We have a great privilege this morning to begin our study in the book of Daniel. So if you will turn there, I would like to offer an introduction this morning. I hope it won't be the most boring sermon you've ever heard, but it is necessary to build the right foundation. I might add that the fore view of human history that is revealed in Daniel's prophecies, not only shed light on the contemporary issues that we see in our world today, but they also animate our hope that the Lord's return could be real soon. So bear that in mind, and I trust your heart is prepared to receive the Word this morning. Let me just read the first six verses. Daniel one beginning in verse one. "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his God. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence and every branch of wisdom endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge and who had ability for serving in the king's court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king appointed them a daily ration from the king's choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to enter the king's personal service. Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah."

Do you ever wonder why the Jewish people have been and continue to be the most hated and persecuted people on the planet? Why does Satan have such a vendetta against the Jews? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever wondered how the Jewish people could rise from the ashes of the Nazi Holocaust to become the most dominant military power in the Middle East, and one of the most powerful militaries and political states in all of the world? How could that happen? You ever wonder how such a little country about the size of New Jersey, 9000 square miles, with a population of only 9.8 million can survive against the overwhelming numbers of their enemies all around them? Is that not curious to you? You ever wonder how they could survive when they are surrounded by 22 Arab countries occupying 5 million square miles composed of 200 million people. And all of them aligned with all of the Muslim nations of the world, which consists of about 1.8 billion people. Nations that occupy lands that are 672 times the size of miniscule Israel. Dr. David Larsen said, quote, "Abraham purchased burial in Hebron 4000 years ago, and the Jews are still there." He went on to add, "How have the Jews, virtually alone, avoided genetic regression of IQ and achievement and been successful for 4000 years? The Hittites and the Canaanites are all gone. But the Jews are like Jonah, the stubborn Prophet, tossed out into the swirling and stormy seas, ostensibly consumed by the great fish, but ingested, then vomited upon the land once again." You ever wonder why, for 3000 years, Jerusalem, which means "the city of peace" has been a city of unparalleled war and bloodshed? One in which the Lord said in Zechariah 12, three, "a heavy stone for all the peoples," and he added, "all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it." You ever wonder why the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is the most disputed piece of real estate in all of the world? You ever wonder what's going to happen to our country, to the great military powers of Russia and China and other nations? You ever wonder about the coming Antichrist of Bible prophecy? And how his rule fits into what we're seeing today with the rise of totalitarianism and globalism and ecumenism and apostate Christianity. You ever wonder what's going to happen on earth just prior to the Lord's return? Well, dear friends, these topics and many others will be addressed as we study the book of Daniel and other ancillary biblical passages. One of evangelicalism's most prominent 20th century theologians Dr. John Walfvoord, the former president of Dallas Theological Seminary, and a friend of our family, he used to come to our house and we used to play pool together and talk about Bible prophecy when I was a young man. He's gone home to be with the Lord now, but here's what he said, quote, "In many respects, the book of Daniel is the most comprehensive prophetic revelation of the Old Testament, giving the only total view of world history from Babylon to the Second Advent of Christ and inner relating Gentile history and prophecy, concerning Israel. Daniel provides the key to the overall interpretation of prophecy is a major element in Premillennialism and is essential to the interpretation of the book of Revelation. Its revelation of the sovereignty and power of God has brought assurance to Jew and Gentile alike, that God will fulfill His sovereign purposes in time and eternity."

Dear friends, today we embark upon a journey of the one of the most fascinating books in all of the Bible written under the inspiration of the Spirit. By one of God's choice servants, the prophet Daniel, whose name by the way, means "God is my judge." Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 15, "When you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken up through Daniel, the prophet, standing in the holy place," and in parentheses he added, "(let the reader understand)," And I might say that's exactly what we are going to attempt to do; understand what Daniel and the other prophets have said concerning what is going to come upon the earth. You need to understand that Daniel is to the Old Testament, what the book of Revelation is to the New Testament. In fact, Daniel is the interpretive key in understanding Jesus' Olivet Discourse, in Matthew 24 and 25. And we will witness obvious parallels between Daniel's prophecies and other New Testament prophecies.

