{"id":18423,"date":"2018-01-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-07T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-048-the-precision-of-prophecy\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:13","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:13","slug":"daniel-048-the-precision-of-prophecy","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-048-the-precision-of-prophecy\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 048 – The Precision of Prophecy"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18423","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 048 - The Precision of Prophecy","sermon_date":"20180107","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":20042,"sermon_slides":20043,"sermon_mp3":20044,"sermon_id":"1718101731","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"11:25-30","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Precision of Prophecy\n\n1-7-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 11:25-30\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 48\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Happy New Year!\u00a0 Happy 2018, a new\u00a0 year, a new start.\u00a0 But we\u2019re not studying a new book.\u00a0 We still find ourselves working our way ever so gradually through the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is The Precision of Prophecy.\u00a0 We are in Daniel 11:25.\u00a0 Daniel, of course, is at the very end of his life, receiving his final vision.\u00a0 The year is 536 B.C.\u00a0 Daniel is in his late 80\u2019s, perhaps early 90\u2019s at this time; God is not finished using him.\u00a0 As long as a person has breath in their body God wants to do something through them and that was how it was with Daniel.\n\nSo he had been praying about the future of Israel, the seventy year captivity was winding down, coming to an end, and a heavenly messenger shows up to give Daniel the insight that he\u2019s looking for.\u00a0 The messenger has some explaining to do, why he\u2019s there and what took him so long.\u00a0 But then the actual vision that Daniel saw (which really is probably his greatest vision) recorded in the last two chapters of the book starts to get unpacked, if you will, in chapters 11 and 12. Daniel has some initial information about Persia that he\u2019s given by this angelic messenger, the empire that was around and alive when Daniel was alive.\u00a0 But then the message moves on into the empire that would replace Persia long after Daniel had left the scene, passed away, the empire of Greece.\n\nProbably the most important thing to know about Greece in Daniel\u2019s prophecies is Greece would come to power through Alexander the Great, who would die at a very young age and consequently he had no heirs\u00a0 so his empire (and Daniel predicts this with great specificity) would be divided amongst Alexander\u2019s four generals.\u00a0 The two most important would be the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucid dynasty of Syria up north.\u00a0 The Ptolemy empire was known as the King of the South; the Syrian dynasty coming from these two generals was known as the King of the North.\u00a0 And these two empires duke it out, if you will, for about 150 years, traipsing back and forth through the Promised Land and there\u2019s a complex set of prophecies given about these battles spanning 150 years in verses 5-20 of Daniel 11.\n\nAnd then Daniel begins to talk about 198 B.C. when the Seleucid Dynasty, the king of the north would get the upper hand and at that point Daniel says I want you to pay attention to these various Seleucid rulers, the most important of which is Antiochus IV.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit begins to focus in on this man like a laser beam, in verses 21-35.\u00a0 This is not the first time in the Book of Daniel we\u2019ve had prophecies about Antiochus IV; Daniel 8 read that way as well.\u00a0 This just gives us more information.\u00a0 Why is he so important?\u00a0 Because he is a prototype or prefigurement of what is yet to come from our point of view, a coming future antichrist.\n\nSo you can take the prophecies of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, verses 21-35, and divide them up, really into five parts.\u00a0 We saw last time his rise to power as predicted by Daniel. He would rise to power illegitimately, as we saw, Daniel\u00a0 predicted that.\u00a0\u00a0 History, 400 years later validated exactly what Daniel said.\u00a0 He would be very different than Jesus, who came to Israel with all of the right credentials and all of the right genealogy and all of the right pedigree.\u00a0 Not so Antiochus who would come in by stealth, which he did, verse 21.\u00a0 And he would have an initial string of successes. It\u2019s described there in verses 22-24 as sort of an overflowing flood.\u00a0 That would be the initial successes of this man, Antiochus IV of the Seleucid dynasty.\u00a0 [Daniel 11:21, \u201cIn his place a despicable person will arise, on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred, but he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue. [22] The overflowing forces will be flooded away before him and shattered, and also the prince of the covenant. [23] After an alliance is made with him he will practice deception, and he will go up and gain power with a small force of<\/em> people. [24] In a time of tranquility he will enter the richest parts<\/em> of the realm, and he will accomplish what his fathers never did, nor his ancestors; he will distribute plunder, booty and possessions among them, and he will devise his schemes against strongholds, but only<\/em> for a time.\u201d]\n\nAnd what we move into this morning is verses 25-28 where we start to get specific information about his first military activities concerning Egypt, the Ptolemies, and also concerning Israel.\u00a0 And of course this is instructive to us because what he did is what the antichrist yet future will do.\n\nSo what is happening here in verses 25-28, really 25-30 is we have the military activities of Antiochus IV, towards, number 1, Egypt or the Ptolemies in the south, and then also Israel.