(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Daniel chapter 8, before I get into it, let me just quickly say a few things about where we're at in the book of Daniel. Of course, the first half of the book of Daniel is all the stories that everybody's familiar with. The first six chapters, Daniel and the lion's den and all the other great stories. Chapter 7 through 12 deals with prophecy. And it's the part that when I was a child, I remember I picked up the book of Daniel as a child, I got to chapter 7 and pretty much just bailed. You know, I read the first six chapters and loved it. But I got into this stuff and I couldn't really understand. But as we get into this tonight, turn to 1 John 2.27. Because this is going to be part of the key in understanding tonight's message. Because, you know, by the end of the sermon tonight, I think you'll have a pretty good grasp of this chapter. But in order to get the proper interpretation tonight, we're going to need 1 John 2.27 to guide us. Look at 1 John 2.27, it says, But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. And that's talking about the Holy Spirit, okay? And it says, Now the important thing to see in 1 John 2.27 is that the Bible says that it is not necessary to have a man teach you the Bible. Because of the fact that if you're a believer, if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. Therefore, any doctrine of the Bible that you can't learn just by reading the Bible, just by being saved and reading the Bible, it would be impossible for you to figure it out, is a false doctrine. And there are a lot of man-made doctrines out there where you need all kinds of extra books and charts and other historical references to understand them. That is not the interpretation of the Bible that's correct because the Bible says that we don't need man to interpret the Bible for us. We as believers have the Holy Spirit inside of us, we can understand it on our own if we will study to show ourselves the proof. Now obviously we come to church and that man gets up and preaches and teaches the Bible to help us see things. But there's nothing that I can teach you that you could not also find on your own. Does that make sense? You can't come to church expecting to get some revelation from God. I mean this is the revelation right here, the Bible. And I have the same Bible you have and I have the same Holy Spirit living inside of me that you have. Now with that in mind, let's look at this in Daniel chapter 8. Keeping in mind that we should, in the Bible and through the Holy Spirit, have all the tools we need to understand the Bible. In Daniel chapter 8, it says the first verse there, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar. One other thing I'd like to say is this, Daniel 1 through 6 are in perfect chronological order, aren't they? The Bible makes that clear. Well Daniel 7 through 12 are also in chronological order but it starts over again in chapter 7. We're back in Belshazzar's reign and I illustrated that last week. It's exactly the same with the book of Revelation. Revelation starts out in chapter 1, goes in chronological order through chapter 11. And then right in the dead center, boom, starts over again and goes through chronological order again. These are the two books that primarily deal with end times prophecies. Now it says, in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. Again, he's making reference about when this vision came to him after the other one. Making it clear, it's in chronological order. You see, God wants us to understand the Bible. He wants us to make it simple. That's why in Revelation 12 when it starts over again, the chronology, it's obvious because Jesus is being born at the beginning of chapter 12. You obviously know that you're back in time with those events. So look at verse number 2, it says, I saw in a vision, and it came to pass when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Eli. Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but the one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward, so that no beast might stand before him. Neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand, but he did according to his will and became great. Now, these animals that Daniel sees, the Bible tells us later in the chapter what they mean. It says in verse number 20, the ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And then he says the rough goat, in verse number 21, is the king of Grecia. So this is the same thing we've seen over and over in the book of Daniel. You remember it was in chapter 2, it was all throughout chapter 7? These four great kingdoms that were going to arise, you remember? The first one was the Babylonian empire with king Nebuchadnezzar, and then his grandson, Belshazzar, that had ruled over the civilized world. Then after that came the Medo-Persian empire. Then after that the Grecian empire, then after that the Roman empire. And we're seeing the same thing play out again here with these two empires, the ram being the Medo-Persian empire, and then the horn on the head of the goat, which is the Greek empire, is Alexander the Great. You know, we know from history, but it just says a great king that's going to come, and they didn't know his name at this time because he had not come yet. This is a future prediction that this man is going to come and take over the world and take over the Medo-Persian empire, and of course that happened. Now, I want to blow through that part of it because that's how we've already gone over. We've already seen that. He's going through that again. Now, Daniel shifts gears here because he's talking about things that were immediately going to happen. The Medo-Persian empire is going to take over, then the Greek empire is going to take over. But then he switches gears and begins to talk about things that are going to happen in the last days, things that are going to happen in the end of the world that have still not happened yet, and I'm going to prove that to you. Look if you would at verse number 9. It says, And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land. Remember in chapter 7, the little horn was the antichrist. We already proved that in chapter 7. It says in verse number 10, And it waxed great even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them. Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down, and the host was given him against the daily sacrifice, verse 12, by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered, verse 13. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto the certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he goes on to tell them how long. Now, how do we know that this hasn't already happened? Because a lot of people will try to take this and say, Oh, well that already happened. You know, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire. How do we know that this hasn't happened yet? Go if you would to Matthew 24. Keep your finger in Daniel 8, but look at Matthew 24. Matthew is the first book in the New Testament. Matthew chapter 24, this is Jesus preaching. Because a lot of people will try to teach that if you look in a history book, you know, you'll find out that there was this guy, and his name was Antiochus Epiphanes. You know, and this great Greek king, he went in and desecrated the temple, and desecrated the daily sacrifice, and so forth. And that's all that Daniel was talking about. This has already happened. There's no Antichrist. None of this is going to happen. It's already done. That's what a lot of people are teaching out there. Who's ever been exposed to that kind of doctrine, that kind of teaching? You know, it's out there. That's what I was taught about in Bible college. This was talking about Antiochus Epiphanes and all this stuff. But hold on a second. If that's true, then we would need some outside history book in order to even understand what it's talking about. We would have no way of knowing that that was fulfilled except the history book told us that. Because the Bible does not say that anywhere, okay? So therefore, that's the first problem with that interpretation. But number two, look at Jesus Christ, hundreds of years after Antiochus Epiphanes, preaching in Matthew 24. Look what he says in verse 15. He says, when ye, he's saying ye, you, he's talking to you, when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, who so readeth let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto them that are with child, unto them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. The Bible's clear here that Jesus Christ is telling us that at that time the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet had not yet happened. He said, when you see it happen, that is going to be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world. So this is not talking about things that have already happened. The book of Daniel is telling us about things that still are going to happen in the future. Beyond what he saw, the immediate, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, he's looking beyond in the future the great worldwide kingdom of the Antichrist when one man will rule over the entire world. And the Bible is telling us here that that is still yet to come. Let me prove it to you further. Look back at Daniel chapter 8. In Daniel chapter 8 it says in verse 26, and the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true, wherefore shut thou up the vision. Okay, so he's not telling him to broadcast it here. He's saying shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days. So he's basically saying, look, this isn't going to happen for a long time, so basically just shut thou up the vision. Go to chapter 12 of Daniel. Daniel chapter 12, there's a similar statement at the end of chapter 12. It says in verse number 9 of Daniel 12, and he said, go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Okay, so you see that he's talking about things that are far out. He says, it's not going to be for many days. It's not going to be till the end of the world. And then look at verse 13, but go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. He's saying, Daniel, this is going to happen after you're dead. I mean, you're going to die, you're going to go to heaven, and eventually you'll be there, but this is way, way out there. Compare that with the last chapter of the Bible. Go to Revelation 22. Revelation 22, hundreds and hundreds of years later, after Jesus Christ lived on this earth, it says in Revelation 22 in verse number 10, And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. So here he says, look, seal not up, it's at hand. This is coming up next, the next thing you're going to see. Whereas in Daniel's day, this was way out. Jesus Christ had not even come the first time yet. So we can see clearly from those couple of things in Daniel 8, that this is definitely talking about future events that have not yet happened. So let's go back to Daniel 8 with that in mind. We can come back to Matthew 24, but it says in Daniel 8 13, Then I heard one saint speaking. Now what is a saint according to the Bible? A believer, a Christian, right? Somebody who's saved. Everybody who's saved is a saint. We already talked about that. 1 Corinthians 6 proves that, and many other places in the Bible. You know, we don't believe in these certain people that are the saints. The Bible says there are ten thousands of saints that are going to come with Jesus Christ when he returns. The Bible says that every single person who's saved is a saint. He said, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once brought. So we are saints. These are believers. These are saved people. Now the people, notice, the people who are explaining these things to Daniel in his vision are who? Saints, right? These two saints are discussing it. Same exact thing in the book of Revelation. I know you turned away from there. You don't have to turn there. I'll just read it for you from Revelation 22. The Bible says this, I, John, saw these things and heard them, and when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then sayeth the unto me, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book worship God. So who was showing John the end of the world of Revelation? Some saved child of God, some saint, one of his brethren, some preacher, was basically used by God to explain it to him in heaven. And