Great chapter, great story. There's one part in particular that I'd like to focus on, but before I get into that, let me just give you the story quickly.
Of course, Nebuchadnezzar the king is basically the ruler over the major part of the civilized world at that time.
He has a worldwide Babylonian empire, and so therefore he decides to set up this golden image, this idol, that people are all to bow down and worship.
He's basically commanding people to bow down and worship this golden image, this huge giant statue that he has set up.
And of course, this is a foreshadowing of one day when the Antichrist will come and set up a one-world government, one-world religion,
and cause people to worship an image of the Antichrist, and whoever does not worship will be killed, the Bible says,
or they'll be persecuted and have to flee into the wilderness.
And so that's what the meaning is here. Basically, these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they refuse to bow down.
Everyone else around them is falling down, and these are men who were important in government.
It listed that they were sheriffs, counselors, governors, basically all of the bureaucracy of this empire.
They're all bowing down, they're all worshiping it, except these three men just conspicuously are standing up, refusing to bow down to the false god that Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
They're called in and told that if they don't, they will be cast into a fiery furnace.
And then here's what Nebuchadnezzar adds when he's explaining this to them.
He says to them in verse number, let me find the place, 15, look at the end of verse 15.
And who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hand?
So right away he questions the fact whether God is able to deliver them. Here's what they answer.
They say in verse 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 we set up.
Basically what they're saying is, I'd rather burn than bow.
You know, even if it means going to the fiery furnace, even if God's not going to deliver me,
I would rather lose my life and die than to violate God's word and bow down and worship a satanic image that you've set up, O king.
That's when the king becomes angry in verse 19.
And he commands him to heat the furnace up seven times hotter than it was intended to be heated.
So that the men who literally bound them up and threw them into the furnace, they died from the extreme heat.
And of course, when they get in there, they're walking around, the ropes are burned off of their hands,
and Nebuchadnezzar looks into the furnace to get the satisfaction of seeing his victims tormented and dying.
He looks in and he sees, of course, four men, loose, walking in the midst of the fire.
And he says at the end of verse 25, in the form of the fourth is like the son of God.
Basically, Jesus Christ himself, God in the flesh, in an Old Testament appearance, went there and delivered them,
and protected them in the midst of the fiery furnace.
You know, just go ahead and read us.
You know, this has nothing to do with the sermon, but you know, I like to always point this out,
because no matter how long you stand up here and preach and scream and holler,
somebody will go out of here and go to some NIV preaching church,
you know, one of these liberal churches that's using some watered-down version of the Bible.
Read us what the modern Bibles have changed this to, Brother Garrett.
Read verse 25. You look down at your Bible, folks.
He said, look, I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed.
And the fourth looks like a son of the gods.
So basically, in the Bible here it says, the son of God.
But in the NIV, the non-inspired version, the New International Version, it says, a son of the gods.
Now that's, it's a little easier to understand, right?
Just gets rid of the these and the those, right?
No, it's completely different.
And that's one of thousands of changes in this piece of junk known as the New International Version.
And you know, I can't emphasize that enough,
because people will start to go soft on that,
and the Bible says that we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have hurt,
lest at any time we should let them slip.
And so this church is King James Bible only,
and will always be King James Bible only without apology.
Now the part of the chapter that I want to focus on, that's all introduction.
Let me get into the sermon.
The sermon is this.
It says in verse 16,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
The title of the sermon is this,
Not Careful to Answer.
That's the title this morning.
Not Careful to Answer.
Turn if you would to Acts chapter 4.
Acts chapter number 4 in the New Testament,
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
Acts chapter number 4.
And I'm going to show you several New Testament passages
to explain to you why they were not careful to answer.
Look if you would at Acts chapter 4.
We'll start here in verse number 8.
The Bible says this,
Then Peter,
filmed with the Holy Ghost,
said unto them,
Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,
if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man,
by what means he is made whole,
Acts 4-10,
be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified,
whom God raised from the dead,
even by him did this man stand before you whole.
This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders,
which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
Verse 13,
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,
and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,
they marveled,
and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
Turn to Matthew chapter 10.
You see,
Peter and John,
when they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
when they were on trial,
when they had been arrested,
when they get hauled into court for preaching the Gospel,
for preaching about Jesus Christ,
they said,
Hey, you intend to bring this man's blood upon us?
And they give him a chance to answer.
They say,
What have you done?
Where is your authority to do this?
They don't mince any words.
They weren't careful to answer.
They just stood up and said,
Look, if you're asking us about the miracle that was performed
where this man was healed,
let me just tell you how it is.
It was Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
who you crucified,
who God raised from the dead,
neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved.
And they were shocked by the boldness.
They marveled.
They wondered at the fact that they would be so bold
as to speak that way when they're on trial,
they're the ones that are in the hot seat,
they're the ones that are in the orange jumpsuit,
they're the ones that are in the handcuffs,
and they have the boldness to preach it like it is.
And I'll tell you why.
Because it was just like in Daniel chapter 3.
They weren't careful how to answer.
And I'm going to explain that a little more.
Look at Matthew chapter 10.
Look at verse 19.
This is Jesus Christ speaking to his disciples,
the same two men who were speaking in Acts chapter 4.
These are instructions that they had gotten while Jesus was on this earth.
