Quite a story we have this morning in Daniel chapter 3, a story I'm sure that many of us are very familiar with. We're looking forward to being in the Word this morning with you. Let me pray. Lord, thank you so much for this morning, this Lord's Day, that we have the opportunity to gather to hear from your Word. Lord, to be encouraged by your Word to build us up in faith. Lord, thank you that you give us this opportunity to gather here freely. Lord, that we do not succumb or we are not subject to worship of golden images against our wills, Lord, but we can gather here freely to worship You, the true God. Lord, bless our time in the Word, would it minister deeply to our hearts. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Alrighty, well last week we had a wonderful time discussing church membership. And so I just wanted to quickly highlight that, just share my excitement. First of all, just a wonderful, wonderful sermon highlighting what church membership is, our calls and commitments to as Christians to church membership, and excited to welcome seven new members into our church. So grateful to have you guys here. I'm very pleased and happy with that. One of the things we learned from last week was that church membership is both necessary and voluntary, and I found that to be very, very helpful. But we took that break that week because we have those seven new members, but the previous week before, we were in the first part of our section here, in chapter three of Daniel and verses one through 18. And just as a way of reminder, In the first part of the chapter three, we have Nebuchadnezzar raising up his famous golden statue in the plain of Dura. And as we read, we have then the trial of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they do not bow down to this golden statue that he had set up. And this statue was of no small size. It was potentially one of the largest statues in the world, some 90 feet tall, but obviously just a statue. No one worthy of true actual worship. A couple weeks ago, as we were working through the first half of this chapter here, we learned a couple things. We learned that our sovereign God permits human rulers to abuse their God-given power. Nebuchadnezzar didn't have any power of his own. Anything he did have, his kingdom, his growth, what he had conquered, that was all given to him by God. And obviously we saw him abuse his power by forcing false worship upon God's people. And we also saw that God's people cannot just take that. They cannot just be commanded to worship wrongly, to worship falsely, but that God's people must boldly resist human rulers when they are being asked to participate in false worship. And as we read this morning, we have the famous last words from Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. O King, we have no need to answer you in this matter. Our God will deliver us. The most famous, we will not comply in the scripture, right? On the job site, we say, sorry, no tortillas. We're not gonna happen. It's obvious why God's people don't worship statues. We see that these statues can do nothing. They cannot hear, they have no power. This is obvious. They cannot do what our God can do, and we see that highlighted, obviously, in a powerful way this morning. Well, this sets us up for the passage we're going to be in this morning, the conclusion to chapter 3, to this great trial, to this great episode in the book of Daniel. And we're going to see what we are to learn from the fiery trial. So our question for this morning, as we consider the passage we've read, is this, what does the story of the fiery furnace teach us about our sovereign God? What does the story of the fiery furnace teach us about our sovereign God? The whole book of Daniel is about God and his unrivaled sovereignty. And so this specific story, what are we gonna learn uniquely, specifically from this dramatic trial of the fiery furnace? Let me start by reading the first part of our section this morning. In verse 19, we pick up, the Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury. We saw this as his response to the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their response to him, O Lord, O King, we have no need to answer you in this matter. We will not do what you are asking. And we see he is filled with fury, and the expression of his face changes against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And in his fury, he orders the furnace to be heated seven times more than it is usually heated. We also see here in verse 20 that he, not only that, he ordered some of his mighty men, men who probably have only known war, as the Babylonians were famous for conquering many nations, he ordered some of his mighty men, the strongest men in his army, to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning, fiery furnace. His decision is done. He needs to hear no more from these three, and what he threatened, he tries to make to come to pass. So these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments, and they were thrown into the burning, firing furnace. But this was not without consequence. Because the king's order were urgent and the furnace overheated, the flame of the fire was so strong. that even killed those mighty men, men who were not weak, but the mighty men of the army, probably the mightiest men of his army who would have stood next to the king. These men are killed. That's how intense this fire is. They're not even in the fire, and they're killed by the fire. The flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the burning, fiery furnace. Some think here that they were bound together and thrown all in once together into the fiery furnace. The consequences of their faith to stand for God and to stand against Nebuchadnezzar is this, to be thrown in the fiery furnace. Another thing we learned from the last time we were in this chapter was that God also allows for the oppression of his own people, and that we should expect trials and difficulties for our faith. So we're not