\u00a0 And what you start to see here is the fading, in Daniel\u2019s prophecies, of empire number 3.\u00a0 Remember that Daniel saw four empires that would trample down Israel during the times of the Gentiles: Babylon would be replaced by Persia, the head of gold in other words Daniel 2 would be replaced by the chest and arms of silver, and Persia would be replaced by Greece; the belly and thighs of bronze, what we\u2019re studying here with Antiochus IV is largely taking place in the Grecian Empire.\n\nBut Daniel also saw the two iron legs as we have documented representing Rome.\u00a0 Rome starts to emerge on the horizon and starts to act as sort of a buffer, if you will, to Antiochus IV.\u00a0 Of course, the content of Daniel 2 was narrated to us in Daniel 7 as four beasts: Babylon being the lion, Persia being the bear, Greece being the leopard, but then would come a terrifying beast named Rome, the very beast that would execute our Lord Jesus Christ as Alex Garcia described earlier today at the communion table.\n\nSo notice, if you will, verses 25-26 as we start to get information.\u00a0 Daniel starts to get information about the military activities of Antiochus IV towards Egypt and ultimately Israel. Notice Daniel 11:25-26, \u201cHe will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the South with a large army; so the king of the South will mobilize an extremely large and mighty army for war; but he will not stand, for schemes will be devised against him. [26] Those who eat his choice food will destroy him, and his army will overflow, but many will fall down slain.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting what happened here as Daniel begins to see these prophecies unfold.\u00a0 It\u2019s describing here how Ptolemy VI, the son of Cleopatra of Egypt, would actually, as history tells us, would ready himself for an attack against the north.\u00a0 This gave Antiochus IV an opportunity to engage in a preemptive attack against Egypt in the south.\u00a0 And what starts to be unfolded here is the victory, the sudden victory that Antiochus IV would achieve.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 It\u2019s a very simple reason\u2014there was disunity in Egypt.\u00a0 There was confusion, and disunity at the highest levels, and in fact what happened is Egypt, history tells us, developed two thrones and not one.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve got two leaders of an organization or two heads that makes that organization a monster.\u00a0 Two heads, two leaders, two rivals\u2026 who were the rivals?\u00a0 It was the rival throne in Egypt between Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy\u2019s younger brother, Ptolemy VII and the way it worked out is Antiochus IV achieved a great victory and he basically left Egypt thinking that the Egyptians would destroy themselves because of disunity.\n\nDaniel, roughly four hundred years in advance is seeing this very thing unfold and that\u2019s exactly how history describes Daniel\u2019s prophecies being fulfilled.\u00a0 It is interesting to me how much disunity is a prerequisite, if you will, for defeat.\u00a0 Show me disunity in a church and I\u2019ll show you a church that\u2019s headed for a defeat.\u00a0 Show me disunity in a marriage and I\u2019ll show you a marriage that\u2019s headed for defeat.\u00a0 Show me disunity in an organization, factions vying for power, and I\u2019ll show you a business that is probably about to go under.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that so many enterprises fail, not because of a bad product or service that they are selling, not because of bad advertising, but simply because the people in that organization cannot get along with each other.\u00a0 That\u2019s what made Egypt vulnerable.\n\nAnd our Lord Jesus Christ spoke of this, didn\u2019t He?\u00a0 In Matthew 12:25 He said, \u201c\u2026 Jesus said to them, \u2018Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 This, of course, is the problem with the Corinthian church; they were actually at such war with each other, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, that they were taking their disputes to pagan judges, having pagan judges resolve their problems for them, discrediting the gospel in the process.\n\nPaul, the apostle, says in 1 Corinthians 6:7, \u201cActually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another.\u00a0 Why not rather be wronged?\u00a0 Why not rather be defrauded?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Paul says you in Corinth, and believe me in Corinth there were very gifted people, there was no spiritual gift that was lacking in Corinth, we are told in 1 Corinthians 1:7.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 1:7, \u201cso that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d]\n\nAnd yet what was wrong in Corinth was not a lack of talent, not a lack of ability but simply a lack of fruit of the Spirit.\u00a0 Gifts of the Spirit were in high use; fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, was in short supply.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me how good the devil is at getting us to fight amongst ourselves.\u00a0 It is interesting to me how many things can come up in a ministry, how many things can come up in the life of a local church where we automatically, when a misunderstanding happens, we don\u2019t give people the benefit of the doubt.\u00a0 Many times we rush to judgment and assume the worst.\u00a0 And we ought not to be that way because that\u2019s contrary to our position as members of God\u2019s church.\n\nPaul, the apostle, in the Book of Ephesians, chapter 4 and verses 2-4 says, \u201cwith all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, [3] being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.\u201d After all Paul says, Ephesians 4:4, \u201cThere is<\/em> one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;\u201d your position is one and because there is a lack of humility, because there is a lack of gentleness, because there is a lack of patience, because there is a lack of forbearance with each other you are living outside of your identity and consequently, Paul tells the Corinthians, you are already defeated.