Thank you guys Let me go back to my magical envelope that I've used with the kids the last few weeks I'm going to tell you that in this envelope. I have the next 10 presidential election winners, who the next presidents are going to be I have in here the next 10 Super Bowl winners World Series winners NBA championships hockey whatever your sport is I've got all right here in the song I'll tell you laugh you say all right, can't whatever you're taking pal It's time to cut the dose you don't have any of those things in there But if I told you now Who the next round of winners are going to be any of those things and now I came true You moved from Frank disbelief and cynicism you moved to Well, maybe good guess And if the next ones came true after that And the next ones the next ones you moved from disbelief to believe to how much for that envelope pal Well, I'm talking this morning obviously about prophecy when the book of Daniel When Daniel speaks about things are gonna come in the next decades and centuries He speaks with absolute accuracy These things came true with an airing An airing accuracy and when you take them seriously it's a nature biblical prophecy Pray together with me and then we'll look into Daniel chapter 11
Father, we are grateful again this morning for your Condescene to be here with your people that you inhabit the praises of Your people we pray this morning. We've given you a fitting dwelling for your majesty Holy is the Lord God Almighty the earth is filled with his glory Father now as we look into the pages of your word. I ask that you would give us the minds to understand Hearts to receive the wills to obey and that we would Hear and receive this word of God everyone in this place myself included sir that you would use it to mold us and to shape us More and more in conformity with the living word Jesus and whose name I pray Amen My favorite poem by William Wordsworth says this sweet is the Lord that nature brings our Meddling in the elect miss shapes the beauty's form of things We murder to dissect Enough of science and of art Close up those bare and leaves come forth and bring with you a heart that watches and receives Those of us who take the Bible seriously and that includes this church We have a tendency to do this for all good reasons. We'll take a passage like this and we'll dissect it We'll put it under the microscope and we'll go into it for every last detail specific fulfillments in history And that's fine. It helps us to understand passages like Daniel 11, which are extremely complex You can get lost in the details helps us to understand these things in the light of history Shows us the reliability of scripture and biblical prophecy and so forth But in doing that there is a danger that we lose the force for the trees. We lose the big picture. We murder to dissect Or read years ago There's a chemist who Calculate the value of the chemicals in his body He took all the basic chemicals from the periodic tables in his body And he calculated the cost of the carbon the iron the calcium and so forth. He determined that his body was worth about 97 cents But the human body didn't work like that We're not just chemicals that he went back and he recalculated the worth of the human body And the way the chemicals interact a calculated the cost of the value of the hemoglobin the insulin and the other Chemical compounds in his body and he determined his body was worth about 6 million dollars 6 million man 6 million woman indeed we murder to dissect I want us to look this morning at This last of Daniel's prophecies in Daniel chapter 10 11 and 12 the last 25% of Daniel's book These are all one prophecy And we started it last week going to look at it again this week and then the weeks to come Chapter 10 last week was the introduction where the angel Gabriel comes and answers to Daniel's prayers And last week I'm backing up a little bit for the transition Gabriel. So he said Daniel 10 20 Do you know why I have come to you soon? I will return to fight against the Prince of Persia and when I go the Prince of Greece will come But first I will tell you what is written in the book of truth No one supports me against them except Michael your prince and the first year of derriest the mead I took my stand support and protect him And last week I said to you that God is in control in the supernatural realm I said to you last week that the conflict is spiritual the enemy is real the fighting is intense But our victory is secure and I gave you a Shorthand way to remember what's in Daniel chapter 10? I said when prayerful persistence meets demonic resistance Heavenly assistance ends the enemy's existence and Several of you asked me after the service would you would you sit against? I could write it down. I said yeah, like I can remember it That's a long sentence I felt like I was channeling the great doctor Evie Hill Well, you want to hear somebody can do that just Google Evie Hill the second thought don't I'm gonna look bad by comparison So I said wait wait wait the text doesn't say that the Prince of Persia is destroyed Not yet Not yet That we find out in the book of the revelation We read the last chapter Tremper Long has a beautiful analogy. He says when when D. Day occurred the allied forces broke the back of the German war machine and at that point victory was assured But we still had to fight the battle of the hurricane forest. We had to fight the battle of the Bulls. We had to fight the battle of Berlin Tremper Longman says look at Daniel. We live between D. Day and V. Day We live between D. Day and V. Day and that's where God's people are Chapter 11 is going to tell us God is in control even when it