Thank you.
I don't think it got out.
What?
I'm not willing to do four of sharps.
The four sharps are here.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Why now for the day, who knows before we
To look up all the things we can see
In the ways that we see
Why they don't come down
Hey man, good morning, what's up? Welcome to Verde Baptist Church, Manila.
Let's start our first service and let's get our hymns.
And let's open it to hymn number 185.
On the first we need to sing
I stand on peace in the presence
of Jesus and have no reach
I wonder how he would go
Be a sinner who there would be
I'll never lose
I'll want the world and my soul
I'll never be
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
For me
What sent the Lord in me
Oh, what a wonderful day
That you're here for me
What sent the world and my soul
I'll never be
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
For me
What sent the world and my soul
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
For me
What sent the world and my soul
I'll never be
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
I'll never stop
This rising river's love for me
Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you God
for the good weather and I pray Lord that you bless our services for this morning
and I pray that you do thank the best Church Lord and as we have our first service right now
I pray that you bless our congregation of singing, the reading of the word
and the preaching of the sermon. I also pray that you bless the preacher
and that he can edify us Lord and we will be
attentive with the sermon, help us to not be distracted Lord. Remove the
hindrances and distractions thereof Lord. I pray oh God that you also
bless our fellowship and our soul meeting this afternoon. We're asking all of these things in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
For our next song let's turn to hymn number 281
Hymn number 281
Let's sing the song, Fast Me Night of endless angels
On the first fast me night
of endless angels
Hear the vocal cry
of a mother's hour calling
Fast me night
of endless angels
Hear the vocal cry
of a mother's hour calling
Do not pass me by
Let me at my will
a thirsty mind
A drink we drink
a drink
Say your
say your
Hear my humble cry
of a mother's hour calling
Fast me
Fast me only like
me
Good I sleep like
me
Sleep dry like
me
Sleep
your
sleep
My humble
cry
of a mother's
hour calling
Do not pass me by
Let me at my will
a thirsty
night of endless angels
Hear the vocal cry
of a mother's hour calling
Fast me night
of endless angels
Hear the vocal cry
of a mother's hour calling
Let me say your
say your
Hear my humble cry
of a mother's hour calling
Do not pass me by
Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Take out your bullets in here today.
And our verse of the week is 2 Corinthians 7 verse 10. The Bible reads
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of
but the sorrow of the world worketh death. And that's a great verse there. And we are a family
integrated church meaning children and infants are welcome during the services. We do have a mother
baby room back there for your convenience as well as the ladies comfort room. The men's comfort room
is up here in front. Remember no eating during the service. Maintain a professional
atmosphere and keep the children from running and making noise during the church service.
Our first service is at 10 a.m. Second service at 11.30. Wednesday evening Bible study
at 7 p.m. Soul winning time is listed in our bulletin. 4 p.m. on Wednesdays.
10 to 12 on Saturdays. Lunch provided by church and then 2 to 4
at Case on Memorial Circle. Of course we do have soul winning this afternoon at
2.15 p.m. And we have our salvation and baptisms listed there
for our churches and also birthdays and anniversaries down below.
On the next page our Bible memorization challenge and upcoming
activities. So in this month the only big thing we have is our monthly prayer meeting that's coming up
in a couple weeks. Towards September we'll start to have more activities.
But we do have our prayer meeting in two weeks. We are going through the book of Daniel. We have three
more sermons. Information under group chat. And then on the back there is a place
for notes for the sermons here today. So I believe that's it for announcements while brother Marlon
lead us in another song.
This is a new song. It's starting to be number 284. Who at my door
is standing?
Who at my door is standing?
Ready on the first who at my door is
standing. On the first ready sing
Who at my door is standing
recently calling me
And let's begin
demanding Who is the voice
I hear?
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
If thou would lead my calling
I will abide with thee
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
I will abide with thee
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
If thou would lead my calling
I will abide with thee
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
If thou would lead my calling
I will abide with thee
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Sweetly the souls are calling
Open the door for me
Please say amen when you are there
In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia
a thing was revealed unto Daniel whose name was called
Pilchasha and the thing was true but the time appointed was long
and he understood the thing and had an understanding of the vision
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread
neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint
myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled
And in the four and 20th day of the first month
as I was by the side of the great river which is Rhechiel, then I lifted up
mine eyes and looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen whose loins
were girded with fine gold of ufas. His body also was
like the barrel and his face as the appearance of lightning and his
eyes as lamps of fire and his arms and his feet like in color
of polished brass and the voice of his words like the voice of
a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision for the men that
were with me saw not the vision but a great breaking fell up
on them so that they fled to hide themselves. Therefore I was left alone
and saw this great vision and there remained no strength in me for my commonness
was turned in me into production and I retained
no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words
and when I heard the voice of his words then was I in a deep sleep
on my face and my face toward the ground. And behold
a hand touched me which set me up on my knees
and upon the palms of my hands and he said unto me
O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak
unto thee and stand upright for unto thee am I now sent
and when he had spoken this word unto me I stood trembling
then said unto me fear not Daniel for from the first day
that thou didst set thine heart to understand and to chasten thyself before
thy God thy words were heard and I am come for thy words
but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days
but lo Michael one of the chief princes came to help me
and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the
latter days for yet the vision is for many days.
And when he had spoken such words unto me I set my face
toward the ground and became dumb. And behold
one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips then I opened my mouth
and spake and said unto him that stood before me O my lord
by the vision my sodas are turned upon me and I have retained no strength
for how can the servant of this my lord take
to talk with this my lord for as for me straight away there
remains no strength in me neither there is worth left in me.
Then they came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man and he
strengthened me and said O man greatly beloved fear not peace be unto thee
be strong, yeah be strong. And when he had spoken unto me I was
strengthened and said let my lord speak for thou hast strengthened me. Then said
he knoweth thou wherefore I am come unto thee and now will I
return to flight to fight with the
prince of Persia and when I am gone forth lo the prince of
Russia shall come. But I will show thee that which is
noted in scripture of truth and there is none that holdeth with me in these
things but Michael your prince. Let us pray. Thank you our father
for your word. Thank you for the Bible. We ask you to help us
and also to give us understanding for this word. Help us to understand also the
complicated things of the Bible so that we have more
passion also to read your word and to grow in our knowledge and
please also bless the preacher and anoint him. We pray in your name.