surprised by the results of this trial. We're not surprised the result of the actions of these men. And especially in areas where there's hostile governments, this is typical. This is to be expected. This is still happening today. For many in our history, in the Christian history, verse 23 is where the story ends. We know of many martyrs who have burned at the stake, and worse than that, and there is no deliverance from that. Their testimony is sealed with their blood and their burnt bodies. But the Lord, thankfully, has other plans for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He has other plans for them. So, for our first point for this morning, what does the story of the Fire Friends teach us about our sovereign God? It teaches us this, that our sovereign God is the strong deliverer of his faithful people. We see this dramatically and powerfully today. Our sovereign God is the strong deliverer of his faithful people. First, no matter the drama, no matter the intensity of the persecution God's people experience, He remains sovereign and in control of His plans. where things might seem difficult, might seem bleak, he still remains sovereign and in control. And we see this here. This is a dramatic rescue of these three men. But it is in line with many of the dramatic rescues we've seen in the scripture. Noah and the ark in the flood, a dramatic rescue. The people of God being taken out of Egypt through the Red Sea in Exodus, another dramatic rescue. However, in many of the rescues, we don't see the people of God coming this close to perishing. And this highlights for us significantly the faith of these men. But He remains sovereign over all of these things, over all of these circumstances. He's the one who has time and time again delivered his people. He has snatched them out of harm's way. You cannot read almost any portion of scripture without reading a story of the deliverance of the people of Israel. And many of those deliverances are out of impossible situations or extremely improbable situations. And so here, yet again, we see this again. Our God shows up again, his mighty and delivering arm. Let's continue in verse 24. Then King Nebuchadnezzar, as he's seeing what's happening, he's expecting these men to shriek for their lives, but he does not see that. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up in haste. He cannot believe what he's seeing. He declared to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound to the fire? They answered and said, true, O king. And he answered, but I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. Nebuchadnezzar cannot believe his eyes. Never has anything been seen like this. The furnace was so strong that his mighty men were killed just by approaching the furnace. These men should have been singed instantly. But that's not what he sees. He sees them walking amidst the fire. And his foolish question that we read again in chapter three, verse 15, and who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands, is answered in the most dramatic fashion possible. The words of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are vindicated. Our God is able to deliver us. And we see that here as they are walking amidst the fire. Our God is able to deliver us out of your hand, O King. And he proves again here that he is the true God. Not this idol, this golden idol you have set up that has no power to save like this, but our God who has all this power. And you're going to see this so clearly in our deliverance. So he sees them walking around, and maybe they're moving, maybe someone would be in significant pain from being thrown into the fire, but not only are they walking around, they are not hurt. He can see that they are in no pain. Interesting to see here that the fire doesn't go away, but the fire has no power. God does not allow the fire to burn. That's no power over his people. Amazing to see his power on display here. That although the fire is the hottest this furnace has ever been, the most it could possibly be heated, and it was strong enough to kill his mighty men, yet it has no strength, no power outside of what God grants it, what God allows it in his time. The Lord is showing emphatically without any shadow of a doubt to Nebuchadnezzar that he is their sovereign deliverer. He is the sovereign deliverer. Can only imagine what Nebuchadnezzar was seeing and experiencing here. His mind blown by what is happening here. But yet again we see that our Lord is the deliverer. And we see his question answered emphatically. Well, while this is a powerful, powerful miracle, and it is one of the peaks of where we see God actively working His miraculous, His power in this scripture. There's many peaks, we see that obviously in Exodus, we see a high peak, we see a lot of His miracles come through here. And here we have one of those smaller examples, those clusters of His miracles with this great deliverance. But not everything in our passage here is miraculous. Obviously, it's great to see the deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But I also, for us, we can take much of the example of their faith today. We can take much from their example of our faith today. So, the question for us, as we're considering this passage, as we consider the faith of these men in the midst of significant trial, how would we respond to that? Our question this morning, are you trusting in the Lord in the midst of your toughest trials? Are you trusting in the Lord in the midst of your toughest trials? This might seem like a question that we often entertain or often just brought up, but I find it necessary to remind myself each and every week. Unfortunately, I find that I tend to forget. My trust tends to wane more than I'd like to admit. So thankfully, again, here we have another opportunity to reflect on this. Are we trusting the Lord in the midst of our toughest trials? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they showed no fear of man. They answered with a confidence, with a peace that is beyond understanding against King Nebuchadnezzar, the strongest man in the land. They showed no cowardice, but they trusted in the Lord, regardless of the results. They say God will be glorified either in his great deliverance of us to show his mighty power, or he will be glorified in our faithfulness to serve no other God but him. It's obviously a great and powerful example of faith, but we also see many examples of lack of faith in the scripture. I've been recently reading through the Kings, and there's a prophet who was sent to speak to the king, and he's told, go straight to the king, come straight back, do not go to the left, do not go to the right, go straight there and come straight back. And another prophet lies to him and pulls him to the side and says, hey, no, God told me for you to come with me. And the result of that is that he's then eaten and struck down by a lion. And he's left dead walling in the street. He did not, listen, he did not trust the Lord when the Lord said, go straight there and come straight back. He did not have faith in God's word. In the New Testament we see, the most famous example of this is Peter. He's walking on the water and he starts to see the storms and he looks left and right and then he falls in the water instead of keeping his eyes on Christ. And he screamed out, Lord, save me. but we don't see this type of faith in these men. These men face the greatest trial, the strongest man on earth, who's threatened him with a very difficult, painful death, and they would rather choose that type of death than to break God's law. They show for us, they highlight for us that death is better than disobedience. Hard thing for us to be reminded of, but a good thing for us to be reminded of. And it's a reality that many people, many Christians, especially in difficult parts of the world, experience. That's the threat they live in under every day. But for us, what trials are we experiencing today where we might be tempted to disobey God? It may not cost us our life, but it might take our peace. It might put us in a place of disobedience. It might cause us to stray from Him. Many of us are the only Christians in our family. I don't know, I try to check in with many of you who I know, but are you experiencing persecution from your family for your faith? Are they now starting to threaten you or discredit you or isolate you because of your faith? Are they tired of talking to you because you're always talking about Jesus? It can be tough to experience that type of trust or relationship to feel like it's crumbling because of your faith. What about any physical ailments you may be experiencing in your body? Because of sin, our bodies are breaking down. Are we weary from that? Do we wish it was over? Do we wish we'd either have healing? Do we wish we weren't experiencing these physical ailments? Do we lack faith in God? Do we lack trust in God because of what we're experiencing? We're thinking, why would I be able to go through this pain? Maybe you've lost a place of influence, whether amongst friends or at work, because of your faith. Because you stood up for your faith. Maybe you've had a demotion because of your faith. Maybe you've been moved to a new area because of your faith. How has that affected you? Has that built up your faith or has that created an anxiety, a fear in you? How are you trusting the Lord in the midst of your toughest trials? Well, we see here in the example of these men that there is no greater preservation, no greater promise we can believe than to trust the Lord in the midst of these trials. And when we trust in the Lord, we can respond as these men did. We can respond with a faith that says whether he chooses to deliver or not, he is still good and he is still sovereign. Amen. And whether or not we experience victory in these trials, He is still good and He is still sovereign. So we're not guaranteed promise, like this type of delivery, like as if, as what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did, but what we can rest on is that God is good to be with us and He is still good regardless of what happens to us in our lives. That's the type of faith we see in these men, and it's the type of faith that we can embody as believers here today as we experience our own trials. Well, let's look again at our passage, verses 24 and 25. We see obviously the great deliverance of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They're walking around, they are not hurt. But there is another in the fire that Nebuchadnezzar sees. So I want us to address that portion now. This is a person who's called the fourth man or the fourth figure. And much has been written about this figure that we're gonna discuss briefly. And it's been a long time debate, maybe you might be aware of it or not, as to who this is or what this is. And so this is going to lead us into our next main point as we discuss this section here. Our next main point is this. Our sovereign God is present with us, with the righteous in trial. Our sovereign God is present with us, with the righteous in trial. So what we're gonna see here, the example we see is that God has not just set the clock and let it spin and let it do our own thing, but he's shown time and time again that he has not abandoned us, that he is with us. And we've already highlighted that again this morning, but we see it here so clearly in this example with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. And may we never forget who is the one that saves. Excuse me. It is God who saves, not our faith, not our thoughts, not our actions, but it is God who saves. And we're gonna see his presence, his saving presence here again. Verse 24, he declared to his counselors, did we not cast three men bound into the fire? They answered the king, true, O king. And he answered and said, but I see four men, unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt. And the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods. Who is this person? Who is this figure? Almost