It says in verse 19,
But when they deliver you up,
and talking about being brought before kings and governors and so forth,
but when they delivered you up,
take no thought how or what ye shall speak,
for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
For it is not ye that speak,
but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Just flip over to Matthew chapter 12.
You're in chapter 10. Just go one page over.
Look at Matthew 12 34.
This is Jesus preaching to the Pharisees.
O generation of vipers,
how can ye being evil speak good things?
For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh,
a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things,
and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
You can turn back to the book of Daniel, but let me say this.
A man who is a righteous and godly man who is filled with the Holy Spirit,
a real person doesn't have to sit there and wonder how they're going to answer
when they're put on the spot about what they believe,
when they're put on the spot and asked to bow down and worship a satanic image,
when they're put on the spot and asked to stop soul winning,
as Peter and John were,
asked to compromise what they believed in,
asked to stop saying that the Jews had killed Jesus,
and to stop bringing Jesus Christ's blood upon their heads,
to stop preaching God's Word.
A righteous man, a real Spirit-filled Christian,
doesn't have to wonder how he's going to answer
and be careful and think about it.
You see, it's just automatic.
That's why Jesus said,
if you're brought in before these people,
don't even take the time to think about what you're going to say.
It'll be given you in that same hour.
If God's Word is in your heart,
if God's Word is in your heart and the Holy Spirit is living inside of you,
You see, your automatic knee-jerk reaction is going to be to answer with the truth,
to answer with what's right,
to answer with God's Word,
and not to have to,
oh man, let's be careful how we say this.
No. You see, there are certain things to be careful about,
and then there are other things where we ought to be not careful whatsoever.
Are you back in Daniel?
Look at Daniel chapter 1.
You see, there's a balance here,
because in Daniel chapter 1,
we see Daniel is basically,
you could kind of compare this to something where you're at work,
because Daniel has this man, Melzar,
and this guy is pretty much his boss.
You know, he's been brought captive into the land of Babylon,
and this guy is above him,
this guy is an authority figure,
it's his boss,
it's his job to tell Daniel what to do,
and basically, he's asking Daniel to do something that's wrong.
He's asking him to eat meat that's sacrificed unto idols,
and also to drink this wine,
some kind of an alcoholic beverage.
It says in verse number 8, it says,
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.
Now, God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love
with the prince of the eunuchs.
Now, the prince of the eunuchs is man Melzar,
this is his boss, this is an authority figure over him.
Now, you notice that Daniel decided in his heart,
there's no way he's going to eat that meat.
There's no way he's going to drink that wine.
But notice what it says in verse number 8.
To his boss, he said he requested of the prince of the eunuchs
that he might not defile himself.
So there's no reason to just pick a fight with people for no reason,
to go into your job and start shouting and yelling,
you know, how dare you ask me to do something that's wicked,
and then God, you know.
There's a way to, you know, respect your boss,
to respect the people who have authority over life,
or if you're a child, to respect your parents,
you know, when you're a child in their home
and if they want to do something that's wrong.
You know, you can be respectful and kind about it
without compromising, you know, without defiling yourself.
You can still be kind and compromised.
But when it comes down to a point
where somebody is sitting there saying,
you know, worship this idol,
bow down and worship this false god,
quit preaching the gospel or you're going to jail,
you know, as they did in Acts chapter 4.
You don't have to be careful about how you answer.
You have to wonder what you're going to say
or how you're going to put it and so forth.
And so we're not talking about just guns a-blazing
everywhere you go, just picking fights with people
and going on the job and causing a big problem.
That's not what we're talking about.
We're talking about when people are asking you
to just compromise on what you believe
and change what you believe.
When people come into this church and tell us to change
or, you know, the government comes in here
and tries to tell us to change.
You know, we're not careful how to answer them.
We're just going to tell them the first thing
that comes into our heart because you know what?
If it's God's word that dwells inside of us,
it's going to be like an autopilot of this,
giving the right answer, of telling the truth.
But today, people are afraid to stand up for what they believe
and just tell it like they're so careful.
And if I have a nickel for every time somebody told me,
be careful with how you preach, Brother Anderson.
I mean, do you know how many times I hear that?
Just be careful. Be careful saying this.
Be careful preaching about this.
Look, when I get this behind this pulpit,
all carefulness is gone. It's gone.
This is my pulpit.
This is God's house and God is the one who called me to preach
and he said, preach the word.
He didn't say preach part of it.
He didn't say preach what people like.
He said be instant in season, when it's in style,
when it's in fashion, in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
God told me to preach as the only person I answered to
and I'm not careful who I'm going to offend.
I'm not careful about offending a visitor.
I'm not careful about offending a new believer.
I'm not careful about violating some unconstitutional law,
abridging my freedom of religion.
I'm going to stand up here and preach it like the Bible says it
and I'm not careful about it. I'm not worried about it.
Listen, Pastor Careful.
You need to get out. Careful. Careful.
Go to safety Baptist church.
Safety Baptist with Pastor Careful.
You know what? Nobody who's going to trim this message
has the right to even preach the word of God.
I don't care how many degrees are behind his name.
I don't care how many people have laid hands on him
and anointed him and prayed for him
and sent him out with bells and whistles
hanging off the back of his car.
You know what? Nobody who's going to trim this message
has the right to preach.
And the moment that I begin to trim the message
or feel the need to trim it, I'll just quit.
