Daniel's Last Prophecy - Daniel - Part 11

We come tonight to the last prophecy recorded in the book of Daniel. And this last prophecy actually encompasses three chapters, chapters 10, 11, and 12.

As we saw last week, chapter 10 is really the introduction to the prophecy, and the prophecy doesn't actually start until chapter 11. But in chapter 10 we find out that Daniel was fasting and that he was praying for three weeks, and that an angel was sent from God to deliver this prophecy to Daniel. And the angel left heaven on the day that Daniel began to pray, but it took him three weeks to reach Daniel because of the opposition of satanic messengers called the Prince of Persia, and the Prince of Greece was another one that was yet to come.

But the Prince of Persia withheld this angel. Finally the angel was able to reach Daniel, and he delivers this prophecy that we see beginning in chapter 11. Now the date of this prophecy in Daniel chapter 11 is found in chapter 10 verse 1. That is in the third year of Cyrus, the king of Persia. This means that the prophecy was delivered to Daniel in 536 B.C.

The first year of Cyrus was 539 B.C., and so we're at 536 B.C. And so we want to look at this prophecy tonight. We will not be able to cover it all.

We're not even going to try. But we're going to look at the first half of it tonight, and we'll finish by looking at the last half, Lord willing, next week. Now let's begin by looking at the prophecy as a whole. The prophecy has a beginning point, and it has an ending point. And it will help us to properly interpret the prophecy if we know the beginning and the ending point. The beginning point of the prophecy we find in verse 2. It says, I tell you the truth, chapter 11 verse 2, three more kings will appear in Persia after Cyrus, who is presently, of course, on the throne.

So the prophecy begins with the Persian Empire and with the three kings that are to arise after Cyrus the Great. That is the beginning of the prophecy. Now the ending of the prophecy, we find, goes all the way to the end of the age. It extends all the way to the return of Christ. If you flip over to chapter 12, you'll find in verse 1 it says, at that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. We're obviously talking about the tribulation period.

Skip down to verse 2. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. So we're at the return of Christ in the first resurrection.

If you look at chapter 12 verse 10, we find that the Bible says that many will be purified and made spotless and refined. Verse 11, from the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. And so if you look in chapter 12, you find that the end of this parable includes the tribulation period, the abomination of desolation, which in Matthew 24 Jesus said would come at the end of the age, and the rapture, the first resurrection at the return of Christ. And so we've got the beginning of the prophecy at the time of Cyrus the Great in the Persian Empire, and the end of the prophecy going all the way to the tribulation period and the end of the age. What that means is that somewhere in this prophecy we should expect to see a great leap in time. In other words, somewhere in this prophecy we will leave off dealing with events that have already happened in the past, and we will skip ahead to events that are now still future. Commentators argue as to where that break occurs. There are some commentators who believe that that break occurs between verse 4 and verse 5, that at the end of verse 4 we cease having history from our vantage point today, and we begin having futuristic prophecy from our vantage point today. I personally don't agree with that understanding of the chapter. The more common view, and the one that I think is correct, is that between verse 35 and verse 36 is where that leap in time occurs. That up until verse 35, the first 35 verses of chapter 11 are describing historical events that culminated in the second century B.C. with a ruler of Syria named Antiochus Epiphanes. You say, who?

I'll tell you about him. And that then, after the second century B.C. fall of Antiochus Epiphanes in about 165 B.C., suddenly there is a break in the prophecy, and the next verse in which we pick up, verse 36, we have jumped all the way down until the end time, and we're no longer dealing with Antiochus Epiphanes, we're now dealing with the Antichrist, who is in many respects like Antiochus Epiphanes, but of course is the Antichrist.

And I favor that approach, and that's the approach I'm going to take to the chapter, and I'll explain to you why as we move along. Now let's look at verses 1 to 35. We'll begin actually in verse 2. Now then I tell you the truth, three more kings will appear in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than the others. And when he has gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king will appear who will rule with great power and will do as he pleases.

And after he has appeared, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of the heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power that he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others. The king of the south will become strong, and one of his commanders will become even stronger than he and will rule his own kingdom with great power. After some years they will become allies, and the daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north to make an alliance. But she will not retain her power, and his power will not last. In those days she will be handed over together with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her.

One from her family line will arise to take her place. He will attack the forces of the king of the north and enter his fortress. He will fight against them and be victorious.

