Sunday, April 3, AM

Good morning, everyone. Go ahead and come in and find your seat. We're glad that you're here this morning to worship with us.

Already been a good day so far. Pray that the Lord will continue to bless it. A few announcements as we get started this morning, we'll have our regular evening service tonight at 5 .30

here at the church. Looking ahead to Wednesday, looks like regular schedule there, meal at 5 .45,

so come and share together in that. And then at 6 .30, prayer for the adults and tag for the kids.

Looking ahead a few weeks, we've got Easter coming up, so that means Good Friday service here at the church on Friday, April 15th.

Be here for that. And then on Sunday, April 17th, we'll have a morning service that morning, no evening service because it is

Easter. A few more announcements. If you do have any announcements, look in your bulletin.

There's an email address that you can send any announcements that you might want to put in there. And then also

Operation Christmas Child is still continuing, continue to give towards that. There's a box out in the foyer where you can donate there.

Any other announcements before we get started with worship? Okay, I'm going to end with our fighter verse for this week, comes from Ephesians 4, verses 31 and 32.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

We're going to have a time just of quiet prayer, preparing our hearts for worship. And when we're finished with that,

Michael will come up and open us in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today and we confess that you are great.

You are powerful. You are almighty.

You are our creator. You have spoken everything into existence and you declared it very good.

And in your grace and in your long -suffering, for the glory of your own name, you sustain everything and hold it all together in your

Son, Jesus Christ, for whom and through whom and to whom are all things, that in all things he has the preeminence.

We thank you that we may wonder at your marvelous creation, that we are instantly, by the revelation of your word, instantly delivered from idolatry and worshiping the beauty we see, but delivered into worshiping you, our great

God, our maker. And I pray that you would help us today as we have gathered together to proclaim the worthiness, the excellence of Jesus Christ.

I pray that you would help us as we read your word together, sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, as we encourage one another to love and to good deeds, and as we hold fast the confession of our faith, help us to fear you, to love one another, and to worship you in spirit and in truth.

We pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Before we start,

I'd like to share just a few verses that God put on my heart this morning. This is out of 2

Samuel 22. As for God, his way is blameless.

The word of the Lord is tested. He is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

For who is God besides the Lord, and who is a rock besides our God? God is my strong fortress, and he sets the blameless in his way.

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my

Savior. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

For the waves of death encompass me, the torrents of destruction overwhelm me, the cords of Sheol surround me, the snares of death confront me.

In my distress I call upon the Lord. Yes, I cried to my

God, and from his temple he heard my voice. Just know the confidence that we have the rock in the

Lord Jesus Christ. He is our refuge, our strength, our high tower.

Anyway, would you stand with me now at this time for our call to worship? Our passage this morning is found in Psalms chapter 7 and 7.

We're going to be reading verses 7 through 10. Read with me together. Will the

Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

Are his promises at the end of all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he in anger shut up his compassion, Selah? Then I said,

I will appeal to this, to the ears of the right hand of the Most High.

And we're going to sing this very psalm in our Psalms for Worship hymnal, page 77a. You'll recognize the tune to He Leadeth Me.

My voice to God, upon I plead,

My voice to God, he will be heed.

I sought the Lord, I was distressed,

I gave my outstretched hands no rest.

My restless soul all through the night,

Comfort found in coming light.

With thoughts of God my fears arise,

My failing spirit faints with sighs.

You do not let my eyelids close,

I must, you do.

Years that long ago have gone,

Hide not the songs I sang at night,

My heart and spirit search for light.

Forever will the Lord rejoice, Can I his favor not expect?

Forever has his kindness ceased,

And in his peace did

God forget. To show his grace,

Does wrath, his mercy now replace?

Then I made my such questions show,

That I my weakness need to know.

Oh, how tired is the firm right hand, That through the years will changeless stand.

And our next song is in our regular hymnals, page 262, Holy, Holy, Holy.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.

Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty.

Lord in three persons, blessed

Trinity. Holy, Holy, Holy, God's King down there on earth.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.

Merciful, blessed Trinity. Good morning.

We'll be reading out of Isaiah 21 this morning, the first 10 verses. The burden against the wilderness of the sea,

As whirlwinds in the south pass through, So it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.

