While the word was yet in his
mouth, our gracious, gracious Father, in the blessed name of
the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to bless you,
to thank you. Thank you that we know that the
Most High Rule is in heaven, that you taught us that, that
you taught us by the Holy Spirit of God that we are as nothing. And Lord, Paul himself says,
I am nothing. Chiefest apostle, though I be
nothing. And Lord, you've made us to understand that about ourselves
that we give you all the praise, all the glory, all the honor,
attribute everything in our lives to you, attribute our hope, our
joy, our peace, our salvation, our hope for the future. All
our trials and burdens and afflictions, Lord, we contribute them as coming
from your hand. And Lord, help us never to lift
ourselves up in pride. What would we ever have to be
proud about? Lord, we're sinners and you saved
us by grace. We were lost and you found us.
We were naked and you clothed us. We were dumb and you gave
us a tongue to praise you. We were blind, you gave us eyes
to see your glory. We were deaf, he gave us ears
to hear your blessed voice and your word. And we were lame and
couldn't walk, and now we walk towards you with feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. Oh, blessed be your
name. Father, these saints have gathered
out here to hear your word, to learn from your precious word,
and I pray you enable me to speak with some liberty and some understanding,
with some wisdom. And Father, we pray for those
who are being tried at this time, who are sick in body, sick in
soul. Ask for your mercies upon them
and restore them. Pray for James' wife, Lord, and
him. God, I pray that you would open her heart. James has such
a burden for her. Please make her to understand
her great need of Christ. And Lord, others among us that
don't know Christ, make them see their need in Thee. And Lord,
our God, Have mercy upon our children and our grandchildren.
God help us to never cease to pray for them, never cease to
ask them to come hear the gospel, until they come and hear the
gospel. We bless you in Christ's holy name. Amen. Amen. Sweep over my soul, sweep over
my soul, sweet Spirit, sweep over my soul. My joy is complete when I sit
at His feet. Sweet Spirit, sweep o'er my soul. And we hope Dorotha gets to where
she can get back Sunday. You know, she had a big polyp
removed from her colon. And it's really hard to get over
that. It's way up in there, and they haven't heard back from
it yet. She has trouble sitting and everything else, you know.
So we trust that the Lord will enable her to be back with us
pretty soon. Daniel's talking to the king, and he says here,
Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given
thee a kingdom. power and strength and glory.
God gave it to you. God gave it to you. Yeah, and
I tell you what, that's where he says, Thou, O King, art King,
for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom. God gave you
the power, God gave you the strength, God gave you the glory. This
kingdom belongs to God, and He'll take it away from you just as
easy as He gave it to you. And I do know this, that everything
in this world happens according to God's purpose. He works all
things after the counsel of His own will. And He does what He
does in this world for the salvation of His elect and to bring glory
to His name. Let me just give you an illustration
of what I'm talking about. Everything that happens, He said He destroyed
nations to save His people. You think about what was done
to the American Indians and Africans being brought over here as slaves.
Those both were awful, awful things to happen. Man in his
wickedness domain. Man in his depravity done that.
But had not those black people been brought over here, they
would have never heard the gospel. And now there is black people
who hear the gospel, who believe the gospel, and rejoice in the
gospel. Now, what man done wrong? You know, as wicked as it is,
it crucified Christ. But the wrath of man, God caused
the wrath of man to praise Him. And you take the American Indians.
I remember Dan Scott saying this. that over in Cherokee, him and
Winnie would often sing, and he said this, he says, a lot
of people are, you know, and the Cherokee Indians taking on
that trail of tears, you know, all the way from Tennessee, all
the way to Oklahoma, and a bunch of them died on the way. But
he said this, he says, a lot of Indians hold it against white
people for what they've done to the Indians. But he said,
I don't, because if that not the white man, come and brought
us the gospel, I wouldn't be standing here today believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I would not know Christ if somebody
hadn't brought me the gospel. And that's what we're talking
about here, what God does for His elect, and He saved all these
people for His own glory. And what providence is, is God
unfolding His purpose, and He'll often do it by miracles. Look
over in chapter 6 and verse 27. Look what Daniel says here. Or
Nebuchadnezzar says this. Darius, not Nebuchadnezzar, King
Darius says this. He says, he's got four different
kings in this book. Get them mixed up. But Darius
says this, look what he says, and this is where, after Daniel
had come up out of the lions' den, and Darius says this, For
he delivereth and rescueth, and he worketh signs, Daniel 6, 27,
7, 6, 27. He delivereth and rescueth, and
he worketh signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who hath
delivered Daniel from the power of the lions. He'll do miracles
to save his people. And Daniel's message is this,
that God's going to establish His kingdom in this world. And
it's a kingdom that'll never be destroyed. A kingdom that
our Lord Jesus Christ destroys all the kingdoms, and His is
the only one that'll last forever and ever. And Daniel and Revelations,
they go together. They both talk a lot about future
things. And what Daniel, you know, Revelation
explains the book of Daniel, and Daniel lays the foundation
for many things that are said in the book of Revelation. And
they both were precise, precise in their prophetic predictions. Like in the 70 weeks of Daniel,
people don't, they don't understand much about that, but what it
is when you look at it, it tells you from the 70 weeks, he has
three sevens there. One is seven Weeks is seven years
where they go down and restore Jerusalem, rebuild Jerusalem.
