have taken place and made this a very significant, very tumultuous. We go, I'd said to you maybe a month ago or three weeks or two weeks or even last Sunday. If I'd said to you, listen, I just want you guys to know, I have a strong feeling that we're closing in on a Psalm and been laud, and I think they're going to find a little regesitum. If I'd said that to you a month or three weeks ago, you'd have said, that's very interesting. Why don't you stick with the Bible and just stick with something you maybe know a little bit about. Why don't you stick with talking about spiritual things. But then if I had said that to you a month ago and then it happened like it did last Sunday night, then you might say, you know this guy talks about things that are going to happen in the future. Maybe better pay attention to what he has to say. Long ago in worship service far, far away, we were studying the book of Daniel. Daniel has a lot of prophetic material about things that are coming, not just in the immediate future which they have, but also centuries ahead of time. We were studying Daniel chapter 10 and 11 and 12. We were looking at the final prophecy, the final vision of Daniel. And those three chapters, and I started with chapter 10 and then my timing was terrible on this. I really thought I could get through chapter 11 before Palm Sun. I didn't get close. So it took a break for Palm Sun, day for Easter, and the last Sunday for Communion. This morning I'd like to have us go back into Daniel chapter 11. I remind you again the last three chapters of Daniel, they form one vision. Now the vision itself occurs, the event takes place in 539 BC. But he's talking about events that are going to be coming down in the next two, three, four centuries, and some even beyond that. It's a long dense passage. Fortunately if you all have a dense preacher, so I can handle this kind of material very easily. It's a long dense passage. We are going to break it up because I know if I tried to read all those verses to you, you would follow sleep sooner than some of you normally do, and I want to give you time. So we're going to do that. But let's pray as we look into this prophecy of Daniel. Lord, we thank you that you do reign, that you do control the affairs of men and nations, Lord that you were high and lifted up and far above and beyond, anything we can comprehend. And even so, you're pleased to reach down to deal with us. The God of eternity, of all power, all knowledge, all present everywhere, but you're willing to come and be part of our lives right here right now this morning. But we thank you for that and we ask that you would help us. Just pull the curtain back a little bit. Give us just a glimpse, not just of things to come, not just of prophecy, but a glimpse of your majesty. That's all we need, just a sense of your presence. Lord, that you come and dwell here in the midst of your people, and our praise is now in the preaching, and hearing of your word is my prayer and Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I think it's about a month ago. I mentioned to you that my favorite poem, the William Wordsworth, is called The Tables, during the last two stanzas of the poem, he writes, sweet is the Lord which nature brings, our meddling intellect, mischapes the beautiest form of things, we murder to dissect. Enough of science and of art, close up those barren leaves, come forth, and bring with you a heart that watches and receives. Every student would say, amen, close the books, let's get out and have some fun in nature, but his point there is sometimes we murder to dissect. And what I want to do with this passage here rather than dissect it, because if we did, I mean it's just so dense, there are so many things I think I told you the last time we're looking at it, that John Calvin spends 40 pages of his commentary talking about what pertains to whom and which ruler, fulfill which prophecy and so forth, but rather than do that, I'm going to look at this in the big picture. Chapter 10 was the introduction, the angel Gabriel had come in the answer to Daniel's prayers, and I told you back in chapters 10 and also in the first part of verse 11, God is in control even when outward appearances make it seem as though he's not. He doesn't look that way. I said to you last time, God is in control globally. This event as I told you, takes place in 539 BC. We know that because Daniel says it's the third year of the reign of Cyrus, and the prophecies cover the next four kings of Persia. They're coming down the pipe, the kingdom of Babylon falls, kingdom of Persia arrives, and he deals with the next four kings of Persia. Then he talks about the coming kingdom of Alexander the Great, and then he talks about in prophetic form how after Alexander dies, Alexander's wives, his children, all of his descendants, they're all murdered. So there's no legitimate heir to claim the throne of Alexander, and four kings rise up, and they split apart the kingdom of Alexander the Great. Why don't we want us to understand instead of going into each prophecy of the first two? I want us to understand that even when it doesn't look like it, that God is in control. Remember that the Jews, as Daniel wrote these words, the Jews had been under the crushing tyranny of various kings, emperors, tyrants all the way back from Pharaoh, and now to Nebuchadnezzar, and then he talks about Darius, and now Alexander the Great, and then Antiochus Epiphanies, the fourth and the seizures. At each of those stages, the people of God cried out, have you forgotten about us, God? Where have you gone? Have you abandoned us? The truth was he hadn't forgotten them. They had forgotten him. They had grown careless, they've grown faithless, and he'd warned him, and warned him, and warned him of judgment to come. He warned him of judgment was coming, so he wouldn't have to send judgment, and they didn't listen, so finally judgment came even in the form of exile, and there they were in Babylon. So I told you he was in control globally. I