{"id":18415,"date":"2017-11-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-040-the-invisible-war-part-1\/"},"modified":"2017-11-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-040-the-invisible-war-part-1","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-040-the-invisible-war-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 040 – The Invisible War (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18415","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 040 - The Invisible War (Part 1)","sermon_date":"20171105","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":5119,"sermon_slides":5122,"sermon_mp3":5126,"sermon_id":"115171024493","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"10:1","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Invisible War (Part 1)\n\n11-5-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 10:1\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 40\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book of Daniel, chapter 10.\u00a0 Some of\u00a0 you are surprised we\u2019ve made it to Daniel 10; I didn\u2019t know if we were going to make it to Daniel 10 either but we\u2019re here.\u00a0 In fact, I notice the bulletin kept putting Daniel 10 in for a long time and today they didn\u2019t put anything in.\u00a0 I think they were a little gun-shy or something.\n\nDaniel 10, the title of our message this morning is The Invisible War, Part 1.\u00a0 I want to thank Gabe for teaching last week; I hope you\u2019re enjoying his studies in the Book of Jude.\u00a0 People are saying well where did you go (to me) and I was in British Columbia, a place called Abbotsford near Vancouver, involved in a prophecy conference.\u00a0 The folks that put this conference\u00a0 on really stepped out on faith, having never having done one before.\u00a0 And guess what?\u00a0 The Lord moved, a thousand people showed up.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that incredible.\u00a0 And they said to me do you think we should do this again and I\u2019m like ah, yeah!\u00a0 I think God is saying something.\u00a0 I was one of four speakers and the Canadian\u2026 this was my first time in Canada, gorgeous country, and the people could not have been more hospitable and gracious that we were there.\u00a0 So we taught very aggressively on Israel and the rapture and all of these topics they don\u2019t necessarily get in their churches, for an entire day on Saturday.\u00a0 And here\u2019s the questions I always get: number 1, was it livestreamed?\u00a0 The answer is no, and don\u2019t fault me for that, I wasn\u2019t in charge of that decision.\u00a0 Number 2, was there a recording?\u00a0 The answer is\u00a0 yes.\u00a0 Number 3, did Sugar Land Bible Church order the recording.\u00a0 The answer is yes so when I get that in we\u2019ll let you know it\u2019s there.\n\nSpeaking of prophecy we find ourselves today in the Book of Daniel, chapter 10.\u00a0 Let me sort of remind\u00a0 you where we are in the book.\u00a0 We\u2019re coming, believe it or not, down the home stretch.\u00a0 Daniel, of course, is a very special prophet.\u00a0 He was raised up by God to explain a period of time in Israel\u2019s history called the times of the Gentiles, when the nation would be outside of its land and trampled down by various Gentile powers.\n\nWhat is the prophecy that governs this time period?\u00a0 Well, prior to Daniel you don\u2019t have anything so God raised up Daniel to fill in the gaps.\u00a0 Daniel and his three friends were also used as role models, teaching Israel how they are to live and follow God when they\u2019re outside their comfort zone, outside of the security of the land of Israel, being subjected to various Gentile powers and bullying and this is why the Book of Daniel speaks directly into our lives because we are very much in the same boat, pilgrims, as 1 Peter 2:11 tells us, strangers and aliens in the devil\u2019s world.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1 Peter 2:11, \u201cBeloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.\u201d]\n\nHow do you work a job when you\u2019re the only Christian there and your boss could care less about Christ and\u00a0 your Bible based beliefs.\u00a0 How do you function as a student in a university where you believe certain things about the Bible and nobody else in your dorm, your roommate, your professors, they don\u2019t care a whit about what you believe. How do\u00a0 you function in that type of environment?\u00a0 The Book of Daniel is very instructive to us; we follow the example of Daniel and his three friends who consecrated themselves to God and yet observed over and over again through\u00adout the course of their lives the faithful hand of God.\u00a0\u00a0 The whole book is really an encouragement then, that God is in control of a world that seems to be out of control.\n\nChapter 1, you remember, was introductory.\u00a0 And then we moved through chapters 2-7, which as we have taught in depth is formed as a literary pattern called a chiasm.\u00a0 Chapters 2-7 we\u2019ve worked our way all the way through that literary structure and we moved into the final part of the book, which is chapters 8-12, where the language shifts from Aramaic, the known language of the day, back to Hebrew where God is sending, through this prophet Daniel, a special message to the Jewish nation.\n\nWe saw, chapter 8, the ram and the goat vision.\u00a0 We\u2019ve spent a long time in chapter 9, the seventy weeks prophecy.\u00a0 And we find ourselves this morning beginning the final vision, chapters 10-12.\u00a0 You say well, I don\u2019t like all this outline stuff, I\u2019m a picture person.\u00a0 I\u2019m a pictorial learner, and I\u2019m glad you are because I am too.\u00a0 I learn easier with pictures than words.\u00a0 And one of the things you can do to keep track of this book is to associate a picture with every chapter.\u00a0 And if you can do that you can think your way all the way through the book; you can teach this book to your children, to your grandchildren, to your small group, to your Bible study.\n\nChapter 2, think of the giant statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw. Chapter think of fire, that\u2019s the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego thrown into the fiery furnace.