Participants: Ty Gibson & James Rafferty
Series Code: DBOTB
Program Code: DBOTB000004A
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00:21 Hello friends and welcome
00:23 to Books of the Book. 00:24 We are studying the book 00:25 of Daniel, and we are in Daniel 00:27 of Chapter 3. 00:28 My name is James Rafferty! 00:30 And I'm Ty Gibson thank you for joining us for this 00:32 program on the book of Daniel. 00:34 It is one of our favorite 00:35 books in the Bible, James. 00:36 We are just always excited 00:38 to open its pages. 00:39 We have learned so far that the book of Daniel 00:42 runs on two tracks. 00:44 We have a story line that is unfolding of Daniel's 00:48 experience as a captive in Babylon. 00:50 Nebuchadnezzar's experience as an unbelieving heathen 00:55 king that God is relentlessly pursuing with His grace 00:59 and love to bring Nebuchadnezzar to the worship of the 01:03 one and only true God. 01:04 Then we have the prophecies that unfold as well as the 01:09 story of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar unfolds. 01:13 It's incredible because what we are seeing so far 01:15 is that the prophecies and relational aspects of Daniel 01:19 interlock, they mesh together and come together as one. 01:22 Many times when you study the Bible, or when you study 01:26 prophecy, you are inclined to separate it from Christian 01:29 experience, relationship, practical Christianity. 01:33 We don't see that in the book of Daniel, 01:35 and we won't see it. 01:36 As you move down all the way through these chapters 01:38 we are going to see time and time again that they link 01:40 together, or connect together. 01:42 One of the main themes we are going to find in the book 01:44 of Daniel is this relationship theme. 01:47 I think we can say with certainty James not only because 01:52 of what we read in the Bible, but just observing ourselves 01:57 and people in their religious experiences, that knowledge 02:02 without an experience with God is actually dangerous. 02:07 I mean if we know all the prophecies backwards and forward 02:10 and we can prove what each point means, and interpret the 02:14 dreams and visions that we have in the prophetic books of 02:18 the Bible, but we don't know God in a personal, 02:22 living, relationship. 02:25 If we don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior 02:29 and Lord, but we know all about the truth, then we are 02:33 lethal in dealing with people. 02:35 That's certainly proves true in Daniel Chapter 3. 02:38 What you have here is king 02:40 who has been convicted. 02:42 He is moving from one religion 02:44 to another, in a sense. 02:46 This king, Nebuchadnezzar, has had this incredible 02:51 interpretation delivered to him of this image he dreamed 02:55 about and couldn't remember. 02:57 Understanding this dream represents these different 03:00 kingdoms in this earth, going all the way down to the 03:04 very end of time. 03:06 Down to the time in which we live and beyond to the 03:08 second coming of Jesus Christ. 03:10 In that knowledge, Nebuchadnezzar is about to 03:13 deviate just a little bit, because it is all up here and 03:16 none of it has come down here. 03:18 He has an intellectual conversion in Chapter 2, 03:22 God through Daniel's interpretation, God explicitly 03:26 told Nebuchadnezzar, your dream of this vision represents 03:32 a session of kingdoms, Babylon is the head of gold. 03:35 Only the head of gold, 03:36 only the head of gold Nebuchadnezzar. 03:38 Babylon does not continue on down through history. 03:43 Well immediately, as Chapter 3 opens, we see Nebuchadnezzar 03:47 defying the vision that God gave. 03:51 In verse 1 Nebuchadnezzar the king, made an image of gold. 03:55 Not an image as God revealed it to him, of gold, silver, 03:58 brass, iron, iron mixed with clay and finally God's kingdom 04:02 rising to consume all of the kingdoms and be the 04:07 everlasting kingdom. 04:08 No, Nebuchadnezzar wants his kingdom to be perpetual. 04:12 He wants it to continue on. 04:14 He is acting out his arrogance, and he is acting out 04:18 his insecurities, his fears. 04:20 That is a really good point Ty because I believe that God 04:22 has put eternity in all of our hearts. 04:24 That's what Ecclesiastics tells us. 04:26 God wants us to live forever, but it's insecure in the 04:29 sense that we are seeking to accomplish that goal without 04:33 God, which is impossible. 04:34 Nebuchadnezzar is seeking to accomplish that goal without 04:38 God so when he does this, he is defining what God has 04:41 revealed to him. 04:42 Now what we need to recognize is that one of the reasons 04:44 why Nebuchadnezzar does this is because he is afraid. 