Daniel 12: Those Who Stand - Tim Horman

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read from Daniel 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the last chapter of Daniel before Tim comes to share.

[SPEAKER_00]: So reading from verse 1, at that time, Michael, the great prince who protects your people will arise.

[SPEAKER_00]: There will be time of distress, such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.

[SPEAKER_00]: But at that time, your people, everyone whose name is found written in the book, will be delivered.

[SPEAKER_00]: multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life others to shame and everlasting contempt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens and those who lead many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever, but you Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then I Daniel looked and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of them said to me to the man, clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, how long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?

[SPEAKER_00]: The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand towards heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever saying, it will be for a time, times and a half a time.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the power of the Holy People has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.

[SPEAKER_00]: I heard, but did not understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I asked my Lord, what will the outcome of all this be?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he replied, go your way Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked.

[SPEAKER_00]: none of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: As for you, go on your way till the end you will rest and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.

[SPEAKER_00]: We turn around, just greet those around you and if you want something to talk about, you can explain that to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That will be great and Tim's going to come and share with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, good morning friends, it's so good to be with you and have Robin and Cory with us awesome, fantastic.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, as Darren said, we are up to Daniel 12, the last chapter in the book of Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as we bring this series to a close this morning, and we look at this last chapter, which both concludes the book, but also points us forward as you may have noticed from the reading to the future to the events of the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: The return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and it challenges us in the midst of that to be people of wisdom and faithfulness as we await for this to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what we're going to explore this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of these things today.

[SPEAKER_01]: So buckle in.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be quite a ride.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me pray and then we'll jump in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Father, thank you that we can be here together.

[SPEAKER_01]: This morning in your presence, I thank you for the way in which you've been meeting us already as we've worshipped as we've heard about what Robin is up to in San Francisco.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thank you that you are here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your power is here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your presence is here and I pray as we think about all these things that relate to the future that we would in the midst of all of that just keep our eyes firmly fixed.

[SPEAKER_01]: on you, we pray in Jesus' name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the first thing I want to say about Daniel 12 is this, that it calls on us to be wise about the times that we are living in.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Daniel 12 is about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, before we get to that, I just want to recap where we are in the book.

[SPEAKER_01]: His Darren mentioned last week as he was preaching through Daniel chapter 10, that at the opening of that chapter, we find that Daniel is deeply troubled.

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: He's grieving, he's weeping, he's upset.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because following on from the visions that he received in Daniel 7 and 8,

[SPEAKER_01]: which is all about, you know, these terrifying, beastly empires that are going to arise and violently oppose God's will and God's purposes and terribly persecute God's people, you know, along with many other nations as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is going to happen for conceivably as Daniel's tall for the next several hundred years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you can understand why then Daniel is feeling quite upset about all of that, quite grieved.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's afraid and he's confused.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we can understand this, I mean, if visions came to us, telling us that Australia was about to be captured and ruled over by a succession of tyrannical and violent foreign powers and that this was going to be our reality for the next 100, several hundred years, this horrible reality, then we too would be really upset and broken-hearted about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then we get to chapter nine, and we find that Daniel is in prayer.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's crying out to God, and it's this beautiful, raw, honest, heart-breaking prayer, and he remains God in that prayer that the Prophet Jeremiah had promised in Jeremiah 25 before the exile.

[SPEAKER_01]: That the exile would only last for 70 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would be 70 years long.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the people would be allowed to return home and rebuild the city.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now at this point, the exile has been about 67 years or so.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there's about three years left to run.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's almost over, or at least it's supposed to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in the light of all these visions, Daniel is now asking God, like, is this promise still true?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you still going to let us go home?

[SPEAKER_01]: Will we ever return?

[SPEAKER_01]: When will this ever be over?

[SPEAKER_01]: Have you forgotten your promise as God?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is going on?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so then Daniel prays chapter 9 in the first year of Darius son of Zerxes, who was a mead by dissent, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom,

[SPEAKER_01]: In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood from the Scriptures, according to the Word of the Lord, given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I turned to the Lord, God, and pleaded with him in prayer and petition in fasting and in sackcloth, and ashes like this is serious prayer, friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we get in verse 19, 17 and 19, we get some of this prayer, excuse me for a moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, I'll just go to the last bit verse 19.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is his prayer, Lord, listen, Lord, forgive, Lord, here and act for your sake, my God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do not delay because your city and your people bear your name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now you can really hear the desperation, the passion in this prayer.

