young men. And best we can tell, probably somewhere between 15 and 17 years of age, that neighborhood, 14 to 17, that neighborhood.

He took some young men who were strong, handsome, good looking, very intelligent, very well educated.

He took the cream of the crop and he took them from their home hundreds of miles away and had them deposited in his own court.

And he wanted to use these young men for his own purposes. And he figured that this period of brainwashing, notice it says that this period of brainwashing would last about three years there in verse five, says the king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food, from the wine which he drank.

And he appointed that they should be educated three years at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service.

So this three years, this is a period of brainwashing. These young men, teenager, we would call them today, but these young men, they had been taken from their home.

Everything that they had ever known has just been stripped away from them. And they are now hundreds of miles away in a strange land, in a strange court.

And the king is going to spend three years brainwashing these young men. He's going to give them a new system of education.

They're going to be taught the literature and the language of the Chaldeans, pagan people. They're going to be given a new diet.

He appointed for them a daily ration from his own choice food and the wine which he drank. And so strip from them everything that they've ever known, re -educate them and use their talents for his own personal service.

Three -year period of brainwashing. Now watch verse six. It says, now among them from the sons of Judah were

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Now a couple of points here in verse six.

Notice that these young men, that group was not comprised totally of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

It says now among them. Now we don't know exactly how many young men the Babylonians took.

I've seen estimates anywhere from 50 to upwards to 600. We don't know.

But it wasn't just Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. They were just four of a much larger group.

Let's go with the conservative number. Let's say 50. Let's say four of 50. So among this group of 50,

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them.

To Daniel, he assigned the name Belteshazzar. To Hananiah, Shadrach. To Mishael, Meshach.

And to Azariah, Abednego. Now the author here,

Daniel, is being very careful again in including these names. These names mean something.

I want to walk through these names, what these names mean. Now Daniel's name means God is my judge.

That's what Daniel means. God is my judge. Hananiah's name means Yahweh is gracious.

Yahweh is gracious. Mishael's name means who is what

God is. Who is what God is. And Azariah's name means

Yahweh is my help. So their original Hebrew names all point to God.

They say something about him, something about his character, his nature. They all point to God. Their new names also mean something.

Daniel's new name, Belteshazzar, means protect the king's life. In other words, Nebuchadnezzar's life.

Hananiah's new name, Shadrach, means command of Aku, a pagan

Babylonian god, moon god. Mishael's new name, Meshach, means who is what

Aku is. Now Mishael's original name means who is what God is.

His new name means who is what Aku is. This was deliberate.

This was a slap in the face. They didn't just pull a name out of a hat and say, okay, we're going to call this one

George. No, this is a direct affront.

This is a direct challenge to God. The gauntlet has been cast down. Who is going to emerge supreme?

The pagan Babylonian gods or Yahweh? Who is what

Aku is? Azariah's new name, Abednego, means servitive

Nego, another pagan king. So their Hebrew names all point towards God.

They say something about God, something about his character, something about his nature. Their new names all point to pagan kings or pagan deities.

And now if I were to take a room of 100, at least professing Christians, have some kind of religious background,

I suppose, you know, raise your hand if you've ever heard of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Probably most hands would go up. If I were to have said, raise your hand if you've heard of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

Probably not a lot of hands, maybe a few. But, you know, everybody knows who

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is. I mean, we were taught about them in Sunday school. We have songs, you know, their names have a certain rhyme and cadence to them.

And, you know, isn't it ironic that we know these men by their pagan names?

It's kind of sad, isn't it? That we know these guys by their pagan names.

This is part of the brainwashing. Now look at verse 8. Now that's a very interesting verse of scripture.

Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank.

It's kind of a surprising statement when you think about it. Because up until this point, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and all the rest of them had pretty much gone along with everything.

Want to give us a new system of education? You want to teach us the literature and the language of the Chaldeans? Okay, knock yourself out.

Want to give us new names? All right, whatever floats your boat, we'll go along with the new names too.

But when it comes to the king's choice food and the wine which he drank, Daniel and his friends said, no, we're not gonna do that.

That's a bridge too far. We're drawing a line in the sand. Now when you think about this, this is really kind of totally counterintuitive, isn't it?

Had I been in their shoes, if I had been one of these young men that had been taken away from my home, my parents, my siblings are gone.

