SPEAKER_01: There was a uh you know, there's magazines for preachers.
SPEAKER_01: And uh one of them made by Lagos and I had a subscription to it for a while or they just sent it to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what exactly happened.
SPEAKER_01: But um it had an interesting story where they interviewed people who preached through Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: And it was fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: Guys that were from the kind of all millennial world or even the uh the black church world, they said they loved preaching Daniel one through six.
SPEAKER_01: And then they regret, their biggest regret was going on past chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: Like they wish they would have thrown in the towel.
SPEAKER_01: Um and yet many of them made it through.
SPEAKER_01: And then guys in the kind of the premillennial dispensationalist world, more in the Bible church world, our world, they had the opposite answer.
SPEAKER_01: So the hardest thing was preaching Daniel 1 through 6, but they loved 7 through 12.
SPEAKER_01: They loved it.
SPEAKER_01: I read some commentaries this week on um Daniel 10, for example, and uh it's amazing how many commentaries suggested that preachers skip this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Um just skip it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not worth it for your congregation.
SPEAKER_01: Um which lets me know that more pre-millennials need to write commentaries on the last half of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Um so that's where we find ourselves tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray for us before we dive in.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we do pray for your wisdom and mercy.
SPEAKER_01: As you look into your word tonight, we know that your word contains truth that only your spirit can reveal.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray for the ministry of your spirit tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Uh conform us into the image of your Son.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, tonight for Daniel chapter 10, the title of the sermon, Angel from the Realms of Glory.
SPEAKER_01: If you're familiar with this chapter, we will read through it a verse at a time tonight.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to read the whole thing now, but as we work our way through it, you'll see that Daniel encounters two different heavenly beings uh tonight as he's praying.
SPEAKER_01: And the first of those two beings is a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we look at this chapter tonight, I think that it's helpful for us to understand how God reveals himself to us in his triune form.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to give you an outline tonight to follow along.
SPEAKER_01: I hope this uh helps you.
SPEAKER_01: Trinitarian taxis.
SPEAKER_01: The word taxis is a Latin word that just means order.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's why it's in italics there, so you don't think it's a Trinitarian taxi or anything like that.
SPEAKER_01: It just means Trinitarian order.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when the Bible talks about the Trinity, the Bible presents the three persons of God generally in an order.
SPEAKER_01: And generally presents the three persons of God as Father, Son, Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And while all three persons of God are identical in essence, they share the same essence, they're one being, they present themselves to creation differently.
SPEAKER_01: They present themselves as as doing different things.
SPEAKER_01: And that's because they are different persons.
SPEAKER_01: And so the question that I've often asked, especially as we were preaching through John chapter one, is how can you tell the difference between the father and the son and the spirit?
SPEAKER_01: What are their differences?
SPEAKER_01: If the father and the son were to walk into the room together, how would you know who was whom?
SPEAKER_01: There was a story in the news yesterday about uh a Delta Airlines flight that was piloted by a mother and her daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Uh her daughter went to flight school and she's now a pilot as well, and they got paired randomly, I suppose.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, the story didn't make it clear, but on the same flight LAX to Atlanta on a uh uh seven seven uh seven seven seven plane, and they were she was the first officer, the daughter was, and the mom was the pilot, and and I don't know what I would think about that if I were in the the cockpit.
SPEAKER_01: Um questions like are we there yet come to mind.
SPEAKER_01: Um my daughters are younger, so maybe not.
SPEAKER_01: But it was obvious which one was the mother and which one was the the daughter, because there was an age distinction between them, and one was the captain and the other was the first officer.
SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to the Trinity, how would you tell the difference between the father and the son, and of course between the spirit as well?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer to that is they're identical in every way, except one.
SPEAKER_01: The father is the one who generates eternally, who or who begets the son.
SPEAKER_01: And so the father is not the son, the son is the eternally begotten one, and the spirit is spirates, the spirit is the proceeds from the father and the son together.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the distinction.
SPEAKER_01: And you think, well, that's just saying the spirit is the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, but there's a truth in there about how the trinity relates to one another that is, I think, important for us.
SPEAKER_01: And we can't get inside the mind of God, we don't know the details of the Trinitarian operations.
SPEAKER_01: But as the Trinity interacts with the world, it's interesting that the Trinity presents himself in an order usually the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so tonight I want to look at that that order, the first, second, third person of Trinity, and just to make it as confusing as possible for you, we're gonna go in backwards order.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, you buy the ticket, you take the ride.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, you're all here.
SPEAKER_01: First, the spirit gives revelation, or shall I say third.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit gives revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel 10, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: In the third year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, a word was revealed to Daniel, who was named Belshazzar.
SPEAKER_01: And the word was true, and it was a great conflict.
SPEAKER_01: And uh you could say the word was about a great conflict, I think would be a better way to translate that.
SPEAKER_01: And that's in the footnote of the ESV.
SPEAKER_01: It was about a great war.
SPEAKER_01: The word conflict is the word for war there.
