I want you to turn your Bibles
back to Daniel chapter 10, if you will. Daniel chapter 10.
If you don't have your Bible, you can follow me in your pastor's
commentary, which is on the inside of your bulletin as well. We're going to be looking at
Daniel 10 as well as Daniel chapter 11. I will be starting back in
Daniel 10 to establish the context for us. And then we will move
into some portions of Daniel chapter If you've been going
through the book of Daniel with us, you know that we are making
our excursion through the book of Daniel because Daniel was
an exiled prophet. The people of God were taken
to Babylon and Babylon became for us a model of not only things
to come, but things that are presently occurring in our generation
right now. And so as we deal with the historic
events that occurred around the life of Daniel, and his three
remarkable brothers and those true believers in that time we
can derive from the scripture lessons for ourselves today.
I was wondering, and I do this frequently when the scriptures
are being read, portions of scripture, I was wondering how many of God's
people even remotely understood what was taking place in the
reading of Daniel chapter 11. Daniel chapter 11 is filled with
a number of what we call pronouns. He, he is, he is, he, he, the
King of the South, the King of the North, he, he is, he is.
How do you divide all that and rightly interpret it in order
to ascertain a cogent understanding of what's taking place? Well,
you got to do a lot of work in order for that to occur. It should
not discourage you as a child of God that you are reading portions
of scripture you don't understand. You don't understand your God
until he reveals himself to you. It should not discourage you,
it should encourage you and provoke you to wanna learn more about
those portions of scripture you seem to be completely oblivious
to and on the outside of. That's all it should do, drive
you to wanna know what is this passage saying? Today we will
be developing a framework. We will not be going into the
details of verses one through 17 because it would take forever.
Uh, we will deal with some framework and you'll see this in the seven
points in your outline. I do want to make sure if the
Lord helps me and helps you to impress upon you that the portion
of scripture that we are dealing with today is extremely relevant
in our life. First and foremost, because God
gave it to us. The Bible says all scripture
is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. And the Bible says again, that
those things that were written before time were written for
our learning. That means the events that took
place thousands of years ago serve for our learning. So we need to learn something
from what Daniel went through. Isn't that right? We need to
learn something. In fact, I can tell you again,
as I'm preparing to develop this, that what Daniel went through
is what all of the saints have gone through and what we are
going through right now. Now, you may not know what Daniel
is going through, but you can be sure that what Daniel is dealing
with is what we are dealing with. And as we go through the passages,
I hope to make that clear. We will be laying a foundation
on some of the historicity of those things that took place
in Daniel's day. We're going to be dealing with history that
goes back to 400 years before Christ, up to about 200 years
before Christ today. Next week, the Lord willing,
we will be dealing with history from about 175 BC to the time
of Christ. And then the final week we'll
be dealing with our Lord's admonition to look back in order to see
forward. as he gave it to us in the year
AD 32, when he told his disciples, when you see the abomination
that make it desolate, standing where it ought not, then understand. What he was teaching his disciples,
which is what we must know as the people of God, is that in
order for you to see forward, you gotta be able to look backwards.
I think it was one of the secular prophets who said, If we refuse
to learn from history, we are doomed to repeat its mistakes.
Isn't that true? And so for the people of God,
we have a book that reaches back into eternity past and reaches
forward into eternity future. And it's not an abstract, abstract
set of theorems. but it is a truth and body of
theology that is totally interwoven within the fabric and history
of the human experience. We can go through the secular
archives, ladies and gentlemen, and find a plethora of information
regarding the very verses that we have read. And those historical
archives will meticulously and overwhelmingly confirm everything
that we are reading. What that means is God's book
is accurate, not only theologically and redemptively, but historically
too. And there is a reason sometimes
for us to settle down and regard the historicity of God's workings. Sometimes we just need to be
reminded of how God kept his people in days of old. We need
to be taught once again the faithfulness of God to warn his people and
to instruct his people how to escape the judgment and wrath
of God that was relevant to their culture so that we can see that
God is warning us that same very way. Never, therefore, be bored
with or apathetic towards history. You and I, we're wise, we would
learn our history. You and I are facing things in
our own country right now. And I'm convinced that the majority
of Americans are utterly oblivious to what's taking place. I'm convinced
of it because we have failed to recognize the importance of
paying particular attention to historical events that have taken
place to set us up where we are right now. When you don't know
the past, you are blind and you are set up for whatever comes
down the pike. And when God warns his people
as he's warning the people of God in Daniel's day, it's in
order for them to be able to properly respond to what is here
soon forthcoming. I'm in Daniel chapter 10. I want
you to look at Daniel 10 verses 10 and 11 with me. Listen to
what the angel said to Daniel in Daniel chapter 10 and 11.
I call this the reward or the blessing that Daniel received
because he was bent on prayer, bent on fasting, bent on seeking
his God because of something he saw. Verse 10 and 11, the
angel said, behold, Daniel said, behold, the hand, a hand touched
me. And that was the hand of the Lord, which touched him.
We talked about that last week. The Lord touches his people,
doesn't he? A hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and
upon the palms of my hand. Do you know what that means?
That means that before the hand touched Daniel, Daniel was completely
prostrate on the ground with his hands spread out and his
face in the dirt. And when the hand touched him,
it merely lifted him up on his knees and on his hands. That's
how incognito Daniel was at the glorious sight of the pre-incarnate,
post-resurrected Christ. When you see God in his glory,
you prostrate naturally. God touched him and raised him
up a little bit, didn't he? He raised him up just enough
to have a conversation with him. but to keep him weak enough to
know that he's in the presence of God. And that's how God does
with you and me. If God's going to save you, he's
going to teach you, you're a sinner. And if God's going to save you,
he's going to teach you that only God can strengthen you. If God's
going to save you, he's going to teach you that you need to
be sanctified by him continually. So now listen to what the angel
says. He said unto me, Daniel said, Oh Daniel, man, greatly
beloved of God, understand, understand the words that I speak unto you.
Lord, I want to understand, don't you understand the words I speak
unto you and stand upright, stand upright for unto thee I am now
sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood, I
stood trembling, but I stood. Oh, that's a happy sinner right
there. The Bible says, I, the high and the lofty God that inhabits
eternity, I dwell with the broken and the contrite and the one
that trembles at my word. The Lord Jesus is standing right
here with Daniel right now, ministering to Daniel. Daniel's trembling,
but Daniel's in the presence of God. Daniel's beloved of God. Daniel's weak, but Daniel's about
to understand something. that you and I need to understand.
