I'll turn to Daniel chapter seven
this morning. Daniel chapter seven. The kingdom
possessed by saints. That's the title of the message.
The kingdom possessed by saints. The structure of the book of
Daniel, I'll just remind you, is six chapters of history, one
to six, we've looked at those, and then six chapters of prophecy,
seven to twelve. And the chapters seven to twelve
are not necessarily in historical order. a set of visions that
were given at different times. The vision in chapter 7 was given
before the events of chapter 6 took place. It was when Belshazzar,
the one who had the writing on the wall, when he was on the
throne with his brother, but when he was ruling in Babylon,
Daniel had this dream and visions upon his head and he wrote the
dream and told the sum of the matter. So it's not necessarily
in order. And the language of this vision
is very similar to the book of Revelation. You read Daniel and
the book of Revelation, they're very, very similar language.
Look in verse 3. This is what he saw. Well, in
verse 2, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds
of heaven strove upon the great sea. You see, there's lots of
seas in Revelation, and winds, and the four great beasts came
up from the sea, diverse, different from one another, one like a
lion with eagle's wings. The swings were plucked off,
and it was made to stand on its feet as a man, and it was given
the heart of a man. And then another one, like a
bear, raised up on one side. You can imagine what a bear does. There was a program on the television
about brown bears in North America the other night. But this picture
of it standing on one side, and it's just eaten something because
it's got three ribs in its mouth. The picture is one of nature
red in tooth and claw. arise and devour much flesh. And then there was a third one,
which was a leopard. Leopard, swift and efficient,
and four wings of a fowl on its back. So it's speedy, it's efficient,
it's again, it's a beast of prey. And it had four heads, and dominion
was given to it. And then I saw in the night visions,
and behold, a fourth beast. And he can't liken it to anything
he's seen. He can't liken it to a lion,
or an elephant, or a bear, or anything like that. dreadful
and terrible, and exceedingly strong, and great iron teeth,
and devours and breaks in pieces. And we read later that it's got
really hard nails and claws that can do great damage. And it was
different. It was diverse from all the beasts
that were before it, and it had ten horns. And I considered the
horns, and behold, there came up among them another little
horn. So there's ten horns, and then another little horn comes
up, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up
by the roots. And behold, in this horn, this special horn,
who we'll give some attention to shortly, in this horn were
eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. And I looked, I beheld, till
the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit.
Listen to the description. Whose garment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was like
a fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire, and a fiery
steam issued and came forth from before him. Thousands and thousands
ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him, and the judgment was set, and the books were opened."
And you go on in verse 11, and because of the voice of the great
words of the horn, that little horn, I beheld even till the
beast was slain and his body destroyed and as concerning the
rest of the beast they had their dominion taken away and verse
13 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 and all the people and nations and languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed." And what was Daniel's reaction to
seeing all of that? Verse 15, Oh great, he's spiritually
strong and he never ever has any fears or worries. No, I was
grieved in my spirit. If things trouble you, don't
be alarmed. It troubled Daniel. He was grieved
in his spirit in the midst of his body. and in the visions
of his head that troubled him. So what's this all about? Language
very similar to Revelation. That about the vision of the
Almighty, the Ancient of Days. You know, wool, white wool and
eyes, hair like pure wool, thrown like a fiery flame. Read Revelation
chapter 1 of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, standing. I turned
and I heard a voice and it was the Son of Man. And this is the
description of the Son of Man. And then the Son of Man comes
to the Ancient of Days, but of course, it's the persons of the
Trinity. This is the Godhead, because the Son of Man is given
all of this power and glory of verse 14. You see, very, very,
very similar to the book of Revelation. Beasts and horns and powers and
the Almighty ruling over all of these things. Of course, there
are bizarre misinterpretations made of all of this. There's
an entire literary industry that's made some people very rich because
a lot of people are incredibly gullible and they will go and
buy this rubbish and they will read it and, you know, I can't
remember the names of the people, it's probably a good idea that
I can't because I don't want to give them any inadvertent
plug, but if you see this sort of literature around so-called
Christian bookshops, give it a wide berth, it's rubbish, it's
just nonsense, it's not worth the time of day looking at it,
because when human wisdom comes to the Word of God, without the
Spirit of God, this is the sort of fantastical nonsense that
they come up with. It's just not worth looking at.
