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Well, it's been a number of weeks since we have been in our study of the Epistle to the Hebrews. And after our Christmas break and our New Year's break and so forth, I am going to return this morning to our exposition of this amazing epistle. So will you take your Bibles and turn to Hebrews chapter 13; and this morning we will be looking at verse nine. In fact, we will be looking at verse nine next week as well, under the heading "The Danger of Being Carried Away."

The Spirit of God speaks through his inspired writer and says,

"Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited."

I think you would agree that most of us like to go to the beach, on the ocean, to play in the water on a beautiful, sunny day, but there are unseen dangers in those waters. And I'm not necessarily talking about the jellyfish and the sharks. There's an unseen danger with the water itself, and that danger is called rip currents, or sometimes they're called rip tides. And a rip current is a powerful, and typically a rather narrow, water current near the surface of the water that moves directly away from the shore. You can't look out and see them, but they are there, and these currents are especially strong when a storm is approaching, and the winds are pushing the water in towards the shore. Most public beaches give warnings about rip currents when those conditions arise, some beaches don't. And unfortunately, even when the warnings are put up, there are times where people ignore the warnings. In fact, sadly, over 100 people get swept away every year by a rip current, taken out to sea, never to be seen again. I remember, in one of my trips to Israel, I had a friend who told me, right before breakfast, "Hey, I'm going to go for a swim." We were in Tel Aviv at a motel, big hotel. He was going to go out and go for a swim. And I said, "Well, you go ahead. I'll be down there a little bit." I wanted to get my coffee. So I went down after a little bit, and I noticed he got into the water, and I began to watch him. I noticed that he was swimming hard, and he seemed to be going further away. And I got concerned. And eventually he was able to extricate himself from a rather mild rip current. He was a very strong swimmer, but he finally got to where he could get his feet on the on the ground, so to speak, and made it to shore, and he was absolutely exhausted and terrified. He said, "I will never do that again." What a horrifying danger to be carried away by something that you did not see, that you did not expect, and something that you cannot overcome.

Yet, there are countless millions that even this day, and maybe some of you are being carried away, by varied and strange teachings that are contrary to the Gospel -- contrary to the grace of God -- the magnificent truths of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; the only reality, the only person that can strengthen the heart when all seems lost. I've seen this 1000 times. Folks carried away by some deception, something that offers them pleasure or success or even eternal life, but all it brings is misery and even eternal death. And this was at the heart of the warning that we have here in verse nine.

You will recall the church that is being addressed here was a church filled with primarily Jewish people that had come to faith in Christ, and there were also those who hadn't come to faith in Christ, and some that maybe thought they had but really hadn't. And like every church, therefore, there were true believers who had embraced the new covenant of grace and decided to turn their back upon the old covenant and place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But there were others in that church that were what I call borderline believers. They were on the very edge of placing their faith in Christ. They had an intellectual understanding of the gospel, but no heartfelt commitment. Some of you are like that. And then there were others who were, this is probably the most dangerous, what I call Christian unbelievers. They're Christian in name only. They had made some shallow profession of faith. They had considered the truths of the New Covenant, but they never abandoned Judaism and wholeheartedly embraced Christ.

Now, to be sure, the cost of following Christ in any culture is very high. We're seeing the price go up all the time, even in our own culture, but it was especially high in that culture where Christians were being persecuted, that Jewish culture. You will recall in chapter 10, in verse 32 and following we read, they

"...endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one."

So the cost of discipleship was very high, therefore many of them were tempted to turn back to their comfort zone, to turn back to their cultural religion of Judaism, where they could feel accepted and where they could feel safe. You will recall, there were warnings that were given. For example, in chapter two, the first four verses, he says, "...we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it." The writer went on to say they were in danger of "neglecting so great a salvation." In chapter three and verse six, he says, we must, "hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end." And then in verses seven through 19, he talked about how that some of you are like your ancestors in the wilderness, who hardened their hearts against the truth. They were guilty of the sin of unbelief. Some of these people had never come to faith in Christ, in genuine brokenness over their sin; and as a result, their heart was becoming increasingly hardened to the things of God. And so therefore they were tempted to fall away from the truth and fall back into Judaism.