\u00a0 You may have a great budget, you may have a lot of talent,\u00a0 you may have a lot of gifted people but because acrimony has gotten to such a high level the defeat is already there.\n\nAnd one of the sad things to study in church history is how churches divide.\u00a0 You would think that a church split or a church division of some kind takes place over some great doctrinal issue, someone in authority is denying the virgin birth of Christ\u2026 well, if that\u2019s happening then there should be some division, shouldn\u2019t there.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not really how it works in most churches.\u00a0 It\u2019s people not getting their way over a preference\u2026I prefer things this way.\u00a0 Now the Bible doesn\u2019t say it should be this way or that way concerning a number of issues, does it?\u00a0 Color of carpeting, length of the sermon, amen!\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nI mean, there\u2019s just a lot of things in the Bible that we don\u2019t have specific revelation on, yet people will want to go to war over some minor thing because they\u2019re not getting their way.\u00a0 And that\u2019s just the old sin nature, that\u2019s the flesh working its way into circumstances and that\u2019s what defeats churches, that\u2019s what defeats businesses, that\u2019s what defeats organizations, that\u2019s what defeats nations.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Antiochus IV had such \u201ceasy pickings\u201d if you will, of the Ptolemies in the south.\n\nAs we move from verse 26 down into verse 27 we sort of see the aftermath of this. It says, \u201cAs for both kings, their hearts will be intent<\/em> on evil, and they will speak lies to each other<\/em> at the same table; but it will not succeed, for the end is still to come<\/em> at the appointed time.\u201d\u00a0 What would happen is the aftermath is the warfare really wouldn\u2019t be decisive; the conflict would continue.\u00a0 And so what would have to happen is the two sides, the north and the south, would have to sit down and enter into agreements and treaties with each other.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what started to get put on the table, agreements, peace treaties.\u00a0 In fact, that\u2019s how you entered into treaties in the Ancient Near East, you sat down around the same table and shared a meal together; that\u2019s exactly what Daniel is seeing here in verse 27 when he talks about the two being with \u201ceach other at the same table.\u201d\n\nAnd yet both parties really weren\u2019t interested in peace.\u00a0 What they were interested in is using the negotiating process, the treaty process, as a way of gaining advantage over the other side.\u00a0 They probably seemed very solemn and sincere and ceremonious when they sat down with each other but the reality of the situation is neither side, the north nor the south, was all that interested in it. Daniel sees this when he sees the kings in this treaty situation, verse 27, still intent on evil.\n\nAnd notice this here, \u201cspeaking lies to each other\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 This is why the treaty, the end of verse 27, would not succeed, it would not be effective; the two sides were insincere.\u00a0 And today we see that same sort of thing, don\u2019t we, with the Middle East negotiations.\u00a0 I remember when Yasser Arafat, the head of the PLO, Palestine Liberation Organization, was alive; he would come to the United States of America and he would say we, as the Palestinians, want peace with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And of course the western press would absorb that, would trumpet that, and yet when Yasser Arafat went back to his own land, speaking in Arabic, he said something entirely different and\u00a0 you would not know this unless you picked it up through outside sources.\u00a0 But he would say what I really mean by peace with Israel is the eradication of Israel; once Israel is eradicated there will be no one left to fight with and we will have what?\u00a0 We\u2019ll have peace.\u00a0 Total duplicity!\u00a0 Total insincerity!\n\nAnd this of course, is compounded by the fact that\u00a0 under Islamic theology, Islamic doctrine, there is a principle called Taqiyya<\/em>, which allows you to lie to advance the cause; the cause of what?\u00a0 The cause of Caliphate.\u00a0 What is Caliphate?\u00a0 It is worldwide domination under Sharia law.\u00a0 As long as you are advancing that cause you can lie right through your teeth.\u00a0 And what a disadvantage it is for someone with a western worldview, someone with an art of the deal mindset, someone who doesn\u2019t really understand that the other side is acting out of insincerity, what a disadvantage it is for that person with a western mind to think that they can somehow solve this peace problem.\n\nIt reminds me very much of Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler and the agreement they entered into, and how Neville Chamberlain came back and waved this treaty saying peace in our times.\u00a0 And the ink was hardly dry on the piece of paper before the Furor, Adolf Hitler, violated the treaty and did exactly what he promised he would not do.\u00a0 You see, that is the situation in the Middle East; that is the situation under Islam.\u00a0 That is the situation under Taqiyya<\/em> law, the principle Sharia law.\u00a0 It\u2019s completely different than a business deal, completely different than building a hotel or a tower or whatever it is you\u2019re used to building because you\u2019re used to dealing with people who are operating in good faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how it works in the Middle East.\n\nAnd that\u2019s not how it worked at all in the days of Antiochus IV.\u00a0 That\u2019s why these treaties would never last, because neither side was very sincere in what they promised to do.\u00a0 That is a tremendous description and prefigurement of the coming antichrist as we have studied in Daniel 9:27, who will launch the seven year tribulation period itself by entering into a covenant with the many, Israel, for one week or seven years.