Our larger catechism reading is from question and answer 191. Number 191, pages 965 and 966 in the hymnal. What do we pray for in the second petition? It's speaking about the Lord's Prayer. So there are six petitions in the Lord's Prayer, and the catechism is walking through the Lord's Prayer. So it asks, what do we pray for in the second petition? Answer. In the second petition, which is Thy Kingdom Come, acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed. That the gospel may be propagated throughout the world, the Jews called and the fullness of the Gentiles brought in. That the church may be furnished with all gospel officers and ordinances, purged from corruption, countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate. That the ordinances of Christ may be purely dispensed and made effectual to the converting of those who are yet in their sins and the confirming, comforting, and building up of those who are already converted. that Christ would rule in our hearts here and that he would hasten the time of his second coming and our reigning with him forever and that he would be pleased so to exercise the kingdom of his power in all the world as may best conduce to these ends. We pray that Christ would advance his kingdom and destroy Satan's kingdom Let's respond by worshiping in song. Hymn 497, More Love to Thee, O Christ. Our sermon text is Daniel chapter one. Daniel chapter one. We're going to go through the whole chapter, so let me encourage you to open your Bibles or your devices to that chapter. Please keep them open, but we'll do something a bit unusual. Because the text is so long, we're going to read through it bit by bit as we go. And I'll signal when we're reading God's word and when I'm saying my own words. So we'll make that clear. But let's pray for God's help before we begin. for living in true God. We thank you for your word. We thank you that it is inspired. God breathed. And Holy Spirit of God, we pray that you would breathe through the word into our hearts the breath of life, enliven us, open our minds, awaken our consciences, enervate our wills, give us grace to follow you all the more closely. For Jesus' sake. Amen. The title of the sermon is Living for Christ in an Anti-Christian World. And unless you've been hiding in a bomb shelter for the last 10 years, you know very well that our world is getting more and more hostile to Christ and the gospel, more and more anti-Christian. But it's not the first time God's redeemed people have been called to live in such an environment. In fact, there have been quite a few times, and if somebody could lead a whole church history class talking about those kinds of times. But I'm thinking about an old covenant time, the time of Daniel. when God's children, well, it was the beginning of Babylonian captivity. There was a first wave that was taken away and Daniel was part of that wave before the final sacking of Jerusalem. So that hadn't happened yet, but it was about to. And as we go through this, I want us to see three basic things. Keep trusting your faithful Savior as the sovereign ruler of all things. Keep putting your guard up against the shaping efforts of the world, against the pressures of the world, and keep resisting the pressures of the world. So first of all, keep trusting your faithful Savior as He sovereignly controls all things. Look at verses one and two, Daniel chapter one, verses one and two. This is the word of the Lord. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his God, and placed the vessels in the treasury of his God. So this was around 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Nebo of Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish, and Babylon became a great world power. And all through the Old Covenant, God had warned his people. I mean, starting in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as they were about to go into the land, if you if you keep the covenant and follow me, trust and obey me, here are the blessings you will enjoy. If you break the covenant and turn away from me, here are the curses that will fall upon you. And God kept sending prophets over and over again to keep pointing out how the people were falling away from the Lord, to keep giving gospel promises, to keep giving God's warnings, but the people of God kept persisting in their sins. And so God made a very specific prophecy through Isaiah about a hundred years before this. Isaiah 39 verses 5 and 7, this is God's Word. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days are coming when And all that is in your house, and all that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Now look closely in Daniel chapter 1, look closely at verse 2. This is God's word. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with some of the vessels of the house of God and he brought them to the land of Shinar and so on. But notice that this those words at the very beginning, the Lord gave. I mean, Babylon was a great power, and it had great soldiers and great military leaders and strategists, and that was something the Lord used, but ultimately, it was the Lord who gave Jehoiakim into his hand. Everything is in the Lord's hands, and the Lord's hands are in everything. And if you're not right with God, that's a great terror, because it means there's no escape. But if you are right with God through Jesus, that's a great comfort. The Heidelberg Catechism starts out this way. My only comfort in life and death is that I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. So take comfort in the fact that things don't happen by accident. The fact that we're in a culture that is becoming hostile to us and more difficult to pursue Christ is no accident. The Lord has raised us up just for this moment, and he's raised up this moment just for us. And so keep your focus on the Lord who is in control, and keep remembering, He causes all things to work together for your salvation. When Romans 8 says He causes all things to work together for the good of those who love Him, it doesn't mean He makes only good things happen to them. No, He causes all things to work together, good things and bad things. They work together, just kind of like a pharmacist takes chemicals that would be poison all by themselves and he mixes them together in such a way that they actually are medicine that have a healing power. So the Lord takes all the things of our lives, the bad things, the good things, and mixes them together in just such a way, with each individual child of God in mind, that they work for your salvation. And so when Jesus is your Savior, you've got great hope no matter what happens. Your life is hid with Christ in God, and the Lord is working things together in the way that's best. Best for His glory, best for your good. Secondly, keep putting your guard up against the shaping efforts of the world. Listen now, look at verses three through seven. Daniel 1, verses three through seven. Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding, learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans, that is, the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years. And at the end of that time, they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. Daniel, he called Belshazzar. Hananiah, he called Shadrach. Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego. If you watch any police shows, which I kind of enjoy them, you know that when the police have a suspect, they sometimes, as they're interrogating them, play good cop, bad cop, and one of the policemen seems to be the good guy on the side and the other policeman seems to be the mean guy that you don't want to get any more angry at you. Well, that's what these four youth, these four young men got treated to, the good cop approach. And these guys are probably about 13 or 14 years old. We don't always think about that. But these were just very young, very young men. And the first thing that they do is re-educate them, three years in the King's special training course to make sure you drive out all that Jehovah stuff. all that Moses stuff, and fill it in with all the Babylonian pagan stuff, idolatrous stuff. And then they also changed their identity. And it's interesting to compare these names. So Daniel, the name Daniel means, My judge is El, which it means God. That's the word for God. My judge is God. But his name was changed to Belteshazzar, which means Bel, who was the chief god, also known as Marduk. Bel is my protector. So it's kind of like a play on the meaning of their name, but changing it to a pagan god instead of the living god. Hananiah means Yah is gracious. God is gracious. Shadrach means under command of Aku, the moon god. Mishael means who is like God, and his name was changed to Meshach, who is like Aku, the moon god. Azariah means Yah is my helper. Abednego means servant of Nabu, or the god of vegetation. John Calvin summed it all up like this. The design of the king was to lead these youths to adopt the customs of the Babylonians that they might have nothing in common with God's chosen people. And that's still the way the world works. The world still tries to pressure God's redeemed children into its old mold, into its own mold, and it still plays good cop, bad cop with God's people. Which means if you conform to the pressure of the world there will be pleasant consequences But if you resist the pressure of the world if you won't conform there will be unpleasant consequences Which is probably why there's a record number of people who had professed faith in Christ who are deconstructing. I almost said deconverting. They call it deconstructing, basically renouncing their faith in Christ and turning their backs on it. Because there are unpleasant consequences if you resist the pressures of the world. And the more the world gets worldly, I mean, acts according to its nature, the more those good cop, bad cop tendencies come out, which is why training children, Christian children in the faith is so important, their education is so important, which is why our day-by-day fellowship with the Lord is so important. Do we get our self-image from the world, or do we get it from God? Does what the world thinks of us, is that what makes us tick? Or is it what God thinks of us that makes us tick? And the more we spend time with God, breathing in his word, breathing out our prayers, the more we get our self-image from God. It's what God thinks of us that makes us tick. And that's also why our fellowship with our fellow believers is so important. We need our fellow Christians, and they need us. And the church is sort of tottering. Is that the word? Since COVID, it seems like a lot of people who haven't renounced faith in Christ, but they still drifted away from going to church. And