to Daniel Chapter 11. First of all, for anybody that's
listening on Free Grace Radio to this, an apology. We had a
problem last week, a technical problem, and we lost too much
of the message, so it wasn't worth putting it up on the website. So if you've been following the
series, I'm sorry about the fact that there's a gap for Chapter
10. But we come today to Chapter
11, and we continue the vision that was started in chapter 10. This is the last vision of the
book of Daniel. You know we've had a series of
visions, but chapters 10, 11 and 12 are the last vision of
the book and they're taken together. And this was a vision that was
delivered to Daniel by Christ himself. It was delivered by
God in the person of his son before he was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the king. Hundreds of years before,
530 odd years before then. He appeared to Daniel on the
banks of the river Tigris and he gave him this vision of world
history. He gave him this vision and the
experience, this was the main point of last week's message,
the experience of having Christ give him that message in the
presence of the living God, it drained every ounce of strength
from his body. It was as if he was dead. It
was like John the Apostle when he saw the risen Christ on the
island of Patmos in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 17 and John
said he saw that vision which is so like the vision of Daniel
chapter 10 and John said and I fell at his feet as though
dead because this presence is beyond anything that we can imagine
anything that we can imagine you know Daniel was what anybody
by human reckoning would call a holy man he was a holy man
and yet he fell at his feet as dead. All his strength drained
from him. He was in the presence of the
living God. But he was strengthened. In that
presence he was strengthened. A hand was put upon his shoulder.
He was brought to his feet to hear the voice of God speaking
to him. And what was the basis of that?
It was grace. Grace from God. It was a fear
not from God. Why does God say to many, many
people, to so many, that you better fear him? We all must
fear him for what he is, he's the living God. But there are
those who need to fear him, for it is a dreadful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Our God, says the scripture,
is, not was, not the Old Testament God, our God is a consuming fire. So why does God say, fear not? It's on the basis of the gospel.
of His grace, and only on the basis of the gospel of His grace.
It's in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ if we're found in
Him. The God who has made us, the
God who is our judge, the God who holds every aspect of our
lives in His hands says, fear not, for He has satisfied justice
on the behalf of all of His people in the person of His Son. And
so therefore He says to Daniel, peace be unto you. Peace with
God. How many times in the epistles
of Paul, you read those words, peace from God, it's not just
a glib, oh, how are you doing today? It's not just that sort
of, it's, this is peace from God, peace with God, the peace
of God. This is a tremendous thing. And
what he's showing is that God is ordering all of history for
the purposes of his people and to fulfill God's purpose in salvation. You see, we see all the politics
of the world going on all around us. The world leaders are assembling
in Copenhagen any day now, tomorrow is it, to talk about how they're
going to stop the world from becoming too hot. Well, yes,
have a good try. I don't pour scorn on attempts
to be more careful with the resources that we've been given. I've thought
for many, many years, before anybody started talking about
climate change, that we ought to be an awful lot more careful
about how we use the world's resources so I don't think that
I'm on the bandwagon on the other side but who do they think they
are? It's the God of the universe
that controls all these things God controls all of these things
and these things are written for our comfort you know what
Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 15 and verse 4 he said for whatsoever
things were written aforetime the book of Daniel was written
aforetime Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, the learning of the people of God, the learning
of those who are in Christ, that we, through patience and comfort
of the Scriptures, might have hope. These Scriptures are to
give us comfort. In believing the Lord Jesus Christ,
in believing what God has said concerning salvation, in trying
to make sense of the world all around us, these Scriptures are
to comfort us. The comfort of the Scriptures
patience and comfort of the scriptures and that it gives us a hope that
solid hope that God is in control of all these things fear not
don't be afraid of anything that happens you see we look around
today we look at the world around us we look at the state of things
we look at the state of the church and the state of the gospel and
we're inclined to despair absolutely look at us here we're gathered
again for anybody listening We're gathered today in a living room,
the reason being that the schoolroom that we normally rent, the burglar
alarm was going off and it was too noisy, we had to come back
to the house of one of our people. So that's where we are, just
a tiny number in a village, but nevertheless there must be three
or four thousand people in this village and we're just a tiny
number amongst them. And you almost start to despair.
