Dominion and Distress (Daniel 7:14-18)

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Good morning. Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School.

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We are in Daniel chapter 7. So let's open reading

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Daniel and then we'll pray. I'm going to read to verse 19.

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Actually, we will read 13 through 19. Daniel chapter 7, 13 through 19.

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We're still on page 1151. Well, I have the authorized

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Kootenai version. I can come pin the number 1151 if you'd like that.

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Verse 13, Daniel chapter 7. I kept looking in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming and he came up to the

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Ancient of Days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

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I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things.

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These great beasts which are for a number are for kings who will arise from the earth, but the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and will possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come.

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Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze and which devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet.

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The meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up and before which three of them fell, namely that horn which had eyes and a mouth uttering great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates.

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Let's open in prayer. Lord, it is our incredible delight and glory and restful thought that you will be given dominion forever and that that dominion will not be taken away.

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We look forward to that day when every and when no more wrongs will be made, that we won't have to wait generations for bad things to be undone because you will have taken care of everything.

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It is your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has made it all so bright, spotless.

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Let us be that spotless bride and live out in the world today in a manner that brings glory to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We look forward to what you have to say to us in your word this morning and thank you for it in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, what a week, huh? So I'm looking at this current victory in the

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Supreme Court. I was telling Jim about this and I just kind of developed this thought a little bit. So I might be a bit spotty.

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But in 1914, in World War I, there was what was called the

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Christmas interlude. And for one night, in a couple of spots more than one night, but for the most part one night, battle ceased and people celebrated

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Christmas. They shared a meal together. They played football, which is not football in Britain, by the way.

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It's soccer, but I guess they do use their feet. They played together, they commiserated together for a night, and then the next day they began killing each other again.

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Let us not lose sight of that. We live in a fallen world and the battle will not end here until the

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Lord Jesus Christ comes and reclaims this planet for himself and reclaims all of eternity for himself.

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And I look forward to that day. But thankfully, we'll take whatever wins we can get that saves babies' lives.

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That was not part of... Yeah, that was

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Cornell 23 .5 on page 1157. So we're going to pick up where we left off last week on chapter 7, verse 14.

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And I tried to think about how to give this particular verse more and more time because it is such a wonderful statement.

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When the Son of Man is presented before the Ancient of Days, and Daniel chapter 7, verse 14,

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Daniel says this, and it says, And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away. Do you know what that means?

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What that actually means? It's... You know these girls that put curls on their hair and they call that a permanent?

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It ain't. This is. It's permanent, will not pass away.

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And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. All of men's kingdoms have been destroyed up to this point.

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They have been wrecked. Some of them survived a little longer, Daniel said. They were given a little bit of extra time.

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They influenced the kingdom after them. But when Jesus comes and reforms and changes all things, all of the horrifying parts of men's kingdoms will be completely...

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...influence in the kingdom to come. It will be perfect. It will be forever.

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And it will be with him at the head, the Son of God. And so this is where it happens in Daniel chapter in Daniel.

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Jesus is given his final dominion, glory and kingdom. This is not an angel, as some have translated it.

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It's not. The body of saints. This is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the Ancient of Days, the

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Son of Man, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, who is finally and permanently put in the position by the

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Father that he so greatly deserves. He has redeemed the elect. He has redeemed...he's

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going to redeem the earth. And he's going to change...it all changes here. This is such an incredible verse just by itself.

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If we just read this verse and then went to sleep, it would be good enough. His dominion is a forever rule over all nations.

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And it's a rule over nations. The universe, yes, but here on this planet, nations. Psalm 70 to 11,

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They foresaw this. Revelation 19, 5, John foresaw it. So those who have opposed the

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Son of Man will be done away with. And those who have loved him, who have loved his appearance, we love his appearing.

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Those who have loved his appearing will be elevated to the right hand of the Son of God, to the right hand of God.

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The dominion given to the Son of Man comes after, immediately after the destruction of the

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Antichrist. And it's permanent, glorious, and not one of suffering. It is all -pervasive and does not come in stages, but rather comes instantaneously.

