This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:02] As we get into God's word together today, I want to take you behind the scenes of the sermon and invite you to open your Bible to Second Timothy 3:16.

[00:00:13] So hopefully everybody, if you've got a Bible, you can turn their second Timothy 3:16 page nine hundred and ninety six. If you got one of our Bibles you can always grab when you come in, we'll throw it up here on the screen as well. Because even before we get here to the sermon, to this moment when you and I are going to open God's word together, there's already some foundational truths that really determine how we approach this time here at Compass Bible Church, Huntington Beach. And you can see here second, Timothy, three, 16 and 17 is a verse that would be great for you to know. This is really the foundation for a lot that we do here.

[00:00:52] Second, Timothy 316, all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete equipped for every good work.

[00:01:13] So second, Timothy is the last letter that Paul writes before he is killed for his faith. And he writes it to his true son in the faith, Timothy, who is a young pastor. And he says that this entire book, what we refer to as the Bible, really a collection of 66 different books. He says all of it is inspired by God. It's God breathed. It's perfect. It's an errant. And he also says it's sufficient that you, Timothy, as a man of God, the person who really wants to live for God from this book, we could be complete equipped for every good work that God wants us to do. So this book right here is the Holy Spirit, inspiring men to write it down. It's God breathed scripture through this book. God is the one who speaks to us. And any passage that we went to anywhere in this book, if we opened it up and we studied it together, it would be profitable for teaching and it might reprove us. It might correct us. It might take the things that are crooked in our hearts and in our lives and make them straight. And also, it might train us in righteousness so that we can live the way God has designed us and commanded us to live.

[00:02:29] It's profitable.

[00:02:31] It's a four and a half years now. Every Sunday morning, we open up this book. And and if you go through the whole sermons that we've done, you'll see that we just take a text of scripture and we try to just explain it. Give the sense of it. Go back to chapter two, verse 15. Look what it says, Timothy 215. Here's a command to Timothy. This is a command for someone like me or Pastor Bill or Pastor Daniel. Here's what the person who's going to who's going to speak this word, this word of God. Here's what they're supposed to do. Second, Timothy to 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. So there's a lot of preparation that's supposed to go. But even before we get into this moment right here, I'm supposed to be out there doing my best, being a hard worker, as one who's gonna have to stand before God and be accountable for what I teach out of his word. And it says here, rightly handling the word of truth. Or another way that's been translated is cutting it straight. My job is not to express what people's opinions have been throughout history, to not express my own personal opinion or theory. My job is to say what God says in his word, to cut it straight, to give the sense of it, to explain the meaning of it, to call you, to apply it to your life. That's all I'm here to do, is God's going to speak hopefully through me. And I don't get in the way. I don't mess it up. That's something you could pray for me about as I'm working to prepare for this sermon every week. That's what I'm supposed to do. And then look at Second Timothy, Chapter four, where it talks about the people hearing the word preached, the people receiving the message. And I'm definitely praying for you as we come together to get into God's word every Sunday morning. Look what it says here in second Timothy four, verse one. Remember, this is the last chapter Paul's ever going to write. And he goes out talking about this. I charge you and he's talking to Timothy, a young pastor. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead by his appearing by his kingdom.

[00:04:38] Preach the word.

[00:04:40] Be ready in season and out of season when people want to hear it and when they don't want to hear reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming. And I would argue that here in America the time is here, the time is coming, he says, when people will not endure sound teaching. But having itching years, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into what is it, say their myths.

[00:05:19] There's gonna come a time.

[00:05:22] When people would rather hear stories than sermons. Now, notice what it says, it doesn't say there's gonna come a time where people are just going to completely abandon the idea of church. No, it's worse than that. They're going to keep going. They're going to keep wanting teaching, but they're wanting teaching. That tells them what they already want to hear, that affirms who they already are. They don't want this preaching of the word that reproved rebukes and exhorts. They want something that's positive, that feels good, and that scratches those itching ears. So I've got a very serious responsibility that I'm going to be held accountable by God for how I rightly handle his word. And you've got a very serious responsibility that you're going to be held accountable for by God, by how you receive his word. Do you just disagree with it if it's not what you like? If it doesn't already agree with the way that you think, or do you put yourself under the word of God, ready to hear whatever it is God says to you and that his word would change your life?

[00:06:28] Before we even get to our text today in our introduction, if you're taking notes, let's just start with this. God speaks to us through scripture. Let's get that down. God speaks to us through scripture. This is the God breathed word that we're about to talk about.

[00:06:44] And if I do what I'm supposed to do, I'm just going to say what God says. That's our goal, that God would give his message through us. And so you are going to hear the very words of God right now. And how are you going to receive those words of God into your heart? So this is something serious that's about to take place.

[00:07:01] So let me pray for us as we get ready to open God's word, father in heaven. Thank you for giving us your word of truth.

[00:07:11] And thank you for the Holy Spirit, who inspired men to write this in that same Holy Spirit, who works in our hearts to illuminate us, to understand your truth, to convict us of sin. To bear witness to us of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, who saves us and causes us to walk in your ways.

[00:07:32] And so, God, we pray that your spirit would be working here right now through your word. Speaking straight to our souls. And we will hear what the spirit is saying and that he will do a mighty work in our hearts.

