That's A-R-R-O-W. Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Welcome here again to our afternoon service at Calvary Baptist Church of Trehearne. And once again, welcome to those in tune with us via internet and people with us. Also, FM signal here in town. Please open your handouts to number 34. Number 34. Immortal Invisible. Number 34. Immortal, invisible, God only wise, Enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious, The ancients of days. Almighty, victorious, The great days. Peace. Unresting and hissing, and silent as night, Nor wanting nor wasting, the rule is in might. Thy justice, like mountain, how soaring above, Like clouds without fountains of goodness, ♪ To all life Thou gavest, to both great and small ♪ ♪ In all life Thou livest, the true life of all ♪ ♪ Will blossom and flourish, as lives on the tree ♪ ♪ And wither and perish, ♪ Great Father of glory ♪ Pure Father of light ♪ Thine angels adore thee ♪ All beaming their sight ♪ O praise we, what wonder ♪ O help us to see ♪ Tis of thee the splendor of thy kingdom come All right, Heavenly Father, we are thankful that we can worship the true God, the immortal God, the one who cannot die. who is invisible, we cannot see thee, but we know that thou art real and true. We can see evidence of thee in the sky, in the trees, in the birds, everything points to a creator. We're thankful that we have the almighty God who made all things, including us, and thankful that in spite of our sinful nature, that we have a redeemer, thy son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood on the cross of Calvary, so that we could be forgiven and saved. We're thankful that we can worship thee, that we can glorify Thee and that we can tell others of the truth, that they might come to know Thee as their God and Savior as well. We pray that our website would work well, that people can find us, that we can be a help to people, for our devotionals, that they would be helpful as well. We thank Thee for those that are reading them. And we pray that we would be able to help people to know thy peace and blessing in their hearts. Pray for our services that we have in the care homes around here as well, that we can be a help to people, that we'd have open doors, that people would come and see the need for truth. Pray for the many who pass by our building and they just pass by, they don't care to come in. Pray that they would see the need to know the truth. to know thy peace and forgiveness in these last days. Pray for our governments that we can be a help in seeing at least some politicians come to know the fear of God in their hearts and know thy forgiveness and blessing. We continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that souls will be saved in that country and the Jews across the world. Pray for the Christian Jews that they be faithful in reaching out to their fellow Jews and to Gentiles as well. others would get saved. So we thank Thee for the opportunities that are granted to us. Pray that we would be faithful in walking in truth and glorifying Thee and being a help to others. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And over to 280. 280. moment by moment. Number 280. Dying with Jesus by death's grace, Living with Jesus A new life divine Looking to Jesus Till glory doth shine Moment by moment O Lord, I am Thine Moment by moment I'm keeping His love Moment by moment I fly from above Looking to Jesus, their glory not shined Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine Never a trial that He is not there Never a burden that he does not bear Never a sorrow that he does not share Moment by moment I'm under his care Moment by moment I'm kept in his love ♪ Moment by moment I'll fly from above ♪ ♪ Looking to Jesus their glory to shine ♪ ♪ Moment by moment oh Lord I am thine ♪ ♪ Never a heartache and never a groan ♪ Never a third drop and never a moon Never a danger but there on the throne Moments by moments he thinks of his own Moments by moments I'm kept in his love Moment by moment I fly from above, Looking to Jesus, the glory that shines. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine. Never a weakness that He does not feel, sickness that he cannot heal. Moment by moment and war Jesus, my Savior, abides with me still. Moment by moment I'm gifted in His love. Moment by moment I fly from above. And over to 450. Four, five, zero. Sorry, 455. 455. I think this morning, sorry. Well, sorry. Oh, 275. Sorry. 275. I don't blame the internet. I belong to the king. 275. I belong to the King, I'm a child of His love, I shall dwell in His palace of fear. For each house of His place, each young heaven above, and each children its splendor shall share. I belong to the King, I'm a child of His love, and He never forsakes His own. He will call me someday to His palace above, I shall dwell by His glorified throne. I belong to the King, and He loves me, I know For His mercy and kindness, all free Are unceasingly mine, wheresoever I go And my refuge and filling is I belong to the King, I'm a child of His love, And He never forsaken His own. He will call me someday to His palace above, I shall dwell by His glorified throne. I belong to the King, and His promise is sure That we all shall be gathered at last In His kingdom above, by life's waters so pure When His life with His trials is passed I belong to the king I'm a child of his love And he never forsake it his own He will call me someday To his palace above I shall dwell by his glorified throne Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Daniel. Daniel chapter 11. Daniel chapter 11, we're gonna read from verse 30 to the end of the chapter, verse 45. And maybe for the sake of context, we're gonna be looking from verse 30, but let's go back And let's start reading there at verse 21, because verse 21 actually is where we start to learn about Antiochus Epiphany. So we'll start reading from there. Daniel chapter 11, verse 21, all the way to the end of 45. We'll stand, please, for reading of God's word. It says there in verse 21, And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province. And he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his father's fathers. He shall scatter among them the prey and spoil and riches, yea, And he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds even for a time. And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army. And the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army. But he shall not stand, for they shall forecast the vices against him. Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow, and many shall fall down slain. And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table, but it shall not prosper. For yet the end shall be at the time appointed. Then shall he return into his land with great riches, and his heart shall be against the holy covenant. And he shall do exploits and return to his own land. At the time appointed, he shall return and come toward the south. But it shall not be as the former or as the latter. For the ships of Kittim shall come against him, therefore he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the Holy Covenant. So shall he do, he shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the Holy Covenant. And arms shall stand up shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries. But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. and they that understand among the people shall instruct many, yet they shall fall by the sword and by famine, by flame, sorry, by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be hopin' with a little help, But many shall cleave to them with flatteries. And some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white, even to the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed. And the king shall do according to his will. And he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honor the God of forces, and the God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange God whom he shall acknowledge and increase in glory and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain. And in the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships and he shall enter into the countries and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land and many countries shall be overthrown but these shall escape out of his hand even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries of the land of Egypt and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver and over all the precious things of Egypt. And the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him, therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas of the glorious holy mountains, yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful again for thy word, thankful again for this prophecy that was given to Daniel, things that Daniel did not understand, things that were difficult for him to grasp, but things that he recorded, even though they were beyond his time. And we're thankful that we have this message for us today, some of which has happened and some of that which is still to come. And as we look at this passage, there are things here that are not made clear in the text, but we have history that we can look at, and we need to understand things properly and not out of context. So we pray that as we study this passage, we allow Thee to lead and direct us, that we would have the understanding that Thou wouldst have us to have, so that those of us that are saved can continue to walk in confidence with Thee, Those that are lost would see that we have a God who knows all the details, and who knows all about them, and that they will answer to Him, the true God, and they will be without excuse. So we pray that Thy will be accomplished, that we can help some people to see their need to turn to Thee and be saved, to know Thy peace and blessing in their hearts. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So in this passage, just by way of overview, if you go to verse 21, verse 21, you see the rise of Antiochus Epiphanes. And Antiochus Epiphanes is one of, probably one of the closest pictures that we have in the Bible, but also in history of the Antichrist. He's not the Antichrist, but he's a picture of the Antichrist. And then when we come to, down to verse, Well, let me just check to make sure that I've got the right verse there. Yeah, in verse 36, verse 36, we have a change. And you see that in the description of the person spoken of after verse 36, that we have a change in person here from the Antiochus Epiphanes, now looking ahead to the time of the Antichrist. So from 21 to 35, we have an event that has happened already in our time. From 36 and on, we have an event that is still going to happen. It's still future for our time. So again, these things are not given in great detail here, because again, keep in mind that in chapter 12, Daniel is told that these things are not for his time. He's to close the books, and it will be further revealed in the future. So that's how Daniel is writing it. Now you and I today, we are studying this in a time well beyond the time of Daniel. So there are things that we can look at in history and we can look at the text and we can add some names without, we're not adding to scripture. We're just adding some names to help us to understand what is it that God, what's the timeframe that God is speaking of here in these verses. So we began looking at Antiochus Epiphanes last time, and we noted there the description, interesting description given of him in verse 21, that it specifically says that he would be a vile person. It also tells us in verse 21 that he shall not give the