Sunday, January 16, AM

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Sunnyside Baptist Church "On the Right Side of His Story" Daniel 8:1-27

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All right.
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Good morning, everyone. Good to see smiling faces this morning. Glad that you're here to worship together with us at Sunnyside.
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We're gonna start with a few announcements this morning. First of all, just continue to be in prayer for one another.
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We're down a little bit in terms of attendance this morning. People who are out sick, those who have been sick, unfortunately, are starting to get better.
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So we're kind of in this in -between stage. So it's also really good to see Starley this morning back.
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It's good to see you today. A few announcements. Come back tonight for our evening service at 5 .30.
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I will make a note in case you hadn't heard, and we're planning to come to Truth Group tonight. I believe that's been canceled for this month.
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So just FYI on that for our young adults. We'll pick that back up in February. Coming up this
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Wednesday, our meal at 5 .45. Come for that. And then at 6 .30, prayer for the adults and tag for the kids.
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And then looking ahead to next Sunday, Sunday evening, we'll have the Wilcox here at 5 .30.
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They'll be sharing about their ministry that they've been involved with a long time. And then we'll have a brief cookie fellowship in the fellowship hall after that.
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And then related to that in your bulletin, if you haven't seen it yet, there's a link in there. It's also in the church email newsletter that goes out.
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Later that week, they'll kind of be in town. If you want to share a meal with them in your home or take them out to eat, you're more than welcome to use that signup form in that link to kind of just share some hospitality with the
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Wilcox as they are in town. And then finally, looking ahead to Sunday, January 30th, we'll have communion in the morning.
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And then at 5 .30, we'll have flock groups with our elders that evening. This week's fighter verse comes from the
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Psalms. Psalm 16 verse 11. You make known to me the path of life in your presence.
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There's fullness of joy at your right hand. Our pleasures forevermore. If you haven't picked up your 2021 contribution reports, you can get those on the back table.
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Just look for your family's name back there. Also continuing to listen to the podcast.
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I think it's been really good so far. I'd encourage you to go to the church website and there's a variety of platforms you can use to listen to that.
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Apple podcasts and Spotify and some others. But it's been really edifying. But you can always contribute questions to that.
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They are more than willing to take any kind of question that you've got that's related to the
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Bible and then unpack that from week to week. Also, even though we just finished Christmas, one of the ways that we were able to be so successful with our
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Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes is we really contributed to those throughout the year. So it's
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I know it's January, but this would be a good time maybe to get some discounted hats and gloves and smaller winter weather things that could be put in a shoebox.
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And then we'll be collecting those throughout the year so that by the time November, December comes at the end of this year, we'll have plenty of shoeboxes to send off to people then.
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All right, any other announcements before we get started for worship? Okay, we're going to have a time just of quiet reflection and prayer.
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And then briefly after that, Jerry Brown will open us in prayer. Thankful to be back home a week early.
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So I give praise to God for the blessings he gave me this past week. Would you stand with me for our call to worship?
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Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 73. We'll be reading verses 19 to 24.
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Read with me together how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one awakens.
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Oh, Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
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When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant.
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I was like a beast towards you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you.
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You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will see me to your glory.
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Our first song this morning is in our normal blue hymnals, page 25, Immortal, Invisible.
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And then also after that, we'll sing page 355. To all life
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Thou givest, in both great and small.
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In all life Thou givest, the true life of all.
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We blossom and flourish as leaves on a tree.
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And wither and perish, but not change.
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Great Father of glory, pure Father, sight of the see, kiss of the sea.
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Trusting Jesus, page 355. Simply trusting
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Him, a stormy wave is small.
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Trusting Jesus, that is all.
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Trust is all.
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Bright into this poor heart of mine.
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Trusting Jesus is all.
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Singing in my way. Trusting Him, to ask for more.
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Trusting Jesus, that is all.
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His all. The scripture reading this morning is from 1
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Kings chapter 4, beginning at verse 1 through verse 19. It deals with the names of the people who are in charge of the work in the kingdom of Solomon.
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It's full of a lot of names, names recorded in the Word of God, names sometimes hard to pronounce.
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I may pronounce them a little different than you might. That's okay. There are a number of names recorded in scriptures.
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It reminds us that He knows your name. He knows your name.