[00:07:45] That your word God would right now cut to our hearts like a sword piercing to the thoughts and incense of who we are. The your word would go forth right now, like the rain that comes down and waters the earth at your word will go forth and not return empty, that it will accomplish its purpose for which you send it and give us life and bring us revival. So God speak to us. Now, through your word, we pray in Jesus name and everyone said a man. All right. So with that, let's turn to Daniel, Chapter eight, everybody, and you'll see why we needed that introduction, because this is one of the craziest chapters wherever going to look at. And here together at our church. Daniel, Chapter eight, a second vision now that Daniel has here that he records for us. And it's important to know if you and I were opening Daniel and Daniel, eight is on page seven hundred and forty five. And if we were opening up in the Hebrew Bible, let's say we had the Hebrew Bible. And remember, the Hebrew Bible goes from right to left, not from left. So we'd be opening our book this way and reading Hebrew.

[00:08:52] And if we came to Daniel Lay, one of the things that we would see right away is that some of Daniel was written in Aramaic, which is the language of the Babylonians. And now Chapter eight is written in Hebrew, which is the language of the Jews. So the attention here shifts. He's been writing in a way that the people around him in Babylon would be able to understand and read. But now he's writing something that's for God's people. It's for the future plan that God has for Israel.

[00:09:24] And so that the focus here now is back to the Hebrew. That's what you would see if you were reading it.

[00:09:29] And the and the Old Testament.

[00:09:31] If we were looking here at Daniel in the ancient languages, we would notice a shift in the language and then we would read this Daniel Chapter eight, verse one, and the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar. A vision appeared to me, Daniel, after that, which appeared to me at the first. So now he's going to have a second vision. We looked at his first vision in Daniel Chapter seven. So it's a little bit confusing how the chapters are laid out here, because we've already gone through six chapters of historical narrative in chronological order and we've already seen King Belshazzar on the night that there was the handwriting on the wall on the night that his soul was required of him and he died.

[00:10:14] And then the means and the Persians came in and they began their reign. We've already seen that happen.

[00:10:20] But these visions, now that Daniel has there during the time of King Belshazzar, before he dies, before the Medes and the Persians come in and kill him and take over. So we're going back. We've already studied chapters five and six. But this vision is given to Daniel between chapters four and five. And then this is what this is what he sees in, first of all, where he goes in his vision here. Verse two. And I saw it in the vision. And when I saw I was in Suza the Citadel, which is in the province of Elah. And I saw In the Vision and I was at the You Lie can now. Now, I don't know how up to date you are on your Old Testament geography. I don't know how much Bible trivia is going on. How many maps and charts you're pulling out about the Old Testament. But Suza is a place that you should know if you're a student of the Old Testament. And what's fascinating about Daniel going there and his vision is Daniel is serve in the king. He's in the capital city here of Babylon. And Sousa would be one of the cities on the. Outer parts, this city of Suza wasn't a big deal at this time that Daniel is writing. And it's one of these outer cities where there's this canal where he's going to have this vision. Now, what's significant about Sousa is when the Medes and the Persians come in and invade, they're going to make Suza their capital city. So already we can see by just what he the place he sees in the vision, we start to get a glimpse into where the vision is going. We're moving now into the future, where the Medes and the Persians are going to come in, where they're going to establish their capital. For example, when Nehemiah stands before the king and wants to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of the city of Jerusalem. He stands before the king in Suza when Esther has her time because she was created for such a time as this that she would stand before the king. She stands before the king in Suza. So this is going to become the capital city. But it's not yet. But that's where Daniel has his vision. Verse three. Let's start getting into now what he saw.

[00:12:31] I raised my eyes and saw and behold, he's trying to give you a picture of it.

[00:12:37] A ram standing on the bank of the canal. It had two horns and bullhorns were high, but one was higher than the other. And the higher one came up last. And I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward and no beast could stand before him.

[00:12:58] And there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great.

[00:13:06] So we see if you were here last time, Daniel, Chapter seven, and we saw these beasts rising up out of the sea that represented nations. Well, now we see another beast, this ram. And really what we're going to do in Daniel Aid.

[00:13:20] The key to figuring out what's going on in in Daniel eight is we're going to follow the horns and we see this RAM has two horns and there's always comments about the the horns and how one horn was higher than the other. And in the higher was the the last one. It was the later one. So if you're taken notes, here's how we're gonna try. I don't know if you've read Daniel Lay, but we're going to try to make sense of it and cut it straight here together. And we're in the way we're gonna interpret. Daniel Lay is we're gonna follow the horns. Okay. I'm not. This is not a joke. I'm not making this up. This is our interpretive principle. We're gonna follow the horns here. The horns are gonna be the key. We're gonna notice lots of different horns that are going to represent kings that are coming to reign. And so when we have a ram that's running around doing whatever it wants with great power, will this ram, we notice has to warns one horn is higher. I think these horns actually represent kings here. And one of the horns is Derrius the Mead, who we've already seen in Chapter six, who's reigning here when Daniel gets thrown in the lion's den and the other horn is Cyrus the Persian, who we're gonna see who's really an important ruler in biblical history. So let's get that down for the two warns. Breaking down now. First, the two horns of the ram we're gonna see here. And Daniel presented to us. First, Derrius the Moeed and then Cyrus the Persian and so on. The media and Persia are two empires that kind of unite together to do their destruction. And we specifically have two leaders that we're going to look at, Derrius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian.

[00:14:58] Now, if you know about Cyrus. He's a fascinating figure in prophecy of the Old Testament.