honor, or sorry, they shall not give the honor of the kingdom but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. So that, again, is a very close description of the Antichrist. If you think about in the book of the Revelation, the Antichrist comes in on a white horse. He's not an elected leader, but he comes in as a peacemaker. He comes in on a white horse, which is a sign of purity in people's minds. Again, we know that even in weddings, there are a lot of women that are not virgins that dress in white garments for a wedding, depicting purity, when they're not any longer. And so here, the Antichrist, not here, but the Antichrist, we know, comes in riding on a white horse. He has a bow, but he has no arrows. So he is going to come in with subtlety. He's going to do lying signs and wonders. And here, Antiochus Epiphanes also tells us he would not be because he was not the eldest son. So therefore, the kingdom didn't belong to him. But he came in through subtlety and took the kingdom. He says he shall come in peaceably. He didn't come in with war. But he was a conniver. And he was able to take the kingdom by flattering the people into thinking that he was the best leader that they could have. And so again, I've said before, and I'll say it again, that our prime minister is also a picture of this kind of a person. He's not a leader. He couldn't even make it as a drama teacher. He was a poor, he was an assistant, but he couldn't make it as a drama teacher. And now he's the leader of the Liberal Party and also the leader of Canada. How did he manage that? Not by policies. He managed that by flattery. He still has control of the Liberal Party by flattery. He's not a leader. He doesn't know how to lead. And he's using foreign money to keep him in power. And so the question was asked this week if there was an election called, would there be enough people that would give the Prime Minister another look and re-elect him as the leader of our country? And personally, I believe yes. I believe there are enough foolish people living in Canada that would support that man. But again, we need to understand it's not the tick on the box that's going to make the difference. It's the money that's coming in that makes the difference. The ice is falling off the roof and it's sliding off and it's making noise. So that's how it is in our country. Our country is not governed by, it's not us the people that are choosing our leaders. And we need to understand that. There's very few people in Canada that understand that. Even in the United States, there's very few people in the United States that understand that it's not the people of the United States that are electing their leader. In fact, it was finally admitted this week by, I believe it was a Democrat, who admitted and even demonstrated how easy it was in the United States in the last election to change the votes because they went to a computer to do the voting on, and with a pencil, and he took a pencil, not even his own, he borrowed a pencil from somebody else and demonstrated how easy it was to go into the computer, change the votes of people, large numbers of people, to change the outcome of the election. And we know, since the outcome of the election back in 2020, we know that Mr. Biden did not win the election. He stole it. We know that. We knew that back then. And there was enough evidence back then to prove that, but the courts were against truth, still are today, And the police and army were and are against truth. And so the leader of the U.S. is Mr. Biden. And the same with our leader. He was not put in by the votes of the people of Canada. He was put in mostly by China and George Soros and the World Economic Forum. So we don't live in a free, democratic society. The sooner we understand that, the better off we'll be. We trust in God if we're saved. Personally, it doesn't matter to me who's going to sit in the Prime Minister's chair. They're all corrupt. They all have the same agenda. And you and I are just puppets that they want our money. That's all they care about. They want our money, and they want us to be quiet and do as we're told. No different than it was in the time that Daniel lived, when the leaders were dictators. They weren't elected. They were in power, and they just governed by fiat. They had the army behind them. And as we're going to see in this passage, that in the Greek Empire, there was always that conflict going on. And it tells us there, we'll get to the verse yet, that one of the kings didn't have the support of his army, and therefore he couldn't win. And so if a leader does not have the support of his top people, he falls. And there was a member of the Liberal Parliament who said that it was time for a leadership review. And then, I guess, the Prime Minister got a hold of that man and scolded him severely, and the man changed his tune and came out, well, no, no, I didn't mean media leadership review. Well, that's just what he had said. So he lied. And that's just the way it is in politics. But we see that Mr. Trudeau still has a lot of power. And this politician, he wants to be a part of the power. It's not about governing Responsibly, it's about having power. So as we look at our text, God is showing us how corrupt government works. And we should not be surprised with how things are functioning in our own country. We have a very corrupt system. And it's going to remain that way. And our hope as Christians should not be in our system. Our hope should be in God. And if you're listening today and your hope is in our government, well, you can stay that way if you want to, but you're going to be sadly disappointed. You may be of a deluded mindset and think if we get a conservative government in place, you're going to be cheering saying, oh, now, now, finally things are going to turn