Daniel 3:16-30 | I Know the True God...He Will Deliver Me

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Pastor John and Pastor Jeff teach through the book of Daniel. You can join live on Wednesdays at noon.

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One of my favorite secular books, I used to do a lot of reading because I did a lot of traveling, airplanes, airports, blah, blah, blah, blah, and I got into a cycle of reading a
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Christian novel and reading a historical thing. I love Pacific War, World War II books, and then classics, and one of my favorite books turned out to be
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A Tale of Two Cities. It's the best of times, it was the worst of times, and then at the very end, it was a far greater thing
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I do than I've ever done before. Never understood those until I actually read the book. Well, in apologies to Charles Dickens, I want to open up by talking about A Tale of Two Individuals.
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One is a man who was ordained as a priest in the Catholic Church, and another is a man who was ordained a minister.
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Another, the first man, perceived weaknesses within the church, and the second man perceived weaknesses within the church.
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The first case, it had to do with they lost the concept of salvation by faith, and the second case, it was introduction of cultural deviations to true gospel truth.
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Both were prone to writing, and the first one wrote a thesis and nailed it to the wall, to the door of the
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Wittenberg Castle, and the second one wrote a book and sent it out to all the pastors in his denomination.
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We're starting to get a clue. Both received strong opposition, and went to a deity of worms in the one case and the other, he called it his deity of worms, and were chastised strongly for what they had to say, but both men stood strong.
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Both men had a desire not to leave their religious affiliation, but that religious affiliation would turn back to truth, so both men stand strong.
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I think you know what I'm talking about. Thank you, sir. What kind of a diet is worms?
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It's a low -cal. High -protein. Night crawlers.
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Okay, as we move into Daniel 13, I'm actually going to segway this concept into where we are.
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We have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Three. Three. What did I say?
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Thirteen. Oh, darn, you said the wrong lesson. Especially since there's only 12 chapters.
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He's receiving new revelation. Like Ryan Simmons. Then he gets to let it go. Do not add or subtract.
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Thank you for that encouragement. We have these three individuals. There are four. Daniel's not the subject of this particular passage that we're going to talk about, but King Nebuchadnezzar is.
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He had already been amazed by Daniel's ability, and he had elevated him because he had this special gift from a god.
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I don't think at that time, I think, Jeff, you kind of concluded at that time he doesn't know the god, but a god.
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It's obvious because then he builds an idol. He says, everybody must bow down and worship to the idol.
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That's where you were last week. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are resisting.
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When we get to Daniel 3, verse 15, But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace.
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And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?
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Is that rhetorical? Well, unfortunately, it's not rhetorical because King Nebuchadnezzar thought he was all that.
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He really didn't perceive the unique power of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's god.
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That's kind of where we left them hanging last week. And there was a big thing on the screen that said, to be continued.
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So here we are this week. Do you want to open us in prayer? Yes, absolutely. Father, we thank you that you are the faithful god to whom we look.
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Lord, you have done great things. These things are marvelous in our eyes.
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And Lord, we recognize that you deserve all the glory for everything that you have done. We thank you for Martin Luther and the great stand that he made.
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And we thank you for our brother John and this church and all of us who have been able to do similarly, and yet on such a smaller scale,
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Lord. But we do pray that you would help us to stand for the truth and stand against idols,
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Lord, and that you would give us a great victory. Who is the god? Well, it is you, God. You are the true king of kings and lord of lords.
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And we know that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we ask, think, or imagine. So we do pray,
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Lord, that you would protect our denomination from idolatry, from turning after the spirit of the age.
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We do pray that you would give us great victory in that way, and that you would come through for us just like you come through for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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Thank you for that, Lord. And I pray now for my brother John, that as he walks us through the text, that your word would be alive to us and sharper than a two -edged sword and would divide our thoughts and intentions and our hearts just like the dividing of bone from marrow,
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Lord God. The piercing of the word, that you would use your word to effect change in us.
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In Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to hand out some verses. Then I'm going to have you read it,
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Daniel. If you'd rather not read, we'll just go on by Proverbs 3, 26. It's on my sheet.
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It's Proverbs. The ones I don't hand out, I'll just talk to. 2 Corinthians 3, 5.
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Sue, if you would have that. Zephaniah 1, 18. Bob, if you would have that.
