{"id":18386,"date":"2017-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-05T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-011-the-incomparable-god\/"},"modified":"2017-02-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T06:00:00","slug":"daniel-011-the-incomparable-god","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-011-the-incomparable-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 011: The Incomparable God"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18386","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 011: The Incomparable God","sermon_date":"20170205","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4329,"sermon_slides":4330,"sermon_mp3":4332,"sermon_id":"2517943111","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"3:28-30","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Incomparable God\n\n2-5-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel<\/a> 3:28-30 \u00a0\u00a0Lesson 11\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the book of Daniel, chapter 3 and verse 28.\u00a0\u00a0 Happy February to everybody!\u00a0 Happy Super Bowl Sunday to everybody!\u00a0 I personally think that we as Christians should be just as excited about church as we are the Super Bowl.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Now that doesn\u2019t mean you can pour Gatorade on my head when I\u2019m finished today.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nDaniel 3:28-30, the title of our message is The Incomparable God.\u00a0 God has no rivals and we certainly see this in the dramatic rescuing of three Hebrew youths.\u00a0 In fact this rescue operation that God just performed in Daniel 3, which we looked at last time, is so profound it even has a profound impact on a pagan watching the man who orchestrated all the trouble, the Babylonian king named Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 Of course everything in the book of Daniel relates to a special time period that Israel is now in, where they are outside of their land and they\u2019re having to live for God on foreign territory.\n\nSo what does this time period look like prophetically and how is Israel to live ethically?\u00a0 Daniel provides the answer to both of those questions.\u00a0 Chapter 1-7 is the historical section, as we\u2019ve indicated; chapters 8-12 is the prophetic section. So we are still in the very early stages of the book of Daniel, having already covered chapter 1 which lays the foundation of the setting for the entire book.\n\nWe then moved into chapters 2-7; chapter 2 we have studied where Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and he asks his (quote) \u201cwise men\u201d (close quote) to give him the dream and its interpretation. That\u2019s a pretty high hurdle to get over.\u00a0 And because they couldn\u2019t he demands the death of all of the wise men in the kingdom, which would include Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel goes to prayer with his three friends and gives Nebuchadnezzar the revelation of the dream itself and its interpretation.\u00a0 And thus in chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar, a pagan leader, learns about this God, that he is a revealer of mysteries.\u00a0 The theology lesson doesn\u2019t stop there because as we move from chapter 2 into chapter 3, having covered most of chapter 3 in the last couple of Sundays Daniel\u2019s three friends are put into an impossible circumstance. They\u2019re told to worship a statue that Nebuchadnezzar created, which a Jew or a Hebrew could never do, a devout Hebrew, and so consequently Daniel\u2019s three friends are thrown, bound and actually clothed into this flaming furnace.\n\nNebuchadnezzar was in such a rage that he actually had the furnace heated seven times hotter than its normal temperature.\u00a0 The heat was so powerful that the men throwing the three Hebrew youths into the fire died instantly.\u00a0 And yet as we have studied last week, a fourth man showed up in the fire, an emissary of God to rescue these three Hebrew youths.\u00a0 In fact, this rescue operation is so complete that it says at the end of verse 27, that neither the hair on their head nor their trousers were damaged nor had the smell of the fire even come upon them.\u201d\u00a0 [27, \u201cThe satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king\u2019s high officials gathered around and<\/em> saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even<\/em> come upon them.\u201d]\n\nThis pretty characteristic of miracles that you see in the Bible.\u00a0 When God performs a miracle He doesn\u2019t do an A-minus job, it\u2019s an A plus, plus, plus job.\u00a0 And obviously this had an effect, not just on Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, the youths thrown into the fire but on the pagan king observing all of these things, a man named Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 And so as we close out verses 28 of chapter 3, looking at verses 28-30 this morning we see Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s reaction to this.\n\nWe have, number 1, an exaltation of God, verse 28; number 2 we have a decree of Nebuchadnezzar, verses 29, and number 30 we have the continuing prosperity of the Hebrew youths, verse 30.