Daniel

[0:00] The form of the foe is like the Son of God. Thus Nebuchadnezzar has to give testimony unto the reality of those things which he saw.

[0:25] How did he know that the form of the foe was like the Son of God? God, even as he has done in the case of Pharaoh and others in the Word of God, can so flash in a moment upon the understanding in the minds of men the reality of his existence inasmuch as he is pleased so to break down within them that which was completely opposed unto himself.

[1:12] You know there is a day that is coming when the reality of these things are going to be reviewed unto them that have indeed rejected God and his Word and everything that appertains unto the reality of godliness.

[1:36] they have thought that they in their own power and in their own reasoning and in their own understanding were quite capable of carrying on for themselves and so doing for themselves that which they have set their heart upon.

[1:56] that the day is surely coming when the reality of those things that are indeed in God shall be plainly manifested unto them not in the way of love but in the way of anger yes, Nebuchadnezzar may indeed have had a glimpse given to him by God at the reality of the situation and the position into which he had brought himself by his own act and deed.

[2:47] But we are more concerned this afternoon with these three characters who have been brought likewise into a position which was indeed going to be so far as they could see an ultimate relative unto their future existence.

[3:17] We might say regarding them what more easy than for themselves being lost in the crowd for here are every nations and every tongues and so forth how easy it is for them to be lost in the crowd that their actions shall not be taken note of.

[3:43] But that wasn't to be found in the nature of these men. True it's only a very simple act that is demanded of them.

[3:57] Why should they not then give obedience unto it? For there was one thing that I am positive like it did with Daniel himself one thing that weighed heavily upon these three lads where they weren't owed any of them.

[4:17] And that was the fact of example. If they did indeed give heed unto what the king had commanded then what an influence it might have upon that nation whom they represented they who were Jews of the captivity.

[4:41] On the other hand if there is resistance unto the demand that is made of them what a strength it may indeed be unto those whom they represented.

[5:00] I wonder if we realize in life the influence of their own life upon others. None of us will live unto ourselves.

[5:12] your life inevitably has an influence upon those with whom you come in contact.

[5:26] The temptation may come how easy to give way to it. And so in the giving way unto it that which is relative unto any good influence may be totally lost.

[5:48] Yes we have to be very careful relative to our attitude in life regarding these things. Well you see it's only a lot of things.

[6:03] It may not even be noticed. Who are we? Three individuals amongst this great company that have gathered around so to worship this image.

[6:18] Why we should hardly be disowned amongst them. Oh yes how easy it is to take cover as it were under the frown.

[6:32] To be identified with them that we may not have to suffer in any degree that which is going to cost us something for our belief or our faith.

[6:46] No. Let the opportunity come. And where is the man that is going to stand in the hour of that trial?

[7:00] Oh no let us just as it were try to get the scene before our eyes. Here are those who are gathered out of every nation.

[7:12] The Nebuchadnezzar kingdom is vast. And here is every nationality. And here are those who are of every tongue.

[7:24] and the command goes forth relative unto their future action in regard to this image. Yes it is going forth.

[7:44] How easy to submit unto that which is in accordance with man's device. That which man wills though it is indeed contrary unto all that the scriptures teach us in their deliverance by the prophets unto us.

[8:12] So easy isn't it? And yet here we have three individuals they were not going so to fall down with the rest of them.

[8:30] They were not going to be identified with that great company. Ah but you see if you don't say that me second abednego you'll become so distinct.

[8:48] You'll be the only ones that are standing up. There won't be any overlooking you and you'll become the object of the fury of the king.

[9:02] And do you not owe this king some fidelity? Think of what he's done for you. He's promoted you.

[9:17] Yea, he has given you a good position. You stand in a place of power. Why, surely you can give way unto the king's command just for once.

[9:31] He's not asking much of you, is he? He's simply asking you to fall down and to worship the image. Why, you can fall down without any worshipping of the image, surely.

[9:43] you can give expression unto the outward, whereas the inward may be totally disengaged from it. How subtle are the arguments and the reasonings that may oftentimes possess us in regard to these things.