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And it comes upon the destruction of the Gentile nations and the sending of the Antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire.

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Now, I'm not saying we want to be happy about, I'm not happy about anybody who goes into the lake of fire.

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I'd rather no one went into the lake of fire, but it is to God's glory that they do.

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And we need to remember that. It's a hard thing about glory to remember, but it is to his glory.

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He has made the gospel known, and they would rather pull the mountains down upon them, it says in Revelation, than change their minds, than trust

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Christ, than repent. So it comes after the destruction of the Antichrist and the false prophet sent into the lake of fire.

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It is not, as some believe, a steady, slow change, but rather it is an instantaneous blast that results in the kingdom of this

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Messiah taking center stage, and it will be completely and perfectly done.

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It will be done by the Father himself and by the Son. Culver says in his commentary, he said, this is evident in both chapters 2 and 7.

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The language is applicable only to an all -prevailing, irresistible, glorious, civil as well as religious kingdom.

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This utterly does away with the postmillennial view. It also mitigates against the amillennial view, for though they do allow that in its final manifestation, the kingdom will be thus, they postulate a present earthly kingdom of Christ under the same figure.

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Some do. Remember, there are various iterations. When the figure will not allow it in Scripture, they are placed in the unenviable position of trying to have their logical cake and eat it too.

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Their church kingdom, they try to relate to the saints in the passage, but the saints are clearly not the kingdom here, but the ones who, after a period of suffering, receive the kingdom.

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So even granting, which he does not, he says, that the saints herein are the

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New Testament church, their theory will not fit. Now, it's not to say that in progressive revelation,

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Christ can't, through the book of Revelation, add in other celebrants, celebrants?

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How do you pronounce that word? Celebrants, I'm going to pronounce it that way, in the final millennial kingdom.

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But Daniel saw Old Testament saints inheriting this kingdom. As we move through the rest of this chapter, we will talk about who the saints are.

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There are numerous references to the saints in chapter 7. Oh, by the way, the paper that was handed out,

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I do this the opposite of Rick. He does it the smart way. He hands out a paper and then he teaches you what's in the paper.

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I teach and then three weeks later, I hand out the paper. Page 1157 of my book, yeah.

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So, so we will look more at saints as we go through this chapter. We also must acknowledge that in this vision,

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Daniel takes us to the first coming of Christ and then jumps to the end of history. In the end, the fourth kingdom is revived and it is ended at the second coming of Christ.

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In his commentary on the book of Daniel, Herbert Leupold acknowledges what he sees and what conservative scholars have held regarding the views of the ancient prophets.

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He says this, why does the sequence of historical kingdoms in this vision extend no farther than the

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Roman? Whereas we know that many developments came after the Roman Empire and have continued to come before the judgment.

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We can venture only opinion under this head, opinions that we believe are reasonable and conform with the situation as it is outlined.

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One suggestion to be borne in mind is the fact that the prophets, barring the inclusion of chapter 9 in Daniel, never see the interval of time lying between the first and second coming of Christ in the matter of history.

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Therefore, Daniel does not see beyond Christ's days in the flesh and perhaps the persecution as it came upon the early church.

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So although he was a classical omnilinearian, there we go, he also believed that the destruction of the revived

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Roman Empire at the end of the days is a literal instantaneous destruction. He said this, did

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Jesus coming to the earth in the first century destroy the Roman Empire? We could only say yes, if we interpreted the destruction of the fourth kingdom in a non -literal way.

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I choose not to do this because the destruction of the previous kingdom was literal.

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It seems that we should also expect that the destruction of the fourth kingdom by the fifth kingdom will be literal.

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Therefore, the second coming of Christ must be the initiation of the fifth kingdom and the final destruction of the fourth.

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If this is so, then the prophetic picture that Daniel saw did not include the present age in which we live.

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And you can look at Isaiah 61, 1, and 2, which we looked at last week, and Luke 4, 18, and 19.

