In his sermon 'Compromise,' Bro. Peter Halliman discusses the importance of understanding predestination and God's sovereignty in the life of a believer. He references the biblical journey of Jesus to John the Baptist, emphasizing the necessity of following God's ordained plan over convenience. The sermon highlights the dangers of compromise by recounting biblical figures who suffered consequences due to their failure to stand firm in their faith. Bro. Peter urges believers to be steadfast, using Daniel and his friends as exemplars of maintaining integrity and purpose despite external pressures. He challenges the congregation to evaluate their faith beyond mere theoretical belief, advocating for practical application and resilience in the face of trials such as societal influences and personal challenges. The sermon concludes with a call to reject compromise and trust in God's sovereignty in every aspect of life.

Again here. Good morning. Just a few thoughts I would like to... I'd like to open up with a few thoughts before I get into the actual message, leading up to the message. Leading up to the message.

And one thing that I've learned in my own little lifetime, I'm 60 years old, And I've been in church all my life. Born on the mission field. Seen it done, seen it carried out step by step. And as my father said to me, when I was called into the ministry, don't reinvent ministry. Just do it like you were taught.

So when the baton was handed off to us, don't drop it. Take it, run the race, don't get reinventive. It cut out a lot of problems. There's a few words I'd like to express and also say to encourage the new church, Unity Baptist Church, and also Southern Grace Baptist Church. And That is going back to referencing some scriptural thoughts.

When Jesus came on the scene, there was already a man that had been preordained. There's a doctrine we preach and teach, embrace as Baptists called predestination. We don't hear a lot of the terms nowadays but it's there. And God predestinated for John the Baptist to be the forerunner. It could have been someone else but it wasn't someone else.

It was John. I spoke about some of that yesterday and the Lord was in the district of Galilee And he was preparing to leave Galilee to go up to where John the Baptist was ministering up and around the river Jordan. And when Jesus set off on his journey, he walked, no driving folks, 102 miles. No driving, folks. 102 miles.

Most people won't even drive to church in that distance. A lot of people, you can't get a lot of God's people to church in a 12 cylinder vehicle. Encourage yourself in this. Why did Jesus walk 102 kilometres or 60 miles to go get baptized? Why did he do that?

He did it because there was only one man that had the authority. Go to John. Go to John. That was the command. Jesus went to John.

And it might be argued, were there no rivers in Galilee? Oh yes, there are rivers. Good rivers, nice rivers, deep rivers. Where there were no men in Galilee, there were men. There were rivers.

Why not be baptized in Galilee? Because no one had the preordained, predestinated authority, that's why. Jesus received his baptism, authority was in place. Referencing back to John, people came out to go visit his baptismal area and make observation of what he was doing. Some came because they truly repented, needed baptized, and they went.

Others went to observe and complain and belly ache. Some of that going around too. And the belly acres who came, John knew who they were. And John said to them, why is it, How is it that you've come here today? You remember, you're students of the Word.

And they said, we are the children of our father Abraham. Father Abraham. And John rose up and said, don't think within yourselves And don't boast upon your heritage. God is able to raise up these stones to become his children. So here's, let me connect the dots for you now.

I don't want you to get lost in all that so I'm going to connect some dots for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church and Unity Baptist Church. Here's where it is. God had predetermined and preordained and predestinated. Understand the doctrine, understand the teaching. This church, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, would be used of the Lord to hand over authority to Unity Baptist Church to become a church.

That's no small thing and further to that if God's people are not willing to be used for the service of the Lord, God will raise up the stones. And there were churches in North Carolina that could have organised and they didn't. Do you understand me? They didn't. They didn't want to have no part of it.

And put this out there. Let them hear it. There are churches near by that could have come and been a part of the service. Could have been pastors and preachers here, but they weren't. The fact of the matter is they were not here.

And there are two reasons why they're not here. One, because of all of the factions unbiblical activity that's been going on up there. You bet I will. You bet I will. And secondly, because there's a man here called Peter Halleman, everywhere Paul went, the Everywhere Paul went, the entourage that followed Paul, they too suffered what Paul suffered.

