Daniel Chapter 3

Daniel chapter 3, please. Verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was three-square cubits and breadth thereof six cubits. He set it up on the plate of Dura, the province of Babylon, and so on.

Verse 2, then, Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, he had them all in there, and the rulers of the province to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Now, with all those people are mentioned there, there's really only three people he's concerned about, and that's the three that we're going to consider just at the close of the meeting today. We call them Hebrew children.

Hardly. They're likely into their later teens at least, so they weren't quite children, because the Bible calls them men. Nebuchadnezzar refers to them as men.

Whatever they were before the fire, when they came out of that, they were men. Now, please, down to verse 4, then, and Harold cried aloud to you and his commanded old people, nations, and languages, that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harp, the sackbox, the psaltery, dulcimer, all kinds of music, fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And whoso falleth not down and worshipeth it shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and so on.

And now down to verse 8, wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. Okay, you can see who their hatred was toward. Verse 9, they spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live forever.

Now, O king, has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbox, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image. Whoso falleth not down and worshipeth that, he should be cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom thou has set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these men.

O king, have not regarded thee and served not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they brought these men before the king. Now I believe that at this moment, just appreciate this later, at this moment, the king is giving them an opportunity for an out, okay? He's really saying to them, listen, you are gonna bow, okay? Just understand, it's really not that significant, but please reconsider what you might be thinking of not doing, okay? So he's giving them an opportunity to change their minds.

But we noticed, verse 15, now ye, if ye be ready at what time ye hear, and then we go through that those again, down please to the end of the verse, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king of Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. I love verse 17, if it be so, our God whom we serve is able, our God is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. Verse 18, but if not, 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.

Now this has infuriated him, okay? He's given them an offer to recant, to think it over, change their minds, they're not going to do it, and this has infuriated him. It's just an affront to him. He considered this is kind of a generous offer, but they didn't look at it that way.

So we go down now to verse number, well let's read verse 19 again. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of 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.

And he commanded the most mighty men that were in the army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, their hats, and their other garments, now you know others is a supplied word, we'll come back to that in a minute, and were cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king's command was urgent, the furnace was exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste and spake unto his counselors, did not we cast three men bound, notice he says three men that's what I would say that they are children, bound into the midst of the fire. They answered and said unto the king, true king, and he answered and said, lo I see four men walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the former of the fourth is like the Son of God.

Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake and said to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire, and the princes, the governors, the captains, the king's counselors being gathered together, 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 the smell of the fire passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God.

Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, 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. And the king promoted, promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the provinces of Babylon. And I think the last verse of that chapter is proof positive that you and I do not have to conform to the ways and means of this world to get on in it.

Like sometimes there's a, the devil would have you think that well you know if you don't do this, if you know if you don't go along with something that you know is wrong, maybe in the workplace or whatever it might be, that's the end of you. You can go no further in this place. Scott MacLeod, just coming to my mind, didn't mean to tell it, he doesn't tell it himself, but a brilliant boy, worked for what was known as Islantel, and the head man from Islantel called Scott into his office one day, he said listen MacLeod, he said you can go places in this company.

He said seemingly, do you not want to go places in this company? Scott says, well I want my job. He says come on, you got your job, you're assured of that, but you can go places, you've got ability, you've got personality, you've got smarts, you can do it, but you know you are, I must say you're not committed to this job, but is that church that important to you? Yes, he said it is. He said you go every night? Well, he said there's a Bible reading over in Freetown, it was Freetown then, it's Summerside now on Tuesday, another one crap on Wednesday, and Thursday in Sheraton, and he said all day Sunday beside that? Yeah.

And you like it? He said I love it. Did he lose his job? No. When he told them that he's going into the Lord's work, they didn't want him to leave, didn't want him to leave.

So it proves to us, here are people being put down, people that, three that were supposedly finished, but in honoring God before men they were promoted. Now God is no man's debtor, and it certainly is not in the case that we have read. Daniel is one of what we call a five post-exile prophets, Ezekiel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, and the others.

The book of Daniel just very simply divides itself in half. The first six chapters are historical. Daniel is a servant, and when we come to the second half, they are prophetical, and in that of course Daniel is the seer.

