Let us turn then to God's words
in that short portion that we've just read in Daniel chapter 10
and direct your attention before we come again in prayer to God
to the words that we find here in verse 8 Daniel says therefore
I was left alone and saw this great vision and there remained
no strength in me for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption
and I retained no strength. You remember, many of you, that
last Thursday we were looking at the concluding part of the
previous ninth chapter. Of course we have the prayer
of Daniel in the form of parts and then at the end we have the
answer that is given to his prayer, to his petition. and we considered
in particular what he said there at verse 24 in chapter 9. Seventy weeks are determined
upon my people and upon my holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Daniel of course had been
praying concerning the restoration of the Jews from the Babylonian
exile. He had understood in reading
in the book of the Prophet Jeremiah that God was going to accomplish
those 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And now it was
coming up to that period of time. There had been 60 odd years there
in captivity. And understanding God's word,
Daniel is moved to pray. and to pray over those writings
of Jeremiah, to plead the word that God himself had spoken through
his servant. When God gives answer, he does
exceeding abundantly, above all that Daniel might ask or think. Seventy weeks are determined. The very expression seventy weeks
is indicative of course of a perfect period of time, seven being the
number of perfection in holy scripture after God had created
the heavens and the earth in six days on the seventh day.
On the seventh day he entered into the enjoyments of that work
which he pronounced very good. Seven then indicates that that
suggest to us perfection and 70 weeks is that perfect period
of time and what we have here is the promise of the coming
of the Messiah. And I said last time, as we looked
at those words in that 24th verse, that this is really the Gospel
in the book of Daniel. It speaks to us then of sin,
but also of salvation. We have the transgression finished. We have the end of sins, we have
reconciliation for iniquity. There is sin, but where sin abounds,
grace does much more abound. And in this portion, of course,
we have these mentions of Messiah in verse 25. We read of the Messiah,
the Prince, again in verse 26, our Messiah shall be cut off
And we consider then how the Lord Jesus Christ is the one
who is spoken of in answer to Daniel's prayer, the promise
of Christ, and he comes of course as that one who is the great
anti-type of all the sacrifices of the Levitical law. We read
in verse 27, in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice
and the oblation to cease. Christ is that one who has come
to make the one sacrifice for sins forever and in that death
upon the cross of course he has died as a substitute and we see
substitutionary atonement there in verse 26 Messiah shall be
cut off but not for himself it's not for his own sins he dies
to atone for sins not his own He makes the great atoning sacrifice
in the room and in the stead of his people. Besides making
an end of their sins by that sacrifice we also consider how
he is that one who has brought in everlasting righteousness
in verse 24. That righteousness whereby his
people are justified before God, accounted righteous though in
themselves as sinners, that righteousness of Christ is imputed to their
account and so before God they are accounted to be not only
without sin but also righteous in his sight and then he is that
one of course who finishes the whole revelation that has come
from God to seal up the vision and prophecy we read at the end
of verse 24. In these last days God has spoken
unto us by his son. We were considering then what
was said in answer to Daniel's prayer and this wonderful promise
of the certainty of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in that
time that God himself has appointed. When the fullness of the time
was come God sent forth his son. But I want now to turn to this
vision that Daniel is favoured with at the beginning of this
10th chapter. And the verse 8 that I said we
would consider tonight for our text, Daniel says, Therefore
I was left alone and saw this great vision. He saw this great
vision. and says there remain no strength
in me for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained
no strength. Daniel's vision, first of all
consider the man that Daniel saw Lord God comes there at the
end of the previous chapter and speaks to him concerning Messiah and concerning Messiah's work
But there is something more that Daniel is favoured with here
at the beginning of chapter 10. He actually sees in vision a
man. Therefore I was left alone and
saw this great vision and it was the appearance of a man as
we see in verse 5. Then I lifted up mine eyes and
looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen And the details
concerning this particular man follow at the end of verse 5,
and in verse 6 we're told his loins were girded with fine gold
of Uphaz, his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the
appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and
his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and
the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. Now that
description is quite remarkable because it is virtually the same
language that is employed at the beginning of the Revelation.