[10:05] enemies. But these three men, they were determined that they were going to make a stand. They did it in the light of all that was a relative unto their own nation.

[10:25] Yes, if we are weak, then they will be weak. If we are strong, then they will be strong. And so they have to be brought into this trial of faith.

[10:43] Surely at some time in our lives we are brought into the trial of faith. I don't mean in that wherein you may glibly speak of it, but that which affecteth your very life.

[11:02] That which is utterly and entirely demanding of you concerning the true belief that you have concerning the things of God.

[11:21] Let us note one or two things regarding the trial of faith in regard to these free men in the first place. We notice that in the trial of faith, their resolution for God.

[11:39] Ah, they said, Aunt Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. So far as we are concerned, there is nothing more to be said.

[11:54] We know where we stand, and that which is relative unto our faith forbid that we should give any obeisance unto any form of idolatry.

[12:10] No, we are resolved. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. We know where we stand.

[12:23] A resolution, what does it mean? it means to put a matter beyond all hesitation or doubt. And that is what they were doing in their resolution to God.

[12:38] there was to be no doubt or hesitation about it so that others might indeed have various thoughts relative unto the reality of what they were doing as to whether they really meant it, that they were sincere in what they were saying.

[13:04] It is as though they would sweep everything on one side and say here is our course. It is the only course we can take. Here we stand and we are going to abide by it.

[13:18] We are not careful to answer thee about this matter. Oh Nebuchadnezzar. But what is the secret unto that resolent mind and heart?

[13:34] It is that wherein they declared their whole confidence. is in God. Listen to what they say. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.

[13:53] And he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. That is where our confidence is. It isn't in what you're able to do, Nebuchadnezzar.

[14:06] It's what our God is able to do. It isn't in that which you purpose these things. It is that wherein God will bring to pass his own purpose in connection with us.

[14:21] On him we rely. on him we put error to dependence. In other words, the only view they have in the matter is that which is relative unto the God whom they have been called upon to serve.

[14:38] They have a full confidence in him. The third fact is their submission unto God. If not, be it known unto the old king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

[15:00] Their submission unto God, if God sees not it to deliver them from the fiery furnace, then so be it. For all that which may so as it were pass before the mind and the understanding relative unto the effect of the not complying with Nebuchadnezzar's decision, there is still that that remains.

[15:30] Their confidence in their God that if it is his will, if it is his way, he can make a way of deliverance that they shall not have to go into the furnace.

[15:44] But if he in his wisdom and his purpose sees fit for us to go right into the furnace, then the will of the Lord be done. We are submissive to it.

[15:59] What does it all add up to? The other is free men, as it were, standing on, against store back, wherein they are surrounded by this vast company, they are being tested by God, tested by God as to whether they are real or not.

[16:27] God knows the wealth of his people, God knows the value of them whom he favors, and he delights to make it known.

[16:40] And many of the things that come to us as Christians in the testings of life is that it may be made manifest that we are his, that we are not ashamed of him, that we are ready to confess him.

[16:57] Yes, God testing the individual. But then, if it is God who is testing us, surely in his goodness and in his mercy, he can make a way whereby that trial which is to be born will not be greater than that it can be born.

[17:26] Here is the point. You cannot have a test. you cannot have a trial unless there is the reality of the fact evidenced and known within one's life.

[17:47] They must go into the furnace. There is no other way. God could deliver them, but in his infinite wisdom, he may see not so to do in that visible and manifest way before they get to the furnace.

[18:11] They've got to go into the furnace. furnace. When we are brought up against a certain matter or thing, then it is that the great test cometh to us.

[18:29] Oh, yes, we may say, God doeth all these things, but when you are confronted with the furnace, and when that which is before you is such a seething reality, are you then so confident?

[18:51] Are you then so positive and so sure about things? For all these free men were prepared, as it were, to leave everything in God's hands, to commit their very lives and their bodies unto him, as Nebuchadnezzar has to confess later on, simply because, and here again we have Nebuchadnezzar's testimony, because they trusted in the Lord.