Everything that I've ever known is gone. And I'm hundreds of miles away in a pagan kingdom, and I don't even speak the language.

And I'm being given a new system of education. They've even changed my name. But I've been offered the king's choice food and the wine which he drank.

I'm like, that would be the lone bright spot, right? In an otherwise very unpleasant situation.

I mean, I'd be thinking, well, at least I'm gonna get a good meal out of this thing. I mean, the king's prime rib over there is looking pretty good.

That would be the one bright spot of the whole situation. And yet that's where they decided to draw the line.

Why? I think for a couple of reasons. One is that the king's choice food had been sacrificed to pagan deities.

And Daniel and his friends were gonna have none of that. Well, they didn't want to give homage to any pagan deities.

And also, I think, of course, we have to remember Daniel was a prophet, right? I think even now

Daniel knew that he and his friends were about to be tested. And I think he knew they were gonna pass that test.

And he wanted all of the glory to go to the one to whom it belonged, to God.

He didn't want any of the credit to go to Nebuchadnezzar because of the choice food and the wine which he drank.

And so he drew a line in the sand. It says, Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself.

A couple of points about that. Just as Daniel and his friends were absolutely resolute against sin, you and I need to be that resolute as well.

We don't need to wait until we get into a place of temptation to then decide what we're gonna decide to do about this temptation and whether or not we're going to give in to the sin.

We need to make up our minds beforehand and do not let ourselves be placed in a situation in which we are unduly tempted.

Now, temptation comes. I mean, you can't avoid it. It comes. But you know what? Do yourself a favor and don't allow yourself to get into a place where you know you're going to be tempted.

Make up your mind beforehand. You know, if you have been saved out of alcoholism, don't go hang out at a bar.

If you've been saved out of fornication, take whatever steps you need to take to remove that temptation from you.

Make up your mind that you will not defile yourself with these temptations.

Make up your mind now. And also, as it comes to trials and as it comes to suffering, and dear friends, think, these were young men, 14, 15, 16, 17, tops, years of age.

You think this wasn't a trial? They had been stripped from everything. Everything that they had ever known is gone in an immediate, intense trial.

But Daniel and his friends made up their minds. They were well prepared. Have your theology of suffering in place before you get to a place of suffering.

The time to build a house is not in the middle of a storm. You build your house before the storm.

So when the storm comes, you'll be safe. Don't wait until you are in an intense trial of suffering to begin studying about what

God has to say about suffering. That's one of the reasons we're having this conference, to help equip you. Don't wait until the storm comes.

Read and study God's word beforehand. Study what God's word has to say about suffering and trials before the intense trial comes.

Don't wait until you're in the midst of it. Prepare yourself now.

Prepare yourself now. And I pointed this out a minute ago.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, four young men out of a group of at least, conservatively, at least 50.

All 50 of them had come from the same place. All 50 of them had the same upbringing.

All 50 of them had the same religion. All 50 of them had been taught the same scriptures.

They were all cookie cutter as far as their background goes.

But out of the 50, how many of them said, no, we will not defile ourselves with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank.

The other 46 succumbed to the temptation. They succumbed to the prime rib.

But not the four. Why just four out of 50 when they all had the same background? There's a lot of people who claim to be

Christians. They come from the same religious background, go to the same church, and been taught the same scriptures.

But for a lot of people, their head knowledge is nothing more than just that, head knowledge. And there's nothing like a good, intense, acute trial.

Trial, as we talked about last night, to really test you and to see what you're really made of.

To investigate you, to find you out, to find me out. What are we really made of?

And it was in this acute trial that just four out of the 50 were shown to have not only head knowledge, but that head knowledge had penetrated their heart.

That's why it's so important that we be very, very careful before we baptize little five, six, seven, eight -year -old kids.

Just because they've made intellectual assent to a few basic gospel facts. All raised in the same church, go to the same vacation

Bible school, hear the same thing. Yeah, they've made intellectual assent, just like this group of 50 had.

But for only four of them, was it truly in here? Was it truly in their heart? Nothing like a good trial.

Nothing like good suffering to expose us, to see what we're really made of, to see what's really on the inside of us.

You're not gonna be able to tell that in a little child, five, six, seven, eight years of age. Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank.

So he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. Now look at verse nine.

Now God granted Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the commander of the officials.

And the commander of the officials said to Daniel, I am afraid of my lord, the king, who has appointed your food and your drink.

For why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.

