Sunday, July 4, AM

With us this morning on this 4th of July. We're so thankful to be able to have the freedoms that we do in this country but we also recognize the need still that Jesus is our King and we have the need just as we did over 200 years ago to repent of sin and to call upon the name of the Lord.

So let's pray that we might be faithful to do that today and in the days ahead. A few announcements as we get started this morning. No evening service because it is the 4th of July so be able to spend some time with family and friends.

Looking ahead to this Wednesday we've got dinner at 545 for the whole church and then Bible study and prayer for everyone together in the fellowship hall and then next Sunday July 11th Jeff Howe and Adriana and their kids are going to be visiting with us.

They'll be sharing in that evening service at 530 and then following that we're going to have a reception for the Nelsons Norman Loretta just to be able to wish them well as they are moving down south just a little bit in Oklahoma but we want to recognize them and all that they've done over the many years of service here at the church and the love that we have for them.

So there will be a reception following that evening service next Sunday. This week's fighter verse comes from Ephesians chapter 6 verses 12 and 13. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Good reminder for us. We still need some nursery volunteers for this month the month of July if you can help out with that please see Marla Hovarter.

The sewing ministry still has some needs for bias tape and elastic any size or color will do there so you can see Loretta about that. Operation Christmas Child has needs for July. Girls hair accessories, brushes, combs and things and then some small sports balls and baseball caps for boys that will pack up in those shoe boxes.

Also if you can give blood it's been mentioned I think in some emails on the prayer chain. Donate in Tommy McGarry's name. The Oklahoma Blood Institute is experiencing a shortage there and then finally if you haven't paid Patti Hines yet for baseball tickets that's going to be happening at the end of this month.

Please see her and make sure you get that settled up. All right any other announcements before we begin worshiping today? All right we're gonna have a time of prayer to prepare our hearts for worship and then when we're done with that Brian will come and lead us in.

Prayer. Father in heaven we rejoice in this new day that you have given. May our hearts and our minds be yearning for your word for fellowship with our brothers and sisters. May we know you more intimately.

May your word illumine its truth to our souls to our hearts to our minds. We thank you for this day given and may we find our hope our solace in the blood and sacrifice of your son Christ. Strengthen our faith.

Teach us. May the joy of our salvation be renewed this day. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.

Please stand with me for our call to worship. Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 68. We'll be reading verses 4 and 5. Read with me together. Sing to God. Sing praises to his name. Lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts.

His name is the Lord. Exult before him. Father of fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. Our first song this morning is page 546 in your blue hymnals for all the saints. We'll be singing.

Verses 1, 2, 3, and 5. Bibles together to the book of Amos chapter 5 beginning in.

Verse 14. If you can find the book of Daniel just go over a few books. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and then Amos. Seek good and not evil that you may live so the Lord God of hosts will be with you as you have spoken.

Hate evil, love good. Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord says this, there shall be wailing in all streets and they shall say in all the highways, alas, alas.

They shall call the farmer to mourning and skillful lamenters to wailing. In all vineyards there shall be wailing for I will pass through you says the Lord. Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord for what good is the day of the Lord to you?

It will be darkness and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or as though he went into the house leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light?

Is it not very dark with no brightness in it? I hate, I despise your feast days and I do not savor your sacred assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.

Take away from me the noise of your songs for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. Did you offer me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

You also carried Sikuth, your king, and Kayun, your idols, the star of your gods, which you made for yourselves. Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.

Would you pray with me? O Lord, how we love you. We love your truth, the truth of your Word. Truly it is a fearful thing, the day of the Lord, for those who are without Christ. How we rejoice in our Redeemer, for with Him is safety and peace, freedom and liberty.

His name must be magnified. I pray that you would work in our hearts this morning to rejoice in our great King, who He is and what He has done. And we look to that day when every knee will bow and declare that He is Lord.

I pray your blessing upon our time together that you would build us up in a Christian unity for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. For our next two.

Songs, if you would turn to page 279 in your hymnals and then also have available the lyrics that were about are available in the back for Jesus shall.

Reign where the Son. Faith of our fathers. Father, I thank you so much for.

Gathering us together on this day to rejoice in the resurrection of our Savior and Sovereign Jesus Christ. Rejoice on this first day of the week, recognizing that through Christ you're making all things new.

We pray that you would help us to as we read this your Word that you would do your work in our lives and that you would that you would renew us in your image. Renew us and make us more like your Son Jesus Christ.

Help us to mature and grow as a body in Christ as a as a church that you would mature us into Christ who is our head and our life and our standard and our our chief in all things. We thank you for the blessings today that we still enjoy.

