In many other places, in violence and bloodshed and great people, and they look at us, and how peacefully, and bloodlessly, not noiselessly, thank God those commercials are over, but peacefully and bloodlessly, we transitioned power. What if we couldn't? What if we didn't have that privilege? What if the only thing we could do in this country was to either submit to our ruling authorities, or face the consequences? Our founding fathers faced that choice 234 years ago and more, and we know what happened. They took up arms and they rebelled, and they gave us an independent and a free country. Our four bears in the faith, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, they faced that choice 2600 years ago in Babylon. And last week, I left for the sort of, you know, an old-fashioned cliffhanger, Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego on the edge of the fiery furnace, and they said this, let me just set the context for you. These are the three verses that precede our text this morning. We're looking at Daniel 319 through 30, just before that. Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego replied to the king, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, oh, king, but even if he does not, we want you to know, oh, king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. And God's timing here for communion, for a celebration of the Lord's Supper, let's pick up the text and we find out what happened. Verse 19, then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heeded seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The kings command was so urgent, and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, and these three men firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire? They replied, certainly, O King, he said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed. The fourth looks like a son of the gods. Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, servants of the most high god, come out, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisors crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was the hair of their heads singed, their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar said, praise be to the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, who send his angel and rescue the servants. They trusted in him and defied the King's command, and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve a worship of any god except their own god. Therefore I decree that the people of any nation, or language, or any national language who say anything against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble for no other god can save in this way. Then the King promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego in the province of Babylon. This morning I would offer you, for this communion service, lessons from the furnace, lessons from the flames. First of all is this, sometimes being faithful gets you thrown into the fire. Sometimes is being faithful gets you thrown into the fire. Shadrach and Meshach and Bednego didn't get thrown into the furnace because they were unfaithful to god, or disobedient to god. They were not rebellious against god. They were faithful, and yet here they are amidst the flames. Everybody here knows the boomerang theory of teaching to our kids. If you're nice to other people they'll be nice back to you. It's a lie and we know it's a lie, but we try to tell it to our kids with a straight face. Now I'll grant that more often than not, when you're nice to people they'll be nice back to you. But everybody in here is over about the age of two. Know that you can be really nice to people, and they're not always going to be nice back at you. Sometimes it's that Murphy's Law that no good deed goes unpunished. Bad stuff doesn't always happen to people because of their sin or their stupidity or their recklessness. Now sometimes it does, and we need to say this. The universe does work on this planet, it does work on natural law, and they're ruthlessly, ruthlessly efficient. So if you're sexually promiscuous, and you end up with an STD, you don't have to say, God, why are you picking on me? It's a result of your own actions. If you think it's cool to drink and then get behind the wheel, end up with a crashed in car, a crashed in face, you don't have to wonder, well, God, how come this happened to me? You know why? You walk into a biker's bar, and you say, hey, who's the sissy that parked the Harley Davidson out front? When you wake up in the ER, I see you with all kinds of bumps and bruises and broken bones and tube running out of you, you don't have to say, God, why are you picking on me? You know, you are the victim of your own stupidity, your own recklessness. Now sometimes our face and the flames is our own fault. And there's a stream of Christian, and I'm going to say Christian thought quotes around it, Christian thought or Christian theology. There is a stream of Christian thought that says that all illness or injury is a result of sin in our lives. If you get sick, you get injured, well, you did something wrong. This is the doctrine of divine earthly retribution. It's nonsense, it's absolutely nonsense. You can't read the Bible seriously and believe that. This form of so-called theology is only described to by people who are themselves quite healthy and have never been injured. When their day comes, they'll change their tunes. Shakespeare has Romeo say, he just at scars who never felt a wound. Sometimes you can be as faithful as can be. He's still in the face and the flames. Think about Abraham. Abraham was not a perfect man, but he was a man of great faith, a great world-changing faith. And yet there he is, in Genesis 22, on Mount Mariah with that Flint knife with those serrated edges standing over the body of his beloved son Isaac. What about Moses, the great deliverer? Moses also, no altar boy, but a man