This morning, if you have your Bibles, we’re going to continue our study through the writing of Daniel, in the book of Daniel. And so if you turn in the book of Daniel to chapter 12, I’d like again to read from the first few verses of chapter 12 again this morning.
Daniel 12:1-4
And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. 4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Let’s just bow and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, as we come before you this morning and we look at your Word, and we begin to look at the events that are transpiring in the last days, your Word has told us that when we see these things begin to happen, help us to realize that the time is drawing near for history to come to its close, and a newness to begin, which none of us can even begin to imagine. And Father, I pray that you just be with us this morning as we look at your Word, and help us to be filled with anticipation, be filled with the desire to share with others the hope we have in Jesus, and help us to realize the hour in which we live.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. I shared with you before, as we’ve been going through Daniel and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, and other books of the Old Testament, the prophets, how that we live in an age which even my grandparents, or even my parents, didn’t see.
And yet, as they read the Scriptures, they saw and looked for things that were being told them prophetically, but they weren’t seeing them. And yet, we live in a day in which it’s like every time you turn around, something new is revealed that’s shown in prophecy and come to a reality in the hour in which we live. Last Sunday we talked a little bit about the nation of Israel, and the fact that in 1948 it became a nation just as it was proclaimed it would happen.
And the Scriptures said that that would be the sign. Jesus, when He talked to His disciples and they asked Him what would be the sign of the coming of His kingdom, He said it would begin with the fig tree blooming. The fig tree is a symbol of Israel.
And Israel hadn’t been a nation, and really hadn’t been a combined nation of one people for thousands of years. The last time that Israel was one nation combined was during the reign of King Solomon. And then after Solomon died, you had the divided nation, the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah.
And then we saw those kingdoms taking Israel first into captivity, Judah second into captivity, Israel by the Assyrian government, and Judah by the Babylonians. And as we look at Daniel, Daniel is now writing this account of prophecy that God has revealed to him while he has been transported to Babylon and is no longer living in Judah or Jerusalem. And everything he’s been shown is amazing to him.
As a matter of fact, a couple of times he stood and was so astonished he didn’t know what to do. I want you to understand what he is seeing. He is seeing what’s happening in our world today.
God has revealed that to him and has opened up his eyes just like He did to John in the book of Revelation. And oftentimes when you look at these, they are looking at things that they have never seen or comprehended before. In the book of Revelation, John tries to describe some of the things that he sees.
And he’s seeing things that he has no concept of what they are because he lived 2,000 years ago. Daniel lived 3,000 years ago. And as the Lord is revealing these things, He is revealing what is going to be the climax of history.
You know, a lot of times people in the world think that we have things in control. Today you have politicians and world rulers that think they have the way that they will control the future of the world. A lot of people that have never read this book do not understand that this book has the answers to all that we see going on.
And that from the beginning of this book to the end of this book, it’s all tied and about God’s plan for His creation. I want you to understand that we live in a world today where even the church wants to deny the ability of God to create. Where many churches deny the creation account that is given in Genesis.
Many churches today are denying the account of the last days that are given in Revelation. And what you effectively have done is destroyed the whole gospel message when you do that. Because at the heart of Jesus’ coming was to, number one, respond to man’s need for a Savior.
Because God gave us a choice way back in the book of Genesis at the time of creation. And man chose wrong and chose to sin. And God stands as the authority over His creation, established what is right and wrong, what is true.
And man stands accountable, not to other men, not even to himself, but he stands accountable to God. And as he stands accountable to God, he’s got a problem and each one of us have a problem. This book is an amazing book because it does not cover up the sin and rebellion of man.
But instead reveals it and shows God’s solution to that problem. At the heart of history was Jesus’ coming the first time. And He had to come the first time so that you and I could be sitting here today.
That our sins could be forgiven. That He would pay the penalty for our rebellion against a holy and righteous God that established truth and righteousness. And yet we willfully chose to walk in rebellion to truth and rebellion to righteousness.
