Daniel’s Vision, Our Confidence: Finding Strength in God’s Sovereign Plan

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
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[00:01:13] of Christ.
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[00:02:43] God bless you
[00:03:09] In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
[00:03:26] Amen.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]:
it's christmas here we are in uptown one of the most beautiful places on the planet let's lift up worship to him this morning glorify him you know this song

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
O come ye faithful, joyful and triumphant O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem
[00:05:41] Oh come and behold Him Born the King of Angels Oh come let us adore Him Oh come let us adore Him Oh come let us adore Him Christ the Lord Here we go!
[00:06:10] It's Christmas!
[00:06:15] Sing choirs of patience, sing in exultation, O sing all ye citizens of heaven.
[00:06:33] And glory to God, glory in the highest,
[00:06:45] We adore you, we adore you
[00:07:07] We adore You Yes we do We adore You We adore You We adore You Jesus

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
of the Holy Spirit.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]:
Oh, you can't help but love those Christmas songs, right?
[00:08:52] Oh my goodness, Merry Christmas everybody.
[00:08:54] Welcome to Uptown and welcome to First Baptist Charlotte.
[00:08:58] We are so delighted that you're here.
[00:09:00] And if you're here for the first time, we just welcome you.
[00:09:03] We're gonna have a great time today.
[00:09:04] We've got lots of Christmas music.
[00:09:06] We're gonna be worshiping the Lord and Pastor John's gonna be coming in just a few minutes to share God's word.
[00:09:11] But look around, see if there's somebody you don't recognize.
[00:09:14] Wish somebody a Merry Christmas.
[00:09:16] We're gonna continue on here in just a few moments.
[00:09:20] Hey thanks for joining us online everybody whether you're on our Facebook stream or YouTube stream or charlottefbc.org we're so glad that you're here this morning Merry Christmas hope you have a great morning and we're gonna have a great time here at church so just join in with us Pastor John's gonna be coming in just a minute we've got some great Christmas music ahead glad that you're here today with us

[00:10:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
Come, O come, Emmanuel And ransom captive Israel That mourns in the lonely exile here Until the Son of Man

[00:10:32] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Rejoice!

[00:10:50] [SPEAKER UNKNOWN]:
Rejoice!
[00:10:50] Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thy advent here Disperse the gloomy clouds of night And death's dark shadows put to flight
[00:11:34] Rejoice!
[00:11:54] Rejoice!
[00:11:55] Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel Rejoice!
[00:11:56] Rejoice!
[00:12:08] So come, desire of nations, bind All peoples in one heart and mind
[00:12:25] Rejoice!
[00:12:51] Rejoice!
[00:12:51] Emmanuel shall come to thee!
[00:13:00] Rejoice!
[00:13:03] Rejoice!
[00:13:04] Amen!

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
Amen.
[00:13:37] Merry Christmas, everybody.
[00:13:39] If I can, I'd like to read Philippians 2, 5 through 8 to you.
[00:13:45] It says, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
[00:13:53] And this is His mindset.
[00:13:55] Who in being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage.
[00:14:05] Rather, He made Himself nothing.
[00:14:09] By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
[00:14:29] Sometimes I'm just so struck by the humility of our Savior.
[00:14:35] We see that a lot in Scripture.
[00:14:37] We see where in John he washes his disciples' feet, where he literally spends so much time with people, healing them, loving them.
[00:14:48] But nothing says humility more like the Christmas story.
[00:14:54] where the king of kings and the lord of lords decided to not just become one of us but to become the most innocent dependent helpless form of us a baby and um literally the king of kings makes an animal a dirty animal trough his throne
[00:15:21] And we're going to sing about that this morning.
[00:15:23] The humility of our Savior.
[00:15:25] It's a new song.
[00:15:27] It's called Manger Throne.
[00:15:29] So you guys sing it with us.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
We could have stepped into creation with fire for all to see Brought every tribe and nation to their knees Arriving with the host of heaven in royal robe and crown The rulers of the earth are bowing down
[00:16:15] You chose me, Passover, Majesty Wrapped Your power in humanity Glory be to You alone King who reigns from a manger throne My life, my praise, everything I earn
[00:16:56] You could have marched in all your glory into the heart of Rome Showed them splendor like they'd never known But you wrote a better story, become a better man Creator in the arms of God
[00:17:21] You died for our redemption and you rise so we
[00:17:56] From heaven to the cradle From the cradle to the cross Let heaven and nature sing This is our King But the grave couldn't hold Him Our God has overcome Let heaven and nature sing This is our King
[00:18:21] From heaven to the cradle From the cradle to the cross Let heaven and nature sing This is our King But the grave couldn't hold Our God has overcome Let heaven and nature sing This is our King

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]:
Everything I owe to Jesus the King on a manger throne To Jesus the King on a manger throne

[00:20:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
In the darkness you were waiting Without hope, will I lie?

