Well, I invite you to turn to Daniel chapter 8 this morning, Daniel chapter 8, found on page 855 as we continue in our study in the book of Daniel and come now to the second great vision. And I'll read the entirety of the chapter. Let's give our attention this morning to God's word. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel. after that which appeared to me at the first and i saw in the vision and when i saw was at susa the citadel which is in the province of elam and i saw in the vision and i was at the uli canal and i raised my eyes and saw and behold a ram standing on the bank of the canal it had two horns and both horns were high but one was higher than the other and the higher one came up last i saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward no beast could stand before him and there was no one who could rescue him from his power he did as he pleased and became great as i was considering behold a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth without touching the ground and the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes he came to the ram with the two horns which I had seen standing on the bank of the canal and he ran at him in his powerful wrath I saw him come close to the ram and he was enraged against him and struck the ram and broke his two horns and the ram had no power to stand before him but he cast him down to the ground and trampled on him and there was no one who could rescue the ram from his power then the goat became exceedingly great but when he was strong the great horn was broken and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven one of them came out of out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south toward the east and toward the glorious land it grew great even to the host of heaven and some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them, it became great, even as great as the prince of the host. And the regular burnt offering was taken away from him and the place of his sanctuary was overthrown and a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression and it will throw truth to the ground and it will act and prosper. Then I heard a holy one speaking and another holy one said to the one who spoke for how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering the transgression that makes desolate and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot and he said to me for 2300 evenings and mornings then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state when I Daniel had seen the vision I sought to understand it and behold there stood before me one having the appearance of a man And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Uli, and it called Gabriel. Make this man understand the vision. So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end. and when he had spoken to me i fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground but he touched me and made me stand up he said behold i will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation for it refers to the appointed time of the end as for the ram that you saw with the two horns these are the kings of media and persia and the goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king. As for the horn that was broken, in place of which four others arose, four kingdoms shall arise from his nation, but not with his power. And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great but not by his own power and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints by his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand and in his own mind he shall become great without warning he shall destroy many and he shall even rise up against the prince of princes and he shall be broken but by no human hand the vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true but seal up the vision for it refers to many days from now and i daniel was overcome and i lay sick for some days then i rose and went about the king's business but i was appalled by the vision and did not understand it there ends the reading of god's word well i think it goes without saying that one of our biggest challenges in 21st century being 21st century christians is that we have enjoyed one of the most peaceful and prosperous times on the earth that previous nations and times have not known to this kind of degree and that has enabled us and to live out our life and raise our families in a most comfortable way a surprisingly comfortable way but it's always good to remind people that this is an anomaly in history this is not the norm always in history the church has always seen persecuted periods and persecuted times right from the first century on and because god's hand has been light on us as has been noticed we've lived with so much prosperity and creaturely comforts i think american religion is a lot like taking a trip to disneyland today we really oppose deep conviction and the need for reformation in the church we see that as extreme as long as we are not inconvenienced toward repentance and reformation as i was talking about earlier i think we've forgotten that we're wrestling with principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this realm of this age have we really given thought to that do we know what's happening behind the scenes do we do we really appreciate what's happening well that's where Daniel has been extremely helpful for us to appreciate what's happening and have you ever asked the question maybe this is the kind of important question to put up front today because I'm going to end with it have