Daniel is an apocalyptic book dealing with remarkable visions
and that is also of course the case with regard to the book
of the Revelation. Sometimes it's given that name,
the Apocalypse. And in many ways Daniel is an
Old Testament counterpart. and it is interesting to compare
this description that we have here in verses 5 and 6 with what
John says concerning the vision that he was granted there on
the isle of Patras if you turn to the opening chapter then in
the book of the Revelation and there at verse 13 we have this
description of one like unto the son of man, clothed with
a garment down to the foot, girt about the paps with a golden
girdle, his head and his hairs were white like wool as white
as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto
fine brass as if they burned in a furnace, and his voice as
the sound of many waters. Now, John was familiar with the
writings of Daniel, and John surely was aware that he was
describing exactly the same person. The one that Daniel saw is the
one who comes now and appears to John. And who is this? It's
one like unto the Son of Man. What we have here in the Revelation,
of course, is a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. The glorified
Christ is the one. The glorified Christ then is
the one who is here appearing in Daniel chapter 10 to the prophet. We know that we have these various
appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. He comes to various
individuals and comes to them as the angel of the Lord. Abraham saw him. Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day says the Lord Jesus to the Jews
and he saw it and was glad. Now he saw it of course there
in Mount Moriah in Genesis chapter 22 where he was to offer up Isaac
as a sacrifice but then the Lord comes and makes provision of
that ram that was to be sacrificed in the place of Isaac. But there are other occasions
when the Lord Jesus appears to his servant Abraham. Abraham,
of course, is the father of the faithful. He is the great example
of the man of faith. And we know how the Lord appears
to him concerning what he's going to do to those wicked cities
of the plain, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Abraham's
nephew Lot and his family are living. In Genesis 18 we're told
the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre. The Lord
appeared unto him. He lift up his eyes and lo, three
men are before him. We're told there in the opening
verses. And then later, in that same 18th chapter of Genesis, at verse 22. We're told how the
men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom, but Abram
stood yet before the Lord. And then in chapter 19 two angels
come to Sodom at even. Observe what's said back in verse
22 of Genesis 18. The men turned towards Sodom
and then in chapter 19 these two angels arrive at Sodom But
here is Abraham standing yet before the Lord. One of these
three that appeared to him was none other than the Lord himself.
It was an appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see how men here are entertaining
angels unaware even the angel of the Lord Christ appears to
Abraham. The Lord Jesus Christ subsequently appears to to Joshua. In Joshua chapter 5 we read of
one coming to him who is none other than the captain of the
Lord's hosts. In Joshua 5, the end of Joshua
5, when Joshua was by Jericho he lifted up his eyes and looked
and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword
drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and
said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he
said, Nay, but as the captain of the host of the Lord am I
now come. And Joshua fell on his face to
the earth and did worship. And said unto him, What saith
my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's
host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy and Joshua did so this
was an appearance again of the Lord Jesus Christ to Joshua and
it's the same you see as appears to Moses at the burning bush
in Exodus chapter 3, it's the Lord it's the Lord, it's Jehovah
but it is God revealing himself here in the face of him who shall
come in the fullness of the time, the Lord Jesus Christ. There
are these appearances, I say, in the Old Testament. One more
in the book of Judges, in chapter 13, we read of the parents of
Samson, Manoah, and his wife, and they also are visited by
the angel of the Lord. and what does Manoah say to his
wife we shall surely die because we have seen God the angel of
the Lord it is God and his wife reassures him that God would
not have done such things for them if he intended them to die
they did not die but they had that same experience there in
Judges 13 and verse 17 following and so too with Daniel here in
chapter 10 what do we read of the consequence of this visitation
in verse 9 he says then was I in a deep sleep on my face and my
face towards the ground Going at the end of verse 17, he says,
As for me straightway, there remain no strength in me, neither
is there breath left in me. It was as if Daniel died. The
breath is taken from him. He has no strength at all. He
is prostrate. The sight is a killing sight
that he is favoured with. Go and look at what is said here
