Daniel in Exile Part 5

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Daniel in Exile Part 6

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We pray Lord Jesus again as we open up your word and consider what you have revealed to Daniel regarding the end times we ask that you would give us clarity so that we may properly understand these revelations these dreams so that we may take comfort in the good news that you give us because you give us this information in order to give us hope and faith and to sustain us in the midst of persecution we ask in Jesus name amen okay so last week we began our primer on how to understand how do we properly understand apocalyptic texts and always a challenge to do that and the reason being is because you always have coded language you don't you know you have words that kind of deal with codes they're similar to parables and there's a logic to them that you can begin to understand if you will let the text teach you that logic and so we'll note then the first vision or dream that Daniel had was regarding these beasts these four different beasts which represent very different things all together and we'll note that the fourth one was terrifying all right the fourth one was absolutely terrifying so let me let me do uh let me back up and we'll reread this section so in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed and then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter

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Daniel declared I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were sitting up stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up out of the sea different from one another the first was like a lion it had eagle's wings and then

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I looked at its wings that they were plucked off it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man and the mind of a man was given to it this is obviously

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Babylon and the reference to being you know standing up and giving the mind of a man is reference to what we previously read in Daniel how

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Nebuchadnezzar had well God punished him by giving him the mind of a beast for a period of time in order to humble him all right and then behold another beast a second one like a bear this is the media

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Persian empire which comes after the Babylonian empire it was raised up on one side had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth and it was told rise devour much flesh after this

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I looked and behold another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back the beast had four heads and dominion was given to it and we'll note that this is a reference to the empire created by Alexander the

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Great and and then it was chopped up into four pieces and after this I saw in the night visions of behold a fourth beast terrifying dreadful exceedingly strong and we we took this and we did the comparison work between this what

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Daniel sees here and what is revealed in the book of Revelation chapters 12 and 13 regarding that one of the mega weapons of the devil you know to pursue and wage war against the against the saints it had great iron teeth it devoured and broken pieces stamped with what was left with its feet it was different from all the all the beasts that were before it it had 10 horns

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I considered the horns horns are like kings you know you know like you know this is what this represents behold there came up another among them another horn a little one before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things ah sounds a lot like you know a man of lawlessness or things like this that's kind of and so he this is where he makes his first appearance and you sit there and go what is that right and that's kind of the point but then the scene changes and we're going to do a little bit of work on this one because this is kind of fun all right this have you ever heard of like non -linear editing and when it comes to movie making and stuff like this like so you know you're watching a movie and you know the story is going forward and all of a sudden you're boosh you're back in time you're in a different time altogether my wife has been making me watch this tv series on netflix better call saul and holy smokes it's it's it's still struggle okay the good guy's a bad guy okay same with breaking bad the good guy's a bad guy and it just it hurts my brain but there's some yeah right yeah crime does not pay but uh you'll note that in in good storytelling like in better call saul that you have you know you're you're going forward in the timeline and next thing you know whammo blammo you're thrown all the way back and in and things like this we're gonna do a little bit of that here okay so do you have cinnabons you've watched it too okay all right yeah i at the moment i am unsure as to why he ends up making cinnabons in nebraska that i do not understand the details yet so sorry i'm only in season one so all right but all of that being said we're gonna have to figure out where in the timeline this part of the revelation goes as i looked thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat now i'm going to note something here the ancient of days that is a statement of a description that only appears here and is in reference to god the father this is not uh the this is not the second or third person of the trinity this is the first person of the trinity ancient of days took his seat his clothing was white as snow the hair of his head like pure wool his throne was fiery flames its wheels were burning fire and a stream of fire issued and came out from before him and thousand thousands