\u00a0 Chapter 4 think of a tree being cut down and that\u2019s a vision that Nebuchadnezzar had related to his pride and his restoration. Chapter 5 think of a hand writing on the wall and that\u2019s the famous handwriting on the wall chapter.\u00a0 Chapter 6 you already know, that\u2019s Daniel in the lion\u2019s den, that\u2019s what chapter 6 is about.\u00a0 Chapter 7 think of the four beasts; the four beasts is a description of the various Gentile powers that would trample Israel down during the times of the Gentiles right on up to the return of Christ. Chapter 8 think of a ram and a goat as Daniel has a vision about two short-term empires, the empire of Persia and the empire of Greece.\u00a0 And then finally chapter 9 think of the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 The city of Jerusalem is the subject of the seventy weeks prophecy as we have studied in detail.\n\nWe come to chapters 10-12 and here is an outline, if you will, of these chapters.\u00a0 Chapter 10 is the setting, chapter 10 verses 1-3.\u00a0 Then a Heavenly Messenger shows up, verses 4-9.\u00a0 And then the Heavenly Messenger does some explaining.\u00a0 It\u2019s like when Ricky said to Lucy, you\u2019ve got some splainin\u2019 to do.\u00a0 We get a lot of splainin\u2019 going on there in chapter 10 verse 10 all the way through chapter 11 and verse 1.\u00a0 Finally you get to the actual content of the vision that the heavenly messenger was dispatched from heaven to reveal.\u00a0 It is a staggering and astounding vision as we\u2019ll be seeing.\u00a0 It really starts from the time of Daniel and moves from Persia to Greece right on into what we call intertestamental history, history that occurred 400 years after Daniel had left the scene.\n\nAnd then it jumps into the distant future around chapter 11 and verse 36 and gives a great description of the coming antichrist.\u00a0 And then you move from there into chapter 12 where you have a tremendous description of the tribulation period that\u2019s yet future, and the kingdom which will come after that tribulation period.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re not going to be covering all of that today.\n\nBut that\u2019s sort of a panoramic view, if you will, of chapters 10-12.\n\nThe chapter divisions confuse us.\u00a0 Did you all know that the Holy Spirit did not put the chapter divisions in here.\u00a0 These were added by man and sometimes the chapter divisions are very helpful; other times I\u2019m convinced that they cause confusion because they unnaturally bifurcate one chapter or one area of content from another.\u00a0 The way to think about chapters 10-12 is it\u2019s all one package; it\u2019s all one vision.\u00a0 Chapter 10 is a description of how the vision came to Daniel.\u00a0 Chapters 11 and 12 is all part of one vision; it\u2019s God\u2019s final word to Daniel about the future of the nation of Israel.\n\nNotice, if you will, the setting, chapter 10 and verses 1-3.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that we have the setting historically, verse 1, and then personally, verses 2 and 3.\u00a0 Notice what chapter 10 and verse 1 says.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIn the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belteshazzar; and the message was true and one of<\/em> great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.\u201d\n\nNotice first of all in chapter 10 and verse 1, notice this reference to \u201cCyrus king of Persia.\u201d When you look at the totality of the Book of Daniel, Cyrus the king of Persia would have been the fourth administration that Daniel had served under.\u00a0 You remember that he was taken as a mere teenager into Babylonian captivity and there he served under Nebuchadnezzar and later a king that is mentioned in chapter 5, Belshazzar.\u00a0 And then you will also recall that the Persians overthrew the Babylonians in Daniel 5.\u00a0 That\u2019s the great [can't understand word] politically and what Daniel discovered is he continued to serve under the Empire of Persia; he served under a king named Darius and he served under a king named Cyrus.\u00a0 And what did Daniel discover no matter what party was \u201cin the White House\u201d so to speak?\u00a0 God was faithful every step of the way.\n\nDaniel 1:21 says, \u201cAnd Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s back in chapter 1 and this is what we find being spoken of here in Daniel 10:1.\u00a0 See, a lot of people put limits on the faithfulness of God.\u00a0 God will be faithful to me as long as I have this health plan over here.\u00a0 God will be faithful to me as long as I have this retirement plan over there.\u00a0 God will be faithful to me as long as I have this job under this boss.\u00a0 But what happens when those things change?\u00a0 Those things can change, as we all know, living in a fallen world, in a nanosecond.\u00a0 Is God\u2019s faithfulness somehow hindered by any of those things?\n\nMany times we limit God but the reality of the situation is God is the same yesterday, today and forever.\u00a0 It is His nature.\u00a0 God will be faithful to you in good times and in bad times; in economic upturns and economic downturns, in seasons of health and in seasons of sickness.\u00a0 One of the things we discover about God as we walk with Him is His consistent faithfulness.\u00a0 And this is the record of Daniel and what Daniel experienced.\n\nThis chart here, I\u2019ve referred to it many times, tells\u00a0 you what king is in power in what chapters and we find ourselves in chapters 10-12 where the king in power is Cyrus of Media-Persia.\n\nWe go on here in verse 1 and it actually gives you a date.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIn the third\u00a0 year of Cyrus, the king of Persia\u201d this chart as we have referred to it many times tells\u00a0 you what year it is at any given time when a date is given in the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 As you can see from the chart many, many dates are given.\u00a0 We find ourselves there in chapter 10 and verse 1.\u00a0 This would be the third year of Cyrus.