of great faith, the great deliverer, and yet for 40 years he's out in the backside of the wilderness of Midian following the backside of a bunch of stupid sheep. Wondering where it all gone wrong. Jeremiah, we're reading through Jeremiah, I'm telling you, it's enough to depress Robert Suler. I mean everything that can go wrong goes wrong. He proclaims God's faithfulness and God's message to God's people faithfully. And for that he gets beaten, he gets thrown in dungeons, he gets put in chains, he gets incarcerated, he gets exiled. If I were Jeremiah, I would be saying, God, maybe you'd like to point somebody else to be your spokesman for a while. Hosea, the faithful husband whom God tells to return to and receive back his faithless wife again and again. Job was the most righteous man on the planet at the time. You can read his sufferings if you have a strong stomach. You can read his sufferings for about 35 or 42 chapters. John the Baptist, Jesus, there's no greater man born a woman. And for his faithless, he literally ended up with his head on a platter because King Harry lusted after a dancing girl. Excuse me. Paul, the great apostle. Paul suffered greatly. Stephen was... ..flogged several times. His caste out of the city of God actually stone and legend tells him to end up beheaded too. You cannot read the scriptures and believe that only real bad sinners get sick and get injured and get killed. There was one other guy who's pretty righteous too and he ended up on a cross maybe you know about him. His name's Jesus. And if you read down to your church history, this guy's most faithful people who end up suffering the most greatly. No, you don't always find yourself faith-sing the flames because of your sinners' stupidity sometimes, but sometimes it is faithfulness itself that gets his throne to the fire. You remember that when it's your time, or realize that if you're there right now. The second lesson here from the furnace, sometimes others get burned by the flames from your fire. Sometimes other people get scorched and singed and burned by the flames from your fire. Look back at verse 22 with me. The Kings command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Me Shack and Abednego. I've often thought about those men. They were pagans, they were Babylonians, but they're in service to a pagan king. They're just carrying out their duty. And for the privilege of being faithful soldiers, they end up dying because of the flames. Think about Moses and Pharaoh when they butted heads and Moses calls down the plagues, got sins of plagues on the people of Egypt because of Pharaoh's sin. And eventually Pharaoh sends his army out to chase down Moses and the people of Israel and that army ends up drowned in the bottom of the Red Sea. We'll think about David and his sin. When we talk about David's sin, everybody thinks of his adulterated basheba. The fact that he had her husband sent to the front lines and killed and that's a real consequence of David's sin. That was minor league stuff compared to some of the other things David did. Look at the end of second Samuel and see this, the sin that David called for this census for some reason God was really incensed by David's counting the people. 70,000 Israelites died because of the sin of the king. Sometimes folks, other people get burned by the flames from our fires and here's the Babylonian soldiers who died, going to the shadow drag me shack and betting on the fire. They're just collateral damage. They got burned by the flames from Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. I have a good friend who used to be a news reporter here in town, not doing that anymore. I'm not going to name his name but the station, but he was going to do a story that was going to be very unflattering about a prominent citizen in this town. That problem is the prominent citizen also happened to spend a lot of money advertising on this man's station. So he gets ready to put the piece on the air and his producer said, you can't air that. My friend said, why not? He said because so and so, half-page your salary with it advertising on the station. And so my friend said to his producer, so you're telling me that news is up for the highest bidder? Is that what you're saying? The producer said, that's how you want to look at it. My friend insisted and he lost his job. He lost his job and we say, good for you man, wait a minute, bring some ethics and some honor into the media. But his family suffered for what he did. I think about the reformers. Last Sunday we celebrated Reformation Sunday. Think of how they suffered and many of them died horrible deaths. Thousands died. Who embraced the doctrines of their reformation? Thousands died in the Spanish inquisition alone. Why does this happen? Well, we can say it's a fallen planet and bad stuff happens and that's true. This is a planet that's been an open rebellion against this creator ever since Genesis 3. Bad stuff does happen, that's true. But also, and I want you to get hold of this. Also, we have to know that God's glory and His purposes are more important than the lives of any man or woman or group of people. Let me say that again. God's glory and His purposes are more important than the life of any person or persons, more important than any group. And sometimes folks, as much as we don't like it and as much as I don't like to say it, sometimes God puts His best in the fire. So the world will see them burn. So the world will see them burn. If that jolt's you or if that bothers you, may I just say lovingly, good. If that jolt's you or shakes you up a little bit good. This book folks. This book ought to shake us up in jolt's as if you read this Bible and you don't occasionally get jarred and rattled down to your fillings. You're not paying attention. As we're reading through the Old Testament right now, I'm telling you man. And I know a little more about the Old Testament in the average person. I still get rattled when I read these things. I said, God, why did you allow these things to happen? Why did you cause these things to happen? I don't know. Maybe I'll know one day. Now we see his inner mirror dimly. Then we'll see his face to face. Now we know him part. Then we'll know him full. I trust in that. But I know this God's glory and his purpose is more important in the life of any man or any woman or any group of us. You know, Mark Twain was known to say, it's not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me. It's the parts of the Bible I do understand. I understand why Mark Twain would say that. Last week we celebrated Reformation Sunday because October 31st, 1517, was when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Cathedral in Vittenburg. 