Participants: Pastor Shawn Boonstra
Series Code: RSP
Program Code: RSP000006A
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01:21 Announcer: Revelation. The time of the end.
01:24 Mysterious signs. 01:25 Strange happenings. 01:27 Confusing numbers. 01:29 Are we facing a new world order and the mark of the beast? 01:34 Are we living on a planet in upheaval? 01:36 Are we on the verge of Armageddon? 01:44 Revelation, what do all the signs in this mysterious book mean? 01:52 Discover real answers. 01:54 Revelation Speaks Peace, with Shawn Boonstra. 01:59 + 02:01 "In Matthew 24 verse 12, Jesus says that lawlessness will abound." That's right, and the 02:07 old Old King James says "iniquity," I think, and Matthew in some of the newer 02:10 translations. "lawlessness will abound. Does that mean the crime rate will be going up?" Well, 02:16 people watch the crime rate. It goes up and down, up and down, up and down. I think we're 02:19 currently on a little bit of a downtick. But if you were to chart it over, like, a century, 02:24 there is no question, it's on the way up. It's a major prophetic issue. We actually 02:33 touched last week on 2nd Timothy, 2nd Timothy. I often. it takes me a little while to 02:42 find a text sometimes. you know, it's awful for a preacher, but. I'm a little bit like the 02:47 Apostle Paul. I think I shared that with some of you. He's often writing "Somewhere, it is 02:50 written" because he can't remember quite where it is How many of you struggle to 02:56 remember where stuff is in the Bible? Here's what I've learned. Memorize the chapter, and you 03:01 will find the verse. You will. "But know this." 2nd Timothy 3 verse 1. And we're going to get 03:08 into this as we move along, and we'll see this next week. "Know this, that in the last days 03:12 [when?] last days, perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of 03:20 money, boasters [I don't know why I took my glasses off. I really, really need them] lovers 03:26 of themselves, lovers of money, boasters proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, 03:32 unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal despisers 03:41 of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 03:47 having a form of godliness, but denying its power." We actually touched on that. "From such 03:52 people, turn away." There is absolutely going to be a lawless trend in the last days, but give 03:58 me a little bit of time, because I think next week, we talk about the coming of the lawless one, 04:02 and you'll see how that all ties together. Our subject tonight, "The time of the end, part one." 04:10 I'm going to invite you to bow your heads with me in prayer. Father in heaven, again, we're 04:18 about to approach the Bible. And as we have seen every night that we've been together in this 04:26 auditorium, this is not an ordinary Book. This is Your Voice. And as such, we are 04:36 asking tonight that You would give us the ability to understand; that our minds would 04:45 be enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and that the Voice we hear would be Yours, and that 04:52 our thinking would be clear. Our minds and our hearts have been muddied by living in a sinful 04:59 world, and so we ask for clarity of thought, and I ask for clarity of thought, and I ask 05:05 that Jesus would be the focus of every moment. Forgive my sins. Make me fit to speak. And when 05:14 Jesus speaks to our hearts tonight, Lord, we will follow, for we pray it in His wonderful 05:21 name, amen. Every prophecy that we have looked at so far has started in the day of the 05:29 prophet, and suddenly whisked us all the way down to the second coming of Christ. So in Daniel 05:35 2, we saw the statue, the head of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of 05:41 brass or bronze, and then it went all the way down through time until the stone comes, the 05:47 second coming of Jesus. Even Matthew 24, of course, escorted us right down to the time of the 05:53 end, when we know that it is soon, the second coming of Jesus. Revelation chapter 16 05:59 talked about the drying-up of the Euphrates to prepare the way of the kings of the east. And 06:05 of course, it was retelling the story of Cyrus marching on Babylon as a forward-looking 06:11 symbol of Jesus coming to this world in glory. Last meeting, on Wednesday night, we looked at 06:16 Revelation chapter 6, and again, it takes us all the way down through time to that moment when 06:23 there is actually silence in heaven because all the holy angels have come back with 06:28 Jesus. It's the second coming of Christ. Now, tonight, we're going to look at a prophecy that 06:35 will also carry us down to the second coming of Jesus, but it's going to be just a little bit 06:42 different. It's actually going to add some detail that we haven't seen before. And because 06:48 it is a huge subject, it will take me two nights to get through it. Let's have a look. 06:54 On our first night - we're going to review. On our first night, Daniel chapter 2. We studied the 07:01 progression of kingdoms. The head of gold represented which empire? Do you remember? 07:07 Babylon. What a class. It represents the Neo-Babylonian empire with Nebuchadnezzar. The 07:14 chest and arms of silver was who? The Medes and the Persians. I often just summarize it as the 07:20 Persians, but you're absolutely right, whoever said "Medes," it was a coalition government. The 07:26 Medes and the Persians. The belly and thighs of bronze or brass, who was that? Greece, 07:30 absolutely right. The legs of iron was who? That was Rome. What a class. The feet of iron? 07:36 Some of the iron carries through. The feet of iron and of clay, who is that? The divided 07:42 Roman empire, western Rome as it is fragmented. Now, that was Daniel 2. Tonight's prophecy is 07:51 going to cover the same ground again, but from a little bit of a different perspective. So this 07:57 is one of those evenings where you're going to rely on the things that we've already 08:02 learned and studied. This is where what we've covered in the past suddenly becomes important. 08:09 Now, this statue was a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had. But now tonight, we're going to go to 08:15 Daniel 8, and it's not Nebuchadnezzar having a dream; it's actually Daniel himself 08:21 having a vision. Daniel 8 and verse 1, the Bible says: "In the third year of the reign of King 08:29 [Who?] Belshazzar." Remember him? The ne'er-do-good grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, who's on the 08:38 throne just as Babylon is about to collapse. "In the third year of the reign of King" - I 08:44 couldn't get the word 'ne'er-do-well' out of my mouth. Did you hear me struggle for 08:47 that? That's 'cause nobody says that. Who says ' ne'er-do-well' except in poetry? Alright. "In 08:53 the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me - to me, Daniel - 08:59 [so he's having this experience himself] after the one that appeared to me the first time." 09:05 There's another vision back in Daniel 7, and we're absolutely going to look at that too. He 09:10 has a vision. Belshazzar is on the throne. The empire is about to collapse. And that means that 09:15 at this point, Daniel is no longer a teenager; Daniel is an old man. Daniel 8 and verse 3: 09:24 "Then I lifted my eyes" - now, pay attention carefully; there is a lot of detail. This is far 09:29 more detailed than Daniel 2. "Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and there, standing beside the 09:35 river, was a [what?] a ram which had [how many horns?] had two horns, and the two horns were 09:45 high, but one was higher than the other." Okay, it's a ram, and the ram, again, has how many 09:51 horns? Two. And are those horns the same size, yes or no? No, they're not the same size. One 09:58 is bigger than the other. Verse 4: "I saw the ram push westward, and northward, and southward, so 10:08 that no animal could withstand him; nor was there any that could deliver from his hand, but 10:15 he did according to his will and became great." Okay, what do we know so far? It's a ram with two 10:23 horns, but the two horns are not the same size. One is bigger than the other. And this ram 10:30 pushes to the north, it pushes to the west, and it pushes to the south. And of course, the 10:36 big question is, what in the world does that represent? Well, maybe we should go and check the 10:41 National Inquirer. It might be able to tell us what it means. What do you think? Is that a 10:46 good approach? Well, you should know better than that by now. Is that a good approach, yes or no? 10:50 No. Maybe we should go to the esoteric bookstore and get a book on it; what do you think? 10:55 No, no. How about we check wikipedia? No, maybe. Yeah, it's not bad place, but is that how 11:01 you interpret the Bible? No. Remember the rule: line upon line, precept upon precept. You 11:07 let the Bible speak for itself, and read the whole thing. And in this case tonight, our job is 11:14 going to be amazingly easy, because in the second half of Daniel 8, Gabriel actually comes 11:22 and spells out - Gabriel the angel - spells out exactly what every element means in 11:29 unbelievable detail. So in the first part of Daniel 8, Daniel has a vision. In the second 11:34 part, Gabriel explains it. Look at what he says about this ram. Daniel 8 verse 20: "The ram 11:41 which you saw having the two horns - they are the kings of Media and Persia." Now, it 11:46 doesn't get any easier than that. He actually names the countries. This is - people say, 11:51 "How did you know about Daniel 2?" I cheated. I looked at Daniel 8. I knew what the 11:55 empires were because it spells it all out. Right? Before, when we were in Daniel chapter 2, we 12:01 had to refer to our knowledge of history and compare it against what actually happened. But now, 12:05 the Bible actually begins to spell it out in detail. The ram with two horns represents the 12:11 Medes and the Persians. And the Medes and the Persians were a coalition government. That's why 12:17 there are two horns: one is the Medes, the other is the Persians, united into one 12:22 kingdom. Now, you'll notice, in Daniel 2, the first kingdom was Babylon. Now Babylon doesn't 12:28 even show up. Why? Belshazzar's on the throne, and it's about to collapse. Babylon isn't a 12:35 significant player at all anymore. We get Belshazzar's name and that's all you need to 12:39 know. Babylon is finished. So it starts with the Medes and the Persians. The ram is 12:45 Medo-Persia. And that gives us a brand-new principle to examine tonight. Animals in Bible 12:51 prophecy - or beasts, if you read the old King James - that's more fun because it sounds 12:56 scarier - animals or beasts represent powers, nations, kingdoms. That's a principle 13:02 that carries over to our culture today, right? We still use animals to describe countries. 13:08 If I say, "the eagle," what country do you think of? United States of America. You should 13:12 think of the United States of America. Or what if I say "the bear," who do you think of? You 13:17 think of Russia. What about a lion? England. Somebody got it. What about - well, what do we 13:23 have in Canada? What about - oh, I just gave it away. What about the beaver? The ferocious, 13:27 ferocious beaver, right? Canada. Now, we have to be careful. What some people will do is look at 13:34 national symbols today in the year 2015, and they'll take them back and try and stick them on 13:39 top of something 2600 years old and they'll say, "Ah-ha, Russia is the bear," and there is a 13:44 bear that shows up in Daniel 7. We'll look at it. "That must be Russia." Not necessarily. You 13:50 have to go with the context, the historical context, the biblical context. But animals are used to 13:56 represent kings, kingdoms, nations, powers. And horns are also used to represent - I think 14:02 we touched on this at one point - horns are used to represent kings or powers. One, it says, 14:07 is the Medes, and the other is the Persians. And they're uneven, because the Medes were 14:12 there first. You read the book of Daniel, you read about a king named Darius. He is a Mede. 14:17 Cyrus the general is a Persian. Now, the Medes were there first; the Persians joined them later. 14:23 But the Persians grow much stronger and overshadow the Medes. So the horns are uneven. 14:28 The Persians are the bigger horn. Is everybody with me, yes or no? Alright. I probably 14:33 over-explained it, but we want to be careful. This ram pushes in three directions. The Bible 14:39 tells us, it goes to the west, to the north, and to the south. Now, I've superimposed it on a 14:44 modern map where you can see that this is roughly where Iraq and Iran are today. So we're 14:51 kind of talking, in some ways - not really - but kind of talking about an early, early, early, 14:55 early, early version of the Iran-Iraq war. The Persians are where modern-day Iran was, and 15:02 Babylon was - well, the ruins are still in modern-day Iraq. Just for references to where we 15:08 are on the globe. It says that the ram had to go west, north, and south, and that's exactly 15:15 the direction the Persians had to go to take over the Babylonian empire. So the 15:21 prophecy is bang-on accurate. Daniel saw what was going to happen well in advance, and he 15:27 even knows the name now of the empire that's going to do it. The prophecy continues. Daniel 8 15:34 verse 5: "And as I was considering [he's looking at this ram], suddenly a male 15:40 [what?] goat came from the west [came from what direction? Came from the west], across the 15:47 surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a notable horn 15:55 between his eyes [one big horn right between - like a unicorn]. Then he came to the ram that had 16:02 two horns, which I had seen standing beside the river, and ran at him with furious power. 16:08 And I saw him confronting the ram; he was moved with rage against him, attacked the ram 16:15 and broke his two horns." The goat comes from the west and attacks the ram. Verse 7: "There 16:22 was no power in the ram to withstand him, but he cast him down to the ground and trampled 16:28 him, and there was no one that could deliver the ram from his hand." Daniel's watching this 16:34 ram with the two uneven horns. And suddenly, a goat with one big horn on its head comes 16:39 running from the west and smashes into the ram. Now, who in the world is the goat? You 16:46 should already know, right? Who conquered, right? Who conquered the Persians at the Battle of 16:50 Arbela, 331 B.C.? Who would you guess it would be? It's the Greeks. We already know that 16:56 from Daniel chapter 2. But this time, we don't have to do absolutely any detective work, 17:02 because Gabriel's going to spell this out too. Verse 21. Gabriel tells Daniel: "And the male goat 17:09 is the kingdom of Greece." Now it's naming kingdoms in advance by name. Do you see how easy 17:16 this is? If you just read the whole thing, it spells it out. The male goat is the kingdom of 17:20 Greece. "The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king." Now, who would you say 17:26 the first king is that's charging this goat over and demolishing the Persians? Who's 17:30 that one big notable king leading the Greeks? Who is it? Alexander the Great, right? You 17:36 notice, this goat's feet never touch the ground. It's moving so fast. It's like the Wile E. 17:41 Coyote cartoons. Moving so fast, it doesn't even touch the ground. And why does it describe 17:47 it that way? Because, if you remember, Alexander conquered the Middle East faster than 17:52 anybody had ever done it. Two million square miles. Twenty million people. He did it in 18:00 four years flat, by the time he's thirty-two years old. He's that fast. But now the prophecy 18:07 is about to add some detail that was not there in Daniel chapter 2. Look at this, verse 8: 18:16 "Therefore, the male goat grew very great [true]; but when he became strong, the large horn 18:24 was broken, and in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven." The 18:31 great horn breaks off, and it is replaced by four other horns. So what in the world does that 18:37 mean? Well, we don't have to guess, 'cause Gabriel comes and explains that too, spells it 18:43 out, verse 21: "As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place [the big 18:48 horn breaks off, four more come up behind it], four kingdoms shall arise out of this nation, 18:54 but not with its power." Now, this is new. And this is absolutely amazing. We told the 19:03 story last week about Alexander leading his armies all the way, very quickly, to the shores of 19:10 India. He sees the ocean and he thinks, "I've run out of world to conquer. Nothing left." He 19:14 actually cries. "I've got nothing left to do," 'cause his whole identity is conquering. 19:18 And his men said, if you remember, "Well, if we're done conquering the world, can we 19:23 please go home?" "Alright." So they start going home, and on the way home, they camp by the 19:29 ruins of Babylon. Never occupied again. And they have a party one night, and Alexander dies there, 19:37 we believe, because he actually drank himself to death that night. And after Alexander dies, 19:44 there is a brief power struggle among the generals in his army, and eventually, the whole empire 19:50 is divided up among his generals. Now, if you were to hazard a guess, how many 19:54 generals do you think there were? Four. Exactly four. We had Cassander, who took the 20:03 region where Greece is; Lysimachus, the Balkans and around the Black Sea; Seleucus 20:08 who takes the bottom part of what is now Turkey and heads out over to Persia; and then down 20:12 through where Israel is today and into North Africa, you had Ptolemy. It was divided amongst 20:18 four generals. One horn becomes four exactly the way the Bible predicted. Now, you cannot fake 20:26 this stuff. There must be somebody that sees the end from the beginning. This is a new 20:32 detail that we did not see in Daniel chapter 2. But that's not even the whole story. It gets 20:39 even more amazing. It says these four horns would scatter to the four winds. And then it says, 20:46 "out of one of them," it means the four winds, the four compass points, "out of one of them came 20:51 a," what? "a little horn which grew exceedingly great." Now after these four generals, a 21:01 little horn appears, comes from one of the four winds of heaven, one of the compass directions. 21:06 And you tell me tonight, what kingdom defeats Greece at the Battle of Pydna, 168 B.C.? Who's 21:13 the next empire? Who was it? It's Rome. Now, I want you to read this very, very carefully 21:20 with me, because what we're about to read is important. And there's detail here that we 21:24 frankly won't have time for, but we're going to come back and look at it. There is so much 21:28 here, it would make your hair stand on end if you saw it all. We're going to spread it out 21:32 over a little bit. "Out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward 21:38 the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land." What part of the world would Daniel 21:44 consider to be the glorious land? The "pleasant land," in the old King James language. 21:49 What would it be? What would his glorious land be? Israel, right. Right? Now, did Rome ever occupy 21:57 Israel? Sure, sure they did. The entire ministry of Jesus happens under Roman occupation 22:02 in the Roman prince of Palestine. Oh, I wish we had more time for these details; it 22:08 goes to the glorious land. "And it grew up to the host of heaven." Now, follow this 22:12 carefully. This is important language, and we will revisit this to look at it in more 22:16 detail. "It grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the 22:21 stars to the ground, and trampled them." Oh, I wish, I wish we had time to go through 22:26 all the details in this. We're going to have to come back. And I think when we look at Daniel 22:30 chapter 7, you'll come back and look at this and it will blow you away. It changed my life 22:34 when I saw it. But for tonight, we're going to keep moving through quickly because I'm 22:38 actually headed for a destination. It continues. "He [this little horn] even exalted 22:44 himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and 22:52 the place of his sanctuary was cast down." Who is the Prince of the host? The translators 23:00 capitalize the letter 'P' on "Prince" and they do it for a reason. Who is the Prince of the 23:06 host? It's Jesus Christ. In Revelation chapter 19, He is leading the armies, the host of 23:12 heaven, as He returns to this world. In Joshua chapter 5, we have something theologians calls 23:17 a Christophany, Jesus appearing to people before He's born in Bethlehem. And He appears to 23:23 Joshua in Joshua chapter 5 and He says to Joshua, "I am the Commander of the Lord's host." 23:29 "I am the Head of everything in heaven. I'm the Head of the host." Isaiah calls Jesus "the 23:35 Prince of peace." Daniel chapter 9 calls Jesus "Messiah the Prince." Jesus is the Prince of 23:41 the host. And did Rome ever attack Jesus? He died on a Roman cross. Did Rome stop the 23:50 sacrifices? Yes, they did, destroyed the temple in A.D. 70. But that's not even the whole 23:55 picture. There's so much detail in there, we are, we are, I promise we will come back. It 24:00 continues. "Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the 24:04 daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground [you're going to want to tuck that 24:09 behind one ear for a coming night]. He did all this and prospered." It's a description 24:15 of Rome. But for right now - I know there's a lot of detail there - for right now, I want to 24:21 go to the second half of Daniel 8 and see what Gabriel says about this, because for every 24:25 other part of the vision, he comes back and explains it in detail. He explained the ram, he 24:30 explained the goat. Let's see what he says about this little horn. He comes back. Verse 23. 24:36 It's actually a huge passage. Do some homework: read the whole thing when you get home tonight, 24:40 'cause we will revisit all of this. Verse 23: "He's a king that shall arrive, having fierce 24:46 features, who understands sinister schemes. He shall even rise [verse 25] against the 24:51 Prince of princes." I don't know, as you read through that language, are you getting the 24:57 sense that something really, really bad comes out of all of this? Is it possible that this 25:03 is a precursor to Antichrist? A hint that Antichrist will show up somewhere in the region where 25:10 the western Roman empire was? Maybe. This - we're going to get that - this much is clear for 25:20 tonight. The next kingdom was Rome. Now, why doesn't Gabriel name Rome? He names Medo-Persia; 25:26 he names Greece; why not just name Rome? Well, I don't really know for sure, but I have 25:30 thought about this. Who was in power when the early Christian church started its work? Rome. 25:37 Who hated the Christians and put them to death? Rome. And the Christians were preaching 25:42 prophecy. What if they had a book that said not-so-nice things about the Roman empire 25:46 and named it by name? It's possible - I don't know for sure - but it's possible that God 25:50 just veiled the actual name to keep us out of too much hot water and keep His work alive. I 25:55 don't know. Maybe if it had actually named Rome by name, it would've been tougher. Now, 26:01 let's review what we have so far. Let's just look at it. The prophecy we've been studying 26:05 covers the same material as Daniel 2 with different details. In this prophecy, Babylon is 26:11 gone. It just mentions Belshazzar and moves on. Persia, the chest of silver, shows up as 26:16 a two-horned ram, one horn bigger than the other. Greece shows up as a goat with one big 26:22 notable horn that breaks off and then the four generals take Alexander's place. In Daniel 2, 26:29 we have the legs of iron - that's Rome - and then the iron kind of continues into the feet: 26:33 it's the divided Roman empire. In Daniel 8, we have a little horn. And it actually covers the 26:40 same period of time. It carries through the same period of time, both Rome when it is united, and 26:46 Rome when it is divided. And we will come back to that and look at it. But here's what I want 26:51 you to see tonight: the stone was the next element in Daniel 2. Comes and smashes the feet of 26:58 the statue and fills the world. It's the second coming of Christ. But in Daniel 8, 27:03 something else comes next, and it's a little different. And this might be the most 27:10 incredible part of this prophecy by far. So far, we have a ram, a goat, and a little horn. But 27:20 there's one more thing in the vision. Daniel 8:14: "And he said to me, 'For two thousand 27:27 three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be [what?] cleansed.'" Well, that's 27:33 different. There's no horn. There's no animal. It's not talking about a kingdom or a 27:40 military power. It's just talking about two thousand three hundred days. The literal 27:44 language is two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings. And I'm pointing that out 27:50 because you're going to see it in a minute. The original language is "evenings and 27:54 mornings" and it's a curious thing; that's because that's the way we used to measure time. All 27:58 of us. Right now, we will say, "Tonight at midnight, it becomes Saturday." That's Roman 28:03 timekeeping. But in Biblical days, the next day begins when the sun goes down. That's why in 28:08 Genesis chapter 1, it says, "Evening and morning are the first day. Evening and morning 28:14 are the second day." Evening and morning. Evening and morning is a day, in Biblical thinking. So 28:19 what does this mean? Two thousand three hundred days, then the sanctuary will be 28:25 cleansed. Well, for every other part of this - the ram, the goat, the little horn - Gabriel 28:29 comes back and gives us more detail than we could ever dream possible. So let's check with 28:35 what he says. Daniel 8 verse 26. He does come back and say something about this: "The 28:40 vision of the evenings and mornings [now you see why I pointed it out] the vision of 28:45 the evenings and mornings which was told is true; therefore seal up the vision, for it refers to 28:50 many days in the future." And that's it. Nothing more. "Daniel, that part about the two 28:59 thousand three hundred days, absolutely true, but shut it up, close it up, because it doesn't 29:04 happen for a long, long time." End. End of discussion. That's it. Nothing more. No names, no 29:09 horns, no beasts. There is nothing else in the way of explanation, nothing. So maybe 29:16 it doesn't matter. Except Daniel really thinks it matters, because he gets really upset, 29:21 verse 27: "And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the 29:27 king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it." Well, what 29:34 did he not understand? He understood the ram. Lots of detail, the Medes and the 29:38 Persians. Understood the goat. Lots of detail, big horn, it's Greece, and the first king and 29:42 the four kings. And the little horn, lots and lots of detail. Go and read it tonight. There's 29:46 piles of detail there. There's only one part he doesn't understand. There's only one 29:50 part he's never told about. It's the two thousand three hundred days. That's what he's not told 29:54 about. So maybe it's not understandable. Maybe it's just there for fun. I mean, maybe, 29:59 when Daniel's being written, the angels run into God's throne room and say, "You know what 30:03 would be fun, Lord? If we could just put one extra verse in Daniel, just