Harry Blameyars was a British writer of a few decades back. He had not read his book The Christian Mind. I highly commend it to you. The Christian Mind. Harry Blameyars says this. He says become a Christian is to accept that there's an extra dimension to life. There's more to life than what meets the eyes and the ears, the senses. He said from the Christian's point of view, one of the most notable things about the non-Christian is how small his world is. Because it's defined by what he can see and experience. It's defined by his senses. Blameyars says that the unbelievers imprisoned in a decaying universe. He says imagine that you took a small child to a play, say Hamlet. And at the end of the play, the stage is littered with corpses. He says that that child may be very upset. He may be scared. He may be depressed because when he thinks that's reality. And then you have to tell a child, no, they're actors. They're just actors. And those actors, they're just fine. They've got to play Hamlet. He's okay. In fact, let me take you backstage to meet the actors, the cast. Blameyars says that's how Christians and non-Christians relate to one another. We know that what we're seeing, it's real but it's not all there is. And we want to take them backstage and let them meet the main character. If there's one word that the Christian secretly wants to use to describe the unbelievers' outlook, Blameyars says that word is it's unreal because it's missing that most important dimension. If you read with me from Daniel 8 verses 1 through 16, Daniel 8 verses 1 through 16, Daniel writes. In the third year of King Bell Shazard's reign, I Daniel had a vision after the one that had already appeared to me. In my vision, I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elim. In the vision, I was beside the Ulai Canal. I looked up and there before me was a ram with two horns standing beside the canal and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great. As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. It came toward the two horn ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in a great rage. I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it. The goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it and none could rescue the ram from its power. The goat became very great but at the height of its power the large horn was broken off and in its place four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven. Out of one of them came another horn which started small but grew in power to the south and to the east and toward the beautiful land. It grew until it reached the host of the heavens and it threw some of the star-hose down to the earth and trampled on them. It set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord. It took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord and his sanctuary was thrown down. Because of rebellion the Lord's people and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. It prospered in everything it did and truth was thrown to the ground. Then I heard a holy one speaking and another holy one said to him, how long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled? The vision concerning the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, the surrender, the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the Lord's people. He said to me, it will take 2,300 evenings and mornings then the sanctuary will be re-consecrated. While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man and I heard a man's voice from the Ulai calling, Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision, let's pray together.
Holy is the Lord God Almighty, Father Son and Holy Spirit. We look to you now and we thank you that you're holy and you're high and lifted up and that you still are pleased to dwell with your people. Father, I would pray now that you would indeed dwell in this place and lighten our minds and encourage our hearts, activate our wills, translate it out into our hands and our feet so that when we leave this place, this time of worship, I mean, sign your praises and give them to your work and fellowship with your people, though that we will now hear and receive your word and act upon and obey it. My prayer and Jesus' name, amen. Well look, there's a lot in this passage and I won't unpack it all and I certainly won't unpack it all to your satisfaction. Some of you are saying, you know, that's okay, can't you unpack enough. I'll do the best I can to hit some of the highlights of this passage. You need to know that this chapter takes place approximately two years after chapter seven. Remember the vision if you were here last week, last two weeks, the vision that actually the last one was called a dream. This one's called a vision, but the dream Daniel had two years to go was the first year of bell chasers reign. Now we know we're in the third year of bell chasers reign. And we're somewhere around the year 5.50, 5.49, 5.48 BC. Just so I'll give you an idea of where we are in time. Chapter seven's a dream, this one's a vision. God communicates to us in a variety of ways, both in what we call natural or general revelation. How