\u00a0 The date would be 536 B.C.\u00a0 This is the last and the final date given in the Book of Daniel, which means chapter 10, chapter 11 and chapter 12 all occur on one sitting.\u00a0 This was a vision that was singularly given to Daniel at a specific time in history and that\u2019s why it\u2019s a mistake to bifurcate this vision the way our chapter divisions in our Bibles unfortunately do.\n\nNow this chart helps us because Daniel we know was taken into captivity as a mere teenager; he was most likely about the age of 15 when the events of chapter 1 unfold.\u00a0 And as you can see from this chart at this point in Daniel\u2019s life he is in his mid 80\u2019s.\n\nSpeaking of limiting God we oftentimes think that we\u2019re too young to serve the Lord, or we\u2019re too old to serve the Lord.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is the only issue with whether we\u2019re going to serve the Lord or not is not so much our ability but our availability.\u00a0 God will\u00a0 use a very young person; He would use what we would consider chronologically anyway to be a very old person.\u00a0 That kind of thing is of no consequence to God.\n\nJeremiah, for example, chapter 1 and verses 6-7, it says, \u201cThen I said, \u2018Alas, Lord GOD!\u00a0 Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.\u2019\u00a0 [7] But the LORD said to me, \u2018Do not say, \u2018I am a youth,\u2019 because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak.\u201d\u00a0 God called Jeremiah and He didn\u2019t really concern Himself with the chronological age of the prophet, just are you willing to fulfill the commission?\u00a0 Are\u00a0 you willing to fulfill the call that I have placed on your life.\n\n1 Timothy 4:12, Paul, writing to a\u00a0 young struggling pastor named Timothy, wrote these words: \u201cLet no one look down on your youthfulness, [but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.\u201d] God uses very young people; He uses people that we would consider to be also older or advanced in years.\u00a0 How old is Daniel?\u00a0 Mid-80\u2019s and yet God is still using him.\u00a0 How old was John when John received the vision on the island of Patmos?\u00a0 He was probably about the same age, mid to late 80\u2019s, perhaps 90 years old.\u00a0 And yet these were the seasons in both Daniel\u2019s life and John\u2019s life where they received from God their greatest\u00a0 revelations.\n\nThe fact of the matter is as long as there is breath in your lungs and your heart is beating, no matter what your circumstances are God wants to use your life.\u00a0 And what we discover in the Bible is God many times saves the best for last.\u00a0 One of my heroes who has gone to be with the Lord recently is Dr. Tim LaHaye.\u00a0 Most people don\u2019t know this but Dr. Tim LaHaye was voted by Wheaton College the most influential evangelical, even ahead of big names that you would think would have won that award, names like Billy Graham and others.\u00a0 And why is it that that college gave that particular award to Tim LaHaye?\u00a0 Because Tim LaHaye had an influence on not just one or two things but many things.\n\nIt\u2019s Tim LaHaye that gave to Henry Morris the idea of starting a\u00a0 young earth creationism scientist ministry.\u00a0 It was Tim LaHaye who gave to the late Jerry Falwell the idea of Christian involvement in politics forming what they called in the 80\u2019s the moral majority.\u00a0 It was Timothy LaHaye that would go around the country and do family ministries, ministering to families, revealing the biblical design for the family.\u00a0 It was Tim \u00a0LaHaye that started the organization that I\u2019m involved with to this day, I\u2019m even on the board of this organization, The Pretribulational Rapture Study Group which meets every December in Dallas to study doctrines related to the end times.\n\nAnd Tim LaHaye, I got to know him a little bit personally at his advanced age, probably could have rested on his laurels, thought about look what I\u2019ve accomplished for God, but he didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 He continued to be that open pliable vessel to be used by God.\u00a0 And what came out of Timothy LaHaye\u2019s life towards the end of his life was the Left Behind<\/em> series, a series of fiction books giving to theology two people in a fiction book something that they would never read about in a systematic theology.\u00a0 And those books became a runaway best seller and best sellers and many, many people have the correct view, I believe, of end times theology because of their exposure to those books.\u00a0 And it is interesting to me that the Left Behind<\/em> series, in my humble opinion, was probably one of the greatest things that happened, that God did through Tim LaHaye.\u00a0 And He did it in his advanced years.\u00a0 He did it in his advanced age.\n\nAnd this is the kind of thing that we\u2019re seeing with the prophet Daniel; as long as Daniel was alive, as long as there was blood coursing through his veins he never lost sight of the fact that he was the servant of God and God wanted to use him.\u00a0 And may we be like that as we continue to advance in\u00a0 years.\u00a0 May we always be open and pliable and flexible.\u00a0 I like the statement, \u201cBlessed are the flexible for they shall never be broken.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s in the Bible anywhere but it works with me. We\u2019re so rigid many times and we limit what we think we can do.\u00a0 But the reality of the situation is God is the God of the impossible; He is infinite. And as long as we\u2019re walking with Him, flexible, pliable, dependent, usable, God wants to use us every single day of our life, whether it be in youth, middle age or old age.\n\nThe fact of the matter is by the time we get to Daniel\u2019s mid-80\u2019s 536 B.C. the seventy year captivity has ended.\u00a0 In fact, this picture here is the Cyrus Cylinder, an archeological discovery recording the boasts of Cyrus and actually recording the verbiage that Cyrus used to release the children of Israel back to their homeland after the seventy year captivity had run its course.