Spiritual Intimidation, Part 2

Colossians 2:16-23

I've entitled these four verses "Living the Risen Life," Living the Risen Life. I think you can always tell a person at least their true character by what they seek to gain and what they really love it really never fails as a test. In fact you could easily evaluate your own character by approaching yourself that way. Ask yourself this question. What are the three things I am currently seeking most earnestly? You don't have to answer out loud and you don't have to write it down and turn it in. but think about it. What are the three things you currently are most seeking? That'll be a good monitor on whether you are preoccupation is heavenly or earthly. God‑ward or self‑ward. If that doesn't work, ask yourself this. What are the three things I love the most? And if you can't figure out how to answer that question ask yourself this one. What are the three things I think about the most? And that'll get to it. What's on your mind most of all? You see Jesus put it like this: where your treasure is there will your heart be also. You can always tell a man's true character by his mind preoccupation, what he thinks about or what she thinks about reveals where their treasure is. Where is your heart? Where is your life? Where is your concentration? Where is your thinking most of the time? What do you think about most of the time?

Now Paul's purpose in Colossians 3:1‑4 is to help us to see where our concentration ought to be. Where we ought to be thinking and the key to the little passage is in verse 2. "Set your mind or your thinking on things above and not on things on the earth." Now what Paul says in this passage is very simple and very clear. The believer is to be heavenly minded. It's the same thing that Jesus said when he said, "put your treasure in heaven, because where your treasure is, is where your heart will be." It's the same thing that Paul said when he said, whatever is pure and just and holy and honest and so forth, think on those things."

What is your preoccupation? Paul says your preoccupation is to be on things above and not on things on the earth. Now let me put this in context for you here in the book of Colossians. Paul beginning in chapter 3 comes to the practical part of his letter. He's through with doctrine and the plymics or the argument against the false teachers for the most, part and he now is going to deal with the practical area of your life. Having established the true doctrine of our Christ, having settled the argument with the false teachers, get about living the Christian life, and get about living it like this with your mind set on things above and not on things on the earth. The power for living the Christian life then is to concentrate above, the upward look if you will.

Now we remember from chapter 2 in great length we discussed it, that spirituality according to the false teachers were something you pursued through four avenues. Human wisdom, and that could be as broad as the offerings of human philosophy. Legalism, mysticism or asceticism. We used those terms and defined them. And the errorists were saying true spirituality is found in Christ, plus human wisdom. Christ, plus keeping certain rituals and routines and man‑made laws. Christ, plus certain visions and worshipping of angels and certain strange and wonderful and marvelous deeper or higher or whatever experiences. Or the ascetics said, true spirituality is Christ plus total self abasement, total self denial, total slavery of self to a poverty of life. And Paul says at the end of chapter 2 in verse 23, all they did with all of those ideas was satisfied their own flesh, in spite of all that appearance of wisdom. And it sounds good to say true spirituality is Christ plus human wisdom. Christ plus keeping rules and rituals. Christ plus visions, and marvelous and deeper and higher experiences.  Christ, plus total self abasement and so forth. It sounds good, but all that does is pander the flesh because true spirituality is Christ, plus what, nothing! And the sooner you realize that, the sooner you are going to get your eyes off man‑made rules, and man‑made religions, and get your affections up there where they belong. The preoccupation of the believer is not to be with the rules and regulations of men, the wisdom of men, the visions and experiences of men, the self denial of men, the true occupation of the believer who wants to really know spirituality is to concentrate on the person of Christ. That's what he is saying.

And that really is the zest and condemnation of every system when Paul says at the end of it, all it does is Dander or indulge the flesh. Human philosophy, legalism, mysticism and asceticism can't make anybody better. It can't make anybody spiritual. It can't save anybody. It can't add any dimension to spirituality. It is powerless to deal with evil desire, it is powerless to deal with lust, it gives no victory over the lower nature. It is morally impotent. And underneath human philosophy, underneath legalism, underneath mysticism, underneath asceticism, flourishes all the vices. And the only way to divorce yourself from all of that is to take your mind and your heart and your thinking processes and your motives into the presence of Jesus Christ.

