The Fiery Furnace (05/21/2000)

Well, I've made an announcement Wednesday night and I want to make it again today just for those of you who are not there, maybe haven't heard from anyone else in our church, but Dr.

Rocky Freeman, who is my mentor, most of you know that, and I've known

Dr. Freeman since 1978, the year I was saved. He was the first preacher that I heard preach after being saved, and most of you who have been around for a while know how much he means to me and he means a lot to a lot of you who have known him for a long time.

Some of you got to hear him fairly recently when he was here doing a study on the tabernacle and the pictures and types in the tabernacle not too long ago.

Anyway, he had been ill since November on and off and then just never seemed to get better.

Finally, he ended up in the hospital about three weeks ago and almost died with pneumonia.

While there, they discovered that back in 1987 when he had open heart surgery, the blood that he received had

HIV in it, and so he's HIV positive and very, very ill.

In fact, I got a call from Pat yesterday morning and when he woke up, he couldn't breathe in.

Every time he breathed in, it was painful and she had called the doctor and so I said, we'll call him.

You know, on Saturday, you can't ever find him, and I said, we'll call the answering service and say it's an emergency and I need to talk to him quickly.

And so they did finally call and they took him to the hospital, did x -rays, and he had a collapsed lung.

So he's back in the hospital now with a tube in his side to try to correct that. So it's just one thing after another and I just want you to know that if you ran across me last week and my countenance was not like, you know, kind of down, that's why.

I'm just, my family and I are pretty devastated by this and having a real hard time with it.

And yet, God is teaching us things through it. And this man has traveled across the country, he's preached in every state of the union and every free nation in the world.

And one of the few international preachers who takes stands on issues and he's preached all over the world against immorality and homosexuality and all these things, and now he has the disease that they brought.

So it's ironic, but it's something that has happened and so it's something we're going through together.

And so this message this morning is going to be aimed at, actually it was a

Bible study that I did for myself. So I hope it'll be a benefit for you and I know that someday it will, if not today, there will come a day when it will be a benefit and I know it's helped me a lot.

So let's go to the Lord in prayer and we'll begin. Father, we ask that you would teach us during this time as we look into your beautiful word that your

Holy Spirit who gave it to us would teach us the sense of every verse that we look at this morning and bring out your mind and heart and voice to us today that it might be a help in time of need that would strengthen us and that make us more like the

Lord Jesus Christ and give us the ability to see him even more clearly by faith.

We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. The message is really in Daniel chapter 3, but I wanted to read this passage out of Ephesians chapter 6, starting with verse 11.

Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, and that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places.

One reason I wanted to read this passage is that this passage, every time I read it, I think of Dr.

Freeman because he is one of the foremost authorities in this country on spiritual warfare.

In fact, he's written books on that topic. He preached in Bible conferences with men like Merill F.

Unger, who wrote Unger's Bible Dictionary. Dr. Unger wrote a book early in his life about demonology, where he claimed that demons could not affect a born -again

Christian, and then later in his life, as an older man, he wrote a book and refuted his first book, and his second book on practical demonology is now a classic and is used in every seminary in the country.

But in his second book, he refuted what he said in the earlier book as a young man, and he said, as a matter of fact, demons can affect born -again people, and he would go into passages such as this.

Well, Dr. Freeman spoke with him while he was still alive in meetings and so forth.

He spoke with people like Feinberg, who was one of the editors of the New Scofield Bible. He spoke with people like Pentecost, who wrote the great book

Things to Come about the end times. So he's been around, but I think of spiritual warfare when

I think of Dr. Freeman's teaching. There are very few people left alive on this earth who are really authorities on that subject, and he is one of them, and he's talked to me many times about this passage right here.

But let's look at verse 13. Wherefore, taken to you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

So I want to talk to you a little bit about the evil day this morning. If you haven't had that yet, you will.

It comes to us all, and sometimes it comes many times. There are more than one evil days that can come into the life, to our lives.

Remember how Jesus said, don't worry about tomorrow, there's enough evil in today? But this evil day that is spoken of in Ephesians chapter 6 is the day when you think everything has collapsed.