\u00a0 This is very interesting because in Isaiah 44:28 through the beginning of chapter 45 you will find the prophet Isaiah calling out Cyrus\u2019s name, the deliverer of Israel, and he calls out that name 200 years in advance.\u00a0 [Isaiah 44:28, \u201c\"It is I who says of Cyrus, \u2018He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.\u2019 And he declares of Jerusalem, \u2018She will be built,\u2019 And of the temple, \u2018Your foundation will be laid.\u2019\u201d]\n\nThat is a startling prophecy.\u00a0 In fact, the liberals are so bothered by that they don\u2019t think Isaiah even wrote that, it must have been someone they call Deutero Isaiah or Trito Isaiah. The problem is Jesus quotes those sections of Isaiah and attributes them to Isaiah.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a problem with believing it because God, as we have studied in the Book of Daniel, reveals the end from the beginning, the beginning from the end.\u00a0 God is not limited by time and space the way we are; He can see tomorrow as if it\u2019s today, which is one of the great proofs that the Bible is God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 Only in the Scripture can you receive and study prophecies of this minute detail.\u00a0 Nothing like this\u2026 I had some of them show up on my doorstep this week, nothing is like found like this in The Book of Mormon<\/em> or in The Pearl of Great Price,<\/em> or in The Doctrine of Covenants<\/em>; nothing like this is found in The Quran<\/em>, or the Hadith<\/em>, or any other alleged holy book.\u00a0 Only in the Bible do you receive and can you see history before it happens.\n\nYou see, we look at Daniel 10:1 and we see this word \u201cCyrus\u201d and we just sort of skip over it but the reality is God is the one that put Cyrus into existence, having called out his name 200 years before the man was even born.\u00a0 Do you realize how astounding that is?\u00a0 That would be like somebody standing up in 1776 and calling out the name Ronald Reagan and saying that Ronald Reagan is going to become President of the United States.\u00a0 And then all of a sudden history happens and what was said 200 years ago manifests itself.\u00a0 That is the equivalent of what you are seeing when you read this word \u201cCyrus\u201d there in Daniel chapter 10 and verse 1.\u00a0 And by the way, Cyrus was an unbeliever.\u00a0 Isaiah 45:4 of Cyrus the prophet Isaiah says, as God is speaking through the prophet, \u201cthough I don\u2019t know you.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 45:4, \u201cFor the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.\u201d]\n\nIn other words, God can use a believer to do His will, He can use an unbeliever to do His will.\u00a0 He can use a Republican to do His will, and dare I even say it, [laughter] this is Texas, maybe I won\u2019t say it, He can use the Green Party to do His will\u2026 there we go?\u00a0 God can use old people to do His will, young people to do His will.\u00a0 He can use a believer to do His will; He can use an unbeliever to do His will.\u00a0 In fact, I would submit to you this:\u00a0 The moment that Judas Iscariot, an unbeliever, made a decision to rebel against Christ, reject Christ, and betray Christ is the moment Judas Iscariot was fulfilling a script, even though Judas Iscariot made that decision on his own free will.\u00a0 This is the astonishment of this man Cyrus, called by name as the man who would release the children of Israel from the seventy year captivity.\u00a0 We know from history that the children of Israel went back into the land after the seventy year captivity in three waves; the first wave is recorded in the Book of Ezra, chapters 1-6.\u00a0 The second wave is recorded in the Book of Ezra, chapters 7-10.\u00a0 The last wave is recorded in the Book of Nehemiah.\n\nSo it is interesting that at this point in time, 536 B.C. the first return from the exile has transpired; the other two are yet future.\u00a0 And one of the things we might ask ourselves, and incidentally by the way, God deals in complete numbers, the deportation in the captivity, seventy years earlier, happened in three waves.\u00a0 Daniel, as we have explained, is taken in wave one, Ezekiel as we have explained was taken in wave two, and in wave three Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the city and the sanctuary.\u00a0 So just as the deportation happened in three parts, the return from exile happened in three parts.\u00a0 And by the time we get to 536 B.C. the first wave, in terms of the Jews going back into their land, had been accomplished.\u00a0 God, as Daniel and others were seeing, was faithful in every single thing He said He would do.\n\nIn fact, the prophet Jeremiah, in chapter 25 and verse 11 and chapter 29 and verse 10 \u00a0says the captivity is going to last 70 years, not 68 years, not 83 years, but 70 years.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 25:11, \u201c\u2018This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 19:10, \u201cFor thus says the LORD, \u2018When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.\u201d\u2019]\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting that right on schedule the first return from the captivity and the deportation had happened, and Daniel is watching the faithfulness of God.\u00a0 He has seen the faithfulness of God all the way through his life, even to the point of being rescued in the lion\u2019s den.\u00a0 And once again God shows up in time and history and does exactly what He said He would do.\n\nDaniel, however, stays behind, continuing to serve in the administration of Cyrus of Persia.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t Daniel go back with everybody else?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Perhaps it was his advanced age that prevented him from taking that 350\u00a0 mile journey.\u00a0 Perhaps he took so seriously his role in Persia as a government administrator that he didn\u2019t go back with everybody else.\u00a0 One of the things we learn about Daniel is his belief in Yahweh, his belief in God showed up, not just in what he said, not just in what he prophesied, but in his conduct on the job.\n\nDoes that describe you?