God saw the obedience of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Nazariah. And he granted them favor in the sight of the commander of the officials.

He gave them a friend on the inside. And it's like the commander of the officials looked at Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Nazariah, and he said,

I like you guys. I don't know why I like you, but I do. And I wanna help you.

God granted them favor. Sometimes God honors our obedience with tangible blessings that we can see, that we can tangibly benefit from.

Sometimes God does that, that he honors our obedience with things that we can see and things that we can feel and kind of grasp our hands.

We know that God is honoring our obedience. Sometimes he does that. Sometimes he doesn't.

But you know what? Even when God doesn't grant us favor in the sight of the commander of the officials or something equivalent to that, even when

God does not do that, obedience to God is in and of itself its own reward.

Obedience is in and of itself its own reward. And sometimes our obedience to God leads to suffering as it did with Stephen in Acts chapter seven.

As it did with the apostle Paul all throughout the book of Acts and first and second

Corinthians and the pastoral epistles and as it did with John the Baptist.

But when we obey God, we have the blessing at least, even if we don't see a tangible result, we at least have the blessing of having a clear conscience, knowing that we have done the right thing and doing the right thing in God's eyes is always the right thing to do.

Obedience to God is in and of itself its own reward. The commander of the officials said to Daniel, I am afraid of my

Lord, the king, who has appointed your food and your drink for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age?

In other words, he's saying, you know, I want to help you, but you got to understand if I do, you may make me forfeit my head to the king.

I want to help you, but if I do, I could literally lose my head for this.

So verse 11, but Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then let our appearance be observed in your presence and the appearance of the youths who are eating the other 46 knuckleheads who didn't have enough courage to do the right thing.

You give us nothing to eat but vegetables and nothing to drink but water for 10 days and then you judge our appearance as opposed to our other 46 loser friends who didn't stand up with us and then make an observation.

Then test our appearances. Now I have heard some and there's been several of them who take this

Daniel 1 verses 12 and 13 here and they make a diet out of it, the

Daniel diet. This is how God wants us to eat because Daniel and his friends prospered, verse 14.

So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days and at the end of 10 days, their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food.

And this is how God wants us to eat. This is the Daniel diet. We're supposed to eat nothing but vegetables and drink nothing but water.

That completely misses the point of the passage, totally. Thankfully, because I'm not a vegetarian,

I'd be pretty miserable if I had to follow the Daniel diet. But not knocking vegetarians, but that's not the point of the passage.

Daniel and his friends did not prosper because of the food. Daniel and his friends prospered in spite of the food.

They prospered in spite of the food. That's the point. And all of the glory was about to go to the one to whom it belonged.

And that is what Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah wanted. And dear friends, there's a lesson to be learned here.

In our obedience to God, in our Christian life, we need to make sure that what we do, we truly do for the glory of God and not for our own self aggrandizement.

Because if we do things so we can get pats on the back and other people can look at us and think well of us, then enjoy your reward because you've got it in full.

God's not gonna honor that. God is a jealous God. And he will not share his glory with another.

None of us can do it perfectly, but we must strive to do everything that we do in our

Christian lives for the glory of God, not for the praise of men. They prospered not because of the food, they prospered in spite of the food.

Verse 14, so he listened to them in this matter and he tested them for 10 days. And at the end of the 10 days, their appearance was better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food.

So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine which they were to drink and he kept giving them vegetables.

And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom.

Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days, which the king had specified for presenting them, here comes the showdown.

All 50 of them lined up before the king. King's about to judge them and look at their appearances, ask them questions.

The king talked with them and out of them all, not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

So they entered the king's personal service and as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and all the conjurers who were in all of his realm.

Who emerged supreme, the pagan Babylonian gods or Yahweh? And I want to read this in the way in which the original recipients would have read this and understood it.

The king talked with them and out of them all, not one was found like God is my judge.

Out of them all, not one was found like Yahweh is gracious. Out of them all, not one was found like who is what

God is. Out of them all, not one was found like Yahweh is my help. Dear friends, this world has a lot that it wants to offer us and a lot with which to tempt us, but out of them all, not one will you find like Jesus Christ.

He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the wonderful counselor, almighty

God, prince of peace. He is our only and glorious savior. Out of all of the world's religions, out of everything that the world could offer, not one will you find like Yahweh.

In verse 21, and Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.