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This, which is a rephrasing of that, not a rephrasing, a quoting of that by our

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Lord. He quoted Isaiah 61, 1, and 2, leaving off the reference to the second coming.

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This conclusion has seemed reasonable, Leopold says, to some all millenarians as well as to premillenarians.

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So 14, I don't know that it's the most important verse in all of Daniel, but I really like it.

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I'm going to read it again just because it's such a wonderful verse. Even so, come quickly,

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Lord Jesus. What a wonderful statement Daniel makes there. I'll bet that was comforting to Daniel. Now, he's having this dream and he allows himself that it just unsettled him.

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And I know what dreams that have unsettled me do to me. They cause me to lose sleep. They make me wonder stupid things.

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I'm not a dream. I mean, I think dreams are dreams. You know, when my brother -in -law shot me in one of the dreams, he didn't really shoot me.

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We're actually good buds. So, you know, it's not like I started, I better watch Dale while I'm around him.

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I didn't do that. It was a dream. Give me a break. But Daniel's dream was given to him by the

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Ancient of Days. And then the Ancient of Days begins to provide a general interpretation.

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So he says, as for me, in verse 15, as for me, Daniel, and that always struck me as I read that.

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Who did he think we were thinking wrote this? But I'm glad that God told him to be specific.

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So he was, as for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me. And the visions in my mind kept alarming me.

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So as any of us might have done during such an alarming vision, Daniel struggles with what he has seen.

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What does this mean? What do these things mean? Now, it must be, I'm grateful that the prophetic revelation is done, and that we have the

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Word of God, and that's all we need. I wouldn't have wanted to be this, because I would have thought, was it the taco

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I ate? The really bad taco I just ate? No, nothing against tacos.

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I'm just not a taco person. So as any of us might have done, he was struggling with it.

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He struggles with what he has seen. The Aramaic word here for distressed has the idea of a piercing. He's pierced through.

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This was gut -wrenching. This wasn't just a bad dream. This was a vision, and he was struggling with it.

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In like manner, the Aramaic word for alarming denotes being frightened or terrified. So he was pierced, and he was terrified by this dream.

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It didn't just unsettle him. This is the kind of dream you wake up from in a cold sweat, possibly screaming, if it's one you had today.

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Now, I don't think that's what happened to Daniel, but the potential is there because this was extremely distressing.

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Daniel's statement that my spirit was distressed within me refers to his whole personality.

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Suffice it to say, Daniel was disturbed, concerned, and frightened by what he had seen.

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Despite his great ability, as it says earlier in the book of Daniel, and his ability to understand and interpret dreams, he was having trouble with this one.

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A lot of trouble with this one. And I think any time God spoke to the prophets of old with momentous things, it disturbed them.

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And in some cases, remember Jonah didn't like it. You want to save those people? I'm out of here.

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He did not like what God was going to do. I love that the scripture paints the picture of humanity using humanity, warts and all.

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And it's not some fake, systemic book that only shows the good side of humans.

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Of which there is none. Okay, moving along here.

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Verse 16, any questions about 14 or 15? I kind of got carried away there, sorry. Okay, verse 16.

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I approached one of those who were standing by. Now, this is strange. So, did he do this in the vision or did he do this?

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I believe he did this. He approached one who was standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this.

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So, he told me and made known the interpretation of these things. So, Daniel, in his humility, has no problem asking somebody, asking one of those standing by to give him an interpretation.

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He doesn't say, well, I'm the dream understander. I don't need anybody else. I don't need anybody to help me understand this.

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I'm glad that God made Daniel a humble man so that he asked someone. He later asks also a specific interpretation of the fourth beast.

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So, it's generally acknowledged that one of those standing by would have referred to the angel messenger, angels' messengers.

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So, liberal commentators have made hay out of the fact that Daniel could not interpret all of the dream. In Genesis chapter 28,

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God has to explain the dream to Jacob that he had about the angels on the ladder. In Exodus chapter 3,

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God has to speak to Moses out of a burning bush and give instructions. John has walked through an interpreted vision in Revelation chapter 20, and later in chapter 21.

