{"id":18377,"date":"2016-11-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-002-the-blessings-of-overcoming-the-world-part-1\/"},"modified":"2016-11-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T06:00:00","slug":"daniel-002-the-blessings-of-overcoming-the-world-part-1","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-002-the-blessings-of-overcoming-the-world-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 002: The Blessings of Overcoming the World – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18377","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 002: The Blessings of Overcoming the World - Part 1","sermon_date":"20161113","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":4055,"sermon_slides":4058,"sermon_mp3":4060,"sermon_id":"1113161012296","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"1:1-7","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH\n\nLesson 2, The Blessings of Overcoming the World, Daniel 1:1-7\n\nNovember 13, 2016,\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Daniel, chapter 1, verse 1, talking this morning about the blessings, entitled The Blessings of Overcoming the World.\u00a0 \u00a0Of course this is Veteran\u2019s Day weekend so we want to recognize our veterans.\u00a0 If anybody here has served our country could you stand so we can recognize you.\u00a0 Wow, look at that.\u00a0 [clapping] Awesome; thank you for your service.\u00a0 And I want to thank Gabe for filling in last week as he touched on a really important subject, Replacement Theology.\u00a0 I notice Gabe and Jim when they sub in for me they\u2019re now doing Part 1\u2019s, so they\u2019ve picked up some bad habits I guess, by watching me, but I look forward to listening to part 2 when that time comes.\n\nSince I\u2019ve been doing a lengthy series prior to getting into this one on the whole subject of the Bible and Voting people have been asking me, well did you see the elections?\u00a0 Of course I saw the election.\u00a0\u00a0 What\u2019d you think?\u00a0 And let me just say something real brief about it. \u00a0I tried very hard in that series not to be partisan, to favor one candidate over the other.\u00a0 I know you can look at the two different candidates and see problems in each of them and I\u2019m very much in touch with that emotion, believe me.\u00a0 But I kind of look at things from a different grid than a lot of people do; I look at things through a free speech grid, largely because of what I do.\u00a0 I teach a lot of things that go against politically correct orthodoxy and I\u2019m always sort of worried as I look at national elections like this that America is going to become another Canada.\u00a0 My friend, David Reagan, who teaches a TV show on prophecy, subbed in for another prophecy teacher on another show and he was specifically told do not criticize homosexuality.\u00a0 And David Reagan asked well why?\u00a0 Well the answer is our broadcast goes into Canada and if you criticize homosexuality we bring the force of Canadian law onto that.\n\nSo with the subject of progressivism, liberalism, those kind of a grid I look at things through is are we going to have another repeat of what happened here in Houston, you remember, with the mayor basically subpoenaing, confiscating the pastor\u2019s, paid pastor\u2019s sermons and sermon notes.\u00a0 And you know, we take free speech for granted, we just assume it\u2019s going to be here forever, and the fact of the matter is free speech is something very delicate in world history.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a very rare gift.\u00a0 And it\u2019s something that if God allows us I\u2019d like to retain it in this country and be a good steward of it.\n\nSo having said all that I was somewhat elated about the election results.\u00a0 From a personal level I think free speech has a lot better chance of surviving the way things worked out than the way things could have worked out.\u00a0 Are you with me on that? \u00a0[clapping] Apparently there are some people here that feel strongly about it too; praise the Lord!\u00a0 But there\u2019s really two things that come to my mind as I watched the election, and I went to bed at 9:00 o\u2019clock, thinking she (I won\u2019t mention her name) is going to be our President.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I thought and I woke up about 11:30-12:00 and I said ah, I got to see what\u2019s going on, and I turned on the TV and I saw on the TV Wisconsin goes for Trump.\u00a0 And I thought am I dead and in heaven?\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 What in the world just happened here; I mean, Wisconsin\u2026 not to put anybody down from Wisconsin but that\u2019s not exactly a red state, it hasn\u2019t voted Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1984.\u00a0 So the two words that really come to my mind when I look at this election are (the two metaphors are) number 1, I think America dodged a bullet.\u00a0 That\u2019s phrase number 1 and the second thing that I think about is the grace of God.\u00a0 [clapping]\n\nI don\u2019t attribute that what happened to a political strategy, a personality, I attribute it largely to what God\u2019s people did, not so much in terms of voting, which we encourage you to do, but in terms of praying.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think people counted on the God factor or the prayer factor.\u00a0 Franklin Graham (the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham) said something very similar on his Facebook page.\u00a0 And Dr. Jim McGowan and myself do a live feed on Friday\u2019s at 2:00 on Facebook, if you\u2019re a Facebook user\u00a0 you might want to tune in; if you\u2019re not a Facebook user it\u2019s not necessarily a habit you should probably pick up.\u00a0 But that was really our subject, we weren\u2019t attributing it to a philosophy or a marketing strategy, we were trying to attract glory to God and His grace.\u00a0 And for whatever reason God, in my mind, still continues to shed grace on the United States of America.\n\nAnd my sin, if I have sin (I\u2019ve got many by the way) but one of them is I\u2019ve written the political obituary of America too early; apparently God is not finished with the United States of America.\u00a0 And you can disagree with me and we can still be friends at the end of the day but that\u2019s sort of the spectrum that I\u2019ve looked at the election through, dodging a bullet and the grace of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s my opinion and you can take that for what it\u2019s worth.\u00a0 [clapping]\n\nThe Book of Daniel, chapter 1, we kicked off this series a couple of weeks ago and we basically went through the background of the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel, of course being in Babylonian captivity when the Word of the Lord began to speak to him and raise him up.\u00a0 The Book of Daniel, if you want to know what the whole thing is about it\u2019s about the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 Israel is in a brand new period of time, something that they have never experienced before.\u00a0 They are out of their homeland, they are 350 miles to the east in a place called Babylon and they\u2019re being trampled down by various Gentile powers, Babylon being the first.\n\nAnd this is the first time in Jewish history, after the inauguration of David, Israel\u2019s second king, that they had no king reigning on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a time period when the last king on David\u2019s throne was vacated from the throne, a man named Zedekiah, and covers a time in history leading right up to the Second Advent when Jesus will resume His reign on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 So prior to this point in time there is no divine revelation concerning what is the program of God during this period of time called the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 And that is largely why God raised up Daniel.