All right, it's great to be here tonight.
I got some, well, I was going to say gifts, but you actually have to earn them, so it's
not a gift if you have to earn it, right?
So let's do a little bit of Bible quiz, shall we?
And we're going to give out some shirts here.
I got some shirts along with some stickers.
It says, notice, no dogs allowed.
So these are pretty cool stickers here.
Put that on your work hat or whatever, all right?
So you need to raise your hand though, okay?
Now ladies, if you get this, you raise your hand, but your husband has to answer for you
or a brother right next to you or something, okay?
I'm just kidding.
Okay.
Number one, don't call it out, okay?
If you call it out, I call you out, all right?
I'm just kidding.
You got to raise your hand, follow instructions, all right?
Number one, name the four horsemen of the apocalypse and their events.
Name the four horsemen.
Let's do the first four seals.
Uh-huh, okay, uh-huh, yes.
Okay, yes.
You got the last two mixed up, but you pretty much got all four horsemen.
So give him a round of applause.
He knows his horses.
All right, here you go.
Got yourself a first work shirt and some no dogs allowed stickers right here, all right?
There you go.
All right, next question.
Let's see here.
Okay, next question is this.
Now this is a kind of difficult one, but we'll see.
The beginning of sorrows, okay, lasts for how many days?
And I'm not referring to great tribulation.
I'm talking about just the first initial tribulation lasts for how long?
Yes.
You got it.
So I was told you can't answer anymore, Mike.
Okay, that's the only one you get.
Congrats.
Oh, there you go.
All right, let's see what else we got here.
Okay, the children of Israel strove with the Lord at the waters of what?
Oh, you both answered it.
What's going on here?
Rock, paper, scissors.
Let's see it.
All right, ready?
Go.
Rock, paper, scissors.
Okay, you won.
I got an extra large here.
Are you an extra large?
Okay, you got it.
There we go.
Great job.
All right, let's see here.
Okay, you guys are in the book of Judges, all right?
So name the first three judges.
Are you raising your hand, buddy?
Does he know?
Close, but no.
Name the first three judges.
I'll give you the first one, Othniel.
And I'll give you a hint of the second one.
Yeah, who killed Eglon?
Ehud, okay.
And who's the third one?
No.
Close, though.
I'll give you a hint of what her name...
There you go.
All right, so what's all three of them?
Wait, you already answered, though.
You already won.
What is it?
Yeah, you had to.
If you didn't get that...
All right, go ahead.
We won't clap for you, though.
Just kidding.
All right, hold on a second.
We're not done yet.
All right, let's see.
All right, name the false prophet on the island of Paphos.
I'll give you a hint.
You got it.
Give him a round of applause, Bar-Jesus.
He's been waiting for that his whole...
He knew that.
He's been waiting for it for his whole life.
Okay, name...
Okay, name Jerubabal's son who killed all the other brethren.
He's from the Book of Judges.
Jerubal's son, excuse me, who killed all of his...
Yes.
You got it.
All right.
Round of applause.
Brother Benny got it.
All right, great job, everyone.
Those t-shirts are non-refundable, so...
Hope you enjoy those.
If it doesn't fit you, just give it to someone who it fits, all right?
All right, let's get into the sermon tonight.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter number 3, if you would.
2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 10.
Now, you might be thinking I'm preaching on false prophets and reprobates.
I'm not, okay?
Sorry to disappoint you.
Yeah, I know.
But I'm not going in that direction.
Although, you know, I might, you know, insert some of that.
How can you not preach from 2 Timothy 3 and not talk about reprobates?
Verse 10 says,
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life,
purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
persecutions, afflictions,
which came to me at Antioch,
and Iconium,
and at Lystra,
what persecutions I endured,
but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
And the title of the sermon this evening
is The Thoroughness of God's Deliverance.
The thoroughness of God's deliverance.
Really what I want to do this evening is basically
encourage you, okay?
I want to exhort you, I want to encourage you to continue in the faith
and I just want to remind you
that God's salvation is very thorough.
When I talk about his salvation,
I'm referring to his physical salvation.
The fact that he can deliver us from our troubles.
He can deliver us from tribulation
and trials and difficulties.
And the reason this is important is because
you will go through trials.
You're going to go through a difficulty.
You're going to go through a very hard time
in your life and it's going to seem like
man, this trial is never going to end.
You know, it's never going to end.
When is everything going to be all better?
Is this always going to be the way of life?
But the reality is that God is
very thorough in his deliverance.
Now, the title is based on the latter end
of verse number 11 where it says,
but out of them all the Lord delivered
me. Now look, the Apostle Paul
was no stranger to God's deliverance
because of the fact that he was no stranger to
peril. He was always going through
difficult times and in fact, stay there in 2 Timothy.
I'm going to read to you from 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 verse 23.
