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. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your song books and turn to song 250. Song 250 in your song books. We'll sing, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary. Actually, we're going to sing song 246. We'll sing song 250 next. It's too slow for the opening. Song 246, Redeemed. Redeemed and how left to proclaim it, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am, Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am, Redeemed and so happy in Jesus. No language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of His presence with me doth continually dwell, Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am. I think of my blessed Redeemer. I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent. His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am. I know I shall see in His beauty, the King in whose law I delight, who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night. Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Redeemed, Redeemed, His child and forever I am. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father of the Lord, we just want to thank you, God, just for everything that you've done today, God. Thank you for the service this morning. Thank you for the many souls that were saved this afternoon. I pray, Lord, that you would just now be with our pastor, with whom with your power and spirit, for it's in Jesus' name we ask all of it. Amen. Or you may be seated and turn to song 250. And now we'll sing Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary. Song 250. Days are filled with sorrow and care. Hearts are lonely and drear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Cast your care on Jesus today. Leave your worry and fear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Troubled soul, the Savior can see. Every heartache and tear. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary, Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Jesus is very near. Amen. So welcome back to Mountain Baptist Church on this Sunday afternoon. And before we get started here, I want to get the numbers for salvation. I think we had 13 this week because we had nine today. So we finally found the honey hole. That is what a honey hole is called when you get six people in one area there. But we had six in that group and then three in our group. And then I think we had four this week, right? Because there was three on Tuesday and then brother Richie, I think you had one the other day, right? Does that sound right? So we've gone from three to 13 this week. So I'll take that. That means we just have to add a one on our on our board over there. My pen will work. All right, so keep up the good work with soul winning. Don't forget that we do have soul winning time during the week at 6 p.m. We have the Tuesday time there. And then, you know, if you're on the WhatsApp too, I know others are going out maybe sometimes during other times. So definitely be on the lookout for that if you can make it out to those times. And then upcoming events, we just had the men's prayer meeting on here for right now. We have the chapter memory. So Second Timothy chapter four is our memory for the month. And so we'll be finishing up Second Timothy. Obviously coming into March, we'll have another book that we're going to try to memorize. So if there's any book out there, if anybody is saying, hey, I want to memorize this book, or I have a goal to do that, then, you know, maybe we can put that on here. Unless it's like Genesis or like Isaiah, I'm not putting that on here, because I want smaller ones for us as a church to try to work on. So if you if you want to memorize Genesis, then I'm glad for you. But yeah, so let me know if there's any book that you're trying to memorize. I think, Brother Anthony, you said you're doing 1 John. Did we do 1 John? Have we tried doing that one as a church? I don't think so. So maybe we can put that one on there. But if there's another one that you're thinking of, or someone else is thinking of, let me know. And then 1 John two and verse two is our memory verse for this week. And he's the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And so that's a good verse to have for soul winning birthdays. We don't have any birthdays until next week, as far as singing happy birthday. I can't think of anything else. Just be in prayer for those that aren't feeling well or that can't make it for whatever reason. I know during this season, there's a lot of sicknesses and just different things like that that people are dealing with. And so just be in prayer for that. Like I said, be in prayer for First Works Baptist Church and just that whole building situation. As far as I know, they're doing well as a church, but that's obviously frustrating and not fun to deal with there. And besides that, I think that's it for announcements. Everything else I already said in the morning, the offering box in the back there. Don't forget, I need a couple men to count the offering after the service. And yeah, I think that's it. So all the service times are the same this week. So nothing different there. Who's reading this afternoon? Brother Richie. Okay. So are they able to sing one more song? And then Brother Richie is going to be reading Daniel chapter one for us. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 247. Song 247. We'll sing Saved Saved. Song 247. I've found a friend who is all to me. His love is ever true. I love to tell how he lifted me and what his grace can do for you. Saved by his power divine, saved to new life sublime. Life now is sweet and my joy is complete for I'm saved, saved, saved. He saves me from every sin and harm, secures my soul each day. I'm leaning strong on his mighty arm. I know he'll guide me all the way. Saved by his power divine, saved to new life sublime. Life now is sweet and my joy is complete for I'm saved, saved, saved. When poor and needy and all alone in love, he said to me, come on to me and I'll lead you home to live with me eternally. Saved by his power divine, saved to new life sublime. Life now is sweet and my joy is complete for I'm saved, saved, saved. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Daniel chapter number one, Daniel chapter number one, and we'll have brother Richie read that for us. All right, Daniel chapter one, if you're there, say amen. All right, in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God. And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And the king spake unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king seed and of the princes, children whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Myshael, and Azariah, unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names. For he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and to Myshael of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my Lord the king who has appointed your meat and your drink. For why should he see your face as worse liking than the children which are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head to the king. Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had said over Daniel, Hananiah, Myshael, and Azariah, prove thy servants I beseech thee ten days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat, and as thou seest deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days. At the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink and gave them pulse. As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill and all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king communed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Myshael, and Azariah, therefore stood they before the king. And in all manners of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. And Daniel continued even under the first year of King Cyrus. And let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you for the second service. Thank you for the souls that were saved. I pray you will just be with Pastor Robinson as he preaches your word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. So you're there in Daniel chapter one, and we're continuing our series through the prophets. So this will actually be our last major prophet, and so the major prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, okay? And what we'll see here is that when we go back to Hosea, when we go to the minor prophets, you're going back in time, okay? So with Daniel, I first want you to see here where are we at in the timeline, which the book starts off really showing you this, but I'll say this, Daniel's one of my favorite books in the Old Testament. One, it's got some really cool stories in it. So when you think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the burning fiery furnace, you think of Daniel and the den of lions, and just a lot of cool stuff that's going on in the book of Daniel. And so that's fun, but then there's Bible prophecy. It's just a lot of deep stuff in here. So it's one of those books where I just constantly love going back into and seeing if I can find some other little nugget of information. And every time I read through here, I'm just like, I'm going to just lay off that right there, especially when you're in Daniel 11. You're just like, all right, well, you know, maybe one day I'll figure that out, you know, as far as what is this saying, what does this mean, you know, and all that. So but in Daniel 1 here in verse 1, it says, In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand with part of the vessels of the house of God, and he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God. And so if you know the story, and we kind of already hit on this because you're dealing with Jeremiah and Ezekiel of Jehoiakim, he reigns for 11 years, and at the end of that 11 years is when Jerusalem is taken captive, okay. And so what we're getting into is the fact that Daniel's coming out of this first captivity, if you will, where it starts off that 70-year period, because then when you get into Zedekiah who's reigning, you know, after that, he reigns for 11 years, and then Jerusalem's taken captive again, but then it's destroyed. It's completely annihilated, okay. The temple is taken out, all of that stuff, right. But so we see that it started in the third year of Jehoiakim that he started besieging it, but it wasn't until the 11th year that all the stuff was taken captive. Then you get into verse 3 there. It says, And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes, children in whom was no blemish, but well favored and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans. So he's basically saying go find children. So we know that Daniel was actually a child going into this captivity, which makes sense because at the end of the book, or at the end of this chapter actually, it states that he's there till Cyrus, to the first year of Cyrus, and he doesn't die in that first year of Cyrus. He just basically is no longer in Babylon because he'll have a vision in the third year of Cyrus, but he's on like the river somewhere outside of the palace. He's not like in the palace and the Chaldeans or anything like that. And so that means that from when he goes into captivity, that's 70 years, okay. So it makes sense that he's a child when he's going into this captivity, okay. He's not because Ezekiel, in the fifth year of the captivity, he was 30 years old, okay. So that means he was 25, you know Ezekiel's 25 going into this thing. Daniel's a child, okay. And so that makes sense that Daniel, and you say why is Daniel after Ezekiel? Because Daniel's taken place actually before Ezekiel starts. Does that make sense? Like when Daniel's coming in and they're talking about this whole thing with the meat and all that stuff, that's taking place before Ezekiel starts up in the fifth year of the captivity. But Daniel goes on way past Ezekiel, okay. He's going into Darius, he's going into Cyrus, and all that, okay. So that's why Daniel is after Ezekiel, because it's giving you information past Ezekiel, okay. So just to give you an idea of why, you know, it's Ezekiel then Daniel in just that chronological order. I keep reading there in verse 5 there it says, the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, under whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names, for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar, and to Hananiah of Shadrach, and of Mishael of Meshach, and to Azariah of Abednego. Now it's funny because when you think of Daniel you always think of Daniel, right. You don't think of Belteshazzar, but when you think of his three friends you don't think of Hananiah, I'm sorry, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. You think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right. So it's kind of interesting how that works because their names are the ones that are brought up in that story where they're going into the burning fiery furnace so you just think of that. And then later on you'll see where the king will call him Belteshazzar and you're like oh yeah that's Daniel, you know. And so anyway, you know, he has his three friends that are there and they are going into captivity but they're going to be brought up in the language of the Chaldeans and they were obviously wise children, right. We're dealing with smart children here and, you know, they weren't just finding any children so that means Daniel and his friends were very intelligent children that they were going to teach all this stuff to. Now one thing to realize about Daniel, and you'll realize that going through the book of Daniel, but he's a very righteous man, okay. And out of, you know, all the men in the Bible, he's one of the most righteous men in the Bible. You say well how do you know that? Well go to Ezekiel chapter 14. Ezekiel chapter 14, because Daniel's brought up in Ezekiel. And this is how I know Daniel was a very righteous man, okay, because God is bringing him up by name to basically talk about, you know, his righteousness. Now go to verse 12 there. So Ezekiel 14 verse 12, it says, the Lord, I mean, I'm sorry, the word of the Lord came again to me saying, Son of man, when the land sent against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it and will break the staff of the bread thereof and will send famine upon it and will cut off man and beast from it. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, said the Lord God. Now when you keep reading through this, which I'm not going to do right now, but if you keep reading through it, it'll mention it again, but it'll basically say I won't even save their children, only them. So he's basically giving a caveat. He's like, I'm destroying this, and the only people that I would save out of this would be Noah, Daniel, and Job. Okay, so we know Job was obviously a righteous man. The whole book of Job was talking about his righteousness. He was the most just man upon the earth, okay, and so I kind of gathered that from Noah. You would say he would probably be the most just person upon the earth, right, because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and him and his family were the only ones that were saved in the flood, and then Job, it just straight up says that he was the most just person upon the earth at that time, and I believe the same went for Daniel in his day, that he was the most just man upon the earth. That's just what I take away from this. When you lump them in with Noah and Job and saying, I would only save these three men, that's it. That's crazy to think about. Think about all the men in the Bible. You think of Moses, you know, you think of David, but you could probably be like, oh well David, you know, he committed adultery, he did this and that, you know, so it's like, well, he was a man of God's own heart, but he wasn't like that, but you think of like Joseph, you think of other people in the Bible that were, you know, great men, and Daniel was one that's being named here. Good Ezekiel chapter 28. Ezekiel chapter 28. He was not only known for being righteous, he was known for being wise, okay, and you say, well, that's just what people thought. This is God talking. This is God saying, it says Seth, the Lord God, okay, so when it says that I would only save Noah, Daniel, and Job, that's God saying that, and here we have the word Lord coming onto Ezekiel again, and he's talking to the Prince of Tyre, and this is where you get into the Prince of Tyre and the King of Tyre, and how you have this this lamentation about him being the devil, or basically he's like the devil, if you will, but notice what it says in verse 1. So Ezekiel 28 verse 1. It says, the word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the Prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord God, Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Notice in verse 3 here. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from thee. With thy wisdom and with thine understanding, thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures. By thy great wisdom and by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God, behold therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. So when he's talking to this prince, he's stating, you're wiser than Daniel. And he's not saying that like you're an idiot. He's saying that to say, hey, you have a lot of wisdom, and your wisdom is what's bringing you to elevate your heart to God. Basically, you think you know all this stuff. You have all this intelligence, okay? But, you know, that's lifting you up with pride, okay? Now, I could get into what this is talking about, or you get into the Antichrist, and you get into the fact that he's going to say he's God, and all that, and I believe this shows you that the Antichrist is going to be extremely wise, okay? You know that the term that Jesus uses is wise as serpents, and the devil is a serpent, okay? And he's definitely wise. Now, when I say wise, I'm not talking about like godly wisdom. I'm talking about the wisdom of this world, if you will, you know, just intelligence, craftiness, wisdom, right, when it comes to just being intelligent. And so he, you know, Daniel, outside the book of Daniel, is stating that this is a very righteous man and a very wise man, okay? So Daniel, you know, is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. You know, the stories are cool. It's just a fun book to read, but go to Daniel chapter 1 again in verse 8, and the thing you have to realize with Daniel is that when it says that he was that righteous to where God's saying, hey, I'll destroy everybody else, but you, Noah, and Job, okay, that's a high mark to be at. Can you imagine being in that list? Be like Moses, you know, like no one else? You're not gonna put it, Joshua? Like no one else would be in that list? Noah, Daniel, and Job, to be the top three, okay? When we talk about that, too, when you think of the disciples, right, you're like, I want to be the Peter, James, and John, right? You want to be the top. You want to be the elites, if you will, of the group. You don't want to just be of the 12. You want to be the three that saw him on the Mount of Transfiguration, right? You want to be in that group, and I can imagine, you know, who wouldn't want to be listed with Job and Noah, and so, anyway, that being said, it started off for a reason, and you have to understand this, is that he started off as a child coming and following God, okay? Notice what it says in verse 8. So Daniel 1, verse 8 says, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with a portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore, he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. This is when he's a child. If you understand, the children of Judah are being brought into the kingdom, and now, this starts off because it says they're going to do this for three years, but he's starting off stating, you know, he's beseeching this prince of the eunuchs that, hey, I don't want to defile myself with the king's meat, okay? And I'm not here to get into the whole, you know, what does that mean? Like, what was he eating? You know, what is that all, you know, detail there? The idea here is that he purposed in his heart when he was a child. Go to Lamentations chapter 3. So Lamentations chapter 3, you just go back a couple books, go back right before Ezekiel. Between Jeremiah and Ezekiel, you have Lamentations. Go to Lamentations chapter 3 and verse 27. Lamentations chapter 3 and verse 27, it says this, and this is one of my favorite verses that I held on to as a young man. Now I'm 36, so I'm old. No, I'm just kidding. I still hold on to this, you know. Like, it's not like I still consider myself young. Verse 27 says, it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. And the idea here is, and listen up, young ones, you know, the young men, young ladies that are here, you need to start following God when you're young. When you're young, okay. If you want to be, if you want to attain unto a Daniel, to a Noah, to a Job, if you want to have that type of wisdom, you need to start off young, okay. And you need to keep at it, even when you're older, okay. So right now, you're in a good church with good families and doctrines being preached, soul winning church, all this stuff. Don't take that for granted. You need to take advantage of it and you need to keep going forward. And when you get older and when you leave the house, don't just be like, well, I did that for a little while and now I'm not going to do anything. Because you're throwing away potential, okay. I'm not saying you lost your salvation, okay. Because obviously, you get saved and if you grew up and just left church and stopped going to church, you're still going to heaven, okay. But Daniel started when he was a child. He started purposing in his heart that he's going to follow God and that led to who he became later on, okay. So that's the one thing I get out, you know, when you think of Daniel here, is that he started off young, okay. And a lot of people think, well, when I get older, I'll start following God. You know, when I get to this age, when I get the 30, if I get the 40, or you know, whatever the case may be, when I get established in life, I'm going to start following God. No, you need to start now. That's why Jesus said, look, dead, buried, they're dead. You know, he's not saying like you shouldn't mourn for your parents. He's just stating that you need to follow me now. I don't care where you're at. I don't care what situation you're in. Follow me now. And you know, when you're a child, that's the best time. You have the most years in front of you and you have the most potential to do great things for God. Because listen, I wish I could, I wish I would have started younger. I wish I would have got saved younger. I would have more years to learn, you know, what I learned now. Because think about it, if I were to stay at the same track that I was on since I got saved at 17 years old, what if I got saved when I was 10 and I had seven more years to read the Bible and get on fire for God and doing all that, where would I be at now, okay, if I stayed on that track, okay? And what the problem is, is a lot of people that start off young, they take it for granted and then when they get out of church, they're just like, wow, I've already been doing that, you know, it's time to go just have fun. And you need to just, what's the Bible say? It says, it is good for a man that he buried, the yoke and his youth, you will not regret it when you're older and you're serving God and you have all this wisdom and knowledge that you wouldn't have had if you would have just waited until you're older, okay? And we were just talking about Bible memorization and the fact that how it's getting harder as you get older and I'm finding that out to be true and I'm not like old or anything like that, but from when I was in my 20s to now, it's harder. I'm sorry, it's harder to memorize and it's just one of those things where I'm just like, I'm trudging through it and it's a lot harder. When I was in my 20s, it's just, I just felt like I could just memorize a book in a week or something like that and just like, oh, that was easy and then just go on from that, okay? So you need to do this when you're young, you need to sponge up everything you can while you're young because you'll really enjoy that when you're older and you have all that wisdom when you're older. Now, I want to talk about the book of Daniel because this sermon is not going to go into the deep stuff, okay? If you want to go in the deep, I've already preached a whole series on Daniel, okay? Chapter 1 through chapter 12 and we try to, you know, turn over every rock, kick every dog, you know, we tried to do everything, you know, when we went through that. I'm sure I didn't get everything, okay? But this is not that sermon. This is going to be more of an overview of talking about