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Daniel chapter 7. We’ll be reading the first 14 verses. Before we hear the word read and preached and received, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon that. Let’s pray together and ask His help upon that. Dear Lord our God we pray once again that you would indeed reveal Christ to us through this your word and through the work of your Holy Spirit and that you would work in our hearts and that we would, you would rather bury the seeds of the gospel deep within and that you would produce fruit and the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as a result, anoint our lips and our actions in this world and even now anoint the lips of your servant, protect him from error, that he would bring forth the unhindered Word of God and that she would speak directly to us. Lord, we pray that the meditation of all of our hearts will be pleasing in your sight. And so we ask, Lord, once again, to rest our attention Help us to focus our hearts and our minds with a posture of grace and reception on you, Lord, as you speak to us. We do pray and ask all these things in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and all God’s people said together, amen. Amen. If you take your scripture down, I’ll start at Daniel chapter 7, verse 1. Please give your full attention. This is the word of God. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter.

And Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.

The first was like a lion and had the head and had eagle’s wings. And as I looked at its wings, they were plucked off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.

And it was told, arise, devour much flesh. And after this, I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. And after this, I saw in the night visions And behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet.

It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. And as I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat.

His clothing was as white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire, a stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand, a thousand served him, and ten thousands stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.

I looked then, because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking, and as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. And I saw in the night visions And behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” So for the reading of God’s Word, may He indeed add His blessing upon it at this time.

As I reflected upon our series in Revelation and Zechariah that we looked at last week, and Daniel, right, this apocalyptic genre, As I did so, I remembered all the movies and songs of my youth dealing with the end of the world. And I thought, as I reflected on this, what a bunch of downers they are. What a dour bunch to do this.

But you know, this has always been a popular theme, a popular subject matter, right? The end of the world. Many of those even older stories have been and continue to be made and remade perpetually over and over and over, even in the myriad of movies of our day, the last 15, 20 years, the dystopian productions that we find around us. And that theme of the end of the world prevalent throughout history and culture and story and music looms large. And the degree of interest in this, the end of the world, never really goes away.

All these people who are obsessed with these things, things having to do with the end, the future of the world, it would benefit them if they were to pay more attention, really all of their attention, not on the world’s end, but on the word of the sovereign lord of history. I’m the almighty creator and lord of time, of universe, of the whole scope of history from beginning to end and even beyond. God’s holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative, and inspired perfect word is the place to go if you want to know how the world will end. If you want to know what’s coming, how it will all shake out. Because it’s the same Lord who is sovereign, who controls all of history.

I mentioned that we would do a survey of some of the books of the Old Testament, which factor large in Revelation. Last week, as I said, Zechariah. Briefly this morning, just briefly, Daniel 7. Remember that Daniel 7 is all apocalyptic. The second half of the book is all apocalyptic genre. And for some, that’s a scary word. It’s a strange and confusing word, incomprehensible in the minds of some.

But if we slow down, we take a macrospective look, right, a big picture look, and we work through thoughtfully, we will certainly find what the Lord has for us here, even in this second half of Daniel, in this apocalyptic literature. And just a hint, in case you’re wondering, the intention of this kind of literature is not to confuse or to trouble us. It’s not the point of it. And as we do so, as we look at this, we’ll try to avoid some of the pitfalls that can easily distract us. But let’s first reorient ourselves with what’s going on here in the second half of Daniel, this prophet of old.

We’ll see as we overview chapter 7, the beginning of it anyway, that though the present evil age to the end is beastly, Nevertheless, a day is coming when the beasts and the beastliness of this age will receive indeed justice and mercy, I’m sorry, justice and judgment. in God’s final victory. That is a certainty. And next week we’ll see how this all unfolds in redemptive history on the other side of closing of the canon as we dip into Revelation 6. And we’ll see that it’s not only that God is powerful and in control, but He is faithful and He is just.

And we learn, just like God’s people in exile learned, and we’re encouraged that because of these very things we can have hope in waiting as we live in the longing of these final things, longing for the end of the beastliness of this age, in the beginning of the final state in a sinless country, beholding the beauty and glory of our Savior with no more pain, no more suffering, no more tears or death. And that is indeed a wonderful and glorious promise to us all, brothers and sisters.

As you know, Daniel is a wisdom figure, right? Daniel comes to us in that third section of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, that first part of the canon, right? It’s divided in by the apostles and by Christ’s own words, the law, the prophets, and the writings. That’s where we find Daniel. These are the books that deal with covenant life, right? How we are to think and live in light of the covenant. Daniel is a wisdom figure. In our English Bibles, of course, Daniel comes right after the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and then Daniel.