one, that means 30:06 nothing, and people will fight about it and argue about it and we can watch them bicker about 30:11 it and Christians will divide and argue and fight and it'll be a lot of fun, Lord." Do you 30:15 believe it? Uh-ugh. This prophecy's important. Daniel knew it was. And before we're 30:23 finished, you're going to see that God actually does not leave Daniel hanging; he gets an 30:27 answer. And you're going to get an answer too, except that I'm going to make you work for it. 30:32 What we're going to do is go into the scriptures and gather up all the evidence we can find, 30:36 line upon line, precept upon precept, exactly the way that God taught us to do. We're going 30:42 to read the whole thing and look at all the evidence. And the Bible does give us a number of 30:46 important clues, a number of important details, even in Daniel 8 that we should probably 30:50 pay attention to. Gabriel says a few things that I want you to see. In Daniel 8 verse 17, when 30:56 he's talking about this vision, he says, "Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to 31:01 [when?] the time of the end." There's a clue. Clue number one. Clue number two: Daniel 8:19, 31:09 Gabriel says, "For at the [what? Stay with me. At the what?] appointed time the end shall 31:16 be." When at the appointed time. Now this is really remarkable. No man knows the day or hour of 31:21 Jesus' return. We don't. But there is some last-day event that is appointed, already 31:27 scheduled. And if you and I go to the New Testament tonight and look at something Paul said, we 31:33 can read something that Daniel couldn't because it hadn't been written yet. Paul is speaking in 31:38 Acts chapter 17. It says, "[God] He has appointed a day," He has done what? Appointed a day, "on 31:45 which He will," do what? "Judge the world in righteousness by the Man Whom He has ordained." 31:50 What's already been appointed? The judgement. Does this prophecy have something to do 31:58 with judgement hour? Maybe. Clue number three: "He said to me, 'For two thousand three hundred 32:05 days, then the sanctuary shall be [what?] cleansed.'" There's an important clue in there. What 32:12 does it mean to cleanse the sanctuary? Well, if you don't know, you have to go to the rest 32:17 of the Bible and read the whole Book. And what we need to do is go and research the sanctuary 32:22 and look for the cleansing of the sanctuary. And what we are about to look at - follow me 32:29 very carefully. What we are about to look at is one of the most important keys for 32:35 unlocking the book of Revelation, bar none. You don't want to miss this. The sanctuary 32:41 was a portable tabernacle that the Israelites carried with them through the wilderness as 32:47 they're leaving Egypt and going to the Promised Land. And that sanctuary, that portable tent, 32:51 is the centre of worship. And every time they stopped travelling, they would set it 32:56 up. And the Bible says the presence of God was going with them through the wilderness, and 33:01 when they set it up, the presence of God would come down into the tabernacle and they 33:05 would pitch their tents all around it. In later years, this tabernacle was replaced by the 33:10 temple in Jerusalem. Some people have been wondering, "When's the temple going to start showing up 33:14 in all this?" Here we go. It's going to start showing up now. The sanctuary, the tabernacle, 33:20 was a very special building, because it was not actually designed by an Israelite. 33:24 Uh-ugh-ugh. It wasn't. It was designed by God Himself. When Moses had the sanctuary 33:31 assembled, he wasn't allowed to just build whatever he wanted. Moses couldn't say, "Oh, Lord, 33:36 if you want a church, I'll just build something. We'll come up with something nice." Uh-ugh. He 33:41 couldn't build what he wanted; God gave him blue prints. Hebrews 8 verse 5: "For He [God] 33:46 said [to Moses], 'See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the 33:53 mountain.'" Moses couldn't just build any old tabernacle he wanted. He had to follow an 33:58 exact pattern. Why? God wouldn't be happy with something we built to His glory? Sure, He would; 34:05 but this was special. The sanctuary was not just a building; it was also a 34:12 prophecy. It was a prophecy. Everything in that tabernacle, everything in that sanctuary, 34:18 pointed forward to some aspect of Jesus' ministry, absolutely everything. It was a sanctuary 34:23 with a courtyard around it. And out in the courtyard, they had a big altar known as the Altar of 34:30 Burnt Offering. And they would take little animals and a lot of lambs and they would confess 34:35 their sins over the lamb and it would be slain and offered on that altar. And the lambs 34:40 pointed forward to Who? Pointed forward to Jesus. The Altar of Burnt Offering points us forward 34:46 to the cross of Calvary where the Lamb of God would give His life for the sins of the world. 34:51 The next thing that you would come to as you came in from this direction, you would come to 34:56 this big washbasin. It was known as the laver. And the priests could not go inside the temple 35:02 where the presence of God was unless they washed in that laver. And that laver points us 35:08 to the cleansing Jesus offers us so that you and I can be made fit to step back into the 35:14 presence of God. Jesus says - or Paul said, rather, "You are washed, you are sanctified, you 35:20 are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus." We read in First John 1 verse 9, "If we confess 35:26 our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all 35:31 unrighteousness." That points to the cleansing we have because Jesus gave His life at the cross 35:36 of Calvary. Now, that's out in the courtyard. We'll move inside the tabernacle, and everything 35:41 in there points to Jesus too. It had two rooms. The big room on the right was called the Holy 35:47 Place, and the priests went in there all the time. Behind a big veil, there was the Most Holy 35:53 Place, and the high priest only went in there once a year. Now, everything inside here is also a 35:59 prophecy of Jesus. There is a seven-branched candlestick with seven branches, just like the 36:07 one you read about in the book of Revelation, hint hint hint. It is the only source of light 36:12 inside the tabernacle. That's it. And at one of the festivals in Jerusalem., Jesus points to 36:17 the candlesticks and the sources of light they have and He says, "I am the Light of the world." 