Daniel 12

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Please join us this evening as Dan and I wrap up the book of Daniel.

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We're going to finish and wrap up in the book of Daniel. Dan is joining me again. I'm so thankful for Dan and his faithfulness to join me and reach our respective communities, which
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Dan has links to, which be,
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I mean, still be considered your community. So our community here where I live, even though he's, he lives far away.
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So we're trying to reach our respective communities with the gospel and with the truth of God's word. And we'd love joining you in doing that.
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So we appreciate your support. If you have any questions, it doesn't have to be about the topic tonight.
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We would love to interact with you and talk about Jesus, talk about his word, talk about the church, whatever you'd like to talk about tonight.
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But we were going to wrap up Daniel going to the last book, Daniel chapter 12 and finish this book.
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But I want to talk about a little bit what we have learned so far. I think most popular is
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Daniel's story about the lions. So I think most people who have any relationship with church, with the
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Bible or anything like that, they're most familiar with Daniel and the lion's den.
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Daniel's also associated with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Daniel and these guys were part of the exile into Babylon.
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And what we've read and discovered in Daniel is that Daniel was sought after when the wise men, the magicians, the soothsayers, whoever they had there, whatever they called them, when they couldn't interpret dreams, when they couldn't interpret writings on the wall, rumor had it that there was this guy that was part of the
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Jewish people, part of the exile, that I think the conversation was that, well, their perspective was that he had the spirit of the gods.
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He was somehow in touch with, and I guess that was their perception coming from their religion, their pagan religious background.
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And somehow they knew that there was this guy who had some kind of connection and they would call for Daniel to be able to interpret dreams.
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And I guess it gave God, well, it spoke,
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God used Daniel for his glory and to use
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Daniel in that time to speak to the king, to show that he served the one and only true
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God. And God also used Daniel, excuse me, as a prophet for his people at that time and for the future.
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We know Daniel to be a prophetic book. We see that Jesus mentions
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Daniel, says, go back and look at Daniel, if you want to understand this prophecy, you understand what I'm talking about.
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Daniel writes to them at that time while they're in exile. He says, and I'm paraphrasing, of course, you recall the prophecy of the 70 years that we will be in exile.
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The end is coming up. We're getting ready to go back. That prophecy is about to be fulfilled and we're going to see it in our lifetime.
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And then he goes right into the 70 weeks of years and the
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Messiah to come. And so I feel like we've learned so much from Daniel and looking at the book, looking at who he is.
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And here's a couple of things that stood out to me specifically as we've studied
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Daniel. And I want to give Dan a chance to talk about some of the things that I may have missed, some of the things that stand out to him in the book of Daniel.
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But the connection that I made between Daniel's relationship with the wise men, the
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Magi there in Babylon, and how I saw a connection.
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And I believe there's a connection there with this group.
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It probably wasn't those people. They probably, the guys that were present in Daniel's time,
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I'm sure they passed away. But it was that clan, that group that was in Babylon.
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We know that the wise men that come to see Jesus were from the East and Daniel was prophesying about these future events, the
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Messiah to come. And was he put in charge or he was like the head wise man or he had some kind of relationship with that group once he prophesied?
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Yeah, he made them all look dumb. Gave them a little special place. They made him a little bit more special than the rest.
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Right. Well, and I saw a connection since he had that relationship with the wise men and this prophecy that Daniel gives,
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I'm sure was passed down and that information. They probably had their libraries and parchment and whatever they wrote on and kept track of these things.
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And I thought that was a very interesting connection. The other things that kind of stood out to me when it comes to Daniel is
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I'm coming from a different end times background.
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When I look at Daniel, read Daniel and see what he's doing, the most consistent thing, the most logical, the thing, the way to look at Daniel that makes most sense is to look at the timestamps, the time frames that he gives, look at the consistency, the language.
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And you see that Daniel does give specific understanding.
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He does give the fulfillment. He does talk about, he gives the prophecy, which is, he uses unique language of beast horns.
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He uses that type of language, which we see, you know, seeing in the New Testament, but he uses that figurative, creative language.
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And then he gives fulfillment and, you know, tells us who fulfills these prophecies and who's the beast and who's the horns and who's the head of the statue and who's the rest of the body of the statue.
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So Daniel's not unclear about that, which was pretty neat. And then you have the last part of the prophecies, which of course, the reason it's prophecy is because it hasn't happened yet.
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But if he's speaking of this, this future event, but I don't ever see a gap.
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I don't see any reason why we shouldn't, you know, track with Daniel's historical progression of, you know, here, this beast and this beast.
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And then he says, is this King, and this is going to be this King and this nation and this nation.
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And then you just follow the progression and what comes next. The fulfillment of the latter part of those prophecies becomes
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Rome and the Kings that rise out of Rome and the one that rises up, you know, out of the middle.
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Just following that progression is consistent. And so it makes more sense and all kind of comes together instead of trying to piece it together like a puzzle and make things fit where they don't really fit and using other texts to make things fit that don't really fit.
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But all those things stood out to me, were really interesting and helped me to understand Daniel a whole lot better, helped me to understand eschatology a whole lot better.
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So I'm thankful for the time that we spent in Daniel. So Dan, anything that I missed that we can review as far as what we've learned in Daniel or anything that stood out to you when we looked at Daniel?
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Oh yeah. I thought it was really, really interesting that Nebuchadnezzar was kind of the,
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I don't know, almost like a pivot point where you got to see the sovereignty of God in all of human history, like in him.
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You saw before him, you saw the
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Babylonians taking over, you know, bringing people into exile, trying to domineer them.
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And then God being in control through simple obedience of his people through the four
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Hebrew boys eating vegetables and water instead of the forbidden food.
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Right after that, you see a prophecy of the statue where he says,
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Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold. And then he goes on down to lesser, less precious metals than that.
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And he's like, oh, I'm the head. I'm gold. I'm top dog. I'm pretty cool.
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He then makes everybody worship him. Daniel's like, I ain't going to do that.
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Throws him in the lion's den. Lions don't eat them, so even his punishment couldn't work. He pops out of there and through a series of events ends up being very, very arrogant about what he's done, what he's doing.
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At which point God says, I'm going to turn you into a werewolf, basically. Feathers, dew on the ground, and he's out there eating grass like a wild beast.
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He has absolutely no control over his mind or his body or anything. And then from there on, you see the rest of the prophecies playing out of the nation of Greece, the
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Medo -Persians, the Romans, and all of this culminating in the coming of Christ to take care of sin, to put sin down, to put sin away.
