Daniel 12, The End, Dr. John B. Carpenter

Daniel chapter 12. We'll be reading the entire chapter. Hear the word of the Lord. At that time shall arise

Michael the great prince who has charged of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time.

But at that time your people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

But you Daniel shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.

Then I Daniel looked and behold two others stood one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream and someone said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream

How long shall it be till the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the stream

He raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever

That it would be for a time times and half a time and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished.

I heard but I did not understand then I said, oh my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?

He said Go your way Daniel for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end

Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined But the wicked shall act wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand for those who are wise shall understand and from the time

That the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up.

There shall be 1290 days blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1335 days but go your way till the end and You shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word Well, that's the end of the year

And if you like to reminisce It's a time to look back See all the things that have been ended what's come to an end in this past year

Jonas ended his career as an only child and now he has a little sister Ivy who ended her

Preschool years who started kindergarten? Both Raymond and Anson ended being non guitar players with Herbie's help

We had two families in their time with us moving away and that's a shame of course But we had Gladys who ended her time elsewhere and now is with us officially joining

Tina ended her life of being a mere Permanent resident and became a US citizen here.

We ended here in this building We ended having a leaking roof, which is a relief in case it rains during the service

With endings come of course new beginnings. Sometimes time reveals that what has ended is different than what we thought it was when we were in the middle of it what we thought was ended a dozen years ago as 2010 ended with a new decade

I thought the infancy of this church had ended because we had first been gathered to be three years earlier and I thought we had

Now learned the lesson There were going to be different than the what I call the old -time religion and we're not just could be another expression of it

That we're not to kind of be the same old thing Just maybe we talk a little bit more about predestination than other churches do that We are going to be a genuinely reformed church like the

Puritans bound together by a covenant, but I was wrong the infancy Continued I don't think it really ended it now

I don't think it ended until June of 2018 when we by our actions made the statement that we're not going to be a hypocritical

Bunch that we're going to keep our covenant that we're not going to have a former elder Just walk out like was meaningless and us pretend it didn't happen or even just kind of enable it

That was when the new age began. I think I wasn't sure we would make it that we would even survive in fact one

Sunday morning, I concluded that we would not and It was that morning that the bees first arrived and I thought well, maybe

I'm wrong soon after Shannon joined us after having she had been attending for a while and he then he officially joined us and then after a

Little after that her became and now we have a whole lot of haze here. What stage we're in now

I don't know. We may not know and until it ends often We don't know what stage we're in until it has ended true with life true with history from 1989 to 1991

From the fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Eastern European Communist regimes to the disillusion of the

Soviet Union We thought that the Cold War had ended and maybe some were talking about wars in general had ended

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. He got kicked out and we thought well, that's the end. No one's gonna nobody's gonna start any wars anymore

This is a new age of peace and prosperity The feeling in the 90s was the communism would continue to fall

There would be no more threats to peace or to prosperity and or to democracy anywhere

It was just peace and wealth coming in for the rest of eternity In the early 1990s an

American scholar named Francis Fukuyama wrote a book entitled the end of history Which got a lot of attention a lot of talk the

Cold War had ended in America Especially felt it had been vindicated. We had reached the the end of History meaning the goal the finish line the purpose that it had always been moving toward for millennia

Fukuyama said that finally all the struggles and the wars the conflicts the debates of history.

They had all been resolved We know who the victor is now and no one everyone can see it.

We had thought that he said quote the last bloody battle He believed that there was nothing else to fight for and then nearly everyone recognized it all around the world the democracy and politics and capitalism and economics were the undeniable victors the end result of all of history was democracy and Capitalism and with that triumph the quest of history what it was all about Was at an end

Time would keep ticking of course, but there was according to Fukuyama nothing higher for which to strive

No more debate. No more struggle Everyone realized it there would be no more bloody wars

Contesting it at about 9 a .m. On September 11 2001 that Fantasy of a utopia went up in smoke with the

World Trade Center What is the end of history now? Some have said that history is the story of the triumph of the master race so they can have their thousand -year

Reich Communists said it was the story of the proletariat throwing off the chains of the bourgeoisie the workers of the world

Uniting and making for a paradise of shared wealth Some Muslims believe it's the story of fateful jihadist imposing their

Sharia law on the world still others believe It's just purposeless story didn't it doesn't have any meaning so it doesn't have any end

It's a purposeless story of conflict after conflict No meaning or morality and so the philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche believed that history was waiting on the rise of the supermen

He called him in German the ubermensch Driven by the will to power to give history the meaning they chose to stamp on it

Otherwise, it means what they say it means History is written by the victors. They say and so history is their story

But we've seen earlier in Daniel that God has already had history written out Saw that particularly last week in chapter 11.

It's already written out before it happens and that history is his Story that he will be the victor his kingdom will have no end

No one can resist his hand never can as I realized in chapter 4 and here in Daniel 12 we see the

End The end of history we see it in three parts first the resurrection then the refining and finally the rest

Daniel 12 is the clearest promise in the Old Testament of the resurrection. It's a continuation of the single incident started in chapter 10 all

Continues through all that prophecy in chapter 11 and here concludes in chapter 12 Daniel is remember he starts out in chapter 10

He's in mourning. He's praying for God to fulfill his coven He's asking why God you promised we would go back to the land after 70 years of Babylon and 70 years is up What's going on?

We're scattered all over the place. We're not back in Israel. The temple's in shambles. It's demolished There's no temple at all.

What are you gonna do? What's what are you doing Lord with history? That's what Daniel is asking and God reveals much of the history

That we call between the Testaments in chapter 11 and then here in chapter 12 He reveals the end

He's so he's in mourning and he sees his vision of a mighty angel by the Tigris River and for the entire 11th chapter the angel tells

Daniel the history that takes God's people from the awful shambles of Daniel's time to the awesome coming of the kingdom of God at the end chapter 11 ends in verse 40 discussing the time of the end so chapter 12

Begins with at that time what time well the time of the end Michael The good great prince over God's people arises to defend them in a time of trouble

Such as never has been since there was a nation till that time This is what we saw in chapter 9 that on the way to the manger that there will be trouble and there still is trouble

Today all the way to the end. We're not gonna reach like an end of history where everything's gonna be perfect There was peace and tranquility.

Sorry, it's not gonna happen To think that things will gradually get better and better is a nice. Hope especially as we look forward to a new year

I should say it's not gonna happen until God's kingdom comes in full Christ returns The thing people hope for that will have peace and tranquility

Especially as we hope for it in the next year in 2024 as we look forward to this new year but scripture says that there will be times in the future of great trouble

Worse than any nation has ever seen but the angel assures Daniel in verse 1 that in that trouble

His people will be delivered Who are these people?

It's just a literal Jews. This is all about are they the ones delivered? Well, if if they're believers in the

Lord Jesus Yeah, sure if their names it says are at the end of verse 1 are found written in the book

Yeah, it's for them That is Daniel's people Are those written in the book whether the

Jews are not Daniel's people are those that the Lord himself has recorded? beforehand as his they

Will be delivered Now, how will they be be delivered?

Does that mean that they will avoid? This horrible trouble all together, they're gonna leave trouble -free lives

That they will be living in their comfortable middle -class American homes and eating lunch at Chick -fil -a and going to church on in their nice cars

Perhaps hearing some troubling news coming out of Israel, but nothing hurting their lifestyle Nothing really hurting them until suddenly they are transported out of this world.

