Gooding, David: 6 - Ultimate Truth

Now, it's not telling tales out of school if I observe that last evening, as the people were going away, one gentleman stopped me and inquired whether ever, on such occasions as this, I had a question time, you'll see. And I said, well, frequently I don't, shall say, because I'm a very nervous customer, and I'm afraid that people would ask all sorts of questions that I couldn't possibly answer, you'll see. But then I plucked up courage and said that if he had some questions he would like to put, well, I would do my best to answer him, and I bethought myself that present in the congregation would be many greater experts than I, and when I got the difficult questions that I couldn't answer myself, I could pass them on to, uh, to them, we'll say. So I said that, uh, perhaps it would be best if he wrote out his question, we'll say, and, uh, that would mean that if anybody else had questions that they had to bring, yes, perhaps tomorrow night, we could cut short the message, which many people would think would be a distinct advantage, and fill in the remaining moments, you'll say, with a period of questions. And if, uh, I suggested people wrote them down on a bit of paper, then it would at least give me two seconds in which to review them for myself and decide which ones I could answer and which ones I would have to pass on elsewhere, and such like things you'll say. And then we could answer them in order and not go all around the book repeating ourselves, they'll say. So that leads me now to say that if any of you would like to, uh, ask questions and write out, write them out, please, and hand them in tomorrow, uh, on on Saturday, I mean, as you come, then we will do that. We will cut short the time of talking, and, uh, we'll institute this question time. Of course, if you feel now that there are no questions to be asked, or if you sense in your bones it wouldn't be worth asking me the questions anyway, well, uh, then, of course, our good friend, when he brings his questions, I will answer his, uh, privately. But do feel free if you have some questions, uh, you would like to put and like to write out, write them out if you would please, and hand them to me when you come, before the meeting if possible, on Saturday evening. And now we come to our sixth study, and the text for our study tonight is the book of Daniel, and largely chapter eight of that prophecy. And as we have done on previous evenings, let's spend our first few moments taking our bearings once more within the book of Daniel to see where chapter eight fits in to its general message. To help you in that regard, you may care to turn to the first page on your sheet of notes, and the second major component there too, contents of the book of Daniel. And you will notice that after chapter six there come 4 final visions. The number of the visions is obscured somewhat in our English, uh, versions, because the last vision is distributed among three whole chapters, namely chapters ten, eleven, and twelve. They are, of course, uh, you see it as soon as you look at it, one vision filling those three chapters. And therefore, from chapter seven onwards, chapter seven, eight, nine, and finally the last three, presents us with four prophetic vision. They are distinct from all that has gone before, in a sense, because while we've had one vision before, that was the vision given in chapter two of the prophecy, that vision was actually given to King Nebuchadnezzar. And the rest of the chapters one, um three, four, five, and six, uh are largely historical. The four visions that fill the remaining chapters are special in this sense that they were all of them given to the prophet Daniel himself, for his private consumption and for the benefit of the people of God who should come afterwards. Now, when we look at these four visions given to Daniel, we see at once that they have many details in common. They are all, of course, dealing with future events, and all of them provide us with certain timetabling. To some extent, they tell us the timetabling of certain future events. In chapter seven, for instance, and verse twenty five, we are told that when the final dictator comes, the saints of the Most High shall be given into his hand, and he shall persecute them until a time and times and half a time. And then when we come to the next vision in chapter eight, the desecration of the temple by Antiochus Epiphanes, we hear in verses thirteen and fourteen a conversation going on between a couple of angels. Says Daniel in verse thirteen of chapter eight: then I heard the Holy One speaking, and another Holy One said unto that certain one which spake, how long shall the vision concerning the continual burnt offering and the transgression that make us desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. So timetabling once more of certain future events. I scarce need to remind you that chapter nine likewise, uh, includes in its final version a very complicated and complex and exceedingly interesting piece of prophetic timetable. As the angel tells Daniel in verse twenty four, seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. And the angel proceeds thereafter to analyze those seventy weeks. They turn out to be seventy weeks of years, and he analyzes them into two major periods, and then, uh, uh, uh, analyzes and breaks them down yet further. So the third vision, likewise, like the previous two, has concerned itself with timetable of prophetic events. And the same thing is true of the final vision, you'll say. Chapter twelve verse six. One says of the man clothed in linen, which was above the waters of the river, how long shall it, shall it be to the end of these wonders? Or perhaps the better translation would be, how long shall the end of these wonders be? And I heard the man clothed in linen, says Daniel, which was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by him that liveth forever, that it shall be for a time, times and a half. And when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. And in the remaining verses, the angel proceeds to explain even further the time that the, the faithful people of God must wait until the final end. So all these four visions are not only prophetic, but they all resemble each other in this particular at least, that they give us the timetabling of certain future events. The obvious question that, uh, arises in our minds will therefore be, why Why have have 4 four visions visions? of the end time? Why did not the Holy Spirit of God decide to put it all together in one great vision and amalgamate the timetable all the way through? Would that not have been simpler? Well, perhaps it would have been simpler, but it wouldn't have been so sensible, would it, nor so effective. For there are