A distressing vision is declared to me. The treacherous dealer deals treacherously,

And the plunderer plunders. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All its sign

I have made to cease. Therefore my loins are filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold of me,

Like the pangs of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it. I was dismayed when

I saw it. My heart wavered. Fearfulness frightened me. The night for which

I longed, He turned into fear for me. Prepare the table. Set a watchman in the tower.

Eat and drink. Arise, you princes. Anoint the shield. For thus has the

Lord said to me, Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen,

A chariot of donkeys, And a chariot of camels. And he listened earnestly with great care.

Then he cried, A lion, my lord. I stand continually on the watchtower In the daytime.

I have sat at my post every night. And look, here comes a chariot of men

With a pair of horsemen. Then he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground. O my threshing,

And the grain of my floor, That which I have heard from the Lord of hosts, The God of Israel, I have declared to you.

Let us pray. Father, we have from your word great proclamations and great promises.

And in your majesty and your sovereignty you bring them to pass.

There is not a rogue molecule in your universe. You have sovereignly brought about all things.

And we hang our trust upon your declarations and your promises and your fulfillment of them all in Christ.

We praise you, Father, for your worthiness. We praise you in all of your majesty and holiness.

We see all of these things in creation. And we have your word to rest upon.

We thank you for this word this morning. And we pray it bring great fruit in all of us.

And it's in Christ's name we thank you and praise you. Amen. You may be seated.

For our last two songs we have in our hymnal page 410 My Faith Looks Up to Thee and then also there was a handout for our last song which is

Christ, Our Hope in Life and Death. My Faith Looks Up to Thee Thou Lamb of Calvary Savior Divine Now hear me while I pray

Take all my guilt away O let me from this day be wholly thine

May thy rich grace import

Strength to my fainting heart

My still inspire As Thou hast died for me

O may my love to Thee Lord and changeless be

All living fire

While life's dark maze

I tread And breezes around me spread

Be Thou my guide In darkness turn to day

Wipe sorrows tears away O let me ever stray from Thee aside

Wind and flight cleanse your dream Wind as cold solvent stream

Shall for me flow Blessing for this run's review

O hear me safe above All ransoms too

What is our hope in life and death Christ alone

Christ alone What is our only confidence

That our souls to Him belong What holds our gaze within His hand

What comes apart from His command And what will keep us to the end

The love of Christ in which we stand

Oh sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal

Oh sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death What truth can calm the troubled soul

God is good God is good Where is

His grace and goodness known When this old age redeemer's born

Who holds our faith when fears arise Who stands above the stormy trials

Who sends the waves that bring this night unto the shore

The rock of Christ Oh sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal

Oh sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death Unto the grave what shall we see

Christ He lives Christ He lives and what reward will heaven bring everlasting life within There we will rise to meet the

Lord in sin and death we'll be destroyed and we will feast in endless joy in Christ He's ours forevermore

Oh sing Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal

Oh sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death Oh sing

Hallelujah Our hope springs eternal

Oh sing Hallelujah Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death Now and ever we confess

Christ our hope in life and death

Let's go to the

Lord together in prayer Father I thank you for gathering us here today

Thank you for the prospect of the truth of your word, it's hope it's promises it's revelation of your son

Jesus Christ we trust that by the gift of the Holy Spirit who indwells your people by whom we are made alive that you would give us understanding of your word that we would glorify your son that we would know from our very hearts that we are your children by the person and work of Christ by the ministry of the spirit so we praise you our heavenly father that you know our needs before we even ask that you are a great provider and we ask you that you would provide us with the bread of life today nourishment for our faith we pray these things looking to Christ the one with whom you are well pleased amen

I invite you to open your bibles and turn with me to Daniel chapter 10 as we continue looking at the message of Daniel passage by passage, chapter by chapter as we have worked our way through this book of riddles in which the tests of state craft wherein death and life are on the line and the riddles of prophecies of what was yet to come we see these resolved in Christ time and again we should consider the story of Daniel as a whole now that we are coming to the end of the book it parallels the story of the

