You can turn back in your Bibles
to Daniel chapter 11 if you will. If you don't have your Bible,
you can use your pastor's commentary. How many of you got caught up
for the 15th time on the time change? You've been living your
whole life every year knowing that the time changes and still
you miss the time change. I almost missed it. It's funny,
you know, just, uh, The psychologists say that you can determine a
healthy mind from an unhealthy mind based on how easy one handles
change. That puts all of us in a category
of weakness, doesn't it? If you would tell the truth,
you would know that change is difficult for all of us. But
it's certainly true that we are dealing with a life that God
has bound us to that it demands change. I said this
before a while back. It's worth noting again. Change
is inevitable. Change is, in some cases, necessary. but change is also dangerous. There are some things that must
change, and there are some things that must never change. And the
wisdom of the believer is to distinguish between those things
that might change, must change, and must never change. God does
not change. He remains the same. He is immutable,
unchangeable, fixed. And God's word does not change. And God's people's view of God
and his word never changes. Let everything else in the world
change. But once your God starts changing
and your views about God start changing, you're in trouble.
And when we can rest our souls upon a God who never changes
and is always there. We can truly rest upon a rock
that cannot be moved. And so it's important for us
to understand that we are living in times of change, aren't we? A lot of changes going on. A
whole lot of changes going on. In fact, that's what we're seeing
in our text, changes. Some of them necessary, A lot
of them are very, very dangerous changes that are going to try
your heart and try mine. If you have your pastor's commentary,
we'll be dealing with them point by point. We are in the 11th
chapter of Daniel. We're going to be dealing with
verses 17 through 37 under seven categorical thoughts. The first
I want to remind you that we are dealing with two kingdoms,
the kingdom of Egypt and the kingdom of Syria. The kingdom
of Egypt is circumscribed under the title, the King of the South.
He is the lower end king. If you need a vision for that,
think of the King of the South as the San Diego King. And think
of the King of the North as the Oregon King, or let's go all
the way up to Red Bluff the far south end of Sacramento, that's
the Northern King. And in between those kings is
Jerusalem. And this is the context in which
Daniel chapter 11 gives for us a historical account with a model
and framework out of which you and I can draw a number of relevant
lessons for which, as I said last week, Jesus taught us to
look backwards in order to see forwards. You guys remember that,
right? We have to look backwards in
order to see forward properly. And in fact, just for the record,
when you read your Bible, that's what you're doing. Your Bible
is a historical book. The last book of the Bible was
written some 1900 years ago. So whenever you read the Bible,
you are looking backwards in order to interpret the present
and the future. That's how God has set it up.
Those things that were written before time, they were written
for our what? That's right. And as I said last week, those
who refuse to consider the past will find themselves inexorably
repeating it. When we fail to learn the lessons
of the past, we are bound to repeat those lessons in our life.
That's what the preacher said. There's nothing new under the
sun. That which has been is. And that which is to be, it has
already been. There's nothing new under the
sun. The goal of the believer, however, is to discern the times,
to understand where he is, to know what the weather is like,
to be able to dress accordingly and respond accordingly. That's
the call of the believer. And so what God does in his Bible
is two things. He encourages his believer by
explaining to them who he is and what he's done for them and
how he cares for his own. But then he also warns us. You
can very seldom go through the Bible at any point where you
are not being warned. Am I telling the truth? You can
very seldom go through the Bible at any point where the Bible
is not warning you about the dangers of this life. And so
I warn you once more that this world is no friend of grace.
This world is no friend to the true and the living God. It has
no care for the things of God. And so the believer must be on
his guard all the time. Have you found that to be true?
While we rest in Christ, while we rejoice in the truth, while
we hide ourselves in his glory in this world, we need to be
careful. Isn't that right? There's a tension then that the
believer must embrace. Embrace the tension of being
sober-minded and vigilant and watchful at the same time resting
rejoicing and relying upon the God who alone must watch over
us see our God doesn't slumber nor sleep he sits on his throne
as we watched in the hymn he ever ever ever cares for his
own didn't know what the hymn writer said we have a high priest
who ever ever ever ever cares for his own. But he told you
and me, we better watch, isn't that right? So he has given us
material in the Bible by which you and I can develop a prism
through which to interpret where we are right now. Do you understand
what time you are in? Do you realize that the clouds
are hovering over our world and particularly our nation and they
are about to break out in a deluge of torrents upon us? Do you realize
that? Everything in the Bible tells
us that. Everything in the Bible tells us that we are on the brink
of a looming, looming crisis. How long it shall be, we don't
know, but the believer should always be informed enough to
position himself being ready for that crisis. That's what
Daniel 11 is all about. God has given Daniel an understanding
of a word that was given to him concerning things that would
take place over a 350 year period. Daniel is right now in the year
about 335 B.C. And the vision he is entertaining
of which you and I are going to discuss won't take place for
almost 200 years. Now that's a test, saints, when
you are receiving a revelation and a word from God that is explicit
and detailed but will not happen for a couple of hundred years.
What will transpire between the time you receive that revelation
and that thing beginning to occur At the same time, God is warning
you to get ready for it. Will you go to sleep, die, and
then the next generation go to sleep, die, and when that thing
comes to pass, as the word of God says, and it shall come to
pass. Will our second and third and
fourth generation be prepared because we laid the foundation
for them to be ready? Am I making some sense? See,
this is what God is doing through Daniel, who is the seer and the
watcher of Israel, who is one of the last premier prophets
to give them a word. Daniel is in this time where
Israel has begun to return back to Babylon. In fact, a good 40,000
Jews are there. The other hundreds of thousands
of Israelites who were taken into captivity in Babylon. Babylon
was such a wonderful place that when God gave them the Jubilee
call to go back home, they said, no, I think I'll stay in Babylon.
Babylon got good business going on and you know, we we're living
large in Babylon Why go back to the hood when we can stay
living, you know in Babylon And so there were a small constituency
called the remnant that went back to Babylon. You'll see this
in Nehemiah Ezra and Esther I'm sharing with you that remember
again You have to be careful to know how to compare and combine
the historical books with the prophetic books because the prophetic
books lay on top of certain aspects of the historical books. What
Daniel is talking about now corresponds to Ezra, Esther and Nehemiah's
day. So I wanna transport you in your
mind and help you see the scenario around the things which are transpiring
here in the book of Daniel. I know again, for some of you,
if you've never read the book of Daniel before or Daniel 11,
you read a lot of stuff today that just didn't make any sense.
Well here, understand, Israel is back in the land and they
are struggling. 40,000 Jews. Half of them are
ambivalent. The other half don't know what
to do. Israel is in ruins. And there are a few men, much
like Daniel, who has the care of Israel in mind. The problem
is, is not only is Israel in the land, but a whole lot of
enemies are in the land too. And that holds up the progress
whenever God has a vision or a purpose for his people to accomplish. The people's own wheels are often
weak and their faith is feeble. But then on top of that, they
have enemies trying to thwart their purposes. That's what Daniel
was told back in Daniel chapter nine, verses 24 through 27. He
says, and the streets shall be built and the walls, but in troublesome
times. There's gonna be a lot of trouble,
Daniel, reestablishing the witness of the gospel in Jerusalem. Please
understand, you guys are gonna go through some difficult times.