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And it's amazing how you get to see in the detail of Nebuchadnezzar in his life, how
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God worked throughout history. He worked through the faithfulness of his people, and he worked through guiding the heart of the kings like water in a pipe.
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He directed it wherever he wanted it to go, wherever he wanted it to go, so that all of the events of world history meet his end.
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So you see Romans 8, 28 in there, where all things work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose.
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I just thought it was really, really neat that you got to see the big scale, the small scale, and so much just detail about future events that all just came true.
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It's fantastic. Right.
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I find it surprising that the story of the werewolf king doesn't get more attention than it does.
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Yeah. And oh yeah, do you have the book close by in the days of these kings?
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What, this book? Yeah, that one. Yeah, show us how thick it is.
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By Mr. J. Rogers? That's right. I don't want, I don't have it yet.
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I hope to get it one day soon, but he has some resources and kind of cliff notes on his website, and so he was with us on a pastor's panel podcast, and so I'm thankful that he joined us then, and I'm thankful for the material that he's provided on his website and the books that he's written.
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So I want to give a shout out to J. Rogers. His website is forerunner .com,
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and you can check out his books and resources. You can see that book online, and if you scroll down the page, of course he has it for sale on his website, but then you can see excerpts, and then he also reads those excerpts on YouTube, and you can listen to it.
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So he has not only spent time doing good research, writing good material, but he's also taken the time to make it readily available, and so I appreciate his work and his heart from what
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I know of and what I see what he's doing. So he's been helpful to me, and I think he's been helpful to Dan, so I wanted to give him a shout out because we've used his resources in this study.
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So without any further ado, let's jump in to Daniel chapter 12, and we will finish up this book hopefully tonight.
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Let me read Daniel 12, verse 1. Now at that time,
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Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise, and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time, and at that time your people, everyone who was found written in the book, will be rescued.
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I want to let you go ahead and jump in there. That's a good place to stop. There's a lot there.
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Yeah. If you just look at the the very first three words, it says at that time.
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One of the things when it gives you a time reference in a book, you want to look at what time is that time.
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Follow the bouncing ball of pronouns or however it flows throughout the text. So that way you don't say that time, and you insert whatever you want to from your brain into the text.
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So if you back up just one verse before in chapter 11, it says, And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the sea and the glorious mountain, that he shall come to his end with none to help him.
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And last week, was it last week? Week before? Maybe it was last week. Yeah, it was last week.
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Sure. Pretend it was. We talked about how that was
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Julius Caesar, how he was assassinated at the time of his end.
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He came to his end. He was assassinated. No one helped him. It was his people, the ones that he trusted the most that assassinated him.
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Right after Julius Caesar, we see Caesar Augustus. Caesar Augustus comes on the scene, and we all know from Luke's account that Caesar Augustus was
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Caesar. He was emperor at the time when Jesus came onto the scene, when Jesus was born.
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Probably not on December 25th, but that's a whole other podcast. He, let's see, this is at that time.
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So at the time where we're switching between the one who was assassinated, the one who came to his end with no one to help him, and the next guy at that time shall arise
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Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. Michael was the archangel who we saw earlier.
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He was fighting against the prince of, I believe it was Persia. He's trying to get to Daniel to tell him what was going on, what was coming next, but he couldn't because he had to fight for an extra few weeks against the demon of Persia.
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Behind the scenes, working evil and stuff into that nation. So Michael, who up until that time had been
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God's angelic watchful eye over the situation.
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Obviously, God can do what he wants, but he delights in using means. He used Michael the archangel to watch over things for a bit, take care of this and that, even though God was directing everything the whole time.
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At that time, Michael will arise. Can we pause right there for a second?
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Sure. I think it would be good for us to talk about the spiritual realm.
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I don't feel like there's a whole lot mentioned about what's going on in the spiritual realm. We know that there is one.
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We know that there's a lot going on, the powers and principalities of the air, and God does things in that spiritual realm to show his glory, to show his might.
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We get a little bit of information about what's going on in the spiritual realm, even here in Daniel.
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We know that Michael's there. As you talk about, he's fighting with an angel who is, or maybe a fallen angel, a demon who is over another nation.
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That helps us. That little bit of information of understanding what's going on in the spiritual realm, and the reason
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I wanted to bring it up is because it's a conversation that I don't think it's spoken of very much in Sunday school, in our churches.
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People may not have much of an idea of what we're talking about, but what little information that we do have,
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I think, helps us out to understand a little bit about what's going on in the spiritual realm. It also helps us when we go to move forward to Revelation.
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I think it's Revelation chapter 20, where we're talking about Satan being unable to deceive the nations.
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That's got to be going on in the spiritual realm. Angels, fallen angels, demons are probably involved in the spiritual realm.
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So, making that connection, drawing that out, talking about that for a second, helps us to make that connection in Revelation.
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So, we're not clueless, and we don't take that part out of context or push in an idea that we may have from another eschatological point of view.
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So, any last thoughts to help make that a little more clear, or anything else that we need to add to that conversation about the spiritual realm?
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No, but maybe. If you think about it, it's good to remember that we don't live in just a physical world.
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We live in a spiritual world as well. We don't see the spiritual realm, but we understand that it's here.
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We understand that it's real present. We know that God works in it all the time, but it's almost like we think of it as something else, something other, something over there.
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I think it'd be more helpful to remember or to think of it like, when
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I put my arm out to Jester, I may be hitting angelic beings in a different realm, if that makes sense, if that's even how it works.
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You've got to wrap your mind around a realm that you haven't seen yet. But here's the point behind it.
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We are so intertwined with the spiritual world around us that it's not helpful to think of it as something other and out there, but as something that we are surrounded by, engulfed in without realizing it.
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Think of Balaam's donkey. He was walking down the road and he stopped and Balaam whipped him, why aren't you moving?
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And the donkey's like, why are you hitting me? And then he looked up and he saw that there was an angel there guarding the way.
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Stop, don't go. So it's important for us to think of things that way.
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So in the spiritual realm, the Oval Office very well may have angelic beings, fallen or otherwise, there.
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Our churches, I doubt, I don't necessarily think during worship when
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God is present that they're active, but man, they're fighting. They're losing a battle that they don't want to lose.
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So they'll take whatever shot they can take. It's important for us to think of things like that.
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So that way, when we see the world around us, we see the things that are going on. We realize that what we're battling against, well, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but angels and powers and darknesses in high places.
