1. One of the great enemies of our FAITH is DOUBT, 2nd Thoughts.
2. A hesitation here, some vacillation there.
3. Unbelievable unsurety. The weakness of wavering!
“Doubt makes the mountain that faith moves!”
SO today in our lifetime, there is an all out attack upon the truthfulness & reliability of the Bible.
• Because if they can undermine the truth that God has revealed, then our faith in God will shake too.
• Historical Revisionism has infiltrated the Church.
• With groups like the Jesus Seminar who come together to vote on whether Jesus said what he said. Like they would know!
• “I don’t think Jesus would say that.”
• OH OK, Joe, you’re right. We’ll follow you!
There’s ALSO a recent wave of ARCHEOLOGICAL REVISIONISM that attempts to discredit the finds spoken of in the Scriptures.
• Truly it’s an all out attack on your faith and mine.
It’s been wisely said, “If a man doubts his way, Satan is always ready to help him to a new set of opinions.”
• So the attacks come don’t they?
• Don’t believe in God. He won’t come through for you!
• Don’t believe in the Bible. It’s not true or accurate!
• Don’t trust, Don’t have faith, Don’t look to Jesus
But Peter, an eyewitness of Jesus Christ, a friend, a confidant, a follower, a disciple says…
2 Peter 1.16 For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.
SO IS YOUR GOD TRUSTWORTHY? We know that our God is, the God of the universe, the God of all creation!
• We KNOW THAT but do we trust Him?
• How are you PERSONALLY with the promises of God?
• Do they sustain you? Are you standing on them this morning?
• That was the difference between the 2 men in Matthew 7.
NOTE: As Jesus winds down the sermon on the Mount, He ties everything together.
• If you hear what I’ve said and DO THEM!
• In life, there are people that say and people that do.
• One uses their mouth & the other uses their actions.
• If you do these, put them into practice… You’re wise.
• BUT (v26) Whoever hears and does not do them…
• Well… that’s simply foolishness.
SO Jesus uses the illustration of building houses…
• Both men built a house. They both heard the gospel.
• They both built in about the same place, same materials.
• Both homes look real good on the outside.
• The problem was in their foundations.
SO it is with many people. They are good outwardly. They look strong, go to a good church, lot’s of good works…
• But there’s a difference.
• It’s their spiritual foundation. One on Jesus. Other is NOT.
NOTE: Storms reveal. A person is tested by the STORMS of life.
• If you want to see what a person is made of, watch them when the pressure is on, when their stuck.
• If the wrong foundation… ‘GREAT IS THE FALL’
APP: You see a great danger for us who love the Scriptures is to think hearing is the same as doing.
• “Oh, great study: you’re right. It was target. It moved me. It ministered to me. It taught me.”
• But then we leave here and begin to worry, to doubt, to waver!
• It’s WISE to humble ourselves and pray for a clean heart, and powerful conviction to put these things into practice!
OUR TIME from CH7 through CH12 of Daniel is PROPHETIC.
• CH 1-6 was more personal, the last half is all PROPHETIC.
• And we’ve learned that PROPHECY is the calling card of God.
• It’s HISTORY IN ADVANCE. God speaks of things in the future as if they have already happened. ONLY GOD CAN DO IT.
• He’s outside of time & space. He’s omniscient, all knowing!
• That’s why He can say through Isaiah the prohet in Isaiah 53:
Isa 53.4-5 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
• For Him, it’s already happened, He’s seen it.
NOW THERE’S another great insight with prophecy that we find this morning in our study through the end of CH8.
• Often in prophecy we find types & shadows of still yet coming events. A person or event can form a picture of what’s up ahead.
FOR EXAMPLE, in Genesis 22 as Abraham is taking his son, his ONLY SON to Mt. Moriah as a sacrifice…
• It becomes a picture of God the Father sacrificing His ONLY BEGOTTEN son.
• It’s also the first MENTION OF LOVE in the Bible and it’s related to the sacrificial giving of a Father.
• That very same mountaintop would become the very place where Jesus Christ was crucified.
• Pictures and Types of still yet events to come.
SO THIS MORNING we once again study the coming world leader, known as the antichrist, as pictured in a leader named Antiochus Epiphanes.
Read through first 8 verses…
I. (8:9-27) ANOTHER LITTLE HORN
1. (9-14) Daniel’s Dream Continues.
a. Now, don’t get confused here with the many horns mentioned.
b. Horns in the Bible represent power and authority.
c. They also are used to identify people.
d. This ‘little horn’ is not the same ‘little horn’ from CH7.
e. There the RULER comes out of the last empire, the revived Roman Empire… He’s the antichrist himself.
f. This horn in CH8 comes out of the GRECIAN EMPIRE and is a SHADOW or TYPE of the coming antichrist.
g. CH 7 speaks of 4 empires, CH8 narrows it down to 2.
h. That’s the difference: this one is a type, the one in CH7 is the actual person himself.
NOTE: A distinct shift has taken place in CH8 too.
• The language of CH8 is now again back to Hebrew.
• From 2:4-7:28 it was written in Aramaic.
