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Our scripture reading this morning
is Daniel chapter one. Daniel chapter one. Text for the sermon is verses
eight to the end of the chapter, so obviously we'll not reread
that. Pay attention then to verses
eight to the end. Daniel 1, in the third year of
the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord
gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the
vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land
of Shinar to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels
into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake unto
Ashpenaz, master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain
of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the
prince's children, in whom was no blemish, but well favored,
and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding
science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's
palace and whom they might teach the learning and tongue of the
Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a
daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he
drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof
they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children
of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. unto whom the prince
of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name
of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of
Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego. And now the words of the text
start at verse eight. But Daniel purposed in his heart
that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's
meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested
of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. God had brought Daniel into favor
and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince
of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king who hath
appointed your meat and your drink. For why should he see
your faces worse liking than the children which are of your
sort? Then shall ye make me to endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Malzahar,
whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech thee 10 days,
and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Then
let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance
of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat, and
as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to
them in this matter and proved them 10 days. At the end of 10
days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than
all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat.
Then Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that
they should drink and gave them pulse. As for these four children,
God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and
Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the
end of the days that the king had said he should bring them
in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king communed with them,
and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the
king. And in all matters of wisdom
and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them
10 times better than all the magicians and astrologers that
were in all his realm. Daniel continued even unto the
first year of King Cyrus. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ,
as we read at the beginning of the chapter, the Lord had given
Judah into the hand of Babylon. The king Jehoiakim became the
subject of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. One of the immediate
consequences of that was that Nebuchadnezzar could do with
Judah and with the people as he wished, and he instructed
the man who was his right-hand man at Ashpenaz to select from
the children of Israel some of the best young men and children
that he could find there. Between the ages of 12 and 20,
the word children can indicate that wide of a group of ages,
and he had to select those who were from the king's seed and
from the nobles of Judah, men and children who were physically
fit and attractive, men who were extremely intelligent and applied
themselves in their studies, but also those who would be leaders,
who would be able to stand in the house of Nebuchadnezzar and
in his palace and be his counselors. He brought them to Babylon and
enrolled these covenant children in Babylon's schools. They would
be taught there the tongue language and the learning of the Chaldeans. The goal was to have the best
of these men, now when they grew up, to become counselors for
the king, that they would serve Nebuchadnezzar and serve for
the glory and the strength of his kingdom of Babylon. That end, therefore, these four
young men are brought there. They have covenant names, Daniel,
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, each one of them significant,
indicating that their parents loved God, that their parents
raised these children in the fear of the Lord. The book of
Daniel is about a conflict between two kingdoms. On the one hand,
you have the kingdom of Babylon, which represents the kingdom
of man. Antichrist. On the other hand, you have the
kingdom of God. They are in conflict throughout
this entire book. Babylon represents the anti-Christian
kingdom, but it represents the anti-Christian kingdom as that
kingdom wants to charm believers, charm those who are in the church,
and entice them into the kingdom. have them become regular citizens
of the kingdom of man, and to apply their abilities to the
strengthening of man's kingdom. That's what Babylon represents.
God calls us to live in the midst of Babylon, as Daniel and his
three friends did. but to live though we live in
Babylon to be spiritually separate from Babylon. These four covenant
youth who were raised in the fear of the Lord now are surrounded
by evil. And the rest of the book of Daniel
indicates what kind of trouble they would have because they
stood for the cause of God as they live in the midst of the
Babylon which is the anti-Christian kingdom. As they are brought
here now, and they've not been there very long, obviously, they're
just introduced into the schools and given their clothes and their
home to live in and go to class, but now they face an issue. They
have to eat. You would think that the king
might at this point demand of them that they do something that
clearly indicates they will be faithful to him and not faithful
to their God and their people. He might have forced them to
desecrate the Sabbath day or do some other evil deed that
would be a violation of the commandments of God, but that's not how he
worked. and that's not how the devil
works. He required, didn't require,
he set before them something that might seem rather minor,
food and drink that was from the king's own table. And that
becomes the first conflict between Daniel, his three friends, and
the Babylonian kingdom. We read in verse eight, that
Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself
with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which
he drank." That captures really the theme of this passage. It
also captures what is our calling in the midst of the Babylon of
this world. So we take as the theme for the
sermon this morning, purposed not to defile himself. Purposed not to defile himself. Well, notice first of all the
issue, what is he struggling with, the conflict. Secondly,
the trial then that he endures. And thirdly, the blessing of
purposing not to defile himself. What was the issue for these
four Jewish children or young men? It was a significant one. It might not seem so at first.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were safely enrolled
in the king's schools. They had no worries. As we said,
all of their needs were taken care of. And now it was evident
that this would be a luxurious life. They would be able to eat
right off the king's table. The same kind of meat and drink
that he had would now be theirs, and they could enjoy that for
the next three years. But we know that Judah had special
laws about what they could eat and what they might not eat.
