In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of exercising faith in God and His Word. He uses the analogy of stepping into an elevator to illustrate how we often take for granted the faith we have in everyday situations. The speaker also challenges the belief in evolution, arguing that it requires more faith to believe in such a theory than in the existence of a creator. He concludes by highlighting the faith of the three men in the Bible who refused to bow down to a king and trusted that God would deliver them, even if He chose not to.

I greet all of you, bless the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and bring greetings from the session of Bethel BPC Melbourne and then also from all the congregation. I'm still a Singaporean. Somebody asked me whether I have to adjust myself to the weather here, so I replied that I am still a Singaporean. Yes, of course, it's very good. Singapore is a very nice place and I hope you don't leave Singapore and go to another country. Yes, it's very convenient here. So I thank God I come here and I see many familiar faces. Very good, you are still strong in the Lord. Keep on going, keep on pressing and I also see some new faces and if there's anyone here who have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, I do pray. Pray that this morning you will come to believe in Him. God loves you so much that He sent, He spared not His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came down to planet Earth and He died not for His own sins but He died for our sins. That you and I who believe in Him might have our sins all forgiven, be delivered from the wrath of God and saved and have everlasting life to spend eternity with Him. That's wonderful and I hope that the Holy Spirit will touch your hearts and you will come to believe in Christ. Now you have your Bible with you, could you please turn to one portion and that is Romans chapter 1 and that's the text I'll be speaking on, Romans chapter 1. Let me read to you the two verses in that chapter, Romans chapter 1 verses 16 and 17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jews and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. May the Lord bless this reading of His word. Now the text for this morning's message is taken from the second part of verse 17, the just shall live by faith and I've entitled this morning's message as the living faith. I felt that it is very important to go back to first principles, back to the Bible, back to the most important thing in our life and that is faith. So sometimes we, some many of us know about faith but it is important sometimes to remind ourselves and to rekindle that faith once we had it in our lives, in our life. That's right, when we first believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we exercise that kind of faith and I believe that it is important to have that faith. It says here the just shall live by faith and here Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome and so the word just there refers to those who are Christians who are born again. The just shall live by faith because those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they were justified by God. God's righteousness is imputed upon them. So the just, as he said here, shall live by faith. Interestingly the verb shall live denotes that each individual Christian must exercise that faith. It denotes each individual Christian. In other words that you cannot ask another Christian to help you in that faith. Somebody cannot believe on your behalf. You yourself must exercise that faith by yourself. Your wife, my wife cannot exercise that faith on my behalf, neither can I exercise that faith on my wife's behalf. You yourself must exercise that faith. For example, in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 6, it says that all those who come to God must believe that he is, must believe that he exists, that he is and that he is the rewarder of all those who diligently seek him. If you believe that God is, you believe by faith. You have not seen God. If you believe by faith that there is God and then that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him, then God says that he will reward you. And one of the first things that he will reward you is that you will come to believe in Jesus Christ and be saved and have eternal life forever and ever and ever. There'll be end of this world, the end of your life, where will you be? And God says here that if you diligently seek him, he will bless you, he will reward you. And the most important thing, most important reward that you and I can have is to be saved, to be with him because there will be the end of this whole system here in this world. So I hope you are not thinking that you're going to live in this world forever, for the next 50, 60 or 100 years and then you die. Oh no, Christ is coming soon. And so this is it. Let it be clear that every Christian must live by faith and apply it in his daily life, daily living. You remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, he mentioned three very important things in a Christian life. Hope, faith, hope and love. Yes, a Christian should believe all things that the Word of God says. A Christian should hope all things which God