Is that what he means here? Are they delivered from the trouble? or through it

Well, the first part of verse 1 suggests that they will experience trouble but some could say ah, but they're delivered

Yes, but verse 2 tells us how they are delivered many of them will be asleep in the dust

That is they're buried in the ground They're dead They are delivered from their death by being awakened from it being resurrected

They were dead and some of them died precisely because of the trouble

Some of them are the loyal people of God. They're true believers in the Lord Like from what

Daniel was talking about in chapter 11 the the type the brave knew their God took action They would not taste the pork sacrificed to Zeus that Antiochus or Antiochus Was making the

Israelites eat they were killed for it Now sure the people who knew their God they stood firm they would not compromise they took action some of them

Weren't killed at the time. Some of them became Maccabees who eventually drove out Antiochus forces, but some stood firm some said no,

I Will not compromise my God and they were burned alive for it

Remember polycarp and the people like him the martyrs they experienced trouble and so it will always be

Before the end God's people will have to know him they have to stand firm take action and Many of them will suffer for it

And we should be grateful that we live in a country in which the government is not likely to kill us for knowing

God At least not right now Standing firm and taking action, but still we live in a fallen society that by its nature

Hates the kingdom of God and so they will persecute as best they can as much as they can people who choose to live

Together under his rule who want to be a part of God's kingdom who seek that first? They'll persecute those people perhaps here the best they could do the most they could do is insults

Baseless rumors or mockery calling you a bigot of whatever a hater exclude you from universities

From teaching in them, but sometimes from being students in them now don't say that's not real persecution Even if it does seem light

Compared to the trouble described here was suffering to death Let me look at the look at those suffering to death what

I suffer being insulted or being excluded. That's not real suffering Well, that's the way it begins Trouble begins sometimes with little things light things

This is in this book with Daniel and his three friends being willing to forego Remember the juicy meats all the meat and the the

Kings diet they were allowed to have the wine They had to say no to that because of their walk with the

Lord their persecution began By not being able to eat tasty food, and that was their first step

That's why they were able to stand up to being thrown to lions or being put in fiery furnaces And if you're not willing to suffer the light persecutions, you won't stand up to the heavy ones

Right. It's not as though well I'm gonna give in on this or that name my pronouns whatever it is because I don't want to be called a bigot

But if it comes to sacrificing to Satan or something like that, then I'll stand firm No, you won't you start giving in small things.

You'll give in on the big things if you stand firm under light pressure You'll likely keep standing with the heavy times of suffering come but back to our question

How were they delivered they're delivered how after all they're in the dust of the earth the result of the troubles

Put them in the grave. They're killed for it Where's the deliverance you look at them they were killed how they delivered they're dead

Well, the deliverance is in the resurrection the death that was Dealt to them by their enemies

Thinking their enemies are thinking this will finally put an end to them these troublemakers these people who won't go along with the rest of us death

What the world thinks is the end is Ended in the resurrection. So death here is compared to a temporary state like sleep

For which we normally awake Because God is going to awaken the dead When he says many will experience it in verse two many who are leaping the dust

The mini the Hebrew word means a great multitude and could indeed imply Many is in everyone

Here the resurrection is not just a reward for the fateful That is the faithful who knew their God and so stood firm and took action

Sure, they will be resurrected to everlasting life the first place that phrases used in the

Bible everlasting life Common in the New Testament, right? Here's the first instance of it They will be delivered out of death the shame of being down in the dust

Perhaps the shame of those Jesus freaks those Puritans to the brilliance of shining like the stars

Above they are in verse 3 the wise That they know the truth

They know their God and know he is worth dying for they stand firm they take action

They lead many to righteousness to being right with God you know, that's why we spend so much time and energy here in covenant trying to Turn people to righteousness, but not only our own children.

So sometimes all other people's children We have Jim jr And Jim and reach out to our own family members hoping to be used by God to turn people away from sin to being right with the

Lord and the deliverance for doing that The reward is to shine

Like the stars forever. It says here in verse 3 that is There hopefully our our end our goal glory and life but others the traitors

Those who love their physical life and so gave in to the threats here in The time between the testament they ate the pork sacrifice the

Zeus They went around along with the crowds in the New Testament times to shout crucify him

They knuckled under to King Charles and compromised the worship of God With superstitious traditions or they conformed to the world and married their old -time religion to the racism and deception of their culture

Are they use grace as a license to sin? adapting to the loose sexuality affirming homosexuality because that's just what educated tolerant

Civilized people do because the world pressured them The if it feels good do do it attitude of 21st century

America. They had to go along They're the traitors to the world and the traitors have claimed to be

God's people but go along with the world The world's flow they go with the flow Well, they take the broad road to destruction and those

Daniel is told in verse 2 They will also be resurrected in the end but their end is he says shame and Contempt people often go with it along with the world because they claim to be

Christians because they want to be seen as sophisticated They want a good reputation. They want to be esteemed because their pride because their ego

They don't want to be some of those simple bigoted Fundamentalists, whatever they call us. They don't be able anyone be like that.