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
Till from heaven you came running There was mercy in your eyes To fulfill the law and prophets To a virgin came the Word From a throne of endless glory To a cradle in the dark
[00:20:48] Praise the Father, praise the Son Praise the Spirit, three in one God of glory, majesty Praise forever to the King
[00:21:21] To reveal the kingdom coming and to reconcile the lost To redeem the whole creation you did not despise the cross For even in your suffering you saw to the other side Knowing this was our salvation Jesus for our sake you died
[00:21:57] The Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings
[00:22:28] And the morning that you rose All of heaven hailed its breath Till that stone was moved for good For the Lamb had conquered death And the dead rose from their tombs And the angels stood in awe For the souls of all were gone
[00:22:53] In the church of Christ was born Then the Spirit lit the flame Now this gospel truth of old Shall not kneel, shall not faint In my King's blood and in His name In His freedom I am free For the love of Jesus Christ Who has resurrected
[00:23:23] Praise the Father!
[00:23:47] Praise the Son!
[00:23:48] Praise the Spirit!
[00:23:48] Three in one!
[00:23:48] God of Glory!
[00:23:52] Let's sing that chorus together one more time.

[00:24:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]:
And praise the Father
[00:24:19] We'll praise the Spirit three in one God of glory, majesty Praise forever to the King of kings We'll praise forever to the King