promises in his Word. And a Christian should love enduringly the Almighty God and his neighbor. That's what today, this morning, we will focus on living by faith. Now faith is a vital and dynamic virtue for a Christian. It's important. Jesus put a high premium to the exercise of faith. For example, in Matthew chapter 17 verse 20, Jesus Christ said to his disciples, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, remove hands to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. So Jesus Christ is teaching us that you do not need a ton of faith. You just need honest, simple, little faith in Jesus Christ. The power that removes the mountain to a yonder place is the power of Christ. You need that little faith. So Jesus put a high premium. Don't ever say that I don't have enough faith. Sometimes we talk to one another and say, no my faith is not that strong. His faith is stronger. No, Jesus Christ did not mean that. Jesus Christ means little faith which you all can, as big, as large as a mustard seed. How big is a mustard seed? You have to look like this. And when you look like this, the breath of your nose can blow that seed away. Is that light that little? And don't you ever tell a friend, I don't have faith. You have faith. He's stronger, his faith. No, Jesus Christ did not say that. That's a devil's lie. You need what? Honest, simple faith. In whom? In the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't need that faith. You can't have that faith to do that power. It is faith in Christ that has power and Christ is the power. So you have. Remember, don't tell another friend, I don't have faith. That's nonsense. All right, so you need that little faith. So Christ put a high premium on faith. In fact, he rebuked those who don't show faith. Remember Peter? One day Peter was in the boat and he saw the Lord Jesus Christ walk on water towards the boat and Peter being Peter, always want to be the first, always want to experience things. Lord, let me come to you also, walking on the water. And the Lord Jesus Christ said, come. And he stepped out, boy, he was walking. And then suddenly he looked at the storms and then he was so afraid, so afraid. He was not looking at the Lord Jesus Christ, he was afraid. Afraid of what? My faith is not enough, right? And what happened? He sank and the Lord Jesus Christ took him up and said, O thou of little faith, why do you doubt? You see, your faith must, you must not doubt. When you have this little, honest, simple faith, that means you don't doubt in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jesus rebuked Peter for the lack of faith. Faith also brings great results. Just simple faith. Ten lepers, they were healed because of just simple faith. They wanted to be healed and the Lord Jesus Christ, you go on your way. And on the way one, all of them got healed. Suddenly they walked and then they saw all the wounds, bruises, and so were gone. And then one of them came back to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ says, arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. All the ten lepers, they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ said, go. They asked for Jesus Christ for healing and Jesus Christ said, go. And they went, believing. I believe they went and inside their heart they believed. Were they grumbling? How come I asked Jesus Christ for healing and then he did not heal us, he asked us to go? So, but on the way they were healed. And it means that they had faith. They believed the Lord. They asked us to go. Okay, go. And he went. When they healed, one of them came back. Of course, one was so grateful and came to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ, because of your faith in him, what he said to you, you did. And so faith brings results, great results. Yes, your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ also brings results. Have you seen the Lord Jesus Christ? How many of you have seen the Lord Jesus Christ? In your room, up in the attic, you prayed and the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to you, nine feet tall or ninety feet tall? Have you? Well, someone said that he met the Lord Jesus Christ that way. You have not met the Lord Jesus Christ. I have not seen him, yet you believe that he is the Son of God. You believe that he died for you. You believe that. And that faith you believe, God says that you have the forgiveness of sin. You confess your sin to him, God forgives all your sin because he died for you. Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and me. Shed that precious blood. I believe in it. And so I, my sins are all forgiven. And God says you have eternal life. And you will be with him forever and ever. And delivered from the wrath of God. How wonderful it is. It's your faith. That little, simple, mustard seed sized faith in Christ brings great blessings for you. And I believe with all my heart, since that day your life has changed. It's not the same, correct? Surely your life has changed. Now in other, this faith is very important because without faith you can't, it's impossible for you to please God. The only person in this world that you should please is to please God and not men. And how often we always please men, right? And we don't please God. But the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is. So there is a need to kindle this kind of faith in us. The faith that was shown in the past by the apostles and all the early Christians. For the first 300 years, many, many Christians, including apostles, all were being persecuted and died for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That simple faith. And so there is need to rekindle that kind of faith in us today. We must live by faith, alright? So that it is, we will please God. It is God pleasing. Also, for our Christian life, it will be effectual. Effectual in our daily living as a Christian. You see, today most of us have been affected by things around us. We live more by sight and by our senses, correct? We live by our feelings, by our taste, by our touch, by what we hear and what we see. Yes, it's very true. And then we'll be attracted by all these things. And we forgot. So we worship, we chase after material things in this world. The pleasures in this world. And we forget to worship God. And believe in our Lord Jesus Christ. We should be. We should not be like that. At the same time also, we have been affected by certain thinking in this world. And philosophies in this world. For example, the world will always try to deny, inspired by Satan, try to deny the existence of God. God says in his word, in the beginning God has created the heavens and the earth. But the world says, no. Evolution. Evolution is a theory. Evolution. We all come from the apes. You all come from the apes. And the monkeys. Once upon a time there was a person in Melbourne. He's a doctor. A doctor. Intelligent man. He studied so hard for six years, became a doctor, retired. And he does not believe in the existence of God. He's a good man, in a certain sense. Very friendly. So I walked, I did some morning walk with him one day and I said to him, I was told that you don't believe in God. Is it true? He said, yeah, I don't believe. I'm not convinced yet. And then straight away I told him that God says you are a fool. He's a good man. He doesn't get angry. Why you call me a fool? He doesn't know. He quite listened. I said, you know why God says you're a fool? Why you believe in evolution and not creation? Why not believe in a creator who created this whole world? Why do you believe in evolution? Let me tell you, I asked him, okay, I got very little knowledge of evolution, but maybe it is like this, you see. You have a marble and then you put in a tin and then I told him, is it? You put it in a tin and you rock it, shake it for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 100, 200, 5,000, 10,000, 100,000 years. 100,000 years, you can't even imagine. Then I lift up the pot, jump out a frog. That's what you believe, I said. But I believe in a person, the Bible says there's a creator who is omnipotent, all-powerful, omniscient, all-knowing, everything, every sciences, omnipresent, powerful. He saves the world and there he designed this whole earth, this whole universe, design, you know. I mean, you studied, you're a doctor, you know the human body, so wonderfully made, fearfully made. He knows it. Why can't you believe that? Because all around you can see evidence. When there is something that is designed, there must be a designer. For example, this pulpit, there must be a designer, your watch and all this. Why can't you believe? You need faith to believe that God is. But you believe what? Evolution. You need more faith. Shake for 1,000 years, you pull out and then up comes a frog. There is even, you know, you need more faith to believe in that. All right, so what I'm trying to say is here, you must live by faith as God says, that you come to him, believe in him and all that he says in his word and all that he promises in his word, you believe by faith. So, there is a need for us. You spend one time only one day in a church, right? On weekends, on Sunday, six days of the week, we are in the world. We mix with people, we talk with many, many people. Many of them are not Christians. Many of them also are in high places. Maybe your boss also is in high places and some of them are so non-Christian that they are against Christians and they will say things that blaspheme the name of God. Isn't it true? Then you also read books and somebody will say this book about that book and suddenly there is one book that tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ had an illicit affair, marital affair with Mary Magdalene and they had a child and when Jesus Christ died, this Mary Magdalene and the child migrated to France. You laugh and many people are reading this book. They just pay so much money, 30 over dollars for one book and a so-called Christian, a nominal Christian will say, have you read the book or not? Oh, it's a very good book. You are affected by this and it becomes the bestseller in Australia at least. I believe also here too, many people buy the book. I didn't buy the book. I read from what others wrote and I wrote, I bought the book that refuted this thing. How can? But this is an attack on the Lord Jesus Christ nowadays and there are many other doctrines also in the Bible. Do you believe all that or you believe what others tell you to believe? You must exercise. So