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Daniel chapter 12 is a great chapter on the resurrection from the Old Testament. It actually starts out at the beginning of the chapter referring to the resurrection and then it ends up the chapter talking about the resurrection once again. Look at verse number 1, the Bible reads, And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was, since there was a nation, even to that same time, and at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. And then also at the end of the chapter, it says in verse 12, Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, but go thou thy way, speaking to Daniel, go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. So right there it's pretty clear that Daniel's being told he's going to also sleep in the dust of the earth. He's also going to die, but eventually he will rise again. He will live again. So the Bible is pretty clear, even in the Old Testament, that after we die, that's not the end, and that there is going to be a resurrection someday. And even beyond that, the Bible makes it crystal clear in the New Testament in so many verses that when a person dies, they go straight to heaven or they go straight to hell in regard to their soul. But their body does rest in the earth. Their body does sleep in the earth. And one day that body will rise again. And Daniel is a great scripture on that. Now I'm going to come back to verse one of chapter 12, but first I want to focus on these great resurrection verses. It says in verse number two, many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Let me start out by just defining for you what the word resurrection means. The word resurrection means to rise again. It does not necessarily mean to come back to life. It just means to rise again. Now in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ, he came back to life. He rose again, and he lives forever, and he will never die. He said, I am he that was dead, and behold, I'm alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. But the reason I make that distinction is that many people will experience a resurrection of damnation, the Bible calls it. But those people will not live again. Those people are dead. In fact, in Revelation 20, when the dead, small and great, stand before God, and when death and hell deliver up the dead which are in them, the Bible says that John saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and they were judged by those things. Even as they're standing there before that judgment, they're still called by God the dead. They're still dead. Here, notice there are two kinds of resurrection here. There's the resurrection to everlasting life in verse 2, but then there's another resurrection to shame and everlasting contempt. That's the resurrection of damnation. They're rising again, not to live forever, but rising again to experience eternal shame and punishment. The Bible said in Matthew 25, these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. So notice, eternal life is on one side. Eternal punishment is on the other side. I've heard some people say, well, everybody's going to live forever in one place or another. No, false, because burning in hell forever is not considered life. That's eternal death, eternal punishment, eternal destruction. Now, yes, they're conscious. Yes, there's an eternal conscious punishment, but that is not eternal life. People try to twist that, and it leads them into heresy when they mix up that fact. That resurrection simply means to rise again. Verse 3 says, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. What does it mean to turn many to righteousness? That means you find somebody who's unrighteous, and you turn them to righteousness, right? So this would be somebody who's preaching the word of God and influencing people to be righteous. It also says, they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. Well, Proverbs 11, 30 comes to mind. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. If you win a lot of people to Christ, and you turn a lot of people to righteousness, the Bible says that in the resurrection, you will shine as the brightness of the firmament. And the Bible talks about how in the resurrection, there will be different levels of glory in the resurrection when we are glorified with Christ, and that all of us will not have the same glory. You read 1 Corinthians 15 and elsewhere, that's taught. But it's based upon the works that you do. Salvation is based on faith. Believing in the resurrection of everlasting life is based on just believing on the Lord Jesus Christ because whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. But when it comes to your level of reward or glory in the world to come, that is based on your works. Jesus said, Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. So works don't get us into heaven. Works determine our status once we get there, and they determine our eternal reward once we get there. So if we want to shine as the brightness of the firmament, we need to be wise and we need to turn many unto righteousness, according to Daniel chapter 12, verse 3. Great verse. Now flip over to Matthew 16. The resurrection is such an important doctrine. It's an Old Testament doctrine, as we saw. It's also a New Testament doctrine. But yet there are people who claim to believe the Bible that don't believe in it. Now even in Christ's day, there were Jews who rejected the idea of the resurrection, and these Jews were known as the Sadducees. And then later on in 1 Corinthians, we read about people who are claiming to be Christians who denied the doctrine of the resurrection. And even today, in 2018, there are so-called Christian groups that deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And by the way, the Jehovah's Witnesses are one of them. Now they'll lie and say that they believe in it, but wait a minute. When you pin them down on what the resurrection means, they do not believe in a bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here's what they say the resurrection was. Well, his spirit left his body. That's called dying. When they died in the