served him ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the court sat in judgment the books were opened wait wait wait wait wait books i book books okay i know a thing or two about books books are opened on the day of judgment okay so note here we have this picture of this horrifying beast that that nobody can withstand and that has these 10 horns three of them are plucked up because of this boastful horn that comes up and then we fast forward to when the books are opened day of judgment okay day of judgment that's when the books are open i looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking and as i looked the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire as for the rest of the beast their dominion was taken away but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time then i saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom and all people's nations languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed so you're gonna we're jumping all over timelines here all right so here we got this picture of these beasts this horrible beast at the end then you got the day of judgment and then it being devoted to fire you know it's going to pass away god's going to judge it and then blammo we go back in time and the reason i say that back in time because what is this a picture of in verses 13 and 14 what is happening here may i suggest a a proper understanding of the timeline for this this portion we go to acts chapter one in the first book oh theophilus i have dealt with all that jesus began to do and to teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the holy spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of god and while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father which he said you heard from me for john baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now so then so when they came together they asked him lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to israel i always like to point this out this is like your final year of college or the final year at university and it's the last class and it's the and it's the final final and you biff it okay you get an f it's like were you not listening for like three whole years okay so he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the end of the earth and when he had said these things as they were looking on he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight and while they were gazing into heaven as he went behold two men stood by them in white robes and said men of galilee why do you stand looking into heaven this jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will come into the into the same way as you saw him go into heaven so what's happened here after christ's death burial resurrection and then spending 40 days with his disciples right he then ascends into heaven this then a good way to think about it so jesus's body ascends the clouds obscure it so you can no longer see him anymore then you get to this right first order of business now is jesus the sinless spotless lamb of god who've taken away the sin of the world who's died and risen from the grave he then as soon as his arrival he arrives in heaven having ascended he is presented before god the father and to him was given dominion and glory in a kingdom and all people's nations languages should serve him as dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away as kingdom one that shall not be destroyed so upon christ's ascension he now what rules and reigns and here's our here's our next cross reference on this if we were to take a look at hang on a second here i want to go to i'm gonna look for a word mina all right hang on a second here and it needs to be in the gospels not the epistles we're gonna look for the word mina luke 19 that's what i'm looking for all right so in luke 19 you can kind of see how this plays out so here's what it says they heard these things and jesus proceeded to tell a parable because he was near jerusalem and because they were so they suppose that the kingdom of god was to appear immediately he said therefore a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return i i'll give you one guess as to who the nobleman is jesus right okay to go to a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return okay we can see what's happening so christ when he ascends he goes away to a far country right the the kingdom of heaven itself and he has received a kingdom calling 10 of his servants he gave them 10 minas and said to them engage in business until i come i i'd love this parable i also love the parable of the talents uh one of the things i don't enjoy about this parable is hearing everybody biff it okay all right whose mina minas are these jesus is minus okay what are you free to do with them do business okay you're going to do business in his name with his minas until he comes all right so if we were to think of it this way then christ has left the church his treasures okay his word the sacraments the forgiveness of our sins and we are to engage in business until he returns doing what making disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son holy spirit teaching all that christ has commanded and you'll note that through these means then god well multiplies his kingdom i mean you and i are all here because somebody in the previous generation did the business of the kingdom and preached the word or baptized you and then discipled you right you're all here because of that and you'll note that some people are at kong's finger because of the business that i've been engaging in and the business you all have been engaging in and then when i am long gone if christ hasn't returned the next fellow should do the same thing we we got we got business to do okay you got to get get busy doing the business and it's jesus is minus all right it's his stuff and pay attention to how what happens when he returns so he he returns calling 10 of his servants he gave them minus he said to them