If you look at Hebrews chapter
11, and we can begin our reading there in verse 32. The apostle
says, And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets, who through
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong,
waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens."
Now in studying this chapter, in studying this chapter, what
we call the Hall of Faith, we see that the faith of all of
the patriarchs in the Old Testament The apostle lays them out for
us as examples of true faith. One thing every believer is interested
in is this, is my faith true? You remember the hymn of Newton,
tis the point I long to know, oft it causes anxious thought,
do I love the Lord or no, am I his or am I not? It is something
we are constantly bombarded with because of our sin, because of
our circumstance, because of the dark, whatever the case may
be, we are often times fearful. Am I His or am I not? And I believe
the Holy Spirit has laid this book out for us so that we might
take the faith that God has given us and lay it to the line. Lay it to the Scriptures and
see if it is genuine faith. And so the Spirit, like a diamond,
faith being like a diamond, He takes it and He holds it up to
the light. You know, you take a diamond,
you hold it up to the light and you see a beautiful color. And
then you turn it, you know what? You see another beautiful color.
And this is exactly what He does with faith, is He takes the faith
of each patriarch and He shows us an aspect of faith. And then
He takes another one, he turns it and shows us a different aspect. I'll give you a few of them as
we go through. You can see the faith of Abel, right? Abel offered
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain by faith. We too have a
more excellent sacrifice. Christ is the object. Christ
is our sacrifice. Enoch was translated that he
should not taste death. Faith understands this. that
we are free from death. Whoever believes in Christ is
free from the second death, the scripture tells us. By faith,
Noah entered into the ark. Christ is our ark, isn't He?
We who believe on Christ, He is the ark that saves us from
the wrath of God. By faith, Abraham sojourned. How do we sojourn in this life?
By faith. Just like Abraham sojourned by
faith, so do we. Abraham looked for a city whose
builder and maker is God. Doesn't faith look for a city
whose builder and maker is God? Verse 13 tells us these all died
in faith. What does this mean? Faith always
endures. True faith always endures unto
death. Go down a little way and look
at verse 24. Moses, by faith, refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer with
the affliction with the people of God. True faith rejects the
world. True faith rejects this world
and its religious system and rather would suffer with the
children of God. By faith, in 27, he forsook Egypt. We forsake this world. By faith,
He kept the Passover. Christ is what? He's the Passover
for all who believe on Him. He is our Passover. They went
through the Red Sea. By this, we mean that all who
believe on Christ, we escape the wrath of God, the justice
of God. We walk through on dry ground
all the way to the promised land. And then you got Rahab, laid
out and believed rather than fearing the king. She protected
the children of Israel. And you remember that scarlet
cord she hung out her window? That's almost exactly like the
Passover. That blood was on the outside
of the door and everyone on the inside was safe. Same thing that
happened with Braham. So it is with true faith. Christ
is our refuge. The blood of Christ is applied
so that therefore the wrath of God passes over us and we are
saved. And now he comes to verse 32
and he said, look, I ain't got enough time. I just don't have
enough paper. I don't have enough time to include
all of these others. All of these others that are
mentioned here. And he says, he named several of these patriarchs
and he said, who through faith subdued kingdoms. I'll tell you
this, when a man believes in Christ, a kingdom is subdued. What kingdom? The kingdom of
the old man is subdued. He's brought down, isn't he? That book by Bunyan, Mansoul. Emmanuel comes and conquers Mansoul. That's what happens. Christ came
and conquered through faith. Wrought righteousness. Is this
what happens to a believer when he comes to Christ? Righteousness
is actually wrought. It's actually obtained in the
new nature by faith. Stop the mouths of lions. Our
enemy walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. You know what stops him? Faith. Faith. Simply trusting the Word
of Christ. His accusations come, don't they? How many times do we hear his
lies? And sometimes it's not even lies,
is it? You're a wicked person. That's
not a lie, is it? That's not a lie. But you know
what Christ says? I always liked that picture of
Joshua the high priest. You know, he stood in those filthy
garments and Satan was ready to accuse him. And the Lord said,
shut up. Is this not one a brand plucked
from the burning? Isn't this My servant whom I
have chosen? And so it stops the mouths of
lying. Now tonight I want to deal with this one. Quench the
violence True faith in Christ quenches the violence of fire. The violence of fire. Now, no
doubt, the apostle here is talking about those three Hebrew men. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. If you go back over to Daniel
chapter 3, now that's where we want to go now. We're going to
look at the faith of these three Hebrews. He's referencing these
three. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
these are the three who are cast into the fiery furnace by King
Nebuchadnezzar, but were delivered from the flames. Now we turn
here, we see this, and I don't want to take the time to read
this whole thing. I'm going to give you the summary
of this piece. And then we're going to go back
and look at each part. You remember here this heathen
king, he made a great statue of himself. Talk about a vain
man. This guy, he made a great statue
of solid gold, 35 to 40 foot high. And this king was so vain
that he caused all The man, everybody in his kingdom, when the music
would play, that they should bow down and worship his image. But we read that these three
men, there were some men in that kingdom that hated these Jews
and they brought a report to the king and said, well, these
three won't do it. They won't bow. These men won't
bow. And so the king, he called him,
he's very angry and he calls him in verse 14 and he asks this,
is it true? Is it true that you won't worship
my image? He spake to them and said, is
it true Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that you will not serve
my gods nor worship the golden image that I have set up? And
so then in verse 15 he says, alright, I'm going to give you
another chance. Maybe you didn't quite understand. Maybe because
you're a foreigner. I'm just going to give you another
shot at this. So when the music plays, now
that you're going to bow down and worship my image. And yet, we read this in verse
16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king and said, Listen,
we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be
so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning,
fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O King.
