Episode Transcript
Title of the message this morning is as sure as you can.
As sure as you can.
Man, I tell you what.
There was a time in my life when I wanted to make sure that I was going to heaven.
I wanted to make sure that I knew the truth.
I wanted to make sure that when I died, my soul would be secure.
And we need to be as sure as we can.
Don't you agree with that?
I don't want to take chances with my life.
I don't want to gamble with my soul.
And the world, in many ways, wants to be as sure as they can, too.
But they are not willing to do it in the sense of accepting God's truth.
They want to make their lie as sure as they can.
They want to prop up a failing proposition of unbelief and bolster it and make it as sure as they can so they can continue to stand in defiance against God.
We ended our study last week in Daniel chapter 3, verse 19, when King Nebuchadnezzar became furious at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they refused to worship that golden image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
We learned that from the former verses that Nebuchadnezzar had an anger problem Because, like most people in this world, they have a God problem.
We learned that Nebuchadnezzar's battle wasn't with these godly men, but with the God they served.
The contention between King Nebuchadnezzar and these men was really a battle between two kings: the king of Babylon and the king of all creation.
Nebuchadnezzar had told these men, If ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
And who is that God?
That was the question.
Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Nebuchadnezzar had a lot of confidence in himself and the furnace that he employed.
So Much confidence that he believed it was impossible for God to defeat His plan to destroy these men by the heat of that furnace.
Who's that God that can do that?
Now remember, Nebuchadnezzar was the leader of the Babylonian world empire.
Not just a nation.
He was the leader of the world at the time.
And as such, Nebuchadnezzar represents the godless world system of the devil.
So, what Nebuchadnezzar does in opposition to God Is what the world does in opposition to God.
And therefore, as Nebuchadnezzar failed in his contests with God, so would the world fail in theirs.
As we expound the next three verses, I divided them into three points, the first being the confidence of his furnace.
The confidence of his furnace.
Look with me in Daniel 3.
19.
Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
And that means seven times more than it was normally heated.
So Nebuchadnezzar was not only angry, he was arrogant as well.
Nebuchadnezzar had already boasted that God could not deliver these men from his hands, so he didn't want to take any chances.
With them surviving the sentence of death that he had imposed on them.
He wanted this fire to be so hot.
Seven times hotter.
He wanted the fire to be so hot.
Now, you know what happens when you put a human in a hot, hot fire?
What happens to that human?
Huh?
It'll burn them up, but what will it do to them?
It'll cremate them.
That's all cremation is.
They get a hot oven, put the body in it, or rather they put the body in the oven, get it hot, and it turns it to dust.
That's what fiery heat does.
And Nebuchadnezzar was going to have this thing so hot, you put that body in there, you know what's going to happen?
It's going to turn it to ash.
All the moisture is going to go away and it's going to be turned to ash.
They would literally be cremated.
So he wanted this fire to be so hot. that it burned these men to dust, so that in his own mind, having turned them to ash, it would be impossible for God to deliver them.
But Nebuchadnezzar didn't know what he was doing.
Nebuchadnezzar's plan didn't make sense.
For had that fire burned those men to dust, it would have been no trouble at all for God to deliver them because the entire human race started by God making Adam from dust.
It all started off that way.
You see, Nebuchadnezzar had great confidence in his furnace, but he had no comprehension of the living God.
And every God-hater in this world has a silly, fiery furnace just like Nebuchadnezzar.
They have a silly furnace that they're trusting in.
They've all put their confidence in something that they believe Is going to somehow defeat God's rule over them in the end.
That somehow, like Nebuchadnezzar, they're going to somehow Overcome God, He will never be able to judge them and condemn them.
And so they challenge God, they put their faith in that furnace, and when times get tough, they just heat it up.
They don't abandon the furnace.
They just get it hotter and they stick with their guns.
And one day, like Nebuchadnezzar, they will see how futile and absurd their confidence was.
Recently, the Austin Police Department celebrated the LGBTQ with a parade in their city, Austin Police Department.
And they posted it on social media, all out there standing.
And it's amazing how many children are out there.
Children, little children with those rainbow flags.
They have no idea what they're doing.
But and there was the Austin Police Department all in uniform out there with all those those queers and stuff.
And and yeah, that's what they are.
They're not gay, they're queer.
Queer means strange.
The Bible calls it strange flesh.
