SPEAKER_01: I invite you to open your Bibles now to the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter twelve.
SPEAKER_01: Of the progression in those songs that our soul is anchored in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And in light of that, we have victory over sin and the world and the flesh and the devil over death.
SPEAKER_01: And then in light of that, we look forward to the day where we soar with Christ in worlds unknown.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a fitting progression because that's what is covered in Daniel chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Normally through the book of Daniel, we've just worked through the verses as we've gone through the sermon, what I call the read and ramble approach to preaching.
SPEAKER_01: But tonight, it's 12 verses, or 13 verses, so I want to read them all for us before we begin.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel 12, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who is charged for your people.
SPEAKER_01: And there shall be a time of trouble, such as has never been since there was a nation until that time.
SPEAKER_01: But at that time your people will be delivered.
SPEAKER_01: Every one whose name shall be found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt, and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: But you, Daniel, shut up the words of these books, seal this book until the time of the end.
SPEAKER_01: Many will run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.
SPEAKER_01: Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood on this bank of the stream, and one on that bank of the stream, and someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, How long shall it be until the end of these wonders?
SPEAKER_01: And I heard the man clothed in linen, who's above the waters of the stream, he raised his right hand and his left hand towards heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and a half a time.
SPEAKER_01: And that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be finished.
SPEAKER_01: I heard, but I did not understand.
SPEAKER_01: Then I said, O my Lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Go your way, Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: For the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
SPEAKER_01: Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.
SPEAKER_01: And from that time, from the regular burnt offering, and it's taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days.
SPEAKER_01: But go your way until the end, and you shall rest, and you shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.
SPEAKER_01: This is how the book of Daniel ends, and this closing chapter certainly has a theme to it, this theme of time.
SPEAKER_01: Your time is ticking away.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is more precious to us than time.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing in the world has more value than time.
SPEAKER_01: We understand that things get their value from the law of supply and demand.
SPEAKER_01: When there is a large supply of something, the demand is limited.
SPEAKER_01: And when there's large demand for something, supply itself is limited.
SPEAKER_01: And as one grows, the other decreases.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing proves that law more than the nature of time.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there is no more valuable commodity in the whole world than time, is there?
SPEAKER_01: It's so valuable that you would sell all you had to get more of it.
SPEAKER_01: But nothing can buy it.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't stop you from trying, though.
SPEAKER_01: Everything else you have in life possesses value inversely.
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is the value of everything else decreases as your time decreases.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a lot of time, you might spend your money on things.
SPEAKER_01: You might put value in money.
SPEAKER_01: You might get this car or that house or whatever, if you had a lot of time.
SPEAKER_01: If your time is limited, and you know that your time in life is about to run out, you would perhaps not value those things as much.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of the way the Israelites were supposed to value their real estate.
SPEAKER_01: Their real estate had value in as much as the calendar approached the year of Jubilee.
SPEAKER_01: If it was close to the year of Jubilee, a real estate transaction was basically meaningless because you had to give the land back in a year.
SPEAKER_01: Granted, the Israelites never followed that calendar, which is why they're an exile in the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: But that's the nature of time.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you can lose money in life.
SPEAKER_01: And you can just make it back tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: You can get swindled on a, you know, by an electrician or something, but you'll make more money next week.
SPEAKER_01: You can get sick, and then you can get healthy again.
SPEAKER_01: You can lose your money, you can lose your health, you can recover both of those.
SPEAKER_01: But if you lose time, you're never getting it back.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: There's no way to recover lost time.
SPEAKER_01: It's gone.
SPEAKER_01: Beyond that, you have been allotted only a certain amount of time.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the real dagger in the heart is that you don't know how much time that is.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can tell by external appearances how wealthy someone is in the worldly sense.
SPEAKER_01: Or at least you can tell by external experiences how much debt they have.
SPEAKER_01: You can see their car, you can see their house, you can see their clothes, man.
SPEAKER_01: That guy's either really wealthy or really in debt.
SPEAKER_01: And in our culture, more likely the latter.
SPEAKER_01: But you can't tell from external experiences or external appearances how much time somebody has left.
SPEAKER_01: There's no giveaways.
SPEAKER_01: You think the person with stage four cancer has less time in life than you do?
SPEAKER_01: You have no idea.
SPEAKER_01: No idea at all.
SPEAKER_01: Not only have you been allotted a certain amount of time, not only is it the most valuable thing that you have in this world, and have you only been given X amount of it, but beyond that, listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: You're spending it right now.
SPEAKER_01: Right now, there's a run in your bank account.
SPEAKER_01: Right now it's being taken from you.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's fitting that the book of Daniel ends with this description of time.