But if not, be it known to you, O King, that we will not serve
thy gods, nor worship the golden image that you have set up."
And he said, we're not careful about this. We don't have to
debate about this. We don't need time to consider
this. This is going to always be our answer. Our answer. We will in no way worship you. No matter if you throw us in
this. And we don't have any promise of God either. They recognized
that they had no promise of God. That they would be delivered
from this fire. They just knew this. God is able. to deliver
us from this fire. But we really have no promise.
But listen, this king, either way, either in death or by a
miracle, we're going to be delivered out of your hands. And in no
way will we worship your gods. He will deliver us today. And you remember, he was angry. He was angry. His visage changed,
the Scripture says in verse 19. He was so angry that he heated
the furnace seven times hotter. Seven times hotter. And then he grabbed his strongest
men, his most mighty men. He said, you grab them and bind
them. Listen, they didn't get to change their clothes. He said
they had hoes and hats and all the clothes they had on. He bound them and threw them
in. But something took place. Look
at verse 24. Nebuchadnezzar, then the king,
was astonished. And he rose up in haste and spake and said to
his counselor, Will you not cast three men bound into the fire?
And they answered, That's true, O king. And he said, Lo, I see
four men loosed, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have
no hurt. And the form of the four is like
unto the Son of God. I look now and see that this
feat of the faith that quenched the violence of fire, that they
who were bound by that wicked king walked loose with the Son
of God in the midst of the fire. Now listen, none of us today
really have any fear of this happening to us, literally. None
of us are afraid they're going to put us in a fiery furnace. None of us today are being forced
to bow to a 40-foot image of a king. I'm sure that Many who believed
have suffered the violence of fire in the past. Some have burned
at the stake for their faith in Christ and refusing to bow
to either a cross or to that horrible abomination called the
mass, that idolatrous mass. They refuse to bow and many were
burned at the stake. But make no mistake. Though we
may never be cast into the fiery furnace by a king, all believers
must and do go through many fiery trials. Many fiery trials. I'll read this to you in Zechariah
13 and verse 9 for time's sake. It says, I will bring a third
part through the fire. Now this third part, if you remember,
he said, Awake, O sword, and smite the king, the shepherd,
the man that is my fellow. The sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hands to the little ones. Now who is he talking
about? He's talking about the sheep. He's talking about the
little ones, and he says of the little ones, a third part shall
go through the fire. Now why? This is the purpose. And I will
refine them as silver is refined and try them as gold is tried. And this will be the result.
And they shall call on my name. And I will hear them. I will
say, this is my people. And they shall say, the Lord
is my God. Let this promise of God seek
in, that the trials The trials of His people are not ordained
by our foes, but rather ordained by our God. Understand that. The fiery trials
that we face are not ordained by our foes, but ordained by
our God. He will bring us through the
fire. He will put us in the fire and
not leave us there. He said, I will bring them through
the fire. I am very glad for that, that
He brings us through the fire and doesn't leave us there. And this fire, what is its purpose? I will try them as silver is
refined, I will try them as gold." Let me ask you a question. When
gold and silver are put into the furnace, does it hurt the
gold or the silver? Surely it melts the gold, it
does melt the silver, but it is never intended to hurt it,
but rather refine it, makes it more valuable. And when we, when our God says
He refines us, He does this to make us more valuable, more useful. Do you desire to be useful in
the service of God? God's people desire to be useful
servants. But how are we to be used unless
we are first humbled? And we are humbled, we are melted.
by the fiery trials. And this is always the result.