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He knows our name. Praise the Lord. 1
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Kings 4, beginning at verse 1. King Solomon was king over all
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Israel, and these were his high officials. Azariah, the son of Zadok, was the priest.
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Eloraph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, were secretaries. Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilod, was recorder.
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Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in command of the army. Zadok and Abiathar were priests.
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Azariah, the son of Nathan, was over the officers. Zabud, the son of Nathan, was priest and king's friend.
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Ahisher was in charge of the palace, and Adoniram, the son of Abda, was in charge of the forced labor.
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Solomon had 12 officers over all Israel who provided food for the king and his household.
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Each man had to make provision for one month in the year. These were their names.
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Ben -Hur in the hill country of Ephraim, Ben -Decher in Machaz, Shalbim, Beth -Shemesh, and Elan -Beth -Hanan.
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Ben -Hesed in Arabath, to him belonged Soko and all the land of Hefer.
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Ben -Abinadab in all Nafador, he had Tapheth, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife.
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Banna, the son of Ahulad in Tanak, Megiddo, and all
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Beth -Shem, that is beside Zerathan, below Jezreel, and from Beth -Shean to Abel -Mehola, as far as the other side of Jochemim.
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Ben -Geber in Ramoth -Gilead, he had the villages of Jeir, the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, and he had the region of Ar -Gab, which is in Beth -Shan, 60 great cities with walls and bronze bars.
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Ahenadab, the son of Edo in Mahanim. Ahimas in Naphtali, he had taken
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Bassamath, the daughter of Solomon, as his wife. Banna, the son of Hushea in Asher and Bealoth.
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Jehoshaphat, the son of Peruah in Issachar. Shimei, the son of Elah in Benjamin.
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Geber, the son of Uri in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the
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Amorites, and of Og, king of Bashan, and there was one governor who was over all the land.
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These people all had work in the kingdom distributed to them, and likewise today in the church,
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God has gifted his people within the church with talents and certain abilities to perform the functions, the operations, and the work within the church.
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I encourage you, discover your gift, your talent, and use it to the glory of God in the church.
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Exercise it wisely and faithfully.
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Let's pray. Father, how you've so richly blessed us with your
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Son, the Lord Jesus, our Savior and Lord, and I thank you that you've called us to yourself in this body, in this church, to serve you, and that you've gifted us with certain gifts and talents, that each of us in a special way might express our love and adoration for you, and give our efforts to further your kingdom, that the gospel might go forth, that your people might grow in the grace and knowledge of your
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Son, the Lord Jesus. And that your name might be lifted up and glorified.
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We ask these things in the precious name of our Savior. Amen. You may be seated.
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We're going to continue our song service in our little black hymnals, hymns modern and ancient. So if you would, turn to pages 124 and also page 131.
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We'll sing to you alone, and then after that, wonderful, merciful
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Savior. Is Then 131 on HMA is wonderful, merciful
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Savior. Oh, let's go to the
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Lord together in prayer. Father, I thank you for gathering us here today.
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What I just, I'm burdened for those who were not able to come, our dear brothers and sisters who are sick, who are having to stay at home, those who are staying home to care for their loved ones who are sick.
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Lord, you know that we are weak and in need of your healing, weak and need of your strength.
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Lord, what a reminder it has been these last few weeks, and even today, that it is a blessing to come together, a blessing to fellowship together, to encourage one another in the word, to sing hymns and spiritual songs and psalms to your name, to rejoice in the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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And Lord, it is true that when one part of the body suffers, everyone suffers. And Lord, we are keenly aware of those who are in difficulty today from our body, and Lord, we ask that you would strengthen them, and that you would heal, and that you would bring to our mind the ways that we may pray, and help, and serve, and to give, to be a blessing to one another.
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I ask that you would continue to kindle the love of Jesus Christ in our midst.
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We may love one another, and by this, glorify your name, demonstrating to all men that indeed we are the disciples of Jesus.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you that you know all of our needs, that you provide before you even ask.
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But we do ask that you would provide for us today the light of Christ in your word, that we would see a very clear picture of him, and that we would rejoice in his truth, and that you would have your way in us, that our lives would be the amen of your will in heaven.
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We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well pleased.
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Amen. I invite you to open your Bibles to Daniel, Daniel chapter 8.