The Word of God is for the comfort of God's people, not to give
you fantastic stories to keep you awake at night. That's the
sort of thing. Do you know they... I remember
that there were people who were regarded in the so-called church,
evangelical churches, as those who were good at interpreting
prophecy. It's funny that there were nearly always women as well,
but anyway, that's another matter. I remember one elderly lady,
Miss, I won't say her name, but bow down before her because she's
got the power of interpretation of prophecy. And everybody used
to go around to this Miss So-and-So's house and she'd put boards up
with drawings of all sorts of weird things that were all going
to happen. And everybody was all taken up with it. Completely
Miss Christ. Completely Miss Salvation. Completely. Nothing to do with it. Just all
this fantastical nonsense. But what's it all for? Is it
to give us things to keep us awake at night? Is it to give
us things where we're trying to fit together this complex,
bizarre jigsaw puzzle? No. The purpose of the Word of
God for His people is comfort, isn't it? It's comfort to God's
people. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1, God
says to the prophet, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, says
your God. Say unto my people, their warfare
is finished, their sins are pardoned. Comfort. This is the purpose
of the Word of God. Encouragement is the purpose
of the Word of God. This is what it's for. This is
the bread from heaven. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
who is the Word, who is our spiritual food, our spiritual bread. He
encourages his people. He builds our confidence that
our God reigns. You know, the charismatics, they
get together and they sing their hymn and they're waving their
arms in the air, our God reigns, our God reigns. And I doubt whether
any of them really know the meaning, the slightest meaning of the
words that they're singing. But we believe it. Our God reigns. Our God reigns. He's on the throne
of the universe. And therefore we have confidence.
And we don't look at the odds against us. We have confidence. Because His purpose is to comfort
His people. To save a people out of the sea
of mankind. All fallen in sin in Adam. All
corrupt. All worthy of condemnation. But
His purpose is to save a people. And He saves those people out
of that situation, and He brings us to Christ, and He brings us
to eternal glory. And He comforts us. I thought,
well, let's look up some references to comfort in the Scriptures.
And I put it in my online Bible, and I don't need to. There are
just too many. Just turn up your New Testament.
You won't be able to go more than a few verses in Paul's epistles,
other than there's a word of comfort to the people of God.
There's a word of consolation. there's a word of encouragement,
there's a word of fear not, there's a word of an arm of spiritual
comfort coming around you. You see, our situation here is
one of being a very small number and regarded with contempt by
the world around, being regarded with contempt by religion. Even that which calls itself
Reformed Baptist religion regards us with contempt. And groups
like us, there are groups up and down this country like us
But they're regarded with contempt by the religious establishment,
and especially by that which claims to be in the Calvinistic
tradition as well. They regard it with contempt.
Oh, they're extreme. They've gone off down some hyper-Calvinistic
backwater. Just leave them to themselves.
Regarded with contempt. But all we're seeking to do is
to worship Christ through the true gospel that He has revealed. With no twisting of it, with
no molding of it to fit what seems reasonable to man. You
see, the gospel of God's sovereign grace is not reasonable. Let's
get rid of this myth once and for all. There's this notion
that if we present enough arguments, if we get the most powerful scientist
to array himself against Richard Dawkins, then we'll be able to
put to flight all objections and the whole world will become
Christians and they'll come flocking to us. because they'll use their
human wisdom and they'll work out, oh yes, what he's saying
is wrong and there is a God in heaven and I must come and seek
that God. I must come and worship that God. That's absolute nonsense.
The scriptures don't say it's like that. Not at all. The gospel
of sovereign grace is not reasonable to human intellect. It isn't.