Blessings that in your providence many suffered and died for. In your providence much labor was done by God-fearing people that we would have freedoms today and to gather in good conscience with fellow believers of like faith and practice and rejoice in Christ freely singing his praises and praying to you and reading your Word in our language aloud to your glory.

Thank you. Thank you. We pray that today that we would take up these blessings and that we would make good use of them and we pray that you would help us to hear your Word and to respond in repentance and in faith for the glory of Christ's in his name that we pray.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3. We will be reading verses 1 through 18 here in a moment. Daniel chapter 3 verses 1 through 18. The title for this sermon is By Me Kings Reign.

By Me Kings Reign. Now remember that Daniel is a book in which wisdom, the wisdom of God, is both championed and revealed. It is a book of history and it is a book of prophecy. But what binds those two main sections of the book together is wisdom.

The wisdom of God to understand the riddles of statecraft in which life and death are at stake. The riddles of prophecy of the one to come who would make all things right. So in chapter 1 we consider that wisdom is the principal thing.

Therefore in all you're getting get wisdom Solomon says to his son in Proverbs. And in chapter 2 we saw that wisdom is justified by her children as Jesus said to the crowds in the marketplace concerning John the Baptist and himself that they did not dance according to the tunes of the marketplace but rather they lived according to wisdom.

And now in chapter 3 we see a new test. Daniel and his friends have made it through the re-education camp. They have survived the attempted purge and yet again there's another challenge facing them. A new test.

And we're going to read about that in Daniel chapter 3 verses 1 through 18 on advice you to stand with me as I read God's holy word. These are the words of our Savior Christ through his spirit and his prophet Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and it's with six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

So the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then the herald cried aloud, to you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

And whoever does not fall down in worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. So at that time when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, harp, and lyre in symphony with all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and languages fell down and worship the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews. They spoke and said to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King, live forever. You, O King, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music shall fall down and worship the gold image.

And whoever does not fall down in worship shall be cast in the midst of a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

These men, O King, have not paid due regard to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have set up. Then Nebuchadnezzar in rage and fury gave the command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, so they brought these men before the king.

Nebuchadnezzar spoke saying to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now if you are ready at the time that you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good.

But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.

If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O King. But if not, let it be known to you, O King, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

The word of the Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. On the back of a one dollar bill are both sides of the great seal of the United States of America. It is a symbol that speaks to one of the more crucial questions of political theory.

What makes a nation? What makes a nation? You'll notice on the side with the eagle, 13 stripes, 13 stars, and 13 letters spelling out the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum, which translated is, out of many, one.

Out of many, one. Of course, this phrase could be taken out of context and used to justify all kinds of syntheses and syncretism. However, the 13 stars and the 13 stripes and the 13 letters remind us who the many were.

13 colonies. 13 colonies that declared their independence from a tyrannical, law-breaking government, Great Britain. And they declared themselves as the United States of America. Now, how they could do that, and with what confidence, is expressed on the obverse of the seal.

For under the eye of Providence, we have another 13-letter phrase, Anuit Coeptis, translated, he favors our undertaking. He favors our undertaking. So, out of the many, one. How could we ever do this?

Because he favors our undertaking. How can the many have liberty in unity, rather than uniformity under tyranny? How can it come to pass that we can have unity and liberty, rather than uniformity under tyranny?

Through the fear of the Lord. He favors our undertaking. We're under the eye of his providence. We're underneath his sovereignty. And, of course, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Some think that kings reign by strength of will, wealth, or warriors.

But wisdom says, in Proverbs 8, wisdom says, by me kings reign. Wisdom says, by me kings reign, and rulers decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles all the judges of the earth. It is by wisdom. And the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Now, this is relevant because a great many folks today will be rejoicing in their liberty, or resting in their freedom, or resenting their citizenship, or raging at the very symbols that we've just looked at.

Wisdom and folly will be evident today, and in different ways. Why folks respond differently, and what they think today really means, has everything to do with worship. Worship. And that's the key word of this whole chapter, is worship.

You see, fear of the Lord, reverence for God, Scripture tells us, leads to freedom, it leads to liberty. Fear of man, and fear of death, ensnares, and enslaves. When people are afraid of men, and afraid of death, there is ensnarement, and enslavement.

Hashtag 2020. But when there's the fear of the Lord, there is freedom, and there is liberty. At the heart of what makes for a good or a bad nation, is either wisdom or folly. And ancient Babylon has the same issues that we have today.