All right
we are in Daniel chapter 10 and we're going to finish this chapter here today
and in this chapter Daniel gets another vision but he doesn't
actually give you the details about this vision until Daniel chapter 11 and so
next week we'll talk about what basically that vision is and everything and honestly
you know there's not a lot of like practical information in this chapter
compared to some other chapters except stuff we've kind of already covered and so
this is going to be kind of a unique sermon for me because I don't normally go on a lot of rabbit trails but I'm
going to kind of do that in this sermon and so there is kind of interesting information that can
kind of fill in the gaps during this time frame but starting here in verse number 1 the Bible reads
in the third year of Cyrus king of Persia
a thing was revealed on to Daniel so in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia
that is where basically Babylon is conquered and you have
Darius the mead that takes over in Babylon and then Cyrus is the most powerful man
in the world at this time. Well this is the third year a couple years after
this and it's already come at this point that he's commissioned the rebuilding of
basically you know the temple in Jerusalem and so
this is a couple years after that point. Now the question of
Cyrus comes up because Cyrus is actually very nice to God's people
I mean he commissions the rebuilding of the temple he says you can go back to Jerusalem and everything like that
so the question comes up about Cyrus was was this person
saved or was he not saved okay? It's very difficult in general
in the Old Testament to find out if somebody is saved or not because you'll read about kings
and it'll say he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord.
Well that's not salvation though. I mean it's a good
indicator I mean if they did right in the eyes of the Lord and didn't set up idols
that's a better more likelihood that they're saved but it's not like
two plus two equals four and on the contrary someone does evil on the side
of the Lord well that doesn't necessarily mean they're not saved either right in my opinion
that's not an indication whether or not they're saved or not it can kind of give you a hint
or a clue but it's not really dogmatic and
actually when you're reading in the Old Testament you see various kings and people
a lot of times you're just like I don't know whether they're saved or not right we can
kind of have our opinions and say I think this king was probably saved
but it's really hard to tell and so of course it's also hard to tell here with
Cyrus. Cyrus does a good thing and if you were to say you know one verse
about that good or evil I mean I guess he did good in the eyes of the Lord that doesn't mean
that he's saved though okay? Now there's a famous document in
history called the Cyrus Cylinder who's heard of the Cyrus Cylinder?
No hands yesterday. Any hands today? No. Okay? Nobody pays attention in
history in school right? But it's one of the most famous works in the
ancient world and it was written by King Cyrus when
basically he conquered Babylon and he wrote it because he wanted to be
a benevolent ruler to the Babylonians. Many
kings or rulers will take over and take over by force and say obey
or we're going to kill you. Do what we say or we're going to kill you. That
wasn't King Cyrus though. King Cyrus is known in history as being the most benevolent
king in the history of the world of famous powerful kings where
he would basically conquer a people but he would assimilate them in and say you can
keep your culture, you can keep everything about yourself and so he
wrote this Cyrus Cylinder and it was basically like a plea to the Babylonians
where yes I took over this location. I displaced the old king
but I want to be your leader. I want you to love me. I care about you.
Well here's what he says in this Cyrus Cylinder. Now
the Cyrus Cylinder was discovered in 1879.
So first off when there's something discovered in the 19th century
we don't know for sure whether or not it's accurate.
Right? I have no way to verify for sure whether or not it was written by King
Cyrus. Now pretty much every archaeologist will say it was definitely written by Cyrus
and for my study I would say it probably was. It probably is actually accurate.
However I would also say people talk about well the Gospel of Thomas.
It's been discovered. Why is it not in your Bible? The Gospel of Judas.
The Gospel of everybody and it's just like well just because they found something
in the ground we have no idea who wrote that. We can't really document that.
But everything you know about Cyrus in history and even what the Bible says it would kind of make sense of him
being a benevolent sort of ruler. Well this is what it says in
the Cyrus Cylinder. It says upon
I'm only reading part of this.
He's saying his favorite by the hand he called out his name, Cyrus king of Anson.
He pronounced his name to be king over all the world.
And so if this is accurate what you're seeing King Cyrus say
is that Marduk made him the leader of Babylon.
If this is accurate and at this time there's no question
he's not saved. Right? I mean that's very clear. He's saying Marduk
is the one who appointed me to take over Babylon. And if you go kind of in
more detail what he's saying to the people is basically your
leaders rejected your culture. Your leaders rejected
your God. And basically I'm come here to basically keep the culture
and promote that God. And you know biblically speaking the
person who was the king of Babylon at the time he was basically you know he was
religious but kind of anti-religious. Sort of like blasphemous against any sort of religious person.
So that would actually maybe kind of fit with what's being said here.
But if this is accurate which I would say probably it is
when he wrote this there is no question that he's not saved. Okay?
Now shortly after that if he basically says okay you know you can
go back to Jerusalem you would say but in the Bible it sounds like Cyrus is saved
and maybe he was. We don't know if the Cyrus cylinder is accurate. But here's what I would say.
Earlier in the book of Daniel we looked at Nebuchadnezzar.
And before Daniel chapter 4 it sounds like
Nebuchadnezzar gets saved at the end of Daniel 3. Right? I mean it kind of sounds like that.
He's talking about the true God. The one God and everything like that.
Then you get to the next chapter it's like oh he obviously didn't get saved.
Right? Because when you believe on the Lord even those in the Old Testament looking
toward the coming Messiah that belief is going to stick with you forever.
Right? Once you're saved you're always saved but what you need to realize is when
you believe in the Lord you're going to believe on Him forever. If there's somebody who says you know what
I'm a Muslim you know what that tells us? They were never saved. They might have said a prayer
when they were a kid. They were never saved. We talked to someone who's
anti-eternal security. I'm sorry I don't care if they prayed at a Baptist
church. They're not saved. Because the Bible says when you receive the testimony
of the Lord you set to your seal that God is true. Meaning you're never going to call God
a liar. Cross referencing in 1 John 5 if you don't believe the record
you're calling God a liar and you're not saved and that record is eternal
life in His Son. So once somebody believes they are
saved forever and they believe forever. I'm not saying
they'll never have any doubts but they will have that belief. If somebody's an atheist
a Hindu a Muslim or just a hardcore work salvation
they never got saved. It doesn't matter if they prayed a prayer.
