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Amen. Amen. Flip over, if you would, to 1 Peter, chapter 4. We're going to come back to Daniel 3, if you want to keep your finger there, in Daniel chapter 3. The title of the sermon this morning is The Fiery Furnace. The Fiery Furnace, 1 Peter, chapter number 4, verse number 12 says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. So the Bible is telling us as Christians that we are going to go through a fiery trial in our lives. It says, think it not strange. Don't be surprised or, whoa, this is really different. This is a really strange thing that's happened to me. Can you believe that I'm actually going through a fiery trial? I mean, I've never even heard of this. Folks, it is inevitable that all of God's people will go through a fiery trial if they are living for God. The Bible says, Ye and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Not might, shall suffer persecution. And it says here, the fiery trial, which is to try you, not which might try you or, you know, sometimes this kind of stuff happens. No, don't think it's strange. Don't be surprised when this happens to you because this is part and parcel of the Christian life. My beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice, right? So when you go through the fiery trial, rejoice. Why would I rejoice about going through pain or suffering or affliction or hard times? Here's why we rejoice in as much as we are partakers of Christ's sufferings, okay? And we know that when his glory shall be revealed, that we may be also glad with exceeding joy. I mean, you know, just as Christ suffered and is glorified, if we're a partaker of Christ's sufferings, we're going to share in that glory. The Bible says, if we suffer, we shall also reign with him. The Bible talks about Christ glorified, whom he justified, them he also glorified. And so going through the fiery trial is not a bad thing. It's something that we want to do as Christians. Now how do we avoid the fiery trial? Avoiding the fiery trial would be to compromise, would be to not serve God and to do the wrong things and be watered down. Then we're not going to go through the fiery trial, but we're going to go through chastisement from God, which is not a blessing, right? It's something that only is painful and yeah, it's to get us back on track, but it could be avoided if we would do what's right. Go to Daniel chapter three. So Daniel chapter three, we're going to look at the fiery trial of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now they're going into a literal fiery furnace here, right? But this pictures our fiery trial that we're all going to go through. So we're all someday going to have to face this fiery furnace in our lives. Metaphorically speaking, they faced a literal fiery furnace so that they could show us how to handle the figurative fiery furnaces in our lives because according to first Peter chapter four verse 12 is going to happen eventually. Now let me bring you up to speed in the story. What happened is the children of Judah, the southern kingdom, because remember Israel has split into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom had already been destroyed earlier by the Assyrians. Well the southern kingdom of Judah has been taken captive by Babylon. So the Babylonians have invaded, destroyed the temple, taken captives, and among those captives are some young men, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now we don't know their ages, but I would assume that they're probably teenagers if you kind of parallel this with the Joseph story. You know Joseph when he first went down to Egypt was 17 and it talks about them as being children and they're young men. So we could assume maybe that they're teenagers, maybe they're early 20s or something, but these are youth. I mean these are young men. So if you're a teenager here, this story has special significance to you as a youth, as a young person. So these people are taken away from their parents and they're castrated and they are put in the service of the king of Babylon. And in Daniel chapter 1 they started out by taking a stand and not eating the meat that was sacrificed unto idols and they end up succeeding and excelling. And among all of the captives, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, these four excelled above the rest. Then when we get into Daniel chapter 2 Nebuchadnezzar has the dream and then Daniel gets together with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The four of them pray. God reveals the answer to them. Daniel goes and presents the answer and Daniel becomes a great ruler in Babylon. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego end up receiving power and authority and so forth. So these are guys who were taken captive, taken away from their home, they don't have mom and dad to rely on, they don't have their pastor to rely on, they don't have their grandparents. Look, they're just on their own, young people standing up for God, standing up for what's right without relying on their parents. And look, I'm glad your parents have brought you to church this morning, but someday your mom's not going to be there to hold your hand and you better have your own walk with God, your own backbone, and be ready to stand on your own two feet and worship the Lord and refuse to bow down to the devil's idols. So when we get into chapter 3 is where they go through a trial. So in chapter 1 they're winning. In chapter 2 they're winning, right? But here's the thing, your life is not just going to necessarily always just be just one easy victory after another. You're going to have to go through some fiery trials to get to the next victory sometimes. So when we get to chapter 3, they start experiencing persecution. When other people see you succeeding and thriving in the Christian life, they're not necessarily going to like that. People are envious of you often, and then when they see you thriving and succeeding, they want to take you down a notch. And this is a theme throughout the book of Daniel. It occurs again in Daniel chapter 6 where when people see a godly Christian being blessed and succeeding and thriving, there are always going to be other people who want to take them down a notch. So in Daniel chapter 3, let's start out in verse number 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold. So this is a giant statue whose height was three score cubits. That is 60 cubits or about 90 feet. And the breadth thereof, six cubits, and he set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, and the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. So notice, this is not the general public, but this is a gathering of all the civil servants, all of the government officials and workers, people like judges, captains, sheriffs, people like that, leaders. Now remember, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are in leadership now as a result of the events of chapters 1 and 2. So they are part of this gathering. Then Nebuchadnezzar gathered these people, verse 