Returning once more in our Bibles to Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3 contains a very wonderful story. It's a true story. One that I learned from my earliest days in Sunday school. We often were taught stories like this. Daniel and the lion's den, Noah and the flood, building of the ark, David and Goliath. These are all wonderful Bible stories. But in these particular stories, there are spiritual lessons for God's people to learn. And one of the lessons that I learned, chief lesson indeed that I learned from the story of those that were named Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego by the Babylonians, is that true faith in God is always tested. True faith will always be tested, and it's tested to show if it is true. That's why you put gold in the fire, so that you can not make it into gold, but that you can prove the reality of it and see how pure it really is. And when Peter referred to that, he said in 1 Peter 1, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. True faith in God will always be put to the test. And if you're a believer in Christ, in your Christian life, opportunities are going to be given to you time and time again to prove the reality or otherwise of your love for the Lord. Circumstances will arise, situations will come about, in which your profession of Christ will be put to the test to see if it's real. And the decisions that you make and the actions that you take in those situations and at those times will reveal what your true experience is. It will show to others whether there is in fact any heart to your religion. We have a lot of people in the day in which we live who talk the talk without walking the walk. people who if you ask them, are you a Christian without batting an eye will answer in the affirmative. But perhaps the reality is something different. Here in Daniel chapter 3 there are three men of Judah mentioned. They were companions of Daniel and they had their faith in God tested more than once. Initially upon their arrival in Babylon having been brought there as slaves, as captives from their homeland they faced their first major test. Look at it with me. Daniel chapter 1 verse 5, And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. So they changed their diet right away. But when we come down to verse 8, the Bible says of Daniel, But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." And then in verse 11 and verse 12 we read, Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These are the men who were then renamed. with pagan names, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children, and eat of the portion of the king's meat. And as thou seest, deal with thy servants." Here they faced a test. Are you going to eat meat and drink wine that is dedicated to idols?" And they stood on the side of the Lord. They honoured God and He, according to His Word, honoured them. Because as we read the sequel here from verse 15, at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. You are always better to go on God's diet rather than somebody else. Now we discover that their fidelity to God was further tested. See, the Lord is not going to allow your faith to be tested only once during your Christian life. It will happen time and time and time again. And here's this further testing when we come to chapter 3. And in this particular instance, and in their reaction to that testing, there is a great challenge. But I believe there is also a message of great comfort for the people of God. Let's notice what the Bible shows us here about these men, about the test that they went through and how they passed that test with flying colours. The first thing we see here is the grim situation that they encountered. And it was a very grim situation. I think a number of factors combined to make this situation a grim one for these three young men of God. There was the problem of the land that they were in. The land that they were in was called Babylon. Babylon was not their home. It was a foreign culture. Chapter 1 verse 4 makes that totally clear to us. It says that these men were children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, skilful in all wisdom, cunning in knowledge, 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. They didn't know the language of the Babylonians. They didn't know their ways. They weren't familiar with their culture. They were brought up in the true religion. This particular land, Babylon, was ruled over by a despot, a tyrant prince by the name of Nebuchadnezzar. But it was not only a foreign culture that they encountered, but a false religion. As we've indicated, in chapter 1 verse 2 of Daniel says, The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, that's into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, with part of the vessels of the house of God which he carried into the land of Shinar, notice this, to the house of His God. And He brought the vessels into the treasure house of His God. And when we come over to chapter 3, we notice that the Bible makes this abundantly clear that when they refused to bow down and worship There were those who reported it and said of them, these men, O king, have not regarded thee, chapter 3, verse 12, they serve not thy gods. This was a land that was hostile to the true God of Israel and his people. Now let's stop for a moment and think about this. Isn't that the situation that Christians face in this world? We're living in a foreign land, so to speak, This is a place that we cannot really call our home because it is hostile to the things of God. The hymn writer had it absolutely right. Am I