preparing this talk, I was telling Joel at the break, I put together a lot of information and gather a bunch of notes and take notes and make observations and stuff. And you think you're going a certain direction. And then all of a sudden, as you're going through, going through, you find that that's not where you thought you were going. And so I did have to change direction a little bit here. I intended to look at all of Daniel chapter three, and you can go ahead and turn there. But as it turns out, if I had done Daniel chapter, all of Daniel chapter three today, you guys would still be here probably about four o'clock or so this afternoon, because there's so much there. And I'm just not very good at weeding out details, as Marianne will tell you. Sometimes she says to me, not just sometimes, many times, get to the point. So anyways, and it's kind of funny. So then after I began, I realized that then my introductory story didn't really fit where I was going. So I had to change that. So anyways, let me begin with my new introduction. Good morning. You know, Many times we say, that's close enough. That's really close. About 99% there. If we had a 99% mark in just about anything, we would say that's great. In baseball, if you were getting on base at a 333 clip one out of three times, that's only a third of the time, you'd be doing great. I mean, you might win a batting title with a 333 batting average. That means that you're failing two thirds of the time. But 99% of the time, if we said something that was 99%, we would say, wow, we're doing really good. So sometime back, I kind of talked about this a little bit on a Wednesday, I think last year. There's a brand of soap which describes itself or advertises itself as being 99.4% pure. And they're 99.4% pure. Wow, that's incredible. And then somebody did a study just to, you know, they asked the question, what if everything in the world operated at 99% efficiency? And they came up with a few little points here. Drinking water would be unsafe one hour out of every month. Two planes would crash land every day at Chicago's old airport. That's just another. 500 surgeries each year, or 500 surgeries would be botched every week. And 20,000 prescriptions would be improperly filled each year. And this is at 99% efficiency. That's not very good, is it? To have that many mistakes. This morning, we're gonna be taking a look here at Daniel chapter three, and You know, God calls us to live obedient lives, lives that are obedient to him and to his word. And we're to trust him to meet our needs and to take care of all the other details. And at different times in our lives, we're gonna face various types of adversity. And, you know, the measure of our faith and the measure of how good we perform, you know, quote unquote, will lie in how much we trust God and how much we give to Him to undertake, take care of us. So, Daniel chapter three, we're gonna look at verses one through seven. This is the beginning of the very familiar story, which most of us learned in Sunday school, but the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. I titled this message, The Spirit of the Image of Gold. And let's read chapter three, verses one through seven. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. So at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, harp, and lyre in symphony with all kinds of music, all the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshiped the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So first, a little bit of background here. It's been about 15 to 20 years, roughly, since the events of chapter two, when Daniel interpreted the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar by the power of God, and not because Nebuchadnezzar had told him the dream, and then Daniel told him what it meant, but rather the Lord revealed to Daniel what was the dream and then gave him the interpretation of it. So it's about 20 years since that, 15-20 years since that event. During this time, Nebuchadnezzar has been out waging war against other nations, basically trying to subdue everyone to create what would become at that time the greatest kingdom on earth. Essentially, Nebuchadnezzar ruled over all of the civilized world at that time. So he's just returned home from the Jewish and Syrian campaigns where he's been doing battle. At the end of chapter 2, we see that it says that what seems to be a confession of faith of the true God, but as a pagan, he would not see this as incompatible with his gods. To him, every country had their own gods that they worshiped, and so he just recognized that, hey, this God in Israel is a pretty impressive God. He revealed this dream to my servant Daniel here, or Belteshazzar, as he called him. And he said, so maybe this is another God that I need for my collection. But in Nebuchadnezzar's mind, this God wasn't strong enough to keep me from conquering his country. He wasn't strong enough to keep me from pillaging his temple. So for Nebuchadnezzar, yeah, that's a pretty good God, but my gods are still better. So ancient idolaters, they really, in their minds, they felt that, you know, again, each nation had its own God, and that it was okay to worship, you know, whichever ones you wanted, just bring them in, you know, the more the merrier. And so for him, though, his were the, the