Martin Luther King - But if Not - Full Sermon

but if there was not a day when many of the Israelites found themselves in bondage in Babylon, there was a

king

of Babylon named Nebuchadnezzar. You read a lot about it in the Book of Daniel and it is an era that will endure. stencil on metal sheets of developing generations Nebuchadnezzar was a powerful

king

and when he ruled, he ruled and when he is in order, he meant business. Nebuchadnezzar issued an order that made of gold and image and his image was in everyone under the reign of his. Royalty had to bow before that golden image and worship it.

Now those of you who read the Bible remember that story. One day Nebuchadnezzar called the judges, the governors and the sheriff and they had a dedicatory service for this image objective and then he told them: I am ordering you to see that everyone bows before this golden image, but there were three young men around, one was called Cedric, the other was called Shaq and the other was called Abednego and they responded and I read it. the Scripture and said to King Nebuchadnezzar: We are not careful to answer you in this way, if so, our God whom we serve can deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and will deliver us from your hand, O king, but if you do not know, O king , since we will not serve your God, we will now worship the golden image that you have set up.

I want you to note here first that these young people practiced civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with an order from the government or the state or even the court that your conscience tells you is unjust. Civil disobedience is based on a commitment to conscience. In other words, whoever practices civil disobedience is obedient. to what he considers a higher law and then comes It is a time when a moral man can obey a law that his conscience tells him is unjust and I tell you this morning, my friends, that history has moved on.

Great moments have often arisen because there were individuals in every era and in every generation who were willing to do it. to say I will be obedient to a higher law these men said I must be disobedient to a king in order to be obedient to the king and those people who saw many times criticized those of us who reached those moments in which we must practice civil disobedience Never remember that even here in America, to free yourself from the oppression and colonialism of the nation of the British Empire, you practiced civil disobedience so it represented civil disobedience more than the Boston Tea Party.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. it was legal to do everything that Hitler did to the Jews it was a law in Germany for Hitler to dictate to himself that it was wrong and illegal to help and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany but I tell you if he had lived in Hitler's Germany Hitler with my attitude would have openly violated that law they gave me. He would have practiced civil disobedience and that is why it is important to see that there are times when a man-made law is not in harmony with the moral law of the universe.

There are times when human laws are out of harmony with eternal and divine laws and when that happens you have the obligation to break it and I am happy that by breaking it I have good company yes, I have Cedrac Meshach and Abednego I have Jesus and Socrates and I have to all the early Christians who refused to bow down now the second interesting point is that these men never doubted God and his power while doing what they did they made it very clear that they knew God had the power to forgive them, they told the king.

Do we know that a God we worship is able to set us free and that came from our experience of him? They had known God. They had experienced God in nature. They knew God as the Creator and then they had seen God in history in an empty way and then they had seen God, I am sure that in their personal life they never doubted the power of God to deliver them, but let me now move on to the basics. of the message, not this morning, if we forget everything I said, I hope you don't forget this what you came for.

The point after saying that our God can deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, but if he does not deliver us, we still will not bow down, but if not, do you understand that these men were saying that our faith is so deep that I have found something so dear and so precious that nothing can keep us from it, our God can deliver us, but if not, this simply means, my friends, that the ultimate test of one's faith is his ability to see, but if not, you will see there . is what you can call and if be and there is a although faith and permanent faith lasting faith the powerful is the mass faith now the if the fish says if everything is going well if life is hopeful prosperous and happy if I don't have to go to jail if I don't have to face the agony and burdens of life if I am never called bad names for taking a position that I feel I should hate if none of these things happened then I will have faith in God and I will be fine that is faith if You know, many people have faith if Jacob found himself in that dilemma a sin and his faith depended on a yes and he said now if God will be with me and if he will keep me on this path and if God gives me bread to eat and clothes to wear. dress me to return in peace to my father's house, then the Lord will be my god, that is if a Jew or Jacob had done it.

