Would you turn with me to the Gospel according to Daniel, chapter 3? Daniel 3, find it in the Pew Bible on page 938. 938. Familiar story, boys and girls, I hope you remember this story. Hopefully you'll be reminded as we read here about these three friends of Daniel, who've already been through some testing with Daniel, and now come to this great test here. Daniel chapter three, at verse one, we hear God's holy word. King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits, and its breadth six cubits. He set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent together the satraps, the prefects, and the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the satraps, the prefects, and the governors The counselors, the treasurers, the justices, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And the herald proclaimed aloud, you are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down in worship shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, as soon as all the peoples heard the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Therefore, at that time, certain Chaldeans came forward and maliciously accused the Jews And they declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever! You, O King, have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship the golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then King Nebuchadnezzar, in furious rage, commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated, and he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning, fiery furnace. Because the king's order was urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He declared to his counselors, Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said to the king, true, O king. He answered and said, but I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. The Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace. He declared, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own. Therefore, I make a decree. Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. May God bless His holy word to us tonight. Well, people of God, does our confession really matter? Do our confessions of faith really amount to anything? Sometimes we forget the glory that God gets through the confessions of His people. It is an amazing thing and it should strike you tonight that the almighty God who needs nothing outside of himself is pleased to stoop down from heaven to get praise and glory out of the lips of us small little creatures. That is how God is magnifying his name upon the earth. God boasted to Satan of his servant Job, and when Satan brought affliction upon Job, and Job faced great losses, he was able to say, naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And in that, God was praised. And when the apostles were rebuked for preaching the name of Jesus, they said, we must obey God rather than men. And in that confession, God was praised. And when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem, the children praised him, Hosanna to the Son of David. And when the chief priests rebuked Christ for this, don't you hear what they're saying? Jesus answered from Psalm 8, yes, have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes, you have prepared praise? We serve a God who wills to be worshiped by the praise and the confession of his people. And therefore we witness tonight here in these professions of faith as typical or usual as it might seem to us, as small as the confession might be with a few simple words, this is a wondrous thing and a glorious thing and in this God most high is praised. And you brothers, who have, as Timothy did, have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Let me remind you tonight that God wants that confession to remain upon your lips. Your lips and your lives are for his glory. He wants you to confess His name throughout all of your life. You share in the anointing of Christ. You are prophets to confess His name. And there's gonna be many temptations in life to compromise that confession, to be silent about God's greatness, to turn away from what you've spoken here tonight. You're promised to follow Christ always. But as we see in this episode with Daniel's three friends here, the Lord wills to be praised in the loyal confessions of his children. And we should be amazed here tonight to see how the Lord is pleased to magnify his name in us. People of God, do you realize tonight that in the midst of this blasphemy of Nebuchadnezzar, God could have sent an angel from heaven to cut Nebuchadnezzar's throat and be done with him? God could have sent lightning bolts from heaven to explode the statue and be done with it. But instead, God willed to magnify his name through the confession of three young men. Out of the mouths of babes, out of the mouths of God's little children, that's all of us. Out of the mouths of his little ones, God has ordained praise. Tonight I preach to you God's word with this theme. The Lord magnifies the surpassing glory of his name over the kingdoms of this world through the faithful witness of his servants. And I draw your attention to three points this evening. First of all, the challenge to our confession. Secondly, the strength of our confession. And thirdly, the vindication of our confession. Those three things, the challenge, the strength, the vindication of our confession. Well, the confession of God's people upon earth has always been one of praise for his kingdom. When God's people are in their right minds, they say things like Psalm 8, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Or Psalm 145, your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures throughout all generations. But it's that confession we make, that the Lord is king, that his Messiah is on the throne, that Christ reigns. It's that confession that is assaulted every day. challenged by the world and by the evil one, even by our old sinful nature. And that challenge is very clear here in Daniel 3, isn't it? King Nebuchadnezzar sets up this enormous statue. Boys and girls, this image Nebuchadnezzar erects is some 90 feet tall, nine feet wide, covered in gold. And he has a giant dedication ceremony to which he invites all of his officials and rulers, the rich, the famous, the proud, the elite, the well-educated, to come, to come to this dedication ceremony and to fall down in worship before this image, an image that challenges the one true God. Now, if you remember Daniel chapter 2, you remember Nebuchadnezzar had already confessed that Daniel's God is the one