In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: Turn to Daniel chapter 11. I found it very interesting having come out of secular college studying to be and desiring to be a world history teacher. When we get to these particular chapters where it lays out world history with such accuracy hundreds of years before it happens, what a proof text for us when it comes to the credibility and the inspiration of the Bible.

After I had studied the history and world history, I had the wonderful privilege that the world history teachers, the two of them, Kemper and Ostrowski, that I had at the high school I went to wrote the textbook for the state of California on world history. They went on to be professors at Chico State, so I went through high school and I still had them in college. At least Mr. Ostrowski I did. I must have wore Mr. Ostrowski out because I asked so many questions.

I wasn't a believer in high school. Between then and college, I had become a believer or during college. The questions I had for him, I can still hear it ringing in my ears: "Mr. Warren." Kind of that disgusting "you again, put your hand down" feel.

It is interesting as we come to this particular chapter because a lot of the scholarship, at least the higher critics—you know the difference between a higher critic and a lower critic. Don't worry, we're not going to do the whole chapter tonight. Just calm down. You don't have to keep looking at your watch thinking if he's going to drag through the introduction, how are we going to get through it? We're not going to get through it tonight. We're going to get some ways through it but not all the way.

When you come to these kind of chapters, the higher critics are the ones who challenge the authority of the Bible. They challenge who wrote it, when it was written, and really they challenge anything that is miraculous or anything that is inspired, anything that is supernatural. They will challenge those things. The lower critics are more concerned if that particular word is being interpreted right. A higher critic doesn't mean he's smarter; it just means he's got his nose in the air when it comes to the scripture. That is how I was taught in seminary. He's got his nose in the air because he's not got his eyes on the scripture as the lower critics do.

They will tell you there is no way that Daniel could have been written at the time it purports to be written because it will deal now, as we move into Chapter 11 and Chapter 12, with 375 years of world history. It will deal with it with such accuracy they say there's just no way unless he is looking back and recording history.

What the higher critics will say if you read some of these commentaries, they will say it was written in a literary style that was as though he was predicting it, although he was just recording it. But you have to go back to Chapter 10 where this section is being introduced to us. It is interesting that in the first verse, it's as though somebody else is introducing Daniel.

We don't know who this person is. It could have been another prophet, could have been Ezekiel, could have been Jeremiah, could have been Gabriel that puts pen to paper in this particular section. Notice what it says in Chapter 10, Verse 1: "In the third year of Cyrus the king." It gives us the time and the date that Daniel has these visions.

When we get to Chapter 11, it's also going to give us the time and the date that Daniel records these things as he gets the information from Gabriel, the angel who's giving him this information. We have on our side chronology put in there by the Holy Spirit, set pen to paper so that we'd understand the time.

In Chapter 10, when we started this last section of Daniel's visions and prophecy, it begins by saying, "In the third year of Cyrus the king of the Persians, a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar; and the thing was true, but the time appointed was long: and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision."

Then it begins in Chapter 2 with Daniel recording. The first part of what he begins to record is the spiritual warfare that was associated with these things coming to pass, and we got a good view of that last week. Now as we come again to the end of Chapter 10, we want to back up just one verse because we believe this is Gabriel that is speaking. He seems to be the messenger that God sends to inform Daniel.

As we come now to the end of Chapter 10, let's just back up to Verse 20 so we can kind of get a run at it. "Then said, and I believe this is Gabriel that is speaking, if you go through this chapter you'll kind of come to that conclusion too, then said, I believe it's Gabriel, he's saying unto Daniel, knowest thou wherefore I came unto thee? Do you know why I was sent to you?"

Remember he tells us that he fought against the prince of the powers of the air of Persia. Michael the archangel came and helped them. We know that it was Gabriel who came and he talked to Daniel in Chapter 10. Now he's telling him at the end of Chapter 10 when he leaves he's got to fight against the prince of the powers of the air not only of Persia, but he's got to take care of the ones that are over Greece too. Michael will be there to help him.

We know for a fact that this is Gabriel, and Gabriel says to Daniel, "Do you know wherefore why I have come unto thee? And now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come." There is this spiritual battle in heavenly places that he reminds us of. He says this in Verse 22: "But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth."

There are people running around today that are saying that we can change history. There's this whole dominion theology, maybe you've heard about it, or the seven mountains theology where there are a group of people that are saying that Jesus can't return until they have subdued and taken over control of the government, the finances, every realm in the human experience. They have to dominate that and bring it into Christianity and they literally will usher in the kingdom of heaven. It's called Kingdom Theology or Dominion Theology or Seven Mountains Theology. It goes by a bunch of different names.

What we need to know about prophecy is it's dyed in the wool. Rick Warren—and by the way, I'm not his brother, I'm not related to him physically or spiritually. You'll get that on the way home. Anytime somebody thinks the God of Islam is the same God of the Old Testament, he's a loon. He's out there somewhere. He's a space cadet; he hasn't landed yet. At least I landed 46 years ago and stopped being a space cadet and got real serious about what the Holy Spirit had to say through His Word.

He is saying that prophecy is in flux, that you can change it, and that's the whole peace plan that he's tried to introduce. Let me tell you about the Word of God, and this is what I believe, this is my conviction about the Word of God. Every book and every chapter in every book, every paragraph in every chapter, every sentence in every paragraph, every word, the spaces between the words and the exclamation points and periods and commas is ordained of God. It is inspired of God.

It's inspired, it's inerrant, and it's authoritative. It says what it means and it means what it says. God has laid out very clearly for us end-time prophecy. In fact, He said in Amos chapter 3, verse 7, that the Lord our God does nothing until first He reveals His secrets to His servants the prophets.

We know, and let me let you in on a little shock: America's not coming back as a world power ever again because it's not in prophecy in the last days. We get a few glimpses of it from Ezekiel when he says that the young lions of Tarshish, which we know for a fact is England—who are the young lions of England? That would be Australia, Canada, and America—will stand off in a distance when all of this stuff is going on in the Middle East and simply say, "What are you doing?"