engage in business dot com but his citizens oh here's the part his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him saying we don't want this man to reign over us think of like the pharisees that's gonna do a lot of good so when he returned having received the kingdom he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him that he might know what they had gained by doing business the first came before him and said lord your mina has made 10 minus more okay what did the work here the mina did the work okay you'll note that god's word is the thing that is living and active it never returns to him void right so you think of the mina like the word of god your mina look at this made 10 more minus right and he said to him well done good servant because you have been faithful and very little you shall have authority over 10 cities say what pay attention to this bit here okay this gives you something of a glimpse of what christ is up to he's he's he's literally he has a kingdom and for the last 2 000 years almost 2 000 years he's been populating that kingdom right the gospel has gone forth people have heard the good news they've been brought to penance and faith in christ for the forgiveness of their sins and do you think when you get to the new earth that you're going to have nothing to do all right we believers now we create the foundational generation of the new earth and isaiah is very clear on this and again i do not know how the arrangement works there's human procreation in the new earth again marriage isn't a thing and that makes sense because it's a covenant between two sinners and their families as for as long as they live but i have no idea what's coming you know how this is going to work out but there are going to be generations after generations of human beings that come after us in the new earth who comprises the ruling class of this earthly kingdom y 'all do have you ever heard of that we're kings and priests okay now i do not want you to buy a tiara okay you women out there and no you don't get to practice decreeing and declaring or any of that nonsense right now but these this is a picture of what's coming so when christ returns none of these to say well done good and faithful servant he's going to be giving out inheritance in the new earth and for lack of a better way of putting it royal assignments so second came saying lord your mina has made five minas boy those are amazing minas aren't they right and he said to him uh you are to be over five cities then another came and saying lord here's your mina which i kept laid away in a handkerchief okay for i was afraid of you because you are a severe man and you take what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow okay now always and again when you hear this fellow you can hear this fellow in this parable and also the parable of the talents in matthew chapter 25 what's your issue here this guy has zero faith and what do you think his opinion of king jesus is very low right he's practically slandering king jesus which is why he did nothing with this minor so socialist talking points yeah that's right all right and then and he says i was afraid because you were a severe man all right jesus really all right so jesus said him all right i'm going to condemn you with your own words you wicked servant you knew that i was a severe man taking what i did not deposit reaping what i did not so why then did you not put my money in the bank and at my coming i might have collected it with interest and he said to those who stood by him take the mina from him give it to the one who has the 10 minus and they said to him lord he has 10 minus i tell you to everyone who has more will be given but the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and what's the operative thing you need here faith right but as for these enemies of mine who sent the delegation we don't want jesus to rule over us okay as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them bring them here and slaughter them before me wow so much for precious moments jesus okay i never liked precious moments jesus that just always annoyed me you know it's like really okay we're going to turn jesus into a really kitschy hummel you know that's oh it's just so annoying it doesn't sound like the jesus of habakkuk no no write write the prophecy make it plain so they may run for their lives right okay so what we're seeing then here in daniel 13 is christ's the immediate thing that happens after christ's ascension and i would note that ascension day historically has been a major feast in in the in the church and appropriately so it always bums me out that i rarely get to preach an ascension day sermon so i i have to sometimes say we're just going ascension day here we're going to have it observed so that we can actually get to these texts because the christ ascension is vital and one of the other reasons why it's vital is because you're going to note then is that if you kind of hold to a dispensational view of of of theology what's jesus presently doing twiddling his thumbs dad when do i get to be king okay right because jesus doesn't doesn't take the kingdom he doesn't he doesn't actually rule and reign until after he comes back but daniel 7 and luke the passage we just read make it clear jesus is currently ruling and reigning in other words i hate to say this but let's kind of put this out on the table i know that we have some pretty inept politicians right now okay and um and i would note that this is a this is a time -honored tradition among human beings we usually pick really bad politicians for ourselves all right i remember my grandfather you know back in the 70s i spent some time with my grandparents in new york and my grandfather had this thing he had insomnia like you wouldn't believe i ended up getting the same problem when i was when i turned 18 i started struggling with insomnia same way my grandfather did and he would be up like all hours of the night and i would come down the