And then there's another week there. And that's when another
king rises up. And then at the end of the 70
weeks, that's when the Messiah shall come. And just exactly
to the time of the 70 weeks, 490 years, a time and times and
a half, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the time that Daniel talked
about it, He came just exactly when Daniel said He would. And
then Daniel said, and we'll see it later, that Daniel said, and
the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. But not
for himself. And oh, beloved, and Daniel,
oh my, God raised him up to do a specific work. and all the
message of Daniel. And look over here in chapter
12 just a moment. Daniel gives a prophetic picture
even of the end times, establishing the time when Christ would come.
God's purpose in saving sinners would take place. But look what
it said here in chapter 12, verse 1. Verse 3, first three verses.
And at that time, shall Michael stand up the great prince, which
standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be
a time of trouble, such as was never since there was a nation,
even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall
be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the
book." That's what he's talking about. He says the very same
thing over in Revelation. And listen to this, "...and many
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." Talk
about the resurrection. Some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt. One judgment, one resurrection. And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever. Reign with Christ forever and
ever. And so you see, God even declared
the destruction of His enemies. And so the Most high rules are
the heaven's rule. And Daniel saw the, Nebuchadnezzar
had a dream where he had a vision, saw the image of a man. This
man had a head of gold, the chest and arms of silver, stomach and
thighs of brass, chapter 2 he did, the legs of iron, feet and
toes of iron mixed with clay, and then look what happens over
here in chapter 2. I want you to see this. What happens to
this? Daniel describes that. He said
these are four kings that's going to come up. Daniel says these
are four kings that's going to come up. And he talks about the
four different kings that's going to come up. But look what happens
to those four kingdoms as they come up. And they saw a rock. And look what he says in verse
44. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven
set up a kingdom. which shall never be destroyed.
And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it
shall break in pieces and consume all these other kingdoms, and
it shall stand forever." Now, look what he says in verse 45.
See, God's going to set up a kingdom, going to destroy all the other
kingdoms and break it up, but this kingdom will stand forever.
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of a knife
without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass,
the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God hath made known
to the king what shall come to pass hereafter." And God's going
to set up a kingdom and destroy all the rest of the kingdoms. You've got to see this in chapter
7. I know I'm keeping you busy, but this is... And then there's
other visions that Daniel has. There's two princes and two kingdoms.
And you see the Ancient of Days and the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
here in verse 9 with me. This is another vision. And all
this vision that Daniel had. And I'll be held till the thrones
were cast down. And the Ancient of Days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like
pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels
as a burning fire. And the fire stream issued and
came forth from him before him. Thousands, thousands ministered
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him,
and the judgment was set, and the books was opened." Just exactly
what's said in Revelation 20. You can go through this and see
all that's said in Revelation. It already said it. And I beheld
then, because of the voice of the great words which the horns
spake, I beheld till the beast was slain. And his body destroyed
and given to the burning flame. And this beast, of course, is
false religion. This beast, and we went through
that in Revelation before, how beastly false religion is. How
beastly the false gospel is. How beastly are men that stand
up and deceive men's souls and make merchandise out of men.
And then he said, I saw in verse 13, in verse 12, and 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
when Christ came to take that book out of his hand. And they
brought Him near before Him, and that was given Him." Who?
This Son of Man who came to the ancient of days. That was given
Him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people and nations and
languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that shall
not be destroyed. All right, I'm going to go. But
not this one. Not this one. And Daniel calls
him the prince of princes, calls him the anointed one, and calls
him Michael. And then he talks over here in
chapter 8 about the Antichrist. The Antichrist. And the Antichrist,
and we'll see, it's not just a man. It's a whole system of
religion. But look here in chapter 8, verse
23. And he said, 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 hands. He'll cause people
to pay him off, cause a lot of money to pass him. And he shall
magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many.
And listen to this, he shall also stand up against the prince
of princes, but listen to it, but he shall be broken without
a hand. Scripture says that he would
be destroyed with even the presence, the glory of the presence of
Christ. You know, this is the Antichrist,
and you see him in Revelation 13. He's not just one man. Everybody
expected some great man to rise up and take over Christ's place
and God's place, and everybody just flocked to him. But it's
a whole system of religion, and it's represented by these four
different beasts here and all the things they do. And what
it is, it's just Satan respirating as Christ. And it's what he said,
if one of the things our Lord said when the last signs of the
last time were, that no man deceive you, for many false Christs shall
arise saying, here's Christ, there's Christ, over there's
Christ, here's a Christ, everybody's Christ, and everybody's flocking
to him. Then he says, I'm telling you, wherever the carcass is,
and all God's elect, they will not bow to nobody but Christ. They won't accept the mark of
the beast. We won't worship at Satan's altar. We won't worship
at the altar of man's free will. We won't come to God on the altar
of our works at all. We're just not coming. We're
just not going to do it. But all the rest of the world
follows those beasts and are in league with them. And they
use peaceful and flattering words. You can read it yourself in chapter
11, where they come with peace and use great flattering words.
And that's why the Scripture says Satan himself shall come
as an angel of light. And these two rulers, this false
religion and Christ, they butt heads until there's a point of
rebellion and God says, no more. And then He destroys them. And
I want you to see this here in chapter 8 and verse 11, where
they take away the daily sacrifice. daily sacrifice. Look at this.
Chapter 8 and verse 11. And this is this beast. This
is one of the beasts. This is the he-goat that waxed
very great. And the great horn was broken.
And all these, you know, these four people, these four beasts
are very understandable. And we ain't got time to go into
it now. But yea, he magnified himself. even to the prince of
the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and
the place of the sanctuary was cast down." Took away the daily
sacrifice. And then, "...host was given
him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and
it cast the truth to the ground, and it practiced." And it practiced.
It took truth and threw it to the ground. Took away the daily
sacrifice. Took away the sacrifice. And
what this means is they take away the ministry and advocacy
of our Lord Jesus Christ in His blood and His sacrifice and His
atonement. And that's what they do. They
take away the sacrifice of Christ. We live on the sacrifice of Christ
every day. And these fellows take it away.
They take it away by making salvation by works, making salvation by
will, making salvation by merit. And I was reading today that
if you put a condition upon a man in any way, if you know you need
to leave your sins in order to come to Christ, if you can leave
your sins, you don't need to come to Christ. You've got to
repent before you come to Christ. So you've got these conditions
set up before you come to Christ. Well, no, listen, there's no
conditions. In fact, you can't meet any condition.
If there was a condition that you had to meet to come to Christ,
you couldn't meet that condition. You could not be sorry enough
for a sin. You could not shed enough tears
for your sin. You could not be sorry enough
for the life you've lived to make Christ do anything for you.
And if you ever get sorry over sin, if you ever humble yourself,
if you ever repent, if you ever believe, it'll be because Christ
already did something for you. And that's what these fellas
do. They come along. They set up this abomination.
Look over here in chapter 9. They set up this abomination
of desolation. And I'll tell you, it makes desolate
the work of God. It makes desolate the things
of Christ. It makes desolate the gospel,
the pre-salvation by the righteousness that men produce and by the works
that men produce. That makes desolate the place
of Christ, that desolate the gospel of Christ. And here in
chapter 9 and verse 27, I'm in Hosea, I'm the world guy, get
over there. And look in verse 27. And he shall confirm the covenant
with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall
cause a sacrifice. One week now. He shall cause
the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading
of the abominations he shall make it desolate, even unto the
consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate."
Of course, they say that Darius took a pig and took it into the
altar and offered it on the altar. And they say that was the desolation,
abomination, and make it desolate, the holy place. But I tell you,
whenever you take away the gospel of Christ and the righteousness
of Christ to put anything in its place, that makes the gospel
and the place where Christ is desolate, makes it desolate.
And I'll tell you, beloved, the Antichrist takes his stand against
Christ, but he can't win. He just cannot win. And then
we have Christ, our Lord, in the book of Daniels, in these
twelve chapters. He's that stone that I showed
you about, that he's the stone that was cut out of rock out
of the mountain that crushed all those other ones. Said his
kingdom will stand forever. And Daniel didn't even know who
he was talking about. And oh, let me show you here
in chapter six. You know, he was talking about
a glorious picture of the gospel. And Daniel was put in the lion's
den. And Daniel was put in the lion's
den. Of course, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they
made that great, big, tall... And they done this, these fellas
done this because they despised and were envious of these men
and their position in the kingdom. And they said, boy, we'll make
the music and everybody will bow down. So they waited and
waited for those fellas to bow down. They wouldn't have come
to Old Kingston. There's three Jews over there and they bowed. They brought him in, 4th King
said, ain't you going to bow down? He said, no, we're not. No, we're
not going to bow to your image. We're not going to bow to an
image. We ain't going to bow to nobody but the living God.