How can this possibly be right? I was asked, I met an old acquaintance
the other evening, who was talking about church things and he was
saying, how's it going in Nedworth? You're getting lots of people
from the village? And I said, no, none, none, just one or two,
just a handful, just the family members and one or two friends
gathering together, that's all. Oh, never mind, think how it
was for us. And then lots of people started
to come. Well, it depends what sort of
methods you use. It just depends exactly what sort of message
you preach. Oh yes, Yes, if we preach the right message, we'd
fill the place, but would it be the message of God? Would
it be that? No, I don't think so. So no,
this is for our comfort. So I want you to see this morning,
in this passage of the Word of God, from which we seek to draw
comfort of the Scriptures, I want you to see history and who is
in control of history. I want you to see the continuing
reality of Antichrist, because we need to be aware of it so
that we're not shaken and we're not disturbed and we're not knocked
off course and we're not doubting our faith because it's a reality
and then I want you to see in the midst of it all exploits
a people that do exploits those three things first of all history
now I said that Daniel chapter 11 is a very long chapter and
there's an enormous amount of detail in it and it's by no means
my purpose this morning to go through all of that detail. I've
put one or two hints of it down in the bulletin article and there's
a lot more that could be said. But it's Christ that's continuing
to speak. In chapter 11 and verse 1 you
see also I in the first year of Darius the Mede, that's not
Daniel speaking, that's Christ, that's this heavenly visitor
who's speaking to Daniel. In the first year of Darius the
Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. God was
in control. The heart of the king is in the
hand of God. And you read through all of this,
and it's at first very confusing detail. And it's only relatively
recently, by which I mean the last few hundred years against
the scale of this, that historians have been able to fit it all
together and to see how incredibly accurately each one of these
things has been fulfilled. Do you know it has been said,
taking the Scriptures as a whole, taking the Scriptures overall,
all of the prophecies that were written before the events happened
and then were fulfilled perfectly, if you were to do the mathematics
and work out the probability of that happening, it is so unlikely
to happen by chance, by good guesses, that I think somebody's
equated it to the probability You know we have this national
lottery and there's something like a 14 million to one chance
that if you play the lottery you'll win the jackpot. I think
the odds are something like that, there or thereabouts. It's like
playing the lottery every week for a thousand years and winning
the lottery jackpot every single time. Not anybody else, you win
it. You see, it's that remote. The point I'm making is The only
way it can be so accurate is if the God who ordained it brought
it to pass. That's the reason why. It's not
good guesses. It's not somebody's almanac,
as I keep telling you. And what's it all about? Well,
it's about Middle Eastern power struggles between about 400 BC
and 150 BC, over a period of about 250 years. And it was written
around 531 BC. Now, are the BCs confusing you? 531 B.C. is that much long ago, 400
B.C. is not so long ago, and 150 B.C. is a bit less long ago. It was
written at least a hundred years before the very first thing it
predicted happened. In verse 2, look, I will show
thee the truth. Now I will show thee the truth. This is Christ speaking. Now
I will show thee the truth. This is the one who said, John
17, verse yes John 17 verse 7 thy word is truth thy word is truth
he says I will show thee the truth behold they shall stand
up yet three kings in Persia and the fourth shall be far richer
than they all and his strength through his riches you see he's
saying a very powerful Persian king is coming that was Xerxes
Xerxes reigned from 485 BC to 465 BC. It's the history of Herodotus. The earlier bit where I said
400 is all the more detailed North and South Kings battles
but Xerxes was 485 to 465 BC and you might have, I remember
as a boy at school when I was about seven or eight years old
starting to get really interested in history and I remember the
teacher telling us the stories from the history of Herodotus,
the stories of Xerxes and the battle of Thermopylae and the
battle of Salamis, you know those things, Rick's nodding his head,
ringing a bell, it really thrilled, it really grabbed my attention
in those days. Christ told Daniel what was going to happen a long
time before it actually happened. Absolutely amazing. Verses 3
and 4 is the rise and fall of Alexander the Great. We've already
seen him in previous visions, in chapters 7 and 8 we've seen
him. And then right the way down to verse 20 from about verse
5 down to verse 20 is this period of about 400 BC to 150 BC, which
is the power struggles between what's called the Kings of the
North and the Kings of the South. And what they are in history
is the Seleucid or Seleucid, I don't know how you pronounce
it, Kings of the North, the area that we would call Turkey or
Syria today, with the Ptolemies of Egypt. They were all the Ptolemy
emperors, Ptolemy such and such a thing, and Ptolemy something
else. They were the kings of Egypt. They were the kings of
the South. And all these... The historians from archaeological
records and other writings have pieced it all... It's absolutely
accurate in every detail. One comes in verse 15. In verse 15. So the king of the
North shall come and cast up a mount. And this was Philip
of Macedon. And there was a victory at Sidon.
