1 Timothy 3:15, "...that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth."
Daniel 6:1-28 (1) It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; (2) And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. (3) Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. (4) Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. (5) Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. (6) Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king, and said thus unto him, King Darius, live for ever. (7) All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. (8) Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. (9) Wherefore king Darius signed the writing and the decree. (10) Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. (11) Then these men assembled, and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God. (12) Then they came near, and spake before the king concerning the king’s decree; Hast thou not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions? The king answered and said, The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. (13) Then answered they and said before the king, That Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three times a day. (14) Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him. (15) Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed. (16) Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. (17) And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. (18) Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting: neither were instruments of musick brought before him: and his sleep went from him. (19) Then the king arose very early in the morning, and went in haste unto the den of lions. (20) And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel: and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions? (21) Then said Daniel unto the king, O king, live for ever. (22) My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. (23) Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God. (24) And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den. (25) Then king Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you. (26) I make a decree, That in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel: for he is the living God, and stedfast for ever, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed, and his dominion shall be even unto the end. (27) He delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. (28) So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
There are moments in life that we call, “mountain top experiences.”
Like a GPS (global positioning satellite), our minds can take us back to places and locations where we fought battles that effected our hearts and minds.
Sometimes, the struggles wrestled within our spirits, and barrages of attack where even our bodies were worn down to the point where we couldn’t see a way through the craggy pass.
There is a place on top the mountain for you.
God has established it there.
Text: Daniel 2:31-35
(31) Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
(32) This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
(33) His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
(34) 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.
(35) 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.
I am preaching tonight from this thought:
The Great Mountain
It is 606 B.C., and four young men (teenagers really) have been forcibly taken from their homes in the nation Judah, and marched 880 miles into a land of exile to serve Nebuchadnezzar in the gentile city of Babylon, in the land of Shinar.
In Babylon, their captors try to rob them of their identity and these four Hebrew boys (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah) receive new Babylonian names (Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego).
It might seem simplistic to say this, but I rise to tell you once again that your adversary, the devil, seeks to devour you.
Jesus said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”[1]
He wants to erase all identifying markers from your life that would remind you of your identity.
You are a child of the living God. Your Father is the One who created you and made you. You are part of His people and the sheep of His pasture.
You can rest sure tonight in your identity in Jesus.
This foe would love to put on you a name of shame that marks you as his possession, but we serve the only wise God – Jesus Christ.
There are places in Scripture where people received new names, either by the LORD or some loved one because they refused to allow some negative moniker be put on them for the rest of their life.
How would you like to go around with name “Ichabod” (“no glory”[2])? Why Ichabod? Why No Glory?
“And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.”[3]
Every time Ichabod entered a room they all knew he was named for the day God’s presence left the children of Israel when the Philistines in battle took the Ark of the Covenant.
“…The glory is departed…”
There was no one there to say, “NO! We are not going to call him by that name.”
And he went his entire life with that name of shame upon him.
There is Rachel, she is dying, and she is getting ready to pass this life after giving birth to her second son with Israel.
“And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.”[4]
Benjamin = son of the right hand[6](“right hand” symbolizing strength)
You have a name given to you, by the Lord. Do not let the enemy put a name on you that separates you from His presence, and hinders you from reaching your potential in Christ, and in life.
Names like: Loser, Failure, Liar, Thief, Addict, Useless – some of the many names the father of lies has tried to put on you.
But, Jesus, “the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,” has a name for you.
What is that name?
Will you choose to wear it?
Isaiah 62:1-4
(1) For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
(2) And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.
(3) Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
(4) Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah [my delight[7]], and thy land Beulah [to marry[8]]: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
God has a great name for you. He wants to delight in you, you are the apple of His eye, and He loves you with an unfailing love.
The name of Jesus Christ is the name we take on when we are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
That name is “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…”[9]
You became espoused to Jesus Christ the moment baptism took place. Why? Because you were baptized in His name.
If you have not been baptized in His name, then you have not taken on the family name.
You need to take on that name because in Jesus “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”[10]
When you take on that name in water baptism all the characteristics of God are available to you.
Let’s talk about our Husband:
Isaiah 54:5, “For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.”
Our secular culture today resists the Creation account in Genesis, but when you stop believing in the Creation then you lose contact with your Husband.
You were made in the image of God.
Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”
2 Corinthians 11:2, “…I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
When were you espoused to the Husband? When you were born again of water and Spirit.