04:47 He is afraid for the future and he is afraid of his 04:49 kingdom coming to an end because that means he is going 04:52 to come to an end. 04:53 None of us want come to an end, we all want a future 04:56 and a hope. 04:57 God is trying to bring Nebuchadnezzar to the place, 04:59 first of all, where he realizes without Him, 05:02 that is Nebuchadnezzar without Me, without God, 05:04 you do not have a future and a hope. 05:07 Nebuchadnezzar in defying that revelation, that vision, 05:11 is defying his need for God. 05:14 In Hebrews 2:14,15, we are told that every human being 05:21 lives their whole life 05:23 time in fear of death. 05:26 It is a great unknown. 05:28 We grow old and our lives finally expire. 05:33 The Bible is telling us very clearly that human beings are 05:38 just haunted with this sense of apprehension about death. 05:42 Fear of this vast unknown, beyond the grave, people don't 05:47 want to die, Nebuchadnezzar doesn't want to die. 05:49 He doesn't want his kingdom to come to an end. 05:51 He wants it to be perpetuated. 05:53 Yes, and it is interesting because in verse 15 of 05:56 Hebrews Chapter 2, it says, 05:57 "and God has sent His Son 06:00 "to deliver them who through" 06:03 "fear of death for all of their lifetime are 06:05 subject to bondage. " 06:06 We think it is freeing, it is liberating to do what we want, 06:10 to live the way we want to live and have God out of the 06:13 picture, and God is saying no you are actually in bondage. 06:16 You are in bondage when you are leaving Me out of the 06:19 picture because to be totally taken in and controlled by 06:23 Sin and sinful mess is to be in bondage. 06:27 Nebuchadnezzar is in bondage, he is in bondage to his own 06:30 fears in Chapter 3 and God has come to deliver him 06:33 from those fears. 06:35 Nebuchadnezzar makes this image because he is afraid. 06:38 The people who are commanded to worship this image, 06:41 worship the image because they are afraid. 06:45 They are told by Nebuchadnezzar that when you hear, 06:48 when you hear the sounds of the music, you need to bow 06:52 down to worship or you will be thrown 06:54 into a fiery furnace. 06:56 So the people are afraid, Nebuchadnezzar is afraid, 06:59 we are afraid. 07:00 It doesn't matter how many hats we wear, 07:02 how many bumper stickers we put on our cars and vehicles 07:05 that say "no fear", the fact of the matter is 07:08 we are scared to death. 07:09 Especially of death, we are scared to death of death. 07:13 In Romans Chapter 8 the apostle Paul gives us this 07:17 incredible insight where he tells us that when we are 07:21 born again, when we yield our lives over to Christ, 07:25 one of the things that God achieves in the human heart, 07:29 he's He breaks that bondage of fear. 07:32 He says there in Chapter 8 of Romans, "you did not receive" 07:37 "the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the" 07:42 "Spirit of adoption whereby you cry, Abba Father. " 07:45 "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that" 07:48 "we are the children of God. " 07:49 There is a deliverance from fear that comes to the human 07:53 Spirit, to the human heart when we give and yield our lives 07:58 over to Christ, over to God. 08:00 We are free, we are liberated from that fear. 08:03 And notice that, that freedom from fear connects us to 08:07 God as our Father. 08:09 There is a direct connection taking place there. 08:10 Nebuchadnezzar is denying the One and embracing the other. 08:13 God wants to break his hold on the one, that is fear, 08:17 so that he can be ushered into this relationship with God 08:20 as his Father. 08:22 He is going to do this in a very unique way. 08:23 God is looking for people, who are so committed to Him, 08:27 that they can reveal the freedom of fear. 08:31 The freedom from death that God has promised to give us. 08:34 He has given us as a gift through Jesus Christ. 08:37 That is what He is looking for in Daniel Chapter 3. 08:39 When Nebuchadnezzar defies the dream that God gave to him, 08:45 I think it is important to note that God doesn't turn 08:49 against Nebuchadnezzar. 08:51 He continues to pursue him because God is trying to get 08:55 into Nebuchadnezzar's heart to liberate him from fear. 08:59 He is trying to lead this king to conversion, 09:03 so God pursues him relentlessly. 09:07 The hound of Heaven, He's on Nebuchadnezzar's trail and He 09:12 is not letting up. 09:13 Amen and what I really like about this Chapter. 09:15 This picture that we have here 09:17 it warns all of us, friends, 09:19 how dangerous it can be to be 09:22 half converted. 09:23 To be intellectually converted, in what ever religious 09:25 belief we have, to be intellectually converted but 09:27 don't have a heart experience with God. 09:30 because what Nebuchadnezzar does here is 09:33 he seeks to enforce his understanding of religion, 09:36 his understanding of worship on the multitudes. 