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all these symbols, the ram, the goat, the horn. Um, so as we go on, we'll try to find ways of understanding this kind of apocalyptic literature. Let me first tell you a story. uh sometime the 19th century a Baptist minister called Jonathan Miller read this chapter very heavily and he particularly he came to verse 14 where he says it will take 2,300 evening and mornings then the sanctuary will be consecrated and he interpreted 2,300 evenings and mornings as years and that the sanctuary being consecrated meaning God was going to cleanse the earth and out of this he brought a hypothesis that the world was going to end in 1843. Well, of course, the war didn't end in 1843. He then said, "Well, I made a mistake. The world is going to end in 1844." And they waited. In fact, uh the records, 100,000 people waited, and the world didn't end. It was called the great disappointment. What am I trying to tell you? I'm saying we have this fascination of the end of the world. When is it going to happen? Some people do at least. Uh we want to know how all these things come about. So this morning as we look through uh chapter 8 I hope to also spend some time to try to understand numbers particularly just numbers because we such a wide genre and how do we understand things like 2,300 evenings and the other kind of numbers you find in the book of revelation and Daniel. So this morning we hope to not just bring you home with some message. I hope the Lord teaches something to us but some to understand a bit of how to read apocalyptical literature. Let's come before God in prayer. Lord, we come before you now and ask for your hand to be with us. Ask for humility on my part. And as we go through such a difficult literature as apocalyptical literature, sometimes we be obsessed by it or we tend to try to forecast the future or try to pin certain things to current events or sometime we just neglect it. They try us to find how we can read all scripture as God breath and even difficult text like Daniel or Revelations and then go home and be encouraged. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, we only read the first part of Daniel because of the length of the chapter. I suggest you read 15 to the end. 15 to the end if you have your NIV it says here is the interpretation of the vision and it gives you the interpretation which we'll go through later now what's quite interesting later on is the last verse the last verse says this I was appalled by the vision it was beyond understanding now that's good news to us isn't it because Daniel the man who could understand visions couldn't understand this he was beyond understanding and I gave you a verse in first Corinthians where Paul talks about we only now know in part then we'll fully know. So here's the thing you don't have to understand everything when you read apocalyptical literature that you be trying to take all the symbols and tagging it 2,300 evening means years uh this horn means that Gog and Mog means this. You go to revelations all the the angels seven seven lamps you try to identify them current events is actually quite a dangerous habit. So let me take a short while to explain what we mean by apocalyptical literature and there are few the two most famous are Daniel from chapter 7 onwards and the book of revelations after the opening address to the seven churches you get what we call proto apocalyptical which is actually Isaiah and Ezekiel the description of the temple we have to understand the genre simple example I mean this is a genre that people nowadays understand what genre is this I call this an irritating song genre is designed to be irritating you know if you are not you don't know this then you obviously have not been queued on to you obviously don't have kids that irritate you it's a song you get online where they say I got the pen I got an apple apple pen now it is the most irritating song that has come out recently you you play that you feel like you want to strength angle somebody. Now, I want to try tell you, are you supposed to take this song and say, "What does the apple mean? How did the apple become a pineapple? What does the pen mean?" Oh, you're not supposed to do that. The genre is to be ordered is an idiotic song. It's blatantly idiotic. Next year, no one's going to remember it. I hope to God no one remembers it. Every few years you get somebody doing a gang nam style or doing some who what did a fox say or some strange song. That's a genre. Now apocalyptical literature is a genre. It's a genre that uses the extraordinary. You're not supposed to go into details but look at the big picture and show you a cosmic view so spectacular. Why? because it was always given to people who was going through depression, going through difficulties. Daniel was written at a time where the Jews are exiled and they uncertain. Revelations is written at a time where the church is under persecution. Isaiah, Ezekiel in the same thing. So God comforts people when they feel so like God's left me alone. And God paints an extraordinary picture. But he will use that to explain the ordinary. First point, understand the genre especially in his original context. Here the second thing I'll quickly give you this. This is a magazine called Dabik and is by ISIL. And ISIL named their propaganda magazine Dig after a town