GYC Conference 2023: But If Not

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Morning Devotional

Mark Howard

The Kingdom of Pride

Gracious Father in heaven, what a privilege we have not just to be here to fellowship, to study your word together, to have the presence of the Spirit of truth to guide us into an understanding of the truth, but Lord what a privilege we have of knowing you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

And I pray, Lord, that the time we spend here through this weekend will not just be for our own spiritual revival, but that we may be able to proclaim Christ to everyone we meet, that they too may be ready when Jesus comes.

Now you know our theme for the weekend is but if not, it's lifted right out of the book of Daniel chapter 3.

And so this morning and tomorrow morning and Sabbath morning we're going to be studying in Daniel chapter 3.

That is going to be what we're going to be looking at.

Most Seventh-day Adventists understand that Daniel is a counterpart to the book of Revelation, and that these books are especially relevant for those living at the end of time, which I believe we are.

If you read in the book of Daniel chapter 12, and I'm just reviewing this, we're not going to go here for sake of time, but if you read in Daniel chapter 12, you find that Daniel is told to seal up his book for a time, times, and half a time, and he's told that by somebody identified as the man clothed in linen.

If you do a comparison, now that man clothed in linen shows up in Daniel chapter 10 and makes that proclamation in Daniel 12.

But if you go and read the description of the man clothed in linen in Daniel 10 and you compare it with the description of Christ in Revelation 1, you'll find they're the same person.

And the Lord himself directs in the sealing up of the book of Daniel for a time, times, and half a time, or until the time of the end.

He lifts both hands to heaven and swears by him who lives forever and ever.

When you come to the book of Revelation chapter 10, you see an angel coming down with the exact same posture, almost exact same.

1 hand is lifted up and the other hand holds an open book, and that open book is the book of Daniel.

Because the time of the end has come, and that book is relevant for those people living in that time period.

We are told in the book Testimonies to Ministers, page 115, that the book of Daniel is unsealed in the Revelation to John and carries us forward to the last scenes of this earth's history.

As I said, that's where I believe we are.

And so this is especially relevant to you and me, this book and this story.

Now speaking of the story, Daniel chapter 3, and in all the stories of Daniel, 1 of the blessings of the book of Daniel is unlike Revelation, in Revelation you have a lot of prophecies, but in the book of Daniel you have these historical accounts.

And the historical accounts actually show people who were faithful and give us insights on how to be faithful when we face the fulfillments of prophecy we read in Daniel and Revelation.

And those are the things we're going to be drawing out in our study.

I believe that the things in written in Daniel are going to happen again.

Some of the things are prophecies and have yet to happen.

Some of those accounts, experiences, I mean you can't read Daniel 3 and look at this image that people are commanded to bow down and worship and if they don't bow down and worship they're gonna be killed you can't read that and not have your mind go to Revelation 13 where that final contest is pointed out.

History is being repeated and soon we're going to face whether we face that final crisis we're all going to face our own fiery furnace.

And when we do, we want to face it faithfully.

So what I've done for these next few mornings is this is how I've laid out our morning presentations.

This morning's presentation is entitled the Kingdom of Pride.

We're going to kind of look back into the heart of what made Babylon Babylon, if you will.

Tomorrow morning our topic is the anatomy of compromise and we're going to attempt to discover the things that lead to compromise and how we can avoid it and faithfully stand for the Lord.

And finally, Sabbath morning's presentation is called Faith in the Final Crisis, where we're going to actually go to Revelation 13 in the light of Daniel 3 in order to learn how we too can stay faithful in the end.

Now I want to go to Daniel 3, but I want to give a little back history, a brief history of where we are with the book of Daniel.

In fact, our setting of Daniel chapter 3.

We know that Daniel, the captivity we read about in Daniel, took place in the third year of King Jehoiakim about 605 BC.

We're told in inspiration that Daniel was 16 years old, at 15 or 16, Ellen White says, at the time of the captivity.

It doesn't tell us about Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

We would assume they were the same age, roughly, because usually 15 and 16 year olds aren't hanging around 21 year olds or hanging around 10 year olds, right?

So we're picturing that all of these young men, when they were taken captive, taken from their homes, separated from their families, Pastor Park touched on this a little bit last night.

How many of you were here last night for Pastor Parks?

That brought in at 15 or 16 years old, marched about 6 months, scholars say, to Babylon on foot, inconveniently, castrated when they were brought to Babylon.

They were made eunuchs to serve in the palace.

Some people, there are differences of opinions on that, but I believe that's exactly what Isaiah foretold would happen.

And Nebuchadnezzar brought them into a training program because he saw potential in them.

They finished that training program after 3 years inclusive, at which point we're told in Testimonies Volume 4 Daniel was 18 years old.

I'm guessing that Hananiah, Mishael, Nazariah, those are the Hebrew names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were also about that same age.

And they entered the service of the king.

Shortly after that, in a few months, we have the events of Daniel chapter 2.

About the time these young men were 18, Daniel goes in before the king to tell him his dream.

Now there's no date given, but most scholars are united that the best estimate of the events of chapter 3 were in the years 594-593 BC, which would be about 10 years after the vision of chapter 2, which would put our young men around 28 years old.

Now I think that's all significant because in our crowd here, I would say the majority of our crowd is probably between 15 and 28.

And incidentally, the test that came in Daniel 3 when they were 28 was not prepared for when they were 28.

Now, if you're 28 or older, you can still prepare for the test, okay?

But the fact of the matter is what we're looking at here is going to help us to know how to face that crisis.

Now I want to turn to the book of Daniel.

We're going to read the first few verses this morning, and then we're gonna build on that.

Daniel chapter 3 starting in the first verse.

The Bible says Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width 6 cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.

Now incidentally, right away there, you see the 60 and 6 cubits.

Now I'm not a numerologist here, but I will tell you that the Babylonian empire was established on what's called a sexagesimal numbering system instead of the decimal system we use.

Largely due to their astronomy and their mathematics and what have you, a lot of people argue for the sexagesimal system as being more accurate.

My point simply is that Babylon was a very educated place that was proud of their science, proud of their math, proud of their wisdom.

Verse 2, 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.

So you have this big dedication, it's this national event, you've got people from all the realms of Nebuchadnezzar's administration who come to this dedication of the image.

Verse 4 says, 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." Verse 6, and whoever does not fall down in 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, the flute, the harp, and lyre, and symphony with all kinds of music, all the people's nations and languages, " makes you think of Revelation 14 doesn't it?

All the people's nations and languages fell down and worshiped the gold image which Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

The idea here is that you've got the dedication of this image and the music and the symphony was understood to be like an anthem.

This is a big celebration, this is a big dedication, this is a big glorification of Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom Babylon, and everybody was expected, all of these officials were expected to come and show reverence to that kingdom.

Now most of us, I want to tell you this morning that when you do a study in Scripture, you find that the kingdom of Babylon serves as a counterfeit of the kingdom of God.

In Daniel, we see Babylon contrasted with Jerusalem.

In the book of Revelation, we see spiritual Babylon contrasted with God's faithful people.

You find the origin story of Babylon in Genesis 10 and 11.

Genesis 10 tells us that it was the kingdom established by Nimrod.

In Genesis 11 we have the building of a tower called the what?

That word Babel appears in Genesis 10 and 11 and through the rest of Scripture it doesn't come translated as Babel, it's translated as Babylon.

Babylon was built on the site of the Tower of Babel.

The Tower of Babel was built as a tower to reach the heavens in the event that there was another flood.

I want you to think about that for a minute.

Imagine the Tower of Babel was built before the flood.

Imagine some people got together and said, well there's a flood coming, let's build a tower to avoid the flood.

Well, let's see, if you want to avoid the flood, you could get on the boat, right?

The point is that this building of the tower was in defiance of the God of heaven.

People who are unwilling to submit to the God of heaven.

And thus throughout Scripture we see Babylon as a kingdom that is seeking to counterfeit the kingdom of God.

Stephen Haskell in his book The Story of Daniel the Prophet says it was Satan's design in the kingdom of Babylon, it was Satan's design to counterfeit the plans of God.

The Anatomy of Compromise

Now I would like to begin this morning with a word of prayer and we're going to get into our study again in the book of Daniel.

So I invite you to bow your heads while I pray.

Gracious Father in heaven, we are so thankful for the privilege we have of coming together and studying your word with the promise of the Spirit of truth to guide us into the truth.

Lord, not just an intellectual understanding, not just an ascent to spiritual things, but a commitment to the truth and a transformation of life.

We know that this has promised us through the gift of the Spirit.

We thank you this morning as we study your word.

We ask you would bless us to that end for we ask these things in Jesus name, amen.

For those just joining us, I'll briefly recap what we talked about yesterday morning.

We studied how Babylon was an embodiment of Lucifer's kingdom, an embodiment of pride, an embodiment of everything that opposes or exalts itself above God or that is worshipped." We saw that Nebuchadnezzar designed a golden image that was similar to the 1 that God showed him in his dream in Daniel 2, but not identical, and that that image represented his prideful distortion of God's truth.

We also learned that the same is true when we exalt our opinions in the place of God's revealed truth or we try to adjust God's truth to fit our perverted lifestyles.

We learned that true Christianity takes place at the intersection where we yield our will to Christ, that intersection where we know that Jesus is telling us to go 1 way and we want to go another way, but we say, Lord not my will but thy will be done.

Prior to that point we have things in common with Christians, but we have not yet become Christians until we submit and surrender our lives to Jesus Christ.

Now this morning we're going to see if we can identify just why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood while others bowed, and how by God's grace we can do the same.

Our study is entitled the Anatomy of Compromise, and to begin this morning I would like you to turn with me to the book of Daniel chapter 3.

Daniel chapter 3, we're going to begin in verse 7 this morning.

Of course Nebuchadnezzar has set up his image, he's made the decree, he's called people to come together for the worship of this image.

The Bible says in Daniel 7 verse, or sorry, Daniel 3 verse 7, so at that time when all the people heard the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, and lyre in symphony with all kinds of music.

All the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews They spoke and said to King Nebuchadnezzar.

Oh King live forever You Oh King have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn flute harp lyre and psaltery and symphony with all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the gold image, and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, O king, have not paid due regard to you.

They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up." It's interesting to note that these guys that are telling on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were probably some of the very guys whose lives were spared in Daniel chapter 2 by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Bible says in verse 13, then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up.

Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, the harp, the lyre, and the psaltery, and symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made good." Interesting.

If you're ready, I'm gonna give you guys the benefit of the doubt.

Just giving you a second chance here, and if this time you bow down we'll forget that little incident with you not bowing down.

The gracious king is giving them a second chance.

He continues, but if you do not worship you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace and who is the God who will deliver you from my hands." Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

Now I like the King James here, it says we are not careful to answer you.

You know sometimes you got to be careful about what you do and how you say and what you're counting the costs, you're weighing the consequences, we don't need to be careful, they said.

In other words, we've already thought this through.

Now I alluded to this yesterday and I'm going to make we're going to make a point of it today.

Their decision to stand firm to God was not made on the plane of Dura.

They didn't need more time to think about it, they didn't need time to weigh it out.

That had been done at a prior point in time and it needs to be done at a prior point in time with you and me before we face our test.

God gives us opportunities today for the tests that come tomorrow.

We have no need to answer you in this matter.

Verse 17, if that is the case our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand O King.

But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the golden image which you have set up.

Our God's able to deliver, no question about it.

And if our God in his wisdom should decide anything different, it's not going to change our choice in the slightest.

We will not bow down to your gods, to your gold image.

Verse 19, then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace 7 times more than it was usually heated, and he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

We're gonna leave off our reading there this morning and unpack some things.

The first thing I want to mention, and I've already alluded to it, is that this is not the beginning of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

There is no other information in the rest of Scripture about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

There's nothing else in the book of Daniel.

Their decisions that they made on the plane of Duhur were the fruition of decisions made earlier.

And we get insight in that as we go to Daniel 1.

So I'm gonna have you go back a couple chapters with me.

We're just looking at the first 8 verses this morning for sake of time.

Daniel 1 in verse 1, the Bible says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it.

And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar, into the house of his God." Now this was customary for foreign kings when they would conquer another nation, they would take articles.

It didn't say he took the articles from the house of God into a museum somewhere in Babylon.

It took them into the house of his God in Babylon.

It was a way of saying my God is better than your God.

It's interesting to me as you go through these several different accounts of captivities that while God permits these pagan nations to take these treasures back, he always has a way of demonstrating that I only allowed this to happen.

It says in verse 3, the king instructed Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles.

Young men in whom there was no blemish but good looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

Did the king choose everybody that came as captive?

He looked, he had his leaders look for young men in whom there was promise of a future in Babylon.

I want you to understand that in Daniel chapter 1 the king is conferring probably the greatest privilege upon Daniel, Hananiah, Mishah, and Azariah that he could possibly confer.

I'm going to take a special liking to you, I'm going to put you into my palace, I'm going to train you to be leaders in Babylon.

Bible says in verse 5, the king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and 3 years of training for them, so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.

Now from among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

What does it mean among those who are of the sons of Judah?

That means they were not the only Jews there in the program.

To them, verse 7, the chief of the eunuchs gave names.

He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abednego.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies, nor with a wine which he drank, therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." So right there at the onset, right there in the beginning, we're told that Daniel made a decision and obviously Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah made that same decision that they would not defile themselves.

They made a commitment here long before Dura that they were going to serve God.

But I want to draw something out from this story today, something that I believe is is 1 of the key factors in compromise, and that's something, and we see it right here in Babylon, is the influence of culture.

The Babylonians sought to use the power of cultural influence to their advantage.

Right here in chapter 1, what does he do with these captives?

He brings them into the courts of Babylon, he puts them with other students, more than likely Babylonian students were in there as well, students from other heathen nations, and they were all together in a group.

He gives them a special diet, that was part of his forethought and plan.

He shows favor to them, He gives them different names, and He gives them an elite education.

All of these things with a purpose of acclimating them to the customs of Babylon.

Leslie Harding in his book, Jesus is My Judge, says on page 18, these new names were to indicate a new ownership.

Babylon was not the only nation that would do this, that renamed their captives.

He says these new names were to indicate a new ownership as well as a new allegiance.

Ellen White is a little plainer in the book Prophets and Kings page 481.

She says the names of Daniel and his companions were changed to names representing Chaldean deities I forgot to mention this that then all the names Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah were names that gave glory to the God of heaven Their new names gave glory to the gods of the Chaldeans.

This is what Ellen White tells us right here.

Faith and the Final Crisis

Welcome to another rainy day in Portland and a sunny day in the presence of the Lord Jesus on his holy Sabbath.

I'm glad to be here with you this morning especially on the Sabbath day.

I want to begin this morning with a word of prayer and I'm gonna invite you to bow your heads with me as I kneel and pray.

Gracious Father in heaven we are so thankful to be in your presence.

We're so thankful for the promise of eternal life through your Son Jesus Christ and the privilege we have of knowing him.

Lord I pray that we would not keep that privilege to ourselves.

We thank you for the stirring appeals to mission that we've heard throughout the week both local and abroad and we pray Lord now our time and your word this morning would help us to better reflect your image to the world around us for we ask and pray these things in Jesus name amen well again our theme has been but if not taken from the book of Daniel Daniel chapter 3 specifically and I want to pick up this morning in Daniel chapter 3, kind of where we left off yesterday, but I will say this, I was going to review, but for sake of time I want to let you know that if there's something that you didn't hear here that you wanted to hear.

How many of you are aware of Audioverse ministry?

Okay, if you don't have the Audioverse app, you need the Audioverse app.

Most of the presentations that have been made here will be available there if you haven't heard them, If you want to hear them again, they also have a booth in the exhibit hall, and I'm not being paid for this by the way.

It's just a blessing of a ministry that I want you to be aware of, and you can review some things that you have not heard.

Now I want to start, as I said this morning, kind of where we left off.

We're going to go back just a little bit further.

We're going to go to Daniel chapter 3 this morning, if you'll turn there with me.

This is right after the king has challenged Shadrach Meshach and Abednego with the words who is the God who will deliver you from my hand." Verse 16 says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand O King but if not let it be known to you O King that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I want you to take note of that, we're going to get back to that.

They were bound in their coats, in their trousers, their turbans, and other garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

Therefore because the king's command was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

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Morning Devotional

The Kingdom of Pride

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