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So, this is not an uncommon thing. How can we expect men to know the mind of God unless God decides to give them his mind?

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We can't know that. But I'm really grateful that God chose to speak through one of these messengers and give

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Daniel an interpretation. Daniel was asking for the truth of the things of which he saw, for this is what the word's exact meaning denotes.

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The Aramaic word there is to get at the truth, to understand the truth of something, the underlying truth of something.

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And that's what Daniel's looking for. Any questions? Daniel was a humble man all through his life.

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Verse 17. So, here's the interpretation. This is going to be a general interpretation.

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I would say, Lord, would you take a brick and tie to that brick a definition of each of the words in their original context, and then a commentary on each word, and then by phrase, and then by paragraph, so that I can understand exactly.

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That's not what God did. But he gave enough. He gave Daniel this. He said, These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth.

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So, in this general interpretation, the angel reveals that the four beasts represent kings who came from the common population of the earth.

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These kings also represent kingdoms, as the beast did. There's no conflict here with verse 3, which denotes the beast coming up from the sea.

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It's just two ways of wording the same thing. Both statements are symbolic references to the kingdoms arising out of humanity, whether it was the words, the sea, which has from antiquity related to the mass of humanity, or the words, the earth, which is also a general statement referring to humanity.

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As Walvert notes in his commentary, what is symbolic in Daniel 7 .3

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is literal in 7 .17. So, the sea and the earth are just two ways of talking about these four kings came up out of the earth.

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Further, the angel is making sure that Daniel understands that there are four, and only four, and that they are both kingdoms and kings, which the beasts and the kings represent.

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Verse 18, but the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come.

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So, here's our first reference to the saints in this up -and -coming section of prophecy. So, who are these saints?

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Daniel would have understood them to be the covenant people of God, Israel. Now, there's no reason to assume that believers cannot be included in this group, but we must ask ourselves what was meant in this

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Old Testament book by this Old Testament prophet at this Old Testament time.

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So, the New Testament church will be joined with Christ as rulers as shown in Revelation 20, but that is irrelevant to this.

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So, does this chapter affirm that Israel, the covenant nation, shall have a place in that kingdom and, in a real sense, possess it?

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If so, the national restoration is in the plan of God for that nation, for the nation of Israel.

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A national restoration is in the plan for Israel. Now, that doesn't mitigate against the

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New Testament saints being involved in things, but when God redeems this planet, which

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He intended to be perfect from Adam, served it up to Satan.

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When He redeems this planet, Israel has a national part in that.

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So, there are five references in this group of verses to the saints of the Most High, Kaddish, Elionen in the

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Hebrew. The same expression is used in verses 22 and 25. In verse 22, they're simply called saints,

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Kaddishim. Verse 22, My God sent

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His angel and shut the line... I'm in chapter 6. Yeah, I was thinking, that doesn't sound right. That was on page 1150, by the way.

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Verse 22. Until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints of the

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Highest One and the time arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom. So, I'm jumping ahead of myself, but I just want to give us some meat to think about as to who these saints are.

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The people of the saints of the Most High, Am, Kaddish, Elionen, those are all the same Aramaic words.

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To one verse in the Old Testament Scriptures, these can be understood in only one fashion, of the covenant nation, Israel.

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Consider the evidence, the Hebrew adjective equivalent to the Aramaic Kaddish saint is

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Kaddosh. Now, I'm not a linguist, but I found this interesting as I read through this.

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In Exodus chapter 19, 6, it is used of Israel and of Israel only in her peculiar relation to God as the covenant people,

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His covenant people. In Leviticus chapter 20, verses 7 and 26, it is used in the same sense as also in Deuteronomy 7, 6 and 14, 2 and 21 for those of you who are interested.

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The Hebrew noun Kaddish is also equivalent to this Aramaic word and is used of Israel and of Israel only in this special sense of describing a people peculiar to God.

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This use appears many times. However, one need look no further than the book of Daniel itself to find out who the saints or the holy people are.