SPEAKER_01: Now there's two different times that are described in Daniel chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: There's two different streams of truth in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to try to swim in both of the streams tonight.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go back and forth between the two different clocks that Daniel has ticking down.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to use the clock analogy here because it's basketball season right now.
SPEAKER_01: There's a basketball game, some of you guys have watched, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, in basketball, there's two different clocks.
SPEAKER_01: There's the game clock, and then there's the shot clock.
SPEAKER_01: And generally speaking, with two exceptions, the shot clock runs out first before the game clock.
SPEAKER_01: And you strategize based on both of them.
SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of what we have going on in Daniel chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: There's two different clocks that are ticking away.
SPEAKER_01: But the theme in this chapter is certainly time.
SPEAKER_01: And to point that, that's the most common word in Daniel 12.
SPEAKER_01: The word time is, that's the most common word.
SPEAKER_01: It's used, I don't know, eight or ten times in this chapter, depending on what English translation you're looking at.
SPEAKER_01: But you see the beginning in verse 1, at that time shall arise Michael.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, this is the focus of the passage.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be all about that time.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 4, at the time of the end.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, time, times, time point five.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9, shut this up, Daniel, until the end of time.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, from that time forward.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is the main refrain of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: But the crux of this passage, the main point of it, is down in the middle of verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: I, Daniel looked, and behold, two others stood, two different angels.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Daniel is having this in the Tigris River.
SPEAKER_01: He's outside of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: He left Babylon to pray to God and get his answer and to stir up the exiles to go back.
SPEAKER_01: And he encounters this Theophany or Christophany, Christ, and an embodiment form, some kind, not an incarnation, but Christ in the appearance of a man and these angels that are with him.
SPEAKER_01: And now he sees the angels again.
SPEAKER_01: He sees the man dressed in white, the matching the description of Christ in Revelation 1.
SPEAKER_01: And he has a question for them in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: How long shall it be until the end of these wonders?
SPEAKER_01: That's the main theme of this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: It's all about time.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's at the end of his life here.
SPEAKER_01: He's probably 85, 90 years old in that window.
SPEAKER_01: And he has seen his time run out.
SPEAKER_01: He has spent his life.
SPEAKER_01: Born in the Judah Empire, raised there, at 14 or so, taken to the Babylonian Empire, raised the rest of his life there, serving with distinction there, becoming the prime minister.
SPEAKER_01: Then the Persian Empire, being the prime minister there in his 80s, and now he's walked away from that.
SPEAKER_01: He's just what he's given it all up.
SPEAKER_01: He's walked away out in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if he ever gets back to Babylon, likely not.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it seems reasonable enough that he dies after this, after writing this book.
SPEAKER_01: His time is up.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why this chapter closes with this question about time.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, how long?
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 6, how long shall it be?
SPEAKER_01: How much time do we have left here?
SPEAKER_01: You can almost hear the tick tock in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: You can almost see the hourglass slipped over in the sand running out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna follow these two clocks tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an outline.
SPEAKER_01: Two clocks that are ticking away.
SPEAKER_01: Apologies to DC talk for stealing that lyric.
SPEAKER_01: You old school 90 Christian rockers get that joke.
SPEAKER_01: Your first shot clock that's ticking down.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's time of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's time of judgment is numbered.
SPEAKER_01: God has fixed Israel's time of judgment.
SPEAKER_01: That's the main stress in this chapter, verse one at that time.
SPEAKER_01: That time here, the antecedent is chapter 11, which is the abomination of desolation.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, chapter 11 is giving you this massive survey.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's prayer is how come the exile's not over?
SPEAKER_01: You've called us to return, but the Israelites are still out.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, is this you know 400, 450 BC out there?
SPEAKER_01: The Israelites are still wasting away in captivity.
SPEAKER_01: They're not going back to Jerusalem like they were told to go back.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's trying to shoo them back.
SPEAKER_01: Ezra is trying to draw them back.
SPEAKER_01: So the Rubble is trying to drive them back.
SPEAKER_01: Cyrus is commanding they go back.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, everybody's trying to get them back, and they're not going.
SPEAKER_01: They're happy in Persia.
SPEAKER_01: They're happy in the Arabian desert.
SPEAKER_01: They're happy out there.
SPEAKER_01: They've got the nice house and the two camel garage.
SPEAKER_01: They're just living the life out there.
SPEAKER_01: And they don't want to go back.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's Daniel's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: How much longer until they come back?
SPEAKER_01: And God's answer to him is that you think this is still the exile?
SPEAKER_01: I have all kinds of punishment for your people, Israel, Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: All kinds of punishment.
SPEAKER_01: They have atoned in as much as any captivity can atone for anything.
SPEAKER_01: They've atoned for the years of Jubilee they skipped.
