to be reminded of that message tonight and if you weren't here this morning for the baptism service and missed the testimony let me encourage you wonderful and powerful testimony of salvation this morning and I don't know if we have any hard copies left over there or not but If you'd like a hard copy of this morning's testimony, I'm sure we can print one for you. Otherwise, the testimony will be available or is available already in audio form on our website, mbcadelay.org.au. Just go to the sermon page and then a video will be up there hopefully in the next day or two as well. So be encouraged at what the Lord has done and as we rejoice together in a soul set free from the enemy. Alright, tonight we're back in the book of Daniel and back to Daniel chapter 3. Last Sunday we looked at the whole matter of standing when things get heated, when things get hot and we're talking there about the fiery furnace but more importantly the spiritual principles of coming under pressure from the world and how we can by God's grace stand and glorify the Lord. Well tonight we want to look at the conclusion of this account and what took place and really we're going to see the consequences of the stand these men took and how the Lord brought them through this fiery trial and glorified himself through their testimony. And really this chapter before us again demonstrates the central theme of the book. We've entitled in fact the entire series in Daniel, God Reigns. Or we could say God is still on the throne. Okay and even here in this chapter we're going to find Nebuchadnezzar makes reference in verse 26 to the Most High God and this is the emphasis of Daniel that God is on the throne, God the Most High God ruleth in the affairs of men And in this particular section of Daniel, we're looking at the historical section and God demonstrating His power through His servants and in these past events, but we know that Daniel also looks forward to the future. And you know, that's the assurance we have, isn't it? That as we've seen God work in the past, sovereignly on His throne, we can anticipate that what He says about the future will also come to pass. Well tonight we want to read from verse 19 down to verse 30 which will form the basis of our message tonight and I trust you can remember what we covered last week with the lead up to this. Why don't we just recap from verse number 16. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of 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. Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated. And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning, fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, old word for astonished or amazed, and rose up in haste and spake and said unto his counsellors, did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, true, O king. He answered and said, lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the son of God. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, ye servants of the Most High God. A little bit of a contrast to what he'd said earlier. Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Come forth and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth of the midst of the fire. The princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors being gathered together saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power. nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God. Therefore, I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. The title of the message tonight is Facing the Fire. facing the fire. Let's pray. Father, we thank you tonight for this portion of scripture before us. Lord, for the tremendous courage and faithfulness in these three men, Lord. We thank you that this is not a, again, it's not a fairy story, Lord, this actually happened. And Father, we are thankful for the lessons it can teach us tonight about facing the fiery trials in our lives, Lord, and you know that they come to us, the furnaces of affliction, Lord, in many different forms, Lord, it might be persecution, for our faith in Thee, Lord. It could be a trial in the flesh, Lord, or family trial, financial trial, Lord. You know, Father, that in each of our lives we are faced with these fiery trials. Lord, help us to draw some encouragement and some inspiration and some instruction from these three men who came through the fire Out the other side, Lord, knowing more of your presence, knowing more of your hand upon their lives, Father, and ultimately bringing great glory and honour to your name. We ask these things, we ask now for your hand of blessing upon this message. Thank you for each one who is here tonight. Lord, you know, Father, in this one room, there are so many needs represented, and Lord, the preacher can't possibly meet all those needs, Lord, or even mention all of them, but we thank you that when the Spirit of God is working, The simple statements of Scripture, the spoken word can minister to every heart and so we look to you tonight to minister to us in that way, for it's in Jesus' name we ask these things, Amen. Back in 1555, there were two men who were burned at the stake, one by the name of Hugh Latimer and another Dr. Nicholas Ridley. They were evangelical ministers within the Church of England and this was during the reign of Bloody Queen Mary, who viciously persecuted the Protestant believers. And the story is told that as these men were bound to the stake and a lighted faggot was laid at the feet of Dr Ridley, Hugh Latimer turned to him and said, be of good comfort, Mr Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England as I trust never shall be put out. That's facing the fire, isn't it? With courage and with the strength of God, with