{"id":18384,"date":"2017-01-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-009-disobeying-the-government\/"},"modified":"2017-01-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-22T06:00:00","slug":"daniel-009-disobeying-the-government","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-009-disobeying-the-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 009: Disobeying the Government?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18384","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 009: Disobeying the Government?","sermon_date":"20170122","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4297,"sermon_slides":4298,"sermon_mp3":4301,"sermon_id":"122171051566","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"3:1-12","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nDisobeying the Government\n\n1-22-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 3:1-12\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 9\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Daniel, chapter 3, beginning at verse 1.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Bible and Civil Disobedience, what a topic.\u00a0 I\u2019m not addressing it just for the sake of addressing it, it\u2019s in the passages.\u00a0 I just got back from New York participating in a prophecy conference there this week at Calvary Chapel Finger lakes, and the last day of the conference it was exactly the same temperature that it is right now, 50 degrees, and all they could talk about was how hot it was outside.\n\nOne thing I want to bring to your attention before we start is today is Sanctity of Life Sunday, as you no doubt are aware, an infamous Supreme Court decision was handed down, in 1973 roughly, which basically made it legal constitutionally for a woman to procure an abortion.\u00a0 And as a result millions and millions of lives have been lost as a result of that decision. It\u2019d be the equivalent of one out of every six Americans, or maybe one out of every five Americans in our current population just disappearing.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a holocaust that even outstrips, far outstrips what Hitler did and it\u2019s a blight that hangs over our culture, as it has been for several decades.\u00a0\u00a0 Then President Ronald Reagan declared the Sunday following the Roe decision to be Sanctity of Life Sunday.\n\nSo I just wanted to acknowledge that, and part of our position statements at Sugar Land Bible Church is we believe in the rights of the unborn.\u00a0 For those that have had an abortion we preach the grace of God that\u2019s available but we also believe that the unborn are children within the womb of their mother and, you know, it\u2019s a funny thing about being prochoice; everybody that\u2019s prochoice has already been born.\u00a0 I wonder if we pulled all the children in the wombs of their mothers that can\u2019t vote how they would vote.\u00a0 So when I see these polls about the country wants this or that I think well, maybe we have shrunk our sample set a little bit.\u00a0 Anyway, I just wanted to bring that to your attention and acknowledge that.\n\nDaniel 3:1, if you\u2019re visiting with us for the very first time we\u2019re in the book of Daniel.\u00a0 The nation of Israel has been torn out of its homeland and exported about 350 miles to the east, to a place called Babylon.\u00a0 It\u2019s really a time period that the prophets never foresaw happening in detail.\u00a0 So this is why God has raised up Daniel, to give prophecies about this time period that they\u2019re now in, when they have no king reigning on David\u2019s throne and they\u2019re being bullied, Israel is, by various Gentile powers.\n\nSo Daniel explains prophetically this time period but he also explains it ethically.\u00a0 How do you live for God on pagan territory?\u00a0 And Daniel and his four friend function as role models, if you will for how to live for God in troubled times.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to see some trouble that three of Daniel\u2019s friends run into and how they responded to it.\u00a0 And it\u2019s such an insight to us as we seek to live for God in a world that by and large doesn\u2019t acknowledge Him.\u00a0 Your place of employment may not acknowledge Him; your vocation may not acknowledge Him.\u00a0 Maybe your own family doesn\u2019t acknowledge Him.\u00a0 So how do you live for Him in that kind of environment.\u00a0 The book of Daniel is so instructive to us.\n\nChapters 1-7 is really the historical section; chapters 8-12 is the prophetic section.\u00a0 We finished chapter 1 which lays the groundwork for what\u2019s following; it\u2019s the setting.\u00a0 And then we move into a section that [blank spot] there we go, I didn\u2019t do anything, I\u2019m an innocent bystander here.\u00a0 How do you top\u00a0 all that?\u00a0 As the proverbs say, \u201cBlessed are the flexible for they shall never be broken.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that is in Proverbs, that\u2019s my personal proverb of the day.\n\nBut we move into this section that we call the\u2026 it\u2019s basically organized chiastically.\u00a0 In other words, the information of chapter 2 is restated in chapter 7.\u00a0 And the information in chapter 3 is repeated in chapter 6.\u00a0 And the information in chapter 4 is repeated in chapter 5.\u00a0 So here is sort of an outline if I can give this to you.\u00a0 We have the setting, verses 1-7, and the setting is followed by an accusation, verses 8-12, and after that comes a test, verses 13-18, after that comes divine deliverance, verses 19-27, and then after that comes a decree, if you will, verses 28-30.\n\nLet\u2019s take a look at the setting.\u00a0 Take a look, if you could, at Daniel 3:1, it says, \u201cNebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits; he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 So we don\u2019t really have any chronological markers here so most people believe that these events happened maybe a couple of years or so after the events of Daniel 2, which would make Daniel just a child still, I would consider him, a very young man, 19 or 20, and his three friends would be around that same age.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice that again and again God is putting them in positions where they have to choose between God and the world system.\u00a0 And in fact the choices are so severe in all of these chapters we\u2019ve covered, they could forfeit their own lives.\u00a0 And we\u2019re going to see that here in Daniel chapter 3.\n\nThe king that\u2019s behind the scenes, the antagonist, if you will, all the way through Daniel 1-4 is Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.\u00a0 And watch very carefully Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon because God is working in his life through the testimony of these Hebrew youths, just like in your life, amongst your unsaved friends, family members, coworkers, you would be shocked to discover how God is working through you to reach them.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think of our lives that way, we kind of look at it as just me, myself and I, but in reality there\u2019s a lot of people watching you that you are probably not even aware of.