I try always in preparing to
preach to you to remember where you've come from today, what you've had to deal with
today, and to remember the word of our
God to me as your pastor. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. And I seek a word from God for
your heart, for your consolation in the midst of your present
circumstances. And I'm confident I have it tonight. Turn with me to Daniel chapter
4. Brother Rex was talking about some of the pressure of the day. And I said to him, well, if God
will Allow me to convey to you just a little bit of what he's
conveyed to me in this book of Daniel. You'll leave here with
a little less pressure, and I trust he will. In this fourth chapter
of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had a troubling, troubling dream.
He called for all of his soothsayers and witch doctors to come in
and tell him what the dream was and interpret the dream, and
they couldn't do it, but Daniel did. And this is the interpretation
of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, verse 24. Daniel says, This is the
interpretation, O King, this is the decree of the Most High,
which is come upon my Lord the King, that they shall drive thee
from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the and
they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee
with the dew of heaven, and seven times, that is, seven years,
shall pass over thee, till something happens, till thou know that the Most
High Ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever
he will. And whereas they commanded to
leave a stump of the tree roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto
thee. After that thou shalt have known
that the heavens do rule. Now sooner or later, sooner or
later, every creature under God's is going to learn what Nebuchadnezzar
learned while he was out chewing grass like an ox. Sooner or later,
every devil in hell and every man who's ever walked on the
earth will learn and acknowledge that the Most High ruleth, that
the heavens do rule, always, everywhere, at all times, in
all things, with all people, no exception. Now the sooner
we learn this and the more fully we are convinced of it, the better.
And this is the message of the book of Daniel. What does the
Lord God mean for us to understand when we are told the Most High
ruleth, the heavens do rule? He means for us to understand
exactly what Nebuchadnezzar confesses in the latter part of this chapter.
Look in verse 34. And at the end of the days I,
Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding
returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to
generation. and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest
thou? At the same time my reason returned
unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness
returned unto me, and my counsellors and lords sought unto me, and
I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added
unto me." Now, once a person learns what Nebuchadnezzar here
confesses, once we learn the Most High Ruleth, then we gladly
extol and honor and worship the God of Heaven. Now, understand
me. I know the whole world around
us is religious. Religious as all get out. I know
that people talk about God and talk about Jesus and talk about
the Holy Spirit and talk about righteousness and all those things.
But no one, no one knows or worships God. No one worships at all except
those who worship at the feet of the sovereign Lord God Almighty
who does exactly as he will. Any thought that a man has of
God that is anything less than that is utter idolatry. It is base paganism. Nebuchadnezzar
said in verse 37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, now that I know who God is, and
now that I understand what I am, I am just what I was portrayed
as, a mad raging beast by nature, I am the vile, and corrupt, and
worthless. This is what I am. I thought
I was great, and proud, and mighty. Then God showed me myself, and
now God's shown me himself. He says, Now I praise, and extol,
and honor the King of Heaven, all whose works are truth. But you just said, whatever you
do is right. I spent seven years out there
in that grass because it was right. I spent seven years in
utter insanity, because he's right. All thy works are true,
and his ways judgment, justice, and right. And those that walk
in pride, he knows how to break. He's able to abase. What could be more cheering?
What could be more comforting? what could be more inspiring,
what could be more emboldening, what could be more encouraging
than the knowledge of the fact that our God, our God rules absolutely everywhere. He rules. Nothing comes to pass but by
His rule. Nothing comes to pass, no matter
what scheme is hatched in hell, or hatched in the hearts of men,
or comes from the mouth of men, or is done by the hands of men.
Nothing except what God Almighty, my Heavenly Father, has purposed
for His glory and my good. Now if that doesn't put some
wind in your sails, I don't know what will. Our God rules. God Most High is He who rules
the universe. And that God can sustain his
people in the midst of horribly evil times, as we see in Daniel
chapter 1. Here's Daniel. The king brought
these Jewish people in out of Babylon and did everything he
could to strip them of their nationality, but more than anything
else to strip them of their religion. And he wants to extol and honor
certain ones and make them high and mighty men and use them to
help to strip the others of their religion as well as their nationality.