[19:23] His servants that trusted in him are servants. How explanatory that is of the whole fact.

[19:35] they knew who they were and whom they served. And that leads us to the realization that they must not only go into the furnace, but if they're going into the furnace, they're going in utterly helpless.

[19:56] They're going in bound hand and foot. there may be no possibility of any movement, and that is that which confronted them.

[20:13] What do we find is the result of the trial of faith? let us note some of those indisputable facts, which alone can be known by us, as we may have to enter into the fiery trial, the furnace.

[20:35] furnace. Nebuchadnezzar has ordered that that furnace is to be made seven times more hot than it was.

[20:53] Yes, the men made the furnace. Let us not for a moment forget how God he erected even, I was going to say, before they had already fallen into the midst of the furnace.

[21:14] Three of the strongest men that could be found, to pick them up trust and bold, and when the door of the furnace is opened, so to throw them in.

[21:30] But shall they escape that are the perpetrators of this act? Nebuchadnezzar saw it, and he saw those three men in a moment, done to nothing.

[21:47] Yes, God's judgments at times are exceeding fierce and quick. But nevertheless, let's trace it out, men make the furnace, God controls it.

[22:10] And with the control of God relative to the furnace, what possible harm can ever come to them who are found in the midst of it? now you think of the trails of life, and the testings that you may be put to as you profess yourself to be Christians.

[22:33] When there is an automaton, as it were, set before you, it's got to be one thing or the other, and you find there's no escape for you, save as you walk in the ray in the way of righteousness, uprightness, and truth, you walk in it, and you find that you have to suffer persecution as a result.

[23:03] Oh, they come at you. They are, as it were, like the very flames that will devour you and bring you to nothing. How scratching they are in that wherein they speak concerning you.

[23:20] What burning accents do they so pronounce their opinions concerning you? Everything that is bad. Oh, yes, they heap and heap and heap upon the furnace until it becomes seven times hotter.

[23:41] But God controls it. God knows that which is relative unto the heat, that which is relative unto the element of destruction, that wherein the danger doth so encompass thee completely, he knows all about it, and he will control it, and he has seen to it, that being thrown in, you will indeed be in a safe place, secured by him.

[24:20] But again, it is in that wherein they were thrown in bound. They know sooner in the midst of the furnace than they have no longer any bonds.

[24:40] No, they are lost. They are unable to walk at large. Think of a wonder that that we have been given a description of what they were wearing, everything that was of a most inflammable substance.

[25:04] You are told of that wherein they were bound. And when they get into that furnace, what is it that takes place?

[25:16] The bond they are burned. They can no longer hold you. That which is relative unto yourself, there is no sign of any flame upon thee, nor even a very hair of your hand has been singed.

[25:38] Now, just think for a moment. Here are you, as it were, and here are these men, as it were, in that which related unto their inflammable condition.

[25:50] how easy to be destroyed. Yet think of the inscrutable, the wonderful, the mysterious work of God, that that which is relative unto the flame should only, as it were, burn through the bonds and leave all the rust of it untouched, that not even the smell of fire should be found upon them.

[26:17] That is how God demonstrates his power in the furnace. Oh, it is in a mysterious way, you know, there's so much in the word of God which we profess.

[26:33] I doubt if some of us really understand it. I thank God that he doesn't call me to understand everything that is within his word, but he does call me to accept it, to believe it, to receive it.

[26:56] That which we know not, and it's been, I believe, at the head of one of the hymns this day, that which we know not now, well, we shall know hereafter.

[27:08] We're willing to leave it like that. We can't explain, we can't understand the wonder-walking God in all his mysterious ways, and yet the wonder that he accomplishes, loosened at liberty, where in the very place where men would have utterly destroyed them, where were they sent?

[27:39] They were sent, apparently, to certain death. death. What did they find? Life, in the midst of death.

[27:52] Here all around them is the evidence of that which would indeed so bring them to ashes, bring them to nothing.

[28:04] And what do they find? They find that there is given unto them that ability and that help and that strength, whereby they can tread the furnace through and through.

