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you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you All right good morning everybody welcome to Verity Baptist Church Let's go through a couple quick announcements. Were there any salvations to report this past week anybody? Outside of ones I already know I know a lot of people told me and messages and everything all right two all right anybody else any salvations All right, well I've so many of course this afternoon the first sermon lasted a little bit long So we'll try to be ready by 2 15 p.m.. We'll see a couple other things to mention I changed the wording in the Bible memorization so any chapter you memorize perfectly you get a prize for and as I mentioned briefly in the first sermon or in the First announcements that if you make minor mistakes It's okay to me like if I were to judge you and you said on two verses two I would still count that but you know I guess it depends on who you're quoting it to some people are really you mispronounce it Right you're memorizing Daniel will spell Nebuchadnezzar. It's like what? Okay Some people are pretty harsh But I would say let's be lenient with people just to try to motivate people to memorize also for the kids We're going to change it all have in the bulletin next week that if they basically do memory verses that they'll get a prize for It and so upcoming activities so next week is the big chess tournament, so who's excited. I'm excited right Yeah, sorry Franklin. I'm missing in the first announcements if you've tested positive for COVID in January I'm just kidding right and So but also We've been having chess on Thursday nights if anyone wants to join and so Thursday nights is not really like a competition It's more like practice to get better obviously next week is a competition everyone's trying to win But you know if you want to count on Thursdays, we want to do it online You know we can send you the link we'd love to have you We're gonna have I think we had seven or eight people last Thursday a couple people from Pampanga are planning to join this Thursday So we have a lot of people I mean a lot of people like chess It's more popular here than in the US, but if you want to it's a great source of fellowship We'd love to have you in that so just let us know and then in a couple weeks We have our married couple sweetheart banquet, so I think everybody had a great time last year And so it's a lot of fun, and so now's the time to start training and memorizing right so memorize your openings now for chess and then after you know next week start memorizing those basic questions about your Spouse and everything like that and then also of course we do have our New Testament vibrating challenge So keep up with that if you read the entire New Testament in January you're welcome to get a prize And if you already read it you're welcome to get your prize now. You know candy or chips or whatever's back there You're welcome to get one so I believe that's it for announcements at this time while brother Rafi lead us in another song Number 21 Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh You Oh Verse 1 in The third year of the reign of joy came king of Judah came to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Jerusalem and besieged it and The Lord gave you and the Lord gave joy came king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessel to 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 Aspen as the master of his eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of Israel And of the king's seed and the princess children in whom was no blemish but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science and such as that 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 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 all the children of Judah Daniel and Anaya Michelle and Azariah unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names for he gave unto Daniel the name of belteshazzar and to an Anaya of Shadrach and to Michelle of Meshach and to Azariah of Abednego But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat nor with a wine which he drank Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself Now God brought Daniel into favor and tender love with a prince of the eunuchs and a prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel I fear my lord the king who had appointed your meat and your drink For why should he see your face worse like worse liking than the children which are of your sorts? 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 and Anaya Michelle and Azariah Prove thy servants I beseech thee ten days and let them give us posts to eat and water to drink Then let our countenance be looked upon before thee and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat And as thou sees 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 countenance 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 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 and Anaya Michelle and Azariah Therefore stood day 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 magic magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm and Daniel continued even into the first year of King Cyrus Let's read of God's word All Right we're in Daniel chapter 1 and we're starting a new book and as I mentioned I think last week the main reason why I wanted to start a new book is just because a lot of the events in Daniel Are kind of applicable to our modern day and not so much speaking about the prophetical stuff But just kind of the first half of the book of Daniel with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace Daniel in the lion's den a lot of the rules and the problems with the things going on So I think it'll be helpful for us to look at our modern day and see what's going on in the book of Daniel to Make some comparisons now This sermon is more of an introductory sermon and whenever you have introductory sermons some of the information Some people are like I've heard that a million times. I already know that brother Stuckey I've listened to all these sermons online I get that right but a lot of people have never heard this information and of course It's good to be reminded of stuff especially with a deep book like Daniel A lot of the stuff is not surface level now the first half of Daniel is pretty simple Right famous stories that we all know the second half of Daniel. It's like whoa I mean Daniel 6 in the lion's den Daniel 7 what's going on, right? So we're gonna learn these things through this series, but first off with the book of Daniel Let me talk about the timing and location of the events of the book of Daniel Verse number one the Bible reads in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon on to Jerusalem and besieged it So you'll notice in the first verse that the Bible gives you a timeline or a time frame of these events And this is something that a lot of other holy books don't do they don't tell you specifically when these things took place Because here's the thing the truth fears no investigation and if what the Bible is saying is true It's not afraid of it being tested and the things that are mentioned in the Bible are historically scientifically. They're accurate They're correct the Bible tells you very clearly in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah So what does that mean in the third year? When was that location? Right? When was that time? Well, let me just help you out with how the Old Testament is written. Some people might start reading the Old Testament Maybe you're new at church and you might just kind of assume that Genesis to Malachi is just in order chronologically Right, that might be the first thing people assume but that's actually not the case Okay, but the 39 books in the Old Testament are not just random Okay There's actually a technique the Bible uses and what the Bible does is it divides those 39 books into sections each of the sections is Chronological but then you'll go to a new section and it's it's completely different you go back in time to earlier events So basically Genesis through Deuteronomy is known as the law Now it's known as the law because the Bible calls it the law, right? I mean they had the law of God in the Levitical law we think of but Genesis through Deuteronomy is Kind of classified as the law. Okay Obviously Exodus through Deuteronomy you have Moses who's the main man in charge, but those events are basically chronological So Genesis 1 1 is the creation of the world and then of course