God Is Our Savior

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Transcript:

Good morning. We’re going to be in Daniel chapter 6 this morning. Daniel chapter 6.

Over the years of pastoring, when someone has come forward to want to join the church, I’ve gotten in the habit of asking two questions. Because it’s biblical that we want to, as much as we can, as much as we can know what is in somebody else’s heart, We want to make sure that somebody really is a born-again believer before they join the church. Because we don’t want to confuse church membership with salvation.

And if you’ve never heard that before, you’re not saved by joining a church. It didn’t get you anywhere with God. It’s something that’s supposed to come afterwards.

I’ve gotten in the habit of whenever somebody will come forward, asking them two questions, which I learned from evangelism explosion training, which I don’t use all of. I use bits and pieces of. But I’ll ask them these two questions to try to figure out where they are spiritually.

And one of those is, if you were to die today, God forbid, do you know where you would end up? And then, depending on their response, go on to the second question. That if you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into heaven, what would you tell him?

And usually, between those two questions, you can get, as long as the people understand the questions, you can get a pretty good idea of where they are spiritually, of what their understanding of the gospel is. You know, if they say, you know, I don’t know where I’d go, well, then we need to talk about things a little bit. If they give you an answer as to why God should let you into heaven and it’s anything other than what Jesus Christ did, we need to talk a little more and work on your understanding of this.

I have started asking those questions. I’ve started asking questions that way when people come forward or when I’m out talking to people about salvation, because I ran into trouble early on with asking people, are you saved? And there was a time, probably many years ago, when you could ask somebody, are you saved?

And they knew what that meant, even if they weren’t. And they could tell you, yes, I’ve been saved since whenever in my life. January 24th, 1991 for me.

Or they would say, I know what that means, and no, I’m not. Well, nowadays, that word saved has all kinds, people have all kinds of ideas about what that means. I realized there was a problem a few years ago when I asked a teenager, are you saved, or have you been saved?

And the answer was, yes, I was saved from a tornado. I said, that’s not what, that’s not what I’m, that’s not what I’m talking about. Oh, but I was, God saved me from that tornado.

And they were adamant. God saved me from that tornado. Well, in that sense, yeah, God saved you from that tornado.

God was your savior in that instance, but that’s not what I’m talking about. My mother still tells the story from 15 years ago when the 99 tornado came through Moore, and we were running to the storm cellar, and my sister, little wisp of a thing, some of y’all have seen her, was about to get sucked up by the wind. She’s holding on to a fence post, and I had to grab her, and I guess I was heavier than than she is, had to grab her and hold on to her and drag her with me to the cellar.

Mom still tells that story about how I saved my sister from the tornado. But you know what? It would be a mistake for my sister to put her trust for eternal life in me because I saved her from a tornado.

That’s not what we’re talking about. And so I realized, okay, people are not understanding necessarily all the times. You know, maybe not even in church.

In church, you can expect most people know what we’re talking about with being saved. But maybe, you know, maybe here there are some who don’t understand what I’m talking about. The salvation that we’re talking about from God is where God looks at us in our sin, where we’ve sinned against him, where we have violated his law, where we have rebelled against him.

And because of that, as a righteous judge, as a holy king, He looks at us and says that we are deserving of death and hell and separation from him for all eternity. And yet he looks on us and feels this mercy and compassion and love, not because we deserve it, but because he is good and loving. And looks on us and has this compassion and sent his son, willingly I might add, to pay the price that was due for our sins.

where we could have suffered death and hell and separation from God for eternity and never have made any difference towards saving ourselves, toward ridding ourselves of that sin, never made even a dent in the sin debt that we owed, God sent his son Jesus Christ to pay all of it. And because of that, he offers forgiveness of sins. And if we will, it’s not about being good and going to church and giving money and helping animals.

Those are all nice things, but not by any of those things that we can do, but simply believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins because we needed those sins forgiven and he was the only way that that could be accomplished. Believing that he did that for us and then asking God’s forgiveness on that basis. Our sins can be forgiven.

We can have peace with God and we can have eternal life with him in heaven. That’s what I’m talking about, about salvation. And when we talk about God being our savior, we want to not get confused and we want people around us not to get confused that that’s God’s relationship to us.

God delivers us from a lot of things. And I’ve said here before, I know, that we may not even know the things that God delivers us from. God is a God who delivers his people, okay?

God may let us be running late and we miss a wreck that would have killed us. God delivered and saved us from that. And God may save us from a tornado.

