Episode Transcript
All right, Daniel 3:28.
The Gospel in Daniel is the title of the message this morning.
The Gospel in Daniel.
We're continuing our study through the book of Daniel.
Where we've been studying Nebuchadnezzar's attempt to consume Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in a burning fiery furnace.
And when the king had these men cast into the furnace, the guards were killed by the flame.
But God's children.
Were protected by the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and went into that fire with them.
Nebuchadnezzar saw Jesus in the fire, and he called for the servants of God to come out when he realized that the word of God had overruled the word that he had issued to sentence those men to death.
We ended our study last week in Daniel 3:27, which says, if you'll look there in Daniel 3:27, 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.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your precious word.
And I pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit will teach your word and feed your precious people, feeding and edifying them and bringing honor and glory to your name.
We thank you in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
All we learned throughout the study of this book that as we're studying the story of Nebuchadnezzar Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, we are studying the story of our own lives.
We're studying the story of a ruler of an ungodly, fallen world system, the devil.
Trying to overcome the people of God and His kingdom, but how we, through our faith in Jesus Christ, triumph again and again and again.
And that's why the book of Daniel is not only a book full of wonderful stories, but it's also a book full of incredible prophecy.
The whole book.
Is history, and even the history in the book is prophecy.
It's absolutely amazing.
Look with me now in verse 28.
Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Underscore Nebuchadnezzar spake and said in your Bible.
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, and then in the margin of your Bible, Write down the scripture passage, Daniel 3, verse 14.
Daniel 3, verse 14.
In Daniel 3. 14, it says, if you look in Daniel 3.
14, Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, You see that?
He said, Is it true?
O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods nor worship the golden image which I have set up.
In verse 14, Nebuchadnezzar's words rebuked God's people and rebuffed their God.
But now that Nebuchadnezzar has seen the saving work of Jesus Christ, He spake and said, look back in your text now in verse 38, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach.
And Abednego.
I said 38, I meant 28.
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Boy, he's singing a whole different tune now, isn't he?
He's no longer mocking God.
Now the king is blessing God, and he's blessing him in the sense that he is recognizing God's Salvation that he accomplished for his servants, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
In the Bible, now, because I don't want you to get confused in the Bible.
Now the Bible says that the less is blessed of the greater.
So God blesses. the less he blesses those under him.
But here we see Nebuchadnezzar blessing God.
Is Nebuchadnezzar greater than God?
No.
Both the lesser and the greater bless one another, but there's a difference.
When God blesses a man, He bestows His grace to that man.
When man blesses God, he's returning praise to God for the grace that he's received.
Make sense?
When God blesses man, He's bestowing His grace to that man.
But when we see man blessing God in the Bible, Then he is returning praise for the blessing that was received.
And in this case, he's returning praise for the blessing.
That Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego received.
For Nebuchadnezzar to bless God, therefore, he first had to humble himself beneath the Lord.
He had to realize that God was right and that he was wrong.
Nebuchadnezzar is actually worshiping God at this point in his life.
It's a beautiful transformation that we're watching in Nebuchadnezzar's life.
Nebuchadnezzar has repented and he has believed an important truth that he has learned about God.
Now he still has a lot to learn about God.
But at least what he has been shown so far, he has embraced.
And this is the big difference between two big world leaders like Nebuchadnezzar and say, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, for example.
Both of them, how they responded to the knowledge of God in His word.
Pharaoh was given greater knowledge of God.
Then Nebuchadnezzar was.
But Pharaoh never acknowledged the truth that he learned about God.
Pharaoh refused to humble himself to God and believe him.
But Nebuchadnezzar, as difficult of a man as he was, He ultimately repented and believed in God as his Savior and Lord, which we will see in a future passage.
But for now, We give praise to God that this Gentile king was giving praise to God.
And what was he praising God for?
He said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach.
Meshach, and Abednego, look back in your text, verse 28, who hath sent his angel.
There was a wonderful truth that Nebuchadnezzar, a Gentile, was praising God for.
He was first giving thanks that God had sent his angel.