around. Well, you just don't hold your breath too long because you'll die before things turn around. they're not going to turn around until the Lord comes and he's not coming back until the millennium. So we don't have our hope in this world. We look at the world, we look at the Bible, and we see how the world functions. And the amazing thing is that in spite of all the corruption in our world, we still can stand like I can still stand here and I can preach the word of God and we can broadcast on the internet and people are listening and people are responding. And so God is good. That's the thing we need to keep in mind. So we're jumping in at verse 30. And as we noted at the end of last week's message that the Greek Empire was beginning to falter at the end of our study last week. The Roman Empire was starting to become strong. And so as we look at verse 30, we see there the first point we have is the polluting of the temple. But as we look at verse 30, it says there, for the ships of Kittim, or Chittim, but CH is the K sound, shall come against him. So the ships of Kittim are the area of the islands of the Aegean, and Cyprus, and Phoenicia. That's what we're talking about. And those areas, at this time of the writing here, were under the Roman control. So we see here that Rome is starting to interfere with the affairs of the Greek Empire. Rome is building, and it's going to take over, and here we see the interference. It says, and this is talking about Antiochus Epiphanes, it says, for the ships of Chittim shall come against him, therefore he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the Holy Covenant. So Antiochus Epiphanes, is still trying to push south, still trying to take up more territory, and he's back towards Egypt trying to take more of the land, but now these ships of Khitim are interfering. The Roman Empire is interfering with Antiochus Epiphanes' expansion plans. So what does Antiochus Epiphanes do then in verse 30? It says that he returns, so he has to give up his plans. He has to return back home. But he's a leader, and he's a leader that has a reputation for expansion. But now he's not able to expand. So what does that do? That makes him a man who should be humbled, but he's not. But he's defeated. So he's not coming home with a victory and saying, I took this much more land. So what does he do instead? He goes after Jerusalem. That's what it says there. What does he do? It says, have indignation against the Holy Covenant. So now he's got to pop up his ego somewhere. So he goes against Israel, against Jerusalem. And he fights against them. And Israel, at that time, didn't have their own army. They were a conquered land. And so it wasn't hard for him to go into Jerusalem and plunder it and kill people and so on. And so that's what he did. So he puffed up his ego by this victory, which was really, it'd be like me going after Jethro and Abigail and Jeremy. I could take all three of them on and beat them up very quickly because I'm bigger than they are and they wouldn't have much of a chance against me. And then I go home and say, look what I did. I had a major victory. Well, no, I didn't. I was being abusive. But that's what he did. He went after an easy target. And by that, he was able to make himself think that I'm a great man. And of course, that's what lost leaders are all about. They're all about their ego. That's all they care about. I've got to look important. You see that in our own prime minister. You see that in anybody that is of that same mind. So it doesn't have to be a prime minister. It can be a common citizen. But if you're all about you, then that's all you're always doing. You're always wanting to build up your name. You have to be seen as important. In your mind, you have to be seen as important. And if that's where you're at, you're in trouble. But a lot of people are at that place. So in verse 31 of our text, it says, an arm shall stand up on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. So he goes to Jerusalem. And again, this sounds very much like the Antichrist, except that the timing isn't right here. So we know it's not the Antichrist, but there are people who don't pay attention to the timing, and they say, well, this has got to be the Antichrist. Well, this is Antiochus Epiphanes. And it says he pollutes the sanctuary. He goes into the temple, and he pollutes it. That's what he did. History tells us that. He sent his soldiers into the temple, and according to Jameson Fawcett and Brown, he took in that temple and he set up an image of Jupiter Olympius. So he sets up an idol in the temple. Of course, what does that do to the temple? Pollutes it. No God-fearing Jew is now going to enter the temple. but they're not all God-fearing Jews at this time, as we'll see here. So he goes in there, he takes away the daily sacrifice. Well, yeah, because he sets up this idol in the temple, now there's no more daily sacrifices gonna be held there because the good people, the good Jews are not gonna come there. It's done. It's a sad case of where we're at in Canada and North America right now. There are some people in our country and other places who believe there is no good church so they stay home. They don't go to church. There's no good church, they stay home. Well, that's not true. Again, we're not in the time of the tribulation. Jesus said, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Are there less good churches today than there were in the past? Yes, definitely. We spoke with a woman this week who was raised Mennonite Brethren just like I was. And she talked about, as well, how the Mennonite Brethren, they're lost now. They're gone. And that's true. They are gone. There's nothing left there. You go there, you're getting lied to. You're being deceived. But that's the reality of where we live at in