immediately after the men are thrown into the fiery furnace, we see Nebuchadnezzar respond and see what is going on. And he asked, didn't we cast three? Who is this fourth that I am seeing? His counselors respond, yes, true, O king. And he says, this fourth is as a divine figure, as one of who looks like the son of the gods. And from our passage, it may be that only Nebuchadnezzar can see this fourth. The counselors respond, yes, we did cast down three, and obviously everyone is looking at what's happening, but Nebuchadnezzar describes this fourth figure. So who is this fourth figure, the fourth man? Some believe this to be a Christophany, which is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. That before Jesus, the Son of God, was incarnate, he came to this earth, that he appeared in these type of forms, in these examples here, as a pre-incarnate appearance. That's what a Christophany is. And others believe that this may be an angelic presence that represents God being with these men in this obviously salvific and preserving way. And in all honesty, there's a lot of information regarding this specific passage, this figure, and there's a lot of good arguments and thoughts and things we can point to on both sides of this argument. So we haven't necessarily settled on where we land with this. There's still more research and reading to do. more consideration of the scripture. But I did want to highlight for us the two positions that we see here in this discussion, in this debate within the church. I want to read a quote from Pastor Matthew Henry. He arguing for the Christophany. He writes this, there was a fourth seen with him in the fire whose form and Nebuchadnezzar's judgment was like the son of God. He appeared as a divine person, a messenger from heaven, not as a servant, but as a son. Continuing on, but some think it was the eternal son of God, the angel of the covenant and not a created angel. He appeared often in our nature before he assumed it in his incarnation and never more seasonable nor to give a more proper indication and presage of his great Aaron into the world in the fullness of time than now. When to deliver his chosen out of the fire, he came and walked with them in the fire. Pastor Henry has the utmost confidence that this is consistent with the work and the ministry of Christ, that he has come to save, that he is powerful to save, that it is him walking amongst them in the fire. It's great confidence in seeing the actions of this figure. It must be Christ. I have to read a quote from Dr. Wendy Whitter, she's a commentator, and she's presenting some of the arguments for the other side, the angelic presence representing God. She has some helpful notes here. The original audience of Daniel would have likely associated the mysterious fourth man in the furnace with the angel of Yahweh, the figure that often manifests divine power and presence to those from whom Yahweh has particularly chosen. Other interpreters have understood the fourth figure to be an angel sent by God, but not necessarily the angel of Yahweh, a view that aligns with Nebuchadnezzar's view in chapter 3, verse 28. Although the narrator does not specify the identity of the fourth man, the significance of his presence does not depend on his exact identity. Whether the fourth figure was God himself or just his messenger, he represented God's presence and deliverance of his servants. The route they take is, hey, it's not clear, not all the data's here, but what is clear is that God is present with them and that God is preserving them with his power. And that's what we can take away, the encouragement we can take away as well. That in our own lives, we have the same access to this preserving power that we see here, preserve Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And although it may not be as clear here as we may like it, thankfully it is clear now for us today. Because our deliverer is Christ himself. He has now come with us. God does now dwell with us in Jesus. So helpful to be looking at these two positions and meditating on this fourth man, this figure. And regardless of kind of where the debate stands, it is clear that God is the one who is present with his righteous in trial. And we can take much comfort from that. Well, our first main point for this morning was that our sovereign God is the strong deliverer of his faithful people. He emphatically shows that. Our second main point was that our sovereign God is present with the righteous in trial, and we see that in this example in the presence of the fourth figure. And our third main point for this morning is this. Our sovereign God is unrivaled in power and is worthy of all praise from all people. Our sovereign God is unrivaled in power and is worthy of all praise from all people. The theme of our Daniel series is the unrivaled kingdom. And the unrivaled kingdom has an unrivaled king. And our sovereign God is this unrivaled king. Our pastor this morning helps us show us who is there like our God. Who is there like our God? He is deserving of all praise and awe and wonder and worship, not just from his people, but from all peoples, from all nations and tongues. And his acts, his mighty works of deliverance, highlight his preeminence in the universe, that there truly is none like him in the kingdom of men. And though kingdoms of men may try to elevate themselves by building statues of gold, they are nothing like our God. Our sovereign God is unrivaled in power and is worthy of all praise from all people. Let us see here now in the last section of our chapter this morning. Picking up in verse 26, the Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door as he sees that the men are not hurt, that they are no longer bound, and this fourth figure there preserving, ministering to them, he approaches the door of the burning, fiery furnace. And he declares now in a shift in a tenderly voice towards them, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out and come here. Let me see what is happening