[00:24:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]:
All right, you guys can have a seat.
[00:25:00] Thank you.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Well, good morning.
[00:25:31] It's great to be back with you.
[00:25:33] If you have a Bible, go with me to Daniel chapter 8.
[00:25:35] We'll be in Daniel chapter 8 and verse 15 here in just a second.
[00:25:40] Daniel chapter 8 verse 15 as we continue walking through the book of Daniel.
[00:25:44] I want to say thank you to my brother Nate for being here last week.
[00:25:48] I know if you were here last week, Nathan and I are twins, and he always brags about being the oldest twin because he says,
[00:25:56] You know, he's three minutes older than me, and I always just tell him, I'm just three minutes better than you.
[00:26:03] So, you're the older twin, I'm the better twin, and so I know he did a great job last week.
[00:26:09] We'll be in Daniel 8 and verse 15 in just a second.
[00:26:13] A few years ago, Brad Paisley, country singer, wrote a song that was a very interesting song.
[00:26:19] The title of the song is, If I Could Write a Letter to Me.
[00:26:24] And the idea of the song is he's singing about
[00:26:28] And so, trying to prepare him for all the things that were going to happen in his life.
[00:26:43] And so he says, if I could write a letter to me, you know, when you're 17 years old and your girlfriend breaks up with you, and it's hard and it's painful, but he's like, that kind of pain is something that you're going to go through quickly, it's going to be rare,
[00:26:58] Everything is going to be okay.
[00:27:00] Or if I could write a letter to myself when I was 17, I'd tell you at this certain stop sign, always make sure you come to a complete stop.
[00:27:07] Don't roll through the stop sign, right?
[00:27:08] Because you're going to get a ticket.
[00:27:11] Or if I could give you some advice, he writes this letter back to himself at 17.
[00:27:15] He says, you need to hug your aunt every chance that you get because she's going to die before you're ready for it.
[00:27:21] You need to make sure you enjoy the time that you have left.
[00:27:24] with her.
[00:27:25] And then he says, I just wish that you could see your wife.
[00:27:28] I wish that you could see your kids.
[00:27:30] Everything is going to be okay because you're still around to write this letter back to yourself.
[00:27:39] And that's what God does for us here in Daniel chapter 8.
[00:27:42] God tells us
[00:27:44] What's going to happen ahead of time?
[00:27:46] He details out hundreds of years in advance exactly what's going to happen.
[00:27:52] And the reason why he does that is so that the readers can live life to the fullest right now.
[00:28:00] It can have an impact in your life right now.
[00:28:03] God tells us everything that's going to happen in the future, the main things that are going to happen in the future, so that we can live our lives to the fullest right now.
[00:28:13] Hundreds of years in advance of the events
[00:28:17] God details with very specific information exactly what is going to happen.
[00:28:24] In fact, Daniel chapter 8 is so detailed about events that are going to happen in the future that people who are skeptical of the supernatural
[00:28:35] People who are skeptical of if the Bible actually is God's Word.
[00:28:38] People who are skeptical of prophecy and saying there's no way that somebody could know the future with that much detail in advance.
[00:28:46] We don't even know really what the weather is going to be in five days.
[00:28:49] There's no way that somebody could know that kind of detail in advance.
[00:28:53] Those kind of skeptics of the Bible
[00:28:56] Act like and argue that Daniel chapter 8 is not prophecy.
[00:29:02] It's actually written after the fact.
[00:29:05] It's history pretending to be prophecy.
[00:29:08] That's what people who are skeptics of the Bible, liberal scholars, will say.
[00:29:12] The problem with that view is that we have
[00:29:16] People have found manuscripts of the book of Daniel in the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves, in the Qumran caves that predate the events that they're talking about.
[00:29:27] Okay, so these things were written down before the events that they're talking about actually ever happened.
[00:29:35] In fact, history tells us
[00:29:37] that tradition tells us that Daniel chapter 8 which is going to talk about the Greek Empire and Alexander the Great that when Alexander the Great came into Jerusalem and was conquering and kind of establishing the Greek Empire over over the area there in Israel that the priests recognized that this was the guy that was being talked about by Daniel chapter 8 and they showed him the scrolls of Daniel and said this is talking about you okay so God is giving us in advanced
[00:30:07] Everything is going to be okay.
[00:30:16] Everything is going to be okay.
[00:30:21] And so that should make a difference for how you live right now.
[00:30:25] That should give you confidence to make a difference right now.
[00:30:29] Let's look and see what the Bible says here in Daniel chapter 8 and starting in verse 15.
[00:30:33] I'm just going to read for us the interpretation.
[00:30:35] Daniel has a vision, another vision in Daniel chapter 8 of these beasts like we looked at a couple of weeks ago.
[00:30:42] He's going to see a vision of a ram that's then defeated by a goat, and he's trying to make sense of this.
[00:30:48] And so chapter 8 verse 15 gives us the interpretation.
[00:30:52] Let's look and see what the Bible says.
[00:30:55] When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it, and behold, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man.
[00:31:04] And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.
[00:31:11] So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face.
[00:31:17] But he said to me, Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end.
[00:31:23] And when he had spoken to me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground.
[00:31:29] But he touched me and made me stand up.
[00:31:31] He said, Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end.
[00:31:38] As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia.
[00:31:46] And the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king.
[00:31:52] As for the horn that was broken in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power.
[00:32:01] And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise.
[00:32:11] His power shall be great, but not by his own power.
[00:32:15] He shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints.
[00:32:24] By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great.
[00:32:30] Without warning he shall destroy many, and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes, and he shall be broken, but by no human hand.
[00:32:42] The vision of the evenings and the mornings it has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.
[00:32:50] And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days.
[00:32:55] that I rose, went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.
[00:33:02] May God bless the reading of his word.
[00:33:05] Basically what's happening, very complex chapter, but again, basically what's happening is Daniel has this vision of a ram that is then defeated by a goat, and the angel Gabriel is sent to him to help him understand what is going on.