And how did he do it? He built a ramp. up to the city,
and that's how he overcame the city. We knew that from archaeology,
after the event, and from other records, exactly as had been
foretold long, long before. Now as I say, we haven't got
time to make this a history lesson, and we want something that's
profitable for our souls. So if you want to know more,
look at John Gill's commentary. In the bulletin I've put where
you can find it. If you've got a computer and
an internet access, you can go and read John Gill's commentary
on these verses. You'll find an enormous amount
of detail. There's a commentary by E.J. Young, which is reckoned
to be very, very good in terms of confirming the historical
accuracy of these things, and that it's not, as the secular
historians claim, written after the event. They only say that
because they can't possibly believe in divinely inspired writings.
But he shows it was written before it happened. And then, more up
to date, there's a commentary written by Stuart Elliot, not
much more than about 20 years ago, published by Evangelical
Press. It's called Dare to Stand Alone. And although it goes through
the historical aspects somewhat superficially, he admits this,
nevertheless it gives you an outline of what was going on. But what it does is it confirms
our confidence in this book. That's what this is about. If
you can rely on it, because the historical record is absolutely
accurate, then surely you can rely on it when it tells you
things about eternal life. When it tells you matters of
life and death. when it talks about sin and judgment
to come. If it can talk so accurately
about history, surely, surely this is the Word of God that
speaks the truth to us. Thy Word is truth. As believers,
as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't need assurance
like this to believe God's Word. You just believe Him because
He's God. And by faith. It's not by reasoning
that you understand these things. It's not by mental reason. It's
by faith that you believe these things. God gives you that spiritual
sight. But it doesn't hurt, does it?
It doesn't hurt to know that the scripture, the prophecies
it contains, the subsequent history that's worked out, is all. You know what history is? I know
one young man who's very keen on history and I fully support
him in this. History is his story. It's God's
story. He wrote it in that scroll. You
read in the book of Revelation, there's a scroll of God. And
none was found worthy to unloose the seals of that scroll. That
is the outworkings of God in history. And he wrote it down
in this book that we have in our hands. It's his story. And
when God appears to be nowhere, because you read this account,
and it's as if the politicians are just doing their thing, like
they are today. The to-ing and fro-ing, Afghanistan,
Iraq, America, Britain, Europe, the world. They're doing their
thing and there's not a mention of the God of the universe, is
there? Not a mention. He's not on the scene. He hasn't got a part in this
play, which is world history, so it seems. It didn't seem as
though God had a part in this to-ing and fro-ing of the kings
of the North and the kings of the South. But he was actually
stage managing, if I can use that term, every, every aspect
of it. Turn to Revelation chapter 19,
right at the very end of the scripture, Revelation chapter
19, and see how things really are. Revelation chapter 19 and
verse 5, And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great, And I heard, as it were, the voice
of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God Omnipotent." Do you know what omnipotent means? Omni,
all, potent, powerful. All powerful. The Lord God All
Powerful reigns. Now does that comfort your soul?
Child of God, does that comfort your soul this morning? The Lord
God Omnipotent reigns. He is stage-managing the whole
of history for the purpose of His people, for the glory of
His elect, for the glory of His Son, that He might order all
things, that not one of them should be lost, not one of His
people who were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of
the world, not one of them should be lost. So then, moving on,
that's history. It's His story. Antichrist, Antichrist. So why are things like they are?
