We obey God first.
God would have us obey the powers that be in our lives- but if those powers ask us to go against the truth as we know God would have us keep the truth, then we must not obey them- but accept whatever the results of our disobedience to the civil powers may be.
Daniel had a duty to pray to God- three times a day he prayed.
When the civil authorities told him he could no longer pray what did he do?
He continued to pray and accepted that whatever punishment the civil authorities would deem appropriate for his disobedience, he would endure- even to death.
Die before disobeying God.
Told to bow down to a statue, the three worthies - Daniel's friends - refused. They refused to worship any false god. They didn't say we'll pretend to worship but God will know in our hearts we aren't worshiping false gods. They could have said that, but they didn't because they knew if a single person saw them bow down to the false god and from that witness they were never brought to the One true God, how could they be guiltless of such a crime, a crime with eternal consequences? We have to remain steadfast even to our torture and death if need be.
Praying, worshiping- these were just two things that God demands of us that we cannot deny in order to please any man, or even to save our own lives. By the grace of God should we ever find ourselves in this position may we remain as Daniel, as the three worthies- ever strong in our faith no matter what.
1Co_10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
*******
Excerpt- EJ Waggoner-
'This is acceptable with God. The very fact that a man suffers for well doing shows that he is the servant of God and accepted of Him. Then how is it that we can be subject to the powers that be and yet go directly contrary to what they say? By submitting to the punishment, but not doing the evil thing they commanded us to do. As Christians we owe allegiance to God, the highest power, and to Him alone.
Excerpt--
'Go back to Daniel's case. He did not keep quiet. He prayed openly. "Yes, it was all right for Daniel to do that, but it is different now in the nineteenth century." No, it is not.
It is just the same.
The people might have said to him, "Daniel, you can do your people good in the position of influence you hold. You can keep them from being persecuted. Now don't go and get shut up in that den of lions and lose your life and bring great calamity upon your people!" But Daniel did go to the den of lions and he went there for living out his faith openly and in a way that all men could see it and did it bring calamity upon his people? No, indeed. In consequence of his obedience, the name of the God of heaven was more highly honored and revered in that nation than it ever had been before.
It is our duty to preach the gospel, to arise and let our light shine, and if we do that, God will hold the winds as long as they ought to be held.
Brethren, the third angel's message is the greatest thing in all the earth. Men don't regard it as such, but the time will come in our lifetime when the third angel's message will be the theme and topic of conversation in every mouth. But it will never be brought to that position by people who keep quiet about it but by those who have their trust in God and are not afraid to speak the words which He has given them.
In doing this, we will not take our lives in our hands and I thank God for it.
Our lives will be hid with Christ in God, and He will care for them. The truth will be brought to this high place simply by men and women going forth and preaching the gospel and obeying that which they preach. Let people know the truth. If we have a peaceful time in which to spread it, we will be thankful for that. And if men make laws that would seem to cut off the channels through which it can go, we can be thankful that we worship a God who makes even the wrath of men to praise Him, and He will do it--He will spread His gospel by means of those very laws which wicked men have enacted to crush out its life.
God holds the winds, brethren, and He commands us to carry the message. He will hold them as long as it is best for them to be held, and when they begin to blow and we feel the first puffs in the beginning of persecution, they will do just what the Lord wants them to do.
We sing:
If through unruffled seas,
Calmly toward heaven we sail,
With grateful hearts, O God, to Thee,
We'll own the favoring gale.
But should the surges rise,
And rest delay to come,
Blest be the sorrow, kind the storm,
Which drives us nearer home.
We often sing that, brethren, when we don't believe it. For when we see the storm coming, we think it is not best for us to let it come so we hide from it or try to prevent it. But everything works the counsel of God's will. The storm will hasten the calm and rest will not delay to come.
"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Romans 13:7, 8.
If you do this, you live peaceably with all men, as far as lieth in you. If you love your neighbor as yourself, that is the fulfilling of the whole law; because a man, to love his neighbor, must love God, because there is no love but of God.
If I love my neighbor as myself, it is simply because the love of God is abiding in my heart.
It is because God has taken up His abode in my heart, and there is no man on earth who can take Him away from me. It is for this reason that the apostle refers to the last table of the law, because if we do our duty toward our neighbor, it naturally follows that we love God.
Sometimes we are told that the first table points out our duty to God and constitutes religion, and that the last table defines our duty to our neighbor and constitutes morality. But the last table contains duties to God just as much as the first one.
David, after he had broken two of the commandments contained in the last table, when making his confession, said, "Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight."
God must be first and last and all the time.
And if the requirements of God demand that we go contrary to the requirements of man, we must obey God and trust our all to Him.
It matters not whether wicked men hedge up the way; we should "go forward" with our work. When Israel was going out of Egypt, they came to a place where the Red Sea was before them and the mountains and the host of the Egyptians behind, but the command of God to Moses was, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." But how could they with the sea before them and their enemies behind? That did not matter. God said, "Go forward."
These things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. The Israelites were to go forward on the word of God. It mattered not if the sea was before them. God opened it so that they passed through dryshod. But if He had not, they could have gone through on top of the water just as well. They could have gone over on the word of God. That was the way that Peter walked on the Sea of Galilee.