And I told you, you clip that and you pull that out of your
text and you embolden that and recognize that that's a model
for the time in which the church has always lived. In the world,
you shall have what? That's exactly right. So I want
to help us to understand something. Go with me back to verse 14 of
Daniel chapter 11. And I want to make some comments
and then some observations and move forward in Daniel chapter
11 verse 14. Are we there? Now notice what
God told Daniel in verse 14 through the angel and in those times
There shall many stand up against the king of the south now if
you guys are good students You know that the king of the south
is who? Egypt there you go good class that time there shall many stand
up against the king of the south which is Egypt also will you
mark this the robbers of your people Daniel now when heaven
calls you a thief you in trouble are you hearing me the angel
told Daniel the robbers the crooks the thieves of your people they're
gonna take advantage of this melee this mayhem this controversy,
this tension, this wind blowing against the King of the South.
It says, and the robbers of your people shall, what? Exalt themselves. Now here's their objective, to
establish the vision. And the prophecy is they shall
fail. Now, what's going on in that
portion of Scripture? Because I want to blow this up.
I want to expand this. I want you to see what this is
in your head. The robbers of God's people have
always been the same folk throughout the scriptures. We know them.
These are the ones Jesus dealt with when he came to the temple.
He had to beat the whole temple down because they were robbers
and thieves. Don't turn my father's house
into a house of thieves and robbers. These are the same folks. You
guys got that? These are the same folks. They're
Jews, they're blood descendants of Abraham, but they don't have
God's glory in mind. They're not interested in anything
but making a bunch of money. I'm setting the context for you.
They're not interested in making anything but a bunch of money.
And here, the doors have opened up for them to go back to Jerusalem,
but they have become very comfortable in Babylon, because in Babylon
they've learned how to shake and bake. Believe you me, these
cats have become sharp in politics, they've become sharp in business,
they've become sharp in swindling people. These are the robbers
of God's people. The literal Hebrew word there
means violent. violent and not in a physical
sense, but violent in their spirit, hostile in their spirit, aggressive
in their spirit, uncouped men, unprincipled men, men who will
do anything to get rich. Do you know a few people like
that? And some of them might just be
religious. But these are the folks that Daniel is talking
about. Now I want to set the context
for us by having you to go with me in your Bible to the book
of Nehemiah. Nehemiah will give us the context. And as he gives
us the context, I want you to know that as we're reading Nehemiah,
in fact of matter, where Daniel is in his vision, Nehemiah has
already dealt in part with the troubles that we are looking
at now. Now remember our topic is the robber of God's people.
Go with me to Nehemiah. the book of Nehemiah chapter
2 and I want you to see in Nehemiah now that means you're gonna have
to go back in your Bible but in going back in your Bible you
are actually going to be looking forward you understand what I'm
saying you go back in your Bible and this will be after Kings
and after Chronicles you will come to the book of Ezra and
then go past Ezra and go to the book of Nehemiah and I want you
to see a few wonderful truths that's going to help us to establish
our context now Nehemiah is a brother very much like Daniel Love with
God in love with the glory of God in love with the gospel of
God's glory and in love with God's people Nehemiah is like
Daniel and that Nehemiah is the cupbearer of the king of Persia
He is the king the cupbearer of the king of the one we talked
about last week Xerxes the fellow that made a bunch of money and
He made a bunch of money. He was the king that dominated
the whole world and he exceeded because he had become so wealthy
and so prominent that he started abusing his own colleagues and
his own Senate. And he started demanding that
the people worship him. We talked about this last week,
didn't we? Power does what? Corrupt. Absolute power corrupts
absolutely. And God allows pagan, puny totalitarians
to go off sometime so that the whole world can learn to trust
only in one true potentate, and that's God Almighty. So we watch
men over history and over time just act a fool, don't we? And
they exceed their authority and they do things that are just
unconscionable. We have had a history over the
last 150 years that indicated that under different regimes
and what have you. Some kings more subtle, others
very blatant. And this was the case with Xerxes.
But Nehemiah is sitting in the high court of the kings of Persia,
and he has heard that his people are having trouble down in Jerusalem.
Now, he's in Persia now. Persia is way up to the northeast
of Babylon, in Babylon area, and his folks are down 800 miles
away, and he's found out that they're having a lot of trouble.
And I want you to see three or four verses that describe the
context Give us the scenario that will help us to benefit
from Daniel 11 I'm in Nehemiah chapter 2 and look with me over
at verse 9 and this is Nehemiah talking now again I told you
Nehemiah is one of those brothers that I would have go with me
through the hood any day He didn't joke around. He didn't play he
was serious about his God and he was serious about honoring
his God and Everything that was in the way of that he would remove
and God blessed him for it You know, when you really care about
somebody and you are 800 miles away from those somebody and
you know that until you reach that particular region to help,
um, nothing will take place. You care when you get on your
camel and ride 800 miles to deal with that problem. Am I making
some sense? I know a man who came from glory because he cared
about me. All right, so Nehemiah is a great
type of this same glorious savior who condescended infinitely in
order to save sinners who were in trouble just like you and
me. Look over at verse nine. Then I came, this is Nehemiah
talking, to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king's
letter. Now the king had sent captains
of armies and horsemen with me. Nehemiah had favor with the king
to go back. Now watch this. When Samballot,
do you see that? I'm gonna talk about him in a
little while. The Horonite and Tobiah, the servant, the Ammonite,
heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly. Watch this, that
there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of
Israel. Do you understand the enemy never
ever wants Jesus Christ to seek out the welfare of his people
it grieves all of God's enemies anytime the thought occurs That
God's gonna do something to take care of his people. Am I making
some sense? So that's the context when they found out that Nehemiah
who was the cupbearer and he had a lot of authority He's coming
down to check this whole issue out Nehemiah when we get to the
book of Nehemiah will represent for us the Spirit of Christ and
who comes into the ruins of the church and finds out all of its
problems and fixes them one by one. You know, when you are used
to living a raggedy life, can I talk about this? When you are
used to living a raggedy life, you can get very comfortable
with it. But once somebody comes and cuts the flashlight on and
starts firing you out, You start to get a little agitated, isn't
that right? But the best thing in the world for us is for somebody
to come help us fix our raggedy life. Now, you know I'm talking
spiritual here. I'm not talking about your own
house. I don't want to come to your house. If I come to your
house, I'm going to call you first. And I don't want you coming
to mine until you call. And I might let you in. But I'm
talking spiritual things. Because you see, by nature, we
love darkness. Am I telling the truth? Even
God's people love darkness. But when Jesus shows up, he cuts
the lights on and we start to see things in our life that's
just not right. Now, if you misinterpret the
work of the Holy Ghost, you'll be greed too in your carnal man.
But when you know that Christ has come to seek the welfare
of his people, then you'll let him do what only he can do. And
you know what that is? Remove your enemies whom you
had let become friends. And we get ready to see this.
So now look with me over in chapter 2, verse 9 and 10. We had looked at verse 2, verse
9 and 10. Look with me at verse 19 and 20 now. Are we there?
This is the same group of people. But now when Samballot, the Horonite,
and Tobiah, the Servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem, the Arabian,
heard of it. See, these three fellows had
made their way into Israel surreptitiously and strategically got themselves
in places of power Intentionally to destroy God's church and there
were no wise men That was able to discern the wickedness in
the deceit that these men were exercising in the church Nehemiah
was commissioned to come expose this this is why they were grieved
Notice what it says now when they heard this they laughed
us to scorn. Do you see that? Oh Now notice
what it says, and despised us, and said, what is this thing
that you do? Will you rebel against the king?
