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Isaiah 55:10,11 - The Results of Preaching the Gospel

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10.45am Service, 2005-05-22

Text: Isaiah 55:10,11; Acts 13:13-17, 38-52

For the past few Sundays our messages have been focused on the subject of Evangelism. Ever since our Lord Jesus Christ gave the commission to His disciples to preach the Gospel and to make disciples of all nations, this has been the main task of the church. 

Today, two thousand years later, we can now look back to see how much of this task has been accomplished since the time that the disciples started to preach the Gospel wherever they went. And we marvel that despite the great odds that have been working against the spread of the Gospel of Salvation, it has gone into many nations of this world, reaching the uttermost parts of the earth. And it has also come to us, all the way here in Singapore, and to each of us here in this sanctuary! Just ponder for a moment the awesome wonder of this fact: That we who are thousands of kilometers removed from where it all began, are saved and enjoying the great privileges of God's grace here in Life Church now! And this is true of virtually every country in the world today: there are people who have received the Gospel and believed in Christ.

This by itself is a great testimony to the tremendous power of the Gospel! The power that has brought salvation from sin way over hundreds of years and thousands of kilometers to the end of the earth and to us here in this hall, must truly be an awesome power! I dread to think of what we would all be now, if the Gospel of Christ did not have that power to convert sinners and to turn them into willing bearers of itself to others. We would still be hopelessly trapped in the darkness of sin, without Christ and without hope. There would be no Christian fellowship, no joy of salvation, no comfort, but selfish strife, sinful pride and ambition, division, and hatred in our midst.

What exactly is that power that has made such a great difference in our lives? It is a power that is found in the Gospel itself and makes it mighty to save sinners. It is a power that the Almighty God has built into His Word making it impactful whenever it is preached or taught to sinners. It is a power that guarantees glorious results from the preaching of the Gospel. This morning we want to focus our attention upon this wonderful power of the Gospel and the results it produces. And our purpose for doing this is to be thoroughly motivated to bring the Gospel more fervently and frequently to those who are still outside God's kingdom.

Through this morning's message we will also realize that souls are saved not by any human ingenuity, not by adopting new market-driven methods of church growth, and not by faith-healing or miracles. The results come only by being faithful in carefully teaching and preaching the Gospel message fully and accurately with the enablement of the Holy Spirit. This is the key to successful evangelism. And the reason why it works, is because the Lord has invested a special quality within His word, that gives it the power to produce the results He desires from it. 

This special quality about God's Word is described by God Himself. The Lord Himself said in Isaiah 55: 11 - 'So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void (empty), but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.'

This amazing power that God says His Word possesses, must now encourage us to keep on using it and disseminating it far and wide. One way for us to fully appreciate the power of the Gospel is to see it in action. We should observe a full demonstration of it. And this is what we will endeavour to do now as we study the exciting account of the first missionary trip made by Paul and Barnabas. Turn your Bibles to Acts 13. The chapter begins with the account of how the mission trip began - it was through revelation that the church at Antioch received from God during a time of worship. The instruction given was that the church was to send Paul and Barnabas as their missionaries. This of course, meant that the church would provide financial and prayer support.

So Paul and Barnabas set sail, and their first stop was at an island called Cyprus. There they had their very first convert - a government official named Sergius Paulus. After this the two missionaries continued on their journey sailing northward till they reached the coast of Asia Minor (present day country of Turkey). They then journeyed inland until they reached a city called Antioch. (This isn't the same Antioch as the Antioch they were at in Acts 13:1. At that time in history there were at least 16 cities in the eastern Mediterranean region having the same name - Antioch. They had been named in honour of a Greek king called Antiochus.)

This city of Antioch which they arrived at now was the most important city in that area, because there was a main east-west highway that went through it, and it had quite a large population consisting of Romans, Greeks, Galatians, Phrygians and even Jews. There must have been a sizeable group of Jews here, since the book of Acts tells us that they had their own synagogue building.

Since they were Jews, Paul and Barnabas went first to the synagogue and joined the Jews in their usual Sabbath day worship service. Paul (being a Pharisee), was invited to speak from the pulpit, and there he took the opportunity to present the gospel, as recorded in vv.16-41. This, by the way was the first of three recorded sermons preached by Paul, and what is given here is probably not the whole sermon, but a summary of it. 

When Paul finished preaching the Gospel, there were two kinds of reactions. Both of them show the results that are produced by the preaching of the Gospel. The First reaction was very favourable: They were invited to preach again, and this time there was a much larger group and there were many conversions. Thus the Gospel was propagated. But the other reaction was not favourable: the Jews who disliked Paul's preaching pulled some strings in the local government and managed to get the two missionaries expelled from Antioch. Thus the Word of God was persecuted.

That is the gist of the story. We can divide it nicely into 3 parts: The Preached Word, the Propagated Word and the Persecuted Word. Now let us see what lessons we can learn from each part. The first part is:

I. The Preached Word

Let us read Acts 13:14 & 15: 'But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Ye men and brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. Then Paul stood up and beckoning with his hand said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.' 

You know there are times when you and I want to bring the Gospel to a lost world, but we wonder: how do I find the opportunity to tell somebody about Christ? When can I begin? People everywhere are always so busy - too busy to listen to what I want to tell them about Christ. Well, here we see a clue to the answer to this question: Begin with whatever you have. 

As total strangers in a new city, it would not have been easy for Paul and Barnabas to begin any evangelistic efforts. But one point of contact they both had was the fact that they were both Jews, and would find a ready welcome from the local Jewish community. This would become the jumping board for witnessing. Through this initial contact with the Jews, they would eventually gain a hearing which enabled them to get contacts with the Gentiles who came to worship with the Jews, and this would then lead them to have an effective ministry among the Gentiles in the city. This became the regular pattern used by Paul and Barnabas in every city they went during their missionary journey.

The lesson we can learn is this: If the Gospel is to produce any results, we must first gain the opportunity to preach or share it with others. The way to do this is to look for open doors around you - it may be some persons or groups that share something in common with you, or that would welcome you and listen to you. Sometimes in your working life or social life, you may find yourself in a situation where you have a ready audience, for example when you attend a wedding reception and you are sitting with people who are new to you. You will probably converse with them - but what are you going to say? That's a golden opportunity for you to see the impact of Gospel. 

Perhaps some friends invite you out for a meal to give you a treat because it is your birthday, or you had just finished your exams and got good results, or because you got a promotion. They ask you to say a few words. Think carefully about what you are you going to say. That's another golden opportunity to experience the impact of the Gospel. I remember a time about 20 years ago when I had just completed undergoing a course of training in NS, and my platoon had a session at the end where each of us as soldiers were given a few minutes to say our parting words to the rest, as we would be going separate ways. Now most of them would simply say how they enjoyed working together with each other, or talk about their immediate plans. But when my turn came I immediately saw my opportunity to deliver the Gospel and see its impact. 

The point of is this: If we only bother to pray and look for opportunities around us, we are bound to find them. And if we want to see the Gospel making an impact and producing its results, that is what we need to do.

Now the next thing we ask, is when the opportunities come, what are we to say? How do we proceed to introduce God's Word, to bring it into the conversation? Let us go back to our passage in Acts and make some observations. We want to observe the content of Paul's message: in verses 17 - 22 he began with what the Jews already knew (Israel's history). He had not started to preach the Gospel yet. He was just repeating what was commonly known to them. In the same way, when we attempt to share God's Word with others, it is useful to begin by talking about things that are already known by our audience, before proceeding to what they do not know. This is the most basic principle of education - to proceed from what is known to what is not known.

Now look at v.23 - this is where the transition comes 'Of this man's (i.e. King David's) seed hath God according to His promise raised up unto Israel a Saviour Jesus.' This statement is like a bridge that links the history of Israel which Paul's audience knew very well, to the Gospel of Christ, which they did not know at all. In the same way we must find always find something in our conversation or speech that would serve as a bridge, to the Word of God. It may be a statement, or it may be a question. 

There is one more thing that we want to observe in Paul's preaching, and that is his deliberate use of the Scriptures. Look at vv. 33-35 'God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore He saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.'

Within these three verses, Paul quoted from no less than three passages of Scripture, that are related to the resurrection of Christ (using Psalm 2, Isaiah 55:3, Psalm 16:10) Do you know why he did this? Because every verse of scripture is like a nail hammered in to seal up his message with power. It is the Word of God that has its own built-in power to convince, because it penetrates right into the heart as a two-edged sword. When you talk to anyone about Christ, be sure to use verses from the Bible, and then watch what happens. 

One well-known evangelist testified that he saw a great difference: when he delivered a message that had plenty of Bible verses quoted, he saw more responses, than when he preached a beautifully-crafted sermon with only a few Bible verses. You cannot hope to gain anything if you leave out God's Word, and just attempt to use your testimony or a brilliant illustration. It is like cooking a stew and leaving out the meat which is the most important ingredient. Reading out Bible verses or quoting them from memory is most effective, because our audience would then know that the truth we are sharing with them does not come from us, but from God, who had given us a permanent record of it in His Word. The Holy Spirit then takes that truth and uses it to penetrate into the hearts of people.

Let us now proceed on the the second point. 

II. The Propagated Word

We see the first kind of reaction to God's Word in v. 43 -- 'Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.'

The power of the Gospel was now unleashed and it instantly started to produce its results: after the service, a group of Jews and Gentile converts stayed behind and asked Paul and Barnabas to tell them more about the Gospel. They had tasted the goodness of God's Word and found it to be sweet. Now they were keen to have second and third helpings of it because it met the need of their hearts. Paul and Barnabas agreed to help them, and so they returned on the next Saturday to the same place. This time they found the synagogue packed right to the doors with people, and many more were trying to get into the building from outside. Apparently those who had heard them preach the first time must have told many others about what Paul and Barnabas preached to them. Do you see what a great impact the Gospel can have?

Within just one week it had spread from person to person from that small group in the synagogue, until everyone in the city had heard of it. Look at v.44 - 'And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.' Can you see how God's Word when it was delivered, had accomplished the purpose for which it was sent? It had not returned empty. It had brought back a greater crowd to listen to the Gospel!

How exciting this must have been for Paul and Barnabas! Although they faced some opposition, they preached boldly, and they delivered more of God's Word. Look at v.47 - 'For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.' This is a direct quote taken from the book of Isaiah, 42:6.

Once again that Word of God that was sent forth brought back tremendous profits. Look at v.48, and 49 now - 'And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.' 

Do you see what great results the Word of God had produced? It had propagated itself; it was highly infectious, it had increased and spread like fire; it had become a powerful influence within just a short space of time. Is there any kind of word, information or knowledge in this world that has built-in power do something like that? None. And it was changing the lives of men, women and children everywhere. Look at v.52 - 'And the (new) disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.' What a great impact - and it all began just with an opportunity that Paul and Barnabas had to speak in a small synagogue.