Now remember that the Colossian Christians were being attacked, and they were being attacked by a group of heretics, false teachers. And they were saying, Christ is insufficient. Christ is not sufficient to save, or Christ is not sufficient to bring you to full spirituality it must be Christ, plus these man‑made religious rules or approaches. But it is an old story that heaven born children gain nothing from earth born religion. Christ is all. And so Paul told point here, notice it now in chapter 3, verse 1, "if you be risen with Christ, seek the things above where Christ, sits..." If you want to experience victory over spiritual intimidation, if you want not to be threatened by all of this that is coming at you, trying to tell you that you are not spiritual because you don't have it, get your affections where they belong on the presence of Jesus Christ, He is all. And in his fullness is all The power and all the love and all the resource for Christian living. That was his point in chapter 2, verse 10. We've seen this again and again. You are complete in him, who is the fullness.

Now Paul has carefully shown that these false teachers who want you to think that spirituality is a matter of lofty wisdom or ritual or routine or special visions or all these other things. He has carefully shown us that this is dead wrong. You should avoid these kinds of approaches to spirituality because they are earth bound. They don't make it. And the positive statement on true spirituality is to simply take your heart and mind and let them ascend into the presence of Jesus Christ who sits on the right hand of the Father and dwell on him. As Paul would say it in Ephesians, live in the heavenlies. Stop being earth bound. Focus your constant attention on the all sufficient Christ Don't run around looking for a new rule, a new ritual, a new vision, a new deeper experience, a new higher experience, a new kind of self denial, a new particular human philosophy. Just focus on Christ, make your concentration there and leave it there and you'll experience what is sufficient for spirituality.

Now remember that the Colossians were being intimidated. These errorists were saying, you guys might think you've arrived spiritually, but you are not at all where you ought to be. You have been deluded. You haven't made it spiritually; you can't make it by Christ alone. You have to have these other things. You don't have the fullness of spirituality unless you have these extra things. And so Paul wants the Colossian to know that that isn't true. They have everything in having Christ. And so Paul lays down solidly the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine of Christ, sufficiency in chapters 1 and 2.

Now watch this, having laid down solid doctrine that Christ, is all, Christ, is everything, Christ is sufficient. Then in chapter 3 He says now on the basis of that doctrine here is how you are to behave. Since Christ, is everything don't worry about human wisdom, don't worry about all that other stuff, just concentrate on him, he is all you need. But notice something, and we see it again and again. I am going to take some time to elucidate it because it'll indirectly get at the problem of spiritual intimidation that we have been talking about. Paul always goes from doctrine to behavior. In all the teaching of the scripture in the New Testament, in all the epistles we find first great statements of truth and then a call to behave in accord with truth. Since Christ is the fullness of all that fill all in all. Since Christ is the head of the body, since Christ is the one in whom the fullness of the godhead dwells, since Christ is completeness, since Christ is sufficient, since Christ, is everything, chapter 3, focus on Chris. So you have a practical exhortation based on a clear doctrinal foundation. That's always, always Paul's approach. What we must do, now mark this, what we do, as believers must be based on solid doctrine.

Now notice, not on intimidation. That is his point. Don't be intimidated to do something that you know is not biblical. Paul wrote to the Galatians and said how in the world could you possibly get caught up in Judaism again. How could you possibly get caught up in legalism? now could you possibly buy that stuff when you know the gospel? You have departed from what you know is true, and that is incongruous. Your spirituality is based on what you know, on solid doctrine.

Now the intimidators they don't worry about that. They just come along and say, "well you are not spiritual if you don't do this and you don't do this and you don't do this", and make us feel guilty eventhough they can't defend it biblically. It is a dangerous thing when any believer pursues a kind of behavior that contradicts the scripture. When you do that you are really stepping in to the fire. It doesn't matter that somebody may come along and say, "well I am sorry you are out because you haven't experienced this or you don't know this or you don't have the higher knowledge of the deeper life" or whatever or whatever, whatever. It doesn't matter what they say, it only matters what the Word of God says, and Paul has just said for two chapters, all you need is Christ, plus nothing. Don't be intimidated!

