Faith and the Fiery Furnace, Part 1

Let's bow in a moment of prayer, all right? Father, we thank you, Lord, for tonight. You truly are a great God. We thank you for how you work. You've worked in our lives. You've brought us here this evening. We are grateful. You have kept us safe. We are grateful. You've kept us healthy, and again, we are grateful. Lord, you've done some great things. You're working in our country as you see fit. We know, Lord, that for the most part, America's been abandoned because of our own iniquity. And yet, Lord, there are people still being saved.

And you haven't come back yet because you're still building your church. And when that last person in the church comes to saving grace, you will come to take us home. Until that time, Lord, our prayer is that we remain faithful, true, always, always looking to you. We thank you for the book of Daniel. We thank you for the things that you're teaching us, the things you're going to teach us. We have many weeks yet to go. When it's all said and done, Lord, we will have studied an incredible amount of prophecy, been exhorted, encouraged, challenged, convicted, all those things, Lord.

The study of your word is absolutely the most incredible thing we can ever do this side of eternity, because you speak to us through your word. You show us yourself. You teach us about who you are and what you've done. At the same time, Lord, your spirit illuminates our hearts and minds to the truth that we might be able to stand strong. So we thank you for that, and ask that, Lord, tonight would be no different, that you would continue to work in and among us as your people, in Jesus' name, amen.

Daniel chapter three, Daniel chapter three, probably one of the most familiar stories in all the scriptures. Like, if you were like me growing up, we used to have flannel graphs. Remember those things? And they would have different images of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they'd have, you know, a fiery furnace, and they'd stick it up on the board, and there'd be King Nebuchadnezzar in the golden image and all that kind of stuff. And everybody knows about the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.

But there is so much in chapter three, I thought that we would take some time, at least three weeks, to go through this chapter. When we're done, we'll be at the end of November, and we'll have a Thanksgiving Eve service. We'll be here at the church. And we're gonna look at being grateful for God's remembering us.

Have you ever studied that, when God remembers you? All throughout the scripture, it talks about, and God remembered Joseph, and God remembered Hannah. And God remembered Israel. That phrase, and God remembers, is such a fabulous phrase. So we're gonna take you through that on Thanksgiving Eve, just to help you understand that God hasn't forgotten you. He still remembers you. He remembers you by name. And so He knows everything about you. He has not forgotten, even though you might think He has. He has not.

So that will take us to the end of November. Then we'll take that break in December, like we normally do, and come back together in January. That's the schedule. Next thing you know, it'll be 2022, and we're off to the races once again. But all that to say, is that in Daniel chapter three, there's so much for us to be able to study together. You have these three friends of Daniel. Three friends that had their names changed, like Daniel did. Because they really thought that, if they changed the names of these young Hebrew boys, it would affect their lives, and cause them to look at pagan gods.

It didn't. Why? Because you can change the name of someone, but you can't change the nature of someone. That takes a transformation from the inside out. So, you know, Hananiah and Azariah, these men were men of God, and their nature was strong. In fact, if you remember well, you know that Hananiah's name means that Lord is gracious. His name, of course, was changed to Shadrach. Because that means that he has been illuminated by the sun god. And they wanted Shadrach to see things their way, not his God's way.

And then you have Mishael, whose name means who is like our God. There is none like our God. But they changed his name to Meshach, which means who is like the moon god. Because they studied the moon gods, and they believed that they were paramount. So they wanted to compare the moon god with Mishael's God. And then, of course, there was Azariah, whose name means the Lord helps. And, of course, his name was changed to Abednego, which means servant of Nebo. Little did Nebuchadnezzar know, or anybody else know, that these men lived in conjunction to their names.

They lived a life that honors and glorifies the Lord. And so when you look at Daniel chapter three, as familiar as the narrative is, and we look at these men who stood courageous, who stood confident, who would not compromise, they would stand strong when no one else was standing with them.

Daniel's not in this chapter, only chapter he's not in in the book of Daniel. There's various reasons as to why he might not be here. We don't know. But we do know that Daniel's influence in the lives of these men is great. And the question comes when you come to chapter three, when is it? Is it right after chapter two? Some believe it is. Others believe it's another 16 to 18, maybe even 20 years down the road. How do we know that? Well, the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament, says that Nebuchadnezzar built the statue in the 18th year of his reign.

