Book of Daniel, turn there, Book
of Daniel. Speaking of Spring Lake, Brother
John Chapman's, both of his parents are very bad off right now. His father, they're not expecting
him to be around much longer. And even his mother also is not
doing well. They're both, I know his father's
in his 90s, his mother, her 90s yet. Close to it, I'm sure. John and I are the same age.
All right, the book of Daniel. Now, this book, this is the next
book in our study of what our Lord preached. It's so full of
Christ, the whole book of Daniel. We're going to just browse through
the whole thing. Daniel himself is a wonderful
type of Christ. We've looked at him before. And
I've broken this up into four headings. I call it the four
Gospels of Daniel. The first is Christ in Daniel. The man Daniel represents our
Lord. And then Christ in the furnace.
And then Christ in the lion's den. And then Christ in prophecy
throughout the book of Daniel. Christ in Daniel. Look at Daniel chapter 1. The name Daniel means judge of
God. That is, God sent Daniel to be
a judge and a revealer of things. He was a ruler in Babylon at
the time. Our Lord reigns and rules, but
he's the judge. All judgment is committed unto
him. But Daniel was a man, it says, without blemish. Verse
4, speaking of him and his three brethren, children, and who was
no blemish, well favored, skillful in wisdom, and cunning in knowledge
and understanding. Verse 6, among these were the
children of Judah. They were of the tribe of Judah,
as our Lord. The tribe of Judah, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah. And then verse 8 says, Daniel,
a man without blemish like our Lord, Daniel purposed in his
heart he would not defile himself. Scripture says of our Lord that
he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Now you
know that Daniel was just a man. Daniel was a sinful man. Daniel
was saved by grace. But you will not find any faults
with Daniel. God writes down no sins or thoughts
or any faults of Daniel. Why is that? Because he's such
a clear type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel. Don't you love Daniel? You think
about Daniel. A lovely man. God said so. The
angel of the Lord came to him in chapter 10 and said, Daniel,
a man greatly beloved. You know anybody else that's
greatly beloved? Fill our Lord in. You know what?
You are too, if you're in Him. The man of great knowledge and
wisdom, chapter 1, verse 17, these four children of God gave
them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom. And
Daniel, he was the chief. Daniel, he made Daniel understand
all things, all visions of dreams, all things. This man knew all
things, that's what God said. Why? Because he's a type of Christ
who does know all things. In him are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge, our Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel was
a revealer of secrets. Chapter 2, verse 11. Now, this king, Nebuchadnezzar,
who he represents satan actually, however, I believe the Lord saved
Nebuchadnezzar later. I believe he saved Darius. But anyway, in some ways he represents
the God of this world. He raised himself up in pride
and God cast Nebuchadnezzar down. But anyway, this king Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream And he told his sorcerers and magicians and astrologers.
That's significant, isn't it? Isaiah 8 talks about wizards
that peep, peeping wizards and people that consult stars and
astronomy and astrology and magic and all of that. They don't consult
God. They don't know anything. But
he told his astrologers and magicians and sorcerers and all that, he
said, tell me what my dream means or I'll kill you. And they said,
well, okay, tell us what the dream is. He said, I forgot.
He said, now tell me what I forgot and tell me the meaning of it.
In other words, and they said, no man, verse 11 says, no man,
it's not none but the gods can tell what's in a person's heart
and mind and tell things to him from the beginning and things
that are unknown, the gods can do that. Well, Daniel did. God gave him this understanding
of mysteries and revealer of secrets and down in verse Verse
23, Daniel said, I thank Thee and praise Thee, O Thou God of
my father who has given me wisdom and might and made known unto
me now what I desire to be, made known unto us, King Matthew.
So God gave Daniel this understanding. Everything in the man's heart
and mind, his dreams, and he told it. That reminded me of
when our Lord stopped. You remember he was, the Pharisees
didn't understand his parable. And he stopped and gave thanks.
I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and reprudent, and revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, it seemed good
in thy sight. It's just like what our Lord said. Daniel's
such a type of cry. He's a revealer of secrets, as
I said. Now listen to Romans 2. This is what Paul said. In the day, there's coming a
day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,
according to my gospel. So our Lord is the great revealer
of hearts and minds and secrets, and all secrets are made known. By Him and in Him. He is in Him
with all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All right? Now,
Christ in the Furnace. Look at chapter 3. Don't you
love this story? Christ in the Furnace. This is
the story, you know, of the three Hebrew children cast into the
burning, fiery furnace. It begins with a king making
a golden image. If you heard the message on the
radio this morning, I hope you did. That's why I put it there,
knowing we wouldn't have time to look at this this morning.