true God, the God of gods and the Lord of lords. Nebuchadnezzar had had that dream, you remember, that Daniel was able to tell him he had and to interpret for him that dream of a statue. The gold head, the silver breast and arms, the bronze stomach and thighs, the iron legs, the feet of iron and clay. representing, as Daniel said, the various kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head of gold, but after you, these other kingdoms come, but then a rock, not cut by men's hands, but a rock cut out, that comes and crushes the image, grinds it up, so it blows away, and that rock grows and grows to become a giant mountain and fill the earth. That rock being the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ Jesus. That vision was interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar said to Daniel, surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. But Nebuchadnezzar was apparently not converted. Here in chapter three, apparently some time has passed, and whatever fear Nebuchadnezzar had has been shaken off. His empire is growing, his army is advancing, he is taking over the world, and he is very proud of his strength and his might and his kingdom. A world empire. So he builds this great image that represents what? It represents the gods of Babylon, it represents the power and strength of the empire of Babylon, it represents in many ways, of course, the king, Nebuchadnezzar himself. And you remember God's people are living in captivity. They have been taken from Jerusalem, from Judah. They were carried off to captivity. And here they're facing this assault upon their faith, this assault upon their God, this great statue built. Nebuchadnezzar is challenging the Lord. It was a clear rejection of God's kingdom. As Sinclair Ferguson points out in his commentary, and I should say tonight that his commentary has been immensely helpful to me, I make liberal use of it here tonight, but he points out that if Nebuchadnezzar wanted to honor the vision, the dream, and the interpretation, he could have built the statue he saw made of various metals and iron and clay, and he could have set next to that statue a rock by which he would confess, my kingdom will not endure, God's kingdom will reign. But that's not what he does. Nebuchadnezzar makes a statue, but it's not made out of various metals. It's made all out of gold. Nebuchadnezzar is saying, my kingdom will always endure. My kingdom will be the only kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar is rejecting the Lord, resisting God's revelation. And so it is that the writer here, tried to emphasize it when we read it, says over and over, It is the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, emphasizing to us that this is entirely a statue made by man. This is entirely a statue made by Nebuchadnezzar. It is his attempt, his human attempt, to dethrone God and his anointed one. And of course, it's really just a new attempt at the Tower of Babel. When we read that people, all the peoples, nations and languages, verse 7, what is that? All the peoples and nations and languages. It's an attempt to assemble as they did at Babel, to come together as a people and build a name for themselves and to challenge God. And so here it is, Nebuchadnezzar's assembling the world to bow down together before him and his kingdom. And at the heart of it all is a command to worship, not just to come and sign an oath to the kingdom or pledge an allegiance, but to fall down and worship. And it's helpful, isn't it, that at least one unbeliever's honest? It's about worship. It's about worship. It's always about worship. We, you know, living in America, have been at times misled by the secularists who tell us, you may do your Sunday thing and worship, but then when you get out there, you need to do these other things. And it's not worship, it's not a compromise. No, the Bible says it's always about worship. Every second of every day, it's about who you worship. It's not about your own private religion on Sundays, but then enjoy the delights of Satan's kingdom the rest of the week. Worship with God's people here, and then go after all the possessions, and the money, and the sexual morality, and the pride, and the self-serving, and the envy. It's always about who you worship, every moment of every day of your entire life. Many people think they're not religious, But all men are incurably religious, and all men are every second involved in a choice of kingdoms. And yet when the Christian refuses to bow to man's kingdom and will only bow to God's kingdom, he stands out, doesn't he? It's interesting as you read through the account that we don't read about these three men making themselves obnoxious or waving their flags and saying, we're different from the rest. All they do is don't bow to the statue and for that they stick out like a sore thumb. That is the way it is for the Christian. If all we did was refuse to bow to the kingdom of this world, then we would stand out as different, as unacceptable. Daniel's three friends do that. And their confession is challenged. They're invited to compromise. And what a blessing it is when God's people, by his grace, are able to see that's what it is. It's a call to compromise. For the young men who have confessed their faith here tonight, we pray God will give you eyes to behold the compromises. And for all of God's people, So often we can't see it, so often we don't recognize it, what's going on at work, what's going on at school, what's going on in the news. It's a summons to compromise and bow down. What a great God we have when He uncovers it to us and He shows us. It's about this, we worship the Lord and His kingdom or the kingdom of man, the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of this world. Well, in the midst of this challenge to our confession, we see, secondly tonight, the strength of this faithful confession. Nebuchadnezzar's challenge to the Lord is immediately facing opposition. These men who apparently are jealous of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their positions that they've received, they are glad to come running and say, hey, hey, hey, the Jews, notice that, the Jews, They won't bow down. Nebuchadnezzar's furious. What is this? Somebody won't bow down to me, the supreme ruler of the world, the most important and powerful man on planet Earth? And of all things, these Jews, these foreigners to whom I've given positions in my kingdom? Nebuchadnezzar gives him the ultimatum, bow down or die. And it's