Address—H. Short
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The Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Savior.
We thank thee, we have found in the stability and.
One that can be trusted.
One who can guide us through this wilderness, because thou hast gone through it and authored and finished the path of faith.
Now, as we open Thy Word, we pray for help in the Ministry and in its reception.
Lord, we ask.
For the blessing of the dear Saints of God here this afternoon in this room.
And for thy glory, Lord Jesus, we pray in thy holy and precious name. Amen.
I'd like to read 3 verses in the New Testament to introduce what's on my heart this afternoon. First is in Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter 3 and is is written to the assembly. It's artist.
And we find in verse two this expression be watchful.
And strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die or are about to die. Here I believe the mystery of the seven churches we could conclude this artist would bring before us the Protestant movement that we are all familiar with.
That movement that began with life and had a name that lived and degenerated.
Into a condition of.
Death now half the name that thou livest in our dead.
And what marks the Protestant movement is I have my opinion and you have yours.
And we all have a right to our own opinions of Latex thoughts. I don't have a right to an opinion at all. Now I'd like to read the second verse in First Corinthians chapter 16.
Watch ye stand past in the faith.
You like men? Be strong. Now here this verse is written to those in prosperity.
He had taken a dreadful toll on the Corinthian St. but Paul concludes this first epistle by.
Encouraging them to watch and be strong, as we had there in Sardis.
Be watchful and strengthened. Watch and be like men. Be strong.
Now I like to turn to Matthew 24 for the third verse.
What is on my heart this afternoon is the strengthening of our souls in this last hour of our time here on earth. That.
In our weak condition, that God, I believe, would encourage and strengthen that which remains and is about to die. And he would encourage us individually to be men and women of God, not babes tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
But to be strong and so here in Matthew 24 I'd like to read from verse 15.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken by.
Daniel the prophet, the end of that verse whoso readeth, let him understand.
I want to go to Daniel the prophet, and he was a dear man of God. That the spirit of God bears a remarkable testimony too. And before we turn finally to the book of Daniel, I'd like to turn to the book of Ezekiel, and that would be chapter.
14 for this.
Testimony to Daniel, the character of this dear man of God, and how he had a time in his life.
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When he was in very, very, very weak condition and we will see what brought him into that condition of weakness.
Unlike most of us here, we have lived our lives in a condition of weakness, but for a different reason.
Then Daniel was brought into a condition of weakness. But the spirit of God bears this testimony to Daniel and two others. But I have Daniel before me this afternoon.
Ezekiel 14 and verse 14. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, Job were in it. They should deliver but their own souls. In other words, Daniel would just deliver his own soul and he is talking the spirit of God and prophet. Ezekiel is talking about those end times when God is going to bring a judgment.
Upon Israel, he said, if Daniel were to live in those days, he was be of such a character that he would deliver his own soul. Then again in verse 20, So Noah, Daniel and Job were in it. As I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, but they but shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Again this testimony to Daniel, You know in their lives they stream in Daniel, Noah, and.
And Job, They were used by the spirit of God to deliver their peers and others that were in relationship with them. Noah saved his family, Job saved his friends and his foolish wife. And Daniel, I believe it was chiefly his exercises that saved all of those wise men of the Chaldeans when the interpretations were not able to be made known.
And I believe it was chiefly his exercises that stirred up his three friends and brought them into his exercises. And in his life, you might say he saved others. But here's a condition that's coming on God's people, and it says, Daniel, If you were there, he would only be able to save himself. Well, I'd like to think of it this way, beloved thing. We are getting weaker, no doubt for a different reason than Daniel.
Will get weak as we will see him, and without strength. But if it's just between you and the Lord alone, will you be able to deliver? Will I be able to deliver my own soul? Well, now let's turn to Daniel, Chapter 7. And I I want to talk about the enemies that will come against Israel in the last times these visions came to Daniel in later life.
