True Faith | Daniel 3 | Gary Hamrick

we come to one of the more familiar stories in all of the book of daniel next to i suppose the story of Daniel and the Lions Den which happens in Chapter six here in Chapter three is probably the second best known story in the book of Daniel and it has to do with Daniels Fran's Hananiah Azariah and Mishael who refused to bow down to a pagan statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has built and has ordered everybody to bow down to and as a result these three guys get thrown into a fiery furnace the location of this story is again Babylon we're talking modern Iraq ancient Babylon is where this story takes place where these three guys Ananias RI and Mishael along with their friend Daniel have been relocated as prisoners of war taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon roughly the year 606 BC these guys were teenagers at the time they were taken then as exiles as captives from Jerusalem the 900 miles or so to Babylon and these four guys will end up being trained to be advisors to the king to Nebuchadnezzar and so they are indoctrinated in the ways of Babylon the language literature the customs their religion which was obviously very different these guys were Jews and worship the only God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the God of the Bible they are now transported and completely against their will into an environment that is ungodly and pagan and they are having to learn the ways of their pagan culture but all along the way they never bowed to the pressure they never compromise their own personal values their own personal relationship with God they never lost their identity as to who they were in the Lord and so even though they're thrust into this environment against their will they remain true to the Lord they remained strong for the Lord they remained steadfast in the Lord and and they were unwavering in these ways and and so what we find happening in chapter 2 just as a as a repeat of last week's study to bring us up to speed they're about 18 years of age at the time in chapter 2 and Nebuchadnezzar has this troubling he wants his advisors to interpret the dream and at first tell him what the dream was and his own advisers couldn't do it so he has them put to death by inspiration from the Lord Daniel receives Nebuchadnezzar's dream and its interpretation and when Daniel presents all of that to Nebuchadnezzar the king is so impressed with Daniel and the fact that Daniels God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob has revealed this that Nebuchadnezzar this pagan ungodly King actually acknowledges the true and living God at the end of chapter 2 verse 47 Nebuchadnezzar out of his own mouth he says now I know Daniel that your God is the god of gods and the king that rather and the Lord of kings and so he acknowledges at the end of chapter 2 that in fact the God of the Bible is the true god but how many of you understand there's a big difference between acknowledging God in the moment and surrendering to God for a lifetime a lot of people acknowledge God in the moment oh he landed the plane safely oh praise God you know he got me that promotion he saw me through this difficult time a lot of people acknowledged God in the moment but there's a big difference between that and surrendering to him for a lifetime Nebuchadnezzar was a guy who acknowledged God but time passes and so does his acknowledgment of God he never really surrenders to God between chapters 2 & 3 scholars tell us that there's a gap of about 15 to 20 years so by the time you get here to chapter 3 Daniel and his three friends are about thirty years of age give or take and having forgotten the God that he acknowledged at the end of chapter two Nebuchadnezzar builds instead an idol made of gold and he commands everybody in his country within the the Empire of the Babylonian Kingdom to bow down to this idol so the year now is about 590 BC and this chapter chapter 3 is about how Daniels three friends Hananiah Mishael and Azariah otherwise known through the text by their Babylonian names that they had been given Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Daniels not mentioned in this chapter we don't know where he is or why he's not involved in this we can only speculate it's not we're speculating but these three Jewish guys now around the age of 30 refuse to bow down they refuse to worship this Idol and so they're going to be willing to suffer the consequences for it this is the story now and this is the backdrop to our chapter chapter 3 I'm gonna read the first eighteen verses Nebuchadnezzar the King made an image of gold whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the say traps administrators the governors the counselors the treasurer's the judges the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up so the state traps the administrators the governors the counselors the treasurer's the judges the magistrates and all the officials of the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up then a herald cried aloud to you it is commanded O peoples nations and languages that at the time you hear the sound of the horn flute harp lyre and psaltery in Symphony with all kinds of music you shall fall down and worship the gold image the King Nebuchadnezzar has set up and whoever does not fall down in worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace so at that time when all the people heard the sound of the horn flute harp and liar in Symphony with all kinds of music all the people nations and languages fell down and worship the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up therefore at the time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews they spoke and said the King Nebuchadnezzar Oh King live forever you O king have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn the flute harp lyre and sultry and symphony with all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the gold image and whoever does not fall down in worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace there are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon Shadrach Meshach and Abednego these men O king have not paid due regard to you they