And so, in response to their celebration, I happened to pop up on my social media feed.
I posted one simple scripture verse in the comment section.
I didn't post my opinion.
I didn't add any of my words.
I just simply posted a scripture verse with no explanation at all.
And it didn't take long for those wicked Sodomites.
To say some very blasphemous and vile things about me, my wife, and God's word.
Do you know why they got so angry at me?
I wouldn't bow down to their idol.
I wouldn't celebrate their parade.
So, what did they do?
They heated up the furnace.
That's what they did.
They heated up the furnace.
You see, the Sodomites have long used the furnace of community sentiment.
To destroy God's rule over them.
That's what they put their trust in.
Community sentiment.
They have parades to infiltrate our streets.
They have story time to infiltrate our children.
They have politicians to infiltrate our government.
They have judges to infiltrate our courts.
They have businesses to infiltrate our products and services.
And they even have pastors to infiltrate our churches.
They have over the years amassed a powerful network of public propaganda to create a positive, yea, a celebratory community sentiment toward their sin.
And up until now, it's worked very well for them.
They trust in their furnace of community sentiment, of social pressure.
For they believe they will overcome God's church if they can persuade the community to embrace their perverted lifestyle.
They believe if they can only get the community to embrace their sin, then it will no longer be sin.
It'll be something to celebrate.
If they can only get the churches to condone.
What they're doing, then it will no longer be sin.
If they can only get the pastors to celebrate their sin and to tell them that God is Happy with them the way they are, then they believe they can overcome what God has said about it in His Word.
The public pressure has worked for them thus far.
And so when they're challenged, they heat up the furnace when they have detractors, hoping to burn their detractors in that furnace.
But like Nebuchadnezzar, their confidence is futile and it's absurd.
How do we know?
Just go back to God's word.
You look there in the land of Sodom.
The Bible tells us.
That Sodom, that God couldn't even find ten people, not even ten people, in the city of Sodom.
Who were disgusted with their homosexual lifestyle, who were disgusted with their sinful ways, not even Ten people.
So the entire city of Sodom virtually had a community-wide acceptance of homosexuality.
Of sexual perversion, community-wide acceptance.
And by this we learn.
That a fiery furnace of community sentiment, community acceptance of their sin.
It doesn't defeat the judgment of God.
It provokes it.
You see?
God said, if I find 10 people in that city who disagree with this lifestyle, Just ten people.
I will spare the whole city for those ten people.
It's what God said.
But he couldn't find ten people, so he destroyed the entire city.
That's something Destroyed the entire city.
So you can change the public sentiment.
You can have all the churches agree with that lifestyle.
You can have all the politicians, you can have the police departments, you can have them celebrating it in the streets, rainbow flags flying everywhere.
And it's not going to overcome God's judgment.
It's going to provoke it.
It's going to seal the doom.
Do you know why God had, I mean, because America Man, we had a Supreme Court that said they got to be able to marry each other.
You can't discriminate against them.
And they started shoving that stuff down our throats.
And you know why God hasn't destroyed America?
Because there's still some righteous people in it.
And God has spared us.
God has spared this nation on account of the righteous people who are in it.
Nevertheless, instead of embracing the truth of God's word, What do these people do?
They heat their furnace seven times hotter.
What Nebuchadnezzar did with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is the same thing this world did with Jesus.
After Jesus was buried in the tomb, they wanted to make sure that God couldn't deliver him from that tomb the third day.
So they asked for soldiers to guard the tomb, and in Matthew chapter 27, verse 65, Pilate said unto them, You have a watch.
Go your way.
Make it as sure as you can.
You make it as sure as you can.
You put a deadbolt on it.
You put guards around it.
You make it as sure as you can.
And that's what Nebuchadnezzar was trying to do.
He was trying to make it as sure as he could.
We must get this furnace hot enough. so their God won't be able to deliver them.
The Jews used a heavy stone to keep God out of the tomb.
Nebuchadnezzar used a hot flame to keep God out of the furnace.
And they both had confidence that their plan would work.
But if you think a big rock and a hot oven can stop God, then you have a big misunderstanding of God.
The Jews and Romans put their confidence in a cross and in a rock.
Nebuchadnezzar put his confidence in a furnace and a flame.
And, like them, people today have their ideas of how they are going to fight against God and win.
Okay, we have seen the confidence of his furnace.
