Delivered From Death

This is a question that many people have historically had to ask themselves when they face a serious situation. Am I willing to die for this thing that I believe is right? Am I willing to die for this person? Am I willing to die for this cause? We can think of the founders of our country as they were willing to die for their independence. We can think of doctors who risk their lives in order to treat patients. We can think of good samaritans who look out for people in danger and put themselves in harms way in order to help others. What are you willing to die for?

This sounds easy in our head in the abstract - there are things that we are passionate about. We care about. We love. Of course, we’d be willing to pay a cost for certain people or causes… but death? How does this play out in reality?

Let’s go back some 130 years to the country of Turkey. There were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of new believers in this country that had just experienced religious liberty. However between 1895 and 1896, the Turkish government had killed over 100,000 Christians. On April 24th, 1896, there were orders given to kill another 600,000 Christians. During this darkness, there was an 18 year old girl who had escaped the country and made it to an American medical aid facility on the other side of the border. She was examined and said that she had learned the true meaning of the cross, while pointing to her shoulder. The aid worker moved her sleeve and saw a cross had been burnt into her shoulder. For 7 days in a row this girl was trapped by Turkish soldiers and asked this question: Muhammed or Christ? Each day she told them Jesus - and each day they burnt her with a cross.

Finally on the 7th day, the soldiers told her, “Tomorrow if you say Muhammad, you will live, but if you say Christ again, you will die.” Her mind was made up. She would choose Christ. Jesus was willing to die for her, she would be willing to die for Him. That same day, there was some commotion in the camp and she and several others were able to make a run for the border. She was willing to die for her Christ, yet God delivered her from certain death. Today, we know that millions of Christians live in similar situations each and every day. We see pastors being told in certain communities that if they preach what the Bible says about life being a sacred gift from God or that marriage is between one man and one woman for life, that they will be imprisoned. As Joshua told the Israelites, we must choose this day whom we will serve. What are you willing to die for?

This morning as we continue studying the book of Daniel, we come to Daniel 6:19-28 and we’ll see a man who was willing to die for God… but we’ll also see how this man was delivered from the den of death. If you’re here this morning and you’re a born again child of God, you too have been delivered from death. Let’s read from God’s Word and be reminded of WHO our God is!

Daniel 6:19–28 CSB

19 At the first light of dawn the king got up and hurried to the lions’ den. 20 When he reached the den, he cried out in anguish to Daniel. “Daniel, servant of the living God,” the king said, “has your God, whom you continually serve, been able to rescue you from the lions?” 21 Then Daniel spoke with the king: “May the king live forever. 22 My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths; and they haven’t harmed me, for I was found innocent before him. And also before you, Your Majesty, I have not done harm.” 23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was brought up from the den, he was found to be unharmed, for he trusted in his God. 24 The king then gave the command, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den—they, their children, and their wives. They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones. 25 Then King Darius wrote to those of every people, nation, and language who live on the whole earth: “May your prosperity abound. 26 I issue a decree that in all my royal dominion, people must tremble in fear before the God of Daniel: For he is the living God, and he endures forever; his kingdom will never be destroyed, and his dominion has no end. 27 He rescues and delivers; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth, for he has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions.” 28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

He rescues… He redeems… He rules… He reigns… He saves… He sustains. Just as He delivered Daniel from death, Jesus Christ is still in the business of delivering sinners like you and me from eternal destruction. Have you been delivered from the pit of sin by Jesus today?

God Is Able (19-22)

As human beings, we don’t like being told the word “no.” It doesn’t matter if you’re 2 or 102, the word “no” usually is a word that we don’t enjoy hearing. As much as we don’t like being told “no” you can’t do something, we also know that there are in fact things that we can’t do. I can quote Philippians 4:13 all I want, and I will never be able to run a mile in 1 minute. I am not able to. You can read your Bible to your baby every single day and read through it cover to to cover multiple times, and you can ask them to recite the whole chapter of John 3 at their first birthday and they won’t. It doesn’t matter how much you train, how much you do, they are not able to do that. There are things in life that we are not able to do - we can come up with a long list of these things!

We aren’t able to make something out of nothing… but God is able.

We aren’t able to save ourselves from our sins… but God is able to save us.

We aren’t able to always see how things will work out… but God not only is able to know, God knows.