And I want to look at him and his response to to those visions. We might say in Daniel in chapter seven, we have the part of the earth that you and I have our roots cast in the Western world. And I don't want to take this up prophetically in its prophetic bearing. So much might call attention to that. But what I want to bring before our hearts this afternoon is to see the forces of evil that these kingdoms were raised up with one purpose really in mind. The God of this world had marshaled his forces.
Against the beloved Saints of God. And these passages have referenced prophetically to Israel, but they have referenced Beloved morally to you and me here in Lowry this afternoon. And that's the burden on my heart, Not so much to take them up prophetically, but to see the forces and how they come forward against the people of God. And to see Beloved right here in Lowry today, these same forces.
Are marshaled against us to discourage us to weaken us.
And to cause us to turn aside that we don't deliver our own souls in these last days, Well, in Chapter 7.
In chapter 8, I want to look at these two Who will be the main instrument in God's indignation against his people? That is, and God is going to judge his people, and the West will be used not so much to judge them, but to give them a false sense of security, and the king the little horn of the earth.
Will be used by God to judge them and but beloved.
What I want to call our attentions to is that the means by which these corrupters of God's people, these weakeners of God's people, the means they use and to identify them in our lives. I want to say something about Daniel that you all know with a young Jewish man and in his youth, not because of his own sins, but sins of his father's.
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He ended up a captive in Babylon.
And there, being a bright young man, and the king of Babylon, made him a eunuch.
And you think of this young man. Here was a young man in his youth who was forever denied all possibility of ever becoming a father. He had been made a eunuch by men. What a discouraging, despairing thing it would be. It had something happened to him in his youth, over which he had no control nor was not the fault of. And here he is the eunuch, never, never able to be and have the joy of being a father in Israel.
But what a joy this young man is to our hearts, because he took that very thing that was inflicted upon him. And again I say, though he says he had sinned.
It wasn't. You might say he wasn't to blame for what happened to him, but he says that's not going to stop me. I'm not going to be a eunuch in the King of Babylon. I'm going to be a eunuch for the Kingdom of God's sake. I'm going to turn the very, very thing that I wished I could erase all of my life that I wish had never happened to me in my life. I'm going to use that very thing for the furtherance and edification and encouragement and strengthening of God's people.
You know, I dare say probably everyone of us here sitting this afternoon and the speaker standing, have things in our life that if I could take an eraser, I'd go over and blot it out. And if I couldn't blot it out, I would blot it out of my memory. But I can't even do that. And perhaps things have happened to you that have been very deeply hurting, and the enemy would bring these things before your soul and say.
You're done for. You're all through anybody. Perhaps in our case, we may have been.
The cause for these inflictions And we might hear a voice saying, if you're done for. No, beloved Daniel says, I'm not a eunuch for the king of Babylon. I'm not going to eat his meats and his dainty. I'm going to be a eunuch for the Kingdom of God's sake and so loved ones. Yes, there are things in our life we wish weren't there, but let's not let them discourage us and turn us aside and cause us to faint by the way we can turn. I've been enjoying it personally lately.
I was going into eighth grade. My parents moved from Richmond, MI, which I thought was paradise, and our little 10 acres, into the inner city of Des Moines, IA. And I hated it with a perfect passion. And I wished and begged. Mother, don't let me go to school, Let me quit the school. I hated it. She didn't let me quit. And today, God is using that very school experience, that very neighborhood experience.
To enable me to reach out to these souls who are lost in that old neighborhood that I would have erased and not brought into my life. Well beloved, you have things in your life that if you submit to them and accept them as being allowed by God in your life, that if they don't need to hinder your progress in the things of God. Well, here in Daniel Seven we have a vision and it begins with these 4 Gentile kingdoms.
Which are history now, but we're prophetic, some of them, at least when Daniel had these visions. But what I want to look at is what is the prophetic side that's still not fulfilled yet. And you know, it speaks of Babylon. It speaks of the in the beginning of Chapter 7, and it interprets it to us so we aren't left to our imagination. It speaks of the Kingdom of the Persians and the Medes.