Now, let's consider the might of his flesh.
The might of his flesh.
Look with me in verse 20.
And he commanded the most mighty men.
That were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
So we're going to heat it up seven times.
Got to burn them to dust, and then I'm going to get the strongest, most powerful, mighty men I can.
To grab them and to take them from here to that furnace.
Because it's not going to do any good for the furnace to be hot.
If I got some little old weaklings over here and they managed to break free from them, run away, I got to get them into that furnace This is the transportation process, Brother Shepherd, the penal institution.
We've got to make sure it's secure.
And listen, the most mighty men, we're so prone to trust in the strength of our flesh.
We are.
The Philistines mock God, and you know what they did?
They put their trust in the mightiest man they had in their army, Goliath.
The mightiest man.
And likewise, Nebuchadnezzar mocked God, Who's that God that can deliver you out of my hands?
And he put his trust in the mightiest men in his army.
And people today still likewise mock God, and they put their trust in the might of their flesh as well.
Never have we had in our country, I don't think in the world, ever, more people. taking anabolic steroids than we do today.
Man, it's popular.
They're trying to sell me that stuff all the time.
On Facebook.
I guess it knows that I'm 57 years old and I'm a male, and they figure maybe they ought to be targeting me.
Yeah, you need to take some of this and you'll look like this fella to have some rip looks like almost like Brother Shepherd some of them do on there And they're trying to get me to sign up and have this private consultation with a doctor who can then send this stuff to my house.
Doctors give them out like candy.
And men today, a lot of men today, they're psychologically addicted to those steroids.
Because their identity is wrapped up in the size and strength of their flesh.
How many of y'all ever exercise?
Now, I took Tammy yesterday.
Tammy's got some bad knee trouble.
And so we're trying to get something she can do to exercise her cardio, her heart, without hurting her knees.
So I took her to a gym yesterday in Athens, the YMCA. and uh let her get on an elliptical to see if it would hurt her knee.
And she had a really good time on that elliptical.
So so we we're getting her one.
But uh I wanted to make sure it didn't hurt her before I spent the money on it.
But anyway How many of y'all have ever gone to a gym and exercising a gym before?
Oh, that's almost everybody.
Now, let me ask you this.
Let me ask you this.
How many of y'all have ever seen a man?
Walk past the mirror, kind of glimpse over to look and see how he looks, check himself out.
Ah, it's almost everybody.
These men are they get so wrapped up their identity and how do people perceive me?
I gotta tell this, when my nephew was a teenager I pastored a church there in Athens and out in the country and we had a fellowship in the fellowship hall afterward.
And they happened to be some, he happened to be in from Louisiana, and there were some cute little teenage girls in there.
And he was just skinny as he could be.
He was a teenager, but he was skinny as he could be.
And I saw him looking at those girls, and he's going to walk past those girls.
And I watched him.
He goes, He sucked his gut in.
He put air in his chest like this, and he bowed his arms out, and he went, walked right past them like this.
And as soon as he passed them, he was out of their sight.
He went, Oh, it was the funniest thing.
It was the funniest thing.
But men get psychologically addicted to that because they want their persona in their strength.
And so they end up wanting to trust in their strength.
And they think, I can just keep.
Prolonging my days if I keep exercising and taking these supplements.
I like what one person said one time.
I took up jogging for my health and then I learned I can't outrun death.
You can't.
You're not going to outrun it.
Oh, Ronnie Coleman, police officer from Dallas, Texas.
He was a police officer from Dallas, Texas.
And he was once a very successful bodybuilder, Mr.
Olympia, several times.
And not too long ago, I saw a video of him watching a video of himself when he was young and big old and muscular.
And he proudly commented when he saw what he used to look like.
He said, No wonder people were scared of me.
I was huge.
That meant something to him.
He liked it that people were scared of him when he walked around in front of them.
He said, I was huge.
That's the way this world is.
Deep down inside, men want to walk.
Walk around feeling big and strong, and have people look at them and be in awe of their strength.
This is what men were striving for in the very beginning.
Genesis chapter 6, verse 4.
Says there were giants in the earth in those days.
And also, after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men.
Which were of old men of renown.
Brother Doug, you know what that should have said?
Should have said they became godly men.
That's what it should have said.
But it didn't.
Should have said godly men, men of faith, but it didn't.