Daniel, but first thing I want you to realize with the book of Daniel, it's very similar to Revelation in this aspect that chapter 1 through 6 are all chronological order, okay? And 1 through 6 is like basically a chronological timeline of Daniel and his friends, if you will, okay? So you start off with Nebuchadnezzar, he's a child. Chapter 2, you know, he has this dream and then he's going to kill everybody because no one can answer this dream and tell him what his dream is. Daniel comes in, tells him his dream. The next chapter you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, burning fiery furnace. Then you have, you know, Nebuchadnezzar getting saved, I believe. Then you have the fact that Belshazzar, which I believe is his grandson, who dies. Darius comes in and then you have King Darius in chapter 6 where you're dealing with the king of the Medes and the Persians and Daniel going to the den of lions, okay? So you kind of have this progression of time from Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, to Darius, okay? Chapter 7, you're all, you're going back to Belshazzar, okay? And 7 to 12 is all about, like, these visions that Daniel's having, okay? So it's kind of like you go through this time, like, all these cool events that happened to Daniel and then you come back to chapter 7 and it's like, okay, let's see what Daniel had concerning visions, okay, and prophecy. Now that's not to say that chapter 1 through 6 doesn't have prophecy in it, okay? Because when I went through these chapters, you'll see a lot of prophecy in these chapters, okay? But that helps you and you say, well, you know, that's weird that it does that. Yeah, Revelation does the same exact thing and that's what's interesting is because Daniel actually gives you the key, if you will, to understand how Revelation's set up. Revelation's the same way. There's 22 chapters, chapter 1 through 11, all chronological from first century AD all the way till when the seventh trumpet blows and, you know, basically the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, you know, it's like this finale. Chapter 12 goes all the way back to when Jesus is born and Herod's trying to kill him and then going into the great tribulation, the rapture, God's wrath, and then it goes a little further and goes into the thousand-year reign and goes into the new heaven, new earth, okay? But same thing, it's cut in half. So Daniel really gives you that key to show you, okay, they did it in Daniel and it's evident in Daniel, okay? Because it literally says like in chapter 7, you're just dealing with Darius there and in chapter 7, there's no doubt you've gone back in time. In chapter 7, it says, in the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, okay? Well, he died in chapter 5, okay? So you know that you've gone back in time but now you're dealing with all these visions, okay? So that's one thing to understand, Daniel, is that you go through the first six chapters, then it's coming back and now you're just dealing with these visions, okay? Now, another thing to notice with the pattern of Daniel, that there's another pattern there. All right, so follow me on this. Chapter 2 and chapter 7, I'm going to go, you know, kind of try to do it chronologically here. Chapter 2 and chapter 7 are kind of a parallel, okay? Chapter 2, you're dealing with this image that's dealing with these kingdoms, okay? You have the head of gold, the arms and, you know, torso of silver, then you have the thighs of brass and the legs of iron, right? And then the feet of iron and clay, okay? And so you have this image, right? That's the dream he has and it basically says, Baal and Nebuchadnezzar are that head of gold, then the next, the silver is going to be a kingdom inferior to you, then the next is going to be inferior to that, and then the next is going to be that, you know, so it goes down this line of these kingdoms. You have gold, silver, brass, and iron. Chapter 7, what do you start off with? You start off with these four beasts, you know, you have the lion, the leopard, the bear, and then the diverse beast, okay? Follows that same line as far as these four kingdoms in the earth, and that final one has 10 horns. How many toes does, you know, it doesn't, you see you have 10 toes on this image and you have 10 horns on this beast in chapter 7, so those two go together. Then three and six go together, okay? Three and six go together and that makes sense, right? Because you have Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They are getting thrown into the fiery furnace. God delivers them out of it. Chapter 6, you have Daniel going into the den of lions and he's delivered out of it, okay? See how those two match up? Then you have chapter 4 and 5. Chapter 4 and 5 go together because you have, you have King Nebuchadnezzar that's being humbled and then he comes back to God, right? Chapter 5, you have Belshazzar who's proud and dies, okay? So you have two kings, two different things happen to them, but those are two very similar stories as far as dealing with those two kings, Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. Chapter 8 and 11 go together. Chapter 8 and 11, okay? Both chapter 8 and 11 are dealing with, it starts off talking about the Medo-Persian empire and the Grecian empire fighting against each other. That's how both those two chapters start off and both of them go in talking about the abomination of desolation. Very similar. I view chapter 8 as an abridged version of chapter 11, okay? If you will. When you go into chapter 11, it's getting into a lot more detail as far as what chapter 8 was starting to talk about. So chapter 8 kind of sets you up like, hey, you know, this is what's going to go on. Chapter 11 is like, all right, let me give you the details of it. Then chapter 9 and 10, you can definitely see a correlation there and the fact that you're dealing with this Daniel's praying and this angel's come to show him this vision and all that, okay? So just to kind of throw it in there and you say, well, what about chapter 1 and 12? I don't know. It's the beginning and end of the book, all right? I don't, I got nothing for you there. No, I'm just kidding. But obviously those would be like the introduction and the finale, you know, if you will, of the book. But you'll definitely see that pattern. You may have noticed that, you know, when you're reading through and you're like, there's a pattern here. I'm seeing a pattern, but you may not put your finger on it, but there's definitely a pattern as far as how those chapters break down and how they mirror each other or parallel each other to a certain extent. So first we see in chapter 2, go to chapter 2 and verse 16, is that Daniel is an interpreter of dreams. So he's very similar to Joseph, okay? Because Joseph was, you know, the interpreter of dreams. You know, he interpreted the butler and the, well, the chef when he was in prison and he interpreted their dreams and then, you know, he went to Pharaoh and Pharaoh had those two dreams and he interpreted those dreams. Now this is a little more extreme because Nebuchadnezzar couldn't remember his dream, okay? And so the whole thing was like, there's all these magicians and astrologers like, well, tell us the dream and we'll tell you what it's about. He's like, it's gone from me and unless you tell me, I'm going to kill you all because I know you're going to gain time. I know that you're just going to make up something because you know that the dream is just pretty much coming out of my mind. I can't remember it. You've all been there, right? You've had a dream. So you can understand where Nebuchadnezzar is coming from. I'm not killing people, but I'm saying like, you can understand where he's coming from. Where you have a dream and you're like, it was so vivid, right? It was so vivid and you're just like, you're shook by this dream that you had, right? And then you wake up and you're like, what was that about? Like, how in the world did I forget that in the next five minutes that I'm sitting here, right? There are some dreams that you remember even when you're a child, right? So does anyone else remember dreams that when they were a kid, they remember dreams they had? So anyway, all I have to say is that Nebuchadnezzar has this dream but he can't remember it