Persians as a bear getting bigger on one side, that is the Persian and the Medes. The Persians became prominent. We'll see them again in chapter 8 in the figure of two horns, one larger than the other. And then we have the Greeks and the Grecian empire coming in and destroying them. And then that. Here we find the West the Roman Empire brought in, and it's under the 4th beast.
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In the first three, the four are mentioned in verse.
In the early part of our chapter verse 3. But then when it comes down to the 4th, there is a separate vision for this 4th 1:00 because.
It affords us a very, very special interest the Spirit of God has in this 4th beast because he has yet to run his course, he began. The Romans were in the land when Christ was here, but they're going to be resurrected to God's judgment for what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the 4th beast I want to look at darling verse seven. He was dreadful and he was strong.
Any devoured. And then I want to go down. And it says in his resurrection he was diverse and verse 7 from all beasts that were before it, and it had 10 horns, that is 10 powers, 10 nations. I considered the horns, and beholder came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold in this horn.
Were eyes like a man.
Eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. Now I want to talk about this little horn. There are two little horns in Chapter 8. There is another one. We'll talk about him. But he became great. He began his history as a little horn, but he overthrew other three. Of the Kingdom that he became the most notable one. And I want to apply it this way, beloved, there may be little things in your life that you're allowing this afternoon.
They won't stay little. You may be a little bit careless in this, or a little bit careless. And some of us were talking last evening of those who once embraced the precious truth that we consider and hold to be precious this afternoon, and how today they're in utter darkness.
Utter darkness and you don't decide where you're going to stop when you take a step away from the Lord. And this little horn came out little but it didn't stay little and it was a plague to the people of God and it will be a plague again. The West will be a plague to the little remnant, the godly remnant of Israel that God is going to take up with after the rapture. But I want to mainly apply this to our condition and 1St I would like to notice the character of this man.
This beast, this horn, he had the eyes of a man. You know, that's a real snare to us, beloved, to go through life with the eyes of a man that is seeing things as man sees them, valuing things as men value them. It's a snare to us, you know, We get in with the world, our workmates or classmates, and they're pretty soon that they're saying, oh, this is really important. Maybe it's a football game.
It's really important and pretty soon you come away from it and you say, boy, that's really important. What is really important?
Of 22 grown up men who should be playing each other. What could be so very, very important about that? But it can get into our souls and it can become very important because we're looking at it with the eyes of the man. Well, this little horn from the West that grows big, that's what marked his whole being. His whole being is looking at everything as a man looks at it and looking at nothing.
As God looks at it, we live in a nation that does not have God in its mind. Characteristically, our dear president and I speak respectfully of him, thinks that he can say something about Israel as to who's going to get this piece of that precious land or who's not going to get listened. Beloved, that's God's land and God is going to give it, every inch of it to his people. And those who don't have God in their thoughts, who think that they can say what can be given to this people.
What can be given to that people are going to be brought to nought? Well, to begin with, we need to think as God. We need to see as God sees. And this man, this enemy of our souls, would get us to look through the eyes of a man and then a mouth speaking great things. Here's another snare to us today in this day, someone I met, my wife and I went to a restaurant last Lord's Day, I think it was. And it was a couple in front of us and he had.
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John I think it was John 14, six on his T-shirt.
I wasn't going to be his acquaintance. And then the spirit of God said, hey, you better make his acquaintance come down from your great haughty spirit. So I did, and it turned out to be very interesting. He came up to me and we spoke a little bit, and then later we separated. And then he came up to me and he asked me about the meeting and where I went and when it started, and I said, well, 1898, how many?
Well.
Boy, you've been around since 1898. You must have a lot of disciples, I said. Maybe 100 and now stretching it quite a bit.
Well, it's a day beloved of small things, but the enemy of our souls is in bombarding us with great things. This man is going to speak great promises big. Everything is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and that influence can come into your life. And you find yourself not content having food and raiment to be content there with. And you begin to get taken up in the spirit of this little horn that becomes great and you begin to think.
I need this, and I really need this and I really need this. And pretty soon your whole life is consumed by pursuing great things. But if a day of littleness, beloved the young friends, let me tell you, it's a wonderful thing to think and look through God's eyes, who values a day of small things. And you know there would be a lot smaller than it is if it weren't for God's faithfulness, if he weren't going to preserve two or three.
Then we certainly wouldn't preserve it ourselves.
But let's not be taken in by great words and great promises.
And then it says that this beast is going to be slain down in verse 11 and his body is going to be destroyed.
And then there was another vision. In verse 13. There were 3 visions altogether.
And in verse 13 we find the ancient of days, our Lord Jesus Christ being brought forward. And the end of verse 14 it says, and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Beloved, isn't it wonderful to live a life for the Lord Jesus in a day of great weakness, with some thought in your soul, when you come to the end of your life, that you belong to a Kingdom that is not going to be destroyed, death is not going to take it away from you. Well, the ancient of days, our Lord Jesus Christ has this.
Now he Daniel is grieved in verse 15. I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body.
And the visions of my head troubled me. And then he wants the interpretation of the things in verse 16. Now we come not to the historical part, but the prophetic part of this vision. What is your future? And we read more, he says in verse 18.
And the things of the Most High should read places, shall take the Kingdom, and possess the Kingdom for ever.
Even forever and ever. Now the saying to the Most High Places are those dear Saints of God in the coming day who will be looking to God in heaven. They're going to say, I don't want the eyes of a man, I'm not going to listen to these great swelling words. I'm going to look off to heaven and they're called a thing to the most High places. Many of them, I suppose, especially those identified as the Saints of the most High Places.
Will be martyred and will be brought into a heavenly portion in that coming Kingdom.
But I want to apply it to us this afternoon, today, as we begin our days. As you begin your day, do you look to the most high places for your guidance? Give all your knee and ask the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, help me to see through thy eyes. Help me to understand this place in which my lot is cast, that I not be deceived by swelling greatness, Great words that are not deceived by sight and not by faith. Well.
These Saints of the most high places, they're going to possess the Kingdom. And then Daniel had a special interest in this 4th beast because it's the final form. It's yet prophetic. It's yet future. Then I would know the truth of the forced beast. When you like to know the truth of what's going on around us here, the great men in our nation, the great men on this continent, the great men in this world are in a dilemma. They think that they want to know the truth. They can't figure out the very simplest things, but the very simplest things.
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Knows what's going on. And Daniel said, I want to know what's going to happen at the end of my dear beloved people. And you know it's remarkable. God doesn't call them his people. But at least twice I believe he tells Daniel he says thy people, that is as far as the book of Daniel goes. It takes up with the times of gentiles and the Lord is outwardly set aside his people. But Daniel said didn't let that hinder him, he said.
They're your people, and God says Daniel, they're your people.
And Daniel prays for his people. Do you look at?
All that declaration of Ruth, thy people shall be my people and thy God shall be my God. You look at the Saints of God, beloved as your people. If God looks at your life, would he say, Well, you know those dear things of God. They're Henry's people. He has them on his heart. They're his concerns. There is purpose in life.
Gonna be a wonderful thing. I think at least twice. They're called Daniel's people, Thy people, God says thy people. Who are your people this afternoon? Who are your heroes? You know, Are those old brothers that have encouraged us in the path of faith? Or is it those in the world and that this Gray horn, this little horn that turns into a great enemy of God's people who have set forth before your eyes, These are the heroes that you should follow. These are the men who are really important in your life.
Lovers, who is important in your life? Who is thy people? It says to Daniel. God says to Daniel. And then it says down in verse about this great horn he spake very great things whose look than his fellows. And that could be where it was looked was imposing. And that's another thing that hinders us in the path of faith. The world comes on and imposes its ways upon us, you know, at home my wife lets me answer the phone.
Sometimes I think I should tell it. Honey, if you answer the phone, we have a lot more money. This lady comes, and it wasn't a lady. It was a man. He called me, you know, and got me feeling like I couldn't hang up. I couldn't say. Look, Sir, you know you got it. You're supposed to be polite and kind and all that thing anyway, end up $0.85 apiece for garbage bag. You see what I'm saying?
Imposed himself on me and I wasn't able to say I don't need $0.85 garbage bags, but you know you help somebody and you don't know who you help.
I'll be somebody a lot richer than myself. That's the world, beloved. It's imposing on us. Some of you, man. You're out there at the workforce. Yeah. You got to do this. You got to do that. You got to do this. You can't go to meeting. Who says that? Who is telling you that? Is that the Lord telling you? You can't go to me. You'll have time that the Lord tells you you don't have.
Time to give to the Lord Jesus.
I enjoyed one time when I was a younger man, Mr. Barry Keen to Des Moines and he had meetings on the Tabernacle. I don't remember what he was talking about. I remember this message, he said. You know, people say, oh, I'm so tired, I can't come home from work. I'm so tired, I can't go to me, he said. You ever hear anybody say I've had a good time? A meeting last night, so tired this morning I couldn't go to work. No, no, we don't look at it that way.
But beloved, it's this world is an imposing foot, an imposing person. It takes away from you. It destroys our lives for Christ. And that's the character of the West in its enmity against God's people.
And then he made war with the Saints and prevailed against them. It's quite evident Beloved isn't in our lives. Oftentimes the enemy prevails against us in his warfare with us. Now I'd like to go down and call our attention.
Down to verse 25 and he shall speak great words. Notice how often these great words are brought before us.
Against the Most High, and shall wear out the sins of the Most High. Here it doesn't contain with the Saints of the Most High God, or the most High places rather, but now it's against the Lord Himself. And here is another character of the end day. And he shall think to change time and laws, and they those times and laws shall be given.
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To his hand he's going to be successful. Well, this will be true of Israel. That little remnant they will see it in in reason.
It's the against the Lord is because the Lord will be taking up His Jewish people again after the rapture of the Church. But in our application I would like to.
See that? We identify this is happening today, He's going to change the laws.
The word of God doesn't mean today what it does mean. You know, you get this book is forever settled in heaven, but you know our children in school, moms and dads. I know you're concerned about school and I don't think it's so much about evolution though that would change the word of God, but the the lack and decay of morals and teaching our children very subtly that what your dad and what your mother.
Thought yesterday is not acceptable today. You've got to allow a broader mind. You've got to accept all of these wicked, sinful lifestyles and patterns as being OK. We don't care whether the Bible condemns it or not, beloved. We do care if God's Word condemns something. You and I would be well do well to condemn it, but at the close.
Here in the West, the great enemy of God's people will seek to change.
The laws and the sacrifices and.
That change the laws and they shall be given into his hands. And then it says in verse 28.
Hitherto is the end of the matter. And As for me, Daniel, my connotations or thoughts much troubled me, and my confidence changed in me. But I kept the matter in my heart. He he had such an interest in the people of God. When he heard these things that related to the people of God, it was what weakened Daniel. It's what troubled him. It wasn't that he didn't get that job that he was hoping to get.
It wasn't that he didn't get the appointment that he was hoping to get for that account that he was hoping to get. It was what related to the people of God. That's what troubled Daniel. Is it? So in our lives, the great sorrows in your life, does it relate to the people of God? You know, the great sorrows, the great burdens in our life? I should be late to the great interest in our life. And they do. What you think about in the days, what you're troubled about in the days, You know, I can think of that. I can wake up in the night and think, oh, how will I ever get this dumb thing fixed?
What if? Who cares how I'm going to get it fixed? In order to help me get it fixed, I don't need to spend all night wondering how I'm going to resolve this faucet or whatever it is that's a problem for me is the things of God and their condition and God's thoughts about them, the great burden of our life. It was with Daniel. Now we come to the East and we see another little horn rising. And again we have a history related in the beginning of the chapter.
And you know, it's fulfilled perfectly. But again, I want to look at the last form of this eastern power or power from the east. Actually, I believe he will be empowered from the north, but it says about this.