But Daniel refused to drink the king's wine and refused to eat
the king's meat. not because he was so determined
that he would change the ways of Babylon. There's not a word
in this book about him ever attempting to change the way the Babylonians
lived. But he refused in any way to associate himself with
the religion and the gods of the Babylonians. He would not
do it. In chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar
makes this great and makes the law and demands that everybody,
when they hear the sound of the music and the shout, bow down
and worship the image. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
refused. No, sir. No, sir. We won't do
it. We won't do it. We'll live here,
and we'll live in peace. And we'll watch you folks go
about your business, and we'll try to get along with you. But
we're not going to worship your God. And the king said, one of
you fellows ought to think about this. Y'all go back home and
discuss this. And they responded on the spot, we don't have to
take a vote on this. We don't need a business meeting to decide
we're not going to worship your God. And our God shall deliver
us. But if he doesn't, we're still
not going to worship your God. Because you see, our God's God,
and he does what's right. And whatever he does, if he brings
us out of the fiery furnace, good. If he doesn't, good. He's done what's right. Our great
God, who from his lofty throne gives kingdoms to men and takes
kingdoms from them, raises up kings and tears down kings, raises
up thrones and tears down thrones at his pleasure, at his will. I almost want to say at his whim. But God doesn't have whims like
we do. God Almighty has purposed all
things from eternity. But more easily than I can think
about the very word king, God raises up kings and God puts
them down exactly according to his will. And he does it purely
for the good of his people. Purely for the good of his people.
We live in this land, and I, as you know, I don't get much
involved in politics. I don't get involved in them
at all except to exercise my responsibilities as a citizen.
I encourage you to do what you can to legitimately, lawfully
control, as best you can, the wickedness around us. But whatever
laws are passed in Washington, doesn't matter which fellow proposes
them, Whatever laws are passed in Frankfurt, doesn't matter
which fellow sets them up, whatever comes to pass in this world,
whatever it is, God Almighty brings it to pass according to
his purpose for your good, for the good of his church, for the
good of his kingdom. He rules. Sometimes we, not sometimes,
Let's try to be honest. More often than not, Lindsey,
we talk like pagan unbelievers. More often than not. Shelby and
I will catch ourselves discussing the future. We did the same thing
when Faith was a little girl, you know, scared to death what
she was going to have to face. Just, oh, look at all that's
around her. What will happen? What will make
it? You know, God brought her right on through it. Brought her right on through
it. The whole mess. Oh, I don't know what this hard regression
we're going to face. Oh, I don't know. Sometimes even,
why would anybody bring children into this world? We're God's
people. We're God's people. And our God rules. He rules even
Shammai and Nebuchadnezzar, and he rules Belshazzar. He rules
everywhere and everything, all the time. And he rules for our
good. What does it mean, God rules?
The God of glory, in whom we trust, graciously, wisely, and
sovereignly intervenes in, and sovereignly manipulates. I thought
about using that word a good bit before I wrote it down, but
I have put it down. Because folks say, well, you mean God just,
he absolutely manipulates things? Oh, we don't like anybody to
manipulate things. I'd do if he's God. He rules, he manipulates
all the affairs of all creatures according to his wise, unalterable
purpose, and he does it for the salvation of his elect and the
glory of his own great name. You see, providence, what you
read in today's newspaper, is but the unfolding of God's purpose,
and it is the unfolding of God's purpose by a mysterious, wondrous,
constant succession of miracles. Listen to what the book says
here in Daniel 6 verse 27. He worketh signs and wonders
in heaven and earth. That's my God. That's my Father. He unfolds his purpose day by
day in a constant succession of miracles. In this book, we
see him causing a pagan king to dream a dream that he can't
understand. Back in chapter 2, he can't even
remember the dream. All he knows is it was bad. That's
all he remembers. Caused him trouble. Couldn't
remember a thing about it. And this pagan king calls in
his pagan witch doctors and soothsayers and religious leaders, and he
tells them, you tell me what I dreamed and then tell me what
it means. They say, oh, we can't do that. He said, you'll do it
or die. You'll do it or die. And so God
wisely takes these pagan witch doctors and uses them to go fetch
Daniel to the king. To set Daniel in the highest
place in the kingdom. Because Daniel could, by God's
Spirit, tell him his dream and tell him what it meant. The Lord
God takes the king. in a fit of his pride when men
bolstered his ego a bit and wanted to make him think he's somebody,
makes a decree and he uses a fiery furnace. And there are three
men, three believing men, three men who worship God. And they
will not abide by the king's decree, they will not bow down