\u00a0 Can people see your Christianity?\u00a0 Can people see my Christianity\u00a0 in terms of the daily circumstance God may have us in, in the family, in the educational system, in the career, in the job. Do they see a devotion to excellence, a devotion to service, or do they see complaining, backstabbing, backbiting, lackadaisical service, sloppiness.\u00a0 Those were not the kinds of things that Daniel exhibited and that may be why He didn\u2019t return with everyone else.\u00a0 He took his job as a government administrator in Persia seriously.\n\nIt says, \u201cIn the third year of Cyrus, the King of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel,\u201d notice the word \u201cDaniel.\u201d\u00a0 The word \u201cDaniel\u201d shows up here in chapter 10, verse 2, verse 7, verse 10 and verse 12.\u00a0 [Daniel 10:2, \u201cIn those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 10:7, \u201cNow I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, while the men who were with me did not see the vision; nevertheless, a great dread fell on them, and they ran away to hide themselves.\u201d Daniel 10:11, \u201cHe said to me, \u2018O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.\u201d\u2019 [12] \u201cThen he said to me, \u201cDo not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this<\/em> and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.\u201d]\n\nYou say well Pastor, what\u2019s\u00a0 your interpretation of that?\u00a0 Here\u2019s my interpretation: Daniel wrote this section.\u00a0 Why is that a big deal?\u00a0 Because there are many, many people, as we have referenced many, many times throughout this series that really just can\u2019t believe that Daniel could have received this information in 536 B.C.\u00a0 How could the things that he will describe in chapter 11 come to pass with such uncanny accuracy if Daniel knew these things 400 years before they happened. Certainly Daniel could not have received these things and known these things and written these things.\u00a0 And yet what is the text saying?\u00a0 Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, in fact, Jesus Himself quotes, as we have referenced, Daniel chapter 9 and then He attributes Daniel 9 to who?\u00a0\u00a0 To Daniel.\n\nYou see, if you come at the Bible through a naturalistic angle you have no explanation for this and so you\u2019re forced to rewrite it.\u00a0 I have no agenda to rewrite the Bible; in fact, I\u2019m fearful of doing so.\u00a0 I want the Bible to speak and say what it naturally wants to say and what the Bible is saying is Daniel Himself received and wrote these things 400 years before they happened. He describes history in advance, as we\u2019ll be studying in chapter 11, to pinpoint accuracy.\u00a0 No problem for me to believe that since God is omniscient which means all knowing.\n\n[Daniel 10:1, \u201cIn the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel,\u201d now watch this, \u201cwho was named Belteshazzar; [and the message was true and one of great conflict, but he understood the message and had an understanding of the vision.]\u201d\u00a0 Why was Daniel named Belteshazzar?\u00a0 Daniel is Daniel\u2019s Hebrew name and when Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel and his friends into captivity, according to Daniel 1:6-7 he renamed all of those kids.\u00a0 Daniel 1:6-7, says, \u201cNow among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.\u201d Those are their Jewish names, their Hebrew names.\u00a0 [7] \u201cThen the commander of the officials assigned new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.\u201d\n\nWhat Nebuchadnezzar tried to do with these four youths is brainwash them, conform them, get them to capitulate to his value system at an early age.\u00a0 And may I just say to you, beloved, that is exactly what\u2019s going on with you in your life and\u00a0 your mind and it\u2019s exactly what\u2019s going on with your children and it\u2019s going on with\u00a0 your grandchildren.\u00a0 The world system is all about conformity, trying to shift your Bible based beliefs to its own value system.\u00a0 We see this playing out quite frequently, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 What does the Bible say?\u00a0 Marriage is between one man to one woman for one life.\u00a0 I realize that when you make a statement like that today there are those that have fallen short of that standard but the reality of the situation is the standard is always the same.\u00a0 The grace of God is always available to anyone who falls short of God\u2019s standard but the standard is not up for grabs.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how the world is perpetually exerting pressure on the life of the child of God to get them to think the way it thinks.\n\nThis is why Paul, in the New Testament, in the Book of Romans, chapter 12 and verse 2 says, \u201cAnd do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.\u201d\u00a0 I like the Phillips translation here.\u00a0 Phillips translates this verse as follows, \u201cDo not let the world squeeze you into its mold,\u201d and that\u2019s the great test that Daniel was under as a mere teenager.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the name Belteshazzar, a remembrance of what had happened 70 years earlier is repeated here.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t interesting that as Daniel walked throughout the course of his whole life he was never conformed and transformed to Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s system.\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar, you can name me whatever you want to name me, you can make me read whatever it is you are compelling me to read but the fact of the matter is I belong to Yahweh, I belong to God and I am not for sale.\n\nAnd Daniel stood over and over again against the challenge of compromise and most of the time he did do he put his own life in jeopardy and yet God was faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful as a teenager, faithful in middle age, faithful in old age.\u00a0 And may we be those kind of people that when we reach those end years of our lives that we can look back and say you know what?