you ever thought about this when you say to me constantly oh this world is in such chaos and the nations everything's so crazy our crazy world have you thought about what might have caused that have you thought about what might have caused this mess something did and that's where i think daniel is particularly helpful today it's pulling back the curtain and it's showing us snapshots and glimpses into history of the kingdoms of this earth and the evil one that holds sway over these kingdoms and what that means for the saints that's why this is important and why things are moving in history the way that they are moving why things are going the way that they are going and that this following of Jesus is it's not for the uncommitted the Disneyland days are over I keep saying and you're going to have to stand on something well daniel receives another vision and um this truly helps to see the warfare we are in and ask these important questions that i asked um maybe we'll look at it this way today what what are the things that are happening and what should it draw out of us and i think that's important those are important questions to answer as we come to chapter eight and that's what's here we have this second vision today of daniel in chapter eight and we're told what he saw and how it was explained and why it matters maybe that's a good breakdown for you what he saw how it is explained and why it matters is the simple breakdown that you have if you're a note taker and we move into chapter eight and i think it's important to draw the connections that are here we've moved though to a very different vision than chapter seven you remember the last vision the last vision was an overview of history i i i made the case for from the perspective of the lion's den there was a reason that vision came on the heel of the lion's den it was as if daniel was saying you're in the lion's den and jesus is holding back the beast's mouth and that's why he presented four beasts to us these scary beasts that were devouring each other and devouring everyone in its path the powerful point about that was in the midst of all of this destroying and devouring wearing out the saints he says daniel encouraged us so remember four beasts and then this horn and the wearing out of the saints and the trampling of the saints for a time, in the midst of that was a vision of the Ancient of Days seated on His throne and the Son of Man coming to the Ancient of Days which captured the very end of all things, the judgment of the nations. And it was a big picture vision in chapter 7 not to identify the beast. The angels did not identify the beast for us. It wasn't intended to do that. He wanted us to see the big picture of history. The big picture of history of the warfare and the struggle and the victory of the Messiah's kingdom in the midst of all this and that he rules the nations and will judge the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. But now this vision zeros in in a much more specific way so as to identify who is pictured and to help us to see this as a mini replica of what's happening in history, to look at it now with a different angle and explain for you why things are the way they are on the earth. So we begin in verse 1. In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after which appeared to me at the first. And I saw in the vision, and when I saw, I was at Susa, the citadel, which is in the province of Elam, and he explains what he saw. Again, some of the little ones brought, I had a nice picture from one of the little ones of the beast last week. I'm going to save those and collect those, so if you bring these images to me, that's absolutely fine. They're going to go in my study, maybe on the wall. Notice here, I lifted up my eyes. He's looking at these exalted animals. And I saw a ram standing on the bank of the canal. This ram had two raised horns coming out of its head. One horn was taller than the other. Came up last. This was a powerful ram. It was charging in all the directions except westward. There was no beast that could stand before it. The imagery, if you've ever seen these imageries of rams charging, it's fascinating. They're fearless. They will take out anyone who gets in there. We get in these charging modes. This fierce ram is charging in all the directions of the earth. Notice this here, this fierce animal. And he did whatever he pleased and became great. This is a fierce, fierce beast. but then daniel says all of a sudden i i looked and i saw this male goat coming from the west the direction he hadn't charged he zeroes in on the ram and there was a different horn between his eyes he sees um the ram so this goat sees the ram and the goat becomes furious at the ram and in a great charge a great charge he runs at the ram and he charges the ram and he breaks off the two horns and daniel says the ram was immediately conquered and trampled down to the ground after this strike then its great horn between its eyes was broken off you'll notice this he sees this ram this great horn on the um on the ram is broken off. And then comes four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Now there's the tie to the last vision. Out of one of those horns, of the four conspicuous horns, you getting all this? I know it's a lot. It's a little horn again. You remember the tie? We were introduced to the little horn last time some of i had not tried not to make a tie to this and i believe you have to make a tie to this i think it's wrong not to make a tie to this the little horn in the previous