Thank you, Mark, for leading us. Good morning to everyone. Another beautiful morning in the Northwoods, a little chilly, but it was nice out there, a little bit of the sun. It's nice to see the sun the other day. I haven't seen that in a while. 

Well, our message this morning is only really going to be an introduction to the prophecies of the book of Daniel. And I was thinking about, I think it's been about 11 years or so before we, since we preached on some of these things last. Who was here 11 years ago? Yeah, that's what I thought. So I thought maybe we should go back and do a couple messages laying a foundation on how we understand prophecy and why, sort of preparatory messages before we study the many dreams and visions of the book of Daniel which tell us of the things yet to come. 

It's interesting because I was reading a little bit, kind of different perspectives on some of these things, and mostly what I found was one side saying you're a complete idiot if you believe the other thing and this side saying you're nuts if you believe that. So we want to look at the scripture and see what it says and kind of get an idea of why we believe what we believe and how we understand things. 

Also, since this is a complicated subject and there are so many scriptures that help us understand, I want to have some time of questions. Now this is really putting myself out there on this subject, but at the end of each of these messages we'll have a little time for questions and discussions if you have any. Just kind of work through this together. So as you listen, write down any questions that come up, and we'll do our best to answer them now or in the coming messages. 

I'd point you to verse 29 of chapter 2 to begin. Daniel 2:29 says, “As for you, O King, thoughts came to your mind while on your bed about what would come to pass after this. And he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will be.” So the words of this verse “after this” and “what will be” propel us into the realm of prophecy. 

The vision given to Nebuchadnezzar and the dreams and visions given to Daniel throughout this book are prophecy foretelling what would come after this. All of this was future to Daniel. Much of what we will see has been fulfilled throughout history, but some of it yet remains future to us as well. Daniel was a prophet. In Matthew 24:15, Jesus said, “Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet.” Jesus called Daniel a prophet. 

So he does give us some insight into what God's plans are for the unfolding of his salvation history. The subject of prophecy is a daunting thing in the scriptures, but it is really no different than the New Testament teachings like we've been studying such as Romans 6 or any of those other passages. 

If I have a desire to be conformed to Christ in my outward behavior, if I have a desire to live in consistency with who I am inwardly, if I have a desire to know God, who he is, what he's done, what he's going to do, his promises for me in Christ, all of this starts with knowing what God says in his word. I do not know anything apart from God's word. I do not know anything for sure apart from the revelation of God. In fact, I may be certain of a lot of things in this world that just aren't so. 

The only way I can glorify God, can be faithful, can grow into a continuing abiding relationship with the creator God of the universe and experience his will consistently in my life is to know him and to know the truth of what he says in his word. I always think of my wife's grandpa who used to say to me, “You know what the good book says? God helps those who help themselves.” Well, no, grandpa, it doesn't say that, right? 

Vast sections of Christian theologians tell me that as a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm still a sinner, I'm still enslaved to the sin that dwells in me, but that's not what God says in Romans 6. How can I know what is true? How can I be immune to deception, not being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine? How can I know God? Only by his word, only by seeking to know him through his word, knowing and believing what he says. 

Prophecy is no different. My brother and sister in Christ, a third of this book is prophecy, some already fulfilled, much yet to be fulfilled. Bobby checked with Grock, he said 27%, so I'm not sure which one's right, but I'm all for mastering the truths of who we are in Christ, of how God intends to produce holiness and witness through our lives for his glory, for his purposes. This is truly where the rubber meets the road in the Christian life, so I'm happy to die on that hill. 

But God's will and purpose is a whole lot bigger than just me. An awful lot of what God has revealed to us about himself and what he is doing and will do to bring all things to consummation in Christ has nothing to do with me at all. Did you know that there are 491,550 words of Revelation in the Old Testament and only 119,000 in the New? If we take out the Gospels and the transition book of Acts, that leaves us, as well as the prophecy of Revelation, with only 26,000 words of New Testament epistles or letters written directly to us. A great portion of his word, his revelation of himself to us, is not about me. 

