Through the Bible (Daniel 3)

uh daniel chapter three why don't you grab your bible turn there at this time we saw in daniel chapter two this the dream of nebuchadnezzar which is an important part of understanding daniel chapter three so just to remind us get our brains kind of rolling along with where it needs to be don't forget that statue that nebuchadnezzar dreamed was a dream that god sent to nebuchadnezzar to show him the future of the world really the world and its kingdoms and daniel you know interpreted that dream showing him the head of gold of this giant statue that was nebuchadnezzar in the babylonians and the arms of silver which were the medes and the persians that would come after the babylonians all this prophetically speaking in those times the belly of brass would be alexander the great the greeks but as it turns out the last two legs there the roman empire of uh east and west rome but then there's that time stop because israel ceases during the roman empire but in the last days they would come out of the legs these feet part iron part clay and these ten toes and in the times of those kingdoms of the ten toes and those kings um would come this you know stone cut without hands out of the mountain and it would roll down the mountain and smash all the kingdoms of the world and that stone would then set up an everlasting kingdom so really it's the whole thing right up until where christ comes christ is the stone cut without hands that'll come and smite the nations of the world battle of armageddon from that point on christ will rule and reign from jerusalem and so this is really god giving daniel the interpretation of nebuchadnezzar's dream that was powerful and important to the whole future of the world this was a big deal well you fast forward about 23 years now again that's the debatable number by the way there's uh that's more of the consensus of what scholars believe about 23 years later we see nebuchadnezzar build a statue of his own only this time it's no arms of silver belly brass legs of iron but he builds a statue of pure gold and we're going to see that tonight and and what's his point what do you think he's thinking well as we look at daniel chapter 3 hopefully tonight we'll be able to kind of discern what what nebuchadnezzar is doing and what what happens in our own hearts nebuchadnezzar you know he thinks he's all that he's about about as prideful as it gets and his hubris is kind of alarming when you kind of see uh especially coming up in the next chapter we're gonna see even more of that but um let's take a look here at daniel chapter three and i'm gonna divide this chapter into oh seven or eight chunks to help us kind of divide out what's happening the first section of this is is what we're gonna see is a sinful king that's number one if you're taking notes a sinful king and that's gonna be verses one through seven let's take a look it says in chapter three verse one nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was three score cubits and breadth thereof six cubits and he set it up in the plain of dura in the province of babylon now a couple things here that you should note notice here um that the uh the the cubits measured out here are you know as it says here in king jimmy you know three score qubits which is 60 uh cubits by six cubits um this is an interesting thing i remember when i was in college i took one of the things i was kind of excited about being an elementary ed major is i knew that i didn't have to take any heavy duty math you know what i mean because as an elementary school teacher you know multiplication division subtraction maybe some fractions and stuff i could do that but i kind of wanted to avoid any more algebra and stuff like that so i was really excited about that well my teacher she was a very nice teacher and fortunately she was a really good teacher because otherwise this would have been horrible but she said you know our first day of class as teachers in our math department there she said i'm going to teach you guys how to teach your students addition subtraction multiplication division and fractions i was like check check check and check like i love it in my mind that's not a second but then she said but because i want you guys to kind of remember what it feels like to sort of be in a place where you don't get it instead of using the base 10 system we're going to use the base 6 system now if you don't know what that is it's basically your numbers only go up to six and then after after you get to six you get to what you know what we would do is you know going up to to nine then you get to ten and you change it to double digits well that's what you have to do you go up to six and then it goes up to seven as a double double-digit number are you guys with me on that it changes the whole equation literally like it really is not easy to think in a basic system and i remember thinking lord why you know well what's funny about this um did you know the babylonian numeric system was a basic system uh that's kind of an interesting thing and and th there's a lot of things about this that you might notice in the bible like this you got the 60 cubits by six uh you know statue now tuck that away because i'm going to show you something at the end hopefully that has to do with that that is kind of important but six in the bible is the number of man the bible says some people say it's the number of satan well you say that because of revelation and but it is the number of man in the bible number seven completion and perfection number eight is new beginnings uh you know there's there's numbers in the bible that mean things and and seven is kind of the the number of the bible it seems to be used as god's number in many ways but six is the number of man and and that we're going to see how that plays out here but notice this is a 60 by six uh statue as far as qubits go um which is part of that base six system that's kind of important and we note that it's 100 percent gold that's what he makes it out of uh so he's got a lot of gold to spare it seems this golden statue by the way this is a free before yeah it's chiseled in some you know one of those uh what do they call those stones kind of the cylinder stones that they found in babylon there's a story of nebuchadnezzar remember how i told you likes to poke people's eyes out fry them on grills stuff like that one one such story that's etched in stone is nebuchadnezzar had one of his enemies who was trying to take over his power and um and the stone says that nebuchadnezzar said off with his head and they chopped off his head and then he had it his head dipped in gold uh and then uh let it sort of settle and then he put the head of gold of his enemy uh as it was beheaded there in his uh palace so that all could see don't mess with nebuchadnezzar the head of gold makes you wonder was nebuchadnezzar thinking you know maybe of the head of gold or at least the attempt at a head of gold and taking his position like if you know the story biblically it's kind of an interesting little thing that he did nebuchadnezzar was a pretty twisted dude just to say the least but all that to say he makes a statue of pure gold um and and this is the sinful king that we see before us the statue i think is an attempt jot this down in your notes it was an attempt to change the word of god that's what was going on here i believe he said i don't believe in this statue that god your god daniel this took him 23 years to get here but he's at this place we're saying i just don't i'm going to deny that i'm going to say let's just go all gold because my kingdom is of an everlasting kingdom my kingdom will never be taken by anyone and by the way during nebuchadnezzar's reign it seemed like that would be the future i mean they you know babylon was seemingly impenetrable by this time so you know he makes a statue of of gold and it's set up in the plains of dura now this is a fun one because i've mentioned this before but i'll say it again you know back in the 1940s and 50s you know colleges and universities and the professors so-called were one of their big boasts was we know there was no place called the plains of dura anywhere near babylon and they boasted of this for quite some time and it was in the 1960s i believe they were doing some kind of archaeological dig and they found this this amazing part of the ancient babylonian civilization not far from babylon and they found this huge uh sort of platform uh and on it was it etched the words plains of dura and once again archaeological digs shut the mouths of the cynics and the critics and i believe that's the way it always is going to be there's still things that the critics say well the bible must be wrong on this and must be wrong on that as the archaeological digs keep going the bible just keeps being confirmed over and over and over again if anybody was an honest scholar you'd kind of throw your hands up and go yeah the bible kind of gets right every time but there's not a lot of honest scholars out there willing to do that yet but you know just stay tuned uh remember when jesus said you know if if i make these people stop crying out hosanna even the rocks will cry out and my argument is the rocks are crying out archaeologically that jesus is who he claimed to be but that's a whole nother story we've got here a sinful king and we continue