And so with Cyrus here
you know he writes this. There's no question at this time assuming
he wrote it that he was not saved. And what I would say is there's parts of the Bible
that if you were just to look at that you might think Cyrus is saved and maybe he
ends up getting saved. Maybe once he says the Jews can go back to
Jerusalem because he wants to be a benevolent ruler then maybe one of the Jews says
here's my opportunity. Let me give him the Gospel and maybe he can get saved.
I mean that would make sense. That would be the most accurate time or best time to preach the Gospel
because you know he's obviously being benevolent to you and anybody who gets saved
hears the Gospel from someone but you know if he got saved
it was definitely after he wrote this assuming that this is
accurate. And so he supposedly writes
this document and what he's basically talking about is
Marduk. Now what's interesting to me about this is if you ever look
at King Cyrus in history and you type in the religion of King Cyrus
do you know what's going to pop up? It's going to say he's Zoroastrian.
Every single article is going to say that.
And you know what I've always just kind of assumed it was sort of about because the Zoroastrian
religion is supposedly the first monotheistic religion. It came out of
what would be modern day Iran and they worshipped the Hora Mazda.
Supposedly they're the first monotheistic religion and that's where we get the term
Magi. You know the term because of magic. You know they had a lot of sorcery in their religion.
But basically people will claim that Zoroastrianism is
the first monotheistic religion and Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
basically evolved from Zoroastrianism. That's what the secular world
will tell you. But there's really actually no writing at all that says
that Cyrus was Zoroastrian. It's known that the Persian
empire becomes Zoroastrian but there is not a single
writing of Cyrus ever mentioning anything about a Hora Mazda
or saying he's Zoroastrian so honestly it's not really a debate of whether or not
he believes in Zoroastrianism because he didn't. The question is did he ever
change his belief on Marduk and believe in the Lord? Because with Zoroastrianism
you wouldn't proclaim good things about Marduk while worshipping a Hora Mazda.
If you worshipped a Hora Mazda every other god you would say is bad. That's
basically their religion being monotheistic. But anyways
let's go back here after going on some rabbit trails
and let me just also say this on a side point which
I kind of find interesting. Modern day Persia would be
what country? Iran. If we're looking
at location modern day Persia would be Iran.
Modern day Babylon would be Iraq. And if you really
look at the two Muslim countries that have been at war together for a long
time and never really agreed, do you know what two countries they are?
Iran and Iraq. I find that kind of interesting. I saw this poll online
a poll in Iran itself stated that Iran was
99.8% Muslim. Which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense
to me because they have a lot of non-Muslim roots with Zoroastrianism
and whatever Cyrus believed in everything for a long time. And of course if you were the
most powerful empire in the world you probably inherently believed my country
is the best in the world. I'd imagine if you grew up in Iran you'd probably think we are the true
country that's chosen by God. Just as Iraq would think that and many other
countries. Egypt I'm sure would think that. Modern day United States would think that and
stuff like that. But you know what's interesting is that supposedly they're 99.8%
Muslim but an independent poll outside of Iran gave the percentage to be
40.2% of people admitted to being Muslim and
the rest said that they weren't Muslim. And so what you see with Muslim countries is
people will be Muslim out of fear. Doesn't necessarily mean
they actually believe in it. It's just kind of like well we're kind of forced to be that. Just like with the Catholic Church
in the past when they were forcing everyone. Anyways verse number one.
It's going to be a long sermon. We're not through one verse yet.
And verse number one. In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing
was revealed unto Daniel whose name was called
Belteshazzar and the thing was true but the time appointed was long and he understood the thing
and had understanding of the vision. In those days I Daniel was mourning
three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth
neither did I anoint myself at all till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
Now you can get confused by verses two and three because it doesn't
say that Daniel didn't eat any food. It doesn't say
he had a 100% fast. What it says is he ate no
pleasant bread. What that would be like is basically like hey can I
have a slice of bread? It's like okay he wants something on it like peanut butter, honey, butter.
It's like nope. Just plain. No pleasant bread.
Just kind of plain. And he's eating a very austere or
aesthetic sort of diet for three weeks with nothing fancy.
Just kind of plain bread. Nothing fancy. Here the modern day
equivalent would be just eating rice with nothing on it. That's all you eat for
like three weeks. And so basically for three weeks all he's
eating is bread because here's the thing about this. With bread
it doesn't really take a whole lot of time to just eat bread. It's like
you got a loaf of bread. You can just kind of quickly eat and go about your day. And Daniel's basically
mourning. Basically trying to seek God and everything like that.
So he's not really wasting any time on eating. And you can eat bread and get your calories
pretty quickly. That's basically what he's doing here for three weeks. And it says
he doesn't eat any flesh nor wine. Now here's the thing.
If it says that he doesn't eat flesh for three weeks it kind of implies that
normally Daniel did eat meat. Right?
It's like this modern day idea that everyone should be a vegetarian.
And here's the thing. I personally love fruits and vegetables. Fruits are my
favorite of any of the five major food groups. But the idea that people
just all used to be vegetarians and never eat any meat is not what the Bible teaches.
And it's not actually a healthy diet to just eat no meat
whatsoever. It's weird with diets. People always want to go in these
extremes. Like in our modern day you've got a diet called the carnivore
diet where all you eat is meat. Right? I think
according to that diet you don't even eat dairy. It's just all meat is all you eat.
Right? It's like going back to the days of the animals. Because we used to be
animals. All we're going to eat is meat. Right? And then there's other people that go in these
extreme diets of just like all plants and nothing else.
But you know what you'll find is that there's important nutrients in all of the five
food groups. And what you see throughout the Bible is a
balanced diet. Right? You see many things being mentioned as good.
Butter and honey are both mentioned as good. Well that's fat and sugar. Now of course
if all you ate was butter that's not going to be good for you. If all you ate
was honey that's not going to be good for you. But that kind of shows there's a balance. You know
fruits are mentioned as good. Vegetables, meat, bread, dairy, all
of it's considered good. Obviously within good reason. Having a balanced diet of
all things is actually very, very important. And
so for three weeks he has this kind of unique diet. Then it says in verse four,
And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was
by the side of the great river, which is
Hedekul. Now this is kind of interesting because it calls this
river a great river. Okay? There's
not a whole lot of rivers in the Bible that are called a great river. In the Bible
it talks about great cities and there's like just a small handful of what's called
a great city, meaning large or powerful or something of that nature.
