{"id":18424,"date":"2018-01-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-14T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-049-one-plus-god-is-a-majority\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:17:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:17:02","slug":"daniel-049-one-plus-god-is-a-majority","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-049-one-plus-god-is-a-majority\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 049 – One Plus God is a Majority"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18424","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 049 - One Plus God is a Majority","sermon_date":"20180114","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":20033,"sermon_slides":20034,"sermon_mp3":20035,"sermon_id":"1141812422610","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"11:31-32","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nOne Plus God is a Majority\n\n1-14-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 11:31-32\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 49\n\nAs we open our Bibles this morning to the Book of Daniel, chapter 11 and verse 31, taking a look this morning, as time permits, verse 31-35 of Daniel 11.\u00a0 You might, in your ministry, in your vocation, where God has you, you might feel outnumbered.\u00a0 You might be working in an office, you might be saying to yourself I\u2019m the only one in the whole office that believes the way I do about God\u2019s Word. So I hope this morning\u2019s message ministers to you because the title of it is One Plus God is a Majority.\u00a0 I had a youth pastor years ago that said that.\u00a0 So we find ourselves talking about that today because the\u00a0 nation of Israel, according to Daniel\u2019s prophecies in is one of its greatest struggles.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be studying that struggle today and studying how Daniel saw this struggle 400 years in advance and how God, to help Israel in her darkest time did not work through a majority of the population; rather He worked through a faithful remnant.\n\nGod is not so much concerned about our ability as He\u2019s concerned about our availability.\u00a0 A lot of people view themselves as being unqualified to be used by God but the reality of the situation is God does not call the qualified, rather He qualifies the called.\u00a0\u00a0 And all you need is a relationship with God and it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s against you and who\u2019s on your side you\u2019re automatically on the winning team.\n\nThis issue that we\u2019re looking at here in prophecy comes up in Daniel\u2019s final vision.\u00a0 You say well this final vision has been going on for a while and by \u201cfinal vision\u201d I mean chapters 10-12 and we will finish the Book of Daniel at some point, hopefully before the rapture itself happens.\u00a0 But of course, as you know, the setting of this book is 536 B.C. not the setting of the book, the setting of this vision.\u00a0 And that\u2019s an important date just to memorize because the things that Daniel sees in this chapter happened 400 years after he died.\u00a0 A messenger arrives from heaven to give Daniel the insight he had been looking for in terms of a vision; the messenger does some explaining what the vision is about, why it took the messenger so long to get to Daniel.\u00a0\u00a0 And it\u2019s not until you get to Daniel 11:2 through the end of chapter 12 that you actually get the content of the vision.\n\nDaniel, as\u00a0 you remember, had some prophecies early on in the vision about Persia, we studied those.\u00a0 And then prophecies related to Greece, we studied those, how there would arise a man that would come to power after Daniel left the scene, named Alexander the Great, who would die at an early age and his empire would be parceled out amongst his four generals.\u00a0 Those four generals at that point then start dynasties and the two most important dynasties would be the Ptolemy\u2019s in the south, or Egypt, and the Seleucids of Syria in the north.\n\nAnd Daniel basically traces, as you move down to verses 5-20, warfare between those two dynasties in great detail.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a war that goes on about 150 years, and in that warfare the Seleucids of Syria get the upper hand.\u00a0 And we have worked our way through all of these different players in this warfare; it\u2019s a fascinating study.\u00a0 It\u2019s no history lesson, it\u2019s history before it happened.\u00a0 But the Holy Spirit wants us to focus on Syria, the Seleucid dynasty.\u00a0 And the Holy Spirit wants us to ultimately focus on not just the Seleucid dynasty in general but a<\/u> Seleucid, a member of that dynasty, a man named Antiochus IV.\u00a0 His prophecies, or the prophecies about him, as we have studied, become a big deal because they prefigure the prophecies that will begin in verse 36 about the coming anti\u00adchrist.\u00a0 You see, the antichrist, according to Daniel\u2019s prophecies, has already been here in miniature form.\n\nThe antichrist has already done his thing in the form of a dress rehearsal that happened a couple of hundred years, a century and a half roughly or so before the time of Christ.\u00a0 And God was faithful to His people in the midst of that crisis. What does that mean?\u00a0 It means that God will be faithful to His people in the midst of the future crisis, because God\u2019s character never changes.\u00a0 You say well what does that mean to us today?\u00a0 God is going to be faithful to you in the midst of your crisis because that\u2019s God\u2019s nature.\u00a0 We sang about it, did we not, this morning, Great Is Thy Faithfulness<\/em>. If it wasn\u2019t for the faithfulness of God, believe me, we\u2019d all be in a lot of trouble.\u00a0 God is faithful from beginning to end.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great study in the character of God.\n\nAnd as we moved into the prophecies related to Antiochus IV, verses 21-35, we saw his: Number 1, illegitimate rise to power.\u00a0 Number 2, his initial success militarily, verses 22-24.