Daniel

If I’m honest, this part of our service to cover the subject matter in the Nashville Statement feels awkward and out of place. Yet, I think it feels that way because it’s an uncomfortable truth in a culture that has been deceived by lies. I was reminded this week that this is an issue churches must address. It cannot be ignored. This week the Barna Group released a new study that revealed that 40% of young people born between 2000 and 2006 (that’s 18 to 24 year olds) identify as somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum. 40%.

What was even harder to swallow is that 30% of churchgoing young people in that age group of 18-24 year olds identify as the same. Our young people are deceived and lied to all the time. For instance, the CDC no longer officialy refers to someone who is pregant as a pregnant woman. They are called pregnant people because they believe it is possible for a man to get pregnant. That’s not science. It’s activism and indoctrination from what is supposed to be this country’s most trustworthy medical institution, which of course, it no longer is. That is an absolutely shocking and skyrocketing number. The traditional family unit is the basic building block of a healthy society.

Article III & IV teach us the correct truths. It says: WE AFFIRM that God created Adam and Eve, the first human beings, in his own image, equal before God as persons, and distinct as male and female. AND WE AFFIRM that divinely ordained differences between male and female reflect God’s original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing.

As believers how should we respond to this worldly influence upon our children and many of your grandchildren? First, we should be moved with compassion to pray for them. Secondly, we must teach them and the people in our churches what is true and good or else the world will step in and fill that void. A fog in the pulpit is a mist in the pews. When there is a lack of clarity from the pulpit the people suffer. The church must be clear.

Genesis 1:26–27 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

This is God’s good design and we must embrace it as the only truth that exists in the midst of such a confused and depraved world.

Introduction

Last week I introduced you to the book of Daniel, and one of the main things we should all take away from that text last week is the realization that Christianity was never meant to be an easy road paved with niceties and the approval of the world.

For all our lives here in America, though, we have - for the most part - enjoyed the fact that most people around us had a similar worldview. As you well know though, that is no longer the case, and the areas in which historic, orthodox Christianity is seen as a positive good for society is rapidly shrinking.

So the question before us today is this: how did Daniel respond in that environment and how should we respond in ours?

Bryan Chapell reminds us of this great truth: “The gospel according to Daniel should give us courage against our foes, hope in our distress, and perseverance in our trials.” Amen?

Remember - Daniel and his friends are taken to Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar is going to do his best to indoctrinate them and assimilate them into becoming just another Babylonian. How did Daniel respond? That’s where we pick up.

Daniel 1:8–13 ESV

8 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. 9 And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, 10 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 youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” 11 Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 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.”

Refuse Assimilation

What the world wants from you more than anything is for you to assimilate to the new culture around you. Assimilation is simply the process of becoming like the things around you. Now, we do this all the time, right? We just do it in ways that are inconsequential, like the way we dress or the way we talk.

Think about how new styles of dress or new hairstyles come and go. Once the fad gets going, then everyone jumps on board eventually because you don’t want to be the one left behind looking like you’re stuck in last year’s fashion style.

When I was growing up, I don’t remember a lot of kids wearing glasses, especially big glasses with thick rims. But, I was the kid who had big glasses with thick rims and all the other kids would call me “frog eyes” or “four eyes” or whatever the case may be. I was picked on relentlessly in grade school, but now everyone wears glasses that are huge with big thick rims. One person does it, usually a celebrity of sorts, and then everyone jumps on board eventually. I know people that don’t even need glasses, but they get these glasses simply to fit in - or assimilate - with everyone else.

Of course, I don’t care if someone jumps on fashion trends, that doesn’t matter to me. If you like it, go for it. However, whenever the cultural institutions that exist pressure you to adopt new norms, values, and morals, then you must refuse to assimilate. You must determine in your heart right now that you won’t give an inch when it comes to what the Bible teaches to be true.

Daniel and his friends were put in this position. They were put in a position of difficulty, and one in which the king would have had no qualms about executing them if they refused to follow along.

So look at what Daniel did:

Daniel 1:8 ESV

8 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.