to see his behavior in the next verses he goes on in verse two then nebuchadnezzar the king set sent to gather together the princes the governors the captains the judges the treasures the councillors the sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which nebuchadnezzar the king had set up then the princes the governors the captains the judges the treasures of the council the sheriffs and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that nebuchadnezzar the king had set up who set up this image good and they stood before the image that nebuchadnezzar the king had set up who set up the image i'm being ridiculous on purpose uh and there's more of this where we come from check it out um so so uh now by the way these these guys here these rulers princes sheriff all these guys these are the leaders of all of babylon there would be there would have been hundreds and hundreds of these guys um uh and they're all gathered together but you gotta remember they're all under nebuchadnezzar as an absolute monarch he can kind of tell them to do whatever he wants you know whatever he wants them to do they have to do it and so this is the decree verse 4. then a 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 sultry the dulcimer and all kinds of music you fall down and worship the golden image that nebuchadnezzar the king has set up who set it up nephew and who so followeth not down and worshipeth all the same hour shall be cast in the midst of a burning fiery furnace therefore at that time when all the people heard the sound of the corn at the flute the harp the sack but the sultry and all kinds of music all the people the nations and languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that nebuchadnezzar the king had set up who set it up yeah you never see you guys are getting this over and over and over in the bible it says never because of the one he set up and this is an interesting thing because um i wonder how many times we like to set up our image we're into our image and i'd say more than ever uh you know it used to be kind of a more abstract thing but today it's very very concrete when you look at people's you know instagram account and their facebook account and what's the image that they have and you know what's funny is it's it's really interesting to watch the the gap between reality and a person's you know uh online social media account and i i sort of crack up sometimes because man you can make yourself look really powerful and good and smart uh for just a few seconds with a with an instagram entry but uh but it's funny you know sometimes i think we want to set up and by the way scholars believe that nebuchadnezzar said it was an image of himself um this golden image was probably an image of himself these kings of that period loved to set up images and have statues carved and stuff that would look very much like them themselves and that's probably what was going on here they were worshiping him as sort of a god king kind of idea and when he says oh nations tongues and languages this is all the people that the babylonians conquered and assimilated this was a checkpoint really where those nations would have to show their allegiance to nebuchadnezzar so this was kind of a big deal in nebuchadnezzar's mind it's an image of him and if you're not going to bow down to this of course you'd be thrown into the fiery furnace like that's the plan so you've got this sinful king wanting to set up his image and be careful folks i think you know um jesus gave us the model didn't he when he came and it says he came philippians chapter two and he made himself of no reputation that's an interesting uh thing to do why would jesus say i'm gonna i'm not even gonna worry about my reputation i'm gonna make myself of no reputation well how many followers did jesus have uh clicking on instagram well he had 12 followers and they weren't that great of followers like those followers didn't have very many followers they weren't influencers they would become that but it's so funny how jesus made himself of no reputation and what are we about making ourselves have a major reputation and we do that and we worry about what people think about us and stuff like that that's more of a worldly sort of a godless kind of thing to do and this this sinful king is into his image and he's wanting to be exalted and he's wanted to be popular and he's wanting to be liked some people argue that nebuchadnezzar by this point in his life wanted just to be loved but when you're the kind of king that says off with your head and you start you know chopping heads off and dipping him in gold and stuff people aren't your friend oh they'll respect you but you know there is a thing by the way historically where some of these great powerful kings throughout the ages there's a there's a thing where these guys all they wanted to be is loved but they never were um by the way herod the great was one of those guys he was he was a guy during the time of christ you know and he and you people don't understand why he rebuilt the temple and remodeled the temple in jerusalem and he did a glorious job herod the great built amazing things if you go to masada herod the great built that it's an amazing building feat you construction people should check that out it's amazing and bible times what they built there on this cliff side of masada it's amazing but he also built um the herodian which which was a little bump and herod the great stone of the bump and he said i want to be able to see jerusalem from this mountain and they're like yeah but it needs to be like uh 3 000 feet high and or you know 3 500 feet high and he's like exactly how are we gonna get the dirt we'll take all my slaves all you know ten thousand of them and start having all dirt and if you go to the herodian out in the middle of nowhere well near bethlehem there it looks like an ant hill suddenly this huge mountain was built by slaves and herod the great put his palace on top of it and just high enough where you can look into jerusalem which is like 10 miles away you can look into jerusalem from the herodian and that's where they buried herod the great there they found his sarcophagus and his bones and the whole thing it's there in the israel museum but um the reason he did all this stuff was he wanted to be sort of liked and loved by the jews even though he was kind of evil and horrible and did all kinds of bad things sometimes these guys felt a little lonely and sad and they wanted to be loved and so they would try to force people to like them and that never really worked people believe nebuchadnezzar was kind of at that place where you know everybody fears him he's the most powerful man in the world and he can say off with your head and now he's like okay bow down and worship the image of me and you know love me but this this isn't the way you do it and you and i know that but we do the same thing when we try to have people look at our image look at us look what we've done and sometimes the person that doesn't realize how stupid that is is the person who's trying to pump puff themselves up everybody sees it the pride the hubris the kind of the over-the-top kind of you know thinking i'm amazing and i want everybody to think i'm amazing and everybody's like yeah you really want people to think you're amazing that's nebuchadnezzar's problem and that's the problem of many today one thing to maybe look at our you know interaction if you're on social media um is to maybe look at how do you esteem others on your social media how do you uh you know encourage others and not make yourself look like what it's all about how smart you are how correct you are or any of this stuff but you know preferring others esteeming others that might be a good step in moving away from a prideful uh you know uh air about yourself well that's the sinful king he's full of all kinds of pride and that's going to be worked out of him eventually because god is able to work prideful arrogance out of a person and we're going to see that happen quite practically but we have a sinful king wanting to be worshipped now before we move on to the next section um the uh the instruments that are listed here uh you might say yeah whatever uh these are bible instruments the cornet the flute the harp the sac but the sultry the dulcimer what are these instruments well some of them are kind of what they sound like um you know the the for example the harp was a harp um but what's a sac butt what's the sultry and what's the dulcimer you know um which is kind of an interesting uh word um that means singing symphony which is kind of an interesting thing we don't know exactly what this dulcimer that we do have modern day dulcimers but it's probably not that even though it's called that the reason it gets tricky is because and here's where it gets controversial and you'd be shocked at what the critics the cynics of the book of daniel remember i told you daniel's the target but because the critics hate daniel because of its prophecy and they try to you know pass it off as a forgery we've been through all that now why it's not a forgery one of their little nitpicky arguments and say see it's a forgery it had been written after the greek empire and here's why many of these uh words that were originally written here you know in this section of daniel if you remember it's written in what