And in chapter five, verses 11 through 14, the writer reminds and warns them of how they had become "dull of hearing." Some of them had heard the truth so much they'd almost become inoculated by them. They regress to a state of apathy. They had become indifferent to the transforming truths that God offers through the New Covenant. They had been well informed to a point he says, "where you ought to be teachers, but you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God."

And then, of course, the great warning in chapter six, he says, beginning in verse one, "Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment." There you will recall he's speaking of the six foundational doctrines of Judaism that they had to forsake; prominent features of the Old Covenant that needed to be abandoned as they embraced the New Covenant.

And so now, as we come here to chapter 13 and verse nine, the writer, once again, expresses this great concern, "Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were so occupied were not benefited." Now, evidently, one of the varied and strange teachings that occupied these early believers had to do with the need to eat certain kinds of ceremonial foods. This was a return, once again, to legalism, where salvation is by grace plus works. It's by faith plus works. External religion that depends upon human achievement and merit. So this is all part of Old Covenant Judaism that they were to forsake. And of course, these things are antithetical to the New Covenant that teaches that salvation is based solely upon the grace and merit of Christ alone. It has nothing to do with externalism. It has everything to do with the internal attitudes of the heart. Dear friends, this has been one of Satan's great strategies down through millennia of redemptive history; to provide a rip current of varied and strange teachings that will carry people away from the grace of God and sweep them out into an ocean of despair and eternal separation from God.

Next week, we're going to look more closely at what some of those very strange teachings were that occupied their hearts and what it really means to be "strengthened by grace." I'm so full of excitement about sharing with you those truths. I wish I could just spend another hour or so to do that, but we'll wait to do that next week. But I feel that it's important to begin this morning by addressing the relevancy of this passage to our current condition as believers.

Some of you, I'm sure, when I read the text for the first time a few minutes ago, though I know you would never admit it, you were rolling your eyes thinking, oh my, this ancient stuff has no relevance in my life. I couldn't possibly care less about Old Covenant diet restrictions or any other of the ceremonies, the rituals, the Holy Days and the formalities of Old Covenant Judaism. I'm struggling with loneliness. I'm struggling with poverty. I'm struggling with a job that I hate, with a marriage that's collapsing. I'm struggling with ungodly kids that are ripping my heart out. I'm struggling with the guilt of life-dominating sin, with debilitating addictions, with jealousy, pride, pornography and on and on it goes. I'm struggling with a life that seems to be going nowhere fast. Sorry, Pastor, I just cannot get interested in your little sermon about the danger of being carried away by varied and strange teachings. Oh, my dear friend, therein lies the problem. You have already been carried away; therefore, you don't see the relevance. You've been carried away by various deceptions. If I can say it with all love, you're too ignorant to know you're ignorant. You're too foolish to know you're foolish. You're too proud to know you're proud. Were this not so, you would immediately see the astounding relevance of this text. You fail to understand the very heart of the passage. You fail to see that your needs only come from Christ; that your heart can only be strengthened by grace, not the things in life that keep carrying you away; those things that occupy your heart and occupy your mind and dominate your life and provide no benefit.

So allow me to cut to the chase and to build upon these great themes for your benefit, I want to make this very simple for you. As we look at the Epistle to the Hebrews, we see that the writer is crying out to every man, woman and child and pleading with them to be preoccupied with two very simple realities: revelation and redemption. You see this all through the epistle. Be preoccupied with what God has revealed and with what Christ has accomplished. My friend, please hear me, every problem that you face in life, every sin that dominates your life, even the eternal destiny of your soul, depends upon how you respond to these central issues: revelation, what God has said; and redemption, what Christ has done.

You will remember at the very beginning of the epistle, the stage is set in this regard. Chapter one, beginning in verse two, we read, God "has spoken to us in His Son," there's revelation, "whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the Word of His power. When He had made purification of sins," there's redemption, "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."

