In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: Daniel, chapter 10. In fact, chapter 10 really sets up the stage, as it were, for chapter 11 and chapter 12. So, let me give you a general background, and then we'll pray and dive in.

Chapter 10, the first part of it, he's going to talk to us about spiritual warfare. I know that none of you know anything about it, never experienced it. But he's going to talk about spiritual warfare, and we're going to get a greater understanding of what's going on around us currently.

In fact, as he begins chapter 10 and prepares us for a greater insight into the spiritual warfare going on around us, the prophecies that will take us through the rest of the book to the end of chapter 12 will give us greater detail on what he said in chapter 2 on the four great empires that will arise. Moving into the Roman Empire, he will bring to the fore Antiochus Epiphanes. We'll get that next week as a type of the Antichrist, but he will literally take us all the way through to the Antichrist and the New Kingdom.

The broad spectrum from chapters 10, 11, and 12 is huge as far as time goes. It takes us from this point that Daniel is in Babylon, still all the way through to the real and true Antichrist and the New Heaven and the New Earth. It's really interesting, but I think the most interesting part of these last three chapters is chapter 10 because I think we don't realize where the real battle is.

Even though Paul told us that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood—it's not a temporal, physical thing that we're battling, it's a spiritual thing—I think sometimes we don't wrap our heads around what's going on in the United States, what's going on in the political realm, and what's going on around the world. It's really a spiritual battle between wickedness and righteousness, light and dark, the god of this world and the true God of heaven.

That said, let's pray and dive in. Father, we thank you tonight for your word and chapter 10. It’s very interesting. Lord, as we just look at these things—I don't know how far we're going to get tonight because even the opening verses are so important—but, Lord, we just pray tonight that we would resist with every fiber of our being the influences of the wicked one.

We pray that we would be a people, as Daniel's going to say, who know their God. Because we know our God, we do great exploits. We're going to hear that tonight from one of the prophets. We're living in an interesting time where I personally believe that the spiritual warfare, as Paul warned us, is heightened. We're living in a time that Paul said there would be seducing spirits, doctrines of devils, and a departing from the biblical faith.

In fact, Jesus, when asked about the time we're living in and what would be the signs of it, the very first thing he mentions is deception. Lord, I pray right now that you would open our hearts and our minds to what the Spirit is saying to your church in these final moments. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you get your pad and pen out, there’s an interesting structure in chapter 10 as we walk through it. We're going to open up to a very interesting verse because it seems like somebody else is doing the forward, as it were, for Daniel. Verse 1 is as though somebody else is speaking, and then Daniel will come in and give us the vision. Possibly some scholars believe that Daniel had been sharing what he had seen. As we come to this section, someone does the introduction, and Daniel picks up with the vision part of it. We're not really sure.

There's a reason for that. We're going to find as we open up to this 10th chapter that we find Daniel mourning. We're going to see why he's mourning, why he's broken, and why he's disturbed in his spirit. Why is he out by this river Tigris just praying and fasting? We're going to see that, and we're going to see it as an example for us. Then, before he gets into the last half of this chapter and talks to us about spiritual warfare so we can get a greater understanding of what's really going on in the principalities and powers with the god of this world, he gives us a view of Jesus.

I think that's important. I think in order to withstand spiritual warfare, you have to have a good view of the God that you serve. If you have a good view of the God that you serve, then none of this other stuff really matters. Satan's a created being just like you and I are. The angels that fell and followed him are created beings. They're not superior to you and I; in fact, they're inferior to you and I.

Paul told us in his prayer—the first of his prayers, the two prayers that he prays for the church at Ephesus. By the way, that was the church that, when it was birthed into the kingdom, left witchcraft. They burnt about a million dollars of their books of dark arts there. I got to be in the marketplace there in Ephesus when we were in Turkey, where they burned those books and confessed the true and living God. They turned from idols, demonology, spells, and dark magic.

There is a power in that. I'm not saying it's not real, because I know it to be real, but it's not more real than the God that we serve. Paul, when he writes to that church—the church that really was struggling in spiritual warfare—in his first prayer, says, "I want you to see. I want God to open the eyes of your understanding. I want him to illuminate your mind and heart that you would understand what is exceeding great power that works in you, the same power that raised Christ from the dead."

That's why we can say that greater is he that is in us than he that is in this world, and that no weapon formed against us will prosper because the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God to the pulling down of the very strongholds of the wicked one. When we get to the end of Ephesians, in chapter 6, he talks about the armor that we're to put on because we are in a battle.

Before we put on the armor and get in the battle, it's a good thing to get alone with our commander-in-chief and get a good understanding of who he is. Three things are going to happen this evening as we go through chapter 10. First, we're going to see how the enemy attacks and why Daniel is mourning. There's a real beautiful exhortation in that very cry of Daniel and the mourning that he's going through. Then, we're going to get a good view of the risen Savior, Jesus, in all of his glory. Finally, we're going to talk about spiritual warfare.