language anybody aramaic that's right um most of the old testament's hebrew uh daniel is hebrew up until daniel chapter two verse four the second part of that verse and then it shifts to aramaic now we're in aramaic but suddenly in this verse seven and verse 5 the the instrument listed are listed as greek words of greek instruments and so the critics say see this had to have been written after the greek empire sounds logical sounds very academic and stuff like that here's the problem did you know when nebuchadnezzar was on the scene the greeks existed they just weren't a mighty empire yet um this is this is not even hard to defend um there were greek people speaking greek and there were greek instruments it just they hadn't become great yet it would take the median persian empire to come and go and then the greeks would come and they'd take over the known world at that time but just because they hadn't taken over the world doesn't mean they didn't exist are you guys with me on that so don't let your college professor say see daniel's a forgery because the greek empire hadn't come into power yet you can say i agree they haven't come to power yet but they existed do your history the greeks existed and it'd be no hard thing to picture uh the babylonians having greek instruments uh from their from their conquests uh during the time of the babylon empire that would not be even a hard stretch of the imagination that greek instruments would have made their way we'll we'll show you that in fact let me let me show you something about the jewish instruments um what were the jewish instruments doing during this time of captivity did you know there's a psalm in the book of psalms that actually tells us what the jewish instruments were doing and what the musicians were doing why they're in babylon keep your finger here and flip over to psalm 137 go over back there with me real quick i think this is interesting um the psalmist here we don't know exactly who this psalmist is but it was one of the jews psalm 137 is one of the jews that was in captivity or maybe after they were in captivity recording what they were doing with their musicianship and their worship and all that during the captivity and that's what it says here in psalm 137 verse 1. it says there by the rivers of babylon there we sat down yea we wept when we remembered zion we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof for there they that carried us away captive required of us a song and they that wasted us required of us mirth saying sing us one of the songs of zion how shall we sing the lord's song in a strange land if i forget the o jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if i do not remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if i prefer not jerusalem above my chief joy here we see the musician saying man we were going to hang it up have you ever felt if you musicians have ever felt like hanging it up there's times in your life you're kind of like i'm done i i'm not very good sometimes i feel like hanging up when you see on youtube a three-year-old that can play the guitar better than the best guitar player that i know it's like this is discouraging how does this three-year-old do this um and he's like whatever i'm not playing ever again well these guys were in babylon saying we're hanging up our harps on the willow trees but the babylonians interestingly enough said play us one of your songs from you know zion and they would have to by force play their songs did you know this happened by the way in the holocaust the germans would make these amazing musicians violinists and pianists there was an amazing movie called i think it was called the pianist that was an amazing telling of that very thing the germans would often want the jews whether they were in the concentration camp or a slave or whatever they would get them with their violins or their because there was all these amazing musicians taken up in the holocaust and and the the nazis would make them play music same same exact thing as babylon so here we know the jews are sitting there sitting down with their harps hanging on the willows but the babylonians would make their conquested people you know play music and that's what's going on with these greek instruments i don't mean to belabor this point but don't let your college professors pull a fast one and say see this is why the book of daniel's a forgery because they said sackbutt or sultry or dulcimer whatever uh don't don't get caught up on that uh but it is interesting musically they're going to play songs and then everybody's going to bed down boy we can talk about music and worshipping music today does our society worship music and musicians um it's an amazing thing how we we have to be careful uh it's a form of idolatry uh maybe you're an american idolatry fan uh um i don't know but be careful uh it is it is something that satan still uses satan himself was an instrument uh seems as we looked at when we were in ezekiel and in isaiah we talked about that well that brings us to the second section um first we start out with a sinful king secondly we have a snitching colleague or a bunch of snitching colleagues you might say nobody likes the snitching colleague right i don't think you should i don't think you do but you sound like you like them um well let's see what a snitching colleague looks like it says in verse eight wherefore at that time certain chaldeans now who are the chaldeans they were sort of actually the smartest and the priests they were kind of the the the um and and sort of in charge they were they were like maybe the top level of all these wise men and stuff like that so the chaldeans it says came near and accused the jews and they spake and said to the king nebuchadnezzar oh king live forever thou o king has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of the corn of the flu the salt of the heart the sacrament the sultry the dulcimer and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth that he should be cast into the midst of a 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 they have they served not thy gods nor worship the golden image thou has set up this is a really you know uh evil slimy thing for these chaldeans to do you get a sense of sort of uh you know they're trying to get at these guys these jewish kids that were put in charge of the province of babylon who put them in charge if you remember daniel daniel was kind of one of the head guys of this whole group and shadrach meshach and abednego we saw in verse 49 of chapter 2 daniel requested the king and said hey will you take these three guys and i want them right under me helping me as i lead and so they did so shadrach meshach these are high up level dudes and so these guys these chaldeans are like um yeah the guys that you know you've put up in charge of the province of babylon look they're unwilling uh to to uh to bow down now by the way um how do we respond by the way uh to to those that oppose us how do you respond you know the snitching calling these are guys that just have it out for them and um it's an interesting thing because we're living in a day where um there's there's some of this going on and the bible talks about in the last days that you know there would be a love that would be lost and people would turn on each other even family members in the last days will turn on one another i remember remember last year last thanksgiving when uh our governors basically said you know if anybody's having thanksgiving dinner you are to report them you know and tell the you know the neighbors so the neighbors had some people over to their house for dinner uh you know their murderers uh mark them with a you know a covid mark somewhere or something like it was it started to feel a little weird uh when our governor said that you know snitch on your neighbors um and uh we we've seen that there's kind of this weird you know snitching i have some friends that were up uh up on mount hood the other day and uh they just went out and looked at you know by timberline lodge they're walking out in the open air and this lady came up to them and said you're supposed to be wearing masks and you know the wind was blowing it was a sunny beautiful day and they were like 40 feet from the nearest people and this lady just totally freaked out and um and you know the guys the dads of this these two families just kind of they said yeah whatever they kind of went in you use the restroom well they started snapping pictures of the of the children uh stuff stuff and saying i'm gonna i'm gonna report you guys i don't know for you it was like just craziness you know um but uh it's gotten weird it's gotten really really really weird um and and you know there's there's those that are opposing you today and and for various reasons um and and we have to be careful as christians because um you know a lot of people are asking me and the church pastor brett you know when do we stand up and when don't we stand up well here's the problem uh when it comes to things biblical man i'll give you a very clear answer um and i love that part um when the bible is silent though i think we should be careful not to try to speak for the bible when the bible is silent on something so we have some interesting issues um you know about vaccinations and stuff like that and um and here's the problem i can't make a