Mankind has not fundamentally changed. Everyone worships. You're made in the image of God. One of the things that means, is that your worship switch is hardwired on. You never stop worshiping. Also, combine that with the corollary, which is this, nothing is neutral.

In this world, made in the image of God, your worship switch is hardwired on. And in this world, where God has placed enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, there is no neutrality.

So you are always worshiping, and you're either worshiping what is good and honorable, and of God, worshiping God, or you're worshiping something that is not God. There's either wisdom evident in your life, or there is folly.

There is no neutrality. Which leads us to the main thought, I think, of Daniel chapter 3, and it is this. Rhythms of worship. Now remember that worship is inevitable. So rhythms of worship, inevitable, sift all loyalties, unavoidable.

You have loyalties, you can't avoid them. Even the most stoic and non-committed of anyone will tell you the reason why they do that is it's the best way to live for themselves, and lo and behold, your loyalty.

So rhythms of worship, inevitable, sift all loyalties, unavoidable. And in this case, in chapter 3 of Daniel, we're looking at something that is very old and still in work today, and that is statism. Perhaps you've heard the word statism, perhaps you've heard it statist.

You've heard about it, maybe you've read about it, maybe this is a new word for you, but statism is mandated, as we see in verses 1 through 7. Here we find the politics of worship. Statism is mandated in verses 1 through 7 of Daniel 3.

What is statism? Statism is simply this. Rendering unto Caesar that what belongs to God. Rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to the church. Rendering unto Caesar that which belongs to the family.

That's statism. The state takes upon the roles, in statism, the civil government takes upon the role of prophet and priest along with king. Thank you very much, we'll take prophet and priest too. Rather than remaining a servant of Christ with a sword to punish evil, in statism, the civil government seeks Christ's own position at the right hand of God and even more.

Even more. But statism is the necessary mood, the necessary political mood of paganism. Remember we talked about paganism at the beginning of Daniel. Paganism is oneness. Everything is subsumed into the one.

We live in a material paganism today. Everything is matter, material. In paganism, everything is one and thus the state is the one and everything else are just parts of that one, subsumed into the whole.

So church and business and family and health care and education, whatever it is, these are all just parts of the whole. They are under the heading and as a part of the state. Statism, oneness, paganism, this is all consistent philosophy.

Not righteous, not correct, but consistent. In statism, think of it this way. In statism, the state solves all problems and saves all people. That's the philosophy of statism. We solve all problems and we save all people and thus all must adore the state.

Now consider the ancient Babylonian expression, verses 1 through 7 again of Daniel 3. Listen to it again and if you notice the repetition, you're noticing Daniel making fun of people. Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold whose height was 60 cubits and its width 6 cubits.

He set it up in the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. He set it up. You hear that? You're going to hear that again and again. And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather together the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces, all the bureaucracy to do what?

To come to the dedication of the image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. So the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces gathered together for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

And they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Why is he repeating everything all over again? Now of course you learn by repetition. That's good. But he's making fun of the way that the pagans worshipped.

You know how pagans worshipped in the ancient Near East? You know how they worshipped? They just repeated stuff over and over and over again. They would put themselves into a trance, a daze, with music running, and just repeat the same phrase over and over and over and over until finally they get themselves into a rhythm saying the same things over and over again until they have some sort of experience.

Now it's effective to produce an experience, but it's not righteous and it's not correct. He's making fun of it. This is how the pagans worshipped. Verse 4,. Then a herald cried aloud to you as commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time that you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, and symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. So at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and symphony with all kinds of music, all the people, nations, and languages fell down and worshipped the gold image which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

Do you remember the dream that Daniel told to Nebuchadnezzar? Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and he told his wise men, his counselors, his diviners, he said, tell me what the meaning of the dream, but you have to tell me the dream itself.

And no one could do it. He was ready to kill them all, and God revealed the dream to Daniel, and Daniel told it to Nebuchadnezzar. And in that dream, four empires were envisioned, the first of which was the empire of Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar.

The statue is in the shape of a man, and only the head was gold, only the head was gold. Now, Nebuchadnezzar, being a good Babylonian, knows that dreams often predict bad outcomes. And being a Babylonian and being a Chaldean at heart, he says, I know what to do.

We are to countermand bad dreams. Dreams are to tell you what's bad, what's about to happen that's bad, and then you go about your business and try to countermand the dream so that you end up in a better place than you were otherwise.

That was his perspective. That's how he thought of dreams. And so here is his solution. He didn't like what Daniel said to him. After you, Nebuchadnezzar, another kingdom will come. He didn't like that.

