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[0:00] Let's pray then. Lord, thank you for the privilege it is to gather together. Thank you for our warm building and for those that are here.

[0:11] I pray that you would help us to understand your word. You would help to go deep into our hearts. You would help us to know you and help us to know how to live. We want to honor you with everything that we have.

[0:22] We want to be thrilled with you, and we just pray that you would do that for us in your word. In Christ's name, amen. Amen. Amen. So today, Daniel chapter 12.

[0:34] This is it. This is it. No more Daniel after this. So today's the end of Daniel. What we're going to do, just so you'll know logistically, next week, next Thursday, we're going to take off.

[0:50] Okay? We're just going to have one Thursday off. Then we're going to come back. And I'm going to do a couple of Bible studies that are going to not really be necessarily in a series. Just going to do some one-off Bible studies on some particular topics.

[1:04] And then when I get done with the Wednesday night, when they're done with Daniel, I'm going to start everybody on a new series. And we're going to go through the Ten Commandments. We're going to walk through the Ten Commandments.

[1:16] Learn the Ten Commandments. Learn why they're there. How to use them. And I think it will be a good thing for us. And so it won't have all this apocalyptic language.

[1:27] Right? It's pretty straightforward, clear, seemingly. So anyway, that's what we're going to do. So as we're starting into Daniel 12, we're really looking from about verse 5 through about verse 13.

[1:42] And I was going to, if somebody would, here in a minute, be ready to read that. But before we read that, I want to kind of go back over and look at some of the big picture again.

[1:58] Here, one of the things to remember is that this screen is showing us a couple of things. One, it's showing us the whole Babylonian captivity, the 70 years of exile.

[2:12] Come over here. Can y'all, are you at an angle where you can see this? I can see it well enough. Okay. So we have the Babylonian captivity here, which was about 70 years.

[2:25] Pretty much it was throughout Babylon's time. The first year of Cyrus, who's a Persian, that's when they get sent back. Okay.

[2:36] Yeah, come on in. Thank you. Over here, I've taken the chapters of Daniel, and I've put them in chronological order of when that happened.

[2:47] Okay. And so we have been, from Daniel 7 forward, it's been all these visions that Daniel has had. And he's had the vision of the four beasts.

[3:00] He's had the vision of the goat and the ram. He's had the reading of Jeremiah and also the vision of the 77s or the 70 weeks. And now, chapter 10, 11, 12 is the final vision.

[3:13] And it's this vision of war. You'll remember last week, it was king of the north, king of the south, king of the north, king of the south, king of the north, king of the south. Like, it was just mind-boggling.

[3:24] And today, we're finishing up with chapter 12. So that's just how Daniel works. But now, now...

[3:36] Hey, could you go back? Yes? Just get a quick picture of that. Me? No. No, Jill. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because we don't have it on the handout anywhere.

[3:46] No, you don't, but I can... It's going to be... Yeah, no, that's... If you want to come up here and take a picture so that it's a closer picture...

[3:56] That's good. Okay. We're good. No. Oh, okay. It's okay. The slide, not me. Okay, I got you. I got you. I got you. Did it cramp your style?

[4:10] That's what they do. She took pictures of the timeline. So, this slide... Nebuchadnezzar had a vision. He had a couple of visions.

[4:22] One of his visions was the statue. It had a golden head. It had silver chest and arms. It had bronze thighs and belly.

[4:33] It had the iron legs with the clay. That was Babylon. Right? Gold was Babylon. Silver was Persia.

[4:44] Here comes Persia here. It's replaced by Greece. And Greece is replaced by Rome. Those are those four metals, right? And so, these visions take up this sort of time period.

[4:57] On this timeline, are those times the span of that kingdom? Is that what that is above the top? What are those? Yes. Yeah. So, well... Hang on.

[5:08] Hang on. Let me remember. So, this is all Babylon. Then Persia replaced it.

[5:18] This is Persia. And... Yeah, that's about right. This one, I didn't have room for a fourth block. So, this is like Greece and Rome. I'm sorry. I'll have to come up with a better thing.

[5:30] Okay. And, you know, I have this thought here. I'm not trying to get through. Well, let me...

[5:40] If you can just remember, there's four kingdoms plus one. Okay? Everybody say that with me. There's four kingdoms plus one. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome.