[00:33:20] These beasts, the ram and the goat,
[00:33:24] are similar to the beasts that we saw two weeks ago when we were looking at Daniel chapter 7 where these beasts were coming out of the sea.
[00:33:31] You had one that was like a leopard with wings.
[00:33:34] You had one that was like a bear.
[00:33:35] You have all these different beasts that we saw in chapter 7.
[00:33:39] That's the same kind of thing here.
[00:33:41] These beasts represent
[00:33:43] Empires or kings and kingdoms that are opposing God and opposing His people.
[00:33:49] And these specifically focus on the second and third of the four kingdoms that have been talked about in the book of Daniel.
[00:33:57] This focuses on the kingdoms of Medo-Persia and the kingdoms of Greece.
[00:34:03] We're told that specifically by name in verse 20 and in verse 21, right?
[00:34:08] Verse 20 tells us that the ram
[00:34:11] represents the king or the kingdom of the Medo-Persian Empire.
[00:34:16] Verse 21 tells us that the goat represents the Greek Empire and the first king of that empire who is Alexander the Great.
[00:34:25] The description of the goat in the story is that it's swift, that it conquers like the entire world, that it defeats the ram and this is descriptive of what's going to happen with the Greek Empire years after Daniel is writing this.
[00:34:40] Okay, the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great is going to swiftly defeat Medo-Persia and then it's going to really expand mostly over the known world at the time.
[00:34:50] In fact,
[00:34:52] As we think about the Christmas season, one of my favorite Christmas movies, I probably shouldn't admit this, okay?
[00:34:58] If you've got any concerns about it, email Pastor Mark and he'll address your issues.
[00:35:03] But one of my favorite Christmas movies is Die Hard, okay?
[00:35:07] I love Die Hard.
[00:35:08] It's one of the best Christmas movies out there and in that popular Christmas movie Die Hard the villain of Die Hard is a guy named Hans Gruber and he says in the movie Die Hard when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain he wept for there were no more worlds
[00:35:26] to Conquer.
[00:35:27] So by the age of 32, Alexander had conquered most of the known world, and then he dies suddenly at the age of 33.
[00:35:35] And when he dies, as is being described in this text, his kingdom is divided in four among his four generals.
[00:35:45] Now there's another little horn that comes up in this text a king that comes out of one of those four kingdoms as Gabriel is detailing it here and that refers to a man named Antiochus IV or Antiochus Epiphanes.
[00:36:00] Antiochus called himself a god and so he people called him Antiochus Epiphanes which Epiphanes means God made
[00:36:09] Manifests.
[00:36:10] Okay, so he called himself a god and so they called him Antiochus Epiphanes.
[00:36:14] His enemies, those who hated him as critics, called him Antiochus Epimanes.
[00:36:20] Epimanes means the madman.
[00:36:22] Okay, so they called him a madman.
[00:36:24] And so Antiochus was this, you know, ruler out of the Greek Empire who was incredibly vicious, incredibly wicked, and he attacked
[00:36:36] The people of Israel attacked their faith and he again as we looked at in chapter 7 Chapter 7 these beasts are giving us a pattern for every evil ruler or evil empire that opposes God and opposes his people Antiochus is in that pattern because he is attacking the faith of the people of God in fact his assault in chapter 8 is focused most
[00:37:04] Specifically on what is called the beautiful land or the glorious land Israel look at the Bible says go to verse 9 Daniel chapter 8 verse 9 and it says this about Antiochus out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south toward the east and toward the glorious land it grew great even to the host of heaven and some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them
[00:37:34] It became great even as great as the prince of the host and the regular burnt offering was taken away from him and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown and a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression and it will throw truth to the ground and it will act and prosper.
[00:37:56] What is this referring to?
[00:37:58] He's again focusing on his assault on the beautiful land which refers to Israel and his assault on the Jewish people.
[00:38:07] It says he takes the stars of heaven and he throws them to the ground.
[00:38:12] What is that referring to when he says he throws the stars of heaven to the ground?
[00:38:16] That's referring to his persecution of the Jewish people.
[00:38:20] Why would the Jewish people be referred to as stars?
[00:38:24] If you remember all the way back in the book of Genesis, God looked at Abraham and what did he tell him?
[00:38:29] Your offspring are going to be as numerous as what?
[00:38:32] The stars in the sky.
[00:38:35] Okay, so he says he's taking the stars, he's throwing them down.
[00:38:39] Verse 24 tells us that he's talking about the people who are the saints.
[00:38:44] So he's throwing down the stars, he's persecuting the saints.
[00:38:47] Not only that, he's attacking Jerusalem, he's attacking the temple,
[00:38:52] He's attacking the priesthood.
[00:38:53] He's attacking the sacrifices.
[00:38:55] It says that the burnt offering is going to cease.
[00:38:58] And this attack on Jerusalem, the Jews, the Temple, the Torah is seen as an attack on the Prince of Princes, on the King of Kings, on God Himself and on His people.
[00:39:13] and so this details for us again hundreds of years in advance exactly what Antiochus was going to do when Antiochus came into Israel when he came into Jerusalem he was vicious he took the high priest who was again kind of the leader of the the Jewish religion
[00:39:31] and he took him out of his position and he put a traitor in his place as the high priest.
[00:39:38] He caused sacrifices to cease.
[00:39:41] He set up an altar to Zeus in the temple.
[00:39:44] He sacrificed, this is like the most profane thing of all, he sacrificed a pig
[00:39:49] in the Holy of Holies.
[00:39:51] He went into the Holy of Holies and he sacrificed an unclean animal there in the Holy of Holies.
[00:39:57] He destroyed every copy of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament that he could get his hands on.
[00:40:03] He would kill people who were found with a copy of the Torah in their hands.
[00:40:07] He murdered tens of thousands of people in just a span of a few days.
[00:40:11] He forced the Jews to eat unclean meat and he made them violate the Sabbath.
[00:40:15] So it's just an all-out attack
[00:40:18] on God and His people that lasted about seven years.
[00:40:24] Okay, the book of Revelation is gonna pick this up and it becomes a model for the Great Tribulation and how people's faith will be attacked at the end of days.
[00:40:34] Now the good news as we just read,
[00:40:37] is it says that he's going to be defeated he's going to be killed verse 25 tells us but not by human hands by no human hand god is going to strike him dead what happens with antiochus is he he starts to have
[00:40:52] This is, you know, not nice or anything, but it's what happened.
[00:40:57] He starts to have bowel pain and ends up dropping dead, okay?
[00:41:03] So this unexplained bowel disease that he has, and he ends up dropping dead because God kills him.
[00:41:10] And then we're told that the sanctuary is restored.
[00:41:12] and everything is put right.
[00:41:14] These events that are being prophesied about here are the events that are explained during Hanukkah.
[00:41:24] Okay, what happens at Hanukkah is a celebration of
[00:41:28] These events that are happening now.
[00:41:30] If you want to read more about that and the events of the Maccabean Revolt and all those kinds of things, you can read the books, the intertestinal books.
[00:41:39] They're not scriptural books, but they are books that explain the history, the books of Maccabees, okay?
[00:41:45] Or probably not as good a detail, you could watch an episode of Friends where the Holiday Armadillo talks about Hanukkah.
[00:41:52] You can get something from that.
[00:41:54] Okay, but Maccabees talks about this.
[00:41:57] this all-out assault on the Jewish faith but then it's defeated and things are restored and they begin to again to wait for their Messiah and so this chapter tells us exactly what will happen before it will happen and again is giving us a pattern for the way things will operate in the future and God tells us all these things again not so that we can win Bible trivia but so that we can be prepared to make a difference right now
[00:42:26] And so we're going to see how Daniel responds to this, alright?
[00:42:30] And the answer is not what some people do.
[00:42:34] either Christian people or other people who have these like this real fascination with the apocalyptic and this real fascination with the end times and this you know that the world's gonna be destroyed and all these things they become like these doomsday preppers right they get their little bunker and they've got 10,000 cans of spam to make sure that they're you know it's like Dwight in the office has all these different cans of tomato soup or whatever that's not what the Bible tells us to do
[00:43:01] The Bible doesn't tell us to become doomsday preppers.
[00:43:03] It doesn't tell us to isolate ourselves from the culture.
[00:43:06] It says that in light of what's going to happen in the future and in light of the fact that God is going to win, we can make a difference right now by the way that we live.
[00:43:16] Okay?
[00:43:16] And here's four things that we can do to make a difference right now where we live.
[00:43:21] The first one is this.
[00:43:23] We need to live by the Word.
[00:43:26] We need to live by the Word.
[00:43:28] There's a contrast here in Daniel chapter 8 between the way that Satan attacks the Word and the way that God's people should reverence and depend upon the Word.
[00:43:39] Verse 12 tells us this all-out assault on the Jewish faith is an assault on the Word of God.
[00:43:46] It says in verse 12,
[00:43:47] He will throw truth to the ground.
[00:43:51] He's referring to him destroying all of these copies of the Torah.
[00:43:56] He wants to destroy God's Word.
[00:44:00] In contrast, we see Daniel has a reverence for God's Word.
[00:44:04] There in verse 26, he's told to seal up this vision, preserve it,
[00:44:09] So that future generations can be encouraged by it and know exactly what they are supposed to do.
[00:44:17] And so we see this contrast between Satan's all-out attack on the Word and God's people who are meant to depend upon and live by the Word.
[00:44:27] Gabriel tells Daniel, seal it up.
[00:44:29] so that future generations like us can live by it.
[00:44:34] But Satan and the beasts, they want to keep us from living by the Word so they attack it.
[00:44:41] This attack on God's Word
[00:44:43] It takes on several forms.
[00:44:45] It can be an external attack on God's Word that happens when you're either destroying copies of the Bible or you're trying to censor or ban the Bible, which is happening not just in places where we think of, like in Muslim countries or communist countries, it's happening in progressive countries like in Western Europe where certain, and Canada, where certain speech that comes from the Bible is being deemed as hate speech and is being policed.
[00:45:10] Okay, so there's an all-out external attack on God's Word with destruction or banning or censorship.
[00:45:17] But there's also always been an internal attack against God's Word.
[00:45:21] You have people in supposedly biblical scholarship throughout the years who try to say this isn't the Word of God and you can't trust it and this isn't, you know, a supernatural book and it's not divinely inspired.
[00:45:34] It's just a book like any other book and it may have some
[00:45:38] you know pearls of wisdom that you should listen to but on the whole you can't base your life on it liberal higher critical scholarship has always tried to attack the bible internally and so the bible is attacked why is the bible attacked because satan does not want us to live by the bible he doesn't want us to base our lives on the bible this is happening in our culture right now again
[00:46:04] One of the clearest examples of this is how the culture is questioning what the Bible says about sexual ethics, what the Bible says about marriage and family, what the Bible says about gender.
[00:46:15] Just this week, and you can look this story up, just this past week, a new story comes out that a Christian student at the University of Oklahoma
[00:46:25] was given a zero on her paper in a gender identity class because she used the Bible to support the idea that there's only two genders and was told, you're going to get a zero on this paper because you need to be more empathetic and sensitive to other views.
[00:46:43] And so she was given a zero on a paper at a school in the Bible Belt, okay?
[00:46:49] A school that shouldn't be in the playoffs, but they are, and they've also got some...
[00:46:53] Some issues with censoring the Bible, which is definitely more serious.
[00:46:59] But this kind of cultural attack on the Bible is happening right now.
[00:47:06] Let me tell you, I'm concerned about that.
[00:47:09] Okay, I am concerned about that.
[00:47:12] I'm not near as concerned about outward attacks on the Bible as I am
[00:47:22] about people who claim to be Christians who take the Bible for granted.
[00:47:29] I'm concerned about that, not near as concerned about that like too many Christians do voluntarily what Satan here is trying to compel, which is they don't live by the Bible.
[00:47:46] They may have copies on their shelf.
[00:47:48] They've got apps on their phone where they've got access to dozens and dozens of translations.
[00:47:53] They don't read it.
[00:47:54] They don't live by it.
[00:47:56] And when they find parts of the Bible that they don't really like, they try to explain it away.
[00:48:02] That's not what we're called to do.
[00:48:04] We don't ask the Bible to submit itself to us.
[00:48:09] We say we are going to submit ourselves to the Bible because it is God's Word.
[00:48:15] And so we need to live by the Word.
[00:48:19] We need to read it daily.
[00:48:21] We need to do what it says.
[00:48:22] We need to build our lives on it.
[00:48:24] It is a foundation that is a foundation of rock, not a foundation of shifting sand.
[00:48:31] And if we will base our lives on it, then we will see that we will be anchored through every storm that this life can throw at us.
[00:48:39] So we need to build our lives on the Bible.
[00:48:43] That's the only hope that we have.
[00:48:45] But honestly, that's the only hope that this culture has.