King Nebuchadnezzar was really involved in the besieging of Jerusalem at this time, so he takes, I think it's King Jehoiakim of Judah, and says listen, get some of these Hebrews, okay? Get them together, we need them in our government, we need their brains, their ability, and, but you're gonna have to change them. They cannot come in, they cannot be as they are now, and they were determined they were going to change their diet, their dress, and their decisions when it come to life. Babylon was determined that they were going to change that, but that was not going to work with them.

You know, I would put it this way, when I've read verse 16 and 17, I'm going to go back, in all honesty, in all honesty, these Hebrews did not know what their God would do. They didn't know what God was going to do, but they knew what he could do. Now you and I as believers, we may not know what God may do in a given circumstance, but we know what he can do, and they would rest on that.

So just keep that in your thinking. They did not know what God was going to do, but they knew what he could do. Now come back to them.

When it comes back to them, they knew what they could do, but they knew what they would not do. See, we live in a world that's, unfortunately, it's the mentality out there that comes in here, and the famous thing is, well, where's your verse against it? Come on, you brother, get up there and preach this. You've got no verse against it.

All you can talk about is principles. You ever heard that argument? You ever heard that nonsense? I got some grandchildren in the audience here today. I don't think I've ever done it with them.

In fact, I don't know if I've ever done it. Maybe, no. But I remember one case I heard.

A grandfather said to his grandson, his grandson kind of said, you need some money. All right, he says, go to my wallet. There's a $20 bill.

You can have the $20 bill. It's yours. So the young fellow went over, and he got Pop's wallet out, and there's a $100 bill in there.

So he took the $100 bill. You're not smiling. You didn't do that, did you? No, that wasn't my wallet.

There's many $100 bills in my wallet. So he took the $100 bill. So when granddad came to his wallet, he started looking at things.

He said, hey, what about my $100 bill? No, no, no. He says, granddad, you never told me I couldn't take it. Did it make it right? You never told me I couldn't take it.

He said, I told you I told you you could take the $20. I don't know the rest of that argument. But you know, it really aligns with what the scripture says.

This ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Whenever a believer—I'm going to go as slow as I can with this, because I get accused of speaking too fast sometimes—whenever a believer leaves something they should do, they're likely going to do something they shouldn't do. And when a believer is found doing something or involved in something that they shouldn't be in, they have left something they should do.

So it comes back to the argument of the wallet. The kid had an argument. I don't know how granddad was going to argue that one, but his words, you didn't say it.

Did that make it right? No. No. Because things are not specifically penned out in a given verse on something in the Word of God.

We have principles, and we have verses from both Testaments to support that truth. That's exactly the principle that they were working on. Come on, go to the beginning of the chapter.

Here they are. Don't tell me that Babylon didn't have the best of wine. The Babylonian vineyards were the best.

We'll come to it later. Don't tell me that their clothes weren't the best. They were the very best.

Babylon's were the best. You don't think that? Have a little talk with Achan. What'd he grab? A Babylonish garment.

It was goodly. I don't know what's goodly about something he stole. Like they couldn't afford it, but he saw some value in it.

He should never have had it. But we will come back to that again, like I say. There's one word that you could write over this chapter three.

One word. Know what it is? Maybe, give me two words. Lasting influence.

Lasting influence. Daniel had spent time with these men. I don't know how much time he has spent with them, but there was something permeating about his influence on them as a result of it when he's not there.

When he's in some other part of the kingdom, likely attending to government affairs that he was elected in office to do, now they're faced with a trial. You will not always have, dear child of God, you will not always have parents that have lived that example before you. They'll go.

You'll not always have that overseer that you could go to and talk to anytime in the assembly with your difficulties. You're tested. His support, it will go.

These three now are coming to a test, the litmus test in their life, and it is this. Will we bow or will we not bow? They made up their minds ahead of time. They didn't wait till last minute decision and have a three-person huddle and say, you know, not really.

Who's going to know? Why don't we bow? Come on. It's his big day and we're going to mess it up? All these people, the heads of government, the sheriffs, everybody that was anybody, all coming together. Pardon me, for Nebuchadnezzar's rock concert.

You'd heard all those six instruments going together, trying to keep them in tune. It'd be a little bit like they do have in some of these places out the country these days. It must have been something.