\u00a0 It\u2019s tempting to just sort of rush over this and read through it very fast but there is so much in these three verses for us that I wanted to focus our attention on it this morning.\n\nNotice if you will Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s exaltation of God.\u00a0 It says in verse 28, \u201cNebuchadnezzar responded and said, \u2018Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king\u2019s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.\u201d\u00a0 Notice this reaction here or this expression, verse 28, \u201cNebuchadnezzar responded and said, \u2018Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego,\u201d notice these words \u201cresponded\u201d and \u201cBlessed.\u201d\n\nNebuchadnezzar saw this and his reaction was to worship the Lord.\u00a0 That, of course, is what worship is; worship is a response or a reaction to truth, you\u2019re so overwhelmed at what you have just heard or what you have just seen that the only natural reaction left is to glorify God.\u00a0 Worship has very little to do with our favorite musical songs; it has very little to do with whether a particular song gives me an emotional euphoria or not.\u00a0 It has very little to do with whether I get the liver-quiver of the day through a particular melody.\u00a0 It has to do with truth and being just absorbed by that truth and just wanting to explode into praise to God, through whatever means are available.\n\nAnd of course we believe all of our songs here at Sugar Land Bible Church should be biblically based.\u00a0 But there is so much talk today about what we call the worship wars, and so much of it really has to do with people\u2019s personal preferences.\u00a0 One generation likes it one way, the other generation likes it another way, and consequently churches begin to fight over this issue and I\u2019m just wondering if at times we have gotten away from what worship really is.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about me, it\u2019s not about my preferences.\u00a0 It\u2019s about Jesus!\u00a0 It\u2019s about wanting to get into the presence of God\u2019s people and glorify this man, Jesus Christ, for the very things that we just celebrated at the Lord\u2019s Table today, the fact that He is both my Creator and Redeemer.\n\nNebuchadnezzar responded\u2026 that\u2019s worship, and blessed the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.\u00a0 Now you have to watch this man, Nebuchadnezzar, very carefully because his story spans four chapters, Daniel 1, Daniel 2, Daniel 3, and of course Daniel 4.\u00a0 As these chapters progress I believe what you\u2019re seeing is a softening of the heart of this pagan king. God is gradually at work in this man; you see it at the end of chapter 2 in verse 47 where, \u201cThe king answered Daniel and said, \u2018Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, [since you have been able to reveal this mystery].\u201d\n\nYou see it again in chapter 3 with his response to God, verses 28-29.\u00a0 [Daniel 3:28-29, \u201cNebuchadnezzar responded and said, \u201cBlessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king\u2019s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. [29] Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.\u201d]\n\nAnd I believe that the crescendo of God\u2019s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar will take place in a chapter that we will begin next week, in chapter 4.\u00a0 But don\u2019t get ahead of yourself too much on this because I think at this point in Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s pilgrimage with God, as God has been faithfully revealing Himself to this man, Nebuchadnezzar is not yet in saving faith.\u00a0 I believe that that time will come in chapter 4.\n\nBut Ron Rhodes in his book, Forty Days Through Daniel<\/em> says this:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t misunderstand Nebuchadnezzar here.\u00a0 He was not here coming to following the Hebrew God alone; he was still a polytheist who believed in many gods.\u00a0 The king essentially added Yahweh to a large pantheon of deities.\u201d\n\nNebuchadnezzar at this point has respect for God but he is not yet a child of God and there are many, many people in the church world that are like this; they go to church because that\u2019s sort of the thing to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s cultural.\u00a0 Or they have a respect for Christianity because that\u2019s what their parents believed, that\u2019s what their grandparents believed and so they don\u2019t want to speak dis\u00adrespectfully of Christianity but many times such people are not children of God.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is a healthy respect for God is not enough to become a child of God.\u00a0 People cannot live off the faith of somebody else, they have to have their own faith.\u00a0 God, as we said, has no grand\u00adchildren; He only has children.\n\nAnd if you\u2019re here today and you\u2019re like that,\u00a0 you\u2019re showing up at church because that\u2019s the thing to do, that\u2019s what\u2019s culturally acceptable, that\u2019s what my parents believed that\u2019s what my grand\u00adparents would have liked, or whatever the issue is that in and of itself is not enough to get to heaven.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to talk about exactly how to get to heaven a little bit later in this verse, or verses, through the use of the word \u201ctrust.