9-19-99     Is it True?      Daniel 3

by Ronald E. George Jr. at the Sand Fork Baptist Church

For Sale: One used old Ford tractor. Runs good but has the steering wheel and seat missing. To sell for the best offer. Will work great for someone who has lost his or her rear and don't know which way to turn.

What do you do when you are stuck and don't know which way to turn?

The Test:

Daniel 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; [well]: but 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 shall deliver you out of my hands? 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we [are] not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver [us] out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.
  1. Who do you serve? Is it True that you will not serve any other gods? Then prepare for the test or the trial from the Lord. In a foreign land with no one to watch will you still not bow? Will God put you to the test? God these three young men to the test of obedience in a foreign land? Surely He will put us to the test too. We face worldly pressures to follow the ways of the world.
  2. Will you bow to the local deities? Our God will deliver us, if it be so. But if not. We have no other choice. We will serve the only living God. God will allow for the testing of his children.

The purpose of these tests is:

  1. to draw us closer to him,
  2. to strengthen our faith, and
  3. to see what we are made of.

The Result:

Dan. 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, [and] spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 25 He answered and said, 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. 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. 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. 28 [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.
  1. God will be glorified. When all is said and done from the tests that we face in this life God will be glorified. God will be glorified by whatever happens because of the faith/trust that the boys put in Him. Is God glorified by the faith that you put in him?
  2. People will turn to God. When we are faced with pressure to bow or to burn many times we will turn to the one who is the only One who can do anything about it.
  3. People will learn to trust God. Our faith will be strengthened. When are put to the test or we see others put to the test we will learn to depend on Him. Are tests the result of the will of God working in your life? Is God still God?
  4. The Hebrew Children were set free. "The only thing that the Hebrews lost in the fire/test was their ropes." -Charles Stanley. We will be set free to serve the Lord as he wants us to once we have gone through the trial by fire.
  5. God was proven faithful in the midst of the fire. There is a fourth man there in the middle of the fire. It is the Son of God. He has already walked through the fire for you and he will walk it with you when the time comes.

Invitation: Have you given in to the local pressure to bow to the gods of this world? Are you ready to stand for the only living God? Will you stand the test of the trial by fire?

The story is told of an only survivor of a wreck who was thrown on an uninhabited island. After a while he managed to build himself a hut, in which he placed the little all that he had saved from the ship. He prayed to God for deliverance and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing ship. One day on returning from a hunt for food, he was horrified to find his hut in flames. All he had was going up in smoke! The worst had happened, it appeared; but that which seemed to have happened for the worst was in reality for the best. To the man's limited vision it was the worst. To God's infinite wisdom it was the best, for which he had prayed. The next day a ship arrived. "We saw your smoke signal," the captain said. -- Selected.

William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations."

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