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So when we see the attack on people's jobs through different mandates and vaccine mandates and mask mandates, where they say you must comply or you will lose your job.
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We see things like that. We know that we are not actually wrestling against flesh and blood.
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It's not the governor or president or whoever putting something forward, but there is something deeper at work there where they want or something behind the scenes, something evil behind the scenes wants to destroy or stop or fight against what
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God is doing. Now they're going to fail. Obviously, God is in the heavens.
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He does whatever he pleases. He is going to protect his own in all these things where we look like we're being beaten down and persecuted and will famine or death or sword or any of these things separate us from the love of Christ.
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No, in all these things, all those things, we're more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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So while it's important to remember that they are all around us,
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Christ is in control. He is still ruling and he will do what he is going to do.
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So I think that kind of, I don't know, it's always helpful to have a really good grasp of the world around you when you're reading things that describe the world around you.
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Right, right. And the Bible does speak of us having guardian angels, correct? Sure.
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And so sometimes we can think about... Do what? At least
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Peter. Yeah, yeah. And we can think about how integral we are to the gospel proclamation, but just like you were saying,
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God is using us as means for this stuff, but not just us as means for this stuff.
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God is using his servants in the spiritual realm to guard, to protect, to fight against the enemies that would attack.
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And he even says that, the scripture that you quoted, he even says that that's where our fight is.
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That's who we fight against. It's not in the flesh. It's not against one another. So the gospel proclamation, the forward movement of the kingdom, it's going along, it's going on in that spiritual realm just as much as it's going on here in the physical realm where we are.
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Right. Okay. Yep. Yeah.
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So where were we at, Michael? Yeah. So when Michael stands up, Michael stands up,
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I believe to, it says, for the great prince who has charge of your people.
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He stands up, he arises. That language of arise is almost like he's sitting down, waiting for his time, and then he stands up, it's time to act.
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He's going to do something. And he stands up for or on behalf of his people.
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And it's interesting, we talked about, no, our struggle is not against flesh and blood and all these things we're more than conquerors, famine and death won't separate us from the love of Christ.
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Michael stands up to act on behalf of the people who has charge over, and there shall be a time of trouble as has never been seen since there was a nation until that time.
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Michael stands up to act, and when he acts, it is terrible.
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It's horrible. Reading the account of this time period, it's disturbing to hear the anguish that these folks went through, the twistedness of mind when the
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Romans finally broke in and to see people eating children and thinking that they were going to somehow find justice through the
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Romans who came in when they had murdered their own children for food. Ridiculous, evil, wicked, a time of trouble that hadn't been seen before and won't be seen again.
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It is a time of great tribulation. So this was the judgment against Israel.
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And I think that's important to point out that we're talking about guardian angels, we're talking about Michael, who's archangel, he's on God's side, he's on our side.
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But yet here, Michael arises and what happens, that's when the judgment comes.
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Right. And what's really interesting is the next the next verse, it says, but at that time, your people shall be delivered.
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So what he's talking about, he's hearing that Michael's going to arise, he's going to arise on behalf of the people, your people.
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And what's going to happen is there's going to be a horrible, terrible tribulation, a time that has never been seen.
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And at that time is going to be the deliverance of your people. And then he describes his people, everyone whose name is found or shall be found written in the book.
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That book is also found in book of Revelation, the book of life, where the books are open.
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Those who are found written in there have eternal life. So it also describes who
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Daniel's people really are. There are a lot of folks who read this as there's coming a positive thing for the
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Jewish nation, that there's going to be a time of tribulation, but that the time of tribulation is going to be a deliverance for the
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Jewish nation. But what it says is that Daniel's people are going to be delivered.
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And in this event, who was it that was being destroyed? It was the Jewish nation.
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When we think about AD 70 and the destruction of the temple and the surrounding of Jerusalem by the armies, and then they go in and they destroy,
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Daniel's people were delivered.
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These people were not, but Daniel's people were everyone whose name was found written in the book of life.
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Believers, those who trusted in God, were God -fearing people who were true Jews, as Paul writes in Romans 4 and 9 and 10 and 11.
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Everyone found in the book. There was something else
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I was going to say, and it escapes me now. Well, let me make this connection while you're thinking about that thought.
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Maybe it was the connection I was trying to make. It could be. I think this is a very simple, good connection to make.
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It has to be simple because I'm making it in my mind. So for those of you who may be opposed, if you're a pre -millennial dispensationalist, if you're a rapturist, if you're opposed to this partial preterism, you're opposed to post -millennialism, if you're now considering these thoughts, if you're on the edge or thinking about coming over to this side of things, what's this connection?
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If you've been tracking along with us going through Daniel, and we kind of hinted at some as we talk about some of the things that we learned in Daniel, Daniel says in the days of these kings, which is the name of J.
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Rogers' book, in the days of these kings, that's when
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God will send his kingdom that will last forever. That's when he will establish his kingdom.
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That's when the messiahs will come, and that's what Daniel tells us the messiah is going to come.
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That's when it's going to happen. He's going to establish it. It's going to be forever. In the days of what kings?
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Dan and I have talked about that. If you follow that consistent logical progression through Daniel, the days of these kings is going to be the
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Roman empire, the kings of Rome. And Daniel talked about, or Dan talked about in Daniel 11, 44 and 45, we see
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Julius Caesar and then Caesar Augustus. And so this is the time of Jesus.
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Jesus is the appointed, long awaited, prophetic, fulfilling messiah that comes, who establishes
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God's kingdom forever. This is the establishment of it, the fulfillment of Daniel.
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And then you have here in Daniel 12, verse one, what we're looking at,
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Daniel says, according to this prophecy that at that time, now at that time, we're looking at that timeframe, what time, days of these kings, the
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Roman kings, Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, when Jesus comes, that's our timeframe, this will happen.
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And there will be a time of distress, such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.
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Where do we see that? We see that in our Matthew chapter four verses that we've been looking at in the pastor's panel,
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Matthew 24, verse 21. For then there will be a great tribulation such as not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall be.
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This comes directly from Daniel. So when we, we can't single out
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Matthew chapter 24 and read it apart from the rest of scripture, apart from Daniel.
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So if you go backwards with it and make those connections, if you're, you know, like I said, opposed to partial preterism, if you're on the border, if you're thinking about things, if you're considering these things, just follow this logical, simple connection and go backwards.
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When, when is this? If this has happened, when is it? This time that there's going to be a time of distress or great tribulation that has never occurred.