We must ever remember that we are the children of God, and being children of God we have overcome the world. All these lessons that we have had are to prepare us for the time of trouble. "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God (which is the Lord Jesus Christ), that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." '
God would have us obey the powers that be in our lives- but if those powers ask us to go against the truth as we know God would have us keep the truth, then we must not obey them- but accept whatever the results of our disobedience to the civil powers may be.
Daniel had a duty to pray to God- three times a day he prayed.
When the civil authorities told him he could no longer pray what did he do?
He continued to pray and accepted that whatever punishment the civil authorities would deem appropriate for his disobedience, he would endure- even to death.
Die before disobeying God.
Told to bow down to a statue, the three worthies - Daniel's friends - refused. They refused to worship any false god. They didn't say we'll pretend to worship but God will know in our hearts we aren't worshiping false gods. They could have said that, but they didn't because they knew if a single person saw them bow down to the false god and from that witness they were never brought to the One true God, how could they be guiltless of such a crime, a crime with eternal consequences? We have to remain steadfast even to our torture and death if need be.
Praying, worshiping- these were just two things that God demands of us that we cannot deny in order to please any man, or even to save our own lives. By the grace of God should we ever find ourselves in this position may we remain as Daniel, as the three worthies- ever strong in our faith no matter what.
1Co_10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
*******
Excerpt- EJ Waggoner-
'This is acceptable with God. The very fact that a man suffers for well doing shows that he is the servant of God and accepted of Him. Then how is it that we can be subject to the powers that be and yet go directly contrary to what they say? By submitting to the punishment, but not doing the evil thing they commanded us to do. As Christians we owe allegiance to God, the highest power, and to Him alone.
Excerpt--
'Go back to Daniel's case. He did not keep quiet. He prayed openly. "Yes, it was all right for Daniel to do that, but it is different now in the nineteenth century." No, it is not.
It is just the same.
The people might have said to him, "Daniel, you can do your people good in the position of influence you hold. You can keep them from being persecuted. Now don't go and get shut up in that den of lions and lose your life and bring great calamity upon your people!" But Daniel did go to the den of lions and he went there for living out his faith openly and in a way that all men could see it and did it bring calamity upon his people? No, indeed. In consequence of his obedience, the name of the God of heaven was more highly honored and revered in that nation than it ever had been before.
It is our duty to preach the gospel, to arise and let our light shine, and if we do that, God will hold the winds as long as they ought to be held.
Brethren, the third angel's message is the greatest thing in all the earth. Men don't regard it as such, but the time will come in our lifetime when the third angel's message will be the theme and topic of conversation in every mouth. But it will never be brought to that position by people who keep quiet about it but by those who have their trust in God and are not afraid to speak the words which He has given them.
In doing this, we will not take our lives in our hands and I thank God for it.
Our lives will be hid with Christ in God, and He will care for them. The truth will be brought to this high place simply by men and women going forth and preaching the gospel and obeying that which they preach. Let people know the truth. If we have a peaceful time in which to spread it, we will be thankful for that. And if men make laws that would seem to cut off the channels through which it can go, we can be thankful that we worship a God who makes even the wrath of men to praise Him, and He will do it--He will spread His gospel by means of those very laws which wicked men have enacted to crush out its life.
God holds the winds, brethren, and He commands us to carry the message. He will hold them as long as it is best for them to be held, and when they begin to blow and we feel the first puffs in the beginning of persecution, they will do just what the Lord wants them to do.
We sing:
If through unruffled seas,
Calmly toward heaven we sail,
With grateful hearts, O God, to Thee,
We'll own the favoring gale.
But should the surges rise,
And rest delay to come,
Blest be the sorrow, kind the storm,
Which drives us nearer home.
We often sing that, brethren, when we don't believe it. For when we see the storm coming, we think it is not best for us to let it come so we hide from it or try to prevent it. But everything works the counsel of God's will. The storm will hasten the calm and rest will not delay to come.
"Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." Romans 13:7, 8.
If you do this, you live peaceably with all men, as far as lieth in you. If you love your neighbor as yourself, that is the fulfilling of the whole law; because a man, to love his neighbor, must love God, because there is no love but of God.
If I love my neighbor as myself, it is simply because the love of God is abiding in my heart.
It is because God has taken up His abode in my heart, and there is no man on earth who can take Him away from me. It is for this reason that the apostle refers to the last table of the law, because if we do our duty toward our neighbor, it naturally follows that we love God.
Sometimes we are told that the first table points out our duty to God and constitutes religion, and that the last table defines our duty to our neighbor and constitutes morality. But the last table contains duties to God just as much as the first one.
David, after he had broken two of the commandments contained in the last table, when making his confession, said, "Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight."
God must be first and last and all the time.
And if the requirements of God demand that we go contrary to the requirements of man, we must obey God and trust our all to Him.
It matters not whether wicked men hedge up the way; we should "go forward" with our work. When Israel was going out of Egypt, they came to a place where the Red Sea was before them and the mountains and the host of the Egyptians behind, but the command of God to Moses was, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." But how could they with the sea before them and their enemies behind? That did not matter. God said, "Go forward."
These things are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. The Israelites were to go forward on the word of God. It mattered not if the sea was before them. God opened it so that they passed through dryshod. But if He had not, they could have gone through on top of the water just as well. They could have gone over on the word of God. That was the way that Peter walked on the Sea of Galilee.
We must ever remember that we are the children of God, and being children of God we have overcome the world. All these lessons that we have had are to prepare us for the time of trouble. "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God (which is the Lord Jesus Christ), that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." '