It's the day when you're brought to even question the very doctrine that you've always taught and believed.

It's the day when an experience comes into your life that shatters everything and makes you rethink everything and makes you ask questions and makes you ask the

Lord, what are you teaching me? And someone this week,

I believe it was Miss Riddle, told me a quote from J. Vernon McGee. He said that he learned through these experiences in his life never to ask

God why, but to ask God, what are you teaching me? And that's hard to do because we're curious creatures, aren't we?

We want to know why. Sometimes five years into the future, ten years into the future, we can look back and see the whys, but I'm convinced there are some things that will happen we won't see the whys even until we get to heaven.

And then there are even some things about God I think we'll never know because He is

God and we're not. But God does give us much in the scriptures to help us.

I think it was interesting, the discussion we had in Sunday school this morning about whether God gives a list of, what was it, bad things that can happen.

And Greg said, well, one thing about it, I think He does give a list of solutions.

And I like that answer. It's not really a list. I don't think Greg said list, but the solutions are there.

The Word of God speaks to every issue of life. And this morning I want us to go into Daniel chapter 3.

We're actually going to start with the end of verse 2, chapter 2 I mean. So look at Daniel chapter 2 and verse 47.

And I want to speak to you this morning, kind of the subtitle is the evil day, but the actual title is the proper position of God's children.

What position should we take? What stand should we take when that evil day hits?

And I think this passage will give us a lot of information. All right, let's look, starting with verse 47 at the end of chapter 2.

The king answered unto Daniel and said, Of a truth it is that your

God is a God of gods. I want you to notice the word a. It doesn't say thee.

It should say thee, but it says a. The king was careful in his choice of words.

Of a truth that your God is a God of gods and a

Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets. Seeing thou couldst reveal this secret.

It's always very important to be careful when the enemy puts a thought in our mind or speaks.

As he did to even the garden. Often he'll give mostly truth.

And just a little bit of leaven. And it's interesting in verse 47.

If you don't read it carefully, you think that this king who, in my view, typifies or pictures the enemy today.

He is a type of Satan in some ways. But notice how carefully he chooses his word of a truth.

Your God is a God of gods. And then look at verse 48.

Then the king made Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon.

And chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king and he sent

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon.

But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. I want us to notice a couple of things here before we move on.

First of all, there is a plan that the enemy has. And the enemy's plan, and I speak of Satan.

And he uses his imps, the demons, as a hierarchy to aid in this plan.

But he has a plan to gain worship from people from anywhere he can get it.

He will attempt to gain worship in the book of Revelation as you read about that in the end days.

He will attempt to gain worship. But he has a plan to gain worship. And you're going to see that many times it's through compromise.

And sometimes it includes a threat of death. Or a great fear of death.

But you're going to notice a compromise as we go through this passage. And the compromise is this.

The king is willing for Daniel and the three Hebrew children, or young men we should call them.

The king is perfectly willing for them to worship their god. Who he calls a god.

But he is putting before them a compromise that I want you to worship me a little bit too.

And as long as you'll do that, you can worship your god and you'll be fine. And he presents this compromise very early on.

Notice that the enemy recognized God as a god of gods.

A lord of kings and a revealer of secrets. But he's not the god of the universe.

Because the enemy likes to conceive of himself as higher than the most high god.

Second thing we notice is the enemy set Daniel and the three Hebrew young men up as leaders.

And sometimes I think what that can teach us is sometimes the enemy would like it if we could be found in a state of prosperity.

If we could be found in a state where all the things are going well in our lives. And because human nature is such that when things are going great, when things are going well, when everything is perfect.

We think of God less, we pray less, we walk with God less. That's human nature.

The third thing that I see about this and let's look at verse 1 here in chapter 3.

We'll see the third point. Is that the enemy allowed recognition of God. But he decreed worship of himself along with this recognition.

Look at verse 1. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was three score cubits and the breadth thereof six cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs.

And all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which he had set up.

In verse 3. Then the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, counselors, the sheriffs.

Why do you think the Bible lists these twice like this? Well, it's interesting to look at history, the history of the world.