Listen to verse 12. Then said he unto me, fear not.
Isn't that the way the Lord comes to us? We have every reason in
the world to fear, don't we? All of the mess we get into,
listen, you have every reason to fear when God comes knocking
on your door. But when God's loved you and he's placed his
grace on your life and he's seen you in Christ, he must say to
you, don't fear. Isn't that right? There is therefore
now no reason for condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
So he says, don't fear. Don't fear, Daniel. For now,
whilst is this was remarkable to me from the first day. That
you did set your heart. To understand and to chasing
yourself before God. Your words were heard. Do you
hear that? Before Daniel even began to pray,
God heard his words. He's letting Daniel know, I heard
you. I heard you way back there. Even before you started, I had
heard you. Now listen, they were heard. And I'm coming to you
for this very reason. But the prince of the kingdom
of Persia withstood me 21 days. Here's my observation on that.
Daniel said in Daniel chapter 10, verses three and four, that
he fasted and prayed for 21 days. You guys remember that? And on
the 24th day, he received his revelation. For the 21 days Daniel
was fasting and praying, the angel says he was in a struggle,
in a battle with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. This teaches
us some insights as to the parallelisms between the things that go on
in heaven and the things that go on in earth. This also teaches
us some things about the unique position that the people of God
have in the moving of events that take place in our life when
we recognize the privilege of co-joining with God in prayer
and seeking his face that his will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. There is a corresponding factor
here for you to learn. And that is this God fully intends
to accomplish his goals in this world through his church. He
fully intends to accomplish his will by his spirit through his
believing people in order that he might get glory for himself
through them. Therefore, recognize your job,
child of God. If you haven't gotten it yet,
your job is to co-labor together with God Almighty for the salvation
of sinners. Will you hear me? This is critical. Now, let me bring it on home
a little bit just so you can go home with a little application
for those of you who like application. You're struggling with something
and you've been struggling with it for a long time, but you haven't
really taken this thing seriously to God. There you go. You got a mission now. You've
got relatives that are struggling with something and they haven't
been set free for a long time. But you haven't really seriously
taken that to God. There you go. You got a mission
now. And when we stand before God, don't tell the Lord I didn't
tell you what you needed to do to help your people get set free.
Pastor, I don't believe in that. I do with all my heart. With
all my heart, I believe in it. With all my heart. I remember
a man named Peter. He was in prison in Acts chapter
11, 12, Acts chapter 12. And the church was praying for
Peter, praying for Peter, praying for Peter. And the angel of the
Lord, which is Jesus himself, broke the chains off of Peter,
woke him up. Peter liked to sleep. You know
that, right? I do too. I love sleep. Peter liked to
sleep. The Lord smote him on his side, said, Peter, get up,
let's go. And Peter was walking with the Lord Jesus through the
door. He went through the first gate and then through the second
gate and the gates were opening all by themselves. Peter thought
he was dreaming until he got on the outside. When he got on
the outside, he looked back. He said, the Lord delivered me.
That's called the grace of God, saving a sinner out of the prison
of sin, delivering him by his mercy through the angel called
the Lord Jesus Christ. The church believed in prayer.
Are you hearing me? Daniel was rewarded with the
revelation. And this revelation that the angel is giving Daniel
does two things. It speaks to Daniel about spiritual
things. And then it speaks to Daniel
about earthly things. In chapter 10, Daniel is told
about the conflict and the battle and the warfare that goes on
in the heavens. In chapter 11, Daniel is shown
the corresponding historical events that take place on the
earth while the things that are in heaven are taking place. In
other words, there is a parallelism. Am I making some sense? Chapter
10 is about the warfare. These are angels. These are principalities. These are powers strategically
set up in particular dominions of the earth for God to wage
war against the enemy, the devil and his angels in order for God
to move about the political events to bring about his own success,
the protection and deliverance of his people and the furtherance
of his purpose to bring Christ into the world. What that means
is the devil knew in the days of Daniel, he had but about 300
to 400 years before the Son of God hit this planet. And he was
fighting like all hell to stop it. Am I making some sense? That's
what's going on in our text. In our text, Daniel is being
told, brother, listen, let me let you know something. There
is a major war going on in heaven and the events that take place
in terms of kings rising up and kings setting down and kings
being established and nations becoming prominent and other
nations being subdued. All of this is part of a co-joined
corresponding spiritual earthly conflict as part of God's sovereign
providence. And children of God know that.
God raises up kings, He set down kings. Isn't that right? The
heavens do rule in the kingdom of the men. Do we believe that?
We believe that God sits on His throne and turns the hearts of
kings with it so ever He wills. Isn't that right? But we also
believe, because we've been taught by the Word, that God uses His
people in prayer and in work in order to accomplish that.
Isn't that right? We're going to see this as we go through
Nehemiah, Ezra, and Esther. I love those three books because
the vision that we're dealing with in Daniel chapter 11 is
covering that period of time from the days of Nehemiah, from
the days of Ezra, and from the days of Esther. That's the period
of time it's covering. We are dealing with specific
aspects of the historical account I want to get into here now,
but it's covering that time in your Bible that if you were to
Sort of give me a jump ahead of me a little bit and read Nehemiah
again read Ezra again read Esther again Then come back and read
Daniel 11. It'll make a whole lot more sense
Particularly Daniel 11 verses 1 through verse 17 and I had
us to stop there for a specific reason every portion of the Bible
is connected to every other portion of the Bible. We've been learning
this in our systematic theology class, right? Precept upon precept,
line upon line, here a little, there a little. One prophet is
connected to another prophet. Several prophets are connected
to certain historical epics. that when you take those prophets
and their writings and plop them down on the historical narratives
connected to it, you get a larger perspective. That is you get
God's view of the earthly historical narrative. And you get to see
the insight as to how God goes about restraining and coercing
and manipulating and bringing about his purpose of saving and
preserving and keeping his people till Jesus comes. God does that
right now with us. Do you know God has his hand
on our president? He has his hand also on the Czars
and on the Fiat's and the Kings and the Caesars and the rulers
of all the other nations in the world. Did you know that? Right
now he does. Right now. And when God wants
you, he takes his hand off of one and let him act a fool. But
his acting a fool serves God's larger purpose. It humbles some
people. It destroys some of God's foes
because the wicked is the hand of the Lord, a sword from God
to punish evil doers. God's people get all bent out
of shape. And I'm hoping that you get this over this series.