\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a perfect life but I walked with God the whole way; His thoughts continue to be my thoughts.\u00a0 And how many people, Christians I\u2019m talking about, get to the end and what you hear from people at the end of their lives?\u00a0 What do they say?\u00a0 What they always say is if I could do it all over again I would change this choice and I would change that choice.\u00a0 And many times they get to the end of their life, not with victory, not with ready to enter heaven with an expectation of being fully rewarded but with sorrow, with regret. Daniel didn\u2019t have to do that because of daily choices that he made going right back to his youth.\n\nYou see, show me right now, as a Christian, the choices that you are making and I\u2019ll show you exactly what you will be like in terms of your character five years from now, ten years from now, twenty years from now, forty, fifty years from now if the Lord tarries, because God is not mocked, what a man reaps he has already sown.\u00a0 And may we be the type of people that get to the very end and look back without any regrets because yes, the world system sought to conform us and transform us but we kept walking with God; we kept standing with God, no compromise.\u00a0 And so there\u2019s a brief look backward to what Nebuchadnezzar sought to do and was unable to do in the life of Daniel.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice it continues on here in verse 1 and it talks about this vision, this message that Daniel had received which is going to be described for us primarily in chapters 11 and 12 and this message \u00a0is described through different descriptors.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice here in chapter 10, verse 1 the message is called true, the true message.\u00a0 [\u2026and the message was true]\u00a0 How is it that we can, in this age of propaganda receive the truth.\u00a0 Folks, there is only one place to receive the truth and that\u2019s from God\u2019s inerrant inspired Word. Your pastor can let you down;\u00a0 your elders can let you down, the media can let you down, the politicians can let you down, the educational system can let you down in terms of misleading you.\u00a0 But the reality of the situation is God breathed the Scripture into existence.\u00a0 And the Book of Hebrews tells us that it is impossible, not difficult, it is impossible for God to lie.\u00a0 [Hebrews 6:18, \u201cso that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.\u201d]\n\nJohn 1717, Jesus said, \u201cSanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.\u201d\u00a0 And that, of course, becomes the great calling on Christ\u2019s church.\u00a0 Paul, in 1 Timothy 3:15 calls the church of the living God the pillar and the support of the truth.\u00a0 [1 Timothy 3:15, \u201cbut in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.\u201d]\n\nWhat is the church?\u00a0 It\u2019s the pillar of the church.\u00a0 What do you do with a pillar?\u00a0 You hold some\u00adthing up. The church, by the design of God is designed by God to be the one place you can go in a fallen world to receive uncompromised, unadulterated truth.\u00a0 Receiving truth is not always a pleasant thing to receive because sometimes the truth hurts.\u00a0 But what did Jesus say? \u201cYou shall know the truth and the truth shall\u201d what? \u201cset you free.\u201d\u00a0 [John 8:32]\u00a0 And may Sugar Land Bible Church be like that; may the people who come here expect the truth and receive the truth in a non-adulterated non-compromised way.\n\nSo the message that you are about to receive, Daniel, is true.\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll also notice there in verse 1 the words \u201cunderstood\u201d and \u201cunderstand\u201d or \u201cunderstanding.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is what we believe God has done in the Scripture is He has spoken, He has revealed Himself and He has revealed himself in such a way that mere fallen people who are reading His Word, respecting the laws of language under the illumination of the Holy Spirit can understand exactly what God says.\u00a0 We call this doctrine in theology the perspicuity of the Scripture, the clarity of the Scripture.\u00a0 In other words, when God speaks God is meant to be understood.\n\nI am not exactly what you would call a card carrying member of the R.C. Sproul fan club (for a lot of reasons) but I love the statement that he makes here on the doctrine of the Scripture. \u00a0He says, The reformers had \u201ctotal confidence in what is called the perspicuity of Scripture...the clarity of Scripture. They maintained that the Bible is basically clear and lucid. It is simple enough for any literate person to understand its basic message\u2026What kind of God would reveal his love and redemption in terms so technical and concepts so profound that only an elite corps of professional scholars could understand them?\u2026\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBiblical Christianity is not so esoteric a religion. Its content is not concealed in vague symbols that require some sort of special \u2018insight\u2019 to grasp. There is no special prowess or pneumatic gift that is necessary to understand the basic message of Scripture \u2026 The Bible speaks of God in meaningful patterns of speech. Some of those patterns may be more difficult than others,\u201d\n\nAmen, Peter himself confessed to this in 2 Peter 3:16 when Peter says you know, some of the things Paul says are hard to understand.\u00a0 [2 Peter 3:16, \u201cas also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.\u201d]\u00a0 I feel better having him said that.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say everything Paul says is hard to understand, some of the things Paul says are hard to understand.\u00a0 And he doesn\u2019t say impossible to understand.\u00a0 Some things in the Bible require a little bit more digging, a little bit more perspiration to get to what the actual message is but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that the basic message of Scripture is clear to all.