[00:48:48] This culture's hope is that there will be a remnant of people called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that are living out the Bible.
[00:48:56] And because they are living out the Bible, the world around us in chaos sees there's a place where we can stand firm.
[00:49:03] and it's the Bible.
[00:49:05] And so the first thing that we need to do is we need to make sure that we're living by the word.
[00:49:09] The second thing we need to do is this, we need to love the church.
[00:49:14] We need to love the church.
[00:49:15] Look at the Bible says there in verse 27, when Daniel was given this vision, this is remarkable.
[00:49:21] Daniel's given this vision.
[00:49:23] He says, I was overcome and lay sick for some days.
[00:49:30] We see Daniel's compassion and concern for his fellow believers, for his brothers and sisters.
[00:49:40] He's in bed sick.
[00:49:43] He can't get out of bed.
[00:49:45] Why?
[00:49:45] Because he sees the future suffering of God's people and it overcomes him.
[00:49:52] I mean this is one of those things that sometimes we miss in the United States of America is that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-generation family that is connected globally and throughout the ages.
[00:50:20] Okay, we are connected.
[00:50:22] You are, right now, you are more closely connected to a blood-bought believer in China than you are to an unbeliever in Gastonia.
[00:50:35] that you are part of the same family and you will be together forever.
[00:50:40] We are connected globally with our brothers and sisters in Christ and we are connected across the generations with past brothers and sisters in Christ, with future brothers and sisters in Christ.
[00:50:55] One of the most remarkable things to me that I've ever read in terms of like proofs of the resurrection, and we can get into this more another time when we have our Q&As, you can ask me about it, like what the main thing that he's getting at.
[00:51:10] But I do want to talk about a derivative of what he's getting at.
[00:51:13] Peter Kreeft, who is a Catholic philosopher, theologian, was asked one time, how do you know that the resurrection happened?
[00:51:24] and his answer was because he's drawing on this idea that we are connected as a family not just again across the globe but across the generations his answer that question how do I know the resurrection happened and he says the reason I know the resurrection happened is because I saw it because I saw it how can he say because I saw it because he's saying my brothers and sisters saw it and I'm connected to them we're one flesh union in Christ
[00:51:50] And so if they saw it, I saw it.
[00:51:53] What happens to them, happens to me.
[00:51:55] So why Jesus, excuse me, when Jesus confronts Saul when he's attacking the church, what does he say to him?
[00:52:04] He says, Saul, why are you attacking my church?
[00:52:07] That's not what he says.
[00:52:08] What does he say?
[00:52:09] Saul, why are you persecuting me?
[00:52:15] We are connected.
[00:52:16] We are family.
[00:52:17] We are closer than blood because we are family because we've been blood bought.
[00:52:24] So the question we have to ask ourselves is do we love the church?
[00:52:28] Do we care about what is happening to our family, our brothers and sisters in Christ, even if they are family that we don't see?
[00:52:36] or that their suffering or their pain isn't connected to our daily experience, do we still love them?
[00:52:43] Do we have concern for them?
[00:52:44] Do we pray for the suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world right now?
[00:52:50] Voice of the Martyrs says that on average, there are about 300 Christians killed around the world every month for their faith.
[00:53:01] 300 people.
[00:53:05] Like you and like me who are being killed simply for believing the things that we gather in this room to say that we believe.
[00:53:16] Does that affect us at all?
[00:53:18] Daniel couldn't get out of bed.
[00:53:20] He couldn't get out of bed.
[00:53:23] So do we love the church like that?
[00:53:26] We need to have a zeal for God's family.
[00:53:29] We need to have a zeal for God's kingdom that transcends our own sphere and our own time.
[00:53:35] Let me just tell you this, the best way I think to cultivate that is one, to love your local church and be part of it, and two, to educate yourself on what the global church is facing so that we can pray and so that we can send help if help is available.
[00:53:55] And so the second thing we need to do is we need to love the church.
[00:53:58] Number three, we need to achieve at work.
[00:54:02] We need to achieve at work.
[00:54:04] Look what the Bible says there at the end of verse 27.
[00:54:07] So Daniel is sick.
[00:54:08] He's in bed.
[00:54:09] He's seen this incredible vision of what's going to happen in the future.
[00:54:13] And then he says this, Then I rose and went about the king's business.
[00:54:21] He says, I was sick.
[00:54:23] I was in bed for several days.
[00:54:24] And then guess what I did?
[00:54:25] I got up and I went to work.
[00:54:28] I got up and I went to work he doesn't isolate himself no he he lives he works he provides he's faithful in the small things he does his duty and because he does that he makes a huge difference in the culture he makes a huge difference in the culture like one of the the key themes that we've seen throughout the book of Daniel Daniel was a great employee
[00:54:53] Daniel was a great employee.
[00:54:55] There was no attack they could make on his character, no attack they could make on his integrity.
[00:55:00] He worked hard.
[00:55:03] He was honest.
[00:55:05] He was faithful.
[00:55:06] and he just went about his work.
[00:55:08] We don't withdraw from the world.
[00:55:10] We make sure that we are hard workers.
[00:55:14] Daniel was a great employee.
[00:55:16] He took his responsibilities seriously and his heavenly, the people say this all the time.
[00:55:20] People say about some Christians, you're so heavenly minded, you're of no earthly good.
[00:55:25] But Daniel shows us the opposite.
[00:55:27] Daniel who has repeated visions in heaven of what is going to actually happen is the most effective in his daily work.
[00:55:36] And so our heavenly mindedness should make us valuable in terms of our work right now.
[00:55:43] I say this all the time at Carson Newman.
[00:55:46] I say it here at First Baptist.
[00:55:49] Like, local employers should be coming to us and saying, can you give me more of your people to work here?
[00:55:58] Because they're the best that we have.
[00:56:01] That's the way it should be.
[00:56:03] That's the way it was with Daniel.
[00:56:06] And not only is he faithful at work, but he is a faithful witness at work.
[00:56:12] Again, Daniel's not written in chronological order.
[00:56:16] This vision here in Daniel chapter 8
[00:56:19] Proceeds Daniel chapter 5 and in Daniel chapter 5 when Daniel is brought before Belshazzar he is a bold witness who tells him the truth.
[00:56:30] Why does he tell him the truth and why is he enabled to be bold?
[00:56:34] Well one of the reasons among many that he's enabled to be bold is because he knows the end and he knows that God is going to win.
[00:56:41] And so us knowing that God is going to win in the end should cause us to be able to be good workers and good witnesses in our daily lives.