biblical case for vaccines or against vaccines a pro or against um and and here's the thing i'm not an anti-vaxxer but here's here's what's troubling to me is when people start making people do stuff with their bodies especially the same people that say you know my body my choice like the same people are saying certain things and it makes me a little nervous when people are saying science you guys need to follow science and they're the same people that believe science says that there's no male nor female there's an infinite number of genders when i can say scientifically i can prove there's male and female like biologically the same people are screaming at us uh to believe in science like it's it's a it's a troubling day and some of that i can sort through with the bible like is there a male and a female yes the bible says there's male and female no duh that's a no-brainer um abortion totally sinful wrong uh there's it's not a political issue it's a biblical god issue of the issues of abortion um but when it comes to the other things um here's the thing you know you might even ask let's go let's take it back to the american revolution people forget you know why we had the american revolution it was taxation without representation don't tread on me it wasn't religious freedom that's why our you know founders came you know over on the mayflower they came over for religious freedom to escape persecution what have you but the founding of our nation and the rebellion against the british was largely taxation without representation and kind of the oppression of a king on people that weren't being represented and so um the people stood up and fought and you know it's an interesting philosophical debate uh i'll just tell you personally my secret persuasion i'm glad they did i'm glad we beat the british glad we did that now here's the problem can you make a biblical case because some of you would say wait romans 13 you're supposed to obey the rulers and do what the the law enforcement you know and and see that's where you have to start you know saying okay but wait they were the authority but there was a unrighteous authority that was being oppressive against the p and that's where you have to pray and seek the lord and say lord what are we to do during these difficult times i do believe our founders in you know those that were part of the putting together of our constitution the declaration of independence and you know there's a whole group out there that's trying to say there were a bunch of deists they didn't believe in god that's hogwash i've done whole sermons on the christianity of our founders and it's all over the place they're trying to erase that by the way all over washington and the monuments and all that they're trying to erase our christian heritage but um but all that to say i hope you understand there's some things you just need to pray and say lord is this something that i'm supposed to be a part of fighting the good fight or is this something i should be praying about is this something that we should be standing up for or not and and whether you're looking for a you know biblical answer for the vaccine um i have a hard time with that because uh i'm thankful for some vaccines i really am some in history well brett don't you know abortion in 1970 the fetus i know i've studied all this stuff don't get all mad at me um calm down chill out i understand some of that was horrible and and there was some horrible things done in our history and stuff like that even to get certain vaccines not all the vaccines are like that but but here's the thing you have to say lord you know show us where to stand up and and i'm really thankful i'm thankful that there are people that are called to stand bold and stand strong on things that maybe the church is not called to stand bold and strong on one thing i kind of chuckle is when people are saying the church needs to stand up saying this and the church needs to stand up saying that and i would just say be careful on that one because you see the church especially anthony creek we're here to stand on the word of god and say here's what the bible teaches if you want to know what the bible says you can talk to anthony creek we'll do our best to point you in the right direction and show you what the scriptures say if you want to know what your political persuasion should be and what you should fight for and stuff like that you need to seek the lord and say lord is this something we should stand for on the things that are no-brainers abortion how we treat the nation israel like these are things that are actually in the bible that very clearly speak but be careful folks standing on certain things and making other people stand on stuff that like you show me a scripture and a verse and then maybe we'll we'll talk that's that's kind of what i have to be careful about i know that's not you know some people might say that's weak but at the same time i'm thankful there are strong people standing up i still have political opinions and persuasions and many of you know that but at the same time athy creek's not the platform and the church shouldn't be the platform to try to persuade people on political issues purely we've got to persuade people on biblical issues by the way if there's one thing i'm going to offend people on here's what i really if i'm going to offend somebody at athene creek here's what i hope that are is is the gospel of jesus christ because listen to this um you you show somebody who's pro-abortion and pro-this and pro-that that's anti-biblical the first thing we need to do is get him saved we've got to show them jesus and repentance of sin we got to show what sin is and we've got to show them that too many people try to clean the fish before you catch the fish you can't clean the fish until you catch the fish and that's one of the mistakes people make you see so so this idea of civil disobedience is kind of a tricky one um but i love it shadrach meshach amer they're on good ground why because they know they've got a they've got some scripture that says thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image thou shalt have no other gods before me so the idea of bowing down and worshiping the statue in babylon no-brainer time for civil disobedience even if it costs your life that's a no-brainer getting vaxxed or not i don't know i can't really show you a scripture thou shalt not vaccinate i don't see that well thou shalt not do whatever they want to my body well as it turns out there's a lot of christians that had their bodies sawn in half and nailed the trees and hung from ropes and and burned it with acid and like like we could go on what happened to christians bodies um it's a trick it's a tricky one so seek the lord pray be careful um but as a church goes we're gonna point people to christ we're gonna point people to what the bible teaches um whether people like that or not it's it's kind of the way it is so all that to say the snitching calling by the way um how do we respond to those who are opposing us i love what second timothy chapter 2 verses 24 through 25 tells us this tells us what to do and the servant of the lord must not strive the newer translations i think say um quarrel the servant of the lord must not quarrel or strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient by the way i have to teach i love that i love people that are out there instructing rather than yelling um we have people in our church that are very effectively online social media instructing they're not yelling they're just they're just telling people here's what you need to watch i love that um so you know app to teach patient in meekness in meekness uh how are we doing with that by the way meekness is not weakness i hope you don't think meekness is weakness biblical meekness is power and strength under control um one of the ancient uh definitions that is kind of used to talk about meeknesses is that of a horse a horse is a powerful beast i love when you see these muscular horses you know and they're they're running you just see power but you know just that little bridle the little bit just it keeps the horse under control you know that horse could kill that person if they wanted to buck them off stamp them out but but and that almost happened to me several times when i was a kid that's why i rode dirt bikes instead um but uh we had a 16 hands horse that was an old ranch horse that was this huge beast and every time i got out of that thing and bucked me off but um but but as it turned out um you know that's what meekness is strength and power like a horse but under control that's what the lord wants of you and the lord does give you certain strength and power but meekness means jesus is the only autobiographical statement jesus made of himself was i am meek and lowly that's that's the only thing jesus said about his personality so teaching them in patience in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves boy don't you get that feeling that people are opposing themselves with their little arguments like they don't even ah i don't want to get off on that if god per adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that's the goal we want people to repent and acknowledge the truth and the truth is jesus christ jesus said i am the way the truth and the life remember second timothy 2 24 and 25 as it relates