you get later on and it's going further in time Now, of course when you tell stories sometimes you recap the book of Deuteronomy is really recapping events But you're going in order basically Genesis to Deuteronomy and Moses dies near the end of Deuteronomy, right? Then you go to the next book, which is Joshua Joshua all the way through Esther is known as the historical books Okay, now really Genesis through Esther is all chronological for the most part Now first and second Chronicles recap first Samuel through second Kings But basically from Genesis all the way to Esther you're going roughly in chronological order Of course, you know if you tell stories or write a book Sometimes you go back in time to explain something or give details We understand that but generally Genesis all the way through Esther is in chronological order You have the law and you have the historical books you say brother second. Why do we do these classifications? One reason is because it's helpful, right? This is how the Bible is written in different classifications But the Bible also talks about the law and the prophets Right, and the law is basically Genesis through Deuteronomy and then you got the prophets. Well, here's the thing you have basically the law Historical books you have the books of wisdom then you have the major prophets and the minor prophets Okay, so you get to the book of Esther and at the end of Esther you go to the book of Job Well, the book of Job goes way back in time, right? Way back in time before Esther because it's the start of a new section the books of wisdom But think about Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Solomon. Well Psalms was primarily written by King David and He's the father of King Solomon who wrote Ecclesiastes Solomon and I just said it Proverbs, right? So basically those books are also chronological basically from Psalms all the way to the Song of Solomon Right now, of course Song of Solomon. I mean Solomon wrote multiple books So who knows if he pinned it all down at one time? We understand that what I'm saying is Job is before and then you get to the Song of Solomon After that you get to the book of Isaiah and if you've noticed reading your Bible if you've read your Old Testament Sometimes you get to a new book. It's completely different because sometimes you're in your completely different section Okay, the Song of Solomon I understand now I'm in Isaiah like what is he talking about? Right because you're dealing with the prophetic books now Isaiah starts what's known as the major Prophets you say why is it known as the major prophets because Isaiah is this long? 66 chapters right and then you've got Jeremiah Jeremiah's 52 chapters, but it's actually longer than Isaiah Right. The next book is lamentations. You say well lamentations is a short chapter But it's written by Jeremiah. So Jeremiah is a major prophet. It's just one of his two books, right? Then you've got Ezekiel. It's a really long book Then you've got Daniel and see Daniel is the one that people debate about Is it a major prophet or a minor prophet? Because it's obvious that the Old Testament is divided into major prophets and minor prophets It's obvious because the timeframe does not just go in order. So the question is well, where does Daniel appear? Well, go to Isaiah chapter 1 verse 1 Isaiah 1 verse 1 And as I said and I'm sure a lot of this information some of you are like yeah I know this brother's stucky, but you know, it's good to be reminded about stuff And even if you know it it's good to be reminded So you're able to teach other people because if somebody gets saved yesterday or today and they start reading their Bible There's gonna be a lot of things that go over their head, right? I Remember when I first got saved, you know, the phrase gave up the ghost is referencing to someone dying But I was like what in the world's going on? Somebody gave up the ghost. I'm like, I know you can't lose your salvation It's not saying that I didn't know what I mean because it was new to me, right? I hadn't heard it preached. So Obviously people are new to church all this stuff. It's good to be reminded of stuff. Isaiah 1 verse 1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah now go to Hosea 1 verse 1 right after Daniel and Remember either keep your finger in Isaiah 1 verse 1 or remember we said Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah kings of Judah Okay, Hosea 1 verse 1 and The Bible reads the word of the Lord that came on to Hosea the son of Biri in the days of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel Do you notice how Hosea 1-1 and Isaiah 1-1 are very similar? It's written during the same time period What this is known as is contemporary prophets where two prophets are appearing at the same time, right? They're both preaching or writing at the same time their ministries overlap, right? Well, those events are happening at the same time But all the books between Isaiah and Hosea are not happening at the same time, right? Obviously when you're reading it, you can tell that it's not all happening at one time They have all these prophets see Isaiah starts the major prophets Hosea starts the minor prophets and it's roughly the same time and then you're gonna go in order chronologically with both of those So the question is well, I mean is Daniel appearing, you know, when is it appearing on the time frame? well Look at Daniel 1 verse 21 Daniel 1 verse 21 Daniel 1 verse 21 And if you remember Hosea, I mean I preached through it on Wednesday nights Have you heard some of those sermons and what God says in the book of Hosea is that the kingdom of Israel has been rejected? But the southern kingdom of Judah had it been rejected yet. Not yet. It was warrant, right? God was warning it like you know what you're gonna get what's coming to you Right, you know you're seeing what's happening Israel's being rejected because of their wickedness and see they had not been fully rejected yet Although it was obvious it was going to take place when you're reading it, right? The Bible is warning about these things. And so here's the thing in the book of Daniel Have they been taken captive yet? Well, yes, we just read that in Daniel 1 verse 1, right? They're taking captive by Nebuchadnezzar and see they've already been rejected. See Daniel is taking place after the book of Isaiah and It's taking place after the book of Hosea in terms of time frame, right when you're looking at what's being written So basically you have Isaiah to Daniel and then you have Hosea to Malachi okay, and Daniel is the end of the major prophets notice what it says in verse 21 and Daniel continued even on to the first year of King Cyrus Well, if you know basic history King Cyrus comes after King Nebuchadnezzar Because the Babylonian or Chaldean Empire is taken captive by the Medes and Persians and King Cyrus is the top guy Right that takes place later in the life of Daniel and we're gonna read about that We're gonna talk about that but those events are taking place later on So Daniel started with Nebuchadnezzar when they're first taken captive all the way to King Cyrus And of course you see Cyrus earlier in the Bible and Ezra and everything so what I'm saying is that the Bible is divided into sections and Daniel is attached to the end of the major prophets. It's not attached to the minor prophets Now the reason why people question Daniel is because Daniel is not a super long book. It's not Isaiah It's not Jeremiah and it's not Ezekiel now Hosea has more chapters and Zechariah has more chapters But Daniel is quite a bit longer you say brother Succion Why is Daniel attached to the major prophets because Daniel is is more major or more? Significant than the minor prophets. I mean think about growing up in Sunday school or in church or whatever Everybody knows Daniel in the lion's den, right? Daniel chapter 6 everyone knows Daniel chapter 5 the writings on the wall, right? That's a phrase people use Daniel 4 is the story where Nebuchadnezzar goes crazy very famous Daniel chapter 3 is Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace Right Daniel 2 is the great image that Nebuchadnezzar has and of course Daniel 1 is where we based that song dare to be a Daniel Daniel purposed in his heart. He's very well known. He's very famous. But yet the book of Daniel is actually pretty short I'd say a lot of people would be surprised considering it's so famous But it's attached to the major prophets because he's significant not just in the fact they're famous stories