3, then the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Verse 4, then an herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages. So again, these are the representatives. It's not like everybody's there. It's the leadership that's there, but they're coming from a variety of places, because there are a lot of provinces in the empire of Babylon. We know in the Persian empire, the next empire, there are 127 provinces. So we're looking at a similar level of rulership where they are ruling over just all kinds of provinces scattered all throughout the Middle East and so forth. So it says, unto you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages. So people are coming from all over the world. They're there from Persia. They're there from probably even places like India and Ethiopia. And they're brought together to worship this image. And it says in verse 5 that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack butt, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And what we see here, this is also prefiguring or a little bit of a precursor to what's going to happen in the end times with the Antichrist, right? Because with the Antichrist, there's going to be a great image that's set up. And if anyone will not worship the image of the beast, the Bible says that they will be killed, right? See, the devil is the great counterfeiter. Whatever God does, he counterfeits it, he twists it, he has his own version of it, okay? So for example, there's Christ and then there's the Antichrist. And then there's the idea that if you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you go to hell when you die. So then the devil has this counterfeit of, hey, if you don't worship this statue, you're going to go into my little fiery furnace, okay? So he's counterfeiting everything that the Lord does. So when they hear the music, that's the signal. They have to worship. And if they don't, they get thrown into the fiery furnace. Well, look at verse eight. Wherefore at that time, certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. The Chaldeans are the ones that are pretty much local to Babylon. These are his wise men and his religious leaders that are local to his kingdom of Babylon. At that time, certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. They spake and said to King Nebuchadnezzar, oh, king, live forever. Thou, oh, king, has made a decree that every man that shall hear the sound of, and then the list of musical instruments, and all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the golden image, and who so falleth not down to worship it, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, oh, king, have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Now, these guys are probably bitter because they're the Chaldeans. They're the local guys. And then we got these foreign guys coming in, these Jews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that are over the affairs of the province of Babylon, okay? It's like when the outside manager is brought into the company. He's like, well, why didn't one of us get promoted? And we're going to see this again majorly in Daniel chapter 6, where they're jealous of Daniel, and they're trying to find a way to get him in trouble. So then they orchestrate that whole situation, which is very similar to this. But they accuse him to the king. They're envious, and they want to get these guys in trouble. And when they explain to Nebuchadnezzar that they're ignoring his commandment, they're refusing to bow down to this idol. He gets enraged. It says in verse 13, then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said to them, is it true, oh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I've set up? Now, if you'd be ready that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sack, butt, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the image which I've made, well. But if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands? So notice here, he's going to give them a second chance. He says, look, I'm going to give you guys a second chance. You've already merited being thrown in the fiery furnace, because you heard the music. You didn't bow down. But I'm going to give you another chance. We're going to fire up the music again. And when the music starts, if you're ready to do what you need to do, everything's going to be great. But if you don't, you're going in the fiery furnace. And why does he add this at the end? Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hand? He's familiar with their god. He's familiar with their religion. He already communed with them in Daniel chapter 1 and asked them all kinds of hard questions. These are his cabinet. I mean, these are his men. These are his lieutenants. These are his right-hand men. He knows these guys. And in chapter 2, he's already familiar with their god through that whole image that he dreamed about and all these different things. And so he understands the fact that they don't worship his gods, that they only worship their god. They only worship one god, the true god, and that it's different than his gods. So when they would not bow down to the image, the Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar, they immediately knew what was going on. They didn't wonder, like, man, why aren't these guys? I don't understand. What's the problem? Why don't they just bow down? What's going on? They already knew, yeah, these guys have a different god. And they only worship that god. And the first commandment of the Ten Commandments is that basically, thou shalt have no other gods before me. And so you can't have any other gods. Because commandment number one, Nebuchadnezzar understands this. That's why he taunts them and says, well, who's this god that's going to deliver you out of my hand? You're going to go, I'm physically here. I'm going to throw you into this fiery furnace. God's not here. God's not going to save you, is what he's telling them. They don't need a second chance. He's giving them a second chance. They basically decline the second chance. They just respond to him. If you look at verse number 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. Careful is not the word to describe how we need to handle these type of trials when it's clear cut, when it's obvious, when we're asked to literally worship Satan. You don't have to be careful about how you handle that. Now, Daniel was a little bit careful in Daniel chapter 1 over the issue of food, over the issue of what we're going to eat and not eat. That was something that wasn't as blatant. It wasn't as clear cut or obvious or just, you know, he didn't want to just pick a fight over that needlessly. He wanted to try to find a way to not violate his conscience and still get along. And there are a lot of things in life where that's the route. We take the Daniel chapter 1 route, right, where we want to get along. We don't want to violate our conscience, but we also don't want to just create fights and make people mad everywhere we go. So we have to use discernment between a Daniel 