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...what we came here for, Father, we came so that you would speak to us. And so I just pray that you would speak to our hearts through the message this morning. And in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Alright, this is a familiar story to some, but maybe not to others. But Daniel chapter 3, of course, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Let me tell you the story quickly. In chapter 1 of the book of Daniel, and this occurred in 606 BC, about 600 years before the time of Christ being born, then Nebuchadnezzar came into the land of Judah as a judgment of God on the kingdom of Judah, the southern kingdom. And Nebuchadnezzar came in with the captain of his host, Nebuzar Adan, and all of his armies and all of his men, and they came and besieged Jerusalem, they took it captive. And they took the first of what were three captivitys, where they would take large amounts of the Jews and transport them back to Babylon, take them out of their native land, and take them as prisoners to Babylon. Now, when they were going there, they were looking for the smartest, the richest, the most educated, the most successful type of people to bring to Babylon. They left the poor of the land, they left all the misfits and everything to stay in the land and just to work the land. And then they took some of their best and brightest to come run things in Jerusalem. And then they brought these young people that were the smartest, the best in their class, they brought these young teenagers and young men to Babylon, and they were going to train them and re-educate them in the things of the Chaldeans, so that they could tap into this resource of their minds and their abilities and so forth. So, four of these men that were taken were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were taken in this first captivity, I believe it was about 7,000 people, I'm not sure. But I think it was about 7,000 people that they took in this first captivity. And in chapter one, you'll see these four men, how they excelled all of the other captives. They excelled everyone in the land of Babylon for intelligence, for health, for wisdom, because God was with them and God was blessing them. They spent their time studying the Word of God and obeying God. Let me just put this in here. The Bible says the commandment of the Lord, it talks about the Word of God making wise the simple. Did you know that a person who is a stupid person, a person who's not intelligent at all, a person who's not very bright, if they would just read and study the Word of God, it would make them more intelligent? That's why when I train my kids, I teach my kids, yes, I teach them math and science and reading and writing and all that kind of thing. But the number one thing that I do is want to teach them the Word of God. That's the most important thing. Reading them the Bible, them memorizing the Bible. And it's amazing how when they read large amounts of the Bible, or have it read to them, or memorize the Bible, how they can just blow through some of the other subjects. Because the Bible will make you smarter and more successful in your job, in your life. This book makes wise, this is the source of all knowledge and truth. This will make you an intelligent person. But here they are in a foreign land, in the land of Babylon. And in Daniel chapter 3, I'll skip ahead in the story, they're faced with a challenge. The king Nebuchadnezzar, because he's puffed up and in his mind and he has a huge ego, he thinks that he is literally God on earth. And especially in Daniel chapter 2, Daniel had interpreted to him a dream saying that he was the head of gold on this great image of the kingdoms of the earth. And so that even made him think more about this. And so in Daniel chapter 3, we find Nebuchadnezzar building a giant golden image, probably of himself. It was probably a giant statue of himself. And he said, here's what we're going to do. When you hear this music, come on, we're going to play this music. And when the music comes on, I want every single person in the whole kingdom, all of my employees, all of my rulers, all of my deputies and sheriffs, I want them all to fall down on their faces and worship this image that I've set up. Now, isn't it amazing the part that music always plays in worship throughout the Bible? We were just talking about that on Sunday night, last night about the devil's music. Look, the devil's worship service here, a huge part of it is music. Did you notice how many times we listed those musical instruments? I mean, was it getting a little wearisome? I mean, we read through the whole chapter, we must have listened to that seven times. The harp, flute, sack butt, dulcimer, cornet, and going through those. Because God is emphasizing here what a huge part music played in this whole ordeal. And so the music comes on, the worship service begins, and everybody just falls on their faces and bows down to this golden image that Nebuchadnezzar set up. Except just conspicuously, you could look out over the crowd and see everybody on their faces, except three men are standing up. Now, Daniel was probably not here at the time because he's not even mentioned in this whole chapter. And so three men are standing up. I mean, just conspicuously as all get out, everybody else on their faces, you see these three men standing there, probably having their arms crossed like this, refusing to bow down to the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Well, some of the other deputies and men, you know, they're on their faces, they're looking over and they see these guys stand up and it makes them angry. They say, hey, if I have to bow down, why doesn't he have to bow down? If I have to bow down and worship this golden image, why does he get to stand there proud? So they went and told Nebuchadnezzar and they came to him and said, Nebuchadnezzar, didn't you command that every single person had to do this? He said, there are these three Jews. They refuse to worship your gods. They refuse to fall in line. And as soon as Nebuchadnezzar heard this, I mean, he was enraged. He was angry. Remember, this guy thinks that he's God. I mean, this guy thinks that he is God on the earth. And he says, wait a minute, how dare anyone? I rule the entire world at this time. How dare anyone disobey my commandment? And he said, I'm going to bring them in here and I'm going to straighten these guys out. Well, he brings them in and he says, listen, it's been told me that you're refusing to bow down to my image, that you're refusing to obey my commandment. He says, this is what it is. The music's going to come on a second time. I'm going to give you another chance to fall on your face and bow down to this image. And he says, you know what? I'm in a good mood. And so I'm going to let