The prophecy of Daniel chapter 10, this is found on page 638, if you're using the Pew Bible in front of you. We're gonna read Daniel chapter 10, verse 18, and at this beginning portion, read as far as verse four of chapter 11. Daniel 10, beginning at verse 18. Again, if you recall, Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are one big portion. It's an extended portion. And Daniel has been praying and an angel comes to him and meets with him. And we're in the midst of that discussion, but it sets up chapter 11 for us. And so Daniel chapter 10, beginning at verse 18, hear now the word of God. Then this one with human appearance touched me again and strengthened me. He said, O man of high esteem, do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Take courage and be courage. Now as soon as he spoke to me, I received strength and said, may my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me. Then he said, do you understand why I came to you? But I shall now return to fight against the prince of Persia, so I'm going forth, and behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. However, I will tell you what is inscribed in the writing of truth. Yet there is no one who stands firmly with me against these forces, except Michael, your prince. In the first year of Darius the Mede, I arose to be an encouragement and protection for him. And now I tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia. Then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them. As soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece. And a mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases. But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four points of the compass, though not to His own descendants, nor according to His authority which He wielded. For His sovereignty will be uprooted and given to others besides them." This ends the reading of God's holy and infallible Word. May He bless it to our hearing this day. Well, as I said, Chapters 10, 11, and 12 are an extended passage. In chapter 10, Daniel is visited by an angel who ministers to a mourning Daniel before giving him God's message. In verse 14, he says that, I've come to give you understanding of what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision pertains to the days yet future. And then in chapter 11, there's a long passage that parallels in many ways the vision that's given in Daniel 8. Here, Persia and Greece war against one another, and Jerusalem is again and again brought in the middle of their conflict. And we're going to look through these kings, and beyond them we will see that there is a spirit of Antichrist. that is influencing them, and ultimately one particular. The reality is that the kingdoms of this earth can be hostile to the kingdom of God, and yet in the end, this final Antichrist will be defeated. The age will be complete. Everything will be brought to a consummation. In Daniel chapter 12, Daniel will ask a series of questions to clarify the vision, to clarify his understanding of the vision. He will ask about the duration of the oppression, how long will this be? He will be told that the prophecy is to be sealed up, that no more is to be expressed or explained or revealed at this time. And Daniel is told to rest. with a resurrection, I'm sorry, with a hopeful rest until the end comes and a resurrection is experienced. Well, chapter 10, if you were here for it so many weeks ago, was a lofty and weighty angelic visitation to just introduce us to chapter 11's lofty and weighty prophecy. This is a long and detailed passage before us today. And really, to be careful with it, we want to break it into two parts over two weeks, Lord willing. Today we want to consider the contemporary lessons that are given to us in this prophetic history of earthly kingdoms. What can we take from this and apply to our lives? And secondly, we want to consider the perpetual Spirit of Antichrist, which is against Christ and His Church, which was told all the way back in Genesis 3.15 that God would put enmity between the devil and the Church, and his seed and her seed. Well, in both of these points, the prophetic history of earthly kingdoms and the perpetual Spirit of Antichrist, we want to consider the God who addresses and defeats both of these. There is a word here for you today. And the word is this. Our God is the God of revelation. He is the God of prophecy. He is the God of history. He knows the end from the beginning. And you can trust Him. You can trust Him with everything. And yet, if I be honest, if I stand up here and I be honest with you, I'm more fearful of boring you today than I am of giving you the correct interpretation of this prophecy. And that's not right. That's not right. And part of that is my struggle. But what of your struggle? How did you prepare to come to hear the Word of God today? Did you prepare to come to hear God's Word today? In whatever form He wisely chooses to bring it to you. See, to be clear, we did not come today to hear a history lesson, though that's part of what God has for you today. You came to partake of every word that proceeds from the mouth of God that you may live. You came to listen to the voice of God, so you may draw near to Him and walk in His ways. You came today to have your soul restored, and