When you went down in the waters of baptism and took on His name as the preacher said, “I now baptize you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,” and you came up out of that water a new creature in Christ Jesus taking on His name.
Ephesians 3:14-19, “(14) For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (15) Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, (16) That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; (17) That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (19) And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Our identity is complete in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are filled with all the fullness of God, and He has a great love for you.
So, never allow satan the pleasure of calling you by some other name because you have been called by the only saving name that is above every name:
“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”[11]
We love the fight, the grit, the determination and the dedication of these four young men to Jehovah:
Daniel and the lion’s den – he refused to stop praying
The three Hebrew children and the fiery furnace (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah) – they would not bow to an idol. They were told to bow, they were commanded to bow, but they refused to bow.
Don’t bow to an enemy who wants nothing but your destruction.
Do not compromise yourself for other people.
David Johnson & Jared Runck point out the parallels present in the time of Daniel and today:[13]
People are allowed to believe anything at all so long as they don’t happen to believe their beliefs are right and the beliefs of others are wrong.
There is only one way to be saved: you must be born again of water and Spirit to enter into the kingdom of God.[14]
This is the Word of God, this is what Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”[15]
Nebuchadnezzar didn’t care what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego believed, or who they worshipped, as long as they bowed to his great image (Dan. 3:5-6).
Martin Luther King, Jr: The most dangerous type of atheism is not theoretical atheism, but practical atheism —that’s the most dangerous type. And the world, even the church, is filled up with people who pay lip service to God and not life service. And there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don’t. We say with our mouths that we believe in him, but we live with our lives like he never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That’s a dangerous type of atheism.
In our day, we feel the constant pressure to conform and to be accepted, but that only occurs if you worship their gods (small “g” gods) and cease to worship the One True God.
To stand when everyone else bows…to pray when all others fall silent. You can do that because “we serve the God who delivers from fiery furnaces and lion’s dens.”[16]
These mountain experiences were also proving grounds for their faith: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
Do you think it was easy for these four men to face down everybody? The peer pressure must have been at least as intense as the heat of that furnace.
However, it all began a long time ago when they were teenage boys and the refused to eat the king’s meat.
Do you want to know how to be successful in God? It is in the consistent every day practices and disciplines of faith. Every day growing your faith by doing the right thing one day at a time.
Do not compromise yourself and give up the principles of the Word of God to be accepted by a society that simply wants to destroy you and count you unworthy of the Living God.
Do not allow yourself to turn back to the valley below while climbing the mountain.
You belong spot on top of The Great Mountain.
There is no time to preach about Mt. Horeb, Mt. Sinai. Mt. Moriah, Mt. Gilboa, Mt. Nebo, Mt. Tabor, Mt. Carmel, the Mount of Olives, or Mt. Zion.
No time to tell the stories related to those places where mighty men and women saw their faith’s reward.
Life will take you to a mountain.
We talk about how beautiful it is on the top of the mountain, but nobody wants to talks about the struggle to get to the top of the mountain. We like the valley, the well-watered plains, and we often sing:
When I’m low in spirit I cry Lord lift me up I want to go higher with Thee
But nothing grows high on a mountain so He picked out a valley for me
And He leads me beside still waters somewhere in the valley below
And He draws me aside to be tested and tried in the valley He restoreth my soul[17]
We like it there in the valley. It’s green and plush. The Shepherd has placed us by a stream where we can be restored, but you have to get up at some point and climb that mountain in your life.
It matters really matters what mountain you are climbing, and if you are going to give your all, or not.
Just make certain you make it to The Great Mountain
The Great Mountain
Isaiah 2:1-5
(1) The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
(2) And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
(3) And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
(4) And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
(5) O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
In our text, Daniel shares a vision of a great image.
That vision is a prophetic look at four major world powers that would rise and fall:[18]
Head of gold = Babylon = Lion
Breast and arms of silver = Media-Persia = Bear
Belly and thighs of brass = Greece = Leopard
Legs of iron = Roman empire = Dreadful and Terrible Beast[19]
These kingdoms, each in their own time, would become the dominating power in that part of the world, and would conquer the other kingdoms and territories near themselves.
Nevertheless, the Word of God tells us that there was a stone hewn out of the mountain that struck the feet of the great image and that stone became a Great Mountain.
