SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/12/2023 8:58 AM
“I’ll stop there. Listen, you
live a confrontive, God-honoring, uncompromising life, I don’t care what you
face, you’ll have an unashamed boldness. You’ll set an uncommon
standard. And God will give you an unearthly protection. Amen?
He’s done it in the past. He’s doing it in the present.
“That’s not all. There’s
more. Number four, an uncompromising life results in an unhindered
persistence, an unhindered persistence. I just love this. Now
things were in neutral, as I said. Ashpenaz said, “Daniel, I can’t honor
your request. The king will chop off my head.”
“Well, Daniel, in his
wonderful way, gently, without rebellion, without being cantankerous or pushy,
just found another alternative. Verse 11. “Then said Daniel to
Melzar.” Now “Melzar” may be a proper name. However, in the Hebrew
it has a definite article with it translated “the.” “He said to the
Melzar,” which indicates that rather than a proper name, it is probably a word
to be translated “steward.”
“Now, Ashpenaz was the prince of the
eunuchs. He was over all of these young men in the courts. And he
appointed certain stewards to guard certain given ones. And apparently
this guy, the Melzar, was given to guard these men. And here is this
unhindered persistence of Daniel. If he can’t get an answer that he wants
from Ashpenaz, he goes to a lower court, which is interesting. He goes to
a guy who would have no personal fear of the king because he wasn’t really
related to the king. His boss was Ashpenaz. And apparently Ashpenaz
was a nice enough guy that he wouldn’t chop off his head, so Daniel goes to the
next guy, “whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael and Azariah.” This is an undaunted spirit.
“Now listen, I want to point out
something here. An uncompromising spirit never gives up. I want to
show you a distinction. There are some people who say, “Well, you know, I
know what was really right to do, but I tried to do it, and it just didn’t work
out, and this is the only alternative I had. Well, you know, I wanted to
do what was right, but I was over there with those folks, and they were doing
that, and it was really all that I could do, I just had to go along.”
No. An uncompromising spirit will never be rebuffed from principle when
the first door is closed.
“I really got the biggest kick out
of an article I read this week of a lady who went to the police and asked to be
put in jail. And so, they locked her in jail. And they locked her
in jail for a period extending past her wedding date. And they wanted to
know why and she said this. “I am going to marry a man I shouldn’t
marry. But every time I see the guy, he’s irresistible. So just
lock me up till after the wedding.” Now that’s persistence. She
wouldn’t compromise even though she had to put herself in jail to restrict her
feeling. Some of you gals would do well to take some leads from that dear
lady.
“But you know what some people do?
Some people will superficially exhaust a few resources, then they’ll turn to the
evil thing and say, “Well, I gave it my best try, it just didn’t work
out.” No. An uncompromising character never gives up, never gives
up, never gives up, never gives in.
“You know, the apostle Paul, on the
way to Jerusalem, he keeps going to Jerusalem, and every once in awhile
somebody comes along and says, “Paul, you know what’s going to happen to you
when you get to Jerusalem. You’re going to get in a lot of
trouble.” And the prophet Agabus comes by and says, “Paul, let me have
your belt. Takes his belt and ties his hands up.” He says, “Paul,
that’s what’s going to happen to you when you get to Jerusalem.”
“And as he goes along, he finally
says in Acts 20, “Everywhere in every city, people keep telling me I’m going to
get in trouble when I get to Jerusalem, but none of these things - ” what? “ -
move me, because I don’t count my life dear to myself, I just want to finish
the ministry Christ has given me.” When the option closed over here, he
went over here. When it closed here, he went over here. He was not
looking for an out. He was truly an uncompromising man.
“And Daniel was that way. Just
because the door was shut at Ashpenaz, he wasn’t done. He had an
unhindered persistence. People, true character will do that. It
just keeps punching, and punching, and punching until it finally finds the hole
because it will not compromise. And the steward, apparently, was less
threatened by the king and so he wasn’t at all unwilling to grant this.
“Now, what have we learned?
Uncompromising character issues in an unashamed boldness, an uncommon standard,
an unearthly protection and an unhindered persistence. Now here’s the
key. Five, an unblemished faith, an unblemished faith. This is
great. An unblemished faith.
“You know, Daniel really believed that
God would make this possible. Where did he get that confidence? You
know what I believe? I believe, as a basic spiritual principle, sin -
listen now - sin brings doubt. Purity brings confidence. When a
person is living a holy life, I think there’s almost a sense of invincibility
about that life. You just believe God will deliver. And so, Daniel
had an unblemished faith, a sense of being invincible.
“You can operate in any trial, you
can stand in any trouble or vicissitude, you can be in the midst of any danger,
and when your heart is pure, you know there is nothing to fear - for if God be
for us, Romans 8, who shall stand against us? Right?
“Isaiah 43:2,
I love this, “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
thee.” Why? For “I will be with thee.”
“When a heart is pure and a life is
pure, there is an invincibility that results in this kind of unblemished
faith. He really was confident. And so, he said, “I’m willing to
risk my neck.” Verse 12. “Test your servants - ” he says to the
Melzar, test us “ - I beseech you, for ten days; let them give us vegetables to
eat, and water to drink. And then let our countenances be looked upon
before thee, and the countenance of the youths that eat of the portion of the
king’s food: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.”
“You say, “You know, this is a
high-risk operation. If Daniel is really serious about this, he’s putting
his neck on the line.” That’s right. But as I said, there is a
tremendous confident faith that comes to an uncompromising spirit. When
you really believe, you can charge into the very pit of hell with a sense of
confidence that God is going to honor your faith.
“Daniel was a man of faith. It
sprang from a pure heart. Even though he had been through a terrible
disaster, even though some, no doubt, had felt that God had abandoned Judah,
many questioned, like the prophet Habakkuk, Daniel believed God would stand
true to his pure heart. And so, he said, “Just give us vegetables.”
“By the way, the word vegetables is
zara, transliterated Z-A-R-A, and it means to sow, S-O-W, in the ground.
It is basically vegetarian food, common food, seeds, vegetables, plants, that
kind of thing. It’s not so much that there’s virtue in a vegetarian diet
as it is the food of the poor, who could not afford the meat or the delicacies.
“I will eat nothing but the food of the poor, the common food. You feed
them the king’s food and let’s see who looks the best.”
12/12/2023 8:59 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment