Today on Summit Life with JD Greer. God's calling to us today is just to recognize that our circumstances, as difficult as they may be, as hard as they may be to understand, they do not counteract the eternal truth that our God sits upon the throne and does what He intends to do. Saint, God is doing the same thing in your life. Welcome to Summit Life with pastor and teacher JD Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovich.
So have you ever thought about your future? How would you describe your attitude toward it? Are you filled with peace or are you full of overwhelming stress, anxiety, and uncertainty at what might happen? chances are you might even be somewhere in the middle.
Well, as Pastor J.D. moves into the prophetic portion of the book of Daniel today, he shows us how it's Daniel's prophecy about the future that makes the difference between those two attitudes. Do you want to be full of hope or full of fear and anxiety as you contemplate the future? This is a message I know we can all use today.
So grab your Bible as we conclude our message titled Antichrist Far, Near, and Right in Front of You. In every age, including maybe even especially ours. The spirit of the Antichrist, that is Satan's spirit. is at work. I want you to notice how the Apostle John talks about the Antichrist in this prophecy.
1 John 2:18, children. Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming even now. Many Antichrists have already come. Even though, in other words, the ultimate Antichrist is still coming.
The spirit of Antichrist is already here. Which means that we can learn from what we see in these chapters, we can learn what to expect in our age. Again, give you one example of this in Scripture: Jesus, Mark 14. Jesus took the prophecies of Daniel 7 and 8. And he applied them to his trial right before he was crucified.
Even though Jesus lived hundreds of years after Antiochus and thousands of years before the Antichrist would come. Jesus said to the Pharisees, to the Sanhedrin, you guys. Are playing the role of the beast and the Antichrist in Daniel 7 and 8, and I'm playing the role of God's people. And he said that again, even though he was hundreds of years separated from either Antiochus or Antichrist. Which means That you and I can take the principles of Daniel 7 and 8, and we can learn about what our enemy is doing in our age.
Does that make sense? And you say, well, what would those things be? I see at least three things these chapters teach you about what Antichrist is up to. Chapter 7, verse 5. Chapter 7, verse 5 says that he aims to devour much flesh.
The aims to devour much flesh. That's not hard to believe, right? Just look at the last hundred years. The last hundred, how do you look at things like the Holocaust and just chalk all of that up to merely human evil or political maneuvering? Y'all, there's something in that more than human cruelty.
More than political posturing. It has the eyes of a man, but behind it is something demonic. And if you say that's naive, I would say you're naive. Y'all, the 20th century saw so much moral and technological advancement, did it not? Yet it was still the bloodiest century in history.
It's even ones you don't know about, like 1915. The Turks in the region of Turkey came to believe that Armenians, who were also living in that region, They came to believe that they were a problem and they set April 24th as Armenian Liquidation Day and on that day murdered 600,000 Armenians in one day in cold blood. The Japanese declared a Black Friday during World War II when Japanese troops went through Alexandra Hospital in Singapore bayonetting all the patients, all the doctors, all the nurses, all the kids, everybody. 1932, Joseph Stalin executes over 10 million of his own countrymen and then starves to death another 7 million through enforced grain quotas. Then you got Mouse of Tongue, Po Pot, Kim Jong Il.
The Hutus and Tut season in Rwanda. All this is within the last hundred years. I mean, don't you see this? It has the eyes of a man, but it is so much more. Can we not see Satan at work today?
In our own country, in the abortion industry. or the slave trade. That still goes on, or the myriad places around the world and some in our own country where oppression is celebrated and religious liberty and basic human dignities are denied. I'm telling you, the spirit of Antichrist, which has the eyes of a man, but is much worse. Has as its aim the devouring of flesh in that age and this age and every age to come.
So, the first thing is he's going to destroy much flesh. And I would say that's as true today as it's ever been. Second, chapter 8, verse 25, he will cause deceit to prosper. through his cunning and by his influence. In other words, he's going to be super good at it.