Your job is not to align yourself up specifically with any political
group. You have missed the point. Your
politics is in heaven from which your Savior comes. Philippians
chapter 3 verse 19 and 20. Why? Because God's got control
of the left and the right. He's got control of the wrong
and the right. He's got control of the black and the white. You
need to stay in Christ and you need to do it Christ way or else
you're going to be on the wrong team. Did you hear what I just
said? I loved it the way that Joshua
was dealt with by the angel of the Lord when he stepped on in
the Canaan. Remember, he stepped on in the Canaan chapter five.
Joshua was bad now. See now, Joshua, he could walk
with me through the hood too. Joshua was no joke. But he saw
the angel of the Lord dressed in all of his warrior regalia
and gear, and his sword drawn. And Joshua walked up to him,
he said, now who are you for? Are you for us or for our enemies? See, that's the wrong question.
Isn't that the wrong question? The angel said, boy, I ain't
for neither one of you. I'm for the Lord. Are you hearing
me? I'm for the Lord. Even Joshua
had to get politics out of his head. The angel of the Lord which
was Jesus Christ the incarnate pre-incarnate Christ the captain
of our salvation says my business is the Lord's business And you
better hurry up and correct your paradigm your business needs
to be the Lord's business See because some days the folks that
are right end up being wrong and some days the folks that
are wrong end up being right But in order to know that you
got to know the will of God. Is that all right? I Listen to
it now. This is so very, very important
because the church has been twisted and discombobulated. And we're
going to see this when we get down to the robber of God's people
trying to establish the vision in a wrong way. Let me get to
the second point as we're dealing the struggle of heaven and earth.
I've shared with you Daniel chapter 10 verses 11 and 12. I want to
expand on this concept of the struggles of heaven and earth
by using a number of passages of scripture. First of all, you
already know from Daniel 7 through Daniel 11 that Daniel uses language
concerning the kingdoms of this world that we find in other portions
of scripture, the Psalms, the Old Testament, the Minor Prophets,
and particularly the Book of Revelation. The book of Revelation
uses the same language concerning the two beasts. You guys know
what I'm talking about. You who are learned, you know
about beast one being political kingdoms, right? Beast one being
political kingdoms. He has seven heads and ten horns
and ten crowns upon his heads. This is Revelation chapter 12
and 13. This is the same language of Daniel chapter 7. This is
what I meant when God teaches us to look backwards in order
to see forwards. The book of Revelation was written
in front of the church, but it uses the language of events that
took place prior to the church. And so in Revelation chapter
12, we read the opening of Revelation 12, where I get the title of
our message, and there was war in heaven. You guys got that? And there was war in heaven. This is what Daniel is coming
to understand. War in heaven. It talks about horns. It talks
about heads. It talks about a beast. And it uses all of the different
imagery that we've already been exercised in in Daniel chapter
7 and following. The lion and the bear and the
leopard. And this wild monstrosity that
couldn't even be described of which in Daniel chapter or Revelation
chapter 12 he is a composite of all four. In Revelation 12,
this future beast, which beast is not future for us, but was
future for the first century church, was a composite of all
four. Babylon, Medo-Persia, the Grecian
kingdom, and then the Roman kingdom. All four of those are seen in
Revelation chapter 12. What you and I are to learn from
this historical narrative is how to draw out or lift up out
of the historical context a framework and recognize within the framework
the principle methods and operations of the devil as he seeks to destroy
God's people and steal God's glory. Am I making some sense? You lift that up out of the text.
You know, you're working on your computer and you find a verse,
you want to lift it up, you attach, you lift it up out of that text.
That's what God wants us to do. That's what we're going to do
with the framework here, because that's what God did by taking the language
of Daniel and putting it in the book of Revelation so that you
and I can understand that political kingdoms and religious kingdoms
operate the same way they always have. I was talking with my elder
right before I started preaching and before he started commenting
on the fact that his son-in-law is about to go into the military.
And I shared with Elder Rick, I said, you know, we are not
experiencing anything different than our parents and our grandparents
and our great-grandparents all the way back down the line. Since
the beginning of time, men have been fighting. Wars have been
going on since the fall of the human race. God said it would,
they turned their plowshares into swords, pruning hooks into
spears, and we've been fighting and will fight till Jesus comes.
And we have always had those little small lulls of time where
we've gone through a period of what we call relative peace. Many of us, my baby boomer generation,
and some of you Gen Xers, have never ever been threatened with
an imminent war, particularly on the soil of America. You have
lived in a, as I've said it before, a Pollyanna Disneyland scenario
of a world. You have been living in an ethereal
world. The majority of the human race
has had to suffer infiltration by enemies and capture and death
and all kinds of atrocities on the part of beastly nations.
And here we are living 40 and 50 and 60 years unmolested. Am I telling the truth? But now
we're starting to feel what God said comes frequently, wars and
rumors of wars. And our sons and daughters are
now finding themselves being enlisted to have to fight for
the defense of our country. And it's right. It's right. It's right that we do so. It's
right. If somebody came knocking on
my door talking about taking my kids, they're going to get
a fight out of me. Are you hearing me? They're going to get a fight
out of me. And therefore, because I love
this country, I want this country to be safe and secure. It's a
right thing. War is horrible. It's a consequence
of sin. But the enemy ain't going to
just come up in here and do whatever he wants to to me and mine without
me giving him a fight. Do you understand what I'm saying?
I know some of you are pacifists, and you need to go straight to
glory right now. Listen to me. Listen. Because
the battle down here, listen. The battle down here, the battle
down here requires understanding God using civil authorities in
their place and the religious authority of the church in its
place. But when you try to combine the
two, that's when you get your antichrist system. Are you hearing
me? Let the church do what it's supposed
to do. Its job is to preach Christ. and exalt Christ and teach the
truth and set down God's word plainly so that men might know
what God requires of them. And the job of civil authorities
is to protect its citizens and to give them the freedom. I'll
be talking about that down the line because you guys don't know
you're handcuffed right now. And to give men and women the
freedom to live their lives in a successful, prosperous, but
a responsible way. Am I making some sense? But here's
what nations do. Nations prosper, prosper, prosper,
and then they exceed their boundaries. All right, go with me back to
Daniel chapter 11. I want you to see this. Revelation
chapter 12 gave us a lot of information. In your outline, you can read
it for yourself as it deals with the maniacal methods of the beast.
He's called the dragon, that old serpent, the devil. and Satan
who deceives the whole world. He works through politics and
religion. You've heard me say that a lot. I'll develop it down
the line. But Daniel has told some things as we open up in
Daniel chapter 11 verses 1 through 4, which will give us the setting. Point number 3, the setting.
I want to set the context for us today. Daniel chapter 11 verses
1 through 4. And I in the first year of Darius
the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. That is
Darius. You know who Darius is? He's
the Persian king. Sorry, he's the Median King.
Remember we dealt with Babylon, Medo-Persia, then Greece? Well,
the Median King Darius, who was under the authority of the Persian
King Cyrus, is ruling for approximately three years. Daniel is there
to help him, and the angel is there to help him. What do you
mean, pastor? When God decided to knock Nebuchadnezzar
down, remember He gave Nebuchadnezzar time to repent. He didn't do
it. Gave him seven years to act like an animal. And when He gave
him his senses back, Nebuchadnezzar gave the kingdom to his son,
his son, Belteshazzar, after the fool, Belteshazzar, remember
that? And then God had to send him a CD, a DVD, remember that?
God sent him the DVD. When he sent him the DVD, he
saw the movie and he realized it was over with. We put him
in that casket that same night and Darius moved in and took
the throne. This is the mediums. but they
only lasted three years under the auspices of the Persians.
And what the angel is saying is when I moved Babylon out and
I set the Persian king up, it was a battle for me to do so
because the devil always wants to have control over the rulers
of the world so that he can advance his own agenda. Are you hearing
me? And so the angel says, I had
to fight to put in the king that God had prophesied about in the
days of Isaiah, Cyrus and Darius, those men who would be favorable
and kind to God's people. See, if you vote for politicians,
you need to vote for politicians who fear God, who love mercy
and justice. and understand the unique and
significant purpose of the church of the living God. Man, I'm helping
somebody today. Man, I'm helping somebody today.
See, because we vote for politicians who don't understand that. And
David said in 2 Samuel chapter 23, he that ruleth among men
must be just. ruling in the fear of God. You know what that means? He
better be educated in God's sovereign purpose. He better know what
God is doing in terms of his larger redemptive purpose. And
even though he's called to deal with the secular affairs of the
world, he better leave the kingdom of God alone. He better get out
of God's way. He better do everything he can
to assist God in accomplishing his purpose because the same
God that's accomplishing eternal redemption for sinners is the
God that's going to exalt that political king. Am I making some
sense? He better get out the way. But
when he loses his mind or because he has been taught an antichrist
paradigm and ideology and worldview that's contrary to the gospel,
when he reaches a place of prominence, he by necessity being under the
influence of the devil is going to seek to thwart God's purpose. This is the spiritual battle
that's going on in heavenly places. Child of God, I hope you're hearing
me because this is going to test you. Because you need to know
the political ruler, the political ruler, if his worldview is so
bit contrary to Christ, you're going to see it. This is going
to come out in his policies. Listen to it now. He says over
in verse two, and now I will show you the truth. Behold, there
shall stand up yet three kings in Persia and the fourth shall
be far richer than all of them. And by his strength through his
riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.
You guys see that? Here's how this goes. The Persian kings
were many. You can read about them in Nehemiah
and Ezra and Esther. Those were all Persian kings.
Now, the angel said there were four. Historically, there were
more than four. But the number four denotes universality
and divine purpose. In other words, there were four
Persian kings that God had determined to use The other ones that were
being used had no place in prophetic intent. Am I making some sense?
This will help you interpret the Bible right, particularly
when you read about scholars who want to say that Daniel didn't
have his interpretation correct because had he had the right
documents, he would have known that the Persian kings at this
time at least encompassed six or seven kings. Well, they did.
But God was only concerned with four. Am I making some sense? He was only concerned with four
because those four played the roles that God needed from the
time of Daniel to the time of the Grecian king. And the fourth
king was Artaxerxes, or Xerxes the second. And you read about
him in the book of Ezra. This man had acquired so much
wealth, so much money. He had went through the nations.
Persia was that big bear, remember that? That big bear. which had
a rear had food in his mouth right on his right side just
devouring much flesh so as he went through all the kingdoms
of the world and these kingdoms were the kingdoms in the Middle
East if you draw a square I'm gonna make sure I write this
out and put it in your outline next week if you draw a square
you can see that the four corners that they call the world at that
time consisted of Greece or Rome way up in the north corner if
I were faced you you would be over here this is Greece Over
on this side is Asia. Down at the bottom here on your
left hand side in the south is Egypt and Libya and North Africa. You guys got me? And right here
is Babylon and Syria. And in the middle of them is
Israel. Israel is the point man. That's
what we're getting ready to deal with, with the kings of the north
and the kings of the south. If you don't understand this,
your interpretation of the passage will be completely screwed up.
And so as the unfolding of the passage takes place, what we
have historically is the Persian kingdom coming to prominence.
And how did they come to prominence? How do they become rich? How
do kingdoms become rich? They go into other countries
and plunder them. They go in and kill up a bunch of people
and take all their wealth, their gold, their silver, their riches,
and their gods and their gods. They go in there and plunder
all of their resources, their historical documents, and all
of the archives that they have, and completely decimate that
country. That's what Persia had done. It acquired a great deal
of wealth to itself. And what happens is when nations
are given freedom to go and discipline other nations by God, the king
or the rulers of that nation that's prominent, they start
losing their mind, thinking that they accomplished that on their
own strength. kind of like the Armenian grace
hymn I wrote that got written in the front of your article,
read it on your own time, okay? You start thinking by your own
might and by your own power, you accomplish this. And then
you start functioning out of an extremely sinful pattern,
which is what the Persian king did. Once he became super prominent,
he started neglecting the welfare of his own people. In fact, he
started taking riches from his own people And he started setting
himself up like a God. That's what rulers do. The people
of Persia, while they worshiped idols, they didn't worship the
king. They didn't worship the king.
And so when the king started taking on this era of being divine,
he failed. Are you hearing me? But before
he failed, he stirred up the kingdom of Greece. That's what
our text says. Look at it. verse 2 verse 3 I'm
sorry and a mighty verse 2 it's a lot of part of verse 2 and
through his riches and by his strength and through his riches
he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece you guys
know where Greece is right Rome right Italy right verse 3 and
a mighty king shall stand up that shall rule with great dominion
and shall do according to his will do you guys see that All
right, stay with me for a moment. All the angel has done is taken
us back to Daniel chapter 8. And he has shown us to he go.
Remember, I told you that little he go who had no business had
no problem running up against that big rail. This is Daniel
chapter 8 around verses 5 through 8 that little he go is Alexander
the Great. of Macedonia. Again, I'm giving
you the square so you can see it. He's way up at the top, way
up far, what we call, it would be Northwest, up there in Rome. Macedonia is Greece. You guys
know that, right? I know you know that. Macedonia
is Greece. So he comes out of Macedonia,
mad at Persia, because Persia has just completely decimated
Greece and Macedonia. And those are some proud people.
And he had grown up, he's 18 or 19 years old. Now, as I said
to you before, Alexander the Great is a piece of work. It's
interesting and remarkable that all God does right here in chapter
11 verse 3 is give us a little step it says and they shall stir
up a great king who will act according to his will and then
the next verse says and he'll be broken after he stands up
he'll be broken well to get more information about him you got
to go back to chapter 8 we won't go there in chapter 8 it talks
about how he goes through and decimates everybody to He actually
takes more territory than the Persians. Alexander the Great,
who is he? He was the son of Philip the
Great, a great Macedonian king. And I told you this last time,
Alexander the Great had something inserted into his mind by his
parents. His parents told him that he was the son of Zeus. Now, Zeus among the pagans of
the Greek and Roman gods was the upper echelon of the gods.
Zeus was the big dog. And so, Alexander the Great was
supposedly the son of God. This here is your Antichrist
paradigm. Are you hearing me? This is your
Antichrist paradigm. So this son of God or of Zeus
feels entitled to ransacked the world and get everybody to bow
down to him. He was trained by a pedagogue
who always teaches young princes and princesses how to live cultured
lives and understand their history and what have you. But he had
another pedagogue, another teacher, and his name was Aristotle. You guys heard of Aristotle?
Now, Aristotle, he was the protege or he was the student of Plato. And Plato was the student of
Socrates. You guys know those three, very prominent. Aristotle's
taught Alexander the Great how to appreciate culture, how to
appreciate science, how to appreciate learning, how to appreciate the
different cultural views of the world. He taught Alexander how
to appreciate the gods. how to appreciate what we call
phenomenology, creation. What this means is as Alexander
went through and plummeted and destroyed other kingdoms, he
acquired to himself a lot of learning. One of the greatest
libraries in the world in the Middle East is called the Alexandrian
Library in Egypt. in Egypt. In the Alexandrian
library you will find all sorts of artifacts from all over the
world where this great king Alexander had brought and placed there
because he didn't fear people learning because he was taught
by Aristotle that you could learn from all kinds of sources. This
is the beginning of what we call the Hellenization of the Middle
East. Hellenization means the influence
of Greek culture draped upon the masses. the influence of
Greek culture draped upon the masses. What that means is Greece
is way up to the Northwest and it's powerful enough to take
its culture, its worldview, its ideology, and plop it down on
the Syrians, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and Israel, which
is what we're about to get into. So now I want you to understand
this principle because this is how the devil works. The devil
has a worldview. The devil has an ideology. The
devil has a scheme. The devil has a system and approach
by which he wants this world to operate. And the devil wants
to transform the whole world into his type of thinking and
into his image. Am I telling the truth? See,
these are the battles that we're fighting. We're fighting the
battle of being transformed either into the image of the beast or
into the image of Christ. Is that right? And so what Alexander
the Great does as a great type of antichrist is he's able to
so influence the masses that they are now having to buy into
his educational program, his economic program, his religious
programs. They're being taught all types
of things. Entertainment, they're being taught sports because remember
the Roman Greek gods, man, they were all into sports. I'm gonna
get into that next week in relationship to the church. And when I get
into it, you're gonna realize you are in Daniel chapter 11. And we've been there for a long
time. So the great model of the Antichrist, he's not the Antichrist
in our text, but he's a foreshadow of the Antichrist, has been able
to influence the culture with paganism, called a Hellenized
Greek ideology. But he falls after 12 years. Alexander the Great doesn't hang
around long. This is what makes him an interesting type also
of Christ, because Christ's ministry was short, and his life was short. And they died almost at the same
age. When Alexander went forth conquering,
and the history of Alexander is just prolific. You can read
tons of books about Alexander and his exploits. He was 19 years
old when he took the throne. He was 33 years old when he died. That's young. He had conquered
the Middle East, almost all of it, swiftly and quickly. Remember
the he-goat, his feet didn't touch the ground? That's Alexander
the Great. And so he dies. a consequence
of doing the same thing that the Persian king did he raised
himself up to be God listen to me when the state becomes too
powerful it will demand that you worship it I'm just cutting
straight through the chase when the state becomes too powerful
if you have a monarchy that state becomes the monarch he's the
king if you have like a Parliament or a democracy, a representative
of a republic like we do, the representatives of the people,
this oligarchy of leaders in Washington, D.C., they become
so powerful over time that they basically exercise their will
and the people simply have to follow it. When the last time
the president or your governor or your senator Knocked on your
door and said, um, uh, hey bro, let me ask you something. Should
we do this or should we do that? When last time they came to you?
You don't remember in your lifetime, do you? All you remember waking
up is your taxes are at 35 to 40% now. And they're telling
you that if you don't cut your water off and cut your PG and
ER, and if you don't stop driving so much, and if you don't stop
doing this, we're going to tax you and tell you where it talks
about a razor of taxes there too. We'll deal with that next
week. That's how political kingdoms work. They become so powerful
that they simply exercise mass autonomous authority over you
until the people wake up and start fighting against the injustices
of their leaders. See, we ought to take our leaders
out when they act unjustly. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And that's what you're going to see taking place here on a
spiritual level. In other words, the common people
should have the leadership. The leadership should have the
best interests of the common people in mind. And when the
common people sit around and simply tolerate what the leadership
is doing, the common people have abrogated their authority. I
think in our country, how does it go? By the people, for the
people. of the people, by the people,
for the people. Isn't that crazy? Of the people, by the people,
and for the people. And really what that means is
the people actually should be in charge. Who's kidding who? You don't even think like you're
in charge. Oh, well, I better get a second
job because Uncle Sam want more taxes. You know what has happened? Over the last 40, 50, 60, 70
years, you have been ideologically subverted. You have been educated
into listlessness and dumbness. You have been taught to suck
at the nipple of government propaganda and choose sides because they
promised to give you this, that, and the other thing. And now
you have no power. Am I telling the truth? I know
I am. I know I am. I know that I am. And so all
we do is say, well, you know, our leaders, we just got to pray
for our leaders. Yeah, we do have to pray for them. But if
you let them take your freedoms, understand this, you let them
take your freedoms. That's just where we are. That's
the battle we fight. Do you know freedom came at a cost? Christ died in a war for my soul
to set me free. Am I making some sense? And freedom
does not exist in a vacuum. If you go to sleep on entertainment
and on drugs and on partying and on enjoying your narcissistic
self-centered life and you wake up and all your children are
slaves for the third and fourth generation down the line, that's
your fault. And it's my fault. Am I making some sense? Because
you weren't diligent. All right, let's go on to the
next thing, the divided kingdom. It tells us in verse four, and
when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken and shall be
divided toward the four winds of heaven and not to his posterity,
nor according to his dominion, which he ruled for his kingdom
shall be plucked up even for others besides. Do you see that?
What happened was Alexander's kingdom was divided when he died. That's kind of how it goes. You know, if the main king is
dead, if his son doesn't take over, you know, this is what
we call nepotism in politics, right? I told you about the unjust
nepotism that goes on in religion, right? The pastor ain't supposed
to pass the church down to his son. All right, that's another
issue. But Alexander the Great dies
because he's so caught up in himself. And there are a lot
of details as to how he died. His own men killed him because
he was careless. He was a drunk. He was a profligate.
He was depressed. He was demonically possessed.
He was troubled. That's why you pray for your
rulers, because if God doesn't restrain them, they are troubled
all the time. because they have to give an
answer to God for the flawed, sinful legislation that they
sign and put into force that oppressed the people. See, this
is a spiritual battle that's going on. I really want to press
that home. This is a spiritual battle going
on. So when Alexander died, the kingdom was broken up into four.
You see that. It says the four winds. His kingdom
was broken up and given to four of his generals. One of his generals
was at home in Macedonia or Greece. This is the Northwest. The other
of his generals was over in Asia. This was Antigonus, not Antiochus,
Antigonus. He was a general over in Asia.
This is upper Asia where we have Ephesus and Sardis and all of
that. And then there was another general in Syria. In Syria, there
was a general in Syria as well. Syria was the Seleucid kingdom.
We're gonna be talking about that here in a moment. And then
the fourth general was down in Egypt. They were called the Ptolemies. Now for the sake of the message
that God is teaching Daniel, we hear nothing about the Grecian
kingdom, the Grecian general. We hear nothing also about the
Asian general, Antigonus. We only hear about the Syrian
general, the Seleucid kingdom. He's called the kingdom of the
north. And then the Ptolemy kingdom,
the kingdom of the south. Are you guys with me so far?
In the north is the northern king. He's Syrian. In the south,
the southern king is Egypt. You guys got that? So as you
go through Daniel 11 and 12, particularly Daniel 11, the southern
kingdom is always Egypt. The northern kingdom is always
Syria. You guys got that? And so when
you hear about the Syrian kings dominating for a period, it's
up there in the south, the north. You hear about the northern kingdom
dominating, it's always, southern kingdom dominating, it's always
in Egypt. So verses five through nine, look at this briefly, and
I'm not gonna expand it, I wanna just show you what I'm talking
about. Verses five through nine says, and the king of the south,
that's the king of who? Egypt, shall be strong and one
of his princes and he shall be strong above him. That is, in
the opening up of the breaking up of the four kingdoms, Egypt
will become prominent. The first king that's there,
the first general that's there, he's okay, but his son is really
prominent. And he shall be strong above
him and shall have dominion. And his dominion shall be a great
dominion. Egypt was powerful before Israel
was brought on the scene. And Egypt was powerful in the
days in which Daniel is seeing this vision. Okay. Egypt was
powerful. Egypt was significant. Egypt
was massive. He goes on to say, and in the,
in the end of years, they shall join themselves together. Who
the King of the South and the King of the North. That is, the
Syrian kingdom and the Egyptian kingdom shall come together.
After all, when Alexander was the king, they were all one.
Remember, Alexander dies and his generals, all four of his
generals, take the four corners. Which means, ostensibly, they
could have all had a very unified, cogent, or co-reigning relationship. But they didn't, because kings
don't do that. Kings want to be their own king.
Every one of them wanted to be like Alexander. But for a period
of time, Syria and Egypt joined affinity. And when the word joined
is used in the Old Testament in this context, it's talking
about marital affinity, much like Ahab and Jezebel and Jehoshaphat
and Ahab did, where the daughter of the kings of Egypt married
into the kings of Syria's line so that we had family together.
This is designed to strengthen the relationship. But the text
said it didn't work. And it didn't work because even
though the Egyptians sought to marry off their daughter into
the Northern Kingdom, the reason they did it was because they
had become insecure because Syria was becoming strong. And the
Kings always know that when you try to marry folks into each
other family, they don't really love each other. They just trying
to get into political positions of power. They knew this. So
it didn't work. And they found themselves fighting wars with
each other. Are you guys hearing me? I want you to look at one
more verse in this text and we'll move to our next point. Look
at verse seven through nine. But out of a branch of her, that
is the daughter of the king of Egypt, marrying into the daughters,
the line of the king of Syria, out of her roots shall one stand
up in his estate, which shall come with an army and shall enter
into the fortress of the king of the north and shall deal against
them and shall prevail. And he shall carry captive into
Egypt, their gods. See, that's what they do. with
their princes and with their precious vessels of silver and
of gold, and shall continue more years than the king of the north."
In other words, initially, the king of the north prevailed,
but now the king of the south is prevailing. But his son shall
be stirred up. His son here, so I was telling
you about those pronouns, is the north, the king of the north.
This is not the king of Egypt. See, because Egypt now is prominent,
the king of the north is jealous. And the sons of the king are
jealous. And so the sons of the kings on either side have said,
when I get an authority, we're going to change things around
here. That's what's going on here. Are you hearing me? So
they're stirred up because they knew what it was like to be in
prominent position under Alexander. And when the kingdom was initially
broken up, the Syrians were ruling prominently for a long time.
Now Egypt's running the show and the sons of the Seleucid
kingdom or the Northern kingdom or the Syrian kingdom want to
go to war against Egypt. That's what's going on. Listen
to what it says. And his sons shall be stirred up and shall
assemble a multitude of forces and one shall certainly come
and overflow and pass through. and then he shall return and
be stirred up even to his fortress and the king of the south shall
be moved with color in other words when the king of the south
hears the northern kingdom coming down He shall come forth and
fight with him, even with the king of the north, and he shall
set forth a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given
into his hand. And when he has taken away the
multitude, his heart shall be lifted up and he shall cast down
many ten thousands, but he shall not be strengthened by it. You
need help with that. I know that. Here's how this
went. Because see, we're dealing with
the pronouns. Now, God knows that Daniel knows what this is.
And God also knows that the people that are living in Daniel's time
know who these pronouns are. But we don't. The attempt on
the part of the northern kingdom to try to overtake the southern
kingdom, which is Egypt, failed. And Egypt felt real good having
whooped up on the Syrians. So much so, this is when the
Egyptian king starts acting a fool. Now he exceeds his authority
and he starts abusing his people and his people start turning
against him too. See, saints, man by nature is
sinful. Do you hear me? All men, I'm
talking about from the least to the greatest. And when you
give men too much authority, as one of the secular sages put
it, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely When
you give one man that much power and he's not restrained by the
Holy Ghost and led by God's word, he's going to start acting like
God. This go on in little circles.
This go on people houses. Tell the truth now. Either it's
the man or the woman running around like a little guy. Everybody
got a bow down to them. When they're mad and frowning,
then the whole world's raining. When they're happy, then the
sun has come out. Right? These are little tyrants, little
narcissistic tyrants. How much more? And then it goes
on in church too. You know that. Oh, the pastor
upset. So what? Pray for him. Pray for him and
keep moving. You don't have to be upset because
the pastor is upset. Look at his children. If his children
are smart, they're not upset. They're just praying for dad.
Pray for him. But don't you let a man or a
woman be your thermometer. Are you hearing me? And so he
gets all bent out of shape. And so what he starts doing is
losing popularity among the people. This is what moves us into our
next point. The robbers of God's people. The robbers of God's
people. And I'm not even really developing
this. I'm just giving you a framework.
Look with me over in verse 13 and 14. For the king of the north
shall return. He's coming back. This is the
thing about wars too. If you don't completely annihilate
folks, listen, they're coming back after you. But the king of the North shall
return and he shall set forth a multitude greater than the
former. See, that's bad. When you stir him up and he goes
back and marshals together more, then you got to fight all over
again. And when you get older, you get tired of fighting, don't
you? See, I know this because growing up, I had to fight all
the time. And I was thankful when my parents
moved geographically from one location to the next. Cause it
like, it wasn't like I couldn't fight, but I just got tired of
fighting every day. So you move and you get a little
rest, you know, for a season. Did something, break out there
and say, okay, here we go back at it again. Okay. And this is
what's going on with the Northern and Southern kingdom. He's coming
back again. Now remember what I said, I want
you to get this now cause this is going to bring us to our salient
point before I close. The Southern kingdom, sorry,
the Northern kingdom is Syria. The southern kingdom is Egypt.
You guys got that? In between those two fighting
factions are the people of God. What that means is, in a principle
form, is the Hatfields and the McCoys are throwing rocks and
shooting at each other over the front and backyard of the Hebrew
people. And this is destabilizing the
Hebrew people. Because the Hebrew people are
subservient people, they're slaves now. And they are either slaves
to the northern kingdom of Syria, when they're dominating, or the
southern kingdom of Egypt, when they're dominating. Are you hearing
me? Here becomes the problem. We call this the dialectic process. Two opposing views in conflict
with each other. seeking to either dominate the
one or dominate the other, or to have an outcome that results
in a compromise. This is the essence of politics. Your left versus your right,
your right versus your left, your conservatives versus your
liberals. Are you hearing me? And so you say, you know, I'm,
I'm, I'm liberal. I like being liberal. So I'm
gonna be on the liberal side. And then your other buddy says, I'm
conservative. So you guys are automatically
at odds ideologically. Isn't that right? But what you
don't know is that way up in the White House, the liberals
on the left and the conservatives on the right, after they fight
in front of the television, they go to have drinks together. This
is what you don't know. This is how it was in big time
wrestling and boxing back in the day. You know, everybody
betting on the odds and the spread and everything. And after the
fight, you see both of the boxes down at the club partying together.
This is a dialectical process that the devil works to to deceive
the masses. And it sucks Christians into
it because they think that they're on the right side. Am I making
some sense? And so here's the here is Israel
having to be subject to one or two of the parties. And the text
tells us the robbers of your people. the robbers of your people. Do you guys see that? Literally,
in the Hebrew, it's the violent, uncouth, wicked, unprincipled
men. The people who rule in the church,
who have no love for God, no love for truth, no love for the
gospel, no love for the people of God. They are in positions
of power, but all they want to do is benefit from the political
scenario. These are the uncouth rulers
of the church. Are you hearing me? They're called
the robbers of your people, of which the Bible has used that
term several times in the Old Testament and in the New. Jeremiah
chapter 2 verse 27, God said to Israel, you're like a thief
who's been caught. Psalm chapter 50, where Psalm
50 talks about God telling Israel, look, I'm not like you. I know
that you thought I was altogether just like you, but I'm not. I'm
not like you. And this is what God said to
the wicked in Israel. What have you to do with my law? Seeing you take my covenant and
cast it behind your back. And then when you see a thief,
you join hands with him and the adulterers. God says, but I'm
going to correct you. And when I correct you, I'm going
to correct you in order because I'm not like you. See, you can't mix politics with
religion and come out with truth. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? And so the robbers of his people were the same people
that Jesus was dealing with when in the beginning of his ministry,
he entered into the temple and saw them buying and selling religion. Sounds familiar? And in the opening
of his ministry, he went in and tore up the whole temple. Politically
incorrect, yes, but the message was clear. God despises your
treachery and your robbery and your stealing God's glory. God
despises it. God despises it. God despises
it because he knows men in positions of authority and today men are
women in positions of authority who are bent on self-glorification
will sell God's people into bondage to get what they want. And this
has been the legacy of the evangelical church over the last hundred
years. Am I making some sense? Now look at the text again, because
I want you to see what God has revealed to Daniel, which he's
revealed to us. Verse 14. And in those times,
there shall many stand up against the king of the south. That's
Egypt. Also, the robbers of your people,
Daniel, shall do what? Exalt themselves to establish
the vision. Do you see it? I'm going to deal
with the last part in a second. Exalt themselves. What does that
mean? That means they strategically position themselves to be able
to influence the leaders of both the North and the South. That
means they take envoys. and go to Egypt and negotiate
with the Egyptian leaders as to how many men out of Israel
they are willing to sail over to the Egyptian army and how
much of Israel's resources and goods they can give to the Egyptians
in order to help the Egyptians beat the North, that is the Syrians. Am I making some sense? After
all, you know one of the continued and repeated sins of Israel was?