There's only three rivers from what I saw in the Bible
that are referred to as great rivers. One of them
is called the river of Egypt. Well what is the river of Egypt?
What do we know that river by the name of? The Nile River. No question about it.
Well that makes sense that it's a great river, right? I mean it basically
turned Egypt into a superpower. It's probably the most significant
river in the history of the world I would say. It's definitely up there, at least in the
ancient world. It makes sense the Bible would call the Nile
River the great river. Another river that's called a great river in the Bible
is called the river Euphrates. Well I mean that makes sense because if you know
anything about famous rivers, that's one of the most famous rivers not just in the ancient world but in our modern
day. And Mesopotamia was known as the cradle of civilization
and it was basically situated with two primary rivers that helped support
it and turned it powerful. One of those was the river Euphrates,
okay? But then you've got this river in here,
Hadekul. Nobody knows Hadekul, right?
And if you were to ask people on the street, do you know of a famous river in Egypt? Everybody's going to
say the Nile River. At least I hope people still have that basic knowledge.
I mean a lot of people are going to know the Nile River. It's like you're correct.
Or if you mention the river Euphrates, a lot of people would know that name
as well. But nobody would know the name Hadekul outside of the Bible.
And so the question is, well what is this river? What happened? Well this is actually
known today as the Tigris River.
And in America we say Tigris, but my wife said Tigris. It's like Tigris,
right? But the Tigris or Tigris River. So this is actually, and that is
actually the other river that was with Mesopotamia that turned it into a superpower.
So this river is actually the Tigris or Tigris River. It's kind of interesting this week
because I went to YouTube and, you know, you can actually do tours of
famous rivers and locations. And I just did kind of like a 15 minute tour
on YouTube where they just kind of sent you down the Tigris River.
And it's just like somewhere along that path is where Daniel
chapter 10 is actually taking place. I thought that's pretty cool, you know, to kind of figure out
somewhere along this path is where he's having this vision right by the
Hadekul or Tigris or Tigris River. Anyways, verse number
five. Then I lifted up mine eyes and looked and behold a certain man
clothed in linen whose loins were girded with fine gold of
Ufaz. Now, a lot of people think Ufaz
is another name for offer. And honestly, I really don't have any
idea. But there's probably a lot of people that have heard of the
gold of offer before. The Bible mentions offer a few times. And you
know what? There's actually a lot of people that believe offer is the Philippines.
Okay, whether that's Ufaz or not, I don't know. But a lot of people think
that there's not just hidden gold from 40 years ago, but from like thousands of years ago. This is like
the land of gold. They believe this is the location of offer, which
honestly, I really don't have any idea. Kind of the other areas people consider. Some people
say it's India. Some people say it's part of the Arab world. Some people say it's
somewhere in Africa. It's like, well, there's a lot of countries in Africa, right, that doesn't really
boil it down very far. But some people believe this is another name for
offer, which some people believe is the Philippines. That there's
hidden gold from thousands of years ago. And they want to go on a treasure hunt
or something today, I guess. But here's the thing. Even if there's a lot
of gold thousands of years ago, obviously since it hasn't been discovered in thousands of years,
it's gone at this point, right? I would say it's a waste of time.
Even if this used to be like the richest country in the world, it doesn't really do anything
now. Okay? That gold is basically gone at this point.
Anyways, verse number six.
And so, basically, Daniel's getting this
vision. He sees a man who's clothed in linen
and his loins are girded with fine gold of Ufaz. And it says
this man's body is like beryl. And beryl is a hard stone
and it's colorless, you know, basically is what they say.
And, you know, it says his face is the
appearance of lightning. Now, I don't believe that means that his face is like
a lightning bolt. Okay? I would say that basically
lightning is something that is very awe-inspiring.
It can strike fear in you. Right? Like, for example, if you see like a big
lightning bolt across the sky, I mean, everyone's going to kind of look at it and then you wait for the sound
of thunder. Right? And what I would say is that when it says his face is the
appearance of lightning, to me what that reads is when you see this man,
it's like it strikes fear in you. Right? It's like awe-inspiring, just
really powerful sort of presence. And it
says his eyes as lamps of fire. And, you know, I don't know how
literal we're getting on this. His eyes as lamps of fire. You know, it's kind of hard to tell.
It's really hard to tell exactly what this person looks like. I mean, if you just directly
put, you know, lamps of fire for his eyes and like a lightning
bolt, it's just like I don't think that's exactly what he looked like. But I think the idea is
basically that when you saw this person, it just kind of struck
this sort of reaction in you. Like, wow, you know, what is this? And it says
his voice was as the words like the voice of a multitude. So this man's
voice was very powerful. So basically Daniel sees this man and
he just has this unique look and it basically strikes
fear in you. And his voice is just like super loud. Like
the voice of a multitude. Right? I mean, a multitude, we're talking like
thousands of people or something like that. I mean, just think about just in a basic
example. Let's say, for example, we do the singing in the morning and let's say we got a good crowd of people.
It's like the sound is very loud because you got a lot of people. And that's not even a multitude.
Now today with everyone on Filipino time, it's like the sound was like the, you know,
very small voice. Right? But it's like if you've ever seen it like,
you know, it's at preaching conferences like in America at the Red Hot Preaching Conference,
you'll have like 400 people singing at the same time. And it's
always great being the song leader when there's lots of people because you don't even have to say anything.
I mean, it's so loud you're just like, you know, and just pretending to sing
kind of like celebrities. They don't actually sing. They just kind of move their mouth and pretend.
But it's like very loud. Right? And it's very just, you know, strikes this
reaction in you. Well, his face is as the appearance of lightning and his voice
as like a great multitude. And so then it says here in verse number
seven, And I, Daniel, alone saw
the vision. For the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a
great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves.
And so Daniel's the only one who sees the vision. And I believe the reason why
is that the other people, I think they basically
leave because it says a great quaking falls upon them.
