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Well, good morning. Happy Easter, everyone. Will you, Bert, open us up with a word of prayer? Our Father, we do thank you for another day. We realize as we gather every Sunday that it is because of the resurrection, but today we're able to celebrate what you really did, that you broke the pangs of death, and you made the way to heaven for us.
We thank you so much for that. Bless Mike now, bless his study, in Jesus' name, amen. Alright, let's go to Daniel, chapter 7. And we finished up, or we stopped at the end of verse 8, but I'm going to read back up, and we're going to read the chapter up to end of 12, and we'll see how far we get.
And in the first year of Belshazzar the king of Babylon, Daniel saw a vision and dreams in his mind as he lay on his bed. And then he wrote the dream down, and he relayed the following summary of it. And Daniel said, I was looking at my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great wind, and the four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another.
The first was like a lion, and had the wings of an eagle, and I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground, and made to stand on two feet like a man. And a human mind was also given to it, and behold, another beast, a second one, it was resembling a bear.
And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and thus they said to it, Arise, devour much meat. After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird and a beast.
The beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. And after this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, the fourth beast, dreadful, terrifying, extremely strong, and it had large iron teeth, and it devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet, and it was different from all the other beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
And while I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little horn, came up from among them. And three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it, and behold, the horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth uttering great boasts.
And then I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. This vesture was like that of white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, and its wheels were burning fire, and a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him.
And thousands upon thousands were attending him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before him, and the court was set, and the books were opened. Then I kept looking, because the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking, and I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed.
It was given to the fire, and as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed time.". We'll stop right there. We probably won't get that far.
Once again, what were the kingdoms so far? World powers. Anyone? All right. What were the beasts that were represented? Because he doesn't actually say, remember, he doesn't say Babylon, he doesn't say Persian, he doesn't say Greek, he doesn't say Rome.
He's just giving consecutive world powers that are going to arise. What was Babylon? Mike Smith said Griffin. That's what I thought every time I read that passage this week. What was Persia? What was weird about the bear?
Yeah, like it had palsy or something on one side, right? That's interesting, because when we get to Chapter 8, there's going to be a ram, and it's going to have two horns. You know what's up with one horn?
One horn is bigger than the other. And he's actually speaking about the Persian Empire. What was the Greeks? What was cool about the leopard? What's the name of that, Mike? What's a leopard with four wings?
You got some special name for it? That's the original Hellcat right there.
This cat was supercharged.
He had four heads and four wings. What did the four wings represent? If this one had two wings and could fly, and it was considered very what? Swift. What did four wings do? He's supercharged. And what were the four heads?
It represented the four generals that would come after Alexander the Great, but we don't know that yet in the narrative.
And what was Rome?
It was a hybrid.
And what did it do? It crushed and trampled down everything in its path. Now, we know from history that as this takes place, it does integrate some of these powers into itself, some of its ideas. What we do know from Rome, just from a literature and mythological, theological, they did take in a lot of the Greek mythology and Greek gods and incorporated it into their culture.
Now, we have, as we were reading through this, we have not really spent much time on the fourth kingdom. I mean, the fifth kingdom. And this was Messiah.
What was it? I didn't hear you.
It was a stone.
It was a stone originally. It was a stone originally just like these were all originally.
This one was gold.
This one was silver.
This one was bronze.
And this one was iron. And the actual substance that it was, the Messiah's kingdom, was a stone. But as we get into what creature is represented in Messiah's kingdom, we're going to see something that arises, the Son of Man.
We're going to spend some time on what the Son of Man is in the Ancient of Days. So when we finished last week in verse 8, we saw that this little horn popped up out of those ten horns. And what did that one horn do?
Do you remember?
Pulled three of them out, and this one raises itself up, begins to speak pompous words against God, raises himself up to persecute the people of God. And do you remember where we left from there and showed a direct correlation between this horn and Revelation 13?
Same thing. The same thing. So now we have two things that have showed up on the scene. I keep smashing it down. Now I know why you were upset with me. We have a little horn pops up here, and this is going to set our trajectory.
Okay?
Or I prefer this word, motif, structure, because this is going to go on for ages to come. So before we get into the horn, because he gets a better description of it as we go into the rest of the chapter, let's look at verse 9.
He said, hey, you notice we read just through those 12 verses how many times Daniel kept saying, I kept looking, and I kept looking, and I kept looking, I kept looking, I kept looking. He is absolutely intrigued about what he's seeing.