told you he was in control covenantally. The covenant is a binding oath. It's a blood oath between two parties, in this case between God and his people. And I told you that God was pleased to be the covenant God, or the nation of Israel, the old covenant people God, in spite of their sins, their continual faithlessness to him. God was pleased to be their covenant people, and somebody who knows his Bible says, you have a way to make it count. That's the old covenant people, the new covenant people of God. That's the church. That's us. We're God's covenant people by faith. You're correct. And God is pleased to be the God, the covenant God, of his new covenant people, the church. In spite of our carelessness, in spite of our faithlessness, he is still pleased to call us his own in spite of our sins. God's in control even when done look that way. He's in control globally. He's in control covenantally. And then I just barely started to touch on this third way. The God is in control even circumstantially. So let's begin the reading here, if you will. We're going to begin with verse 21, Daniel chapter 11. He will be succeeded by a contemptible person who has not been given the honor of royalty. He will invade the kingdom when this people feel secure. He will seize it through intrigue. Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before him. Both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully with only a few people he will rise to power. When the richest provinces feel secure, he will invade them and will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did. He will distribute plunder, loot, and wealth among his followers. He will plot the overthrow of fortresses, but only for a time. With a large army, he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the south. The king of the south will wage war with a large and very powerful army, but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. Those who eat from the king's provisions will try to destroy him. His army will be swept away and many will fall in battle. The two kings with their heart bent on evil will sit at the same table and lie to each other but to no avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time. The king of the north will return to his own country with great wealth. But his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return to his own country. At the appointed time, he will invade the south again. This time, the outcome will be different from what it was before. Ships of the western coastlands will oppose him and he will do his heart. Then he will turn back and vent his fury against the holy covenant. He will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant. His armed forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination because of desolation. Let's stop here for a moment. Let me just comment on the fact that all these prophecies were fulfilled in the most literal way in the ancient Near Eastern history. These kings and the other leaders, they were wicked men. And many, if not most, met with violent deaths. The wicked and the powerful, they do sometimes flourish. They do sometimes prosper. But only for a time. And without exception, every single one of them, men and women, almost always men, but with exception, every single one of them, young and old, they die. And they stand for God and they give an account for their lives. Sooner or later, every single person, young, old, male, female, sooner or later, every single one of us, we die and we stand before the God who made us in his image. It requires from us an accounting of what we have done with the life he's given us. Sooner or later, for every single person, judgment comes. The last one, as mentioned here, we talked about before, his name was Antiochus Epiphanes IV. Are you getting this? There will be a quiz. Antiochus Epiphanes IV. The only reason I bring him up again is because he's very important in Jewish history. If you're a Jew, you know that he was one of the four kings who rose up after Alexander the Great, and he took part of Alexander's kingdom. He took part of Alexander's kingdom, included Palestine, which includes, of course, Jerusalem. And like most men will do when given enough power, he sought to extend his kingdom to expand his kingdom. He wanted to expand it into the south. The south was Egypt. Egypt was a mighty country, mighty powerful country at that point. Like a lot of empires, they had grown laks. They had grown lazy. They had grown soft. They had grown highly immoral. They were ripe for the picking. So Antiochus Epiphanes had begun to save raids and in Egypt, he was the most party to met with very little resistance. But he was still part of the Great Roman Empire. At one point, his Antiochus Epiphanes was to make another raid into Egypt. He was met with a Roman general who told him that he would stop right there and retreat, or else he'd be met with great force. He demanded to know on the spot what will you do? Antiochus Epiphanes general was no idiot. He knew what he wanted to do. It was just go back and raise a stronger army. So he'd do a circle in the sand around Antiochus Epiphanes. He said, I will have your answer before you step out of this circle, or I'll consider that we're going to war together. Call his bluff. That is where ladies and gentlemen. We get the expression, I've gone online in the sand. That's where it comes from. Antiochus Epiphanes knew that he couldn't go to war with the man as it was. So humiliated. He agreed that he would return. He was humiliated when powerful men get humiliated. They did dangerous things. So he went back to Jerusalem in the year 168 BC. They took 20,000 troops into Jerusalem on a Sabbath day. And he massacred thousands of Jesus slaughtered them in the streets. Their blood ran through the streets of Jerusalem. He sent another several thousand in slavery. It was a dark, dark day in Jerusalem. And then he went into the temple itself. And he tore down a great many of the sacred items. He went into the very altar