faith. Now, we know that in the case of those men, it was God's will for them to be martyred and to pass on into eternity. In this case here, we have God's mercy and grace in bringing these men through the fire and out the other side, and he preserved them through it. But either way, we need courage, don't we? And we need God's strength to face those fiery trials that come our way. And that's what we want to learn about tonight, some of these principles that will help us and the principles that ultimately were working in these men's lives as they went through that fire. So I want you tonight to notice firstly their placement in the fire. The placement of these men in the fire. And I want you to consider their placement in the fire from two perspectives. Firstly, from the earthly perspective. And we have the event detailed for us in verse 19 down to verse 23, don't we? And we've read those. And so these events unfolded and they were placed into the fire, the fiery furnace. In verse 19 through 21, we see the king's fury and how the king was enraged against them. And we talked a little bit last week, didn't we, about how the hostility of the world and even the hostility of the compromised Christian is very viciously aroused against the separated believer, the believer who will draw a line for the truth of God's word. And we see how angry the king was there in verse 19, It tells us that he was full of fury and the form of his visage was changed. Now the word visage there means the countenance and so the icy violent anger within the heart of this king was conveyed through his countenance. Have you ever seen someone so angry that it frightened you? It's a terrible thing, isn't it, anger and how anger can be just revealed like that through the counters. It means his face was contorted and twisted with rage. It means that his eyes flashed, the colour of his cheeks rose. This man was determined to destroy these men on account of their godly stand against his idolatrous image. And because of his anger there, he commanded the furnace to be heated seven times more than it was normally heated. Now, these furnaces were for the purpose of making bricks, and it's interesting that archaeologists have discovered literally thousands of Nebuchadnezzar's building bricks with his own name inscribed on them. and they're in museums today. So again, just remember that when we talk about these accounts from the Word of God, they're not fairy stories from a golden book. We're talking about something that's real and actually took place. And it's really interesting that in a sense, though Nebuchadnezzar thought by this that he was ensuring these men's demise and their fate, in actual fact, his heating of the furnace seven times hotter was simply setting the stage for the glory of God. and that God's name would be magnified through this situation. Isn't that the way in our lives? The more impossible the situation becomes in your circumstances, the more God can be honored and glorified in the outcome. In fact, I believe that's why the Lord will bring us at times to face these fires. You say, humanly speaking, this fire is going to extinguish. my life, it's going to destroy me, I don't know how I'm going to go through with this particular trial I'm faced with, it threatens to damage my life, it threatens to knock me out of the Christian life, but as you, just with courage and with faith, cast yourself upon the Lord, He brings you through that and His name is magnified as He demonstrates His power in that impossible situation. So we have their placement in the fire, what brought this about? Well, the King's fury And his fury led to foolishness in verse 22 and 23. It says, There's haste involved, isn't there? And the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Winding back just a little bit there, you remember how not only did he heat the furnace seven times hotter, but he commanded his crack team, his most mighty soldiers, to bind them. There was to be no mistake made. and to cast them into the fire. So hasty was this command that these men were bound up just in their clothes and their coats and whatever, their garments. And then these men took them up to throw them in the fire. But because the command was urgent, because the king had, on account of his rage, made foolish decisions, these men that bound Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego perished. Now, as we go along here, there's a little bit of a lesson here, isn't there, about anger. Yeah, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 14, 17, that he that is soon angry, dealeth foolishly. Can you see Nebuchadnezzar's fury leading to his foolishness? His command was urgent and because of that hasty command, he committed something that was very, very unwise and lost some of his best men in the fire. You know, our anger always hurts people around us, doesn't it? When we allow ourselves to be overtaken and overcome in a spirit of rage, others around us feel the heat. Oh, well, Pastor, I'm just one of these people, you know, at least I just get it off my chest. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I just like a shotgun. I just, you know, it's a big boom, but then it's all over. Yes, but there's holes left everywhere when you're finished. So the King. Made this decree, he was full of fury and that led to a foolish command that was hasty and a command that was costly. The fire slew some of his best men. So we think about their placement in the fire from the earthly perspective, we see the human events that are taking place to make these, to put these men in the fire. Now the Bible tells us here they fall down into the midst of the burning fiery furnace and that tells us the hopelessness of their situation on the human level. But I want you now to think about their placement in the fire from the heavenly perspective. Okay, we've looked at it from the earthly perspective, what took place so far as the earthly king was concerned, but have you stopped to pause and consider their placement in the fire from the heavenly perspective? Who's still on the throne? Who's on the throne at this time? God is on the throne. And high above Nebuchadnezzar, the earthly king, we have God on the throne and he sovereignly allows these men to go through this fiery trial so that an occasion would be created for his own glory and honor. And we need to understand that. So often we look at the trials, the fiery trials that we must face in our lives from the earthly perspective and all the human events that are whirling around us, but sometimes it helps to stand back and to see that God has actually sovereignly placed us in that fiery trial for His own glory and honour. You know, Job knew this, didn't he? In Job 23 10, he said, but he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as what? Gold. That's the fiery trial, isn't it? You know, Joseph recognized the sovereignty of God in his trial too, didn't he? In the book of Genesis, Genesis 45 5, he said to his brethren, now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. Genesis 15, 19 to 20, Joseph says again, So let me encourage you tonight, maybe there's some of you here and I know for a fact some of you are going through some fiery trials at this time. God has put you there. If you're in His will, God has put you there and somehow through that, though it may not all look too pretty on the human side, God is working for His own honour and to magnify His own name. So we see their placement into the fire and we need to be prepared for that in our Christian lives, that we will, as we walk with the Lord, be placed into fiery trials. Secondly tonight, I want you to see their preservation in the fire. So we have their placement in the fire, God allowed it, God ultimately put them there. And number two now, their preservation in the fire. And it's a challenge, isn't it, when we're faced with those fiery trials, we say, Lord, this is going to consume me. I'm sure this is going to destroy me, but we see that God preserved these men in the fire. And isn't that just the way the Lord tends to work? So often God's will is not for us to be delivered from the trial, but rather to be with us and to accompany us in the trial. Is that right? Isn't it God's way rather than delivering us from the trial itself? It seems that very often God purposes rather to send us through that trial, through that fiery experience and he accompanies us with him so that when we come out the other side we know him so much more, in a greater way. So they were preserved in the fire. These men experienced two things I want you to see. Fellowship in the fire and freedom ultimately from the fire. Can you see the fellowship they enjoyed in the fire? Verse 24. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished and rose up in haste and spake and said unto his counsellors, did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, true, O king. He answered and said, lo, I see four men loose. walking in the midst of the fire and they have what? No hurt. And the form of the fourth is like who? The Son of God. Isn't it a wonderful blessing to know the presence of Christ in a special way in the midst of that fiery trial? And you know it's never easy at the time and I'm sure these men had all the fears and doubts and things surging through their hearts but they knew one thing, they could not bow, they would not budge and ultimately we know that God ordained they would not burn. But they went through with the Lord and as you and I go through with God, And we don't take the devil's road around the fire, okay, they were offered an out, weren't they? But we go through with the crucifixion experience, we go through it with God, not compromising on the word of God, we can know something of his fellowship in the fire. You know, Paul spoke of this, didn't he, in Philippians 3.10, he said that I may know him. and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his what? Sufferings. There's fellowship to be had in the place of sufferings being made conformable under his death. interesting the order that the Spirit of God gives us there, we actually need the power of his resurrection to endure the sufferings that he has for us. How can you go through that crucifixion experience without the power of his resurrection? How can you die to self without the power of his resurrection? You can't. For the Lord we know that in time he went through crucifixion and out resurrection the other side, but for us we need the power of his resurrection to go through with the cross. We need it, we can't die to self without the power of his resurrection. So there is a certain depth of fellowship with Christ that can only be experienced in that furnace of affliction. Fellowship in the fire. These men in the fire were unloosed. Can you see that they were unloosed? Isn't it fascinating, and I was pondered on this this week, isn't it fascinating that the only thing that the fire burnt was the ropes that bound them? Isn't it amazing how the Lord can take that fiery trial and he can direct the flames, as it were, to those things in our lives that need to be removed? But the flames themselves did not just destroy these men. And that's how God works with us in the fire. The Lord is able to direct the heat where it's needed, to remove those things that are holding us back, those things that are a hindrance in our lives. And that's what God's doing, isn't he, in those fiery experiences, those furnaces of