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Go back to Daniel, Daniel chapter 12, verse one, there's going to be a time that the distress that's never been.
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When is that time? Julius Caesar, Caesar Augustus, the
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Roman empire. Daniel says in the days of those Kings, the clay and the iron, that, that empire, the
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Jews and the Romans together. And if, and if you see those connections and put them together, it makes sense that these prophecies were fulfilled in the days of Jesus.
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And it, we're not looking for a great tribulation to happen after a rapture of it.
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And so I hope that connection, I know it's, I try to make it as simple as I could.
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I tried to explain it the best I could. So I hope it was simple. I hope you followed along, hope you saw the consistency in Daniel and reading
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Matthew in light of Daniel. So I hope that was encouraging.
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I hope that helps you to see kind of where we're from with the partial preterist position. Go ahead,
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Dan. Yeah. I didn't remember what I was going to say, but, but, uh, uh, but if we do look back a couple chapters, uh, in Daniel nine 24, we see that same language of your people.
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Uh, it says 70 weeks are decreed about your people. Now, if we look over here, um, is in chapter 12, he's talking about your people, your people being those who are the ones who are delivered, the ones whose name shall be found written in the book.
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Those who are true believers, those who have their, their hope in God in the, at that time coming
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Christ, we know that he came in the person of Jesus. And what are those 70 weeks?
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Those 70 weeks are, um, to finish the transgression, uh, to put an end to sin and to atone for iniquity, to bring an everlasting righteousness and to seal both vision and profit and to anoint a most
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Holy place. Um, so what are we looking at there? Um, it's decreed about your people and your
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Holy city that sin would be done away with, that an end would be put to sin, that iniquity would be atoned for everlasting righteousness will be brought in.
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It was that time where the great, there was great tribulation put upon those who did not believe, but there was also great deliverance for those who did.
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So it was at this time that the fullness of that, that event that took place in over a span of no 40 ish years in history, which was a part of one act of God in punishing wickedness and saving to himself a people, um, a people who would be, uh,
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Holy and set apart people who would be delivered from all the clutches of sin and death.
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And that's really what, what all this is getting at the entire book is coming to this point is a big crescendo.
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Now, what is the purpose of the Babylonian, uh, captivity? What is the purpose of them living under the rule of the
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Babylonians at that point? Because at the end, the final analysis of it all,
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Christ is going to have his people paid for their sins forgiven and his enemies will be put down and put under his feet.
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It's the whole thrust of really the Bible, but especially, um, the book of Daniel and his people who are written in the book will be rescued.
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He, he will rescue his people. Yep. All right. First two, how many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake or, and many, and many of those who are sleeping in the dust of the ground will awake those to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting content.
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Verse three, and those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
39:54
Good stuff. Yeah. Uh, see now this is where I think a lot of people will get confused.
40:03
Um, I think this is why, uh, some people they'll, they'll read this and say, those who are wise shall be like, oh, well,
40:12
I missed, uh, first two. Uh, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
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They say, see, this is the general resurrection at the end of time. They're not entirely wrong, but I don't think it's jumping us ahead in time.
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I don't think that there's a gap of, you know, however many thousand years in between verse one and two.
40:40
He's, he's, he's trying to anticipate a question being asked.
40:46
No. And think of it in this way. Um, we're saying that there is a big judgment coming upon unbelieving
40:52
Jews, the unbelieving Israel, those who are Israelites in name only. And that big judgment comes and you have to ask yourself, does this generation that's undergoing this, the one who, who is actually going to see the
41:08
Romans, who is going to be eating their children, who's going to be facing starvation and pain and pestilence and bitter water and all of that.
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Does that generation have to bear the weight of all of the wrath for the entire nation, for the whole history of that people?
41:31
Now, how is it fair to that generation that they have to endure the wrath of God alone, but not those people before?
41:40
I mean, you, you read the book of Kings and it's just hideous watching the Kings of Israel and the way that they acted.
41:47
Are those Kings now off the hook? And the answer is no.
41:53
And in the same way, did all those who died beforehand, did they miss out on the deliverance?
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No, they didn't miss out on the deliverance either. I think that's what he's getting at. He's trying to anticipate at this time, these people who are here are going to have great pain and tribulation and Daniel, your people are going to be delivered.
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They're going to finally find their deliverance. And what of those who are dead already?
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Well, those who are wise in verse three, shall shine like the brightness of the sky above.
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And those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Those who are already passed on are not being left out.
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Likewise, those who had already passed on to Israel wickedly are not going to be left behind when it comes to their judgment either.
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Those who are being delivered now are being delivered with the saints as a whole.
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Those who are being judged now in this time period are being judged with those who deserve judgment throughout the entire history of the nation.
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And it really, it extends on into the future because he talks about in verse three, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
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He expects this righteousness to continue trickling on down from generation to generation to generation, because it is one promise of God of salvation given to them all the way back in the garden, really.
43:39
But then again, through Abraham and Moses given to David, passed on through the prophets, through Daniel and Isaiah, when they're all talking about the promise of deliverance to God from their sin.
43:57
This is all expected to go on and on after the time of deliverance in 70
44:04
A .D. When the great tribulation is over, more people are going to come to righteousness. It also leads you to believe that those who do not turn from their sin to righteousness will also be found worthy of judgment as those who did undergo wrath in 70
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A .D. Yeah, and I like what J. Rogers says here. Speaking of those who lead others to Christ, lead others to faith, they will share in the glory of their salvation.
44:40
Right. His exact quote is, will share in the glory of those they have helped to heaven.
44:48
And so, I mean, what a glorious thought is that you'll get to rejoice, not just in your salvation, but those who you help lead to Christ.
44:58
Right. Yeah. It's almost like a prediction of the Great Commission.
45:05
Here's the blessing ahead of time before the commission's even been given. And then Jesus comes and says, you know, baptize, disciple the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
45:15
Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, and he'll be with you always, even to the end of the age. You know, those who you do that for when you do the work of God, it's a wonderful blessing to all involved.
45:33
All right, let's move on to the next few verses. Verse four, but it's for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time.
45:41
Many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase. I think we can comment right there real quick.
45:49
Yeah, we can. Okay. Yeah, it's important and it's also really fun because my brain is funky and so it worked in a really funny way.
45:58
I wrote it down. And so if it turns out blasphemous, y 'all just stop me.
46:05
It shouldn't be. He tells Daniel to seal it up, to save the vision.