Bible, they gave up the ghost. Ghost means spirit. And in the Bible, it says the body without the spirit is dead. So their version of the resurrection is, oh, well, his spirit just left his body and his body basically just dematerialized or disintegrated. No, no, no. That body that lay in the tomb did not see corruption. Jesus Christ walked out of the tomb in that very same body, up from the grave he arose, and he showed his disciples the holes in his hands and the hole in his side just to prove that it was him. And the Jehovah's false witnesses say that was a different body. It just happened to have holes in the same places. But there are other so-called Christian groups out there that deny the resurrection. And to deny the resurrection is to not believe the Bible. It's that simple, because this is clear in the Bible. But preachers like Martin Luther King, Jr. denied the resurrection. He said, well, the resurrection is just that Christ lived on in their hearts. He lived on in their memories. That's what it means when it's said that he rose again, like he got popular again or something in people's minds and hearts. That's garbage. But there are other super liberal groups out there, United Methodists and United Church of Christ and these other types of groups that would claim to be a Bible-believing Christian, all while rejecting the idea of the resurrection, even rejecting the very afterlife itself, heaven and hell. But there's nothing new under the sun. There was a group like this in the New Testament times that was a group of Jews who claimed to believe the Bible, but yet they rejected the idea of the resurrection. And that group is known as the Sadducees. You remember this group from the Bible, the Sadducees? Now Jesus warned about these people many times. We don't really talk about them as much as we talk about the Pharisees. We end up preaching against the Pharisees a lot more, but the Sadducees are mentioned quite a bit in the New Testament. In fact, if you study the Book of Acts, the Sadducees were spearheading a lot of the persecution of the early believers in the Book of Acts. But you're there in Matthew 16. I'll read for you from Matthew chapter number... Never mind. Let's just go to Matthew 16. You're there in Matthew 16. Look at verse number 6. The Bible reads, Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they perceived among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Look at verse 11. How is it that ye did not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they, how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. So he's warning them about the false doctrine, not just of the Pharisees, but also the false doctrine of the Sadducees. Now what was their big false doctrine? Well flip over, if you would, to Matthew 22, verse 23. Let's see what this big heresy of the Sadducees was. And remember, these are people who claim to believe the Bible. They claim to believe the Old Testament Scriptures. This was a sect of the Jews, and it says in Matthew 22, verse 23, the same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him. So the thing that the Bible points out as the big heresy about these people is they don't believe in the resurrection. You don't have to turn there, but Mark 12, verse 18 says, then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection. Luke 20, verse 27, then came to him certain of the Sadducees, which deny that there is any resurrection, and they asked him. Okay, flip over to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. Not only that, but in Acts 23, it says in verse 6, but when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, men and brethren, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, but listen to this, neither angel nor spirit. But the Pharisees confessed both. Now think about how strange this is. These are people who claim to follow the Bible, the Sadducees, and yet they say that not only is there no resurrection, there is no such thing as an angel or a spirit. Now how many times do we read in the Old Testament about angels? But they had ways that they would explain away those passages, just as false teachers will always explain things away and try to negate them in the Bible. Now who were the Sadducees? Well the word Sadducee comes from the name of a guy in the Old Testament named Zadok. And you have to understand the Hebrew alphabet is only made up of consonants. If you look at Psalm 119 in your Bible sometime, it lists off the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and they're all consonants, no vowels. So a lot of words change shape from one form to another, but they keep the same consonants. So the word Sadducee, notice the consonants there, the S, the D, and the C, right? Those are the same consonants that give us the sound of the name Zadok in the Old Testament. So the Sadducees are like the sons of Zadok in their own mind. Now who was Zadok? Well back in the Old Testament, King David had two chief priests, if you remember. He had two different priests and the reason why is because the priests were the sons of Aaron and Aaron had four sons. His four sons were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Well Nadab and Abihu were killed by God when they offered strange fire before the Lord in Leviticus chapter 10. So that left two different sons of Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar and that's where the priests came from. They came from the house of Eleazar and the house of Ithamar. So in David's day when the kingdom of Israel was at its heyday, he actually had two main priests. He had one from the house of Eleazar and one from the house of Ithamar, okay? And these two high priests were known as Abimelech and Zadok, okay? Those kind of represented those two streams. Well if you remember earlier on in the book of 1 Samuel, there was a guy named Eli and Eli was a high priest who was found to be wicked before the Lord and here's what was wicked about him was that he let his kids just do whatever they wanted. So he was a bad parent. I don't think that he himself in his personal life was a horrible guy. The Bible doesn't indicate that he was a terrible