so the same thing is in the book of Daniel. One of the saints says unto another certain saint in verse 13 of Daniel 8, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Now, this is another proof that this has not happened yet because when that king Antiochus Epiphanes, you know, the history books will tell us, came in and desecrated the temple, it was only desecrated for a very short time. And therefore, this is something that's going to last for two thousand three hundred days, this whole scenario. And we're going to get back to that number in a little while. So anyway, we see that in verse 14. In verse 15 it says, Came to pass when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision and sought for the meaning, that behold, there stood before me the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Uli, which called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell upon my face, but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man, for at the time of the end shall be the vision. Do you see more proof that this is coming in the future? It still hasn't happened yet. Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground, but he touched me and set me upright. And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end shall be. And then he goes on to explain the interpretation here. It says in verse 23, we already read the other part, but it says in verse 23, And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up, and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. Now this is referring again to the Antichrist. Now you remember in Revelation chapter 13, it said that the Antichrist came into power and that it was the dragon who gave him his power and his sea and great authority. Notice it says that this man, he's not going to reign by his own power. It's going to be the devil that's giving him the power to reign. It says here also that he'll destroy wonderfully and that he'll destroy the mighty and the holy people. Remember the Antichrist in Revelation 13, it says, will make war with the saints and will overcome them. Here it says he's destroying the mighty and the holy people. The only people in this world who are holy are those who are saved, those who are saints, those who are Christians. Now look, we're not holy because of any good in ourselves. The Bible says, For all have sinned and come sorely to the glory of God. As it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. I mean, we're all sinners. None of us is perfect. But we're made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ. Because we're saved, because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, because we've been born again, God looks down upon us and he does not impute our sins unto us. The righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us and he looks at us and sees us as holy. And so therefore we are called in Hebrews chapter 3, Holy Brethren. He says, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly call, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Over and over we're called holy. We're called saints, okay, as believers. And so the holy people here is not talking about the nation of Israel, which is predominantly unbelievers, right? Because most people in the nation of Israel, they do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. And the Bible says, Who is a liar, but he that denyeth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denyeth the Father and the Son. It says, He that whosoever denyeth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledges the Son has the Father also. So therefore, the Jews today that are living in the nation of Israel, they are not God's people. They're not God's just people, except for those of them who believe on Christ. Now thank God there are some Jews who believe on Jesus Christ, aren't there? They are saved. They are God's people. But the Bible says, He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. So unbelieving Israel today is under God's wrath. God's people, believers, saints, the holy Christians, they are under God's blessings today. And he'll bless those that bless them and curse those that curse them. Not someone who's just physically descended from Abraham. John the Baptist said, Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able to be stones to raise up children unto Abraham. The Bible says, For we are the circumcision, Philippians 3-3, who worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. We're not trusting in the flesh. We're not trusting in works to save us. The Bible says of Israel, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. And then it goes on to say, That if thou shalt confess to thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. But he says, Look, just because you are Israel after the flesh does not make you God's people, if you do not believe on Jesus Christ, you are under his wrath. He said, Lo am I in the Old Testament. He said, That's translated, You are not my people. He said that even in the Old Testament, when they worshiped other gods, he said, You are not my people. You know, because you are worshiping other false gods. You are not saved. You are not my people. In the book of Hosea, there is a lot of teaching on that. So, the point that I am trying to make here is, that when it says here that he is going to fight against the holy people, he is going to destroy the mighty and the holy people, that's where the antichrist is making war against the saints, in Revelation 13. You know, we know that's believers. You know, I'm not going to belabor that point. I already did last week, when we talked about it in 1 Corinthians 6. It says in verse 25, look at Daniel 8.25. We're talking about the antichrist still. And through his policy, also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand, and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand. Now, the prince of princes, referring to Jesus Christ. Okay. Now, here, it says here that he'll make craft prosper in his hand. What do you think of this thing about craft? Well, we know that the antichrist, when he comes on this earth, is going to do a lot of signs and miracles and lying wonders, the Bible says, to deceive