Sunday, April 24, AM

Father we thank you for this day. Thank you for the rain you sent. We thank you for the the coolness of the morning.

We thank you for traveling mercy and we thank you for health. We thank you for provision.

We thank you for grace and we thank you for Christ. During these moments ahead would you help us to focus on you.

Turn our eyes to heaven, not to the things of earth, not to our anxieties and worries, but to place all of those things at the foot of the cross.

To leave them for you to care for. We desire to hear your word preached.

We desire to hear your word sung. We desire as a body, as a congregation, to bring honor and glory to you this morning.

You are an awesome God and you care deeply for each of us and you made a way for us to be part of the family through the blood, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ.

May his name be praised this morning and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you stay with me for our call to worship?

Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 78. We'll be reading verses 1 through 4.

Read with me together. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching.

Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children, but to tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the

Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.

And our first song this morning is in our Psalms for Worship hymnal, page 78A.

We'll sing verses 1 and 2. O come, my people, to my law, attentively give ear.

The words that from my mouth proceed, incline yourselves to hear.

My mouth will speak a parable, the sayings dark of old, which we have listened to and known, as by our fathers told.

We will not hide them from their children, but to tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the

Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done.

His word he come to take, and gave his law to his trial, which he, our fathers, did command to teach their children well.

And then in our regular hymnal, page 217, last week if you remember,

Brother Michael said every Sunday we should praise the Lord that he,

Christ the Lord, is risen today. Every Sunday. So, that's what I'm going to sing this morning. Christ the

Lord is risen today. Sons of men and angels sing.

Raise your joys and triumphs high. Singing has ended.

Praise again our glorious King. Alleluia.

Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia. Dying, was he all the same?

Be all brave. Alleluia.

The treason in work is done. Alleluia. Death in vain, or peace in Christ.

Slowly now, Christ has left. All in the sky.

This morning's scripture reading comes from Isaiah. We're continuing in Isaiah together, chapter 22 this morning.

Starting at verse 15, we'll be reading through verse 25. We've been going through these oracles of judgment against the nations.

And we continue that this morning, but it's a little bit different because now we come to an oracle of judgment against an individual.

And so, you're going to hear the name Shebna. Shebna was a wicked advisor to the king,

Hezekiah. And you're going to hear the judgment of God against him.

Starting at verse 15, chapter 22 of Isaiah. Thus says the

Lord God of hosts, Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him,

What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself?

You who cut out a tomb on the height, and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock.

Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man.

He will seize firm hold on you, and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land.

There you shall die, and there shall your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house.

I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. In that day

I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. And I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand.

And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David.

He shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open.

And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house.

And they will hang on him the whole honor of his father's house, the offspring, and issue every small vessel from the cups to all the flagons.

In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, the peg that was fastened in a secure place will give way, and it will be cut down and fall.

And the load that was on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken. Would you pray with me?

Heavenly Father, as we worship in song, now we worship through the reading of your word.

These are your words. Your words never fail. Through your prophets, they are given with surety.

That the truth that is spoken will come to pass. That evil and wickedness will be put away.

That righteousness will be installed, and will reign. Father, as we continue to worship this morning, through song, through the preaching of your word, help us to yield ourselves, to put away our ambition, our pride, the sin that so easily ensnares us, to run to you, to find freedom in submission to our

King Jesus. We ask all these things in his precious name.

Amen. You may be seated. Before we sing our next two songs, the

Lord said to my Lord, and you are the Lord, I'd like to read a verse from the book of Psalms.

Psalms 110, verse 1. The Lord says to my Lord, sit in my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.

We serve an awesome and sovereign God. And then the second song is a phrase,

Sovereign, almighty, there is none like you, because he is the

Lord. We're going to sing pages 110D in your Psalms for worship, and then 133 in your

HMA. Sovereign, almighty, there is none like you, because he is the

Lord. The Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

The Lord comes, I ascend, no scepter in his strength.

With mighty power show your rule among your enemies.

Your people we become throughout your day of power.

From morning's dawning Holy Ghost through you,

Thorn like the dew, The Lord has sworn an oath,

And will not change his mind.

In the honor of Melchizedek, You evermore come, priest.

The Lord at your right hand

Will shatter kings in wrath.

Among the nations he will judge

And fill them with their debt.

Yes, he will smite and crush

Chief men in many lands.

And from the wayside work he'll train

In the glory of his name.

There's no need of changing

The silence they hate or God's charge to sing.

You made the earth, Creating man to know you,

Sovereign Almighty, There is none like you.

Father, Son, and Spirit, You are

Redeemer's Son.

Father, gracious and merciful,

There is none like you. You are

Lord of all, You are our

God. Father, Son, and Spirit, You are exalted.

God is saved from all pain.

Praise you all the day. Exalted, worthy, and glorious,

There is none like you. You are the

Lord, You are our

God. Father, Son, and Spirit, Our Lord.

And indeed, there was light, the light of Christ, which now shines upon our world.