We call upon His name. Isn't this true? Every time you
are put through the furnace, you call upon His name. You call
upon His name. And He hears us. And this is
what He says to you in the furnace. Listen. You are my people. This is my people. And they say
the Lord is my God. Are you in the fires of affliction? Is your faith being tried by
fire? Peter said, think it not strange. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trials, which is to try you as though some strange
thing happened to you. I know this. Every time I'm in
the furnace, I think something's wrong, something strange. Why
is this happening to me? And that's why Peter had to say
that. Think it not strange. And yet we do. We think it strange. You see, the promise of God to
the believer in Christ while you're in the fire is that your
faith in Christ always keeps us safe so that we will not perish
in the flames of our affliction. In other words, what Paul says
in our text is true. True faith quenches the violence
of fire. True faith quenches the violence
of fire. Now then, faith does not extinguish
the fire. In the case of the three Hebrew
servants, did their faith extinguish the fire? No. Matter of fact,
we're going to see this. It increased the fire. But what their faith did was
this. It quenched the violence of the
fire. The violence of it. The pain
of it. The unbearableness. The grief
of it. The destruction of it. So that
we may endure the fire seeing it cannot harm us. Imagine if fire could
not harm you. You take a fire, you put it out
there, and you could put your hands over it, it doesn't burn
you, it doesn't hurt you, you could stand in the middle of
it, it doesn't catch your clothes on fire, and when you get out
of it, you don't even smell like smoke. Would you be afraid of
it? No. If the violence of the fire was
quenched, then we should have no fear of the fire. We should have no fear of it. Even so, when we are tried, believer,
let us keep our eyes on Christ. Let us never deviate from this
truth that we are complete, whole sinners, unworthy and unable
to keep ourselves. Isn't this true in every fiery
trial? You're not supposed we deserve
worse than we get. We do. We, by faith, confess
in every trial we are sinners. And I know this, if I'm going
to make it through this trial, I must keep my eye on Him. He must deliver me or I die. In every fiery trial. We keep our eye on Christ, on
His ability. And He is our comfort. He is
our assurance of deliverance. Now I've got five things concerning
the faith of these men. First of all, true faith is both
despised and unbending. That's the first thing. True
faith is despised. and unbending. Second of all,
true faith quenches the violence of the fire, not the flame. Third,
faith is always tried by fire. Fourth, faith enjoys the presence
of Christ in the fire. And fifth, faith in the fire
is always a witness to others. So let's see these in order.
First, faith is despised but unbending. Now, men by nature
are like Nebuchadnezzar. Now, they're not capable of making
a statue of gold, but if they could, they would. They would make a god in their
own image. Man by nature does this anyway. Man by nature makes gods of gold
and silver and wood and clay. They make idols of earthly elements. They make a god much like themselves. Now though
they may not make these images, yet men do make a god of their
riches. Men make gods of their pleasure.
Men make gods of other men. Men make gods of their... This
mind is a God factory. I remember reading this in a
book. This archaeologist said this, he said, you would sooner
find a culture without an alphabet than you would find one without
a temple. Now why is that? Because man
by nature knows there is a God and therefore he seeks to worship
the God that he can... the only God he can know is a
God like himself. Now why do men worship such a
God that they create? Can you imagine worshiping a
God you made? That reminds me of that cross maker. You remember
I told you that story before, this man who made the best crosses
in all of the Roman Empire. They had one of his crosses all
over the place. He'd make crosses for the Roman
church and he came to his death bed. And a priest, he took one
of those crosses and he put it in that man's face and said,
Behold thy God. And the man in terror looked
up and said, I made that. And that's true of men. Men make
their own gods, the God. God said of them, He said, Thou
thoughtest that I was altogether such in one as thyself. And behold and see that our God,
He is God. He is not one of our making, but
He is the Creator and Maker of all things. Our God is the only true and
living God and He is as He declares Himself to be in His Word. God is God. and He declares Himself
as He is in this Word. And so as we are believers of
God, we trust in God as He reveals
Himself, and we are unbending to any other God. True faith is unbending. When these three men were given
a compromise, they said, we don't have to debate about this. This
is not a compromise. We're not here to compromise. God is God. And that 40-foot
statue, you can do with it what you want to. We're not bowing
to it. True faith is always unbending. And we know this about God. As
God reveals Himself, He is sovereign. Any God that is not sovereign
is not God. Any God that is dependent upon
His creatures for anything is not God. We are unbending about this.