It says, Are they ministers of Christ? I
speak as a fool. I am more.
In labors more abundant, in stripes
above measure, in
prisons more frequent, in deaths
off. Of the Jews
five times received I forty stripes
save one. Thrice was I
beaten with rods. Once was I
stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.
And night and day I have been in the deep,
in journeyings often, in perils
of water, in perils of robbers, in
perils of mine own countrymen, in
perils by the heathen, in perils
of the city, in perils in the wilderness,
in perils of the sea, in perils among
false brethren. Hey, if you ever feel like you're going
through a tough day, just
read that for a while.
If you ever feel like you're going through a tough day,
you stubbed your toe,
you got fired from your job, your
wife's not happy with you, your dog died,
you got a barbecue stand in your white t-shirt
or whatever. Hey, just
read this portion of scripture and it will
remind you that someone always has it worse.
Right? In
weariness, in painfulness, in watchings
often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold
and nakedness, and beside all those
that are without, that which cometh upon
me daily, the care of all
the churches. So, needless
to say, the apostle Paul went through a
lot of tough times, right? He
went through a lot of difficult times, and so
he's no stranger to peril. Therefore,
he was no stranger to God's
deliverance. And over and over, we
see him addressing God's miraculous
salvation, his miraculous deliverance
throughout his ministry. And in fact,
the book of 2 Timothy
is all about that. Okay?
If you remember in the book of 1 Timothy,
he really drives home the point about doctrine,
making sure that you're ordained the right kind
of person, have the right type of deacon,
make sure that you are, you know,
preaching the word of God, giving attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine,
etc., how to take care of the widows in the church.
But 2 Timothy
is a book that really hones
in and focuses on this. Hey, Timothy,
you need to learn how to endure persecutions.
It's one thing to know,
you know, how to do,
right? It's the second thing to be able to
endure temptations,
endure trials. You know,
you can have all the head knowledge of the
Bible, but if you don't know how to endure trials,
what good is that?
You know, if you know all doctrine
and all mysteries, if you
have that gift of prophecy where you understand
all these mysteries, but you don't have
the ability to endure
afflictions and persecutions and trials,
what good is it?
What good is that knowledge to anybody else
if you can endure a hard
day, the evil day that's going to come upon you
one day? So 2 Timothy
is all about Paul testifying of God's
saving power in order to motivate Timothy to serve
God. This is why he tells them,
hey, God did not give us a spirit of fear,
but of power, love,
and of a sound mind. He tells them,
don't be ashamed of the testimony of Jesus
Christ nor me, his prisoner.
Say, look, now you have all that knowledge,
but make sure you're not ashamed of me
or of Jesus Christ. Make sure you're
not afraid. Understand you've got to be
bold. You've got to have power. You have a sound
mind because of the Spirit.
In chapter 2, he tells them, thou therefore
endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ. No man that
warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this
life, that he may please him
who hath chosen him to be a soldier.
The problem today is that
you have pastors trying to condition people
into thinking that once you become a Christian,
everything's going to be okay.
Everything's going to be a bed of roses. You'll never
have a problem in your life. You have
God's favor. God's not mad at you.
This is false, folks.
In fact, sometimes things get worse when you become a Christian.
Because you got
Satan as your enemy.
You know, you have Satan as your enemy.
You have the world. You have your flesh
constantly fighting against you.
I mean, it's not a bed of roses.
And the Bible says that the Christian
life is like war. It's a spiritual
battle that we are
facing. He says in verse number 11
of chapter 2, it is a faithful
saying, for if we be dead with him, we
shall also live with him. If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny
him, he will also deny us.
Now, this is not referring to this matter
of salvation. You know, if we
deny Jesus, if we act like we're not
Christians, he's going to deny salvation.
This is referring to the fact that if we deny him
by not preaching the Gospel, we're going to
be denied rewards in Heaven.
He says if we believe not,
yet he abideth faithful, he
cannot deny himself. What is he saying? Look,
if you don't believe that God can deliver you physically
from the clutches of your enemy,
don't worry. He's still faithful.
He will still deliver you. And look, isn't that true?
Because anybody who's saved,
if God doesn't deliver you in this life,
guess what? We still have the redemptions of our body one day.
You know, we could be
martyred, we could be killed,
wracked with disease and pain, and
you know what? We may not be delivered this side
of eternity, but we know for sure, one
day, we're going to receive the redemptions of our body.
Where our bodies will be
delivered, this wretched body
will be transformed. We shall be
sown in corruption and raised in incorruption.
That is a form of deliverance, amen?
Chapter 4, look at Chapter 4 of
2 Timothy and
verse 17. So look, if we
believe not, he abides faithful, he cannot
deny himself. You know, if you don't
believe that God can deliver you so you're not going to
take a stand for God, okay, you're going to suffer the consequences
of being a coward, but
even then, God is still going to deliver that
wretched body of yours, that fearful, cowardice
body of yours.
