Sermon Tone Analysis

I first decided that the Lord would have us study the Book of Daniel, I really felt that the reason I wanted to get into the Book of Daniel was in order to discuss the commitment of Daniel’s life.

I felt it was a timely thing for us to see the virtue and the godliness and the commitment of this man, so that my real concern for studying the Book of Daniel was bound up pretty much in the first six chapters.

Number one, and really for giving it to the people of his own day, it was to prepare them for coming persecution.

It was to let them know that there was not only going to be an end time disaster, but they might as well realize that their history was going to filled with false messiahs who are gonna make it hard and oppressive on them.

The final antichrist, of course, comes in devastating anger against the people of Israel.

They shouldn’t be ill-prepared for that, because there will others along the way who did the same thing …

Secondly, I believe Daniel gave it to them, not only to prepare them for persecution, but to warn them not to be confused by the trend of history.

Because, you see, the Jew lived in the anticipation of the Messiah coming and setting up His Kingdom.

And if a Jew had that in his heart and his mind, and he didn’t understand that the things were gonna worse before they got better, he might get a little confused … There were some people around the turn of the century who believed that the world was gonna get better and better and better.

And one day, we’d just automatically take one more step.

We’d wake up on one more morning.

There would be one more sunrise, and we wouldn’t even know it, but we’d be in the millennium.

And Jesus would’ve taken over the city of Jerusalem, and everything would’ve been turned around, and we would’ve all had a change on the globe.

Christ would be reigning.

They believed we’d just get better and better until that happened, and then World War I hit, and those people headed for the rocks.

Something went wrong.

The Jews had known all the way along through their prophets that God was going to send their deliverer.

God was going to send the Messiah, and they lived in the hope of that, and Daniel is used by the Spirit of God to help them not to panic when they see things getting worse.

They have to get worse before they get better …

Thirdly, Daniel always comes to the Kingdom.

And his third reason for giving us this information is to let us know that no matter how bad it gets, and no matter how hefty the muscles of Satan are, no matter how hard the demons work, ultimately, God’s Kingdom will prevail.

Now, with that in mind, let’s look at chapter 8.

And Daniel’s gonna teach us of the coming horn and the two that are coming before him that show us something of what he’ll be like.

Looking again at chapter 8 of Daniel, we have seen that the key figure in this section of Daniel is the coming final world ruler known as the antichrist.

And that’s the common term that’s been used by Christians to speak of this individual for many years.

And so we lean on that term, because we understand who we mean …

John said, in his epistle, “You know that antichrist shall come.”

It was common knowledge.

And I believe they knew it primarily because they knew the Book of Daniel.

And Daniel has so much to say about him, in chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 11.

The main thrust seems to focus on this coming world ruler.

But it isn’t only the Book of Daniel that speaks of this individual.

Even the Apostle Paul speaks about him.

In and verse 3 we read this, “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that Day shall not come, except there comes the falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

And then Paul goes on in 2 Thessalonians to describe this individual.

He says, “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Remember ye not that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?”

Now, that indicates to us that not only John was teaching of antichrist and referring back to Daniel, but Paul was also teaching about this antichrist when he was with the Thessalonians.

Now, he goes on to say, “You know what restraineth that he might be revealed in his time.

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now hinders will continue to hinder until he be taken out of the way.

And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Paul says that first there will come a great falling away, a great apostasy.

A great departure from the faith, and we’ve already seen the apostate church in our own day.

Following that, there will be revealed this man of sin, this son of perdition, this called the wicked one.

And with all deceivableness, he will lead astray those who have chosen to forsake the Gospel of salvation and follow the way of sin.

And he will ultimately be destroyed and consumed in the brightness of the coming of Jesus Christ.

So Paul had the message, and John had the message, and even our Lord in the discourse on Olive, the Mount of Olives, had the same message about the coming antichrist.

And, basically, if you go to the Old Testament, the source of it all is the prophecy of Daniel, for Daniel names him and describes him in great, great detail.

Now, summing up what we’ve learned about this individual, we will remember that he is a political leader of tremendous ability.

He is virtually a sorcerer.

He can pull off what appear to be miracles.

He can fool people.

He can deceive people into believing that he is literally divine.

He is engaging.

He is appealing.

He is to capture the loyalty of what is left of the world after the Rapture and after the holocaust and the … and the destruction of the Tribulation.

He becomes kind of a reverse messiah.

The world trusts him with its problems, because he has tremendous ability to solve them.

And he succeeds in temporarily putting the world out of its misery.

He will be a financial genius, a military genius.

He will be an oratorical wonder.

He will be an egomaniac that makes Hitler and Napoleon and all the Caesars fade into soft-spoken modesty.

He steadily will gather power and influence through his public relations man, whom Revelation calls the false prophet.

And he finally proclaims himself, not king and not president and not dictator and not world ruler, but God Almighty.

And the world buys it.

He does somehow demonstrate seemingly supernatural power.

I believe he will be demon-possessed, and he will have all the forces of hell manifesting certain signs and wonders.

The best that can be said of him is that he is indwelt by the devil himself … Modesty will not be his long suit.

In fact, he will be a fanatic egotist, a man of tremendous energy.

And man of great action, a diplomat, a peacemaker, a field marshal, and, above all, the world will think he is the messiah …

Now, Daniel tells us about this coming man.

Why?

Because Daniel’s prophecy describes the time period known as the times of the Gentiles, or the time period of history in which Gentile nations dominate the land of Israel.

Now, that period of time began, and our Lord calls it the times of the Gentiles in the New Testament, but that time period began with the Babylonian captivity, and it extends to the return of Christ when he again gives Israel the fullness of its original inheritance, and rules as king of kings and Lord of Lords.

All of the time in between is the times of the nations.

We’re living in it right now.

And Daniel’s position is to chronicle that time period, and that time period ultimately culminates in the final form of the final phase of Gentile rule under this final, great world ruler called antichrist.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014).

John MacArthur Sermon Archive.

Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014).

John MacArthur Sermon Archive.

Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.

God has perfect timing

God uses various methods to get his message out

God gives us Exactness

Susa in the middle of nowhere

Became a very significant place , later in history, Ester sits on throne its in Susa

When Nehemiah was dispatched to go rebuild the walls it was from this place.

A vision from God should cause exhilarating joy

Overwhelming unworthiness

Dan

Sign of Persian Empire symbolize the Persian Empire

The Empire is made up of Medes and Persia two empires (two horns)

The Persian Empire even though it started ater than the Medes were later conquered and became stronger.

And, as you know, if you’ve been with us in our study of Daniel,

The Ram with two horns is symbolic of the Medo- Persian Empire

Horns signifies power , authority , dominion.

might or strength.