Daniel

… I return please to the first chapter of Daniel and we'll read the whole chapter. Daniel chapter 1 and we'll read from verse 1. In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar, to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the prince's children, in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science. And such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Mishael of Mishach, and to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love, with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink, for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech thee ten days, and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat. And as thou seest, deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days, their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king communed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king, and in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus. Before we embark looking into this marvelous book, a few preliminary remarks may be necessary. First of all, we are not dealing with the truth of the church as we find it presented in the New Testament. We're dealing with matters that pertain to earth. That doesn't mean that this isn't important, because it is. It involves the glory of God, and involves the greatness of our Lord Jesus. So we're not wasting our time when we're looking into a book that deals with things upon earth, and things that are connected with our God. Very, very important things indeed. Secondly, we are dealing with matters that are very, very important in our day, relevant to our day. And they give us some understanding as to how God is operating today, and the principles upon which he is operating. And that's extremely important, because we're living in momentous times. We're living just on the verge of the coming of the Lord for his church, and then when many of the things stated in this book will begin to be fulfilled. So these are important things to consider. I would have liked to have gone over the first seven chapters of this book, but unfortunately we haven't time. But if you want to have a few headings, I'll present them to you. They've appealed to me, and they certainly help in understanding different chapters. And I've written over chapter one, the meddling monarch. He meddles in things pertaining to the children of God. He wants to change them, change them into his way of thinking. So he's a meddling monarch. It's an alliteration I'm giving you, but still they're helpful. Secondly, chapter two, we have a mystified monarch. He dreams, nobody can tell him what the dream means, until of course he gets the revelation of it through the man of God, Daniel. When we come to chapter three, we have a malicious monarch in that he sets up this great temple, this great idol, which really is glorifying himself. And if any do not bow down and worship this idol, then they forfeit their lives. And the malice of this great man is expressed. Chapter four is easy to describe, the mad monarch, how the mighty emperor Nebuchadnezzar is reduced into a condition like a beast. Until he gets converted, his reason returns, and he worships the most high. In chapter five, we have Belshazzar, a mocking monarch. We took the vessels that belong to the temple that were used for the worship of God and prostituted them to the worship of his own gods, a mocking monarch. Chapter six, we have Cyrus, another monarch, great man, and he's maneuvered, a maneuvered monarch, into a position that he really didn't want to be in, but he had to conform with the laws of the Medes and the Persians. He had signed it, and he was responsible for it, and he was very carefully maneuvered into that position, which really he didn't want to be in. What about chapter seven? Ah, that's different. A majestic monarch, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Ancient of Days, the one who will come and take over and bring in a kingdom of peace and righteousness and blessing and joy for the glory of God and for the blessing of all concerned. Now, these are simple little hooks, shall I call them, that can direct you to the understanding of these chapters much more. Three other things. First of all, they are historical incidents, these first six chapters especially. The first six chapters are actual historical incidents that can be read to great profit, and of course, the children in the Sunday school, how they delight to read about Daniel and his great feat of being beside the lions and overcoming them in faith, as we find in chapter 11 of Hebrews, stopped the mouth of lions. Daniel, man of faith, or the marvelous thing of three men walking through the fire, again mentioned in Hebrews 11, quenched the power of the fire. And so, these incidents are really extremely interesting, just as incidents themselves, without anything else. Interesting to read, encouraging to read, and very instructive too. But then, they also indicate, I believe, figures of what the remnant of Israel will pass through in what we call the time of the great tribulation, when the small company of those who are faithful to God will be faced with terrific trials and pressures. And so, these pictures that we find, and chapter one is introductory to them, is an indication of the kind of people who will pass through the tribulation and how God will sustain them and maintain them for his pleasure and glory. Thirdly, as in all the scriptures, they provide moral features that believers in this dispensation can follow with profit. Now, it would be wrong if we simply were here tonight to talk about historical things or even prophetical things and not to get some present blessing for our own souls in our own day. And thank God, the book of Daniel can provide these things. There's another point, and I think this is very important. These chapters show that when the Jew is faithful to God, he's infinitely superior to the Gentile. This can be proved quite clearly in the magicians, the astrologers, the wise men of Darius's day, and Belshazzar's day, and Nebuchadnezzar's day. They were all incompetent to help at various junctures, but the man of God was. The godly Jew was. The man who depended on God was. He could provide the answer to all these problems. Well, these are a few preliminary remarks that are helpful in the study of this book of Daniel. So we proceed with chapter one. I believe the first verse of this book is one of the most solemn that we can read. In fact, verse one and verse two, in one sense, it's incredible, incredible that God should allow his favored people, Israel and this part of Israel, Judah and Benjamin, to be taken into into captivity by a Gentile monarch. Why? And the answer is obvious when we read the history of this nation in the book of Kings, in the book of Chronicles, the steady deterioration, the division that took place in the time of Rehoboam, and afterwards the continual deterioration in the two branches. We ought to say that in connection with the northern kingdom called Israel, there never was one good king, not one. They were all idolaters and promoted idolatry, wicked, cruel, ruthless, no thought of God, and they had nothing to provide for the glory of God. Thank God, in connection with Judah, there were those who were true sons of David, and they did that which was pleasing in the sight of the Lord. But eventually, they too became wicked. They were wicked in the sight of God. Idolaters promoted it and turned away from God. That is why we read these verses, and the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand. Incredible. You think of all the wonderful promises that God made to his nation, how he would care for them, how he would protect them, how he would look after them, how he would bless them, how he would take them into the land and care for them in every possible way. Now we read those words, the Lord gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. It wasn't Nebuchadnezzar in all his power and in all his greatness and in all his skill that overcame Jerusalem with his great army. It was the Lord who gave them into his hand. You remember the time when the army came against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah? They went into the house of God and they spread out the matter before the Lord. They told him about it. They were helpless. They couldn't do a thing about it. What happened? 185,000 were slain. God intervened and helped his people in a time of extremity. Why didn't he do it now? Because his patience was exhausted. He had given the nation every opportunity and they had continually refused and continually turned away from him. Now that's a very bleak picture, isn't it? Is there any lesson to be learned? Yes, there is. A very, very solemn lesson for us as Christians. A position, a position given by God is not of much value unless there is spiritual condition connected with it. Unless there is continual spiritual exercise, sacrifice, devotion connected with the position of blessing, then God and his governmental dealings will come in. Mr. Darby said, suppose brethren go to pieces, he will maintain a testimony. Unfortunately, they have gone to pieces. Still, what can we do? We cannot turn away from the truths that we've been taught. We know that those truths are truths. Truths cannot be anything else but truths. And so we maintain them and seek to live in accord with them. Oh, this is a solemn lesson. Very, very solemn indeed. That a position without the condition that belongs to the position is not a position that's pleasing to God. In fact, it's downright hypocrisy. So there's no good claiming a great position if we're not living in accord with it. Now then, what has happened? What has happened is that God has begun what we call the times of the Gentiles. We find this expression in Luke's gospel, chapter 21. It simply means that God has transferred the government of the earth from his favorite people and placed it into the hands of Gentiles. Now in the book of Deuteronomy, we find God saying he grouped the nations round about Israel. He placed them in the center and all the nations were round about. And the intention of God was clearly that giving Israel wise laws, spiritual laws, good laws, how to approach God, how to live for God, how to represent him. That was to branch out to the nations. Idolatry was to be overcome and there would be wise government upon earth that would be pleasing to God. That failed. Instead of teaching the nations what they should do and avoiding idolatry, Israel adopted idolatry. And became connected with the nations in their ways, behavior, dress, and all the rest of it. And of course, they fail. Now then, the Gentiles are given the opportunity to rule for God, to act in government upon the earth for God. They're given an opportunity, the Gentiles. Israel has failed. Well, we put it into the hand of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles began. Well now, were the Gentiles any better than Israel? Not one bit. And remember, we are still living in the times of the Gentiles. I want to say this. Nothing can be better for the government of the earth than what God set out for Israel. It was a perfect presentation of government. All that God gave to them, wise laws, laws affecting their approach to him, laws that had to deal with themselves in a social way, laws too that governed them in their relations to others, the strangers. Wise, wise laws that covered the whole spectrum of their lives and to influence others. Couldn't be better. Came from God himself. Now then, what's the Gentile to do? Is he to bring in a code of laws of his own that will be beneficial to mankind? What is he to do? Is he to carry on with his idolatry? Well, that would be flying in the face of all that God said in relation to Israel. Sad to say, the Gentile rule is no better one quit than the failure that took place in Israel. If we know anything about history, and I don't know a great deal, just a little. If we know about anything about history, we see different methods of government tried in this earth, and we'll come to that in chapter two eventually. But they're all ideas, ideas of men, how they can make the world better. We'll give them credit for their sincerity. Nevertheless, they have all failed. They all fail in one very prominent respect, and that is that they leave out God. Take the government of our own land. There may be an acknowledgement of prayer in the houses of parliament, but in all their deliberations, do we ever hear the politicians say, let's turn to the word of God and see what the word of God says? Never. Politics can't possibly take that into account. They have too many people to please, and they forget that their main responsibility, according to Romans chapter 13, is they are directly chargeable to God. And if they fail in that, they fail in their administration. And so today, we find all sorts of plans and schemes for the benefit of the ruling of the world, whether it be United Nations or blocks here and blocks there, but they all fail. And that's a very sad thing. And so we come to this chapter, and we see the reasons for their failure. And I've written over this chapter. It's a time of change. Change. That's a very common word in the world today. Change. We've tried this. It doesn't work. We'll try something else. That doesn't work. So there's a continual change, change, change, and that, unfortunately, might spill over into the professing church too. Actually, what needs to be changed in all times, whether in times that relate to the earth and its government, or today in the testimony of Christianity, what needs to be changed is persons. That's the main thing that has to be changed. When each of us is changed so that we do the things that are pleasing to God, then in that sense, the Christian testimony is strengthened. In the measure in which we fail individually, then the Christian testimony is adversely affected. So if any change is to take place, it's not in methods, it's not in procedures, it's not in this idea or the next idea. Basically, it involves me, you, and every other Christian. And when we live as Christ lived, and that's our example in the power of the Spirit, then things are changing and changing for the better. So we find that the first thing that this great man does, and that's a change indeed. First of all, there's a change in that Judah and Benjamin are transported, or at least a remnant of them, from the land of promise into the land of Babylon, land of Shina. They're transported there. They have no part in the matter, nothing they can do about it. Jeremiah warned them, do what you're told now. Go into Babylon. You'll be all right in Babylon. Don't go to Egypt. You won't get any help there. That'll be a disaster. You go. Go along with the king as he comes and takes charge. Go with him and you'll be all right. You'll be there for 70 years. And so they're transported, a change of position. Now we find the king taking all those vessels that belong to the worship of God, and he puts them into the house of his God, into the treasure house of his God. That, in a sense, is a direct challenge to Jehovah. If you read the historical part in the middle of the book of Isaiah, you remember when they came against Jerusalem, the captain of the army, he throws out the challenge, what are your gods? How is your God going to deliver you? Your God won't be able to deliver you. Where are the gods of the nations? They haven't been able to stand against my master. Do you think your God will be any different? It wasn't very long before he got the answer when his army was slaughtered. But here this man, he takes all those vessels and he puts them into the treasure house of his God. Victory! My God is supreme. That's what he's saying. All those vessels, they were once used in the worship of another God, a God whom he didn't know, although he learns about him later on, and he puts them into the treasure house of his God, and that's a great victory for him. That's another change. That was an impious change. That was the change of a man who didn't know God. And you know, this is one of the marvelous things about this chapter. Here's a mighty emperor, mighty monarch, this great man, Nebuchadnezzar, and he doesn't know that he's a tool in the hand of God. Just the same with another one later on called Cyrus, and you read about him in the book of Isaiah, and God says, he's my shepherd, and he's my anointed, but he doesn't know it. And that's the thing that we have to understand today. The most high rules in the kingdoms of men, and there may be great monarchs, and there are great leaders in the world, and they may be very proud of their position, but they don't realize that they're only tools in the hands of God, and he will use them for his ways upon earth in order to accomplish his will. We have to understand that we're still in the times of the Gentiles, and I believe that while the full expression of the title most high will be seen in the world to come, it also operates today the most high rules