When Paul went to prison, so did science. And by association, There's a lot of people out there, they don't like me and it's not because of my character, it's because of my hard doctrinal preaching stand. Well I'm not changing. And so God raised up some other stones to make this happen. And you carry that with you throughout your life.

I invite your attention to the book of Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1, I'll read one verse. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the princes of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we ask your blessings upon the reading of your word and we ask your blessings upon the service. We ask Father that your Spirit might have free course amongst your people and that your Word would find a hiding place in our hearts and lodge them, produce fruit. Speak to us through your Word. We pray, Father, that our worship might be in Spirit and in truth indeed and it might be acceptable to you. Forgive us of our failures and our wrongs and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

There's a subject matter that concerns me in this generation that we live amongst, and it concerns me in this country. And that title or subject would be known as compromise. Allow me to deliberate for a few minutes as I set the stage, the springboard to get into the message. A lot of people have been coming to church for 40 years, sitting on the pew, hearing strong doctrinal preaching, Sunday in and Sunday Sunday in and Sunday out. And it seems like the smallest little thing that comes along in life, people get sideways and get tripped up.

And I would like to know, I would like someone to explain it to me. How is it, why is it that all these years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, people have been coming to church, sitting before the hard preaching of God's Word, they say they embrace it, they say they believe it, They say that's who they are. And when God gives an examination, they fail miserably. I want some answers in this country. You know what I've come to believe?

I've come to believe that a lot of these doctrines that we say we believe are no more, no less than theory. You get it. You understand the theory. You went to school, so did I. We learn subjects in school that are theory.

Practical is when you have to go out and you have to put it into action that which you were taught and that which you say you believe. So there is a world of difference between theory doctrine and lip service and on the other side experimental knowledge. There's a world of difference, folks. And I do believe, I've seen enough of it. I've traveled from Connecticut all the way to California, all the way to Florida, Texas, I've been all over.

I've been in all types of churches, large, small, two or three, 70, 80. And I'm not in New Guinea and it's not just someone telling me I'm here, I'm in the story. I see what's going on, I hear the language and I hear what people talk about. I become engaged in the conversations. I don't just back up when I hear something that I'm not in agreement with.

And what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing does not line up with God's Word and experimental knowledge. It doesn't square out. Well I believe that Brother Peter. Oh, really? Wait a few days.

Let's see how you really believe it. I told a preacher not too long ago that I was not surprised at the lost for becoming fearful and afraid of staying home because of the COVID-19. But I am surprised at the amount of church people, God's people, Christian people, saved people who say that well because of ABC all the way down through Z that they just can't go because of COVID-19. Oh, well, you know how it is. No, I don't know how it is.

How is it? I thought we believed in God's sovereignty. You explained to me the doctrine of God's sovereignty. I'd like someone to explain that to me because I read in my Bible, I thought it meant that God was the total supreme of heaven and earth. I thought he was the total authority over all living matter.

I thought he was sovereign over the spirits, the devil, the angels, the host of heaven and the earth below, I thought God was sovereign over all. I thought he was sovereign over the kingdoms and the governments and the people and the nations and the rulers and the church house and the Christian and the pew and the preacher. I thought he was sovereign over COVID-19. Last I remember he was and he is. We just heard.

You explain it to me because I don't get it. Moses belly-ache about being God's messenger and somewhat Moses even lied. He was schooled in the most developed institutions the world had. He was the son of King Pharaoh. The son of a king doesn't go to secondary school that substitutes teach.

And he said, I stutter. I'm slow of speech. I'm unlearned. No, you're not Moses. You were schooled by the best.

Now get on with it. God said to Moses, I've made the eye, I've made the mouth, I've made this, I've made that. To whom are you speaking to when you make the excuses? Sound familiar? Well, you know there's COVID-19.

We've got to be careful. Oh no, you know that I just can't go to church today, might catch it. And on and on the stories go. So today, this morning, I want you to take out your meter stick. The measuring tool.

