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HopeLives365

Unsealing Daniel's Mysteries

Mark Finley

Daniel 1

Many of you have been with us in the past.

We've studied the book of Revelation together chapter by chapter.

Each Wednesday evening will unfold another chapter in the Book of Daniel.

Now some Wednesday nights, it's going to take us a couple Wednesdays to get through some of the chapters, particularly when we get to the prophetic portions of the Book of Daniel.

Daniel is divided really into 2 parts, stories and prophecies.

The stories of Daniel tell us how to prepare for end events.

They talk about prayer and faith and character.

The prophecies reveal an outline of those events and tell us the stupendous events that will take place just before the coming of Jesus.

So the stories really tell us how, the prophecies tell us when.

When we study the book of Daniel it's important to look I think at 3 things in each chapter.

First we want to look at what does this chapter say about the character of God.

Satan has portrayed God as a vindictive judge, a wrathful tyrant, authoritarian.

How does each chapter of the Book of Daniel reveal God's character in the light of the great controversy?

Secondly, What practical lessons can we learn from this chapter for our life today?

How can this chapter make you a better father, better mother?

How can it encourage your heart in times of sickness or disease or unemployment?

And then lastly, what does this chapter say about end events?

What does it say about end events and the events that will soon to break upon this world as an overwhelming surprise.

Let's pray as we get into the chapter, but before we pray, there are a couple, what I would call housekeeping items.

If you have any questions, you can write to us or email to us at info at hopelives365.com.

Next week, we'll take up some of the questions that you might have on Chapter 1, and then the following week when we do Chapter 2, then we'll take up questions the third week on chapter 2 and so forth.

Secondly, Starting next week we will publish some Bible study guides on the Book of Daniel.

So if you'd like our Bible study guides, next week you can go to HopeLives365.com forward slash weekly Bible study.

This week number 2, we'll publish the guides for number 1 and so forth.

So each week you can have a chance to study Bible study guides along with us and review what we've gone over that previous week.

Let's pray as we jump into the book of Daniel.

Father in heaven, thank you for the opportunity to study Daniel.

Thank you for the marvelous privilege that we have of an opening the Word of God.

A word from the Lord that's inspired a word that lifts our spirit, a word that encourages our hearts.

Give us insight into your loving character, reveal to us how we can live life in the 21st century, and Lord, we pray that you'd impress our minds through the Holy Spirit about the things that are going to break and crash upon our world and help us be prepared for your soon return.

You are not alone in your desire to understand the book of Daniel.

Did you know that Christopher Columbus, early founder of America, studied the book of Daniel?

He wrote a treatise on the book of Daniel.

Because he believed that the world was soon going to come to an end.

And he believed that this world was going to face a crisis.

And he believed everybody had to know about it.

He was, When he came to America, he was looking for India.

Because he wanted to find ways that the gospel could be preached there.

So you're not alone in your desire to study the book of Daniel.

Columbus was an ardent student of Daniel.

1 of the most brilliant people ever to live was Isaac Newton, mathematician and a scholar.

He studied the prophecies of Daniel and as a result of that, believed that Daniel was inspired.

And the, Isaac Newton, the scientist, wrote a major book on the prophecies of Daniel.

1 of my favorite stories is a story about Timothy Dwight.

Timothy Dwight was the president of Yale College, which later became Yale University.

And during the French Revolution, many of the students at the college turned their backs on God.

Yale College was originally a religious institution.

But during the time of the French Revolution, when people were reading people like Locke and Rousseau and so forth, the students at Yale became very skeptical in their viewpoints, very cynical.

They would mock the Bible and downplay the Word of God.

Timothy Dwight challenged many of those students, brought them to chapel 1 day, came with a stack of history books.

And as he did that, he had a history books in 1 hand, and the Bible in the other.

He opened the Word of God, began to study the book of Daniel, and compare it with history.

And as he did, the students are absolutely amazed, eventually gave him a standing ovation and a revival broke out at Yale College.