four visions given us, just like over another topic completely, there are 4 gospels given us at the beginning of the New Testament. Each one of those gospels gives to us a life of the Lord Jesus, but they are not duplicating one the other. They are giving us the life of the Lord Jesus from four different viewpoints. And so it is with these four prophecies that end the book of Daniel. They are all directing our attention towards the future, hence some of the similarities that they contain. But each one of them is looking at those future events from a different vantage point and dealing with different elements in the end time. And if we will get a complete picture of the time of the end, then we must not take just one of these prophecies, we must take all four and from them form our composite picture of what the time of the end will be like. Now let's look at page one again of the notes that we've been given. And that will remind us that these four final visions are grouped in two pairs. Chapter seven and eight stand together, then chapters nine and the final vision in chapters ten, eleven, and twelve stand together. You see that, for instance, with the last two, for in both of those you are concerned with the timetable of God in particular. In chapter nine, Daniel has read in the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah's timetable for the desolations of Jerusalem to be finished and the restoration of Jerusalem to begin. And he takes the whole matter of what God's word has said about this timetabling to God in prayer and seeks to know what God is doing do- going to do about his timetable and the promised restoration of Jerusalem. The final vision, as we noticed last night, likewise concerns itself with the writing and the detailed prophecies and plans of God that are included in that wonderful writing. But now it's no longer a question of the writings of Holy Scripture, what is written in the book of the Old Testament. It is concerned with the writing of truth, the hitherto undisclosed pur- purposes of God, known only to God, recorded only in heaven, till at this point on history they were revealed to Daniel. Those two prophecies, therefore, stand together, and it is even more simple, isn't it, to see that the two prophecies of chapter chapters and eight stand together as a pair. Both of them see the future under the symbolic language of wild beasts. That much they have in common. They are describing the course of certain Gentile imperial powers. So they have that in common, and they represent these powers under the figure of wild. But then the differences begin, don't they? In chapter seven, Daniel sees four wild beasts. In chapter eight, he sees only two wild beasts. And then there's another difference. The four beasts of Daniel chapter seven, we may deduce, represent the empire of Babylon, the empire of Medo-Persia, thirdly, the Greek empire founded by Alexander the Great, and finally the fourth empire, which was imperial Rome. But in chapter eight, the Da- Daniel is not given to see all four empires, but only two of them. The two beasts do not start with the empire of Babylon, they start with the second empire, that of the Medo-Persians, and we are expressly told that is so. And then his vision ends with the third empire, that is the empire of the Greeks, and does not proceed to say anything about the fourth empire. And naturally, we ask ourselves why that is so. And another thing we notice immediately when we start thinking, and it is this: in chapter seven you see not only the wild beasts, but you are given a vision of the coming Messianic kingdom. For in chapter seven you see until the fourth wild beast that stamped around him so destructively is finally taken and destroyed, and the kingdom under heaven is given to the Son of Man and to the saints, and the Son of Man and the saints proceed to set up the Messianic kingdom. Also in chapter eight, there is a terrible tyrant there, but he is not the emperor of the fourth empire, Rome. He is one of the emperors that arose in a certain part of the Third Empire. He is eventually destroyed, but nothing is said about the setting up of the Messianic Kingdom. No vision is given us in chapter eight of Messiah, whether under the figure of a stone cut out without hands, as in chapter two, or under the guise of the Son of Man, as in chapter seven. Our blessed Lord is referred to in chapter eight as the Prince of Princes, but nothing else is said about the setting up of his messianic kingdom. And that at first sight is startling, isn't it? And presses further upon us. Well, then what is the point of chapter eight? And the answer is simply this, that chapter eight is looking at the end time, but from a different point of view. And it's looking forward to one of the elements that shall be in the last time. And in order to illustrate it, the Holy Spirit of God has chosen here not to talk about the fourth kingdom and its final dictator. He's chosen to talk about the third kingdom and one of the dictators that arose in the course of that third kingdom. He was one of the Greeks. His name was An- Antiochus Epiphanes. He arose in the Seleucid Empire, as we call it. And what he did was so staggering in its effrontery against God. So hitherto absolutely unprecedented was what he did. The Holy Spirit decides to record it here and call our attention to it. It was a staggering thing he did. Nobody had ever done the like of it before. And that is, he banned the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem. He, if you please, set up an image of his idol in the very temple courts of Jehovah at Jerusalem. Why Nebuchadnezzar had never done anything like that. He had destroyed the temple, but he hadn't set up any false idol in the temple. Belshazzar had taken the vessels of gold from the temple and drunk thereof himself, and that was blasphemous enough, but he didn't attempt to go to Jerusalem and set up an idol in the temple at Jerusalem. And Darius, as we were thinking last night, he banned all worship of all gods and decreed that no one should pray to any god but himself for a whole month. But not even he went to Jerusalem and had the effrontery to set up an idol in the very house of the Lord at Jerusalem. It was such a staggering effrontery and such a colossal shock for the faithful in Israel to observe when it happened, that they coined a name for it, or rather the Holy Spirit did. It was Antiochus Epiphanes, if you please, that set up in the temple of Jerusalem the abomination that makes desolate. The Holy Spirit not only records that, records it because of its hitherto unprecedented evil, but records it so that we might use that as a kind of a lens through which we may view the future. That is what the Holy Spirit frequently does in these prophecies, does