\u00a0 And you name the name of Christ and they are looking to see if this Christianity thing that you talk about is really real.\u00a0 And so I like the statement that you are the Bible, the only Bible perhaps, that somebody may read.\u00a0 So the question is, how are we really exhibiting Biblical truth to those around us.\n\nSo these three youths have an opportunity to walk with God and in the process touch the heart of a very wicked king, a king that people never thought would ever come to God.\u00a0 And yet I\u2019ll show you in Daniel 4 (when we get there, down the road) that Nebuchadnezzar, I believe, did in fact come to God and we\u2019re going to see Nebuchadnezzar again in heaven.\n\nBut at any rate this statue is built, looking at the normal size of a cubit would be about 90 feet high, 9 feet wide.\u00a0 So you\u2019re talking about something that would be the equivalent of an eight story building.\u00a0 So he puts this giant monolithic contraption in front of the people of Babylon and he begins to make a demand.\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll notice there in chapter 3, verse 1, it says this took place in the plain of Dura.\u00a0 John Walvoord, in his commentary on the book of Daniel writes this.\u00a0 He says: \u201cThe most probably location is a mound located six miles southeast of Babylon, consisting of a large square of brick construction which would have ideally served as the base for such an image that Nebuchadnezzar erected.\u201d\n\nThe fact that the specific name is given to the location implies an intimate knowledge of Babylon in the sixth century.\u00a0 So details like this, the plain of Dura, we just kind of skip over that but that\u2019s\u00a0 actually very important because it adds credibility to the author or the writer, because what a lot of people are saying is the book of Daniel really was not written by Daniel in the sixth century, it was written by someone pretending to be Daniel, a forger if you will, in the second century.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s kind of a strange claim to make because the writer seems to have some kind of intimate knowledge of the geography of sixth century Babylon.\u00a0 And so these little pieces of detail, I think, are given to us really by the Holy Spirit to make us aware of the fact that this is actually eyewitness testimony, this is not fiction, these are not tall tales like Jack and the Beanstalk<\/em>.\u00a0 These are actual historical events that transpired.\u00a0 The history that\u2019s transpiring here is just as real as the history that\u2019s taking place in your life and in your circumstances.\n\nYou move down into verses 2 and 3 and even before I get into verses 2 and 3 let me just make one quick point: what was the motive of Nebuchadnezzar?\u00a0 Why in the world did he decide to build a statue like this?\u00a0 John Walvoord, in his commentary, says this: \u00a0\u201cThe likely background for the events of chapter 3 is a coup attempt against Nebuchadnezzar that occurred December, 595 to January 594 during the tenth year of his reign.\u00a0 This event was significant enough to have been recorded in the Babylonian Chronicle as the major event of that year.\u00a0 After the coup attempt failed it is likely that Nebuchadnezzar summoned all his rulers and vassal kings back to Babylon to participate in a loyalty oath.\u201d\n\nSo there is some history behind the scenes that we know from secular documents as to why Nebuchadnezzar most likely is doing this.\u00a0 It coincides with an attempt, an uprising in his own kingdom, to remove him from his throne and he puts down the rebellion and he summons everybody to the plain of Dura\u00a0 in the province of Babylon to demand loyalty.\u00a0 So once again you see that these are actual historical events that transpired in history.\n\nNow why did he decide to create this giant eight story tall building image of gold?\u00a0 I think the answer to that goes back to Daniel 2. \u00a0In Daniel 2, remember that God through Daniel, told Nebuchadnezzar that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of what?\u00a0 gold.\u00a0 But the head of gold one day would cease and would give way to what?\u00a0 the chest and arms of silver.\u00a0 And in that particular prophecy essentially what God, through Daniel, revealed to Nebuchadnezzar is yeah, you\u2019re the king now but your days are numbered.\n\nIn fact, in Daniel 5, in Daniel\u2019s very own lifetime the Persians would arise and overthrow Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s kingdom in a single night.\u00a0 Now Nebuchadnezzar probably said to himself you know what, I reject that; my kingdom is not temporary, my kingdom is going to last forever.\u00a0 And so he says I\u2019m going to create a statue where the whole thing, head to toe, is made of gold and you can forget what God said and you can forget what that prophet said because my kingdom is going to last forever.\u00a0 So the decision that he made to create this whole statue of gold could very well be a rebelling against, if you will, what God had revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2.\n\nAnd it\u2019s very interesting that when you study world emperors or empires, whether it be Rome, or China, or any other global power that you see throughout history, what you discover is they all have this mindset that they\u2019re going to be there forever; our kingdom is going to last forever.\n\nAmericans are like this, you know, what\u2019s poor God\u2026 what can He do without America, we\u2019re so important to God when in reality America is just a blip in world history in terms of time.\u00a0 We\u2019ve only been in existence for just a tad over 200 years, and yet we forget that we are here in a very temporal manner.\u00a0 And people are like this with their lives.\u00a0 People don\u2019t think about that; they have this mindset that they are going to live forever, they are going to exist forever.\u00a0 And the Bible is telling us that our lives are like mist that appear just for a little while, and then they vanish.\u00a0 And this is why the Psalmist, Moses in the Psalms, Psalm 90 being the oldest psalm in the Psalter, written by Moses, Moses says that we ought to number our days for a heart of wisdom.\n\nWe ought to go through life understanding that we are not here forever, we\u2019re here for a very short period of time.\u00a0 And we ought to use the few moments of life that God has given us to live for His eternal purposes.\u00a0 And yet people don\u2019t do that, they \u201csuppress the truth in unrighteousness.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Romans 1:18, \u201cFor the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,\u201d]\u00a0 I believe largely that\u2019s what Nebuchadnezzar is doing here: God is wrong, I am not going to be just a head of gold, I\u2019m going to be the whole body of gold and my kingdom is going to last forever.\n\nYou move down to verses 2-3 and\u00a0 you see a summons, and it says this, \u201cThen 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.