Then answered I them, and I said unto them, the God of heaven
will prosper us. Therefore we his servants will
arise and build, but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial
in Jerusalem. I've just set another model for
you. Nehemiah came down because his job was to do what Daniel
had said in Daniel 9, 24 through 27, the wall shall be built,
And the streets will be built in troublous times. Nehemiah
comes in and he finds out there's a bunch of crooks in there. And
as he sends petitions all through Jerusalem saying, we're going
to build this wall and we're going to lay this foundation,
the enemy starts to scorn and mock them. You know why? Because
when people do not understand and when people are not committed
to the will of God, you can be easily thwarted. You can be easily
made to retreat and diminish just by the mere scorn of your
enemies. by the mere ridicule of your
enemies. When the world ridicules you and when the world scorns
you for what you believe, you can determine whether or not
you are competent and strong in Christ by how you deal with
that. Do you retreat? Do you shrink away? Do you find
yourself avoiding the conversation? Are you engaged in sort of a
secret service ministry now because of the scorn? Here's what Nehemiah
said, and this is a model because this is going to take us back
to our text. Listen, here to take care of God's business and
God's gonna prosper me and now watch this you don't have nothing
to do with what we're doing I want you to remember that when we
get to the end of the message because that is the issue going
on in Daniel chapter 11 men had crept in unawares and have gotten
themselves positions in the church ideas have gotten themselves
positions in the church and worldviews have gotten themselves positions
in the church and Nehemiah says the two don't mix and we're getting
ready to deal with this so now I want you to go with me now
to chapter 6 I want you to see something else so Nehemiah apparently
on his way back home running across back to Jerusalem running
across these individuals he had no problem confronting them in
Daniel Nehemiah chapter 6 the same thing goes on as Nehemiah
is working now the enemy strategy is is to speak to Nehemiah. And
I want you to see the strategy. I'm in chapter 6, verses 1 through
4. Are we there? Now, it came to pass when Samballad
and Tobiah and Geshem, the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard
that I had builded the wall and that there was no breach left
therein. That's good news, folks. Though
at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates. See,
I can't wait till we get into the book of Nehemiah and make
this plain. Listen to it. That Samballot and Geshun sent
unto me saying, come, let's meet together. Now watch this. In
some one of the villages in the plains of Ono. But they thought
to do me mischief. Do you see that? And I sent messengers
unto them saying, I am doing a great work. so that I cannot
come down, why should the work cease while I leave it and come
down to you? Yet they sent unto me four and
five times after this sort, but I answered them after the same
manner. You want me to come to the village, oh no, but my answer
to you is, oh no. Did you get that? Now I want
you to go one more place with me Go to chapter 13 because I
want you to see one more strategy of the enemy. In chapter 6, the
strategy of the enemy is to sit at the table with God's people
and try to dialogue. We call this the diaprax. This
is the dialectical system by which the enemy seeks to compromise
the truth in your life by coming to some consensus. Let's sit
at the table and talk this through. Let's see if we can come to some
compromise over these things. Nehemiah said, oh no. chapter
13 something very egregious takes place that lays the foundation
to I'm in chapter 13 of Nehemiah see the Holy Ghost is doing a
great searching here and in chapter 13 I want to read verses 1 through
9 so you can get the context and we'll go back on that day
they read in the book of Moses in the audience that are hearing
of the people and there was found written therein that the Ammonites
and the Moabites should not come into the congregation of God
forever What happened? When they read the book, there
was light given. Do you see that? As long as the
book is not read, we're all walking in darkness. Now mark this and
notice the contemporary nature of it. They are worshiping, but
they're not worshiping with the book. They're going through the
externalities of worship, the form of worship, the noise and
motions of worship, but the book is not being opened. As long
as the book is not open, there is no light. Your word is a light
unto my feet, a lamp unto my path. Until the word of God is
open, there is no light. We're walking in darkness. Am
I making some sense? Now notice what he goes on to
say. Because they met us not the children of Israel with bread
and water and they hired Balaam against them that he should curse
them How bid our God turned the curse into a blessing? Now it
came to pass when they had heard the law that they separated from
Israel all the mixed multitude That is the heathen got separated
from the true Jewish people and this is spiritual Do you hear
me verse 4 and before this a liarship the priest now the priest here
is the high priest The High Priest is what we're going to talk about
here in a moment. He was the leading ruler in Israel after
the exile. Israel no longer is led by a
monarchy. They're led by the priesthood.
This was the condition in Jesus' day with Ananias and Caiaphas. These two were the leaders in
Israel. Israel had ceased to be a pure
monarchy and had fallen prey now to a theocracy with the priests
being, as it were, the final authority. This here was a precursor
to Catholicism. All right, let's go on. It says
in verse five, verse four, and before this Eliaship, the priest
having the oversight over the chamber of the house of our God,
he was allied to Tobiah. Do you see that? Tobiah was able
to sneak into the highest office in the land and become allied
with the high priest. You in trouble when the snake
is living with the high priest. Listen to what it goes on to
say. And he had prepared for him, that is Tobiah, a great
chamber, folks, that's a big house, where aforetime they laid
the meat offerings, the frankincense and the vessels and the tithes
of corn, the new wine, the oil, which was commanded to be given
the Levites and the strangers and the porters and the offerings
of the priest. But in all this time was not
I at Jerusalem. You know what? DMI just said,
Lord, if I had been there, this would have never happened. For
in the two and 30th year of Artaxerxes, king of Babylon, came I unto
the king, and after certain days obtained, I leave of the king
to come to Jerusalem. And I came to Jerusalem and I
understood of the evil that Elias should did for Tobiah in preparing
him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. Now watch this.
And it grieved me so. See, the devil is not only grieved,
but the Spirit of God is grieved, whom Nehemiah represents. It
grieved me sore that in the highest offices of the church there was
compromise of the true by the enemy. He was grieved. Now notice what it says. It grieved
me sore. Therefore, I cast forth all the
household stuff of Tobiah out of the chamber. I told you Nehemiah
didn't mess around. Can you see it? Furniture being
thrown out the window couches and stuff just being thrown out
the window in the middle of the street. Who's doing that? Nehemiah
He's purging the temple of compromise and sin Then I commanded verse
9 and they cleansed the chamber of And then they brought I again
the vessels of the house of God with the meat offerings in the
frankincense. Do you see that? Go back with
me to our text. I just wanted to give you a little
Daniel chapter 11. I just wanted to give you a little
scenario of the trouble that Israel was dealing with. Now
you have a model to understand why God gave Daniel the vision.
God gave Daniel the vision of chapter 11 and 12 because God
is most concerned with his own people. You know, in the midst
of difficult times, you heard our deacon pray about that and
talk to us about that. In the midst of difficult times,
the devil is busy. And his goal is to keep everybody
confused, and to twist priorities, and to gain himself an advantage,
particularly over the people of God. We are told in verse
14 of Daniel chapter 14 and the robbers of God's people will
exalt themselves to establish division But they shall fail
one historical context in which we know they failed was Nehemiah.
Isn't that right? They failed now I want you to
go on with me and understand some other things in your outline
We were looking at point number one the Egyptian Israeli alliance. Isn't that what our outline said?
