Cmml Missionary Conference 1995-06 Daniel 1 — William MacDonald

Daniel in Babylon: Faithfulness Under Pressure

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God.

He brought the articles into the treasure house of his God. Then the king instructed Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring some of the children of Israel and some of the king's descendants and some of the nobles, young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

The king appointed for them a daily provision of the king's delicacies and of the wine which he drank, and three years of training for them so that at the end of that time they might serve before the king.

From among those of the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. To them the chief of the eunuchs gave names. He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednegoam.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's delicacies and with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. The chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear my lord the king who has appointed your food and drink, for why should he see your faces looking worse than the young men who are your age?

Then you would endanger my head before the king. So Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, please test your servants for ten days and let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Then let our countenances be examined before you and the countenances of the young men who eat the portion of the king's delicacies, and if you see fit, so deal with your servants. So he consented with them in this matter and tested them ten days.

At the end of ten days their countenance appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. Thus the steward took away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink and gave them vegetables.

As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill and all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding and all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days when the king had said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

Then the king interviewed them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. Therefore they served before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm, as Daniel continued until the first year of King Cyrus.

The Depth of Familiar Biblical Stories

When Ron Harris began this afternoon on the book of Mark, the gospel of Mark, he made an apology of sorts, trying to read your mind. Why would he speak on something so simple? But before he got through, we realized there was a lot in Mark that we hadn't seen before, a lot of deeper things that don't lie on the surface.

It's really wonderful. I'm sure as I read this chapter to you tonight, some of you are already humming, Daniel was a man of prayer, praying three times daily. Why is he bringing us back to Sunday school, for all we're veteran missionaries, or would be missionaries?

Evangelical Drift and the Need for Daniel-like Courage

I'll tell you why. The evangelical world is in a terrible condition today, and it needs men and women of the same breed as Daniel and his friends. Some of you missionaries are returned on furlough, and you probably don't realize what's going on in this country at the present time, but it's really breathtaking, and how fast it's going as well.

First of all, there's tremendous pressure in this country, ecumenical pressure, towards a uniting of, for instance, Protestantism and Catholicism. You wouldn't believe how strong that is. I'll give you some examples of it as we go along.

Years ago, the World Council of Churches tried to bring about an amalgamation of churches, and they failed. And now the evangelical leaders are pushing it. Names of men that have been respected down through the years, and they're in the forefront of the movement on the road back to Rome.

You'll have to pardon me if my blood pressure goes up a little. I had a test last Monday, and that's what it said. You get a man, a respected theologian like Norman Geisler, and he said, Most evangelicals don't realize how much they have in common with Roman Catholics as far as salvation is concerned.

Now, where have I been all these years? Is that true? That's what he exactly said. Navigator Press recently published a book by a man named Keith Fournier. Keith Fournier is a Catholic lawyer. He's on the staff of Pat Robertson, and he puts out this book and is pleading for alliance between Catholics and Protestants, but he uses it as a springboard for pushing Catholic doctrine all the way through, as published by Navigator Press.

He said, That can't be true. It is true. I wrote a letter to the president of the Navs and said, What's going on? What is your policy? I said, I recently got a letter from a young couple going out with the Navs, and I said, What is your policy?

Do you have Catholics on your staff? Do you send converts back to the Catholic Church? What is your policy? Do you know what he said? He said, Sometime you're in Colorado Springs, drop in and we'll talk about it.

That was the answer I got. In other words, I don't want to put in writing what our policy is on that. I don't want to commit myself, but I'll talk with you privately about it. Absolutely. And the leadership in evangelical circles today is weak, as weak as a wet noodle.

Men that we respected are marshmallows when it comes to this whole subject that I'm talking to you about. I'd like to ask you, why does it have to be a man of the world, a politician, that stands up and openly cries out against TV and the sex and the violence on TV, and his name is Senator Robert Gould.

Why haven't our evangelical leaders been doing it? No, no, no, no. Why does it have to be the Pope, the head of an apostate, heretical church that speaks out on abortion and premarital sex and homosexuality, and stands up for moral principles?