you off the hook. He says, it'll be all right. We'll forget all about it. Let's just put this behind us. Because remember, these are three of his best guys. I mean, these are three of his greatest, most intelligent, most successful advisors. These are rulers that he set up in Daniel chapter one. Daniel and Shadrach meet second Abednego. And so he says, listen, you guys have been doing a great job for me. You're outworking everybody else that works for me. He says, I'm going to give you another chance. We'll forget about the whole thing. He says, when the music comes on, you're going to bow down and worship this thing. Otherwise, I'm going to throw you alive into a burning, fiery furnace. And look what they say. Let me read this for you again. In verse number 16, the Bible says, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter. He's saying, we're not going to sit here and think about what we're going to say and say it in a way that's not going to offend you. He says, look, we're 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 thy hand, O king. But if not, be known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up. Look, I remember when I read that story for the first time. And I can't remember exactly how old I was. I was very young, because I knew that this is kind of a kid's story that kids like. And so I probably wasn't even that much older than Solomon, to be honest with you. I was probably five, six, seven years old. And I was reading this story, and that was my favorite part of the whole story. My favorite part of this whole story. I mean, I'm talking about as a little kid reading this. My favorite part was when they say, but if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods. I love that. And I remember I've heard preachers my whole life say, see, they were doubting, like they were doubting God. You know, they said, God's going to do it, but if not, we still want to. Look, that's not doubting God. I mean, when I was a little kid, I understood what they're saying. They're saying, look, God, we know God's able. But if he doesn't choose to deliver us from the fiery furnace, we don't care. We're still not going to bow down. And see, that was my favorite part of the story. Because they're saying, even if it means us being thrown alive into a fiery furnace, we will not bow down to your image. And so the title of the sermon this morning is, I'd Rather Burn Than Bow. I'd Rather Burn Than Bow. That's the title of the sermon. And that's what we see here. Boy, isn't there always a pressure on us to change? Isn't there always some kind of a pressure on us to bow down, so to speak, when it comes to what we believe, when it comes to what we stand for? Let's finish the story, though. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down. They say we'd rather burn than bow. He says, OK. He has the biggest, burliest, strongest men in his army come. They tied up the hands and feet of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And they heated the oven up. It says seven times hotter than it was want to be heated. The word W-O-N-T means that it was fitted for a certain purpose. It means want means that, like in the technical specification sheet on this furnace when they bought it, it said, do not heat above 500 degrees. And so they said, let's heat up to 3,500 degrees. And they heated it up so hot that the Bible says that the big, burly, strong, mighty men who threw them into the furnace were consumed with the fire and died themselves as they threw these men in. Well, they throw them in. They're laying on the ground. They're tied up, hog tied, hands and feet, laying in the middle of this furnace. And all of a sudden, the king's advisor, the king's right-hand man, looks in and he says, wait, King, didn't we throw three men in the fire? And he says, yeah, that's what we threw in. And he says, 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. You see that? The fire actually burned their ropes off their body, but it didn't burn them at all. And then somebody was there with them. Jesus Christ himself. And don't tell me this wasn't Jesus Christ, because I don't want to hear it, OK? Because the Bible says the Son of God. And I don't need an NIV that says a son of the gods. I realize that that's what the NIV says. The form of the fourth is like a son of the gods. I know that's what the living Bible says. I know that's what every modern Bible says. But my King James Bible says that it was the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in the midst of the fire, delivering these three boys, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And so the King commanded him. He said, bring them out. And they turned off the furnace, brought them out. And he just does a complete 180 and says, there's no God that can do anything like this God. He said, my gods are nothing. And he says, I'm going to make a law that nobody can say anything against their God. He said, if anybody says anything against their God, he says, I'm going to take that person and cut them in pieces, it says. I mean, he's literally going to chop them up and turn the house into a dunghill if anybody says anything against this God. And so the people who were trying to destroy Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they were the ones who ended up being destroyed because they refused to bow down. Boy, there's always a pressure to change. There's pressure on me to change. There's pressure on you to change. There's always a pressure to change. Think about friends and family always trying to wear you down on what you believe, on what you stand for, on what you do. Think about just popularity. You know, there's such a people want to be popular. They want people to like them. And so, I mean, it's just not popular to stand up when everybody else is bowing down. Think about just sometimes you just get tired. I mean, just weariness of your body where you just say, good night. I just can't keep fighting anymore. It would just be so much easier just to quit, just to bow down, just to be like everybody else, just to give in and just do what everybody else says I should be doing and just bow down and everything, the fighting would be over. I could just relax and take it easy. You just get tired sometimes. And sometimes, what about doubt? What about sometimes when you doubt yourself and say, good night? Thousands of people are bowing down around me. I'm the only one standing up. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I mean, maybe I'm mixed up. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing. And so the doubt will come in and say, maybe you're wrong. But you know what? That's why you must be anchored to this book. You must be anchored on what you believe and nail it down what you believe because I don't care what anybody says. I don't care if the whole world says it. If it's different in this book, I don't care. Forget it. I must make this my God and my authority, my life, this Bible right here. So let me give you some areas here, first of all, to start with. Let me give you some areas in which I'd rather burn than bow. Number one, I'd rather burn than bow when it comes to my doctrine. Turn, if you would, to 2 Timothy, chapter number one. 2 Timothy, chapter number one, and we'll begin reading in verse number 13 of 2 Timothy, I'd rather burn than bow when it comes to changing my doctrine from the Bible. Look at this great scripture here in 2 Timothy 1.13. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are by jealous and homogeneous. You see, there was a time earlier in the life of Paul where he said that he had preached the Gospel to everyone in Asia. He said, everyone in Asia has heard the Gospel from my mouth. He started churches in Asia, in Ephesus, in Laodicea, in all these different places in Asia. He'd been around there preaching to every single person, and he's about to die. In chapter number four of 2 Timothy, he says, I'm now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. He said, I know that I'm about to die. I'm about to be offered on the altar of martyrdom for the cause of Christ. But he says, in the beginning of 2 Timothy, he's writing to a young preacher boy, Timothy, who he wants to carry the torch because he knows he's about to be offered. And he says, Timothy, I want you to keep alive what I fought for and what I preached my entire life. You're my son in the faith, and I want you to keep it alive. He says, hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me. He says, don't change what you believe. Don't change what I preached to you. Don't change what you've received from the Holy Ghost, the word of God. Don't change what you believe. And he says, look, you know, Timothy, you know, he says in verse 15, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me. He says, I'll tell you even some of their names. Phygelus used to be a great follower of mine. He used to be a preaching companion of mine. He turned his back on me. Hermogenes, he doesn't believe like we used to believe. He's changed what he believed. He doesn't believe the same things he used to believe. But he says, I don't care if everybody in Asia says that I'm wrong. I don't care if everybody in Asia turns away from me. You, Timothy, are to hold fast the form of sound words. He said, I want you to believe what we've always believed. Because it's in the word of God, because it came from the Holy Ghost. I received it, not a man, he said, mattered. Any man gave it to me. He said, I received it by revelation from God. And every time you read your Bible, that's the same thing. You say, well, I want to have a vision where some angel appears to me, some spooky vision in my bedroom where the whole room lights up and I hear a voice tell me it's all going to be OK. And let me tell you some word of knowledge from the Bible. Look, every time you open this book and read it, that's a revelation from God. The Bible says, we, in the New Testament, have a more sure word of prophecy than they had in the Old Testament. I'd rather have this book in my hand than some angel come speak to me. I'd rather have it just laid out in black and white so I can just look at it and see with my eyes. This is the revelation from God right here. And so I'm going to hold fast the form of sound words. I don't care if other people turn away from me. I don't care if it's not popular. I will not bow down when it comes to the doctrine changing across America, across Asia, wherever it is. I will not change my doctrine. Let me give you a few examples. Number one, this church is King James Bible only. Did you hear that? King James Bible only. I called the church the other day. My brother-in-law was going to go to it. My brother-in-law, you met him. He was here one Wednesday night. My brother-in-law Bobby, he was going to go for work and he was going to be in town on a Wednesday night, you know, working throughout the week in another town and somewhere, I don't even remember where it was, some faraway state. And his, my sister, his wife were, you know, looking, they were looking for a church and trying to find a church for him to go to while he was there. So she said, can you call these people? Cause I'm having trouble figuring out, you know, whatever. So I said, okay. So I call one up and I said, I said, hi, how you doing? My brother-in-law is going to be in town. I'm trying to find a church for him to go to. I said, let me ask this. Are you, are you King James Bible only? Okay. Cause they're independent fundamental Baptist. I said, are you King James Bible only? And he said, oh yeah, we use the King James. I said, that's not what I asked you. I said, I didn't ask you if you use the King James. You know, I'm a little rude with these people. Sometimes I didn't ask you if you use the King James. I said, are you King James Bible only? And the guy literally, this is what he said. He went, I mean, literally it's like 10 seconds. I'm not, I'm not exaggerating. He's like, well, I'm not really sure if it's exactly worded like that. Well, that's what we use. I mean, that's what we preach from. That's all we preach from. Click. Look, hey, are you King James Bible only or not, sir? Why don't you get off the fence? Why don't you quit lighting the fence and try to suck me in when I ask you a point blank question and tell the King James Bible only and you give me some answer about, well, yeah, that's what we use. Yeah, what do you use it for? To put your coffee on in the morning? What do you use it for? As a doorstop? Hey, I don't care whether you use it in addition to, because if you use that plus the wrong one, it's all garbage. Look, man, there are some words in the NIV that are in the King James too. That doesn't make it right. I want 100% the right Bible. I want 100%. I don't want you studying in your study the NIV poisoning your mind and then getting up in the pulpit and using a King James in front of everybody, but you're still spewing out the garbage that you got back in your study when you were reading the NIV. That's what some of these preachers do. They preach the King James so that the old timers don't get upset, you know, that they change the Bible. But back in their study, they are going to the commentaries. They're going to the books written by the NIV reader. They're going to the NIV itself. And you can tell because, look, I went to a church for five years that preached the NIV when I was a teenager, and I know the NIV. I mean, I could tell you what the NIV says in almost any famous verse. I mean, I could tell you what words it uses. So when I sit in some preaching service and hear some guy dropping those words, I know where he got them. He didn't get them from that. I know