near Aleppo. And why did they name it that? When ISIL conquered Dabik three years ago, they saw a prophecy in the Hadith being fulfilled. And here you have the reading of the hadith. At the beginning, he says, "The last hour would not come until the Romans would land at Almanik or in Dabik." And you notice what they're saying, last hour. Who are the Romans? the infidel army and dabik. So when they conquered dabik they saw prophecy being fulfilled. The only problem is that dabik has been conquered back. The Syrian army has taken it over. So there goes your prophecy. What am I trying to tell you? You see when it comes to this kind of literature there are two extremes you go. One is we get overly excited and current events and say look the go Lord is coming now. When I was a young man everyone told me the world will not end past the year 2000. They would like to read everything into current events. For example, who's the antichrist? Uh in the earlier century the antichrist was the pope. Why? Because you have pax Romana and pontis uh the peace of Rome into the pontis. You see the pontis is is is Latin for peace. So at one time the antichrist was pontis maximus the pope. After that he was the Ottoman Empire the Syrian king. In fact Jonathan Miller believed that of course now the antichrist is what is extremist Islam. So every time we get some fascination with this. So we got to be very careful of reading too much of this into current events. is a is very unhealthy obsession and it does nothing for our spiritual walk. You walk away not being a better Christian. The best way to understand all this kind of riterature is like what Jesus says in the beginning of book of revelations. He says the revelation from Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants. And if Jesus was revealing himself to you, we hope by the end of today we grow closer to Christ. We understand the gospel better in this literature. Let me now just go to the text. Quite interestingly, the first seven chapters of Daniel are in Aramaic and in chapter 8 onwards is in Hebrew. Why? Because Aramaic is a language which is universal like English. So when you shift to Hebrew, the author is trying to give you a much more local focused view. He's basically narrowing his audience down to Jews, you know. So the Jews will connect to it. Now in last week you see a huge cosmic vision. You see a fourth beast. So terrifying. And Revelation 13 builds on Daniel 7 is the antichrist. Huge image. In Daniel 8, we have a very localized version of it. And this is how we move from a huge picture to a localized uh uh uh drama that we can relate to. Let me try to go through the vision. He sees the vision of a fight. In fact, chapter 8 has a lot to do with fights and and conflicts and war. That's really the theme in chapter 8. We have a goat and a ram fighting. Let's look at the ram. Okay. And it says here the ram had two horns. One of the horns was longer than the other. And the interpretation in verse 20, the two horn ram you saw represent the king of Media and Persia. Just some trivia here. Why do you think he says one horn is longer than the other? You read chapter 7. If the same image is given to the bear, those of you around last week and what did the bear do? The bear could stand on one leg. meaning he had two legs or two arms but one arm was stronger than the other. And the vision in chapter two of the statue is the empire of Muria Persia is two arms but one is stronger than the other. One horn is longer and of the alliance the Persian part of the alliance is the one that dominates. Just some trivia. And of course we have the shaggy goat. The shaggy goat comes and what's interesting it says when he comes and he he hits the the the the ram he doesn't touch the ground which is interesting and the interpretation is the shaggy goat is the king of Greece the large horn between his eyes is the first king and this one is quite straightforward isn't it this one refers to Alexander the great the first king with lightning speed that's why he doesn't touch the ground lightning speed he move conquered the Persian Empire then he went to Egypt and then set his eyes on India at 31 he had conquered most of the known civilization at that time and like the text said the verse 8 the goat became very great but at the height of his power his large horn was broken off and history tells us at the height of his power after the India campaign he died he died of shock and he says In his place, four prominent horns grew up towards the four winds of heaven. So let me give you what Wikipedia says. After Alexander dies, a political vacuum ensures his empire is so big. Some of the generals want to consolidate, some of them want to split it. And there is a war. They call this the war of succession. Four generals come out. You can get this in Wikipedia. This is secular. I'm not Christian. And it's quite interesting how it lines up with biblical prophecy. So four generals basically carve the empire out of it. You find later on in chapter 12 the they identified the two biggest kings. The king of the north chapter 12 belongs to the Salucid Empire which is very very entrenched in Greek culture. The Potleamy Empire actually is very much entrenched in Egyptian culture and they will both fight and out of this out of the Salooid empire who in the end will be victorious one king will come out