Why are things so bad? If God is so much in control,
why are things so bad? From verse 21 down towards the
end of the chapter, and there's a mistake in the bulletin, towards
the end of the article in the bulletin, I put from verse 6,
the last paragraph, from verse 6, I meant verse 36, a little
bit of a slip of the typing there, from verse 36 towards the end,
the the message changes a bit but from verse 21 down to verse
35 the focus is on an individual that we've seen before we've
seen him portrayed in previous chapters of this book and this
man is Antiochus Epiphanes remember him? Antiochus Epiphanes he's
in verse 21 and in his estate, that's in the estate in the place
of the king that went before shall stand up a vile person,
the scripture calls him. This is the vile person. This
is Antiochus Epiphanes. To whom they shall not give the
honor of the kingdom. Why? Because he wasn't in the
proper lineage of the kingdom. He was a usurper. He took the
throne by deceit and trickery. He was a scoundrel. He'd been
in prison in Rome for quite some time. And when he got out, he
came and took the throne of the northern kingdom by deceit. That's
why it says, this, remember, hundreds of years before it happened,
he shall not have the honour of the kingdom, because he wasn't
the proper king. He took it by force and deceit. He shall come
in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. You see? Deceitful. Double-tongued. That's how he got to where he
was. And he was a vile person. He was a dreadful person. He
continued these constant power struggles. He continued to try
deceit to overcome the Kingdom of the South. And in 168 BC,
he began a new campaign against Egypt. Verse 28, if you go down
there, "...then shall he return into his land with great riches,
and his heart shall be against the Holy Covenant." He's starting
to get uppity about the Jews and what's going on in Jerusalem.
and he shall do exploits and return to his own land. At the
time appointed he shall return and come toward the south." You
see, he's starting an attack again on Egypt. "'But it shall
not be as the former or as the latter.' Verse 30. "'For the
ships of Chittim shall come against him. Therefore he shall be grieved.'"
Those ships of Chittim were Roman. A Roman fleet. A Roman fleet
under the command of a man called Popilius. or something like that. But Roman ships came, again,
all attested by history working itself out. They frustrated Antiochus
Epiphanes in his battle against Egypt and so he was indignant. He was absolutely furious about
this and he had to go home. And in his indignation he turned
all of his attention on Jerusalem and Judah and the Jews. He turned
all of his attention upon them. He set about this systematic,
determined campaign to destroy everything to do with the Jewish
religion in Jerusalem. Look at it. With indignation,
verse 30, against the Holy Covenant. And so shall he do. He shall
even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the Holy
Covenant. and arms shall stand on his part,
and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away
the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abominations
that maketh desolate, and such as do wickedly against the covenant
shall he corrupt by flatteries." You see, a determined campaign. What was Jerusalem? I keep telling
you this, but it's important that you see it this way. Everything
about Jerusalem and the temple and the daily sacrifice that
is mentioned there is the gospel. It's the gospel in picture, in
type, in symbol. What is the gospel? It's how
can a man be just with God? How can a man who is a sinner
be just with a God who is holy? How can a man have God the Lord
say unto him, fear not, peace be unto you? glad tidings of
great joy. We'll think about it this time
of year. It's coming up in the next three or four weeks. How
can he say that? It's on the basis of that covenant,
of that gospel, of that substitutionary atonement that was enacted every
day in that daily sacrifice. How did they get right with God?