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We're going to be reading together the first 14 verses.
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So, Daniel chapter 8, verses 1 through 14, and we'll be looking a as well this morning.
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Daniel chapter 8, verses 1 through 14. The title of the sermon is
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On the Right Side of His Story, and we're going to consider the sovereignty of God, that God is in charge, that when it comes to the way that history unfolds one event after the other, this is not happening outside of God's direct intervention and control and shepherding.
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God is not on his throne biting his nails and wondering how it's all going to come out, and hoping that things work out well from hour to hour and day to day.
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We're going to see that he is the sovereign shepherd of all of history, and that he has all of history in orbit around his son
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Jesus Christ, that in all things he may have the preeminence. Daniel is a book of riddles, riddles in which wisdom triumphs again and again.
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And what we saw in Daniel chapter 7, these fierce beasts, these world empires with ravenous hunger that destroy and consume, we saw how fragile they were.
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The empires of men, the kingdoms of mankind are fragile.
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They are much like men themselves, grass in a field, here today, gone tomorrow.
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But in contrast to the fragility of the beasts, the beast fragility that we see throughout history, in contrast to that we see that the kingdom of Christ does not decay.
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The kingdom of God does not fall down. It cannot be shaken.
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And we'll be reminded of this again this morning as we read Daniel chapter 8.
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I invite you to stand with me as I read God's holy word, the words of Jesus Christ by the
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Holy Spirit through his prophet Daniel chapter 8 verses 1 through 14. This is the word of the
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Lord. In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me
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Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision and it was, and it so happened while I was looking that I was in Shushan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam.
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And I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai. I lifted up my eyes and saw and there standing beside the river was a ram, which had two horns.
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And the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other. And the higher one came up last.
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I saw the ram pushing westward, northward, and southward so that no animal could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.
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And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground.
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And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which
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I had seen standing beside the river and ran at him with furious power.
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And I saw him confronting the ram and he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram and broke his two horns.
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There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him.
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And there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. Therefore, the male goat grew very great.
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But when he became strong, the large horn was broken. And in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven.
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And out of each one of them came a little horn, which, and out of one of them came a little horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east and toward the glorious land.
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And then grew up to the host of heaven. And it cast down some of the hosts and some of the stars to the ground and trampled them.
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And by him, the daily sacrifices were taken away. And an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices.
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And he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered.
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Then I heard a holy one speaking. And another holy one said to the certain one who was speaking, how long will the vision be concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?
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He said to me, for 2 ,300 days, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.
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This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. You may have heard the phrase, the right side of history.
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There's also the other side of the coin, the wrong side of history. These are phrases that have been fervently preached by all kinds of movements, socialists and capitalists,
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Nazis and Jews, bootleggers and revenuers, fiat financiers and Bitcoiners.
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But how can polar opposites both say, oh, we're on the right side of history, and then simultaneously claim that the other side is on the wrong side of history?
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Everybody grabs the phrase for themselves and accuses the other. The general conclusion to the confusion, the pagan conclusion to the confusion is this.
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Well, history is written by the victors. Meaning what?
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Meaning that history is a fiction. It's just all made up and whoever's story survives the survival of the fittest and so on.
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But there's no real genuine way of talking about history.
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But the truth of the matter is this. History and indeed all of time is preserved and cataloged and governed by Christ.
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And he is the victor. When we read
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Daniel 8, there are many symbols here. But the prophetic accuracy of Daniel chapter 8, given the history of the empire of the
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Medes and Persians, given the history of the empire of Greece and notable emperors within that country of Greece, that empire of Greece, such as Alexander the
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Great and Antiochus Epiphanes, we see that the detailed accuracy of Daniel 8, given 400 years before the events actually happened, show us that God is the shepherd of history.
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And what is the empire of the Medes and Persians and all of their splendor but a ram that he shepherds and moves about?
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And what is the grandeur of the empire of Greece but just a goat that God herds in the direction that he wants it to go?
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And we see that these details of history, and we're going to see it in detail even further in our next opportunity, is that the details of these empires has everything to do with the promises that God has made concerning the new covenant, the coming of the
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Messiah, the promises God made to the Old Testament saints that Jesus was going to come.
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So that all of these details are in orbit around Christ.