My friends, if I can put it this way, the remedy for all of the problems in your life is a preoccupation with the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews, chapter 12, beginning in verse two, we read that we are to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith," went on to say, "consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Folks, the moment you lose your preoccupation with the person and the work of Christ, inevitably, some varied or strange teaching or philosophy will begin to carry you away. In fact, if you are deficient in your apprehension of who Christ is, what he has done, what he is doing and what he will do, at least two things will happen, number one, you will make peripheral issues central and central issues will become peripheral. What God has revealed and what Christ has accomplished will begin to play second fiddle to a myriad of other things in your religious life. I see it all the time. Churches that dwell upon social justice, animal rights, immigration reform, caring for the poor; it can even be good things like preoccupation with biblical counseling or with eschatology, or with styles of music or Bible translations, or incorporating Old Testament dietary laws and celebrating Passover and Sabbath restrictions and on and on it goes. All manner of distractions, both good and bad, will begin to captivate your mind, to the exclusion of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, with a profound intimacy and passion. Many a preacher can exercise great erudition as he expands and expounds upon the 10 toes of the image of Nebuchadnezzar's vision, and yet scarcely speak a word to those who are faint-hearted and lonely and depressed, or the single mother trying to raise her children with a job that doesn't pay enough in food stamps. All of these people need to be pointed to Christ, for only in him can we find that life-giving, soul-satisfying, joy that ministers to our soul, regardless of what we're dealing with in life. People must thoroughly know and celebrate the person and the work of Christ -- what he has done in the past, what he's doing now, what he's going to do. Otherwise, as I say, the peripheral, even the ridiculous, will become central, and Christ will get moved out to the edges.

Secondly, if you're deficient in your apprehension of Christ, you will be carried away to temporal misery in your life, and perhaps even eternal separation from the one true God. That's the horror of horrors. Who knows what Satan will use to entice you. For the ancient Jews, and I might also add for a lot of undiscerning Christians, it had to do with the varied and strange teachings of legalism, false doctrines about Old Testament laws and rituals and diets and all of those types of things; things contrary to grace that God has offered through Christ; and again, we'll talk more about that the next week.

Maybe for you, you're carried away by something else. Maybe you're being carried away by some religious system, some phony thing that you're watching on television, or some cult. Or maybe you're carried away by your career, or by sports or by your hobbies or by something like homeschooling. For most they're being carried away, and they don't really realize it, by the seductions of the world. Can you say cell phones? Many of you are carried away by your cell phones. You can't live without them. They become an idol, and you worship them routinely all day long. An idol that keeps your heart fixated on everything but the person and the work of Christ; everything but divine revelation and redemption. I would be safe in saying that most who spend hours fixated on their screens spend no time contemplating what God has said and what God has achieved through Christ, it's just not a priority. No time to do that. Too busy posting pictures of yourself and texting mindless trivia to your friends. Many professing Christians who are caught up in these kinds of things will never grow in Christ. They will never be used by the Lord. They will never enjoy all that is available to them to enjoy in Christ. It's such a sad thing. Many have no regard for God's command in Second Peter 3:18, "to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," which means to be so preoccupied with Christ that you're constantly celebrating the gift of faith that you have in Him - the gift of grace. You're not growing in your love for Christ and other people. You're not hungering and thirsting for righteousness. You're not developing in humility. You have no desire to hear his voice as he speaks to you through his word. You have no desire to commune with him in private prayer. You have no desire to contemplate his divine nature and his finished work on the cross on your behalf. Everything else is more important than that. You have no thankfulness for his present indwelling. You have no thankfulness for his intercessory work on your behalf, no longing to see his face in glory. No, you're all about all of the other stuff that distracts you. Folks, if that is you, please hear me, you have been carried away.

Charles Spurgeon said,

"Those who don't grow in the knowledge of Jesus refuse to be blessed. To know Him is life eternal, and to advance in the knowledge of him is to increase in happiness. Those who don't long to know more of Christ know nothing of Him, yet, whoever has sipped this wine will thirst for more. Although Christ does satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction that the appetite is not cloyed but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus, as the deer pants for streams of water, so will you pant after the deeper depths of His love. If you don't desire to know Him better, then you don't love Him; for love always cries "Nearer, nearer!'" He went on to say, "Absence from Christ is hell, but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Don't be content to not increase your familiarity with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in His human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession and in his future royal advent. Live close by the cross and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love for Jesus and a more perfect apprehension of His love for us is one of the best tests of growth in grace."