I'd rather just quit. I'd rather just sit in the pew
and let somebody get up here
who's not afraid to say what needs to be said
if it's God's word.
Let's go to Acts chapter 5.
We saw in Acts chapter 4 how these disciples had been.
And by the way, it says when they saw their boldness,
they marveled at the fact that, and they said,
you know, these guys have been with Jesus.
Now I wonder why they thought that.
You know, they look at these guys who were just bold,
the word of God, and it says when they saw that,
they took knowledge of them that they'd been with Jesus.
I think I know why, because at the end of Matthew 7,
you don't have to turn there.
After Jesus finishes preaching the Sermon on the Mount,
which was a pretty hard sermon,
he gets to the end of it and it says,
it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings,
the people were astonished at his doctrine,
for he taught them as one having authority
and not as the scribes.
He said, boy, this guy doesn't preach anything like the scribes.
This isn't like the church I used to go to.
This guy preaches with authority.
And let me tell you something, God's word is the authority.
God's word is the boss.
Christ is the head of the church, not a denomination,
not some headquarters or fellowship somewhere.
If Christ is the head of the church,
I can stand up and preach this book with authority
and say, thus saith the Lord.
Now, well, here's what I believe.
Here's what some people are saying.
No, it's what God said.
And there's no question about it.
It's God's word.
Look, if you would, at Acts chapter 4,
we'll finish up with this story.
It says in Acts 4, 19,
But Peter and John answered and said unto them,
Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye,
for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Now, part of the reason why you don't have to be careful to answer
is when you have the right kind of things going into your mind,
the right kind of things going into your heart,
then the right kind of things are going to go out of your heart.
You see, he said here, we can't help but speak the things which we've seen and heard.
Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringing forth good things.
You see, the man who is filling his mind with God's word,
singing the hymns filled with the Spirit, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs,
not filling his mind with the world's trash
and just go from one TV show to movie to the radio
and just filling your mind with the world.
When God's word is what's in your heart,
that's what's going to automatically by default come out of your mouth.
And what I'm trying to say with that is that when you get in the habit of compromising,
you're going to just automatically compromise.
And when you get in the habit of telling the truth,
you're going to automatically tell the truth.
Because when you're put in a situation, let me explain this to you.
When you're put in a situation on the spot,
you don't have time to think many times.
Think about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are pulled out of that crowd.
They're stuck in front of the most powerful man in the entire world
who has the power to throw them into a fiery furnace.
They don't have time to think.
It's going to have to be just a knee-jerk reaction of,
hey, we're not careful to answer.
This is who we are. If we have to go to the furnace, then so be it.
Peter and John are brought in front of the Jews.
They're in the middle of preaching. They're ripped out of the sermon.
They're literally preaching in a temple and they come and arrest them while he's preaching.
Drag them before these people who have the power to imprison,
the power to punish them, and they just automatically,
just out of the gate, because it's in their heart,
they just automatically tell the truth.
You see, when you start compromising,
you're just going to get in the habit of compromising.
You see, as soon as I trim part of the message,
well, maybe I'll just trim another part.
You know, when you start deciding, listen to me now,
when you start deciding which parts of the Bible are acceptable and which parts are not,
when you start deciding which part you're going to preach and which part you're not,
when you start deciding which part you're going to publicly take a stand for
and which part you're going to be in the closet,
it never ends.
It's going to be, when you're in a panic, you're going to be like Peter.
Remember when Peter got in a panic and just, oh, I don't know him?
You remember that? He said, oh, you were with Jesus in Nazareth, right?
No, no, that wasn't me. No, I don't know him.
You know, he didn't think that through because beforehand,
he would say, oh yeah, I'd never do that.
But see, he got in the moment.
He got in the moment and just all of a sudden, oh, I mean, no, I don't know him.
Three times. And then once he thought about it,
it says when he thought thereon, he wept bitterly.
But see, in the moment, he made that bad decision.
In the moment, you've got to get to the point where your automatic reaction
is to just say, yes, I'm with Jesus.
Yes, I'm a Christian.
Yes, I believe the Bible.
And not to back down and cower and be afraid and careful all the time.
Look, if you would, at, where are we?
Acts 5. Let's go to Acts 5 while we're in Acts so we can finish this up.
Look at verse 27.
Now, here's what happened. I'll bring you up to speed from chapter 4 to chapter 5.
When we were in chapter 4, they stood before the council and so forth
and they were, they're arrested, they're in jail.
Well, God lets them out of jail, okay?
Well, the first thing, they let them go and they get arrested again.
They get out of jail.
Pretty much the whole book of Acts is just people going to jail
and getting out of jail every chapter.
So, if you've ever read the whole book of Acts,
it's like one jailbreak after arrest, after whatever.
It's like crime and punishment, the book of the Bible or something.
But anyway, Acts 5.27, it says this.
And they brought them, so now this is later.
They've already been arrested, they've already been in trouble,
they've already been punished.
Okay, now they're brought again before the council.
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council
and the high priest asked them, verse 28, saying,
Did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name?
And behold, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine
and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
And see, that was their big concern, right?
They don't care that people are going to hell
and that they need to hear the gospel and be saved and go to heaven.
They don't care about any of that.
They just care, do I look good?
You know, these politicians or whoever these leaders were,
they just want to look good.
Hey, you're making us look bad.
