Even If

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Context

This morning we talked about Paul and how God works through adverse situations. We saw Paul’s personal testimony and also his imprisonment. Tonight we will look at some men who experienced this long before Paul came along.
PRAY

8 Some Chaldeans took this occasion to come forward and maliciously accuse, the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever. 10 You as king have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music must fall down and worship the gold statue. 11 Whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire. 12 There are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men have ignored you, the king; they do not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

13 Then in a furious rage Nebuchadnezzar gave orders to bring in Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar asked them, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, is it true that you don’t serve my gods or worship the gold statue I have set up? 15 Now if you’re ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music, fall down and worship the statue I made. But if you don’t worship it, you will immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire—and who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to give you an answer to this question. 17 If the God we serve exists, then he can rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he can rescue us from the power of you, the king. 18 But even if he does not rescue us, we want you as king to know that we will not serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”

19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times more than was customary, 20 and he commanded some of the best soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21 So these men, in their trousers, robes, head coverings, and other clothes, were tied up and thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22 Since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace extremely hot, the raging flames killed those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell, bound, into the furnace of blazing fire.

Who are the Chaldeans?
In this context, the Chaldeans are the King’s magicians, enchanters, something along those lines.
We also see the Pharoah do keep folks like this around in Exodus. They were actually the leading reason Moses had trouble when pleading to Pharaoh. In Exodus 7 we see Pharaoh’s magicians using tricks to try to match God’s miracles.
Staff —> Serpent
Water —> Blood
It is no surprise to see the king with these types of people around, just as we have seen before. These men existed to threaten God’s authority in the lives of his people. When the authority of God is questioned, who will the people look upon with authority? The King. This King’s authority had gotten so out of hand he created a law where the people worshipped who he said and when he said to do it.

10 You as king have issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, drum, and every kind of music must fall down and worship the gold statue. 11 Whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.

So, who is Nebuchadnezzar? Why does he do this?
Nebuchadnezzar II was the king of Babylon. Under his reign, the city had been restored and enlarged so much that it was believed to be the largest city the world had seen at that point.
He was powerful, and he knew it. Up to that point, everything in the city he commanded to happen, happened. In his own way, he was god over his city.
It’s no major surprise that he wants his subjects to go from appreciation…to worship.
Gold Statue? Sounds Familiar.
While we don’t know exactly what the statue Nebuchadnezzar set up looked like, we do know why he set it up:
The king spared no expense on this statue. Some believe it was around ninety feet tall and 9 feet wide…oh, and it was made of gold. Why so big? Why so expensive?
Nebuchadnezzar had gone full narcissist. He seems to have gotten to the point in his reign where the only thing he can see clearly, is his egotistical desire for more (of basically anything).
If his personality and newly announced decrees weren’t already giving you flashbacks from every movie villain ever as you think ‘some things never change,’ and ‘all leaders seem to start with good intentions and then go so consumed with power they become corrupt;’ let’s take a look back at this country’s history.

11 The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. 2 As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.) 4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.”

So we see that this country and these people have a history of trying to outdo God and strip his authority from him.
So, when the king thinks he’s achieved that, then three men stand up and deny him he’s angry!
Who are the three men that dare to anger the king? What is the job they have been appointed to?
We see in verse 12, the men are referenced as

12 There are some Jews you have appointed to manage the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

In Chapter 2 we see Daniel promoted after his ability to interpret the king’s dreams. These three were promoted after Daniel to promote peace and welfare among the Babylonians. Those are about all the details we have.
Naturally, when the three men appointed to spread welfare in Babylon are disagreeing with the king who appointed them, it cause problems.

Our Plan is not God’s Plan

The King had a plan. A plan for his people to worship the idol he had set up. There was no world in which he imagined that someone would question his authority. Why would they?
After all, he’s the king. The man who has brought them so far. When he set up the statue and some didn’t bow, he viewed it as ungrateful. “After all I’ve done for you.”
THANOS —> GOMORRAH story.
Thanos loved her, just because he took care of her (in his own twisted way) so he expected her to go along with all he did and said…no matter how horrible.
When she betrays him, he ends up killing her…which brings us back to *the three men.*
They disagreed with him, so he had the ungrateful constituents sentenced to death to death.
But that didn’t work out exactly like he thought it would. We saw him send them to a fire so hot it killed the men near it. Every translation I looked at says that the men FELL into the fire.
THINK ABOUT THIS FOR A MINUTE
So, now we see the men in the fire. Tragically our heroes have fallen into the clutches of the villain in this.
We all know that stories don’t have happy endings. We know that sometimes people really are martyred (Stephen). Luckily for us, this one does have a happy ending. Which will lead us into our last point.

God’s Plan Always Prevails

The amazing thing: we just saw the King’s faith in God renewed in the last chapter.

24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm. He said to his advisers, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound, into the fire?”

“Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” they replied to the king.

25 He exclaimed, “Look! I see four men, not tied, walking around in the fire unharmed; and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”,

26 Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and called, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God—come out!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire. 27 When the satraps, prefects, governors, and the king’s advisers gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men: not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them. 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. 29 Therefore I issue a decree that anyone of any people, nation, or language who says anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be torn limb from limb and his house made a garbage dump. For there is no other god who is able to deliver like this.” 30 Then the king rewarded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon.

Why was the king alarmed?
For obvious reasons, the King was shocked.
Have you ever done this? Hunting: Did that bush move?
That fourth guy doesn’t look like the other guys.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were joined in the fire by a fourth individual, who had the appearance of a divine being like a son of the gods, who was either a Christophany (a physical appearance of Christ before his incarnation) or an angel (see v. 28). In either case, this is a physical demonstration of God’s presence with believers in their distress, a graphic fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in Isa. 43:2.