[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of this prayer, at this point in the prayer, the angel Gabriel shows up, and he tells Daniel

[SPEAKER_01]: and allow the excels in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city, the hard news is that the excels will not yet be over.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, it's not going to be over for a very, very long time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, you can read about the return, the rebuild, as we're in the amyre.

[SPEAKER_01]: He tells Daniel, Gabriel turns up, he tells Daniel, that from that time, that time of this moment in prayer, until God's purposes are completed, he says, there will be a period of about 77.

[SPEAKER_01]: which most commentators understand to be a to mean or to be a period of about 490 years or so.

[SPEAKER_01]: Although it's actually broken up into several segments.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not like one long chronological piece of time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now Daniel is then told by Gabriel.

[SPEAKER_01]: That near the end of this period of time at the 69th 7, two things are going to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one, the United One, the Messiah, will come, but he will be rejected and he will be killed.

[SPEAKER_01]: The United One will be put to death, and then afterwards, the city and the temple will be destroyed for a second time.

[SPEAKER_01]: By those who will be ruling over Israel at that time in history, now of course we know historically that's the Romans.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know that these things happened, and although there's a lot of debate about the exact timeline of Gabriel's prophecy, what cannot be denied is that these events described actually took place.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean this is one of the most amazing moments in the prophetic literature that is so clear and so accurate, that there's really no way that it could be fabricated.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, about 40 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, there's a revolt among the Jewish people against the Romans, they start a war, but it's crushed so violently by the Romans that the city and the temple are destroyed, and many Jews were killed or enslaved or displaced.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, four out of Israel entirely, which is why we have such a large Jewish diaspora all around the world, particularly in Europe.

[SPEAKER_01]: They had to get out of there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And of those who were enslaved, most of them were taken back to the brim, and I learned this very recently.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know this until recently that it was many of those Jewish slaves who were, in fact, forced to build the Colosseum.

[SPEAKER_01]: So that it was Jewish slaves who built the Colosseum after all of these events.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Jesus predicted that these things would happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: On several occasions,

[SPEAKER_01]: But one of the clearest ones, Luke 19, where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem and prays for it, and he says, when he drew near to the city, he wept over it, saying, would that you even you had known on this day, the things that would make for peace?

[SPEAKER_01]: But they're hidden from your eyes, for the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'll tear down, tell you down to the ground.

[SPEAKER_01]: You and your children with you and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not know the time of your visitation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has grieved about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows what is coming and he knows that even though he's there as the Messiah, as the Son of God, he can't prevent what these people will do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I just want you to think about this for a minute, because if you know the history of Israel, though it is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, they have not actually lived in their homeland freely since the time of the Babylonian captivity even until now, apart from a very brief period after the collapse

[SPEAKER_01]: of the Greek Empire under the Macabeean Revolt.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now even with the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, the Jewish people still very much live in contested space.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we know, we're coming up to the anniversary of the October 7 massacre and watching the endless protests and cities around the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: The last couple of years, the ridiculous claims of the free Palestine movement, the Jews are somehow settler colonelists, colonialists, sorry, in their own homeland.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Gabriel was right.

[SPEAKER_01]: The point is that Gabriel was right.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then Gabriel says something cryptic, if all of this isn't cryptic enough, but after the coming of the Messiah and the second destruction of the city and the temple, there will be a very long period of conflict.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the final period of seven years will come, the final seven, seven, seven, last seven, which will be right before the end of all things, the end of history, which is described in Daniel 7, we looked at a couple of weeks ago, and Daniel 12, which we're looking at this morning, we're also a revelation 13 and many other places.

[SPEAKER_01]: The point is, this long gap between the death of Jesus and the destruction of the temple and then the end of all things with the final period of seven years, well this is where we live.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are in that time now, in that in between time between those two things, waiting for Christ's return.

[SPEAKER_01]: And during this time, Daniel 11 tells us that there'll be much conflict, much warfare, national rise against nation and life will at times be very terrifying.

[SPEAKER_01]: but we should not give in.

[SPEAKER_01]: We should not give up our hope as Daniel 12, many other scriptures tell us, God will bring it to an end.

[SPEAKER_01]: There will be a resurrection of the dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: The beast will be judged.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ will be crowned King over all creation forever and ever, and then all things will be healed.

[SPEAKER_01]: and made new.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus told us these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Matthew 24, when he was teaching his disciples about the destruction of the temple, his disciples kind of came to him privately afterwards and said, tell us when these things will be and what will be the sign of your coming at the end of the age.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray.