Or you take out your thermometer, spiritual thermometer, and you measure where you are in this message. Because the message is going to become very, very close to home. I'm a little weary of hearing and seeing theory doctrine and not practical experimental doctrine. Are we so weak as Christians that when our child gets a hangnail, everyone has to stay home to nurse it? Is that where we are as God's people today?

Have we really become that weak? That the slightest little issue that rises up, suddenly We no longer believe in God's sovereignty. We have to work it out. Daniel here, he made a statement in verse eight of chapter one, and Daniel was at a very young, tender age. And I will get into that in a moment.

An amazing character of a young man. And he used a word and he said that he did not want to defile himself with the king's meat and the king's drink. He purposed within his heart, do you have a purpose? Why do you go to school? There's a purpose for me to get learning.

Why do you want to be learned? Why do you want to be schooled so I can have a good job? Why do you want that? I can keep asking the questions. You have to have a purpose.

Why do you come to church? I have a purpose. Why? What's your purpose in coming to church? What is the purpose?

To see someone, family, friends, girlfriend, boyfriend, you miss the point. The purpose in coming to church is to worship Jehovah. This compromise, people Jehovah. This compromise, people say when they speak about corruption, they will say well if I get involved in that I might lose my job. People are honest and to a little dishonesty, it might gain them some financial gain and then they're no longer honest.

You see where it goes? People will not say what they really believe in in the face of family or friends or churches or pastors or Christians for fear of losing their respect with so and so, and so what do they do? They compromise. Solomon said the fear of man becomes a snare. I wonder how many of God's people have been caught in snares.

I want to give you some listing of people in the Bible that compromised and you pay attention to what happened with this compromise and I've got it kind of like a grocery list so you can just listen and you can absorb it. Adam compromised God's law, followed his wife and he lost paradise. Big loss. Mr. Husbands, Mr.

Man, Listen up. Abraham compromised the truth about Sarah and just about lost his wife. Compromised. Sarah compromised God's promise of the promise seed, told Abraham to take Hagar, raise a son, lost peace in the Middle East. They've been fighting until the very present day.

That's what was lost, compromise. Big loss, He saw compromise for a bowl of porridge and lost his birthright and lost his joy. Compromise. Saw compromise God's word, kept the animals and the very king that he was supposed to destroy, lost his kingdom and lost his position as king. Compromise.

Aaron compromised the law of God and 3, 000 people lost their lives because of compromise. Brought a plague upon the people of Israel. Compromise. Samson compromised his convictions as a Nazarite, lost his strength, lost his eyes and even lost his life. Compromise.

Israel compromised the law of God. They were always vacillating, going back and forth, to and fro with God, playing fast and loose. They lost worship with Jehovah, they became idolaters, lost fear of the nations around them, they lost their power with God and they went into prison. That's what compromise will get you. David compromised God's truth, violated spiritual and moral laws, committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdered Uriah and he lost his child.

That's what compromise will get you. Solomon compromised his convictions with God, married strange wives and he lost his kingdom. King Ahab married Jezebel, lost his throne and lost his life through compromise. Peter compromised his stand, cursed and denied the Lord and lost his joy, didn't he? Some very sobering, very, very sobering thoughts in the Bible of people who compromised.

Is this any different today? It's no different. People are still people regardless of tongue, nation, language, or creed, or colour. People are still people. People still sell out.

What's the price tag on your life? What will it take to get you to sell out? Brother Peter, I'll never sell out. Never say never. And young people, younger than me, and I'm younger than Zan, but all of us, but especially the younger generation, you figure out in your mind today, what does it take to keep me on the rails?

What's it going to take for me to get off the rails? What will Satan test and tempt me with to get me to sell out? And I'm not preaching about theory doctrine. I'm preaching about practical doctrine, experimental doctrine. So we go back to the sovereignty of God.

Is it real to you? And you say, yes. Well, how real is it? How real is the real? And I'm going to give you some very, very practical examples that you can wrestle with.