It's a stumbling block to the religious folks. It's foolishness
to the Greeks, the people in general. That's the way it is.
Don't be upset by it. Get used to the idea. That's
what God has said. It isn't reasonable to the natural
man. But oh, it's the sweetest, most
reasonable thing to the eye of faith that he gives to his people.
It is. It is. You see, it can't be made
reasonable. I'll give you an example. We
believe that God, from before the beginning of time, the Father
gave a people to the Son. And those people were chosen
by the Father. out of all humanity, not according
to any works that he foresaw, but of his sovereign grace. People
use that term and they don't believe what it says. His sovereign
grace, meaning it's entirely of him. It's not of the people
he saves. By sovereign grace he has elected
a people. And so then the argument comes
back as Paul addresses it in Romans chapter 9. So why then
does he find fault with those he didn't elect? because he does
find fault with those he didn't elect. And he says that when
it comes to the Day of Judgment all will see that their rejection
was entirely their own fault. That they deliberately, consciously
and knowingly rejected the salvation of Christ and went their own
way. And to human logic and to human reason that doesn't make
sense. That's illogical. It doesn't
tie up in human reasoning. But it's what the Word of God
reveals. And it's the story of John chapter 6. This is a hard
saying, said many of the so-called disciples. And they went away.
And they were whittled down to just the little group of immediate
disciples around Jesus. And he said to them, does this
offend you also? Because you can't work it out
either with your human wisdom. Does this offend you also? Will
you also go away? To which Peter, always the mouthpiece,
he says, to whom shall we go? You're right, there are things
I just do not understand. But to whom shall we go? Nobody
else has the words of eternal life. And I must have the words
of eternal life. And the things that comfort me
and the things that give me confidence for eternity, I cannot walk out
on them. You have the words of eternal
life. So you see, we're regarded with
contempt. We're regarded as unreasonable.
And it can't be made reasonable. It's the foolishness of preaching
is this message. It's that stumbling block. And
we're often tempted to think, have we got something wrong?
Because so few people come. Is this of the Lord? Surely they
would say, if it's of the Lord, then the people from Nebwith
will be flocking in through the doors. That would show that it
was of the Lord. But they're not flocking in, therefore it's not
of the Lord. That's the way the argument goes. I've heard that.
And so then we start to think, well, maybe we're doing something
wrong. Maybe they've got a point. Maybe we do start to need to
adopt the methods of the world and worldly religion in order
to get people to come in. Maybe we ought to have some special
guest that we can interview or something like that maybe they'll
come in off the street just out of curiosity and then we'll be
able to slip in a gospel message once they're here and by contact
with people they'll find out that we're not really weird people
that they must avoid but they're people that we can and then gradually
they'll come in no we preach the gospel of God's sovereign
grace and we leave it to God to open blind eyes we leave it
to God to address those things you see From our perspective,
we can often despair. We can often, yes, we'd love
to see more people, but let's not despair about it because
the Scriptures give us a view from God's perspective. You remember
I told you last week about the servant of Elisha, who all he
could see was the armies of Syria arrayed against them. And it's
all up for us, my Lord. We're finished. We're done for.
And Elisha prays, O Lord, please open his eyes that he might see
that those who are for us are greater than those who are against
us show him things from your perspective Lord is what he said
and his eyes were opened and he saw that all around them were
the hosts of God arrayed for them so this is a view from God's
perspective you see we seem so insignificant you look back at
the history of the world and you think well that's just the
way it happened no it's the way God ordained it God ordained
it and why did he ordain it? to save a people out from amongst
it for the glory of his name. That little, tiny, insignificant
stone that was hewn, which was Christ in Nebuchadnezzar's vision,
would come and would grow and would fill the earth and would
crush all of those kingdoms that that statue represented to powder. This is a vision from God's perspective,
that he controls all things for the good of his people, for his
son's bride, and all things includes world history. You see, He's
described as the Ancient of Days in verses 9 and 13 and 22. He's described as the Ancient
of Days. Psalm 90 verse 2 says this, Before
the mountains were brought forth... They're pretty solid things,
aren't they? If you've ever climbed up one, you know that they are.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting,
thou art God. He's God through everything.