in the kingdoms of men. The Hitlers, the Stalins, the Mussolini's, the Napoleons, and many others, they all thought, yes, we'll conquer the world. That was their object. There are those today who think the same. Islam has that object. Roman Catholicism has that object. Others might have that object, the new age movement, and not one of them will succeed, not one of them. God, he reserves that for his well-beloved son. The one who died on the cross is the one who one day will be supreme in glory and in administration, but I believe with all my heart that God operates as the most high in the kingdoms of men. Thus far, no further. God is in control. If it wasn't like that, what would happen? Chaos, anarchy, absolute victory for Satan, and God will never, never, never allow that. Well then, we find that when the king gets those people into Babylon, he chooses the best, and of course that's an activity of Satan. Satan is always attacking the best, and he wanted those young men brought under his full control so that they might be absorbed into the culture and religion of Babylon, and so he says, children, we'll go down a bit to the end of chapter, verse four rather, end of verse four, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. Now, that's very, very crafty indeed, because he's striking at the very basis of the truth connected with Judah and Benjamin, or if you like, the nation of Israel. All their learning, all their understanding was bound up in the scriptures that they had. They inspired words of the prophets that were given by God to Israel. There was their learning, shrined in the Hebrew language and also written down for their benefit. We find later on that when Daniel reads the prophet Jeremiah, he becomes instructed as to what is going to happen, and so if a Jew, an Israelite, wanted to learn the mind of God, he turned to his scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures, what was written for their benefit. So when he says, I want them to forget all about what they learned, want them to forget their Hebrew language, I want them to learn my language, I want them to understand what our teaching is. Well then, all the teaching in Babylon was connected with idolatry and the glorifying of the king himself. All the teaching in the Hebrew language was glorifying God and telling them how they were to live for God. So if he gets them away from the Hebrew language and the Hebrew culture and the Hebrew teaching, he gets them away from God, gets them away from their responsibility and privileges, and he gets them occupied with evil things. Oh, how crafty that is. It's true in history when the English marauders used to cross the border and come to Scotland, that's what they tried to do too, and destroy all the records. And of course, when the Scots replied, they did the same, and that was true in all countries. Destroy the records, destroy the traditions, destroy the histories, and by so doing, the land comes under complete domination. And oh dear friends, how successful God and Satan has been in that respect, even in the Christian testimony. Occupied with this, that, and the other thing. There's a verse in one of the epistles to Timothy, I just can't remember if it's the first or second, where it speaks about those who are ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. That word ever learning means that they're continually learning about other things. When something new comes along, oh we'll follow that, yes, that sounds good, yes. Something else comes along, ah yes, that's good too. Ever learning, always accumulating knowledge of one kind and another, but never arriving at the truth. And that's what Satan wants for Christians, to get sidetracked, blown about by every wind of doctrine. This, that, and the next thing, which appears so attractive, which appears so interesting, so alive, so energetic. Yes, we'll have that. And oh dear friends, it's not true. That's the basic thing, it's not true. And if it's not true, it's not worth pursuing. And so this was a very crafty endeavour, this change, a change of language, a change of learning. And if that can be achieved, then things go by the board. There comes a time when we read about it, when the children of Israel, they spoke half the language of Ashdod and half the language of Israel. They're learning, the things of the world crept into their language, and they were talking about things that were of no profit. Isn't it sad when we as Christians might be able to talk more about the popular people in the entertainment world, or the sporting world, or the political world, or any other kind of world? Isn't it sad we can speak more about them than the people in the Bible, the great men of God and women of God? How sad it is. And that's the crafty means whereby the enemy can get us occupied with other things, the world's learning, the world's principles, the world's desires. Oh, how important this is to make sure that the foundation of what we believe is not being destroyed, but continually in spiritual exercise, as we said at the very outset, spiritual exercise, things are maintained in living power in our souls. Then it says, the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. The food... Is it falling over? What a catastrophe. Now it's a question of food. It's amazing when we read through the Bible how important a thing food is, and I'm not speaking just of the food that nourishes the body, I'm talking about the many things that have happened in relation to meals in the Bible, and I commend it to you for your study. Just let me quote two. In the Old Testament, we find a man loses his birthright over a meal, and eventually lost the blessing. Very sad, simple thing, a meal. When we come to the New Testament, we find one of the foremost men in the Christian Testament at that time, apostle, he's vacillating in connection with meals, Jews and Gentiles, and by so doing he doesn't walk straightforwardly according to the gospel. Simple thing, food, and yet it was a very, very serious matter. So if you go through the Bible, you'll find many, many more instances, and they're very, very important, but here Nebuchadnezzar, he wants to change the food, and of course that food was very likely offered to idols before it was partaken by the Babylonians. Quite a common thing in their homes, not simply going to a temple to do this, but in their homes. I think I wrote a note in the circular recently to indicate the immense amount of idolatry that went on in Babylon. Thousands and thousands of gods and temples and so on are erected in Babylon. Dear friends, this was a very serious matter indeed, and that's why we find Daniel purposing in his heart that he's not going to partake of this at all, because it involved a very, very serious matter of compromise, and so this question of food is extremely important. In connection with the children of Israel, we have some excellent types of food, which of course present our Lord Jesus Christ, and so that's the kind of food we want to be occupied with. And first of all, if you think of the nation of Israel in Egypt, and after the blood was placed upon the door posts and the lintel, you remember they were instructed to eat the roast lamb with bitter herbs and with their staff in their hand and so on, ready to move whenever God gave the word. And we believe that is appropriating all the person and value of the death of Christ, and also providing sustenance in getting us out of a world that's doomed and setting our feet on the pathway that leads to the promised land. So there we find the type of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's excellent food, the best food for the Christian. And then when they get onto the pathway that leads to the promised land, they have the manna. Every day the manna was provided without fail. Plenty for them, every one of them, great company, perhaps a million and a half, and they're provided for day by day by God and his mercy. A type of our Lord Jesus Christ in his walk in this world, humble, lowly, subject, obedient man, the man of God's pleasure. Excellent food, excellent food, strengthening food. And I often say this about the manna, if you want to see that it is good food, it is nourishing food, it is strong food, take a good look at Caleb. After 40 years, he says, I'm as strong today as I was when I set out on the pathway, and all that he ate was manna. Well now, there is encouragement for us if we want to be strong, lively, effective Christians, more and more we need to feed upon Christ, Christ here in his pathway. I'll say a word about that in a moment. But then once they get into the land, the manna ceases. Are they going to starve? Not for one moment. God has provided food that was gathered in a previous harvest, the old corn of the land, and that tells us about Christ in glory, where he is at God's right hand. And my, that's a tremendously encouraging thing, to know that Christ at God's right hand is available for you and for me at every step of the pathway. Very encouraging indeed. Whether it be to understand something of the death of Christ that liberates us from this world, or something of that pathway of Christ that was so pleasing to God that helps us as we tour in a wilderness, or whether we reach the exalted position where Christ is at God's right hand and understand all that's centered in him, excellent food. And the enemy doesn't want us to feed upon that. Maybe you've heard me say this before, but I'll repeat it. Many years ago, I went to visit a dear old brother called Jimmy Tate, who was an invalid for many, many years. And we began to talk about these types, and he said this, and I've never forgotten it. He said, isn't it a very humbling thing? The children of Israel, they never loathed the roast lamb in Egypt. They never loathed the old corn of the land, but they did loathe it. And he said, isn't it true today that Christians can rejoice that their sins are forgiven, and they've been set free because of the death of Christ? And don't they rejoice when they think they're going to glory where Christ is? But they're not so happy to take the pathway of separation and rejection that is set out in Christ's humble here, the manna, the pathway of dependence. Isn't that humbling? I'm sure we all feel that. It's so easy to rejoice in things that bring blessing, and so easy to turn away from things that involve responsibility. And so we find that Nebuchadnezzar says, I want to change their food. We'll come to this in a moment. Daniel says no. Now then, we'll come a little further. Verse seven. Unto whom the prince of the eunuch gave names, for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, to Mishael, Meshach, and to Azariah of Bednico. By, this was another crafty move. He says, I'll change their names. All those names that they have, the Hebrew names, are all connected with Jehovah, every one of them. They all connected with their God. The names that Nebuchadnezzar gave them are all connected with Nebuchadnezzar's gods. You see what he wanted? He wanted to get them away from all that belonged to their gods, their God, and get occupied with his gods. And he had many, they had one. And that was a great cry in Israel. There is one Lord, our God. And so dear friends, this was another very, very crafty move. Now, I can't remember all these things, so I'm just going to read them out to you to confirm what I'm saying. Daniel, his name means God is judge. He changed his name to Belteshazzar, and it means, Bell, protect his life. Now, if you turn to the 46th chapter of Isaiah, the first verse speaks about Bell and Nebo, two gods of Babylon. So here we find Nebuchadnezzar saying, Daniel, you forget that your God is judge. You come under the protection of my God. My God, Bell, will protect your life. Hananiah means God is gracious. Shadrach means the command of Aku, another Babylonian god. God is gracious. Why, all the favor of God was contained in that name, Hananiah. And now he's to be at the command of a heathen god, a pagan god. Oh, that's unthinkable for a man who knows the one true God. Mishael, who is as God is. And Mishach means who is as Aku is. Well, that's very serious. But I'm going to turn my back on the one true real God, the God who is. The Bible says those who come to God must believe that he is ever existing, must believe that he is, and he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him out. Now I've got to say, who is as Aku is? Oh, the heathen gods are greater than the one true God. Unthinkable for one who believes in the one true God. And lastly, Azariah, whom God helped. Abednego means servant of Nabal. Very, very sad that one who can experience the help of God can turn to a heathen God. That's tremendously sad indeed. And this is what Nebuchadnezzar meant by changing their names. And oh dear friends, we bear an honored name. Christian is an honored name. And we're thankful that we are Christians in the true sense of the word, that we follow Christ. We are children of God. We are sons of God. We are priests to God. Many, many names that we bear, those who really belong to our God. And we're not going to change them for the appellations that belong to this world. And they have many, but they're not honored. Oh no, we want to follow the one true and living God. So you can see these crafty endeavors on the part of Nebuchadnezzar change, change, change, change. It's always in one direction. It's towards Nebuchadnezzar's gods and to obliterate the knowledge of the one true God. Well then, thank God for faithfulness that can resist that kind of thing. And this is why I believe we have this introductory chapter to the book of Daniel to indicate that the principle of faithfulness, faithfulness to God and his word is the only power whereby we can resist the efforts of the enemy to change the truth of God into a lie. And so we want to be alive to this and be like Daniel and his companions and on the basis of faithfulness resist. So it says, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. We're not told specifically what was the reason for the defilement if he had taken the food. There are two things that can be suggested. First of all that the food would be offered to idols and of course that's clear for us in the epistle to the Corinthians in chapter 10. Paul was into that matter but this affected Daniel in his day and of course unthinkable for any man who believed in the one true and living God to partake of food that had been offered in the worship of a heathen God. And so Daniel says I'm not going to take that and of course there might have been blood connected with those sacrifices which of course was forbidden for a godly Israelite and so Daniel says I'm not going to defile myself. And on the other hand it might have been some infringement of the dietary laws that we find. You remember that Israel they were instructed as to what was clean for them to eat and what was unclean so it may have been something that was unclean and Daniel says I'm not going to defile myself. I refuse to eat this food. Now that was a bold thing to say after all it was the king's commandment that had indicated that these people were to eat this food. It was his desire his commandment and to say I'm not going to do it was very courageous indeed and not only did he make a purpose in his heart he requested he took steps to try and avoid this thing and it says God brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. You see whenever there is faithfulness to God, God's there and this is one of the things I said at the beginning here's a great monarch, great man, greatest man of his time in the world as far as the gentiles were concerned. Even greater in some features than even the favored people of God. God takes him up and uses him. He's a tool in the hands of God. Now God comes down to a young man, one young man and in the midst of all this corruption all this idolatry here's one young man who says I'm not going to do anything that's offensive to God and God's right behind him. Now that's a marvelous thing whether it's the highest in the world most important in the world one little person one young person who's prepared to be faithful God's there. Now that's an encouragement for you and for me. We're all pretty unimportant persons as far as this world's concerned but not for God. All who want to be faithful are extremely important to God because we're going against the run of the tide and God delights where he finds faithfulness in any shape and form and of course we're not talking theoretically we're talking after many years of experience that wherever there is faithfulness God supports it. He wouldn't be God if he didn't. God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which will you're able but will provide the outlet. That's not the exact quotation but it's near it and here we find this expressed in Daniel. My my isn't that a wonderful thing in the midst of all the corruption and all the pride and pomp and glory of Babylon. Here's a young man possibly 16 to 19 somewhere