Can you see that happening today with the current administration? Can you understand today that this current administration in one year has taken us from being a feared world power to a laughingstock around the world? It won't be long and they'll break the dollar, and the dollar will no longer be the world's currency. We're moving toward a one-world government.

We're moving toward the point where Daniel will end up as he ends at the last part of Chapter 11 and we'll get next week on into Chapter 12: the Antichrist coming up on the scene. When Daniel begins to put pen to paper under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and under the guidance of Gabriel, the messenger of God sent from the presence of God to inform Gabriel about the scriptures of truth, all of these things are going to be fulfilled in the last part of this in our lifetime. This is very apropos for us to study. It's applicable to the time we're living in.

He says, "I've come to reveal to you, to make note to you of the scriptures of truth, that which is dyed in the wool." Because the Bible says not one jot nor tittle—do you know what jots and tittles are? The little squiggly lines that are in Greek and Hebrew that change kind of the meaning of the word. Not one jot nor tittle will pass away of God's prophecy until all of it be fulfilled.

We live in a wonderful time where we have some hindsight. We can look back in this generation and see things that the generation before us couldn't see. In fact, they couldn't realize it. They had to try to spiritualize it away because they thought it to be an impossibility, and that's the rebirth of Israel as a nation.

I had an Encyclopedia Britannica that somebody gave me that was printed in 1906, and I had the letter "I." Someone gave it to me because it had Israel. When you looked up Israel in that Encyclopedia Britannica, it said it is as likely for Israel to ever become a nation again as for them to ever rediscover the ancient Hebrew language. It just kind of laid it out as an impossibility. Every commentary that you read back before 1948, all of the scholarship just kind of spiritualized away it.

In fact, this replacement theology took root. You know what replacement theology is: that the church replaced Israel, and that Israel is no more, and that God changed His mind about Israel and just set them aside forever and chose the church. I have a real problem with that mythologically because if God can change His mind and He's not a covenant-keeping God and He changes His mind about Israel, then He might change His mind about you and me. But that's not who He is. There's no shadow of turning in Him. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's a covenant-keeping God.

I had a guy question me on this one time when we were—he called me up here, he had read my doctrines class and gone through it and just wanted to correct me. He went off about this because he bought into replacement theology and he said, "Give me one verse where the Bible says that God hasn't set Israel aside."

I said, "I'll give you a chapter. In fact, I'll give you a chapter written by the most prominent apostle in the New Testament who wrote 14 of the New Testament letters, the Apostle Paul. Read Chapter 11 of Romans. We're just grafted in. God has not set His people aside."

We know that as we study through Revelation when we come into the 6th chapter on into the 19th chapter, God is dealing with Israel again. He's got 144,000 special evangelists of Israel He's going to send out. Israel is going to come, as Zechariah says, to the faith. Chapter 12 says they're going to one day mourn as their eyes are opened to their Messiah.

Israel—and I say all of that as a segue into this—Israel is always when we study prophecy, Israel is always the timepiece of God. Chapter 11, when you read through it and we're going to give you the history behind it tonight as far as we get, you're going to see Israel is in the centerpiece of what's going on.

We're going to hear about the next five kings of the Medo-Persians on into Alexander the Great conquering the world. His kingdom being broken up into the four and taken over by the four generals. Then we're going to see that two of the generals go to war for 130 years with each other. The kingdom of the North, the Seleucids, will fight against the Ptolemies down in the South because Israel's right in the middle, and they're going to get trampled all through this war.

Finally, a man is going to come to the fore of the Seleucid kingdom in the North that's going to conquer Israel: Antiochus Epiphanes. We'll see him tonight, and he's a type of the Antichrist. He does to them so we have a vivid picture of what the Antichrist in the future that's yet to come is going to do with Israel in our time.

God lays out in a very clear way biblical prophecy. We know that we are living in the last. People say to me that we have 18 satellite churches, we're in 25 different countries, we've got thousands of people out there that watch our live streams. I'll get these emails and they'll say, "Pastor, you keep saying you believe that Jesus is coming soon, that you believe that we're the last generation, that we're going to turn out the lights and lock the doors as far as the church is concerned, that you believe that in your lifetime Jesus is coming back. Why?"

It's not wishful thinking. For me, it's very simple. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 that the generation that sees the rebirth of Israel—and by the way, the fig tree bearing fruit again—there's a text that didn't make it into the canonization of scripture, but it has been authenticated, that Peter wrote. It's called the Revelation of Peter. I like to read even the stuff that didn't make it in; some of it can be kind of weird. I read the Apocrypha. Are you kidding me? When you get to the Maccabeans, it's in Daniel chapter 11, the wars of the Maccabeans. That's just history; that's accurate. I'm glad that to some degree that the Catholics put that in their Bible so that we still have a record so we can read about the war of the Maccabeans because it's in the scripture. But it's not scripture.

All them other things, man, are you kidding me? Where Jesus was as a baby making clay animals and making them come alive? Seriously? We have no record of that stuff. There's a lot that didn't make it into the canonization of scripture. I wish that the Revelation of Peter would have because it's a discussion that Peter has with Jesus when Jesus said, "Know the parable of the fig tree."

Peter didn't get it. Peter didn't get a lot at first, dumb fisherman. Jesus has this conversation with him that explains to him: "When we came into Jerusalem and I saw the fig tree that wasn't producing any fruit and I cursed it, what do you think that was an example of, Peter? That was an example of Israel because they're going to reject their Messiah and they're going to be cursed because of it."

Israel from the beginning has always been a type of the fig tree, and there's going to come a time when you are going to bear fruit. There's this wonderful conversation in Revelation of Peter. I have a copy of it in my office somewhere. I got so much junk up there, I can't even find it sometimes, but I can remember it. I have one of those kind of memories.

We know that when Jesus in chapter 24 of Matthew was talking about the fig tree, he was talking about the rebirth of Israel. Because in 70 AD, when Titus Vespasian, that great Roman general, came in and sacked the temple to put down an uprising of the Jews and destroyed the temple as Jesus said it would happen, they were scattered in what we call the Diaspora like seed being sown.