Is anyone else thankful that we have a God who is ABLE this morning? This was news to Darius. This continues to be news to people in our world today. Consider Darius’ situation here. Daniel is a trusted advisor. He is a loyal worker. He is good at his job. He was going to be in for a big promotion. Yet, here is Daniel being thrown into a den of death. The king told him that he hopes that his God rescues him. What is the king’s problem? He doesn’t know the power of Daniel’s God. He looks at this situation as certain death - where deliverance is seemingly an impossibility. He holds out hope, but he isn’t optimistic. He can’t sleep. He can’t eat. He’s sick to his stomach. But when morning came, he ran to the tomb and he asked, “Has your God been able to rescue you?” Christian, what is the answer to this question - of course God is able! God is able to save. He is able to sustain. He is able to heal. He is able to deliver. He is able to restore. He is able to redeem. This is our God! Why is our God able to deliver?

Go back in verse 20 - who is our God? The living God. Not a god of gold, plastic, or wood… the one true living God. We can think of this situation like this: Who is truly on trial? Daniel, sure. But ultimately, the God of Daniel. Daniel, is your God able to deliver? God proved His power to deliver in chapter 3 and He proved it again here in chapter 6. God has the goods to get it done. He is able! How does God accomplish this miracle? Look at verses 21-22

God sent his angel to shut the mouths of the lions and they didn’t harm him.

Who is this angel? If we go back to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in chapter 3, we see that they were in the fiery furnace

Daniel 3:28 CSB

28 Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Praise to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.

Many believe that this is the same angel or messenger. Others believe that one of if not both of these angelic appearances are none other than Jesus Christ. Regardless, we see that God demonstrates His sovereign power by delivering his faithful servants - He is able. Here God didn’t just rescue a servant from death, he rescued His servant from chaos. Lions in the ancient world were ferocious beasts that were symbols for destruction and chaos and disaster. But here we see that God is able to turn lions into large lambs. We know that our God is able to create peace, not only between ourselves and Him, but between ourselves and those around us. This points us to our eternal state as we won’t have to worry about these creatures of chaos causing catastrophes. One day we’ll enjoy God’s good creation free from the stain and pain of sin! Why would God do this? Look at Psalm 34:7

Psalm 34:7 CSB

7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.

Those who fear Him… Who could that be? What does it mean to fear God? It means to know His power, His holiness, to worship Him, and to have reverence (respect and admiration) for God. Does this seem to fit the description of Daniel? One who knew God. One who trusted in God’s power. One who knew that God was holy and deserving of worship and respect and honor and praise? Daniel isn’t claiming to be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, he is saying that he trusted in the Lord and persevered in that trust in the midst of persecution. Daniel lifted his eyes to a higher throne than the king’s - he looked to His provider rather than the problem. Friends, if you have repented of your sins and have been saved by grace through faith in Christ, you too are called to persevere in the middle of storms. You trust that God is able. You know that suffering will happen in this life, but that it will not last forever!

1 Peter 4:13–14 CSB

13 Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice with great joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are ridiculed for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ! Rejoice as you stand on God’s Word and suffer for doing so. Rejoice, knowing that God is able to deliver you from your temporary situation, but that God has already delivered you from your ultimate situation. Rejoice because you are blessed. Our hope is that of Daniel - we are found innocent before our God not through our perfection, not through our hard works, but through the finished work of Jesus Christ in our place on the cross! Like Daniel, we are found innocent before God because of the blood of Jesus. This is our hope - our God is able to save. He might not always do what we expect in the moment, but He has saved us from the penalty of sin and one day He will save us from the presence of sin. It might be hard for us to understand how Daniel could have had this type of faith… He lived on this side of the cross, we live on the other side!

