Hebrews chapter 11 the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and again, we're thankful for each one and Your Attention and tendons tenderness to the message and your prayers for the message and the messenger Above all the Lord would be glorified that his people would be edified this church would be built up in the lost and that they might see Christ and His ability to deliver and save in the message tonight. Looking in Hebrews 11 in verse 32, we'll begin our reading and the hymns tonight, congregational and solo or special, they could not have gone better with our subject of faith. And so we thank the Lord for that and His leadership in those things. And in verse 32, it 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 righteousness, 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, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. We're noting in verse 34 tonight that by faith There were those, as he listed here, Gideon and Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith quenched the violence of fire. And this is another exploit of faith, and it renders God glorious. Because it is by God's power and ability that this is done. His people trusted Him. They relied upon Him. They depended upon Him. And they took Him at His word that He was able to do what He said He would. And so we want to look here tonight, and the first thing I want to look at is, we haven't really dealt with this for some time, but back in verse 33, those first three words, who through faith. I want you to understand that all that's recorded here in these final verses, and even the preceding verses, would not have come to pass, would not have taken place, except the people of God, by God's grace, had exercised the faith that God had given to them. And we often fail to exercise our faith. or the faith that God has given to us. It is there. We have His Word. We know what the Bible says. We have to believe it. We need to call upon God for grace to believe that with God all things are possible and that with God nothing is impossible. And that's what the Scriptures bear out, and that's exactly what these here did. One writer recorded it in this fashion, and he said, Let it be known that nothing but faith could have enabled these to do so. Faith and nothing but faith can enable you and I, amid events which seem to make fulfillment of the promises made to you all, but an impossibility firmly expecting their accomplishment. Now here they were, and the Bible says that they firmly expected the fire, or the violence of the fire, to be quenched. And I believe that there were several thoughts that several writers had, and they said, well, it could refer to this, that, or the other. I think it referred specifically and solely unto the three Hebrew children who had been among those who were taking captivity, and they went off there into Babylon, and there they were under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and they had been exalted above others. I believe it refers specifically to the three Hebrew children, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, Their Hebrew names, we are more familiar with their Chaldean names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But I believe that this is a direct reference unto them. And there are other instances down through history. where God quenched the violence of the fire. But again, if you look in these verses, it says that, what shall I say more? And then verse 32, the very last phrase, and of the prophets, who through faith, and then verse 34, quenched the violence of fire. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, we'll stick with those names, we're more familiar with them for some reason than their Hebrew names, but those individuals were prophets. And the Scriptures bear that out. Though they don't have a name or a book named after them, they were prophets of God. You can read down through the first few chapters, chapters 1, 2, and 3, and you'll find some tremendous things about these three individuals and Daniel, and how that the Lord, in His providence and in His sovereignty, elevated them even in a heathen kingdom. So I'd like to take a look first of all in Hebrews 11. We'll make our way to Daniel chapter 3 momentarily. But I'd like to look at Hebrews chapter 11 in verse 34, and I'd like to observe the specifics of what God's Word here says. Because the Bible does not say that who through faith quenched the fire. It doesn't say that at all. The fire was not quenched, but the violence of the fire was. And there's a big difference, isn't there? So many people today, and we find in those false charismatics today, the unholy rollers, and they have all manner of things that they do. And they'll say, well, you know, if we had enough faith, this would happen, or that would happen. And you know, it's like saying, well, I'll walk across these coals, or I'll go through this fire, it'll go out, or I won't be burned. Well, we'll take a look at what happened here in the Scriptures. Because always remember the Bible says, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And I doubt very seriously if the Lord is their God. But let's take a look here and look into our verse and see exactly what it says and what it means. The Bible tells us that by faith or through faith, that these here quenched, and the word quenched means to extinguish or