But King Nebuchadnezzar is a very famous person in history King Cyrus is a very famous person in history You can go to Google and look up the most famous kings that have existed Both of those kings are going to be on the list somewhere, right? He's he has a very significant ministry So it's attached to the major prophets, right? The location is in modern-day Iraq Now when we're reading the Bible one thing that can be tricky is the geography and the timeline, right? You're reading through You know first and second Kings and all these Kings names are appearing and they all start with the letter J Right where they all start with the letter A and you're like who is this person and you're getting the names confused And you're like, where are these locations? Because if the Bible was written in the modern day and you heard like France and Poland and Germany and Australia Even if you're not good at geography, you have a general idea. Sometimes you're reading the Bible though. You're like, where is this taking place? Right. Well, this is what's modern-day Iraq is and of course Iraq's not a super significant country now compared to others But a lot of these events are taking place in areas that aren't as famous now. It's in modern-day Iraq So go to Isaiah chapter 13, Isaiah 13 Isaiah 13 First we looked at the timing and location of the Chaldean Empire in Babylon Secondly, let's look at the termination of Babylon Now when I was a kid I Remember if you had asked me when I was a kid of five years old six years old seven years old if you asked Me the question who is the most evil man in the world? Everybody in America would say Saddam Hussein every single person now some of you are younger than me So Osama bin Laden's the name you think of but Saddam Hussein was kind of Osama bin Laden before Osama bin Laden, right? Those are kind of the two top dogs of whatever right there kind of the two famous, you know Muslims that have you know caused a lot of terror or whatever but Saddam Hussein when I was a kid was the most famous but I remember in America being taught that Saddam Hussein believed he was King Nebuchadnezzar reincarnated Now that's what we were taught when I was a kid now I believe that some of that is American propaganda Because obviously the u.s. Went to war with Saddam Hussein now don't misunderstand what I'm saying Saddam Hussein was an evil person I have not changed my mind on that obviously was unsaved. He did a lot of wicked things Whether he was the most evil man in the world while there's a lot of evil people. So how do you even compare? But I don't believe it's 100% American propaganda because never connect or Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild Babylon and He looked at himself as being like a successor to King Nebuchadnezzar He's trying to really build back that empire and be the most famous and powerful man in the world now Let me show you first in Isaiah 13, then I'll read you a few things from some articles Isaiah 13 verse 19 and Babylon the glory of kingdoms the beauty of the Calities excellency shall be is when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah It shall never be inhabited Never be inhabited means no one's going to live there right and the Bible says Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed No one's going to live there. It's never going to be inhabited neither shall it be dwelled in from generation to generation Neither shall the Arabian pitch pitch tent there neither shall the net shepherds make their fold there And so God basically says Babylon is going to be destroyed never going to rise again, right? Now symbolically speaking the word Babylon is used in the Bible, but the actual location of Babylon Eventually gets destroyed and according to the Bible. It's never going to be inhabited never going to be rebuilt now Here's the thing about this when you're looking at prophecy you can misinterpret stuff Okay, you're looking at something from Isaiah 13 let me just say this though that Saddam Hussein tried to rebuild it into a Location and a territory for people to live and into an empire and he failed right let me read you this article Which says Saddam Hussein's attempt to rebuild Babylon the ancient city was the capital of the Mesopotamian dynasties It's final glory was as capital of the kingdom of Babylonia under King Nebuchadnezzar the second who ruled from 605 to 563 BCE During his reign most of the buildings represented by the surviving ruins were constructed including two grand palaces The Hanging Gardens of Babylon built by Nebuchadnezzar for his wife Amethyst are remembered as one of the seven ancient wonders of the world Probably many people have heard of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They actually can't prove that those are real It's just a lot of people have written about it Because Babylon was destroyed and they don't have any evidence of it actually being real but a lot of people wrote it I'm sure it probably was real But you know and we have modern-day constructions like this is actually let me see I've got a picture of this the modern-day construction of supposedly what the Hanging Gardens of Babylon look like and That might be true, but they don't necessarily know because it's just been written about in history And of course, you never know with history outside of the Bible how accurate is or how perfect it is, right? And it says this he also expanded his territory by forcing thousands to relocate Starting the first exile in Jewish history Babylon's remains mounds of mud brick buildings spread over about 30 square kilometers are in present-day Iraq south of Baghdad starting in 1983 Saddam Hussein imagining himself as heir to Nebuchadnezzar so basically He looked at himself as the heir apparent like he was supposed to be the next king because if you know through the book of Daniel the successors to Nebuchadnezzar were kind of Bobo right they really kind of screwed up because Nebuchadnezzar I'm not saying he was a godly person, but he was successful. He was obviously smart. He was obviously a good military leader afterwards the Empire just tumbles, right and It says like Nebuchadnezzar Hussein had his name inscribed on the bricks which were placed directly on top of the ruins some 2500 years old a sample in strict inscription translates to in the reign of the victorious Saddam Hussein the President of the Republic May God keep him the guardian of the great Iraq and the renovator of its Renaissance and the builder of its great Civilization the rebuilding of the great city of Babylon was done in 1987 Hussein also added huge portraits of himself and Nebuchadnezzar at the entrance of the ruins So Saddam Hussein basically put a big picture of himself and Nebuchadnezzar and he wrote this stuff How he's the one who rebuilt the civilization, but the thing is nobody ever lived there, right? I mean he spent a lot of time and effort to build these buildings but what the Bible said is it's never going to be inhabited and it never did get inhabited because the US went to war with Iraq and let me read you from this article and It says the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the first stage of the Iraq war The invasion phase began on March 19 2003 and March 20 2003 on the ground and lasted just over one month Including 26 days of major combat operations in which a combined force of troops from the u.s. The UK Australia and Poland Invaded Iraq Saddam Hussein overthrown in 2003 and killed in 2006 and it says in 2019 unesco Designated Babylon as a world heritage site to visit back to visit Babylon today. You have to go to Iraq 55 miles south of Baghdad, although Saddam Hussein attempted to revive it during the 70s. He was ultimately Unsuccessful due to regional conflicts in Wars So he put in a great effort in his life to rebuild Babylon because he looked at himself as being the heir to Nebuchadnezzar he failed Here's the thing. I could have told you he's gonna fail I mean unless I'm misinterpreting Isaiah 13, the Bible says Babylon's gonna be destroyed It's never gonna be inhabited never was inhabited, right? I mean he built up the buildings spittle spent a lot of money, but it's still 55 miles from civilization They didn't actually build it into an area where people lived he failed Right. I mean his goal was to become this Modern-day King Nebuchadnezzar this world conqueror. I mean he failed he was unsuccessful Now some of the things from Babylon and maybe some of the reason why God wanted to destroy it One of them is known as the Great