[5:51] And then the fifth kingdom, in chapter two, it was the stone cut out without hands that became the mountain. It was Christ. And in chapter seven, instead of the metals, you had the four kingdoms that all look like beasts, right?

[6:06] You had the lion. You had the... Bear. Bear. You had the... Panther. Panther. Panther, leopard. And then the fourth beast was this monstrosity.

[6:18] And then you had the son of man, the fifth kingdom. So, if you will remember that, and it's Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome.

[6:29] Then you've got Daniel. Because Daniel's only talking about those kingdoms. Some of what he talks about gets used to kind of illustrate the future past where we are.

[6:42] But almost all of Daniel is taking place. And he's talking about something that happens past Daniel up to the time of Christ. So, this map here shows us the vision of 10, 11, and 12.

[6:59] Greece was ruled by Alexander the Great. Alexander the Great dies. His kingdom is split into four. And you'll remember that this is the king of the south, the Ptolemies.

[7:15] Seleucus is the king of the north, which eventually is Antiochus Epiphanes. We talked about him. And all of 10 and 11 was this sort of back and forth, back and forth, back and forth of all these things that happened.

[7:29] When we get to chapter 12, it's kind of like the wrap-up. Okay? And I think that's... Well, the Antiochus dudes were bad dudes.

[7:42] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They were very bad dudes. So, let's listen to chapter 12, verse 5 through 13. Michelle? Yes, please.

[7:53] Then I, Daniel, looked, and two others were standing there, one on this bank of the river and one on the other. One of them said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river, How long until the end of these wondrous things?

[8:08] Then I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the water of the river. He raised both his hands toward heaven and swore by him who lives eternally that it would be for a time, times, and half a time.

[8:21] When the power of the holy people is shattered, all these things will be completed. I heard, but did not understand. So I asked, My Lord, what will be the outcome of these things?

[8:32] He said, Go on your way, Daniel, for the words are secret and sealed until the time of the end. Many will be purified, be cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly.

[8:44] None of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand. From the time the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days.

[8:57] Happy is the one who waits for and reaches 1335 days. But as for you, go on your way to the end. You will rest, and then you will stand to receive your allotted inheritance at the end of the days.

[9:11] Okay. That passage can kind of be broken down into like two parts just to kind of help us sort of grapple with it.

[9:23] And basically the two questions that get asked will help us sort of separate it out. The first question that gets asked is there between verse 5 and 7.

[9:34] And the question is, How long until the end of these wonders? Now this question is asked not by Daniel, but by one of the two that are with Daniel.

[9:47] And this is, maybe this is a vision that Daniel's having. Maybe this is something that's happening. We're not told. I think it's kind of vision. And one of these people asked this question.

[9:57] I think one of these people is probably an angel, but be that as it may. Verse 5 says, Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river and one on that bank of the river.

[10:12] And then they asked the man in linen the question, How long until these wonders cease? And here's what you need to know about the word wonders.

[10:24] The word wonders is the same word that you find in the book of Exodus that speaks about the plagues that God brought upon Egypt. So it's not wonders as in beautiful things and wonderful things.

[10:37] It's destruction, distress, and terrible things. Okay? And so they want to know how long until the end. When will these wonders cease?

[10:50] When will these terrible things cease? The answer is going to be, if you keep following what I keep telling you about four kingdoms and plus one, and you look at the flow of history, what I've been contending and saying is that the end of these distresses happens in 70 A.D.

[11:19] That's the end of it. Okay? 70 A.D. That's when Jerusalem is destroyed. That's when the temple was destroyed. That's when the Jews were scattered away from their homeland for kind of a final time.

[11:33] Okay? So, but as the answer to the question comes, the answer is given in a visual way.

[11:44] The man who's in linen is above the waters of the river. So, so there's, here's, here's the river, right? And there's one man over here. There's one man over there. The man in linen is above the rivers.

[11:56] I take that to mean that he's up in the air. And then he raises both hands to heaven and he makes an oath. He swears an oath.

[12:07] Now, the reason it's important that you understand that he's swearing an oath is that is how a covenant is made. A covenant is a sworn oath.

[12:19] Right? It's a promise, but it's a promise that's sealed with an oath. So that's, like, Abraham in Genesis chapter 5.

[12:30] The reason that the animals are cut and put on both sides is that to pass through, you're swearing by your own hurt. And even in Genesis 15, God says, I swear.

