Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20110123.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Daniel: Hope And Direction In A Troublesome World
D. Holding Firm To God's Word To Impact The World In God's Agenda
(Daniel 3:1-30)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    The depth of spiritual error and sin in our world is so great, we as individual believers may wonder if we can make any impact for the Lord, and if so, just HOW ! We illustrate this issue as follows:

    Last Monday, January 17, 2011, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Eboo Patel's article, "MLK was a faith visionary, too," in the nationwide paper, USA TODAY, p. 9a sought to use the day to extol "interfaith harmony". The author summed: "King insisted that . . . pluralism is part of divine plan. To paraphrase one of his most enduring statements: The world is not divided between black and white or Christian and Muslim, but between those who would live together as brothers and those who would perish together as fools."

    Now, for us to critique Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today is very politically incorrect -- even the editorial page of the paper cited above had invited letters from people around the nation to laud his ideals and legacy. However, the claim that religious pluralism, the tendency to "be tolerant, nonconfrontative, and concessive" with opposing doctrinal beliefs, is part of God's plan, is simply not true! (John H. Armstrong, gen. ed., The Coming Evangelical Crisis (1996), p. 156) Jesus Himself prayed to the Father in John 17:14-17 NIV for His followers, saying: "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of it. Sanctify (Greek "Set them apart . . .") by the truth; your word is truth." (parenthesis from the ESV footnote to John 17:17)

    However, we may wonder how we as individual believers can possibly make any impact for the Lord in such a world that so widely and strongly promotes religious pluralism in contrast to Jesus' words!



    Accordingly, in preparation for this message, we ask, "In our very spiritually dark world, how can I personally possibly make any kind of impact for the Lord?!"

    Need: "What can I personally possibly do to have any kind of impact for the Lord in our spiritually very dark and troubled world?!"