He's got to know, what am I seeing? Because remember, he's not interpreting someone else's dream. This revelation that he is getting is coming directly from God, and it came as a dream and a vision. The difference between a dream and a vision, we all agreed on, one you sleep in, one you not.
He says in verse 9, I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. So this is a vision that he is seeing. He's seeing thrones. What do thrones represent?
Power.
Okay, power.
Go ahead. What else?
Kingdom.
What's that?
It could represent a kingdom. Certainly power.
And what else?
Ruler.
I'm sorry? Ruler. And I was going to say authority, but you're right. Yeah, ruler.
What else?
There's going to be a king to sit on it. That's right. If there's a throne, then thrones aren't vacated. There's always someone sitting on it. He says, I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.
How many people have been in a courtroom? What happens? Don't even say it. Don't even say it. I could have lived in them things. Before the judge walks in, what happens? Actually, we don't do it on our own.
Somebody says, hey, man, check it out. Stand up. The honorable, whatever the guy's name is or chick's name, whatever the dude or woman's name is on the front, he's here, stand up. Everybody's quiet. Everybody's quiet.
Nobody's texting. No kids are screaming. Nobody's chitter-chattering. Nobody's wearing shorts. Everybody stands in attention. This man or woman, whoever this person is, comes in in what kind of robe?
Black.
Black robe. There's a reason why they wear black robes in our judicial system. Comes in in a black robe. He sits down. Nobody sits down until the judge sits down.
Here it is.
The Ancient of Days has come in. When it says Ancient of Days, this is a representative of a man who was old.
Sorry, Jack. Jack's Ancient of Days, but not like this. Ancient of Days does not mean as he has gotten older he has gotten weak.
The problem with us getting older is what happens? We grow weak. We grow feeble. Our minds do not operate the way that they used to when we were much younger. That's not this ancient. This ancient is the Ancient of Days.
And when we think about someone who's ancient, and it talks about here in a minute, it says his vesture was that, like white snow, not black like our judge.
This Ancient of Days has hair like pure wool. Why would his hair be like pure wool? What's that? That's exactly how Scripture shows a hoary head. Those who have gray hair is not a representation of old and decrepit and losing hair because it's just getting old and changing colors.
It has to do with wisdom. This Ancient of Days had full of wool, and it's white, and pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, and its wheels were burning fire. Interesting that when we look at this picture of none other than God himself, as he is sitting on his throne in his white clothing, his white clothing representing his purity, his white clothing representing his pure righteousness and ability to dispense pure justice, he now has a throne that's ablaze with flames.
Why would it be ablaze with flames? Just out of curiosity, anybody have any ideas?
Justice.
We burned sacrifices.
Okay, I would say that, too. Yeah, the ability to consume its adversary.
Purity? Yes.
Yep.
Purified.
Pure.
And then it says its wheels were a burning fire. How many chariots have y 'all seen? I mean chariots. How many thrones have y 'all seen that had wheels? This would have been somewhat striking to Daniel.
I was going to get to that. Yeah, we will.
Hang on.
Yeah, we'll get to there.
Because, actually, Daniel comes before Ezekiel. I know it doesn't in your Bible, but Daniel's prophetic stuff comes before Ezekiel.
Ezekiel doesn't go into exile until 597. So, Daniel would have gone before. But, chronologically, Ezekiel's prophetic ministry comes after. They are contemporary at times, yes. So, what would have been, they knew the Jewish people, where did they think God reigned from?
Jerusalem.
Okay, we'll use that. Yeah, because it's hard to separate the people, the city, and the temple. Okay, so we'll say, where did God rule from? Where did God dwell at? It was in the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem.
And now he's saying, wait a minute, that was a stationary place where they could go and gather and be where God was. Now he's saying, wait a minute, this throne has wheels. What do wheels represent? It can be anywhere.
And God's saying to Daniel at this point, that this ancient of days, he rules everywhere. You might be in Babylon right now. You might be in Persia. You might at some point, people be carried off into some other type of slavery, but God is still on his throne and he doesn't need to rule from a temple in Jerusalem.
Because at this point, was there a temple in Jerusalem? No, it had been burned to the ground. There was nothing there. And he says, the wheels were burning fire. And then it says again, that a river of fire was flowing out of it.
This continual show of flames and fire as a sign of purity. What did fire do? What did it do to metals? What's that? It purified it.
What did it do? What did it do?
It also hardened it, true. But also, when a sacrifice was given, that flame was to consume it, doing away with the sin by purifying the sin when it was laid on the brazen altar or a burnt offering. And he says, a river of fire was coming out of it and coming out from before him.