Jews themselves here is Daniel, he is set aside as God's chosen servant for the time at hand he is ministering among the nations and he is pointing them to the truth of God's word declaring unto them the promises of Messiah and having to deal with and engage with the pagan statism that permeates his world this is very much the story of the

Jews as a whole set apart by God as a chosen servant with a particular task in mind to declare the light of the

Lord to the nations, to turn them to fear the one true God, to turn away from idols and how they were specially set apart for this task as the shadow mediator of the old covenant and yet they are always engaging with the

Gentiles, with the nations and on their best day on their best day the children of Israel pointed the nations to the glory of Christ enshrined in the shadows of the old covenant the sacrifices and the tabernacle the feasts the rituals the topography, geography and architecture of their culture, they were pointing the nations to the hope that God had provided on their best day, on their worst day on their worst day they drank deep of the intoxicating drink of the pagan society around them until they were indistinguishable from the other nations, they were so thoroughly canonized, so thoroughly paganized.

As we think about what goes on in Daniel's life, we have seen Daniel be a faithful servant, refusing to be compromised, refusing to just blend in with the

Babylonians or with the Persians, he has stood his ground more than once to remain the servant of God, set apart making a clear, distinct claim for the glory of God, for his name and he is looking ahead he is declaring what is yet to come by the ministry of God, through his son, by his spirit,

Daniel has been helped and empowered and inspired to declare all that which was to come a calendar of hope for the people of Israel as they look forward to going back home to their promised land, to rebuild the temple and to rebuild the city to once again establish the worship of God in the place where he had chosen to place his name and so Daniel is looking ahead and he is he is wanting his fellow believers to look ahead to the coming of Messiah the promises of the new covenant and he is also declaring these things in the center of culture of his day, whether it be the

Babylonians or the Medes and Persians, he is pointing the nations to what is to come and in fact the prophecies that he gives forth in Daniel's chapters 11 and 12 involve the

Medes and Persians and the Greeks all the way through their civil war between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids and involving the rise of Rome after the period of the

Maccabees and all of this world history is told from the perspective of how it impacts

Jerusalem how it impacts the promise of God's coming Messiah and the new covenant and the nations discover that their ups and downs and back and forths all have to do with the glory of Christ and in fact this is the observation that I make about the last three chapters of Daniel which comprise a single vision is this that Jewish history is

Jesus' glory Jewish history is Jesus' glory it's all about him it's all about him well let's read the text together we're going to we've read the first 11 verses together let's stand for the honor of the reading of God's word the words of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit through his servant Daniel beginning in verse 12 let's read

Daniel chapter 10 verse 12 through verse 19 this is the word of the Lord then he said to me do not fear

Daniel for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and to humble yourself before your

God your words were heard and I have come because of your words but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days and behold

Michael one of the chief princes came to help me for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia now

I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days for the vision refers to many days yet to come when he had spoken such words to me

I turned my face toward the ground and became speechless and suddenly one having the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips then

I opened my mouth and spoke saying to him who stood before me my Lord because of the vision my sorrows have overwhelmed me and I have retained no strength for how can this servant of my

Lord talk with you my Lord as for me no strength remains in me now nor is any breath left in me then again the one having the likeness of a man touched me and strengthened me and he said to me oh man greatly beloved fear not peace be to you be strong yes be strong so when he spoke to me

I was strengthened and said let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me this is the word of the

Lord thanks be to God you may be seated heard any bad news lately

I know you've heard some bad news lately bad news always catches our attention bad news is the kind of news that gets led with by any particular news service bad news is what gets discussed the most bad news is very likely to be shared and retweeted this should be somewhat strange to us this should seem foreign to us because we're the people of good news we're the people of good news and we have a lot of good news we have been christened literally to declare the good news of the kingdom with the nations we're the good news people not just any good news but the particular good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ Savior and Sovereign we're the people of good news but bad news tends to catch the attention

Daniel's dealing with some bad news no doubt it is the third year of Cyrus king of Persia we see in verse 1 year 1 was great

Cyrus was clearly God's chosen man from the east he whistled up like a fly and told him to do what he was supposed to do and Cyrus did

God's bidding and he funded the return of the exiles to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple to beautify