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Rod, Leviticus 19, 4. Psalms 1, 15.
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Ivan, if you would get that ready. Give me, please, the whole passage, 16 to 30. From Daniel 3, 16 to 30?
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Yes. Okay, let's go. This is a big passage for me to cover in one day. Yes. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king,
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O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our
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God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand,
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O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.
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Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it usually was. It was usually heated.
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And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the fiery furnace.
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Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.
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Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace.
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My goodness. I know the true
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God. This is my title of this lesson. I know the true God. He will deliver me.
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There are things about the believer. You have the Holy Spirit come upon you, and you'll have power from the
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Holy Spirit. There are things that we are told that we have this future hope. There are so many things. But here's one of them that is so true.
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He is not going to take you away from trouble. Jesus prayed that.
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Don't pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them through the world. So when
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I say He will deliver me, it's not to say that He's going to eliminate the trials of the day.
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I mean, what an evidence it is we've seen just this weekend. It has been a long pull for Loretta and for Michael and David.
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It's been a long pull. David and Michael, I'm sorry. It's been a long pull. And now their close ones are grieving.
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Not as those without hope, but they're grieving. But God will deliver us through whatever it has to be.
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So here are these three men, and they've been told they must worship.
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And they're denying the command to worship. And they say, all you've got to do is worship.
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Because if you don't, I really don't want to do this. Yes, he did. But you're going to get thrown into a fiery furnace.
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And that doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun. And what kind of God do you have that's going to take you out of my hand?
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And the emphasis there is that He is the King. He is all of that.
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Now what Nebuchadnezzar obviously is missing at that point in time is who put him in charge in the first place?
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God. God. He puts him in charge in the first place. Who allows
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Nebuchadnezzar the limits on how far he can go in the first place?
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Good Sunday school answer, isn't it? And the power of the faith of these three.
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You know, there are people that I'm really looking forward to seeing when we get up into the New Jerusalem. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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I'd love to talk to them about this. What was it, like? Anyway, their first response,
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Answers said to the King. O Nebuchadnezzar, there to me is already a sense of I am not overwhelmed by who you are.
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It's not saying, O great King. It's, hey, Nebuchadnezzar, who do you think that you are?
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There seems to be that sense there because their response is, we have no need to answer you in this matter.
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You may think you're all that, you are the King, etc., etc. We don't even have to answer you in this.
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Proverbs 3 .26, you got that, Rick? Yeah. For the
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Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught. When they are now confronted by the reality of fiery furnace.
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I don't know if they've seen it yet, but it sounds bad. They are not at all dismayed. They're not all lost of their confidence.
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They've already done this stuff where they said, no, we're not going to take the best of the food. We're not going to take the best of the drink and everything else.
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God is going to provide for us. So they've seen, they've experienced this firsthand. So their confidence is pretty strong.
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And they don't even prevaricate. They just say, we don't even have to answer you, Nebuchadnezzar.
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In Psalms 20 .7, it says, some trust in chariots and some in horses.
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But I got it made. This is my paraphrase. I trust in the Lord God. And so when they're now confronted with this opportunity to avoid what could appear to be pretty severe penalties, punishment, pain.
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There's no fear. There's no confidence. They said, I don't even have to answer you.
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And the reason they say they don't have to answer you. If it be so, our
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God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace.
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And he will deliver us out of your hand. There is a confidence,
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Ephesians 3 .20 puts it this way. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly according to his power that is within us.
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They had this confidence that this fiery furnace meant nothing. It's just a passage from here to there.
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And it sounds so similar to Abraham. As he's told to take his son
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Isaac. How did he take his son Isaac? In full intention, taking that knife, plunging it down.
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What did he say? It's God's will. It's God's will. So these three young guys, they're not necessarily saying this fiery furnace isn't going to be there.
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Because the fiery furnace is in their mind. He's going to deliver us out of it. He's going to deliver us out of your hand.
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These are there, but his confidence is that God is exceedingly abundantly able to do it.
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2 Corinthians 3 .5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves. We don't think of anything as being from ourselves.
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But our sufficiency is from God. But there is going to be deliverance.
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Zephaniah 1 .18 I found to be a rather intriguing kind of parallel passage.
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So here we've got King Nebuchadnezzar. Who has, out of his own arrogance, he has set up this idol.