\u00a0 This guy came on the scene, he seemed to have all the answers; he seemed to be able to fix all of the problems.\u00a0 And then the prophecies got more specific, we studied those last time, verses 25-28, his military activities concerning who? \u00a0The ancient enemies in the south, the Ptolemy\u2019s of Egypt and sadly the land of Israel.\u00a0 Antiochus IV vented his rage, as we saw last week, on the wrong people, and God kept a record of it; of course, the \u201cwrong people\u201d I\u2019m speaking of here is the nation of Israel, God\u2019s covenant nation.\n\nYou do not mess with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I cannot think of a single empire in world history where things have gone well for that empire the moment they turned against the nation of Israel because Israel, Zechariah 2:8, is the pupil or the apple of God\u2019s eye.\u00a0 [Zechariah 2:8, \u201cFor thus says the LORD of hosts, \"After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.\u201d]\n\nThe moment you come against Israel in an unjustified way, it\u2019s almost like taking your finger and sticking it right into God\u2019s eyeball.\u00a0 And that, in essence, is what Antiochus of the past did and it\u2019s what antichrist of the future will do.\u00a0\u00a0 You see, because this man, Antiochus, when he could not get his second victory against the Ptolemies in the south he vented his rage against the Jewish nation.\u00a0 He committed, as we studied last time, all sorts of horrific acts against them.\u00a0 And the verse that the entire chapter has been pushing us toward is really right there in verse 31, which is where we pick it up today.\n\nNotice, if you will, verse 31, describing Antiochus IV.\u00a0 It says, \u201cForces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation.\u201d\u00a0 What did this man, Antiochus, do when he became frustrated over his lack of military success against Egypt?\u00a0 He took it out on somebody; he took it out on the Jewish people.\u00a0 He is pursuing, as did the originator of the Grecian Empire, Alexander the Great, he is pursuing a policy of Hellenism.\u00a0 He wants to create a monolithic culture; he wants everybody to think the same way, worship the same deities, speak the same language.\n\nAnd today, as I speak, that is the name of the game.\u00a0 The whole point of the coming world government, world religion of the future is everybody has to be tolerant of everybody else.\u00a0 You can believe whatever you want in the tapestry of one-world religion, but here\u2019s something you cannot say\u2014you cannot say your way is the only way.\u00a0 And here is the nation of Israel in the midst of this new world order experiment by Antiochus IV holding to monotheism, their own God, holding to the revelation of God, the Hebrews Scriptures, holding to their own language, holding to their own culture, and the nation of Israel was right in the way of Hellenization.\n\nAnd so what Antiochus did, verse 31, is he essentially outlawed Judaism; this time period really beginning around 171 B.C.\u00a0 Remember when Daniel had these prophecies?\u00a0 536 B.C. a good roughly 400 years in advance; 400 years is a long time, the United States of America has only been here a little over 200 years.\u00a0 Think of the United States of America times two and that\u2019s how far in advance Daniel saw these things happening.\u00a0 Antiochus IV outlawed Judaism; this represents some of the darkest days in the history of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 How was it fulfilled?\u00a0 You can read all about it in not the canonical book but the historical book of 1 Maccabees, chapter 1, verses 37-64.\u00a0 That\u2019s a big chunk, isn\u2019t it, and it\u2019s not even in our Bible.\n\nSo I\u2019m going to just rely on somebody to kind of summarize what happened.\u00a0 These are the words of Charles Pfeiffer in his very famous book, Between The Testaments<\/em>, recording what happened in this warfare.\u00a0 He writes this:\u00a0 \u201cA systematic attempt was made to Hellenize the country by force.\u00a0 An edict demanded diffusion of all nationalities of the Seleucid Empire into one people.\u00a0 Greek deities were to be worshipped by all.\u00a0 An elderly Athenian philosopher was sent to Jerusalem to supervise the enforcement of the order.\u00a0 He identified the God of Israel with the god of Jupiter and ordered a bearded image of the pagan deity, perhaps in the likeness of Antiochus, to be set up in the Jewish temple and altar.\u00a0 Greek soldiers and their paramours performed licentious heathen rites in the very temple courts.\u00a0 Swine were sacrificed on the altar; the drunken ogre associated with the worship of Bacchus was made compulsory.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, this sounds like the public schools in a way today, doesn\u2019t it?\n\n\u201cConversely the Jews were forbidden under the penalty of death to practice circumcision; sabbath observances, or the observances of the feasts of the Jewish year.\u00a0 Copies of the Hebrew Scriptures were ordered destroyed.\u00a0 These laws promulgating Hellenism and prescribing Judaism were enforced with the utmost cruelty.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s how Daniel\u2019s prophecies began to be fulfilled that we\u2019re reading about here in verse 31.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice right there in the midst of verse 31 it says, \u201cdo away with the regular sacrifice.\u201d\u00a0 The nation of Israel had returned from the Babylonian captivity, as you know.\u00a0 They had, as recorded in the book of Ezra, rebuilt their temple, started the animal sacrificial system all over again that existed in the very temple that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.\u00a0 And the animal sacrificial system was alive, it was well, it was functioning, and then came Antiochus IV who sought to illegalize the whole thing and to shut the whole thing down.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that Daniel talks about this prophetically, not just in chapter 11 but also in chapter 8.\u00a0 Daniel 8:9-14, we were in that chapter what, three years ago, something like that, those of you that have good memories might remember that, this whole thing is being rehearsed for us now in greater detail.