Oh, dear friend, I warn you this morning of the great danger of being swept away from Christ by all of the distractions and deceptions of the world. And then what happens? We begin to flounder, and we begin to falter in our life, and we just feel like quitting. We just want to stop running the race that Christ has set before us. We want to just lay down and give up. Have you ever felt that way? Maybe you feel that way today. You begin to cast blame on other people; you begin to seek relief any way you can find it; any way but God's way. And God's way is this: to once again focus the intention of your heart on revelation and redemption; what God has said and what Christ has achieved. Folks, all these enticements are part of Satan's world system in opposition to revelation and redemption. That's why in Romans 12:2 the apostle Paul warns, he says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Don't let the world cause you to begin to look like it without you even realizing it, but instead, let there be a metamorphosis by the renewing of your mind, as you embrace the glorious truths of his word, so that you begin to manifest on the outside, who you really are on the inside, and that is a person who has been clothed and united to Christ. First John two and verse 15,

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

"The world is passing away and also its lust; but the one who does the will of God lives forever."

Of course, his will includes many things, but certainly we can say that his will means that we need to be saved, we need to be sanctified, we need to be submissive, we need to be salty, we need to be sober, and we need to be willing to suffer.

Well, certainly, Satan is opposed to all of this, and our flesh is opposed to all of this. He doesn't care what we believe, as long as it's a lie. He doesn't care what we do, as long as it ignores and dishonors Christ. And many believers today, like the early saints of the Hebrew church, can't see the danger of the rip currents that are carrying them away from these great themes in Scripture, revelation and redemption. Many people just don't care what God has said or what Christ has done, what he is doing and what he will do; and in both of these areas, the church has failed miserably. People today just don't care about sound doctrine. They just don't care about understanding, in-depth, the person and the work of Christ. Second Timothy four, Paul, you will recall, solemnly warned young pastor Timothy to preach the word without compromise, despite the popularity of its truths. He went on to say in verse three,

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,

"and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

And like perhaps no other time in history, we see this happening. The church today just has no appetite for an accurate understanding of revelation and redemption, and whenever those preoccupations disappear, things of lesser importance begin to dominate. Even priorities that will disregard and attack God's priorities. I was fascinated to read recently the best-selling Christian books, according to CBN, they recommend that every Christian should own these five books. The first one is "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. A woman who claims to receive direct messages from God and writes from Jesus' point of view. It's what Scripture condemns as "channeling." The second one was "Wild at Heart." Number three, "The Five Love Languages." Number four, "The Love Dare." Number five, "Her Mother's Hope." See, folks, this gives you a sense of the appetite that Christians have today. And I'm sure these authors have some good things to say, though I'm not recommending any of these books, but here's my point: Their focus, and typically, the focus of Christian publishing, is not to help people understand revelation and redemption, but it's rather to subtly tickle their ears. Tickle the ears of people who know very little and care very little about what God has said and what Christ has done. No wonder so many professing Christians would come to the text before us and say, "I don't see anything relevant there for my life." This is part of Satan's great strategy, frankly, to use the church, which is to be the pillar and the support of the truth, to use the church to help carry us away with varied and strange teachings that can occupy the hearts of even the redeemed with matters of no benefit contrary to the soul strengthening truths of grace.

Now to illustrate this from scripture, I'd like to remind you of a story that took place about 605 BC, when Babylon conquered Jerusalem and exiled 1000s of Jewish people and deported them to Babylon, which is modern day Iraq. Among the exiles was a 15-year-old boy who was kidnapped from his noble family in Judah. And his name was Daniel. Daniel one, and beginning at verse three, we read,

"Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles,

"youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.

"The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service.

"Now among them, from the sons of Judah, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.

"Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel, he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach, and to Azariah Abed-nego."

Folks, here we see a perfect illustration of the strategy that Satan continues to use to this day to carry people away from an understanding of revelation and redemption. I want you to notice that the king did three things to brainwash these young men. By the way they were to be trained in the affairs of state to help the Jews assimilate into the Babylonian culture. So the satanically empowered king had them do three things in order for this to be successful. He had to confound their convictions, gain their loyalty and confuse their identity.

