Blessed Assurance Part 3 RDS20C

We all could use some encouragement, and we'll find it together today in the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton on Blessed Assurance. It's part three in a three-part message from Dr. Wilton about Blessed Assurance, and as we open God's Word together today, he would want you to know that we are wide open to pray with you. At the other end of 866-899-WORD, a little bit of an old school number, yes, 866-899-9673. We've been taking calls on that for many, many years, decades as a matter of fact. But sometimes even in this day and age of texting and typing and emails, which we do as well, there's an opportunity to have a conversation that can be a life changer.

Again, 866-899-9673, or if you would like to use your keyboard, connect us online at www.tewonline.org. Now today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. God speaks, and even the winds and the waves obey his voice. I believe on that day at Armageddon, as we gather together, I believe that God in all of his radiant glory, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is just going to stand there, and he's going to speak victory.

Kaboom! Just like that. Well, let's see what happens. Verse 26, the vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given to you is true, but seal up the vision for it concerns the distant future. I, Daniel, was exhausted, and so I lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king's business.

I was appalled by the vision, and it was beyond understanding. So here we are, here we are looking at the great epochs of history. One of the preachers that I listened to had some very interesting thoughts that each epoch in history has been highlighted by certain significant events and turning points.

I call them turning points. The spiritual turning point in the ages was the reformation. The cultural turning point was the Renaissance. The intellectual turning point in the epoch of history was the age of enlightenment and reason. And so we began to move into the age of reason or the age of modernity, the modern era, which has lasted depending on what side of historical sequence you find yourself seated upon. The modern era really has transpired now for some 300 years, and it is based upon a foundation which gives to us the following five thoughts or basic hypotheses or basic presuppositions upon which the age of reason is founded. Number one, that human reason has replaced God as the center of life. If you want to put a little phraseology there in a bracket behind the foundation of the age of reason, you could put there the preparation for the arrival of the Antichrist.

This is what's been happening. This is why the soil is so fertile. Number one, human reason has replaced God as the center of life. Number two, truth today is only true only when it can be proved scientifically. That's the age of reason. That's modern age. Truth is only true only when it can be proved scientifically.

No other way. We can never take God at his word. Faith is a non-expression. Number three, the world is actually getting better and is going to culminate in the age of utopia. That's what the age of reason says. Don't worry about a thing.

Everything's going to be wonderful. Number four, that man is basically good. Here's your humanism in its ultimate expression.

Man is basically good. You don't have to worry about it. You want to find something, look to yourself. Folks, that's why new age has gripped America. New age has gripped America and everybody from movie stars to politicians to famous people and particularly intellectuals are just flocking after new age.

Do you know why? Because new age at its very heartbeat says, listen, I want you to know that man is essentially good by nature. If you want to find the answer to life, look into your own heart. Well, God tells us exactly the opposite, doesn't he? And number five, all values are relative. Well, that's fine.

How do you do? Because that means that there are no absolutes. And if there are no absolutes, it means that God is up for grabs. It means that Jesus is a maybe.

The Holy Spirit is a potential. Happiness is something that can never be attained. Truth is non-existent. Only the pursuit of truth is existent, but you can never achieve or attain truth because there's no such thing as an absolute.

But have a jolly good time trying to find it anyway. And so the question comes down to this. Daniel is being confronted by the most important question and that is this, can mankind survive? Going way back to his time and God is going to say to him way back there in Daniel's time, no Daniel, you cannot survive. You cannot survive without me. A world without God is destined for absolute unmitigated disaster.

The only reason you have for existence is found in the heart of a God who loves you. And so he has this extraordinary vision. I want to just then focus just for these closing thoughts on the little horn of chapter eight, Antiochus Epiphanes. Bible tells us in verses nine, 10, 11, and 12, the Bible says that the little horn that came out of the Greek empire, that he started small, just like the Antichrist. He grew in power, just like the Antichrist.