One had to dine in their place. It was an animal that was symbolizing,
a lamb, perfect, without spot or blemish, symbolizing that
perfect Lamb of God of which John the Baptist pointed to him
to say, behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of
the world. All of those were types and pictures of Christ
and it was on the basis of that that we get right with God. And
this man, this Antichrist, this spirit of Antichrist, set about
destroying that. He was venomous in his campaign
against them. He was absolutely brutal. And
look what he did in verse 30. He consulted with apostate Jews,
with them that forsake the Holy Covenant. He used intelligence
that he got from them. Those that had appeared as though
they were Jews, enacting the rites of the Temple, who were
on the side of the Gospel, turned out to be the allies of Antichrist. Is that starting to ring bells
with you? Is that not what we see today, up and down this land
of ours and throughout the world? We see those who once claimed
to stand for the gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption,
joining forces, becoming allies with the spirit of Antichrist,
which flies in the face of the gospel of God's grace. It's happening
all around. What was once reliable, trustworthy
publication is now completely compromised with the things of
Arminian-based, works-based, man-centered religion. That's
the way it is. So that's what was going on.
This systematic destruction of the temple, this systematic thing. But you know, it wasn't really
Antiochus Epiphanes. He's just but one vile example
of opposition to the gospel of God's grace. He's a spirit, he's
an embodiment of the spirit of Antichrist at that time. What
is it really? What do we wrestle with? Paul
tells us in Ephesians, we wrestle not, Ephesians 6, verse 12 thereabouts,
we wrestle not with flesh and blood, we wrestle not, these
people wrestle not with Antiochus Epiphanes, vile person though
he was, but with the principalities and powers, the spiritual forces
that motivated him, that brought him to the fall because we have
that picture in Revelation chapter 12 of the dragon which is Satan
and his aim is to destroy the gospel of Christ to destroy the
Christ of God to destroy the church of God to devour the woman
which is the picture that's his objective that's the way it is
but it's all in God's control all of it in God's control look
at some scriptures briefly let me remind you 2 Thessalonians
and chapter 2 I want to show you that you see
it's not just Antiochus Epiphanes but it's all the time all around
us the opposition to the true gospel of God's sovereign grace
what is it when you know we read in 1 John chapter 4 about testing
the spirits Don Faulkner told us a couple weeks ago didn't
he that's not talking about testing ghosts the spirits are preachers
Test the preachers. Test those who claim to be coming,
preaching the gospel to you, whether they be of God, whether
they be true. And this is the test. He who
denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.
Now you say, oh, well, they all say that Jesus Christ came in
the flesh, so that means that every one of them is a good preacher.
No, that's not what it means. You have to read on and compare
scripture with scripture. What John means there is this,
that Jesus Christ came in the flesh to redeem a particular
people that the Father had given to Him from before the foundation
of the world, to do the will of the Father, which was that
none of those people should be lost, but that every one of them
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world should be counted
righteous in His sight, should have the holiness without which
no man shall see God, should have their sins completely washed
away, their sin debt paid to the uttermost in Him. by His
coming in the flesh, because if He didn't come in the flesh,
and if He didn't take on the form of sinful flesh, yet without
sin, and if He didn't go to the cross of Calvary, and that if
He didn't live under that law of God, then no way could one
of those people ever be saved. That's what it means to confess
that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Jesus Christ didn't come
in the flesh to give everybody an opportunity. Jesus Christ
came in the flesh to save His people from their sins. That's
why His name was called Jesus. For He shall save His people
from their sins. So 2 Thessalonians chapter 2
and verse 3. Let no man deceive you by any
means for that day shall not come. He's talking about the
end of the world except there come a falling away first and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. This is
Antichrist. This is the spirit of Antichrist.
This may be one particular individual standing up and out from amongst
all the rest. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 3. He's the son of perdition. And
what does he do? He opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or is worshipped, so that he,
as God, taking the place of God, sits in the temple of God, showing
himself that he is God. This is the spirit of Antichrist.
look at 1 John again 1 John chapter 2 1 John chapter 2 and verse 18 little
children it is the last time it has been ever since Christ
returned to glory we are in the last time and as ye have heard
that Antichrist shall come Right? Thessalonians was talking about
one who sounds like he's still to come before the end comes.