That Great Mountain – The Great Mountain – The Stone, the Rock, the mountain, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The “LORD’S house” that Isaiah told us would be “established in the top of the mountains,” which is going to fill the whole earth…
…Just prior to the coming of the Lord for His Bride, the whole earth will have heard of Jesus Christ, and The Great Mountain will have filled the whole earth.
That House, on The Great Mountain, is the Church.
The Great Mountain is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Children of Israel (2 million of them with their animals) were wandering in the wilderness and had a water supply problem, and they murmured against Moses:
And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.[20]
Paul later tells us the identity of that Rock at Mt. Horeb:
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.[21]
The Holy Ghost is a River tonight that comes out of the Rock.
…Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.[22]
Jesus Christ is the Rock and the Stone
Daniel 2:45, “Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.”
Deuteronomy 32:31, “For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.”
Deuteronomy 32:3-4, “(3) Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. (4) He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”
Psalm 18:2, “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”
Psalm 18:31, “For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?”
Psalm 95:1, “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Isaiah 2:10, “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.”
How do you “Enter into the Rock?” How do you get in Jesus? Peter told us on the Day of Pentecost how to do that:
…God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.[23]
The answer is simple.
Obey the plan of salvation and be born again of water and Spirit.
That is how to enter into the Rock.
Upon this Rock
Matthew 16:13-18
(13) When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
(14) And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
(15) He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
(16) And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
(17) And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
(18) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
“Thou art Peter” = Petros – “a (piece of) rock.”[24]
You are a small pebble, Peter, I’m not going to build My church on you…
“And upon this Rock” = Petra – “a (mass of) rock.”[25]
I am going to build My church on this massive boulder, this Stone hewn out of the mountain, which is going to come and crush the feet of this worldly governmental system…
…and establish an eternal Spiritual kingdom that cannot be destroyed.”
That is what Isaiah was prophesying about: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains…”[26]
Jesus declared it: “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”[27]
You are the Church; you are God’s House sitting in the top of the mountain – The Great Mountain – Our Lord Jesus Christ.
No foe can defeat Him; nothing can overcome Him, or supersede Him.
You can be like the foolish man who builds his house upon the sand, if you want to, or you can be like the wise man who says, “I’m going to build my house upon the Rock.
I am going to build my life upon Jesus. I am going to trust in the words of the Master and know that He is going to be with me no matter where I go.
God is with me.”
God is with you.
What have you built upon?
Have you built upon the Rock? The Rock is here to touch, heal, save, deliver and redeem you, if you will simply turn your heart to Him.
The New Testament tells us about that Rock, the Stone, and we understand who Jesus is: 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.[28]
In the Old Testament, the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on stone:
Exodus 31:18, “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
Exodus 32:15-16, “And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.”
Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the Law written on tables of stone by the finger of God.
He sees the children of Israel doing what they should not be doing and he destroys those tables of stone in exasperation.
You would think that destroying those stone tablets is what stopped Moses from entering the Promise Land.
The reason was that he disobeyed God’s Word, not because he broke stones tablets, but because he broke God’s Word.
Do not break the Word of God through disobedience.
It is established on the Rock, because those stones are a type of Jesus Christ.
That was the Word of God, given to the people of God in the wilderness, and the Bible is says that “Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”[29]
God hewed the tables of stone out of the mountain, and God’s Word was inscribed on them.
Jesus Christ is that Word made flesh – the Stone hewn out of the mountain.
The Church is established upon the Rock.
We stand upon the firm foundation of who Jesus is.
So, no enemy, no foe, can defeat you, or put a name on you that is not identified with Jesus Christ
Unless you allow it.
You have been baptized in His name. You have been established upon the Rock, and wherever you go, you take the Rock with you because you are in mountain of the Lord’s House on the top of the mountain – The Great Mountain – an ever-growing mountain.
“Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end….”[30]
How and when does the Stone destroy the image?
How and when does it destroy the godless system of this carnal world?[31]
Through the preaching of the Word, the preaching of Jesus Christ – The Great Mountain – the spreading of the Gospel destroys the kingdoms of this world.
That is how the stone in Daniel’s vision broke the great image.
Daniel 2:34-35, “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.”
The Great Mountain is the Lord Jesus Christ; on top of that mountain is the Church, the kingdom of God.
In addition, we, the Church, will preach Jesus until the Gospel is preached throughout the whole earth.
The message of Jesus Christ is filling the whole earth right now.
When that happens then Daniel’s vision is fulfilled: “and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.[32]
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”[33]
The Pillar and Ground of Truth 