Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: We are in Daniel chapter 10 this morning. We were in Daniel chapter 10 last week, and in that study, we talked about the fact that this world has had endless wars. Those endless wars have been since the entrance of sin, and they are going to continue until Jesus Christ returns. That is a reality. There are places where things calm down for a little bit, but this world has had endless wars since Adam sinned, and it’s going to keep that way until Christ returns.

Back in Daniel chapter 10, verses 1 to 9, we saw that Christ appeared to the prophet Daniel. We call this a Christophany. This appearance of Christ to Daniel was a prelude for the prophetic message that God is going to give him in the following verses. This prophetic message is a response to Daniel, who was praying about the future of his people Israel. Daniel had been taken by the Babylonians in 605 BC, and he ended up living the rest of his life in Babylon and Persia. He served in both the Babylonian and Persian governments in some very high-level government positions.

What happened in 539 BC is that the Persians overthrew the Babylonians. Daniel was anxiously looking to the future of his people Israel, wondering about their destiny and how quickly God would restore them. This is what chapters 10, 11, and 12 are all about. It’s a message where God says, "I'm going to tell you what is in store for the future." In this message, we find out that there are going to be a lot of wars in the world, and Israel is going to be the center of many of these conflicts.

Starting in chapter 10, verse 10, we see that an angel comes to Daniel. Christ appeared to Daniel in verses 4 to 9 and gave Daniel the comfort of saying, "Daniel, I am with my people, I am going to restore them." Then, in verse 10 and following, there is actually an angel. These are not the same person speaking. Beginning in verse 10, we are introduced to a different figure. This is not a Christophany; this is not the Lord Jesus Christ as we saw in verses 4 to 9. It is evident by the fact that this messenger in verse 10 and following has to receive angelic help when fighting against demonic powers.

This is an angel. Who is this angel that appeared to Daniel? We know that back in chapter 8, the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel. Gabriel also appeared by name in chapter 9. This one is not identified as Gabriel. It could be Gabriel appearing to Daniel again, but the fact that it’s not mentioned as being Gabriel might suggest that it’s a different angel. It doesn’t matter who it is. This section here in the rest of chapter 10 breaks down into six parts as we look at the significance of this angelic visit. It starts in verses 10 and 11, where we see the beginning of this angelic visitation.

Chapter 10, verse 10 says, "Then behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. And he said to me, 'O Daniel, man of high esteem, understand the words that I am about to tell you and stand upright, for I have been sent to you.' And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling." Christ appeared and then he is communicating with angelic mediation as part of this revelatory process. This is exactly what we see happening again here. The angel addresses Daniel by the same kinds of terms that he used back in chapter 9 and chapter 10. He calls him "Daniel, man of high esteem."

When we saw that expression back in chapter 9, verse 23, that idea of "man of high esteem" meant that Daniel was an amazingly pious, godly individual. We saw this in Ezekiel chapter 14. Twice in Ezekiel 14, when God is speaking about how terrible the sin of Jerusalem had been, God says, "I'm going to wipe it out, and if Daniel were here, he could save his own life, or Job, or Noah." He speaks about Noah, Daniel, and Job. If you are one of three people like that and God singles you out, you are a pretty good guy. This was a real gem of godliness. Daniel's privileged status as one especially precious to God resulted from his complete absorption in the will and glory of God, to whom he had yielded his heart.

We are supposed to be like that. The wrong attitude would be to say, "I want to have that kind of report card like Daniel had." What should be the right attitude is to say, "I want to be pleasing to God." The secret for doing this is that we have to stay close to God. We have to stay close to Christ. Think about Romans chapter 12, where Paul says, "I urge you, don't be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Staying close to God means staying in the Word of God because God uses the truth to shape our hearts.

We are getting bombarded with messages all the time in this world. We are getting bombarded with a lot of bad stuff sometimes. We need to be bombarded with good stuff. It’s not like we take a pill, take one Bible verse, and call me in the morning. We wish it worked that way, where we read a verse and we are holy from this point on. It’s not quite that simple, but that’s how God does work. He uses His Word. The first application from these first couple of verses would be this: stay close to the Lord and stay in His Word.