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The promises that God makes to his people here in Daniel chapter 8 tell them that difficult times are going to come.
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It's going to be a very bad day when certain things start happening.
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But don't fear, don't despair, don't give up.
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The enemies of God will not prevail, but they will be defeated, and God will save his people.
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So these are promises of God given to his people about difficult times ahead, but also promised salvation and deliverance.
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We need the promises of God. The promises of God are the patience of the saints.
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How do we endure through difficult times? How do we endure through the tumult of the world in which we live, the pagan decay that is all around us?
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How do we endure through the personal trials in our lives as we struggle with sickness and anxiety and broken relationships and financial poverty?
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How do we endure as the saints of God? The promises of God are the patience of the saints.
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Psalm 119 verse 116. Here's the prayer of a saint.
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Uphold me according to your word, that I may live, and do not let me be ashamed of my hope.
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The world is heaving fear and retching lies, but the saints may stand firm on solid ground with our eyes fixed upon Christ, who is the author and the finisher of our faith.
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The promises of God, all of which are yes in Christ. 2
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Corinthians chapter 1 verse 20. As many as are the promises of God, they are yes in Christ.
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The promises of God are the patience of the saints. Let's begin by considering God's revelation provided.
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God reveals his truth. He tells us who he is. He tells us who we are.
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He tells us how things are. God's revelation is provided to us. It is given to us.
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We do not have to find the ladder and climb it to get to heaven to find access to the truth of God.
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God has brought it to us. It is provided for us.
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Even as we read Daniel in his story, how the vision came to him, so the scriptures have come to us.
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So God has sent his son, Jesus Christ, who is the word. He has sent him to us.
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This is the grace of God. Now, I want us to consider the particular details, the situation of Daniel, and how
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God's revelation is granted to Daniel. Verses 1 and 2. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me,
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Daniel, after the one that appeared to me the first time. I saw in the vision, and it so happened while I was looking, that I was in Shishan, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam.
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And I saw in the vision that I was by the river Ulai. So just a couple of years after chapter 7 of Daniel, Daniel gets another vision.
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And this time he's not seeing bears and lions and leopards and monsters.
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This time he sees creatures of the domestic variety, a ram and a goat.
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Now, they have some problems with their horns, and things are strange as they are in visions.
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But what we find in verses 1 and 2 are some particular details. He's in Shishan. It's just a citadel.
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It's just one of the cities in the province of Elam. But 14 years from this point, when the empire of the
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Medes and Persians take over, it becomes a capital of the Medo -Persian empire. And when
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Daniel begins to see these outcomes where the ram begins to push westward and northward and southward, all of these events began occurring 14 years after this vision was given to Daniel, 14 years after Belshazzar was killed in Babylon's defeat.
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In other words, God is giving a vision to Daniel ahead of time. He's given a vision to Daniel ahead of time, which may be written down, which may be copied and spread throughout the people of God, the exiles that are gathered there in Babylon.
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And while tumultuous world events are occurring, they're going to be reading the script of how it's going to turn out.
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God is promising that these things are going to happen before they happen. What do you think that does to the faith of the saints?
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It strengthens them. It encourages them. It says, hey, the word of God is true. He said it was going to happen, and here it is happening.
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That strengthens the faith of the saints. Now, God does not only grant the vision to Daniel, the odd details about a ram and a goat and how they collided, but he also grants the understanding of it, the interpretation of it, so that Daniel is not left guessing, and we're not left guessing.
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And that, too, is grace. So, let's read verses 15 through 19.
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Then it happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was seeking the meaning. That would natural thing to do.
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You perceive the vision, all these odd symbols, and then you're seeking the meaning. I think that means that Daniel was praying.
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I think that means he was seeking from the Lord the meaning of it, even as he sought the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream in chapter 2.
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He's seeking the meaning from the Lord. That suddenly there stood before me one having the appearance of a man, and I heard a man's voice between the banks of the
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Ulai who called and said, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.
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So he came near to where I stood, and when he came, I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.
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Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to ground, but he touched me and stood me upright.
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And he said, look, I'm making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation.
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For at the appointed time, the end shall be. So one moment, Daniel's out in the king's business, as we see him return to at the end of the chapter.
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He's walking along the river of Ulai in the city of Shushan. He's just one more functionary in a royal bureaucracy.