But the golden image that this man set up was an image of himself,
an image of man, like Romans 1 says, that man that they made
corruptible. Let me read it to you. I'm going
to go over there. I don't want to misquote it. But in Romans
1, he says, that man changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image. The first thing is, like corruptible
man. You know it's so, don't you?
Man worships himself. Man worships the creature rather
than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen? And so God gave
them up, it says, to vile affection, professing themselves to be wise.
Wise, they became fools. But Nebuchadnezzar made this
image, and man has this image of man, and he sets up as some
kind of God, will worship, and so forth. There were these three
Hebrews, three Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 6. And how significant
is it that the world today doesn't know their real names? Hanani, Azariah, and Mashiel. Their names have the name of
God in them. They're the children of God, and they bear the name
of God. They're the tribe of Judah. They all have meanings. But the Chaldeans, they gave
them names that they liked. And the world may call you names,
but you are the sons of God. Though the world doesn't know
us, it didn't know Him either, did it? Our Lord has a name that
no man knows except He to whom He will reveal in Revelation
19. You know that? And you know, their names are
written right here in the book. Hananiah, Ezraiah, Mashiach.
Right there it is. But nobody calls them that. Everybody
calls them Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What's that name?
Nothing. Nothing. They meant nothing to
the world. Neither do God's people mean
anything to the world. They mean something to God. They
bear His name. And our Lord in Revelation 19
has a name that no man knew except he to Him whom He would reveal
it. And it goes on the next verse, the verse after that. It tells
His name. The Word of God. This is His
name. The Word of God. Does that sound
like any passage to you, Helen? In the beginning was the Word.
That's His name. And He's all through the book. We see Him, don't we? We see
His face. We see His glory. We see His
name. We see He's here in Daniel. Very clearly. But God has hid
these things to the world and revealed them unto them. These
three Hebrew children, their names are Hanani, Azariah, and
Mashiach, but I call them called, chosen, and faithful. In Revelation
17, it talks about those that are with him. Daniel is a type
of Christ. And those that were with him
were called, chosen, and faithful. That's these men. Well, a raging
king. This king raged against them. He raged against them. Chapter
3, verse 16. Now, you know the story. The
king made a command, a law. This man set forth a law. Now,
you're going to worship the way I tell you to worship. That's
what this king did, man. It's the law of the land. You're
going to worship the way I tell you to worship. You're not going
to worship the way God's Word tells you to. That's what this
man said. You're not going to do it. You're going to do what
I tell you. I'm the king. What did these three fellows
say? Hmm? We don't have to stop and
think about this. That's what they said. In chapter
3, verse 16, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
answered and said to the king, we're not careful to answer this
matter, we ought to stop and think about it. We'll do your
civil laws. They were law-abiding people
according to the laws of the land, civil law, but when it
comes to the worship of God and the laws of God, mm-mm, you're
not going to tell us what to do. We're going to do exactly
what God tells us to do. Right? Nothing's changed. Everybody
in that land feared to not do what that king told them to do.
They all got together. And it sounded like some Pentecostal
meeting that when you hear the sackbuck, the flute, and the
psalter, and everybody's singing and dancing, all this get-together,
we're going to worship the image. Man. Our will. Our works. No, no, no, no, no. Hannah and I, Azariah and Mosheel
said, No, no, no, no. We're not doing it. We're not
going to do it. They said, verse 17, Our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace.
And they said, He's able to deliver us. But if He doesn't, if we
perish in the furnace, they said, He's going to deliver us from
you. If we die, that's even better. We're through with you and this
world. Is that the way you feel? And
we're going to see in a minute how they got through this. How'd
they get through this? Somebody was with them. And verse 18, But be it known
unto thee, O king, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the
golden image which thou hast set up. Charles Spurgeon said
years ago, he said the term, the word is now used as like
a curse word, by God. You hear people say that? By
God. That started by people quoting these three Hebrews saying, by
God's grace, we won't do it. They were called by gods. That's
me. How about you? By God's mercy
and grace, we will not bow down to this religion, the religion
of the day. We will not. By God's grace, we'll serve Him. That's good. Like everything
