.  

Living Hope Fellowship ChurcH   Sermons From the Pastor

DELIVERANCE FIRE

by Pastor Kevin Badgly

DELIVERANCE FIRE

by Pastor Kevin Badgly

Today people don't want to hear the voice of God any more than they did in those days. They don't want to hear what he might tell them about their lives, their family's lives, about where they're headed, about their church organization, or anything else. They might find out something about their lives that they don't want to know! Some people believe if they pretend ignorance or if they stay ignorant of the things of God, then God can't accuse them on judgement day of ever doing anything wrong! They think they can say, "Well, I didn't know."

However, you have willfully turned away from that which is coming forth as the truth. By the conviction power of the Holy Ghost you know that it is the truth you are hearing and understanding, and you are turning away from it, thinking that you won't have to obey it if you don't hear it anymore. Once you've tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and you turn away and willfully sin, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin (see Hebrews 6:4-6 and 10:26).

The Lord can not save you if you turn away from the only avenue of faith and truth. John 14:6 says, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." You can't turn away from Jesus and go to heaven! It's ridiculous, it's foolishness, and it's a lie from hell to think you can get to heaven without Jesus, no matter whose mouth it comes out of. Second Thessalonians 2:10-12 says, ". . . because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

I want you to know that our God, according to His Word, is a consuming fire. I am warning you that anything that's not of God's Spirit, God will consume. You can serve Jesus in spirit and in truth and you can make it. You have to call upon his name daily; you've got to read your Bible daily; you've got to pray continuously; you've got to seek God and his will one hundred percent every day to make sure you're in line with God. You need to go to a church that preaches the truth straight down the wire. Don't go to a church where the preacher is a hypocrite (and you know it). On the other hand, don't believe every thing that's said about him; find out for yourself. See what the Lord would say about these things, because there are always hypocrites trying to put down the preacher to keep him from having a good reputation before the people. God will always vindicate a real man of God.

Our God is a consuming fire! In Daniel Chapter 3 we find out about three men who stood up against a wicked king who declared that they should go ecumenical. He said they should worship the image that he had set up. The king's name was Nebuchadnezzar. The children of Israel were in captivity in that day and hour, and the church world and the world church were in one accord. They were setting up an anti-Christ image, an anti-God image, and they were declaring that everybody should go that way. If they didn't get that way, in today's time, they'd be branded a bigot or a "holier than thou." In this case they would be cast into a burning fiery furnace if they did not do this thing. If you will not declare the Word of the Lord or live a holy and upright life before men now, today, what will you be doing when this thing begins to happen again? It IS going to happen again! The time is come that the real Christians, will be persecuted for their faith, for what they say, do, and believe. People will seek you out; they will mock and scoff and ridicule you. If you can't stand that, how are you going to stand the judgement of God whenever he starts sending it to the earth, and people began to die?

We have Christian brethren in the world now who are dying for their faith. It is coming to America also, but it's coming in the form of religion as a purging, as a tearing of the tares up out of the wheat. They'll claim to be the true church of the world that's going to usher in Christ, when actually they're the butchers of the Anti-Christ who will set up his kingdom temporarily on this earth for seven years. If you cannot abide the fire and the reproach now, how are you going to abide the fire of persecution that's about to come? Yes, it will come to America also, because she's become a Sodom and Gomorrah; God will level it for her sins. God is a consuming fire.

There are three men who are an example to us of great inspiration! They would not bend a knee to Baal! They would not bend a knee to the established church world. They wouldn't go cultish either. They would rather do the will and word of the Lord, obeying him even if it meant death by fire, one of the most horrible deaths a person can have.

There was a declaration made in the third chapter of Daniel after the three Hebrew children were told to worship the image that the king had set up. Daniel 3:16-18 says, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

If you are going to press in and on for God, you need to make a declaration that you're not going to bend the knee to the same devils that the church world is bending to today. You need to make a declaration that you don't care if you have to die in the process. Be martyred for Jesus like Stephen was, Peter was, or Paul was. Our Lord Jesus died because he was speaking the truth in the perfect purity of his life. He handed his life over. He had power to take it up again, though, and God will give us power to take it up again by his eternal spirit, if we hold fast our profession to the end (see Matthew 10:22).

Many people say, "Well, I want to live for the Lord, but I don't want to go through all of that." The time is come that judgement shall begin in the house of God (see 1 Peter 4:17). Jesus said in Matthew 10:33, "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." If Jesus denies you, then God won't know you, and you'll go to hell. Make up your mind; serve God or serve Baal! If God be God, then serve him. If Baal be God, then serve him, but make up your mind!

With the glorious declaration of these three men that they would not bend the knee, even though the rest of the world did, the king was full of fury. He went insane with anger and command that furnace to be heated seven times more than before.

There was a piece of garbage on the television once that said their furnace, according to what they say, had a cool spot in it. That's ridiculous! Read Daniel 3:19-23. Verse 20-22 says, " And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent, and the furnace exceeding hot, the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego."

Are you listening? The Bible declares that the flame of the fire slew those men that took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The same flames that the Hebrews went into destroyed the mighty men of the king's army. Those men weren't in a cool spot!

Verse 23-25 says this: "And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." Hallelujah! Glory to God! Thank you Jesus!

The flames were so hot that it destroyed the men that threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in that fiery furnace. That furnace was a tribulation, a trial, and a purging that they had to go through. They were bound, but the fire burnt their bonds off of them. That meant that they had power over their bondage and over the rope that held them bound. The bondage burned off of them, but the fire didn't touch them or their clothes. Verse 27 says not even the smell of fire had passed on them!

A cool spot would have kept their ropes from being burnt and destroyed off of them. That meant they were in the hottest flames, seven times more than any persecution that had ever come on any man before. Are you listening out there? Don't listen to sinners explain away the Bible. If you listen to and heed them, you will go to hell with them. God declares in his Word that they were cast down bound in the midst of a burning fiery furnace, and that's exactly the way it was. The king was going crazy because God appeared in that fire.

You see, whenever you take a stand for God, you're going to be thrown in a fire; you're going to have a problem; you're going to have people hate you. You're going to have people mock and scoff at you, but Jesus will come in there with you! When you serve the devil, you'll burn in the pits with him. You'll suffer disease, affliction, shame, and mockery now, but he won't go in there with you; he'll leave you in there by yourself. You'll go through the shame of all your sins and all your cursings by yourself.

Jesus said if you'll take a stand for him that you'll go through a fiery furnace, but you'll go through one that's glorious. It will burn all the shackles, chains, and bondages off of you. It will set you free instead of make you more bound. It won't touch you because Jesus will be standing with you. He said He would go with you and go before you. Psalm 34:19 says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all." Take a stand for God, and believe Him.

Father, in Jesus' name, I ask you Lord, that people would quit running from the fire and quit running from the heat. Cause them to know that fire also puts out light that they can see the truth and the path that they must walk. Lord, not every one will have to die for their faith, but the time is coming that judgment is beginning in the house of God and many will die for their faith. Lord, it's just a quik trip to glory. Lord God, instill this in the hearts of Christians! Lord God, burn away the chaff and the bondage out of them. Lord, in Jesus name I ask you to do the same thing with them as you commanded to be done with Lazarus. Loose them and let them go. God, get the grave clothes off of them. God, get the bondage off of them, and then turn the heat up where they can be set free, and that you would walk with them and deliver them out of all their afflictions. Thank you Jesus.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.

© Living Hope Fellowship, Inc.