Even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the
last time. These are the days we're living
in. Spiritual compromise, spiritual treachery, antichrists forming
a league with those who betrayed, forsook the Holy Covenant. That's what's happening. That's
what we see all around us. Therefore don't be surprised
about it. If we preach, there are other scriptures we could
look at and I've put some in the bulletin, look them up for yourselves,
but for the sake of time we won't stop there. But if we preach
the true biblical gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption,
you know the flesh, if your flesh doesn't have a problem with that,
if your sinful flesh doesn't have a problem with that, you
haven't heard what the scriptures are saying. The flesh has a problem
with that. That's why so many of Christ's
so-called disciples went away from Him. They said in John chapter
6, this is an hard saying. Who can tolerate it? Who can
stand it? Who can bear it? And many walk no longer with
Him. But by the Spirit of God, He gives faith to His people
to hear, to believe, and in the face of what the flesh says,
believes God. Abraham believed God. and it
was counted to him for righteousness what he believed in. That God
will save a people by sovereign grace and particular redemption.
But be sure, when you stand up to preach it, Antichrist will
stand up to oppose. Antichrist will stand up if he
gets a chance to kill and to slay as he has in the past. Antichrist
will stand up to ridicule and sideline and make you appear
so insignificant that you're not worth being taken any notice
of at all. Antichrist will stand up and
will side with all of the powers of those that have forsaken the
Holy Covenant in order to accomplish his purposes. He joins with them. And the opposition is directed
at the message of grace alone. This is it. It's a message of
grace alone. And that's what he opposes. It's
the message of election. Oh, you say, ah, but they say
they believe election. Yes, they do, but hold on. It's
about justification. Oh, they say they believe justification
in Christ. Yes, they do. Yes, they say all
these things. It's about Christ coming in the flesh for that
single purpose of standing surety, specifically for the people the
Father gave Him, to do that will of His Father, to lose none of
them. It's continuing today exactly like that, but it's often a very
convincing forgery of the truth. Do you remember that the Scriptures
say to the people of God that this would deceive some of the
deception that comes of antichrist would deceive even the elect
if that were possible but it isn't possible because he won't
lose one of them he will not lose a solitary one of them but
there are some forgeries that are very convincing forgeries
and would deceive even the elect if that were possible what they
do is they give themselves away if you look carefully enough
and you know what they do? they add ever such a tiny pinch
of corrupting, man-centered leaven. This is why the scripture talks
about leaven being a corrupting influence. You know how yeast,
you put a tiny pinch in and it fills the whole thing and then
you've got a whole loaf that's filled up with... I mean, it
produces a result that we enjoy very much, but it's a corrupting
influence. It's a fungal, corrupting influence. And it pictures the
corrupting influence of man-centered religion on the gospel of grace.
It's important that we understand this. You see, they change the
God-ordained message and method, which is this message of sovereign
grace and particular redemption, for one that's designed to appeal
to the reason and innate spiritual ability of fallen man. They say
if we dress it up in this particular way, if we bring all these particular
arguments then surely they will see how reasonable this is. I
mean, they will look and they will say, oh, look at that celebrity
that's believing these things. I think I'll go along with that
and I'll believe it too. Do you see how it's a treacherous
denial of the gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption?