I suppose it was the Grecian Empire when it was broken in verse 8 and therefore the ego waxed very great, and when he was strong the Great Horn was broken, and for it that is in place of the great Horn.
4 notable ones. Toward the four winds of heaven they came up and in verse 9 is this second little horn. This one is from the Eastern world. It's not the same one we read of in Chapter 7, A little Horn which waxed exceeding grave. Again, I caution our lives let's not be careless with little things in our life. It's good spirit to stay at home. I kind of like her. I said I like it because you're getting about trouble about as quick as I do and.
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But she said, yeah. And we were talking about the ways of God with this. And I say, yeah, see if I stubbed my toe, my first thought is, Lord, why has this happened? You know, if if you cultivate that in your life, you, you bang your thumb. I got a bang on my thumb. I don't know where I got it. So I must not have been too concerned at that time. But if you take up the little things in your life.
Difficulty finding a parking place.
The fat tire or whatever it is, if you take those things up and are exercised about, and the little horn will never get big and he'll never plague you. But this little horn did become great, and it became a great plague and will become a great plague for the people of God. And now we read about this little horn, and it says in verse 9 and out of chapter 8 and verse 9, and out of one of them came forth a little horn which whacked exceeding great towards the South, toward the east.
And toward the pleasant land without This is an expression identifying Israel. And again, the God of this world has an enmity against God's people. If he can't reach Christ raised from the dead, if he can't trouble things in the heavens, he's going to bend his energy against the Saints still on earth. And so this one comes forth, and he comes toward what is called here, the pleasant land.
Is the assembly.
For you.
Is it? You know, by God's grace, I can say to the assembly is not part of my life. It's not part of my life. It is my life by the grace of God. And everything else in my life has been ordered in relationship to it. It's been a pleasant land for me. The Lord is kind, you know. I think of all the people that he got out of the ditches.
That he bestowed upon me, and taking me to an end, and telling the dear Saints they're at home, take care of this boy, and they did take care of me.
And they've spent more on me, and it's been a pleasant place to be. But the enemy has marshaled his forces against the pleasant land, and it says, and it waxed great even to the host of heaven. Now here is another expression that may include the unbelieving Jews who at this time will be back in professed relationship with the Lord. But they're in unbelief. But still, God has taken his people up at this time.
And Israel will be his people, and they will suffer the government of God.
For their professed profession and relationship with God.
I want to make that simple, beloved, you know, it's our own thing for us to profess to be gathered through the Lord's precious name.
And have the Lord in the midst. That's a privilege. It is, but it carries the great responsibility.
And woe to us if we take it up carelessly and touch the Assembly of God, I sometimes thought. It's one thing for me.
To corrupt my family, that would be sad enough. But if I corrupt the Assembly of God, God is going to take me up. It's a it's a wonderful privilege, but with privilege comes responsibility. And so these people who take a relationship with Jehovah and who are in it, the enemy comes against them, against this host of heaven, and to cast down some of the hosts as the stars to the ground.
And stamped upon them there is light from heaven.
Brought down and exterminated. How many lights I'm flying it now to us. How many do we know in our lives? You know, the older they get, the more you know of those who were bright lights in their early days and they're gone. They got cast down. They got overcome by this Big Horn and discouraged, and they're no longer, like for God, cast down and trampled.
And then it says there is a parentheses. I believe in Mr. Darby's because up to now it's been really historical. But he says yeah, he magnified in verse 11. He magnified himself even to the Prince of hosts that is the Lord Jesus and by him. But it should read as the margin reads and from him that is from the Lord Jesus the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of his sanctuary.
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Was cast down. Now it's looking at it as the Lord in relationship with his people.
Even though they're back in unbelief, these things are going to happen. But it's looked at as being against the Lord. And we need, you know, sometimes we say that was a terrible thing that person did to that person, but it isn't so often that we say that was a terrible thing that person did against the Lord. And here it's traced as a war, as an opposition to the Lord. And here's what it says he does.