affliction. He is removing the dross from our lives. He's perfecting us and making us more like himself. You know, only God can do that. Only God can take a fiery trial that would otherwise damage and even destroy the believer and make it work for his good. That's only something God can do. And the world can't experience that. Maybe you're here tonight and you say, well, there's a lot of bad things happening in my life. Listen, if you don't know Christ as your saviour, you can't lay claim to all these promises. Sometimes people pick up on maybe some phrases from Scripture and say, oh, well, everything works out for good. No, hang on. All things work together for good for them, to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. You can't possibly, how could you possibly, or how can you possibly go through a trial in your life without God? I can't think of anything more devastating to face just a heart-rending and heartbreaking trial without the presence of God. How would that be? So these men experienced fellowship in the fire, they were unloosed. They were unhurt, the fire had no power over them, they essentially experienced the fulfilment of the promise in Isaiah 43, 1 to 2, but now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. 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. Now I don't know for sure, but I wonder whether the reference in Hebrews 11.34 to men by faith quenching the violence of fire could be a reference to these three men. So there is fellowship to be had, dear believer, in that furnace of affliction, that persecution, that time of distress. I know it's not easy, it's not a matter of just, you know, like I said, we see it from the earthly perspective and how those circumstances overwhelm us and how terrible it can be, But as we look at it from the heavenly perspective, there are some things to be learned. May I say, just from personal experience, there's been some trials in my life, and I'm not a long way along the Christian journey, but I will say that there's been a special experience of the Lord's presence at certain times. The midnight hour. and to know something, to open the word of God and to hear. You know, without a shadow of a doubt, God has spoken. God has impressed you by his spirit and the presence of the Lord draws near. What a blessing, what fellowship we can enjoy in the fire. God's placed us there, but he can preserve us in the fire. In 1903, there was a man by the name of Cleland McAfee. He was a chaplain and choir director of a college called the Park College in Missouri. When communion services came, he would write the words and music of a response which his choir could sing and which would fit into the theme of his sermon. One terrible week just before communion Sunday, the two little daughters of his brother, Howard, and sister-in-law, Lucy, died of diphtheria within 24 hours of each other. The college family and town were stricken with grief. This man Cleland sat long and late thinking of what could be said in word and song on the coming Sunday. He wrote a stirring hymn. The choir learned it at the regular Saturday night rehearsal and afterward they went to his brother's house, to Howard McAfee's home and sang it as they stood under the sky outside the darkened quarantine house. There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God. A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. There is a place of comfort sweet, near to the heart of God. A place where we our Saviour meet, near to the heart of God. There is a place of full release, near to the heart of God, a place where all is joy and peace, near to the heart of God. And the chorus, O Jesus, blessed Redeemer, sent from the heart of God, hold us who wait before thee, near to the heart of God. There's fellowship, isn't there, in the fire. There's the nearness of God drawn into his presence. Many of you may be familiar with the story behind the hymn, What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Incredible story, read it sometime, a man by the name of Joseph Scriven and how he was engaged to be married to his childhood sweetheart and they were going to meet each other by a stream on one particular day there and they both rode their horses there and minutes before he arrived she had some freak accident where she fell off the horse into the water, her head was banged and she was drowned and he arrived just in time to see the love of his life being drawn out of the icy waters the day before their wedding. moved to Canada, eventually fell in love again, was engaged to be married and his second fiancée, his life was extinguished through a disease, I forget the name of the disease now, and he wrote those words, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to Him and God, everything to God in prayer. Can you see there can be fellowship in the fire? Fellowship, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of your sufferings. Let me just encourage you tonight, don't take the devils out around the cross that the Lord would have you take up. was a temptation to these men. Listen, there's an easy way, you bow the knee, just go through the motions and we talked about that last night, you know, have a bit of a move with the music there and you can escape this fiery furnace, that's the hiss of Satan. go through with God, don't take what appears to be the easy route out. It's usually God's will for us to go through the trial, through that death experience, through that fiery trial and out the other side to honour and magnify Him. All right, so we see their fellowship in the fire, then ultimately their freedom from the fire, God brings them through and out. Verse 26, then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither. I