One of my favorite seminary professors, Dr. John C. Whitcomb wrote this, and I believe you have this in your bulletin, as he compares what we see in Daniel and other passages. He says, "No one who has reverently studied the book of Daniel, in the context of the completed scriptures, can deny the crucial contribution of this book to God's complete prophetic revelation. Our Lord spoke often of the Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew five, three, we also see it in Daniel 2:44, and of himself as the Son of Man, Matthew 26:64. Also in Daniel 7:13 through 14. Looking toward his second coming to the earth, he referred to "a great tribulation such has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now," Matthew 24:21. We see it as well in Daniel 12, one and two, "the abomination of desolation that will stand in the temple," Matthew 24:15, but also Daniel 9:27 and chapter 12, verse 11. The Apostle Paul also referred to this work of "the man of lawlessness," Second Thessalonians, two, three through four. We see it as well in Daniel 7:25, and chapter 11:36 through 39, but rejoice that someday the saints will judge the world. First Corinthians six, two, but also in Daniel 7:18, 22, and 27." Finally, Dr. Whitcomb says, "The chronological structure and much of the symbolism of Revelation six through 19 build upon the book of Daniel. We see this in Revelation 13, one through two, chapter 17, verses three and 12. And also in Daniel seven, three through 27, 9:27 11:36 through 39, and 12, one through seven."

Here, dear friends, we are going to marvel at the sovereignty and the power of our God. And as we look at the text, we will see how, through Daniel's prophecy, God reveals the successive stages of Gentile world domination through the ages, until the coming of Messiah, when the Lord our Savior, and King returns in power and great glory as King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, when he judges the nations and he defeats them, and he establishes His glorious Millennial Kingdom is universal reign over the earth. That day in which he fulfills his physical, as well as spiritual promises, to regenerated Israel. That day in which we too shall reign with Him.

Now, the book can be divided into very basic general parts. In chapters one through seven, the inspired prophet will reveal God's sovereign rule over history. His rule over all of the nations, even the ones that exist today. His rule over those who lead them. In fact, Daniel, two and seven reveal how God will one day unexpectedly and astonishingly establish his kingdom, after the ruin of four literal successive Gentile Empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. And just as these four kingdoms are literal kingdoms, so too, the coming, messianic kingdom that will destroy them, and replace them, will be a real geographical and political kingdom. And then in chapters eight through 12, we will see God's sovereign rule over Israel's future. There he will unveil his kingdom purposes both during and after Gentile domination in the world; what we read in Scripture as "the times of the Gentiles" that we are living in right now, and we will see how his kingdom promises apply also to Gentiles, like us, probably like most all of us. And I'm thankful that that is true, because, as the Apostle Paul said, in Ephesians 2:11, "we were strangers to God's covenants" we, according to Romans 11:24, are "the wild olive branches" that have been grafted into the spiritual tree of Abrahamic and Davidic and new covenant blessings. Today, ethnic Israel is experiencing a temporary and partial hardening as a consequence of God's judgment upon them. And today, the church has temporarily replaced Israel as the custodian of divine truth and many Gentiles are being saved. But as we will see a remnant of believing Israelites have been preserved; a preview of God's faithfulness to save the nation as a whole, as promised in Romans 11, beginning in verse 25, where the apostle Paul says, to the Gentiles, "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery--so that you will not be wise in your own estimation--that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved just as it is written, 'THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB. THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.' From the standpoint of the gospel, they're enemies for your sake. But from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." In Daniel, we will find profound encouragement, as believers, to see God in control of his universe, and of all of history. And certainly it was a profound encouragement to the ancient Jews and in exile in Babylon, and frankly, throughout their weary sojourn. And here we will witness the miracle of divine providence, as God orchestrates all of the events, all of the contingencies of human history to ultimately accomplish his purposes in bringing glory to himself. Because God intends to do two primary things, one to exalt Christ as Savior and King, but also to redeem His people. And all through Scripture, we see Christ both as lion as well as lamb. And he will indeed redeem all that the Father who has given him according to Revelation seven, beginning of verse nine, "A great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches, were in their hands, and they cry out with a loud voice saying 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'"