the heavens are telling us the glory of God and the skies declare the work of his hands. Okay, there's general or natural revelation that anybody can see, all men everywhere can see it. And then there's specialized or supernatural revelation. And that's this book from which I preach on Sundays, the book that you have in your hands or there's a copy in front of you. That's special revelation. All men everywhere and women and young people too are responsible because you have to know that there's a God. You all have to know that it's a creator. You cannot escape that knowledge. That's why every culture from the beginning of time has had some idea of a higher being of a creator. But it takes God's special revelation to tell us of a redeemer of a God who would come in the flesh and suffer and die for his people and rise again, so that we might know him and attain to the power of his resurrection. But in both of these, the dream and the vision, Daniel sees these animals, strange animals that represent kings and kingdoms. If he were here today, he might see a vision that had a donkey and an elephant in it. And what they would each represent would be what I have stupid written all around me. You think I'm going to go there? Not a chance. Let's talk about reality. Let's talk about reality. The first reality that we need to see here is that power without humility leads to tragedy. Power without humility leads to tragedy. Human ambition unchecked by any fear of or even recognition of a higher authority leads to tragedies to much as evil. Verses 1 through 4, Daniel is referencing the Meadow Persian Empire, the Meads and the Persians who came through in succession and toppled the Babylonian Empire. The first six chapters of the book talk about the Babylonian Empire and then there's the Kingdom of the Meads and the Persians that toppled Babylon and they set up their kingdom. That's what he's talking about, verses 1 through 4. And verses 5 through 8, he's talking about Greece. Let me transition to that one quickly. Verse 5, Daniel says, as I was thinking about this suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west crossing the whole earth with that touch in the ground. Most scholars concur. Here we're talking about Alexander the Great, Alexander of Macedonia, phenomenal man. At the age of 22, within three years, the years 334 to 331 BC, so you know we're talking about 220 or so years after Daniel's vision. From 334 to 331 BC, Alexander conquered all of what we'd call the Middle East and a huge portion of the ancient Near East as well. He set up a kingdom that was unparalleled, unprecedented, and he did it all in three years starting at the age of 22. The rapidity with which he did that is why we see here crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. And then in 323 BC, so Alexander is now at the age of about 33. In 323 BC, while he is enjoying some of the spoils of his conquest, he is actually sitting in Nebuchadnezzar's palace in Babylon. When he is taken ill and he dies, legend has it, he dies from a little too much wine women in song. There are other ideas about what killed him, but at the height of his power Alexander the Great dies. Now look with me again at verse 8. The goat became very great, but at the height of its power, the large horn was broken off. And in his place, four prominent horns grew up toward the four winds of heaven. After Alexander died, the legend has it, he was asked who should be his heir, who should take his place, and he said whoever is strongest. But there were four who wanted to be the strongest, and they could not come together. And so in a very quick succession after Alexander's death, four kings set up four different kingdoms. Back in verse 4, I hope you stand with me. I know this is a lot of history, but to understand this passage is just how we look at it. Back in verse 4, still talking about the kingdom of the Meads and the Persians, he says, it did as it pleased and became great. I like the new American standards translation of that. He did as he pleased and magnified himself. That's the ram. Then in verse 8, the goat, then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly is how the new American standard puts it. You need to know that just before his death, you see the theme here, human ambition, power without humility, leads to tragedy, leads to evil. Just before his death, Alexander having conquered these great lands and exalted himself greatly, he tried to implement the oriental custom of having his fellow soldiers in the officers lie prostrate before him, even hinting at or even claiming that he was a son of Zeus. You can imagine how well that played with those men who had been fighting, the Greek warriors who had been fighting alongside him, who'd seen him wounded in battle, and he once sent a lie prostrate before him, it didn't go over real well. He magnified himself exceedingly, power without humility, leads to tragedy, Bible tells us the pride goes before fall. I've mentioned to you before, see as Lewis is rubric, there are two kinds of pride. One kind of pride is kind of pride you take in doing your work well, kind of pride you take in your family. That's a good kind of pride. You should have that kind of pride. You should strive to have that kind of pride when you're doing a job when you're doing even homework there, I say, whatever you do, take pride and that's a good kind of pride. But then there's the kind of pride that's the opposite of humility, and that's arrogance, and that's the kind of pride that the Bible condemns so strongly. You know the people that Jesus was the harshest on, it wasn't the hookers and the tax collectors, people that Jesus has harshest words for, with those who are spiritually proud, spiritually prideful, who thought they were too good to need a savior. Two kinds of pride, two kinds of ambition. There's the ambition that's Christ-like and godly, we are ambitious for the things of God, we want to see God's name lifted up, we want to see God exalted, we want to see people come to Christ, we want to see His kingdom expanded and extended. That's a good kind of ambition to have, and Paul, the New Testament, talks about that kind of ambition eight times, eight times, that we had godly ambitions, that we had set aside selfish ambitions and strive for the good ones. But then there's the kind of self-centered ambition, there's the kind of ambition that says, I want what I want and I don't care what I have to do to get it. How many arguments will we avoid, dare I say even in the church, if we would set aside our selfish ambitions and say, Lord what is your pleasure? What is most honoring and glorifying you, whether I get what I want or not? How many church arguments, not in this church of course, but in other churches might there be avoided, might be avoided, if we would set aside our selfish ambition, power without humility leads to tragedy. Every now and then I'll do this exercise in a classroom, I could do it here, it would take a little longer than I should, but I ask people who are the five top five most evil people in history. And of course people come up with things like Hitler and Stalin, if they know their history, they might say Mao. More recently Paul Pot, people like Chauchescu, maybe said, I'm saying a thoroughly evil wretched man, I will go away out on a limb here and say Castro is a thoroughly evil man, don't be dissuaded by the recent press reports about him. You could go on on Kim Jong Il is one of the most wretched pieces of humanity ever to live and breathe, you could name your list of those who are thoroughly evil and have done the most harm to the most people. What are they all having common, well two things, one, they're all men, sorry, but that's the reality, they're all men, the second thing they all have in common is they have absolutely no fear of God. None, they have no fear of being a higher authority that will call them into account one day, they think they are God, whether they articulate that way or not. Pride and ambition, power without humility, without an acknowledgement that one day I will stand before my maker and give account to him for what I do, that kind of power, that kind of pride, that kind of arrogance and ambition leads to evil, leads to tragedy. On contrary, Senator Dan Coates have in the end of the once and former and now current against Senator, the state of Indiana, professing Christian in an article he wrote the servanhood has always been the mark of the church. He talks about how Christianity conquered the Roman Empire despite of mind boggling persecution against Christians. And he reports how a Roman Emperor had this report sent to the Emperor Hadrian describing the early church, this is an ancient report to the Emperor Hadrian, quote, they love one another, they never fail to help widows, they save orphans from those who would hurt them. If they have something they give freely to the man who has nothing, if they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy as happy as though he were a real brother. Senator Coates goes on to say in the end, history tells us who had real power, who had only temporary authority. You can't argue with servanhood and you can't fight against his power. And then at the same article, Senator Coates goes on to say this, please listen, I have been in government for many years. I have flown our Air Force One, set face to face with three presidents and voted to send our nation to war. But I have never seen power like this, the power of the kingdom of God breaking into human history. It is the only power that can transform men and women from the sole outward. It is the only force that can turn addict into an example, a troublemaker into a peacemaker, a criminal into a man or woman of conscience. And it makes every political goal, every new deal, new frontier, new covenant look small and weak in comparison. Power with humility leads to servanhood, which Jesus said is the very definition of greatness, power without humility leads to tragedy. There's a second reality check, power without truth leads to insanity, power without truth leads to insanity. You remember back in verse 9, I'm going back and forth in text to stay with me here. In verse 9, Daniel referred to this other horn, the four horns that