want you to notice, maybe circle that little word, then, in verse 26. Can you see the timing of their deliverance? That the timing of their deliverance is revealed in that little word, then. You know, God will only allow us to remain in the fire for as long as it is his perfect will. And then the then comes. It's out the other side now. God brings us through it. He won't suffer us to be tempted above that we're able. 1 Corinthians 10, 13 tells us, but we're also with the temptation, make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it. The Lord knows just how long we need in that fire and how much we are to learn. But then in his time, he delivers us from that. Now for these men, he delivered them alive. But ultimately for the Christian, there's deliverance in life or death. Whichever decision God would make in a situation like this, ultimately God brings us through into victory. Look at the testimony of their deliverance in verse 27. What a testimony this was. And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors being gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power. What a blessing that is, isn't it? Nor was the hair of their head singed. Neither were their coats changed, look at this, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. What a blessing. Only God can do that. God can so ordain that that trial you're going through will not destroy you, that you can come out of that victorious. And for these men, not even the smell of smoke upon them. What a testimony this was. Think about this for a moment. They're gathered there before this vast congregation, multiple thousands, no doubt, of the ruling class, the ruling elite from right across the empire. Can you imagine the testimony this was in a heathen empire, in a heathen kingdom to the one true God? You see, there's a testimony that you will have for the Lord as you come through and out the other side of that fiery trial. You know, Romans 5, I just want you to turn over there for a moment, we won't stay there for long, but I want you to see what I would call the cycle of Christian growth that takes place in our trials, Romans chapter 5. cycle of Christian growth. It says in verse 1, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, that's the blessing of salvation isn't it, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also. There's the trials. What does the word tribulation mean? It means to be oppressed, I understand. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Can you see the cycle that God takes us through? In verse 3, we glory in tribulations also. You say, how can I possibly glory and rejoice in a difficult situation? Well, it's based on something we know. knowing that tribulation worketh patience. We understand as we grow in the Christian life that God is going to produce something in us through that tribulation, through that trial. And as I walk with the Lord and as I learn to go through those fiery experiences, I learn to... I grow in patience. And then as I patiently endure those situations, that then in turn produces experience in my life. and then experience then re-strengthens the hope that we have and the expectation and the confidence in the Lord. And as we go round and round that cycle of Christian growth in our lives, and we go through the trial, and we respond to it with God's grace, and the Lord works patience in us, and then experience as we endure those things, it then reinforces our hope, our confidence in the Lord, and this is the cycle of growth the Lord takes us through in our Christian lives. So freedom from the fire. Freedom from the fire. fellowship and freedom. They were preserved in the fire. So we have their placement in the fire, ultimately God put them there. God preserved them in the fire and number three and lastly now, can you see their promotion after the fire? Their promotion after the fire. Verse 28 down to verse 30, then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who hath sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own god. Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak anything amiss against the god of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill because there is no other god that can deliver after this sort. Then the king what? Promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylon. Promotion after the fire. Now, like I said before, if God had willed in this case to take these men home to glory, God would have still been good and just and right. But God's will was to bring them through the fire, to accompany them in the fire, to make his presence known to them in the fire, and ultimately then to bring them out of it the other side to a place of promotion. And you know, I don't know what trial you're going through in your life, but there is God's promotion for you. And that may depend somewhat upon the nature of what trial you're going through. But take courage, God will bring that promotion to you and bring you through it. So we see in this promotion there was a new proclamation in verse 28 and 29. A new proclamation was made, the Nebuchadnezzar admitted before this vast multitude that there is no other God that can deliver after this sort. quite a contrast to what he'd said back in verse 15, isn't it? What did he say in verse 15, the end of the verse? Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? New proclamation was made, an act of tolerance we could say was passed for the one true God and the true faith of the children of Israel. So this would mean that the truth could be freely proclaimed throughout the whole empire. Have you ever thought about this from the perspective of God giving the heathens of that time, the world of that time, light? Don't ever believe the lie that somehow back in the Old Testament God didn't give light and an opportunity for men to come to know him personally. Listen, God worked in this situation here in the king, that heathen king to bring about this tremendous opportunity for the truth of the one true God to be freely disseminated, freely proclaimed throughout the whole empire. No doubt this decree would have been published throughout the empire because it says it was addressed there to every people, nation and language and God would give great light to the people. Now I want you to think tonight about how different things would have been if these men had compromised. Have you thought about that? how different the story would have been. I mean because these men were just unmoved in their faithfulness to God, God was able to use that whole occasion to magnify his name and that the truth could be just spread throughout that whole heathen realm. What a testimony before all those men, the ruling elite of the day, And so we need to take the same courage, don't we? Compromise with the world and bowing the knee to the pressure from the world is never the way to glorify God. It's never the way to glorify God, it's promoted that way, this is the way you're going to have an impact. You can't be too separated, you can't be too firm, you need to be just flexible as a rubber band and move around a little bit and get up alongside people. Don't say anything about sin, don't say anything about the Bible because that might scare them, but just hope that somehow they'll catch some gleam in your eye and ask you, are you a Christian? No, these men would not compromise and God used it to glorify himself. Truly the eyes of the Lord run to and fro, don't they? I think about that verse often, seeking for such men and women through whom he can work mightily. I say Lord, I pray that your eyes would find me such a man and you such men and women that God would see our lives, that our hearts are perfect before him and we're usable and available vessels, those who will not bend on the truth and those through whom God can work mightily to glorify himself. So there was a new proclamation. And then for these men, a new position. These men are a testimony to us again, aren't they, of the truth that those who honour God, He will honour. Honour God and He will honour you. 1st Samuel 2.30. They were actually now in a better position for having gone through the fire than if they had bowed the knee of compromise. so God will promote you too, in his own way, his own time. But ultimately God will bring us through those fiery trials as we go through it with him. God is working to magnify himself, there's a much bigger picture isn't there, in our trials. It's yes, God's doing something in us through it, God's ministering to us and he's teaching us something of his ways but here we see again the theme of Daniel, God is reigning on his throne and God is creating occasions in the lives of his people whereby his name can be exalted and whereby his name can be published and known and God will do that in our lives also. Now, as I've mentioned, if things had turned out for the worse, humanly speaking, and these men had been martyred, God would have still been wise and good, and their promotion would be into glory. But either way, in life or death, the believer's life is victorious. Read sometime Hebrews 11. And we'd all love to be in the first category, wouldn't we? Those who escape the edge of the sword, and quench the violence of fire, and out of weakness are made strong, and wax valiant in fight, and then the Bible says, and others. Whichever group we may end up being in, whether it's in the first group, like these men who were brought through the trial and their lives were preserved in that way, or whether we are in the category of the others that God would will, and God's will for us is that we be martyred for our faith. Either way, for the believer, it's a promotion, isn't it? God is working for his own glory and our job is not to so much focus on what the outcome may or may not be. Our job, like these men, is to simply resolve in our hearts, we will not bow. That's all we have to do. Because look, these men didn't know the outcome. They had faith God could deliver them, but they put that in God's hands and rested that whole matter in his will. Our job is simply to resolve in heart, Lord we're going to be faithful to you, we're going to follow you by your grace, we'll go through the difficulties, we'll go through the persecution, we'll cop the flack, we'll cop the fury of the world, the fury of the compromised believer even as well as we seek to stand for the clear truth of your word and ultimately Lord we're just trusting you through this that you will be honoured and that you'll be glorified. So facing the fire, hopefully there's some principles there that'll help you tonight as each one of us come face to face with those fiery trials in our lives. I just want to read a verse in conclusion if you turn over to 1 Peter 4, 12 through 16. Interesting the language that Peter uses here. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happen unto you, but rejoice in so much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. Verse 15, But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. So there's some perspective, isn't there, for our trial. I wonder tonight, how are you viewing your trial? Are you resting in God for his will and purpose to be accomplished? Are you praying for God to be magnified in the situation? And will you say, Lord, thy way is perfect? Psalm 18, even if it doesn't seem so from the human standpoint. We sing the hymn sometimes, don't we? When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, Let's pray.