[00:15:05] Now, I don't know how much work you've done studying prophecy throughout the Bible, even prophecy in the Old Testament. But this is one of the ways that you and I can sit here today. One hundred percent confident that this collection of books, the Bible is the word of God is because God tells us what he's going to do before he does it. He tells us history before it happens because his prophecies always happen, just like he says. Can I get any man from anybody on? Okay. Prophecy is a real thing. And and when people tell you there are other religious books that are prophetic, like the Bible, that's just not true. The Bible is written by different men throughout different periods of time.

[00:15:46] So you can actually track the prophecies from generation to generation over hundreds and thousands of years. There's nothing like this in all of the literature on planet Earth.

[00:15:57] There is nothing that has the predictive power of the prophecies of scripture.

[00:16:03] And you might want to write down under the name King Cyrus. You might want to write down Isaiah 45, verse one, because that's a prophecy where God reveals to the prophet Isaiah and he records it that the king's name. There's this judgment that's going to come on God's people and they're going to be exiled for 70 years. And all of this is being prophesied. And then it goes so far as to say at the end of the exile.

[00:16:27] This king will be the one who will send God's people back to Jerusalem at the end of the exile, his name will be Cyrus. It calls his name in Isaiah 45 one.

[00:16:43] OK. Now, Isaiah is writing his prophecy one hundred years or so before the judgment actually happens on Israel. Then they're 70 years of exile. Then Cyrus tells the people they can go back to Jerusalem. But his name was called before he was ever born. And you can write down Ezra. Chapter one, verse one. And if you know the story of Ezra that's working, Cyrus says to God's people that they can go back to the Promised Land. And Ezra chapter one, verse one. We see the prophecy of Isaiah 45, one fulfilled. And so now here Daniel is having a vision and he's seeing a ram with two horns. And one of those horns is Cyrus, the person who is going to come in and be a great ruler. And so remember, this is amazing that Daniel C in a ram come in with two horns that represents media and Persia coming in and they're going to invade Babylon. And Daniel's getting this information before it happens. But that's not where it ends. Look at verse five.

[00:17:47] As I was considering behold, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes.

[00:18:03] Notice the horns and he came to the ram with the two warrants which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal. And he ran at him in his powerful wrath. I saw him come close to the ram and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns. And the ram had no power to stand before him. But he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him.

[00:18:26] And there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power. Then the goat became exceedingly great.

[00:18:34] But when he was strong, the great horn was broken. And instead of it there came up for conspicuous horns towards the four winds of heaven.

[00:18:47] So here comes now another creature, a goat who comes and just destroys the ram that has two horns is no match for the goat. And it says here the conspicuous horn coming out of this goat's head. It's a notable horn. It's a remarkable horn when you see the goat. You're like, wow, look at the horn on that. On that go.

[00:19:10] So who is the. Who is the nation that's going to come and destroyed the Medes and the Persians? Who is the great king? That's going to go over the earth so fast, it seems like he's not even touching the ground.

[00:19:21] This is a prophecy of Alexander the Great. That's who the conspicuous horn is here. He's Alexander the Great. If you're taking notes, you want to get that down. Maybe you're familiar with Alexander, that conqueror of Greece, and maybe you're familiar that he was trained up by Aristotle and he was became the king when he was young, like 21. And a couple of years after he became king, he set out on with his army to conquer the world. And he went on a ten year quest of world domination, never to come home. He just went conquering for 10 years. And and he's described as this fierce warrior in his rage for his enemies, spread to his armies. And they just came and they wiped out the Medes and the Persians. And he was a great conqueror. That is Alexander the Great, who died suddenly at the peak of his power at the height of his greatness. And you can read different accounts of how he died, that he got drunk and he got sick. And there's kind of different thoughts about it. But basically, at the height of his power, while he's still out there conquering the world, he dies around the age of 32 or 33 years old. And what Alexander the Great is actually doing by bringing the whole world under the the reign of Greece there is he's actually paving the way for the New Testament because Greek Greek coin, a Greek was going to become the common language of people.

[00:20:48] And that's the language that the New Testament ends up being written in. And so this is a prophecy of this great conqueror who's just going to go across the earth and just destroy the Medes and the Persians.

[00:21:01] But then in the height of his power, the horn will be broken. And out of that, it says very clearly in verse eight, there's going to come flood of this one great horn. There's going to come four other horns. Now, even as I'm reading this and I'm studying this, I remember from world history class gold growing up when I was in school, I remember that Alexander the Great Kingdom got turned into four other kingdoms because two of them I had to memorize are still up here somewhere. The Salu CID's and the Ptolemy's.

[00:21:33] Anybody remember these guys? Anyway, remember how the Ptolemy's started with a P.. That was a tough one for me in Otomi. And here it is prophesied before it ever happens.

[00:21:43] Here's Daniel having a vision of this great conqueror who in the height of his power, his horn will be broken and there will come for others. And because he was still such a young, conquering, dominating force, they had no backup plan for what would happen if Alexander died and it took him two decades to break it down into these four kingdoms.

[00:22:04] That's what this is prophesying right here.

[00:22:07] This is fascinating world history being told to us in a vision of creatures before it ever happens.

[00:22:15] And as I was reading all these things about Alexander the Great, I read this poem that compared to his life of being a world dominating, conquering king for 32 or 33 years on planet Earth.

[00:22:27] And then the life of Jesus lived in humility and suffering and dying when he was 33 years old, when he died on the cross for our sins, here's some poetry comparing these two great men of history. The Greek died on a throne. The Jew died on a cross one's life.