1 situation, which is over a more minor issue. It's still wrong. We're not going to do it, but it's not as blatant as deny Christ, worship Satan, bow down to the Antichrist or whatever, you know, so there are different categories of situations. In this situation, we don't see the carefulness and the respectful nature in which Daniel took care of this in Daniel chapter 1. Here in chapter 3, this is so blatant, they say, we're not careful to answer in this matter. We're not going to sit here and try to word things in a way where we can kind of find common ground with you or get along. He says, if it be so, if that's how it's going to be, if you're going to throw us into this fiery furnace, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. Look, our God is able, there's no question about his ability to save us from the fiery furnace. He's going to, but if not, we're still not going to do it. We're willing to burn. We'd rather burn than bow. Go ahead, throw us in. Now look, this is to be our attitude in situations that are extreme, situations that are clear, situations that are obvious. We need to have an attitude that says I'd rather burn than bow. There are certain lines that we shall not cross and we have to draw that line in the right direction and be willing to die for what we believe when it comes to worshiping the Lord and preaching the Bible and confessing the name of Christ. There are certain things that are not up for compromise, they're not up for debate, and in fact, we're not even going to be nice about it. We'll be nice about our food and drink and clothing and things like that, but you know what? If somebody's telling us to worship the devil and deny Christ or whatever, just these extreme wickedness examples, we're not going to do it and we're just going to say, look, do what you got to do. Do what you got to do. Are God's able to deliver us? He's going to deliver us and even if he doesn't, we're still not going to back down. That ought to be the attitude. You see, God wants us to understand in this passage that he's able to deliver us and that most of the time he will deliver us. Now there are times when God does not deliver people, but that's because it's his will that they be martyred or it's his will that they go through whatever the trial, and if that be the case, we have to just accept our fate and say, hey, this is the will of the Lord. It's a glorious fate. It is what it is, but here's the truth though. If you study your Bible, Genesis to Revelation, you will find the vast majority of the time God delivers his people, and so when people take a stand for God, they rarely even have to pay that price. They usually just have to be willing to pay that price. You see, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were willing to pay the ultimate price, weren't they? They're willing to die. They're willing to lay down their lives, but did they actually have to lay down their lives? Did they really die though? No, and this is how it is in our life. God wants us to be willing to pay anything. He wants us to be willing to sacrifice anything. He wants us to be faithful unto death, but rarely does it even come to that, but we need to be willing that if it does come to that, we're willing. That's how you get delivered. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego aren't just bluffing here. They're not just saying, we're not going to worship your gods, and God's going to deliver us, and even if he doesn't, we're not going to worship, and then right as they're getting thrown in, oh, Jesus, my mind is ... They've made their decision. They're serious. They're going all the way, and that's how we have to be in our Christian life. We have way too many people today bowing down to the devil's images and worshiping the golden images that the devil sets up, and all these wicked things that the government could one day require us to do. You know what? They can't require us to do it, and it's so funny when you hear these watered down preachers talk about, well, you know the day is going to come when the government's going to force us to do this, and force us to do that. I'm thinking like, speak for yourself, because the government can't force me to do anything. What are they going to do? Take control of my body? How can anyone force you to do anything? Think about that. What are they going to do? Control my body somehow? They can't control ... Look, they could beat you. They can arrest you. They could fine you. They could kill you, but they cannot make you worship the image. They talk about, oh, one day the government's going to make us hire homosexuals, and one day the government is going to make us bake cakes for them, and perform their wedding ceremonies. No, they won't. They will never ... You say, well, yeah, they might try, but every real man of God is going to refuse to do that, because that's not a gray area. That's not something where, well, we don't want to offend them. Hey, that's so extreme. That is so far beyond the pale. We don't need to be careful to answer concerning those matters. You go, oh, one day the government will hinder us from spaying our kids. Nope, not me. The Bible commands us to discipline our children. The Bible commands us to raise our children, and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The Bible says, he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. No, they will never stop me from spanking my children in my own home, and disciplining my children as God commands. They will never stop me from preaching every word of the Bible. They can never make any of this illegal, and if they do make it illegal, then you know what? I'm going to keep preaching it anyway. My God, whom I serve, is able to deliver me from whatever the jail cell or fiery furnace, and if he doesn't, be it known unto you that I will still never stop preaching exactly what the Bible says. I'm not going to tone it down at all. I'm not going to water it down. I'm not going to be ambiguous. I'm going to get up and say it crystal clear, just like I've always done. I'm not going to change anything. Just like Daniel in chapter 6 is going to do the same thing. Then they make a law against praying to the Lord. He opens all his windows, and he gets on his knees and prays. He could have just prayed in his head. He could have just got a book out and just been like, Dear Lord, and started praying. But no, he opens his windows and gets on his knees, because he said, well, that's what I've always done in the past. See that's something blatant when they're saying, hey, you can't pray to God. Well, he wasn't careful about ... Because you say, well, Daniel's just more careful than Shadrach, Meshach, but not in chapter 6 he's not. It's a different situation. See, the Daniel 1 situation was a little bit more nuanced. It was a little more of a gray area. It wasn't something as clear as, you can't pray to God. You have to worship the devil. You can't preach the Bible. You can't go soul winning. These things are deal breakers. Look, what about when the apostles were