and he wants someone to answer it and Daniel is saying, hey, let me try to answer this, okay? Verse 16, it says, Daniel went in and desired the king that he would give him time and that he would show the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they would desire mercies of God, I'm sorry, of the God of heaven concerning the secret that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. So notice this is that he's not just saying, hey, I know how to do this, all right? I'm going to go in there and just figure this thing out. No, he comes back and he gets his friends and says, hey, I need you to pray with me that God will give me this dream, you know? Tell me what this is about and God does. He gives it to them. Verse 26, it says, and for sake of time I'm not going into the dream, okay? Go to my Daniel 2 sermon where I get into detail on this, but I'm just kind of getting the idea of what happens with Daniel. He's a child that purposes in his heart that he's not going to defy himself and God blesses him through that whole diet that he's doing with Paul's, right? And then here in chapter 2, God's blessing him by revealing this dream unto him so that he doesn't die, okay? In verse 26, it says, the king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, the seeker at which the king hath demanded, cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers show unto the king? I love this because Daniel's, he's not only, he's like, yeah, of course I could show you that. He's like, wait a minute, could these guys not show you the dream? It's like he's stabbing. He's like, you know, they've already been stabbed but he's just like twisting that knife in them like, yeah, you guys can't do that, can you? And just showing, this is before he tells the interpretation, okay? This is the confidence that Daniel has that the interpretation that God gave him is the right interpretation and that he knows exactly what this is, that he's, before he even gives it, he's like, hey, can no one else answer this? Oh, that's interesting. And then notice his answer here. Verse 28, but there is a God in heaven that reveals secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Notice how he gives the credit immediately to God. He's like, there's a God in heaven that can do this. And it says, thy dream and the visions of thy head upon thy bed are these. As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter? And he that reveals secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart. So he's basically saying, this isn't from my own wisdom, this is from God that you're getting this interpretation. And I love this because he's showing that, hey, first of all, this dreams about things that are going to come in the future. And I know we were kind of touching on this with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, but that's the big thing, or I'm sorry, we were in Isaiah even dealing with this, and the fact that these idols, he keeps saying, you know, ask these idols of things to come, see if they'll tell you. And he's making a point, he's like, no, there is a God in heaven, the true God can tell you what's going to happen in the future. And he ends up telling him the whole dream. And notice in verse 48, in verse 48, it says, then the king made Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon, but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. So he not only promoted Daniel, but Daniel also made sure that his friends were promoted with him. So we see that he goes from a child that has the the gumption, if you will, to basically fight the edict of the king to eat this meat and this wine that he didn't want to eat, and that he wouldn't defile himself, and whether that's like they were eating bacon, I don't know, you know, because obviously they were Hebrews, they were, you know, children of the Old Testament that they had certain things they're not supposed to eat, or customary things, whatever. The idea there is that he had that type of drive to say, no, I'm purposed in my heart, I'm not going to do it, and he got through that, then God gives him this dream to interpret, and how great is that, that you have this dream that no one even, the king didn't even know what he dreamt. And so you can imagine how the king would be be astonished at that, right? It's one thing to interpret a dream, right? There's all kinds of people out there that have interpretations. It's like, you know, well, I had a dream that I was losing my teeth. Well, you had the fear of loss. It's like, duh, right? I lost my teeth. I had the fear of losing my teeth, okay? You know, the people, they had dreams like that, you know, like what does it mean if you dream of, you know, of a dragon, or if you dream of this, or you dream of that? And anyway, so there's people out there that would kind of like try to interpret things based off what you're dreaming about, but to come up with the dream, be like, I forgot my dream, and then you tell them what your dream was, you know, that right there is miraculous. And so anyway, now, the book of Daniel is obviously a book of prophecy if you were to think of, okay, what's the Old Testament book dealing with end times prophecy? Most everybody's going to say Daniel, okay? And obviously the book that deals with prophecy in the New Testament, Revelation, okay? And go to Daniel chapter 12, and the thing that you have to understand when you're reading through the book of Daniel is that this is what the Bible would call a sealed book, okay? So the Old Testament, I would say the Old Testament in general is more of a sealed book, whereas the New Testament is more of an unsealed book, meaning that it's more revealed, okay? And that's what I'm going to get to is the fact that the Old Testament is more cryptic, it's more sealed up, and you have to like really know what you're going into to really kind of unlock a lot of these things, whereas the New Testament is just like, says it plain as day. You're not like having to really unlock a lot of stuff in the New Testament. It just is what it is. It says what it says. That's exactly the way it is. But I want to prove this to you that Daniel is a sealed book. Revelation is not sealed, okay? And you really need to understand this. If you're going to understand end times prophecy or eschatology, as the theologians would say, if you're going to understand end times prophecy, you need to understand this. You don't start in Daniel, okay? Daniel's a good book to study. I love Daniel, and it has a lot of good stuff in it, but you don't start there, okay? I'm not saying don't read it. I'm saying don't start your study there. You need to start in Revelation, and Daniel, actually you should start in the Gospels, okay? You should start everything. Everything as far as your Bible reading, when it comes to what you know, should start in the Gospels, and then work your way out from there, okay? And so in chapter 12 verse 8 here, it says, And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, O 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. So we see here that he's ending this book, pretty much stating that, hey, this book is sealed for the time of the end, okay? And you can understand, if you understand the timeline that, listen, Jesus has to come the first time, die on the cross, all that stuff hasn't happened yet. So this is stuff that's really going to be taking place after that. So you can understand why he's like sealed this up, it's for the time in the end, it's not something that's going to be coming up next, okay? Does that make sense? It's not the next thing to happen. So it's important, but seal it up, and all that. Go to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22, let's see what it says about Revelation, because Revelation 22, I'm sorry, Revelation in general, is written after Jesus died and rose again and is seated at the right hand of the father, okay? So Daniel was written before, Revelation is written after, and so, you know, all that about Jesus coming the first time has already happened, so notice what it says in Revelation 22 and verse 10. Revelation 22 and verse 10, and he saith unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. See the difference? What does it say in Daniel? It says seal up, it says, it says, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end, okay? They're