All right, this message this morning is going to hinge on three words, three words. Let me give you a little history first, these three words are part of an enormously important event that took place over 70 years ago as the one that changed the course of history. May of 1940, Hitler's army had blitzkriegged its way through Europe, the British expeditionary force had been sent out to try to keep the Nazis from advancing deeper into Belgium and France, but they were terribly out man and out gunned. And so they've been driven back and they were surrounded by cornered trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk, France. The situation was grim. If Hitler had given the command, the British expeditionary force and the rest of the allied forces, their cornered Dunkirk, over 350,000 men, if Hitler had given the command, they would almost certainly have been killed or captured. It is one of history's oddities or curiosities that for reasons unknown to this day, Hitler stalled for three days before sending in his troops to try to crush that army, that three days turned out to be pivotal. On May 26, 1940, Great Britain called for a national day of prayer, praying for the desperate situation by their troops stuck there at Dunkirk. The leaders of Great Britain, Churchill and those other giants, they even had to discuss terms of conditional surrender amongst themselves if the expeditionary force were to be overwhelmed. Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe, and I find this to be personally extremely interesting, the Luftwaffe had begun to drop bombs and leaflets on the army there, cornered there at Dunkirk, they dropped these bombs and the leaflets and the leaflets read in English and French and they had a map of the situation, the leaflets read in English and in French. I'm going to read it to you exactly. British soldiers look at the map, it gives your true situation, your troops are entirely surrounded, stop fighting, put down your arms, to show what the Allied forces thought of the Germans they offer, they use those leaflets as toilet paper. You don't get this in every church, I hope you're taking note of this. Well, all Great Britain-weighted breathlessity here was going to happen. Victory against such overwhelming odds was unthinkable, escape was impossible and rescue was going to be extremely difficult. And British army, knowing the reality of their plight, cabled home a three word message and if not. That's it. And if not, those words come from our Texas one of the Daniels, chapter 3 and verse 18. And the amazing thing to me is seven years later is that the people of Great Britain, that's all they needed with those three words and if not, they knew exactly what they were saying. The army was saying we await deliverance from our plight, but even if we are not rescued from Hitler's army, we will remain strong and unbound and we will be faithful to our cause. And if not, we will remain in the chapter 3 verses 1 through 18. If you're new to us, you've been out for a bit, this is the year beginning, 606 BC, Daniel and three of his Jewish friends, Shadrach Meshach, and Abednego have been exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon. They're in the service of the pagan king, Nebuchadnezzar. And they have risen to the top of their class of young advisors, counselors, special advisors to the king. They're counted amongst the magicians and the enchanters, the sorcerers and astronomers, the wise men of Babylon. The king's had a dream, and Daniel was able to interpret that dream. At the end of chapter 2, we find the Nebuchadnezzar, the pagan king, bowing down at the feet of Daniel and giving praise to the God of Daniel, who's enabled him to interpret this dream. Well, how quickly we forget, chapter 3 verse 1, King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, 90 feet high, 9 feet wide, and set it up on the plane of Dura in the province of Babylon. He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governor's advisors, treasures, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the imaging set up. So the satraps, prefects, governor's advisors, treasures, judges, magistrates, and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar set up, and they stood before it. Then the hero, Lallie, proclaimed, this is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language. As soon as you hear this sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar set up, whoever does not fall down a worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshiped, the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar set up. At this time, some astrologers came forward and announced the Jews. They said the King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You have issued a decree, O King. Everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, all kinds of music must fall down a worship, the image of gold and that whoever does not fall down a worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. But there are some Jews whom you have said over the affairs of the Provinces of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who pay no attention to you, O King. They neither serve your gods, nor worship the image of gold you have set up. Furious of rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the King. And Nebuchadnezzar said to them, is it true? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I've set up. Now, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down a worship, the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what God will be able to rescue from my hand? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the King, O 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 deliver us from it, to save us from it. And he will rescue us from your hand, O King. But even if he does not, and this is where the older translations, which the man at Dunkirk would have known, so where they say, and if not, even if he does not, we want you to know, King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. Let's pray together.