best, the greatest, because they defeated everyone else. You know, it's very similar to the boasting that Sennacherib made to Hezekiah as the Assyrian army was raging war against the world at the time. You know, when he said, you know, I've conquered the gods of this land and this land and this land, what is Jehovah gonna do for you? No, he found out. So this chapter here now begins by telling us that Nebuchadnezzar has made a gigantic statue just outside the city. Now, a lot of scholars are, they're undecided exactly where the plain of Dura was located, but many tend to believe that it was just outside of the city of Babylon, kind of to the southeast in the plain there, Some years ago, an archaeologist discovered a large platform where they determined that a large statue had once stood. And so if possible, that's where it was. It doesn't really matter with regard to our story, but it does make sense with it being close to the city there. John Henning suggests that Nebuchadnezzar may have seen a similar thing in Egypt and desired to copy it. And, you know, many times we see something that we like, you know, and I don't know if this is the idolatrous heart in each of us, But we see something and we want to copy it. We want to be like them. You know, proverbial grass is greener there. Let's get something that's better. You know, that's better than what we have. I want to do it. In 2 Kings chapter 16, we read about King Ahaz, and we read a different account of Ahaz earlier this morning. But Ahaz was the son of a good king and also Jehoram. whose father was Uriah, both of these guys, not Uriah, something like that. The one that- Uzziah. Uzziah, thank you, who went into the temple. He was a good king, except for one little thing he did, and he got punished for it. but two very good kings. And then here comes Ahaz, who was a very wicked, wicked man. And in 2 Kings 16, verses 10 and 11, we read that King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria. So he's going there because he wants to join forces. He wants Tiglath-Pileser to come and support him. He says, when he saw the altar that was in Damascus, King Ahaz sent the model of the altar and complete plans for its construction to Uriah the priest. Uriah built the altar according to all the instructions King Ahaz sent from Damascus. And this chapter, you go on to read chapter 16 of 2 Kings, you find that Ahaz basically took his new more impressive altar and essentially replaced the altar of God outside of the temple, the temple courtyard there. And so here he's taking the foreign altar and replacing the altar of the true and living God. So many have taken for granted that this image that Nebuchadnezzar has built, that it was an image of himself and that he set it up to glorify and deify himself. But the scriptures don't tell us that. It might be true, but I'm thinking that it's more, you know, when we look, consider again the context in which we're reading this here, that's very likely that it's a symbol, he's building this as a symbol that glorifies his gods and the power of Babylon. in that he's putting this up for people to come and to see how great is Babylon, how great is this country, how great are the gods who have given us this great might, and how great am I because I'm the king of this country. And so there are probably two reasons why he constructed it. First is that he is going to declare his own loyalty. He's building this in honor of his gods and saying, look what I'm doing for you. I'm gonna honor you in this way. So he's gonna build this great big statue and for all the world to see. Nebuchadnezzar made no secret of his belief that his gods had made him king over this nation and over all the world, and that his gods were greater than the gods of those nations. So it would make sense that he would want to honor them with this, with this statute. And, you know, I mentioned a couple moments ago that Nebuchadnezzar had just recently returned from conquering other countries. And so this would suggest the second reason for erecting the statue. During these campaigns, he would have done just like he did with Daniel and his friends. He would have brought captives back to Babylon. He would have brought them back, assimilated them into the culture, put them through the school of Babylon where they would learn all these things and then start to be, you know, and begin to be put into positions of authority. And so the purpose of, and the peoples that he would be bringing back with him would all have their own religious backgrounds. So the identification festival that he is, going to celebrate here. It may have been designed to oppress all these newcomers with the fact that Babylon's gods were better and greater than theirs, and it would give them an opportunity to show respect for the gods of Babylon. So in verses two and three, we get a list of all the leaders and officials of the provinces of Babylon, that have been called to the place to participate in the ceremony. The satraps, they were heads of provinces. So they were kind of like the top, the top people, the governors, you might say, of each of these, of the provinces. And so it's possible that this was a list in order of rank of, you know, the satraps and then who were the next ones the administrators and so on. This is probably a ranking down to kind of the lowest level of government. It probably does not mean that everyone in the kingdom came and congregated in this place, but rather it's a calling of those who represented and were heads of these various provinces. The idea here would be that if the leaders and officials would engage in this idolatry and in this fealty to the king, the people would blindly follow. So the people, these leaders, they come and they take their places before the image and they wait for further orders. But what is the purpose of this gathering? They haven't really been told yet. Why are they here? Well, they're about to find out. You know one other note regarding the the image you know many people have rejected this uh this narrative because they say that the measurements of the statute don't make sense that it's too high for its width but others have suggested that one reason for this is that uh that they don't dispute the size of it, but rather that the thing was probably on a pedestal, which would have accounted for part of the height. Also, Augustine suggested that the six cubits wide was actually the, I don't know if you call this the breadth or whatever, but the front to back, as opposed to side to side. And if it's front to back, it makes more sense with regard to the proportions of what would be a regular manor. So we don't really know. What we do know is that it was 60 feet, One other interesting little note regarding this is the 60 by 6. Now, some have suggested the 666 number. Not going to go into that at this time. But the other thing is that it is a system of measurement that really is used still today. When we think about, you know, even though most of the world and most of the things we do are on the decimal system, this was the sextadigital, I'm really messing that up, but it's a base 60 system. When we think about dozen or gross, That's based on this system, this base 60 system. 12 divides into 60. A gross is 144, 12 times 12. Also, how many degrees is a circle? 360. That's also part of, it's a base 60. Your clock is divided into, 12 hours, which is a division of 60. There are 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute. And so we still use this system that was devised by the Babylonians, actually devised by the Sumerians a little before that, but they really brought it, they did more with it. And so these ancients were not, dumb, right? They were very intelligent and so in the building of this great statue, Nebuchadnezzar probably had some very good architects and very good construction people that knew what they were doing and were able to build this thing so that it wouldn't just topple. So again, we can trust the Word of God with the things that it says here and we don't have to reject it because in our minds it doesn't make sense. So in verses four and five, we see a herald, which is someone who makes official or royal announcements to the public. And he comes forward and he loudly proclaims to the people what they're supposed to do. The herald was likely stationed on a platform above the crowd and shouted instructions through some sort of amplifying device, you know, maybe a bullhorn or whatever. or maybe he had a voice like John Lyman that just, you know, but they talk about some of the old, you know, the preachers of old, the Wycliffs and so on, whose voices boomed and they could be heard for a long ways. So he comes and he tells them what they're supposed to do. When they hear this music start, when they hear the orchestra that's been set up, they are to fall down and worship the gold image that Nebuchadnezzar has set up. Now, the Bible tells us that the Babylonians loved beautiful and exotic music. Isaiah 1411, we read regarding Babylon, your splendor has been brought down to Sheol along with the music of your harps. You know, it's interesting that their music is identified as being brought down with them. In Psalm 137 verses one through three, we have one of the most depressing Psalms in the Bible, where we read of the Babylonian soldiers who had heard of the songs once sung in the temple. and they now demanded the captive Jews to sing these songs of Zion. Psalm 137 verses one through three say, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. There we hung up our lawyers on the poplar trees, for our captors there asked us for songs and our tormentors for rejoicing. Sing us one of the songs of Zion. So the Babylonians, they were demanding music from their captives. And they wanted to hear specifically these songs that were sung to God. So it should be no surprise that Nebuchadnezzar would put together this great collection of musicians and instruments to play at the dedication of his statue. David Jeremiah called this a prostitution of music. Almost every major cult and ism and false religion has found some way to use music for its perverted purposes. It's a type of mind control. Music belongs to God, but the world will take it, and they'll take anything that is God's and pervert it for its own purposes. So the king cannot get people to believe in his gods by simply issuing an order. but he can command that everyone present perform an act of worship to his gods by commanding them to bow down, to prostrate themselves before this image. The purpose of the music is to create emotion in all the people that are gathered together. Emotion can't just be called up on a whim, although I've seen some kids who can just try when they have to get their way. But emotion cannot just be called up. We need something to provoke it. The use of music will create an atmosphere in which people's emotions take over. And depending on how you use the music, you can be whipped into a religious burger. Music is used in so many different ways. Many times it's used for sexual purposes. It sets a mood and people begin to lose their inhibitions and so on. And you know, even in the church today, it seems that men are no longer moved by the Word of God. We see how when the Word was read, especially when Ezra read to the people of Jerusalem, that the people wept, and cried, and so on. The Word of God shouldn't move us. When we read, even like this morning, When we read of how the Lord Jesus suffered for our sins, how he was on that cross and felt forsaken of God, that should move us. But many churches today are filled with people that are called worship leaders. And they play all sorts of instruments and they sing songs with the intention of creating a feeling of worship. even in those who have not been saved. And the music itself can become an idol that numbs sinners to the conviction of sin. If I feel like I'm worshiping, then I must be okay. Verse six tells us that to not fall in worship would be considered a double crime. It would be a crime of disobedience to the king and disloyalty to Babylon. And if you disobeyed, you would be immediately thrown into a burning furnace. All present would know that this was no idle threat. In Jeremiah, chapter 22, verse 22, he wrote, Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire. So this was not something that he just thought upon the spur of the moment. This was something that he has done before and probably done many times. So the herald's objective here was to force all the people to acknowledge Nebuchadnezzar's gods as superior to all others. And ultimately, though, it's the fiery furnace that is the motivating factor in the decision of each one. The worship here is driven by fear. So the king's decree in fear of Infernus brought results. When the music began, they all fell down and worshiped the image of gold. And even without the threat of the furnace, many would have blindly complied without thought. Scriptures speak of the absurdity of worshiping idols, and yet people still do it. Habakkuk 2, verses 18 and 19, we would read, what use is a carved idol after its craftsman carves it? It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies. For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it and makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, wake up, or to mute stone, come alive. Can it teach? Look, it may be plated with gold and silver, yet there is no breath in it at all. And yet people would worship something like this. But not all idols are made out of gold or silver or wood, and they do come in many forms. William Thackeray, the British humorist of the mid 1700s, he wrote a book called The Four Georges. And this book was about the four British kings named George, George I, George II, George III, George III, by the way, being the king during the American Revolution, and George IV. Regarding George II, he wrote this. When he was away from his beloved Hanover, Everything remained there exactly as in the prince's presence. There were 800 horses in the stables, there was all the apparatus of the chamberlains, and court assemblies were held every Saturday, where all the nobility of Hanover assembled at what I can't but think a fine and touching ceremony. A large armchair was placed in the assembly room and on it the king's portrait. nobility would advance, and they would make a bow to the armchair, and to the, and Thackeray writes, and to the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. And they would speak under their voices before this august picture, just as they would have done had it been the king himself. So here we have people coming in and bowing to a portrait, and giving worship to a portrait. So it's not hard to, you know, it's not a leap of imagination to think that people would worship a mute, deaf, breathless idol. And there are several reasons, though, why people will compromise what they believe and bow to an idol, whatever that idol might be. For most people, those on the plane of Dura, it was out of fear. Paul wrote in Galatians 2 verses 12 and 13 regarding Peter, For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself because he feared those from the circumcision party. Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. Peter, out of fear of these other people, stopped doing. He stopped including Gentiles. He stopped associating with the Gentiles in the Galatian church. And instead, he separated himself, and in so doing, he caused others to fall. And this is what happens when we compromise the things of God, we cause others to also stumble, we cause others to fall. There are those that will look and they'll say, is that what a Christian should be doing? You know, I've told this story before, but back a long time ago, as a very young man, when I was going to Baptist Tabernacle, I had a set of friends. And after we turned 18 or 19, whenever, and I don't remember what the drinking age was, but there was one fellow, he was a, I'm not even sure if he actually became a believer, but he had started coming and hanging around with us. His name was Steve. And one day Steve saw two of the fellows going into a bar or coming out of a bar and he called me and he said, I just saw so-and-so. And he says, what are they doing? He goes, why would they be doing that? See for Steve, this was something that was incompatible with Christianity. Is it wrong to go into a bar? Not in and of itself. But when we read about the things that are in 1 Corinthians, what were they called? The challengeable things, whatever they are. The spiritual things, thank you. For some people, that is a weakness that causes them to fall. Steve was not, I don't believe that Steve ever did become a believer. Shortly after, he stopped hanging with us. when other things happen to Steve later on, but Steve's no longer with us alive. But I remember his mother then calling me and saying, I still remember that she goes, what kind of Christians are you guys? And she railed on me. And anyways, when we compromise, when we do things, So for some, it was fear that compelled them, probably most of them, it was fear of that fiery furnace that compelled them to fall down and worship. For some, it's a lack of faith. They just don't believe enough in their own gods. And for others, it's that they don't entirely believe God's word. They don't fully trust it. So it's easier to compromise than to stay with the word. And then there's others who might have a desire for material things. There are those that fell down and worshiped here who probably thought the king will notice and he'll promote me to this position or that position. And many times we can compromise in the way we do things at work, you know, an attempt to get something better. Sometimes it's, you know, shortchanging someone or whatever. You know, there are different things that we do that we make little excuses for, but we compromise. But that same spirit that was in Nebuchadnezzar and in the people on that plain of Dura, it is in each one of us. The statue of gold may have been 90 feet high, but it was made up of all these small little items that we each one harbor in our hearts and our homes. The spirit of that statue is in us. It says in verse seven, they all fell down. We all participate at some time or another in bending our knees. We are told that we today are the same as those in Babylon. Romans 3.23 says, there is no distinction. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When there is little resistance to great evil, it's because that same evil is found in smaller proportions in each of us. This is why sin is rampant in our country today. The church has allowed itself in the name of love to become tolerant of every sort of vile sin and wickedness that's out there. It's very easy to bow down or let evil go unchecked when we harbor it in our own hearts. We may not personally practice all these things, but before I criticize and judge others, I need to first remove the plank from my own eye. I and we need to be on our knees, not worshiping the idol of Nebuchadnezzar, but before the true God of heaven. We need to confess our own sins personally and corporately. You know, as an assembly, I am very proud of the fact that we faithfully teach the word. We preach the gospel. We take the gospel out. We haven't compromised on the word of God. But I have to be careful to not let that pride become an idol. Even that can be a stumbling block. Even that can make me take my eyes off of God. It can make me puffed up and to forget where I came from as a sinner before a holy God. But what about the gospel? I just read Romans 3.23 that says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All are destined for a hotter fire than Nebuchadnezzar could ever stoke. But God has offered a way of salvation through the blood of Christ when he died on the cross. If you have not come to Christ, if you have not taken hold of that Savior, appropriated taken his blood and then cleansed of your sin. You can do that. It's offered freely. You need only confess your sin, to repent of it. Turn yourself over to him and you will be saved. Every one of these people, you know, the grace of God is so great. He probably looked out on that plane and saw these people on their knees. and it grieved his heart. And even as he came down from that mount, and he read in Exodus this morning, God wanted to wipe out these people. He was angry. He was grieved by what he saw. That very same sin is within each of us. And as these people were on that plane, bowing down, God could have wiped them all out. but he didn't. And next time we will see, we'll get an example of those that stood up. But that same mercy, that same grace that was extended to those people on their knees at that time is extended to every one of us. You have only to confess your sin, to turn to him and be saved. That's great. Lord Jesus, we thank you for that great mercy, that great grace. Help us to remember the sin for which we've been saved. Help us to remember that we really are to appreciate the grace that you show us and the mercy that was shown at the cross of Calvary. We thank you for that free gift of salvation. We thank you for your word. We ask your blessing on it. And we pray that you will help each one of us to walk rightly before you. We thank you. We praise you. Amen.