them that dwell on the world. Wasn't there a TV show a while back, maybe about 10 years ago, something called The Craft, or something like that? Can somebody raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about? Was there a show like that? What is it called? The Craft. And you know what it's about? Witchcraft. Witchcraft. Basically, what we're talking about here is witchcraft, the occult, you know, Satanism. And let me tell you something. We ought to stay as far away from this stuff as we can, this witchcraft and occultic things. And today, children are being indoctrinated in witchcraft at a very young age. Right away, in the public school system, when they're just tiny little kids, they get them reading Harry Potter. And in the book Harry Potter, it's all about doing spells and witchcraft, and basically it's all this black magic, it's all this sorcery and dark things, and they say, oh, it's just for fun. No, it's getting them into it at a young age. I've seen kids on the playground chanting all kinds of weird spells in another language, and they don't even know what they're saying. I told my kids, I don't even want to hear them say the word abracadabra. I don't know what that means. Because today, we've got all these people going, I saw some kid on the playground, he's reciting all this weird jargon that he read out of Harry Potter, saying that he's calling down fire and performing sorcery. Who knows what he's saying? What devil is calling upon or whatever. And I'm sorry, but witchcraft is not a game. I know Ouija boards are sold at Walmart under a Milton Bradley logo, like it's a game or something, but trying to communicate with spirits and devils and demons and people who've died is not a game. And it should be something that we don't mess with. We just stay away from it. Stay away from Ouija boards, stay away from witchcraft, stay away from Harry Potter, and then they get older and they get them into all kinds of other occultic stuff, like what is the one, the Twilight, that everybody's into? Undead, vampires, and the vampires are the good guys, and they love us and whatever. And basically, vampires, you get into your Harry Potter, your, what's the other one that's real big? Lord of the Rings is a big one. You know, the Hobbit, all that stuff. All it is is just getting you into this world of sorcery and witchcraft. When the Bible said that witches should be put to death, is what the Bible said in the Old Testament. Like, he warned them about sorcerers and witchcraft, and he told them it was evil, it was satanic, stay away from it. And so we ought to eat the same thing, but the Antichrist is going to be totally satanic, and the Bible says he's going to be using witchcraft, basically. He's going to make craft to prosper in his hand and do these lying signs and wonders. It says, by peace, he shall destroy many. He's going to come in peaceably in many ways. He shall also stand up against the prince of princes, but he shall be broken without end. And the vision of the evening and the morning that was told is true. Wherefore, shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for many days. And I, Daniel, fainted, and with six certain days. Afterward I rose up and did the king's business, and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it. So basically he's saying, you know, he explained it to people, and nobody understood it. Nobody could really understand what was going on. Because a lot of these sayings in the book of Daniel would have been really hard to understand unless the fact that we have the book of Matthew and the book of Revelation to interpret them. You know, we have the New Testament. Jesus Christ basically took these dark sayings of the book of Daniel and expounded them and explained them. And then the book of Revelation goes even further, where Jesus Christ explains and expounds these things to us so that we can have a full understanding of what's going to happen. So, just to give it to you in a nutshell here, in the book of Daniel chapter 8, it starts out talking about things that were going to happen in the short term. The ram with the two horns represents the Medo-Persian empire. He said that the horn that came up last was more powerful. That was the Persians. Cyrus the Great, the great king of Persia. We read about him in the Bible. Then after that, the hego, the king of Gratia, the one horn represented Alexander the Great. He's going to come and defeat the Medo-Persians, take over. Then after that would come the Roman empire. And then after that, he fast forwards into the future events, starts talking about the abomination of desolation, starts talking about the Antichrist, who's going to come and basically take over the entire world. And look, this is real, folks. It's going to happen. And you can already see it happening today. You can see all the nations trying to join together into a global government. They use the United Nations and other organizations to help do that. And we're forming into a global government. The Antichrist will come on the scene. He'll require people to get a mark in their right hand or in their forehead and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark of the beast, the 666. All that stuff is coming. But now that we've seen the whole overview of the chapter, that's basically what the chapter's about. He explains it as he goes. Let's talk just a little bit about the abomination of desolation. What is the abomination of desolation? Now Jesus talked about it. Look at Mark 13. Mark, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Look at Mark 13. We saw it in Matthew 24. Let's see it in Mark 13. Jesus talked about it in Mark chapter 13. Again, when he's talking about the tribulation, he talks about the abomination of desolation. It says in Mark 13, 14, But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand. Then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains. And he explains it's going to be great tribulation unlike the world's ever seen. And except those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved. Then he talks about Jesus coming in the clouds, sounding the trumpet, the rapture, and all that. Now, let him that readeth