vision what did the little horn in the previous vision do he changed times and laws talked about that he wore out the saints of the most high and he trampled them underfoot well this little horn becomes great toward the south east and toward now notice notice the inclusion now toward the glorious land but not just the land it became great even toward the host of heaven so that it threw some of the stars of heaven down and trampled them it became as great as the prince of the host but then this horn did something absolutely devastating he assaulted the burnt offering and he assaulted the sanctuary and the great prince was overthrown and the entire host was given over along with the burnt offering and the vision closes with a conversation between the two angels how long how long is this going to go on he says the sanctuary is going to be desolate and overthrown and trampled for 2300 evenings and mornings then it shall be restored there's the vision like last time daniel wants to understand this daniel is so perplexed daniel's confused he understands visions and riddles and enigmas but he cannot understand these things this is exactly where we are now i said last time the great interest of daniel is to help believers with the time of the end it's to help them with how to look at history it's to help them to look at the kingdom of their messiah and the character of the kingdom as the messiah's kingdom breaks into history and why that's so necessary for it to happen to break into history Well, what we now have then as we understand this vision and seek to understand what's going on in chapter 8 is now a zeroing in in history to look at the time period that precedes, just precedes the breaking in of the Messiah's kingdom. The kingdom of the Son of Man. The Prince of Princes. From which will constitute from Daniel's place the time of the end. Daniel's wrestling with all of this, and as he's wrestling with all this, someone says, Gabriel, explain it to him. So the mighty angel Gabriel, who we know throughout history, birth of Christ, speaks. Daniel falls down into a deep sleep. Gabriel comes, and he touches him, and he says, get up. The vision is an important vision. Part of the vision ties directly back to Nebuchadnezzar's image, remember? It zeroes in on Nebuchadnezzar's image with the head of gold. Remember, the head of gold was Babylon. But then this particular vision moves beyond Nebuchadnezzar and it moves to the chest and the arms of silver and then the middle and the thighs of bronze. He's right there in this vision. He's explaining what's happening in that imagery of Nebuchadnezzar's figure. Unlike the last vision of the four beasts, we were given no identification. That characterized the beastly kingdoms of history. We are plainly told by Gabriel, which really helps us with this vision, who this is. The ram with the two horns, he says, are the kings of Media and Persia. The larger horn here, we know throughout history, when they had two horns on the head, one coming out longer, last was the Persians, who were clearly more powerful throughout history and made alliance with the Medes to form one powerful kingdom, kingdom on the earth that dominated in ways that were just legendary in history. But then, all of a sudden, Gabriel says, with the horn, Gabriel says specifically, this goat that comes up with the horn, he identifies it for us. That's the king of Greece. We know who the king of Greece was, who trampled like this. This is Alexander the Great. Notice all the prophecy of history here that's happening, that's being told ahead of time and how it's being captured with apocalyptic language. This is Alexander the Great and his exploits were legendary. He was a ruthless figure who by the age of 33 had dominated the world as it was known. You can spend the time studying Alexander the Great. fascinating figure but a deadly figure in the in the apocalyptic by 33 years old and then he died and when he died just like our vision captures out of four horns came out of his kingdom four generals we know in history and those generals were powerful generals and they did not last but this because this great figure would arise that would crush them he says now before i get to that figure in the little horn i think it's so important to not just report history here as as fascinating as it is and as how helpful it is to see how the apocalyptic imagery and vision of Daniel is capturing actual history it's all been proven it's fascinating to read about Alexander the Great the warrior but I think what we have to do with this is is think about the powerful kings and kingdoms that dominate the earth and that they are likened to fierce beasts by the Lord in their power they exercise phenomenal power in history to conquer to destroy to make their kingdoms great and it's all by every kingdom that's ever existed on the face of the earth it's all been a quest for dominance in whatever form it takes they believe in their kingdoms they will last forever they're under a delusion that their kingdoms and their strength and their greatness is untouchable and they're fierce what's the message here isn't it interesting that all the nations of the earth take on an image of some kind of beast as their mascot in daniel the beasts all represent kings and kingdoms in their various levels of strength every kingdom has certain aspects of strength and it's the beast captures the strength of their kingdom it's not unfamiliar to us this shouldn't be it continues to this day who are the Russians. What beast is their mascot? The