  1. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had to obey Scripture at all costs though doing so seemed futile in their world, Daniel 3:1-18:
    1. Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar built an imposing image that was likely covered with gold, one standing 90 feet high by 9 feet wide, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon, Daniel 3:1; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Daniel 3:1.
    2. He then gathered all of his administration officials before the image and told them to fall down and worship it when certain beautiful music played or they would be cast into a fiery furnace, Daniel 3:2-6.
    3. This was Nebuchadnezzar's effort to solidify his dominion both politically and religiously by constituting himself "as both head of state and head of religion," Bible Knowledge Com., O. T. , p. 1338.
    4. Under the influence of the moving music, the awesome image, the peer group of other officials and the threat of death, the vast majority of the officials obeyed the king and fell before the image, Daniel 3:7!
    5. However, as Daniel was possibly absent from this event, his fellow Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, did not fall down, so their Chaldean foes who were jealous of their position of rule told the king of their disobedience to him, Dan. 3:8-12; Ibid., p. 1338-1339.
    6. An infuriated Nebuchadnezzar summoned the Hebrews, giving them a second chance to heed his call and adding that no god could deliver them out of his hands, that they had to obey him or die, Dan. 3:13-15.
    7. However, in Exodus 20:2-6, the God of Israel had commanded these Hebrews NOT to bow down or to worship any other god but Himself.
    8. Caught between the king's directive and Scripture's command, the three Hebrews chose to obey God at all costs, Daniel 3:16-18.
    9. Such costly obedience seemed humanly unproductive: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had seen God advance them for obeying Him (Daniel 2:17, 49), so now to die a violent death for failing to heed the pressures of the spiritually dark world around them in heeding God's Word to the full humanly left such obedience to God looking futile!
  2. However, God had sovereignly allowed this set of circumstances to develop to expose and check evil in the kingdom of Babylon for the welfare of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and for God's glory:
    1. Nebuchadnezzar's idea of building a gold image rose from the Daniel 2 dream that God gave him where he himself was the head of gold, Ibid., p. 1337. The king's ego led him to use Daniel's interpretation of that dream that his kingdom was the best (Dan. 2:37-39a) to exalt himself in building this image not only that he might be political head of Babylon, but head of its religious faith in violation of God's glory!
    2. Also, some Chaldean officials were jealous of the past promotion of the three Hebrews over them, and this jealousy was a dire threat to the future welfare of these men if it were left unchecked! (Ibid., p. 1339)
    3. God thus arranged for the king to have the Daniel 2 dream that events might be set in motion to expose and check sin in Nebuchadnezzar and his officials who were dangerously jealous of the Hebrews. It was all thus necessary for the welfare of the Hebrews and for God's glory!
  3. Accordingly, God used the commitment of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey His Word at all costs to fulfill this His agenda:
    1. Nebuchadnezzar's rage was so great at the refusal of the Hebrews to heed him, the furnace was heated 7 times hotter, and the soldiers who threw the men into the fire died in the effort involved, Dan. 3:19, 22.
    2. Usually, the victims were stripped of their clothes before being cast into the fire, but the king was so angry, they were quickly bound in their clothes and cast into the fire, Daniel 3:20-21, 23; Ibid., p. 1340.
    3. Yet, Nebuchadnezzar was then shocked to see four men loosed and walking in the fire, with the fourth appearing to be a supernatural being, possibly the Preincarnate Christ, Daniel 3:24-25; Ibid.
    4. Nebuchadnezzar told the Hebrews to come out of the fire, and when they did, no affect of the fire was discernible on them, Dan. 3:26-27.
    5. At this point, Babylon's king acknowledged the God of the Hebrews had sent His angel to deliver His servants that they might serve Him and not Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 3:28. The king then made a decree that no one say anything bad about the God of these three men or be violently slain (Dan. 3:29), and he promoted the Hebrews higher, all of which curtailed the threat of the jealous Chaldean foes, Dan. 3:30!
Application: To have real impact in a humanly overwhelmingly bad world, (1) may we trust in Christ to become a child of God, John 1:11-12. (2) May we then rely on the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16-23) (3) to obey Scripture fully though doing so seems futile to us at the time, (4) trusting that God's sovereignty and goodness will make us effective in view of His great plan for world history!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 God in His great grace illustrated this message this past week in a wonderful way:

One of our Church members called me Thursday evening excited about some edifying news on the job! He had been talking with a coworker in a discussion on the world's many problems and their seeming lack of human solutions. At this point, our member recalled last Sunday's morning sermon, and testified how the Daniel 2 dream actually predicted the era in which we live with its problems, giving us insight in how we are to live constructively in our time!

This sparked such great interest in the coworker that our member gave the coworker a copy of last Sunday's sermon notes, and he even welcomed a study Bible from this Christian to read for his insight!

Our Church member called to tell me how grateful he was for the message that was given last week, and I replied how grateful I was that he had testified God's truth on the job where I could not go that the coworker might receive the insight he needed!

Remarkably in tune with this message, this member also told how he used to dread going to work because of all of the ungodly speech he faced there. In fact, he often ate his lunch alone just to get away from it all! However, now he looked forward to going to work because it now involves a priceless ministry to this coworker!

That led me to recall times past when I dreaded even coming down to the Church building to minister either in preparing messages or in presenting them to the congregation. Circumstances and trials involved had made me dread my job, too, but now I am also motivated by God's grace and encouragement to continue in His assignment here!

In retrospect, this member and I both can see how God has so orchestrated events in both of our lives that WHEN we EACH OBEYED God in OUR OWN RESPECTIVE LIVES to the FULL, the LORD could them make us BOTH EFFECTIVE in His plan REGARDLESS if the effort at FIRST seemed UNPRODUCTIVE!



May we then OBEY GOD'S WORD to the FULL even if DOING so HUMANLY SEEMS UNPRODUCTIVE at the time: like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, its the ONLY way for GOD to MAXIMIZE our EFFECTIVENESS in a NEEDY world!