and he is described here and this is what um Daniel's interpretation is in the latter part of their reign this is the end of the wall of successions when everyone consolidates into four four of the generals When rebels had become completely wicked by that time they had murdered Alexander's son and lot of people have been killed a fier king a master of intrigue will arise he will become very strong not by his own power he will cause astounding devastation will succeed in whatever it does he will destroy those who are mighty the holy people he will cause deceit to prosper he will consider himself superior when they feel secure He will destroy many and take his stand against the prince of princes. Yet he will be destroyed and not by human hands. And history tells us this king will come up. He will murder the other ruler, the infant kid to grab the throne in a power struggle. And through intriguing the way he gets to a head. He calls himself, his name is Antiochus 4. He calls himself epiphanies meaning what? He's God. Just like Daniel says he'll fight the stereo. He will cause the desolation abomination. And he was such a terrible cruel king. People nicknamed him the mad king. They played on the word epiphanies to become epimemanis which is just showing you how cruel he was as a king. And this is history. Again quite interesting how history ties with uh Daniel chapter 8 and in the book of Mcabes we read this the Makabian book is a Jewish book what we call the apocrypha book he says this when these were happening were reported to the king this Antiocus he thought that Judea was in revolt what happened history tells us that actually you see there there was a power struggle going on in Judea and another priest high priest had taken over control and what he had done before that he was he's a master in truth. He had tried to helanize Judea by putting people in there. He had built a gym. He tried to basically secularize Judea. And he had this view that everyone there he was trying to encourage them. You should be pagan. So when this new priest came in, this is why he said raging like a wildfire. He set off from Egypt. That's the land from the east in the prophecy. And took Jerusalem, that's the beautiful land in the prophecy, by storm. He orders his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, 80,000 were lost, 40,000 meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery. And we see the horn of chapter 7, this great beast being given a human form in chapter 8. And you can get this quite online of the various thing he does which basically fulfills chapter 8. And that's why majority of scholars see Antiocus as fulfilling chapter 8. Some people believe there's a double fulfillment of this. We're not going to go there. We don't have time. But sufficient to say very likely the Daniel 8 prophecy refers to this king. Now Antiocus 4 prefigures the fourth beast of Daniel 7. Because if you look at Daniel 7 and the description of the horn, I got it up there. Daniel 8, they're similar. They're similar, but they're not the same. In chapter 8, the horn comes out of four. In chapter 7, the horn comes out of three. And then it came out of 10. Now, I know all this getting confusing, but here's a lesson here. This demonic kingdom which is the antichrist which what Revelation 13 describes in chapter 7 is given a mirror image in chapter 8. That's how the flow goes. They're not the same but they are similar. He's basically a type of this kind of demonic force that's going on in the world. Hang on to that truth. We'll come back to it. So point one during difficult times consider how other Christians have suffered persecution and endured. This is a theme that runs quite heavily from chapter 7 onwards. I listed down all the things he did. One of the most horrible things he did was he went to the temple when he massacred lot people and put his god Zeus onto it and they called it the desolation of abomination. Now, here's the thing. We all just got to get this wrapped in our heads. We We know this, but we don't know this enough. You and I live in a terrible world. The Bible doesn't mince words about it. And sometime bad things can happen and you will scream why. And you know the Bible tells you that's the way it is. Because of rebellion, because of sin, bad things happen. Yesterday a um friend of mine was sharing you know the baby born very happy and then doctor say got menitis and then doctor tells him you know because of meningitis your baby may be paralyzed I mean h how do you explain that you go and tell him oh god has a will for you can't say that but but same thing here right and the bible doesn't mince words with the horror and the terrible things that some people happen in the story of Cain and Abel. What's interesting with Cain and Abel is is the first event after the fall. And what did Abel do? Abel gave a sacrifice that God was pleased. You imagine if you do something that God pleases you, God should bless you, right? Abel was a good Christian. Did what was good, God should bless him. What happened to Abel? What did he get rewarded with? His own brother killed him. Now that is the first thing that happens in the fall. So God is sending a message to us. You and I live in difficult times. And sometimes some Christians go through much more terrible time than others. That's unfortunate reality of it. But here's the