Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in Daniel, chapter 10 today. Only a couple more chapters to
go. In our last chapter, chapter
9, if you'll recall, probably one of the more famous of the
book of Daniel concerning Messiah the Prince, He was in prayer, and he said,
I had read by the books. I learned from the books from
Jeremiah the prophet that the captivity was about to end. And he was praying about that.
And then the messenger of God came to him. He said, I'm going to tell you
about the real end of captivity. I'm going to tell you about the
end of the captivity of sin. And then he goes on to say, don't
worry about the 70 years of captivity in Babylon. 70 weeks and Messiah
the Prince will come. And He'll be cut off, but not
for Himself. And what a blessing that'll be. So he takes him to the real issue,
which was not the physical circumstances that they were in at the time,
which were but a shadow of the conditions of man and the captivity
of sin that was portrayed so adequately with the Babylonian
captivity. So he was given the revelation
of the true end of captivity and the person of Christ, the
Messiah. And so now we come to this final
vision of Daniel, and it begins in chapter 10, but it kind of
spills over through chapter 11 and chapter 12, but it's all
really the same. narrative, but it's broken into
three sections. But it really all concerns the
same thing. So we have this final vision,
and I thought it would just be helpful for us to remember some
key things that there's a lot of math, and there's a lot of
prophecy, and there's a lot of talks about wars, and this king
and that king coming from this direction, and back and forth,
and this king being replaced by this king. And sometimes they're
pictured as horns, and this horn will be replaced by a little
horn, and this time it's a goat ramming into another goat. But all those things portrayed
all these things that God had purposed from before the foundation
of the world to bring about the redemption of the church. And
each one of those fulfilled his purpose. And we talked about
that a little bit last time about the Greek culture was spread
all over the world, and it turned out to be a pretty precise language
for recording the gospel in the Romans. It was going to take somebody
pretty mean to accomplish the purpose of God and to exhibit
the wrath of God towards sin. And the Romans were able to fulfill
that quite handily. And even though it was the Jews
that rejected him and demanded that he be crucified, they were
the ones that actually carried it out. So here we are in Daniel
chapter 10. We'll read through there, and
then we'll make some comments. In Daniel chapter 10, verse 1,
in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was revealed
unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar. That was the name
that Nebuchadnezzar Eunuch gave to him when he was first captive
as a child there. And the thing was true. But the
time appointed was long. And so he's saying this has to
do with the future the future events here and and
he understood the thing and had understanding of the vision so
he's he's narrating this that he had this vision and and he
said I understood it and he's had the same uh interaction with
this same basic vision most of his life here and but it still
was scary. It was still frightening to him. And the angel, the messenger
of God, was always saying, here's what you should think about.
The Messiah is coming and you're greatly beloved. Think about
that. And he said, in those days, I,
Daniel, was mourning three full weeks And that's just a thing that
we're kind of accustomed to. Not very often are we concerned
with something that we're where we focus on it that much for
that long, totally. He said, I ate no pleasant bread,
neither came flesh or wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint
myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled. And in
the fourth and 20th day of the first month, as I was by the
side of the great river, which is Hittikal, or I think that
would be the Tigris River in today's parlance, I lifted up
my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man, clothed in linen,
whose loins were girded with fine gold of Euphaz." And I think
in the Old Testament, that would be Ophir, where it's referred
to in the Hebrew. And this certain man, we ran
into this certain man in chapter 8, I believe it was. And we'll look at that here in
a minute. His body also was like the barrel, a gem, and his face
as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire,
and his arms and feet like in color to polish brass, and the
voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. 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. Reminds you a lot about what
like Paul on the road to Damascus. He was the one, he was singled
out and selective on the purpose of God there. He didn't reveal
himself to those others. And therefore, I was left alone,
and I 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." He was like Isaiah. He said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, and His train filled the temple, and I said,
woe is me. Yet I heard the voice of his
words. And when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a
deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground. And behold,
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. And
then he said unto me, Fear not, Daniel. For from the first day
that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten
thyself before God, thy words were heard, and I am come for
thy words. But the prince of the kingdom
of Persia withstood me one and twenty days. But lo, Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there
with the kings of Persia, And now I am come to make thee understand
what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the
vision is for many days, or a long time off. And when he had spoken
such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I
became dumb. And behold, one like the similitude
of the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth
and spake, and I said unto him that stood before me, O Lord,
by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained
no strength. For how can the servant of this,
my Lord, talk with this, my Lord? As for me, straightaway there
remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. Then there came again and touched
me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me,
and he 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 has strengthened me and
then he said knowest thou wherefore i come unto thee And now I will
return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I am gone
forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will show thee
that which is noted in the Scripture of truth, and there is none that
holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince." Boy,
what a parcel of statements we have in that block of Scripture. as we go through this final vision,
it's the same Gospel that was declared in Daniel 7 and everywhere
else through Daniel. Daniel 7, verse 9, it says, I
beheld till the thrones were cast down, or a throne was set
in place, and the ancient of days did set, whose garment was
white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool,
and his throne was like fiery flame, wheels as burning fire,
just a different picture of this burnished brass and white hair
and the eyes of fire. A fiery stream issued and came
forth from before him and thousands and thousands ministered unto
him. 10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him, and the judgment
was set, and the books were opened. And I beheld there in Daniel
7.11, because the voice of the great words which the horn spake,
I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed
and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the
beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were
prolonged for a season and a time. And I saw in the night visions
And behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of
heaven and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him
near before him. And there was given him dominion and glory
and a kingdom that all people, nations, and language should
serve him. And his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom, that which
shall not be destroyed. So in this vision, Daniel again
has a view of the Lord. He had this ancient of days,
and now he sees this one that has the same characteristics. And it's frightening, but fear
not. But it's interesting that he
has a view of the Lord, and just like we see so often in Scripture,
a view of Him puts immediately one in perspective
of their own natural nature and state, and the extraordinary
change made by grace in eternal electing love." He had a glimpse of the Lord
in this vision two times, and he says, It's similar to Isaiah
Chapter 6 in Revelation Chapter 1, where Isaiah says, I saw him
and I fell at his feet as dead. I said, woe is me. I guess it
was John that said I fell at his feet as dead in Revelation. Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. And I remember what Daniel,
in his last prayer, he said, we have sinned. I'm the only
righteous person here. I have sinned, and I'm in the
midst of a people that have sinned against you." And he said, we
deserve whatever happens to us, but don't take it out on Jerusalem
because it's not Jerusalem's fault that we profaned it, that
we profaned Your holy name, that we profaned the sacrifices, that
we did all these things in rejection of You. It's not Jerusalem's
fault. It's our fault. It's my fault. And it just takes an act of grace
in the new birth for a person to look at themselves and say,
I'm a sinner. I'm the chief of sinners. I'm
the worst sinner. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner,
I think is what that, from Luke there. So here we have these words from
Daniel 7 in the description, and then we have another layer
of detail added in Daniel 10. His body was like the barrel
or like a gem. It was just gleaming and beautiful. And His face as the appearance
of lightning, and His eyes as lamps of fire, and His arms and
feet like in color, to polish brass in the voice of His words,
like the voice of a multitude." What an image! And to think that
this One that is so awesome, that has such an appearance,
says, O Daniel, your greatly beloved. Isn't that wonderful? That's how He looks at the church. and just says, you're all greatly
beloved, each one of you. And we mentioned there in Revelation
1, verse 13 through 17, the Apostle John said, in the midst of the seven candlesticks,
I saw one like unto the Son of man. clothed with a garment down
to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle. And
his head and his hairs were white like wool, white as snow, and
his eyes were like a flame of fire." This is virtually, word
for word, the same vision that Daniel had of the Lord. And his
feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in a furnace,
and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his
right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword. And his countenance was like
the sun shining in his strength. And then we skip down there in
verse 17 of John. We have his reaction to this,
similar to Daniel, similar to Isaiah. And when I saw him, I
fell at his feet as dead. But we have the same words back
to him that we find in Daniel. By grace and eternal love, he
laid his right hand upon me and he said, fear not, I am the first
and the last. Fear not. And so as we look through Daniel
and we see all these images of war, and that's what some of
the words that we look in Daniel chapter 10 are translated something
different, but it actually means a great warfare, a great army
set in array. And he says, just as Jesus said
in the New Testament, there'll be wars and rumors of wars. But don't worry about that. That's
not the end game. That's not the end result. The
end result is, according to the purpose of God, is the redemption
of the church. And all these things come about
in order to fulfill some grand design that He has purposed.
And sometimes, as in Daniel, sometimes we're able to look
back in retrospect and say, oh yeah, that was Alexander the
Great, the Grecian, the goat that rammed into the side of
the Persian. And we see that. But some things
we haven't seen yet or we don't fully understand. But it's not
the important thing. The book of Daniel, it's purpose
is not to teach us math or to use scare tactics to incline
us to engage in behavior to get us into the kingdom of heaven
as a horse. You should pray to Jesus because
if you want to go to heaven, you need to pray to Him. And
getting to heaven is your goal. And they don't say anything about
the sin. Heaven is just a wonderful byproduct. but it's not the main thing. It's interesting how often these
very verses are used in complete opposition to the intent of Christ
and the Spirit. They say, you should read this
and you should be scared. You should be very, very scared. And yet Jesus says, fear not. So who are you going to believe?
Are you going to believe the words of the Lord or are you
going to believe these Gospel shouters that say, the
end is coming. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
And do something before it's too late. You know, the truth by grace
Christ has revealed to His people, and His word to them is, fear
not. It's always the same. Fear not. One of the great lessons
for the church from this Gospel is to give us through the response
of Daniel and the reactions of Daniel to what's going on. And you know,
in Daniel chapter 10, he says, I was stripped. I found I had no ability. I had
no strength. And isn't that what the New Testament
tells us? When we were yet without strength, Christ died for the
ungodly. And Daniel said, I had no strength. I looked at all these things
that are going on, and I saw that physically I could do nothing,
but he did more than through the purposes of God. And as holy
men of old were driven, they recorded the Word of God, they
recorded the Gospel. And his gospel in the spiritual
sense was tremendous. And he said, but physically I
had no ability. I was without strength. He had no ability to face and
overcome the things and the vision. And that's why in the New Testament
it says they overcame Him by the blood. Not, oh yeah, I put
on all my stuff here and I was able to defeat this and that. They just looked to Jesus and
said, It's your blood that overcomes. It's your victory that overcomes.
And that's what the book of Daniel is about. He just keeps telling
Daniel over and over and over again, the victory of Messiah,
the prince who is cut off, but not for himself. Therefore, I
was left alone, and I saw this great vision there in verse 8
of chapter 10, and there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness
was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength."
That's what happens to people when they're born again. They
look at themselves and they thought, well, yesterday I was... Okay. I thought I looked pretty good.
Everything I was doing was pretty good. My righteousness was pretty
good. And then, like Paul, he says,
well, after I was born again, I looked at that and it was just
dung. His comeliness had turned into
him into corruption. And that's what we find is true.
When the Lord, in the book of Ezekiel, after I give you a new
heart, after I've cleansed you from all your sin, then you're
going to look at your own ways which were not good, and you're
going to loathe yourself. But the good news is He says,
but then I've removed all that from you. I've removed your sin
from you as far as the east is from the west, and it's covered.
It's hidden. It's no longer in view. And God
the Father does not see that, and He only sees His Son. And so Daniel realized he had
no power and no ability in these matters, only to record them
because the Spirit moved him. And some of these things he wrote
kind of in retrospect, as you can kind of glean from. And he's
old, you know, he's in his 80s. He was around 90 when he finally
died at Shushan, the palace. Many of his kinsmen had gone
back to Jerusalem to begin that process of rebuilding that. But you know, earlier this week, I got on Sermon
Audio, and I went back to Revelation chapter 20 that our pastor, was
teaching in those days quite a while ago. And I just loved
the message title was, Jesus Always Wins, Revelation 20. Jesus Always Wins. Case closed. Fear not, verse 12 of Daniel
chapter 10. Fear not, verse 19, Daniel chapter
10. Peace be unto you, verse 19 of
Daniel chapter 10, because Jesus always wins. You don't need to
concern yourself about all these other things. I'm going to tell you in chapter
11 and chapter 12 some details here about this king from the
north comes in, and we'll kind of maybe identify a few of these
as we go through in chapter 11. He says, this king can't do this,
and this king can't do that. And before, they were in various
visions of the head of gold, and the shoulders and arms of
silver, and the belly of brass, and the feet of iron. And then
the next time, there are animals, lions and leopards with wings,
and horns, and goats, and this and that. But it's all the same
thing, really. And we find that Jesus is victorious. We read
that in chapter 7. But these will have their domain
taken away. These will lose their dominion.