But all the way through Ezekiel and the prophets of old, there was always a promise that though they be scattered and their bones be dry and dead, that one day God would gather them back together. What Jesus was saying when he was asked—by the way, the context of this is that he was asked what would be the signs of your coming and the end of the world. He gives some birth pangs at first: deception. As Paul tells us in the last days, there will be a falling away from the biblical faith. Deception, wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilence.

Have we experienced any of that lately? But he said those would just be birth pangs; those are signs that you're getting close. The main sign he said is that the love of many will wax cold and lawlessness will abound. Seen any of that lately? He makes an incredible statement: "The genos, the generation that sees the rebirth of Israel."

It's a two-part prophecy. They regain control of Jerusalem because God's eyes are always on Jerusalem. We're going to see that as we go through Chapter 11. This is the prelude for that, the introduction so you'll get where I'm going when we go through it. That's His city. His eyes are continually upon Jerusalem. That's why we're to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

He's saying when they are birthed as a nation and regain control of Jerusalem, the genos that sees that will not pass away until all things be fulfilled or the generation. We know through this principle that we use in Bible interpretation called expositional consistency or expositional constancy. It simply is a term that describes when something is first used in the Bible, that example, if it's used as an allegory or a type, it remains the same throughout the Bible. It never changes.

Israel as the fig tree will never change all the way through. We know that anytime there's a reference scripturally, prophetically to a fig tree, it's referencing Israel. The first time a generation is used in the Bible is in Matthew chapter 1. Not genealogy in the Old Testament; generation's different. It's a marking of time.

By the way, it's associated with dates, and Sir Robert Anderson was knighted on his chronology. It's associated with dates. So many years from Noah to Christ and so we can go back and look at those generations and those years and we can figure out what a generation is. We can get close, within a few years. It's somewhere between 52 and 56 years.

On June the 7th, 1967, Moshe Dayan stood at the Wailing Wall and said for the first time in 2,000 years, Israel is now in possession of the holy city Jerusalem, we're home. At that moment, as it were according to the prophecy that Jesus gave in Luke's gospel, chapter 21, the city of Jerusalem was no longer trodden under foot of the Gentiles. It says it would be until the time of the Gentiles or the time of the church is completed.

You add 52 to 56 to 1967, and you're looking at 2022, 2023, 2024. Does it make sense that we might be living in the last days right now, the final moments? You think things are going to get better and better? There's no coming back from this. When this current administration—and by the way, as we study Chapter 10, I think this is not people to be blamed. There is a battle between the true and living God and the god of this world. This is between dark and light, wickedness and godliness. This is the battle, and he's using players just like he used, as we saw in Chapter 10.

I think there's a lot of demonic forces that just hover right over Washington, D.C. But we're moving toward a one-world government where the Antichrist can come to the fore. There's several things that have to take place for that to happen, and this is what we're going to see as we go through Chapter 11 and 12. It'll segue into that.

There's several things that have to happen. Number one, the Constitution of the United States has to be done away with. Because as long as the Constitution's in place, we're a sovereign nation. We would never be willing to submit to a government that's not our government, that our soldiers would never submit to a foreign force.

In fact, Micah, who's in the military, my son, and the people in our church that are military, our fighter pilots and the different Marines and stuff we have that go to this church, our youth pastor went through the Army too, they swear an oath to protect this nation against all foreign and domestic enemies, and to uphold not an administration, but the Constitution. So you got to remove that.

When you remove that, your Second Amendment rights go away, and they take away your ability to defend yourself. They take away, and they're doing it slowly, your ability of free speech to speak out against those tyrannical governments, your ability to protect yourself from those tyrannical governments. The Fourth Amendment, your property rights, they'll just come in and take because we know this from prophecy.

We're looking at a time where lawlessness is abounding, our nation is under attack, it's in decline like it's never been before. We're moving toward removing all of the rights. What do you think this COVID-19—this is a control thing to remove your rights, to make you submit to their control because the Bible talks clearly about America not being a player but a one-world government.

Then you have to do it militarily, so we have to break the United States Constitution, its military, which we're doing a good job of doing it right now. At least the current administration is. You've got to break the dollar because you have to have a one-world economy. When he is done, listen, Russia and China, the Asian countries, they'll have their own economy because what he is doing right now with inflation is he's breaking the dollar.

At some point, the dollar will be worth nothing so we can move toward a one-world economy. Then you got to have a one-world religion. What have we been hearing from the Pope for a long, long time? "Let's bring all faiths under one roof, can't we all just get along?" No, we can't. I can't walk with you unless we agree in truth, so we can't just get along. No, the king has no clothes. No, what you said was wrong.

We trust the authority of the Bible, not what the Pope says. By the way, the Pope, his word does not supersede the Bible. No man's word supersedes the Bible. In fact, I will just tell you, if you ever hear me teaching something the Bible doesn't teach, leave. In fact, don't just leave; have me arrested and put in a straitjacket and put some place that I need to be for my own good because we believe that it's inerrant, inspired, and authoritative.

We know chronologically from prophecy, from the words of Jesus, that this is the generation. Not one jot nor tittle will pass until all of it be fulfilled. It's not going to change, and you and I are not going to change it. You can grab your flags and rah-rah Trump '24; it's not going to change it.

I'd like to see Trump get elected again because I'd like to see gas at $2 a gallon again. I'd like to be able to afford a ribeye. Right now, I'm ribeyeless. I love a good ribeye, and I can eat that on this diet. I can't have them here because I can't afford them. I can't even afford a hamburger. Bacon is getting tough now. We've been substituting turkey bacon back and forth. It's getting tough.

All of this is under the preview of God because He's judging this world. Just before He judges it completely, He will remove us. How do we know these things are true? One of the greatest evidences is before us in Chapter 11 of Daniel, as Daniel lays out with such precise detail 375 years of human history from that point on to the future. Then he'll jump from Antiochus Epiphanes at the end of this chapter into the time we're living in. It's amazing with the detail that he gives.

