Five Results From Standing In Conviction

God's word says this then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the fiery burning burning fiery furnace he declared Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Servants of the most high God come out and come here then Shadrach Meshach and Abednego came out from the fire and the SAT traps the prefects the governors and the King's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men the hair of their heads was not singed their cloaks were not harmed and no smell of fire had come upon them Nebuchadnezzar answered and said blessed be the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego who has trusted his Angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him and set aside the King's Command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their

Own God therefore I make a decree any people Nation or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb and their house is laid him ruins for there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way then the king promoted Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon and so God we do thank you for your word what a glorious word it always is and Lord as we deal with these with this passage Lord let it deal with us in our hearts and our desires and our wants that we might be conformed to your image and in your likeness we give you all the glory all the praise all the Adoration God because you are good and you are worthy and we love you thank you in Jesus name amen well after Nebuchadnezzar comes to this realization that these Three Amigos are safe he is utterly amazed isn't he I mean you know I've seen people walking on like fiery charcoal or whatever they do at like beaches or whatever the going through the Ash and the hot Embers I've seen that I've never seen anyone survive like being engulfed in flames for like a prolonged period of time I want you to notice this first result and if you're taking notes write this down it's protection from the fire now I want I want to be careful here because I don't want to give you the impression that Christians won't suffer persecution or hardships don't want to give you that impression at all but what I mean is that the Lord he may protect us when the fires of this life come and they definitely will come not only in this life but for those who don't know Christ they

Will come in the next in Psalm chapter 115 verses 9 through 11 it says o Israel trust in the Lord he is their help in their Shield o House of Aaron trust in the Lord he is their help and their Shield you who fear the Lord trust in the Lord he is their help and their Shield we as Believers we have this great confidence that the Lord will shield us and he will protect us because he loves his people in Isaiah chapter 26 verse 4 it says trust in the Lord forever for the Lord God is an Ever less lasting Rock he is an everlasting Rock he is the Rock of Ages where we can hide ourselves in to take refuge not just from the storms in this life but for eternity because we will remain in him and abide in him and we can trust that the Lord he will never let us down we can trust him with everything that he has given to us in Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they are discovering this joyful truth as they are in the flames their trust is in the Lord and now they are being really and truly delivered from the Flames that was their judgment and we may not think that we can endure the fiery trials that might come our way like we can imagine all sorts of awful things can't we like when you're going through life and you anybody a worst possible scenario kind of person okay yep all right there's a few of us there's a few of us glass half empty people I see you I see you out there God he doesn't promise to get us through any scenario that we can contrive in our minds does not promise that he promises the ones that we actually go through he promises that the situation that you are really and truly in right now he will meet your need he will be your portion he will be your

Strength those are promises given to us from his mouth for his people and if you're not his people those promises are not for you but you can know the Lord by trusting in Him Today and Jesus he instructs us to pray give us this day our daily bread and when the Hebrews when they were in the desert and they had to go out and retrieve Manna every single day if they got any more then it would rot by the next day except for on Friday when they could gather twice as much for the Sabbath day but we are to pray give us this day our daily bread so we don't get to store up more of God's grace than what he has given to us for the day but the good news is that each day he renews us each day he invites us to drink deeply from his cup each day he in beckons us to abide in his presence to know him more to trust in him more and he tells us come to me because I'm the Living Water I will satisfy I will quench that thirst that you have I will feed that hunger that you feel you come to God and he meets those needs because he promises those things for us and when we choose to stand with conviction you can expect that the fiery trials will come and we can endure through them in the power of God Alone not in our own strength the second result from standing in conviction is being preserved by the power of God look at what Nebuchadnezzar says he says Servants of the most high God come out and come here and then Shadrach Meshach and Abednego they came out of the fire this is a painting by a guy named Jacob Willem zun DeWitt this is painted in 1650. You can see the three men down here in the left-hand corner you can see the angel with the blue robes sorry about the contrast guys I