If he did, that would mean 16 years after Daniel's interpretation of the dream, which would be chapter two, is when he would build the image. And so when you think about that, in all that the prophecies of chapter two tell us, the king is realizing that he is the golden head of the image. There's been no silver kingdom that's come. There's been no bronze kingdom, no iron kingdom, and no miraculous stone that flies around and destroys the bottom of the image. So Nebuchadnezzar begins to build an image of his own.

And some would say, because he is referred to as Nebuchadnezzar the king, many times in the scriptures, but seven times of the nine references in Daniel, he is called Nebuchadnezzar the king in chapter three. And so some would believe that if it is that long, then after the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem and taking that third group back captive, he would see himself as the ultimate king.

He is the world empire. He rules the world in his mind. So why wouldn't he build an image to himself? So let me read to you just the first eight verses, because that's how far we're gonna get this evening.

And it says, verse one, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was 60 cubits, and it's with six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent word to assemble the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the rulers of the provinces were assembled for the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald loudly proclaimed, to you the command is given, O peoples, nations, and men of every language, that at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. But whoever does not fall down in worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace, a blazing fire. Therefore, at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and men of every language fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.

All that is but three. There were three that did not, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Have you ever had the opportunity in your own personal life to hold firm, to hold fast to your convictions? When I talk about convictions, I'm talking about holding fast to the truth of God's word. You have a conviction, and that conviction has to be based not on your opinion. A conviction is based on what God has said. It's rooted in truth, right? And so you have to stand strong on a conviction. What has God said about this or that?

And so my convictions are based on what God has already said about something, right? I have a firm conviction about the truth. As Proverbs says, you need to buy truth and never sell truth, right? You need to purchase truth, need to preserve truth. You must never pervert the truth, why? Because the truth is everything. So I have a firm conviction about the truth. I don't want to compromise the word of God. I don't want to compromise my stand on the word of God. So whatever conviction I have, it's rooted in the fact that God is true, and his word is true.

So important. And I made a commitment a long time ago when I was in college that I was not going to compromise on the truth of God's word. I'd gone off to a Bible college, and I had been there for the first semester, and it was the second semester of my freshman year.

I'd had a football scholarship out of high school, and my parents had counseled me away from that and said, look, you can always go back and take your scholarship, but we need you to go to one year of Bible college, just one year. That's what we want you to do. So I did. Right or wrong, that's what I did. And so I went to Bible college. And then in that second semester, I was so challenged by the word of God.

I was challenged by a guy who came to speak in our chapels who never stood behind a pulpit. So if you wanna know why I don't stand behind a pulpit, this is why. I had just turned 19 years of age, okay? And this guy came down from the pulpit and walked in and among the students and looked him in the eye and spoke to them. I thought to myself, this guy, man, is unlike any preacher I've ever heard. And he really does care about people's lives so much so that he wants to come and speak right at us. That made a big difference in my life.

But this whole thing was about truth. This whole sermon was about truth and never compromising the truth. I realized that God had called me to somehow communicate that truth. Didn't know what that looked like. Didn't know I was gonna be in the pastoral ministry. I just knew that God had called me to communicate that truth. So I committed at the second semester of my freshman year in college that Lord, whatever you want me to do, wherever you want me to go, I am committed to preaching and teaching the truth of God's word.

And God opened many doors with me over the years as a baseball coach, as a dean in a school, as a college chaplain. Many opportunities God gave me and I thanked him for it. And I realized over time that God had called me to preach. I moved out here in 1988 and was an associate pastor at a megachurch in Orange County and was there for almost five years before I took the pastorate at Church of the Open Door. And I went there because I truly believe that God had called me. They had asked me to come and to candidate on several occasions.

I kept saying no, I'm not interested. No, I'm not interested. And finally I said, you know what? To quiet you down and quiet me down, I'll go and you'll realize you don't want me. Well, it didn't turn out that way. I went and they wanted me to come. And so the Lord was leading me away from this megachurch in Orange County to go to Church of the Open Door. And I had no idea what the Lord was going to do. I had no idea. I just knew I was committed to preaching the truth. And I went there and in the interview process, they asked if they could investigate with a private investigator my life.