And to pursue the wickedness of a world that’s in rebellion to Him. Jesus came to pay the penalty for our sins and the sins of the whole world. And all we have to do is receive that gift of salvation.
But God didn’t stop there. He gave us the opportunity to be redeemed, to come back into a relationship with Him. Where you and I are given a much greater picture than 40, 50, 60, 70 or 80 years in this world.
There’s a lot of people that don’t want to believe this book. And if you ask them, what do you think happens when you die? They say, I turn into dust and nothing. That’s not what God says.
He says that every man, woman and child was created in His image. Every one of us, because we were created in His image, were given a spirit. And we were also given a soul.
My wife and I were just talking a little bit about this this morning. She mentioned the comment that people have said they can’t figure out why some people are… It’s so easy for them to kill. It’s so easy for them to do abortion.
It’s so easy for them to do euthanasia. It’s so easy for them to accept murder. Well, if you look at what their belief system is, they don’t view that man has an eternal soul.
This morning, Daniel is going to tell us what happens in the last days. And God is going to make every man, woman and child that ever lived accountable to Him in the last days. And there’s a lot of people today that don’t view that they have any accountability to God at all.
But let’s just take a look at what Daniel says in Daniel chapter 12. Daniel in the beginning of chapter 12, as we talked last Sunday, is seeing in the future a great trial and tribulation that will come upon the descendants of Jacob, which is the nation of Israel. I just mentioned at the beginning of the message, we spent a lot of time on it, the last few messages that we looked at out of Daniel, how Israel became a nation, how Israel is a nation, the Jewish people are a real people, contrary to what bloggers and those that have their websites and talks give on the internet, that the Jews don’t exist and they’re not real.
More and more evidence is coming out to show the reality of how the Jewish people, amongst all the people of the world, have more markers, genetic markers, showing the reality of their Jewishness than almost any other type of people. And God said He was going to preserve them as a people even though they would be scattered amongst the earth and they should have disappeared. But number one, it shows the power of God, it shows the promise of God, it shows the authority of God, and it shows that God will deliver on His word.
Today we have a nation of Israel and there are some interesting things that Daniel saw in the last days. Israel would be in trouble, not only Daniel, but Ezekiel, not only Ezekiel, but Jeremiah. Not only Jeremiah, but John, the disciple of Jesus in the book of Revelation, proclaims things that Israel, the nation, was going to be in real trouble in the last days.
But not only that, you see that they’re going to be a nation, and they are. Now the Bible tells us here in chapter 12, verse 1 of Daniel, that Israel is experiencing some real problems because God is sending the archangel Michael to stand up. The great prince was standeth for the children of thy people.
Now what does it mean, the children of thy people? Well the children of thy people, who is he speaking to? He’s speaking to Daniel. Who is Daniel? Daniel is a Jewish noble person that was taken into captivity in the first raid on Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. So the thy people that he’s speaking of would be the Jewish people.
And he’s also showing Daniel what’s going to happen at the end of history as we know it. They’re going to be in trouble. So much trouble that Michael the archangel, and Michael is the only archangel that’s referred to that is obedient to the Lord in Scripture.
And he is leading two-thirds of the angels. And how do we know that? Because if you go to Revelation chapter 12 and 13, you’ll understand that God cast Satan out of heaven, and when He cast him out of heaven, one-third of the angels went with him. They believed the lie, and they will experience the judgment.
So Michael is there, and I want you to understand that as you look at all the wickedness and evil that is going on in the world today, people say, how can we as believers that want to stand for truth and righteousness and holiness and walk in a fellowship with the Lord, how can we stand against all this evil? Well, I want you to understand, number one, for every demon and devil of hell, there are two good angels. The book of Hebrews tells us that those angels, God sends them to minister. If you’re a believer, they’re ministering to you.
They minister to you unaware. And I’ve challenged you before to look back in your life and see events where you can’t explain why certain things happen. And a lot of times, it can only be attributed to the fact that God’s hand of protection and Him sending angels to intervene on your behalf occurred.