He achieved greatness, just like the Antichrist. Verse 11 says he is anti-God, just like the Antichrist. Verse 11 says the place of worship is destroyed, just like the Antichrist. Verse 12 says he prospered, just like the Antichrist. And verse 12 also says that truth is destroyed.

That is exactly the pattern of behavior and the results of that pattern of behavior by virtue of the Antichrist. Verse 13 culminates with the work of God in that God speaks loudly and clearly and boldly. I heard the Holy One speak.

The explanation of the vision. Well, what about Antiochus Epiphanes who came out of the Seleucid dynasty? He was anti-Semitic. Verse nine tells us that and history confirms that. He ruled for 1,150 days. Verse 14 tells us that is exactly what 2,300 evenings and mornings are.

It fits exactly. And he was also a prototype of the Antichrist. Every activity and every characteristic action of Antiochus Epiphanes is a blueprint of the activity of the Antichrist.

Now, just let me give you a few historical facts to support this. What did he actually do to the Jews? Well, we do know from history that he marched against Jerusalem and that's in verse nine, the beautiful land.

That's exactly what he did. Second of all, verse 11, the Bible says that it took away the daily sacrifice from him and the place of his sanctuary was brought low. Now watch this.

Watch this, folks. The place of his sanctuary was brought low. One of the things that is documented about Antiochus Epiphanes was that he went into the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and he took a large pig and he slaughtered the pig in the Jewish temple and had his soldiers drag the pig all over the temple, spilling its blood over all of the things that the Jewish people held holy. And then he hung up that pig as a centerpiece in the Jewish temple. Now, what is the one thing the Jewish people do not eat?

You got it. Hog meat. The pig and the Jewish people are poles apart. You got to go back into the Levitical law to understand how important this is. Don't ask for bacon with your eggs. It doesn't kind of go over too well in Israel.

They don't go for that. That is part, it is a very important part of their religious belief and it is tied into the Torah. Another thing he did was that he brought the pagan worship of the God of Saturn into the temple. He didn't just decree that the people should worship the God of Saturn. He actually brought that worship into the sanctity of the temple.

Now, folks, that is an unmitigated desecration of everything that Israel believed in. We'll be back with the rest of today's message with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But even as the world becomes darker, we have the opportunity because of Jesus Christ to be light in that darkness.

And have you ever noticed how just the smallest candlelight can shatter the darkness in the darkest room? We want you to be light in the darkness. We have wonderful resources like the daily encouraging word devotional.

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We'd love to connect with you. Now let's dive back into today's message, the closing of the Blessed Assurance series from Dr. Don Wilton as we study in the book of Daniel. He persecuted the Jews for three years and 56 days. What he did for three and a half years was unmitigatingly terrorized the Jewish people.

Let me give you an example. He banned all kinds of Jewish worship. This is Antiochus Epiphanes. They couldn't do anything. They were not allowed to read the Torah. Now you know the Jews are very strong in that regard. In fact, when you go to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, you'll find many of the Orthodox Jews standing there, they'll be doing this.

And they'll be wearing those little hats and they'll have bands and all kinds of things around them. And they'll just be standing like this and they are reciting. What do you think they're reciting? The Torah, very important to the Jewish people.

It is fundamentally tied into their religious beliefs. Well, Antiochus Epiphanes destroyed the Torah. He actually ordered the Torah to be burned. He went around, it's almost as though some gods were to come into our church now and collect up all the Bibles and he actually burned them.

He tried to eliminate them from the beautiful land and from Jerusalem. He banned male circumcision. Now friends, if you don't know this, and I'm sure most of you know this, it is an integral part of the Jewish religion that all baby boys are circumcised by the eighth day of their lives.