2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 17
says, Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me
and strengthened me, that by
me the preaching might be fully known
and that all the Gentiles might hear
and I was delivered out of the mouth
of the lion. He's
just driving this point home to tell him,
look, I was delivered from my countrymen,
I was delivered from the Jews,
I was delivered from the mouth of the lion
and he's doing this to encourage Timothy, hey,
take a stand,
serve Christ, because you're going to
be delivered too, okay.
It says in verse 18, and the Lord shall
deliver me from every
evil work. Now there's this
teaching out there that says, well, the Apostle
Paul was beheaded by the Romans. How many of you
ever heard something like that? I went to Bible
college, so I heard that
all the time when we talked about the Apostle Paul.
He was beheaded by the Romans and they took
him and they beheaded him. No one in the Bible
doesn't even say anything about that.
In fact, that would
contradict verse 18 where it says,
the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work.
I don't know about you, but beheading
is an evil work.
Yet he said, the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil
work and will preserve me
unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory
forever and ever, amen. Hey, it is
my strong belief that if you serve
Christ, if you are
a soul winner, if you stand on the
Word of God, you can be in all types
of perils and I guarantee you, God will
deliver you. Why?
Because of the fact that you become
useful. And if you're
useful, why would God want to take you out of the
picture if you're doing God's work?
You're being used in the hand of God.
You know who God is done with are those who
are saved, but you know what? They don't
want to go soul winning. They don't want to preach
the Word of God. They don't want to stand for truth.
What do they become? A castaway.
The Bible says,
I keep under my body and bring it into
subjection unless by any means when I preach to others
I myself should be a castaway.
Like that branch that's broken off of
the vine because he's not abiding in Christ.
He is cast forth as a branch and is
withered. Men gather them and cast them into the
fire and they are burned. They become useless.
Right? Well, hey, if
you don't want to be cast away,
if you want to continue to be preserved and be
used by God and be delivered from every evil work,
you need to be useful.
You need to serve the Lord.
Now look,
the evil day shall come.
Every single
one of you, you're going to go
through an evil day.
And sometimes those evil days
last for months,
sometimes even years.
And you know what the evil day is? It's the day
when you just are at your wits end.
And you feel like
there's no hope left.
How many of you have ever been there?
You don't have to raise your hand, but how many of you have actually
ever been there where you're experiencing such an
evil day that you just lose
all hope? That's the evil
day. And this is why
the Bible tells us,
you know, wherefore take unto you the whole armor
of God that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day
having done all to stand.
You know, when that evil day comes,
it's not your chance to just quit on
God, get out of church,
stop reading your Bible. No, it's your opportunity
to just having done all to stand.
Say, you know what?
I'm just, I'm going to weep.
I'm going to cry. I'm going to pray.
I might even complain and murmur a little
bit, but I'm just going to stand in
church. I'm going to stand
by reading my Bible. I'm going to stand
by sowing. I'm going to do everything I can
to just stand. And it's
typically at that very last hour
of standing that God just delivers you from that.
It's when you feel you can't take it
anymore that God delivers
you from that
trial. You say, well, I feel like I'm there right
now. Well, you know, there's no temptation taking you, but
such is common to man.
God knows how much you can handle. And if you
feel like you have not been delivered from your situation
or your circumstance, it just
means that God knows that you can handle a little
bit more.
Job said, thou speakest
as one of the foolish women speakest,
talking to his wife. By the way, that's not a good way
to start a conversation with your wife, right?
What? Shall we receive good
at the hand of God?
And shall we not receive evil?
And all this did not Job sin
with his lips. Job understood.
Job was very mature.
He's like, you think just because we're believers that
we're only going to receive good, but we're never going to receive
evil?
This is the way of life.
This is the way of a Christian.
Part of it is
experiencing that evil day, whether
it's a death in the family, it's a
sickness that you have to endure, or
you're enduring persecutions at the hand of the
wicked. You know,
this is part of the evil day.
But the promise
is that God can deliver us
through that. The Bible says in Psalm 43 verse 17,
the righteous cry and the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of
all of their troubles.
Psalm 34 verse 19 says, many are the
afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord
delivereth him out of them all.
Go with me if you would to
2 Corinthians chapter 1.
2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter
2 verse 9 says, the Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of
temptation and to reserve the
unjust unto the day of judgment
to be punished. What I'm saying is
this is that God's deliverance is thorough.
So don't lack faith and say
well, you know what, he might
be able to deliver other people, but I'm just
I'm the exception to the rule. And I'm going to
tell you who the only exception to that
rule is. Okay, I'm going to show you just
a little bit who the exception to the rule is.
