SNT 0763 Our God Is Able
Our God Is Able - June 29, 1075
Our times are similar to those of Daniel; our God will take care of us when we take a stand, just as He took care of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
SNT – 763
Format: audio
Publication Date: 06-29-1975
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
My God Is Able - Tom Lepinski
Dan 3:1-12; 2:46-49
Dan 3:12-18; Psa 137:1-4
Dan 3:17-25; Track E: Dan 3:25-30; (Psa 137:1-4; Dan 3:17, 18)
Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego/The Love of God - Sonship
Our God Is Able
There was an empire situated in south-west Asia in what today
is in the area of what we refer to as Iraq. In the Old Testament,
this empire is referred to as "Accad" or "Akkad". It is also
referred to, and used a number of times, speaking of "the plains
of Shinar", or "Shinar". At other times there are references in
the Bible to people who live in the "land of the Chaldeans".
This empire was called Babylonia. It is in the area that at
one time had in it what is referred to in the Bible as the garden
of Eden. It is the area from which Abraham came, for it was
from a very great city of this particular empire called Ur of the
Chaldees that Abraham left.
On the north this empire was bordered by Assyria — to the
east by the Persian hills, or as the Old Testament refers to it,
Elam — on the west by the Arabian Desert and on the south by
the Persian Gulf. This was the empire known as the Babylonian
Empire.
It got its name from its capital city, the city of Babylon. This
great city was situated in what is the geographical centre of the
world, and there in its day it sat, as I heard someone say, "like a
diamond on a couch of velvet".
This great city was surrounded with double walls of
protection. Those walls were approximately seventeen miles
long to border the city, and the outside wall was wide enough
that two chariots could have a race on it going around the city.
In that great city a vain, yet fabulous and very great king
called Nebuchadnezzar built what became known as one of the
seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
He built this for his wife whose name was called Amytis. She
was a Median princess whom he had married, and the Hanging
Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the world, were built by
Nebuchadnezzar for this beautiful queen.
In it, up to this time, have been located via archaeology
fifty-three major temples to different gods within the border of
that great city of Babylon. The greatest two temples are to Ishtar
and to Marduk. Ishtar was the goddess of fertility. Marduk was
the sun-god.
The record of some things that occurred in the times of this
great empire of Babylon is written in the Book of Daniel.
Daniel, the man of God, was a prophet living at that time, and
things had occurred in the city of Jerusalem and in the tribes of
Judah and Benjamin to the south. The Temple in Jerusalem had
been ransacked. The best of their young manhood had been
taken as slaves to Babylon. The most beautiful women had been
taken as slaves to Babylon.
Daniel 3:1:
Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose
height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six
cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province
of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar had, on his expeditions, gone out to the
known world at that time — all the other empires, all the other
kingdoms — and wherever he went he captured their gods and
he brought their gods back to Babylon. He had the greatest
collection of gods of any king that perhaps has ever lived. When
he would capture these gods of those countries and bring them
back, he set them up in the city of Babylon. He knew that he
was bigger than any of the gods he had captured, because it just
happens to be a law of logic that if you can capture a god then
you are bigger than that god. So finally Nebuchadnezzar had the
most brilliant idea he could ever have. He said, "Since I captured
all the gods — there are none left to capture, I have got them all
— then I must be god." So he had this statue made out of pure
gold sixty cubits high and he set it out there on the plain of
Dura and he said, "There is your god!"
Then he did something else.
Verses 2-5:
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together
the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges,
the treasurers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the
rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the
image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges,
the treasurers, the counsellers, the sheriffs, and all the
rulers of the provinces, were gathered together unto the
dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king
had set up; and they stood before the image that
Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Then an herald cried aloud [with might he heralded
forth], To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and
languages,
That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute,
harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick,
ye fall down and worship the golden image that
Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up.
This is sort of remarkable that King Nebuchadnezzar figured
this all out. He had seen that at these other gods people would
fall down, they would worship them, so he decided that to this
god that he had set up of himself, made out of pure gold, he
would demand that whenever the things in verse 5 occurred
everybody would bow. Today some people look toward Mecca
when they pray, some others toward Jerusalem — a few of us
look to God.
Verse 6:
And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the
same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery
furnace.
That command had some heat in it! This was a declaration
from the mighty king, Nebuchadnezzar. He had called in all the
rulers from all those other countries that he had captured, he
had brought them all back, and he said: "Fellows, I do not care
where you live, if you are a thousand miles from here or five
thousand. At that hour when these things occur, everybody
down facing toward the statue that I had built on the plain of
Dura."