Remember last week - when they arrived in Babylon, the king assigned them new food to eat, new wine to drink, new books to read - a new lifestyle to adopt. So what happened? Daniel resolved in his heart that he was not going to defile himself by becoming like them.

So Daniel asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself with the king’s food and drink. Now, who was this eunuch and what was his role? A eunuch in the ancient world was essentially a male servant in the court of a ruler, in this case he was an official of the king. He was the king’s representative. They are authoritative figures.

Ashpenaz was the name of eunuch here in this passage whose responsibility it was to make sure Daniel obeyed the king’s orders. Daniel asks him to not eat or drink what the king served him. So Ashpenaz responds, “I fear the lord my king and your request to not follow the king’s orders endangers my head.”

In other words, this chief eunuch was afraid he would be beheaded for not following through with the orders of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel strikes a deal with him. He basically says, “Give us 10 days of eating vegetables and water and let our appearance be the judge.” Now we know what happened. They looked better than everyone else who defiled themselves with the king’s food and wine.

Now think about this for a moment - why would Daniel take this risk? Why on earth would Daniel decide to risk getting beheaded or executed by the king over what he ate? I mean if you ask me, if I’m going to be dragged off to a foreign land, I think I might at least indulge myself on the king’s food and refuse the other things. At least that way I’m not hungry.

But Daniel was different, and yes, partly because he believed the food would have been unclean according to OT laws, but the point remains that he was unwilling to eat what he was served so that he would not become one of them.

What does it take to refuse assimilation into the broader culture when that culture has defiled itself and wants to drag you down with it?

1 - Hope in the Lord

I believe that Daniel trusted God with whatever would happen to him. He was more concerned with honoring God than he was assimilating into the Babylonian culture. Daniel knew that Babylon was where he lived but Babylon was not his home (Danny Akin reference). Adopting the ways of the Babylonians was like a small drop of red food coloring into a cup of water. One drop here and one drop there and the next thing you know the whole cup of water has turned red.

Likewise, when you compromise with the world, it’s like that drop of food coloring. Before you know it, you’re more like the world than you are a committed follower of Christ. When the church does it, the church no longer looks like the church. It looks more like the world of entertainment.

And in order to resist, you must trust the Lord and have hope only in him. At Wednesday night Bible study this last week we had a great discussion about what it means to have hope as a believer in Christ.

Romans 5:5 ESV

5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

When you have hope in the Lord, you don’t have to give in to the ways of the world. When you have hope in Christ, you don’t trust in man. When you have hope in Jesus, you don’t care what happens tomorrow. When you have hope in God, you understand that God is your judge and that the king or the culture or whomever can do everything they can imagine to force you to assimilate into the broader ways of the world, but you can refuse to do so because your hope is in a God that transcends this world. The world is coming for you. You must resist compromise and you must never capitulate to the world.

When you have hope in the Lord, you’re also less prone to despair. How many people face trials in their lives and their first response is “woe is me. My life is awful. Why do bad things always happen to me?” Look, life isn’t easy and being a Christian does not make you immune to the world and its challenges, but it does give you a different outlook on life because our hope is not in what this world can give us.

Our hope is in Jesus Christ who has purchased your life with his own blood. Your eternal status as a child of God determines your hope. Your hope is in Christ.

So when the world comes for you and the world wants to dominate the way you think and you act, refuse. Refuse to assimilate, and do it on the grounds of your hope in Christ.

Secondly...

2. Fear God

You know if Daniel had a fear of King Nebuchadnezzar, then I think he eats the food and drinks the wine. I think he becomes one of them. But instead, I think Daniel understood the fear of the Lord. Likewise, you too must fear the Lord more than you fear the consequences of man’s wrath. Daniel was in a position to become like one of them or to be one of a few who feared the Lord and did what was right.

Now, I am sympathetic to the challenges of being the one person swimming upstream. It’s hard. When I was growing up as a kid there a big lake in our neighborhood with a pretty big creek flowing into it - big enough for several of us to get in and explore.

And after a hard rain, we loved to ride our bikes to the lake and a group of us would get in this creek and try our best to fight the current after a hard rain to see who could make it the farthest up the creek. And it was rough and eventually one of us would give in and quit fighting the current and make our way back down. We’d give in to the pressure of the water. Before you know it the one person who stood strong the longest would quit fighting as well and they’d drift back down the creek also.