And in his own mind he will exalt himself. He questions God's word. That's deceit. and he exalts man. Those are his other two agendas.
That means he is at work everywhere. Trying to get you to question God's word. He is in university classrooms. He is in entertainment studios. He is in newspaper offices and boardrooms and magazine offices and social media platforms making people question God's word and puffing up our obsession with ourselves.
Oh, I can tell he loves social media. Because I'm like, talk about exalting yourself. That's his, like, that's, I'm not saying he invented it, I'm just saying that he is loving it. I am not saying that you should go try to cast a demon out of your professor, your boss, or your phone. I'm not saying any of those things.
I'm just saying that there is a supernatural power at work in the world trying to deceive people against God. And you've got to recognize that. He said, No, no, I'm just questioning what the Bible says about sexuality, and I'm trying to find myself. No, you're not, you're dabbling with hell. You are exalting yourself.
You are putting your thoughts above God's thoughts. Y'all, there are two paths. There is the path of truth that comes from Jesus, and there is the other path where you do what is right in your own eyes. This is God's word that he gave. It comes down from heaven.
It exalts God. Humble yourself before it, because the only other path is the path of the Antichrist, where you decide what's right for you and you exalt yourself.
So, in our age, we can expect to encounter the spirit of Antichrist. And those are the three things I'm telling you that he's going to be doing, he always has been doing, and will do ultimately in fulfillment in the Antichrist Himself. And here's the bad news. You can expect those things until the end of history. It's not going to get any better.
You know, if anything, it's going to get worse. You say, well, that's depressing. But I got some really, really good news too, okay? Number three. Number three, even in the age of Antichrist, the ancient of days still rules.
Even in the age of Antichrist, the ancient of days still rules. Let me take you back to Daniel 7 and show you what Daniel says in the midst of all these prophecies. All these prophecies of darkness and chaos and judgment. Look at this. Verse 9, chapter 7, as I kept watching, thrones were set in place, and the ancient of days took his seat.
His clothing was white like snow, and the hair of his head like whitest wool. His throne was flaming fire. Its wheels were blazing fire. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from his presence. Thousands upon thousands served him.
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was convened, and the books were open. Here is God in the midst of all this chaos and darkness, calmly coming to take his place as judge. By the way, I love that name, the ancient of days. I feel like I'm going to start singing here in a minute.
It reminds me of a phrase that we, we parents, use on our kids. when they try to pull something over on us. You parents will know what I'm talking about, right? One of my teenage girls comes up to me and says, Dad, dad, say, just for illustration purposes. Is there a way to get a dent out of the front fender of a car?
And I say What did you do? And they say, well, I never said I wrecked the car. And I say, kid, what do I say, parents? I wasn't born yesterday. And what do I mean by that?
I mean, I've been around the block for a while. And I know how these things go, and I can see through your ruse. We tell our kids, I wasn't born yesterday. God leans into the backseat of human history and says to Daniel, I wasn't born at all. Nothing gets by him.
Nothing surprises him. He never learns anything. He never misunderstands anything. Nothing ever catches him off guard. Right, has it ever dawned on you that nothing's ever dawned on God?
There has never been a time that He was not fully in charge. His hair is white like snow, which means he carries the authority and the wisdom of the ages. His clothes are white like wool, the purest wool, which means that he in his heart is pure. He is wise and righteous altogether without the slightest blot of imperfection. His throne blazes in fire, which means it consumes all before it.
He alone is worthy to judge the nations, and that's what he's about to do.
So, sit down, little horns. Greatness is in the room. There's no great game of thrones going on here. Right? By the way.
God's throne has wheels. And they're on fire. Yo, how cool is that? I'm like, is this like a big tricked out monster truck looking sort of thing? Maybe.