stairs at his house because i could hear the television was on and i can hear him grumbling and anytime jimmy carter came on the television holy smokes i did not know that my grandfather was a sailor there's no record of him being in the navy but clearly he has to have been okay he had no love for that particular man and and you'll note that that was also kind of a low watermark in in american history relating to mr carter but all that being said christ is currently ruling and reigning and even if we're given an inept uh politician or head of state that we don't like guess who gave the stamp of approval for that guy jesus and here's where you gotta kind of get this in your head we already know what the plan is the plan is is that christ is going to bring all of the kingdoms of the earth to a cataclysmic end and he's going to establish his kingdom on planet earth and it's going to he's going to reign forever all right remember how the song goes we just sang it you know at christmas time and he shall reign forever and ever right and then then come the sopranos and you get the idea right okay so that means let me throw in another text here romans 13 let every person be subject to the governing authorities there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god but i don't like that person let me read this again there are no there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god but they are really wicked and evil i know there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god but but but but they're completely opposed to christians and they're threatening to persecute us there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god but they're going to end up you know persecuting christians and making christianity illegal i know it says that in the book there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god if if christ has called you to suffer his name and for the government to take your head off your shoulder because of your proclamation and your trust in christ there is no authority except from god your job then is to bend the knee and let them take your head off your shoulder your job is not to resist you want to kill me for confessing christ booyah go for it right i cannot believe that i would be so blessed right i would remind you of the apostles they took the words of christ to heart because jesus says blessed are you when people persecute you and speak all kinds of wickedness and against you falsely right for great is your reward in heaven i always like to remind people of this the worst prison break ever what did that just cut out again you did that was weird okay all right worst prison break ever hang on a second here axe is it five let's see here yeah no and that's when they're freed hang on a second here you'll know early on that uh that peter and john and some of the disciples they uh they they ended up uh god i'm gonna look for a word worthy and i'm gonna look in the epistles even though axe is not an epistle there it's x5 okay x5 all right worst one of the worst prison breaks ever all right and the resolve on this the high priest rose up and all who were with him that is the party of the sadducees filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles put them in the public prison but during the night an angel of the lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life okay when you break out of prison you're supposed to run okay because that's when they get the dogs and the helicopters and the posse and all this kind of stuff okay you don't return to the scene of the crime that's not how this goes so the the lord sent an angel who opened the door and then said go and stand in the temple speak to all the people the words of this life and when they heard this they entered the temple at daybreak and they began to teach now when the high priest came and those who were with them they called together the council all the senate of the people of israel and sent to the prison to have them brought but when the officers came they did not find them in the prison so they returned and reported we found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors but when we opened them we found no one inside now when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words they were greatly perplexed about them wondering what this would come to and someone came and told them look the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple teaching the people then the captain with the officers went and brought them but not by force but they were afraid of being stoned by the people and when they had brought them they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying we strictly charged you not to teach in this name yet you are here and you have filled jerusalem with your teaching and your intent is to bring this man's blood upon us well actually jesus's blood is already on you guys you're the ones who held that little kangaroo court in the middle of the night right so peter answered and the apostle answered we must obey god rather than men now note here the when a government orders you to act contrary to the commands of god and the commands of christ you say to the government no sorry okay governments are instituted for the purpose of punishing the evildoer that's their jobs and they're they should be busy about that christians are not evildoers and those who preach christ are not doing evil they are doing good the church exists for the purpose of making disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy spirit teaching all that christ has commanded there are two institutions then you got the and i have to do this backwards you have the right -hand kingdom right which is the kingdom of christ and the church and you have the left -hand kingdom which is the kingdom of the world you know governments and they each are instituted by god and they have particular lanes that they have to stay in church stays in its lane the government stays in its lane but when the government swerves