Not like the kings, however powerful they may be, who rise and who
fall, who come and who go. And the Son of Man comes, verses
13 and 14. We saw it just before. And dominion
alone belongs to Him. It belongs to the Almighty. Dominion
belongs to Him. I saw in the night visions, verse
13, 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, you see now the erroneous
thinkers start to think, oh there's two people. There's almighty
God and then there's this lesser being that he's created. But
look, what was given to the Son of Man. Verse 14, there was given
him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people, nations and
languages should serve him. If he's not God, that's blasphemy,
isn't it? God says He will not share His
glory or His dominion with another. He will not share His glory with
another. And they should serve Him, the
Son of Man, who is Almighty God. This is what this is saying.
He, our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Sovereign of the universe.
As Peter said on that day of Pentecost, in his sermon, Acts
2 verse 36, he said to them, God has made this same Jesus,
this man whom you despised, This man who you nailed to a cross
and you crucified and you murdered, he's made this same Jesus both
Lord and Christ. Power and dominion is given to
him. And what is the sum of the whole
thing of this vision? It's in verses 17 and 18. These great beasts which are
four are four kings which shall arise out of the earth. In other
words, just in one potted sentence, the whole of the history of the
world will come and go. Verse 18, And it will seem like
it's so big and so domineering that you can't have the slightest
pinprick effect upon it, you people of God, you people who
follow Christ, you people whom He has redeemed from all humanity,
you people who are His saints, you people whom He has set apart
in Christ from before the foundation of the world. And it says this,
All this history happens, but the saints of the Most High shall
take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever even for
ever and ever that's the sum total of it that's it God is
ordering all history and all politics for the purpose of saving
his people and bringing them out of it and the riches that
we have in Christ you know it's very close to us at the moment
we're all just a breath away from eternity but at times Illness
in the family brings it very, very close to you and brings
the reality of it very much home to you. But oh, I tell you, the
riches, the sweetness, the treasure of knowing that it is well with
my soul, as that hymn says. You can possess no end of other
things, but nothing compares with the value, with the preciousness
of that, of the spiritual blessings that are in Christ. of knowing
that our sin debt has been paid. It's a wonderful, wonderful reassurance
to know, you know, even with our debts, our human financial
debts, it's great the day the mortgage gets paid off. It's
a lovely feeling and it's a tiny insignificant little picture
of what it is with Christ. My sin debt has been paid at
the bank of the justice of God. my sin debt has been cleared.
You go down there and there's all these debts, but my name
is not among them. My sin debt has been paid and
I'm robed. I'm not just had my debts cleared
and I'm sent out into the street naked and in ragged clothes.
No, I'm robed in the righteousness of Christ, which is a seamless
robe of righteousness. And I'm elevated, says this,
to a position of power with Him forever and ever. Where are you
now? Are you just a tiny minority
disregarded and considered with contempt? Or are you reigning
with Christ? The scriptures say we're reigning
with Christ. In the reckoning of God it's as good as done,
it's as good as complete. We watch all these things come
and go. But we rest in the fact that he's in control of all of
them. It's only as he permits and ordains all things work together
for the good of his people. The vision then, the vision is
that there is the sea. And what that represents in these
kind of visions is the mixing pot of mankind. The mixing pot
of mankind. And out of it comes these four
beasts. Now, we know that from the interpretation
given later, where he says these great beasts are four kings,
that the sea is mankind in general. It's the mixing pot of mankind
in the earth. And the four beasts are the lion,
the bear, the leopard, and then the one that's so dreadful there
isn't a beast it can be likened to. The beast with iron teeth
and the horns. The one that's separate from the rest of them.