\u00a0 That\u2019s what starts the tribulation period itself after the church has been removed from the earth, as we\u2019ve studied.\u00a0 And what does the rest of the prophecy say, \u201cbut in the middle of the week\u201d three and a half years, \u201che\u201d that\u2019s the antichrist, \u201cwill\u00a0 put a stop to sacrifice and offering.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nThis is, in fact, the very thing that God is going to use to awaken the nation of Israel to the fact that your Messiah is not the antichrist you think he is; your Messiah actually came 2,000 years ago and it\u2019s going to take a jolt of this magnitude to awaken Israel out of her slumber and out of her unbelief being betrayed.\u00a0 She will be betrayed three and a half years in. \u00a0Isaiah 28:15, of this treaty with antichrist, between antichrist and Israel, God says this the moment Israel enters it: \u201cBecause you have said, \u2018We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 You think you\u2019re getting a good deal here;\u00a0 you\u2019re thinking your problems are solved.\u00a0 And in fact, you\u2019ve just entered into a treaty, as Neville Chamberlain did in the past, with hell itself.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting how God has to put us through things like this to get us to wake up.\u00a0 We have such a tendency as fallen human beings to put our trust and our faith in virtually anything but God.\u00a0 I\u2019ll trust in my talents, I\u2019ll trust in my bank account, I\u2019ll trust in my community standing, I\u2019ll trust in whatever I have to trust in and what does God start to do?\u00a0 He starts to remove those things, doesn\u2019t He.\u00a0 Have you noticed that God is really good at removing the things we trust in other than Him?\u00a0 Have you noticed that in your life?\u00a0 He just starts to kick things away.\u00a0 He lets us, in a certain sense, bottom out.\u00a0 And we get to a point in desperation where we say I don\u2019t have anybody to trust in or anything to trust in any more other than God.\u00a0 And the moment God hears that He\u2019s smiling from ear to ear because that\u2019s what He was after the whole time.\u00a0 He realized it; we didn\u2019t realize it so He\u2019s got to take us through a season of chastening to get us to come to our senses.\u00a0 That basically is what is going to have to happen to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 This is what is prefigured in verse 27 concerning the insincerity of both sides.\n\nWe move into verse 28 and we get more information about this.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen he,\u201d that\u2019s Antiochus IV, \u201cwill return to his land with much plunder; but his heart will be set against the holy covenant, and he will take action and then return to his own land.\u201d\u00a0 Antiochus IV got what he was looking for in this initial battle and he left with many spoils of war, went from the south back to the north with many spoils of war.\u00a0 Daniel saw this very thing happening, that\u2019s at the beginning of verse 28.\u00a0 And yet as he made his way back from the north, back to the south, he revealed his true motives towards the Jewish people, the Hebrews.\u00a0 He revealed what was really in his heart towards, as the text says, the people of the covenant because remember the people of the covenant were living for this time period in between those two armies.\u00a0 The king of the north had a slightly upper hand and so he came back from Egypt and the south and made his way back into Syria, which was under his control, and Daniel sees him at this time revealing what he really thinks about the nation of Israel, the people of the covenant.\n\nVerse 28 says he paused in his return long enough to plunder the temple and to kill many Jewish people.\u00a0 That plundering and killing of many Jewish people is recorded for us in a historical source called 1 Maccabees which we, as Protestants do not accept as inspired; we do not accept it as canonical but it contains a lot of information in it related to how Daniel\u2019s prophecies were fulfilled 400 years later, after Daniel had them.\n\nMaccabees, chapter 1, verses 20-25 says this: \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>And Antiochus, after he had smitten Egypt, returned in the one hundred and fifty-third year, and went up against Israel and Jerusalem with a great army. [21]\u00a0<\/sup>And in (his) arrogance he entered into the sanctuary, and took the golden altar, and the candlestick for the light, and all its accessories, [22]\u00a0<\/sup>and the table of the shewbread, and the cups, and the bowls, and the golden censers, and the veil, and the crowns, and the golden adornment on the fa\u00e7ade of the Temple, and he scaled it all off. [23]\u00a0<\/sup>Moreover, he took the silver, and the gold, and the choice vessels; he also took the hidden treasures which he found. [24]\u00a0<\/sup>And having taken everything, he returned to his own land.[25]\u00a0<\/sup>\u2018And there was great mourning in Israel in every place.\u201d\u2019\n\nHe went in and he committed sacrilege in the sense that he took the things that God said were holy and he showed no respect for those things.\u00a0 Immediately our minds should go back to what Nebuchadnezzar did; he did the same thing did he not?\u00a0 Daniel 1, he took the choicest vessels right out of the temple as the Jews were taken into captivity in the days of Daniel, and how did that end up?\u00a0 God had to deal with Nebuchadnezzar in a very aggressive way, didn\u2019t He, to bring him to his senses, Daniel 4.\u00a0 And his son, Belshazzar, his heir, his descendant, the last reigning king of Neo-Babylonia, took those vessels and used them in an alcohol related party, if you will.\u00a0 He took what was holy to God and used them as instruments of alcohol at a pagan party and Daniel, the aged prophet at that point is summoned to read the handwriting on the wall and the message that appeared that very night is this night your kingdom will be divided and you will be killed.\n\nIt is a dangerous thing to treat as common what God says is holy. Now we just got finished with the communion table, did we not; study 1 Corinthians 11 sometime, study the discipline that God brought into that flock.