Hey, you're telling everybody that we did something wrong.
We don't like that.
They don't care what the truth is.
They don't care what the Bible says.
They don't care what's right and wrong.
They just care about themselves.
Hey, you're bringing this man's blood upon us.
Verse 29 says this,
Then Peter and other apostles answered and said,
We ought to obey God rather than men.
And look what they say in verse 30.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus,
whom ye slew and hanged unto you.
Oh, quit saying that.
You know the Jews today hate it when people say that?
Even to this day.
Now, let's face it.
Obviously, the Jews today are not the ones who killed Jesus.
I understand that.
I understand that this was 2,000 years ago.
It was totally different Jews that killed Jesus.
But did you know that it is illegal
to preach this passage of the Bible that I just preached in Canada or Germany?
Did you know that?
In Canada, literally.
If you go to Canada, it is against the law.
And look, it's not just some law.
People have gone to jail.
I know of a specific guy who went to jail
for preaching that the Jews killed Jesus.
That it wasn't the Romans, it was the Jews.
Because that's what the Bible says about 10 different times.
But preachers in Canada, they won't preach that
because they're called a racist or anti-semit.
It has nothing to do with race.
It's just a historical fact.
And it has nothing to do with their nationality or ethnicity.
That religion of Judaism.
See, Jew is not even a nationality anyway.
It's really supposedly a religion.
It's a false religion today that denies that Jesus is the Christ.
The Bible says this.
And this is a good memory verse for you to memorize.
Who is a liar but he that denied that Jesus is the Christ?
He's anti-Christ that denied the Father and the Son.
He's anti-Christ.
He said, if you don't acknowledge the Son, then you don't have the Father.
He said, if you don't believe on the Son, Jesus said it this way.
He said, if you believed Moses, you'd believe in me.
Now, I don't say the Jews believe the Old Testament.
No, they don't believe any of it.
Because if they believe Moses, they believe in Christ.
That's what Jesus said.
That's what Jesus said when he walked on this earth.
Because it's the same God of the Old Testament as the New Testament.
It's one God, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
You see, the Bible is clear on this.
And you say, why do you make a point about this?
I don't even think they would have made such a point about it
except that they were being persecuted for saying it.
They were being told, don't say it.
Look, it's true, we're going to say it.
And I'll say it right now.
The ones who killed Jesus in the Bible are the Jews.
And I'm not holding against that, against a Jew today that is an ethnic Jew.
He needs to be saved or he's going to go to hell just like any other nationality.
That's not the point.
I'm not a racist.
I'll say that God is made of all nations of the same blood
as the Bible says in the book of Acts.
But let me tell you something, I'm not going to lift up one over another
and say, well, we can't talk about these people.
We can't say anything bad about that.
Hey, that's what it says.
And back then they were getting arrested for it.
People are getting arrested for it today in other countries
like Canada and Germany where they have less freedom of speech.
And so he said, look, we ought to obey God rather than men.
In Acts 4 they put it as a question.
Judge in yourselves whether we should hearken unto you or unto God.
And then in Acts 5 it says, well, let me just answer that for you.
We ought to obey God rather than men.
You see, they weren't careful to answer.
Look, if you would, back at the book of Matthew.
There's so much great preaching in the book of Matthew.
Look at Matthew 21. I'm going to show you the opposite.
This is Matthew 21.
So you see, what am I trying to say?
If somebody asks you if you're a Christian, you say, yes.
Yes, I am.
You believe the Bible? Yes.
You believe in creation? Yes.
You believe in six literal days of creation? Yes.
You believe the earth is less than 7,000 years old? Yes.
Well, let me explain.
You think abortion is murder? Yes.
I don't have to sit here and beat around the bush.
Well, sit down and I'll explain to you sometime.
No, I believe what I believe and I don't have to premeditate.
I've been on the radio before for live things that are live.
There's no prerecords just live on the air.
People hit me with hard questions and their goal is to trip you up.
But you know what? I didn't have to think about it.
I just told the truth. I just said what I believe.
It's not hard if you know what you believe, why you believe it,
and you're willing to just say it.
And that's who we ought to be.
Just be real. Don't be fake.
Don't put up a facade.
Look at Matthew 21.
We'll see the Pharisees who were the exact opposite.
Matthew 21 verse number 23.
Watch this. This is where they come to Jesus and ask Him a question.
I'm sorry, it's not the Pharisees.
It's the chief priests and the elders of the people.
It says,
When He was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto Him as He was teaching and said,
By what authority doest thou these things?
And who gave thee this authority?
And Jesus answered and said unto them,
I also will ask you one thing,
which if ye tell me, I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John, whence was it?
From heaven or of men?
Now, that's a pretty straightforward question.
I mean, it's not hard to answer.
He just says, look, John the Baptist,
was he a man of God or was he a false teacher?
You know, was his baptism from heaven or was it of men?
Pretty easy question, right?
I mean, nothing hard about that.
Just a yes or no answer.
Just yes, he's from heaven.
Okay, look what it says.
And they reasoned with themselves.
Now, do you think that they'd never thought before about what they thought about John the Baptist?
I mean, John the Baptist was well known.
The whole region had heard him preach.
These same people had heard him preach.
They knew what he believed.
Everybody knew who he was.
There was no question about it.
These guys are the religious leaders of their day.
Do you think they had an opinion about John the Baptist?