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He's just a cog in the wheel. He's just doing his job.
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He's just going about doing his job. And the next moment, he's having a vision. And he looks over by the river, and he sees a weird -looking ram.
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And this ram starts invading the known world, and then it gets destroyed by a goat who's having some trouble with its horns.
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And then there's like angels talking about the temple being desecrated and then cleansed.
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And then the images all fade, and Daniel is perplexed. He says, what is going on? The God is not done.
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And so he sends the in the banks of the Ulai, who was ordered, Hebrews 1.
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The really awful stuff done by that last little horn in the vision, that's going to end.
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That's going to end. And that's what this vision is about. The latter days of this profane tyrant.
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So when you read in the text, in the chapter, the time of the end, and you read the phrase, the latter time of the indignation, and you read the phrase, the appointed time of the end, be careful that you don't allegorize the text and replace
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Daniel with yourself. Okay, the vision came to Daniel, it didn't come to you.
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Right? And it was about the upcoming world events in Daniel's time, not you.
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So take the plain reading of the text and don't allegorize it. What's going on with Daniel?
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This Daniel is not going to engage in a futuristic speculation, because he doesn't have to, he's given the interpretation.
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And we don't have to engage in futuristic speculation, because we're given the interpretation right in the text.
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And so the text itself is grounding these expressions of the time of the end, and the latter time of the indignation, and the appointed time of the end.
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All of this is being grounded in the in the third kingdom of Greece, the third out of four kingdoms that Daniel's already been talking about.
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Because later on, we're told the goat is the kingdom of Greece, and this horn is an emperor, and this horn is an emperor, and these are the things that they did.
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So we're told what the goat is, and thus we're told what the end is, the end of the indignation brought about by one of the little horns, one of the emperors of that empire.
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So this is gracious of the Lord to give the interpretation where we're not left with endless speculation about indefinite fulfillment.
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We're told what it means. Not only does God reveal the future to Daniel, so that he prophesies of what is to come, but he's also given the interpretation of it.
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And of course, Christ is the one who does that. So God's revelation to Daniel is also this, a blessing to the saints.
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I mean, Daniel may not feel very blessed at the moment. I mean, he just got the nephesh knocked out of him, and he's enduring terrifying visions.
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But God's revelation has that kind of humbling effect. How many times do the people of God, prophets, the saints,
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God comes to them by an angel or something, he sends an angel to them, or sends a word to them, or a vision to them, and they just go to pieces.
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I mean, almost instantly, they're on the ground. They've fainted. God's always having to wake them up to talk to them.
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Do not fear is one of the first things the angel always says. Do not be afraid. That's the introduction of angels to men.
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Do not be afraid. Because it's so intense, the revelation of God. When we receive
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God's word, we are encountering glory. We really cannot be left unmoved before the burning heaviness of eternal light.
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Better that we fall down before the Lord at the power of his word, than we cave before men and their preening threats.
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Psalm 119 verse 157. Many are my persecutors and my enemies, yet I do not turn from your testimonies.
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I want you to think about how fortifying this vision, once it's fully explained, how fortifying it would be to the faithful remnant of the old covenant, knowing that the tribulation of the people and the desecration of their temple was a huge event.
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It was a huge event in the mid -100s for the faithful remnant who were really looking forward to the return of Christ.
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They've gathered in anticipation of the new covenant. They know a messiah is going to come. They've got all these promises of God that they're waiting on.
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And so they were going to be faithful and worship God there in Jerusalem, there at the temple. And so they're going to be good custodians of the covenant, right?
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They're going to offer those sacrifices. They're going to follow those covenant laws. But then here comes a tyrant who desecrates the temple and stops the daily sacrifice.
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And it looks like this might be the end of the people of God's worship of God. This is tumultuous, but they've been given promises.
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They've got the script before it plays out. So they know how it's going to end and that the enemies of God are going to lose.
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The promises of God are the patience of the saints. Think of it this way.
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When the bad times start up, the saints of God who are reading God's work and say to one another, well, he said it was going to happen.
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Even the bad times, the tribulations, the trials, the difficulties, the persecutions are proof that God's word is true, that God doesn't lie.
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So even as the persecutions start up that are designed by the enemy to destabilize the faith of the saints,
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God has so engineered it that it only stabilizes. Yes, things are bad.