to become wise, and to rejoice the heart, and to enlighten the eyes by the Word of God. To be both warned and rewarded. To be exposed to the hidden sins of the heart. To be convicted of the willful sins of the flesh. to hear of God's forgiveness and grace. You came today to taste and see that the Lord is good and his loving kindness endures forever. This is what God has for you today as you receive his word with faith and gladness. We wanna consider three points then to help us work through this and to keep us on task in this long and detailed passage. We wanna consider God is history's center, God is history's revealer, and God is history's victor. God is history's center, history's revealer, and history's victor. So with that, let us consider first, God is history's center, or another way of saying it is God is history's focal point. Again, consider verse one. In the first year of Darius the Mede, I rose to be an encouragement and a protection for him. And now I will tell you the truth. Behold, three more kings are going to arise in Persia, and then a fourth will gain far more riches than all of them. And as soon as he becomes strong through his riches, he will arouse the whole empire against the realm of Greece, and a mighty king will arise, and he will rule with great authority and do as he pleases. But as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four points of the compass." The context here is that in this day, or pretty soon before it, a Medo-Persian edict was granted, which allowed or issued, which was allowed the Jews to return home and rebuild the city and the sanctuary. But there are both challenges within the community of God's people and also without the community of God's people that oppose this restoration of Jerusalem In chapter 10, this angel reveals an unseen spiritual battle in which the spiritual king of Persia has stopped the building project through the earthly Persian king. Again, some ways giving us a window into seeing that there are spiritual forces at work influencing the magistrates of the world. but also that spiritual king of Persia was seeking to resist and stop and hold this messenger from coming through and giving the message to Daniel. Well, the angel continues in the same vein. He reveals how this spiritual battle will result in the earth for the next 400 years. And that would happen or take place between the Persian Empire and the Greek Empire. But then secondly, there would be a North Grecian Empire called the Seleucids and a Southern Grecian Empire called the Ptolemies. I have put this little insert in the bulletin. And on one side is a colorful map, which my son was very excited about. And you can see the green represents the northern kingdom, the Seleucids. And the orange down there represents the southern Ptolemaic empire. So that's what we're talking about. And you remember that the angel already knew that this was gonna take place. He says, I shall return to fight against the prince of Persia, chapter 10, verse 20. And behold, the prince of Greece is about to come. He's not talking about fighting a physical king, he's talking about fighting spiritual influences of the Greek empire. Now, if you would go back to chapter eight, We saw a picture of a war between a ram and a goat, and the interpretation was there. Just let me summarize it for you. In Daniel 8, verses three to eight, we see that there was a ram, they had two horns, children, and one horn was longer than the other, and that ram, he was hitting everything westward and northward and southward, and none could resist him. And then a male goat came from the west, And he was so quick and speedy, he didn't touch the ground. That's how fast he moved. And he had a great horn between his eyes. We called him the unicorn goat. Well, that goat struck the ram and shattered his two horns and he trampled on him. And then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken. And in its place, there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven. Now, if we were to go back there and read that again, in verse 27, Daniel says this, I was exhausted and sick for days. Just seeing this vision laid him in bed for days. I got up again and carried on the king's business, but I was astonished at the vision and there was none to explain it. Well, here is a much longer explanation. We're not considering pictures of animals or wild beasts anymore. We're just simply hearing about three kings that are going to rise in Persia. A fourth king, Xerxes, comes richer than all and he arouses Persia against the realm of Greece. We hear of a mighty king arising, who is Alexander the Great. ruling with great authority, doing as he pleases. But then, at his height, his kingdom is divided and distributed toward four generals. And those four generals were quickly reduced, too, because we just simply hear of kings of the north and the south. Now, here's the point. While history is delivered in prophetic terms, we see that God is the one at the center of it all. One commentator says this, here lies the difference between biblical prophecy and secular biography. One of Alexander's biographers, Quintus Curtius, wrote that Alexander seemed to the nations to do whatever pleased him. Scripture agrees on the surface but sees the hand of God lying behind