Episode Transcript
Daniel chapter 3, verse 29.
The title of the message this morning is An Unlikely Promotion.
An Unlikely Promotion.
God willing, we're going to finish our study in chapter 3 this morning.
Where we have read the amazing story of Jesus saving Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the burning fiery furnace.
In learning how Jesus saved them from the fire, we have learned how Jesus saves us from the fire of our condemnation as well.
Now for the sake of context this morning, we will begin reading in verses 27 and 28.
Before we begin our study in verse 29, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego have just come out of the fiery furnace.
Look now in verse 27.
And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counsellors 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.
Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship Any God except their own God.
Now look with me in verse 29.
Nebuchadnezzar said, Therefore I make a decree.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you for your precious word and these precious people who are here.
Thank you for this church.
I pray for each and every person in attendance today, and those who are attending online, dear Lord, who can't be here in person.
We pray for them.
We pray for those who could be here and chose not to be.
We pray, Father God, this in Jesus' precious name, you'll feed us with your precious word today and teach us.
In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
Therefore, he says, because of this great salvation that I have witnessed, that the Son of God has delivered these three men from the fire, because of that I make a decree.
Now listen, Nebuchadnezzar making a decree is what got them in this mess to begin with.
Do you remember that?
The only reason Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in that fiery furnace in the first place was because Nebuchadnezzar had made a decree that everybody in the world Has to bow down and worship the golden image that he set up, which was an idolatrous image.
Daniel chapter 3, verse 10 and 11.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's accusers said to them, Thou, O king, hast made a decree. that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sacbit, psaltery and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image and whoso falleth not down and worship worshipeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
That's what they told Nebuchadnezzar about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
So this whole mess of the fiery furnace started off because Nebuchadnezzar had made a decree that everyone has to bow down to his golden image.
And the men of God, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, said, We won't bow down anyone but God.
So now that that whole thing got blown out of the water.
And God overturned Nebuchadnezzar's decree.
He decided that he would now make another decree that's more favorable for the people of God.
The Aramaic word translated decree literally means to taste.
To taste.
And when you taste something, you'll say, hey, taste of this.
And see what you think.
You know, sometimes my wife, as she's cooking, she'll say, Taste of this and tell me what you think.
And I'll taste of it.
And I'll say, Well, that's good, or that needs more of this, or that needs more of that, or I don't like it at all, or whatever.
And when you do that, that taste, you're rendering judgment.
Mm, that's good.
Oh, no, that's not good.
And so, because of that, the word taste has the sense Rendering judgment.
Okay?
That's why one of the Bible scriptures says, Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.
You see?
So learn about God, and by discovering the truth of God, you can then discern that God is good, as what the scripture is saying.
And so you've made a taste.
He says, You've made a judgment.
Nebuchadnezzar thought that in his judgment it would be good for everyone to bow down to this false image that he had made.
And now he's deciding that it would be good.
That everyone speaks no ill of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's God.
Now, that's a, we'll look at that here in just a moment.
That's a better judgment call on his part.
But Nebuchadnezzar would have never needed to declare the second decree had he simply accepted God's decrees.
He would have never had to declare a second judgment If he would have simply accepted God's judgment, our city, state, and national legislators, we've been passing laws nonstop for the past 200 years here in the United States.
The world's been passing laws.
Look at Nebuchadnezzar's law.
That got passed back then.
And we're still passing laws today.
Brother Shepard and I were talking about some laws just a moment ago whenever.
We were talking before the church service, but we've been passing laws for over 200 years, and those laws haven't solved our problems yet.
A broken world can't be fixed by making earthly laws.
It can only be fixed by the broken world accepting the laws of God.
The best thing Nebuchadnezzar could have done for himself and could have done for the world at this time, seeing that he was over all the world and all the nations at this time.
And by the way, it was beautiful how when we were studying in 2 Kings this morning, it tied us right into where we are in Daniel, where Nebuchadnezzar is king.
And when you saw Nebuchadnezzar.
Coming against Judah at that time.
You had Chaldees, that's the Babylonians.
You had sons of you had children of Ammon.
You had what was the other nation?
Sir?
Moabites.
Yes, Moabites.
The reason is that they were coming into Nebuchadnezzar's over all of them at the time.
He's the emperor.
He's taking over.
And so they were there, they were distinct, but their nations were under his nation, and then Judah was under him.
They rebelled, but that didn't work long at all.
So we've been making laws all of this time, and none of them have fixed our problems.