Why does it have to be one of them instead of one of our great evangelists that does it? That's where we are today. That's exactly what we are. Our magazines, Christian magazines in general, report the news rather approvingly, you know, quite content with the status quo, rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

Little realizing how wretched, weak we are and naked. Radio, Christian radio, Christian radio, it's incredible. One of my colleagues, I'll talk about this in just a minute, Jim McCarthy has written a book on Catholicism, and an announcer on a Christian radio station in Mississippi called and asked Jim if he could interview him over the phone, and Jim said, sure.

So he gave an interview on the phone, and this announcer played the interview the next day, and there was such a cry from Catholic priests and nuns, the announcer was fired by the Christian radio station.

He was fired, out of a job. Christian station in New Jersey recently arranged for Jim to have a telephone interview, and he was all ready for it. He's only had about 40 since the book came out, and right at the last minute they said, well, we've decided that it doesn't fit in with our format, so they canceled it right at the last minute.

That's where we are. And there are very few men today with the courage to stand up and be counted. Very few men like Daniel today. One of them is John MacArthur, thank God for John MacArthur, I don't know how many of you know him.

He doesn't mind standing up and saying the Catholic Church is an apostate church, while our evangelical leaders are saying the Pope is a great evangelist. I'm serious. It's incredible. Maybe you can tell I have the blood of the Covenanters in my veins from Scotland years ago.

Well, there it is. Another man, thank God for David Hunt. David Hunt has the courage to stand and tell it the way it is. That brings me to a little subject here. David Hunt has written a book called A Woman Rides the Beast, and he shows the relationship between the Catholic Church and the harlot, the Church of Revelation 17 and 18, drunk with the blood of the saints.

And I'm going to tell you, David Hunt has done his homework. He has carefully documented everything, and a lot of what he says in this book is from Catholic literature, using it to condemn the very system they were connected with.

And I'm glad that the brothers have brought a supply of these books. They'll be on sale tomorrow, $10, $10, worth it. I think it's one of the best books I have read in recent years. I could rejoice when I read this book, but I want to warn you, the evangelical leaders all say Dave Hunt is divisive.

That's his reward for writing this book, and a few other books as well, and a few messages he's given. He's divisive. And our evangelical leaders are afraid of being called divisive. Isaiah was divisive, Jeremiah was divisive, Jesus was divisive.

There was a division among the people because of him. I heartily commend, especially those who are working in Catholic country books, everybody should be working with Catholics. Catholics are our best mission field today.

The best mission field today. There it is. You can come up and look at it afterwards. This is a book that my colleague Jim McCarthy wrote. Jim was saved from Catholicism. His father owns one of the biggest Irish bars in San Francisco, still unsaved.

When Jim left home a few years ago with his wife and daughters to go to Ireland as a missionary, his father wouldn't say goodbye to him. He said, you've disgraced the family, you never need to come home.

Jim has won with love, and now he goes over every Jim McCarthy fight as well. He's been very forthright in his remarks, too. I had a chuckle the other day when I heard him on a tape. He admitted that even people in his own church there, he said, I wouldn't want to be handcuffed to some of the people in my church when they die.

One of the sad things is that there are people in the assembly supporting some of these men that are moving the church toward Rome with their gifts, instead of supporting missionaries like yourselves.

The Berean Call and Discernment

If you'd like to keep abreast of what's going on in the evangelical world, I commend to you a little paper that Dave Hunt puts out, The Berean Call. I'll give you the address in case you're interested.

Anybody here get The Berean Call? Good, quite a few do. That keeps you posted on what's going on, and he answers it in a biblical way. The Berean Call, Post Office Box 7019, Bend, Oregon, 97708. Now there's no charge for it, it's not a magazine, it's 4 or 8 pages that come out probably monthly.

You don't have to pay for it, but it always helps if you send a little when you subscribe to it. It's nothing like a little greenery to brighten up the scenery. The Berean Call, Post Office Box 7019, Bend, Oregon, 97708.

It's rather an extended explanation of why we're turning to the book of Daniel. Men like Daniel and his friends are an endangered species in the evangelical world today. Maybe God will speak to some young people in this audience to step out and be a mouthpiece for God and cry out against the terrible drift.