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like God wants us to\u00a0 understand this.\u00a0 I mean, if God says something once that\u2019s enough!\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 But God, two times in a fairly short book, believe it or not, calls our attention to this two times.\u00a0 And of course this becomes a very big deal because it\u2019s a prefigurement of the future antichrist and what he will do.\u00a0 We have already studied the final seven years of human history, haven\u2019t we, before the return of Messiah.\u00a0 It says, \u201cHe\u201d Daniel 9:27, yet future of the antichrist, \u201che 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;\u201d\n\nThe future antichrist will illegalize, outlaw the animal sacrificial system, just as Antiochus did, which means what?\u00a0 Well it means should prior the rapture of the church we see the temple come back, and they\u2019re already talking about that today in the land of Israel, by the way, and the animal sacrificial system be reinstituted, what does that mean?\u00a0 I would say you\u2019ve got to get your bags packed, we\u2019re going home really fast.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if these things will be fully in operation prior to the rapture of the church; I only know this, from the prophetic Word of God, that they have to be functioning midway through the tribulation period for the antichrist to replicate what Antiochus did.\n\nAnd you see, this is what is the shock to the system that wakes Israel up finally to her need for Jesus.\u00a0 There has to be a replication of what one her ancient villains did.\u00a0 When the nation of Israel sees the antichrist, who they think is their Messiah, replicating what one of the villains of Jewish history already did, that\u2019s the shock to the system that God uses to wake up Israel because God knocks us down so that we look up.\n\nI would say this: in miniature form that\u2019s God\u2019s plan for all of us.\u00a0 We are so inflated with pride and self-sufficiency that we have to literally be brought to the end of ourselves to see our need for God.\u00a0 And yet being brought to the end of yourself oftentimes requires pain and frustration and setbacks and failures, and yet that\u2019s all part of the process that God uses to awaken us to our need to trust Him for salvation.\n\nAnd you say well, pastor, I\u2019ve been a Christian for a long time and I\u2019m still running into failures and frustrations and difficulties.\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 That\u2019s part of the plan too because now God has to teach us that we\u2019re not only saved by grace but we what? Live by grace.\u00a0 I go into my Christian life trying to do great things for God through human power and God says it\u2019s not going to work that way, I know it but you don\u2019t know it so I have to send you through some reeducation, I have to bring you to the end of yourself where you see your need completely upon Me.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not something that happens through book learning; I wish it was that easy.\u00a0 This is something that happens through life experience and yet it all the design of God because once we see our need for God, because of our attempts to do things for God have failed we depend upon Him.\u00a0 And now God says I\u2019m ready to work.\n\nThat\u2019s what\u2019s coming for Israel.\u00a0 This is the shock that is coming to their system.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that when I read the account by Charles Pfeiffer and Antiochus set up a pagan image in the temple, some would say that pagan image was Zeus, some would say it\u2019s Jupiter, but it is interesting to me that what has been will be again.\u00a0 In the rebuilt Jewish temple of the future that the antichrist will desecrate he will set up an actual image.\u00a0 Revelation 13:15 describes that image.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.\u201d\u00a0 The noun \u201cimage\u201d there is singular; he\u2019s not going to set up images, he\u2019s going to set up an image.\u00a0 Apparently this image will have some kind of miraculous power to speak.\u00a0 Gosh, I can go to Disneyland and see that kind of stuff.\u00a0 We\u2019re already being prepared for these kind of things, aren\u2019t we?\n\nHow is it able to speak?\u00a0 It\u2019s demonic!\u00a0 The realm of Satan and the realm of the demons have miraculous working, miracle working powers.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have as much miracle working powers as God but they clearly can perform miracles.\u00a0 And Paul warns the Corinthians about going into the pagan temple of their day and worshipping idols because Paul says do you not know that those idols are empowered by demons?\n\n1 Corinthians 10:19-21, Paul says, \u201cWhat do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? [20] No,<\/em> but I say<\/em> that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. [21] You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.\u201d\n\nWhy would you, Paul says to the Corinthians, as a Christian, go back into the\u2026in this case it was the pagan temple, perhaps of Aphrodite, why would you go back into that system when the whole system is energized by the satanic and demonic realm itself.\u00a0 Well, Paul, because that system makes me feel better, that system gives me power.\u00a0 That system allows me to demand things and those things come into existence.\u00a0 And Paul says so what?\u00a0 You\u2019re talking to the devil himself who\u2019s doing those things for you.\u00a0 You mean it\u2019s Satan doing those things and not God?\u00a0 Exactly right, Paul says.\u00a0 Satan will do whatever he has to do in terms of giving people power needs, meeting their power needs, tantalizing their curiosity, whatever it takes, just get your eyes off Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the demonic manifestation Paul is talking about; it\u2019s the demonic manifestation of the last days temple and the speaking image and it\u2019s the sort of thing that Antiochus forced into the land of Israel in his day.