Of course they didn't.
But instead of just answering with the truth,
instead of just telling the truth and just saying,
we didn't believe in him,
we didn't listen to him.
That's why we don't listen to you, Jesus,
because we don't listen to anybody who's a real man of God.
Look what it says.
They reasoned with themselves, saying,
if we shall say from heaven,
he'll say to us, why did you not believe in him?
Yeah, that's a pretty good question.
Oh, yeah, he was great.
Well, why don't you believe him?
And then they said, but if we shall say, oh, of men,
we fear the people for all old John is a prophet.
And they answered Jesus and said, we can't tell.
We cannot tell.
And he said to them,
neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
You know, it's just people who are afraid
to tell you what they believe.
They're afraid to say it.
They don't want to tell you.
The Bible says this.
You don't have to turn there,
but it says in 1 Peter 3.15,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts
and be ready always to give an answer to every man.
And this isn't just talking to a pastor.
This is talking to all believers
at the beginning of 1 Peter.
It says be ready to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope
that is in you with meekness and fear.
Not fear of the person you're talking to.
Fear of God.
Because every time fear is mentioned,
Genesis to Revelation,
it's always negative except one exception.
Whenever it talks about the fear of God,
it's a good thing.
It's lifted up.
God is the one.
We're not supposed to fear Satan.
We're not supposed to fear the devil, the world.
We're not supposed to fear the government.
We're not supposed to fear the terrorists.
I don't fear criminals.
I mean, it's not my job to be in fear
because yea, though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
God said that he's not given us the spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
How many times did Jesus say fear not?
Even when there was a great storm,
he said to his disciples,
why are you so fearful?
Why are you fearful, oh ye of little faith?
The more faith you have,
the less fear you should have,
but there's one exception to that.
We're told over and over,
fear God, fear God, fear the Lord,
fear the Lord, fear the Lord.
And people say,
well I don't think fear really means fear.
Then why did he say fear and trembling?
They'll say fear just means respect.
When you respect somebody, do you start shaking?
Or do you start shaking when you're afraid?
Fear is a strong word,
and God wanted to use a strong word
of how we look at God and say,
you know what, I'm afraid, Brother Dave.
Brother Dave, let's say Brother Dave
is some unbelieving coworker,
he's some unbelieving news reporter,
he's some unbelieving whatever.
Hey, what do you believe?
Are you one of these that believes
the Bible is God's word?
Are you one of these?
Now at that point I should be afraid,
according to the Bible,
but not of Dave.
The Bible says,
fear not them which kill the body,
who are not able to kill the soul,
rather fear them which are able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
I'm not going to fear Dave.
It's like, uh oh.
I'm going to say,
you know what,
I'm afraid to dishonor God here.
I'm afraid to end up like Peter.
I'm afraid to dishonor Jesus Christ
or say something that's a lie.
So in meekness,
that means I'm not just going to,
you know,
yeah I do, what's your problem?
I'm not going to just rip into him,
but I'm just going to boldly tell him,
yes I do,
yes I do believe the Bible.
No apologies.
I have to apologize for the truth.
You know, just tell him how it is
with fear of the Lord only.
That's it.
And I'm always ready,
according to the Bible,
we ought to be always ready
to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope
that is in you with me.
Now let's compare that with the other scripture.
If he says I'm always supposed to be ready
to give an answer,
but Jesus said take no thought
out of what you shall speak.
So he's not saying to have an answer ready.
Yeah I've written this out,
man, I've got this perfect answer.
No.
He's just saying being ready to give an answer,
not being ready with a specific answer,
because the answer is in your heart anyway.
You see what I mean?
If you're a Bible-believing Christian,
you already have the answer in your heart.
You don't need to premeditate
how or what you shall speak.
You just need to be ready to give an answer.
He's just telling them
be ready to answer the question,
not to just freeze up,
not to beat around the bush,
just be ready to give an answer.
What answer?
Gosh, I figured it out in advance.
You'll know when the time comes.
Just tell the truth.
It'll be in your heart.
It'll be the Spirit of God within you
and the Word of God
brought to your remembrance
to give an answer to every man.
He says in verse 14,
this is 1 Peter 3.14,
you don't have to turn there,
but and if ye suffer for righteousness,
say, Happy are ye,
and be not afraid of their terror.
Neither be troubled,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts,
and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you
with meekness of fear,
having a good conscience
that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers,
they may be ashamed
that falsely accuse your good conversation with Christ.
Colossians 4 says this,
Let your speech be always with grace,
seasoned with salt,
that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
So he says, look,
if this is how you are all the time,
you'll know how to answer every man.
He said if your speech is always with grace,
seasoned with salt.
If you're always speaking the truth,
if you're always just living a life
of conformity to God's Word,
if you're just always talking about the Bible
and telling the truth
and just speaking what you believe,
then when somebody asks you,
you'll always be ready to give them an answer.
You see how simple this is?
You're saved.
You've got the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
You read the Bible.
This is where your beliefs come from.
Somebody asks you what you believe,
and you just tell them meekly, politely,
but you just tell them what you believe.
You tell them the truth.
You don't have to sit and have a meeting about it.
Oh, hold on a second.
Somebody asked me a question.
Hold on a second.
We need to have a meeting with the men of the church
to decide what we believe here
and so we can answer these people.