this day and age. And they're not the only ones. There are less and less good churches around, but there still are good churches. And people need to avail themselves of, if they're saved, of the good churches. They need to be strengthened and encouraged in the word of God. So it tells us in verse 31, arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate. That's the idol. They put that in there. They defile the temple. and it was no longer useful to those who wanted to serve God. Verse 32, and such as do wickedly against the covenant. So this is Jews. This is Jews that don't believe in God. They do wickedly against the covenant. Shall he corrupt by flatteries? So it's easy to buy off lost people. That's why in our politics again, It's easy for our prime minister and for the liberals and for the conservatives, for anybody, to go around when it's election time and say, if you vote for me, I'm going to build you a new school in your territory. If you vote for me, I'll add to your hospital. If you vote for me, I'll give you this, and I'll do that. And people, oh, oh, look what he's going to do. Oh, I'm going to vote. If you look at our provincial election that just happened a couple of months ago, Before that election, both parties, Conservative and NDP, were going out and promising the moon. And the NDP was promising more of the moon than the PCs were. So the NDP got voted in, and then after they were voted in, then what did they do? Well, we can't keep this promise. We can't keep that promise. There's not enough money for this, and we didn't realize the books were this bad, and blah, blah, blah. And so now we're back to pretty well where we were before. because they lied. They knew they couldn't keep the promises, but they found enough gullible people that they could flatter with their lies, and that's all that mattered. So here too, it tells us here that by flatteries, this Antichrist, this is not Antichrist, this Antiochus Epiphany is a picture of the Antichrist. By flatteries, he's able to convince the wicked Jews to support him. But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploit. So there's the word but again. So those who were truly fearing God, the Jews that were truly fearing God, they did not follow him. They did not buy into his lies. And they had some success. Now who are these people? Well, according to history, they are the Maccabees. The Maccabees were a people who were a small group, but they were a fearless group. They stood up against the tyranny that was happening in their time, and many of them were killed because of it. And so it says they'd do exploits, but in verse 33, and they then understand among the people shall instruct many Yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days. So the Maccabees resisted the corruption of that time, but they were not strong enough to be able to withstand the pressure of the ungodly. The Maccabees, or not the Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes had a big army. He had weapons, the Maccabees didn't have that. So they couldn't fight them off, and God was not going to, at this time in history, he was not going to defend the Maccabees. They would do some good things, but many of them would be killed off. That's the same thing as we face today in our world as well. that there's a lot more power on the enemy side, and God doesn't need a big army, but in the time in which we're living, God is still giving us the opportunity to preach and to gather, but we don't have the defense on our side that there have been in other times. God is, time is moving on, moving closer to the Antichrist time, and things are much worse. So, looking at our text again, In verse 34, and now when they shall fall, they shall be hopin' with a little help, but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. So that word flatteries, a very common word here. Deception. So it talks here in verse 34, Now when they shall fall, they shall be halping with a little help. So we're talking even amongst the Maccabees, there were some who were not strong in their faith and they were convinced to change by flatteries. Just like today, there are professing Christians that are very weak. Someone comes along with the right flattery and they cave in. They don't know the word no and they don't know how to stick to the word no. And that's a very common problem amongst us as people. Verse 35, and some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even to the time of the end because it is yet for a time appointed. So we read here in verse 35 that God is testing the resistance. He's testing the people who are saying no to Antiochus Epiphanes. What's his purpose? To try them, to purge them, to make them white. One of the best ways that God can get us to change the way that we need to is through persecution. We don't follow God very faithfully when things are going well. And we have evidence of that in Canada through most of my lifetime. The Christians in my lifetime were not persecuted very much. We had it pretty easy, but things are changing now. And we can see the results of the Christians having it pretty easy, we became very careless. And that's why most churches today are not churches, they're just social clubs. Because they became very careless, they accepted the ways of the world, and they assumed that that way we can get more people coming, we get more money, we can build bigger buildings. And that's what it's all about in the minds of most people. That's the common question that I get asked when people talk about our church. How many people do you have coming? That's all they care about. They don't care what we're teaching. How many people do you have coming? Numbers are what's important. They don't care about the quality of what they're getting. They just care about the numbers. And do you