But what’s happening right now is what exactly Daniel said would happen, that there would be trouble. He says, Which standeth up for thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was seen there since there was a nation, even to that same time, and to that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. So what kind of trouble are they going to be in? It’s going to be bad trouble, like it’s never been seen before.
I want you to look at what is, we had a map up here on Wednesday night showing the Middle East, and it shows how small Israel is in comparison to all the other nations around them that really none of them respect them and many of them desire that they be wiped off the face of the earth. Has Israel ever been in trouble before? Yeah, they were in trouble when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem and Judah. They couldn’t withstand the attack and they were taken into captivity.
But they were not ultimately totally destroyed as a people. The northern kingdom of Israel, were they in trouble? Yeah, they were in big trouble. When the Assyrians led them with fishhooks put through their lips and marching one behind another all the way from the northern kingdom of Israel to Assyria.
They were in big trouble, but they all weren’t wiped off the face of the earth. Today, what you see happening in a war in the Middle East is to try and prevent some of the main enemies of Israel from having the power with one bomb to wipe them off the face of the earth. I want you to understand the hatred for the Jewish people that has come into the world for no reason other than it’s spiritual and demonic.
The Mullahs and Ayatollahs that are leading Iran have said death to Israel. They have made the statement, we hope that there will be persecution around the world so all the Jewish people will come back to Israel and we can kill them all with one bomb. That’s their statements.
Is that a serious time? But it’s only going to get worse. Because not only is the Ayatollahs of Iran, look at what’s happening right now with the anti-Jewish attitudes that are going around the world. Jews going from synagogue, walking home in London, being shot.
Why? Have they committed a crime? Were they attacking somebody? No, they’re Jews. Jewish synagogues, Jewish places where the people gather to meet, being desecrated, painted with swastikas, just like in Germany in 1939. It’s happening all over Europe, but it’s also happening in the United States.
The time of trouble for the Jewish people is grave. The Chief Rabbi of France, along with the Chief Rabbi of Israel, put out a plea to all Jews living in Europe, come to Israel, it’s the only place you’re safe. That is what Daniel is talking about in the beginning of verse 1. But then, God has him interject an event that’s going to occur.
And the event that he’s talking about is the event of resurrection. He says in verse 2, He’s talking about two resurrections here. A resurrection to life and a resurrection to death.
Now, you need to read all of scripture and see what God is talking. Let’s take the resurrection of life to start with. When Jesus walked on the earth, he resurrected the son of a widow.
The child had died and he resurrected him from the dead. But that child would one day die again. On his way to Jerusalem to celebrate the last Passover, where he would end up going to the cross and paying the penalty for our sin, Jesus took his time to get to Bethany and one of his close friends died.
Lazarus died and Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the dead. But Lazarus would die again. These resurrections were done to show the power of Jesus and who he was, that he was God, that he had the power over life and death.
Not Satan, not the Roman government, not even you or I, but God does. But that’s not the resurrection that Daniel’s talking about here. Just as Jesus’ coming was, he came the first time to redeem man from their sin, he’s coming the second time to judge the world and establish his kingdom for eternity.
There are two comings. Today if you go and talk to many Jewish rabbis, they’ll talk about there’s only one coming. They’re looking for the coming of the Messiah.
They don’t acknowledge that Jesus came and he was Messiah. They say the Messiah is still coming. They do not see the two comings.
Even though they’re very clear when you begin to read the prophecy. And the first coming is always about salvation. The first coming is talking about the Lamb of God.
The first coming is talking about the death of the Messiah, his burial and his resurrection again. Those are prophecies given specifically about the first coming. The second coming is talking about judgment.
Well, just as there were two comings for Jesus, there is more than one phase to the first resurrection, the resurrection of life. I want you to understand that the Bible is clear. The Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians and also in 1 Corinthians talks about the fact that you and I are going to not experience death as believers, but the Lord shall come with the shout of the archangel, which is Michael.
Michael will shout and call the people that are the bride of Christ to meet the Lord in the air. He talks about that in those verses. John in the book of Revelation talks about it.