[00:22:46] A triumph seemed the other, but a loss. One led vast armies forth. The other walked alone. One shed a whole world's blood. The other gave his own one, one the world in life, and lost it all in death. One lost his life to win the whole world's faith. One won all this earth to lose all earth in heaven.

[00:23:10] The other gave up all that all to him be give.

[00:23:13] And what a contrast between the conqueror of Alexander the Great and the suffering savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the prophecy goes on in verse nine. You can see here, keep your eye on the horns here. It says in verse nine, out of one of them, these four horns that come out of Greece, out of Alexander, out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly gray toward the south, toward the east and toward the glorious land.

[00:23:41] It grew great even to the host of heaven and some of the host and some of the stars.

[00:23:46] It threw down to the ground and trampled on them. It became great, even as great as the prince of the host and the regular burnt offering was taken away from him and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown. And a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression. And it will throw this little horn that's going to become great. We'll throw truth to the ground and it will act and prosper.

[00:24:17] Then I heard a holy one speaking and another holy one said to the one who spoke For how long is the vision concerning the regular burn offering the transgression that makes desolate and the giving over of the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?

[00:24:30] How long is this gonna go on verse fourteen?

[00:24:33] And he said to me for two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.

[00:24:43] What is that about?

[00:24:45] All right, so now we've got this little horn that becomes great. So here's there's a great horn, a conspicuous horn that leads to four horns. And then out of one of those four. This little horn rides up and look what it says in verse nine.

[00:25:00] It says that this little horn is gonna become great. It's gonna go toward the south, toward the east and toward the glorious land. Now, Daniel, the profit here, seeing this vision, where do we think that he might referred to as the glorious or pleasant land?

[00:25:15] What might he be talking about? Israel, Jerusalem. Right. He's talking about God's people.

[00:25:21] Now, we have now a prediction here, a prophecy that some ruler over the land of God's people is actually going to come and he's going to move away from the offerings. He's going to bring in false worship into the sanctuary, and he's going to do this destruction and this desolation. Right. Um. God's people. So praise the Lord. That means the people are going to get back.

[00:25:47] But then even when they're back after the exile, when they return, they're going to have a ruler over them who's going to try to subvert the whole Jewish culture, the whole Jewish religion. Who's going to come after them to get them away from their sacrifices, away from their worship of God?

[00:26:04] This is a prophecy of Antiochus epiphanies, if you want to write his his name down. He's the little horn of Chapter eight. There's a clear man in scripture that fulfills what he's talking about here. There's a clear ruler, a king who comes against God's own people. And he is Antiochus. The fourth of the Salu sits and he gives himself the name Antiochus Epiphanies because he believed that he was a manifestation of the gods.

[00:26:35] You want to talk about a guy who's got a little problem with him, his own self image, right. He had coins made in his image that declared him to be God and Antiochus epiphanies.

[00:26:49] He reigned over Israel. He in the inter test amental period from one hundred and seventy five to 164. B. C. OK, so if you're a student of history of the Bible, you know about the Old Testament and you know about the New Testament, and you might know that there's 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments that the last writing we have in the Old Testament is around 400 B.C. And then we don't get any new revelation until the time of Jesus Christ A.D.. So there's 400 years where we don't believe that God breathed doubt any scripture and the Holy Spirit inspired any man to write it. But there is history of what happened during that entire test mental time. And we believe that there are books that have been written about that time. We don't think that they're scripture, but they are historical recordings of that time. Maybe you've heard of them. We've called them the Apocrypha and some of the apocrypha that you might have heard of before. You might have heard of the Maccabean Revolt or first and second Maccabees are books that you could read about this time, Judas Maccabees being this Jewish hero who led the people to revolt. They had this evil, oppressive ruler and they had to revolt against him.

[00:28:03] And they want a great victory. And they wanted to remember their victory that they want forever. And so they had this festival to celebrate their victory and show Sieff us. He referred to it as the Festival of Lights. You and I, we might know it better today as Hanukkah, right.

[00:28:20] Want to know our Hanukkah comes from it comes from this prophecy right here in Daniel, Chapter eight of this little horn that was going to rise up and oppress God's people. Antiochus epiphanies in the Maccabean Revolt to overthrow this guy in 165 B.C. is where the Festival of Lights came from, still being celebrated by the Jews to this day because this guy, Antiochus epiphanies, he wanted to eliminate the Jews from planet Earth. I mean, this guy, he was a bad dude and he came in and he started undermining the whole system. He didn't want the Jews to have their traditions. He didn't want them to obey the law that God had given them in the Old Testament. He didn't want them to worship your way. He was coming in to subvert them and to change their minds and brainwash them away from what God had revealed to them, in his words.

[00:29:12] So he started working with high priests. He started appointing Greek high priests. There started to be all this corruption among the priesthood where they would start to do things more of a Grecian way rather than the Jewish way, the way of the Old Testament. They stopped doing some of the sacrifices and the offerings and the whole system started to become corrupt.

[00:29:31] I mean, if you want to do a study of kind of a mad man, kind of a guy who was just so full of himself, thought he was God and wanted to destroy people's lives.

[00:29:41] I mean, read about some of the things that Antiochus epiphanies tried to do to subvert the Jewish culture. He brought in the the games of Greece and he built a stadium there right by the temple where some of the athletes would compete in the games. And we know the Olympics come from Greece and some of these competitions, the way that they would compete back in the day is they would compete in complete nudity. And what he was even trying to do in this subversive kind of way is move the Jews away from circumcision as the tradition of their people and to give them a different type of body image in a different way to think about how human beings should look.