Ziggurat and this is a construction of the Great Ziggurat picture I saw online some people say this is the Tower of Babel or a reconstruction or built meant to be like the Tower of Babel Here's what it says about the Great Ziggurat It says the ziggurat itself is the base on which the white temple is set its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens and Provide access from the ground to it via steps the Mesopotamians Believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known at Etimanenki, which means house of the foundation of heaven and earth in Sumerian So basically this Great Ziggurat was was meant to be like the Tower of Babel to connect heaven and earth Right now when I was a kid, I picture the Tower of Babel is almost like straight up in the air But I don't think that's really what the Tower of Babel was like But it was meant to be something where somehow they merged heaven and earth together, right? Well, it's not a surprise that God destroyed Babylon then right? I mean, obviously there's a lot of wicked things with Babylon One of the other famous things with Babylon is known as the code of Hammurabi Who's heard of the code of Hammurabi? A few people? People mentioned the code of Hammurabi and this is what the code of Hammurabi looks like. I couldn't get the picture to print, right? So this is the top of it. Okay, and this is the rest of that image and if you go closer There's actually words and letters inscribed in this with all of their laws So basically it's like a law book and people try to say that this is like the Old Testament law. It's like the Bible It's like you guys believe the same thing, right? The code of Hammurabi, the Bible. It's the same thing Same laws and what they'll do is they'll go to certain verses in the code of Hammurabi and they'll say we'll see That's what the Bible teaches. Well, there are some verses that are the same or very similar Let me read you from the code of Hammurabi number 196 If a man put out the eye of another man his eye shall be put out Sounds similar to the Bible, right? An eye for an eye Here's what you need to realize Every country in the world has laws that we agree with Every country. I promise you. What about North Korea? I'm sure North Korea has some laws we agree with I don't know all the laws of North Korea But I'm sure probably a lot of them if not most of them Right because most laws are just kind of general laws Is it really a shock that every country has a law against murder, right? I mean it makes sense a law against stealing Of course They're gonna have laws against these things just because you find a similar law an eye for an eye doesn't mean the whole code of Hammurabi is like the Bible. I didn't read the code of Hammurabi But here's one example because that was number 196 on the list. Here's number eight, right? So if they have a Ten Commandments of the code of Hammurabi, this is in it right number eight if Anyone steal cattle or sheep or an ass or a pig or a goat if it belonged to a god or to the court The thief shall pay thirtyfold therefore. So if you steal something you owe thirty times back what you stole for That's a lot more than what the Bible says, right? If it belongs to a god now, I don't really know what that means. But If they belong to a freed man of the king, he shall pay tenfold So if you just steal from a normal person and not a god then it's tenfold If the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death So basically if you steal something and you can't pay back tenfold or thirtyfold you get killed Look most people steal Because they need to steal It's like I stole a loaf of bread because my family doesn't have any food It's like well, we're gonna put you to death, right? I mean that doesn't even make sense Right, but that's the code of Hammurabi. That doesn't sound a whole lot like the Bible to me. I Mean yeah, you know what an eye for an eye and probably many things we agree with but oh you steal something you get put To death now what the Bible teaches is if you steal something you do owe back, you know, depending on what it is You know a fourfold punishment or whatever fourfold pay it back if you cannot pay it back. You don't get killed You don't get an arm chopped off. You don't get a hand chopped off You basically have to be a servant to pay it off and I'll tell you what I've never heard that before except from the Bible and it makes perfect sense Right. I mean especially in the US because the Civil War is like a big issue people talk about with slavery and everything like that So people are really like oh a servant that's terrible. It actually makes sense. You owe a debt and you can't pay it Well going to prison doesn't pay off that debt Right. It actually makes perfect sense. I mean imagine that God's laws actually make sense. They actually work, right? You have a punishment you can't you have a fee you can't pay back when you steal something you basically sell yourself into being A servant. Well, most people don't want to be a servant. It's not worth the risk, right? Go to Daniel chapter 8 Daniel 8 Daniel 8 So point number one we looked at the timing and location of these events point number two We looked at the termination of Babylon that God said Babylon would be destroyed and never be built back up now When Babylon is taken over by the Medes and Persians, they're not immediately destroyed, but eventually it is destroyed You say why would God do that? Well, because God wants to wipe out the memory of this civilization Right. That's the reason why and you know when a society is very wicked God oftentimes wipes it out So there's no memory and no remains of that civilization because he doesn't want us to wonder in our heart about it It's like I'll be honest with you, you know, some of these pictures the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. They look pretty cool. Looks beautiful Right. I mean they got the Ishtar Gate I mean, it looks pretty cool, but it's associated with a false religion and things like that I mean even their great ziggurat, I mean, it's a cool looking building I mean many of the false religions in the world they've got buildings that look pretty cool They spend a lot of money on them. They look pretty amazing I mean you catch them with your eye and your sight just beholds them But Babylon was wicked and God wanted to wipe out the memory of it because he didn't want us to have that in our hearts or in our minds Number three, let us talk about the transition from Babylon to Persia What you're gonna see in the book of Daniel is that the Chaldean Empire which is centered at Babylon or the Babylonian Empire They end up being taken over by the Medes and the Persians, okay? Daniel 8 verse 8 and There's actually kind of a technique God uses when a when a society gets taken over notice what it says in Daniel 8 verse 8 and in Daniel 8 verse 8 It says therefore the he goat waxed very great and when he was strong the great horn was broken and for it came up Four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven now Daniel 8 verse 8 is not about the Medes and Persians This is actually about Alexander the Great and Alexander the Great's not mentioned by name because he doesn't exist yet But it talks about the Grecian King in the book of Daniel and this is a reference to Alexander the Great And what it says here is when he was strong the great horn was broken Well, if you know about the life of Alexander the Great he died a very young man, right? I mean he died when he was roughly 30 31 years old He died as a very young person and there's different opinions on how he died. Some people say he drank himself to death He got a disease got poison. There's a lot of different opinions about that, but he died at a very very young age Okay. Well, here's the thing when he died. He was very strong He was the most powerful man in the world And what you see is God will take something at its peak when it's really strong and then boom They're destroyed just overnight and he is strong and then he's broken immediately And what it says is when he's broken it says four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven You say what does that mean brother Stuckey? Well when you're 30 years old, you don't expect to die Right, you're not prepared for it, right? I mean, you know people make wills of how they're gonna leave their money or their inheritance You usually don't write your will when you're 30 years old because you don't expect to die at 30 obviously, you know That does take place We understand