Father, thank you again for the word of God and for the heroic saints who came before us, to whom you delivered this word, through whom you had it written down and preserved for us, down through the ages. Thank you for the stories of these men of all these heroes, these giants. Both the ones we read about here in Daniel, and we also think about our forebears in the faith of Luther and Calvin and the rest. We thank you, Father, for our heritage. We stand on the shoulder of giants, where we ask that you raise up another generation like that, but like that that you gave us before, we'll do it again. May we live to be people who see a new Reformation break forth between the shores of this country. And Lord, help us look now, not, shout out me, shack in a bed and then go, but help us look through them and the written word to the living word whom they served, even though they didn't know his name, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So here we have just to keep it in context for us. We have Nebuchadnezzar's dream. We have Daniel's interpretation of it. We have Nebuchadnezzar's response of bowing down and worshiping the great God of heaven who has revealed this dream to Daniel. And then in some years later, we don't know how long, some years have passed between Daniel, chapter 2 and Daniel, chapter 3. We have Nebuchadnezzar building a 90-foot high image of gold. Now, the Bible doesn't tell us, but I bet I know who's faces on that image. The Bible doesn't tell us for sure, but the word that's used here indicates it's an image of probably the deified Nebuchadnezzar. Can you imagine a political leader wanting people to bow down at his image? Can you imagine that? Things sure have changed, haven't they? Nebuchadnezzar orders everyone to prostrate themselves in front of it. Can you imagine me and told to do that, are you going to die? The book of Daniel, folks, it's a manifesto and how to be God's man or God's woman in the face of a pagan culture. One of the reasons I wanted to preach Daniel at this time in the life of our church and the life of our nation is that it shows us how we can be men and women, godly men and women, men and women of God engaging as secular, pagan, hostile culture, Daniel's a manifesto. He's the best figure in all the scripture, I think, to teach us how to do exactly that. Here in verses 1 through 18, these men face enormous pressure to cave in, to bow down, to sell out, and I think in verses 1 through 18, we find three classic versions of the sell out. Let's look at each one of them. First, verses 1 through 7, we've got to sell out. Everybody's doing it. Everybody is doing it. We've all heard that once almost. Might have even actually used that one from time to time. Navigates your odors, all his boys, all his people, show up at the grand opening of his new temple featuring an idol that looks an awful lot like himself. Again, the scripture doesn't tell us that specifically, but most the commentators believe that and I certainly do. Bad out this new idol featuring himself, you know, they all have in Babylon. They've got times of other gods and gods as they worship. They're polytheists. They're gods and gods as for every building. What's one more? What's one more? Found out at the altar, you said, I'm okay. No problem. Do it or you'll put us into the furnace. Really no problem. Happy to do it. You know, I absolutely committed to one god and one god only. It's easy to give your religious every new guru, every new Messiah, every new religious fad, every new idol that comes along, especially when you're told to not bowing down, we'll get you thrown into that furnace. You know what, that'd be a prefectible age, increased church attendance if we had the power, wouldn't it? Come on here and worship like we tell you or we'll kill you. We have a very effective church growth campaign, I think. God does not give us that option. So at the sound of the horn, the flute, the zither and by the way, the zither, a small stringed instrument, the sound of all these musical instruments, every single forehead and Babylon, hit the ground, prostrate in front of that idol. Except three. We're not told where Daniel was during this episode, it's clear he's not around, so maybe he's off doing official business somewhere. The Shadrat, knee shack and bed to go, they're in town. Every single forehead hit the ground in front of the idol except these three. You think they didn't stand out? Stand up and stand out. Imagine how easy it would have been rationalized, bound down to that idol. Everybody's doing it. Everybody else is doing it and look at the cost if we don't, we'll live to fight another day. When Nikita Khrushchev became the secretary of the, of the polar bureau, the powers, that be the powers that were in the Kremlin and what used to be the Soviet Union. Khrushchev for all his other faults was vehemently anti-stolenist. He was one of the first to speak up and tell the people of the atrocities that Stalin had committed and tried to keep secret. And he was speaking to the polar bureau one day when a note came forward. A note, a handwritten note was passed forward and given to Khrushchev and it said this, what were you doing while Stalin was murdering millions of our people? And Khrushchev took the note, anonymous, nobody looked at me, said, who wrote this? There's dead silence. And he said, I was doing exactly what you just did. I was keeping silent. Sell out number one. Everybody else is doing it. You got to go along and to get along. Why not? God was certainly understanding, wouldn't he? Well no, as a matter of fact, God does not understand what we sell out about him and the other idol. In fact, he's given his very explicit instructions and Shadrach Mishak and a bed to go would have known these words very well. We have an Exodus 20. God spoke all these words, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, the form of anything in heaven above on the earth beneath. They're in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I the Lord your God. I'm a jealous God, pursuing the children, punishing the children, for the sin of the fathers to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. One God and he will not share his glory with anyone or anything else. One God and he's a jealous God. T.S. Eliot, you know as a poet, was also a fasting Christian, T.S. Eliot once said, if you will not have God and he is a jealous God, you should pay your respects to Hitler and Stalin.