here. How is this possible? And then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out from the fire. And the Sahchaps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of these men. Never before had they seen a salvation like this. The hair of their heads were not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of the fire had come upon them. This is ridiculous. How is this possible? But this deliverance did not happen in a secret, in some sort of back alley. This was on the greatest world stage. As we noted in the previous sermon, Nebuchadnezzar calls his prefects and governors and sachets and counselors from everywhere. Everyone is there and everyone can see. And Nebuchadnezzar was making an example of these men. He heated up the furnace seven times so it would be clear that he is the one to be worshipped. But what do we see here? that that fire had no power, it had no effect on God's people because of God's power. God had powerfully preserved these men beyond what anyone had ever seen before. Let's read on, verse 28. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, in response to seeing this, seeing that they are unharmed in any way, He says this, Nebuchadnezzar's doxology. I don't know if there's a Latin version of this like we had with the Christmas songs, but here we have Nebuchadnezzar's doxology. Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent 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 other God except their own God. You see, King Nebuchadnezzar praised God because of the great deliverance of his faithful people. It is so clear what is happening. He challenged them, and they responded, our God is able to deliver, and he says, let's see. And he throws them in, and God shows up. Not only that, not only does he respond to this great deliverance, but he highlights here their faith. It was their faith that they were willing to go against the king, not only go against the most powerful king in the world, they were not willing to share the glory that only God alone deserves with any other God. They were not willing to worship any other God except their own. Again, we see here that they were willing to die than to serve any other God. And what does this say about your God? If you're willing to die, then rather serve any other God. It means your God is the highest, the utmost, where everything that you have, your physical body, it's worth to get rid of that rather than to serve anyone else. What a high view of God these men have and put on display for King Nebuchadnezzar. As a response to his doxology, we then now have his decree, his action. Verse 29, therefore I make a decree, any people, nation, or language, and this is specific, we see this language throughout a lot of areas in Scripture, but it's referring to all peoples. All people that speak anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruin, for there is no other God who is able to rescue in this way. King Nebuchadnezzar has only one thing to do. All he can do is confess that the Lord truly does stand unrivaled in power and glory and in station. And that anyone who speaks against this God deserves death. He echoes the sentiments and the calls, the many songs we have in the scriptures about that our God is unlike any God. I'll read for us Psalm 86, eight through 10. that highlights how the nations will do this. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. You see an example of this here in Nebuchadnezzar. For there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way. You know, if King Nebuchadnezzar only knew his Bible, he would never ask this silly question. Who is it God can deliver? Tell me, Nebuchadnezzar, have you flooded the world and saved humanity with the ark? Tell me, Nebuchadnezzar, have you broken the arm of Pharaoh and split the Red Sea? Tell me, Nebuchadnezzar, have you killed a thousand men with a jawbone? Have you brought down the walls of Jericho with trumpets or crushed armies with hail or slain giants with stones? If only Nebuchadnezzar had known of the many, many examples we have that our God is a great deliverer and no one can rescue like he rescues. There is truly no other God like our God. Amen. Well, we see some significant results because of this miraculous deliverance. God proves without a shadow of a doubt that he is truly unrivaled in power and in glory and can save. We see that God is present with his people in trial. He is not a distant God. He is not a gold God that just stands and does nothing when you're in trial, but he is present with you. And we see that also as a result of this, as a result of this decree, we see that God preserves His promises. We see that God preserves His promises. I'd like to take just a quick stick back here as we look again at this verse 29, as we look again at His decree and what comes as a result of this decree from King Nebuchadnezzar. Verse 29, 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 houses shall be laid in ruins. With this decree, King Nebuchadnezzar creates a blasphemy law. You cannot blaspheme the God of Israel. And he then inputs the highest protection. This blasphemy doesn't just get you 30 days in jail, it gets your whole household destroyed. Nebuchadnezzar now has a better view of who God is and what the results should be of offending and blaspheming this God. And in this, a protection is created for the people of Judah, the people in exile, that will serve to protect and to fulfill God's greater promise to them. God, through this decree, through the preservation, through the government protection, this protected class now that the people of Israel have, he's fulfilling his promise that he made to them in Jeremiah 29. I have Jeremiah 29 here for us. Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah was preaching at the time, he was ministering to the people, and he wrote a letter to the people of Israel in exile, people of Judah. Apologies. And he says this in Jeremiah 29, 10 through 14, a verse I'm sure many of us are familiar of being taken out of context. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from which I have sent you into exile. Daniel would have had this letter from Jeremiah. He would have had this promise in the back of his mind. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have had this promise in the back of their minds. That God promised a future hope for them. That he would preserve them and he would bring them back out of exile. And although ultimately this passage, all the book of Daniel is about God and his sovereignty and his majesty, We also see the preservation of his gospel mission. The kings of Judah survived this exile, which is not promised. Many people of conquered nations taken in exile are often slaughtered, but not the kings of Judah. We see their names in the lineage of Christ. Matthew 1, 12 verses 13. This is the last section in the lineage of Christ in Matthew. After the deportation to Babylon, which is where Daniel is. Jeconiah was the father of Shehotel. He was the king that was taken into exile. Shehotel, his son. And Shehotel, the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is the governor described for us in Haggai. We see the preservation of the people of Israel. And so although the people of Israel are in exile, we see the preservation of God's mission to save His people is still on track, and we see this decree as a part of that. The gospel will still win, even though it seems as if the people are gone, the people are done. His promise was with them, that they would return, and that one day they would have a future hope, and we know who that hope is. That hope is Christ. That hope is the Messiah. So as we come to a conclusion here in our time, our passage this morning, a wonderful passage as we reflect and see God's glorious might and power. He has shown without a doubt who he is to this king, continuing Nebuchadnezzar's journey of being humbled. And we see that through all of this God has shown himself to be amazing and powerful, but he also preserves his people. The exile in Babylon will not be the end of their story. We will receive the Messiah. They experience an unrivaled deliverance. And so that's my final question for us this morning. Do you delight and cherish the unrivaled deliverance of our God? Do you delight and cherish in the unrivaled deliverance of our God? We have received no greater blessing in Christ than his deliverance from the consequences of our sin. Just as God has delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so Christ delivers us. but the deliverance that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was a temporal one. It was purely a physical one, and it pales in comparison to the deliverance we have in Christ. Amen? These men were wrongly cast into the fire, but we do not have such a claim to make before the Lord for our sins. We are the ones who are in the wrong. We are the ones who have no excuse before the Lord. but regardless of that, Christ saves us. And he saves us not from a physical fire, but from an eternal fire in hell. And we no longer stand with our sin, but Christ makes us white as snow. He has delivered us from the guilt and shame of our sin. Can anyone say that someone has done greater for them? Can anyone say they have a greater unrivaled deliverance than what Christ has given us in his gospel, what Christ offers us in his gospel? This gospel is worth even more than all the kingdoms. In the New Testament, Satan tempts Christ. He says, I will give you all the kingdoms in this world. Then he says, it's not worth it. Get away from me. Only God shall we serve. We truly have an unrivaled deliverance. So, do we delight and cherish in this unrivaled deliverance that we have in Christ? Today, this Lord's Day, we reflect and we enjoy our time together, but we enjoy our time together as saints who have been delivered from their sins in Christ. And brothers and sisters, as we enjoy that, as we remember that, as we meditate on that, let that encourage us to share that with others. And for those of you who are here today, I have not met everybody. There is an unrivaled deliverance available to you in Christ. You have no excuse for your sin. You have no place to go. The catechism is clear. Your righteousness is not enough. You are unfit for heaven unless God saves you. and that is available, place your trust in the Lord. The deliverance we saw today that so highlighted God's magnificence is available to all who place their trust and faith in Christ. And so I would call you, today is the day of salvation. Believe in the Lord, believe in his redemption. For those of us, brothers and sisters, who have experienced this salvation, let us dwell richly today with the Lord on this Lord's day. and be thankful that he has redeemed us and delivered us and that his glory and beauty is on display in our lives and as we share his gospel. Amen? Let me pray. Lord, thank you so much for this great and glorious example we have in Daniel. It shows us that you are powerful and mighty. There is none like you, none who delivers. And Lord, the grace is beyond what we can understand that you offer this type of salvation to us, not in just a physical measure, but a greater measure. in an eternal measure, Lord, that we will be able to enjoy you richly. Lord, we can never repay you for what you've given us. We can never repay you for taking our pain and punishment and guilt on the cross in your Son, Jesus Christ. So Lord, help us to delight and cherish, to relish the time we have to be with one another and to share your great and glorious gospel with those whom you put in our lives. Lord, we thank you for the deliverance and the preservation that led to the Messiah coming to Israel and therefore coming to us all of your wonderful plans, we can take glory in, and we give you glory for. Lord, be with us today as we continue to be together, worshiping you. May our minds be focused and fixed on Christ and his work in our lives. We thank you, Lord, for your word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.