And it says, and thousands upon thousands were attending him. Well, who would these thousands upon thousands be? Exactly what I would say it was. Angelic beings. And we even see in the time of Job, when it says that the sons of God, now we understand that would have been the angels coming to him.
It says that myriads upon myriads would come and minister to God. When it talks about ministering to God, it wasn't because God needed something. What were they coming to do? Give God His rightful due.
And you do understand that myriads upon myriads upon myriads of angels bowing down and worshiping the God of all creation is still not enough. They still cannot give God the glory that He has deserved.
Go ahead.
I was going to say that they did that with Jesus. Would you agree that when Jesus confronted the devil three times, and then by Himself, Jesus was left by Himself, that the angels came and ministered to Him?
Let's don't conflate two different ideas. This is a vision that we're looking at them coming to worship. Did angels come and minister to Jesus after the three times of Satan tempting Him? Oh, certainly.
One, He was hungry. Yeah, hungry. Also, we often forget, too, and what you're saying is Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, after He prayed, can this cup please pass for me? Do you remember what it says, what came to Him to minister to Him before He was hauled off by the betrayer?
It says the angels came and ministered to Him.
Yeah.
That was in Jesus' humanity, He had given back His prerogatives of deity. You understand? I'm not saying Jesus was not deity. His prerogatives of deity, that was part of His humiliation from the time that He was inseminated in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit.
His humility and His humiliation began there. This is the God of all creation. The second person of the Trinity has now taken on the weakness of human flesh. And did He get weak? Did He?
How many times did we see Jesus got hungry?
Tired.
So sleepy that when the boat was thrashing about, they said Jesus was down there sleeping on a pillow, and they were like, hey, don't you know we're about to die? And Jesus was like, I was trying to get some rest.
I've been healing everybody, man. I need some rest. And He gets up and He quiets the sea. Yeah, so Jesus, in His humanity, taking on the frailness of it, needed to be ministered to.
Yes.
Different thing. This is a vision of those thousands upon thousands attending Him, myriad upon myriad, and they were standing before Him to worship Him.
And here it is.
And then the court sat.
God says,.
Alright, everybody can sit down. And they sit. And He says, and the books were opened.
Now,.
You might disagree with me on this part. I believe that this specific thing we're seeing here is the final judgment.
You're going to say,.
Well, how can that be?
Well,.
Anywhere you see where God opens books, what's He fixing to do? He's fixing to judge. Where do we see books opened?
Revelation.
Where do we see books opened and people being judged?
So the books are going to be opened. And they're going to be judged. So, here it is. We've got the Ancient of Days, who is none other than God Himself. We have Him showing His vesture being pure white.
You have His head being pure wool, meaning white, showing His purity, His wisdom. We see that His throne has no bounds. God, look, God is ruling and reigning from Heaven right at this time that Daniel is in Babylon.
He is ruling and reigning from Heaven. Is God ruling and reigning from Heaven today? Yes, He is. We might not understand all that He's doing. And I'll even say this, do you think at this point, do you think Daniel understood what God was doing?
No.
Why do you think he kept saying, I kept looking, I kept looking, I kept looking, and he's going to get to the point where he says, Hey, I don't understand all that I'm seeing. Would you please give me, he uses these specific words, can you please give me the exact meaning of this?
And then God gives him the exact meaning. And when we get to Revelation, we are going to plead that we have those opportunities to get the exact meaning, because we don't get those in the book of Revelation.
We have to then use other apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel, when they make those connections in that book, to go, oh, this is what he was saying. This is what he was pointing to at a later date.
So, he says, he opened the books, and here it is, so we've had, here's these beast-like people,.
Okay,.
I mean, these beast-like kingdoms come up here, and then all of a sudden, the scenery changes, the setting goes from seeing these beasts, one consuming the other, one eating another, and now we're in the courts of heaven, seeing God on his throne, ruling and reigning, doing whatever he wants, being worshipped by myriads upon myriads,.
And then it says, the books were opened,.
And here it is,.
He makes a shift again. And then I kept looking, because the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking, and I kept looking, and the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed, and given to the burning fire.
As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time. Okay, he's looking, he's seen God in heaven, he's seen him on his throne, he's seen all these wonderful and awesome things, and then immediately his mind goes back, and he's looking again, and he sees the boastful horn.
What did that horn do? What does it say it did back in verse 8? What was the horn doing? Pompous words. Pompous words. And it's raising its... And we know from what it's going to say, when he gets the exact meaning of it, it's raising its voice up against God and the people of God.