he not? In chapter seven, he bade us think of the fourth empire and the terrible dictator that shall arise out of it, he said. And using that, like you would use a slide in your projector when you are, uh, projecting upon the screen your holiday trip. Where was it now? Malaga, I think it must have been. Or was it, uh, uh, the Falkland Islands, or whatever it was anyway. And you're showing your, your, your, your, your, your wedding to Victoria's in. You've got a tiny little slide here, all full of color and so on, and you put it in the machine and you turn the old switch on, and the beam of electric light comes through your tiny little, uh, slide, and over there on the wall or on the screen, it puts an enormous big picture, you'll see. You are projecting that from this little slide. And the Holy Spirit frequently does it. He will take a period of history in the past and ask you to think of the principles and issues that were at stake then, and then showing the light of his inspiration through that historical slide, so to speak, he will project upon the future much bigger events that are going to happen, and show us that that future will be a reproduction of the past, he will help us to analyze what shall be in the future. And that's what the Holy Spirit is doing in these four visions, and particularly in the visions of chapter seven and chapter eight. You say, why do we have two visions? Well, you see, because the end time is going to be far more complicated than some people realize. And in order to give you a full detailed picture of the future, you'll yet need to allow the Holy Spirit to use through 4 slides, so to speak, uh four uh chunks of history, through which then he may shine the light of his inspiration and through them project the future onto your screen. And one more thing I must suggest to you. What the Holy Spirit here does, I may illustrate by slightly changing my analogy. Forget now about slides, little diapositivas, or whatever you call them here, you know, that you put in your projector, and they're very tiny, and you put the light through, and it comes a big picture. Let's take an overhead projector, and that has a big film, doesn't it? And you've got a picture on the film, you'll see. It could be of Aunt Sally in outline. And when your friend shines the light upon this, lo and behold, it puts up a picture on the wall, and it's only an outline, as you say. Oh, I know who that is. See from the shape of the nose, if nothing else. That's Aunt Sally. Well, dear, dear, that's Aunt Sally. Of course, it's only an outline so far. And then your friend, being very cunning, you'll see, uh, gets another fill. And instead of taking the first one away and then putting the second one in, he puts the second one on top of the first one. And lo and behold, what comes out now that's Aunt Sally again. Oh yes, that's Aunt Sally. You see that, that's got the color of her eyes, and you see, and her rosy red cheeks, and that dress, it's a favorite dress of hers, you very rarely see her in anything else anyway. So that's her dress, you see, it's Aunt Sally that is, you see. Aha. And then not to be outdone, your guess is now she is something else. That was a marvelous dress, wasn't it? Now, one minute, and they're going to put the third film on top of the old projector, and that sounds fairly again, but you'd never have believed it. Oh yes, I see where that was taken. That was taken at Emma Liner's wedding, wasn't it? Oh yes, I remember her being there in that dress. Uh, uh, and there's Uncle Epinesa there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yeah. And now you're filling in the detail, aren't you? You're getting a really combined picture of the event. So it is with these four visions. They are not separate things to be put one alongside the other in the future. They were four separate pieces of history, yes. But when the Holy Spirit shines the light of his inspiration through them and projects from them the future, he is but projecting one future, but the visions are to be piled up one on top of the other, the next on top of that one, and so forth, till what you get in the end is a complex build up of what the future shall be. And of course, it is common knowledge that in Holy Scripture, one of the elements of the future will be the old Roman Empire and what it stood for and the principles upon which it ran. Yes, there will be elements in the future that answer to that ancient situation. It is important to notice that in addition to that, there will be elements in the future, but if you want to understand them, you'll have to go back not to the Romans, for they didn't put any abomination that makes desolate in the temple of Jerusalem historically, did they? They destroyed it, but that's all. You'll have to go back to this Greek emperor, Antiochus Epiphanes, and see what he did to the temple at Jerusalem. What he did to the temple of Jerusalem, the final great dictator will do again in his day. That too will be an element of the time of the end. So tonight we have to think of two things. We shall be thinking of the historical Antiochus Epiphanes, and of the prophecy that was given through Daniel of what this Antiochus Epiphanes would do when he eventually came to the throne of the Seleucid Empire. And he came to that throne eventually, and he did these dastardly things to the temple in the years one hundred and sixty seven to one hundred and sixty four before Christ. So part of Daniel chapter eight is prophesying from the time of Daniel down the centuries to the time one hundred and sixty seven to hundred and sixty BC, when the historical Antiochus Epiphanes thus desecrated the temple in Jerusalem. And we shall have to think of that historical event and the issues it raised, for they were exceedingly profound and basic issues. Then, as we think of that, of course, the Holy Spirit will direct our minds forward to the time when what Antiochus did, another will do on a far greater scale in the future. One or two things more before we proceed, and that is this. Let's turn and do a little reading, and that will be the easiest thing for us to do, perhaps. A little reading now from Daniel chapter eight. In this vision, Daniel is given to see two animals. One was a ram, a very powerful ram, which had two horns. And in verse four he says, I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward, and no beast could stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand. I should like you to notice that phrase. Uh, political power so great that for the time being, his power was virtually absolute compared with the powers of the other nations around him. But then eventually there came another animal, this time it was a he goat. It was even more powerful from the, on the ram, verse seven, he hit the