But God's promise to deliver you
from the clutches of your enemy, from your
unlikely circumstances that you're
going through, from your sickness, from whatever you're
going through, God is able to deliver you.
Excuse me, to deliver you.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 9.
But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves that we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God which raiseth
the dead, who delivered us
from so great a death,
and doth deliver,
in whom we trust that he will yet
deliver us. I mean, look at that.
He said, look, we've been delivered from
death, and he's continuously
delivering us, and you know what? He's going to
continue to deliver us in the future.
Because they're serving God.
Say, whoa, yeah, but what if I like die
or something? Well, then you go to heaven, amen.
You get to
clock out!
Clock out early, get some eternal rewards.
Look, folks, it's
we're on the winning side.
We're always going to come out winning on this thing.
Okay? God is in the business
of delivering his people. Now, when I talk about
deliverance, I'm not talking about, you know, there's a false
doctrine out there that says that when you get saved,
oh, God's going to deliver you, you just
delivered of all your sin. You're not even tempted
to sin. That's a false doctrine. It's garbage.
Okay? To say, oh,
you know, if you're a Christian, you're not going to
desire to sin. False!
For in me, that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing.
You know, there's not a just man upon earth
that doeth good and sinneth not.
So even when we're doing good,
we're trying to keep God's commandments, we're trying
to obey the Lord, guess what? We're still going to
sin because we have the flesh abiding within
us. That's why we're waiting to wit the redemption
of our body. Okay?
If that was
the case, why did Jesus tell us to pray?
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Okay? You know,
obviously we're delivered from the penalty of sin
which is hell. We have an ongoing
battle to the side of eternity with our flesh.
Now, go with me if you would to Revelation chapter
3. I want to share with you one of my favorite
stories of God's deliverance, and I think this
really drives home the point
very thoroughly in regards to
the thoroughness of God's deliverance. Okay?
Revelation chapter 3
in verse number 7.
Of course we understand that
Revelation 2 and 3 are the
letters that are written to the 7 churches which
are in Asia. And obviously
these are real churches, but a lot
of what's being said to them can be applied
to us today. Okay? Now look what it says
in verse number 7 of Revelation chapter 3.
It says, And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia,
these things saith he
that is holy, he that is true,
he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth, and no man shut
it, and shut it, and no man openeth.
I know thy works.
Behold, I have set before
thee an open door, and
no man can shut it. For thou
hast a little strength, and has
kept my word, and has not denied
my name. Behold, I will
make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say
they are Jews and are not, but do lie.
Behold, I will make them to come and worship
before thy feet, and to know that I have loved
thee. Because I was kept
the word of my patience, I will also keep
thee from the hour of temptation, which shall
come upon all the world to
try them to dwell upon the
earth. Now, with that passage
in mind, go to Daniel chapter 3 if you would.
Daniel chapter number 3. Now as I
mentioned, that passage
of scripture is dealing
with the literal church that existed at one time.
Okay? But I believe
it's also a foreshadowing of
the churches that are going to exist in the end times.
Because of the
fact that this
is referring to the beginning
of sorrows or great tribulation.
Okay? And I'm going to prove that
to you because when you read Revelation chapter
3 and you see some of the statements that
are being made, it's kind of cryptic and it's just
like, I don't really understand why he's
saying all this, you know, the open door
and thou hast a little strength
and, you know, the Jews, they
say they're Jews and are not, they do lie,
I'm going to make them to know, come worship before
thy feet. It's like, what is he talking about?
Obviously we understand the spirit of
what's being said, but what is he referencing
there? Well, what I believe he's
referencing is the story
of Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego in
Daniel chapter number 3. Now
the book of Daniel is a great book to teach
Bible prophecy, is it not? And
often we think, well, from chapter 7 and
upward, that's dealing with Bible prophecy.
But in actuality,
even the previous chapters have a lot
of foreshadowing of what's going to
take place in the end times. I'm going to give you proof of that.
Look at Daniel chapter 3
and go down to verse 14. Now what's
taking place here in Daniel chapter 3? This is the
famous story of Nebuchadnezzar and his
image, right?
You have Nebuchadnezzar and his
image and what we see
is that he tells the people,
hey, at the time that, you know,
all these instruments sound,
these six instruments,
everyone has to bow down and worship the
image, right?
And whoever does not bow down and worships
the image, what's going to happen to them? They're going to be
cast into the furnace of
fire, right? Now,
who are the only ones that don't? The saved guys.
Right? Meshech,
Shadrach, and Abednego. And look
what it says in verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar spake and said
unto them, is it true of Shadrach, Meshech,
and Abednego? Do not ye serve my
gods, nor worship the golden image which I
have set up? Now if ye be ready
that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet,
flute, harp, sagbutt, psaltery, dulcimer,
and all kinds of music, ye fall down
and worship the image which I have made, well,
but if ye worship not, ye shall be
cast the same hour
into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
And who is that god
that shall deliver you out of my hands?
Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego answered and said unto
the king, O Nebuchadnezzar,
we are not careful to answer thee
in this matter.
If it be true,
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 the
king that we will not serve thy gods
nor worship the golden image which thou
hast set up. So we know what happens,
they don't do it,
they anger the king, and then
he turns up the furnace
seven times hotter.
So it's like this, in the
beginning of sorrows, the initial beginning
of the tribulation, what's referred to as the
beginning of sorrows, you know, the whole world's
going through this tribulation time, right?
But the last 75 days,
which is the fifth seal
where martyrdom is being taken place,
it's like the furnace being turned up
seven times hotter.
Okay?
Look what it says in verse 20,
and he commanded the most mighty men that were in
the 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 hoes and their hats and their other garments
and were cast into the midst of the
burning fiery furnace.
So look, he throws them in there. Now,
what happens
in the midst of the week?
You know, you have the abomination of
desolation being set up, but then
75 days thereafter, who shows
up on the scene?
Jesus Christ. Right?
Well, that's interesting. Meshach,
Shadrach, and Abednego are cast into
the burning fiery furnace, and
who shows up? The Son of God.
Look what it says in verse number
22. Therefore, because the
king's commandment was urgent, and the
furnace exceeding hot, the flames of the fire
flew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. And these three men,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down
bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was
astonished and rose up in haste and spake
and said unto his counselors, 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.
Now, folks, I don't know about you,
but if I was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
and I'm being thrown into the furnace,
I'm like, okay, I'm just not being delivered.
I'm about to meet my maker.
I'm done. I mean, once you're in there,
you're done.
But were they done?
No, in fact, they were thoroughly
delivered
from the burning fiery furnace,
were they not?
And who shows up?
The Son of God.
Now, look at verse 27, because we're going to look at
some applications in the New Testament.
It says in verse 27, The princes, the
governors, and the captains and kings,
counselors, being gathered together,
saw these men,
upon whose bodies the fire had
no power,
nor was a hair of their head
singed,
neither were their coats changed, nor the
smell of fire had passed on them.
Now, go to Luke chapter 21.
Luke chapter 21. So keep all of
those events that we just read about in
Daniel chapter 3 in mind. Go to Luke chapter 21.
We understand that when we study
end times Bible prophecy,
one of the key chapters in the New Testament
to study, aside from the book of Revelation,
is Matthew 24, Mark 13,
and Luke 21, right? Now, look
at Luke 21 and verse number 12.
This is referring to
instructions dealing with end times,
tribulation, etc. It says in verse 12,
But before all these, they shall
lay their hands on you and persecute you,
delivering you up to the synagogues
and into prisons, being brought
before kings
and rulers for my sake,
and it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Now, look what it says in verse 14.
Settle it, therefore, in your hearts
not to meditate before what
ye shall answer.
What does Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say?
We are not careful
to answer thee in this matter,
O king Nebuchadnezzar.
Why? Because they've already settled them in their hearts.
Settle it, therefore, in your hearts not to meditate
before what ye shall answer.
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom
which all your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay nor
resist. In other words, they're going to see them
delivered and it's just like, mouth shut.
It's like, obviously, this is God.
Okay?
And ye shall be betrayed by both
parents and brethren and kinsfolk and
friends, and some of ye shall they cast,
excuse me, shall they cause to be put to death.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
But look what it says in verse number 17,
excuse me, 18. But there shall
not a hair of your
head perish.
You remember what happened in Daniel chapter 3?
Not even a hair was singed.
What are we talking about here? We're talking about the
thoroughness of God's deliverance.
God says, don't even worry. Not even your hair
is going to perish.
You know? Some of you, you don't got to worry about that, amen?
You're like, wow, great.
You know? Guess that promise
doesn't apply to me.
In your patience,
possess ye your
souls. So what do
we see in Daniel chapter 3? We see
a symbolic representation of
God's deliverance in the
end times, is it not?
And look, this is parallel with Revelation
chapter 3 because of the fact that he says,
I have an open door set before you
which no man can shut.
So what is he referring to? He's referring to that fiery
furnace because they came out, he
opened that door, and they were
delivered, right? Go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 10.
Let's look a little deeper into this.
1 Corinthians chapter 10.
It says in verse 13,
by the way, temptation
is synonymous with trials and tribulation.
It says,
There is no temptation taking you, but such
is common to man. But God
is faithful, who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able,
but will with the temptation
also make a way to escape.
Did not he give Meshach,
Shadrach, and Abednego a way to
escape? That ye may be
able to bear it. Now look at this interesting
verse right afterwards.
Wherefore, my dearly beloved,
flee from
idolatry.
So what does the image of Nebuchadnezzar
represent in January chapter 3?