After God led Israel out of the land of Egypt, he gave them many
laws, civil laws to govern the country, ceremonial laws that
involved worship of God, and then the moral law, which is
the Ten Commandments, which we read here Sunday after Sunday.
Part of the civil and ceremonial laws that God gave to Israel
governed their whole life not only but especially now governed
what they could eat, what they might not eat. Children probably
know this, that there were clean animals. God said if you have
an animal that has a divided hoof and chews its cud, as for
example, a sheep or a cow, that God said is a clean animal. And
if it does not have both of those characteristics, it is unclean.
And anything that is unclean, said God, you are forbidden to
eat. So from our viewpoint, this seemed
like perhaps a small matter for Daniel and his three friends. The ceremonial laws of Israel
that serious-minded Jews were still obeying, might not seem
like much of a conflict, but there's more to it than merely
some meat and some wine, because behind it is the matter or the
principle of separation unto the Lord. Separation unto the
Lord. Would they remain in Babylon,
a separate, that is spiritually separate, people of God devoted
to Him, or would they become as the Babylonians and live their
life? Israel was the covenant people
of God, the covenant people. Eternally they were the chosen
nation, and the elect among them were loved of God, and they formed
the very core of the nation of Israel. Israel became the chosen
possession of God. He redeemed them in a typical
way, drawing them out of the bondage of Egypt, covering them
with the blood of the Passover lamb. They were His own people. And God chose to dwell with them.
That's the essence of the covenant, friendship with God, living with
Him in covenant fellowship. That's what the temple represented
in Israel. But because God chose to dwell
with them, they must be holy. God stresses that in so many
ways. One of the passages where we see that is in Exodus chapter
19. Verse 6, just the chapter before the law, you recognize. In Exodus 19, verse 6, God said,
and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation. This was required of them. Now
holiness involves two things. On the one hand, holiness is
separation from sin. Separation from everything that
would defile them. Therefore they had to be separate
from the heathen who were ungodly and from their idols. Separation,
holiness means separation from. In the second place, holiness
means consecration to. That you are devoted to God,
consecrated to Him. That's your life, that's holiness. God therefore gave them laws
that were designed first of all to remind Israel that they were
a separate people and then to help them to remain a separate
people. That's what the purpose of the
laws was. To us, it might seem arbitrary. In a sense, it is.
These are clean animals. These are not clean animals.
We eat the unclean animals today. So there isn't anything wrong
with the animal, but God gave these laws to remind Israel that
they were a separate holy people and to keep them separate from
the nations around them. That began at birth. with circumcision. Circumcision was a sign of the
covenant, and it separated Israel from all the nations around them.
Anyone who was uncircumcised was a heathen, obviously not
a member of the covenant of God, but opposed to him. It went on
to marriage. God absolutely forbade anyone
of Israel marrying a heathen man, a heathen woman. You are to be separate from them. as you are a holy people. The
laws for the priest were even stricter, and as we read there
in Exodus, you are a nation of priests to me. Now look at the
priest and recognize that's what you really ought to be from a
spiritual point of view, pure and holy and consecrated unto
God. And then sometimes God would
raise up Nazarites who would have never cut their hair and
they would drink no wine or strong drink and never touch anything
dead as a reminder of the fact that Israel, you are to be Nazarites,
you are to be wholly separate unto the Lord. That's not all. He gave them other laws that
reminded them of this. You are not, said the Lord, to
sow within one field two different kinds of seeds. Don't mix anything
like that. Even in the things that they
wore, their clothing, they must not mix wool with linen. be separate. There is an antithesis. There is a line that separates.
God is reminding Israel. And with that came the laws for
food. In Exodus chapter 11, we read
specifically of what God said about their food. Exodus 11 beginning
at verse 43. This is the reason. For I am the Lord your God, ye
shall therefore sanctify yourselves, that's holiness, sanctify yourselves,
and ye shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall you defile
yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. For I am the Lord your God, which
that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God,
ye shall therefore be holy as I am holy. So the whole matter
of food might seem inconsequential until you recognize as part of
this plan of God to keep his people separate from the ungodly
and consecrated to him. That's why they must not mingle,
must not intermarry, must not eat as the heathen and with the
heathen. And this is what Daniel and his
three friends now faced. And he purposed not to pollute,
not to defile himself with this food. How would he defile himself? Well, first of all, the foods,
some of it would clearly be unclean, that which God forbade Israel
to eat. By eating their food, he would
then be saying, I will not be separate from the Babylonians.