understand. Most of the reason why people don't understand the Bible is because they don't read the Bible. That's the biggest thing. I mean, the one that readeth is the one who's going to understand. And that's what Jesus is pointing out here, because you see, there are a lot of people who listen to a lot of people preach to them about prophecy. And boy, if you want to hear preaching about prophecy, there's more preaching about prophecy. I mean, it's on TV. You can tune into the TV preachers and radio preachers. But most of it's going to be lies. It's the one who does the reading for themself that's going to get the true story here. I can get up here and preach it to you and explain it to you in a few minutes and try to boil down Daniel chapter 8 into just a short time here. But when you get into this and dig in and read the book of Daniel, read the book of Mark, read the book of Revelation, you know, that's when you're going to understand. It's he that readeth that understandeth. I thank God that my children are learning to read at a young age. I'm glad they're not in the public fool system, but that they're actually homeschooled where they actually learn how to read when they're a little kid, because my children do a ton of reading every day. They read a lot of books about a lot of subjects, and predominantly the most important book they read is the Bible. Therefore, they are educated and intelligent, unlike the people who are graduating from high school today that can hardly even read, hardly can form a sentence, don't even understand what any of this means, can't sit down and read the Bible and understand it. Look, readers are leaders, my friend, and those who read the Bible understand the Bible. We need to get to a place where we are reading the Bible, we're meditating on it day and night. I mean, that's the only way we're going to understand these things. Now, you may not want to understand, you know. Just go through life. Just don't worry about it. You know, you're saved or whatever. But look, I want to understand the Bible. I want to understand the book of Daniel. I want to understand the abomination of desolation. It's going to take reading. It's going to take Bible reading on your part. And that's what he's saying. He says, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let him that readeth understand. Only those who've read the Bible will understand what is happening. And many other people who have not read the Bible, when they see the abomination of desolation standing in orbit, will not understand what's happening. They will not know that prophecy is being fulfilled. They'll not know that it's evil or wrong. They'll think that the abomination of desolation is a good thing. Because I'm going to show you what the abomination of desolation is. Look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter number 2. The abomination of desolation is a point in the tribulation. And the Bible tells us exactly when that point will take place. And at this point is basically when the Antichrist goes into the holy place of the temple in Jerusalem, and basically sets up the image of the beast, and basically sits in the holy place and pronounces himself to be God in the flesh. That's when he basically sets himself up as God, and sets up the image that is the abomination. And that image basically is made to where you have to worship that image or you're going to die. That's what he says, because he takes over the whole world. Where did I have your turn? I'm sorry. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. We're going to read about the Antichrist here. This is at the point of the abomination of desolation, when he declares himself to be God, when he sets himself up above all gods. It says in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him. Now, we know that day is coming, don't we? When Jesus Christ will come in the clouds, the trumpet will sound, and he will gather us together unto him. Right? That's what he's talking about in verse 1. Look at verse 2. That you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. That's talking about the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, and so forth. Let me ask you something. Is the day of Christ at hand? No. The Bible says right here, Do not let anyone deceive you into thinking that the day of Christ is at hand. That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. So that day is not going to come until after the Antichrist is revealed. That's what the Bible says right here. And yet people all over the world will say over and over again, The next event on God's spiritual calendar is the rapture. No. He says that's a deceiver that's talking. He said the person who tells you that the day of Christ is at hand is a deceiver. He said don't let anyone deceive you like that, because that day will not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Now you say, what is the day of Christ? Well, he's talking about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him. That's what he said in verse 1. He said in Philippians 1, 6, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What is that work that He's performing? He's conforming us unto Himself. He's sanctifying us. We're growing in grace and in love. He began that work when we get saved, and we continue to grow, and He continues to mold us and fashion us as a potter doth the clay. Okay, that will happen until the day of Jesus Christ, because then we'll be just like Him. I mean, we'll be changed in a moment, twinkling of an eye. Right? We'll be gathered together unto Him. Our vile bodies will be changed like in His glorious body. We'll be in the clouds with Him. We'll go to heaven. So shall we ever be with the Lord. But that can't happen at any moment, according to this passage right here. He says, look, people are going to try to tell you that. But He said it's a lie. You know what I mean? He said it's not going to happen. And so He says, you know, first, the man of sin will be revealed the son of perdition, verse 4, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worship, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So this man is going to claim to be God in the flesh. He's going to claim to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, but he's really the anti-Christ. He's the man of sin, the son of perdition. Remember ye not, verse 5, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders. The anti-Christ is empowered by Satan. He does all these false miracles. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but at pleasure and unrighteousness. The Bible is clear that all that believe not the gospel of Jesus Christ will be damned, right? In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. It says in the previous chapter, chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. And so we see here that the anti-Christ is going to claim to be God. He's going to set in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This is at the point of the abomination of desolation. This is when he goes into God's temple and basically goes into the holy place and sets himself up as God in the flesh. Now, here are some questions about this. Go back to Daniel 8 now. When is this going to take place? Well, the Bible tells us very clearly exactly when this is going to take place. It says in, for example, Daniel 12, verse number 11. It says in Daniel, chapter 11. I'm sorry, Daniel 12, verse 11. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that make a desolate set up. And by the way, the Bible often calls images, idols, abominations. And that's what it's referring to, the image that's going to be made, that's going to speak and that's going to be set up and so forth and Revelation 13, we don't have time to turn there. But it says, the abomination that make a desolate set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Okay, so that's a really clear timetable, right? He says basically, from the time the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation takes place, there shall be 1,290 days. And at the end of that, he said, there shall be time no longer. You know, that's the seventh trumpet. Basically, you know, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of the Lord, not as Christ. He sets up his millennial reign. You know, yada, yada, the whole thing is over. Jesus Christ has set up his kingdom on this earth. 1,290 days. Well, how long is that? Does anybody know how long 1,290 days is? Think of it, mull it over a little bit. It's actually a little bit more than three and a half years because three and a half years can be determined a few different ways. Three and a half years, the way that we look at years, 365 days in a year, right? So what's 365 times three? You got a calculator? Who brings a calculator to church? Brother Jordan. You got 365 times? 1,095. 1,095, okay. How about 365 times three and a half? Because we want to get, oh, that's on your iPhone. That's why you get both. So can you do 365 times 3.5? After I've done razzing you about it? 1,277.5. Okay, 1,277 and a half, okay. Now, here's the thing, though. Whenever we read the book of Revelation or Daniel, there's something that keeps coming clear as you study Revelation and Daniel, and that's that God is always dealing in these two books of Daniel and Revelation with 30-day months every time. 150 days equals five months. You know, 42 months equals 1,260 days. So he's not dealing with our solar year of 365 and a quarter days. He's dealing with basically just 12 months that are 30 days each. So either way you slice it, though, 1,290 is more than three and a half years, because even if you go by a solar year, that's only 1,277. And if you go by the Bible's prophetic three and a half years, it's always 1,203 score days. 1,260 days. So basically this is three and a half years plus 30 days. Okay, does everybody understand? You're like, what in the world are you talking about? So there's going to be a seven-year period that's described in the book of Revelation, right? The seven-year period, often known as Daniel's 70th week. You know, that's a term that man has given unto it because of the fact that the Bible talks about there are 69 weeks and then one week. And then in the middle of the week is when the abomination of desolation takes place. But is it at the exact center? No. Because if the week is 2,520 days long, which is how long it is, okay, 2,520 days, seven years at 360 days each, the way that God's calculating it, well then, 2,520 days, 1,290 is before the exact middle, because the exact middle is here, right? Well, 30 days before that exact middle is when this event, the abomination of desolation, is going to take place. But it's still in the midst of the week. For example, wouldn't you call tonight's service the midweek service, right? Wouldn't you say that Wednesday night church is in the middle of the week? But does that mean that we're just at the exact moment? You know, if we were to divide up how many hours there are in a week, which happens to be 168, if we were to just say there's 168 hours, you know, we're right here in the exact center, we're going to have church at, you know, this... No. Saying in the middle of the week, you know, Wednesday's in the middle of the week, you know, Thursday's in the middle of the week, too. I mean, Tuesday's in the middle of the week, and really 10 a.m. on Wednesday or 3 p.m. on Wednesday is still really the middle of the week, isn't it? And so when he says the midst of the week here, he's actually referring to 30 days before the exact dead center, because he's talking about 1,290 days from the end, okay? And I realize I'm getting a little heavy here, but, you know, I just want to explain this because it's in the chapter. So go back to Daniel 8. What does this mean in verse 13? Daniel 8, 13. He says, Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, Unto 2,300 days then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Okay. So that's another reason, of course, why we know that this has not happened yet, because the so-called historical account that tells us that this already happened lasted for far less than that, way less than even a year, okay? And this right here is explaining that this is going to go on for 2,300 days. Now, 2,300 days is not quite seven years, but it's over six years, isn't it? It's between six and seven years. But what you have to ask yourself