Episode Transcript
You take your Bibles and turn to Daniel chapter 3 verse 26.
Daniel chapter 3 verse 26 Tyler Remesh this morning is out of the fire.
Next week's sermon will be into the frying pan.
Out of the fire, Daniel 3.
26.
Let's begin by reading Daniel 3.
26.
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither.
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your precious word this morning.
I thank you for all those who are here and who have tuned in online as well.
And we pray that all eyes will be upon you this morning.
You'll teach us with your Holy Spirit.
Thank you, Father, for the precious people, Lord, who came to learn your word.
And I pray for all the prayer requests, Father, that have been mentioned since last week.
I thank you for bringing us back safely to be in your service today.
In Jesus' wonderful name, amen.
In his contest against God, Nebuchadnezzar had Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego Cast into the burning fiery furnace.
But the three men who were bound and cast into the fire were suddenly seen to be four men loose and walking around in the midst of the fire together.
We learned last week that astonished and trembling at what he saw, Nebuchadnezzar said in verse 25, Daniel 3:25, 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.
Jesus, the Son of God, who told his saints in the New Testament, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
He is the same Son of God that Nebuchadnezzar saw here in the Old Testament, who never left nor forsook Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego.
We learned last week that we are never alone when we enter our fiery trials because Jesus never leaves us nor forsakes us.
And not only that, But as Jesus was seen in the fiery furnace with these Old Testament saints, so Jesus is still seen best sometimes in the fiery trials of our lives.
After seeing Jesus in the furnace with these godly men, the Bible now says in Daniel 3:26, Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace.
Now remember, there are two kings at war in this chapter: King Nebuchadnezzar.
The king of the world at the time, the fallen world, and God, the king and Lord of all creation.
Nebuchadnezzar being the prince of this fallen world was a picture of the devil ruling as the prince of the fallen world system and the man of sin who's going to be revealed in the last day.
Speaking of Jesus' second coming, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3: Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come.
Except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the Son of perdition.
It's always amazing to me.
How the people who believe in the pre-trib rapture will always say, remember, the Bible says there's going to be a great falling away before Jesus comes, but then they leave off that last half.
Where it says also, the man of sin being revealed, the Son of Perdition, he also is going to come before that day.
The man of sin is the devil.
Who's going to be revealed as a man, counterfeiting how God was revealed as a man Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus was God incarnate, God made flesh.
And this contest in Daniel was between the spirit of that true Christ.
Versus the spirit of Antichrist.
When Nebuchadnezzar saw the true Christ in the flame, he realized that Jesus was more powerful than that fire that he had kindled.
But now that he had come near to the mouth of the furnace, Nebuchadnezzar learns something else.
Nebuchadnezzar sees that Jesus was a more powerful king than he was.
Do you know why?
It's because Jesus walked in the flame, and only Nebuchadnezzar could walk up to it.
That's the difference.
Look back in Daniel 3:26.
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth.
Of the burning fiery furnace.
Now he couldn't come into the burning fiery furnace.
There's four men in that furnace, but there couldn't have been five men.
Had Nebuchadnezzar gone into that furnace, had he tried to go in there like Jesus with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the fire would have consumed him as he had thought to have done. to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So the enemy of God's people could go no further than the mouth of the furnace.
He could go no further than the flame that he had kindled.
And this shows us who's really in control of the fiery trials that we go through.
Nebuchadnezzar couldn't control the flame.
Why?
Because he didn't create the flame.
Jesus created that flame.
Jesus is the creator of all things.
The Bible says without him was there not anything made that was made.
God created fire.
God created energy.
God created the principles of science in our world and the laws of of physics and heat and thermodynamics and all those wonderful things that we've only scratched the surface to discover.
Nebuchadnezzar kindled the fire, but God created it.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
Our enemy may kindle the flame.
But our Savior controls it.
Our enemy may kindle the flame, but our Savior controls it.
The mouth of the furnace was the opening of that furnace.
And that's as far as Nebuchadnezzar could go.
He could come up to the mouth of the fire.