grew up, there's this other horn that started small but then grew strong and powerful. Verse 11, he says, it set itself up to be as great as the commander of the army of the Lord. It took away the daily sacrifice from the Lord and his sanctuary was thrown down. I'm going to say more about who that is in just a minute. Let me talk about what he does or if you want to call it a horn, what it does. Verse 12, he says, it prospered in everything it did and truth was thrown to the ground. Truth was thrown to the ground. That is the nail in the coffin of any civilization when it no longer cares about the truth. Power without truth leads to madness leads to insanity. Recent survey revealed that 30% is in America, 30% of those consulted admitted they would cheat on their taxes up to a point because they felt like you're more likely to be audited for a big lie and a small one. Same survey reported 64% agreed with the statement. I will lie when it suits me so long as it doesn't cause any real damage. Another survey showed that one out of three people admits to receiving a best friend about something within the past year and half on the survey admitted that they scratched another car or parking lot and nobody was looking. They would leave without leaving a note. You have met some of them, have you not? George Gallagher in his book The People's Religion talks about American Christians. He says most people consider some religious do not see truth as a high priority. He says while religion is highly popular in America is to a large extent superficial. There's a knowledge gap between America's state of faith and the lack of the most basic knowledge about that truth. This is one of the reasons, folks. One of these is why we urge you to read your Bibles which is the truth of God. It will reveal to you the living world who is Jesus. We have a sunny morning class led by Matt and Cindy Grepco called the Truth Project. It's a marvelous Christian world view. We have other Christian education classes on sunny morning, Sunday evenings, Wednesday nights throughout the week. Pursue truth. Jesus said if you abide in my word you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Pursue truth, the culture that gives up on truth the disregards truth where truth is thrown to the ground as a culture leading itself to madness. This is this poem called the question. Where the whole world good is you, not an atom better, where it just is pure and true, just as pure and true as you, just as strong and faith and works, just as free from crafty quirks, all extortion, all deceit, schemes its neighbors to defeat, schemes its neighbors to defraud, schemes some culprit to applaud. Would this world be better? If the whole world followed you, followed to the letter, would it be a noble world, all deceit and falsehood, hurled from it all together, malice, selfishness and lust, banished from beneath the crust, covering human hearts from view, tell me. If it followed you, would the world be better? Ralph Waldo Emerson says, the greatest homage we can pay to the truth is to use it, use it, give you a quick historical overview of the various views of truth. The ancient world believed that truth came from either the gods, or when the Christian, Judeo-Christian worldview began to dominate the Western world, it believed that truth came from God, and then came the Enlightenment, at which time it was understood that truth came from God and science, and they decotomized it many, that God's truth came the faith world, and the science truth came in the natural world. Don't do that, folks, that schizophrenia you don't want to go to, but the Enlightenment taught us that truth comes from science, and we still believe that truth comes from God, and then came the modern world, and very much a man in truth coming from God and said the truth through science. And now we're the post-modern world, there's no such thing as truth. And if there is, then you have your truth, and I have mine, and your tribe has its truth, and my tribe has its truth, and maybe your culture has yours, and my culture has mine. But there's really no such thing as truth, it's every man does that, which is right, in his own eyes. The culture that throws truth to the ground is a culture that is leading itself headfirst into madness. And the truth in the natural is true in the spiritual, it's true in the spiritual, it's true in the natural faith, and reason do not contradict one of their folks. Faith in God goes beyond reason, but it does not go against it. Truth comes from God, no matter who speaks it, no matter what vehicle, what avenue, truth comes from God, no matter, and all sincere, honest, relentless, fearless, searched for the truth. We'll lead to Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth in the life. If you have a friend who's not a Christian, and he really wants truth, and he's searching, really searching, and he's reading the books. Let him read it all, but let him read the Bible, and to put in highly theological language, let the big dog eat. Truth will stand in the marketplace, and any honest and fearless search for truth will lead to Jesus who is