The more people depart from the word of God, the greater the drift comes, isn't it true? And now you can have holy laughter and people say, isn't that wonderful, I never saw it in the Bible before. Well, neither did I, it isn't there.

Daniel 1 and God's Sovereignty Over Nations

The Toronto Blessing, you all know about that, I guess. But it's not as serious as what I've been talking about tonight. Let's turn to the book of Daniel, a more pleasant subject. Daniel 1 .1. Daniel 1 is historical.

Daniel 2 is theological. Daniel 1 tells you what happened. Daniel 2 tells you why it happened. Daniel 2 shows you God's control over nations. The Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hands. We little realize when we read headlines in the newspaper how God in his sovereignty is working behind it all.

You little realize what's behind the headlines. There's that war over there in Bosnia, and here's that fellow Scott O 'Grady getting rescued in a marvelous way. I don't know whether Scott O 'Grady is a believer, but he says some wonderful things.

Have you followed it in the news? He said, I want to get it straight first of all, that I thank God for my rescue. That's good, isn't it? Something for the newspapers to soft-pedal. Saturday morning, just before I left, I turned on the radio, and he was quoted as saying, all day long there were men around me with guns, and guns were being fired.

But he said there was someone else around me all day long, too. He left you to fill in the blank. I liked it, don't you? All day long there was someone else beside me, with me, around me. Again, in today's paper, he's quoted as saying, I heard all you people praying when I was out there.

He said, I heard those prayers. I said, good. I never heard it said just like that in the assembly, but never mind. Good. And every time I pick up a paper or listen to the news, the guy is saying something about the Lord, and about prayer, and about answered prayer.

It shows how God can get perfume out of the stench of war. And I think it's wonderful to realize that God is a sovereign God, and he can work out his purposes. He can let man have his wickedness, and he'll still have his way.

And it proves most embarrassing to the media of this country to have to quote that type of stuff. They don't want that. They don't want that. Well, this is in fulfillment. What happened is in fulfillment of the word of the Lord to Hezekiah, 2 Kings 20, 17 and 18.

2 Kings 20. God said it was going to happen. 17 and 18. Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and what your fathers have accumulated until this day shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.

They shall take away some of your sons, Daniel and his three friends, who will descend from you, whom you will beget. They shall be eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon. And there's God moving nations, moving the checkers on the checkerboard and working out his purposes so perfectly.

Why did he want this to happen? Well, you get the answer in Daniel 4, 17, in order that the living may know that the most high rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he will, and set over it the lowest of men.

Babylon's Attempt to Reprogram Daniel

So the King wants to get some fine young men to come, including the children of Israel. He wants them to be trained to be good Babylonians. That's really what he wants. He wanted to change these fellows into Babylonians.

It says, Whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans, but it was more than that. He wanted to change their names, he wanted to change their food, he wanted to change their lifestyle, he wanted to change their culture.

It's similar to what the marines do with fellows. They take civilians and make marines out of them. That accounts for the haircut, that accounts for a new vocabulary, not always the best, the uniform, the discipline, and all the rest.

It's a matter of deprogramming them as civilians and then indoctrinating them as marines. That's what he was trying to do. He was going to make Babylonians out of these fellows. He wanted to melt them down and recycle them as Chaldeans.

Temptation, Food, and the Names of Daniel's Friends

Temptation often comes in the area of food, as it did here. Your mind can go to work on that right away. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Just remember, this was the best food and wine that the world could offer at that time.

Wasn't it? It was the leading kingdom of the world, and I can just see that gilt-edged menu, beautiful as the food that was offered. It makes me think of Adam and Eve in the garden. Food. It makes me think of Esau and his bowl of chili.

Food. It makes me think of the Lord Jesus and the wilderness, commanded that these stones be made bread. Satan is not always very original, isn't he? Of course, the temptation comes to people in other ways as well as in food.

They all had the name of God in them, didn't they? Either E-L or I-A-H. The name of God. Daniel. God is my judge. Hananiah. Jehovah is gracious. Mishael. Who is like God? And Azariah. Jehovah is my helper or keeper.