SPEAKER_01: They've made up for that.
SPEAKER_01: But they are still under discipline.
SPEAKER_01: They're still under chastisement from God because they've rejected his word, scorned his prophets, worshipped idols, disobeyed him, disbelieved him, all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, for the whole Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And so Daniel 11, paralleling Daniel 8, describes all the judgment that is going to come on them.
SPEAKER_01: Describes nation after nation punishing Israel, kingdom after kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And we understand looking back on this, just in God's amazing providence how that's prepared the world for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the New Testament is written in Greek, which most of the world read during the time of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How did that happen?
SPEAKER_01: How did they go from writing in Hebrew to writing in Greek?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it came through this captivity.
SPEAKER_01: It came through the Persians ruling Israel and then them getting conquered by the Greeks, and then all the things we looked at last week, bringing the Greek Empire into Israel.
SPEAKER_01: That's how they started writing Greek.
SPEAKER_01: That's prepared the world.
SPEAKER_01: The Roman Empire takes over the world then, adopts the Greek language, so the gospel can go everywhere without borders in all the Greek language.
SPEAKER_01: This is all God's plan.
SPEAKER_01: He's doing lots of things here, but in all of Daniel 11, he's punishing Israel for their sin, and he's preparing Israel to receive the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: That's at this time.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes all the way from there through 69 of those 70 weeks of judgment, all the way to the arrival of the Messiah, and there's still that last week left.
SPEAKER_01: The last of the 70 weeks is still left.
SPEAKER_01: There's still seven years of judgment for Israel that has not yet been poured out at the arrival of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel 9 talks about the Messiah being broken off.
SPEAKER_01: He's cut off from his people Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He's rejected, he's crucified.
SPEAKER_01: The temple itself will be destroyed in 70 AD.
SPEAKER_01: And that's still not the judgment.
SPEAKER_01: There's still seven more years.
SPEAKER_01: There's a long jump in the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't describe that time.
SPEAKER_01: There's a break between the 69th and the 70th week.
SPEAKER_01: That's where the church fits in.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we are now in that time period between the 69th and 70 week.
SPEAKER_01: That 70th week is still in the future.
SPEAKER_01: And the last part of Daniel 11, starting around verse 36 or so, picks up with that 70th week and describes the full Antichrist coming.
SPEAKER_01: He looks a lot like the judgment Israel's gone through before.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, all these kingdoms work the same way.
SPEAKER_01: From the Babylonians, when they conquered Jerusalem, what did they do to the temple?
SPEAKER_01: They tore it down.
SPEAKER_01: When the Persians conquered, they didn't let him rebuild.
SPEAKER_01: They finally command the temple to be rebuilt, and you got the book of Ezra and Nehemiah in there.
SPEAKER_01: And the Greeks conquer it, and what do they do to the temple?
SPEAKER_01: They tear it down.
SPEAKER_01: They put a Zeus altar in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_01: And then it gets rebuilt later by Herod, and then it gets torn down by the Romans.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to be rebuilt again, and then it's going to get defiled by the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same movie over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how verse 1 begins.
SPEAKER_01: At that time, Michael will arise.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of that tribulation, the 70th week.
SPEAKER_01: He is the great prince.
SPEAKER_01: He's the angel who is charge of your people.
SPEAKER_01: And there will be a time of trouble, such as never been since there was a nation until that time.
SPEAKER_01: This is quoted by Jesus in Mark 13.
SPEAKER_01: This is described in 1st and 2 Thessalonians as the abomination of desolation.
SPEAKER_01: It's described in verse 13 of this chapter as the abomination, or sorry, verse 11 of this chapter is the abomination of desolation.
SPEAKER_01: There's no doubt about when this is.
SPEAKER_01: This is still future.
SPEAKER_01: This has not happened yet.
SPEAKER_01: The 70th week is still future.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus quotes this verse pointing forward with it.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, you have to ask yourself, what's happening?
SPEAKER_01: Who is this punishment for?
SPEAKER_01: And the stress here in verse 1, notice the stress in this phrase.
SPEAKER_01: It is for your people in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Charge of your people.
SPEAKER_01: And it'll be more extreme than anything Israel has ever seen.
SPEAKER_01: All this is answering the question if Jeremiah's 70 years of judgment are over, how come Israel is still being judged?
SPEAKER_01: And God says there is a lot more coming.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, there are those that want to say this is talking about judgment on the church or judgment about God's people of all ages.
SPEAKER_01: I don't buy that.
SPEAKER_01: There seems to be a very stark difference between the judgment on Israel and the judgment on the church.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, in many ways, operates like the book of Revelation of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel is told to seal this book up because the Jews aren't onoring it, they aren't believing it.