to how we deal with those or respond to those who oppose us and remember even if faith responds rather than reacts that was one of our points points last sunday and the bible gives us the way we're supposed to respond right here ii timothy 2 24 25 but be that as it may we see here um you know the the snitching colleagues they're they're the people that are uh opening their mouths against shadrach meshach and abednego and by the way the lord's gonna shut their mouths um and i love that um the lord has a way of doing that you might feel like we're losing the the you know the war on truth if you would but all the mouths will be shut at some point and uh the truth will win that that's just the truth of the matter well that brings us to the next section here of our uh of our chapter um now we have a second chance verses 13 through 15. and it's the second chance really to sin that's what i'm going to say about this it's like okay you missed the first chance shout out vish i could have been going we're going to give you the second chance on this can i just tell you before we read this that the enemy will do that to you be careful i've seen it where you know you have victory in an area of sin that you struggle with and you're like yes i i did it and then just at the right time he brings it back around and tempts you once again at a moment of weakness um i like if these guys are determined a little bit like daniel of chapter one where it says he purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meat that's the way we as christians need to be not just uh just say no i'm not going to do that say i just say never purpose in your heart because these guys they the first time do you ever wonder if if abednego said to shadrach um okay we made it man awesome and then nebuchadnezzar says are you kidding me is it true and and do you think shadrach means are we gonna are we gonna stick to this thing uh this time are we not bowing down guys you wonder was there any doubt at all i think not just from the answer that they gave but i know i'd be like wow we made it through the first time now what are we going to do well the second chance to sin is right here in verse 13 then it says nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring shadrach meshach and abednego then they brought these men before the king nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them is it true oh shadrach meshach and do not ye serve my gods nor worship the golden image which i have set up now if ye be ready at that what time you hear the sound of the corn of the flute the harp the sacrament the sultry and the dulcimer instead of crack cracking up that they name each instrument every time it's like go see a concert man are you excited to go see the guitar player the drummer the bass player or the campaign you mean the band yeah exactly uh this this is going to crack me up all of them say this over and again i guess they have time on their hands i don't know um if you be ready when you hear all those instruments and all the kinds of music you fall down and worship the image which i have made well but if you worship not you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands now they have a second chance to sin they're given more opportunity to fail and the enemy wants to do that to you and the world will try to do that to you if they didn't get you the first time they're going to try to get you the next time and that's that's the sad thing you might have victory the first time but watch out the second i think that's sometimes where people fail the most because it's the the second time through and these guys were men of purpose but i i love this um you know this we look at this two sundays ago this statement is it true and it's there's a shocked value nebuchadnezzar shocked what are you kidding that you're not going to do this because he thought it was reasonable that they do this and the world might think of some of the things that they're trying to push down your throat as reasonable and they might be shocked and we looked at that two sundays ago and how we need to be careful even though they're shocked it doesn't mean we should cave to just do what the world says a second chance of sin and they'll give them many more chances by the way and then we saw on last sunday who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands and later in chapter four nebuchadnezzar is gonna say man there's no one who can stay the hand of god he's gonna have to learn this lesson we looked at that on sunday well verse 16 brings us to the next section from a second chance um [Music] by the way james i forgot this part james 1 2 and 4 says my brother and count on all joy when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have her perfect work that you may be perfect and entire or mature wanting for nothing one of the things that i love about this it reminds us that we need to endure the temptations that come our way being patient in those temptations and let let patience work in us later on in james chapter 1 verse 12 it says you know the man blessed is the man that endures temptation for when he has tried or tested he will receive the crown of life which is promised of those who love the lord like there's a promise to those that endure the various temptations that come and i like that and that's how we how we do this so now we come to this uh this next section um it's versus you know uh 16 through 18 and it's the solid answer that shadrach meshach and abednego give let's look it says in verse 16 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 fire furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand o king but if not or new american standard even if i think niv says the same thing even if he doesn't be it known unto thee o king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up who set it up oh nebuchadnezzar that's right just make sure we're on board here um now what i love about this the solid answer that's given they did not have faith in deliverance but faith in god's will that's that's a real key they didn't have faith and deliverance they had faith in god's will that's what we talked about on sunday we looked at these three verses sunday and man if you missed that that might be one of the more important teachings we've done in a long long time i think we're living in days where christians need this even if kind of faith displayed here they were not doubt doubting god's ability but they were submitting to god's sovereignty um that's the key right there and i love that about these guys so we looked at that on sunday uh a solid solid answer um um now uh the next one on our list uh number what are we on number five number five we have a smoldering babylonian okay a little humor in our list here um smoldering babylonia yeah check it out verse 19. then was nebuchadnezzar full of fury and the form of his visage was changed against shadrach meshach and abednego now pause for a second how mad was he i get a sense from this narrative that he was like his look have you ever seen somebody so mad they look like a different person ugly mad we already read in verse 13 back when the story was still fresh nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring shadrach meshach and abednego then they said we don't even have to answer you in this but we will and now after what they said in his rage and fury he was full of fury filled with theory and the form of his visage was changed in other words when he looked at them man his eyeballs were popping his neck veins were bulging he was probably purple different colors of shades of red or whatever he was furious with these guys um and you always do stupid stuff when you're at that by the way um i remember in football uh one of the things you'd learn is the opponent oftentimes the the talented ones would just try to make you mad because if they got you really really mad you often played horribly you thought you were you know you're going to really like how i'm but there was one guy i played against and he lives locally here he was a state champion uh football player and it was it was an honor to play against him i was excited because he was 240 pounds ran a 4-6-40 in high school and benched over 400 pounds and he was the guy i was playing had to get i watched films for a week before the the game and he just grabbed guys and fling him out of the way and then get the quarterback like i was like you see bodies flying i was like and i was a junior he was a senior and i was i was just you know you know thinking this is going to be but but the one i was mostly amazed at not was his um his athletic acumen as much but his intimidation here's here's this is true he would you you'd block him and you know i was crap blocking him because i couldn't go like head to head against this guy so i was taking out his legs the whole night trying to and but it was successful for the most part and um and he would end up kind of in this big pile and i'd be at the bottom of the pile it was a painful game you know just bottom of the pile every time he would grab your skin and just start twisting as you're under the pod just twisting twist his twist and i'd be like and then and then they're true like we need to be in the pod he's got to go while we're just under the pile now it wasn't hurting really but it was just he was just trying to get in my head uh he