into the church's lane and says you can't do your job uh we say right that's what and do that respectfully okay yeah so peter says we must obey god rather than men the god of our fathers raised jesus whom you killed by hanging on a tree god exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior archaigon is our greek word here that's an interesting word which also strongly suggests that jesus is currently ruling and reigning right god is in fact let's take a look at what archaigon means because that's um one who has preeminent position the leader the ruler the prince the one okay that's who christ is so when you say that he's leader i don't really like that because it doesn't i think that's that's a weak sauce translation okay jesus is currently the ruler and savior to give repentance to israel and forgiveness of sins i need that so do you right and we are witnesses to these things so is the holy spirit whom god has given to those who obey him note the holy spirit always is testifying about christ so when they heard this they were enraged right they went all the dead terrorists on them they kill you right i always love it when people act rationally in the face of a proclamation of christ right i kill you all right so but a pharisee in the council named gamaliel a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people that also happens to be the guy who taught saul of tarsus okay he was saul of tarsus was a student of gamaliel he stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while then he said to them men of israel take care what you are about to do with these men for before these days thudis rose up claiming to be somebody you know kind of like cindy jacobs and a number of men about 400 joined him he was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing after him judas the galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him he too perished and all who followed him were scattered so in the present case i tell you keep away from these men and let them alone for if this plan or if this undertaking is of man it will fail but if if it's of god you will not be able to overthrow them you might even be found opposing god so they took his advice and when they had called in the apostles they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of jesus and then let them go all right now my wife will let you know this okay she she will confirm if i get a hangnail i i need i need bed rest okay honey i need to lay down i have a hangnail okay we men are kind of pathetic right and don't don't even get me started when i have a cold or a it's it's like it's you know it's it's it's sad okay i assure you in my present state of thinking having been beaten i wouldn't be doing a jig going i would be going i need medication and bed rest right does anybody have any antibiotics you know this is how i behave right i'd be at the i would be at the er but watch what happens they beat them charge them not to speak in the name of jesus and they let them go then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name and every day in the temple from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching that the christ the messiah is jesus rejoicing so they come out after the beating going our god is an awesome god he reigns right this is what they're doing and then it doesn't make any sense they're bleeding they need medical attention and they're rejoicing how is that possible because the government that did this is a rightly instituted government and this government is trying to shut them up and these are wicked evil men who crucified christ and by the way who who who eventually dealt with these fellows god did he sent the armies of rome and what did rome do to jerusalem and what happened to these fellows in that in that ordeal right so you'll note that um the church is to stay in its lane preaching christ proclaiming repentance and the forgiveness of sins and i know it can be a big distraction you know to get completely bogged up in politics and stuff like this but stay stay in your lane preach christ in him crucified and let that be the thing that people are annoyed about okay rather than all your complaints about the current ineptitude of the current crop of politicians because christ still is on the throne and christ in his word has laid out the plan the plan is everything's going to get worse our governmental leaders are going to become more and more evil to the point where they overtly oppress persecute and martyr christians and then there's going to be a singular man of lawlessness to kind of round up the whole the whole the end of time and christ is going to kill that fellow with the breath of his mouth and our job in the midst of all of this is to what preach the word proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in jesus name and if you're going to die by the you're going to die by the sword get used to that now and if you're going to live to the end you'll live to the end and if you're going to die in old age you're going to die in old age it's none of your business how you're going to die you sit there go but it's my death i know but god's the one who's got that all worked out already right so while you're breathing preach christ and when the government starts getting hostile note that we were told ahead of time this is exactly what it's going to do so we shouldn't sit there and go oh i don't understand okay you'll note that all the charismatics who are out there believing that the billion souls harvest is just around the corner man these people are delusional there is no such thing in the scripture and you'll note that belief in these false prophecies does not prepare you for the persecution that's that's coming it leaves you woefully unprepared to the point where you'll abandon jesus to save your skin because you weren't properly prepared to think biblically in the face of persecution and suffering so christ currently reigns he's not twiddling his thumbs wondering when he finally gets