The darkness did not overcome it. The darkness could not overwhelm it.

But you have sent us the light of your Son, Jesus Christ, to shine the light of the face of Jesus Christ into earthen vessels, clay pots, without you, without your grace, without the light of Christ, we would be lifeless, without hope in this world.

We thank you that you have sent your Son. We thank you that you have magnified and glorified him, that you have transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of your beloved

Son. We thank you that we share in his victory, that we share in his hope, and that we gather here today rejoicing in his accomplished work, looking with hope as he reigns at your right hand until all of his enemies are placed as a footstool for his feet.

With this we agree and we say amen. Amen and amen. Rejoicing in Christ.

Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Daniel chapter 10, the very end of chapter 10, through the entire chapter of Daniel 11 is our goal.

The title for this section of Daniel chapters 10 through 12, which comprise a single vision, the prelude to the vision, the vision itself, and then the final word of the vision.

Altogether, Daniel chapters 10 through 12 is all one event, and a good title for it is the latter days, and that comes from chapter 10 and verse 14, where Christ says to Daniel, now

I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days for the vision refers to many days yet to come.

So not right now, but a whole lot later. And for anyone wondering what the latter days consist of, all they have to do is read the previous chapter, chapter nine and the timetable of the 70 weeks.

So we are looking at the latter days, a vision given to Daniel to provide understanding to Daniel, so that he would write down and prophesy as a servant of God for the benefit of the people, the calendar of hope that the

Jews would live with for 12 generations until the arrival of Jesus Christ.

And so we see a lot of history, a lot of history transpiring, especially in chapter 11.

But all of this history moves by at great speed, but centered on relevance to Jerusalem and Judea.

Even the geographical notations of who is in the north and who is in the south has everything to do with the fact that Jerusalem is in the middle.

And so it's world history, but it's Jewish history, and all of it is moving along toward a goal.

And the goal is the revelation of Christ and the exaltation of Christ as God's son,

God's chosen servant, king of kings. And that's the basic idea of chapters 10 through 12 here in the book of Daniel, is that Jewish history, indeed world history, is

Jesus's glory. So I'm going to read just a portion of our text, and we'll read the rest of it as we come to it in the sermon.

I'm going to begin reading in verse 20 of chapter 10, and I'll read through verse 4 of chapter 11.

I invite you to stand with me as I read God's word. This is the word of the Lord. Then he said,

Do you know why I have come to you? And now

I must return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed the prince of Greece will come.

But I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. No one upholds me against these except Michael your prince.

Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I, even I, stood up to confirm and strengthen him. And now

I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all.

By his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece.

Then a mighty king shall arise. He shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will.

And when he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not among his posterity, nor according to his dominion with which he ruled.

For his kingdom shall be uprooted, even for others besides these.

This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God. You may be seated. When we read through chapters like this, in which

God gives detailed prophecies to his people, of all the events about to unfold, and even to unfold throughout generations.

And then we see that they all come to pass. We recognize that God is doing more than simply predicting what will come to pass.

But he is sovereignly governing all of that history, bringing it to pass according to his design.

That he is shepherding history into the fold of his glory.

And that fold is Christ -shaped. And when we see the sovereignty of God displayed by the prophecies of the past, now fulfilled, are we not given assurance of God's goodness in our tumultuous now?

Isn't the God who governed history in the past still governing history today?

Did he not bring it all for good in the past? Will he not bring it all for good today?

It increases our confidence in the Lord, gives us great cause to praise him.

Chapter 10, the first 19 verses, focuses on this encounter that Daniel has with Christ.

And then, as our Lord gives to Daniel the truth of how everything unfolds, we see in chapter 11, basically enmity.

There is a great deal of opposition and animosity between various groups.

There are whole mountain ranges of enmity going on in chapter 11. As nations war against nations, and even civil war breaks out within nations, and cultural opponents go to war with one another.

We have Persia at war with Greece, and Greece overcoming Persia. And then

Greece falls apart into four opposing factions, which then resolves into two in the north and the south, go to war with one another over generations in a civil war of Greece.

We even have the Jews opposing the Greeks, and then the

Jews opposing themselves with rival factions. Laced throughout it all, what do we see but man railing against God, man in opposition to God, as man often tries to destroy the people of God.

We also find the subtext through it all is that the enemy, our enemy,

Satan at war with Christ, as the serpent still wars against the seed of the woman.

Throughout chapter 11, the theme is enmity. These groups fighting one another, this one against that one.

Enmity all throughout, but yet the promises of God remain, despite the tumult of history.

So in chapter 10 verses 20 through chapter 11 verse 4, the passage that we read, under this heading of enmity, we see first of all that Christ gives to Daniel the truth of heaven.

So that Daniel is not left simply reading the newspaper or watching the news, and seeing bad things happen after more bad things happening, and seeing chaos everywhere, and think to himself, who boy.