that but generally you expect I'll worry about that when I'm older because I'm only 30 and it's just like You know what? My kids are young when they're grown and then I'll make my will when I'm in my 50s or 60s or whatever So when you're 30 years old, you don't prepare for your death usually right? Well, Alexander the Great wasn't prepared to die I mean, he's the most powerful man in the world. He's like, I'm strong. I'm mighty What could happen to me and then boom God killed him because he's a wicked person, right? What took place is his kingdom did not have a successor his kingdom gets divided into four Separate kingdoms and this is part of just general world history that you read and the Bible is prophesying about it now Obviously, I'm briefly mentioning this verse when we get to Daniel 8 we're gonna cover it and everything like that But basically Alexander the Great he's strong and then he's broken My reason for saying that is God's method is taking an empire when they're very strong and then just boom They're destroyed overnight and they don't expect it, right? I mean, isn't it true during the end times when they shall say peace and safety and they're strong and they're powerful then boom They're destroyed right in Sodom and Gomorrah things were going well, right? They had all the money in the world They were wealthy. Everything was great and then boom. They're just destroyed out of nowhere. That's the technique God uses same thing with Babylon because you start with the book of Daniel and Babylon's very powerful It's like how could this this, you know? Kingdom ever be destroyed and then overnight they're just destroyed. It's the same thing in our modern day You know I personally believe that if you look at the end times that the United States of America will be that end times Babylon that's referenced However, I would never make the statement that America is too strong to be destroyed because that happens all throughout human history A culture is big. They're powerful and then boom they're destroyed right now America is here and there's no country anywhere near in terms of power I mean China is way way way way way below US in terms of influence and power However, if America is not the end times Babylon They could just be destroyed overnight and then just become like any other location like nothing It's happened all throughout human history happens in the book of Daniel. It could happen today now go to Daniel 5 Daniel 5 Daniel 5 And in Daniel 5 verse 28, it's part of the story of the writings on the Expression Erez by kingdom is divided and given to the needs and purses So the Chaldean Empire which is the main name for the Babylonian Empire They get destroyed and they're taken over by the needs of the Persians now the needs of the Persians are what's known as a dual Monarch, they're basically two independent kingdoms operating together and King Cyrus Was the leader of Persia he's the most powerful man, but the needs during that time period were considered a very useful So even though King Cyrus was more powerful, basically they said let's just combine forces and we can do more And so what's known as a dual monarch so in Daniel 2 we're gonna see later on that we never have that image It says the breast and the arms of silver and it makes sense There's two sides where the Bible speaks about the bear that lifted itself up on one side because one side was stronger than the other Because there's two different kingdoms that is a dual monarch now, which was the one that was stronger. Well the Persians they were strong In history Austria and Hungary were dual monarchies for 51 years Between 1867 and 1918 they were known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire Where basically they operated independently, but in many ways they were together in terms of man and culture of power verse 29 Then commanded Belshazzar and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold on his neck and made a proclamation concerning him That he should be the third ruler of the kingdom and that night was Belshazzar the king of Calvary the same And Darius the mediator of the kingdom being about 3.2 years old. Now notice in verse 31 It mentions Darius the mediator Okay It doesn't say Darius the first now the reason why this is important or it can be confusing is Because in history one of the most famous kings was named Darius from Persia but That's not verse 31 because it doesn't say Darius the first this is a different person. In history there's a very famous Darius This is not that various. The very famous Darius in history is a person. And it makes sense because King Cyrus is a very powerful person His chief city was Persepolis So basically they ruled this Babylonian Empire. They've taken it over, but it doesn't mean he wants to change location He's perfectly happy to dwell in Persepolis and they control Babylon and Darius the mediator is the one that's kind of like the boots on the ground But the persons were more powerful than the beings in history Now turn to Hebrews chapter 1 Now that can be kind of important because there's a famous Bible contradiction with the timeline of the kings in Persia that doesn't seem to match with secular history And it's important to understand the difference between that Darius that's mentioned in Ezra versus the Darius mentioned in the book of Daniel That's going to draw your time. You know, sometimes you read the Bible and there's the same game mentioned A lot of people have the same first name. If you're like me, a lot of times you wish they had last names in your life It's like you assume it's the same person, but it's not. And many times it's not the same person and they are actually different people Now if you watch the movie 300, you're probably all out with your first name, right? That was a famous movie in the U.S. Xerxes won like this crazy evil reprobate But actually it has the words he's not that bad of a guy when you look at Esther The way they make you have to be in the movie And the reason why that movie is so morphed and messed up is because the name comes from the writings of the Greek historian Herodotus Well if the Greeks captured the Persians, what the Greeks will have to say about Persians is probably going to be pretty bad Doesn't that make sense? Don't they say history is written by the winners? Right? In America they call Samuel Adams the father of the American Revolution But here's the thing though, if America had lost that war he'd be known as the biggest terrorist we've ever visited Right? Because history is written by the winners And I'll take this, I don't want to go into it for the sake of time, I mentioned it in the series we did on Esther That Herodotus, one of the reasons why he said Persia was such a wicked society and so uncivilized and like barbarians Herodotus, the Greek historian said they didn't have any homosexuality or pedophilia in the kingdom And us Greeks, we introduced that to Persia He said that for why Greece was good In his own words he said no, he had a lot more pedophilia than them It's like that's the person you're going to trust, his opinion on morality in Persia Because here's the thing, people would say that we're very immoral people Right? People would say we're wicked people because we preach hate Isn't that true? That's what Herodotus said about the Persians Yet if you read the book of Esther, Persia's the nicest and most inevitable I mean, King Cyrus is a pretty good guy when you're reading the Bible, he's not a bad guy Right And that's what the Greeks said about the Persians, but just because they said that and people adopted it It's actually been disproven these last few years because through archaeology they found a lot of stuff And it turns out, well actually Persia was pretty nice, not like what they said in history Because he was just a liar, he was just a son So point number one, we looked at the timing and location Point two, we looked at the termination of Babylon Point three, the transition from Babylon to the Persian or lead of a Persian empire Point four, let us talk about the teaching of Daniel What is the book of Daniel about? Right Hebrews 1, go to Hebrews chapter 1 Hebrews 1, we should have used this first, Hebrews 1 God who had sundry times, verse 1, Hebrews 1, verse 1 God who had sundry times in a diverse manner spent in time past some of the boggled by the prophets After these last days spoken of just by his son, we have to plan arable things by whom also he made the world What the Bible says is that in sundry times, different