around about there and he says I'm going to please God and God brought him into favor. Then of course once the thing gets moving Daniel says I want you to prove us prove thy servants just give us the opportunity to prove that God is God prove that what we are doing is right. Well we can understand the servant of the king was a bit reluctant says I might lose my head over this but this is all right and so he acquiesced to the desire of Daniel and he changed the food and it says he gave them pulse. Now that's a vegetable kind of food whatever it was and that of course might support the idea that there was blood in the sacrifices that were offered to the Babylonian gods and now offered to Daniel and his companions and so he takes vegetables no blood in them and of course that comes directly from God. You'll find I think in the book of let me see second Samuel when a great amount of provisions were brought to David you'll find that pulse was amongst them. Good food for the king good food for a young man in Babylon when he desires to be faithful to God and so they ate it Daniel and his three companions and at the end of the period there they were fatter fitter more attractive than all the others that had been fed on the king's meat. What does it mean? Surely means this that for Christians if we feed upon Christ there's going to be a level of behavior and life that's attractive first of all to God and is beneficial to men. I exercise myself says Paul to have a conscience void of offense towards God, God first and man and I believe if it were possible to get statistics regarding crime I'm perfectly sure the amount of crime that takes place amongst upstanding Christians of integrity is negligible compared to what goes on in the unconverted world which to me indicates the kind of life the kind of behavior that's nourished by feeding upon divine things feeding upon Christ feeding upon divine principles set out by God that kind of thing makes Christians far more attractive in the sight of God and in the sight of men. Why is it that employers are thankful for Christians who are upright and who can be dependent upon because they know there's an integrity there an honesty and an uprightness if it's not so it's a very sad reflection on the life and behavior of a Christian if he isn't marked by dependability integrity as we find in the life of Daniel in the rest of this book but I believe by and large this is true in the lives of Christians they are what they feed upon if they feed upon Christ then there is that kind of life that is pleasing to God and so Daniel and his companions they were proved. Verse 17 as for these four children God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Turn their back upon all that belongs to Babylon and God gave them all that was necessary so that when we come to chapter 2 and to chapter 5 when there's a problem Babylonian men useless don't even know where to start but the man of God knows because God gave them wisdom and instruction and so on if they had immersed themselves in the learning of the Babylonians they would have just been like the Babylonians unable to interpret the dreams and the visions as they were able to do oh how wonderful this is God gave them God supported them God was behind them oh what an encouragement for faithfulness for you and for me some of us have very long to go at the very longest and the testimony of Christianity rests upon the shoulders of those who are younger and this is one of the basic features that is necessary that is faithfulness and I believe we could write over this chapter the benefit of faithfulness in spite of the untoward circumstances now just one point verse 21 and Daniel continued even unto the first year of King Cyrus now that tells us a lot it tells us that Belshazzar that tells us that Nebuchadnezzar disappears it tells us that Belshazzar disappears but it tells us that the man of faith continues and thank God that will always be true when the great men of this world with all their ideas come and go those who are faithful to the Lord continue and because Christ is in high and because the Holy Spirit is indwelling the believers then the testimony of Christianity will continue and will continue until the Lord comes and the question for you and for me is are we in it intelligently actively doing what is pleasing to the Lord and avoiding the things that are obnoxious to him well these are just a few remarks there much more in this wonderful chapter may we be encouraged for his name's sake …

… Now we turn please to the fifth chapter of Daniel. Daniel chapter 5 and we'll read the whole chapter beginning at verse 1. Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar whilst he tasted the wine commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem that the king and his princes his wives and his concubines might drink therein. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem and the king and his princes his wives and his concubines drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver and of brass of iron of wood and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers the chaldeans and the soothsayers and the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came in all the king's wise men but they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were astonished. Now the king by reason of the words of the king and his lords came into the banquet house and the queen spake and said oh king live forever let not thy thoughts trouble thee nor let thy countenance be changed there is a man in thy kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods was found in him whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father the king I say thy father made master of the magicians astrologers chaldeans and soothsayers for as much as an excellent spirit and knowledge and understanding interpreting of dreams and showing of hard sentences and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Belshazzar now let Daniel be called and he will show thee he will show the interpretation. Then was Daniel brought in before the king and the king spake and said unto Daniel art thou that Daniel which heart of the children of the captivity of Judah whom the king my father brought out of jury I have even heard of thee that the spirit of the gods is in thee and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee and now the wise men the astrologers have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known unto me the interpretation thereof but they could not show the interpretation of the thing and I have heard of thee that thou canst make interpretations and dissolve doubts now if thou canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof thou shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then Daniel answered and said before the king let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another yet I will read the writing unto the king and make known to him the interpretation oh thou king the most high god gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom and majesty and glory and honor and for the majesty that he gave him all people nations and languages trembled and feared before him whom he would he slew and whom he would he kept alive and whom he would he set up and whom he would he put down but when his heart was lifted up and his mind hard and in pride he was deposed from his kingly throne and they took his glory from him and he was driven from the sons of men and his heart was made like the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses they fed him with grass like oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till he knew that the most high ruled in the kingdom of men and that he appointed over it whomsoever he will and thou his son oh Belshazzar hast not humbled thine heart though thou knewest all this but has lifted up thyself against the lord of heaven and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee and thou and thy lords thy wives and thy concubines have drunk wine in them and thou was praised the gods of silver and gold of brass iron wood and stone which see not nor hear nor know and a god in whose hand thy breath is and whose are all thy ways hast thou not glorified then was the part of the hand sent from him and this writing was written and this is the writing that was written meaning meaning deco you farcin this is the interpretation of the thing meaning god hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it deco thou art weighed in the balances and are found wanting paris thy kingdom is divided and given to the medes and persians then commanded belshazzar and they clothed daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck and made a proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom in that night was belshazzar the king of the chaldeans slain and darius the median took the kingdom being about three score and two years old so not a very inspiring story not a story in one sense can be called the glad tidings very solemn solemn story i believe we could write over this story a simple statement that we find in the epistle to the hebrews when paul spoke about those who died because they disobeyed the commandments of god and paul says died without mercy died without mercy and this could be written over the story very very solemn very very sad a man who had excellent opportunities brought up in the highest position favored to see his grandfather we believe he was the grandson of belsh of nebuchadnezzar brought up in this favored circle knowing full well how god had wrought with nebuchadnezzar daniel told him plainly you knew all about this and it didn't make the slightest impression upon your hard heart and before we go any further isn't it true that we've known those who have been brought up in christian homes who have listened to the gospel time and time again who have been brought up by godly parents and they've turned their backs upon these things and they've gone their own way hardened to the claim of the gospel and lost to the christian testimony and perhaps except for the intervention of god's grace lost eternally very sad very solemn we can't say a great deal about this man belsh for the simple reason we have no information regarding him there was a time when archaeologists and historians and perhaps theologians too had a great deal of skepticism skepticism about this man belshazzar his name didn't appear in any of the ancient records his name didn't appear on the inscriptions that had been found and so there was a very very large question mark placed against this man belshazzar suddenly a clay cylinder was found and on it was found the name belshazzar and as william kelly says in one of his writings ah now they believed the existence of a man called belshazzar and they didn't believe the bible they believed the clay cylinder man requires some proof before he can exercise his belief that's that's the opposite from a christian a christian doesn't need proof he believes implicitly in the word of god there may be many hard things that he can't in any way explain but he waits patiently believing that the time will come when something will be discovered that will make it plain and of course there was a time when luke the writer of the gospel was charged with great inaccuracies in his account in the gospel until eventually they discovered it was the historians that had to adjust their thinking that luke was meticulously correct in his writing in the gospel that suddenly as light came to as evidence came to light then luke was proved to be a very exact historian indeed and this is always true if people mock and this is the story of here a mocker a mocking monarch if people mock let them mock let them keep on mocking the time will come when the mockery will be proved empty and faith will be proved correct keep on exercising faith well anyway here's this man belshazzar and what an impious mocking monarch he was he went a lot further than his grandfather we read last night that nebuchadnezzar he took the vessels from the temple in jerusalem and he placed them in the treasure house of his god as far as the divine record is concerned we have no evidence that he used them in an unholy or impious way but this man goes very much further and there he is with a thousand of his lords great time of festivity great time of enjoyment satisfying natural desires and lusts and he gives out the order bring out those vessels of gold that were used in the temple of jehovah in jerusalem let's drink out of them and that was a challenge to god throwing this thing back into god's face what do we believe in relation to jehovah we discount him our gods are stronger than jehovah let's drink out of them these vessels that were used for his worship and they do then in the midst of all their impious drinking the hand begins to write on the plaster of the wall what a terrifying experience and the king was shaken to the roots of his being terrified conscience affected troubled writing on the wall there was the hand writing writing writing he didn't understand what the writing was this was a mystery it certainly brought to an end the festivities here was something that was unnatural something that was mysterious something that struck his conscience it was trouble oh when god intervenes man is a puny creature indeed think of him there belshazzar great king in babylon tremendous city walls high we understand the walls were so high and so broad that the chariots could run around them three abreast tremendous walls that were built there impregnable they thought and all the time they're feasting and enjoying themselves the enemy is at the gate and slowly but surely he's making plans directed by god we mentioned this last night the king was mentioned cyrus my anointed my shepherd the one that god was using to overcome babylon and bring to an end its impiety and he didn't know it the judgment was right at the door there they were feasting and enjoying themselves oh what a solemn scene it is so he sends for his wise men the clever men the intellectuals the elite of his kingdom tell me what the writing is in the wall we don't know we can't decipher it don't know what it means we said this last night that when the jew the godly jew is dependent upon his god and exercises faith he's always superior to the gentile and that's what we find again in this story the clever men the men he depended upon unable to decipher the writing on the wall and the queen she remembers remembers he was a woman who didn't forget belshazzar had forgotten forgotten all the history in connection with nebuchadnezzar but here was one who didn't forget the queen she said oh i know a man daniel send for daniel he's a man great deal of wisdom he's the man that will give to you the interpretation of this writing upon the wall and so as we read together daniel is sent for and of course when the world is up against it they can turn to the men of god and the women of god for their support and help and prayer and may offer them gifts and blandishments for their favor that didn't work with daniel daniel was very like abraham you remember when abraham came back from smiting the kings and the king of uh forget which king it was it was king of sodom offered him some gifts abram said i don't want your gifts i've lifted up my hand to the most high the possessor of heaven and earth the most high can give to me all that i require in my pathway daniel was of the same caliber he said i don't want your gifts don't want these things but he says i'll give you the interpretation and so step by step daniel explained to belshazzar what the writing on the wall was and it was a writing of judgment judgment belshazzar you're finished your kingdom has come to an end you've been weighed in the balances and you've been found wanting the medes and the persians they are going to take over your kingdom what unthinkable this great powerful king living in this great impregnable city as they thought it was is it possible that the kingdoms to come to an end god had said it and when god said it it was as good as done it only required the execution of it and that came when cyrus captured the city put men women and children to the sword and that was the end of the babylonian empire weighed in the balances and found wanting isn't that a solemn word that we read in that night was belshazzar the king of the chaldeans slain no respite no opportunity to repent he had had his opportunity he had had the opportunity to bow before the might of the most high god and acknowledge that there was one greater than nebuchadnezzar one greater than belshazzar the most high god and he didn't recognize him and he suffered the consequences i think it's a tremendously sad story and a tremendously solemn solemn story and before we apply it still further to the present day let us remember this that what it emphasizes is the greatness and supremacy of god we find we found this in speaking about nebuchadnezzar last night he made decrees he made arrangements for certain people but he was overruled because they had faith in a greater than nebuchadnezzar and here we find the most high god oh that this may sink into our souls if we get frightened by the events that we see in the world if we get fearsome about the danger of evil elements taking over control remember that god is greater than all the powers that exist and he won't allow anything to get out of hand it's a verse that often appeals to me and i quote it often to my own soul the words that the lord jesus spoke in connection with himself being a shepherd and he encouraged the sheep now he says i give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father who is greater than all now there's the statement my father who is greater than all none shall pluck them out of my father's hand i think that's a tremendous thing you think of any power any power that you like to think of and of course we think of satan as the one who has the most power and we think of him and all those who follow his ways the power is formidable but think of that my father who is greater than all no man shall pluck them out of my father's hand now we can think about that in connection with this chapter the most high god he is the arranger of matters upon earth unknown to belshazzar even unknown to cyrus as we read in the book of isaiah we mentioned this last night it's worth mentioning again that cyrus was a shepherd cyrus was his anointed he doesn't know me god says he doesn't know me but he's being used by me and i believe that that goes on all the time in the administration that god has as the most high god in the affairs of men oh dear friends what a consolation it is to know that all is safe in the hands of god the time will come when of course the powers of evil will be put down effectively and will have no force or no power or no influence in this poor sad world and that will be when the son of the most high takes the throne of david and rules in this world and then oh what a difference peace and blessing and prosperity and help and encouragement for all and evil subdued evil influences put down and everything for the glory of god and for the blessing of mankind and those who belong to the church will reign with him and take part in that administration we may not qualify for the 10 city administration or even the five city administration but we'll be privileged to be part of the civil service of that day and that will be an honor indeed to reign with christ having in some measure suffered with him here upon earth the most high god and this is exactly what daniel said the most high ruled in the kingdom of men and that he appointed over it whomsoever he will and if the lord will when we come to wednesday evening and consider the great image that nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream we'll see how this operates and the great the great remedy that god will bring in through his well-beloved son it would be sad if we finished our little talk this evening ending at this solemn statement then was belshazzar the king of the chaldeans slain but we have to leave that there that was god's government upon him i want to say a few words about mockery and there's a great deal about mockery in the bible and you'll find that wherever you find mockery those who are mocked always come out on top pre-eminently of course in connection with christ and his things but also seen in the old testament you remember that when isaac was born there was a feast made and there was one who mocked ishmael he mocked there what happened to him he and his mother were cast out and of course that's the root of the trouble in the middle east at the present moment ishmael and isaac never got on together and ishmael and isaac don't get on together in a modern age in spite of the efforts of arafat and the leader of israel or anyone else the united nations ishmael and isaac will never get on together but the lord jesus christ when he comes he will deal with the matter most marvelous statement that we find in the book of isaiah assyria my people egypt my people israel my people all blessed together under the messiah only god can do that man cannot do it today impossible but god will do it do it through christ bring these contrary elements together in peace and harmony for a thousand years without any interruption anyway mockery ishmael mocked it says that precisely and eventually he was cast out and we know that isaac went from strength to strength we read those verses about him he became great and very great and much greater he went on and on and on and he was one of the well-known patriarchs abram isaac and jacob those whom god chose to be the fathers of israel another statement in the old testament you remember that when they were building the wall in the recovery from babylon san velat he mocked at the jews what are those poor jews doing why look at that wall they're building a fox will knock it over he mocked well on they went they didn't worry much about san velat they kept on building and up went the wall god honored them blessed them and there was a temporary return to the worship of jehovah god was supporting his servants these are two occasions from the old testament there might be many more oh when we come to the new testament and we think of the mockery that was shown to the son of god how solemn that was the soldiers decked him out in a purple robe put a reed in his hand for a scepter and a crown of thorns upon his head and they bowed their knees in mockery and hailed him as a king mockery mockery mockery all the time isn't it sad and there he was great and glorious son of god god himself manifest in flesh possessed the limitable power and quietly and humbly he bore all that was hurled against him he had a work to do and nothing was going to divert him from it he had to accomplish the will of his god this was read this morning lo i come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will oh god and nothing would turn him aside from his desire to accomplish that will cost what it may and they mocked him well a few years afterwards the city of jerusalem was ringed with crucifixes titus and 70 ad besieged jerusalem and eventually raised it to the ground all the jews who sought to escape from jerusalem were captured the trees all around jerusalem were cut down to make crucifixes and the city was ringed with thousands of persons hanging up in crucifixes the mockery was a very sad thing but it reaped the consequences god is not mocked whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap whatsoever a nation sows it shall reap god is not mocked indeed we read in the first chapter of proverbs i will laugh when your fear cometh i will mock at your calamity the tables are turned when god begins to work and oh how sad it was that that great city should reap such awful consequences because of their rejection of the messiah and their shameful treatment of him and the lord in luke's gospel depicted this with accuracy what would come against the city what would befall it and he wept over it his feeling heart in relation to it wanting to bless them oh if you'd only known the day of your visitation and they missed it just the same as belshazzar he knew but he didn't respond israel didn't know didn't know that their messiah was there and yet they should have known what he said and what he did was all a manifestation of who he was and they closed their eyes and they closed their hearts and they closed their ears and they reaped the consequences god is not mocked and we all know that we know that in our own lives those of us who are believers we know that whatever we sow we reap if we sow to the flesh we off the flesh reap corruption if we sow to the spirit of the spirit we reap life everlasting it's a divine principle that no one can bend no one can avoid we reap what we sow and so we find that those people who mocked mocked the son of god had fearful consequences to experience if we move on after the lord jesus died and rose out from amongst the dead and then ascended to god's right hand we find the good tidings going out far and wide far and wide and we read in the acts of the apostles the activity of his servants and how the gospel spread and you remember when paul was in the city of athens he preached on mars hill and he preached well and he he used skillfully the knowledge that he had to bring before them the glad tidings and he listened until he came to the truth of the resurrection and when he preached about the resurrection of christ it said some mocked and it's the same today people don't believe in the resurrection they think it's impossible it's something that's not not correct even to talk about resurrection you're mad one said to paul paul you're mad resurrection people don't live after they die when they're dead they're dead forever and so paul was accused of being mad because he spoke about the resurrection and here in act 17 they mocked mocked at the resurrection now those of us who know the lord jesus christ we implicitly believe in resurrection we know it's one of the main features of the gospel day the christian era based upon the death resurrection and ascension of christ these are the foundational truths destroy them and we've nothing left and so we believe implicitly in the truth of the resurrection of christ let man mock he doesn't do anything by mocking he only reveals his own ignorance and his own opposition to the truth the fact is now is christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of those who are dead marvelous thing the resurrection of our lord jesus christ and what a hopeless thing it would be when we take a loved one to a burial ground if we didn't have the truth of resurrection in our souls this is what gives us a triumph at the burial of a loved one one who loved the lord jesus one who's gone to be with christ whose spirit has gone to be with christ and we bury that body in the absolute certainty of the truth of resurrection that when the lord comes that body will be raised and changed and there will be body and soul unite body and spirit united in glory just like christ now we move on a little further and we come to peter's epistle and we read about those who mocked mocked about the coming of our lord jesus christ the scoffers who mocked about the coming of the lord my old grandfather was a genuine believer he was brought up in the church of scotland and there was no doubt at all about his belief in the savior but when i spoke to him uh well i used to get the scripture truth and edification you remember those two books well scripture truth is still with us but edification has long since gone out of print but when i brought them home he always grabbed them first and read them very thankful for that but i remember speaking to him once about the lord's coming oh he says we've heard about that over and over and over again and it's never happened oh but i says it will happen but you see that that's the attitude we've heard about that for a long long time where is the promise of his coming we scoff at that oh that's that's old hat that don't want to hear any more about that and that's very sad when people mock because one day it's going to be a tremendous reality i often wonder how will those people feel who have heard the gospel over and over again who have heard the truth of the lord's coming and who have rejected it and there the truth is in their minds and suddenly their loved ones are all gone and many many more whom they knew they're all gone and there can only be one explanation the lord has come and they're all gone what they preached about has happened oh what a tremendous consternation there must be and what regrets to realize their loss and loss forever doesn't it make you glad you're a believer doesn't it make you glad that you're on the right side of the fence you belong to the lord jesus christ if death should overtake you you're all right if the lord should come you're all right there's nothing to fear my it's a wonderful thing to have this assurance in one soul absolute assurance 100 assurance that's very very important no doubts absolutely sure that you're right with god through our lord jesus christ well we don't want to speak any more about mocking neither do we want to speak about dying without mercy we want to speak about the mercy of god and praise god the preaching of the glad tidings tells us that there is mercy available for any and everyone even the most impious of people the most objectionable of people those who have opposed god in every possible way thank god there's mercy mercy for the mockers mercy for the scoffers mercy for the unbelievers and as we sometimes sing as long as the lamp holds on to burn the vilest sinner may return and so we're thankful that tonight we're not preaching this truth which is a part of scripture died without mercy that was true in the mosaic law but we're preaching today that there is mercy no one need die without mercy i don't believe what some say that there comes a time in a person's life when they're asked to accept christ as savior and if they don't accept at that particular moment they've lost their opportunity i don't believe that the word of god tells me that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life grace is on the throne grace is available at all times for all people in all conditions grace is available for the most outright evil person for the most wicked person and of course the apostle paul was such a person he was the chief of sinners and grace and mercy he says so himself for which cause i obtained mercy and there was a man whose consuming desire was to stamp out from this earth the name of christ and all who followed him and he obtained mercy and we believe that if the apostle paul or saul of tarsus as he was could receive mercy everyone can receive mercy who is ready to accept it as offered by god oh how wonderful the mercy of our god how does it operate it operates through our lord jesus christ who died on the cross and satisfied god in relation to sin and man's opposition and evil and because he satisfied god god can clear the guilty can forgive those who oppose freely happily and bless them time and bless them for all eternity so we're very thankful as i look around this company i think all belong to the lord jesus praise god for that let us continue to pray that those who are still refusing the mercy of god their hearts their eyes their consciences may be affected and they may accept the lord jesus while they have the opportunity and not be so foolish as belshazzar who knew all the things that daniel spoke about and yet they had no effect upon his conscience or upon his way of life may we all be encouraged for his namesake …

… Now will you turn please to Daniel chapter 2 and we're going to commence reading from verse 17. It's a fairly long passage to read but bear with me in the reading of it. Daniel chapter 2 verse 17. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning the secret that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever for wisdom and might of his. And he changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. Therefore Daniel went in unto Ariokh, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him, destroy not the wise men of Babylon, bring me in before the king and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Ariokh brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah that will make known unto the king the interpretation. The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the secret which the king had demanded, can it the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king? But there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed. What should come to pass hereafter? And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, the secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. Thou, O king, sawest and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. The image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away that no place was found for them, and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power and strength and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath given into thine hand and hath made thee rule over them all. Thou art this head of gold, and after thee shall rise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things, and as iron breaketh all these shall it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it the strength of the iron, for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, and as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet orders unto him. The king answered unto Daniel and said, Of a truth it is that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldst reveal this secret. Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Now then, we have enough here tonight to keep us going for two free nights, but we'll do what we can to get through this marvelous chapter. First of all, let us say that chapter two is mainly dealing with the Gentile nations, and tomorrow night, if the Lord will, we'll be dealing with chapter nine, which has to do with the nation of Israel. But these two chapters are extremely important in the unlocking of the understanding of prophecy. And without understanding their dispensational bearing, then we'll very, very easily get mixed up. And we must keep clean in our minds, as we said in a previous evening, that when we are dealing with these things in the book of Daniel, we're referring to matters that pertain to earth. There is a tremendous parenthesis found, especially in chapter nine, as we shall see, and this makes way for the present period, the dispensation of the church, the dispensation of the unfolding of the truth of the mystery, Christ and the church, totally distinct from anything that belongs to earth, heavenly in origin, heavenly in character, and heavenly in destiny. But what we're dealing here with is earth and the greatness of God in relation to the nations. And I want to say a few words first, before we go on to the interpretation of this chapter, that if we're only concerned about seeing these great monarchies coming and then disappearing, and eventually to make way for the kingdom of our Lord Jesus, if we're only concerned about the events, then I think we'll miss the cream of this chapter. And I believe the great truth of the chapter is the absolute supremacy of God. And you will notice that throughout the chapter, again and again, we find it mentioned, the God of the heavens. There's a very interesting psalm, you can look it up when you get home, Psalm 115, where the psalmist says, our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. And then on goes the psalmist to describe the gods of men. They can't see, they can't hear, they can't smell, they can't speak, they can't do anything. And so when we read about the God of the heavens, it's in direct contrast to the gods that are upon earth. And they're absolutely useless because they're man's handiwork, but the God of the heavens is the eternal living God. And then the next great feature that we find is the revelation that comes from God, and that's of the utmost importance to understand. Where would we be as believers if we did not have in our hands a direct revelation from God? Whether it has to do with what has gone in the past, or whether it has to do with the future or the present time, the revelation that we have from God covers all these things and we can understand them and enjoy them. So it's of the utmost importance to know, to understand, and to claim that we do have a revelation from God. Mr. Darby wrote many, many interesting things, and I commend to you one of his articles, Have We a Revelation from God? Well worth reading, because we do have a revelation from God. And then when we come to Daniel, we find a man who's marked by the greatest possible dependence upon God. When he hears about this evil decree passed by the king that all the wise men are to be killed, he and his companions among them, he gets to the king about it, gets a grant of time, and then gets his companions together and they pray. And this shows the dependence that they had in the God of the heavens. And I believe that these two things are linked very, very closely for our spiritual progress. First of all, an understanding that there is a revelation. Secondly, prayer on our part, that we might understand and enjoy it. And very often before I go to a prayer, to a Bible reading, I use the prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1, where you remember Paul says that he prayed for the saints that they might have the spirit of knowledge and revelation. I'm not quoting it correctly. Spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of God, God himself, that the eyes might be enlightened and that we might know. Now, I know I'm using the prayer out of context, but the spirit of it is there, that you know that you don't know. You know that you don't know everything. It'd be foolish to think that. And so you realize that you have to learn and you have to know what the best things to ask. If we lack wisdom, let us ask. That's what James says. Very, very wise. And so we need to learn what the revelation of God means, what its import is, how it will end, what glory it will bring to God, what blessing it will bring to men. Wonderful thing to have a revelation from God. And if we look closely into the New Testament, we'll find that each person in the Godhead is active in this matter of revelation. Matthew 11, the son reveals the father. Matthew 16, the father reveals the son. First Corinthians 2, God reveals things to us by his spirit. And so we can see clearly that all the persons of the Godhead are active in this great matter of revelation, outside completely the realm of man's knowledge. When we come to man's philosophy and man's ideas, oh, what a confusion there is. This one thinks one thing, another thinks another thing. But we've got 66 books in the Bible, all dealing with different periods in God's dealings with men, what we call dispensations, and they're all unified together and they all present the glory of God. No deviation in any of them, they're all together in harmony because they're all inspired. Wonderful thing. And so we need to ask, we need to pray, we need to be concerned that we understand this revelation. So that was the first thing, and Daniel said he was a dependent man. And he was a very humble man. That can be seen from the fact that he says to Nebuchadnezzar, now, don't think for a moment that there's anything special about me. There isn't anything special about me. I've cried to God. It's God who has given me the interpretation of the dream. God who has done this, not me. And then you remember at the end of the chapter, as we read, when he received honor from Nebuchadnezzar, he didn't forget his three companions and made a request to the king that they too should be honored along with him. Modest, humble, unselfish man. These are moral features that we might well adopt in our Christian living. First of all, an enhanced appreciation of the greatness of God. Without that, then we'll become very fearful indeed. An enhanced appreciation of the revelation of God, covering all God's dealings with mankind in whatever dispensation. And two, these features of humility and modesty and dependence that well become us as Christians. Now we'll try and go over very, very briefly, it must be briefly, some of the features in this remarkable chapter. There has been a saying that's been used often, and it's well worth using, that prophecy is simply history declared beforehand. And you'll find in, I think it's about between 44, 47 chapters of Isaiah, statements where God says, I declare the things that are coming beforehand. That's not the exact quotation, but that's the gist of it. The coming things, I can relate them. I can see what's going to happen. And he says, whatever I purpose happens. And so this is one of the great features that we see when God makes a prophetic utterance, it's just as well as done. May take a long time to happen. And of course, in relation to Israel and the nations, yes, it will be a wee while before it happens, but it will come because God has decreed it. I have purposed it, it will come to pass. So prophecy is simply history being written beforehand. Now, this great king was lying in his bed one night, he couldn't sleep. Or if he did sleep, he had a dream. And that dream troubled him. Different opinions about this. Some say that he knew his dream, but he wanted to test his wise men to see if they were able to tell him. He didn't understand the interpretation of it, but he knew his dream. Well, whether that's so or no, I don't know. But anyway, he had a dream and he couldn't understand what it meant. And the dream, as Daniel interprets to him, was to tell him what was going to take place, not in his simply in his own lifetime, but in the latter days, the hereafter. So this dream of Nebuchadnezzar stretches right over the centuries, covering what is called the times of the Gentiles, right on to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory to set up his kingdom. Now that's a long, long period of time. But this dream covers that completely. Well, then he sends for his wise men. We said this in a previous evening, that when the Jew is faithful to God and trusts in God, he is infinitely superior to the Gentile. And here again, we see this picture where the wise men of Babylon, the Chaldees, these are the priestly caste and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the scribes, all different classes of the clever men of Babylon. And they're all hopeless. They don't know a thing about this dream. And I think we will have a certain amount of sympathy for them when they say, well, nobody has ever been asked such a thing as this, to tell the king his dream and also to tell him the interpretation. You tell us the dream and we will give you the interpretation. And the king knew that if he did tell them a dream, the dream, then they would concoct up some interpretation. And so he wanted to test them. Well, we already said that Daniel and his companions were in danger because the king said, if nobody can tell me my dream and his interpretation, all the wise men have to be killed. And from that point, we started to read. So Daniel and his three friends, they have a prayer meeting. There's another thing. Here they are, four young men, captives in Babylon faced with this terrible decree, faced with this terrible problem. What can they do? And they did the very best thing. They got down on their knees and they prayed. Fellowship in prayer, even in the most difficult circumstances, when apparently there was nothing could be done. What a lesson for us. How often we get despondent, how often we feel, is there any use going on? Yes, there is. Praise God, there is. God listens to prayer, heartfelt, earnest prayer. Heartfelt, earnest prayer. God is concerned about those who express their dependence on him. And so there was a revelation from God to Daniel. He says to me first, and then he says to us, he doesn't forget his companions. And I think this remarkable outpouring of praise ought to be considered by us. Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. Now, there's an excellent beginning. Many great rulers have been in this world with very, very great powers, absolute monarchs as far as power was concerned. Many of them, if not all of them, were sadly lacking in wisdom. But here is a God possessed with omnipotent power, illimitable power, and he has wisdom along with it. That is, not only has he the power, but he can use it wisely. Oh, what a wonderful combination that is. Wisdom and power. Things that will be seen in the exercise of the kingdom by our Lord Jesus, as we find in Revelation chapter 5. He goes on to say, he changes the times and the seasons. Now, that ought to be considered by us. As far as I'm aware, this expression only occurs three times in scripture, times and seasons. Here in Daniel chapter 2, and in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, you remember the disciple says, will it be at this time that you'll set up the kingdom? And the Lord says, that's in the Father's hands. Times and seasons are in his hands. And then we find in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, Paul says, I've already spoken to you about times and seasons. And if we understand it correctly, the term times and seasons has to do with God's government upon earth. The rapture that's spoken about in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians is the rapture of the saints caught up out of this world to be with Christ. Immediately after that, God will resume his dealings in a direct way with earth. The times and seasons will commence. Now, times, the very expression indicates to us, I believe, the duration of the period when God is working with men, whatever dispensation. Seasons would describe the character of his workings. And so in those two things, we find God in his time, ways, and also in his character, the character of his dealing. In this matter of dispensations, there's a simple guide for us and nobody can possibly mistake it. When we come to the end of the book of Malachi, we read about the law and its curse. When we come to the New Testament, we read about grace and its blessing. Clear as daylight, two distinct ways of God's dealing with men. And when we turn to the time of the law, it says plainly as plain can be, God will not justify the ungodly, but will punish the ungodly. When we come to the day of grace, God justifies the ungodly. Why does he do this? Because of the death of our Lord Jesus. Two distinct dispensations, as clear as possible, no one could possibly misunderstand the difference. So times and seasons belong to God. He arranges them. He directs them. And as we learn, and we believe from the understanding of the word dispensation, a household arrangement by God. How he arranges his affairs with men at any given moment, and he is arbitrary in that. It's his will that does it, and nobody can call it in question. Times and seasons, he removed kings and set it up kings. I believe this operates today. I believe this with all my heart that the most high God, he rules in the kingdoms of men, sets kings up for his own ways, pulls them down again for his own ways. He has that power to do that. And he does it according to his own will. He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness, and light dwelleth with him. We're having time to go into all these different features of the greatness of God. There's a beautiful verse at the end of Deuteronomy 29, I think it is, where Moses says, the secret things belong to our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever and ever. Remarkable verse. There are things in the heart and mind of God that I believe are beyond the creature's understanding. He wills to reveal certain things, and as we've said already, that's a wonderful, wonderful blessing to be in the realm of revelation, to get what God has in mind for us at any given moment. So Daniel says, I thank thee and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who has given me wisdom and might, and has made known unto me now what we desired of thee, for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. The God of my fathers, we've spoken about the God of the heavens. Daniel speaks about the God of our fathers, and I believe he's talking about the God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob. He's talking about the God of promise, the God of purpose, the God who has made a covenant with his people without any strings attaching to it. There are covenants, the Mosaic covenant, when God put his people under covenant, and they said, all this will we do, we will obey, and they committed themselves to doing the will of God. And we know, of course, that they failed miserably and, of course, forfeited the blessing. But the covenant that God made with Abraham had no strings attaching to it whatsoever. It was not dependent upon the nation's faithfulness, it was dependent upon God. We read about this in the epistle to the Hebrews, that by two things in which it was impossible for God to lie, his word and his oath, impossible that God could break that. This is the covenant that has no strings attaching to it. And in the book of Jeremiah, we read about the new covenant that God makes with Israel. Marvelous covenant indeed. He'll write the law in their hearts, and they'll all respond to him accordingly. And so the God of my fathers, I believe, is Daniel recalling, in his own mind at least, that this wonderful God, the God of promise, the God of power, the God of covenant, the God of purpose, was on their side, even though they were in captivity. And then we find again, he makes another expression, the great God. Oh, what that brings home to our hearts, the great God, the God of tremendous power and resource who is able to implement everything that he presents to his people. All right then, in verse 28, Daniel says, there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. So we go on to the dream. Nebuchadnezzar sees a great image, and how often it has been said, and rightly said, that the times of the Gentiles begins with idolatry and will end in idolatry. And down through the years, this has marked Gentile domination of Israel. Perhaps in the enlightened countries, there hasn't been the bound down to stocks and stones, but idolatry has been rampant in many of the Gentile nations. And idolatry can be practiced in different ways. For instance, as Samuel said to Saul, self-will. And oh, how the Gentile nations have been marked by self-will. No thought of God. We've seen a large, large empire, the Russian empire, marked by ceaseless propaganda against God, throwing overboard everything that belonged to God. Atheistic propaganda in the schools, children from their young age, permeating that great empire. Self-will. And this has marked this great time of the Gentiles, self-will, idolatry, departure from God. It began that way. It has continued that way, and it will end that