You go home and you sit down with your wife and your husband and your family and you figure out what it is that we're going to do not to sell out. And remember, remember, remember that God is not a man that he shall be mocked, nor that the Son of man that he should repent. Hath he not said it? Shall he not do it? Shall it not come true?

God is not a God that he shall change. I change not, the Lord says. Be careful that you don't make an oath with your tongue and your tongue betrays you. It's better not to make an oath than to make an oath and break it. Don't say you believe a doctrine when you're prepared to sell out.

Just tell it straight. Brother Peter, I don't believe that. It's a great doctrine. I'd like to believe it but I just don't believe it. I can handle truth, it's the deception I have problems with.

People all over the world in different mission fields and here in this country and other countries that I've been in, England and Wales and so on, and Australia, New Zealand and other countries in Africa and all over the world, I've seen people that have held this book and say they believe it when the slightest little test, examination comes along and they don't follow through with the doctrine they say they believe then it means you don't believe it I can tell you all day that I love chocolate pie and I do love chocolate pie. But if you never see me eat chocolate pie, where's the experimental knowledge? Believe in God's sovereignty. It goes like this. Jonah was sent to Nineveh after he kept going down and down.

Listen folks, if you think that you've hit bottom, you don't know what bottom is. There's always another bottom. And Jonah found himself eventually in Nineveh preaching the conversion. Large numbers of people, the Bible declares it to be, repented. I'll leave that with God, not me, I'm not going to get into those numbers.

But here's Jonah sitting under A juniper tree. God raised up a gourd. He was sitting under a gourd, the leaf of a gourd. Let me help you with that a little bit. You call them elephant ears over here.

It's a plant. It's got huge leaves on it. A gourd is kind of like that in tropical countries. And Jonah was sitting under that to reprieve himself from the hot sun. Gets hot in Africa, gets hot in the Middle East, triple digits.

He'd been preaching, he was hot. He wanted some relief from the sun sitting under there. God rose up the leaf, the gourd leaf, to give him, what am I talking about? Sovereignty. Are you with me?

Are we connecting the dots now? The God was predestinated. You need to get away from this huge idea that God's sovereign over the heaven and the sky, but not your life. Get rid of that. It was predestinated, it was planned, ordained, God was involved in the raising of that gourd leaf, the plant.

So the leaf would be there when Jonah wanted some reprieve and he went over there, it was predestinated that he go over there. And he went over there, sat under the gourd leaf, it was not by accident, folks. And he began to belly ache and feel sorry for himself and had all kinds of emotional issues going on and he almost was blaming the fact, yeah, God, I knew you were going to do this. I had to come here to these dirty people and preach to this dirty nation. I knew you would save them.

What did God do? God raised up a cutworm. How many farmers in here know about farming? Some of us know about farming, some of us have been involved in farming, some of us live in agricultural environments, we know something about the cutworm. No one would pick up a cutworm and take it home.

Would you agree with me that the cutworm was ordained of God to be there? Can you see how definitive God's sovereignty is? The cutworm, God ordained it, God planned it, God put it there, God raised it up. And it began to chew away at the roots. And pretty soon the leaf faded.

So guess what Mr. Jonah, you don't have any shade any longer. Wow! Really? Is God that sovereign?

Do you think God was sovereign in your marriage? Is God sovereign as to where you're sitting in placement? Is God sovereign over how many children you have? Is God sovereign over the vehicle getting stuck? I'm going to put this on a level we can all understand.

I want the little ones to get it. God's sovereign over who your mommy and daddy is. And God's sovereign as to the clothes you put on, where you, what you picked out, and so on and so on. Yes, I know human responsibility. Yes, I know accountability.

Yes, I know all of that. But I want you to tune in to the definitiveness of God's sovereignty. And here was Daniel, and here are the numbers. There were 70 young men from the tribe of Judah that was selected by King Nebuchadnezzar back in Jerusalem when King Nebuchadnezzar took his army and they marched against Israel and they camped against Jerusalem And they besieged it. You ever been in a besieged city, a city under siege?