\n\nThis is a difficult period for the nation of Israel and one of the things I love about the God of the Bible is as things get darker spiritually the light gets brighter.\u00a0 I mean this is just the kind of climate and environment that God desires whereby His power can now be manifested.\u00a0 And we start to see His power manifested there in verses 32-35 as we look at the reaction of the remnant to what Antiochus IV was doing.\n\nAs we move into verses 32-35 what you have to see here is there are two groups of people.\u00a0 The majority is sort of throwing in the towel, they\u2019re capitulating, they\u2019re playing what I used to call matador defense, where you just let your man score.\u00a0 A lot of people in the land of Israel were doing that; they didn\u2019t want to stomach the warfare they didn\u2019t want to stomach the battle and so they just gave in to Hellenism.\u00a0 But there was a remnant, a smaller group, that said no!\u00a0 We\u2019re going to stand with God.\n\nThe reality of the situation is your mind as a Christian right now as I speak is under assault.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 I know that because Romans 12:2 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 If my mind was not under assault it would not need to be renewed daily, Romans 12:2.\u00a0 There are so many thoughts, whether it\u2019s through media, even sometimes sadly through theologians and pulpits in churches, television, news, being around the wrong kind of people, that they just bombard you over and over again with one unbiblical idea after another.\u00a0\u00a0 And we sort of get tired of it and we just sort of give in sometimes.\u00a0 We play matador defense, we kind of throw in the towel, we start to say things like well, you know, this idea that God created the world 6,000 years ago, I mean, I just can\u2019t believe that so I\u2019ll just sort of mix the Bible with evolution and we\u2019ll just say God caused evolution.\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s surrender, that\u2019s what just happened.\u00a0 That\u2019s matador defense.\n\nAnd I\u2019m tired of all of these people saying that the Bible is insufficient, I know that the doctrines of Freud and Young and Skinner are really enough to counsel people so I\u2019ll just combine pagan philosophers, like Freud, Young and Skinner with the Bible and use that to council people.\u00a0 What did you just do?\u00a0 You just compromised.\u00a0 And after all, all this stuff about chastity until marriage, that\u2019s just too much of a burden because after all, you need to look under the hood before you buy the automobile, I\u2019ll just go ahead and tamper with premarital sex because that\u2019s the way everybody does it today.\u00a0 Or I\u2019ll just look at a little bit of pornography, what\u2019s the big deal?\n\nWhat is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s compromise; it\u2019s matador defense, it\u2019s giving in.\u00a0 And under pressure we can be the type of people in our fallenness that want to give in.\u00a0 That\u2019s the pressure that Antiochus IV\u00a0 used because he knew that if he applied enough pressure there would be those that would relinquish.\u00a0 So there were those that resisted Hellenism and those that embraced Hellenism and as the world system is crowding in on your life and your mind, which category are you in this morning?\u00a0\u00a0 Are you the resister allowing your mind to be renewed, taking every thought captive to our Lord Jesus Christ as 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 10:5, \u201cWe are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,\u201d]\n\nOr have you allowed the birds not just to fly over your head but to build a nest in your hair?\u00a0 What parts of my mind, what parts of your mind, what parts of our mind have been given over to compromise?\u00a0 And yet the blessing of God is not upon the compromisers, it\u2019s on the resisters.\u00a0 God didn\u2019t need a lot of people to work through in this precarious situation.\u00a0 He just needed a few that were sold out to His cause.\n\nAs you look at verse 32 you can see how this man, Antiochus IV, operates.\u00a0 It says, \u201cBy smooth \u00a0words\u201d <\/em>wow, I can think of some Presidents\u00a0in recent history that had some \u201csmooth words.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cBy smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 How did he get so many people within the land of Israel on his side in the blasphemous things he was doing here, in terms of persecution and the temple.\u00a0 The guy spoke well; he talked well.\u00a0 He actually operated through flattery.\u00a0 What is flattery?\u00a0 It\u2019s telling someone what their itching ears want to hear instead of telling them what they need to hear.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that when you go through the Word of God how frequently we are warned against flattering lips of outsiders.\n\nProverbs 7:5 says, \u201cThat they may keep you from an adulteress, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.\u201d\u00a0 Proverbs 7:21 says, \u201cWith her many persuasions she entices him with her flattering lips she seduces him.\u201d\u00a0 Proverbs 26:28, \u201cA lying tongue hates those it crushes, And a flattering mouth works ruin.\u201d\u00a0 Proverbs 29:5, \u201cA man who flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his steps.\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\n\nOne of my favorite names that I\u2019ve heard Bible teachers use to identify the coming antichrist is Mr. Big Mouth.\u00a0 And the reason I like that description is many times in the Bible when you receive a description of the coming antichrist attention is drawn to his mouth, his oratory, the things that he says.\u00a0 Daniel 7:25 of the coming antichrist, the little horn, it says, \u201cHe will speak\u201d that\u2019s with the mouth, \u201cHe will speak out against the Most High.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 7:8 of the coming antichrist, the little horn, it says, \u201cA mouth uttering great boasts.