Dearly beloved, we who serve the Lord in this present time must believe that the Gospel still has the same potential to produce the same results upon the lives of our friends and family, upon our community, upon society, yes, even upon our whole nation, if we are only bold enough to send it forth whenever there is opportunity. We must firmly believe in the power of God's Word. For only then would we be bold enough to share it, preach it, teach it and disseminate it as widely as we can, by every possible means and method.

But that is not all that God's Word will do. You will notice that our 3rd and final point is:

III. The Persecuted Word

In physics we learn the principle called Newton's 3rd Law, 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.' The same thing applies to the preaching of the Gospel. The wonderful results it produced ellicited a negative reaction from the Jews. According to v.45, this reaction was motivated by envy or jealousy. 

The Jews did not like the idea of the Gentiles receiving benefits directly from God through Jesus Christ. They also did not like the idea of justification without the Law of Moses, which they treasured zealously. These prejudices blinded them from seeing and experiencing the grace of God working through the Gospel that Paul had preached to them. They spoke against the Gospel which he delivered, and they wanted to put a stop to the Gospel by having Paul and Barnabas expelled from the city. 

But all their efforts were in vain. Because nothing they did now could stop the impact of the Gospel. Even though Paul and Barnabas could not continue preaching at Antioch, we can confidently believe that the new believers they left behind continued to preach and propagate the Gospel to their own friends. Their efforts to persecute the Word of God and silence it were futile. In fact it is probable that the more, they tried to stop the Gospel from spreading, the further it spread! 

Let me explain this. Look at v.51 - 'But they (Paul and Barnabas) shook off the dust of their feet against them (when they were expelled) and came unto Iconium.' When we read this we realize that the end result of the expulsion of Paul and Barnabas from Antioch was that the Word of God now spread to the neighbouring city of Iconium! Hypothetically speaking, if Paul and Barnabas had not faced any persecution at Antioch, they might have just continued to stay there comfortably and be contented to preach and teach God's Word there. Then perhaps, the people at Iconium and other cities would never have heard the Gospel and been saved. Do you see how persecution can cause God's Word to propagate rather than perish?

This phenomenon is still true today. Studies have shown that the countries where the Gospel is thriving most today are countries where Christians have faced the greatest persecution for preaching the Word of God. An early church father testified of this when he wrote, 'The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.'

When the communists first took control of China, and all missionaries had to leave the country, everyone was afraid that the Chinese church would be strangled to death by the restrictive anti-Christian iron-handed policies of Communism. But look at China today. Far from being weak and spiritually impoverished, the church there has become very strong, and multiplying at an amazing rate (about 9% annual growth!). Estimates of the number of Christians in China vary between 30 million and 150 million!

Why does the Word of God thrive so strangely under unfavourable conditions? Once again, the only way to explain this is the fact that God Himself has invested in it, has infused it and built into it the power to penetrate hearts and to change the lives of sinners. We all know 2 Cor 5:17 - 'If any man be in Christ he is a new creature (or a new creation).' Do you remember how God created the heavens and the earth? According to Genesis, it was through His Word - 'And God said: let there be ---' and it was so. God's Word brought the whole of creation into existence. In the same way, God's Word is today creating new lives. When sinners hear the Word of God, the Holy Spirit uses that Word to make them alive from spiritual deadness. That word creates faith in Jesus, as Romans 10:17 says, 'faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.' That word gives the sinner a new heart that seeks after God and it brings about a new birth. Isn't it wonderful what God's Word can do?

The only thing that remains now is for us to consider: If we know all of this concerning the Gospel, What then are we doing with it? If we do nothing about it, does this not show that we doubt its power and the results it will produce? Has God not given an unfailing promise in Isaiah 55:11 that His Word will not return unto Him void but will accomplish His purpose and prosper? Are we denying that God has made promised such power in His Word?

If not, I trust that we will then commit ourselves to use fully the Word of God that God has entrusted into our hands to use. How foolish it would be to keep the Gospel all to ourselves. Let us allow the Gospel to once again to produce the results that the Lord has sent it to produce, both in our lives, as well as in the lives of those around us.

Isaiah 40:27-31 - Waiting Upon the Lord

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10:45am service, 2007-01-07

Text: Isaiah 40:27-31

As the New Year has begun just 7 days ago, many of us have perhaps already started to make some New Year resolutions. The making of resolutions is a very good practice, because they help to keep us focused on things that we should be doing. For example, this year you may want to make a resolution to grow more in your Christian life, to be more fruitful for our Lord Jesus, or to invest more time and effort in the work of His kingdom. Perhaps you may resolve to get yourself trained and involved in evangelism or to study the Scriptures diligently. 

It is good to make spiritual resolutions such as these and to commit yourself to them while the year is still new and fresh. But please bear this in mind: It is another matter altogether to keep every resolution you make. For The question is, 'Will we really be able to keep them up all the way until the year ends?'

We can liken this to running a race. When you begin a race you are bound to feel very much enthused, motivated and spirited. At the moment you take off from the starting blocks you experience the euphoria of having seemingly boundless energy. You think that nothing can stop you as you sprint with all your might towards the finish line. But as you reach the half-way mark of the race the initial euphoria evaporates away. You begin to feel exhausted and weary. This slows down your pace. The race becomes very difficult to run. Now you feel like dropping out of it. Some call this feeling 'burnout.'

This can happen to you in your spiritual life. You begin well to run the race the Lord has called you to run. But after some time you become weary with running, and you begin to experience spiritual burnout. And although you try your utmost best to keep all your spiritual resolutions and commitments you simply do not have the drive or the strength to carry on. You hope against hope that you can somehow keep yourself going. But you can't keep it up for long because it really strains you, both spiritually and emotionally. 

You slow down, and after some time you feel like dropping out altogether from your spiritual pursuit. This brings you into a state of despair and discouragement. Dearly beloved, this experience of burning out can happen to anyone of us. Even the most exemplary ministers and missionaries in God's service have experienced moments of spiritual burnout. It can happen to you and it can happen to me. Perhaps some of us are already beginning to experience some degree of spiritual burnout. What can we do then to avoid it? To find the answer to this question we shall study a passage of Scripture given in Isaiah 40:27-31. 

The background of this passage is Isaiah's prophecy of the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon. This was part of the message of comfort that God gave to them, after the first 39 chapters of Isaiah had declared a message of God's righteous judgment that would come on the Jews for their sins in the form of exile from their homeland. Look at the first 2 verses of chapter 40 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.'

How comforting it must have been to all the Jewish exiles in Babylon when Isaiah�s comforting prophecy was fulfilled in the year 539 BC when King Cyrus of Persia released them from their captivity and that they could now return home. The book of Ezra records that 49,697 Jews returned to their homeland. 

But making this journey home was not easy at all for them. Imagine how difficult it was for families consisting of both young and old to travel a distance of over 1,400 km in 4 months, transporting themselves and all their belongings in their own wagons pulled by animals. And that was not the end of their trials: What was waiting for them at the end of their long arduous journey was not a nice comfortable bed to rest in, but an even bigger task of building towns and houses to dwell in and having to start from scratch to make a living in their own homeland. Although Israel was their homeland it had not been their home for 70 years. This was perhaps one reason why many Jewish families chose to remain in Babylon after the exile - they dreaded all the trials and difficulties that they would have to face in transplanting themselves back into their homeland. In comparison, families who transplant or migrate overseas today have a much easier time than them. We can travel by air within a matter of hours to the country we want to live in. We can purchase a house in a suitable neighbourhood to live in. 

And we can have our belongings transported over there for us by shipping companies. I think we can appreciate how difficult and trying it must have been for the Jews to return to Israel about 25 centuries ago. It is not surprising then that many of them would become very weary and discouraged along the way, and begin to show signs of both physical and spiritual burnout. If no preventive measures are taken, the initial excitement of seeing how God had answered their prayers and had fulfilled His promise to restore them from their captivity would soon give way to frustration, impatience, complaints and despair.

But our wonderful all-knowing God already knew that this would happen long before the Jews returned from captivity. That is why He included this passage of Scripture of Isaiah 40:37-41 in the prophecy about the end of the Babylonian exile, so that when the time came for the Jews to return, they could read it and learn how to make their journey back to rebuild their homeland without experiencing burnout. I believe that this passage must have sustained many among the returning 49,697 Jews until their God-given tasks were accomplished. What is written here in Isaiah 40 can also sustain God's people today as we carry out our own God-given tasks. I would like to derive 3 simple points that we can learn from here. Firstly:

I. Recognise the Cause of Spiritual Burnout

It is caused by having an inadequate perception of God. We will see this as we read v. 27 'Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?' Because the journey from Babylon to Israel was so long there were probably moments of great difficulty and trouble for the returning Jews. And because they had neglected to wait upon the Lord, some of them developed a wrong perception of Him which led them to complain bitterly against Him: 'The Lord does not see our troubles. God does not care at all for our plight.' By these complaints they were bringing God down to their own level, thinking that He is either forgetful or that He had become tired of looking after them.

Now dear friends, have you sometimes complained about God in a way that is similar to these returning Jews? Perhaps there were times when you had entertained utterly discouraging thoughts - thoughts that you have been neglected or even forgotten by God. 

Perhaps you might even have blamed yourself for this. You thought that because of your sins the Lord does not give you any more care and attention. And you imagine that God has now forsaken you. If you do this, you are bringing Him down to your level, and you have a wrong perception of God. 

Do you know that every spiritual problem in life can ultimately be traced back to a single source: A wrong perception of God? For instance, those who do not rightly perceive God's holiness will tend to be careless about keeping themselves from sin. Those who do not rightly perceive God's power will tend to doubt His promises to deliver them. Those who do not rightly perceive God's faithfulness to His covenant promises will tend to do exactly what the returning Jews were doing - complaining that God had forsaken them.

Knowing this can help us now to recognize the ultimate cause of spiritual burnout - it starts from having an inadequate view of God. It begins when we wrongly imagine Him to be something that He is not! It is bad enough that we sometimes commit this error even with regard to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes a person you know does something quite unintentionally but you choose to interpret his actions in the worst possible way. As a result you end up drawing the wrong conclusions about him and also misrepresenting him to others. It is only after you have talked with him and cleared the air with him that you realize that what you had imagined about him was entirely inaccurate, and of course you apologise to him. 

Now, if you do the very same thing to God, the error is much worse. This is because you are not only misrepresenting Him, but you are also damaging the most important relationship in your life, the relationship from which all your spiritual strength and vitality springs. And if you persist in this wrong perception of God you will inevitably suffer from spiritual burnout! For example the wick of an oil lamp is made of combustible material, but it does not get burned as long as it keeps drawing oil from its supply. But if the supply line is cut off the fire has nothing left to burn except the wick itself, and soon you will see the wick turning black. It gets burned out.