person but he was a lazy parent and so he allowed his sons to grow up undisciplined and his sons were these horrible fornicators and thieves and people who did all kinds of awful things. So God ended up killing his two sons and not only that but he swore that the house of Eli would just be cut off from the priesthood, that nobody from that family was going to be a part of the priesthood anymore. This was not fulfilled until many, many decades later though because of the fact that later on after David's reign when he had the dual priesthood, when King Solomon took over, Abimelech and Abiathar, that side of things got wiped out and they got fired from being priests and Zadok became the only priest. So when Solomon came along and when the temple was built and the temple was being inaugurated and everything like that, it was just Zadok at that point that was the high priest of Israel and from then going forward, it was the sons of Zadok who would be the priests in the temple and we'll see that all throughout the Old Testament. And in fact, all the way in Ezekiel 48, very far into the biblical history of the Old Testament, it says in Ezekiel 48 11 when he's talking about a new temple and who's going to do what, it says that it shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok which have kept my charge which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray as the Levites went astray. So even in the days of Ezekiel which is several hundred years before Christ, the sons of Zadok were still faithful in the days of Ezekiel. When the rest of the Levites were going astray, the sons of Zadok remained faithful. So because of these scriptures praising Zadok as being the great high priest, the legitimate son of Aaron, he wasn't part of that Eli family and all their wickedness and even when the rest of the Levites went bad, Zadok stayed true to the word of God. You know, obviously that's why the Sadducees want to associate themselves with this guy and say, hey, we're the sons of Zadok, okay? Now that makes sense because the Bible tells in Acts 5 verse 17, then the high priest rose up, this is the high priest in the days of the apostles, then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him which is the sect of the Sadducees and they were filled with indignation against the apostles. So the Bible tells us that the sect of the Sadducees was the high priest and his family and everybody who kind of was associated with the high priest. Those were the Sadducees which makes sense that they're the sons of Zadok, okay? But being a physical son of Zadok does not make you a spiritual son of Zadok. How many times do we see in the Bible great men of God having descendants who are as wicked as the devil? And this is why we have to be careful of anything that is hereditary because of the fact that the sons are not always going to be like the father. And over the course of a hundred and two hundred and three hundred and four hundred and five hundred years, these lineages deteriorate. And that's why the Jews in the New Testament said, well, Abraham's our father. And he said, well, if Abraham were your father, you'd do the works of Abraham. I know that you'd be Abraham's seed, but he's telling them you don't live like Abraham. You don't believe like Abraham. You don't do like Abraham. Well, that's the condition of the Sadducees here. They claim to be the sons of Zadok, but they've become so apostate by the time we get to the New Testament, they don't even believe in the resurrection. They don't believe in angels. They don't believe in spirits. It's like they don't believe in anything supernatural hardly. They want to just take away maybe the miracles of the Bible, and there are groups out there today that are like that as well. They lack faith to believe in the miracles of the Bible. So notice the great council of the Jews that's judging the apostles, the Sanhedrin of the children of Israel, that group is made up of Pharisees and Sadducees. I mean, Paul looks at it and he sees, okay, part of this is Pharisee and part of this is Sadducees. And then he does a divide and conquer saying, well, I'm a Pharisee. And then he gets the Pharisees on his side and then the Sadducees are on the other side. And then if you remember, they grab him and they're going to rip him in half. The Sadducees are pulling on Paul one way and the Pharisees are pulling on him the other way, and they almost tore him apart. Now one of the big lessons we can learn from that is that the devil often provides us with two alternatives that are both wrong. Now we know the Pharisees were wrong. Jesus is constantly ripping into the Pharisees. Now what was wrong with the Pharisees? The Pharisees were adding to scripture. They added their own traditions and teachings that were not in the Bible. They had the oral Torah or the oral traditions, the traditions of the elders, the stuff that would later be known as the Talmud. And they were adding that stuff to the Word of God. And Jesus constantly rebuked it and he called them hypocrites and vipers and all kinds of names. But then the Sadducees, on the other hand, they did not add to the Word of God. They didn't have all those extra traditions that the Pharisees had. But they had another problem where they're just denying scripture and denying the resurrection and denying angels and denying spirits. So these two denominations of Pharisee and Sadducee are both wrong. They're both very wrong. And they're both so wrong that they're actually damned. It's not like they're just a little off. I mean, when John the Baptist, it says in Matthew 3.7, saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? So he calls the Sadducees vipers and he calls the Pharisees vipers. They're both snakes. They're both devils. They're both wicked. So don't get caught up in this thing of these two false alternatives that are both wrong. It's sort of like this. You know, the Catholic and the Protestant. There's wrong and there's more wrong. You know, which one are you, Calvinist or Arminian? They're both garbage. Which one are you going to drink, Coke or Pepsi? It's both sodium benzoate filled, high fructose corn syrup, caramel color, artificial flavor junk. You know, it's just this false left right paradigm where you got to be for Trump or you got to be for Hillary, right? And if you're not for one, you're for the other. Oh, you know, you're preaching against the Sadducees. You must be a Pharisee. Oh, you're with the Pharisee. Yeah. You know? No, I'm neither. And Christ came along and rebuked both. They were both wicked. He preached against both. Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 where I had you turn. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, 12, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? I mean, Paul is just saying, how can you believe that? It's ridiculous. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. So some of the Pharisees and Sadducees had brought in some of their false doctrine into the early church. They'd infiltrated the church with their false doctrines. And he's rebuking this junk about there being no resurrection. He's saying, look, if there's no resurrection, our preaching is vain and your faith is vain. Yeah, and we are found false witnesses of God because we've testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if so be that the dead rise not for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Now that's the same language that we saw back in Daniel 12 about people sleeping in the dust of the earth. He said, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. Look, if there's no resurrection, we're of all men most miserable, he's saying. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, but thanks be to God, Christ is risen from the dead. And not only is Jesus Christ risen from the dead, he has become the first fruits of them that slept, meaning that just as God raised up the Lord, it says him also he also will raise up us by his own power. Just as Christ is risen, we shall also rise one day. And then go back to Daniel Chapter 12. While you're turning there, I'll read you another great Old Testament scripture that the Sadducees should have been reading, that the Sadducees rejected. But in Job Chapter 19 verse 25, it says, For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Now who is Job's Redeemer? Well, the Redeemer of anybody is Jesus Christ. And he said, I know my Redeemer liveth, and not only that, he said that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. So you know, Christ is going to stand on this earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reigns be consumed within me. Now Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross, was buried. And for three days, his flesh saw no corruption. And three days later, he rose again from the dead. Now Job, when he died, his flesh did see corruption. The Bible says David's flesh saw corruption. Job was eaten of worms. Not to be graphic, but that's how bodies decompose. There are other organisms that help out with the decomposition. And so Job's body was eaten of worms. And he said, after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Now what's he saying there? If his body is being completely eaten of worms down to the bone, how's he going to see God in his flesh unless he's getting a new body? And that new body is not just some spiritual body that has no flesh. It's a spiritual body that has flesh and bone. It says when Jesus rose from the dead, he said, I'm not a spirit because he said a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me to have. So the resurrection of Christ was a flesh and bone resurrected body right there. And that's the same way it is for us. We will rise again one day, our bodies even, and we will have flesh and bone on that body. Job will rise again. And we will see Job in the flesh. He will be a flesh and bone human being. So that's a pretty powerful scripture in Job 19. And we can go to other scriptures, but I'm just showing you how the Sadducees just didn't believe the word of God. And just like there are people today who refuse to believe the word of God even though it's crystal clear. Go back to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel chapter number 12. Let's go through this whole chapter quickly here. Daniel chapter 12. The Bible reads in verse number 1, and at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was, since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. Now this is a super interesting verse because it ties in with end times events very clearly because it talks about the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation. Well in the New Testament this is known as a time of tribulation such as was not since there was a nation. Now again notice the connection between the word trouble, what are the consonants TRBL and tribulation, what are the consonants TRBL, these words are related. Tribulations is a variation on the word trouble. So the time of trouble is the time of tribulation. It talks about Michael standing up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, and he says at the end of the verse there that thy people shall be delivered, everyone that shall be found written in the book. Now who is the thy people there? Now a lot of people will say, oh well the thy people that's got to just be all the Jews, you know God's people, Daniel's people, thy people, you know that's just the Jews so they'll try to actually take unbelieving Israel and try to call them Daniel's people or God's people or the chosen people or something like that. But the Bible is pretty clear here when it says everyone that shall be found written in the book. So any so-called Jew whose name is not found written in the book of life, that person is not one of God's people. They're not the chosen people. So the Bible tells us that the ones who will be delivered, another word for delivered is saved, the ones who will be delivered are those who are written in the book. Now this is pretty similar to what we see in Joel chapter 2. You don't have to turn there but in Joel chapter 2 it says the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord come and it says it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. So the Bible talks about in Joel how there's going to be a