he said to her, "How can I do this great wickedness
wickedness
and sin against God?" Joseph was still
shocked by sin. He labeled it as great
wickedness. He maintained a clear
understanding of the grievous nature of
the sin he was being tempted to commit.
If you want to stay pure, you need to
concentrate on the holiness of God. and
remember who he is and stay under the
umbrella of that holiness.
And then Joseph had enough sense to
avoid the source. This is number four.
And so it was as she spoke to Joseph day
by day that he did not heed her to lie
with her or to be with her. That's the
thing I've underlined in my Bible. Or to
be with her. Joseph avoided Piper's wife
entirely. When he saw her coming in his
direction, he got out of the way. He
knew that the best thing he could do was
to stay away from that temptation.
The book of Proverbs says this, "Do not
enter the path of the wicked and do not
walk in the way of evil. Avoid it. Do
not travel on it. Turn away from it and
pass on." And Romans 13:14 says, "But
put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no
provision for the flesh to fulfill its
lust." Instead of setting ourselves up
for failure, we should get rid of the
things in our lives that cause us to be
defeated. When you remove sin far from
you, you will be amazed at how much
greater will be your victory.
It's so interesting to me how rational,
straightthinking, objective people
find themselves being irrational and
non-objective when it comes to things
like this. Use your head. That's the
reason God gave you a brain. Finally,
Finally,
here's the last point. He had
convictions before crisis. He knew love
involved loyalty. He was still shocked
by sin. He had sense to avoid the source.
source.
And number five, he knew that retreat
was better than defeat. I love this one.
And it happened about this time when
Joseph went into the house to do his
work, and none of the men of the house
was inside that she caught him by his
garment, saying, "Lie with me." But he
left his garment in her hand and fled
and ran outside.
When Piper's wife grabbed Joseph's
garment, he fled. It says, leaving his
garment behind to maintain his character
and integrity. And as you know, it was
the garment in her hand that allowed her
to get him thrown into prison for
something he never did. But Joseph knew
something we ought to know. You're
better without your garment than your
character. And he left his garment in
her hand. Mark Twain once said, "There's
several good protections against
temptation, but the best one is cowardice."
cowardice."
And he was right. We're told in the word
of God to stand for many things, but not
against sexual temptation.
The Bible tells us we're to run away
from it. Did you know that? 1
Corinthians 6:18, "Flee sexual immorality."
immorality."
2 Timothy 2:22, "Flee also youthful
lusts, but pursue righteousness and
faith and love and peace with those who
call on the Lord out of a pure heart." I
used to tell my young people, "The best
piece of equipment you can have for
avoiding temptation is the fastest pair
of Adidas money can buy."
In his book, Unhappy Secrets of the
Christian Life, Tim Stafford tells how
the nuclear submarine Thresher went too
deep into the sea and collapsed under
the weight of the water. The sub was
crushed into such tiny bits that almost
nothing could be later identified.
You see, a sub needs thick steel
bulkheads to withstand the pressure of
the water as it dives. But there are few
walls we can build to withstand the
pressure of the deepest oceans. Even
steel gives way, as the crew of the
Thresher found out tragically.
And yet, here's an interesting fact.
In those same deep waters where that
steel submarine had been crushed, little
fish swim without a care in the world.
What is their secret?
Why aren't they crushed? Aren't they
made of some new indestructible iron? Of
course not. They possess only the
thinnest layer of skin measured in micrometers.
micrometers.
The little fish have an internal
pressure that perfectly corresponds to
the pressure from the outside. God gave
them what they need to swim in deep places.
places.
And you and I can spend our lives
building walls to block out the
temptation. We can make walls of steel,
but they'll never be strong enough. The
pressure comes from inside. Listen
carefully. What happens when we have a
power inside of us that corresponds to
the pressure outside of us? The inner
man. Paul tells us to renew that inner
man every day.
When we give ourselves holy to God, we
have the inner answer to the outer pressure.
pressure.
So build the inner man, build the inner
woman. Let Christ renew your heart. Let
him renew your mind. Cultivate the
ministry of the Holy Spirit every day.
Read the word of God. Be strong in the
Lord so that the pressure within you
will be able to combat the pressure
outside of you.
You will never beat temptation by saying
I will not. I will not. I will not.
Because on the fourth will not, you will.
will.
But you beat temptation
by building the character of your heart,
falling in love with God a new, making
sure that you treasure your relationship
with Jesus Christ, and committing
yourself to the fact that you'll never
do anything to violate your relationship
with him.