do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury gave the command to bring Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and so they brought these men before the King Nebuchadnezzar spoke saying to them is it true Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that you do not serve any gods or worship the gold image which I have set up now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn flute harp lyre and salt you know they don't want to leave anybody out any of the musicians outs they're gonna repeat it every time in symphony with all kinds of music and you fall down in worship the image which I have made well good but if you do not worship then you shall be cast immediately in the midst of a burning fiery furnace and who is the God who will deliver you from my hands well he's gonna find out Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king o Nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter if that is the case our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand O king but if not let it be known to you O king we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up let's pause there and pray father thank you for this word now as we look into this ancient story we pray that you would give us the same courage the same resolve as the these three guys had to honor you in all aspects of our lives we love you and praise you and we thank you that you first loved us and sent Jesus to die for us on a cross we give you thanks in in Jesus name we pray and everybody said amen what hardships are you willing to endure for the sake of your Christian faith when the rubber meets the road will you be a person who was bold for the Lord or bashful about the Lord how much are you able to trust God when circumstances look really bleak these are just some of the questions facing Hananiah Azariah and Mishael otherwise known by their babylonian names hear Meshach Abednego and Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and we're gonna answer these as we look at how they dealt with these things that they were faced with as well now again these guys have been appointed as advisors to the king and as such they were required to bow down to this image that the King had built this golden image that is described here in chapter 3 is probably not solid gold it's probably wooden that is overlaid with gold it's dimensions are a little odd now the measurements are given to us in the ancient Babylonian cubit measurement and if we translate it in in today's terms it stood about 90 feet tall and nine feet wide that's also it was more like a pillar like a totem pole it was kind of you know out of out of proportion to be ninety feet tall but only nine feet at the base so it's ten times taller than it was wider and and this is that image this pole this this like a column that gets set up here some say it's it's the image of the statue from Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Chapter two he's kind of immortalizing the dream the image that he saw others say that it might be an image of Nebuchadnezzar himself that he's had fashioned in this way that he wants people to bow down and worship and still others say that it probably is an image of the principal god of the Babylonians who at the time his name was Belle ve al but we don't know we don't we don't really know exactly why it was built and for whom it was built it was just built and this much we do know that whenever the music sounded you had to start whatever you were doing and bow down and worship it that's what he required of everybody and that if you didn't you would be immediately thrown into a fiery furnace that would be the punishment and so what is also known in this story is that Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refused to bow down and worship it because it was a direct violation of God's law you know it's a direct violation of the second commandment in Exodus chapter 20 verses 4 & 5 it says you shall not make for yourself a carved image any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath and that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them nor serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous god remember when these young men came to Babylon even as teenagers like 15 years of age or so they came with at least 15 or 16 years of a solid foundation in the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and and the law of God and so they understood the commandments of God they understood they had a relationship with God and again they were unwavering in this so when they're told you need to bow down and worship this Idol they instantly recall second commandment Exodus chapter 20 not gonna do it and and so they stood for what they knew to be true and there are times when civil disobedience might actually be necessary now again I want to make sure that I caution and what I'm saying here because I'm not advocating for any kind of anarchy but I'm simply saying that there may be times when the law of man that is to say government in this case the king imposes a law that is in direct violation of the law of God and listen my friends as Christ followers if ever there is a law of man that contradicts the higher law of God we must always obey the higher law of God and suffer the consequences that might be because God must be supremely honored and worshiped and obeyed and so here we have this case where a king is actually made a commandment made a law that violates God's law and these guys say we're not going to do it you see others are examples of civil disobedience in the Bible by the way Exodus chapter 1 is another good example when Pharaoh the most powerful King on the planet at that orders the Hebrew midwives to start aborting this is basically partial birth abortion start aborting any Jewish baby that's a boy to try to curtail the growing Hebrew slave population but the Hebrew midwives in Exodus chapter 1 it says but they feared God not the king and so they refused to abort those babies he also seen in Acts chapter 5 where Peter and John who were ordered not to preach the gospel in the streets but they refused saying we must obey God rather than man so there are times when there's a conflict between the higher law