It is a common practice for rulers to use religion to be a unifying factor in their nation.

What Nebuchadnezzar is attempting to do is bring together all of these other leaders that are under him.

Bring them together and get them having a common focus and a common religion so that they'll stay under him.

It's a common practice. We know Constantine did this in the

Roman Empire. And he made Christianity, quote, Christianity, that common, quote, religion that would pull his whole kingdom together under him.

And we know that's when the Roman Church was perverted and became the Roman Catholic Church of today.

We know from Revelation 13, 11 through 15 and Revelation 19, 20 and other verses that the

Antichrist will do the same thing. He will attempt to unite the whole world through the worship and through a false religion.

So we see that he's bringing all these powerful people, the captains, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which he had set up.

Now he gathered them all together, and I'm in the middle of verse three now. He gathered them together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

And they stood before the image that he had set up. Then an herald cried aloud to you it is commanded,

O people, nations and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, the dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

And whosoever falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast in the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

Therefore at that time when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sackbut, the psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

Now we see that the enemy is allowing the Hebrews to worship God as long as they'll worship him as well.

Now we see an interesting thing happen here that is also repeated throughout human history.

Let's look at verse 8. Wherefore at that time certain

Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. Now there are some reasons why they might do this.

Can you think of one reason they might want to get these Jews in trouble? Who can think of a reason?

Excuse me. Yeah, and they didn't like it. Do you think maybe they were a little jealous?

Why'd you put these Hebrews in power over the whole nation when you have perfectly good counselors who are

Chaldeans? So we see some jealousy here. And so they come near and they accused the

Jews. They spake and said to King Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever.

Thou, O king, hast made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of these instruments,

I won't read them again, shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whosoever falleth not down and worshipeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

They remind him of his own law. There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, O king, have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Then they brought these men before the king. So we see that the enemies of the children of God and the enemies of God are accusers.

They always are. We find in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 10 that the

Bible calls Satan himself the accuser of our brethren. Any place you see the word devil used in the

Bible, in the gospels, where you see the word devil, it is the word diabolos, which means slanderer.

So one of the true natures of Satan is that he would accuse you, he would slander you, and he will try to bring that forth both to your own mind but also before God.

Read the first chapter of the book of Job and you see the actual mechanics of how this works.

And so here we see the enemy portrayed as the accuser. These men that came to me would picture demons who are working for the king who is

Satan. And they come and they accuse and they try to bring calamity upon these people of God.

Now it's interesting in verses 14 and 15 that the king here offers a compromise.

He offers a compromise in the face of fear.

He uses a horrible death by fire in the fiery furnace as fear, fear of death.

And tries to use this fear of death to bring about compromise. Now look at verse 14.

Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

He's not concerned about the fact that they worship their own god. He's simply concerned about the fact that they won't share that allegiance and worship him also.

And he now gives them an opportunity to save their lives. He gives them an opportunity to compromise.

He offers a compromise. He says in verse 15, Now if ye be ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sacrament, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music,

If ye will fall down and worship the image which I have made, then well. In other words, it will be well with you.

But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

And who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands, is the question

Satan would ask. Young people, there's going to come a time when

Satan's going to ask you, Who is your god? He doesn't seem to be powerful enough to save you or that loved one.

Who is he? Maybe you should worship me. Maybe you should worship me by questioning

God's motives. Maybe you should worship me by questioning whether or not

God is sovereign and in control of all events. Maybe you should worship me by questioning whether God is good, whether God is all powerful, whether he has your best interest in mind.

And if you'll do that, then maybe I'll deliver you, Satan would say.

So we see this awful compromise that Satan offers in the face of the fear of horrible death.

Now, we've spent some time now speaking about the plan of the enemy.

What is his plan? Make sure we've got it before we move on. What is his plan?

Compromise. He wants you to compromise. He doesn't want you to stop worshiping God. He just wants you to worship him a little bit too.

What will he often use to get you to do it? Fear.

Fear of what in particular? The fear of death. Now, let's move on.

Let's talk. We talked about the plan of Satan. Now, let's talk about the proper position of the believer.