Now in verse 25 Of this same chapter, Nebuchadnezzar identified the man that he had seen in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as The Son of God.
Y'all remember when we did that?
And we don't have it in our notes, but if you want to look back in verse 25, he'll say, the fourth man had the form as the Son of God.
But now, here in verse 28, Nebuchadnezzar is calling the Son of God that he had seen in the fire God's angel.
So, is Jesus an angel?
The answer is yes.
Jesus is an angel.
Now let me explain before you get up and walk out on me.
An angel is not a spiritual creature with wings.
An angel is someone who is sent by God.
You see that word sent in verse 28?
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, who did what?
Sent.
His angel.
An angel is someone who is sent by God.
It literally means to be dispatched.
And we've got a truck driver here, and you know all about dispatchers, don't you, brother?
Unfortunately, he says, Yeah, they send them out.
An angel is someone who is sent.
And so, is Jesus an angel?
Yes.
The winged creatures in heaven.
Whom God created, they are angels.
But they're not angels because they have wings, but because they are sent by God to tell His message.
And to do his will.
Make sense?
For that reason, look up here.
You can go home today after looking at me, and you can tell everyone, I saw an angel this morning in the flesh.
Since I have been sent by God to tell His message and to do His will as His pastor, I also am an angel.
Local church pastors are called angels in the book of the Revelation.
Did you know that?
When telling the Apostle John to write a letter to the pastor of the church in Ephesus, Jesus said in Revelation 2:1, Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus, write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
And every single church.
Leader that Jesus had John send a letter to, Jesus called that church leader the angel of that church.
God sends the winged creatures in heaven.
To speak His word and to do His will.
They are, in fact, angels.
God sends pastors to speak His word and to do His will.
Pastors are angels.
And praise God, He sent His Son to earth to speak His word and to do His will.
Jesus is an angel.
Jesus came down from heaven that day and he went into that burning fiery furnace.
Why?
Because God sent Jesus to save those men from the fire.
God sent His angel.
But Jesus is not a created angel.
Jesus is the one who created all things.
Jesus is God. like a man or one of the winged creatures in heaven, that's not the kind of angel Jesus is like.
Jesus is God Himself.
Created angels like me speak on behalf of God.
Jesus, however, speaks as God.
You see the difference?
Created angels do God's will, if you could think of it this way.
Created angels do God's will in third person.
Jesus does God's will and speaks God's word in first person.
When a created angel is seen in the Bible, they merely represent God to man.
When Jesus is seen in the Bible, he manifests God to man.
Unlike any other angel, Jesus, being God, Is the presence of God Himself.
Speaking of God's love and salvation of Israel in Isaiah 63:9 The Bible says, in all their affliction, he was afflicted.
Watch this now.
And the angel of his what?
Presence saved them.
In His love and in His pity, He, that is the angel of God's presence, redeemed them.
And he bare them and carried them all the days of old.
What do we learn from that in the book of Isaiah?
We learn that Jesus is the angel of God's presence.
That's how come when Jesus was born, that's how come the Bible prophesied ahead of time and said, Thou shalt call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is what?
God with us.
Jesus is the angel of God's very presence with us, and He is the Redeemer of mankind.
Jesus is the angel of God's very presence.
Presence.
Literally, that word presence means his face.
He's literally the angel of God's face.
And in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verses 7 through 9, Jesus said, If ye had known me, You should have known my father also.
And from henceforth you know him and have seen him.
And Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Just show us the Father, we'll be satisfied with that.
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you?
And yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that has seen me hath seen the Father.
And how sayest thou then, show us the Father?
Why?
Because Jesus was the angel of God's face.
When you looked at Jesus, You saw the Father.
So Nebuchadnezzar blessed God because God sent his angel The Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fire, and as God sent His Son to save them.
So he sent his Son to save us.
He sent the angel of his presence into the fire, and he sent his angel of his presence.
To the cross, when we read how God sent His Son to save those three men from the fire in the book of Daniel, the Holy Spirit Confirms to our hearts that God likewise sent His Son to save us from the fiery judgment that awaited us as well.