36:23 All points to Jesus. On the other side of the room, we have the table of show bread. It had 36:28 twelve loaves of bread: one for every one of the tribes of Israel. And isn't it 36:32 interesting, Jesus tells everybody when He arrives, "I am the Bread that came down from 36:36 heaven. I am the Bread of life." It also points to Jesus. The priest who came in points to 36:42 Jesus. The book of Hebrews calls Him our High Priest, which means that Jesus is not only the 36:47 sacrificial victim; He offers Himself. "No man takes My life from me, but I lay it down." And 36:53 He is the Priest and the Lamb. The priest points to Jesus. Right here, up against the 36:58 curtain, we have the altar of burnt incense. And they would mix sweet-smelling spices and 37:04 burn them, and the smoke would go up over the veil into the spot where the presence of God 37:09 would take up residence. And in Revelation chapter 8, we read that that represents the prayers 37:14 of God's people being mingled with the righteousness of Jesus so that even our prayers are 37:19 acceptable now before the throne of God. Our hearts and minds are so stained by sin, we're not 37:25 acceptable. But with Jesus' righteousness blended in our lives, our prayers are 37:29 acceptable before God. Behind the veil is the Most Holy Place. That's where they kept the ark 37:34 of the covenant. Everybody knows about the ark of covenant because Harrison Ford taught 37:38 everybody about the ark of the covenant. He crashed a plane this week; did you hear about 37:42 that? He lived. He's a real-life Indiana Jones. He crashed it on a golf course and walked away 37:48 from it. The Most Holy Place. The ark of the covenant. The golden chest. Inside, is a copy 37:55 of the Ten Commandments. On top are two angels, cherubim. And when they pitched camp - I'll 38:01 show you this more tomorrow night - the presence of God would take up residence. The 38:05 Shekinah glory, they called it, right between those cherubim, and He would communicate with 38:08 Moses from that spot. It represents the throne of God. Everything here points to Jesus. 38:18 That's why Moses didn't get to design it. How would he know? God designed it. And if you 38:25 study the Bible, you discover that everything there was actually - I mean, not only did 38:30 they have a blueprint - it was actually a copy of something in heaven. When the Bible talks 38:36 about the priests working in the tabernacle in Hebrews 8 verse 5, it says that they "serve the 38:41 copy and shadow of heavenly things." In other words, the place they worked in the 38:47 tabernacle was a copy and shadow of heavenly things. It's a shadow of something in heaven. 38:52 The earthly temple is a copy of something in heaven. And if you understand that, that the 38:59 sanctuary on earth is actually a copy of something in heaven - it's patterned after something 39:04 in heaven - then a lot of the book of Revelation suddenly falls open as plain as day. Let 39:11 me give you an example: Revelation 11. It says: "Then the temple of God was opened 39:15 [where? Where's that temple?] in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His 39:22 temple." Where? In heaven. There may have been an ark of the covenant on earth, but it 39:26 symbolizes the throne of God in heaven. The sanctuary points us to Jesus, and it points us to 39:32 what Jesus is now doing for us in heaven. He didn't go on vacation when He went back. He's 39:38 still representing us. Hebrews 8 verse 2: "We have such a High Priest [that's Jesus], who is 39:44 set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." Who is our Great High 39:48 Priest in that temple in heaven? It is Jesus. Says it again. He is a Minister. Watch this 39:56 carefully, Hebrews 8 verse 2. He is a "Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, 40:03 which the Lord erected, and not man." Jesus is now in the real One. Moses built a sanctuary on 40:09 earth based on the blueprints God showed him, and the Israelites erected it, but it 40:14 was a copy of one that God had erected in heaven, and that's where Jesus is the Real High 40:18 Priest. Everything that happened on earth actually mirrors something that happens in 40:22 heaven. And now I want you to follow me very carefully because this gets even more amazing. Not 40:28 only does the furniture point to Jesus; everything they did points to Jesus. They had seven 40:33 special festivals every single year. How many did they have? (Seven). What does the number 40:39 seven teach us? Completeness and perfection. This is about to show us a complete set of 40:46 something. All these festivals or feasts all predicted the ministry of Jesus. The whole 40:54 thing. Let's look at it. First one every year was the passover. They celebrated this in memory 40:59 of God delivering them out of Egypt. They escaped from Egypt, and they were all told, "Go get 41:04 a spotless lamb without blemish." Points to Jesus, and Jesus has no sin. And they 41:10 sacrifice it and they take - they eat it and they put the blood of that lamb on the 41:14 doorpost of their house so the angel of death would pass over their home and leave them alone. 41:18 This is Jesus giving His life at the cross of Calvary so that we don't have to pay the wages of 41:24 sin, which is death. It points to Jesus. Paul writes in First Corinthians 5, "Jesus, our 41:31 Passover, is sacrificed." On the next day, the second day of the Passover feast, they had a 41:37 festival they called the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and they had to go into their 41:41 houses and get rid of all the yeast, all the leaven, everything, any rising agent, 41:46 raising agent. What'd it be? Rising or raising? Yeast. They had to get rid of the yeast, the 41:51 leaven. Why? Because leaven in the Bible is a symbol of sin. "Beware the leaven of the 41:56 Pharisees," Jesus said. Paul writes, "A little leaven [a little sin left in your heart] 42:01 will leaven the whole lump." It'll spread, just like yeast in a lump of bread dough. They had 42:07 to go and get the sin, the yeast, out of their house. Why? Because if Jesus gives His life 42:10 for you, He cleanses you from sin, and it doesn't have anything to do with you anymore 42:14 as a Christian, a believer. Then on the third day after the Passover lamb is slain, on the 42:20 third day, they had a festival called the festival of Firstfruits. What did they do 42:23 that day? They went into the fields and they looked for some grain that was already ripe. 42:27 They looked very carefully 'cause it was early in the season. And they found a sheaf 42:31 that was ripe and they went into the presence of the Lord and they waved it before the Lord. 42:37 It was called the wave sheaf offering. Why did they do that? Well, it was an act of faith. 