And it's by adding that tiny, tiny pinch of man-centered religion,
of man-centered, work-centered religion, so that all the words
about sovereign grace, about election, about justification,
come to mean nothing. Because in every case that little
pinch of man-centered, work-centered religion is added to it. And
so, they've gone, look at Jude, look at the little epistle of
Jude just before Revelation. Just the one chapter. And verse 11, Woe unto them, for they have
gone in the way of Cain. What was the way of Cain? Man-centered
religion, work-centered religion. I can bring something that God
must value to him. And ran greedily after the error
of Balaam for reward. You know, Paul speaks elsewhere
of their God being their belly. They're in it for what they can
get out of it. They're not in it for the purpose and honor
of the God of the universe. They're in it for what they can
get out of it, as was Balaam, that false prophet, and perished
in the gainsaying of Korah. That's what he's talking about,
this corrupting, this forsaking the Holy Covenant and joining
forces with Antichrist against this pure message that God has
revealed. But in the midst of it all, and
with this we finish, in the midst of it all, verse 32, there's
a dreadful situation but the people that do know their God
shall be strong and do exploits. In the middle of Antiochus Epiphanes
doing his very worst in Jerusalem, in destroying the daily sacrifice,
in putting up his pagan altar in the place of the altar of
burnt offering in the temple at Jerusalem, all these things
which he did, in killing and slaying thousands of faithful
Jews in Jerusalem, there was a people that did know their
God and they were strong to do exploits. God still has his people. even today in the face of Antichrist
who know Him and what is it to know Him what is it to know the
living God in knowing Him we have eternal life through the
atonement John chapter 17 turn to some scriptures John chapter
17 right at the start of his prayer before he goes to the
cross and verse 3 He says in verse 2, as it's written
to his father, as thou, father, hast given him power, Christ
has got power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. Knowing God is to have eternal
life through his atonement. Look at 1 John chapter 5, 1 John
chapter 5 and 1 John chapter 5 and verse
13 These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may
know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God And verse 20, And we know that the Son
of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we
may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. You see, knowing Him, people
that do know their God have eternal life through the atonement that
is in His Son. In Philippians, Philippians chapter
3, No need to turn to it if you
can't get there quickly, but in Philippians chapter 3 and
verse 10, "...that I may know Him," says Paul, "...and the
power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being made conformable to His death, if by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Knowing Him is
to have that eternal life that is in Him. In 2nd Timothy chapter
1 and verse 12, you don't need to turn to it because it's a
hymn that we often sing. I know, says Paul, whom I have
believed. I know Him, the people that do
know their God. I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed
unto Him. What have I committed unto Him? My eternal soul. The
eternal good of my eternal soul committed unto Him. He's able
to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day, against
that day of judgment. knowing him and having eternal
life and strengthened by the hope that we have in him we do
exploits for the cause of the gospel verse thirty-three says
they that understand among the people shall instruct many yet
they shall fall by the sword and by the flame and by captivity
and by spoil many days they did in those days they did in the
days of the reformation when the martyrs were burned at the
stake and cruelly and brutally treated they that understand
among the people instructing many and yet coming across and
facing the most violent persecution and who knows what will befall
us before the end they instructed many but not without persecution
but what did we read earlier on in Romans chapter 8 and verse
18 the trials and sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us These things are just fleeting, but for a moment. This was the
hope that the martyrs had. This was the hope that that remnant
always had, down through all ages, in the face of Antichrist
and those who've made covenant with them. What exploits will
we do? Think of David with Goliath,
way before this time. There were the forces of Antichrist
in the form of the Philistines against the things of God. and
the temple worship, and everything that was there of David. And
what did he do? He that knew his God was strong,
without the weapons of human warfare, and did exploits, and
Goliath was slain. Think about Stephen, the martyr
in the Acts of the Apostles. Before, Paul was the Apostle
Paul, and he held the coats of those that threw the stones.
And think what exploits Stephen did. Even in that time of death,
of martyrdom, think what exploits he that knew his God did in the
name of God. Think about Paul and Silas in
the face of opposition from Antichrist and those who sided with him,
beaten with stripes, bound in prison, in terrible conditions,
yet singing and praising God and what exploits did they do
in the salvation of the household of that Philippian jailer. What
must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Think again of those Reformation martyrs who saw beyond those
things, those dreadful things, who saw beyond the pain of the
flames, who saw beyond all of those things. Think of those
things. Bring it up to date. We don't seem to be suffering
in this country, in our Western culture, this kind of violent
opposition. But think of Free Grace Radio.
What exploits are being accomplished through Free Grace Radio? Who
would have thought ten years ago that this could have been
happening? These are exploits in the face
of opposition. Think of things like Margaret's
funeral, for example, which was such a triumph of the gospel
in that situation. At least 250 people hearing words
of the gospel that they'd never heard before, most of them. And
even just keeping going here, in a tiny number, even just keeping
going, it's exploits. exploits. They that do know their
God are strong to do exploits. From the end of the chapter,
from verse 36 down to the end, is not about Antiochus Epiphanes.
It can't possibly fit anymore. It's the general spirit of Antichrist.
It's always with us. We must expect nothing else.
But it's all in God's eternal purpose for his elect. So we're
comforted by this scripture.