a soldier of the cross, a follower of the Lamb and shall I fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name? Is this vile world a friend to grace? And we know that it is not. The world is not set up to encourage godliness but rather the world is against God. and the things of God. Therefore we can't call this world our home. This is not home. This is a foreign land. The people of God who are called the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 found it to be so. Hebrews 11 verse 13 says of them that they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. A stranger is somebody who doesn't belong. A pilgrim is someone who's just passing through. I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. This world is not our home. The world doesn't speak the Christian's language. And I suppose at times that's literally true. as well as spiritually true. And the people of this world are ruled over by an evil despot, by a prince, someone who is the fulfilment of the type of which Nebuchadnezzar may be seen. The prince of this world, and is a cruel master indeed. This world that we sojourn in is a place of false religion and false worship. People all around us don't serve the God that we serve. They serve other Gods. They serve the Gods of pleasure. Some are worshipping the God of hedonism, the Gods of wine, women and song, the Gods of every kind of pleasure imaginable. People are not worshipping the same God that we worship. Therefore this world is not our home. We don't feel at home in the world when we are among people like that. We are passing through this world in the purpose of God. The Lord has us here for a reason. But I want you to notice another difficulty, another problem for these Hebrew children. This grim situation that they encountered not only involved the land that they were in, but it was the problem of the law that they were under. The law that they were under was a pagan law. You see, the laws of God were overridden and they were destroyed by the Babylonians. They were ungodly. They had their own laws. They had their own rules. It didn't matter that God said one thing. They said another thing. Notice this in chapter 3. Nebuchadnezzar made an image. An image of gold. It gives the measurements of it. The statistics are given there, the height and the breadth of it and where he set it up in a public place in the province of Babylon. He set it up there that it might be worshipped. In verse 10, the words are given, he made a decree that every person that would hear all these musical instruments shall fall down and worship the golden image. That was the law. It's mentioned here as that which He made as a decree. It was the law in Babylon that everybody was to worship this image. Now we're living in a land that was known for generations, for centuries indeed, as a land that was ruled by laws. Laws that are based upon the Scriptures. Laws that are based upon the Ten Commandments. But relatively recently, There have been statutes that have been made, there have been laws that have been passed that are wicked laws, that are ungodly laws. And you don't need me to enumerate all of those things for you. But there was that famous case in 1973 of Roe vs Wade, a case in point, the law changed regarding the killing of the unborn. In some parts of this nation there are states that have abolished capital punishment, contrary to the law of God. It used to be, and in fact in some places they're still in the statute book, but they're not enforced. There used to be laws regarding Sabbath desecration. Stores that couldn't be opened on the Lord's Day. Places of work that couldn't operate on the Lord's Day. They've been changed. Ungodly men have changed the law. And we see this now with sodomy, homosexuality, so-called gay marriage, which is actually a misnomer. There's no such thing as a gay marriage. No such thing. Not according to God's definition. He's the one who instituted marriage in the first place. But at this recent presidential election, in some places there was a plebiscite as well, in areas, some states, about this so-called gay marriage, and they passed it. I forget how many states there are now who have this as the law. Thankfully most don't, but it's getting worse. And you'll find as time goes on, if the Lord doesn't stop it, that state after state will fall like dominoes on this issue. And the Supreme Court is getting involved in it. Not too long ago, the President of this country appointed a judge who is openly lesbian. Oh, the situation is grim, humanly speaking, and getting grimmer for Christians because of the laws that are being passed. That happened here in Babylon. The land itself. The laws. And then there was another situation that made things seem very bad for these young men and that was their littleness. Their smallness. The fact that they were in such a feeble minority. Think about it. Three men, well four if you include Daniel, against an entire society. Look at Daniel 3 verse 7. And it tells us that at that time when all the people heard the sound, and it mentions the instruments, cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, all kinds of music, all the people, the nations and the languages, that means it doesn't matter what their tongue was, they all were in the same boat where this was concerned. They fell down and worshipped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up. So what do we find here? All the people, all of them, Bar these three young men were in favour of this false worship, this evil religion. Only a tiny, tiny minority sought to do what was right in the sight of the Lord. Again, I