I think this is one of the greatest obstacles to our growth and sanctification in the church in America in the 21st century, and one of the greatest challenges to our Bible interpretation. We tend to try to apply everything to ourselves. It is about me. What does this mean to me? What do I get out of this? When our pursuit and our focus should be about knowing God, knowing Jesus, what does this say about him? What does this teach me about my God and my Savior? 

So why do we study prophecy? To know God, who he is, his precision and accuracy in his word, his promises, his faithfulness, his sovereignty and providence, his justice and mercy and love, his assurance for us, for the future. How do we approach this massive subject to try to cut the pieces straight, fit them together? We go to his word. 

You know, there's a lot of error out there in this realm, a lot of sensationalism and misunderstanding and misdirection, but almost worse than all these things is the most prevalent spiritualizing away of God's word. We need to go to God's word to understand. We need to believe what he says. Spend your life, your time, your thoughts and meditations on his word, on him. Put all the pieces together. Do you want to know him? Do you want to know the truth? It's going to take some effort. It's a process. 

He teaches us, matures and grows us as we spend time in his word, studying, coming to a fuller understanding, appreciating his goodness, the wonder of who he is and how overwhelming and profound our God is and the love and grace he's bestowed on us in his son. It's much like everything else in life. If you want to truly master something, truly understand something, it takes passion and effort and desire and time. And this is true with knowing God through his word as well. 

The question is, what is my desire? We may think our true desire is something else: recreation, success in business, sports, money, prestige. We may think our desire is many things, but I think God brings all these things to naught. He will in time, in growth, take away those affections that come before him. We may be distracted in the busyness of our lives. Many are distracted. That is evident. But our true desire that God has placed in our new hearts is to know him. It's good for us to come to realize this. The sooner, the better for our sake and for his glory. 

And I just want to encourage you this morning, you who are in Christ, that God has written these things to reveal himself to us. They do mean what they say. These are prophecies and promises from God. You can know them, understand them, and rightly divide them if you simply study and read and ponder and choose to believe. God's word is a wonderful tapestry that gives us the beautiful picture of who he is. 

Paul writes in Timothy, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” So many, when confronted with this topic of prophecy, as we are in our text, will throw up their hands and say, “I cannot know this or understand these things. No one really knows these things,” or worse yet, “they don't really matter.” 

I understand and believe that there are truths in the new covenant about who we are in Christ, what it means to walk in the spirit or abide in Christ that are vitally important to our fruit, to our lives, and these things should be at the forefront of our minds all the time. But it's not that we have to choose one over the other. We can know God through every part of his word, rightly understood. 

My brother, my sister in Christ, you can know and understand God's revelation concerning prophecy, but you must go to the word to see what God says. We have to shut out all the noise, the sensationalists, the book and movie sellers. Don't go there to get your theology. We have to reject those who spiritualize text with no historical or grammatical or textual reason to do so. We need to see what God says, study to put the pieces together and choose to believe him, and we need to be humble because I got a lot of questions, right? That's okay. I'm learning all the time. I'm learning new things about Romans 6 right now. Can you believe that after all these years? We're learning all the time. 

So please be encouraged as we begin our study of prophecy in the book of Daniel. There are many areas in this study where there's ample room for humility, no doubt, but God gave us these things that we might know him and that we might know the things that are to come after this, and we have the Holy Spirit and we trust him to guide us as we immerse our hearts and our minds in his revealed word. 

So we're not going to get very far in our study today, but we're in no hurry. I want to read some verses with you in Daniel 2 beginning at verse 31. “You, O king, were watching, and behold, a great image, this great image whose splendor was excellent, stood before you, and its form was awesome. This image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found, and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” 

This is a dream. “Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wherever the children of men dwell or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, he has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, and as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. 

Whereas you saw the feet and toes partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. 

And in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. And as much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure." 

Well, I've given you four points, we're really only going to get to the first one, but after this, our understanding, the four kingdoms, Thy kingdom come and those who bless you. 

We noted in the introduction that these prophecies, visions that Daniel interprets throughout the book, concern those things which will take place after this, what will be. It is our conviction that at the heart of these things that will yet be, some of which have now been fulfilled, as we said that were yet fulfilled for future to Daniel, but have come to pass through history, and some of which are yet to be fulfilled in the time of what the Bible calls the day of the Lord. 