But he couldn't go past the mouth of the fire.
What do we learn from that?
There is a limit on how far the devil can persecute you.
There's a limit.
With God's permission, and only with God's permission, Satan can kindle the flame against you, but he can't control it.
He can put you in the flame, but he can't pursue you into the flame.
You see what we're learning here?
Nebuchadnezzar could put them in the fire, but he couldn't pursue them into the fire.
And this wonderful truth was illustrated for us again in the book of.
Exodus, when Pharaoh and his army they trapped people at the Red Sea.
They forced them to the Red Sea and they had them trapped right there at that Red Sea.
And when they tried to pursue them into the sea, they perished when they tried.
God showed Pharaoh that.
That day, who was really in control of the deep sea.
And God showed Nebuchadnezzar that day, who really was in control of the fiery furnace.
And he did that so God could show us who's really in control of the fiery trials that we face in our lives.
When Nebuchadnezzar put these believers in the fire, they didn't start screaming and hollering.
And pleading for Lazarus to come dip his finger in the water and put it to the tip of their tongue, for they were tormented in that flame.
They started walking around with Jesus.
They started fellowshipping with Jesus.
Now they were in the fire.
They were in the fire just like Noah was in the flood.
But they were in the fire with Christ, just as Noah was in the flood in the ark, which was a picture of Christ.
And he came to that mouth of that furnace.
Nebuchadnezzar did.
Look back in your text.
And spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither.
Listen to them.
Church, when Nebuchadnezzar saw them in the fire, he saw them for who they really were.
You getting that?
He comes to the mouth of that fire.
And when he saw them in that fire walking around with Jesus in the midst of their fiery trial, Nebuchadnezzar saw those three men for who they really were.
Who were they?
The servants of the Most High God.
Because of the affliction these believers suffered for their faith, And the obedience that they had to their God.
People saw, number one, they saw Jesus for who he was.
Nebuchadnezzar said, that fourth man is like the Son of God.
But then they also saw Jesus' servants for who they really were.
He said, Ye servants of the Most High God.
Now remember, Nebuchadnezzar had renamed these men when he captured them.
This was not, Meshadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was not their original names.
He changed their godly names.
The names they had prior were Hebrew names that glorified their God.
The names, once they were captured by King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, he changed their names to these Babylonian names, these Chaldean names.
And now the Chaldean names glorify his false God.
He changed their names to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, signifying the glory.
Of the false God that Nebuchadnezzar served, in Nebuchadnezzar's false God, once again was a counterfeit of Jesus Christ.
A counterfeit.
Nebuchadnezzar was a counterfeit He signified being the ruler of all, and the devil was using Nebuchadnezzar to rule that fallen world system.
God ultimately was in control.
God sets kings up and puts kings down.
But Nebuchadnezzar was ruling not under the grace and leadership of God.
Because he wasn't following God.
He was ruling under the counterfeit grace and leadership of the devil, who Jesus calls the prince of this world.
And so just as Nebuchadnezzar was a counterfeit of Jesus ruling all the world, God's kingdom ruling all the world.
So was these three men.
They were counterfeits as well in the sense the the the the God that Nebuchadnezzar served were counterfeits, because when he named them these names, they were meant to Glorify his false God.
When Satan took Jesus up to that exceeding high mountain, he showed him what?
All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.
And he said, If all these will I give you if you'll just fall down and worship me.
Jesus was trying, I'm sorry, Satan was trying to get Jesus.
To rule under his false grace and leadership over the same world empire that Nebuchadnezzar ruled over.
He was trying to get him to rule in that false, fallen world system that Satan was the prince of.
So Nebuchadnezzar, we have to remember, he served the false God Nebo.
If you're taking notes and you don't have that.
From many, many months back now, when we were studying at the beginning of the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar served the false god Nebo.
N E B O That's one way of spelling it Nebo in Nebo Fascinatingly, you never guess who Nebo was supposed to be.
He was supposed to be the Son of God.
You see, the national god was Marduk, and that's M-A-R-D-U-K.
And so the Babylonian God was Marduk.