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Hey, God said it would be that way. So God's word is true. And look just a little bit farther down in the passage that says there will be difficult times and trials and so on.
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Look, there's promised deliverance and salvation and rescue. So you see how the promises of God are the patience of the saints.
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They knew what was going to happen so they didn't have to be afraid. I don't remember where I heard the story, but it was about a fifth grader dealing with an older, bigger bully, and every day he'd go to school and this bully would walk up to him and punch him straight in the chest, hard as he could, every day.
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And so the fifth grader, he just grew more and more despairing, didn't want to go to school anymore.
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He knew if he told his teacher or told the principal, I mean, they would get the bully in trouble, but then that guy would come back tenfold.
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It wasn't going to help anything. So one day he borrowed a small square of plywood from his dad's scrap pieces and he carefully put many, many short nails through the board, all the pointy ends facing the same direction.
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And he went to school and he went to the bathroom and he had smuggled in the board in his backpack and he put it in underneath his sweatshirt, pointy ends out right here.
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And then he went out to the hallway and looked around and sure enough there was the bully. Bully sees him, he comes marching forward to deal out the daily abuse, but the young man was not afraid because he knew what was going to happen.
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After that punctured punch and subsequent visits to the principal's office, there was no more bullying.
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He knew it was going to happen and he knew how it was going to turn out. One of the reasons that the righteous are as bold as a lion and the wicked flee when no one pursues, right?
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That proverb. One of the reasons why that is, is because the righteous are filled with the promises of God.
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We are filled with the promises of God. We know it's going to happen and these promises prove the patience of the saints in every generation.
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You say, well preacher, we're looking here at Daniel chapter 8 and these promises have all been fulfilled.
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They were given 2 ,500 years ago. They were fulfilled 2 ,100 years ago. So what does it mean for us?
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Fulfilled promises simply underscore the strength of the future ones yet to be fulfilled.
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Every single time God made a promise and it's been fulfilled, just strengthens our trust that the ones that are yet to be fulfilled will be.
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Because we see that God is true and that he governs all of history and he will not be denied. We also need to see that God's revelation that is a blessing to the saints is mediated or brought to us through Christ.
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Daniel was helped in a very particular way. Christ commands Gabriel to come to Daniel and explain how this all works.
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Gabriel's name means my God is mighty and indeed Christ is mighty as he commands
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Gabriel to approach Daniel and interpret the vision. It's by Christ that the clarity comes.
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Jesus sends the angel to explain it to Daniel so that he gets it. Daniel was not going to understand the vision and we won't understand the prophecies unless we receive them and rejoice in them in the light of Christ.
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Jesus is the one who interprets everything. He's the light of the world. My father this hunting season passed along a nice pair of binoculars to Benjamin and it was the same pair of binoculars he and I used when we went to go hunting.
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And on instinct, you know, Ben picks him up, looks through him and says, I can't see anything. It's all fuzzy, right?
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So I just reach over and grab that lever and just push it a little bit and then everything comes into focus.
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That's what Christ does for the Word of God. That's what
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Jesus did for Daniel through Gabriel. It's what he did for his apostles. That's what the New Testament does for the
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Old Testament. If there's anything fuzzy, anything strange, Christ brings it all into focus.
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One through three, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in past time to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
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Which brings us to this, God's revelation is applied through Christ. Applied through Christ.
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Again, we may find it somewhat odd to try to find meaning for today in a vision given to Daniel 2 ,500 years ago about events fulfilled 2 ,100 years ago.
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But these are the words, these are words through the spirit of Christ, by the prophet of Christ, to the people of Christ, about the shadows of Christ, all fulfilled in Christ.
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Are you in Christ? Is he your savior? Well, then you can see that we have a very relevant word.
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We have a very relevant word. As we work through the rest of the vision and look at the details, it's going to be important for us to remember this principle, and it applies elsewhere.
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There's a particularity to God's word. These events happen at a particular time to particular people, and things worked out in this particular way.
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But they are always to be read as they orbit around Christ, who is the point, who is the center, in whom
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God has arranged everything so that he has the preeminence. And then we know what it means for our lives.
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Then we know what it means for our lives. The particularity of God's word read through the preeminence of Jesus Christ brings us the practicality of godliness.