to his image, they will not worship this God. And he cast them into
a fiery furnace, a fiery furnace so hot that when those mightiest
men in the land threw them in the furnace, the fire consumed
those men. But there they stood and walked
around, and God delivers them, and through the fiery furnace
raises them up to the highest place they could be put in the
land. He takes a faithful man. A faithful man. Daniel is listed
as one of the three greats in the book of Ezekiel. He is one
of the very few men whose names are written in this book about
whom not one word is spoken against. Not one word. Daniel, faithful
man. Daniel, a man who worshipped
and served God. Daniel, a man who sought the
glory of Christ and cast him into a den of lions. Because by the mouth of those
lions being stopped, so that they could do him no harm, God
was determined to establish him in the kingdom. Now, think about that next time
you face the Lord and bite your nails. How God rules. Yes, our great God shall establish
his kingdom in this world, exactly as he's purposed. A kingdom that
shall never be destroyed. And he will use the kingdoms
of this world, all of them, spiritual and natural. He will use the
kingdoms of this world, the religious kingdoms and the political kingdoms. He will use the kingdoms of this
world to establish and build his kingdom while they seek to
destroy it. And in the end, his kingdom shall
be the instrument in his hands by which all the kingdoms of
this world shall be crushed to pieces. That's our God. Now the book of Daniel is all
about the establishing of God's kingdom in this world. the establishing
of God's kingdom upon the foundation of his Son's blood atonement,
and the everlasting triumph and glory of Christ and his kingdom,
the Church, by the power of his grace. I realize that most people
are convinced that the book of Daniel, and indeed in this day
of religious ignorance, utter ignorance, Most people are convinced
that the book of Daniel in the entire Bible doesn't have anything
to say about hardly anything except prophecy. And they think
particularly that Daniel is a book profoundly deep and mysterious,
because it's talking about future things, and it's talking about
the future of nations, and it's talking about the plan and purpose
of God, and everybody talks about the seventy weeks of Daniel and
all those things. And they presume that it has
nothing to say about your everyday present right now life situation. Nothing could be further from
the truth. I told you Sunday morning or Sunday evening one
about a conversation I had with a lady at the post office Saturday.
She asked me if I was a pastor here and I said yes. And she
said, do you preach a lot about what the Bible says about what's
going on in the world and Iraq and Iran and America? And I said
no, because the Bible doesn't say much about that. Like to
have shocked her. I mean, you could see she was
dumbfounded. Doesn't, no, no. Says very little
about such things. What the Bible talks about is
Christ and the gospel of his grace, and you and I walking
before God in faith now. Now having said that, it is true. Both the Book of Daniel and its
New Testament companion, the Book of Revelation, speak about
some future things. These two books are remarkable
in their symmetry and harmony. If you read the one and sit down
and read the other side by side, you'll think, well, John must
have read Daniel. I expect he did. And both were
exactly by the spirit of prophecy. The Book of Revelation explains
the Book of Daniel, and the Book of Daniel lays the foundation
for the Book of Revelation. It is also true that the book
of Daniel is perfectly precise in its prophetic predictions.
You read the predictions that are written in these chapters,
and you will find that they have been exactly, I mean down to
the minute, exactly fulfilled historically. Let me give you
just an example. The seventy weeks of Daniel 9,
about which everybody has heard so much and nobody understands
anything, marked the exact time when our Lord would manifest
himself on this earth. I mean the exact time. 483 years, 69 weeks of years,
after Artaxerxes gave the first decree for the rebuilding of
the walls of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of that city, when the Jews were
brought back out of Babylonian captivity, exactly 483 years
later. John the Baptist baptized Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, immersed him in the River Jordan to fulfill
all righteousness. That is symbolically our Lord
being buried. declares in symbol how that he
will redeem and save and deliver his people, not by being put
on a throne in Palestine, but by going to the grave, being
buried, rising again, and being seated on a throne on high. Exactly 483 years later, 69 weeks
later. And then, 7 years later, 490 years after Artaxerxes' decree,
at the end of Daniel's 70th the city was destroyed. Not one
stone left on top of another in the temple, exactly as Daniel
said it must be. But this is much, much more than
a book about prophetic facts. The Lord God raised up Daniel
for a specific purpose during a difficult, difficult time. It seems that in every generation,
Shelby and I were talking about this Sunday night, in every generation,
God Almighty, when times seem the darkest, is pleased to raise
up a man who speaks for God and is a bright shining light in
a dark, dark age. Daniel was that man in his day.