was a real pro this guy uh but but i've learned even in life that's what the enemy wants to do was to make you so mad nebuchadnezzars are so mad he does stupid stuff now and so who's the smoldering babylonian is it nebuchadnezzar well he's in rage of fury he's smoldering but literally we're gonna have a smoldering babylonian check it out so it says his rage is uh you know form and visage was changed against shadrach meshach and abednego middle verse 19. therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was want to be he did verse 20 and he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind shadrach meshach and abednego and cast them into the burning fiery furnace then these men were bound in their uh their coats with their pantyhose and uh and uh no the word hose in there is probably better translated hats they were wearing some kind of hats so then their men bound in their coats with their hats and their uh and their hats um that would be like turbans um uh the garments here you can do a whole study on these garments that they're wearing um but they're not really wearing like pantyhose if you're thinking that from the king james now they're coats hosing their hats with their other garments and were cast into the mist of the burning fire furnace therefore because the kidneys commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot the flame of the fire slew those men would took up sad rack meshack and abendigo and these three men shadrach meshach and abednego fell down bound into the midst of the fiery furnace so the soldiers that threw them in perished notice with me they were the most mighty men of his old army the seal team six guys of the babylonian army get those guys those are the ones who were burned up i think this is important because really all throughout the bible the critics of the bible like to try to say stuff well we know this wasn't a miracle like there's commentaries that are actually interesting um william barclay maybe you've heard of barclay commentaries have been around for a long time he says some good stuff you have to kind of pick through it but he's always trying to diminish the miracles and i don't know why people try to do that it's totally hogwash like barkley talks about when jesus fed the five thousand there was five loaves and two fishes but what actually happened it was a miracle where god just moved the hearts people had bread hidden in their sleeves and fish and they were when it came time there was people just decided to share and by the time there was a bunch no no that's not what happened people always try to explain maybe you're in your college there's still goofy professors trying to claim uh even in christian universities trying to claim that it wasn't really the red sea that the children of israel passed it was just a little typo in the bible the reed sea and the reed sea is only about six inches deep of water kind of a marsh and the people went across the reed sea it wasn't really this big blasting of god's nostrils and you know not ten commandment movie none of that it's just the read see i heard the story of a guy who was in the one of these classes where the professor said it was the read see and it was only six the guy in the back praise the lord and the professor was like what praise the lord he said and he's like what are you saying that it's just six inches of water and he said yeah that's amazing miracle he says no it's not they just walked and said this is a miracle the whole egyptian army drowned in only six inches of water i love that um a lot of times these bible miracles you know well the the fire wasn't really that hot they were just walking on some coals like these people do you know and and it wasn't really that hot and they were you know somehow they were but no it was so hot that the guys throwing them in perished and it was the toughest of all the men of babylon like i love how the bible likes to work you know seven times hotter i like how the bible god seems to like to work with the impossible impossible odds and you might feel like you're in a place of impossible odds right now god that's his expertise but i'm about to lose my job because of the vaccine issue god likes to work with the impossible who knows what the lord has for you even if even if you lose your job like we learned on sunday could it be that god is doing something greater and bigger maybe you need to come work at the creek we're we're we're hurting for staff right now we just need people uh you know if you're looking for a job you might check our website because they're there we can use some help around here as our church is just busting out of the seams and we've got all kinds of things going on um but but at the same time i do know there's people that are struggling um with real things right now uh maybe you have coronavirus we have people i'm amazed that some of the people in our church that are in the best shape are the the worst coronavirus victims some of us that are like the people who are supposed to kick the bucket we're all doing fine um and we got the corona and we did fine but it's the people that are in shape i i don't know that's just kind of strange to me but we have people that are really hurting right now uh with coronavirus and stuff like that and um you know it's it's sort of matching the rest of the world and the ratio of people it's not that we're a super spreader or anything like that there's a lot of people that are coming down with coronavirus these days and the different variants and all the things people are talking about but some of our people have really gone through some hard hard stuff but don't forget the lord is good at working with the impossible the harder it is sometimes the better the deliverance the lord has his hand on you don't don't forget no man can pluck you out of the hand of god john 10 tells us well you got the smoldering babylonians because they threw them in and they burned up these guys died um so now this could have been the end of the story verse 23. uh the shadow beach fell down bound into the burning of the fire furnace to the end um but i love how the end with god is is um you never really know when it's over uh you'd say well this is over i think most of us if we were watching oh that's the end of it sorry it's like the groundhog day moment where the truck goes down the cliff falling even the guy's like oh he could be okay still then also he blows up like oh maybe not anymore uh remember that scene that's that's what's happening here they go oh oh they're in the firefights now i'm sorry about that but it's not over until it's over and that brings us to the next section number six on our list of things after the smoldering babylonian we have a surprising outcome i love this verse 24. then nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto his counselors or the governors did not we cast three men bound into this the fire and they answered and said unto the king true o king he answered and said lo i see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the son of god man don't you love this the surprising outcome here is so cool you know they they were saved from the fire and they saw jesus that's the biggest surprise you know you might have guessed well they're gonna be saved from the vice versa but who would have guessed that god in the flesh would join them in the fiery furnace who would have guessed that one that's such a huge deal and again for you bible students when you see an appearance of jesus in the old testament and there's several places where we see this this is called a theophany or a christophany whatever you want to call it where um the pre-incarnate appearance of jesus shows up in the old testament there's several of those uh probably some of the most pronounced um would be uh you know where abraham's sitting in the tent in the heat of the day and these two angels with this other third guy comes and abraham bows down and starts worshiping this guy and the guy receives the worship and he you basically rise wait a minute this is this is the lord himself with these two angels and the two angels went off and destroyed sodom and gomorrah but it's a it's a pre-incarnate appearance of jesus and there's several of those um you might argue that joshua before he went and fought the battle of jericho remember the the lord shows up and and he says are you for us or against them and he says no that that some believe was a appearance of jesus christ uh it is pre-incarnate uh form uh the priest melchizedek is one we could talk about in hebrews tells us that jesus is that priest after the order of melchizedek great stuff but be that as it may this is one of those great moments in the bible and basically they were saved in the midst of the fiery furnace but when do we see the lord the clearest we talked about that also on sunday it's in the midst of the fiery furnace and that's why when you're going through difficulties look for the sun look for jesus it's like what i was talking about on sunday first peter chapter 4 verse 12 says beloved don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange things happen to you but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed you will be glad also with exceeding joy if you are reproached for the name of christ happy are you did you hear that if you're reproached for the name of christ um and and see