True faith is unbending. Look what God says about Himself.
Go to Isaiah. This is just one place. We go
many. Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. Now if
you read this chapter, You see in this chapter, he is
making a division here. He said at the beginning of this
chapter about these false gods, he said these false gods, they're
carried around on carts and with oxen and they're so heavy that
these ox, they just can't carry them. In other words, a false
god needs to be carried. A false God, He can't do anything
for Himself. He has to be lifted, He has to
be carried and put over here. And when you put Him over there,
He can't move until you move Him. That's a false God. But the true God, listen to what
the true God says. In verse 9, He says, Remember
the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like
me. What's the difference? Here it is. Declaring the end,
when? When did He declare the end?
From the beginning. From ancient times. From ancient
times. The things that are not yet done.
from ancient times to things that are not yet done, saying,
ìMy counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.î Friends,
that is God, and we are unbending. Any God that is not that God
is not God. This is why we are so adamant
concerning the God of free will works religion. Because the God
of free will works religion wants to do something but can't. That's
just true about their theology. He desires. He's done everything
He can. He sent His Son to die and bleed
for you, and yet He is dependent upon your acceptance of it. Therefore, His desire is thwarted
by your will. That's not God. It's not God. My God says, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all My pleasure. God is absolutely sovereign.
Our God, who created all things, sits in the heavens and rules
all things after the counsel of His own will. David said,
Our God is in the heavens. I've done whatsoever He hath
pleased. What is it that God has willed
then? What is it that God is pleased to do? We know this according
to the Word of God, that God has pleased to choose a people
for Himself. That God the Father in love and
grace has chosen and elect people for Himself. And in this, faith
is unbending. Unbending. We know this, that the children,
the scripture says in Romans 9, the children not yet being
born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of
God. And what did God say about His
purpose? He said, whatever I have purpose to do, that's what I'm
going to do. That the purpose of God according to election
might stand. It is said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. God has chosen a people and in
sovereign election He gave them to His Son. He gave them to Christ
who became their surety, their representative. In this we are
unbended. According as God in Ephesians
1, according as He had chosen us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. That we should be holy and without
blame before Him. In love having predestinated
us on the adoption of children. by Jesus Christ. This is the
will of God. God gave His Son a people. And Christ came into the world
to save those people. Faith is unbending in this regard. Our God is sovereign. Our God
has chosen a people for Himself. Our God has given them to Christ
and Christ has come to redeem them. Christ has come to save
them. When Christ came into the world, what was the first declaration
the angel gave? He said, Thou shalt call His
name Jesus. What does that mean? Jehovah Saviour. Exactly what it is. You're going
to call Him Jehovah Saviour. Now this is why you're going
to call Him that. For He shall save His people from their sins. Isn't that what He came to do?
Look over in John chapter 6 and read the Lord Jesus Christ, what
He said concerning the sovereign will of God. In John chapter
6 and verse 37, He said, All that the Father hath given Me. What are they going to do? They
shall come to Me. And when they come, what am I
going to do? I will in no wise cast them out. Now why? For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me."
Now what's that? I like the scripture because
they don't leave you to guess. He said, this is the will of Him
that sent me. That of all He hath given me,
I should lose, how many? Nothing. I'm going to save them
and raise them up again at the last day. And this is the will
of Him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth
on Him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the
last day. Our Lord Jesus Christ came through
the will of the Father and this is unbending. Do you believe
this? Is this something you have to
think about? No, I'm like these Hebrew children.
I'm not careful in this matter. I don't have to be careful in
this matter. These are true things. This is God. He is sovereign. He has chosen a people for Himself.
