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Battle Creek Tabernacle SDA Church

These Things We Know

Chris Holland

These Things We Know: God is Faithful

These Things We Know: God is Sovereign

These Things We Know: God is Good

These Things We Know: God Is the Relentless Redeemer

God Still Speaks Part 1

God Still Speaks Part 2

These Things We Know: God Wins

These Things We Know: God is the Deliverer

These Things We Know: God is the Great Teacher

These Things We Know: God is a Friend

These Things We Know: God Knows the End From the Beginning

These Things We Know: God is the Author

These Things We Know: God is the Finisher

These Things We Know: God is the Promise Keeper Part 1

These Things We Know: God is the Promise Keeper Part 2

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 1

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

These Things We Know: God Stands for Us

Father in heaven as we have gathered for worship, as we have worshipped you in song and in prayer and in reading your Word, it is now our prayer that as we open your word that the sanctifying power of your word would work in us in a mighty way through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Spirit please be with us we pray in Jesus name amen.

As a review of studying chapter 10, which has prepared us for our study of chapter 11, which is the unit Daniel 10 through 12.

Daniel 10 taught us that there is a great deal going on behind the scenes.

We may not understand what is going on, but there is a battle that is raging.

In the midst of this great battle, this great controversy between good and evil, God loves us and God will fight for us.

Daniel chapter 10, if you have your Bibles please open to Daniel chapter 10, beginning in verses 20 and 21.

This is what the Bible says, Then he said, do you know why I have come to you?

And now I must return to fight with the Prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, indeed the Prince of Greece will come, but I will tell you what is noted in the Scripture of truth.

No 1 upholds me against these except Michael, your prince." Gabriel the angel was fighting with the devil and his angels.

As these angels fought, Michael, Jesus Christ comes to support Gabriel and the remainder of the angel.

Psalm 35, 1 says, plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me.

Fight against those that fight against me.

He fights against those who are against us and throughout history and the history of God's people, He fights for us.

And last week we studied, God fought for the people at the Red Sea.

God fought for God's people when they battled at Amalek.

God fought for his people when Abijah and Jeroboam had their showdown.

God was with Jehoshaphat against Ammon and Moab.

God was with Nehemiah and those that were opposed to the rebuilding of the temple which had troubled Daniel so much in the midst of his praying and now God let him know God fights for his people.

And he fights for you, and he fights for me.

He fights for his people yesterday, today, and in the future.

He fights against the powers of darkness.

Those powers that are against us and doing all they can to throw us off.

God fights against the dragon, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan.

The 1 who disrupted the harmony of heaven as recorded in Revelation.

But the dragon and his angels did not prevail and they will not prevail because God fights for his people.

And he fights for his people and he wins.

And today as we study Daniel 11, you will see, we will see in even greater detail how he fights.

You may not feel like you're winning, you may be wondering how he's fighting for you, you may wonder what any of this has to do with the season in which we celebrate the birth of Christ.

But the birth of Christ is all about God's master battle plan.

He sent his son to fight for you and for me.

Daniel chapter 10 beginning in verse 21 and reading through chapter 11 and verse 2, but I will tell you what is noted in the scripture of truth.

No 1 upholds me against these except Michael your prince.

Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, I even, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him.

Behold, 3 more kings will arise in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all.

By his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece." What we will see here in Daniel chapter 11 is another repeating and enlarging, the word is recapitulation, of the original prophecy of Daniel chapter 2.

That prophecy you'll remember was a prophecy of the nations Babylon, Medo- Persia, Greece, Rome, the division of Rome, and then the second coming.

That was then repeated in Daniel chapter 7 with more details added.

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the division of Rome, judgment, and then second coming.

That same sequence was outlined in Daniel 8 and 9 and now here in Daniel 10 through 12 there are even greater details added to this great battle going on between good and evil, between Christ and Satan.

And I need to tell you that there are volumes that have been written about Daniel 11 alone.

In fact, there are volumes that have been written by about just 1 verse of Daniel 11.

This morning I will not go through every single verse of Daniel 11 but I will highlight some of these verses and the reason I will highlight some of these verses is for 2 purposes.

Number 1, that we can see that the prophetic word is confirmed.

And it will build our confidence for number 2, that we would have faith in the God who has guided history and the Bible promises is fighting on our behalf.

Daniel begins here in Daniel 11 just as we read, Gabriel standing to confirm and strengthen Darius the Mede, but then outlines that 3 more kings will rise but the fourth will be far richer.

Now some might say Babylon is not mentioned.

You'll remember in Daniel chapter 8 it was the same principle.