I will become as one of them. I will eat what they eat. and
ignore the laws of God and become a citizen of Babylon and be as
they are." Not only that, but he would have defiled himself
with idol worship. because it was the common practice
that when a meal was made, part of the meat would be offered
to the idol God, some of the wine would be poured out to the
idol God, and by that, it is, number one, indicating that this
is the God that gave it to us, so we're saying thanks, and then
secondly, it's consecrating the meal to this idol. consecrating
it to this idol God. To partake of the meal would
therefore to be to partake of their idolatry. Polluted, Daniel
and his friends would be. Now, keep in mind what we said
at the introduction, that Babylon represents the kingdom of Antichrist
The kingdom of Antichrist does not ordinarily immediately come
with a sword and say, now you have to worship my God or I'll
put you to death. That's not the way the kingdom
of Babylon does it. The kingdom of Babylon comes
with enticements, with incentives. It presents a beautiful view
of what it is to be a citizen of the kingdom. Here are the
benefits. Here are the joys. Here's the
fun you can have. Here's all the pleasures you
can have. Here's the money. Here's the power. If you come
and join us, if you live according to the way we live, you can enjoy
all of this that we enjoy. That's what Babylon comes to
the church with that. Therefore, the goal was to lead
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah to forsake their spiritual
isolation and become one with the citizens of Babylon. Think
of the horribleness, though, if they would do this. This was
the very reason why the Lord had taken these young men out
of Judah because of the sins of Judah, had given the city
of Jerusalem into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. It was exactly
because they had intermingled with the heathen. They had taken
their daughters of the heathen to their wives and given their
daughters back to the heathen for wives. And they had then
partaken in the idolatry of the land. And God's judgment therefore
came upon Judah because they were living this way. Now Daniel
and his three friends would be agreeing with idolatry, exactly
seeing the judgment of God on the church in that day. Now they're
going to go ahead and do the same things. They couldn't. This would be the first step
into Babylon. becoming one with them, small
as it might seem at first. Understand that the principle
is exactly there for us, the principle of being holy, being
separate. The church is the peculiar possession
of God. The church, that's His covenant
people. We have the sign of the covenant
sprinkled upon our foreheads in baptism. We have the Lord's
Supper, a meal of fellowship with God, which only believers
have the right to. Fellowship with God at His table. We are purchased possession.
1 Peter 2 verse 9 says about the church, You are a chosen
generation, a peculiar people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. That's what we are. God's separate
people. But the church lives in the world.
We are surrounded by the world. No longer is the church like
Israel in the Old Testament, a separate nation that would
then live in isolation from the others and they could have guards
and keep the other people out and be a separate people. That's
not the way God calls us to live today. We don't build us a holy
city. We don't go off and establish
a little province by ourselves. We don't have monasteries where
only believers are allowed. We live in the midst of the world.
We work with the world. We shop with the world. We go
to college, we go to college with the world. We live among
them. But our calling is to be in the
world, but yet not be of the world from a spiritual point
of view. To live the antithetical life.
This isn't just an Old Testament teaching, this is what the Bible
teaches us in 2 Corinthians 6. Wherefore, says Paul to the Corinthians,
living in a very ungodly city, wherefore come out from among
them, be ye separate, saith the Lord, touch not the unclean,
and I will receive you and be a father unto you, and ye shall
be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Same calling,
be separate. Touch not the unclean thing.
It couldn't be any clearer. That's the issue we face day
by day. How do we maintain our spiritual
separation? We have to make choices all the
time. Will this compromise the principle If I do this, if I
allow my children to do that, will this compromise the principle
that I am to be holy? I am to be separate from sin.
I am to be consecrated unto God. That's the trial. That's what
we face day by day. And that's what Daniel and his
three friends were facing concretely in this chapter. That, of course, trying to be
separate, maintaining the principle of purposing not to defile ourselves
will mean there will be trials. There will be trials. Daniel
had trials. And as Daniel is here, it seems
that pretty much everything is against him. The food is placed
in front of him. A clear violation of God's command,
it would be to eat. But how can you escape that?