That brings us to a second part of this six-part message in verse 12. Here in verse 12, we get to see the relationship of this angelic appearance to Daniel's own prayers. In verse 12, the angel says to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words." Daniel, from the very moment when you began praying about this. How long had Daniel been praying for God to help him understand the future for his people Israel?

It said back in the previous paragraph that Daniel had been praying for three straight weeks. He wasn't eating his fine meals that were part of his routine as a high official in the government. He wasn't anointing his head with oil. He was just dedicating himself to intense prayer for three straight weeks. Then, at the end of the three weeks, God began to respond to him and give him some explanation of what the future holds. As we think about Daniel praying for three straight weeks, and it wasn't until now that he received a message and an answer from God, let’s think about a couple of basic principles of prayer.

The first would be this: if you want to have a fruitful prayer life, you need to be saved. I'm not saying that God cannot by His sovereignty hear the prayers of an unsaved person, but there is no relationship between the sinner and God. That’s why in Proverbs 15:8, it says, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight." When unsaved people think they can approach God and have God be attentive to their prayer, it says that the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. A few verses later, in Proverbs 15:29, it says, "The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous."

Coming to God, you better be saved. Jesus said this in John chapter 16. He said, "If you come to God and you ask God for something, if you come in my name, God will hear you." Coming to God in the name of Jesus means that you are coming on the basis of your relationship with Jesus Christ. You have trusted Him. A second principle that dovetails off of that is being close to Christ by being in His Word. In John chapter 15, Jesus said, "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit."

He’s talking about the relationship that you maintain with Christ. He says, "You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. You're saved because I've spoken the truth and you've believed the truth." Then, in verse 4, He says, "Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me." Abiding, the idea of staying close to the Lord. He says, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it’ll be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you would bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

Abide in me, stay close, and you’ll bear fruit. He says, "Ask what you wish and it’ll be done." Staying close to Christ includes the reality that if you're staying close to Christ, you're going to be seeking the things that He desires. If you come to Christ and say, "I really want to have $10 million in my bank account," go ahead and try that one. Let me know how it works out. We understand the issue of praying according to the will of God. Staying close to Christ and staying in His Word is the principle because really what happens in prayer is that we don't come and start twisting God’s arm until He starts saying, "Okay, uncle, I give, what do you want? I'll give it to you."

No, it’s really more of a matter of God changing us instead of us changing God. When we come close to the Lord, He begins to work in our heart and to mold us into His image and stir our hearts to want the things that He wants. That’s the principle right here. Here’s a third principle: trusting God for who He is and what He can do. When we talk about trusting God for answered prayer, go back to the $10 million in your bank account. "I just really believe that He’s going to give me $10 million." Again, good luck with that one. Believing in the power of God and the goodness of God to answer prayer that is according to His moral character is key.

In Matthew chapter 21, Jesus said to the disciples, "If you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to this fig tree, but if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it’ll happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." When we formulate any kind of theology in the Bible, we look at everything the Bible says about whatever the topic is. If we are studying Christology, we don't formulate our Christology on a single verse. We formulate our Christology by looking at everything that the Bible says about who Jesus is.

Some verses speak about the fact that Jesus became a man. Jesus was a man. But we also have other verses that say that Jesus was actually God in flesh. If you just took a single verse, you see that Jesus is a man, and that verse does say that. But other verses say that He’s God. We find out that Jesus is God in flesh. What I'm saying here is that when we look at a theology of prayer, it is important that we not be reductionistic and just simply cherry-pick verses. We have to look at everything the Bible says and then we bring it together and we systematize everything that the Bible says to have a proper understanding.

Believing God doesn’t automatically say, "I just know He’s going to give me that $10 million." But when you come and you're praying for even something big, when Jesus said, "If you say to this mountain, 'Move,' it’ll be moved," when you come to God believing in something that is according to His will and is big, trust God for what He can do. Here’s a fourth principle about praying. This one comes from 1 John chapter 5, verse 14. He says, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him."