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Chapter 8 may contain eschatological material viewed in a typical fashion, but most interpreters of every school of eschatology unite in regarding it as primarily a prophecy of the conflict of the

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Jewish people, this is chapter 8, with the Greek kingdom of history, especially as it developed between the

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Jews and Antiochus Epiphanes. So this is the conflict between the Jews and Antiochus Epiphanes who did a horrible thing,

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I believe he sacrificed a pig on the altar of God. Now in verse 24, let's read that.

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As for the ten horns out of the kingdom, ten kings will arise, and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings.

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The Jewish people are called by the name Amkadoshim. In the

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English versions, translated, the holy people, but in the Hebrew, literally, the people of the saints.

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This is as near a linguistic equivalent of the name given to the people of Daniel in 727 as possible.

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Which is, then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one, his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey him.

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So it's as near a linguistic, let me find my place here, it's as near a linguistic equivalent as could be.

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The people of the saints of the most high, even Keel, Leopold, and Young, who were at this time when

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I was studying, the documents I'm studying here were the leading advocates of Amillennialism, think that this expression refers to the

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Israelites in chapter 8. Why then, he says, why then not the same in chapter 7?

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There is only one answer, it does not harmonize with their eschatological system. So Daniel chapter 12 verse 7 mentions the holy people,

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Amkadesh. There also, as in chapter 7, they suffer for three and one half times, or years, the correspondence with the suffering of the saints of chapter 7 for the same period of time in verse 725, if you read that, is unmistakable.

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Let's read that. And he will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one, and he will make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.

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Same reference, the three and a half years that there will be great suffering. So Keel is certainly in error, as this person points out when he writes this, he says this, the circumstance that in Daniel's time the

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Israel, according to the flesh, constituted the holy people, does not necessitate our understanding this people when the people of God are spoken of in the time of the end, since then the faithful from all nations shall be the holy people of God.

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Disagree. It is speaking of Israel. It's speaking of the covenant people. Now later on, in progressive revelation, in Revelation especially,

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Jesus through John continues this revelation, but here in Daniel, it's speaking of the covenant people of God and their restoration.

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The whole point is that Daniel was referring to his own people when he used these terms, and whatever the

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New Testament may add does not contradict this simple fact. So Dr.

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Delitch, the famous collaborator with Keel on the Keel and Delitch commentaries, boy, with that many words in his name, it just looks like I'm not pronouncing it right, but that's what it said.

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I mean, that many letters, I mean. They regarded it as an essential progress in prophetic theology that the following three ideas are recognized in their intimate connection.

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One, Israel in prophecy is not merely a type of the church. Number two,

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Israel has yet a future. Number three, that before the last judgment there will be a time of a glorious kingdom of God.

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And with these words, I think, I believe, historians agree. So these facts demonstrate sufficiently that premillennialism and only premillennialism gives a satisfactory explanation of the prophecy of the four beasts and of the ancient of days, especially when we consider that we take it literally.

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We look at it literally. We look at the historical connections and the things that were said earlier, the things that are said later.

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So it's also important to notice that regarding this restoration of the kingdom to Israel, when the disciples asked

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Jesus in chapter one of Acts if he would restore the kingdom to Israel, he didn't say, you guys, you got it wrong.

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Actually, what's gonna happen here is the saints have become the kingdom and they will be who the kingdom is restored.

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He didn't say that. Let me finish my little paragraph here.

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When the disciples asked Jesus in chapter one, if he would restore the kingdom to Israel, he did not correct them and say, oh, but you err.

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The kingdom will be going to the church. No, he not only did not correct them, he affirmed their idea and just told them that when it would happen was not known to them.

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Not to be known to them. Acts chapter one, verses six and seven. So when they had come together, they began asking him saying,

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Lord, is it at this time that you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? But he said to them, it is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the

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Father has set by his own authority. And you know what? That's where I end today.

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I went a little fast and I didn't cover a lot of ground mainly because as I was studying this,

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I had to do a lot of reading to really thoroughly understand this. What is it about us wanting to be supplanting

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Israel? I'm trying to understand that. When, you know, what is the purpose?