No.
We already know what we believe.
It's in the Bible.
Look what it says in Titus chapter 3,
toward the end of Titus chapter 3.
Titus chapter 3 is toward the end of the New Testament.
Titus chapter number 3.
And it says in Titus 3.8,
this is a faithful saying,
because this is what you need to be careful.
You say, well, Pastor Anderson, I get it.
I'm not supposed to be careful to answer people
and try to deceive and try to water down what I believe.
I understand that.
Here's what you ought to be careful.
It says in Titus 3.8,
this is a faithful saying in these things I will
that thou affirm constantly,
that they which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men.
So you see, when I answer someone,
I'm supposed to have fear, but not of them, of God.
When I answer someone,
I'm not supposed to be careful when I say,
for their sake, because it might offend them,
I'm to be careful to maintain good works.
I'd be careful to say the right thing.
I'd be careful to not ruin my testimony.
I'd be careful to preach and speak things
that line up with God's Word.
That's what we ought to be worried about.
And you young guys, and there are a lot of young guys
in this church that preach from time to time,
and others that are going to preach someday
or start a church someday,
you've got to get this carefulness out,
because I'm going to tell you something.
It seems like everywhere we go,
everybody preaches, they're just afraid
of what they really believe.
And I understand that at your job
is maybe not the place to just stand up
and start screaming about these things,
but let me tell you something.
When we come to God's house,
isn't that the one place
we're ever going to hear the truth?
I mean, if you're not going to hear the truth
in God's house, are you going to hear it at school?
Are you hearing it on television?
Are you hearing it on the Christian radio station?
I mean, where are you going to hear it
if you don't hear it in God's house?
Do we really need another generation?
Do we really need you young guys
to just start another namby-pamby Baptist church?
I mean, is that really worth it?
Just so that we can have another one.
I mean, there are so many.
They're everywhere.
We don't need another one.
Just stay in this church
and just serve God in this church.
If you don't have the boldness
and the Holy Ghost function upon you
to preach God's word without carefulness,
then just stay in faithful word Baptist church.
But I'd love to see you
get the power of God upon you,
be filled with the Spirit,
and go out of here and start a church
that is not Safety First Baptist,
that will actually preach what needs to be preached
and fear no man but God.
That's what we need today.
You see, I could name for you
a ton of great churches
that are King James Bible,
Winning Souls,
and if you went through their doctrine,
you know they believe in the eternal security
of the believer?
They believe in the blood of Jesus Christ for salvation?
They believe in heaven and hell?
They believe the key tenets and fundamentals of the faith?
But the problem is,
they're only preaching about 20% of this book
that people can handle.
You know, that's really what it comes down to.
They're just preaching the happy parts.
And you know, I thank God for them.
I praise God that the positive parts of the Bible
are being preached all over this city
and all over this state and all over this country.
I thank God for it.
I thank God that the good news is being preached
because the gospel is good news
and that Jesus paid it all.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
That's great news.
There's nothing negative about that message.
Hey, it's all through Jesus.
All you've got to do is believe.
That's great.
That's a good message.
I love it.
And I thank God for everybody who's preaching that good message.
And I thank God for every church that believes
good, positive, happy doctrines.
And I believe them too and I'll preach them too.
But you know what?
It's sad that there's a whole big chunk of the Bible
that says never be preached.
Somebody's got to get up and preach it.
Because what happens is you say,
oh, just focus on the positive.
People will figure it out.
No, they won't.
You get up and you preach the positive
and what happens is you've got a bunch of happy people
who love Jesus and they want to win souls
except their life is filled with sin and worldliness
and abomination and it will destroy them
and then they won't be reaching anybody.
That's why if you go to the church that's worldly,
if you go to the church that's filled with whoremongers,
if you go to the church that's filled with fornicators,
if you go to the church that's filled with rock and roll
and show biz and Las Vegas service,
they don't win people to Christ.
It's the truth.
Show me the big worldly mega center
that's out knocking the doors and preaching the gospel
from God's word and saying that it's believe on Christ.
You can't lose your salvation
and they're preaching it from a King James Bible
but they just love the world.
You can't find it.
Boy, I know a lot of people who've told me
that that's what they're looking for, a church like that
and I say, well, good luck.
You're going to have to go to a church
that's going to scream and yell and foam at the mouth
about all your TV shows if you want to go to a soul winning church.
It's true.
It's true because when they get watered down in one area,
when sin creeps in, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
You got a bunch of fornicators in your church.
He said put away from among yourselves that wicked person
because a little leaven leavens the whole lump, 1 Corinthians 5.
He said purge out the leaven out of your church.
That way you can do something for God.
God wants to pour out his spirit upon all flesh
but he needs to pour it into a clean vessel
and when your life is filled with smut and the world and the flesh,
Jesus said without me, you can do nothing
and when you're in the flesh, you cannot please God
because the carnal mind is enmity against God
and cannot be brought into subjection of the laws of God.
The carnal mind is opposed to the things of God.
Go out soul winning with the carnal mind.
You won't win souls. It's true.
You've got to be in the spirit
and look, none of us is walking in the spirit all the time.
None of us is perfect.
None of us has completely arrived
but every day we have to deny self
and take up our cross and follow him daily.
By the way, that's not salvation. That's daily.
Salvation is one time.