42:43 They said, "We found some of the harvest that is ripe already, and we take it on faith that the 42:48 rest of the harvest will come." What happens on the third day after Jesus gives His life at 42:54 the cross? He rises from the dead. Paul says in First Corinthians 15, "Jesus is the" - 43:02 it's not accidental language - "Jesus is the Firstfruits of them that slept." And then he 43:08 says, "The rest of the harvest will come when Jesus returns." It points forward to the 43:14 resurrection of Jesus Christ. This stuff, you can't fake. A few weeks later, they had the 43:21 feast of Pentecost. It's also known as the feast of Weeks. This was a special celebration 43:26 to celebrate when Israel leaves Egypt and arrives at Mount Sinai on the fiftieth day. And what 43:32 happens on that day? Fire comes down from God out of heaven on top of Mount Sinai, and they 43:38 hear God speak His Ten Commandment law. Now, there was an old Jewish legend - this is 43:43 not in the Bible - there's an old Jewish legend that was very well-known in Jesus' day, that 43:49 when God spoke the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, they could be heard 43:52 simultaneously in every language spoken on earth. Now, imagine the people who all knew that 43:58 story arriving in the upper room at the day of Pentecost when fire traditionally fell on Mount 44:05 Sinai, and they see fire fall on the heads of the disciples, and they begin preaching the gospel 44:09 in every language of everybody present. Pentecost pointed forward to the beginning of the 44:16 Christian church. Then you had summer. No feasts in the summer. You have a long break. And then 44:25 in the fall, you had the feast of Trumpets. They would blow trumpets in the camp of Israel 44:29 to warn people, "You only have ten days left to get things right with God." Ten days left. 44:34 Why? Because the next festival, the Day of Atonement, came ten days later, and it was the most 44:40 solemn feast of the year. It was known throughout the camp as the day of judgement. You had to 44:47 have everything right with God on that day or you were permanently removed from the 44:51 camp of Israel, barred from the Promised Land, permanently. Day of judgement. And then came the 44:57 seventh and the last feast of the year, the feast of Tabernacles. What was that? 45:00 They were remembering God taking them through the wilderness on the way to the Promised Land 45:06 that God had kept His word and delivered them to the Promised Land. So they would go out 45:09 camping during the feast of Tabernacles and live in huts or tents or booths. It's also 45:14 called the Festival of Booths. Now, what's really interesting is that when you read the book 45:20 of Revelation in chapter 21, after the second coming, the way it describes our existence with 45:25 God, it says - revelation 21 verse 3 - "The tabernacle of God is with men and He will dwell 45:30 with them." It was a festival pointing forward to the day when God will successfully bring us 45:37 home to the heavenly promised land. It's the second coming of Christ. Look at it. It's the 45:44 whole thing. The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Pentecost, the 45:52 beginning of the Christian church. Then you have a long break between Pentecost and 45:56 trumpets, kind of like historically, we've had a long lull and a long period 46:02 throughout the Dark Ages. And then a judgement warning, "You've got a little bit of time 46:06 left," and then the judgement day, then the second coming of Christ. It's our whole history 46:14 predicted in advance already in the Old Testament. You can't make this up. Now, what does 46:22 that have to do with Daniel chapter 8? Daniel 8 is pointing us to the day of atonement. No 46:28 question about it. It's the most solemn feast of all. It's the hour of judgement and it was 46:34 also the day they cleansed the sanctuary. All year long, people would offer sacrifices. I would 46:40 confess my sins over a little lamb. Symbolically - because the book of Hebrews says those lambs 46:45 didn't save anybody; they were symbols of Jesus. Symbolically, my sins would be transferred to 46:51 the lamb, just like it says my sins were heaped on Jesus at the cross of Calvary. The lamb loses 46:55 its life, and they carried the blood into the sanctuary. My sins taken away from me. Jesus, 47:01 my Sin-bearer. But symbolically, all those sins are going into the sanctuary all year long. 47:07 I'll show you this more tomorrow night. It says in the book of Leviticus that once a year, they 47:13 had to make atonement for the building, for the sanctuary itself. Sin cannot stay in the 47:19 presence of God, even in that symbolic setting. So once a year, they had a special 47:22 ceremony where they would cleanse the whole sanctuary. And it was the day of judgement. 47:30 Leviticus 23. "Also, the tenth day of the seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement." It's 47:36 called Yom Kippur. "It shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your souls, for 47:41 any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people." 47:46 Last warning, judgement hour. This was your last chance to get things right with God. Because 47:52 when this season, when this day was over, if you were not right with God, you were removed from 47:57 the camp forever. The Jews had a habit - some still do in some circles to this day - of 48:04 greeting each other on that day by saying, "May your name be written in the books." Now let's 48:10 go back to Daniel 8 and think about this. Here were the clues we gathered: It had something to 48:15 with the time of the end; had something to do with an appointed time; and it was a 48:20 prophecy about when the sanctuary would be cleansed. We looked at that, right? We've 48:25 discovered that the prophecy says it would be twenty-three hundred days, Gabriel said, 'til 48:31 an appointed time. And Paul says the judgement is at an appointed time. We saw that the sanctuary 48:41 would be cleansed after twenty-three hundred days. We also saw the cleansing of the 48:45 sanctuary in the Old Testament was a day of judgement. Starting to get a sense of what's going 48:50 on here? Starting to sense a theme? Daniel 8 and the twenty-three hundred days are 48:56 talking about earth's final judgement hour. No question about it. Daniel 7 actually 49:04 describes the judgement itself. Now, Daniel 7 - we're going to see it - has the same 49:09 progressions of kingdoms: Rome - or Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. But before the second 49:16 coming, it inserts a description of the judgement. Here's what it says, verse 9: "I watched 'til 49:22 thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, 49:27 and the hair of His head was like pure wool." "His throne was like a fiery flame, its wheels a 49:33 burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands 49:38 ministered to Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. In the book of Revelation, 49:44 you find out, that's how many angels there are. "The court was seated, and the books were 49:49 opened." Now, ask yourself this: judgement sits, God is all-knowing. Why does He need 49:55 books? Doesn't God know everything? Sure, He does. But is there anybody in that 50:03 judgement scene that doesn't know everything? Sure. Angels are not omniscient. And the 50:10 Bible teaches that angels are fascinated by what's going on with us as God is preparing to 50:15 take us home. They're fascinated with the story of salvation. Peter