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What would be the purpose of that? And I haven't come to a good conclusion. So if there's any of you out there who thought this through much better than I have, and I'm sure there are plenty.

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Maybe you have something to offer there. But the point is, at the end, the kingdom is going to be handed to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And he is going to dispose of that kingdom, dispose meaning do with as he will, as he chooses.

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I don't mean dispose, get rid of. I mean disperse, dispose, hand out, reward, send to this place, send to that, the goats here, the sheep here.

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Is it so important for us to be the church when rather we should be greatly excited and wonder at the fact that God is going to complete his plan?

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He's going to redeem the earth. He's going to cause the earth to be what it was intended to be from the very beginning, when he intended for it to be a perfect place for men to live, men and women to live.

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He's going to redeem all of humanity that has chosen, that has trusted him, that has repented and trusted him.

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And those who are not in that camp are going to be sent into the lake of fire. But Israel has a place.

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The church has a place. And we need not to mix those. And with that,

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I hate to end this early, but that's kind of how it worked out this week. It was one of those weeks. Thomas, can

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I pray for 20 minutes? Yeah.

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So the judgments that are to come as that paper that was handed out and like I said,

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I hand stuff out after we've gone through it. The judgments that are to come that we need to be thinking about as we're progressing through the rest of Daniel and who knows where else

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God will take us should he tarry. These are the judgments and how they line up.

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Either way, there was a question a few weeks back about the angels, that we would judge angels.

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So pardon me for being forced to take kind of a little left turn here. People had asked about that verse when we talked about the fact that one of the judgments is the judgment of angels.

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And it was asked what that judgment meant. And so I went back and looked at 1 Corinthians 6.

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So it says in 1 Corinthians 6 .3, Do you not know that we will judge angels how much more the matters of this life.

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And here's what we went through when we went through 1 Corinthians 6. It is interesting to consider that the elect will actually judge angels.

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Scripture is not clear on just which angels, though it appears that the fallen angels will be judged by the

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Lord. 2 Peter 2, For God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment.

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Jude 1 .6, The angels did not, and angels who did not keep their own domain, but had abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of that great day.

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So the wording of both of those verses allows for the possibility that believers will be involved in the judgment of the sinning angels.

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The word translated judge can also mean rule or govern. Since Christ was exalted above all the angels,

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Ephesians 1, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority, and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

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And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church.

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So then I said this, I said, and since we are in Christ and are like him and are given to reign with him, are to reign with him, which while one cannot be dogmatic about this, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that believers will assume some sort of authority over the holy angels.

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Those who were created to serve humanity and to deliver God's commands in favor would probably consider it an honor.

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But the fallen angels, including Satan, will be horrified by this. Satan must gloat over every person that is cast into hell, noting that they will not judge him.

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The word structure in this sentence indicates that Paul places a very high value on the proper judgment of things in this life, even as compared with the idea of judging angels in the life to come.

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That is why the way that Christians treat each other is so very important that Paul stresses here, you will judge angels.

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He says, but more importantly, can you not judge the situations in your own lives here today properly?

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So that was the point of that section. And then Jim brought this up, and I added it in, but I didn't say this.

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It's entirely proper or entirely possible, although one cannot be in any way dogmatic about this, that the elect will be involved in handing out rewards to God's ministering spirits who were sent to minister to the saints while we were here.

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I'm not going to go building some kind of strange doctrine on that and put it on page 1153.

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But it's entirely possible. Jim mentioned this to me. And so I added it in, and I'm actually going to cite him.

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I don't know how to do that. Jim Osmond, May of whatever day it was,

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June. So lastly, the judgments that are coming are the tribulation period, the judgment seat of Christ, the judgment of the nations, the judgment of angels, which we just spoke about, and the great white throne judgment.

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What are we to do about those things? What are we to be about in our daily lives today with the fact in view that there are these judgments coming?

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The nations are going to be judged. Who are people? The judgment seat of Christ.