else, people are abused by God. Hmm. That's something. Well,
so the king threw them into the fiery furnace. Look at verse
19. Nebuchadnezzar is full of fury. So is the God of this world.
And he heated the furnace seven times hotter. And he commanded
his men and threw them in with their coats on, their hosin and
their hats. in the midst of the burning fiery
furnace." It says that every time, it says, the burning fiery
furnace, the burning fiery furnace. And the very men that threw him
in were consumed by the fire. So will all those who hate Christ
and His people. But the king came to the mouth
of the furnace, in verse 24, where he was astonished. And
he said, didn't we cast three men bound in the midst of the
fire? I answered and said, true, O
king. He answered and said, lo, I see four men, loose, they're
not bound, they're loose, walking in the midst of the fire. I have no hurt. And the fourth
one looks like the Son of God. Isn't that something? Don't you love, we're going to
sing How Firm a Foundation in a little bit. It says in Isaiah
43, Fear not, O Israel, Jacob, I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by name. Thou art mine. When thou passest through
the waters, I'll be with thee. Through the rivers shall not
overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned. And the flame won't even kindle
upon you." These men came out as they went in, complete and
whole. Not a hair of their head was
seen. And didn't Peter say over in
the Gospel of Peter, he said, the trial of your fate more precious
than gold that perishes is going to be tried with fire. But it's
going to be found under praise, honor, and glory at the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. See, these men, why did they
believe God? Because God revealed Him, Christ
revealed Himself to them. How did they get through this
fiery trap? Because Christ was with them. How do God's people
go through this thing? Because Christ said, I'll never
leave you, nor forsake you. When you pass through the water,
I'll be with you. When you go through the fire,
I'll be with you. He went through it, Barbara.
He went through it. See, these three men came out
untouched. He stayed in. That's how they
came out. Because Christ stayed in. But
he wasn't concerned, was he? He wasn't concerned. That's Christ
crucified. That's the burning bush. That's
Christ in the furnace. He's everything and he's all.
All right, look at Christ in the lion's den. By the way, and
we brought this up last time, Daniel 3 is the largest, Daniel
6 is the light at the end, Daniel 9 is the promise, the prophecy
of Christ making an end of sin, reconciliation and so forth.
Christ began to be crucified on the third hour. He hung on the cross from the
sixth hour to the ninth hour. The sixth hour is when darkness
came over all the land. That's when he's facing the lion,
like in Genesis. In the ninth hour, he said, it's
finished. That's Daniel Miller. He's going to end this thing,
finish the transgression. Who wrote this book? That just
made me shiver. Trembling, but a good way, but
a good way. Now, chapter 4 is a chapter of
a proud king, a prince brought down, and that's Isaiah 14, that's
Luke 10. Our Lord said, I beheld Satan
cast down. Revelation 12, an angel took
hold of the dragon and cast him into the earth. That's Christ.
That's Satan. It's all a picture of Christ. Chapter 5 is the writing of a
man's fingers on the wall. You know, it speaks three times
of a man riding with fingers. Every time, it's Christ. He wrote the law,
the finger of God wrote the law. And then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And
then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And then here
in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And
then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And then here
in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote
the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger
of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote
the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And
then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote
the finger of God. And then here in Daniel, he wrote the finger of God. And
then here in Daniel, he wrote Well, that's chapter 5. And in
chapter 6, Darius is here, Daniel chapter 6, we throw Daniel into
line. Darius is not a man's name, it's
a title. It's like a heathen ruler, like
Pharaoh. It wasn't his name, it was his
title, Caesar. There are many Caesars, and President
of the United States. It doesn't matter who it is.
The king's heart's in the hands of the Lord. It doesn't matter
who's in office. He's doing the Lord's bidding.
So was Darius. And Darius had Daniel thrown
into the lions' den. Who did? Who put Christ on the cross?
Who sent Christ to face Satan, who was like a roaring lion?
Who put him there? God did. He had Pharaoh. He had Herod do it. He had Pilate
do it. God did it. Like Darius. And look at verse 1 through 3. Pleased Darius to set over the
kingdom a hundred and twenty princes. Verse 2. And over these
three presidents, Daniel was first. Daniel, verse 3, was preferred. So there were princes and rulers
and presidents. And who's over all of them? Daniel. Our Lord Jesus Christ reigns
over all. Are you concerned about the next
election? Don't be. I know who's going to reign,
who's going to be president, whoever God says will be president.