way. For we find in Revelation 13, the true final story of the end of the times of the Gentiles. When the beast, the head of the revived Roman empire, the last representative of the Gentile nations in power, will set up this great image, or rather, the false prophet will set up the great image and tell everyone that they must bow down to this image of the beast. And then the false prophet himself sets himself up in the temple under use of him and desires to be worshiped as God. Sad, sad end to man's course of departure from God. Impiety, blasphemy of the worst possible kind. And it began with this great king, Nebuchadnezzar, and I say has continued ever since, and will continue until the end, until it's finally dealt with and will never raise its head anymore. Various accusations have been made against this book of Daniel, saying that the person who wrote it had full understanding of all the events that would happen. Well, various competent teachers have shown what folly this is. For instance, Sir Robert Anderson's book, Daniel in the Critics' Den, well worth reading. And many others, able teachers of the world, have shown clearly from history and also on the basis of inspiration that such accusations are false. And so here we find an outlining of the course of man's world. The Babylonian empire set forth in Nebuchadnezzar himself, thou art this head of gold. Let me come to the verse 37. Thou, O king, art the king of kings, for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. If you turn to Revelation 5 and see all the things that are ascribed to the Lord Jesus, which I believe are the things that will be expressed when we read when he rules as king over the earth, you'll find that he is the only one to whom those things are ascribed. Here, this great king has a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. You'll find that other kings in the Old Testament, like Solomon, for instance, he had great power, great wisdom, and so on. But no king, no person was able to have all the things that were ascribed to the Lord Jesus, because no one could possibly administer them as he will. And so we're very, very thankful for the unique place that the Lord Jesus has in the counsels of God and his purpose in relation to earth. Read these things carefully, and I believe they will all be fulfilled in perfection in the world to come. That's why they're ascribed to the Lord. I know that they are direct contrasts to all the things that he suffered on the cross, and that can be considered too. But I believe the main import is that these things that are ascribed to him will be put into effect in the world to come. Well then, the time came for Nebuchadnezzar to move off the scene. Why? God has always a moral reason for what he does. And if you turn to one of the chapters in Isaiah, I'm not quite sure, maybe chapter 44 or 45, you'll find God's judgment on Nebuchadnezzar. He says, you didn't show mercy to the poor. You didn't care for the widows. You were merciless. You were an exactor. And you'll find too in the judgment of Babylon, in the early chapters of Isaiah, the reasons why God brought judgment upon this great king. It wasn't simply God saying, well, we'll get rid of this king to make way for the next nation. There was a reason for it. And you'll find later on in one of the chapters, chapter four, Daniel gives Nebuchadnezzar very, very good advice, which apparently he never paid any attention to. Daniel said to him, show kindness to the poor, break off your iniquities. He's telling the king to have moral features about him, not to have those absolute features. Whom he would, he slew. Whom he would, he kept alive. His word was law and he acted in a very proud way. This is great Babylon, the Babylon that I've built. Oh God. I shouldn't say God delights to humble those who are proud, but God does. He does humble those who are proud. He desires to exalt those who humble themselves. It's a divine principle. And so this proud, proud king was deposed to make way for the next great empire, the empire of the Medes and the Persians, which I think in extent and territory was much larger than the Babylonians, but it was inferior because there were certain forms of government that didn't apply to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was an absolute monarch. He didn't ask parliament what to do. He had no consultation with those who were beneath him. He did his will, but according to the Medes and the Persians, that was another matter. As we see with Darius later on, he's bound by the laws that he makes and he can't revoke them. And so that was an inferior kind of kingdom. And then we find that kingdom has to make way for Alexander the Great, the Grecian kingdom. And his kingdom after his death is divided between his four generals. So we find some more weakness in government. And then comes this last unnatural form of government, iron and clay, strength of the iron, the weakness of the clay. And if we want to understand a little of the moral features of these kingdoms, we have to turn to chapter 7, where they're portrayed as beasts, powerful, fierce, ravening beasts. And there we find their true character. And this last one is a beast that's not found in the natural world. We have the lion in Babylon, bear in Medes and the Persians. We have the leopard in the Grecian empire. But we have a beast that has no correspondence to anything in the world. Absolutely ferocious heads and horns and tremendous power and cruel power. That's the kind of thing that we find in the last representative of the Gentile nations as set out in this image. Now, if you read anything of history, a short time ago, I completed reading the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. And I can assure you, it wasn't edifying reading. It may have given me a little insight into the kingdoms of men and the way they operated, the evil, the corruption, the cruelty, and when the Roman Empire is depicted in that book, it's certainly not delightful reading. The cruelty, absolutely awful. And that's the kind of empire that is brought here at the very, very end, the Roman Empire. In history, it's abundantly proved that this is the course that the times of the Gentiles took. But this is the great point. That it's at that particular period when we've reached the last form of the times of the Gentiles, that the stone cut out without hands strikes the image and the whole thing comes crumbling down, becomes like the chaff of the threshing floor, and it's completely obliterated, completely wiped away, and it doesn't exist anymore. At the time of those kings, oh, but you say, you've explained that step by step, different kingdoms, empires are removed. How can you say at the time of these kings? Well, now, you have to turn to Revelation chapter 13. Now, just let me read it for you, because I think it's important. Revelation chapter 13, and I think it's verse one. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. Now look, this is what it says about the beast. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard. That's Greece. And his feet were as the feet of a bear. That's the Medes and the Persians. And his mouth as the mouth of a lion. That's Babylon. And the dragon gave him his power and his seat and his authority. This great beast has all the features of those great empires that we've been speaking about in Nebuchadnezzar's image. And at the time when the Lord Jesus comes to set up his kingdom, this will be in vogue. There will be a tremendous set up under the beast, great power, great confederacy of nations under his rule, tremendous worldwide influence, and it's when this is reigning in power that the Lord Jesus Christ will come. One great feature of these things is that all those kings reigned when Jerusalem was strutting down. Whether it was Babylon or the Medes and the Persians or Alexander or the Romans, Jerusalem was trodden down. Now we believe the Lord Jesus can come at any moment for the church. Praise God for that. The sooner the better. Also, we believe in comparatively short time of seven years, he will come to set up his kingdom. Well then, how will this take place? We believe we can see in the formation of the European community what can very, very well be the foundation of the beast and his power. We're not saying it is because after the church is gone, events will take place rapidly and then it will become evident where this great conglomeration of nations is. And the beast will be identified at the present moment. His number is 666. Nobody knows what that number means. Various attempts have been made and it's ridiculous. It's ludicrous. It's hopeless because nobody understands. But when the beast is in power and active, then it will be known, this number and what it means 666. And of course, it's just the acme of power of man and his independence of God and it will all come down. Now, this matter, the stone cut out without hands. There are various references to the Lord Jesus Christ as the stone. We're not going to refer to them. We want to refer to the statement cut out without hands. Now, there are a few references in the Bible to things that are cut out without hands. And they all mean divine operation as distinct from what man does. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read about the tabernacle system approach to God, not made with hands as distinct from the tabernacle, which was reared by Bezalel and Aholiab and the united efforts of the nation of Israel. There we find a new approach to God, a spiritual approach to God. That's why we as brethren don't believe investments and incense and music and that kind of thing, because it's a spiritual approach, an approach and the power of the spirit that doesn't need any human embellishment. Cut out without hands is a reference to what God does in his power and in his wisdom. Then we find in 2 Corinthians 5, we read of our building of God without hands as distinct from what we have here in our mortal bodies that are subject to death. Here is a body that's prepared for us, a glorious body, not made with hands, something that God himself provides for us in his power. This was one of the accusations that they made against the Lord Jesus, that he would destroy the temple and rear another one without hands. This is one of the accusations they made against him. And then in connection with circumcision in its spiritual sense, in the epistle to the Colossians, Paul says a circumcision not made with hands. And all these references refer to what God provides in his power and wisdom and blessing. Now then, a stone cut out without hands, the Lord Jesus Christ coming in power and glory to set up his kingdom, a kingdom that will fill the whole earth and will never deteriorate, will never be overthrown. After a thousand years will be handed over perfect to God, that God may be all in all. Wonderful, wonderful thing. Marvelous. God has revealed this to us in his word. It's plain for us there to see. God may be all in all, but for a thousand years, there will be a kingdom that will cover the whole earth. No kingdom has ever done that. Not all the great kingdoms that we mentioned are set out in Nebuchadnezzar's image. Not one of them control the whole earth, but the kingdom of Christ will. It will fill the whole earth. There will be righteousness reigning. A king shall reign in righteousness. Oh, what a wonderful picture we find in the book of Isaiah. Wonderful to read about it. All the blessing that will accrue to mankind. Israel will be in its proper place. The nations will be in their proper place. The church will be there with Christ reigning over the earth and God will be glorified and Christ will be glorified. The stone cut out without hands, a reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. He's indispensable to every thought of God. He's indispensable to us for every blessing. Without Christ, there is no hope for the world, for any of us. But we find all through the scripture, Christ is God's man. Christ is the one whom God is going to use for the blessing of mankind, whether it be the present day of grace or the day of judgment or the day of blessing for the earth. Christ will be at the center of it all and bring it to pass for God's glory. Now, just one little word. We come to the end. I like what Daniel says, the dream is certain and interpretation thereof sure. Now, that's the language of a man who has the mind of God. There's no doubting. There's no saying, well, it might be, I'm not quite sure. No, that's not the language of Daniel. The dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure. Now, look at this remarkable thing. Then the King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet orders unto him. Just a short time before, this man Daniel was under sentence of death with all the rest of the wise men. And here's the great monarch, the great man Nebuchadnezzar, and he's actually bowing down before Daniel. I believe this is a picture of how the Gentile nations will bow down before Israel when God restores them. In one of the books of Isaiah, it speaks about kings, princes. They'll be the persons who look after you. They'll come and bow at your feet, he says to Israel. They'll carry you along. They'll provide all that's necessary, a complete reversal. Oh, what a sad story has been the persecution of the Jews after they said his blood be upon us and upon our children. Oh, what sad government, what solemn government that nation has experienced through their own folly in rejecting their Messiah. I've read a book recently, The Star of David. There's not so much to read in it, but there's plenty of pictures to see. And the authors are German, and all the pictures were taken from German soldiers. And the author says, you can be sure that every picture that you see portraying people, all those people are dead. And the pictures are too awful. In fact, it's not the best kind of book to read. But that's going to be reversed. That will all be done away. They'll never sorrow or sigh anymore, never experience all the persecution that they have done through the ages. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah will be supreme, and he'll look after his beloved people. And I believe Nebuchadnezzar bowing down before Daniel is just a little picture telling us what the Gentile nations will do to the nation of Israel. It is on history I understand that Alexander, the great conqueror of Greece, he actually bowed down before the high priest of Israel. Now, we understand that he wasn't worshipping the high priest, but through bowing down before the high priest, he was in measure worshipping the high priest God. So there may be something of that too in Nebuchadnezzar. But anyway, I believe again, as I've said, this is a picture of what will happen in the future. Then there's a statement that he makes in verse 47. Your God is a God of gods. And you might say, well, that's an exaggerated kind of statement coming from a Gentile monarch. He can't possibly be in the knowledge of that. It's a perfectly true statement. If you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 10, you'll find Moses making exactly the same statement. God, a God of gods, which indicates that amongst all the gods that exist, and of course, there are gods many, Paul says, there is one God, one true living God. And that God is the one who orders the affairs of the universe. And that's what we see in Daniel chapter two. And so we find Daniel sat sitting in the gate of the king. He's now promoted. He's in the administration of the king of Babylon, and his companions too are promoted. Good rewards for a man of faith and dependence. Dear friends, that has been a hasty covering of the chapter. There's much more in it, and it bears careful scrutiny. An hour's not enough to go into all the depths that are in it. However, we trust there's enough to encourage, to help, and also we trust to whet our appetite, to learn a little more, and to have our faith strengthened in our God. May it be so, for his name's sake. …