Thought they would show up a little brighter oh thank you appreciate that a ton yeah so you see the Shadrach Meshach and Abednego this is obviously a Renaissance painting you can tell by the artistic style and you can see that they took the position that this was an angel not the angel of the Lord but you can see Nebuchadnezzar he is the one that is seated leaning forward in his chair over there he's kind of a bearded whiter man and he's got his helper there dressed in very Regal clothing of course this is not at all what ancient Babylon was like wasn't you know a bunch of European people in you know 1650s but you see that image in the background just towering over everyone and you see everyone just being shocked and Amazed by being delivered from this fiery trial and for you and I you know we don't we probably will never face the Flames if we do I pray that we stand but you know for centuries for literally two Millennia it has been something that many Christians have had to deal with and this has been a source of refuge and a faith-building story for many Christians that have endured persecution and this is a miracle that Nebuchadnezzar he has seen and it's not his first one he has seen Daniel interpret a dream not just interpret a dream but to tell the man what he had dreamed about and that's a miracle in and of itself and Nebuchadnezzar he is Thoroughly impressed from being delivered from the Flames that is totally amazing but this impression is only skin deep see his heart is not changed the reason why Nebuchadnezzar is impressed is because of the power of God over the Flames but as Sinclair Ferguson writes Nebuchadnezzar would not have

Been impressed by the weakness and foolishness of the Cross by which God would bring final salvation to his people you see it's not about astonishment it's about trusting in Christ's atonement that's what salvation's about the Scripture says in First Corinthians chapter 1 verses 27-29 but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong God chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God and once again we see God's preservation here and we see it through so many stories of so many heroes in the old and the New Testament Saints of the Scriptures being delivered and yet we also know that God's plan may not be to preserve us in this world his plan for us might be like what happened to most of the disciples who were all brutally killed all except for John and I wonder what the malicious accusers were thinking about right now like the Chaldeans they maliciously accused these three men these men do not bow to they don't listen to you or worship your gods and now here they are impossibly walking out of the fire they have been preserved by the hand of God and everyone gathers around them and what do they see they see the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men the hairs of their heads weren't singed that their their cloaks weren't harmed they had no smell of fire that was in their garments nothing and the third result of standing in conviction is a plain personal testimony this is what has happened to me tomorrow night people are going to be setting off fireworks and I pray that

Everyone has their all their fingers all their eyeballs next time I see them that's my prayer for you know if you're not careful you can cinch the hair off of your skin like that with anything really well one of the things that I love to do is I like to smoke meat and I love smoking pork butts chicken I'm not good at briskets I just can't get enough practice with them because it's so expensive but I'll come in from you know getting the fire going and the smokes roll in and get that barbecue smell and I'll walk in and my wife she goes oh Cody you just smell so good I'm like right the right word is delicious okay because if you've ever been camping or you've ever been near a fire or setting off fireworks you that Smoke Gets on you doesn't it and it penetrates the fabric and it's just everywhere you can't get it off of you and yet these men were so completely and totally preserved and saved by God that not even the smoke was able to get onto them think about that for a moment because when God protects he protects completely that's why we believe that those who are in Christ are saved eternally secure you can't lose your salvation if you could lose your salvation you would but we can't so we shant when God forgives completely oh when God forgives he forgives completely when he saves he saves and so you can you can be put in that worse situation that God has for you and you can go into it knowing 100 totally completely that God will preserve you and even with this Nebuchadnezzar he