I have. No one in, no one out. Goes on for days. You know what people talk about in a seized city? The first thing they talk about is protection.

You know what follows protection? You know what people talk about in a city that's seized? They start talking about bread and water. Well we need to take count of our supplies. Jerusalem was under siege.

King Nebuchadnezzar waited it out. Besieged Jerusalem. Jeremiah was the prophet on the scene. He'd been prophesying, he'd been preaching, he'd been telling these belligerent Jews, you're going to prison. They said, we don't believe that.

Oh really? You'll believe it when you're marched. You may not believe it today, but you're going to believe it when they put the handcuffs on you. And in order to shut up Jeremiah, they put him in the dungeon. We're not going to listen to you any longer, Jeremiah.

We've had enough of your preaching. They shut him up for a while. God drew him out, placed him in the courtyard. The next scene is that King Nebuchadnezzar takes the captives and takes them off to Babylon. There's no rail cars, No vehicles to transport, no aeroplanes, no bicycles and motorcycles.

You're walking to Babylon. You ever done the math? I did it. From Jerusalem to Babylon. It's like walking from Charlotte right the way to the city limits of Los Angeles.

That's how far they walked. And the mommies are going to make noise in the daddy's ear. Look what you are doing to our little ones. I hear it today. This message is not Bible, Daniel, This message is today.

The older folks, the ones who were really old, and the ones who were crippled and blind and whole and lame, they weren't taken, they were left with Jeremiah. The young ones, the middle-age and the young ones and the goodly people were handcuffed and taken off as prisoners to Babylon And they had to hike a long way. Do you would you agree with me that some people would have died along the way? I do Some people just can't take it Let's get into the human side of this. Was God sovereign over that?

Yes, he was. Who would have preached the funeral? Ezekiel was in their midst, but I don't believe they would have halted for a funeral. King Nebuchadnezzar would not have cared about a funeral. That's your problem.

We're going to prison. I'm in charge. The little ones, The big ones, the men, the women, you're all going, the goodly ones you're going. Amongst this number there were 70 young seeds of the royal family of the tribe of Judah. The royalty of Israel was being taken off to Babylon.

Amongst the 70, there was Daniel and his three friends. They were between the ages of 12 to 13 years of age when they were taken to Babylon. A very tender age, would you not agree? Can you think back when you were 12, 13, how it was with you, when people posed hard questions, or when people put a lot of pressure on you for the world, for the Bible, for church, pressure was put on you. How did you react?

What did you say? Well, you don't really need to go to church tonight, we can just kind of hang out. At 13, did you say, well no, I can't hang out with you, I've got to go to church. I am going to church, that's where I go. What was the answer?

You search your own heart, I'll search mine. God will search all of us. How did you answer at that age? Daniel and his three friends come to Babylon, They are the only four out of the entire generation of the royal seed of Judah of the 70 to 75 young men. They were only four that didn't sell out.

That's a pretty small percentage. When I went to school and learned mathematics, I did well in mathematics, I liked it. Four percent from 70, 75 is not a good number. In mathematics in school that's failing. What happened?

Who lost it? Who lost it on their watch? We were talking about this yesterday and today. It was Brother Chris, myself, Brother Jimmy, my age, I'm 60, they're my age. Our watch, not mommy and daddy.

Mommy and daddy, they had their watch. It's my time now. Who's losing it on their watch? And in the family, who's the one responsible for the pressure? Is it Miss Wifey?

The pressure that comes to the family to change, to vacillate, to compromise, to sell out the truth? Does it come from the little ones? Does it come from the wifey? Does it come from the husband? Who does it come from?

It's coming from someone. We can't all back out of this. Someone's got to be held responsible. And Daniel and his three friends, the reason they did not sell out, the reason they did not compromise is because they would have had a very, very strong upbringing and they would have been drilled. They would have been grounded in the Word of God.

Grounded. They would have had godly parents. And the godly parents would have made sure that even at a very tender age that they were settled on God's Word. You see when there is a principle in life where we are faced with it and then we begin to examine that principle in God's Word. God's Word should become the grid.