First of all, notice how he confounded their convictions. He ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Now, the language would have been Aramaic-Babylonian. But the literature would have included things like mathematics and agriculture and law, things pertaining to Babylonian culture, but they had vast libraries there for their religious pagan practices. So they would have learned the practices of astrology and fortune telling. They would have had to have learned the demonic documents that contained fables and texts, some that we even know about today; about omens and casting spells and interpreting dreams, understanding devils, communicating with dead and even evil spirits. So their teachers were demon possessed wise men of Babylon. Daniel describes them as magicians, sorcerers, enchanters, conjurers.

By the way, the enchanter or the conjurer could also be translated a "necromancer." This was a person who knew how to communicate with the dead by summoning up their spirits, even as an apparition, or raising them bodily, all kinds of occult, demonic stuff. By the way, I've had teachers, professors that are equally as wicked as some of these people, and some of your kids have them too. So the strategy of brainwashing began with re-education. Fill their minds with sophisticated satanic lies. Imagine three years of this. Indoctrinate them with clever deceptions, empowered by the father of lies, so that they will begin to doubt what God has said, cause them to reject God's revelation and plan of redemption. Sound familiar? Happens all the time in our culture.

After three years, it's interesting, they were brought before the king, and according to verse 20, "As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in his realm." So obviously, God gave them great wisdom.

So first of all, indoctrinate them with lies to confound their convictions. Secondly, gain their loyalty. Verse five, "The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank." He wanted to make them feel comfortable, even honored, in their new culture; a culture that hated the God that they loved. Think how comfortable we have become, even in our godless culture, especially our young people. They want to look like, talk like, walk like, think like, act like, people who have utter hatred for revelation and redemption. But Nebuchadnezzar's strategy also included the need to make them realize that by eating foods that were forbidden by your God is really of no consequence. You don't really need to separate yourself like that. Plus, those who ate from the king's court had more nourishment and were typically more healthy than the rest of the population, so he wanted them to grow comfortable, to feel honored, to begin to even feel dependent upon their good favor. Learn to trust in Nebuchadnezzar and our gods, not Yahweh. After all, Yahweh couldn't protect you. Our gods have won. Our gods are more powerful than yours.

Confound their convictions, gain their loyalty, and then finally, confuse their identity. Notice verse seven. "Then the commander of the officials assigned new names to them." Now all of the names that were assigned to them were related to their pagan deities. He says, "and to Daniel," which, by the way, means "God is judge", "he assigned the name Belteshazzar," which means "Bel protect the king." Bel was one of their local gods.

"To Hananiah," which means "the Lord is gracious", they gave the name Shadrach, which meant "command of Aku." Aku was another pagan god. "And to Mishael," which means "who is like the Lord", "they gave the name Meshach," which means "who is what Aku is." "And to Azariah," which means "the Lord is my helper" they "gave the name Abed-nego," which means "servant of Nego," and he was also called Nebo, that was the god of vegetation for the Babylonians. So let's begin to confuse their identity. Let's give them names that literally link them to our pagan gods.

Of course, people today are so confused about everything. He does this in so many different ways, not necessarily just by changing names. I think of people that are that are confused about their gender. I mean, good grief, we got people today that don't know what sex they are an what bathroom to use. It's astounding. Even many Christians are utterly confused about their identity in Christ. They don't know what it means to be in Christ, to be united to Christ, to be clothed in his righteousness. They don't understand that their body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. They don't understand their identity as a godly husband or father or godly wife or mother. This was part of Satan's strategy to help carry these people away from what God has said, carry them way away into one of Satan's philosophical systems, contrary to God's revelation and his plan of redemption.

Now, there was nothing that Daniel and his three friends could do regarding their re- education, they just had to submit to that. But it's interesting that young Daniel saw what was happening, and in regard to eating the delicacies of the king's menu, he drew the line, as well as the others, and he asked that they would be excused from that. You will remember the story. They refused to be carried away by this, shall I say, diabolical rip current of growing dependent upon, and comfortable with, a pagan environment that were seeking to have them assimilate into all that they were. And he knew that some of those foods violated God's dietary laws that God had given them to help them understand the importance of being separate from the world; separate from idol worshipers.

