Temple Baptist Church - 8-13-2023
Daniel 3:1-26
Introduction:
A. I want to continue this morning with the series “Walking With God.”
1. Last time, we saw that walking with God requires walking in the Old Paths.
2. This morning, I want to look at an Old Path that not many want to walk in our day. The Path of the Fire.
B. If given our druthers, I believe that most of God’s people had rather walk in peaceful paths, but that is not always the way that God either wants for us or the way that God leads us.
C. Here we find the three Hebrew children, Shadrach—Meshach—and Abednego, forced to make a choice that was not a pleasant one but, in their eyes along with the eyes of the Lord, was the ONLY one.
D. They were forced by the government of their day to make a choice: bend, bow, or burn!
The King of Babylon ordered an image of gold, a monolith, 180 feet tall and 9 feet wide to be set up in the plain of Dura.
1. In verses 2-5, the reared the image up, dedicated it, and gathered the people together. They then ordered all the people, at the sound of the music, to bow down and worship the image. If not, verse 6 says, “And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.”
2. In verses 7-12, we find that Shadrach—Meshach—and Abednego refused to bend or bow and were reported to the King for their disobedience. The cost was great because these three men were set over the affairs of the province of Babylon! Men of high position and esteem in the eyes of the King of Babylon as well as the people.
3. Verses 13-15, the King called them and gave them a second chance, peradventure that had not heard right or did not understand.
a) The government of our world had rather control you than destroy you because of your value to their cause.
b) No people, no control, and no government!
4. In Verses 16-18, we find their answer.
a) We are not careful. Be careful for nothing.
b) God can deliver us! But, if God chooses not to deliver us, He will deliver us out of your hand!
c) We will not serve or worship your “god”!
5. Verses 19-23, the King was furious and ordered the furnace heated seven times as hot as it had been (the flames slew the soldiers), and had them thrown into the fiery furnace to destroy them.
6. Verses 24-25, the astonishment of the King as he saw 4 men loose, walking the midst of the fire, unharmed and the 4th was like unto the Son of God!
7. Verses 26-27, the three Hebrew children were called out of the fire and the king “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.”
8. What a blessed story as God honored their commitment to Himself and saved their lives and their jobs.
1. But, what if God had chosen to allow them to burn to death in the furnace?
2.They still would not bend or bow but it would cost them their lives! They chose to walk with God in the fire.
9. We live in such a day. If you will not bend or bow, you will burn. They have weaponized the government against all who dare to stand up to their demands.
a) I am talking about the White House, law enforcement, and justice system. I am talking about weaponizing the IRS.
b) I am talking about major businesses and personal lives.
c) I am talking about our families and friends.
10. Just Bend a little.
1) Just be quiet and don’t express your beliefs or views. Just compromise a little bit.
2) Bow a little. Just give in to their wicked, satanic way of thinking and acting. Just pretend a little to accept their commands, just acquis, and everything will go away and be just fine.
e) Don’t Bend, don’t Bow, then Burn!
Three Questions this morning?
1. Are we willing to Bend.
a. There is so much unseen pressure (sometimes seen pressure), in the light of government—work—family—and peers, to just give in a little bit; to just barely compromise, just lighten up.
b. The World will not bend as their intent is to make everyone give in to them. The pressure continues to grow in or society to accept the unnatural, the wickedness and sinfulness of a reprobate society.
c. Please, the world asks, would you just give an inch? I saw the picture of a ruler one day with the inscription, give the devil an inch and he will become your ruler.
c. Bend ever so slowly, bend ever so softly, but please bend. But Bend! How far to bend, where will bending become bowing? WE CANNOT BEND! For, if we bend, where will it end because bending was not what the King commanded.
d. The King said BOW or BURN!
e. You can escape the fire for a little while if you just band a little bit. If these three had just bent over a tad bit, that may have been enough to suffice the King for a while and they may have escaped the fire FOR A LITTLE WHILE.
2. Are we willing to Bow?
a. Bending ends ALWAYS ends in BOWING! This question is all that the government and society demands and expects at this time. If you bend, bending a little at a time leads to bowing. Bending is slow bowing but bowing, nonetheless.
Exodus 20:4-5 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (5) Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Matthew 4:9-10 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. (10) Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
b. Are we willing to bow? Bow and live! Now, we become like them because we no longer hold to the truths of God’s Word. Now we aid and abet the lawless, the ungodly, the spirit of antichrist that is in the world.
c. No, bow and die anyway!
3. Are we willing to Burn?
a. Here is where the “rubber meets the road.” Do we have enough of God in us to “withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand?”
1 Kings 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
b. The Lord being our Helper, and He is, may we have a spiritual backbone like a sawlog in these “sands of shifting theology” in which we live.