himself, the truth power without humility leads to tragedy. Power without truth leads to insanity, and the third reality check, power without reverence leads to blasphemy. Let me go back to that, the four horns are small, and it grows up, and it becomes great. Let me talk about arrogance. This horn, this person even interferes with the worship of God's people. Ladies and gentlemen, if that day ever comes, you will know we have entered the realm of absolute madness and blasphemy. Verse 12, because of rebellion, the Lord's people, and the daily sacrifice were given over to it. Do you remember last week or the week before, when I told you about my friend and mentor, Old Testament scholar extraordinaire Richard Pratt, he says, prophecy has successive fulfillment, kind of skipping a rock across the body of water. It has a near fulfillment, and then they have another fulfillment, perhaps in the first coming of Christ, and they have another fulfillment in the second coming, and they have something in between. In prophecies, there are successive fulfillment. Let me talk about the nearest fulfillment of this prophecy. Believe that this small horn grows up and becomes strong. I believe along with the bulk of evangelical scholars, that this is talking about by the name of Antiochus Epiphanies. Antiochus Epiphanies, it's a mouthful. He was king of one of the four smaller kings that grew out of Alexander's great kingdom. He was an absolutely wretched human being, cunning, manipulative, ruthless without conscience. He tried to extend his kingdom by conquering Egypt, and he almost did it. He got all the way almost to Alexandria when he had to turn back. He turned back, and he gathered his forces, and he was going to sort of do it under the radar. It's easier to do in those days without satellite technologies and drones flying overhead. So he's going to push south we're in Egypt, in conquer Alexandria, and make all of Egypt part of his domain, until the big boys in Rome found out about it. And they dispatched as an ambassador, one guy. He's got a lot longer name than that, but let me just use his first name, Guyus. And Guyus met Antiochus Epiphanies on his way into Egypt, and said, Rome says you're not going to do this, and you must stop him to around. Trying to play for time, Antiochus, and let me go back and consult with my military advisors. An old guy, a lone Roman ambassador standing alone against Antiochus and his armies. Jewish sword, and he traced in the dirt in the sand a circle around Antiochus Epiphanies. He said, I will have your answer to Rome before you step over that line. And that is where we get the expression drawing a line in the sand. As an Antiochus, arrogant though he was, didn't want to take on Rome. And so he agreed that he would stop there and he would not push forward into Egypt. Now was that got to do with anything? He was humiliated in front of his soldiers, and so an absolute fury turned around to head for home. While he was gone, 1,000 Jewish soldiers had heard a report that he had died, and so they came into Jerusalem and ran Antiochus' puppets out of the temple and took control of Jerusalem. You get how the telmers are clicking into place? So Antiochus Epiphanies comes back to Jerusalem in a fury. He's been humiliated and he's going to make sure everybody knows he's not going to be trifled with. So he comes back to Jerusalem and he slaughters man, woman, and child. One contemporary source said, I'll quote it for you. He said, in the space of three days, 80,000 were lost. 40,000 met a violent death and the same number were sold into slavery. He came back into town on a Sabbath and he knew what he was doing. He slaughtered men, women, and children, and then he went into the temple, which had been cleansed from the Greek interference. He went into the temple and he desecrated it. He set up an idol to Zeus and he slaughtered a pig on the altar. This is his greatest sacrilege, as you could possibly commit in Ocoven, Israel. This is the original abomination of desolation. Back to verse 13. Then I heard a holy one speaking. Another holy one said to him, how long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled? The vision concerning the daily sacrifice which Antiochus had done away with. Through rebellion, the cause of desolation, the surrender of the sanctuary and the trampling underfoot of the Lord's people. He said to me, he will take 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary will be re-consecrated. Scholars really differ what does this mean because you need to understand that in the Hebrew and bear with me, I don't want to be a little seminary geeky this morning, but hang with me. I'll bring it back to something we can grab hold of a little more easily. The Hebrew here literally says, evening morning, 2,300. Now what does that mean? Does it mean 2,300 evenings and mornings two out in three hundred days? Does it mean 2,300 evening and morning sacrifices? So that would make 1,151 days and nights? Well, I have my opinion. You might have heard that John Calvin says it's 2,300 days, so that sells it for me. Now scholars really are divided on this, but it seems to me that's the most logical reading of it. And it has this additional attraction. 