Too many Christians talk about spiritual warfare in light of their own strength. We're never called to do spiritual warfare in light of our own strength. That's why when Paul begins that section in chapter 6, he says, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might." Peter says, "Don't think it a strange thing when fiery trials come to test your faith, as though some strange thing has happened to you." We can expect these things. Didn't Jesus warn us, "In this life, you're going to have trouble"?

This is the message that Daniel is going to communicate to us through the Spirit: the life that we live now is going to be a life of trouble. It's going to be a life of spiritual warfare and a life of difficulty. It's going to be a life of disciplining the flesh because the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. It's going to be a day of putting on the armor, taking the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit, and getting in the fray of it.

There's a day coming when we can take the armor off and set it aside. That'll be when we're safely home in our Father's house. But while we're here, we've been given gifts of the Holy Spirit. That's why I'm not a cessationist. I don't believe those gifts were taken away at the end of the first century because I think the toughest times weren't just in the first century. I think the toughest times for the church are right now.

According to Paul, some of the greatest battles that are going to be fought are going to be fought in the last moments before Satan is completely destroyed. He knows his time is short, and he's doing everything he can to dissuade, discourage, and destroy. That's why the church needs the gifting of the Holy Spirit. It needs the gift of discernment, word of knowledge, and word of wisdom. It needs the Holy Spirit like it's never needed it before. The church needs to be built upon the firm foundation of God's word but empowered by the Spirit like it's never been empowered by the Spirit before.

What is before us tonight as we come to the 10th chapter of Daniel is incredible. Let's read it and take a look, making note of the timeframe. Verse 1: "In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia..." Now, it's been three years since Cyrus marched into Babylon and overtook the city. Now the Babylonians are fading from the scene, just as Daniel had prophesied back in chapter 2. The Medo-Persians are coming to the fore.

Before we're done with chapter 12, Daniel's going to give us great detail to see how the Medo-Persians fall away and give way to the Grecians. The Grecians give way to Rome. During this time, there is an example that will come to the fore of what the Antichrist will look like in the future, in our time, and in this man Antiochus Epiphanes. He's kind of an example, the forerunner, and a type of the true Antichrist that'll show up in our time so that we can get a vivid understanding of the things he's going to do and the character he will possess. Then he's going to walk us all the way in to when the Antichrist comes and the great and final battle.

But I think what Daniel's trying to draw our attention to, as we'll see in chapter 10, is that we're in a great battle. Listen, if you haven't figured it out, the church for so long looked like a cruise ship—shuffleboard, swimming pool, and piña coladas. But now it's turned into a battleship. All hands on deck. If you're not serious about your faith and you're not praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and if you're not building your life upon the solid word of God, you will be a casualty in this war.

You just have to get in the fray of it. So listen to what he says in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia. A thing was revealed unto Daniel. It's almost like a person is now telling them. Listen, in the third year of the reign of King Cyrus, as he comes into the gates of Babylon and now the Medo-Persians have taken over, in that third year, Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar, saw a thing that was true, but the time appointed was long. He understood the thing and had understanding of the vision.

So it's almost like he's being introduced by this person, and we don't know who it is. It could be Gabriel telling some person, "Here's the introduction to his final visions." Because in the third year of Cyrus, Daniel had these visions. But the visions were—circle it in your Bible—long. Because it's not in the Hebrew sense of time; it has that sense, but it has the sense of time and difficulty.

What's going to transpire until the final battle takes place where the Antichrist who's going to come on the scene in the last days—the time we're living in—is put down, and Jesus Christ our Messiah, the King of Glory, the King of kings and Lord of lords comes and rules from Jerusalem on the throne of David with a rod of iron. Until that day happens, it's going to be long and it's going to be difficult. Make note of that.

Because some of us Christians think it ought to be easy. In fact, I've heard some of your prayers. "Lord, I'm serving you with all my heart, I'm doing all I can, so why is my life so difficult?" Because you're in a battle. You're in the midst of a spiritual war—light against dark, the god of this world against the true and living God—and we're in the fray of it. And we're going to continue to be in the fray of it. It will be long and it will be difficult.

This is what the guy that's introducing Daniel said. Let's read it one more time. In the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was revealed unto Daniel—and I pray it'd be revealed unto us—whose name was called Belteshazzar. And the thing was true, but the time appointed was long. The time to bring about the end of all of these visions, like Daniel had back in chapter 9, seventy weeks are determined to what? Put an end to sin, to do away with transgression and iniquity, to seal up all of the prophecies, and to usher in the King of Glory. Now as he comes in chapter 10, he says the thing is going to be long and it's going to be difficult until all of that is fulfilled. Long and difficult. And he understood, speaking of Daniel, the thing and had understanding of the visions. Daniel gets it.

I've often prayed, and I've been a Christian 46 years and a senior pastor for 37 of those 46 years, and there have been times where I've prayed, "Lord, if I could just get a break. If I could just have a week. Lord, if I could just have a day where there's no spiritual warfare." Only senior pastors understand the target that's on their back. You guys are in spiritual warfare, but nothing like a pastor. The Bible says you kill the shepherd and the sheep scatter. It's like constant warfare.