great and terrible day of the Lord where the sun and moon are darkened and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered or shall be saved. That's the same thing that we see here in Daniel chapter 12. In Daniel chapter 12 when the great time of trouble comes, when the great time of tribulation comes the Bible says that those who have called upon the name of the Lord will be saved or will be delivered. In Daniel 12 it says those whose names are written in the book, the book of life will be saved or will be delivered. What's that referring to? This is referring to what we know as the rapture because the Bible refers to the fact that except the days of the tribulation should be shortened there should no flesh be saved but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. So in the midst of great tribulation upon God's people the days will be shortened, they will be cut short because Jesus Christ will come in the clouds and those who are saved, those who have believed on Christ will be literally saved in the sense that they'll be pulled out of here before God's wrath is poured out and before the anti-Christ has a chance to wipe them all out. They'll be delivered from that. They will be brought out of this world and of course that's clear in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 4 and Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 are other places where we could clearly read about that. So the Bible gives us some information here about the end times that there's going to be a time of trouble. During that time of trouble Michael the archangel as we know him, Michael the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people, he'll stand up and the Bible says there will be a time of great tribulation and then those who are saved will be delivered out of it, will be rescued out of it. And then it says many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, just referring to the resurrection in general, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting intent and it makes perfect sense to roll right into that subject because of the fact that at the time of the rapture when Christ comes in the clouds and those who are saved are delivered out of that trouble and that tribulation, the Bible says what? The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord, wherefore comfort one another with these words. So the Bible's clear that the resurrection of the dead and the salvation of those who are alive and remain being pulled out of the tribulation, those things both happen at the same time. They both happen on the same day. So let's keep reading. He says they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Verse four. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. Now what does that mean, many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased? Well most people have interpreted this as referring to the end times and that during that time many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase is referring to the amazing technology of the end times and I tend to agree with this interpretation that this is referring to the fact that transportation will be such where you can just go to and fro on the earth. I mean you can hop on a plane and you're on the other side of the world in less than a day. That's amazing. When you think about the fact that in Bible days it would take them weeks or months or years to travel long distances and even just to get to the new world they'd have to get on a ship and spend months and months and that was only a few hundred years ago. But that now we just hop on a plane and it's so easy and they said knowledge shall increase. Well think about the internet. How there's just so much knowledge, so much information, just all the data and everything's just been mapped and logged and catalogued and it's all just at our fingertips. You can just pull out a smart phone and just have access to virtually any information in the world. It's bizarre and we're not even to the end yet. What's going to be the next thing after the internet that we haven't even thought of? So I think that that's probably what that's referring to when he says that at the time of the end many will run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. Verse five, then I Daniel looked and behold there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river and one said to the man clothed in linen which was upon the waters of the river, how long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen which was upon the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven and swear by him that liveth forever and ever that it shall be for a time, times and a half and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished. Now what's this three and a half year time frame or time, times and half a time? It's the time frame that we've talked about over and over again and this has to do with the fact that in the end times there's a seven year period where the events of the tribulation and God pouring out his wrath take place and this period is cut in half by the abomination of desolation that happens right in the middle. So you have three and a half years, then you have the abomination of desolation and then you have three and a half more years. Well Christ coming in the clouds and the resurrection of the dead and the rapture and so forth, that all happens shortly after that midpoint, not right at the midpoint, but shortly after that midpoint is when that takes place and so it makes sense that when he just talked about the fact that the people will be delivered and people are going to be resurrected and so forth and then the next question out of his mouth is how long shall be to the end of these wonders that he gives him a number three and a half years, time, times and half a time. It's not exactly three and a half years but it's approximately three and a half years. See whenever the Bible uses numbers we have to realize they're often approximate and when he wants to get more specific he'll use a more specific unit of measurement. So for example when he really wants to get specific in the end times he'll use the number twelve