SPEAKER_01: And he, Daniel, understood the word, and he had understanding of the vision.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the heading, and the rest of the book is going to unfold that heading.
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just tonight, but for the next two Sunday nights, we're going to see the rest of that vision that Daniel gets.
SPEAKER_01: So this is just a heading here.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, in this third year of Cyrus, gets a vision from the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this vision is about a great war that was described in detail in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: Takes you all the way to the end of time in chapter 12, the resurrection of the dead in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: But there's an interesting timestamp on here before we look at the role of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It says it was in the third year of Cyrus the king of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, in verse 2, in those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: In those days that he received the vision, it produced a mourning in him that lasted for three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: If you recall two weeks ago when we looked at Daniel 9 with the 77s, the 70 weeks of there it was weeks of years, and that was kind of confusing, 70 weeks of seven years each.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting in Hebrew here, in verse 2, it says for three weeks, literally the Hebrew says, for three weeks of days.
SPEAKER_01: And that's funny if you're coming off of chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, oh man, I've had up to here with weeks of years.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here you get weeks of days.
SPEAKER_01: We would just call normal weeks in English, and that's why the SV just renders it weeks of days.
SPEAKER_01: But it is an interesting mark here, just to take you back to chapter 9, when it talks about weeks of years, that's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Seventy sets of seven years is what it says, in the same way that right here is three sets of seven days for three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Now we get the timestamp on this in everything.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel was praying in the third year of Cyrus' reign.
SPEAKER_01: You put this all together.
SPEAKER_01: Cyrus became the new emperor three years before this.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel is appointed to his position.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Daniel was the prime minister under Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: Babylon falls.
SPEAKER_01: Cyrus takes over with the Medo-Persians.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel is appointed the prime minister now.
SPEAKER_01: At this time, this first year of Cyrus' reign, Daniel studies the book of Jeremiah and determines that the time of Israel to be in exile is complete and it's time to go home.
SPEAKER_01: He then wants to pray about that.
SPEAKER_01: This is when his enemies ban prayer.
SPEAKER_01: They conspire with Cyrus to ban prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, Daniel goes up to his room, throws open the windows, and prays facing Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: This lines up very well with Jeremiah, where he understands that the years of exile are supposed to be over, so he prays facing Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: That's the prayer that's recorded in chapter 9 of the book.
SPEAKER_01: We looked at that last time.
SPEAKER_01: That's, I think, the prayer, likely that he was praying under the ban of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he gets fed to lions.
SPEAKER_01: The lions go hungry for a time being.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel lives, and then his enemies get fed to lions, and the lions get their fill.
SPEAKER_01: And Daniel goes free.
SPEAKER_01: When he goes free, this is where the narrative is picked up in Ezra chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: This is how I understand it.
SPEAKER_01: I think if you were to make a harmony of all this, this is how it comes together.
SPEAKER_01: Up in Ezra chapter 1 is when Cyrus then gives the decree for the Israelites to go home, to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild.
SPEAKER_01: That's described in Ezra chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Well, then two years go by, two full years.
SPEAKER_01: So we're probably now into the third year of Cyrus' reign, and the building gets stopped.
SPEAKER_01: And this is because new enemies of Israel have arrived on the scene.
SPEAKER_01: This is described in Ezra chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: The building gets stopped.
SPEAKER_01: Now it doesn't get stopped indefinitely, it gets resumed again, but there's a lot of political negotiations that go along, and this is the story of the book of Ezra.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at that in the fall, Lord willing.
SPEAKER_01: But for now, it's interesting that Daniel, during this, I think this fits right in this pause.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel now goes out.
SPEAKER_01: He leaves Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes down, or he leaves the capital city of Babylon.
SPEAKER_01: He's still in the Medo-Persian Empire, but he leaves the capital city and he goes down to the river.
SPEAKER_01: And you're going to see him praying at the river at the end of chapter even 10, and then into chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: This is where he's at.
SPEAKER_01: He's left the capital city.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what he's doing out there by the river.
SPEAKER_01: Some commentaries just suggest that he's trying to get the Jews to go back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: After all, the exile is done.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing with living in Persia?
SPEAKER_01: Get out of there and go back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's in the wilderness and he spends three weeks praying.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I bring this up because the dates here, this is the month of Nisan, beginning of the first of the month of Nisan.
SPEAKER_01: This is the month that has Passover in it.
SPEAKER_01: So Daniel is praying here and fasting.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get the dates in the next paragraph down in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: On the 24th day of the first month, he was on the great river, that is a Tigris.
SPEAKER_01: He's praying here through Passover.
SPEAKER_01: This is why this is an emotional experience for him.
SPEAKER_01: This would really be their first Passover when the Jews are back in Jerusalem, and yet the building has been paused, and Daniel is devastated.
SPEAKER_01: He feels like, oh, remember, the first time he's praying about this, he got fed to lions.
SPEAKER_01: So this is kind of a big deal for him.