What do those names tell you? Well, they tell me something about their parents, I think. I think they tell me that their parents were really committed to the Lord, don't you? I think so. When I go into the supermarket and I meet some people for the first time, and here's a mother and she has four kids, and she tells me that kids' names are Daniel and Martha and John and Luke, I begin to think I have a Christian there on my hands.

Sometimes you can just tell by the way they name their children where they are coming from. In these four names you have four wonderful motivations for holiness. God is my judge, the righteousness of God.

Jehovah is gracious, the grace of God. Who is like God? The uniqueness of God. And Jehovah is my helper or keeper, the care of God. Four wonderful motivations for holiness. The righteousness of God, the grace of God, the uniqueness of God, and the care of God.

Well, I have to change those names. They have the name of God in them. I have to get rid of that or they're going to be good Babylonians and give them names with the name of some Babylonian idol in it, right?

So they were called Belteshazzar, Bel, the national god of the Babylonians. We can't be sure on all of these. There's different opinion among scholars, but it's almost certain that although the derivation of some of the names is obscure, we can be almost positive that they contain the name of some pagan deity.

You can't always help what people call you, but you can help what you are. You can help the principles you stand for, but that's what those fellows never forgot. But Daniel purposed in his heart, I think that's wonderful, the determination of a young man who had the Lord before his eyes.

Think of his courage to take a stand before the monarch, the great monarch of the earth at that time. He had his convictions. He knew what he believed, and he was willing to stand by them. I think two of the greatest missing things in the Christian world today are conviction and commitment.

Separation from the World and Commitment to God

There's not much commitment today. This message is continued on the other side. He had conviction and separation. I tell you, if these chapters in Daniel teach us anything, they teach us that the measure of a man's power is the measure of his separation from the world to God.

It is. The measure of a person's power to God is the measure of his separation from the world and from sin and his separation to God. It would have been so much easier for Daniel to rationalize. Well, I can go along with what they say.

I can do what they say, but God knows my heart's not in it. That sounds good, doesn't it? That sounds quite theological. He didn't say that. He could have said it would really be quite ungrateful to the king for me to refuse to obey after all he's done for me, after all the kindness that he's shown to me and all the promotion that I have received in his kingdom.

He could have said, by eating, it's not much to eat the food, no hardship, and I could get along better. I wouldn't be throwing away my chances for advancement in the kingdom if I would just go along.

Or he could have said, none of the other Jews will know, and that's probably true. I mean, they were pretty secluded there, probably in the royal palace, and the master of the Jews there wouldn't know what was going on, even if his master was always looking.

He could have reasoned that way, but he didn't. He could have said, everyone else is doing it. Or he could have said, I don't want to be divisive. That's the bugaboo word today, divisive. Unity, that's what we want, unity at all costs.

We want unity in the kingdom here. He didn't say anything. I'd like to ask you, why did Daniel take that stand anyway? I have something to think about. What makes a young fellow like that, would you tell me?

Like that, other people would wilt under the circumstances. They'd wilt. I wonder, what is it that makes a man like Daniel, just an answer to you, his mother? I believe that. I really believe. I don't know anything about Daniel's mother.

I believe that he had a mother who taught him God's word, and taught him to stand up for right, whatever the cost. Taught him not to compromise when any great principle of the word of God was concerned.

But I bear glad tribute to Christian mothers like that, who raise sons and daughters like that today. John Wesley said, I owe more to my Christian mother than I do to all the theologians of Europe. He was the last one that could say that.

I owe more to my Christian mother than I do to all the theologians of Europe. That's what makes me believe, and I say this sincerely, I really believe the role of a creature on the pulpit. I really believe that.

I think that's what it means in 1 Timothy 2, nevertheless she shall be saved in childbearing. The salvation of her position in the church. It's an interesting thing to me that the very next verse after that, although there's a chapter break there, the very next verse is, if anyone desires the office of an overseer, he desires good work.

She's raising a godly seed for the church, for God, for leadership in the church. I don't think it's accidental. The first verse of chapter 3 begins that way. Thank God tonight for godly parents. And we still have them.

We still have them. I can still remember my mother telling us the story of the martyrs, martyrs of the Christian faith, of John Brown. John Brown, one of the covenanters, and they were searching for him over moors and fens, and he was hiding in dens, and every once in a while he had to come home and get some clothes and some food, and one time he came home to his little Scottish home, and Lord Claverhouse closed in on him with his men.

And my mother would describe how John Brown was standing there with his wife and with the kids clutching her skirt. And Claverhouse gave the order for his men to kill John Brown. But they couldn't. I think they saw the face of an angel.

And so he took the sword and killed him. He said to the woman, Mrs. Brown, what do you think of your husband now? And she said in broad Scots, she said, I always thought a great deal of him, but I never thought more of him than I do now.

But that's what my mother used to raise us. Don't tell children that today, you know. Don't tell children, oh no, you might scare children if you tell them something like that. Listen, they see far worse than that on television every day of their lives.

More gory scenes than that. Without the principles that are involved. So I would suggest to you that Daniel and these men that were with him, they had godly parents, and especially a godly mother. Especially a godly mother who taught them the word of God and told them, be true to God.

Deuteronomy 6 and the God-centered Home

Honor God and he will honor you. And they did. Deuteronomy 6, 6 -9. How important they are and how meaningful they are to us tonight. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 6 -9, and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand.

They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. What does that mean? It means that the whole atmosphere of the home is permeated by the word of God.

That's what it means, doesn't it? Is that the way it is today? That's not the way it is today. Today the average Christian knows characters in television shows better than he knows his own family. The average Christian knows more about the late-night show than he knows about Ezekiel.

Is that true? It's absolutely true. And you might as well cut Deuteronomy 6, 6 -9 out of the Bible anymore, as far as obedience to it is concerned. Well, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portions of the king's delicacy, nor with the wine which he drank.

Daniel's Courteous Refusal and the Principle of Separation

Therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Why? I've been thinking about this a lot. Daniel, I can see why you and your friends wouldn't want to bow down before an idolatrous image.

I mean, that's clearly forbidden by the Ten Commandments. I can see why you would resist when you're told that you mustn't pray to any god but to the king for 30 days. I can see that. That's a principle in the word of God, an important principle, too.

But here it's only a matter of food. What's so serious about it? I know it violated the dietary laws of Israel. The food wasn't kosher food, I know that. There probably would have been lobster Thermidor and shrimp Louie and some of the things that Jews weren't allowed to eat.

I know that. I know that some of that food could have been offered to idols, and I know it could have been prepared, probably was prepared by Gentiles, which would make it unclean. But really, was it so serious to make a federal case about it?

Yes, it was. It was a violation of the law of God, and although it might not seem very serious to us, there was a principle involved. And there was also this involved. It could have been used by the enemy as an opening wedge.

If he had succeeded in getting them to budge on this one, the next one would have been easier. Temptation is like that, isn't it? Start off with a simple thing, and then go on from there. The food was not kosher.

They said, no, sorry, we won't partake of it. I like to realize here that Daniel was courteous, and he was willing to negotiate with him and offer a substitute arrangement. I think it's very important to see that Daniel was the leader in this.

Daniel was the leader. Daniel seemed to have been the fellow who called the shots, wasn't he? And the others followed him. I think this is a great lesson for us there. Once when George Truitt was having a series of meetings down in Dallas, he noticed there were two young men who were attending regularly.

They were lawyers, did I say that? Two young lawyers, and they were attending regularly, and he decided to call on them on their office. He said to them, why have you young lawyers never taken a stand for the Lord Jesus Christ?

And they said to him, well, they said there's a judge in this city, and they mentioned a judge by name, and he's not a Christian. He's not a churchman, and we've taken him as our model. And Truitt said to them, he's a fine man.

I know him personally. I consider him a friend, my personal friend. He's one of the most interesting men I know, but you should not take any man as your model. The young lawyer said, well, he rarely goes to church, and he's a first-class lawyer and a very useful citizen, and he's made a name for himself.