It's our conviction, and I speak for the elders here at Living Hope Church, we believe through the study of God's word that the heart of these events is the nation of Israel. In Daniel 9, in his prophecy, it says, “70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city.” What I want you to notice is that these prophecies are for Israel and concern Jerusalem. 

When I was working through this chapter, this dream and its interpretation, I thought, well, we go through the four kingdoms and there's really no debate on that, and then you get to this rock that's cut out with hands, and it fills the whole earth, and now here we have this massive division of understanding. And that's why I wanted to take some time the next couple weeks to kind of come to that point of understanding through the scriptures, why we come there, because there is a great divergence between two schools of thought there. 

The four kingdoms that Nebuchadnezzar's vision concern are kingdoms that rule the world in succession and rule over Israel. All of the revelation we have about them in the Old Testament prophets tell us about their relationship to Israel and Jerusalem. The time of Nebuchadnezzar, the head of gold, the Babylonian Empire, which takes Judah captive, tramples Jerusalem and destroys it. This kingdom begins with what Jesus called the times of the Gentiles, and this domination of Israel is the focus all the way through these prophecies until Jesus comes to set up His kingdom on this earth, the stone cut out without hands who destroys all the kingdoms of the earth and sets up a kingdom which fills the whole earth. 

And notice it says the earth. We see this again and again and again, that this is going to happen on the earth, that these are physical kingdoms that rule over the earth. We have some interesting revelation on this in the New Testament as well in Hebrews chapter 2. If you'd turn to Hebrews chapter 2 with me please. 

Hebrews 2:5, “For He has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels, but one testified in a certain place, saying, ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him, but we see Jesus.’” 

The context and intent of the author here is to show Jesus as better than angels and his broader intent to show the new covenant better than the old, but his line of argument here as evidence is instructive for us. He says God has not put the oikumene, the inhabited earth, and he says it's an inhabited earth which is yet to come. He has not put it in subjection to angels. 

So what he's telling us is there is an inhabited earth yet to come. In the original creation, God set Adam, he's talking about man here throughout this text, God set Adam, man, over the works of his hands to be a steward over creation, God's man on earth to have dominion and rule and reign in a theocracy. That was God's intent in creation. But the author of Hebrews says this is not what we see now. Because of the fall, the creation rules over man. Try to farm in the UP, you'll understand that, right? And Satan is the god of this age. Everything is upside down, turned over from what God intended. 

And then he says, but we see Jesus. Jesus is the hope of the restoration of God's creative intent. God will have his will done on earth as it is in heaven. He will have a kingdom on this earth, the inhabited earth to come, and Jesus will stand in the place of Adam to rule and reign in a true theocracy on this earth. 

So this is part of God's future plan represented in our text by the stone which will crush all the kingdoms and establish his kingdom filling the whole earth. Because this is such a massive and pervasive topic in the whole of the scriptures, I think it's necessary for us to go back and establish some foundations of understanding before we look forward in our text and study these prophecies, including this very general kind of summary prophecy in our text of the times of the Gentiles and the coming kingdom of Christ on this earth. 

That's my intention, as I said, to spend the next couple of messages laying that foundation, giving us a broad scope of the prophecy and God's revelation to us about what's yet to come, and then we can go back and study these verses in detail. But before we kind of wrap up our thoughts here, I want to go another direction in Revelation chapter 5. 

Revelation chapter 5, and what we see in general in the night vision of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel's interpretation of it, is a progression of history from the very day of Babylon's reign through the kingdoms that would come after him, including Medo-Persia, Greece under Alexander the Great, the great kingdom of Iron Rome, and all history playing out in the plan and purpose of God until the coming kingdom that He will bring on earth, which Jesus will rule and reign on the throne of David. 

That inhabited earth yet to come, that which Jesus spoke of when He said, “they will all fall by the edge of the sword in Luke 21, they'll be led away captive to all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” 

Well, the book of Revelation is parallel to the book of Daniel in many ways, and Revelation chapter 5 gives us, I think, a solid understanding of the unfolding of the rest of the revelation given to John. In Revelation 5, verse 1, he says, “I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?’ And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.’ And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.” 

Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll, to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.” 