where he got them because I've heard it straight from the NIV. And so I don't want to hear garbage from some preacher who's reading the NIV but preaching the King James. Look, are you King James only or not? If the King James is good enough for you to preach, the King James is good enough for you to read and study from. The King James is the word of God. And this other stuff is garbage. Look, I'm constantly just amazed. Look, we're just talking about Daniel 3.25, a son of the gods. You know, look at this. You think I'm going to study from this piece of junk, this NIV I got in my hand? That's what it says. No, I beat my body and make it my slave. Look, I'm not going to read that junk. First Corinthians 9.27 in the NIV says I beat my body and make it my slave. You think I'm going to read that sodomite Catholic piece of trash Bible? You say, I can't believe you're saying that. Look, I'm not going to read that junk. I'm not going to read the devil's Bible. I'm going to read the King James Bible. And I'm not going to change that. I don't care if everybody changed that. I will not change Bibles. Number two, easy believism. Yes, I believe in easy believism. You say, oh, that preacher's easy believism. Yes, guilty as shards. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved. Whosoever believe in the name should not perish but have everlasting life. Hey, let me read this verse for you. Last night at about 11 o'clock at night, I flipped open my Bible. Look at this if you would. Matthew 21. Turn there. This is a great verse. Every once in a while, I sit down with my Bible and just flip it open and just say, God, show me something. And you know, I mean, maybe that's silly. Maybe people would say that that's a goofy way to say the Bible. But every once in a while I just open the Bible and say, God, show me something interesting. And I just flip it open and just look at it. Well, this is what I looked at last night. Honestly, just at random. Matthew 21, verse number 32. Listen to this great verse. For John, this is talking about John the Baptist. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and he believed him not. But the publicans and the harlots, that's a prostitute. But the publicans and the harlots believed him and he, when he had seen it, repented not afterward that you might believe him. You see how simple this is? I mean, I don't understand what's so hard to understand. You know, people say, oh yeah, John the Baptist preached, repent, repent of Jesus Christ. Preach, repent, repent, repent. Hey, look, man, it doesn't say anywhere repent of your sins. You know what it says? Jesus in Mark chapter one, in Mark chapter one, John the Baptist said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Later on the same chapter, Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel. Here mentions three times believe. It says you believed him not. Prostitutes and thieves believed him and he says you did not repent afterward and believe him. You see what I'm saying? There's no mention of sin in there. There's no mention of this harlot stopping being a harlot. All that's mentioned is that this crowd believed him. This crowd did not believe him and the crowd that not believe him never repented that they might believe him. Now, is there anything complicated about that at all? Repentance is when you turn from not believing in Jesus and say, I will believe in Jesus. It's when you change your mind. It's when you change what you believe and you say, I used to not believe in Jesus. Now I'm going to repent and believe the gospel. I used to not believe in the harlots and publicans believe, but now I'm going to repent afterward and believe on him. I can show you another. I found another similar one several weeks ago. That's just one I found last night. I found another one several weeks ago. I'll just read this to you. Acts chapter 17 that says basically the same thing about John the Baptist, who was the one preaching repentance majorly. You know what? I'm not seeing it. I thought it was in Acts 17. It must be in Acts 19. Anyway, we'll save that for some other sermon when we want to rip some face about repentance because I'm sick and tired of people trying to change the gospel and say, you've got to be willing to give up your alcohol to get saved. You've got to be willing to get up your smoking to get saved. You've got to be willing to give up your sins to get saved. Hey, look, man, hang that stuff because I'm going to believe in easy believers until I die. I get attacked for that every week. Every week somebody attacks me for saying it's all by faith. It's all by grace through faith, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Every week I get attacked for that. But you know what the other, every once in a while somebody writes me and says, man, praise the Lord for standing up about that. He said, a guy, a pastor wrote me from Texas like a week ago. He said, don't ever change what you believe about that. Stand by your guns. Don't stop preaching that. He said, you're right. And that was encouraging to me because I get so much negative feedback. You're giving people a license to sin. Hey, come to this church for a couple of weeks and see if I'm giving people a license to sin. Number one, King James, Bible only. Number two, easy believe ism. Number three, separation. Yes, separation. Look at you at Romans chapter 16. Yes, I'd rather burn than bow down on these things. Yes, I'd rather have somebody throw me into a fiery furnace than to change from the King James Bible. Yes, I'd rather burn alive than to have somebody tell me that I can't preach against this phony faith repentance where they try to change what repentance means. Yes, I would rather be lit on fire alive than to change what I believe about that. But look at Romans chapter 16 verse number 17. The Bible says, now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. You see that? Avoid them. You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, you're the one causing division, Pastor Anderson, because everybody else believes the same thing. Everybody else has the rock music. Everybody else has the new Bibles. You're dividing the body of Christ, so called, you know, even though the body of Christ is the local church. But they say you're causing division. But see, they miss one key word here. Look at this. It says which cause divisions contrary to the doctrine which you've learned. You see that? So who's the one causing the division? The one causing the division is the one going against the doctrine that we've learned from the Bible. That's the one causing the division. So think about the story that we started, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. You've got three people standing up. You've got hundreds of thousands of people bowing down. Who's causing the division? Now, the no-brainer answer that most people would say is, look, the three people are causing division. The three people need to fall in line, and everybody can pay unity. Oh, wouldn't it be great if we just have peace among Christendom? We just have unity in the body of Christ. Look, the three guys were not causing the division. Everybody else was causing the division. The 99.9%. You say, that doesn't make sense to me. Look, it makes sense to Romans 16, 17, because he says the people among you that are causing the division are the people that are changing the doctrine that you've learned. And so the people that are causing the division are the people that are preaching something different than what the Bible says, the people that are trying to change. And what does it say I'm supposed to do with those people? Look at the last two words of the verse. Avoid them. Avoid them. Now, it doesn't say that I'm, and by the way, it says mark them. That means point them out, right? I mean, that means like mark them. If I mark something, I'm going to say, everybody see this guy right here? He's changing the doctrine. I don't mean that Solomon. But mark him. Point him out. Say, he's changing. Watch out for that guy. We're going to stay away from him. Now, look, this could be a born again Christian that's causing division. This could be a born again Christian who's changing what we believe. I'm going to point him out and say, avoid him. Stay away from him. Now, I'm not going to go be mean to him or try to hurt him or try to get some kind of vengeance on him or anything, but I will just avoid him. I'm not going to go. He calls me up and says, hey, let's go out to lunch. I'll say, no, I'm busy. You know, I'm not going to be rude to him and say, you think I'm going to go out to eat with you, you piece of trash liberal. I'm going to say, no, no, just, uh, no, I'm busy. I got other things to do. And I'm just going to avoid him. I'm just going to, you know, I remember when I was in Bible college, there were certain people that I'd literally, I'd see him coming down the hallway. And my wife's laughing because she knows some of the people I'm talking about. But I'd walk on the hallway, I'd see him coming down the hallway. I'd literally just go a different way. And I didn't hate those people. And I never said anything mean to them or anything. I just refused to be anywhere near them because I knew they said something to me that, that triggered kind of a red flag in my mind. I said, better stay away from that person. I had trouble, you know, and females that you could look at and you could just tell this woman is going to commit adultery in the next five years. I'd stay away from them. You know, I just would see him come and walk the other way because I just would avoid people. They're wrong. That's called separation. That's why you will not see me out to eat with the Assemblies of God pastor after the service. That's why you won't see me out to eat with the NIV preacher after the service. I always get together and have a few laughs to share the joys of the ministry. No, we don't. I will avoid him because he's causing division. Look, who's causing the division? The guy who says there's only one Bible or the guy who says there's a hundred Bibles. Sounds like this is pretty unified. Everybody needs to read the Bible that I'm holding in my hand. And if I'm the only one reading it, then everybody's dividing from me. And I'm the one who's not divided because I'm sticking with the doctrine I've learned. And I go down the list. I don't want to spend my whole summer. I go down the list on how I'm not going to change my doctrine. I'd rather burn than that. But number two, when it comes to my convictions, I'd rather burn than bow. I mean, my conviction is about what's right and wrong for me personally from the Bible. What I see is right and wrong. Look, if you would, at Daniel chapter one. And I want to show you this. And this is a piece of wisdom that you should put this into your computer and remember this in life. Because this will help you out a lot. Because we all have unsaved relatives. And even worse than that, we have relatives who are religious, but they're not saved. And so they want to try to rub our nose in their liberalism and so forth. And we have friends and relatives like that. But look at this at verse number eight of Daniel chapter one. The Bible reads, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat. This is our first introduction to Daniel. He's been brought captivity, as we talked about earlier. And he's being forced to eat meat sacrificed unto idols. Meat that's been used in a religious service sacrificed to idols. We'll learn. You can learn about this in 1 Corinthians 8. You can learn about it in 1 Corinthians 10. You'll see it again in Revelation 2 and 3. Where God says that it is a sin to eat meat sacrificed to idols. He says you're eating at the table of the devil. You can do that. And maybe it's something that's not really in our culture, but this is something that they were dealing with. And so he says, I refuse to drink alcoholic beverage. And I refuse to eat this meat that's been sacrificed to idols. But look at this. Therefore, it says he, let's see, would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested. You see a difference there? He purposed in his heart, I will not defile myself. But then it says he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. You see the difference? Because he decided in his heart, there is no way in the world I'm ever going to eat that meat. He said he purposed in his heart that he would not do it. He said there's no way that I could ever think of eating it. And there's no way I'm ever going to touch booze, period. But is that how he broached it with them? His boss? I mean, his authority figure? No, he didn't come to them and say, hey, listen, buddy, you're not going to tell me what I have to eat. I'd rather burn than bow down to you and eat this food. Is that what he said? No. Did he say, listen, man, I'm going to come to work. I'm not going to bow down to this, and it's going to be the way I said. That's not the way he was. He comes in with an attitude of meekness. Now in his heart, he knows there's no way it's going to change. But he comes to the boss and these people in authority over him with meekness and says, hey, listen, do you think there's any way I could not eat this? I'd rather not eat this. Now push came to shove. Obviously, he's going to step it up and say, look, I'm not going to eat it. There's nothing you can do to get it. You know, have some convictions in your life that you don't move from. And again, I'm not saying that you have to go around and just broadcast it to everybody to try to be offensive and say, yeah, I'm not going to do what you're doing and try to rub people's nose in it. But have stuff in your heart that you just will not