But he knows that this is all of the Lord, that God is in charge, and so when he sees all this happen, he can say, amen.

The Lord has planned this, the Lord has ordained this, and he is organizing this for good.

So when we look at these verses, chapter 10 verse 20 through 11 verse 4, twice we are told that what

Christ offers to Daniel is truth. Here is the truth. Not the speculations, not the guesses, not the spin, not the interpretation, but here is the truth.

And he says in verse 21, but I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth. And he says in verse 2, and now

I will tell you the truth. And what is the truth? The truth is,

Christ says, I oppose the Prince of Persia, and after I am through with him, then comes the

Prince of Greece. Well, when you read the history books, they are going to give all sorts of reasons why that great

Xerxes failed in his bid to destroy the Grecian Empire. Although he mustered all of the kingdoms of the

Persian Empire to go to war with Greece. Various analyses will be offered about the failure of military tactics, or the accidents of history where storms or geography played their role in the undoing of the

Persian campaign against the Greeks. And how things were arranged for Alexander the

Great to do great and mighty deeds in warfare, and how everything felt just right for him to spread his kingdom and his dominion so quickly across the ancient world.

And various reasons are going to be given to us, depending on what textbooks we read or what documentaries we watch.

But Christ told Daniel a long time ago, here is the truth. Here is the truth.

I took care of the Prince of Persia, so that the Prince of Greece can come. And of course, the idea is what?

When he is done with him, then the next one is up. So who is the Lord of History?

What is the real reason behind the way things fall in the sequence that we often read about?

The Jews enjoyed a great deal of prosperity and peace under the Persian Empire, except for the war that was waged against them by the intrigues of Haman.

And then we have the blitzkrieg from Alexander the Great, as the Grecian Empire went across the entire known world and basically destroyed the

Persian Empire. But then we read in the text that when this great king, this mighty king,

Alexander the Great, just as he reached his peak, and he conquered all the known world, and he traveled back from the east to Babylon, and sat down to enjoy the fruits of his labor, and drank himself to death, that his kingdom was then spread to four others.

In chapter 7, we hear about a beast, a leopard, who was very swift, with four wings and four heads.

And so his kingdom, Alexander the Great, was split up in four ways. The same thing we read about in chapter 8, as the goat with the horn, whose hooves were never touching the ground, he was so fast.

And he busted apart the Medo -Persian ram, that when he was broken off, four horns came out of that same goat.

So what happened in history? It was exactly as was prophesied in Daniel, that Antigonus and Cassander and Ptolemy and Seleucus, the four generals of Alexander the

Great, split the kingdom up in four ways. And there was even more instability, and this resolved into the

Syrian kingdom of the north, the Seleucids, in perpetual war against the Egyptian kingdom, the

Ptolemies of the south. And Greece was forever split in two, and often waging war with one another down throughout the history.

Exactly as the prophecies of Daniel state. So what do we see?

We see the truth of the matter. God was sovereign over this history.

Why did one king rise and then fall, and another one rise and fall? And why was there a splitting up of the kingdom of Greece, and its power diminished?

Why did all these things happen? Because the Lord sovereignly governed all of it.

And Jesus tells Daniel, and through Daniel, tells the people of God, for generations, what was about to happen, so that they would know the truth of it.

So that they would know the truth of it. This isn't chaos. This is

God's sovereign providence. This isn't hopeless and meaningless and heading into disaster.

This is being governed for a good yet to come.

Namely, the arrival of Messiah. In such chaos, how valuable it is to be given the truth.

How valuable is truth today? How worthless are all the speculations?

How worthless is all the political spin? How worthless is all the projections of what is right around the corner?

And everyone reaching for this standard and that standard to analyze what goes on today and give us the answer.

Where is truth to be found today? And how valuable it is.

How costly it is. How worthy to be pursued and to be gained, to be possessed today.

And where are we going to find it? We're not going to find it on Fox News. We're not going to find it on any of the media channels.

We're not going to find it on the blogs on the internet and the vlogs on the internet. We're not going to find it around the water cooler and the rumors and the speculations.

We're not going to find truth there. What we find there is all fool's gold.

It's not worth anything. Instead, we know where to go look for truth.

Are we not told in Proverbs 3, verse 13,

Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and are gained than fine gold.

She is more precious than rubies, and all the things you may desire cannot be compared with her.

Length of days is in her right hand, and her left hand riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her. And what is the basis of our wisdom and this understanding?

It is the fear of the Lord. Isn't that what happened in chapter 10 of Daniel? The Lord shows up and Daniel crumbles.

He realizes how mighty, how holy, how powerful the Lord is, and how weak and unable and limited

Daniel is. The fear of the Lord, you see, is established in detail in chapter 10, and then we hear this.

Here's the truth. Here's the truth. And to hold on to the truth, to move forward throughout the whole of chapter 11, and to see kingdoms rise and fall over and over again, what is necessary is the fear of the

Lord. What is necessary is to think of Him first, and to think of Him most, so that we realize that He is sovereignly governing over all of this apparent chaos in which we live.