All of them without exception. There's no exception to the rule. Male circumcision and the Jewish faith are inextricably intertwined together. It's not something that you debate about and they certainly didn't need to have deacons meetings or rabbi meetings over this one. It was written into the law of God. Well, Antiochus Epiphanes banned male circumcision. Historians tell us that one lady had two little boys, twin boys. And because of her beliefs and these stories multiply, she went out and on the eighth day she circumcised both of those boys. Antiochus Epiphanes brought that lady into his court with those two little baby boys. And what he did to those two little boys I find difficult to talk about. The end result was that he murdered eventually these two little baby boys. And then in the most horrific manner, slowly murdered their mother in front of his entire court. There was another woman who had seven sons and she did a similar thing accepting that these seven boys had already been circumcised. They were in their teen years. And she insisted that those boys go through the rituals associated with their Jewish faith.

You've all heard of bar mitzvah, the coming of age of the Jewish people would not and similar to what they went through. Antiochus Epiphanes got to hear about this. And so he summons that mother and all seven of her sons into his court in Jerusalem. The first thing that he did was that he cut the tongues of those seven sons out of their mouths in front of his court. Then he put a stake in their mouths so that their mouths were forced open.

And personally, didn't get one of his gods to do this, didn't get a general to do this. He personally, gradually poured some extremely hot substance down the mouths of these seven boys, burning their mouths and then slowly burning their throat and intestine. And eventually after systematic torture of this nature, murdered and butchered all seven of those sons in front of their mother. And when he had finished with the seven sons, he turned on the mother. And what he did to the mother was 10 times worse than what he did to those seven sons. Now, I beg your pardon for giving you this historical fact. But I want to tell you that during the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, over 80,000 Jews were murdered in Jerusalem in a three and a half year period. It was an unmitigated period of terror and disaster.

Go to chapter 8 verse 23. In the latter part of their reign when rebels have become completely wicked. I just want to ask a question. I don't mean anything by this, but is there any sense in which the world is becoming completely wicked today? What part does God and His righteousness play in the world today? How popular is it to take a stand for Jesus Christ and His righteousness across the world? Do you know folks that you can go to Europe today, the godlessness in that beautiful part of the world will shock you.

You can go to Australia today where my family came from. Australia is a secular humanist society. There are small pockets of evangelical Christians, but the church is diminishing left and right. Do you know that in England today, many of the churches have become bingo halls. And antique stores and coffee houses.

They're just closing left and right. Do you know that in America today, there is an increasing demand even in the part of the evangelical church to water down the church. The demand today, the clarion call in America today is that we need to make church as easy as we possibly can for people.

It needs to be the most comfortable place in the world. Our goal needs to be to let people kind of hang around church, eat and drink whatever they want when they come into church, sit back and relax, have no demands placed on them, come on Sunday or some other time to just get some spiritual entertainment. And we don't want to make a single demand on anybody. And what was that about Jesus saying, if any man will come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross. You know, that's kind of old fashioned, you know. Do you know that some of the biggest churches in America today are so called churches that have absolutely broken down and done away with any kind of semblance of churchmanship or tradition. And please don't misunderstand me when I talk about tradition because tradition can be equally wicked. Don't anybody sit down and say, oh, there it is, tradition. Listen, tradition, my friend, that is not of God is as wicked as contemporariness without God.

I just wanted to ask a question here. It says in the latter part of their reign, when rebels have become completely wicked, a stern faced king, a master of intrigue will arise. He will become very strong, not by his own power. He will cause astounding devastation and will succeed in whatever he does. He will destroy the mighty men and the holy people. He will cause deceit to prosper and he will consider himself superior. And when they feel secure, he will destroy many and take his stand against the prince of princes.

Yet he will be destroyed, but not by human power. What can we learn from this? Number one, the Christian life is filled with joy of that there is no doubt. But number two, the Christian life is also filled with suffering. Suffering is a fact of our relationship with the Lord, the cross of Christ. But I think thirdly, and most importantly, friends, the most important thing for us is not just to accept joy and suffering. The most important thing for us is to see life from God's perspective.

You know, that's what encourages me most of all. Some of you might say, and I doubt it, but some of you might say, well, pastor, do you think we're right at the end? I don't know. We don't know that. Nobody knows that.