Now remember last Sunday night we told you that these four things are, you know, they are visible in our society. There are people who come along and say, "you Christians are," you know, "you are just fundamentalists. You don't know any‑thing." You know, "you are so narrow minded, what you really need is to expand and understand some philosophy and pull in some human wisdom to go along with the word of God," and sometimes, you know, being a what's called a fundamentalist, a very straight, narrow orthodox evangelical, you can be intimidated. I have been accused of that, speaking on college campuses of being narrow minded and pigeonholing all of my Theology and being a biblicist you know, and I remember one time I spoke some where and they introduced me by saying, "We introduce to you John Mac Arthur, whose hope is built on nothing less than Scofield's notes and scripture press." And, you know, so I mean I have been through that too, that kind of intimidation that makes you feel like a mental midget because you believe the Bible. You know, and you don't know everything about philosophy. And that is intimidating.

And then there are people in our society who would intimidate us along the line of legalism. There are many Christians who would say, "Well I don't care what you Teach and I don't care that you believe the gospel, you don't preach against this or you don say that people have to do this." And they get into all these little nit‑picking legalistic things that they have developed as a system for spirituality. And they make you feel intimidated like you are not really spiritual because you don't follow the little list. And there are then, of course and we talked about this, the charismatic people who want you to be intimidated because you haven't had a vision. Or you haven't had an ecstatic experience, or you haven't met an angel or you haven't gone to heaven and come back. Or you haven't some very far out kind of thing, and you are just an average run of the mill every day normal Christian, and you haven't really gotten to the super saint level. And then there are the ascetics who would come along and say, "Well you can't own that car or live in that house and wear that coat and be a Christian." Poverty is Christianity Self denial, self abasement; there aren't any stripes on your back. And so we can be intimidated by the same thing the Colossians were being intimidated by. But mark it, don't ever be intimidated unless there is a reason for it and the only reason for it is that they are bringing up something that is biblical. If it isn't in the word, you just keep on doing what you are doing, and don't listen to them. And so the apostle Paul says, don't let them intimidate you, Christ is all you need. That's the Word of God! He is all, he is sufficient.

Now whenever you violate this principle, you get yourself in a lot of trouble. I want to give some illustrations to that. Turn your bible to II Samuel chapter 6.

Now this is a story you may remember. It was refreshed in my mind as I was listening to a tape this week and the gentlemen who was teaching went over some of these things and really refreshed my mind on the impact of some of these stories, and I thought, well these will fit in well and I I'll share them with you. You remember the story, and I do as well. David the king desired, just making a long story short, desired to move the ark. He desired to move the ark and the covenant.

Now if you were to go back in the bible to the fourth chapter of Numbers and the first 15 verses you would find there a very clear word about how the ark was to be moved. The ark was the representation of the presence of God. Remember the ark and the covenant. it had some rings on the side, they wereto be Dulled, put through the rings, the ark was never touched, the poles were run through the rings and they were to be carried on the shoulders of Levites, and nobody else and no other way was that thing ever to be transported. There wasn't any doubt about that. That is as clear as daylight. And so we begin in verse 3. David is moving the ark, "and they set ark of God on a new cart."

Now what in the world are they doing putting the ark on a cart? The bible said they are to put the ark on the shoulders of the Levites, carrying it with poles so that they never touch it. It is not to be on a cart I think David thought, boy I am really doing God a big favor, not just a cart, but a new one. I am putting it on a new cart. "And brought it out of the house of Abinadab," and actually he got his cue from the Philistines. You remember back in the 6th chapter of I Samuel the Philistines had had the ark and they didn't like having the ark because they got tumors and plagues and all kinds of things, but they brought it back on the cart. So David took the lead of the Philistines and nut it on a cart. "And they brought it," verse 4, "out of the house of Abinadab which was in Gibeah accompanying the ark of God and Ahio went before the ark."