\u201d\u00a0 But more on that later.\n\nVerse 28, \u201cNebuchadnezzar responded and said, \u2018Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego,\u2019\u201d watch this, \u201cwho has sent His angel and delivered His servants\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 People say well, pastor, you don\u2019t believe in guardian angels do you?\u00a0 You bet I believe in guardian angels.\u00a0 Psalm 34:7 says, \u201cThe angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him, and rescues them.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, did you know that the angels, and there\u2019s myriads of them, innumerable, were created by God for a specific purpose?\u00a0 Hebrews 1:14 of angels, says this: \u201cAre they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?\u201d\u00a0 Think about that for a minute!\u00a0 As a Christian you not only have a relationship with God which would be enough to be united to the One who is all powerful, but He, as an extra work of grace, created the angelic realm.\u00a0 For what purpose?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation,\u201d that would be you as a Christian, that would be me.\n\nI think this, that when we get to the other side of eternity we are going to be stunned as we look backwards and God begins to give us the full picture of the number of times angels were dispatched to help us in time of need and yet we didn\u2019t realize it, because angels are invisible by and large, ministering spirits.\u00a0 If you want a very good book on angels I would recommend the book by Billy Graham called Angels, God\u2019s Secret Agents<\/em>.\u00a0 And on pages 16-17 of this book he writes this:\u00a0 \u201cThe Reverend John G. Paton, pioneer missionary in the Hebrides Islands told a thrilling story involving the protective care of angels.\u00a0 Hostile natives surrounded his mission headquarters one night intent on burning the Paton\u2019s out and killing them.\u00a0 John Paton and his wife prayed all during that terror filled night that God would deliver them.\u00a0 When daylight came they were amazed to see that unaccountably the attackers had left.\u00a0 They thanked God for delivering them.\u00a0 A year later the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ and Mr. Paton, remembering that what had happened asked the chief what kept him and his men from burning down the house and killing them?\u00a0 The chief replied in surprise, well, who were all those men you had there with you?\u00a0 The missionary answered there was no men there, just me and my wife.\u00a0\u00a0 The chief argued that he had seen many men standing guard, hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords in their hand.\u00a0 They seemed to circle the mission statement so that the natives were afraid to attack.\u00a0 Only then did Mr. Paton realize that God had sent His angels to protect them.\u00a0 The chief agreed that there was no other explanation.\u00a0 Could it be that God had sent a legion of angels to protect His servants whose lives were being endangered?\u201d\u00a0 An interesting story.\n\nIn fact, Billy Graham in his book, Angels, God\u2019s Secret Agents<\/em>, recounts multiple stores like this.\u00a0 I\u2019m of a tendency to believe that these occurrences are so frequent and so regular, and because we don\u2019t see them we will be stunned in eternity and want to glorify God all the more as He pulls\n\nback the veil and shows us how at different times of crisis in our life, when we thought that God had deserted us, He hadn\u2019t, through this ministry of angels.\n\n\u201c\u2026 who has sent His angel and delivered His servants\u201d watch this, \u201cwho put their trust in Him,\u201d\n\nI cannot put enough stress on this word \u201ctrust.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cTrust\u201d is another way of saying believe. When you see the word \u201cbelieve\u201d in the Bible, a synonym, same word, different meaning, it is to trust, it is to rely upon, it is to depend upon.\u00a0 Vine\u2019s Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words<\/em> says this of the biblical word believe: \u201c\u2018to believe,\u2019 also \u2018to be persuaded of\u2019 and hence \u2018to place confidence in, to trust\u2019 signifies in this sense of the word reliance upon, not mere credence.\u00a0 It is most frequent in the writings of the Apostle John, especially the Gospel.\u00a0\u00a0 He does not use the noun\u2026. Of the writers of the Gospels John\u201d uses the word believe \u201cninety-nine times.\u201d\n\nWe throw this word \u201cbelieve\u201d around all the time but what does it actually mean?\u00a0 It means to trust, to rely upon, to depend upon.\u00a0 I\u2019ve told the story a number of times of Charles Blondin who would push a wheelbarrow across a tightrope suspended over Niagara Falls and he became so skilled at this that crowds would gather on the side there and watch him do this.\u00a0 And one of the days he yelled out to the crowd, do you believe that I can do this again?\u00a0 At which point everybody said yes, we believe.\u00a0 And he said, okay, which one of you wants to get into the wheelbarrow?\u00a0 At that point mere credence becomes biblical faith, or trust, or reliance.\u00a0 That becomes the single condition by which a person is ushered into eternal life.