Look at verses 16 and 17. This is awesome.

I love their answer. It's powerful. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered.

Now, the king had just told them, I'm going to kill you in the same hour if you don't kneel the knee to this false god.

And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand,

O king. But if not, be it known unto thee,

O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

We see some interesting information in this. First of all, in verse 16, they said they're not careful to answer.

In the Hebrew, it doesn't read that way. In fact, in the Hebrew, it's not telling us what they were not going to do.

It's telling us what they were going to do. It's put in the positive sense. And this word ready is from the

Chaldean word kashach, which means a sense of readiness.

And it comes from a root word kush, which means to hurry, to be eager with excitement or enjoyment, to haste, and to be made ready.

So we get this sense. This evil king says, now look, if you will just worship me a little bit, it will be well with you.

But if you don't, in the same hour that you refuse me that worship, you'll be cast into a fiery furnace.

And they came back without hesitation. And they said, oh king, we are ready with excitement, enjoyment, and haste to answer you in this matter.

That's what the Hebrew says. We are ready with excitement to answer you. We're ready with haste.

We don't have to think about it. In fact, we enjoy the answer we're about to give you.

And they said, our God is able to save us. In fact, he might save us.

But if he doesn't save us, we're still not going to worship your God. Now, how do you think that made him feel?

Well, it would make Satan feel like fleeing. In verse 19, we see how it made

Nebuchadnezzar feel. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury. And the form of his visage changed.

His countenance changed. Can you imagine how he must have looked? Probably had a big smile on his face.

Now I offer you this. When you hear the music, I don't want any harm to come to you.

Just fall down on your knees and worship my God. And they give him this answer.

We're ready. In fact, we're happy and excited to tell you this.

We don't care what you do with us, because our God can save us. And even if he doesn't, we're not worshiping you.

And all of a sudden, can you imagine that king's countenance? He didn't live in a democracy.

He was not used to anybody talking back to him. And his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Therefore, he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

Make it seven times hotter than it's even built to endure. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind.

Now these represent the demons. And he commands them to bind God's children.

Now don't tell me that can't happen, because it's pictured right here.

He commanded them to bind, and in fact, they did bind these young men. They tied them up so fast that they couldn't move.

He commanded them to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace.

Now let's stop a moment and think about what's happened here. First of all, these young men were not careful to give an answer.

They were ready to give an answer. First Peter 3 .15 says we're supposed to always be ready to give an answer to every man that asks the reason why we believe the way we do.

Second Timothy 2 .15 says we're to study to show ourselves approved unto God, so that when the evil day comes, we have the armor and we can stand.

When they said we are not careful, in the Hebrew language it means we are ready to make haste to give an answer.

You cannot be ready instantly to give an answer if you haven't been in the Word. You can't be ready instantly if the evil day hits if you haven't been in prayer.

You can't be ready if you haven't been walking with God already. I remember one time very vividly in my life when this happened, and I wasn't ready.

In fact, I wasn't even saved yet. But I remember when my grandmother was in the hospital dying.

She lived for three days, and we didn't know what was going on exactly.

I'm sure we all thought she would get over it and come home, but she didn't. But I remember during those three days,

I wanted to pray for her, but I couldn't. For one reason, I wasn't saved.

But the other reason was, and I kept telling myself this, well, you hadn't walked with God up until now.

You don't know God. You've never walked with Him before. Why would He listen to you now?

Now, I was telling myself that, but maybe the enemy was accusing me at the same time. I don't know. But I know one thing.

I didn't pray. And I know another thing. She went to be with the Lord about three days later, and not too long after that,

I got saved. Now, don't ever get caught in the place where the evil day hits and you haven't already been with God.

So these young men were ready to give answer. And notice that one of the key attributes they had was faith in God's ability.

Look at verse 17 very carefully. He says, our

God can deliver us. In fact, He may deliver us. If you go over to Daniel 6, if you go a couple of pages forward in Daniel 6, verse 23, you see the same concept.

Then was the king exceedingly glad for him. This was when Daniel had been cast into the lion's den.

When he came out of the lion's den, the king said, I'm exceedingly glad for you.