The image of the beast, right?
And what does the Bible say in Matthew 24?
Flee from the image,
right? When the abomination of desolation
is set up, flee into the mountains,
he says. This is referring
to, it's foreshadowing
what's taking place in Revelation
chapter 3. Now go to Revelation chapter 3
again. It's good stuff,
amen? The
Bible is so deep
He says in verse number 8,
I know thy works. We'll read it again.
Behold, verse 8, I have set before thee
an open door, and no man
can shut it. For thou hast a
little strength, Meshach, Shadrach, and
Abednego. You got a little bit of strength.
And has kept my word,
and has not denied my name.
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of
Satan, which say they are Jews and
are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them
to come and worship
before thy feet. Why?
Because they were trying to get Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego
to come and worship before the image of the beast.
And worship thee before thy feet to know
that I have loved thee. Verse 10, because I was
kept the word of my patience,
I will also keep thee from the hour
of temptation, which
shall come upon all the world to try
them that dwell on the earth.
Go to 1 Peter.
1 Peter, if you will.
1 Peter chapter number 1.
I'm
talking about the thoroughness of God's
deliverance. I'm trying to show you that
God just doesn't do a little
half-hazard deliverance. No, when he delivers
you, it's complete. It's thorough.
But you know what he doesn't do? Those who keep the word of
his patience.
Those who are serving the Lord.
Because at that point, you have usefulness.
You are a useful
servant, and he wants to keep you around.
Amen? Look at 1 Peter
chapter 1 and verse 6.
Wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be,
you are in heaviness through manifold temptations,
that the trial
of your faith, being much more
precious than that of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at
the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now, this
is definitely applicable to any kind of
trial, but specifically I think it's applicable
obviously to the Great Tribulation.
Because you have 1,260 days
of the beginning of sorrows, but then you have
75 days of Great Tribulation
where that furnace is turned seven times
hotter, you go through basically
hell on earth, right?
And what happens if you're able
to just endure until the end?
The same shall be saved.
They that endure until the end, the same shall be saved,
the same shall be delivered.
And it's not referring to the
salvation of our souls, obviously. It's referring to the
salvation of our body.
What I'm trying to get across here
is the fact that
God can wholly deliver you.
And we ought to
strive to be wholly delivered by
God because that increases our faith. I mean,
I'm sure your faith was increased just by reading these
verses here. It was like, wow.
You know, God did it for them. He can do
it for me too. And absolutely, He can.
Okay?
Now,
there are times when believers are just
not delivered at all.
Right?
I mean, I've been saved for
about 14 years.
And in my 14 years of being saved,
you know, I've witnessed God
kill a good amount of people.
You know, from my old church,
God just is done with them.
And He does it. Our God kills, folks.
And He
does it because of the fact that sometimes people just become
useless. And one of the reasons
why He doesn't deliver them is because
number one, because of sin.
Go to Isaiah 59, if you will.
Isaiah 59.
Isaiah chapter 59.
Because look, folks, it's not that God
is not capable of delivering
anybody from any type of situation.
God is able. Amen?
Look what it says in Isaiah 59, verse 1.
Behold, the Lord's hand
is not shortened that it cannot save.
Neither is ear heavy
that it cannot hear, but
your iniquities have separated
between you and your God
and your sins have hid His face
from you that He will not
hear. He says, look,
it's not that I'm incapable of saving
you. My arms are not short that I cannot
save, nor are my ears heavy that I cannot hear.
It's your sin.
It's your sin that's keeping me from delivering
you. It's your iniquity
that's keeping me from
showing myself strong on your
behalf. So look,
if you don't want to be delivered, yeah, be involved
in the sin. Have your little
secret pet sins in your life.
And you know what? You will not experience the
deliverance of God. Hey,
that's good motivation to clean up your life. Amen?
To say, man, I want
to be like a Meshach, Shadrach,
and a Bendigo. I want to be able to
experience that open door.
I want to experience something miraculous
in my life, but I can't do it
if I have sin in my life.
Folks, that's why it's important to keep
our hearts clean.
Obviously, we're never going to be sinless this side of
eternity, but we can strive
to sin less. We can strive
not to be involved in specific sins
that God tells us, hey, you can't be
in the church if you're involved in these list of sins
according to 1 Corinthians 5.
Keep this sin out of your life.
Work on living a holy life so that when
the time comes, you know you're
in right standings with God. You know that
God will deliver you. It's just a matter of time
of when. And sometimes, He
waits until the very end.
And sometimes, He waits until they just throw you
into the furnace, right?
Why? Because it just looks that much better.
He has gotten more
glory to
deliver you at that very hour
of temptation. By the way, the Bible talks
about the hour of temptation and what it never
can answer to say. In that very hour,
I will cast you into the fiery furnace.
Go with me if you
went to Hebrews chapter 11.