And one of the reasons for this is that he has apocalyptic dreams and visions, and then he interprets those dreams. There’s information about the future in here to be sure. But he’s a wisdom guy, living in exile, living and writing about what that is, how to think and live in light of the covenant, covenant life. He is an example of what it looks like to live a life of faith in exile. And also very important as we look at this, we can never lose sight of the reality that this history, this world, that we’re living through, the history of it, was written and preserved for us.

This is what we read in the New Testament. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 15, for whatever was written in former days was written, what, for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. We might have hope. And so we can never let ourselves think little of God’s word or little of parts of God’s word. It was written. the encouragement that we can have from it and the hope that’s derived from that. And what it is intended to teach us, how to think, what posture we are to have in the world in which we live. And we must pray that God would give us hearts and minds to be receptive to and to learn and to hear what he has for us there.

Because after all, the author of history is indeed most reliable. This is what is most real and true and meaningful. not popular news or the details of geopolitics, and certainly not anything on social media. And I’m afraid that far too many believers give more of their lives and time with their smartphones than with the word of God. Our diets affect our health, right? This is something that we all know. And for our spiritual health, we need spiritually healthy diets. We need to take in the truth, not take in spiritual junk food or spiritual poison. And so may we renew our commitment and our focus and use our time in a way that would please our Lord and protect and bless ourselves all for His glory.

So when we look at Daniel, we see that it divides into two clean and clear halves. The first six chapters and then verses 7 to 12. And in that first half, we have the life of faith in exile. And in the second half, we have the hope of faith in exile. And in chapter 7 to 12 is where Daniel has these apocalyptic visions, these dreams which are briefly we’re going to look at today in a very cursory manner.

And remember, we must look at all texts, even this one, even ones that might challenge us soberly, not hysterically, not irrationally, not sensationalistically. You could indeed read yourself crazy if you tried to take in all the commentary offered on these chapters of Daniel. I know that because I’ve done so.

And frankly, much of it is unnecessary at the end of the day. We really don’t need to jump through all of those hoops and go through all the acrobatics needed to get to many of these conclusions that they do. You know, it’s true that that axiom, one of my friends used to say, that jumping through hoops is for circus animals, right? We’re not to be jumping through hoops. I’m not pretending that it’s all easy. I’m saying that we can make sense of what’s going on to the extent that the Lord wants us to, and to glean and to benefit from what he’s given us there.

So apocalyptic literature, what is it? What is apocalyptic literature? We’ve talked about this before, but we need to understand the genre. If we’re to understand these chapters, and indeed the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, we’ve tried to be clear about this. But what is it? What is apocalyptic literature? What is the goal of this type of writing? This kind of literature has several parts to it, right?

And to paraphrase one theologian, he said, biblical apocalyptic is a revelation of the ending of this present age of conflict and its replacement by the final age of peace. It shows us ahead of time the end of the kingdoms of this world and their replacement by the kingdom of God.

This revelation is unfolded in complex and mysterious imagery and has the purpose of exhorting and comforting the faithful. And that’s important, the purpose of that. It’s unfolded in complex and mysterious imagery, but it has the purpose of exhorting and comforting you and I, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s people. And this is very helpful. It’s helpful for us to ground us when working through this kind of material especially. It focuses our eyes and our hearts where they should be. Not grasping wild-eyed at the newspapers and maps and charts that look more like an engineering schematic. Not filled with despair or hopelessness. Rather what?

Rather it declares hope to God’s people. Hope for those that are suffering. Hope for those that are persecuted. Hope for those that are struggling and challenged by the context of the culture in which they live and all the forces against them. Hope to those who suffer in life, in relationships, in heart, and in our bodies. The focus and purpose of this kind of writing is to bring us back to the truth of God’s reign.

He rules, He will triumph over any and all of His enemies, any and all of the monsters and beastliness of this age. And that’s glorious, right? That’s a glorious thing to be reminded of as God’s people. It is indeed, that truth is most true. It’s more true than this world’s grotesque idols that are thrust upon us, thrust in our faces and our minds and on the minds of our children. More true than the world’s insistence that we believe and accept and champion all that is vile in God’s eyes. By more true, I mean that God’s way and His will, His heart, shown in history, in His Word, is actually what matters most. It’s what is of greatest importance.

The lies of our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, insist on dictating to us what is important, what is true, what is right, what we are to fill our minds and hearts with and give all our attention to, what we are to believe, what language we are to use, what ethic we are to embrace and live by. But we must resist and reject those very things, brothers and sisters, as they are in conflict with what God’s Word says. And His Word says what?