What then should you do? From now on, every time you feel discouraged and distressed and you experience some spiritual setback or decline, please do a thorough check on your perception of God. You will probably find the root cause right there - in an inadequate perception of Him. And the way to know if your perception of God is adequate or not is to compare it with what God has revealed of Himself in the Scriptures. This brings us now to the next point for dealing with spiritual burnout:

II. Relate the Correct Perception of God to Your Difficulties

We shall look now at vv.28-29 'Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.' Here you will observe that Isaiah replies to the complaints of the returning Jews by reminding them of things that they had already known about the Lord. 

The 2 questions, 'Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?' in v.28 imply that they were actually not ignorant of these truths. All the things about God in v.28 were not new to them. They already knew these things because God had already revealed them in His Word. The problem of the Jews was that they had failed to relate what they knew about God to their own difficulties and problems. Instead of doing this, they had used their own difficulties and problems to arrive at perceptions about God that were entirely unsound.

Dear friends, don't we sometimes do this very thing ourselves? Instead of beginning with what we know to be true of God from the Scriptures, we choose to begin with a wrong premise. Here is an example. If we start by saying, 'All suffering is bad' then when God allows us to suffer, we conclude that God must be bad. That is of course not the right conclusion. But if we start off from God's Word by saying, 'God is good' then when God does allow some difficulty into our life, the correct conclusion we would reach is that the difficulty we suffer must somehow be good (cf. Romans 8:28). 

We must therefore learn to relate all that we know about God from the Scriptures to every situation of life we face. For instance, v.28 tells us that God is everlasting - and this implies that He remains the same and will never change. We must then apply or relate this truth to our lives - His dealings with us never change: In the same way that God has shown His love, grace and mercy to His people before, He will consistently demonstrate that same love, grace and mercy to us who are His people today.

V.28 also mentions that He is the Creator of the ends of the earth, and that includes everything in between as well. He is therefore the rightful Owner and Ruler of all the world�s dominions. If you happen to be working in a place dominated by a terrible superior who does whatever he likes to you and no one seems to be able to stop him, you should relate this truth about God to your situation. No matter what oppression any human tyrant may inflict upon you, God who is the Creator of the ends of the earth is still in control above him. Thus he cannot do more to you than what God allows. Knowing this can remove all fear from your heart.

The next thing that we learn about God in v.28 is that He never faints or becomes weary. He continually upholds the whole of Creation by the word of His power. If God were to become weary for even one split second the whole fabric of nature would immediately disintegrate, universal chaos would set in, and all moral order would cease! How can you relate this truth about God to your life? By knowing that God is constantly watching over you and holding you. He never grows tired of keeping you. Not even the tiniest little detail about you escapes His attention. As the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:30, even 'the very hairs of your head are all numbered.' 

The next thing we see in v.28 is that there is no searching of His understanding. None can ever measure the depths of God's infinite wisdom! And this is one precious truth that you must relate to every circumstance of life you are in. With your own limited wisdom you may sometimes wonder why God has allowed an unexpected setback to happen to you. You cannot see at all how it can ever work out to your deliverance or for His glory. But knowing that God's ways are unsearchable, you can simply trust that He knows what He is doing, and that one day when you look back you will stand amazed to see what great wisdom there was in His mysterious ways!

The last thing mentioned about God is what He is able to give. V.29 tells us that He gives power to the faint and that He increases the strength of those who have no might. The strength mentioned here is not to be understood as physical strength. God does not transform us into superhuman Samsons that can singlehandedly defeat whole armies of Philistines! The strength that God gives is the willpower to keep doing His will even under the most trying circumstances of life. 

This truth is a constant source of joy and comfort that should help all of us to avoid spiritual burnout. Consider how Paul the apostle testified of this very thing in 2 Corinthians 12:9,10 when he prayed that God would remove his thorn in the flesh. But instead of granting Paul's request, the Lord answered, 'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.' 

Is there anyone here this morning who is weak in the eyes of men because of your infirmities, because of reproaches, persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake? If this is true of you now thank God for it, for it gives you the unique opportunity to discover how sufficient His grace can be for you! You now have the unique opportunity to experience a strength that is not your own, so that Christ may demonstrate what His power can do in and through your life. If the life of the apostle Paul could become such a demonstration, so can yours. But there is something that you must do constantly in order to possess this strength from God. This brings us to the third and final point of our message. To avoid spiritual burnout you must:

III. Receive Constantly from God's Supply of Strength

This is the message of v.31 'But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.' The phrase 'to wait upon the Lord' must be understood correctly. To wait upon something is to attend to it. Psalm 145:15 tells us 'The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.' The end of 2 Chronicles 13:10 says, 'and the Levites wait upon their business.' In both of these verses the idea is not just that of attending, but of regular, constant attending. 

Waiting upon the Lord therefore means spending time regularly in God's presence. In practical terms, we wait upon the Lord when we commune with Him through His Word and prayer. We should live our lives at all times in God's presence through His Word and prayer. King David who communed with God testified in Psalm 16:11, 'in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.' As you maintain such blessed communion with God everyday you will have an ever-flowing supply of the spiritual strength - The strength that you need to persevere and press onward no matter what difficulties and trials you face. 

This, dear friends, is the secret of living your Christian life successfully. And this is also the goal that we want to achieve this year for our Church - that every Lifer will commune with God personally, regularly, constantly and daily. Through doing this, we will then be able to live lives that are fully consecrated to our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why our church theme for this year is 'Toward Prayerful and Consecrated Living for Christ.' I trust that you have read about this theme in the weekly bulletin that you received last week, and that you will make this your goal as well.

I would now like to ask everyone here to make a firm commitment to wait upon the Lord. Please do not say that you don't have the time to do this. You must plan it into your daily schedule, because it is the source of your spiritual strength. If you do not make it a priority, you will not be able to last long in doing whatever God wants you to do for Him. If you are young please do not think that your youthful energy and can carry you through. As v.30 says, 'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.' If you do not wait upon the Lord you will eventually become very tired and frustrated. You may even burn yourself out and drop out of the race entirely!

But if you make the commitment to wait upon the Lord, there are 4 wonderful things that you can look forward to - Firstly, you will renew your strength. As we have seen earlier, this strength is the willpower to persevere in doing God's will even under the most trying and difficult circumstances of life. 

Secondly, you will mount up with wings as eagles. Your spiritual life will take take you upward to heights of glory that you have never known before! There are things of the spiritual realm that God has prepared for those who love Him that no eye has ever seen, no ear has ever heard and no heart has ever imagined. These are the deep things of God which are revealed to us by His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9,10). 

Thirdly, you will run and not be weary. This run refers to the spiritual race that God calls every Christian to run - a race of endurance that can only be completed successfully by looking to Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1,2).

Fourthly, you will walk and not faint. This walk probably refers to the daily conduct and testimony of your life before the world, that will enable you to be a fruitful Christian, leading sinners to find salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ! 

Now that you have seen these 4 wondrous results of waiting upon the Lord, why do you still wait to commit yourself to do it?

Ezekiel 48:35 - The Names of God: Jehovah Shammah

By Quek Keng Khwang

Preached at / Published Life BPC Weekly, 2002-08-04

Text: Ezekiel 48:35

It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there. 

INTRODUCTION

The LORD is There or Jehovah Shammah is today's topic. In this fast-paced society that we are living in, have you stopped and paused and considered those who are around you, your spouse, parents, children, loved ones and friends. Have you taken their everyday presence for granted? It would be unthinkable if we ever take those who loved and cared for us for granted. But it nothing can be worst if we ever take God's presence and love for us for granted. We have heard the messages on the attributes and character of our awesome God that He is the all seeing one who watches over us - El-Rohi, He is the eternal one who is El-Olam, He is the Most High God - El- Elyon and He is the Almighty One - El -Shaddai. 

But look at our lives today, is there something amiss? Where is the reverential fear for God in His presence, where is the purity of life that is demand of us when we say we love Him? Where is the trust in His goodness in times of trouble?

The Israelites very well realized their spiritual heritage. They knew who God is. His awesome power and goodness brought their fathers into the Promised Land. The problem was they had taken the LORD God for granted who had. They reciprocated God�s love by hardening their hearts and turning against the commandments of God,

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them. Eze. 2:3-5 

Instead of fearing, honouring and loving Him, they dragged themselves down into the miry pit of spiritual adultery and a blatant disregard to the statutes and judgments of God. Having witnessed the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., they never realized the imminence of the wrath of God and persisted in their rebellion. Finally, God sent the Babylonians under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the Southern Kingdom in three waves of invasion in 605 BC; 597 BC and 586 BC. 

By the sovereign hand of God, Ezekiel, the priest from the line of Zadok and the son of Buzi was taken captive in the second invasion of 597 BC when he was 25 years old. At the age of 30 God commissioned him to be His prophet to bring message of the imminent total destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and to warn the exiled Israelites to repent of their sins. But sadly, they refused to believe (Eze 3:7) thinking that the reigning king Zedekiah would fight a winning battle against Nebuchadnezzar.

But God is love. In the midst of His fury against His disobedient children who were the apple of His eyes and for His name's sake, He gave a promise of future restoration. Chapter 33 of Ezekiel tells us the third wave of destruction by Nebuchadnezzar because of king Zedekiah's rebellion against the superpower of Babylon. Ezekiel's tongue was loosed not to preach a 'see, you deserve it' kind of message but a message of a wonderful promise of future restoration. That the Israelites will re-gather, their land would be restored and allotted according to the 12 tribes as specified by God, there would be a millennial temple with measurements dictated by God and there will be a holy city with given specific measurements. In profound assertion and excitement, Ezekiel inspired by the Holy God named the city, Jehovah-Shammah, the LORD is there.

It matters very much to Ezekiel to know of God's returning presence. Because in Ezekiel 10-11, God's glorious presence has departed from the temple in Jerusalem. It was a tremendous good news and joy not only to the hearers but to Ezekiel himself to have seen God's glorious visions in the beginning and now seeing it come to full circle that His presence with His Shekinah glory would return in the millennium. God's presence would return and dwell with them. A great honour and privilege that God would name this city in His name. Unlike Elohim that is, God speaks of His overwhelming majesty, power and eternal Creator, God's intensely personal name, Jehovah or Yahweh was used. The word shammah comes with a directive he. The sham means there and God adds the mah, to point to a direction and purpose. The LORD says He is not only there but it also speaks of His determined purpose to abide with His children. It manifests the depth, the height and the breadth of God's love to condescend to dwell with His people.

Ezekiel referred to a city in the Millennium. Likewise John also saw this vision in John 21:12 in the eternal state, the new heavens and new earth of this holy city Rev 21:12-13. However, we have a foretaste of it here. God dwells (tabernacled), or reside among us in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the Emmanuel. God is with us yesterday, today and forever. He redeemed us by His precious blood when He sheds it upon the cross of Calvary to pay the penalty for our sins that we may abide in Him and He in us. The Holy Spirit would also indwell in us in this holy temple. My dear friends, the LORD is Here. His presence abides with us.