have a gym? And do you have this program? And do you do that? You know, that's all that matters to most people. And that's why you see the weakness that there is today in most Christians. They don't have any strength. So that's verse 35. So then, as I mentioned, now the second point we have is a king of another time. So verse 36, things change. And you'll see as we go along, I'll point out to you why I believe they've changed. So verse 36, and the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself. and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvelous things against the god of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done." So you look at the words there, that does not fit Antiochus' epiphany. He did not set himself up as god. Yes, he exalted himself and made himself a big man, but the descriptive words used here again, and God does never, doesn't speak in general terms, he speaks specifically. So God is describing a king here, and this king, it says here, shall speak marvelous things against God, the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, while the indignation hasn't been accomplished yet. What's the indignation that needs to be accomplished? The Jews need to repent and turn to God. They need to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior. That hasn't happened yet. And it will not happen, the Bible says it will happen at the end of the tribulation. So we can look at these things that are written here and we can look elsewhere in the Bible and we can see this is someone else that God is speaking of here now. So the time now has jumped ahead to a time beyond our time, a time that is at the end of the tribulation. So verse 37, neither shall he regard the God of his fathers. So when we look at these following verses, that's where one of the passages we get the idea that the Antichrist will be a Jew. Because it says in verse 37, neither shall he regard the God of his fathers. Well, Antiochus Epiphanes didn't have a God, capital G. But if the Antichrist is a Jew, his fathers, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel himself, and others, they were God-fearing individuals. The Antichrist will not regard the God of his fathers. He's not going to believe in the true God, nor the desire of women. That's where we get the idea that the Antichrist will be a sodomite. He's not going to care about women. And nor says it, nor regard any God. Why is that? It says there, for he shall magnify himself above all. What's the Antichrist gonna do at the middle of the tribulation? He's gonna go into the temple, he's gonna defile the temple, and he's gonna declare himself to be God. So if he's God, there's nobody greater than him. Because he's God in his mind. Again, we can look at our Prime Minister. Is there anybody greater than him? Well, I guess in his mind, Klaus Schwab is greater than he is. But as far as our country is concerned, there's nobody greater than him, in his mind. We need him. We can't survive as a country without him as our leader. That's what he thinks. And so does his cabinet. They're all brainwashed in the same way. So that's a type of the Antichrist. But the Antichrist is actually going to fulfill that. He's going to declare himself to be God. And he's going to force everyone to take his mark. And if you don't take his mark, you'll be dead. Now that has not happened. In spite of the fact that people said they were forced to take the shots, nobody was forced to take the shots. Nobody put a gun to anybody's head. Yes, you lost your job in some cases. You couldn't fly. You couldn't go to different places. But nobody put a gun to your head. But the Antichrist will say, take my mark or else. You won't buy and sell. He'll hound you down, hunt you down, and kill you. That's the nature of the Antichrist. So he will be different than anyone before him. So in verse 37, neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above God, above all. But, that little word but, in his estate shall he honor the God of forces and a God whom his fathers knew not, shall he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. So what's he interested in? Power. So what's he doing? He's honoring the god of forces. He needs power. You see, in order for the Antichrist to be able to enforce his wicked plans at the midpoint of the trip of forcing his mark upon everyone, he has to have the army behind him. He has to have the police force behind him. He has to have the doctors and nurses behind him. He has to have your neighbor behind him. Everybody that's on the earth has to be on his side so that if somebody says, I'm not taking the mark, that everybody can rat that person out and say, that guy over there, he doesn't want to take the mark. Go after him. And he will. There'll be no place to hide. You look at our world now, there's cameras everywhere. So where are you gonna go to hide? You want to commit a crime nowadays, people are still committing crimes, but then what do they do? Right away is they get the cameras out and they look, oh yeah, there's that guy. Yeah, we saw him there. There was a shooting in Chicago just this week, two young people, 16 and 17 years old. Two cars stopped, they were coming out of a high school. Two cars stopped, the guys got out, and in cold blood, just mowed them down. got in their vehicles and drove away. It's all on camera. But the people in the cars that got out were all hooded up in that, and the license plates, they didn't see them on the cars, so they don't know who it was at this point. But you know, it's interesting, when they reported on that, they said, we gotta get rid of the gun crime. as if it's the gun's fault. You know, there was a gun laying on the store shelf and the gun got up and went out there and shot those people. No, it's the people that's the problem. Those two