SPEAKER_01: You jump forward a few years, the building has stopped, and Daniel is out in the wilderness begging the Lord for something for help here.
SPEAKER_01: And for three weeks he doesn't have an answer.
SPEAKER_01: Very unlike his experience before.
SPEAKER_01: When he prayed about the fulfillment of Jeremiah in light of Ezra 1, and God answered him with the vision of the 70 weeks, this is much different.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's even more dire in his mind, and the Lord is not speaking.
SPEAKER_01: But back to the heading here in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He does get a vision.
SPEAKER_01: Now we're going to see how long it took him to get the vision as we go through tonight, but the heading here, he does get a vision.
SPEAKER_01: And he understood the vision.
SPEAKER_01: The vision in verse 1 was true, it says in the middle of verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: It was about a great war.
SPEAKER_01: He understood the word, and he had understanding of the vision.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that this is the Holy Spirit who is responding to Daniel's prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We know that because only the Holy Spirit can give you vision from God.
SPEAKER_01: Only the Holy Spirit can give you insight into God's will, into God's plan, and into God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And the fact that it's recorded and makes three chapters of Scripture here, Daniel 10, 11, and 12, makes it a slam-done conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Holy Spirit who's ministering to Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Consider 2 Peter 1, verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: No prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is the way God reveals his word to the world.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't skywrite his word in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have rocks proclaim his word, although Jesus made it clear that he could.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't send an angel down.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't even do in the in Islam where Muhammad had the Quran essentially downloaded into his mind, or in Mormonism where Joseph Smith has the plates translated from the other side of a veil.
SPEAKER_01: That's not how God's word is brought into the world.
SPEAKER_01: God's word comes into the world through the active agency of the Holy Spirit, who inspires its authors.
SPEAKER_01: Inspiration covers every detail of the author's life so that all of their experiences produce the kind of person who will write what God wants them to write, and the inspiration covers the details of the writing, giving the author the exact words that will be inspired.
SPEAKER_01: Inerrant, infallible in every regard.
SPEAKER_01: That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just that we know this is the Holy Spirit because it's scripture, but beyond that, we know it's the Holy Spirit because at the end of verse 1, Daniel understood the word.
SPEAKER_01: He had understanding of the vision.
SPEAKER_01: It is impossible to understand the word of God unless the Holy Spirit opens your eyes, because non-believers without the Spirit of God suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_01: They exchange the truth of God for a lie.
SPEAKER_01: It requires the Holy Spirit to cause somebody.
SPEAKER_01: It's an effectual cause.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit has to interact with a person's life and open their eyes to receive the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is why I prayed before I began tonight.
SPEAKER_01: As I do before, I preach every time that the Holy Spirit would minister to us by opening our eyes to behold wonderful things from the law.
SPEAKER_01: That's a quote of Psalm 119.
SPEAKER_01: Because if the Spirit doesn't help you receive the word of the Lord, you will not be able to understand.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you could diagram the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: The world is filled with people with their PhDs in religion who could diagram all these sentences, but wouldn't have a fat clue what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Just like Jesus' world was filled with Pharisees who couldn't get their minds around the fact that the guy who was born blind was healed by Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Man, they knew how many syllables were in the Old Testament, but couldn't get their mind around that.
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
SPEAKER_01: They ask his parents, Are you sure that's your son?
SPEAKER_01: What are you kidding?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it looks like to be deprived of the active agency of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Paul writes, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: We impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: There are wise people in the world who don't have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: They have worldly wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: But that's different than the kind of wisdom that's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That wisdom comes taught, Paul says, by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have the word of God interacts with the believer?
SPEAKER_01: You're spiritual, which means the Holy Spirit has regenerated you and given you spiritual life.
SPEAKER_01: And now you interact with the word of God, and the Holy Spirit causes you to understand it and interpret it.
SPEAKER_01: And this grows throughout your life.
SPEAKER_01: This is the process of sanctification where you're putting off sin and putting on righteousness through the active ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they're folly to him.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this in 2 Corinthians 2.14.
SPEAKER_01: He's not able to understand them.
SPEAKER_01: He just can't.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is Charlie Brown's teacher.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean by that?
SPEAKER_01: To the non-believer, it's just rah- rah-rah- rah-rah.
SPEAKER_01: But to the one with the Holy Spirit, Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: As a very, very profound verse.
SPEAKER_01: Who has understood the mind of the Lord to instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Now I want you to trace out the logic here.
SPEAKER_01: You're dealing with a word from the Father who comes to the earth, which is namely Jesus Christ, who is the embodiment of revelation.
SPEAKER_01: He is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Who can understand the Father?
SPEAKER_01: Only the Spirit, only the mind can understand the Father.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean when the Holy Spirit is spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: And the Spirit, then, who knows the mind of the Father, who's intimate with the Word Himself, can now deliver that revelation to you.
SPEAKER_01: This is why it's so critical that you're dealing with the Trinity here.
SPEAKER_01: You're dealing with the Father and the Son, and the Spirit who relates the two of them.