\u00a0 We have a plethora of Scriptures on the screen here which show this. [Genesis 15:6, John 3:16; 5:24; 6:28-29, 47; 16:8-9; 20:30-31, Acts 16:30-31, Romans 1:16; Ephesians 2:8-9, Hebrews 11:6]\n\nIt\u2019s a concept that\u2019s as old as Genesis 15:6 where we learn that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as unto righteousness.\u00a0 The Gospel of John is filled with this.\u00a0 God wants us to understand this since whether we fulfill this condition or not depends on whether we\u2019re really God\u2019s children.\u00a0 Hebrews 11:6 says, \u201cWithout faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please Him.\u201d\u00a0 A person cannot please God independent of the avenue of faith.\n\nNow you might be saying to yourself well, I\u2019ve done that already, I\u2019ve trusted in Christ.\u00a0 And I say praise the Lord, you now have the promises of eternal life from a God who cannot lie.\u00a0 But let me tell you something about faith; faith is like a muscle, unless that muscle is used it atrophies.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard the expression if you don\u2019t use it you what?\u00a0 You lose it.\u00a0 We understand that in the physical world, we understand that in the area of physical therapy and things of that nature.\u00a0 The same principle holds true in the spiritual realm.\n\nOne of the things that stands out to me in Romans 1:17 when Paul is quoting the Old Testament he says, \u201cBut the just shall\u201d what? \u201clive by faith.\u201d\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say the just believe once and then forget about the whole thing.\u00a0 The pattern of God for the believer is that the faith that saves, which already happened in the past as a one-time event, making their salvation 100% secure, God wants to keep developing, as we move not just from being a believer in Christ and having my fire insurance paid up but now I begin to walk with Christ.\u00a0 Your eternity is secure and you can make great progress in your life as you trust God and not trust God, eternity is no longer the issue, but God wants that walk of faith in the lives of each of His children.\u00a0 The \u201cjust shall live by faith.\u201d\u00a0 If the \u201cjust shall live by faith\u201d then God puts us through training exercises as His children which strengthens the initial faith that we expressed in Christ.\n\nIf God doesn\u2019t put us in circumstances by which we have no one to trust in but Him the faith muscle atrophies, it becomes jelly, it loses its strength.\u00a0 And God does not want that to happen so how does He solve the problem?\u00a0 He puts you in a circumstance that you can\u2019t figure your way out of. \u00a0Anybody in that circumstance?\u00a0 Well, if you\u2019re not cheer up, your time is just around the corner, you just don\u2019t realize it yet because God is not going to let people get by without growing up any more than a parent would let their child wallow around in immaturity without inculcating growth and maturity.\u00a0 God is the same way with His spiritual children and He does this through impossible circumstances.\n\nI think you would agree with me that Nebuchadnezzar had put Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego into an impossible circumstance.\u00a0 In fact, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego didn\u2019t even know if God was going to come through because they acknowledged in verse 18 maybe God will come through, maybe He won\u2019t.\u00a0 [Daniel 3:17, \u201cIf it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.\u00a0 [18] But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.\u201d]\u00a0 Whatever God wants to do He\u2019s going to do.\u00a0 On this occasion God came through and God took that faith muscle in these three youths, which obviously was already there and He fortified it, which is what he\u2019s doing with you.\u00a0 And even this Gentile pagan king recognizes this because Nebuchadnezzar, of the three youth said they put their trust in Him.\u00a0 He was able to see how these three youths had trusted God.\n\nLet me ask you a question: when unbelieving unsaved people see your life can they see how you\u2019re trusting God in\u00a0 your trials of life?\u00a0 I mean, the trust that these three youths had in God was so obvious, it was so conspicuous that even resonated to a Gentile unbelieving godless mind.\u00a0 God will do the same thing in your life as people watch you go through life\u2019s difficulties.\n\nAnd these Hebrew youths moved out of the realm of just being believers into the realm of a disciple, and there\u2019s a big difference between those because it says here they \u201cput their trust in Him,\u201d \u00a0that\u2019s being a believer, violating the king\u2019s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.\u201d\u00a0 That is a tremendous definition of a disciple of Christ coming from an unsaved pagan mind.\u00a0 You didn\u2019t just trust Christ for initial salvation, but you kept trusting Him through the exigencies of life to the point where you were willing to sacrifice your own body\u00a0 and your own life so that you wouldn\u2019t have to worship and serve a statue, a pagan deity.\n\nThese three Hebrew youths graduate from being believers, which is very wonderful to be a believer because that determines heaven or hell, into the realm of disciples.