God may spare us from a drought. God may save us from whatever catastrophe. And you know what?

God being our Savior does that and can do that and has done that. But let’s not get confused and think that’s the only aspect of God being our Savior because God is a God who saved us, who can save you today from the greatest catastrophe in our lives, which is the catastrophe of sin. We’re going to look this morning at a passage from the Old Testament that does talk about one of these practical places where God saved somebody from something right in front of them that could have hurt them.

But it’s also a picture, as we see throughout the entire Bible, throughout the Old Testament stories, where God was continually saving his people. And part of that was to remind them that he was spiritually their Savior. It was so many things in the Bible are a physical picture of what God does spiritually.

Not to say they didn’t happen, but when God did things and they really happened, It was to remind people of what was going on in the spiritual realm. We’re going to start in Daniel chapter 6, verse 11. And you’ll remember last week that the decree was signed where nobody could ask any petition, make any prayer to any person or deity other than the king for, I believe, about 30 days, if I recall the story.

But starting in verse 11, it said, Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. Then they came near and spake before the king concerning the king’s decree, Hast thou not signed a decree that every man that shall ask a petition of any god or man within 30 days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? And again, they go to the king, these men who hated Daniel, who were jealous of Daniel, and got him to sign the decree.

And they don’t go and say, hey, king, Daniel has violated your law, because they knew that the king loved Daniel. They knew that the king would have tried to find some loophole in order to spare Daniel this fate and say, well, that’s not what I meant by that. So instead they come and say, is it our imagination or did you sign a law that said nobody could make a petition or pray to or ask anything of any person or God for the next 30 days?

And the king said, yes, I did. The king answered and said, the thing is true according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. So he says, yes, I did it.

I did it according to the law of the Medes and Persians. So for 30 days, nobody can change the law, not even me. Then answered they and said before the king, that Daniel, remember, we will see that so many times in this passage.

It reminds us how much they hate Daniel. I don’t know that there’s anybody that I refer to as that brother Shank. I don’t think there’s anybody that I despise enough that I refer to him as that whoever.

and that just reminds us how they really felt about Daniel this was never about the king’s glory this was never about the good of the kingdom this was always about getting Daniel they then answered they and said before the king that Daniel which is of the children of the captivity of Judah and and here again we’re reminded that Jew they didn’t like the Jews either and especially Daniel they said, regardeth thee not, or regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day. And it was just like in the story of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, when they wouldn’t bow before the statue, the accusation was made, they have no respect for you, king. Well, that’s not what was going on.

It wasn’t that the three men were rebellious toward the king and said, well, I’m just going to do whatever I want. That was never their intention. They had respect for the king, and we can see that in the way they spoke to him.

However, they had more respect for a higher king. And we don’t see here Daniel going out and breaking every law that the king ever made. That’s why they had to make this one, because they knew that there was nothing they could find about Daniel that he’d done anything wrong.

So they had to make this rule. And they’re making this about, well, he has no respect for you, king. That wasn’t the case at all.

He respected the king, but he had more respect for God. He’s regarded not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day. So in spite of what the king said, Daniel continued to pray.

And as I shared with you last week, I don’t think he was putting on the prayer show, look at me how spiritual I am. I’m bringing it right out in the street to kind of thumb my nose at the king and the law. Now he went into his house and he just simply talked to his father like he had always done, three times a day.

Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored until the going down of the sun to deliver him. You know what?

It’s a little too late, but good for him. You know, he could have very easily blamed them, the men who tricked him. And sure enough, they were to blame as well.

But he was sore displeased with himself. He realized, I’m the one who messed up here. They came in talking about stories of my glory and petting my ego and I fell for it.

And because of that, this friend that I love is in jeopardy. And so he spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how he could deliver Daniel, how he could save Daniel. But you know what?

There are some things that where an earthly savior just will not do. Amen? There are some needs we have where an earthly savior is not enough.

Then these men assembled unto the king and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, that no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed. Okay, so they come in and remind him, don’t forget, as he’s racking his brain trying to think of how can I get out of this situation, how can I let Daniel free, they come and remind him, now don’t forget, the law of the Medes and Persians can’t be changed, don’t forget that. And if I’m the king, I’m thinking, shut up, what do you think?

Is it okay to say that in church? what do you think I’m doing here racking my brain trying to figure out a way around it if I could just ignore it I would but there’s the knowledge here that that I’ve told you that the word that is used for this kind of king in Persian is the same title that the Shah had until 1979 when he was overthrown the Shahanshah which means in the Persian language the king of kings I mean the people looked him almost like a god. And for him to say, well, now I’m going back on my word or somebody can change my law, it would have been catastrophic as far as his future rules.

So he’s dealing here with, okay, do I let Daniel go and risk my kingdom could collapse if the people realize that I can go back on my word? So they’ve reminded him as though he didn’t already know that the decree couldn’t be changed. Then the king commanded and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions.

And I thought Sister Shank made an interesting point at the end of last Sunday morning service. She said there’s a difference between a lion’s den and a den of lions. She said a lion’s den can be empty.

A den of lions is occupied. Well, they came and put him in the den of lions. There were lions in there.

Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God, whom thou service continually, he will deliver thee. I don’t know if he believed that or not. I know Daniel did.

I’m not saying Daniel didn’t have any fear. I don’t care how spiritual you are. You get thrown into a den of hungry lions.

There’s going to be some fear, even if you trust God. I don’t know if the king believed this or not. Maybe it was a way to comfort Daniel, you know, parting words before Daniel was eaten.

Maybe it was a way to salve his own conscience and say, well, if he gets eaten, it’s out of my hands. It’s on his God whether he gets eaten or not. I don’t know if the king really believed it or not, but he said it.

calls down to Daniel in the den of lions and says, your God, your God can help you out of this. The God you serve all the time. They say this a few times in this passage.

The God whom thou service continually, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought, verse 17, a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. Now, this is a chilling thing for me.

Yesterday, I watched some of the Indiana Jones movies. They were on TV. I’m a big fan of Indiana Jones.

I want to be Indiana Jones when I grow up. I’m afraid of snakes, too. But one of the scenes, I believe it’s in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

They’re thrown down into this pit they call the Well of Souls, and he’s in there with a few other people. Most of you have probably seen the movie. They’re getting ready to seal this ancient Egyptian pit with a big rock.

And one of the men calls down, they’d been talking about artifacts, and how something that may have just been a piece of garbage to somebody in ancient Egypt, you bury it for a few millennia, and suddenly everybody’s fighting to get their hands on it. And he calls down to Indiana Jones right before they seal up the pit with him down there with the snakes, and says, who knows, Dr. Jones, maybe in a few thousand years even you’ll be worth something.

I would think, that’s not helpful. That’s not comforting. And then you see them seal it up with a giant rock, and you’re just down in there with snakes.

And that’s kind of what I picture here with Daniel, except he’s no Indiana Jones. I mean, that’s made up. This is not.

And he’s in there with the lions, and nothing he can do about it. It’s just him and the lions, and fortunately God. And the king is up on the surface, and he puts the seal on it so that it can’t just be, nobody can go let Daniel out.

Verse 18 says, Then the king went to his place and passed the night fasting. Neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him. Okay, so at least the king is bothered by this.

He could have very easily gone and had a great feast. He could have had his entertainers come in. He could have gone and played golf. He could have gone and done whatever he wanted to do.

But his conscience bothered him about what was happening. And he spends the whole night up not eating, not sleeping. And the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste unto the den of lions.

Very first thing the next morning, he gets up and he goes to the den of lions because he wants to see. He needs to know how Daniel fared. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel.

And the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? Now, the reason I said earlier, I don’t know if he really believed it or not, is because he says it as a statement when Daniel’s going into the lion’s den, but now it’s a question. And he’s saying, was he really able to deliver you?

Did you really make it through? Was God really able to preserve you? And we notice here it says it was with a lamentable voice.

That means a sad voice. We’re talking about someone who is so powerful, so intimidating, that his people call him the king of kings. And yet he cries down to Daniel in this sad, weak little voice.

Was God able to deliver you? Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live forever. Now they always said this when they addressed the king, or usually said this when they addressed the king, Kind of like in British realms, they’ll say God saved the queen.

Same thing. O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lion’s mouths, that they have not hurt me.

For as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. Now everything Daniel says here is true. Everything Daniel says here is true.

And just the fact that he answers back, I’m sure, was relief to the king. But he calls out, basically, God saved the king. He said, God has sent an angel to protect me.

The lion’s mouths were shut. They’ve not hurt me. And he says, the reason for that is that God looked on me and saw that I had done nothing wrong.

And as true as it is, I think also here there’s a little reminder to the king. And also, I’ve done nothing wrong to you. He said, I’ve done nothing wrong before God.