to be coronated or anything like that he's in charge and he's already told us how things are going to go down right all right let's come back to daniel so let's take a look at the interpretation remember this is a primer on apocalyptic literature as for me daniel my spirit within me was anxious the visions of my head they alarmed me i approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this and he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things these four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth but the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and ever all right i've made this point before but i it bears repeating have any of you ever had to sit for your annual evaluation at work okay these things are horrifying okay i used to give them i'm so glad i don't get them anymore okay but the way it works okay it's time for your annual review and some of these reviews they do the 360 thing they don't they only talk to your boss they talk to your co -workers they talk to the people below you if you have a position of authority in order to get a 360 view of of your performance and then you sit down with your boss and your boss begins with the good news we want to let you know that we're very thrilled with these particular things you're a good team player you're in you clock in on time and and your productivity seems to be on point then comes the transition word but okay and but always erases the thing in front of it okay why do you start with good okay because all the good that you're doing counts for nothing because now comes the litany of all the things you're not doing correct okay we don't like the way you tie your shoes you know you need to brush your teeth being around you and your halitosis is really making other people sick you know this is the kind of stuff they talk about right okay and so the and you go through all this and so all the good that you are doing you can't even remember it anymore right note the order here these are the four great beasts that the kings who will rise out of the earth and that last one is terrifying but oh okay the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever forever and ever all right let let me wet my throat here okay so note the butt erases the thing in front of it don't worry about the four beasts especially that last one then i desired to know the truth about the fourth beast which was different from all the rest exceedingly terrifying with its teeth of iron claws of bronze which devoured and broken pieces and stamped what was left with its feet and about and about the 10 horns that were on its head and the other horn that came up and came up and before which three of them fell the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things and that seemed greater than its companions and as i looked this horn made war with the saints and what prevailed over them all right so here's our huddle okay you guys ever played like flag football right okay i used to play it poorly when i was a teenager but i played it nonetheless when we'd always pick somebody to be the quarterback and thank god it was never me because i had no skills all right but the quarterback would you know he'd get in the huddle and he'd pull his hand out and says all right why don't you go over here on this post and i want you to run up i want you to run up in about 10 yards and i want you to start cutting across the middle of you i want you to do this that right and then at the end of it says all right and he goes let's are you ready break right and you break this is what you do right you got you got you're in the huddle so here's king jesus in the huddle all right here's your job are you ready you're gonna wage war with this guy and he's gonna slaughter you you ready break that's not a typo okay notice here um joel osteen i've never seen him preach on this text okay well what about having my best life now yeah if this guy's waging war against me and prevails over me i'm gonna be dead right that's the point your job right now is to die take up your cross and follow jesus you don't get to be the one to kill this guy he gets to be the one to kill you well that doesn't sound like a good plan you questioning king jesus you're questioning god this is he's told you ahead of time so no make war with the saints and prevail over them until the ancient of days came and judgment was given for the saints so this this fellow is going to kill christians by the bazillions all right it'll be an international sport to wage war against the saints and wherever they are found they will be locked up they will be martyred but the but here is god's going to rule in your favor he's going to eliminate you from this cursed form of the planet to send you to the blessed one and god rules in your favor remember the day of judgment is the day of reckoning not a day before so until the ancient days came judgment was given for the saints of the most high and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom all right again not your best life now not at all and knowing this ahead of time how then do you feel prepared for what's coming we don't know if this is coming in our lifetime or not and all along the way there's been little there's been little dress rehearsals for this i always like to think of the rise of the nazis as a dress rehearsal for the rise of the antichrist and the man of lawlessness because they came out of nowhere and they took over quick and they got busy murdering people as soon as they hit the ground right so you'll know that that's the devil can never just make stuff up he has to practice like the rest of us he's he's you got to do dress rehearsals and stuff like that so look at the rise of the nazis is like the dress rehearsal for what's coming for the whole planet okay so when it shows up you don't have to sit there and go what am i gonna do run hide disappear okay skedaddle all right i like to think that you know that should this all go down in our lifetime i like to