\u00a0 How do you become a child of God? \u00a0One condition\u2026 you believe!\u00a0 Well, how do you become a disciple?\u00a0 God starts putting His hand on things in your life that have to go and you start to say to the Lord, well Lord, I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to give this up or that up, but you know what, You\u2019re going to help me and I\u2019m going to start to walk in obedience.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s your heart you\u2019re moving in the direction of discipleship.\u00a0 Sometimes the things that God requires us to give up are such a severity that it could even cost us our own lives.\n\nRevelation 6:9 says, \u201cWhen the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;\u201d these are tribulation saints who are standing for God to the point where they were prematurely killed.\u00a0 Revelation 12:11 says, \u201cAnd they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.\u201d\u00a0 This is what God is trying to produce in us, this type of mindset.\n\nAnd yet the interesting thing about being a disciple, yes, it does require, under God\u2019s power, yielding and giving up things that God says need to go but what I\u2019ve discovered, and I\u2019m continuing to discover is whatever I give up God has a real habit in my life of replacing it with something better.\u00a0 In fact, you don\u2019t discover your purpose in life and why you\u2019re even here until you move into the realm of discipleship.\n\nJesus, in Matthew 16:24-25 said to His disciples, \u201cThen Jesus said to His disciples, \u2018If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. [25] For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.\u201d\u2019\n\nWe have a tendency to focus on oh my gosh, what am I going to have to give up?\u00a0 God is saying just give it over to Me and you\u2019ll find Me replacing it with something so much better; I\u2019m just wanting you to enter into the realm of discipleship.\u00a0 Meaning is discovered as you become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nWhen Nebuchadnezzar comments on what these Hebrew youths went through he is defining there at the end of verse 28 discipleship, the sacrifice of one\u2019s own life and body for the zeal and the glory of God.\u00a0 [Daniel 3:28, \u201c\u2026and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.\u201d]\n\nI would love it at this church if God created believers AND moved us out of the realm of believers into discipleship.\u00a0 Think about what could happen at this small church in this location with disciples; think about what God could do.\u00a0 Think about what God would begin to disclose.\u00a0 Think about how God would begin to direct.\u00a0 Think about the internal satisfaction where the focus becomes Him to the point of surrendering things.\u00a0 We all have different things God wants to deal with us on; whatever those things are, whatever the Spirit of God is agitating you about, what if 2017 you just relinquished that to the Lord\u2026 I don\u2019t know how I\u2019m going to kick this habit or not do this or not think that or stop going here or doing this or that, I don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to happen but the heart is there, the desire is there and I know God that You\u2019re going to help me and empower me.\n\nThe exaltation of God, which is tremendous theology coming from an unsaved person moves into a decree and notice, if you will, verse 29, he says, \u201cTherefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap\u2026,\u201d wow! \u00a0This type of statement that Nebuchadnezzar just made here is sort of like Genesis 12:3, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 Do you remember Genesis 12:3, when God first began to deal with a man named Abram and the Hebrew race was just starting at that point?\u00a0 \u201cGod said to Abram, \u2018And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will\u2019\u201d what? \u201c\u2019curse.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself why God in plague ten in the book of Exodus killed the firstborn all over Egypt?\u00a0 The answer is Exodus 4:22 where God says this, \u201cThen you shall say to Pharaoh, \u2018Thus says the LORD, \u2018Israel is My son, My firstborn.\u201d\u2019\n\nYou mess with My firstborn, Pharaoh, I\u2019m coming after yours.\u00a0 Is that biblical?\u00a0 \u201cThe one who curses you I will curse,\u201d that\u2019s what it says, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I don\u2019t see any expiration date on that promise, do you?\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself why God drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t He just send a lightning bolt and kill them?\u00a0 Why drown them?\u00a0 You\u2019ll find the answer in Exodus 1 where the Egyptians were drowning the Hebrew youths, male children, in the Nile.\u00a0 You mess with My people I\u2019m coming after you.\u00a0 \u201cThe one who curses you I will curse.\u201d\u00a0 All the way into the Persian time, after the time of Daniel we read about a man named Haman who developed a plot to exterminate the Jewish people.\u00a0 He even developed a gallows through which he was going to hang Mordecai.\u00a0 Esther 7:10 says, \u201cSo they hanged Haman on the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd the one who curses you I will curse.