And I said, sure, you can do that. I don't have a problem with that. Well, we believe that if we had done that with the previous pastor, we would have known some things maybe about him and we wouldn't have hired him. But we want to do that with your life. We want to investigate your life. You have any problem with that? I said, nope. Do whatever you want. I had nothing to hide. You can investigate anyone, talk to anyone. And they did. Over the course of several months, they came back. They had a stack this high of papers that had gone all the way back to my junior high school teachers in Delaware.

And they said, you know, we've examined everything. You know, you're the kind of guy we want. We didn't find anything, any skeletons in your closet, you know, like that. And so we're gonna call you to come to be our pastor. So I said, great. I said, I'm not gonna investigate your lives, okay? But if there's anything in your life that I need to know about that would bring a reproach upon the gospel and the church of Christ, you need to tell me. So I went around the room and looked each man in the eye and said, is there anything in your life that I found out would bring a reproach upon the name of Christ and his church?

And all nine men said, no, nothing. I said, great, I'll come. I didn't know much about what was happening there. The church was in the midst of a multi-million dollar lawsuit from the previous pastor and the affair they had with another young lady. And I knew that when I went, but it was a huge lawsuit. And when I went to the church, in the first two weeks, I realized something about the elder board that was not disclosed to me.

And so I confronted it. I had to confront it. And among that elder board, there was a man who had an unbiblical divorce, another man who was sleeping with another woman in the church presently, and another man who was an alcoholic and he was the elder over student ministries. So I found out all that stuff out. And so I had to confront that because there was a compromise of truth. And I wasn't gonna let that happen. So I confronted the man and said, you guys, you need to step down. You're disqualified.

And they said, we can't step down. So what do you mean you can't step down? Well, the church has to vote us out because that's what our constitution says. I said, forget about the constitution. What does the Bible say? First Timothy three, Titus one, you guys have disqualified yourselves from being elders in the church.

You have to step down. If you're gonna be obedient to God and his word, you have to step down. They said, we know what the Bible says, but we can't step down unless the church votes us out.

And I said, guys, that can't happen. You guys gotta step down. So from two weeks in, okay, every week was a battle. Every elder meeting was a battle. What was it a battle over? The authority and the supremacy of God's word. What does God's word say? What must you do? What must we do? Then I realized the reason they were in the midst of a lawsuit was because they handled the whole situation wrong and didn't follow Matthew 18. And so I confronted them on that and said, you guys have gotta get this right.

You have to go apologize before the congregation. They said, no, we can't do that because we're in the midst of a multimillion dollar lawsuit. If we apologize to the congregation and admit wrongdoing, that would mean we'd have to pay millions and millions of dollars. We can't do that. I said, forget about the money. It's your integrity, it's on the line. You've gotta go back to the church and ask for forgiveness. You did it wrong. You hung the girl out to dry. You can't do that. They said, no, we're not gonna do that.

So those were the battles. All to say, I lasted 14 months there. And I finally said, okay, guys, this is what's gonna happen.

We'll call a church meeting and if they vote to keep you, I'll resign. But if they vote to not keep you, you guys resign immediately from eldership and I'll stay as the pastor of the church. They said, okay, all right. Now, all nine of them didn't have to resign. There were two men that were on the elder board that supported me and the direction I was going and what I thought I should do and what I thought was the right thing to do, but the other seven did not. And there were three men, four men specifically, that had to sit down because they'd disqualified themselves.

So they had this vote at the church. And I would love to be able to tell you the story about it because it's quite remarkable to see all the people come out of the woodwork to vote out the senior pastor that had never been there before. It is true that people came in wheelchairs. It is true that one person came, rolled in on a gurney, hooked up to an IV. And I met her that night for the very first time.

And I said, hi, how are you? What is your name? And she told me your name. I can't remember what it was now.

And I said, what are you here for? She goes, well, I'm here to vote out the pastor. Who are you? I said, I'm the pastor. Well, I guess I'm here to vote you out then. I said, okay, I guess you are. So, but there were people, there were people in wheelchairs and gurneys and people that you'd never seen before because they had heard that this new guy, this young guy who come to preach was preaching heresy. And what was the heresy? I believed that you had to repent in order to be saved. That repentance was truly a gift from God.