\n\nDaniel, as we\u2019re going to see, was gifted by the Holy Spirit to explain this time period that Israel was now in, in terms of visions, and even more important than that it was an explanation of how Israel is to live during this time period.\u00a0 The law of Moses told Israel how they were to live inside the land.\u00a0 The nation of Israel had been in the land for about 800 years but now they\u2019re out of the land and the law of Moses really doesn\u2019t cover that specifically so how are they to live now that the times of the Gentiles have started and now that they\u2019re outside the land.\u00a0 And this is why God raised up Daniel as a role model, and Daniel\u2019s three friends as role models.\u00a0 We look at how they lived and what they did and we see what it really means to live for God on pagan soil.\n\nAmerica, to a very large extent, may have had a few elections going in her favor politically but the bottom line is the Christian church is losing the war in America, not necessarily politically but culturally.\u00a0 We are living in a country that, to a very large extent, does not recognize the Bible based value system that we were founded on.\u00a0 Now what do we do as God\u2019s people living in that time period.\u00a0 We follow the role models of the Book of Daniel, specifically Daniel and his three friends.\n\nSo it\u2019s a mindset that says no matter what happens in my job, no matter what happens in my career, no matter what anti-Christian forces come against me, even if Hillary (she) had won the election it\u2019s a mindset which says we\u2019re going to live for God no matter what.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s in the White House.\u00a0 And that is what the Book of Daniel is about.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the reasons I wanted to teach it because it speaks to our day, it speaks to our generation.\n\nSo you have to put yourself really in the minds of the Jews, they\u2019ve been ripped out of their homeland, which they had been in for 800 years; 800 years is a long time, that\u2019s the United States of America times 3 or times 4.\u00a0 Now everything they knew had been taken away and they needed encouragement, and so the Book of Daniel\u2019s purpose is to encourage Judah, the only remaining tribe held in captivity in Babylon, by emphasizing the sovereignty of God during the Babylonian captivity and to teach Judah how to live while outside the land.\u00a0 Everything in the Book of Daniel is really aimed at producing that result.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonderful reminder of the sovereignty of God.\n\nPolitically things can go your way; things cannot go\u00a0 your way; culturally things can go your way, they cannot go your way but the fact of the matter is no matter what you\u2019re facing in\u00a0 your work place, in your job, in your family, the message of the Book of Daniel is God is still very much in control.\u00a0 And so He becomes your preoccupation; He becomes your focus in perilous times.\n\nThe Book of Daniel, as we\u2019ve talked about, has two basic parts; chapters 1-7 is the historical section, and then beginning in chapter 8-12 you have the prophetic section.\u00a0 Chapters 1-7 begins with an introductory chapter all composed in Hebrew.\u00a0 The language, as I\u2019ll be talking about, switches in chapters 2-7 from Hebrew to Aramaic but we\u2019ll be talking about that as we progress throughout this study in the coming weeks.\u00a0 But Daniel chapter 1, written in Hebrew, what is it there for?\u00a0 What are we supposed to get from this?\n\nWell, first of all, there\u2019s introductory information given and unless that introductory information is given you really can\u2019t understand the rest of the book.\u00a0 Number 2, it is setting the stage for displaying the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 In order for God to showcase His glory, in order for God to showcase His sovereignty, in order for God to exhibit that He is, in fact, in control He has to put God\u2019s people in a position that from a human level looks like things are out of control.\u00a0 And that is why God largely works in my life and your life the way He does.\u00a0 Why does God keep putting us in circumstances where we have to depend upon Him?\u00a0 Because He wants us to what? To depend upon Him.\u00a0 He wants to show us that everything in life can be topsy-turvy, upside down but He is still in control; He is the one you can count on.\n\nNow how can He showcase that in your life unless He puts you in a circumstance that\u2019s difficult?\u00a0 And the difficulty that the children of Israel were involved in is narrated for us in Daniel 1, written in Hebrew.\u00a0 Without that chapter we\u2019d have no knowledge of the circumstances of this book.\n\nBeyond that God has a plan for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Not only does He have a plan for the nation of Israel but he has a plan for the tribe of Judah because who is going to be born one day from the tribe of Judah?\u00a0 Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s a prophecy that Jacob gave over Judah going all the way back to Genesis 49:10, all the way back in patriarchal times.\u00a0 [Genesis 49:10, \u201cThe scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s about six centuries (when this book was written) before the birth of Christ so obviously for God to fulfill what He is going to do through the tribe of Judah specifically and the nation of Israel in general, they have to be preserved.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the same today; the nation of Israel, as we speak, is in perilous times.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the signs that encouraged me when the President elect of the United States of America became the President elect of the United States of America on Tuesday night one of his first actions was to reach out to the nation of Israel and to give them really a proper greeting, something that they have not experienced over the last eight years, at least.\n\nAnd so even today God is preserving Israel because God has a plan and a program that He is going to accomplish through Israel.\u00a0 Israel is the gift that keeps on giving; Israel is not finished (as far as God is concerned) in terms of blessing the world.\u00a0 And it was that way in the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 There\u2019s a prophetic program coming through Messiah that will happen 600 years later but for that program to be fulfilled Israel must be preserved.\u00a0 How God starts to preserve Israel, you start to see examples of it here in Daniel chapter 1.\u00a0 God is going to bless the obedience of Daniel and his three friends as they make a decision to live for God in perilous times.\n\nSo here\u2019s sort of an outline verses 1 and 2; Daniel\u2019s selection along with his three friends, verses 3-7; Daniel\u2019s dedication, verses 8-16, right off the bat, at an early age he is tempted to personally compromise, yet he does not compromise, He puts God first.\u00a0 And that leads into verses 17-21 where God blesses the rest of Daniel\u2019s life.\u00a0\u00a0 And this is something we need to be communicating to the youth because a lot of them have this mentality that I\u2019m just going to go off to college, I\u2019m going to sow some wild oats, I\u2019m going yield to the sin nature, and then once I get out of college, once I get into my career, once I get into my vocation I\u2019ll come back to the church and I\u2019ll start serving God at that point.\u00a0 Not that God doesn\u2019t want you back, the welcome mat (as we say) is always out, but the fact of the matter is once you move into compromise it\u2019s an alteration of your character.