SPEAKER_01: Any relation between the Father and the Son is his own person.
SPEAKER_01: You and your husband or you and your wife are two different people.
SPEAKER_01: But you're not infinite, omnipotent beings.
SPEAKER_01: You're not exclusive in all of your attributes.
SPEAKER_01: You're not eternal.
SPEAKER_01: But because God is, of course, any interaction between the Father and the Son would have to be a third person.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing outside of eternal outside of God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is exactly what Paul means at the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Who has understood the mind of the Lord to teach him?
SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
SPEAKER_01: But we have, through the Word and the Spirit, the mind of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how the Holy Spirit here is described as the mind of the Lord, the mind of the mind of the Father, the mind of the Son, who brings us the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Second Corinthians 3.
SPEAKER_01: Not that we're sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who's made us competent to be ministers of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand the new covenant if you think just studying the Word of God without a spiritual interaction will help you grow in godliness.
SPEAKER_01: It won't.
SPEAKER_01: The letter kills, but the Holy Spirit gives you life.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit gives you life by bringing the Word of God alive to you.
SPEAKER_01: So when you're dealing with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit who causes you to believe and understand revelation.
SPEAKER_01: As Peter said, 2 Peter 1 21, no prophecy ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: This is the experience of Daniel right here.
SPEAKER_01: He understood the word.
SPEAKER_01: He had an understanding of the vision, clearly interaction with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Second, the Son is the image of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is the image of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks, verse two.
SPEAKER_01: I ate no delicacies.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like whining a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: No delicacies.
SPEAKER_01: But understand that we're dealing with a guy who's been a lifelong prime minister.
SPEAKER_01: You know, ever he the days when he was a 15-year-old who just had to eat carrots to get by with the Babylonian guards, that was just a few pages to the left, but it was 80 years earlier, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The guy's in his 80s.
SPEAKER_01: He's been accustomed to comfort.
SPEAKER_01: No delicacies.
SPEAKER_01: No meat.
SPEAKER_01: No wine.
SPEAKER_01: It's like he's going back to his youth.
SPEAKER_01: He's striving to get the Lord's attention.
SPEAKER_01: He's striving to receive this revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Nor did I anoint myself at all for three full weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Again, some of you might be rolling your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: It's been three weeks since he put on aftershave.
SPEAKER_01: Can you believe it?
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying here is he's not taking care of himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's not, he's not acting like the prime minister.
SPEAKER_01: He's roaming along the Tigris River out here in the wilderness, begging the Lord to speak to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's not eating the proper food for himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's not bathing.
SPEAKER_01: He's not taking care of himself.
SPEAKER_01: On the 24th day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, there's a tigress.
SPEAKER_01: I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Euphaz around his waist.
SPEAKER_01: His body was like barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze.
SPEAKER_01: The sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is, I think very clearly, the interaction with the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: I think that for several reasons.
SPEAKER_01: This kind of description he's describing seems to line up well with what Ezekiel saw around the same time in Ezekiel chapter 1, a little bit earlier, but Ezekiel chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: But most certainly, if you look at Revelation chapter 1, and you can flip there if you want, or I'll just read it to you, but it's Revelation 1, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: John says on the Island Patmos with his revelation of Jesus Christ, which you get from Revelation 1.1.
SPEAKER_01: It says this is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave through the Spirit, of course, and that's what he's going to hit on there at the beginning of the book.
SPEAKER_01: But then down in verse 12, I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me.
SPEAKER_01: And on turning I saw seven golden lampstands.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe, a golden sash around his chest.
SPEAKER_01: You see that back in Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: The hairs of his head were white like white wool, like snow.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes were a flame of fire.
SPEAKER_01: His feet again were burnished bronze, the same thing you saw back in Daniel, refined in a furnace.
SPEAKER_01: His voice was like the roar of many waters.
SPEAKER_01: His right hand he held the seven stars.
SPEAKER_01: From his mouth came a sharp two edged sword.
SPEAKER_01: His face was like the sun shining in full strength.
SPEAKER_01: And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.
SPEAKER_01: But he laid his hand on me and said, Fear not, from the first and the last the living one I died.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, I live forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes on and said, write these things.
SPEAKER_01: This is exactly the interaction Daniel has.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to the last where John had it all at once.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's going to have it again as we get down to chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: But if you go back to Daniel 10, look at this encounter.
SPEAKER_01: The man is clothed in linen.
SPEAKER_01: Linen is what the priests wore.
SPEAKER_01: It represent their purity.
SPEAKER_01: The priests would wrap themselves in white when they went into the most holy place, and it demonstrated they were morally pure.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the prophecy in Zechariah.
SPEAKER_01: The priests would be able to exchange their filthy rags for pure rags.
SPEAKER_01: Rags, by the way, are robes, by the way, that were white with linen because they were drenched with blood, soaked in the blood of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_01: That's the prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: And you think if you, you know, if you get a little chocolate on a shirt, my shirt today, and it was, you know, had to wash it off.