[SPEAKER_01]: For many will come in my name saying, I'm the Christ and they'll lead many astray.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars,

[SPEAKER_01]: For this must take place, the end is not yet, for nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

[SPEAKER_01]: All these are butt the beginning of the birth pains.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death and you'll be hated by all nations from my name's sake.

[SPEAKER_01]: Butt.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the warning here and the promise, but the one who endures to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then Jesus quotes Daniel, then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect

[SPEAKER_01]: So do not be alarmed, says Jesus, and don't be let astray, all these things must take place before the end, but if we stay close to Him, if we hold onto Him, if we do not fall away, then we will receive an eternal reward that will never fade, never spoil, kept in heaven for us, an eternal reward in His presence that will be our greatest joy forever and ever, our men.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is our hope, church, this is our destiny and remembering these things is what gives us courage to keep on standing firm or maybe you know when we experience the kind of stuff that Jesus is talking about gives us courage to not give in to keep standing firm to keep holding on to faith and trusting that the Lord will bring all things to an end.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now jumping back to Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Gabriel is telling Daniel that just when things are at their worst, this is we're in Daniel 12 now.

[SPEAKER_01]: The last period of seven years will begin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now, as you can piece all of this together from various places in Scripture, but what it appears is that the last period of seven years will start.

[SPEAKER_01]: when the daily sacrifice of some kind is reestablished in Jerusalem, which assumes that in some way at least the temple will have been rebuilt.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we know we're not there yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we are told that halfway through that, this is the three and a half years into that seven year period.

[SPEAKER_01]: The sacrifices will suddenly be stopped by the final fourth beast that we're introduced to in Daniel 7, who will be this terrifying, violent, global superpower,

[SPEAKER_01]: And then that will usher in the final period of three and a half years.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the time, times and half a time, three and a half years.

[SPEAKER_01]: During which time this last great beast will trample and crush the earth and horribly persecute the church and God's people and where it's told that the suffering will be unlike anything the world has seen before and that is saying something.

[SPEAKER_01]: But again, again,

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't give in to fear, don't let your hearts be troubled.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know the end of the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christ will return.

[SPEAKER_01]: The dead will be raised.

[SPEAKER_01]: The beast will be judged and he will renew all things and we'll live in his presence forever and ever our men.

[SPEAKER_01]: So don't be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: But even so, right, we're human, we're human.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can understand that in the light of all of this information, just like Daniel,

[SPEAKER_01]: After seeing all these visions, he's so grieved and afraid and confused.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, we might feel the same way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel 10 vs. 2 tells us that, sorry, I don't have that on the screen, my bad.

[SPEAKER_01]: At that time, when Daniel hears all of this,

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he says, I mourned for three weeks.

[SPEAKER_01]: Three weeks, he's grieved, he's broken hearted, he's weeping, he's crying, he's praying, he said, I ate no choice food, no meat or wine, touch my lips, I use no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he's just torn up about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, I mean, that's the human response, of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in the chapter, as Darren preached last week, chapter 10, God comforts Daniel, and then he reminds him,

[SPEAKER_01]: that all of this will come to it end, but in the middle of it, all God sees him and he knows him, he knows his name and he will never be forgotten or forsaken.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the same promise that God is making to you this morning as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: No matter what happens, God knows your name, he knows you and he will not lose you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He will not forsake you, he will not forget you, he will hold you forever and you will be delivered.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just have to keep looking to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is something that we need to hold on to because like God's people, living through the time of Daniel, though the time of exile did come to an end in Babylon, the truth is that a different kind of exile was only just beginning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the reality is that we are still in that exile.

[SPEAKER_01]: It hasn't finished yet, Babylon, and all that Babylon represents throughout Scripture is still very much present in the world, and we are still living in Babylon even now, even here friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: Melbourne is Babylon, so is San Francisco, or to put it a different way, Babylon is in Melbourne.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's in San Francisco, and it's in New York, and it's in Beijing, and it's in Tehran, and it's in Washington, DC, and it's in London, and it's in Beirut, it's in every city in the world, Babylon is everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the hard but hopeful news is that this will not cease to be the case until Christ returns, and the dead are raised, and the beast is judged, and that is where Daniel 12, the final chapter takes us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the gist of all of this should be pretty clear by now to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Daniel 12 is telling us, which I could say something different, but it's telling us the things are going to get worse before they get better.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then Jesus will return and then they'll be peace and joy forever.

[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a couple of things that stand out to me in this vision in Daniel chapter 12.