I don't know about this king. Do you? Throws him in the lion's den. He's glad when he comes out.

But he and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den.

So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him because he believed in his

God. You see, believing that God is able is the whole key to what made these three

Hebrew children successful. And what made Daniel successful. And they say, well, he may save us.

If not, we are not going to base our allegiance to our God upon whether he always grants our requests or not.

Did you hear that? Because that's not modern. Today we live in a day where the mindset is if God does not answer my prayer, then

I no longer give him my allegiance. But these young men said, our

God can't answer this prayer. Our God can save us. But if he doesn't, we still won't bow down to you.

That's not a common attitude in this day. Because we've been taught that God is a genie in a bottle.

And when we rub the bottle, he comes out and we say, go do this and this for me. That's what all the

TV preaching and radio preaching is all about is successful Christian living. We haven't realized that sometimes we get cast into a fiery furnace and we don't know if we're going to come out or not.

In fact, we probably think we're not. So then we pray and say, God, take me out of this fiery furnace.

And while we're praying it, we're thinking, but if you don't, I'm starting to kind of doubt you. Because you're supposed to answer all my prayers.

And yet these young men knew God better than that, didn't they? They knew God well enough that they had faith in his ability, but they were not basing their allegiance to him on whether he answered their prayer or not.

So we see that the enemy has a plan. It's to bring us to a place of compromise, and normally he'll use fear and often fear of death to do this.

And secondly, the proper position of the believer is that I know my

God is all powerful and can do anything and can deliver me. But even if he doesn't, I'll not worship the enemy.

Now the third thing we can see this morning is the power of God to deliver. Look at in verses 19 through 21.

We've already read this, but we see the fury of the enemy. Let's look at verse 21. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hoes, their hats, and their other garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

The fury of the enemy. Satan uses his demons as a tool, but in reality they were a tool of God.

Now that's something that's hard to learn and something modern people don't believe anymore either. People don't believe

God is sovereign. What does that mean? He's in control of everything. Do you realize that there's no way these young men could be cast into that furnace if God had not decreed it?

But I will say this. He didn't cast them in there. The demons did.

Tools of God. God uses tools to accomplish his will.

Satan and his demons are a tool of God to accomplish his will. However, at the same time, they are responsible and held responsible for touching

God's anointed. Now I want you to get this this morning. Because this is comforting.

Look forward again to Daniel chapter 6 and verse 24. This is something that human logic wouldn't bring.

Only divine revelation in the scriptures would bring this to us. And that is that all things happen according to God's will.

He's not God if that's not true. But that he uses tools to accomplish his will and sometimes he uses

Satan and his demons. But what's interesting about it is when the enemy comes and attacks you or your family or your loved ones,

God will hold the enemy responsible. Daniel 6 .24

And the king commanded and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, the ones that got him cast into the lion's den.

The king now commands that they bring them and they cast them into the lion's den.

Them and their children and their wives and the lions had the mastery of them and break all their bones and pieces before ever they came at the bottom of the den.

Throughout history, if we look in Jeremiah chapter 46 and verse 25 and verse 28, we see that this great nation called

Egypt that was used as a tool in God's hand to mold his own people and sometimes to judge his own people, yet Egypt was held responsible.

It says in Jeremiah 46 .25, and by the way, Egypt is a type of the world system.

The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith, Behold, I will punish the multitude of Noah and Pharaoh and Egypt with their gods and their kings, even

Pharaoh and all them that trust in him. Fear thou not, O Jacob, my servant, saith the

Lord, for I am with thee, for I will make a full end of all nations, whether I have driven thee.

Every nation that God ever used to chastise Israel was then punished because they did so.

Isn't that an amazing truth? God is sovereign and God called these evil nations out to chastise his children, to fulfill his purposes, to mold his children and make them be what

God intended for them to be. And as soon as the nations were through chastening

Israel, God destroyed those nations. Go to Egypt sometime and see what kind of nation it is now.

It's one of the most backward nations in the world. And at this time, it was the United States of the world.