46:11
You'll need it later. And then because I have kids and I watch lots of kids shows, at the beginning of the
46:22
Mickey Mouse Playhouse, you have all sorts of mousketools that you get and you have a mystery mousketool.
46:33
Save this for later. You're going to need it. And so you go to John, John 22 and 10, and he says,
46:47
Daniel, or no, he says, John, don't seal this up. It's now.
46:53
And really they're talking about the same thing. You've got this. It's going to warn people of a coming judgment, tell people of righteousness through Christ, of how to escape judgment and wrath by trusting in Christ and what he has told us.
47:09
Take that out. You'll need it. And so I just imagine Mickey Mouse, like imagine the armies surrounding
47:18
Jerusalem and Mickey Mouse says, oh, it's like the mystery mousketool of the apocalypse or something.
47:28
I mean, I know that's a terrible way to think about it, but really it's a beautiful thing when you take it back from the cartoon phase and put it into a reality.
47:37
What you have here is you have God going ahead of time and saying, Daniel, here's something very important that you're going to need to know.
47:46
Not you necessarily, but you are going to need to write this down and seal it up. Save it.
47:51
Make sure you have it. This is very important. People's lives are at stake. Their soul, their eternal destinies are at stake because of it.
47:59
And then when we come to John in Revelation, he says, hey, this message that I've given to you, the one that looks a lot like the one that I gave to Daniel, save it out.
48:10
This is for now. We need to deal with this now. So that's why Jesus warns them.
48:17
When you see the abomination of desolation that Daniel is talking about, when all these things are getting started, when things are pushing forward, when you see the fig tree ripening, when you see the clouds in the sky telling you it's going to rain, read the signs of the times, pull this out, look at it, read it, understand that you can escape the wrath to come by trusting in the words of Jesus Christ, which will find forgiveness of sins and you'll find yourself delivered because of what he tells you to do, what he tells you to understand and to know and to believe in.
48:51
So yeah, it's very important. I think it's important that you said that too, because we look at the fig tree, look at the clouds, you want to read the signs of the times, but we want to read the signs of times according and out from scripture and not according to the newspaper.
49:09
And just like I was making a connection a while ago using chapter 12 verse 1, helping us to understand where we get the partial preterist, these prophecies have already been fulfilled in the past, where we get that connection, where we see that in scripture, you can do that here as well in verse 4.
49:32
Daniel conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time.
49:39
There's another time stamp, another time frame that we're looking at. He says until the end of time.
49:47
Well, the end of the time. Yeah. Do what?
49:54
It says until the time of the end. Yeah. And we want to take our 20, 21st century
50:03
American Western minds and read it how we think it should be read.
50:11
But we need to understand, you know, sometimes when it's talking about Jesus coming, it's speaking of his coming in judgment.
50:18
Sometimes when it's talking about God's coming, it's talking about his coming in judgment. And here when he's talking about the time of the end, there's a time of the age.
50:28
Not the end of the world, but the time of the age of Jesus coming, coming in judgment. And here you have
50:35
Daniel seal them up until the end. The end of what?
50:41
Well, Jesus is answering that question when the disciples are asking him in Matthew chapter 24 verses 1 and 2.
50:50
When will the end be? What should we be looking for? And then you have, like Dan mentioned,
50:57
Revelation 22 verse 10, where God tells John not to seal it up because this is the end.
51:05
This is the end. This is what Daniel was talking about. It's supposed to stay sealed until now and at this point and don't seal it up now.
51:17
You need to know this information. Souls and lives are at stake. So that's how we make the connection to understand that these things were fulfilled in the past.
51:28
We understand it and learn it, taking it out of scripture and not trying to interpret the newspaper and get our eschatology end times from the newspaper.
51:39
Yeah. One of the first rules of hermeneutics, I forget which one, but anyway, one of the, there's a major hermeneutics book out there and really sorry to the author because I can't remember who you are, but he says we have to understand things in the time that it was written.
52:07
And he says, basically you have to walk into their town and then your town is on the other side of a bridge or other side of a river.
52:17
And the way that you get from the understanding there to how you can understand it for you is that you take a, you have to build a bridge going across with the text.
52:30
So that way you understand what it meant to its original audience.
52:36
And from there you make application to yourself. What we like to do, and Matt Chandler's famous for yelling at people saying, you're not
52:48
David and the story of David and Goliath. But I mean, he's really, he's got a point hermeneutically that we don't need to insert ourselves into each as the main character of each and every story.
53:03
We don't need to say, and we do that with time as well. Our timelines we'll go through and say, well, this says it's in the future.
53:13
I'm now, so it must be in my future. Instead of saying to the original audience, this was in the future.
53:23
Okay. These things have happened since then, which means that I need to apply it by looking back at what actually happened in light of the prophecy and say, okay, so these people, this nation was judged because they rejected
53:36
God. Those who were within the nation who believed were delivered.
53:41
So what do I do now in, you know, 20 was a second century, 21st century
53:47
America. What I need to do is I need to remember that there is a judgment coming that I need to flee from the judgment by trusting in Christ, knowing that at one time
54:01
I will face a final judgment and that I need to trust in Christ to deliver me by doing what he said, by fleeing the wrath to come by coming to him and trusting in him to be my savior.
54:16
So instead of inserting ourselves into the timeline, we need to apply what is there in the text in its own time to our lives as it's laid out before us, which is really easy to do, especially when you think you understand a passage to just kind of plop yourself in there and say, well, let me just act like I live there and apply it to myself, but you may be missing the whole point.
54:45
You know, you can ask yourself the question, well, how do we know that Daniel Revelation 22, 22, 10 is speaking of Daniel 12, four here.
54:57
How do we know this is the end? And John tells us in chapter one, the time is near and he gives those timestamps at least two times in chapter one, maybe, maybe three.
55:12
I can't remember, but he's telling them, you know, it's near it's at hand. I am a fellow partaker in this tribulation with you.
55:25
Right. In his other books, I'm talking about the antichrist and they're already here.
55:33
And there's so many other places in the new Testament where, you know, speaking of these things, they, they speak of them as they're right around the corner.
55:43
They're, they're near. So, well, Daniel even gives us a timestamp here in verse four.
55:51
It says, but you shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.
56:01
So what's going to happen in between the time of Daniel and the time when the book needs to be unsealed to be read, knowledge is going to increase.
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And what is the next book with lots of weird beasts and prophecies of the time of the end?