[00:30:20] I mean, this guy, he got really diabolical and what he was trying to do. Eventually, he put a statue of zoos up in the temple and he told the Jews to worship zoos.

[00:30:33] There was one point, there was at one point in one hundred 71 B.C. is when he started to really oppress the Jewish people and in 168, he just came and all of a sudden sees Jerusalem and killed tens of thousands of Jews and sold tens of thousands of them into slavery, just seemingly because he wanted to. One day he came in and there was just destruction. I mean, this was a terrible time for the people of God. Many of them died, many of them were sold, many of them were deceived into not believing in the true living God.

[00:31:09] And when you can see this is fascinating, verse 13, when you see we get this here, holy one speaking, it's like two holy ones are talking about this vision. This little horn that rises up and becomes great and goes against the people of God. It's like two holy ones. It's like we're overhearing an angelic conversation here as they're seeing how bad Antiochus Epiphanies is going to be to God's people. And as they're observing this, they're like, how long is that going to be tolerated? How long are we? Is God going to allow someone to mistreat his people like that? And you can see the answer after their question. How long? The answer comes in verse 14. And he said to me for 2300 evenings and mornings.

[00:31:51] So for an allotted period of time, this guy, Antiochus Epiphanies, was allowed to just go after God's people in this terrible way. Now, there's some debate among Bible scholars as you read about it. What, 2300 evenings and mornings?

[00:32:08] How do we break that down? How do we think about it? Some people just take it like that means 2300 days. Other people, they break it down like, well, it's talking about evenings and mornings, the two times the sacrifices would be offered that maybe they're not being offered. Remember, the Jewish day begins in the evening. So maybe it's two times a day, evening and morning. So if it's two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings, maybe it's 1150 days. So there's some debate.

[00:32:38] Is it 2300 days, which would be a little over six years, or is it 1150 days little over three years, how long is this going on? Well, if you look at history, people still kind of can't figure it out because it seems like for six years, Antiochus was really a pressing the Jewish people.

[00:32:57] But about three years in is when he came in and seized Jerusalem and really went after them.

[00:33:04] And so this guy fell on a period of time. He was able to go after God's people as if he was trying to eliminate them from planet Earth until the time was up and God gave the Maccabean Revolt victory. And the Jews are still celebrating that victory to this very day. That is the little horn.

[00:33:24] That Daniel's talking about your.

[00:33:27] And he's getting all of this before it's ever gonna happen and after he has this vision, look, look at Daniel's response here in verse fifteen when I.

[00:33:36] Daniel had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. So here's Daniel, the man with the excellent spirit, the man to whom God reveals mysteries and he doesn't know what to make of this vision. And behold, there stood before me, one having the appearance of a man, and I heard a man's voice. And there's a lot of thought about who this man's voice could be. That speaking here.

[00:33:59] And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the lie here where he's having this vision in Suza and it called Gabriel. Make this man understand the vision.

[00:34:09] Hey, so Gabriel, the angel is now going to come and explain this vision, given Arab interpretation to Daniel and Gabriel is probably the most recognized angel of them all.

[00:34:22] Gabriel could bear his name in Hebrew, could bear being the mighty man El maybe, you know, a little Hebrew. El is the name for who? God, Gabriel is the mighty man of God. And he's going to show up and talk to Daniel a couple of times here in the Book of Daniel. We know that Gabriel shows up to the father of John the Baptist. And Gabriel shows up to marry the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. So here comes now, one of the mighty angels of God. To tell to explain this vision. So Daniel can understand. And it says here, verse 17. So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face, which is often the reaction to angels in the scripture. Terror and falling over. But he said to me, Understand? Oh, son of man. That the vision is for the time of the end.

[00:35:13] And when he had spoken to me, look at this verse 18, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. You see how this vision. And now Gabriel. And giving him the explanation of the vision. This is having a physical effect on Daniel. This is more than his body is able to handle. He sees the angel. He falls over on his face. The angel starts speaking to him and he falls into a deep sleep with his face to the ground.

[00:35:43] I mean, this is overwhelming.

[00:35:45] Daniel, this is pushing him past his physical limitations as a man. And he's touched by Gabriel. He's made to stand up. Verse 19. And he said, behold, I want you to look at this. See it? I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, what shall be at the end of the wrath. You could translate for it refers to the appointed time of the end. As for the ram that you saw with the two warns. These are the kings of media in Persia. OK, we got that part right. And the goat is the king of Greece, OK? We see that. And the great horned between his eyes is the first king. And as for the horn that was broken in place, of which for others arose for kingdom shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit. A king of bold face. One who understands riddles shall arise. His power shall be great, but not by his own power. He shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does. And destroy mighty men. And the people who are the saints. So he saw this vision of stars being brought down. Well, now you see the interpretation. This is Antiochus epiphanies just destroying God's people. The saints of the most high here are being destroyed. Verse 25. By his cunning, by his deception. He shall make to see Prosper under his hand and in his own mind. He shall become great without warning. He shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of Princes. And he shall be broken, but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings in the mornings that has been told is true. But seal up the vision. Store it up. Write it down. Keep it safe. For it refers to many days from now and I. Daniel was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business. But I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.

[00:37:52] Daniel got this vision and then he got the interpretation from Gabriel and it made him sick. This is at no point is this going to turnaround to be the feel good sermon you were hoping for today. All right.