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t work that I\u2019m going to live like the devil and then make a decision and come back and live for God.\u00a0 There are lingering consequences of sin that you pull with you as you return to church and return to God.\n\nDaniel didn\u2019t have those lingering consequences.\u00a0 The reason he did not have those lingering consequences is he made a decision, in fact, I\u2019ll show you verse 8 later, as time permits, he made a decision to live for God as a\u00a0 young person.\u00a0 And because he lived for God as a\u00a0 young person that became part of who he was, that became part of his character and consequently he continued to live for God as an 80 year old and as a 90 year old.\u00a0 So as the saying goes, sew a thought, reap an action.\u00a0\u00a0 Sew an action, reap a character.\u00a0 So a character reap a destiny.\u00a0 Whatever little decisions we are making right now is indelibly become part of who we are, become part of our character, and consequently that\u2019s the type of person we largely end up being in old age.\n\nWho do you want to be in old age?\u00a0 Someone that\u2019s a warrior for God or someone that\u2019s compromised?\u00a0 The Book of Daniel gives us a wonderful example of a young man that would not compromise and God consequently blessed his whole life, I believe, because of the decisions that Daniel made as a\u00a0 youth.\n\nSo notice, if you will, verses 1 and 2, we learn here about Daniel\u2019s circumstances; we have verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s speech, verse 1, and then verse 2 Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s booty or Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s treasure.\u00a0 But notice, if you will, verse 1, it says, \u201cIn the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Jerusalem, and besieged it.\u201d\u00a0 Notice first of all it talks about Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon.\u00a0 Who was Nebuchadnezzar?\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler of what we call Neo-Babylonia, which was the world power of that day.\u00a0 And consequently Nebuchadnezzar becomes the antagonist, if you will, in the first four chapters of this book.\u00a0 The theme does not shift to another leader until you get to chapter 5 where his son, not his immediate son but someone down the lineage, a man named Belshazzar rises to the throne over Neo-Babylonia.\u00a0 And while God humbles Nebuchadnezzar in these first four chapters, Belshazzar was never humbled and consequently Neo-Babylonia suffered a death blow by the Persians, which is recorded in Daniel chapter 5.\n\nSo that\u2019s who we are dealing with here when it talks about, \u201cIn the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem, and besieged it.\u201d Nebuchadnezzar is a godless pagan king who thinks that he is in control and he\u2019s about to discover in this book that he\u2019s not in control at all.\u00a0 In fact the only reason he\u2019s in the position of power that he is in is because God put him there and everybody knows it but Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 And the story is how Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s heart softened in these first four chapters.\u00a0 I believe, when we get to chapter 4 I\u2019ll show you that I believe one day we\u2019re going to be seeing Nebuchadnezzar in heaven but not so chapter 5, Belshazzar, he never humbled himself.\n\nWe also continue on and it says, \u201cIn the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem , and besieged it.\u201d\u00a0 Why is the nation of Israel under attack in Daniel chapter 1?\u00a0 Why is the nation of Israel being dragged, against its will, 350 miles to the east to a place called Babylon or Babylonia?\u00a0 The answer has to do with the covenant that God made with Israel, which we\u2019ve explained in our first session together.\u00a0 The thing to understand is God, through the Abrahamic Covenant, going back to Genesis 15, has promised the nation of Israel three things: number 1, land; number 2, seed, and number 3, personal blessing.\u00a0 Through those three promises God is going to fulfill His Messianic agenda and one day His kingdom program over planet earth.\n\nBut you see, at the same time God came along later, about 600 years later, in the time of Moses, about the 15th<\/sup> century, and he entered into what\u2019s called the Mosaic Covenant, which unlike the Abrahamic Covenant, which is unconditional, the Mosaic Covenant is conditional.\u00a0 And what covenant contains is the cycles of blessing and cursing.\u00a0 God says if you obey Me you\u2019ll be blessed; if you disobey Me you\u2019ll be cursed.\u00a0 Now what I want you to see is although Israel can be severely disciplined and cursed she could never be cast off.\u00a0 Why can she never be cast off from God\u2019s promises?\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant prevents that. \u201cBut whom the LORD loves the LORD\u201d what? \u201cchastens.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s what is spelled out in the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 The curses can be very severe but they cannot lead to a permanent rupture between God and the nation of Israel.\n\nIt\u2019s largely the way your salvation works as well.\u00a0 The moment you place your personal faith or confidence in Jesus Christ you are eternally secure.\u00a0 If you do not believe you\u2019re eternal security I would turn you on to the soteriology study that we\u2019ve been doing here at Sugar Land Bible Church, where we\u2019re going in depth during the Sunday School hour on the issue of eternal security.\u00a0 Those are accessible online as well.\n\nSo once saved always saved because your salvation is not based on your faithfulness but it\u2019s based on whose faithfulness?\u00a0 God\u2019s.\u00a0 The grace that saves\u00a0 you is the grace that keep you.\u00a0 However, \u201cWhom the Lord loves the Lord\u201d what? \u201cchastens\u201d discipline.\u00a0 If you step out of line, if you go back to the sin nature God, who loves\u00a0 you too much to see you destroy your life in sin many times can bring discipline, He can bring chastisement against you.\u00a0 Sometimes that chastisement can seem very severe.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean to make it sound like all trials that we go through in life are the result of divine chastisement; there are storm of perfection and then there are storms of correction.\u00a0 Sometimes God brings us into a trial just to develop in us greater faith and maturity, James 1:2-4 talks about that.\u00a0 [James 1:2-4, \u201cConsider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, [3] knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. [4] And let endurance have its<\/em> perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.\u201d]\n\nBut there are other storms that are like the kind that Jonah went into; he was swallowed by the giant fish because of his own disobedience and God can bring great chastisement into the life of the believer but here\u2019s something the chastisement never does: it never cancels your original salvation.\u00a0 So the nation of Israel has this Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant; yes, God disciplines those whom He loves but He can never divorce Israel, He can never cast off Israel any more than He can divorce or cast you off as one of His people.\n\nSo God\u2019s program through the Mosaic Covenant is spelled out in the blessings and curses section which you\u2019ll find in Deuteronomy chapter 28.\u00a0 \u00a0The curses sort of roll like a snowball and finally they reach their height or their climax as specific in Deuteronomy 28:49-50 which we studied the last time I was with you, where God brings a pagan nation, whose language they don\u2019t even understand, against His people.