56:19
It's revelation where we have a clearer picture of what's going on. Knowledge is increasing. And at that time, it gives us the language of leave it unsealed and open because the time is now.
56:32
So the time where it was sealed, then it was going to be some additions. No, we see the, the coming of Christ.
56:38
We see his dying on the cross for sins, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven.
56:44
We see other things laying out. Now, how is Christ going to deal with his church? As we look into the first few chapters of revelation and you see how he interacts with the various churches of the day, and then you see it move on into know what now, what do we do?
57:02
And he says, here, listen, remember Christ's words in Matthew and Luke.
57:11
If you're there, flee. Yeah. Well, and maybe another timestamp, and there's no way for me to stamp a seal of confirmation on this, but he says many will, will go back and forth.
57:24
And I can't help but think about in that time, you've got the Roman road, you've got all these trade routes, you've got all these cities set up in trade routes.
57:35
You got people going back and forth all the time on the, on these
57:40
Roman roads and these trade routes. And so,
57:46
I mean, I can see that as being a fulfillment of that. I don't think there's any way to confirm that's what he was talking about, but it,
57:53
I mean, it seems. Yeah. I think he's probably got in mind returning from exile and going back out from Jerusalem under persecution, but it's the same, same idea.
58:06
There are folks moving around. I really think he's talking about the Jewish people at that time because he talks about Daniel's people and Daniel's people.
58:16
And I think he's talking about the folks who are returning to Jerusalem from exile, leaving from exile, the people, and then leading into the time of the dispersion and then folks running back and forth with the because you have
58:39
Paul running all over the place. But I think he's talking about a little bit more than just the time period, that time period around, you know,
58:52
Acts, the book of Acts. Right. Right. But it includes that. Well, and maybe, maybe there's a spiritual context to it as well because,
59:03
I mean, that's, that's one of the reasons why they were judged is because they were, you know, they set up idols. They brought religion idols from Babylon.
59:13
When they come back out of exile, they, they worshiped other gods. So they were, you know, you got many going back and forth between the true
59:21
God of Israel and in pagan, pagan worship. Well, I think we want to, we kind of want to restrict that to a believing movement and here's why.
59:31
In verse three, he talks about those, the blessing of those who turn many to righteousness will be like the stars forever and ever.
59:41
So I think that the, the moving back and forth and running to and fro is going to be more of a, a moving the story forward or a gospel thing, you know, rebuilding the temple, bringing the people back then, you know, in the time of Nehemiah, covenanting themselves under God.
01:00:01
And then the, the apostles, when the apostles take the message and, you know, especially
01:00:08
Paul and Barnabas and those fellows, and they take it to the rest of the world, you have the gospel moving forward.
01:00:15
So there's a lot of, a lot of movement, a lot of shaking. It's not just in Jerusalem, but I think it's, it's all that stuff kind of moving, moving forward.
01:00:24
Not that those other things weren't happening at the same time, you know, judgment and idolatry and people trying to do the wrong thing, but I don't necessarily think that's in view in the text.
01:00:35
Okay. All right. I want to, I want to read verses five through 11. Then I, Daniel looked and behold, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river and the other on that bank of the river.
01:00:48
And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, how long will it be until the end of these wonders?
01:00:57
And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever, that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, as soon as they finished shattering the power of the holy people.
01:01:15
And these events will be completed. As for me, I heard, but could not understand. So I said, my
01:01:21
Lord, what will be the outcome of these events? And he said, go your way,
01:01:26
Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time. Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.
01:01:41
And from the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days.
01:01:59
Crazy. Yeah, that was a mouthful. So he starts off saying that there's folks on one side of the river and the other and somebody above the river.
01:02:15
He's like, hey, how long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
01:02:23
And I think there he's talking about the wonders of the book of Daniel, where he's talking about in the days of these kings, when is the time of the end?
01:02:31
When is Michael going to arise? When is the judgment going to come? When are the people going to be delivered?
01:02:37
When is all that stuff going to take place? And he gives him a time period of how long it's going to take.
01:02:44
And he says for a time, times and half a time. And then he gives us a period of time later on in verse 11, it says 1290 days, which is about three and a half years.
01:03:04
Now, if you look back at time, times and half a time, think of time as one year, times as two years, and half a time as half a year.
01:03:19
You put those together, one time, two time, two times, and half a time, it's three and a half years.
01:03:29
So he's telling him exactly how long this is going to be. And that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be finished.
01:03:43
So when the holy people, when the people that were set apart and were called, who were covenanted with God, when the destruction, when the shattering of the power of those people happens, all these things are going to be finished.
01:04:00
The destruction upon the people will be completed. And so will the deliverance of those who are faithful,
01:04:07
Daniel's people. And all those things are going to take place in about three and a half years or 1290 days, which is really interesting because if you look at the time period, the
01:04:21
Romans showed up in the spring of 67 AD and they were about done in 70 or September of 70
01:04:35
AD. That's when they, and they, that's when it went down.
01:04:45
Horrific. Yeah, absolutely. And you, you know, if you want to study it on your own, you can take a look at Josephus and read the description of that time period and just, just read and see how horrific that time period was.
01:05:01
People want to make light of our interpretation of there wouldn't be no greater distress.
01:05:11
There hasn't been any great distress like this before, and there won't be any after. And, and, you know, people want to make light of that interpretation that it's been worse.
01:05:22
There's been worse things and we've not seen the worst to come. But if you take a look at history and historians at that time period, what happened, it was tremendously horrific what took place.
01:05:38
Right. It was. That's, that's not everything though.
01:05:45
It was horrific what took place at that time, but there was never a more thorough judgment of a nation as what happened at that time period, because in other judgments of nations, even if they didn't retain their national identity, it wasn't said of them that people will awaken to everlasting shame.
01:06:12
This was more than just a really difficult siege on Jerusalem.
01:06:22
There was much more going on than physical heartache and pain. They were being judged spiritually, eternally for what they as a nation have rejected in God.
01:06:36
Yeah. And we got to remember too, that that prophecy was specific. It doesn't mean like, you know, you were talking about other nations and it's not encompassing the whole world and comparing it to all other nations.
01:06:51
It was specifically about the nation of Israel, the
01:06:57
Jerusalem and Judea, that there has never been such a catastrophe and never shall be.
01:07:07
And, you know, and we understand how horrible it was, you know, and we believe scripture to be true, then there will never be such a horrible, horrible event to that specific people in that nation again.