He liked the the sycophancy of his echo chamber. Oh, king, live forever! Yeah, that's my style. Oh, king, live forever! Exactly. We're gonna have an image set up that is gold from head to toe. We're not gonna have any other empire coming after this one.

We are going to have solid gold. We're not gonna have a broken empire. He's trying to countermand the dream. That's how he deals with dreams. So he commissions this golden image, and he crafts a religious ceremony designed to bring all of his officials together into this place called Dura, which means a walled plain.

And it's like in the side of this walled plain, Nebuchadnezzar is the high priest, and he has his object of worship, and he also has his sacrificial altar. Should any fail to worship, he will then burn them.

So he is not trying to replace all other gods or other worship. No, no. Everyone's freedom of religion is being ensured here. Freedom of religion is not being infringed here. Certainly not. This is simply coming together in unity.

This is a monument of human togetherness. So all together now, or else. Uniformity under tyranny is the statist answer to the diversity question. So Daniel is making fun of the folly. He's got all these repetitions, and he keeps saying that, you know, the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up, that he set up, that he set up, clearly identifying this was a setup.

This is artificial. This is manufactured. There's nothing real here. Nebuchadnezzar orchestrates and choreographs. Now let's go over the scene again. When you hear the praise band kick in, do the worship thing, right?

All right, let's go over it. Come on. What's the scene? How do we do this thing again? And notice, all kinds of music for all kinds of people, all at the same time. Oh, wouldn't that be lovely? Bow down and cover my ears.

Cacophony is the art style of pagans, and everybody is forced to comply. All the pomp and circumstance which attends the worship of this made-up, set-up, put-up job is ridicule-worthy. And look how inspiring the state really is.

They're so inspiring that its people are worshiping because they're forcibly gathered, strenuously instructed, horrifyingly threatened, and hawkishly watched. The reverence is forced, and the glory is prepackaged.

Yeah, but it's 60 cubits tall, and six cubits wide, and it's solid gold. I mean, that's impressive. There must be some truth behind such a thing of wonder. But the jokes on Nebuchadnezzar, these are the numbers of men.

Six, one short of the completion. Seven is the number of God built everything in seven days. Six is one short. Six ten times over, and multiplied by six. What's the joke? Daniel's writing this in snickering.

Why is he laughing? Why are the children of Israel listening to this, and a low-level murmur of laughter runs through the crowd? Why? Because Nebuchadnezzar's statism is completely incomplete. It is exactly coming up short.

It is entirely, thoroughly flawed. His statism is another tower of Babel which will also fail to be finished. So this is false worship. It's state worship, but it's also false worship. Gathered among the officials of these provinces are Daniel's friends, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.

They are listed as their pagan names, their official names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And we don't know where Daniel is, or what he's up to at this moment, but his friends are facing quite a dilemma.

They are being mandated, meaning they're under the threat of force, to render false worship. But what does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? Remember that these young men grew up under the revival of Josiah, of good King Josiah.

What had been recovered in his days? What had been read in the presence of the King that set him to weeping, and the whole nation into the motion of repentance? Deuteronomy 5, beginning in verse 6, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or is that on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

The reason why Daniel and his buddies are in Babylon in the first place is because of the faithlessness of Judah in worshiping idols, and the curses of the Old Covenant are coming upon them. So what are they going to do now?

Are they going to continue in that folly? Are they going to continue bringing the curses of God upon them? Now it seems pretty clear they're not going to be able to comply with the state order. Yeah, but the world is watching.

The world is watching, guys. What are they gonna think when you're, you know, you're supposed to be God-fearing, and you're supposed to be believers, and then you're making a fuss. And I mean, you're not being very considerate to the rich and diverse culture that you're in.

You're, you know, you're trying to force things upon them that they have no context. The world is watching, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Really, is this really the time to have this fight? You know, what's at stake here?

Oh, not much. Just who God is and how he's revealed. Everything is at stake. They can either fear God worshiping him alone, or they can fear man and fear death and worship idols. It's wisdom versus folly.

This is spiritual fidelity or soul prostitution. That's their choice. I hope you see from the text how worship determines values, thinking, words, actions. Through this image and through this ceremony, King Nebuchadnezzar seeks to control the categories of morality, truth, language, and behavior.

When the state tries, without reference to God, no fear of the Lord, no quotations from the Bible, please remove the Ten Commandments. When the state says, we will determine by our legal system, by our legislators, by our executive actions.

When the state says, we are in control of morality, we determine truth, here is the appropriate language that you are supposed to use, and this is the behavior that you're supposed to have. No reference to God, no appeal to his word, that is statism.