He will also seize their gods, their metal images, and their valuable articles of silver and gold and carry them off to Egypt. For some years he will leave the king of the north alone. Then the king of the north will invade the realm of the king of the south but will retreat to his own country. His sons will prepare for war and assemble a great army which will sweep on like an irresistible flood and carry the battle as far as his fortress. Verse 11, then the king of the south will march out in a rage and fight against the king of the north, who will raise a large army but it will be defeated. When the army is carried off, the king of the south will be filled with pride and will slaughter many thousands, yet he will not remain triumphant. For the king of the north will muster another army larger than the first, and after several years he will advance with a huge army fully equipped. Verse 14, in those times many will rise against the king of the south.

The violent men among your own people will rebel in fulfillment of the vision but without success. Then the king of the north will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city. The forces of the south will be powerless to resist.

Their best troops will not have the strength to stand. Verse 16, the invader will do as he pleases. No one will be able to stand against him. He will establish himself in the beautiful land and he will have the power to destroy it. He will determine to come with the might of his entire kingdom and will make an alliance with the king of the south.

And he will give him a daughter in marriage in order to overthrow the kingdom, but his plans will not succeed. Then he will turn his attention to the coastlands and will take many of them, but a commander will put an end to his insolence and will turn his insolence back upon him. After this he will turn his back towards the fortresses of his own country but will stumble and fall to be seen no more.

Verse 20, his successor will send out a tax collector to maintain the royal splendor. In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet not in anger or in battle. He will be succeeded by a contemptible person who has not been given the honor of royalty. And he will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure and he will seize it through intrigue. Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before him.

Both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully. And with only a few people he will rise to power. Verse 24, when the richest provinces feel secure, he will invade them and will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did. He will distribute plunder, loot, and wealth among his followers.

He will plot the overthrow of fortresses but only for a time. Verse 25, with a large army he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the south. The king of the south will wage war with the large and powerful army, but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him. Those who eat from the king's provisions will try to overthrow him. His army will be swept away and many will fall in battle. The two kings with their hearts bent on evil will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no avail. And the king of the north will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant and he will take action against it and return to his own country. And at the appointed time he will invade the south again.

But this time the outcome will be different from what it was before. Ships of the western coastlands will oppose him and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and vent his fury against the holy covenant. He will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant. His armed forces, verse 31, will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily sacrifice. They will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him, verse 33. Those who are wise will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by the sword or be burned or captured or plundered.

And when they fall, they will receive little help. And many who are not sincere will join them. Some of the wise will stumble so that they may be refined, purified, and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at an appointed time.

You say, good night. What in the world is going on? Well, as you can see, the prophecy is fairly intricate. As you can see, it's fairly involved. And the details of these first 35 verses describe the history of the Near East for the 400 years after Daniel, down to 164 B.C. These details are so incredibly accurate when compared to the history of that period that this is what prompted critics to begin accusing the book of Daniel of being a forgery.

This all began in the third century A.D. with a fellow named Porphyry. He was a heathen philosopher, but he began studying Daniel chapter 11. And when he studied it and compared it to history, he was so awed by how incredibly accurate the predictions of Daniel 11 were to the real history of the Near East for the 400 years after Daniel that he concluded that nothing so precise could have possibly been predicted ahead of time. And therefore, instead of assuming that it was the living God who gave this revelation, instead he said, no, it was not. It was a man writing in 164 B.C., after all of this had happened, writing history, not prophecy. And therefore, of course, it couldn't have been Daniel that wrote it. And this has become the standard liberal interpretation of this chapter and the whole book of Daniel ever since. Now, we who know the living God, we don't buy this. We understand this is prophecy, that it wasn't that Daniel understood what was going to happen, but the living God understood what was going to happen. And he revealed it to Daniel.

And the fact that unsaved man and unredeemed man studies this and finds it so incredibly accurate that they can't believe any man could have written it only points to the fact that this is the living God working through the lives of men and women, giving revelation that indeed no man could ever have known himself, but the living God knew. Now, in these verses I've read for you, John Walvoord says there are 135 prophetic statements, all of which have been fulfilled. And I thought it would be really great for us tonight to go through all 135 of them and look at them. So I've ordered Domino's.

It'll be here in about 15 minutes. And we're just going to have a pizza party and settle in and go through 135 prophecies tonight. What do you think? No? No. All right. Well, I'm just teasing.

I didn't order Domino's. And we're not going to do 135 of them tonight. What we are going to do tonight is to take simply two, two examples of prophecy from this chapter that show the tremendous accuracy of this prophetic statement, of this prophetic chapter. Now, if you want to go through all 135, I invite you to do that. And my advice to you is to pick up John Walvoord's book, Daniel, The Key to Prophetic Revelation.

And he takes you through all 135. And you can study it at your leisure. And that would be great.

But we're not going to do that tonight. I want to just give you two examples. The first example is found in verses two to four. And in verses two to four, we have 200 years of world history accurately predicted by Daniel. Daniel is told, verse two, that three kings will follow Cyrus the Great. And then that there will be a fourth king who will be richer than all the others. And when he has gained power, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. And this is what Daniel says. Let's look at history and see if this happens.

Let me turn the overhead on. You see, I've begun with Cyrus the Great. Cyrus the Great was followed by three rulers, Cambyses. And you can see his dates, Pseudosmeritus.

And you can see his dates. And Darius I, who ruled from 521 to 486 BC. Three kings followed Cyrus the Great.

That's what the book says. Daniel then goes on to say that there will be a fourth king who, when he has consolidated his power, will stir up all of his empire against Greece. Now Darius I actually decided to invade Greece. He was defeated at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. And he went back to Persia and was so enraged that he had lost to the Greeks that he decided he was going to gather a bigger army and go back again.

But he died before he could do it. And his son Xerxes, that's spelled with an X, Xerxes I, came to the throne. As you can see, he ruled from 486 to 465 BC. And Xerxes took it upon himself to carry out his father Darius's grand vision of reinvading Greece, and this time, winning. Xerxes ruled over Persia in what has to be known as the Golden Age of the Persian Empire. At the time of Xerxes, the Persian Empire reached its zenith. It was richer and more powerful and more world-dominating than at any other time than it was before or than it would be after Xerxes. That's why the book of Daniel says that he, the fourth king, would be far richer than all the others.

And he was. And Xerxes collected an army to go back to Greece. As a matter of fact, we're told by secular historians that it took him four years to collect the army from all over his empire, so incredibly large was this army. And when he had collected it, in 480 BC, he marched on Greece. When he marched on Greece, at first he had great success. He entered Macedonia, which is in the northern part of Greece, and he marched down towards the south. He met up with a bunch of Spartans, however, at a pass named, some of you may know it, Thermopylae.

Thank you, Richard. There's our missionary from Greece back there. At a place called Thermopylae. There was a very small group of Spartans there, and it was a very narrow pass through the mountains. And because it was so narrow, this very small group of Spartans was able to hold off the entire Persian army for several days. However, a trader showed the Persian army the way around the mountains so that they could outflank these Spartans.

They eventually were able to do that. They were able to break through and get by Thermopylae, and Xerxes marched and actually took Athens. He burned Athens to the ground.

And after he had succeeded in burning Athens to the ground, he marched on towards Sparta. In the meantime, however, the Greek navy engaged his navy at one of the most famous naval battles in history, the Battle of Salamis. And at the Battle of Salamis, the Persian fleet was utterly crushed and defeated by a smaller but more mobile Greek force. It was kind of like the Spanish Armada, where the Persian ships were bigger and mightier, but the Greek ships were smaller and more maneuverable, and they were able to outflank and destroy the Persian fleet. With no fleet, Xerxes could not possibly continue the campaign.

He was forced to retire. He was forced to go back to Persia. And as a result of that, he never returned to Greece, and the Persian Empire never again would see the kind of power that had been amassed during the reign of Xerxes. That's what the Bible says. It says, if you look at chapter 11, verse 2, that this great king would stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.

That's exactly what he did. Now, one of the lasting results of Xerxes' attack on Greece and burning of Athens is that he incurred the undying hatred of the Greeks. They hated the Persians, and they never forgot, they never forgot what the Persians did to the land of Greece. It's kind of like the south. You know, you go down to Mississippi or Alabama, and they still talk about Yankees and rebels, and they're still fighting the civil war down there.

It's the most incredible thing you ever saw. And they have never forgiven the north for what they did. Now, that was a hundred years ago, more.

But they still haven't forgiven the north for what they did. Well, this is kind of the way the Greeks were. And when Alexander the Great rose almost a hundred years later and marched through the Near East, he took Persia, captured the capital city of Persia, demolished the Persian Empire, and he made it absolutely clear that he was paying back the Persians for what they had done to Greece over a hundred years before that.

The Greeks never forgot it. And verse three talks about Alexander. It says, then a mighty king will appear who will rule with great power and do as he pleases, talking about Alexander. And after he has appeared, his empire will be broken up and will be parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. If you remember from Daniel chapter 8, I told you that Alexander the Great succeeded in conquering the entire Persian Empire.

He crushed them. And then he marched on to India. But when he got as far as India, his troops rebelled and refused to go any farther. And so he had to come back to Babylon where he died in 323 B.C. When he died, Alexander had two children. Actually, he had one son and his concubine, Roxanna, was pregnant at the time when he died with a child who would become his second son, born posthumously after Alexander had actually died. If you look at verse four, it says that his empire will be parceled up toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants. Alexander's oldest son, Hercules, whose mother was Barsinia, was murdered. We don't know who did it. We feel pretty strongly it was one of his four generals.

I'll tell you why in a minute. His younger son, who was born posthumously by Roxanna, Alexander Junior, I guess is what they called him, was murdered when he became a teenager, presumably to keep him from consolidating power and taking power away from the generals who had split up Alexander's empire. Just as the Bible said, Alexander the Great had two sons. However, neither one of them inherited his empire.

Who got it? Well, as I told you when we studied chapter eight, Alexander's empire was split up in four directions of the compass by his four major generals. Lysimachus took the north, that is Asia Minor, Ptolemy took the south, that is Egypt, Seleucus took the east, that is Syria and Babylon, and Cassander took the west, that is Greece. And they split up his empire according to the four points of the compass, and they were probably the ones who were responsible for murdering his sons, lest his sons arise and take away the power that they had as a result of splitting up the empire. Notice the Bible goes on to say his empire will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power that he exercised. And we know, of course, from history that once they had split the empire up four ways, never again was the Greek empire anything even close to what it was when Alexander ruled the whole thing.

Never did it achieve that kind of power or glory again. And the Bible says his empire will be uprooted and will be given to others, which is exactly what happened. And so here, in the first four verses of this chapter, we have 200 years of Near Eastern history accurately described to an incredible degree.

Now, we just did maybe 15 or 20. We're going to leave out 80 or so in the middle, and we're going to go to the end of this section so we can look at the second and last example of what I want to show you in terms of the historical accuracy of this prophecy. Chapter 11, verse 21. It says that he will be succeeded by a contemptible person, a vile person who was not given the honor of royalty. Here, all of a sudden, and you'll have to take my word for it, we've moved down the corridors of time, and now we are almost 100 years after the rise and fall of Alexander.

In fact, we're almost 200 years after that. And we are now focusing on the kingdom of Syria. Seleucus had taken the kingdom of Syria, the general had, and established a dynasty called the Seleucid dynasty.

And out of that dynasty rose a fellow named Antiochus. He nicknamed himself Epiphanes. Epiphanes comes from a Greek word epiphany. Many of you have seen the church of the Epiphany. You say, I don't have a slightest idea what it meant. I've seen it.

Never really made that much difference to me to even ask. Well, epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning glorious. And so Antiochus gave himself the nickname glorious.

I mean, you know, not exactly what you'd call a humble guy, but it's all right. He nicknamed himself glorious. And so that's what Antiochus Epiphanes means. Antiochus was his name.

Epiphanes was the title that he gave himself. He was a king who arose in the Syrian section of the old Alexandrian empire. And he had rule. He was the king over Syria and Babylon.

He was a relatively obscure ruler. But he figures very prominently here in Daniel 11 for two reasons. Number one, it calls him a vile person in this verse. It calls him a detestable person. And the reason the Bible calls him that is because he desecrated the land of Israel and he was a raper of the land of Israel such as no one before him had ever done. Secondly, in his role as a raper of the land of Israel, he represents a type or a forerunner of the antichrist and the kind of desecration of Israel that the antichrist will carry out in the last days. And here Daniel 11 predicts the details of the career of Antiochus Epiphanes with amazing precision.

Let me show you that. Verse 21 says that he was not part of royalty, but he obtained his kingdom by intrigue or by flattery. Antiochus was not part of the royal family of the king of Syria. He weaseled his way in and took over the throne after the king had died.

We know that from history. Skip down to verse 23. It says in verse 23 that he will become strong with only a few people. The kingdom of Syria was not large. It was not mighty. And yet Antiochus rose to an incredible position of power in the Near East in spite of the fact that the kingdom he ruled was very small, just as the Bible says. He will rise to power with a very small number of people.

Verse 25. With a large army, he will stir up his strength and his courage against the king of the south. And the king of the south will raise war with a very powerful army, but he will lose. We know as a fact that in 170 B.C., Antiochus invaded Egypt, the king of the south. And in spite of the fact that the Egyptian army was much larger than the army of Antiochus, the Egyptians lost. They lost at the Battle of Ras Beron in the Sinai desert.

