It comes from Daniel. Daniel chapter 3. We'll begin at verse 21 tonight. You should find that on page 878 of your few Bibles. As you know, we are right in the middle of that account that might be entitled, The Fiery Furnace. Indeed, we are at the end. of that particular passage. Let's open God's Word. Let's hear His Word. Daniel chapter 3, beginning at verse 21. Let's give attention now to God's Word. 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. And 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. Then 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 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 god. 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." And the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. As far in the reading of God's Word. Amen. Please be seated. Would you pray with me? Father and our God, as we come to the preaching of the Word now, we ask that You would guide and direct our hearts. Lord, it's been a long day. You have blessed us in so many ways. Help us now to set aside our thoughts of the world and the creation and fix them upon You. Guide and direct our hearts tonight, Father, that we might squeeze out all of the goodness of Your Word, indeed, into our hearts. The Spirit would do this powerful work. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. There are many passages in Scripture which if we read of supernatural intervention. Indeed, where supernatural intervention was needed, and we read of it. Think of the ten plagues in Egypt, as the Israelites were allowed to leave. And then as the Egyptians pursued the Israelites right up to the edge of the Red Sea, trapped them. They had no way out. They couldn't go back. They couldn't go forward. The people feared. Moses said, Fear not. Stand firm. The Lord will fight for you. The Lord will intervene. You only have to be silent. And then the Lord did intervene. That supernatural pillar comes between the Egyptian army and the Israelites all night long. And then, as Moses takes his staff and puts it over the Red Sea, the waters were parted. And the people went through the midst of the sea on dry ground. Supernatural intervention. And then as Moses takes his staff and puts it back over the water, the seas return and the Egyptians are vanquished. People walked through on dry ground and the Egyptians were defeated supernaturally. We have a bit of that tonight in this passage. You know where we're at in this prophetic book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar has set up an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits. That's about 90 feet. And he's called the important people of Babylon, the satraps, the prefects, the governors, counselors, treasurers, justices, magistrates, to come to the dedication of this golden image and called them to bow down and worship it when they hear the music. And they were all under the threat of death. If they didn't bow down and worship, the king would have them thrown into the burning fiery furnace. And then last week we read of the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they said, we have no need to answer you on this matter, O king, for they knew that God would deliver them out of the hand of the king. But if not, they said, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image. That's where we are. Tonight, I want us to see that Christ supernaturally delivers sinners from the just wrath of God to become living sacrifices. Christ supernaturally delivers sinners from the just wrath of God to become living sacrifices. We'll see that in three points tonight. First, the furious rage. Secondly, I'm switching order now, so pay attention. First, the furious rage. Secondly, the supernatural deliverance. And then finally, the living sacrifice. A little bit different than you have in your bulletins tonight. As we go through this passage, I'd like you to be thinking about, meditating upon, asking yourself, am I a living sacrifice? Well, first, the furious Rage. This passage begins tonight with a continuation of the king's rage. We read of the king's rage initially back in verse 13 of chapter 3. Nebuchadnezzar in a furious rage commanded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought. Remember, there were folks that didn't like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and told the king, they're not worshipping, they're not falling down, they've heard the sounds and they're not bowing down before your golden image. And so the king commands them to come, but he commands them to come in this furious rage because they had not bowed down. And after they professed faith in the living God, which we've referred to tonight, now King Nebuchadnezzar is filled with fury. Verse 19, that which was in the king's heart now comes to the surface, the expression of His face changes with regard to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. You could see it. You could see that which was in His heart, this hatred, this fury, this rage, because of the righteousness of these three men. Not only filled His heart, but now it has filled His face. And then it was also expressed through His commands. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more, or seven times hotter than usual. He ordered mighty men to bind these three, and He ordered these three to be cast into the fiery furnace. See, the king's rage was resulting in the king's action. Verse 21, these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace. From the king's perspective, there was no time to wait. They were bound in everything that they stood before the king in. This rebellion, from the king's perspective, had to be quashed, and it had to be quashed now, immediately, violently. There was no hesitation, there were no second thoughts by the king. There was no time to repent, so to speak, His rage and fury against these three who are speaking and exhibiting righteousness results in unabated hatred toward those who refuse to bow down and worship this idol as he had commanded. This rage of the king flowed out of the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to prostrate themselves before an idol and neglect the worship of the one living and true God. The King's fury arose because of the righteousness of these three." Remember this morning, this morning's passage that we focused upon, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. The King's fury that happened many years ago can be seen in the world today. Don't we see it? Don't we know that that's what Scripture speaks of? Isaiah chapter 30 speaks of it. It speaks of people who don't want to hear the Word of God, who refuse to listen to the instruction of the Lord, who hate the instruction of the Lord, and who say to the seers, you must not see visions, and to the prophets you must not prophesy to us what is right. Those who are outside of Christ hate God's Word. They are in a rage against the Word of God. And we know this is because those who are not in Christ love the darkness in which they live. They will not come into the light. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his works be exposed. John chapter 3. And out of that love for the darkness flows the hatred for the light. Just think of the cross for a moment. Think of Jesus going to the cross and how the chief priests, the religious leaders of the day, stirred up the crowds, not to release Jesus, but to have Him crucified, to release Barnabas, the murderer, loving the darkness, hating the light. So much so that they were able to get the crowds to cry out again, crucify Him. Such a hatred for the light, for righteousness, that the people would try to extinguish it forever. That they could remain in their beloved darkness. That's where this furious rage comes from. This rage against righteousness. This rage against Jesus Christ. That's what the psalmist was writing about in Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. Until Jesus Christ returns. This rage, this fury will continue against Him and against all those who follow Him. We can clearly see in this passage the King's hatred for righteousness. And we can apply that to the world today, as the world hates the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But we really can't move on from this picture, this section of the account of the golden image and the fiery furnace without considering the way in which it points us also to the righteous wrath of God. We know that the living God is a good and just God, unlike Nebuchadnezzar who is a sinful man and an unjust king. But God in His purity and His holiness must uphold His justice. And so we see that God not only causes righteousness to prevail, but sin and transgression are justly punished and put away. God must ensure, as the just judge, that His eternal wrath for sins committed against Him is completely satisfied. Think of the fiery furnace. It was heated seven times hotter than its normal temperature. That prefigures for us the fires of hell, and thus God's eternal wrath. The number seven is used at times in Scripture as a number of completeness. At times it symbolizes completeness. And if it's applied to the fiery furnace, the fiery furnace was heated up seven times hotter than normal, the normal heat range, which would imply or speak to us that the furnace could not be heated any hotter. It was complete, it was full, as far as furnaces go. It could not be heated any hotter. So if you take that image and you apply it to the wrath of God, which I think is appropriate for us to do, we have the reality of that which is coming. A bit of a glimpse into the eternal fires of hell and God's wrath. The fiery furnace gives us a picture of that which could not be quenched. A fire which would not go out, which would not be satisfied with the mere bodies of these men. It would continue to consume. We see it. as those who carry Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego go to the mouth of the fiery furnace, and they themselves perish due to the heat." It was an all-consuming heat, a consuming fire which could not be extinguished. While it was more than hot enough to consume, the fires of hell do not. Those who remain in hell will suffer eternally in that unquenchable heat, that unquenchable fire. Think of the rich man and Lazarus as he calls for mercy from Abraham. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame. That's the image. We're given here in this picture of the fiery furnace a graphic description of the fires of hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. Unlike Nebuchadnezzar, rage is not used to describe God's reaction to sin. What is used? Wrath is used. Anger is used. Throughout Scripture we see it. in the cause of rebellion, as the people go and blame Moses and Aaron for the death of all those who died that day. The Lord speaks to Moses and tells him to get away from the congregation, that he might consume the people. And so Moses said to Aaron, take your censer, put fire in it from the altar, lay incense on it, and carry it quickly to the congregation to make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord." Throughout Scripture, God's justice is referred to as anger, His wrath. And God's wrath, His anger is a just and righteous wrath. We see that as well. Psalm 51. As David writes, "...against you, you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words, and blameless in your judgment." That's exactly what David was saying. God's wrath is sent in repayment of the guilt of men as they commit sins against Him. Paul writes of it in his letter to the church at Rome, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. J. I. Packer writes, His book, Knowing God, God's wrath is not the ignoble outburst that human anger so often is. A sign of pride and weakness. But it is holiness reacting to evil in a way that is morally right and glorious. The fiery furnace is just a picture of the wrath of God reserved for those who love their sin and refused to bow down to the living God." That brings us to our second