Christ came into the world and obtained righteousness for them. Christ came into the world and
offered Himself a sacrifice to God in their stead. Christ victoriously put away
their sin and rose again the third day. and is now seated
on the throne of glory. And what is he doing there? Is he hoping that his people
will come? Is he begging them to come? No. He said this, all power is
given unto me. Now listen, if all power is given
to Him, that means this, nobody else has any power. If He has it all, everybody else has none. All
power is given to me in heaven and earth, that I should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given to me. So what do you think is going
to happen? I'm not careful about this. Everyone
that Christ died for, the Spirit will call them. They will believe. They will come to Christ without
exception. Christ has accomplished the work.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit is now calling His elect. I like this text. It sums it
up in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. We are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren. Beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Sums it up. He chose you
to salvation and then what? He performed it. He performed it. And the means
He has chosen is what? The preaching of the Gospel wherein
to you He called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this Gospel we are unbending. Salvation is of the Lord. And
what is always going to be the result of an unbending faith?
It is going to be despised. is going to be despised. These
things that I've shared with you, these are plainly explained in the Word
of God. These are plainly written for
us in the Word of God. Any God that is not that God
is not God. This Gospel Friends, truly is
the most hated and despised gospel in the world. Because it is the
only gospel. It is the only one. You know,
Nebuchadnezzar, he demanded all his subjects to worship that
image, but when these three saints refused, he got angry. He got angry. But then for a
moment, he got some resolve and he calmed himself and he said,
okay, let's just reason about this. Let's just be reasonable,
okay? When I play the music, you just
bow down. You don't even really have to
believe it, just bow down. You know why most of the early
saints were killed in the early church? Simply for this, they
would not burn incense to Caesar. And the Roman government didn't
know what to do with these people. Because all other religions didn't
mind it. The Romans said, look, you really
don't have to believe Caesar is God, but you just got to light
this thing on fire. That's it. And the Christians
said, we can't. There is only one God. Christ
is God. And they died for it. Same thing
happened to these. They said, we are not careful
about this, we will never bow down and serve your God. This religious age thinks because
they have the money, they think because free will works religion
is popular, because they have a large following that they can
somehow influence the saints of God by these things. Now they may have influence over
some fair weather believer, but they will never have influence
over God's saints. We who are saved by the grace
of God cannot and will not be moved from Christ to another
gospel. Let them with their music and
fanfare, their pomp and ceremony blow the trumpets all day long
if they want to. We are not careful in this matter
and we will never bend. True faith never bows to another
god. That's what we learn from this.
Salvation is of the Lord and you will be despised for preaching
this gospel. You will be. You will be. Second of all, true faith quenches
the violence of fire. Now these three, they stood in
faith, threatened with death. And these saints, they were not
promised to be delivered from the physical fire, but they were
sure that God would deliver them from the hand of that wicked
king. They said this, look, we don't know if He's going to deliver
us or not from this fire, the physical fire. But we know this,
He will deliver us from you. He will deliver us from you. They were not careful about this.
They needed no time to think about it. The Lord was God. He
alone they owe their allegiance even unto death. Now, let me ask you this. Did
their boldness stop the rage of the king? Did their faith somehow quench
the fire? The answer is no. As a matter
of fact, their faith only enraged the king and it only increased
the fire. And just as the case that they
just believed that God would help. The king bound them so
they could not escape. They used the most mighty men
to cast them in the flame so that they would not evade. And
the flames were so hot that even the strongest of their men burned
up. And these faithful and bold servants
of God did not escape the fire. Scripture said they fell down
bound into the fire. Believer, let us not think that
strong faith will always end a trial. I think we sometimes believe
that. We think that if our faith was
strong enough that we would escape trials. No. In fact, strong faith
only increases our trials. It only increases them. It only
begins our trial. But we see that the promise of
God, the promise of God to all those who have true faith is
not that we quench the fire, but rather the violence of it. We don't want to stand in the
midst of the fire because it would kill us. It would consume
our flesh and the pain we could not bear. But take away the heat,
the smoke, and the pain, and we would not be so fearful a
thing. We would not need to fear it
at all. And so it is with our fiery trials. If we were to be
cast into the fire of our trials in our own strength, surely they
would consume us. Surely we would not endure, we
could not keep ourselves. But God promises this, that He
will keep us in the fire. That He will sustain us. So what comforts the heart and
strengthens the soul, even while the tears roll down our face,
what causes us to endure, in faith, trusting Christ while
our bodies are in pain and our hearts are broken, even this,
that our trials are ordained of God. This should comfort you. Listen, it doesn't do away with
the pain. It doesn't do away with the tears.
True faith simply sustains you in the fire. It sustains you. I will bring you through the
fire. I will refine you. The furnace was ordained for
these three Hebrew servants. It was purposed not for their
destruction. That's what the king purposed,
but that's not what God purposed. It was rather for the glory and
honor of God. Listen, the hotter the fire,
the greater the glory to God. The more difficult the trial,
the greater glory to God when we are delivered. Isn't that
right? What if the king lit a match and said, I'm going to burn you! It wouldn't be such a big deal,
would it? But now that you see this fiery furnace, he's seven
times over. You see how much more glory God
receives. The greater the trial, the greater
the glory. Not for you, but for God. Peter says in 1 Peter 1 and verse
6, he says, you greatly rejoice in your election, your redemption,
your calling. Though now for a season, if need
be, through heaviness and manifold temptations, that the trial of
your faith being much more precious than gold. What's more precious
than gold? Is it the trial or faith? It's faith that's more precious
than gold. It's not the trial. Trial is
not precious. Nobody says, ooh, trials. Whoo! Yes. No. Faith is more precious
than gold. Though faith be tried with fire,
that it might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Christ. So when He delivers us from the fire, the endurance
of our faith is so that all of the glory will
redound to God, whom having not seen, you love." What do you
suppose increases your love? Is it not trials? Whom having not seen, you love. I tell you this, in
the midst of trials, there is no one I love more than Christ. There is no one I love more and
rejoice to feel the presence of than Christ. Can you imagine
how these children rejoiced when Christ appeared with them in
the fire? You suppose they'd want to be
anywhere else? They went down bound into the
fire, but they were walking with the Son of God. And therefore,
the fire... This is the third point. True
faith in the fire enjoys the presence of Christ. They went
down bound into the fire. But when the king saw them, he
saw them loose. Not three, but four. But four. God was with them. Christ was with them. Now, listen,
was He with them before the fire? He said this, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. So before the trial, is He not
with you? Yes, He's with you. Who do you suppose gave them
the strength to stand up to that King? It was Him. He was there. He was giving them that faith,
that boldness. But He was not manifest until
they were thrown in. Believer, do you not often pine
away in prayer, seeking the manifest presence of Christ? Lord, let me feel your presence. Speak to me as you did Moses.
Would you like to speak to Christ as Moses did, face to face? Do we not yet see that this is
how we feel more the presence of Christ in the furnace of affliction
and not prosperity? Isaiah 41. You that are in the
midst of affliction. Look at this. Isaiah 41. I know
I've got to close. Isaiah 41. Look at verse 10. In the midst of affliction, Christ
says this, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed. Now listen, only those who are
confused need that. Are you not confused? Well, if you are, don't be. Don't be dismayed. I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Who needs
strength but weak people? I will strengthen thee. Are you
weak? Listen to what He said. I will strengthen thee. I will
help thee. Listen, only those in distress
need help. I will help thee. Yea, I will
uphold thee. Only those who are fallen need
to be upheld. Are you falling like these into
the furnace? God says, I'll hold you up. Why are you still here? Why do
you still believe? Because God said, I will uphold
you. How many trials have you been
through? How many fiery trials have you faced? Why is it that
you've made it through them all? I will uphold you. How? By the right hand of my righteousness,
Christ. That's how. By Christ walking
with you. In the fires of affliction, it
is there we see and feel the presence of Christ the most. And lastly this, these fires
of affliction are a witness to others. When this king saw this,
it was a witness that his God was not God. When he saw this, he said their
God is God. You see what God puts His children
through, these fiery trials. We suffer for the cause of Christ. And
I know this, God will use it to magnify His name. I pray that God will bless this
to you. I know this, Therefore, we want to conclude this, that
true faith, like these three Hebrew servants, is unbending. God is sovereign. God has chosen
the people for Himself. Christ has saved them. The Spirit
will call them and keep them in the faith. And this faith
is always despised, hated. True faith quenches the violence
of fire, but not the fire. It keeps us in the midst of our
fire as we look to Christ in the midst of our trials. It doesn't
stop the pain. It doesn't stop the hurt. But
it does comfort us to know this, that none of these things affect
our salvation. Isn't this wonderful? That no
trial of fire will ever remove you or me from Christ. In fact,
what does it do? True faith always is tried by
fire, and this fire always manifests the presence of Christ. And lastly,
faith in the fire is always a witness to others. Therefore, believer,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which tried
you. But by faith we may be able to quench the violence of fire. Not the fire. I pray God will
comfort you. If you're not in the fire, just
wait a minute. If you're not there yet, you can go back and
listen to this message later. If you're not there, you will
be. I pray God will comfort you,
strengthen you with this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.