As you and I look to the crosse have an even stronger basis of faith than Daniel did. We know what Jesus did. We have hope. We have assurance. We have confidence. This leads us to trust in our God even more. To pray with persistence. We know that our God is able - not that He will do what we want, but that He has the power to do what is best. He is able

God Is The Avenger (23-24)

Today only 39% of Americans who claim to believe in God believe that God has the power to change their situations. People not only doubt God’s ability to save but more fundamentally, they question God’s justice and holiness and His goodness and greatness. The God of the Bible is a just God - many question His justness with the following, “Why does God let bad things happen to good people.” Multiple problems - God doesn’t let things happen in the sense that they’re surprises or that He is a spectator. Second, who is good? We’re all guilty of treason before God because of our sin. The wages of sin is death. There is no one righteous, not even one! While we might be good compared to another person, we are not good in God’s sight - we’ve all fallen short of His mark of perfection. This makes us all deserving of destruction. There are many in our world who wrongly believe that God will not bring about judgment upon those who do wrong. Consider Exodus 34

Exodus 34:6–7 CSB

6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.

Forgiving rebellion and sin, but not leaving the guilty unpunished. As Spurgeon put it, “Almost saved is altogether lost. Being in the Kingdom is what saves… not being near the Kingdom.” Daniel trusted in his God. He had faith in God. He was saved by God from this tomb… but there are two sides of this tomb.

On one hand, it is a den of deliverance but it is also a den of destruction - same with the cross. The cross spells the deliverance of God’s people but the doom of God’s foes. The deliverance of the seed is always accompanied with the destruction of the serpent. The dark side of Daniel’s deliverance is the judgment that falls on those who tried to destroy him, and in turn, mock his God. Not only these government officials, but their entire families were cast into the den of lions and they were devoured. These weren’t tame lions. These weren’t old, powerless lions. These were ferocious beasts who devoured them and crushed them. This was a terrible end and this was the law of the Persians - we don’t see God order their execution in the text… but we do see that these people were destroyed in part because their gods were unable to save them. God is not only able to deliver, He is the avenger of His people. He doesn’t always do what we expect and He doesn’t always act when we’d expect Him to do in our timeline, but wrong will be judged. God will avenge His people. We see in places like Deuteronomy 7:1-3 and Joshua 6:17-21 that God at times does order things that seem hard to fully wrap our minds around. Why would this thing happen to this person? Why would God command this or permit that? We see in Scripture that God judges both evil and evildoers. Sin and sinners. Are you ready for the twist in all of this? Often we like to find ourselves in the Biblical storyline and we usually make ourselves the hero because, after all, everyone likes being the hero. Brushing in broad strokes, though, we see an innocent person delivered over to death for doing what was right. Who does that point us to? Jesus. You and I aren’t Jesus! Who are we in this story? If we’re honest, we’re the men who turned Daniel in. We’re the ones who sinned and made Jesus’ death on the cross necessary. We all deserve destruction. Here’s the real question we have to ask: Why does God demonstrate His mercy towards sinners in Christ so that we don’t have to face His wrath on the last day? It’s not because of how great we are or because we deserve His mercy. It’s because He is rich in it. He lavishes His grace upon us.

God is the Avenger - we are to simply trust in Him. This also means to trust in His Word. We live in a world of change. Preferences change. Styles change (just look at pictures from the 1970s). People change. Countries change. Technology changes. Communities change. Do you know what never changes? The God of the Word and the Word of God. His truth stays the same. We are to embrace this, not oppose it. The consequences for opposing God’s rule and God’s Word is infinitely worse than being tossed into a den of hungry lions. Men, in the ancient world the actions of the man had consequences for the whole family - do you see that in the text? The wives and boys didn’t make this decision, the dad did. How are you leading your family? Is this tomb a tomb of deliverance or destruction? Are you leading your family to be more like Jesus or are you leading them to oppose Jesus?

Our responsibility is to trust in God. To obey God. We let God take care of the results. He is the Avenger and He is a better avenger than anything Marvel can come up with. He truly saves His people and He truly judges His opponents. We trust in Him, because finally,

God Is All-Powerful (25-28)

Throughout Daniel, there have been kings who wrongly believed that they had all the power. In other words, that they were sovereign. Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem. Babylon was the major world power. Belshazzar hid behind his 350 foot walls thinking that he was invincible. Darius was worshipped as a god for a month. King after king after king, generation after generation after generation, nation after nation after nation, this isn’t exclusive to Babylon, Persia, or Rome. This is the human condition. We believe that we have more power than we truly do.