… Now we turn in place to the book of Daniel chapter 9 and we'll read from verse 1. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans, in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. And I set my face unto the Lord God to seek my prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his commandments, we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets, which speak in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces as at this day to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and unto all Israel that are near and that are far off through all the countries whether thou has driven them because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers because we have sinned against thee. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him. Neither have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in his laws which he set before us by his servants, the prophets. Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law even by departing that they might not obey thy voice. Therefore the curse is poured upon us and the oath that is written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. And he had confirmed his words which he spake against us and against our judges that judged us by bringing upon us a great evil, for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil has come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil and brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth, for we obeyed not his voice. And now O Lord our God that has brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and has gotten thee renown as at this day we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord according to all thy righteousness I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain, because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people have become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear and hear, open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name, for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercies. O Lord hear, O Lord forgive, O Lord hearken and do, defer not for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name. And whilst I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the holy mountain of my God, yea whilst I was speaking in prayer even the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly touched me about the time of the evening oblation and he informed me and talked with me and said, O Daniel I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth and I am come to show thee for thou art greatly beloved, therefore understand the matter and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times and after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined and he shall confirm the covenant with many with many for one week and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and for the over spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. I suppose if we got nothing else but the feelings that are proper to the prayer of this remarkable man we would get something worthwhile tonight for we live in broken days days of confusion days of weakness days of moral apostasy before the absolute apostasy comes after the church is gone after the church is gone but days of great sorrow in the Christian profession and this kind of prayer is a prayer that's seemingly at such a time like this and to see this old man and he was an old man perhaps approaching 90 years of age when we find him here pouring out his heart in earnest prayer and confession what a picture for us sometimes as we get older and we might we might feel well we haven't got the energy to serve the lord in evangelism or even in expounding the truth or in other forms of service and we may say well our time's done well that's a fatal attitude to have because here is an old man and he's full of the interests of the lord greatly concerned that there might be spiritual prosperity amongst the saints and also something for god so dear old saints take courage there's something for you to do old sister as well as old brothers to pray and pray earnestly in relation to the things of the lord so there are a few moral lessons to be learned before we proceed in trying to describe a little of what this chapter means and that's the first one to see this old man coming near the end of his days no doubt and actively engaged in intercession paul the aged was another in prison not nearly so old as this man but also zealous and interceding for the saints and crying earnestly to god and writing for their prosperity and their spiritual encouragement the first thing i think we take account of in a moral lesson is to have intelligent prayer governed by the word of god now that's extremely important in our day for instance it would be useless for us to pray earnestly in our prayer meetings or at home that god would bring israel and the arab nations together in harmony and in blessing we know we're wasting our time we're not praying intelligently the word of god tells us clearly and distinctly that there will be continual enmity between israel and especially the arab nations until the lord comes and puts that right so we wouldn't be praying intelligently oh by all means pray for a cessation of war and terrorism yes that would be perfectly correct but not to pray for total harmony and affinity between israel and the arab nations so daniel he's reading the prophecy of jeremiah and particularly in chapter 29 also it's in chapter 25 but particularly in chapter 29 he would read that if the children of israel are in captivity in this period of 70 years and they cried aloud to god in prayer god would hear them and deliver them daniel says all right i'm going to take that up that's god's promise to me that's god's promise to israel and judah then i'm going to exercise this great desire of god on behalf of his people there's precious little evidence that anybody else in babylon was concerned as daniel was concerned but he himself desired to do this and how well he did so i say intelligent prayer governed by the word of god is that which pleases the heart of god that's for us today along with that we have of course the question of reading the word of god that's perfectly obvious the more we read the word of god the more we become conversant with his ways and his purpose and so we're able to live and pray intelligently if we don't read his word we'll become inefficient in his service we become lacking in discernment and understanding so it's absolutely imperative that christians read their bibles and pray about them pray about it intelligently that they might understand and apply it to their lives day by day the next thing is daniel's confession and why this is something that we need and you would notice the heart rending prayer of this man he acknowledges if no one else acknowledges he acknowledges that israel and judah have failed and the reason of their failure was very very simple disobedience to the word of god it began in the garden of eden it continues through all dispensations and it's true in the christian era wherever there is failure it can be traced to disobedience to the word of god and that's very very sad and when you read this prayer you see this clearly daniel is emphasizing that we have failed our kings have failed our princes our judges our rulers our fathers we all have prayed i have failed ah that's a bit different we might be free to confess in a general way that there is failure are we prepared to own our own particular failure in the breakdown that takes place at the present moment that's not so easy but i believe it's absolutely necessary that if we take up a high and mighty attitude that all others have failed but i haven't we might as well stop praying but oh it's right that each of us in our individual lives in our home lives in our assembly lives and our business lives in whatever way we have failed it is right that we should confess it freely without any reservation examining ourselves not only before we go to the supper but examining ourselves day by day and seeing if there are things that are contrary to the mind and will of god and confess it and not only confess it but put it right so this is a most important feature in this prayer of daniel's his personal confession along with his general confession and we cannot possibly miss the anxiety the concern the reality the earnestness that marked this man as he prayed there was nothing casual about it it wasn't simply a reiteration of very carefully phrased statements nothing like that this is coming from his heart it's coming right from the depths of his being it's what he feels what he's concerned about fasting and praying and now he comes to god about this matter what a wonderful example for us all he prayed about his own failures as well as the general failures of the nation but then of something else and this is extremely important is the character of the man who was interceding and the angel tells us what kind of man he was daniel thou art greatly beloved heaven took account of this man a captive in babylon but what a man a man of the utmost integrity in his public life beyond reproach let all those who hated him and there were many they tried their best to find faults in connection with his administration not a flaw beyond reproach in his public life in his private life consistent prayerful godly dependent faithful upright man in every sense of the word and in persecution humble and dependent and trusting in god what was the result he was a prosperous man he continued when kings failed and kings passed away daniel continued upheld by god preserved by god went on his pathway pleasing to god and you remember there was testimony born to him by god by the prophet ezekiel when he spoke about the three righteous men job noah and daniel righteous man says god righteous man daniel these are the kind of persons that god listens to that heaven listens to people of outstanding integrity people that can be relied upon to be faithful to their god no matter the conditions so these are the moral lessons and i think it's extremely important that in studying these prophetic scriptures we get moral lessons for ourselves as well as looking forward to the future and seeing how things will develop with israel you cannot read this prayer but see clearly that daniel is not speaking about the church obviously the church didn't exist at that time neither is it a subject of prophecy in the old testament it was hid in god came to light for the first time when the holy spirit was sent down on the day of pentecost and believers were formed into one body the house of god it didn't exist until that time we have the words of our lord jesus christ to prove that i will build my assembly it was future at that time his death hadn't been accomplished nor his resurrection nor ascension nor the descent of the holy spirit i will build a future matter but daniel is occupied with israel he's occupied with the land of israel he's occupied with one particular city in israel in the land of israel jerusalem and he's occupied with one particular important place in jerusalem thy sanctuary now it's all about israel the land the people the sanctuary the city all concerned with what belongs to israel and israel's god now i believe we're faulty in our understanding if we think that god took the nation of israel out of egypt simply to rid them of their bondage he did that that's perfectly true and then he promised to lead them into the land and again we say well that's wonderful that gives them rest and that gives them blessing we would be faulty if we thought that was the end that god had a new only when they got into the land god gave them instructions that they were to deal with the idolatry that existed there rid it out obliterate it leave no trace of it it was offensive to god and he wanted it removed and then in the land he wanted the people to be responsive to him to worship him getting rid of idolatry that was rampant and in the land he wanted to worship for himself a jealous god who wanted the affections of his people that's the whole object and daniel understood that when he prayed about the land and the city and the sanctuary and the people he knew that if there was a restoration the restoration was accomplished then the response would take place for god and this is why he cries aloud so willingly and so heartily to god and this is has to this has to be kept in mind the great end and view that god had in blessing his people was not only relief but also response and that's very very important even in our day that if we stop short and say well i'm glad my sins are forgiven i'm going to heaven praise god for that yes keep on praising him for that it's well worthwhile praising him for that but we don't stop short there the father seeketh worshipers and so there's something else to go on to a response in our lives in worship and in testimony very very interesting that the two men who are described as greatly beloved are the men to whom are given the greatest prophecies we have daniel greatly beloved and to him is made known the interpretation of nebuchadnezzar's dream and also this 70 weeks vision and also other prophecies we find in this book we turn to the new testament and we we find a disciple whom jesus loved is the one to whom is given tremendous visions of the future in relation to the world israel also the church marvelous thing that beloved people who are beloved for their uprightness their integrity their worth are the people who are given understanding oh shall i hide anything from my servant abrams says god shall he hide anything from one who is beloved shall he hide anything from the beloved disciple no willingly the things are made known dear brethren we are beloved the bible tells us distinctly that we are beloved we're beloved because we belong to god through christ secured at such an infinite cost and if we're concerned if we pray if we look into god's word god will delight to unfold his mind to us not only in relation to prophecy but in the whole scope of revealed truth he'll delight to do it if only we read his word that's the cue read the scriptures pray about them keep on reading and if you don't understand at the time keep on reading the time will come when you will understand i've said this often when i was a young christian i asked david horn and dear old brother in port seton what do i do david oh he says read the new testament i said well i'll do that yes so i read the new testament and then i went back to him quite happily i've read the new testament what do i do now oh well he says start and read the old testament so i started to read the old testament and eventually i read the old testament i said how did you get on well i said i enjoyed genesis and and the first part of exodus was very very interesting but when i came to that thing about the tabernacle boards and and colors and metals and oh that was very disinterested i says you'll learn and of course we do learn we learn as we keep on reading keep our ears open when we hear ministry we are in days when people are shunning coming to ministry meetings that's the place where we learn we learn from men who have dug into the bible and can give us its understanding and so it's very very important get yourself steeped in the bible that's the way we learn and so dear friends again i say very very important that we understand the word of god and what it means and this man did daniel he understood its import it was operative in his life it governed his life and to what wonderful fruits it brought forth i suppose he's the only man in the bible who was praying and was interrupted by heaven while i was praying he said the man gabriel came and interrupted him in his prayer almost saying daniel you've prayed enough we know what you're after from the very first moment you began to speak heaven was interested in what you're saying and then the man gabriel unfolds to daniel this wonderful vision the 70 weeks vision that means so much to israel and let us say so much for the glory of our lord and savior jesus christ and if we miss that then we would miss the very best in the 70 weeks vision so people might wonder and say now where do we get in scripture the right to say that a week means seven years by what method of interpretation do we arrive at this consideration the first thing is that this word seven doesn't just mean seven weeks it means seven of anything i understand the hebrew word it's a very very wide application but there are two scriptures that very very definite show us that it's an established form of interpretation in the bible and the first case is in the book of numbers when you remember the spies were sent into the land and they were there for 40 days 40 days they went into the land of canaan and they brought back the bunch of grapes ashgold grapes and the pomegranates and the figs and described the land as a very very great land but oh the cities are walled up to heaven and the men are great the giants are there we'll never be able to conquer that country that was a lack of faith and unfortunately the testimony of the 10 was so powerful that it upset the people and they didn't want to go in caleb and joshua tried their best to quieten the people but to no avail all right says god 40 days you've been in the land of israel the land of canaan and you've refused to go in for every day there will be a year that you will need to go through the wilderness 40 years you will have to go through the wilderness there is a clear indication that days can be turned to years so when we say that a week represents seven years here in this vision we are on sound ground well it's good to get another confirmation and in the fourth chapter of ezekiel we find that the prophet is told to lie on his side for over 380 days and says god each day will be counted for a year now there are two scriptures that clearly show us that this interpretation is sound and while we don't need corroboration it is good when we get scriptural corroboration and so to say that each day