news to encourage us. Despite this, many Christians endure. Why? Because we have a persecuted God and Christ was a persecuted God who endured mockery, suffering and the most afflicted death and when you become a Christian make no bones about it. God is actually calling you into this kind of life. Yes, he calls you into life of joy and happiness but make no bones about it especially in this country. So here the question we ask how prepared are we for persecution? The verse says when they first secure he will destroy many. Why? Because historically Judea was under the protection of the Egyptian part of the empire the protomy empire. So when he set his eyes on the east and conquered Egypt that protection disappeared. He went in a second time and Rome stopped him you know and on the way back he was so humiliated you get this on Wikipedia he went to Jerusalem and massacred people. So how prepared are we? Sometime you got to fight. You got to flee because Jesus picks this up in Matthew in in in a sermon on Mount Olives. He say when you see standing holy place the abomination that called desolation he's referring to Antiocus and what he did in Judea as spoken through the prophet Daniel and Jesus is referring to this text. Let the reader understand that those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. And why? Because 70 years later, General Titus will enter Jerusalem, sack the city, and pick a pig's head and put it into the sanctuary, and the Jews and Israel as a nation would cease to exist until 1967. That's history. Sometimes you have to have used wisdom. So, we're looking at war. We're looking at conflict. But let me give you the main message I'm trying to build across today. You see, when you look at the verse, I want you to go and look at verse 24 when it talks about Antiocus. He will become very strong. And what's the next line? But not by his own power. Look at the way the verse anchors it. And when he's destroyed, it says again, but not by human power. The ESV says, not by human hands. So here's a question to you. Whose power are we talking about? When he says he will become very strong, but not by his power. And if you tie that chapter 8 prefigures chapter 7, that means we are looking at a spiritual war. And you and I have to recognize at all times be conscious of an ongoing spiritual war in our lives. We get this in chapter 10. Peter is going to bring to it. And in chapter 10, there is a prince of the Persian kingdom. Without giving you in too much detail, John Piper identifies this as a territorial spirit on Persia. Now, this is something evangelical churches don't like to talk about, but there you have it. One of the greatest minds in evangelical Christianity because later on you have the also the prince of Greece and he identifies it as a territorial spirit in Greece. Here's what he's saying. There are demons around and they can be territorial. They are strongholds. Now, that's something we don't ever talk about, right? Because churches like us, we are rationalist. No, you got problem. You must have a bad temple. You got you got this. We psycho analyze you. You see, and we think churches who do this, all these church all bit crazy, all want to lay hands in the name of Jesus, all be too wacko. But there you have it. And what the Bible is telling you when the devil works, you don't pick it up. Look at chapter 8. You you hardly recognize it. It's a story of war. But you find very subtly the war is on two planes. the physical world and the spiritual world. He picks this up very heavily in chapter 10 and chapter 7. Remember, you got to read Daniel in a flow, you know, not chapter by chapter. But the most indicting evidence is found in Revelation 13, which echoes actually Daniel 7. He says the dragon, which is the devil, gave the beast, the antichrist, and all antichrist that come before him his power and his throne and great authority, you can't get clearer than that. So when we see the world and we see how evil can prosper and how people can follow them and look at history, the kind of atrocities, you ask yourself, isn't there a power behind all of this? And maybe that's why Daniel was a pop. When there's so much evil around, there is something behind pushing it. Uh in the movie uh Silence of the Lambs, okay, we are introduced to this uh criminal called Hannibal Lecter. Okay, Anthony Hopkins. Brilliant performance. In the book, uh, Officer Sterling sees him and he and she asks herself, "What made him turn like that?" She she does she she does she approaches him like the way we churches do, you know, all these conservative churches. Look at this guy's problem. We psychoanalyze it. He must have what made him turn like that. And he replies with a very chilling reply. He says this, you know, nothing happened to me. Officer Sterling, I happen. You can't reduce me to a set of influences.