That gives us peace, doesn't it? Darius, he was a hireling,
like most men are. And these other men conspired
against Daniel. In verse 4, presidents sought
occasion against Daniel concerning the king, and they could find
no fault in him. They found no fault in Daniel.
So they said, we'll bring up something. The only way we can
get him is concerning the law of his God. So we'll make a law,
again, like Chapter 3, the 3 Hebrews. We'll make a law that you can't
worship God the way you're supposed to. That you're going to worship
the way we say. You know, back in Scotland in
the 1600s, 1662, wasn't it? Scotland was full of grace preachers,
you know that? Great preachers. True preachers. And the government made a law.
The government was under the control of Roman Catholicism. And the Church of England was
right there with them. Corrupt. Corrupt. And there'd
been a law that everyone had to sign a covenant saying that
they would worship, the preachers would worship and do things exactly
like the government of England and Scotland declared, the king
declared to them, you must worship, you must sign this agreement,
this covenant or you can't preach anymore. Right Ed? It's called the dissenters covenant,
men of Scotland, covenanters. 2,000 preachers were kicked out of
their churches and told you're not to preach ever again. Because
they would not sign this government mandate and ordinance and law
that says you can't preach any way you want to, you can't worship,
you're going to do what we say. 2,000 preachers were kicked out. Man, I have a book of their farewell
sermons. Whoo! Man, you've never heard
a better preach in your life. One of them I preached here.
It was like when Eli trembled for the ark. When the ark was
taken, Eli trembled. And this one man said, we ought
to be trembling. God takes the gospel from us. We ought to be
shaking. But anyway, Daniel, like I had
an eye on my shield, said, I'm not going to do that. He opened
his window. You're not to pray, you're not
to sing, you're not to gather together. He opened his window
so everybody could hear. And he started praying, as always. Well, the king got angry. And the men came and they got
Daniel and they threw him in the lion's den. Verse 16, the
king commanded that they brought Daniel and cast him into the
den of lions. And verse 17, a stone was brought
and laid upon the mouth of the lion, cast him into the den of
lions and rolled a stone across the devil. Didn't our Lord say that through
Peter, Satan has a roaring line? He said to Peter first, Satan
desires to sift you. And he said, I pray for you,
I'm praying for you, that your faith fail not. What's his faith,
John? It's Christ's. He didn't fail, he shall not
fail. And our Lord faced him, he told his disciples right before
he went to the cross, he said, God, this world has come. The
prince of the power of the air has come. He's not going to find
anything in me. He said, now is the judgment of this world.
Now is the prince of this world cast out. Now I'm going to deal
with this lion on your behalf. I'm going into the den with the
lions. The Lord God threw him into hell itself. He died. the wrath of God, the
judgment of God, and went through hell on Calvary's cross, and
they took him down for the cross, and they buried him, and they
rolled a stone across that door. That's like Daniel. He came out. He came out. The king rose up
in the morning, verse 19, in haste, went to the dead lion,
and he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, Daniel, O
Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest
able to deliver thee from the lions? Daniel said unto the king, O
king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel. You mean Daniel somebody was
in there with you? That's right. And he had his
hand over those lion's mouth the whole time. Had those lions
right there at his feet like puppy dogs. Don't you move. Don't
you touch him. You've read Pilgrim's Progress,
I know. You know how when the pilgrim
was going on the straight and narrow path, and he looked ahead
and there were two lions. You remember that? Roaring. He
could hear them roaring. And the closer he got, he could
feel their hot breath. He could hear them roaring. He
was trembling. And the closer he got, and the closer he got,
he saw they were on chains. They could only come so far.
All he can do is roar at him, breathe hard, and he'll walk
right past him. Why? Why is that? Because our
Lord is with you. He's with us. Well, let's go
on. Chapter 7 is all about beasts
and kingdoms. Chapter 8 is visions of corrupt
religion. Oh my, the corruption that is
religion. Daniel's prayer in chapter 9
is all because of the corruption throughout the world. And he
prayed for his people. What a prayer, Daniel's 9. What
a prayer our Lord prayed in John 17 for his people. And then chapter 9, oh my, this
is Christ in prophecy. This is a prophecy. Daniel's
prophecy, verse 18, the old God inclined down here, this is his
prayer. He said in verse 19, O Lord,
hear, O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hearken and do. That would be
a good prayer, wouldn't it? A real short one. O Lord, hear,
O Lord, forgive, O Lord, hear and do. And then down in verse The angel
of the Lord came to Daniel and said, Daniel, I've come forth
to give thee skill and understanding at the beginning of thy supplication.