That is the state acting as God. That is the state saying, we are prophet, we will tell you what's true. We are priest, we will determine what is holy and unholy. And we are king, and thus we're going to employ the whole thing.

This is the state reaching for, grasping for, what belongs to Jesus Christ alone. For who God is and how he is revealed, we don't look to the state, we look to Christ. And that's where true worship is.

We do not worship any other gods, because there are none. Yes, there are forces of darkness and there are deceptive emanations, but there is no other God. Isaiah 44, verses 6 -9 says,. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.

Listen to that again. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last. Beside me there is no God. And who can proclaim as I do? Then let him declare it and set it in order for me.

Since I appoint the ancient people and the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them. Do not fear nor be afraid. Have I not told you from that time and declared it? You are my witnesses.

Is there a God besides me? Indeed there is no other rock I know, not one. Those who make an image, all of them are useless and their precious things shall not profit. So what if it's an image of gold?

It's pointless. They are their own witnesses. They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed. No image is to be made for the purposes of veneration or worship, because these man-made images only ever point to man-made deities.

And there is only one perfect image of God, incorruptible, uncut by human hands, the heaven-flung stone in Nebuchadnezzar's dream from chapter 2, and that is Jesus Christ. He is the Son who was given unto us, upon whose shoulders the government rests.

He is our Redeemer. He is the Lord of Hosts, the Lord Sabaoth. He is the Eternal Word. He is the image of the invisible God. And morality, truth, language, and behavior are in orbit around Christ. He is the light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

He is the rock which gives definition to everything else. And all tribes, and all tongues, and all nations, and all languages, all of them come together in Christ, bought by His blood, made one in His life.

There's the unity. There's the coming together. There's the definition, the image of God in Christ. Any state which seeks to supplant Christ's position at the right hand of God, denying Him His preeminence, is by definition anti-Christ.

July 4th is a celebration, not of statism. It's not the day in the religious calendar where we all worship the god Jupiter or something, and we're going to worship the state now. July 4th is a celebration of the birth of the nation which flung off the tyranny of uniformity for liberty and unity, a unity forged in the fear of God.

So today, as folks go forth on the 4th to burn things outdoors, whether you're going to burn meat, or skin, or colorful explosives, some people are going to be burning flags, maybe burning small businesses.

We should recall that all these celebrations and defamations that express veneration for or venom for the state are all wrong. They're all wrong. The state is not a god to solve problems and save people.

That is not what the state is. To worship it or profane it is to misunderstand it altogether. It is not a god, even if it tries to be. And rhythms of worship inevitable, sift all loyalties, unavoidable.

There is no neutrality about the state or about anything else. You know, is there a golden obelisk sitting in the Rose Garden to which the whole government representing all the people is to come and bow down to?

No. No. But make no mistake about it, there is a pagan program. There is a statist program. There is a liturgy in play. There is a claim that the state makes upon our souls that has no business making.

This is not just an issue for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, back in ancient Babylon. This is a current and live issue for us today. Pagans today, even as in ancient times, still consider a favorable undertaking to make the many one, not through fearing God, but by bowing to a common idol.

What is the common idol? In our day, the common idol is called the liberal principle. It's the liberal principle. This idol is as mancrafted as Nebuchadnezzar's image. It's been set up. It's been set up.

It's been set up. It's a set up. What's a good definition for the liberal principle? It's one that assures, assures all groups, and we're already dealing with groups, so we got one foot in Marxism already, assures all groups in the polity, all groups within the nation, the liberal principle assures all groups in the polity a maximum amount of group autonomy.

Your group, and we'll define who you are, you have this amount of freedom, but it has to be compatible with an equal amount of autonomy for all other groups. So every group is a ball bearing, and they all have the equal amount of freedom to work.

Everybody has the same amount of freedom. They're all ball bearings in the same machinery, around the same circle. Okay? Now, we have all these groups, but what about individuals that stray from proper group choices?

There are these three certain men from among the Jews, right? You know, the Jews are making good group choices to get along with all the other groups in our pagan empire, but these men are not making the proper group choices, and we are now selecting them out and showing you that they're not doing the right thing.

And so they're going to be cast into the cancelled furnace, heated immediately. No time for questions. Immediately, you've got to go to the furnace. There's no talking about this. There's no consideration of things.

There's no examining of the facts. There's no two or three witnesses to establish... No, immediately, you have to go into the burning, fiery furnace full of flames. Immediately. The cancelled furnace, heated seven times hotter by Herbert Marcuse's theory of repressive tolerance.

How will all groups... Now, here's the question. All these ball bearings, I mean, how are all these groups going to make those proper choices towards the great civil good of social peace and political stability?