ram amid ships and cast him down to the ground and trampled on him. And here comes our phrase once more. And there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. This is going to be a study of what happens when, for the time being, a political power gets to itself, a power that is almost absolute. That has for many centuries been recognized as a very dangerous si- si- situation in the world, hasn't it? And because of it, over many long years, the continental governments tried to effect what they called a balance of power. They recognized the dangers that would arise if any one power managed to be so strong as to be virtual absolute that nobody could possibly challenge it. Ah, but there have been times in history when there have arisen such powers that for time being held almost absolute power. What happens then? Be warned, at the end of this age there will arise a colossal power, and it will be said of him who is light to the beast, none shall be able to deliver out of his hand. And what will happen then? Well, see what this Antiochus Epiphanes did. He did a lot of things, of course. Here in verse eleven: it magnified itself even to the prince of the host, and it took away from him the continual burnt offering, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And the host was given over to it together with the continual burnt offering through transgression. And it cast down Truth truth. to the God, and did its pleasure and profit. And I ask you to put those two things together. What happened when this historical figure, Antiochus Epiphanes, gained such tremendous power? One of the things he did was not only to usurp God's place in the temple, he cast down truth to the ground. And you might well say, what's, what's the one thing to do with the other? What's power got to do with truth? And that's a very good question to ask. But finally, in our preparations, I want you to turn to some New Testament passages that discuss this kind of thing. What has power got to do with truth? And what has truth got to do with power? Let's read in the Gospel of John's Gospel, we have the account of our Lord as he stood before Pilate for judgment. And at one time, so John tells us, as our Lord was questioned by Pilate, he answered nothing. Until Pilate eventually nearly lost his temper, and said he to Christ, now look here, young man, you better start answering my questions. Don't you know, said he to Jesus Christ, don't you know I have power, power to release you, and I have power to crucify you. What did our Lord say to Pilate? Let's look in chapter eighteen, Verse thirty six. Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence? Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate said unto him, and what is truth? And that's a very big question, isn't it? It will be a very big question in itself. What is truth? Is anything really true? Is there an absolute truth? It's a big enough question in itself, but when you ask it in this context, then the importance becomes even more significant, isn't it? I have power, said Pilate. And as far as you're concerned, young man, my power is absolute, you know. I could release you, or I could crucify you. Poor little Pilate. Like so many others, he was obsessed with power. And men have it in their hearts, do they not, that the ultimate solution to Earth's problems is a question of power. And unbeknownst to him, there stood before him the incarnate ruler of the universe, all power in his hand. Who has power, says he to Pilate, oh poor man. You will have no power at all against me except it were given you from afar. But you see, said Pilate, he said, I am a king, but I'm a king of this sort, and my kingdom rests on this, that I have come to bear witness to the truth. And Pilate, for the moment, couldn't think what that had to do with anything at all. What? You might ask him, what has truth got to do with politics, I wonder? You'll be along while answering that one. And what has truth got to do with imperial power? And does it matter? What is true? And you may care for a little while to get over that and think about that. So let's sing a hymn to refresh ourselves before our... So then it was Antiochus the the fourth of Pythones, to whom belongs the outrageous distinction that in the years one hundred and sixty seven to hundred and sixty four BC, he desecrated the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem and set up therein the abomination that makes desolate. The record of this, as far as the historical records go, are to be found mostly in the first and the second books of Maccabees. They are nowadays, as you know, incorporated in the Apocrypha, and the Apocrypha itself is a bunch of all kinds of things of diverse qualities. The First and Second Book of Maccabees are the prime historical sources for this particular part of ancient history. They have, of course, to be treated with a great deal of circumspection. They are not inspired records nor interpretations of history, and they do not claim to be. But they are exceedingly important historical sources, and if you wish to know firsthand the historical sources that give an account of this period of history, this so tremendous period of history, then, of course, you will be obliged to read the first and second books of Maccabees. The learned historians, however, disagree among themselves, do they not, as to how to interpret the motives that Antiochus Epiphanes had for doing what he did. I have not time to discuss with you here this evening, nor would it scarcely be relevant, all the different views put forth in recent years by the extra expert ancient historians. I feel sure in my own mind, naturally enough perhaps, that those modern historians are correct, which interpret Antiochus Epiphanes' motives along the same lines as the prophecy of Daniel does in chapter eleven. It tells us what follows, that Antiochus, of course, was the emperor at one stage in what is called the Seleucid Empire. That empire goes back, of course, to Alexander the Great, who established his tremendous Greek empire over the world. And when he died at a young age, his empire was divided into four parts and distributed to four of his generals. Of those generals, two became exceedingly important. There was Ptolemy in the south, who inherited Egypt and set up there the Ptolemaic dynasty. And there was a certain Seleucus in the north, who inherited Asia, great parts of Asia, and he had his headquarters in Antioch, and after him his dynasty was named the Seleucid Dynasty, the Seleucid Empire. Now, as often happens, the Seleucid Empire and the Ptolemaic Empire were forever at each other's throats when they weren't dining together and intermarrying. They varied the recipe from time to time. It made life more interesting, I suppose. Now they