in verse 10. Behold, he says, a hand touched
me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand
the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright. For unto thee
am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word
unto me, I stood trembling. The Lord touches him. The Lord
puts his hand upon him. It was exactly that same experience,
of course, that John had in the opening chapter of the Revelation
when he was there and saw that selfsame man, one like unto the
Son of Man. John says at verse 17, When I
saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon
me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last I
am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore
Amen and have the keys of hell and of death how remarkable these
things are here is that visitation of the Lord Jesus as he comes
and manifest himself to a man to Daniel to these others in
the Old Testament, to John there in the New Testament. And the
vision is an overwhelming experience. It's a killing experience that
these men had. There is such a similarity then
between what we are told concerning Daniel here and what we read
there in the Revelation with regards to John on the Isle of
Patna. But then also we can see that
Daniel's experience in some ways is similar to that of Paul, when
the Lord Jesus the same man met him at the very gate of Damascus. Look at what we are told here
in the 7th verse, I Daniel alone saw the vision, for the men that
were with me saw not the vision. that a great quaking fell upon
them so that they fled to hide themselves. How personal this
is. There are others there with Daniel
and they're aware of something. And a great fear comes upon them.
But only Daniel saw the vision. Now you know it was exactly the
same with Paul, was it not? As we have it recorded by Luke
in the 9th chapter of the Acts. Sure we're familiar with the
account of the Lord's appearance to the great persecutors who
become the great apostles to the Gentiles. Verse 3, As he
journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven, and he fell on the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus. Whom thou persecutest, it is
hard for thee to kick against the pricks. How his conscience
was goading him, you see. That seems to have been the case
when he was there at the stoning of Stephen. He was being pricked
in his conscience. Verse 6, And he trembling and
astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord
said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be
told thee what thou must do. and the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man. How the Lord you see comes sovereignly
to reveal himself to an individual even when others are present. You might say well surely we
are not to expect such remarkable events to come into our lives
as we read here of these men in the scriptures. But aren't
these things written for our learning? Didn't these things
happen unto them for ensamples? And they're written for us upon
whom the ends of the world are come. We might not see a vision
like these men saw it. We don't know whether they saw
this vision with their physical eye or was it simply a spiritual
experience. Certainly we should be looking
for spiritual experiences. The Lord coming and manifesting
himself to us, making himself known to us. And you can read
in the accounts of believers of old that they might be in
a congregation in days when congregations were much fuller than we're accustomed
to now and there were such that came to them under the ministry
of the word and they'd say it was if they were the only person
there in the chapel, the Lord was there. The Lord does come
and he does manifest himself to his people. Isn't that his
promise? that he will yet in this day
of grace come and manifest himself as he doesn't manifest himself
in the world. Here is the man then that Daniel
is favoured to behold, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel surely
is a man greatly beloved, highly favoured to have such a vision
as this and I Daniel alone saw the vision for the men that were
with me saw not the vision but a great quaking fell upon them
so that they fled to hide themselves therefore I was left alone and
saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for
my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retain
no strength." Now let's consider then, having established who
it is that comes and reveals himself to Daniel, let us consider
the consequence. What does Daniel feel? He certainly
feels something as a result of this. The sight of the Lord Jesus
Christ makes Daniel feel that even his comeliness, even his
comeliness was sin. That's what it says, is it not?
My comeliness was turned in me into corruption. Again, remember those words that
we have in verse 16, O my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are
turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. This is what the
vision does to him. It fills him with sorrow and
grief. He's made to feel what he is. He's made to feel the
awful horror of his sinnership. Even his comeliness. We think
of the words of Isaiah. We are all as an unclean thing.