How could they escape that? Consider their position. They
are captives. They are captives. They've been
taken away from father and mother. Father and mother are far, far,
far removed. Their parents will never know
if they eat this or not. They'll never know. And they
might even think, well, would dad and mom rather that
I starve? Or would they rather that I eat? Quite a question. What would
my mom and dad want me to do? They have a very tenuous position. They may be the best and the
brightest, but they are still captives of the Babylonians,
and they are young boys, probably in the range of 12 to 15 years
old. And food is a necessity. You
have to eat. You have to drink to stay alive.
So there would be this obvious strong appeal to the flesh. Here's
food. There isn't any other food. So
this must be what I'm required to eat. It would be easy for
them to reason, well, it's death or it's eating this food. Clearly,
we eat. And add to that, that all around
them were fellow Jews. Jews who had been raised in Jerusalem. Jews who had been, they had heard
all of these laws about eating, and what you wear and the whole
of your life and circumcision and all of these laws that they
knew all of these things full well. And when this food is set
in front of them, they're eating without hesitation. They're eating
and drinking and enjoying the food of the king. But if Daniel
would have asked them as he perhaps did, do you think it's right
for you to eat this food? The food that may have been offered
to idols, the food that has uncleanness in it, they probably would have
looked at him as if he was crazy. This is the best food in the
world. We never had anything like this. And now you want to
be a vegetarian? The fact that it didn't bother
the others would have made the trial even more difficult for
Daniel and his three friends. Nonetheless, they purposed in
their heart, we will not defile ourselves. So the first thing
they did is they asked the head man, the prince of the eunuchs,
if they might have some other kind of food. And his answer
should have put terror into their hearts. Because when they asked,
his answer was an unqualified no, there is no chance of that. And then he said, that if I would
give you different food and you would turn out sickly, that the
king would be angry. And he said, why then shall you
make me endanger my head to the king? Well, understand, if the
head of the eunuch was in danger of the king for this disobedience,
what would it be like for Daniel and his three friends? They had
no standing with the king. Would have no mercy if they would
disobey. At that point, this was a trial. That itself, that answer is a
trial because at that point, they could have said, well, you
know, we tried, but it didn't work. All right, I guess it's
obvious the Lord's will is we better just eat. But no, they
didn't conclude that. They purposed in their heart
not to defile themselves. And so they persevered. They
sought Melzar, the man who was their immediate server, and asked
him if he would give them some different kind of food rather
than the king's meat. And they got him to cooperate. And day after day, for three
years, every meal was water and vegetables. Water and vegetables. Water and vegetables for three
years. That's what they ate. It's quite
possible that they were mocked by the other captives. What? Are you too good to eat with
us? Are you holier than we are? But they persevered. Water and
vegetables. So it is with us, is it not? Life is filled with countless
conflicts that involve the principle of spiritual separation from
the world. It begins at birth. At birth,
the world will offer all sorts of programs for you and for your
children. If you don't have enough money,
they'll give you welfare. If you need daycare because mom
wants to go off to work, we have to eat after all. So if mom has
to go off to work, well, then we'll give you daycare if you
can't afford that. They will feed you, they will
clothe you, they will educate you. And that continues all through
life. There are always decisions that
you have to make. Will this compromise the principle? Will this compromise the principle?
As our children get older, we set rules for them, rules for
Sabbath observance, rules for entertainment, rules for how
they are to dress, and we're always wondering, how's the principle
of spiritual separation to be applied in these various areas
of life? A little television, maybe? Does
that compromise the principle? It's just innocent cartoons,
just a comedy, drama. It's just innocent fun. And the
children get older and they have greater freedoms and they have
friends over and while you hear some music that maybe it's not
the best music, but at least they're home with us and we know
they're under our roof and they're not doing anything really bad. These things can seem so small,
and yet we need to be facing the question, are we compromising
the principle of spiritual separation? It's so easy to lose track of
that because it is a constant battle to be spiritually separate,
not to follow the world, not to follow their idols, all their sports activities.
And I'm not saying that sports is something that would fit into
the same category being wrong, but they're welcome, our children.
You can play soccer with us, of course. You can play baseball
with us. You can play basketball with us. Whatever, it doesn't
matter. They'd love to have us join them. And we have to maintain,
I'm not saying that you have to keep your children out of
it, but you do have to maintain the principle of separation. It's not physical, but it is
spiritual. It's real. Having television in the home
is a very, very difficult thing to keep this principle. The dramas
of the world and who doesn't feel totally out of it when they're
a teenager sitting at work in the break room and everybody
is talking about the television programs and they look at you
and I don't watch that. What? And so it is with rock music
and country music and getting involved in the sports
world and devoted to the sports teams that the world follows,
there are their idols, there are their heroes, and they want
us to join with them. enjoy them. They want us to enjoy
them. And our flesh says, well, of
course, that's what I want to do. They have our young adults look
for careers, for jobs. And here, too, it's very easy
to give into the world. You can have this wonderful job.