[00:38:03] You might go home sick today. You might have a few sick days this week thinking about what we're learning here, you might be appalled.

[00:38:12] I mean, this is disturbing. This is on settling eventually. Daniel was able to go back to the king's business and serve the king, but he still was appalled by this vision that he has here in Daniel chapter.

[00:38:26] Even with the interpretation, the interpretation doesn't help.

[00:38:30] Now, what is this interpretation revealing to us? And again, there's kind of two different thoughts here. One. One group thinks this is just talking about this historical figure of Antiochus epiphanies that when it says this is going to be for the time of the end. Well, if you look at verse 23, it talks about the latter end of their kingdom. So as the kingdom of Greece is dying down with Antiochus epiphanies, we know that they are Makkah.

[00:38:55] Beings want a great revolt's over Antiochus epiphanies. But then by the time of Christ, the Jews are under the reign of who at the time of Christ, the Romans. Right. So was this the end of the time of Greece? Is that what this is talking about? And all of this prophecy is fulfilled with Antiochus epiphanies, or is some of this prophecy actually an allusion to an even further time, to the real time of the end, to the time where there's going to be one who's gonna stand up against the prince of princes with a power not his own, that no human hand can stop his power like?

[00:39:33] Is this actually an illusion here?

[00:39:35] A prophecy of the Antichrist himself, the one who is going to come and reign and and be in power over God's people? Is it just about Antiochus epiphanies or is Antiochus epiphanies just to type? Just a forewarning of the real evil leader who is going to come against God's people in the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness and sin? Now there's debate. Some people would see here in Danieli an allusion to the Antichrist. Some people would just see Antiochus epiphanies. But if you turn back to Chapter seven, which we just looked at, and if you look at verse 21 in chapter seven, there was another little horn that rose up.

[00:40:20] And in verse 21 of chapter seven, it says, As I looked, this horn made war with the Saints and prevailed over them. Until the ancient of days, or we know it to be the one like a son of man until Jesus comes. And the judgment was given for the Saints are the most high. And the time came when the Saints possessed the kingdom. So we know that what happens here in Daniel, Chapter seven. The little horn that rises up there, that is not yet happened. That is not yet fulfilled until King Jesus returns to defeat this little horn that rise up. So we know there is a little horn yet to come. And I personally believe that some of what is being used to describe Antiochus epiphanies is also an allusion to the Antichrist. Let's get him down as our next historical figure world leader. King, who is coming the little horn of Chapter seven for sure, is the Antichrist. And there could be references to him here in Chapter eight as well, that this kind of evil leader who wants to destroy the people of God and subvert their religion and deceive them and lead them down a path of destruction has not just happened in the past with Antiochus epiphanies, but will also happen in the future with the Antichrist. So this is the way prophecy often works in the Old Testament. As we look towards it being fulfilled in the future, the prophet often stands and as he looks into the future, it's like he's looking at a mountain range, not realizing that between those mountains could be great valleys of time. So here's just a chart we like to use every once in a while to help us understand many times how prophecy works. For example, here we have Daniel looking into the future, seeing these visions, and he's seeing a little horn, if you want to write that down, as we now kind of give you an illustration. And as he's looking off, perhaps here in Chapter eight, he sees a little horn destroying the people of God there in Jerusalem, there in Israel. Well, one of the people that that could be referring to is Antiochus Epiphanies for sure. It's a prophecy about him.

[00:42:31] But it could also be another way that the prophecy could be fulfilled is later on with the Antichrist himself further on into history. And this becomes common when you look at Old Testament prophecies. They often have a short term fulfillment and then a long term ultimate fulfillment. So this is not just ancient history that we're studying here in Daniel eight. No, just like Antiochus epiphanies, just like these horns, these leaders of the earth rise up and they rule and reign and God tells us about it before they happen. Let me tell you here today that the word of God says to you, there is going to come an Antichrist who is going to unite the world under his reign. And he is going to deceive many people.

[00:43:19] And he is going to lead them against God on a path of destruction. This is what the Bible says. Turn with being a revelation 13. Let's go look at Revelation 13 together.

[00:43:32] And there's a strong connection between Daniel and Revelation. If you haven't already kind of started to look things up. You'll see it as we keep going. And that, Daniel, is actually according to the way the Jews organize the books of the Old Testament. Daniel is one of the last books of the Old Testament. And there's a lot of connection between Daniel and the last book of the New Testament revelation, in fact. Now, as we've looked at Daniel seven and eight and gone through them over the last couple of weeks, if you look at Revelation 13, you will have to notice a lot of similarities in the apocalyptic vision given to the apostle John on the Isle of Patents. You'll notice some things that sound a little different, but a lot of things that sound the same here in Revelation 13. Here's another vision of the Antichrist that is yet to come. And Jesus made this clear in you're in Revelation 13. You just might want to write down Matthew, 24 15 if you're taking notes. There's a cross reference where Jesus made it clear that the abomination of desolation, the thing that Antiochus epiphanies did when he brought Zus into the temple and he used the Temple of God to tell people to worship a false God, Jesus made it clear that's going to happen again.

[00:44:47] There's going to be another abomination of desolation. There's gonna be someone who actually stands up in the Temple of God and tries to get the whole world to worship him. That's the Antichrist.

[00:44:59] He is the opposite of everything that Jesus is and Jesus prophesies about him clearly saying it's yet to come.

[00:45:07] Look at this vision here in Revelation 13. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea that sounds familiar with ten horns and seven heads.