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We don't know if it is an image of him or not. We don't know that. But it's his idol.
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He set it up. And he made the command, everybody will bow down and worship. And now he is confronted by these three upstarts.
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They're not very old at this point in time. Maybe 20. They were young youths when they came in.
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And they had three years to be trained, etc. Maybe they're 20, I don't know. But who are you to stand up against me?
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I am the king. And I love the way Zephaniah just turns the tables on this.
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If you could read that. It's Zephaniah 3 .18.
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I'm sorry, 1 .18. I apologize. I can't read. 3 .18. 1 .18.
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Is it? I like 3 .18. Maybe it was 3. 1 .18.
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Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the
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Lord's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed.
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For he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth. Who is really going to have the right and the power and the unquestioned authority to make judgment?
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Fiery judgment. It's not Nebuchadnezzar. It's not Nebuchadnezzar.
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It's God. So these three young men are now confronted with this. And they're confident.
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And it's said that God will deliver us.
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He will deliver us out of your hand. Go ahead, Rick. I was just going to say a side note.
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I was reading the story of Joseph this morning. And after he interpreted the
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Pharaoh's dreams, the Pharaoh made him second in command of the whole country.
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What a different response. Seeing the power of God to interpret his dreams, he acknowledged
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God's amazing ability and speaking through Daniel and promoted him.
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So what we don't have in that case, that we do have in this case, because Nebuchadnezzar does acknowledge there's something special.
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And he does promote them. But then he just flip -flops right back again. We don't really have that in that Pharaoh, because I think the story goes on as long as that Pharaoh lives.
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Joseph's able to protect the Jewish line by making provisions during the famine.
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But in this case, he just flip -flops. If he got it, he didn't get it for long.
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And then here's how the three youths go on from that. He's going to deliver us out of your hand.
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But if not, be a no -no king. We will not serve your gods.
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We will not worship the golden image that you have set up. They are drawing a line in the sand.
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They will not cross that line. Basically, there's a fiery furnace, fine. You're the king, fine.
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And even if God chooses not to deliver us out of this fiery furnace, that fiery furnace is not enough of a motivation for us to worship any idols.
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They knew their teaching quite well. If you go into the
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Ten Commandments, thou shalt not make an idol. I'm a worthy God. They knew these. They knew the dangers of breaking that commandment.
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There are going to be times where they will be tested. And they will be, not only to make it, but to turn from it.
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Oh my goodness, while Moses is getting the Ten Commandments, what are the people doing? Didn't take long, did it?
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As they go into the Promised Land, they're warned, don't take wives of the nations that are there, because they will turn your hearts from me.
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Leviticus 19, we've got that. Leviticus 19, do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods.
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I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God. Those I am's that show up in there, they've got some power.
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And these three young men, they seem to get it. They seem to get it. I'm totally convinced we're going to see these three in glory, and for their faith standing up.
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Another point, all the way through here, there's a contrast between the lowercase god and the uppercase god.
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And finally, Nebuchadnezzar in verse 26, he recognizes them as servants of the
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Most High God, with a capital G. Thank you, that is the transition.
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And that's why I believe, at the end of it, Nebuchadnezzar does not have his death recorded the way other kings do.
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Somehow, somewhere, whether he's going to be in the New Jerusalem or not, I don't know. But you're right, there is this pickup on it.
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In fact, we're going to get into verse 25, and it's one of three
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Old Testament, clear Old Testament Christophanies, or whatever you call them. We'll get to that.
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Psalm 115, 3 -4, Ivan. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases.
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Their God are silver and gold, the work of human hands. Jesus, this idol. Nebuchadnezzar, he may be all that, but it is nothing other than something made by human hands.
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There's the folly of going after that. Give me 19 to 23 again, please.
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Okay. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace.
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Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men,
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace. The world's reaction,
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Satan's reaction. When God's people respond in faith, it can't be underestimated and it can't be denied.
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When God's people respond in faith, when God's people stand up against apostasy in the church, there will be opposition.
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When God's people speak out and say, it's not right, we should not have trans going into the woman's bathroom.
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The world is going to take note and the world is going to be upset by it.