were friends, now they weren't. Now they intermarried, now they slaughtered each other. True to life, I suppose. Anyway, uh, Antiochus Epiphanes inherited this desire ever to increase his part of the empire. And so on occasion he made a tremendous campaign down to Egypt, passing through, of course, Palestine, as he would have to do, and made an hitherto very successful attack upon Egypt, and could perhaps have taken it over and absorbed into his own empire, the tremendous empire of the Ptolemies. But just then he received a violent shock. There came ships of Kittim, say the, says the eleventh chapter of Daniel. In other words, the Romans came. And one Roman general and official arrived on the spot, and in the name of Rome, which was then not altogether an unheard of upstart, but an empire that was beginning to make itself felt in the world. And in the name of the up-and-coming Roman empire, he told Antiochus Epiphanes to get himself off home. Pressed for them, Antiochus was obliged to obey the Roman general. And he went home in a rage, like Naman before him. And not only in a rage, but now very much concerned for his own empire. For if the Romans were now beginning to loom large over the horizon, who knows, but what if the Romans might come and use their own power to destroy him and take him over. And he went home meditating in his heart that he must at all costs solidify his empire and keep his hand on power, lest the Romans come and take it away from him. And therefore he conceived a scheme in his head that a lot of people have conceived in their heads all down the centuries, particularly totalitarian powers. He decided that all his citizens and every part of his empire must be bound in their allegiance and loyalty to him somehow by the strongest possible bonds. Bonds. That was, of course, the bond of religion. Antiochus was aware that perhaps the strongest bond of loyalty that the human heart can possibly know is the bond of loyalty to the god they worship. And he wasn't the first politician to get it into his head that if you could tap that kind of loyalty, and instead of that loyalty be directed, being directed to a God, you could direct that loyalty to the state, you would have the people in the very hand by the strongest sense of devotion that the human heart is capable of. Old Nebuchadnezzar had had the idea, hadn't he, in his day? We've yet to consider chapter three, but you know its contents already, don't you? When Nebuchadnezzar had had the vision of chapter two that told him that his empire wasn't going to last, he seems to have taken advantage of the vision, at least to some extent, and decided to do his best to keep the empire low. And he called in all the sheriffs, not the ordinary people who cared about them. He called in all the sheriffs and the governors, the very people that, given a chance, would revolt, stupid people, and set themselves up to be contesters with Nebuchadnezzar that would never do. So what did he do to keep his empire together? He made a great statue of gold, and he assembled the orchestra, he assembled the sheriffs and the governors and everybody else in the satraps, and he said, what time do you hear the orchestra play? You should bow down to my God. And if you don't, none will. Oh, here comes our phrase. Who is the God that will deliver you out of my hand? His golden image was not merely an image of his God, it was an image of his state. It was an image of himself as the emperor. Determined to tap that loyalty in the human heart that is religious, that loyalty that should be given to God, and divert it to a loyalty to the state. Did they really believe it was the temple of the living God? Was that the inspired word of God, God Almighty self-revelation to the people Israel, that must not be surrendered or disobeyed or compromised, no, not an in. Or was that just the Jewish tradition that could be modified as the years went by. What about the claim of Jehovah God to be read in that, uh, Old Testament scripture that has been preached so wonderfully and powerfully by people, like in Isaiah, for instance, where God says, I am God, and there is none beside me. Was that true? Was that too only a religious myth? Do you know when that question arose? There were, of course, people in Israel who said they don't care clums for what Antiochus Epiphanes said. The Bible we hold in our hands is the inspired self-revelation of God Almighty. We will not yield it. We will not compromise it. This is God's word. Regulations regarding his worship in this temple, these are not just traditional rules and regulations that can be altered with the passing centuries. These are the inexorable words of God. We will not allow our temple to be desecrated by idolatry. They said to themselves, as Antiochus insisted on his claim, they quoted to themselves the words of the Ten Commandments: Thou shall have no other gods but me. For them it is a question of ultimate loyalty, not only to the rules in the book, not even to an inspired book only. It is a question of the ultimate loyalty of the human heart to Almighty God. Ah, but there were others in the Israel of a different temper. And interestingly enough, it was who those other people were. They weren't some beggar brought up on the, on the dunghill. They were the high priests themselves, in charge of the temple. Though you never knew which one was going to be in charge for long, because they had the habit of all going off to Antiochus Epiphanes and, uh, making deals with him that if he would make them high priests, they would be more taxes, you'll see. So what with the bargaining and so forth, there are high priests after high priests. And they said, look here, this isn't two thousand BC, nor yet one thousand BC either. We think we have to move with the times, you know. You can't take the Bible literally like that. I mean, when we were in the desert with Moses, well, and we didn't know anybody else lived on the earth, well, well, well, we could think that our God was the only God there is, but now we have grown up, aren't we? And we've become aware of the big, big world and the other religions that there are about the place, you know. And it would be arrogant of us, wouldn't it, to say our religion was the only religion. Indeed, they said we've been doing some research, uh, just recently, you'll see, and we discover that when the Greeks say Zeus, they really mean Jehovah, you'll see. And when the Syrians up the road talk about Baal, they really mean Jehovah. You know, it doesn't matter what you call God, don't it? I mean, you call him Zeus, you call him Jehovah, you call him Baal, call him what you like, all amounts to the same thing. And they said, you know, if we stick to this isolationist tendency you have of saying your God's the only God and