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 12:3]\n\nThis is how you are to live Israel, during these times of the Gentiles when these Gentile kings think they have some kind of upper hand on you: keep walking with Me, keep trusting Me, keep following Me and I\u2019m going to fix this in My timing, because you have a promise from God.\n\nHave you ever noticed that every time the nation of Israel gets attacked in the Bible against overwhelming odds, not only do they survive but they get a holiday out of it?\u00a0 Because God rebuffed the attack under Haman the Jews got a holiday out of it called Purim, which mean \u201clots.\u201d\u00a0 Much later on in biblical history, a few centuries later we\u2019ll see this in Daniel\u2019s prophecies as we continue through this book, a man named Antiochus Epiphanes, which means God manifest, (no ego problem there), desecrated the Jewish temple and it was miraculously rescued by God and the Jewish people, leading to another feast day in Judaism called Hanukkah.\u00a0 It does not go well for nations and individuals and peoples to come against the Jews.\n\nA word to the wise, a word to the politicians out there, a word to those that are crafting foreign policy, make sure that your foreign policy, whatever it is, aligns with the eternal truth because the destiny of\u00a0 your country rides in the balance.\u00a0 God has His hand on the Jewish people.\u00a0 Have you ever met any modern day Jebusites?\u00a0 Yeah, so and so, and so and so, moved down the street, a very nice Jebusite couple?\u00a0 We don\u2019t say that.\u00a0 What happened to the Jebusites?\u00a0 They\u2019re in the Bible right along with the Hebrews.\u00a0 Well, the sociologists tell us that when you\u2019re out of your land for a few generations you lose your cultural identity and you assimilate into the whole culture culturally and linguistically.\u00a0 Is it not somewhat interesting that the Hebrew nation continues today in the Middle East as a\u00a0 unique people group and culture despite the fact that it was out of its land for 2,000 years?\n\nThey\u2019re pushed out of the land of Israel by the Romans in the first century, they go back into that same land in the twentieth century with their culture intact, their language intact, and their religion intact.\u00a0 And people say well, how come God doesn\u2019t perform miracles today?\u00a0 When you look at the tiny nation of Israel (which is really about the size of New Jersey) in existence, in a sea of hostile dictatorships you\u2019re seeing a modern work of God.\u00a0 It goes right back to Genesis 12:1-3.\n\n[Genesis 12:1-3, \u201cNow the LORD said to Abram, \u2018Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;\u00a0 [2] And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; [3] And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.\u2019\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s sort of interesting to me that the Romans, a world power, kicked Israel out of their land.\u00a0 Rome, a Latin speaking power, kicked a little tiny nation that spoke Hebrew out of their land back in the first century.\u00a0 What do we see in the 20th<\/sup> century?\u00a0 What do we see in the 21st<\/sup> century?\u00a0 The nation of Israel is there, Rome is gone, Latin is a dead language, Hebrew is a live language, and this is the significance of God taking this heart of this king, who I don\u2019t even think is saved yet, and turning it in such a way that he actually begins to issue decrees which favor the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\n\nAnd then notice what it says here, \u201cinasmuch as there is no other God who is able to deliver in this way.\u201d [Daniel 3:29]\u00a0 That\u2019s why I entitled this message The Incomparable God, the God who is not just another entity or deity in a long string.\u00a0 You can\u2019t just take God and add Him to the Babylonian Pantheon, He stands above the Babylonian Pantheon.\u00a0 He is incomparable; He has no rivals.\u00a0 A lot of people look at the angelic conflict and they get their theology not from the Bible, they get it from the movie Rocky<\/em>, where Rocky I<\/em>, Apollo and Rocky are in the ring and they\u2019re slugging it out and you don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to win, you\u2019re sitting on the edge of your seat, a slight edge for Apollo because he was the heavy weight champ but you\u2019re literally on the edge of your seat the whole movie\u2014is Rocky going to win.\u00a0 And that gave way to Rocky II<\/em>, and Rocky III<\/em>, and now they\u2019ve got like Rocky XXVIII<\/em>, you know, where their grandkids are in there duking it out.\u00a0 And so people take this, you know\u2026 is he going to win, is he not going to win mindset and they transfer it to the Scripture, as if God and Satan are duking it out and we\u2019re not sure what\u2019s going to happen here.\n\nLet me tell you something; this is no contest!\u00a0 It\u2019s no contest because Satan, Ezekiel 28:12-17 is a created being.\u00a0 He only exists because God brought him into existence and He is actually using Satan in the great ages of time and history to further God\u2019s plans.\u00a0 And once God is finished using Satan for His own purposes he\u2019ll quickly be sent into the Lake of Fire.