For us, we need to recognize this this morning. And I I I will tell you it will be a heavy message. If you believe in God, you must believe in the devil. You believe in the Holy Spirit, you must believe in the spirit of the air of the world. And they all engaging and they engaging in such a way you don't recognize it. So when someone like Hannibal letter says I happen you ask yourself is it him or is there a force behind him and you can't recognize it. I give you an example. Let's say all those you play musicians. You play the guitar. A guy comes up to you and says, "Can I play with you?" You say, "Sure." He smiles at you. He hears you playing. He finds your tune. He hears it. He plays. He finds your rhythm. He plays. Both of you play along well because he just found your music. He played. After a while, he plays his own tune, you know, and then you start to follow him. Then he shifts back and lets you play. Then he pulls back. Now, here's the question. Who's following who? You don't know, right? You don't know. That's the point of the text. That's why 7 8 9 10 11 will tell you they fight a war. The Mcabibians think they're fighting, but behind that God is guiding. Antiocus goes in and kills. Behind that, a hand is moving. Now, let's break this down to very simple things that you and I can relate to. All right, I give you the most classic verse, the most famous verse. Jesus tells Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You're a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God but merely human concerns. Now what's quite interesting is Jesus says to who? He says to who? Peter. But what does he say? He says get behind me who? Satan. Who's playing who? Is the two guitars. And every commentator will say Jesus is talking to both because Peter had inevitably become an agent for the devil. Because in earlier context, what did Jesus tell Peter? And here's very way gets even more frightening. Blessed are you Peter on whom I will build my church. And against you what? The gates. He gives he gives Peter the gate the keys to the kingdom. and against you the gates of hell will not prevail. That's just in the verse before that. And then Jesus says something. You know what? I got to die. I got to go to the cross. Peter says, "Oh, no, no, no, no. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. You can't go to the cross. Why? He's just been given the keys to the kingdom. How can he be given the keys of kingdom? His boss is going to die. We made a mistake here." Human ambition. Very subtle, right? All of us have human ambition and that's why Jesus picks it up and says this. You don't have the in mind the concerns of God. You have human concerns. And what we are saying is it's so subtle you don't pick it up. It's pride. In fact, Paul says the same thing in first Timothy about elders. Don't let a young person become elder. He'll get proud and fall into the snare of the devil. But when you're proud, do you think the devil's talking to you? You don't realize it because you don't know he's playing your guitar. Here's another one and this is in context of someone complaining to the pastor. This not very good. You know, Baptist churches like to complain of a lot of things on. So this is why it says opponents gently instructed in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do their will. Now who is he talking to? I tell you he's talking to. He's talking to the board of deacons. He's talking to the worship team. He's talking to the speakers to the Bible study group. He's talking to you and I who will go over to the cafe say wow this church spend so much money waste the time to do a kitchen like that this Peter what kind of elder is here he always do this no no no no this honor this speaker always very chong one you know you hear where we go from that in every church division who is playing the guitar there it's the devil because the devil wants to split the church. But here's the problem, especially in this context when you're objecting. You think you're righteous. I'm not the one got problem. Maro is the one that got problem. Oh, Kunuan's the one problem. My captain, Captain Michael, he's the one that got problem. I get very self-righteous. They don't know how to run the church. This church needs to have this. This church needs to. There are bunch of hypocrites here. I've served so long in this church. No one appreciated me. That sounds familiar. You see where we're going? The point is you don't realize it. Here's another one I'm going to give few. In Revelations, he says, "Do not be afraid what you suffer. I tell you, the devil puts some of you in prison to test you." Meaning in Malaysia when you have all of these things that you cannot use the Malay Bible, you can't do that, you do that, I'm going to throw you in jail. Guess who's behind that? The same spirit that caused Antiocus to say, you cannot worship Yahweh, you must worship Zeus. Same spirit of chapter 8. Two more. The devil plants those that appear to be Christians among us. They are not. This is the parable of the wheats, the enemy. Antiocus planted many helanized Jews. They look like God-fearing people, but they were not. Why do you think the church is so split? Why do you think you throw a stone, you meet a Christian? Why do you think of churches, they are so big? Why do Christians are so divided? The devil's there. And lastly, very simply, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers.