says that the plan of 50:20 salvation is something the angels desire to look into. They study it. Paul says that "we 50:26 have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men." They're watching us. Why? 50:33 They watched a lot of angels get kicked out of heaven for sinning, and now God's going to 50:37 bring us home. God knows everything. He knows exactly what's going on, but angels 50:41 don't know everything. "Ooh, He kicked all the fallen angels out, and now He's going to bring 50:45 these people here." Do you suppose they might have the odd question? So God calls the 50:51 judgement because He's always been open. He gives us a book called Revelation, and He opens 50:54 the books of heaven for the angels. "Go ahead, have a look. I'm afraid of nothing." Do you 51:00 know what it means, though? Your name will come up. How do I know? Paul says, "For we must 51:09 all appear [no exceptions] before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may 51:14 receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 51:20 Romans 14, Paul says, "For we shall all [how many? Getting quiet], all stand before the 51:27 judgement seat of Christ." Ecclesiastes 12, "For God will bring every work into judgement 51:33 [how many? Every work into judgement], including every secret thing, whether good or 51:39 evil." Here's the bad news: your name's going to come up in judgement. That's not good. But 51:54 there is good news. Jesus is actually the judge. Jesus said, "For the Father judges no one, 52:01 but has committed all judgement to the Son." How can you lose if the Judge gave His life for you? 52:10 You can't lose. There's even more good news. Not only is Jesus the judge, the Bible says, 52:16 He's also the defence attorney. "If anyone sins," John writes, "we have an Advocate," that's a 52:21 lawyer, "with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." You can't lose in the judgement if the 52:29 Judge is the Defence Attorney and He gave His life for you. If you have Jesus, you can't lose 52:35 here. It's stacked in your favour. He has stacked it all in your favour. He has given His 52:41 life, He has poured Himself out, to stack the whole judgement in your favour, because He misses 52:46 you. He loves you. He wants you there. God's not trying to keep people out of His kingdom; He's 52:53 trying to get them in, so He stacks it in your favour. Jesus is righteous. "I won't make it. 52:59 I'm scared of the judgement." You're right; you won't. But Jesus will, and He's your 53:04 Substitute. He's your Saviour, and He stands there in your place. Jesus will go through 53:10 that. And if you have Him, you can't lose. But if you don't have Him, why don't you have 53:14 Him? You wan to go there alone? Two thousand three hundred days, the sanctuary will be 53:22 cleansed. Is God trying to tell us something about the judgement? Yeah, absolutely. The 53:27 warning goes out, the judgement begins, and then Jesus comes. Sometime before Jesus comes, the 53:33 world will actually know that the judgement is underway. What? Yeah. There's a final message 53:39 that goes to the world, Revelation 14. "Then I saw another angel flying in the 53:43 midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth - 53:47 to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, 'Fear God and give glory 53:55 to Him, for the hour of His judgement [is coming? Uh-ugh, already here] has come.'" The 54:05 world finds out before Jesus comes that it's already underway. At some point, the 54:12 world knows that it has moved into the final judgement hour. And when will we know that? 54:24 Tomorrow night. That wasn't nice. We will pick it up. It's all real. It's all happened. We 54:46 can go night after night after night after night and you will see that every prophecy has been 54:52 fulfilled. There's nothing in the Bible that has not been accurate. Earth moves to the 55:00 final judgement hour. We are down at the end of time. And the question I want you to think 55:09 about is this tonight: "Where would I be without Jesus? Where would I be?" And where would you 55:22 be with Jesus? He's the Lamb, the Sacrifice for our sins. "Behold the Lamb of God Who 55:30 takes away the sin of the world." He's the priest who offers the sacrifice Himself, 55:36 our Great High Priest. He's our Judge. You know, that is Daniel's name: "God is my 55:45 Judge." When you look at the Bible record, it's so obvious that God poured out everything 55:57 He had to make sure You would be in His kingdom. He knows your name. He's watched your life. 56:08 And He wants you home. He doesn't lay all this out because He's trying to keep us in the 56:17 dark. He lays it all out because He's hoping you'll notice and that you'll say, "My heart 56:25 belongs to Jesus." 56:29 Tonight, if your heart belongs to Jesus, or you would like it to, I would invite you to stand 56:39 with me as we close the meeting in prayer. Father in heaven, we have read that angels desire to 56:53 look into things. I know that at this moment, they're looking down on this auditorium and 57:00 smiling. These are the ones Jesus died for. They'll be coming home. Lord, we want to 57:11 trust Jesus. We recognize that without Him, we would never make it; we could never face a 57:16 judgement hour in front of the throne of God, but there is Jesus, God in human flesh, 57:23 representing us. And through Him, we can have eternal life. We want Jesus. We love Jesus. 57:32 And our prayer is that He would come quickly. For tonight, we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. 57:44 Today you have watched just one in a series of "Revelation Speaks Peace" presentations. 57:48 The entire series is available on DVD. Find out how you can order a copy at www.vop.com/rsp 57:57 Or Call.. 877-955-2525 Or if you wish you may request the series by writing to Voice of Prophecy 58:06 PO Box 999 Loveland, CO 80539 58:12 Order the entire Revelation Speaks Peace series 58:15 from the Voice of Prophecy. 24 powerful episodes on DVD. Pastor Shawn Boonstra 58:21 will clearly unlock prophecies in Daniel and Revelation -- using the Bible as the key. 58:27 Experience hope for your future. Decode secrets of prophecy in episodes, such as A New World 58:34 Order, The Ultimate Mind Game, and How to Postpone Your Funeral. The world is changing 58:39 so quickly. Learn how to read Bible prophecy for yourself! With the complete DVD series 58:47 "Revelation Speaks Peace" You can also find answers to life's toughest questions, by ordering 58:54 Voice of Prophecy's free Discover Bible Guides. 58:59 We'll take you step by step to what you 59:00 care about most. Study online, or have us send them strait to your mail box. To order your 59:06 DVD set or Discover Bible Guides go to www.vop.com/rsp, again that's www.vop.com/rsp or call 59:17 877-955-2525. You may also send us a request by mail to: Voice of Prophecy PO Box 999 Loveland, 59:27 CO 80539 59:32 + |
Revised 2016-07-12