That is precious, valuable, worthwhile information.

That is truth. And we must recognize that this truth is not neutral.

To say that Jesus Christ is sovereignly involved in the rise and the fall of nations, that the nations have been given to Him as an inheritance, that He reigns from Mount Zion with a rod of iron, and He regularly busts them up when they rage against Him, to say that is not to be neutral.

That is not neutral information. Those who fear the Lord rejoice in that truth. Those who rage against the

Lord plot in vain against Him. That is not neutral truth.

That is not inert. This is more like a fire. This kind of truth is fire which consumes lies with its heat, and dispels darkness with its light, and, as a lamp for our feet, gives us direction of where we're going.

So this is not neutral to say, here's the truth, Jesus Christ is in charge, and things rise and fall according to His design, as the seed of the woman crushes the head of the serpent.

This enmity that we see throughout chapter 11 had long been foretold from Genesis 3 .15.

Here it is on display in the history of nations. But it's all to Christ's glory.

Now, secondly, let's look at some of the tumult of history in verses 5 through 20.

Now, as we read through this section, you're going to hear about the King of the North and the King of the South. And you'll hear about a ruler and a prince, and this one and that one.

And you'll notice that no specific names are given. I mean, we're not told about Alexander the

Great in name. We're not told about Seleucus or Ptolemy by name.

A little bit later on, we're not even told by name Antiochus Epiphanes, and all these famous names from that time of history.

We're just said King of the North against the King of the South. And while chapter 11 transpires over several generations and hundreds of years of history, it's important to realize, as you read, it's not the same

King of the North every time. And it's not the same King of the South every time. But that these two powers are at war with one another, and whoever happens to be king at that point in time is at war with whoever happens to be king at that point in time in the

South. Which is why we have a little handout today on the back of your outline.

It'll give you some insight into where this prophecy that Christ gives to Daniel accorded exactly with the way that history played out.

So you can go look it up for yourself, and read the history books, and see all the interesting things that happen. And hopefully some of the things that I mentioned today will whet your appetite for reading a little bit of history in the ancient

Near East. But we have kings of the North and kings of the

South in conflict with one another, verses 5 through 20, giving us a span of about 150 years as these kingdoms, these kings, are against one another time and time again.

I will emphasize yet again that what is listed here is not the only intrigues, not the only political conflicts going on in the world at that time.

Many other historical events were happening, but they were not relevant to the prophecy, because the prophecy was centered upon the

Holy Covenant. The Covenant topography, the Holy Mountain. The Covenant geography, the Holy City.

The Covenant architecture, the Temple. And what went on between the

Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom, the Seleucids and the Ptolemies, the Syrians and the Egyptians, back and forth they waged their war across the

Promised Land, often bringing into threat Jerusalem and Mount Zion and the

Temple. And that's why this history is relevant, because God wants His people paying attention to the shadows of Christ, treasuring

His revelations of Christ until Christ would finally come. That's the kind of history we're looking at.

So, beginning in verse 5. Also, the king of the south shall become strong, as well as one of his princes, and he shall gain power over him and have dominion.

His dominion shall be a great dominion. And at the end of some years they shall join forces, for the daughter of the king of the south shall go to the king of the north to make an agreement.

This was a princess by the name of Berenice. And she was later known as Berenice Syra, because she went north and married a

Syrian. But she shall not retain the power of her authority, and neither he nor his authority shall stand.

But she shall be given up with those who brought her, and with him who begot her, and with him who strengthened her in those times.

What happened was the king of the north divorced his wife, so he could marry this one to bring about a peace treaty between the

Seleucids and the Ptolemies, the north and the south. And that didn't work out very well, and he put her away and brought back his other wife.

But in the process a whole lot of people got poisoned and died, and it was basically a disaster. So, soap opera of the ancient days.

And then her brother took over, verse 7, in the south, from a branch of her roots, so her roots being her parents, a branch, meaning her brother, one shall arise in his place who shall come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the north, and deal with them and prevail.

And he shall also carry their gods captive to Egypt. That's hilarious. How do you pick up someone's gods and walk around with them anyway?

With their princes and their precious articles of silver and gold, and he shall continue more years than the king of the north.

So we see, at one point we see the northern kingdom prevailing, now the southern kingdom, and it's going to go back and forth, back and forth.

Verse 9, also the king of the north shall come to the kingdom of the king of the south, but shall return to his own land.

However, his son shall stir up strife and assemble a multitude of great forces, and one shall certainly come and overwhelm and pass through.

Then he shall return to his fortress and stir up strife. So you look on the timeline, you can see as you move from, in the historian's language, from the first Syrian war to the second to the third, and so on.

Now verses 11 through 13, I find interesting. And the king of the south shall be moved with rage, and go out and fight with him with the king of the north, who shall muster a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given into the hand of his enemy.