Although we have reached the essence of religion, there is a faith and faith that says that such things go wrong, yes, although evil is a temporary triumph, yes, although sickness comes and the cross looms, yet I go to believe anyway and I will have faith somehow, though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains tremble with their swelling, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge, no work came at that point and he had those things. He looked outside and everything that had been taken from him and even his wife said: enough what you should do brother joel sir.

Curse God and die. God has been cruel to you. You should have let God know a long time ago that it would take you a while to follow Him. If he allowed you to remain rich. If he allowed your cattle to stay in his place. You should curse him and die. because I hadn't treated you well but John said darling I'm sorry but my faith is deeper than that even if he kills me I will still trust and my faith is a

full

faith this is the essence of life and religion the question is do you have a faith or if you have a dual faith you know what it is in essence that ultimately religion is not a matter of negotiation many people negotiate with God if you let me avoid pain God if you allow me to be happy in all its dimensions yes if you do not allow let no suffering come if you don't allow frustrating moments to come then I will be fine I will give you a tenth of my income and now go to church and I will have faith in you religion is not a negotiation experience it is not a business relationship and you know it does not exist a great experience in the atmosphere of the act of negotiation think about friendship think about love and think about marriage these things are not based on whether they are based on although these great experiences are not based on a negotiation relationship, not on a faith , but in a faith, and I am coming to my conclusion now.

I want to tell you this morning, my friends, that at some point along the way you should find out. something that is so dear, so precious to you, is so eternally valuable that you will never abandon it, you must discover some principle, yes, you must have a great faith that unites you so much that you will never abandon it, you will never somehow leave. I go on and say: I know the God I worship can deliver me, but if not, I'm still here, how can I defend him? What does this mean? In the final analysis, you are right not to avoid it. hell, that if you are doing the right thing simply to avoid going to something that traditional theology has called hell, then you are doing the right thing if you are doing the right thing simply to go to a condition that theologians call heaven, you are doing the right thing, you are doing the right thing to avoid pain and to achieve happiness and president, you are doing the right thing, ultimately you must do the right thing because you have to say it, but if not, you must ultimately love because it is beautiful to love, you must be fair because it is okay to be fair, you must be honest because it is okay to be honest this is what this text says more than anything else and finally you must do it because it has trapped you so much that you are willing to die for that it is not necessary to tell you this Good morning, If you have never found something so dear, I am so valuable to you that you will die for it, then you are not fit to live, take it, you may be 38 years old like me and one day a great opportunity will present itself. before you and asks you to defend some great principle some great saw some great calls you refuse to do it because you are afraid you refuse to do it because you want to live longer you are afraid of losing your job are you afraid? that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, are you afraid that someone will stab your butt? your house, then you refuse to take the stand, well, you can go on and live until you reach another, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be in Nam, the cessation of breathing in your life is nothing more than the announcement late from a previous death of the spirit you died when you refused to defend the right you died when you refused to defend the truth you died when you refused To defend justice, these boys resist the force today and I thank God for him, but they had found something that a fiery furnace couldn't stop them from believing, they said, throw us into the fiery furnace, yes sir, but you know, the interesting thing is The Bible talks about a miracle because they have enough faith to say it, but if not, God was with them like an eternal companion, this is what I mean, they finally used a reward if you do the right thing for the sake of justice, it says that somehow that fire burns. the oven was transformed into an air conditioned living room someone looked gang said we put three here but now we see four never think you are alone go to jail if you have to but you will never go just take a stand for that which is wrong the world may misunderstand you and criticize you but you never go anywhere alone I read that one with God is the majority and God has a way of transforming a minority into a majolica lock with him this morning and believe in him and do the right thing and he will be with you even to the consummation of the ages yes, I have seen the lightning, I have heard the Path of Thunder, I felt the breakers of sin rushing towards my soul, but I heard the voice of Jesus. saying still keep fighting promised to never leave me never leave me alone no never alone no never alone promised to never leave me never leave me alone why are you going this morning my friends tell the world that you're gone?

You go with justice, you go with goodness and you will have any essential company and the world will look at you and they will understand you because your fiery furnace will be there, but you continue anyway, but if not, I will not die. and may God grant us that we will never bow before the gods of evil.