Isn't converted but he but he does change he's no longer really hostile to God remember that the reason why he thinks that the God of Israel is so puny because he's conquered them and if God couldn't save his nation and his people from the hand of Nebuchadnezzar then why should Nebuchadnezzar even honor the name of God but now Nebuchadnezzar's tone begins to change look at this it says blessed be the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego that word blessed it means highly praise it we have seen a miracle guys this is absolutely amazing and so Nebuchadnezzar he actually starts to develop a respect for God's people and we see this in the book of Jeremiah Jeremiah the prophet he's taken under God in Jeremiah 39 verse 11. Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through nebuchador zaradan the captain of the Guard saying take him look after him well and do him no harm but deal with him as he tells you this totally shows how Nebuchadnezzar now honors the Lord's Prophets in Jeremiah 42 verses 11 and 12 Jeremiah is talking to some of the leaders of the nation of Israel and he says do not fear the king of Babylon of whom you are afraid do not fear Him declares the Lord for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand I will grant you Mercy that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land and I want I want you to notice this in spite of all of these evidences that Nebuchadnezzar has seen he doesn't refer to the most high God as his God he is not converted at this point we see in he's referred to as Daniel's God and chapter 2 verse 47. And now he's being referenced as the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego but the point is that in order to be saved you must come to God your parents can't do it for you your parents can't save you can't be your parents faith a pastor can't save you entering through a church doesn't save it's only by coming to God just as you are through the person and work of Jesus Christ that you can be saved that's it you turn from sin you turn to Christ and you come to the father and he will receive you because he promises that he will and I want you to notice this fourth result of standing in conviction God is personally praised God is personally the result of standing upon the word of God is a strong testimony of the goodness and faithfulness that he has for his people who else can deliver out of the fiery furnace it's only God who else could lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt in a pillar of fire it was only the Lord who else can deliver from the Eternal fire of hell it is only God who can and God he did this by sending his angel now when we see in Scripture this term angel it could be in reference to the Heavenly hosts the Angelic beings people they categorize them into two maybe three groups he got your cherubim your seraphim sometimes people like to make a distinction between an archangel there and as I said last week I believe that this is the pre-incarnate Christ because God promises his very presence with us in the trials that we face sometimes the pre-incarnate Christ is referenced as the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament in Psalm chapter 34 Verses 4 through 7 it says I sought the Lord that's the personal name for God the Lord Capital l-o-r-d that is Yahweh and

He answered me and delivered me from all my fears those who look to him are radiant in their faces shall never be ashamed the poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles the angel of the Lord and camps around those who fear Him and delivers them God promises his presence with his people as they walk through the fiery furnaces of life but God's presence with Humanity was most fully realized when Christ came to this earth one of the names of God of Christ is Emmanuel which means what God With Us and it's the promise that Christ gave to you and I at the Great Commission and lo I will be with you always Until the End of the Age and he does this at the moment of Salvation when we turn to him by faith alone and when we are saved we are born again and he gives us that Holy Spirit which empowers us to live holy and blessed lives and he has given us his very presence where Colossians says that Christ even resides in our hearts and so he is really and truly with us and Jesus he understands these trials and these temptations that you and I are going to face he gets it he knows all too well the pains and the Sorrows that you've experienced that temptation that you think is just your own Jesus knows what it's like he knows how it feels to be lied about he knows what it's like to have your character slandered he knows he knows what it is like to suffer and to die just like these young men as they were being tested Christ was tested and he was obedient and faithful to death now these young men who by the way take him from Babylon somewhere between that age of 11 15 16 somewhere around there

We know that they were in training for a few years about three years a little longer and in order to make an image as tall it probably took three two or three years so these guys they're probably 20 to 25 years old at this point these are young men full of conviction and character knowing what the will of the Lord is who stand firmly upon the statement of the one true God who probably recite the Shema found in Deuteronomy hear o Israel the Lord Our God the Lord is one therefore love Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength the Hebrews they would recite that every morning when they woke up and so they stood for the Lord and they trusted in him and they set aside the king's commands and they yielded up their bodies what does it mean to trust God I mean if someone asks you do you trust God what's your response and what does it mean to trust God to trust God means to believe his word at face value to believe that his promises are true every bit of it to draw closer to God in the midst of Trials and to walk hand in hand with him in the times of ease it means to listen to his leading to listen to his prompting and even when you can't see how God is going to work it all out you take that next step of obedience now when Shadrach Meshach and Abednego when they set aside Nebuchadnezzar's command it wasn't just this thoughtless Rebellion prompted by like political talking points or views the Rebellion against God's appointed leader was because they were asked to do something anti-God pro-sent which clearly violated the expressed Revelation that God had shown