here represents a year is sound scriptural interpretation so we begin with uh verse 25 know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build jerusalem unto the messiah the prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks the street shall be built again and the wall even in trouble trouble of troublesome times now then it took a period of seven weeks 49 years for the rebuilding of the city there are four decrees three in the book of ezra and one in the book of nehemiah which instructs the people to go back to the land and to build the ones in ezra they have to do with the building of the temple but the one in nehemiah is precise that it's for the rebuilding of the city and it has been very very carefully calculated that from the time that the decret the decree went forth in the book of nehemiah chapter two until the time when jesus entered into jerusalem as messiah the prince hailed as such hosanna the son of david covered this period that is referred to seven weeks and three score and two weeks 69 weeks but then we find this very solemn statement and after three score and two weeks shall messiah be cut off you remember how he was hailed when he came into jerusalem they strewed the palm trees before him the crowd shouted hosanna to the son of david he entered in in triumph into the city of jerusalem and all looked fair but it was only outwardly and you know very well that the heart of the nation was not for the lord the leaders were against him and rejected him and eventually planned and schemed until they had crucified him he was cut off it looked good but it wasn't good and this term cut off is a sacrificial term we find it in isaiah 53 he was cut off out of the land of the living and so this is a reference to the death of the lord jesus oh dear friends it's always solemn when we turn to the death of the lord jesus and here it is dealt with in its outward form messiah was cut off and had nothing he comes as the king of israel he comes as the one who is right to govern the universe and he's cut off he's rejected he's refused oh how sad that was there was an opportunity for the nation to have him and to accept him and to follow him and instead they cut him off they crucified him oh how sad and then it says but not for himself and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined now notice the precise language that is used it doesn't say the people and the prince that shall come it says it's the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city this is very precise language and it means the romans will come and destroy the city as they did in 70 a.d but the prince that shall come is the leader of the roman conglomeration or confederation and that's future and this is a reference to the one who will be the head the first beast in revelation 13 who shall be the head of the revived roman empire the prince the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and here again as we said in last night one of the features that we find in the times of the gentiles is the down treading of jerusalem and in 70 a.d jerusalem was destroyed the sanctuary was destroyed all the hopes of israel were destroyed never again was a temple raised in 2 000 years nearly since the time the temple was destroyed synagogues came and they were the representatives of the hebrew worship but there will be another temple built in unbelief and will make way for a better temple the temple described for us in the book of ezekiel that's not the story that we're describing here and then it goes on to say he that is the prince that shall come shall confirm the covenant with many for one week now notice again the precise language he doesn't say he shall confirm the covenant with all israel for one week he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week that is the apostate part of israel those who refuse to bow to this covenant described in the book of isaiah as a refuge of lies they'll be faithful those who refuse to sign they won't have the mark of the beast they'll suffer persecution and then we believe will be the literal worth of what is termed the lord's prayer if they haven't got the mark of the beast they can neither buy nor sell and then that prayer will have great force give us this day our daily bread absolutely dependent upon jehovah for what they require day by day oh how sad what terrible persecutions the faithful remnant shall endure in that time of tribulation it goes on to say and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and the overspreading of the abominations and so on that is that in the middle of this last week that has to be has to be completed to fill up the 70 weeks in the midst of this last week the head of the revived roman empire breaks the covenant that is made with israel and leaves them absolutely defenseless they have no help from the roman empire the king of the south is against them the king of the north is against them the confederated roman power is against them and they have no help anywhere and the last three and a half days of that week the last three and a half years of that period is a time of intense tribulation such as the world has never seen and unless the lord shortened those days then they would all have been annihilated very very solo but there it is precisely laid out for us in the word of god that this last week will be divided into two portions the first portion where the nation the apostate part of nation the nation will be protected by a covenant with the head of the revived roman empire the last half of the week three and a half years will be the time of intense bitter relentless persecution that will only cease when the lord comes in power and in glory now if we stop there at the time of the great tribulation we would be missing a great deal so we want to go back a little bit to verse 24 and we'll go down this very carefully 70 weeks are determined upon thy people people and upon thy holy city that's point one now clearly again we're not dealing with the church we're not dealing with the gentile nations that has already been seen in daniel chapter 2 we're dealing with the nation of israel and particularly the city of jerusalem that's the first thing and i think we've got that clear in our minds point number two to finish the transgression what does that mean israel sins are finished no more failing no more breaking the commandments no more refusing to obey the judges the rulers the prophets the word of god no more transgression finished to make an end of sins again the same idea no more god in wickedness and failure that kind of thing is at an end the lord has come the lord is finishing the matter he's talking about the end of the 70 weeks this is what's the consummation of god's ways with his people israel and it's graphically displayed in the books of isaiah and jeremiah and ezekiel isaiah particular where this the prophet shows in beautiful language the heart of jehovah for his people and how he'll bless them comfort ye comfort ye my people and all the wonderful things that the prophet says inspired by god to show that god in his mercy and his love for his people will forgive them all their sins and iniquities they'll be cast behind his back that beautiful portion that we read in isaiah 53 that we so very often use in preaching the gospel or so use for our own comfort but stands particularly related to israel by stripes and all the rest of it we are healed and so on the death of christ to meet them in all their failure and then we come to reconciliation for iniquity i think mr darby has another statement to make reconciliation or expiation for iniquity and i believe here we have a distinct reference to the great day of atonement it stands at the very center of this group of seven to make expiation for sins how possibly could the sins of israel be expiated how could they possibly be reconciled to god only by one means by the death of our lord jesus christ in its greatness and glory its far-reaching effects we were reading at home in our bible reading i should say at port seton and we're reading in romans chapter three about the passing by of the sins that happened before that is paul is taking a look backward and taking account of all the failures that had gone before and they were all dealt with in forgiveness by the blood of our lord jesus christ marvelous thing to think about that all those who lived in faith before the coming of the lord received forgiveness at the time shall i say in a temporary covering character but its fullness waited for the coming of our lord jesus christ and when his work was accomplished then their forgiveness was complete in the fullest sense of the word and here we find israel the expiation being made for them again a reference to the greatness of the death of our lord jesus christ and if we look at the type in leviticus chapter 16 the great day of atonement it sets forward clearly how this is accomplished and you remember first of all the high priest had to make a sin offering for himself and of course that's impossible in connection with our lord jesus and the epistle to the hebrews tells us about that he never needed to make expiation for his sins but then two goats were taken one goat for god the other goat for the people god was satisfied and then the sins of the people were confessed on the head of the other goat which was taken away into the wilderness by the hand of a fit man and left there a vivid picture of how the sins of the nation were taken away for one whole year and the people were restored to the to jehovah but then for us it means much greater that when the lord jesus christ was abandoned by his god and the work of atonement was finished the work of expiation the work of reconciliation the work of forgiveness when that was completed the sins were dealt with forever sin was put away the fruits of sin sins were dealt with effectively the greatness of the work of christ and i often feel this dear brethren if we just take account of ourselves individually we all know it's absolutely impossible for any of us to take account of all our sins we know that's impossible we're not living in sin we're not continually practicing sin we're not following a course of sin but we're all very conscious that we fail day by day in many ways we don't want to fail but we do unfortunately but then dear friends when we think of the millions and millions of people who are forgiven on the basis of the death of christ it gives us some impression of the magnitude of that work what a tremendous work for the glory of god and for the blessing of all concerned and we say without any hesitation that the blessing of the gentile nations the blessing of the nation of israel the blessing of all those who form the church will rest upon this great work the death of our lord jesus christ again and again and again in the writings of dear j and darby there is nothing like the cross again and again and again he drew the saints attention to it the magnitude of the death of christ this is why we consider it a great joy to gather together even in our weakness in the lord's the morning just to express to him our gratitude for his wonderful love expressed in death and here it's for the blessing of israel then it says to bring in everlasting righteousness a reference to the world to come we know that this is not the time of righteousness the only place where real righteousness is to be found at the present moment is in the circle where those who belong to the lord jesus are indwelt by the holy spirit and the kingdom of god is not meat and drink but righteousness peace and joy in the holy spirit and so their righteousness according to god is wrought out in the spirit's power but in the world to come righteousness shall reign the knowledge of the lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea the two great features of the new covenant mentioned in hebrews 8 for our present blessing but particularly in relation to israel those two points are the knowledge of god and the forgiveness of our sins marvelous blessings and the forgiveness of sins is a wonderful blessing a tremendous blessing and linked with that the knowledge of god and so righteousness will cover the whole earth in the same way as the knowledge of god covers the earth as the waters cover the sea unrighteousness corruption evil inconsistencies mark the day in which we live every conceivable form of evil but to bring in everlasting righteousness will be for a thousand years a king shall reign in righteousness melchizedek is described as king of righteousness and king of peace and that little picture in genesis 14 is a picture of the world to come and so we find here everlasting righteousness brought in it won't break up it won't deteriorate it won't be destroyed by internal dissension it will be maintained by the one who rules and we find that jerusalem the city where our lord was crucified as it says in revelation shall be described as the righteous city what a transformation no dear friends everlasting righteousness will be for the glory of god and the honor of christ and for the blessing of israel and the church will have its part in its administration then it says seal up the vision and prophecy what does that mean no more need for prophetic scriptures all has been fulfilled all the glowing prophecies that are made and by the prophets the major prophets and the minor prophets all those prophecies are fulfilled to the letter god is vindicated in his word and everything's brought to pass by our lord jesus christ no more scriptures to be fulfilled all the scriptures fulfilled in relation to messiah all fulfilled in relation to israel and all fulfilled in relation to god when we read the psalms the king is reigning people are in silence before him keep quiet before him jehovah's on his throne and i can understand people saying but that's not true today we don't see that today there are wars there are confusions there are there is evil and what does it mean and it means this that they don't understand the value of dispensational teaching that the world to come hasn't come when these psalms are set forth they anticipate another day when the king shall be on the throne and this will be a fact and the nations will be silent before god and righteousness will be administered and there will be peace there will be a handful of corn upon the mountains and the different ways in which the scriptures portray the greatness of the millennial reign and so we have to understand the day in which we live is totally different from the day that is to come righteousness now is set aside by mankind generally but then righteousness will reign in that wonderful day and so it says seal up the vision and prophecies no more to be fulfilled lastly and to anoint the most holy i think this is a beautiful expression i'll tell you why when the tabernacle was anointed it was set up in order to allow the nation of israel to approach to god in the way that he wanted and there are four occasions in these chapters in exodus where we read there i will meet with thee and the context of each scripture is well worth looking into and god's great desire was to have his people for himself i've often said that the last verse of numbers chapter 8 is one of the greatest verses in the old testament where we find moses speaking to god and god speaking to men and there we find the heart of god the heart of his desires to have man for himself in happy communion with himself and it really antedates the day when god shall dwell with men marvelous thing and when we read here about the anointing of the most holy i believe it indicates the work of the holy spirit in securing from the heart of israel the response that he'd always looked for thank god that today because of the anointing of the holy spirit we can respond to god today and that's a marvelous thing that we can be intelligent as to god's mind and worship him in praise worship him in appreciation of who he is worship christ in the appreciation of who he is and of what he has done and so this anointing of the most holy is in view of service godward that's why we say all the activity that god has is not simply to bring us into relief it is that praise god for that but it's a step in the right direction the fight the final step is that we might respond to him serve him serve him freely and with gratitude anoint the most holy well that will be the end for israel and it will be a wonderful day indeed marvelous thing that right at the center of it all whether it's chapter two or chapter nine we find our lord jesus christ he is the one the stone cut out without hands who will introduce a kingdom that shall never be destroyed he is the one here who because of his work on the day of atonement because of that great work will bring in complete total restoration of israel and a response from them that will gladden the heart of god praise god for our lord jesus because today he is the one who is indispensable to us that we might do the things that are pleasing to god may we be encouraged for his namesake …