times, God's faith in different ways Diverse manners, different ways, God's faith by the prophets Well here's the thing I got this sermon by reading the Bible and preparing notes I didn't get some dream Daniel has a lot of dreams that he's interpreting That's not how God speaks to me The way God speaks to me is I read the word of God and I learn things And I hope that's how you say you're getting your knowledge It's like, brother Stuckey, I believe this, but I had some dream It's like whoa, in a council church nearby somewhere We learn in our modern day because in times past God's faith by the prophet in different ways So sometimes it was a dream, sometimes God actually came down, the son of God in the Old Testament and actually spoke to man I mean in different ways and in different times But in these last days he's spoken of just by his son and Jesus went up to heaven And what we have now is a finished word of God The way he speaks to you now is you pray to God and he answers you to the truth Why would we leave a church that's preaching the truth? But there's not a modern day prophet that's proclaiming and predicting the future Now what a prophet in our modern day is, because the Bible used that terminology Is someone who's prophesying about things that are already written For example, I can preach about the book of Daniel because it's already been written What I cannot do, though, is just say, well, I had a vision that in 2047, 417, he had a interactive experience I can't do that, it's funny, right? But what I can do is show you what the word of God actually says So here's the thing, with the book of Daniel, you're going to see that Daniel gets dreams, he interprets dreams and these various certain things That's not how God is going to operate today And what Daniel does is he sees dreams and various things and he actually foretells the future Right, he foretells what's going to happen, I mean he foretold about what means Go to Daniel 12, Daniel 12 Daniel 12 One thing that's crazy about this is that we can understand the book of Daniel better than Daniel 12 To me that's kind of a crazy thought Because Daniel doesn't know about Alexander the Great Everybody in the world, pretty much, I mean, Alexander the Great's a pretty famous character in history, right? You don't know much about him, there's movies about him, TV shows, pretty famous guy Well, Daniel didn't know about that, he wrote about him, but it didn't mean that he didn't know who Alexander the Great was He didn't watch any of those movies And so it's crazy, but we can actually understand the book of Daniel better than Daniel 12 Now, one mistake people make is they look at end times prophecy and they say, wow, it's prophetical, so I can't understand it, therefore I'm not going to read it Look, there are events in the book of Revelation, the book of Daniel, that we're not going to fully grasp until we get closer But there are many things that you can actually understand I just want to set up a Daniel 12, I'll put it this way Daniel 12 verse 8 And I heard, but I understood not, then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end And what Daniel says is, I hear this stuff, I don't understand what he's talking about, though And what you'll see is Daniel didn't understand a lot of what he wrote about Why is that? Because he's writing about something in the future, right? You look at the book of Revelation, you look at the abomination of desolation and things like that These are things people would not have understood a long time ago There were no cell phones There was no modern technology There was no TV You're not going to understand how one man could be broadcast everywhere in the world And everyone would have to bow down It doesn't logically make sense In our modern day, it starts to make sense I mean, the mark of the beast seems kind of crazy Nowadays, though, Sweden just made it mandatory Like, this is your vaccine passport, it's in their hands, right? It's in their arms, so they're literally And what people do is they get it because it's a lot easier And I admit, it's a lot easier than making sure you don't lose your vaccine card and everything like that And it's like, that's what they're doing now So we start to see the modern day technology just advancing to the point these things are making more sense And here's the thing As we get closer to the end times, we're going to understand more Things are going to line up, it's going to make sense But there are many things that are very surface level that we can understand right now Daniel 12, look at verse 4 Daniel 12, verse 4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even at the time of the end Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased What the Bible says is that knowledge is going to be increased as we get toward the end You're going to have more understanding of these things And look, the book of Revelation should make more sense to you than it did to people a long time ago Look, a hundred years ago, probably most Christians in the world were a bit confused Because they were like, man, I thought World War I and the Spanish flu was Wasn't that 1918, if I remember correctly? And it's like right around that time frame, just after a hundred years I would have thought it was the end times I'll be honest with you, famines, we got that, pestilences, we got that, we got wars I would have thought, okay, when's the Antichrist coming? But then it didn't happen, right? Or many times throughout history, people looked at the Roman Catholic Church And they said, hey, this is Babylon, it's taking place Because obviously the Roman Catholic Church was killing a lot of people That's what people thought hundreds of years ago and in the past And there are many things they didn't fully grasp But as we get closer to the end times, we're going to get a better picture It's also the general reason why I don't think the end time is going to come during our life Because people have always thought it would So I just kind of figure, yes, I see the pieces fitting together But the pieces were fitting together a hundred years ago, too So I just kind of assume by mathematical probability It's probably like a 10% chance or something, I don't know That's my opinion, I could be wrong But knowledge is going to be increased as we get toward the end Verse number three, notice this And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever And what the Bible says is, because it says the wise shall understand Actually, I forgot to read it, look at Daniel 12, verse 10 Daniel 12, verse 10, I skipped over that Daniel 12, verse 10 Many shall be purified and made white and tried But the wicked shall do wickedly And none of the wicked shall understand But the wise shall understand Look, the wise are able to understand the events in the end times This is what the Bible teaches When somebody tells you, I don't understand anything about the end times I mean, the rapture, I have absolutely no idea I mean, it doesn't make any sense I mean, it's like, how can you know it's in the future? What they're saying is they're not wise Because the Bible says the wise shall understand Now look, there are things that I don't know about in the future What's going to take place But the general timeline and general understanding Of the book of Revelation and when the rapture takes place It's actually just stated in the Bible The Bible actually tells you Right, when I was in church in the US There was this popular joke at Baptist churches There's the independent Baptist churches Which are pretty much all pre-trib The other Baptist, though, would be pan-trib You say, what's pan-trib? Well, this is actually a joke They'll say, well, you know, what do you believe about the rapture? I'd be like, post-trib? They say, well, some people think post-trib Some people think pre-trib Some people think mid-trib I believe pan-trib And then they got that smile on their face Like, it's like a knock-knock joke It's like, okay, what's pan-trib? Well, I don't know, but it's all going to pan out in the end, brother It's like, that's not a funny joke But it's like, that's what you always hear They say, well, you know, and I've heard Baptist pastors tell me this We could bring a pre-trib person in here They preach a sermon, you'd be dogmatic, it's pre-trib We bring in a mid-trib, you'd be dogmatic, it's mid-trib We bring in a post-trib, you'd be dogmatic, it's post-trib We don't know, right? Well, I don't agree with that Because what the Bible says is the wise shall understand these