If any man in here that's married, if someone speaks against your wife, is that man going to be your friend for long? If any man puts his hands on your wife, things are vastly going to change, aren't they?
One thing to say something, it's another thing to put your hands on it.
Okay.
You mess with God's people, you're messing with God himself. You mess with the covenant people of God, you're messing with God himself. Anybody remember Paul, or Saul, on the road to Damascus to go, he had papers from the Sanhedrin, and he was going to haul people off to enslave them or have them executed, which I believe he had many.
We know that he was there when Stephen was stoned. He said he was the one holding the coats of those as they pelted him in the head with bricks. All right. And as he was on his way to Damascus, in the book of Acts, remember what happened?
He was... Why are you persecuting me?
Yes, he was blind and knocked off his horse. And I don't know if y 'all remember this small part in there. You know, the only person that heard that voice was Paul. Everybody heard the thundering, and they were scared, and they were knocked down too, but he was the only one who says, Paul, Paul, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
Was he actually persecuting Christ? Yes and no. Yeah, I agree. You persecute God's bride? What are you doing?
Persecuting.
Persecuting, yeah. I'd sure like to have some guy say, hey, man, Mike, I really am your closest friend, but, man, I sure don't like Sybil. I'd be like, out of my sight!
Away from me!
Banished!
You can't do that. Or a package deal. Okay, it's what it is with Christ. God and His people. You can't do away with God's people and say you don't want anything to God. Now, from a New Testament standpoint, much application could be made for people that say they love God but don't love the church.
That's called a non-sequitur. That doesn't fit. How can you say, I love God and I love Jesus, but I don't love the church? Okay, I can say that I don't like everybody in the church, but I love God's people.
We all don't see the same. We all don't act the same. We all don't have the same interest. But we do have some unity in this that we love the Lord Jesus and our desire is to love and serve Him all the days of the rest of our life.
And there is some continuity and community in that. And that should make us want to be with one another. You can't say you love Jesus, but you don't love His church. You're a liar. And Jesus would say that.
He told Paul, you persecute my church, you talk bad about my church, you hurt my bride, you're doing that to me. That's exactly what this little horn that's going to do. It says that that horn spoke boastful words which the horn was speaking.
And he kept looking and that beast was slain. Okay, so this hybrid beast is going to be slain at some point. We don't know at this point. We don't know. But he's saying there's going to be a horn that raises itself up, raises itself up above the other ten.
And we're going to talk about that. Could that ten horns represent ten kings?
Could.
Sometimes in the book of Daniel, kings and kingdoms are interchangeable. Not always, but sometimes. Could it be the ten providence of Rome? Yes, some try to connect that because there was actually twelve, but then they kind of combine a few of them to make ten.
Could be. Honestly, I'm not sure if that's really necessary other than saying the totality of the Roman Empire is going to be overtaken by this guy here and that's going to be the one that's going to persecute God's people.
Now, we may try to name that person at some point. But at this point in the Revelation, it's unnecessary. He says that, I will be looking until the beast was slain and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.
Now, who's going to destroy that beast? How do we know that? I agree with you, but how do we know that? That can't be the answer for everything.
That's right,.
Because what happens to the big colossus? What comes out of nowhere in the dream to Nebuchadnezzar? This little old dinky stone, cut without hands, comes and it shatters the colossus made of all these metallic objects and then after it shatters this, okay, after it shatters this, what happens?
That stone starts rolling like a snowball. It gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and it says it engulfs the earth and it has an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed.
Never be destroyed. Just as we saw the metallics of the gold and the silver and the bronze and the steel being vastly different materials than stone, so we will see, just as the fierceness of a lion, the swiftness and ferociousness of a bear, the quickness and speed and the hunting ability of a leopard and whatever this thing got at everything else, it was worse than all of these.
There's going, this is what this is going to be. It's going to be a man. It's going to be a man. In your mind, because we're fixing to go ahead and probably look at it. We've got enough time to get started.
If you were looking at these beasts, we said it, I think, briefly last week, other than two men that had been given the power of the Holy Spirit to destroy a bear and a lion, is there anybody on the globe that can manhandle with their bare hands and kill a lion?
It's not even happened in history. Only two accounts that we know of, that two men with their hands killed a lion. One was Samson and one was David. Now, Benaniah, one of the David's Valor men killed one in a snowy pit, but we understand that as he was in that pit, he speared him.