He takes away the daily sacrifice. The daily sacrifice was taken away from the Lord that is these people. Instead of sacrificing to the Lord, this horn came in and he stopped those sacrifices. I don't know if it'll be by Muslims or what, but it's going to be stopped. God's going to judge this act of this great horn now in our application to our lives.
The enemy of our souls is seeking to stop the daily sacrifice in our lives.
We're too busy. As I said earlier, you know, I get frustrated sometimes if I take time and sit down and meditate on the word of God, pretty soon I begin to get a a bad conscience. And I hear some charging You don't do anything here. You are sitting around. All you're doing here is reading God's word. You don't do anything in your life. I get a bad conscience.
This and beloved, we don't have time to be alone in the presence of the Lord Jesus. The world in this last day is taking away the daily sacrifice, that time that you spend alone with the Lord Jesus. It's so precious. And when we allow these things to come into our lives and take this time away from us, you know the important things like I got to get the yard mowed as if it's going to die. If you don't get it mowed today, it'll be there tomorrow.
We need to spend time alone day by day with the Lord. But here is one of the efforts of the enemy to take out of your life and mine the daily sacrifice. And then there was the collective side to he took away the daily sacrifice and it says the place of his sanctuary was cast on. I'd just like to make that application to the assembly that it gets quite neglected sometimes in our busy lives.
There are important things that relate to the assembly, that give way to unimportant things that relate to our lives, and that was what was so precious about dear Timothy. Paul says he will naturally care for your state. He didn't seek his own things, but he thought sought the things of Jesus Christ. Well, I want to go down a little more about this man from the east.
And verse 23 we get it traced to the end. And in the latter time of their Kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fears, countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up. Here's a man in this element. He he seems to be very heady, very understanding, seemed to have a lot of wisdom. He has these dark sentences and understanding of dark sentences.
And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. That is, I'd rather than feel that this king as a military power, will be supported probably by the GOG of Ezekiel, Russia. You know that the kind of amuses me that we can be drawn into this, that, oh, rush is done for the poor little old wimpy thing. Now she's all destroyed and poverty stricken. It's going to be the last fight, he foes.
Of God's people. She's going to empower the last elements that come against God's people. No, she's not dead, beloved.
God says so. God says so and so. This power isn't by his own. And it's good for you to realize that when these things come into your life, they hinder you from your daily sacrifice to the Lord.
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That there is a power. It isn't the the broken car. It isn't the leaky roof. It's there's a force behind all of these things.
This war going on to fulfill your life, that you don't have time to be alone with the Lord. Well, he comes, and I want to call attention to another thing he does.
And through his policy in verse, Umm.
25 Through his policy also he shall cause Craft to prosper in his hand.
And he shall magnify himself of his heart, and by peace it should read.
Prosperity shall he destroy or corrupt many. He shall also stand up against the Prince of Princess that is the Lord Jesus.
And then when he does that, he shall be broken with thou hand. But I want to talk a little bit about corrupting by prosperity. Again, we can be so deceived. What is true? Riches? You know, if we look through this world, at this world, through the eyes of a man, and with a man's understanding, we're going to be deluded and we're going to value things that are of no value. We're going to fill our lives with the prosperity that's going to leave us bankrupt. And that's exactly the last condition we read of in the seven churches.
Thou art rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.
The very God who says that says that thou art poor, naked, wretched, flying, miserable. Oh, I wonder below it. If we got our eyes open this afternoon to see what our bank account really is, would we find that we're nearly bankrupt?
We may have a sense of security and all of that down here, but are we bankrupt to God? Well, this man, this force against God's people, he will corrupt many through prosperity. Well, Chapter 9, Daniel takes up the the book of Jeremiah and it says in verse two he comes back down to the condition of the the people of God under the power of the West.
And he says in the first two now we're going to come to the time of his being brought low and being discouraged and needing to be strengthened. But he says, I understood by books the number of the years. You know, I remember I'm talking about Daniel this afternoon because that's where I'm eating in my private reading. I remember as I read, I said, oh Lord.
I don't understand this book.
I don't know anything about it. I remember during the Gulf War I read about.