\n\n[Ezekiel 28:12-18, \u201cSon of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, \u2018Thus says the Lord GOD, \u2018You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.\u00a0 [13] You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you.\u00a0 On the day that you were created they were prepared.\u00a0 [14] You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you here.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.\u00a0 [15] You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.\u00a0 [16] By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God.\u00a0 And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.\u00a0 [17] Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.\u00a0 I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you.\u00a0 [18] By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries.\u00a0 \u00a0Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you.\u00a0 [19] All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become terrified and you will cease to be forever.\u201d\u2019]\n\nWhy am I talking like this?\u00a0 Because God is incomparable.\u00a0 Exodus 15:11 says this, \u201cWho is like You among the gods, O LORD?\u00a0 [Exodus 15:11, \u201cWho is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?\u201d]\u00a0 This why you keep seeing this expression over and over again in the Bible, \u201cthere is none like God,\u201d or this question, \u201cwho is like God?\u201d\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar here delivers to my mind an incredibly theologically insightful and accurate statement concerning the end comparability of God and look at the theology Nebuchadnezzar is learning here: he learned in chapter 2 that God is a revealer of mysteries.\u00a0 He learned in chapter 3 that God is faithful and guess what Nebuchadnezzar, God is not finished teaching you yet because in chapter 4 you\u2019re going to learn about God\u2019s judgment.\n\nAnd how is Nebuchadnezzar learning these things?\u00a0 Is he reading the Hebrew Bible?\u00a0 No, he is watching God work through His people.\u00a0 You have heard that statement, you are probably the only Bible some people will ever read?\u00a0 That\u2019s true.\u00a0 God wants to teach pagans through your life who will never read the Bible, who may not even darken the door of the church, but they\u2019re watching you, at your school, at your workplace, where you live, in your family if there\u2019s unbelievers in your family.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got a wider scope than you realize.\u00a0 God is in the business of using His people to teach theology to people that basically are not interested in theology.\u00a0 But let me tell you something, when you go through a valley you\u2019ve got their attention because they\u2019re trying to figure out this Jesus thing you keep talking about, is this real or not?\u00a0 This is why the Bible says \u201cYou are the salt of the earth\u2026.\u201d \u00a0He goes on and He says, \u201cYou are the light of the world... Let\u00a0 your light shine before\u201d who? \u201cmen in such a way that they may see your good works, and\u201d do what? \u201cglorify your Father who is in heaven.\u201d\n\n[Matthew 5:13, \u201cYou are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.\u201d\u00a0 [14] You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; [15] nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.\u00a0 [16] Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.\u201d]\n\nIsn\u2019t that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here in Daniel 3?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t Nebuchadnezzar glorifying God the best he knows how because of a pattern he can see in these Hebrew youths?\u00a0 What kind of theology are people seeing in your life?\u00a0 Interesting question to think about, isn\u2019t it?\n\nWe move from the decree, finally, to the prosperity.\u00a0 Daniel 3, verse 30, \u201cThen the king caused Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego to prosper in the province of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 What does this teach here?\u00a0 God blesses the uncompromised life.\u00a0 God blesses the life that is not sinless but is sinning less.\u00a0 And in all of these circumstances, chapter 1, how did it end exactly?\u00a0 \u201cAt the end of ten days their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king\u2019s choice food, [16] so the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink and kept giving them vegetables.\u201d [Daniel 1:15-16]\n\nThey would not compromise on the Mosaic restrictions on diet and God blessed.\u00a0 Daniel would not compromise and accurately relates to Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of the dream in chapter 2 and God blessed.\u00a0 Daniel 2:48 says, \u201cThen the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 What are we seeing here at the end of chapter 3, as these three Hebrew youths go into the fire uncompromised?\u00a0 \u201cThen the king caused Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego\u201d verse 30 \u201cto prosper in the province of Babylon.\u201d\n\nHere\u2019s the deception?\u00a0 We think that if I can just get away with this sin over here or this lack of compromise over there then I\u2019m being benefited.\u00a0 Somehow we think that if we cheat God we better ourselves.