Maybe, but what that's communicating, listen, is that the ancient of days is not stationary. He's not uninvolved in things on earth, separated from us by a great distance. No, his throne has wheels. He goes to where his people are, and he doesn't have to leave his throne or authority to get there. It is interesting to look at how all the events that Daniel predicted here in Daniel 7 and 8, which again seems so dark.
and so chaotic at the time. How we can see now how they all worked out perfectly for the advancement of God's purposes. I mean, imagine how dark it was to live through these chapters as these kingdoms conquered and all the things you're seeing. And you had to look up if you're in Israelite and just say, God, have you forgotten us forever? And God, what is going on?
God were going to be extinguished. But do you know that when Persia took over Babylon? Did you know Persia actually rebuilt Jerusalem and the Jewish temple? Paid for it entirely.
Something that Jews at the time thought would never happen again. Cyrus paid for Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, and Jerusalem and the temple would be crucial for Jesus' ministry. Then God raised up Greece. And Greece united the world under one trade language, Koine Greek, which made it easier for the gospel to spread rapidly throughout the world through the writings of the apostles, because now you had one common language for the first time in history that connected people. Then God raised up the Romans, who would build a system of roads that made it possible to transport the gospel from place to place.
Paul summarized all of this in Galatians 4 by saying, when the fullness of time had come, when the fullness of time had come, then God brought forth his Son. In other words, in all this mess, God was creating a situation perfect for the coming of the Messiah and perfect for the spread of salvation around the world. The point is, God does everything, everything for his purposes. And more good news. That's true of your life too.
What he does in the big picture, he does in the small. The good, the bad, it's all for his glory. He is at work in every disaster, every dark chapter of your life, moving his church forward and moving the gospel forward in your life. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer, and we'll jump back into the teaching in just a moment.
But first, can I tell you about something really helpful and totally free? Twice per week, we send out a newsletter designed to keep you encouraged and in the loop with us here at Summit Life. It's got links to Pastor JD's most recent messages on radio, TV, and podcasts, plus updates on brand new resources, free downloads, and even stories from listeners who are being impacted by the gospel through this ministry. And when you sign up today at jdgreer.com, we'll also send you a little free gift. It's our Here Bible study method, an easy to follow four step process to help you read, understand, and apply scripture.
Here stands for Highlight, Examine, Apply, and Respond in Prayer. Whether you're studying Daniel in our featured premium resource this month or just want to build a habit of meaningful time in God's Word each day, this free guide will bring clarity and confidence to your study time. Download your copy and start hearing from God in a fresh way through His Word. Head over to jdgreer.com and sign up for the newsletter today. All right, let's finish up today's message.
Once again, here's Pastor JD. I read a story this week. It's a story of how a guy named Dawson Trotman started a ministry called The Navigators. In the late 1930s, Dawson Trotman was working at a Texaco gas station in Lomita, California. He had just escaped going to jail.
And in the process, he'd gotten saved. He knew almost nothing about the Bible. But he just wanted to start studying it. And so he started ministering to two young sailors who were stationed nearby who frequented his gas station. He explained to them his testimony, and he told them that he was convinced that if they would trust God like he did, God could save them just like he saved him.
Well, those two sailors called two more sailors. And they began to do this little Bible study in the service station garage. At one point, Dawson said he told them that he believed God, believed in his heart that God wanted to use the five of them to change the world. In his biography, he said, you know, it was just kind of silly. I mean, really, it was just four sailors and me.
And two of them were there more for the free food than they were for the Bible study anyway. And now I'm talking about how God is going to use them to change the world.
Well, eventually the the other two get saved and these four sailors say Dawson Dawson if you will quit your job at the gas station We will donate each donate part of our salaries to make you a missionary to our ship Of course, these are sailors. They didn't have any money either. But come on our ship, they said, because we've talked to our captain and he said that you can start a Bible study on our ship.
Well, he does that, and six months later, there's been 100 conversions on that ship, and twice that many meeting regularly on the deck of the ship for a Bible study that they called the Navigators. The name of that ship was the USS West Virginia. And just a few months after the Bible study really got going, the USS West Virginia was redeployed to a place called Pearl Harbor. where it was sunk on December 7, 1941. With all those sailors.