\u00a0 Verse 3, and this gets a bit redundant because it mentions those groups again, \u201cThen 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.\u201d\u00a0 So we have a summons, if you will.\u00a0 We have what\u2019s summoned is administrators at every level. \u00a0There\u2019s probably about eight different offices that are being mentioned here.\u00a0 So he\u2019s getting all of the rulers and all the leaders of the nation to assemble to pay homage to this giant statue standing eight stories that he himself has established.\n\nNow you see a command given in verse 4-6 and notice what these verses say.\u00a0 \u201cThen the herald loudly proclaimed: \u2018To you the command is given, O peoples, nations and men of every language,\n\n[5] that at the moment you hear the sound of\u201d and now we have more repetition, \u201ca horn, a flute, \u00a0\u00a0a 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.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 6, \u201cBut whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire.\u201d\u00a0 And this is why I had Ed read, not from Daniel this morning, I had him read Exodus 20:1-6 which are the first two commandments in the Decalogue, going all the way back to the time of Moses.\n\n[Exodus 20:1-6, \u201cThen God spoke all these words, saying,\u00a0 [2] \u2018I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.\u00a0 [3] You shall have no other gods before Me. [4] You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. [5] You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, [6] but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.\u201d]\n\nNo other gods before me and no graven images.\u00a0 In other words, if you, as a Hebrew fulfill Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dictate you are violating the foundation of your relationship with God.\u00a0 God is monotheistic, He is not interested in any competitors and He is to be worshiped alone in spirit and in truth.\u00a0 And the Jews, for 800 years lived under this Mosaic system and they understood that they are not to give credence to idolatry and now these three Hebrew youths are being forced into this circumstance legally.\n\nAnd of course this is where the whole subject of civil disobedience comes up.\u00a0 People have asked me as I went through our Bible and Voting series, well when is it acceptable to disobey the government.\u00a0 And I said eventually we\u2019re going to get there in Daniel and here we are.\u00a0 It\u2019s in Daniel 3 and it\u2019s repeated, the information, in the form of Daniel himself in the lion\u2019s den; the same theme is repeated in Daniel 6.\u00a0 Make no mistake about it that government is an institution of God.\u00a0 Government was created through what is called the Noahic Covenant, going all the way back to Genesis 9:6.\n\nWhy did God create the institution of government?\u00a0 Because prior to the flood there was what\u2019s called a wild, wild west mentality where Genesis 6:11 says, \u201cNow the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.\u201d\u00a0 So after the flood had ended, when God restarted things and humanity to repopulate the earth, God Himself established the institution of human government and He put into the institution of human government, into its hands the sword.\u00a0 And He said this in Genesis 9:6, \u201cWhoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, we\u2019re not going to have violence spreading over the earth anymore; what we\u2019re going to do is we\u2019re going to establish an institution, this is a pre-Israel institution, this chart that I have here indicates on this section and in the section that follows, this is a covenant that God made before Israel ever existed.\u00a0 This is not a redemptive covenant, this is a covenant designed to restrain evil.\u00a0 It\u2019s a covenant that God entered into with the human race called His covenant with Noah, or the Noahic Covenant, pre-Israel, pre-Mosaic Law.\n\nSo your views on the existence of human government actually predate the time of Moses.\u00a0 It\u2019s not God dealing with a singular nation as He did with Israel; it\u2019s God dealing with the whole human race.\u00a0 Some have called these types of things that God did in early Genesis divine institutions.\u00a0 Divine institutions are things that God has put into fallen creation so that fallen creation could last, so fallen creation wouldn\u2019t destroy itself.\u00a0 And one of the things that He saw in the pre flood world was rampant violence.\u00a0 And as the saying goes, if you don\u2019t want to do the time don\u2019t do the crime.\u00a0 So the very existence of human government itself acts as a check and balance against man\u2019s sinful nature that naturally wants to murder anyway.\n\nAs the saying goes man will either be restrained by the Bible or he\u2019ll be restrained by the bayonet.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t have the internal work of God inside of me holding back my sin nature the only thing left that will preempt me from doing evil is the threat of being caught, the threat of being punished.\u00a0\u00a0 Many times I cruise in here to work, or I want to anyway, about 80 miles an hour, that\u2019s my desire and what prevents me from doing that is not the goodness of my heart, I can assure you of that; I see the guy on the side of the road there, the police officer, that black and white vehicle with the cherry on top and he\u2019s got his radar, he can clock how fast I\u2019m going and I don\u2019t want to pay the ticket.\u00a0 So the fact that I am being threatened by an institution greater than myself keeps my speed down, which in the process saves people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 And see thus this is God\u2019s purpose behind the institution of government.\n\nSo this concept carries over into the New Testament; in Romans 13:1-7 it says this: \u201cEvery person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. [2] Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. [<\/strong>3] <\/strong>For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; [4] for it\u201d government \u201cis a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the\u201d what? \u201csword for nothing;\u201d I mean, what did you do in Rome with a sword?\u00a0 You didn\u2019t use it to clean\u00a0 your teeth; it was an instrument of death.\u00a0 This is going back to the Noahic Covenant, the sword that God put into the hands of the state.\u00a0 \u00a0[4] \u201cfor it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. [5] Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience\u2019 sake. [6] For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers<\/em> are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. [7] Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due;<\/em> custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.\u201d\n\nSo we have a mindset in biblical Christianity where we actually look on the government as something that God Himself established and so we have a natural tendency to honor it, respect it, pay our taxes.\u00a0 And 1 Timothy 2:1-14 actually teaches that we should be on our knees in prayer for those who rule over us in government.