things And look, if somebody says they don't understand anything about the end times Because they don't understand anything about the end times They have no idea when the rapture's taking place They're stating they don't know much about the book of Revelation Because here's the thing The book of Revelation starts with the revelation It's being revealed, right? It's like a baby reveal, right? A gender reveal, right? It's like, you're going to know after the reveal Whether it's a boy or a girl, right? You've got the blue balloon or the pink balloon, you're going to know Well, the Bible's saying the revelation, right? It's being revealed to you When these events are taking place And the basic idea So look, we can understand these things I'm not saying we've got everything figured out But we can understand the basics Because we're not in darkness That that day should overtake you as a thief As the same person, we have the word of God We have the Holy Spirit We're saved, and we can know these things And even though the book of Daniel is more complicated than Revelation We can actually understand the book of Daniel as well Look at verse 3 What does it mean to be wise? How do you know if you have wisdom, right? How are you going to know? One thing is Daniel 12 verse 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever This is a reference to going soul winning and getting people saved And the Bible says the wise person is a soul winner He that win in souls is wise One of the major aspects of having wisdom is being a soul winner That's what the Bible teaches And that's proof of wisdom But I also believe God imparts wisdom to the person that is a soul winner And the Bible says that if you are a soul winner You're a wise person You're going to understand these things And of course the other aspect is reading the Bible Listening to preaching on it Memorizing the Bible And guess what? As you study it, you're going to learn it Look, when you study something, you get wisdom on the topic And it's not something we have to be in darkness about because it's been revealed to us Look at verse number 10 again And it says this Many shall be purified and made white and tried But the wicked shall do wickedly And none of the wicked shall understand But the wise shall understand Now, here's the thing Daniel is not going to understand everything that's being talked about here We though can understand this But the knowledge is being increased And we have the whole word of God in our modern day What does it mean to have the wise shall understand? Well, verse 11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away And the abomination that maketh desolate set up There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days So the Bible says Starting at the daily sacrifice being taken away And the abomination that maketh desolate The abomination of desolation The mark of the beast So basically the Jews are not looking for a spiritual savior to come back They're looking for basically a political rise And they're going to love the antichrist But then the antichrist will turn on the Jews And the daily sacrifice is actually taken away The Jews are waiting for the temple to be rebuilt So they can make sacrifices Of course we believe that Jesus was that sacrifice But they're waiting to They say we can't do sacrifices until the temple is rebuilt Well, the Bible is indicating it's going to happen They're going to eventually make sacrifices But then when the antichrist takes over He's already risen politically He's going to basically demand worship Where no, no, no, you fall down and worship me And the sacrifice is taken away And the abomination of desolation is set up And around the world, if you don't take the mark of the beast What's going to take place? You can't buy or sell And basically you're going to be put to death If they catch you, right? The Bible says from that time period There shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days Okay Now look, I don't have time to prove it right now But we're going to talk about it in this series Everybody I've ever heard believes that the antichrist is midway through Daniel 7th week, three and a half years in Okay So three and a half years in And look, I'm not saying down to the second I don't personally believe that Or down to the minute I know people that do believe that I don't think it's down to the second or minute I think it's just roughly three and a half years Very, very, very close But kind of like rounding, right? 0.98 to the nearest whole number is one But it's going to be midway through Daniel's 70th week, okay? Now one thing you have to understand In the Bible, how many days are in a month? 30 days No exceptions to that 30 day months, right? You don't have this 28 days and then 31 That's just kind of weird But here's the thing though You can't do 30 day months forever Because 30 times 12 is 360 And what takes place is you're going to end up Having missing time because that's 365 and a quarter days per year So what would take place is As years went by, some years Would be a 13 month year They'd add a month And look, around the world People keep time differently It's not all the system of 365 and a quarter days Except every 400 years Is an exception or whatever it is So basically they'd have 30 day months 12 months during the year But then after a time frame They'd have to have an extra month So basically the end times is Divided up into 42 months For the first half And 43 for the second half You say, why? Because time has gone by They have to have an extra month So one of those years was a 13 month year So you have 42 months and 43 months So 3 and a half years is 42 months But sometimes it's going to be 43 months Because there's that missing time If that makes sense Well what the Bible says is That when it starts, the abomination of desolation Is going to last for 1290 years Well ask yourself How much is 1290 years? 360 days in a year Plus 36720 Plus 360 is 1080 Half of 360 is 180 1080 plus 180 is 1260 But yet the Bible says 1290 days You say, why? Because there's an extra month In the last half of Daniel's 70th week I hope that makes sense What I'm saying here with Daniel's 70th week That's the reason why it's 1290 and not 1260 Now people see that verse And it makes sense because they say, well it starts During the middle part But then they get confused on verse 12 Notice what it says Lesson is he that waiteth and cometh to the 1305 and 30 days So a lot of people look at this And say, okay there's 1290 days Then there's 45 extra days on the end But that's not what the Bible is saying Verse 11 is telling you That from the abomination of desolation To the end is 1290 days 43 months, three and a half years But then it's kind of going backwards And explaining Lesson is he that's not attached to verse 11 It's saying, blessed is he that waiteth And cometh to the 1305 and 30 days And what it's saying is Blessed is he that comes to the rapture Aren't we waiting for the glorified body That comes to the rapture? That's what it's a reference to When Daniel's 70th week starts It's going to be 1335 days when the rapture takes place Here's the thing We aren't going to know when Daniel's 70th week starts But what we will know Is the abomination of desolation Because that's 1260 days in See, you could actually be in the end times And not be aware of it I mean, I said during the World War I I would have thought we were in the end times But I would have known the abomination of desolation Didn't happen Because there was no mark of the beast But I would have thought we got wars and famines And pestilences I would have thought personally we're during the end times Maybe you wouldn't have But all those things seem to line up Well that could be the start The first three and a half years The beginning of sorrows of Daniel's 70th week However, once the abomination of desolation takes place Guess what? You're going to know the clock is ticking 1335 minus 1260 75 days Once again, not down to the second Not down to the minute To be honest, I think we're going to probably lose track of time During that time period Because it's not going to be your number one focus on what's going on But basically 75 days So look, when the abomination of desolation takes place What it's going to signal us is We're in an all out sprint to serve God until the end And what's going to take place Is either, you know, you get martyred And then you go to heaven Or God allows you to miraculously survive And be able to eat And live and just get