change. I mean, I'm talking about on the job. Think about when somebody brings in booze to the job. They bring in a six pack or whatever. And yeah, I've been in situations like that, believe it or not. I guess I work in construction, so it's a little different. But bring in the booze and stuff. I'm not going to touch it. I have purpose in my heart that I'm not going to defile myself. Think about dirty jokes. You know, you'll be on the job, and everybody deals with this. You'll be on the job. People start telling some filthy stories, start telling some dirty jokes. Don't tell me it doesn't happen, because it happens. Every job I've ever worked at, the filthiest stuff. And you know, the temptation's there to just kind of laugh, right? But then you're part of it. You're voicing your approval to their filthy joke when the right thing to do is to get as far away from those people as possible and not listen to the filth. Now, do you have to say, you stinking pervert. You're out of hell? You know, you have to do that. But you can just say, look, I'm not going to, no, I don't want to hear it. I don't listen to jokes like that, you know. You could be kind about it, like Daniel was kind about it. Because if you read the story, he had a very good relationship, the Bible says, with Arioch, the man who was telling him that he needed to eat and drink this. He had a great relationship with his boss. He, it says that he had tender love with him. I mean, they were buddies. They were friends. They were pals. They loved each other. But he said, I can't do this. I'm sorry. He didn't, he didn't have to be rude about it. And so like, you know, if your relatives try to cram something down your throat, there's no, there's no, there's nothing against being tactful and kind and polite to them. But don't give in. Don't bow down. And so that's just a little bit of wisdom that'll help you, you know, these Catholic weddings and funerals that relatives will try to get you to go to. It's just a wedding. Yeah, but their wedding is like a church service. Let's face it. A Catholic wedding is like a full-blown, oh, you know, all the weird, uh, rituals. Am I telling the truth? They got the guy up there in the skirt and he's poofing around poofoo dust. Like the dust, he's emptying out his dust buster all over the place. And the smoke's flying everywhere. And he's, oh, you know, people are bowing down and doing freakish stuff. Hey, don't bow down. I wouldn't set foot in that, in that demonic place. I wouldn't set foot in that demonic service. You say, you know, it doesn't mean you have to be rude about it, but just say, you know what? No, I can't go. I'm sorry. I'm not going to be able to be there. Well, why not? I'm not going to be able to be there. I can't go. Sorry. Why not? Look, I'm not a Catholic. I don't go to Catholic services. You know, you have to be rude about it. You can be nice about it, but don't bow down and find yourself sitting in that satanic service, looking at that transvestite up there who's preaching that you have to eat a piece of bread and drink a juice to go to heaven. Don't listen to that guy. Don't get in that service. Don't participate in that. Have no fellowship with young, fruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them, the Bible says. Number three. Number one, I'd rather burn than bow down when it comes to my doctrine. And look, everybody turning away from you is not as bad as being burned alive. So if they can burn, if they can go to the furnace. And by the way, that's where Jesus was. That's where they got to know Jesus the best. I mean, good night. Had they ever been as close to Jesus Christ as when they were in the fire with him right there? Did he ever bodily appear to them before that? No, not until they were in the fire. Not until they were cast out and rejected and they were in the fire. Did they see Jesus Christ? But number two, I'm not going to change when it comes to my doctrine because all they can do is burn you alive and I'd rather burn than bow. Number two, I'm not going to change when it comes to my convictions. I'm not going to let somebody force alcohol on me. I'm not going to let somebody force me into some Catholic wedding. I'm not going to let somebody force me into an immoral situation. I'm not going to do it. And number three, I'd rather burn than bow when it comes to my preaching. Changing my preaching. Here's my preaching philosophy. Turn to Matthew chapter 10. I'm going to show you my philosophy about preaching. Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 24. I'm going to show you my philosophy about the way that I preach. I sent out a questionnaire and I asked everybody in Tempe, how would you like me to preach? And that's how I preach. But anyway, in Matthew chapter 10, this is my philosophy I'm preaching. Verse number 24 of the Bible says, the disciples not above his master nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his house? So he said, look, are you better than me? Because they hate me. They're going to hate you unless you're better than me. That's what Jesus is saying. Either you're not following me or you're better than me if everybody likes you. But here's my philosophy about my preaching. Verse number 27. What I tell you and keep it in the context of what he's saying. He says, you're going to be criticized. You're going to be attacked. What I tell you in darkness is my preaching philosophy. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. And what you hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. He says, look, the thing that you read in the Bible, that no everybody else is afraid to say, but you read it in the Bible. He says, just get up and just scream that at the top of your lungs and preach it upon the housetops. If I tell you something in your ear, then maybe say, oh man, you know, yeah, I believe that, but I'm not going to go around telling people I believe that, you know, because it's going to freak them out. Hey, look, preach it upon the housetops. What you believe, what you've seen from the Bible, preach all of it. That's what I believe. That's what Jesus Christ said to do here. That's my preaching philosophy, preaching all of it. I'm going to have to skip a whole page in my sermon here. Skip down to the bottom. So I'm not going to change when it comes to my preaching. I'm not going to bow down when it comes to my music. I'd rather burn than bow down when it comes to the music. We learned about it on last Sunday night. You know, the Bible says it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to listen to the song of the fool. Did you hear that? It's better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to listen to the song of the fool. Because I'll tell you something. There's only two kinds of music in this world. There's one kind that's called songs, hymns and spiritual