the day when his kingdom will be broken up and parceled out toward the four points of the compass, though not to his own descendants. Scripture's judgment of Alexander is that he's a broken horn." End quote. You see, God, by his word, gives to us a heavenly paradigm on which we can interpret the big picture of history, including the events of our lifetime. We need this long-range perspective so that we can eat and sleep every day. so that we can work and play. And in the midst of the daily headlines in the world, as well as the crises that the church experiences, we can continue to trust God. We don't view men or women according to worldly measures. Children, I want you to understand this. view men or women according to how famous they are, or how rich they are, or how powerful they are, or their expertise, or the credentials, or the little letters behind their name. We view men and women according to the revelation of God. Psalm 11a, we sang it. What can the righteous do if the foundations fall? No, no. The Lord The Lord is in His throne. He's in His holy temple. He sits and judges and rules over all. We're not going to fear men. Now, with that being said, how do you think our nation's own history would be told from God's perspective? Do you think that your account would line up with God's account? Is God at the center? of your history? I mean, is He at the center of how you account for and explain history? Well, we see not only that God is history's center, but we also see that God is history's revealer. He is history's unveiler. He is the One who has ordained all things, and so He's able to describe and explain all things. You must understand that this detailed history in verses 2 to 35 is accurate to such a degree that some have argued that this prophecy was not really written in the 6th century BC as it expresses and purports to, as it acts as if it is. It really was written in the 2nd century BC. As one pastor says, supposedly this is mere history dressed up to look like prophecy. And the question is why? Why do you think that this is history instead of prophecy? And the answer that comes back from those who study this and seek to comment is merely this, because prophecy is impossible. What? I'm sorry, I don't think you understand how prophecy works. Yes, it's supernatural. Yes, we have no way of doing it. Only God can. But is anything impossible with God? Daniel chapter two, verse 30. Daniel is so amazed that God would give the interpretation of the dream that he gave to Nebuchadnezzar. He says this, this mystery has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than any other living man. but for the purpose of making the interpretation of God's revelation known to the king." We're not saying that prophecy comes from us or that we're wise in any way. We're saying that prophecy is possible because it comes from God. And this angelic message And chapters 10 to 12 serves as a testimony that God not only influences the flow and the development of His covenant people, but He ordains the rise and the fall of empires, the plans and the purposes of nations on the stage of world history. And He moves all things to accomplish His chief and greatest end in the world, the praise of His glory. You can go through this detailed passage amazingly alongside Wikipedia. That's how accurate it is. You can go and look up in any encyclopedia the six ancient Syrian wars. I put them on the other side of this sheet for you, along with the names of each of these kings. Now I put them on here to do this. I want to walk through this and just in bullet point fashion, just in brief touch point pattern, I want to demonstrate for you that this prophecy has historical reference points. There are actual people that are being spoken of here. And so when I say things like, you know, Seleucus 1 or Seleucus 4, Antiochus 3, you can see, at least follow with this thing right here, what I'm talking about, okay? Let's walk through this together. And I need to give credit where credit is due. One of the helpful resources that I have used is actually a commentary by Sinclair Ferguson where he does walk through some of this history. Most commentaries, I shouldn't say most, many of them don't take the kind of careful time that he does. So I really appreciate his work on this. Verse 5, let's read this together. And this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to read through some of it, and then I'm going to comment on some of it. Then I'm going to read through some. It'll be a little easier to follow. Verse five, the King of the South will grow strong along with one of his princes who will gain ascendancy over and obtain dominion. His dominion will be a great dominion indeed. After some years, they will form an alliance and the daughter of the King of the South will come to the King of the North to carry out a peaceful arrangement. But she will not retain her position of power, nor will he remain with his power, but she will be given up along with those who brought her in and the one who sired her as well as he who supported her in those times. But one of the descendants of her line will arise in his place and will come against their army and enter the fortress of the King of the North. And he will deal with them and display great strength. Also their