not play ball with all the others, you'll leave yourself high and dry economically. Of course, I can tell you something else about these high priests. They were very wealthy men, of course. They, they got a lot of money from the sacrifices in the temple. And then they thought that if they could only please, uh, Antipas, they might persuade him to raise Jerusalem to the status of a Hellenistic city. And that would do marvelous things. That would raise their standards of citizenship overnight, wouldn't it? And make them full citizens of the empire. And what is more, they would have a lovely, uh, uh, uh, uh, gymnasium there, just like the Greeks had, and a theatre as well. Wouldn't that be lovely? You know, when you've been reading Moses all day long, tonight's had a bit of theatre, isn't it? And then, of course, uh, then, uh, uh, then they would get international trade, you'll see. If they were a fully Greek city. And it will produce on the map. All these narrow-minded little conservatives and fundamentalists, they said, they can't see their opportunity. Yes, why not let Antiochus come, and if he likes to make a new fashion, then they can have an altar to Jehovah and an altar to Torah. I mean, it all means the same thing, doesn't it? And as the argument raged, the high priest joined with Antiochus Epiphanes, and since they had the authority in the temple, they encouraged his majesty, and he set up the abomination of desolation. And he soon showed them what he thought of their nation. It didn't matter which religion. For he then banned the religion of Jehovah. He made the possession of the Bible illegal. Any mother that had her child circumcised and it was discarded, he had the mother and the child thrown from the battlements of the city to smash out their brains on the rocks below. And none of this straight morality business, old fashioned stuff of Moses. He brought the temple prostitutes into the temple. I mean, God always wanted you to have a good time, didn't he? And, uh, they made the temple like a Greek temple and set out altars to all kinds of deities down the streets of Jerusalem. And then was a time of distress for the faithful in Israel, such as they had never known before. How did you think of the shock of it? Here were the apostate high priests encouraging Antiochus Epiphanes, and here were the faithful believers standing by God and his word and daring to assert that the law of Moses was inspired, the directions for the temple were inspired, and that Jehovah the transcendent Lord Creator, presents himself in that temple. They watched and gasped as they saw Antioch- Antiochus' lieutenants come with their great altar and dare to put it on the altar, come with their great idol and put it on the altar in the temple. Felt that now, if ever, God must intervene. Surely he would strike them dead, there will come a thunderbolt or something. God would not allow himself thus to be insulted, but would demonstrate his reality by some supreme exhibition of power. And they waited. And they waited. And they waited. And nothing happened. No voice came. No loud protest from the inner shrine. No bolt of lightning to consume the blasphemer. No open wound to send them alive down to the pit like Cora and Data and the Byron, whom at an earlier age had been dismissed. Just silent. Can you imagine the shock? And can you imagine how the liberals smiled and the Gentiles smiled? The way to God now. Of course, we all look at me all the time at the same mythology, you know, and uh, and I've been proved, hasn't it? So says the history. We should be wise to listen to that history, or history is going to repeat itself. We'll say the book of the Revelation tells us that at the time of the end, God will have his two witnesses, never mind who they are. They shall be the two olive trees that stand before the Lord of the whole earth. Rise up, says the command to John as he sees his vision. Rise up, measure the temple of God, that the court that is outside leave out, for the holy city shall be down trodden of the Gentiles. And I will give my two witnesses that are like the olive trees that stand before the temple, before the Lord of the whole earth. I will give them supernatural power, and so God will. Whatever it means, this is clear enough. They shall be possessed of such supernatural power that if the beast and his minions or anybody else tries to overpower them and stop the worship of God and block his house, they have power to call down fire from heaven, to make the temple for a while impregnable. There will be evidence in front of their eyes that here is supernatural power, the hand of God in heaven. For a while, the beast will be kept at bay. And then, says Holy Scripture, then the beast that comes up out of the abyss shall overcome them and kill. And they bear rubbish alive in the streets. For three whole days. So the people of the world will go madly relieved. There you are, they say. There you are. Finally proved. There is no God. And all that must be thought was supernatural power pain. Well, they maybe got to thank. But thank our scientists, it's now been demonstrated that it does not come from God. We can explain it. We can reproduce the effect in our laboratories. There is no God, it's all been empty talk. Now we can breathe, now we can live. And I should be so delighted that they have proved that that unsatisfaction there is no God. They silence the very voice of God and all claims to supernatural power. So excited will they be to send presents to one another throughout the Visso Empire. At last we can live free. We thought of the past, we thought of the future. But we wouldn't be wise, this has nothing to do with us, would we? Because why are those battles are not our battles? The war is the same war, isn't it? Are we not engaged in the same war? And the war is this. What is truth? Is there such a thing as truth? If you had been living in Czechoslovakia, in Russia, in Bulgaria, in Romania, what would your thought of scripture? God's truth. It mustn't be compromised or simply religious opinions of men. That can be adapted and compromised to meet any situation, so long as you survive. You know, one of the saddest things in many a university in Eastern Europe and Asia at the moment is this. You have learned academics who are supposed to be devoted to academic truth, who for years have been pretending to be atheists and teaching it to their students, and now are having to tell their students, but we didn't really believe it. They wanted to teach it. Who would say that if they had dared not to teach it, if they had rejected, they would have lost their place in the university? They could have been sent to the concentration camps, they could have been eliminated. Oh, I see. So what is truth? Isn't it something that you can