38 years later, almost to the day, a couple of English reformers, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, who embraced the doctrines of the Reformation. That we are justified made right in God's sight by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone and not of works. And for their stand, they were rested and thrown in the dungeon, not together, but separately. Where they were kept for about 18 months, refused to recant. On October 16th, 1555, Latimer and Ridley were led together to ditch outside of London to face the same fiery death. For refusing to recant their stand on the doctrines of grace. When they met, Nicholas Ridley said, the hugged one another, they prayed, really actually kissed the state to which they were going to be tied and burned. Because he knew that was his door to heaven. And Ridley said to Latimer, be of good heart, brother, for God will either assuage the fury of the flame or else strengthen us to abide it. And as they were lashed to the state and the flames began, Latimer said to Ridley, be of good comfort Master Ridley and play the man. Today, we shall light a flame that by God's grace shall be seen all over England and shall never be put out. And they did. And they did. Though their deaths were horrible, they helped light a flame that helped change the course of history in England and beyond. Sometimes folks being faithful gets you thrown into the fire. Sometimes other people get burned while the flames from our fire. Sometimes deliverance comes in the middle of the fire. In fact, if you think about deliverance only comes in the middle of the fire because it is deliverance, it means we are already in trouble. And it comes before him, which is what we want. Well, that's prevention. The deliverance comes by definition. Deliverance comes while we are in the midst of the flame. Now, we want it to come early. We want deliverance. We want prevention to come before the fire starts, before the first matches struck. We want God's delivery, God's rescue to come before then. But God doesn't do it that way very often does he? God loves that dramatic 11th hour and 59th minute entrance. He loves to do it that way. I hate it. He doesn't say, is watch by mine. He didn't have to set his clock back every six months and set it forward every six. Staying toller, I think I mentioned you. Staying toller wrote a book called, God has never failed me but he sure scared me to death a number of times. We tend to forget this because our lives here are pretty comfortable, frankly. We tend to forget because we don't know much about the furnace. Thank God we know. But throughout history, God's people have always had a tough time in this life. We Hebrews 11, if you doubt that. We the 11th chapter of Hebrews were God's spokesman, who every was, wrote Hebrews, details how our forebars suffered and most of them were not delivered. Before they tasted God's glory, he had to face the flame. Calvin makes this extremely important point, folks. God says, talking about Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego again, God says them in the fire, not from the fire. It's a huge difference. He says them in the fire, not from it. He could have just extinguished the flames. God could have just waited until Nebuchadnezzar had his fire going and said, you impressed? Watch this. He could just put the fire out. He didn't do that. So he meets his people in the flames. It doesn't seem to improve it. About 160 years or so before this event, Isaiah wrote, these were just so marvelous. We realized he wrote these about 160 years before Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego and Daniel were in Babylon. Isaiah 43 verse 1. But now this is what the Lord says. He who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, Israel. Do not fear for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Verse 26, Nebuchadnezzar then approached the opening of the blazing furnace and shouted, Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, come here. So Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego came out of the fire. You know what I would have done? What's that? Can't hear you over the fire? Oh, now you want to talk? Well, come on in. Now you want you talking to me? That's what I would want to say. Now you want to have a conversation five minutes ago, it was roast of my life. And now you want to talk? Well, come on in. Can you pull up a chair? Oh, wait, you can't. They're all burned up. Look, that's just me. Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego obeyed the king. They just threw him in the fire. And that's why their stories in the Bible might not ever be. So they come out and look, we're not guaranteed to come out of the fire. Uncensed or unharmed like Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego. God doesn't guarantee that to all those people. What about when he doesn't deliver us? What about those times we're feeling the heat. We're in the middle of the fire and our clothes. There's clothes are cinched and we're about to come to heat exhaustion or smoke inhalation. Well, I've already mentioned a number of God's most faithful ones who suffer greatly or even died as result of the flames. That's when we have to invoke the spirit of Shadrach, Meshach and Bednego. We have to say, God can deliver me. But even if he doesn't, I'm not going to bow down to that idol. I'm not going to bow down and worship him. And you notice that Nebuchadnezzar makes the comment. No math major, no math whizz, Nebuchadnezzar. Do we throw three people in the fire? Yes, okay, yes, okay. But I see four and the fourth one looks like a son of the gods. The commentators wonder, who is this? Well, Nebuchadnezzar says, well, an angel can match you with her. Nebuchadnezzar is not a great theologian, okay? He's a pagan. Maybe it was an angel? Maybe it was the angel of the Lord. Maybe it was what we call a Christophony. An appearance of Christ's free Bethlehem. The commentators are divided. If you want to know my opinion, which is also known as the truth, let me give it to you. I want you to think about this way. It's quite likely that you remember Nebuchadnezzar made this 90 foot image. That's the one they refused about down to. It's quite likely. This is the same fire in which the idol was smelted, you know? The idol of gold, that same fire that Nebuchadnezzar has stoked up seven times on her and thrown in her. It's quite like that it's the same fire. God has a strong sense of irony. I think it went down something like this. I think God is saying to Nebuchadnezzar, your false God, they came out of this furnace, and by it you attempted to lead the many astray, you attempted to put the death, some of my choices, servants. Well, on the other hand, I am the one true God, and I meet my people in the furnace, and I lead them out, and I deliver them from your hand. You wonder what God could say to them? I am the God, who could say them? And I meet my people in the furnace, and Nebuchadnezzar, you will not live to see the day, neither will Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, but in about 580 plus years, I'm going to come back, and I'm going to enter that furnace once and for all, and I'm going to go to a cross to save my people from the furnace. So who do I think was in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? I don't have any doubt. This is a Christophany, a pre-Bethlehem appearance of Jesus, being his people there in the furnace. Rich Mullinsong, where you are, he has the line that runs, you meet the Lord in the furnace a long time before you meet him in the sky. I began this morning by talking about how we are privileged in this country that when we get sideways with our elected officials and the people in authority, we can vote them out. What would happen if we were in a situation where it's either submit or face the consequences? Number of years ago, Pastor, by the Rick Joyner wrote a book called The Surpassing Greatness of His Power, he says this, When we have the true and holy fear of the Lord, we do not have to fear anything else on this earth. To have the true fear of the Lord is evidence by our not fearing what the world fears. God has never lost an election because he doesn't even compete in them. His policy in our country will not be dictated from Washington, but those who have authority with God in prayer. Through prayer, can dictate policy in Washington, regardless of who is in office. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our law giver, the Lord is our king Isaiah 33-22. Here we see that the Lord is all three branches of the government. When the church becomes like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, he will then deal with the government like he did never good measure. This man was even more ruthless than the most despised modern despise. He destroyed Jerusalem, the temple, built a great gold needle to himself, and would on a whim destroy multitudes. However, he bowed his knee when he saw the power of the God of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. And when we like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refused to defile ourselves with the food and drink of the heathen and to worship their ills, he will worship the Lord openly, regardless of the consequences. He will give us wisdom and power that will confound the heathen and cause them to bow their knees to our God. We remember, ladies and gentlemen, this morning especially, that Jesus also faced the fire for us. We don't bow the knee to an idol and we don't eat and drink their food and their drink. Now we bow our knee to the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and we symbolically, through these elements, we eat his body, we drink his blood, and we remember the price that he paid when he entered the furnace once and for all for his people. Amen, let's pray. Father, we thank you that, just as you've sent the captain of the Lord of hosts, the pre-incarnate Jesus into that furnace to meet, your faithful servant, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Even so, Lord, you've sent Jesus to enter into the crucible of the cross for us and deliver us. So we won't all be delivered in this life and some of us will suffer a lot and some of us will suffer a little. One day we all pass through the portal of death or help us at that time to witness the good confession that our forebears have. But this morning, Lord, we thank you for what you've done and provide for us these elements of unleavened bread and grape juice. And we remember and we celebrate the price that was paid for us. We do in Jesus' name before he say, Amen. Amen, thank you for being here with us this morning. Again, we're glad to have you here with us today and trust the God will bless you with a great Sabbath day. Now we'll see the Lord's benediction. Now may the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. May he work in us but is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.