That's why I have to go up into the mountains. I learned this from Jesus. I have to spend some time with my Father, and that's where my armor gets welded back up again. That's where my sword gets sharpened, and the dents in my shield get bent back out. My helmet, which was crushed on my head, is getting reshaped so it fits again. I tighten up that girdle, the loins of truth, a little tighter. I lace up my shoes for the preparation of the gospel of peace again, and I can come back and get in the fray of it.

I understand it's a battle. I understand that I'm not on a cruise ship; I'm on a battleship. I understand that he uses phrases like "be a good soldier of Christ." A good soldier of Christ doesn't entangle himself with the things of this world that he might be a good soldier to the one who enlisted him. I understand all of these things. I understand it's a battle. There are days where I cry, "Come, Lord Jesus. I don't want to fight anymore." But I'm going to be in the fray of it until you come. Daniel now is going to understand something very profound: that you and I are in a battle. God's people are in a battle.

Our fight is not against each other, as Paul said. Our fight is against principalities and powers and a host of evil wickedness in high places. We're fighting against the god of the air, the prince of the power of the air. We're going to see that as he gives us illustration of that. In fact, it's not even just illustration. Actually, Gabriel's going to say that when I came to answer your prayer, I had to fight against the demon over the area of Persia. When I leave, I'm going to have to fight against the demons over the area of Greece.

Listen, there are sectors that are divided up on this planet that are given over. Do you know when we study through Ezekiel, it talks about Gog and Magog? Gog is a name for a demon. When he talks about the prince chief of Gog, Magog is the land that he's over, which is Russia, but he's addressing a demon—some demonic force. I think there are a lot of demons hovering right over Washington, D.C. I don't think they're just hovering over it; I think they're in it. But we're in a battle. This is the thing that God is revealing to Daniel to give to us.

Now watch what it says in verse 2: "In those days, I, Daniel..." Now Daniel's writing. "In those days, I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks." I'm in sackcloth and ash. The word for "mourning" there is—have you ever had something happen where it just seems like it knocks the wind out of you? Spiritually and physically, it just wrenches inside of you. It's to the point where you really can't function. Have you ever gone through something that is so disturbing that it really takes the wind, as it were, out of your sails, and it's hard to even function?

This is what Daniel's saying. Something's going on here that has taken the wind out of my sails. It's like a gut punch that's knocked the wind out of me, and I've been mourning over this thing for three weeks. Verse 3 says, "I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all for three whole weeks were fulfilled." Now, this is not fasting and praying. He'll do that later. This is not so much fasting and praying; this is just when something comes your way—a spiritual battle, something you see, or something you perceive that is so devastating to you that your appetite goes away. You enter into a deep depression over the thing. It's like the wind's taken out of you, your sail has collapsed, and you're sitting on the sea, not moving. It's crippling.

This is the state that we find Daniel in in the first part of chapter 10. So the question has to be asked: what in the world would so affect this man that could face lions and not have a problem? He could stand before kings and not have a problem. He wouldn't bow as a teenager coming out of Jerusalem, led captive into Babylon. He stood firm no matter what the threats were. It seemed like nothing affected him. But now, as an old man, probably between 85 and 90, late in his life, there's something that is going on that has literally devastated him.

I think the Holy Spirit gives us what it is because we see that he's going through this in the third year of the reign of Cyrus the king. Listen to what Haggai says in chapter 1. We'll read the first eight verses, because this is what I think it is. What I think has devastated him is they've come to the end now of the captivity. Remember when Cyrus came in and Daniel was studying Jeremiah and he understood that it was only about three years and the captivity got to go home? Then we see certain of the decrees by Cyrus to go back and rebuild Jerusalem.

The final decree that we look at as far as prophecy goes with Artaxerxes won't come till later. But already now, as Cyrus has become the king, before his third year, he had made a decree that the Jews could return now from exile to Jerusalem. They can rebuild the temple. They can again start temple worship. They can again rebuild the altar. They can reconstruct the instruments. They can take what has been held captive in Babylon back home, and they can rebuild the place that God dwells. And then I think, as we know it from historians and we know it from the prophets, a small fraction of the people that had been in Babylon for 70 years went with Zerubbabel and Ezra and Joshua the high priest to rebuild the temple. Most of them had become comfortable in the land of their enemy.

I wonder, are we comfortable in the land of our enemy with the temple broken down? You see, I think Daniel sees this as a spiritual battle because many of them had started businesses and developed a life, and they were comfortable with this life in Babylon. They were comfortable with this life that pleased the flesh and served the flesh. In fact, they were more comfortable with that and they didn't want to go back and rebuild the walls and the temple that was lying in ruin in Jerusalem, which spoke of their spiritual life in that day.

In our life and in our time, the temple is our heart where Jesus lives. Are we more comfortable with the world? I think the greatest attack that we get is materialism and apathy, and we're going to see in a few moments as we read through this, compromise. This is what Daniel is seeing amongst God's people. He is seeing materialism, he is seeing apathy, and he's seeing compromise, and it cuts him to the core. What is wrong with you? The most important thing is where God's presence is, and you settle in here in the land of your enemy, in the land of bondage? You've settled into materialism, you're apathetic towards spiritual things, you've compromised your walk, and you're not going back and rebuilding now? You're not excited about it?