Let's dive in and see if we can unpack some of it tonight. He says, "So I came," this is Gabriel speaking down, "I came, the purpose why I'm here, the spiritual warfare that's surrounding this is because the wicked one wants to keep you from the scripture of truth."

How many have gone to churches where they say, "Don't bring your Bible, we don't study doctrine here because doctrine is divisive"? I'm going to tell you, we're living in the time of a biblical apostasy. There's still remnant churches out there like us that still are going to hold true to the Word. But there are churches that'll tell you don't bring your Bible, you won't need it.

Doctrine is divisive, and I agree with them; it is divisive. It separates sheep from goats and wheat from tares, the true believer from the false believer. How do you know even how you're saved if you don't understand the doctrine of soteriology? How do you know who God is if you don't understand theology?

How do you know what the church is supposed to be about if you don't understand ecclesiology or where the church is going if you don't understand eschatology? When Paul is ready to leave the scene, he says to Timothy, "I charge you before God, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom: preach the word in season, out of season. You correct, you rebuke, you exhort, you comfort with all long-suffering and doctrine. Because the time will come when men will heap themselves teachers having itching ears, and they'll turn away from the truth and they'll just listen to fables."

"Mythos" is the Greek word there—myth, storytelling, sermonettes to Christianettes, things that tickle the ear that stimulate the flesh but don't deal with the spirit in a convicting way. I would rather God discipline me and get me into the kingdom than tell me what I want to hear and I go to hell. Amen?

Wouldn't you want that of a pastor too? By the way, I'm going to do that whether you like it or not, whether you leave or stay, because I fear God. Because I don't have to stand before you and give an account, but one day I do have to stand before as a teacher of God's Word. The Bible says don't be many of those because you're going to receive the greater judgment. When I get there, I want to say, "If I didn't get it quite right, I still read it. You said the Holy Spirit would lead us and guide us into all truth, so that's on you, God. But I did my part." Amen?

The reason why there's such spiritual warfare, I want to make note of that in Chapter 10 around Gabriel coming, is because there's always spiritual warfare around truth. Because there's two things that Satan fears: he fears God's Word and he fears the Christian that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, born again from above, having the Holy Spirit in him that leads him and guides him in all truth and who's standing on the Word. Because that's an army he cannot resist because he knows that when that army resists him, he must flee.

The hindrance that we saw back in Chapter 10 came for this purpose, as Gabriel is telling Daniel, "Listen, I came to show you the scripture of truth and there is none that help me with this but Michael, your prince." Now again, he's speaking to Israel and we know that Michael is the prince of Israel. He's the archangel who protects Israel.

As the eyes of the Lord are upon Jerusalem, God has assigned—and by the way, when you study through the scripture, Gabriel was an archangel and Lucifer, before he fell and became Satan and the devil, he was not an archangel. Some people say these are the three generals of heaven and they're all three archangels. Only Michael in the scripture, and only four times, is called an archangel.

I don't know what an archangel is, but I kind of think it's the baddest dude on the block. I think that is the Arnold Schwarzenegger of angels when he was young, not today. He's lost his mind and his health today. But he is the baddest of the bad, and he protects Israel. Do you think anything's going to happen to Israel?

Isn't it funny that last week, we don't know why, but a missile base in Iran just blew up? Wow. You talk about the Iron Dome over Israel; that ain't got nothing on God. Psalm 83 says as when this war breaks out, God Himself shows up. Read it because that war is pending. We're on the precipice of Psalm 83 followed by Ezekiel 38 and 39.

That's what you see going on right now with Russia and China and Iran and everything that's going on in the Middle East. This nation now, as we're told in Jeremiah, that all nations will be against Israel in the last days, and it's there. Israel stands alone, and of course Netanyahu said, "No problem, we'll stand alone. We'll take care of Israel."

Did you know a couple weeks ago they flew a bunch of their jets into Lebanon and flew them back, and they never were seen on the radar but they were seen flying? That was just Israel saying, "When we get ready to take out the centrifuges in Iran, you won't know. You can't track our jets."

Isn't that a wonderful thing? Six-day war, they couldn't track their F-16s either. They were like seven different jets; they didn't know which one to shoot at. Israel's technology is so far superior to ours or any nation. Why? Because God gave it to them. Not because they're smarter and brighter, but because they're His people. Guess what we are? We're His people; we should be smarter and brighter. Amen?

We're living in a time where the stage is set because we know what happens when Psalm 83 kicks off: that all of the countries that were promised in the Abrahamic Covenant become in possession of Israel for the first time in Israel's history with all of the oil. Russia and her horse come down because they need a spoil, which is the oil.

Every seven soldiers that come down in the Battle of Hamon-Gog, one is left to survive and they're going to have to cleanse the land for seven months and for seven years bury the dead. Then we're thrust into the tribulation and this man of sin, as we're going to see—this is all part of Chapter 11 on into Chapter 12—when this man of sin comes to the fore in our lifetime, he'll have all of the answers.

He'll tell Israel, "Go ahead and build your temple." By the way, Israel has all of the stuff already recreated to do that, all the priests trained. "Build your temple, do your thing, calm down." Because the whole Middle East is going to be in a disaster. Through peace and through flattery, as we're going to see in Chapter 11, he is going to deceive the nations.

Even Israel, as we're going to see as an example when we go through Chapter 11, even Israel is going to think that he's the Messiah till three and a half years into the tribulation when their eyes are opened when he offers the abomination of desolation talked about in Daniel as Antiochus Epiphanes did. That's why the Maccabean wars followed that because they drove him out so they could cleanse the temple.

These are all types of what's happening in our time. The church has to be gone when that happens. Why? Because Paul tells us when he writes to the Thessalonians that he can't even be revealed, speaking of the man of sin who here in Daniel 11 calls him the vile man, the man of sin, can't even be revealed until that which constrains is taken out of the way.

We know that which constrains because Jesus told us what it was. He said, "You're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world." Light dispels darkness, salt keeps meat from putrefying. It's an antiseptic. When you and I are gone, this man will come to the fore. If you wake up tomorrow and you hear that this war's broken out, look up because your redemption is like today. You may not know the moment, but it's close. We're close. It's close. Amen?