01:07:25
Yeah. Well, even so, I think we can take a little bit of, I don't know about comfort, but a little bit of comfort in knowing that even if God does rain down judgment on America, the judgment upon America will not be as thorough as was the judgment upon the nation of Israel at that point.
01:07:49
I mean, for all of our wickedness, we did not crucify the Son of God. Right.
01:07:57
Yeah. We didn't reject His covenants and His law as given to us after we were let out of the nation of Egypt.
01:08:09
Not that we wouldn't deserve, but... Exactly. Yeah. In verse 10, it says, many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly.
01:08:26
And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.
01:08:32
And we know that in the time, those who were acting wickedly were those who did not trust in Christ, did not believe in what
01:08:40
He said. But those who are wise will be those who understood.
01:08:47
And we know back in verse three, and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above.
01:08:55
Those are the ones who have their name found written in the book of life. And what's really interesting is that at that time, the people who were in the church in Jerusalem, when they remembered the words of Jesus, and as they saw the abomination of desolation, which
01:09:12
Luke says is when armies surround Jerusalem, you know, the desolation is there.
01:09:19
It's about to be set up. When you see it set up, when you see the armies surrounding Jerusalem, run.
01:09:25
And the Christians of the city ran. They just got out of dodge and they were spared.
01:09:35
They waited, which we'll get to verse 12 in a second, but they waited until the
01:09:42
Romans were completely done and they were spared or delivered from that particular judgment, because that judgment wasn't for them.
01:09:53
That wrath wasn't for them because they believed, they trusted in God.
01:09:58
Right. Tell me if you think I'm, I want to give you a connection that I'm making in my mind.
01:10:05
And you tell me if you think I'm going in the right direction or not. Back to verse 10, many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly as they will continue to act according to their sinful behavior as they were doing before.
01:10:23
They'll continue to act the same way. And I can't help but think about going back to Matthew chapter 24.
01:10:29
And he's, he's recalling the days of Noah when they were continuously acting wicked and, you know, didn't heed
01:10:37
Noah's warning. They just continued to act wickedly. Do you see a connection here between verse 10 and Jesus speaking of the days of Noah?
01:10:48
That does make a lot of sense. Yeah, I hadn't before, but that makes a lot of sense.
01:10:54
The people who were, who were in the days of Noah, they were giving in marriage and being married and they were having parties and they were doing all sorts of stuff right up until the day when the rain started and the ark shut and they were doomed.
01:11:10
They were living their life. They continued being wicked right up until the day that the ark left and the rains came.
01:11:17
So the ones who are wicked shall act wickedly and none shall understand. They're just going to continue to act wickedly.
01:11:25
They're going to be themselves. Goats are going to go, they're going to act like goats.
01:11:33
But those who are wise will understand. None of the wicked shall understand.
01:11:40
So they didn't understand the coming judgment. That's the thing. These things can be brought out into eternal judgment as well.
01:11:50
We saw in Romans 10,
01:11:59
I think Romans 10 goes on about the nation of Israel being a picture, an example for us that we shouldn't do, fall into what they fell into and that we shouldn't do the things that they did well.
01:12:13
It's that same thing as we look here. These people were judged because of their wickedness because they looked at God and they hated what was good.
01:12:24
And they kept on acting wickedly, even seeing the times coming, even having the prophets and Jesus come and John the
01:12:31
Baptist and all of them preaching the kingdom of God and still they wanted nothing of it.
01:12:37
Even after Christ ascended into heaven, you have Peter preaching, you have 3 ,000 saved in Jerusalem, you have the church through persecution and everything else growing and preaching and sharing the gospel.
01:12:52
And even in Colossians saying that the gospel had gone out to the entire world and they rejected that message.
01:13:00
So we too, when we look at the world around us, if we will continue to live and act in our sin and reject the good news of Christ who came to die in the place of sinners like us, we too can expect a horrifying judgment when the wrath of God is poured out on us.
01:13:25
If we are wicked and unwise and we do not understand and we will not look to Christ for our salvation, we'll find ourselves in a world of hurt.
01:13:36
But those who are wise will understand. And this is a, as Paul Washer explained before, when he talks about foolishness and wisdom in regards to salvation, he's talking about a moral foolishness, it's a moral failure.
01:13:52
We know that if we're morally wise, it's only because of the light of Christ, the power of the
01:13:59
Holy Spirit and the gospel have illumined our hearts. It's not anything that we've done. We're not wise because we've made ourselves wise, but because we have been touched by the power of God.
01:14:09
Exactly. Yeah. And just a side note, when we're speaking of Noah and fulfilled prophecy here, it was the wicked who were taken and the righteous that were saved and remained, not the righteous.
01:14:26
But Noah got raised up and then lowered back down. Yeah. I couldn't help it.
01:14:32
I couldn't help it. I heard it all. All right.
01:14:38
Well, we're getting ready to wrap it up. Verse 12 and 13, we'll be finished. Daniel says, how blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 days?
01:14:51
Those who fled to the hills. Do what? I believe that's those who fled to the hills. They waited 45 extra days and the
01:14:58
Romans were done pillaging and they'd made it.
01:15:04
They were blessed. They trusted in Christ's message to flee and they did.
01:15:15
They fleed that particular wrath. And there again, making these connections and seeing how consistent it is and trying to step from our preconceived viewpoints and just letting the scripture speak for itself and investigating, doing the work of somebody who's trying to rightly divide the word of truth, being a student of God's word.
01:15:53
Daniel gives us numbers here, 1290 days, three and a half years. And as Dan said, we're following the progression of Daniel and the prophecy and the kingdoms.
01:16:06
And then you have in the days of these kings, you have the Roman empire and the kings that come through Rome and Jesus coming.
01:16:14
And then you have this three and a half year period, this distress that Daniel's talking about.
01:16:21
And where do you see that during that time period? You have that 67 to 70
01:16:27
AD time period where the armies came, surrounded Jerusalem and then destroyed
01:16:35
Jerusalem, destroyed the temple. The timestamps match up, the geography matches up, the people match up.
01:16:44
It's just so consistent. And that's what helps me to lean heavily toward this viewpoint of partial preterism and post -millennialism.
01:16:55
Here's the last verse, verse 13. But as for you, go your way to the end, then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.
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What's your view on that verse? Well, it's interesting because this is another one where people want to throw it into the future, into the far future.
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But it says the end of the days, and he has never at any point changed what the days meant.
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I don't believe he's talking about the end of the world, but what I do believe he's saying is, go your way till the end.