Proverbs 21:1 CSB

1 A king’s heart is like channeled water in the Lord’s hand: He directs it wherever he chooses.

Through these first 6 chapters, God is demonstrating that He is the King of Kings. This is the melodic line of the book - God is the living God. His Kingdom will never be destroyed. He rescues and delivers His people. He is all-powerful. And if God is all-powerful, what does that mean? You and I are not. God grants power. He raises people and nations up. He brings them crashing down. He lifts high the humble and humbles the prideful. He is in control. Do you find this encouraging or discouraging? This isn’t a call to be lazy. This is a reason for worship. This is our motivation to trust in our God and to obey His Word. AW Tozer once shared this, “While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is a God who hasn’t surrendered His authority.” So, if God has all power, then why do we see that sometimes God’s people are delivered and other times they aren’t?

Sometimes faith in God means that you escape the fires of suffering and the den of hungry lions… other times, because you have faith in God it means that you are thrown into them and you must endure them.

Hebrews 11:32–36 CSB

32 And what more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead, raised to life again. Other people were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Others experienced mockings and scourgings, as well as bonds and imprisonment.

Could it be that we have wrongly learned to value the wrong thing? So often we have tunnel vision - we think that we know best based on what we can see in the moment. Consider what God told Job after Job lost nearly everything in his life - Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? God let Job see just a glimpse of His sovereign power and all that God does, and Job’s response was this in chapter 40, “I place my hand over my mouth, I have spoken once and I will not speak again… I know that no plans of yours can be thwarted.” Friend, regardless of what you’ve been taught, as we read this book we see that we are not promised earthly breakthroughs and victories and healings… but we are promised an eternal victory. A permanent healing from the stain of sin. We are promised that we will be with our God forever because His kingdom knows no end and will never be destroyed. In our weakness, God is strong. We may never see these promises in our lifetime, but we can rest assured that our God will accomplish His perfect purposes. We trust in our God because not only did He shut the mouths of these lions, He shut the mouth of the roaring lion that seeks to devour us.

Romans 8:33 CSB

33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.

Romans 8:38–39 CSB

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can separate us from our God because of what He has done. Because He has all power. Because Jesus Still Saves Sinners! Institutions may fail us. Nations may oppose us. People may reject us. God’s Word will comfort us. God’s Spirit will guide us. God Himself will save us. Though the nations rage and kingdoms rise and fall, there is still 1 king reigning over all - this is our God. As we find ourselves in dens of despair and destruction and doubt, it can be real easy to play the “why me” game… Look to God’s Word and see some of the reasons why God sends His saints into these situations.

For God’s Glory - God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. Often we trust more in God when we can’t solve a problem ourselves. We depend on Him because we know how much we need Him. Sometimes we go into these dens primarily so that God can receive the glory.

For the Good of Others - Darius praised God after seeing this incredible scene play itself out. There are times where we suffer so that people see our faith in God and the power of God on full display and they come to know Christ. If that happens just one time, our suffering is worth it!

To Remind Us of Our Home - This world is not our home. This world is a place marked by suffering, brokenness, and loss. As we suffer in this world and as things don’t always make sense, it reminds us that we were created for another world. This is our temporary home, not our eternal one. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Daniel were in exile. Babylon wasn’t their home. They would suffer in Babylon, and that was fine, because they knew that their God had a purpose. Believers, we too are in exile. This world is not our home. Suffering and sin should open our eyes to this reality and make us look forward to eternity even more!

As we suffer, we know that God is big enough to turn bad things into good things - consider Joseph in Genesis. Consider our lives as we were walking darkness and dead in our sins, but God raised us to life. Consider the cross

Acts 2:22–24 CSB

22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know. 23 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. 24 God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.

There is victory in Jesus. There is hope in Jesus. There is life in Jesus. Our faith gives us courage to risk it all for Jesus because He is all-powerful. He’s got the whole world in His hands, and that certainly includes both you and me and whatever situation we are facing too!

Jesus is better!

Tim Keller typology between Daniel and Jesus:

Jesus is the true and better Daniel who too was conspired against by powerful rivals.

Jesus is the true and better Daniel who was found guilty of transgressing a law. Both were unsuccessfully rescued from the political leaders in their day.

Jesus is the true and better Daniel who trusted fully in God’s plan and power.

Jesus is the true and better Daniel who descended into a den of death.

Jesus is the true and better Daniel who actually died in the grave, but was raised to life by His Father.