But if we would simply accept God's word, it would fix it.
And all Nebuchadnezzar would have had to have done whenever he saw the salvation of God, the smartest thing he could have done would have been say, you know what?
Daniel, come here.
Daniel, the wise man I've set up under me, do me a favor.
Do us all a favor.
Set up a system to where we can teach all the nations under me the word of God.
Instead of making an extra decree, which fell so short of what those people needed, it gave them no enlightenment at all.
He should have had a decree that Daniel would teach the word of God to those under him.
But instead, Nebuchadnezzar makes a decree.
Let's see what his decree is.
Look back in your text: that every people, nation, and language.
Now, I want you to notice the scope of this decree.
It is given to every people, nation, and language.
This decree has the same universal reach.
As the previous decree he issued, which ordered everybody to worship the golden image.
Daniel 3, chapter 3, verse 4.
Daniel chapter 3, verse 4.
Then Harold cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages.
See, that was the first decree when they were commanded to worship that golden image.
This is power.
Political power being exercised on a scale that none of us in here have ever seen before.
There was no United Nations meetings back then.
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, and the world had to listen, or pay a terrible price if it didn't.
But this was a global power.
There is no leader in our day to day with this kind of sweeping global authority, but global power like this will be exercised again by the man of sin at the end of the world.
This is what I have to drive home to you as we're studying the book of Daniel.
The whole story of Daniel is prophetic in and of itself.
And then, in that prophetic story, there are detailed prophecies on top of that.
And so, as you see, this global authority acting.
In issuing all these global orders, you're seeing the concept of what's going to happen at the end of the world.
We will come back to that.
There will be a unifying world power, and the people who join to that will receive the mark of that beast, of that unifying world power.
You'll understand more of that as we go through the book of Daniel.
It's quite amazing.
But ruling the world, As if he was God, has always been the apple of the devil's eye.
This morning, Brother Shepherd quoted From the New Testament, where it referred to Satan as the God of this world with a little G.
Now, Satan is not a God in the sense that you have a good God and a bad God.
Satan is only a God.
Because people have made him so.
The Bible says, Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.
So if a little carved piece of wood, if I take a piece of wood and I carve a little pot-belly Buddha out of it, or I carve a little figurine out of it, and I bow down to it, that now has become my God.
It's a false God.
It's really not a God at all.
But I have made a dumb piece of wood my God.
And so the devil has always wanted to rule the entire world as God.
Now, he's the God of this world in a sense because the fallen world system yields to him.
That's not enough.
Because the church does not yield to him.
And he does not want to settle for a partial obedience, for a partial rule.
He wants to rule.
Completely this world.
And so that's what he is going to try to achieve at the end of the world.
When tempting Jesus.
In Matthew chapter 4, verses 8 through 9, the Bible says again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him What?
All the kingdoms of the world.
That's everything that was under Nebuchadnezzar's power at that time.
Again, watch what he's doing.
He's going for everything.
All the kings of this world, he says In the glory of them, and said unto him, All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
This is what the devil has wanted all along that he has never been able to achieve.
And he's going to have his final push, or at least one of his final pushes.
At the end of this world, before Jesus comes again, he'll have another push after Jesus comes again.
Again, prophecy is quite amazing, but it's good to know what we have to look forward to in the future.
In the last days, Satan is going to try to rule the world as Christ.
That's why it's called the anti-Christian system.
But Christ will redeem the world back to Himself, and He's going to rule it forever.
Nebuchadnezzar was making decrees to all people, nations, and languages.
But Jesus gave His gospel to all people, nations, and languages.
You see what the devil's doing?
He is trying to substitute, that's why it's called antichrist, it means it against Christ and instead of Christ.
The devil is going to go against Christ in that he wants to rule the world instead of Christ.
But he's going to counterfeit.
What Christ does.
And so He's trying to gain all people, nations, and languages under Him.
To bring them into condemnation and under his rule, and they'll be bound to sin, to Satan, and to death forever.
But Jesus gave his gospel to all people, nations, and languages.
To deliver them out from underneath the devil's ungodly rule and redeem them back to the loving God that created them and to give them life forever.
Revelation chapter 14, verse 6 through 7 says, And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel.
Watch this now: having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation.
Kindred, tongue, and people.
You see what God's trying to do?
He is trying to redeem this world back to himself.
Verse 7, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him.
For the hour of his judgment is come.
And worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.
Having seen the salvation of Christ firsthand, Nebuchadnezzar changes his tune a bit.