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The particularity of God's word read through the preeminence of Jesus Christ brings us the practicality of godliness.
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So scripture was not given to the saints to confuse them or to foster speculation. We see
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Daniel seeking to understand. We have that same desire. We want to understand. What does this mean?
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What does this mean? That desire needs to be resolved in a right and good way.
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Not left to the despair of pagan relativism. Oh, it means whatever you want it to mean. Not left to the tossing to and fro of every new wind of teaching.
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But we are to receive the word of God and recognize its meaning in the light of who Jesus Christ is.
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And in this way, the promises of God are the patience of the saints. So God's revelation is provided and God's providence is revealed.
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I want to begin looking at the details of the vision itself. How it progresses from the ram to the goat and the stages of the horns of the goat and so on.
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We're not going to make it all the way through today. You have to come back for the rest of the story as the
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Lord allows. I'm not going to say next week because we know how that goes. We never know what's ahead of us.
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It's the Lord allows. The Lord is gracious to us. But when we look at how
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God details this prophecy, we are reminded here that the
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Lord is God and there is no other. He is
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God and there is none like him, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done.
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His counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure. Indeed, he has spoken it.
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He will also bring it to pass. He has purposed it. He will also do it. He whistles for Cyrus and the emperor is compelled to come.
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He cracks the whip and away speeds Alexander. He clears his throat and Caesar does his bidding.
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Let's begin with the ram, which is we see in verses three through four and interpreted by verse 20,
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Persian ascendancy. Persian ascendancy. Verses three and four.
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Then I lifted up my eyes and saw and there standing beside the river was a ram, which had two horns and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other and the higher one came up last.
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I saw the ram pushing westward, northward and southward so that no animal could withstand him, nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but he did according to his will and became great.
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So at the beginning of the vision, Daniel is simply doing the king's business, walking along, looks down by the river and he sees this weird looking ram.
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And suddenly the ram takes on international size and sweep. Two horns grace the ram, but it's an asymmetrical rack.
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One curved spiral horn takes a much larger orbit than the other. And in a detail that we could only know from a vision, we learned that the bigger side came up last.
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The smaller horn was first. And also we learned that this lopsided ram lowers its head and begins pushing in three directions, west, north and south.
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Obviously the ram there at the river Ulai in the citadel of Shushan is starting off from there and he goes forth and he exercises dominion over the other animals.
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And since we learn later that the animals are symbols of empires and kingdoms, we know what's going on here.
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Conquest. The ram is a world empire. As Gabriel tells Daniel in verse 20, the ram which you saw having the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.
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The Persian side of that empire was greater than the Median side, the
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Medes, but the Persians came second in their dominance. Darius the
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Mede reigned before Cyrus the Persian. Now this empire begins in the east with its back towards massive mountains and wide rivers and so it spreads to the west and the north and the south.
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So the Persian empire started east and they head west. That's exactly what happened in history.
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Under their reign, the Jews flourished. The Jews got wealthy, powerful, had significant holdings throughout the
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Persian empire and even Haman's jealousy could not undo them. God providentially controlled that whole event even down to the landing of the dice.
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Under the Persians, many exiles returned to the land. They rebuilt the temple. They rebuilt Jerusalem and their hope for the coming
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Messiah was greatly strengthened. Next up, Alexander rising.
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Verses 5 and 7 and verse 21. So verses 5 through 7. And as I was considering, suddenly a male goat came from the west across the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground.
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And the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. Then he came to the ram that had two horns, which
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I had seen standing beside the river and ran at him with furious power. And I saw him confronting the ram.
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He was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram and broke his two horns. There was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled him.
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And there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand. So just when it looks like nothing is going to stop this
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Medo -Persian ram, here comes a male goat. It comes from the west along the paths of the earth, but it's moving so fast that its feet don't even touch the ground.
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And the whole beast is centralized on a single horn coming out from between its eyes.
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And as soon as it sees the ram, it engages full speed and crushes the ram and the horns of the ram fall off.
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It's strange. I mean, this ram, no one could have stopped this ram before. No strength could stop this ram.
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This ram was undefeatable, but suddenly it just has no more strength, has no strength to oppose this floating goat.
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And I know there's some of you out there and I think you know who you are. You've already been thinking to yourself, how can a floating goat trample anything?