\u00a0 You might want to jot these verses down because they teach the same thing, we won\u2019t read them all.\u00a0 Titus 3:1, 1 Peter 2:13-17, I already mentioned 1 Timothy 2:1-4.\u00a0 [Titus 3:1, \u201cRemind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed.\u201d \u00a01 Peter 2:13-17, \u201cSubmit yourselves for the Lord\u2019s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, [14] or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. [15] For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. [16] Act<\/em> as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it<\/em> as bondslaves of God. [17] Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.\u201d]\n\nThese are all carry over ideas into the New Testament from the Noahic Covenant which God never intended to disappear, because the sign of the covenant is the what?\u00a0 The rainbow; as long as you see the rainbow in the sky the covenant continues on.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like the Mosaic Covenant which is made with only Israel and was never intended to be permanent.\u00a0 The Noahic Covenant is something that God has established pre-Israel.\n\nThat raises a problem, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 What happens if you reach a point where the government gets out of control, the government becomes tyrannical, the government actually begins to coerce you against your convictions?\u00a0 This is what Daniel 3 and Daniel 6 are talking about.\u00a0 And the reason this issue has to be raised is because now Israel, after 800 years is outside of her land.\u00a0 She is no longer the governing authority, she is at the mercy, if you will, of Gentile pagan powers.\u00a0 And so what do you do when those pagan powers begin to coerce\u00a0 you against your convictions.\n\nFor example, what do you do if they tell you to do something that God says don\u2019t do, as in worship a giant statue, Daniel 3.\u00a0 Or what if the opposite is true, what if they forbid you from doing something that God says to do, that\u2019s what\u2019s going on in Daniel 6.\u00a0 Daniel wanted to publicly pray and the civil government told him not to.\u00a0 What do you do then?\u00a0 Well, in those circumstances the door becomes open to something called civil disobedience, because Acts 5:29 says we must obey God rather than who?\u00a0 Rather than man.\u00a0 [Acts 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, \"We must obey God rather than men.\u201d]\n\nSo this becomes a very important subject for national Israel, something they\u2019re having to think about for the very first time.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why a book like Daniel God uses to explain this concept. In my thinking about civil disobedience I have four prerequisites that I think biblically have to be met before civil disobedience becomes an option.\n\nAnd here they are: There must be a crystal clear, and I mean crystal clear conflict between the laws of man and God.\u00a0 It can\u2019t be a gray area, it can\u2019t be just a casual disagreement, it can\u2019t be not liking of the personality of a political figure.\u00a0 The government has to be telling you to do something that God says to do\u00a0 or the other way around.\u00a0 Number 2, there has to be an exhaustion of all creative legal remedies.\u00a0 What I mean by that is civil disobedience is never a first resort for the Christian.\u00a0 Civil disobedience is always a last resort for the Christian.\u00a0 There are many people that want to leap into civil disobedience, I believe, prematurely.\u00a0 As people that understand that God is the author of human government we try to work within the law whenever possible.\u00a0 We are not troublemakers, we are not rabble-rousers, we\u2019re not people with a rebellious heart, we try to honor, respect, submit to the institution of human government whenever we can and we use civil disobedience not as a first result but a last result.\n\nNumber 3, and we\u2019re going to see this in our passage as we go through it this week and\u00a0 next week, should you come to a point where you must disobey the government you also must be willing to pay the consequences.\u00a0 The death\u00a0 of Jesus keeps you out of hell, it does not exonerate you from temporal consequences that we face in this life.\u00a0 For example, the next time you\u2019re pulled over for speeding try this one out, when the officer pulls you over: \u00a0well, gee, office, Romans 8:1 says \u201cthere is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus\u201d and you\u2019ll see very quickly that that won\u2019t work.\u00a0 So if you want to disobey the government, if that is your conviction, then you have to be willing to pay the consequences.\u00a0 \u00a0Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, as I\u2019ll be showing you later, around verse 18, were willing to pay the consequences.\n\nAnd then finally, number four, as the act of civil disobedience is transpiring maintaining respect for civil authorities, even while you\u2019re disobeying them is important.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice in this passage that as Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego disobeyed the government they maintained respect, they did not become rude, crude, lewd and obnoxious.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t resort to ridicule, they keep referring to Nebuchadnezzar respectfully as \u201cO king.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And so a clear conflict between laws of man and God, the exhaustion of all creative legal remedies, a willingness to pay the consequences, and maintaining respect even as the act of civil disobedience is transpiring.\u00a0 I\u2019m getting all of these, as I\u2019ll be showing you, from Daniel 3 and Daniele 6.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see all four principles honored.\n\nAnd you might be saying to yourself, well how does this apply to me; we live in America, we don\u2019t have to worry about those kind of things.\u00a0 Jack Phillips, a newspaper article, \u201cJack Phillips is a baker who declined to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because his Christian belief is that marriage exists only between a man and woman. Now a Colorado judge has ordered him to bake cakes for same-sex marriages, and if Phillips refuses, he could go to jail.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, when I was speaking recently at the Steeling the Mind Conference in Colorado I used this quote and somebody comes up to me after my session was over and she says I want to talk to you, and usually when they say that it\u2019s like oh no, what have I done.\u00a0 She says I\u2019m a judge and I know the person that you\u2019re talking about in that newspaper article.\u00a0 I\u2019m like oh no, did I misquote it, what did I do wrong?\u00a0 And she says I want you to know that everything you said is exactly what happened.\u00a0 This judge got into this conflict with this Jack\u00a0 Phillips, this owner of this bakery and this individual simply didn\u2019t want to decline service to same sex couples, in the sense that they could purchase things.