Again, this goes back to understanding everything that God tells us about prayer so that we are not misled by false ideas. If you have a sickness, does the Bible say that God has promised you that you're not going to have sickness, or does God say that He’s going to give you healing from sickness? No, He has not said that. If we come with the wrong kind of idea that often comes in the Pentecostal charismatic movement where they say, "God has guaranteed and promised that you're going to have freedom from sickness, so if you have it, He is going to heal you," if I were to tell somebody that, that would really be a very dangerous kind of way to approach people in a fallen world.

God has not promised, "I will give you restoration from any sickness." In resurrection, yes, it’s going to happen. Complete restoration when Christ brings His kingdom and brings us into resurrection. But we don't have the guarantee that we're going to be healed from sickness. But I ask God for it. And I ask God for miraculous healing because I know that He can, and I've seen Him do it. I know that God can bring instantaneous, miraculous healing. That’s the kind of thing that you should pray for. Grab ahold of God like a little kid grabbing ahold of mom or dad and saying, "Please give me this."

Grab ahold of Christ and don't let go. Trust God in His goodness and trust God in His power to heal. But when we look at the purpose of God, the sovereignty of God, we need to understand what He has promised and what He hasn't promised. In 1 John chapter 5, He says that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. So, we want to try to pray according to what God says in Scripture because that’s how we know the character of God and the will of God is by praying according to Scripture. Like Jesus said back in John 15, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it’ll be done."

Lastly, here would be a fifth kind of principle: praying with fervency and not letting go if you don't get an immediate answer. Jesus told a story in Luke chapter 18, a parable to make a point. He said that there was this woman, it was a story to illustrate a point. He says there was this lady and she had people that were trying to afflict her and persecute her legally. So she went to the judge of the village and she said, "Give me help, this person is trying to destroy me, they're trying to take my property," whatever it was. And it says the judge was not a godly man.

He didn't fear God and he didn't respect people. And he says, "Get away from me, leave me alone." And this lady wouldn't let go; she keeps coming back, "Help me, give me help!" And the judge says, "Well, even though I don't fear God or respect men, I'll give you what you want because you're wearing me out, lady!" And Jesus made a point. He said, "Now, if this unrighteous judge were to grant this request, how much more your Father?" He was making a point: pray and don't let go of God. Pray for what the need is. If it’s a biblical, godly thing that you're praying for, pray for it, beg God, ask God, and don't let go until you get an answer.

Be like a pitbull; those things, they grab ahold and they don't let go. Grab ahold of God. Now, let’s say for example you're praying for yourself or some family member who has some disease, and God takes their life. Well, there's your answer. It was not according to God's good and perfect will that that person receive an immediate restoration from that disease. They're going to get an immediate perfect restoration by going into the presence of Christ. And it is immediate and perfect. But you may say, "But I wanted that person to be with me." Well, He’s God. Trust yourself to God and don't become bitter because you didn't get something good that you wanted.

We don't have the promises of these kinds of things. But our job is not to figure out the world and God's eternal plan and purpose; our job is to love God and trust Him and entrust ourselves to His hand. Daniel has been praying for three weeks and nothing happened. And then all of a sudden, this is when God begins to answer. Daniel is as godly as they could be. He's a prophet. He's praying according to the will of God because he's praying for the restoration of Israel. He’s praying with intensity and fervency, and yet it was three weeks before Christ came to him and this angel came to him.

What Daniel was praying for in particular, he was praying that God would bring restoration to the nation of Israel. They have been under Babylonian exile for 70 years. He's praying for this. He’s also praying that there would be continued progress on the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem because enemies from the Gentiles, the enemy powers that lived in the area, they were stopping the Jews from rebuilding the Temple. We know that from Ezra chapters 3 and 4. The restoration of the Temple had stopped. Daniel is praying that God would step in.

The Temple, they didn't actually begin working on the Temple again for 16 years. Daniel is praying that this work would continue, but it wasn't until 520 BC, 16 years later, that God gave them the prophet Haggai and Zechariah. Haggai comes on the scene to them 16 years later and says, "Do you want to know why your lives are really, really rough right now and hard? You work and you work and you can never get ahead. Do you want to know why your lives are so hard? You're not obeying God because God told you to restore a Temple and begin worshipping Him again, and for 16 years you abandoned the project because people were harassing you."

"One, and two, you basically got sidetracked with yourselves. You're building your nice houses, your paneled rooms, and yet God says my house is desolate." So they had a problem; they weren't obeying God. But Daniel is praying for this restoration to continue, but it didn't happen until God rebuked them with Haggai and Zechariah and they finally got on the ball and they started obeying God. Our job is to trust God to know what He commands and to pray for the things that we know are according to His will. But we just look at Daniel right here; not even Daniel got an immediate answer to that prayer for the restoration work to continue.

But what did happen is that God sent an angel to him to say, "Daniel, it’s going to be a long, hard path. My people Israel are going to have a lot of wars, a lot of persecution for a long time, but one day I am going to restore them." Our job is to trust God, stay close, and pray. Look at verse 13. Here we come down to a third part of this angelic visitation, the reason for the delay of this angel. In verse 13, the angel says, "I've come in answer to your prayers, but here’s what happened: the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for 21 days. Then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia."

This is very interesting stuff. What’s going on right here is this: this angel says, "Well, you know, from the very moment when you began praying for your people Israel, I had an order to come and give you this understanding and this next prophetic message. But for three weeks, I was doing battle against a demon called the Prince of Persia." That’s exactly what it is. Three weeks of battling. Here’s something we begin to see in this chapter is that yes, we have wars happening all the time in this world, but there's another war that’s happening nonstop. It’s the one where God opens the curtain, like we do in Daniel chapter 10, and God says, "Take a look here behind the curtain and let me show you what’s really going on behind the scenes: spiritual warfare."

He says here that Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me. Very interesting stuff. We find out from this passage and others that Satan engages in heavenly warfare to work his will and to frustrate God's will, and it’s happening all the time. We live in a very naturalistic, secular kind of culture. The West is very naturalistic. When you go to certain parts of the world, there is a lot more sensitivity about the fact that spirits are real, that the spiritual world is evil. In the West, it tends to become very naturalistic where we think, "Well, yeah, we don't need to talk about demons, we just need to have a good medical doctor."

"We don't need to talk about demons; we just need a good psychiatrist or psychologist." God is real, the Bible says so. God is real, Christ is real, sin is real, Satan is real, demons are real; there are a lot of demons out there. There is no clearer evidence than this chapter on the biblical concept that conflicts in human history are paralleled by all the conflicts in the supernatural realm. Here are some of the things that demons are up to. Sometimes we say, "Well, you know, Satan’s at work with this person's life or Satan’s at work in this situation." When we say that, we understand that it may not be Satan himself, that one particular fallen angel, but there are a lot of demons out there.

How many we don't have a number, but it says in Revelation chapter 12 that when Satan rebelled against God, that one-third of the holy angels followed Satan in a rebellion. Now, if God says that the angels there are myriads and myriads, that’s 10,000 times 10,000 times 10,000, there are hundreds of millions or perhaps hundreds of millions, or perhaps more, let’s just say hundreds of millions of angels at the very least, based on those numbers. A third of them are fallen angels, unclean spirits. What do demons do to fight against God and His work?

Let me just give you seven really quick explanations of what we see in the Bible. Number one, they are at work constantly to blind unsaved people to faith in Jesus Christ. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 4, Paul says the god of this world blinds the hearts and minds of the unsaved lest they believe. So demons are always at work to try to keep unsaved people from hearing the Gospel so as to respond to it. So when you are sharing the Gospel with unsaved people, here’s one thing that you can always be doing: you can be praying that God would work in that person's life to remove the blindness, to remove spiritual blindness that would come from demons perhaps, and that you would pray for the Holy Spirit to work in that person's heart to open their eyes to understand their own sin and their need for Christ.

They're always doing that. Here’s a second way that we see demons at work: they lead men into false teaching. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul talked about doctrines of demons. Now, when he mentioned a couple of these teachings right there, he said, "Well, people that say that, oh, you can't get married if you want to be holy, you can't get married." Well, that’s a false idea. But that’s what some of the false teachings were bringing even into first-century Christianity. Or you can't eat that kind of food; you can't eat that kind of lobster, you can't eat that kind of fish, you can't eat pork.