Notice here, this is the fourth scripture we've looked at this morning concerning this time that says the kingdom will occur on the earth, verse 11. “Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’ And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all are in them, I heard saying, ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever.’ Then the four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever.” 

So here we see that there's a scroll, and this scroll is sealed with seven seals. It was written on both sides, and the way such a scroll would be sealed is that it would be rolled a bit and sealed and then rolled a bit and sealed and rolled a bit, and then it would be all the way rolled up and set with a final seal. So what we see as we progress through the book of Revelation is an opening of each of these seals and the judgment that comes forth from God. 

So when you think about the trumpet judgments, the vial judgments, the bowl judgments, what each of these things are is an opening of a seal, an unveiling of what is written and poured out on the earth in judgment. So what's the purpose of all this? The scroll has been understood as the title deed to the earth. In other words, only Jesus is worthy to open the scroll and reveal its judgments. Only Jesus has the right to rule and reign over the earth. This creation, all of heaven and earth, belongs to Jesus. Only he is fit to rule over it. 

We do not now see God's creative intent fulfilled on the earth. Things are upside down, but we see Jesus. What we see in the unrolling of the scroll, the lifting of the seals, and the rest of the book of the Revelation is the unfolding plan of God whereby Jesus takes back what is rightly his and establishes his kingdom and rule and reign on the earth. This is an end to the day of man, and it is the beginning of the day of the Lord. 

You know, in the religious system that I grew up in, we never ever had anything about the details of prophecy or what was yet to come from the Bible, from all that God has written and revealed to us in his word. The basic understanding was that we're just all going to go along our way, living our lives, and one day, out of the blue, Jesus will show up and then it will be heaven. That's all I ever understood. 

There's no process, there's no time of the unfolding events whereby God's judgment is poured out and his kingdom is established, his rightful rule is taken back over his creation. There's no fulfillment of God's will on earth, no fulfillment of his original creative intent, no kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. And certainly, there's no future plan for the nation of Israel in this. And yet we have multitudes of scriptures, amazing amounts of revelation laying out in detail in precise times and successional events the unfolding of God's plan to establish his righteous reign and rule on the earth as he fulfills his creative intent and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. 

So what I have found in agonizing over these scriptures for years and years, studying, seeking to know what God says, trying to cut the pieces straight and put them together, is that the day of the Lord is a very specific process meant to accomplish God's will and establish the theocracy on earth that he always intended. And the day of the Lord, in one sense, is not just one day, it's a broad scope, but includes a multitude of events over a great expanse of time as God judges and establishes his righteous rule and reign for his purposes. 

All of this is encompassed in the promise of the vision of Nebuchadnezzar and the subsequent visions to come in the book of Daniel, as we see the stone that's cut out without hands and destroys all the kingdoms and establishes a kingdom filling the whole earth. We see this in 2 Peter 3. I'd like to give you this passage to ponder concerning the day of the Lord as we look forward to more in-depth study of this topic. 

We see the day of the Lord prophesied at least 32 times in the Old Testament prophets, sometimes in temporal fulfillment and God's dealings with Israel in those days, but in every prophet, a future final fulfillment when Jesus comes a second time and establishes his kingdom. This day is spoken of as a day of judgment and wrath. We see this also in a couple of rare appearances in the New Testament in Acts 2 where Peter quotes Joel, in the text we'll read in 2 Peter 3 in a moment, and 1 Thessalonians 5 where Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians 5:1, “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness; therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation, for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep (that's an allusion back to chapter 4 concerning saints who had died, or saints who remain alive until the coming of the Lord), it says we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you are also doing.” 

Well, here we see that the day of the Lord is yet future in Paul's writing, that the day, again, will entail the judgment of the earth and the nations and the taking back of the righteous rule of God over His creation. And we see laid out in the book of Revelation as we go through that, subsequent to chapter 5. 

So this is a time of judgment and wrath, of destruction, of the rule and reign of Satan on this earth, of a lifting of the curse and establishing God's kingdom on earth. These are all things that we see concerning the day of the Lord, but look with me at what Peter writes in 2 Peter 3. 