Now that sounds like an unbelievable, unspeakable tragedy, right? And it was. But all those sailors in the Navigator's Bible study who survived that attack got redeployed onto other ships because their ship was sunk. And by the end of the war, there were 800 ships that had Bible studies led by the navigators.
Well, then those young men come back to the United States, and under the GI Bill, they were spread out into universities all across the nation, and they began leading Bible studies on campus that were similar to the ones they had learned from Dawson Truman and the Navigators. And that resulted in the formation of groups like Intervarsity and Campus Crusade. In a presentation years later, Dawson Trotman was talking to an audience about his so-called ministry success, and he said: the need of the hour is just to believe that God is God. And just to believe that he's the ancient of days, that he sits upon the throne, and he will be true to his purposes in all times, in all places, and he'll be true to us if we are true to his will. God's calling to us today, he told this audience, listen, God's calling to us today is just to recognize.
That are circumstances as difficult as they may be, as hard as they may be to understand, they do not counteract the eternal truth that our God sits upon the throne and does what he intends to do. Saint, God is doing the same thing in your life. I'm reading a book right now by a guy named John Piper called Providence. And Dr. Piper demonstrates throughout The Bible.
He shows that God, in all these situations, is up to hundreds and hundreds of things in the lives of the people in the Bible. And at any given point, They are only aware of one or two of them. But he's working in all of them. He's working in all of them true to his purposes. He's the ancient of days.
Even better, Daniel tells us, number four, last one. One day the God who rules over the world is going to come to rule in the world. At least that's how I've heard it said. Verse 11.
Now watch then because of the sound of the arrogant words the horn was speaking as I continued watching. And suddenly, one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him. He was given dominion and glory in a kingdom so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that can never be destroyed.
Friend, one day the God who is working in history invisibly will come to assume the throne personally. And in that moment, the power of the Antichrist will literally evaporate in front of him. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians, we read earlier, that Jesus on that day will destroy the Antichrist with just the breath of his mouth. John in the book of Revelation says he does it with just a word. Just a word.
All Daniel says about the defeat of the Antichrist is that it happens not by human hands. Remember that? He was broken, but not by human hands. For Antiochus, it was an invisible stomach virus that killed him. What mighty armies could not do, God accomplished through a microscopic virus.
The defeat of the ultimate Antichrist doesn't happen through a stomach bug, of course. It happens through A dead man walking out of a grave because God spoke down from heaven and says, you're dead and all of human ingenuity and all of human technology can't change that, but I can change it in one word. Arise. And it happened not by human hands, it happened entirely by God. Jesus was the Messiah.
who came to the lion and the bear and the ram and the goat of the world's kingdoms with their mighty horns of power.
Now here's the irony. He didn't come with a horn of his own. He could have come however he wanted to, right? He could have come as the largest dragon, but instead he came as what? A lamb.
And lamb doesn't have a horn? And he came into the ring and he didn't come with a horn of power. No, he allowed himself to be gored by those. vicious animals. But that was happening not because he was weak, he was doing it because he was voluntarily choosing to die for our sin.
He was going to be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. He didn't just have to defeat Satan. He had to defeat sin in us and had to die to forgive us so that we could be redeemed and saved.
So that when he overcame Satan's power, we wouldn't be destroyed along with him. But see, through that death and resurrection, he broke Satan's power so that the word of the gospel now is mightier than all the horns of oppression and all the chains of captivity they try to put on us.
So let me close with two applications. for the church. Seeing this secret behind history. I've heard it said. may not keep me from pain.
But it will keep me from panic. I might experience fear from time to time, but I never need to feel frantic. Why? Because the ancient of days is on the throne. And the God who rules over history promises to one day come and rule in history.
And he is moving everything in the world, everything in your life and in my life. He's moving everything to that end.