hundred and sixty days. Now twelve hundred and sixty days is three and a half years but it's a little more precise. Just like another time he says twelve hundred and ninety days. That's also about three and a half years but it's more precise than that. It's around that. Also it'll say forty two months. Often in the Bible numbers are rounded off like when it says that David reigned for seven years over here and thirty three and a half years over here so it's a total of forty years. So he just kind of rounds things off in that sense to the nearest year. Obviously it's not exact. So that's what we see here. And then it says in verse eight and I heard but I understood not then said I oh my Lord what shall be the end of these things and he said go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified and made white and tried. But the wicked shall do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand. Now the Bible is saying here many will be purified and made white. That has to do with being saved. Being purified of our sins, being saved and being made white because we've been washed in the blood of the lamb. We've been saved by believing on Jesus Christ. So the Bible says a lot of people are going to be purified. A lot of people are going to be made white and then it says a lot of people are going to be tried. So the people who get saved and who live as saved Christians in the end times they're going to go through trials. They're going to go through troubles, tribulations. They're going to be tried. But on the other hand he says the wicked shall do wickedly. So many are going to be purified and made white and tried. That's the Christian life in a nutshell. You get purified and made white and then you get tried and then you go through trials. You go through tribulations. That's life. But the wicked shall do wickedly and then he says none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand. Now here's the thing. He doesn't say that every saved person is going to understand. See saved people have the ability to understand the Bible but they don't necessarily understand it. Why? Because if you haven't studied you're not going to understand it. If you haven't prayed and studied and read your Bible like you should you're not going to understand. Now the Bible says none of the wicked shall understand. Some of the saved will understand. Not all of the saved. So he says none of the wicked will understand but when it comes to the saved he says the wise among the saved will understand. Those who are wise will understand. Now why will none of the wicked understand? Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. The Bible is very clear that unsaved people cannot understand the Bible. It goes over their head. Now when you're saved you have the Holy Ghost inside you and you have the ability to understand the Bible. It doesn't mean you're going to understand everything in the Bible without any reading or study. You have to read and study and work at it and then you have the ability to understand what the Bible teaches. Then after he makes this statement about the wise will understand none of the wicked will understand then he goes into a very deep teaching. So it makes sense that he talks about a wicked people they're not going to understand this and only some of the saved are going to understand it. Those who are wise. He says from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that make a desolate set up there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. So what is he saying here? He's saying after the abomination of desolation there's twelve hundred ninety more days. Now it makes perfect sense if we're dealing with a seven year period and in the middle of it is the abomination of desolation. That would make sense because twelve hundred ninety days is the three and a half years that we're looking for. Right? Makes perfect sense. So from the time of the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination to make a desolate set up there should be a thousand two hundred and ninety days because when we study Revelation it's clear that the first half of Daniel's seventieth week is twelve hundred and sixty days long and the second half is twelve hundred and ninety days long. And the reason why is that the Bible deals in thirty day months and that there are forty two months in the first half and forty three months in the second half and the reason for that is that forty two months of thirty days each, it falls a little bit short of three and a half solar years, okay? Because a solar year is three hundred and sixty five days, right? Twelve thirty day months is only three hundred and sixty days. So if you have three hundred and sixty day years in the Bible, because the Bible is consistent. The Bible always has thirty day months, twelve months in a year, five months is a hundred and fifty days. I mean the Bible is consistent with that. But if you only have three hundred and sixty day years and we know that the sun takes three hundred and sixty five days to do its thing, how are you going to make up for that five day discrepancy? You say, oh, what's five days? No big deal. Well, it becomes a big deal pretty fast because you start, you know, having Easter and it's snowing outside, right? Because the fact that your calendar is going to get all off. So the way that they would fix that because they're basically five days off every year is that every six years they have to add an extra month because six times five is thirty, right? So every six years they add an extra month. Well, if the end times is over a period of seven years, you're going to have to have what? An extra month thrown in to balance that thing out and make it seven actual years. So that's what we see in the Bible is that the second half is twelve hundred and ninety days for that reason. But verse twelve is the thing that people don't understand. Most people understand verse eleven. I've never met anybody who studied Bible prophecy who didn't understand verse eleven. I mean, everybody agrees on verse eleven. But the Bible says in verse twelve, blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. Now, this