Even the people that went back—historians tell us, and we can read it even in scripture, I think like 4,200 people went back, and then they took 700 slaves with them. It was less than 5,000 people. Less than 5,000 people went back. Daniel's broken over it. Haggai, one of the minor prophets writing about the same time, is a contemporary. Listen to what he says in the second year of Darius the king. Now, note the timeframe. When Cyrus, the conquering king of the Medo-Persians, conquers Babylon, who does he set up as a vassal king as he goes on and does other business? Darius.

Darius the king, the second year. This is two years and a half into the reign of Cyrus. The decree has already been given to go home and rebuild the temple, and they haven't. In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel. Now remember, Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Joshua the high priest have gone back to rebuild the temple because they had stopped doing it. We can read in Ezra why they stopped doing it: because the work was too difficult. Too hard. The temple lies in a heap of ruin. We tried and we gave up.

Again, where's the temple today? Who is the temple today? The Bible says you are the temple. That's the verse as you come in through the hallway out of the fellowship hall into the sanctuary. You and I are built upon a foundation. That foundation is the Old Testament, the prophets, and the New Testament, the apostles, and Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. We're built upon this foundation and we are fitly framed together, and we grow into this habitation of God by his spirit. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Making sure that that temple remains constructed and maintained is a lot of work. It means denying the flesh. It means disciplining the flesh. It means feeding the spirit and denying the flesh man. It means a lot of things. It means prayer, supplication, and being in the word. It means seeking God's face and not just his hand. There's so much to the Christian life and to the Christian experience that goes so far beyond just the mundane, routine stuff. There’s something that has to happen in the spirit—that we keep our hearts circumcised before the Lord, the scales from our eyes and the stops from our ears, and we stay passionately in love. We keep that fire burning in our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. We build our lives upon his word. It's work.

They go to do the work, the place where God's presence was, and they say it's just too much. It's too hard. We'll just play church. We'll pretend that it's done. Now notice what Haggai says here. He says to Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the high priest, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, "Thus speak the Lord of hosts." God is speaking to you now, and here's what he's got to say: "This people, they say the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. It's not time. Got plenty of time to work on my heart, my passion, my life. It's not time."

Then came the word of the Lord to Haggai the prophet, saying, "Is it time for you"—this is God speaking—"is it time for you, oh ye that dwell in your paneled houses, your lush remodeled houses? Is it time for you to live in your lush remodeled houses and this house, the house of the Lord, lie in waste? Where are your priorities?" Haggai would say as he's giving them the word of the Lord. Where are your priorities? Are your priorities on the horizontal or are they on the vertical? Are your priorities about the stuff that belongs to you or the stuff that belongs to me, the Lord? Where are your priorities?

You're saying it's not time. "I got plenty of time, and I'll get to it sooner or later." Sometimes that's exactly how we treat the Lord as Christians. "Lord, I can't pray today, I'm busy, but I'll catch up with you maybe on the weekend. I got all this stuff going on." You know, I've often thought of that song—I can't remember the guy that wrote it—"Cat's in the Cradle." "Silver spoon, little boy blue and the man in the moon." Yeah, well, here's a father that spent no time with his son, and his son grows up to spend no time with the father. But that's not true with us. Our Father waits with bated breath for us. And it's "Can I have the car keys, please? I got things to do, places to go. But we'll have a good time, Lord, when we get together. We'll have a good time then." And it's always later, and later never comes. This is why Daniel's heart is broken.

You say it's not time. It's not time to build the house of the Lord, but you're building your houses. Then he says this: "Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts." Twice he will use this phrase: "Consider your ways. Consider your ways. You have sown much, and you bring in little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you're not filled with drink. You clothe, but none of you are warm. You earn wages, and the earn wages you put in a bag to bring home, and I'll poke holes in the bag," God says, "so it all falls out. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: consider your ways."

Here's the second time. "Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. You look for much, and lo, it's come to little. And when you brought it home, I blew upon it. I blew it away. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that is waste, and every man runs to his own house." Materialism. Apathy toward the things of the Lord.

The prophet Haggai is stirring Zerubbabel. They're back in the land now, but they're not working on the house of the Lord. They said it's just too much, it's too hard. We'll just play church; we'll pretend that it's done. They didn't remember. Zechariah, another minor prophet, had to come and remind them, "Listen, this work that you're doing, it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. You've set your hand to a good work, and you will put the capstone on that good work. You will finish it through the power of the Lord, and when you're done with it, you will say 'grace, grace' to it."

"Listen, you've got it all wrong. You're trying to do it in your own energy. You're trying to do it as a religious kind of a thing instead of a born-again kind of a thing." And here, Daniel's telling them, "I am grieved because there's materialism, there's apathy, and not only that, there's an opportunity for compromise." Because when we read Ezra—listen to what it says in Ezra, chapter 4, just the first five verses. This is all background so you understand why Daniel is in the condition he's in.