SPEAKER_01: You have Jesus here whose robes will be white because they're drenched in blood.
SPEAKER_01: His blood sanctifies.
SPEAKER_01: His blood purifies.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of the encounter in Matthew 8.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus touches a leper and the leper gets cleansed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't get leprosy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' garments, his blood sanctifies.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the idea here.
SPEAKER_01: It's robed in white linen.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a belt on it.
SPEAKER_01: The belt is of gold, remonstrating his deity, his prerogatives, that he's the Lord of heaven that holds him all together, his royalty.
SPEAKER_01: His body is barrel, which is a precious jewel.
SPEAKER_01: His face is the appearance of lightning.
SPEAKER_01: In John, it's lightning coming out of his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: His tongue is the two-edged sword, meaning that he is the bringer of the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes are flaming torches, which speaks of his omniscience.
SPEAKER_01: He sees right through you.
SPEAKER_01: He sees in you.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't have night vision goggles back then, with our X-ray goggles back then, but that's kind of the image.
SPEAKER_01: He is the omniscient Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Burning with lightning, torches, arms of burnished bronze.
SPEAKER_01: What a contrast with the statue earlier in Daniel, his feet and legs were ironed and into clay as it, you know, decomposed in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: The sound of his words were the sound of a multitude, or John says in Revelation 1, the sound of many waters.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's just cascading, a cacophony of revelation from him.
SPEAKER_01: It's cascading that you can't, without the agency of the Holy Spirit, you can't make this out.
SPEAKER_01: It's just overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: He is the very word of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the water of life.
SPEAKER_01: Water comes from him.
SPEAKER_01: He tells the woman at the well in John, if you knew who he was, who you were talking to, you'd ask me to get you water.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, You don't have any water.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have any buckets, you don't have any water.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the well that Jacob got from him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, I have better water than Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: I am the water of life, the river of life.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming out of him.
SPEAKER_01: He gives life.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, of course, says what John does in Revelation 1.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: I saw the vision.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to fall down and collapse.
SPEAKER_01: But notice first, I saw the vision.
SPEAKER_01: The men who were with me did not see the vision.
SPEAKER_01: But a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.
SPEAKER_01: You think, why would they flee if they didn't see the vision?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they heard something, that's likely.
SPEAKER_01: And the sound of his voice.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they just saw light.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they saw Daniel losing his mind.
SPEAKER_01: And they got out of there.
SPEAKER_01: But it's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This is the same experience that Saul had on the Damascus Road.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, the Jesus appears to Saul.
SPEAKER_01: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_01: And what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Well, only Saul sees.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody else bolts.
SPEAKER_01: Same experience here.
SPEAKER_01: So I was left alone, Daniel says.
SPEAKER_01: I saw this great vision.
SPEAKER_01: No strength was left in me.
SPEAKER_01: My radio appearance was fearfully changed.
SPEAKER_01: I retrained no strength.
SPEAKER_01: I heard the sound of his words.
SPEAKER_01: I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Now Daniel has seen some crazy things in his life, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he has not seen this.
SPEAKER_01: He is out.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus appears to him, Jesus talks to him, and Daniel is done.
SPEAKER_01: He faints on thunk.
SPEAKER_01: 85-year-old prophet face down in the dirt.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel's out, and friends are gone.
SPEAKER_01: Deep sleep, face to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the son, of course, is the image of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: This is not the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll see the angel of the Lord many, many times in the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And it's right to say the angel of the Lord is deity because the angel of the Lord receives worship without rebuke, whereas when angels receive worship, that usually accompanies the rebuke.
SPEAKER_01: The angel of the Lord, we don't have time to go through the different ways he's presented himself through scripture tonight, but you can do a study of theologians called a theophany, which is an appearance of God.
SPEAKER_01: I prefer Christophany, an appearance of the Son, the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pre-incarnate appearance.
SPEAKER_01: The Son at this point doesn't have a human nature.
SPEAKER_01: So he's like the Son of Man, we'll see that phrase, but he's not yet born in human flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He comes with personal characteristics, you know, the waist and feet and voice and all this.
SPEAKER_01: And that's fitting for him.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we mean by taxes.
SPEAKER_01: It's fitting for the second person of the Trinity to be the one who is sent.
SPEAKER_01: It's fitting for the second person of the Trinity to be the physical appearance, the physical manifestation of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: It's not fitting for the Father to do that because he's the Father.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is the one who will be sent.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is the image of the Father, in other words, that's the phrase that Paul uses in Colossians.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is the exact representation of his glory, Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: He's identical to the Father in every way except he is the image.
SPEAKER_01: He is generated, he is eternally begotten from the Father, without beginning or end, but he is the Son.
SPEAKER_01: He is not the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's fitting that when someone comes to the earth to die for sin, for example, the Father is not going to come to earth and die for sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's fitting the Father would send the Son.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the normal progression.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you're seeing this in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's fitting the Father sends, the Son goes.
SPEAKER_01: The Son has all the glory of the Father, all the attributes of the Father, all the majesty of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But it is the Son who comes.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what Daniel experiences here out on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, or firstly.
SPEAKER_01: The Father is the, I say the sovereign of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: I mean the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all sovereign, but the Father is the sender.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Father of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: These are the privileges you see here.
SPEAKER_01: It is the Father who sends.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10 Behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.
SPEAKER_01: And said to me, O Daniel, man greatly love, understand the words I speak to you, stand upright, for now I've been sent to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think we've left the Lord Jesus Christ here.
SPEAKER_01: We're on to an angel.
SPEAKER_01: But notice you see the sent language here.
SPEAKER_01: This angel has been dispatched from heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to just pause for a few more minutes before we get back into the story and understand about the Father's role in this.
SPEAKER_01: Because often in these kind of Christophanies, the Father is the missing person.
SPEAKER_01: Because the Son is the image of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is the one who draws you to the words of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: But the Father presents himself in that order.
SPEAKER_01: God presents himself as the Father is the one, for example, who predestines.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is the one who does the work on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is the one who draws you to faith in it.
SPEAKER_01: It's always that order.
SPEAKER_01: That's always creation.
SPEAKER_01: The Father creates the universe by speaking it into existence.
SPEAKER_01: But the Son is the word.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit is the first member of the Trinity you see.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one hovering upon the water.
SPEAKER_01: So notice that matters of creation, redemption, and revelation, it's always in this order.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not coincidental.
SPEAKER_01: It's letting you understand, it's giving you insight into the nature of what it means to be Father, Son, and Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It's right to say that all three members of the Trinity share in the same actions.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're not wrong if you say the Holy Spirit predestined me, or the Son predestined me, or the Father predestined me.
SPEAKER_01: They're all right.
SPEAKER_01: It's just interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture draws your attention to the fact the Father predestines.
SPEAKER_01: The Son comes to save.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit then draws.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible is the words of the Father, but the Holy Spirit is the word.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that Jesus Christ is the word.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit gives you insight into the word.
SPEAKER_01: The Father creates by speaking.
SPEAKER_01: The Son is the word.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit hovers upon creation.
SPEAKER_01: It's that order.
SPEAKER_01: That's what is meant by taxes.
SPEAKER_01: Now, all three members of the Trinity, they do work together.
SPEAKER_01: They do operate in unison.
SPEAKER_01: It's not like they have competing wills.
SPEAKER_01: They do work together.
SPEAKER_01: And so the rest of this chapter, we're going to leave Jesus behind here on the banks of the river.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to catch up to him again later, don't worry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to shift outlines.
SPEAKER_01: This is like a preaching no-no, but I'm doing it anyway.
SPEAKER_01: You can get your money back later.
SPEAKER_01: Trinitarian privileges.
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of this chapter, I just want to go through a couple Trinitarian privileges because now you're going to see a contrast between how God operated with Daniel and the way the angels are going to operate with Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: First, God alone answers prayer.
SPEAKER_01: The angel comes to Daniel, verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words I speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: Stand upright, for I've been sent to you.
SPEAKER_01: And when spoken his word to me, I stood up trembling, Daniel says.
SPEAKER_01: Now Daniel's been praying for weeks.
SPEAKER_01: He's not praying to angels.
SPEAKER_01: He's praying to God.
SPEAKER_01: But here God sends an angel.
SPEAKER_01: The angel is going to be the means of answered prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel was not praying to an angel.
SPEAKER_01: It's wrong to pray to angels.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do it.
SPEAKER_01: If angels are listening, they'll rebuke you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't pray to angels.
SPEAKER_01: You pray to God.
SPEAKER_01: But God will answer his prayers, your prayers through any means he wants to, and here he uses angels.
SPEAKER_01: But God alone answers prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Angels don't operate independently of the will of God, in other words.
SPEAKER_01: Angels have to operate in accordance with the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Even demons, even bad angels, and you see this whenever you see a bad angel, they're usually working in concert with some permissive will of God.
SPEAKER_01: The demons that go after Job's family.
SPEAKER_01: God himself tells the devil, you can do it.
SPEAKER_01: This is God's idea in Job chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: The lying demon that possesses Ahab says very clearly, 1 Kings 22, that it was sent.
SPEAKER_01: He was sent by God.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit brings Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Even bad angels work under the authority of God.
SPEAKER_01: So understand this.
SPEAKER_01: Only God can answer prayers.
SPEAKER_01: The angels don't go out on a wing by themselves.
SPEAKER_01: If the angels are ministering to you, it's according to the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why it's what right to pray to God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's Daniel's experience here.
SPEAKER_01: The angel comes to him and says, I was sent to you.
SPEAKER_01: How encouraging this would be for Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how the angel begins.
SPEAKER_01: I was sent to you because you are greatly loved, Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: You're greatly loved.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first prerogative.
SPEAKER_01: God alone answers prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Second prerogative.
SPEAKER_01: God alone gives spiritual strength.