to go out. And there was a huge campaign years ago when I was a kid and basketball players were involved and it was about the soda drink, I believe it is Sprite, and it was, you know, No, it's a thirst quencher. It extinguishes your thirst. Well, it just made me thirsty for something good to drink, in my personal opinion. And if you like Sprite, that's fine. But you understand the word here means to extinguish or to go out. The Amplified text reads, Hebrews 11, 34, as to Extinguish the power of raging fire. Extinguish the power of raging fire. Webster's Dictionary says to overcome or to subdue. And so this is what faith did, it's what faith can and does, and it's what faith will always do. it will quench, it will extinguish or subdue, not the fire necessarily, but the violence of it. We want to make that clear distinction because the Holy Spirit made that clear distinction. And then we find the phrase violence, or the violence. This word in the Greek is again, and you may have, we've said this before, I think we said it not long ago in a message, but it is in the Greek dunamis. And that's the same as in Romans 1.16 where the Bible says for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And that word dunamis is where we take our English word, it makes its way through Latin, and Anglo-Saxon, and French, and German, and all the things that make up English, and it's where we get our word dynamite from. And so what we have here is the Bible tells us in this that faith quenches or extinguishes the power or the explosiveness of the fire. It doesn't say that it takes away the fire, but it takes away the power of the fire. So remember that. And then we look a little further and we find that the word here, fire, and it literally means fire. So it says, well, what does the Greek word, what is it? Well, it doesn't matter, it literally means fire. That's the translation of it. And so this is a direct one. And you know, fire is used in different ways in the Scriptures. And if you sit down and get out a concordance, and if you have one in the back of your Bible, it's probably not a complete concordance, but it'll suffice, and you can do a word study on fire, and you can see all the ways in which it's used. In fact, even God's Word is likened unto a fire. But fire has, when it says here, it quenched the violence of fire, it's speaking of a literal fire. But what is fire? What does it do? Well, in this instance, or in the sense that it's used in verse 34, it is destructive. That's what he's saying here, because we have it used in a negative way, the violence of fire. Fire can be used in a productive way. We used to, Brother Gale could tell you, used to burn the fields, the wheat fields, or the pasture fields, and they'd burn them at a certain time, and come to find out, it would clear off all the brush. and all the things they didn't want there and it'd heat up the ground and pretty soon you'd have nice luscious grass coming up for the cattle to feed on and different things of that nature. And you can see, in fact, forestry services use it and what they do is they burn out unwanted things and it really helps with forest fires when they do a controlled burn. If they don't do one and lightning hits or people aren't responsible, they'll burn up an entire forest and things of that nature. And so it's used in a productive way, but it usually destroys something in the process, doesn't it? And you think about even when God puts you and I in the fire, as we referenced with James so many times, and how that He puts us in as a silversmith, and He puts us into the refiner's fire, something gets destroyed. Well, it's the dross, isn't it? It's the unwanted part. And He burns off the unbelief, and only belief remains. That's the design. But fire has a destructive property about it. And so what the Holy Spirit has recorded for us here is that through faith, the violence or the power of fire, the destructive nature of the fire was extinguished. The fire wasn't, but its ability or its power to destroy something was extinguished. Isn't that something? And we marvel at that. We say, well, how can this be? Well, there were particularly two occasions in the Bible, Daniel chapter 3, which we'll refer to here momentarily or we'll turn over there, where fire was kindled and yet it didn't destroy anything. The other instance was the burning bush. And God was in control of both of those. See, only God can have fire not burn something. Only God can keep it from not destroying something. He's the only one who can defy the laws of nature. That's it. And I'm sure that these three Hebrew children knew all about the fiery bush that was not consumed by fire. I mean, they were well schooled in the Old Testament and in the law of Moses and in all of those things. They were prophets. They knew the Scriptures. And so we look here and we see all of these things. This is our text. Let's turn over to Daniel. chapter 3, Daniel chapter 3, and I have this as my third point. If you're wondering what the first two were, the first was faith and the second was our text. So we're on to our third point, and that is the reference. What the Holy Spirit is referring to. And again, you can read some writers, they say, well it referred to when the fiery serpents were coming into the camp. I don't think that has anything to do with what was recorded here. I don't think that