When he has taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up, and he will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not prevail. For the king of the north shall return and muster a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come at the end of some years with a great army and much equipment.

Amongst the equipment were elephants. So the Seleucid kingdom was very broad, and stretched across the old boundaries of the

Persian empire, out to the east towards India. And engaging in war with some of the troops in India, he ended up making a treaty with them, amongst which he acquired many

Asian war elephants, which he brought and met the Ptolemaic armies on the

Gaza Strip in a battle, where the Ptolemies had African war elephants, versus the

Seleucids with Asian war elephants. The only time those two creatures were ever in a battle together, and the

African elements got spooked and ran. And, well, that's what happened. So it's really interesting history.

Verse 14, Now in those times many shall rise up against the king of the south, also violent men of your people.

Now, look, we see what Christ is saying to Daniel. The king of the south is controlling

Judea. He's controlling Jerusalem at this time. And violent men of your people,

Daniel, some radicals, some insurgents of your people, shall exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, meaning they're going to say,

It is time. It has come to pass. It is time for our victory. But they shall fall.

It wasn't time. It wasn't their victory. They misinterpreted the visions. They misinterpreted the prophecies.

They misinterpreted the scriptures. They revolted and they failed.

Now at this point we realize that there are some among Daniel's people in the future who will be radical, meaning to the root.

They'll be always turning back to the scriptures and the prophecies, saying, Let us be faithful to the Lord and let us take back our country from the oppressors.

There will be others who will be more about synthesizing and complying and adopting the culture of the oppressors, saying,

This is the way forward. This is how we make peace. And so that's another kind of enmity which occurs in this chapter.

Verse 15. So the king of the north shall come and build a siege mound and take a fortified city, and the forces of the south shall not withstand him.

Even his choice troops shall have no strength to resist. But he who comes against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand against him.

He shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his power.

He shall also set his face to enter the strength of his whole kingdom and upright ones with him. Thus he shall do.

And he shall give him the daughter of women to destroy it, but she shall not stand with him, nor be for him.

There's another bad intermarriage. This time a daughter is sent to the south to marry a son, and that didn't work either.

But notice again, this is about what happens in the holy land, the glorious land.

What's going on? Who's ruling at what times? And verse 18. After this he shall turn his face to the coastlands and shall take many.

But a ruler shall bring the reproach against him to an end, and with the reproach removed he shall turn back on him.

And verse 18 is interesting because this isn't a king of the north or a king of the south. It's just a ruler who will bring a reproach of the coastlands to an end and turn back this king of the north.

Well, who was that? This is the famous Roman general

Scipio who comes in and turns them back. Again, more interesting history to read on your own.

Verse 19. Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and not be found.

How many times are we reading that a king goes and does this, but then ultimately he fails and he dies and he's done? It's kind of like Genesis 5, the refrain, and he died and he died and he died.

Verse 20. And there shall arise in his place one who imposes taxes on the glorious kingdom.

This was the Seleucus IV who raided the temple, Temple of Treasury, and said, the temple, the

Jews owe me money. But then he was assassinated, so that didn't work out.

Notice, but within a few days he shall be destroyed, but not in anger or in battle. So he was assassinated.

It didn't happen in the middle of a war or in the middle of a battle. So this brings us all the way up to Antiochus Epiphanes, of which we begin to read in verse 21.

But I want to make some observations. The first is that nobody gets a name in this passage.

You read in Isaiah, at least you get the name Cyrus. Long before Cyrus was born or came to power, his name was given to the

Jews to look forward to this servant of God, Cyrus. But nobody is named here, not even among the famous general

Scipio or the names of the Ptolemies or the Seleucids or even Alexander the Great.

We don't even get to read about the name Xerxes or any of that. All these great, powerful men of history, they're all just a bunch of no -names.

They claimed for themselves that they were the offspring of the gods, that the gods had mated with their mothers and so they were demigods and they had superhuman powers.

They claimed this of themselves. Not only were they not gods, they were not demigods. They were not any kind of great, significant men at all.

None of them have a name. You know what they are? They're flowers in the field.

Just flowers in the field, passing away so quickly.

Psalm 103 verse 15, As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind passes over and it is gone, and this place remembers it no more. If they had adopted the wisdom of Solomon and read

Ecclesiastes deeply enough, they would have realized the futility of their passion to seek glory for their own name through dominion and dynasty.

But who are these men but just flowers in the field? They come and they go, they're up and they're down, but isn't this of the

Lord? Isn't this according to the Lord's design? Does He not subject all these things to futility?

Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 12, Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity.

So woe to politicians. Woe to those who build empires with sin.

Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the peoples labor to feed the fire?

Isn't it the work of the Lord of hosts? Isn't it the sovereign governing of Yahweh's Sabaoth that the peoples do nothing but just feed the fire?

And that nations weary themselves in vain? Isn't it of the

Lord that He brings frustration and futility and vanity to empire after empire after empire?