2 Peter 3:1, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lust, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’ We hear that today, right? Jesus isn't coming. Where is He? It's been 2,000 years. He hasn't come. For this they willfully forget. By the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 

Now if you go back to verse 4, he said, “All things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” You could do the Groucho Marx, right? We have the $50 word here. What's the word for that? Uniformitarianism. All things continue as they were from the beginning. There's no cataclysm. There's no change. My father-in-law always tells me about the stock market. Just put your money in the stock market, it just keeps going. It's never going to change. It keeps going. You won't have to worry about it. It's always going to yield 10% over time. That's the uniformitarianism idea. They're saying nothing has changed since the creation. Jesus is not coming. There's been no calamity. 

And Peter says, “You kind of forgot the flood.” Verse 8, “But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not... concerning his promise. As some count slackness, why is he not come? He's long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come, the day of the Lord will come, he says, as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise; the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. 

Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” So here we see something very interesting about the day of the Lord. We don't see it in the New Testament, we never see it applied to the church, we see it 32 times in the Old Testament, but in 2nd Peter 3:10 it says the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and then it says, in which, you see those two words, in which, in which the heavens will pass away. 

And so forth. Peter tells us that in the course of the day of the Lord that we will see not only the judgments and wrath of God poured out on the earth and its kingdoms and false religion and so forth as described in the unsealing of the scroll in Revelation, not only will we see an inhabited earth yet to come in Christ's kingdom, but we will also see the dissolving of this present heavens and earth and the creation of a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 

The day of the Lord is not just some random day coming out of nowhere. It is described in great detail in the dozens of prophecies found in God's Word as the process by which God will take back the rightful rule over his creation, will establish a kingdom on earth, and finally create a new heavens and a new earth where we will dwell for eternity. 

So the day of the Lord is darkness and judgment for unrighteous men who will not repent and believe Jesus, but my brother, my sister in Christ, it's also light and promise and hope and justice and righteousness for those who believe. 

When it comes to prophecy in the Bible, we have a choice. We don't know everything, we don't have all the answers, but God said he gave us his Word that we might know him. Jesus says that it is by his Word, his truth, that we are sanctified. Paul wrote that the Old Testament was given for our example and our instruction. 

We can throw up our hands and say, “There's really no way to understand these things.” We can say these things don't really matter. We can spiritualize away everything that doesn't fit our system, or we can believe what God says in his Word, that my greatest desire that he has put in my heart is to know him, and that I can know him by his Word, all of his Word. I can learn about him and who he is. 

As Mark was talking about this morning, we see so prevalent in the book of Daniel about his sovereignty and his providence, that I can trust him, that he has things under control. I don't need to sweat the details, right? I can focus on him. I can enjoy him. I can be fruitful for his glory in my life. I can be a witness. We're going to take the next couple of weeks, Lord willing, to try to put some pieces together and better understand the prediction, promises, and prophecies that God gives us so that we might understand and know and believe the things that will come after this. That's what Daniel is talking about, what will come after this and what that means to his people in the context of the book of Daniel. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the simplicity that is in Christ for the gospel. Thank you for the new covenant in which we live, the great blessing that we have in regeneration and the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and thank you that you continually teach us and grow us and make us more like Jesus. 

Help us, Lord, just to be humble and to go to your Word and to see what you say. Help us to have wisdom and discernment that we might know you through your truth revealed to us, and that we might have hope and be confident in our assurance of things yet to come, and that you are in control and you're working out your plan and you will establish your promises. 

It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 

Okay, thoughts, questions, kind of at a general point right now. 

Yes, Mitch. 

He really has to fix it, doesn't he? He really has to straighten it out. And then what we read is that it's about, he's going to do that by destroying it. Right, and he will, yes. So that's a great solace to this, and really that's a great lesson as we looked at in the first couple of messages on the book of Daniel, because he was in such a bad place, so much worse than we have any concept of, and yet he was still able to just trust God and God was able to work out his will through his life. 

So that is an affirming, encouraging message. But the wonderful thing is, as I was looking out the window today, I saw the ghosts coming up early in the morning, morning ghosts, some people say, or a song of morning birds. These are the first things to come in. And I looked up there and I saw these beautiful clouds rolling up, and I said, do I really desire that? Do I really desire that? You have paradise waiting for us, and we're wanting these things. And I know it's difficult because you really should have carried the money, but I'm just saying, God gives us that picture out there just to show us, you know, the glimpse of things that are down to the opposite of Daniel, to the word. 