that pertained to this at all. This, I believe, deals solely with what happened here in Daniel chapter 3. And I'm not going to read all of this instance, but I want to give you just a little background. The Bible tells us here in these verses that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, he'd made an image of gold and he'd set it up out in the plain of Dura. And the Bible tells us concerning this that what was to happen was when certain instruments were sounded out, when they were done, they were supposed to fall down, everybody was supposed to fall down and worship Nebuchadnezzar's image. Well, the Bible tells us in verse 8, it says, Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews. Accused the Jews. Now, I don't know if every Jew didn't bow down, but we know that there were, because again, remember Babylon had consumed multiple nations. Multiple nations had been brought in under Babylonian captivity. But what we find here is that only Jews were accused of not bowing down to this image. There was no one else. No one else, not an Egyptian, not an Edomite, not a Moabite, not an Ammonite, not an Amorite, none of them were accused. Only the Jews. Only God's people. And they come unto Nebuchadnezzar. And they tell Nebuchadnezzar, and then in verse 12 he says, There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded thee. They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. They weren't so much concerned with all the Jews, so much as they were these three Jews who had been set over the kingdom. The reason they had been sent over the kingdom is because through the providence of God in Babylonian captivity, they had been elevated. You read that in chapter 1. It comes down into verse 13, then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury, and I'll tell you, just like James 1.20 says, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. It doesn't matter if you're saved or if you're lost, fury and rage will never work the righteousness of God. It never will. Doesn't matter who you're after or who, whatever. It will never bring about anything good. And Nebuchadnezzar, what he desired in his heart to do, was not good. And just like what happened to Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar designed evil against the three Hebrew children, but God worked it for good. See, God can overrule what man proposes. As my father said, man proposes, but God disposes of it. And that's exactly what took place here. And the Bible tells us in verse 13, In his rage and fury he commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? Now if ye be ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackboot, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well, or good for you. But if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Now, verse 16 means they didn't beat around the bush. They weren't sitting there going, uh, uh, uh, Nebuchadnezzar, uh, uh, uh. They were, as the Bible says in 1 Peter 3 and verse 15, they were ready to give an answer. They had already sanctified, as the Bible says, they had already sanctified the Lord God in their hearts and were ready to give an answer to every man that asked of you reason of the hope that is in them with meekness and fear. They were ready to give an answer. Would to God we are ready to give an answer. And my faith we will be. We don't need to plan speeches for certain scenarios. The Bible says, think not in this instance, this is that instance where Jesus said, don't think what you're going to say, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you those words. I know some people say, well, that's for preaching. No, it's not. That's for the time of persecution. There's some people who daydream and say, well, if I ever get persecuted, this is what I'm going to say. Those people never get persecuted. Because they're in their house daydreaming about what's going to happen. instead of outdoing and following the Lord. But here in Daniel, they said, oh, we're not careful to answer this. We don't have to think about it. Here's our answer. And in verse 17, we find here it says, 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 thine hand, O king. But 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. Marvelous. Marvelous answer that these men gave. And it was given by faith. And I don't believe that they were afraid. I don't believe they had an ounce of fear of Nebuchadnezzar or a burning fiery furnace. I believe the only fear they had was a reverential fear of the Lord God. That's it. They trusted the Lord. Some men noted in some of the studies we had, and they said, well, it seems that these men had a special revelation. There's no scripture that says that God will deliver them from the fiery furnace. There's no scripture. I looked. Some say that they must have received a special revelation. There is no record of that whatsoever. In fact, I believe their answer in verse 17 and 18 reveals that they didn't know what God would do, but they knew that they would not bend the knee to the image of Nebuchadnezzar. Because you read their answer and they said, if it be so. Nebuchadnezzar, if it's going to be the way you say, if you're going to make people bow down to this image, and if they don't, you're going to cast them into a fiery furnace, if that's the way it's going to be, Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace. And