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 13:5, the beast, talking to the same character says, \u201cThere was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting how frequently the Bible is calling attention to this man\u2019s mouth.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting how much of the Bible deals with the subject of speaking.\u00a0 James 3, I dare you to read that sometime.\u00a0 It\u2019s a great condemnation of the misuse of the tongue within the church itself, the assembly of God.\u00a0 The Book of Proverbs, Ephesians 4, talks about we ought not to be people of earthy speech, corrupt speech.\u00a0 Peter tells us that when we speak we ought to speak the oracles of God.\u00a0 And it think it was Adrian Rogers that put it this way---what comes up in the bucket was down in the well. The mouth, all it is is a window to the heart.\u00a0 If fear and anxiety or bitterness or sarcasm are constantly coming out of our mouths then that\u2019s a window of what\u2019s actually happening in the heart.\u00a0 Sometimes you get into meetings with church leaders and someone will pray, Lord, give us tongue control.\u00a0 Well, the tongue is not the problem, the heart is the problem.\n\nConversely, if words of courage, if words of love, if words of love, if words of hope, words of praise, gratitude, frequently come out of my mouth then that\u2019s simply a window of what is happening in the heart, for Jesus said in Matthew 12 that \u201cout of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 12:34, \u201cO generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.\u201d]\u00a0 Antiochus and the coming antichrist are wicked to the core.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there is an attention drawn to their speech, their perverse yet flattering, wonderful to hear words.\n\nAs you move into the second half of verse 32 notice what it says here: \u201cbut the people who know their God will display strength and take action.\u201d\u00a0 This, I believe, is talking about the Maccabean Revolt.\u00a0 Let me read to you a little excerpt if I could, from Steven Ger, a Hebrew Christian who has a ministry called Sojourners Ministries, and I like his description of what exactly\u00a0 happened in the Maccabean Revolt.\n\nHe says this:\u00a0 \u201cIn the Judean village of Modi\u2019in soldiers assembled all the people in the town square.\u00a0 They built an altar and ordered the old priest, Mattathias, to sacrifice a pig for the people to eat.\u00a0 Mattathias refused to defile himself or his people.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, this guy, Mattathias, this priest, is what we would call today a stubborn old man.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how God will use people that we write off as stubborn.\u00a0 I\u2019m not for stubbornness just to be obnoxious but I am for stubbornness when it comes to the fidelity to the Word of God.\u00a0 That\u2019s who this man, Matthias, was.\u00a0 \u201cThe soldiers insisted offering great financial incentive.\u00a0 Finally another man in the village volunteered to collaborate with the Syrian Greek soldiers.\u00a0 As the man approached the pig Matthias refused, rushed forward and assassinated the collaborator.\u00a0 The five sons of priest Mattathias drew their weapons, struck down the soldiers, and headed for the hills. Many fellow revolutionaries joined them and so began a lopsided revolt against the mighty Syrian Greek Empire.\u00a0 Soon after the leadership of the ragtag Jewish army passed to Mattathias\u2019 son, nicknamed the Hammer, or in Hebrew, the Maccabee. Thereafter, the revolutionaries were known as The Maccabees.\n\nAfter three years of Jewish guerilla warfare, the rebels achieved victory. \u00a0On the 25 of Kislev, 164 BC, exactly three years from Antiochus\u2019 abomination of desolation the Maccabees triumphantly entered the defiled and half-demolished Temple.\u00a0 And they began the process or rededication.\n\nThe undying, eternal flame of the Temple, Menorah, the great seven-branched candelabra so central to the worship of Israel, had been extinguished. The Greeks had desecrated nearly all of the sacred oil used for the Temple Menorah. Only a small container remained, containing a one day supply. And yet it would take eight days for the priests to consecrate more oil. Nevertheless, the Maccabees lit the Menorah.\u00a0 It burned for one day, then a miracle occurred.\u00a0 The Menorah kept burning for eight full days.\n\nJudah Maccabee declared the event would be commemorated by an annual holiday, Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication, understandably the people also called it Haggai ha Urim, The Feast of Lights.\u00a0 As the holiday became popular a tradition of lighting a miniature Menorah began with Jewish homes during the eight day celebration.\u00a0 These Menorahs had eight branches, one candle for each evening of the holiday, with an additional ninth candle elevated in the center; the center candle is known as the shamash, <\/em>Hebrew for servant, which is used to light the other candles as they are added each evening.\n\nYou probably didn\u2019t know all this, did you, about Hanukkah, Feast of Lights, this strange peculiar holiday that the Jews commemorate.\u00a0 We know it kind of roughly associates with our Christmas season, Christmas time. We know they\u2019re over there doing something.\u00a0 And yet isn\u2019t interesting how the whole background was predicted by Daniel.\u00a0 It\u2019s all there in those words.\u00a0 The people who know their Bible display strength and take action.\u00a0 What I\u2019ve just explained is sort of there on that PowerPoint for you to download from our website and study if you\u2019re interested in that.\u00a0 You say well, I thought this was a Protestant church, why are you going into all this Jewish stuff for?\n\nWell the last time I checked wasn\u2019t Jesus, our leader, Jewish?\u00a0 Did you know that in \u2026 not the Old Testament, in the New Testament Jesus Himself traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate Hanukkah or the Feast of Lights.\u00a0 It says in John 10:22-24, \u201cAt that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem;\u201d that\u2019s what I\u2019m talking about here.