Jesus himself gave the parable of the virgins, the wise virgins and the foolish virgins. What were they doing? They were waiting for the bridegroom to show up to get his bride. It’s speaking of the rapture.
Paul tells us that the dead in Christ, those who have died and are believers, their bodies will be resurrected first and they shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And then those of us, because Paul was alive when he was writing it, he thought it could happen at any time. There wasn’t any dating attached to it.
He said those of us who are alive shall be then caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Part of the first resurrection, the resurrection of life, the resurrection of Christ’s bride, the transformation of our bodies. When we die, Paul tells us, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
So our spirits, our souls, they go to be with God immediately upon death, but our bodies turn to dust and ashes in the ground. But as Jesus rose from the dead, it says He’s the first fruit among many, and He was the one that rose and His body never will receive corruption. And we will rise like Him.
If you look at your body today, you’ll see that you bear the scars of sin. I don’t know what my glorified body is going to be like, but I do know this, I won’t bear the scars of sin. The minute that Adam sinned, he began to die.
The minute that you were born, you began to die. The cells within your body, even though you were growing and maturing and getting stronger and bigger, and you didn’t, unless you caught some disease or had some malformity, people would say you’re very much alive, but you’re really dying. But with your new body, it’ll be an eternal body and it will not experience death because Jesus said He’s gained victory over sin and He’s gained victory over death.
There will be no death in His presence in heaven. You know, one of the interesting things, and somebody told me this, and I haven’t been able to find it, but it goes through the Scripture, and everybody that Jesus ministered to, none of them died. He was showing them that He had power over death.
The thing is, this first resurrection, the resurrection to life, is for all those whose names are written in the Book of Life. Your name is written there if you trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. The rapture is the first portion of this first resurrection.
But the Bible tells us some interesting things. It talks about Daniel, and the Lord talks to Daniel, and He says that Daniel will experience his resurrection not with the church, but rather at the end.
When Jesus comes and establishes his kingdom, then it appears that then those that had been martyred during the tribulation, because in the book of Revelation it talks about there will be people saved during the tribulation period. When the Antichrist, who we spent about three sermons on talking about him, he will martyr or kill anyone who names the name of Jesus or does not worship him. And so God will have his evangelists, even during the time of Jacob’s trouble, the greatest wickedness that’s ever been foisted upon man in the history of the world, God will still have his witness, 144,000 Jewish young men going throughout the world, sharing the gospel.
Turn to Christ. The two witnesses in Jerusalem calling on the whole world. And when I was a little kid and somebody preached on the two witnesses in Jerusalem and they talked about how the whole world would see these men standing there and then the Antichrist would be allowed to kill them halfway through the tribulation period and before the great tribulation started and that the whole world would see it and the world would rejoice and it would be like Christmas because these men would no longer be calling out to turn from your sin and turn to the true and living God.
And then the whole world would see them rise from the dead and be resurrected into heaven and they would be amazed. How could that happen? When I was a kid we didn’t know how it could happen. We just had radio.
I mean, just getting TVs. The TVs were so bad that when I was a kid they’d turn all snowy and you’d start going like rolling like this and you have to go up and whack it with your hand and then all of a sudden, then you could see again, kind of. But the biggest events that we saw were stuff in our own state or maybe our own country, but we never saw anything from around the world unless it was about a week later.
Today, you can pick up one of these and Google what’s happening in London. What’s happening in Iran right now? And you will get instantaneous pictures of things that are occurring. You’ll get news reports and people telling you of events that are while they’re happening around the world.
And we’ve talked about all the different things that are going to give the man of perdition, the Antichrist, the ability to control the whole world. And right now with these phones, they are putting into place things that will be able to track you. They’ll be able to track your thoughts, be able to track your what you say, who you’re saying it to.
They track where you’re going. And so it’s going to be very easy for him to see if you all of a sudden you are one of these people that believes these prophets or believes these evangelists that tell you to turn to Christ and turn to Christ. He’ll know where you are.
He’ll know how to get you. His people come out and you will be executed for your decision. So we’ll have those people.