doesn't look that way Guys in control. Let's pick it up now day in chapter 11 verse 2 This is Gabriel angels speaking again now then I tell you the truth Three more kings will arise in Persia and then a fourth he will be far richer than all the others When he has gained power by his wealth he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece Then a mighty king will arise who will rule with great power and do as he pleases After he has arisen his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven It will not go to his descendants Nor will it have the power he exercised because his empire will be uprooted and given to others The king of the south will become strong But one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power After some years they will become allies The daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north to make an alliance But she will not retain her power and he and his power will not last In those days She would be betrayed together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her One from her family line will arise to take her place She will attack the forces the king of the north and will enter his fortress He will fight against them be victorious He will also seize their gods their metal images and their valuable articles of silver and gold and care them off to Egypt For some years he will leave the king of the north alone Then the king of the north will invade the realm of the king of the south But will retreat his own country His sons will prepare for war and assemble the great army which will sweep on like an irresistible flood Care the battle as far as his fortress Then the king of the south will march out in a rage and fight the king of the north Who will raise a large army but it will be defeated When the army is carried off the king of the south will be filled with pride with slaughter many thousands Yet he will not remain triumphant for the king of the north will muster another army larger than the first After several years he will advance for the huge army fully equipped And those times many will rise against the king of the south Those who are violent among your own people will rebel and fulfill them in the vision but without success Then the king of the north will come and build up sea drums and will capture a fortified city The forces of the south will be powered as to resist Even their best troops will not have the strength to stand The invader will do as he pleases No one will be able to stand against him He will establish himself in the beautiful land Will have the power to destroy it He will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom And will make an alliance with the king of the south And he will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom Those plans will not succeed or help him Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands We'll take many of them, but a commander will put an end to his insolence And we'll turn his insolence back upon him After this he will turn back Toward the fortresses of his own country But will stumble and fall to be seen no more Successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor In a few years, however, he will be destroyed Yet not in anger or in battle Any questions?
Well, I got a bunch Let me just tell you what I can tell you for sure about this This vision takes place in your 539 BC, Daniel has told us As he's still in the banks of the Tigris prophesies and the prophecies in the first four verses cover four kings of Persia And then Alexander the Great and then after Alexander the Great died More than two centuries later All his descendants Including his wives his children all his relatives Were put to death so that none of them could assume power His kingdom was divided into four parts Rule by four different generals now I know when I start talking that way what's going to happen Your eyes going to glaze over and you can get lost in the details, right? We murder to dissect I understand that The commentators on this passage and I read extensively them they go on and on about which king fulfill which prophecy which kingdom rose out in answer to which prophecy And I got lost in his read John Calvin God rest his soul spends 40 pages on this prophecy Which I will now read to you Just checking No, I'm not going to do that He comes up with names like Solucid and canvases and Smertis and Antiochus Piffneys the fourth not the third the fourth and Brannese and on and on I'm not going to do all that to you, but what I am going to do is just talking broad strokes in the big picture even When it doesn't look like it God is in control and here in this passage, I want you to see that he's in control Globally he's in control globally the Jews Here in exile in Babylon in the late seventh Sixth century now they were at the mercy of the Babylonians Just so they had been at the mercy of Pharaoh then they were at the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar and then belt to Shazar And then later on will be Alexander the Great and the Antiochus Piffneys and then the Caesars They're at the mercy of these people who have no mercy and they didn't feel like God was in control globally and they cried out over and over again Have you forgotten us Lord? How long will Lord how long have you forgotten us here in exile Upon the willows we hung up our Harps our liars because the captives there required of his songs and our tormentors' mirth Saying seeing us one of the songs of Zion How could we see the Lord's song in a foreign land Songs of the men songs of grief have you forgotten so he hadn't forgotten them He had not forgotten them the truth was they have forgotten him Generation after