• OK, SO WHAT? What’s the big deal about that?
• WELL, Hebrew is the language of the Jews. CH1 we saw the fall of Jerusalem & then from CH2-7 it was world rulers & Gentiles.
• Now we’re back focusing in on Israel and how other nations will treat the Nation of Israel through the end times.
SO WE READ OF AN EARTHLY RULER that gives us a great picture of what will happen in the future. We learn more in CH11.
• Before we jump in, really, the question for us is WHY?
• Why A FOCUS AGAIN, ON THIS Coming IMPOSTER?
• God wants the children of Israel to be equipped & prepared so that they will not be deceived by a false Messiah.
• Through His Word he warns so that he might protect.
APP: GOD HASN’T CHANGED has He. No way. He can’t change.
• He still warns us today so that we might not be hurt.
• He warns the lost, that judgment is coming.
• He warns the saved, that sin is destructive.
• With every warning, is a way out. There’s hope in the Lord.
• This world is not our home, we’re just passing through!
1 Peter 1.16-19 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." 17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Hebrews 11.13-16 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
APP: I believe it’s so essential that we live as pilgrims, not getting too attached to the things of this world.
• That we as Christians would possess our possessions and not let them possess us!
2 Peter 3.11-13 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
OK… SO FAR we have the Medo/Perisan Empire the RAM in v1-4
• Then came the Grecian Empire, the Goat in v5-8
• The huge horn from the Goat, Alexander the Great fell, was broken off on June 10, 323. BC.
WHILE HE WAS DYING, the question came up
• What will happen to your kingdom?
• Recorded as one of the last sentences Alexander spoke, he said, “Give my kingdom to the strong.”
• Well that was open ended and caused quite a stir.
• Eventually the Grecian Empire was divided between 4 Generals.
• CASSANDER took over all Macedonia & Greece.
• LYSIMACUS took over Asia Minor & Thrace.
• SELEUCUS took over Syria & Babylonia
• PTOLEMY took Egypt, Israel, and island of Cyprus.
NOTICE again v9, out of those 4 horns came a little horn which grew exceedingly great, toward the glorious land. What land? Israel.
• This little horn was a man named Antiochus IV.
• Better known as Antiochus Epiphanes.
• He’s the 8th king in the Syrian/Selucid Dynasty (175-164 BC)
NOTE: Epiphanes was a name he took upon himself, literally he required that he be called “THEOS ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES”
• WHICH literally meant, “I am God in the flesh”’
• He was a vicious attacker of the Jews killing some 80,000 Jews in a single march, and selling another 40,000 into slavery.
The practice of circumcision, the reading of the Law, the observance of sacrifices and festivals—all these were forbidden on pain of death. Devout Jews were forced to eat swine’s flesh, to offer up ritually unclean animals and “to defile themselves with every kind of uncleanness and profanation
• He rededicated the Jewish Temple to the Greek god Zeus.
• He changed the sacrificial system and decided no more would lambs, goats, and rams be offered.
• He offered only pigs on the brass altar.
• He himself offered up the sacrifice of a pig & then took its juices and spread them throughout the Temple.
• That event has come to be known as the “Abomination of Desolation”. It’s already happened in the past.
• Roman historian Josephus records these accounts as to 1 & 2 Maccabbees, the uninspired historical books in the apocrypha.
IN THE MIDST OF THIS, a man named Judas Maccabeus and his sons led a group of zealots against AE later to be known as the Maccabean Revolt.
• They drove out the Syrian army and cleanse the Temple restoring the sacrifices.
• But when they arrive, there is only enough oil for the Menorah to burn for 1 day, but miraculously it lasts for 8 days!
• This has been commemorated yearly by a feast, the celebration of Hanukkah by the Jews!
• It’s the festival of lights, of rededication of the Temple!
• Jesus celebrated the feast in John 7!
SO look at v15-27… Gabriel gives the interpretation.
• Your dream v17, v19, relates to the end times.
• Horn from the Grecian Emp becomes a model of a future beast.
• THE ANTICHRIST: AND When he comes he will be the answer people are looking for.
• He will be embraced, elevated, and empowered over the world, militarily, religiously, and economically!
• He’ll bring peace to the Middle East. He’ll be smooth alright.
But what are his weapons? How does he do it?
• He has 2 very important strategic methods.
• V25 - #1 His Cunning & #2 Deceit in their prosperity!
• He’s cunning, He’s sly. He’s crafy.
• And he uses that to DECEIVE MANY! Let’s go to James 1.21-24
• What’s so dangerous about deceit, especially self-deception?
• A person believes that they are right when they are really wrong… AND they are not OPEN for correction!
Proverbs 6.23 For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
APP: Self deception is where you come to that place where you think everything is OK & you’re not seeing the Word for what it says!
• You walk away from the mirror not doing anything about what you see!
• It’s through his cunning the destroys many in their prosperity.
• You could also translate that word in v25, their peace.
• The end times will see unprecedented PEACE & PROSPERITY!
1 Thess 5.2-4 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
God has given us HISTORY in advance… He lays before us the way out, the way of escape. His Son Jesus Christ.