point, the supernatural deliverance. Well, we know the expected does not happen. The king was expecting to hear and see death. He ordered it. And from his perspective, with the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, that would have been expected. He had decreed death for these three rebels. The king was now expecting to hear their cries as they are perishing in the flames. He was expecting to hear the crackling of the flames as these bodies were being devoured, just as the Egyptians expected an easy route of the Israelites at the Red Sea. King Nebuchadnezzar expected a quick and immediate painful death for these three righteous Israelite men. But there were no cries. No cries of pain from these three. There was no crackling of the fire consuming their flesh. No, nothing of the sort. Indeed, the only death that day to be heard and seen was the death of those who participated in this persecution of the people of God. And this is the way God works. He frustrates the plans of the wicked. He frustrates the devices of the crafty so their hands achieve no success. Job chapter 5. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and fatherless. But the way of the wicked He brings to ruin. Psalm 146. God fulfills His own glorious will. Not the will of kings and men. And so we read of the astonishment of the king, verse 24. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. Think of that just for a minute. The king could not sit still. He could not believe his eyes. He had to get up close. and closer. The king had to confirm that which he thought he saw. He needed to do so quickly. It was awesome. He rose up in haste. Remember, this was the king of the greatest nation on earth. He had seen much. And he likely had much to do. And it seemed that he had disposed of this issue. Disposed of this matter of rebellion. But this could not wait. That which he thought he saw, which grabbed his entire attention, he rises and goes to see the sight, like Moses turning aside to see the burning bush which was not consumed. The king rises up in haste, and he's astonished. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The numbers just didn't add up. Three were thrown into the cauldron, and four were seen walking in the midst of the fire. walking, thus unbound, their ropes not on them any longer, walking and not hurt by the fiery flames, they should have been consumed. Indeed, they should have been unrecognizable by this point. But there they were, all three, walking unharmed, and the fourth like a son of the gods. Indeed, he asked to get others to confirm that which he was seeing. Did we not cast three men bound into the fire? And his counselor said, yes, that's true. But I see four. Are you seeing the deliverance here? Deliverance by the Son of God. 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. Now it was undeniable. Deliverance had occurred. Someone greater than King Nebuchadnezzar was there and had denied His order of death. Someone more powerful than the king had intervened. Someone with control over the fire, over death and life, had descended and interposed His will over that of the king's will. And this deliverance was complete. Think of the furnace, heated seven times hotter than normal. Heated to completeness. And now this deliverance, accomplished by this One like a Son of the Gods, this deliverance was complete. Look at verse 27. The satraps, the prefects, the governors, the king's counselors, these are the ones that bowed down to the image and now they're called to confirm that which the king saw. gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men." Think of that. The fire had no power. The fire left no perceivable marks or odors. If you've sat down by a campfire for any length of time, you know that you go away smelling like the fire, as if smoke usually follows you. You walk away, you stink! You can tell, you've been at the campfire, I can smell you. But not on these men. There was no smell of fire which had come upon them. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed. The fire had no power. You see, their deliverance was complete. It was as if they'd never been thrown in. No one could tell. Satraps, prefects, governors, kings, counselors, they gathered together. They're investigating, they're looking, they're seeing. They couldn't even tell that they'd been thrown in the fiery furnace. Complete deliverance. Do you see the supernatural power of Jesus here? One like a son of the gods? Now, King Nebuchadnezzar didn't really know what he was saying. But this was a pre-incarnate appearance of the very Son of God who made all things and whose dominion over all things, even the fire. The Lord Jesus Christ has power to deliver even from the fires of hell. We can't miss it here. His powers clearly set forth for it. We'd be remiss to fail to see the deliverance possible by and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God demands complete satisfaction of His righteous judgment for sins committed by you against Him. And there's only one who can do that. There's only one who can satisfy God's justice completely, who can stand in your place in the fiery furnace of God's wrath, and that is Jesus Christ. He's the same one who stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in that fiery furnace on that day. It was the Son who shepherded these three through the valley. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with Me." That's exactly what was happening. The Son of God was with these three, ushering them through this valley of the shadow of death. You can't stop there. You have to also see that deliverance by Jesus Christ is complete. Just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's deliverance was complete, just as they were cleansed, so to speak, from even any smell of the fire, Jesus cleanses those who trust in Him from all smell of sin. Such that His deliverance is complete. Think of Paul's letter to those in Rome. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Nothing. Not just a little portion left. The crime hasn't been reduced from murder to just Just in a costing, no. There's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Even though we were dead in our trespasses, we've been made alive together with Christ. By grace you've been saved and raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places. Do you see? There can't be anything left with regard to your sin. If you're going to be and you are seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places, it's complete. Your cleansing is complete in Christ since it's been washed away as far as the east is from the west. So far does He remove our transgressions from us. As Isaiah puts it in chapter 38, our lives have been delivered from the pit of destruction for you, meaning God has cast all my sins behind your back. That's the idea. Through Christ, God is not viewing our sins. They are as if they are non-existent, separated as far as the East is from the West. Complete deliverance in Christ, supernaturally. It brings us to our third point, the living sacrifice. We have such a wonderful picture here in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But what might be even more glorious are the words of the king, this one, this pagan, this heathen, this one who worshipped idols. But as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego come out, as the power of the fire was not evident upon them at all, Shadrach, excuse me, Nebuchadnezzar says, 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 God. You see, the king recognized that. He saw so very clearly that these three had yielded up their bodies. They so trusted God, the living God, that they were able to do this. We listened to their words last time as they proclaimed the living God. as they spoke of our God whom we serve, as they voiced their trust in Him who is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O King. But those were words, and now we've seen their action. One might say that these three weren't being acted upon, were being acted upon, they weren't really acting, even though it was someone else who tied them up. It was someone else who carried them up. It was someone else who threw them into the fiery furnace. Others were doing the heavy lifting, so to speak. But these three gave themselves up bodily. They were willing to, and did, sacrifice their bodies. In a sense, they had no care for what was being done to them. That is the definition of a living sacrifice. of giving yourself over to the will of God. That's not to say we're not to care for our bodies. That's not to say we're to treat our bodies roughly. That's not the idea. But the concept of being a living sacrifice here is that these three gave themselves over bodily to the will of God. They not merely said it, but they did it. There's a difference. And that's part of the sense of being a living sacrifice, that which you read of tonight in Romans chapter 12. Actively pursuing the giving up of yourself to the will of God. John Calvin puts it this way, we must cease to live to ourselves in order that we may devote all the actions of our life to His service. Our body ought to be offered a sacrifice to God. Brothers and sisters, we say a lot of things, many of which we just don't do. James was saying that, be doers of the word, not hearers only deceiving yourselves. And that's seemingly the call of this passage tonight in part. Don't be a mere hearer of the Word, but be a doer of the Word. That's the idea behind being a living, active sacrifice. Actively pursuing the will of God in all areas of your life. Let me say that again. A living sacrifice is a person who actively pursues the will of God in all areas of life. Once you say to yourself, I will pursue my own will today." You've stopped being a living sacrifice, because you're not actively pursuing the will of God. These three, Yishadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, gave up their pursuit of their own wills. These young men, intelligent, seated in high positions in the government in Babylon, much to live for, even as exiles. And yet they actively gave it all up to pursue the will of God. Not merely saying we trust in Him, but actively pursuing that trust as they allowed themselves to be bound and carried and tossed into the fiery furnace. We didn't hear a word. Wait a minute! I reconsidered. Let me bow down now. What a picture we have here in Daniel with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We should be asking ourselves tonight, do I allow myself to be bound? Bound and directed by the will of God. It's quite an image in this passage we have to meditate upon as we ask ourselves when persecution arises, and it will, as we learned this morning, Am I willing to be bound by the will of God? These three were not struggling. They were not considering ways of escape. They were not succumbing to the temptation to just bow down and worship. They were not fearful of what would come. No, these three allowed themselves to be bound by the will of God even as they faced this level of persecution. How can you? Tonight, by trusting in Christ, by trusting in His blood shed for sinners such as you, by knowing and believing that the Father loves you so much that He sent His only eternally begotten Son for you, by remembering as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did that which was written many years later, but was true for them as well as for us, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Brothers and sisters, we need to remember that. We need to keep that before us constantly. if we're going to be that living sacrifice. Yes, Christ supernaturally delivers sinners from the just wrath of God to become living sacrifices. The Israelites were delivered through the water. God intervened and delivered them. And it's Jesus Christ who intervenes for us tonight, for you tonight if you trust in Him. saving you from the wrath of God, so that you would indeed become that living sacrifice. Amen.