The Bible tells us they’re going to be there. They’re already that type of individuals. Martyrs already occurring in greater extent than it has.
And I don’t know how long. Just look at Africa. Whole Christian villages, whole churches martyred and their crime was they believe in Jesus.
In Iran, the executions didn’t stop. They actually intensified. It’s just that they weren’t talked about.
And people were being taken out of the prisons even today. They probably still are in Iran. And they’re being executed.
And the majority of them that are being executed are Christians. So during what is referred to as the Great Tribulation, there will be people coming to Christ. But the church has been raptured before the tribulation because that’s one of the two events that must occur for the tribulation to begin and then put in the final events of history.
So what’s going to happen to these people? Well, the Bible tells us that when Jesus returns with his ten thousands of saints, that those who have been martyred will be resurrected and given new bodies as well as they enter into the Millennial Kingdom to rule and reign with Christ. In the book of Revelation, it talks about the martyred saints that stand before the throne of God during the tribulation when the Antichrist is on the earth. And it talks about the fact that they’re saying, How long, how long will our blood go not being justified or dealt with? And they’re told, Be patient, the day is coming.
And that day came when Jesus comes. So we see that there’s more than one phase of the resurrection to life. Just like there’s more than one phase of Jesus’ coming.
But I want you to understand there’s only one phase to the resurrection of death. The Bible tells us in the book of Revelation and also in the prophets of the Old Testament that Jesus is going to return and establish a kingdom on the earth and the kingdom will be established for a thousand years. Part of the reason that this kingdom is really to show mankind the depravity of sin and the depth of God’s love.
Because there will be people that will be entering into the kingdom of God, the thousand year reign of Christ, they’ll enter in alive. They’re not going to be the church that’s been raptured and they come back in glorified bodies. You and I come back in a glorified body.
We’re not going to come back as husbands and wives that can procreate and have children. But those people that are left on the earth, that are alive going into the thousand year reign of Christ, will go in and their human bodies they can procreate. And the Bible tells us there’s going to be children that are born during that thousand years.
It tells us that if you’re born and you only live to be a hundred, it’ll be because your sin has revealed itself and you’ve been judged. At the end of the thousand year reign, the Bible tells us that Satan will be loosed for a time. Because the Bible says that at the beginning of Christ’s reign, he’s bound in chains and cast into a pit.
In other words, he cannot be there to tempt man, he cannot be there to lead world leaders to establish kingdoms that are in opposition to Christ. None of that will be there. You won’t have what we see today.
Political leaders lying and cheating. Political leaders telling you, I’ve got your best interest at heart, while they’re sticking their hand in your pocket, taking all your money. And having all your possessions confiscated.
I mean, the world is so corrupt today. You go to the best places, and I believe the United States of America is still one of the best places. We still have freedoms here, nobody else has.
But we have long since departed from our founding fathers’ documents of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence. And wickedness and corruption are throughout our land. And if you’re looking for man to deliver you, man cannot deliver you, but God will.
Well, during the time that Jesus rules and reigns, and people are saying, I just want that day to come. Why? Because there will be no injustice. There will be no wickedness.
There will be no unrighteousness. If there is, it’s dealt with immediately. As Jesus rules and reigns in righteousness.
But what God wants mankind to see is the depth and depravity of our own sin. Because at the end of that period, it says Satan will be loose for a moment. And Satan will be loose for a moment to tempt mankind to rebel against God one last time.
And you know what? There are going to be those that will join him. Even though everybody cries, I want justice, I want truth, I want righteousness, I want a world to be full of peace. And that’s what’s going to happen during Christ’s reign.
But if they don’t deal with the old sin nature that is contained within them and give it over to Christ and accept the gift of salvation, they will be open to the deceptions of Satan once again. And Satan will lead all those into eternal damnation. And the Bible says that at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ comes the second resurrection.
The resurrection of those that are going to judgment. I want you to understand, every person that’s ever lived will rise from the dead one day. Either as part of the first resurrection or as part of the second resurrection.