of God and the lower law of man hopefully man's laws are derived from the higher ordinance of God but when not and when in conflict we must obey the higher law of God and these guys rose up to the occasion and said sorry King we're gonna suffer the consequences whatever they may be but we're not gonna bow down to your idol now they actually got ratted out they got ratted out by some of the other advisors to the king it says Chaldeans in the New King James I think it says astrologers in the NIV again these are guys who tapped into the demonic they didn't just study the constellation that's fine they worship the constellation and they tapped into the demonic things and as I said earlier in the past few weeks you can trace all occult worship back to its roots in ancient Babylon the advisors around the King were jealous they were jealous that Daniel and his three buddies had solved the riddle in Chapter two and so as a way of just getting vengeance they rat out these guys who are not bowing down to King Nebuchadnezzar statues so these three guys that rather these advisers go to King Nebuchadnezzar and they say to him King remember those three guys back in chapter 2 who helped Daniel with that whole dream interpretation thing yeah I know you really liked him but listen here's here's here's the lowdown on them they're not bowing down they're not bowing down to your golden image when you start playing the soundtrack from Lion King they don't they just say like man we're not going to do it and so they don't bow down to the golden image and we just thought that you ought to know and so they rat out these guys well verse 15 says that Nebuchadnezzar is furious verse 13 he's furious about this he goes into a rage and has shadrach meshach and abednego brought before him and he basically confronts them is this true is what I've heard and I'm gonna give you a second chance now you hear the sound of the music you bow down and worship my golden image that I've built here fine if you don't though you're gonna get thrown under the fiery furnace and they reply with great courage in verse 16 Shadrach Meshach and Abednego answer instead of the king o Nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter it's like we don't to give you an explanation we don't owe you an explanation we're just gonna honor God they were unapologetic about their unwavering devotion to God and they were willing to accept whatever consequences for it even if it meant death and what we find in their reaction are three important points about faith and one important point about God himself I want you to notice the way that they respond to this whole command to bow down and worship this golden image what it teaches us about faith and what it teaches us about God first by way of a working definition for faith in biblical terms faith is trust confidence and a firm reliance upon God trust confidence and a firm reliance upon God now there are actually three types of faith mentioned in the Bible when you think about it there are different types of faith mentioned three kinds and these are number one saving faith that's what you and I exercise when we come into a relationship with Jesus this is Ephesians 2:8 and 9 that were saved through faith not by works we don't work our way to heaven we get saved because we have faith in Jesus that's saving faith the second kind of faith we see in the Bible is a gift of faith there are gifts mentioned throughout the New Testament the lion's share of them are mentioned in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 faith is listed as a gift that God gives some people as a special ability to rely on him in difficult situations and you may have this gift or you may know someone who has this gift it's like you know you're your own little world can be just exploding in every direction and yet you have just this calm reliance upon God just this firm hold and you're just like abiding with him and it's just a person of faith and and that is an admirable thing if you have the gift of faith when your world is falling apart you you are a wonderful example of the rest of us because those of us who don't don't like you I mean those of us who lack faith you ever been in a situation raggy you don't have much faith and then your world is you know falling apart and you look at somebody else who has the gift of faith you're like why aren't you wigging out like I am that's because they had the gift of faith and they just trust God trusting faith is also the kind of faith that the Bible mentions and that's when you believe God who is able to work on your behalf and that's the kind of faith we see demonstrated here in Daniel chapter 3 the response of these guys to Nebuchadnezzar in verse 17 is commendable they say to him if that is the case in other words if this is the ultimatum you're giving us bow down to this Idol or be thrown into the fiery furnace our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand O king but if not let it be known to you O king that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up now friends this is true faith this is probably one of the best examples of pure faith in all of the Bible because please notice they did not presume upon God they did not say that God we serve will save us they said that God we serve is able to save us some people think unfortunately that true faith is focusing on or confessing a desired result that if you believe for a specific thing and confess that specific thing long enough and declare it boldly enough that somehow God's obligated to do it like we can boss God around or something like I'm just gonna keep saying this over and over and over again the desired result that I want and God's going to somehow perform it like he's some kind of a circus animal that is not genuine faith that is missplay faith that is faith in the results not faith in God so what they're teaching us here by their response are some important things and here's the first one faith should be in God's ability not in the desired result faith should be in God's ability now listen I understand we are to pray specific prayers Philippians 4:6 yes we are to believe in not doubt James 1:6 but we are to believe that not doubt in the one who