- MEN OF GOD IN A DAY OF APOSTASY
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- by Dr. Stephen Scott-Pearson
- General Secretary of the Protestant Alliance
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- MEN OF GOD IN A DAY OF APOSTASY
- Please Read: Daniel Chapter 3
Here in Daniel chapter 3 we have the story of the Persecution,
Perseverance, and preservation of three men of God.
I want to look at this chapter and notice four things that may help and
encourage us in our stand for god’s truth in these days of religious
apostasy and spiritual declension.
I want to notice-
1) The grim situation that they faced.
2) The Great God that they followed.
3) The grand fidelity that they showed.
4) The glorious finale that they enjoyed.
FIRSTLY, THEN, NOTICE THE GRIM SITUATION THAT THEY FACED.
In the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, King of Judah,
Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon had come up to Jerusalem with his armies
and besieged it This was the judgment of Almighty God upon Judah’s
apostasy and idolatry. Judah, like Israel, had forsaken God; so now God
forsook Judah.
King Jehoiakim received warning from Almighty God but he rejected the
Word of the Lord - in fact he burnt the scroll upon which it was
written. (see Jeremiah 36) When men reject the Word of God,
(individuals, religious denominations, or nations) God deals with them.
The King was Dethroned
Just six years after rejecting the Word of God this man Jehoiakim, in
fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, was put to death and he was “buried
with the burial of an ass.” (Jeremiah 22:18-19)
The City was Destroyed
Its destruction is graphically described in the Book or Lamentations.
The Temple was Disgraced
Babylonian soldiers stripped it of its wealth and carried its gold,
silver, and brass instruments to a heathen land.
The land was left Desolate! The People were Deported!
The citizens of Jehoiakim’s realm were carried away 800 miles into
captivity. Among them and along with Daniel, were three young men who
were to be called, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were three
Jewish captives of noble birth.
They were taken into a materialistic, and sensualistic, idolatrous
society. The greatest enemy of the work of God in our society is
materialism.
The 19th century was the age of intellectualism, the age of rationalism,
when everything was subordinate to finite mind, to human understanding.
The 20th and 21st centuries, are certainly not ages of intellectualism
but of sensualist. In much of what professes to be Christianity today
sensualist, supposed experience, takes precedence over Biblical teaching
and authority.
NOW, in the place of their captivity, Babylon, a new theology was
being introduced; a new national idol was being set up!
Nebuchadnezzar the King made a great image. It stood 100 feet high, 10
feet wide, and it was completely overlaid with gold. It was set up in
the vast plains of Dura in the Province of Babylon, where it might
clearly be seen by all and where vast multitudes might gather to worship
it.
Man-made religion generally reeks of idolatry and idolatry always
indicates man-made religion!
This idolatrous false religion was established by law! Religious liberty
was to be curtailed!
It was commanded that the people fall down and worship the golden
image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
And so it was that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were in a pagan
idolatrous society and they were suffering religious persecution, and
being intimidated.
ALSO! there were only three of them! The were a tiny faithful
remnant!
The whole tide of society which they lived in was running against them.
All around them were pandering to the latest religious whim. Everyone,
but them, danced to the tune of the piper.
Just like today when all but a few of the Lord’s people are compromising
and ecumenising and the few that will not sell their birthright and
betray their heritage stand out like sore thumbs!
The Lord’s true people are distinguished from all others and the Lord
Jesus Christ said of them-
(John 15:19 KJV) If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Let us never be ashamed of being God’s minority!
“We are traveling home to God,
In the way the fathers trod;
They are happy now, and we,
Soon their happiness shall see.”
Let us unapologetically and uncompromisingly decline to follow the
blinded multitudes. The situation is very grim! But the prospect is very
bright!
FOR NOTICE SECONDLY, THE GREAT GOD THAT THEY FOLLOWED.
Verse 17, “…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.”
These men believed in the power of God!
They had a God able to deliver!
Not only did they believe that He could act, they had faith that He
would act - “he will deliver us.”
These men of God would not be drawn by a concert of music, nor driven by
a fiery furnace to the forsaking of their complete confidence and
reliance in the one true God! (There are many professing Christians
today drawn aside by concerts of music. Minstrelsy has displaced
ministry in much professed “Christian” worship!)
God was their “refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
I believe that these three noble sons of Judah had been raised in Godly
homes, (not religious homes, Godly homes!), homes where God was truly
revered, worshipped, and glorified. Perhaps these young men had been
taught to sing the 115th Psalm-
(Psa 115:1-11 KJV) Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy
name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. {2} Wherefore
should the heathen say, Where is now their God? {3} But our God is in
the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. {4} Their idols
are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. {5} They have mouths, but
they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: {6} They have ears,
but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: {7} They have
hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither
speak they through their throat. {8} They that make them are like unto
them; so is every one that trusteth in them. {9} O Israel, trust thou in
the LORD: he is their help and their shield. {10} O house of Aaron,
trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. {11} Ye that fear
the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not need an idol. They knew the one
and only true prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God of Heaven! They felt
in the very depths of their souls, in the very fibre of their being,
that God is able to deliver!
They felt in the very depths of their souls, in the very fibre of their
being, that God is able to deliver!
They no doubt remembered how, according to the record of Exodus 14, the
fleeing Israelites were (humanly speaking) in a hopeless position. The
Egyptian hordes were barking at their heals, there were ranges of
unassailable granite mountains on either side of them and the raging
foam of the Red Sea before them-when Moses, the man of God, cried to the
people: “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,
which he will shew to you today.”
They would have remembered how God opened up a way for His people and
dealt with their enemies - “The Lord saved Israel that day…and Israel
saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore.”