Jerusalem he was the Lord's anointed servant for that time year 1 was great year 2 was great because under the leadership of Ezra and Zerubbabel there the people of God had gathered back in Jerusalem and they had laid the foundation of the temple they had gotten to work and things were progressing well and the worship of God was reinstated there in the holy city on the holy mountain the holy worship of God so year 2 was great year 3 was not so great by year 3 the local authorities had noticed all the commotion going on in Jerusalem and they sought to make an alliance with Zerubbabel the governor the

Jewish governor and he refused the help of the pagans and said no you're not going to bring your paganism in to the worship of the one true

God that's not how we are going to do this project and so they got lawyered up they grabbed a bunch of attorneys and they began filing lawsuits sending it all the way back to the king who was very busy now with some wars and couldn't be bothered by the issues and so now all of the work had stalled in Jerusalem the third year of Cyrus was a sad year the work of the

Lord had stalled and there the foundation of the temple lay baking in the sun with nothing going on no wonder

Daniel was mourning 21 days praying to the Lord for some sort of answer some sort of resolution we looked at this timing last time 21 days of mourning and the

Lord tells him that he was busy fighting the enemies of the

Jews coming to the aid of his people Daniel you've been praying for 21 days but if you want to know why there's the delay

I've been busy answering your prayer before you while you were praying we also hear about timing where we get the phrase that we're using for this last section of Daniel the latter days in verse 14 let's read that again now

I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days for the vision refers to many days yet to come we've already been given the timing in the 70 weeks in Daniel 9 but it's going to be a long time until these things come to pass which means there's going to be several generations 12 in fact before the prophecies start manifesting coming to pass in Christ and so Daniel has heard some bad news things are going poorly in Jerusalem things are not going according to plan and then the

Lord shows up with a message for Daniel telling him by the way in the coming generations of your people more bad stuff is going to happen the security of the

Jews is going to be thrown against the precipice time and time and time again the destabilization of the

Persian Empire by the invasion of Alexander the Great the destabilization of the Greek Empire by Alexander's death and the division of his kingdom up into four and then later two and a civil war will be fought between the

Ptolemies and the Seleucids and the kings from the north and the south will rage back and forth across your land and you're going to be at the epicenter of all of this warfare and chaos and then we're going to have this guy named

Antiochus Epiphanes who's going to do horrible things to the temple and there's going to be the time of the

Maccabees and then there's going to be the time of Rome and Pompeii and Cleopatra and so on and all of this is spelled out in precise detail to the entirety of Daniel chapter 11 generations before it ever came to pass and what was this?

A calendar of hope a schedule so that the people of God in tumultuous times would turn to the scroll of Daniel the

Levite would gather everybody around and they would read it out loud and say yep here we are right on schedule here it is exactly what

God said was going to happen we're right about here okay this is going to happen next right on schedule guess what

God is in charge of the entirety of history and the entirety of history was being funneled and directed towards the arrival of the son of man the

Christ a calendar of hope so this is the answer to Daniel's three weeks of mourning and eating nothing pleasant and he's in his 90's his heart is breaking

I thought the promises were coming true what's going on and then the answer comes but before the details are given of this calendar of hope before that ever happens the first thing that happens is that Daniel gets shook

Christ shows up Daniel falls down can't even talk all he can do is tremble and shake all of his strength fails him he's terrified let's look at the terror that we see here look with me at verses verse 4 let's begin reading in verse 4 on the 24th day of the first month as I was by the side of the great river that is the

Tigris I lifted my eyes and looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen whose waist was girded with the gold of Uphaz his body was like barrel his face like the appearance of lightning his eyes like torches of fire his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude what a sight what a sight

Daniel sees barrel is kin to an emerald though in far more colors bright and shining radiant in color a face like the appearance of lightning how bright is that his eyes like torches of fire how can you even see his eyes as torches of fire when the face itself is like lightning how does that even work his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color imagine the light of the face and the fire of the eyes and the radiance of the barrel glinting and flashing off the burnished bronze if we could use one word to sum up the impact of this appearance what would that one word be would the word bright be strong enough full enough to describe the sight that Daniel saw what about the word fierce are we getting closer what about the word weighty we're talking about gold what about the word powerful we think of lightning and fire what about fiery is that a good word the only word we're left with is the most weighty word available to us glory glorious we're told in the scriptures that Abraham was a glorious man what is meant by that it's the