Babylon was fading off the scene and no longer relevant to the prophetic word.

Here in Daniel chapter 11, Babylon has actually faded off the scene and now there is no relevance to the prophetic word in Daniel's current situation.

So Daniel prophesies Cyrus was in his third year of reigning and verse 2 says that there would be 4 kings to follow Cyrus, the fourth being the richest.

In fact, if you go to history, you will see that following Cyrus, the son of Cyrus, Cambyses became king of Medo-Persia.

And then following him was Smyrdas, and then Darius Hystapses.

But what is interesting and where I want us to draw our attention is that the fourth king was the king Xerxes.

Xerxes fulfilled this prophecy because he was the richest king after Cyrus.

In fact, Xerxes spent 4 years stockpiling supplies and assembling manpower for a military expedition against the Greeks.

In fact, Xerxes organized an army of 5000000 men from over 40 allied countries to battle against the Greeks.

And while there were other kings after Xerxes, they were minor and they were unable to overcome or even fight the nation of Greece.

Once again these minute details that are outlining these battles between these kings they assure us that God knows the end from the beginning and that God is fighting on our behalf.

Verses 3 and 4 continue, Then a mighty king shall arise who shall rule the great dominion and do according to his will and when he has arisen his kingdom shall be broken up and divided toward the 4 winds of heaven but not among his posterity nor according to his dominion with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be uprooted even for others beside these." The king will rule with great dominion.

Verse 4 tells us that when he stood up his kingdom would be broken and divided without a shadow of a doubt.

This is another prophecy of the rise of Alexander the Great.

In Daniel chapter 8 we saw the same pattern.

He was the he-goat, the notable horn that grew up and conquered.

Alexander's conquests demonstrate that he ruled with great power.

This is why he was called Alexander the Great.

He was fighting that army of 5000000 men, often outnumbered 5 or 10 to 1, and he was conquering the armies of Medo-Persia.

But at the height of his power, as verse 4 describes, Alexander the great died and his empire split.

This is once again a demonstration of the prophetic word confirmed.

The 4 heads of the leopard, the 4 notable horns that came from the goat.

But this adds the detail that Alexander the Great's kingdom was not given to his posterity.

In fact, as his 4 generals were on his deathbed asking Alexander who will rule Greece, Alexander said, he who is strongest.

And history tells us that his kingdom was split amongst his generals, Cassander, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus.

And then the prophecy, through the end of the chapter, focuses exclusively on battles between the king of the north and the king of the south.

Because the focus of these prophecies is God's people, how God's people are at the center of the battle, God's people being caught in the middle between the North and the South.

The King of the North and the South are situated North and South geographically of Israel.

And the chapter describes the wars that ensued.

And we can read in history that while Cassander occupied Greece situated to the west, Lysimachus occupied Thrace and Asia Minor to the north, and Seleucus had Syria and Babylon to the east and Ptolemy in the south.

Seleucus attacked Lysimachus and defeated him.

He attacked Cassander and defeated him and thus it simply became a battle between the 2 generals Seleucus and Ptolemy.

Seleucus in the north and Ptolemy in the south.

And if history is not your thing, just hang on because we're gonna get through these details.

But these details outline for us that God raises kings and he brings them down.

And here in Daniel 11, while we may not understand all of those minor details, they're not minor details, they're major details that let us know God knows the end from the beginning and he knows your end and he knows your beginning and God raises kings and brings them down and it helps us to have confidence in the sure word of prophecy.

Because if Daniel is right, because he was given a message from God about the uprisings of Cassander and Lysimachus and Seleucus and Ptolemy, it assures us that when the Bible promises that God knows the number of hairs on your head, which for some of us takes God a shorter time to count, but when the Bible assures us that he counts the hairs on our head, we know that it's true.

Daniel 11, verses 5 and 6, for those of you that love history, I want you to listen to the amazing details that God gives about the great battle between the king of the north and the king of the south.

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Series

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Fights For Us Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

These Things We Know

These Things We Know: God Stands for Us

48m

What Did You Expect?

49m

The Beatitudes

Blessed Are They that Mourn

34m

Sabbath and the Divinity of Christ

1h 3m

A Most Beautiful Treasure

51m

The Sower

Present Truth of the Wheat and Tare

47m

7 Keys for Overcoming Temptation

52m

Power of the Hour

Eternity Future Love?

51m

God is Love?

17-Jesus Is The Answer

1h

Hindsight is Perfect

32m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Rich Young Ruler

42m

The Parables

The Mustard Seed and Leaven

33m

Sound Doctrine