And that because it was, unless you repent, you'll never be saved. They believed that that repentance was a work and that I was adding works to salvation. So for three weeks, three elders wrote papers and proved through my sermons that I was a heretic. And so they would stand up every Sunday night and they would read excerpts from my sermons. They'd listen, you can read anybody's sermon, take an excerpt from it and prove the guy to be a heretic, right? Because you can just take words out of context.

And so I sat in the back of the church as these men would read these papers. And I'd listen to them and realize that's not right. Didn't say it that way. That's not what goes down. But nonetheless, that's how it went down for three weeks. On the fourth week, it was my turn to go before the church. And so I did. And I said, you can, I don't have any papers to read. All I have is the Bible. So you can ask me any question you wanna ask me and I'll answer your question and we'll go from there. And so they did.

They would come up and ask questions and we talk about it. And I said, listen, my job was to preach the word. My job was to communicate truth. My job was to make sure that truth was never compromised. But truth has been compromised. And I can't maintain this ministry if truth's going to be compromised. And so the very next week was the vote. And it was in 1994 when this took place in October. And of course they voted. And none of the men received the majority of vote. Just one man did. The rest did not.

And because the one man did, just one of them did, my wife and I, he was read first of the four men. I took Lori's hand and we went up in front of the church and she was pregnant with Anna. And I said, listen, my wife and I just wanna thank you for the last 14 months. They have been the most exciting, most challenging, most wonderful 14 months of my entire ministry. And I am so grateful for the opportunity to be your pastor. But it's been very clear that you want these elders to remain. And you can't have it both ways.

So my wife and I are resigning this evening and we thank you for this opportunity. I said, please stand with me. Let's sing the doxology. And everybody stood. We sang the doxology. My wife and I walked out the door and that was it. But I wasn't gonna compromise my convictions on the word of God, the truth of God's word. But what are the qualifications for an elder? What does it look like? Who determines that, the church or the scriptures? What do you do when your integrity is on the line? Is money more important to you or is your integrity more important to you?

When it comes to preaching the gospel, are you gonna compromise and not preach on repentance? Just tell people, believe and live any way you want? It's all gonna be okay? No, you gotta preach the truth. You gotta preach the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You gotta preach the whole counsel of God. So I did. And so my wife and I stood firm on our convictions. We resigned and we had no insurance. We had no paycheck. We had nothing. Didn't know what was gonna happen until the Lord birthed this church one week later.

The most amazing thing about everything was this. At the 75th anniversary of Church of the Open Door, they came out with a pamphlet. I have it in my office. And in that pamphlet, they had a bio of every pastor from the beginning to the present. And of course, I was in there. And in that bio, it is said, and I quote to you this aspect of it. This was the worst crisis in the history of Church of the Open Door when Lance Sparks was our pastor. And that's true, it was. It was a crisis of truth. Were you gonna stand on truth or not stand on truth?

And I wasn't gonna compromise truth. And you see, it's so important to realize that when fiery trials come, you can't back down. You must always stand strong. You must not become weaker, you must become stronger. You must rely upon the Lord in all things. Peter would say these words. He would say, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

At the end, he says, verse 19, therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. You know, when you go through suffering, when you go through a time where you're suffering for righteousness' sake and you're standing on truth, the only thing to do is to entrust yourself to him who judges righteously. There's nothing else to do. And let God do what God does and get out of the way. And God has done great things at Christ Community Church over all these years.

But God led me from Calvary Church in Santa Ana to Church of the Open Door so that Christ Community Church would be born. And God has used this church in my life in a magnificent way. And I trust that the Lord has used me in your life in a magnificent way because of the church's commitment, not my commitment necessarily, but the church's commitment to never compromise on truth, but to stand firm on God's holy word. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are those kind of men. They would not compromise. When everyone bowed, they stood.

There in the plains of Dura were thousands upon thousands of people gathered amidst this golden image. When the music began, everybody bowed, except for three men. They stood because they knew what Moses said about idolatry. They knew that there was only one God, and it wasn't the golden image on the plains of Dura. It was truly the Lord God of Israel. So no matter what the repercussions were, and the repercussions were what? Fiery furnace. You're gonna get burned up. Listen, I know that one day I'm gonna die, I really don't wanna burn up, okay?