He said, well, so we're going to throw you in that fire furnace.
He said, you do what you got to do. But we're still not going
to bow. They thrust him up. Made that
furnace, just kept throwing the coal in that furnace, till it
was burning seven times hotter, and didn't even kill the fellows
that was in it. They throw them in there. After a few hours,
and then, oh, oh, there was a man that walked over there and said,
didn't we just throw three fellows in there? Yeah. Said, there's
another one in there. Who is he? That looks like the Son of
God. And they let that fire in there, and they brought all them
fellows back out of there. And old Nebuchadnezzar said,
I'll tell you what, no more decreeing against these fellas. God's for
these men. And then here's what happened
in chapter six. Here come these fellas again.
And they was envious of Daniel. Daniel was, oh, he was the second. They had three presidents, and
Daniel was over all three of them. And I mean, oh, he had
the power. He had the king's ear. And then
here they all come and told the king. They said, King, I'll tell
you what we're going to do. You sign a writing that for 30 days, that
anybody that does not, when it comes time to pray, if they did
not come and pray to you, if they have a request, they've
got to ask you. If they have a prayer, they've got to pray
to you. If they want something, they've got to come to you. And
if they don't, we will throw them in the lion's den. And they
wanted to do that because they knew where Daniel stood on it. And so he said, change that,
make it the law of the means of Persians in verse 8, which
altereth not. He signed the writing. Now, when
Daniel knew that the writing was signed, verse 10, his windows
being opened in the chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his
knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God,
just like he always did. Then these men found Daniel praying. They slipped in there and said,
Daniel's praying. He ain't calling on them to get
an answer. And they went and came there and told the king. He said, oh yeah. We've got to
see whoever's not obeying the law. He says, the king answered
in verse 12. He said, if a man ain't doing the thing according
to the law, he's got to. He's got to. It don't alter.
Then they said before the king, that Daniel, which is of the
children of the captivity of Judah. He doesn't regard you,
O king. He doesn't require nor your decree
that thou sign, but makes his petition three times a day. He
don't make it to you. He makes it to his God. Oh, my. Oh, my. So they sold Daniel.
Verse 16, the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast
him into the dens of the lion. And the king spake. Now, here's
the situation. They've got a law that cannot be altered. God is
just, and His law cannot be altered. So he's got to be thrown in the
lion's den. And the only way he can be saved
is for that law to be kept, that law to be honored, and somebody
come and save him from the lions. And, oh, beloved, and look what
Nebuchadnezzar said about him. Then the king commanded they
brought Daniel, and cast him into the dead of lions. Now the
king spake, and said unto Daniel, Thy God, whom thou servest continually,"
listen to what he says now, "...he will deliver you." He said, I can't do it. And oh,
beloved, that king went that night, and he had a stone foot
on it, put his sole signet ring on it, And the purpose of Daniel
might not be changed, discerning Daniel the chart. And then the
king, in verse 19, the king rose very early in the morning and
went in haste unto the den of lions. And when he came to the
den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel. And the king
spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, listen to this, servant of the
living God, he know who this God was. He done been put out
to pasture for seven years. He knows who's running this outfit
now. Servant of the living God is
thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the
lions. Then said Daniel unto thee, O King, live forever, my
God, have seen his angel, and have shut the lion's mouth, and
they have not hurt me. For as much as before him innocency
was found in me, and also before the old king, I have done no
hurt." And oh, beloved, this is the way. How can the law be
obeyed and Daniel be saved? How can God be just and justify? And Daniel suffered the king's
wrath. He went in that lion's den. And the king couldn't save him,
but when that law was inflicted and Daniel was saved by it, he
rendered satisfaction to justice, and he is delivered out of the
lion's den. And that's the way it is with us. And oh, beloved,
why in the world did God say, let me show you this, and then
I'm done. Chapter 9, verse 21. This tells us about the work
of Christ, what's going to happen. Shows us the death of Christ
and its accomplishments. the death of Christ and His accomplishments,
what it says in verse twenty-four. Chapter nine, verse twenty-four.
And this is that seventy weeks. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal up the vision and the
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. And I mean, he describes it just
what Christ's going to do, how he's going to be cut off. Not
for himself. Not for himself. And why do people
suffer? Why do the worst people suffer? In verse 35 of chapter 11, and
it'll be the last thing. talking about falling, and some
of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, to purge,
to make them white, even to the time of the end, because it is
yet for an a time appointed." When these false prophets come
along, some of the people will fall, but it's just a trial,
just a trial.