He is able, isn't He? They had the example of a bush that burnt and was not consumed. They had that answer, didn't they? Not only did they have that, but they had down from creation until their very day the ability of God who spoke the world into existence, who breathed with the breath of life into the nostrils of man, and he became a living soul. They had the example that God said, I'm going to take your dead womb, and I'm going to take his dead seed, and you're going to have a child. They had the example of, I'm going to bring you out, through the Red Sea. They had the example of Jericho. They had all the examples of Scriptures. They said, Oh, He is able. He is able. Now one of the things I want you to note about this, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not go out and try to stir up trouble. This, like the mouths of lions, was in their normal course of serving God. The charismatics, or the uncharismatics, non-charismatics, the unholy rollers, they say, I'm going to do this and it's going to show my faith, or it's going to show. They're really just self-promoting. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were going on their daily lives like they had always done since God had saved them. They did not go to Nebuchadnezzar and say, I know you built this image. They didn't go to Nebuchadnezzar and say, hey listen, you build an image, make this rule, we won't bow down and then you cast us into the fire and it will show how great God is. God probably would have said to them, you're going to burn in that fire because I told you not to tempt me. This was all just like with Christ. according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, yet with wicked hands they sought to slay Him." It was wicked hands, yet God was bringing something to pass, wasn't He? And it was in the normal course of their service to God. And in the normal course of your service to God, you don't have to go out looking for trouble, just serve God and it will come to you. And in the normal course of your service unto the Lord, you're going to have to quench the violence of the fire. And the only way to do that is by faith. That's it. Notice if you wouldn't, just put a thumb here and Daniel will come right back. Turn over to the 56th Psalm. Psalm 56. And verse 3, and like I said, I don't believe they were afraid. They may have been afraid at one point, but when they came up before Nebuchadnezzar, I don't believe they had any fear. Not of him. I believe their greatest fear, and it ought to be our greatest fear, is that we would disappoint our Redeemer and God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That ought to be your greatest fear. Your greatest concern is that you would not walk by faith. Because the problem that we have today is we fear for our own safety, we fear for our own lives, we ought to be more concerned or fear about what God has to say about what we're doing. That ought to be the concern. In Psalm 56 and verse 3, and this is one of them verses you highlight and you memorize and you draw arrows around and you underline it and you asterisk it and all those things. Because the psalmist records it and he says, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. That is the only remedy to fear, isn't it? To trust in the Lord. And again, if they ever had fear at one point, it was swallowed up by trusting God, wasn't it? because they sure didn't show any when they spoke to Nebuchadnezzar. So we're not careful. We got an answer for you. They remind me a lot of Simon Peter after he was converted. When he said, why don't you tell us what's right? Whether we ought to obey God rather than men. We can only speak what we have seen. Simon Peter was full of the Holy Spirit before that. He was full of vinegar, wasn't he? But when he got converted, he was filled with the Spirit. He wasn't bashful about it at all. And the Scriptures tell us, look over in the 91st Psalm, Psalm 91. And you know, some folks, they really need to get a spiritual backbone. It is amazing. You'll see folks who are completely spineless when it comes to serving God, but they are stiff-necked against the Lord. And it ought to be the other way around. We ought to be pliable in the Lord's hands, and we ought to be steadfast against the world, the flesh, and the devil. But we often reverse that. The 91st psalm in verse 15, it said, He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. I will be with him in trouble. And you know what took place in Daniel chapter 3. The Lord was with them. I mean, He was literally with them. This is one of those as they will teach you Theologian school, they call it one of the Theophanies. It's one of the pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus Christ. That's just a big old fancy term for that. And there won't be a test on Sunday about that either. But it is an appearance of Jesus Christ before he was incarnate in the flesh. That's what this was here. But notice, and again, from Hebrews' perspective, it's all about the three Hebrew children's faith. And so we're looking at that tonight in Daniel chapter 3. It appears from their answer that they had faith in God's ability. Notice they said, If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us. And He is able. And He was able. And He always will be able. And they had to, as it says, they show some spiritual fortitude. It says, He is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. Notice what they said and what they didn't say. They did not say that our God who is able to deliver us out of the burning fiery furnace and He will deliver us out of the burning fiery furnace. They did not say that. They said, He will deliver us out of your hand. That's what they said. They had every confidence that God would deliver them from Nebuchadnezzar's hand. Now it might have been through the fiery furnace and Lord took them on home to be with Him. Might have been. But they would have been delivered, wouldn't they? He says, yeah, but they died. Who cares? They were with the Lord. It's like I said a few sermons ago, I said, or maybe it was last Wednesday, I said, if you die, you're going to go be with the Lord. What a horrible thing to happen. At least that's the way a lot of people act, isn't it? They said, He will deliver us. They didn't say they were going to escape the fire furnace. They said, He's able to deliver us out of the fire furnace and He will deliver us out of your hand. And you know, they were never in Nebuchadnezzar's hand ever again, were they? Daniel had to deal with a king, but it wasn't Nebuchadnezzar. You keep reading, you look here, and then they said in verse 18, but if not, Meaning if he's not going to deliver us from the fiery furnace. So the question is in doubt of is he going to deliver us to the fiery furnace or isn't he? We don't know. We know this is it. This is their line in the sand. They drew a line in the sand and said this is it. And this is our Mount Carmel like Elijah had. This is it right here. And right now, we're either gonna die for the Lord, or the Lord's gonna deliver us out of the fiery furnace, but either way, we will not bow to your image. That's the kind of spiritual fortitude that God is calling His people and His church to have today. It's the same He's always called us to. Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. These were living for Christ, not for themselves. And if they had died, they would have gained. And they go on, it says in verse 18, But 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. As I said, it appears from their answer that they gave to Nebuchadnezzar, they had faith in God's ability, but they did not know. It didn't appear that they had a special revelation that God would deliver them. All they knew was, by God's grace, and I want to emphasize that, by God's grace, we're not going to bend the knee to this image. And people say, well, you don't know what you do until you do it. I tell you, with that attitude, you will bow the knee. If you aren't resolved today, then tomorrow you're going to bend the knee. We sing that hymn sometimes. I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delights. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sights. I tell you what, we need to have some resolve today. Like Christ, who set His face as a flint toward Jerusalem, He would not be deterred from doing the will of the Father, would He? We must not be deterred from it either. These three Hebrew children were not deterred from anything. Nebuchadnezzar says, listen, we're going to put you in this fiery furnace. He said, so what? So be it. We're not bending the knee to Baal. And I'm sure as people looked around and said, well look, these all here, they've escaped the fire, they bent the knee to Baal. So what? We're not going to. We will not do it. Well listen, you're just gonna bend the knee to this image, you don't really have to worship, you know, you're just, you can put on a show, it'll be okay, cause your God knows you're really not worshiping this image, you're just doing it to save your life. It's not good enough, is it? That's what a lot of people think, well I'll just bend my knees down here, before this image, but I won't worship it. You know, the Bible talks a lot about stuff like that. These here did not do that. We'll skip on down to verse 27. You know what happened if you don't read it. They heated up that furnace so hot, seven times hotter than hot. And the guys that bound them and put them in, they got burned up. And the Bible says here in verse 27, and you know the Lord was down there when Nebuchadnezzar looked because there was four, one like unto the Son of Man. It says here in verse 27, and the princes, governors, and captains, and the kings, counselors being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power. Isn't that what we read in Hebrews 11? That who through faith quenched the what? The violence or the power of the fire, or of fire. And the Bible says here, whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was the hair of their heads singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Boy, I'll tell you what, we had the fire going here after the hurricane. We was burning stuff and my wife, she came out one of the times and she burnt some stuff and had a fire going and it was two days. I thought we was going to have to do something. You could smell the smoke in her hair. She didn't walk in no fire. These were in the fire. And they said it wasn't the smell. When he didn't singe the hair, you couldn't even smell it on them. I go out and light up a grill and I gotta take a shower before we eat. I can't stand it. Here, nothing happened to them. It is, people say, well, you know, the laws of physics were overcome by a