Just the sheer, here's this big image set up, and I'm not convinced that it was the image of a man, okay? I'm just not convinced that, but whatever it was, there was an image in the plain of Dura, and they were expected to bow to it. Listen, I'm speaking to you here this afternoon. He says, no image in my life.

Oh, is there not? There's nothing I bow to. Is there not? What takes the most of your time? What takes the most of your attention? What will grab your attraction? Come on, there are things that all of us are attracted to, are interested in, and we seek those things, and they very easily, in a very subtle way, can become our gods. Now these, these Hebrews had one God, and they feared that God, and they had made up their mind, we are not going to bow.

I have known believers, as far as I was concerned, I was no match for their level of spirituality. I never dreamed the day would come, some of them a little older, some just a little younger than I am, I never dreamed the day would come they would bow to what they're bowing to today. Places they will go and support, they'd never have gone there five years ago.

They've caved in, and they have bowed. As far as I'm concerned, years of consistent testimony will be burned up. Now these are men with a future, and I'm looking at some here today, and you have a future, a future.

What would you like that future to be? What are your plans in that future? We were hearing this morning from Brother Sona about purpose, and how true it is to have that goal in life. What is really your purpose? What really is your goal? Well you say, these three Hebrew children, I'm sure that, there I am, I'm calling them children, it was to get through the fire. Well, yeah, okay.

I don't think it worried them. I don't think it worried them. If you're going to tap them on the shoulder and say, listen, listen, fellas, hang on, go through it, on the other side of it, you're going to see this man saved.

Nebuchadnezzar? The most least likely ever to be saved. You're going to see him saved. Tremendous testimony he's going to have.

You'll read about it in the coming chapters. Just stay with it. Whatever's got to happen, let it happen.

They did not know the outcome of it. And I know believers that I acknowledge, and I admire greatly, that go through fire, so to speak, to see members of their family saved. Tested? Tested.

We've got them back our way in the assembly I'm in, that I'm in at home. Most of them are first-generation Christians, whose names have been stroked from their parents' will because they wouldn't go to their church. And I can give you all kinds of different things that they would not vow.

I was looking at one of them last week when we were in the conference, let's see, last week, yes, was in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. There's her daughter and son-in-law sitting beside them in the fellowship, breaking bread. And you know, you almost want to lean ahead and say, Beth, aren't you glad you didn't bow to Mom, who has such a hatred for the gospel? And I want to tell you, with her tongue, she can rip anybody.

I had her take pieces out of me, but she didn't bow. She didn't bow. Now, we're a quarter through this year.

Am I looking into someone's face here? And I don't know. But you are bowing or about to bow to something you wouldn't have bowed to last year. You feel the pressure's got too much.

The rest of your family, they're doing the same. What's wrong with you? Oh, you're so holy. You won't come with us.

You won't do this. You won't go there. I've listened to all that lingo.

God's with you. I'm sick of it. And to be more honest with you, it doesn't really bother me.

I'm not saying that I'm like these Hebrew men, but I'd like to see that the principles that they worked with would be the same that would model my life. Come back just for a minute. First of all, I want to notice what Babylon wanted.

Babylon wanted to be rid of every trace of God in their lives. If Babylon, if that world could get rid of every trace of God in you, they're satisfied. In your language, in your lifestyle, in what you do, your manner of life, conversation as the Bible calls it.

If they could get that, they're happy. That was the whole purpose. Get them to think like we think.

Get them to eat like we eat. Get them to drink like we drink. Hope we're not speaking to anybody here this afternoon.

And I did not plan to mention this. You're involved in social drinking. It's absolutely wrong and will take you down a path that doesn't destroy you.

It'll destroy your family. I could tell you of a brother in the north of Ireland. And the brethren spoke to him and said, listen brother, listen brother.

And he said, here's what he said. You understand. I know where you come from.

I appreciate your kindness. He's very gentleman about it. But he said, um, please understand I can handle it.

The only thing was he had a teenage boy, 13, that couldn't. That boy in his twenties was an alcoholic. And the man was big enough to go back to his brother and tell him I was wrong.

I was wrong. Oh, you say what I do in my house? Yeah. Under the eye of who? They wouldn't touch Babylon's wine.