He was raised up by God to meet a specific need, to do a specific
work. Daniel was raised by God to turn
the hearts of his people away from what they saw with their
physical eyes and what they felt in their physical surroundings.
to turn their eyes away from the troubles that constantly
perplex them within, to turn their eyes away from the time
of bondage and captivity brought upon them by their own sin, by
their own ungodliness, and to turn their eyes away from themselves
to Christ sitting on his throne to worship him and live in peace. To assure them that though times
are tough, though the days are bad, though wickedness abounds,
though ungodliness is everywhere, though idolatry is profoundly
manifest all around you, though your soul is heavy, your heart's
troubled, God still sits on his throne and he's still doing what
he started out doing. He's building his kingdom to
make himself a great and an everlasting and a glorious name. He raised
up Daniel to show the people of Israel that his kingdom is
safe and no real harm will ever befall you. Oh, I wish I could somehow convey
just a little bit of that to you. And I pray God the Holy
Spirit will convey it affectionately to me. No evil shall happen to
the just. It won't happen. I don't mean
you won't feel evil things. I don't mean you won't know pain. I don't mean your heart won't
be heavy. I don't mean you won't have your
heart broken again and again. I don't mean that your back won't
feel the rod of our God again and again. I don't mean those
things. no evil shall happen to the just. That which appears
to be evil and that which we often think is evil is God doing
us good. I don't pretend to qualify for
parenting or giving instructions about parenting. I don't pretend. I just had one daughter And he
was a girl, so I don't qualify. I don't... Our friends, the Lutterals,
are here with their large families. I wouldn't attempt, I wouldn't
attempt to give instruction. But when Faith was growing up,
I frequently caused that child a lot of pain. And you know,
I never did it accidentally. Not one time. And I never did
it when I was mad at her. Not one time. But with purpose
and determination, I'd take her to the back room, and once she
got old enough where that she didn't test me in public, I didn't
embarrass her in public, I didn't do it in public. I didn't scold
her in public. I'd give her a look that everybody
understood was scolding, but I didn't say anything to her.
I'd get her home and take care of it in private, and I'd bend
her over my knee, and I'd wear her out. How come? because I was hoping and praying. She turned out to be just a fine
young lady she is. That's why. Determined to do
her good. Now hear me, when God Almighty,
Sam Wall, bends you over his knee, it's not because he's mad
at you. It's not because he's upset.
It's not because he's just determined to hurt. But he's determined
to do you good forever, forever. That's what Daniel was raised
up to teach, and he taught it well. By example after example,
look in chapter 12, verse 1. He tells us when God gets done,
the ultimate accomplishment of his purpose, shall be the destruction
of his enemies, and the salvation of his people, and the everlasting
glory of his own great name in Jesus Christ the Lord. And that
very time will be the resurrection of the dead. And at that time
shall Michael stand up, the great prince, which standeth for the
children of thy people." I suspect Michael here is a pre-incarnate
revelation or manifestation or appearance of Christ. And there
shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was
a nation, even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall
be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the
book." Isn't that good? Who's going to be delivered?
Everyone whose name is written in the book of life of the Lamb
slaved from the foundation of the world. Everyone of them.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting
contempt. And they that be wise, those
who are the children of him who is wisdom, shall shine forever
as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever. That's how it's all going to
wrap up. Let's see how it's going to get there. Daniel's message
is a message of hope, encouragement, consolation. He's telling us
our God is on the throne. The wickedness ever increases,
though opposition to our God, his Son, his gospel, opposition
to his people grows relentlessly with unabated rage, our God still
rules. Our Savior is always triumphant,
and we who are made to be more than conquerors in him shall
at last triumph over all things. The kingdom of our God can't
be destroyed. his church shall prevail. The
gates of hell cannot stand against the bulwarks of Zion. The book
of Daniel, as I've already indicated, deals with nations and wars. Specifically, it identifies the
rise and fall of kings and But those nations and those kings,
all opposing our God, opposing Christ and his kingdom, opposing
the church and the gospel of God's grace, declared plainly
as it is in the book of Revelation, do but represent Antichrist and
Babylon, and they shall fall. And the church and truth and
gospel of God shall stand triumphant at last. In chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar
had this dream. In his dream, he saw the image
of a man. The head was made of gold. The
chest and arms were silver. The stomach, the belly, and thighs,
they were made of brass. Legs, legs of iron. But the feet,
the feet were a dead giveaway. The feet were mingled iron and
clay. As Nebuchadnezzar looked, a rock
was cut out, cut out without hands. A rock that was cut out
that became so large, it grew into such a high mountain that
it filled the whole earth. And the meaning of it is given
in verse 24, or verse 44, chapter 2. Here's what Nebuchadnezzar We're told in Daniel 2, verse