Hebrew word kabod which means weighty there was a lot of weight to Abraham's life measured in terms of his servants and his livestock his wealth his impact on the region in which he lived he was a weighty man therefore he was a glorious man but what of Christ how weighty is he does he not have a name which is above every name has not all authority in heaven and earth been given to him is he not described as the heir of all things and that all things are his how weighty is that and so in this appearance we're given these images that flash one after another and what we are meant to think when we see this is glory glory glory and then how does

Daniel respond how does

Daniel respond to this glory he is like a piece of driftwood on a tsunami wave he is utterly moved and he has no control over what happens to him this weightiness this glory is so powerful and so significant that Daniel finds himself in helpless orbit around that weight centered on this glorious vision unable to change it alter it even to interact with the one who has made his appearance but notice the response the response is one in which he trembles he's on the ground he can't talk he's lost his strength when the

Lord touches him it just makes him tremble uncontrollably but notice also the response the response that when the

Lord speaks it happens as much as when the

Lord says let there be light and there is light so here he says do not fear and Daniel stops fearing and he says be strengthened and Daniel is strengthened and he says be at peace and Daniel is at peace do you see the response of the creature to the creator when the word of God is spoken to those made in the image of God this is the response to glory this is the response to the power and the authority of the word of God we see the sight but what about the sound the sound of his words was like the voice of a multitude a roar of significance

Daniel heard the sound of his words while he was in the deep sleep on his face with his face on the ground so Daniel is terrified he is in dread he is trembling he is unable to speak stand he has no strength he is on his face trembling isn't this the way that so often we find men respond when

God shows up in the Bible remember that Moses requested of the

Lord show me your glory show me your glory and God had to stuff

Moses into the cleft of the rock and say you're only going to see the glowing trail of the hinder parts of my train because no man can see my face and live and how often do we see people encountering the

Lord and then what happens do you remember Isaiah who was caught up in a vision to the throne room of God and the glory of the

Lord filled the temple and how did Isaiah respond we just sang from that text holy holy holy how did

Isaiah respond to the display of the holiness of God and all of his glory Isaiah says woe is me

I am ruined I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have beheld the

Lord of glory woe is me he did not expect to survive in the moment it's even deeper than that he knew he didn't deserve to survive when encountering the holiness of God in all of his glory do you remember what happened when the disciples were with Jesus on the sea of Galilee in the storm and Jesus was sleeping in the ship and they woke him and said master do you not care that we perish and then

Jesus spoke he rebuked his creation he spoke to the winds and the waves to the storm he says peace be still and the whole sea of Galilee went like glass did this alleviate the fear of the disciples their fear only increased who is this that commands the winds and the waves that they obey him encountering the glory of Christ they feared what did

Peter say when Jesus was in his boat Peter failed all night long to catch the fish and then

Jesus of Nazareth says put out again let me show you how to fish put your net over here now and they got so much fish that they had to call for help and the nets were breaking and the ships were sinking and what does

Peter say to Christ depart from me he's afraid he's fearful at the sight of glory now

I want you to think about this appearance of Christ you realize that in the gospels we are not given very much information about what

Jesus looked like we know he was born of Mary and Mary was a Jew and Jesus was a

Jew that might help us understand what he looked like a little bit we know he had a beard we know from Isaiah 53 that he was not attractive to the normal eye he didn't have a face for TV that's about it but here in Daniel 10

Revelation chapter 1 when we turn to Matthew 17 what do we see we see

Christ in all of his glory and suddenly we're given visuals that we are to lay hold of in our worship of Christ behold how glorious Christ is now as I read from Revelation chapter 1 it's going to sound very familiar to Daniel chapter 10 you can put in your notes or underline where you see the very same features repeated

Revelation 1 beginning in verse 13 John says and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the son of man clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band again we're hearing the son of man hear about the gold his head and hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes like a flame of fire sound familiar his feet were like fine brass as if refined in a furnace and his voice is the sound of many waters right on track he had in his right hand seven stars out of his mouth went a sharp two -edged sword and his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength which

I imagine would look a lot like lightning and when