think it's not an exaggeration to say that our situation today in America is not a whole lot different from this. Doesn't it appear sometimes where Christians are concerned that it's us against all the rest? But notice who it was that had God on their side. Whose side was God on? Was He on the side of Nebuchadnezzar? Was God on the side of all those people? And of the rascals who threw the Hebrew children into the fire? Was God on their side? Of course He was not on their side. God was on the side of right, even though right was small in its support. Very few were standing for what was right, but God was on that side. And I know where I'd rather be. I'd rather be with the few and with God than to be with the many and be without God. I'd rather be on God's side. I'd rather that God was the one who said to me, you're doing the right thing. One with God, an old preacher said, makes a majority. Now on a human level, though, it was a very grim situation that these men experienced. But let's consider something else here. As well as that situation, that grim situation, there's the great sovereign that they embraced. The great sovereign they embraced was the Lord God of Heaven. That's who they served. They were brought up in Judah, obviously in godly homes. I say that because of their names. If you look at the names of these men who were renamed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, their original names were Hananiah, the name of Jehovah in the Hebrew is in that name. Mishael, El in Hebrew is the word for God. And Azariah, and again, You have a contraction in there of the name Jehovah. So here are three young men and the true God of Israel is recognized even by their parents in naming them. Now at this particular time they were in Babylon because Judah had apostatized, turned away from the Lord and God had given them over into the hand of their enemy because of it. And these young men came to find themselves in Babylon, not by accident, but because they had been carried captive to Babylon. They were brought there as slaves. Now there's no doubt that many people who were brought to Babylon embraced that culture and that religion. They sold out to the apostasy when they were brought to that foreign land, but there were some who didn't. And here you have these young men, children of parents who had at least some regard for the Lord. And if we include Daniel in this, his name also includes the name of God. They renamed him too, obviously. They gave him the name Belteshazzar. Chapter 1 verse 7 tells us. But his real name was Daniel, El, the Hebrew word for God. We have these young men who were brought up, it would seem, in the truth, and by their actions they showed their love for the true and living God. Because not only can we see here what happened to them, and we'll come to that in a moment or two, but their testimony in this situation. Look at their testimony. In chapter 1, verses 19 and 20, the Scripture tells us that the King communed with them. And among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the King. These four young men stood out from all the rest. They had a testimony before the King. The Bible tells us among them all, that is among all of The young men that were brought in? There was found none like these four. People ought to be able to say that you're a better person because you're a Christian. I do believe this. An employer ought to recognize that you're a good worker as a Christian. I don't think Christians should have a testimony in their place of work that they're shirkers, that they're not very work-brickle, so to speak. They ought to have the opposite. testimony. And again, if you look at chapter 3 and verse 12, these men had a testimony for standing up for God. It was said of the one who was reporting to the king there, chapter 3 verse 12, there are certain Jews whom thou hast settled with the affairs of the province. He mentions them. These men, O king, have not regarded thee. Here's the important words. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Everybody saw that they were not serving the gods of Babylon. People knew where they stood. People knew where they stood. These young men are different from everybody else. And furthermore, they are not afraid to speak up for the Lord. In verses 16 and 17, they actually boldly answered the king. And they said, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. In other words, we're not concerned about telling you what the truth is. We're going to say it as plainly as we can. If it be so, in other words, if you're going to throw us into the fiery furnace, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. They weren't afraid to speak up for the Lord. Should we be afraid to speak up for the Lord? Are we not sometimes timid? Are we not a bit backward when it comes to speaking for the Lord? We shouldn't be afraid to bear testimony for Christ even in a foreign land. We shouldn't be compromising with the world and afraid to nail our colours to the masthead. These men had a testimony and they also had a trust. They weren't ashamed to own His cause or to defend His cause because they trusted in the Lord. They really believed that God was sovereign. Look at verse 17. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able. There's a little chorus which says, He is able. He is able. I know God is able. I know my God is able to carry me through. And if it be so, they said, Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O King." Look at their trust. God is able. They had faith in God. They knew the great truth that the Lord is in control of all things. Our God is able to deliver us. It doesn't matter what you do, King. If God works, you'll not be able to stop it. They believed that God was the true Sovereign. And that's a great doctrine, isn't it? The sovereignty of God. It's a wonderful truth, but we're supposed to live by that truth. It's not just a point of orthodoxy. Somebody asks you, do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Yes. You're supposed to live by that doctrine and believe that God is in control, that God truly is upon the throne. And we spoke of that recently, even as some Christians were getting very, very upset about results of elections and all of that. There is a God who is still on the throne. And He will remember His own. His plan and His purpose is being carried out. And we need to trust Him. We need to trust the Lord. Notice that they said He is able to deliver us. And we can say that this evening. He is able. He is able to overrule the evil of our day. He is able to get great glory to His name. In every single situation, political or otherwise, No matter how dark the day, and we do live in dark days, men and women, we do. No matter how few seem to be standing for the truth, and we can see and know how few there are who appear to want to stand for truth today, let us nevertheless have faith in our God. Let's trust Him. Our God, whom we serve, is able. And notice then, as we follow on through this story, The grand stability that these men exhibited. In verse 18, I love this because it shows you just what these men were made of by the grace of God. They said, but if not, what does that mean? It means they were prepared to countenance a situation where the Lord would not intervene on their behalf and deliver them from the furnace. They held that out as a possibility. They said, well, we believe that God's going to deliver us. We believe that the Lord, furthermore, is able to deliver us. But if not, if the Lord chooses to allow us to go into that fiery furnace, if not, be it known unto thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. I was conversing with someone the other day about Patrick Hamilton, my namesake. Patrick Hamilton was a young man of only, I believe, 24 or 26. He was young. He had been brought up in a Roman church, but he came under the influence of preachers known as the Lollards. They were preachers of what was known then as Lutheran doctrine. The just shall live by faith. He realized, by the grace of God, that the Mass was a mockery, that it was a travesty of the true communion of God's people with Christ, remembering His death. And Patrick Hamilton not only embraced the doctrines that Luther had preached, but he began to preach them himself. And it landed him in trouble with the authorities in the town of St. Andrews in Scotland. And Patrick Hamilton was arrested He was tried, though it was a kangaroo court, it wasn't a real trial. He was sentenced to be burned to the stake, tied or chained to a piece of wood outside St. Salvatore's church. And right there he was to be burned until he died. And Patrick Hamilton did suffer for the faith in that way. A famous biographer writing of Patrick Hamilton said of him, his reek, that's an old Scottish word for smoke, his smoke infected all on whom it blew. Someone at the time, one of the papist party told the authorities, you better start killing these Protestants like Hamilton in secret, because his doctrines are spreading like the smoke that went out from his body. People were being converted left and right because they were thinking, why would a man stand and burn like this for something that's not true? And God did a great work through the testimony of that man. And if you were to visit St. Andrews today, outside St. Salvatore's church, there are letters in the pavement there in cobblestones, spelt out PH, Patrick Hamilton. And there's a little sign put there by Protestants, by reformed people beside it, telling the story briefly of Patrick Hamilton and how on this spot he was martyred for the faith. He was burned. Now in this case, in Daniel chapter 3, these young men were willing to endure the same thing. They said, look, if you burn us, we don't care. We know that God is able to deliver us. We know that the Lord is able to bring us out of the burning fiery furnace. But if not, O King, we're not going to worship the golden image which you have set up. We're not going to bow down to that image and we're not going to serve your gods. Oh, they had a grand stability that the Lord had given to them that they exhibited. They were willing for martyrdom if that was the will of God. Now why was this so important? Why was this such a principle for them that they were going to stand and be burned to death if need be? Well very simply it's because they believed in the second commandment. That's what the issue was here, the second commandment. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." That's what the Bible says. They knew that's what God's law said. And they were not going to break the second commandment by bowing down to an image, even if everybody else in the country was doing it. They weren't going to leave God's word for a man-made religion, even if death was the penalty for not conforming. Be it known unto thee, O King, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." And that's the spirit that the Lord needs to give to us. I have to say that attitude, we will not, is rare today. It's even rare in churches, I have to say. It's rare in churches. We will not do this. We will not compromise the faith, no matter what anybody says. There's a terrible spirit of compromise abroad today, religiously. There are a lot of people who are involved in what I call pragmatism. You know what pragmatism is? If it works, let's do it. If it works, if it gets people in through the doors and a lot of seats filled, let's do it. That's the attitude today of many. And of course, this spirit of compromise would have said to the young men in Babylon, look, why don't you just do like the rest of the people? Why don't you just bow down? Even though God will know in your heart that you don't really approve of this. I mean, after all, God sees your heart, doesn't he? So you could just bow down and go along with the rest and don't make any waves and don't cause any trouble. But God knows your heart that you don't really agree with it. And that's an awful attitude. And I tell you, it's very common in churches today. There are churches that have sold out to ungodly rock music in their midst. They've got the drum kits and all the rest of it. and there are people in those churches, and they'll say, well, I don't really agree with it, but you know, you know what? My wife and I were at my mother-in-law's funeral, and on our way back from the funeral, it was a long drive from Iowa, about a thousand miles, we stopped off at a church. And I had carefully chosen that church that we were going to attend that day, because I knew the pastor of the church. So I thought, well, that would be a good place to go to hear a man preaching the truth. Well, how wrong can you be? First of all, he wasn't there that day. If he had been, he would have got an earful from me. But it was the usual contemporary worship. I call it hands-free worship. You know, the idea. One of these things here, and you project the words onto the screen. And the old traditional good hymnal was sitting in the pew, gathering dust. It was a memorable service for all the wrong reasons. When I was going out, I was Not accosted, I shouldn't say that. It was someone in the congregation being friendly to me, an elderly person. And I was very gracious. They asked if I enjoyed the service and I said, no, I have to be honest, no, I did not. I did not enjoy the service. I don't agree with this. I don't agree with contemporary music. And there were a lot of things going on there that I didn't agree with. Not least was the use of a version that was not the authorized version. That was another thing that I mentioned that I didn't like. And this person said to me, I'll never forget it, well, you know, my husband and I, we don't like it either. If you don't like it, why do you worship here? And that wasn't the attitude of the three Hebrew children. They didn't surrender their principles. They didn't compromise in the face of great opposition and persecution and say, oh, well, everybody else is doing it and we don't like it, but we're going to go along with it. No, they said, we're going to stand for what God's Word says. Ah, but there's only three of you. There's only a small number of you. You'll never, you'll never have a big church with those attitudes. You'll never be able to attract people to your congregation, preaching from the old authorised version, going against contemporary music and all of the modern things. You'll have to change. That's the attitude, isn't it? That's the attitude of many today. How many there are who will never stand up for truth because it would mean a loss of position. You think of these three Hebrew children. These were no ordinary men. You see, what had happened in the meantime when they were brought to Babylon, they were promoted to a high position. Look at chapter 2 verse 49, Then Daniel requested of the king, and he sent Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Oh, these are young men now who have been promoted to the highest place. But they didn't care about the loss of position. They weren't a bit worried about that. Now, no doubt as we read this, we could even, I think, without stretching it, say that the music accompanying the false worship was attractive to the flesh. I'm interested Not only in the fact that there were all these different instruments, but it says there are all kinds of music. All kinds of music. And no doubt, if there were like many are today, some would have excused their presence at this idolatry by saying that they're only there because they like the music. We don't really agree with the rest, but we like the music. The music's good. Aren't there people like that today? I've heard this. How paltry the excuses people use for compromise. Oh well that church over there, they don't have programs for the children. They don't have this, and they don't have that, and they don't have the other thing. But what about the real issues? By the way, we don't need the music of Babylon in the church. What about the real issues? God's Word, which is unchanging. By the way, religion which is forced on people is not true religion. In history there are many examples of forced religion. Countries being converted by the point of a sword. And it's always false religion. The genius of Protestantism, Bible Protestantism, is civil and religious liberty for all. But let's finish with this. The glorious success that these men enjoyed. The furnace was heated seven times hotter than it was wont to be. You talk about Nebuchadnezzar getting angry with men who were nonconformist. He was mad. In fact, the Bible puts it like this. In his rage and his fury, verse 13, he commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. This man was really, really angry. He told those that were in charge of the fire, I want you to make it seven times hotter than you normally do. The three men were bound