I don't know that. I have a little bit of difficulty when people say, well, this person's going to be the Antichrist or this is going to happen. All I am going to say is I'm going to read and study God's word. And I'm going to say to myself, listen, I want to tell as many people as I possibly can about the Lord Jesus Christ. That's more important. What's important to me tonight is that you know the Lord Jesus.

That's important. See, when you know the Lord Jesus Christ, all these things fall into their perspective. Folks, I tell you, I'm looking for the Lord to come.

I'm not so convinced that I want him to come right now because I still want to get my golf score down into the 70s. We've got a lot of things that are going on. I had one of our teenagers last year.

Listen to this. One of our teenagers in our church came to me and said to me, do you think the Lord Jesus is going to come before I have an opportunity to get married? And I tell you, she was as sweet and as genuine as I've ever seen. One of those most precious Christian young girls in our church. She said to me, pastor, you know, I really would like to get married and I can't wait to have my own children. And I said, you know, I hope the Lord gives you that wish.

I don't know. But I tell you what, if he does come, if the rapture of the church happens before that all happens, I really think you're going to look back and you're going to say, you know, I would have loved to have got married, but actually it's not important anymore because I'm married to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that amazing? What a great and a wonderful God we serve at times when I go through these prophecies like this and one feels almost a little bit sad that you have to deal with some of these things. And yet I get through it and God says, man, I know you're exhausted and you feel just as ill as Daniel felt.

And quite rightly you should be because these things are not good. But you've got to see things from my perspective, because when you see things from my perspective, everything's good because I'm God and I've got you in the palm of my hand and I'm never going to leave you. And I'm never going to forsake you. Our time is gone for today, but isn't that all of life changing our perspective, not from our own perspective, from God's perspective. And, you know, as a part of the body of Christ, sometimes when we link arms together, we begin to pray together about whatever's going on in our life, whatever's providing anxiety to life or stress, then we begin to have our perspective shifted. We'd love to pray you through whatever's going on in your life right now at 866-899-WORD. That's our phone number.

I pray you would jot it down, store it in your cell, 866-899-9673. We'll connect you with us, happy to connect you with resources to pray for you, pray with you, and just know that we're here. We're also connecting online at www.tewonline.org. And one of the favorite places online at our website is the opportunity to discover more of what it is to know Jesus, to discover Jesus. You can click the Discover Jesus icon or maybe just right now. Hold for a second and listen to our pastor as he shares perhaps the most important part of our broadcast today. God has spoken to you, hasn't He? And you're ready to give your heart to Jesus.

I'd love to help you right now. Would you pray this prayer with me and accept Jesus into your heart and life? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner.

I know that Jesus loves me and died for me on the cross. Right now, I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come into my heart and save me today and forgive me for my sin. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. If you've prayed that prayer, we'd love to get alongside of you and celebrate with you and send you some literature and help you as you begin to grow. And I want you to know that I love you very, very much. And by the way, don't leave.

Don't go away, whatever you do, because I'll be right back. If you've given your heart to Jesus Christ, Dr. Don Wilton has a wonderful packet of information he wants you to have absolutely free. Would you call and let us know you've given your heart to Jesus? 866-899. Word is the phone number.

That's 866-899-9673. Or you can meet us online as well at www.tewonline.org. And when you're on our website, discover all these wonderful resources like this great book from Ann Graham Lotz called Jesus and Me. In the midst of life's changes and losses, we each need a friend, a confidant, someone who will come alongside us and share every step of our journey, someone who will listen to us, advocate for us and comfort us, someone we can trust. This month, for your gift of support to the encouraging word, we will send you the inspiring book Jesus and Me by Ann Graham Lotz. In Jesus and Me, Lotz draws on biblical knowledge and personal stories, including her recent cancer diagnosis to help us understand the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Call us at 866-899-9673 to request your copy of Jesus and Me today. The encouraging word is a viewer and listener supported ministry sharing God's truth around the world. Thank you for your support.

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