[00:56:50] The story is told that John Wesley one time was riding on a horse towards a speaking engagement.
[00:56:57] He was stopped by somebody along the road and they asked him, they said, John, if you knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow, what would your schedule be today?
[00:57:08] What would you do today?
[00:57:10] And the story is that John Wesley grabbed his diary out of his travel bag that had his schedule for the day.
[00:57:18] He read off his schedule and he said, this is what I'd do if Jesus were coming back tomorrow.
[00:57:24] Shut it and then went on about his business.
[00:57:26] We need to be able to achieve that work.
[00:57:29] And the last thing is this, we need to bow to a true king.
[00:57:34] We need to bow to a true king.
[00:57:38] One of the things that Daniel is trying to impress upon us is that these seemingly all-powerful worldly forces, they don't last very long.
[00:57:52] And so, stick with God and His kingdom even if it looks like in the short term that's not going to work out because in the long term it's going to work out, okay?
[00:58:05] Daniel chapter 7 says the Son of Man's kingdom is going to last forever and ever and ever.
[00:58:10] It's never going to end.
[00:58:11] That is contrasted with these wicked earthly rulers that are assaulting God and assaulting His people.
[00:58:18] Antiochus, his entire reign is 11 years.
[00:58:23] When you get into the New Testament, Nero, he persecutes the church.
[00:58:28] He's in power for 14 years.
[00:58:31] Hitler was in power for 12 years.
[00:58:33] The end of the age, the Antichrist, will be in power for three and a half years.
[00:58:38] Jesus' kingdom never ends.
[00:58:42] And so you should bow to the true king, the prince of princes, Jesus of Nazareth.
[00:58:47] He will rule forever and ever and ever.
[00:58:52] Daniel chapter 8, Satan's attack here foreshadows his attack on the true king.
[00:59:00] The text tells us that he's going to attack the priesthood.
[00:59:04] Why?
[00:59:04] Because Jesus is our great high priest.
[00:59:08] The text tells us He's going to attack the sacrifices.
[00:59:11] Why?
[00:59:11] Because Jesus is our final sacrifice on the cross for our sins.
[00:59:17] The text tells us here that He's going to attack the Word of God.
[00:59:21] Why?
[00:59:21] Because Jesus is the Word made flesh at Christmas, John 1 tells us.
[00:59:27] It says that he is going to attack the temple.
[00:59:30] Why?
[00:59:30] Because Jesus says, my body is the temple of the living God, and when you tear it down, I'm going to build it back up in three days.
[00:59:39] Jesus is the lowly Savior who comes at Christmas, who is crucified on a cross, who is raised from the dead, and his kingdom is going to advance to the ends of the earth and last throughout the ages, and it cannot be stopped.
[00:59:57] And so we need to bow our knees to a true king.
[01:00:00] There's a poem that was written several years ago that draws the contrast between the true King Jesus and false king, the wicked king that's being talked about here starting with Alexander and the Greek Empire.
[01:00:17] Let me just read this poem to you because I think it gets at the heart of what's going on in this passage and really at the heart of Christmas.
[01:00:25] It says this, Jesus and Alexander died at 33.
[01:00:28] One lived and died for self, one died for you and me.
[01:00:32] The Greek died on a throne, the Jew died on a cross.
[01:00:36] One life's triumph seemed the other a loss.
[01:00:39] One led armies forth, the other walked alone.
[01:00:43] One shed a whole world's blood, the other gave his own.
[01:00:47] One won the world in life and lost it all in death.
[01:00:50] The other lost his life to win the whole world's faith.
[01:00:54] Jesus and Alexander died at 33.
[01:00:56] One died in Babylon and one on Calvary.
[01:01:00] One gained all for self, and one himself he gave.
[01:01:05] One conquered every throne, the other every grave.
[01:01:09] The one made himself God, the God made himself less.
[01:01:13] The one lived but to blast, the other but to bless.
[01:01:18] When died the Greek?
[01:01:19] Forever fell his throne of swords.
[01:01:22] But Jesus died to live forever, Lord of lords.
[01:01:25] Jesus and Alexander died at 33.
[01:01:27] The Greek made all men slaves.
[01:01:30] The Jew made all men free.
[01:01:33] One built a throne on blood, the other built on love.
[01:01:37] The one was born of earth, the other from above.
[01:01:40] One won all this earth to lose all the earth in heaven.
[01:01:45] The other gave up all.
[01:01:47] that all to him be given.
[01:01:49] The Greek forever died, the Jew forever lives.
[01:01:53] He loses all who gets and gains all things who gives.
[01:01:59] We need to bow our knee to a true king because he is a different king in kind from all the other kings that are pretenders.
[01:02:08] And his kingdom is a different kingdom in kind from all of the other kingdoms, and it's a kingdom that is worth being a part of.
[01:02:17] Let me ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes.
[01:02:19] I'm going to pray and then we're going to stand and sing and have a moment of response and invitation.
[01:02:24] And I just want to challenge you with this.
[01:02:28] If you've never given your life to Jesus, today is the day to give your life to Jesus.
[01:02:32] Today is the day to say, He's going to be the Savior of my life.
[01:02:35] He's going to be the King of my life.
[01:02:38] whether you're here in the room or you're watching online we'd love to talk to you about giving your life to Jesus you can come here be available here at the front to talk to you about giving your life to Jesus if you're online you can message us we'd love to follow up with you maybe you're here and you are a believer but you've never you've never obeyed the king's command to be baptized and you need to be baptized we'd love to talk to you about that
[01:03:03] Maybe you're here and you need to be part of a local church where you can be part of this family of brothers and sisters who are trying to live by the Word and trying to make a difference in the world.
[01:03:15] We'd love to talk to you about that.
[01:03:17] Maybe you need to come to these steps and pray and just ask the Lord to help you to trust that everything is going to be okay.
[01:03:26] Ask the Lord to help you commit to being a person of the Word.
[01:03:29] Ask the Lord to help you in your work.
[01:03:31] Whatever it is, whatever decision you have right now, this is a time for us to respond to what the Spirit is doing in our lives.
[01:03:37] Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, I thank You for Christ.
[01:03:41] I thank You that He is the true King.
[01:03:44] I thank You that as we read earlier, He is the one who emptied Himself.
[01:03:51] He is the one who humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
[01:03:59] You have highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess, whether it's in heaven, whether it's on the earth, whether it's under the earth, that Jesus Christ is King, He is Lord, to Your glory.
[01:04:26] Father, help us to confess that.
[01:04:27] Help us to live that.
[01:04:29] We ask in Jesus' name.
[01:04:31] Amen.
[01:04:31] Would you stand to your feet?
[01:04:32] We're going to sing.
[01:04:33] If you have a decision to make, you come right now while we sing.