It only is just once in a while, a Sunday, or it might require
a labor union, but it's a great job. And really, now, of course,
it's not so hard. Many jobs out there, but there
comes times in the history of this country when there have
been few jobs, and you had a choice of unemployment or a labor union
job. Or, here's a great job, but it's,
well, yeah, it's 300 miles away. It's from the church. These are trials. These are trials. that God puts into our life. It would be so easy to simply
go along, to go along with it, enjoy what they're offering you.
There don't seem to be any penalties here. I can enjoy it and still
come to church on Sunday. I can still worship. That's exactly the way the world
works. Always the small things. trying to get us to go along,
to be a citizen, a part of the kingdom of Babylon. Now I realize
in this area, of course, legalism is an issue, and we have to be
very careful here. Legalism means that I make a
rule for me and for my family, and you better follow that same
rule. No, that's not what this is talking
about. Daniel purposed in his heart
In His heart, I will not defile myself. And that's the way a
father and mother and the children need to look at it that way too.
I purpose not to defile myself. I'm not going to judge other
people. I'm not going to make rules for other people. But I have
to stand before God and make decisions. Because God tries
us with this. When God tries us, it's not that
He is unsure what you will do. He knows your heart, and He knows,
in fact, what will happen in the future. He knows. But He
sends trials for our sake. What those trials do when we
face concrete situations of whether or not to go along or to say,
no, this is something I may not do, this will bring to light
what is hidden within us. God has worked in us by his powerful
grace. We can be quite unaware of the
tremendous power that God has worked in us until we face a
trial. And that trial will bring out
what's hidden there, what God has worked in us, the power of
His grace. At the same time, that trial
has in mind, God has in mind that trial to strengthen us. You go through something hard,
you go through a battle, you fight against it, and as you
come through it, you become spiritually stronger. Your faith is purified
by the fire of adversity, and by simply living according to
the Word of God, you are becoming stronger. God is strengthening
us. God causes us to know, you stand
only by the power of grace. You do not stand because you're
Protestant Reformed. You do not stand because your
parents gave you a good Christian education. You stand only by
the power of His grace. That's it. God desires that His power, His
grace be manifest. be manifest to us, be manifest
to each other, and be manifest to the world so that the glory
of God will be revealed here. It's His power that makes His
people to live antithetically in the midst of a godless world.
It's His power. So He tries us. And again, it
brings out what is hidden within our hearts. And that's what's so frightening
about giving in. If we give in to the world, if
we go along with the world, what's in our hearts? All of the corruption and the
vile iniquity that yearns after the things of this world, that
doesn't want to be laughed at or ostracized, wants to fit in. That's what comes out. We think
this is so small, why bother your head about it? It's nothing. I'll know when the really important
test comes. When the test comes that this
is the doctrine and it's clearly a false doctrine, I'll know I
have to stand for the truth. Or when they come and say, you
have two choices, you can bow down to this idol or you can
be put to death, I'll know then, that's when I have to stand. But the frightening thing is,
that a trial brings out what is hidden within our hearts. If we give in, if we give up
our spiritual isolation and join with the world now, when the
consequences for not going along with the world are really insignificant,
You don't have to suffer a whole lot today if you just say no. Granted, if you go to college,
you're gonna have a little more ridicule and trouble there at
Grand Valley, I know. But generally, it's not a huge
thing. A little mocking. But then how will we stand when
the consequence is death? If we cannot stand now when the
consequence is merely somebody laughing at us, ostracizing us,
how will we stand when the consequence is death? The history of the church in
Daniel's day bears this out. Daniel and his three friends
were only required at this point to say no to food and drink that
would defile them. They could eat water and vegetables
for three years. The rest of the Jews didn't bother
their head about it. Down the road, just a couple
of chapters, Nebuchadnezzar will set up this huge image. How many
of those Jewish boys that were partaking of the king's meat
and drink stood up and refused to bow to the image? Not one.