I'll do mechanical work. On my vehicle that was bought, the Land Rover out of England, shipped it to Africa, had it there for 11 years, it's in New Guinea, its life is used up. However, when it came from the UK, it had a primary filter on it. I live in Africa where there's a lot of rubbish fuel. I fabricated and installed a secondary filter and a final filter.

So I've got primary, secondary and final filters on the vehicle to keep the rubbish from getting to the fuel injectors and to the engine. I had to do a lot of maintenance but I never had engine problems. You get me? Where are the filters of God's people? What kind of filtering system are we using?

Most people think because they come to church, the church life is the filter. It's not. The church house is God's schoolhouse. But the filter of our life in the world, it's God's Word. God's Word needs to become the grid of all that passes through our lives.

Everything in this life needs to be examined with God's Word, through God's Word, in the light of God's Word. What happened to these Hebrew children? What happened to them? They were exposed, the Babylonians, They wanted to expose these Hebrew children through a process of brainwashing them. And that's always what the world does.

But because People are not settled in God's word. Oftentimes, things go adrift. Off the coast of Papua New Guinea, there is a plant. And the plant grows, you see it growing, it's on top of the South Pacific waters off the coast of New Guinea. The first time I seen it I was amazed.

It captivated my interest. As I began to view and watch and observe this little flowery plant on the waters of the South Pacific and the waves coming in and cresting and smashing against the small tender plant. And I began to wonder what was keeping this plant from being totally devastated and destroyed. And as I began to make my observations I noticed that in the waters, the clear blue waters and the coral sea in New Guinea you could see the stem of that plant reaching all the way down and had its roots on the rock below. Roots on the rock below.

And as the waves of the sea crashed upon this fragile plant, and the winds beat against it and the seas rose up and crashed upon it tossing it to and fro in the sea And I wondered what is keeping this tender plant from being dashed upon the rocks and destroyed and I realized and the Lord was showing me and said to me, Peter, if you don't have your anchor, if you're not anchored upon the rock, the storms of life will get to you. The winds and the storms and the seas of life will dash against you and take you out in the seas and you'll be lost as though it were. So many of God's people are lost not in terms of salvation, they're lost in terms they don't have the grid. They don't know what to do in all the troubles and problems. They don't know what to do when the world is against them and the governments are against them and the laws of the land are against them.

Many of God's people, they don't even know what to do. I'll tell you why they don't know what to do. They're not locked into God's word. It's not the grid. What a tender age.

Daniel and his three friends at the age of 13, 12 to 13, they stood against the king. Daniel, you could have chose a better word. Don't you know that's offensive to the king? You said defile. You know what that word defile means in Hebrew?

Daniel said to the king, I can't take your meat and I can't take your wine because it's an abomination to me. It will make me dirty. And Mr. So-and-so you want to know why I can't run around with you on Sunday afternoon because it's going to make me dirty. You know why I can't miss church?

It's going to make me dirty. You know why I can't miss church? It's going to make me dirty. You know why I can't get involved in those activities? Because it's an abomination to me.

Daniel could have said something like, well Mr. King, I've got some dietary issues, I really can't eat that food, you know, I'm from Israel, we don't eat that. He could have said so many things, couldn't he? He could have said, well I'm really feeling nauseated, and I really don't feel like eating. He could have made up a lot of excuses, but oh no, not Daniel.

He just said it like it was supposed to be said. He stood his ground. He did not negotiate. He did not compromise. He did not sell out.

He said it like it's supposed to be said. Mr. King, I can't take your wine. I can't take your meat because it's an abomination to me. It's not what I believe.

He did not say, listen to this. I've heard for so many years, Christians say, well, I can't do that and I can't do this because it's not what I was taught. Wrong answer. Nothing wrong with the teaching, but that's a cop out. When are God's people going to start taking responsibility for self I'm not going to do that.

Mr. World miss wifey. Mr. Husband or so-and-so I'm not going to do it because God's Word says not to do it. Amen.