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In fact it says, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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Yeah. How important, I think, for us to look and recognize that this is over 2 ,000 years ago, 2 ,500 years ago this happened, and yet even today we see one of the largest churches, quote unquote
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Christian churches in the world, Catholic Church, people bowing down and praying to Mary, the mother of God, in statues outside and praying to her, asking for deliverance from things, because they go to her because she can handle a proper prayer,
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Jesus can't. And so we're watching that very thing today, is what I'm saying. And to speak out, my godmother,
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I was raised Catholic, my godmother, they were really sincere about their religious
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Catholic faith, they were medical missionaries in Colombia, but to this day she thinks that Sandy and I are living in sin because we weren't married by a
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Catholic church. There is this angst that is out there.
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Nebuchadnezzar was furious. Romans 8 -7,
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Joyce, if you would pull that out, and Revelations 12 -7, Sandy, if you would pull that out,
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Ephesians, John, you got that one, Ephesians 2, 2
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Corinthians 11, Carol, if you would have that, and Mark, if you would get 2 Peter 2.
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Why is he so upset? Didn't he get to do what he wanted to do?
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He threw him in the furnace. Even after he threw him in the furnace, just the fact that they would dare defy him, not say, this was, okay, we're sorry, we, no.
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Romans 8 -7? Yes. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
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Indeed, it cannot. My idol is worthy of you worshipping it.
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I set it up, it's magnificent, and I'm the king. And when somebody from God says, well, no, there's hostility, there is anger, there is fury, there is rage.
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Almost sounds like you're having a tantrum there. Doesn't it? Doesn't it, though?
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Are you looking at yourself? Well, he was definitely against them, and so what does he do?
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He orders the furnace to be even hotter. John 3 -20, it says that anybody who is done doing evil actually detests the light, because their deeds will be made manifest.
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And so here's these three who are standing up. They're not going to bow down to an idol.
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They're opposing him, and he is doing evil so much so that the truth, the light of the truth is abhorrent to him.
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So he's filled with rage. Revelation 12 -7, Sandy? Now war rose in heaven,
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Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back.
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This battle is not limited to earth and to us people. This battle is in eternity.
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Daniel, we get to the end of the... The messenger angel wants to get there, but he's withheld because of the demons, and Michael has to fight the fight.
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This is going on right now, folks. What we are experiencing is definitely not just warfare.
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Do you want to... Whoa! This is as good as the mouse.
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Well, not quite. Thank you,
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John. The battle that we fight is not just for position.
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This is spiritual warfare, and it is fought in spiritual planes. And Nebuchadnezzar, he's just caught up in it.
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And so as this is going on, Satan's influence now just goes into hyperdrive.
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And what he wants to do is he wants to make sure that these three upstarts are going to be toasted better than ever before.
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Make that furnace seven times hotter than it's ever been before.
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And I want you to get some big strong guys, and I want you to bind them up. I don't even want any vestige, any remnant of them remaining.
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Get their cloak, get their hat, get their tunic, get everybody. It's all going in the furnace. I don't ever want to think about these guys again.
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Satan is pushing the buttons. You know, this started out way back when, in Genesis 3, when
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Satan said, you know, did God really say that? And they fall.
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What happened to Adam and Eve right after they ate of the forbidden fruit? They became aware of their nakedness.
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They felt guilty. Satan is doing everything he can to pollute what was made beautiful, what was made good and very good in God's image.
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He does everything. All the way back there, when they fell down, they knew that they were naked.
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They were guilty. They hid from God. This all happens way back when. Ephesians 2,
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John? One through three? Yes, please. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
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If I looked up in the picture the word pond scum, there it is, right there.
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We were just, who, me? Yes. Yes. Before you were saved, yes.
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Because verse four starts out, but God. But God. 1 Peter 5, 8 says, your adversary the devil prowls around seeking who he may destroy.
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And so he motivates Nebuchadnezzar to go just to the nth degree.
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He's got to get rid of these three guys. What happens when
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Satan's fury takes hold? They're thrown in, they're bound in, they're thrown in.
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What happens to the guards? They died. It was so hot, they died.
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That's how hot the furnace was. That's pretty hot. That's pretty hot. Yeah. I mean, anybody ever work in a blast furnace area?
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I guess it's pretty hot. Well, these guys did not make it. They're an interesting contrast to the three that were thrown in the furnace and died as a result of their righteousness.
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These guys followed the order of the evil ones, as it were, and still suffered the punishment of being burned in that fire.