songs. Comes from God's people, comes from the father. And then there's another kind of music that's called the song of the fool. Because the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. The fool is the one who doesn't believe on Jesus Christ. The fool is the unsaved man. And I'm going to tell you something. I don't care whether it's rock, rap, country, easy listening, whatever. Hey, it comes from fools. And that's the only two categories there is. Is it of the father? Is it of the world? Is it of the fool? The song of the fool is not what I'm going to listen to. I'd rather listen to the rebuke of the wise. I'd rather listen to preaching. I'd rather listen to, or I'd rather sing God's kind of music than to listen to the song of a fool. And so on and on down the list, but I'm not going to trim my preaching and I'm not going to change my music to somehow be more popular. Or to somehow get a crowd. I'm not worried about it. I don't care. I'm not going to stop preaching against long hair on men. The Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair. But a woman's hair is her glory. I'm not going to stop preaching against pants on women. The Bible says that whosoever put on a, it says if a man put on a, I'm sorry, if a woman put on a man's clothing or a man put on a woman's garment, he says both are an abomination. That's Deuteronomy 22 5. Look it up later. Deuteronomy 22 5, he says both of them are an abomination. Now look, God doesn't throw around that word abomination. Okay. When he says something's an abomination, it means it makes me sick. He says to see men wearing women's clothing and yes, women wearing men's clothing. He says it makes me sick. And you say, come on, Pastor Anderson, nobody's preaching anymore. I mean, good night. We lost that battle a long time ago. Hey, I didn't lose it in my home because my wife's wearing a skirt right here in the front row. That's all she wears. And so I'm still fighting. Every day we fight about it. And every day she puts on that skirt. But hey, I didn't lose the battle. You say, well, good night. Everybody else is all these churches. I mean, independent federal Baptist. They just don't preach on that anymore because we've lost the battle in America. We haven't lost the battle in this house. Praise God. And my kids, we haven't lost the battle in their mind. Don't tell them that nobody else believes that. Because in this house, we still believe it. And we have not lost the battle on that pants. I'm going to kick that. I'm going to ring that bell until the cows come home. Because hey, it's what the Bible says. I'm going to keep preaching as alcohol. I'm going to keep preaching as cigarettes. And by the way, if nothing else is wrong with cigarettes, it makes you look like the world. Huh? When you're out smoking on your break, does it look, do you look like, do people think, oh, there's a fundamental Baptist soul winning Christian? No, that's not what they think. They think, oh, there's the world. That's what cigarettes groups you in with a crowd that you don't want to be grouped in with. I'm going to keep preaching against birth control. You say, good night. We lost that battle like 75 years ago. We haven't lost it in my house. My wife's pregnant again. Number four is on the way. Hey, we haven't lost the battle here, friend. And so anybody who wants to come someplace where we haven't lost that battle, here we are. And so I'm not going to preach against that. Did you know that there's only one time that birth control is mentioned in the Bible? I'm running out of time, but let me show you quickly. Because this is, you need to see this. Genesis chapter 38. One time. See, this is what I love about the Bible. God mentions everything. Say, well, you only mentioned it one time. Look, how many times do you have to mention it? Okay, you mentioned it one time. So it tells us everything we need to know about it. Genesis chapter 38. This is the one time that God mentions birth control in the entire Bible. Verse number eight. The Bible reads, and Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his. And it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did, displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. Now look, how many people in the Bible do you know of that God killed personally? How many do you know of? I can think of a few. I can think of Ananias and Sapphira. I can think of Ur. I can think of Onan right here, this man right here, and a few others. I mean, very few. King Herod in the New Testament, Acts chapter 13. Very few people did God kill. And God killed this man for practicing birth control in Genesis 38. You say, that's weird. Hey, man, read the Bible, because that's what it says. You say, no, no, no. He had this other reason where he was being selfish because he didn't want the, because the firstborn son was going to be named after his brother, and he didn't want that. And so he didn't want to raise up seed to his brother. That's why it was wrong. Look, everybody who practices birth control has a selfish reason. Everybody does. It's not just, well, he had this reason. That's what was bad. Look, everybody has their own selfish reason. Money, convenience, whatever you want to call it. This man's was no different. And so, look, I'll be honest with you. If that's the only time it's mentioned in the Bible, it doesn't cast a very good light on it. Somebody does it, and then they die. If you can show me another time that birth control is mentioned in the entire Bible, then I will, you know, I'll eat crow in front of the whole, everybody. I'll get up in church and say, I was wrong. Okay, birth control. Look, show me one time in the Bible besides this time, and maybe, you know what? I'm of it. I don't know everything. Maybe there's another time in the whole Bible that mentions the concept of birth control. I've never seen in the entire Bible somebody purposely not having kids or not, you know, getting warm and pregnant in the entire Bible. I've never seen it except here. And if you could show me another place, I'd be thrilled because I want to learn. I mean, I want a girl. I want to learn more. So show me. So go home and read your Bible and show me another time it's mentioned. But this is the only time it's mentioned as far as I know. So prove me wrong. And then, you know, lastly, I'm not going to bow down when it comes to my children. The Bible says in Proverbs 13 24, he that spareth his rod, hated his son. But he that loveth him chaseneth him betimes. You see, I'd rather burn than bow down to the state of Arizona or the state of California or the United States of America telling me that I can't spank my kids. I'd rather burn than bow down on that. You understand me? You see, they'll take your kids away, then they'll take my kids away. I would let them take my kids away before I hate my son. Okay, you