The Knowledge of the Presence of God would Compel Us to Fear and Obey Him

With this knowledge of the abiding presence of God and His omniscience, does it compel your to fear Him with a reverential fear. The Jews out of reverential fear refused to pronounce it but called the name adonai or hashem (the Name). In the King James it is spelt as LORD in the upper case. It is said that when the scribes before writing this name into the manuscripts, would have to bathe themselves before they could write this name.

There was no fear of God in the Israelites' eyes. They took Him for granted. They did what was right in their own eyes as in the time of Judges. They indulge in earthly pleasure inspite of divine displeasure. We may condemn the Israelites of their stubbornness and hardened hearts but do we fear God ourselves. Do we care about His abiding presence in our worship and in our daily lives? 

Look at us how we prepare ourselves for the Lord's day. Do we delight in the Sabbath day? We stay up late for late night matinees on TV, latest movies on videos, surfing the internet, getting a thrill out of computer games.

In worship, do we seek His face? Do we praise Him with a heart of praise, adoration and gratitude? Why are we late to come and enter into His presence? Should we treat Worship as attending a Chinese Wedding Dinner when we casually stroll in to take our seats? Why are we so lethargic to come into His presence every morning to have communion with Him? Isa 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men cf Matt15:8.

8.00 am & 10.30 am services are not times where you gather for casual conversation and sharing juicy news. It is not a time for daydreaming. It is not a time when you catch up with your forty winks. It is not a time when you pretend to be holy before men but not before God. It is not a time that you could be entertained. It is a time to bow your hearts before the LORD, to give your worship and praise to His awesome and holy Name and to be hearers and doers of God's Word.

Are we living in obedience to His Word? Does the lust of the eyes gripped you that you are addicted to pornography, to have a long lasting look at lewd magazine covers? Does it gripped that you covet and spent on things that are not necessary and beyond your means? Does the lust of the flesh so let you succumbed to the moral vices of the world? Where is the holiness demanded of you Christians, the called out saints, the ones that are set apart for holiness? Have you brought down the Lord's name to no repute?

The millennial temple, the land allotted to the tribes and the holy city of Jerusalem is measured to its precise measurements. God gave the specific measurements to impress upon Ezekiel that all things must be done in God's way. How we conduct our lives must also be done in God's ways based on the full authority of God's infallible and inerrant Word that is the Bible.

The Knowledge of the Presence of God would Compel Us to Believe in Him.

What a wonderful name Jehovah is. Jehovah speaks of the direct and personal character of God's merciful and loving relationship with His people. It speaks of His covenantal love and a covenantal keeping God. God kept His covenant unilaterally. The covenant depends not on man's faithfulness for there is none but God's faithfulness (Lam 3:23). He kept His promise to send His Son Jesus Christ in Gen 3:15 and He fulfilled it. The name Jesus means Jehovah Saves. He is the great I Am. (Ex 3:14). He is called the Wonderful, Couselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is Emmanuel. God with us. John 1:14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2: 6-11: Jehovah took the form of a servant made in the likeness of men to abide with us but the apostle John gave a sad commentary of the world's response to His glorious dwelling among us: He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. John 1:10

But John continued that those who knew the Lord Jesus, He gave a wonderful promise: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:12-13 The sins that clogged and choked our lives can only be washed away, be forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel. Do not doubt but repent and only believe. Jesus is Emmanuel Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Acts 16:31.

The Knowledge of the Presence of God would Compel Us to be Comforted in Him

When Ezekiel was struck dumb by the LORD and that He would open his mouth only when God caused Him to prophesy. It is a sign of God's indictment against His people. The LORD fulfilled the promise as in 24:2, In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD. But God was slow to wrath but quick to love and to give His divine blessings. He promised the future restoration of Israel and her glory in eight chapters 40-48 and ending with the climactic statement by Ezekiel - The LORD is There.

The building of the temple, the restoration of the land, the promise of the holy city would not mean anything to Ezekiel if the LORD is not there. But Ezekiel knew God's presence would return in chapter 36: 27-28 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Moreover, in chapter 34:10-31, compared to the false shepherds. God would be our Shepherd. God gave many comforting I wills. It echoes the Shepherd Psalm of David, Psalm 23: The LORD is my Shepherd. I shall lack nothing� Thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. That is also God's assurance to Joshua, Jos 1:5. there shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Jesus gave this assurance too, I will not leave you comfortless Jn 14:18. The apostle Paul reiterated this assurance in 2 Cor 1:3, 4: Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4: Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Is your heart sorrowful, is your heart filled with pain or grief? Is your heart filled with discouragement? Is your heart carrying burdens that are heavy to bear Call upon the name of the LORD for He is there. Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Allow me to share my testimony. It was 12.50 am Friday morning, I was already in the coach to Kemaman to preach at the Worship service. When my handphone rang and my wife in a frantic voice says that my daughter was vomiting very badly. At that time, in the darkness of the coach and the night, I wished that I was there to be with my wife and daughter and son. I wished I would be the one to bring my daughter to the hospital instead of my wife having to trouble my parents- in-law who were living in Bishan and we in Woodlands. I wished I could be there. The Lord was good to bring to my mind that Jehovah Shammah, The LORD is there. He would be there to take care and watch over my family and to heal my daughter. My anxious hearts was assuaged with the abiding Presence of my LORD and my God. All went well, my daughter has been discharged from hospital. He has seen my family through that troubled moment. 

CONCLUSION

Remember that wonderful name of Jehovah Shammah. Do not take the LORD our God for granted. He deserved every ounce of our reverential awe and worship and obedience. He is our Great Shepherd the God of all comforts that though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Jehovah Shammah, the LORD is there.

Daniel 1:8 - Daniel: A Youth with Solid Convictions

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10:45am service, 2012-09-02

Text: Daniel 1:8

I would like you to imagine for a moment that you are going to get married soon. The wedding is now only two weeks away and all the preparations have been made. But something happens: Your grandma who is not a Christian tells you that she wants you to follow the family tradition of paying your respects to your ancestors at the tea ceremony on the wedding day. You and your fiancé are to stand before the altar while she offers joss sticks and prayers on your behalf. You try to tell her in the most loving way you can that as Christians both of you cannot do this. But she gets upset and complains to everyone about how unfilial you are, and that she will not attend the wedding. What will you do?

As long as we live in the midst of an ungodly world we will face situations like this one. As Christians we are to be in the world but not of the world. That means that we need to take a stand for the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may effectively resist the pressures of the world to compromise our faith and values. To do this, we must have only one faithful guide of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable – The Bible, which is God’s Word. We must have firm convictions from God’s Word and apply these convictions in our daily life. But doing this is not easy. It may cause us much inconvenience and it may even cause us to lose some things we like. So how can we be convinced to do it? There is one way to be convinced. It is to be inspired by the godly examples of people who dared to take a stand for the Lord at great cost to themselves.

This morning, I would like you to consider the example of Daniel. Daniel does not need much of an introduction to us as he is one of the most well-known persons in the Old Testament. Children who attend Sunday School love to hear stories about and especially about Daniel in the Lions’ Den. One of the choruses that we used to sing goes like this “Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm and dare to make it known.”

But there was one instance in which Daniel did not have to stand alone. He had three friends to stand with him and their names were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Like Daniel, they were Jewish youths of either royal or noble blood and they were the cream of the crop of all the youths in Jerusalem. Thus they were described in Daniel 1:4 as “Children in whom was no blemish, but well-favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and to whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.”

These four youths had grown up in Jerusalem with all the best tutors the royal courts of Judah could afford, and with a very promising future ahead of them. But one day all their hopes and dreams were shattered. King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 605 B.C. and took them into captivity. He planned to convert them into learned Babylonian advisors by putting them through a 3-year intensive conversion course in his royal academy. They were only about 15-20 years old when they were brought to the city of Babylon, where they were to spend the rest of their lives.

We can imagine how they must have felt to be taken away from their home to a strange place far away. But when they arrived at Babylon they might have been awed by what they saw as it was then the greatest city in the world, famous for its “Hanging Gardens” which became one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. ButBabylon was also a place of pagan idolatry. It had no less than 8 large temples, each dedicated to a different god. Nebuchadnezzar was a very religious king. He provided regular offerings and clothes for these gods. All the meat that was cooked in his royal kitchens was probably from animals that had been sacrificed to these gods. And the wine that was consumed in his palace had probably been used in ritual libation offerings to these gods. Whoever ate this meat or drank this wine was therefore considered to be sharing a fellowship meal with these gods.

And this became the first issue faced by Daniel and his 3 friends. In this passage (Daniel 1:5-16) we see that they had the privilege of eating the best food in the whole of Babylon. But they refused to eat it. That was a very risky thing to do. They could be expelled from the royal academy or worse, they could be executed for refusing to receive the king’s provisions. But despite these possible outcomes Daniel courageously requested for a ten-day trial period, eating nothing from the king’s table but common cereals like wheat or barley [That is what the word “pulse” in v.12 means] and drinking nothing but plain water.

God honoured their obedience, and after ten days, they were miraculously healthier and stronger than any other scholars in the royal academy. So for the rest of the 3 year course, they were allowed to continue taking this simple diet. And by the end of those 3 years, they outshone all the rest in wisdom and scholarship. They all passed the king’s personal examination with flying colours and became his most trusted counsellors. This does not imply that we should take a similar diet if we want to be stronger and smarter than everyone else. The outcome was entirely God’s doing and had nothing to do with making a ‘healthier choice.’ But it had everything to do with making a ‘godlier choice’ – a choice to obey what God has given in His Word.

It is clear that Daniel knew what God had given in His Word. He knew that the laws of God prohibited eating any food that had been offered to idols. This is found in Exodus 34:14,15: “For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice.”

According to Psalm 106:28,29, God severely punished some Israelites with a terrible plague for eating food that was offered to an idol called Baal-Peor during their journey to Canaan – “They joined themselves also unto Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. [The term “dead” here refers to the lifeless idols.] Thus they provoked Him to anger with their inventions: and the plague brake in upon them.”

Daniel probably knew these passages from Word of God, as he had learned them from the time he was young. He had developed solid convictions from God’s Word. And it was his solid convictions that made his three friends join him in taking a courageous stand for their faith. This is brought out in Daniel 1:8 – “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”

What we want to know now is: How should we apply this to ourselves? Many of us will face situations which are quite similar to Daniel’s. Perhaps you live or work in an environment where you are under tremendous pressure to conform to idolatrous or sinful practices. If you don’t conform you may be penalized, ostracized or even lose a promotion. E.g. In the present ‘hungry ghosts’ month your colleagues may ask you to contribute to a fund for hungry ghost month events. Or perhaps your boss has assigned you to organize this year’s Dinner & Dance for your company – which is usually filled with drinking and worldly entertainment. Those who are in National Service know that you are supposed to report back to camp by 2359 hours. However through unavoidable circumstances you sometimes report back just after midnight. What time will you record at the guardhouse when this happens? Perhaps you are given the task to entertain some business clients from overseas prior to their signing of an important contract. What will you do if they want you to take them to Marina Bay Sands to gamble, or to a red light district?