And so in the end what they get They get the shame and the contempt that they gave into the world to try to avoid

Well at the end no one gets out of judgment But the wise and the wicked are resurrected you will be resurrected to one state of the other to life or death to glory or to shame

One of those is the end of us all Now at the end there is resurrection and that end started already when the one

Who was sleeping in the dust of death? awoke he awoke To everlasting life life that will never end thus he began the end

He arose as the wise the light of the world. He shines and is even right now turning many to righteousness

When Jesus rose from the dead he began the end So we live now after Jesus began the end.

We live between the beginning of the end and the end of the end between the two resurrections between the first resurrection is and the final one hours in the end there will be resurrection and To the end there will be refining second refining

This passage tells us that to the end there will be trouble the optimist who thinks well the glass is always half -full

It's always it's always good. Look at the sunny side Everything's are getting better and better Well such a person better be prepared for trouble 2023 was a bad year for optimist.

We saw in Israel perhaps one of the most barbaric Murderous rampages in all of history.

I mean compared to anything you find anywhere in history the Vikings rampaging the barbarians Whatever the

SS during World War two what makes it worse is that those who perpetrated it were actually proud of it

Warring GoPro cameras and uploading their atrocities to the Internet at least the Nazi SF death squads had this shred of decency

Left to be ashamed of what they did. They tried to cover it up Hamas was proud of what they did.

So the world is not evolving toward getting better at least not without Christians Taking a stand and taking action

Christians influencing it and so the pessimists will say cynically mutter Well, I told you so things are getting worse always worse

But the pessimist needs also to see what this passage says the good things will come all the way to the end

But first in verse 4 knowledge will increase it's certainly done that isn't it verse 4 has been fulfilled clearly

Then as the vision is coming to a close starting at verse 5 He sees two men two angels with guests

Standing on either side of the Tigris River asking the same question that people have today. How long will it be?

He says it will be for a time times and half a time

Very cryptic, isn't it? But literally first refers to the three and a half years which was literally the time that Antiochus or Antiochus Have you pronounce it the

Antiochus had his idol to Zeus set up in the temple It lasted there three and a half years

Defiling the temple the abomination that causes desolation in verse 11

I was it it desolated it wiped out holiness So it made the temple not a fit place to worship

You couldn't even if you were to do it sincerely You can't go to the temple with your right sacrifice and there's this idol to Zeus right there

So it wiped out the temple for what it was supposed to be for had to be cleansed For three and a half years they couldn't offer their sacrifices there because of that which is about the same time as the days mentioned in verses 11 and 12 the trouble will last for 1290 days

Verse 11 says but you have better be prepared to wait for an extra 45 days The next verse says there was a literal fulfillment in history

Therefore shadows the ultimate fulfillment yet to come a time of trouble Jesus told us that in this world

You will have trouble It's true for the last year We can hope it won't be true for this coming year, but it probably will be but during that time

It's time of trouble Pessimists should know It won't be all bad

Verse 10 says many well, this is going on. They're all this trouble many. That's good. That's a lot right shall purify themselves and make themselves white and means righteous and refined

Others they're getting sanctified. They're growing in holiness. They're coming closer to God many will do that So this age that is revealed as a time of constant refining purifying of people who were filthy and corrupt before Turning to the

Lord and being made right with him being justified seen by God justified never sin seen as holy in the sight of God clothed in the spotless garments of Christ perfect life so that's why they're there is as if white white clothing perfect unstained before before God and undergoing the process of Sanctification that is growing and holiness being refined becoming more and more holy and less sinful

Experiencing the washing of water with the word. Meanwhile the wicked Shall act wickedly says

So you have both these things going on at once This refining of God's people and then the wicked

Being even more wickedly the optimist can point to the many who are purified and refined and the pessimist can point to the wicked getting worse

You're the worst terrorist attacks the worst depravity the worst foolishness and so we have both these things going on at once at the same time the world getting worse giving us trouble and People being called out of the world being changed

Being refined being saved How long with this age?

refining and Trouble going on at the same time. How long would this go on?