sucking at the nipple of Egypt and trusting in that broken reed
to deliver them anytime they were in trouble. Isn't that what
God warned about repeatedly? Trusting in that. Remember, they
were born in Egypt. They had learned the culture
of Egypt. And when God brought them out of Egypt into the wilderness,
Egypt was still in their heart. When God gave them the law on
Sinai, Moses and his brethren were worshiping the true and
the living God at the top of the mountain while they were
down at the bottom of the mountain worshiping the pagan gods of
Egypt and Babylon. Moloch, the golden calf. See,
you can take the people out of Egypt, but without being born
again, you can't take Egypt out of the people. And people can
be religious on the outward and still be pagan, Egyptian slaves
and idolaters in their heart. Am I making some sense? This
is so important. This is so important. So the
thieves the thieves and robbers 300 years before Jesus sold out
their people and you know what it says in order to establish
the vision. Watch any political religious
group that seeks to use the arm of the flesh to establish the
vision. Be wary of any political religious
group that seeks to use the arm of the flesh to establish division. I'll develop that down the line.
I just want you to hear it. Our warfare is not carnal. We don't win through politics. We don't win through politics.
We don't win. We lose through politics. Are
you hearing me? We lose through politics. We've
lost ground to this day through politics. But politicians aren't
paying a hoot about the law of God, the word of God, the gospel
of God. They aren't paying a hoot. Are we the better today for the
church's amalgamation with politicians? Are we the better? You better
know we're not. Politics and religion means casting
Jesus out. I remember when the Bible said
in the gospel of Luke, On the day that Jesus was crucified,
Herod and Pontius Pilate became friends. That's religion and
politics. Am I telling the truth? I'm warning
you. But you know how sovereign God
is? This is how sovereign he is. He says they're going to
try it, but they're going to fail. Because you can't outmanipulate
the truth of the living God. And you can't curse those whom
God has blessed. And you can't bring into bondage
those whom God has set free. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And you can be as slick as you want to, but God's going to protect
his people. God will destroy nations for
his elect. He'll turn countries upside down
for his people. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
I'm talking about his people who trust him. God will cause
a leader to have a heart attack or stroke. What happened to him? The angel knows. I wish somebody would hear what
I'm saying today. Because I'm telling you, part
of the deception that's draping our nation is the ignorance of
your calling as the church. That's what's draping our nation.
My last point. Drop down to number seven, the
elect will discern. I'll pick this up next week.
The elect will discern. I want you to read with me verses
30 through verse 33 and I'll just explain this briefly and
close. We'll partake of the Lord's table and go on home. For the
ships of Chittim shall come against him. Therefore shall he be grieved
and return and have indignation against the holy covenant. This
here is the king of the north. This here is Antiochus Epiphanes
will develop him next week. He has made such an illustrious
success and triumph. He's equally as remarkable as
Antiochus Epiphanes. And he hates God passionately.
And he's pursuing God because he's been stopped by the Romans.
And the text tells us he's going to have indignation against the
Holy Covenant. So shall he do. He shall even
return to Israel coming from Egypt on his way back to Syria
and have intelligence with them that forsake the Holy Covenant.
Got it? on his way back home because
he couldn't take Egypt, he's going to stop and destroy Israel.
But in order to be successful at destroying Israel, he needs
to negotiate with all the crooks in Israel who forsake the covenant. Are you hearing me now? How that corresponds today is
that politics will seek to give you everything you want as long
as you abandon the gospel. Is it clear? Listen to what he
says. An arm shall stand on his part
and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. I'm thinking about
how politicians are able to come into churches and stand in the
pulpit and preach and spew out all of their political promises.
That's polluting the sanctuary. And shall take away the daily
and shall place the abomination that make it desolate. I've seen
that happen to so many churches in my 30 years. churches that
used to be quasi faithful now given over completely to a political
paradigm is nothing but a social institution ashamed of the gospel. And such as do wickedly against
the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries. But the people
that do know their God shall be strong and they shall accomplish
their purpose. That's what the phrase do exploit
means. They shall be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might. They shall be strong in the cause
of the gospel and in the glory of Christ. They shall be strong
in their commission to preach Christ and Christ alone. And
they will accomplish their purpose. Got it. In spite of all of the
forces of the world coming against them, God's people shall be strengthened
by God to accomplish their purpose. Are you hearing me? And I'm going
to close with this one. And they that understand and
they that understand among many shall instruct many. That's called
gospel preaching. That's shutting sinners up to
Christ. That's helping sinners understand their need of Christ.
That's helping sinners understand their desperate sinful condition
and the finished work of Jesus Christ and the efficacy of his
shed blood on Calvary Street. That's shutting sinners up to
a God who justifies us apart from works by his grace alone.
That's shutting sinners up to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ
alone. When you have effectively instructed
sinners Sinners come to understand all they need is what God has
given them. And what God has given his people
is Christ. And if Christ is all that God
has given his people, Christ is all that God's people need. All they need is Christ. All they want is Christ. All
they have for all eternity is Christ. And they don't want anything
else. And they know there's no room
for Christ plus! That's it, I'm done. Let's stand
and sing our hymn.