\u00a0 And this is what happened to the northern kingdom which was scattered about 150 years earlier by the Assyrians; the south, the remaining tribes of Benjamin and Judah didn\u2019t learn at all from the lessons of the north and the disciplinary hand of God and so they continued on into disobedience and idolatry, and finally God says that\u2019s enough.\u00a0 \u201cWhom the LORD loves the LORD chastens,\u201d I\u2019m going to remove you from your land and bring you into discipline and consequently purify you as a result.\n\nSo that is why when you open the book of Daniel the nation of Israel is in Babylon in deportation.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, when he came against the chosen people didn\u2019t come in one foul swoop, he came in three waves.\u00a0 He came first in 605 B.C. and Daniel and a few of his friends, a few princes, were taken into Babylonian captivity at that point.\u00a0 The king, in place at that time in the land of Israel, was a man named Jehoiakim.\u00a0 And then Nebuchadnezzar came a second time and this time he came and took the majority of the nation.\u00a0 This took place about 596 B.C. and the prophet Ezekiel was taken in wave two.\u00a0 Ezekiel, it\u2019s interesting, makes reference (and we saw this when I was with you last time) to Daniel.\u00a0 So that\u2019s where Ezekiel and Daniel have their ministries.\u00a0 They\u2019re what we call the exilic prophets because they had their ministries not in the land of Israel (like most of the other prophets) but during this time of exile.\n\nAnd then after all of that Nebuchadnezzar came a third time, in 586 B.C. what was remaining of the remnant he captured and this is when he destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple.\u00a0 And that was the final attack.\u00a0 And this is when the prophet, Jeremiah, penned an important book called The Book of Lamentations.\u00a0 Why is Jeremiah talking about Lamentations?\u00a0 Because he was lamenting; he was lamenting the glory of the Solomonic temple that once stood and now had been destroyed.\n\nThe Jews, you have to understand, looked at the temple like a good luck charm; as long as that temple is standing we\u2019re okay.\u00a0 And that temple had been functioning since the time of Solomon and they never envisioned a time in history where that temple will be destroyed.\u00a0 You know, a lot of people are like that; they have their good luck charm.\u00a0 I was once a courier and I got into a guy\u2019s car, he was giving me a ride somewhere, and I noticed that he had those fuzzy guys, that you get in Vegas, hanging from the rear view mirror at the front of the car.\u00a0 And then I looked at the back of the car and I saw a statue of the Virgin Mary and so finally I got enough courage to ask this guy, you got these guys from Vegas and the Virgin Mary, you know, how do you explain this contradiction.\u00a0 And he said hey, I\u2019ve got both ends covered, I\u2019ve got the gambling side covered if I need that good luck charm, I\u2019ve got the religious over here, I\u2019ve got that good luck charm.\n\nA lot of people are like that, they have some kind of token good luck charm and as long as that good luck charm is in place they think everything is going to be okay.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the Jews were with the temple.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet what has happened, and God has a way of doing this, does He not, destroying our good luck charms because He wants us to depend upon Him, not our good luck charms.\u00a0 And the temple now was destroyed, something that the Jews never thought would ever happen.\u00a0 And Jeremiah is lamenting with great tears as he writes the book of Lamentations.\n\nYou\u2019ll also notice in verse 1 it says, \u201cIn the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah,\u201d and by the way, there it is in chart form if you\u2019re interested, the three sieges of Nebuchadnezzar, once in 605, when Daniel was brought into captivity; once again in 597 when Ezekiel was brought into captivity, once again in 586 when the temple was destroyed.\n\nThe third year of Jehoiakim, everything we know about biblical chronology would place this in 605 B.C.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the events of chapter 1 unfold.\u00a0 Daniel is very good to give us dates and chronologies so some of the key pieces of chronology I\u2019ll be referencing as we move through this study.\u00a0 Daniel at this time, we believe, was a youth and so when the events of Daniel 1 happened most believe he was maybe about 15\u00a0 years of age.\u00a0 And he is called upon to stand for God as a kid, a 15 year old.\u00a0 And watch how God blessed his life as a 17 year old, as a 20 year old, as a 50 year old, as an 80 year old, into the early 80\u2019s, mid 80\u2019s.\u00a0 And show me the kinds of decisions that you\u2019re making now in your life with respect to your walk with God and I\u2019ll basically be able to figure out what kind of person you\u2019re going to be decades down the road, because the Bible teaches very clearly that we reap what we sow.\u00a0 Daniel sowed good seed into good soil as a young man.\u00a0 And he lived off of those dividends the rest of his life.\n\nI think it was G. Campbell Morgan, the great preacher from another era, who preached long, had a tremendous ministry long into his older years and somebody asked him, how is it\u00a0 you have such fervency as an older person?\u00a0 And his response was classic; he says I\u2019m living off the dividends of a well spent\u00a0 youth.\u00a0 We have that ability to make good choices as younger people and we have an ability to live off those dividends, spiritually, for the rest of our lives.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what the example of Daniel reveals to us here.\n\nNotice, if you will, verse 2, it says, \u201cAnd the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, and brought them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.\u201d\u00a0 So this man, Nebuchadnezzar, has essentially no respect for the things of God, at least at this stage in his life; he has no respect for the temple of God, he has no respect for the holy vessels of God which clearly say were taken from God\u2019s house to his house, from the temple of holiness into the temple of paganism.\u00a0 You\u2019re dealing with this man, Nebuchadnezzar, whose heart is stone cold against God and yet watch how God deals with this man.\u00a0 Watch (in these four chapters) how God brings this man to the end of himself.\n\nAnd this shows us that no one is unreachable to God.\u00a0 May times even looking at our political leaders I just say I\u2019m not going to pray for that person because I didn\u2019t vote for them.\u00a0 God says back to me I never told you to pray for people\u00a0 you vote for, I told you to pray for your leaders. And we think that when we pray for these people nothing can change, nothing can happen, and yet what we learn in the book of Daniel is that God is in control of human events; He can change the heart of a leader.\n\nProverbs 21:1, I think it\u2019s around verse 1, it talks about how the king\u2019s heart is in the hand of the Lord and He changes its direction wherever He wants it to go.\u00a0 Like water directs a water course, so is the king\u2019s heart in the hands of the Lord. \u00a0Like water course directs water, I should say, so is the king\u2019s heart in the hands of the Lord.\n\nIf anybody was unreachable it would be Nebuchadnezzar but God did a work.\u00a0 Nobody is outside of the grace and the mercy and the long reach of God. \u00a0So here comes the nation of Israel as they are moved 350 miles to the east; you might recognize this word Shinar in verse 2, \u201cThe Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God;\u201d by the way, those vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple and put into his pagan temple are going to be a BIG DEAL! capital letter, exclamation point, a BIG DEAL in chapter 5.