Let God be true, though every man a liar. We cannot compromise either truth or love. We must hold fast to both the truth and love. We are to speak the truth and love. That is our commandment and that is our commitment. We must take diligent care about what we allow into our minds and our hearts.

This is a not insignificant thing. Sadly, many people don’t do that. Many take much far greater care about what they put in their bodies than what they put in their minds. And that’s true, right? This doesn’t take a lot of convincing by me. Think about that. Thoughtful, careful people wouldn’t pick up food from the ground and put it in their mouths.

But they might very easily, without much thought, open up their minds to the thinking of the world and the world’s conditioning, and let it bathe over them, taking it in without discernment or care. And it shapes, and it influences, and it programs them.

Scripture teaches us to what? To be transformed by God’s Word. To be washed by that Word, not by the world. So our worldview must comport with this, God’s Word, regardless if it is at odds with the world. Again, Paul said, let God be true to every man, a liar. And also, literature like Daniel 7 to 12 is there to teach us. It’s for us. While in this world, in the sufferings of this world, even when it hurts, that allegiance and obedience to the Lord is what we do. as God’s people.

The writer of apocalyptic literature holds fast to the Lord and does not roll over to a Christ-hating world in the ways of a Christ-hating world. He has seen the end of the story and he has hope. And he looks forward and he looks upward with hope. Hope in the sure coming of the final day and the consummate age, ushered in by the victorious king of glory. And we should too. We should as well. So let us look forward and upward in hope and confidence. Brothers and sisters, this is what apocalyptic literature is for, for our hope and our encouragement in exile while strangers and aliens in this world. There remains, right, yet a day, there remains a day when the pains and losses of this life will be blown away by the inexpressible glory and wonder of our true home. heaven in the presence of our powerful yet tender Savior Jesus.

So let’s look now just a brief look at Daniel 7 and we see this this visions that he has and describing them of this of monsters and the mayhem that result from them. Verse 1 of Daniel 7, once more, in the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. And then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. So in terms of chronology, We’ve moved back, right, back to the time of the rule of the Babylonians. For time’s sake, I won’t read through the dream and the psalm of the matter in those verses.

But in these visions, Daniel sees what? He sees the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, notice it says, stirring up the great sea. And we need to recognize and remember in the Bible and in the surrounding peoples of the ancient Near East, for them the sea was what?

It was a symbol of dread and fear and chaos and rebellion against God. Psalms 89 and 93 speak of this, Psalm 89 and 93. And so fear and chaos and the unknown, therefore the sea was considered to be the natural home of great and terrifying creatures, like Leviathan, for example. And so these monsters, if you will, were terrifying. They were large. They were dangerous. And also because they are evil. They are opposed to God. They are agents of chaos and destruction. And so we have here in Daniel’s vision this stirred up sea, bringing forth these horrific creatures, one after another, after another, four in all. Each one more disturbing than the previous, more terrifying than the one that came before it. And these huge, mixed up, misshapen creatures. were nothing that we probably ever come across in our nightmares.

And it says what, as he describes them, the first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings, wings that were plucked off, made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to him. The second one was like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and it was told, arise and devour much flesh. Right, not fun, not a cartoon, very disturbing.

And the third is like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. And as frightening and as disturbing as these were, the most hideous creature was yet to come, the fourth beast. The fourth beast couldn’t even be described in terms of an earthly animal. It was frightening, and it was dreadful, incredibly strong, great iron teeth, it says, devoured and crushed. And it trampled down whatever it didn’t eat.

That would certainly be an attention getter, right? This would be something that would demand our attention. In its head had 10 horns, it says. Horns, as you know in scripture, are a symbol of strength in the Bible. 10, the number symbolizes strength, super multiplied, right? Uber strength. Truly hard for us to imagine, contemplate, or think about. And then it goes on, and it’s interestingly, it says, Daniel sees another small horn. It came up among the horns, uprooting three others. And this horn had eyes and a mouth, what it says is, that spoke arrogantly. Spoke arrogantly or defiantly.

And at this point, the appropriate feeling would be what? Not relax or joy or comfort, but fear. Fear from the description or the vision of these things. And Daniel himself says what? That he was troubled in the spirit, and the visions passed through his mind disturbed me. In verse 15. And then in verse 17, it tells us that these beasts represent what?