Now, God put Israel the nation under a law code in the Old Testament that said, "Here are things that I tell you you cannot eat." But Christians are not under the Law of Moses, never have been, never will be. So but Paul said that these are teachings of demons. So whenever you look at anything that is against what God says in His Word, you know that there's been demonic activity at work in that thing. What does the Mormon Church say about Jesus? Does the Mormon Church say that Jesus is eternal God, the Creator of heavens and earth? No, the Mormon Church says that Jesus is the brother of Satan.

That’s standard Mormon teaching. That’s a lie from the devil. So you always test everything according to Scripture, stick to the Scripture. Here’s a third way that demons work: they stir up men to oppose one another, they cause conflict among others. Demons are at work when you get hateful, angry, divisive kinds of attitudes. Listen to James chapter 3. James says, "All right, you guys, you're a Bible church," James says, "Who among you is wise? You think that you're really pretty sharp? Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom."

"But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't be arrogant against God and His truth, don't lie against the truth. If you have jealousy, selfish ambition, if you have bad attitudes, unjust, bad attitudes towards others," James says, "that kind of wisdom is not the kind that comes from God above, but it’s earthly, natural, and demonic." And wherever you have these kinds of bad attitudes where there's jealousy and selfish ambition, you end up with disorder and every evil thing. But the wisdom that comes from God, he says, is pure, it’s peaceable, it’s gentle, it’s reasonable, it’s full of mercy, it’s good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy.

So if you see this in someone else, or if you see this in yourself, and you say, "You know, I've got a bad attitude," that’s not coming from God. Now, obviously, if somebody has done you wrong and you need to say, "Hey, you know, you really upset me when you did this yesterday, you slashed my tires, I'm kind of upset at you, you know," but if you have divisive, ungodly attitudes towards somebody, this is not coming from the Holy Spirit. That’s coming from your own sin nature, and the Bible says here that this is earthly, natural, and demonic. That’s how Satan works to divide people in churches—ugly stuff where you begin to have bad attitudes.

So if you see it in yourself, you say, "Oh God, forgive me on that one." Here’s a fourth way that we see demons at work: they stir men to passionately plunge into all forms of sin. Now, in Ephesians chapter 2, when Paul talks about the unsaved world, he says that the unsaved world is operating under the power of Satan. He says, "When you were unsaved, Ephesians chapter 2, you used to walk according to the course of this world, the pattern of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience."

And Paul says that’s how we all were before we were saved, living in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and by nature, he says, we were children of wrath. So here’s how Satan works in the world: he blinds them to faith in Christ, he blinds them to their own sin, and then he stirs them up to just live in darkness, to live in the world of sin. Now, the unsaved world says, "I'm free, I can do whatever I want." No, you're not free; you're a slave to your sin. Here’s a fifth way that Satan works: in Mark chapter 5, you remember how Jesus was out there in the area called Gadara, and there was a demoniac, there were actually two of them, but you had these Gadarene demoniacs.

These guys were living out in the open country, they were living among the tombs. So demons drive men into darkness, they drive men to desire things of darkness, they drive men to desire things that are demonic and dark and sinful and destructive. These guys, nobody could even chain them down; they would break the chains. That’s what demons do: they drive people. So when you look and you see people who are just dominated by wicked, dark kinds of thinking and lives, our Western culture says, "Well, yeah, they probably need some medication because they have a mental disorder."

That’s really a very, very unbiblical way to begin to look at what happens in the world. Now, I'm not saying that there can't be something physical that causes some kind of problem, there can be, but demons are real, the Bible says so, and we should not be so naive to think, "Oh no, no, that couldn't be anything demonic." Absolutely it is. And demons also work to stir men, kingdoms, nations, to war. Very explicitly the Bible says this. You read Revelation 16, verses 12 to 16. It says that demons went out and they stirred up the leaders of the world, so when you look at these battles of Armageddon, demons have gone out to stir up the armies of the world.

So when we look at what’s happening right now with people like Vladimir Putin, you can bet absolutely for sure demons are at work in that godless man's life. Lastly, here: demons stir up political leaders that would work to put ungodly laws in place that go against everything we see in terms of goodness and righteousness and health and godliness—ungodly leaders. This past week, Nancy Pelosi said, "You know, I'm making every effort that I can see that in our country there would be laws so that children can have transsexual sex changes, and it would be national law in America."

You want to talk about some real godless kinds of thinking? This is one of the top leaders in our country, right? These are demons at work to destroy God's image, which is human beings, and to bring ungodliness to rule the land. Here in Daniel, we see that demons were at work. God pulls back the curtain, says, "Daniel, I'm going to tell you what’s going on along right here: there's a lot of demonic activity." There's a whole lot of stuff that you and I may not understand about what’s going on, but God does show us enough where we can say, "I know how things work."

We may not know everything, but God gives us enough. So Michael has come, this angel has come, but he says, "Well, I was delayed, but Michael came to help." Look at verse 14. Here’s a fourth part of this angelic visitation, the purpose. Verse 14, notice what he says: "Now I have come to give you an understanding of what will happen to your people, namely Israel, in the latter days, for this vision pertains to the days future." Daniel's prayer was, "Oh God, please work to protect my people Israel and to bring them restoration," and the angel says, "I have come for that purpose, to show you what’s going to happen in the days yet future."

We would call that end times, we would call it the eschaton, a Greek word that means the end of the age, or we could call it the tribulation period with the kingdom that’s going to follow. Now, what’s going to happen in the future? I could tell you this because God says so in His Word. The next thing that’s going to happen on God's clock is something that the Bible teaches is called the Rapture. There is going to be a Rapture; it’s spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4 and 2 Thessalonians 2. God is going to take the body of Christ in an instantaneous moment, He’s going to bring us into resurrected glory, and we're going to be in the presence of Christ in resurrection. It is going to happen.

You can bet on that one. Secondly, the Bible says in Daniel 9:27 that there's going to be a political figure that comes up on the scene; we call him the Antichrist, and he's going to make a peace agreement involving the nation of Israel and Israel's enemies. They do have enemies. The Antichrist is going to make a seven-year peace covenant. The third thing that’s going to happen is that this is going to begin unfolding the judgments of the tribulation period; you're going to have what’s called the seal judgments, Revelation chapter 6. This is the first three and a half years of that time period.

Even though Israel has obtained this promise of protection from the Antichrist, that doesn't mean it’s going to be a cakewalk. Jesus said there's going to be wars, rumors of wars, disease, famine, starvation, persecution. So the seal judgments. You also see that there's going to be World War breaking out. In Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39, it speaks about a massive invasion that’s going to come upon Israel in the tribulation period. And the countries that are named are Persia, Central Africa. Any bad stuff happening down in Central Africa right now? Terrible stuff. The persecution against believers down there, Islam is trying to take over Africa. They've been trying to take over the world for 1,400 years, and they're not going to go away.

So it says that Persia is going to be one of these five regions that invades Israel. Who is Persia? Iran. Central Africa. It says that Put is going to be part of this invasion, Libya. And then it speaks about two parts up in the Caucasus region, Turkey and up in that region, Gomer and Beth-togarmah—a multi-nation invasion. The dots that connect it are all Islam. But Ezekiel 38, 39 says there's going to be massive invasions that come against Israel. What else is going to happen? Well, you're going to have the Antichrist at the middle of that seven-year tribulation period. It explicitly says that he makes a seven-year covenant to protect Israel, but in the middle of it, he breaks his promise.

He invades Israel, he sets up an idol in a rebuilt temple that is called the abomination of desolation. That’s spoken of in Daniel 9:27 as well as Daniel chapter 12, verse 11. Jesus said in Matthew 24:15, "When you see the abomination of desolation that Daniel talked about in the temple, you better run. Don't try to get any of your possessions; just head for the hills because it’s going to be a time of tribulation like the world has never seen." This is going to happen. Nothing is going to stop it from happening. Donald Trump is not going to stop it with a phone call.