I don't think it's where it's all these people and there's this man who appears
and only one person sees him and he looks around. Did you see that person?
It's like, what are you talking about? Right? I think the reason why the other people didn't
see him, because I think he was, he's, I mean it's a vision, but the other people are basically
gone. I think basically they left and this man's there
and they don't see it because they're gone. I think is the way that reads in verse number
seven. It says a great quaking fell upon them so
I don't know whether that means the ground started shaking like a mini earthquake
or maybe they just started, you know, shaking, you know, having a quaking
shaking themselves and just kind of left out of fear. Or maybe this
voice came before his presence so the voice would be as a great multitude might
shake the ground or something. I'm not really sure. It's kind of hard to make sense of all this.
But basically there's this loud noise and the other people leave and Daniel's the only
one there. Verse eight. Therefore I was left alone and saw
this great vision and there remained no strength in me
for my comeliness was turned into me into corruption and I retained
no strength. And Daniel says that there was no strength left
in him. Now we didn't really focus on this in, I think it was Daniel chapter eight,
but a similar sort of thing happens in Daniel eight where it talks
about Daniel having no strength and then all of a sudden he's on the ground.
And the same thing is going to actually take place here. It's just in more detail
in Daniel chapter ten. And basically it says he has no strength left
in him. When you read the context he basically just kind of falls over.
I don't know if he passes out or what exactly, but when he has no strength
he has no strength to stand or to say anything or anything. He's just kind of like
and just boom, you know, kind of hits the deck is the way that this reads
in verse number eight. And it says in verse nine,
And when I heard I the voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words,
then was I in a deep sleep on my face and my face toward the ground. And so that's what I'm
talking about in verse nine, talking about him passing out, is his face is on the ground
and he's in a deep sleep. So it's kind of like somebody
passing out, right? That's kind of the way that it reads.
And I've never passed out before, but I've been knocked unconscious
and I don't know if it's the exact sort of experience, but
I can kind of give you an idea from this chapter. I'll just kind of tell you about my experience.
When I was knocked unconscious when I was playing soccer, I got knocked
unconscious and my mind blocked out a big chunk
of that time period because it's just like a painful memory and your mind will often block
out painful memories. And going on a bit of a rabbit trail,
many times you'll hear homosexuals will talk about how they got molested as a kid,
but other times they did get molested, but they block it out of their mind
because it's a painful experience. And sometimes decades later the memory
will kind of come up for whatever reason. Something will kind of jog their memory. But many
times kids when they get molested, they kind of block it out of their mind and it's like they forget about it
and later on in life they kind of remember for whatever reason what happened
as a kid, but their mind blocked it out because it's a painful memory.
And so in a similar sort of sense, when getting knocked unconscious
I have a memory block which I never got back where
basically I got my memory back up to this point and then it's just
like for about 30 minutes of my life, I completely do not
remember it at all. I never did. And I always wanted to. I was always
trying to find out for people that were there, hey tell me what happened, maybe I can remember.
I never remembered to this day. Maybe one day. And so for
me, I was playing the soccer game and we were playing
and I guess because I don't remember this so I'm just kind of piecing
together what I heard from other people. I basically went up to head the soccer ball
I jumped in the air and somebody cut my legs out from under me. So think
about it in basketball. Somebody goes up for a rebound, somebody comes underneath and what
happens? All of a sudden you start falling backwards toward your head
and another player head butted me on the side of the head. He completely missed
the ball. So I got a black eye from this and I got the concussion
from landing on the back of my head. And so I just like hit the deck
and I'm just like out. But my body just stands
up and I start moving around and then I fall down again. So the ref thought
I was faking it because he's like wow you stood back up so I guess he didn't
realize that I had been brutally knocked out. But it's kind of like a boxer that gets knocked out
and then you'll see videos and they're like Joe, Joe. It's like
the fight's over. What are you doing? And so I stood back up and then
all of a sudden I moved and I guess like fell down again. And
then the next thing I remember is I was just hearing this voice.
And there was like people that were standing over me but honestly I don't remember them
standing over me. I just remember hearing a voice and I was being asked questions and
I was missing the questions. And all of a sudden these memories flooded
back to my head and all of a sudden I remembered and I was like no wait a minute. It's not
0-0. It's 1-0. We're ahead. Josh scored. I remember saying.
And so like these memories were flooding back to my head and I remember
hearing these questions. The next thing I remember I'm standing
in front of a mirror which is like outside on
the sidelines and basically I don't remember walking off at all. I just remember
hearing questions. I didn't see anything. All of a sudden I'm standing in front of a mirror
and they're like look at your eye. That's like all that I really remember.
So basically what I'm trying to tell you is that my memory was just like
very, it's like I was there but I wasn't really there.
And relatively similar if you've been through like surgery and been put out before when you
wake up. It's like you're sort of there but you're sort of not there. You're kind of like
a bit loopy, right? I'm not sure if this is exactly
what Daniel experienced. I don't think he got a concussion. I don't think
when he fell he like fell in the back of his head and he's out. I'm assuming he just
kind of passed out and he's just like hit his knees and then fell down.
I'm not really sure. But basically there's no strength in him in verse
8 and then all of a sudden he just is on the ground in the next verse so the idea is he
basically just kind of passed out. And he heard the voice of his words
and when I heard the voice of his words then it was then I had a deep sleep on my face
and my face toward the ground. And that's pretty similar to what I said
about when I had a concussion where I heard words but I'm just
you know I don't remember seeing anybody. I just remember hearing words like a voice in my
head and I was answering. I don't know if my eyes were open or what exactly.
Kind of similar to Daniel. Then in verse number 10,
And behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.
So he's out on the ground and then all of a sudden he gets kind of tapped on the shoulder or whatever
and it's like stand up. Okay.
Verse number 11, And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly
beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright.
For unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
So basically Daniel passed out before. He's told to stand up
and now he's like shaking again right because of this you know fearful
amazing sight and experience that he's going through and he's trembling
or he's shaking. Then setting on to me, fear not,
Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand
and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard and I
am come for thy words. And so this is similar
to what we've seen in other chapters that I talked about where basically when
Daniel first set his heart to understand and to know God's
word, God planned to reveal it to him but what we see is he was actually
withstood for 21 days I think it says for
basically you know a time period and God intended
to give him the information but there's a spiritual battle that basically blocked it.