2,300 days makes almost, you remember folks, the Bible uses numbers differently than you and I do. It doesn't use them falsely, but the ancient Hebrews use the numbers a little differently than we do. They're highly symbolic, but 2,300 days translates to almost exactly 6.5 years. 6.5 years, which is roughly a matter of time, Antiochus Epiphanes kept Jerusalem under his thumb. So I believe that's what's going on here. The Bible speaks prophetically and speaks truly. Is there a further fulfillment of this abomination of desolation to be set up and in clans? Jesus indicated that there would be. What is that? I don't know. I don't know. We'll remind you again folks when it comes to eschatology, study the end things. It's important. Study it. Know what you believe. But hold them a little bit loosely with humility. Not because it's not true, but because folks, I'll tell you again, every generation of Christians with forces thought it knew what was going on. They've all been wrong. So it's whole-reschatology. They don't fight over eschatologies. We know this. We know Jesus comes back. We know it comes back for his people. We know when it comes back, he will make everything right. He'll make all things new. We don't know when. We don't know exactly how. But we know we've got to be ready. And that's reality. That's reality. Reality that power without humility leads to tragedy. Power without truth leads to insanity. It leads to madness. Power without reverence leads to blasphemy. Here's another reality. You are more sinful than you've ever wanted to dream to imagine. But you're more loved than you could ever dare to hope. That's the reality of the gospel. We're more sinful than we would ever want to believe. And the more I know of Jesus, the more I know of my own sins. That's not a preacher talk. I mean that from the depth of my heart. The more I know about Jesus, the more I'm aware of what a sinner I am. That'll be your experience too, if you're honest. We're more sinful than we ever dared to imagine. But the good news is we are more loved than we could ever dare to hope. And that's the reality of the gospel. Harry Blameyre's analogy is correct. There is another dimension in life. It's like the play in Hamlet. It's just to play but it represents reality. There's another dimension. There's a backstage. If you know Christ, you've seen it. Really it's the front stage. We're living on the backside. We just think it's the other way around. Maybe it's because I'm a preacher. Maybe it's because I'm a pastor. And because I get to be the one who often has the last word as we commit a man or woman's body to the ground to commend his or her soul to the Lord. Maybe it's because I've done that again twice in the last 48 hours. Maybe that's why I'm so attuned to the reality of it. The reality is folks. This life is not all there is. There is a higher reality, a spiritual reality. We live our lives as though this is all there is. We're so consumed with what we're going to do today. And it's not that that's not important. Of course it's important. But we're so consumed with the here and the now and the physical realities. We need to remember that these are important. But there's a higher reality. And that's that God became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory. The glory of the only begotten Son of the Father. Full of grace and truth. And He came that He might offer His life. He has a sacrifice and a toning sacrifice for our sins. Reality folks. If you received the payment that Christ made all across for you. You committed your heart to Him. And you loved Him with your heart's soul in mind. How ever feebly and imperfectly. So Christ and your child of the Father. If you hear this morning in your very faithful church person, church member even. And you read your Bible and you say your prayers. But if there's never been a time or point in your life where you have received the payment Christ made all across for you. The reality is you need to do that. Jesus said you must be born again. Now that's His reality. That is reality. And I would urge you folks. I would urge you. Whether you get 50 more years. And I hope you do or many of you. Some of you will get more than that. Or you get one more day. That you would commit your heart's soul, mind and strength to the higher reality that is Jesus. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you that you have seen fit to part through the fog and the darkness and the clouds that so often obscure our vision. And to send a stream to light and the word of God, the word of God written and the word of God living. Lord, that you would continue to speak to our hearts. Mind included, sir. Speak to our hearts and our minds. Speak into our wills. So that you would continue to have us be conformed not to this world. To be transformed by the renewing of our minds. To conform the image of your son Jesus. And whose name I pray. Amen. Well, amen. Thank you again for being with us today. And received 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. Live the life. Amen.