Well, refusing to assimilate to the culture around you is going be much like fighting an upstream battle. It’s going to get harder and harder and lonelier and lonelier to the point that you’d rather give in than keep fighting. You might be the only person around you still going upstream, and when that happens, keep going. Fear God and respect his ways more than you fear the world and its ways.

The answer to that feeling of wanting to give in is to fear the Lord more than you fear the pressure of the world.

Proverbs 1:7 ESV

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Proverbs 8:13 ESV

13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

To fear the Lord is to hate what he hates and to love what he loves regardless of how many people are with you along the way.

Job 28:28 ESV

28 And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’ ”

As believers we turn away from evil because fear of the Lord is something we understand as a desire to honor God rather than men; to respect God and his ways more than the fleeting passions of the world.

Isaiah 41:10 ESV

10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 (ESV)

13 Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

And perhaps the most important thing for us to understand comes from Jesus himself:

Matthew 10:28 ESV

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

This gets at the heart of who you are living for - are you living your life for the Lord or are you living your life for the approval of man? Live your life for God and let him sort out what happens. Man can do awful things to you, but only God can save your soul.

Fear God, not man.

3. Trust God with Your Future

Look at what ends up happening to Daniel. This is after he eats nothing but vegetables and drinks nothing but water.

Daniel 1:17–21 ESV

17 As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 18 At the end of the time, when the king had commanded that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 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. 20 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. 21 And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.

Daniel had hope in the Lord. He feared God more than man. And what was the result? The Lord blessed them. The Lord protected them. And the Lord held back the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar.

You know Daniel and his friends were blessed and protected. We are not promised that God will always protect us from the hands of people who mean harm to us. We are, however, promised that he will be with us in all that we do and that he will be with us through whatever comes our way.

Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

20 And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

You know we tend to trust our future to our resources rather than God. And that’s backwards from the way it’s supposed to be. We tend to trust our future to our bank accounts or whoever is in the White House or whatever the case may be. However, trust in anything other than God for the future is like trusting a spider web to hold a brick. It’s a losing game.

Psalm 20:7 ESV

7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Whatever comes our way, we must trust the Savior. Come life or death, peace or turmoil, we trust in the Lord our God. Daniel trusted his future to the Lord, and God rewarded and blessed him. Things might not always turn out that way for everyone, but I have sneaking suspicion Daniel would have stood strong even if he knew he would die for it. And he would have done it because he had hope in God, feared the Lord more than man, and he trusted his future to the hands of a sovereign God.

Let me ask you this: is your hope fully in the Lord? Do you fear God more than you fear man? And can you trust the Lord with what tomorrow holds? Daniel did. I do. And I hope you do as well.

God put Daniel in a hard place for ministry, and God is likely dropping every one of us into a difficult mission to make much of Jesus. I don’t think we all know yet what it’s going to cost us to follow Jesus. But follow him we must.

Last week I gave you several examples of people who have learned that swimming upstream as a believer is costly - whether it’s Ryan Anderson having his books banned, or Emily Carpenter having to shut down her business, or Kevin Cochran losing his job, or Chris Routson getting fired for sharing his faith - if they come for them, they will come for you too.

Resist the temptation to go along to get along. The temptation to compromise with the world is like trying to appease an alligator.

During WWII, Winston Churchill had some comments about countries who remained neutral in the fight against evil. Churchill made the point that to compromise with evil or to try and remain neutral when evil is knocking at the door is a losing strategy. He said:

“Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear greatly that the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar ever more loudly, ever more widely.”

He was right then about WWII and countries who simply remained on the sidelines. The battle would eventually come for them as well.

Likewise, there’s no such thing as remaining neutral in the world today. You will be forced to pick a side, and when that time comes you must determine that your hope is in God, that you fear God more than man, and that you will trust the Lord with your future.

It is better to walk with God alone than to gain the approval of the world. Or to put in the words of Jesus:

Mark 8:36 ESV

36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

Let’s pray together.