Turn with me if you would now
to Daniel chapter 8. Daniel chapter 8. It's after
Ezekiel. I want to read this chapter to
you and then I want to give you my message. I believe I have
a message. Daniel 8 verse 1 says, in the
third year of the reign of King Belshazzar. Chapter 7 verse 1 said, in the
first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream
and visions. And we looked at that dream last
Sunday night. So this is two years later. Chapter
8 verse 1, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar,
a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which
appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in a vision, and it
came to pass when I saw that I was at Shushan in the palace,
which is in the province of Elam. And I saw in a vision, and I
was by the river Ulai. Shushan was a city in the province
of Elam. in Persia. As we've been reading
through this, you've heard about the Medes and the Persians. Babylon
and then the Medes took over and then the Persians took over.
King Cyrus was this king from Persia and he was the one that
Israel's deliverance came through. They were brought into captivity
for 70 years and it was through Cyrus that they were delivered
and he was from Persia. And they left Babylon and they
went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the walls and
everything that had been destroyed. And the book of Nehemiah, you
know, we have the book of Nehemiah before Job. That's one of the books written
about the deliverance and them going back into Jerusalem to
build. And that book of Nehemiah starts
in Shushan. So that's where they were delivered
to. Daniel's not physically there,
but in this dream, he's there, all right? Verse two, I saw in
a vision, and it came to pass when I saw that I was at Shushan
in the palace, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in
a vision, and I was by the river Ulai. Then I lifted up mine eyes
and saw and behold There stood before the river a ram which
had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher
than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing
westward and northward and southward, so that no beasts might stand
before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of
his hand But he did according to his will and became great. And verse 20 right here tells
us, the ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings
of Media and Persia. In this vision, we are literally
told this is the Medes and the Persians. Verse five. And as I was considering, behold,
and he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth
and touched not the ground." He just floated over and the
goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And verse 21 tells
us, the rough goat is the king of Grecia, Greece. And the great
horn that is between his eyes is the first king, which is where
Alexander the Great is from. I did some studying this week
on Alexander the Great. I thought it would be a good
idea. And I was miserable. I was very
miserable studying that. And a lot of it came through
these commentary writers. I've never been so disappointed
in commentary writers because nobody pointed me to Christ.
They weren't pointing me to Christ. They gave me history lesson after
history lesson, and that's fine. I like history. And I will say
that, you know, I understand why they think this was Alexander
the Great. After reading about him and all of his conquerings and
everything that he conquered, I mean, he was not Alexander
the Mediocre. This guy seriously conquered. He doesn't exactly fit this description. He wasn't the first king of ancient
Greece, but if by saying first it means the greatest, I understand. I didn't study any of the other
kings. I don't know. I can't personally
really say he was the greatest, but they call him Alexander the
Great, okay? And the details of this are irrelevant. The details of this man, you
know, the king of, it could mean the kingdom. I don't know. There
is something more important concerning this. I got so bogged down in
all of this. I thought I'm leaving Daniel.
I can't do this. And the Lord just wouldn't let
me do it. And, um, he, I believe he gave me a message and I'm
going to give it to you here in just a minute. Okay. So verse
five, I was, as I was considering, behold, and he goat came from
the west on the face of the whole earth and touched not the ground. And the goat had a notable horn
between his eyes. And he came to the ram that had
two horns, which I had seen standing before the river and ran unto
him in the fury of his power." This king of Greece charged against
these kings of the Medes and the Persians, verse seven. And
I saw him come close unto the ram and he was moved with kohler,
bitter rage against him and smoke the ram and break his two horns. And there was no power in the
ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground
and stamped upon him. And there was none that could
deliver the ram out of his hand. Greece did conquer the world
at that time to the point that everyone on this earth became
known as either a Jew or a Greek. That's what everybody became.