And what I talked about recently is that when you want to know God's word, God might intend
to reveal it to you but sometimes you have to be patient. It's not necessarily
going to come immediately. If there's something you read in the Bible and you
don't understand, what do you do? Why do you keep praying about it?
Keep reading the Bible, keep praying about it and it might be a time period later
where you end up getting that. Or maybe you have a prayer request and you really care
about something, you pray about something and eventually maybe it will
take place. It doesn't mean it's going to take place immediately.
With Isaac and Rebekah, you know they prayed for 20 years for a child. I mean that's a
long time and eventually God answered that prayer. And so
sometimes you have to just basically patiently wait on God where God intends to answer it
but it's not in our timing, it's in his timing. It might not
be in the next week, it might not be in the next month and Daniel is praying and fasting
and seeking to know this but it doesn't come immediately.
What it said is he set his heart to know the word of God and he chastened
himself. And that's kind of like what we talked about where basically you need to chasten
yourself, get right with God, humble yourself, get right with God
but you also have to seek the knowledge as well. Part
of it is reading God's word and memorizing God's word and studying
God's word to learn something. Part of it is being right with God and you need the combination.
What it says in verse 13
verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia
withstood me one and twenty days. So basically for
three weeks the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood him.
Well who's this referring to?
I don't believe it's referring to King Cyrus.
Because King Cyrus, whether he's saved or not is kind of
irrelevant.
And you're probably thinking that Cyrus can have the ability
to stop God's word.
God, are you going to be looking at one person?
Prince is not
necessarily the son of a king but someone in a position
of power and you say well why would
I call the devil a king? Well I'm just saying against
God.
God is not God.
God's not a king.
I didn't come to bring everyone together.
I came to set division. Set a man against his father.
Even against your own family there could be division. Not that there should intentionally be a division
but just the idea that truth is more important than
unity. Holiness and purity is more important than unity.
But see the devil is someone who wants to unite.
Think about how you see these ecumenical
councils where you have basically the pope, you'll have some
Hindu, you'll have some Buddhist, you'll have some rabbi,
you'll have some Muslim and they just kind of get together
let's just pray together.
We'll just draw names from a hat and say okay it looks like the Buddhist is praying today.
And tomorrow it might be the Muslim. And just trying to join everybody together
and the devil wants to join everybody together. God doesn't want to do
that though. That's something that the devil wants to do. And see what the devil
wants is you have this powerful empire Persia and the
leader of Persia at the time was not a bad guy.
Whether he was saved or not Cyrus was not harsh to
God's people. However it's still an organization that
is basically being used by the devil because basically if you have one power
all you have to do is corrupt it at the top and it's
going to filter down to everybody. And see the
devil wants to unite because he just kind of takes over the top and it just kind of
filters down to everybody. That's the way it works. The same concept is why
Bible college doesn't actually make sense because even if it starts as a good
thing with a good ruler the same thing is going to take place. It's not the
system that God has set up. What God has set up is individual churches
not some universal church. Individual countries
even in the Bible God's people had a location but
Moab had their own location. Edom had their own location. Ammon
had their own location. And basically God is a God of division not just let's unite
together under one power. God never told Israel
my mission for you is to take over the world and rule
under one empire. You don't see that. But that's
the sort of method that the devil likes. And see the devil can use an organization like
this and basically just kind of take control of it and corrupt the entire
thing. And the devil wants to unite together and so when it comes to
Persia obviously Persia at some point becomes wicked because they
get replaced. Well obviously the devil got control of it and basically
used it to corrupt everybody. And so it says here
one and twenty days, three weeks, but then it says this, below Michael one of the chief
princes came to help me and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
And so this is who we would refer to as Michael the Archangel and what you're seeing
is that there's some sort of spiritual battle that is taking place
between Michael the Archangel and the devil basically.
Now turn to Ephesians 6. I know this is a famous passage. Let's just turn there. Ephesians chapter 6.
...
And let's just see what it says in Ephesians chapter 6, starting at verse number 11.
Very famous passage. And it says in verse 11,
Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, in having done all
to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. And the Bible speaks about wrestling not against
flesh and blood. This is why as a church, you know, we really don't get that
involved in politics. Right? It's not really that big of a deal.
I'm sure in five years, you know, we'll be mildly interested
in whoever gets elected president. It is what it is, and life will continue.
We'll keep serving God. Nothing's really going to change. Right?
And so the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but there is a
spiritual battle that takes place. And we see an example of this because you have Michael
and the devil in this spiritual battle. And here's the thing about a spiritual battle.
It's something we don't really see. Right? I mean, you don't see a
battle. I mean, I would love to see Michael fight the devil. That would be pretty cool.
Right? You know, throw him in the octagon in the UFC. Five minute rounds.
Right? Five rounds. Let him fight. You know? That would be pretty cool
to see. And you know what? There's some sort of battle that's going out there, but we don't really
comprehend it. We don't understand it. We don't see it. And you know,
in my opinion, maybe one reason why God does not allow us to see it is it would probably
be kind of scary to us. Right? If you saw all these devils flying
around and everything like that, it'd be kind of scary. You know, you're just driving along.
All of a sudden, the devil pops up. You crash the car out of fear. Right?
And so we don't see this sort of battle, but here's the thing. Even when we're going
soul winning, there is a spiritual battle that's taking place. Because in verse 15,
right in the middle of that famous passage, your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace, talking about soul winning. And as soul winners,
you know, we've experienced spiritual battles out soul winning before.
Sometimes you're preaching the gospel to someone, and all of a sudden
the devil sends somebody along that just destroys the conversation.
Just out of nowhere. And you know, we don't fully understand exactly what's going on,
but this is why we also pray that God's Spirit will be upon us, that He'll give
us the ability and boldness. Because there's some sort of spiritual battle
where basically God obviously wants people to get saved,
and the devil doesn't. Right? And there's some sort of spiritual
battle that's taking place. Well, that's what's taking place in Daniel chapter 10,
because basically God intended to give the information to Daniel, and yet
for three weeks that information was stopped by
the devil. Okay, go back to Daniel 10. Daniel 10.
Daniel 10.