All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We do all fade as
a leaf and our iniquities like the wind carry us away, he says. Even our righteousnesses. What
are they before the eyes of him who is of eyes too pure to behold
iniquity? Isaiah we know when he wrote
those words at the end of his prophecy was writing out of experience. Isaiah had been made to feel
his own sin had not the Lord appeared to Isaiah. In the sixth
chapter of the book We're told of how Isaiah received his call
to be a prophet, how the Lord appeared to him and commissioned
him as his servant, as his mouthpiece. And it's set in an historical
context. It's in the year that King Uzziah
dies. There is the prophet in the temple
in Jerusalem. and he sees the very throne of
the Almighty and the consequence verse 5 then said I woe is me
for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell
in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen
the King the Lord of hosts then through one of the seraphims
unto me having a live call in his hand which he had taken with
the tongues from off the altar that is the brazen altar where
the sacrifices were made And he laid it upon my mouth, and
said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken
away, and thy sin purged. It's the application, is it not,
of all that was typified in the sacrifices on that altar. It's
the application of the work of the Lord Jesus Christing, who
is the great sacrifice for sins, who cleanses the lips of Isaiah
as he is commissioned to be the mouthpiece, the voice of God. But there you see he clearly
feels what he is, he feels his sin. Woe is me for I am undone
because I am a man of unclean lips. Now we know from the New
Testament that the authority of what we are told in John's
Gospel that it was in fact the Lord Jesus Christ himself who
appeared to John there in that chapter. If you turn with me
to the 12th chapter, if I have the right reference
in John chapter 12 verse 37 concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
though we have done so many miracles before them, yet they believe
not on him, that the saying of Esaias the prophet, that is Isaiah,
might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, you have believed
our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed,
that's the opening words of Isaiah 53, therefore could they not
believe, because Esaias, or Isaiah, said again, and the reference
is to Isaiah chapter 6 he hath blinded their eyes and hardened
their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand
with their heart and be converted and I should heal them these
things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him that's
what John says under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that Isaiah
saw the glory of Christ and he saw the glory of Christ there
in that sixth chapter and he spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ
and as he saw the glory of Christ so he was made to feel what he
was he was made to feel his sin Job also of course felt his sin
when he had the spiritual sight of God At the end of the book
of Job, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but
ne'er mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself and
repent, he says, in dust and ashes. These are Old Testament
examples in Isaiah, in Job, but we also have Peter in the New
Testament. St. Peter in Luke chapter 5 sees
something of the glory of Christ in that remarkable miracle, that
great draft of fishes. And remember Peter was a seasoned
fisherman. This was a remarkable miracle
that the Lord Jesus Christ performed at the beginning of Luke 5. Verse
8, When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished. And all that were with him at
the draft of the fishes which they had taken. He sees something
of Christ's glory in the miracle. And what does he say? Strange
words depart from him. For I am a sinful man, O Lord. Where there is, you see, this
experience, these remarkable manifestations of the Lord Jesus
Christ to a man, a man is made to feel what he is. A man is
made to feel his total depravity, his utter inability. The man
is brought to an end of himself then, in these experiences. Now we know that there is a ministry
of the Lord, of course, that brings the knowledge of sin.
It's the ministration of condemnation, the law. It's the ministration
of death. That's what we're told in the
third chapter of 2 Corinthians, where the law is contrasted with
the gospel. The law ministers death, the
gospel brings life. In Romans chapter 3, familiar
words, We know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. And all are under that law, that's
what it says. That every mouth might be stopped. Now, there's something of law
here in what we're told concerning Daniel. At the end of verse 15
he says, I became dumb. I became dumb, his mouth was
stopped. But there's more than that in what Daniel is experiencing.