Oh, dear child of God, what a gift we have in His Word, in his prophetic word. What comfort we can gain as we look at Scripture, especially in light of all of the chaos we see all around us, knowing that there is absolutely nothing that escapes his notice, because there is nothing hidden from his site. Moreover, nothing thwarts his purposes because no power exists, apart from his authority, apart from his permission, and all that He has promised Israel, all that He has promised the church, all that He has promised to you and to me will come to pass. Today, we know that the world laughs at the gospel, laughs at Bible prophecy. People scoff at the idea of God's judgment because they have no fear of God. And they mock anyone who claims that Jesus is coming again. But our response must be like that of Peter's. As we read in Second Peter three, beginning in verse three, "Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For ever, since the fathers fell asleep all continues, just as it was from the beginning of creation.'" To which Peter responds, "For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, with the Lord one day is like 1000 years and 1000 years, like one day. the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but as patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all, to come to repentance."

To be sure, as we examine the prophecies of Daniel, our faith will be fortified, and our souls will be blessed. Moreover, we must understand that that Bible prophecy is one of the greatest evidences of the inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture. In fact, we read in Second Peter one, verse nineteen that, "we have the prophetic word," referring to the entire Old Testament and by extension, all of Scripture, "made more sure," in that context, more sure than just personal experiences, "to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." John MacArthur said quote, "It is said that future predictive prophecy occupies 1/5 of Scripture, not a small amount. Of that 1/5 of Scripture which is predictive prophecy, 1/3 of that speaks of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, to judge sinners and to reward and reign with the righteous. So 1/3 of the 1/5 is focused on the second coming of Jesus Christ." He went on to add, "There are about 660 General prophecies in the Bible, half of them are about Jesus Christ. Of the 330 that are about Christ, 110 of them are about His first coming, and 220 of them are about His Second Coming. So there is a huge amount of Scripture that focuses on the second coming of Christ. Another sort of statistical way to look at the importance of this subject is out of the 46 Old Testament prophets, 10 of them spoke of matters related to His first coming, but 36 of them spoke of matters related to His second coming. Someone has estimated that over 1500 verses in the Old Testament look to the return of the Messiah in glory and judgment. One out of every 25 verses in the New Testament relates to Christ's return. For every time Christ mentions His first coming, he mentions His second coming eight times. That is, every time the New Testament mentions His first coming, it mentions His second coming eight times." And then he closes the section saying, "Our Lord referred to it 20 times, and there are over 50 times in the New Testament, we are warned that He is coming." Indeed dear friends, Jesus is coming as he has promised in His Word.

So with this introduction, let's establish a bit of the context of what God is going to reveal to us maybe a good way of doing that is imagine something that might not be too far-fetched. Imagine China coming to the United States and defeating the nation. And suddenly you and many of your family and friends have been killed. You've been taken from your homes. Calvary Bible Church, in terms of its building structure and facilities no longer exists. And some of you are taken away to China. You don't know the language, you don't know the culture, you don't know the people, and you are forced to submit to what they believe. That's basically what happened to Daniel with Babylon. We learn from Deuteronomy 28 that when God settled the tribes of Israel in the Promised Land, he promised to bless them if they were obedient and curse them if they rebelled against him. Well, we all know that, sadly, they were unfaithful. And as we look at the Old Testament, especially in the days of the judges, for example, in Judges three through chapter 16, we see a continuous cycle of apostasy, and then judgment, and then restoration and repentance, and then it would start over again. And while the rule of King David was characterized primarily by obedience and God's blessings, we know that Solomon eventually, quote, "turned away from the Lord," which triggered God's judgment once again. And this continued, despite all of the warnings of the prophets until the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 BCE. Then a little over 100 years later, the same fate befell the southern kingdom of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians. And it's so sad for many years, the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah warned Judah, of the coming judgment. If they refuse to repent of their idolatry and their immorality and their hypocrisy and their injustice and their greed, and on and on and on, but they scoffed at the prophets even though they knew what had happened to the northern kingdom in 722 BC. It's astounding. And gradually, we know historically that Assyria's power began to wane until it succumbed to the powerful and brutal forces of Babylonia. And then in the spring of 605 BC, we know that that Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian forces fought against the Egyptians and what was left of the Assyrian Empire at Carchemish. And the Babylonians defeated them and then just a few months later, they invaded Judah, and subdued them. And dear friends, it was at this time that Daniel and his friends were exiled to Babylon. And then later because of Judah's continued rebellion, eight years later in 597, Nebuchadnezzar once again came upon Judah, forced another 10,000 leading citizens to come to Babylon. You can read about that in Second Kings 24:11 through 16. That included by the way, the prophet Ezekiel, let me read you a little about that surrender in Second Kings 24, beginning in verse 12, "Jehoiachin, the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his officials. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. He carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the Lord, just as the Lord had said. Then he led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. So he led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon, also the king's mother and the king's wives and his officials and the leading men of the land, he led away into exile from Jerusalem, to Babylon. All the men of valor, 7000 and the craftsman and the smiths, 1000, all strong and fit for war, and these, the king of Babylon brought into exile to Babylon."

And then there was a third coming of Nebuchadnezzar to Judah that happened in 586 BC when he once again, because of the rebellion, came back and he utterly destroyed Jerusalem and made them a province of Babylonia. And that destruction included the demolition of Solomon's temple, which many times we call the first temple. That magnificent structure that was 20 stories high, a structure that took 150,000 men, many years to build. And according to First Kings 10 in verse 14, we know that it's wall and floor were overlaid with pure gold amounting to 666 talents, that's 25 tons of gold. I had to get out my calculator, see what the price of gold is and get some idea of what that would be worth today, that would be worth approximately $1.2 billion. Folks, so you get the idea that God is serious about His holiness. He is serious about his word, he is serious about his will, and he will judge those who rebel against Him.

Dave Harrell

So in summary, in 605 BC, Nebuchadnezzar pillaged the temple and took the articles to Babylon where he placed them in the Babylonian temple at Shinar. You read about that in Second Chronicles 36, seven. And then again in 598 and seven BC, he returns and he further plunders the treasures of the temple. That's the Second Kings 24 and Second Chronicles 36 and seven, you read about that. And then finally, in 586 BCE, he invades Jerusalem a third time, and utterly destroys it and the temple. And later as we study the book, we will learn from Daniel chapter nine, how in 538 BC, Daniel prayed for Jerusalem, and prayed for the temple to be restored. And in that context, he received the prophecy of the 70 weeks concerning the Messiah's death in Jerusalem. That was fulfilled precisely to the day. He also prophesied in that context, the destruction of the Second Temple, which was the one built by Ezra and Nehemiah sometimes called Zerubbabel's temple, and the one that Herod expanded upon in the first century, and he also prophesied its future rebuilding and desecration under the rule of the coming Antichrist. In that context, he also revealed to him the defiling of that future second temple that would occur at the hands of Antiochus Epiphanes and the replacement, or I should say the placement of a statue of Zeus in the holy place in the temple. You read about that in Daniel 11:31.

Now, I want you to understand that when Daniel first came, he spent eight years in captivity before the first Judeans arrived in 597 BCE. And he spent 19 years before the final group came in 586 BC. And as we look at the whole book, we will see that Daniel bridges the entire 70 years of Babylonian captivity. Now, Daniel and his three close friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, were about 15 years old when they were taken captive. Daniel was from royal descent, as we read in Daniel one and verse three. And given the remarkable nature of his character, he must have been raised in a very godly home. We know nothing about really his parents or his home. And apart from his own book, Daniel is mentioned five times in Scripture. In Ezekiel 14 four and also verse 20, he's described as a righteous man along with Noah, and Job. It's good company to be in right? And in Ezekiel 28:33, we see how his wisdom is underscored. And this is especially noteworthy since Ezekial would have known Daniel very well because he was one of Daniel's contemporaries, who came to Babylon eight years after Daniel. And as mentioned earlier in Matthew 24, and verse 15, and Mark 13:14, Jesus points to Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9:27 and chapter 12, and verse one, as the key to properly interpreting quote, "the abomination of desolation," end quote, that will take place during the great tribulation. Now, it's fair to ask, Why did Nebuchadnezzar take Daniel and his three friends? And the answer in a nutshell is because they were the brightest and the best and he needed to train young Jewish men in the ways of the Babylonians, so that they could come alongside him and help him govern the Jews. But we might also add that God had his own purposes, in all of this, to use Daniel as his mouthpiece, to encourage his covenant people in that day and down through the centuries as well as to encourage all of us today, and also to gain the adoration of the pagan rulers, demonstrating to them that YAWEH was the one true God. Yes, the God of Israel, but the God overall, the ruler of the heavens and the earth, and that his purposes cannot be thwarted.

Regarding Daniel's remarkable character and giftedness, Leon Wood writes, quote, "His three year education in Babylon, which no doubt followed good training before this in Jerusalem, equipped him well for his life's work. Along with this, he must have had a natural ability for administration, because once granted a high position at the court, he remained there. Later, he achieved a place even as one of the three top presidents in the Persian government of Darius. This honor was clearly the result of God's special blessing, but God regularly employs natural means to accomplish His will. Still another quality," Woods goes on to say, "was his admirable faith in God, while still a youth of about 17. He and his three friends had faith to believe that God would reveal to them the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and the four held a prayer meeting to ask God to do so."

You know, as we approach this book, I must say, especially to you young people, and even especially to you young men, you need to take notice of Daniels godly character, be reminded of what God can do. And a young person who fears him and who trusts in Him who obeys him and worships him. We are told in Second Chronicles 69, "For the eyes of the Lord look to and fro throughout the world that He might strongly support those whose heart is completely His." Now, I must make brief mention of a few important aspects of this book. Here's where he gets a bit technical. And I hope I don't bore you out of your mind. But this is important for you to understand.

First of all, you must know that less than half of the book was written in Hebrew, the rest was written in Aramaic. In fact, the Aramaic part is from chapter two, verse four, all the way to chapter seven. And throughout the chapter, verse 28, I believe. Now why is this the case? Well, it's because Aramaic was the language of the Gentile world of that day. Moreover, as we will see, the subject matter pertain to the Gentiles rather than to Israel directly. I might also add that the shift from Hebrew to Aramaic and back and forth that we see is was found in the scrolls of Daniel discovered at Qumran, and this really underscores the legitimacy of this feature in the Masoretic text of the Jewish canon that's used in the English translation of the Bible. But a second important aspect of the book is this, there have always been and there will always be arguments between theological conservatives and liberals about the authorship and the date of Daniel, when it was written. Now I have deliberately not chosen to bore you with all of these technicalities, many of them are, are tedious, and frankly, unnecessary. I don't want to take away from the majestic flow of the book, if you have questions and you want more information, contact me. And believe me, I can give you places where you can read to your heart's delight, all of these obscure arguments. And furthermore, I must add that, because liberals deny the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, because they deny the supernatural nature of those things in Scripture, and because they deny the supernatural nature of predictive prophecy, they have no credibility, in my mind. In fact, liberalism, whether theological or political, is a deadly spiritual virus designed by Satan to deceive and to destroy. We've seen this throughout history, you can look at Europe today and see this, especially theologically, it's like a deadly virus spawned in the laboratories of demons. It makes COVID look like a common cold. But if you will indulge me I will make mention of at least one of these technical criticisms, I think you'll find it quite interesting and quite affirming.