And that when you listen to the analysts as they talk about the cycles of empires rise and fall, as they try to find the secret sauce to keep the empire going and analyze the indicators that bring empires down, that they time and again fail to acknowledge the sovereignty of God in frustrating those who would gather in the plains of Shinar to make for themselves a name.

That He would come down and confuse mankind and make their efforts in vain.

For what purpose will He frustrate man in these endeavors?

It says in verse 14 of Habakkuk 2, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the

Lord as the waters cover the sea. He will not allow man to fill up his dominion with the glory of man's name.

He will not allow man to exalt man. But God has ordained that His name be glorified.

God has ordained that man should be humbled and that Christ be exalted and the glory of God, the knowledge of His glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Is this not exactly what is spoken of in Colossians?

Consider how Christ is named and described. He is the image of the invisible

God. Colossians 1 .15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

That's His status at the right hand. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.

Notice, the things that are in heaven and on earth. The visible and invisible what?

Visible and invisible thrones. Visible and invisible dominions and principalities and powers.

All of these have been created by Christ and they are through Him and they are for Him.

He is before all things and in Him all things consist. You see,

Jewish history, indeed world history, is Jesus' glory.

It belongs to Him. It's for His glory and so we can praise

Him for that and thank God who is the God of history. Now this brings us to the transgression of the horn as He is described in Daniel 8.

Verses 21 through 32 we read about Antiochus' epiphanies.

And in his place shall arise a vile person. And that's how Antiochus is described, a vile person.

And he was not in direct royal lineage of the northern kingdom, the

Seleucids. But as the apparent heir of the northern kingdom was not old enough or fit enough to reign just yet,

Antiochus was chosen by intrigues to be a steward of the kingdom and he promised to be a good boy and not stir anything up.

But of course, by the slaughter of many, many people, he ensured that he was the only one left viable to reign.

Verse 21, again, In his place shall arise a vile person to whom they will not give the honor of royalty, but he shall come in peaceably and seize the kingdom by intrigue.

With the force of a flood they shall be swept away from before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant.

When Antiochus' epiphanies came south to see Jerusalem, he was appalled at the lack of progress in the city, that it wasn't

Hellenized, meaning it wasn't brought along in the culture of Greek thought,

Greek philosophy, Greek culture. It wasn't being Hellenized enough, and he saw the reason why.

The one in charge was obviously the high priest, this prince of the covenant, his name was Onias. Onias was one of those radicals, back to the root, let's hold fast to the old ways.

And so he replaced him with somebody who would play ball named Tobias. And so there was a

Oniad versus Tobiad debate going on in Jerusalem ever since then.

The radicals versus the Hellenists. So he replaces the prince of the covenant with one who will do what he says.

And notice how Antiochus' epiphanies proceeds. Verse 23, And after the league is made with him, he shall act deceitfully.

For he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. He shall enter peaceably even into the richest places of the province.

And he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers. He shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches.

And he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. He wins the people over to the

Hellenistic way of doing things by wealth, by giving people what they want.

Not surprising, politics are still the same. Verse 25, He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army.

So, being a Seleucid, being a king of the north, what do you do when you have power?

What do you do when you have wealth? Well, let's go fight the south. King of the north, I gotta go fight the south.

And he does well. He does well. And the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army. But he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him.

Yes, those who eat of the portion of his delicacy shall destroy him. His army shall be swept away, and many shall fall down slain.

So, the king of the south did not have the support he thought he did, and he failed before Antiochus Epiphanes.

Notice that both these king's hearts shall be bent on evil. Isn't it like this?

As soon as we hear about a war or a conflict, we immediately say, well, that's the villain and that's the hero. The Bible is more realistic.

Both these king's hearts are bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table, but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time.

While returning to his land with great riches, his heart shall be moved against the holy covenant, so he shall do damage and return to his own land.

He did a lot of damage to the holy covenant, trying to outlaw Judaism in the city of Jerusalem.

This is the record of Antiochus Epiphanes. Continuing on in his saga, verse 29, at the appointed time he shall return and go toward the south, but it shall not be like the former or the latter.

So this time, Antiochus, the war does not go his way. The battle does not work out for him.

Why? Verse 34, ships from Cyprus shall come against him, therefore he shall be grieved and return in rage against the holy covenant and do damage.

So he gets defeated in the south. He's mad. He's losing his temper. He comes north to discover that all of his

Hellenizing work has been set back because a lot of people got so upset with the changes he had made in Jerusalem that they had deposed his high priest, his plant, and had put

Onias back in. And that made him extremely angry, and so he killed many.

Now notice what happens. So he shall return and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant. See? He shows regard to the

Hellenists, those who forsake the holy covenant, those who want to become Greeks instead of be Jews.

Verse 31, and forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress. Chapter 8 says that he put in an abomination of desolation.

He sacrifices a pig in the temple. He causes all the daily sacrifices to cease for a time.

Then they shall take away the daily sacrifices and place there the abomination of desolation. Verse 32, those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery.