We don't understand it as he jumped down in there and wrestled him to death. David, not only did he kill a lion, he killed a bear with his own hands. So it's not common for that to take place. So if you're looking at a lion, a bear, and a leopard, and whatever that guy is, whatever this crazy beast winds up being, what's that?
A Prius. Let's forget that for a second. Can a man destroy any of those animals with his hands? Yeah.
Huh?
Yeah, I mean, that's it. But how did they do it? Power of God. Power of God. Power of God. Power of God.
Power of God.
Now, as we get to the Son of Man, we often go ahead, and I agree with you, when we hear Son of Man, what's the first thing we think of?
Jesus.
That's not how we should see this yet.
We shouldn't see this that way. The Son of Man was a self-designation title to Jesus Himself by Himself. Hey, I am the Son of Man. And we're going to see why He did that. So when this Messiah's kingdom is going to be made up of a substance that was not supposedly as strong as any of those metals, and it's going to be made up of something not nearly as fierce and ruthless, it's going to be made up of who?
Of a man. Of a man. So what it says here, it says in verse 12,. And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away.
Alright?
So here it is. This dominion was taken away. It was put out by the Persians. The Persians were put out by the Greeks. The Greeks were wiped out by the Romans. It says all of them were going to be overtaken.
Right?
It says that their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted. Does that sound like double talk? Anybody want to take a stab at maybe what he's saying?
No?
Their dominion was taken away is talking about they lost their kingdom. They're no longer in that position of authority.
That's correct.
But their days were extended. They continued to live.
The ideas that were wrapped up in these kingdoms continued on for a while, and that's true. That is exactly where I was headed. Yeah, just because the Roman Empire is completely done away with, is there any parts of Rome that are still in existence as we see today?
Yes, but Rome is not a power. Even when we get to Revelation, me and you were talking about this this morning, you have Egypt and Sodom and Babylon. You have the mystery of Babylon. Babylon has already been destroyed by the time you get to Revelation.
Sodom had already been destroyed by the time you get to Revelation. Egypt was no longer a world power by the time you get to Revelation. Really, they were existence and territory as far as their land, but they were in no way a world power, and in Revelation he says, but they were Sodom and Gomorrah, or they were Babylon.
It's because their idea continued on, whether it's polytheism, whether it's ruthlessness towards their people. Whatever it is, it continued on, and that's what he's saying. Hey, this beast is going to be done away with, but its ideas and the way that it's going to do things, its worldview will continue on, and then it says this in verse 13.
Once again, his famous saying, I kept looking in the night vision and behold, with the clouds of heaven was one like a son of man was coming, and he came up to the ancients of days and he was presented before him.
Mike, is yours capitalized in King James?
On which part?
The son of man?
The son is capitalized.
It is? Does it say a or the?
The.
The? What do you have?
Same thing.
King James? Anybody else? New King James. Anybody else? Who has the ESV? Anybody in here? That's actually how it should be presented. The biblical interpreters are helping us understand. Okay, they're reading.
They're going, okay, they're helping us understand where it's capitalized that this is speaking of Jesus, and I agree with that. That is who it's speaking about, but that's not what Daniel knew.
The son of man is a title. It's a son of man. And it's pointing to this is going to be a different kingdom than the rest. This is going to be a man that's not going to be fierce and ruthless, and he's not going to go in and wipe kingdoms out with swords and weapons and chariots.
That's not what he's doing. He's coming in and he's going to have a different kingdom, a kingdom that's not like this world. Do you remember when Jesus stood before Pilate? And actually, it actually began in the garden when Malchus, they went to grab Jesus, and Peter took his sword and went in an attempt to whack off Malchus' head.
He missed, and he cut his ear off. Jesus reaches down, picks up dude's ear, sticks it back on. That would have been cool to see though. That would have been cool. I would have put it back on crooked. So when he looked in one of them ancient mirrors, he'd always remember my ears crooked because the man that we came to arrest and crucify, I would put it upside down and backwards.
But he puts his ear back on, and he tells Peter, put your sword away. Put your sword away. He says, do you not know if I wanted to, I could dispatch 12 ,000 legions of angels and they would come down and lay waste to all of this.
And then as he is arrested, he's taken before Pilate. And Pilate says, are you a king? And what did Jesus say? You said it right. He said, you're a pretty smart guy. He said, you're right. I am. But my kingdom's not of this world.
Because if my kingdom was of this world, my people would come and fight for me. So, we know that this other kingdom, Messiah's kingdom's coming. It's not about world power, world domination through sheer force and the sword.