He's a wealthy man today. He's got a great intellect and success, and so if he can pass it by, we can pass it by. And when Truitt left them, he went straight to the judge's office and greeted the judge, and he said, you know, I have a question in ethics to ask you.

And the lawyer kind of chuckled. He said, ethics? He said, that's for teachers and preachers. That's not for lawyers. He said a mouthful there. Just watched the O .J. Simpson trial. Yes, he said, it's a question for lawyers and judges and everyone else.

And the judge said, all right, what is your question in ethics? And Truitt said, would you say that a man had a moral right to occupy some position in the occupancy of which position he will hurt someone else?

And the judge admitted that no man had that right. And then Truitt told him the story of the two young lawyers that were looking to him as a model. And Truitt made his departure from the office. And the judge got up and he looked down over the crowd below, out the window down, over the crowd below there in Dallas.

He became very agitated. And he said to himself, I'll be at the services tonight. And that night, Truitt said he preached to only one man. That was the judge. And at the end of the sermon, he said, who for his own sake, first of all, and then for the sake of someone who may be sheltering behind him, perhaps all unknown to himself, will make his surrender to Christ.

The first man to come down the aisle was the judge. And Truitt spoke with him briefly. And he said, the judge said, you know, after you left my office today, he said, I was in terrible turmoil. He said, I couldn't believe he said what you had said to me.

He said, you hadn't reached the door before I fell down on my knees. And I said, great God, has it come to this, that I'm staying out of the kingdom myself and by the power of my personal influence, taking others in the downward way, help me that my influence may be saved and my soul too.

And he just finished those words and Truitt said to him, judge, look behind you. Two young lawyers coming down the aisle. He saw the two young lawyers and heard them say, when we saw you start, judge, the thing was decided for us.

I think that was the case here with Daniel. Beautiful, really. Daniel took the stand as a witness to these three, probably younger Jews than himself. And then they learned a lesson that's going to come in handy for them before we get through the book of Daniel.

Anybody here has been in the armed forces? I'm sure you've seen this happen in the armed forces. Most of the Christian fellows in the armed forces are paralyzed with fear, you know. Get down on their knees by the pump.

But when one fellow is willing to do it, others are willing to follow. It happens over and over again in the armed forces. Anyway, Daniel courteously refuses to eat, but asked to be exempted just to eat vegetables and drink water.

God's Honor Toward Those Who Obey

And God was working on behalf of Daniel. You can't help singing. It's wonderful how God can influence the minds, the intellect, the emotions of a man of the world. No, it's no great thing for God to do that.

And the chief of the eunuchs, no problem at all. Well, the chief of the eunuchs says, you know, you'd be in danger. What happened? Those men, they surpassed not only in physical attractiveness, but in wisdom and in knowledge.

The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. They looked better than those who had eaten like gourmets. I shouldn't read this before we go over for the ice cream. But there is a vital connection between the spiritual and the physical, isn't there?

A vital connection between the spiritual and the physical. They had superior knowledge, skill in literature and wisdom. Superior understanding in all visions and dreams. That's going to come in handy before you get through the book.

Eric Liddell: Honoring the Lord's Day

And greater favor with the king. Those who honor me, I will honor. Never fails. Never fails. It pays to obey the Lord, to be true to him, no matter what the cost may be. When I think of this, I think of one of my favorite brothers in Christ.

His name is Eric Little. I never met him, but I look forward to meeting him. He was that bow-legged little Scottish fellow. A divinity student who entered the 1924 Olympics to run his favorite sprint, the 100 meters.

But when he heard that that event was going to be on the Lord's Day, he said, I won't run. They said, you won't run. You're representing Great Britain. You'd be a traitor to Great Britain if you don't run.

He said, I won't run. It's the Lord's Day. He said, I won't run on the Lord's Day. All kinds of intense pressure from royalty was brought on Eric Little. He said, I won't. I won't run. He had been Britain's main hope for the 100 meter event.

And now he was called a traitor. But the last chapter hadn't been written. I like that. The last chapter hadn't been written. Somebody tuned in on the internet, or by computer, went into the internet on Good Friday of this year.