So now it's coming down closer. Okay. The pressure's on.

The music is loud. Just listen as it boomed throughout that plane. And there were all the eyes are literally glued on these three Hebrews.

What are they going to do? Let me tell you something. They likely knew what they were going to do. And they knew what they weren't going to do.

Do you know what you're not going to do? My wife and I were first married a little younger than we had a neighbor right across the way. We lived in a mobile home, uh, west of his wife. And he came over and he said, Hey Murray, we'd like to have you and Shirley come down to the dance on Saturday night.

I said, Oh, I said, that's interesting. What would you want me to do when I got to the dance? Well, look, I said, I kind of know you could dance with your wife. If I want to dance with her, I could dance with her inside the trailer.

I don't need to go down here. So he released, could I ask you, he said, would you under any circumstance, under any condition, would you come? Well, you say there's been times I've been tempted to go places. Might as well tell you what I have said.

I wouldn't want the brethren to see me there. I said, no, no, I hope not. Don't be, won't be like a maze in heaven.

Now, Herman Fluteman, I think I see some people back from those good days of Clinton and Herman got saved. His favorite preachers come back to the church. He thought, well, if I just sneak up there and I'm going to hear him and he says, hopefully the brethren don't go by just, just, just what I don't want them.

Okay. So Herman went to hear his favorite preacher when he's coming down the big steps of the church. Didn't he twist his ankle and fall.

Now he's got something to wear on Sunday morning and they're saying, oh, Herman, what happened to your foot? And he told me, I want to say the cow stepped on it, but he said, I don't keep cows. So he said, I just had to be truthful and tell them. He said, I'll tell you this, didn't go back again.

Listen, we all have temptations in our life, preacher included. If you think those temptations end in your teens or twenties or thirties or whatever, they don't. It's not too late.

If you've fallen to some type of a temptation and you know right well that you could make that right now, confess it before God, make it right, get rid of it, get out of it. So now if you like it, it's coming in. It's, it's getting closer all the time.

You almost want to step up to Nebuchadnezzar and say, okay, Nebuchadnezzar, this is your hour. It's the power of darkness. Go ahead.

So he commands that they will heat this furnace. How many times hotter than his want to be heated? He wanted to make sure that they were not going to come out of this fire. So commands his henchmen, they grabbed them together and they take them and they drop them into the fire.

He says, the end, it's just the beginning. Interesting, interesting that Nebuchadnezzar, he looks in and he sees forth like unto the son of God. How did he know what the son of God looked like? Who told him what the son of God looked like? Brethren, you don't.

They know, they know. Walking in the midst and they're walking. But didn't you read that they were bound going into the fire? Yeah, they were bound.

How are they walking? What burned up? What belonged to Babylon? What belonged to Babylon? The very thing that binds you. So the cords that bound them belong to Babylon. Isn't it a mercy they weren't wearing Babylonish clothes? They wouldn't have nothing to wear walking out of it.

All burned up? Sure it would. Read it closely. No, no, they didn't dress in Babylonish clothes.

They had their own attire and they stuck with it. And as a result of it, it went through the fire. Miles from here, maybe 12 years ago, when you want to say you've just about seen it all, you haven't.

I couldn't believe it. A young brother showed up at the conference in a pink suit. Seriously? I am a tad colorblind, not that bad.

A pink suit. Well, I don't know how many of whoever all was impressed, but I'm going to tell you something. You could have rolled the collar on that thing and it may have said, is it Vanmar or Coles? Who cares? But if you rolled further, you know what it would have said? Made in Babylon.

It looked like it. That's your pink suit. I wish I could tell you today's in the assembly.

I don't know. I'm afraid that I've heard otherwise. But all that was burned in that fire.

Notice, notice how it's very careful. It says these men were bound in their coats, their hose and their hats, their other garments. Something that was different than what Babylon would have put on them.

Wasn't even the smell of smoke. They didn't absorb even the smell of the fire. And the fourth one, like unto the son of God.

However, more than that, who is it, the writer that said that that music can charm or soothe a savage beast, but it also can release, release savage in the beast. Now here's a man and he sees all this take place. And there's no doubt.