In Ezra—and again, this is the timeframe, this is God's people, a few of them, a fraction of those that are living in Babylon. Now that they're released to go home, very few go back to rebuild the temple. The few that go back get discouraged and they give up on rebuilding the temple and they start living their own lives of materialism and apathy toward the things of God. In the middle of this, they're offered a compromise. Listen to the compromise.

"Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord their God Israel..." When their enemies heard, "Okay, they're rebuilding the temple." You read Nehemiah and that whole first eight chapters is about this spiritual struggle on how you rebuild that place of God in your life and you put the walls of protection around you so that your enemies can't come in and, with their little sorties, in any way affect the worship of the Lord. That's what Nehemiah is about.

"Then came to Zerubbabel, the chief of the fathers, and he said unto them, 'Let us build with you, for we seek your God, as you do. And we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, the king of Assur, which brought us up hither.'" Who are these people and what are they saying? These are the ten northern tribes. Because of their sin and idolatry, they were led into captivity with the Assyrians, and they mixed Assyrian worship right along with godly worship. What they did is they sent for some priests because they were having trouble with them, brought them into Assyria, and said, "Okay, you can teach your ways and we'll just kind of mingle it with our ways." Listen, these were compromised people. They say, "Well, let us come and help you."

I wonder how many of those people are in churches today helping in spiritual things that have no business doing it. They're like the Samaritans of old that mingle the things of God with the things of the world. I wonder in churches today how much of idolatry is mingled in with spirituality and called the work of God. Compromise. But Zerubbabel, at least at this point, and Joshua the high priest, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel said unto them, "You have nothing to do with us and with the building of the house of our God, but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, and King Cyrus, the king of the Persians, have commanded us."

"Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah and troubled them in the building." If you reject the compromise that's coming into the church today and you say, "We're not going to build anything of the flesh; it will be of the Spirit. It will be a work of God. It will be built upon his word and upon the foundation of his word. It will be energized by the Spirit. That's the work we're going to do. We're not going to buy into all of this other stuff that's coming into the church," then guess what? That which is called the church will persecute you.

Well, who crucified Jesus? It was religious people. He says, "Listen, then the people of the land..." When you get to Nehemiah, you see that Sanballat and his gang persecuted Nehemiah. They brought letters of accusation and everything they could, and Nehemiah finally had to say, "Listen, go away. You just want me to come down into the valley of Ono"—good name for a valley—"Ono, because you seek to do me harm. Why should I leave this work that I've set my hand to do to come down and to entertain you? You only seek to do me harm."

They had to build those walls around Jerusalem, which are walls of protection, with a sword in one hand and the trowel, laying brick, with the other. What is the Holy Spirit trying to say to us through the opening parts of Daniel? That that's how your life is going to be. Whatever is built of the Spirit in your life, in my life, whatever God does and works through the life of this church as he reaches out from us, it will come with great difficulty. You will do it with, as it were, a building instrument in one hand and a sword in the other, and you just have to come to terms with that.

Because we have an enemy. Oh, he's a defeated enemy. He's not greater than we are. The Spirit that's been given to us is greater than he is. The weapons of our warfare are stronger than he is. We're more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. Everything that we need to be victorious in this battle, we've been given. We just need to appropriate it. Satan, prince of darkness grim—we tremble not at him. One word, when Jesus comes, will fell him. By the way, when you put the whole armor of God on and you shut the visor, it's God's armor. He doesn't know who's in the armor. In fact, the Bible tells us, James does, if we resist him, he has to flee.

But it is a battle. And here these people troubled them. Let's read verse 5: "And they hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia even unto the reign of Darius king of Persia." These people just came and tried to do whatever they could to disrupt the work of God. What was he talking about? Spiritual warfare.

Spiritual warfare, when you look at this from Haggai, Ezra, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, as you're looking at this time in Daniel, three things come to the fore that we have to be on the alert against. Number one: materialism. My prayer has been—and I'll just share this with you guys tonight—my prayer has been that God would wake up America, and I think that he's going to use the economy to do that. Christians won't be up on the lake in their ski boats on Sunday anymore, not when gas is $10 a gallon.

If I hear another Christian say, "Well, that's where I worship God," well, you're not worshipping the God of the Bible. Can I say that tonight? Because the God of the Bible says, "Don't neglect the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some, but all the more as you see the day of the Lord approaching." When the doors are open to the church, you ought to be here. Can I get an amen? You ought to be here.

Wednesday nights are optional for a carnal Christian, not for one who wants to grow in his faith and in grace. Not optional. How many times you eat physically a week? Is Monday through Saturday optional, and you only eat on Sunday? The congregation would look a lot different. But spiritually, that's how you look if you're not feeding and praying and in the word. Materialism. Spiritual apathy. Compromise. When they're rebuilding the temple, they have to battle against these things. This is what Daniel is saying, and Daniel is grieved because he expected everyone to say, "We can't wait to get out of here. We can't wait to get home. We can't wait to get that temple reconstructed. We can't wait to get the walls up again. We can't wait to bask and bathe in the presence of our God. We can't wait to see again the sacrifices for our sins and all of the worship and the wave offerings and the praise offerings going on again. We can't wait for the morning, the afternoon, and the evening prayers to be reinstituted."