Now watch, oh they thought it was a great day, we are bringing the ark back. The ark is going to go back to the place where it belongs, Marvelous. "And so David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments made of fir wood and harps and psalteries and timbrels and cornets and cymbals." They were having a tremendous time.  Worshipping and praising God. It was just great. You say, isn't God pleased with their worship? Isn't God thrilled with their praise, this is wonderful. "And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen shook it." It's going along and they come to this Nachonus threshing floor and it bumps and it looks like it is going to fall, and old Uzzah, boy he is caught up in the worship of God and he reaches out, boy he doesn't want that ark to touch the ground. I mean that was an act of worship. That was an act of honor to that ark. He was doing what his heart told him to do. Don't let that ark touch the ground, that sacred thing. And verse 7 says, "The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah and God smote hint there for his errorand he died by the ark of God."

You say, what is the deal? I'll tell you what the deal is. God doesn't want your worship unless it goes along with his word, and his word is, 'don't touch the ark!' You see the point? God didn't accept it. There are people who would say, "Well how can you criticize the Pentecostals or the charisma tics or, they are worshipping God. They are trying to love God and they are trying to worship God and they are trying to praise God, surely God wouldn't let them into error in that area." Or you can ask yourself the same question. Why did God let that ark bump on Nachon's threshing floor? You tell me. God could have stopped that. He could have flattened out the , but it was a lesson for all times, that God is worshipped only when his word is obeyed, and when Uzzah touched the ark he disobeyed because no man, no time, under no circumstances, was to touch the ark. You understand? You do not ad-lib your worship. You do not decide, well I am just going to worship God in a whole new way that I have just experienced. God isn't interested in that.  And God's anger was kindled and Uzzah dropped dead, Poor fella. Dear guy, just doing his thing, going along, having a great time, singing, celebrating, and hits a bump, and oh his heart just, he reached out, he did what his emotions told him. Listen if his mind had been ruled by the Word of God, he would have kept his hand back and he would have been alive. But he was ruled by his feelings. That's very dangerous. Don't worship God with your feelings independent of his Word. You see? Maybe God wanted the thing off the ark so that The Levites could pick it up and carry it the right way. Who knows.

But so often these people who would intimidate us will come along, "well we're worshipping God, we're just praising God, this is our way of doing it." God isn't interested in your way, he is interested in his own way. And David, he felt bad, verse 8. "David was displeased because The Lord had broken forth in anger against Uzzah and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah, to this day in memory of him, and David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, "how shall the ark of the Lord come to me?"

Now I am stuck, how am I going to get this thing where it is supposed to be So David wouldn't remove it, he left it in The house of Obededom for three months and the whole time it was there the Lord blessed, verse 11, "the Lord blessed Obededom," and he had a tremendous time. He kept his hands off the thing. They just had a great time and David said, this is ridiculous, why should I leave that deal up there and Obededom is happy, getting all the blessing? I am getting it down here. "So David went and brought the ark from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness." And apparently they brought it the right way. "And it was that when they bare the ark of the Lord had gone six paces," and there is the idea, they who bore the ark, they did it right, "they sacrificed oxen and fatlings, and David then danced before the Lord with all his might."

And he was out there. In fact he had his linen ephod. He took off all his kingly stuff and he is just out there hooping it like one of the normal guys, just one of the gang, hooping it up and having a great old time. And they brought the ark and the Lord was shouting and the sound of trumpet.

Now you have the same thing in verse 15 that you have in verse 5. One is acceptable and one is not, because one is in accordance with God's revealed truth and one isn't, you see? God does not want people who ad lib their worship to him in their own prescribed method. He wants worship that is consistent with his revelation. And so just because somebody comes along and says, "well we're worshipping God that way, our hearts are right, our motives are right,' so were Uzzah's. But he just didn't have enough knowledge of the Word of God to protect himself from God's chastening.

Let me show you another illustration. I Samuel 15. Now it basically gives you the same thought. I Samuel 15. This is the story of Saul, and he had a similar situation. Samuel said to Saul 15:1 of I Samuel, I Samuel 15:1 Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people, over Israel now, listen to the voice of the words of The Lord." Now that is the basic thing in the life of anybody. Listen to the words of the Lord! Listen, because that is the criteria of blessing. Listen. "And so the Lord said, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt and now go and smile Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, spare them not but slayboth man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." God says you go and you kill every Amalakite. Father, Mother, children, babies, ox, goats, sheep, cattle, everything. Kill them. And God was removing a cancer from the world. "And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, ten thousand men of Judah, Saul came to the city of Amalek, laid wait in the valley, and Saul said unto the Kenites, go depart, get you down from among the Amalekites or you are going to get it to." Might as well get out while the getting is good, "for you show kindness to the children of Israel when you came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites," and Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur." In other words, from border to border. "And he took Agag the king of Amalekites alive."