sovereign God. That's the only answer there is. That's it. Well, let's move along a little bit here. Because fourthly tonight, there are fires today that you and I and this church and everyone in here who is saved by God's grace and who will be saved by God's grace, there are fires that you must quench by faith. Look over in Ephesians chapter 6. the book of Ephesians chapter 6. There are fires that we must quench by faith. Now again, I want to reiterate this and I should have worded that better. There is the power of the fire or the violence of the fire that we must quench by faith. In Ephesians 6, in verse 16, here we find the tremendous, tremendous discourse that the Holy Spirit gave unto the Apostle Paul as he wrote in the Church of Ephesus about the armor that God has given to every one of His children. Every one of us has this. Now, here's Mike, be over here in the corner of your closet. Because you ain't put it on in a while. But He gave you every piece of it when He saved you. And you need to put it on every day. Back up to verse 10, it says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord in the power of His might. Because you can't wear this armor in the power of your own might. And you can't Use any of the armor. You can't wield it or lift it or move it in the power of your own mind. You'll be like David trying to wear Saul's armor. It just doesn't work. But in his mind, you can wear it and you can use it. It says, verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles or the tricks of the devil. And then you skip down to verse 16, it says, above all, I tell you, when you read a phrase or something like that, you ought to just pay attention. When the Holy Spirit says, above all, you ought to pay attention. He says, taking the shield of faith, wherewith? He says, you need to take the shield of faith because this is the suit of armor, this is the instrument of your armor that you are going to, it's the only thing that will work. He shall be able to quench all, not some, not a third, not a quarter, but all the fiery darts of the wicked or the wicked one. I'm going to tell you something. I don't know if you've ever watched any history channels or anything like that. When someone shoots an arrow, The individual doesn't take a sword and wait for it and then swing at it and try and knock it down. He uses his shield, doesn't he? As I understand anything about historic battles, they would shoot their arrows, they'd launch them over the giant battlefield and the people on this end, the infantrymen, they'd have their shields and they'd put them up like that to guard them. And they'd make a wall of shields against the arrows. You don't take the sword and swat at it. And you don't try and run out of the way of it, because you know that arrow's moving pretty quick, and Satan, he's got all of his henchmen as wide as the battlefield is, and they're just shooting them into the air. And the only thing, and God said it'll do it, and it'll quench every one of them, without exception, is the shield of faith. You don't stand there and say, okay, breastplate of righteousness, Because the breastplate of righteousness is not intended to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. But the shield of faith is. He says above all. Notice that the word quench, that's the same as Hebrews 11.34. The word darts literally means missiles. Missiles. Or arrows or a spear. I'm afraid that there are some children of God who, instead of a shield, have a target that's laden with gasoline, running around trying to catch all of Satan's darts, saying, I got this one. That's about the way they act. God says to give you a shield of faith to quench them, quench them, to extinguish them. What are Satan's darts? What is it that Satan is firing at us? We are not ignorant of his devices, Paul told the church in 2 Corinthians. Do you know what his devices are? It's the same thing he did in the garden to the woman. Did God say you couldn't eat anything? Yeah, we can't eat that tree, we can't even look at it. Because if we do, we're going to die. And what saints say, ye shall not surely die. Because God knows if you eat that tree, you'll be like Him. Well, what did He do? spoke, and Eve did what? She doubted God. She became suspicious of God. Why wouldn't God want us to be like Him? She looked at that tree, said, well, it's good for food, it'll make us wise. There was a third thing, which I can't remember right now. She took of it, and she ate. She gave it to her husband, and he ate. Because she doubted what God said. Satan's darts, his arrows, his spears, they're on fire, and they're coming to us. And they're coming at us, and it's all about us doubting what God says. And you know what? The only thing that will quench that is to believe what God says. And I know that that sounds so simple, and it is because it is that simple. To take God at His word. And it's going to take you, and me, and this church, and us getting down on our spiritual knees and saying, God, I know that this is what Your Word says. Here is my fear. Here is what is coming into my heart. Here is what is coming into my mind. Yet, this is what Your Word says. Help me to trust You. And to pour our hearts out to Him in prayer. And folks say, well, I don't have time for that. Then expect to get burnt up time and time and time again by the fiery darts of the wicked