basically saying seal this up, this isn't until the time of the end, basically like it's not, it's not the next thing to happen, okay? Revelation, it's saying don't seal this, because the time is at hand, and that same phrase, the time is at hand, by the way, it says the time is at hand, it doesn't say the day of the Lord is at hand, okay? Do you notice that? So the time is at hand dealing with what? All this stuff as far as the great tribulation, all that, that's what's coming up next on the calendar. Now go to Revelation chapter 1, how does the book start off? Revelation chapter 1 and verse 1, it says the revelation of Jesus Christ. I want you to understand, Revelation, you're talking about the revealing, okay? So you're dealing with something that's not closed up, not hidden, but revealed. The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John who bear record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth and he that heareth the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. The book starts off saying the time is at hand, you know, this is the revelation that's going to come and then it says in chapter 22, and he saith unto me, see all not the sayings of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand, okay? So it's very clear, do you see a stark difference between Revelation and Daniel? So if you're going to get into end times prophecy and you're going to go, all right, I'm going to go to the book of prophecy, you need to start in Revelation. Revelation is going to be the most clear, it's going to be the most revealed, and you should take Revelation and fit that to Daniel, not Daniel, and fit it into Revelation, and that's where people mess up because Daniel is going to be a lot more cryptic, it's going to be a lot more, I guess, sporadic, if you will, about what's being said, whereas Revelation is like, boom, after these things this happened, after these things this happened, after these things this happened, right? That is a common theme in Revelation, it's like, and after these things I saw this, and after these things I saw this, it's just like boom, boom, boom, boom, all this stuff's going in order over here. Chapter 12, all right, we're stepping back, we're going to go through it again, after these things this happened, after these things this happened, whereas in Daniel, you go in Daniel chapter 7 and you're reading through there and it'll basically go through a timeline, come back, and then it'll start going through it again, and then come back, go through it again, then come back and go through it again in one chapter. So you're not reading through this chapter and be like, oh this is from start to finish, no this is start to finish, start to finish, start to finish, start to finish, but when you read that knowing Revelation and you read Daniel, then you're like, all right, you know, these two verses, that's from start to finish, these two verses, that's from start to finish, these two verses, that's from start to finish, okay? And you can kind of see how it all fits, but if you're trying to go to Daniel and trying to figure this out, you're going to have some weird doctrine, okay? And go to Matthew chapter 24, Matthew chapter 24, and this is why, you know, when you're dealing with end-time prophecy, I believe you should start in the Gospels, because Jesus talks about what's going to happen in the end, and I believe what Jesus says in Matthew 24 is one of the most clear things that you can understand, if you don't have a preconceived idea going into this, okay? Meaning that if you're just a saved believer, reading the book of Matthew, and you read Matthew 24, you don't come out of this believing in the pre-trib rapture, okay? You come out of this believing that, hey, we got some hard times ahead of us, but Jesus is going to come save us out of that, you know? We're going to, you know, go through great tribulation, but then Jesus is going to come in the clouds and we're going to be caught up with him. That's as simple as it gets, okay? And then you go to Revelation and be like, all right, what's really going down in all this stuff, you know? And you're kind of seeing all the nitty-gritty of like the great tribulation, and then you start seeing the wrath. That doesn't really apply to us, but we still like seeing, you know, all this that's going to happen after that. And anyway, Matthew 24 and verse 15. It says, and when you, and the reason I'm going to Matthew 24 is not just because I want to get into end times prophecy here, but because Daniel is brought up by name, by Jesus, okay? So when you're looking at end times prophecy, you should always look up what was referenced in the New Testament. What's so important about Daniel that you should go back and look for it, okay? And what are we going to see here? It says in verse 15, when you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. So Daniel's only brought up in this spot right here in the New Testament, and what is he bringing up? The abomination of desolation. That means that is a key moment in the book of Daniel that he's saying, hey, go back and look at that, okay? You go back to Daniel and you need to look about, look up about the abomination of desolation. So when you're looking at Daniel, what's the most important thing dealing with end time prophecy that you should be looking at? The abomination of desolation, okay? I'm not saying there's not other stuff there that's good and important and good to see, but what's the most important thing? What did Jesus say? You need to be going back to Daniel to look at the abomination of desolation, okay? And it says, 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 and to 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, okay? So you know what this is telling you is that the abomination of desolation is kicking off this great tribulation. And this is the time where Jesus said you'll know, okay? Because before this he's saying you're gonna hear wars, rumors of wars, there's gonna be pestilences, there's gonna be earthquakes in diverse places, you know, but the time is not yet, right? It's kind of like you don't know if this is it because there's all that stuff could be happening, you know, that stuff's been happening for a long time, but you don't know if you're in it yet. He says when you see the abomination of desolation though, that's when you know, okay? You're like well when they build a temple and we see all these wars going on, there's a world war, maybe, maybe, but we don't know for sure because we don't know if they're going to try to do that. We don't know how many world wars have to happen before that happens, okay? Now we're thinking three because you know we had World War I, World War II, right? But there was a lot of wars in the past that wasn't just America by the way, okay? There was a lot of wars between other countries that were going on before that, okay? So that being said, you know, this is what we're looking for. Marx says the same thing, but notice that it says in Matthew 24 and verse 15, it says the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, okay? Stand in the holy place. Then Mark 13 verse 14 says something similar, but it says, but when you 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. So what is this talking about? Well go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and like I said you're starting off in the New Testament, you're like what is this talking about? Well we see that there's going to be something that's standing in the holy place, okay? And I believe this is the temple of God, okay? Meaning that there's going to be a reconstruction of the temple, and I believe that to be the case. I've kind of preached on this too is you say, well is it going to be actually like the temple of God? I think it will be because I believe it's going to be cleansed and that Jesus is going to rule and reign from Jerusalem and from that temple, okay? Obviously there's not going to be animal sacrifices being done because he is, you know, the sacrifice once for all, but what I'm saying is that I believe it's going to be cleansed because that's what the Bible says, both in Daniel and in Revelation, that it's going to be cleansed and that's why I believe there's going to be a physical temple, okay? It