Let us rejoice with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that though the
situation is grim the prospect is bright! For as the hymn writer wrote-
“Tis the grandest theme through the ages rung;
Tis the grandest theme for a mortal tongue,
Tis the grandest theme that the world e’er sung
Our God is able to deliver thee.”
(Psa 34:15 KJV) The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his
ears are open unto their cry.
God, Almighty God, was their only hope. But what a great and glorious
object of hope He is!
(Psa 125:1 KJV) They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion,
which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.
(Prov 18:10 KJV) The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous
runneth into it, and is safe.
- NOTICE THIRDLY, THE GRAND FIDELITY THAT THEY
SHOWED
(Dan 3:17-18 KJV) 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.
“…we will not serve thy gods”! - These men knew where they stood
and they let others know assuredly! They had a stark choice. They had to
submit to death or apostatize. These men knew the first commandment -
(Exo 20:3 KJV) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
These men knew the second commandment -
(Exo 20:4-5 KJV) 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;
They had heard the Word of the Lord and they heeded the Word of the
Lord. That is what we need to do!
They had seen and proved that the Lord honors them that honor Him for
back in chapter 1 we read how they, along with Daniel, declined to
defile themselves with the portion of the King’s meat which had been
dedicated to idols. They had obeyed the Word of God, they had walked in
the light of their consciences, they had eaten pulse and drunk water in
the will and according to the Word of the Lord, while others ate
dainties and drank wine, yet, “their countenances appeared fairer and
fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the
king's meat.” (Daniel 1:15)
Yes, their confidence was in Almighty God, in His Word and ways!
God could deliver them!
God would deliver them!
But if not! - no surrender of principles - no compromise!
They would render to Caesar or, in this case to Nebuchadnezzar, the
things that were theirs but to God the things that were God’s!
Like Peter and the other apostles when imprisoned said, so Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego said: “…We ought to obey God rather than men”
(Acts 5:29)
Like our Protestant Forebears threatened with the fires of martyrdom, so
these three brethren, threatened with the fiery furnace, were resolved
to be faithful to God and His Truth even unto death being fully
persuaded that all things are part of His plan and providence and
subject to His power. In essence they said -
“No matter what circumstances come,
No matter what you say,
No matter what you do,
We will not bow the knee!”
That was the spirit of these men that the Lord’s people need to have
in these days of widespread religious apostasy and compromise and in the
coming days of persecution and trial.
The Scripture warns the believer -
(1 Pet 4:12 KJV) Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery
trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto
you:
Trust in God! -
“He is able to deliver us”
“He will deliver us”
“But if not”
We will not compromise nor shift from the truth’ - Though he slay
me, yet will I trust in him… (Job 13:15)
Let us take our stand upon God’s truth! And stand by God’s truth! Let us
show faithfulness and fidelity in God’s service, having complete faith
in the power of God and showing complete submission to the will of God.
- NOTICE FOURTHLY, THE GLORIOUS FINALE THAT THEY
ENJOYED
The faithful people of God can say with Paul: “And the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly
kingdom…” (2 Timothy 4:18)
When men and women stand faithfully and fearlessly by God’s truth the
animosity and flames of the world’s hatred will be unleashed upon them
and sometimes it gets exceeding hot and the wicked that seek the injury
of God’s people are themselves devoured by the fires that they have
kindled.
These young men taken up and cast into the furnace because they would
not conform to the spirit of the age and the ways of the world. They
regarded a faithful adherence to God’s prescribed worship one of their
first duties and would rather face the fiery trial and torments of the
flesh than own that an idol made with hands was a suitable object of
worship and veneration. But when the trial came - God was wonderfully
glorified.
This fiery furnace was to display in a miraculous and marvelous way, the
glory of the One True God, in Babylon. In that furnace of trial and
testing these children of God found a anew sense of freedom!
Nebuchadnezzar saw them loose and walking in the midst of the fire,
unhurt. They gloried in their tribulations. In that furnace of trial
and testing these children of God found a new sense of fellowship!
Nebuchadnezzar saw the form of a fourth person “like the Son of God.”
How many dear people have been brought nearer to Him, to a new sense of
fellowship with Him, through persecution, testing, or trial! At first
God appeared perhaps to have deserted His servants. Now He sent
wonderful succor to them.
God does not always save His people from testing, trial, and tribulation
but He always safely brings them through; often to the amazement, even
consternation, of their enemies. Not only was it seen when these
servants of God came forth from their place and the time of trial that
their bodies were unharmed and not one hair of their head singed but not
even the smell of the fire was upon them!
Even that profane, wicked, foolish old King had to observe: “…there
is no other God that can deliver after this sort” (Daniel 3:29)
Because they had exhibited a grand fidelity, (while their Jewish
compatriots had shamefully compromised), all the Jews captive in Babylon
were spectators of the marvelous grace of God to His faithful obedient
children.
How greatly their faithfulness and fidelity glorified God and brought
others among their fellow captives back to the truth one cannot say; -
But we can say this -
Whereas no man has ever yet done good to souls or glorified God
compromising, nor have any ever won the respect of the world or their
enemies by betraying their religious principles; nor have they who have
sold the truth and disobeyed the Word of God ever finished well. - Yet
all faithful men of God of all generations have seen the fulfillment of
those lovely words in Proverbs 16:7, “When a man's ways please the
LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
(Dan 3:30 KJV) Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, in the province of Babylon.
- To contact the Protestant Alliance:
- The Protestant Alliance
- 77 Ampthill Road
- Flitwick, Bedford MK45 1BD
- Great Britain
- (1/28/05)
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