Sometimes there are other Christians around us who have compromised. That makes it even more difficult for us not to compromise because people will ask, “How come this person who is a Christian can do this but you cannot?” Whenever you face situations like this, please remember the example of Daniel and his friends in this passage. There are several lessons here that we should apply in order to live an uncompromising life in an ungodly world.

1. Remember that Promotion and Favour Come from God.

We observe that Daniel and his friends did not plot and scheme to work their way up the ranks of the Babylonian bureaucracy. They did not try to curry favour with the boss or use flattery to get what they wanted. The other scholars in the course may have done these things. But it was God alone who helped these 4 young Jews to move upward. We see this in v.9 – “Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs.” Look also at v.17 – “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.”

This illustrates the principle that is stated in Psalm 75:6,7: “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” One of the great temptations we face at work is to do what everyone else does to climb to the top of the corporate ladder, and to accept this as part of the ‘office culture.’ Instead of working hard and doing their best in the projects assigned to them, they seek for an easier route to the top: they cultivate good relationships with certain key people and they rely on their sweet-talking ability to get into their ‘good books.’ We must never do that. We should simply do the very best at work in an honest and fair manner, and let God do the rest.

We must never seek to please our superiors at the expense of our convictions. For example, if your boss promises to give you the raise or promotion you have always wanted, provided you are willing to help him by ‘cooking the books’ or by shortchanging some clients, or by having a secret love affair with him, what should you do? Decline the offer immediately! Forget about that raise or promotion! It is not from the Lord. Remember that promotion and favour come from God, and He will honour you if you honour Him. This brings us to the second lesson we can learn from Daniel:

2. Subordinate Your Needs and Desires to Doing the Will of God.

In our passage we notice that the issue at stake was food and drink. Daniel refused to allow his basic need for these things to keep him from doing the will of God, and so he humbly requested for the kind of food and drink that would enable him and his friends to do God’s will. It was a good thing that his request was granted. But what if it was not? What if Melzar had thought that these 4 young upstarts were just being too difficult and fussy about their food and he said, “I am sorry, but this is all the food and drink that you are going to get. You can’t have special treatment. Just eat the same food as everyone else.” What do you think they would have done then?

I believe that they would have starved to death rather than give in to their hunger and thirst and compromise their convictions. We all know that food and drink are basic necessities which we all need in order to live. And the Devil has often used food and drink to make people compromise. When Adam and Eve fell, the issue was that of eating the fruit which God had specifically commanded them not to eat. When the Israelites were on their way to Canaan they fell several times into the sins of doubt and discontent, and most of the time it was because of food and drink. When Christ was fasting in the wilderness after for 40 days, the Devil tempted Him to turn the stones around him into bread to satisfy His intense hunger.

But Jesus refused to do this. He said: “…man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) Keeping God's Word was more important to Him than fulfilling His immediate need for food. On another occasion, our Lord refused to allow tiredness, hunger and thirst to prevent Him from bringing a Samaritan woman to salvation. And when His disciples expressed concern that He should eat, He said, “My meat [food] is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)

This should be our conviction as well. Have you sometimes put your immediate needs above doing the will of God? When your alarm clock rings in the morning, do you get up immediately reminding yourself to start the day with your daily devotion, or do you give in to the stronge urge to sleep a bit more and skip your daily devotion?

When I was a Sunday School teacher years ago, one of the most common excuses that my students gave for being late for class or absent was, “I am so sorry but I could not wake up!” But when it comes to getting to school or to work on time during the week, waking up doesn’t seem to be a problem. Let us not allow tiredness or slothfulness to prevent us from doing God’s will. Doing God’s will must be so important to us that we would willingly overcome any obstacle or inertia, and endure any inconvenience to do it. Brethren, we must subordinate our needs and desires to doing the will of God. It should become a conviction for us – and this brings us now to the third and most important lesson that we can learn from this account.

3. Develop Firm Convictions from Scripture.

What made all the difference in the way that the four youths responded to their situation, is found in v.8 – “But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat.”This is the turning point in this whole chapter. The words “purposed in his heart” give us the key to success in making an uncompromising stand for the Lord. It means to establish, to set or fix something so firmly that it becomes unmoveable and unshakeable. In modern English we would call such a thing a conviction. Convictions are truths and directions we are so sure of and convinced about that nothing can ever make us move away from them. Convictions are what you need in order to live as a Christian in an ungodly world. Your convictions are the backbone of your spiritual life. They keep you from being easily swayed by any strong influence or peer pressure. Convictions give you the stability and steadfastness to keep on going even when everyone around you has fallen away and you are the last one standing.

If you want to be a person that God can use for His glory, you must have firm convictions. And these convictions must be entirely your own. You cannot depend on someone else’s convictions. Some Christians have great courage to do what they ought to do, but only when they are under the shadow a spiritually mature leader, like their Sunday School teacher or their Cell Group leader. But when they have to stand all alone on their own, they give in to the pressures around them.

This may happen to you when you go overseas for study or for work. You will not be able to stand on your own if you depend on someone else’s spiritual convictions. You must develop your own convictions. But how can you develop your own convictions from God’s Word? I would like to suggest two steps you can take to do this. The first thing is to make sure that you…

a. Understand it.

Whenever you read, study or hear God’s Word, discipline yourself to understand it. Make every effort to absorb it and assimilate it into your life. Feeding upon God’s Word is like eating food. Unless the food is properly digested, absorbed, and assimilated into your body, it is of no use to you. In the same way, unless you fully understand what you must obey and why you should obey it, it will never become your personal conviction. As Psalm 119:34 says “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.”

If you do not understand a certain scriptural teaching, it will be immensely difficult for you to live by it. If I were to ask you, why you should do a certain thing that the Bible teaches, and all that you can say is, “Am not so sure, but I think it is good to do it.” or “My pastor says so.” or “It is taught in my church.” then this shows that you have not yet understood the scriptural rationale behind it.

Let us take Daniel’s convictions about the king’s food as an example. What do you think would have happened if he did not fully understand God’s command not to eat food that was offered to idols? Or what would have happened if he thought that this command applied only to Jews who live in Israel, and not to Jews like him who live in a Gentile city like Babylon? (“When in Babylon, do as the Babylonians do.”) Or what if he did not see how eating such food could affect his relationship with God? I think the answer to all these questions is quite obvious. Daniel could never have had such boldness to take a stand, if he had not fully understood it. He would have faltered and succumbed easily to the pressure to conform.

But if we could travel back in time and ask him, “Daniel, why don’t you want to eat all this good food? What’s wrong with it?” I believe that he would have been able to give us a reasonable explanation for his convictions. Perhaps he would answer our question like this, “God has revealed in His Law that He hates all idol worship. All this food has been used for idol worship. Eating it would make me a participant in idol worship and that would make me break the first commandment God gave – ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’ Although I am not in Israel, I still belong to God in this foreign land, and I stand in a covenant relationship with Him. So I must obey His commandments no matter what it will cost me.”

If you want to be like Daniel, make sure that you have a good understanding of whatever command you have to obey. Check the scriptural basis for it. Has God really said it? Does God really require it of you today? Then relate it to all the other scriptural teachings that you already know. Does it contradict any of these teachings, or does it fit in well with them? Clear away all the doubts you may have by asking questions. Don’t be satisfied until you have a good grasp of it.

It must be mentioned at this point that there are some doctrines that cannot be fully understood by our finite minds until we see the Lord in heaven – Like the doctrine of the Trinity, or the fine balance between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. But whatever God has made clear in His Word and has meant for us to understand in this life, we should do our very best to understand them and obey them.

There is one good way to know if you understand a scriptural teaching: See if you can explain it to someone in your own words. If you are able to do this, then you can say that you have really understood it well. Then you should proceed to the next step for developing scriptural convictions. After understanding it, you must:

b. Believe It.

Why is this step necessary? Because it is very possible to understand what Scripture teaches, and yet not believe it. To believe a teaching of Scripture is to give it great value and credibility. Believing means acknowledging that it is trustworthy, reliable and dependable. This necessary step can be seen in a phrase that Paul used twice in his first epistle to Timothy. In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul said – “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” In 1 Timothy 4:9 when Paul was teaching about the value of godliness for the present and future life, he used the same phrase, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.” This is what a conviction is all about – something that is faithful, dependable, and so full of weight that it demands our application.

If all that Daniel had was just a good understanding of God’s command regarding food offered to idols he might not apply it. If he did not regard it to be faithful, dependable and worthy of all acceptation, he probably would not have applied it to his situation in Babylon. Why bother to take it so seriously if it is not worthy enough to risk his own life for it?

The same thing applies to us now: We may fully understand what God’s Word teaches on difficult ethical and moral issues. We may even become experts in the fine little details of these issues and be able to teach others about them. But this alone does not mean that we personally believe it and will apply it faithfully in our own life, because we may still regard it as something outside of our lives, as something that we have little or no personal involvement in. We have to take the additional step of believing the teaching. By doing this, we involve ourselves in it personally, and become fully committed to apply it with God’s help. And when we have done that, then and only then does it become a full-fledged conviction that will help us to live an uncompromising Christian life in an ungodly world.

Will you be like Daniel who brought glory to God even as a young teenager, when he purposed in his heart to keep His commandment? Or will you compromise under pressure from the world because you have no convictions? If you really want to live your life for the Lord Jesus, you must have convictions!

The same thing applies to those who are still outside Christ. If you are to be saved you must have three convictions from God’s Word: (1) You are a sinner and cannot save yourself from sin and eternal death; (2) Jesus Christ is God’s only provision to save you; (3) You will be saved when you turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus Christ alone for salvation. If you understand and believe these, so that they have become your convictions, will you now act upon them? May the Lord help all of us to build solid convictions from God’s Word and keep them well.

Daniel 2:37-45 - The Glory of the Indestructible Kingdom

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 10:45am service, 2005-10-16

Text: Daniel 2:37-45

In this morning's message I hope, with the help of God's Word, to present to all of us such a captivating vision of God's kingdom, that we will always want to exult in its glory, yearn for it, and make every effort to enter the kingdom, seek it, suffer for it, and get involved in building it. Now, the word 'kingdom' is the keyword here, and it occurs about 342 times in the Bible, 158 of which are in the New Testament. Our Lord Jesus Himself used the word 'kingdom' many times. Even when He taught His disciples the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:10), He included in it the petition, 'Thy kingdom come.' And when He sent the disciples out to preach, it was to preach the Kingdom of God (cf. Luke 9:2,60). It is obvious that the Lord wants us to be a 'kingdom-minded' people.

But how exactly are we to be kingdom-minded? One difficulty that we have is that we often tend to associate the term 'kingdom' with the idea of a king sitting on an ornate throne in a grand palace, wearing flowing royal robes and a diamond-studded crown, with his queen and princes and princesses next to him, with many knights in shining armour, amid much royal pomp and majesty. And when these royal symbols of a kingdom are not evident or visible to us, we may wonder where God's kingdom really is. In ancient times, the monarchic form of government was predominant and it was very familiar to most people. But today, there are only 28 kingdoms left in the world (out of about 260 nations), and in the majority of those that remain, the king is merely a constitutional figurehead with no real clout or power. And so the word 'kingdom' may be a little obscure to most of us, and perhaps even difficult for us to fully identify with. 