This is what I've been dealing with. The Egyptian-Israeli alliance.
The robbers of Israel sought to ally themselves with the Egyptians
in order to establish division. They wanted to fight against
the Syrian king so that the Syrian king wouldn't have domination.
But God saw to it that the Syrian king was dominated. Look at verse
15. So the king of the north shall
come and cast up a mount. and take the most fenced cities
and the arms of the south shall not withstand neither his chosen
people neither shall there be any to withstand him verse 16
but he that comes against him shall do according to his own
will and none shall stand before him and he shall stand in the
glorious land the glorious land there is Israel which by his
hand shall be consumed You guys look at me, this is how this
goes. Israel, as God had warned in the book of Isaiah chapter
19 and 30, was not to go to Egypt to seek refuge. Egypt is the
house of bondage. Egypt is the house of sin. Egypt
was God's enemy, typologically. Egypt is where Pharaoh was, isn't
that right? But Israel, because Israel had its native existence
in Egypt, more frequently in time of trouble leaned upon Egypt
than they did the true and the living God. It was more easy
for Israel to recline to how things used to be in their unsaved
state under bondage to Pharaoh than to trust the true and the
living God to get them out of trouble. Am I making some sense?
So what God does, whenever God's people relies upon the flesh
in that direction, he sends the flesh in the other direction.
Now the flesh coming from the north is the Syrian king. God's
gonna allow the Syrian king, the Seleucid kingdom, the Antiochians
to so dominate everything in order to bring Israel into captivity
once again, because Israel refuses to trust God in the time of trouble. I hope I'm being clear with you.
All right, then let's look at our next point so that we can
make our way. This is so very critical in our next point. Point
number two, Cleopatra's love for Egypt. man what you talking
about Cleopatra's love for Egypt look with me over at verse 16
verse 16 7 I'm sorry verse 17 are we there he that is the king
of the north which is Syria the Antiochian Kingdom shall set
his face to enter with his strength and the whole of his kingdom
and religious folks with him listen Thus shall he do, and
he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her, but
she shall not stand on his side, neither before him." Now, the
historical archives are replete with what has taken place here.
The king of the north is the Seleucid kingdom, Antiochus III,
who had a daughter named Cleopatra. He marries Cleopatra to the Egyptian
king, Thinking to establish an alliance between him and Egypt
and use his daughter To seek to corrupt the king in order
for him to make way into the Egyptian kingdom Have you ever
heard of something like that before? Let's go all the way
back to Saul King Saul when he decided to give David his daughter
Micah in order to cause David to stumble It's bad when you
are using your children as a tool of the enemy But in this case,
the Bible says when he gave Cleopatra to the king of Egypt, Cleopatra
fell in love with the king of Egypt. He didn't know that love,
when it hits a target, it's stopped. And blood don't mean anything
when that happens. Isn't that true? Once love hits the target,
they're done with home. They're done with daddy, done
with mama. Now you got to live with the consequences. This is
what it says. Now God gave Cleopatra over to
loving the king of Egypt because the council of Syria was against
the council of God's purpose. And so the Northern kingdom had
to leave because he wasn't able to accomplish his purpose. This
is Antiochus the third. And we are told in verse 19,
these words, then shall he look at verse 19, then shall he turn
his face toward the fort of his own land. But he shall stumble
and fall and not be found. Do you see that? Daniel in his
vision is understanding that this fourth king, which you already
know is part of the Grecian kingdom, is going to fall. He's going
to attempt to dominate Egypt, but he's going to fall. He's
going to be killed by one of his own men. We talked about
this last week. When you set up political kingdoms
and you have men who are on your board, your senate, your administration,
particularly in totalitarian kingdoms, You already have people
vying for your death. You already have people waiting
for you to die to take your throne. You already have people who,
if they could, would assassinate you. Am I making some sense?
Isn't this the problem that David had? David had that same problem. Solomon had that same problem.
Whenever you accept a monarchy, you have to watch over the king
because the king is open for assassination, even from his
own children. See, what the kings did in those
days was multiply wives and have tons of children. What that meant
was you had a whole bunch of dysfunctional family in fighting.
I'm getting ready to get into that with Antiochus here. So
the king of the north has a bunch of kids and the king of the north
becomes a drunken sort of stupor and one of his own soldiers kill
him. He dies and his son now takes
his place. The historical archives say this,
that Antiochus the third probably was killed by his son Seleucid
the fourth because he wanted the kingdom so we read now in
verse 20 our next verse where Angelo talked about the taxes
let's take a look at this woman Angelo the only one happy around
here about getting his taxes back I haven't heard anything
about my taxes yet but I'm glad he getting his back look at verse 21 and in his place
This is Antiochus the third in his estate shall stand up. I'm
sorry, verse 20, then shall stand up in his estate, a razor of
taxes. Do you see that in the glory
of his kingdom that is in the glory of his father's kingdom.
Now this razor of taxes, which is the son of Antiochus, he won't
reign, but about 12 years. Notice what it says, but within
a few days he shall be what? Destroy neither in anger nor
in battle now I want you to mark that so that when we go back
to dealing with the last week that 770s that seven last of
the 770 it says here in a few days. He shall be destroyed That's
not literally in a literal few days. That means in a short while
this King lived 12 years But he died He died. This vile tax raiser died. Now why does the Holy Ghost tell
us that he was a tax raiser? We need to know this. Because
there's something that has gone on between the battles between
the Egyptian kingdom and the northern kingdom. And that is
this. That fourth beast that Daniel talked about in Daniel
chapter 7 has already emerged. Do you know who that fourth beast
is? Rome. Remember the fourth beast of
Daniel 7? Babylon. Medo-Persia, the Grecian Kingdom,
and then what? The Roman Empire. Well, the Roman
Empire is already on the scene, and the Roman Empire has put
the Northern Kingdom in check. Putting the Northern Kingdom
in check, Antiochus III has died. His son, the tax raiser, is under
compulsion by the Roman Kingdom to bring taxes to Rome. So here's
what he has to do. And if you go back through the
Kings, you'll see Israel had to do this too. Once they were
dominated by Egypt and Syria, the Roman kingdom told the Northern
kingdom, I want money. So you go through all your providences
and you make the people pay taxes. Are you guys hearing me? If you
don't believe me, reading your own time, the gospel of Luke
chapter two, it was in that context where our master was born. During
that time, the Roman Empire existed. It was Augustus Caesar ruling.
And Augustus Caesar told his governor, you go through all
the land of Israel and you make them pay taxes. Before you do
it, you take what is called a consensus. You know what a consensus is,
folk? A consensus is putting a number on you to make sure
you pay taxes. Remember our master, his mother
and his father had flown, went down to Egypt. And when Herod
died, they came back to Jerusalem, and they had to be censored as
well. They had to take the censor,
and then they had to pay their taxes. This is why Jesus said,
Render unto Caesar that which is what? And unto God that which
is God. But understand, in this world,
Governments will always, always, always exceed their authority. We talked about what qualifies
legitimate authority last week, didn't we? When a man or a government
or a Senate or a group of legislators lead God's people or the world,
they are to lead them justly, ruling in the fear of God. All
of their legislation and all of their policies are to be done
with two things in view. First, a respect for the God
who judges all flesh. We ought never to have politicians
that we don't have a sense of them having some respect for
the true and the living God. Why? Because once we start voting
in politicians that are just godless, don't be surprised when
they act godless. Secondly, secondly, they are
not only to fear God. This is Romans 13. The authorities
that be are from God. All authority is from God. They
don't bear the sword in vain. Their job is to fear God and
to secure the people. The goal of our government is
to set parameters around the people, guard the people and
give them freedom to work and to prosper in order for our society
to be healthy. The goal of the government is
never to oppress the people. But the goal of the government
has always been, since human history began in the days of
the Babylonian kingdom under Nimrod, is to oppress the people.