there at the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant had been placed. And he destroyed the altar there and he sacrificed a pig on the altar there. He sacrificed it to Zeus. You could have committed no greater blasphemy. They want Antiochus Epiphanes. The fourth did. And that's what Dan's referring to in the near-earth term about the abomination of desolation. That's the first one. Jesus said there'd be another one. And Matthew 24, Jesus, talking to his disciples about the signs of the end. Those things will be in Jesus says in Matthew 24, verses 15 and 16. He says, therefore, remember, Antiochus Epiphanes did his thing in 1816 BC. By the way, later on, the Maccabees came in to let her a bolt and overthrew him. That's where the Feast of Purim comes through. Comes from if you know your Jewish history. But Jesus, now writing almost 200 years later, speaking 200 years later, says, therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which is spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountain. So there's another one to come. That may have been 1870 when the Romans just destroyed Jerusalem. That may have been another fulfillment of that prophecy. And there may still be another one yet to come. You remember what I've told you about the nature of prophecy? There's a telescoping nature of it. When the prophet speaks, there's a near fulfillment. There's a farther out fulfillment, maybe in the first coming of Christ. And there may be still a third fulfillment in the final and the second coming of Christ. I told you an envisioned like somebody skipping a rock across water that prophecy may have successive fulfillment. Now back to Daniel, speaking writing in 539 BC, about an event that will take place 168 BC, 167 BC, the first time. When Antioch's epiphanies veiled Jerusalem, shed all that Jewish blood, and desecrated Jewish temple, I can imagine Jewish men, boys, and even though it was very sexist in some ways, even the women and the young girls. I can imagine them going out, going in, finding the forbidden scroll that contained the prophecy of Daniel, reading it, looking for reassurance that God had not totally abandoned his people. God's still in control even when done looked that way. Even if our circumstances make this question whether he has forgotten about us, I don't know why folks who would allow an Antioch's epiphanies to come in. I may have to describe it. I don't really understand that. I don't understand why he allows a Hitler, a Stalin, a Pol Pot, a Hussein, an Ahmadini Jada Castro. I don't understand why God allows a Gaddafi to do the things that they do to their people. I don't really understand that. But I know that even when it looks like God is taking his hand off the wheel and he's allowing such horrible things to happen as though he doesn't care anymore. I know he's still in control working on his purposes. I don't know why he allows us to go through the things that we go through. Smaller scale obviously. I don't know why he allows us to go through our illnesses, financial disasters, loss of families, marriages breaking up, loss of jobs, loss of loved ones. I don't know why he allows us to go through those things. He either allows them or sends them into our lives. If you believe in a sovereign God, it's one or the other. I'm not sure it makes much difference. I know this when we go through those things and you've heard me say this before, let me say it again, especially maybe for those of you who haven't been here. You need to hear me say that when we go through those really tough times, we'll have one or two choices. Either we have a sovereign God who sometimes allows or sends the breaking, painful circumstances into our lives even when they make no sense at all. Or else we have a weak and an effectual God or no God at all who cannot control the circumstances of our lives. And if that's the case, what are you doing here this morning? You're fooling yourself. This is an exercise in futility, foolishness. We're wasting our time worshipping a God who really has no control anyway. Why would we worship a God like that? You've got one or two choices, folks. Neither one are completely easy, but I know where I'm going to plant my flag. It's a choice I make by faith, and you must too. Francis Collins, very bright man. Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the Human Genome Project, mapped the entire Human Genome, considered maybe the greatest scientific accomplishment since landing a man on the moon, brilliant man. Ph.D. you know, biochemistry from Yale at the age of 22. And by the way, he was a homeschool kid for you homeschoolers. Went to Yale at age 18, graduated with his Ph.D. in biochemistry by 22. And they decided, well, that wasn't quite enough, so he went off to med school, UNC Charlotte. And it was while he was an agnostic. It was while he was doing his medical training. And he was sent to the homes of poor or people living in the hills around Charlotte, North Carolina, people who had various terminal illnesses, mostly cancer. And he was struck by the fact that these largely poor or less educated people were meeting death with such incredible grace and such incredible good cheer and such incredible courage. And one after the other, after the other, he would ask them, how is it you're able to look death in the eyes that were with such courage and such good cheer? And every single one of them said because of their faith in God. It says this brilliant young agnostic physician in training. And one day talking, and you know that they're in the hills above Charlotte, North Carolina, you know they're all Batsists. God bless our Batsist brothers and sisters. And one day, talking with an older woman who had a very advanced, very aggressive form of cancer and asking her how well she was able to meet death with such good cheer, she says because of her faith in Christ as Lord. And then she said to the young Francis Collins, and tell me, Doctor, what is it you believe? And he said to tell you the truth, I