is where people get confused. And the reason why they're confused is because they start counting the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days at the abomination of desolation. They assume that since the twelve hundred and ninety days starts at the abomination of desolation, that the thirteen thirty-five starts in the same place. And I can see why they would think that. I mean, I can see how that would make sense that, okay, we'll start in the same place. But here's the proof that that's false, okay? The proof is that if there were to be twelve hundred and ninety days after the abomination of desolation, and then's the end, you know, where Christ sets up his millennium and all things are fulfilled and all that, well then, what's this thirteen thirty-five? That would bring you, like, partially into the millennium, like forty-five days into the millennium. And the problem with that is that there's no scripture anywhere in the whole Bible that talks about anything happening forty-five days into the millennium. So you'd just be having this one verse throwing this number at you that doesn't jive with anything else. And if you have something in the Bible that doesn't jive with anything else, you're probably misunderstanding it, number one. But number two, if we actually look at the context of the passage, he tells us what the thirteen thirty-five days is about. Because he says, blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred five and thirty days. That shows that that time is something that you're waiting for, okay? It's something that we're waiting for. Now if we study the word wait in the New Testament, you know what it says we're waiting for over and over again? It says we're waiting for the redemption of our body. Waiting for the redemption of our body. It says that we're waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come. So over and over again in the Bible, it talks about waiting for Christ's coming, waiting for the second coming, and waiting for the resurrection, waiting for the redemption of our body, waiting for that day. So that makes sense, especially in light of the next verse. Look at verse thirteen. But go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, Daniel, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. Now people will often misquote this as, you'll stand in your lot at the end of days. That doesn't say at the end of days, because they'll say, well, end of days, that just means end times. No, no, no, it says the end of the days. Now the reason that's significant is when you use the definite article the, you're referring to something specific. You know, it's the difference between saying house and the house, I'm referring to something specific. Well, the Bible here is saying, bless is he the way to the incumbent to the thousand three hundred five and thirty days. And he says, you, Daniel, will stand in your lot at the end of the days. Which days? The thousand three hundred five and thirty days. So what is it that we're told that we're waiting for in the New Testament over and over again? The redemption of our body, our resurrection, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds. So what's Daniel waiting for here? Basically until he stands in his lot. When is Daniel going to rise again? Daniel's going to rise again at the end of the days. Why? Because Daniel's going to rise again. And all the other believers are going to rise again, which is when? At the end of the thousand three hundred five and thirty days. So therefore the thousand five and thirty days is pointing to when Christ comes in the clouds and the resurrection happens and when Daniel and everybody else is resurrected. Now people will, when, when people hear me preach this, which I'm just preaching clearly what the scripture is saying, they'll say, oh, you're date setting the rapture. Clearly what date did I set? And people often accused me because of preaching this in Daniel chapter twelve of date setting the rapture or setting a date for the coming of Christ. But they can never, it's funny, they can never tell you what that date was that I ever set because I've never set a date and I never will. Because we don't know when exactly the tribulation starts. The tribulation is not happening now and we don't know when it's going to start. So if we don't know when it's going to start, we don't know the date of the rapture. We're not setting a date. Now people say, well, but once it starts, you'll know. Well, you know, eventually when we see him coming in the clouds, we'll know and afterward we're going to know too. But here's the thing. I don't even think we're necessarily going to know even when we're in the tribulation because how do you know necessarily exactly what date the tribulation technically started? Because the tribulation starts with a battle in heaven where Michael and his archangels are fighting against the dragon. We're not necessarily going to see that. And Daniel's 70th week starts with the antichrist confirming the covenant with many for one week. Well, that could take place behind closed doors somewhere. We're not necessarily going to know exactly when to start the clock counting. So I don't think that we're ever going to know the exact date until we see the abomination of desolation. And once we see the abomination of desolation, it's going to be so close at that point. Of course, we look up because our redemption is drawing nigh at that point. So this is not a date setting, but it's 1,305 and 30 days. Now, let me just point out one more thing before I close here about this because this is important. When we find something in the Bible that is unique or different than what we see elsewhere or what we've heard, we should always look for other evidence to confirm what we believe. It's kind of like I mentioned a moment ago, 45 days into the millennium, some significant event happening. Well, there's just no evidence of that anywhere in the Bible. So let's ask ourselves now, is there any evidence of anything happening 1,335 days into Daniel's 70th week or 1,335 days into the tribulation? Is there any evidence of something happening at that