Liberal critics insist that the prophecies of Daniel are so incredibly and undeniably and literally fulfilled, that they must have been written after the fact. Nobody could have possibly predicted all of that. It had to have been written by someone years later, who merely recorded historical facts in the guise of predictive prophecy. And I marvel at the blindness of the unregenerate. And I'm just thankful that, I'm thankful for God's grace, or I'd be right there with them, so would you. I mean, think about it, there are over 100 supernatural prophecies that have been fulfilled in chapter 11, alone, as we will see. Yet liberals deny the supernatural, especially biblical prophecy. Dr. Whitcomb is most helpful once again, one of my former professors, I'll read some of my notes that has been put in book form, or some of his notes that I have this is from him. He says, quote, "Theological liberals who deny the supernatural have maintained that predictive prophecy is a moral impossibility for God. Thus, the book must be a second century BC product of, quote, 'pious deception.' The supposed purpose of the book from their perspective, namely, the encouragement of Maccabean freedom fighters against the monster Antiochus Epiphanes, was somehow accomplished through the deception of a pseudonymous document pretending to be written by a legendary Daniel of four centuries earlier." But he goes on to argue saying, "Jews living in the intertestamental period, especially in Palestine, would never have accepted as canonical a book quote, 'hot off the press that claimed to be over 350 years old, and that was supposedly filled with historical blunders.' Jewish scholars of that period had access to numerous historical records of the Neo Babylonian, Medo-Persian and Hellenistic periods." He went on to add, "Even more important, intertestamental Jews were keenly aware of the identity and boundary lines of their own sacred canon of Scripture, and thus did not hesitate to exclude from their canon such books as Tobit, Judith, and even First Maccabees." And then he says this, "Would Jews, who were dying for their God given faith and their God given scriptures, have looked for encouragement to fictional characters, and events and a pseudo graph. The truth of the matter is that nothing but well-known material and material that was believed to be infallibly true and inspired by God could have kindled their spirits in the midst of that supreme hour of national crisis."

Beloved, please understand my perspective and the perspective of this church, what we have before us is the inspired, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, all sufficient Word of the living God. And what is said here is true, and what is promised will come to pass. We need to treasure it, we need to meditate upon it, we need to guard it, we need to memorize it, we need to obey it. And we need to be encouraged by it. Because it indeed is a lamp into our feet and light into our path.

Well, in conclusion, over the next few minutes, let me give you three outstanding themes that we will see as we journey through this book. And I might add, this is really hard because I saw a whole lot more. There's other themes that are going to come out, but let me just give you three here. Okay. First of all, we are going to be encouraged to see how God uses faithful servants who fear Him and love Him. We see this from the beginning in Daniel one in verse eight. We read, "Daniel" mind you now, a 15-year-old boy, "Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king's choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of officials that he might not defile himself." And you will see and you may recall that he got permission and, and the guys ate vegetables. By the way, this cannot be in any way, advocating vegetarianism. I would rather die than be a vegetarian. But they ate vegetables and verse 15 says, "At the end of 10 days, their appearance seemed better and they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king's choice food." By the way, later on, we will see that Daniel really enjoyed meat. Remember that.

And then in verses 17 and following, we see how God blessed them. "As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days, which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. The King talked with them, and out of them all, not one was found, like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the Kings personal service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and conjurers, who were in all his realm." And you will also recall that later on, Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold and demanded that everyone should bow down and worship that image or be thrown into a blazing furnace of fire. But Daniel and the guys said, not us, we will not bow to your God, chapter three, verse 17. We read of their response after Nebuchadnezzar warned them again in his fury. You know what's going to happen, don't you? And here's what they said in chapter three, verse 17, "'If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire, and He will deliver us out of your hand O king.' But,'" and I love this, '"even if He does not let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.'" Oh dear friends would we be so faithful, would that we refuse to bow down to the demands of our culture? The false narrative of critical race theory, the racist narrative of the Black Lives Matter terrorists, the abominations of the LGBTQ mafia and the delusions of these transgender lunatics. How sad. That we would not bow down to all of the COVID fear mongers and the global tech oligarchs, and all of this woke garbage, all of these deceptions that are being crammed down our throat. A friend of mine, talked with me this week. And he, we were writing back and forth on another matter, and he was telling me about the Cleveland Indians that changed their name. Did you hear about that to the Guardians? And he wrote to me sarcastically, well, frankly, I think the name smacks of masculine toxicity. I anticipate a lawsuit brought by the LGBTQ community against the team, and alas, poor Indians, how will they ever recover? Well, you get the idea. This is where we're at. It's just it's just insane. But dear friends, like Daniel, we must not bow to these things.