SPEAKER_01: In contrast to the book of Revelation, when John writes these same punishments, I mean, things in Daniel chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 11, even the stuff in Daniel chapter 12, it's described in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: John doesn't say seal it up.
SPEAKER_01: John says, unseal it.
SPEAKER_01: Get it out there.
SPEAKER_01: Let everybody know.
SPEAKER_01: It's a huge difference.
SPEAKER_01: The same content.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel was supposed to seal it up, John's supposed to get it out.
SPEAKER_01: And that's because Daniel is written about the judgment for the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation is written from the church's perspective, what's going to happen there.
SPEAKER_01: So Daniel 12 ends with seal this up.
SPEAKER_01: You get that down at the end there, seal this up.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: I heard the man clothed in linen.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is the image of our Lord again.
SPEAKER_01: He was above the waters of the stream.
SPEAKER_01: He's exalted above the angels.
SPEAKER_01: He swears by him who lives forever.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that's a non-triune phrase.
SPEAKER_01: I think that all three members of the Trinity can swear by one another.
SPEAKER_01: This is said in Hebrews 6.
SPEAKER_01: When Christ takes an oath, who's he gonna take it by?
SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody greater than him?
SPEAKER_01: Of course not.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna swear by God himself.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the oath that Christ, or whoever this angel is, takes in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: That when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, these things will be finished.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the Antichrist is gonna defile the temple, as described in chapter 11, and after that, God's gonna judge him, and then it's over.
SPEAKER_01: That's the answer to Daniel's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: How much more judgment?
SPEAKER_01: Seventy weeks of seven years.
SPEAKER_01: This last one worse than the other 69, and when that week is completed, Daniel, the judgment is over.
SPEAKER_01: How long will that be?
SPEAKER_01: Well, in the middle of verse 7, time, times, and a half a time.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds confusing, but remember this whole thing is given in that kind of language.
SPEAKER_01: So you can count on your fingers.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Time.
SPEAKER_01: That's one.
SPEAKER_01: You keeping up?
SPEAKER_01: Times, how many is times?
SPEAKER_01: So you're up to three.
SPEAKER_01: Good job.
SPEAKER_01: And a half of a time.
SPEAKER_01: How much is that?
SPEAKER_01: Three and a half.
SPEAKER_01: You guys are doing great at this.
SPEAKER_01: Good job.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what your math teacher says.
SPEAKER_01: You're keeping up just fine.
SPEAKER_01: It's a three and a half year period.
SPEAKER_01: A three and a half year period from the time the Antichrist defiles the temple to the time the judgment on them is completed.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this parallels exactly what is described in the book of Revelation, where there's a seven-year tribulation, the midpoint of it is marked by the Antichrist defiling the temple.
SPEAKER_01: It's described in 1st and 2 Thessalonians both.
SPEAKER_01: It's described in Mark 13, it's described in the Olivet discourse.
SPEAKER_01: This is not unique to this passage here, but this is one of the places it describes it at the middle of the tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 11 that the daily sacrifice will come to a completion.
SPEAKER_01: From that time, the regular burnt offering was taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up.
SPEAKER_01: There will be three and a half years.
SPEAKER_01: There's that phrase again.
SPEAKER_01: So remember, the Antichrist builds the temple and signs his peace treaty, letting Israel sacrifice in the temple at the middle of the tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: He violates that treaty, he defiles the temple, just like has happened before.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, this is what the Romans did and the Greeks did and the Babylonians did.
SPEAKER_01: And then God will pour out wrath on them.
SPEAKER_01: It'll be a devastating war for three and a half years.
SPEAKER_01: It's the second half of the tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: But then there's a weird phrase in there, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: You got an extra 45 days tucked in there.
SPEAKER_01: You see that?
SPEAKER_01: 1290 days to 1,335 days.
SPEAKER_01: What's up with the 45 days?
SPEAKER_01: Well, this lets you know there's a month and a half, 45 days between the end of the tribulation and the start of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: This is the only place in the Bible that 45 days is described, but that does make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Christ is going to come back.
SPEAKER_01: You see this battle, I think, in the described in Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: It happens quick and suddenly, Zechariah 11 and 12, when the Lord comes back, he splits the Mount of Olives and this just bloodshed in Israel as the Israelites are converted.
SPEAKER_01: So when they begin to be converted, their judgment is over, and the Lord is going to set up his kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: That takes about six weeks, about a month and a half, or 45 days.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what that's how I understand that that break there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the impressive thing about here is this massive event in world history in the future, God knows to the number of days that it's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: He is keeping track of time.
SPEAKER_01: All of this fulfills the judgment on Israel.