We have to see sin also, you see, in the light of those sufferings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to see sin in the light
of God's mercy and God's grace. And when that comes, it brings
with it a true gospel repentance. Law and terrors do but harden
all the while they work alone, but a sense of blood brought
pardon. soon dissolves the heart of stone. Godly sorrow, that
sorrowing over the Lord Jesus Christ worketh repentance to
salvation, not to be repented of. The sorrow of the world,
says Paul, worketh death. Daniel, I say here, it's more
than a revelation of God's holiness in the light of his righteous
Lord. It's the revelation of God in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel sees Christ. Therefore I was left alone and
saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for
my comeliness was turned in me into corruption and I retained
no strength. We know how it was Christ, of
course, who appeared to those three young Hebrew men when they
were cast into the fiery furnace back in chapter 3. Nebuchadnezzar is astonished.
Verse 25 Though, he says, I see four men loose walking in the
midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the
fourth is like the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is there
with those three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He's here in Daniel. He's promised,
as we saw last time, that great gospel promise in chapter 9 and
verse 24, but here he is. He comes again and he manifests
himself to his servant Daniel. And Daniel's experience indicates
to us that he is clearly a man who is greatly favoured. We have that twice here. In verse 10 he says, Behold,
a hand touched me, which set me up upon my knees and upon
the palms of my hand. And he said unto me, O Daniel,
a man greatly beloved, But then, isn't that repeated to him? Again, in verse 18, Then there
came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man
and he strengthened me and said, O man, greatly beloved, fear
not, peace be unto thee, yea, be strong, And when he had spoken
unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my Lord speak,
for thou hast strengthened me. This is how it is when the Lord
Jesus Christ is pleased to come and reveal himself to a man.
It is a remarkable experience. It's a singular experience that
Daniel is having here. That's without any dispute. He
tells us in the opening words of the text, verse 8, Therefore
I was left alone it's singular this is how God deals with me I think William Tiptoe in one
of his aphorisms those short pithy statements makes the observation
that religion is a very personal thing and it is it's God and
an individual and it was so here you said The Lord comes and he
deals with people personally, particularly. We see the advantage,
of course, of the assembling of the saints. We know that that's
the right order. We're not to forsake that. There's
much to be gathered from corporate prayer when we come together
and unite in prayers. But the Lord, you see, deals
with us in a very personal way. This is how he deals with his
servant Daniel, he's left alone. And isn't it a fact that where
the Lord comes and deals with us and makes us aware of what
we are as sinners, that's a lonely experience. When God convicts
us and reproves us, then we feel so vulnerable. The sinner feels
all alone. None is quite like him. No one
else can help him. The psalmist says, I watch and
am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. And the man is brought
into that situation so that all help fails him and there is only
one he can look to, he has to look to the Lord, to the Lord
alone. We're told concerning Jacob by
the United Penual how Jacob was left alone. Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with
him until the breaking of the day. And again it's the angel
of the Lord. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who meets with him and
wrestles with him in prayers and blesses him. And there of
course Jacob the suppliant becomes Israel, the prince with God. All that we might learn then
from these experiences that are recorded
concerning the the saints of old in the Old Testament in the
New Testament where the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to come
and reveal himself to a man and to make himself known and to
make himself real in that man's soul we might know something
of what Daniel is describing to us in the words of this text
therefore I was left alone and saw this great vision, and there
remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me
into corruption, and I retained no strength." But it doesn't
end there, does it? He has no strength in himself,
he's nothing in himself. But then, that strength is communicated
to him from the Lord God. As we saw in verse 18, Then there
came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man,
and he strengthened me, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not,
peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had
spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my Lord speak,
for thou hast strengthened me. O the Lord be pleased. to bless
this word to us. Now let us sing the hymn 119 and the tune
196. Hymn 119 Great God, from Thee
there is naught concealed, Thou seest my inward frame, to Thee
I always stand revealed. exactly as I am, one hundred
and ninety. God from Thee, lest thou conceal
Thou sin'st. Since I can hardly take it anymore. Must I appear as holy God to
Thee? But since my Savior In darkness I will be found In a grove of sand He placed
His own crown God bless America. you