in all their garments, everything was put on them. It says that in verse 21. Coats, hosen, hats, garments, everything. There they were thrown into the fire. But their would-be killers died themselves. In verse 22 it tells us that the furnace was exceeding hot and the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. But when you come to verses 26 and 27 We can see how God vindicated that stand that was taken by these young men. He vindicated their stand by His presence. I love what it says here. Nebuchadnezzar was astonished. Verse 24 tells us, he spoke to his counsellors and he said, did we not put three men into that fire? Were there not three of them? How come there are four men? Loose. They're not bound. They're loose. Verse 25. Walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. The Lord was present with them as they went through the fire. And believers, so it is with us when we're standing for God and for His truth. We can be sure of the presence of Christ in the midst of whatever fire it is that we go through. It might be the fire of persecution, the fire of affliction, The fire of trial. The Lord is with you when you stand up for Him. And is this not the Lord's own promise? Isaiah 43 verse 2, 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 upon thee. That was literally fulfilled in the lives of these young men. The presence of the Lord. The preservation of the Lord. Verse 27, there was a miracle wrought. That's what it was. It was a miracle. I told you that the Bible says those who threw them into the fire were burned up themselves. But these young men, there wasn't even the smell of fire on them. This is a miracle. An absolute miracle of God. Not a hair of their head was singed. A Christian is immortal, you see, until his work for God is finished. Interestingly, as we talk about the names of these three young Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, their real names, their Hebrew names, are significant. Hananiah means Jehovah is gracious. Mishael means who is what God is. And Azariah means Jehovah is keeper. The Lord proved himself as good as those names when they were going through the fire. The Lord is gracious and Christian. He is our keeper and there is none like the Lord. As the hymn says, he will keep me till the river rolls its waters at my feet. Notice then the pronouncement that was made by Nebuchadnezzar in verse 29. He made another decree. The first decree was one of persecution. This decree is a different decree. He said that every people, nation and language which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego shall be cut in pieces. Their houses made of dunghill because there's no other God that can deliver after this sort. You talk about a man changing his tune. He's an idolater. He's a pagan. He's worshipping other gods. That was the word. They serve not thy gods. nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." And now, who is he talking about? He's talking about their God. No other God can deliver after this sort. I really believe that Nebuchadnezzar came to know the Lord as a result of their stand. Who knows the people who will be brought to the truth, who will be converted to the truth because you are willing to stand for God's truth. The Lord can make your witness to be effectual The Lord can use us as we stand faithfully for His Word. And notice then their promotion. Verse 30 tells us that the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the province of Babylon. You see they went even higher. Chapter 2 verse 49 says they were set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But now He promoted them in the province of Babylon, even higher yet. Even higher yet. That's what God can do. There is a verse in 1 Samuel which says, Them that honour me, I will honour. I love that verse. If you set out to honour the Lord in your family, you honour the Lord in your community, you honour the Lord in your church, Honour the Lord in every way that you can possibly do. The Lord will honour you. The Lord will bless you. I don't think any man has ever really been a loser by doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. I know the ungodly judge things very differently and even some who profess to be Christians do that as well. They look at things in the wrong way. They look at everything from an outward standpoint. They say, well, you could be far more influential. if you would just bend a little bit, and just change a little bit, and just compromise this, and just change that, and tweak this, and move in this direction a little bit. But I don't believe that any person will ever be a loser by doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. God will make sure of it. God will make sure of it. Them that honour me, I will honour. May the Lord help us to obey His Word always. whatever the threats may be, whatever the opposition may come, that we will be able to speak of our God whom we serve, who is able. I trust tonight that you know the Lord, that you have true faith in Him. I trust that we all would be in that position whereby, if it came to it, we were going to be martyred for the faith, that we would not bend, but that we would stand. Now, it's easy to say that when You're not in that position. But I often read of incidents and of situations such as I talked about earlier with Patrick Hamilton and others, many, many others. And I think to myself, I wonder what I would do in similar circumstances. Well, I know what I would do in the flesh, but I would trust that by the grace of God, He would enable me to stand. And may it be the same for you by His grace. Amen.