And he commands that every people, nation, and language, look back in your text now.
Which speak anything amiss, that means anything bad, against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces.
That's the new decree.
That's the new decree.
Don't say anything bad about the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
If you do, you'll be cut into pieces.
And that's good.
That's a positive step forward.
But that's nothing to that's no revival, folks.
Wouldn't it have been wonderful if Nebuchadnezzar, instead of saying that, instead of saying, speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Bednego, wouldn't it have been wonderful if Nebuchadnezzar would have said, Speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and me.
What we have here from Nebuchadnezzar is a general declaration.
Without a personal application.
You see that?
We have a general declaration without a personal application.
Nebuchadnezzar is generally acknowledging God, but he is not personally accepting God.
What good will it do to us if the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is not also the God of Richard, Andy, and Doug, and you?
We are not saved by reading about other people's relationships with God in the Bible.
We are not saved by knowing about other people's relationship to God in church.
We are saved by having a relationship with God ourselves by believing on His Son as our Savior and Lord.
Psalm 73, verse 27 through 28.
Psalm 73, 27 through 28.
For lo, they that are far from thee shall perish.
Thou hast destroyed all them that go ahoring from thee.
Now Nebuchadnezzar had gone ahoring from God.
All the people of the world at that time had gone ahorring from God to go after false gods.
Everybody, but the godly men, these few godly men, had bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar's false God.
They'd all gone a whoring after false gods.
But then the psalmist says, But it is good for me to draw near to God.
I have put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy works.
Have you put your trust in the Lord God?
Not just coming to church, not just reading about other people and admiring what other people do in church, and not just admiring other people's relationship in God and watching the Christianity at a distance.
But have you personally understood the gospel of Jesus Christ and put your trust in him as your Savior?
Boy, if you haven't, I pray that you'll go to this Genesis Jesus class.
It's good for saved or lost, but I pray you'll go through it.
Nebuchadnezzar was rejoicing in the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Nebednego, the God that they had trusted in But he should have been trusting in God Himself.
Don't make the mistake of coming to church and not coming to Jesus.
Don't make the mistake of knowing people who have accepted Jesus and not accepting Him yourself.
He said, Whoever speaks against the God of these men shall be cut in pieces.
Look back in your text.
And their houses shall be made a dunghill.
In other words, if you speak against the God of the Bible, you shall be torn into pieces, and your houses shall be turned into outhouses.
Basically what he's saying.
This was the world ruler at the time that's making this declaration.
It's fascinating when you think about it.
We were talking about laws recently.
You know, the Governor Abbott has declared that there won't be any more rainbow crosswalks in Texas.
Won't be any Black Lives Matter crosswalks and street signs on the public streets.
And if you don't understand Black Lives Matter, please don't get offended.
They have explicitly announced they are for destroying the Bible family, the nuclear family.
They hide beneath race.
They're evil, ungodly people.
They said, We're not having that anymore.
I was watching a video this morning of them with a backhoe in Florida, Miami, Florida, and they were pulling up.
Do you see that video?
Pull it up, those rainbow bricks.
Wiping that mess away from that city.
I thank God for the small bit of revival that's come about.
Just understand what's happened in our world.
This is world history we're looking at here.
This was the world ruler at the time, and this really not that long ago, whose kingdom was headquartered in what is now modern-day Iraq.
This ought to really enlighten your eyes up to what's going on in history.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Babylon was a wreck.
Babylon was right here in the Middle East, in Iraq.
This was an Arab world leader.
You getting this?
This was an Arab world leader issuing a global order to respect the God of the Jews.
So, Brother Richard, why would he do that if he was Muslim?
You don't understand.
Muslim didn't even exist at this time.
There was no such thing as Islam.
Back then, all you had was a choice between two things: worshiping stones.
In metal, in other figurines that people made, worshiping the stars, or worshiping the God that made everything.
That was the only two choices you had.
All this other stuff came up new.
Thousands and thousands of years, and finally you come up to where some new religion pops up.
If it's new, it's not true.
If it's new, it's not true.
Someone wrote me yesterday.
Jess's sister, Cat Fox, she wrote me yesterday and she said she knew some Mormons and she wanted to know how she can explain to them.
That their religion is Mormonism is a false religion.
And I told her, I said, you take them to the Bible, to God's Word.
And you show them what the true gospel is.
Show them what the Bible says the gospel is.