Here's how it applies to me and you in this particular context is sin. You struggle with corruption. Should I give money? Should I not give? Should I give? The Bible say cannot give. Give them a voice says give. Everybody doing it now. Did God really tell you not to give? Does that not sound familiar? Garden of Eden. God never really said no give. In Malaysia, everybody does this way. Give I shouldn't do this thing very dirty. You know, I should respect. I don't want my daughter to be involved. I should respect women. I all men also like that. uh see a bit only doesn't matter then see more and then go and do I can't stand that person I feel like killing him you really feel like killing him I can't forgive that person I know I'm so but I hate that person you see where we're going your guitar is playing someone just came along and played that tune and he pushed you in this is what the text is thing and it's so subtle you can't pick it up. And there something for us conservative churches we need to recognize this because we tend to psychoanalyze everything. You got a problem I send you to a counselor. You got problem and think you must have a bad temper, you got a bad thing. We we analyze everything and there's truth in there. But here's the thing. Never never underestimate there's a spiritual dimension. And that's what Paul says. We do not our our struggle is not against flesh and blood. He's not saying you don't fight flesh and blood. He says there's something else but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world, against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. They are around us every day. When I wake up, I want to do something. When I know I should love someone, someone pushes me and says no. His voice is there. And what scripture teaches us? Scripture teaches us you got to say no to his life. That's why James says this. Submit yourself to God. You have to submit, repent, submit, resist the devil and he will what? Flee from you. So we have to recognize this. Let me just go on. Here's the last point and we're going to connect it back to the point number two. During discouraging times, trust in God's timing. And I want to take a little bit of this 2,300 evenings and mornings with poor Jonathan Miller spent his lifetime doing it and is remembered unfortunately for this. Now this thing has so much controversy. You you can go on the line online, right? Everyone tries to say it means this, it means that. Why? Now on one hand, 2,300 days is actually approximately the day when Antiocus started the war and he died. give or take one or two months. Some people say is not is actually 2,300 days divided by two because evenings and mornings which is about a day when the priest was killed and Judah Mcabes restored the temple what we have the Hanuka celebration by the Jews. Now I I really don't want to get into all this confusion but like I said today I want to teach you a little bit about numbers because in apocalyptical literature numbers is important. Chinese when you talk about numbers we say 40 the only thing we think about numbers and a lot of Christian groups are very fascinated by numbers so I'll give you a simple example of numbers and again like I say I'm not saying I'm right this is diverting diverting for five minutes to educate us on this kind of literature what does 12 represent in the Bible 12 what 12 disciples how many tribes 12 what's What's the similarity people? Correct. 12 apostles, 12 tribes. So when you look at Revelations and it says 144,000, it means what is 12 * 12 and the multiplication of it. Does it literally mean 144,000? Could be. Or it could simply mean what? A lot of people. You you must understand how literature goes. We could do the same for 40. You know how many years in the wilderness? 40 years. How long was Jesus tempted? 40 days and 40 nights. You see the numbers have meaning. By the way, you take four, which is four ends of the earth, four angels. You take the trinity, which is three. This is again speculated. You add it, what number do you get? Seven. And I will tell you the single number most mentioned in scripture is the number seven particularly in the two most uh uh apocalyptic literature Daniel and Revelations. I given up to you this is only indicated that say a lot more. Now what does seven mean? Seven means completion because in Genesis God created the world on the seventh day he said what it was very good. So seven is complete. Now I know this bit complicated but bear with me a bit. Seven is God in completion. So that's why when Peter very smart he says hey how many time forgive very smart it must be Chinese blood. Seven times smart seven times after seven Jesus said no seven times. Seven. Now is he saying 49 times the 4. Is he telling Peter to keep a score card? Of course not. From that alone you know it's not literal. is symbolic because completeness is what you must forgive as often as you can. Everybody says that. So right just from the Matthew text, the last one you know is not literal. It's not chronological. It's not necessarily chronological. You follow me? Yeah. So that's seven. Now I'll give you another number. Six. Why six? Because six is just before seven. So when I say 666, I'm saying I want to be a seven, but I can't get there. It's six again and again and again. That's why the mark of the beast is 666. It doesn't necessarily mean there's going to be people running around with the three numbers branded on their forehead, you know, and on their hands. I mean, you've got to look at how numbers work. Meaning this God is complete. The devil wants to be complete but he will never be complete. He will try to complete his work 666 but he'll never get it done. You see where we're going? It's a bit complicated but this quite common in theology. Now why is it important? Because I want to give you another reading for 2,300 evenings. A lot of people debate about this. They say it's 1844 this and that. the sanctuary began to be cleansed. If you take 2,300 evenings and you divide it by seven and understand the the calendar for the Jews is Luna. I given you some maths up there. This is also by the way quite helped by many scholars. I'm not going to say I'm right. You know what you get? You get this number. Meaning what? It's almost seven but not quite close to me. my view that is the most appropriate explanation but again I'm going to concede like Daniel I don't understand everything but you see the numbers whether 70 weeks 100 1,260 days everything the numbers have symbolism and what the text is telling us is that the devil wants to complete his work among you and I and he will come close but God's not going to let him. That is the lesson. Everything else I spoke in the last five minutes. You don't get it, never mind because all very theological. First service I have people tell me, brother, I don't know what you're talking about. But I'm given this text. It's my job to exaggerate for you. You just understand thish. The devil wants to complete his work with you. It's not going to do it. Antiocus wanted to destroy them. He tried. Let's say we take a literal interpretation. 2,300 days, he didn't get it done. 666. You try and you try and we find this echo in the words of Jesus in in in Mount Olives. He says, "If those days had not been cut short, no one would have survived. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened." God in his mercy will do this. You see, in this broken world, the devil is given rain, but God is holding him back. He's in reign in your lives and he wants to complete his work. You know what he wants to do? He want to destroy all of you sitting here. He wants to he wants to make all of you powerless Christians. He wants to make you doubt and he'll come close. But he won't complete his work. You see, the devil is not only a liar. In the book of Revelations, he's called the accuser of brethren. You know what he's accusing all of you? He's accusing you of this.
For those of you who struggle with sin, let's not name it. Last, bad temper, uh, uh, unforgiveness, corruption, bitterness, you throw a stone, all of us have it. You know, he's telling you, he's tuning that guitar and saying, "Give up. You're not good enough." If only people knew who you really are. You're a you you're a hypocrite. That's what he's doing. For some others of us, he's saying you're a Christian now. See how long you have suffered. You've suffered so long. Where has God been in your life? I mean, you should be blessed. Ma, give up. You hear where we're going with this? Or you could do the other way around for those of you very self-righteous. You are such a holy person. You're such a good Christian. This church is a terrible church. This FBC doesn't understand the power of God. This ABC is run by hypocrites. Give up. You see the thing in the book of Job which we knew the text tells us the devil moves. What did Job's wife tells him? curse God and die. That's giving up. So this morning, I I want to just challenge you with that. If whatever you are in your struggle, your Christian life, for some of us, you're going through a difficult patch. Some of us, you're struggling with sin. Some of you, you just sit here, but you're very unhappy with FBC. We get quite a lot of that. And there's a voice there saying, "Give up." And I want to tell you, 2,300 evenings, the sanctuary will be consecrated. God will restore. I'll close with showing you how others have endured. In the first service, we have one brother from Pakistan. These are pictures of Pakistani Christians who say they will not give up. Here's a picture of a church in China. When was the last time you and I held out our Bibles with such pride? And they will not give up. And this morning, this is a time not to give up. Let's close in prayer. Lord, we come before a very heavy sermon, a difficult sermon. And I Lord I ask you grant understanding enough if not all for us to take home that we live in a world of spiritual warfare. And that spiritual warfare affects us when we struggle through difficulties. When we struggle through sin, when we struggle through doubt, when we struggle through unhappiness and disillusionment and fatigue and and and all of us fall in that category and the devil tries to push us into it and after we have fallen, he accuses us. So this morning, we claim the victory on the cross. We claim that Christ defeated all the principalities of the world when he rose again from the third from the dead and he will come back again to really cleanse this world. And we ask that we the bride of Christ we be found ready. All you ask for us, oh Lord, is that we submit to you. We endure. We persevere. We're not perfect, Lord, but we endure and we fight. And we do that we resist the devil. and we claim by your authority, he will then flee from us. So all of us here in this hall all all our struggles and we all do Lord be with us this morning. Your spirit just take us higher. Take us higher. Right now where we sit we all hearing voices now and we we we we want to put our hands out to the devil and says no the spirit is stronger. He who risen is stronger than he who is in this world oh Lord. And we claim this in Jesus name. Amen.