And they're all brought to the ancient of days. They're all
brought to Christ. And we know that every knee shall
bow. Stephen mentioned it in his prayer. Every tongue shall
confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God. And Daniel
was shaken by what he saw, so don't be disturbed if you get
shaken. by some of these things. What's
going on? Daniel was shaken. This man who'd been given such
visions, who'd been given such faith, who'd been given the commitment
and the determination to purpose in his mind that he wouldn't
eat the king's food. And he stayed like that all through
his life till he was eighty-odd years old. He stayed faithful
to his God, but he was shaken when he saw these things. These
things are great, but then there's great comfort in them. So he
asks for the interpretation in verse 16, I came near and asked
the truth of all of this. What's this all about? So he
told me, this one who stood near, and made me know the interpretation
of all things." The interpretation is this. I believe it's very
similar to Daniel chapter 2 and the great statue that Nebuchadnezzar
saw and that Daniel was given the same vision of so that he
could interpret. It's exactly the same thing.
It's the four empires of world history. The four empires of
ancient world history. which have never been rivaled
in terms of their political worldwide domination. All the others are
just little horns by comparison, all the other empires that have
come. But the lion was Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon. And
why I say that is if you look back there in verse 4, this is
a lion with eagle's wings, strange beast. And I beheld till the
wings thereof were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth
This fearsome beast was made to stand upon his feet as a man,
and a man's heart was given to it. I believe that's a reference
to Nebuchadnezzar's conversion at the end of his reign, and
that the kingdom became a much more compassionate human kingdom,
rather than the vicious, ferocious beast that it had been. It became
a much more compassionate kingdom. That's what I believe that refers
to. And the bear is Medo-Persia. Darius and Cyrus and all that
sequence of kings and of power that came from them. A great
military force that ran through the earth. And then the leopard,
the leopard again which has wings, a winged leopard, extremely powerful
and swift and efficient, is Alexander the Great. Some of you might
have seen that there was an excellent documentary series, a history
documentary series a year or two ago. about Alexander the
Great, visited all the places that he conquered and looked
at his history. I mean, absolutely, people think that this book is
fiction. This is absolutely, this is world history before
it happened. He wrote this before Alexander the Great came. He
saw this vision because God ordained it. And Alexander the Great,
that great Greek empire, was the one that came and dominated
the world with the efficiency and speed of a winged leopard. And then there's this one which
is the fourth which is different from the others. The one that's
the fourth and different from the others has great iron teeth.
We can't describe it other than to say it's dreadful and terrible
and it devours and it breaks in pieces. And down in verse
20, sorry, verse 19, it's exceeding dreadful and it's got iron teeth
and nails of brass and it breaks in pieces. This was the Roman
Empire. which was different from the others in its military might
and its military efficiency. It was absolutely crushing in
its power. That vision of that beast, which was
the Roman Empire, lasted for a long time. And from it came
ten horns. Now in the Scriptures, in visions,
horns are always symbols of power, of political power. And there
came ten horns. Why ten? You see, now lots of
people When the European Union started out, it was six countries.
And this was in the 1970s, and they were going to expand it
so that we would go into it, and Spain, and maybe somebody
else, and it would become 10 countries. And all of the people
that used to go to Miss So-and-So's studies and look at the pictures,
they were all going, oh, no, no, no, we can't allow that.
We must vote against this because the European Union is going to
become the 10 of Daniel's prophecy, and the 10 of, it just means
completeness. in those terms. It's completeness. What comes from Rome was the
set, the complete set of political power that ran the world from
then on. These ten horns were not Rome,
but they were all of Rome. They came out of that Roman Empire.