\u00a0 What a deception that is!\u00a0 It\u2019s the opposite.\u00a0 The hand of blessing is remaining on these three\u00a0 youths and Daniel because of their consecration to God.\n\nI\u2019ve been thinking a lot lately about the book of Haggai.\u00a0 Haggai 1:3, \u201cThen the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, [2] Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?\u201d\u00a0 I mean, they were building what we would call mansions for themselves and just letting the house of God deteriorate, the temple.\u00a0 They probably thought they were getting ahead.\u00a0 [5] \u201cNow therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, Consider your ways!\u201d\u00a0 [6] You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes\u201d in it.\u00a0 [7] \u201cThus says the LORD of hosts, \u2018Consider your ways!\u00a0 [8] Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,\u2019 says the LORD.\u00a0 [8] You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away.\u201d\u00a0 Sounds like an American pay check, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cWhy? declares the LORD of hosts, \u2018Because of My house which lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.\u2019\u00a0 [9] Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce.\u00a0 [10] I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.\u201d\n\nMan, I wish I could been there live to hear that sermon.\u00a0 These people thought that they were (through compromise) building their own kingdom (at the expense of God and His temple) were getting ahead.\u00a0 What a deception.\u00a0 You\u2019re in the predicament you\u2019re in because you haven\u2019t put Me first.\u00a0 Had Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego been people of compromise in these three chapters they would have all ended differently.\n\nYou say well what\u2019s the challenge to us?\u00a0 Matthew 6:33, \u201cBut seek first\u201d\u00a0 what? \u201cHis kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things\u201d what things?\u00a0 The things everybody is so worried about, what are we going to eat, what are we going to drink, what are we going to wear, \u201call these things will be added to you.\u201d\u00a0 Get your priorities straight, is what the Bible is saying, and watch God do differently and work differently in your life.\u00a0 A great chapter on divine deliverance, a great conclusion to the chapter, as great theology is taught\u00a0 by a pagan king who doesn\u2019t even know God\u00a0 yet.\u00a0 And God protects, promotes, and provides for His people.\n\nVery quickly, takeaways from chapter 3.\u00a0 The Mosaic Law taught Israel how to live inside the land.\u00a0 The examples of the three Hebrew\u00a0 youths taught them how to live outside the land.\u00a0 What do they teach?\u00a0 Watch their lives, consecrate yourself to God, live by faith from crisis to crisis entrusting the results to God.\u00a0 I\u2019m so grateful for chapter 3 and verse 18, which we saw last week, \u201cBut even if He does not,\u201d in terms of their rescue, \u00a0God is able to deliver us, verse 17, \u201cbut even if He does not,\u201d what is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s a mindset that says I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen and how it\u2019s going to happen but God knows.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to know do I, if God knows.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 3:17, \u201cBut even if He does not,\u00a0 let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.\u201d\u00a0 [18] \u201cIf it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.\u201d]\n\nWhy do I think I need everything figured out.\u00a0 When I\u2019m walking in a relationship with an omniscient God?\u00a0 All I have to do is trust His character.\u00a0 It\u2019s like when you\u2019re lost, and I get lost frequently, but you\u2019ve got someone in the car that knows the neighborhood, knows the freeways, knows where to go and they\u2019re saying turn left here, turn right here, go here, go there, you don\u2019t even know where you\u2019re going, do you?\u00a0 But you don\u2019t need to know because you can trust the person in the car with you.\u00a0 What is God saying?\u00a0 I\u2019m in the car, I\u2019ll just tell you what to do but you don\u2019t need the big picture, all you have to do is trust My character.\n\nSo live from crisis to crisis trusting the results to God, be willing to pay the consequences if necessary. \u00a0God never promised us a bed of roses; we would be hated in the world for our stance for Christ but God is with us in those difficulties and allow God to promote us in His time.\u00a0 I Peter 5:6, \u201cTherefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,\u201d what a great example for us to take our ques from as we walk with God in these last days.\n\nShall we pray?\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for this ancient book, this sixth century book and how it speaks to our lives.\u00a0 Help us to be people, Lord, not just learning but of application, not just of knowledge but of wisdom as we trust You and walk with You in the different places that You have us.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We lift these things up in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","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