think that every single day that i'm alive and still pray and praise christ that um that the antichrist is going nuts okay that's bothering him like you wouldn't believe right thus he says as for the fourth beast there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth which shall be different from all the kingdoms it shall devour the whole earth which countries are going to be exempt from this kingdom none are you saying the globalists will win yep for a time and no it it will trample and trample the whole earth down and break it to pieces this is going to be a horrible government the affliction the suffering the injustice the murder of this thing is that it's going to make stalin look like a school girl hitler like a kindergartner we're talking about that kind of of holocaust but on a global scale as for the ten horns out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise i would note that governing the whole earth is going to be impossible for one human being right so this will so the whole this whole global system will be chopped up into ten little pieces and there'll be ten kings over it and then another shall arise after them he shall be different from the from the former ones and shall put down three kings so in his ascension three of the established kings and the ten kings will be overthrown by the rise of this this one he shall speak words against the most high he shall wear out the saints of the most high he shall think to change the times and the law and they shall be given into his hand for a time time and half a time so for for for a period of time he's going to wage complete all -out war against the saints now think of it this way we don't like totalitarian governments we really don't we americans are kind of opposed to the concept and we've done a good job of fighting against them in the past although we seem to be on the brink of putting one in place if we're not careful but all that being said um when you understand the scriptures totalitarian governments do not exist for the purpose of of taking away human liberty totalitarian governments exist for the purpose of extinguishing the gospel that's their purpose so people who are out there who are who are basically agnostic patriots they don't even understand what they're fighting against because every totalitarian government exists for the purpose of squelching the church driving it out if they can and most of the time they succeed in only driving it underground but you'll know that's the purpose of these governments go back to revelation 13 the beast exists for the purpose of waging war against the saints so now when we talk about totalitarian governments what's at stake is our ability to freely proclaim christ and freely gather publicly for the purpose of worshiping christ but totalitarian governments ultimately have their goal at the silencing of christians right now but the court now we got the butt again but the court shall sit in judgment his dominion shall be taken away to be consumed and destroyed to the end and the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high all right his kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him okay so now we know what's coming and it's terrifying and a lot of people on planet earth are going to die straight up but what did it say in romans 13 again let's hang on a second here romans 13 um there is no authority except from god and those that exist have been instituted by god but christ is going to permit this because he has an end in mind and his kingdom will reign forever so you'll note in reading daniel chapter 7 which introduces us not in the clearest language but introduces us to the kingdom of the antichrist in the end we can see that we are given comforting and assuring words that when this all goes down and here's the thing it will i can't stop it you can't stop it nobody can stop this thing the reason why is because christ has willed that this is how it's going to go down it's as if jesus is basically going to take his hands off of humanity and say let's let the evil run its course right and when you let evil run its course what does it result in the near suicide of humanity is what it's going to result in and see so so all the conspiracies out there oh they're probably all true you know there's probably some nefarious satanic cabal trying to take over the world and you're not going to stop them your job is to die jesus will do the rest and you have a you have a promise of an inheritance in the in the world to come and not only that the kingdom is given to you you'll know that jesus is really good at delegating really good so you're going to have responsibilities in a world without end and you're and we will never again in the world to come have inept politicians every one of us sons of the living god literally resurrected from the dead in the same kind of body as christ and we will know god face to face we will have i just reading the newspaper would be like one litany of great things happening after another we're here to report another fantastic thing is occurring in the kingdom today and another thing and wow can you believe that this thing is happening also there's no going to be no crime there's going to be no sin there's going to be no death no obituaries in the jerusalem times in the new in the new kingdom no bits can you believe this right okay and i will finally stop looking like santa claus i'm looking forward to this okay so daniel seven ends here's the end of the matter as for me daniel my thoughts greatly alarmed me my color changed i kept the matter i think that's as far as we should go now let me let me make sure i'm not missing any questions today yes yes we have a question yeah the other three yeah that that's a that's a tough thing let's take a look and show you this because part of studying this out you need a good study bible okay may i suggest one the lutheran study bible okay those notes are super helpful and another good commentary is kretzmannproject .org