One God, S. Eliot number one, everybody else is doing it. S. Eliot number two, being politically correct. You didn't know how those terms in Hebrew did you, in this case here in Mac. Well, they're not there explicitly, but they're there in this text. The astrologers come forward and they announce the views and you have to hear, you have to hear their words in the way that I'm sure that came across from a little dramatic effect here when they said, oh, king, live forever. You have issued a decree, oh, king. Everyone here is the sound of them. You hear the hissing like the snakes that they were. These are polite terms, they're totes, they're smithes, they're sycophants, they're bootleakers. These are the nice, these are the best things I can say. These are good points. And they're looking for a way to make points with the king and the expense of the others. They don't care who they have to throw under the bus or in their case have been thrown to the chariot. They don't care who they have to throw under, they can trample by the horses of those. They enjoy it. They enjoy seeing other people pay so they can profit their expense. They like to know that people can take it down so that they can try to climb up. They're not playing ball with extra majesty. They're like us. They're outsiders, they're foreigners, they're Jews. Yeah, in 600 BC anti-semitism was alive and well living in Babylon. No doubt those astrologers, they had resented Daniel Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Ever since they had risen to the top of the Royal Academy, ever since they'd set the curb in the classes, they'd resented them. And when Daniel came along and interpreted that dream and they couldn't do it, I'll hate him. Hey, can you imagine these foreigners, these immigrants, these exiles, these Jews, they're making us look bad. Now's their chance. Now's their chance to get even with them. I had to just burn them, these foreigners. And then when Nebuchadnezzar made them, the provincial administrators over Babylon, they got the cushy government jobs. Those Babylonians they have been dreaming of the day. They could take their family and their friends in their corner offices, overlooking the hanging gardens of Babylon. How those government pensions coming in for the rest of their lives, we've been looking forward to that day. And they got aced out by a bunch of Jews. Oh man, they hate him. Just hate him. So we're looking for an opportunity to bring them now a few pegs and they just got presented with a great big gold plated 90 foot opportunity to bring those boys down. There are some Jews, verse 12. When you've said over the affairs of Babylon, just case you don't remember, their names are Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those are their Jewish names, by the way. Not their Babylonian names. They pay no attention to you, O King. They serve you, O God's. Don't worship the image of gold that you've set up. They don't talk like us. They don't look like us. They don't laugh at the same jokes around the water cooler. They don't think like us. They're not politically correct, your majesty. Political correctness. That's the desire to fit in, to go along, to be like everybody else. The desire to not to offend anyone by standing up for our beliefs. The other desire to fit in, to go along. It's not wrong in and of itself, but it can lead to just monstrous consequences. If you've never read C.S. Lewis's essay, the inner ring, Google it, buy it, get it, go to the library, read the inner ring by C.S. Lewis. It's magnificent. It's insight where the central mind, he says, of all the passion in every society, every circle of people. There's always an inner ring of people who run things, and it's the desire of man to get in that inner ring, to be a part of that inner ring. And Lewis says, of all the passions, the passion for the inner ring is the most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man, do very bad things. Lewis wrote this just after World War 2. Some years after that, Adolf Eichmann, the so-called architect of the Holocaust, he's the man who arranged the logistics when the Jews were hauled off to the concentration against to be exterminated by the thousands and the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands and the millions. Eichmann was just basically a functionary and administrator, but he do what he was told, and from his own notes at the Nuremberg trials, here's what Adolf Eichmann wrote. By the way, I had never seen the movie Patton before, that's my confession. So about three weeks ago, researching something else, I thought I need to see that movie. Do you know that Patton for all the other faults? When he took his army, we took the third army through Europe, overrunning the Nazis, and when he got to the concentration camps, General Patton, when he saw what went on in there, he was so sick and so disgusted by it, when he got to Buchenwald, the first one, he went and he got his soldiers to get all the Germans surrounding towns. He made them come at Buchenwald and look at what had happened. Young people, we old geezers, we know this, young people, the Holocaust happened. Don't ever let anybody tell you it didn't happen, don't let them tell you it wasn't that bad, don't ever let them tell you it's six million Jews weren't exterminated, they were. Adolf Eichmann was the architect, I have a personal connection to this, but I'm not going to get into it. Adolf Eichmann was the architect of the Holocaust, and from his own notes is what he said, obeying an order was the most important thing to me. From my childhood, obedience was something I could not get out of my system. When I entered the armed services at the age of 27, I found being obedient, not a bit more difficult than it had been during my life to that point. It was unthinkable that I would not follow orders. Living in such a way reduces to a minimum one's own need to think. Young people and not so young people, when you go off to the universities or get in your first jobs, don't just go on to get along, don't just slute, no matter what, you've got people, you have a higher calling on your life than the next paycheck and the next promotion, and next test, and next exam. I urge you also, young people especially, find standing milligrams, experiments, and evil, and compliance at Yale University. Let me make an application for us. No one accomplishes anything great or even good by just trying to go along with everybody else. Nobody ever accomplished anything great or good, but just trying to fit in. If you're going in life, young people are not so young people. If your goal in life is just to fit in, it's just to go along, forget me in a Christian, forget following Jesus, he didn't just fit in, and he did not just go along. If you're going to follow Jesus, you're going to stand out and you're going to have to stand up. I would urge you folks to try to be politically incorrect at least once a day, more often if you can, and you've got a great opportunity on Tuesday. If we as Christians are silent in the face of an ungodly culture or worse that we capitulate and we go along with it, what good are we? We're not going to be salt and light as Jesus has tasked us to be, as Jesus has called us to be salt and light in the face of a dying and decaying society. If we're not going to speak out, speak up, stand up, we're going to just go along, what good are we? Jesus said, we're no use at all, we're refugees, we're all going to be thrown out in the pile. Salah number one, everybody else is doing it. Salah number two, being politically correct, and Salah number three, do it or else. Do it or else. Pretty persuasive though, wouldn't it? Do it or I'm throwing you into the fire. Do it or you're going to be burned to death versus 13, 14, 15 or rage of the king, ordering those three Jews to do what he said. Do it or else. You're facing a certain and horrible death right now. A couple of months ago, I mentioned to you Samuel Johnson, the 18th century British writer, literary critic, thinker, lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, imprisoned, facing hanging the next day. He wrote these words, the prospect of being hanged immediately wonderfully concentrates the mind. You're focusing on what you got to do right now. There's no time for the non-essentials, for the tribules.