\u00a0 What bothered him was he had to go and actually use his services to, in his mind, endorse a same sex ceremony and his convictions as a Christian just wouldn\u2019t allow it.\n\nAnd you can put yourself in that situation and you can see how your convictions as a Christian that might bother you too.\u00a0 And this judge says to heck with your convictions, you\u2019re going to do\u00a0 it or you\u2019re going to suffer severe penalty.\u00a0 So now this Jack Phillips, this small business owner is forced to make this decision right here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.\u00a0\u00a0 You see, the teachings in the book of Daniel, although they are written back in the sixth century suddenly we\u2019re starting to have to think about this in our country because this is not the United States of America, to a large extent, that I grew up in; it\u2019s different.\u00a0 We\u2019re living on pagan territory where the biblical values I hold to are not necessarily shared by the civil authorities.\u00a0 And so we\u2019re having to think, just like Israel was having to think about the very first time the issue of civil disobedience.\n\nWell, cheer up because it gets worse.\u00a0 \u201cIn yet another example of gay activist overreach, an Oregon official has not only burdened a Christian couple with a ridiculous fine, he has imposed a gag order on them\u2026\u201d\u00a0 A gag order?\u00a0 I thought we had a first amendment here. \u201cIn one of the most egregious anti-Christian acts committed by a state official in recent memory, Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian\u201d now a little footnote on this, if I remember my history right he lost his last election so don\u2019t mess with God, God has a way of dealing with things when we turn people over to God.\u00a0 But what I\u2019m just trying to describe is this anti-Christian mindset is alive and well.\u00a0 \u201cOregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian not only upheld the ridiculous $135,000 fine levied against Aaron and Melissa Klein\u201d anybody that owns a small business understands that a $135,000 fine can cripple a business, and it was Chief Justice John Marshall of the United States Supreme Court who said this: with the power to tax is the power to destroy.\u00a0 You can destroy a family, you can destroy a business, you can destroy a career by levying some kind of excesses, punitive fine, regulation or taxation on somebody.\u00a0 And this is largely how the government is keeping people under control.\n\nThis \u201cridiculous $135,000 fine levied against Aaron and Melissa Klein\u201d you see, if I can divert just for a moment, what is freedom?\u00a0 Freedom is when the government is afraid of the people.\u00a0 What is tyranny?\u00a0 The opposite, tyranny is when the people are afraid of the government.\u00a0 And I sometimes wonder if we\u2019ve reached the tipping point on this.\u00a0 \u201cAaron and Melissa Klein \u00a0<\/strong>for declining to bake a cake for a lesbian commitment ceremony, but he ordered the Kleins to \u2018cease and desist\u2019 from making any public comments about their religious convictions relative to this case.\u201d\n\nI\u2019m not trying to stand up here this morning with scare tactics, I\u2019m just trying to give us a heavy dose of reality.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to explain the significance, the application ability of Daniel 3 how it spoke to the Jews in Babylon it also speaks to us.\n\nSomething else that\u2019s very interesting in this passage as we go through it is these musical instruments.\u00a0 These are a lot of strange sounding names, aren\u2019t they.\u00a0 I mean, that might have been quite a musical noise that they had there.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even see these things at the\u00a0 inauguration.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got a horn,\u00a0 you\u2019ve got a flute, lyre, [can't understand word] if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, psaltery, bagpipe, and all kinds of music. So once they heard the music the command that Nebuchadnezzar gave is to bow down and worship this statue.\n\nNow what\u2019s very interesting about this is these names of these musical instruments are what we would call Greek names.\u00a0 These names don\u2019t come from Hebrew, these names don\u2019t come from Aramaic, these names come from the Greek language.\u00a0 And as I\u2019ve tried to explain in our series on Daniel there\u2019s a great war that\u2019s gone on concerning the dating of the book of Daniel.\u00a0 Conservatives, like myself, believe Daniel wrote the book of Daniel.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that sad that I have to stand up today and say Daniel wrote Daniel and defend it?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s a whole mindset out there that says Daniel really wasn\u2019t written by Daniel; Daniel was written by someone using the penname Daniel, not in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C. but in the second century B.C.\u00a0 And why do people do that?\u00a0 Why do they want to drag the book of Daniel into the future and pretend like it\u2019s a forgery?\n\nThe reason they do so is they can\u2019t handle the fact that Daniel, if he is a 6th<\/sup> century writer predicts things before they happen.\u00a0 Daniel, as a teenager predicted the end of the Babylonian Empire.\u00a0 He predicted the rise of the Medo-Persian Empire.\u00a0 And after that, several centuries down the road he predicted the rise of the Greek empire.\u00a0 And then after that, 600 years in advance he predicted the rise of the Roman Empire.\u00a0 And because Daniel\u2019s prophecies are so specific and have been so specifically fulfilled in history, all of his prophecies about the end times, which from the year 2017 are yet to come, must be accurate as well.\u00a0\u00a0 I have no problems believing Daniel predicted all of these things because God revealed from the beginning.\n\nBut if you\u2019re coming to the Bible with an anti-supernatural bias, if you\u2019ve already dismissed in\u00a0 your mind that an omniscient God authored this book, then you have to have some kind of plausible explanation for these predictions.\u00a0 And so the name of the game is to pretend they really aren\u2019t predictions, they\u2019re just history forged as predictions written by someone other than Daniel.\u00a0 And one of the arguments that people use is look, these are all Greek names, so if these are Greek names this couldn\u2019t have been written way back in the 6th<\/sup> century; this must have been written in the 2nd<\/sup> century and the 3rd<\/sup> century when a man named Alexander the Great came to power and made Greek the known language of the ancient world.\u00a0 And so when you\u2019re watching A& E, the history channel, Mysteries of the Bible, they\u2019ll bring on all these scholars with all of their fancy degrees and they will kind of float this stuff, and they\u2019ll try to convince people that Daniel is really not an authentic book, and everybody knows that.\n\nAnd the problem is the church is not equipping people to answer that question.