And he says they what? It's like the song that Keith Green sang: "Jesus rose from the dead, and you can't even get out of bed." This is what's grieving Daniel. What's grieving him is the condition of the heart of his people, who should know better—who should know better. And he said, "I was grieved these many days." And then he says in verse 4: "And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel..." We know it's the Tigris today if you look on a map. What is he out there doing? He's praying. He's mourning. He's fasting, but not because he's called a fast; he just—his appetite has left him.

I love what God does for Daniel. Let me say this. When you look—and I'm not saying this church, but I'm connected with a lot of churches outside. The condition of the church, from what I'm hearing outside—I only go to the churches we planted when I teach, or I go to Brian Cochran's conference. I'm around like-minded people. But there are some pastors connected with other churches, and the things that I hear, the compromises. I couldn't believe it. I had a pastor send me an article on a church not too far from here that was having a men's Bible study called "Brew and Bible." Where they would sit around and get drunk while they studied the Bible.

Oh, it gets worse than that. I don't even want to mention some of the other things that are associated with Bible studies. It's like anything but that which is spiritual. There’s almost like an apostasy, an apathy, a heart-hardenedness that has settled in on the church. Where's the fire? Where's the power of the Spirit? Where is the anointing and the unction? Where is the dedication and the commitment? Where's the loyalty? Where's the gratitude? Where is the brokenness and the humility? Where's the crying out to the living God to change your heart, life, and mind and to change this world? Where is the cry for the souls that are lost?

We want to turn the churches into nightclubs. There's a church not far from here—I want to go check it out, but I don't—but their drummer is on a hydraulic system that goes up in the air and he spins around when he drums. You see, I used to play the drums. Smoke machines. What are we competing with? What are we competing with? Does it not grieve your heart?

Thomas Aquinas was being given a tour of the Vatican. As he's given a tour of the Vatican, the tour guide says, "Now look at the treasury room here. Look at the gold, look at the silver. Look at the paintings, look at the sculptures." And the tour guide said, "No longer can the church say silver and gold have we none. Look at all of this." And Thomas Aquinas said, "But neither can they say 'rise and be healed' either."

The church has to come back. The true church is and always has been there, and never will leave there. The true church in this situation is represented by Daniel and his companions, who remained uncompromising through all of the difficulty they went through—being plucked from their hometown, put into Babylon, and now into Medo-Persia as they come into control—but remain faithful to their God.

Listen to what Daniel—he's grieving. And I love what God does for Daniel in this grieving. He gives him in verses 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 a picture of the risen Christ. You will never be able to be successful in spiritual warfare and keep your compass pointed in the direction that it needs to be pointed until you look full in the Master's face. You get a full understanding of who he is and what he is. And when you are in his presence, everything else burns away.

Listen to what he says. He says, "Then I lifted up my eyes and I looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen"—almost the same description we get in chapter 1 of Revelation as John sees the risen Christ. By the way, both of these accounts are an answer to the prayer that Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, when he's praying to the Father and he says, "Father, my heart is that they could see me as I was with you in the beginning." Not as the lamb who takes away the sins of the world, not as a baby born in a manger, but as the Lion of the tribe of Judah in all of my glory. May they get a glimpse of me in all of my glory because once they see my glory, nothing else will trouble them.

Here's what he says. He says, "I saw this with my own eyes. I looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen with his loins girded with fine gold." And then he says, "His body was like beryl, his face was the appearance of lightning, his eyes like lamps of fire and his arms and his feet were colored as polished brass. And his voice of his words were like the voice of multitudes. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great quake fell upon them. A fear fell upon them." Like the guys when Saul of Tarsus is being knocked off his high donkey and God is speaking to him. He's having a conversation with the Lord, but the men that are with him don't hear anything. They just see the bright light.

These men quaked; there was a fear that came upon them because God's presence was being manifested there. He said, "I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men that were with me saw not the vision, but a great fear, a quaking, fell upon them so that they fled and hid themselves. Therefore I was left alone and I saw a great vision and there remained no strength in me. For my comeliness"—that means my sin—"was turned inside out. Who I really am as a human being came to the fore. It was turned in me into corruption and I retained no strength."

I think when we're in the presence of the Lord, that's exactly what takes place. I've never had this kind of an encounter, but I've had some pretty good ones. I'll tell you, when I go up in the mountains and I start praying—usually it's praying about you, the church, and other things—pretty soon it's about me and my heart and my shortcomings and the things God wants to purge from my life. Sometimes it starts with me doing my prayer walks. I'm upright walking and pretty soon it doesn't seem like I can walk anymore because of the heaviness of just that work of the Spirit comes on me. I'll find a stump somewhere and I'll sit on the stump, and pretty soon it's not good enough to be sitting on a stump; I'm on my knees, my face down on the stump. Pretty soon I find myself with my face in the dirt saying, "God, what is wrong with me?"