Notice who outlasted whom. God is my judge outlasted the pagan king

Nebuchadnezzar. Out of them all, not one will you find like Yahweh.

Daniel one is a powerful testimony to the sovereignty of God. God is sovereign even when it may not seem like it.

God is sovereign even in our times of suffering. He is in control, working behind the scenes in ways that none of us can fully understand.

And yes, suffering is hard. Yes, it hurts, but as hard as it may be, as acute as the trials may be, they are but for a moment.

This life is so short, it is fleeting. And one day, dear friends,

James chapter one, verse 12, one day, this will be our reward. The reward for our suffering.

James chapter one, verse 12. James says this, blessed is the man who perseveres.

Remember that word, perseveres, endures, who pomine. Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial.

For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the

Lord has promised to those who love him. Once he has been tested and once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life.

Now, this is an interesting phrase in the Greek because the way the Greek is structured here, it could be crown of life, but another way to render that is the crown which is life.

The crown which is life. And I think that's really the right rendering.

He will receive the crown which is life. What is life? Jesus said,

I am the way, the truth, and the what? The life. What is our reward?

Christ. Christ is our reward. When this short vapor of a life is over, dear friends, all of this suffering will be a distant thing of the past and our reward is

Christ. We will love him fully, worship him fully, unencumbered by sin, and we will enjoy him for all of eternity.

The crown which is life, Christ. He is our reward. And so many people have such an earthly view of heaven.

When we die, we're not going to have our sickness, we're not going to have our disease. You know, and I've, and I used to think in these terms before I was truly converted, you know, when

I die and go to heaven, I won't have my crutches anymore. No, I won't.

When we die, we'll be, we'll walk on streets of gold and we'll see grandma and grandpa and we'll have our own little personal mansions, which that's not even the right rendering of that word, by the way.

People think of heaven as being a big family reunion. If that is your view of heaven, your view of heaven is far too small.

Your view of Christ is far too small. Will we be reunited with our loved ones in heaven?

Yes, of course, provided that they were in Christ when they preceded us in death, yes. We will be reunited with them, yes.

But that's not the joy of heaven. The joy of heaven is Christ knowing

Christ. He is the joy and the glory of heaven. He is who makes heaven heaven.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face.

In the things of this earth, all the suffering, all the trials will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

He, dear ones, is our reward. Let's close in a word of prayer.

Father, the things of this earth do indeed grow strangely dim as we look into the face of our savior.

But while we are here on this earth, it is oftentimes hard as we suffer, as we go through these trials.

But help us to keep your perspective that this life is short, it is fleeting, and you are in control.

Help us to have the perception, the understanding that you gave to Asaph in Psalm 73.

His feet came close to stumbling, his steps almost slipped. But then in verse 17, it says, he said, but then

I came into the sanctuary of God. Father, help us to come into your sanctuary, help us to understand your perspective and keep in mind that you are in control, you are sovereign, you are good, you are faithful, you are merciful.

And these trials but conform us more into the image of Christ for the glory of Christ. But one day, and it will be soon, it will all be behind us, and we will enjoy

Christ forever, for he is our reward. How we thank you for that.

These things we ask and pray in his name. Amen. Thank you very much for that,

Justin. Now, I would like to let you guys know before we sign off about a conference that we're going to be having in Ohio.

If you happen to be in the Cleveland, Ohio area, we're going to have the Equip Ohio 2019.

That will be June 1st, Saturday, June 1st, one day only. Doors will open at 8 a .m.

This will have speakers, Dr. Anthony Silvestro, Pastor Austin Hessler, and Michael Coghlan.

They will be our speakers. The conference is going to be earlier than we have done in the past.

The conference will, the doors will open at 8 o 'clock. It will run through till before noon.

That's right, before noon. Because we're going to focus on going out and evangelizing. There is a gay pride parade that day, and the folks want to head out there to do some evangelism.

It's going to be a shorter conference. This is more of a mini conference we're going to try to do. June 1st,

Saturday, June 1st, in the Cleveland, Ohio area, it will be held at Olmstead Falls Baptist Church.

If you want any details of that, you want to be able to participate in that, need more information, you can email us at info at striving4eternity .org.

That is info at striving4eternity .org. We'll get you all the details for that conference.

Hope to see you there. This podcast is part of the Striving for Eternity ministry. For more content or to request a speaker or seminar to your church, go to striving4eternity .org.