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Daniel says, there's a lot of detail in all these visions that don't make sense that we don't understand, that remain difficult to figure out, but what is the one dressed in linen who's kind of standing above the river who's introduced first in chapter 10?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is this one say about all this?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says that much of this is rolled up and sealed in a scroll, and it will only really be understood at the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we may not understand it now, but we will when we need to.

[SPEAKER_01]: We will understand when the time is right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love what John Lennox says about this in his commentary that we've been using.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can trust that like so much of biblical prophecy.

[SPEAKER_01]: We only understand often what it means in hindsight.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what we can say is that if and when the Lord needs us to understand something, we will understand it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Until then, we must not get carried away into wild speculation and lose our focus on what is most important.

[SPEAKER_01]: which is what people often do when they read Revelation or Daniel, they get caught up in the minutiae of all these things that are difficult to understand, but then they miss the point.

[SPEAKER_01]: They miss the point.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what is the most important thing in Daniel 12 that the wondrous and linen says to him?

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is in verse 9 and 10.

[SPEAKER_01]: He replied, go your way, Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is after he asks, how is all this going to happen?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Explain this to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the one says, go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end.

[SPEAKER_01]: Many will be purified, made spotless, and refined.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the wicked will continue to be the wicked.

[SPEAKER_01]: None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he says that twice in chapter 12, those who are wise will understand, those who are wise will lead many to righteousness, those who are wise.

[SPEAKER_01]: So my question today is, what does it mean to be among those who are wise living in the middle of Babylon?

[SPEAKER_01]: Living in exile, living here as we do in this beautiful place that is also such a demonic place.

[SPEAKER_01]: How can we be among those who live in wisdom in the midst of Babylon?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now Jesus speaks about this in Matthew 10.

[SPEAKER_01]: when he's talking to his disciples about what it's going to mean for them to be his disciples as he sends them out into the world, living in Babylon, verse 16 of chapter 10.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, many of you will know this verse.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's famous.

[SPEAKER_01]: I am sending you out like sheep among wolves, therefore be as wise.

[SPEAKER_01]: as serpents, but as gentle or as innocent as doves.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be on your guard, he says.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how he finishes it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be on your guard.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does he mean by this?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is he saying to us here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Be wise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be on your guard.

[SPEAKER_01]: But don't lose your innocence.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let the powers of the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let Babylon shape you and twist you into its image.

[SPEAKER_01]: But stay close to Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Keep your eyes on Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Run the race with diligence.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so then you will make it to the end, keep your eyes open and fixed on Jesus in the midst of all the other things that are going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the New Testament is clear about this, that the world we live in, friends, I don't need to tell you this, you know this, the world we live in is contested space.

[SPEAKER_01]: though Jesus is Lord, and though the enemy is a defeated foe.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is still the case that every inch of this world is being fought over and arrogantly claimed by the evil one, by the demonic powers, and this will continue until Jesus returns.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is why we then have to keep our wits about us, and our eyes open.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to be wise and recognise that what is going on in the world around us, recognise it for what it is, so that we are not led astray.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is Jesus say, many are going to come saying, I'm the Christ, I know the way I can show you the way through.

[SPEAKER_01]: don't believe him, he says, keep your eyes on Christ alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not on anyone else.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so what we need to do, my second point is to recognize the powers that are seeking after our allegiance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Paul talks about this famously in Ephesians chapter six where he says, finally, my friends, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand

[SPEAKER_01]: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, not against people, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes not if, but when you may be able to stand your ground, and after having done everything to keep standing,

[SPEAKER_01]: He goes on to describe what this armor is, which is really just different dimensions of what we've received in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's kind of saying, put on Christ, when you put on the armor of God, you're putting on Christ, you're clothing yourself with all that Christ has done on your behalf, and here's how we do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, just like Daniel did, with this in mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does he say?

[SPEAKER_01]: Be alert, be wise, and keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me that I may fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.

[SPEAKER_01]: Pray that I might declare it

[SPEAKER_01]: as I should and I pray for you and for myself that we will live fearlessly as we should.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, how does Paul call us to resist these rulers, these principalities, these powers, these authorities?

[SPEAKER_01]: All he says by prayer, of course, continual prayer, that's how we stay close to Jesus and close ourselves in the armor of God, but it's prayer and also by staying alert.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be alert and keep on praying.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we stay alert?

[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the same thing that the man in Daniel says.