Now, I'm a thousand times happier that Trump is our president than the Democrats, and I think he's doing a good job. But you know, he, before he came into office, he said, "Well, on day one I'm going to end the war with Russia." Come on, man. Nothing is going to stop these wars that are going to come upon Israel in that tribulation period except Jesus Christ when He returns at the end of that seven years, and He is going to put a stop to it. So during those last three and a half years, you have what’s called the trumpet judgments and then the bowl judgments; we see this in Revelation chapters 8 to 19.

During this time period, the Bible says that God is going to work to bring a massive restoration to the remnant of Israel. God has His elect saints that He is going to save. They're not saved yet; they're not a saint yet, but the Bible speaks repeatedly that during that tribulation period, the Spirit of God is going to go to work and God has His Jews. Now He’s got His Gentiles, too, all over the world. But He has His Jews that He’s going to save. The 144,000 are part of that remnant, just part of that remnant that we see in Revelation chapter 7.

God is going to restore Israel. At the end of this seven-year time period, it says that Jesus Christ is going to return, He’s going to return in glory. When He took Peter, James, and John up onto the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus began to shine before them; He began to shine like the sun in all of His glory. And the Bible says that when Christ returns, He’s going to return visibly, physically, He’s going to return in glory, shining like the sun. Now you get some people who say, "Well, the second coming of Jesus was in the first century when the Romans crushed Jerusalem."

That is such a horrible idea. The Bible says it! In Matthew 24, verse 29, it says at the end of that tribulation period, there's going to be upheavals in the cosmos: the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and glory. In Matthew 25, verse 31, He says, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will take His seat on His glorious throne."

He returns and He brings His kingdom to this world. The angels are going to be with Him, and who else is going to be with Him? The glorified resurrected church is going to return. Revelation 19, verse 14 says the armies in heaven who are clothed in fine linen, bright and clean, were following Him on white horses. And it says these ones that are following Him are the called, the chosen, the faithful, Revelation 17, verse 14. Christ returns, He brings His kingdom to this world, an eternal kingdom. It’s a thousand years on this present earth, eternally in a re-created new heavens, new earth—that’s what it says in Revelation chapters 21 and 22.

So Daniel is saying, "Oh God, what’s the future?" God shows us what the future is. And Gabriel, or this angel here, is giving him part of this understanding right here in Daniel chapter 11. That brings us down to verse 15. We see the impact of this upon Daniel. Look at Daniel 10:15. "When the angel spoke these words to me, according to these words, I turned my face to the ground and I became speechless. And behold, one who resembled a human being was touching my lips. And then I opened my mouth and I spoke, and I said to him who was standing before me, 'O my lord, as a result of the vision, anguish has come upon me and I retained no strength.'"

"'For how can such a servant of my lord even talk with such as my lord? And as for me, there remains just now no strength in me, nor has any breath been left in me.' And then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me." Daniel, he was just completely undone from this appearance. The angel touched him and gave him strength. Now, remember at this point in time, Daniel’s probably about 85 years old, all right? So, you know, this guy's been around for quite a while. He’s an old man. God gave him the strength.

The last part of this comes in verse 20 to the end of the chapter, actually chapter 11, verse 1. What happens here is that the angel comes and strengthens him, and then the angel says, "I'm only going to be with you for a few minutes to give you this prophetic message. I'm going to have to go pretty quickly." So look over here at verse 20. Coming down to verse 19, he said, "'O Daniel, man of high esteem, don't be afraid. Peace be with you. Take courage, be courageous.' Now, as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength, and I said, 'May my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.'"

The angel then said, "Do you understand why I've come to you? But I shall now return to fight against the Prince of Persia. So I am going forth, and behold, the Prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces except Michael, your prince." So I’m going to have to leave because there's battles that I'm fighting. These Prince of Persia and Prince of Greece, these are demonic powers that Satan was sending to influence the kings and leaders of Persia and the kings and leaders of Greece.