1 John chapter 4.
Verse 13 and 14 says this, hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us.
Because he hath given us of his Spirit, and we have seen and do testify that the Father what sent The Son to be the Savior, not just of Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego, but of the world.
Of the world.
The story of God sending His Son into that fire, that place of condemnation.
To save those three men was a prefiguring of God sending his Son.
Into our place of condemnation to save us.
We see this book of Daniel.
We see the stories in it like this.
And then we testify that the Father sent His Son to be our Savior, too.
Nebuchadnezzar said, God sent his angel.
Look back in your text in verse 28, and delivered his servants.
Isn't that how it works?
God sends the angel of his presence, and the angel of his presence delivers his servants.
The Chaldean word translated delivered here means to set free.
This morning in the Sunday school, Brother Shepherd was talking about Jehoiakim.
Being, excuse me, not Jehoiakim, the king before Jehoiakim, Brother Shepherd, what was his name?
Jehoahaz.
Jehoahaz.
Yeah, he reigned three months.
He was bound there in the prison.
But here, Jesus doesn't come and bind his servants.
He comes and sets them free.
And so God sent His Son Jesus and set those men free from the condemnation that they were sentenced to.
Which was the burning fiery furnace.
Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 36: If the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
If the Son will deliver you and set you free, you are truly free.
Luke 4, verse 18.
Jesus said these words, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent me to.
There's that word sin again, right?
He has sent me to.
Heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance, deliverance to the captives, and recovering of the sight to the blind, to set at liberty.
Them that are bruised.
God sent His angel, the Lord Jesus Christ, to set us free.
Romans chapter 8, verse 2 says, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Nebuchadnezzar praised God because he sent his angel.
That angel delivered, set free his servants.
That, look back in verse 28, that, watch this now.
Trusted in Him.
Isn't that good, Brother Doug?
That's the gospel in the book of Daniel, Brother Doug.
That's why I titled it that.
In the Gospel, in the New Testament, God sends the angel of his presence.
Unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given.
His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
He is God, come in the flesh, sent the angel of his.
Presence that he might deliver, set free those who are bound to sin, Satan, and to death.
But who does he set free?
Jesus came to be the Savior of the world, but the whole world isn't set free.
Only those who trust in Him receive that salvation.
Nebuchadnezzar just preaching the gospel here, not the gospel of deliverance from sin and death, but the gospel of deliverance from the fire they were condemned to, which was a picture of our condemnation and our sin.
He said he sent his angel.
And delivered his servants that trusted in him.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is that God sent his Son to deliver all who trust in him.
The Gospel of John chapter 6, verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God that ye believe.
Now that word believe means trust, that ye believe on him whom he hath, there's our word again, sent.
Gospel of John chapter 3, verse 17 and 18.
Jesus said, For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
But he that believeth not Is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
When you see that word believe on in the Bible, it means to trust.
It means if we were to put it in modern language today, it would be depend on.
Whoever depends on him should not depend on.
Perish, but have everlasting life.
God saves us today the same way God saved those men back then by sending His Son Jesus to save all.
Who will put their trust in Him?
Jesus did the saving in the furnace for them, and Jesus did the saving on the cross for us.
And all we must do is trust in Him for what He's done.
Not only did they trust in him, but Nebuchadnezzar said, look back in verse 28, and have changed the king's word.
They didn't only trust in God, but they changed the king's word.
In other words, by trusting, by those men trusting in God's word, they changed the king's word.
By those men trusting in what God told them, they were able to change what the king had told them.
You see, in the world we have conflicting messages, don't we?
The devil tells us one message, God tells us another.
And it's not up to us to believe who shouts the loudest.
Because the world's always going to outshout God.
It's us to believe who shouts the truth, who speaks the truth.
And in this case, those men, even though all the world was saying, yeah, they should be condemned, we should all bow down to this image, we should all do what Nebuchadnezzar says, those are a bunch of divisive troublemakers out there.
They say, no, we're going to believe God's word.
We're going to trust what God's word says.
He alone is God.
He has promised to save us through a Savior that one day He's going to send.
He's going to raise us up from the dead because he promised Abraham our father that he is going to give us this land and we are going to be blessed forever.
He's going to raise us from the dead.
So, by trusting in God's word, they change the king's word.
And there's a powerful principle that's being taught here in God's word.
Those who trust the promises God has made for them.
Change the threats the world has made against them.
Those who trust the promises God has made to them.
Changed the threats the world has made against them.
They trusted in God.
They changed the enemy's word.
Thirdly, they yielded their bodies.
Look back in your text in verse 28.
Not only did they change the king's word, but he said, and yielded.
Their bodies.
I like that song, Trust and Obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
These people didn't just trust in their heart. but their bodies followed the faith that they had on the outside.
Faith and obedience are not the same.
But they do go hand in hand.
Because they trusted in God, they yielded their bodies to obey the word that they believed.
And why did they do that?
Nebuchadnezzar said, if you look back in your text now, that they might not serve nor worship any God.
Except their own God, that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God.
Now, how did they trust in God by not worshiping or serving any God but Him?
How was that trusting in God's Word?
Because that was the very first commandment God gave in the Ten Commandments.
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me, to worship no other God except the one true God Is that first commandment?
They believed God's word, so they yielded to what they believed to be true, and by doing so.
They overcame the condemnation of the world.
You see what's happening?
The world condemned them.
Because they would not get with the world's program.
At the end of this age, before Jesus comes again, there's going to be a man like Nebuchadnezzar.
But he won't be ruling the world empire through Babylon.
He'll be ruling it through this beast, through this anti-Christian.
World system that's going to arise out of the earth.
The Bible calls him the man of sin.
And what's going to happen is everybody's going to have to be on board, just as everyone had to worship the image Nebuchadnezzar set up then.
They're going to have to worship the image that the man of sin sets up.
The Bible says that he'll have power to give life to the image that is set up.
That it can both speak and all that, and they're going to have to worship that image just like in Daniel.
Daniel's all a prophecy.
It's history, but it's a prophecy.
And those that don't, then they won't be able to buy or sell.
They get cut completely off and they'll be killed for their faith, the Bible says in the book of Revelation.
But here's what happens.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego become a picture of the people the people in the past become a picture of the people in the future, the believes in the future.
To where they also will have to make a choice.
Are we going to trust God's word or are we going to trust the King's Word?
And those who believe God's word will then yield their bodies to serve no one else but God they'll refuse the mark of the beast they will not worship that image And there are going to be a lot of them slain for it.
But you know what's going to happen?
They'll yield their bodies to death, just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did.
But by doing so, they will change the King's word.
The promise of God will then overcome the promise of man.
And they, by trusting God's word, will overcome the world.
You see how that works?
And that's what we're reading here in the book of Daniel.
By overcoming the world, the prince of the Gentile nations.
By trusting God to the end, Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego represented all believers who will be delivered by Jesus Christ and overcome this godless world at the end of time.
Jesus said in Revelation chapter 2, verse 26, And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations.
Nebuchadnezzar was the ruler over all nations at that time.
God sent his son, his angel.
Into the fire where they had been condemned.
He delivered them out of that fire.
He then had them stand before kings.
He then had that king praise God and acknowledge him for who he was.
And they changed the king's word, meaning they overcome the world.
Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Bible says.
This is the gospel in the book of Daniel.
This is the good news that happened to them.
And it is the good news that happened to me and you, to all who trust in God's Son.
Father, we thank you for your precious word.
We thank you, Father, for the history in Daniel, which tells us the future that's lying ahead for us.
Lord, therefore, we can look forward to the future.
With certain assurance of what has already been accomplished in the past, we thank you that you've sent your angel for us, the angel of your presence.
God manifested in the flesh, who came into our fire and died for us and rose again, that we who believe on Him might be saved.
We thank you in Jesus' name.
Now bless the food that we're about to receive to the nourishment of our bodies and our bodies to your service in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