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor this reason\u201d some of you are sick and some of you have fallen asleep, which is a euphemism for death.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 11:30, \u201cFor this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.\u201d]\u00a0 And what were they doing?\u00a0 They were basically taking the communion table, something that\u2019s sacred and holy with its elements and they were turning it into just a common meal.\u00a0 In fact, some were even showing up, if you can imagine this, in a state of inebriation they had such little concern for the holy things of God.\u00a0 And they developed what I would call a \u201cpay for play\u201d operation where if you\u2019re rich you get to participate, if you don\u2019t have enough money, you don\u2019t have resources, you don\u2019t get to participate and so they were creating at division in the church, that God never created, between the rich and the poor.\u00a0 And Paul makes this statement, \u201cFor this reason\u201d some of you are sick and some of you have fallen asleep.\n\nWhat do we learn from the Bible?\u00a0 Taking something that is holy and treating it as profane puts you (with God) on thin ice.\u00a0 It\u2019s a precarious thing.\u00a0 And for Antiochus the bottom hadn\u2019t fallen out yet on his life.\u00a0 He was doing just fine as far as man\u2019s opinion of success and prosperity is concerned and yet, as we\u2019re going to study beginning in verse 29, the ice was already melting beneath his feet because of his attitude towards the holy things of God.\n\nThere\u2019s a lot of people that are so cavalier about God, cavalier about the Bible, I can take it or leave it; cavalier about church.\u00a0 You know, a lot of people wouldn\u2019t even treat their worst enemies the way they treat people in God\u2019s church, and treat the things of God.\u00a0 And I think at some point we hear so many messages on the grace of God that we need to, at a certain point, think about the holiness of God and how the tabernacle had to be put together exactly like God said in the Book of Exodus. \u00a0And you get into the Samuel books and one of those tabernacle workers simply touched it wrong and he was killed just like that.\u00a0 I mean, we don\u2019t hear messages like this in church anymore; we hear about the love of God and there\u2019s plenty to say about that, and I praise God for His love and His grace, I\u2019m glad I\u2019m in it.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a reason I need the grace of God because of the holiness of God and the basic disrespect that men have for the things of God.\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting that the bottom didn\u2019t drop out immediately on Antiochus IV.\u00a0 In fact, after he took action he returned to his own land, probably thought nothing of it.\u00a0 And yet isn\u2019t it interesting how God kept a record?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting how long God\u2019s memory is?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting how people that push the envelope with God, who have long forgotten about God, God remembers.\u00a0 And what began to materialize, verses 29-31 is really the direction that the whole chapter has been pushing us towards this point in time.\u00a0 Antiochus IV got the bighead.\u00a0 He won round one so why not just win round two; let\u2019s go for the whole jugular and let\u2019s desecrate the temple itself.\u00a0 And that becomes the subject of Daniel\u2019s prophecies in verses 29-31.\n\nNotice what verse 29 says.\u00a0 \u201cAt the appointed time\u201d so several years have passed, Antiochus may have even forgotten about a lot of the things that he did recorded in 1 Maccabees and yet God never forgot.\u00a0 \u201cAt the appointed time he will return\u201d see that, \u201cand come into the South,\u201d Antiochus IV launched another attack against the Ptolemies of Egypt in the south and I want you to notice very carefully what verse 29 says, it says, \u201cbut this last time it will not turn out the way it did before.\u201d\u00a0 See, the second round, the Ptolemy brothers, the rival dynasty, they had patched up their differences and now they\u2019ve put on a united front.\u00a0 And there was something else bubbling to the surface that you discover in Daniel\u2019s prophecies that Antiochus IV probably didn\u2019t think about and that\u2019s the rise of Rome.\u00a0 Rome now, in Daniel\u2019s prophecies, that fourth empire is now rising and is going to act as sort of a buffer, if you will, on Antiochus IV.\u00a0 The rivalry in the south is gone and Rome is rearing itself on the horizon and consequently Daniel sees the tide turning and he specifically says that this last time it will not turn out the way it turned out before.\n\nNotice how precise these prophecies are.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message The Precision of Prophecy<\/em>.\u00a0 Daniel predicts, under the Holy Spirit, a victory for Antiochus IV, verses 25-28, then he predicts a defeat beginning in verse 29.\u00a0 Daniel doesn\u2019t say, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there\u2019s going to be two defeats, two victories; he doesn\u2019t even say first there\u2019s going to be a defeat, then a victory.\u00a0 The order is very clear, there\u2019s going to be a victory and then a defeat.\u00a0 Think mathematically the odds of getting that right.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a defeat then a victory; it\u2019s not two defeats, not two victories, but you\u2019re going to have a victory and then a defeat.\n\nIt reminds me very much of what Jesus said in Matthew 26:34 concerning Peter.\u00a0 \u201cJesus said to him, \u2018Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 Not once, not twice, not four times, not five times, not ten times, not even seven times, I thought seven was the biblical number, but three times.\u00a0 And how that prophecy, that very night was accomplished just like God said.\n\nThis is one of the great things that I so appreciate about the subject of Bible prophecy is its precision, its exactness.