This is the kind of stuff that happens behind the scenes. And this angel says, "I'm not going to be able to stay for a full time right now because there's battles that I have to go fight," but I am going to tell you, when he says it here, he says, "I'm going to tell you what’s inscribed in the writing of truth." The idea here is this: "I'm going to give you a glimpse into God's eternal plan for the people of Israel in this world." Not everything at this point, as you look at the unfolding of the rest of the prophets and the unfolding of the New Testament culminating with the book of Revelation, we have the last of which God has to give us.

But here he says, "I am going to come and give you a part of this message, but I've got to go fight, and there's nobody with me except Michael, your prince." This is kind of interesting because he calls Michael "your prince." Michael has a special relationship to protecting the people of Israel. In Daniel chapter 12, verse 1, he calls him "Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people." Later on in the New Testament, he’s called "Michael the archangel" in Jude, verse 9, and in Revelation chapter 12, verse 10, we see Michael fighting against Satan the dragon.

But Michael has a special role. But this angel says, "Well, there's only two guys." That’s what it says here. "The only ones right now that are here fighting for Israel: me and Michael." Again, we don't know everything, but that’s what it says right here. Very interesting stuff. Lastly, here, we come to chapter 11, verse 1, which really is kind of part of chapter 10. It says here, "In the first year of Darius the Mede," he was the one that was appointed to be king over Babylonia by Cyrus. "In the first year of Darius," the angel says, "I arose to be an encouragement and protection for him."

Do you know, the nation of Israel had a pretty good treatment. The Persians treated the Jews pretty well. They allowed them to migrate back to their homeland, they allowed them to rebuild a temple, they, you know, they were the ruling power of the world at that time, but the Persians actually treated the Jews pretty well. How well does Iran want to treat Israel today? They want to wipe them out, they want to wipe them off the face the map. Guarantee you, demonic powers are at work within the leadership of the entire Islamic world, but Iran.

But what was happening here is that God was using angelic powers to protect the leaders of Persia against those demonic influences; that is why Israel had the favorable care that they did from the Persians. Even though the Persians didn't really care about them, they were preventing these demonic influences from overtaking the leaders. To close it up with this here as a little bit of a summarization and application here: here’s the reality—demons are at work everywhere. Our starting point for you and me should be now some of you who are old, and some of you are old. I guess I am too.

But who was the comedian that used to say, "The devil made me do it"? Flip Wilson. And that was part of his comedy routine on TV, "The devil made me do it." No, you know, that’s not what we need to do. What you and I need to do is we need to say, "Oh God, help me to love You with all my heart, soul, and strength. Give me, you know, a submissive spirit to follow Your word and Your spirit." But do demons go to work to try to stir people up? Absolutely. Don't be ignorant about that. Constantly at work.

They're at work in the hearts of national leaders, international leaders, they're at work in countries to legalize baby murder and other kinds of wicked kinds of national policies. They're always there. How do we apply this to ourselves? Let me just close with three basic principles, and we said this before. The first one would be this: stay close to the Lord. Stay in His word. If you've sinned and your heart’s not right, confess your sin to God, ask forgiveness, turn from your sin, confess your sin. Secondly, stay close to the Lord in prayer and in His word, and don't let yourself get sucked into lies. And how do you know that? By staying in His word.

And lastly, here, we know that we've got a short time left before God brings all of this to an end. Christ is going to return. So, keep preaching Jesus Christ. Amen? Father, we thank You for Your wonderful promise of eternal salvation, and You do it because Jesus Christ paid the price—past, present, and future. We cannot add to His finished work on the cross. And if you're here and you've never understood this message, know this: you're a sinner, Jesus Christ is a Savior of sinners. He died and He conquered sin, He rose from the dead, and God's promise is that if you will trust Him, if you'll turn to Him and trust Him and seek His forgiveness, God will give you forgiveness and salvation.

The Bible says that if you have trusted Christ, you are to confess Him publicly in believer baptism, which is what we're going to do in two weeks. If you have confessed Christ and trusted Him but you have not confessed Jesus in believer baptism, you should do so. It’s a commandment. See me after the service today. Thank You for Your goodness, oh God. We pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.