And then show them where the Bible says: if anyone preaches any other gospel than this, let them be accursed.
And then show them how the Book of Mormon came after and preaches another gospel.
It says it's another testament of Jesus Christ, is not.
Islam was the same thing.
This was an Arab.
This is Iraq.
And they said, nobody speaks a word against the God of the Jews.
Nobody.
Nebuchadnezzar had seen this incredible salvation.
And now an Arab world leader is issuing a global order to respect the God Jesus.
Could you imagine something like that happening today?
No way.
At least not right now.
Not today.
But it happened back then.
And if any leftists would have said otherwise, then they would have been ripped into pieces and their houses would have become a dump station.
This wasn't that long ago.
This is world history.
This was how things were in the Arab world before they lost world power and a man named Muhammad came around.
Nebuchadnezzar said, Don't speak a word against the God of the Jews.
Look back in your text, because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.
There's no other God that can deliver after this sort.
In other words, there's nobody who can save like Jesus.
Nobody.
Nebuchadnezzar had seen Jesus deliver these men from the fire, and he knew there was no other God that could save like him.
Why does this lost and dying world need Jesus?
Because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.
No other God.
No other God has the power to overcome the dead, the grave.
No other God can do that.
No other God can overcome sin.
Every religion in this world.
Except for Christianity, has no solution for the sin problem.
None.
Every other religion is trying their best to reach a particular mark.
Doesn't matter if it's Muslim, doesn't matter if it's Mormonism, doesn't matter if it's Jehovah's Witness, doesn't matter If it's Buddhism, it doesn't matter what it is, every one of them have this particular imaginary mark, and none of them know where it is.
That's the thing, they don't know where the mark's at.
But they're trying to reach some level of nirvana, some level of Of righteousness, some level of doing good, some level of obedience, some level of dedication.
And because no one knows what that level is and what it looks like, nobody knows if they're going to be accepted in the afterlife.
Nobody knows what's going to happen to them afterward.
They go around through life with a question mark on their head.
They go around like the Muslims today, hoping that maybe they can make it.
So maybe if I blow myself up, that's the only guarantee I'll have.
And so they try to reach this imaginary level, and nobody knows.
But you know what?
All of them will confess, none of them is perfect.
So their religion doesn't give them a solution to their sin.
It just grades them on a curve.
You see?
It says, well, we'll accept you if you do your best.
And your best may not be as good as Brother Doug's best.
Brother Colvin's best may not be as good as Queen Anne's or Queen Nelda's best.
But just do your best and try your hardest, then you'll be accepted.
Listen, I don't want to go in on my I don't want to be my best in this life forever.
I want perfection.
And God has given me a standard.
He's given you a standard.
We know what perfection looks like.
It looks like Jesus.
Who loved his neighbor so much he died for them?
Who loved his father in heaven so much he was obedient all the way to death on the cross.
That's perfection.
That's love.
He loved the Lord his God with all of his heart and his neighbor as himself.
And that's something none of us have, but we know what it looks like.
Therefore, we know we all come short of it.
Therefore, we know we all need it, that we can't provide it, but Jesus does.
That's why no other God can save after this sort but Him, because He is the only one who came and lived the perfect life in our place and then died that we may be set free from our penalty of sin.
Don't say anything bad about these Jews.
This was a positive step forward for the Jewish people of the world, but respecting God is not the same as receiving Him.
Instead of saying there is no other God that can deliver after this sort, Nebuchadnezzar should have said, There is no other God at all.
We don't receive God by adding Him to our collection of other gods.
If you say, Well, Brother Richard, what you say is fine.
I would agree with everything you just said right there, Brother Richard.
But you know, there's churches down here, and they have a different perspective.
And I would accept that too.
I would say they're all valid.
The moment everything is true, nothing is true.
Everything can't be true at the same time if it contradicts each other.
There is no other God at all.
Nebuchadnezzar was adding God to his list of other gods.
He should have said, Somebody tear down that golden image.
God, forgive me.
I hereby command that nobody worship anyone but the God of Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and me, the God who created all things.
We receive God by denying all other gods.
We receive Jesus by denying all other Saviors and trusting in Him alone by saying, as the psalmist did in Psalm 73:25.
Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee?
Or as Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go?
Thou hast the words of eternal life.
The king made the decree.
Look now in verse 30.
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.
They go from the fire to getting a promotion.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got a promotion, but that promotion did not come from Nebuchadnezzar.
It came from the Lord.