It said mighty men, men of renown.
All they wanted, they were putting their trust in the might of their flesh, the strength of their flesh.
When men and women feel strong and healthy, you know what they do?
They have a tendency to trust in themselves and not in God.
And that's why when people get sick, they get religious and they get humble, because they realize the strength of their flesh is failing.
And that's what these men of renown, these mighty men, did in Noah's day.
But the might of our flesh is going to fail us.
So no matter how strong our flesh is.
We cannot fight against God and win.
Might won't deliver you from God's judgment.
Mercy will.
The mighty men of old challenged God and they were destroyed by the flood.
Didn't work.
Ronnie Coleman is crippled now, that bodybuilder, he's crippled.
Got to walk around with like this.
He's got to walk around with these two crutches on each side.
He's still exercising.
He's doing some cutting edge therapy using the swimming pool.
He wants to rebound, make a comeback, but he won't.
He's going to slowly shrivel up and he's going to turn to dust like everybody else.
Nebuchadnezzar didn't understand that we have no might of our own.
The only might that Nebuchadnezzar's men have is the might that God gave them.
And God doesn't give us strength to contend with Him, He gives us strength to serve Him.
We have seen the confidence of his furnace.
We have seen the might of his flesh.
Now, let's consider lastly the assurance of his fetters.
The assurance of his fetters.
Look in verse 21.
Then these men were bound, that's their fettering, they were bound in their coats. their hosen and their hats and their other garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
I like the picture that Rebecca drew.
That was a good picture.
You did a good depiction of what that would have looked like.
Nebuchadnezzar didn't just bind them with ropes or put handcuffs on them.
He also fettered them in their coats, hosen, hats, and other garments.
And you know what that did?
That made them much more flammable when they were tossed into the fire.
Nebuchadnezzar had the hottest flame, he had the strongest men, and he had the most favorable conditions to destroy these men.
Like Pilate and the Jews, he was making it as sure as he could.
And this world is trying to make their rebellion against God as sure as they can.
Boy, they didn't just come up to the cross.
They crucified Jesus.
That should have been enough.
But it wasn't enough just to crucify Jesus and then take him from the cross and then go put him in the tomb.
They had to make him as sure as they could.
So, concerning Jesus, you know what they did?
They didn't just take him off the cross.
They didn't just.
See that he was dead, take him off the cross.
The Bible says in John chapter 19, verse 32 through 34: Then came the soldiers and broke the legs of the First, and of the other, which was crucified with him, verse 33.
But when they saw, when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already.
They broke not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
You know what they were doing?
Yeah, they were maybe watch a war movie or something.
Maybe you were in war and you did this yourself.
We've had some veterans in here.
But you see somebody and they're on the battlefield and you got the enemy right there and they look like they're dead.
But you know, just to make sure, just pop shoot them in the head, then go on.
Or just to make sure, take the bayonet, just to make sure, and then go on.
Don't want them healing up.
Playing dead, playing possum, then come back to life, come get you.
They saw Jesus was dead.
But you know what?
To make it as sure as they could, they take that spear and shoo.
Run it up in his side, and blood and water just pour out of him.
It's a gruesome scene.
That's what they were doing, making as sure as they could.
After Jesus was crucified, they made sure he was good and dead by running that spear through his side, and then they put a heavy stone over his tomb.
And then they set a group of highly trained Roman soldiers at the entrance to make sure nobody could get in to let Jesus out.
And they put a seal on that tomb as well.
Like Nebuchadnezzar, the world made it as sure as they could.
But Jesus came out anyway.
The Greek word translated sure, by the way, that's the same word that was used when Paul and Silas were in prison.
Boy, they were in prison and they shackled their feet to the prison cell.
Acts chapter 16, verse 25 and 26.
It says that they chained their feet inside their cell, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed.
And sang praises unto God.
And the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake.
So that the foundations of the prison were shaken.
And immediately all the doors were open, and everyone's bands were loosed.
All the chains fall off of them.
All the doors open.
God shook that place with his power, took all those bands off of them.
That's that same Greek word that's used when they shackled their feet.
They made the tomb sure.
And couldn't keep Jesus in.
They made the prison sure, and they couldn't keep the apostles in, or Paul and Silas in.
And they made Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednegoshur, and they couldn't keep them in.
And you know what we learned from that church?