That’s what he means when he says before him, innocency was found in me. God looked at me and saw me as innocent. And by the way, I’ve done nothing to you either.

Then was the king exceeding glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him because he believed in his God. Okay, so Daniel’s sentence was carried out.

I’ve always wondered, from hearing this story as a child up until recently, I’ve thought, well, how is it that they just then turn around and take him out, pull him up out of the lion’s den and throw the other guys in, which we’ll get to in a second. How does he just change course like that? Wasn’t he supposed to be punished if you couldn’t change the king’s law?

But then it occurs to me the king’s decree just said he was supposed to be thrown in there. It didn’t mean he had to stay in there until he was eaten. And the fact that he survived a night was miraculous.

The penalty was paid here. And God saved him through that penalty being paid. And he was pulled up out of the lion’s den.

No manner of hurt was found upon him because he believed in his God. That’s incredible. That’s incredible to me.

These big cats are so dangerous. You know, I remember a few years ago the thing with one of the Vegas performers who had the tigers. And it turns out the tiger was not trying to hurt him, and yet it looked like there were injuries to the man’s body.

Evidently, he was having a stroke or something like that, if I recall the story, and the tiger was trying to help him. Even at that, the tiger injured him, and there was no malicious intent. And yet these lions who were ravenous, who were hungry, didn’t leave a scratch on him.

And it was only because of God shutting their mouths, as Daniel said. Folks, there is no earthly explanation for why those lions wouldn’t hurt him. The only explanation is what Daniel said, that God shut their mouths.

And so no manner of hurt was found upon him because he believed in his God. God spared him because he had faith in God. Verse 24 says, And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions.

them, their children, and their wives, and the lions had mastery of them, and break all their bones in pieces, or ever they came at the bottom of the den. So the king says, okay, we’re going to throw all of you in the lion’s den now for what you’ve done. And probably some of them were thinking, you can’t do this, why could you do that?

I’m sure it was a helpful reminder that the king could set any decree he wanted to, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, and it couldn’t be changed. And so they throw them in there. You know, I have question as to why their children and their wives were thrown in, but we need to remember.

Because some people will look at things in the Old Testament and say, how bloodthirsty and how violent God is. God didn’t tell him to throw all of their wives and children in there. So we need to remember this.

It’s just recording what happened, not that God told him to do it. Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom, men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God and steadfast forever.

And his kingdom, which shall not be that which I’m sorry, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. And his dominion shall be even unto the end. He delivereth and rescueth and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.

So this Daniel, it’s a little nicer that time. So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. All right.

So he not only takes these men who had tricked him, who had caused him to put Daniel through this ordeal. He throws them in the lion’s den, but then he sends out a decree and says, he sends it out to, remember, he’s the emperor over all these other kingdoms, and he sends out this decree to the far-flung reaches of the known world and says, everybody needs to know what the God of Daniel has done. And everybody should tremble in fear. Everybody should reverence the God of Daniel.

And we see that the king has, once again, God has changed the heart of the king because of the way that he saved his people. And there’s so much through the book of Daniel that we could look at and say, well, God saved his people right there. God saved, I could have easily preached on God being our savior from the story of them going through the fiery furnace.

you cannot you cannot turn very many pages throughout the old testament or again in the new and you can’t turn very many pages without seeing somewhere where god has saved or delivered his people god is a god who is able to deliver his people you know the question was asked was he able you know what whether he believed it or not the king had it right the first time god is able to deliver his people. God is able to deliver his people. Just like when Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were facing the fiery furnace, they said we know that our God can deliver us from this furnace and that he will deliver us from your hand.

It was never in doubt for them whether God was able to save them or not. Now does that mean God always steps in and saves us from every circumstance? No.

but is he able to? Yes. God is a God who’s able to deliver his people.

And the reason that’s important, there are a lot of people, well, let me rephrase that. The reason that’s important is because it would do us very little good if God was willing to save us, but was unable to do so. There, you know, excuse me, I drive around and I see people who have car trouble and sometimes I’ll stop and help and sometimes I won’t.

It just depends on the feeling I get from the situation. But if I can, I like to try to help deliver, if I can use that word, deliver people from the difficulty they’re having with what little I know about cars. And there was a lady at the church in Arkansas who just mentioned to me that she was having car trouble.

She wasn’t asking me to do anything about it. And I told her, okay, after church, we’ll come by and I’ll take a look at your car and see what I could do. And from the sound of it, it was something easy that I could fix.