They represent kings, those who are in control of the world in which we live. And the visions proclaim that our world is run by a succession of terrible monsters that go from bad to worse, each one more frightening than the one before. And so we see something with the genre of writing is doing, and something of what it is, what’s represented by it. It’s just a sample, a taste, here from the Old Testament prophet, telling us of the struggle and confrontation and battle between the forces of this world, driven by the devil, horrifying, wickedly, powerfully against God and against his people. The battle between that and the Lord himself, the faithful witness. the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth, the one who died to free us from our sins, indeed, gloriously and ultimately, of the victor and the conqueror, Christ the Lord. And we’ll see how this all unfolds, right, and how the Lord tells this pattern of the story over and over again in Revelation as we move forward.

But for now, brothers and sisters, remember the end of the story. Remember the end, and remember that our God reigns. He rules. He’s the victor. As difficult as that is for us to believe at times, and in our weakness, and in our lack of faith and trust, we must remember that it is true. God wins. He reigns. He’s the victor. And despite this world and our culture that outpaces itself in evil, in the downward spiral by orders of magnitude, Still yet, our God reigns. He rules.

And though we doubt, and though we are slow of heart to believe, remember the apocalyptic writers. They are there to give us hope in exile, hope in our failings, hope even while under the persecution of the enemy. Hope in the world really does seem to be spiraling off its axis. hope to remind us that actually it is not spinning out of control, but is controlled perfectly according to the providence of our great God and Savior. What an incredible, incredible blessing that is to know this God, to know who He is, know this is true.

And that, brothers and sisters, is truly good news. Good news. It’s good news because our sovereign God is also a good God. the God and a Father who loves his children, and will see them through to their eternal home that awaits them in glory. So rejoice in that, brothers and sisters.

If you belong to Christ, if you are his and he is yours, this life’s suffering and pain will end. They will issue forth unto glory at his second coming. And on that day, he will put an end, all things, We’ll make all things right. We’ll put it in forever to all of the suffering and crying and turmoil that we have and we experience in this life.

And so let us go back from here to the land of our pilgrimage, taking the love of our King and our Lord, living ever for Him, knowing and trusting the truth of that future. in the peace and joy and wonder of the future, where all things will be made new, and all sin and suffering and terror and tears will be no more. What a glorious, what a gracious and merciful Savior we have. Rejoice, brothers and sisters, rejoice and believe. Let’s pray.

Our almighty God, we delight to give you praise, We’re so blessed and filled and full to hear from you. We delight, Lord, in hearing from you. We thank you for your providence in our lives. We thank you for our beloved Savior who gave his life for our sins and rose again for our justification.

We do pray, Heavenly Father, that you would continue to strengthen us and to protect us. Lord, help us to walk in Christ in this pilgrim life. Help us to know and to believe and trust in your strength and your goodness. in your promises of the future. Lord, help us to know that you are indeed working in us, your sovereign will, and that you are transforming us, conforming us to the image of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we ask, dear Lord, even this morning, that you would continue to bless this church. Lord, place in our hearts a longing for your name to be spread and to delight in your way and to live true and faithful lives.

Strengthen all of us, we pray, to show the love and grace that we’ve been shown and to invite others to come and to hear of your mercy and your holiness, to hear the gospel and be confronted with Jesus, the only hope for life in this world and the next.

Lord, we do pray for the families represented here. We pray, Lord, that you would give them strength and boldness in the roles that you place them as fathers and husbands. issuing forth, fulfilling, serving in those functions with tender hearts, in steel spines, boldness and courage but in love. We pray for the children of this church, Lord. We pray that you would protect them, and that you would lead them along, and that you would draw them, and that you would pierce their hearts, Lord, and give them faith that they indeed would know Christ as their Savior for all of life, and they would serve Him for all of their days, and that they would come forth like the children of Zion in praise, and joy, and delight, and being with your people.

We do pray, Lord, for The unbelieving loved ones that we all have, we pray that it’s your will to give them that most glorious surgery of transplanting their heart of stone with the heart of flesh that beats for Christ. Give them faith, Lord. Pray for those who suffer the various and sundry ways that we suffer in this world, in our finances, in our jobs, in our relationships, Lord, in our bodies. Lord, we pray that we would know as we do so that you are the God of the resurrection of the dead, and one day we will be made new and whole, and all the worries and sufferings of this world will be eradicated, even our own sinful dispositions of our hearts that cling so closely, that it would be gone forever.

Pray, Lord, for peace. Pray for this city, Lord. Peace and the advancement of the gospel, and that we could be a part of that. Be pleased, we pray, Lord, to work through us for your glory. We ask this all in the mighty name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen.