Go back to Isaiah 45, just briefly,
read two scriptures with me again, two verses, three verses. Isaiah
45, look at verse 5 and 6. I am the Lord,
there is none else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, clothed you, and everything else, though thou
hast not known me, that they may know. From the rising of
the sun, from the west, there is none beside me. I am the Lord,
and there is none else. I form the light, create darkness.
I make peace, create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things."
He went on to say, I made the earth, I made man on it. Down
in verse 20, he said, Assemble yourselves and come, draw near
together, either escape to the nations, and now he's speaking
of Those that don't know Him, they have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. A God that cannot save. Our Lord said in John 17 3, a
verse we quote all the time, this is life eternal. This is
what it means to be saved. This is what it means to be born
again. This is what it means that you're going to heaven.
that they might know Thee, the only true God. He said that's salvation, didn't
it? This is life eternal. To know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I've noticed something
in that verse that I've never really noticed. I looked it up.
It's the only time our Lord ever used His own name. Only time in all the Gospels
that he used his name. And he called himself Jesus Christ. Remember later on they said,
if you be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you.
Or before that. That's the only time. That's
the way he referred to himself. How should we refer to him? If he's not, if he's Jesus, he's
not the Christ, That's another Jesus. He said to his disciples
one time, you call me Lord and Master. And they did, every time. They never called him Jesus.
Ever. Subjects don't call their king
by the first name, do they? I don't care who it is. I labor
this point a lot because that's not the disciple. He said, you
call me Lord and Master and you say well. You say, well, because so I am.
And he called himself Jesus Christ. What should we call him? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Right? He said, this is life
eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God. The
only true God. Over in 1 John 5, this is what
John said of God's people. who are born of God, and the
whole book, you know, 1 John, he'd written. Listen to this.
He says in verse 19, we know we are of God and the whole world
lieth in wickedness. Now is that a boastful statement,
a bigoted statement, a biased statement? I said no. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding that we might know Him. That
is true. And we're in Him. That is true. Do you need to know what it means
to be in Him? You don't know Christ if you don't. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
and this is the true God and eternal life. Little children,
keep yourselves from idols. Amen. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. And our Lord quoted in John
6, 45, He said, They shall all be taught of God. Didn't He? And that's taken from Isaiah
54, 13, which says, All thy children shall be taught of the Lord,
and great shall be the peace thereof. And Christ, who wrote
that, added some words. He said, they'll all be taught
of God, and every man that hath heard and learned of the Father
comes to me. Why? Because He is God. God our Savior. There are no different beliefs
of God among God's people. There are no different conceptions
of God among God's people. No, sir. No, sir. Those of you, Stephen Park had
a brother, Sammy, and Shannon had a sister. I had three siblings. You had the same father, didn't
you? Do you and Sammy have different
conceptions of your father? Did you call him Joe? What would
have happened if you did? You knew the same father, didn't
you? You still do. There are no different conceptions
of God, our Father, among His children. No. We don't refer
to him as the man upstairs, the old man. What is the beginning
of wisdom? Saving wisdom. What's the beginning
of saving wisdom? To every one of God's people.
First thing he puts in. What? Fear his name. This separates those that know
God and those that don't. Yes, sir. No different conception. I'm not being more narrow than
Scripture. Scripture's very narrow, isn't it? Very narrow. I'm not being exclusive,
but Scriptures are exclusive. The Word of God describes God
and Christ and salvation and excludes every other. Excludes
every other God. God is as He is described in
Scripture. John said, we are of God, we're
born of God, we're elect of God, we know and worship the true
God, not of this world, we're not deceived by the God of this
world. And Revelation 12 says, Woe unto
the inhabitants of the earth, for Satan's come down. He deceives
the whole world. That's what the Scripture said.
You've read it. We're not deceived. How did he deceive the woman
in the garden? Where did he start? He questioned
God's Word. That's the first thing. I know
God said that, but did He mean it? And then He said, You're a God. Isn't it? You have free will. And that's
the God. In Romans 1, I was going to have
you turn to Romans 1. It said they worshiped the creature
rather than the Creator. It was God blessed forever, so
God gave Him over to them. We worship our Creator. We worship
God. These three marks of the true
circumcision in Philippians 3.3, you know these, don't you? Three
marks of God's true people. Not in the flesh, but in the
heart, in their mind. They worship God in spirit. Don't have all this stuff that
modern religion gives you. Worship God in spirit, from the
heart. The Holy Spirit, what does He do? What did Christ say
He did in John 14, John 16, all the way through there? He takes
the things of man and shows them unto you. Worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ. He is our cause
for rejoicing. Sunday's message was all about
Him, wasn't it? So is this one. So is every one.
Those that know God know that they can't come to God except
through Jesus Christ. You can't come here, you can't
worship, you can't do anything. God won't hear it. God won't
hear your prayers. There's one name that we call
on. One person will come in His name
or God won't have you. Now it's not within a million
miles of that place that Christ is not their worship. Christ crucified. They're rejoicing
in Christ Jesus and no confidence in the flesh. Get the flesh out
of here. We don't need flesh to worship in spirit. The two
are opposite. So, we, you know, and oh my. The vast majority of religion
prays to a God who's not God. The vast majority of religion
prays to a God that, verse 20 says, cannot save. And you read
it in Isaiah 46 with me. And he said, you remember this.
Show yourselves to me. You remember this. Now, I'm God
and there's none of you. And he warned about these people.
And our land is full of them. OK? We cannot, we must not, we
shall not pray to their God. Now listen to me. Every one of us
have been in a situation. Or you've been to a ball game
or some kind of funeral or some kind of service or somewhere
in somebody's home or whatever, and they say, let's bow our heads
and pray. Don't do it. Don't do it. Do you hear me? They don't believe in God. If
you can ascertain that they believe the same God you do, then bow
your head by all means. But if not, don't do it. We don't pray the same God. And
I'm going to give you two stories of people that laid their lives
down for this. They're not going to bow to your
God. He's not God. They're praying to a God they
can't save. And they literally say these
things, and I quote this over and over again, lest we forget. They say, across the board, Sister
Kate, whether it be Southern Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians,
Episcopalians, whatever, God has no hands but your hands.
That's what they say, don't they? They say it's symbolic, it means
he can't do anything without you. That's exactly what they
mean. He can't do anything without you. You're his hands. How many
times did he read in the scriptures, he said, I made man with my hands. And he told in Daniel, That king
that thought he'd done all, he said, to God in whose hands your
breath is, and all your ways you haven't glorified. Now, prepare
to meet him. If you hear anybody say that,
say, that's not the God of the Bible. My God has hands, and
you're in them. And I'm in them, and everything
that writhes or wriggles is in His almighty hand to do with
as He pleases. Then He said, I do all my pleasure. They said, David said, I see your eyes but
they can't see, ears but they can't hear. They won't answer
you. No hands but your hand. And they
said, where's your God, David? He said, our God's in the heavens,
and he hath done. Not will do if you let, he hath
done. Whatsoever he hath done. Is that
your God? Do you know that every person
that would be listening to this, they'd be angry with me right
now? Am I saying anything other than what this Scripture says? I tell you who's angry with them.
God is. How many times do you read about
his wrath? They say things like, you let
go and let God. Let God? Make Jesus Lord. Brothers and
sisters, that's exactly what they mean by that. He's not Lord
unless you let Him be Lord. They say God wants to save you. He can't save you unless you
let Him. You hear them say that all the
time? That's what religion believes.
Across the board. It doesn't matter who it is. The only ones
that don't believe that is us! And people just like us. We don't pray the same God. And
this is a good witness. Just be a good witness. That
when everybody's bowing their head at the ball game or whatever,
don't do it. And if somebody says, I noticed you didn't bow
your head. Why? Are you not a good Christian? I'm not a Christian
like you call a Christian. That's not my God. Let me tell
you about my God. It would be a good testimony. They're not praying to your God.
Now, at the mouth of two or three witnesses, all I've been doing
is telling you what God's Word said. Let's look at two or three
witnesses from the Scripture and see what they did when everybody
got together to pray. Okay? Look at 1 Kings 18. If
you've never seen this, I don't have time to develop it fully.
We have many times. 1 Kings 18, one message was the
God that answers my fire. But 1 Kings 18, the man's name
is Elijah. What's his name mean? Jehovah
is God. Eli-Yah. Jehovah God. Remember in Numbers 6, God said,
put My name on them and I'll bless them. Remember that? Put
My name on them. Elijah is going to be one. Masha'el,
which most people think is Shadrach, no, no, Meshach. His name is
Masha'el. His name means who is God. El
is Elohim. Ah is Jehovah, Yah. Masha'el. Daniel, Daniel, God is judge. Daniel's God is our God. Elijah's
God is our God. Hananiah, Moshe and Azariah's
God is our God. Right? 1 Kings 18, verse 17. It came to pass when Ahab saw
Elijah that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? Why did he say that? Because
nobody wanted to hear him. Because he kept saying, Israel's
in trouble with God because of all the idolatry and the wickedness
and perversion, didn't it? God's angry. God doesn't love
everybody. Elijah wasn't saying that. He
said, it's not going to be rain until I say so. Drought, fine,
because God's angry. And this evil king Ahab said,
you're troubling Israel. He went on to say, verse 18,
I'm not troubling Israel, but thou. in thy father's house. You've forsaken the commandments,
the law of the Lord. You've followed Balaam. You're
worshiping another god. I'm not troubled in Israel. You're
in trouble with God. And then he said, Send and gather
to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, prophets of Baal, 450. Baal, Ahab, this evil king, these
were men on his payroll. They were hirelings. And 400
prophets that ate at Jezebel's table. These were mostly homosexuals that sat in there with Jezebel
all the time, telling her anything she wanted to hear. Just like
Roman Catholicism. Perversion, wickedness, filthiness
and vile. Eight hundred and fifty prophets. In verse 22, Elijah said, I and
I only remain a prophet of the Lord. Is that boasting and bragging? You tell me where you hear this
message of this God anywhere in our area other than right
here. It's just stating a fact, isn't
it? Ahab sent and gathered all the children of Israel and gathered
the prophets together at Mount Carmel, verse 21. Elijah came
to all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow Him. If Baal, follow him. People couldn't
answer him. Elijah said to the people,
I, even I, only remain a prophet of the Lord. Baal's prophets
are 450 men. Is the majority right? Can't
all these people be wrong? They always are. They always
have been. That's what they said to Noah,
a preacher of righteousness. Noah, there's no way. Look, you're
down to seven. You're family. You and your family. Noah, you think you're right
and everybody's wrong. Yes, I do. If they don't worship my God.
If they don't know the God who's holy, holy, holy. A just God. And a Savior. But one way. In this ark. Oh, there's other
ways. We all believe in God. We're
all going to the same place. Noah said, no, you're not. Your God's not God. My God is
God, and you're going to find out. All right? Preacher of righteousness. Who's
righteous? God's righteousness. Christ's righteousness. Do you
think you're right and everybody's wrong? Paul put it this way,
and Paul said this, everybody in Asia's against me. Isn't it? We're all turned against me for
telling the truth. And Paul said this, he said,
let God be true in every man a liar. Not meaning let. You know he doesn't mean that.
Allow God to be true. Let it be known. And that's what
Elijah says here. Let it be understood. Let it
be known. Let it be acknowledged that God
is God. Not let God. That God that answers by fire,
are you going to let Him do something? Read on. He said, get two bullocks. Lay it on the altar. Get your
bullock. Verse 24, call on the name of
your God. I'll call on the name of the
Lord. And to God that answers my fire, let Him be God. Let
it be known. Let it be acknowledged. Let it
be known by all people that He is God. And all the people said,
that's good. Elijah said to the prophets of
Baal, choose your bullock first. You go first. You're many. Call
on the name of your God. Don't put any fire in it. So
they did. And they called from the morning
6 o'clock till noon, verse 26. There's no voice. No answer.
They leaped upon the altar which was made. The margin says they
jumped up and around the altar. Brothers and sisters, type in,
Google this, Holy Ghost Revival, and look at it on your phone.
You can't believe what's going on. Have you ever done that?
Just do it. It'll nauseate you. Everything's going on and it's
supposed to be in the name of the Holy Ghost is absolutely
abomination. It's another spirit. It's an
evil spirit. Have you seen it, John? Have you seen some of that?
And the principal leaders of them, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth
Copeland, all these, Joyce Meyer and all these people, they're
vile, filthy people. Possessed with the devil. And
then there's real subtle ones, seemingly conservative ones,
that are just as possessed, telling people about a God who can't
save unless you let Him. God's done all He can do, now
it's up to you. That is not the God of the Bible. If it's up
to you and me, we're goners. That means salvation is not of
the Lord. That's a direct, that's a lie,
that's a contradiction against God. If salvation's up to the
Lord, it's not up to us. Who's it up to? And God didn't decide to save
anyone. God purposed before the world began. Purposed! That's what... Don't shout, preacher. This is what got my father's
attention when he was a Southern Baptist, Armenian preacher that
didn't know God. Barnard stood up and said, Purpose!
The God who purposes all things. Not tries, not wants, not will
if you let it. Purposed before the world began.
It's going to come to pass. And nobody anywhere can stop
it. Not men or devils. But God said, I've purposed it,
I will do it. I've spoken it and I will bring
it to pass. What's the point? The glory of
God and the salvation of God's people. If it's up to us, I can't save myself, can you? Hmm. This is the God of the Bible. As He describes Himself, He hasn't
changed. The God of the Old Testament
is the same God as the New Testament. Jesus Christ is in the Old Testament. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. So they cried from morning
till evening. Verse 27, it came to pass that
noon Elijah mocked them. We need to mock this religion
today, don't we? They've made a mockery of our
God, don't we? You shouldn't belittle people's
religion. If somebody doesn't kill their
Dagon, if Dagon doesn't come down, they're goners. They're
going to die trusting a false god. You've got to bring him
down. You've got to cut his head off. Right? Elijah mocked their god. All
they're saying is, my god, religion is worse. Irreligion. The irreligious,
the unbelieving people in this world, they're mocking God, making
fun of Him. Many of y'all were watching a
movie the other night and said, I can't stand this anymore, what they're
saying about God. I hope God is down here. He'd
be doing it. And then religion is worse. In the name of God,
the world's scoffing at religion because their God has no power. It mans more God than God is. You know it's so, don't you?
Somebody needs to mock this world's religion. Elijah did, didn't
he? Boy, they got mad and mad, so
mad. Verse 27, Elijah said, cry aloud,
he's God, maybe he doesn't have his hearing aids in. Oh, he's
talking or he's pursuing. And most of the writers mean
he went to the john. Make fun of him. He's in a journey of prevention.
He's asleep, that's what it is. He needs to wake up. And so,
oh, it made them so mad, they cried, they cut themselves. And
in that verse 29, till the evening sacrifice, no answer nor any
of that regarded. They were praying to a God who
cannot say. Elijah said, come near me. He repaired the altar, put 12
stones at the tribes of Israel, put wood in order, get it all
in order. See, our religion, our worship
is orderly. Solemn, serious. What's it all
about? What's it all about? The sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ, His
blood. And God will only hear us through
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The God who answers by fire.
And He'll either consume the sacrifice on our behalf or consume
us. Because our God is a consuming
fire. And Christ said, you think I'm
coming to bring peace on earth? He said, I'd say a sword. He
said, I'm coming to bring fire on earth. And that doesn't mean
this Holy Ghost fire stuff. Fire consumes everything that's
bad. Fire purifies everything. He's
a refiner's fire. He'll purify the sons of Levi. So Elijah repaired the altar,
and he poured water all over it. all over, three times, water,
and round about the altar, verse 35, filled the trench. And it
came to pass, and he uttered this short prayer. Are you with
me? Elijah the prophet came near
and said, Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel. Who chose Abraham? Did Abraham
choose God? He didn't know God. He was an
idol worshiper. What about Isaac? He's the son
of promise, isn't he? Abraham couldn't bring life. God said, I'm going to bring
life. Jacob. Jacob have I loved, God said.
Esau, brother, twin brother, I hate him. That's the God of the Bible.
Can you believe in God and not believe that? No, you can't. No, you can't. This is the God
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And those who know something
about Jacob, know something about God's sovereign election, know
something about yourself, you love this, don't you? Happy as he is, that's the God
of Jacob. It's not that we didn't love him. and sent his son to
be propitiation for him. He said, I chose you, you didn't
choose me. Is that your God? Hmm. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let
it be known this day, see this, let it be known this day that
thou art God and Israel, and I am thy servant. And I've done
all these things at thy word. And brothers and sisters, what
I'm saying tonight, what I'm preaching tonight, is that His
Word, according to His Word. It really is. I'm a nobody from
nowhere. Where did Elijah come from? Do
you know anything about Elijah? Nobody does. He just appeared. Who were his father and mother?
I don't know. What's his credentials? He didn't have any. Where did
he go to school? I don't think he did. Well, who
made him a prophet god? How do you know? He's preaching
the God of the Bible. And he's preaching Christ in
the middle of his book. Christ crucified. Who hath believed?
I report. To whom is the arm of the Lord? He has no hand. Oh, he has hands
all right. And on the end of his arm. To whom is the arm of the Lord?
What? Revealed. Let it be known that thou art
God, I am thy servant, I have done all these according to thy
word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that
thou art the Lord God, and has turned their heart back again.
Then the fire of the Lord fell. Consumed the burnt sacrifice,
the wood, the stones, the dust, licked up the water and the drench,
everything in his sight. And all the people, what happened?
What did all the people do? Fell on their face. Fear. Fear. One time when our Lord…
Now turn with me to Daniel chapter 3. A couple more witnesses. You got time? Sure you do. But,
what was I getting ready to say? Yeah, Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3. I've got to
find a book. Where's his book of Daniel? Right there it is. Okay, Daniel chapter 3. The mouth
of two or three witnesses, the thing is established. Daniel
chapter 3. The last time we looked at this is
when the Lord sent the plague. It was one of the first messages,
if not the first message, that we preached. I think Isaiah 8
was the first one. Don't fear their fear. Remember
that? When everybody in this world was afraid. We preached
from Isaiah, he said, God says, he said, don't fear their fear. Sanctify the Lord of hosts. Let
him be your fear and your dread. Didn't it? So that's what we, what we preached.
Then we came to Daniel three on these three Hebrews. All right. Look at Daniel three. Don't you
love this story? Verse 1, Nebuchadnezzar the king
made an image of gold. Now he's a picture of Satan.
This was the most powerful man on the earth. And he made an
image and preached the whole message on that image one time.
And what it is, and I already told you what it is, it's free
will. It's man. And that is alluded to in Romans
1, they made the image of corruptible man, number one. And in chapter
2, it talks about a golden image, the head, and Daniel said, Nebuchadnezzar,
you're the head. So it's a man. Men worship men,
not God. And Nebuchadnezzar made this
image, and he sent the kings, verse 2, the kings sent the princes,
governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counselors, sheriffs,
rulers of the province. This is everybody that was anybody.
All the well-known, my dad used to call them high muckety muck.
I don't know what muck, you're from Alabama probably, what is
muckety muck? I mean, the muck in the mire, there ain't nobody
from, it's just beggars from the dung heap. They got them all together. Verse
3, the princes, governors, captains, judges, treasurers, counselors,
sheriffs, rulers of the province were gathered together in the
dedication of this image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set
up. And Satan has set up free will worship, hasn't he? Satan's seat is in religion.
Read Revelation 7. His seat is religion. And he
set up man worship, will worship. And the herald cried out loud,
verse 4, For you it is commanded. This is an ordinance. Better
keep the ordinance of man. That's what this is. This is
the king. It's the ruler of the nation. And he set forth this
law and this ordinance, and you better keep it. Not if it goes
against God's ordinance. That's what we concluded when
God sent that plan. Worshiping God and what we're
to do in the house of God, nobody's going to tell us what to do.
No sir. Is that right? Am I telling you
what to do here? Right? This was an ordinance. This was a law. The king of the
land. We're supposed to obey the king,
aren't we? Not if he goes against our king of kings. No sir. And he said, now, what time do
you hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, verse 5, harp, sackbut,
psaltery, dulcimer, all kinds of musics? Doesn't that sound
like a modern religious meeting today? Sounds just like it, looks
just like it. All the notables, all the people
in town or somebody had this big shindig, a shindig. I made this statement one time.
You go in a place and it looks like, it looks like the stage
where, it looks like Roanoke Civic Center. And you've got
all the musical instruments and all that and the trappings and
the screens and all that. That's what it's all about, entertainment. It's not about, we don't do,
we don't use flesh. What we need is a pulpit and
a Bible and a man to preach it. That's it. If you go in a religious place
and the goings-on, if it sounds like a rock concert, it is. If
it sounds like a bluegrass concert, that's exactly what it is. If
it sounds like a party, that's what it is. But if it looks like
a worship service, solemn, serious, Scripture reading according to
the Bible. Worship according to the Bible.
Reading God's Word. Praying to God. Singing sober,
serious, God-honoring, biblical hymns. And a man standing up
to preach hymns. That's where God is. That's the
worship of God. Those are the people of God.
Anything more than that or less than that is not of God. It's
a big put-on. And God's not there. This is what was going on. Am
I making this up? Everybody in the land. Look at it. Now in
verse 7, it says, when you hear this, all the people and the
nations and the languages, every one of them fell down and worshipped
this image. The image of man. Every single
one of them. They all worshipped the same God. Not the God of
the Bible. Are you reading this, Karen?
Isn't it not the same as that? We're not worshiping the same
God people. Somebody back me up on this.
I don't need you to back me up. I've got the Bible right here.
I've got Hananiah, Moshe and Azariah on my side here, on our
side. That's what Moses said. Who's
on the Lord's side? They can come to me. And I'm
preaching the God of the Bible. So they said, so they did, everybody,
all over the land, all nations, all people, they fell down and
worshipped free will. Man, well they, the Chaldeans
accused the Jews, verse 8, who's the accuser of the brethren? Satan. And they said, Nebuchadnezzar,
there's three Jews down there. They don't regard you. They don't
serve our God. They're not going to worship
this image. They refuse. They're not meeting
with us. They're at home. Or they're in
that little building down there where they worship. Nebuchadnezzar,
I'll get them. So he went to them and he said,
don't you fall down, won't you? Now, Shadrach, verse 16, Meshach,
Abednego, that wasn't their names. He didn't know them as God's
sons. These were God's sons. Touch
not mine and on thine. And those that took them up to
throw them in the furnace, they would learn. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king in Ebuchadnezzar, we don't have
to think about it. We're not careful to answer the
King in this matter. We don't have to stop and consider what
we're going to do. We're not going to do it. Vietnam, verse 17. He said, If it be so, our God,
if you throw us in the furnace, our God, whom we serve, is able
to deliver us from the burning fire furnace, and He will deliver
us out of thine hand, O King. I love this. If we are thrown
in the furnace, He'll deliver us. He'll sure deliver us from
you. But if he doesn't, verse 18,
be it known unto them, O king, we will not serve thy gods, nor
worship the golden image which thou hast made. Say that. We
won't do it. We won't do it. You know that Charles Spurgeon,
I read him on this years ago, I remember he said the term by
God, and people use it now, it's a blasphemy. By God? that it
came from some men, like these men, who were threatened, some
martyrs, who were threatened to quit believing, quit preaching
the truth, and they said, by God's grace, we will not. And
that's where the term came from. By God, we won't do it. So Nebuchadnezzar, full of fury,
threw them in the fiery furnace, heated it up seven times. Bound them, verse 21, in their
coats, their hoes, and their hats, and other garments, cast
into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. And because the
king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot,
the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach,
and Bediah." Read Psalm 18 for yourself sometime about the enemies
of the Lord being consumed and burned up. So they fell down,
verse 23, these men. bound in the midst of the burning,
fiery furnace. Isaiah, God told Isaiah to write
in chapter 43, long before this took place. Isaiah, you write
this down. Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, fear I have redeemed
thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou
passest through the waters of the Red Sea, I will be with you.
When you go through the river, the river Jordan, they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. The flame won't even candle upon
you." So here they are, in this fiery
furnace, because they refused to do the king's command. And Nebuchadnezzar was watching
at a distance. And verse 24, Nebuchadnezzar
was astonished, rose up in haste and spoke and said to his counselor,
did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They
answered and said, oh. He said, true, O king. He answered
and said, lo, I see four men, loose, and they had no hurt. And the
fourth looks like the Son of God. It's okay for women to say amen. Let the amen sound from His people
again. This is not an old Jewish fable, this is true. Brother
Bruce and I were talking about how bad things have become. And there's a man not afraid
to tell the truth. Talking about how perverted our
nation is. How perverted. Men, women, and
little children. Perverted. They use the word
for fornication just like it's on everybody's lips. Filthy,
vile. Use God's name. Religion has
just gone berserk. Brother Bruce said this, he said,
you know, persecution of the Church has got to follow this.
It's got to happen. The few that will not join in
and are saying things from the Scripture that completely denounce
all of that, it's got to come. Persecution's got to come. And I've said before, it might
be the best, it's always been the best thing to happen to the
Church. Always. Woe is unto them that are at
ease in Zion. Four men loose. They have no
hurt. Well, old Nebuchadnezzar said
this. He said down in verse 29, there's no other God. And he commanded in verse 28
that everybody don't worship any God except their God. We must not, we cannot, we shall
not join with the people of this world and bow to and pray to
and meet around and so-called worship this God who's not God. We can't do it. And let men call
us what they will. By God, by God's grace, we're
going to declare the God of the Bible. And we're going to stand
for the truth. The God who is God, the true
and living God. The Christ who was sent by God
to do a work purposed by God before the world began. The Christ
who did that work by Himself without the help of anybody.
Purged the sins of all of God's people. And where is He right
now? Outside our hearts. No, sir. He's seated at the right
hand of the Majesty on High. Sitting on the circle of the
earth. waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool. And
when he comes, he's going to destroy this world with the brightness
of his coming. And everything's going to melt
with the fervent heat. Why? Because our gods are consuming
fire. Stand with me.