I was entirely willing to go and fix it to help her out, to save her the trouble of being stuck, only to get to her house and find that it was a, I forget what kind, but it was a foreign car. And I opened it up and I said, is this supposed to be the engine? And I looked at it and I thought, I don’t even know what I’m looking at.

There was not a thing I was able to do. And she was in a bind because she had to be able to get to work and all this stuff. And I was willing, I know it’s not the same thing as God, it’s just, it’s an illustration, just take it for what it’s worth.

I was willing to deliver her from her problem, but I was not able to. It does us no good if somebody’s willing to save or deliver us, but not able to. And it’s very fortunate for us that we serve a God who, regardless of what our problem is, he is able to deliver us from our problem.

Whether it’s something small, like when I’ve had car trouble, or I lose my wallet. Some of you ask, are you getting sick again? Because I was late to Sunday school.

No, I lost my wallet this morning. I was thinking, I’m not driving without a driver’s license, so I don’t know how I was going to get down here. And said a little prayer, God, will you help me find my wallet?

Well, you know what he did. He delivered me from that tiny, tiny problem. Seemed big at the time, but that tiny problem.

God is able to deliver us from the tiny problems up to the big problems like the problem of sin. God is able. You know what?

None of us can deliver ourselves from the problem of sin. All of us together can’t deliver ourselves from the problem of sin. And yet God is able to deal with that one.

We serve a God who is a Savior who is able to deliver his people. Second of all this morning, God is a Savior who follows through on delivering his people. God didn’t just talk a good line about salvation.

You know, he promised salvation and deliverance to his people through 4,000 years of Old Testament history. I think I’ve mentioned to you before, I’m sort of off and on working on a book of trying to put the Bible in chronological order and explain how some of the stories fit together. And I have been really amazed as I’ve been studying some of the Old Testament stories that the Bible really has an overall theme that’s redemption.

God delivering and redeeming his people. And the whole Bible, that’s what it’s about. And story after story after story, it all fits into that theme.

And people will say, well, it’s a made-up collection of books. That all fit together like that? I don’t have enough faith to believe in that kind of coincidence.

But God, from the beginning of time, was talking about redeeming and delivering his people. And they would come in and they would be invaded by some pagan tribe around them who would kill their people and kill their men and take their women and children into slavery and starve them out. And God would say, I’ll deliver you from that.

And you know what? God would. And they would suffer from famines and God would say, I’d deliver you from that.

And he would. But you know what? He also talked about the spiritual deliverance of his people.

And he talked about it for 4,000 years, but he didn’t just talk. You know what? The idea that God would deal with the problem of sin goes back to Genesis chapter 3, when man sinned in the Garden of Eden.

And I believe the very first picture, somebody told me one time the earliest reference, well, anyway, we were discussing what was the earliest reference to Jesus in the Bible. And now I can’t remember which came first. But they said the earliest reference to Jesus in the Bible was where it was talking about Satan and crushing his head and him bruising the man’s heel. I believe that’s a reference to Jesus.

But there’s another, I can’t remember if that was first or if this was, but there’s a reference, there’s another reference to Jesus Christ, I believe in Genesis chapter 3, when God killed the animal to take the skins to make clothing for Adam and Eve after they’d sinned. I was reading that once and realized that animal had to die. And that right there set the precedent that the innocent would die to cover the sins of the guilty.

one of the earliest references to Jesus Christ. From the time of that first sacrifice in Genesis chapter 3, God has been talking about dealing with the problem of sin, redeeming his people, delivering us from sin. And you know what? He didn’t just talk about it, and he wasn’t just able to do it.

He was willing, and he followed through. God is a Savior who follows through on delivering his people. Because the question was asked, the question actually was answered before it was asked, and God was able to deliver Daniel.

And Daniel even says in verse 22, My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lion’s mouths, that they have not hurt me. For as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. God wasn’t just able to deliver Daniel from the lion’s den, just like he wasn’t just able to deliver Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the, or Hananiah, Meshach, and Azariah from the furnace.

He was able and he followed through. He actually delivered them. Just like with us, God isn’t just able to deliver us from sin.

He followed through when he sent his son. He didn’t just talk about it for 4,000 years. He followed through and did something about it.

Third of all this morning, God is a savior. That’s what this whole series has been about, about relationships and understanding how God relates to us so we can better relate to him. And we need to understand that God is a savior who has compassion in our darkest moments.

God is a Savior who has compassion on us in our darkest moments. He doesn’t have to care. Now, please understand what I’m trying to tell yo

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