SPEAKER_01: The angel said to me, verse 12, Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard.
SPEAKER_01: I've come because of your words.
SPEAKER_01: The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the king of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: And I came to make you understand what's to happen to your people in latter days.
SPEAKER_01: For the vision of the days of days yet to come.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get back to those verses.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not skipping them.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get back to them, but I want to focus on strength here.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: I was mute.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, one in the likeness of the children of man, this is speaking of the angels, touched my lips.
SPEAKER_01: I opened my mouth, and you see that he's got four angels around him.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get that later.
SPEAKER_01: But I opened my mouth and spoke, and I said to him who stood before me, O my Lord, by reason of the vision, pains have come upon me, I have no strength.
SPEAKER_01: Could also be his three weeks of fasting.
SPEAKER_01: How can my Lord's servant talk with my Lord?
SPEAKER_01: For now no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the one having the appearance of man touched me and strengthened me.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, I hope you see his dependence here.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel is a man of God, an example of being strong in the faith, and yet when he is there before the Lord, he cannot stand before the Lord or his angels on his own strength.
SPEAKER_01: When it comes to Daniel relating to the Lord, he has no strength in of himself.
SPEAKER_01: And that, if you have any hint of self-righteousness in you, this should sober you up real fast.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, how naive is it to hear a person who thinks that they'll be able to stand before God for judgment?
SPEAKER_01: It's just crazy talk.
SPEAKER_01: I go, I'll be okay when I die because God knows the truth about me.
SPEAKER_01: He'll he'll understand I tried hard.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, foolish friend, foolish, foolish friend.
SPEAKER_01: Never say that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Daniel, and Daniel's here before four angels, and he says, I'm sorry, I can't talk.
SPEAKER_01: I can't move my lips.
SPEAKER_01: I can't stand on my feet.
SPEAKER_01: The ability to stand before God is a supernatural gift given by God.
SPEAKER_01: And God uses means to give it.
SPEAKER_01: He uses the ordinary means of grace, he uses Bible reading, he uses prayer, he uses Christian fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Here he uses angels.
SPEAKER_01: But know that God is always the source of this.
SPEAKER_01: And the Father is the fount of love.
SPEAKER_01: He's the source of spiritual blessings that he comes to the earth through faith in his Son and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That is the way God gives spiritual strength.
SPEAKER_01: Here he uses an angel.
SPEAKER_01: But he often uses just the normal, ordinary means of grace, the word, prayer, and fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: Well, God alone gives spiritual strength.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, God alone rules angels.
SPEAKER_01: What a contrast in this chapter between the absolute sovereign prerogatives of the one who holds the churches in his hand and has the sword of the spirit coming out of his mouth and eyes like blazing fire with this angel.
SPEAKER_01: This angel is a mighty angel.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's probably Gabriel, because he speaks like Gabriel in chapter 9 spoke.
SPEAKER_01: So you're dealing with a strong angel here.
SPEAKER_01: Some say it's it's Michael.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever, it's a strong angel.
SPEAKER_01: But notice that this angel is fighting.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's Gabriel because verse 13, he partners up with Michael.
SPEAKER_01: Look back at verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days.
SPEAKER_01: But Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me.
SPEAKER_01: I was left there with the kings of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: How in the world, who fights against an angel?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, think of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah when they tried to fight against an angel.
SPEAKER_01: It did not go well.
SPEAKER_01: But here you have some kind of demon fighting against Michael, one of the chief angels, Gabriel, one of the other leading angels, a messenger angel, they're doing battle for 21 days.
SPEAKER_01: So God could stop this battle in an instant.
SPEAKER_01: God could say, devil, back off.
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: He allows his angels to fight with demons, even though it leaves Daniel waiting for prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to picture this from the angel's perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Angels do not have access to the omniscience of God.
SPEAKER_01: Angels only know what they've learned or what God tells them.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the situation: Daniel prays, day one of the month of Nisan.
SPEAKER_01: God dispatches an angel.
SPEAKER_01: God also allows demons to dispatch and intercept.
SPEAKER_01: A three-week fight happens.
SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, Daniel on earth is praying.
SPEAKER_01: These angels, Michael and Gabriel, have got to be wondering, why?
SPEAKER_01: So why did you have me go, God?
SPEAKER_01: But you're letting the demons fight me?
SPEAKER_01: And Gabriel is, or whatever angel it is, is brawling with these demons.
SPEAKER_01: Finally, Michael comes to help.
SPEAKER_01: That gets him a little respite.
SPEAKER_01: He's able to get away and dodge out and come answer Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: It took three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying if your prayers aren't answered, it's because there's demons that are fighting the angel God sent to help you.
SPEAKER_01: But at least have a file in your mind for that possibility.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, oh, that explains it, I know.
SPEAKER_01: Man.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that it's just insane to think of what's happening that you can't see.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what's sovereign, and this is God's will.
SPEAKER_01: It aligns up perfectly with God's will.
SPEAKER_01: God alone rules.