I really wanna die quickly. Shoot me in the head, let my plane go down, something like that, something really quick, or going for surgery and never wake up again, that's fine too, but I don't wanna burn or drown, okay? Those seem a little difficult, okay? I'd rather not do that. I've asked the Lord, if you do, take me quick, okay? Because I'm a wimp, and I don't wanna suffer from any pain, okay? So they know the repercussion, they know what's gonna happen, right? They're gonna get burned up. Well, nobody wants to do that.

But they knew that their God could protect them if He chose to. And if He chose not to protect them, that's okay too, because they weren't gonna compromise. So let's begin and look, first of all, in verse number one, in this chapter, third chapter of Daniel, about the construction of the image.

Nebuchadnezzar constructs this image. Now think about this. And it's probably wood covered in gold. How do we know that? The only reason we know that is from Isaiah chapter 40, when it says in verse number 19, as for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith fashions chains of silver. So we read that, and we realize that probably the image was made out of wood, and then had a gold veneer that covered it. It's still very, very costly. And you put it out on the plains of Dura, which was in the vicinity of Babylon, there in the open area, and the sun would beat down on it, it would glisten and shine, and be extremely bright and beautiful.

And Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar, you'd think that after chapter two, he'd realize, you know what? Daniel, your God's great. He revealed this dream. He is a revealer of secrets. He is a sovereign ruler of the universe. Wow, you got a great God, Daniel. Now that would humble him a little bit. But Nebuchadnezzar was a prideful man. You know, when you're a prideful person, it's really hard to rid yourself of that arrogant attitude. And Nebuchadnezzar, there was no silver kingdom coming, there was no bronze kingdom coming, and there was no iron kingdom coming.

I'm it, I'm the head of the image, of the image of the dream. I'm gonna build, make the whole thing gold, because I'm the world emperor, I'm the ruler. That's what I'm gonna, so he constructs this image. And he does it under the guise that they're gonna dedicate that image, okay? And so Daniel constructs this image, it's 90 feet high and nine feet wide. So it's kind of a skinny image. Maybe Nebuchadnezzar was a skinny guy, I don't know. But it was 90 feet tall and nine feet wide. And you think of this and you realize that the image really is representative of a lot of people, right?

We look good on the outside, but on the inside we're just rotting away, like wood rot. Because what's on the inside really matters, right? And so he builds this image and he constructs it so people will come and dedicate it. Although that wasn't the real reason, the real reason was to worship. So in verses two and three, he talks about a dedication. Come to the plain and dedicate. And he repeats, verses two and three are very similar, right? We just read them. And they're very similar because everybody's coming.

He's not telling them that you're going to come and worship this image, why? Because they might fight against that. They might not wanna do that. So like any good pagan ruler, you're not gonna be totally honest. You're gonna lie. Not gonna tell them the truth. We're gonna have a dedication to this image. So come on out to the dedication. A big old party time. You're gonna hear the bagpipes and you're gonna hear the lyre and the trigon and the psaltery. And when you hear that, you know what? It's gonna be dedication time.

So he gathers them together to dedicate this image. But really, he's trying to unify the nation. Trying to verify the allegiance of the people in the nation. Clarify that there's only gonna be one religion and only glorify himself. That was the motive behind Nebuchadnezzar's methods. Because it says twice that they were to come for the dedication. But when they got there, it wasn't about a dedication. It was about an adoration. Just think about this for a minute. Nebuchadnezzar was a very arrogant man.

He really thought he was the best. You'll see this more in chapter four as it goes on. The man is so full of himself. He really is. And I think about this and it's very easy for us to say, you know, this guy was so arrogant. He was so filled with pride. And we forget that by nature, we are that way. We're not crying and saying to people, come and worship me, come and worship me. No, we ask it this way. What about me? What about me? Because we do think that life's about me. It's really hard to get away from that.