\u00a0 So just file in your memory cells, if you have any back there somewhere, the vessels, because that sets the stage for what Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s defendant, Belshazzar is going to do and this is what\u2019s going to bring final judgment upon the Babylonian Empire.\u00a0 But you notice that the nation of Israel is taken 350 miles to the east; the location is given there in verse 2, it\u2019s the land of Shinar.\u00a0 Here\u2019s another picture of it.\n\nThe word \u201cShinar\u201d is a Hebrew word; it\u2019s a word that basically refers to an area between the rivers.\u00a0 What rivers are we talking about?\u00a0 We\u2019re talking about the Euphrates River and the Tigris River.\u00a0 It\u2019s a place that we call modern day Iraq, sometimes called Babylonia, sometimes called Babylon.\u00a0 The Greek name for that area called Shinar is Mesopotamia.\u00a0 The Hebrew word is Shinar, the Greek word is Mesopotamia; \u201cMeso\u201d (you recognize that word) that means middle, you recognize the word \u201cpotamia\u201d?\u00a0 Don\u2019t we have a river in the United States of America called the Potomac?\u00a0 Potomac derived from potamia, potamia being plural; potamia means rivers.\u00a0 Mesopotamia literally means between the rivers, between the great river Euphrates and the great river, the Tigris.\u00a0 It is a place of infamy in the Bible and if you know your Bible well what you discover is this is a location that has a past, a present and a future.\u00a0 In fact, between the rivers I would speculate is the place where the Garden of Eden once stood.\u00a0 It\u2019s the place where our forbearers, Adam and Eve, fell into sin because in Genesis 2:10-14 it describes the geography of Eden and it mentions in the process the Tigris, Genesis 2:14, and then it mentions another river called the Euphrates.\n\n[Genesis 2:10-14, Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. [11] The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. [12] The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. [13] The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. [14] The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.]\n\nSome of these other rivers, the Pishon and the Gihon are difficult to identify but it does mention by name the Tigris and the Euphrates.\u00a0 If I were a betting man (and I\u2019m not) I would speculate that the Garden of Eden existed at that part of the world in a place called Babylonia, we\u00a0 might call it today modern day Iraq.\u00a0 We also know that this was the exact location where the first one-world government project started, the first United Nations Conference I like to call it\u2014the tower of Babel.\n\nThe tower of Babel, or the tower of Babel, depends on which syllable gets the [can't understand word] as I like to say, however you pronounce that, what is coming into existence before God scattered the builders through the disruption of the language in the land of Shinar.\u00a0 Genesis 11:2 says, \u201cIt came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.\u201d\n\nIf you go back to Genesis 10:10 it describes the tower of Babel this way: \u201cAnd the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.\u201d\u00a0 So Shinar has a paper trail; Shinar is probably the area where the Garden of Eden once was.\u00a0 It was the area where our forbearers following the flood built a tower (in rebellion against God) to reach into heaven.\u00a0 It was the first place of worldwide revolt against God.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re learning here in Daniel 1:2, that Shinar or Mesopotamia doesn\u2019t just have a past, it has a present; this is where the children of Israel were taken against their will.\u00a0 Think about that, being in the land of Israel under divine decree, under basic geography and borders that God said you would possess and being ripped out of that area.\u00a0 And suddenly being taken to a place of infamy, this land of Shinar.\n\nAnd that may be describing your life today; maybe you were once saved and secure in one job where\u00a0 your hopes and your progression in that job and\u00a0 your success in that job looked very optimistic, suddenly against your will you\u2019re ripped out of that circumstance; maybe it\u2019s a firing, maybe it\u2019s a layoff, maybe it\u2019s an economic downturn, and now you find yourself in some strange place that you wish you weren\u2019t there and you want to go back to where you were comfortable.\n\nThat is the environment where God shows up and demonstrates His control on His sovereignty; as long as we\u2019re in that place of comfort we really are not in a heartfelt position to receive from God.\u00a0 You only move into a position where you need to receive something from God when you\u2019re in that place of need; that\u2019s where the children of Israel found themselves.\n\nAs you go through the Bible what you\u2019ll see is Shinar, or Babylonia is very prominent in the Bible.\u00a0 Herodotus gave the measurements of Babylon, the city, in 450 B.C.\u00a0\u00a0 Alexander the Great, who is prophesied in the book of Daniel, Daniel 8 and Daniel 11, we\u2019ll be making reference to Alexander the Great as we go through this study, but Alexander the Great in about 323, about 300 years after the time of Daniel, visited Babylon and actually died there.\u00a0 Seleucus seized Babylon in 312 B.C.\u00a0 Strabo, one of the great ancient writers of the past, pronounced Babylon\u2019s hanging gardens as one of the seven wonders of the world in 25 B.C.\n\nBabylon is also the place\u2026 it\u2019s getting near Christmas, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Aren\u2019t we going to start talking about Magi on all the Christmas cards.\u00a0 Where did the Magi come from?\u00a0 Following the star. \u00a0They came from the east, Matthew 2:2, which is this area of Babylon.\u00a0 There were actually Babylonians, according to Acts 2:9, present to hear Peter preach the gospel on the day of Pentecost, people from Mesopotamia, Jewish people living in that area which is the area where most of the Jews resided and continued to reside even after the days of the Babylonian captivity would travel to Jerusalem on certain feast days.\u00a0 \u00a0[Matthew 2:2, \u201cWhere is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.\u201d\u00a0 Acts 2:9, \u201cParthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,\u201d]\n\nThey came to Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost; they heard Peter preach; many of them got saved and they went back home and I believe that they started churches in that area amongst the Hebrew Christians.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the apostle Peter, according to 1 Peter 5, I believe it\u2019s about verse 13, Peter was the apostle to the who?\u00a0 The Jews. Paul was the apostle to the who?\u00a0 The Gentiles.\u00a0 Peter traveled to that part of the world and he actually wrote an epistle, two epistles from that area.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it says in 1 Peter 5:13 she who is from Babylon greet you.\u00a0 [1 Peter 5:13, \u201cShe who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark.\u201d]\u00a0 The Talmud, a great legal document in Judaism was ultimately formulated in Babylon, it has a name, called the Babylonian Talmud.\n\nAnd then that part of the world really fell into Muslim control. [can't understand word] mentions a Babylonian village about 917 A.D. and then Babylon became known as the two mosques and [can't understand word] in 1100.\u00a0 And when you read all these things about Saddam Hussein, who is now no longer with us, praise the Lord for that I guess, you see that the world\u2019s attention has very much shifted back to that part of the world.\u00a0 It\u2019s the part of the world that controls most of the world\u2019s oil supply.