44. And in the days of these kings, these great kings, shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.
And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it
shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall
stand forever. I couldn't help but think about
a message Brother Cliff Heller brought here when he was with
us getting ready to go back to New Guinea and talking about
God saving his people, gathering his elect. Somebody asked me,
he said, is he post-millennial? I said, I don't know, but I like
that brand of it. What's God doing? He's triumphing. He's saving his people. He has
a people scattered in the four corners of the earth, and he
shall save them. He is saving them. That's what
he's doing all the time. Yes, there must be a series of
kingdoms in this world, a series of kingdoms ruled according to
man's ways, idolatrous, ungodly. But ultimately, God's kingdom
shall reduce them to dust. They shall crumble. And the kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his
Christ. Revelation 11.15. Then there were other visions.
And I don't want to oversimplify that, which is detailed. But
for the sake of the message this evening, these other visions
that Daniel had, these other visions that are given throughout
the book, are but an elaboration of this first one. Two rulers,
two kingdoms are constantly presented. There is a lawful ruler to whom
God himself has given and is giving all authority, all glory,
and all dominion. Look at chapter 7, verse 9. This lawful ruler is our Lord
Jesus Christ. Daniel says, I beheld till thrones
were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did whose garment was
white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.
His throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning
fire. The fiery stream issued and came
forth from before him. Thousands and thousands ministered
unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him."
Sounds like what John saw in Revelation 4, doesn't it? And
the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld,
then, because of the voice of the great words which the horn
spake. I beheld even till the beast
was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
As concerning the rest of the beast, they had their dominion
taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a
time. God kept them alive exactly according
to his purpose, exactly as long as he intended. I saw in the
night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they
brought him near before him. And there was given unto him
dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people and nations and
languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which
shall not be destroyed. Now the ancient of days here
is our God, our Father. The Son of Man is our all-glorious
Christ, to whom the Father has given all dominion, power, and
authority. And Daniel refers to him later
in chapter 8, verse 25, as the Prince of Princes. In chapter
9, verse 25, as the Anointed One. And then Daniel tells us
of another ruler. Another ruler who also must rise.
A rebel ruler. One who rises in the time of
the end in vehement opposition to Christ. This is the same one
Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2. This is the Antichrist described
in Revelation 13. Now understand, it is not a single
man. It is not a single denomination.