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That is, resurrected and raptured believers will be judged for their works. Sin is not in view in this judgment.

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What is our responsibility with that judgment in view? What are we to be about with that judgment in view?

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The work of God. And when does that end? Pardon?

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When we're out of here. When we're out of here. That's a good way to keep it up till we're out of here. The judgments of the tribulation period.

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Do you want any of your family to go through that, assuming we're right and the tribulation saints, the saints will not be in the tribulation?

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It should animate us. These kinds of things are designed by God not just to communicate truth, but to animate us in his service to do the kinds of things necessary to keep people from being judged that way.

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And then last, of course, the final judgment, in which the beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire.

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The final judgment ends it all. And that's what's in view in chapter 7, verse 14, which we will read one more time.

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And to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples and nations and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

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Next week I'll have a longer lesson. Thank you for your indulgence this week. Are there any questions or comments or commentary about page 1152?

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I mean about Daniel chapter 7. Yes. And I'm not an astute enough historian to systematically refute that.

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It's one of those things. It could be a continued Roman Empire or a revived Roman Empire. But that is, we'll look at that when we look at the fourth beast.

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Peter. Oh, the question was, or the statement was, actually it wasn't really a question, it was just there are those historians who believe that the final, that the

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Roman Empire, I believe you're talking about the Eastern Roman Empire. Actually, pardon? The Western Roman Empire didn't fall, that it continues on.

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So you're talking about England, Britain, the Anglo -Saxons. Sure, yeah, okay.

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That the Western Roman Empire continued, and I don't know that. I can't quite nail that down as far as my study of history.

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But one way or the other, the fifth kingdom will be a revived, will be the Roman Empire again, a revision of the

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Roman Empire or a continuation. But probably, I think, a revived. Any other questions, comments?

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At the end among the others, and now, salvation comes from the

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Jews, or salvation comes from that. So why would God supplant the

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Jews in the church when the church actually draws its life from Jew number one, who would be

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Christ? Right, so you're talking about Romans 11, 17, but of some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive were grafted in among them and become partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree.

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Verse 18 answers that question. This is a concern about what I was talking about earlier.

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It's Paul's concern that the Gentiles would be arrogant about their new position in Christ.

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He wasn't, there's eschatological teaching here, but what Paul was primarily teaching here was what

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Paul always taught. Humility, love of Christ first, and moving people towards Christ.

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It says, do not be arrogant toward the branches. Who are the branches? Israel. Do not be arrogant, but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.

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Now, the original root, of course, we know is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, but the tree that he created in Old Testament times,

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I'm all metaphysical on this here, is the nation of Israel. And we were grafted into that.

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Don't get on your high horse, is what Paul's saying here. Let's keep humble. It's the root that supports you.

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Do your part, but don't try to supplant the root. And that's what's always amazed me.

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Paul didn't leave us unknowing about what he was teaching here. Don't supplant the root. And then you will say then, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.

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We should be first, incredibly grateful, thankful, and bless

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God. Sorrowful for those who will be lost, but thankful that we have been elected and chosen to be part of these things.

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What a momentous thing it's gonna be when verse 14 happens. I think I'm gonna read that verse for the rest of my life every day.

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Yes. Oh, I thought, okay. You almost bought the cow. Okay. Let's close in prayer.

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Father, yes, we are grateful for being grafted in. And we trust you to monitor our hearts, for our hearts are wicked above all things, and no one can know them, but you know them.

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Monitor and change our hearts so that we will stay grateful, humble, thankful, and dedicated to the cause of bringing the gospel to the world and to your covenant people.

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They need to hear the gospel. They are saved in the same way we are, Lord. There's no difference there. We ask for your blessing today on this momentous happening in our

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Supreme Court, stepping into that. Lord, we pray that the church would step up.

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I know the true church everywhere will step up, and those babies who are now allowed to live, if they need adoption, if they need care, if they need clothes, the true church will take care of that.

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Let us be about the business that you've placed us in, which is bringing the gospel to the people, to the world, but also bringing help where needed.