Work on the inner man
and you will do the greatest thing possible
possible
to find victory over temptation. Daniel
has been out of the mainstream of
political power since Babylon was
defeated by the Mes and the Persians.
Now after almost 2 years have passed at
the ripe old age of 83 he is summoned by
Darius the Meo Persian king and given a
very prestigious assignment in his new administration.
administration.
The first thing you learn from the sixth
chapter of Daniel and the first three
verses is this. Stand up people get
promoted. Say that with me. Stand up
people get promoted. Listen to these
words from Daniel. It pleased Darius to
set over the kingdom 120 cataps and over
these three governors of whom Daniel was
one that the cataps might give account
to them so that the king would suffer no
loss. Then this Daniel distinguished
himself because an excellent spirit was
in him and the king gave thought to
setting him over the whole realm. And
apparently part of their responsibility
was to collect taxes for the king. And
because there was dishonesty among these
lower level officials, Darius selected
three men as governors. And the text
actually says so the king would suffer
no loss. He didn't want to get ripped
off by his governors.
Of these three governors, Darius was
most impressed with Daniel and selected
him to function as the prime minister
over the land. According to the
description in Daniel 6, Daniel was
preferred above the other governors
because an excellent spirit was in him.
He was spiritfilled in the Old
Testament. He had the spirit of God in
him. This means he had a good attitude.
It means he worked hard to fulfill his
responsibilities. And most of all, in
this situation, he was honest. And
Daniel continued to honor God with his
life. And now even at the age of 83, God
is once again honoring Daniel. Daniel
would become the second in command over
all the Meo Persian Empire. A fact that
didn't go unnoticed by his peers. Let me
stop for just a moment and remind you
that while you may not be popular where
you work because you're a stand-up
person, when the people you work with
get in trouble, you're the ones they're
going to come and see. They're not going
to go to the goof offs and the parters
and all of that. They're going to come
to the people that they will look at and
know that person believes in something.
That person stands up for something.
That person's got a moral center.
They're going to come to you. They may
not like you. They may make fun of you.
They may trash you. But when they are in
trouble, when their marriage is upside
down or they got a sick child or their
or their mortgage can't be met, they're
going to find the person they trust.
Just like Daniel who was promoted to a
high place. Notice the second thing
about standup people. This is hard one
but it's true isn't it? Standup people
are persecuted. It says in verses 4-9
verse four says the governors and the
satraps sought to find some charge
against Daniel. At the core of the
hatred of Daniel's colleagues was the
fact that he was being promoted above
them. If Darius's appointment was
carried out, Daniel would have power
over all the governors and
administrators in Meo Persia. So they
decided they would try to get him in
trouble. They would try to find him
committing some trespass so he could be
indicted. But the Bible says they
couldn't find anything against him. The
more they searched to try to get him
caught in some illegal thing or some
immoral thing, the more they searched,
the angrier they got.
For someone wrote, "Envy always hates
the excellency that it cannot reach."
The final conclusion of his adversaries
after their exhaustive scrutiny is
summarized in Daniel chapter 6. Listen
to what the scripture says. "We shall
not find any charge against this Daniel
unless we find it against him concerning
the law of his God." What a testimony
that would be. We can't find anything
against you, Jeremiah, except your love
for God.
unable to find any legal way to stop him.
him.
You never want to underestimate the
enemies of the faith. They decide to
come up with a madeup story. And we read
about it in verse 7. And it says, "All
the governors of the kingdom, the
administrators, the satraps, the
counselors, and the adviserss consulted
together to establish a royal statue and
make a firm decree that whoever
petitions any god or man for 30 days
except you, oh king, shall be cast into
the den of lions."
Daniel's enemies assembled without him
present, obviously. and that they came
up with this idea that if you prayed to
any god but to Darius, who was the king,
for a 30-day period, you would be put to
death in the lion's den. There was a lie
in their proposal because not all of the
officials had consulted. Daniel wasn't
involved in it. So, they go to the king
with this story that they've made up and
they present it to him and urge him to
sign their document. Now, O king, verse
8, establish the decree. sign the
writing so that it cannot be changed
according to the law of the Mes and
Persians which does not alter.
In effect, the proposal would make
Darius god for a month.
These leaders did what they could to get
the king to sign the edict, which
according to law could not be revoked
once it was put in place. Have you ever
heard about the law and Persians? That
means if you say it, you can't unsay it.