[12:42] Right? So, the new covenant that we talk about, Jesus' blood, it's a sworn oath. So here's this man in linen, both hands raised, swearing an oath.

[12:54] He's making a covenant. Okay? Now, that's visually what's happening. Verbally, what happens is that he gives the answer that the length of time is going to be time, times, and half a time.

[13:08] Now, we've already seen that before back in chapter 7. And you'll remember that that is three and a half. Okay? It's three and a half years, three and a half weeks, three and a half times, whatever that is.

[13:24] It's three and a half. So it's not a full complete. Seven is complete. Three and a half is half of that. It's not a complete time. Or let me say it this way.

[13:34] It's a limited time. And it doesn't bring a completion. Right? It's, it's, it's, if you allow it to go to seven, it would bring complete destruction.

[13:46] So it doesn't bring complete destruction. The second thing that he says is that it would, it would be when the people, the holy people have their power shattered.

[13:57] The holy people have their power shattered. And so here's, here's what I think we know. What I think we know is that historically, verse chapters 10, 11, and 12, again, is this flow of history from, from the split of Greece all the way to 70 AD.

[14:19] These things happen in the Roman Empire and the first coming of Christ. It ends with the destruction in 70 AD. The reason that the people have their power shattered.

[14:30] Third, you need to read some history on what happens in the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Because the destruction of that was terrible.

[14:41] I've told you before a little bit about that. You've got this civil war that happens between the Jews before Rome comes in. These three factions that didn't like each other.

[14:51] They all wanted control. They all wanted power. And they kept burning like their food supplies. They kept burning other things. So by the time the Romans get there, the city is already in a terrible shape.

[15:05] Many of the Roman soldiers, at first, Titus, who led them, tried to keep them from doing as much. But he couldn't control them. And they just went crazy.

[15:16] They were told that the mortar that held the bricks together in the temple had gold in them. So they were tearing brick after brick after brick and collecting mortar.

[15:26] Because Jesus had promised in Matthew 24, not one stone would be left on another. Right? And so that's what this is talking about. These guys are asking the man in linen, how long will all of this distress happen?

[15:42] And it's like all the way until 70 AD. That's when it's going to end. Here's the question, though. Do they have any hope at all?

[15:57] As you look at these Jews. Because here's what's going to happen. Daniel is at the end of his life. And he's writing these things down. Okay?

[16:08] And as he's writing these things down, he's leaving this writing for the people who follow him. So all through this period that's about to come, they have Daniel's writing.

[16:19] They could be reading. They could be seeing. And one of the things, two things that should bring them hope. One is the three and a half. That is, it's a limited time.

[16:31] It's not going to be forever. But the second thing is the man in linen. Now, I've made the case back in chapter 10 that the man in linen is the pre-incarnate Christ.

[16:44] I still think that's right. And I think it's even more so because what he does is he swears an oath that it will be for a limited time. So he's the one who, because his people have sinned, he's allowing destruction to come upon them.

[17:02] And he's the one who can ultimately save them. If you go back to chapter 9, chapter 9 is all about the redemption that's in him. Right? Because he's coming in in that last week of the 70 weeks in order to put an end to sin, to bring in everlasting righteousness.

[17:20] And so here is their God swearing an oath that it's going to be for a limited time. So that's the first question. Okay? Just kind of taking all that in.

[17:31] Let's talk about the second question. The second question is from Daniel. Daniel is the one asking this question. And in verse 8, he says, As for me, I heard but could not understand.

[17:47] So I said, My Lord, what will be the outcome of these events? Now his question is a little different, right? What is he asking by his question? How bad is it going to be?

[18:00] How bad is it going to be? What are some of the things that are going to happen? What's the if? What's the if? What's the if? Yeah. So the answer is actually in a chiastic structure.

[18:14] I don't know if I put this on my, I didn't put it on my slides. I meant to put it on my slides. I apologize. Think of it this way. Verse 9 says, Daniel, go.

[18:26] Verse 13 says, Daniel, go. And in the middle, verse 10, 11, and 12, actually speak about the effects that all this is going to have.

[18:37] Okay? So Daniel 9 and Daniel 13 kind of bookend this middle section. Okay? And the effects, the things that are going to happen, the outcome is, number one, you've got two different groups of people that are being talked about in verse 10.

[18:54] Many will be purged, purified, and refined, but the wicked. Okay? So you immediately get this idea that there's two groups, right? The wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand.