there is a need to kindle, rekindle that faith which is in us. You must live by faith and actually many of us really exercise faith, though we do not know. You are a pilot. You go and sit in the cockpit and then you fly off at twice the speed or some. You exercise a lot of faith, right? Because all the mechanics, all who go and prepare and see, check that aeroplane, see whether it's okay in order or not. You were not there. You were sleeping. Time to go, you rest up and then you just go to the plane. How do you know they really checked properly? One screw loose, you're harbassed. So you believe, no, no, no, no, no screw is loose. Everything is intact and then you fly off by faith. Each time I step onto the, you know, in Melbourne, okay, you live, every house is on ground. When I come back here, I go to my house, 19 story, and then I step into the lift. We call it lift here, okay? Then it goes up 19th floor by faith, you know. When I think of it, I go slowly into the lift. You don't think of it, you just walk and then it goes up. You take for granted everything okay. What happened in the middle, one of the cables snapped. You think of it? You exercise faith. So there is one faith that we need to exercise, becomes part of us, and that faith is in God, in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his word. Now the just shall is by faith. This faith has two aspects. You must have these two aspects in order to have this faith valid, useful. It's like a coin, you see. There are two faces, one side and the other side, right? You have only one side, let's say the insignia of Singapore, and then that side, there's no denomination. Is it possible? You give it to the salesman, return to you, this tariff, no, you cannot use this one, not valid. You don't have the insignia, you have the other side. 10 cents, let's say, you give, also useless. You must have what? Both the insignia as well as the denomination, then that coin is valid and is useful and is acceptable. So also with the Christian faith, the just shall live by faith, and the word faith there has two sides to it. Now the one side is what I call the objective faith, the side that talks of belief, the beliefs that we believe. And that belief that we believe is all given to us in the word of God. That is what it is, who God is. What the Bible says about who God is, what the Bible says about the Lord Jesus Christ, what the Bible says about itself, that it is the word of God. The jot and the title will not pass away, God says His word, for heaven and earth may pass away. And in Psalms chapter 12 verse 16-17, God says that He gave us His words, the pure words, and that He will preserve them. And we believe in that. And it's sad to say that today there are some people who do not believe that we have, that God has preserved His word. I remember, and so I remember Martin Luther and Augustine, St. Augustine, the great theologian, and they all believe. Augustine and Martin Luther, a long time ago, they read the scriptures in its original languages and they admitted, they admitted, they confessed, they saw certain apparent contradictions or apparent discrepancies. And Martin Luther says this, echoing what Augustine says, I humbly confess, he said, I humbly confess my ignorance and only the Holy Spirit knows about these apparent discrepancies. For he says that scripture cannot contradict scripture. And so all those things the Holy Spirit knows, I only accept by faith and humbly confess my ignorance. I think that is the kind of attitude, correct attitude, that we should have. Believing in God and everything. He's all-mighty, He's all-powerful, isn't He? He's all-omniscient. And if He has done this way, He is sovereign. If He has done this way, then we just admit certain things that we do not know. We human beings are so finite that we do not know. We humbly just accept. So wonderful it is to accept. And when I hold a Bible, and this is, I mean, in the King James Version here, he has a faithful translation of the original manuscripts, copies of the original manuscripts in which there are apparent discrepancies, faithfully translated it. But we believe that certain apparent discrepancies we do not know. The Holy Spirit knows. And I can tell that this is the Word of God. And then preach the Gospel to others. So we need that kind of faith, that kind of spirit as exemplified by Martin Luther and Augustine. This kind of attitude honors God. And God said in His Word that if we have this kind of faith in Him, it pleases Him. So wonderful. So this is the objective faith. As in verse 23 of Hebrews chapter 10, He says here, let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. This is what we believe in. All that God has written in His Word without wavering. So whatever God has said in His Word, all the promises and everything, we believe it by faith and hold fast. So hold fast, not wavering, not doubting. Hold forth, hold out, not ashamed and confident that this is the Word of God. And hold firm in mobile steadfast. So this is one side of the coin. Now the other side is what? It's our, the subjective faith, our faith. Now if we only believe this part, I believe that the Bible says everything is true about God, Jesus Christ, and everything is true. And