[SPEAKER_01]: Be wise, pay attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why Paul says so that you can take your stand against the devil's

[SPEAKER_01]: schemes.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a schema.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a murderer.

[SPEAKER_01]: He is a liar.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has been from the beginning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his intention is to deceive and to tempt you into giving up your faith in Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let him do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take your stand against the devil schemes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we're going to do that, then we need to understand then how these demonic principalities and powers manifest themselves in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: A maybe a better way to ask that is to look at how they have done that through the book of Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is why we've been doing the book of Daniel so that we can try to understand these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now what I noticed is I've read through Daniel.

[SPEAKER_01]: is that the way in which the powers have manifested themselves hasn't been via like demonic spirits kind of flying around attacking Daniel directly like there's no demonic visitations, there's none of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, being confronted with demonic spirits directly, it's always happening

[SPEAKER_01]: how indirectly it's happening indirectly.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, no doubt they face temptation like we all do, but mostly their struggle with the powers was through the way that the powers manifested themselves in political, religious, social, and technological systems of the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the word we use to describe that combination of political, religious, social, and technological systems today is what?

[SPEAKER_01]: What do we call that?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the totality of all those things?

[SPEAKER_01]: What name do we use for it?

[SPEAKER_01]: We simply call it the culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: The culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: It mostly attacked them, got at them, through the cultural systems of the time, which started out first as like peer and social pressure.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it was the pressure to conform, to accept the new names that they've been given, to adopt Babylonian customs, to eat Babylonian food,

[SPEAKER_01]: If you remember that eventually morphed into outright political and religious and legal pressure when they refuse to do those things and then finally, it morphed into actual violence and deadly persecution.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, why don't I want to say to you this morning?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think this is how we've got to keep our eyes open.

[SPEAKER_01]: is that it is happening in exactly the same way today.

[SPEAKER_01]: The tactics of the evil one have not changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's the same pattern and it is repeating itself over and over and over again through every generation in history.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now it's a varying degrees I know, but it always starts, always starts with social pressure, which transforms a peer pressure, pressure from your colleagues, which transforms into legal and political pressure

[SPEAKER_01]: are you awake?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you being wise?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you being alert?

[SPEAKER_01]: Then what we have to understand is that Babylon is not a place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a power.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a place.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a power.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here is the warning I'm trying to make clear.

[SPEAKER_01]: The biblical imagery of Babylon and the beasts.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it actually starts all the way back with the Tower of Babel trying to reach and using technology and cultural systems to try to reach into the heavens so that they can be like the gods to the actual Babylonian Empire then right through to the final kind of global world dominating beast in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 who is there called Babylon the Great represents all the demonic antichrist powers that are at work in the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now these powers stand behind

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't proudly present themselves openly, because then we'd all recognize them for what they really are.

[SPEAKER_01]: But these powers stand behind and organize themselves into cultures and cities and nations and empires into religious, political, and social ideologies and world views.

[SPEAKER_01]: They seek first to resist and distort the rain and rule of God over creation and then to subjugate and degrade human beings who have been made in his image.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is how they always work.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Christian author, Paul King's North, who, if you've not come across and encourage it to read his material, he was an atheist, environmentalist, who has ended up becoming a Christian, and he simply calls all of this the machine.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what he says, the machine is a tendency within and around us, made concrete by power and circumstance.

[SPEAKER_01]: which coalesces into a huge agglomeration of power, control, and ambition.

[SPEAKER_01]: The machine manifests today as an intersection of money, power, state power, and increasingly coercive and manipulative technologies, which constitute an ongoing war against roots and against limits.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's momentum is always forward and it will not stop until it is conquered and transformed the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is the motto of the machine, endless growth, which is also, by the way, the modus operandi of cancer.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is what the Bible means by a principality or a power, a demonic coalescing of power, control, and ambition.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's called a principality because it's always manifested in areas, in regions, in cities, and what have you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's more than the individuals involved in other words.