[00:45:16] Those numbers make sense with what we've learned before, with ten diagrams on its horns and blasphemous names on it says. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. Now, if you were here last week, we saw four creatures rise out of the sea, the last one being a beast. But before that, there was a lion, a bear and a leopard. The same creatures we see here.

[00:45:45] One of its heads, sorry, right there in the middle of verse two to it with the dragon, gave his power and his throne and great authority. We've already met the Dragon in Revelation 12. That is Satan. The devil himself is giving his power to this beast.

[00:46:03] Verse three, one of its head seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast and they worship the dragon.

[00:46:13] Here's the world united to worship Satan.

[00:46:17] For he had given his authority to the beast and they worship the beast saying, who is like the beast and who can fight against it?

[00:46:24] And the beast was given a mouth uttering Hoddy and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. So we're seeing here a lot of parallels to Daniel, Chapter eight, speaking great things against God and then only allowed to have that power for a specific season of time.

[00:46:43] And it opens its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

[00:46:50] Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them, and authority was given it over. Every tribe and people and language and nation and all who dwell on earth will worship it.

[00:47:03] Everyone whose name has not been written before, the foundation of the world and the book of Life of the Lamb who was slain. And if anyone is in here, if you can hear what God is saying, let him here. In fact, to the people who are going to believe the truth of Jesus in the days of the beast.

[00:47:20] If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity, he goes, if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword, he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the Saints.

[00:47:32] And if you're one of God's people during this terrible time of the Antichrist. When the beast has all of this authority, you might get thrown in prison, you might get killed. Make sure that your faith remains until the end.

[00:47:45] What a disturbing and unsettling word. Of what is going to happen now.

[00:47:49] Turn with me in a second, Thessalonians, Chapter two, just back a little bit here in our New Testament, second Thessalonians, Chapter two. It's on page 989. If you got one of our Bibles. And now Paul is going to write about the Antichrist, but not in an apocalyptic vision. He's just going to start telling us who this guy is and what he is going to be all about. And in fact, we know that the Thessalonians believers, they were very eager for Jesus to return.

[00:48:17] They believed, as studied in First Thessalonians four, that Jesus was going to come on the clouds and those who are alive would meet Jesus in the air and those who were dead, they would rise up and that all of Jesus's people would be with him in the clouds and they would always be with the Lord. So they had this great expectation of Jesus returning one like a son of man riding on the clouds. And they were ready for Jesus to return.

[00:48:44] And so he addresses them. And second, Thessalonians, chapter two, verse one. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him to meet him in the clouds. We ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. I don't want you guys to think that you've missed it, that Jesus has come back and you somehow weren't a part of it.

[00:49:14] Don't be deceived. Verse three. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. And the man of lawlessness. Here's a title for the Antichrist. The man of sin is revealed.

[00:49:30] The Son of destruction.

[00:49:33] Who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time for the mystery of lawlessness? This way of sin is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the law, this one will be revealed. Now, don't be deceived. The Lord Jesus will kill this Antichrist with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. But the coming of the lawlis one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders.

[00:50:26] This man, the Antichrist, he will be empowered by Satan, and he will come with his own set of miracles. Verse 10. And with all wicked deception. For those who are perishing and now we start to get to like, why is this happening? How can these things be? And here's why. Why is this evil man of sin empowered by Satan, deceiving those who are perishing? Here's why. Because they refuse to love the truth.

[00:50:50] And so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that all may be condemned. Who did not believe the truth?

[00:51:06] And here's what they chose instead of believing the truth. They had pleasure in unrighteousness.

[00:51:14] It says that there's gonna be this man who's going to come and he's going to unite the world and the whole world's going to follow him. And he is just going to work this deception and he is going to lead people astray and he's going to lead the world to its own destruction. And the reason that people are ready, that the reason even now here in America, people are ripe for this kind of deception is because they don't believe the truth and they would rather send.

[00:51:44] And this is a heavy word from the Lord. It's going to be hard to just go eat donuts after this one. You know what I'm saying?

[00:51:52] God is telling us that there is going to come a man of lawlessness empowered by Satan and the world will unite under his leadership. They will all be deceived under a strong delusion and they will be destroyed.

[00:52:06] And you can already see the spirit of Things moving this direction. As people would rather come to church on a Sunday morning and hear stories rather than the truth. Say it's already happening. We're already headed this way.

[00:52:21] Because people will not believe the truth. They are susceptible. They are right to be deceived and led astray. And the ultimate manifestation of that is the Antichrist, who the world will worship instead of God. Now, I'm going to ask you a question, how many people around you that you interact with your neighbors, your coworkers, your extended family members?

[00:52:47] How many of them believe the truth versus how it says here that people would love the truth and so be saved? Do people that you know around here? Do they love the truth and experience salvation in Jesus? Or do they not believe the truth so they can continue in unrighteousness?

[00:53:09] So we did a little survey this last week as we're doing Scripture of the Day, we're going through Romans. We got the Chapter 10 on Friday. That was our last chapter that we read together.

[00:53:18] And Romans 10 has very clear gospel logic that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And if you believe in Jesus, you have a relationship with God, the father.

[00:53:32] And so everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But you can't call on him and less you believe in him and you can't believe in him unless you hear about him and you can't hear about him unless someone preaches Jesus Christ to you. I mean, it's very clear logic. Everyone who calls on Jesus will be saved. And the logical conclusion of that is everyone needs an introduction to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So how many people around here know the truth of the gospel?