[19:11] So you have those with insight who are the wise, and you have the wicked. So whatever the effects are going to be, it's going to separate these two groups. Okay?

[19:22] The wise are those who are going to be purged, purified, and refined. They have insight. They're wise. The wicked will act wickedly, and there's a place in Revelation that picks up that same theme, that wicked, the wicked do wickedly.

[19:36] And they will not understand. It says that none of the wicked will understand. This understanding here does not mean that they lack intelligence. It doesn't mean that they are ignorant of things.

[19:50] It means that they are willfully rejecting. You ever said to your kid, you told them to do something, and then you said to them when they didn't do it, you say, well, why aren't you listening to me?

[20:08] But we don't really mean listening to me. We know they heard us. We mean, why didn't you do what I said? Right? This is the same kind of thought here. There's also given to us two different time markers in verses 11 and 12.

[20:23] From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1290 days.

[20:34] How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 or 1335 days. So your time stamps are going to be the regular sacrifice is abolished to the abomination of desolation.

[20:50] That's the beginning and end. If we go back to chapter 9, the abolishing of the regular sacrifice happens because of Christ dying upon the cross.

[21:03] Okay? That's the theological end to the sacrifice. But the abomination of desolation, that's Rome surrounding Jerusalem. Right? And as they do, they desecrate the temple.

[21:16] And so before they destroy it, Titus goes in. He takes a copy of the scroll of the law and cuts it in pieces, brings harlots into the temple. You get the drift.

[21:27] Right? They desecrate the place. They make sacrifices of pigs and all kinds of things. Then they destroy it. So from the sacrifice to there, that's how long this is, or that's the effect of it.

[21:41] Okay? Then it says 1290 days to 1335. Okay. Let's just think about this math-wise for a second.

[21:57] 1290 days will pass and the abomination of desolation will be set up. So 1290 days is 30 days longer than three and a half years.

[22:08] Three and a half years is 42 months, 1260 days. So 1290 days is 30 days longer. 1335 is 45 days longer than 1290, which is 75 days past three and a half years.

[22:22] Why do I say all that? Because what is all of that? And the answer is, I do not know. But here's the thing.

[22:33] I don't think we have to know. I think what we need to see is that, you know, Daniel and his friends, they have been in Babylon for a little over 70 years.

[22:44] It's the third year of Cyrus. The Jews were sent back home in the first year. They started rebuilding the temple, but trouble came and now they've stopped.

[22:57] And they've stopped because of troubles and persecutions and problems. And Daniel knows that this is only the beginning of birth pains. This is the beginning of persecutions and troubles because God has showed him how all of these things are going to unfold.

[23:13] So now God is finishing up telling Daniel about this flow of history of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and about the fifth kingdom that's coming in the Messiah. And he is told that these things will happen in a short period of time.

[23:27] It will be a limited time. Then it will be over. And I think that's what we have to take from it. It's going to be a short time, a limited time. Then it's going to be over. Ultimately, what the answer that Daniel is given about what will happen is it's going to be sealed up until these things come about.

[23:48] Daniel, I've told you. Now let's just seal it up and leave it. So here's what I want to do. I want to take a slight detour because here's what we have to sort of grasp.

[24:02] When we tend to say and talk about the last days, we're in the last days, we tend to think to ourselves that the second coming of Christ is just moments away.

[24:18] But I want to show you from the New Testament how we should think about the last days. Okay? And this comes back into Daniel because most people will take all this stuff about Daniel and shove it out into our future somewhere.

[24:35] Okay? So let's look at a couple of New Testament passages. This is 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11, talking about things that happened to the Jews. He says, now these things happened to them, the Jews, as they were wandering in the wilderness, as an example.

[24:52] And they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Paul considered himself to be in the end of the ages.

[25:05] That's an interesting thought there. Okay? Romans 13, 11. Now Romans 13 is about submitting to governing authorities, right? He says, do this knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep.

[25:23] For our salvation is nearer to us than when we believe. So he's moving away from the word day to the word hour. This is the hour. Okay? He's talking a little bit about some end times.

[25:33] Now we're going to really start to crank it up here. You too be patient. Strengthen your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near. Okay? He sees that that coming of the Lord is near.

[25:44] Then 1 Peter 4, verse 7. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment and sober mind for the purpose of prayer. Again, the end of all things is near.

[25:58] Children, it is the last hour. It is the last hour. John wrote this way back then.

[26:12] Now there's more that we could bring in, but here's the thing. The last days is what you call the period of history from 33 AD until the world ends.

[26:25] Was Jesus in the last days? Yes. Was Paul in the last days? Yes. Are we in the last days? Yes. If it continues for another thousand years, is it still the last days?

[26:37] Yes. So the last days is just all. So typically we would say we live in AD, right? What does AD stand for? Actually, it stands for Anno Domini, right?

[26:50] The year of our Lord. So most people don't use that anymore. Now it's CE, right? Common era. We use that designation to describe from that time period to here.

[27:00] I'm saying the correct way to talk about it, the biblical way to talk about it, is that these are the last days. From 38 AD to... The future somewhere.

[27:13] The future somewhere. As a matter of fact, that's why the promise that Jesus gave in the Great Commission is so important.

[27:24] He tells us to baptize and all these things. And there at the end he says, and I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And what's fascinating to me is, as we understand from the New Testament what the last days are, and he's told Daniel, okay, these things are going to be here, the effect is going to be that there's going to be some destruction, but here's the deal, Daniel, just seal it up.

[27:51] Just seal it up, and one day it'll be unsealed. One day it's going to come to light what all these things mean. And I think that the next passage is kind of what the man in linen is talking about.

[28:07] Revelation chapter 5 says, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?

[28:22] And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping.

[28:34] Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures, the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth, the lamb as slain, but now risen.

[28:59] Here is Christ crucified, resurrected, and ascended back to his father. And because of that, now the seal is undone. Now everything is clear.

[29:10] Okay, now clear maybe for the Lord, not so much for us. We're still struggling with these things. But the point is, is that what Daniel seals up, Christ unseals.

[29:24] Okay, so let me pause there, take a drink, and see if you have any questions. I know right now it seems like there's just a lot of information, and so maybe I need to say something to wrap all that together.

[29:39] Are we going to go through Revelation? So I have no trouble going through Revelation. But I think what I would want to do first is to go through a class on the end times to give a, because Revelation again is a lot of apocalyptic language.

[29:59] So I think to understand it, we need to kind of first say, okay, what does the New Testament tell us is going to happen in the end times in all the clear passages first before we go to Revelation.

[30:12] Because then as we read Revelation, we'll kind of go like, oh, okay. But I will tell you this, the book of Revelation tells the same story seven times. So it's got a repeating cycle in there.

[30:23] And so if you go to read it on your own, just know there's repetition. So, but good question. Any other questions? Just a comment. Back in the earlier chapter where it talks about the stone or the mountain, if we look at it, this is kind of a simplistic way of looking at it.

[30:49] When, particularly in those times, when a building was established, they laid a cornerstone. That cornerstone was the reference point for all the building.

[31:06] Everything was measured, aligned with that cornerstone. Yeah. And what in our lives do we base it upon?

[31:22] Yeah. Christ is the cornerstone. That's right. That's right. That's right. That's why we're to be Christ-like. And we are to, according to Ephesians, until we all mature to the stature of Christ.

[31:34] I read or heard someplace, I don't remember where, that in the building of King Solomon's temple, they actually lost the cornerstone.

[31:44] Hmm. And they found it later. The building was not perfect because it did not have that perfect cornerstone.

[31:57] Hmm. Interesting. Interesting. Just an analogy. Yeah, sure. Sure. Sure. I don't have anything to put out there. But the other day, the first time you showed up, now that you showed up, you're a very interesting place down there with all of those things.

[32:14] Hmm. And it takes the whole world. Yeah. Yeah. And it's still there in that time. Yeah. Right. Right. And you're looking at what you said at some point in the future.

[32:28] They have a word, Bucher, means tomorrow. Hmm. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Never has the good never again. Yeah. So it's not for us to know. No.

[32:39] No. No. That's good. It's overwhelming. It is. It is. And, you know, I think one of the things to take away from reading Daniel is that you see God's people sin.

[32:51] You see God disciplined them. And he disciplines them all the way because they reject Christ. And just seeing that span of history where God is in control and he's told us what's going to happen ahead of time.

[33:09] He's told us about the destruction. And Daniel's writing in such a way as to give the people who follow him wisdom. How do I live in the middle of all this? Well, I mean, we're going to close out thinking about some of those things.

[33:24] But, like, that should give us sort of a glimpse and say, okay, while history is linear, there are patterns in history that repeat.

[33:35] And it gives us wisdom to know kind of how we should live as we look forward. As a matter of fact, think about this. Verse 13. I love this verse.

[33:45] It's the very last verse. But as for you, go your way to the end. Then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.

[33:57] So he's going to arise at the end of the age, right? The same time period that Jesus says, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. But think about a couple of these things.

[34:08] Verse 9 has told him to go his way. And that means, Daniel, it's okay for you to go ahead and live out your life.

[34:18] Come to the end of your life. It's okay. That's where you need to go. Enter into your rest. Right? We get the idea here. The Lord's just sort of letting him go and saying, it's your time now.

[34:31] Because you're going to rise again for your allotted portion, for your reward that will be at the end time. So I want you to think about this.

[34:42] Daniel came to Babylon as a young man. He endured fear of death several times. He endured backstabbing from his coworkers. He endured the struggle of knowledge of things too wonderful for him.

[34:56] And he is faithfully written to God's people. And here he is, 80 plus years of age.

[35:07] And God is still talking to him. And God is still using him. In other words, it's not to the young, and it's not to the strong, but it's to the faithful that the Lord uses.

[35:21] And before we finish out, I just want to make this point that, you know, you look at our church and median age is kind of up there. Right?

[35:32] It's pretty gray around here. I mean, you just got to admit it. It just is. I haven't, I haven't, and I haven't added to the lack of grayness. What I'm saying is this, is that if God so used Daniel to write something for the benefit of God's people, then so long as you're still drawing breath, God wants to use you.

[35:57] And that doesn't mean that you can do what you used to do, but you got to figure out what it is you can do. And God, how can you use me? And I say that you could probably do more than you think you can.

[36:14] Here's Daniel at the end of his life. And basically, this verse is telling Daniel, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest and await the end for your reward.

[36:28] He has taught us about wisdom. He has taught us this is what wisdom looks like. And there's a fascinating thing to me that in chapter 11 and chapter 12, there is a summary. If you just pick them out, you'll see there's a summary of what people who are wise, people who are following after God, look like.

[36:46] And I just want to show you these. There's this idea in chapter 11, verse 32, but by smooth words, he will turn to godlessness, those who act wickedly toward the covenant.

[37:00] But the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Those who have wisdom, those who live wisely will be those who know their God.

[37:12] They will know who their God is. They will learn who their God is. That's wisdom. That's what the Proverbs tell us. The Proverbs tell us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

[37:24] And that's what Daniel's telling us is that, listen, if you want to be wise, you must fear the Lord. You must grow in your theology. You must understand who God is because that's the way we will be able to display strength as we walk forward.

[37:39] He says in verse 33, those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many. And it's not just a moment where you say, okay, I just need to take in everything I can about God and that's it.

[37:53] No, a wise person then passes it on. I remember the old song, it only takes a spark to get a fire going. Right? And the whole point of that song is pass it on.

[38:05] And I think sometimes what happens in First Baptist churches, okay, and I'm not picking on First Baptist here, but I'm picking on First Baptists everywhere, is that we have a tendency to think that the only person who can pass things on is the pastor or maybe a few special people.

[38:22] But that's not the truth. The truth is is that everybody who's a member can pass it on and should pass it on if you're going to be wise. I mean, look at all that you've learned about who God is and it's the wise person who then doesn't become a stagnant pond but then becomes a channel of blessing to others and gives that truth to someone else.

[38:44] Verse 35, some of those who have insight will fall in order to refine, purge, and make them pure until the end.

[38:55] Those who have wisdom will be those who will be made pure and blameless. Now that's not so much necessarily a thing we do but that's just understanding a thing that's going to happen to us.

[39:07] If we're wise, we're wise and we're trying to live under God in Christ, then one of the things that wisdom is going to bring to us is moments of purifying and purging of us.

[39:22] We're going to go through difficulties. We're going to go through hardships and that's something to know. We've got to understand that because when we think that life should be easy, I think, I can't remember where I read this or saw this recently but it was talking about the difference in say your generation and the generation that's past me like where my daughter is.

[39:46] And if you listen to what they talk about, the amount that they talk about mental health has just skyrocketed. The amount that they talk about social anxiety, I mean, the number of kids who won't go up to the person at McDonald's and say, I'm sorry, you got my order wrong.