\u00a0 Why is it called \u201cthe Feast of Dedication\u201d?\u00a0 Because they rededicated the temple to the use of God after Seleucid desecration of that temple.\u00a0 [23, \u201cit was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.\u00a0\u00a0 [24, \u201cThe Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, \u201cHow long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.\u201d]\n\nThis is such a tremendous event that of Israel\u2019s seven feasts, which ae given in Leviticus 23, another feast is added, called Hanukkah, Feast of Lights.\u00a0 And to that list of seven in the days of Esther another feast has been added, called Purim, celebrating how God showed up when Israel was outnumbered, and rescued Israel from extermination through the diabolical plot of Haman who cast lots to determine when Israel would be eradicated.\u00a0 And from that miraculous occurrence and divine protection a Jewish feast starts called Purim and then the whole cycle of persecution occurs again in Daniel\u2019s prophecies, in the intertestamental period a bit later in history, and God shows up again and rescues the Jewish people against all odds in what we call Hanukkah.\n\nIt is so interesting to me to study that when Israel gets attacked, not only do they survive but they get a holiday out of it.\u00a0 Pharaoh, did he not, try to drown all the Jewish people?\u00a0 God rescued them and God said start celebrating what?\u00a0 Passover.\u00a0 The days of Esther, as I\u2019ve just explained, came to Purim, Feast of Lots.\u00a0 The days of Antiochus IV came forth Hanukkah.\u00a0 You see what we\u2019re studying here in the Bible?\u00a0 The faithfulness of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter that God is trying to be faithful, His character IS faithfulness, that\u2019s who He is.\u00a0 In other words, if we were to say God, stop being faithful we\u2019d have to say well, stop being holy, stop being pure, stop being loving.\n\nThe fact of the matter, as Malachi 3:6, God says, \u201cI change not,\u201d I was faithful in the past, I\u2019ll be faithful in the future and if that\u2019s true then what are you so worried about\u00a0 your circumstances for?\u00a0 Do we not understand the faithfulness of God?\u00a0 Do we not understand that God can\u2019t help Himself but show up in the midst of your crisis and just as real a way as He showed up in Jewish past and Jewish future?\u00a0 I think this is something to praise God about.\u00a0 This is why studying these events of history are so important.\n\nDid you catch Steven Garrett\u2019s description of what happened; it was just a ragtag Jewish army that pulled this off.\u00a0 One plus God is a majority.\u00a0 God does not need much to work with, praise God for that, amen!\u00a0 He\u2019s just looking for some people that are available, some people that have not succumbed to Hellenization, some people that have not succumbed to worldliness.\u00a0 He\u2019s just looking for a handful that want to stand with Him.\n\nYou know, God actually has a problem.\u00a0 Do you\u00a0 know that?\u00a0 Here\u2019s God\u2019s problem: God uses an instrument, a human instrument in such a beautiful way that the human instrument gets credit for what God did.\u00a0 That\u2019s called human idolatry.\u00a0 And so what does God do?\u00a0 God says I\u2019m going to counter that human tendency by selecting the least qualified person, the least talented, the least qualified, and I\u2019ll work through them; that way there can\u2019t be any confusion who pulled this off.\n\nI mean, you think of the spread of Christianity over the last 2,000 years, how we\u2019re on a different continent 2,000 years later worshipping Jesus Christ, and you look at how the whole thing started with these twelve guys.\u00a0 In fact, one of them bailed out so God worked with eleven. What are they talking about amongst themselves?\u00a0 Who\u2019s going to be the greatest! What a pathetic group of people to pick and yet God, by design, intentionally chose individuals because that way those individuals could never get credit for anything.\u00a0 It had to be God. \u00a0You say well is this a pattern in the Bible?\u00a0 You bet your bottom dollar it\u2019s a pattern in the Bible.\u00a0 Take the calling of Moses that God had to put on the backside of the desert for forty years, working a minimum wage job at McDonalds, tending sheep, a totally obscure person, Egypt had probably forgotten about Moses by this time, forty years had passed.\n\nExodus 3:11, \u201cMoses said to God, \u2018Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, or that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 God, you need someone qualified, you need someone educated, you need someone talented, you certainly need someone that can talk; I can\u2019t even get my words out correctly.\u00a0 Yet God says to Moses you\u2019re the guy.\u00a0 How about Gideon, have you studied the Book of Judges lately, with Gideon?\u00a0 God called Gideon, \u201cHe said to him, \u2018O LORD, how shall I\u201d (that\u2019s Gideon) \u201cdeliver Israel, behold, my family is the least in Manasseh and I am the youngest in my father\u2019s house.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re coming after me to do this?\n\nOr what about David, arguably perhaps the greatest king in Israel.\u00a0 Yes, he did fail but he demonstrated that he was a man after God\u2019s own heart; he was the man that was given the Davidic Covenant, he is the man that wrote a good portion of the Psalms that we have in the Psalter.\u00a0 Where would we be with our understanding of God were it not for David?\u00a0 Do you remember when the man of God, the prophet came to David\u2019s father and said bring out the kids.\u00a0 So Jesse brought out the kids.\u00a0 The prophet said well, it\u2019s not any of these guys, are you sure you don\u2019t have some other one around here somewhere.\u00a0 Well, yeah, there\u2019s this little mangy bratty kid here in the back. Well bring him out?\u00a0 And sure enough, that was the guy, because God doesn\u2019t assess things the way man does.\n\nMan, 1 Samuel 16:7, looks at the outer.