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to watch an eastward continuation of the world\u2019s attention.\u00a0 You know, we used to fight our wars in Europe; World War I, World War II, and then you start seeing things moving gradually eastward; we get into wars like the Korean War, the Vietnam War.\u00a0 And then things gradually move eastward even further, back to the Middle East, back to Iraq where most of the world\u2019s attention is even today; certainly with our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan this area of the world became the focal point of our understanding.\n\nAnd it\u2019s almost as if God is saying where everything started everything one day will end because you see, Babylon doesn\u2019t just have a past, she doesn\u2019t just have a present, but she has a future.\u00a0 The prophet Zechariah, in Zechariah 5:5-11 in 519 B.C., twenty years after historical Babylon fell to the Persians in Daniel 5, 539 B.C., twenty years later Zechariah had a vision and in this vision he saw, and you can read it for yourself in Zechariah 5:5-11, he saw a woman being put into a basket and the lid was placed over that basket where she could not get out.\n\n[Zechariah 5:5-11, \u201cThen the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, \u2018Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.\u2019 [6]I said, \u2018What is it?\u2019 And he said, \u2018This is the ephah going forth\u2019\u201d Again he said, \u2018This is their appearance in all the land [7] (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.\u2019\u00a0 [8] Then he said, \u201cThis is \u2018Wickedness!\u2019 And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. [9] Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. [10] I said to the angel who was speaking with me, \u2018Where are they taking the ephah?\u2019 [11] Then he said to me, \u2018To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd some angels came, they looked to me like angels anyway, carrying that basket away, and Zechariah asked the Lord, what does this mean?\u00a0 And the Lord answered Zechariah\u2019s request for knowledge when He says one of these days, at the right time, this woman is going to be let out of the basket and she is going to be allowed to build a house, now the word for \u201chouse\u201d is [can't understand word] which is the same word for temple, she is going to build a house, she is inside a basket called an ephah, which was a symbol of commerce, she is going to be allowed to restore a religion, a house, commerce, and wickedness itself.\u00a0 Well, where is all of this going to be located?\n\nZechariah 5:11 tells you exactly where it\u2019s going to exist. Zechariah 5:11 says, \u201cThen he said to me, \u2018To build a temple for her in the land of\u201d what? \u201cShinar;\u201d it\u2019s right there in the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 So when you put together Genesis 11:2 with Daniel 1:2 and Zechariah 5:11 what\u00a0 you quickly see is Shinar has a past, a present and a future.\u00a0 In the same area where the tower of Babel once stood, that\u2019s where the nation of Israel was taken into captivity and if I\u2019m interpreting my Bible correctly it will be the same part of the world where the empire of the antichrist will stand, where the antichrist will usher in wickedness, commercial activity, and worldwide religion in a place called Shinar, in the very place where God disrupted.\u00a0 The first global revolt against God is going to be the exact same location of the earth where the final revolt against God will be launched from.\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting to me that God is saying history one day is going to recycle back to where it all began.\u00a0 Human civilizations began in Mesopotamia and that\u2019s where the rebellion against God is going to be stifled and quenched and it will be overthrown by the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nYou say well who is this woman in the basket?\u00a0 I believe that the woman in the basket is the same woman that\u2019s called the harlot in Revelation 17; that woman in Revelation 17:5 with that forehead inscription which says, \u201cBABYLON \u2026THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 17:5,\u201c\u2018and on her forehead had a name was written, a mystery, \u2018BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.\u2019]\n\nI believe it\u2019s the same woman in the basket in Zechariah 5.\u00a0 Both sections of Scripture describe this woman sitting.\u00a0 Both sections of Scripture describe an emphasis on commerce.\u00a0 Both sections of Scripture define the woman\u2019s name as \u201cWickedness,\u201d she\u2019s just called The Mother of Harlots in chapters 17 and 18.\u00a0 Both sections of Scripture focus on false worship.\u00a0 In the Zechariah 5 passage a temple will be rebuilt for her, false worship described as harlotry is described in Revelation 17:5. And in both sections of Scripture the woman is taken to Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s just in Zechariah 5:11 Babylon is called Shinar and in Revelation 17 and 18 Babylon is called Babylon, which is a reference to what?\u00a0 Shinar.\n\nIn fact, in Revelation 18:10, which is the description of the final one-world revolt under the antichrist this is what it says: \u201c\u2018'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'\u201d\u00a0 And people look at this reference to the great city, Babylon in Revelation 18:10 and they say well, that doesn\u2019t mean Babylon, that means Rome.\u00a0 And they develop this view that it\u2019s talking somehow about the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 I\u2019m not here to let the Roman Catholic Church off the hook by any stretch of the imagination.\u00a0 What I\u2019m saying is it doesn\u2019t say Rome here, it says Babylon.\u00a0 Babylon means Babylon; Rome means Rome.\u00a0 Paul and the other biblical writers know how to use the word Rome.\u00a0 In fact, Paul wrote a whole book called the Book of Romans.\u00a0 These biblical writers are great at using the word Rome; they don\u2019t use the word Rome here, they use the word Babylon.\n\nNow I did write my doctoral dissertation on the subject, the subtitle of it is called Babbling On About Babylon<\/em>, so I\u2019m going to try not to try not to do that.\u00a0 But to me it is a fascinating subject to see what the Holy Spirit is revealing, that where history and rebellion began in Eden everything will recycle back to that same part of the world.\u00a0 Just as a side point it\u2019s interesting that most of the world\u2019s oil supply is in that part of the world.\u00a0 And so it would be a tremendous vehicle for the empire of the antichrist.\u00a0 But this is the place that the children of Israel were taken into, a place of infamy, a place that has a past, a place that has a present and a place that has a future.\n\nNow what follows is Daniel\u2019s selection.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verses 3-7, Daniel 1:3, Daniel and others are taken into captivity and what you discover is they are selected for something by Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Look at verse 3, \u201cThen the king ordered\u201d the king being who? Nebuchadnezzar. \u201cThen the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles,\u201d so I\u2019ve got these guys in captivity, I haven\u2019t come yet in wave 2 and wave 3 yet but I\u2019ve got a remnant, a small group in captivity, what am I going to do with these fifteen year olds.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do, and Nebuchadnezzar was nobody\u2019s fool, he was going to brainwash them.\u00a0 He was going to teach them the way of the Babylonians and the Chaldeans and he was going to use them to get on his side, to get on his team and talk the rest of the population of Judah into peaceably going along with Nebuchadnezzar.