Now that is a terrible mistake that he just made, isn't it? God said, wipe out everybody. He took Agag. Why? Because it was an act of pride. He wanted to drag the vanquished king into town and show off his victory. The Bible says he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites and utterly destroyed the people with the edge of the sword. "But", that's bad, that word, "Saul and the people spared Agag." Why? Because it was nice to have the guy around so he could gloat over him. "And they spared the best of the sheep, the ox, the failings, lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile and refuse, they utterly destroyed."

Now God told him what to do, he said wipe it all out. What did Saul do? He kept some back. "Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel," in verse 10, "it repenteth me," and incidentally the Hebrew word here has not so much to do with the change of mind, but grief. "It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments, and it grieved Samuel and he cried to the Lord all night."

Now there is a sensitive man. You know what made Samuel cry? A man who didn't obey God's word. "And when Samuel got up early and meet Saul in the morning, Saul came to Carmel, behold he set him in a place and is gone about and passed on down to Gilgal," verse 13, "and Samuel, came to Saul, and he said, 'blessed be thou the Lord,' Saul said to Samuel. I have performed the commandment of the Lord, oh Samuel it's so good to see you, I have done what God said. Samuel said, 'oh yeah. How come I hearthe bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen," What's going on? And Saul said, "What's going on?" And Saul said, "Hey they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord thy God."

Ahh, terrific. How can you knock that kind of motive? He is going to worship God. That's wonderful Saul. What an idea. Saul has a better idea, better than God. God had a good idea, but Saul came up with a wrinkle even God hadn't thought of. How wonderful. Why just slaughter them all, we can sacrifice him to God, we'll have a worship service. Fabulous. Samuel said to Saul, "Stay and I'll tell you what the Lord said to me this night. He said, 'stay on.' "And Samuel said when you were little in your own sight," when you were a nobody, "were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel, didn't the Lord make you what you are when you were a nobody? And the implication is who gave you the right to usurp the authority over the God who made you what you are, "And the Lord sent you on a journey and set 'go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and gith against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and did evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, wait a minute I have obeyed the voice of the Lord," He is very persistent.

"I went the way which the Lord sent me and I brought Agag the king of Amalek and utterly destroyed the Amalekites and the people took the spoil, the sheep and the oxen, the chief of the things," and you notice now 'that it isn't such a good idea he has left himself out and he is blaming the people. I mean it's an act of worship, and you know somebody would come along and say, "Oh I know it isn't, I know but this, it may not be, oh but it is, I am worshipping God in my own way, and if you don't do it, if you don't experience this, oh you are missing the greater blessing." So what is the response in verse 22, "and Samuel said this, has the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as much as in", what, "obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams." You are a lot better off to obey the word of God than come up with your own independent sell styled system of experiential worship.

I don't want you to be intimidated by people who come along and say, "well oh we have an experience of worship, it's not like yours. Marvelous things happen. We reach out and the Lord appears to us and all kinds of mystical things are going on," and you are sitting there saying, "Well I can't find them in the Bible." Well the bible says, God doesn't want your styled self invented worship, he simply wants your obedience, and to rebel against that, verse 23, "is as the sin of witchcraft." If you are going to disobey, the Word of God, you might as well go see a medium, and play around with occult. And the reason I say this simply this, these people today who are claiming to have all these worship experiences that cannot be defended biblically they may be sincere, and they may have the right motive like Uzzah and Saul did, but they are wrong, and the response was Samuel said to Saul, "you will no longer be king, it's over for you." You say, that's serious, Yeah, that is serious.