2 When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you

and the rivers will not overwhelm you,

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be scorched

and the flame will not burn you.

There are other places in the Bible where scholars believe there is a potential Christophany. Some scholars believe the encounter with Abraham, Jacob (wrestling God), Joshua (before the fall of Jericho), and Moses at the burning bush.
Here that would align with why Nebuchadnezzar describes the way he looks. After Nebuchadnezzar had seen him, he knew that it was God. He began praising God and worshipping him. And he knew no other god was capable of this type of work.
You see, the breaking of the king’s heart and revelation of the one true God came at through the risks of believers.
If the three men had never been thrown into the fire, Nebuchadnezzar would never have seen the one true God. Now, it wasn’t smooth sailing for Nebuchadnezzar from here on out. He had his fair share faithless moments even after this came to pass. But the last thing we hear from him is this.

37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt, and glorify the King of the heavens, because all his works are true and his ways are just. He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

Because of men like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; men who were willing to say ‘Our God is able. He will to save us. But EVEN IF he doesn’t, we won’t bow to your idols.’ They are saying this because they knew that even in hardship, God’s plan and glory is far grater than them bowing to false gods. We see that Nebuchadnezzar eventually acknowledges the one true God. These men are essentially saying ‘We would rather die than defy our God because we fear him way more then we fear you.’
PAUSE
These men looked death in the face and said ‘it’s better than the alternative.’
PAUSE
And that’s tough to swallow…especially when we know that God’s plan can cause us pain and hardship.
It’s tough because we live in a world that is getting worse by the day. Our world today, I imagine, wasn’t so different from Babylon during this time. Which brings us to our final point:

Just because we live in Babylon, doesn’t mean we have to live like Babylonians

Among ever-married adults 20 years and over, 34 percent of women and 33 percent of men had ever been divorced - 2016 Census
Mind-Altering Drugs are now legal in 19 states. - USNews
Over 70,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2019. - CDC
37 states have laws allowing same-sex marriage. - World Population Review
189 Abortions/1,000 Live Births - CDC
Our world (and specifically our country) is doing its very best to legalize sin.
I know you’re thinking “Morgan you’re right…but we’re not out here bowing down to idols like them.” You’re right! Because we’re bowing down to other things.
Boat, house, UTVs, other possessions.
Golf Clubs, The UK Wildcats, Our kids AAU team, other sports.
But the biggest thing our culture teaches us to worship: ourselves.
High Schoolers on their phones. Stupid tik tok challenges.
They’re not alone. My apple screen time report each week.
Here’s the thing about social media, it allows you to put a version of yourself forward that may or may not be the true version of you. It’s mostly just what you want others to see. It represents us in the way we want others to see, and like, a version of ourselves that says ‘look at me.’ While we may not be building idols, we’re building social profiles that help us perfect...us.
We can have all of the things we just looked and and still be believers and worship the one true God. We just need to make sure we don’t let those things consume our lives and take priority of our God.
You see, Nebuchadnezzar was (maybe not a believer) but definitely a fan at the end of chapter 2. But between chapters 2 & 3, something went wrong.
The bible doesn’t tell us what went wrong, so we won’t worry too much about the details but we know that somewhere along the way, he drifted away from, and lost belief in what God had shown him.
It’s all too easy to discredit things when we are removed from them by time and location. We see it happen continuously to the Israelites in the wilderness. Nowadays we see it with things like the moon landing and flat earthers.
But because he drifted, God was able to show his power through his true believers and followers who were willing to stand up for what was right, and what was true in spite of a hard situation.
When Paul (who we will talk about more tonight) was in prison, writing his letter to the Corinthians, he said:

6 For if I want to boast, I wouldn’t be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, 7 especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. 8 Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Sometimes to combat our Babylon equivalent, we have to live with a thorn in the flesh.
We have to live in difficult situations knowing that God can and will deliver us. Just like *the three men,* we need to have the strength to say that EVEN IF God doesn’t deliver us, we won’t bow to the world around us.
And even if he doesn’t deliver us from our difficult situation, even if he doesn’t remove the thorn from our side, we need to be able to say ‘His grace us sufficient.’
And his grace IS sufficient for those who believe in him.
Many people have heard the name Charles Spurgeon. He is undoubtedly one of the most influential baptists that ever lived. But he wasn’t always that way. Desiring God recently released an article titled ‘If God Approves, Let Men Condemn.’ This article is about the struggles and triumphs of Spurgeon’s life. Using details from Ian Murray’s book The Forgotten Spurgeon, Greg Morse reminds of us the days in Spurgeon’s ministry that came with closed off hearts, not open arms. You see, as the article says, even “Spurgeon was slandered in the newspapers, ridiculed by his opponents, and censured by many evangelical ministers.” This is no doubt why he had Matthew 5:11-12 hanging in his bedroom.

11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Spurgeon faced might opposition during his ministry but ultimately, is remembered as one of the most influential preachers of all time. He is thought of so fondly by baptists, they created a study Bible consisting only of notes from Spurgeon’s sermons throughout his career.
God can not only deliver you from your adversity, but he will use it to bring himself glory.
But maybe you’re here and you say ‘God can’t deliver me, he doesn’t even know me.’
Do I have some good news for you.
The same God who saved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego is the same God who created the world. —> Gospel presentation.
Prayer Focus:
Remember God is in control.
Remember that his plan will prevail because its better than ours.
Help us to stay strong like the men, even in the face of hardship and death and know that his grace will carry us through. ‘Yet not I.’
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/if-god-approves-let-men-condemn?fbclid=IwAR0F5uSrMaVuAsXE7aWDiGv_QvsGSzG3xAyfIMqCnX1IjnpNe4dQ1qVQ_IU
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