And Daniel also knew that some of the foods and drinks, in fact, most of them, were first dedicated to the pagan deities before they were given to the Babylonians. And the Babylonians perceived that these deities were the source of these foods, so a portion of food and wine were always offered sacrificially to the Babylonian gods, even before they were sent to the king. So they didn't want to have any part of this, and they refused to participate in this. And they asked if they could be excused. And I love what chapter one and verse eight says, "But Daniel," catch this, especially you young people,

"Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself."

"Defile" means "to contaminate" or "to pollute" or "to stain." I love the way the King James puts it, "Daniel purposed in his heart." The ESV says, "Daniel resolved." He made a resolution. He made a firm determination; I am not going to defile myself. I'm not going to do anything that dishonors God by disobeying those things he has said - not to touch, not to eat, not to do - because all of that symbolically demonstrates my sinfulness and my unworthiness to ever come into the presence of a holy God. I'm not going to do that. So he requested that they not be forced to do that.

And after some reluctance, you know, the officials agreed to let Daniel just eat vegetables and drink water for 10 days and then to see how they did. And according to verse 15, "At the end of 10 days, it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king's food." So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.

By the way, as a very quick footnote, this is not a text to promote vegetarianism. All right? I've heard it preached. I've heard it used that way. I mean, this is not the author's intent. Hopefully you can see from the context that God in his providence is honoring their commitment to him by orchestrating this unique scenario and supernaturally blessing their health. There are all kinds of health risks associated with a vegan diet and much of that even is rooted in animal rights activism; a movement notoriously hostile to biblical Christianity and all of that. So please don't say that. Well, here's the proof text, no more hamburgers. Folks, what God wants us to see is that he honors those who purpose in their heart to avoid having anything to do with that which might dishonor him. He wants us to see the importance of not allowing ourselves to be carried away by anything contrary to divine revelation and redemption.

Many years ago, a Bible scholar and mentor of mine, man by the name of George Boyajian, challenged me in tears, and I'll never forget what he said to me as a young man. He said, "David, dare to be a Daniel, dare to be different. Dare to be a man of God." I'll never forget that. I can see his black bushy hair and his bushy eyebrows and still see his finger in my face. Dear friends, I challenge you to that end as well, especially you young people. Purpose in your heart that you will not be defiled by the moral and spiritual pollutants of this world. Resolve in your heart not to allow yourself to be carried away by varied and strange teachings that can occupy your heart and your mind to no benefit, things that are contrary to the strength that you can find when you have a preoccupation in the person and the work of Christ. Stand firm against the current of all of the moral and spiritual defections that continue to sweep away countless millions, of even Christians, into an ocean of heartache and despair. Honor God, and he will honor you.

Some of you are flitting around in your life trying to find answers to your problems and trying to find some medicine for your soul that is absolutely aching and you're at a loss. Let me give you the remedy. Come to faith in Christ, trust in him. Let him become the preoccupation of your soul. And dear Christian, be preoccupied with the person and the work of Christ and watch what God will do. I thank God for godly Sunday school teachers in my life, most of them are Swedish. We grew up in a Swedish Baptist church up in Moline, Illinois, and I can still remember some of those little Swedish women. And I say little because they were little. I can remember them teaching me a chorus. Nancy remembered it as well.

And I close with this, "Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone; dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known." And folks, if you will, do that, by having a preoccupation with the person in the work of Christ, having a commitment to know what God has said and know what Christ has achieved on your behalf, you will not be carried away, but you will be strengthened in your heart by the very grace of the living God, and I pray that will be true for you this day. let's pray together,

Father, thank you for these eternal truths that speak so directly to each one of us, I pray that you will protect us from the evil one who provides so many temptations, so many clever devices and distractions that can carry us away from that which we need to be preoccupied with, namely the person and the work of your glorious Son. So I pray that by the power of your Spirit, you will take what has been said today and do a mighty work of grace and we will be careful to give you all of the glory. For it's in Christ's name that I pray, Amen.