Don't blame mommy and daddy for teaching you. You see where the blame goes. Adam and Eve started in the Garden of Eden. It's been handed down, handed over. People are still doing it today.

Well I can't do that. I can't go there. I'm not going to be with those people. I just can't do it because I was not taught. Stop blaming mommy and daddy.

Stand up for who God made you to be. I'm not doing that because God's word said not to do it, And I'm one of his children. And so you know what? Daddy said not to do it. And I'm not doing it.

That's what Daniel said. So they had a plot. The plot was very simple. They wanted to brainwash them. They wanted to manage to eliminate their thinking.

Isn't that what the world wants to do to our people? Eliminate our thinking. They wanted to eliminate their homeland. That's what the world wants to do. They want to do away with your thinking that you're not of this world, you have another world, you have another home.

Don't we sing a song something like in English, this world is not my home? I think they sung it at Bible camp, I enjoyed it. See the world wants to instill in you that you are of this world, this is your home. You know when people behave most comfortably? At home.

If you want to learn about people, go home with people and live with people at home with people and you'll know what they're comfortable with. That's what the world wants us to do. It's what Satan wants. He wants God's people to believe that this world is your home. That's what the Babylonians were doing to these four young men.

They wanted to wipe away their heritage, they wanted to wipe away their religion, they wanted to Wipe away everything that they were loyal to, and they tried to get them not to remember. They attempted to do this by doing three things. Number one, they attempted to change their names from the biblical names that God gave them to worldly names, to the Babylonian names. What do names mean? There used to be an old custom, here we go with the customs, But there used to be an old custom, and many parts of the world they still do it, people name their children when they're burst Peter, Daniel, John, Zechariah.

I don't know any Christian family who names their son Judas. What do you say here in America? That's a no-brainer. Why would you do that? Words mean things, names mean things.

So people would name their children in hopes of building a character. That's why we do that. And so the Babylonians knew that. And they wanted to change their names. So they did change their names but I want you to understand that Daniel and his three friends they did not resist that.

You want to change my name go ahead it's not going to change who I am. So they did not resist. What an amazing character these young men. So they did not resist that. What they they they didn't they after that they wanted to change their education.

What does the world do with our children and our people? It's everywhere, isn't it? Switch on the TV. Switch on the radio. Who needs TV any longer when you've got this?

Who needs the radio any longer when you've got the whole world at your fingertips and there's no parental guidance with the iPhones any longer with the children? Who needs children when you've removed all perimeters of the child life and they know what adults know, who needs children? And so the Babylonians, they wanted to re-educate Daniel and his friends. And so they wanted to send them to school. They wanted to re-educate them and at first Daniel and his three friends they did not even resist the education.

So people say to me, well Brother Peter do you think our people should go to higher education? I think some of our people need to go to higher education, not all. Then I'm going to tell you why I say that, because not all of our young people are locked into the grid of God's Word and they don't use God's word as the filter system of the world and they go to school and they come back with everything all messed up here. They have different ideas, worldly ideas, they have worldly motives, they have a worldly life, they have a life that pleases the world and doesn't please God, doesn't please the godly family, doesn't please the church and the first chance they get off they go well that's what the world is doing through the educational process How in the world did Daniel and his three friends withstand the educational process of Babylon? How did they do that?

Well, first of all, they didn't compromise, did they? They didn't sell out. They were locked into the grid of God's Word. Everything that was brought to them, the food, the drinks, the clothing, the education, the names, everything was brought to them and offered to them and they viewed it under the grid of God's Word. So the names they didn't try to resist, they didn't even try to resist the educational process but here's where they made their stand.

Here's the mountain they stood on and they said, we're not willing to negotiate on this one. The other two, okay, we'll take your names. Your education process, okay, we'll learn what you want us to learn. For your sake, we're here, we're prisoners, we'll go to your schools, But they were already locked in God's Word. They didn't resist that.

But listen, here's where it is. Number three, when it came to the wine and the meat. Now listen to me, I'm not a prohibitionist. I don't pass judgment on those who may partake of wine in the right sense of the word. I don't pass judgment on those who do or those who prohibit all alcohol.