We face other more subtle forms of coercion, this do it or else. Do it or else you'll look foolish.
Do it or else you'll be left out of the fun. Do it or else you'll miss out on a chance to make some real money. Do it or else you're fired. Do it or else I'll leave you. Whatever your price to sell out, listen to me again, especially younger folks, whatever your price to sell out, your faith, your Christian life, it will be offered to you. If it hasn't already, it will be offered to you. Be ready. What will you say when that or else, that coercion, that do it or else put in your face? What will you do? For Shadrach, Meeshach, and a minute ago it was do it or else you die. And they looked at one another and they looked at King Nebuchadnezzar and they said furnace too, by the way. And they said no. Our God is able to deliver us from this furnace. And if not, then we'll go and we'll be with him. And if not. You know that British expeditionary force came back that message and if not, people of great Britain went to prayer for reasons unknown to history but known to Christians, Hitler delayed for three days. He delayed for three days when he had every opportunity to crush that expeditionary force and kill or capture 350,000 men were broken the back of the resistance. He delayed for those three days and when those three words and if not, cable back to great Britain to galvanize the people. And they organized what is today known as the Dunkirk Miracle. Thousands of ships large and small went across the English channel. And while Hitler delayed for three days, they ferried across 338,000 men and saved that army and saved the day, saved the British Empire and saved the European resistance. Our God is just as ready and able to save us. We're faced with the fiery furnace. I have to say this because I'm honest and I'm not running for office, I don't need your votes. I have to say this, you may be in the furnace right now and you feel like, hey, I'm calling out and I'm about to dive smoke inhalation here or heat exhaustion. I mean, I'm getting synched in Christ all over the place. Whereas God, when I'm calling out to him, I have to say because I'm honest, God does not always take his people out of the furnace. He doesn't. John the Baptist was beheaded. Stephen was stoned. Paul was beheaded. Peter was crucified upside down. 11 of the original 12 apostles died, horrible deaths. Jews killed himself. John lived to be an old man, although he suffered greatly, the other 10 were martyred. God does not always take his people out of the furnace. And that is especially when we need to invoke the spirit of shadrat, knee shack and bed to go and say, guys, able to deliver me? But even if he doesn't and if not, I'm not going to cave in and I'm not going to sell out. I'm going to stay true to him. And trust to deliver me. Maybe then deliver me on this side, deliver me on the other. It's God's sense of humor. God's time next week for communion. We'll get the rest of the story. See what happened with shadrat, knee shack and bed and they go, I'll give you this preview. You got to remember Jesus faced the fire. He faced the fire on the cross. God didn't take him out of it. So if you're in it, God's not taking you out. You got to know he's been there and he understands. We don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one has been tempted in every way as we are. It was without sin. And if not, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I do not always understand you but help me to trust you. Lord, as we face decisions large and smaller lives today, tomorrow, certainly Tuesday, as we face decisions in our lives every day, whether it be faithful to you or to sell you out. Lord, help us to look not just as shadrat, knee shack and bed and go, whom you delivered from the furnace. Help us look into Jesus, the author and perfect of our faith. You didn't deliver him from his trial. Now, you delivered him through his trial and through him, you delivered all of us. We thank you for his death on the cross. We thank you for salvation, freely offered. We can be made right in your eyes. I'm going to sacrifice the Christ on the cross and make my prayer in his name. Amen. I received now the Lord's benediction. Go now in the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship, the companionship of God, the Holy Spirit, and live the life. Amen.