This is why when we come to Chapter 11, it's so important that we dissect it. Let's see how far we can get with what time we have left from the introduction. He says this, now notice carefully, if you know anything about grammar—and by the way, if you know anything about the Bible, chapters and verses were added much later. There were no chapter divisions when this book was written.

Chapter 10 would have flowed right into Chapter 11. Gabriel comes and says, "Listen, Daniel, the reason I came is to make sure that you understood the scripture of truth. There'll always be spiritual warfare around that. But you have me, Gabriel, which is a premier angel, and you have the archangel Michael watching over you. Also I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him."

Gabriel is helping out these governments, so there are spiritual forces behind governments. If you understand English at all, it's still a reference back to Gabriel, not Daniel. He said, "Daniel, I came to show you truth. Oh, and by the way, I'm the one that's working behind the scenes with Darius. The reason why Cyrus, when he came in and conquered Babylon, and there Daniel met him to show him the scripture, that's the reason why Cyrus spared Jerusalem."

In fact, that's the reason why Cyrus gave the decree to go back and rebuild the temple and let you worship again, because I'm working behind the scenes. We're going to see tonight when Alexander the Great comes into Jerusalem, the high priest meets him and shows him the scriptures that describe him.

Because of that—and he had a vision of this high priest before he entered the city. When he came in, he was shocked, Alexander the Great, because he had had a dream and a vision of this very man in this very context and this very scene doing exactly what this man was doing. It blew him away. The man says, "You are mentioned in scripture." Because of that, he spared Jerusalem; he didn't destroy it.

God's eyes are on Jerusalem. God is not done with His people Israel. He shut that door at the 69th week to them because they rejected Messiah that you and I might come in as the church. Well, that pendulum's about to swing to the 70th week and the church is going to be gone. You and I have a short time left here. Aren't you glad for that?

I was kind of bummed out. I got to thinking, the Lord convicted me of what I've been eating and how many carbs I've been taking, so I started eating healthy. But I got to thinking, that was about a waste of time. No wonder the scripture says that bodily exercise profits little. I'm getting a new body soon anyway. I could exchange the fat one for the thin one. Now I got to exchange a thin one for a thin one. What fun is in that?

But I know I'm getting a new body soon. So listen how this goes. "Also," he said in the first year of Darius the Mede, "I stood there to confirm and strengthen him. And now," this is Gabriel still speaking, "and now I will show thee the truth. I'm going to walk you, Daniel, from this moment all the way through the examples of the—actually, until the coming in of the Roman Empire."

The vision Daniel had back in Chapter 2 of Babylon, then the Medo-Persians, then the Greeks, because he'll be seeing the time of the Greeks and then the Romans. He's going to see that in Chapter 11. Then it will end with this Antiochus Epiphanes who's a type of the Antichrist. Then he's going to jump in Verse 36 of Chapter 11 to our time.

Very interesting the way this works out, but it's 375 years of history from here until he ends with Antiochus Epiphanes. This war between the Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom will last for 130 years with Israel stuck in the middle. The things that are going to go on are the same things we're seeing with Israel today. It's a remarkable prophecy.

He says, "And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings of Persia." After Cyrus, there's going to be three more. There were, amazingly. "And the fourth shall be far richer than they all are: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up against the realm of the Greeks."

Xerxes, the battle of Thermopylae, we studied that. You know when the 300 came out in the valley there and stopped as Xerxes was coming with his million-man army to attack Greece. You know that they stopped them long enough there, although they died, the 300 Spartans, so that the rest of the Greeks could flee back. There was more than 300 that came out there; there were thousands.

They went back and emptied the cities, so it was a hollow victory for King Xerxes when he came into Greece through that valley that the Spartans slowed him down on. But while they were slowing him down on that, he didn't realize that at the Battle of Marathon, his navy was sunk. King Xerxes, he flees back, as we studied in the Book of Esther, he flees back and sulks.

This is the transition now that's taking place from the Persians to the Greeks. I want you to make note of something if you're a note-taker. Two great kings are mentioned and then as they're divided, the Grecian kingdom after Alexander's death into four, only two of them are mentioned because every one of them have an association with Israel.

You understand when we studied the Book of Esther not long ago, that during the time of Xerxes—this Xerxes, this last king of Persia—Haman tried to annihilate the Jews. You remember the plot. It didn't work out so well, did it? Now when we get past Alexander, because he's only mentioned, we're going to go to his four generals or the four divisions of his kingdom. Then it's only going to focus on two: the Seleucids in the North and the Ptolemies in the South.

As they go to war for 130 years, Israel's caught in the middle. Again, the thing is Israel. Then when finally Antiochus Epiphanes comes into power, we'll walk through that tonight, when he comes into power, he defiles the temple and tries to destroy the Jews. He kills 80,000. He enslaves another 40,000. He sells another 40,000 into slavery.

Today if you go to Israel, and you get a Jewish tour guide—because that's the only one you can get because you have to be Jewish to be a tour guide in Israel—they will take you and show you Roman and Greek ruins because Israel's still there. The Persians and the Greeks and the Romans are a distant memory because God knows how to protect His people. Just like us. Amen? No weapon formed against is going to prosper.

It's a bummer that I can't afford ribeye anymore, but that's okay. I'm still eating; I still got a roof over my head. I'm convinced that when God was judging Egypt, He knew how to take care of His people in the land of Goshen. The plagues that went on in Egypt never came there. I might have to start buying hunting licenses again to get me some backstrap or something, but I'm going to be fine. You're going to be fine; maybe we all needed to go on a diet, I don't know.

He's saying as we go through this, the focus is on anything that has to do with Israel as we walk through this. He brings us down to Xerxes because during Xerxes' reign, Haman tried to wipe out the Jews and it never happened. In fact, when we go down to Verse 3, then it says, "And a mighty king," at the end of Xerxes' reign, at the end of the Medo-Persian empire, he says, "A mighty king shall stand up, and shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will."

That's a perfect example of Alexander the Great. He moved with such fluid and swiftness as he conquered. He literally conquered the world in such a short period of time. He was 32 years old when he lay in Babylon dying. We're not really sure what he died from. Some think it could have been something wrong with his brain or he might have had some kind of disease. We're not really sure. A lot of speculation about it; in fact, I've seen some programs lately on it, certain diseases he could have had.

At 32 years, he died mourning because there was no other country to conquer. He had conquered the world. As he lay dying, his posterity, his sons didn't inherit his empire. His four leading generals broke it up. Some have said, and some have quoted—and I'm not going to quote that because I can't find it verified—some would say that when they asked him who are you going to leave the empire to, who you going to leave your kingdom to, he is quoted as saying, "I'm going to leave it to the strong." He never said that; we can't verify that. It sounds good. We can't verify that.

But we do know as a point of history that it was divided North, East, South, and West. In fact, we know that Cassander took the East and Lysimachus took the West or vice-versa. But the main players we're going to see tonight is that Seleucus took the North and Ptolemy took the South. North being Lebanon, Syria, that area just above Israel. Ptolemy: South Africa, Egypt. And they went to war for 130 years, and guess who's caught in the middle of this war? Israel.

All of this history, don't lose yourself in the history, although it's so accurate as he describes it. Don't lose yourself in history; just keep reminding yourself that as God is walking us through prophecy, His eyes are on Jerusalem, they're on Israel. Even back when He told Daniel in Chapter 2 of the four great kingdoms that are going to come, and then the two legs: the Eastern Orthodox church and the Western Roman Catholic church, all the way down to the ten toes, the ten kings in the last days, which I believe are those ten nations that coalesced together during the 2011 Arab Spring that want Israel destroyed. They're radicalized, those ten toes. They're going to call for the destruction of Israel.

Then a stone without hand, when this goes off in Psalm 83, is going to strike those. When the dust settles and the smoke clears at the end of that seven-year tribulation, that stone grows into a great mountain and rules the earth: the millennial reign. We're living in exciting times, are we not?

We're going to walk through this; give me 15, 20 minutes. It won't be hard but it'll be incredibly interesting. He doesn't tell us, he simply tells us in Verse 4: "And when he shall stand up his kingdom shall be broken." He's not even a player in this, Alexander; we're just told he's going to stand up against Xerxes. He'll destroy Xerxes, which was a king who tried to destroy Israel. Not much about him, just that he's going to be broken and his kingdom will be divided to the four winds of heaven.

It'll be divided into four, and not to his posterity, not his son. We know that he had a son. We know that he was born after his death, but the kingdom didn't go to his son, just like the Bible said it wouldn't. "Nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those." So it's going to be divided like we said: East and West and North and South.

As we come to Verse 5, notice very carefully, it only mentions two of them. It's going to mention the 130-year struggle between these two, the Northern and the Southern, because it has to do with how it affects Israel. Let's read on. "And the king of the south shall be strong." Out of these four—Old King James reads a little funny, so bear with me, search it out yourself, don't believe what I say but search it out yourself because I'm going to give you commentary as we walk through this. Go read it in the history books because this is a point of history. You can actually go to the history books and read this.

Out of the four kingdoms it was divided into, the Ptolemies in the South in Egypt were the strongest. We know that as a point of history, not from the Bible but from history. They were the strongest of the four. He said, "And one of his princes," one of these four, "he shall be strong above him, above the others is what the idea is, and have dominion; and his dominion shall be a great dominion."

The king of the South, the Ptolemies, Ptolemy I, later on Ptolemy II, and on through we're going to go through Ptolemy III tonight as we read through this. And the Seleucids in the North, which were an inferior kingdom, they go to war against each other. All of it is directed—listen carefully—all of this war is directed because God is doing something in Israel. It's all about Israel.

They go to battle. "And in the end of the years they shall join themselves together." This battle's going to rage for so long, at some point they're going to say, "Man, we got to be done with this." This is how two kingdoms that were at war, we're going to see in a few moments, would try to bring peace. After this war that goes back and forth—but we know it continues after this; it goes on for 130 years—but they try to make peace a couple of times.

This is the way two warring kingdoms would make peace. You can see it in England and in France: one of the kings would send his daughter to marry one of the princes of the other kingdom, so now they became family. You can't war against family. Wrong.

But we know this from history exactly what happened. So watch what he says here: "For the king's daughter of the south," her name is Bernice. "The king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement." She will marry Seleucus II. His father will arrange it. He is already married. He doesn't like the fact that he has to put away his first wife because the indication is he loves her.

But to bring peace between these two empires, these two kingdoms, the deal is struck between these two kings, Seleucus I and Ptolemy I, that Seleucus II, his son, would marry his daughter Bernice. Through this arrangement, they're trying to bring peace.

But listen carefully: "She shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall she stand, nor his arm: but she shall be given up." He does. Given up. "That begat her, and he that strengthened her in her times." What took place is after Ptolemy dies—the one who gave his daughter to Seleucus II—after Ptolemy dies, Seleucus II put away Bernice and remarried Laodice, his first wife.

Laodice, his first wife, does not trust Seleucus II anymore because he put her away. You know that old phrase that there's nothing worse than a woman scorned? To get back, she poisons him. She doesn't just poison him; she kills Bernice, she kills Bernice's son, her infant son, and everyone that attended her in her court. Then she puts her son as the king of the Seleucids: Seleucus II.

As we're going to see in a few moments, Seleucus II dies and his sons, because they're so irritated with all that has gone on between the two kingdoms, raise a great force and they attack the king of the South again. They're right back at it. So listen. It didn't work out.

"But out of the branch of her roots," as Ptolemy I dies, Ptolemy II, his son, takes over the kingdom. He is the brother of Bernice. Read it in your history books. He is so upset for what happened to Bernice and her son, his nephew, that he gets his forces together and he's going to go up and show them a thing or two.

Back at it again, as relatives can. "And so out of the branch of her root shall one stand up in his estate." When Ptolemy I dies, Ptolemy II, the brother of Bernice, stands up in his estate, which shall come with an army and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the North and shall deal against them and he's going to prevail.

He's going to go up there and just put a whooping on them for what they did to his sister. This is what he does when he puts a whooping on them; he doesn't just put a whooping on them. We live in Grass Valley; I can be a little redneck. He puts a whooping on them, man. You study it in history; it's a whooping. It's a whooping to the point where he humiliates them too because he takes their gods, their silver, their gold and all that stuff, and he just grabs it and takes it with him and goes back South.

"So he shall carry captive into Egypt their gods." You want to humiliate another country? Steal their gods. My question is, if your god can be stolen, he ain't much of a god. Remember Rachel? They followed her: "You stole our gods." So to humiliate them, he takes their gods back to Egypt with their princes and with their precious vessels of silver and gold.

"And he shall continue more years than the king of the north." Ptolemy II will outlive Seleucus II by about four years if you read the history books. But when Seleucus II dies, he has sons, and when Ptolemy II dies, his sons now seek vengeance of the Southern kingdom.

"So the king of the south shall come into his kingdom and shall return to his own land." Ptolemy II, after he puts a whooping on them, steals their gods, takes their gold, silver, and all, he goes back home. He outlives Seleucus II, who reigns over the Seleucids in the North, for about four years. He goes home, he settles in, he thinks it's done. "We put such a whooping on them, we took their gods, we so humiliated them. No way they're coming back down here again. Nobody wants to take a whooping like that the second time." This is what's going on, and we can read it in history.

But Verse 10: again Israel's in the play of this. "But then again, his sons, the sons of Seleucus II, shall be stirred up." They're going to be mad for the whooping they took. This is like the Hatfields and the McCoys. "And they shall assemble a multitude, a great force: and one shall certainly come and overthrow and pass through."

The "pass through" is to pass through what God is focused on: Israel and Jerusalem. That's exactly what they did. In fact, we're going to find out that one of them, one of these sons, stops and puts a siege to Jerusalem and conquers it, and his name is Antiochus II. We're going to see as we go through this: Antiochus II, Antiochus III, Antiochus IV, which is Antiochus Epiphanes or the illustrious one, which becomes a type of the Antichrist.

As they go down now to deal with the whooping they took from the kingdom of the South, one of the sons passes through Jerusalem, sets siege to it, and conquers it. It will be a conquered land all the way through to Antiochus Epiphanes, which is a type of the Antichrist, just like Israel has been a conquered land until the time of the end when the Antichrist will come to the fore and be dealt with.

The Maccabeans in this case go to battle. In fact, it says of the Maccabeans, "They that know their God do great exploits." What happens during a tribulation period? 144,000 very special Jews stand up, prophets working miracles, and they go to war against Satan and his forces.

All of this is typology of what's going to come, but we get to read it history past. I think that's why somebody—sometimes people get messed up on this thing of preterism where they think all of this stuff happened in the past. It didn't. It didn't because Israel had to be cast away, has to become a nation.

The sons, they're stirred up, they send a great army, they go down and they're passing through now Israel and Jerusalem. "Then shall he return and be stirred up even to his fortress." This is Antioch II, which will take siege of Jerusalem during this battle. "And the king of the south shall be moved with choler."

This man, he is—you know, choler, when your ears turn red and your blood vessels pop out in your neck and you're mad where, you know, the cartoons where you turn red and steam comes out your ears. That's this. "And shall come forth to fight him, even the king of the north: and he shall set forth a great multitude."

This is history. "But the multitude shall be given into his hand." The king of the South is not going to win this one. "And he had taken away the multitude of his heart and shall be lifted up and shall cast down many tens of thousands: but he shall not be strengthened by it. For the king of the north shall return now after this battle and shall set forth a multitude more greater than the former of the south and come certain years after with a great army and much riches. And in those times there shall many stand up."

Here's this thing going back and forth. Finally—and here's the point you need to get out of this tonight—when Antioch II, on one of those ventures down as they're battling back and forth, lays siege to Jerusalem, he takes control of it. He will never let go control of it; there's something about that region that he wants. I think God maybe put it in his heart to want it.

The battle's going to go back and forth. But finally, listen carefully as we read through this, finally the Jews of the land will side with Antioch II. They'll join forces with him to destroy the king of the South, Egypt. We're told in the last days, Israel after the church is gone will actually believe that the Antichrist is the Messiah.

Here's the type: they will join forces with him because he will make a covenant for them to rebuild their temple. Just like Antiochus Epiphanes when the temple was defiled, Antichrist will defile it. See the types here?

This battle goes back and forth, and finally it says here in Verse 14: "And in those days shall many stand up against the king of the south: also the robbers." If you got an Old King James, circle that; it means violent. "The violent men of thy people." Not every Jew was orthodox; some of these guys were violent men, but they were Jewish. "They will stand up and exalt themselves to establish the vision."

God's going to use them to establish what God wants to happen: He wants the Seleucids to be in control of Jerusalem to bring about Antiochus Epiphanes to be a type of the Antichrist. God is worked—that's a sign that God is working in this—but they shall fall. Verse 15: "So the king of the north shall come and cast up a mount and take the most fenced cities: and the arms of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength in them."

This time, as Israel joins forces with the kings of the North, the Seleucids, they do conquer, and Egypt goes back and licks its wounds until the Romans show up on the side of the king of the South. But it won't be till Antiochus Epiphanes, so we're going to go through two more kings before that happens.

It's interesting when he came back down to attack again, the Romans showed up with their fleet. This is the introduction of Romans. We may not get there tonight, but we'll get there next week. When they do, they defeat Antiochus Epiphanes. We're going to see next week when he's defeated, he is so upset, he goes back and he's just raging on the people of the covenant.

He is angry with them because he's been kicked out. When Satan is kicked out of heaven, what does he rage on? God's people. Like a flood, and God protects them. So that's the type. It's interesting: one of the great Roman generals, when they had confronted Antiochus Epiphanes, we'll see it next week, drew a circle around him and said, "Before you leave and before you step out of that circle, you need to make a decision. Either you're going to pay tribute and be subservient to Rome or not."