"Lord, may I decrease that you might increase." I'm learning when I feel that presence of the Lord not to go so much for prayer walks as stay in my little trailer because my wife bought me a really nice rug. When I finally end up on the ground, it's a nicer rug. I don't have to pick the pine needles and all the other stuff and knock off the dirt. Sometimes the sap gets on there and I come home and I got a stain on a shirt and you can't get it out because the sap's there. Even Tide can't get it out. But it's those moments, those times, when the refiner's fire, the fuller's brush scrubs on me and the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life seem to just dissipate.

The only thing that matters is me and him and him and me. Oh, those times are too far and few in between for me. Daniel's having one of those moments. God is preparing this man to see the warfare that is coming as he walks him through the vision of those four kingdoms on into the Antichrist, the final kingdom, and the final battle. Before he reminds him of the battle, he reminds him of who the commander-in-chief of the battle is. The battle is never ours. It never belonged to us. The battle belongs to the Lord.

By the way, he's more than able. Never lost a battle, never will lose a battle. He doesn't need us in the battle. In fact, the final battle, when we come back with him, we're not even involved in it; we just get to watch as the sword of truth proceeds from his mouth, as it were, and slays his enemies and the blood flows for 200 miles to the horse's bridle as God brings judgment upon the wicked. So Daniel's about to get this vision and he's about to get this understanding in this vision that we're in a battle and we have an enemy. This enemy is going to attack us in several different ways.

Three of these we see through Ezra and Haggai. The first thing will be materialism: when the things that belong to you and of this life become more important than the things of God and the things that belong to eternity. Then you have entered into a lukewarm relationship where materialism is more important than godliness. Oh, the devil wants you there where you're working on your stuff and not his. Oh, the second thing is apathy. "I got plenty of time, I'll get around to it, God. It's not that I've abandoned anything, I'll get to it." And you become apathetic about the things of the Spirit.

I'm not saying you guys; this is a warning to the church. When I say church, I'm not talking about our little church; I'm talking about the church. Understand? The church. Because we're living in a time where Paul said the church would fall into apostasy and they would leave the biblical faith. It will come first of all through materialism, stimulating the flesh, then apathy toward spiritual things, and then compromise. In order for God to communicate to Daniel for that never to happen, he lets him see Jesus in all of his glory. Once you've seen Jesus in all of his glory, the things of this earth, they grow strangely dim. Amen? It’s an old hymn. We need to start singing it again: "Look full in his face." I can't remember how it all goes; we used to sing it all the time. "And the things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace." Yeah, the problem is we're looking in the wrong places.

So he gets this understanding of who Jesus is. Then verse 10—and I believe it's Gabriel, you can believe whoever you want. I think God sends the messenger that he always sends to Daniel; it's Gabriel. Before we're done with chapter 10, we're going to find out that we're just going to end with this verse. We're going to see that Gabriel comes and he communicates with Daniel, and then Michael helps Gabriel. So we have two of the greatest generals, as it were, as far as angels go in heaven. You know there were three: there was Lucifer, there was Gabriel, and Michael. When Lucifer rebelled, he took a third of them with him. But the two major generals of the host of the armies of heaven are going to come and they're going to minister to Daniel.

Do you think that God won't send the greatest of the host of heaven to minister to you? First, Jesus shows up in all of his glory and it blows him away. It blows him away so much that—well, let's read it, verse 9: "Yet I heard the voice of his words, and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep, my face and my face was toward the ground." Man, I'll tell you, when God shows up, you fall prostrate. There doesn't seem to be, when God is moving in your heart—how many have had that experience where it just doesn't seem like there's any place low enough? Your face in the dirt. I've had my face in the dirt many times before the Lord. I prefer the carpet, but the dirt—sometimes that's where I'm at. It just doesn't seem low enough.

Now, I am humbled that a God like that would love a wretch like me and that I could actually experience his presence to that degree and that level. In this flesh, man, the only thing you can do is just get on your face and you cry out like Isaiah did, "I'm an undone man and I dwell amongst a people who are undone. I need something from outside of me to come and touch me, take the coal as it were from the altar, touch my lips, make me clean." Because right now, I do not feel clean. When you get a vision of who he is, when the fear of the Lord comes on you, you fear no man because you know who you serve.

Then in verse 10, we'll end here tonight: "And behold, a hand"—aren't you glad for those moments?—"it touched me, and it set me upon my knees, upon my palms of my hands." Let's just read one more. "And it said unto me"—this is no doubt Gabriel being sent by God; he seems to be the messenger that God always uses to bring messages to Daniel, so it's as good a guess as any, but it's an angel. We move from it being Jesus as he sees Jesus, now we have this angel touching Daniel. "And he said unto me, 'Oh, Daniel, a man greatly beloved. Understand the words that I speak unto thee and stand upright, for unto thee am I now sent.'"