interesting, isn't it? What's at stake here? What we have is a conflict of images, right? We have the image of man and his kingdom, and then we have the image of God, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And the question is, will the image of God bow down to the image of man? That's where the conflict is. For these three men are created in God's image, are being recreated in God's image to bring God glory as we were made to do. This, of course, was not the first time the question had been asked. Will the image of God bow to the image of man? This is the perpetual question throughout history. Will the image of God bow to the image of man? This was the question asked to Israel over and over again. And more often than not, she said, yes, the image of God will gladly bow to the image of man. And so Israel worshiped the gods of her neighbors. She bowed down to idols. And finally, God said, enough. If you would worship the image of man and bow to the kingdom of man, then I will send the kingdom of man to take you captive and make you his slaves. That's why we have Jews in Babylon here, isn't it? It's God's judgment upon them. And yet in the midst of God's judgment, behold the grace of God that he is still restoring marred image bearers back to the image of God. that those image bearers who threw away their holiness and became instruments of Satan are being restored to glorify God as they were made to do. And that's what we have in Babylon, three men who've been restored to holiness and righteousness and true knowledge of God. And when you see that, then you can't be impressed with these three men. Just like we can't be tonight impressed with the three who stood before us. It is not of man. It's not that he's restored himself or that he has the power of true confession within himself. This is the sovereign work of the God who saves. And so we're not dazzled by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We're amazed at God's powerful grace. Oh, they boldly respond to the king, don't they? They say to the king, when he says, who's gonna deliver you from my hands? They say we, verse 16, we have no need to answer you. We have no need to answer you. We don't need to make any excuses for what we've done. We don't need to apologize for what we've done. We don't need to say to you, oh sorry King, we didn't realize that all of these instruments were playing. We have consciously chosen to do this. And our God is able to save us, even from your fire. And he will deliver us. And if he chooses to honor his name by saving us alive from the fire, then praise be to God, he will glorify his name that way. And if he chooses to glorify his name by letting us lay down our lives without compromise and testify to the worthiness of his kingdom and the worthlessness of your statue, then we will lay down our lives, so be it. Theirs is a true faith based on a true revelation of God, that theirs is the God of gods and the King of kings, whose kingdom will not fail. God always delivers his people. Not always. Not always saving their physical lives. Remember those five young men to whom John Calvin wrote, who'd made a good confession and got imprisoned, and they worked through many appeals trying to save these men from being executed. But at last Calvin writes to them. He says, you know, humanly speaking, it looks like you've come to the end. Prepare yourselves. Die worthily of the Lord. Count it an honor to lay down your lives for Christ Jesus. And so they did. And so many have. You know, there's not miracles all over the place. Miracles occur at a few key moments in the Bible. Sometimes God does deliver in miraculous ways, but he has often allowed his people to lay down their lives for his kingdom and glorified himself in that. But you see, what's key here is that these men bear testimony that they belong to a different kingdom, to a different king. Because they're governed here by the Spirit of Christ, aren't they? The Christ who would come in the flesh and who would say, when tempted by Satan to bow down, Christ would say, away with you, Satan! For it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and Him only you shall serve. Christ made the good confession. Repeatedly. And he taught his people, and he empowers his people, and he writes it upon their hearts by his spirit, that we will serve and worship the Lord alone. That you can't serve two different kings, you can't serve two different kingdoms. And so it is with these men. They understand that. There is not a place for compromise. It's not, well, we'll worship the Lord on the Sabbath, but today is the day of our civic duty. You know, we have positions in Babylon, and you know, it would be very good for us to maintain these positions so that we could be of help to the believers. So we just need to go along with this. No, they see the battle line. And with uncompromising loyalty, they say that they are ready to die for the Lord. Is that not the mark of the believer? to value God's glory above everything else in this world and say, my life is the Lord's. The Apostle Paul, of course, by the same Spirit of Christ would say it in Philippians 1, as he wrote to Christians from his jail cell. I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Can you say that tonight? I mean, this is what a profession of faith is in part, isn't it? Not only to say I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but I would sooner die than compromise His name, that His glory is supreme, and my life, body and soul exist for His praise, that I will part with anything rather than sin against Him, that I am willing to give up my possessions, I'm willing to give up my reputation. I'm willing to give up my comforts and ease. I'm willing to let go of friendships that are not pleasing to Him. I'm willing to give up everything to follow Christ. This is not a few heroes in Nebuchadnezzar's day. This is to be the standard for Christians. That God's glory is more precious to us than a thousand of our lives. Are we willing to be laughed at for Christ? Are we willing to endure loss? Are we willing to lose out on the promotion at work? Are we willing to lose friends at school? Oh, it is a worthy kingdom. It is a kingdom that's worth everything. It is the kingdom of forgiveness. of God's own beloved Son, where sins are washed away and sinners are reconciled 100% with the living God. It is a kingdom in which God lives with His people and dwells with them. It is a kingdom of an inheritance that can't spoil or fade away, reserved in