it's a danger to them, but it's also a danger to the church. They need the gifts of their brothers and sisters in the church, but the church also needs their gifts. And it seems that the devil made hay during COVID. It was an occasion that he used, but the Lord also makes hay, the Lord who causes all things to work together for good. But we need to take warning and we need to give warnings to our brothers and sisters in Christ that we need our fellowship with the Lord and we need our fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ that we might encourage one another in our walks with the Lord. And this is what Daniel, and Hananiah, and Mishael, and Azariah did. God's pretty explicit about it. In Hebrews 10, he says, let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works, and let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people are doing, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Romans 12 sums it all up. Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. And that's what we see in the rest of Daniel chapter one. Which brings us to our third point, keep resisting the pressures of the world. Listen to verses eight through 16. This is God's word. But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs. And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who assigned your food and your drink, for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youth who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king. Then Daniel said to the steward, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, test your servants for 10 days. Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink, and then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king's food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see. So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for 10 days. At the end of 10 days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables. thus far the reading of God's word. So for the Lord's sake, they devoted themselves to keep resisting the pressures of the world. And when they got together with each other, they'd encourage each other in the Lord. They'd call each other their Hebrew names, not their Babylonian names, and they'd They'd read scripture together or quote scripture together. Maybe they didn't have any access to Bibles, but what they had remembered from growing up, they would quote together, they'd pray together. that encourage each other in the Lord. And whether in private or in public, they resisted eating the king's food. And it's interesting, I mean, you read through this, the Bible doesn't say why. It doesn't say that it was unlawful for them to eat this food. Surely they did resist to avoid idolatry because idolatry is all through the Babylonian system. But I think maybe it was more likely that they resisted these luxuries in order to avoid getting soft and being enticed to give in and go along with the Babylonian way of life. And for Christ's sake, that's what we are to do as well. Devote yourself to resisting the pressure of the world. Keep cultivating your identity in Christ. with your daily scripture reading, with your fellowship with fellow believers, and keep cultivating each other's identity in Christ by encouraging each other in the Lord. And consider abstaining at least at times from luxuries that aren't necessarily sinful. As you read through the book, Daniel eventually did go to eating the king's food. That's one reason I think it wasn't sinful in and of itself. Daniel had other reasons for not eating it. He did eventually go to eating the king's food, but there is another time later in the book where he abstained again. There are many pleasures in this world, this good world, that aren't necessarily sinful in and of themselves. Foods and TV, video games, cell phones, and so on. But they can have the effect of getting us too used to the world. that can have the effect of making us too pliable when the world tries to squeeze us into its mold. And the world is always trying to squeeze us into its mold. And so we do well to consider, are there times when I should just fast from this or that? Holly and I knew a family when we were at a church in Alberta, Canada, who would they would take their cell phones and all their devices, their computers, and shut them off for a certain period of time. I think it was usually a one-week period of time, just to try to wean themselves from it, make themselves not dependent upon it. He was a fireman, so he had a work phone, and that one had to stay on. But that was the only device that they kept on during that period of just fasting from this particular Blessing, it is a blessing, but it's also a danger. It reminds me of the story of Pinocchio. Pinocchio ran away from Geppetto, you know, and he ended up, he became a bad boy, not a real boy, but a bad one. A bad, not real boy. And he ended up at a place called Pleasure Island Amusement Park. And on this island, the boys were allowed to do whatever they wanted to do. They could eat all the candy they wanted, all the cake they wanted, all the ice cream they wanted, all the cookies, whatever they wanted. They could drink as much pop as they wanted. They could even smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol. They could get drunk if they wanted. They could fight if they wanted. They could vandalize if they wanted. Whatever they wanted to do, they were allowed to do. And they thought this was a great place. They thought this was wonderful. But what they did not know was that Pleasure Island was actually a trap. What they did not know is that all this stuff that they thought was so fun to do was actually the bait that brought them into that trap. And after these boys had enough time being bad, after they acted like jackasses for a while, they'd bit by bit literally turn into donkeys. in this fantasy story, so I guess it's not that literal. But they'd turn into donkeys in this story, and first their laughing would turn into braying, and then their ears would grow long into donkey ears, and then they'd grow tails, and then their skin would grow fur, and then their hands and feet would turn into hooves, and they'd lose their ability to talk, and they'd just start braying instead. And finally they'd be done on all fours. And then when they were real donkeys, when they finally were in their donkey form, they'd be rounded up and sold as slaves to work in mines or in circuses or other places. And it's a great illustration. It reminds me of an old saying. I read it in a book by John Stott long ago. I don't know how old the saying is, but the saying is this. Sow a thought, reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny. It just starts with a thought like a seed and just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, which is a solemn warning. If we sow sinful thoughts, they can lead to sinful acts, and if we sow sinful acts, they can lead to sinful habits. If we sow sinful habits, they can lead to a sinful character. If we sow a sinful character, it leads to a Christless destiny. But it's not just a warning. It's also an encouraging promise. If you sow godly thoughts, that gives rise to godly acts. If you sow godly acts, that gives rise to godly habits. If you sow godly habits, that gives rise to godly character. If you sow godly character, well that shows that you're saved and you have the hope of everlasting life. So resist the world, even the little things, even things that aren't necessarily wrong in and of themselves, but just always keep in mind this world is a trap. It's like the Pleasure Island amusement park, and there are lots of things that we may do. All things are lawful, but not all things are good for us. Trust the living God who honors those who honor him. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, their Hebrew names, trusted God. Just these young men, these boys. I mean, if my children had been kidnapped at age 13 or 14, I'd be terrified about what might become of them. And I guess their parents were terrified, too, if their parents survived that whole episode. What might become of them, especially when they're put in this pressure cooker that's trying to cook the belief in God out of them and cook belief in idols into them. Even when parents aren't in the picture, God is in the picture. God was working in their hearts, and by His grace they trusted God. They put God first, and what was the result? Look at verses 17 to 20. This is God's Word. As for those four youths, God gave them learning and skill and all literature and wisdom. And Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king spoke with them, and among all of them, none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore, they stood before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in all his kingdom. Thus far God's word. So God blessed them. Even though they stayed faithful to him, he gave them greater wisdom than all the others, so their competence stood out to the king. And the result was that each of the four was put into a high position where he could use his influence for the living God. intensely pagan nation. But the Lord could entrust them with such a promotion because they'd learned to trust and obey him, even when it meant risking their lives. And Daniel himself actually stayed in such a position for 70 years. Look at verse 21. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus. Many believers wish they had better positions, in better places. They imagine, if only I was doing something else, or if only I was doing it somewhere else, then I could really serve the Lord a lot better than I'm serving him now. When I graduated from college, I had met a young lady named Holly, and I decided to stick around for a year, and I was going to go on to seminary, but I decided to stick around for a year just to see if this relationship went anywhere. And so I began looking for a job, and I had a double major, but when your double major is Bible and political science, Somehow that only qualifies you to go to graduate school, it seems. Or if that old saying is true that two things you do not talk about in polite society are religion and politics, it means that I'm doomed to be rude. So I had a hard time finding a job, but finally I did find a job as a janitor in a hospital. Actually it was not janitor, it was housekeeper three, that was my title. But what it meant was mopping floors, refinishing floors, and doing that kind of work. At one point I became really discouraged about that. My supervisor hadn't even graduated from high school. That was my boss. I'm just mopping floors and doing stuff. I'm low. I'm down in the dumps. I go to church on Sunday and the pastor was preaching on something. I can't remember what he was preaching on. I