One reason why people are not delivered
is because of the fact that they have sin in their life,
right? But a second reason is this.
They're not delivered because they don't want to be delivered.
They don't want to be
delivered. And you know what?
That's okay.
These are the
hardcore people right here. I don't
know if I'm going to be in this group right here.
I don't think I will be. But look what it says in Hebrews chapter 11
verse 32.
This is the faith chapter, right?
It says, And what shall I more say,
for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon,
and of Barak, and of Samson, of Jephthah,
of David also, and of Samuel, and of the prophets,
who through faith subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
promises, stopped the mouths of
lions, quenched the violence
of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, out of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in
fight, turned to flight the armies
of the aliens. I mean, man, these guys are
doing great works. Through faith
they're able to do all these things and it's just like
now this is the reason why they're in the hall of faith.
But look what it says in verse 35.
Women received their dead
raised to life again and others
were tortured
not accepting
deliverance.
What does that mean to be tortured?
It means you're just, the last moments
on this earth are going to be the worst
moments of your life.
Tortured.
You know what they said? I don't want
deliverance. God opened the
door and they said, I won't take it.
God opened the door to the furnace.
He says, you can leave.
You can walk out. I can deliver you.
And they said, no.
I won't do it.
Why?
That they might obtain a better resurrection.
In L.A. we say,
that's gangster.
They're like,
I know I can be delivered.
God is offering that open door, but you know what?
I won't do it because I want a better
resurrection. So don't tell
me, dispensationalists,
that the Old Testament saints didn't
know about the resurrection.
There's people here who didn't
want deliverance because they knew they can have
a better resurrection. They not only knew
of the resurrection, they knew they can have a better
one.
Don't tell me, oh,
how, you know, you have Sluder, Andrew
Sluder over here. How can salvation
be the same
if you have to believe in the death,
better resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Folks, the Old Testament saints all
talked about the resurrection.
So do you think they knew about the
resurrection, but they had no idea that the
Christ who was resurrecting them was not going to
resurrect? It's nonsense, folks.
No, they even knew of the better resurrection.
So two reasons why people are not
delivered holy, number one, it's because of sin.
But number two, because of the fact that they
understand, you know what, when I get my
incorruptible body,
I want it to shine brighter than
any body, celestial body
that resurrects. I want a better resurrection.
And therefore, I'll receive
the martyr's crown.
I want that better resurrection, and I won't accept
deliverance. Powerful!
Go to Job chapter 14.
Job chapter 14.
Talking about the thoroughness
of God's deliverance. Hey, what trial
are you going through today?
What difficulty are you going through today?
My father-in-law used to say this,
he used to tell me, Bruce, you're either
coming out of a trial,
you're in a trial,
or you're heading into a trial.
Because this is the way of life.
This is life.
You're either coming
out of a trial, or you're going
for one right now, or if everything's hunky
dory for you, you're about to go into a trial.
Because that's just the way life is.
And you know what the unfortunate thing is?
Is that you have good, godly people
who love the Lord, but they're just not rooted
in the Bible.
They're not rooted, they don't understand these principles
and so when persecution arises because
of the Word, they fall away.
You don't want that.
You want to maintain,
stay rooted and grounded
in love. You know, to know the
love of Christ, and the
passive knowledge, you want to just
stay in this thing for the long haul.
But you have to understand
that when you feel like you're at your wits end
and you're not going to be delivered, that's actually
when Christ comes and delivers you.
From your difficulty.
So let me give you two things that we need
to keep in mind
in regards to this, okay?
In regards to you going through a difficult time.
Number one, realize that change is imminent.
Alright?
You know,
we should try to change our circumstances as much
as we possibly can,
but obviously there's times when we just can't change
anything, right?
Go through a difficult time and it's just like I can change
a whole lot of things, but there's one thing that I,
there's some things that I just can't change.
But just understand this is that
that doesn't mean that things are not going to change though.
Because change is the way of life.
Things change.
Things can change overnight.
Things can change
in a year.
Change is just always imminent.
And the reason I say this is because sometimes people
think it's never going to change.
I'm going through a hard time.
There's no hope.
There's no light at the end of the tunnel.
You know, we can have kids.
I'm still sick.
I haven't found a job.
I haven't reached this point.
There's just no hope. There's no change.
But just realize this, there is going to be change.
Because that's what life is filled with is change.
Now you may not be able to change anything.
So if there's change, what do you have to do?
Look at Job 14.
If there's change that you can't do anything about
and you have to just
wait it out, what do you have to do?
It says right there in verse 13,
And look, does anybody know anybody who's gone through a harder time than Job?
I think I went through a hard time.
You know what he said?
I'm just going to wait.
Until when?
Until my change comes.
And did his change come?
Oh yeah.