[01:04:49] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]:
We wait for you, Lord.
[01:04:55] We wait for You, Lord For Your justice and mercy Revival in our city We wait for You, Lord Christ our King
[01:05:21] Be enthroned, be lifted high Christ our King Be forever glorified We wait for You, Lord
[01:05:46] We wait for You, Lord You're healing what's broken Redeeming the ruins We wait for You, Lord Christ our King
[01:06:23] Christ the King be forever glorified Christ the King be glorified
[01:06:53] All the hopeless come to Jesus Let the dead come back to life Can you hear your people singing Hallelujah All the hopeless come to Jesus Let the dead come back to life Can you hear your people singing Hallelujah
[01:07:40] Every day she tried and tried Can you hear your people sing?
[01:08:06] Hallelujah Christ our King Be in glory lifted high Christ our King
[01:08:09] We forever glorify Christ our Lord Be in hope, be lifted high Christ our Lord
[01:08:47] Be enthroned, be lifted high Christ our King Be forever glorified

[01:09:13] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Amen.
[01:09:14] Amen.
[01:09:14] You be seated just for a second.
[01:09:16] Ask our deacons if they would to come forward and get ready to take up the offering.
[01:09:20] As they do that, let me just say, I know many of you give online and we are grateful for that.
[01:09:26] Thank you so much for the way that you cheerfully and faithfully give.
[01:09:29] For those who don't give online, we pass the baskets around so you can give in the room.
[01:09:34] And again, thank you so much.
[01:09:35] What you do is making a huge difference.
[01:09:37] We're going to show you a video here in just a second about the Lottie Moon Christmas offering which goes for world missions and here y'all can go ahead and start taking up the offering.
[01:09:47] So one of the amazing things we even talked today about being concerned and loving the church across the world in places that are very difficult.
[01:09:57] We right now through international mission partners that we have have access
[01:10:04] to work in places where Christians are persecuted, where Christians are thrown in jail and worse because of your giving.
[01:10:16] And because of your giving, we are going into places right now that are closed off to the gospel.
[01:10:21] We're delivering food.
[01:10:23] We're delivering medicine.
[01:10:24] We're helping refugees.
[01:10:26] And because of that, we have a presence to be able to share the love and the hope of Christ in places where many Christians cannot go.
[01:10:33] And that's because of your faithful giving.
[01:10:36] And so check out this video and just see how God is using our efforts all over the world.

[01:10:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
2019 marks 100 years that Southern Baptist Offering for International Missions has been called the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.
[01:10:54] You probably know that 100% of the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering goes directly overseas to support IMB missionaries serving around the world.
[01:11:02] 0% goes to overhead and administrative cost.
[01:11:06] Every penny goes directly to IMB missionaries to declare the majesty of Christ to a lost world.
[01:11:13] Inspired by a spirit of a Gospel-driven partnership, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering is an effective initiative that God is using to extend His work in a world that desperately needs to hear that Christ died for the forgiveness of sin because of the mercy and grace of God.
[01:11:33] Lottie Moon isn't the name of a clever marketing campaign.
[01:11:37] It marks the legacy of a giant who followed Christ with full surrender and championed others to do the same.

[01:11:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Amen.
[01:11:56] Amen.
[01:11:56] Well, thank you so much for being with us today.
[01:11:58] Please, if you would, stand to your feet and say hey to somebody that you didn't say hey to earlier and you are dismissed.
[01:12:05] Go in grace and peace.
[01:12:08] Hey!