was able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we could hope or imagine not in the results themselves some of you might think this is semantics it's not this is an important distinction to many people just go around confessing the result that they want and think that's faith it is not faith in the results it is faith in the one who was able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we could Oprah imagine Ephesians 3 verse 20 and Jeremiah reminds us in Jeremiah 32 17 our Lord God behold you have made the heavens of the earth by your great power and outstretched arm there's nothing too hard for you so God is able but our faith needs to be in him secondly God does not work according to our wish but according to his will God has a will his will is perfect his will is always on time his will is always best for you and me but it might not be the same as your will you ever noticed that sometimes sometimes your will your desires your wish not necessarily God's and guess what one of those two is always better and it ain't yours it ain't mine it's always God's God's will is always best always better and it is okay for us to defer to the will of God now I've heard some people some people have challenged me on this kind of thing listen pastor G don't ever end a prayer saying you know may God's will be done because you know just confess what you want and trust God that's real faith no no that's not real faith see because I have a will and my will may not be aligned with God's so I always want God's best and so I want to defer my will to his I'm gonna bend to my will to his it's actually kind of biblical do you remember let's see it was Jesus who in the Garden of Gethsemane his humanity actually wanted to avoid the pain of the Cross in his humanity but he wanted to also obey the will of the Father and so in Luke chapter 22 verse 42 he said father if you are willing take this cup from me yet not my will but yours be done he deferred to the will of the Father he says I if there's any other way to accomplish the planet Redemption without the pain of the cross I'd like to go that route but if not then your will be done I'm the first one I'm the first one to pray in a similar way like you know Lord I don't want to really learn this the hard way if there's another way I can learn this I'd rather have the easier way but nevertheless your will be done isn't that we're taught actually by Jesus in us in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 verse 10 part of the Lord's first your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven John would write in 1st John 5:14 this is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us so deferring to the will of God is not a weak prayer it is a meek prayer and it is asking him for his best and to align my will with his so that he might do his good work in my life number three this is also an important distinction the results do not define the relationship with God the commitment of these guys in this story was not dependent upon the outcome their commitment to God was not dependent upon the outcome in other words it wasn't this ultimatum like if God doesn't do this then I'm really gonna be disappointed in God they just they just had this faith in the Lord and in his ability and it and it did not waver depending on whatever the outcome would be that's why they could say like they did in verse 18 when they just kind of step see again they just step out of the way and defer to the will of God and so in in verse 18 where they said but if not you know if God doesn't do what we hope let it be known to you O king that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up they had a resolve that transcended the results they had a relationship with God that was deeper than their desires so that even if things didn't go their way it wouldn't change their confidence in God yes I mean always we should hope for the get best and pray for the best but pray for the best and leave the rest because God is gonna do his good work in his timing and so it shouldn't affect our relationship with him I see too many people who lose hope and God because God didn't do what they had hoped listen if God doesn't show up in the way that you want he's still God he's still God if I am persistent in prayer and believe that God is able and defer to his will and trust that he has my best interest at heart then if the outcome is not what I had hoped for it's no reflection on me that I didn't have enough faith and it's no reflection on God that he somehow must not love me or care enough about me sometimes God says yes sometimes God says no and sometimes God says not now we always wanted to say yes but sometimes the best for a thing for us is for him to say no don't don't let that get your yourself all twisted or not like God said no I can't believe he said no and why isn't this happened have you ever seen your kids react like that when you tell them no no don't be like that to God sometimes he says no it's for it's for our better good and sometimes he says not now and we just have to wait there are simply some purposes and plans of God that we may not understand the side of heaven and so here's what happens most of you know how the story ends God shows up in a very powerful way these three guys are thrown into the fiery furnace and all of a sudden they see a fourth man in the fire with them I'm gonna pick up the story at the end of chapter three verse 24 and then that the kidneys er was astonished and he rose in haste and spoke saying to his counselors did we not cast three men bound in the midst of the fire they answered and said of the king true O king look he answered I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they are not hurt and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God and indeed it was this is what we call in Old Testament terms at christophany which is an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament before he comes by way of the virgin birth in the New Testament Jesus appears different times in the Old Testament because he always has been always is always shall be being equal and being one with God Jesus appears here and he visits these three guys in the butt in the fiery