If you promise it, you can't unpromise
it. In Meoersian Empire, if the king
wrote an edict, it could never be
changed because if you changed it, it
would look as if the king made a
mistake. And the king didn't make any
mistake. He was infallible according to
the Meo Persian culture. So once the
king signed an edict, even if he didn't
like what he had signed, he couldn't
undo it. And along with that, the edict
had to be carried out on the day that
the offense was committed.
Standup people are promoted and they're persistent.
persistent.
Number three, notice verses 10 and 11 in
our text. When Daniel knew that the
writing was signed, the writing that if
you prayed to any other god but Darius,
you'd be put into the lion's den, when
he heard this, the Bible says he went
home and in his upper room with his
windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt
down on his knees three times that day
and prayed and gave thanks before God.
Now, I've heard some preachers say when
this happened, what Daniel did was he
said, "I'll show you." So, he went home.
He threw his windows open, half hung out
the window, shouting his prayer before
God so the whole kingdom could hear him. Not
Not
what he did, the Bible says, was he went
home. He knelt down on his knees. He did
it three times that day and prayed and
gave thanks before his God. Listen to
the last phrase. as was his custom to
do. When the king said he couldn't pray
to his God, Daniel said, "I'm sorry."
And he went home and prayed to his God.
Standup people are often promoted.
They're always persecuted.
And they're usually very persistent in
what they do. I want you to notice that
what Daniel did when he found out what
the deal was was this. He didn't stand down.
down.
That would have been cowardice. He
didn't stand aside. That would have been
compromised. He really didn't even stand
against He didn't rail against the king.
What did he do? He stood up. He stood up
for his courage and his conviction. And
that's what I believe God is calling us
to do. We can stand up for what we
believe. We can stand up and be counted.
And if we just do what we should do, we
should be standing up all the time. Amen.
We come to the conclusion of this story
and we learn number four that stand up
people are protected. How many of you
know that the God you and I serve is
promised to be with us? He says, listen
to this. He says, "Go into all the world
and preach the gospel and lo, I am with
you wherever you go." When we're serving
the Lord, when we're in his will, when
we're doing what God has called us to
do, God is with us and he takes care of
us. That doesn't mean he won't let any
trouble come to us, but it means he'll
always be with us when it comes. I have
in my Bible a little motto that I
started to follow years ago when I got a
little bit of afraid of flying. And this
is what the motto says. God's man in the
center of God's will is immortal until
God is finished with him. Daniel didn't
worry. We shouldn't worry. If we're
doing the will of God, he's going to
protect us. Watch how God took care of
this courageous old man. First of all,
he was protected from the law. Verses
13-15 in Daniel 6 record how this was
going to work if God didn't get
involved. I mean, this is a pretty
serious time in the kingdom. It's a
pretty serious time for Daniel. Daniel 6
says, "They answered and said before the
king, Daniel's colleagues who were
trying to get him in trouble, Daniel
does not show due regard for you, king,
or for the decree that you have signed,
but makes his petition three times a
day." And the king when he heard these
words was greatly displeased with
himself. Not with Daniel. He was
displeased with himself because he'd got
himself in a really tough spot. He
didn't want to hurt Daniel. He promoted
Daniel. Daniel was running his whole
deal. But he got undermined by the
people who came. And it says after he
heard these words, he set his heart on
Daniel to deliver him. And he labored
until the going down of the sun to
deliver him. And these men approached
the king and said to the king, "Now
know, O king, that it is the law of the
Mes and Persians that no decree or
statue which the king establishes may be changed."
changed."
Darius's conscient was tormenting him.
He knew the danger he had put Daniel in
by signing into law the preposterous
30-day prayer ban. He worked all day
trying to find a loophole in the law. He
knew if he couldn't find one, he'd have
to sentence Daniel to death. Persian law
dictated, as I mentioned, that sentences
for crimes were to be carried out on the
day the crime was committed. The lower
the sun set in the horizon, the louder
Darius's conscience became, screaming in
him to find a solution that would save
the man who was the most important man
in his kingdom.
And then Daniel was protected from the
lions. Verse 16 says, "The king gave the
command and they brought Daniel and cast
him into the den of lions. But the king
spoke, saying to Daniel, "Your God whom
you serve continually, he will deliver
you." And a stone was brought and laid
on the mouth of the den. And the king
sealed it with his own signate ring and
with the signets of his lords, that the
purpose concerning Daniel might not be changed.
changed.