can't remember anything except this one thing that he used as an illustration. He used a story in the Bible as an illustration, and he quoted this verse as he was reading that Bible passage. He said, this was in Luke 16, although I had to look that up to know for sure where it came from. God said, if you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you will not be honest with greater responsibilities. And if the Lord had torn the roof off the church building and shouted, Larry Wilson, If you're not faithful in little things, you won't be faithful in big ones. It wouldn't have hit me any more directly or any harder. The Holy Spirit just sort of used that as an arrow that went right into my heart. And I thought to myself, or the Holy Spirit maybe suggested to me, if you can't even mop floors to the glory of God, how can you expect him to entrust you with something bigger than that? It changed my whole attitude towards my towards my job. None of us can make a different position count for God unless we live for him right now, right where we are. Would Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be ready to face the fiery furnace if they hadn't already learned to serve the Lord in the little things that led up to that? Would Daniel have been ready to face the lion's den if he hadn't already learned to serve the Lord in the little things, all the little things that led up to that? And neither will you and I. If we're not willing to stand up and be counted for the Lord over little things, then how will we ever do so over bigger things? Even if the Lord moves us to a different place or puts us in a different status. Can we really be faithful in much without first being faithful in little? Well, how was it that Daniel and his friends stood? And as we've seen, they did these three, I'll rehearse those three points. They kept trusting their faithful savior as he sovereignly controls all things. They kept guarding themselves against the shaping efforts of the world. And third, they kept devoting themselves to resisting. But where did they get the motivation and the strength to persevere? And from Daniel himself, we see two aspects, and they won't surprise you. As we read through the book of Daniel, we see that Daniel was marked by prayer. He was marked by prayer. He was a man of prayer. In fact, he had habits of praying that his enemies, as they were spying on him to find him doing something bad, finally decided, we can't find him doing anything bad, so we've got to use his religion against him, his prayer against him. And we hear of the second part in Daniel chapter nine, verse two. In the first year of Darius, son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the scriptures, according to the word of the Lord, given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years. So apparently Daniel at least had a scroll of the book of Jeremiah. I said earlier I wasn't sure if they had scriptures with them, but at least he had the book of Jeremiah because he kept studying it. And so what did he do? Daniel and his friends were able to stand firm for the Lord because they stood firm with the Lord. Kept reading the Bible, breathing in God's word, and kept praying, breathing out prayers and praises. And these means of grace are not very dramatic, but we need to re-stress them. I mean, that's the really important thing. Many think that the secret of successful Christian living or triumphant Christian living lies in having new and exceptional experiences of God. And Daniel did have wonderful experiences of God, but he didn't seek them. He sought the Lord. He sought the Lord for his own sake. He sought the Lord through the ordinary means of grace, breathing in God's word, breathing out his prayers. and he enjoyed fellowshiping with God and with God's people as he had that opportunity. As our world becomes more and more hostile, we stand firm for God by standing with God, by abiding in Christ, by drawing from Christ that life and vitality and strength that we need. And then we know, as Daniel knew, if God is for us, who can be against us? Amen. Let's pray. Oh, living and true God, we're so grateful for your word when we, especially stories like this where we learn of real people who went through real experiences that we can draw lessons from. And we know the ultimate hero in the story was not Daniel or Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego. The ultimate hero was you as the covenant God who was faithful, who preserved these four young men through their lives, though they were old men, and who enabled them to be faithful in the little things so that they could be entrusted with bigger challenges and bigger things. And they remained faithful even in the big things. We pray that you would give us grace to devote ourselves to you so that we would not think of anything as little, but that we would think of everything as a way to serve you. something to use for your glory, something to use to love neighbors. We pray that you would help us then to be faithful so that we would be firm. No matter what happens to the rest of the world, may we stand firm with you because you are standing firm with us. For Jesus' sake, amen. Let's sing together Psalm 46, the psalm we looked at this morning. Psalm 46. Amen. Lift up your hearts and receive God's blessing. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. you