Verses 7-11:
Therefore at that time, when all the people heard the
sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all
kinds of musick, all the people, the nations, and the
languages, fell down and worshipped the golden image
that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and
[they] accused the Jews [Judaeans].
They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king,
live for ever.
Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that
shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall
down and worship the golden image:
And whoso fallcth not down and worshippcth, that he
should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
Is that what the king had said? Yes, it is exactly what the
king had said.
Verse 12:
[But you know, O King] There are certain Jews
[Judaeans] whom thou hast set over the affairs of the
province of Babylon....
The reason that he had set them over the province of
Babylon is because of what the man of God, Daniel, had done.
For in the 2 n d chapter in verses 46-49 it says:
...the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and
worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should
offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth */ is,
that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and
a revealcr of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this
secret.
Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him
many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole
province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all
the wise men of Babylon.
Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, over the affairs of the
province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the
king.
That was how three young, tremendous men — Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego — got to those prominent positions of
authority. But, you must remember that they were Judaeans.
They had come from a land that at least at one time had heard
about the one God, to worship the one God. They had
remembered back in their minds, "I am the Lord thy God, which
have brought thee [forth] out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
And here they were in a land in positions of authority and
power and this great leader had set up this statue of himself on
the plain of Dura made out of pure gold, and he demanded that
they worship that statue as god.
And so, after these commands were given, these three great
men — Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego — whenever the
music played, did not bow; they did not fall down on their faces
to worship that god. Naturally there was a lot of jealousy,
because whenever there are men of God standing for God's
Word, all the unbelievers envy them, get jealous about them,
want to defeat them, want to destroy them. They figured that the
way to destroy them was to go back to the king, and they
worked him very psychologically. They said: "You are the king,
therefore O King, you live for ever. Look, King, you have got
three great men here who are in responsible positions of
authority, and those three fellows down there are not bowing
when they are supposed to." And this really was something,
because it says in chapter 3, verses 12-15:
...these men, O king, have not regarded thee...
In other words, "They did not pay attention to what you said.
They did not believe it."
...they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image
which thou hast set up.
Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded
to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Then they
brought these men before the king.
Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, do not ye serve my
gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?
Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of
the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer,
and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the
image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye
shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning
fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you
out of my hands?
Boy, oh boy! Imagine that. Let us say that you are in a
responsible position of authority, like the Attorney-General of
a state, and you are called in, and you are set right down, and
you look into the governor's eyes and the cabinet is present, and
they say to you: "Listen, you have not obeyed our orders. You
have not carried them out. Who do you think is going to deliver
you? Who is going to set you free?" The king laid it right on
them. He said: "Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my
hands? Nobody, because I am King Nebuchadnezzar. Nobody
can violate my orders. You cannot do it. Nobody can touch me,
don't you know that?"
It is sort of neat that these men were incarcerated and
brought in — being men of that high authority and power. But,
maybe I ought to take you into a psalm and show you something
about these men and that time.
Psalms 137:1:
By the rivers of Babylon....
The rivers of Babylon were the Euphrates and Tigris. The
Euphrates river went right through the centre of that great city
of Babylon.
Verse 1:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we
wept, when we remembered Zion.
"When we remembered our homeland, when we remembered
Jerusalem, when we remembered the worshipping of the true
God..."
Verses 2 and 3:
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst
thereof.
For there they that carried us away captive required of us
a song; and they that wasted us [that is they laid heavy
requirements upon us, they] required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
They did not really want to hear one of the songs of Zion.
You see, they wanted to make fun of them: "Oh, so you came
from Jerusalem. You were there where the man of God read the
Word to you. Is that right? You were there singing the songs of
Zion. And yet you have come over here in our place, and you
hung your harps upon the willows. You are not singing any
more. Come on, let us hear how you sing. We want to hear one
of those great songs of life. Let's hear you."
They said:
Verse 4:
How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
"How shall we sing the Lord's song in an unbeliever's land?"
Those men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were some of
the greatest that all Israel had left of the Hebrew children —
wonderful, committed men, men not only of spiritual conviction
but men of ability. They were not placed as heads of State under
Nebuchadnezzar because they graduated from kindergarten.
They were men of ability. They were trained; they were
educated; they were highly qualified men.
And the king said: "Look, I got this report. I do not care how
great you are, how important you are, / am King
Nebuchadnezzar. Now, either you obey those orders that I
issued or else you are going to get thrown into that fiery
furnace. Who is- that God that shall deliver you out of my
hands?" That is what he yelled, according to Daniel 3:15.
"Who is that God you talk about? Who is that God that can
deliver you? Look, I can get you killed any time I want. I can get
you put out of your job. I can take anything away from you. /
am the head."