He was, and that's the downfall of the Grecians and the rise of the Romans, just like he saw in Chapter 2. All of this to say as we walk through this, Daniel is getting instruction from Gabriel and he's walking through human history 375 years. He's writing it with such accuracy that the higher critics look back and say it couldn't be written then.

"Are you talking about Bernice and Laodice and the sons and the Seleucids and the Ptolemies and Alexander the Great and Artaxerxes, Xerxes the king? How can this? There's no way because it's like he's writing history as though he's watching it." Well, listen, it was written as it was watched because the author of the Book of Daniel is not Daniel.

In fact, what the scholars forget to realize is Daniel's not writing this. This is not even a vision; this is not even inspiration. This is dictation. Gabriel is telling Daniel what's going to happen, just like Jesus told John in the Book of Revelation. That's a dictation, not a revelation. He's just writing it down, and with pinpoint accuracy it comes to pass.

Can we just read a couple more verses? There's a place I do want to end. I got a couple places marked here where I can end. But it gets kind of even interesting. This battle's going on, the South and the North, and the South can't withstand and they go South. "But it cometh," Verse 16, "again to him to do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him."

He stands up in the glorious land. This is Antiochus II. He is going to conquer and do what he wants to do, this Greek ruler in the Holy Land, in the glorious land, "which by his hand it shall be consumed." Now as the Greeks settle in into the Holy Land, into the promised land, they're going to do some very vile things to God's people.

We'll read about that as we move. But in the midst of settling into the promised land and now turning their faces toward that, they try again to make peace with the Southern kingdom because they just don't want any more war. Verse 17: "And so he shall set his face to enter into the strength of his whole kingdom."

This is interesting because Antiochus II was pretty smart. He's thinking, "Hey, listen, this 130-year war's got to come to an end. We can't keep doing this; thousands and thousands of people are dying. It's not good for our economy, it's not good for their economy. It's just not good." They're going to do the exchange again.

They're going to try to send down another woman to marry, so this time it will be the king of the North sending down one of his daughters, Cleopatra, to marry one of the Ptolemies to try to bring peace. Let me give you a hint: she is unfaithful to him. She has affair after affair after affair, and so he is disgusted by her and the truce breaks.

Let's read at least past that, the Verse 17 on into Verse 18. This is not the Cleopatra of fame. This is her namesake; this Cleopatra lived 100 years before the Cleopatra of the Roman times. Make note of that. He shall also set his face to enter into strength with his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him. Thus shall he do; he shall give him the daughter of the woman, but she is corrupt, corrupting her. She will be so corrupt down there, but she shall not stand on the side, neither be before him, before the King of Ptolemy.

After this, he shall turn his face—that is the king of the North—when now he just can't deal with the king of the South. He's tried to enter into a deception by sending his daughter down there to marry their king, to try to breed himself into their kingdom. When he can't, he gives up on the king of the South for a while.

As we're going to see next week, he sets his eyes toward the West, toward Asia Minor and Greece, where he will meet the Roman Empire. It won't go well. As he comes back, Antiochus II, he dies on his way back. Antiochus III comes up and they're just focusing now on Israel. They're kind of licking their wounds and they focus on Israel. He dies and then Antiochus Epiphanes, who we're going to see next week, comes to the fore and it's the whole analogy, the whole imagery, the whole typology of the Antichrist in the last days with Israel.

As you look at this thing—and I don't know, it's been kind of a history lesson this evening. I hope you enjoyed it. You can go back and read it in history books. But what it does for me, can you imagine the shock having read the history and then read the Bible? "Wow, are you kidding me? I know the players. I know their names. I know the years, I know the dates, I know what happened, just exactly what was written here."

This was written in the first year of Darius the king. This is when the Medo-Persians were still in control before the Greeks and before the Romans. The Greeks were coming to the fore but the Romans weren't even in eye shot. Gabriel will tell Daniel, "This is what's going to happen. Three more kings after Cyrus, then comes a great king, King Xerxes. King Xerxes during his reign will try to destroy the Jews through Haman, and it won't succeed. A greater king than he will rise, Alexander the Great, and dominate him. His kingdom for his sake won't last long; it'll be divided into four. But the main point is the North and South that fight against each other and have control over Jerusalem. This is what's going to happen to them."

The picture that will come out of that will be the picture of the time we're living in. I've often thought, why would you do that, God? But I think He did that so that we would have an illustrated sermon so we will know exactly what it's going to look like in the time we're living in.

I mean this with all of my heart: time is short and the Bible says we ought to redeem the time seeing that the days are evil. What's that mean? We ought to use it wisely. I would just challenge you as we close tonight, if you have unsaved friends, people you love and care about, may God give you a boldness and a grace. May God put the right words in your mouth.

May the Holy Spirit, as we pray for those people, penetrate their hearts that they might come to faith before, as it were, the door of the ark is shut. I would also encourage you, secondly, to continue to sow the seed because some of those seed that you sow of salvation and the Gospel, they may not germinate till the church is gone.

The Bible says that after the church is gone, there's a great multitude that can't even be numbered that they're going to offer their lives as a martyr and they're not going to deny the Christ. They're not going to deny Christ or take the mark of the beast, and they will make it to heaven. So, who knows? Maybe they'll come to faith now as you share your faith, maybe not till after you're gone and all of a sudden they go, "Wow, everything they were saying was right."

We're going to put a thumb drive—we finish Revelation, we're going to have a new pulpit built and we're going to put a pouch in the front that simply has some words on it that says, "In case of Rapture, break and play." It will be the thumb drive of our teaching through Revelation and Daniel. We want to warn because this church will be packed the following Sunday after the church is gone. They're going to be looking for answers.

Listen, we through modern technology can still give them answers. Amen? They won't be saying, "Who's that short fat guy?" like you guys used to have to say, "Who's that short skinny guy up there?" Actually, when we started Revelation I was still fat. They're going to say, "Man, times must have got really hard because look what he looked like when he started Revelation, look what he looked like when he ended it. Man, times must have got really lean." All jesting aside, listen, we're living—and I'm not jesting about this—we're living in the last days.