Jesus is the true and better Daniel who not only encourages people from temporary exile, but who encourages all of God’s people that this world and the den of death is not the end.

Jesus is better - Jesus not only went into the den of death, but He rose victoriously from the grave. He delivers those who put their trust in Him from certain death and eternal destruction. This encourages us to stand on His Word, and trust in His will.

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 CSB

55 Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting? 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

What have you done with this death defeating Savior of sinners? Better yet, what has He done with you?

Because We’ve Been Delivered From Death:

Just a few hours northeast of here, a pastor in Illinois decades ago received a Christmas card from missionary friends, Vincent and Margaret Crossett who in the 1940s were missionaries in China. They struggled for years in a remote village to tell the natives about Jesus and build a report with them. They sacrificed much over these years, but eventually there were a handful of Chinese who were born again and hungry for the Word. As things were gaining traction for the Crossetts, the Communist Party took power in 1949 and began kicking out foreign missionaries. The prowling lion was doing his best to remove Christian influence from this lost nation. The Crossetts sadly had to leave and they were torn for their village and these young believers. How would they fare with this new atheistic government? What can we do to assist them from a foreign country? They were forced to leave, but no one could force them to stop praying for these believers. So, the Crossetts prayed daily. For decades, they prayed. Eventually, things changed and they were welcomed back into the country… to this remote village they traveled… and they couldn’t believe their eyes. This small congregation that could meet in a house was 4,000 people strong. Not only this, but this village planted churches in neighboring villages and there were nearly a dozen other churches, also with congregations in the thousands that had sprung up. What did the Crossetts do? They planted seeds and they prayed for those seeds. God brought about a harvest unlike anything they could have imagined! This couple faced a task they couldn’t accomplish - there was a problem they couldn’t solve… but they knew who could and so they prayed. 2,600 years ago here is Daniel… facing a situation that he can’t avoid and he can’t solve. So what does he do? He plants seeds. He prays. He trusts in God to provide as only God can. What is the result? God is praised and lives are changed. Friends, in this life we face problems and the root of those problems is sin. We might not think that we can do anything about those problems, but we see in Daniel that we can! We can fight. We can stand our ground. We can stand boldly on the Word of God and there will be times where it will seem as though we stand alone as we look to our left and right, but we don’t! Our God is with us. He has delivered us. He shut the mouths of lions once. In His time and for His glory, God continues to shut the mouth of the prowling lion today. Wrong might be celebrated today, but wrong has an expiration date. Wrong one day will be made right. From this day until that day, God explains what He expects. He expects His people who have been delivered from death to stand up. To stand out. To stand boldly. To stand courageously. Consider what our response as believers must be today:

God Is Able - Pray Diligently

God is The Avenger - Trust Accordingly

God is All-Powerful - Worship Faithfully

As your shepherd, pastor, elder, overseer, I am responsible for what we do during this worship gathering. As your worship leader, we don’t need more spotlights, solos, entertainment specials, flash and lights… we need the Word. As long as the Lord keeps me here, whether that’s 3 months/years/decades, the Word will reign supreme during this corporate gathering because God is all-powerful and this is what God demands in His Word. In a world where many are worshiping however they think they should, we will not give an inch here. As a body at FBC, we will worship faithfully as God demands to be worshiped. This means that maybe things look different, but we will be people of the book because God explains what God expects. He expects His people to pray when they gather. He expects His people to lift up their voices as one, not divided and definitely not silent, in praise when they gather. And He expects His Word to be proclaimed when His people gather. We will worship faithfully. Even if worship one day is outlawed in this country, we will worship. If prayer gets us thrown into prison, we’ll start up a prison ministry like Paul and Silas did and we’ll sing songs like A Mighty Fortress is Our God - do you know that one? In talking with several I know that you know it by heart like me - number 656

Let goods and kindred go This mortal life also The body they may kill God's truth abideth still His Kingdom is forever

We always side with God’s law and part of that law is to worship our God

Consider your response today if you are not a believer:

What you do with the one who hung on the cross and walked out of the tomb decides what God will do with you for all eternity.

Jesus is the true and better Daniel… the one who went into the den of death and who emerged alive, victorious, and who gives His people eternal hope. Has Jesus delivered you from death today? Jesus’ invitation over and over in the Bible is simply this: Follow Me!

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