09:40 That is what happens with us. 09:41 It doesn't matter that we are not necessarily a king, 09:43 not necessarily a president, we are not necessarily in 09:46 power, even if we are a parent, or a sibling, no matter 09:50 what our station in life, if we are only half converted 09:53 we will try to take our religious views and impose them 09:57 upon others. 09:59 This is one of the principal warnings that we find, 10:01 here in Daniel Chapter 3. 10:03 The exercise of force is 10:05 contrary to the character 10:07 of God, the exercise of 10:09 coercion, to put pressure 10:11 on people to manipulate them, or pressure them into a 10:16 acceptance of whatever our views happened to be. 10:19 Even if our views are right and provable from Scripture. 10:22 We know the certainty of these things. 10:24 No matter how deeply convicted we are, we can be absolutely 10:29 certain that when we are tending toward coercing others 10:34 into subjection to our views, the Spirit of God is not 10:38 governing those impulses to control other people. 10:41 Another thing that is really significant in this Chapter 10:43 is the place of music Ty, in worship, in force. 10:47 Music is a powerful in its influence. 10:50 Have you noticed that no matter where you go in society, 10:53 at lease let's say in the Western society, I am sure in 10:56 other societies also, that music is huge. 10:59 Music is a huge influence and a huge factor. 11:02 You can find people doing, under the influence of music, 11:06 what they wouldn't do if the music stopped. 11:09 Try it out yourself some time. 11:11 You find in grocery stores, you find in department stores, 11:15 you find in the community, the workplace, where every you 11:19 find music, music, music. 11:20 We were recently building a home and we had contractors 11:23 they were coming to do sheet rock, and do the plumbing, 11:27 and I'm telling you what, you had to make sure and lay 11:31 down the law about music because if not you would have 11:34 one guy upstairs blasting maybe some rock 'n roll. 11:37 Another guy downstairs blasting some other types of music. 11:40 Another guy over here in a corner blasting, you had 3 or 4 11:43 different types of music. 11:45 What they are doing is working, in a sense they are trying 11:48 to get their minds off the fact that they are laboring. 11:52 Their minds are totally submerged in this music and 11:56 it is taking them into another world. 11:57 In Daniel Chapter 3 James, 11:59 this is the storyline that unfolds. 12:02 Nebuchadnezzar imposing force, using coercion to enforce 12:08 his religious convictions. 12:10 Nebuchadnezzar tells the multitudes of his kingdom, 12:14 when you hear the music bow down and worship. 12:16 If you do not bow down and worship you will be killed. 12:19 You will be executed, so that is the backdrop that is 12:21 happening in here. 12:23 As you have pointed out, Nebuchadnezzar is being governed 12:25 by fear, the multitudes are being governed by fear, 12:28 but there it emerges a group of people here. 12:31 A small little nucleus, just three guys. 12:35 These three guys, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego emerge 12:39 in this story and it becomes evident very quickly here 12:44 that they are not governed by fear. 12:46 In fact they face it squarely and they move forward with 12:50 their convictions, obviously convictions that are 12:54 diametrically opposed to what the king is imposing. 12:57 Convictions that are not to be manipulated or coerced. 13:01 We could call these guys a remnant. 13:03 The principal of remnant is found in the 13:06 book of Revelation another prophetic book. 13:08 We can call these guys a remnant because the word means 13:11 the remainder, those that remain. 13:13 These were the ones who remained standing when everyone 13:17 else bow down, they remained. 13:18 They remained standing, but more than that, they remained 13:22 faithful to God, that was the main point of their standing. 13:26 They weren't standing to be obstinate, or stubborn, 13:28 to directly oppose the king or his laws. 13:31 They were not seeking to draw attention to themselves. 13:34 To be different or for people to look to them and go woo! 13:37 They were remaining because they were wanting to remain 13:40 faithful to God and so they stood when everyone else bowed. 13:43 They didn't come under the influence of music, 13:45 the influence of amusement, the influence that the world 13:48 sought to bring upon them, but they stood and remained 13:52 faithful to God by refusing to worship another God 13:56 but the true God. 13:57 When we come back, don't go away, we are going to find out 14:00 exactly what happened with these 3 young men. |
Revised 2022-11-14