that gets back to our discussion before if you're persecuted for the name of christ for the sake of christ um it says you'll be happy the the lord's got a far weighty uh future for you in heaven um for the spirit of glory and god rests upon you but their part is evil spoken of but on your part he will be glorified i mean it goes on talking about suffering so don't think it's strange when you're going through fiery trials whether it's covid or being job on the line threatened or what have you um be that as it may let's get to it uh we got the surprising outcome versus 24 through 25. i love that um so it says here um uh the the four guys were loosed by the way another sideline thing if you have things you're bound up by in this world um sometimes it's the trials that the lord allowed you to go through that'll unbind you the things that are a problem for you sometimes the lord allows a problem to happen to sort of fix the problem that you're already in and i've seen that happen too and that's what happens here great stuff well um so that's verses 24 and 25. um now we go to number seven assad understanding what's the sad understanding well we're going to see nebuchadnezzar and the way he sort of sorts this out in his brain and it's really kind of sad you might think it's good at first but it's kind of sad let's check it out it says in verse 26 then nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said shadrach meshach and abednego you servants of the most high god already it's starting to sound good right he's changing his tune remember he was saying who is the god that will save you from my hand now he's saying you're the servants of the most high god i mean we're in the stepping in the right direction um he says come forth and come hither then shadrach meshach and abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire i think that's my favorite part of the story they had to be asked to come out of the fiery furnace hey you guys he had to ask him twice come forth out of the fire and he said come hither like he had to ask them to leave the fire furnace and that's where they wanted to stay it seems with jesus in the fiery furnace i know christians who would rather stay in the furnace with jesus than to have be out comfortably with everybody else well verse 27 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 fire passed upon them then um it says in verse 28 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 have 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 speaketh anything amiss against the god of shadrach meshach and abednego shall be cut in pieces and make their houses into piles of daniel because there is no other god that can deliver after the sword then the king promoted shadrach meshach and abednego in the province of babylon in some ways you almost wish he would have left a period in the middle of verse 29 um maybe before the cutting in pieces part but even if we include that part we should have put the period here um you know if you don't if you say anything against the god of shadrach meshach and abednego you'll be cut into pieces their house shall be made of daniel because there is no other god period that's what he should have said period but he didn't he said there's another god that can deliver after this sort meaning he still believes in other gods that's the sad understanding and we see this today there are people in your family there are people you work with that look at your life and say man there's something good about you and i'm really you've heard this i'm really glad you found your path good for you but it's not good for me it's just good for you that's where nebuchadnezzar is now in his in his journey through life good for you guys you have a god you really trust in hey anybody said anything bad about their god uh you know there's other gods but don't say anything about about their god uh or else i'll chop you up and put you in your house as a pilot don't you um he's just not there yet it's a sad understanding of who god is you've got to get to a place in your life where you realize there is no other god there's only one and you also have to get to the place where you realize there's no other way to heaven than that of jesus christ jesus said i am the way the truth of life no man comes to the father but by me you know the path to destruction it's wide the path to eternal life is narrow people don't like narrow you christians are so narrow-minded exactly you're right why does god make it so narrow i'm thankful for that you want to know why i think the lord made it narrow because we're stupid if there were many paths i think we'd all be taking the wrong paths but the lord says i'm going to make it really really easy we'll write this one out in crayola for you one way this this way not that way not that way not that just one way and i think that's really legit like i'm so thankful for the the singular way to heaven is through jesus christ and one of the things that the enemy will do is continue to think well there's many paths and i'm glad you found your path people aren't even saying that as much now if you're a christian and you're so narrow-minded to say jesus the only way people will hate you for that today but but that's the situation nebuchadnezzar this is the sad understanding that he has it's not a legitimate understanding of who god is yet but we're going to see him come to the right understanding in the next chapter we'll see that now before we pack it up we still have a few more minutes i've got one more observation in my list of things number eight you can jot this down nebuchadnezzar's observation well maybe a couple more things um uh one thing that nebuchadnezzar does observe accurately was what these guys did and it's noteworthy you could do a whole sermon just on these three these three things notice the things that he observes number one he says in verse 28 man you know he says to them the lord has delivered their servants and and this is what they did they trusted in god um this is the world looking in at these christian boys if you would or jewish boys um looking and saying man look at they at least they trusted their god that's what you and i should be doing just like shadrach meshach and abednego the second observation it says they changed the king's word now you might think whatever but but you understand this is the king that never has this word changed if nebuchadnezzar says it um that's the way it is or off with your head or poke your eyes out or make a golden head out of your head whatever it is but they nebuchadnezzar saying you guys did something nobody's ever done change the king's word and let me just tell you if you're faithful to god's word and you're going against the flow of this world um that's something you and i need to be aware we're going to change what the world is doing we're going to be different any dead fish can go with the flow you and i are called to go upstream and go a little bit against that changing the king's word so they trusted in god they changed the king's word and then i loved the last one they yielded their bodies and this is one of the themes that we've seen being willing to lay down our life if need be being bold enough and not afraid to worry about what might happen to us as christians and i think we're living in days where those kinds of things are becoming more and more reality so you've got this sad understanding even though the king gets those things you got the sad understanding now the final and last point of the evening you see in this chapter some scholars suggest that i think they're accurate a similarity a and maybe even a picture of the coming tribulation period daniel is a book of stories for sure but it's also a book of great prophecy and so it makes us prophecy guys kind of go wow there's some amazing correlations to certain things and remember one of the things that i'm going to show you as we continue through the book of daniel is how the book of daniel is called the key that unlocks the book of revelation and it's also it's like the mutual key revelation is the key that unlocks the book of daniel um i want to show you how this is uh this story is kind of similar uh as in just a few minutes of doing this how it's similar to the tribulation period remember the seven year period that's coming after the rapture of the church where god's going to part his wrath on a christ-rejecting sinful world the jewish nation will be saved during that time uh will be up in heaven because of the rapture that's the way i believe it's going to shake down so we see some similarities here in this chapter so jot these scriptures down um number one is revelation 17 and 18. if you know your bible prophecy during the tribulation period those two chapters talk about interestingly enough religious babylon and economic babylon you guys recall that if you're a bible buff there in the book of revelation during the time of the tribulation there's going to be a one world government a one world religion and a one world economic system globalism is one of the things we talk about quite a bit in our prophecy updates because in the tribulation period there's going to be a globalism that is realized and it's what they're trying to do right now and and this is where you can start seeing reasons for mandates of vaccines and and the world kind of coming together with all their