understand that? I will do right by God, and I'll let the results lie with God. Because I'd rather burn than bow down. I'd rather have them drag me out of my house, throw me into the paddy wagon and burn me alive and put my kids in some foster home somewhere. I will not bow down. You say, you're crazy. Yes, I am crazy. I believe the Bible. And you know what? I happen to have read the story in Daniel chapter three, which said that the men who wouldn't bow down, they ended up being all right, didn't they? Didn't God end up taking care of them? But the people that bow down, they're the ones who ended up getting burnt up in that furnace when they threw them in. The men who were trying to harm them. Because God has a way of judging the unrighteous. And God has a way of taking care of his people. And so I would rather entrust my kids and my life and my family into God's hands and say, God, I'm going to obey you. Whatever it comes to, I'm just going to obey. Then to try to take it into my own hands and say, well, I couldn't obey you, God, because I had to obey the state of Arizona. So I couldn't obey you. And I'm not talking about abusing your kids, obviously. I'm totally against abuse or anything like that or socking your kids or slapping them or something. I'm talking about proper spankings on the padded area that God gave to every child to receive a spanking in the most padded area of discipline. And so that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just normal spankings. I'm talking about normal punishment, like it's been going on for thousands of years. I'm not talking about anything abusive or anything like that. I will not bow down on that, period. Say, well, use timeouts. I will not use timeouts. I will not use Barney and Friends. I will spank my kids because I love my kids. My kids know that I love them because I spank them, because I don't hate them, because I don't spare my rock. So those are the areas where I'd rather burn than bow. But let me tell you this lastly. Be a Christian openly. The first thing we saw was we saw the pressure to change is always there. And then we saw that we should be rather willing to burn than to bow down. But number three, I want you to see we need to be a Christian openly. Turn to the last scripture, Daniel chapter 6. Be a Christian openly. Let people know that you're a Christian. Don't bow down and try to be undercover and incognito so that they can't tell what you really believe, what you're really about. You say, good night. If people knew what I was about, they knew what I believed, they'd think I was some kind of a freak. Hey, look, don't be a Christian openly. Look at this story in Daniel chapter 6, verse number 5. And this should be your testimony, by the way, in verse number 5. This should be your testimony on the job. This should be everybody's testimony in their family. Then said these men, we shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God. They said, we cannot find anything wrong with this guy. We tried to accuse him to the boss. He does his job perfectly. He's on time every day. We cannot find anything wrong with this guy. The only way we're going to get him is when it comes to the law of his God, because it's pretty radical what he believes. And that's the only way we're going to get him. And so look at verse 6. Then these presidents and princes assembled together to the king and said thus unto him, King Darius lived forever. All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counselors and the captains have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for 30 days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the dead of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing that it be not changed according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. He says, look, we think you're so great, King Darius. This is a few kings later after Nebuchadnezzar. We think you're so wonderful. We think that for 30 days, nobody should be allowed to pray to any God. Nobody should be allowed to ask anybody anything except straight to you, because you're the only authority that we need. And so he said, boy, I like the sound of that. Verse number nine, wherefore King Darius signed the writing of the decree. Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, remember the punishment is to be thrown into a dead of lions. He went into his house, and I love these next words, and his windows being open. You see that? His windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a fourth time. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplications before his God. You see that? Nothing changed. He said, I'm going to do the exact same thing I did when it was popular. Now it's not popular. I'm still going to open my windows. I'm not trying to hide the fact that I'm praying. I'm going to open my window, open the shade, flip open the window, get on my knees, and pray out loud to God so that everybody can see and hear me. Now, he wasn't trying to do this just to put on a show because they signed the writing. Because if you remember, it says he did it as he did a fourth time. That's what he always did. He was always a Christian openly. He always made it clear what he believed. He always had his window open when he prayed. And so he prayed so that everybody could know that he worshiped Jehovah, the God of heaven. Of course, they find him. They accuse him. He gets thrown into the den of lions. An angel came and shut the mouths of the lions. He comes out the next day. He's not been hurt. And what does King Darius do? He takes the men, these exact men in the story, who accused Daniel. And he takes them, their wives, and their children, and King Darius throws them all into the lion's den, them and their entire family. And the Bible says that the lions ate them before they even hit the bottom of the den. It says they jumped up and break all their bones and chewed them up and ate them before they even hit the bottom. Because God has a way of turning things around on the ungodly crowd if you're willing to burn rather than bow. God has a way of protecting you and keeping you safe. And God has a way of judging those who would set out to hurt you. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for the stories in the Bible that can give us strength and that can make us realize, God, that we don't have to bow down. Everybody can turn away from us. We can still hold fast to foreign sound words. We can still keep our doctrine the same. We don't have to change. We don't have to give in when it comes to our convictions. We don't have to change our music. We don't have to bow down because we can look in the story in the Bible of people who did not bow down and you took care of them. And they faced worse than anything that we would ever face, dear God. Help us, God. Give us the strength. Give us the fortitude.