told, you can't go soul winning? You can't go soul winning in Jerusalem, right? You cannot preach the gospel in Jerusalem. What did they say? Well, we ought to obey God rather than men. You judge whether we should obey you or obey God. We can't help but speak the things we've seen and heard. This is who we are. This is what we do, and we're not going to stop. And that's the whole book of Acts. That's the book of Daniel. That's the whole Bible. We see men and women standing up for God, being willing to pay the price. And you know what? God delivers them. Look how many people in the book of Acts get delivered. Now, are there some people that get killed in the book of Acts? Yeah. Stephen gets killed, right? James gets killed. But look at all the people getting delivered. Look at John and Peter and Paul and all these different people getting delivered from death and delivered from terrible fates. So we need to stand up for what's right and be willing rather to burn than to bow. That should be the idea. We need to get back to a Christianity where Daniel chapter 3 is in our minds and in our hearts, and this chapter becomes a part of our character and a part of who we are as independent fundamental Baptists. We should be the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego of Baptist preachers. That's what we should be. But is that what all independent Baptists are? No. We've got a bunch of independent fundamental Baptists today watering down their message. You know, this is part of the culture that we live in, and we just have to deal with it. No, we don't. No, we don't. Look, we need to take a hard stand. We need to stand up. And you know what? You know what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could have done? They could have just got down on their knees and just prayed to God in their hearts. Am I right? They could have just said, well, you know, I'm going to get on my knees, but I'm not really bowing to this image. I'm just going to pray to God in my heart. Is that what God wanted them to do? No, look, God wanted them to make it clear, hey, we're not going to worship Satan here. And you know what? If they would have done that, let's say they would have been a liberal watered down compromiser who just got on their knees and just prayed to God in their heart. Look, they're still saved. They're still going to heaven. But you know what? They're a lame Christian. And guess what? They're not going to get to see the glory. They're not going to have the glorious triumph because look, do you expect me to believe that of all these multitude of sheriffs, counselors, judges, magistrates, whoever was there, these government rulers, you expect me to believe that these are the only three guys that are saved. There's no way. Now I believe it's pretty obvious that Daniel's not present because of the fact that Daniel is the right hand man. Somebody's got to be running things. You can't have all the whole government in one place. You got to have the shadow government somewhere else. You know what I mean? So basically Daniel's in Colorado Springs at that bunker. That way if something happens to the government, there's a continuity of government plan. So I believe it's obvious that Daniel is off doing something else because everybody can't be there. But what we need to understand is that there had to have been other Israelites there or even people of other nations who worshiped the Lord, who were saved. I don't believe these are the only three saved guys. I think these are the only three saved guys who had the guts to be standing up while everyone else is bowing down when there's a fiery furnace burning right over there and they know that they're just about to be tossed into that oven if they don't bow down. These are the three guys who had the guts to stand up. And they're the ones who are going to have the great victory and the great triumph. So let's keep going in the story here. How does Nebuchadnezzar react to this? Does he say, well, okay guys, you know, let's find some common ground here. No, this enrages Nebuchadnezzar further. Verse 19, then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury. He's furious and the form of his visage was changed. This is his face. So basically, remember, he's giving them a second chance, so he's being nice. So his face looks nice and he's telling them, look guys, I'm going to play the music again. You're going to have another chance here. But when they just say, oh, there's no need to play the music again because guess what? We just refuse to do it. We refuse to do it. Now all of a sudden his face changes, right? Now he's angry, he's furious, he's enraged. And it says in verse number 19 there, therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace one, seven times more than it was want to be heated. Want to be heated means that which is appropriate or suitable heat. So basically this thing is designed to be heated to a certain temperature. And he says, I want you to make it seven times hotter than what it's designed for. Okay. This is kind of just silly or ridiculous because how hot does that have to be to kill someone? I'm sure on the factory setting they were going to get torched anyway, right? But he's just so mad, he's just being irrational, you know, he's seeing red and just like crank that thing up. I don't care if it breaks, you know, turn it to the highest setting, red line this thing. So they crank the thing up and he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army. Because remember, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are saying, they're saying God's going to deliver us. So he's like, oh yeah, let's see if God delivers you. I'm going to make sure God doesn't deliver you by making the furnace super hot and then getting my strongest guys to throw you a bunch of eunuchs in the furnace. You know, how are you going to get away from these mighty men? You know, in case they have some escape plan or something, no. The most mighty men are going to throw them in. So the most mighty men are going to do it and it says in verse number 21, then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, hosen is an old word for pants. To this day in Germany, die Hose is how you say pants. Our word pants, P-A-N-T-S, was not invented until the 1700s and the Bible that we read, the King James Bible was translated in 1611. So because it was published in 1611 and the word pants wasn't invented until the 1700s, you won't find the word pants in the Bible. But what you will find is the word hosen or the word britches, right? Like you've heard the saying too big for your britches. So it talks about britches, it talks about hosen. Some people are so foolish that they literally think that pants were not invented until the 1700s. Look, if I had a nickel for every time somebody said that to me, I'd be a wealthy man. Pants weren't even invented until 17, what? No the word pants wasn't coined, pantalones wasn't coined until the 1700s. But the thing pants has been around all the way since, pants aren't that complicated. It's