SPEAKER_01: Angels are not sovereign over other angels.
SPEAKER_01: There's a command structure in the angels, of course.
SPEAKER_01: Michael is limited here as one of the chief princes.
SPEAKER_01: There's certainly a command structure in the angel.
SPEAKER_01: Angels, Lucifer is the head fallen angel, the head demon.
SPEAKER_01: So angels have orders, they have hierarchies, but they don't have omniscience.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have omnipresence.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have omnipotence.
SPEAKER_01: They're limited beings.
SPEAKER_01: Unlike the Lord, who sees with eyes that are omniscient.
SPEAKER_01: So the angels fight.
SPEAKER_01: Notice here there's left here with the kings of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: There appears to be this particular group of demons that are assigned to the Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_01: And that also makes sense because remember the Persian Empire featured prominently in these visions Daniel had.
SPEAKER_01: They were significant in the persecution of God's people, the provision of God's people to return to the land, which will turn to the persecution of God's people with the little horn that grows.
SPEAKER_01: And Antiochus Epiphanes, we'll see more about that vision next week in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: Again, verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: One having the appearance of man touched me, strengthened me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Oh man, greatly loved, fear not.
SPEAKER_01: Peace be with you, be strong and of good courage.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how I would respond to that if an angel just fought with a demon for three weeks to tell me that.
SPEAKER_01: And he spoke to me.
SPEAKER_01: I was strengthened.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh, let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Do you know what have come to you?
SPEAKER_01: Great question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know it, Daniel?
SPEAKER_01: Do you even know what you're praying for?
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, do you know what you are praying for?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to return.
SPEAKER_01: Gabriel says, to fight against the Prince of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: And when I go out, behold, the Prince of Greece will come.
SPEAKER_01: That's a trade down.
SPEAKER_01: The angel says, I'm going to leave you to go back to fight the Prince of Persia.
SPEAKER_01: While I'm fighting him, the Prince of Greece is going to come attack you.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what's going to happen to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get more of that in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: But I will tell you what's inscribed in the book of truth.
SPEAKER_01: There is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.
SPEAKER_01: But understand the context of this.
SPEAKER_01: Daniel is praying for why isn't Israel back in the land?
SPEAKER_01: Why is the work stopped?
SPEAKER_01: What is happening?
SPEAKER_01: The angel's going to give him a vision.
SPEAKER_01: It goes with the 70 weeks.
SPEAKER_01: He knows that there will be a period of time before the Savior will come, the temple will be inaugurated.
SPEAKER_01: This will all happen for sure.
SPEAKER_01: You know, we too, well, we don't know the details of demonic fights.
SPEAKER_01: We too have a similar fight in our hands.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 6 and verse 11 says we wrestle against evil spirits in heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: We too can be fighting demons without knowing it.
SPEAKER_01: Let me encourage you with this.
SPEAKER_01: You find yourself fighting a demon or maybe a mystery.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know if you're fighting a demon or not.
SPEAKER_01: It's in the realm of possibility.
SPEAKER_01: How do you fight a demon?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how I don't know what Gabriel's tool of the trade was.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if they used claws or threw feathers, or I don't know what an angel fight looks like.
SPEAKER_01: How do you fight demons?
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 6, you stand firm by putting on the whole armor of God.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer, the word, or as we would say, the ordinary means of grace.
SPEAKER_01: It's very interesting.
SPEAKER_01: The way God strengthens you spiritually is the same way you go to war against the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 12, verse 1, Michael will be described as the great angel with charge over God's people.
SPEAKER_01: He's the angel that contended with the devil over Moses' body.
SPEAKER_01: It's described in Jude verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And in Revelation, listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation 12, Michael is the angel that finally throws the devil out of heaven once and for all and sends him down to earth.
SPEAKER_01: So there's no doubt about who wins.
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting that God allows this war to go on for so long, even into the future.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we're thankful that your word contains things that are beyond our experience, otherwise, we would probably doubt that it was from you.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, through the ministry of your Holy Spirit, you've given us the ability to understand.
SPEAKER_01: As we talk about the Trinity tonight, of course, the most obvious example of this is because you so love the world, you sent your son.
SPEAKER_01: And your son dies on the cross to bear the penalty for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: And then you send your spirit, John says in John chapter 3, to cause us to be born again, to come to eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: We see the Trinity in full operation, in full effect.
SPEAKER_01: The Father loves and sends.
SPEAKER_01: The Son loves and dies.
SPEAKER_01: The Spirit loves and saves.
SPEAKER_01: Father, you are the sovereign over the universe.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you are the image, the eternal Father.
SPEAKER_01: And Holy Spirit, you are the one who reveals the word to us.
SPEAKER_01: Tonight we believe what you have revealed.
SPEAKER_01: Place our faith in the Son, because he alone forgives us our sins.
SPEAKER_01: It's in his name we pray.
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 Emanuel.
SPEAKER_01: We're located in Northern Virginia, 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 gets involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_01: Now may God bless you this week.