They grew up from that Roman Empire. And what are they? It's all the complete world power
that's come from Rome. All the politics ever since that's
come from Rome. And you can You can say, well,
give me examples. I'm not going to give you a list
of 10, because I don't believe it is a literal list of 10. It's
a complete number in God's reckoning. But you could say the Church
of Rome, perhaps, the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire of
Islam, the British Empire even, Napoleon, the Soviet Union and
that empire that lasted for a while, the European Union, the USA,
all of these things. These are these horns. It's world
politics all around us, but the saints possess the kingdom forever
despite how big and how great they are the saints possess the
kingdom forever now I want to come to the little horn the one
special horn not of the ten he's one on his own he comes and he
plucks up three by the roots in front of him verse 8 I considered
the horns and behold there came up among them another little
horn before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up
by the roots. It's quite a powerful little
horn, this one. And behold, in this horn were
eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. This horn, this power, whatever
it is, sees like a fallen man, sees with the eyes of a man,
sees like a fallen man, and speaks with great certainty and great
confidence his own opinion. And his own opinion contradicts
the Word of God. He speaks against the Most High.
You see it again and again. He spoke in verse 20, he spoke
great things. Great, pompous, confident things,
whose look was more stout than his fellows. It was hard to knock
down. And in verse 24, The ten horns
out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, and another
shall arise after them. This is him. And he shall be
diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings, and
he shall speak great words. I'm not going to try and get
into a detailed fitting together of history. You can speculate.
I'm not going to fall out with anybody. You can think whoever
you like. The key issue is this, that it is God on the throne
of history, and the saints possess the kingdom. But this horn in
particular is diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three
kings, and he shall speak great words against the Most High,
and shall..." This is a quaint phrase, isn't it, in the King
James Version. "...he shall wear out..." You
know, you say, I'm absolutely worn out. "...he shall wear out
the saints of the Most High, and think to change..." He'll
put his own laws and times and try and adjust the creation to
his own laws and times. "...and they shall be given into
his hand." until a time, and times, and a dividing of time,
a half of time. He speaks with great certainty.
He has the eyes and the mouth of a man. He's solid. He's stocky. He's hard to knock down. He makes
war with the saints. He makes war with the saints.
And you know what saints are, lest there be anybody that's
got the slightest doubt. A saint is not somebody who's
canonized by the Church of Rome. There's not Saint John and Saint
somebody else. All who are believers in Christ
are saints, because all who are believers in Christ are set apart
by God from the foundation of the world. And you know they're
saints. Why? Because they believe Him. If
there was ever a test of canonization, it's this. Do they believe Christ?
If they do, they're saints of the Most High. The saints of
the Most High are His believing people. And this horn makes war
with the saints. And not only that, look at verse
21. He makes war with the saints.
And he prevails against them. He prevails. In the permissive
will of God, he's allowed to prevail against the saints. To
make it appear as though he's won. And he speaks great words
against God. And he wears out the saints.
And he acts like God. I believe that this is the one,
and I'll say more about this in a minute, who is spoken of
in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3 and 4. We read it earlier, you don't
need to turn to it now. Read it afterwards, 2 Thessalonians
2, verses 3 and 4. And that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, the son of lostness, who opposes and
exalts himself above all that is called God, puts himself in
the place of God, or that he's worshipped, so that he, as God,
sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. You see? usurping the place of God alone. A lot of people think that this
is one individual who has yet to come and yet be manifest.
I don't think that. I'm not going to fall out with
you if you do think that. What I do think is what John
Calvin and John Gill considered. That this horn is a spirit of
Antichrist that manifests itself throughout the ages of the time
from Christ's ascension to where we are now He speaks great things
against the Most High. Is it not the philosophy of our
day? Is it not the godless philosophy
of our day that exalts man, changes times and laws? You know, the
entire history of creation has been changed by those who hold
this, so that now it's taken as read. That it's not what God
has said that is done, but that it's their philosophy that has
formed things the way it is, isn't it? It's that spirit of
that Antichrist philosophy of the world in which we live. And
not only the world in which we live, but all of the religion
that opposes the truth of sovereign grace and particular redemption. All of that religion that uses
the words of the Reformation, uses the concepts of the Reformation,
uses the doctrines of the Scripture, but yet believes that you can
make this whole message reasonable for the average man to hear and
to understand and they commit spiritual treachery on all sides
because they walk away from the fact that it is not of him who
wills nor of him who runs but of God who shows mercy the one
who says I will have compassion upon whom I will have compassion
and whom he wills he hardens this is our God this is our sovereign
God this is the God of sovereign grace and election. This is the
God of tulip, I might say. That the whole of humanity is
totally depraved. That in Christ, He unconditionally,
without any foresight of good in these people, elected some
to salvation. That that salvation was limited,
was particular to those whom Christ atoned for. That by His
irresistible grace, in time, we're on the trail of the God's
elect. This is why we preach. This is why we put our messages
on the Internet. This is why we talk to people,
because we're on the trail of God's elect, because when the
Word comes, when the preacher preaches and the Word comes,
God the Spirit comes and by His irresistible grace, He breaks
down those barriers and they believe and they see the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And that which was foolishness and a stumbling block becomes
the very, very heart and core of their eternal hope. And He
causes them to persevere. to the end. He keeps them. This
is it. This is it. Everything that is
in that concept, that revelation of God in the gospel of His grace.