It is not a single religion, but rather in a succession of
kingdoms and a succession of rulers. The Antichrist is the
whole system, the whole system of false religion. Now I know you're not yet half
convinced what I'm about to tell you. I know because I hear your
speech. There's not but two religions
in this world, just two, just two. false and true, free grace
and free will, salvation by Christ alone, salvation by something
else. That's all there is. I don't get invited to the Ministerial
Society, I just sit down and cry about that all the time,
but those fellows get together and they work together and they
get along together. They wear different costumes and they play
different games on Sunday morning. And they call themselves by different
names, and some of them will fuss and fight about whether
or not you ought to ordain queers, and others will fuss and fight
about whether you ought to ordain women, and others will fuss and
fight about whether or not this is the word of God inspired, or whether
this just contains it, and they'll fuss and fight about baptism,
how you do it and how you don't. They'll fuss and fight about
creeds, but they all get along. You know why? Because they all
worship the same God themselves. They worship their own will,
the works of their own hands. And their religion is the religion
of Antichrist. That's true not only of Osama
Bin Laden and the folks in Iraq and the folks in Iran and the
folks in Israel. It's true of Baptist churches
right here in this town. It's true wherever man's will
is worshipped and man is praised and man is exalted and man is
magnified, it is the religion of Antichrist. And here's what
he describes about it. Look at chapter 8, verse 23. In the latter time of their kingdom, when the
transgressors are come to the full, plumb full, everybody's
been saved two or three times, the kingdom of fierce countenance
and understanding dark sentences shall stand up, and his power
shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And he shall destroy
wonderfully and shall prosper and practice and shall destroy
the mighty and the holy people. Looks like the church and kingdom
of God are going to be destroyed forever. And through his policy
also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand. And here's
what he is. He shall magnify himself in his
heart. That's what the religion of the
world does. It causes man to think highly
of himself. And by peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against
the prince of princes. But that's a mistake. He shall
be broken without hands. God's elect, on the other hand,
the heirs of this kingdom of grace, bow to the rule of Christ
with chapter 7, verse 27. They will not accept the mark
of the beast. They will not worship at Satan's
altar. They will not worship at the
altar of man's free will. and the kingdom and dominion
and the greatness of the kingdom unto the whole heaven shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and
obey him." The rest of the world follow Antichrist to destruction. The conflict between these two
comes to a head at the time of the end. a time called Armageddon. Armageddon is not what you find
out in a picture show produced in Hollywood or in a picture
show produced in a Baptist church. Armageddon is a spiritual conflict.
It doesn't involve nuclear weapons, it involves spiritual weapons.
It's a spiritual conflict. In the time of the end, when
the whole world passes the point of no return, A great apostasy
has come, a falling away, because God sends a strong delusion that
men should believe a lie who would not receive the love of
the truth. Great devastation has taken place.
Perhaps this is talking about the time when Satan is loose
for a little season. I'm dead certain it's talking
about this very hour. Daniel 8, verse 23. And in the
latter time of their kingdom, When the transgressors are come
to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding,
dark sentences shall stand up, and his power shall be mighty,
but not by his own power. He shall destroy wonderfully,
and shall prosper in practice, and shall destroy the mighty
people and the holy people. The daily sacrifice, we are told,
comes to an end. That is what is described in Revelation
7 as our Lord's intercession before the throne, by which the
world is preserved when he says, Hurt not the earth, till I set
my seal in their forests. This 144,000. Don't hurt the
earth for now, the time has come. And it breaks open the floodgates
of hell on a world of rebels. Verse 11 of chapter 8. Yea, he
magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him
the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary
was cast down, and a host was given against the daily sacrifice
by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the
ground, and practiced and prospered. Verse 27, chapter 9. And he shall
confirm the covenant with many for one and in the midst of the
week shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. For
the overspreading of the abominations he shall make it desolate, even
till the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon
the desolate." Something worse than what Antiochus Epiphanes
did when he slaughtered a pig and offered his blood in the
Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. Christ is utterly taken out of
the place where his name is named. His sacrifice utterly abandoned,
trampled underfoot, and raised up in the place of worshiping
him, is the worship of man's will. Antichrist, however, shall
fall. Babylon shall fall. And our Lord
shall deliver his saints. He shall save his people from
their He will raise them up in glory. Let me hurry and wrap
this up. I'll give you a few brief pictures
of Christ in this book, just to remind you of them. He's the
smiting stone by whom the kingdoms of this world shall be crushed
in chapter 2. Nebuchadnezzar saw those three
men in the fiery furnace, and he looked and said, Didn't I
cast three men in? He said, One of them. There's
a fourth one in there. He looks to me like the Son of
God. Now, Nebuchadnezzar didn't have any idea what he was talking
about, but I had no question that our Lord knew exactly what
he was doing. There he is in the midst of the fire with his
children. He's the Ancient of Days as God our Father and Christ
the Son of Man to whom all glory is given in chapter 6. Daniel
was sentenced to death. And Darius loved Daniel and sought
a way to deliver Daniel. And yet he could not break the
law of the Medes and Persians that he himself had written,
otherwise he would compromise his whole kingdom, his throne
would be destroyed. And he paced the floor all night
long, trying to find a way to save Daniel, and he couldn't
And in no way on this earth for God Almighty to be just and justify
the ungodly, except by the sacrifice of his darling Son, whom he dearly
loved, to the full satisfaction of justice. In chapter 9, Daniel
foretells the death of Christ.