Nebuchadnezzar said to those men — Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego — "Where is your God? What God have you got
that can protect you?"
Daniel 3:16 and 17:
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said
to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to
answer thee in this matter.
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace....
The king had said to them, "Your God cannot do it."
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego turned around and said,
"Our God is able." Now you have got a battle of minds.
"Where is your God that can deliver you?", Nebuchadnezzar
had said. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said, "Our God...is
able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will
deliver us out of thine hand, O king."
Verse 18:
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not
serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou
hast set up.
Our God is able! Do you know what they were saying? "Our
God is able, but if our believing is not big enough, we want to
tell you something, O King, we will not serve your gods, nor
worship the golden image which you have set up." That is
commitment!
The king had said one thing: "Where is that God that will
deliver you?" Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego had said: "Our
God is able to deliver us. But if not, if our believing is not big
enough for our God to deliver us, we want to tell you
something, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not going to bow down,
and we are not going to worship your golden image." Can you
see the rage he is in, the fury? Imagine, a governor saying that
to a king. This is bigger! This is fantastic that those three men
— Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego — were so committed in
their hearts that they could confront the greatest king perhaps
of all time, Nebuchadnezzar, and look him straight in the eyes
and say to him: "Our God is able to deliver us.... Our God is
able to deliver us.... Our God is able, but we will tell you
something, if not, we are still not going to bow down and
worship and serve your golden image." That is telling the king!
I can just imagine how they felt. They were human beings,
and they knew that when they made their declaration their
necks were on the block. They could have gotten out of it so
easily by just compromising, couldn't they? They could have
said: "O Nebuchadnezzar, you have been real good to us, you
know. We are buddy-buddies, and you know from time to time
you have been giving us bonuses and, you know, we did not
mean any harm. But, we had a little problem: our people were
there, and we wanted to keep them happy in our particular
precinct; we want to take good care of them, and therefore we
did not bow." They could have said: "We will do it, King, but
maybe we can do it behind the door? Can we get in our private
little office and then when the music sounds we would bow, and
then the people will not see us? How about it, King?" They
could have compromised, but they did not compromise. The
moment you compromise one iota on God's Word, you are
done.
These men stood before that king and they said, "Our God is
able, but if not, we are still not going to bow down and serve
you." Then Nebuchadnezzar was really angry!
Verse 19:
Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of
his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego...
He was not just in a fury, he was full of it. You could just see
the blood coming up in his face making him red. Even "the form
of his visage was changed" — those blood veins stood out in his
neck — "...was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego."
...therefore he spake, and [he] commanded that they
should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was
wont to be heated.
That is a hot furnace! The king was so angry that anybody
would have the audacity to defy him, King Nebuchadnezzar,
who knew that he was god, that he said, "Fellows, throw the coal
to the furnace." And, they heated it seven times as hot as it was
wont to be heated. He must have brought it right up to that
point where it was just ready to blow the valve loose. And then,
do you know what else he did?
Verses 20 and 21:
And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his
army [the most valiant men, the greatest men of war that
he had in his whole army] to bind Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego, and to cast them into the burning fiery
furnace.
Then these men were bound in their coats [mantles],
their hosen, and their hats [turbans], and their other
garments, and [they] were cast into the midst of the
burning fiery furnace.
...Which had been heated seven times as hot as you
ordinarily would put the fire in that furnace.
Verse 22:
Therefore because the king's commandment [or word]
was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of
the fire [sparks of the fire coming out of that furnace]
slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego.
The sparks of the fire coming out of that furnace slew those
mighty men whom the king had ordered to throw Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego in.
Verse 23:
And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the
burning fiery furnace.
That is quite an experience! It is so far beyond my mind that
I cannot understand it from an experiential point of view, but I
believe it, because I believe the Word of God is the will of God,
that it means what it says. I do not understand electricity either,
but I use it.
Just imagine three men making that statement to that great
king. That would make God sit up in heaven, because this does
not happen on earth very often; it is usually compromise with
government men — compromise.
These men refused to compromise! If I see this picture at all,
when those three men — Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego —
said to the king: "We may burn, but we are not going to bow, O
King. We may burn in your fiery furnace because we cannot get
our believing up big enough — for our God is able to deliver us
— but if not, we still are not going to bow, O King." God must
have stood up in heaven, and taken a look down to earth. He
must have said: "My goodness! I have not seen anybody
believing like that down there for a while. Those are My boys
down there saying to the king, 'You may throw us in, but we are
not going to bow. You may burn us....'"