We learned that the only thing that's sure in this world is Jesus Christ.
That's it.
Hebrews chapter 6, verse 17 through 19.
Says, wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of his promise.
Now, this morning in the Building on Jesus class, we learned.
That the Holy Spirit of promise is in earnest for our inheritance that God has given us.
So, wherein God willing more abundantly show unto the heirs of his promise the immutability of his counsel.
Do you know what that means?
Immutability means can't be changed.
Can't be canceled, can't be undone.
It means once God has determined something to do something, there's not a thing in this world that's going to change it.
And so God, willing more abundantly to show unto us, the heirs of His promise, the immutability, the unchanging.
Promise of our eternal life.
He confirmed that promise to us by an oath.
He swore unto us.
Verse 18, that by two immutable things, his oath.
In his counsel, what God determined and what God promised are both immutable.
They can't change, in which it was impossible for God to lie.
That's why the oath is immutable.
God promised it.
God cannot lie.
God's got to fulfill it.
We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
We're sinners.
We're born into this world, doomed to hell.
And God, the Bible says that God has sent forth Christ crucified among us.
That's the hope God set before us.
And the Bible says, We who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
So here we are.
We're condemned.
God's law is chasing us.
It's going to hunt us down and condemn us for breaking it.
We look, and God sets a hope of eternal life before us on the cross.
We flee, God's law.
God's wrath for refuge, and we lay hold of the hope set before us.
We grab a hold of the cross.
Say, This is my hope.
This is my salvation.
I take it.
We grab hold of the cross like a drowning man.
We grab hold of a life jacket.
Oh, this is my hope.
And God says, I want to give you a strong consolation.
Whichever one of you.
All of you people who have fled for refuge and you've laid hold of the hope that I set before you, I give you a strong consolation.
The immutability of my counsel and the immutability of my word, what I've determined in my heart and what I've declared to you, cannot be changed.
And then he goes on and says in verse 19, which hope We have as an anchor of the soul.
So, man, when I grab hold of the cross and I take the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that hope then becomes to me an anchor.
For my soul.
Oh man, listen.
When you have an anchor And that anchor is tied to a rock that can never be moved.
That means you can never be moved.
Your soul can never be moved.
The cross is my rock, Jesus is my rock, and the cross is my anchor.
And I've laid hold of that.
It's an anchor to my soul.
What does it say?
Both, say it with me, sure and steadfast, in which entereth into that within the veil.
Let me explain that real quick, and we'll close.
Jesus is the only thing sure.
If you want to make your soul The eternal welfare of your soul, as sure as you can.
You're not going to do it with the might of the flesh.
You're not going to do it with the fire of your furnace.
You're not going to do it with anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified for you.
That is an anchor for our soul that's sure and it's steadfast, not going to change.
Is not sure for a moment and then fades away tomorrow.
It's sure and it's steadfast.
It'll never change.
And it's that both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.
Do you remember when we learned the Genesis to Jesus?
We learned about that tabernacle, and we learned that there was a veil in between it.
And only the high priest could go back there once a year with the blood of the Lamb and put it on that most holy mercy seat in there.
And so we're learning right here that the cross of Jesus Christ, our hope, Jesus our hope, is both sure, it's steadfast, and it goes back behind that veil.
Right there into the presence of God, putting that mercy that He gave for us on the cross there in God's presence.
So, when God sees us, He doesn't see our sin.
He sees the blood that was shed for it.
It's sure, it's steadfast, and it's near to God.
You know why our anchor is sure and steadfast?
Because it's Jesus.
And you know who Jesus is?
He's God.
He's not just the one on the cross.
He's the one in the most holy place.
And so, for our anchor to slip, God would have to slip.
For our anchor to be moved, for our promise of eternal life to no longer be sure and steadfast, God Himself would have to cease being sure and steadfast.
The only way to make your soul as sure as you can is to make it sure with Jesus Christ, who overcame the furnace, the flesh, and the fetters of this world.
That we might live through him.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
God, what an encouragement your word is to us to watch The prince of this world, Nebuchadnezzar, who was a picture of the prince of this world, Satan, to watch him pull out all his stops.
To make it as sure as he could and to still see the children of God being delivered From this present evil world.
Oh, Lord, thank you.
And we'll learn next week by your grace, Lord, who was in that fire with them.
In Jesus' precious name we pray.
Amen.