boys were targeted. They were obviously into drugs or something that this other group, you cheated us or whatever and we're gonna get after you and they just killed them. It's not the gun's fault. It's the wickedness of society that's the problem. But that's what people don't want to address. But that's where the problem is. And these kind of things are going to get worse and worse. But it happens to people who are involved in criminal activity. Those two young boys, 16 and 17, obviously not church-going boys. They were ungodly boys who were involved in something. We don't know what yet. We maybe never will know. But they were involved in something that those people targeted them and killed them. Verse 38, but in his estate shall he honor the God of forces and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver and with precious stones and pleasant things. Verse 39, thus shall he do in the most strongholds with a strange God. whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain. So the Antichrist is going to consider himself as the ultimate supreme ruler And he's going to divide the land for gain. He's going to make sure that he has everything functioning in such a way that he can get the most money possible off of every piece of land and every nation that's on Earth. So the Bible tells us that's the nature of the Antichrist, particularly in his last 3 and 1⁄2 years. So then in our third point, the time of the end, verses 40 to 45. And it says there, and at the time of the end. So the end here is the end of the tribulation. It's the end of the rule of tyranny. The end of the rule of tyranny didn't stop with Antiochus Epiphanes. There were many wicked rulers after him. And it will stop with the rule of the Antichrist. So, at the time of the end, there's a key phrase there. You might want to mark that in your Bibles. That's a key phrase. At the time of the end, shall the King of the South push at him? Now again, we have the King of the South and the King of the North. And people might be confused and saying, yeah, but this is talking about the same thing we had before. We had the Greek Empire, the South and the North battling all the time. So again, people that don't pay attention to the context will look at the phrase King of the North, King of the South, and say, well, it's all the same. No, it's not all the same. It tells you it's not the same. It says at the time of the end. The Greek Empire is not in control at the time of the end. The Roman Empire is in control at the time of the end. The Roman Empire will be revived in the days of the Antichrist. The Greek Empire is gone. So the King of the South and the King of the North, now this is where it's possible that we are looking here at the Ezekiel chapter 38 war. We don't know that for sure because God hasn't given us enough details, but that passage fits with what we're talking about here. Who's the king of the north? That's Russia and its allies in Ezekiel chapter 38, coming against the king of the south. Well, what is Russia doing right now? They are in Syria, they are in that whole region, and they are working, in some places they're working together, in some places they're fighting against. So the king of the north and the king of the south, it says here, shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships and he shall enter into the countries and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, that's Israel again, and many countries because keep in mind that Israel is going to be the center of everything. Israel has been the center of everything since God chose it in the days of Abraham. It's the center. It's what the world talks about. It's where trade was being done. Today, it's still. Some of the best technological advances are coming out of Israel. The Iron Dome. Who developed the Iron Dome? Israel did. They used North American money, but Israel is the one that invented it. When we were managing an apartment building in Ontario, we had a lot of trouble with people cutting keys they were not supposed to. So there was too many keys. to the building being in the hands of people who didn't even live in the building. So the building was very insecure. And we didn't like that. And the people living there didn't like that. And so I talked to the boss about it. And the boss got a key blank and got keys cut, changed all the locks into the building, got keys cut. And guess where those key blanks came from? Israel. And they were a special key that could only be cut by a special machine that nobody else could duplicate. So our building was secure, because nobody could cut that key. Unless you went to that particular place and they were given instructions from the boss, nobody else gets a key unless I ask for a key for that building. So that fixed that problem. But that came from Israel. So the glorious land, Israel is very important, even though today they are an ungodly nation, they're still very important. Many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape out of his hand even Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon. So what part of the world is that? Well, that's the area around Jordan today. That's the area we're talking about there. It's in the Middle East. So even right now, if we look at the Middle East right now, the war is between Israel and Hamas. And if you want to get really serious about it, the war is between Israel and Iran. Hamas is funded by Iran and North American tax dollars. We are funding the UN. We are funding UNRWA. And UNRWA is the economic arm of the UN, which is supposed to be there to teach and help people with the assistance that they need. But finally, this week, after much exposure, several countries have said, we're not going to send any more money to UNRWA. That's U-N-W-R-A. We're not going to send any more money to them