\u00a0 [1 Samuel 16:7, \u201cBut the LORD said to Samuel, \u2018Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.\u2019\u201d]\n\nWhere is God looking?\u00a0 He\u2019s looking at the heart.\n\nSaul was tall and handsome, probably looked like he came out of fashion magazine, and yet look at what a debacle he was.\u00a0 It was David that God chose, not Saul.\u00a0 Or take this ragtag group of disciples, ignorant and unlearned fisherman.\u00a0 I mean, what seminary did you guys graduate from?\u00a0 What gives you the right to stand up and talk about the things of God the way you are?\u00a0 Acts 4:13 says, \u201cNow as they observe the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus got the glory, not these guys.\n\nPaul, the apostle, writing to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 says, \u201cFor consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; [27] but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, [28] and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,\u201d why is that?\u00a0 Verse 29, 1 Corinthians 1, \u201cso that no man may boast before God.\u201d\n\nOr you take the church at Philadelphia in the Book of Revelation, the missionary church, the church that had the biggest doorway open to them, I mean, God surely gave them that door because of their talent and abilities, right?\u00a0 Wrong!\u00a0 Revelation 3:7-8, it says, \u201c\u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:\u00a0 [8] \u2018I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, [and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.]\u201d\u00a0 Are you telling me that the greatest doorway was open to the people who were the least talented and had the least strength?\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what this is saying.\n\nThe reality of the situation is if you find yourself today feeling insecure, feeling unqualified, feeling uncalled, you\u2019re just the person God wants.\u00a0 Maybe you don\u2019t have as much talent as the church down the street or the person you\u2019re sitting next to or the person you see on TV.\u00a0 That never matters with God.\u00a0 What matters with God is His glorification.\u00a0 Are you in a stand in the way of the glory of God when God does the work, because God, Isaiah 42:8, is not interested in sharing His glory with another.\u00a0 [Isaiah 42:8, \u201cI am the LORD, that is My name, I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.\u201d]\u00a0 So He picks people where you look at it and say well, they couldn\u2019t have done that, it had to be God.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened here in the intertestamental period.\u00a0 The people least likely to have pulled this off\u2026 I mean, are you kidding me, driving back the Seleucid Empire, taking control of the temple, rededicating the temple to God\u2019s service, you mean the people that pulled this off were some ragtag group?\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what this text is saying; that\u2019s exactly what your Bible is saying.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what the Holy Spirit is saying to you.\n\nNotice verse 32, it\u2019s very interesting, it says, \u201cthe people who know their God will display strength and take action.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not the people that are out of a relationship with God that display strength and take action, it\u2019s the people that know their God.\u00a0 What does \u201cknow\u201d mean?\u00a0 It means academic knowledge for sure but it\u2019s far deeper than that.\u00a0 The word \u201cknow\u201d in the Bible, when you study it out is relational.\u00a0 God works through people who are saved but who are walking in moment by moment fellowship with Him and dependence upon Him.\u00a0 That\u2019s who God uses.\n\nNow being used by God is never the goal.\u00a0 The ultimate goal is knowing God but when a person, a man or a woman knows God the byproduct of that is eternal fruit.\u00a0 It\u2019s usability.\u00a0 Recall Acts 4:13, it says, \u201cNow as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the secret, they were with Christ, they knew Christ, they were in a relationship with Christ and so God turned the world upside down with these guys.\u00a0 And He\u2019s still blessing planet earth today with the Christian movement because of these unqualified people who just hung around with Christ.\n\nNew Year\u2019s resolutions\u2014I don\u2019t like New Year\u2019s resolutions because when it comes to February I\u2019ve usually broken them all anyway.\u00a0 New Year\u2019s resolutions are so self-defeating sometimes.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 Well, let me give you a New Year\u2019s resolution that will work for you, something you\u2019re going to try new in 2018; what are you going to do?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to hang around with Jesus.\u00a0 You\u2019re just going to go where He goes, stay where He stays, value the same that He values.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to talk to Him, and He\u2019s going to talk to you, primarily He\u2019s going to speak to you through His Word.\u00a0 You\u2019re just around Him, you\u2019re not really have any great ambitions to turn the world upside down, you\u2019re just going to be with Jesus.\u00a0 That to me seems like a fairly easy New Year\u2019s resolution to keep, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s no goal here, there\u2019s no timetable, there\u2019s no plan of action, there\u2019s no marketing strategy, you did all that in 2017, look where that got you.\n\nThis year\u2019s going to be different.\u00a0 I\u2019m just going to be with Christ. If that becomes a priority you\u2019re going to have a very different year this\u00a0 year.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to find yourself used by God in ways that you really never thought possible.\u00a0 You look back and say how in the world did that happen.\u00a0 God says you don\u2019t need to know how it happened, I did it, and I just chose to use you as My instrument.\n\nYou know the mistake that people in my profession, occupation, pastoral ministries, make all the time as they rely on their spiritual gifts, they rely on their education, they rely on their degrees and I am not against any of those things.