An Uncompromising Life

Daniel 1:1-8

      We go, I trust, with a great sense of anticipation to the book of Daniel. I want to read the first nine verses as the setting for our message tonight. Chapter 1:

"In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes; youths in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and gifted in knowledge and understanding science and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's food and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end of them they might stand before the king. Now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah: unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Alishael, of Mishach; and to Azariah, of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's food, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and compassion with the prince of the eunuchs."

      We'll stop there. That's not the end of the story, that's only the beginning, but for the end you'll have to come back next time.

      We live in a day of compromise. In fact, I believe that from the time we begin our life in the world, we pretty well learn the art of compromise. All the way along our life, we go the line of least resistance. We hold a conviction until it gets in the way of our comfort or our ease. We have a standard as long as it doesn't violate something we wish to do. If we can get by with a little less than our best, we'll do it. If we can cheat a little on the divine principles, or even the principles we say we believe, we'll do that too, in many cases if it accomplishes our goals. And that is a very personal approach to life that finds itself a very world perspective on life because all of us as individuals living that way make a whole world of compromise.

      Frankly, expedience is the ruling standard of human life. We worship the great god pragmatism. I suppose our motto today could be - If it works for you; do it. We are pragmatists more than anything else. And since in our society today we have abandoned any moral standard, we have cut ourselves completely loose from Christian principle, we no longer are concerned for a biblical morality; we could care less about what God has to say, at least for the most part. We are left with only the philosophy of expedience, or pragmatism. Whatever works, whatever accomplishes your goal, whatever gains your end, that's what you do. And so, we easily give up our consciences, we easily give up our convictions, we easily let go of our standards, to gain some practical end. And the amazing part of it is that our society seems to have little conscience left, little sense of guilt or remorse at all.

      We find out that politicians, who seem to have such high standards, who at the time when they are to be elected, hail from one end of the country these great standards, but when they find themselves in office, are eager to compromise those standards if it gains their ends.

      We find the same thing true in business practices. As corporate executives all the way down to people who are salespeople do the same things.

      Lawyers, who should be the conscience of any society, will compromise their own consciences if it gains a certain end in many cases.

      Leaders in all walks of life, and in all areas of human concourse, will do the same thing, very often. As individuals of all shapes and sizes, we learn to lie and we learn to cheat and we learn to steal and we learn to shade the truth and we learn to do whatever is necessary to get what we want. So that compromise becomes a way of life. And when we get into a confrontive situation, sometimes our greatest principles are shoved into the background because we don't want to offend somebody, or we don't want to be obtrusive, or we're afraid to really speak what we believe. Perhaps in the life of a Christian, it's nowhere more obvious than when you stand in the midst of conversation where you know you should speak of Christ, but rather than be thought evil of, or be thought less of, you keep your mouth closed and you are silent about Christ when He should be brought up. That in itself is a compromise. For the salvation of our own ego, for the sake of our own goals, we readily compromise.

      And compromising standards and compromising truths has found its way into the church. In fact, we have compromised with the world so repeatedly, we have compromised with the world so often that frankly, folks, I think we don't even understand what the compromises are anymore. Whenever the world comes up with something, we invariably will follow along. If the world wants to have a kind of a hippie movement, we'll have a Jesus-hippie movement. If the world wants to have a rock-music movement, just give us time and we'll have it too. If the world decides to have a Woman's Lib. movement, just wait and we'll have one. We have so long compromised with the world; we have become so engulfed in its materialistic viewpoint, in its economics and its style of life that there is little possibility that we can even understand what an uncompromising life really means. We fight to be separated from the world and yet we are unable to define what that separation means because we've been so brainwashed by the system. We have accepted the world's thought patterns. We have accepted the world's Value systems. We have accepted the world's attitudes. In so many cases, we have accepted its economics. We are indulging ourselves. We have accepted its morality. And again, we are indulging ourselves. And even though we know the Bible teaches something, if we feel we want to do it, we go ahead and do it anyway.

      Recently we had an occasion to have some people come in for counseling who desired to be married. And we found no biblical justification for their marriage, counseled them that they really had no right to get married, which didn't faze them in the least. They simply went down the street, got married, and showed up here again the next week.

      Compromise...an inability to deal with the biblical data as God intends us to deal because we are overwhelmed with our own personal desires. And so we substitute ourselves as the one to be pleased rather than God and we learn well the art of compromise.

      We indulge ourselves in the world's priorities. We take stock of the world's entertainment and on and on it goes.

      Scripture calls upon us to do just the very opposite. And we could spend a lot of time just studying this from a theological perspective. We could go through the Old Testament and we could study the very call of God to be separate from the world. We could go into the gospels and see what Jesus said. We could go into the epistles and we could study it there. But it doesn't really need to be done, other than to simply say from one end of the Bible to the other the whole approach of God to His people is that we are to live apart from the world. It's just the whole message of God to His people. When God designed the nation Israel, He built right into their very daily living...the way they dressed and the way they ate and the way they conducted themselves in a daily routine. And the calendar for the year, He built in safeguards to...to prevent them from intermingling, as it were, with pagans. He's done the same for all of His people.

      We have a standard that really can't be compatible with the world. And yet, how easily do we compromise ... how easily do we abandon our absolutes ... how easily do we allow our character qualities to become faulty as we seek to please ourselves under the pressure of the system in which we live.

      It might be well to remind ourselves at the very beginning, that God is the uncompromising God. God never compromises an absolute. God never compromises a principle. God never sets aside a truth for expediency purposes. God always lives according to His Word. In fact, He said, "I have exalted My Word above all My name." In other words, He says - I Myself, as to My nature, make Myself submissive to My Word.

      We were preaching this morning on the subject of prayer. And prayer is important. But I'll tell you something that's more important than prayer and that is the study of the Word. Because if you do not study the Word of God, you will not know how to pray because you will not know what is God's will. The study of the Word is more important than prayer someone told me this morning that an old saint of God said if he had to live his life all over again, he would pray less and study more because it would filter out needless prayers.

      The Word is the basis of the integrity of the life of a believer. And God as the Holy One has exalted His Word above all of His name and brings Himself into commitment to that very Word. And as His children, we are to do the same.

      I want to just share with you one passage from 2 Corinthians chapter 6 before we look at Daniel...and then another one from Hebrews, to give you an insight into this. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 17, I think you have a summary of New Testament teaching relative to this kind of separation. It says: "Wherefore come out from among them," them referring to idolatrous people, people connected with Satan, infidels, unrighteous, people in darkness, the unregenerate world, "come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord. And do not touch the unclean and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and you shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

      Now listen, God is the separated uncompromising one and He says His people, to truly manifest that they are His people, must also be the separated uncompromising people.

      When we compromise with the world, it has devastating effects in two areas. First of all, it effects our worship, Hebrews chapter 13. When we compromise and accept the standard of the world and set God's standards aside, it destroys our worship. Let me show you this, Hebrews 13, verse 12, a tremendous passage. "Wherefore," Hebrews 13:12 says, "Jesus also that He might set apart," or separate, that's what sanctify means, "that He might separate the people with His own blood," that is to separate them from sin, "suffered outside the gate."

      In other words, you remember that in the sacrificial system of Israel, when it was time to slay the lamb for the sins of the people, those sins were symbolically placed upon another animal and that other animal was taken outside the city, outside the gates, separated from the people. And Jesus is simply drawing on the simple idea of separation. When He died, He died separated from the city, outside the walls, outside the concourse of human society. He died separated "In order that He might purchase a separated people." That's the whole point.

      Then in 13 it says: "If Christ separated Himself to purchase a separated people, let us then go forth therefore unto Him outside the camp and bear His reproach." In other words, let's then live separated lives. If He died separated to purchase a separated people, then let us live a separated life. "For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come. And when we've done that, by Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually." In other words, you can't even worship unless you are living a separated life. Don't come to God with your praise and with the fruit of your lips saying thanks and with your good deeds and your sharing and your sacrifices unto Him unless you come out of a separated life. That's the whole point. We are called to be separated.

      John put it this way, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

      James put it this way: "Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity against God?" You cannot be the friend of the world and the friend of God. We are called, then, to a separated life. And if we are not separated it destroys our...our worship.

      Secondly, it destroys our service...it destroys our service. We can't serve the Lord. We become useless. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 20, it says, "In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but of wood and earth, some to honor and some to dishonor." That's probably true in your house, isn't it? You've got the old stuff, you know, the stuff with the chipped apples on it and the plastic stuff and all the mix and match stuff that everybody in your family gets? And then when somebody important comes over, you pull out the good stuff and all the kids say - You know, how come we never get that? That's typical...we all have that. And we have, you know, the everyday stuff that we eat with, the utensils and then we have the very fine silver that is only for special occasions. Well, so it is with God. In God's treasure house of utensils...skeuos, it's a word meaning any kind of utensil, there are things unto honor and some unto dishonor. Now, if you want to be a utensil that God can use, then purge yourself from these...from what?...false teachers, false teaching, and the false kind of living of their lives. Separate yourself from unholiness, flee youthful lusts, avoid the foolish and unlearned questions that breed strife. In other words, separate yourself from false teaching and false standards and false ways of living or you cannot be a vessel fit for the Master's use.

      Now, beloved, what I'm saying is this, God calls us to separation and unless we are living a separated life, we are destroying our worship and we are destroying our service to Him. There must be a purging and a purification in our lives.

      A yacht was sitting at anchor one time on the Niagara River. And all of a sudden, because the water was rushing rather rapidly and the wind was blowing and there was a small kind of a little upheaval on the river, the rope holding the boat to the dock broke and it began to drift in the current. And it happened that there were people on board the small yacht. They became panic stricken as it went rapidly toward Niagara Falls. Some of them were accusing each other and screaming at each other about the fact that who was to blame and why did you get me on this boat, and on and on it went. They could hear the thundering sound of the falls immediately ahead of them. What was the skipper to do? Well, he was a man of action. And according to the chronicle, he had a piece of dynamite in his boat. He simply embedded it in the hull and lit it and blew a huge hole in the middle of the boat which proceeded immediately to sink the boat. Once the boat was sunk and no longer moving, the people were readily rescued as they clung to it in rather shallow water.

      I suppose that's what has to happen in our lives too. Somewhere along the line, as believers, we have to scuttle the ship of compromise. We have to sink the vessel of worldliness or we're going to find ourselves rapidly moving toward a disaster.

      That's what God calls us to. That's the standard by which we are to live. And none other than the Lord Jesus Christ is our pattern. In chapter 7 of Hebrews and verse 26, it says, "He was a high priest who was fitting," listen, "because He was holy, He was harmless, He was undefiled," now listen to this, "He was separated from sinners." He is the pattern: holy, harmless, undefiled; separated from sinners. God calls us to such