bear. I quote, strength, power, and sheer might they claim to have, and the bad ferocity and club-footedness. China has taken on the image of what? The dragon. The dragon in China is a fierce looking beast. It was originally adopted in China to symbolize the emperor. We adopted what beast? It's not very strong beast, but it is a fascinating. It's the eagle. Soars through the sky. What is it? What is it communicating? Why did we adopt the eagle? I quote, fierce beauty and proud independence of this great bird aptly symbolizes the strength and the freedom of America. It's happening right now. The bear and the dragon are uniting. Precisely because they see the weakness of the eagle. If you were to put this in scripture and you were to write a vision, it would sound something like this. The bear and the dragon sought to tear down the great eagle in flight. What's happening? These beasts are all devouring one another. World War III is not so far off. You know it. It could happen in the drop of a minute, in the drop of a dime. Precisely because all the kingdoms are trying to assert their dominance. All the kingdoms are trying to assert their power. All the kingdoms are trying to assert their authority in the earth. And the greater the kingdom, the greater the beast represented. Now you see how confused in the midst of this you could get when one beast devours the other. That's what's been happening in Daniel. One beast devours another as if our greatest concern is the eagle. as if our greatest concern are the kings and kingdoms who in God's sight are all little beasts scrambling about. And what's the message? They come and they go. They're all trying to conquer. They're all trying to hold power. And the cycle repeats itself over and over and over and over throughout history. They're just dust in the wind. They're just dust in the wind before the king and his kingdom. And whoever has the power at the moment, the king and his kingdom, he allowed and permitted for a time. They look fearsome. I mean, the power of the dragon right now looks pretty strong. The power of the bear and the dragon look pretty strong. And as one pastor said, God cuts down these beasts to manageable size constantly. It's only one kingdom that has all power. but that's not the great effect of this vision the shock of the vision is the little horn who is he gabriel says at the latter end of their kingdom that was the kingdom remember the the goat and he dies he gets broken off four horns pop up out of this out of this goat then what happens is one out of those one of those four horns one little horn one of those horns he likens to the little horn what did the little horn do in chapter 7 he crushed the saints he wore out the saints and all this he persecuted the saints here the little horn causes fearful destruction aimed at who look at verse 24 his power is great and by cunning he shall make deceit prosper in his hand he shall cast truth down he shall rise up against the prince of princes what daniel saw him do was trample the sanctuary and the courts he turned from all the nations of the earth now think of this is this is what's important for us He turned from all the nations of the earth and he turned to the glorious land. And he drew out stars from heaven, making war with heaven. Where's that found? Well, it's Revelation 12 when the man-child was caught up to God in his throne. The woman gave birth and the man-child was caught up to God in his throne. And he ruled the nations with a rod of iron. Then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its head. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. Here's what the horn did, the little horn, in this vision. He shut down the burnt offerings and he destroyed the sanctuary. Historically, we know who this was. Out of those four generals, one came after Alexander, after the goat, whose name was Antiochus Epiphanes, which means God made manifest is the name he took. He was the king of the Seleucid Empire that arose out of one of those horns of Alexander's Greece. He was ruthless, quoting another author. He banned circumcision. He brought an end to the sacrifice at the temple in Jerusalem in 167 B.C. He defiled the altar by burning pig's flesh on it, offering to Zeus in the holiest of holies. He burned the scriptures and banned them and slaughtered people. And kind of the summary of it all, he overthrew all truth. This is what Daniel saw. this is why he's horrified beloved this is what horrified him why does this matter what daniel is capture capturing in this vision and zeroing in on the little horn who affects the kingdoms of this world but what mesmerizes him and what we take from this is He aims one place. He aims to assault the righteous. What can we do about beasts? What can I do today about the bear of Russia? What can I do about the dragon of China? I'm not stopping those beasts. Maybe our eagle will. I'm concerned most about this. That in the midst of the kingdom warfare, in the midst of the beast biting and devouring one another is Satan's activity in history to use little horns to assault the church. We're looking at Satan's activity in the kingdoms of this earth and his ultimate goal so that at some point anti-Christ figures rise up out of these kingdoms and they aim their assault at God himself, and they aim their assault at the truth, and they aim their assault at the scriptures, and everything that speaks to the sacrifice of his son. Antichicus Epiphanes, the historical figure, is a representative of one of the worst expressions of the little horn or the Antichrist activity throughout history. he was in chapter 7 speaking pompous words against the most high the little horn here there he wore out the saints there he trampled them underfoot here he rises up to attack the truth and seems to have great success in destroying the gospel and he attacks himself the prince of the righteous host do you see the strategy throughout history in the kings and kingdoms of this world of the evil one. Tear down the truth. Trample the saints. Destroy their sacrifice and offering. Profane the very temple of God. That destroy the truth, trample down the truth, is his greatest effort right at this moment. How long? 2300 mornings and evenings symbolic period why that's my question today why why why lord or would you allow this if god is sovereign in history if god is on his throne why would he put the saints through this maybe that was daniel's burning question know the horrors of this when jerusalem was captured in 80 70 it was all they were all looking back jesus likened it to this period did you catch it why oh lord and a host will be given over to it together with a regular burnt offering because of the transgression. Whose? And it will throw truth to the ground and it will act and prosper because of whose transgression? The horns? In the next chapter, what do we have? It's Daniel's huge prayer of repentance. The very next scene. daniel says oh lord we've sinned we've done wrong we've not listened to your prophets we've not obeyed your voice by turning from our iniquities and gaining insight listen from your truth who threw down truth first god's people in their worship no faith they wanted the good blessings from god they wanted cultural judaism daniel says therefore in the prayer you brought all this calamity on us do we ever learn from this do you see the assault what is the state of the church we're worried about the state of society all of your hearts are worried about the state of society have our churches become overrun with false worship has truth been cast to the ground in our times who did that first if it ever got to a place they banned the Bible in America who banned it first from the pulpit what brings the problems we face if we ever get to a place where people no longer care about truth and don't care about worship who don't believe the gospel God can tear all this down and the Christian school tomorrow And he might if we sacrifice it when there's no repentance from us. I have a theory. Maybe things are the way they are right now in America is precisely because of the church's approach to his truth. People need backbone again. Those holding back the church and want to keep it a Disneyland for their families have forgotten this is a war zone. We're in a lion's den. And God's bringing judgment throughout history for set times to wake people up and refine His church and refine His people and test them so that the gospel again would be heard and appreciated. And in verse 25, that's the good news. This is what we close with. in verse 25 he shall arise up against the prince of princes but gospel he shall be broken by no human hand that's jesus's hand seal it up for it speaks gabriel for many days from now that is what the triumph the lion of the tribe of judah has triumphed over the greatest abomination and desolations, we put God's Son on the cross. Why does this matter? You have to understand and appreciate what's happening. You might complain today about the loss of the eagle's flight, its freedom. You might be worried about the bear or the dragon. That's not our real concern, beloved. That is not it. All these kingdoms have a short, appointed shelf life. They devour each other and are blown away in the wind. Our concern should be the sanctuary. our concern should be the truth. Our concern should be the kingdom of God and his gospel. And when Jesus himself, when that dark night came on the cross, when they had cast him out and he had been hung on Golgotha and it went black from the sixth of the ninth, that was the darkest moment in history. And then he rose from the dead. And the gospel's gone out today to the ends of the earth. Truth has gone out again. May we be a people who believe it. Daniel lay sick in his bed for many days. And then after that he rose and he went about his business in Babylon. He was appalled because he had not yet witnessed what here had been described. We've witnessed it in history. We've seen all this. So let us respond to the king today. Let us have faith. Let us worship the Lord. Let us care about truth in our homes and in our lives. And let us get up tomorrow and go back into Babylon and be faithful servants of the king until the coming happens. But may the Lord fulfill that purpose in us. May he bless us as a congregation as we anticipate the coming of Christ's kingdom in all of its power. May you be active in the king's service and upholding his truth, loving his truth, believing his gospel. May God bless you today, dear congregation, in that pursuit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for such a glorious vision. Thank you for helping us to understand and we pray, oh Lord, that you would bless us and that, Lord, you would recover in our day convicted people who are willing to count all. We sing, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, his truth abideth still. So then let that truth prevail here and in your church around the world. And then, O Lord, may it stop the madness that we're seeing in the world of the beasts at war. Help us, O Lord, and bless us in Jesus' name. Amen.