And the change that God brought in his life, wasn't it not better
in his latter end than it was in the beginning?
Absolutely.
But I guarantee you, in the midst of his trial,
life is over.
My life is over.
But you know what? God has thorough deliverance.
All we have to do sometimes is this.
Just wait.
I mean, there's nothing much you can't do, right?
So you might as well just wait.
Wait, go sowing.
Wait, read your Bible.
Wait, serve your husband.
Wait, love your wife.
Wait, raise your kids.
Go to church.
I mean, why not?
No, I'm just going to leave church.
Trying to get God's attention.
I'm going to try to get God's attention.
Yeah, you will get God's attention with that part.
And it's going to be worse for you.
Wait upon the Lord,
and he shall renew thy strength.
You know, even Jesus said this
in Luke 22 verse 37.
He says, For I say unto you,
Puritan must yet be accomplished in me.
And he was reckoned among the transgressors,
for the things concerning me have an end.
And look, folks,
the things concerning us, they always have an end.
It may take a couple years,
but there's an end to it.
Change is coming.
And if you feel like,
well, I can't change anything about my circumstances,
okay, then change yourself.
Change the way you think.
Change your attitude.
You know, change the way you read your Bible.
Change the way you serve the Lord.
Change yourself, because that's one thing you can't change.
You can become better,
a better Christian,
so that when you come out of this trial,
when God opens those doors of that fiery furnace,
you come out a better person because of it.
Okay?
Turn with me, go back to
2 Timothy chapter 3.
This is my last point.
With this in mind,
that God can thoroughly deliver us,
we need to realize that change is imminent,
and number 2, we just need to continue.
Right?
What does it mean to continue?
It means to persist, to go forward, no matter what.
Just go forward. Why not?
Why quit on God?
Why quit church?
You know, I've met so many people that when they go through a hard time,
they're like, I just need to break from church.
It's like, that's going to break you, actually.
When you're going through a tough time,
that's not a time to get out of church.
That's a time, actually, to go to church more.
That's when you need to develop more relationships in the church,
serve more in the church,
so that you can get your mind off of your trial.
Because look, let's just be honest.
There's someone out there who has it worse than us,
and they might be in this church.
Right?
You're going to talk to someone,
and you're going through a tough time,
and they're just like, look,
my family member just passed away,
and you're just like, whoa.
That's worse.
And you know what? In comparison,
that's going to help you to realize, you know what?
People out there have it worse than I do,
and God's been good to me.
Continue. Look what it says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 14.
But continue thou in the things which thou has learned,
and has been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
Over and over again, if you study the word continue in the Bible,
you'll constantly see that term brought up over and over again.
Continue steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine.
Continue in the grace of God.
Just persist. Just go forward.
Just continue.
If there's nothing else you can do,
one thing you can't do is just continue to go forward.
Like, man, this has been a tough year.
It's been a tough couple years for our church here.
Okay. Continue.
Yeah, but we don't know if anything's going to get better.
Well, from the looks of it,
it looks like it's gotten a lot better.
I mean, this church is thriving.
It's going forward.
You guys are blessed.
So if God can change the church, right,
and what's going on here and make it better,
He can do the same thing for your personal life, too.
Just don't do this.
Look, just don't put a deadline to when that change should come.
Say, God, I just need it done by this date.
You know, don't be like the government who's going to pull the coronavirus out by Election Day or something.
You know what I mean?
Don't go to Election Day and then everything will go away or something, you know.
Don't try to lay that on the Lord and say, well, I just need this to go away by this time.
No, everything is beautiful in His time, the Bible says.
That's what the Word of God says.
You know, and let patience have a perfect work.
That you may be entire, you know, perfect, wanting nothing.
And if you feel like you can't do that, then the Bible tells you to pray for wisdom.
Let Him ask of God to give it to all men liberally and abraighteth not, the Bible says.
What's the sermon today?
The sermon is this, hey, I just want to remind you that God is very thorough in His deliverance.
So if you feel like you're in that burning fiery furnace, don't worry, He's going to show up.
It's going to happen.
You know, and if you believe not, don't worry, He still abideth faithful.
He cannot deny Himself. Amen?
Fire heads and a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word.
Thank you for the promises found therein, Lord.
And we're thankful that you're very thorough in your deliverance.
I'm thankful that I'm saved, but I'm thankful as well that you still deliver me from day to day
from the hands of my enemies, from difficulties and circumstances and situations.
And Lord, it increases my faith in you.
I pray, God, that you'd help us to not quit on you, to continue to go forward,
to make sure that we recognize that change is imminent.
Something's going to change.
I mean, one day we're all going to die.
One day we're all going to be with you.
One day we're going to be in the millennial reign.
One day we're going to be in the new heaven and the new earth.
That's a dramatic change.
I pray, God, that you'd help us to keep those things in remembrance.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.