\n\n[Daniel 1:4, \u201cyouths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of<\/em> wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king\u2019s court; and he ordered him<\/em> to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. [5] The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king\u2019s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed<\/em> that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king\u2019s personal service. [6] Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. [7] Then the commander of the officials assigned new<\/em> names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name<\/em> Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.\u201d]\n\nThis is why he came in three waves; he came first, watch this, for the best and the brightest, the people that showed the most promise, the people that were the most articulate, and let\u2019s simply alter their worldview through an intense educational program and once they\u2019re on my side I can have my way with this subjugated culture called Judah because they\u2019re just going to follow their leaders.\n\nMay I just say to you that this is the exact same strategy that Satan is using today.\u00a0 Where do the best and the brightest in the United States of America go?\u00a0 They go to the Ivy League, of course.\u00a0 What do they learn at the Ivy League?\u00a0 Genesis through Revelation like they used to?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 A biblical worldview?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 The Christian roots of America?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 What they\u2019re put through is an intense propaganda campaign.\u00a0 The name of the game is to alter their worldview because one of these days these people are going to be the future doctors, the future lawyers, the future preachers, the future politicians, and this is a strategy that Satan is using over and over again to shift the United States of America to the left.\n\nAnd we are so na\u00efve of the way Satan operates and works and it\u2019s happening right in front of our eyes and many times we don\u2019t notice it.\u00a0 Just take a modern example.\u00a0 I noticed when this election came out the way that it did I noticed the total hysteria on universities.\u00a0 I noticed that the universities cancelled their test or exams.\u00a0 I noticed that the university professors didn\u2019t show up to teach, because we all know that the students were in a place of trauma.\u00a0 I also noticed that they brought in the, what are called trauma dogs, now I didn\u2019t know what a trauma dog was till this week.\u00a0 Apparently a trauma dog is a dog you trot out and you sort of pat it and it gets your mind off your problems.\u00a0 So they brought in the trauma dogs.\u00a0\u00a0 They actually gave out Play Doh, that\u2019s honestly what the newspaper said, Play Doh which is something I gave to my\u2026 I don\u2019t give it to her any more but when she was five I used to give my daughter Play Doh.\u00a0 And you see, you know, when I didn\u2019t get my way in a couple of elections, specifically 2000, actually what am I trying to say, 2012, and 2008, nobody gave me a trauma dog, nobody poured me a cup of hot chocolate, nobody cancelled my daily responsibilities and I was depressed like any conservative would be.\n\nWhy is it that when the opposite happens all of these accessories are added to students? It is, beloved, a form of manipulation; it is a form of brainwashing.\u00a0 It is about altering the worldview of a person.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Nebuchadnezzar is seeking to do here.\n\nNow notice, if you will, verse 4 and 5, notice the intense program that he puts Daniel and these youths through.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 4, \u201cyouths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of<\/em> wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king\u2019s court;\u201d\n\nNebuchadnezzar didn\u2019t just pick the run of the mill to get on his team; he had a physical requirement, they had to be good looking, attractive to the eyes.\u00a0 There was a mental requirement, they had to have something \u201cunder the hood\u201d so to speak, mentally the best and the brightest.\u00a0 And then they had to have basic social graces or social skills.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t pick the Neanderthals, he picked people that had the social graces and the social skills necessary to serve in the king\u2019s court.\u00a0 Those are the people I\u2019m after and if I get them to think the way I think I can subjugate Judah.\n\nAnd notice, if you will the second part of verse 4, \u201che ordered them to teach them the literature and the language of the\u201d who? \u00a0\u201cthe Chaldeans.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t want you studying Torah, I don\u2019t want you studying Pentateuch, I don\u2019t want you studying Hebrew Bible, what I want you studying is our literature and our methodology and our system and our religion.\u00a0 He might have put it this way, I want you to expand your minds; I want to broaden your understanding. I want to make you more tolerant towards alternative lifestyles or worldviews because I\u2019m going to use you (you don\u2019t know this, right now you just think\u00a0 you\u2019re being flattered) I\u2019m going to use you as a propaganda tool.\n\nOne of the speakers that we had here, we didn\u2019t advertise this very aggressively because it really wasn\u2019t an SLBC event per se<\/em>, but we had a speaker here Thursday named Cynthia Dunbar and I was very interested in hearing what she had to say and she gave a very powerful presentation in the fellowship hall concerning the war that she is going through with textbooks and how she is merely seeking to introduce into the school systems of America balanced literature, you know, things like The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, George Washington\u2019s farewell address, things you would think the youth are reading and they\u2019re not reading.\u00a0 And she is trying to seek to readmit that into the schooling system, not only of Texas but all around the United States of America.\u00a0 And she has been called every name in the book for trying to do this: intolerant, a bigot, un-academic, unlearned, and yet when you look at Cynthia Dunbar\u2019s material you\u2019ll discover that all of it is footnoted very aggressively, very nicely, very scholarly, and yet there\u2019s an actual war taking place in her life and her ministry involving something as simple as textbooks.\n\nWhy is that the case?\u00a0 Because he who writes the textbooks writes the future.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar wrote the textbook.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar wrote the history, and he is trying to indoctrinate these Hebrew youths in that distorted view of history.\n\nThe same battle is taking place today.\u00a0 He ordered them to teach the literature and the language of the Chaldeans.\u00a0 Notice verse 5, \u201cThe king appointed for them a daily ration from the king\u2019s choice food and from the wine which he drank,\u201d so you\u2019ll notice that there is entrance requirements, physical, mental and social.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that there is a course of study here, the language and the literature of the Chaldeans, which is another way of saying the Babylonians.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that physical provision was made for these people.\u00a0 We might call that state funded tuition expenses.\u00a0 And then you\u2019ll notice how long this campaign of indoctrination went on for; notice the second part of verse 5, and he appointed<\/em> that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king\u2019s personal service.