\u00a0 But what are those things at the end of the day?\u00a0 You know what they are?\u00a0 They fish and loaves, that\u2019s all they are.\u00a0 Remember the little boy came and just gave Jesus his fish and loaves; that\u2019s all he did.\u00a0 He had no power to multiply it, he had no power to facilitate it, he had no power to meet needs with it, it\u2019s just a little provision that he had and he took it and he gave it to Jesus.\u00a0 What is a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew?\u00a0 It\u2019s fish and loaves.\u00a0 What is a knowledge of the Bible?\u00a0 It\u2019s fish and loaves.\u00a0 What is an ability to speak well in public speech?\u00a0 It\u2019s fish and loaves.\u00a0 What is a church budget?\u00a0 It\u2019s fish and loaves.\u00a0 They have no power in and of themselves to do anything. \u00a0What is a personality?\u00a0 Fish and loaves.\u00a0 What is human intelligence?\u00a0 Fish and loaves.\u00a0 That\u2019s all it is.\n\nAnd we think that somehow we can pull this off through these petty things that are in our hands and the only thing the Lord is saying is just give those things to Me.\u00a0 What are some fish and loaves in your hand that you haven\u2019t relinquished because they\u2019re yours.\u00a0 Let me let you in on a little secret; you wouldn\u2019t even have the next breath if it wasn\u2019t for God.\u00a0 Those things are not yours; those things aren\u2019t going to have any power, those things aren\u2019t going to help you.\n\nYou say well what can I do?\u00a0 You just give them up, Lord, they\u2019re not much but You take them and You do what You want with them and look at what God did!\u00a0 Look at how He fed 5,000 people plus women and children with this little tiny provision someone very unqualified, a little boy, gave to Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Wow!\n\nYou want 2018 to be different?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what you do;\u00a0 you hang around Jesus and\u00a0 you just give Him what you have.\u00a0 You don\u2019t horde it, you don\u2019t be selfish with it, you don\u2019t call is yours, your just give it to Him.\u00a0 Give Him what you have, hang around Him, what else do we do?\u00a0 That\u2019s it, He does everything else.\u00a0 And you\u2019re just going to be shocked at what God will do and how He will use you.\u00a0 Knowing precedes doing.\u00a0 That\u2019s why with those sisters, one was busy, busy for God, doing all this stuff, juggling, keeping the balls in the air, meeting the deadline, meeting the schedule.\u00a0 What was the other sister doing?\u00a0 Just sitting at His feet listening.\u00a0 And of course the busy sister says tell the other sister to help me.\u00a0 Remember what Jesus said?\u00a0 No, she has\u2026 what\u2019s the word?\u00a0 Chosen, it\u2019s a choice. Whether you\u2019re going to know Christ or not in 2018, whether you\u2019re going to hang around Christ or not in the year 2018, whether you\u2019re going to give to Christ your petty fish and loaves is a choice.\u00a0 Being too busy for God is a choice.\u00a0 She has chosen the better way and it will not be taken from her.\u00a0 This message is so simple.\u00a0 How do we complicate it?\n\nAnd beyond that, the plan of salvation is so simple, how do we get so confused on this.\u00a0 The plan of salvation is trust in what He has done.\u00a0 The story of the Bible is not man reaching his way up to God; it\u2019s God reaching down to man in the person of Jesus Christ and simply telling us to receive as a free gift what He has done in our stead and in our place.\u00a0 How complicated is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s so easy a child can\u00a0 understand it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the design of God because when you receive what someone else has done who gets the credit?\u00a0 Certainly I don\u2019t, nor do you, because I wasn\u2019t dying on that cross 2,000 years ago; neither were\u00a0 you.\u00a0 He gets the credit.\u00a0 And when you receive salvation He is executing His\u00a0 purpose in history which is to glorify Himself.\u00a0 See that?\n\nBut man says well let me add a few things, let me give some money, let me walk an aisle, let me raise my hand, let me fill out a card, let me make a commitment to God, let me do something.\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 It\u2019s pride.\u00a0 We want a little bit of the glory, don\u2019t we, in the end.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, people that say well salvation can\u2019t be that simple, what they\u2019re really saying is I want a little bit of the limelight.\u00a0 And yet God has designed things so He receives the glory, including salvation.\n\nYou aren\u2019t going to get to heaven any other way other than simply trusting in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 As I am speaking it\u2019s something you can do right now in the quietness of your own heart, no human fanfare, no self-adulation, just a simple child-like faith, a look in confidence at the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary.\u00a0 You can do that right now as I\u2019m speaking.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need some prayer and some greater understanding of I\u2019m available after the service although I\u2019ll disappoint you because I don\u2019t have anything else to add.\u00a0 It\u2019s a simple message where you enter the grace of God by faith alone.\u00a0 And then as you come into your relationship with God\u00a0 you just start hanging around Jesus and you give Him what you have and now the grace of God that saves is the grace of God that will use you.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 What a deal.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for the simplicity of Your Word and Your truth.\u00a0 The fact is You want to use us more than we want to be used but sometimes our worst enemy is ourselves.\u00a0 So help us, Father, this week to walk with You in grace and be qualified for fruit bearing.\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