There's, it was no surprise to him. And he realizes the God that I have been fighting against is the God that has saved these men and delivered them. What a marvelous delivery.

I know believers that have gone through fires I know nothing about, nothing about. Habits in their life that consumed them for 30 and 40 years of their life. Thought they could never get past and they did.

God brought them through that and wanted to see the change in them today and to be able to break bread with men that were once alcoholics, drunkards, some of them from Christian homes. Now see them saved, sitting with their parents. See them talking to their parents, never would have done that before.

Didn't have an interest. Afraid mom would preach to them and she did. Good for you.

Keep at it mom. They say boy it's hard, especially with your own boy. Be like the dear mother, the boy's going off to work and he was a rebellious character on his motorcycle and she put a little track and wrote, put a little note on it just in his lunch space.

She'd made his lunch for him to go to work. He's going to the evening shift. She was sitting in the family room and he picked up his lunch pail, ready to march over the door and he grabbed the track and he says, will I ever get to a place where I don't have to read these? She said yes, in hell.

That's a mother to her son. I was thinking as our brethren were preaching the other night of some that likely have sat in the comfort of this hall or the older hall that we're hearing about this afternoon. Doesn't it terrify your brethren to think where they are right now? They're in a fire.

They're in hell. Serious business and it's sad business. We live in a world today, do you realize that a hundred, I'm not sure I got my numbers right, 160,000 people die a year in the United States from drugs, which is more than died in the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan war combined.

122 people a day will die as a result of the syringe, heroin, whatever it might be. We want to see our children delivered out of that. We want to see our children like these Hebrew children.

What's it going to require? It's going to require somebody that will not bow. I come from a home like that. I don't have to tell you that.

I'm not going over it again. You people know my parents in their latter years as well as I knew them in their former years. Wouldn't bow.

Not even as an old man, still wouldn't bow. There are times we didn't like it. Times we argued against it.

Wouldn't bow. And as a result, six children that won't burn. Don't feed your children to the Philistine gods.

Don't toss your children into the fire burning belly of the idol chemish, and see them burned in a world, but clothed with something that will withstand the fire. Oh, I know. You can look at those Hebrew children.

I've often thought of clothes that believers wore in the Bible. Like, you know, I don't think I would have married David if I was getting, let's see, Jonathan's apparel, king's son, a prince. Like to look not bad.

But, oh, Elijah's mantle? I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure. But I want to tell you this much.

You make sure. Listen, Babylonish dress. It's fashionable, but it's very flammable.

All I'm saying, brethren and sisters, let our attire be that which is becoming those that name the name of Christ. Those that are true Hebrews, that know their God. You know, isn't that really what the writer of the Hebrews will remind us of those that quenched? He says, you know, I've got time to go over.

Let me just mention some things about the fire, the force of the fire. That's what it says, Hebrews chapter 11. They quenched the violence, the violence of the fire.

That word is Dume. It's the same word for the power of the gospel, Romans chapter one. They quenched the power of the fire.

Why? Because of the one that was in their midst that we've been hearing a lot about today. This encouraged me because it's really what I come to the conference with, and I think nearly all our brethren, I listen closely, mention Daniel. Daniel.

You know, they can laugh about you. They can joke about you. They can race with what they like from their memory, but they cannot rub out influence.

We live the result of influence. This must have been good news. Of course, I don't think Daniel was surprised when he heard they didn't bow.

I don't think it's a surprise, but it must have thrilled his heart. A man who knew what it was to pray, Daniel, the mentor, if you like, wherever he was, must have bowed his knees when he heard this and said, thank God. I know personally believers that have been faced with things, and I honestly would say I wasn't sure what way it was going to go.

When I heard the results, I bowed my heart. Remember one time right in the car, stop, put my hands over the wheel. I said, thank God.

But listen, brother, listen, sister, just because you have been victorious in the past and not bowing, it never stops. It never stops. The enemy will bring something your way somehow out of nowhere that will be a test to you in God's name.

Clothe yourself with the word of God. Immerse yourself in it. That will give you the power, not human resolve, when it comes to that moment that you don't bow, that you will go through the fire.

If I could just make a wide application, when the Apostle speaks of those who have works that will be burned up, themselves saved so as by fire, but with a good testimony, because you would not bow.