people saved along the way It's no time to just try to hide I want you to understand Of course we don't just Openly try to get killed You're running to go to an area Where you can freely preach the gospel It's kind of like we go soloing in certain areas They might say, hey, this is off limits There's a certain apartment complex They lock in and say, you're not allowed in Us personally, at least at this church We don't try to jump in We say, well, there's many areas we can go to And that's okay It's going to be the same thing during the end times A lot of areas are going to be off the market I mean, in the heart of the city Is probably not the best place to preach the gospel But what you're going to do is basically Be on the run and just try to preach To as many people as you can No need to worry about saving up for retirement No need to worry about all these other things And look I personally think we should prepare For our future Because we don't know what's going to take place But Once the abomination of desolation takes place There's no point to preparing I don't think we're going to be meeting for church When the abomination of desolation I mean, are we going to live stream After the abomination of desolation? No, probably not It's probably not going to Hey, we're going to be bold We're meeting at this location If you want us, come in and get us That would be pretty dumb Sometimes being zealous can be a stupid thing We're going to be on the run But preaching the gospel Not just to try to survive to the end We're going to try to survive in order to preach the gospel There's that balance, right? There's no need to just say, well, I'm going to try to survive And just make it to the rapture There's no point at that time It's 75 days Well, here's the thing I understand this It's what Daniel 12 says You say, why? The wise understand these things There's going to be a lot of Baptists here When the abomination of desolation takes place They're like, what's going on? We should have already been out of here Am I not saved? They'll be like, am I saved? I thought I believed I tried to do good But they're not going to understand these things You say, why? Because they're being taught this preacher rapture They're being lied to What the Bible says is this We are waiting for that day It doesn't mean it can happen at any moment The Bible gives a specific amount of time 1335 days Well, you've got to think that means something So, whatever you think It's not just an imminent rapture right now No matter what your belief is There's something we're waiting for There's a time period that goes by What I'm telling you is at the start of Daniel's 70th week Basically, you've got three and a half years 1260 days 75 more days And the second half is 1290 days The Bible's simple thing No, it's not This is a bit complicated But everything I said was true It's what the Bible directly speaks How can you say that? How can you be so bold to say you know and understand these things And when it's going to be Well, I can say that because the wise shall understand And that's not a statement to say Arrogantly Look, if you're a soul winner and read the Bible You can understand these things You understand these things Many of these things I'm saying I learned from sermons and it made sense I read my Bible and I was like you know what That's exactly what the Bible says Makes sense Because these verses at the end They're a bit confusing It's confusing when you look at verses 11 and 12 But when you have it explained It's like well actually that makes perfect sense The first time I heard that phrase I was like yeah that's exactly what it says It makes perfect sense what the Bible's saying Look, the wise can understand these things Daniel's preaching about the end times But it's something we can understand Now the last thing I want to mention is this When it comes to the book of Daniel I wanted to preach through the book of Daniel Not really for the prophetical stuff We've already preached through Revelation And we've preached through some minor prophets Although Jonah's not really like Not really like a minor prophet As in like prophetical deep end time stuff But we've preached through Hosea and stuff like that But I wanted to preach through Daniel Not really for the aspect of the end times But really just for the political situation Because I mean someone's being thrown in a fiery furnace Right in Daniel chapter 3 For not bowing down to that image Now what's interesting about this is The first half of Daniel is About all this political oppression These famous stories The second half is the deep prophetical stuff That's confusing But what's interesting is They mesh together perfectly Now the book of Revelation is divided up First 11 chapters and then last 11 chapters And basically the timeline starts over The book of Daniel is similar First 6 chapters and then the second 6 chapters And also the time goes back as well What's interesting though is this When you have that story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace Think of this story And think of if you can see the end times applications They have to bow down to this image And if not they get killed Boy that sounds like the mark of the beast Isn't it interesting the second half of Daniel Is all the same Isn't it interesting the second half of Daniel Is all this prophetical stuff And yet the stories mesh perfectly together And here's the thing as we get to the end times What are we going to have? Political oppression We're going to be forced to sin And do wrong and sin against our own conscience Now we're not at that point yet To that extreme But that's the sort of thing that you're seeing In Daniel chapter 3 And it's not about the end times But certainly you can make symbolism And so definitely these stories They definitely help us understand the prophetical Stuff as well These things are deep, they're complicated God gave you, if you're a saved person The Holy Spirit of God inside of you The spirit of truth and wisdom That can help you interpret the word of God And look this is why We want you to read The New Testament in January Because the New Testament sheds light in the Old Testament I want you though starting in February To get started on your new Bible reading plan That you're going to do I mean next week we're going to bring Bible reading plans for you We'll put them in the group chat as well You know PDF if you want to just download them Or whatever, put it on your phone Just to motivate you every day to read the Bible So basically you wake Because here's the thing, in January right now You say okay what am I going to do today What am I going to read Okay I'm reading these chapters Makes it easy doesn't it Well guess what, you should do that the whole year And if you don't do that the whole year You're going to find a lot of books like Daniel you never read And here's the thing, the wise are going to understand these things If you don't know these things though You're going to be confused And let me explain something to you When the abomination of desolation takes place If that happens in our life That's not the time to start doing a deep dive on Bible prophecy To understand these things Right I mean I hope I hope that if this happens in our life We'll still be able to have Bibles to read But throughout the world and throughout history A lot of people have not been able to have Bibles A lot of oppression It is very possible that we will not have access to the scriptures I don't know I hope that's not the case I hope we still do have access to the scriptures We might have to go soloing by memory Right I mean if they catch a Bible outside You might get put to death I mean it might be a time where it's very difficult Things are going to be different You need to make sure you're already prepared for those events And look that's what we're waiting for We're waiting for those 1335 days We're waiting for that final day When it's like okay I've got a lot of people saved during the great tribulation Now I'm raptured And here's the good news about this The book of Daniel actually shows us this And we can use the New Testament To understand some of these deep Prophetical things Your Heavenly Father Thank you for allowing us to be here today And help us to understand these things And read these things And know them and memorize them And give this application to our lives In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Just lean First hands are ready Sing Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on