because it's being used for terrorist operations. Now, how long is that going to last? Probably not very long. And there'll be other ways. While they say publicly, we're not going to send any more money, they'll find ways to send it there. Because that's what the US has been doing. They say, we're not going to fund that. And yet they are. Canada, the same thing. Millions of dollars we're sending to these terrorists, by the way. But Egypt right now, which is right there in that area, Egypt is very reluctant to take any of the people of Gaza into its land. Why is that? Canada wants to open its doors to so-called refugees from Gaza. And most of those refugees are supporters of Hamas. Egypt is smarter than we are. They don't want them there because they know they're going to be trouble. Canada says, come on in. We already have every weekend. We have protests in Toronto and in Vancouver and some in Winnipeg. Who's protesting? Most of the time it's people in support of Hamas that are out there in the streets protesting because they think that our country should be going against Israel much stronger than we are and supporting the terrorists. And our country sits back and allows them to protest. So we look here in our text, and we see that Edom, Moab, and parts of the Children of Ammon, chief of the Children of Ammon, they're going to be spared. But verse 42, shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. So here we see Egypt is brought into it. But he shall have power. over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. And the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps." So we're talking here of the power that there is in this king of the south and the north that's coming in to attack. So then when we look again, when we look at verse 3rd 44 but tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him so keep in mind that these kings of the south and north they are now in the part of egypt says that in the verses before that where is egypt in relation to israel it's south So if the armies of Russia and so on are fighting down in the Egypt area and they hear of this rumor in the north, where is that rumor coming from? Well, the Bible tells us that in the midpoint or somewhere in the time of the reign of the Antichrist, he gets killed and then comes back to life. You remember that? We saw that in the book of Revelation. He gets killed and he comes back to life. And so what does that cause the people to do? They worship him. I mean, you die and come back to life. What does that make you? You're a god. Obviously, you're a god in the minds of gullible people. So it's quite possible that what is happening here in verse 44 is that time frame when the Antichrist, when Russia thinks they've killed the Antichrist, he comes back to life. and now he's got more trouble coming because the antichrist is now coming against him so again it's a big a big uh... conflict going on here and that again shows us the trouble that there will be going on in the world prior to the lord's return verse forty five It tells us there in verse 45, and he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain, yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him. So when Jesus Christ comes back and he goes to war against the Antichrist, He's going to take the Antichrist and the false prophet and throw them in the lake of fire. And he's going to have that battle in the valley of Jezreel. And the blood will be up to the horse's bridles. And it'll be a massive slaughter. And no one is going to come to help the Antichrist and the false prophet, because they're all going to be dead. So that's the end of that scene. That's the end of the Antichrist. That's the end of that wicked part of our history, which is for us now still future, but coming closer to the end all the time. And we're going to stop there. And I'm working on a summary. I thought I'd have it ready, but I don't have it quite ready. But I'll try and have it ready for Wednesday to give out to you people so you can have that and look at it and scratch your heads a little more. A lot of stuff going on in this chapter that Daniel didn't understand. There are some things in here that we don't understand yet, but there are some things that we can understand. And that can be helpful to us, that we can understand what has happened and what's coming yet. We're gonna stop there. And again, if you're listening and you're not saved, this may sound hocus pocus to you. It may be something that's quite intriguing to you, but God is not giving this to entertain you. He's giving this to help you to see that he knows everything and he's in control. And if you think that you're going to make it on your own, you're sadly mistaken. You will stand before this God who knows everything and who is in control, and you will answer to Him. And unless you know the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, you don't have any hope. And so that's still the message of the Bible. You need to be saved. You need to know God's forgiveness and God's peace in your heart. That's what's important. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful again that we have this opportunity to study thy word, a passage that is full of meaning, full of things that Daniel didn't have to meet to, but we can look at history and we can see some of those things that were happening and that we can add some information to that. But we need to be careful in doing that, that we don't take away from the importance of the text. And so we pray that we would have our confidence in thee, the true God who gave this information to Daniel for the purpose of future generations, and that we would have our hope and confidence in thee, and want to glorify thee with our lives. May thy will be done, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.