Nebuchadnezzar's plan, if you remember, was to destroy these men, but God intervened, so he ended up promoting them instead.
Psalm 75, verses 6-7.
Psalm 75, verses 6-7.
For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
But God is the judge.
He putteth down one and setteth up another.
Boy, that's a good one right there.
Don't look to advance in life by trying to get in good with key people.
I never liked that.
I never liked that at all.
I went to interview for a job promotion in Austin when I worked for the state, and there were people Who were interviewing for the same job, and they had gone and started meeting with key people, introducing themselves to them, trying to get in good with them.
There was a man I knew who wanted to be a Texas Ranger so bad, so bad, he started meeting with the Texas Rangers.
He started acting like the Texas Rangers.
He started dressing like the Rangers when he was off duty, wearing the white shirt, the pants, bought him the fancy leather, Brother Shepherd.
He even bought a car that looked like the Ranger that he drove in his personal vehicle.
He took on all of those characteristics trying to be like them.
He got promoted to Texas Ranger.
And then he got fired for having a relationship.
Remember that man, Brother Shepherd?
That was right there in my office.
What a mess!
What a mess.
But that's how people do.
And when I went down and interviewed for that job, all these other people had gone out and been shaking hands and seeing everybody, and just like a politician.
And I told myself, I am not going to do that.
They're going to accept me on my merit, or I'm not getting that job.
I don't want to get something that way.
And you know, this is how we have to be.
We have to understand that true promotion doesn't come from the south, it doesn't come from the east, it doesn't come from the west, it comes from God.
The God above, true promotion.
And if you get promoted in this life by some society, by some man, by some person, and you're getting advanced in this life.
But you're not getting advance from the Lord.
You are not getting an advancement.
You're getting a demotion.
Only the promotion that comes from God is true advancement.
Everything else is just, it's this, the wasted time, wasted effort, wasted life.
Don't look to the world for your promotion.
Don't look to the world for your certification.
Don't look to the world.
For your affirmation.
Don't look to the world for your approval, because if the world had its way like Nebuchadnezzar, it would destroy you if you're a child of God.
So stay true to God in a world that would put you down and trust that God will forever set you up in Jesus Christ.
Look to Him for your affirmation.
Look to him to get his approval, not the world's approval.
The promotion of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego through the salvation of Christ, which is what you have.
They are condemned by the world.
They are then delivered by Jesus out of the fire, and having been saved by Jesus out of the fire, they then get promoted in the kingdom.
That's a picture of what happens to Christians.
We are condemned with the world.
Because of our sin, we are delivered by Jesus out of that condemnation, and then God promotes us up into his kingdom.
Again, their promotion through the salvation of Christ is a picture of our promotion, our future promotion through the salvation of Christ.
I'll close with this text, Revelation 3, 21.
Jesus said, To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father.
In his throne.
That's promotion.
It doesn't matter how far you go in this world.
If you're on a big ship, if you're on the Titanic.
Let's say you started off on the Titanic and you're swabbing the deck, and you got an iceberg on that Titanic.
The Titanic is still afloat.
They say that band was still playing as they were going down.
It's still afloat.
Let's say you work hard and you get promoted, and let's say you promote all the way up to captain.
What good is it to be the captain of a sinking ship?
What good is it to reach a level in this world?
A world that's going down.
I want to be promoted.
The Bible says I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God.
I'd rather swab the deck on the ship that's not going down.
But Jesus said, Whoever overcomes this world, and that's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did.
They followed the word of God, and by doing so, they overcame the world that was against God.
And we follow God's Word by following His Son and believing in what He's done for us on the cross.
And by doing so, we get delivered from this sinful world that's going down like the Titanic.
And then we get promoted to sit with Jesus in his throne, and we'll rule and reign with him forever.
When the Bible talks about us sitting with Jesus in his throne, it doesn't mean we're all going to be kings walking around with no subjects.
It means God's going to restore back to us what God originally gave man.
When God created man, he said, Let them have dominion.
And God's going to return our dominion back to this world.
We'll never again be subject to devils.
We'll never again be subject to animals.
We're afraid of them.
We will rule and reign with Christ forever as free, redeemed men and women of God.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father, for the deliverance.
Of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Thank you, Father, for the promotion of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
And thank you, Father, for the decree of the gospel.
That overcomes all the decrees of this world.
And that's the decree that we put our trust in: the fact that Christ died for the ungodly, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish.
But have everlasting life.
In His precious name we pray.
Amen.