Human governments almost always exceed their authority and begin
to oppress the people. Now folks, oppression comes because
of God's favor being removed from the land. Will you hear
me? Can you hear me for a moment?
Because I'm talking about us. See, I don't have no intentions
of preaching a gospel that is sort of abstract and out there
in the sky, has no application to where we are today. Because
the Bible is relevant to you and me right where we are. That's
why Daniel is receiving the vision that he's receiving, because
he needs to speak to his people. And so, here's what's going on.
Whenever God decides to chastise a nation, He starts to pulling
the plug on all of His what we call practical blessings. Once
he starts pulling the plug, here's what happens. First, your economy
starts to waver. Secondly, he starts destabilizing
the overall mental welfare of the country. In other words,
people start losing a sense of stability, a sense of direction,
a sense of confidence. Then God starts removing wise
men from legislation. He starts taking away the wise
men and the ancient and the honorable, and he allows fools to get into
office and occupy the space of authority. And once he does that,
because he's taking his hand off the nation, because the nation
has forgotten God, and God says, okay, since you forget me, I'm
gonna forget you for a moment, and I'm gonna let you see what
it feels like to be under the authority of men. And once you're
under the authority of men who don't fear God, you can expect
all men to lie to you. All right? So they'll tell you
they'll build a bridge that can handle an earthquake on the scale
of a 7.2, but it couldn't handle an earthquake on the scale of
a 2.7. But they're hoping the earthquake doesn't come till
they die because they didn't make tons of money off that building. But this is what God does. Listen
to me. This is what God does to a nation
when the nation does not look to the true and the living God
as the standard for absolute truth and government. This is
where we are right now in our nation. So, when a nation finds
itself dealing with what we're dealing with, and if you wanna
know that you and I have lost favor with God, just take a look
at the stock market. There's this teletron up on the
stock market. In the stock market, you can
see it, and it has the numbers of our deficit running through
it. Have any of you ever seen the numbers of the deficit run
every second? Trillions and trillions of dollars
of debt are acquiring by our country. Now the Bible said that
when God favors a country they would be the head and other nations
would be the tail. That God would prosper them and
we would be in a surplus. But we have been in a deficit
for decades. Why? Because we have violated
God's law. Now he's made us the tail and
them the head. And so you have all of this political
haranguing going on about whether or not we are entering into the
same kind of depression that we had and recession that we
had back in the 20s. And they are trying to see the
distinction and the parallels between then and now, because
we are certainly in a recession. We are in a worse state today
than we were in 1920. Because at least in 1920, we
had everybody in the world owing us. That means if we decided
that we were suffering, being broke, we could go to Russia,
and we could go to Germany, and we could go to Britain, and we
could go to Asia, we could go to Korea, we could go to Vietnam
and say, look, we need you to cash in, because we need some
of our money. Am I making some sense? Because we are the head
and not the tail. Today, we owe everybody. And
if they demanded for us to cash in, our economy would crash tomorrow. Am I making some sense? Now,
let me make this a little bit more practical. You and your
credit card debt. See what I'm getting at now?
You got $30,000 of credit card debt on your credit card on one.
Over here, you got 20 other credit cards with problems on it too.
So you can't even go to these other credit cards to pay off
this credit card. That's what I'm talking about.
And when you're in that kind of trouble, you are out of the
favor of God. Am I making some sense? The taxes
was raised by Rome through Syria and the people hated it. but
God told Israel I don't care where you go in what part of
the world you live you are my covenant people when you disobey
me I'm gonna punish you wherever you are that's what's going on
which brings me to my next point I just wanted to make that very
practical practical to you look with me now over at verse 20
and 21 our verse 21 are we there Verse 21, in your outline, verse
21, we're getting to know what I call the bio or biographical
sketch of Antiochus Epiphanes, who stands as a great type of
the Antichrist. The lessons that I'm about to
explain to you now are critical to hear. The lessons that I'm
about to talk to you about now are critical to hear. The Bible
is clear. The Lord does nothing but that
he reveals it to his servants first. And the Bible has explicitly
taught us what happens when God's people forsake his law and his
gospel and when a nation rebels against God. Now I want you to
see this now. I'm in verse 20. Are we there? Then, I'm sorry,
verse 21. Then in his estate shall stand
up a vile person. Do you see that? The Holy Ghost
called this king a vile person to whom they shall not give the
honor of the kingdom. In other words, he's coming in
and God has described him as a vile man and he's going to
take the kingdom, but the people won't have given it to him voluntarily. He will have manipulated his
way into the kingdom. Can I develop this for a moment?
Now, I thought this was quite intriguing about a decade ago
once I started studying church history and started dealing with
what we call the intertestimate period of the Bible from the
time of Malachi to the time of Matthew. In between, we have
what is called the silent period. That's where we are now. We're
in the silent period. What happened? In the Grecian
kingdom, which was that Third beast Babylon the first beast
Medo-Persian the second beast the Grecian Kingdom the third
beast, right? We are 200 years before Jesus some wild and strange
things happen and historically you can find out a lot about
it Antiochus Epiphanes Emerges on the scene and becomes almost
as prominent as Alexander the Great didn't we talk about Alexander
the Great? Antiochus Epiphanes becomes almost as historic as
Alexander the Great but not quite Alexander the Great is called
in Daniel 8, the notable horn. In Daniel 8, Antiochus Epiphanes
is called the little horn. You guys remember that? We'll
go back there in a moment. I just want to establish the
scenario for you. Antiochus Epiphanes is the son and product of the
northern kingdom, Syria, who's brought into captivity by the
Roman Empire. Antiochus Epiphanes is one of
the sons of his father Antiochus III and the Roman Empire takes
him as a slave. Isn't this what they did to Daniel,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? When Babylon came into Israel
and plundered Israel and took all the princes and brought them
to Babylon? Well, this is what they did to
Antiochus. Little Antiochus, one of two brothers who were
slated to take the throne in Syria, is brought into Rome. He's way up in the northern part
of Rome. His father has left him there,
didn't even seek to try to give him a release. What do you mean? When one kingdom dominated another
kingdom in those times, if those kingdoms that were dominated
had princes and kings and people of nobility, they wouldn't hurt
those people. they would respect them, they
would even allow them to maintain their status and authority, because
in monarchies what they taught the people was to respect the
authority of the kings and the dignitaries. So they would treat
those folks very well. This is what Nebuchadnezzar did
with the princess of Judah. And so Antiochus Epiphanes is
a little boy, a slave in Rome, expecting under the protocol
of being brought into captivity, these are called the rules of
engagement, to be let go in three years, right? After three years,
he's expecting his daddy to negotiate to get him out, and his daddy
doesn't pay no attention to him. Now, this is good for some of
you psychologists, because just imagine what that little boy
is thinking when his father doesn't appeal and petition to let him
go. He finds out in Rome that his daddy dies. And when his
daddy dies because he's a slave in Rome, his brother takes the
throne. Antiochus grows up in Rome. Antiochus
is a young man, 12, 13 years old. And Antiochus is very known
all through the Roman Empire for two things, being an exceedingly,