Well, that's what the angel asked at verse 6. How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?

What wonders? World being more and more wicked and God's people being more more refined side by side.

How long will it be? Now yes There was a literal three and a half year trouble in the literal temple that was ended when the

Maccabees put it into that That was the end celebrated now with Hanukkah Remember with the end with judgment and the last days there is the now and There's the not yet Like some of God's promises are not yet not yet fully fulfilled, but they come in Now we get little taste of them samples for taste appetizers of them

That is God brings some of the end Into this age before the end he sometimes brings his judgment into the world as a preview of the final judgment

He put an end to the campaign by Antiochus to end the worship of the

Lord. He ended that Antiochus thought he would end worship of the Lord the Lord ended him.

He put an end to that temple where the priests met traitors Conspiring to kill the one they should have been worshiping in 80 70 within a generation of their crime

Jesus said these things will be fulfilled Before this generation within a generation of their crime and within a generation of that perfect sacrifice

Jesus made that old temple Was destroyed it first been made obsolete by Jesus a sacrifice

But then the Lord used the Roman general to put an end to that temple and then he put an end to the Roman Empire He put an end to a thousand years of the church drifting away from the gospel

When Martin Luther posted the 95 thesis and began the Reformation He used the

Spanish to put an end to human sacrifices in the Americas under the Aztecs He put an end to slavery and crushed the society that had fought for it he put an end to Nazism in Europe and to the brutal tyranny of Japan's absurd self -serving greater

East Asian co -prosperity sphere one of the greatest lies in history Then he put an end to dreams of atheistic communism in Europe.

Then he brought an end to the arrogant delusions that history ended With the end of the

Cold War and the triumph of capitalism and democracy with us being prosperous and fat and happy just forever

God took a piece of the end The not yet final end and he brought it into this age now so there's the now and There's the not yet.

Not yet is the final end and at the final judgment When the wise and the wicked are raised at the end

When all are resurrected one to shine the righteous shine God's people shine and the other to disgrace.

That's that's the end well now Are all the little ends? That the

Lord brings in into history Which is his story as he continues to reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet

So we're now in that age we're in the age of little ends and sometimes big trouble sometimes experiencing the

Lord intervening putting an end to some abominations An end to abusive relationships or hypocritical religion or a false doctrine and sometimes experiencing trouble but trusting that there will be a resurrection at the end

The trouble was side by side with the refining the trouble Separates those who in the words of our statement of faith have a persevering attachment to Christ from those who do not

But the pressing question even the angel wants to know here, how long will it last?

How long is this time of trouble little ends and big trouble side by side? Gonna last how long is this going on in verse 7 the angel standing on the bank the riverbank

He raises his hands as his right hand and his left hand both hands and he declares when the shattering of the power

That is when this crusade this jihad to break the power of the holy people

God's people comes to an end Notice that phrase an interesting phrase when the shattering of the power

So there's this something going something is trying to shatter the power of the holy people of God's people

That's going on now and when that comes to an end it Notice that in this time of trouble the enemy is trying to shatter our power

This tells you fried off we have power We have power to tear down strongholds against the knowledge of God in the gospel

We have the power of God for salvation But the enemy is trying to shatter that power the gates of hell are conspiring against us

We will have that power until the end The enemy is trying to shatter it

But he won't succeed and till the end when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end then and only then all these things

Would be finished that is we will continue in this fight neck deep in trouble being refined