\n\nSproul says, \u201cbut they are not meant to be nonsense statements that only a guru can fathom.\u201d [Knowing Scripture<\/em> (Downers Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press, 1977), 15-17.]\n\nHenry Morris said in his book, The Revelation Record, <\/em>writes this: \u201cIt must be stressed that Revelation means \u2018unveiling,\u2019 not \u2018veiling.\u2019 In the absence of any statement in the text to the contrary, therefore, we must assume that the term Babylon applies to the real city of Babylon\u2026\u201d\n\nNow you might not agree with that and that\u2019s okay, we\u2019re not getting into that subject today. What I want to get into is the first part of this statement where he says the Book of Revelation was not written to conceal or to fool people.\u00a0 Many, many people think the Book of Revelation is so symbolic you can\u2019t understand it; the Book of Daniel is so symbolic you can\u2019t understand it.\u00a0 The Old Testament and the New Testament was written so long ago you can\u2019t understand what\u2019s being said.\u00a0 That would be a denial of the perspicuity or the clarity of the Scripture.\n\nNotice again chapter 10, verse 1, \u201cHe\u201d Daniel \u201cunderstood the message and had an\u00a0 understanding of the vision.\u201d\u00a0 We have emerged, haven\u2019t we, from the study of the Seventy Weeks Prophecy.\u00a0 Many people argue that the Seventy Weeks Prophecy is probably the most difficult prophecy in the whole Bible to understand, yet have you read what Jesus said about that prophecy?\u00a0 In Matthew 24:15 He quoted part of that prophecy and in the process you have this parenthetical statement, \u201cLet the reader\u00a0 understand.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0[Matthew 24:15, \u201c\"Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)\u201d]\n\nYou may not know everything there is to know (nor do I) about every little nook and cranny of the Bible but the basic clarity of the Bible, the basic perspicuity of the Bible is all there.\u00a0 And I think many, many people use a lack of clarity as an excuse to cloak their unbelief.\u00a0 The problem with people is they read something in the Bible and they say well, I don\u2019t believe that part.\u00a0 But they won\u2019t come out and say that, they just say the Bible is not clear on that point.\u00a0 And what has happened is a lack of clarity has been used as a smoke screen to hide a sin taking place in the human heart.\u00a0 The ultimate sin, really, that you can commit against God, the sin of unbelief, because \u201cwithout faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please God.\u201d\n\nNotice also chapter 10, verse 1, you see the expression, \u201cthe great conflict\u201d?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026the message was true and one of great conflict,\u201d this vision that we will be embarking on is a story of conflict before the resolution.\u00a0 It\u2019s a story of the devil himself coming against God\u2019s people, coming against the chosen people, coming against the nation of Israel until finally the conflict is going to be resolved and the kingdom of God breaks forth on planet earth.\n\nAnd speaking of this issue of conflict, that\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this The Invisible War, there is a great conflict that Daniel is going through right now.\u00a0 His prayer is not answered for 21 days, as we will see.\u00a0 Why 21 days?\u00a0 Because of a spiritual conflict in the heavenlies between the angel dispatched from heaven to give Daniel this vision and a fallen demon, perhaps Satan himself, hovering over the empire of Persia, interestingly enough what\u2019s the modern day nation that we call Persia in the Bible?\u00a0 Iran.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s the problem with Iran.\u00a0 Maybe this is demonic.\u00a0 Maybe that spirit that thwarted the vision coming to Daniel is still there wreaking havoc.\u00a0 And when you under\u00adstand things like that\u00a0 you start to understand why God tells us to pray for people in government because of the reality of the spiritual conflict.\u00a0 People in government do some of the most irrational things I\u2019ve ever seen.\u00a0 It makes no sense in anybody\u2019s frame of reference to run up 21 trillion dollars in red ink.\u00a0 It makes no sense at all unless we understand that they\u2019re doing something irrational because of the presence of demons themselves.\u00a0 That helps us\u00a0 understand that we should be in prayer for such people, in intercession.\n\nLet me ask you a question: in your Christian life, looking at the state of the United States of America, do you do more time complaining or praying?\u00a0 Do you do more time protesting or interceding?\u00a0 I have to confess that many times in my life I\u2019ve been guilty of leaving the place of power, which is prayer, and resorting to other things in their place, not that those other things, activism, registering complaints, organizing, not that those things don\u2019t have their place, they do have a place, I preach from this pulpit that they do have a place but I\u2019m sometimes wondering if the body of Christ in America has\u00a0 used those things as a substitute for the ultimate weapon that we do have, which is prayer.\n\nConflict before the kingdom\u2026 let me let you in on something.\u00a0 The moment you step out and you desire to be used by God in any way is the moment you will experience conflict.\u00a0 You will experience conflict sometimes from your own family.\u00a0 You will experience conflict, God forbid, sometimes from your own church.\u00a0 You will experience conflict sometimes from the religious crowd out there.\u00a0 In fact, who was Jesus always in conflict with?\u00a0 It was not the sinners being saved; it was with these religious ecclesiastical authorities, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, conflict goes with the territory.\u00a0 Daniel is in prayer for three weeks and there\u2019s a conflict going on before that prayer is answered.\u00a0 The whole vision is about a conflict that the nation of Israel is going to go through until the manifestation of the kingdom.