So he wants his way, and he's going to put in those who will break covenant. Now, Chapter 8 tells us that he ends up, his reign ends.

He fails. He goes off and he dies, not by human hands. In fact, he did die of some kind of disease that nobody knew what happened to him.

He just died like every other man who rages against God. And so his time did not succeed.

Now, consider how evil Antiochus Epiphanes was. He killed tens of thousands of Jews.

He opposed the worship of God. Any kind of shadow of Christ he was trying to get rid of with all haste.

Here was a man who truly hated God, and he had power and privilege and wealth, and he could basically just do whatever he wanted to do.

Now, do we know of people like that today? Do we know of villains today?

You're probably thinking of names in your head. Here's somebody who has all this power and all this wealth, all this political ability, all this military might, all this wealth, and they hate

God, and they do everything they can to destroy Christianity, and anything they can do against the people of God, they're certainly going to do.

These kinds of people have been around for a while. And the Bible has a way of talking about them.

So in Isaiah chapter 14, according to verse 4, an oracle against the king of Babylon, we read this, verse 12.

How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations.

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I also will sit on a mount of the congregation on the farthest side to the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High. The hubris, the arrogance, the pride of wicked men with power who oppose the things of God.

You just think of the names of the people today that are in your news feeds, your vlogs, your blogs, your newspapers, your radio, your rumors, whoever they are.

Just think of those names in your head. There's plenty of them. There's plenty of them. Now, they're all going to die.

And if all they do is plan against Christ and rage against Christ and do everything they can to try to suppress

Christianity and try to oppose the truth of Scripture, here's

God's word for them. We're going to back up in chapter 14 of Isaiah. And in verse 9, we hear the taunt song against the dead wicked ruler.

Hell from beneath is excited about you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth.

It is raised up from their thrones, all the kings of the nations. So, in other words, the king of Babylon, this wicked man who opposes

God and uses his power against the things of God, well, when you die, hell is going to set up a big parade for you.

And all the rulers of the earth, they're going to get up from their thrones. Where are their thrones? Oh, they're in hell.

And they're going to get up from their thrones in hell. And they're going to get up here and they're going to parade and they're going to salute you as you arrive.

And what are they going to say? Verse 10. They all shall speak and say to you, Have you also become as weak as we?

Have you become like us? Your pomp is brought down to Sheol in the sound of your stringed instruments.

The maggot is spread over you and worms cover you. That is the word of the

Lord on the powerful villains of our day and any day.

That is the biblical response. Not belaboring and worrying and fearing and considering and, oh no, this person, oh, they're too powerful, they're too rich, they're doing all these horrible things.

No. Lest they repent, they're going to split hell wide open and be covered in maggots. That's the biblical taunt song, the biblical political cartoon of what happens to those who oppose

Christ. So name the villains of your day and then read

Isaiah 14, 9 -11. Because at the end of it, we see the triumph of the holy in verses 32 -45 of chapter 11.

So verse 32, the second half begins this way. But the people who know their

God shall be strong and carry out great exploits. This would be Judas Maccabeus, Judas the

Hammer, who waged an insurgency against the forces of Greece and progressively, although not always successfully, pushed the enemy back as they turned the people of the

Jews back to the ways of Judaism, away from the abominations of Greek culture.

Verse 33, and those of the people who understand shall instruct many. So they're going to teach the people, hey, we're going to go back to the ways of God.

Yet for many days they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plundering. So Judas Maccabeus had his good days and he had his bad days.

And one of the bad days, when Jerusalem got burnt and plundered because the walls had been torn down and there was no defense,

Judas Maccabeus died in a vain battle. He went down with the ship, so to speak. But it wasn't all she wrote.

Verse 34, now when they fall, they shall be aided with a little help, especially from distraction from other countries, but many shall join with them by intrigue.

There's the Hasmonean dynasty, where there was a lot of political backstabbing intrigue, but we have the

Jews basically self -ruling for about a hundred years. And some of those of understanding shall fall to refine them, purify them, and make them white until the time of the end, because it is still for the appointed time.

Meaning, this Hasmonean dynasty that began with Judas Maccabeus, where the

Jews had self -rule for about a hundred years, that's not the end. That's not the appointed time.

That wasn't the kingdom that they were promised and waiting for. Verse 36, after their time of self -governing, after this hundred years, then, we read in verse 36, then the king shall do according to his own will.

He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the god of gods, and shall prosper until the wrath has been accomplished.

For what has been determined shall be done. So now we're looking at a new kingdom, a new power, that's going to blaspheme

God and prosper. Hang on a second, that doesn't sound right. Those who blaspheme

God shouldn't prosper, but why is this one going to prosper? Until God's wrath has been accomplished.

For what has been determined shall be done. Well, what is that? Well, we're already told that at the end of Daniel chapter 9.

God's wrath will come upon his covenant breakers, and he's going to use, apparently, this power, this new king and kingdom, to bring that to pass.