Let me make you to another illustration, I Kings, 13. This is a most fascinating story. You remember that after the reign of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split into two parts, the northern kingdom with ten tribes and the southern. The northern kingdom was ruled by Jerobom the first and the southern kingdom by Rehoboam and there was the splitting of the kingdom because of the sin of Solomon. And when Jeroboam took the ten tribes and established the kingdom in the north he was afraid that the northern people would not maintain an allegiance to him. If they were always going to the south to the temple to worship, they would keep their roots in the south. So he decided that he'd have to build a couple of worship places up in the north. So he, verse 29 of chapter 12 says, "he set the one in Bethel and the other in Dan." The problem with that is God didn't want his worship going on in Bethel and Dan, did he? Where did he want it? In Jerusalem, in the temple.

In verse 30 he says of chapter 12, "it became a sin, for the people went to worship before The one even in Dan, and he made a house of high places," he build a Temple, "he made priests of The lowest of the people who were not the sons of Levites." He just picked out a few poor folks and made them priests. You can't do that. Priests are out of the tribe of Levites, worship goes on in Jerusalem, you don't ad-lib it. You don't just say, "We have a great idea, we'll do our own thing up here." If it isn't scriptural, you don't do it. And verse 32, in the middle there says that he did the same thing in Bethel. "And he was sacrificing the calves," and he went through the whole Jewish deal, sacrifices, priests, the altars, the whole shot; only going on in Bethel and Dan. They had no business going on there. So God said, I have to send somebody up there to straighten it all out. Chapter 13, "Behold there came a man of God,"

Now this is a man of God, a prophet, he is a preacher, and he goes all the way out of Judah to go to the north because apparently there wasn't a prophet in the north who would do this. "So he goes out of Judah, by the Word of the Lord, comes to Bethel, and he happens to arrive when Jeroboam is in there doing his thing with the altar. He is in there worshipping God and burning his sacrifice! And this is a bold young man. He walks up and says in verse 2, "He cries against the altar in the word of the Lord and said, 'oh altar altar."

Now this is going to get Jeroboam's attention, because he is there worshipping this guys busts in and shouts out, "Oh altar altar saith the Lord, behold a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon thee shall he offer the priest of The high places who burn incense upon thee and men's bones shall be burnt on thee." Altar you have had it. There is coming a man Josiah, and he is going to burn bones on you and the ultimate desecration for a Jew is to touch a dead body, right? And to burn the bones of a dead person on an altar was to desecrate it and pollute it for good. And this man of God says, "your altar's Jeroboam have had it, because three hundred years from now a man is coming by the name of Josiah who is going to dig up dead bones and burn them all over your altar." 'You want to read II Kings 23 you can read the story. And just to make sure Jeroboam didn't say, huh, funny joke, who is this guy, get him out. Verse 3 says, "And he gave a sign the same day saying, 'this is the sign which the Lord hath spoken,' to prove it's going to happen, "behold the altar shall be torn down and the ashes that are on it poured out." That altar is going to fall down and the ashes too. "And it came to pass when king Jeroboam heard The saying of the man of God who had cried against the altar in Bethel, he put forth his hand from the altar and said , 'lay hold on him,' and his hand which he put forth dried up so that he couldn't pull it in again. Paralyzed. "And immediately the altar was torn down and the ashes poured out, exactly according to the sign which The man of God had given to the word of the Lord." God says, "you don't invent your own worship. You obey my prescription." "And the king answered and said to the man of God, treat now the face of The Lord thy God and pray for me that my hand maybe restored. And the man of God besought the Lord and the king's hand was restored to him and became as it was before."

But I'll tell you one, thing, he never forgot it. "And the king said to man of God, come home with me" verse 7, "and refresh yourself and I'll give you a reward." I want to be on your team. "The man of God said to the king if you will give me half your house I am not going to go home with you." "I wouldn't eat your bread and I wouldn't drink water in this place, because it was told by the word of the Lord, saying eat no bread, drink no water, and don't come again by the same way that you went." I have one commitment in my life, obey the word of God. "So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came." This guy is right on.

Now you know, it would have been an honor to be invited to eat with the king. He could have been a hero. And he could have figured, well you know the king has heard and he seems to be repented. I think if I go in there, I'll compromise a little on God's word and I'll witness to the king. No, he says, I'm not interested in witnessing to you. I am not interested in doing anything with you. God told me not to mess around with you just To get out of here and to get out of here a different way Than I got here. Good‑bye.

Now, the o