\u00a0 You think of Micah 5:2, written 700 years in advance, we just emerged from the Christmas season, we thought about Micah 5:2, how Micah predicted the birthplace of Jesus, Bethlehem.\u00a0 [Micah 5:2, \u201c\u2018But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 You would think it would be Jerusalem, wouldn\u2019t you.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not going to be Jerusalem, it\u2019s going to be a little city two miles to the south of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Micah says it\u2019s going to be Bethlehem Ephrathah, to distinguish that Bethlehem from a totally different Bethlehem in Galilee.\u00a0 You mean the nation of Israel had two cities of Bethlehem?\u00a0 At least two!\u00a0 You can go across\u00a0 America today, don\u2019t\u00a0 we see that, many cities have the same name, I can think of several.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s happening in tiny Israel.\u00a0 God said it\u2019s not going to be in Galilee, it\u2019s going to be down here near Jerusalem and it\u2019s not even going to be in Jerusalem despite the prominence of Jerusalem in Old Testament times; it\u2019s going to be Bethlehem Ephrathah.\n\nThink of getting that right 700 years in advance.\u00a0 And people today are so impressed with Jeanne Dixon, Nostradamus; in fact, the things that they say are so generic and vague when you look at their writings that virtually anything could qualify as a fulfillment.\u00a0 Do you realize that there were 109 prophecies about Jesus Christ given hundreds and thousands of years in advance?\u00a0 And all 109 were fulfilled with precision.. exact!\u00a0 What are the odds of that?\u00a0 I don\u2019 t know.\u00a0 Eventually you have so many zeroes in your equation the satiations call it specifically not improbable, impossible.\n\nI\u2019m reminded of the work of Peter Stoner, the statistician, an evangelical Christian to my under\u00adstanding, he was trying to figure out what would the chances be of not 109 but just 8 prophecies, just 8, let\u2019s narrow it down a bit, what are the odds of the 8 prophecies about Jesus coming to pass in His first coming.\u00a0 What are the odds of that.\u00a0 He says well here\u2019s what you can analogize it to; you can cover the great state of Texas, which we\u2019re all in, several feet deep with silver dollars and you can take one silver dollar and mark it with a red X and deposit it anywhere\u00a0 you want in the state of Texas, filled several feet deep with silver dollars, and then blindfold a man and send him out and let him rummage through the coins over the whole state and let him just randomly put his hand down and pull up the coin with the red X on it.\u00a0 That is the impossibility, if I can use that expression, of 8 prophecies, not even to mention 109, 8 prophecies coming to pass accidentally, coincidentally or randomly.\n\nAnd man, in his arrogance looks at God and says God, you just haven\u2019t given me enough proof of this whole Christianity thing.\u00a0 I mean, how much do you need?\u00a0 If you\u2019re not going to be convinced with that I would say this: nothing will convince you.\u00a0 But God needs to do this\u2026 I had a guy in law school, I was trying to share the faith with him, why doesn\u2019t God just write in the sky, I\u2019m God, I\u2019m up here?\u00a0 And my answer to that was He already has written in the sky, called natural revelation.\u00a0 The fact that you exist, the fact that there are no two snowflakes the same, the fact that no two fingerprints are the same, in a world of six to seven billion people no two people are the same, everybody\u2019s personality is different, the fact that your heart is beating and your lungs are working and\u00a0 you look at, as David said, \u201cI am fearfully and wonderfully made,\u201d [Psalm 139:14, \u201cI will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.\u201d]\n\nYou look at the majesty of the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the cardio vascular system, and you look at how this world orbits around the sun at just the right length, I mean, think if were just a few degrees off here, we burn to death or we freeze to death.\u00a0 Now we may feel like we\u2019re freezing to death lately but the weather will be better tomorrow and if not tomorrow the next day.\u00a0 Just give it enough time.\n\nWhy is it that we\u2019re orbiting around the sun at exactly the right distance to sustain life.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 And this guy is telling me why doesn\u2019t God just write in the sky?\u00a0 What else do you want God to do?\u00a0 I\u2019m just giving a few proofs for the truth that God exists and that He has spoken to man, prophecy being one of those many, many proofs.\n\nBut things are going to be different this time.\u00a0 Look at verse 30, \u201cFor ships of Kittim\u201d now the \u201cim\u201d ending in Hebrew indicates plurality, it\u2019s like our letter \u201cs.\u201d\u00a0 For ships of Kittim will come against him;\u201d most people understand the \u201cships of Kittim\u201d as Rome.\u00a0 In fact, the LXX, the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament created a couple hundred years before Christ, in many of its versions translated in Daniel just puts the word Rome right in there.\u00a0 Who were Kittim?\u00a0 You\u2019ll find a reference to them in Genesis 10:4, they were the sons of Jephthah, (I think better pronounced Jap-eth, there\u2019s another guy named Jephthah, I don\u2019t want to confuse those two.)\u00a0 [Genesis 10:4, \u201cThe sons of Javan were Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim.\u201d]\u00a0 Descendants of Japheth, Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, who would end up living in the islands of the Mediterranean.\u00a0 Most people understand that as an early manifestation of the power of Rome.\n\nAnd this is what Antiochus didn\u2019t count on.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t count on Rome; he also didn\u2019t count on a unified Egypt.\u00a0 It says, verse 30, \u201c\u2026therefore he will be disheartened and will return\u2026.\u201d Rome, in essence, stops Antiochus IV from conquering Egypt.