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Okay. Okay. Just don't, don't overthink the vision. Okay. Just roll with the interpretation here.
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Verse 21 is the interpretation. The male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is in between its eyes is the first king.
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Now in chapter seven, we already talked about the speed of Alexander the Great and his army. We looked at the promised empire under the image of a four -winged leopard.
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In, it's interesting, in Alexander's rush westward, he did come to Jerusalem, which is the intersection of the ancient world.
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And he came to Jerusalem. He came into the region and the high priest of Jerusalem at that time, we learned from the historian
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Josephus, was Jaduah. And Jaduah and the people knew what was up. Here comes the armies of Greece and the armies of the
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Medo -Persian empire are in conflict. We're caught in the middle. What are we going to do? And so Jaduah had led the people into a time of fasting and prayer.
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And what are we going to do? Well, Alexander, when he met Jaduah, he was surprisingly courteous and explained that he had had a dream which told him to meet
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Jaduah in peace. Jaduah in turn showed him the book of Daniel and showed him in the book of Daniel where Alexander the
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Great shows up and how he would win the day against the Medo -Persian empire. Alexander the
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Great was, you know, obviously gratified by that. And he proceeded to offer a sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem because he, if he could, he always offered sacrifices at the local shrines.
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And then he moved on having peaceably annexed Judea. Well, what do we see there?
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Jaduah and the saints there in Israel are trying to survive, trying to maintain faithfulness to the
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Lord. The old covenant is still in effect, looking forward to the promises of the new covenant.
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But here's a great tumultuous time. What do they do? They turn to the promises of God.
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They turn to the promises of God, and there they find their patience. There they find their long -suffering.
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There they find their fortitude. Now, with Persia and Greece, we have seen three different symbols already.
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In chapter 2 of Daniel, Persia was a silver set of chest and arms and a big statue.
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And Greece was a bronze waist and thighs. In chapter 7,
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Persia was a lopsided bear, and Greece was a multifaceted leopard.
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Now, Persia is a ram, and Greece is a goat. So, why all the switching of the symbols?
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Why all the switching of the images? It's important to remember that God is robustly, amply helping
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His people. He is showing them through these visions and dreams, a vocabulary and a set of images to correctly understand what is going on and be able to talk about their situation in His terms.
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Not the terms of the world, not the terms of the pagans and how they would describe things. No, they had
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God's terms. They had God's images to talk about what was really going on. And since they are
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His images, they are hope -filled and instructive. One example.
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When you go from chapter 7 to chapter 8, you go from wild, monstrous, savage beasts to domestic beasts.
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Here's a ram and here's a goat. What might that tell us? Here's one thing.
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When we see ravenous predators, God sees romping prey.
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When we see dragons, God sees worms. The enemies of God may seem big and large and savage to us.
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Don't worry. He's got it under control. They're not big and savage to Him.
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He's overseeing their outcome. God has not forgotten us when things get bad.
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He is faithfully shepherding the entire course of history into His fold of glory, and that fold is in the shape of Christ.
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Now, we have only covered a portion of our chapter this time. The critical moment of the vision is yet to be revealed.
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There's a lot of information packed into the prophecies concerning one by the name of Antiochus Epiphanes, the impact on the temple.
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There are many relevant considerations and lessons that we need to learn as followers of Christ facing the rage of tyrants.
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But in all that we have seen today and all that the Lord will allow us to see next time, you need to remember this, that the promises of God are the patience of the saints.
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So, what do we need this week? We need to look for promises. We need to look for promises in God's Word.
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We should meditate upon them. We should memorize them so that we will be able to wait upon the
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Lord in all the situations that we encounter. Therefore, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning.
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If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the
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Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us, eternal life. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for the time you've given us in Daniel chapter 8, a reminder that you are the sovereign shepherd of all of history and that we can trust you.
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And I pray that you would help us this week as we encounter difficult times, that you would bring to mind what
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Christ has taught us by your Holy Spirit, that you would bring this to mind, and that you would lead us to your
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Word, to your promises that we would consider them, and that we would take hold of them in Christ.
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We pray these things in His name. Amen. Let's sing the chorus of the song we sang earlier,
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To You Alone. Oh, may the love of the
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Father and the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.
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We are dismissed. She's good.