heaven for you. It is a kingdom where your losses are compensated with hundreds and thousandfold, brothers and sisters and houses and homes and all things. It is a kingdom that's worth our lives. And Jesus Christ, by his spirit, gives us eyes to see that. To say the kingdom is worth everything. So that the psalmist comes true when he says that this anointed of God, this king will have willing troops. the day of his battle. Nebuchadnezzar gathers people through threats, intimidation, and terror. Christ gathers you by the proclamation of his love and his mercy and his grace. Nebuchadnezzar's army serves because if they don't they're going to die. Christ's army serves because they know there is no other king who is worthy of their lives and they love him. What a beautiful confession these men make because Christ lives in them. And those who make that confession can be assured that sooner or later their confession will be vindicated. And that brings us to the final thing that we see here tonight. The vindication of our confession. Nebuchadnezzar is furious when he finds out about these men and hears their unflinching commitment to deny him. The orders, the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual. And the men don't flinch, they don't waver, there's no second thoughts. Then these elite troops of the king carry these men up to throw them in the fire and God brings judgment. The men who carry these three Jews are burned to death. And God proclaims his power. And then the men fall into the fire, and their ropes are burned off, but they are not hurt. And the Lord God is speaking and saying to Nebuchadnezzar, you can't even kill three of my servants, bound up by you and thrown into a fire? Where is this mighty power, oh, Nebuchadnezzar? The kingdom of Satan pretends, doesn't it? It boasts. What is little Jerusalem compared to Babylon? And now God speaks and says, oh, but Nebuchadnezzar, you would have no power but from me. What a glorious God. What amazing grace and power. Do you remember those words that God had promised to his people in Isaiah 43? But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Fear not, for I am with you. I will say to the north, give them up, and to the south, do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory. What a God. What a God. Nebuchadnezzar looks and now there are four men walking around in these burning hot fires. Who is that fourth one, like a son of God? May well be the pre-incarnate Christ, right? Maybe I'll be the son of God. or maybe an ordinary angel, but in any case, it's a revelation from heaven that God is with his people. It is a prophecy of Emmanuel that God will come to dwell with us. It is the announcement that God's people need not fear, for in all of their trials, God is with them. What a comfort that is. Evan and Nathan and Jacob, mark well tonight this, that the Lord goes with you. Whatever suffering God has appointed for you, and I can tell you tonight, God has appointed for you suffering. Whatever temptations you will face, and you will face temptation, that the Lord your God has promised in Christ to go with you, to stand with you in the flames, and to deliver you one way or another. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those that fear him and delivers them. And we may have that comfort tonight because Christ has stood not just with us, but he has stood in our place at the cross. We didn't stand with him there. The disciples deserted him. But Christ stood alone. He stood isolated. He hung on a cross in a place that had our name. Rightfully so, the place of God's wrath. the place of God's justice, the place where our sin met the judge of all the earth. And Christ hung there to bear for us all the curse and all the shame so that he could restore us to God. And we could hear God say, I will be your God and you'll be my people. I will be with you. I've redeemed you. I've called you by name. You are mine. So you three men can say tonight, I'm not my own, but I have a long body and soul and life and a death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Not a hair can fall from my head. Do you see it here? Not a hair of these men is singed in the fire. Not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. Let me say to all of you gathered here tonight, is that your confession? As you stare down the fires, can you say that? That I believe that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father. I am so confident I am in the hands of a God who loves me, who's reconciled to me, who's promised me an inheritance in His house. That the enemies of His kingdom can do what they will, but I will not lose a hair without the will of my Father in heaven. Oh, what a glorious thing it is to know God with us in Christ Jesus. When God's people do that, when they know that they make a bold confession, God will vindicate his servants in this world or in the next. Nebuchadnezzar is faced with the realities that he can't burn up these servants. They examine them as they come out of the flames and they're altogether perfect and unharmed, not even the smell of smoke on them. Nebuchadnezzar says in verse 28, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him and set aside the king's command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own. Or would that the world would be able to say that of us? These people have trusted in their God, they've set aside every command we give them that conflicts with their God, and they would yield up their bodies rather than in the least way deny their God. By the end here, Nebuchadnezzar who had issued the decree that anyone must die who won't bow is now issuing a new decree that anyone who blasphemes their God is to receive the curse. We don't always see it like that in this lifetime, do we? But the day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that our King, Jesus Christ, is King. And all men will see and hear Christ say, confessing our name, these are my faithful servants. This is my witness. People of God, I encourage you tonight not to belittle What seems to be such a small confession that you make. Your lives are ridiculed by the world. Your testimony is demeaned. You aren't considered to be powerful or influential. Many times the world doesn't even stop to take note. But the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings is praised. He has ordained praise from the lips of his people. Lift up your confession. Let your light shine. Stand firm without compromise. Give the Lord the glory due his name. Amen.