obey today and hold today, and then if your life is in danger, give up tomorrow? Is truth an opinion. Is there an ultimate truth that there's not only a God, but God has revealed himself to us through his word and supreme in Jesus Christ? That is truth. It wouldn't necessarily take the Great Tribulation to come along and test us, would it? For we live in a world very much like the world of Antiochus Epiphanes. Where it's not merely the atheist, but it will be the liberal theologian that will tell you that, well, Moses is not inspired, and indeed the New Testament isn't necessarily, and and so the theologians, some of them, even Jesus Christ made mistakes, so you can't. You can't just take him to stand. Now that raised the question, what is truth, doesn't it? What's the truth about you, Matt? What is the truth about you? Oh, I don't mean what is your body composed of, because a man could analyze that. So many chemicals worth about five pounds, I should think, or might even have gone up in price with the inflation. That should work, I don't know, fifty pounds these days if I analyzed you carefully. They were more than that, answerable. He told me, what do you think about you? Have you got a mind as well as a brain? You say, what difference does that make? Well, I'm asking whether you're just a machine, you see, and that your thoughts are not what you think they are, so to speak. They're just the grinding out of the atoms inside your head, you see, and your thoughts are really not what you control. It's the atoms in your brain that control what you think, not you control what they should say. Which is it? Or do you have a mind that is superior to your brain? Are you a person or are you a machine? You could do with thinking that one out too, couldn't you? You doubtless have. Because you see, the very loud, very able who make, uh, artificial intelligence in their computer labs, and many of them saying that presently their computers will be so sofis- sophisticated that if you put a human being on a computer behind a curtain and you ask questions to them and answers came, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference whether it was the human being answering or answering or the computer answering. I mean, so what is a human being but a computer? Some say yes. Why did you come to what is the truth about here if I start to ask about origin? The Bible, you know what that says. It says that you are a creation of a personal creator. And he not only made you, but has loved you and revealed himself to you in his word. And not only so, but when you went astray in rebellion, he sent his own son to redeem you and to bring you back. And because he is your God and redeemer, your creator and savior, he demands of you in return absolute personal devotion, obedience, and loyalty. That's you. You see, your creator is not just a machine, he's not an abstract principle or physical cosmological law. He's revealed himself as a person, and he calls on you for not only your belief that he exists, but your undeviating loyalty to him and love as a person. Ah, but that isn't the temple of a lot of our modern world, is it? They say there is no God, there is no creator. Or is he? But if there's no creator, what is the truth about you? It's to say that that didn't very flattering, really. Uh, you? Well, ultimately you started off like so much ooze in a pond, and then, uh, by all kinds of accidents, without any planning, without any purpose, mindless forces interacted and began to produce the early stages of you. They were very humble things, they were. But then what happened was this, you know, the genes in these humble affairs now and again coughed up an oddity, you'll say, and, uh, that oddity manifested itself, and nature got to work, and she's pretty blind as well, you know, she hasn't got a lot of sense in her head and certainly no purpose. But out of all these things, she chose the one whose oddity was the strongest and the strongest force of her survival, you'll see. And it was the... well, it was the strongest, the fittest that survived. That's what it was. And you're here today because of millions and millions of times, old blind nature's automatic rules declared that the fittest and the strongest and the best should survive, and the weaklings should go to the wall. Is that you? Make sure you want to believe it if you do, because I need to tell you something else. If you are about the result of the survival of the fittest and the strongest, when a big dictator arrives and he's ten thousand times stronger than you, and he decides that you shouldn't survive, but that he should because he's the stronger, you don't have any objection, do you? How come? What intellectual objection can you have? And imagine the law of nature all the way along, businesses survive, don't they? What happens when the government gets in its hands such power as is almost absolute and takes you off to the gulag and says that you are a weakling in society, and because you don't agree with their political views, you better be transformed in some mental asylum or be eliminated. You can't intellectually object, can you? You will say, but that's all human beings have anyway. That's all human beings. The Britons divide. What intellectual quarrel can you have? I say, better think it through. The day is coming at the end of the time. God warns us by showing us what happened when Antiochus Epiphanes assaulted the temple. He warns us in the New Testament what will happen when the beast eventually destroys the two witnesses. There will come a time when God will allow atheism to appear, to triumph, and no voice will come. No thunder. It will look as if the idea of God has been proved wrong permanently. What a fire of faith that will be. Then why would God do it then? Why would God do it? Yes, I can't believe that. Surely God, God is love. I mean, I mean, you say, no, why doesn't God... Why doesn't he do some miracle? Instead of keeping quiet, I mean, why doesn't he do some vast miracle and, and demonstrate to the world that he exists and make them believe? Oh, is that what you like God to do? Well, he could do that pretty soon, my dear sir. You think you ought to make people believe? I could tell you how he could do it. He could put on such a miracle in your backyard, a power that would have you groveling under your wits. Reduced to gibbering in the time in fear. He could do that very easily. Would that convert you. Do you know why God won't do it? Because God is who God is. God is love. You see, God isn't just a fact. And when it comes to mere facts, we believe him, don't we, or you're lunatic not to. You got to believe facts. You don't have any choice, really, if you're intelligent. Do you? God isn't like that. God is not just a fact. He's a person. And