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Rome was smart, they didn\u2019t want a unified empire in the Middle East.\u00a0 It was much better for them if there was two factions.\u00a0 As long as they\u2019re fighting each other they\u2019re not fighting us. Sadly that\u2019s how foreign policy works many times.\u00a0 It\u2019s in the best interest of nations to keep them at war with each other. After all, Jesus Himself, did He not, say \u201ca house divided against itself can\u2019t\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201ccan\u2019t stand.\u201d\u00a0 [Mark 3:25, \u201cIf a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.\u201d\n\nAnd so Rome intervened; Rome actually sent a representative named Caius Popilius Lenas to Egypt with soldiers.\u00a0 Now Antiochus IV, what we know about him, as a\u00a0 younger man had actually spent time in Rome.\u00a0 So he had, what I would say, a healthy respect, a healthy appreciation for the Roman Empire and he understood that Rome was really not somebody or an entity that he wanted to tangle with.\u00a0 And in fact, there was a very famous historical scene that took place between Rome and Antiochus IV.\u00a0 Charles Pfeiffer<\/em>, in his book Between the Testaments<\/em>, records it as follows: \u201cIn a famous scene outside of Alexandria the Roman envoy demanded that Antiochus, before he stirred from a circle drawn around him in the ground, promised to evacuate Egypt, with dreams of grandeur suddenly dissipated Antiochus IV turned back in bitterness.\u201d\n\nWhat did Rome do?\u00a0 They said let\u2019s have a little conversation, shall we?\u00a0 Let\u2019s have a little fellowship time; what we\u2019re going to do is we\u2019re going to draw a circle around you in the dirt and you\u2019re not going to leave that circle until you make us a promise. And we\u2019re bigger than you and we can make you do these things; you\u2019re going to evacuate,\u00a0 you\u2019re going to send everybody back home.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Antiochus IV was coerced to do.\u00a0 This is what Daniel is seeing 400 years in advance when it says, \u201ctherefore he\u201d that\u2019s Antiochus IV \u201cwill return,\u201d return where? \u00a0Return back to Syria where he came from, \u201cyet\u201d the verse goes on, verse 30, \u201cand become enraged at the holy covenant and take action.\u201d What did this do?\u00a0 The only thing it did with Antiochus IV is it made him angry.\u00a0 It made him mad, it embittered him further and he never gave up his plan, he never gave up his agenda, or his dreams, if you will, for military conquest.\u00a0 So he has to take his anger out on somebody, doesn\u2019t he?\n\nSee, this is the problem with angry people.\u00a0 If you\u2019re angry over something that happened 20, 30, 40 years ago\u2026 you know, people come in for counseling and they say I\u2019m bitter about something and you think it\u2019s something that happened last week the way they talk.\u00a0 And you start to probe a little bit they\u2019re mad about something that happened thirty, forty years ago; they\u2019ve got an angry spirit.\u00a0 They\u2019ve disobeyed the Bible.\u00a0 What does the Bible say?\u00a0 \u201cDo not let the sun go down on your\u201d what? \u201canger.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve always wanted to move to Alaska.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nBut we are not to be people of bitterness because if you\u2019re a bitter person, let me tell you something about anger, it is going to vomit and upchuck on somebody.\u00a0 The human mind, the human psyche is\u2026 we are not designed by God to hold onto anger so it will come out.\u00a0 And sadly what happens is it comes out on an innocent party, it comes out on your spouse, it comes out on\u00a0 your kids, and this is why the Bible says if you let the sun, Ephesians 4, go down on your anger you give the devil a \u00a0what? \u00a0\u00a0A foothold.\n\nRight now, as I speak, Satan is using all kinds of Christians to create all kinds of havoc.\u00a0 Do you know why?\u00a0 Because they\u2019re just angry and they\u2019re taking that anger out on an innocent party and Satan is having a field day.\n\nYou say well, pastor, what\u2019s the answer.\u00a0 Is it 10,000 hours of therapy sessions?\u00a0 It\u2019s a very simple answer to this; it\u2019s in Ephesians 4, you forgive as you have been what? \u00a0Forgiven.\u00a0 [Ephesians 4:32, \u201cBe kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.\u201d]\u00a0 But you don\u2019t know what they did to me?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what they did to you but I know what \u201cHE\u201d did for you and I know this much, HE has made a decision not to treat you with justice.\u00a0 He has decided to treat you with grace.\u00a0 So we turn around and we want to treat everybody with justice.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we\u2019re angry all the time, because we don\u2019t understand grace.\u00a0 We may understand it intellectually but we don\u2019t walk it out.\n\nNow didn\u2019t Jesus talk about this in a parable?\u00a0 Matthew 18?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t He talk about a guy that owed somebody\u2026 I don\u2019t know, a trillion dollars and the debt is forgiven?\u00a0 [Matthew 18:23, \u201cFor this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. [24] When he had begun to settle them,<\/em> one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.\u00a0 [25] But since he did not have the means<\/em> to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. [26] So the slave fell to the ground<\/em> and prostrated himself before him, saying, \u2018Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.\u2019 [27] And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.]\n\nThen he found a fellow, the guy that had everything forgiven found a guy that owed him, like ten bucks, and he had him thrown in debtors prison.\u00a0 That\u2019s intellectually, philosophically, spiritually what we are like when we are harboring anger towards another person.\u00a0 Do you understand this?\u00a0 Do we understand it?\u00a0 We have no right to do that in God because we have been treated with grace.