So be encouraged, friend. Be encouraged, Saint. Every setback is ultimately going to be used for the advancement of his glory. The cancer. The broken.
Marriage. The wandering child. The chronic pain, the frustrating lack of promotion in your job. God's good hand is in all of it. It might look dark to you.
It might feel like you've been abandoned, but it is all flowing by the gracious hand of God. And when the fullness of time has come in your life, you will see that God has brought forth from it His Son, Jesus. And church, we got something to do in the meantime. in between Antiochus and Antichrist. And that is we preach the word of the gospel.
We're just a dot on this great timeline. We live in an age of mercy and light when God, he says, desires all men everywhere to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. When he promises us that he's given us his spirit and told us that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, that no weapon formed against us will prosper, and all those who rise against us will fall, that all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth, therefore we should go and make disciples of all the nations. This is the age of the church. It is our moment between Antiochus and Antichrist.
It is our moment to spread the gospel. It is what we're supposed to be doing. It is how our success will be judged. Were we doing the one thing we were supposed to do? And that is letting all nations hear the gospel.
So that's the application for the church. Here's one for you who still don't know Jesus. personally. Or maybe you've not Submit it fully to him. The goal of our enemy.
through the Antichrist and all the little Antichrist. is to devour flesh and destroy faith. And that's what he's been doing with some of you. You've chosen a path because you thought it would bring you happiness but instead it started to devour you It's exactly what he wanted. He made it look so good.
Come in. Just do it. Just do it. You don't want that. You don't want what God says.
No, no, no. This is where it's at. And it's devouring you. And then he's been deceiving you. I want you to mark it down.
The spirit of the Antichrist is going to make it progressively harder for you to be a Christian. The world is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And the lions and the bears of the world, with all their cunning and all their deceit, are going to oppose you. If you are looking for the affirmation of the world, you are never going to find it. I'm not saying there's not good people and all these different things, but you're not going to get it from the academy.
You're not going to get it from entertainment. You're not going to get it from the New York Times or CNN. Again, I'm not saying there's no good people that work for those things. I'm just saying that the spirit of Antichrist is taking the world away from God. And if you are trying to get the affirmation of the world, that is a fool's errand.
It's never going to come. There is a reckoning that is coming that is going to separate false Christians, half-committed Christians, from true Christians. Question is, where are you going to be? As the world becomes increasingly more difficult to live in, we have to realize more and more that we can't save ourselves. Jesus is the only one who can save us.
You are listening to Summit Life with pastor, author, and apologist J.D. Greer. Our newest resource we're offering this month is a study that aligns with this teaching series and is what we call an inductive Bible study.
So, Pastor JD, what are the benefits of solo versus group study? And how did you design the content to work for both? Yeah, personal study, let's start there. Personal study allows for deep, honest reflection to actually connect, like we've talked about, connect with God through the text, not just learn the information of the text. And so, yeah, the HERE method is a great option for quiet times, for individual growth.
And I really think you'll enjoy doing it through the book of Daniel. Group settings, though, I think the HERE method actually works well there too, because that gives you not just what you're learning, but what other people are learning, shared insight, accountability with each other. It's got a lot of really great questions that cause you to do some self-reflection. And then self-reflection, that's best done in a group setting where you can share and learn from others as they go through the same process. It's a digital resource, and that means you can share it with as many people as you'd like.
We don't even ask you to keep it to yourself. We make this available for you digitally so you can share it with everybody that's in your family or small group or just people you want to see impacted by the word. We'll send it to you immediately when you give at jdgreer.com. Yes, we'll email it to you right away when you donate. The title is The Book of Daniel Shining in Babylon.
Call 866-335-5220 or give and request the study online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Be sure to join us Wednesday when we not only see five principles that make for effective prayer. But we also get a one-of-a-kind glimpse into what happens in heaven as we pray. That's Wednesday on Summit Life with JD Greer.
Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