SPEAKER_01: You just think of Romans 11, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Speaks of Israel as a branch that is broken off.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 11, 17, some of the branches are broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, speaking of the Gentiles in the church, were grafted in among the others.
SPEAKER_01: You now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be arrogant towards the branches.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, don't be arrogant towards the Jews because you're saved through their Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Old Testament that supports the church.
SPEAKER_01: It's not you that gives meaning to the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Old Testament that supports the church.
SPEAKER_01: So don't be arrogant towards the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: You might say, branches are broken off so that I may be grafted in, Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's true.
SPEAKER_01: But they were broken off because of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: You stand fast through faith.
SPEAKER_01: So don't become proud, but rather stand in awe of what God has done through Israel.
SPEAKER_01: If God didn't spare the natural branches, He won't spare you either.
SPEAKER_01: So the point is, Israel's judgment is running down.
SPEAKER_01: They have seven years of judgment left.
SPEAKER_01: They're still under a curse right now because they've rejected the Savior, but it's not an act of purging of Israel like will happen in the final week of the final tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the countdown.
SPEAKER_01: Understand that God knows how much suffering is in Israel's future.
SPEAKER_01: He knows it to the exact day.
SPEAKER_01: The clock has been tipped over and their time is running out.
SPEAKER_01: Now in this chapter, let's look at the second clock.
SPEAKER_01: There's a second clock ticking.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just about Israel, it's about every human.
SPEAKER_01: Not just is Israel's time of judgment numbered, but your time in this world is numbered.
SPEAKER_01: Your time of life is numbered.
SPEAKER_01: It's numbered to the day.
SPEAKER_01: Does God have a plan for your life in the same way he has a plan for the Israelite people?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer has to be yes.
SPEAKER_01: God's sovereignty is meticulous.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't just care generally about nations.
SPEAKER_01: God cares about you personally.
SPEAKER_01: If he cares about you personally, if it is appointed for a person once to die and then the judgment, does God know the number of your days before you're born?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer has to be yes.
SPEAKER_01: This is Ephesians 2 verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: He has appointed your good deeds to walk in them.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how long you live, he knows how many breaths you'll take.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how many times your heart will beat.
SPEAKER_01: He's got the clock ticking.
SPEAKER_01: And it's numbered to the day.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens when your time runs out?
SPEAKER_01: This is what you see at the middle of verse 1, back up at the start of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: The Israelite people will be delivered, and then it shifts here.
SPEAKER_01: We go to our second clock.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, there's a book, and there are names written in it.
SPEAKER_01: And if your name is written in it, you will be delivered from this judgment.
SPEAKER_01: You will be resurrected in the last day.
SPEAKER_01: It seems like a strange place to just throw out a book idea.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, there's a book out there.
SPEAKER_01: If your name is in it, it's important.
SPEAKER_01: Check it out.
SPEAKER_01: But understand, this is a theme that's also all over the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Let me rattle off some verses for you.
SPEAKER_01: Malachi 3, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: It says that God has a book of remembrance with names written in it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, in Malachi 3, 16, this book contains all the names of those who fear God, quote, and they will be mine, Yahweh says.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Malachi 3 goes on to say he's going to come into the world and make everybody whose name is in the book belong to him.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 10, verse 20, the disciples come back after casting out demons and they're high-fiving each other.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Don't rejoice that you have authority over demons, rather rejoice that your name is written in the book of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 13, verse 8 calls the book the book of the lamb that was slain.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 17, verse 8 calls it the book of life.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 21, 27 combines those titles and calls it the Lamb's Book of Life.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a book that has lots of titles.
SPEAKER_01: The Lamb's Book of Life, subtitle, God's Book of Remembrance, subtitle, Yahweh's Ownership Scroll.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 20, verse 12 says that book will be opened up at the judgment seat, and those whose names are recorded in it will rise to eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone whose name is not in it will be cast into the lake of fire.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what you see here back in Daniel 12, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up, some to everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice this the phrase many here, how many dead people will receive a bodily resurrection?
SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent.
SPEAKER_01: Every dead person will receive a bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody who's ever died will receive a bodily resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Why the phrase many here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, one answer is because he's speaking specifically of Israel, but I think the better answer is that this resurrection is split.
SPEAKER_01: First is the resurrection of life, as Daniel describes in verse 2, summed to everlasting life.
SPEAKER_01: Next, later, after the kingdom, comes the second resurrection, Jesus says, of those who are going to be condemned, and they're going to suffer a second death.
SPEAKER_01: They'll be physically received their bodies and cast into hell.
SPEAKER_01: Here it says in verse 2, they'll be cast into shame and everlasting contempt.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reality of hell.
SPEAKER_01: The totality of humans will be resurrected, some to eternal life, some to eternal judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how you divide these two camps is everything.