[SPEAKER_01]: It becomes a system, an ideology,

[SPEAKER_01]: an institution that begins to start to take on a life of its own and eventually good people inside that system find themselves doing things that they would never have imagined doing alone because eventually there appears to be no other possible alternative way to live other than the way that the machine is telling you to live that is what many of those who are tried as Nazis after the Second World War at the Nuremberg trial said over and over and over and over again I was just doing what I thought was right

[SPEAKER_01]: sounds a bit like the book of judges.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've seen this before, and we'll see it again, and it'll keep on going until Christ returns.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see it in Daniel, Babylon has its administrators, its laws, its economic systems, its propaganda, its education system, its rituals of allegiance.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, the beast is personal, like he is going after you, but it's also systemic.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants to go after the whole thing, and it can take many forms, and we'll be familiar with many of them, or obvious ones, like the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, British East India Company, Nazi Germany, Stalinist, Russia, Maoist, China, the Iranian, Ayatollas, and Ion Iran, and on throughout history.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the reality is friends that Babylon or the principalities and powers manifest themselves in all cultures at all times, it's working its way here in Melbourne, not just in tyrannical regimes, but because we live in a fallen world, Babylon is everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: The problem is that most of the time we don't recognise it for what it is, often until it's too late, which is why the whining and scripture all the way through is keep your eyes open, stay alert, be wise, pay attention, look at what is going on around you, don't just be lured into deception, which is how the devil likes it, because he is a deceiver and a liar, but resistant by standing firm in your faith, keeping your eyes on Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the American lawyer and theologian and civil rights activist William String follow one of my favorite Christian writers.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you will know him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've been encouraging many people to read him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think he was a prophetic voice, particularly for our time, not only for his own time in the 60s, but he put it like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, just a warning.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a long quote, and it's going to put some hairs on your chest.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me tell you.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so he writes this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Buckle in, according to the Bible, the Principalities are Legion in species number of variety and name.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are designated by such multi-ferrous titles as powers, virtues, thrones, authorities, dominions, demons, princes, strongholds, lords, angels, gods, idols, elements, spirits,

[SPEAKER_01]: And if some of these seem quaint, transposed into contemporary languages they lose their quaintness and become recognizable and all too familiar, they include all institutions, all ideologies, all images, all movements, all causes, all corporations, all bureaucracies, all traditions,

[SPEAKER_01]: All methods and routines, all conglomerates, all races, all nations, all idols, thus, and he's writing in the 60s here.

[SPEAKER_01]: So these are kind of, well, whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thus the Pentagon and the Ford Motor Company Harvard University Olympics or the Methodist Church or the Labour Union.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our principalities, now I'm sure we can think of other contemporary examples, meta, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia, Goldman Sachs, Magga, the progressive left, the conservative right, it doesn't matter, they are all Babylonian principalities.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so a capitalism, communism, humanism, modernism, astrology, the period and work ethic, science and scientism, white supremacy, patriotism, plus many, many more, sports sex, any professional discipline, technology, money, even the family, beyond any prospect of full enumeration, the principalities and powers are legion.

[SPEAKER_01]: Take a breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're good.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, that might seem a bit extreme.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe you're just thinking, what Earth is even going about.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he explains it like this.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his point is not that all these things are inherently evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: His point is that because all of these things belong in a system of culture that operates within a fallen world,

[SPEAKER_01]: Within Babylon, then all of them ultimately serve themselves and point to one thing and one thing alone, which is to ultimately try to subjugate you to their control.

[SPEAKER_01]: People are end up, he writes, besieged.

[SPEAKER_01]: On all sides, at every moment, simultaneously by these claims and strivings of the various powers, each seeking to dominate your serpent, take a person's time, attention, abilities, effort, each grasping it life itself, each demanding idolatrous service and loyalty, in such a tumult it becomes very difficult for a human being, even to identify the idols that

[SPEAKER_01]: Does any of that feel familiar?

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you not live every day that you work and live in this city and in this culture feeling kind of overwhelmed by all the things that are constantly being thrown at you and you're not sure where to turn or where to find relief?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can I get an amen to that?

[SPEAKER_01]: I hear it all the time, I feel it all the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is saying is that anything in this world, even good things can become demonic and idolatrous principalities in our lives if we allow them to dominate, you serve, take our time, attention, abilities, and effort away from our loyalty to Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the problem is, and this is just how the devil likes it, but because we are beset by these things, so many of these things at once, constantly daily, and that it's almost impossible to understand, much less respond to any of it, so we feel overwhelmed, and it's only getting worse, and ultimately you just feel powerless, don't you?

[SPEAKER_01]: You feel powerless to resist.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_01]: It just feels like it's futile.

[SPEAKER_01]: The other problem then, of course, is that you can't just cut yourself off in the world in an attempt to sort of remain unaffected by all of these idolatries and principalities.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can try.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could go and live off grid, I suppose, and be a hermit somewhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: But most people can't do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have families.

[SPEAKER_01]: They have jobs, they have responsibilities.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it wouldn't work anyway, because if you're there, then Babylon will be there too.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is just the water we swim in.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we encounter it everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: In our homes, our workplaces, in schools, at university, in the media, in sport, in politics, in the arts, in every sector of society.