Actually, what is to be understood by the word 'kingdom' in the Scriptures is not outdated but still very much relevant to our present time. It is meant to convey to us the idea of a leader or ruler and those who submit to his authority to rule over them. And so the kingdom of God must be understood in this sense - It is all about God's authority to rule over everything there is. But this begs the question: Why should there be any doubt at all about God's authority to rule? Is He not the sovereign Lord? Are not all things already under His full jurisdiction, since He created all things?

Here we have to distinguish two aspects of God's kingdom: The universal aspect and the earthly aspect. In the universal aspect, God is already governing the whole universe by His almighty power. His control of all things is absolute and no one can ever oppose His decrees successfully. Psalm 103:19 tells us, 'The LORD hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all.' Bible verses such as this one speak of the universal aspect of God's kingdom.

The earthly aspect of God's kingdom however, is not yet complete. It is still in the process of development. This consists of the voluntary submission given to Him by moral creatures on earth. And in this earthly aspect, we do not see the full establishment of God's kingdom yet. Although God is the rightful ruler of the whole earth, sin has caused others to claim their own authority to rule and govern this world, without any acknowledgement of God's authority over them. 

This is not something new, for it has been happening since the dawn of human history - e.g. the Tower of Babel, when all mankind banded together under the leadership of Nimrod to make a name for themselves (Genesis 11:1-9). That attempt to build the first world empire and overthrow God's rule ended with the creation of different languages, the scattering of people to the various parts of the world, and the development of many civilisations. As each civilization developed, kingdoms and empires were formed with their own kings and rulers. 

Some kingdoms (e.g. that of King Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18, and Israel under King David) acknowledged God's rule over them, but most of the rest did not. They defied God's authority. And God sometimes saw it fit to demonstrate His sovereign right to rule by subduing kingdoms and humbling their rulers. One notable example of this in the Scriptures was the Babylonian Empire. Emerging in the year 626 BC, the Babylonians established themselves as the supreme overlords of the ancient world for about 80 years and left behind a lasting legacy on the world. 

Under their greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians defeated Egypt and took possession of the lands of Assyria, Syria, Phoenicia, Lebanon, and Israel, plundering their cities and bringing many people from these lands into captivity. With all the great wealth and manpower that he amassed from these conquests, King Nebuchadnezzar reconstructed the city of Babylon (formerly known as Babel) and he made it the largest and most well-fortified city on earth at that time (1,000 hectares in size). This city became famous for its fabulous architecture, which included the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Today, one part of this ancient city has been restored - it is the huge Ishtar Gate, which is now housed at a museum in Berlin.

Nebuchadnezzar's achievements were of such immense magnitude that he became the inspiration for many kings and rulers who lived after him, who aspired to become another Nebuchadnezzar. The latest of these is of course, the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who aspired to lead the whole Arab world. He is now on trial for the many crimes he committed during his ruthless regime.

Now, it was to such a king as Nebuchadnezzar that God chose to reveal the truth that human kingdoms are nothing when compared to the kingdom of God, and that all human kings must fully acknowledge God's authority over them. And the account of this is found in the book of Daniel. It all began with a strange dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. Although the king could not remember the dream when he awoke, it troubled him so much that he desperately needed to know what it was and what it meant. It bothered him so much that he called four different classes of advisors to help him recall the dream and interpret it for him. But none of them with all their wisdom and learning were able to do what the king now required of them.

Out of anger and utter frustration King Nebuchadnezzar issued a death sentence on all of them. Now this death sentence would also affect Daniel and his three friends who had not been there with the royal advisors when all this happened. They were God-fearing Jews whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into Captivity, and because of their God-given skills they had been promoted to be advisors to him. When they heard about the dream that the King had and the death sentence that he issued, they prayed together that God would reveal the dream and its meaning. And God answered their prayers by revealing it to Daniel (Dan 2:17-19).

Subsequently, Daniel was brought before Nebuchadnezzar and revealed to him both the dream and its meaning. In his dream the king had seen a huge statue that was made of different kinds of metals. The head was gold, the chest and arms were silver, the belly and thighs were brass, the legs were iron and the feet where iron mixed with clay. Then a stone hit the feet of the statue and destroyed it. And the stone replaced the statue and filled the whole earth. 

The interpretation of the dream was then given by Daniel. The five parts of the statue represented five kingdoms or empires that would come one after another. Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian empire was represented by the head of gold. But it would be replaced by another which was represented by the silver chest and arms. And this in turn would be replaced by another which is representated by the brass belly and thighs. 

By comparing this vision with ancient history, and with the rest of Scripture, we can now name each of the four empires that come after the Babylonian empire: The Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire and finally the Divided Empire, which will be derived from the Roman Empire. At the time of this divided empire God will set up His worldwide rule on earth, which will never be destroyed or replaced.

At the end of the account, Nebuchadnezzar was thoroughly overwhelmed that Daniel had been able to reveal his dream with full accurate details and even provide its interpretation. He could not help but to bow down to Daniel and said to him, 'Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets' (v.47). He then promoted Daniel to become the ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and the chief of all his advisors. 

But what we must not miss here is the impact of this vision on the king himself. Awhile ago we had seen that Nebuchadnezzar was one of the greatest kings in antiquity and that under him, Babylon reached its zenith of earthly glory. But now through this vision, he was made aware that his own kingdom's glory was only to be a passing glory, because it was represented only by the golden head. It will soon be followed by the rise and fall of other glorious kingdoms. And the final ultimate kingdom that will surpass all the rest will be God's kingdom. 

What a humbling vision this must have been to king Nebuchadnezzar! And what an amazing revelation it was to him of the awesome majesty, glory and power that God's coming kingdom was going to have. Let us analyse some of the characteristics of the kingdom of God that may have caused Nebuchadnezzar to wonder at its glory with awestruck amazement. The first characteristic of the kingdom of God is that:

1. It is set up by God Himself (v.44)

This was mentioned in v.44 'And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom.' This is definitely not true of all other worldly empires. They are set up by mortal men and not by God. However it is God who allows men the privilege of setting up kingdoms and exerting authority. Nebuchadnezzar was no exception, since he was told in vv.37-38 'Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.'

Nebuchadnezzar had foolishly thought that he was the one who had set up his own kingdom successfully, and that he had done it with his own power and ingenuity. In fact, later on as he walked in his palace and viewed the whole city of Babylon, he boasted, 'Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?' (4:30) Well, now in Daniel chapter 2 God plainly declared to him that he could build Babylon and his kingdom only as far as God had allowed him the privilege to do this. It was God who had made him king and who had given him authority.

The same thing is true of every human government in the world. Each can only rise up and exercise authority over a nation, only if God Himself graciously gives this privilege to the human government. This is the reason why we are told to submit ourselves to human authorities in Romans 13:1 ('Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.') Now, while God permits men to set up kingdoms on earth, the kingdom of God will not be set up by any man. It will be set up personally by God Himself.

It will be a kingdom where God Himself will personally come down to subdue the whole world to himself, and set up His own rule on earth. Other Bible passages tell us that this will happen when Jesus Christ returns. The stone that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream was therefore the Lord Jesus Himself. Let us look at 34-35 'Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.'

Do you know that Jesus Christ is described in Ephesians 2:20 as the 'chief corner stone'? The apostle Peter also designated Him as the chief corner stone who is elect and precious to those who believe, but to those who are disobedient He becomes a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (1 Peter 2:7,8). Hence, the stone in Nebuchadnezzar's vision represents Christ, who comes down to set up the Kingdom of God on earth.

Dearly beloved, let us learn something important from this: in the same way that the whole world must one day submit to Christ when He comes to set up His rule in the world, we ought to submit ourselves to His setting up of His rule in our hearts now. This is one personal application of what we have just learned about God's kingdom. Have you set up your own rule in your heart, or are you allowing Christ to rule there? Is Jesus truly the elect and precious chief corner stone in your life now, or is He a stumbling stone and rock of offence to you? Let us carefully seek to honour the Lord Jesus Christ in our life, and at all times!

Coming back to our study of the kingdom of God, we proceed now to consider another characteristic that makes it more glorious to us than any other kingdom on earth:

2. It shall never be destroyed - (v.44)

'And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.' Let us consider this carefully for a moment - has there ever been any kingdom or government on earth that has lasted indefinitely? No, not at all. 

Whatever human governments that have existed, only endured at most for a few centuries before being replaced. The once proud and mighty Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires no longer exist today. You can only read about their glory and splendour in history books, and visit some of the ruins they have left behind. A few generations ago there was the British Empire. At one time people used to say that, 'The sun never sets on the British empire' because its interests and colonies could be found all over the world. Today Britain no longer enjoys such status. Another example is the Soviet Union, which used to be a fearful world superpower with great ambitions of turning the entire world to communism. But this came to an end 15 years ago. The Soviet empire disintergrated and the threat of communism is now replaced with the threat of terrorism.

Some regimes come to an end through war, and some through revolution. Many have fallen because of deep divisions and internal strife. One of the greatest weaknesses of worldly kingdoms is the question of leadership succession. Every change of leadership is bound to affect the future of a nation. Even a leadership that begins well may turn bad later on (e.g. King Solomon, King Asa). 

Against all this as a backdrop, we can now see the supreme glory of God's kingdom revealed here in the fact that it will be an indestructible kingdom. It will endure because the One who rules it never dies, and because His rule remains consistently righteous and incorruptible. And God's kingdom is not only indestructible, for we are told in Hebrews 12 that it is also unshakeable and unmovable - Hebrews 12:27-28 'And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.'

This verse also indicates to us the appropriate response that we ought to have now, to knowing that God's kingdom is indestructible - We must serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Dearly beloved, if you are seeking to invest your life in something that is so strong and durable that it can never be destroyed, you can do nothing better than to invest it in the kingdom of God. Why devote so much of your toil and talents to earthly kingdoms that cannot last? Let them be expended instead for God's kingdom, and they will never be in vain!

Now we move on to the third characteristic of God's kingdom which is that:

3. It shall consume all the other kingdoms - 

In v.44 we are told that the kingdom of God 'shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms.' In Nebuchadnezzar's dream the stone was seen smashing the statue to smithereens. And when the wind had blown away all the debris, nothing was left of the great nations of the world. All that remained was the stone which grew into a huge mountain, and filled the whole earth (v.35). This shows us that in its final form, God's kingdom will not coexist with any other kingdom on earth. It will be the one and only kingdom on earth, and all will submit to God's government. This will be the rightful one-world government, which is God's government. 