We're going to find out that the minute that Daniel began to pray, as it were, God sent Gabriel to minister to him. The moment he set his heart to pray. We're going to realize there's spiritual warfare next week that was involved in that, that hindered that. I think one of the things we have to remind ourselves of: the moment we set our hearts to pray for something—for revival in this church, for an outpouring of the Spirit, for souls to be saved, for prodigals to come home—the moment we begin to pray, God wants to answer those prayers. Do you know that? 1 John chapter 5 says, "If we ask anything in accordance with his will, we can have confidence that not only will he hear us, but he'll give us the things that we petitioned him for." Is it God's will that the prodigals come home? Is it God's will that people get saved? Is it God's will to heal? We know from the Bible it is.

Why doesn't it happen? Could it be spiritual warfare? What if Daniel would have only prayed 20 days and didn't pray to the 21st day when it came and just gave up? I think sometimes God tests the tenacity of our prayer life. I prayed for my father for 17 years. One morning, unexpectedly, sitting at the kitchen table with him, he looked at me and said, "Mike, why would God choose you and not me?" And the whole thing came bubbling out, and I got to lead my father to the Lord. 17 years. We would load our kids up with scriptures and send them over to their grandparents' house like little scripture bombs.

I wonder how easily distracted we can be as Christians. 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If my people called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek my face"—not my hands. I've got this dog. Every morning, I mean he can hear me in there brushing my teeth when I come downstairs, and he's whining and his tail will whack against anything. I know what he wants, and he only wants the bone that I give him, that little milk bone every morning he gets a milk bone from me. And when he gets it, he's gone. Because he's not seeking me; he's seeking what's in my hand.

If my people will seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then from heaven would I hear and I'd heal their land. I don't think that means Trump back in office and gas $2 a gallon again. I think he would heal our land spiritually because our land is broken. Amen? But he's not going to do more than you're willing to commit yourself to do. Do you believe that God is a God who answers prayer? Have you seen Jesus? Do you know him? Then what should the church be about today if it's not prayer? Amen? I exhort you: think about it, examine yourself. Why are some of the things in our lives not fixed? Have you committed it to the Lord in prayer? Do you continue to pray like Jesus said—the lady knocking on the judge's door until she never gave up? She kept bugging that guy until he finally ruled in her favor.

I think that we have a great lesson before us, and we're just scraping the surface so far. We'll get some more next week. Please come back. I'm not laying an onus on you; I think sometimes God needs to stir us. In fact, Peter said, "Stir up those things that were given to you by the laying on of hands. Stir them up." You know what that word means, "to stir up"? It means to take, as it were, coals and stir them until they become a flame again.

Interesting story: the first time we went out camping, my son and I, into the Nevada desert, we didn't take any firewood because we usually camp in the forest and there's plenty of firewood to be had. We get out there and there's no firewood. It's cold; it gets cold at night in the desert. All we knew to do is—I sent him over with a machete and he started chopping down all of these big sagebrushes, and we'd pile them on this fire and they'd burn like wow, like Moses in the burning bush, and then they'd go down to nothing real quick—like cotton candy. Man, it was cold out there, and we just kept putting them on until we put all on we could put on. There was nothing more to be gathered around, and there's just this big thing of coals. But what we found is if you stirred it, it flamed up. Apparently, there's a lot of oil in that sagebrush, and when you stir it, the oil ignites. What a lesson. May God stir us in these last days. There are things in my heart that need to be stirred. There are things in my heart that need to be disciplined. There are things in my heart that need to go, and there are things that need to come. Could you say amen?

Just me. I'm the only one. I'm the only one in here that needs to get that vessel scrubbed up a little bit better and more so that I'm not distracted. Amen? Well, let's stand. I'll close you in prayer and we'll sing this last song. Again, I go out here thinking, "Man, these people are going to feel..." I'm not here beating you up. I'm really not. Exhortation is not beating you up. You know, the only way you will feel beaten up if you go out of here is if you don't want to do what you ought to be doing. Amen? How many know that your walk with the Lord is not where it ought to be? Just by show of hands. Okay, how many know what it takes to get it there? I just told you. See Jesus and fall on your face. Pray. Amen? May we see Jesus. Amen? Then the warfare won't seem so big. Amen?

Father, thank you tonight for your word. May we be a people that don't bite at materialism, or are not so connected with this world. We touch, as Paul would say, this world just as lightly as possible, seeing that the present scheme of things is rapidly passing away. Lord, we know that we have to go to work, we have to earn a living, we have to put a roof over our heads, clothes on our back, food in our bellies. Lord, you command us to be diligent in our work ethic. But Lord, beyond that, what should own our hearts is you.

May we not become materialistic or apathetic. Lord, keep us from that apathy, from that mediocrity, from just giving our least and not our best. Father, may we not compromise. May we grow in grace and the knowledge of your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, may we be those that could say even as Jeremiah said: "Your word, it burns in me. It burns in me to the point where I can't keep quiet. It burns in me." So, Lord, we know that that is done by a work of your Spirit. It's not anything we can drum up. It'd be like a diet: we're on it today and gone tomorrow. We need the convicting work of your Spirit. We need that work of your Spirit in our hearts. And we ask for it tonight. We're going to continue to ask for it until you give it to us without measure. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.