You're either a Jew or you're a Greek because Greek was just
conquering everything. Verse eight, therefore the he
goat waxed very great. And when he was strong, the great
horn was broken. And for it came up four notable
ones toward the four winds of heaven. These are four other
kings. Out of one of them came forth a little horn which waxed
exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and toward
the pleasant land, Israel. Verse 10, and it waxed great
even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host
and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them. This is
speaking, this is a vision speaking of future events from this moment
in time. Daniel is seeing things that
are to come. Even though Israel at this point
was laid waste at this moment that Daniel and Israel is in
captivity to Babylon, it was laid waste. They were going to
leave Babylon and go back to Jerusalem to rebuild it. But
this vision was saying to Daniel in about 500 years, it's going
to happen again. An abomination of desolation
is going to happen and Jerusalem is going to be destroyed and
Israel is going to be stamped on. And they were, it was. Verse 11. Yea, he, this, this
king, this little horn that became great, he magnified himself even
to the prince of the host, leader of the host. And by him, the
daily sacrifice was taken away. And the place of his sanctuary
was cast down. This is speaking of a man, and
this is just history, is speaking of a man named Antiochus, who
in 70 AD, he led the assault against Israel, against Jerusalem,
this abomination of desolation that our Lord told about in Matthew
24. This man Antiochus, he tore this city to the ground. And
as our Lord said, he did not leave one stone standing on another
one. And he forbid the Jews to sacrifice
to God anymore. He said that you're not doing
it anymore. And that's when the daily sacrifices were taken away. You know, the Lord gave Moses
these ordinances, these sacrifice a lamb and sacrifice all of these
daily sacrifices. And they did that for thousands
of years. And right there, it was taken
away. And this man set up a statue
of this little G God idol. His name was Jupiter Olympus. And he put it in the place where
the temple was, and he told everybody, you're going to worship him now.
You're not worshiping God anymore. You're not sacrificing to your
God anymore. Verse 11. Yea, he magnified himself even
to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was
taken away. and the place of his sanctuary
was cast down, and in host was given him against the daily sacrifice
by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the
ground, and it practiced and prospered. Then I heard one saint
speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which
spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice
and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and
the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, Unto two
thousand and three hundred days Then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. I did some studying on that,
and I do not know what that means. I have no idea what that means.
Some men had some very dogmatic opinions about what they thought
it meant. And this is what frustrated me.
These fellows, they'd said, this is what it is. Boom. But none
of them agreed with each other. And they couldn't back it up
with anything. And we don't need opinions. And we don't preach
opinions. So I have no idea what that means.
The Lord will make it clear when he's pleased to make it clear.
All right, verse 15. And it came to pass when I, even
I, Daniel had seen the vision and sought for the meaning. Then
behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And
this is our Lord. We're going to see more of him
in this book. I heard a man's voice between
the banks of Ulai, which called and said, Gabriel, make this
man to understand the vision. So he came near where I stood,
and when he came I was afraid and fell upon my face. But he
said unto me, Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the
end shall be the vision. Now as he was speaking with me,
I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground. But he touched
me and set me upright. And he said, behold, I will make
thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation. For at the time appointed, the
end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having
two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat
is the king of Grecia. and the great horn that is between
his eyes is the first king. Now that being broken, whereas
four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation,
but not in his power. And in the latter time of their
kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king
of fierce countenance and understanding, dark sentences shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty,
but not by his own power. And he shall destroy wonderfully,
and shall prosper in practice, and shall destroy the mighty
and the holy people. And through his policy also he
shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify
himself in his heart, and by peace or by prosperity shall
destroy many. He shall also stand up against
the prince of princes, Christ, but he shall be broken without
hand. And the vision of the evening
and the morning, which was told is true. Wherefore, shut thou
up the vision, for it shall be for many days. And I, Daniel,
fainted and was sick certain days. Afterward, I rose up and
did the king's business. And I was astonished at the vision,
but none understood it." Now, this is what strikes me about
all this. This is what the Lord has caused
me to take from this. This is what I want to say about
this. Everything that he declared would happen, happened. And those historical events came
to be. Everything that was declared
to Daniel in this vision, was the means to the end. This is what was being declared
to him. And again, whatever the details
may be, whatever those fine details may be, this was the means to
the end. Daniel was told the means to
the end. He said, this kingdom is going
to rise up against this kingdom. This one's going to be raised
up. This one's going to be torn down. It was all orchestrated. It was all predetermined. It was all purposed according
to God's perfect will and design. And all of it came to pass. All of it came to pass. Greece
was allowed to prosper so that this Greek influence would be
in control in the time of our Lord. Romans are Greeks, and
Rome ruled Jerusalem in the time of our Lord. At the time of our
Lord's death on the cross, He was tried before Greeks, Jews
and Greeks, But the sentencing was from Greeks. He was hung
on a Greek cross. Had the Jews been in control
at that time, he would have never been hung on a tree. It's not
what the Jews did. That's what the Greeks did. That
the scripture might be fulfilled. That he might be known to be
the Messiah. History fell out as He decreed
for it to, that it might bring His end, His perfect end, His
appointed end. This is what we take from this.