So Columbus and Isaac Newton and Timothy Dwight and Bradstreet, America's first poet, was a great student of the book of Daniel.

So you're not alone in your desire to study the writings of Daniel and his prophecies.

Now the skeptics of the Bible first used to say, well, the prophecies of Daniel, they're not accurate at all.

But then as the archeologists began to uncover the evidence with names and places in the book of Daniel, the skeptics changed their tune.

Daniel was not written 600 years before Christ.

The skeptics said it must have been written 200 years before Christ after many of the events took place.

Now there are 3 things that put that argument to rest.

Number 1, that when you look at the language of the second century before Christ and you look at the language of the seventh century before Christ, you look about you know 150 to 200 years before Christ when many of these skeptics said that Daniel was written, and you look at the language of 700 years before Christ, the language of the book of Daniel is not the language of the second century before Christ.

It's the language of 6, 700 years before Christ.

Secondly, even if you say that it was the late, take the late date for Daniel, which it wasn't written then, it was written 600 years before Christ, But even if you took that late date, there's still many prophecies yet to be fulfilled about Rome, how Rome would be divided, about that can be demonstrated in history about Rome never being reunited, the nations of Europe and the nations of the Middle East in explosion, So that doesn't solve the skeptic's problem.

But there's a third thing that I think cinches the argument that Daniel was a prophet.

If you have your Bible, take it in turn to Matthew chapter 24.

Now to get the most out of these Bible studies, I encourage you to have a Bible ready, a pen, and a notebook so you can take some notes.

Now if you're a student of the Bible at all, you recognize that in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus is talking about last day events.

He talks about wars and rumors of wars, talks about false Christs and false prophets, talks about famines and earthquakes and pestilences, talks about rising crime and violence, talks about the gospel going to the end of the world.

Then in verse 15, notice what it says, therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, we'll study what that is when we get to Daniel 7 and 8, Daniel 12, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand.

And so I would rather take Jesus' word than some skeptics' word, wouldn't you?

And Jesus said, whoever reads, let him understand.

Now the entire Bible is inspired by God and is profitable as we read it.

It encourages us and deepens our spiritual experience, but there's only 1 book in the Bible that Jesus said to read and understand.

So if Jesus says Daniel is a prophet, and if Jesus says read and understand Daniel, it must be incredibly important to do that.

Daniel 2

Welcome to our studies in the book of Daniel called Unsealing Daniel's Mysteries.

You'll recall last week we introduced the book of Daniel.

Daniel is the only book in the Bible that Jesus specifically told us to study.

Jesus said, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, whoever is in the holy place, let him read and understand.

Jesus made that comment in context with his great sermon on the last days of Earth's history in Matthew 24, where he talks about there'll be wars and rumors of wars.

There'll be false Christs and false prophets, famines and earthquakes, pestilence, rise of crime and violence, gospel going to the end of the world.

So Jesus encourages us to study the book of Daniel.

The book of Daniel was written for a specific time in Earth's history.

Daniel 12, verse 4, tells us, the angel tells Daniel, shut up, seal the book, even to the time of the end.

And verse 9 of Daniel 12, go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed and shut up till the end of the days.

The last verse of the book of Daniel says that Daniel would stand in his lot at the end of the days.

So the specific purpose of the book of Daniel is to prepare people for the coming of Jesus.

Now you remember that Daniel's name is unique if you see a name in the Bible.

So the name Daniel means God is my judge, God is my vindicator, God is the 1 who will set all things right.

So in this great controversy between good and evil, in this cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan, God is the 1 who said all things right.

Last week we found that Daniel was taken captive when he was about 17 years old, brought from the simplicity and godliness of his Judean home to the lavishness and the immorality and the arrogance and rebellion of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar, 605 BC, attacks Jerusalem, takes young people captive.

They were intelligent, good looking, handsome, muscular, brilliant.