about this whole thing is that the daily sacrifice being taken away, what is the daily sacrifice? Well, in the Old Testament, if you remember, they had what was called the morning and the evening sacrifice. They would sacrifice a lamb in the morning. They would sacrifice a lamb in the evening. They would sprinkle the blood on the altar. And that was a picture of Jesus Christ who would one day come and be the Lamb of God, which had taken away the sins of the world. Now, wait a minute. Do the Jews today still offer that sacrifice? No. See, the Judaism so-called of today has nothing to do with what the Old Testament taught. I mean, they claim, oh yeah, we follow Moses and the Old Testament. No. In the Old Testament, they were very clearly commanded to offer a lamb as a sacrifice on the altar to sprinkle the blood. Hey, that was a big part of what they were supposed to be doing in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was heavy on animal sacrifices, wasn't it? But when Jesus Christ came, He was the Lamb slain once for all. So are we supposed to offer an animal sacrifice today? No. That was pointing us toward Jesus Christ. Now that Jesus Christ has come, when Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn in half. And basically, He said there's a new way here, okay, into the holiest of all. And the book of Hebrews makes it clear, no animal sacrifice ever took away anyone's sins. But it was a picture signifying the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Therefore, they were commanded to offer those animals as a picture. So why aren't the Israelites doing it today? They don't believe in Jesus Christ. They don't believe Jesus Christ was the Messiah. They don't believe He was the Lamb of God that had taken away the sin of the world. So where's their sacrifice? He told them in the Old Testament I've given the blood on the altar as an atonement for your sins. So where is the modern day so-called Jews atonement? He has no salvation. He has no atonement. I'm not saying that they were saved in the Old Testament by offering those sacrifices. They were saved by looking forward to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We look back upon the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but let me tell you something. They don't believe in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and they're not even obeying the Old Testament. They don't even obey Genesis. They don't even obey Exodus. They don't even obey Leviticus. Because the so-called modern day Judaism has nothing to do with the Bible. It's a false religion. It's man's religion of the Pharisees and it's not a biblical religion. People say, oh, the Jews believe the Old Testament but not the New Testament. Nope. Jesus said if you believed Moses, you would believe in me because he's fake of me. But if you believe not his writings, how should you believe my words? He said the reason that you're rejecting me is because you don't believe the Bible. You don't believe Moses. You don't believe Genesis. All the way to Revelation. And that's why don't be fooled into thinking that Judaism is somehow a biblical religion. And I'm tired of being called Judeo... I'm not a Judeo-Christian. I'm...Christian is just fine. Because the Jews are worshiping another God, my friend. Now, when Jesus came on the scene, they were worshiping another God. That's why they rejected him and hung him on the cross. Now, there was a remnant. There were some believers. There was a group that believed on him and that was already saved when he got there. You know, they were already saved. They listened to him. They believed on him and everything. And then other people, he got them saved while he was on this earth and the apostles got them saved. And in the book of Acts, many more of the Jews got saved. But by and large, they were worshiping a false religion, either of the Pharisees or the Sadducees. And they were both... Pharisee and Sadducee were both false religions. It was like this false choice. You know, are you a Pharisee or a Sadducee? You know, they're both teaching false doctrine. It's like, well, you're a Calvinist or a Romanian. Well, they're both garbage, you know. They always want to give you these two choices, you know. Are you going to drink Coke or Pepsi? You know, it's like, it's the same drink. It's cola, you know. Coke or Pepsi. It's both genetically modified high fructose corn syrup, but that's another service. So the point is, you know, no. Sadducee or Pharisee? They're both false. John the Baptist came on the scene and rebuked them both. Jesus Christ preached against both of them and said, you've corrupted and perverted the word of God through your tradition. And they preached against it. So we see here that the daily sacrifice is not even being... I mean, on the Passover, the Jews don't even sacrifice the lamb. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying they should, because guess what? The lamb's already died 2,000 years ago. But wait a minute. In the book of Revelation, and in the book of Matthew and Mark and in Daniel, we're seeing this talk about the temple and the daily sacrifice being taken away. Now, the daily sacrifice isn't even happening. So basically, the daily sacrifice is going to start happening again, according to this. Now, let me say this quickly about the Jews. Let me get on them first, again, before I do this. People will try to say, oh, well, the reason they don't do the sacrifice is because they don't have the temple anymore, because the temple got destroyed, you know, in the first century. But hold on a second. They were doing the sacrifices long before that temple was ever built. In fact, God never even told them to build that temple. What did God tell them to build? The tabernacle. God told them to build a tabernacle, which was a tent, and they built that giant tent, according to God's specifications. The temple was the brainchild of man. King David wanted to build the temple, and God told him, he said, look, I never commanded this. I never said this. I never asked for this. But he said, since you want to build this temple for me, he said, you know what, it's good that you want it. Okay, go ahead and do