[28:20] So in a word, it's one of the most blessed places that they'd ever come into. Haven't you found your trials sometimes to be like that?

[28:33] rich with the blessing of the Lord, that wherein he is pleased so to make himself manifest unto you that you had to say, I never knew such a love as he has made manifest to me.

[28:53] I never knew wherein he was such a God as he has proved himself to be to me, yes, we find in the dangers, the acute dangers which may await us as Christians as we pass through this life, that in those experiences lie our richest blessings.

[29:20] enemies. And remember, they were in the furnace. They were liberated from all their enemies.

[29:33] There wasn't one that dared come where they were. There wasn't one that could enter into that furnace. In other words, while they were in that furnace, they were saved and preserved from all their enemies and Nebuchadnezzar nor the rest of them, they could have no power upon them because if they did, they would have been destroyed instantly as God had given them the lesson relative unto those three strong men that so threw them in.

[30:06] And so we come finally unto this point, the form of the fourth. the fourth. No, he said, I see four men walking in the midst of the fire and they have no heart and the form of the fourth is like the son of God.

[30:35] Easy enough for us to say the Lord will appear. And the so do we realize the greatness of the understanding that God hath regarded every one of his own.

[30:53] He had not forgotten these three lads. He knew them. He was watching over them. And in that wherein he remembered them, he would make it known to them at the appointed time.

[31:14] When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou passest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

[31:37] They were proving it. They were finding out the truth of God's word. Every word that God has spoken must and shall be fulfilled.

[31:50] There is a time for its fulfillment. When? When thou passest through these ways. Yes, at the right time he came.

[32:06] He who had them before him now comes. And where does he receive them? Does he take them out of the furnace? No.

[32:18] He still leaves them in the furnace because that is the place where he is going to receive them. Yes, this is the place where he is going to unite himself unto them.

[32:32] what must have been the feelings of those free men when they so beheld the companions that were so akin to them in all their trials and in all that they had been called upon to endure and to confess and to testify concerning concerning the God whom they would alone serve.

[33:02] God, no, he is not a God afar off, he is the renaid hand. He is the one who is with them. He walketh with them.

[33:15] He is their companion. My dear hearer, dost thou not realize when thou cometh into the trials of faith that thou hast one upon whom thou canst perfectly depend, one whom of itself fear, one whom though we may realize the hottest of that which is relative to the trial of it as it may be against us, nevertheless brings with it the comfort and the consolation and the assurance that we shall be untouched, we shall suffer no loss, we shall come forth as those who are but bitter for it.

[34:09] He was with them and my friend, it was not until his name was glorified and that wherein he set his seal of approbation upon that which was relative to those three young men that they were left, I was going to say to themselves, oh, Nebuchadnezzar bid them come forth and they came forth, the form of the fourth no longer visible or apparent, right up to the end until the trial is entirely finished and the glory gotten to his own name and the deliverance accomplished, God is with his people and he will have the enemy so to avow it and he will make it manifest unto the children of men that he is that

[35:19] God who rule it over all. So in our lives if we are faithful, if we stand true to our God, if we are not swayed by certain things which might appear well, after all it's only this or it's only that.

[35:47] But in that wherein in our life we remain distinct, remember mighty, here are your influence upon others. Remember what it means to others.

[36:01] If you fought a their quarter, if you stand strong then you shall be strong and they shall be benefited for then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

[36:23] Truly wondrous are the works of God. Count it all joy, my dear hearer, when you fall into these trails because you will prove likewise that though you have nothing in your soul to preserve you or to keep you, there is one whose presence is your safeguard, yes, your security, the form of the fourth is like the son of God.

[37:03] Amen. ...

[37:14] ... ... Thank you.

[37:49] Thank you.

[38:19] Thank you.

[38:49] Thank you. Thank you.

[39:49] Thank you. Thank you.

[40:21] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[40:55] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[41:07] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[41:19] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[41:53] Thank you.

[42:23] Thank you. Thank you.

[43:23] May the grace, the love, and the fellowship, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be with us each.

[43:51] Now and evermore. Amen.