SPEAKER_01: This is the most significant question in the world.
SPEAKER_01: What determines if you're resurrected to eternal life and glory and beauty and worship, or if you're resurrected to eternal death?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is the whole game right here.
SPEAKER_01: How do you answer that question?
SPEAKER_01: The worst way to answer that question is to say that those who are good people go to eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the worst way.
SPEAKER_01: It shows a shallow understanding of what bad and good is.
SPEAKER_01: It shows a non-serious understanding of the human condition, and it shows a repugnant understanding of evil and sin.
SPEAKER_01: To say, oh, good people go to heaven, bad people go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, live for five minutes with your head turned on, and you're going to realize that's not a good answer.
SPEAKER_01: Because there are no good people.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody is evil and sinful.
SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't account for the reality of this world.
SPEAKER_01: A less wrong, but still missing the point of Daniel 12 answer is to say that there's works righteousness people that try to be a good person and they go to hell, and there's other people that have placed their faith in Christ through faith alone and they go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: That's closer to the right answer, but it's not the answer Daniel gives.
SPEAKER_01: Because it puts the focus on the sinner and the saints.
SPEAKER_01: The answer Daniel gives, the focus is entirely on the book.
SPEAKER_01: That is the causal action here.
SPEAKER_01: Is your name written in the book?
SPEAKER_01: That is what distinguishes the first and the second resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Did God write your name in the book?
SPEAKER_01: Now it's a natural question to ask, how do I know if my name's written in the book?
SPEAKER_01: And that's where faith comes in.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe the gospel through faith?
SPEAKER_01: That's the Lord working in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: He works in the heart of those whose names are in the book.
SPEAKER_01: But this is a strong verse about the doctrine of predestination, the doctrine of election, the doctrine that God owns his people.
SPEAKER_01: He has their names in a book.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: There are those who are wise, they will shine like the brightness of the sky above.
SPEAKER_01: And there are those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: There's a joy that comes from directing other people to a life in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I had the most interesting conversation this morning after a first hour.
SPEAKER_01: A middle school student came up to me.
SPEAKER_01: He could be one of your kids for all I know.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see him here tonight, but I've seen him in Iwana, so I have no idea what his last name is, don't know if his parents are here.
SPEAKER_01: But he came up to me and he said, I'm doing a report and I have a couple questions for somebody and I wanted to ask you for your job.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Was it a hard choice to become a pastor?
SPEAKER_01: That's a really interesting question.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Did you want to be a pastor when you were a kid?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, No, I wasn't raised in a church.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what a pastor was.
SPEAKER_01: And I got saved, and it didn't enter my mind.
SPEAKER_01: I got saved when I was 18.
SPEAKER_01: It didn't enter my mind to be a pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be a professional soccer guy.
SPEAKER_01: I was working for Major League Soccer.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted that to be my life.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to chase the God of Baal around, or Ball, is how I pronounced it.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_01: And then I got to go on a short-term mission trip and I got to tell people about Christ and I got to see kids I was coaching come to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And this is.
SPEAKER_01: You know what happens when there's a soccer game and there's a youth group retreat.
SPEAKER_01: I started to be a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: There's a youth group retreat, and I there's a soccer game and I'm supposed to referee.
SPEAKER_01: What am I supposed to do?
SPEAKER_01: And the decision became easier and easier over time.
SPEAKER_01: There's a certain joy that comes from spending your life doing what verse 3 says.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to turn many to righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: There's a certain way of redeeming the time that gives you.
SPEAKER_01: Now the middle school students' second question was really funny.
SPEAKER_01: He said, So is this what you do all week?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So he said, so do you have another job then, or is this it?
SPEAKER_01: I don't like where this is headed.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, Daniel gets the point of this book.
SPEAKER_01: Your name is in it.
SPEAKER_01: Your time is running out.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing with your life as your time is ticking out?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing with it?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Go your way, Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Go your way.
SPEAKER_01: The words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.
SPEAKER_01: Many people will purify themselves and make themselves white and they'll be refined.
SPEAKER_01: There will be people who are sanctified.
SPEAKER_01: There will be people who are coming to faith.
SPEAKER_01: They're washed in the blood of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: They're refined.
SPEAKER_01: They're going through sanctification.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked, forget about them, they're going to act wickedly.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked will not understand this, the Lord says.
SPEAKER_01: They won't get it.
SPEAKER_01: But those who are wise, they will understand.
SPEAKER_01: Those who are wise understand your time is leaving you right now.
SPEAKER_01: What are you going to do with it?
SPEAKER_01: In light of the reality that your time is ticking down, how do you respond to the angel saying, listen, there's books out there, and you need to spend your life turning people to righteousness so that they shine like the stars forever and ever?