if I don't exercise that faith in accordance with God's Word, I live my own life. That faith means nothing. It's nonsense. Just like the other day I told a friend, a friend said, I said, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Yeah, I believe in Jesus Christ. You better go to church. Yeah, I will go. Sure. So I gave an illustration. He was a person who sells trumpet, you know, you sell trumpet, you know, and you don't use the trumpet. You sell the trumpet and people ask, do you use the trumpet? No. You use what trumpet? You use another trumpet. He sells a buffet trumpet, okay, buffet clarinet, but he uses a Yamaha clarinet. How can you use, you sell buffet clarinet, then you use a Yamaha clarinet? Not right. So all your selling, all nonsense. Same. If you believe all that the Bible says, every word of it, then you must live by that. You must have this subjective, your own personal faith. How do you live your life, order your life? You must have. If you don't exercise that, what do you, how much faith you need? Little faith, okay. How much faith? Little faith in that and exercise your life. Then it's valid. If you don't have, then this is nothing but academic exercise, that's all, for examination. Who is God? God is the creator of this world, ten upon ten, that's all. After that, you don't care. You live, you believe yourself. So you must have that side of it, your own, subjectively, your faith in what you have learned everything. You must exercise, order your life according to that. So you must have this other side of this, of your belief. This is the subjective faith and it concerns you and you only, individually. Someone cannot exercise that for you. In your daily life, you must do this. So you ask yourself, do you believe in the faith, what all the Bible teaches about heavenly things, the things of above, God, Jesus Christ and his word? Do you believe all the promises that God gives? Do you really hope in that? Do you love the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ or you say, Christ, please don't come back now, I got a lot of houses, I got a lot of children, I want to see my grandchildren, come later. Do you believe that or you really say, Christ better come back because of heaven and earth, the new heaven and new earth, absent from the body, present with you is far better. That's what Paul says. And Paul was actually willing to go to God. Are you willing? I ask myself, it's good to be absent from the body, present with the Lord because all those of my friends were Christians already there with me. And then he's already there. And then you go there, you see, wow, Abraham, Isaac, Apostle Peter, my friend, John, we are here. And then another one who is not a Christian, oh, you became a Christian? Yeah, that day you gave me a track, I believe, wow. You know, or you prefer to hear on this earth, aches and pains and don't believe. I hope all of you want to be with Christ, absent in the body, present with the Lord because why? God says in his words, far better. I believe it by faith, a little faith. You need that faith. You need to exercise that faith. Now, did God give us examples how we can exercise that faith? How? How can we exercise that faith? That simple faith in what God says. I believe God has given us some examples. If you go to Hebrews chapter 11, you have a whole list of people who all believe by faith. Now, I take just a few examples. One is Noah because he's a very wonderful example here, Noah. And God told him one day and said that, told Noah, I'm going to, the whole earth is going to be flooded. All people will die except you and your family. What did Noah say? Are you sure now? Flood the whole. There's no rain, no. Since the day when God created the heavens and the earth, there's no rain. Only God watered the ground with the dew. No one drop of rain. And you say, it's going to rain, going to flood this whole earth and ask me to build an ark in the middle of this land? And this is a very big ark. Are you sure now, God? Did he ask that question? No. He did. He started work and go. One day, two day, three day, one year, two years, and his friend neighbors come and say, hey Noah, what are you doing? Building an ark. Why? There will be rain coming down and then going to flood this whole place. They all laugh at him. No rain, how can it? And my dad was 10 years later, 50 years later. Oh, Noah, you're still at it. Not yet completed. Not yet, not yet. Can you see it's not yet completed? What are you doing for? Still believe the same thing. Then Noah turn around and say, you better repent. And they laugh at him. I don't know whether his sons also ask him, papa, real or not? People are laughing at us. No, daddy. They say, get to work. 70 years, 100 years later. Wow, Noah, you are still at it. Yeah, you better repent. 120 years later, everything completed. Go in. Did the rain come? Yes. You can just imagine on that day how many people ran up the mountains. Just like the tsunami happened, everybody ran up. Never climbed the coconut tree, also climbed. Or centipedes, never mind, better climb. Right? What made Noah do that? Tons of faith? No. Just faith and believe God's Word. God said. You need that faith. You don't need tons of faith. You just believe God's Word say. God says that Christ is coming. Do you believe or not? People say, where? When you mention about Christ coming, where, where, where? 