When our nation's leaders demand for Christians to do say the same thing it is incumbent upon Christians to say no we won't do that we will not sin we will not sin against God or his law to do so with conviction and love and peace is what Christians ought to be striving for and I want you to understand this too that Nebuchadnezzar he is Thoroughly impressed not just by the work that God has done but also by their conviction as well they yielded up their bodies rather than serving the Lord rather than serving and worshiping any God except their own Nebuchadnezzar he appreciates their commitment to live for truth to stand to do so to do the right thing no matter what the end result might be and people today they still respect Christians standing up for truth David he wrote in Psalm 25 verses 1-3 To You O Lord I lift up my soul oh my God in you I trust let me not be put to shame let not my enemies exult over me indeed none who wait for you shall be put to shame and so how can we live with that same kind of conviction well the first step is for you and I to choose to live our lives in light of Eternity you and I we've got an eternity to live and what he's entrusted us with right now is our existence here on this Earth how are you going to live your life right now for the Lord God I mean we can take comfort knowing Romans 8 28 for we know that all things work to the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose and so we can know that the fiery furnace has a purpose that the value that you're in has a purpose we may not understand the Eternal purpose of God and why he has us walking

Through that sickness right now why that gift or that skill he has given to you we don't get to see the Eternal purposes of God but we do get to see is how we are accountable right now for how we live our lives and use our gifts and use our skills and to choose to live for him in the midst of fiery trials and we talked about about how Christ was faithful to death I why were hananiah Michelle and Azariah why were they delivered from death but the innocent one the one who had never sinned Jesus Christ why was he allowed to die why wasn't he delivered well it was because it was the will of the Lord to crush him it was through the atoning sacrifice of Christ who willfully laid down his life it's through entering through that atonement that we are able to be saved there wasn't a companion for Christ on the cross Christ he could have called down a legion of angels to save him but it didn't happen he willingly laid down his life and is because of Christ's atonement and now you and I we can go from being enemies of God to children of God to be Children Of Darkness to be children of light to be once dead in our trespasses and sins Made Alive together with Christ the fifth and final result of standing in conviction is God's people promoted don't want you to think that just because you follow the Lord you're going to get a promotion that's not that's not how it works but when you stand upon God's word and live according to his principles it does lead to His blessings the Aramaic rendering here is that the king caused them to prosper there wasn't much higher for them to go in the province of Babylon they had already been appointed by Daniel as

Governor's prefix over the area of Babylon and so there was a worldly prosperity for these men and as Christians we're not promised this but this promise was true for these men and he may have blessed you in that way and we thank the Lord for that use those blessings for the glory of God and yet I also wonder why is this the last time that we see these three men in Scripture there's nowhere else that they're mentioned so I want to point out one more thing before we wrap up nebby's goal of building this image this 90 foot tall image right in the plains of Duro where the Tower of Babel was built was to unite the world in our world today there are plenty of cries for Unity and unity is a good thing it's a wonderful thing and it's a good and wonderful thing when it's done under the authority of Jesus Christ anything else is idolatry I'll say that again Unity under anything else other than Jesus Christ is idolatry for Humanity to unite anything under anything else is idolatry we enter into God's kingdom through faith and in what Christ did for us 2000 years ago is still true today Revelation chapter 5 verses 9 through 12 it says this and they sang a new song saying worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood you Ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and Nation you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God and they shall reign on the earth then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice Worthy is the Lamb who