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Absolutely. Just for time, I'm going to, at the end of this, the three men die,
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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do fall into the fiery furnace. They're not delivered away from the fiery furnace.
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They do fall into it. And the reality is that Nebuchadnezzar, he's just so consumed in his mind and his fury over these three who would say no, that his men are going to die fine.
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Those three, everything about, they are going into the furnace. Satan is going to have his comeuppance, though.
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2 Peter, I know I get ahead of these out, God did not spare angels when they sinned.
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There is going to be a comeuppance. Now, this story takes a drastic turn.
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Give me then, if you would, 24 and 25.
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Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors,
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Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king,
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True, O king. He answered and said, But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt.
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And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of God's. Hallelujah. Carol, I'm going to ask you to get
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Psalm 68 ready, if you would. And then I'll talk to the others. King Nebuchadnezzar is astonished.
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Now, first of all, he's not astonished because they got thrown in. This was the plan. What got
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Nebuchadnezzar's attention? Somebody else in there. One person.
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They're just walking around. That can't be. This can't be.
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They're just walking around. And there's a fourth person in there. God's sovereignty is on display right now.
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This is the theme of this book, God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty is flat out on display at this moment.
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To be able to see and to perceive truth is a gift from God.
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Now, we go into Numbers 13. We have the account of the 12 spies that go in at Kadesh Barnea.
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Ten of them come back. And in Numbers 13, it's a good land, flowing with milk and honey, but there's giants in the land, and we're like grasshoppers.
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No way, dude. But two of them saw the truth, and that's recorded in 14.
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Caleb and Joshua. Yeah, there's giants in there, but I got confidence in God.
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God does give, in His sovereignty,
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He does give insights. Joshua 1 .9, the people are going into the land, and God says, don't be dismayed.
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I'm going with you. His presence is there. Psalm 68, do you have that?
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Yeah. Psalm 68, verse 20. 20, that's right. Our God is a
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God who saves. The sovereign Lord rescues us from death. These three young men are thrown into the fire, and it's in God's sovereign will that they not be hurt.
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It's in God's sovereign will to deliver them, and He is totally able to do it. And to the point where Nebuchadnezzar says,
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I see four men walking unbound, walking in the midst of the fire. They're not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.
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It is really believed that this is a pre -incarnate appearance of Christ.
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There are other times in Scripture where it's clear. One of them is in Genesis 16.
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Hagar. Hagar. The servant lady.
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And she's given her marching orders by Sarah because of her jealousy, and Christ appears to her.
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And I know that because this account includes a dialogue where Hagar professes
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Yahweh. Hagar professes Yahweh.
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Christ appeared to her. And then there's another one in Judges 6 where Gideon and the battle and everything else that's going on, and Gideon professes
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Yahweh. So what we actually have here is a time where God has taken these three men for their faith, protected them from the fire, and actually walked with them in the midst of the danger.
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This is a beautiful picture of God's sovereignty, of His protection, of His deliverance, of His presence, the whole shebang.
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And Nebuchadnezzar is able to see it and given an insight from God because he's not going to get it on his own.
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Things of God are not understood by pure mortal man. It's by the Holy Spirit. He's able to see that there are four men, and He's able to perceive one of them is like the
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Son of the God. There should be capitalized there because this is, one is the
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God, the Son of God. Light is capitalized. Yeah. Yeah.
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Give me verses 26 to 30, please. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning, fiery furnace.
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He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here.
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Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire, and the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had, that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of these men.
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The hair of their heads was not singed. Their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.
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Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any
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God except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the
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God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other
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God who is able to rescue in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
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We have had this amazing progression from King Nebuchadnezzar who had a opportunity to perceive, flip -flopped back, made an idol, wanted everybody to worship because he made the idol and he's the king and he's all that, and then these three upstarts, they deny the opportunity and he says, just worship me or I'll go into a fire and they don't.
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And his face, the fury in his face, it's just like a temper tantrum,
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I think, is what you said. And he says, this is wrong. You guys are going down.
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Make the fire really, really, really hot. Take the strong men, bind them up. And the picture of this temper tantrum, that's a great way to say it, that he's having, is purely being driven by Satan.
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There's no other way to call it. It's Ephesians 2, 1 -3, walking according to the prince of the power of the air, walking according to him, that's where he is at.
