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As I said, the name of the sermon is, to whom will you bow? Historically, people bow to a king as a physical expression of respect and acknowledgement of the king's higher status and a demonstration of submission to his authority. Bowing is a symbolic act of lowering oneself to show they are of a lower social standing, a practice that extended to other forms and ranks and was often required gesture of courtly manners. In some contexts, particularly in earlier times, the bow also can fade allegiance, reverence and connection to a monarch, a monarch's perceived divine right to rule. Beyond bowing, there are times when the people prostrate themselves. That is, they lie on the ground face down before the king. And that's usually to implore the king to look up on them with some favor in some way to act on their behalf. It's a sign of complete loyalty to the sovereign. It could be because they want forgiveness for something or they want protection for something. But there are many of these occasions in scripture where God's people prostrate themselves before him or bow before him. In Deuteronomy 9, after the people of Israel had sinned by creating the golden calf, God had threatened to send them on without his presence. Moses interceded for them by prostrating himself for 40 days and 40 nights with no food or no water. David similarly prostrated himself in sackcloth and ashes to intercede for the people. Jesus, in Matthew 26, prostrated himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking his father if possible that this cup could pass from me. But not my will, but yours be done. So Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Peter, and John all fell to their faces when they felt the holiness of God. In Genesis 15, it says that Abraham, as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on him, and behold, dreadful and darkness fell upon him. Moses said, I am the God of your, two Moses, God said, I am the God of your father, God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. Isaiah said, as we read earlier, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips from eyes of seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And when he says woe is me in the original translation, it really means that Isaiah is coming apart at the seams, that he's as it were disintegrating because he is before the holy, holy, holy God. We learn from John 12 that that holy, holy, holy God is God the Son in his pre-incarnate state. Ezekiel, such was the appearance of the lightness of the glory of the Lord, that when he saw it, I fell on my face, he said, and I heard the voice of one speaking. When Peter and his fishing mates saw Jesus bring in the great catch of fish, Peter fell to Jesus' knees and said, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. And in Revelation, chapter one, which we saw a few weeks ago, John says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one and I died and behold, I'm alive forevermore and I have the keys of death in Hades. Every instance that I've mentioned so far, except Jesus and Gethsemane, is about men being confronted with the purity, holiness, power, and majesty of God, and responding involuntarily by prostrating themselves or covering their eyes, or feeling as though they're coming apart at the seams. So this scene that John relates is a little different. John is describing a vision of heaven, given to him by Jesus. Now most biblical scholars believe that the vision is filled with symbolism. It doesn't mean that it's not true, but that it's symbolic. In the vision, there's depicted God on his throne, and the throne is a symbol of absolute power and sovereignty, which the elders signify by casting their crowns before him and saying, worthy are you, Lord and God, to receive glory and power and honor, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created. They're not fearing God in the same way that we mentioned with the others because they are cleansed of their sin, they are in heaven. So casting crowns is historically something that a king who had been, or a sovereign, or a ruler, who had been defeated by another king's people and army, when those rulers were brought before the king that had defeated them, they would take their crowns and they would cast them at the feet of the throne of the conquering king. And they did this to signify that they were swearing allegiance. They were giving up their power. They were willing to follow and obey. Now sometimes they were doing that so that they wouldn't be killed. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But here in the passage that we're looking at it's a sign of worship, bowing, prostrating before the Lord is in this case worship. I'll read again what we read earlier and when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who's seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before him. And they say worthy are you, our Lord and God. Giving glory and honor and thanks are all parts of worship. We have Thanksgiving weekend coming up. And it should be a time when as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we should be giving thanks with all of our heart for everything he's done for us, for his life lived sinlessly in our place, for the death he died, taking our punishment for our sin, for the fact that he has risen from the dead and that someday we will join with him in heaven. There is not enough thanks in all the world from all the people to adequately express our gratitude to God. So what does it mean to bow before the Lord? It means what the Lord Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane. It means not my will but yours be done. That's what it means. It means that I am not sovereign. I am not in charge of my own life. I am not the king. You are Lord. And even if what you will is different than what I would have willed, your will be done. Vodhi Bakkam, fairly well-known preacher who preached in the US and then started a Bible school in Africa, recently went to be with the Lord. He said this, the church in America is guilty of selling Jesus like he's a product. Come to Jesus, he'll make your life better. But that's not the gospel. The gospel is come to Jesus and die. Now he said in America, but it applies to Canada. It applies to Halifax. C.S. Lewis said I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of port would do that. I want, if you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity. That is so far from the understanding of so many people who come to church every Sunday here in North America, especially. They're looking for God to make their life better. Not in an ultimate eternal sense, but in the sense of what I'm going to get out of it. Am I going to have more money? Am I going to have more things? Am I going to have children who behave and obey? You might. But you might not. The Bible is replete with stories of people willing to risk harm to themselves or even death for either refusing to worship false gods or for worshiping, bowing to the one true God. What's the first commandment? In Exodus chapter 20, verse two says, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. What does it mean to have no other gods? That means you don't bow to anyone else. You don't serve anyone else in an ultimate sense. Two examples from Daniel. One is you're probably familiar with the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What had happened is Nebuchadnezzar had a statue erected of himself. And then he commanded everybody everywhere to bow and give homage and honor and worship to the statue whenever they heard the music. I won't list off the instruments. There were plenty. Well, that was discovered that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't do that. They refused to bow to anybody but God. So Nebuchadnezzar was furious. He brought them before him and he said, listen, I'm paraphrasing, listen, if you bow when you hear the music the next time, then we'll let it go. But if you don't, we're going to punish you. And the punishment was to throw them into a fiery furnace. Well, this is what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said. And I just want you to imagine you're in their situation. Would you have the faith? Would you have the willingness? Would you have the ability to say what they said? Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this manner. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of your hand, oh, King. So they're expressing faith in the power of God to overcome whatever it is Nebuchadnezzar is going to subject them to. But the next sentence is the one that is stunning. But if not, be it known to you, oh, King, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Do you hear what he's saying? They're saying God is able to save us. That doesn't mean he will. He's able to change the circumstances. He's able to have the fiery furnace not have any effect on us, which is what happens, but they're saying we know he can do it. But even if he doesn't, we are not going to serve you. We are not going to bow to you. But you can also get in trouble for bowing to God. Daniel chapter six. The rulers came to Nebuchadnezzar and they convinced him to sign an order saying that if anyone didn't fall down and worship him for 30 days or worshiped any other god for 30 days, they would be punished. And Nebuchadnezzar thought that was a good idea, so he signed it. Sorry, I think it was Darius, different king. When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went into his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open towards Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks to God as he had done previously. So you see, the order from the government, in this case the king, had nothing whatsoever, no effect on Daniel. He was willing to refuse to obey the order in order not to disobey God. And he continued to practice. He didn't do it starting then. In other words, he wasn't in a situation where he had never prayed like this before. And so to refuse to obey the king, he decided he would start praying like that. No, he had always done this. And the underlings to the king had said, had knew this, and so they tried to trap Daniel. But Daniel went ahead and worshiped just as he always had. To whom will you bow? What was the result? Daniel was thrown into the lion's den. But God protected him. We know the story. And at the end, the king declared Daniel's God to be God. It's just not the Old Testament, it's the New Testament as well. In Acts chapter four, the disciples, some of them had been witnessing. And they had been arrested, detained. And the authorities said, but in order that it may not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in his name, meaning the name of Jesus. So they called him and they charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Now these men knew that they could be executed. They could be crucified. They could be imprisoned. They knew it. All they had to do was say, okay, fine, we won't talk about Jesus anymore. What's amazing is they knew any of this could happen to them and this is what they said. Whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must be the judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. In other words, we are going to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ to anybody who will listen and it doesn't matter what you threaten us with. Now, think about yourself again. If confronted with even a tenth of that, do we shrink back? Do we refuse to represent Christ? Do we refuse to be a witness? Did they bow to the wishes of the chief priests? No, what did they do? Instead, they said, and now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. Again, would you do that? Would we do that? Or would we cower? Would we say, okay, well, you know, it's more important that I stay alive, that I provide for my family, that I keep my job, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Even if I have to sort of fudge it on my Christian faith. We love Hebrews chapter 11, it's called the faith chapter. And there's a big long list of everybody who, because of their faith in God, were considered heroes of the faith. And there's a big long list. What we usually stop at verse 34. But this is verse 35. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so they may rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated. All of this for the sake of being a witness of the gospel. Continues in verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And we're worried about losing a job. To whom are you bowing? You may think it's wise or kind by not defending your faith or staying silent in the face of falsehood, but you're not. It's cowardice. You're compromising. And you must believe that your compromise will be met with more demands for more compromise and eventually capitulation. To whom will you bow? Quoting again, Bodhi Bakkam, he said, neutrality is not an option. There are many Christians who believe that if we just keep our heads down, that if we just go about our lives, that if we just stay off social media and if we just don't say the wrong thing, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed. You are naive if you think that. Because what they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission. It's not enough for you not to speak. You have to speak. Use my pronouns or lose your job. Acknowledge this marriage. Put quotation marks between these two men or these two women. Bake the cake or lose your bakery. Make the clothes or lose your business. Neutrality is not an option. It's not enough. It won't work like that. Eventually, this will come to your door. Jesus said in all three of the gospels, the three synoptic gospels, I'm gonna quote from Luke nine. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him, the son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. Ask yourself, will you bow to the culture? Will you bow to anti-biblical laws? Will you bow to peer pressure just to get along for hoping people opposed to the gospel will have a high opinion of you? Paul said in first Corinthians 15, therefore my beloved be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. And then finally, to whom will you bow? The answer is you will bow to Jesus. Whether you start now or whether after you die, you come face to face with him and have to give an account, you will bow. Philippians 2, verse nine, therefore God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. To whom will you bow? Eventually you'll bow to Jesus. My hope for you is that you start now. In a minute we'll go to the Lord's table, where the gospel will be preached, where forgiveness is offered, prepare your hearts to receive the sacrament. Let's pray.