\u201d\n\nI remember as I was contemplating doctoral studies, I remember a warning that was given to me, indirectly, by the late Zane Hodges, a great Greek scholar, longtime scholar at Dallas Seminary and his warning was simply this: you\u2019re going to be in this program for a number of years, whether you graduate or not is up to the preferences of the professors, so choose\u00a0 your program wisely because your typical student underestimates the power that that program has over you in terms of altering the way you think.\u00a0 And it\u2019s warning that I think is very, very true.\u00a0 I have seen people that were very good people go into these academic programs.\u00a0 I\u2019m a pro-academic guy, by the way.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got more degrees probably than a thermometer, but I have seen very good people go into these academic programs only to have their worldview altered and not understanding the agenda that is at work to change the way people think.\n\nThis is nothing new, this strategy is as old as Nebuchadnezzar himself.\u00a0 And what does Nebuchadnezzar do now?\u00a0 He begins to not just alter the way these individuals think but he changes their names.\u00a0 What were their original names?\u00a0 Names we don\u2019t recognize.\u00a0 We all recognize the name Shadach, Meshach and Abed-nego, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 Do you recognize these names?\u00a0 Daniel, we recognize that one; Hananiah, Meshial, and Azariah, those are their original names.\u00a0 Now the great scholar, Edwin Yamauchi gives us a great translation or interpretation of what these names originally meant.\u00a0 Daniel\u2019s name originally meant God is my judge.\u00a0 Hananiah\u2019s name originally meant Yahweh is gracious.\u00a0 Meshial\u2019s name originally meant who is what God is.\u00a0 And Azariah\u2019s name originally meant Yahweh has helped.\n\nWhat does this show us?\u00a0 That Daniel and his three friends came from Godly Jewish homes because each of their names reflected something in the character of God.\u00a0 They came from homes that honored Proverbs 22:6 which says, \u2018Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.\u201d \u00a0They were raised in homes that honored Deuteronomy 6:6-7, which says, \u201cThese words which I have commanded you today shall be on your heart; [7] you shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when\u00a0 you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.\u201d\n\nThere were parents that honored God and they taught their children principles about God.\u00a0 And being a home schooling family ourselves we are in that same process of trying to inculcate in our daughter spiritual truth and any homeschooling mom or any homeschooling family knows that the process can get very discouraging.\u00a0 Amen. And yet I bet the parents of these four individuals, when these young tykes were coming of age were equally discouraged, and yet they just kept planting those seeds, planting those seeds, planting those seeds.\u00a0 And now it\u2019s about to pay off because now the child is old enough to make their own decisions and what do these four individuals do?\u00a0 They decide to walk with God.\u00a0 That\u2019s where you start seeing dividends in the emphasis that we place into the hearts and minds of our youth because one of these days these little kids aren\u2019t going to be little kids any more.\n\nThey\u2019re going to be off making their own decisions, making up their own mind about things, they\u2019re going to be sitting in classrooms with erudite professors telling them that everything they know about the Bible is wrong.\u00a0 And how glorious it is to see those seeds that you\u2019ve diligently planted as a parent come to fruition as a child starts making a right choice about the things of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the dividends come in, that\u2019s when payment comes in.\n\nBut you see, Nebuchadnezzar is not content with that; he doesn\u2019t like the Hebrew names, he gives them Babylonian names.\u00a0 The name Daniel is changed to Beltzshaar, these are names that we are familiar with, the name Hananiah is changed to Shadrach, the name Meshial is changed to Meshacn, and the name Azariah is changed to Abed-nego.\u00a0 What do these Babylonian names mean?\u00a0 Not what the Hebrew names mean, I can guarantee that much.\u00a0 Belshazzar means lady protect the king; Shadrach means I am fearful of God, feaful not in a respectful sense but in a negative sense.\u00a0 Meshach means I am of little account.\u00a0 Abed-nego, according to Edwin Yamaouchi means servant of Nebo. Wel, who is Nebo?\u00a0 Nebo is part of the Babylonian pantheon.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Nebuchadnezzar was trying to turn these children into; he was trying to turn them into servants, not of Yahweh, but of the Babylonian pantheon.\n\nAnd what I want you to see and my time has escaped me, time flies when you\u2019re having fun, what I want you to see is right here, at the beginning of the book of Daniel Nebuchadnezzar challenged the sovereignty of God.\u00a0 Why do I say that?\u00a0 I say that because in the Bible when you name something you have authority over that which you name.\u00a0 We know that Adam and Eve were originally given authority over the animals.\u00a0 Genesis 1:26 says, \u201cLet them\u201d Adam and Eve, \u201crule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, over the cattle and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.\u00a0 That is the significance of God allowing Adam ot name the animals.\n\nIn Genesis 2:19-20 it says, \u201cout of the ground the Lord God formed the beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them and whatever the man called the living creature that was its name.\u00a0 It was not an accident that God allowed Adam to name the animals because he had been given authority over the animals.\u00a0 So when Nebuchadnezzar comes in and he starts renaming these indivudals from a Hebrew name to a Babylonian name, from a God honoring name to a God detesting name., he is asserting his own authority and his own sovereignty. God, you\u2019re not in charge here, I\u2019m in charge. And another reason you\u2019re not in charge here God is because I went into Your temple and I took Your vessels, I took them out of Your house and I put them into my house.\u00a0 So what is being said here in terms of a great conflict is Nebuchadnezzar is, right here at the beginning of the book, challenging the authority of God.\u00a0 You\u2019re not in control here, God, I am.\u00a0 And yet what does the rest of the book of Daniel say? Nebuchadnezzar, you\u2019re wrong, you\u2019re not in charge, you\u2019re not in charge of anything.\u00a0 In fact, you wouldn\u2019t even be in the position you\u2019re in today had it not been for the sovereign hand of God and watch God show up throughout this book and vindicate His sovereignty and His authority over and over again.\n\nIs the sovereign of God being challenged in\u00a0 your life through ridicule, family dissension, harassment on the work place because of you Christian beliefs.\u00a0 May I just say to you that\u2019s a pretty good position to be in because guess who\u2019s going to show up?\u00a0 God is, to vindicate you just like He vindicated these four He prophets.\u00a0 We\u2019ll study more of this next time.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for the book of Daniel and how it\u2019s not just a 6th<\/sup> century book but it speaks to us in our time period in the world that we\u2019re living in.\u00a0 Help us, Father, to be mindful of this book, help it to instruct us on who\u2019s really in charge and help it to align our priorities as we live for you in these last days.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026..","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t