point? And the answer is yes. I can show you three things right now that symbolically point to that exact date. It's pretty interesting when you think about it. First of all, and I'm just going to explain this very quickly and very simply for sake of time, and I've done whole sermons on this. If you want to go deeper on this subject, I did a sermon called The Timing of the Rapture where I went into this very deeply. But let me just point out that if we have a seven-year period known as Daniel's 70th week, and we look at how far 1,335 days takes you into that period. It takes you 53% of the way into that period, just to make it a simple way of understanding it. Well, if you look at the Hebrew calendar year, there's an event that happens at that exact point in the year, 53% into the year, known as the trumpet of the Jubilee where liberty is proclaimed throughout all the land. Well, the Bible calls the rapture the glorious liberty of the children of God, and we obviously know that the rapture, a trumpet is going to sound. So that's a perfect parallel at that exact point in the year where that trumpet is sounded. And not only that, at the exact midpoint of the Hebrew year is a blowing of trumpets plural, which symbolizes danger. That's the abomination of desolation. So there's a parallel right there with the Hebrew calendar. Another parallel is that King Jehoiachin was in captivity for 70 years. When was he raised up out of captivity? When was he pulled up out of the dungeon and lifted up, the Bible says. He was lifted up in the 37th year of his captivity. And 37 years into a 70 year captivity is 53% of the way into that captivity. So basically the exact point in the Hebrew year where the trumpet of Jubilee is blown, that's the equivalent of 1335 days into the tribulation. When Jehoiachin was lifted up in the 37th year of a 70 year captivity, that's 53% of the way into that captivity. And then also when Jesus Christ walks on the water at the Sea of Galilee and the disciples are on a ship crossing a seven mile body of water and Jesus Christ meets them at the ship and he gets into the ship and calms the storm. And the Bible says that when he gets on the ship and the storm has come, they're immediately warped to the other side. So they're on a seven mile journey and they get to a certain point and Christ gets on the ship and all of a sudden they're just at the other side. They're just at the destination. The trip is what? Cut short. The trip is shortened. The exact point where that happened is that exact same point. It fits perfectly with being 53% of the way across that lake. So I don't think that's a coincidence that you can line all this stuff up with the 1335 days and the Hebrew calendar and Jehoiachin being raised up out of captivity and the cross of the Sea of Galilee and it all fits like a glove. So that helps you confirm that you're interpreting the verse correctly. Whereas this other interpretation where the 1335 days starts at the abomination, well, that just has no support in any other scripture that I've ever seen anybody be able to produce. So all that you say, this is way too deep for a Sunday morning. Well, you know what? We need to read our Bibles and study to show ourselves approved and go deep because there are a lot of people who are here this morning who enjoy the sermon because of the fact that they know what I'm talking about because they've read the Bible. They know who Zadok is. They know who Jehoiachin is. They know about these great stories. They know about the Hebrew calendar because they've been reading and studying their Bibles. But out of all the important things that the Bible teaches us and all the important doctrines and all the teachings both simple and difficult that we find in the Bible, the most important teaching is the doctrine of the resurrection. And the reason that I preach about this this morning is because it's Easter Sunday. And I do believe in celebrating Easter. The word Easter is not a pagan word. It's actually found in the Bible in Acts chapter 12 verse 4. And the thing that we celebrate on Easter Sunday is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And without the resurrection of Christ, we're doomed. The Bible tells us without the resurrection of Christ, we are yet in our sins. And so thanks be to God that Jesus Christ not only died and was buried, but that up from the grave he arose. And here we are in the year of our Lord, 2018, still celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the very basis of our salvation. And so when we go out and preach the gospel, what are we preaching? The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And what is it that a person has to believe in order to be saved? The Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, which means that every Sadducee went straight to hell. And every so-called Christian group out there today that denies the bodily resurrection of Christ is on their way to hell today. We need to get them the gospel. We need to get them the truth. You say, why does it have to be bodily? Because it's the death, burial, and resurrection. You don't bury a spirit, you bury a body. It's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that saves us. And when we go out soul winning and preaching the gospel, we need to emphasize that most important cornerstone of our faith, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And today, let's think about that and ponder that and meditate on that. Not just have an Easter egg hunt and eat ham and potatoes and corn, although that sounds pretty good right now. Let's focus on Christ and his resurrection. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for this chapter. Channel chapter 12, Lord, that tells us that there is a resurrection, Lord, unto everlasting life. And we know that you have raised up Jesus Christ as the first fruits of that resurrection and that we are going to be phase two of that resurrection. We thank you so much, Lord, for the promise of your coming. Help us to wait patiently for your coming and for the resurrection and changing of our own bodies. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.