And the objective of these others, the objective of this little
horn, and this godless philosophy that's all around, is to airbrush
the truth of sovereign grace and particular redemption out
of existence. He wears out the saints. He prevails
against them. in Revelation chapter 11 we have
the two prophets Moses and Elijah who come and preach and they're
killed and they lie dead in the street and I believe that's very
much a picture of the day in which we live it's as if the
truth of the grace of God has virtually been wiped out you
you are regarded you can do all sorts of evil things and get
away with it in our society but if you're held up as somebody
who believes things like this then you're most unfitted to
teach children to have children in your care. All sorts of bizarre
and obnoxious things are considered against you because you hold
these views. He's worn out the saints. He's
prevailed against the saints. It's as if the prophets are dead
in the street. That's how it currently seems. But look. We
close with this. Verse 25. Look at this. Follow
this with me. This one's speaking great words
against the Most High. And he's wearing out the saints
of the Most High. And He's thinking to change times
and laws. He's acting as God, sitting in
the temple of God and trying to show people that He is really
God. And they shall be given into His hand until a time and
times and the dividing of time. I'll tell you again my explanation
of that. It goes on for a while. It seems
an awful long while. And then you think it can't go
on any longer. It goes on twice as long. Time and then times.
It goes on twice as long as that. And just when you are just about
to give up all hope that this situation is ever going to end,
and you're into the fourth of these times, in the middle of
it, it's cut short. It's cut short in the sovereign
will and purposes of God. The time, the times, and the
half a time. You'll see it in Revelation as
the 1360 days, I think it is, or is it 1260? But if you work
it out, all approximately three and a half years, time, times,
and half a time. It's as if it's never going to
end. And then it goes on twice as long and you lose all hope.
It's like you've started to row the Atlantic Ocean and you think
you're doing well till you're a thousand miles out. And then,
oh gosh, you're never ever going to see land again. And it goes
on and on and on and on and on. And that's what it feels like.
But all of a sudden, in the purpose of God, He brings it to an end. They shall be given into His
hand for a while, but not forever. But the judgment, verse 26, shall
sit Who's the judgment? Verse 22. The Ancient of Days
came and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High,
to His people, to the saints of the Most High. The judgment
shall sit. The saints shall sit in judgment and they shall take
away the dominion of that Antichrist horn to consume and to destroy
it to the end and the kingdom and dominion and the greatness
of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the
people of the saints of the Most High whose kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Hitherto
is the end of the matter. This is it. This is it. In Christ
you may seem the most insignificant thing, movement in the whole
world. I mean even established religion
regards us with contempt. But in Christ you're in the most
significant place in the universe. No wonder Paul said I want to
be found in Christ not with my own righteousness which is from
the law but that which is through grace in him so however things
may seem this is an encouragement this is a consolation to us that
we're in the most significant place in the universe and as
Jesus said to his followers in Luke chapter 12 and verse 32
to people gathered like we are little flocks little insignificant
flocks of sheep scared stiff of the wolf He said, fear not,
little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom
forever and ever. Amen.