gods with their metal images and their precious vessels of silver and gold, he will take into captivity to Egypt. And he on his part will refrain from attacking the King of the North for some years. And then the latter will enter the realm of the king of the south, but will return to his own land. Now, you should notice at the beginning of all of this, that we have moved from a spiritual perspective of these kingdoms to an on the ground perspective. We have moved from the heavenly perspective of these things to actually talking about this king doing this, and that king doing that, and this person doing this, and that person. And once in a while, God will insert, and this is what it means, or this is what's going on in the person's heart. But we're on the ground right now. And secondly, you should notice this, that the people of God are at the center of this on the ground account. All of a sudden we're talking about kings of the north and kings of the south. Well, north of what? And south of what? You see, and if you look again at your map here, right where the green and the orange touch on the eastern side there, sorry, western side there, right along the Mediterranean Sea, that's Israel. And that is a very precious land. And it's often called in chapters 10 and 11 and 12, the beautiful land or the glorious land. And what you'll find is that the Ptolemies of the South and the Seleucids of the North will constantly have battles and they'll try and gain power over that place because it's a stronghold. It's right at the center between the two. Okay? So while Alexander's kingdom is divided into four subsections, four horns, by a decade, within a decade, two kingdoms emerge. The northern kingdom, the Seleucids, and that covers Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, all the way over to India. And then the southern kingdom, the Ptolemies, Egypt, Cyprus, maybe the southern coast of Asia Minor, depending on what year we're talking about. And in one hand, when you're doing the history, it's a little bit confusing because all these kings have similar names. So there's Seleucus 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and there's Antiochus 1 all the way to 13. So when you're reading it, you're trying to figure out which Antiochus, which Seleucus, which Ptolemy, 1 to 15. But for us, it's really helpful because then we can just say, you know, Seleucus 1, Seleucus 4, okay? So that's one benefit for us. Now, the point is names are attached to these characters. Marriage alliances, divorces, battles. We understand what these things are. What we're seeing in verses 5 to 9 is this, that Ptolemy I becomes great in the South. And wars would break out between they and the Seleucids and all these other surrounding nations. And eventually, Ptolemy would help Seleucus. And look, what we see here is that there are Syrian wars going on. You can see that. on your little note card there. A marriage alliance between Ptolemy II's daughter, her name is Bernice, and Antiochus II, who's already married to another woman, Laodice, that marriage alliance ends the Second Syrian War. And when Ptolemy II dies, when the father dies, then the king of the north divorces Bernice, and he goes back to his first wife, Laodice. She poisons him, and then she persuades her son Seleucus II to kill Bernice and her son so that her son, Seleucus II, can have the throne. Doesn't this sound like a soap opera? That's what's going on here, OK? Bernice's brother, Ptolemy III, wants vengeance and he arises in his place. He kills Laodicea. He pillages the gods. You notice that? Where it says that their gods, also in verse 8, and their metal images were taken back down into Egypt. And that's called the Third Syrian War. And then Seleucus II recovers after some years and he brings the fight to the very fortress of Ptolemy III in Egypt. That's the fourth Syrian war. So lots of ground covered in these five verses. Let's continue. In verse 10, his sons will mobilize and assemble a multitude of great forces and one of them will keep on coming and overflow and pass through that he may again wage war up to his very fortress. The king of the south will be enraged and go forth and fight with the king of the north. Then the latter will raise a great multitude, but that multitude will be given into the hand of the former. When the multitude is carried away, his heart will be lifted up and he will cause tens of thousands to fall, but he won't prevail. The king of the north will again raise a greater multitude than the former, and after an interval of some years, he'll press on with a great army and much equipment. Let me just say two things about this portion. The southern king, Ptolemy IV, and you can again be looking at your sheet there, he did win the battle of Raphia, the fourth Syrian war, but at such a wasteful cost of tens of thousands of men. And then we see in verse 14, in a moment, that some Jews actually help Ptolemy IV. They go down and they help fight in this war in Egypt because they think that they're fulfilling prophecy. It says in verse 14, now in those times, and again, this is God's word, this is his interpretation of these things. Now in those times, many will rise up against the king of the south. The violent ones among your people will also lift themselves