[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, these days, we mostly encounter it through these things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it would seem to me that this device has been so uniquely designed to assault you constantly with the spirit of the age and to remake you in its image that it is almost diabolical.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like you can almost smell the sulfur coming off this thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, now I use one, no judgment, right, but here's the thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is always how Babylon works.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a part of us that hates it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know what it's doing to us and we hate what it's doing to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Babylon is always also saying to us, you cannot possibly live without me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't survive in this world without me.

[SPEAKER_01]: You need me to make your way in this world.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is always the deal that idols will make with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: They promise us freedom and empowerment, but what they actually give us in the end is slavery and control.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is, like we know what's happening, we can see it coming with AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's only gonna get worse.

[SPEAKER_01]: And whether or not AI ends up destroying us, I don't know, but we're almost certainly gonna hate what it will do to us and to the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yet at the same time, once it's taken hold everywhere, we will struggle to imagine living in a world without it.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how Babylon works, friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, I'm running out of time.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let me quickly make my third point.

[SPEAKER_01]: I do have a third point.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my third point is this, that despite everything, despite the feelings of overwhelm and not knowing where to start and the constant kind of daily assault that we experience, we still have to decide that it's time to fight back.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, two of the most famous futuristic scenarios that we have in literature are Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World, which was published in 1932.

[SPEAKER_01]: And George Orwell's novel, 1984, which was published in 1949, whose red either of those books, who was made to read one of those books at school and is still recovering from the trauma.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, as you may know, the dystopian kind of futures that those books describe are actually very different.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll just use Neil Postman's explanation here in his book.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm using ourselves to death.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says this that all will warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression.

[SPEAKER_01]: but in Huxley's vision, Brave New World, no big brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history.

[SPEAKER_01]: As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

[SPEAKER_01]: What all will feared was those who had banned books.

[SPEAKER_01]: What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban books, because there'd be no one who wanted to read one.

[SPEAKER_01]: All will fear that those who would deprive us of information, but hopefully fear those who would give us so much information that we would be reduced to trivial passivity and egoism.

[SPEAKER_01]: All will fear that the truth would be concealed from us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.

[SPEAKER_01]: All will fear that we would become a captive culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huxley feared that we would become a trivial culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: In short, all will fear that what we hate will ruin us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here's what I think is going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: It pretty much looks to me, both of those things are happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm your tannously.

[SPEAKER_01]: We increasingly love our technology.

[SPEAKER_01]: Particularly our smart devices now powered by AI.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I just bought a washing machine recently.

[SPEAKER_01]: They required me to download an AI powered app.

[SPEAKER_01]: In order to use the stinking thing, I just want to wash my clothes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to have enhanced AI experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right, so we, it's creeping everywhere and yet we fear what it's doing to us and to the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: This all intrusive surveillance with its potential for totalitarian control.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, the rise of AI makes the idea of a world encompassing government, our revelation 13, seem actually possible for the first time ever in human history.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, my point about all this is not to get carried away with conspiratorial theories about AI because the future will be the future.

[SPEAKER_01]: What I am saying though is that we need to be awake.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to be alert.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to be wise.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as we come to the end of this series, and I think about Daniel and his friends, living under the oppressive, overwhelming power of Babylon, that as teenagers even would have seemed so powerful and their resistance, so utterly futile, yet they did not see it that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: They saw the small obediencees and the decision to be faithful in small things at the beginning, which enabled them to give them courage to be faithful in large and life-threatening obediencees later on.

[SPEAKER_01]: They saw that as anything but pointless and futile.

[SPEAKER_01]: They decided that it was worth it to fight back.

[SPEAKER_01]: even in the midst of Babylon, and as I said a couple of weeks ago, they were living in Babylon, but they determined that Babylon would not come to live in them, and we have to make the same decision.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we fight not against people, not once to Daniel treat his rulers over him or the Babylonians around him as his enemy, not once.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he did fight, as Paul tells us too, not against flesh and blood, not against people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, if you're a follower of Jesus, then there is no person in this world that you are allowed to call your enemy.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he fought, and Paul calls us to fight, not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, they don't just come at you directly, they always come to you through culture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now Daniel came to understand that therefore there was much more going on around him than what was obvious on the surface and I want to say to you this morning as we conclude this series that our time is no different.