[00:54:04] We sent out four guys this week. We sent them out and we said, hey, you go.

[00:54:08] Here you go. Here you go. They're out in public places. Just start going up to people. Anybody you see and ask him, hey, can I ask you a question on this? And on this day, what is the gospel?

[00:54:19] We had a guy go over here to Golden West Community College. He has 30 people. What is the gospel? Only four of them could even say something about Jesus. Only one of them knew the gospel.

[00:54:30] One out of 30 at the local community college.

[00:54:34] The best results we got was one guy I talked to 10 people and three out of 10 knew the gospel. That was the highest percentage we could find on just a limited survey, 30 percent tops.

[00:54:46] No, the truth of Jesus Christ. We're talking about the public places right around here, right around our church. I mean, this is devastating to hear this.

[00:54:57] People who don't believe the truth will be given a strong delusion. They will be deceived. They will follow a man of sin to their own destruction.

[00:55:06] That is what's going to happen in the future of the history of the world. And God was right about Medo Persia. He was right about Alexander the Great. He was right about Antiochus epiphanies. You and I would be fools to not think there's an Antichrist coming.

[00:55:19] It says he's comin.

[00:55:21] And the place that you and I live is ripe for him to come. There are many who don't believe the truth. They don't even know the truth. They can't even tell you what the truth is.

[00:55:33] Turning over just a page to first Timothy, chapter two, what do we do about this? What do we do about this heavy word from the Lord? About the destruction that is coming under the deception of the Antichrist and the Antichrist.

[00:55:49] He's the opposite of Jesus is the way the truth and the life or the the Antichrist. He's the he's the opposite of the way. He's the one that leads everyone astray. He's the opposite of the truth. He's a liar. He's deceiving. He's the opposite of the life. He leads everyone to death and destruction.

[00:56:05] I mean, he is the lying Christ. The opposite of Christ. The fake Christ. There's gonna be a fake Christ. And everybody who doesn't know the truth will follow him. What can you and I do?

[00:56:18] First, Timothy, chapter two, verse one says this, first of all, then I urge that supplications prayers, intercessions and Thanksgivings be made for who does it say here that it should be made for who?

[00:56:32] All people stay out of the great need.

[00:56:35] We should be directing prayer to God and we should be interceding on behalf of other people.

[00:56:41] And what are we supposed to pray for all people were. Well, it says verse two, even for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior. And here's what God wants.

[00:56:57] Who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the.

[00:57:03] And here's the truth.

[00:57:05] There is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

[00:57:20] We're supposed to pray for all people, and the thing that we're supposed to pray for them is what God wants for all of them, that they would know the truth of Jesus Christ so that they could be saved.

[00:57:33] This is a radical concept right here. What if we stopped complaining about politicians and we started praying for politicians? What if we stopped freaking out about world events and started praying for the God who controls the history of the world?

[00:57:49] Let me just tell you, the church in America today is doing a terrible job at praying for all people.

[00:57:57] And this is what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to care that they would know the truth. It's supposed to be our problem. We're supposed to feel sick. But the fact that so many people around us right now, they don't know the truth of Jesus Christ. And there's a deceiver coming to take their souls. What are you going to do about it? I hope you're appalled by this. I hope you're deeply disturbed here today. So disturbed that you actually think you need to do something. About the horrible reality that is coming upon so many people that we know. That they will be deceived and they will be destroyed. This is the direction the world is going, it's already headed there. What can you and I do well, it says we should be praying. That's the first thing we should be doing.

[00:58:44] We should be praying that people would know the truth. Let's get that down for our application.

[00:58:48] Pray for souls to believe the truth of Jesus before they are deceived by lies of the Antichrist. The only people who will be protected when the Antichrist comes are those who love the truth and have been saved. By the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I guarantee you that you know somebody who doesn't know that gospel. Are you praying for them? Are you going to take that truth of Jesus to them? What are you and I going to do? Because God has told us the Antichrist, the man of sin, he is going to come. Let me pray. Father in heaven. We come before you and God, this is heavy for us to hear, this is not the message that I would have chosen to preach. I'm sure this is not the message that many would have chosen to hear. But God, this is the message that you have given to us in Daniel, Chapter eight. And these other passages that clearly prophesied. Of a man of sin, a man of great deception. And terrible destruction. Who is coming upon the earth? The blaspheme your name and to lead everyone against you. And guy, we just want to come before you now. And we want to confess that many times we're just happy being Christians and not really caring for the souls of those around us. And now we want to confess that we need to be praying for all people, including those in authority, in high positions. And we need to be praying that they would know the truth and be saved. And God, I pray that you would put it on our hearts to pray like we have never prayed before.

[01:00:30] I pray that you would put it on our hearts to share the gospel with people. Like, they need to know the truth, like there's a real sense of urgency because the situation is an emergency. Less and less people know the truth of Jesus all the time. They're even going to church and hearing stories. So, God, we just come before you and we're a little overwhelmed by the message here today, we're appalled by what is going to happen and we hear your heart. We know your desire that you want all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So, God, we pray and we ask that you would put it on our hearts to pray, ask that you would open our mouth to share the good news.

[01:01:12] God, let us start spreading the name, the name that is above all names. The only name given among men under heaven by which we can be saved. Let us be the ones who pray to you in Jesus name and carry the name of Jesus here on Earth to let people know the truth before it's too late. Please stir us up today. Don't let us go home and be complacent. Wake us up. Shake us up. Let us be bothered enough to do something. Today, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.