SPEAKER_01: There's a book out there, Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: There's people who will purify themselves and understand the preciousness of time.
SPEAKER_01: There's others that won't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: The wicked people won't get it.
SPEAKER_01: I've told you this many times that my theological hero is Jonathan Edwards.
SPEAKER_01: When he was a teenager, he wrote his resolutions.
SPEAKER_01: I've shared some of them with you repeatedly, but here's a few of my favorites.
SPEAKER_01: Resolution number five, resolved never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
SPEAKER_01: Does that sound like a teenager, you know?
SPEAKER_01: Never to lose a single moment of time.
SPEAKER_01: This is the language to improve it in any way I can.
SPEAKER_01: That's the Edwards, you know, the New Testament Ephesians says redeem the time, make the best use of the time is the ESV.
SPEAKER_01: Just make the good use of your time as the New Testament language.
SPEAKER_01: Jonathan Edwards turned it to improve it.
SPEAKER_01: And what a mindset.
SPEAKER_01: If you can make your mind grasp that, you have a certain amount of time that is being spent before you leave it, make it better.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to improve it.
SPEAKER_01: Fix it up.
SPEAKER_01: You know, there's a principle we teach our kids.
SPEAKER_01: When we go to somebody's house, we want to leave it cleaner than when we got there.
SPEAKER_01: You play down their basement, clean it so it's nicer than when you found it.
SPEAKER_01: It's a simple principle.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand that principle applies to time?
SPEAKER_01: You encounter a period of time.
SPEAKER_01: Do you say goodbye to that period of time in a more profitable condition than it was when you found it?
SPEAKER_01: Resolved never to do anything, Jonathan says.
SPEAKER_01: Which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
SPEAKER_01: Again, this is a teenager.
SPEAKER_01: Say, I'm gonna die one day, and I don't want to do anything between now and that day that I would be ashamed to do if I knew that it was my last act.
SPEAKER_01: 17, resolved that I will live so as I shall wish I had lived when I come to die.
SPEAKER_01: Resolved, number 55, to endeavor to do my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if I had already seen the happiness of heaven and listen to this, and the torments of hell.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he says, resolved.
SPEAKER_01: I want to live my life.
SPEAKER_01: This is in light of Daniel 12, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: In light of the fact that there is those that are going to heaven, and there is those that are going to hell, I want to be aware of both of those conditions, the joy of heaven, the absolute suffering of hell, and I want to live my life in light of the happiness that comes from knowing that fact.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a language that we often use.
SPEAKER_01: We don't refer to the knowledge of hell as giving you spiritual happiness.
SPEAKER_01: But if you see the preciousness of time in light of eternity, it becomes that way.
SPEAKER_01: Not in his resolutions, but in his diary, he wrote when he was pastoring in New York City before he went up to Northampton, he wrote, quote, Before purchasing or pursuing anything, I want to ask myself, how will I value it when I esteem it from my deathbed?
SPEAKER_01: Sobering thought.
SPEAKER_01: And he doesn't just mean buying something in the marketplace or at the mall, he means before pursuing something, will that thing give me value and I'm on my deathbed?
SPEAKER_01: There's the reality that your time is running out.
SPEAKER_01: And there's the goal to turn as many people to righteousness as you can.
SPEAKER_01: That is the unwasted life.
SPEAKER_01: You've been given a certain number of hours.
SPEAKER_01: Do you spend them on things that don't matter, that won't matter on your deathbed, as on distractions, or do you spend them on improving this world?
SPEAKER_01: Number 52 from his resolutions.
SPEAKER_01: I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again.
SPEAKER_01: Resolved.
SPEAKER_01: The resolved in this one comes after that observation.
SPEAKER_01: Just let that observation hit you.
SPEAKER_01: I frequently hear people in old age say how they would live if they got to live their lives over again.
SPEAKER_01: Is that true?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it is.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you can think of people in old age that have said that.
SPEAKER_01: Resolved, he says, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age.
SPEAKER_01: President of Princeton trying to convince the students to take get the smallpox vaccination, they wouldn't do it, so he gets vaccinated to show them that there's a greater risk in this world than smallpox.
SPEAKER_01: There's a risk of not loving your neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: And so he gets vaccinated.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he ends up killing him, suffocates him as his esophagus closes.
SPEAKER_01: He gets to write letters from his deathbed.
SPEAKER_01: He has one of his daughters with him.
SPEAKER_01: He writes a letter to his wife, tells her basically, I mean, I'll save it, share it with you some other time, but he tells her basically, I have no regrets.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a life built on resolutions a teenager makes that plays itself out to the deathbed, where he writes to his wife and their numerous children and says, I don't regret anything.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't accidentally happen.