exceedingly wicked man. He was debauched. He gave himself over to frivolity. He gave himself over to drunkenness
and partying. These are some of the youthful
aspects that our kids engage in thinking that's the way to
get by, to get high and to get loaded. He hung out with the
seedy parts of the culture. Now this year was unseemly because
everyone in Rome as well as in Syria knew that Antiochus was
royalty. And yet Antiochus loved to get
high. Antiochus loved to tell jokes. Antiochus loved to do
raucous things like young people. But he had a very twisted character
about him. His character was twisted. Yet
on the other hand, he also was a very gifted young man. He could
flatter very well. He could flatter very well. So
he won the favor as he aspired to the age of 18, 19, 20 years
old. He won the favor of a lot of people in a bizarre way. You
know what I'm saying in a bizarre way. We love him. We know he's
two cards short of a whole deck, but we still love him. You know,
he's a little strange, but we love him. Yet his own Syrian
people despised him and God certainly despised him because he hated
the true and the living God. We'll talk about that here in
a moment. But as he grew and as he became older, one of the
things he learned in Rome was the tricks of the trade called
government. Rome is perfect. at manipulation, coercion, subversion,
and the deceiving of the masses. I told you that we operate here
in the West under a Neo-Roman Babylonian system. Have I told
you that before? See, so Antiochus learned a lot
about how to trick folks, how to deceive folks, how to manipulate
folks. And he's going to aspire to the
throne because something providentially occurs. Do you know what that
is? His brother dies. So now he has an issue because
his brother could have left him the right to the throne, but
his brother who was the king had a son. So generally your
son aspires to the throne, right? This is the nepotism in kingdoms,
right? So what does Antiochus do? Antiochus goes back to Syria
and says to all his Syrian brother, I know you don't like me. I know
you think I'm uncool. I know you think I'm crazy. You
know, I think I'm underhanded. He's in his own mind. He's saying
you're right, but you don't you don't know how right you are
But I'm coming back because I want to help nurture my nephew until
he aspires to the throne His nephew is four or five six years
old Saints read your Bible Remember we dealt with very young kings
in Judah to that had to be watched over by the ancient and elderly
Elderly until they were old enough to take the throne. So and tiger
says I'm gonna watch over my little nephew strangely enough
little nephew dies and Wonder how little nephew dies. Well,
we'll leave that to the soap operas. But because his older
brother is dead, because his daddy is dead, because his nephew
is dead, guess who now takes the throne? Antiochus Epiphanes. Now what I want you to see here
is the bio of Antiochus and his methodologies. Daniel talks about
Antiochus back in Daniel chapter 8. Go back to chapter 8. I just
want you to see what the Spirit of God says concerning the foreshadow
of the Antichrist system and the Antichrist methodology. I'm
in Daniel chapter 8. I want you to see this now. We
are dealing with the Antichrist. Represented in Antiochus Epiphanes
everything about Antiochus Epiphanes his behavior and his exploits
Warned us about the Antichrist system that we are living in
now. I'm in Daniel chapter 8 verse 8. Are you there? Therefore the
goat waxed very great. That's Alexander and when he
was strong The great horn was broken and for it came up for
notable horns toward the four winds of the heaven Those were
his four generals. We talked about the four kingdoms,
right? I And it says in verse nine, and out of one of them
came up a what? Little horn. That's Antiochus
Epiphanes. Now watch what the Spirit of
God says about him. That little horn waxed exceedingly
great. Do you see it? In other words,
he began to become powerful. He began to become politically
prominent. Now notice what it says, toward
the what? Now west to south? Egypt you got it now watch this
and toward the east. What's the east Syria? That's
his homeland and toward the pleasant land. Now, what's the pleasant
land Israel? Israel now watch verse 10 and
it that is the little horn that is Antiochus Epiphanes. He waxed
great even to the host of heaven Do you see that Can I tell you
what that's saying It's not talking about him being so prominent
that they wrote his name down in Hollywood as one of the stars.
It's saying that he had become so popular and so prominent that
he was able to manipulate and coerce the people of God. This is a metaphor for the church.
The church is called those people who dwell in heavenly places.
The church is represented by those who are called the stars
of God. This passage corresponds with
Revelation chapter 12, where the dragon cast down a third
part of the stars from heaven with his tail. Remember that?
The tail represents the false doctrine and false teachings
of the devil. That's Isaiah chapter 9 verse
15. The ancient and the honorable,
he is the head. The prophet that teaches lies.
He is the what tale and Revelation chapter 12 verse 9 tells us the
devil which deceiveth the whole world Antiochus has become so
Affluent so powerful so manipulative that he has actually been able
to go into Jerusalem and deceive the leadership in Jerusalem Listen
to the language and I'm gonna make this even more clear in
the latter part of chapter 8 listen to verse 10 He waxed great even
to the host of heaven and he cast down some of the host of
the stars to the ground. Do you see that and He stepped
upon them Look at verse 11. Yea, he magnified himself even
to the prince of the host. Who's that prince? Christ! You
guys know it. He magnified himself to the prince
of the host, and he took away, and the daily was taken away,
and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And a host was
given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of what? It was by
reason of the transgression of God's people that God allowed
Antiochus to come into Jerusalem and destroy Jerusalem by manipulating
and coercing and deceiving the robbers of God's people. Am I
making some sense? We're going to see this when
we get over to the next verse. Listen to it. and host was given him. We call this in theology a divine
passive. What that means is God gave Antiochus
authority to manipulate, coerce, and deceive not only the Egyptians,
not only his own people, but Israel. Now listen to me, let
me say this. This is called reprobation, and this is a divine judgment
by God. When God's people cease to obey
God's word, when God's people abandon the gospel, God will
give them over to blindness. He will give them over to blindness
and what Jesus said in John chapter 5 when he spoke to the rulers
He says I have come in my father's name and you rejected me Another
will come in his own name and him you will receive This is
the way it is whenever a church goes apostate a denomination
goes apostate They will reject the true Christ and embrace a
false Christ. Am I making some sense? This
is where we are in this present age And I thought about this,
children of God, I thought about this as I am one who has been
privileged to speak to hundreds of thousands of people in this
generation and all around the world. I know God gave me that
opportunity, not for my sake, but for his glory sake. But what
I know is, this is what I know, men and women, hear me now, men
and women will never ever come to a knowledge of the truth until
God removes the blinders. And where we live right now is
in a time of increasing apostasy, a departure from the truth. It
is a judgment of God against our world and particularly against
the church. Essentially, the devil has entered
into the congregation like Tobiah and ran up into the priesthood
and has taken over the church. I want you to see this too. Go
with me over to chapter eight, verses 20 through 24, and then
we'll, or 25, and then we'll go back to our text and close
this message out. I'm in chapter 8 verse 23. This is all I need. We are in
the time of the broken kingdom of the Grecians, and we are now
under the rule of Antiochus in verse 23. And in the latter time
of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the what? See, do
you know that God is patient with sinners? But the transgressors
here are not talking about the heathen. It's talking about religious
folk. Religious folk are those who
ostensibly are the ones who are obeying God's Word. When you
and I violate God's Word, you and I are called transgressors.
The heathen are just lost. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
They're just lost. The transgressors are the ones
who have a covenant with God and break that covenant. What
God says is I give folk a long period of time their rebellion
and disobedience against me. You know that in your own life. Don't ever let the authoritative
proclamation of the word shoot over the bow of your own conscience.
Don't ever do it. You will never profit by mere
bodily exercise. You must hear the word for yourself. God's talking to you first and
then the rest of the world. Whenever you and I at length
continue to rebel against God, we can be sure that he's going
to chastise us. Am I making some sense? And we
talked about this in the Friday study when the church is given
the stewardship of the gospel in it at length continues to
tamper with and compromise the truth. God will remove the candlestick. Church will never be a lighthouse
for God. It will never be a witness for God. God will snuff that
light out It might exist they may be partying and getting down
and they may be having prop programs up the yang-yang But it's dead to God and it's
dead in terms of his mission of preaching the gospel and it's
dead in terms of the effects of the gospel reaching the souls
of men and And so they have to turn to gimmicks and programs
in order to exist. Am I making some sense? Look,
see, once you start selling chicken dinners, and once you start doing
car washes, and once you start doing all of the other sort of
machinations that churches do to make money, you know you have
ceased to preach the gospel. You're done. You have started
a small business venture, but you have not continued in the
ministry of the gospel. God calls his local church to
two things, worship and witness, worship and witness, worship
and witness. The candlestick is to worship
and to witness, to preach and proclaim the gospel. That's our
job. Am I making some sense? Listen
to it now. Listen to it. I see my time is
almost up. I got about five more minutes. Listen to it now. He
says, And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors
have come to the full, a king of fierce consciousness, this
is Antiochus. Will you watch this? And understanding
dark sentences. Do you know what that means?
Antiochus read the Bible. Dark sentences are a metaphor
for scripture true. The Psalms calls the Bible dark
sentences. This is what is meant back in
Daniel chapter 11 when it says, and he shall have intelligence
with those who corrupt the covenant. What did Antiochus do? He went
into Jerusalem and he hunted down all of the compromisers
and he sat them down at his table and he said, fellas, I got a
plan. And I need to see if you end with me on this plan. Now,
what I'm going to do is I'm going to start a faith based initiative
with you guys. OK, and I'm going to help you
to build your church. I'm going to help you to get
the church established. Now, I know that technically there shouldn't
be any finagling of the church in the state, but you know, I'm
for you guys. You guys really don't believe this stuff, do
you? And he could look out and he could see the saliva running
down the sides of the mouth of all of the robbers of God's people.
He knew he was crooked. He knew he was crooked. He knew
it. I can use you. Are you hearing me? I need you
to see this. Keep your hand here. Go to Daniel
chapter 11 and look with me over in verse 30. I want you to see
it for yourself. I'm in Daniel chapter 11 verse
30 for the ships of Shittim shall come against him therefore shall
he be grieved he'll return and have indignation against the
Holy Covenant that is the gospel so shall he do he shall even
return and have intelligence with them that forsake the Holy
Covenant do you guys hear that so he's sitting at the table
with religious folks The politician par excellence is sitting at
the table with religious folk, conspiring how to change the
whole scenario of Jerusalem. Now in your outline, you don't
have it there, but I have, oh, yes, you do. Point number six
in your outline, you have the integration of what? Hellenism. Do you guys see that? No, I'm
sorry, it's in mine, it ain't in yours. Why did I leave that
out on you guys? I'm going to tell you about it
right now and I'm going to shut it down and bring this back next
week. This is the most salient point. Uh, when Nehemiah said
to Tobiah, the Arabian and Gishom, he said, uh, and Sam Ballard,
he said, look, I'm here to do God's work and you guys have
nothing to do with it. nothing whatsoever. What Nehemiah
knew was you cannot mix the gospel with the world. It cannot be
done. Nehemiah knew that there are
attempts to negotiate with him. Remember, that's why I took you
there. This is what Antiochus is doing. This is the way the
enemy always works. Before he brings the church into
captivity, he always negotiates with the church. He sees if he
can get the leadership to buy into policies, which policies
will ultimately corrupt the gospel. Now let me tell you how this
has happened here in America over the last 40 years. Over
the last 40 years, politics has entered into the church in many
ways. First, in the African-American
community. It destroyed it in the 60s. The gospel had to be
put aside, the true gospel, for a political social gospel. You
know that. Many of you have come out of
that mess. Am I telling the truth? Now in the 80s there was another
fellow who rose up and he wrote a book and it was called The
Purpose Driven Life. Now I want you to hear me because
you may be ignorant of this and you don't know that his job was
to take and hodgepodge of business tactics that are designed to
transform communities. Little by little, incrementally,
it was a system that's being used all over our world to integrate
philosophies and develop a unified viewpoint so that we can have
a world government. It's the tactic of bringing multiple
and various views under the same roof and sit down and let's kind
of dialogue. Let's talk and let's see if we
can come up with a consensus or a middle ground viewpoint.
Am I making some sense? So this was written all through
his book, we called it in our teaching and warning years ago,
the Trojan horse that came into the church. It came into the
church and he sold it on the appeal of telling churches, you
can take your small church of 25 people and grow it to 200
people in a couple of years if you use this tactic. Here's the
tactic that it said, don't argue over absolute truth. Don't be
dogmatic about the gospel. Be kind and think through the
issues. Don't be fastidious about certain
translations of the scripture. You should be open to all translations. Also, don't be stuck on the authority
of the leadership of the church. After all, God's speaking to
you what he's speaking to you, and God's speaking to her what
he's speaking to her, and God's speaking to him back there what
he's speaking to him. And really all we wanna do when
we come together in our little small groups is to talk about
what God's Word means to me. And that becomes the objective,
not whether or not it's the truth. It's the issue of what does it
mean to me? Now we have turned the gospel
upside down on its head, and we have now made ourselves the
object of worship. It's called humanism. And it
has permeated everything in our culture. Am I telling the truth?
Is anyone here doubting what I'm saying? This goes on in our
schools. This goes on in our entertainment
department. This goes on in politics. This
is what the United Nations is all about right now. And so for
the last 25-30 years, the churches have been transformed. So whereas
you used to have a church of the model as ours, where you
guys are all sitting, with your Bibles open, and a pastor who
has given to the Word of God an expository proclamation of
the Word of God, sets forth before you what God's Word says, now
we're all in the entertainment. The preponderance of the worship
is about music. A couple of jokes and a laugh,
maybe a verse that's taken out of the scripture and given us
some practical principles on how to live. Do you know what
has happened? You have taken away the sacrifice. You have
taken away the sacrifice. The sacrifice is gone. The sacrifice
is gone. Am I making some sense? We are
no longer coming to church with the explicit intent to hear from
Christ, to see his glory, to be reproved, to be corrected,
to be reminded once again, if it wasn't for grace, I'd be lost. If it wasn't for the shed blood
of Christ, I'd be in hell. If it wasn't for his atoning
work, I'd still be in bondage to my sin. The preaching of Christ
has been taken away. Whenever you go to church for
any other reason than to hear the gospel, you have been deceived
by Antiochus. I want you to see it. I'm in
verse 31 and 32. Of chapter 11, are we there? An arm shall stand up on his
part. They shall pollute the sanctuary. He'll have a huge
army and they're going to corrupt the sanctuary of strength and
they shall take away the daily sacrifice. they shall place the
abomination that make it desolate pastor what is that in the year
167 BC Antiochus was able to deceive the whole leadership
of the church into ceasing sacrificing offerings to Jehovah I've told
you that the temple in Israel, during the times in which Israel
was the steward of the gospel, was itself the gospel. Isn't
that right? The only way you and I knew about
God was to go to the temple. Because when you went to the
temple, you were taught that you come to God as a sinner.