Paradise is, and always is, paradise. It's not here, but our desire, our heart is where we have to go. We love Jesus so much that this very day, before we even go out that door, take us there. That's why we're studying this. 

Praise you, Jesus, and thank you that we can get to work with God each day. Believe me, it's difficult for me. I'm talking to the mirror right now. There's no memory. His blood is the only thing that paid our price. 

Yeah. 

Yeah, like Peter says, set your hope fully, right, on the glory that will be revealed that is coming. So we're to set our hope fully on that. And I don't know if it's just because I'm getting older, losing testosterone or whatever, but I don't have any great affections to do or be. I told Bobby the other day, I can just be here for you now. Because I'm not trying to accomplish anything anymore. 

You know, I don't have any delusions of grandeur. And my affection is on Jesus. My desire is to know Him and to live for Him. And you realize that's so much more fulfilling than killing 10,000 beaver, you know? But at one time, I thought that was it. So I wish I'd have learned that a little earlier. Thanks, Don. 

Son of the beaver. 

I'm just wondering what you're saying. That's a good question, Mae. Just the idea of the word prophecy and what it means. So the word prophecy means to speak forth. So even in the Old Testament, much of what we read in the prophets wasn't them telling the future. It was them speaking forth the word of God. So there is a sense in the term prophecy that is a foretelling. 

But there's also the gift of prophecy that we see in the church today, which is a speaking forth of the truth or of God's word. It's not telling the future. So that's the predominant meaning of the word, really, in the scriptures. But as far as prophets today in that sense, I don't believe that that's in existence in the church today. I think Mark 16 and Hebrews 2 both speak to that, as to the purpose of those miraculous things that occurred through the book of Acts and so forth, that God was witnessing with those, his messengers, to show that what they were saying was true and that that came to an end with the completion of the revelation. 

So in other words, if you tell me something today or if a prophet comes claiming to be a prophet or just speaking the word of God, I can go to this book and determine if what you says is true. And that's what I have to do either way. I can't know apart from that. 

So because we have the completed revelation, which Paul and Peter didn't have, it says in Hebrews 2 and in Mark 16 that God gave those signs and wonders to show that those men were speaking his truth. Does that make sense? And ultimately, what good would a prophecy do me today? Because if you tell me something, then what do I have to do? I have to go to the word of God and see if what you said is true, right? 

Well, I already have the word of God, so I have really no need for a prophet. And for the purpose of witnessing, it's interesting in 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul says to desire prophecy and not tongues. And certainly not to have the confusion. And we see a perversion of that even today in the word faith and that kind of thing. But like in Pentecost, the speaking in tongues was known languages for the purpose of witnessing or understanding the gospel. 

The way I think about it is I'm not putting God in a box. If there's a need for that and he chooses to do that on a mission field or something like that, certainly he can do whatever he wants. But as a rule in the church today, I don't see those gifts as necessary. They've served their purpose. 

Okay, anything else? No hard questions? Not yet. That's right. I want to plant a seed just before we go home. Something in my studies just recently on this, when we think, because I see, I don't know, I kind of go back and forth on this and debate what's going on. 

But if you're like me, you see a lot of things, whether that be on social media or through preachers or whatever. But there's a lot of talk lately about some of these issues. I'm trying just to go to the word, but what I've come to understand, more so of late, is that my New Testament theology largely dictates how I see the whole of prophecy and how I interpret something like Daniel. 

So in other words, my understanding of the church, what it is, or my understanding of Israel, will largely dictate how I understand a lot of these things we're studying. So that's kind of where I want to start next week, but think about that a little bit. 

One other thing I would say with that, maybe lay this out more clearly, but just one quick example. When we think about what it is, you hear people say from Genesis 12, those who bless you, speaking of Israel or Abraham in particular there, God will bless you if you curse, he'll curse you. Or to pray for the peace of Jerusalem type of thing. 