Believe on Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Daily there's a process of denying yourself,
denying the flesh, putting on the new man, as it says in Ephesians.
Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, as it says in Romans 13,
that you'll make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
Put on the new man. Put on Jesus Christ.
Be filled with the spirit.
You're not filled with the spirit when you're filled with worldliness.
It's the opposite.
The lust of the flesh.
He said all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes and the pride of life
is not of the Father but is of the world.
And the world passeth away and the lust thereof
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
And so if you're going to be filled with the spirit,
if you're going to love God, you can't love the world.
If you're going to walk in the spirit, that means you have to mortify the flesh.
And if you're going soloing in the flesh, you can do nothing
because you've got to have Jesus Christ doing the work.
And so you've got to be filled with the spirit.
And you're filled with the spirit when you put on the new man,
when you put off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light, as it says in Romans 13.
You see, we need Christians that are not carnal, that are not worldly.
We need Christians that are sanctified and set apart
and godly and holy and different than the world.
That will give their bodies a living sacrifice.
Look at Romans 12. We're going to compare this.
This is the last place we're going to turn.
Let's compare Romans 12 with Daniel 3.
We're going to get back to our story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
What a great story. Don't you love the boldness?
I mean, those guys didn't know that they were going to survive.
I mean, they probably thought, chances are we're probably just going to burn up.
God's able to deliver us, but if not, they knew.
Chances are, it's probably not going to happen
because there's been a lot of people who've been burned at the stake
for Jesus Christ throughout history.
I mean, it's happened. And God didn't always step in.
He loved the story where he stepped in.
I love the phrase, but if not, that brings it down to the everyday.
God steps in and performs miracles sometimes throughout the Bible.
It seems like God's performing a ton of miracles, but you've got to remember,
we're reading the history of thousands of years.
Sometimes hundreds of years went by before he did some kind of a major miracle
where he did some incredible thing like parting the Red Sea or these huge miracles.
He wasn't just doing them on a daily basis.
There are many people who are just martyred and killed for what they were doing.
Look at John the Baptist, beheaded.
Where was God on that one?
It was God's will that he suffer as a martyr for Christ, and that's the way life is.
There's a will that God has for your life, and it may be different than for somebody else,
and so some of us make it out okay and others don't.
It's life.
Okay, look at Romans 12.
You have your finger in both places, Romans 12 and Daniel 3.
Look at Romans 12, the famous passage, and then we're going to tie it in with Daniel 3.
It says in verse 1,
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies.
Notice that phrase, okay? Keep that in mind.
That ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service.
He's saying don't bring God some messed up offering.
You know what I mean? Don't bring...
And people preach against this in Malachi.
In Malachi chapter 2, he tells them, you know, you're bringing all this...
In Malachi chapter 1, you know, you're bringing these messed up lambs,
you're bringing some deformed lamb and offering it to me.
You know, kill that one and barbecue it for lunch,
but you need to bring an offering that's without spot
because that offering represented Jesus Christ.
And they were bringing the lame and the blind and the most messed up...
Oh, here, we'll just give this to God.
We'll just give this to church, you know.
Messed up. Messed up.
My dad would know what this means, give it to the kids.
You remember that?
I have an inside joke there, but, you know, just a messed up lamb,
you know, oh yeah, we'll bring this to God, you know, we'll bring this to church.
He's like, you know, your governor wouldn't accept that
when you're paying the taxes, you know, and you bring this to God
and give this to...
And that's what we want to do.
We want to bring ourself to God, our body,
but our body's going to be the way we want it, you know.
You know, we could go on all day about this whole subject,
you know, of taking care of your body.
Your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost.
You know, but we want to...
And, you know, don't be offended by this if you have tattoos.
I mean, if you have tattoos, that's life, you know, you can't undo the past.
You know, who cares? Move on.
But the Bible says, thou shalt not print any marks upon thy body.
I mean, that's a command of God.
But we want to just tattoo our body, how we want to do it,
when he said, you're not your own, you're bought with a price,
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which your God.
He said, thou shalt not print marks upon your body.
You know, he says that a man should have short hair
and the woman should have long hair.
You know, but we want to look the way we want to look.
We want to do what we want with our body,
and then we abuse our body through alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, whatever.
We abuse it and then say, okay, here you go, God, here I am.
Let me present my body, a living sacrifice, you know,
here's my body, Lord.
You know, because you can't serve him like you could have
if you would have been healthy, if you would have took care of yourself.
You know, it's just, here I am, God.
You know, you're covered in tattoos.
You're a long-haired hippie.
You know, you're smoking a joint.
Okay, let's go soul winning.
God's not going to use you the same way that he could use you
if you would clean up your life inside and out.
You see, the outside doesn't matter.
Then why did Jesus say, cleanse first thou which is within the cup and the platter,
that the outside may be clean also?
Clean up the inside because the outside doesn't matter.
Is that what Jesus preached?
He said, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter,
that the outside may be clean also.
Take a shower, by the way.
You know, be clean in every way, physically, spiritually, mentally, be clean.
The Bible teaches.
So we want to present our body to God, right?
He created us, he gave us life, and he wants us to serve him with our lives.
We want to present him our body as a living sacrifice
and say, God, I'll do what you want me to do.
I'll go where you want me to go.
I'll preach what you want me to preach.
Here I am, God, and I'm going to make myself as holy as possible
so it'll be acceptable to you.