A second theme that we will see in Scripture is how Satan works. We will shudder at Satan's guerrilla warfare tactics to deceive the world and thwart the purposes of God. We know that He is the ruler of this world until the Lord cast him out according to John 12, and verse 31. He is the God of this world that blinds the minds of the unbelievers. According to Second Corinthians four, four. John tells us in first John 5:19, that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." Paul tells us in Ephesians, two two that he is "the prince and the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." And he is one, as Paul says in Second Corinthians 11:14, who disguises himself as "an angel of light."

And dear friends, as Daniel unfolds the wickedness of Gentile domination in the world, we are going to see how the devil and his minions work. And we will see how he has assigned certain demons to be rulers over certain nations and their rulers. We see this for example, in Daniel chapter 10. The context here is Daniel prays and Gabriel comes to answer his prayer. And then verse 12, Gabriel says, "I have come in response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia." And then in verse 20, the angel Gabriel describes another demon assigned to influence the rulers of Greece. And he says, and now I must "return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I have gone forth, indeed, the prince of Greece will come." Dear Christian, we must understand that even today, in times of fasting and prayer as we cry out to the living God to protect us and help us, and use us as instruments of righteousness, that behind the scenes, there is a great spiritual conflict occurring. There's an unseen struggle between angelic forces going on right now in the world. And this is going to escalate as the day of the Lord approaches. How else can you explain the sheer insanity and depravity that has so quickly gained power in our country. But I must add this, do not fear. The battle has already been won at the cross, Amen? The battle has been won. And Daniel's prophecies will reveal the utter destruction of Satan's kingdom that is currently being mediated upon the earth through the reign of wicked men and women and ultimately through the reign of his version of the incarnate Christ, and that will be the reign of the Antichrist. And here's what Daniel says, in chapter seven, beginning in verse 13. And be encouraged with these words. "'I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed."

And finally, we're going to marvel at the miracle of divine providence as we witness His rule over all of the contingencies of history to accomplish his purpose. And indeed, he is continually right now exercising his rule, even though he's allowing Satan to do his thing, at least for a while. And even Nebuchadnezzar confessed in Daniel four beginning in verse 34, "'I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will, in the host of heaven, and among the inhabitants of Earth, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, What have you done?'" Dear friends, what confidence we can have in the Word of God, and the prophecies of the book of Daniel and throughout Scripture. And to know that we are part of that plan. We're all part of that plan. We are all members of this one magnificent organism, the body of Christ, we all have a role to play, we've all been given a gift. And as we all work together, the purpose of that is to edify the saints so that all of us together, can exalt the one who is the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So let's prepare our hearts as we look into this great text. I would encourage you to read it, it's not very long, I would encourage you to read it at least two or three times a week, become familiar with it. And you will be excited to see what the Spirit of God will reveal to you, in the coming months, perhaps years. We shall see.

Let's pray together. Father, we're so thankful for your word that truly gives us an overwhelming sense of your love, your faithfulness, your sovereign and providential rule over all of your creation. And to know that, by your grace, you have made us a part of your kingdom. And Lord how we long for your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. But until that day comes, I would ask that You would help us to be faithful, even as Daniel and his three friends were faithful and many others. Even in that day, I pray that you will use us all in a mighty way for the sake of the kingdom, that others might see Christ in us, that they too might be saved by your grace and Your grace alone. And if there be one here today that knows nothing of what it is to truly be reconciled to the only God who can justify the ungodly. I pray that today you will overwhelm them with the guilt of their sin that they might come running to the cross and cry out for the mercy that you will so quickly give those who are truly coming to you and repentant faith. So we thank you, we give you praise and all things for Jesus sake and in His name. Amen.