Everything that is, is the means to His end. Everything that is. It was decreed
that this man here, I told you about him who who destroyed Jerusalem. It was decreed that he would
level that place, absolutely devastate God's chosen nation. Why? It was decreed, it was declared
he's going to come in and wipe Jerusalem out. Why? Why? It was so that the daily sacrifice
would be taken away. That's the reason why. You know, I think about, our
Lord went into detail on it there in Matthew 24. We looked at it
not too long ago. It breaks my heart to think about
what they went through. And it broke our Lord's heart
too. Turn with me over to Luke 19. Luke 19. This is just before
our Lord went to the cross. Just before our Lord went to
the cross, Luke 19 verse 41. And when he was come near, he
beheld the city and wept over it. Our Lord looked at Jerusalem
and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou,
at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy
peace, what's about to happen to you? But now they are hid
from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee,
that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass
thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay
thee even with the ground, and thy children with thee, and they
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest
not the time of thy visitation." That's the very vision that was
given to Daniel. That is the ordained providence
that was declared and spelled out to Daniel. And it came to
pass. And our Lord said in Matthew
24, it was a slaughter like there had never been, nor ever would
be again. And I cannot imagine what those people
went through. And I thank God that I was not
alive in that day. I thank God I was not alive in
that day. But as devastating as that was, I am so thankful
the daily sacrifice was taken away. I am so thankful. Because if it had not been taken
away, we would still be doing it. And if we were still sacrificing
a lamb, I don't think we would see Christ as clearly as we do.
I don't believe that. I don't believe we would. If
we still had a man-made altar, a man-made altar, I don't believe
we would see Christ to be our altar as clearly as we do. We
would know it pictured something, but I don't believe we would
see it to be Christ as clearly as we do. If we still had an
actual man as a high priest, I don't want a man for my high
priest. I don't want another sinner like
me as my high priest. If we still had an actual man
as a high priest who went into an actual temple with an actual
lamb's blood behind an actual veil, I know we would not get to see
the Lord Jesus Christ as being all those things for us as clearly
as we do. Because all of that was taken
away, Christ is the only high priest we have. He's it. Christ is the only altar we have. Christ is the only temple we
have. Christ is the only lamb we have. His blood is the only blood we
have. His flesh is the only ripped veil that we have. And we're
thankful for that. We're thankful for that. These
visions and prophecies and declarations, they prove to us that everything
that is Everything that happens is his
ordained means to his appointed, purposed end. Everything. Everything. And his end is always
good and right. As horrible as some of that was. And as horrible as things will
be. His end is always good and right. We may go through things
that are the most devastating things we've ever had to go through.
Every person here, it may be on different levels, but every
person here has experienced something that is the most devastating
thing you have ever had to go through. But if we go through them, we
must go through them because they were the means to his end. It's always the means to His
end, and our Lord has promised us they may be devastating afflictions. They may seem so devastating
to us right now, but they're just light afflictions compared
to the glorious end that God has purposed for those afflictions
to bring to us. Turn with me over to 2 Corinthians
4. 2 Corinthians 4, I just love this
portion of scripture. Verse 15, 2 Corinthians 4 verse
15, it says, for all things are for your sakes. Everything that
God revealed to Daniel in that vision, why did all those things
happen? It was for the sake of God's
people. It was for the sake of God's people, all things, countries,
armies, rulers, kings, wars, devastations, all of it, all
things are for God's people. It's all according to God's good
will and purpose for his people. Verse 15, all things are for
your sakes that the abundant grace, that's what it is. might
through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God,
for which cause we faint not, But though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. That's saying just be patient,
be encouraged because everything that's happening and everything
that is going to happen until time is no more is God's means
to God's end. And it's all good. It's all good. Go to Romans eight with me. While you turn and let me remind
you of the fact that Brother Henry got to the end of his life,
and he was tired of hearing bad news, and he wasn't doing it
anymore. He just wasn't doing it anymore.
And it didn't matter how Debbie Downer, the information was that
was brought to him, his answer was, but it's good, right? Well,
see, you know, this has happened now. Yeah, but it's good, right?
Well, I was really kind of hoping that wouldn't happen. Yeah, but
it's good, right? It's good. God's Word proves to us that
it is. It is good. Everything he does
is good. Everything. Romans 8, 28 says,
we know that all things work together for good. That's what
Daniel 8 is telling us. to them that love God, to them
who are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate." That's what Daniel 8 is telling us.
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we
then say to these things, if God be for us, who can be against
us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That's
what we can take from the prophecy given to Daniel. It is all purposed
and ordered and sure. And it's OK. It's all in control. And it's
OK, and it's all going to be good. Because it's all just the
means to God's end. That's what this is. All of it.
It is the means to His sovereign end. Thank God. Thank God. I love being reminded of that.
May God give us the grace and the faith to trust Him. Whatever
comes, whatever these things are, just trust Him. Trust His
means. Trust His means. It's perfect.
It's sure. And it's good.