up in order to fulfill the vision, but they will fall down. Then the king of the north will come, cast up a siege ramp, and capture a well-fortified city. And the forces of the south will not stand their ground, not even their choice's troops, for there will be no strength to make a stand. But he who comes against him will do as he pleases, and no one will be able to withstand him. He will also stay for a time in the beautiful land with destruction in his hand. He'll set his face to come with the power of his whole kingdom, bringing with him a proposal of peace, which he will put into effect. He will also give him the daughter of women to ruin it, but she will not take a stand for him or be on his side. And then he'll turn his face to the coastlands and capture many, but a commander will put a stop to his scorn against him. Moreover, he will repay him for his scorn. So he will turn his face toward the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble and fall and be found no more. And then in his place, one will arise who will send an oppressor through the jewel of his kingdom. Yet within a few days, he'll be shattered, though not in anger or in battle. Again, more interesting history here. We see that Antiochus III will capture a well-fortified city. None will be able to withstand him down in the south there in Egypt. Verse 16 says that he actually stays for a time in Jerusalem, in Judah, the beautiful land. And then to end the Fifth Syrian War, he provides a peace treaty, and he betroths his daughter, Cleopatra, which may sound familiar to some of you, to the Fifth Ptolemy. But secretly, he plans to use his daughter as a way of ruining the Ptolemaic kingdom. Well, again, in dramatic fashion, Cleopatra does not take a stand with her father, but instead sides with her husband. And so, therefore, he is defeated. He can't get an inn in the Ptolemaic kingdom. He turns his attention to war on the Mediterranean coastlands. But you see, he stopped, and he's repaid for his evils by a Roman commander called Scipio has the Atticus. Seleucus IV replaces Antiochus III. And Seleucus IV decides to send his chief servant to take a treasure, to take the jewel, or I'm sorry, to take treasures from the jewel, from the Jewish temple. But if you read the book of 2 Maccabees, you find actually that this chief servant was prevented by a vision, interestingly. All this history actually ties in very well with what we read in Maccabees, which is not inspired, but a very good history. Seleucus IV, it says within days, he doesn't last very long as king. He was actually assassinated or shattered. It was not in anger, it wasn't a revolt or rising up. It wasn't a battle, but rather he was assassinated. So you see how detailed and how particular all this history is. Look at verse 21. In his place, that is in Seleucus IV's place, a despicable person will arise, on whom the honor of kingship has not been conferred. But he will come in a time of tranquility and seize the kingdom by intrigue." And this is a reference to that wicked man, Antiochus IV, who called himself Epiphanes, meaning the manifestation of God, but was nicknamed by the Jews Epimenes, meaning madman. He is the little horn of Daniel 8, who exalts himself against the beautiful, glorious land of Judah. Now, before we move on, let me just bring to you a point of application in all of this. Some would say that the only value of this text is to outline ancient history. One commentator tries to get some pastors off the hook by saying this, this passage might be treated in Bible classes, but we don't see how it could be used in a sermon or sermons. But we know that all Scripture is God-breathed. And it is profitable for us. But that doesn't mean that every passage that is God-breathed and profitable is clear and plain. You see, Daniel didn't always understand what it was he was seeing or hearing about. And that's okay. We should take great comfort in that. Our Confession says this, all things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. What that is saying is this, is that whether you know much about the Bible or not, whether you know Greek or Hebrew or not, whether you can even read or not, if you will make due use or practical use of the ordinary means, the preaching of the Word, the hearing of the Scriptures being read, prayer, the singing of His praises, you can attain to a sufficient understanding of what all this is talking about. I want you to consider what one pastor says about all of this. It's actually Sinclair Ferguson. He says this. In a sense he's saying, don't skip over this. Don't just preach Daniel chapter 10 and then go right to chapter 12 and skip over chapter 11. It is important to passages in the Bible. I'm sorry, it is important to teach and preach passages in the Bible that are difficult to follow. Because it reinforces or underlines the biblical teaching that studying the Bible is hard work. Even Peter declares, the Apostle Peter declares that there are some things in the Scriptures that are hard to understand. It's good to think when You're reading in your Bible and you're humbled. You recognize that you need to know more. Now, it is also important in the midst of that to be very encouraged because when you do understand something, when you do believe something, you