could be a tabernacle, it doesn't have to be stone and all these other things, it could be literally bars and boards and badger skins and goat skins, okay? That's what they had in the wilderness. But in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 1 here, I believe this is what it's talking about when it's talking about this abomination desolation and this abomination desolation standing in the holy place. It says in verse 1, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him 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. So he's basically saying, hey, when we're talking about the coming of the Lord and our gathering together, you know, i.e. the rapture, you know, don't be troubled to think that the day of Christ is at hand, okay? It's not at hand, it's not imminent. It says, Let no man deceive you by enemies, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Okay, what is this? The abomination desolation. You're dealing with this man of sin that's revealing himself to say he's God and he's sitting in the temple of God saying that he is God, okay? Now the abomination of desolation itself, I believe, is actually going to be the image that's set up, okay? And go to Revelation chapter 13. Revelation chapter 13, I'm not going to get into the image as much because, you know, forsake your time, okay? But I do want you to see that Revelation 13 talks about this too as far as this event, okay? This event happens in Revelation chapter 13, okay? So when you're reading Matthew 24, he says, okay, when you see this abomination desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place where it ought not, then you'll know, okay? Then you need to flee into the mountains and then you're going to have great tribulations such as the world has never seen. And then you couple that with 2 Thessalonians where it's saying, hey, this is where he's going to say he's God, in the temple of God, okay? And then you look at Revelation chapter 13, which is interesting because the beginning of the chapter here is calling back to Daniel 7, okay? For sake of time, I'm not getting into that. Like I said, if you want to get really in deep on Daniel, then you've got to go back to my sermons on Daniel because that's way too deep for me to go into every little thing in one sermon. In verse 1, it says, And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. So here we see those four beasts that we saw, although this is one culmination here. Verse 3, And I saw one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world wondered after the beast, and they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouse, speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth and blasphemed me against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations. So what are you dealing with here? You're dealing with the man of sin, the son of perdition, going into the temple of God, saying that he's God, he's blaspheming God, and you say, okay, I thought we were talking about Daniel. Okay, well, the reason I did that is because I want you to see, do you see how that all makes sense before we even get to Daniel? Okay, I haven't even gone to Daniel yet. The fact that Jesus said there's going to be this abomination, a desolation that's set up, that's standing in the holy place. Second Thessalonians says that the man of sin is going to be in the temple of God, saying that he is God. Then Revelation 13, it shows the same thing, how he's going to speak blasphemies against the tabernacle, and then he's going to have power for 42 months over the saints. He's going to make war with the saints, the great tribulation. Okay, so we haven't even got to Daniel, and you can already see kind of the blueprints, but that doesn't mean that it's not, you still should go back to Daniel. Okay, and this isn't a sermon saying, don't go back to Daniel. It's too cryptic to understand. What I'm saying is get your foundation in the New Testament, and then when you go back to Daniel, you've already got established that in chapter 12 of Revelation, you deal with the first three and a half years. You have the 1260 days, the time, times, and half of time. That takes place before you even get to this point, and then you have 42 months, the other three and a half years where the Antichrist is ruling and reigning over the whole earth, and he's making war with the saints. Now I'll go to Daniel chapter 8, because I'm going to show you the abomination desolation is talked about in Daniel 8, Daniel 9, Daniel 11, and Daniel 12. And it's obviously alluded to in chapter 7, okay, but you know, it's not specifically called out. Okay, so when Jesus is saying, hey, when you see the abomination desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, it's not like there's just one spot where Daniel talked about it. Okay, Daniel 8, 9, 11, 12, and 10, you're like, what about, what happened to 10? Well, 10 is like just this dissertation between him and this angel for a little bit, but Daniel 10 through 12 is all one vision. Okay, Daniel 10 is like setting you up for the vision. Daniel 11 and 12 is the vision. Okay, now in verse 8 here, verse 8, and honestly this is the last thing I'm going to show you, and then we're done. Okay, so I just want you to see that if Jesus is saying the abomination desolation, that's, what should you go back to Daniel for? Abomination desolation. Now let's see where it talks about the abomination desolation. Verse 11, so you're in chapter 8, verse 11. 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 a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered. 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 two thousand and three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Okay, now if you look at that chart over there, it's got all these numbers and timelines and all that stuff in there, and I've gone through this a couple times as far as all these timelines, but here we see this is really a timeline of a lot of time. Okay, meaning that it's going all the way to the end when the tabernacle is cleansed, which is the seventh trumpet that's being sounded, right, seventh trumpet, seventh vial, the end of God being, you know, pouring out his wrath, that it's cleansed, and it's, and you come all the way back before the abominated desolation, all the way back to where they're doing sacrifices. Okay, so this shows you that, hey, that there's a temple, and they're doing sacrifices, and this starts off some point right into the seven-year period. Okay, so you're kind of like a few months in, and they're doing these sacrifices, and then you get to the midpoint of the week, and then the sacrifices are taken away, and then this abomination of desolation is set up. Okay, go to chapter nine. Chapter nine, we'll see another place where it mentions this. This is actually, chapter nine is the only place where you really see a seven-year period, and it doesn't even say that, but we understand it is a seven-year period because it talks about 70 weeks are determined upon Israel, upon the holy city, and those weeks are weeks of years. Okay, don't have time to really get into that, but the idea here is that it talks about 69 weeks coming up to where Jesus is crucified. Okay, these 70 weeks, but then there's obviously a gap between that and the final week. Okay, and that's why it's called Daniel's 70th week. Okay, so if you ever see that, and you're like, why is it called the 70th week? What are you talking about? Okay, I thought it was a seven-year period. It is, but it's the final week, okay, of those 70 that he was talking about. So we're waiting for this final week of years, which would be seven years, and so in Daniel 9, this is where we see this in verse 27, it says, and he shall, I'm sorry, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. This is talking about the Antichrist confirming his covenant for one week. That means the Antichrist is there for that whole seven-year period. The Antichrist doesn't come into power until the middle of that, the midst of that, okay, where he's in power, and by the way, you may not have known this, but the Antichrist is actually going to die, and he's going to be raised from the dead. He's going to ascend out of the bottomless pit. Okay, that's why everybody's going to wonder after the beast. It's not that he