2,000 years ago already, you say He's coming. Today, it's still the same. The world is still the same. In fact, you see our country, how well, how developed it is. Correct? And you might think, yeah, maybe I'm wrong. Read the Word again. The Word says Christ is coming. In fact, in the book of Revelation, at the end of the book, Christ three times says, behold, I come quickly, I come quickly, I come quickly, you know. Yes, God will come quickly. It may be 2,000 years, but to God it is no time because God lives from eternity to eternity. One day, you also have no time. When you're with God, there's no more yesterday, there's no more tomorrow. It's always, not even today, but now. The time is always now. Where are you going now? You don't talk about yesterday, you don't talk about tomorrow, you talk about now. So, Christ always now. So, 2,000 years is now. So, God is not actually delaying, you know. We only think so. You need just a little faith. So, that's the first one. What God says, just act on it by faith. Well, another example is Abraham. Abraham was an idolater in the land of Babylon at that time. I think it's Iraq at that time. Today, Iraq. So, God called, Abraham, come and I'll take you to the promised land. So, the Bible tells us that Abraham did not know where he was going. He says here in Hebrews chapter 11, by faith, Abraham, he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed, and he went, not knowing whether he went. Yet, by faith, he went and he lived in Canaan. Abraham's life is exemplified by faith. He reached Canaan. And there, God says, this is the land I'm going to give you. You can see, how far you can see, that's yours. So, he went, see, north, east, west, big piece of land. That's all yours. Abraham said, I've got no children. No, you and your seed. But I have no son. So, God says, I'll give you a son. And Sarah laughed. Why? Because she's so old. She's past childbirth already, giving birth. Yeah, Abraham believed. And God says, I am imputed of any righteousness. Well, how many years later? Well, they had to wait. 25 years. And of course, Sarah, I mean, he thought that she's very clever. 25 years. Why so late? 10, 20 years already, still not conceived. So, you better have a guy, my son, bear a son for me. Abraham always, all right, Sarah is a pretty woman. Abraham always listen to the wife. Sometimes it's good to listen, sometimes it's not good. In this matter, it's not good to listen to the wife. Big trouble, till today. All right. But what I'm trying to say is that later, 5 years later, 25 years later, yes, Sarah conceived. And after, big problem after that. All right, Sarah conceived. God says, you believe it will happen. Later, when Isaac, his son was already eating Asia, God says, you offer Isaac, kill him as a sacrifice for me. Well, did Abraham argue? No. According to the Word of God, he obeyed. He brought, he did not tell Isaac until the final moment. Isaac told him, father, papa, where is the land for sacrifice? Father didn't answer also, was so heavy hearted, and bound him, took the knife, before he could put it halfway, God says, stop. And you know what the Word of God says? Abraham and Sarah believed, Abraham believed that if he killed Isaac, God will raise him from the dead. That kind of faith. Is it one ton of faith? No. Simple faith. Little faith as a master, because he believed that God is almighty, what? He can do what? He can do what he wants. And he can. Little faith enough, not tons of faith. Because he already learned the part that God is almighty. We also know that God is almighty. Can God do or not? So you must read the Word of God. God can do anything that he wants. How much faith that you need? Little faith. Another example. All right, so in this case, how do you apply in our lives? Very easy. God calls Abraham, and Abraham went by faith. So God calls you. Will you kill by faith? An example. Another example is Moses. Moses was raised in the palace of Egypt. Pharaoh in the palace of Pharaoh. He had the best in life. Everything, right? First class. Egyptian cotton silk. All wonderful, but in the end, he rather, the Bible tells us, he chose the reproaches of Christ. He rather suffer as a child of God than to enjoy all the pleasures of the palace for a season. Moses did that. And his whole life was not what he wanted. I mean, it's not what we thought that people would think that he's very foolish. But no, you'll find that his whole life was full of struggle, but it was very fulfilling, very satisfying. He's one of the greatest heroes of the people of God. Moses rather suffer for Christ than to enjoy just temporarily the pleasures of Pharaoh's palace. One last example. Do you know? Let me introduce to you three men. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego. You know who they are, or who they were? They were the three friends of Daniel. They showed great faith too. The kind of faith that we should have. What was that? Well, they were tested concerning the worship of the image, Nebuchadnezzar erected. So when the big band goes, starts to go on, the people hear the music, and all of them will bow down before this image. And all of them bow down and except these three fellows stood up. Wow, very conspicuous. So the people all know and went to tell Nebuchadnezzar the king, you built all this, you said, you told us, and you hear the music, all bow down. But the three of them, who? Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, they did not bow down. Call them here. I heard this. Is it true? Well, I give you another chance. When the music starts, now I'm going to call the music to start. When the music starts, you bow down. All right? And then you'll be safe. I won't kill you. I won't cast you into the furnace of fire. Okay? And then they said to Nebuchadnezzar, no, not okay. And then Nebuchadnezzar said one word again, who and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Well, because he is the king at the time. And the three of them says, no, you will not. He said, the three of them, our God will deliver us. You cast us in there. See, that's belief. And if our God did not deliver us, we will not also bow. Oh, that is wonderful. Was it much faith? No. They know that God is the true God. They know that God is almighty. They know that God is able. They also know that God also exercises his free will, sovereign will. He may or may not save them. But he know that if they are not saved, they are burnt there, they are with God. A lot of faith, no. They have the knowledge of the word of God, little faith as big as a mustard seed. You see, the point is this. Even God did not deliver us. How many times all of us always go down on our knees, we pray, pray, pray, and then ask for something, and then God didn't answer. What did we say? Oh, faith changed. Oh, get angry. Where are you, God? I ask you and then you don't answer. See, God knows better. And we blame God. We say, ah, there's no God. I don't believe God. You see? No, you need little faith. And that becomes no faith. Because you are thinking of yourself, you're worshipping yourself, you're worshipping the thing that you want, and you're not worshipping God, and trust him, and believe in him, faith in him. So these are the examples, and there are many more. We must live by faith. The just shall live by faith. You believe in God, he's almighty, he's all-powerful, he's sovereign, he will do things according to his will, his counsel, his thinking, his wisdom. Do you believe that that's what God teaches us, that he's powerful, he can do anything, what he says he will do? You believe that? I believe. I pray that you believe. Then you live our life in accordance with that word, according to what God says. We fear not. Each time we go to a very difficult situation, we pray to God, God, I believe you, please protect me, please be merciful to me. You do that, simple faith, and God hears your word, because he's the living God, he hears, and he will do, because you honour him, you loved him, in everything. One, three, five, I go to exercise, I exercise in a church, and there's a lady there who taught us exercise. Before we start exercising, she prayed, pray, keep praying, that's very good. Many of us are non-Christians, some are Malays, and she said, let us pray, so she gave a prayer, just to praise God and thank for the day, whether rain or shine, also thank God, and then we exercise. It's good, little faith, honour God, and we should do that. So let us live by faith in everything that we do. If you believe that you don't have a job and you're applying for this job, you do all your best that you can, and then you commit everything to God. And let's say you go for the interview, then you ask God to help you, and then after the interview, the man says, all right, thank you very much, don't call us, we'll call you. Standard reply, we don't need you. Never mind, you trust God, and if you don't get a job, then praise, thank God that there's another job for you, because if you want it, you will have, then God can give you if you want it, and you get heartaches, problems in the company. Trust God, and sometimes God may stretch you, test you for a period of time, still keep trusting, and then he will give you that job that really fits you. Wonderful. There are also places, should I migrate to Australia? Pray to God, ask God, and use your God has given you a brain, draw a line, write the pros and the cons, and ask God for wisdom, for guidance. And you yourself will know, God will show you. If you exercise that faith, as God says, you diligently seek him, you exercise that faith, what did God say? He will what? Reward you. He will tell you. You know. Nobody can, sometimes you can ask people, or people you can ask them, they can tell you, one fellow tell you one thing, another fellow tell you, you're all confusing. It's good to have all in your head, but everything commit to the Lord. Exercise that little faith, everything is so wonderful, and your life will be great. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you. Thank you for your precious word, and I pray, Father, that you will plant your word in our hearts and our minds, and cause us, Lord, to walk in the path that's in accordance with your will, for your glory, for your honor. This we pray, we ask, giving you thanks, in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.