furnace and verse 26 the Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke saying Shadrach Meshach and Abednego servants of the Most High God come out and come here and then Shadrach Meshach and Abednego came from the midst of the fire and thus a traps administrators governors and the king's counselors gathered together and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power and the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected and the smell of fire was not on them Nebuchadnezzar spoke saying blessed be the god of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and they have frustrated the Kings word and yielded their bodies that they should not serve nor worship any God except their own God therefore now notice so he he's had another Epiphany you know at the end of chapter two he has his Epiphany but time passes acknowledged God but he didn't surrender to God now he's gonna get another opportunity to see the manifest revelation of God Jesus among Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace Nebuchadnezzar is like this is the true and living God this is the guy here this is the one verse 29 therefore I make a decree that any people nation or language which speaks anything amiss against the god of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made an ash heap because there is no other God who can deliver like this okay not the best evangelistic approach like believe in this God or I'm gonna cut you to pieces but nevertheless what happens here is the name of the true and living God is proclaimed throughout the land of the Babylonian Empire because God showed up here and it's the last point I want to leave us with three at first three points about faith this last point about God he does not always prevent us from the fire but he will preserve us through it think about it this way if Nebuchadnezzar had given a pass to these three guys when they objected about bowing down to the idol if Nebuchadnezzar said okay all right listen your buddy Daniel gave the answer to the whole dream thing back in chapter 2 so okay I'm gonna give you a pass and I'm gonna let you go head back to your dorm room and just keep it under you know keep it under a lid I don't want I don't want people knowing that I've given you pass and haven't thrown into the fiery furnace if he had done that who would have ever seen the faithfulness of God nobody would have seen the manifest presence of the Lord but now God gets national notoriety here why because three guys were faithful to just be unwavering in their devotion to the Lord and even though they had to suffer some intended consequences because of it God showed up in a wonderful way to preserve them through it and there are times that God will allow us to go through the fire so he can show his faithfulness in it if God always think about this if God always prevented us from ever having to go through the hard and difficult things how would we ever really see his faithfulness if we never had to experience the difficulties and trials of life because God was so gracious to prevent us and I'm sure no doubt God has prevented us in unknown ways from going through difficulties and hardships but if that's the way he always dealt with us how would we ever really see his faithfulness through it and I don't know about you but the times I've seen the greatest times of God's faithfulness in my life has been through the difficulties it's been through the hardships and so trusting him and seeing his manifest presence becomes noted by an entire nation here and a king who once again will acknowledge and maybe perhaps even surrender eventually to the Lord you know Nebuchadnezzar is going to go through a journey of his own spiritually and he goes back and forth between paganism and the worship of the true and living God I personally think I don't know this for sure I personally think we may very well see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven because this is a guy who has been given many chances and he acknowledges the Lord and I think by the end of his life you're gonna see here later in Daniel how he surrenders I don't know for sure but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him there all I know is this this closing example for us sometimes the greater miracle is not that God prevents us from going through something difficult but instead how he shows himself faithful through it may we stand strong in trusting the Lord Isaiah the prophet said in Isaiah 43223 when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned nor shall the flames scorch you for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your savior amen father we thank you for the example of these guys who were just unwavering in their devotion to you we thank you for the lessons on faith they knew that you were able but they still deferred to your perfect will regardless they refuse to compromise their relationship with you they had faith in you Lord not in the results they trusted you and your will not their wishes their confidence was that you would do your good work and it wouldn't affect their relationship with you either way help us to be so faith-filled that we can face the different challenges of our lives and even through those trials when things don't always work out the way we initially hope thank you Lord that you're in those trials with us that you never leave us nor forsake us and while no doubt you've prevented us from having to go through things that we may never know this side of heaven we thank you that when we do go through difficulties you're right there with us showing us your faithfulness thank you Lord for loving us thank you for sending your son Jesus to die on a cross for us we love you and we praise you in Jesus name and everybody said amen and amen god bless you

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, bible study, book of revelation, end times signs latest events 2019, bible study lessons, bible study with me, bible study for beginners, Capilla del calvario, Capilla de piedra angular, 各各教堂, 基石教堂, Часовня на Голгофе, Угловая часовня, حجر الزاوية مصلى, مصلى الجلجلة

Id: O8C_9M9tXyE

Length: 34min 17sec (2057 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 23 2019