The second resurrection will have to stand before and give the great white throne judgment seat of Christ, it’s referred to. And I don’t know how God’s going to do it, but God who can create the universe with a spoken word and create something out of nothing is going to be able to judge the billions of people that have lived. And you’re going to stand before Him, and if you have not received Jesus Christ and got the gift of salvation that God has given to cover your sins, that He paid the penalty for our sins, and we have received that gift, and the penalty, Jesus said it at the cross when He yelled to Telstoy, which is, the account is paid.
You received that payment for that account. The account is that account that you must give on the great white throne judgment. As you stand before it, you will give an account for your life.
If you are not a believer in Christ and have gone in the first resurrection, but if you’re going in the second resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, you will have to stand before God and give an account of your life on your own merits. We look at people and we think, oh, that’s such a moral guy, or that’s such a moral woman. Are they really? Have they lusted and stole and lied? You’ve got people from various flavors of the political scene that will exalt the politician and say, he’s the man we want to follow, but I want to tell you, every man that’s ever been the president of the United States or been a senator or been a congressman or been a governor or been any political leader at all, guess what? He’s a sinner, and unless he is walking saved by grace and the power of God’s Spirit to enable him to be able to see things clearly, he is going to lead things astray.
In that day, every man that is not covered by the blood of Christ and has had their account paid in full will have to stand and pay their account. I remember when I was a kid getting in a situation that would be a little bit like this. I had some friends, and they would stop on the way home from school, and we were in ninth grade, and there was a corner grocery store.
We used to have some of them in Fargo. And this old guy ran this corner grocery store, and he sold penny candy. And my friends would stop there, and they’d just get candy.
He’d give them candy. I thought, wow, that’s pretty cool. And I said, well, you just asked him for it.
So I said, well, I’d like a couple of those things, and he just gave them to me. He said, what’s your name? And I gave him my name. And as we were walking home, we did this just about every day as we walked home from school.
We’d stop at the grocery store and get some penny candy. All of a sudden, we’d been doing it for about a month, and we stopped there, and then my two friends had reached in their pocket, and they pulled out their money, and they paid the bill. I had no money.
He said, well, here’s your bill. This is what you owe. I had no money.
Now I had to go home and talk to my dad about why I needed five dollars to pay for penny candy at the grocery store that he didn’t know I was buying, and I didn’t know I was going to have to pay for. It was not a pleasant exchange. And it was the last time I ever bought penny candy.
The thing is, people that are at the resurrection of death are going to stand before God, and He’s going to say, here’s the bill. Pay up. And they’re going to be like a 15-year-old kid who had no money.
And they’re going to go, I don’t have any way to pay that bill. Besides, my bill wasn’t that bad. Oh, really? And you know something? The Bible tells us we’re not going to be convicted by the words of others.
We’re going to be convicted by our own words, our own actions, our own lives. We can’t hide behind our parents, our grandparents, our friends. We’re going to stand bare before the Lord.
And He’s going to say, here’s your bill. This is a very sobering message. It’s a message that doesn’t get preached very often.
But it’s a message that we all need to hear, and we need to hear which resurrection do you want to be a part of. And I don’t care if you’re agnostic, atheist, don’t believe in eternal life. It doesn’t matter.
God says it exists, and guess what exists. It doesn’t matter what I think. And it doesn’t matter what you think.
It matters what God says. The days are getting worse, even as Daniel said. And it’s leading up to a day of rapture, the first portion of the resurrection to life, which leads to the end of the great tribulation, which is the second portion of the resurrection where the Old Testament saints and those that have been martyred will be resurrected to life.
And then at the end of the thousand-year reign, we come to the resurrection of the dead. Which resurrection do you want to be a part of? The choice is yours. Let’s just close in prayer.
Lord, I pray that you just help us to understand the seriousness of the choices that you give to us to make, but yet you’ve made them so evident about the love and joy and peace that we can experience if we give our hearts to you. And so many men and women don’t want to give it up because they want their own selfish ways. Lord, help us to not work in our self-centeredness, but to walk in the depth of your love as we give our lives to you.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.