They'll come up for a time, but they'll be overcome. Jesus always
wins. And so Daniel, he's been given
more and more details of what to him were future events. He
was kind of through the Medo-Persian part of this this narrative. But many of the
things, he wouldn't be alive when Alexander the Great rams
in the goat from the west, rams into the side of the sheep from
the west or east. But all these future events purpose
and foreordained by God in the accomplishment of their redemption
of the church. And no telling There's just no
telling all the things that we don't know about. Norm brought out again and again
the name and the Syrian. And he was just going through
this a little bit and judges how the Syrians came down every
year and pillaged Israel and stole all their crops and stole
all their meat. And sometimes they took captives
and took them back as slaves. And one of those was a young
girl. who was took back and became
a slave servant in the house of Naaman, this famous general
of Syria, who had leprosy. All that for this one incident. And she says, I know a man. I know a man. He can help you. And now he's in the many lepers,
but none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. The Gospel. Many of the things
that Daniel got a look at were going to happen long after he
was dead. Now I've come to explain to you
what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision
concerns a time yet to come." That's the New International
Version. I like the way that that is very
concise, how it explains that. You know, it just takes us back
to the Gospel in Luke, in chapter 18. Then He took the twelve and
said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all the
things that are written by the prophets, of which Daniel was
one, concerning the Son of Man, shall be accomplished. All these
things that the prophets wrote about, and surely Daniel had
a vision of these things right up to the Messiah, the Prince, coming into the world and then
being cut off, but not for Himself. He says it's all going to be
fulfilled just as God ordained it. And then we get to chapter 24
and those two on the road to Emmaus. We just look at those
guys all the time and talk about them because they were so forlorn
because they were looking at things from the physical thing.
And kind of the same boat Daniel was in. Man, I saw all these
visions. I was like, oh, my heart just failed. And they said, Jesus,
where have you been? Didn't you see Jesus get crucified?
And we thought he was the one that was going to throw the Roman
yoke off us and do all these wonderful physical things. He
says, that's not the pig picture. That's not what this is all about.
Same as Daniel. There's going to be all these
wars and this king and that king. That's not the end. That's not the big picture. The
redemption of the ones that God the Father gave me in the covenant
of grace, that is what this is all about. In Luke 24, 36, And
as they thus spake, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them after
His resurrection. And he said, what did he say?
You guys should be very, very afraid. I'm kind of a ghost-like
specter. You should be very, very afraid.
He said, peace. unto you." And you know what
he always said before? I give you peace, not as the
world sees peace, but my peace I give you. Peace with the Father. Your warfare with Him is over.
I've paid the penalty. I've paid the price. By His sacrifice
shall many be made righteous. By his sacrifice shall God be
satisfied." Kind of a paraphrase of Isaiah 53. He said, these
are the words I spake unto you which while I was yet with you
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Now just All those things they
wrote about, every one of them had something to do with Christ
and the redemption of the church, not just the messianic prophecies
that you might see a little star in the margin of your Bible saying,
oh yeah, he's born in Bethlehem and on and on. The Ptolemaic
Wars, the Trojan Wars, Alexander the Great conquering the world.
All that stuff was written about in the prophet Daniel's gospel. All those things must
be fulfilled because they concern the Savior. They concern the
Messiah, the Prince, and the redemption of the church. In Matthew 25-31, when the Son
of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with
him. Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before
him shall be gathered all nations. And he shall separate them one
from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on
his left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand,
come ye blessed of my father. This is always pictured as the
Great White Throne Judgment, and, oh, it's all scary and all
fearful, and boy, you don't want to be on the wrong side of that.
But you know, the Scripture says He's going to gather His elect
from the four corners of the world. And he's going to bring
them. And Paul wrote, hey, you know
what? Some of us might be alive when
that happens, but we won't prevent those that are already asleep.
But we're all going to be brought. Not a hoof is going to be left
behind. He always wins. So don't worry about all this
scary stuff that they blow out of proportion to make you, frighten
you into the Kingdom of Heaven, I think is their objective. Just
remember, He always wins, and fear not. So, be free in Christ, be blessed
of the Father. We're done a little early today,
but have more time for coffee there. So, again, be free. Hey Ed. Hey, thank you for your
message. brother good to see you we had
a good time well that coast is pristine for beauty