\n\nAnd let me tell you something about Satan; he can wreak all kinds of problems in your life.\u00a0 Paul, in the Book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2 and verse 18, says, \u201cFor we wanted to come to you-- I, Paul, more than once-- and yet Satan hindered us.\u201d\u00a0 I stepped out to do something good for God and I was blocked over here.\u00a0 Then I went this direction and tried to do something good for God and I was blocked over there.\u00a0 And I was blocked this way, and I was blocked that way and every step of the way Satan put up a road block, and another road block, and another road block.\u00a0 And most Christians going through those road blocks would say well, I guess I\u2019m outside the will of God.\u00a0 Let me tell you something, the road blocks may be indicative that you\u2019re right in the will of God because conflict comes before the crown.\u00a0 Conflicts come before the kingdom.\u00a0 And praise the Lord, we made it through verse 1.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Seeking verses 2 and 3 and beyond next week.\n\nBut the reality of the situation is a person could be here today, going through great struggles in their life, going through great conflicts, and the reason those conflicts are going on is God has allowed them to happen so that the lost person would seek God.\u00a0 Through these conflicts God wants us all to understand that we, in our humanness are not the answer to our problems.\u00a0 God is.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going through conflict as a Christian now is your opportunity to trust God for the answer because that\u2019s the only way out.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re orchestrated here because of conflict, because of circumstances beyond your control and you don\u2019t know Christ personally let me let you in on this too, that\u2019s the great move of God in your life to direct you to Himself.\u00a0 How does a lost sinner become directed to God?\u00a0 How does a lost sinner enter into a relationship with God?\u00a0 How does a lost sinner receive the resources of God which will enable him to navigate the way through various conflicts in a fallen world?\u00a0 We call this the gospel; the gospel means good news.\n\nWe call it good news because Jesus did the work; He died in our place, He suffered an agonizing death on the cross to bear a sin debt that we could never pay for.\u00a0 He bodily rose from the dead to authenticate exactly who He said He would be.\u00a0 He did everything within His power, as we celebrated this morning at the communion table, to bridge the gap between a Holy God and sinful man.\u00a0 In fact, His final word on the cross in Greek it tetelestai<\/em>, which means it is finished. There\u2019s nothing else to do other than to receive what He has done as a free gift on\u00a0 your behalf.\n\nAnd therefore it is incumbent upon, it is the responsibility of the sinner to believe. That\u2019s the only thing God requires of the lost sinner.\u00a0 The onus is now on them.\u00a0 Jesus, in John 3:18 says, \u201cHe who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.\u201d\u00a0 Do you believe? Do you trust in what I\u2019ve done?\u00a0 I\u2019ve done the work, now it\u2019s\u00a0 your responsibility to trust in what He, Jesus Christ, has done for you.\u00a0 And whether you do that or not is your call.\u00a0 The Spirit of God has come into the world to convict the world of their need to do this and what John 3:18 says, if a lost sinner has not done this not that they will be condemned, they already are condemned.\u00a0 The condemnation of God rests over such a person, it\u2019s just that the sentence hasn\u2019t been executed yet.\n\nEvery person that has not trusted in the provision of Jesus Christ as I speak is under the condemnation of God.\u00a0 And yet how that can change in a moment by trusting, not yourself, trusting not your own denomination, trusting not your good works, but trusting in what Jesus did for\u00a0 you.\u00a0 The story of the Bible is not what man does for God, it\u2019s what God has done for man.\u00a0 The story of the Bible is not us reaching up to God; it\u2019s God reaching down to us in the person of Jesus Christ through a free gift which can only be accessed by way of faith.\u00a0 And praise the Lord for those that have trusted in it but woe to the person, persons, who have not, already as I speak under God\u2019s condemnation simply waiting for the judgment to fall like the sword of Damocles\u00a0 hanging over a person\u2019s head.\n\nThis isn\u2019t my philosophy here today folks; I hope it\u2019s never my philosophy.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t how I would do things if I were in charge; I\u2019m not in charge, I\u2019m just a messenger trying to describe the best I can what God\u2019s Word in its perspicuity in what its clarity says.\u00a0 All that to say our exhortation to you here at Sugar Land Bible Church, even people listening online by way of the internet and other venues, we plead with you, we exhort you, if the Spirit is convicting you to trust in what Jesus Christ has done for you.\u00a0 And the moment that happens, which can happen in a nanosecond,\u00a0 your whole position changes.\u00a0 You move away from being an enemy of God, as Alex explained this morning, to becoming a child of God and now Romans 8:1 says, \u201cThere is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Trusting Christ is something you can do right now as I\u2019m speaking.\u00a0 It\u2019s not necessary that\u00a0 you join a church, raise a hand, walk an aisle, give money to do this; it\u2019s a matter of privacy between\u00a0 you and the Lord.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you have question marks on or need more explanation of I\u2019m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we are grateful for the Book of Daniel and the invisible war that it is going to reveal to us.\u00a0 Help us to grow in this area of spiritual warfare, spiritual combat as we walk with You this week and learn more and more truths about this important topic in our walk with you in these last days.\u00a0 We will be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t