really don't know. And then send him off on a pursuit of truth. His pursuit of truth, and you can read about this in his book, The Language of God. It's been out for about five or six years now. It's a great read. I couldn't understand all of it, but the parts that were, I could understand were great. You know, you go through books and highlight the parts that are really, really meaningful to you. I go through his book and highlight the parts I can understand. There's a few of them. That question, say, a mob in a search for truth that culminated, and he tells it in the book, and he's receiving Christ as Lord, as belief in the triune God, the father of God, the son of God, the Holy Spirit. Let me get more personal. As many of you know, the last year or so, I have had to sit and watch a number of close friends and loved ones, your friends and loved ones. Meet with death. And I have told you, I have been so impressed by how they have met death with courage, and with grace, and with good cheer knowing death wasn't the end. They were going to go right through that door, not that wall, but that door, and then the presence of a living God. I would ask you the same question, that young lady, that older lady asked Francis Collins, what is it you believe? Death comes for every person. That day comes for us. Where is our trust? Where is our hope? Where is our confidence? Does it make a difference? Yeah, it makes a difference. God is in control of our circumstances, even when it doesn't seem like He is. You know, if He wasn't in control, He couldn't reveal through His prophets what was going to happen, then it would come to pass. If He wasn't really in control, He couldn't say these things to Daniel in 539 BC, and haven't happened hundreds and hundreds of years later. He's in control circumstantially. He's in control individually. Let me pick up the text again. Verse 32, with flattery, He and He's talking about Antiochus Epiphanes again. He will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist Him. Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword, or be burned, or captured or plundered. When they fall, they will receive a little help, and many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made spotless, until the time of the end, where it will still come at the appointed time. I've told Daniel is a manifesto for how to live faithfully in a foreign and a hostile culture. We know so little real persecution in our cultures. Thank God. Thank God. We know so little of it. I pray we never do in this country, but we do know this that our culture is growing, increasing the hostile to the Christian faith, or at least the evangelical Christian faith. If you're way to the left of us theologically, the culture is okay with you. The culture doesn't mind you too much, but if you're amongst those of us, those annoying folks who really believe the Bible, really believe the Lordship of Christ, they were saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. Well, the culture doesn't like us very much, and so it's becoming increasingly hostile toward us, but the message for us here, the people who know their God will firmly resist. We will stand firm if we know our God. And if the times really do get tough, persecution really comes. Who will stand? The people who know their God. Former governor of Florida, Leroy Collins, served the state of 1955 and 1961. He used to tell a story with his boy growing up in the Panhandle. And this would have been around a hundred years or so ago that the people of the Panhandle used to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day every year. And he talked about Harry Springer's parade that would go throughout the Panhandle. You remember one old man who always went along with this celebration with his walking stick. The parade would stop at the natural bridge battlefield, just south of Tallahassee. There, on March 6th of 1865, a company of young cadets from the Western Florida Seminary, turned back a Union Brigade that was trying to attack the Capitol. Every year, this old man went, planned his walking stick, had a certain place in that field, and he would dance around the stick, crying, this is where I stood. This is where I stood. And the people, Governor Collins said, the kids around, they all thought the old man was crazy. We found out later on that he went crazy. He was part of those cadets at the Western Florida Seminary. He was one of those who faced the Union soldier, the Union guns, and they won that battle, and kept them from marching on Tallahassee. This is where I stood. Governor Collins said that in those days, late 50s and early 60s, as he opposed segregation and racial discrimination. He got a lot of flag for it. Technically, it was a difficult sense to take at the time. He wanted his children, his grandchildren, to be able to point to that and say, this is where I stood. This is where I stood. He stood against racism, segregation. Folks, a lot of what I do, sometimes I say things about the sanctity of human life. I say things about things like radical Islam, the false doctrine that it is. I say things that make people nervous. Say things that are edgy and all right things. Check out my latest blog. It's called Usama in Jesus, where you read it now. I say things that make people edgy, and make people nervous and pastor shouldn't talk about these things. Listen, I do them not just because I like causing controversy. I like having people fire back at me and take me to task for things. I say, it's okay. But I do it because I want my kids and my grandkids. I don't know where I stand. I want to know where I stood and the great battles of our time. How shall we then live? Well, the people that know their God will stand. Why? Because we're so strong. There's no where my confidence is. They'll know where we stand. We'll be able to stand because our God is gracious and His grace is sufficient to make us stand. Amen. Amen. Well, I've said to you that our God is in control individually. He's in control circumstantially. He's in control ultimately. Home stretch here, folks. Verse 36. The King will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself against the God, magnify himself above every God. And we'll say unheard of things against the God of God. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed for what has been determined must take place. He will show no regard for the gods of His fathers or for the one desired by women. Nor will he regard any God. But we'll exalt himself above them all. Instead of them, he will honor a God of fortresses, a God unknown to his fathers. He will honor a golden silver with precious stones and costly gifts. He will attack the mightiest fortresses with the help of a foreign God. And we'll greatly honor those who acknowledge Him. He will make them rulers over many people and distribute the land at a price. At the time of the end, the King of the South will engage him in a battle. The King of the North will storm out against him with cherries and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the beautiful land. Many countries will fall. But eat him, mow out, and the leaders of Amna will be livers from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries, Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt with the Libyans and Nubians in submission. But of course, from the east and the north will alarm him. He will set out in a great rage to destroy an annihilate mini. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas in a beautiful holy mountain, yet he will come to his end and no one will help him. Well, I'll say again, there's a lot of discussion in the commentaries among the scholars. Is this Antiochus epiphanies? Is it Neh-ro? Is it the Antichrist? And I would just say again, no one knows for sure. I think again, the telescopic nature of biblical prophecy. There are fulfillment, successful filaments, maybe in all of them, at least in some of them. I know this either way, whoever it is, God wins in the end and that's the message of Daniel. God wins in the end as people are victorious in the end. And we feel like we're caught in the crossfire, which again, thankfully, I am able to say to us, figuratively, in our culture, and we feel like we're caught in the crossfire as we do, with the culture of wars that rage around us, with the fact that the exclusivity of the gospel claims of Christ put us at odds with our culture. I've told you before, Alan Bloom said 30 years ago the only sin left in our culture is intolerance. The only virtue left in our culture is tolerance. We preach the gospel is exclusive by nature, salvation by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. Culture is increasing at odds with us. They used to just disagree with us. Now they resent us. Now they don't even think we have the right to hold those beliefs increasingly. So as we're caught in the crossfire of the culture, as we're caught in the crossfire in our own souls, the vows that rage within us, with our own demons, our own anger, our own lust, our own addictions, our own fears and doubts. We resonate with what Paul said in Romans chapter 7, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of this death. And we also know what Paul said, but thanks be to God for his mercy, given to us in Christ Jesus. He has delivered us. He has delivered us people. I don't know whether this prophecy refers exclusively or primarily to Antiochus epiphanies, or to Nero, or the Antichrist, or others in between. I know this. If you belong to Christ, you're on the winning side. We're victorious. He's in control globally. He's in control covenantally, circumstantially, individually. He's in control ultimately, ultimately. January 8, 1815, the Battle of New Orleans, British Major General Sir Edward Paganham, had attacked the forces of American Major General Andrew Jackson. The British outnumbered the American forces, 9,000 to 4,000. But under Jackson's leadership, the Americans wanted a decisive victory. They killed 2,000 of the 9,000 British soldiers, while Old Hickory lost only 71 of the 4,000 American soldiers. The iron of it all, who says this battle was raging, on January 8, 1815, the War of 1812, is already over. It signed the Treaty of Gents 15 days earlier, but because news traveled so slowly in those days, the battle had continued even though the war was won. Why am I talking to you about history again? Folks, we feel like we're in the battle, the battle's raging around us. We feel like we're outnumbered and overwhelmed by the forces of evil a lot of the time. We feel that way. I feel that way. I don't know about you. The good news is that the battle may rage around us, but the war's already won. Maybe you didn't get the news yet. Let me tell you, the war's already won. Christ is victorious and God is in control, even when it doesn't seem that way. Let's applaud that. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You for the good news. We're slow to understand we look around us so much at the time instead of looking up, or even looking in to the Word of God. We know Your Word is truth. We know that we win in the end. Lord, forgive us for our own circumstances. The battles within our own souls cause us to doubt, cause us to question Your goodness, cause us to be distracted and preoccupied so much at the time. Lord, forgive us and Father, help us. Help us to get our eyeballs off our cells, off our culture, off our circumstances, off our problems, and look up to the hill from where our help comes. Lord, our help comes from the Lord. We thank You for Your goodness to us. We thank You for Your promises to us in the end. We need Christ's victorious. We pray in His name, Amen. Thank You again for being here with us today. Hope You have a great rest of Your Lord's day and again, happy Mother's Day, all Your mums. God bless You. We ask that You receive now the Lord's benediction. Go now in the love of God the Father, the grace and mercy of God the Son, the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit, and live the life, Amen.