And he says, be not conformed to this world, verse 2,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
So here's the part I want you to focus on, verse 1,
that you present your body to God.
That you present your bodies, a living sacrifice.
Go back to Daniel 3.
You see, in Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were a picture of the living sacrifice.
That's what they symbolize.
Look at the wording when Nebuchadnezzar is prophesying at the end here.
It says in verse 28,
Then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Daniel 3, 28,
Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
who had sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted in him,
and have changed the king's word, and watch this,
and yielded their bodies.
You see that?
Same as in Romans 12, presenting your body, yielding your body.
And saying, hey, you know what?
I'm not going to preserve my body at the cost of doing wrong.
I'm just going to present it to God as a living sacrifice.
Now, they didn't know they were going to be a living sacrifice.
They probably thought they might have been a dead sacrifice.
You know, when they went into that furnace, that inferno.
It says they yielded their bodies.
That they might not serve nor worship any god except their own god.
And that's where we ought to be at today.
Just as they took it to the extreme of saying,
I'll be a living sacrifice even if it's a burnt offering.
I'll be thrown into the fire rather than to disobey God's word.
And bow down to some Satan-worshipping idol.
You know, people today will bow down to idols.
And by the way, if I was invited to one of these Catholic weddings and funerals,
I'm not going to go get on my knees in front of some priest and wafer and all of you.
Don't you dare.
I'd be like this.
I'd be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
I'm not going to bow down before man.
I'm not going to bow down before man in a Baptist church either, by the way.
I'm not going to bow down to man.
I'm not going to worship man.
I'm not going to worship a statue.
I'm not going to have a picture of Jesus with candles in front of it.
I'm not going to have Jesus on the cross hanging around my neck.
I'm not going to have an idol.
I'm not going to bow down to man or the image of man or the image of an animal
like the molten metal fish on the back of your car.
Tear it off and read Deuteronomy 4 and 5 for a homework assignment.
But the point is that we ought to present our bodies a living sacrifice today
and say, you know what?
I belong to Jesus Christ.
I want to be holy.
I want to be acceptable.
I want to be right.
And you know what?
I'm not my own.
I'm bought with a price.
I've been redeemed for Jesus Christ and I'm going to present my body a living sacrifice.
I'm going to say what he wants me to say.
I'm not going to be careful when I'm doing right.
Be careful not to go too far with it.
Careful.
Don't do too much soul winning.
It's too much, guys.
Relax.
One hour a week maximum.
59 minutes and 59 seconds, you're done.
Okay, great.
And when the first person gets saved, you're done.
Only one person saved per Sunday.
Okay, that's the rule.
Be careful.
Be careful speaking against the homos.
You know what?
Good night.
Don't even get me started.
That's all I'm saying.
Careful.
Somebody told me about this in Bible college.
A guy got up and talked to class and said, you've got to be careful now
because now pretty much everybody is related to one.
So what?
Oh, you've got to be careful because it might be somebody's son or nephew.
You know, I don't care if it's your Siamese stinking twin, okay?
It's wicked as hell.
It's an abomination.
It's perverted.
It's filthy.
It's vile.
It's disgusting.
I'm sick of it.
And I'm not careful about that.
And you know, the day I start being careful, just please replace me.
Please just do me a favor and just take a big long cane and just drag me from the pulpit.
The day that I start being afraid and careful and scared of man.
And young man that's listening to me right now, just decide right now.
You know what?
One day I'm going to preach and I'm going to preach it all.
And if you're not, then just decide today I'm not going to preach.
Make one of those two decisions right now.
I'm going to preach it all or I'm not going to preach.
Those are the only two legitimate decisions.
Then just sit down and shut up and listen to somebody who will preach it.
Or else, go preach it and preach it all.
As Jeremiah said, and you don't have to turn there, but in Jeremiah, we won't even look at the scripture,
but he talked about how God's Word was just burning inside of him.
He tried not to preach for a while in chapter 20.
He's just like, man, I'm sick of this.
I'm sick of being persecuted.
He said, I'm just going to try to just not preach.
And he just basically just couldn't take it.
It was like burning inside of him.
You know, that's how you ought to preach.
You know what I mean?
You want to just preach it all.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we love you and thank you for your Word.
And God, just please help.
It's never easy, dear God.
It wasn't easy for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
It wasn't easy at all.
But God, help us to present our bodies for you, to yield our bodies.
To say, you know what, if I'm going to be beaten for the cause of Christ,
as Peter and John were in the very story that we just read, we didn't have time to get there,
but if I'm going to be beaten, I'll be beaten.
If I'm going to be imprisoned, I'll be imprisoned.
If I'm going to go to the fiery furnace, then so be it, but I will not bow down.
I'd rather burn than bow.
God, help us to present our bodies.
God, most of us are not facing anything like that.
We've not yet resisted unto blood striving against Him.
We're not facing the lion's den.
We're not facing the fiery furnace.
God, we're just facing the furnace of the Phoenix summer,
going solo when He wins 115 out, dear God.
Christ will be with us, and just help us, God, to go into the inferno of the weather in Phoenix.
If these guys can go into an inferno, then it's going to burn them alive.
Help us to yield our bodies to serve you.
Help us to yield our minds to read the Bible, not just the paper,
but rather to read God's Word, more important.
And Father, we love you, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.