Seeking to lead many to righteousness being right with God We're doing this against the campaign to shatter and to scatter our power until it ends when the attack on our power ends then

It will be the end So we look at the world and we see that they're trying to attack our power

Just this past weekend at Christmas weekend terrorists attacked churches in Nigeria killing at least 140

Christians Elsewhere they they ban Bibles. They ban churches. They suppress the gospel here in this country

They call it hate speech or try to get you to love money more than God's Word tempt you

With with what the world has to offer instead of seeking first the kingdom of God They're still attacking right the good the good news of that this attack is still going on which means

You still have power because they have a stop which means you still have power they're still trying to shatter it Jesus is with us until the end of the age

So we don't have to worry about him running out on us before the end So we can know that as long as there is trouble

As long as there's shattering going on trying to shatter our power We will have power to overcome it

So there's the resurrection in the end There's the refining until the end and then third

There's rest at the end If we stop just with the news

That we will have power until the end, you know power that our enemies are trying to shatter, but we still have it

Then that could sound very exhausting It sound as if well, we got to keep striving and fighting until the end.

We got to hang on as The enemy is trying to shatter our power But Daniel is told and we're told at the end of this chapter at the end of Daniel Rest Daniel is told to go your way verses 9 and 13

He's been given this elaborate Detailed information about the history that God has written in advance written ahead of time that God is the victor so he has he has written a history

Who came after King the ebb and the flow of empires in chapter 11? And so he admits in verse 8

Daniel admits verse 8 that he doesn't understand it Yeah, he doesn't understand all this about the king of the north the king of the south and all this going back and forth

Because that's later history. He doesn't need to understand it It's for us not for him. He asked in verse 8.

What should be the outcome of these things? What's what's the end of it all?

What's the purpose of it all Daniel is told at the end? Don't worry You shall rest

And that's not just a prediction It's a promise You will rest maybe after another hard year of work or a year of hard work

You need to hear that You will rest I can

Psalm 95 today If you hear his voice

Enter his rest Just like judgment There's a perfect full rest at the end at the the not yet and There are a little rest for taste of rest appetizers of rest

That we have now We sometimes get a foretaste of the great rest at the end

That we get a foretaste of that now at the end of a year. It's good to be able to take some days off And look back and rest rest from a year full of work or studying or chores errands and busyness here

Daniel Now an old man Brought to Babylon as a boy deprived himself of Luxuries to be faithful to God willing to be devoured by lions rather than to give up praying

Now working for his second Empire working for the Persians near the end of a long wise life.

He is told Daniel You're gonna get rest

So now take it easy After this elaborate revelation write it down seal it up pass it down.

Don't worry about if you don't understand it all relax Daniel you've been faithful. You've known your

God you stood firm you took action You resisted evil with the power that is a work on you and soon

You'll have perfect rest and be assured You and you all your people you have a blessed place reserved

Just for you. You have a reservation to have a place for you At the end remember how he began in chapter 9.

He's seeking God your promises You're gonna send us back to the promised land. You're gonna give us our place Where where is it?

Where are you doing? He's told at the end at the end of chapter 12 here You will get it

You will rest you will have an allotted place a restful place set aside for you

So here we are the end of a year 52 church services 52

Psalms 52 sermons we got a new roof

After being almost flooded out one service we got a lot of teaching a lot of songs a lot of prayers a lot of driving to get kids here a lot of Gospel lessons to small kids and evangelistic messages to youth

Hopefully a lot of sharing of the word in your own families a lot of the gospel going out as we seek to tear down Strongholds against the knowledge of God with the power of God and bring many to be right with God The world the flesh and the devil is still trying to shatter our power

But we still have it knowing that We can rest

Indeed, we will rest because of Christ's work because of his work to keep all the law his work of Living perfectly for us his work of bearing the punishment that our sins deserved

The first one to be raised from the dead who was asleep in the dust of the earth

He awoke to everlasting life So that we could to so that we could awake to everlasting life and rest so know

That if you have that life now from Christ know in 2024

That you could rest and then in eternity You will rest and you're allotted place