And look, this is not to state that the devil's
anywhere a match for God at all, because it's not. Because God
could throw him in hell in a second if he chose to. I mean, it's not like,
as I mentioned earlier about that religion, Zoroastrianism, which was the big religion at one
time in Persia and around the world, it's like they're a dualistic
religion. Religious dualism, where basically there's competing forces
of good and bad. You've got Ahura Mazda in Angra Mainyu
is the counterpart, and that's not the same thing as God versus
the devil, because that's actually like an equal match of good versus
bad, where you don't know which side's going to win in a battle. Well, when it comes to God
versus the devil, there's no comparison.
Because with Zoroastrianism, both of those gods just evolved independently
and just always coexisted. Well, that's not the way that it works with
God and the devil, because God created the devil, and he could destroy the devil
in a matter of seconds if he chose to. In no time at all, just a snap
of the finger, boom, throw him in hell. But he doesn't choose to do that.
Now, we could talk about or think about or philosophize why
he does not choose to do that. Obviously, he allows us to go through
testing and things such as that, but the reality is, if he wanted to,
he could throw the devil in hell immediately. He just chooses not to do that.
So there is a spiritual battle that does take place, and we
see this because there's, for three weeks, that the devil's basically
withstanding and not letting the information get there,
and basically Michael has this battle with the devil. Here's the thing about
this. God versus the devil is no match at all, but honestly, the devil's not really a match
for Michael in the Bible, because Michael basically just destroys him in the Bible.
So it's not like the devil's here and God's here, like it's a tough battle.
I mean, he doesn't, he's just like another angel that was created
by God, and he's not even the most powerful, okay? Then it says in verse 14,
Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people
in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days.
And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb.
When it says he became dumb, we're not saying Bobo, okay? We're saying,
you know, like the expression deaf and dumb. Deaf and dumb is
you can't hear, you can't speak, and so when it's
saying dumb in the Bible, what it's saying is, you know, it can't speak. And so basically,
Daniel loses his ability, you know, loses his strength,
he falls over, and it's such a powerful experience that he's basically
just doesn't say anything, right? He can't say anything.
He can't move his mouth. And I guess we can kind of relate,
because if you've ever had big events happen in your life that just are like really shocking
or scary or something like that, it's like you're just, don't know what
to say, don't know what to do. In America, the expression is, you know,
you're like a deer caught in the headlights, because what a deer does
is you're driving along, and all of a sudden the deer runs right in front of your car,
they look and see the headlights, they're just like, and they just wait to
get smashed by the car until you swerve and wreck the car. That always happens. Once you
wreck the car, they just kind of run off. So the expression is a deer
caught in the headlights, and growing up in West Virginia, the Mountain State is like the number one state for
crashes into deer. But we as people can be like that as well, where sometimes
you're doing something, and you get scared or something, and you're just like,
and you can't say anything, right? That's kind of like what Daniel is here
in Daniel chapter 10. And it says in verse number 16,
And behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips,
because remember, he can't speak. Then I opened my mouth and spake and said unto him that stood before me,
O my Lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained
no strength. For how can the servant of this my Lord talk with this my Lord?
For as for me straightway there remain no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.
Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man,
and he strengthened me, and said, O man, greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be unto thee,
be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened and said,
Let my Lord speak, for thou hast strengthened me. Now turn to
Isaiah chapter 40.
Look, obviously, this sort of experience
is not going to happen in your life, okay? Now,
if you grew up Pentecostal, you know, maybe you're kind of switching to being a Baptist,
you know, you're saved now, but this sort of thing is not going to happen to you in your life,
where basically, you know, you're by a river, you know, the Manila
Bay, and then all of a sudden you see like this famous powerful image or whatever,
and then all of a sudden everyone's running, and then you hit the deck and everything. Now I know
in Pentecostal churches they hit the deck, but you know, that's a little bit different, okay?
This sort of thing is not going to happen. This is not how God reveals information to you.
The way you learn is you read the Bible. The way you learn is you hear sermons and you hear the
Bible preached, okay? But I would say this, that
in a similar sort of way as basically God strengthens Daniel,
we in our lives can lose our spiritual strength.
Daniel lost his physical strength. He lost the strength in his body. He fell over.
He lost the ability to speak. He lost his physical strength because it was such an
awe-inspiring moment and it struck kind of fear in him of
what was going on. Let me show you what it says in Isaiah 40 verse 28.
Has thou not known, has thou not heard that the everlasting God, verse 28,
the creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not,
neither is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth
power to the faint and to them that have no might. He increases strength.
And the Bible says God has the ability to increase our strength and this is referring
to spiritually, okay? And of course there's the
application of physical strength where basically if you lose your strength, you know, we can
understand that. And the Bible is saying spiritually we can actually lose our spiritual strength.
To basically serve God and to do right because we are in a
spiritual battle. And if you're in a spiritual battle, if you're in a fight, you need to actually
be enlisted. And yet a lot of people lose their spiritual strength.
You know, why would that be? Well, one reason why people lose their spiritual strength is
because of sin. Right? I mean, if you're living a sinful life or
a worldly life and then you try to read the Bible, it's
really hard to read the Bible if you're not right with God.
Isn't that true? If you're not right with God and then you try to read the Bible,
it's like your mind just doesn't focus. It goes over your head.
It's just really, really hard because it's not just like your normal
physical book. It's a spiritual book. And to actually read it, you need to actually be right
with God. It's going to help you. Or, you know, even just going to church.
Many people don't go to church because if they're not right with God, they just feel too guilty. They don't have the
spiritual strength to even make it in church. Now of course that's not the right thing to do.
I mean, if you've lived a sinful life, then even more than ever read your Bible
and come to church. But the reality is people lose their spiritual strength
because of their sin. Another reason why people might lose their spiritual strength
is because of the storms of life. You know, we go about this world and
sometimes things are going well, but then you go through trials. You go through financial
problems. You go through fears. You go with health concerns.
Once these things come, sometimes we get so focused on the physical
that we basically just neglect the spiritual and it's just like we don't even
want to read the Bible or come to church or anything like that. We lose our spiritual
strength. And, you know, another reason I have listed is, which is
kind of similar to Daniel, is sometimes it's a bit
overwhelming. Right? When you really stop and think about
all of us, all of us are so important in this world.