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And there is one quick instance that changes his entire understanding of things.
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And it's when those three young men go into the fire, bound, and he looks in and he sees them in there walking around.
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You know, I find that, I find that just, just walking around.
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I wonder what they were talking about because they were walking around with Christ. Nice weather we're having.
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A little warm. Global warming. But it's a dry heat.
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Could they say that? I'm going to fire for the Lord. You know what's really beautiful about this is the only thing that was destroyed is the thing that bound them.
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And I think that's always, I heard that many years ago, and we have to always remember that in our lives.
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No matter what happens, that Christ was crucified, but he rose. On my behalf.
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This is the principle here. So here now, Nebuchadnezzar looks in after having said, it looks like the fourth one, there's something going on here.
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And he says to the door of the furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you young upstarts, no, that's not what he says.
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Servants of the Most High God. Come on out here. Well, I think at this point in time, he is getting it.
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Temporarily. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out.
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There is a reality that the world, even the world that does not have a
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Holy Spirit dwelling within them, sees and knows God. You call it general revelation.
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It's undeniable. Psalm 19, 1, the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows his handiwork.
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Romans chapter 1. I'm sorry? Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1, it talks about from the foundation of the world, all of God's invisible attributes are made known, so that man is without excuse.
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He makes himself known. In fact, Psalm 139, verse 7 says, where can
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I go to get away from your presence? He is present. He is there. He is made manifest.
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Salvation is a gift by grace that opens us up to accepting the truth, but nobody is without excuse.
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God's reality is made known, and so not only does
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Nebuchadnezzar see this, and he says, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the
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Most High God, come on out, but it says that the satraps, the prefects, the governors, the king counselors came together, and they all saw.
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These guys are, not only are they not hurt, I don't smell any fire, dude.
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How'd you do that one? Glad I put deodorant on this one. It's so strong.
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We've got to be careful with this. And so God, in his sovereign will, allows them, these three young men who have such a powerful display of faith and submission to God, they're now elevated here, kind of like Joseph is down in Egypt.
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I wanted to close with one little story. It is so beautiful because it applies to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and Jeff, it's going to apply to you in a couple of weeks.
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And it's Esther. And she is given the opportunity to go to the king, and the king finds favor in her, and she is elevated to be the queen without ever letting him know that she was a
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Jewess. And then Haman hated the
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Jews so badly, all the Jews make a decree that all the Jews are to be killed. By the way,
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I think this is one of Satan's attempts to stop the coming of the Messiah, was that decree that all the
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Jews would be killed, but he's not going to succeed. And Mordecai talks to Esther, and these beautiful words, as she's going into the king, if I perish,
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I perish. God be will, God's will will be done.
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He is sovereign. If I perish, I perish. These three young men, knowing full well of their
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God, went through the fire of the furnace without any damage, and actually got to walk with Christ.
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Wow! That's why I really want to talk to them and say, dude, what did you guys talk about? Time to close in prayer.
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Father, thank you so much for this passage of Scripture, and thank you for your whole word. Every word is so inspiring and powerful and life -changing and sharper than a two -edged sword.
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Thank you for being faithful to your word. You hold your word above your name. God, it is true, and we can hold on to everything you have said.
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Thank you for the courage that it inspires in us. Lord, we pray that we would be courageous, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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Each one of us will have situations like we have with the EFCA right now, and so many other things in our families, in our workplaces.
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I think of our brother, Tim, who has to make a stand as a security guard not to let a transgender person go into the wrong bathroom.
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Lord God, we thank you that he's willing to go through that fiery furnace. It's one thing for us to talk about the book of Daniel, but when we see brothers who are having to live it out, we thank you for their courage.
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And we know all of us will have to at whatever time you have ordained. We will have troubles.
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In this world, you will have troubles, but take heart. I have overcome the world. We look to that promise, Jesus, and we thank you that you will be with us in the fire.
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No matter what fire we go through, you are there. You will never leave us nor forsake us.
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You are faithful to your children, and you even turn around and bless us and exalt us that we would give glory to your name.
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So we thank you for that, God, and pray that you would go before us to California, and no matter what that fiery furnace looks like out there,
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Lord, we know that you have already gone before us and you are with us. So we thank you for it in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Amen. Okay, now before you leave, he's going to turn that off. Take one of these.