Is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing because God is truly worthy of all of our affections and it's about time that we live like it as Christians this is why being united under the banner of Christ that we have brothers and sisters all over this world we can unite under the banner of Christ and I for one I'm so thankful to live in the country that I'm in I'm so thankful because we get to exercise freedoms and the Liberties that a lot of people don't have and I'm so thankful for that one of these days it's going to be gone it will we don't want to expedite that by any means because I think that we're the greatest country on Earth I think that God has powerfully used our country but you know where our hope and life and death is In Christ Alone head hand heart head I want you to know that conviction and trials leads to God being praised Christians we must stand upon God's word and we must in order to win people in our culture to Christ and I want you to entrust yourself to the Lord today he has promised to be with you in your fiery trial he is a pro he has promised his abiding presence through the Holy Spirit like Lord he might be leading you to start a new ministry and you just don't see how that can happen or maybe he's calling you to get involved in one take that next step entrust yourself to the Lord he might be calling you to witness to a neighbor or to a friend that you've been building a relationship with entrust yourself to the Lord he'll open up that conversation take that next step and he will be with you heart I want you to believe that Christ

Alone is what unifies believers we cannot unite around anything else other than the lordship of Christ many are going to try with all sorts of banners and symbols and things like that but we unite under Christ because he has saved our souls and He commands our Allegiance and so God we do thank you for this great day that you've given to us we pray that you would just help us as your people to live with conviction and a culture that many ways hates you that in many ways wants the exact opposite of what you want the Lord you have called us as Believers to be Salt and Light to Bear witness of your goodness in your faithfulness and God on this Independence Day weekend Lord we just thank you for the country that we do live in the freedom that we do have to go out and make disciples Lord to share the Gospel without fear of punishment or penalty or death we Delight in that and we ask for you Lord to be with us as Christians living here in America to live for your kingdom until you return Lord help us to be faithful Jesus name amen let's stand and let's Worship the Lord together praise the Lord his Mercy is more [Music] stronger than Darkness every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is more [Music] what love could remember no wrongs we have done omniscient all knowing he counts not their sons thrown into a sea without a bottom or Shore our sins they are many his Mercy is more

Praise the Lord his Mercy is more [Music] stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is more what patience would wait as we constantly roam what father so tender is calling us home he welcomes the weakest the vilest the poor for our sins they are many his Mercy is more praise the Lord [Music] his Mercy is more [Music] stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is more foreign [Music] our sins they are many his Mercy is more praise the Lord his Mercy is more [Music] stronger than Darkness knew every morn our sins they are many his Mercy is more our sins they are many amen well why don't you go ahead and have a seat I've got two folks here that I want to introduce you to Billy wants you can just come right over here buddy I've got you all right this is Billy Allen and this is Miss Deb crows why don't you come on up here as well so they've just went through our new members class and they said you know we've been here for a while and we want we have a good testimony in the Lord gotten a chance to listen to both of their testimonies and Billy the Lord's really been working in his life and growing him and of course Miss Deb you've been with us for a while now haven't you yeah about a year and so they said you know we want to we want to join this church and so if y'all would receive them into our fellowship upon their statement would you say Amen

Any against okay well Welcome to our church be sure to welcome them to our church family today go ahead and have a seat and I'll take you up here yeah you're almost there there you go okay great and we're gonna have our D can come up and pray for us this is Spencer and very thankful for his ministry you got a microphone for him are we on we are well what a glory that was to have two new members this morning wasn't it and we just pray for them as their walk and the Lord continues and especially pray because normally when people take a step out in faith who's right behind them but Satan trying to attack them so be praying for them but let's let's go to God in prayer this morning God the Father we just recognize you this morning as The Great I Am the great deliverer the Creator the author of salvation Sovereign overall just help us as we walk this week that we trust in you with our life we lead trust in you to lead our life that brings glory and honor to you in Christ's name we pray amen thank you foreign thank you foreign you're so beautiful I love you okay [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] the fish he did [Music] foreign [Music]