one. It doesn't take time to throw up a prayer unto the Lord. But you ought to take time to do it. You ought to have a prayer of life. You ought to study God's Word because what is the shield of faith based on? The Word of God. If you don't know what God's Word says, then how do you know what to believe and what not to believe? No wonder Paul said, I would not have you to be ignorant. You need to know what God's Word says. You need to be in the Word. You need to be studying God's Word. You need to pray over God's Word. Just like we preached Sunday morning on, our homes need to be institutions of God's Word. our homes, you are not getting enough spiritual food four times a week. And if you think you are, I want you to reduce your physical food to four meals a week and see how well you do. You won't make it. I guarantee it. Not even Paul fasted that much. Satan wants us to doubt God's Word. Remember what he said to Jesus? He said, Oh, you bow down before me and I'll give you this candle. And Jesus said unto him, he goes, We're not supposed to worship anything but the Lord. He took him up and he says, Well, listen, if you'll throw yourself down, the Bible says that angels will catch you and you won't even dash your foot. And Christ said unto him, he goes, You're not supposed to tempt the Lord. You're not supposed to cast yourself off of a pinnacle and say, well God said, because that's not the right application of that verse. The right application is the same thing as Daniel had, the same thing as the three Hebrew children is, in the course of their daily walk with the Lord, if you happen to fall down, the angels will lift you up. and all the things that Satan said to him, and what did Christ do? He quenched all those fire darts with what? Faith and what God said. And then notice as well another fire that needs put out, James chapter 3. James chapter 3. Another, well the violence of this fire needs to be put out. The violence of this fire is the tongue, the human tongue. It needs to be extinguished. And you may need to extinguish your own tongue. Maybe God will extinguish your tongue through a message that is preached from this pulpit. Maybe it's a message you hear from some other pulpit. Maybe it'll be your daily scripture reading. Maybe it'll be a brother or sister in Christ. Maybe it'll be your spouse. Maybe it'll be one of your children who rebukes you. But tongues need to be quenched. James says in James chapter 3 verse 5, Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of what? Hell. James didn't say, well, sometimes God sets it on fire and sometimes it's hell. No, he said, it's set on fire of hell. It is destructive and not in a good way. Our tongues are not always like David said, that my tongue is the pen of a ready rider. It's not always like that, is it? Sometimes we're like those foxes that got their tails tied together with a firecracker or a sparkler in it and they went off into the barley field or whatever field it was and it got burned down to the ground. They say, well don't burn your bridges. Not only am I going to burn that bridges, I'm then going to burn the ashes. That's what our tongue does sometimes, doesn't it? It needs to be quenched. Turn over to Isaiah 36. Here's an individual. This is during the reign of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a tremendous king under Judah. Tremendous. He was one whose heart was right with God, and he did that which was right in the sight of God. He wasn't perfect. He was not without sin. But he did that which was right in the sight of God. And during his reign as king, the king of Assyria sent his army and they came all the way to the gates of the capital. And the fellow's name who did the speaking, his name is Rabshakeh. Listen, verse 13 of Isaiah 36. Isaiah 36 and verse 13. And that's exactly right, because Hezekiah didn't have any ability to deliver them. In verse 15, he said, Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, The Lord will surely deliver us, that this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. Verse 16, Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the waters of his own cistern. Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, the Lord will deliver us. Have any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphat? Where are the gods of Sepharvain? And have they delivered Samaria out of My hand? Who are they among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of My hand, that the Lord, or Jehovah, should deliver Jerusalem out of My hand? But they, that is those who are upon the wall, held their peace and answered Him not a word. For the king's commandment, that is Hezekiah's commandment, was saying, Answer Him not. Boy, I'll tell you something, Rabshakeh offered them a really good deal, didn't he? He said, listen, Hezekiah is not going to deliver you. The Lord is not going to deliver you. Look at all these other kings and all these other kingdoms that they thought their gods would deliver them, but they didn't deliver them and they've all fell to Assyria. And he says unto them, he says, now listen, He says, make an agreement with me by a present, come out, eat every one of his vine, every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the waters of his own cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. He says, listen, we'll make a peace treaty and you guys can go about