it. And he said, here's how I want you to build it. And the temple was similar to the tabernacle. And basically, David built the temple, or I'm sorry, Solomon. David got all the supplies ready for him, and then Solomon built the temple, and so forth. But hold on. They were doing the sacrifice in the tabernacle before that. Are you telling me they can't build a tent today if they really believe the Bible? I'm not saying they should. I mean, hey, we're living in the New Testament, but if they really believe the Old Testament, they need to get some curtains and the rings and the tatches and all that stuff that you love to read about in the book of Exodus, the 50 rings and the 50 tatches and the 11 curtains and the two curtains overlap one another, you know, all that stuff, and start working on it. And not only that, but even before the tabernacle, they offered those sacrifices. Because even Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were offering those sacrifices on an altar that was made of whole stones. They would pile up stones, build an altar, and offer a sacrifice, all throughout the Old Testament. They didn't even have to have the tabernacle and the temple to do that. So that's not going to fly as an excuse for them. They just have their own religion, totally independent of the Bible, face it. It's based upon a different book called the Talmud, which is a totally man-made book that has nothing to do with the Bible. And it's a big, long... It's like as long as an encyclopedia, the Talmud. And it's a bunch of false teaching and garbage. But anyway, let's get off that. I got to hurry. I've only got two more minutes before I'm supposed to be done here. Because we have other things to do tonight. But in the last two minutes, let me just unlock for you the mysteries of the Bible prophecy here. No, I'm just kidding. In the last two minutes, let me say this. What's the 2,300 days? Well, the 2,300 days, according to this, is for the whole vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot. So that 2,300-day figure is from the time that the daily sacrifice begins to be offered once again during the tribulation until the end when, of course, the final judgments are poured out with the seventh trumpet, the seventh vial, and there shall be time no longer. That is 2,300 days. Now, if the whole week, the whole prophetic seven years last according to the Bible for 2,520 days, and we subtract 2,300, that leaves us with how many days? Two hundred and twenty days. So basically, from the time that the first seal is opened in Revelation 6, when he begins to open the seals, when the first seal is opened and the Antichrist first comes on the scene, he goes with the white horse and the crown and the bow and he went forth conquering the conquer, two hundred and twenty days later, they will be offering a daily sacrifice. Why? Because they're going to rebuild the temple. Because right now, the temple doesn't exist, does it? It hasn't been knocked down. There's a mosque there and whatever. But let me ask you this. Is that temple and that daily sacrifice to worship the God of the Bible or Jesus Christ? No. Because guess what? God does not ask us to offer an animal sacrifice. So this is going to be totally a denial that Jesus Christ the Messiah has already come. Now, follow my logic here. When Jesus Christ came, isn't that when the sacrifice was supposed to stop? You got that? The first time Jesus came. Behold the Lamb of God. Once he died on the cross, the veil was rent in half and basically that was the end of the sacrifice. And he said after that, we don't do that anymore. In the book of Hebrews, he spells it out. We don't offer a sacrifice. Jesus was the sacrifice. We're done. So here's what's going to happen. When the Antichrist comes on the scene, he's going to take power over the course of years. When he fully comes into his own and claims that he's God and sets up the image and proclaims that everyone must worship him as God, he's going to stop that second daily sacrifice because he's claiming to be Jesus. Like, okay, well, I'm here, you know. He gets a deadly wound and he's revived again. Remember, he receives a deadly wound. He's healed and rises from the dead but he's really coming up out of hell and being possessed by Satan and all that. So the bottom line is that he's basically imitating Jesus Christ here. So the Jews during the tribulation are going to set up a daily sacrifice. Is that of God? No. Does God want us to build that temple? No. Our body's the temple. We're living in the New Testament. Jesus had already died. So this is Satan here setting up that temple, Satan setting up the daily sacrifice, and setting it all up so that he can come in and be the one who steps in and says, I'm God, you know, and basically stop the sacrifice, stop all that stuff. And so that's what we see happening here in the Bible. It's pretty clear, you know, people will try to twist this and say that, oh, you know, the Jews building a temple, isn't that great? You know what? What they need to do is just receive Jesus Christ as Savior. You know what I mean? And believe on the Lord. They need to not set up some temple and offer a bunch of animal sacrifices. So, you know, at 220 days, they'll be building the temple. You know, they'll build the temple and offer the sacrifice and so forth. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this great chapter of the Bible. It's probably one of the more difficult chapters in the Bible. We went a little bit deeper tonight, but I pray that everyone would study to show themselves approved. Everyone would study the Bible and learn these things, dear God, because we're living in the last days. We don't know when these things will take place. It could be many, many years to come, or it could be very soon. But, Father, I just pray that you would help us to know when the time comes because we've studied our Bibles and we know what the Bible teaches. And help us to get as many people saved as we can, Jew or Gentile, because unless they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they are not saved. And so thank you for that ministry that we have. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.