generation They have forgotten about God and he'd warned them He sent his prophets that would say repent or judgment's coming repent or judgment's coming And then they wouldn't repent or not for long Then God was in judgment ultimately in the form of exile he had forgotten them They've forgotten him and this was God's wake-up call He used these pagan rulers these pagan peoples to discipline his own I've read this to you before I think it's a cautionary tale for our time Over two hundred years ago when the United States were merely the thirteen colonies of great Britain Professor Alexander Tyler of great Britain noted that The average lifespan of the world's great civilizations has been about two hundred years And then he said all great civilizations go through the following stages He said they go from bondage to spiritual faith From spiritual faith to great courage From great courage to abundance From abundance to selfishness From selfishness to complacency From complacency to apathy From apathy to dependency And from dependency back again to bondage
I love my country you all know that I love it more every day every week I'm so grateful that God has graced me and my family with us with being Residents of our citizens of what I believe would be the greatest country in the history of the world. I love my country but But it's the church's job ladies and gentlemen remember To remember that we are citizens of this country. Yes, but we're also citizens of the kingdom of heaven We have a higher allegiance even than to our home countries It's a church's responsibility to remember to act as models of repentance Before I increasingly pagan in secular culture pouring out to our culture that there's another king his name is Jesus And he won't be on the ballot in the next election He will not be impeached or repealed and he will not step aside out of his office and it is he that one day we will have to do Church as I've told you before church is not to be the master of the state the church is not to be the servant of the state The church is to be the conscience of the state and we forget those things It's not good for the church or the state The church is the servant of the state where crushed under we become immasculated and spineless The Church of the master of the state we become co-opted and seduced by the power become polluted But when we remember God's people that we are to be the conscience of the state That's what God is called as people do. That's one the reason I wonder preach the book of Daniel I think Daniel is the model in all scripture For God's faithful man and a godless and a pagan culture That's the lesson for each and every one of us God is in control even when it doesn't look like he's in control globally He's in control Covenantally He's in control Covenantally. Let me remind you or or instruct some of you maybe aren't familiar with this a covenant It's not a word we throw around a lot in common parlance if you've seen it before at all You've probably seen an illegal document a covenant is a legally binding agreement It's a binding treat or binding oath marriage is a covenant It is the most intimate binding of all human contracts And then the Bible Covenants are those things they are binding Treaties they're binding Agreements between two parties, but beyond that in the Bible a covenant is a blood oath Let me ask you and this will probably mostly us guys of a certain amount of seasons gone by Do you ever play blood brothers when you were a kid? You younger people think well you're crazy? You girls think well you nuts caveman But a lot of us guys when we were younger you did the blood brother thing you'd Take a knife and you just do a little slice in your thumb and you're feeling oh don't get so squeamish You don't have to do this all right You get a little pin prick of blood and he would do it and you put it together and you say we're blood brothers now I believe that comes down from the biblical Notion of covenants as blood oath you went into a covenant it was a binding oath you did not leave it One penalty of death you would leave it and God relates to his people throughout the scriptures He relates to them or us in covenants binding oath Blood oaths. Maybe you'll remember there's an eternal covenant in the heaven leaves We see on Hebrews 13. There's a covenant with Adam and Eve in the garden I'm giving you this great garden all these good things you're supposed to do to subdue it and exercise dominion And be fruitful multiply oh by the way Don't go near that tree in the garden. Don't eat this fruit Adam and Eve blew it to put in biblical terms they blew it And then came the different covenants after the covenant with Noah the covenant with Abraham the covenant with Moses the covenant with David then ultimately the new covenant in Christ blood a blood oath we took upon himself the curse of the covenants in our places God is in control Covenantally he was pleased to be the covenant God For his old covenant people Israel he was pleased to be there God and for them to be his people even though They were faithless And they broke the terms of covenant over and over again, and then he would send judgment And call them back to himself and they'd repent and come back Then they'll get faithless and wander off again. They remind me a great deal Of me Of us Gleason archer in his commenter on this point. That's something I had never thought of before and I just give it to you for what's worth Gleason archer says that Daniel chapters 10 through 12 this intense spiritual conflict with angel Gabriel comes To do battle with the Prince of Persia later on the Prince of Greece And he's supported by the archangel Michael At least an archer suggests this why this intense spiritual conflict over Babylon at that time because He suggests Darius also known as Cyrus and just issued the edict to allow the Jews to go back To Jerusalem to go back to their promised land And least an archer says this conflict Was an attempt and all out of salt to keep the Jews from returning because This forces of darkness wanted to destroy the Jews They're in Babylon So the Messiah couldn't come They wanted to Wage genocide on the people of Israel so the Messiah could not come to them. They knew Satan and the force of darkness they knew Genesis 3 That a descendant of Eve would come along and that his heel would crush the head of Satan The serpent even though the serpent would buy his heel They knew that prophecy and they were trying to exterminate the hope of Israel the hope of mankind So they were using all out of salt on the people of Israel. Was that what was going on? I don't know. I wasn't there. I don't have all knowledge So I don't know these things but I'll tell you what that might help explain how Generation after generation anti-Semitism Has been rampant throughout the world Might help explain what happened under Antiochus 158 168 167 BC How he came into Jerusalem after receiving a stinging reboot and so a swage is humiliation He comes into Jerusalem on a Sabbath and in one day we'll talk more about this next week in one day he Slotters 20,000 Jews sends another 20,000 off into slavery attempt to wipe out the people of Israel. Might help explain why in 1870 the Romans came in and laid waste to Jerusalem and burned down the temple And acted a diaspora and sent the Jews off into exile might help explain the pogroms against the Jews throughout the Middle Ages and even down to the likes of Hitler His kind the anti-Jewish passages in the Quran And the anti-Semitism that is rampant in the Islamic world and throughout all the so-called Marxist socializations today where the Jews are hated why? Listen, you said you have a camp the New Testament is clear the church is a new covenant people guide you're right I didn't say these people are good theologians I didn't say Satan in the forces of darkness or all these people are good theologians are not You're saying it might help explain the anti-Semitism to the ages and now it gets translated into anti-Christian bigotry and anti-Christian hatred You want to you want to wake up call go on persecution.com read the voices of the martyrs website See the anti-Christian bias around the world we feel we feel reigned upon if somebody says you can't pray in school That's a horrible thing Look what happens to our brothers and sisters Around the world if you can stomach it look what they're doing to our brothers and sisters in Sudan, Somalia, Indonesia Throughout Iran even the Iraq that we fought to liberate in Pakistan and Afghanistan as well Throughout the Muslim world the Islamic world throughout the far east throughout every place that is so-called Marxist and socialist and in my opinion the worst of all Look what's going on in North Korea Why the anti-Christian hatred By and large our brothers and sisters around the world are not violent They're peaceful people. They are good citizens by and large What explains this anti-Christian Fervor I believe it's just to carry over for the anti-Semitism the Bible talks about and then the New Testament see the persecutions against Christians Even so God has promised He will always preserve a remnant He will always preserve a remnant the old covenant people of Israel The new covenant people the church God has promised he will preserve a faithful remnant and when the curtain comes down at the end of time whenever that is and whatever goes on around it The curtain comes down at the end of time God will have a faithful remnant abiding here on planet earth Well God has promised he would be our covenant God our covenant keeping God He's promised that he will preserve us you all know this at least I hope you know this we talk about persecution It's the Christian in the early days near Rome the other Roman persecution you know that in the last century 20th century More Christians were put to death for their faith and all the rest of history combined That under Stalin, Mao and of course Hitler Last century alone 200 million Christians were put to death Forcibly being Christians for not being whatever the ruling powers were 200 million Christians put to death Last century alone yet God has promised God has promised that he will be here and there will be a faithful remnant when he brings a curtain down He's in control even when it doesn't look that way He's in control globally He's in control covenantally He's in control circumstantially He's in control of the circumstances How can I say that well? I go back to let's mr. shorter catechism Neil's been teaching at faith on Sunday night for about the last 23 years. Neil something like that Your question 10 now just kidding. What question are you on? 102 out of 107 you can still get there Another three four years he'll be done What's mr. shorter catechism question seven what are the decrees of God the decrees of God are He's eternal purpose According to the council of his will whereby For his own glory is four day and whatsoever comes to pass How does God execute his degree decrees question eight God executes his decrees in the works of creation and Providence and in question 11 What are God's works of providence God's works of providence are His most holy wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions Shorthand translation God's in control folks He when it doesn't look like it even when we raise our eyes and say to God God Almighty Well, were you not looking when