[SPEAKER_01]: The dangers for us are just as real and just as present as they were for Daniel in Babylon.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, we have lived a very long period of relative tolerance toward the Christian faith in the West for many centuries in fact, but Christendom is over and that time of tolerance is ending.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to tell you that.

[SPEAKER_01]: You feel it and experience it already, everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right?

[SPEAKER_01]: The kind of values that we took for granted even 50 years ago are now contested in just about every domain of the culture we live in now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know this, I know you know this, I've spoken to many of you who are worried that if people at work discover who you really are and what you really believe that it could cost you your job.

[SPEAKER_01]: Christian schools are struggling to maintain the right to hire people of faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Any divergence from the new sexual orthodoxies enough to get you branded a bigot and a one-way trip to HR.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it won't be long, I think, before we're going to have to make the kinds of decisions that Daniel and his friends had to make, but hopefully when that pressure comes and it will come that we will recognise it for what it is and we'll have the courage to stand firm and to overcome.

[SPEAKER_01]: but this is my concern.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is my concern that I have been trying to make clear this morning and my concern is that the church is asleep that we're not aware of just how pervasive the principalities and powers around us really are because we've just kind of trivialised them into just the temptations that we face but that is not what it is at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the forces that are at work behind the scenes that are shaping the culture you live in and you've got to live with your eyes open.

[SPEAKER_01]: and I think many of us have been lulled to sleep by distraction, by a war in our minds, by a war in our affections, because we've been willing to trade our attention for convenience and dopamine hits for ruined mental health, but I think that is changing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have noticed among our young people growing disgust with what our devices and our technology is doing to our minds and to our hearts.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're aware of it, they see it, they see what it's doing to their friends, and people are waking up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now none of us can predict the future, and I'm not saying that technology in and of itself is evil.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is evil is what it does to you, and it won't be long before it's not longer phones, but it'll be something else, it doesn't matter what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you know that your use of something is drawing you away from your loyalty to Christ, then what did Jesus say you need to do?

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to get rid of that thing, you need to cut it off.

[SPEAKER_01]: then to go to hell with your body intact.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, I'm going to get the band to come on up so I can land this plane and what a plane it has been.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've been circling for some time now.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're running out of fuel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, everyone take a breath.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all good, we're all good.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all friends here.

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: Come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now Daniel is told and I want to say it to us as well this morning, the wise will understand.

[SPEAKER_01]: They won't understand everything, but they'll understand the one thing that is most important.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that question, are you living with wisdom?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you living with wisdom in the midst of Babylon?

[SPEAKER_01]: How will you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I can't give you your answer.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know what I struggle with, I know my challenges, I know the things that tempt me away from my loyalty to Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you aware of the things in your life that are doing the same to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Daniel is asking you to do, be awake, pay attention, and don't let the devil deceive you into foolishness.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, how will we find the courage?

[SPEAKER_01]: Not only to resist, but first of all, to be honest with ourselves.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have to put on the armor of God so that we can take our stand, but we won't put on the armor of God and take our stand if we haven't first decided in our heart of hearts and in the fullness of our minds.

[SPEAKER_01]: And with all of our bodies that we belong to Christ and we will serve Him and Him alone.

[SPEAKER_01]: that Jesus Christ alone is Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were seeing in this earlier, every knee will bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

[SPEAKER_01]: My question to you this morning is that the anchor of your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that the thing you have built your life on?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that the thing that means more to you than literally, literally anything else that might be in your life?

[SPEAKER_01]: Your money, your relationships, your commitments, your job, your possessions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because all of that stuff is going to pass away, but one thing will never pass away and that is Christ and His Kingdom.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the wise say,

[SPEAKER_01]: So stand with me as we finish this morning and I'm just going to use Paul's awesome exhortation in Romans 13 as a way of drawing this to a conclusion.

[SPEAKER_01]: He writes, and this is to the first century, but it's just as relevant to us now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Understand the present time, friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because our salvation is near and now, then when we first believed, the night is nearly over, praise the Lord, the day is almost here.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light, let us behave decently as in the daytime.

[SPEAKER_01]: What in carousing and drunkenness, immorality and laboratory and dissension and jealousy, all the stuff that people do in the dark.

[SPEAKER_01]: Brother, close yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how you gratified the desires of the flesh, but confess in your heart and in your mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you will seek to glorify Christ alone because He alone is worthy of our worship.

[SPEAKER_01]: And with that in mind, let's lift our voices and give Him the honor, the glory and the praise that is

[SPEAKER_01]: forever and ever on man.