your daily lives like you normally would, until I come and I take you, and listen, I'm just going to take you to a land that's just like the one you're in. It's just like it. Boy, that sounds really good, doesn't it? Because right now I'm terrified because nobody's been able to defend against the Assyrians. So why should we bother even fighting? I mean, He's going to let us live here for a while and then pretty soon we can compromise, we can make an agreement with the king of Assyria. I know God said we shouldn't do this. But He's going to take us to another place just like this one. And they didn't answer him. I'm surprised they didn't answer him. I'm surprised they didn't say, well, we better take this while it's hot. You know, take it before he changes his mind. And in verse 22, it says, Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, that was over the household, and Shebna, the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakem. So they come to the king and their clothes are rent. They're weeping. I mean, this was a sign of great sorrow. You know, we're all going to die. They come and tell Hezekiah in chapter 37 verse 1, And it came to pass, and the king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. He went to see the Lord, didn't he? And in verse 2, "...And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos. He went to worship the Lord." He said, I want you to go to the prophet, who's the preacher of the Word, and I want you to find out what God has to say about this. Verse 3, And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, that is, they said unto Isaiah, Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. For the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. And that was an analogy that they're saying. It's time to deliver, but there's no power to deliver the child. And in verse 4, it says, It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard. Wherefore, lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left. Verse 5, So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah, and Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the Lord. Now what is faith? taking God at His word. That's what faith is. And he says in the rest of that verse, be not afraid of the what? The words. Because that's all they are, they're just words. Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me. I want you to understand that when you hear these words, whether they're of Satan, whether they're of ungodly men, and sometimes out of our own mouths, if they speak not, thus saith the Lord, it's tantamount to blasphemy. And he says, I don't want you to pay attention to them. Verse 7, Behold, I will. And again, remember, I will means it's going to happen. This is me saying to him, standing on the promises of God, God just made a promise, didn't He? He said, I will send a blast upon him and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. You finish reading the story tonight when you get home before bed. God said, this is what I'm going to do, Hezekiah. Hezekiah consulted the Lord, he went to his house, he sent people to the prophet Isaiah, and Isaiah said, this is the word of the Lord, and what did it do? It just quenched the violence of the fiery darts of Satan and the words of Rabshakeh. Rabshakeh's words were, I mean, it was like fire being set on the walls of Jerusalem, round about it, to burn it down to the ground. Hezekiah was worried, the people were worried, And when God spoke and they trust Him, it just extinguished all of it, didn't it? We know what God's Word says, we need to trust it. Because if you don't trust it, there is no quenching of the violence of the fire. Well, I know what it says, I just don't believe it. That's why the violence of the fire isn't quenched. That's why Satan just says, you're an easy target. And just keeps shooting. And until you take up that shield of faith, and quench his fiery darts, it's not going to go well. It's just not. Until we as a church, until you as individuals, until other of God's people, same thing in their lives. The power of the fire. He didn't say Satan's going to quit shooting. Rabshakeh didn't quit speaking. You keep reading and he's had some more things to say. God said, I'm going to send him away. He's going to go back. He's going to die in his own land. And it's all of the design is for what? To push us to trust the Lord. To draw us in to trust Him. If you're here and you're without Jesus Christ as your Savior, what did the three Hebrew children say? He is able to deliver. He is able to deliver. Not just from the violence of the fire, but from the fiery torments of hell. He's the only one who is able to deliver. And this Daniel 3 shows that He's able to deliver. It manifests and proves that He's the only one who can do it. And if you're lost, you need to come to Him that you might be saved. By faith. And if you are saved, you need to walk. And you might not ever have an opportunity to go into a fiery furnace. Praise God. But I guarantee you're going to have the fiery darts of Satan, and you're going to have some rabshakas in your life. And the only thing that's going to quench the power of their words is the, thus saith the Lord. That's it. We sang that hymn, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Let's live it. Let's live the words of that hymn and trust in Him. While we stand, as the song