What does that tell you about the United States? And then in Jeremiah 48 .42,

Moab was judged by God after they had been used to chastise Israel.

And then in Jeremiah 49 .6, Ammon was judged by God. And then in Jeremiah 49 .15,

Edom was judged. And then in 49 .27, Damascus was judged. And then in Jeremiah 50,

Babylon itself was judged. And let's look at Jeremiah 50 .17, if you can find it quickly.

It says, Israel, Jeremiah 50 .17, Israel is a scattered sheep.

The lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria hath devoured him.

And last, this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, hath broken his bones.

Now here is a type of Satan, a symbol of Satan. This very king we're studying about.

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land.

And I have punished the king of Assyria. And then in verse 24, it says,

I have laid a snare for thee. And thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou was not aware.

Thou art found and also caught because thou hast driven against the Lord. The Lord hath opened his armory and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation.

For this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the called in. I just think this is a fascinating thing that the sovereign

God moves evil leaders around like chessmen on a chessboard and places them in position to accomplish his will.

And sometimes that will involves bringing tribulation to God's children so that God's children can learn the ways of God.

So God's children can be moved out of prosperity in a place of agnosticism into a place where they have to fall down and know

God or perish. And he uses these as tools and yet he turns right around and judges them for it and says because you have gone against the hand of the

Lord. It's amazing. They did it because of God's sovereignty and then

God turned around and judged them and said you've gone against me because you've touched my children. Let me tell you there's going to come a day, ladies and gentlemen, when

Satan is going to be cast into the place that was made for him and he's going to be bound with chains and he ain't going to come out of there.

Now he'll be loosed for a small season at the end of the kingdom, the thousand year millennial period.

And then Jesus Christ himself will put him down and he'll be cast into hell forever and ever and ever.

And the Bible says as you go on out into that next age that God is going to erase our memories of all of that.

And so here you will have this enemy who is pictured so well by Nebuchadnezzar who is cast into hell forever and forgotten.

But he'll always be there. But he'll be forgotten. He won't be one we will remember.

The enemy will not be one we'll ever even think about again. All he was used for is a tool during this dispensation to bring

God's people into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ through suffering. And so that's not so bad.

Seems bad as we go through it. I'm sure it seemed pretty bad when these young men were facing that fiery furnace, don't you think?

And then let's look at verse 23. Well, before we do that though let me show you this in verse 22 because it makes the point of the fact that God judges the tools that he uses when they touch his children.

Look right in the middle of verse 22. They got this fire so hot that when the king's men and we remember these were called the best men that the king had.

These were the most powerful demons. These were the top ones in the hierarchy. And as they came to cast these three men into the fire and the furnace was exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took them.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They cast God's children in the fire and it destroyed the enemy.

And that's the picture of what we just discussed. The fact that God judges the tool after he uses it.

But now look at verse 23. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound.

Don't tell me the enemy can't bind us. He can. Normally it's because we opened a door and brought it upon ourselves.

But it is possible. He cast them down and they fell down bound in the midst of the burning, fiery furnace.

I want you to place yourself there just for a few moments this morning. When you get in the middle of this evil day, when you find yourself already bound by the enemy, where your prayer life doesn't seem to matter anymore, doesn't seem to count, doesn't seem like God's hearing you.

You are bound and you are falling down. You are not even able to stand against the enemy.

Seemingly he has gotten the best of you. And you are in the midst of the fire. The most horrible circumstance that you may have ever had in your whole life is upon you and you can't even believe it's real, but it's happening.

You find yourself falling down before the enemy, bound up by the enemy, and in the midst of the fire.

But here's what you need to know. Look at verse 24. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished.

He was astonished. Now that's Texan. It means astonished. And that's why it's good to live down in the south, because the

Bible writers were all southern. If you don't believe it, they made vittles and everything else in the

Bible. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste.

Now can you imagine the visage had changed in such horrible fury towards these men and he had had his imps cast them into the fire after binding them.

All of a sudden something's happening that's changed his visage and he's astonished. And he said unto the counselors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of this fire?