fabric over each leg. I mean, you think that the people who built Stonehenge figured that one out? Hey, we can put cloth on each leg. We don't have to just wear a dress, we can wear pants. Folks, men have always worn pants. Men have always worn pants. Adam had a pair of pants. He lived 930 years. He went through some pairs of pants during that time, okay? So ridiculous. And then they show you a guy wrapped in a 27 foot long toga wrapped around his body. This is how people dressed back then. Yeah, I'm sure that's how farmers and vine dressers and laborers, they all wrapped themselves in a 27 foot long toga. That's what some queer bait senator wore when he's laying around the bathhouse or whatever. Then he throws on, he wraps himself in a toga. It's not what any real working man has ever worn in the history of mankind. Men who work need a practical garment. And here's what's funny. These same people who try to tell you, oh, everybody wore a dress back then. Pants hadn't been invented. Everybody wore a toga. Everybody wore a tunic back then. And then they show you the tunic and it's like this little party dress. It's like a party dress that some sleazy girl wears to the club or something. It's like this little form fitting knee length, little woo, you know, party dress, little summer dress. Look, let me tell you something. That's not what they wore. And then these same people who tell you, oh, everybody wore that. Then when you tell them, hey, women and girls should wear skirts and dresses. Here's the thing. Oh, that's not a practical garment. You can't do anything with that. Isn't that what they say? Oh, man, I can't wear skirts because you can't do anything. I can't do gardening. So we're supposed to believe that these people fed the world farming and feeding the entire world in a toga, in a dress, in a tunic, but you can't tend your garden in a dress? How does that work? Oh, how can I ride a horse in a dress? And then the same people claim that tens of thousands of soldiers are all wearing dresses on horses. How does this work, folks? If you actually read the Bible, there are whole sections on clothing. Like when you're reading Exodus, he's explaining how to make all the garments that the priests are going to wear. And guess what part of their ensemble is? Britches. They wear britches. Okay. So they're all wearing britches pants. Okay. So therefore, you know, pants were around back then. And here we see Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, shock of all shocks, are wearing pants. Okay. So they've got their coats. They've got their hosen. They've got their hats and their other garments. So they're, they're basically thrown in fully clothed. Okay. You know, clothing can tend to catch on fire, right? So that's why it brings up all the clothes that they're wearing. You know, the hosen, the hats, the garments. They're cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So because it's so hot, now guess who he just lost? His mightiest soldiers. His greatest warriors, his mightiest soldiers, have just died now, throwing them into the furnace. This is a picture of how God is going to destroy the people who persecute us. God will destroy, you know, woe unto them that persecute us. We don't have to take vengeance ourselves on the people that persecute us. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord, I will repay. And I have seen this many times in my life. The people who persecute us, they get wiped out. So anybody who persecutes Faithful War Baptist Church or any other Bible believing church, be very afraid because God will wipe these people out. You know, I even just, you know, we're working on the new Deported film that's coming out in January. We're going to release it at the missions conference, but, you know, we're kind of revisiting that whole saga of what happened back in 2016 when I was banned from South Africa and deported from Botswana. You know, the guy who banned me from South Africa, the minister, Malusi Gigabot that banned me, you know, he was humiliated and disgraced in the most, in just the worst possible way you can imagine. So here this guy persecutes God's people, shuts down our missions trip, bans Pastor Anderson from coming. Where is he now? Hey, the most humiliating, embarrassing, graphic, perverted video of him has been released on the internet to porno sites. And this guy has been humiliated and stepped down in disgrace, a laughing stock and an idiot to his whole nation. Is that, is that, I mean, who would like to end up like that? Some humiliating, filthy, embarrassing video of you being just circulated on the internet and you're just a laughing stock and an idiot to the world. Hey, I'd rather be persecuted for Christ. I'd rather stand up for Christ, go through the fiery trial and come out a winner, come out a conqueror than to be on the devil's team and end up being humiliated, disgraced, stepped down, and then he's got burn in hell for all eternity into the bargain. Folks, God doesn't bless the people who persecute us. By the way, the guy who attacked us on CNN back in 2009 got fired from CNN, irony of ironies for anti-Semitism. That's what he was fired for. Okay, folks, God will take vengeance. We don't have to take it into our own hands. Just don't, don't even worry about it. You stand up for what's right. And you know, the devil's thugs here, even the ones who are just following orders, hey, they get wiped out. Amen. That's what we see in the story. They got wiped out. Can we tell them? What? Oh yeah. I would. Well, yeah. There's nothing wrong with warning these people of what's going to happen to them. I'm telling them right now, if they're watching online, right? So all the trolls and the comments, right? Hey, you know what? I hope, I hope for your sake that one of your comments doesn't just make God so mad that you just push him over the edge and he just does something horrible to you. Or the worst thing he could ever do to you is to turn you over to a reprobate mind. That's the worst punishment. The number one worst punishment. You'd rather have anything happen than for God to give you over to that reprobate mind because then you're going to live the most miserable life imaginable and there's no hope at that point. You're doomed to hell. So that's the worst. So they end up dying. Now part of the reason why God shows us that is to symbolize, hey, our persecutors are going to get what's coming to them. The Bible says it's a righteous thing with God, 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1, to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. So those that trouble you, God's going to recompense them with tribulation. Notice the word trouble, t-r-b-l, tribulation, t-r-b-l, if we just look at the consonants there. Okay. Those two words are used sometimes interchangeably. Hey, they trouble you, God's going to trouble them, right? Achan troubled Israel and God troubled Achan. They that trouble you, God's going to recompense tribulation unto them, 2 Thessalonians Chapter 1. They afflict you. You have to be afflicted. So he's showing us that. But I think also what he's trying to show us is the miracle here that the furnace is so hot that even the guys who threw them in died showing there's no way to survive this. And yet I've literally seen these guys on the History Channel try to say that there was a cool spot in the furnace and they showed a literal computer diagram of how to survive a Babylonian furnace. This is the stupidest, but that's the kind of junk that you watch on the idiot box, right? People watch the idiot box and they think they're so smart. When professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. Real knowledge doesn't come from TV. Real knowledge comes from the Bible ultimately and other books secondarily. So we see here that the men who threw them in are toast. They throw them in with their clothes on. And it says in verse 23, these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished. This is like being astonished, right? He's confounded, he's perplexed, he's confused. What in the world? He's astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto his counselors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, true, O king. He answered and said, lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like the son of God. Now this is such a cool verse. It's the coolest verse in the whole book of Daniel. It might even be one of the coolest verses in the whole Old Testament, all right? That's of course very subjective, but I'm telling you, this is a powerful verse. This is a great verse. This has always been one of my favorites. This is a powerful truth. So of course, what does the devil love to do with our favorite verses? Ruin them. I remember when I first learned about why the King James was different than the NIV, the new American standard, these other versions. When I first learned that truth, I wanted to find all the differences. The internet was just in its really early stages, so there wasn't a whole lot of information back then on the internet. So I wanted to find all the problems in the NIV because I wanted to show my friends why they needed to get a King James. So one of the things I did was I got an NIV and I just looked at all the footnotes at the bottom of the page because in the footnotes they'd say like other manuscripts read whatever. So by looking at those footnotes, I was able to find a lot of the most screwed up stuff in the NIV. But then I kid you not, the next thing I did after I went through all those footnotes was I sat down and thought, okay, what are all the best verses in the Bible? What are just the coolest verses? What are the verses I like the most? And like more often than not, those would be the ones that were changed. The best verses, the ones that really were powerful and that really were great verses. Those would be the ones that would be changed. That was like a method that I used in the early days to find differences in the versions and to find where they had twisted things the most. So here's what the ESV and the NIV and other modern Bibles say. They say the form of the fourth is like a son of the gods. So instead of saying the form of the fourth is like the son of God, they say a son of the gods. Now they're wrong and I'm not going to go into it now, but I did a YouTube video a couple days ago where I went super in depth on this and I even went into like the Aramaic grammar and everything. I mean, I went super in depth. So if you're really interested, I did put up a video where I proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that the King James Bible has this right. Okay. But look, just looking at just the English itself, right? Just the Bible that's in front of you, which one fits the context? Is the ESV right when it says a son of the gods or is the King James right when it says the son of God? Well, stop and think about this. People will say, well, Nebuchadnezzar is this pagan king. And so why would this pagan king know about the son of God? We have to get the context. We're at the court of Babylon here. We're not at the Davidic court of Judah. We're at the Babylonian court. And they just talk about how preposterous it is that he would talk about the son of God. But here's the thing about this, though. Their reading doesn't even make sense with the story because what's the entire story about? He says to them, so who's your God that's going to save you? Why don't you worship my gods? You need to worship my gods. Oh, look, one of my gods is helping them. The one that they refuse to worship? How does that make any sense, folks? So you guys refuse to worship my gods and now one of my gods is in there helping you. He knows it's their God helping them. It's the God of the Hebrews. In fact, let's keep reading. Let's get the context. Look at verse 26. Then Nebuchadnezzar came to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most high God, come forth and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed. Neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. They didn't even smell like smoke. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, blessed be that son of the gods. Is that what it says? No. He said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel. So who did he send? One of the gods? Oh, one of the gods he sent. No. He sent his angel. And you know who is called the angel of the Lord frequently in the Old Testament? Jesus. Jesus. And that is an established fact that there are multiple scriptures in the Old Testament where the angel of the Lord is talking about Jesus. In fact, keep your finger here and go to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi chapter 3, I've got to hurry because I'm running out of time, but go to Malachi chapter 3 and let's see where Jesus is called the angel of the covenant or the messenger of the covenant. Here's what you need to understand. The word angel simply means messenger. Angel means messenger. That's what it means. That's why there's such a variety of usage of the word angel in the Bible. This is where we get our word evangelism because what's an evangelist doing? The EV at the beginning means good, good messenger, evangelist, okay? The evangelical is the one who believes in the gospel because the gospel is the what? The good news or the glad tidings, right? So the good news, who's the guy who brings the good news? The evangelist because angel means messenger, okay? Now in Revelation chapter 2, when Jesus writes to the seven churches in chapter 2 and 3, what does he say to the angel of the church of Sardis write? Now is he writing a letter and putting it in the post office and putting, hey, can you deliver this to an angel like in heaven? Let's see how the post office delivers that letter. Yeah, write a letter and send it out to the seven churches in Asia but actually care of church at Ephesus but actually it's going to an angel. No, when the Bible says to the angel of the church at Ephesus, it's talking about the messenger of the church of Ephesus. It's talking about the guy who brings the message, talking about the pastor, the