We live in a society that everything is so narcissistic that that narcissism is crept into the church. That's why, that's why Paul said these words. He said, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think. Why would he say that? Because you do, because I do. We really think we're special. We really think we're better than somebody else. And it's easy for us to condemn Nebuchadnezzar and see how pagan, how has pagan religion controlled his life but forget about the fact that we have this pride in us and we'll talk more about this in chapter four with Nebuchadnezzar with the pitfall of pride.

But I just wanna introduce it to you because I think it's so imperative for us to understand. We tend to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. And Paul would say these words in Galatians 6. He would say, for if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. That's just so wise. If you think you're something, you're really not, you're nothing. But if you think you're something, you've deceived yourself. Over in 1 Peter 5, he talks about clothing yourself with humility toward one another.

You see, people like to think of themselves better than they actually are. You know, during the whole BLM movement, it's kind of taking the backseat at this moment, but during the time of the BLM riots, and all the thing was going on, and how black lives matter. And you couldn't say a phrase like all lives matter because that would detract from black lives. And the emphasis was on black lives matter. And so the BLM movement was huge, right? And so during that time, I preached. And I wasn't into the BLM movement.

I was into the NLM movement. What's that? No lives matter. That's the NLM movement. No lives matter. And people get offended by that. Well, wait a minute, we're made in the image of God. And God loves us. And God sent his son to die for us. We are valuable people. See, we can't let that go. But let me tell you something.

Christ is life. If you don't have Christ's life, you don't have life. Your life doesn't matter. But people don't wanna hear that, they get offended by that. Oh, our lives do matter. No, they don't. Listen, God sent his son to die for us. Correction, no, he didn't. He didn't send his son to die for you. He sent his son to die for him. He's called the lamb of God. He's not called the lamb of man. He's the lamb of God. He's God's Messiah. Not your Messiah, he's God's Messiah. You see, we are so, we can't escape narcissism.

It rules our lives. Very subtly, that we can't stop thinking about us. So Paul has to come up and say, don't think more highly of yourself than you ought to think because you're doing that. You see, people get upset with me when I say, there's no such thing as low self-esteem. That's a psychological term. How do I know that? Because of Ephesians five. No man ever hated his own flesh. Every man loves himself. We are so in love with ourselves. Don't talk about low self-esteem. Talk about the fact that we are so in love with us that we just have to protect us, watch out for us.

And we are so important that God died for us. Let me tell you something, that's a byproduct of Calvary.

Yes, you are saved, you are forgiven, but Jesus satisfied God, the Father's wrath. Christ died for God. And that helps gain perspective on everything about salvation. But even in our gospel presentation, we just can't get away. You know, God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life. And I'll say, no, no, he doesn't. He's got a terrible plan for your life. You're going to hell, but you need to be saved. And God saves you. And he saves you from himself, primarily, right? Now, that doesn't mean that you can say that God doesn't die for the sins of man, because he does.

But the primary emphasis is the fact that Christ died for God. God was pleased to crush his son. One other said it this way. You remember that Jesus is called the lamb of God, God's lamb. Jewish people would choose a lamb to be offered at Passover. God chose his own son to be his lamb. The death of Christ was for God, in the sense that God was the one who had to be satisfied. He was the one who had to be propitiated. The death of Christ was for God in the sense that he was the one offended. He was the one violated.

He is the one dishonored, as David says, against you and you only have I sinned. All sin is primarily against God. Salvation, whatever it is, then has to satisfy God. That's to satisfy his righteousness, his justice, his mercy, his grace. He must be satisfied, and God determined that he would find his satisfaction in the death of Jesus Christ. The real question in salvation is not how can you get men to accept God? The real question is how do you get God to accept men? It's not how you get God to accept you.

It's not based on something you do. It's what kind of transaction is necessary to compensate for the fact that you can't do anything to satisfy God. The fact that Christ was a satisfaction or a propitiation declares that salvation is primarily for God. Christ died for God. The death of Christ was for his satisfaction. So when I say no life matters, it doesn't. Now that might offend you, and I'm sorry if it does. There's only one life that matters. It's Christ's life. Because through him, you obtain life, right?

Because in him is life. And that life is the light to every man. And those who embrace the finished work of Calvary obtain Christ's life. Now you have life. But before that, all you have is a satanic life because you're in bondage to Satan. That's no life. That's a death sentence. True life is in Christ. Nebuchadnezzar's gonna find that out. Nebuchadnezzar's gonna find out exactly how arrogant and how prideful he is. It's gonna take some time, but that's why God has Daniel there. That's why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are front and center in this story because they weren't gonna compromise on the truth.