While many nations have tried their best to join their hands together in big international bodies like the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the European Union, APEC, and G7, none of them have ever achieved complete world-side unity, because of the many differences between them. But where man has failed, Christ, the great King of kings and Lord of lords will undoubtedly succeed. His rule in this world will be completely all-encompassing and absolute. And the best part of all, is that we will actually have a role to play in ruling the entire world with Him! 

Dearly beloved, do you know that we who are saved in Christ are destined by God to enjoy great privileges that the most powerful men on earth can only dream of? This is stated in two verses: Daniel 7:22 'Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.' And Daniel 7:27 'And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.- The 'saints of the most High' in these verses refers to God's people. Our bodies will be changed into its new incorruptible, glorifed state, and we will then be able to rule the world with Christ.

What a glorious privilege will be ours to reign over this world together with our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 20:6)! It is not so much the prospect of being able to reign that should excite us, because ruling a world as big and complex this one can give a headache of global proportions if we attempt to govern it by ourselves. 

But the best part of all is our prospect of being able to reign together with our head, Jesus Christ - to be a part of His team, to sit with Him on His throne (Revelation 3:21) and colabour closely with Him in governing the whole world and exercising dominion over it! How thrilling it is to know that mere creatures of dust like us can actually enjoy such an excellent privilege as this one - to reign with our Lord Jesus Christ in His glorious kingdom! 

Dearly beloved, please let this thought inspire you to be kingdom-minded people from now onward, for God's kingdom is going to be yours, and you are destined to govern it with Christ - Hence your should treasure it and love it. And let your heart be moved to prize God's kingdom even more, as you add on to this the other 2 characteristics that we had seen earlier - that it is a kingdom set up by God Himself, and that it is an indestructible kingdom. Besides these, there is one more characteristic that we must consider: It is the one found at the end of v.44:

4. It shall stand forever - 

The kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom. It will even outlast the present earth that God created. After Christ's 1000-year reign on earth, His kingdom will be transformed into its final state of eternal bliss and glory. And the last two chapters of the Bible present a most wonderful picture of it - the new heaven and the new earth with the holy city, the new Jerusalem in the midst of them, having the glory of God. 

If you have time today, please read these two chapters carefully and try your best to imagine what God's kingdom will be like in eternity. And as you do this please bear in mind that even what you read there provides only a rough sketch of its glory, for no words or pictures can adequately convey to our minds the immense glory of its appearance, its structure, its worship, and its fellowship. 

Listen now to Revelation 22:3-5 'And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.'

Dearly beloved if what you have heard this morning about the glory of the indestructible kingdom has captivated your mind and your heart, then please consider what you should be doing now for this kingdom, and particularly for the Church. 

The Church of Jesus Christ is the present form of God's Kingdom. Jesus Christ reigns in our hearts, and He also rules over each local church, adding precious souls that are saved to them, and equipping them with spiritual gifts to edify the rest. At our church anniversary service here next Lord's Day, we will give our praises and thanks to God for having done this in Life Church for the past 55 years. Truly we must marvel at God's grace in building His kingdom here in our midst. 

But we should also consider His work beyond Life Church to see what He is doing in the universal Church. The universal Church comprises of all true born-again believers from every age of history, and from all over the world who belong to Christ. And this entity is also God's indestructible kingdom, for Jesus Himself said in Matthew 16:18 'upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' 

Dearly beloved, let us commit ourselves to do our part well for the kingdom of God now. Don't be slack in your service as a member of this great awesome enterprise of God, but give of your best unto the Lord, the King. May the Lord stir us up to greater heights of love and good works for His glory.

Daniel 7:1-28 - The Vision of the Four Beasts

By Rev Charles Seet

Preached at / Published Life BPC 8am & 11am service, 2017-04-02

Text: Daniel 7:1-28

Since the beginning of this year our morning sermons have been based on a study of the Book of Daniel. There are two things that make this book so valuable. Firstly, the life of Daniel and his three friends (Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego). These men provide fine examples of uncompromising loyalty to God in the midst of trial and persecution. We have already seen this in our study of the first 6 chapters of the book. I am sure that we have all gained many practical insights from these chapters on how to live as Christians in the midst of an ungodly world.

The other thing that makes this book so valuable for study is the numerous visions and dreams recorded in it. They provide the most comprehensive sweep of history and future events in the whole Bible and contain many prophecies about the End Times. There are two books of the Bible that should be studied well in order to have a good understanding of the End Times: One of them is the book of Revelation, and the other is the book of Daniel.

The last six chapters of Daniel record four visions that Daniel received: (1) The Four Beasts and the Son of Man – chapter 7, (553 BC); (2) The Ram and Goat – chapter 8, (551 BC); (3) The Seventy weeks of God’s calendar – chapter 9, (538 BC), and (4) The Events that will lead up to the End times – chapters 11 & 12, (536 BC). One exciting feature of these visions is that many prophetic details in them have been fulfilled with amazing precision! For instance, the year when Christ began His 3-year ministry in Israel during His first advent is foretold in Daniel chapter 9. Studying these visions of Daniel can therefore help to strengthen our confidence in God’s Word.

However, before we begin to study them we should first understand why these visions were given in the first place. Why did God provide the Jews of that particular time with such a comprehensive sweep of history and future events? The answer is found in the historical setting of Daniel’s time. Firstly, the Jews were then at a very low point in their history – they had lost everything! As a result of their own disobedience their once-glorious nation had been destroyed and they were now dwelling as captives in a foreign land. Three decades had already passed but they were still in Babylonian captivity.

In the midst of this terrible catastrophe it would be natural for them to feel downhearted and say, “Where is God in all this? What has become of all those great covenant promises that He made to us?” These visions would help the Jews to understand that God was still present with them, and that He would work out His grand purpose and plan for them and for the whole world. What they needed to do now was to persevere in faith. They must trust that God will surely fulfil every covenant promise He had made in His own good time.

And their trust in God was not in vain: Just before Daniel received his last vision, God’s promise to release them from their Captivity was finally fulfilled. As the Babylonian Empire fell and the Persian Empire arose, the decree of Cyrus gave the Jews the freedom to return home and rebuild their nation! But in their high feelings of euphoria many of them would now think, “How wonderful! The Lord has finally restored us. Everything will be absolutely bright and cheery for us from now on, and we will never ever be tried and persecuted again.” 

Well, the visions that God gave through Daniel were designed to manage expectations like these. The Jews needed to know that the end of their captivity was not the end of their sorrows. In fact they would face even greater catastrophes before the nation of Israel would finally enter into God’s rest. God wanted them to be prepared for the long haul – Yes, as God’s people they certainly had a very bright future ahead of them, but now they must persevere on faithfully, and wait patiently for it to come.

Today, we all need to know these visions of Daniel for the very same reason. As God’s people we are living here as pilgrims in a foreign land. We face intense pressures each day and challenges to our faith from an ungodly world. We see the world situation going from bad to worse. And sometimes we may feel downhearted and say, “Where is God in all this? What has become of all His great promises?” It is only when we turn to God’s Word that we realise that the Lord is still with us. We realise that He is actually working out His grand purpose and plan for us and for the whole world. We are encouraged whenever we hear reports that God’s kingdom is progressing, and that more and more people are being saved each day.

And this may then cause us to think, “Well, this is it! The Lord is evidently working now. And things will surely get better and better until He comes.” But the truth we will learn from Daniel’s visions is that things in this world are actually going to get a lot worse before they can get better. And so we must be spiritually strong to face the future. We must be prepared to persevere on faithfully, as we wait patiently for our Lord Jesus to come and for our blessed hope to be realised.

Now that we know the purpose for these visions, let us begin our study of the first one which is Daniel’s Vision of the Four Beasts. It was the year 553 BC when Daniel received this apocalyptic vision of the four beasts. This vision was really profound, rich in symbolic meaning, vivid and almost overpowering! Daniel describes what he saw in the first 14 verses. And then he receives the interpretation of his vision in the last 14 verses. There are three important truths that we can learn from this vision.

1. God’s Plan Is Unfolding in History

All history is actually HIS story. History teaches us about the rise and fall of various nations, the turbulent movements and migrations of populations, and the struggles between human forces for wealth, power and influence. All these are aptly portrayed in v.2 as “the four winds of the heaven [that] strove upon the great sea.” But in the midst of all this turmoil, God’s own story of redeeming a world of sin and establishing His reign over it, is unfolding little by little. This is an important truth that we must hold on to, especially in the uncertain times that we live in today.

God has even determined exactly how long each earthly kingdom can remain before another one replaces it. Here in Daniel’s vision four great empires of history are represented by four beasts. About 50 years earlier, King Nebuchadnezzar had received a vision where these same four empires were represented by the four parts of a great image. We had studied all this in chapter 2. The four great empires were represented by a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron, and feet of iron mixed with clay. The decreasing value of metals from gold to iron correspond well to the deterioration of the beasts: from a winged lion that becomes like a man, to a terrifying monster that spews out blasphemy.

In the interpretation given by Daniel, it was revealed that the head of gold represents the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar. Thus, the first Gentile Empire must be the Babylonian Empire which is represented by a lion with wings in Daniel’s vision.

Perhaps these two parallel visions show how the empires of the world are perceived so differently by God and men. Men often like to think of their empires in terms of impressive statues made of precious metals. But God is not impressed at all. He sees all these empires as hostile brute beasts which must be tamed and brought under His control.

Thus, in the vision we see that the lion was subdued by having its wings plucked off (v.4) – This corresponds to Nebuchadnezzar’s seven-year insanity which we saw in chapter 4. And then as the lion was made to stand up like a man and was given a man’s heart, so Nebuchadnezzar was restored back to sanity and to the throne of Babylon as a spiritually enlightened king.

After the Babylonian Empire came the Medo-Persian Empire, which is represented by a bear in this vision. It corresponds to the chest and arms of silver in Daniel 2. The bear was raised up on one side to show that of the two elements in this empire, one became dominant. This turned out to be the Persian element, which dominated over the Median element. Hence in latter years, it was known as the Persian Empire.

Bears are not as swift and ferocious as lions, but they are massive, especially when they stand up two meters tall on their hind legs. Likewise, the Medo-Persian Empire was a huge empire, much larger than its predecessor. What meaning is there in the three ribs in the bear’s mouth? Some think that the ribs represent the countries of Lydia (546 BC), Babylon (539 BC) and Egypt (525 BC), the three major powers that were conquered by the Medo-Persian Empire. Daniel lived to see this empire coming on the scene of world history, but he did not live long enough to see the next one which was the Greek Empire.

In Daniel 2 it was represented by the brass belly and thighs of the great statue. Here it is represented by a four-headed leopard with four wings. These wings probably indicate its swiftness in conquest. Alexander the Great took only three years to subdue the whole Persian Empire, and then he proceeded to sweep eastwards toward India. The four heads of the leopard may represent the division of Alexander’s empire into four kingdoms after his death in 323 BC. These kingdoms were completely independent of each other, and yet they were so similar in their organisation, culture and the racial makeup of their leadership that they are pictured here as one kingdom.