And Nebuchadnezzar's intent is to educate them for 3 years in the University of Babylon, and then bring them back to Jerusalem, to Israel, to be his puppet rulers.

We found that Daniel, chapter 1, verse 8, purposes in his heart to serve God.

And as the result of that, Daniel, faithful to God, receives the blessings of God.

Faithfulness to God brings God's blessings.

So he receives the blessings of God Daniel and his friends have found 10 times better than the astrologer than all of the wise men in the realm of Babylon.

Daniel went through the three-year educational period in the University of Babylon, remained faithful to God, and Chapter 2 ends with this magnificent text chapter 1 rather ends with this magnificent text verse 21 Daniel continues to the first year King Cyrus Nations rise and fall but Daniel continues Kings come on their throne, but Daniel continues.

He goes from 1 empire to the next, as we are faithful to God, making a commitment to Christ for these last days.

We will go from the kingdoms of this earth.

We could call them the Babylon of this earth with its sex-centered, thrill-jaded, morally twisted, ethically compromised society to the land of glory, caught up in the sky to meet Jesus forever.

They deal with integrity and honesty and purposing in the heart to serve God and prayer and faith and character development.

The last 6 chapters predominantly deal with prophecy.

Now there's a little interlude in there in Daniel chapter 2 which blends prophecy and character.

We look at that today, Daniel chapter 2, and if you have your Bible, I invite you to take it.

I've studied Daniel chapter 2 for over 50 years.

And every time I open the Bible, every time I study the book of Daniel, I find new insights.

And so whether you are new in studying prophecy or whether you have studied it for many years.

I pray today that God will give us new insight as we study, so let's bow our heads.

Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts for the Word of God.

We thank you for the prophecies of the Bible.

We thank you that Jesus is our savior and our Lord, and that he has promised to reveal the future to prepare us for the events that'll burst upon the world as an overwhelming surprise.

So open our hearts today and prepare us as we study your word in Christ's name, Amen.

Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams and his spirit was so troubled that his sleep left him.

Now just a short explanation, it says the second year of Nebuchadnezzar.

If Daniel was captured 3 years before and Nebuchadnezzar was the king, why say second year?

Because they have what they call the regal or the reign year that's not counted.

So the regal year is the first year not counted.

Then they start with what we would call the second year and they count the first year as second and then onto third.

So Daniel was in captivity 3 years, but technically from the Babylonian standpoint, Nebuchadnezzar, This was his second year.

So his spirit is troubled, his sleep leaves him.

He goes to sleep, verse 2, then the king gave command to what we call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans to tell the king the dreams, So they came before the king.

So the king went to sleep and he had a dream.

Have you ever gone to sleep at night and you've had a dream and you wake up in the morning and you can't remember it?

Maybe you were eating too much pizza just before you went to bed.

A lot of our dreams have little or no significance at all, but this dream has great significance.

Woke up in the morning, couldn't remember his dream.

The magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans.

The magicians were those that would, for example, take the liver of a calf, cut it in half, look at the lining of that liver of the calf, and try to predict the future.

They would take a drop of oil and a drop of water, drop it on oil, look at the patterns, and try to tell the future.

They would look at the stars and they would have Leo and and and the various star signs in astrology, you know, and as they looked up they would try to tell the future by looking at these different star signs.

You know there are about 3, 000 astrology columns in newspapers across America.

Many people guide their lives by them today, But the magicians and the astrologers let Nebuchadnezzar down and they will certainly let people down today.

They are those who try to communicate with the dead.

They are spiritualists, wizards, Chaldeans.

Chaldeans, none named for Babylonian educators.

So the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, the Chaldeans are called in.

Now what does the Bible say about these folk, these kind of people?

We're going to look at Deuteronomy chapter 18 because we learn a vital lesson about it today.

Are there those today that are dominated by the psychic phenomena?

Are some of the best-selling movies having to do with wizards and hobbits.

And have you ever heard of the Harry Potter books, all about wizards, you know?

And you look at what's taking place in our world today, this interest in the supernatural, this interest in spiritualism, this interest in magicians and psychics, the renewed interest in astrology.

It tells you that human beings have a longing, a longing to know about their own lives, a longing to know about the future, a longing to tap into the supernatural.

Deuteronomy 18 verse 9 When you come into the land, this is Israel, which the Lord your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

There shall not be found anyone among you who makes his son or daughter pass with the fire.

Daniel 3

Welcome to another 1 of our Bible studies on the book of Daniel.

Thank you so much for joining us this evening.

You're in for a fascinating evening of Bible study.

But before we launch into our Bible study, We've got a number of questions that have come in and our producer George Washington Deverej has just emailed them to me.

So let's go over some questions then we'll have prayer.

I want to remind you as well that invite your friends to join you on Wednesday night for these inspirational Bible studies.

You'll find that you look forward to these Wednesday nights, that the Spirit of God will touch your heart, that you'll grow in Christ and grow in a knowledge of his word.

Now remember how to send the questions to us.

We'll put up on the screen if you have any questions from this week or the past.

You send it simply to info at hope lives 365.com.

Like for example in verse 12, 10 days, verse 20, 10 times.

I want you to think of some of the times 10 is used in the Bible.

A tithe is 1 10th, where God invites us to dedicate 1 10th of our income to him for the glory of his name.

So 10 there represents dedication when it comes to income.

They invite us to be dedicated to God in each area of our life.

Remember in the Bible, in Matthew 25, it talks about the 10 virgins.

Virgins, not defiled by falsehood or error.

10 virgins indicate a call to God to his last day people to be dedicated to him.

So when you come to Daniel, this idea of 10, 10 days that Daniel fasted and asked for the diet.

He purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king's meat.

He asked for a vegetarian diet for those 10 days.

He fasted from course, when I say fasted, he didn't take the wine didn't eat the meat.

But he had a vegetarian diet 10 days of dedication of his body.

They were found 10 times better than all the the wise men in the realm Again, dedication in the area of mental intellect in the university.

So when 10 is used in the positive sense, it's used in the idea of dedication.

Now, there are times that 10 is used in the negative sense, which would be the opposite of dedication, which would be rebellion against God.

You find that in Revelation 17, for example, we have the 10 kings and the false unity that takes place, union of church and state and so forth, apostasy from God.

You also, in Daniel, find the 10 toes of the image, a society that is so weak that it's crumbling because it's rejected God's way.

So 10, typically if it's used in the positive sense, dedication.

Negative sense is lack of dedication or rejection or rebellion against God.

I'm just wondering if you've recorded the revelation study would like to see it.

You just if you want to do that, go to Hopelives365, and then you go from there to the inventory of past studies, and you'll be able to certainly get the Revelation Studies.

If you have any questions about that, of how to get them, just write a question to our staff at HopeLives, at info at HopeLives365.com if you have any problems getting them.

Somebody said, How do we get the study notes on Pastor Finley's study on the book of Daniel?

Hope lives 365.com forward slash weekly Bible study.

So if you want the study notes, hope lives 365.com weekly Bible study.

He said, I have 2 questions for Pastor Mark.

Did Jesus complete salvation on Calvary and can you be a Christian if he didn't?

Yes, Jesus did complete our salvation on Calvary.

I love the old song, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

The shed blood on Calvary provides complete salvation for us.

But it is not until we accept that that we can receive that salvation.

Christ's work of salvation, the price he paid was complete on Calvary's cross.

But after Jesus died and was resurrected, he ascended as our high priest into heaven.

So we come to Jesus, our high priest, who applies the benefits of what he did on the cross to our names individually.

So can anything be added to what he did on the cross?

But is our work of salvation complete on the cross?

Our work of salvation is complete only as we accept what Christ has done on the cross and only as we see we personally receive the benefits of that salvation by coming to Jesus who is our living High Priest.

Series

Unsealing Daniel's Mysteries

Daniel 3

Transcript

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