And they answered and said unto him, true, O king, that's what we did. He said, then how come

I'm looking at four men and they're no longer bound and they're no longer on the ground, but they're standing? He answered and said, lo,

I see four men loose. They're not bound. Walking in the midst of the fire.

They're not on the ground at the feet of Satan anymore. They're walking and they're still in the tribulation.

They're still in the trouble. They're still in the middle of the fire, but they're walking and they have no hurt.

And look at the last part. And form of the fourth is like the

Son of God. They were delivered.

Verse 26, they were delivered.

But the beautiful part about this passage is that they were free before they were delivered.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came, near to the mouth of the burning, fiery furnace and spake.

He said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God. Now notice he puts a thee in front of it now.

Come forth, come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire.

And the princes, governors, and captains, and kings, and counselors, and all the imps were gathered together and saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor even the smell of fire had passed upon them.

Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be thee, God, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, that's the

Lord Jesus Christ, the word angel means messenger or the communicator, the word, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own

God. And then the last point we see this morning is we see, first of all, the plan of the enemy, and then the proper position of the believer, and the power of God to deliver.

And now we see the purpose of God in it all. And sometimes we're not allowed to see this until the end, but we see this at the end of the story.

Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the

God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other

God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted, that day,

Peace be multiplied unto you. I thought it good to show thee signs and wonders that the high

God hath wrought toward me. How great are his signs, and how mighty are his wonders.

His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.

The purpose in it all is always that God's grace might be witnessed with glory in the world.

It's that his grace might be lifted up, and that all creatures might see it.

That is always his good and perfect purpose in it all. Sometimes we can't see that from the inside of the fiery furnace, but one thing

God promised you that you will see is one standing as the

Son of God, and you will no longer be bound and on the ground at the foot of Satan.

You'll be walking in Christ. And that goes for whether he delivers you or not.

But if he does deliver you, it's for the purpose of his glory. And if he doesn't, it's for the purpose of his glory.

So we see the purpose of it all is that God's glory may be seen.

And lastly this morning, the point of view of God.

This is important. It is important to learn from this that God's point of view is not the same as ours.

Therefore, he does not always deliver. Let me give you some examples.

Before I do that, though, let me give you a truth. Isaiah 55, 8, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the

Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours and my thoughts than yours.

We should always remember this when we're in that furnace. He has a higher vantage point and can see all circumstances in all of history and in eternity.

So never let us think we understand what's going on and he doesn't. It's very interesting to me this passage in Isaiah 55 that's so famous where it says

My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, my ways are higher than your ways. A lot of times we don't read on down to verse 12, but let me read what verse 12 says.

God is telling us, Look, my ways are different than yours. Things are not always going to work out in your life like you think

I should have orchestrated it. But he says, For ye shall go out with joy. There's going to come a day when you're going to come out of that fire one way or the other and you're going to go out with joy and be led forth with peace.

The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle tree.

And it shall be to the Lord for a name, for his glory, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

The things that we go through in this life are far more important than we could ever see them to be because they go into eternity.

They are lessons that will be taught. The things that happen to me and you may be something that causes another person to grow.

The things that happen to another may cause us to grow. But all of these things that God brings to his children will be for an everlasting sign that shall never be cut off and they have an eternal purpose.

God does not always heal. 2 Corinthians 12, 7 makes it very clear. The Apostle Paul I want you to listen to this because this gives us some interesting information about the enemy.

In 2 Corinthians 12, 7 Paul says, And lest I should be exalted.

This was right after he had been beaten and left for dead in the ditch. And the Bible says he actually did die and he went into the heavenlies.

Remember that? He went into the third heaven and he saw things that God told him.

You cannot go back and say these things. And he comes back and he says in verse 7 that because of that experience if it weren't for what we're about to read about here, he said,

I would have been so highly exalted. Pride would have destroyed me. Because I have seen things and faith is no longer faith to me.

It is fact. And so I'm more powerful than any man on the face of the earth. That's where Paul stood.

Paul's faith was so strong he could move mountains with it. Paul's faith was so strong he could touch a little boy that was bored with his preaching and fell out the window and died.

He could touch him and put life back in his body. And he said because of this lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations that God had given him.