Then comes the Roman Empire. In Daniel 2 we had seen it represented by the iron legs of the statue. But here it is represented by a beast which is not identified with any known animal. It was more terrifying than all the other beasts. This symbolises the crushing military power of the Romans. The Persian and Greek empires before it had made great conquests in their early years, but very few in later times. The Roman Empire alone carried on conquering and conquering for several centuries. Caesar and Pompey fought wars on two fronts of the empire at the same time, conquering North Africa, Britain, Southern Europe, and Egypt. The Roman Empire lasted for about a thousand years from the time the Roman republic was founded in 509 BC, and then it continued as the Eastern Roman Empire (or Byzantine Empire) for another thousand years. This is much longer than most empires in history!

Let us now summarise the lesson we should learn from the vision of these four beasts. They reveal how God has unfolded his plan in history. At the time when Daniel received this vision, only the first empire was known – the Babylonian Empire. The rest were still unknown to man. But God already knew all about the Medo-Persian, Greek and Roman empires as if they had already come and gone from history.

And we can further extrapolate from this that God already knew about all the superpowers of our present world at that time and what will eventually become of each of them – because they have all been included within His plan to redeem this sinful world and to establish His reign over it! And here then is the comforting assurance that God wants us to have out of all this –He is in control of all that is happening in the world today! He decides what clout or influence each nation of the world receives and how long each of them is allowed to have it. And in His great wisdom, God may sometimes allow His people to be hindered, opposed and even persecuted by these nations. This brings us now to the second important truth that we can learn from Daniel’s vision.

2. God’s People Will Face Persecution in the Future

I had already mentioned this earlier – One of the purposes of Daniel’s four visions was to give warning that things are going to get a lot worse before they can get better. But how much worse will it be? Let us look at the description of the fourth beast again in v.7 to find out – “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.”

The ten horns mentioned here seem to represent a later stage of its power – something that will exist long after the end of the Roman Empire. This stage corresponds to the iron and clay feet of the image of Daniel 2. Many interpret these ten horns to represent a group of separate states or nations that come together make up a revived version of the Roman Empire, such as the European Union, or the United States of America.

As Daniel watched these ten horns, there came up from among them a Little Horn, as described in v.8 – “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” This little horn was something entirely new to Daniel, since there is no element in the image of Daniel 2 that corresponds to it.

And so Daniel now sought to find out more about this little horn. It clearly represents a very powerful person who will arise in the End times. Verses 21 reveals what he will do to God’s people – “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them…” Many understand this to be a prophecy about the end-time Antichrist. The Antichrist will somehow gain full authority over the world. He will then persecute all believers, and they will suffer tremendously under him. What Daniel saw in this vision about this end-time persecution of believers must have been really awful, since he said in v.15, “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me.”

And when he enquired further about the vision, this is what he was told concerning the little horn: “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (v.25) Following how the word ‘times’ was used in Daniel chapter 4, it is likely that ‘a time’ here refers to a year. Then the word ‘times’ may be understood as two years and ‘the dividing of a time’ may be understood as half a year. This adds up to exactly 3½ years.

I want you to watch how all these details match very closely with the description of the Antichrist given to John the Apostle over six centuries later – “…and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. [which is equal to 3½ years] And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” (Revelation 13:4-7)

Perhaps one question that is in your mind right now is, “Will we still be here when this end-time persecution of Christians takes place?” I think we all definitely hope and pray that Christ will spare us from it by catching us up to heaven in the Rapture before it happens. But the Bible is not clear on this and hence several different views on the timing of the Rapture have emerged. It is likely that the Rapture will take place only at the end of the Antichrist’s persecution of believers.  Besides, many Old Testament and New Testament saints who have lived long before us were not spared from persecution. Even at this present time there are Christians suffering persecution in other countries.

So, what should we do if it is God’s will for us to glorify him by going through persecution? Then we must resolve to go through it willingly and courageously by His grace, applying all those precious lessons that we have learned over the past three months from the book of Daniel. But here is the good news: If we ever have to go through such severe persecution, we can derive our greatest comfort from the next part of Daniel’s vision.

3. God’s Kingdom Will Prevail in the End.

 Daniel describes this in what he saw: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” (vv.9-11)

The first thing we notice here is that the setting has changed from the wild, tempestuous sea at the beginning, to the majestic orderliness of a heavenly court. Here God presides over a vast multitude of saints to pronounce His sentence of fiery judgment on the little horn and his wicked kingdom. The result of this judgment is the permanent and complete destruction of the Antichrist.

Daniel’s vision then ends on a glorious note: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (vv.13,14)

This part of the vision corresponds to the stone in Daniel chapter 2 which destroyed the image and became a great mountain which filled the whole earth. Here in this glorious scene of Daniel’s vision, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven to receive dominion and glory from God the Father. Who is this Son of Man? He is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus used this designation for Himself no less than 78 times. Unlike all the other kingdoms, His kingdom will have no end. Therefore the entire vision of Daniel chapter 7 can be summarised like this: “Kingdoms may rise and kingdoms may fall, the Kingdom of Christ will endure over all!”

Now that we understand this vision, we need to respond to it well. Firstly, let us ensure that we belong to the right kingdom. Dear friends, if you are still living for yourself and for the things of this world, you belong to the wrong kingdom! The only way to be saved and to live forever is to be in the kingdom of Christ. You must turn to Jesus Christ now, and ask Him sincerely to be your Lord and Saviour. Submit yourself fully to His authority right now and commit yourself to do His will. Then you will be ready when He comes to reign as King over this world.

Secondly, let us be conscious that we are living in momentous times. The stage for all the End-time events is already being set, and time is running out. The time has come for God’s people everywhere to rise up and be occupied with the work of the Gospel! It may not be long before the Antichrist will emerge on the world’s stage and subdue the whole world to worship him. It may not be long before Christ will descend for His final battle against all unsaved humanity. The door to enter into God’s kingdom may soon be shut for them. Can we just sit by and do nothing? No, we cannot. Let us do all that we can to warn them that the End is near. There is an unfinished task to accomplish, and we must not spare any effort to get it done.

And thirdly, let us not worry so much about all the changes that are taking place in the world today like the rising trend of populism and the Brexit process which began a few days ago. Dearly beloved, are you still fearful about terrorist attacks and the increasing threats of jihadists in Europe? I hope not. Do you still feel uneasy as you hear all the tense and hostile exchanges that have been taking place between various countries in recent months? I hope not.

We need not feel so uneasy, so fearful or worried as long as we remember these important truths that God has revealed to us today: God’s plan is unfolding in history; and though God’s people will face persecution in the future, we know for sure that God’s kingdom will prevail in the end. May the Lord use His Word to bless us our hearts now with His wonderful peace – the peace that passes all understanding.

 

  1. Daniel 8:1-27 - The Vision of the Ram and the Goat
  2. Daniel 9:20-27 - The Seventy Weeks of God’s Calendar
  3. Daniel11:2-35 - How to Be Strong and Do Exploits
  4. Daniel 11:36-12:13 -

Subcategories

Gospel in Dialect

Do you face a language barrier when trying to witness for Christ to dialect-speaking relatives? Or do you need to polish up your Mandarin in order to share the Gospel with your Mandarin-speaking friends? This Gospel toolkit will help you to learn how to share the Gospel in Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien and Teochew.

There are 15 lessons covering the various topics in gospel presentation. Each lesson consists of a set of phrases, written in English, Chinese characters and Hanyu Pinyin.

To hear the proper pronunciation of the phrase, click on the respective plugin associated with each phrase. When the phrase is read for you, you should repeat it aloud. You can keep on playing back the phrase and repeating it aloud until you have mastered the phrase. Then go on to the next phrase in the lesson.

As you learn to speak new phrases, keep on reviewing the ones that you have learnt. Finally, test yourself to see if you can say the following in Mandarin / dialect aloud: 

Family

Introduction

Why a family resource page?  It has been often said that the family is the most important institution in the nation.  But never has this sentiment been as greatly emphasized in our history as a nation than now in recent times.  Indeed, the family is the most important institution because it is the first environment to which every person is exposed; it is the primary influence of a person, especially in his early formative years.  And failure of the family to influence and mould the child positively has contributed to the moral and ethical breakdown of societies.  Even the expert opinions of sociologists and psychologists point to the truth of this statement.  Counselors and mental health workers increasingly have to rely on Family Therapy to deal with the problems of the clients, seeing as how many adult conflicts and problems are actually conflicts and problems not resolved in youth within the family.  Of course, it is not surprising to find such delinquency and immaturity in the world.  And sadly, it is not surprising to find such worldliness and worldly problems in the church, as families capitulate their God-given rights.  More than ever, there is need for a family resource page, where families can be encouraged and taught to raise up Godly homes and to revive the Covenant family.  

And one of the main emphases of this resource page is on the subject and discipline of Family Worship.  According to the Westminster Directory of Family Worship, we are told that “BESIDES the publick worship in congregations, mercifully established in this land in great purity, it is expedient and necessary that secret worship of each person alone, and private worship of families, be pressed and set up; that, with national reformation, the profession and power of godliness, both personal and domestick, be advanced.”  Herein, it is suggested that national and ecclesiastical revival finds its genesis in the home.  And this is biblical. 

The theological foundations of family worship is in Deuteronomy 4:9,10 where believers are told to “keep thy soul diligently…[and to]…teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons when the Lord said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.” 

It is also in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 where the words which God had commanded believers should be taught diligently to their children, that they should “talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”  The chief Christian educators of our children are their parents, who have been given this sacred duty.

Psalm 78:2-7 also teaches this, especially when it says regarding the law “which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” 

According to Dr Joel Beeke, “Every church desires growth. Surprisingly few churches, however, seek to promote internal church growth by stressing the need to raise children in covenantal truth. Few seriously grapple with why many adolescents become nominal members with mere notional faith or abandon evangelical truth for unbiblical doctrine and modes of worship. I believe one major reason for this failure is the lack of stress upon family worship. In many churches and homes family worship is an optional thing, or at most a superficial exercise such as a brief table grace before meals. Consequently, many children grow up with no experience or impression of Christian faith and worship as a daily reality.”

“Would we see revival among our children? Let us remember that God often uses the restoration of family worship to usher in church revival. For example, the 1677 church covenant of the Puritan congregation in Dorchester, Massachusetts, included the commitment ‘to reform our families, engaging ourselves to a conscientious care to set before us and to maintain the worship of God in them; and to walk in our houses with perfect hearts in a faithful discharge of all domestic duties, educating, instructing, and charging our children and households to keep the ways of the Lord.’”

Douglas Kelly says that “Family religion, which depends not a little on the household head daily leading the family before God in worship, is one of the most powerful structures that the covenant-keeping God has given for the expansion of redemption through the generations, so that countless multitudes may be brought into communion with and worship” of God. 

So may these resources help all Lifers to build up their families in the fear and admonition of the Lord; that Family Worship would not be an optional exercise but a time of day and activity well-sought after by Godly parents and children.  Amen.

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