stuff um you can see globalism and and some of that being really pushed by so many and by the way this current president is a globalist um and and i've done whole teachings and shown how we have a and they would even admit it i'm not arguing one political side versus the other i'm just saying what is is we are now globalists uh with this administration uh and trump was not a globalist i forget which prophecy update we were talking about but um trump's kind of the opposite of globalist and uh the current administration is very much globalist and and that's that's just the point is the the tribulation period is going to include religious and economic babylon and it's going to be a global situation um and uh and and the reason i say that is because we're talking about the the city of babylon in ancient times we're in the same sort of place that the bible sort of links to in the last days of babylon so so we we should have that hint of a link right there now if you flip over to the book of revelation go to revelation chapter 13 real quick well let's have you flip back there revelation 13. so the first one revelation 17 18 you can write next to that maybe you know religious and economic babylon there's a link to ancient babylon as far as the picture of the future but revelation 13 verses 14 through 18 what is going to happen well let's read this check check out if you see any similarity to daniel chapter 3. in revelation 13 verses 14 through 18 it says and uh he will deceive them um that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which had power to do in the sight of the beast the beast is the antichrist coming saying to them that dwell on the earth and they that should make an image to the beast which had the wound by the sword and did live and he had power to give life to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed just like nebuchadnezzar his image and if you didn't worship you'd be thrown into the fire furnace in verse 16 and he will cause all both small and great rich and for free and bond to receive a mark in their right hand or in their forehead and that no man by i might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or his number of his name here is wisdom let him that have understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man and his number is six hundred three score and sixty six six six six okay so the similarity is we we see here first of all is verse 17 and 18 uh pardon me chapter 17 18 religious and economic babylon verses 14 and 18 through 18 of chapter 13 to bow down to the image of the beast just like daniel 3. but there's another one as we look at verse 18 here that says the number of the beast is 666. now i'm not going to make too much of this i just find this interesting but how many sixes did we see in the daniel chapter 3. we saw several you saw that the statue is 60 cubits tall and six cubits wide but where's the next six there were six instruments listed over and over and over again in that chapter six of them it's kind of interesting um i'm not making a huge thing of that i just think it's interesting it goes in the interesting category um also uh check out revelation uh chapter 19 verse 20. who gets burned who gets burned um and then um let's take a look in revelation 19 verse 20 flip your page around there in revelation 19 20 it says this and the beast was taken with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone um so you got to understand there's an unholy trinity of the tribulation it's not it's he's always a duplicator he's an imitator satan satan is called the dragon in the book of trump revelation the tribulation period but the beast and the antichrist are sort of that unholy trinity if you would uh the beast the antichrist and the false prophet i should say what happens to these two guys they're thrown into the fire who was burned in the story back in daniel chapter 3 the biggest buffest toughest babylonian soldiers they're the ones who got burned okay are you guys with me so far who gets burned here these two guys not satan by the way satan gets burned in verse chapter 20 verse 10. the devil that was deceived them was cast in the lake of fire and brimstone there the beast and the false prophet are they already they're there from chapter 19 and they'll be tormented there day and night forever and ever that's interesting okay so you got who uh will be burned it's the false prophet and the beast are you guys with me there were a couple babylonian soldiers that were burned that brings the next question who was saved in the story of daniel 3 who gets saved in the book of revelation um or or in the end time scenario well that's where we read romans chapter 11 verse 26 romans remember it says at the time of the fullness of the gentiles what happens to israel anybody all of israel will be saved you see what's beautiful is the jews get saved in the story in the midst of the fiery furnace they get saved just like the whole point of the tribulation is the jews will be saved in the midst of the fiery trial of the tribulation period is with me so far so you've got these point for point matches um now we can sort of leave it there except for there's one problem where's daniel in the story where's daniel um and people wonder you know and i've heard people stupidly say well daniel must have just bowed down because he wasn't in the story that's total craziness and you'll see in the next chapters why there's no way this is daniel and daniel was the best of these guys by no question about that where was daniel i think that daniel remember daniel was put in charge of everything you know we don't know where daniel is he's not mentioned in the story uh here in daniel chapter three he's off somewhere else some people say maybe he's off on you know business uh as the top guy maybe he's off you know doing something from at some far away place but he's not there and i believe that could be a beautiful picture of the church of jesus christ whenever you have the wrath judgment stories of the old testament that are pictures of the the wrath of god being poured out on a christ-rejected sinful world there's always somebody who wasn't there people try to say well brett you believe the church is not going to go through the tribulation but and even in sodom and gomorrah you know god's wrath was poured out or or what like they tried to give you examples um you know and by the way who was it that god took out of sodom and gomorrah it would be lot he pulled them out before the wrath came down some people say yeah but what about the story of noah noah had to go through the tribulation of the flood and he and his family were saying yes beautiful picture of the jews how they're going to be saved in the tribulation who was missing from the story of the flood anybody enoch right before the flood read the book of genesis the lord saw this one dude who walked with god and pleased god and so god raptured him took him up didn't see death and he goes up and he's safe with the lord then the flood comes and noah and his family were saved through the flood same thing's going to happen in the tribulation period all the pictures perfectly align and there's always someone who's taken up out before the wrath is poured out are you guys with me on this it's kind of an important thing um so all this to say and we could go on if i if we had the time but um there's there's so much here you can maybe do a little more digging you'll see little nuances of chapter three that very much parallel and match the the tribulation period the fiery trial that's coming and it's going to save the jews in the midst of the fire trial the church is not going to be there because we're going to be taken up to be with the lord are we clear good good good let's pray lord how thankful we are for so great a story these daniel stories are classic and and powerful um lord give us the understandings we need help us to be like the shadrach meshach and abednego's that we're bold and unafraid lord give us the confidence in your word and in your truth show us lord in these days what we're supposed to speak out about what we're to be silent on show us the things that matter help your church to be bold in the things you want us to be bold in lord i pray that we wouldn't put our calling on everybody else because we think lord sometimes everybody's called to the same thing but i'm so thankful you use different people to carry different messages and you you put different proclivities and powers on different people and lord may we all use what you've given us rightly each one of us doing our role that you've called us to do lord so uh give us wisdom in these days lord we pray for those that are hurting and going through hard times people that are losing their jobs and people that are sick and people that are uh stuck in afghanistan and people down in new orleans that are hurting as the this massive hurricane uh horrible damage lord we just see so many people suffering and hurting but we know that you care about all of these things so do your will work your will in our lives lord may we be strong in these days we live in jesus name amen you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 13,550

Rating: 4.9107504 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: GT2AjT_Kgg8

Length: 76min 15sec (4575 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 01 2021