I don't pass judgment on that. But here's what I'm saying. That wine and that meat is a picture of the world's society, social life. The most corrupting thing of any nation, The most corrupting thing of any nation, the most corrupting thing of any family, of any society, of any people, of any country, the most corrupting thing is the social life. When the world tells our children how to dress, when the world tells our people how to behave on their off time, whatever that's supposed to mean, When the world dictates to the sports, to the movies, Christian people know more about the movies and the movie styles and their names and their history than they do about the books of the Bible.

What's going on? When our people know more about the fashions and the dress of the world and the makeup and the perfumes and so on and so on and the nightlife of the world society. It's the most corrupting thing of any nation. And that's where Daniel and his three friends said, no, we're not doing it. We're not going to take your meat, we're not taking your drink, we're not taking your social life.

And You go tell Mr. King, if he wants to take our necks off, so be it, but we're not selling out. There's a lot more, but I'm going to bring this to a close and I'm going to ask some questions. Great preaching, Peter. Great preaching, Peter.

Shake the hand, walk out the door, off you go. Okay, great preaching. What does it take for you to sell out? What does it take for you to stay home from church when you can be in church? What does it take at school to take the king's meat and the king's drink?

What does it take for you to sell out? Some of you here, you're about 13. I was once 13. I know the pressures of the world. I do.

Now I'll put it on another level before I close. Some are married, some have been married. Lock into what I'm about to say. When God called me to preach, There was no duration of timetable that God said you'll go to this point and it'll finish. Go live like you want.

What does Mr. Husband do when Miss Wifey says, When Miss Wifey says, I'm not doing that any longer. You want me to put this on a level we can understand? Here's the level. What happened on my generation of the watch?

Where are the men? See, I don't blame the women of this country. It's run by women, but I don't blame the women. I blame the men. Because God put the man as the head of the house, God put the man as the spiritual leader, God put the man as the one responsible for the family?

Why are we losing it? How many preachers have left the preaching because the wifey didn't want it anymore? Let's take another step, take another level. What happens when your children just don't want to go to church any longer? And they're getting to that age to where they are just about ready to walk out the door if they don't like mommy and daddy's answer.

And they say, you know what? You've dragged me to church all these years and I've got my belly full of it and I'm gone. Well, that's alright. Let's try going just once a week. I know you've got bowl games, I know you're in school, I know you've got sports, we want you to do well, so we'll just compromise.

And lastly, let me present this to you. There's some troublesome times coming here in America. My theology believes pre-trib, pre-mil. I'm looking for the Lord to come. I'm not looking for the Antichrist.

However, there's a however here. I don't know what from point A to point B when the Lord does come, what the Lord is going to allow to come. But I know things are very quickly coming to pass in this country and around the world. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm talking about this Covid-19 and people who sell out.

Didn't have to sell out, but sold out. To what end will it go? Well, the Lord understands, does he? Stop blaming the start blaming the Lord. What will happen in another year?

I'm facing some stiff opposition to go back to Papua New Guinea. They're making it compulsory for all returning residents, whoever, anyone, everyone. Vaccinations are compulsory. I've got to make a choice. Is that your situation?

Are you faced with the Lord's work and a decision like that or are you faced with a vocational decision? Well, if I quit this job and get another job, I'll not make as much. Coming back to God's sovereignty, who's God's sovereign? Well, I'll lose my 401 Plan and I'll lose my retirement. Yeah, I get that.

I don't have retirement. It's okay for you but not for me. Well, I'll lose my insurance. Brother Peter, you don't understand. I just can't afford that and I can't.

You see, I can preach this way because I live that life, I'm in it. I have nothing. I depend. I depend on the support of God's people to carry me through life. And I've been at it for 37 years.

I've seen God perform miracles where miracles should not have come. I've seen God open the doors of governments and closed doors. I've seen things happen that should have never happened. Where is it with you? What will compromise bring you?

May the Lord add his blessings to these words. Brother David.