And do you know what God decided up in heaven at that
moment? "If you do not bow you will not burn." That was a
decision of the hierarchy — God. They had said to the king,
"You may burn us, but we will not bow." God said, "If you do
not bow, you will not burn." Those were the orders from
Headquarters.
But, the old king got them, tied them all up and threw them
in the fiery furnace. The fellows who threw them in burnt.
Verse 24:
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied...
The king was absolutely amazed!
...and [he] rose up in haste, and [he] spake, and [he] said
unto his counsellers [to his top brass], Did not we cast
three men bound into the midst of the fire [the fiery
furnace]? They answered and said unto the king, True, O
king.
"We did it." And he said, "But fellows, look...."
Verse 25:
...I see four men loose, walking [walking, WALKING!] in
the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form
of the fourth is like the Son of God.
Glory! Isn't that fantastic! The men who threw them in burnt
to a crisp. Some little period of time afterwards, somebody said,
"O King, King, King, come and take a look, take a look!" And
the king stood back there and he looked in that fiery furnace,
and he said, "Did we not throw three in there?" And all the
fellows said: "We sure did, King. We sure did." But the king
said: "How come then I see four in there? We only threw three
in! I see four, and they are not burnt to a crisp!" And the king
said, "The fourth is like the Son of God."1
Verse 26:
Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the
burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, ye servants of the most high
God, come forth, and come hither....
This was the same king who had said, "I am God"! These
were the same men who had looked him in the face and said,
"You may burn us, but we are not going to bow"! They were the
same men who said to him: "Our God is able to deliver us but if
not, we are not going to bow."
Now he sees them there beautiful, perfect, with not even a
smell of smoke on them. He looked and he said, "Well, that God
you serve has got to be bigger than I am. You must be serving
the one and only true God."
Verses 26 and 27:
...come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abed-nego, came forth [out] of the midst of the fire.
And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's
counselors, being gathered together, saw these men,
1. It does not say, "It is the Son of God"; it says, "like the Son of God". Sons
of God in Job and in other places were angels. Michael is the top angel that is
responsible to fight for the Lord's believers.
upon whose bodies the fire had no power [it had not hurt
them], nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were
their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on
them.
I want to tell you something, that has got to be something,
because sitting around a fire many of us have had a little smell
of smoke on us. These men were thrown in the hottest fire that
perhaps has ever been made, but they were not hurt; there was
not even a smell of smoke on them. You talk about our God
being able to deliver! Most of our commitment and our
believing today is small compared to what theirs was.
Verse 28:
Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the
God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath
sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in
him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their
bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god,
except their own God.
You are not a servant of God; you are a son of God when
you are born again. Can you for one moment believe that God
would do less for His sons than He would for His servants? No!
But we have been so talked out of the power of God, we have
lived so long in a world of unbelief where men of authority and
power without God have ruled, that we as sons live far below
par — more so than even God's servants in the Old Testament.
God has not changed. Jesus Christ is God's only begotten
Son. He is the same, yesterday, today and for ever. God has not
changed, and Christ is seated at the right hand of God making
intercession for the saints. That is better than having the
governor to intercede for me. That is better than to have any
high-ranking government official interceding. It is God being
interceded to by the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son,
in your behalf and in mine.
Verse 28:
...and have changed the king's word...
They sure did change the king's word. The king had said, "If
you do not bow, you will burn." They changed it. He threw them
in to burn. They had not bowed; they did not burn.
...and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor
worship any god, except their own God.
Now the king was going to make another decree, typical
king.
Verse 29:
Therefore I make a [new] decree, That every people,
nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss
against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego,
shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a
dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver
after this sort.
So, immediately the king wrote a new decree. Before this he
had said, "I am king — I am God." Now, after Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego had proven something to him, he said,
"There is no other God that can deliver after this sort."
It took one of the great pagan kings of all time to tell that
truth. Today, many times, born-again believers do not believe
what that great unbelieving king said in that day: "There is no
other God that can deliver after this sort," the God of Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego.
These were men who had gone into captivity and refused to
sing the song of Zion, men who had hung their harps on a
willow because, "How can we sing the songs of Zion in an
unbeliever's land?" Men who had hazarded their lives for the
integrity and accuracy of that one true God. When the king had
said, "You have got to fall down and bow to my golden image,"
they had said: "King, we will not do it. We may die, but if we die,
we are going to die believing in our one God." And finally, the
king said, "There is no other God that can deliver after this
sort."
Verse 30:
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-nego, in the province of Babylon.
Let us say with that same greatness again today: "Our God is
able and our God is willing to deliver us, but if my believing is
not big enough, I still am not going to bow."