That's not what he's talking about. And he says, and as I kept looking, and behold, the clouds of heaven came one like a son of man. What did the clouds represent in the Old Testament? We talked about this a few weeks ago.
Theophany. Anybody remember that word? What was a theophany? Of the presence of God.
Manifestation of the presence of God. So when we see clouds, either with the coming of the Son of Man, or we see clouds with the Ancient of Days, or we see God the cloud rider, this is a manifestation of the glory and power of God.
And it says, and behold, with the clouds of heaven comes one like the Son of a Man. Okay, so if He's like Son of a Man, what would be the characteristics of this person? Let's just be honest. What would be the characteristics of a man?
Well, they're going to be the same, but go ahead. Flesh, bone. He's flesh. He's bone. He has a real body. This is not some spiritual manifestation or aberration. This is a real man. Real flesh. Real bone.
He's going to walk on real earth. He's going to go about doing real work. He's going to be the Son of Man. And He came up to the Ancient of Days. So what are we seeing right here? We're seeing this man come before who?
God. This man's approaching God. Who approaches God who's not summoned?
Nobody.
So, now we should be making the connection which the interpreters did that. Hey, this man walks right up to the throne of the Ancient of Days with boldness. I don't know about y 'all. I don't think anybody in here is going to do that on that day.
I remember my uncle. He wound up being saved. He was in his dying months. And I was over doing some work for him because he didn't have any sons. And he said, hey, can we get the house ready so that when I die that Shirley, my aunt, didn't have to worry about anything.
I said, no problem.
Over there and we're putting stuff together. And I said, Steve, I got to tell you. You make all these preparations for the end of your life. Making sure that Shirley doesn't have to bury you. Making sure she's taken care of.
Making sure that she's got access to your pension from the FAA. All these things. I said, but you have not once prepared for eternity. And he said, I don't want to talk about it. I said, well, I don't want you to talk.
I just want you to be quiet and listen. And he said, oh, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. When I get to heaven, I got plenty of things to say to God when I get there. I said, Steve, I'm going to let you know.
You're going to stand before God on that day and you're going to melt like a piece of wax in front of a blast furnace. You are going to have nothing to say. And I said, and I don't want you to say anything else.
I just want you to shut up. And I shared the gospel with him. He didn't say a word. It was probably two weeks later. It was late. I was sitting there reading. Just when we were at our house on 16th. The phone rang and it was his phone number.
The old landline. And I was like, this is the call. He's dead. And I picked up the phone and he said, Mike. I was like, yeah, Steve. He said, I just want you to know what you told me in my kitchen that day cut me like a knife.
And he said, I repented. I was like, awesome, man.
Awesome.
Man, that guy's life was forever changed. I could not give that man enough books to read. I gave him books. He didn't work anymore. I gave him books this big. He'd call me the next week, hey, you got another book?
Got another book? Got another book? So I gave him Lorraine Bettner's Doctrine on Predestination, which is about this big. Here, read that. He didn't call me back after that about no more books. But he had a desire at that point to go share the gospel, pass out tracts.
He says, Mike, I'm just too weak. I can't go down there with you, but I wished I could. It was actually seeing a man's life converted. But he thought he was going to stand before God in his own merits and question God.
He says, when you told me that, man, it cut me like a knife. None of us can come boldly before God except through Christ. This man, this man walks straight up to the Ancient of Days and was presented to him and to, hey, look, and to this, who's the him?
Him has to point back to an antecedent. That antecedent would be the Son of Man. The Son of Man, him, was presented and was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, and we've got to go. This is Jesus Christ.
And we'll pick up right here next week and look more at the Son of Man and how we come to our conclusion that this is Christ based on the New Testament and Jesus saying that's who He is and all that. But understand this.
It's presented to Jesus a kingdom. It's presented to Him dominion and peoples and not a nation. All nations. And the men of every language, then they would do what? Serve Him.
Did you say worship?
Oh, that'd be cool if it did. I was like, oh, man, that'd be cool if it did, but to serve Him. And part of worshiping God is serving Him. Mike, will you pray us out? Hey, we'll pick back up here. We'll start back in 13.
We probably will just do 13 and 14 next week. So that's probably where all we'll go.
You'll pray for us? Yes.
Father, we thank You for the Resurrection Sunday. We praise You. We thank You that our Savior lives. And because He lives, we, as the hymnist says, we can face tomorrow. We pray, Lord, that You would bless our time of worship as we prepare to enter in.
We pray that You would strengthen Your people and that You would save the lost. And we'll praise You for it. For it's in Christ that we pray.
Amen.