God had shown him so much truth. He said if God hadn't done this to me I'd have been prideful. Because of all this there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

Now isn't that interesting? Given to me. Now how many times when we have quote bad things happen do we consider it a gift from God?

But Paul did. He said God gave this to me as a gift to keep me from being prideful and falling.

And I was given a thorn in the flesh. The messenger of Satan was given to buffet me.

Lest I should be exalted above all measure. And he said I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

Now notice how this messenger of Satan comes into play. Here's the tool showing up.

This is God's will for Paul. No doubt because God did not want Paul to fall in pride.

And God ordained that this thorn in the flesh would happen but he used a tool.

He sent Satan the messenger of Satan, a demon to buffet Paul with some infirmity, some physical infirmity of some type that we're not really sure what it was.

Some people say it was bad eyesight. I have a feeling that's not the right answer. I think it's probably worse than that.

For this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And here's what

God's answer was. My grace is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me and I not be prideful,

Paul would say. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in other words not having all the things

I need, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when

I am weak then am I strong. God does not always heal, but he always has the power to.

Secondly, God does not always deliver. Think about Enoch, Genesis 5, 24.

Enoch walked with God. He was not, for God took him. Do you think his loved ones enjoyed that? Do you think his loved ones liked it when

God took him? Let me ask you this. Do you think Enoch liked it? I guarantee you that was some, like Brother Roloff said,

I don't want to have an airplane ride, I want to have that plane air ride. Go up in the rapture.

Well this was a type of rapture and Enoch was taken. What about Moses? God didn't deliver him.

What about Elijah? It's an interesting story. You know Elijah didn't like it very much when

God took Elijah? He was standing right there. In fact, it's kind of interesting some of the things that Elijah said.

It says, and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and he smote the waters as if Elijah was angry about it and he said,

Where is the God? The Lord God of Elijah. Where is he? Why'd he let this happen?

And when he also had spit in the waters he noticed a peculiar thing. They parted hither.

And then Elijah walked across on it. God gave him his answer. Where is God? He's right here.

But God doesn't always deliver. What about John the Baptist? How many think that was a fair ending? The greatest preacher in 400 years previous to that, there had been no prophet of God, no voice of God speaking anywhere on the planet

Earth until John the Baptist rose. And Jesus said, there is no greater of woman born than John the

Baptist. And yet, his head was cut off in the prime of his life. In the prime of his ministry.

And what about Jesus? You know what I think one of the most comforting things we can do when we go through the evil day, when we want to be tempted by the enemy to do that little compromise and ask

God, How could you let this happen to me? How could you let this happen to my loved one? This is not fair.

Now when I say that, what am I saying? I'm saying God is not good. I'm saying

God is not love. I'm contradicting the word which says he is good and says he is love.

And I'm saying he is not fair. And then my thoughts are taken by the Holy Spirit to the cross.

And I look at Mark 14, 36, where Jesus said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee.

Take away this cup from me. But he didn't put a period there, did he? He said, nevertheless, not what

I will, but what thou will. So that prayer was answered because he prayed in God's will.

He said, but I want your will to be done. And it was. And Jesus Christ, the

Son of God, was not delivered by those legions of angels that were ready. But they're always ready.

The power of God is there to do it. But he doesn't always do it. God's purpose is based on a higher, broader viewpoint than ours could ever be.

And I want to close with this verse, Hebrews chapter 2, verse 17. The passage speaks of the

Lord Jesus Christ, and it says that it was made possible for him to suffer death.

And it also says in that passage that he destroyed the devil, who was the one who brought the fear of death.

And then right at the end of that passage, it says in verse 17, wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, or tested, he is also able to secure them that are tempted.

This word secure in the Greek language comes from two little Greek words, which means to run and cry.

He is our advocate before the Father. He can run as a herald, and he can cry.

They are innocent. They're your children. They're covered by the blood.

Not guilty. He runs and cries on our behalf. It means to bring instant relief, aid, or help.

For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to run and bring relief to them that are tempted.

Let Jesus Christ be our relief in that evil day. After all, he was that fourth one standing as the