<TITLE>04. Par 16-20</TITLE>L-16 Now, we would think also today upon destructions trying to destroy. We have Christ on promise. We think of the Hebrew children when God had a purpose for them, when they were down in Babylon, and the furnace was het seven times hotter than it ever was heated to destroy the purpose of God. And all Babylon was on a rage. They were determined, Satan was, to destroy the purpose of God, for he knew those children was going into the furnace, so he made the furnace, when they heated it, seven times hotter to be sure that the program of God would be destroyed.
But God wanted to display His power. And all Babylon and all hell could not defeat that purpose. No, sir. No matter if they could've heated that furnace a million times hotter, it would've never destroyed the purpose of God. God wanted to show that He was a God of deliverance. And He'd bring deliverance to whomever He desired to bring it, and nothing would interfere with His program.

L-17 So when they heated the furnace, little did Shadrach, a Meshach and Abednego, know that they were coming from that furnace, for they said themselves, "Our God is able to deliver us; but nevertheless, we will not bow to the image." God had someone who would serve Him, and His purpose would not be defeated.
Fire cannot--cannot defeat the purpose of God's plan. And, oh, how I love to say this this morning. All the hydrogen bombs in the world can never defeat the resurrection of His church. All the explaining away and all of the mathematics and--and so forth that this intelligent world has disguised to a--a purposed to do something about to destroy the faith of God's children, it will never do it. That faith will live on forever.

L-18 It was the purpose of God to show that He had power over the wild beasts of the fields. And they put some lions in a cave one time. And they had starved them until they were so hungry, that they could've tore a pers--a person to pieces just at one great grab.
And the devil thought, "Surely, I'll be able to destroy this prophet, Daniel." But Daniel had purposed in his heart to do the purpose of God. And God had placed that in his heart. Before Daniel could've had this desire, there had to be something to create that desire. Before he could have that faith, there had to be something to tell him that there was a God that could deliver.

L-19 And, oh, how that coincides this morning with the faith, the living faith of the living God in His church. There's something in our heart that speaks that there is a land beyond the river. I cannot put my finger on that land and neither can any man; but there's something within us that tells us that the grave is not its goal. And, "Dust thou art, to dust returnest was not spoken of the soul."
There's something within us, a fire that's a burning, a light that's been lit by God and no breezes can blow it out. There's no cold spells in the church; there's no indifference amongst the people, no persecution of the world that can blow out a flame that God has lit. For it's God's purpose that His torchlight of freedom will burn until the coming of the Lord. And no powers can blow it out. They will only make it burn brighter as they blow.

L-20 It's been proven through the ages that persecutions strengthens the church. And Daniel, not knowing how God was going to do it, and not knowing whether God was going to do it, but knowing that He was able to do--do it, and knowing that Something down in him told him so...
See, God had a purpose. He had everything working to that purpose. And all today, no matter how indifferent we seem to be at times, and how strange things goes, and how the church gets in this condition and that condition, it's all in the Divine purpose of God to mold us and make us in His own way. Who knows how to fashion the material more than the Creator?


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