That ram that came didn't touch the ground. I said, Boy, that sounds like the United States to me, didn't even touch the ground and won this war. But I knew that wasn't what it meant. But I I don't understand these things. But beloved, we have a lot of helps. God raised up men.
Who were strengthened? They didn't succumb to the deadness of Sardis. And they came out of it men and women of God, and they were strengthened. And God gave them understanding and they wrote these things down in ministry. And we have books. And Daniel had books and he had a book of Jeremiah and he meditated on and God gave him understanding as to the 70 weeks that we're going to be fulfilled. But I don't want to talk about that, but I want to call attention about.
What effect this had in Daniel? Now it's one of the longer prayers in God's Word recorded in God's Word. I think Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple may be the longest, but this is a long prayer. In verse three I set my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my God and made my confession.
As you read this, you see fully identified with the saying to God. I remember those early years in the Gathering and it was like this in my mind.
I used the expression, I'm sure many times, the brethren. What are the brethren going to do? Have you ever heard that expression? What the brethren decide? Well, and thank God, beloved, today that expression is made in my mind. It isn't the brethren because I'm one of them. I'm one of the brethren. They're my people and.
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In their decisions are my decisions and not their decisions. Their condition is my condition. It's not their condition. I'm not separated from them. And Daniel makes these confessions, some of them. You wonder how Daniel could have said it for us. It's easy for us to say it because of most of us it would be true about our sins and our failures. But that's what he did when he found about these conditions of God's government on his people, it set him like it did Habakkuk Habakkuk.
He When he learned what God was going to do in his ways of government with his people, he prayed. He intercede for them. Moses did the same, And men and women of God we find in the word of God, they had no delight in the judgment of God's people. It shouldn't be in our thoughts, beloved. It should take us to our knees. And then he says in verse 13 that we might turn the end of the verse.
From our iniquities and understand thy truth. Verse 17 Oh our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and its supplication, and cause thy face to shine upon the sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. Is that our desire? Beloved, you say it's all over. It's so discouraging. No. Let's pray that the Lord will cause his face to shine on. The Saints of God strengthen that which remains is about the perish.
That's what was in Daniel's heart. He's looking beyond this time that has to come in the people of Israel's lives.
Is looking beyond to the time when they will have and possess their inheritance in peace. And so he prays that he makes supplication. And now in chapter 10 I want to spend here where we find this man of God so weak and so without strength, and see what it was that encouraged him with all of these discouraging things being marshaled against God's people.
It says in chapter 10, in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a thing was revealed unto Daniel. His name was called Belshazzar. Now I've enjoyed this about Daniel. I know Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, but I don't remember their Hebrew name. But I know Daniel and I scarcely remember his Babylonian. That's what I mean, he said. You're not going to call me Bell Savage. I'm Daniel and the spirit of God that we'll call you Daniel.
He was not a eunuch for the king of Babylon. He was a eunuch. Dal Chazy was to name the king of Babylon gave him. Daniel was his Hebrew name. And he said, just call me Daniel. They ever asked you that? So I did. Where you go? Where are you anyway? Well, I just belong to Christ. I just belong to Christ. And so Daniel Hussein is Daniel. They call them Belshazzi didn't accept that name.
He understood the thing and had understanding of the vision. And then verse two. In those days I, Daniel was mourning 3 full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till the whole weeks were feeling fulfilled. It was a man who entered into God's suffering thoughts concerning his people, and it put him in this condition. I want to go down. Verse 7.
And I, Daniel alone, saw the vision. Here is a man who knew how to prosper before God alone.
Therefore verse eight, I was left alone, and now come to these expressions, and there remained no strength in me. The end of verse 8 And I retained no strength. But look at verse 11. And he said unto me, This Angel, this messenger from God, Oh Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understanding the words that I speak unto thee, and stand up upright.
He been prostrated in the presence of God.
And God strengthens him with his word. And then we find that Daniels is very, very weak down in verse 15.
When he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became.
Dumb and behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips and.
I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me home.