That commandment came forth. God heard him. And our Lord is
always heard by the Father, isn't He? He said in Lazarus 2, He
said to the Father, I know that thou hearest me always, but for
their sake I said this. And we have that blessed prayer
in John 17, and the Lord heard him. And verse 23, here's the
prophecy. I'm here to show you, thou art
greatly beloved, and understand the matter and consider the vision.
Verse 24, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people, upon the holy
city. Here it is. Here's Christ crucified,
buried and risen. To finish the transgression,
to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision, the prophecy,
and anoint the most holy. That's Christ, isn't it? The
prophecy. And he went on to say, verse,
read it with me, know therefore and understand from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, to the
Messiah, the Prince, and He gives these times that were exactly
fulfilled when Christ came and was crucified, in troublous time. And verse 26, after three score
two weeks, Messiah will be cut off, not for Himself. Our Lord was forsaken of God.
David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Christ was. Why? Because God made Him to
be sin. I pursued Him. He made us righteous. And He'll never forsake us. He
said from that time, He said the Prince is going to come and
destroy the city and the sanctuary and be a flood of ungodliness
and iniquity and the desolation. These desolations are determined.
And in the Gospel it says, he who reads this understand abomination
of desolation. What's that? Corrupt religion.
They quit sacrificing lamb. Christ did that, you know. He
stopped that when he was crucified. He stopped all sacrificial lambs
and all that. They don't do it today. The Jews
don't do it. They didn't do it back then.
Why? Christ put an end to that. But wherever there's not a lamb
being slain, wherever there's not blood shed for their mission
of sin, it's an abominable religion. It's abomination if the blood
is, if the lamb is not being slain in the temple, if the blood's
not on the mercy seat, it's corrupt religion. It's desolate. Ichabod, write Ichabod over the
door. The glory has departed. That's religion worldwide. That's
the Jews. That's Gentiles. That's all but
some favored Hebrew children. Every time we get together in
the temple, we have a sacrificial lamb. We preach the blood. Not so in religion. It's abominable
to God with all of its idols and all that. Well, chapter 10,
chapter 10 and 11 and 12, that's more about the kingdom, the kingdoms
that come. Chapter 12, I want to close with
this. This is wonderful. This is the end of it. We made
it. Made it all the way through, didn't we? You know what we did? We touched our toe in the ocean.
We waded ankle deep in the fullness of the gospel. Daniel 12, it
says, he said to Daniel, verse 9, Go thy way, Daniel. Go thy
way, the words are closed up and sealed to the title of the
end. Many shall be purified and made white. Who's that? God's people. How? By the blood of Christ.
How? Going through the fire. Thy dross
to consume, thy gold to refine. Like three Hebrews. And tried. They're going to be purified,
made white, and it's going to be tried. Trial of your faith. It will be trial of fire. But
the wicked, they're going to do wickedly. None of the wicked
shall understand. Are you reading it with me? This
is amazing. This is thousands of years ago. It's now. The wicked shall do wickedly.
None of the wicked shall understand. It's plain as a nose on your
face. But they don't understand. The
wise shall understand. Why? How? Because 1 Corinthians
1.30 says, He has made unto us wisdom. That's how we understand. He's
given us an understanding. The Son of God has come and given
us an understanding. Paul told the Corinthians, you
understand all things. All things? Yeah. Three words. I can sum up all things in three
words. All the mystery of God, the will
of God, the Word of God, the purpose of God, the eternity
of God. Three words. Christ is all. That's it. And then it goes on
to say, read this. It says, From the time, verse
11, of the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, the abomination
that maketh desolate set up, the 1,290 days. Don't ask me
later what that means because I don't know and nobody else
does either. Okay? But I do know this. Blessed is
he that waiteth and cometh. That's what we're doing. That's
what we're doing here. We're waiting. On what? The Lord
to come back. He's coming. We've come to Him. Go your way, Daniel. He said,
go thy way till the end be. Where did he go? Back to his
job. Back out in the world, you know, to do what he's called
to do. And all that. And he said, but you're going
to rest, Daniel. Thou shalt rest. And when it's
all over, you're going to stand in thy lot at the end of the
days. And we, like Daniel, can say,
the lot, the lions have fallen unto me in pleasant places. The
lot is cast into the lair. Oh, aren't you glad? The hold
that's posing there is of the Lord. So wait, you'll see. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Okay.