preacher or the one who gives the message there, the teacher, the preacher, the guy who speaks. And here's the thing about that. If you look at those letters to the seven churches, sometimes he says the thou talking specifically to the angel of the church telling him what he needs to straighten out and sometimes he uses plural you, your talking to the entire church. Sometimes he's just talking to the pastor, sometimes he's talking to the church, sometimes he's talking to individuals within the church as the and thou. You got to go through and properly read that. But the point is angel means messenger. That's why Jesus is called the angel of the Lord. I don't have time to go to all those but I've done sermons on these Old Testament appearances of Christ and so forth. But if you look at Malachi chapter 3, it says behold, verse 1, I will send my messenger. Now this is John the Baptist, right? This is quoted in the New Testament about John the Baptist. I'll send my messenger before my face and he shall prepare the way before me. That's John the Baptist. So who's the messenger in chapter 3 verse 1? John the Baptist, right? Don't keep reading. And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delighted. Now who is the one who suddenly comes into the temple? Jesus. Remember, he goes into the temple and he flips over the tables, he cleanses the temple, he makes a whip and so forth. Look at the last verse of chapter 2 in Malachi. You have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say wherein have we wearied him? When ye say everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them, or watch this, where is the God of judgment? So the question at the end of chapter 2 is where is the God of judgment? Chapter 3 verse 1, I'll send my messenger before my face to prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek. When were they seeking the Lord? When they said where's the God of judgment? Okay, I'll show you the Lord that you're looking for. I'm going to send my messenger before him, John the Baptist, and then the Lord whom you seek is going to suddenly come into his temple and he's going to clean house. He's going to purify the sons of Levi. Now look, this is a proof that Jesus is God because the God of judgment is the Lord who comes in and flips over the tables. But it also shows that Jesus is called in chapter 3 verse 1 the messenger of the covenant. So this is compatible with him being called the angel of the Lord or the messenger of the Lord. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. And if God the father spoke to us by his son, what would that make the son? His messenger, right? So in that sense he's called the angel of the Lord. In the burning bush, right, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him. And I'm not going to go through all those mentions of the angel of the Lord that are referring to Jesus, but that is a well established doctrine that every independent fundamental Baptist church I've ever gone to has believed that, preached that, it's obvious, I've done sermons proving it, so I'm not going to belabor that point that Jesus is called the angel of the Lord. So what the Jews will do, they'll look at this in Daniel 3 and say, well, it can't be Jesus because the Bible says it's an angel. Hey, the Bible doesn't say it's an angel. It says, look down at your Bible in Daniel chapter 3, verse 28, it says he sent his angel. That doesn't say he sent an angel. He sent his angel. This could be the angel of the Lord, like unto the son of God, amen? And then it says in verse 29, oh, by the way, it says at the end of verse 28 that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made of dung hill, watch this, because there is no other God that can deliver after this sword. Well, according to the NIV, he just saw another God in there delivering him. Put your thinking cap on. What's a son of the gods? What's a son of dogs? What's a son of cats? What's a son of elephants? Doesn't everything bring forth after its own kind? So what's a son of gods? A God. So basically what they want us to believe is that Nebuchadnezzar looks in and says, that looks like a God. That looks like a son of the gods. But hold on a minute. Hold on a minute. He said there's no other God that can deliver after this sword. He's not thinking this is some random God in the fire. This is some God-like divine being in the fire. He knows, and how many times does he have to say it, folks? Read the Bible in context. Verses 17 and 18, we're not going to worship your God. We don't worship other gods. We only worship the true God. Right after they get out of the furnace, oh, blessed be your God. He's the most high God. Nobody else can do this. He said his angel. His angel equals the one who resembles the son of God. Now why would he say the form of the fourth is like unto the son of God? Hey, it's like the son of God. Because of the fact that he would have heard about the son of God and then said this looks like the son of God. Because of the fact that he knows about the Hebrew's religion, he knows about their God, he knows about this concept. Now you say, well, I don't think he actually knew that. So how could he look in and think to himself, hey, if the God of the Hebrews is delivering them, and we know that the God of the Hebrews is not basically this human anthropomorphized type God like they have their gods, but that the God of the Hebrews is a transcendent God, right, that nobody's ever seen. But that also there's the son of God who is also God because of the Trinity. But I'm not saying he understood all this. But if he knew that the God of the Hebrews is transcendent and his dwelling is not on this earth with flesh, then you could see how he could say this is like the son of God. But he would be associating it with something with their God, not his own gods. Otherwise you'd be turning the story on its head. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? But let's say you don't buy that. You say, Pastor Anderson, I'm not buying it. I don't think that Nebuchadnezzar would have known that. How could Nebuchadnezzar know about the son of God? Well, how do you know what he knew about it? Did you have all these conversations with him and Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? How do you know what they talked about or what they believed or what they preached to him? You know, there's a super crystal clear, very detailed prophecy of the second coming of Christ in Daniel chapter seven. You know, so these guys, Daniel is aware of this stuff, and I'm sure he's talking about it when he's talking to Nebuchadnezzar about religion. But hold on a minute. You say, I don't buy it. I'm not buying it. Okay. Why is this? Why is it not possible that Nebuchadnezzar is speaking this prophetically? That basically the spirit of the Lord has led him to say this. How can that be? He's this pagan. Look, did you know that Nebuchadnezzar wrote an entire chapter of the Bible? Did you know that? Did you know there's an entire chapter of the Bible written by Nebuchadnezzar? He is the