believe in God means having a personal relationship with God, a relationship of free, willing, deliberate trust, love, and And divorce. devotion. And that's why God doesn't terrify you into believing. I don't think God could do it anyway, could he? The truth about you, my dear friend, is this, that you are the product, the creature of a personal creator. He loves you. But he will never ultimately force you to love him, for forced love isn't love. That is why we read about Blessed Lord Jesus. Would you know what the truth is about you? How would God convince you of the truth? What is the truth? Our blessed Lord stood before Pilate, and like all great dictators, though Pilate wasn't a very big one, he was merely a servant of the great Tiberius in Rome, but he fancied himself, as men do, men have a fascination for power, don't they? Ah, what a sad scene, what an ironic scene. The creator of the universe stood before one of his creatures, and his creature, so infatuated with power and so blind, couldn't see it. And he said to the creator of the universe, don't you know, said he, I have power to set you free. Or to crucify you. Oh, poor man, who thought power was everything. And the blessed Lord Jesus could have dismissed him to an eternal position, to perdition by a mere word. Why didn't he? Because that wouldn't have been the truth about God, you know. I have come to bear witness of the truth. What is the truth? You'll see the truth, then a few hours later you'll see God incarnate, spiked to a tree, dying in agony, crying, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's the truth about you, sir. That's the truth about you, madam. That's the truth about this universe. You are the creature of a personal creator, and when you rebelled against him, he could, by his power, have dismissed you. He could, by his force, compel you to obey. He wouldn't do anything, but he so loved you. The truth about him is that he thought it worthwhile coming and dying on a cross to gain your heart, to gain your love, to gain your trust, and to gain your loyalty. Oh, what a truth. What a magnificent truth. How do you know what the truth is in this world so full of gossip. You'll remember the story of Solomon and the two harlots, I'm sure. The two harlots lived in the same room, and they both had a child each, and in the middle of the night, one woman laid, overlaid her baby and smothered it and killed it. And waking up and observing it, she, she decided what to do. She took the dead child, she crept quietly across the room to where the other woman was sleeping. She removed the, uh, other woman's living child, and she put her dead child in its place, went back to bed and pretended to be snoring. And in the morning, when the woman, the other woman woke up, she looked at her child was dead, and then she looked again and she said, but this is my child at all. This is that other woman's child. And then there was a ruckus of much tearing of hair, I dare say. At the one woman said, no, that's my child, and the other said, no, that's my child. And eventually they were brought before the king, so the story goes. And the king listened to all this rigmarole, and one woman saying, this is my child and I'm the mother, and the other woman saying, this isn't I'm the mother. So the king decided to settle it, and he called to one of his officers and he says, now, my good woman, I'm not going to be partial, I'm going to be utterly impartial and fair. And I decided, uh, to be fair, so... And he called one of his, uh, officers and says, now cut the child in two. Give one half to one woman and one to the other. And one woman said, yes, you do that. And the other one said, no, you don't, and give it to the other woman. And Solomon said, yes, that's the mother, isn't it? She loved the child, but only saying, rather than that her child should perish. Oh, how do I know the true God amongst all the others? How do you know? Because of carefully. He is the God who would do anything rather than you perish. And he's won your heart, isn't he? Won it not with gold or gem, but with his own flesh blood for his diadem. But there's a tale that hangs by it, if that is the truth, and God calls upon us to show us our response. Israel had in front of their temple an altar, and on that altar daily, morning and night, there rose the lion of Israel's dedication, a burnt offering, typifying Israel's devotion to God. And when Antiochus came, he put an end to it. We know the God of truth, he will expect that of us, won't he? That we present our bodies to him a living sacrifice, and the world will do everything it can to stop that devotion. The Blessed Lord appears to you, my young brother and my sister, for intellectual loyalty to the Lord Jesus in your school, in your university, in your physics laboratory, in your chemistry, and in your biology. He asks for intellectual loyalty to him and to the truth. We have to know what the world thinks, don't we? And we have to know what it teaches. But the Lord watches and expects intellectual loyalty from us all. He ex- expects, doesn't he, heart loyalty in the world. These things says the faithful and true witness. I know your works, they're neither hot nor cold, your will increased with good. If your heart's gone from me, you'll only live war. Your heart isn't loyal. And he expects intellectual loyalty in the church, doesn't he? I charge you in the sight of God, says Paul to Timothy, thou keep this commandment without spot. I charge you in the sight of Jesus Christ, who before Pilate witnessed the true confession that you keep the treasure entrusted to you and the commandment given to you, uncompromised to the end. What is truth? God grants us that as we have found the truth that it is in Jesus, we might show our response by undeviating loyalty to him. Shall we pray? O Lord, we thank thee for these prophecies of old. On the surface, they often look so obscure and irrelevant to our modern age, but as we probe them and thy spirit enlightens them, we discover that they are so true to life, almost uncomfortably so. We do bless thee tonight for that tremendous demonstration of the truth that was Calvary. Strengthen our hearts, Lord, for it seems almost too big for us to take in that thou, the creator of the whole universe, would care what we think of thee and suffer the costs to win our hearts loyalty, faith, and devotion. Truth is, help us then, O Lord, we beseech thee, in our day and generation, as men and women in the past and men and women in the future shall be called upon to do, to live in utter, uncompromised loyalty, intellectual and moral and spiritual and to the heart, to thee and to the blessed Lord Jesus, until we hear him call us home and sit down with him with endless rejoicing for his name's sake. Amen. Ayo. Iya, Yeah.