\u00a0 So your children and your grandchildren are listening to this and they want an answer from you because you\u2019re the one that goes to Sugar Land Bible Church and they want to know well, what do you say about this.\u00a0 And a lot of times we\u2019re so busy with our lives we\u2019re not equipping ourselves for answers so we\u2019re sending our children off into an unbelieving world with the seeds of doubt already planted in their minds simply because we are not earnestly contending for the faith the way we ought to.\u00a0 And pastors are busy standing up in front of people, talking about how to be successful, how to be rich, how to be fulfilled and all of these kinds of subjects and they\u2019re not really doing what God called them to do, which is to not just feed the sheep but to equip the sheep.\u00a0 My primary calling as a pastor-teacher is really not to unbelievers.\u00a0 I love being with unbelievers, I love talking to unbelievers, I love evangelizing unbelievers and I do that whenever God gives opportunity, but the fact of the matter is that is not my job primarily; that\u2019s your job.\u00a0 My job is to equip you so you can do your job.\n\nYou say well where are you getting all of this from. Well, I\u2019ve got a good book on the subject, called the book of Ephesians, and read Ephesians 4:11-16. You\u2019ll see the whole thing there. [Ephesians 4:11-16, \u201cAnd He gave some as<\/em> apostles, and some as<\/em> prophets, and some as<\/em> evangelists, and some as<\/em> pastors and teachers, [12] for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. [14] As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; [15] but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects<\/em> into Him who is the head, even<\/em> Christ, [16] from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.\u201d]\n\nSo the pastor-teacher equips the flock so the flock can do the work of ministry.\u00a0 And one of your ministries is going to be dealing with doubts in people from the propaganda that they get all of the time over the media.\u00a0 Why are they always attacking the Bible?\u00a0 Because if you believe the Bible you believe in political things like, for example, life in the unborn are people, that the left in this country doesn\u2019t want you to believe.\u00a0 You, because you\u2019re a Bible reader and a Bible believer have beliefs that the left or the humanist in America don\u2019t agree with, and they know the source from which you\u2019re getting your beliefs.\u00a0 So they don\u2019t run specials and attacks against William Shakespeare, they\u2019re always attacking the Bible because they think if they can malign the Bible enough in your eyes then that will change your worldview which will be consistent with their worldview which helps them in the takeover if you will, of the United States of America and frankly any nation on the fact of the earth.\n\nThis is why when Marxists take over countries the first people they begin to incarcerate and kill are pastors.\u00a0 And the very first thing that Fidel Castro did when he came to power in Cuba after he toppled the Batista Regime is he went into the public schools and changed the public schools.\u00a0 Now how do I know this?\u00a0 I know this because I have pastor friends that are Cuban refugees in Miami, Florida and I\u2019ve heard the story from two different people.\u00a0 And what Fidel Castro and his emissaries would do is they would say look, I want you kids to pray to Jesus for candy; I want you to close your eyes and I want you to pray to Jesus for candy.\u00a0\u00a0 This is taking place in the schools.\u00a0 And the kids would open their eyes, there\u2019d be no candy.\u00a0 All right kids, close your eyes a second time, and pray to Fidel for candy, pray to Fidel for ice cream, and as the children eyes are closed Fidel\u2019s agents come in, they put candy all over the desk, the ice cream truck shows up and this is how they were able to shift a country through the use of compulsory education away from the Bible, because the Bible does not promote Castro-like Marxism or godless communism so you have to demolish the Bible over and over again.\u00a0 You have to reduce or alter the thinking, particularly of young people, concerning the credibility that they give to the Bible.\u00a0 And I would say that on a smaller scale the same kind of thing goes on over and over again in the United States of America.\n\nAnd of course Paul says we are not ignorant of Satan\u2019s schemes.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid that the church in the evangelical United States of America today is largely ignorant concerning how Satan works, concerning how Satan operates and if you just have some conversations as I\u2019ve had with Cuban refugees and pastors in other parts of the world you\u2019ll see a consistent strategy.\u00a0 The reason I\u2019m saying this is you\u2019re asking why is he boring us with a talk on Greek musical instruments, who cares.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to show you the significance of this.\n\nSo having said all of that what\u2019s the answer.\u00a0 The answer is the Greeks were enslaved by the Babylonians and the Persians in the seventh century.\u00a0 The Greek culture didn\u2019t start with Alexander the Great; the Greek mercenaries came into both Babylon and Persia and as I mentioned before the Greeks actually enslaved the Babylonians and the Persians way back in the seventh century.\n\nSo if that is true, wouldn\u2019t there be remnants of the Greek language still around?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why these instruments begin to show up.\n\nThink about this for a minute.\u00a0 If this book was written in the Greek era, in the time of Alexander the Great, we wouldn\u2019t just have a few Greek words here, we would have the whole section in Greek, wouldn\u2019t we?\u00a0 See, that\u2019s the way to turn the argument around.\u00a0 If you\u2019re so convinced this was written in the second century why just a handful of Greek terms; why wouldn\u2019t we have more?\n\nAnd beyond that the great Greek scholar, Gleason Archer\u2026 Gleason Archer was the kind of guy who was a linguistic genius.\u00a0 He knew somewhere between 22-24 Semitic languages.\u00a0 In fact, there are people like that that can just grasp language like that; I\u2019m not one of them, languages have always been a struggle for me, I have a hard enough time with my native tongue, English.\u00a0 I manage to mangle a syllable or two from time to time.\u00a0 But he was the kind of guy that could learn language just like this [Andy snaps his fingers] and he actually was engaged to a woman who was from France and he wanted to over to France and talk with her parents about this engagement, and he didn\u2019t speak French so he picked up a book and learned French on the plane ride on the way over so he could have a conversation with his future in-laws.\u00a0 This is Gleason Archer.\u00a0 And from what people have told me he was a genius in some areas but he had difficult times with airports and finding his way out of an airport and things like that.\u00a0 So that\u2019s like a lot of smart people, they are really gifted in one area but when it comes to common sense that\u2019s a different area.\u00a0 But I would encourage you to get the Old Testament Introduction by Gleason Archer.\u00a0 [A Survey of Old Testament Introduction: Gleason Archer<\/em>] <\/a>\n\nAnd if you read what he said on the book of Daniel, by the way, he was a conservative, he just demolishes this whole late date argument.\u00a0 One of the things he brings up is by the time these Greek words were finally used, later on in history, in what is called the Septuagint which is in the second century, these very terms found in Daniel 3:2-3, were obsolete.\u00a0 In other words, maybe these were Greek terms but they were a very early form of the Greek language that fits the second century and not the sixth century.\n\nYou\u2019re going to be asked questions and you\u2019re not going to know the answer to every question but here\u2019s what you can do: you\u2019re going to know where to look.\u00a0 I can show you where to look.\u00a0 The education that God has given me has not allowed me the ability to answer every single question but I know exactly where to look for an answer.\u00a0 And I\u2019m giving you a source; the source on this, the best source is the A Survey of Old Testament Introduction<\/em> by Gleason Archer.\n\nSo we have the musical instruments that are described here, that\u2019s perhaps what they looked like, and these were the musical instruments that were to be played at this inauguration, if you will, of this giant statue, and when people heard these musical instruments playing they were to bow down to this statue.\u00a0 And notice the response of the people.\u00a0 Nobody likes to die, right?\u00a0 Nobody wanted to die?\u00a0 What do you think the people did?\u00a0 Verse 7, \u201cTherefore at that time, when all the peoples heard the sound\u201d here we go again, \u201cof 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.\u201d [Daniel 3:7]\u00a0 The command is given, the kingdom responds\u2026 well, most of the kingdom responded.\n\nWe now move from the setting to an accusation.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, chapter 3 and verses 8-12, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cFor this reason at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and brought charges against the Jews. [9] They responded and said to Nebuchadnezzar the king: \u2018O king, live forever! [10] You, O king, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, and bagpipe and all kinds of music, is to fall down and worship the golden image. [11] But whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire. [12] There are certain Jews\u201d this is Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s henchmen, \u201cThere are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the administration of the province of Babylon, namely<\/em>\u201d can we name drop here, \u201cShadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.\u201d\u00a0 Those were the three youths that came with Daniel into captivity as mere teenagers; these are not their original names, these are now the new names that Nebuchadnezzar had given them.\u00a0 \u201cThese men, O king, have disregarded you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image which you have set up.\u201d\n\nWhat\u2019s the motivation here of these accusers?\u00a0 I believe the answer is right there in chapter 3, verse 12, \u201cThere are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the \u2026 province of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll recall that when Daniel successfully interpreted the giant statue of Daniel 2 that Daniel was elevated into the administration of Babylon.\u00a0 Daniel 2:49, he insisted that his friends be taken with him.\u00a0 [Daniel 2:49, \u201cAnd Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was<\/em> at the king\u2019s court.\u201d]\u00a0 So Daniel was elevated to a very high place and his three friends were elevated just a bit \u00a0\u00a0(I would say) under administratively Daniel.\n\nWhat\u2019s the motive here?\u00a0 The motive is jealousy.\u00a0 This is very important to understand.\u00a0 When God begins to promote you, when you begin to kind of be a cut above the others, in your career, work place, even in your church, expect people to start taking shots at you that are unfair.\u00a0 We have a tendency to think that as long as I\u2019m in the will of God and doing God\u2019s work that everybody\u2019s going to like me, and get along.\u00a0 And the fact of the matter is it just isn\u2019t so.\u00a0 I call it the parable of the whale; when the whale comes up out of the water that\u2019s a keen opportunity to do what?\u00a0 Jab a spear into that whale.\u00a0 And if God is involved in your life and working in your life you just have to get used to the fact that some people are just not going to like you.\u00a0 It\u2019s a threat; you\u2019re a threat to them, not because you\u2019re desiring to be a threat to them but the work of God in your life is exposing the lack of God\u2019s work in their lives.\u00a0 And they, at that point, try to get you to compromise, oh come on back to sin.\u00a0 The reason they want you to go back to sin is they want your light to be a little less bright.\u00a0 Come on out and do some bar hopping with us; come on out and drink with us the way we used to.\n\nAnd if that doesn\u2019t work you can expect people to overtly persecute you, say mean spirited nasty things about you, say things about you that aren\u2019t true.\u00a0 Remember the opposite end of the chiasm, Daniel 6?\u00a0 Daniel 6 reveals the same themes and the same exact thing that happened to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego happened to Daniel in Daniel 6.\u00a0 It says this in Daniel 6:3-4, \u201cThen this Daniel began distinguishing himself among the commissioners and satraps because he possessed an extraordinary spirit, and the king planned to appoint him over the entire kingdom.\u201d Daniel is distinguishing himself because of the excellent spirit within him.\u00a0 God was involved with him, God was empowering him. Verse 4 says, \u201cThen the commissioners and satraps\u201d said yeah, we love you Daniel.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that, does it?\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs; but they could find no ground of accusation or evidence of<\/em> corruption, inasmuch as he was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be<\/em> found in him.\u201d\n\nLet\u2019s look at your tax return Daniel, let\u2019s look at your expense reports Daniel, let\u2019s look at when\u00a0 you clock in and clock out Daniel, and let\u2019s see if we can find some kind of problem with you because frankly we don\u2019t like the hand of God in your life, and the hand of God in your life, although you\u2019re not trying to do this, is eclipsing us.\u00a0 The same exact thing is happening here with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego; that\u2019s why this accusation is brought against them.\n\nThe book of Acts, chapter 5 and verse 14 records this exact issue with regard to the growth of the early church.\u00a0 Acts 5:14 says, \u201cAnd all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number,\u201d the church was succeeding in Acts, it was growing.\u00a0 Now what do you think the religious authorities did?\u00a0 Acts 5:17 says, \u201cBut the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees),\u201d and it gives the motive, \u201cand they were filled with jealousy.\u201d\u00a0 And thus the unbelieving Israel begins to persecute the infant church because the early church was succeeding.\u00a0\u00a0 The parable of the whale, you come up through the water you start to get speared.\n\nThe Apostle Peter says concerning the fiery trial that you are experiencing don\u2019t look at it, 1 Peter 4:12, \u201cas though some strange thing were happening to you;\u201d you\u2019re fitting into a pattern and I\u2019m trying to reveal the pattern to you because God, I believe, is going to further many of you, He\u2019s going to bless you, He\u2019s going to use\u00a0 you and you have to prepare your mind and fortify your mind for an onslaught of criticism that comes your way, a lot of it, frankly, undeserved because your light is just a bit too light and we need to put that light out, we need to marginalize it.\n\nWhy wouldn\u2019t Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego go along with this.\u00a0 It says it right there, they were Jews, they were monotheists, they had a particular view of God as revealed in Exodus 20:1-6 and the world system was pushing them in the opposite direction.\u00a0 [Exodus 20:1-6, \u201cThen God spoke all these words, saying, [2] \u2018I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.\u00a0 [3] You shall have no other gods before Me.\u00a0 [4] You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. [5] You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, [6] but showing loving-kindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.\u201d]\n\nThese three Hebrew youths simply weren\u2019t open-minded enough.\u00a0 John 14:6, Jesus says, \u201cI am the way, the truth, the life and\u201d what? \u201cno man comes to the Father but by Me.\u201d\u00a0 Acts 4:12 says, \u201c\u2026there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.\u201d\u00a0 1 Timothy 2:5 says, \u201cFor there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 This sounds like a very narrow explicit viewpoint by the world standards that we believe here.\n\nMatthew 7:13-14 says, \u201cEnter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.\u00a0 [14] For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.\u201d\u00a0 The six lane, five lane highway is the world system; the little access road on the side is biblical truth.\u00a0 Galatians 2:21, Paul says, \u201cdo not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.\u201d\u00a0 Paul says on this topic of all roads lead to God I will not budge an inch on this.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Because the moment I open that theological door is the moment I\u2019m saying that Christ\u2019s death was needless.\n\nThink about that for a minute; if there is another way to God other than through Christ, another way to God the Father other than through God the Son, if another path was open then the wounds of Jesus Christ were irrelevant.\u00a0 Gee, Jesus, thanks for the crown of thorns on your head, thanks for the 39 lashes on your back, thanks for the spear that was thrust into your side, thank you for the ordeals of the cross and the thirst You went though, thank you for the\u00a0 wound marks on your hands and your feet, I appreciate it but you know what, it\u2019s not necessary.\u00a0 What blasphemous, idolatrous, wicked, vile thing to say let alone think.\u00a0 And you see, Christianity could get along great in any culture.\u00a0 The early Christians could get along great with Rome if they had just capitulated on this one point, just say Jesus is one of many, don\u2019t call Him THE God, call him a God, that way we in Rome can have our pantheon, Babylon in the past could have its pantheon, and we\u2019ll just sort of put Christianity right into the mix.\u00a0 And I\u2019m sure there were voices in the church that said let\u2019s just give ground a little bit on this, but they wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 And so consequently they were persecuted.\u00a0 I bring this up because this is the type of culture that we\u2019re living in.\u00a0 You\u2019re being forced over and over again into compromise.\n\nHere\u2019s the greatest spiritual leader in the world, Oprah Winfrey, and I say that because I think it\u2019s true; I think this woman has more influence, spiritually, over the minds of more people than any other figure in the country, perhaps even in the world.\u00a0 She says, \u201c\u2026one of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way\u2026\u00a0 there are \u201cmany, many paths\u201d she says \u201cto what you call God.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter whether she called it God along the way or not, there couldn\u2019t possibly be just one way\u2026, there couldn\u2019t possibly be only one way with millions of people in the world!\u00a0 If you\u2019re living \u201cin some remote part of the earth and you never heard the name of\u201d the Lord Jesus Christ are you telling me you can\u2019t get to heaven?\n\n[www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Lb2RUpMDk34]\n\nDaniel 3, I\u2019m bringing this up because it\u2019s written for our time period, it speaks directly to us in the year 2017.\u00a0 Do you know why?\u00a0 Because the primary virtue of the United States used to be the \u201cT\u201d word, Truth.\u00a0 If you were a person searching for the truth and you were a person living for the truth, that was the highest virtue.\u00a0 But those days are over, aren\u2019t they?\u00a0 We\u2019ve substituted another \u201cT\u201d word, not truth but tolerance.\u00a0 The highest virtue in the United States of America today is tolerance, acceptance, and yet what we\u2019re learning here in the Scripture is God is very selective, and we\u2019ve got to make a decision, are we going to live for God or not?\u00a0 And how do we live for God in that kind of environment?\n\nI ran into this quote from Aristotle. He said: \u201cTolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019ve given ground on everything else, the only thing we have left to pride ourselves in is we accept everything.\u00a0 So he says once a culture reaches that point it\u2019s at the end of the line for that culture.\u00a0 This is where Babylon was, this is where the United States of America is and this is where Biblical Christianity is, and we\u2019re having to make some choices in our lives, aren\u2019t we.\u00a0 And so I trust and pray that as we continue through this book the Holy Spirit will convict us and motivate us to live for God in troubled times.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this book and the way it speaks to us; we\u2019ve barely scratched the surface but I ask that\u00a0 You\u2019ll be with us as we go through this, as we order our lives after You in these last days in our Romans 1 culture; we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus 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