not one, only Daniel, rather Daniel wasn't there, but Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah, they stood up and refused to bow before
that image. There is a relationship because
the trials strengthen us. And when we stand
by the grace of God, When we stand by the grace of God, He
gives more grace for greater trials. And that's the blessing. God's blessing rested upon their
obedience, emphatically, on those who do all in their power to
maintain this principle of separation from sin in the world. You can
see this in Daniel's life. First of all, the blessing is
God gave them a way out. He gave them a way out. He caused
the prince of the eunuchs, first of all, to have favor, so they
dared to ask him, and then they asked Melzar, and God moved the
heart of Melzar to go along with the plan, try it out for 10 days,
see what happens, and then to do this for three years, give
them a separate meal. That's quite a thing. God gave
them a way out. We don't know How difficult it
would have been for Daniel and Hananiah to choose starvation or eating. How many teenagers
here would choose starvation over eating the best food? God did not make them face that
great of a trial at this time in their young lives. He gave
them a way out. They could yet eat and preserve
their conscience. But God blessed them in another
way, and the rest of the chapter brings that out. He blessed them
with wisdom. In verse 17, specifically, it
says, and as for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill
in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all
visions and dreams. The evidence of that is in verse
20, that in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king
inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the
magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. Their
wisdom, their understanding, their knowledge was far beyond
anyone else. Not merely the students who had
been with them in school, but all of his magicians and all
of his astrologers, all his counselors, they were far beyond. There was
no comparison in the kind of wisdom and understanding that
Daniel and his three friends had. Now that's a fitting reward. That's a fitting reward from
God. Because the scriptures say, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. That's Psalm 111 verse 10 and
a number of other places. Psalm 111 verse 10 says, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding
have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. Wisdom is making the right decisions. Wisdom is facing the circumstances
of life and deciding this is the way that I should go. This
is the way that will best serve God. This is the way that will
give God the greatest glory. We need wisdom day after day
to make these hard decisions about spiritual separation. We need wisdom. God gave Daniel
and his three friends wisdom. They feared the Lord. They feared
the Lord. They wanted to be faithful to
Him. They weren't looking for the approval of men. They didn't
fear the king's wrath. They feared God. And that's the
principle. That's the beginning of wisdom.
If you fear men rather than God, you will never have wisdom. It's
the fear of the Lord that you love Him, that you honor Him,
that you want to make Him to be happy always, never to bring
His anger upon you. That's fear of the Lord. Daniel
had that. And God blessed him with wisdom. Daniel would need that wisdom,
wouldn't he? Living in the midst of Babylon, a counselor to wicked
King Nebuchadnezzar, called upon to give advice, called upon to
interpret dreams, he would need wisdom, and so would his three
friends. Imagine if you were a counselor to the
president in Washington, D.C. and how many decisions you would
have to make every day, all day, go along with this, not go along
with this, speak out about this, not say anything about this.
Constantly, he needed wisdom, and God gave it to him. That's what we have to do, make
these choices. Is this the way that will give
greatest glory to God? Will God approve of this? Is
this in harmony with the scriptures? Is this in harmony with the principle
of being spiritually separate? Much wisdom is needed. Whenever we stand firm and remain
spiritually separate, when we hold fast to the promises of
God, And those promises, remember, are very important here, too.
The promise is the kingdom of this world will fail. The kingdom
of this world will not stand. It's threatening or enticing,
but it will not stand. The kingdom of God, that's eternal. That's the promise of God. We
hold on to that as we stand in the midst of the world. And God
gives us ways to overcome in our temptations. The opposite is also true. Conform
to the world, go along with the world, and he will withdraw some
of his grace. And so you want to go with the
world? Well, go ahead then. Find out what it's like. Live
with them. And a child of God can immerse
himself in terrible sins that just started out with agreement
with the world, living in harmony with them. God gives grace in
the way of our standing. That's how he gives grace. And
he blesses us with all spiritual blessings. In the way of standing
for his cause and maintaining spiritual isolation, he gives
us assurance of our salvation. He confirms the forgiveness of
our sins. He gives us greater strength
of faith so that we enjoy covenant life with God. So we need to take heed, to exercise
wisdom, to maintain this principle in our homes, in our lives, not
to be one with the world. We are redeemed. Our bodies are
the temple of the Holy Spirit. We belong to God. We must be
spiritually separate from the world, consecrated to our God. You and I must purpose in our
hearts not to defile ourselves. Amen. Let us pray.
Purposed Not To Defile Himself
- The Issue
- The Trial
- The Blessing
| Sermon ID | 106191316141442 |
| Duration | 52:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Daniel 1:8-21 |
| Language | English |
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