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Keep on doing what you're doing, Daniel, you're going to be all right. And you shall rest and stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.
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I believe he's saying your prophecy will be vindicated. You're not going to see the end of it. Your prophecy will be vindicated.
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You will be with those who rise, as we saw back in verse two, those who rise, and you're not going to be with those who are destroyed.
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You're going to find your place among the righteous, because what you're saying is right and true.
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So you're going to be one of the ones who sees the iniquity put away.
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You're going to see prophecy sealed up. You're going to see the goodness of the
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Lord come to those who he has delivered at the end of all of these judgments.
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So he's giving him a bunch of prophecies leading up to the time of his final deliverance from sin.
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He's saying, you keep on preaching, you keep on telling what's right in Babylon now, way back here, because through it all your preaching will be vindicated as Christ comes and does what he says.
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And that's something that we should remember too, as we live in America or Canada or wherever else people may be listening to us or wherever they live.
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When we preach the gospel, we need to preach the gospel in such a way that we have no fear of what will happen to us.
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Daniel lived in exile in a kingdom that wasn't his own. We live on the earth where the kingdom of God has come, but we live in America or Canada or France or wherever as well.
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And those governments do try to come against us sometimes. We do feel a push from cultures that do not love
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Christ. We feel a persecution to greater or lesser extents, from light persecution where people try to make you feel bad or try to make fun of you, or heavy persecution where you were just straight up murdered or burned at the stake.
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Anywhere in between there, even though that's where you are, you preach and preach the gospel with boldness and compassion, because at the end when the judgment happens, you will be vindicated in your preaching if you trust in the
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Christ of your preaching. If you trust in the Christ who came, who died on the cross for our sins, who laid in the grave and arose again.
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You don't worry about what anybody is going to do to you. You preach Christ, and then in preaching
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Christ, you will be vindicated at the end. We have more prophecies than Daniel did.
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We have the prophecies of Christ return again at the end, with the new heavens and the new earth being completely finished, with Christ coming again and making all things new, with every tear being wiped away and every eye being cleaned, with all of our souls being completely renewed, with new bodies and resurrection and no sin in the earth and evil completely done away with.
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We will be vindicated in our preaching because that is what Christ will do.
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He has promised it, and we preach it, and we call those, just as Daniel and his folks were called to do, to turn many to righteousness.
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Like the stars, forever and ever, we were told to go out and disciple the nations, to baptize them in the name of the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, to teach them all that He has commanded, and know that Christ is with us even to the end of the age.
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Well, what a good word about not fearing and having joy.
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Where to find your joy, despite the attack and opposition coming against you in your gospel proclamation, and what you're trying to do in your families, in your community, and the things that come against you.
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I mean, that's such a good word of not fearing and setting your minds on things above, and where to have your thoughts and encouragement of vindication.
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But wait, there's more. Who would have been upset about Daniel prophesying the end of Jerusalem, and the downfall of those who are wicked for a three -and -a -half -year period of tribulation?
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It would have been the Jews. He's in a strange foreign land.
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He's got Babylonians pushing in on him from one side. He's got unfaithful Jews pushing on him from the other side.
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And here he is, you'll be vindicated between friend and foe alike.
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We are going to come up against opposition within those who call themselves Christians, who say, you're being unloving, unkind, you're this, that, the other thing.
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You don't know what you're talking about. You just haven't studied the right way. You're dumb. You're an idiot.
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They'll call you every name in the book, try to put you down, tell you you're stupid, try to hinder you from even supporting your family or doing all sorts of things.
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They will stab you in the back. And yet Christ promises us that if we preach the gospel of Christ, if we trust in the one who has bought us with his blood, our preaching will be vindicated in the end.
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It doesn't matter if it comes from those who call themselves Christians, or those who call themselves pagans.
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It doesn't matter if it comes from the left, right, center, spiritual realm, physical realm, over here, over there. It does not matter.
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We have a king in heaven who rules over the earth and we have absolutely nothing to fear.
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The worst thing they can do is kill us and then we go be with the Lord. I mean, that's good news.
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Yeah. Absolutely good news. Any last thoughts before we wrap it up?
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I think that was my last thoughts. Okay. I just want to make sure, I want to make sure this time, Dan and I have no greater desire that you would be among the wise here that Daniel talks about, that you would repent of your sins and turn to Christ and experience this joy and expectant vindication, the joy that you can have in your life, the confidence that you can have in your life because we can, we understand how you can get bogged down in looking, bogged down emotionally, bogged down spiritually, and then that affects you physically.
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We understand how that affects our body and our minds and our hearts and our souls. As we look at the world around us, we look at the people who want to control our lives.
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We want to look at the people who come against us and the diseases and the viruses and just all the terrible things, the tornadoes, the calamities, the natural disasters, the wars, the persecutions that are going on in the world.
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And we can go on and on. We see those, the murders, the racism, this group against this group, we see it all just like you see it all.
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And we understand how bogged down and suppressed our joy, our emotions, and our heart and our physical well -being can get when we ponder on those things and we see what's going on in the world.
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But there's joy in this world. There's strength, there's confidence, and there's vindication in this world, just like Dan explained.
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And we want you to be among the wise. And we want you, if you are one of those who have turned to Christ, we would have no greater joy than you continue to join us as we try to reach our community.
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So if you've not done so, we would plead with you that you repent of your sin, turn from your sin, and turn towards Christ.
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Put your faith and trust in him and receive that joy, receive that confidence in living for him.
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And with that being said, I've enjoyed going through Daniel with Dan.
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And Dan, I appreciate all your insights and you walking faithfully with me through this book.
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And I'm thankful for the Lord's help. I hope he's been blessed and he received the glory.
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So with all that being said, let me pray for us as we close. Father, we thank you for the time that you've given us together to look at your word.
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We do pray that you are honored and you are glorified. And we trust in your word when you tell us that your word will not return void.
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And we pray that as it goes out, that you will use it for your kingdom and your glory.
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We pray for those who have been through the tragedy of the tornadoes and the storms.
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We pray for their strength, resolve, comfort, and rebuilding.
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We lift up those people to you. And we just praise Jesus and thank you,
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Jesus, for coming and dying in our place that we may be your people, be redeemed, be saved, be forgiven.
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And we thank you for allowing us to be a part of your kingdom work. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right.
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Thank you guys for watching. Remember that Jesus is king. Go live in that victory. Go out and preach the gospel and live in that authority of Jesus Christ.