Whatever the tragedy of the day is God will you Do you have your head turned when have you forgotten about us Lord Even when circumstances scream the God has turned his head and gone on vacation The Bible's records clear God has in control Even other circumstances and you say well that sounds good preacher But what about my
My physical affliction my emotional affliction What about my loved one who's got cancer or Alzheimer's or Parkinson's or diabetes or What about my marriage which is in shambles what about my children who are not walking with little what about my Workplace my classroom sounds good preacher If you say God's in control the circumstances what about my Folks we got we got two choices Either God is in control and spider what it looks like And he will make sense out of these Circumstances at some point We're seeing the backside of the tapestry now one day. He'll show us the front side It's either that or The inmates are running the asylum This universe is a great big joke and hardly anybody is laughing and All attempts to make it make sense to find purpose and mean are just are just foolishness. They're just fairy tales We're kidding ourselves. It's one of the other folks You guys in control and spider what it looks like And you all know we have it so much better than most of the rest of the world Most of our brothers and sisters around the world they heard me saying this to this church Meeting in this place in Miami on a beautiful day like this they'd say What do you possibly have to complain about you've never missed a meal unless you wanted to Now I sort of got into your head nor did you announce the faith What are you talking about in spider's circumstances? You should see what we put a But yet I know when it's you you're lying awake at night at two o'clock through o'clock and you're in pain You're wondering if your marriage is gonna make it another week Or if your kids gonna be on drugs or in jail You're wondering if you're gonna be able to keep the house and pay the bills. I realize that What other people suffer around the world doesn't in fact you greatly at that point and you and I look up and say God Where are you in the circumstances of my life We have two choices folks either easier for us even though we don't always see it With a this is all a big joke and the inmates are on the asylum and do the best you can because this is all we get It's one of the other John Piper does a beautiful job. I believe Comparing our lives to tapestry a mosaic actually. He says if you look up close at anyone individual tile any one individual tile that mosaic Maybe dark and drab and gray and not attractive at all But if you back up and you look at it in the big Perspective you look at it in the grand scheme Then you may see with that dark tile or that patch of dark tiles Oh, they made sense in the overall they were necessary to the overall beauty of the mosaic There's no Jewish legend about Rabbi Akiva Rabbi Akiva was one of the great rabbis They're actually around the time of Christ Rabbi Akiva travel wants to a strange country where mystery still dwelt He had taken within three possessions a mule a rooster and a lamp And he went to that village and asked for lodging for the night When they found out who he was they ran him off gave him no welcome So Rabbi Akiva went and spent the night sleeping in a nearby forest Be bore all his pains with ease being heard always to say What God does He is all that God does is done well all that God does is done well So I found a tree under which to stop and spend the night He lit his lamp preparing to study the Torah When the fierce wind blew up and blew out his lamp But Rabbi Akiva settled down to sleep for the night saying all that God does is done well Later the night wild animals came through that part of the forest and chased away the rooster And Rabbi Akiva said all that God does is done well Still later these passed by and stole his mule And Rabbi Akiva said all that God does is done well the next morning he returned To the village where he had Stopped the night before and asked to spend the night only to learn the enemy soldiers had come in the night Killing everybody in their beds Had he spent the night in that village He too would have been put to death the raiding party that traveled through the same part of the forest And had he had the lamp lit or his rooster crowed or his mule had braided The raiding party would have found him and put him to death had her Rabbi Akiva respond He said all that God does is done well Let's pray together Our Father we don't always understand you but help us to trust you Help us to trust you in those places and in those times and those situations Where you really seemed to have gone on vacation and left us You really don't seem to be in control God not of this planet not of Our people not of our own lives our own circumstances In those times Lord When you seem to be very distant very vacant from our lives help us to remember That you are still very present with us in spite of the circumstances and all that you do you do well Most especially help us during remember That you took upon You yourself in the form of your son Who took our sins to the cross and bore our Board of the penalty for the curse of the covenant Lord he must have looked up in that moment of separation from you Wondering why you turned your face away from him And still known all that you do Do well I'll just remember that this day. We're praying Christ name. I'm in
Amen. Thank you again for being here with us this day Now receive the Lord's benediction Go down 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 I'm in