The truth of what? That there is a God. He's not the golden image on the plains of Dura. That God is the one true God of Israel, and we're not bowing to another God. We're not gonna do that. And so they would stand strong against what Nebuchadnezzar said. And so as you read on to the text, you realize that when they got there, they made it so everybody had to bow down in worship. It's to bow or burn. Those are your choices. Bow or burn. In the tribulation, it will be bow or be beheaded. Revelation 20.

So that's what's gonna happen in tribulation in the future. Bow or be beheaded. Now it's bow or burn. If you don't bow to Nebuchadnezzar's image, you're gonna fry. That was his pledge. That's what he was going to do. And so these men stood strong. And everybody else bowed. Everybody else heard the songs, right? They said, listen, if you don't bow, you're gonna burn. Okay, we're gonna bow. We're gonna do that. I don't wanna burn. They feared death. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not fear death.

They didn't fear it. But everybody else did. And they all bowed. You know, it's so easy to go along with what everybody else is doing. I've told you before that, and I do believe this, that the last 19 months, COVID has exposed the weakness of the church and those in the church in a tremendous way. You know, it began with 15 days to slow the spread. Remember that? Vice President Pence holding up that sign. That's all he did, hold the sign. 15 days to slow the spread. Right? And as time went on, you could see how everybody just capitulated to everything that was said.

You know what? You gotta lock down. Okay, we'll lock down. You gotta wear a mask. Okay, we'll wear a mask. Gonna be vaccinated. Okay, we'll be vaccinated. And very easy, we just kind of go along with everything. And the world's done that, right? Because people are afraid to die. Now think about this. In a year with mask mandates and vaccines available, under the regime of a man who said that he will rid the nation of COVID, there have been 41,000 more deaths in 21 than in 20 when there were no mask mandates and no vaccines available.

Why is that? You've asked that question? Why is it when there were no mask mandates and there was no vaccine that this many people died, but now that we have mask mandates and we have a vaccine, more people have died? What are they not telling you? What is not true? You gotta ask yourself these questions. You gotta look at the Minnesota car, knowing the signs of the time so you can lead people in the right way.

Very important to understand these things. And the reason I say that is because you see how easy that the church just felt. We have churches today. Listen, I just heard of two of them yesterday where they have one service for the vaccinated and another service for the non-vaccinated. I'm like, what are you doing? That's not church. They have, in another church, a huge Baptist church in the South, they're requiring every child worker to be vaccinated or they lose their job at that church. That's not a church.

That's a business. That's an organization that's capitulated to the government. Have you ever noticed the government says, do this. We say, okay. Government says, let's do this. We're locked down. We lock down. Government says, wear a mask. We wear a mask. Government says, stay six feet apart. We stay six feet apart. Government says, get a vaccine. We get a vaccine. God says, repent.

I'm not so sure I wanna do that. God says, forgive your brother. I'm not sure what I wanna do. The government says to do something and we say how high you want us to jump. God says, do something and we question what God says.

We have an authority issue. We have an authority problem. We don't really wanna follow God. We say we do until the government says, do this. We say, okay. We don't even question it. God says something and there's hesitation.

There's questions, right? There's a reservation in our obedience and he's the most high God. He is the God of heaven and earth. He is the all authoritative one. Why can't we just say, yes, God, whatever you say, we're gonna do. Why do we have to question what God says?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't say, you know what, man, what does God want us to do? I'm not so, oh, God, I know we're not supposed to bow, but you know what, we'll bow anyway. Okay, let's go with that. Who's gonna know, right, with thousands of other people? No, they knew what God said. They did it. They knew they would burn. They did it anyway. They didn't care because death did not control them. God controlled them and they were submissive to Almighty God and through this whole last 19 months, 20 months, however long it's been, you've seen the church across America, across the countries, all of a sudden begin to capitulate to whatever the government wants for them.