author of an entire chapter. And this isn't just a chapter that records a speech by Nebuchadnezzar. Like in the book of Job, you'll have speeches recorded from guys that are wrong and saying bad things. And, you know, then Eli who answered and said, then Eli as the demon, that's not making them the author. Did you know that Nebuchadnezzar authored a chapter of the Bible, Daniel chapter four, the whole chapter, and he's the author. And holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Who here believes that Daniel chapter four is inspired scripture, inspired by God? Okay. Who here believes that Nebuchadnezzar is the author of chapter four? That's a no brainer. Look at the first word, Nebuchadnezzar, okay. And then look at the last verse of the chapter, you know, I Nebuchadnezzar, okay. He wrote that. So he eventually is going to get saved. Now, he's not saved at this point, but he's going to get saved. But here's the thing. Did you know that unsaved men in the Bible have uttered prophetic utterances by the Spirit of God even though they weren't even saved? Like for example, Caiaphas in the New Testament in the Gospel of John, Caiaphas who is not a believer in Christ, not saved, yet he says, he just bursts out in the middle of their meeting and says, you know nothing at all to his buddies that believe the same stuff he believes. He bursts out and says, you know nothing at all, nor consider that it's expedient for one man to die for the nation, not for the whole nation to perish. And it says, and I'm paraphrasing, but it says that he spake this not of himself, but that being the high priest that year, he prophesied. So God caused him to say that it was the word of God put in Caiaphas mouth. God put his word in a donkey's mouth. Here's a place in the Bible where a donkey spake by the Spirit of God. Even Balaam. I don't believe that Balaam was saved. I believe Balaam was a soothsayer and a false prophet. He spoke by the Spirit of God, Caiaphas for sure wasn't saved and spoke by the Spirit of God. Okay. So why would it be far-fetched? First of all, it could be that he just has heard about the Son of God from Daniel, very likely. This is Daniel has a very detailed chapter in chapter seven about him, about the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days and all that. But it's very likely that he just is saying, whoa, that's like the Son of God, looks like the Son of God. I mean, who's saving them? Or option number two would be that basically he utters this super profound utterance by the power of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God guides him or leads him to say that. And either of those makes infinitely more sense than a son of the gods, not to mention the grammatical problem with that statement, the son of the gods, which I covered this outside the scope of this sermon. But here's the thing, and I got to hurry because I'm out of time, but I just want to make a few other quick points about this. Look, Jesus Christ existed in the Old Testament. The Son of God existed in the Old Testament. Don't let these oneness Pentecostal fools deceive you on this. Okay. Our former church member who he and his buddies were thrown out of the church for denying the Trinity. You want to know what he said about this passage because this destroys his doctrine. He believes that there is no son of God in the Old Testament. He believes no son of God in the Old Testament. That's what the oneness Pentecostals believe too, by the way. So how did he get around this? Well, when he addressed this in his sermon, here's what he said. Well, Nebuchadnezzar, because he claims to be King James only, so he can't pull the NIV's little trick. He can't pull the ESV's trick, so he's kind of painted himself into a corner there, you know, because he's King James, but he denies the Trinity, denies the son of God in the Old Testament. So here's what he said. He said, well, Nebuchadnezzar is just wrong here. I'm not going to trust some pagan to tell me. Folks, stop and think about this. Why would God allow this to be put in the Bible? Such a super profound utterance. I mean, can anybody doubt this is a pretty profound verse? This is powerful. Psych is wrong. I mean, you have to be an idiot to believe that. Oh yeah, God allowed this to be put in there where he says the form of the fourth is like the son of God, but oh, but by the way, he was wrong about that. It wasn't the son of God. It was just some angel, some random, you know, angel. Like Michael or Gabriel or some no name angel or whatever folks. That's a joke. What did it? Let's let's end where we began. First Peter four, verse 12, beloved thinking, not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. Let me get there myself, but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings. When his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. Hey, look, what's the Bible saying? When you're going through the fiery furnace, Christ is right there with you. You're a partaker of his sufferings. You're like what Christ went through. You're going through something similar. Christ is with you. So who was with Chad, Rag, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire? Who was the fourth man in the fire? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the one who delivers us from hell is a picture there. And also Jesus Christ is the one who delivers us through the fiery trials. And he goes through those trials with us. He's right by our side. He says, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Look, he is in the yoke with us. He's right by us. We've got him right with us through those. Jesus Christ is, he said, lo, I'm with you always, even under the end of the world. So this is such a rich, I mean, I could go on for a whole nother hour. You want to try me? No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm just kidding. But look, I could go, I could literally go on for a whole nother hour just preaching Daniel 3.25. I mean, it could be a whole sermon, Daniel 3.25, just, just all the implications of this awesome powerful verse. And then the NIV basically just neuters this verse. They basically just gut it of its, of its meaning and make it into just another verse instead of being just pure awesomeness. Okay. What a shame. And this is just reason number 597 why you need to read the King James Bible and not get sucked into these modern versions. But Christ is going to be with you and your fiery trials. Christ is going to be with me and my fire chose. If you don't have any fiery trials, well, Hey, how about you start living for God? All right. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you for this chapter. Help it to inspire us, motivate us, help us to be fired up, Lord, and help us not to back down on essentials, Lord. There are things that are non-essentials. There are things that are gray areas or things that we can work around and we can go along to get along, but Lord help us to know where to draw the line of when enough is enough, Lord, that we will stand our ground and prefer to burn than to bow.