I mean, because here's the thing. People are not getting saved
on their own. If we don't go and preach the
Gospel, people go to hell. Well, that can be very exciting. It can also
be kind of overwhelming. Where it's like, that's a lot of responsibility. You know,
when I believed on Jesus, I didn't know that there was all these responsibilities
and it can be a bit overwhelming. And look, I feel this way sometimes. It's like
man, it's just like, you know, the importance of going soul winning or running churches
and sometimes it's overwhelming. It almost makes you just be like, man, I don't have
the strength to do this. But what the Bible says is God is the ability to give you strength
to do His work. Okay? Now go back to Daniel 10. Daniel 10.
Daniel 10.
Daniel 10, verse 20.
And it says in verse 20,
Now, look, I don't believe the Prince of Persia is referring to King Cyrus because
King Cyrus is very benevolent to God's people. I don't believe the Prince of
Grecia is referring to Alexander the Great either.
I think it's basically just that the devil uses an organization because he wants
unity because he can very easily corrupt the world and control things.
And so basically what the Bible's saying is that the devil is the one
who runs these organizations. Now here's the thing about this. It doesn't
necessarily mean that the leader of that country is a wicked
reprobate. Because as I said, I don't think there's any indication with Cyrus whether or not
he's saved or not. There's no indication of him being like a wicked evil
person. And even Nebuchadnezzar gets saved. Right? I mean in Daniel chapter
4. But yet it doesn't change the fact it's still an organization that the devil
is using. Now, I don't believe these are the only seven
examples in the Bible, but the main ones listed in the Bible
are basically two before the Chaldean Empire. You have Egypt and
Assyria. Then you have Babylon or the Chaldean Empire, the
Medo-Persian Empire, the Grecian Empire, Macedonian Empire, the Roman
Empire. And of course a lot of time has gone by since then. There have been a lot of countries
that were powerful. At one time the United Kingdom or England were
very strong. You know, France has been very strong at certain times.
Spain has been very strong at certain times at various points.
In our modern day though, there's no question that the most powerful country
is the United States of America. Now, is this going to be the Babylon
of the end days? I believe it will be the one that's referenced in Revelation, but I could be wrong.
But here's the thing, whether that's true or not, I mean since it's the big organization
and it's involved in like everything around the world, it's something that the devil
is actually using to corrupt. And look, you know, the United States
has changed a lot since it was started a couple hundred years ago.
Everything has changed about it in the last couple hundred years. And of course this is happening
to every country, becoming more wicked. But basically these are organizations
that the devil is using for his purposes. And turn to
Ezra chapter 1. We'll close up here.
And what it said to close out
Daniel 10, I can't remember if I read this verse, is you're turning to Ezra 1, is,
But I will show thee that which is known in the scripture of truth, and there is none that holdeth with me in these things,
but Michael your prince.
And I'll show you Ezra 1, and the next book we're going to be doing
after the book of Daniel is going to be the book of Ezra. Now I know what everybody's
thinking, the only reason why you're doing that is because your son's name is Ezra.
And that is not true, okay? It's like, we chose the name a long time ago,
I had no idea thinking about this, but the reason why we're going to be doing
Ezra is because as we come to the end of Daniel,
it's like that's actually in the timeframe of Ezra. And a lot of these Old Testament
books, if you just read it by itself and don't understand how it relates to the
other books, it can be kind of confusing to figure out what's going on. But the
beginning of Ezra is actually taking place toward the end of the book of
Daniel, because once Cyrus becomes the king and the ruler, well that's
when, you know, basically Ezra is going to start. So I think it's going to help us just understand
the start of Ezra and understand what's going on there pretty well.
Ezra chapter 1 verse 1, the Bible says,
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word
of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. Now remember,
this is what's being referred to when Daniel understood by books the number
of years from the book of Jeremiah. So this is the same thing that's being referenced.
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia
that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in
writing, saying, and he said to brother Psyche, it says he stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, but it also
mentions him stirring up the spirit of the Assyrian kings. It can be
with a saved person or an unsaved person that reference of stirring up his spirit.
So it's not necessarily an indication of salvation.
Verse 2, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of
heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him in house at
Jerusalem, which is in Judah. So there's no question that Cyrus
is doing good things for God's people. Whether or not that
means he got saved, whether or not somebody preached the gospel to him
and he got saved, we don't know. If the Cyrus cylinder
is accurate like we talked about, he was definitely not saved when he wrote
that. It's possible though, just shortly after that,
basically this time frame would come and he's being benevolent to everybody that
he's conquering, and then basically one of God's people said, hey, here's my
opportunity, and he preaches the gospel and he gets saved. That's of course the story I want to believe
because that sounds great, right? We love hearing about people getting saved. I doubt that's the
case, but you know, it's possible, right? But whether or not he's saved or not,
he was definitely doing good things for God's people. Now what takes place after
Cyrus is a man comes basically eight years go by
after Cyrus dies if history's accurate. He dies in 530 BC
and in 522 BC after another king for eight years that's not that powerful,
then you have a king named Darius. This is not Darius
the Mede, but Darius the Persian, which is referenced in the book of Ezra.
He was a hardcore Zoroastrian. He made the
state religion of Persia basically Zoroastrian where it's like our God
is a Hora Mazda. There's no question that he wasn't saved.
Whether Cyrus was saved or not, you know, we're kind of ending the sermon like we started,
it's kind of up for you to decide, but regardless, basically
he did good things for God's people. Now the actual image
that Daniel had, he's basically going to describe it in Daniel chapter 11.
That's why I had to basically go on all these rabbit trails in this sermon. There's really no information
about it in Daniel 10. Next week's sermon in Daniel 11,
we'll finish it all in one week even though it's a long chapter, is very historical.
It's all about the Syrian wars that took place before the time of Christ
after the time of Alexander the Great. Let's close in with a word of prayer. Your Heavenly Father,
thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word and understand these things and
help us to understand all parts of the Bible and understand that all parts are ratifying, all parts
can teach us doctrine and reprove us and help us with our lives. God, we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Amen. For that song, let's turn to hymn number 160.
Hymn number 160, let's sing the song
Hymn number 160
Hymn number 160, let's sing the song
Amen. Let's have a dance with it.