And where are the churches that stand strong and never compromise the truth of God's holy word? Where are the churches that will always, always preach truth no matter what? Because you see, a time is coming. We told you a year ago, June, vaccine mandates are coming and they're here. I'm gonna tell you right now, a time is coming that's gonna go way beyond vaccine mandates to things that are gonna cause you to either say, yes, Lord, I'm following you or no, Lord, I'm not. This is just a simple test and I'm afraid the church has failed miserably around the world and yet there are other churches who haven't failed.

They've stood strong. Why? Because they don't live in fear of the government. They don't live in fear of what's happening. I was talking to a pastor, a friend of mine in Orange County a couple of months ago and we were talking about our churches and all the things that we've gone through and how we had to battle the whole COVID thing and how do you handle all these things and how do you walk the church through all this? How do you help the people in church understand it's gonna be okay? We gotta follow what God says.

How do you help them understand Romans 13 so they get a clear understanding of God's authority over government? How do you help them understand that we are truly a revelation of God to a lost world, a world that's all accountable to that same revelation and if we don't model that to them, they won't understand the priority of God's revelation in their lives. The church has lost its place. The church has lost its call. The church has forgotten what God has demanded that they do and God forbid that we at Christ Community Church ever lose that perspective.

We are here to honor God, his truth and his word no matter what anybody else says. We're willing to lose our lives. We're willing to risk being shut down no matter what the case may be because God matters. Our lives don't matter. God's life matters. So he's gotta be put on display. He's gotta be put front and center. He's gotta be out there all the time and we have to follow his holy word. Having said all that, please understand, I'm not against masks, I'm not against vaccines, I'm not but I am against the government telling the church what to do.

That violates the holy scriptures and we'll never do that. We're not gonna do that. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, we're not gonna be told what to do when it came to worship. When it came to honoring their God, they would stand strong in the plains of Dura knowing if they don't bow, they will burn. They will burn but they weren't afraid. Why? Because they knew that God was the only one to fear. They feared God more than they feared the fire of man. They feared God more than they feared Nebuchadnezzar.

They feared God more than they feared anybody else and that allowed them to stand strong, uncompromising. Listen to these words in 1 Chronicles 16, verse number 25. For great is the Lord and great to be praised. He also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and joy are in His place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory to His name.

Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in a holy array. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Tremble before Him. In Him is strength, in Him is joy. I firmly believe, I firmly believe that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego received their strength only from the Lord and it caused them to live a life of supreme joy in spite of the fact that they would die. They had no idea they were going to live through the fire. They had no idea that they would not be singed in the furnace, they had no idea, no idea.

We did, we know the story, we read the story. We know the end of the story but at this moment they don't know anything except one thing, God is supreme. God rules over all. He's the God of the universe. He's the most high God. He's the God of heaven and earth. He's the true God, we worship Him and no one else and we're never gonna compromise the truth because the truth is all that matters. My friends, that's the way we need to be. Every one of us and we need to grow in our walk with the Lord so we stand strong against the enemy.

Always, always standing on the truth because our God gave us His word to strengthen us and as we go through the book of Daniel in this third chapter, we're going to see these three men literally go through the fire because they do and it shows us how these men would only trust in one person and it wasn't themselves, it was the Lord God of Israel.

They only feared Him and that allowed them to stand strong with joy. So when the Bible says in Psalm 99 that the Lord is in the heavens, let every man fear Him, let every man tremble before Him.

That's the way we should be, living only in the fear of the living God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for today and the things that You do. We thank You, Lord, for Your word that exhorts us to follow only You. Lord, we need to be the kind of people that when You speak, we say, yes, we're doing that without reservation, without hesitation, without question, just complete and total obedience. Lord, that's the kind of people we need to be and our prayer, Father, is that as we come to know You all the more, that truly we would, as Daniel says, those who know their God, display strength and take action.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they displayed strength and they were willing to take whatever action was necessary to show that they worshiped only one God and that one God is the true God of the universe. And oh, the things You did in their lives. Lord, may we learn to trust only You because this chapter is about a sovereign God who rules over all, who allows temptation and tests to come our way, that we might not falter, but stand firm, steadfast on the truth. May everyone in the room whose faith will be tested, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day soon, their faith will be tested.

May they find their strength only in You, to stand on the principles and precepts of Scripture. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.