And finally, he was protected by the
Lord. Watch this. Verse 19. The king
arose very early in the morning, went in
haste to the den of lions. And when he
came to the den, he cried out with a
lamenting voice to Daniel, Daniel,
servant of the living God, has your God,
whom you serve, continually been able to
deliver you from the lions?
When Darius cast Daniel into the lion's
den, he expressed faith that Daniel
would survive. Remember, he said, "Your
God whom you serve will he will deliver
you." But his faith wasn't very strong,
as is evidenced by his anxiety through
the whole night. and by the first words
out of his mouth the next morning, "Has
your God been able to deliver you?" Not
only was the king uncertain of God's
will, he wasn't even sure God could save
Daniel. He was no saint, this king of Persia.
Persia.
And Daniel said to the king, "Oh king,
live forever. My God has sent his angel
and shut the lion's mouths so that they
have not hurt me because I was found
innocent before him. And also, oh king,
I have done no wrong before you. Amen.
The famed London preacher Charles
Spurgeon observed that it was a good
thing the lions didn't try to eat
Daniel. They wouldn't have enjoyed him
since he was half grit and the other
The Bible says God sent his angel and
shut the lion's mouth so that they
didn't hurt him because he was innocent
and he did no wrong before the king.
And the Bible says the king was
exceedingly glad for him and commanded
that they should take Daniel up out of
the den. So Daniel was taken up out of
the den and no injury whatever was found
on him. And the Bible vividly portrays
the king's delight in Daniel's survival.
He checked him over carefully to be sure
he was unharmed, just like Daniel's
friends who escaped the furnace
unscathed. Daniel came out completely
uninjured. When we see how ferocious the
lions were with the people who were
thrown into the den the next day, it's
obvious that Daniel was able to escape
without a scratch because God
interveneed in his behalf. My friends,
have you ever had God intervene in your behalf?
behalf?
Here's my experience.
God usually intervenes in our behalf
when with all of our hearts we're
standing up for what we know to be right
and true. We can almost expect God to do
that when we stand for him. And that's
why we should never be afraid to stand
for God. I know that sometime this week,
having heard this message, something's
going to happen. You're going to be in a
place where you're going to have to do
the right thing or the wrong thing. And
the right thing is going to be hard.
Just remember Daniel. He stood up when
everything was against him. And in the
midst of his standing up, not only did
he feel the blessing of God on his life,
but almighty God intervened in his
behalf and helped him come through it
with his hands up high. The last phrase
of verse 23 gives us the underlying
reason for God's intervention in
Daniel's life. Says in verse 23, because
he believed in his God. Daniel believed
in his God. Let me ask you this. Do we
believe in our God?
So you look back over this story, you
see the picture of a man who walked into
a culture of Babylon, probably far more
difficult culture than we will ever
know. and he lived in that culture from
the time he was 14 until he died in his
mid 90s. Interestingly enough, God never
took him out of Babylon. I hear people
say all the time, "Wow, I just wish I
could get away from," and they talk
about their problem. How many of you
know that sometimes God doesn't want to
take us away from our problems, he wants
to show us his strength in the midst of
our problems. He wants us to be standup
people who stand up in the secularism of
our day so that we can be a testimony to
the world around us.
Only one truth saves. Only one gospel
brings eternal life. There is only one
escape from hell. We need to go to men
and women and children with the precious
gospel of Jesus Christ and declare his
love for them. The same gospel that
worked in your grandparents' generation,
that worked in your parents' generation,
is the gospel that is working today. It
is the power of God unto salvation.
It is relevant forever. It still changes
lives. And that's a message every one of
us need to share.
Don't let the gospel be changed. Don't
let the gospel be uh rendered
ineffective by taking away the message
of the exclusivity of Christ. CS Lewis
once said, "Every saved person this side
of heaven owes the gospel to every
unsaved person this side of hell." There
isn't any way for people to get to
heaven except through Jesus Christ. You
say, "Dr. Jeremiah, are you sure about
that?" Absolutely certain. Jesus Christ
said it this way. I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the
father except through me. He didn't give
us any options. He didn't say, "I am one
of the ways." That's the message we're
hearing today. There are many ways to
God. No, there are not many ways to God.
There's one way, and he is that way. We
need to be unashamedly declaring that.
Pastors, if you're here tonight and
you've been wavering on that message, I
urge you to go home and get on your
knees and ask God to give you the
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