Israel, and I think that's really been manipulated. What does it mean, and I look to God's Word and we'll look at several examples in this, but think about just what we studied in the first chapter of Daniel, about how God and His sovereignty was taking down Assyria and Egypt as the world powers and establishing Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. And you remember when Pharaoh Necho, we can read this in 2nd Chronicles, 2nd Kings, when Pharaoh Necho was coming to fight at Carchemish, then Josiah, right, I never can remember the right king, Josiah, king of Jerusalem, came out and wanted to fight against him, right? 

And what did Necho say? He said, God has sent me and you need to get out of the way because this isn't your business. And what did Josiah do? Josiah disguised himself and went out and fought against Necho anyway. 

Well, see, God was working in all this, right? So he was killed. So let me just give you this thought. If being for Israel, because we believe God is for Israel, certainly in the context of Daniel, right, being for Israel means to support their government militarily, then if I would have joined up with Necho, or I mean, if I would have joined up with Josiah at that point, what would I have been doing? Fighting against God. You see that? 

We could see the same thing with Jesus in his time in the Pharisees. We can see it with Stephen being stoned. So what does it mean to be for Israel? It means to be for their salvation. Why has God taken them into captivity in Babylon and really destroyed Jerusalem? They were in Egypt, they were in Babylon, they're gonna be under Medo-Persia, they're gonna, all this time the agenda, what's he doing in all that? 

What does it mean to be for Israel? It means to be for their salvation. It means being for the accomplishment of God's will concerning that nation. So things can get, especially if you're watching, you know, pundits or preachers, go to the Word and think about what it means. 

When Jesus said, “I've longed to gather you under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks,” but you were not willing, really speaking to the leaders of Israel, what was he saying? He wanted them to come to him in faith and be saved. That doesn't mean that to be for Israel means everything they do is great. Guess what? This book shows us everything they do isn't great, right? 

So hopefully we come to a little better understanding of some of that. Thank you for your patience and we'll look forward to next week. Have a good week. 

You mean wash your hands of the argument is what you mean, Mike, right? I'm not sure that's worth arguing over. I think it's something we need to sort out in the context of prophecy and what's to come and what God's doing and why from the Word of God. But the problem with that, you know what I thought when I first got saved I had this, I've got a brother, I've got a Romans 1 brother and a Romans 2 brother, right? 

So my Romans 1 brother, I mean, just a lot of trouble, and I thought he'd be easy to witness to. But my Romans 2 brother, he's done everything right his whole life, religious guy, he's never, well, my Romans 2 brother got saved, my Romans 1 brother still hasn't. But I thought at one point politics would be a good avenue to explain this. That's how dumb I was at one point. 

Here's the problem with that, Mike. The Republicans and the Democrats, neither one are righteous, neither one are perfect, neither one are truth, right? The Palestinians and Israelis, neither one are righteous, neither one are. Israel's apostate, they're atheists for the most part. I mean, so this whole, there's extremes, there's always extremes, right? Confusing the truth. So you have on this one side the Baptist line, if Israel's, yeah, if you do you, whatever Israel does it's right, and I support Israel no matter what. 

That's not scriptural in the sense of sending military aid to the nation today, see what I'm saying? But being for the salvation of the Jews, being for the fulfillment of God's plans, those kind of things. So yeah, I think that argument is futile, because you're not arguing from a point of truth. Stay with the Word of God, stay with the gospel, stay with what is absolutely true, and what he needs for salvation. 

If I had to convince my brother that the Republicans were better than the Democrats 20 years ago, that wouldn't have helped his salvation. 

Yes. 

I think what it means to be for Israel is to be for their salvation and for the fulfillment of God's plans concerning them, which I believe he has. That's what I believe. That's what we see, I was gonna kind of lay this out next week, but that's what we see with Jesus. He wasn't for the Pharisees, he wasn't for the Sanhedrin, right? He was for the salvation of the nation. 

So what we see with Stephen, right? Stephen, they're stoning him, was he for the rocks being thrown against his head unjustly? No, but what'd he say at the end? Don't hold this against them, right? Forgive them. He was for their salvation. That's what we see with Paul. What does Paul say in Romans 9? He says, I myself would be accursed, I would go to hell for eternity if my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh could be saved. That doesn't mean he was trying to change the politics, or bring social justice, or be for this government, not that government. That wasn't his concern. 

So that's how I understand it. Okay, go home.