SPEAKER_01: The ability to say goodbye to this world with a clean conscience does not accidentally happen.
SPEAKER_01: This is Daniel's experience.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's at the end of his life, outside of Babylon now, along the Tigris River, disappointed that he hasn't seen God's kingdom established in this world yet.
SPEAKER_01: Disappointed for sure.
SPEAKER_01: But with no reserves, no regrets, no retreats.
SPEAKER_01: Did Daniel ever back down?
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure he did, but he didn't write about it.
SPEAKER_01: This is the life that is aware of the preciousness of time.
SPEAKER_01: He had been given time and he maximized it.
SPEAKER_01: You ask yourself this.
SPEAKER_01: Do you live your life aware that you're on the precipice of eternity?
SPEAKER_01: Do you live your life aware that your time is running out?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, the pursuit of God's glory, it's not a mystical experience disconnected from the daily grind of life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an ivory tower existence.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just for pastors or professional Christians.
SPEAKER_01: It's as basic as asking yourself, what am I doing in light of the reality of eternity?
SPEAKER_01: And listen, eternity is so close, you may as well speak of it in the present tense.
SPEAKER_01: It's here now.
SPEAKER_01: It's an uninvited guest in your house.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reality of sovereignty.
SPEAKER_01: God rules the world, He rules your life.
SPEAKER_01: He has your days numbered, He has your hours numbered.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just the law of supply and demand that's at play here.
SPEAKER_01: The basic point is you don't know how rich you are.
SPEAKER_01: There is a countdown in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: It is appointed for you once to die.
SPEAKER_01: Your hourglass has been flipped.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know how much sand remains in it.
SPEAKER_01: Do you take Ephesians 5.16 to heart?
SPEAKER_01: Make the best use of your time because the days are evil.
SPEAKER_01: You spend and be spent for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's obviously the second stream in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: The first stream, though, I titled the sermon From Babylon to Bethlehem, because understand that you're working backwards here.
SPEAKER_01: This chapter, this book takes you all the way to the Antichrist and the final tribulation period at the end of time.
SPEAKER_01: But in the heart of this book is this prophecy that the Savior will come.
SPEAKER_01: And the heart of this chapter is an appearance of the Savior who will come to earth in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: In the fullness of time, the scripture said he comes to be the ransom for sinners.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're thankful that you have given us love through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we squander our days.
SPEAKER_01: We squander our time, which you didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Even as you yourself said to the reluctant disciples in our scripture reading tonight, whoever walks in the light of the day is doing the deeds of God.
SPEAKER_01: They can see the light, they can see what's in front of them.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we want to do work while it's day.
SPEAKER_01: As long as you've given us light, as long as you've given us breath, as long as you've given us a mouth that works, help us redeem the time.
SPEAKER_01: Guard our hearts from squandering the preciousness of this life.
SPEAKER_01: We're grateful that you led the perfect life, that you led the sinless life.
SPEAKER_01: It resulted in your death, of course, in our place.
SPEAKER_01: So we're thankful that we have forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_01: We're thankful that we're free from the fear of sin and death through the greatness of Jesus Christ, through his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, Lord, it energizes us.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be busy in this world.
SPEAKER_01: We want to do work.
SPEAKER_01: We know that you've appointed good deeds for us to do, for us to walk in, that you did that before time.
SPEAKER_01: Our names are written in your book of life, and so we want to maximize the reality of that.
SPEAKER_01: We want to build a life on the surety of your book with our name in it.
SPEAKER_01: Help us lead confident lives because we know you.
SPEAKER_01: We couldn't do any good deed if we did not have a right relationship with you.
SPEAKER_01: We know that.
SPEAKER_01: We're not out there trying to earn merit.
SPEAKER_01: We're not out there trying to be good enough to be pleasing to you.
SPEAKER_01: We are trying to redeem the time because we are in a relationship with you.
SPEAKER_01: You call us friends.
SPEAKER_01: We're not your employees.
SPEAKER_01: We understand that.
SPEAKER_01: In the sense we're your slaves, we're owned by you, but we're more than that.
SPEAKER_01: We are your friends because we know what you're up to in this world.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, in light of the friendship you have given to us, help us be good stewards of it and redeem the time because the days are evil.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You have been listening to Emmanuel with Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: You can find more resources like this at ibcba.com.
SPEAKER_00: Here is a parting word from Pastor Jesse.
SPEAKER_01: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBCBA.com.
SPEAKER_01: If you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_01: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_01: We're located in Northern Virginia.
SPEAKER_01: And for more information about when and where we worship, check out our church website.
SPEAKER_01: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_01: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_01: Now may God bless you this week.
SPEAKER_01: Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel forward.