And Marduk's son, the son of God, was Nebo.
Now, you tell me the devil doesn't counterfeit God's work.
He not only counterfeits it, but he corrupts it.
He doesn't make carbon copies of it in evil way.
He counterfeits it and then he breaks it into pieces and corrupts it. to where it's recognizable, but it's very corrupted and very spoiled, if you would.
And so Nebo was supposed to be the son of the god Marduk.
The name Nebuchadnezzar.
That Nebu is the same prefix of Nebo.
It means Nebo in his name.
So Nebuchadnezzar means may Nebo preserve the crown.
Whose crown?
Nebuchadnezzar's crown.
So the name Nebuchadnezzar gives glory to the false son of God for the kingdom that Nebuchadnezzar was ruling over.
Nebuchadnezzar was a type of the false Christ.
Nebo was a type of Jesus, the Son of God, a corrupt type, a counterfeit.
And so it means, may Nebo preserve the crown in ancient archaeology reveals that Nebo, fascinatingly.
Was believed to be a divine scribe, scribe, a divine writer.
And bearer of the tablets of destiny is what they call it that enshrine the decrees or the words of all the false gods.
Are you making the connection here?
Nebo, the false son of God, was considered to be The divine scribe, the divine writer, the bearer of the tablets, the bearer of the words of God.
In other words, the false Son of God was also considered to be the word of God.
Isn't that amazing?
What a counterfeiter Satan is.
Nebo was considered to be the patron of scribal art. in human learning.
Words.
Words.
So Nebuchadnezzar named, for example, Shadrach.
The name Shadrach in Chaldean means the great scribe.
The great scribe.
And so Shadrach is giving praise to Nebo as the great scribe, the false word of God.
But most importantly, that third man, Abednego, can you see in the Nago, can you see the Nebo?
That's what it is.
In Abednego, the name Abednego means servant of Nebo.
Servant of Nebo.
Now think about that.
Why is that important?
Why is it important that his name was called Servant of Nebo?
Because when Nebuchadnezzar came to the mouth of that fire, He saw those three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the mouth of that fire.
He didn't come and say, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of Nebo.
He said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God.
Here's the kingdom truth for you this morning.
Our afflictions.
Reveal Christ for who He is, and they reveal us for who we are in Him.
Repeat that.
Our afflictions reveal Christ for who He is.
And they reveal us for who we are in Him.
When Jesus faced the fiery trial that He faced on the cross, no one's faced a more fiery trial than Jesus.
And when he faced that fiery trial on the cross, what happened?
God was revealed for who he is, and Jesus was revealed for who he is.
In Mark 15, verse 39, it says, And when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, talking about Jesus, he said, Truly, this man was the Son of God.
See how the fiery trial revealed Jesus for who He was?
God's Son.
And it revealed God for who He was, the Father of the One who died on that cross.
Nebuchadnezzar said, Ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither.
Now, why is that important?
Because this is a reversal of the king's word.
This same king was the king who ordered them into the fire.
And now that same king changes his word, or rather, his word has been reversed, been overcome Overruled, and now that same king is issuing an order for them to come out of that fire that he had kindled.
So what we have here is the reversal of the king's word.
We'll see that later on in another week, in another verse a little bit further down, where Nebuchadnezzar says, you've changed the king's word.
So, the king that had ordered them into the fire was ordering them out of it.
And the conclusion we come to that is this: God's word, that is Jesus.
Remember, Jesus is the true word of God.
The Bible says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
That's the Gospel of John chapter 1.
In the beginning was the Word.
The word was with God.
The word was God.
Jesus is the great scribe.
Jesus is the word of God, not.
Nebo.
Jesus is the Son of God, not Nebo.
And so God's word, Jesus, was reversing the king's word, Nebuchadnezzar's.
That's the beauty of knowing and trusting the word of God, church.
You see, whatever this world decrees against us, because what Nebuchadnezzar did, he decreed death.
By the fiery furnace.
That was the world's decree.
And he was the highest authority in this world at that time.
And he spoke these words.
Under the authority of Nebo and Marduk, the gods he served.
And now that word is overruled by the word who's in the fire with those three men.
The beauty of knowing and trusting the Word of God is this: whatever the world decrees against us today, we know God's Word will be the final word.
Nebuchadnezzar said, Look back in your text, ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither.
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Mawan underscore this, came forth of the midst of the fire.
Now we've seen them go into the fire.
We've seen them walking with Jesus in the fire.
We've seen Jesus' word overcoming the prince of this world's word.
And now we see them coming out of the fire.
And we learn from that this, no matter how hot your trial becomes, you will eventually come out of it.
No matter how hot your fiery trial becomes, you will eventually come out of it.
Jesus didn't stay on the cross, He came off of it.
Jesus didn't stay in the tomb.
He came out of it.
And because of that, we won't stay in the burning fiery furnace because of Jesus and us being in Him, we Will come out of it.
And we'll come out of the grave.
We'll come out of every trouble this world brings us into.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
Verse 14, and God hath both raised up the Lord Jesus and will also raise up us by his own power.
You see that connection there?
I love that word both.
Look at that word, both.
God hath both.
Now, all this.
Is past tense.
God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us.
When God raised up Jesus, he didn't raise up Jesus alone.
He raised up both him and us.
And all we're waiting on is our time to be raised up by God's power, just as He raised His Son up by His power.
We died with Jesus on the cross.
We were buried with Jesus on the cross.
And the God who raised up Jesus from the dead hath both raised up the Lord. and will also raise up us by his own power.
The most fiery trial that was ever faced by man was the cross.
Jesus faced it, but he came down from it.
The most fiery trial that next that a man could ever face was death.
Because no man can overcome death on his own, but he can by God's own power.
And Jesus didn't stay in the tomb, he came out of it.
And so whatever we face, the devil can only pursue us so far.
When I was studying this message, I started thinking about the Some of the videos, the terrible videos I've seen and I'm sure many of you have seen, where the Muslims have killed Christians.
We've seen them.
There's one a little while back, a man was supposed to have been a Christian, and he wouldn't Repent of his faith in Christ, and they poured fuel all over his body, and then they set him on fire.
And he was screaming in this cage.
But you know what?
Once that man burned in that cage, they couldn't pursue him any further than that.
Once they come into a church and they capture the pastor and his family or whoever and they start shooting a church up And that believer in Christ dies at the hand of that bullet, they can't pursue him past that.
When a believer in Christ dies for his faith in Christ, that's as far as the world can pursue him.
When you die, you pass out of the jurisdiction of this godless world.
There's nothing else they can do to you.
Do you know what happens?
If God does not free you from the fire on this earth, and he actually lets the fire consume you, if you're persecuted, Do you know what happens?
You're still walking with Jesus in the fire.
You're still free.
You're still walking with Christ.
And one day the body that was destroyed will be raised up again.
And there's nothing else they can do.
You're safe on the other side, out of the jurisdiction. godless people.
And God hath both raised up the Lord Jesus and He will also raise us up by His own Power.
The God who raised up Christ from the dead will raise us up out of every earthly woe that we fall into by His Spirit and His grace.
When Jesus comes again, he's going to do the opposite of what Nebuchadnezzar did.
But at the same time, it's going to be very much like what Nebuchadnezzar did.
Jesus will be the true Son of God.
Jesus will be the true King of the world.
And Jesus will speak to this world and the body from Abel, who was slain by Cain.
To Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the body of Moses, wherever God buried it, whatever he did with it.
The body of all the apostles that are still laying in the grave and slain for their faith in Christ.
Jesus is going to come back, he's going to say.
Ye servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither to me.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father.
For letting us see that Jesus can do what Nebuchadnezzar couldn't do.
Thank you for letting us see that our God goes into the fire with us.
He goes in where no other man can go.
We went into the grave with him.
We went into the cross with him.
We came out with him.
Even so, he goes into the fiery furnaces with us, and he comes out with us.
And we're so thankful, and we're looking forward to that day.
In Jesus' precious name.