just got some like deadly wound, and he, you know, as far as like he's got hurt real bad, and then he survived. No, he died, okay, and then he comes and ascends out of the bottomless pit, and that's why everybody thinks he's the Christ, okay. Obviously, we're not going to believe that, but it says, and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. Sound familiar? That's exactly what was talked about in chapter eight, and for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. Okay, so this is actually giving the whole timeline because this, I believe, is talking about the consummations dealing with the wrath of God that's going to be poured out upon them during his reign, okay. In that week, there's going to be the wrath of God that's being poured out on him when he's ruling and reigning for those 42 months, but we see the overspreading of the abominations. He shall make it desolate. Go to chapter 11. Chapter 11. I'd say chapter 11 is probably the most expounded as far as what's going on at that time. Like I said, chapter 11 is the one where there's a lot of stuff in there that will probably make more sense once we get closer to the time, or when it happens, you'll be like, oh yeah, that verse applied to that person over there. This applied to this country over here, but as of right now, you know, we can just speculate, you know, who these people are, who's this coming from, because everybody's like, well, who, you know, is it going to be the Pope? Is it going to be this person? You know, everybody's just got their views as far as who's going to be the Antichrist, but in chapter 11, verse 30 there, it says, for the ships of Kidom shall come against him, therefore he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do. He shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. An arm shall stand on his part and he shall pollute the sanctuary strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that make it desolate. And such as do wickedly against the covenant, shall he corrupt by flatteries, but the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. Okay, so you see, okay, what's going on during this? And that really kind of gives you a key, too, when Jesus is saying, you know, flee into the mountains, it doesn't mean that we're not going to be doing great exploits, because when you're dealing with that, they're in Jerusalem, they're in Judea, where this is all going down, okay? And we're supposed to still be preaching the Gospel during that time, and it basically says that if you're persecuted in one city, go to another city. Okay? And then he says that you will not go over all the cities of Israel until the Son of Man is come. So he's basically stating that, you know, you're going to be persecuted and just keep preaching the Gospel, keep preaching the Gospel, and you're not going to run out of cities. That's pretty much what it's coming down to, right? Does that make sense? Like, you're not going to run out of cities to flee to if they don't want to receive you, okay? Now, that being said, there's going to be great exploits, but go down to verse 36, because what you'll see in the New Testament is that you'll see, okay, Jesus talks about the Abominations and Desolation. Second Thessalonians is talking about the man of sin coming into the temple of God saying that he's God. Both those things are true, okay? Meaning this is that at the same time that he's setting up this image and he's stating that, you know, he's taking away the daily sacrifice, he's setting up this image, all that's going on in the Abominations and Desolation, he's in the temple saying he's God, okay? Verse 36, it says, And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god. And he shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all. Sound familiar? But see, going into this, you already know, okay, I know where that fits, I know where this fits, I know, you know, so when you're going into Daniel from the New Testament, you already know where this applies. But if you're just reading Daniel, you're like, when does this take place? You know, where are we at in the timeline? Is this just Greece? Okay? Because you're dealing with the Grecian Empire. But when Jesus is saying, hey, look back to Daniel, when you see the abomination desolation, you notice that's telling you, is that that's happening again, okay? It happened back in their day in the Grecian Empire, but it's going to happen again with the Antichrist, with the man of sin. So it's not just like, oh, that's already been done, we don't need to worry about that, he's calling you back to it. Now go to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel chapter 12, last place, I'll show you here. And like I said, I just kind of wanted to show you this, that if Jesus said, hey, when you go back to Daniel, you need to be looking about this. You know, abomination desolation, look at Daniel. And you can tell that it's in a lot of places that this is brought up, because this is the pivotal point that you're going to know you're in the Great Tribulation. This is what he says, hey, when you see this, all right, you'll know. In verse 11, so Daniel 12, verse 11, it says, from the time that daily sacrifice shall be taken away, in the abomination that make a desolate setup, there shall be a 1290 days. So he's basically saying that when the abomination desolation set up, it's going to be 1290 days till the end, okay. Which is a little more than 1260, but if you understand 1260 goes to when the seventh trumpet sounds, but when the seventh trumpet sounds, there's still stuff that's going on, okay. You know, the great hail is coming down, all the nations are falling, and Babylon's coming into remembrance, and then you have the battle of Armageddon, okay. The marriage supper to lamb is all going on in that 30-day period before you get to the thousand-year reign, okay. And then it goes on to there after that, it says, blessed is he that walketh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, so 1335, but go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. And I believe that number is actually talking about from the beginning of the week to when the rapture happens, which would be 75 days after the abomination of desolation. That means that there's going to be about 75 days of great tribulation. You say, why is it only 75 days? Because those days were shortened. It was supposed to be 42 months, supposed to be three and a half years. And what Jesus said, and that's where you go back to the New Testament and it explains all of this, and it says the days were shortened because except the days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. That means that if we were here for 42 months of great tribulation, no one would survive. We would all die. But because he shortened it, he that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved, okay. And so Daniel's a great book, and I'm just scratching the surface with it here to kind of give you a preview of it, and Daniel the prophet himself, but it's one of my favorites. And you know, I don't think I'll ever feel like I understand everything in Daniel. It's just one of those books that is a deep book that has a lot of information in it, and so it's a fun book to obviously study, but that's the prophet Daniel. So we'll be getting into the minor prophets, Lord willing, next week. And so those are the ones that I was kind of really wanting to get to because those are the ones that I feel like a lot of people maybe don't know or think about, and you know, that's the whole point of this series is so that you feel like you have a good grasp of these prophets. So that's something with the word of prayer. Daniel the father, we thank you for today. Thank you for your word, and just pray that you be with us as we go home and as we go back to work this week. I pray that you would be with our families, bless them, and with health, and just be with us, give us travel mercies, and Lord we just love you. Pray this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Another day will come. Sing one more song, and that will be dismissed. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 244. Song 244. We'll sing Amazing Grace. If you would stand, we'll sing song 244. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see. Twas grace that...