\u00a0 And if you start this year, 2018, treating people with grace\u2026 you say well, they don\u2019t deserve it, neither do you!\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s called what?\u00a0 GRACE!\u00a0 Unmerited favor!\n\nWatch this very carefully, you start to treat people in 2018\u2026 I\u2019m not even talking about actions, I\u2019m talking about attitudes.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says you can commit murder without physically doing anything; in your mental habits the people that injured you, and I have no doubt that\u2019s happened, that\u2019s part of living in a fallen world, in your mental habits you start to think of them in gracious terms and your actions will quickly follow and this longstanding anger that\u2019s been simmering inside of you, do you know what\u2019s going to start to happen? It\u2019s going to start to dissipate, you\u2019re going to get to the end of 2018 disciplining your mind this way and you\u2019re just going to say to yourself, what did they do to me again, I don\u2019t remember.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember what the big deal was, because you\u2019re operating on the basis of grace.\n\nWe are very scary people when we\u2019re angry.\u00a0 I remember my father\u00a0 used to tell me that, he would call it a temporary form of insanity.\u00a0 Insanity overtakes the best of people simply because of anger.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what you have here with Antiochus IV, he was angry.\u00a0 He won round 1, he wanted to win round 2 and the road blocks came up.\u00a0 So he\u2019s got to vent on somebody.\u00a0 The problem is he vented on the wrong people.\u00a0 It says, he will \u201cbecome enraged at the holy covenant and take action,\u201d Daniel 11:30, \u201cso he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant.\u201d\n\nHe went back into Israel with a violent rage.\u00a0 In fact, at this time there was a rumor circulating that Antiochus had died and there was sort of a political upheaval because of it, because Syria was ruling over Israel at this time; there was what we would call a minor rebellion and he did not like that minor rebellion.\u00a0 He did not like the fact that he had been pushed back because of the power of Rome.\u00a0 He did not like the fact that he had been pushed back because of the united forces of Egypt and he went into Israel trying to get re-control of his empire, trying to get the upper hand on the colonies and he killed tens of thousands of Jewish people in the process.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Daniel is seeing and yet some of those who had no loyalty to God in the land of Israel cited with Antiochus IV.\u00a0 The end of verse 30 says, \u201cso he will come back and show regard for those who forsake the holy covenant.\u201d\n\nAnd you see, this is what happens to people when they\u2019re aligned with something outside of a relationship with God.\u00a0 They\u2019re aligned with a cause.\u00a0 They\u2019re aligned with a party.\u00a0 They\u2019re aligned with an ideology.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not going to have a relationship with God you\u2019ve got to fill that gap with something and what will happen is you will betray that cause very rapidly to the highest bidder.\u00a0 You have a lot of unregenerate people in the land of Israel, Jewish by rote, Jewish by ritualism, Jewish by tradition, no relationship with God at all.\u00a0 And many of these folks simply jumped ship and aligned them with Antiochus IV.\n\nVerse 31, I\u2019m not going to get there but he\u2019s going to do something unspeakable.\u00a0 I mean, you thought what he did in verse 28 was bad, wait till you see verse 31.\u00a0 And the moment that happened God said that\u2019s it!\u00a0 You know, God is so gracious with rebels but\u00a0 you reach a point of your rebellion where you even exhaust the patience of God Himself.\n\nGenesis 6:3, God says, \u201cMy Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is mortal, nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s got a hundred and twenty years and that\u2019s it!\u00a0 The flood is coming.\u00a0 And I\u2019m just wondering how many people here, how many people listening have just been pushing the grace of God, postponing what God says to do in terms of salvation.\u00a0 Oh, I\u2019ll do it next year, or the year after that.\u00a0 Well, if I\u2019m reading my Bible correctly the Bible says today \u201cis the day of salvation.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 6:2, \u201cfor He says, \"AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.\" Behold, now is \"THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,\" behold, now is \"THE DAY OF SALVATION \"]\n\nWhy would you gamble like that?\u00a0 Why would you gamble with a Holy God?\u00a0 Why would you gamble with eternity?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit has come into the world to convict us of our need to trust Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He does, and if the Spirit of God is placing anybody under conviction within the sound of my voice, the strongest, the wisest exhortation we could possibly give is to respond, by way of faith, to that voice of the Spirit by trusting in Christ as Messiah.\u00a0 Trust Jesus for what He did in your place through His death, burial and resurrection.\u00a0 Receive what He has done as a free gift.\u00a0 And you can enter 2018 with the freshest start a human being could have, a newfound relationship with God.\u00a0 It\u2019s something you can do even as I\u2019m talking; it\u2019s not something you must raise a hand to do, join a church to do, walk an aisle to do.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord when you trust in Him and Him alone for salvation.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more information on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we are grateful for these ancient prophecies and how they speak to our own time and day; they give us reality and speak of things yet to come.\u00a0 Make us good stewards of these things as we walk with You this week.\u00a0 We\u2019ll 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