And when you come into the temple, the first thing you see on the
left side is the altar of burnt offering. You must come with
a sacrifice. You must bring blood. You are
taught then by the temple that without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. You are taught that if we don't
have a substitute for our sins, we can have no fellowship with
God. You go further into the temple, on the right hand side
you see the laver of washing. That laver of washing teaches
us that without us being sanctified by the blood of Christ, we're
still unclean. We can't have fellowship with
God. Then you go up further and there's the altar of incense.
That altar of incense represents the prayers of the saints that
ascend before God's throne, and only the high priest can offer
those prayers. And what it teaches us is that
if we don't have a high priest, our prayers avail nothing. But
we thank God that we have a high priest, whoever lives to make
intercession for us, and we know God hears him. And then we go
into the holy place where the table of showbread is. And on
the table of showbread, we see the showbread in order. Christ
is the bread of life. And over against the showbread
is the menorah, which lights up the showbread. Christ is the
light of the world, leading us to the bread of life, upon which
we feed for the souls of our spirit. Are you hearing me? One
more thing. In the Holy of Holies is where
the Ark of the Covenant is. In the Ark of the Covenant was
God's law. In the Ark of the Covenant was
Aaron's rod that budded. In the Ark of the Covenant was
the manna. All three of them testified to
the rebellion of Israel and the need for Christ to come who kept
the law, who was the manna, and who was the high priest chosen
by God. The high priest once a year poured blood on the top
of that mercy seat, and if God accepted the high priest, he
accepted the people. So the high priest stood out,
the people stood outside waiting for the high priest to come out.
God have mercy on the high priest. When he came out, he raised his
hands and blessed the people of God, said God has accepted
us one more year. Christ is our high priest and
we are accepted in him. And on the basis of our acceptance
in Him, God receives us. Am I making some sense? Every
time Israel went to the temple, they heard the gospel preached,
just like you're hearing it preached right now. But once the sacrifice
is taken away, you know what God sees? Nothing but an abomination. Do you know why? Because God
cannot look upon sin. He can't accept the sinful works
of religious folk flailing their hands and screaming and hollering
and shouting when we have taken away the sacrifice. We have taken
away the sacrifice. Do you hear me? We have taken
away the sacrifice. But there were a few people in
our account, and it's in the next verse, and I'm done. That
didn't put up with it. You know, don't you get tired
of folk that aren't those folk interesting to you who just they
seem to go against the grain? Listen to it. I like I like this.
It says over in verse thirty three. verse 32 and such as do
wickedly against the covenant shall be corrupted by flatteries
I'll come back here next week but the people that do know their
God shall be what strong in the Lord and in the power of his
might and they shall do exploits and they that understand among
many of the people shall instruct many yet they shall fall by the
sword and Yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame and
by captivity and by spoil many days now when they shall fall
They shall be helped with a little help but many shall cleave to
them with flatteries and some of them of Understanding shall
fall to try them and to purge them and to make them white Even
to the time of the end because it is yet for a time appointed
Look at your outline. Let's close this out. This is
real easy the discernment Steadfastness of the faithful. Do you guys
hear that the discernment and steadfastness of the faithful
in? The year 167 BC there were a
group of men called the Maccabeans This was a father. His name was
Mattathias. He was one of the priests and
him and his sons saw the incremental changes going on in Israel and
they opposed it and They saw when the sacrifices were removed.
They saw when the God Zeus was set up in the temple. They saw
when the goddess Diana was set up in the temple. So you got
to have some spiritual harlots in there to keep the people entertained.
You know that right? The goddess Diana was nothing
but a prostitute shrine. The old folks was talking about
having revelations while they were having sex. I bet. Also,
they saw when Israel was told by law that you can't circumcise
your children. To tell Israel that they couldn't
circumcise their children is tantamount to telling us that
we can't preach the gospel. Because circumcision pointed
to the seed. That seed was Christ. Am I making
some sense? Can you imagine the people of Israel have their identity
in circumcision? And Tychus is telling them, you
must stop looking like the peculiar people of God. Then they were
told that you can't read the Torah anymore. That's where we're
headed. Legislation in Washington right
now, ready to put me in jail. Are you hearing me? And then
to compromise it, he says, now, this is what I want to do. I
want to build a big gymnasium because Rome was was big on sports,
the Olympics and all that. So they built a big old gymnasium
over against the temple. And so the people who were compromisers
in Israel loved it. First of all, they didn't have
to go through that dry, rigorous, dead worship, you know, always
admitting our sins, always confessing your sin, always looking to Christ,
always reading about. Let's have some interesting worship.
And so now they are, they got a big old gymnasium right next
to the temple. We got a lot of that going on
in our churches today. You don't notice when your churches
get big, they start all of these, these sort of secular activities,
all of these extra curriculums. Whenever that goes on, you're
going to lose the gospel every time. Every time. Whenever you
start seeing us building a gym next to our church, leave. Will
you hear me? Leave. Leave. And especially once we start
cooking chicken dinners and washing cars, leave. Because God has
left long time ago. If you don't believe me, read
Ezekiel chapter 8 through 11. In fact, 8 through 14, God left. He incrementally left. He left
the holy place, the Shekinah left the holy of holies, and
it went to the edge of the church, the pinnacle of the church, and
then it went to the top of the mountain, and then it departed
altogether from Israel. And the people didn't even know
it. The people didn't even know when the Spirit of God was gone.
The Spirit of God is gone. Where Christ is not preached
and honored and loved and obeyed He's gone. I don't care how much
noise you make Am I making some sense Mathathias and his son
said we see the corruption coming in we see that they have diaprax
they have changed the whole worship It's nothing but entertainment.
So we're gonna pull out they pulled out but Antiochus hunted
him down and Antiochus tried to negotiate and tell them look
we won't kill you and if you just do what we say. Mattathias
says you got to be crazy. So Mattathias says you got to
kill me. And so him and his sons pulled
out swords and began to fight the small quadrants of Antiochus. They found God helping them.
That's the little help they received. Do you know when God gives you
a little help you got a whole bunch of help? When God give
you just a little help, you got a whole lot of help. And just
that little group of the Maccabeans went to work and start whipping
up on Antiochus and he ran. But the people that were passive
and didn't believe in God were destroyed. It was the Maccabeans
under Mattathias, his son, Jonas, and his son, Joseph, who preserved
Israel until the coming of Jesus. those men who are called the
ones who did understand and did know their God had not done those
exploits Antiochus would have completely decimated and destroyed
the temple and there would have been no temple for Jesus to be
baptized in our Circumcised and washed in are you hearing me?
It was because of a handful of true believers that who trusted
Christ and rested in his righteousness and rejoiced in his glory and
stood with him in the gospel in the face of everybody departing
from the truth, that God honored that. That's the message to you. That's the message to me. Amen.