Then notice, he shall regard neither the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, for he shall exalt himself above them all.

Now, we're looking at Rome at this point, and I defer from J.

Rogers, who we have this outline from, in verses 36 -40. I think this is also about Julius Caesar.

When we think about the Roman rulers, it's important to remember that Julius Caesar was the first one who was called a god, that the imperial cult began with him.

And there was a Roman aphorism about the ways in which the Romans worshipped idols and did their religion.

And it goes like this. See if this makes any sense to you. All of the gods were equally true to the people in Rome.

All the gods equally true to the people. All the gods equally false to the philosophers.

And all the gods equally useful to the magistrate. Sound familiar?

Okay. Well, that's what's going on in Rome. But they did worship because they're made in God's image. And what does he worship?

Verse 38. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses, military strength, military might, worshipping and glorying in, we have a big military.

And a god which his fathers did not know, he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.

Military might and wealth. Hmm. Military might and wealth.

The gods worshipped by this fourth kingdom. You know, aren't we not susceptible in our own

American culture to these very gods? Do we not glory in our military might?

Do we not glory in our wealth? But these are not gods and these are not saviors. Verse 39.

Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge and advance its glory, and he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain.

He divided the land for gain. So Rome took over Judea, Jerusalem, divided it into two sections, put a governor over each in order to tax them.

So that's what happened. For the very first time, the Jews had to pay taxes to a foreign nation after 100 years of self -rule.

Now verse 40 envisions the time of the end of this king, Julius Caesar.

Now let's see what happens. Verse 40. At the time of the end, the king of the south shall attack him, who was a

Ptolemaic descendant who was married to a woman named Cleopatra. And they revolted against Julius Caesar.

And the king of the north, who was Julius' one -time ally Pompey, shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships.

And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown.

But these shall escape from his hand, Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon. He shall stretch out his hand toward the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

So Pompey ran down to Egypt, and they amalgamated their forces, but they still got beat by Julius Caesar. Verse 43.

He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. Also the

Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east and the north shall trouble him.

Therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain.

So he was encamped in the holy land time and again, moving back and forth in his campaigns.

And how did Julius Caesar die? Pretty famously, right? Yet he shall come to his end, and no one will help him.

Not even Brutus. Right? He came to his end, and he died. So what do we see?

Kingdom dries and falls. Kings come and go. But God's purposes and promises remain intact concerning Christ.

And we look at Julius Caesar, who was declared to be a god, and who was worshipped, and sacrifices were offered up to his name.

But look, he came to his end, and no one will help him. How different is the declaration concerning Christ in Hebrews chapter 2 to that of Julius Caesar?

For it was fitting for him, it was fitting for Christ, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

For both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,

I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly. I will sing praise to you. And again,

I will put my trust in him. And again, him I and the children whom God has given to me.

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Fear of death, fear of death, but now freed in Christ. Now look at verse 16. For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid, he does give help to the seed of Abraham.

Jesus Christ did not remain dead in the grave like Julius Caesar, who had come to his end with no one to help.

Jesus Christ died upon the cross for our sins and was laid in the tomb. And God gave aid to the seed of Abraham and raised him up from the dead so that we have a great high priest who ministers at the right hand of God.

And that is, of course, the focus of this chapter 11, the ultimate fulfillment of Christ's coming.

It is showing us who is the true Lord, who is the true Savior of history.

I conclude with this thought, with this question. When it comes to the tumult, the ups and downs, the backs and forths of our day, what are the details that fill our head?

What are the details that fill our heads? What fuels our hearts, how we feel about these things?

What is true of Daniel 11 is true of 2022, that Jesus Christ is sovereign over history.

Let's give him praise. Father, I thank you for the time you've given to us today. I thank you for helping us look through this chapter full of the details of a history relevant to you keeping your promises for your people.

And I pray that you would encourage us as we live in our days to trust in you and your authority.

In Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Would you stand with me for our song of benediction?

Jesus Christ rose again the third day by the power of God, just as he said. He's now

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's sing together, King of the Ages. King of the

Ages, almighty God, perfect love, ever just and true.

Who will not fear you and bring you praise, all the nations will come to you.

Your ways of love have won my heart and brought me joy unending.

Your saving power at work in me, bringing peace and the hope of glory.

King of the Ages, almighty God, perfect love, ever just and true.

Who will not fear you and bring you praise, all the nations will come to you.

Your arms are reaching out to every soul that seeks you.

Your light will shine in all the earth, bringing grace and a great salvation.

King of the Ages, almighty God, perfect love, ever just and true.

Who will not fear you and bring you praise, all the nations will come to you.

The day will come when you appear and every eye shall see you.

Then we shall rise with hearts ablaze with a song we will sing forever.

King of the Ages, almighty God, perfect love, ever just and true.

Who will not fear you and bring you praise, all the nations will come to you.

All the nations will come to you.

May the love of the Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.

We are dismissed. Amen.