[40:05] I mean, they just won't do it. Now, that's not my daughter. She'll do it. She has no problem with that. She'll tell you like it is. But the point is is that there's something missing in the generations and I think one of the things is that in our modern society we think we should be happy.

[40:21] We think that life should be easy and we should be happy. And so when we're not, we go berserk. But in your generation, you understood.

[40:32] You understood more of how life is not always about being happy. And maybe you've bought into the modern notion that you should be happy. But the point is is that there is going to be trouble.

[40:44] There's going to be this purification. There's going to be this purging. But he promises that it will purify us until the end. It won't destroy us. Chapter 12, verse 12.

[40:54] How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1335 days. How blessed. It's those with insight.

[41:06] It's those with wisdom that learn to wait on the Lord. They're the ones that learn to wait on the Lord. They recognize that they can't rush God.

[41:18] Yeah, we pray and we ask God to heal this person. We ask God to save this person. We ask God to give wisdom for this and we think to ourselves it ought to happen immediately and God waits 25 years before he answers that prayer.

[41:32] And what happens in the meantime? We have a tendency to kind of give up. We have a tendency to be impatient with the Lord. But wisdom says, no, we're going to be patient with the Lord. His timing is his timing.

[41:44] That's his business and we will wait upon him. Go back to verse 3. Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.

[41:59] Those who are wise shine the brightest. They're the ones that help their generation. They're the ones that help their family, their coworkers, their neighbors.

[42:11] They're the ones that because they live under God's rule, because they're living by God's word, they shine bright. And it's interesting that Paul says in Philippians chapter 2 verse 14 through 15, he says, do everything without complaining or grumbling and therefore be stars that shine in a crooked and perverse generation.

[42:35] You bring those two together and somebody who's wise is not somebody who's constantly complaining. somebody who's wise, they're patiently waiting upon the Lord and therefore they shine in this generation.

[42:49] You go back to verse 2 and he says, many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake these to everlasting life but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

[43:00] Those who are wise who have seen that God has sent to us Christ Jesus because that's true wisdom. true wisdom is understanding that there is a God, that he's a triune God and that he's loved us and he has sent his son to die for us.

[43:18] True wisdom is that. And the person who understands that, the person who lives in that wisdom is a person who is going to arise to everlasting life in the end. There's a resurrection coming for us.

[43:30] There's a day in which we will shed all of this that we currently have and we will be given a new body as we go to be with him. If you die before the Lord comes back, then you will be raised to everlasting life.

[43:45] Not with the corruptible body that you have but with a brand new one. Amen. Right? But then, verse 13, those who are wise when they arise will gain their allotted portion.

[44:04] There will be a reward for his people. And I think, I think it ends with this not just because the Lord was being kind to Daniel but Daniel is trying to say to all the people he's writing to, trust the Lord, lean on the Lord, rest in the Lord because the day is coming when the resurrection will happen and there's a reward and a portion for you that's allotted.

[44:29] Hang on till the end. I pray that the Lord would give us that same spirit, that same desire to be wise and to hold on. I think it's interesting that everybody focuses on when's that going to be?

[44:46] I need to know how long I need to hang on. Well, it's not for us to know. It's not. I mean, you know, every time I sit down and try to do the math on some of these things, it just goes haywire and people will try to put 365 days and it's like, well, what about 364 or what about 366 because leap year is 366 or people talk about a prophetic year is 360 days.

[45:15] Okay. You know, so you start doing all and nothing works out, you know, and so we know that it's just not given to us to know. But the numbers are so specific.

[45:27] That's what, you know, 3. Yeah. God doesn't want us to 13. Yeah. He had wanted us to know. He had given us a date and said, by the way, this will be the American calendar. He said, get it done and get it right.

[45:40] Yeah. Yeah. You know, what other sign you. That's right. That's right. Well, I've enjoyed going through Daniel. It has definitely been a good stretch for me and my prayer is that you will have some tools in your toolbox so that you can go back through Daniel and read it and benefit from it and I would say go back through Daniel and read it but this time when you read it look for the wisdom.

[46:07] Look for that word insight and wisdom and see all the places that he writes about because that's the goal is to learn what you can about wisdom. And so...

[46:17] Is Ezekiel next? No. No, no, no. No, what we're going to... Y'all were here at the beginning. What we're going to do is next...