They were crushed, as a matter of fact. And just as the Bible says, the king of the north, this Antiochus Epiphanes, attacked the king of the south, Egypt, and he won. Verse 27. It says the two kings, with their hearts bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other.

And we know from history that Antiochus Epiphanes sat down with the king of Egypt and they tried to come up with a peace treaty, but the historians record that they were both such liars that there was no way they could even come up with a peace treaty. Verse 29. And at the appointed time, he, Antiochus, will invade the south again.

But this time, the outcome will be different from what it was before, and indeed it was. We know that two years later in 168 B.C., Antiochus invaded Egypt again, but things were not the way they had been before because a new power had appeared on the scene. You find it in verse 30.

In verse 30, it says, ships from the western coastlands will oppose him and he will lose heart. When Antiochus Epiphanes invaded Egypt a second time in 168 B.C., Egypt, in the intervening two years, had struck up a treaty with Rome. And there were Roman troops that had come to Egypt in 168 B.C.

Results this time were not going to be like the results the first time. Never conquering Egypt again. But look what the Bible says. It says when he left, he was not a happy camper. Chapter 11, verse 30. And he says, then he, Antiochus, will turn back and he will vent his fury against the holy covenant. Antiochus was furious at his defeat in Egypt, and he seems to have turned his fury upon Israel. The Bible says that he will turn his fury upon the holy covenant.

And verse 31 goes on to say that his armed forces will rise up and desecrate the temple and will abolish the daily sacrifice and will set up the abomination that causes desolation. Now we know both from Jewish history and secular history that Antiochus Epiphanes headed north out of the Sinai, away from Egypt, fearing the Romans, and when he went through Palestine, when he went through the land of Canaan, he took all of his fury out on the Jews. He marched into Jerusalem.

We know this from the book of 1 and 2 Maccabees that record the history of this time. He marched into Jerusalem. He marched into the temple area. He stopped the sacrifice. He killed the priest at the altar. He took a pig, a pig, and he sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem. Now you know as well as I do, first of all, that no one was even allowed into the Holy of Holies but the high priest himself. And Antiochus went in there. And then of all the things that you could sacrifice on the altar in the Holy of Holies to pollute it, what could you sacrifice that would pollute it more than a pig? That's what he did. He also set up the abomination of desolation in the temple.

He said, well, what was that? Well, we know from historical records that what he did set up in the Holy of Holies was a statue of Zeus, the head of the Greek pantheon, and he placed it right in the Holy of Holies. He would forbid the worship of God anymore and he turned the Holy of Holies into a temple of Zeus. This is what has led many people to believe that when the Antichrist sets up the abomination of desolation in the tribulation period, it will actually be a statue of himself. II Thessalonians 2 says that he will require that the world worship him as God. And many people have said what the abomination of desolation is is a statue, not of Zeus, but of the Antichrist himself set up in the Holy of Holies in the third temple which will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and he will demand worship be given to him, not to Almighty God. Is that right or wrong? I don't know.

I think it's very possible. But Antiochus set up a statue of Zeus in the Holy of Holies. He stopped the sacrifice, which is what it says here in verse 31, and he cut off all worship of God, verse 32.

With flattery, he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. Many of you have heard of the Maccabean Revolt in Jewish history. It occurred right at this time when a man named Judas Maccabeus arose and led a revolt against Antiochus. There were thousands of Jews that revolted. There were several wars that were fought, the Maccabean Wars.

If you want some interesting history, you can pick up a copy of the Apocrypha and read 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, and it will tell you all about the Maccabean Wars, where under the leadership of Judas Maccabeus, Jews fought against Antiochus for a number of years. And the Bible says, verse 33, that many of them will fall by the sword and will be burned and will be captured and will be plundered. And that was true. And when they fall, verse 34 says, they won't receive much help at all. And that was true.

There was no one to stand with them. But they did succeed in throwing off the yoke of Antiochus Epiphanes. They did succeed in driving him out of the land, and eventually he was defeated and he died. And so once again, Daniel 11 predicts the history of the Near East around Antiochus Epiphanes with remarkable accuracy. And here we come to the end of the first section, verse 35, where suddenly now we jump thousands of years down through history to the end time, where suddenly we're not talking about Antiochus Epiphanes anymore, we're talking about the Antichrist. But you understand, I hope, that the reason Antiochus Epiphanes appears as a central character here is because of the similarities between what he did to Jerusalem and what the Antichrist is going to do to Jerusalem. The Antichrist is going to desolate Jerusalem, cut off the offerings and the sacrifices, Daniel chapter 9, set up the abomination of desolation in the wing of the temple, Daniel chapter 9. He is going to be in many respects a carbon copy of what Antiochus did to the Jews, except that he will be so much worse, so much worse.

The Jews will not be able to defeat him. Only the return of Jesus Christ personally will be able to accomplish that. And the chapter goes on to talk about this and into chapter 12, and this is what we want to talk about as we conclude our study of Daniel next week. You say, well, Lon, what is it that we can learn from our study tonight? I believe that what we can learn is that the living God is able to predict the future just the way he said. I think that what we learn is that the living God proved the truth of what he said in Isaiah 46. He said this, I am the Lord and there is none other, declaring the end from the beginning and declaring from ancient times things that have not yet happened. And what greater example of that do we have than Daniel 11, where God with incredible accuracy declared things that had not yet happened, but when history worked its way out, they happened just the way God said they would. And the way I see it is that this is great proof, great substantiation, that if God has gotten all this right, he's going to get the rest of it right. If he got the first half of Daniel 11 right, he's going to get the last half right.

There's no reason to think he wouldn't. And so I'd like to close with some words from Walvoord, and I quote. He said, the accuracy of this prophetic section is supporting evidence that prophecy, yet unfulfilled, will have the same precise fulfillment in the future as prophecy that has had historical fulfillment already. Hey, I think that's exciting, because that means it's all going to happen exactly the way Jesus said it's going to happen.

And you know, it's always difficult to figure out prophecy when you're looking forward. But I'm convinced when it's all over, maybe we'll all be sitting in heaven, maybe we won't have much to do that day, and we can take our mint juleps and sit around on our clouds, and we can pull out Daniel 11, and we can pull out the Bible, and we'll be able to leap through and say, isn't that amazing? You know, I can still remember we went to those services and Lon talked on Daniel, and he got some of it right, not all of it right, but isn't it neat? Isn't it neat how God did every single piece of it exactly the way He said He would? And God's going to do every single piece of it exactly the way He said He would, and the fact that you and I can't put it all together exactly and perfectly doesn't matter, because it's all going to happen exactly and perfectly.

When God says it, God's going to make it happen just the way He said. And I thank God for His Word, and these things also give me great encouragement, not just about prophecy, but about everything. That when Jesus said to be absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord, that He's right. That when Jesus said, He who believes on Me has eternal life, that He was right. That when Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place, I'll come back and get you so that you'll be where I am. Hey, if Jesus can get all this prophecy right, then I'll tell you something, brother. I certainly get all of His predictions about where my soul's going as a believer in Christ right. So I leave here tonight feeling a tremendous sense of confidence in the Word of God, and I hope you do too. I believe one of the reasons God gave us prophecy is as a way of confirming to our hearts so that there's no doubt that everything He says in here is exactly right.

Praise the Lord for that. It means lost ones that have died and gone on ahead of you who've known Christ. It means you're going to see Him again. It means you're going to go to heaven as you trust Christ. It means everything in the book is right, and I hope that you'll build your life on the book, that you'll build your children's life on the book, and your grandchildren's life on the book, and your family on the book, because the book will stand the test of time.

It always has, and as we've seen from Daniel 11, it always will. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, that we could meet tonight and we could study your Word openly and freely in a land such as ours. Thank you for the tremendous encouragement of Daniel 11.

We've only touched it, Lord, on the surface. We've just scratched the very, very tip of the iceberg tonight, and yet even what we've done tonight has given us great confirmation in our hearts and in our souls that you've told us the truth in your Word. And Father, I want to thank you that you have not tried to hide from us what's going to happen in the future, nor have you tried to hide from us, Lord Jesus, what's going to happen to us individually when we leave this planet. And so, Lord Jesus, I pray that every one of us here will have trusted Christ as our Lord and our Savior because you promised us that those of us who do will see you and live with you in heaven for all eternity. Help us believe that, Lord.

Help us not consider that legend but fact. Lord Jesus, give us a deep and abiding confidence in the veracity and the trustworthiness of the Word of God. Help us to build our lives and our destinies and even our family and our children's children's lives upon the book that you've given us, the Word of God. Dismiss us now with your blessing, Lord. Send us out this week to tell others about Christ, and when they ask us how we can be so sure, Lord Jesus, help us to point them to a book that has stood the test of time and is trustworthy. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.