understand that it's God who has given you ears to hear. He gave you the ability to see. He gave you the ability to hear and to believe and to follow. And yet at the same time, while there are these harder passages, salvation is clear. Life and godliness is clear and plain, so that a child who can't even read yet can hear and believe and walk in this Word. The salvation of God truly cannot be exhausted, because His Word cannot be exhausted, because this God cannot be exhausted. But you know what faith does? Faith seeks to exhaust Him, and to exhaust everything that He says. This is not mere history, this is prophecy, and it's given so that you will know the future of the church, and you will pray for the church. And this brings me to my third point, that God is history's victor. We do have in here more history to consider, that there is this small horn which grew exceedingly great and he thought himself equal to God or the commander of the host. I really want to continue and I think it's important for us to continue to go from verses 22 all the way to verse 35. I'm not sure that we really have the time and the ability to do all of that, and that's okay because it will fit into the spirit of Antichrist section next time. So let me just conclude this, bring this to some conclusion by looking at some applications. God has given you grace. You've been able to sit through some history and think through it and hear it. But this brings us to a question. Why tell Daniel all of this? He's not going to live through most of this. Why tell him? Well, the first reason is to encourage Daniel to continue in prayer for the people of God. Going back to Jerusalem was not going to be their salvation. Rebuilding the city and the temple was not going to save them. It was not going to be their redemption. They would still need the Messiah to come. The Savior to arrive and to provide real deliverance. They were going to face all kinds of oppressions by these kings. Secondly, Daniel was told all of this to encourage the saints of the old covenant to trust in God, because this was a message Daniel would give to them. By faith, they were to display strength and take action, as we read in verse 32. And God not only tells Daniel all of this, but he speaks to you today. He speaks to you today, at least in three significant ways. First, we need to take from this that all kingdoms of the earth are volatile. They are weak. They are unsteady. And this is especially because the gods of the nations are stupid and false and volatile. Isaiah says that not only do the people go into captivity, but their gods are also taken away. We heard about that. You know, these gods are carried from the north to the south. In some sense, that's a way of saying, I have victory over you, because who wants a god that can be captured? But Psalm 33 says, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Which implies that the nation who rebels against the Lord is cursed. And there are mockers, even in our own nation, who will say things like, we do what we want, and if God doesn't like it, then He can come down and say it to my face. But you know what? God has already said that He hates all forms of rebellion. He's already made it clear And not only has He made such things known, but His anger against the nation that rebels against God is already manifested. And that He has given the scorner over to a disorder of worship. To a disorder of worship. The idea in Romans 1 is this, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all manner of unrighteousness, and that wrath of God is manifested how? In people worshiping the creation instead of the Creator. It's not a matter of saying, oh, if we worship the creation, we're going to be in trouble and God is going to be angry with us. No, no, no. God is angry with us and therefore we worship the creation. You enter voluntary enslavement, enslaved devotion, addiction, whatever you want to call it, to worldly things because God has let go of you. But there is a way to turn from your idols to the true and living God. There is a way to still know God, and it is through the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who came to make God known. He is the one to declare the Kingdom of God and the forgiveness of sins. He is the one who said, I come as a ransom for many, that you may be redeemed and saved. He is the one who promises to come back and to bring His people into Heaven forever, that they may experience the glorification of his finished work, to have a completely changed and renewed nature. He is the one who comes to reconcile sinners with God. And so if you're still breathing, there's still hope and there's still opportunity to turn away from your enslavement and your enslaved devotion to the true living God. But secondly, those in the world are not the only ones at risk of turning from God. The church can give the kingdoms of this earth a foothold to influence and deceive a way into godlessness. And this would be maybe more applicable if we were to go through Antiochus. So we'll be seeing more of this next week as an application. But let me just touch base on this. Where there is spiritual cooperation with the world, or the flesh, or the devil, there is corruption and betrayal of the true liberties that Christ has purchased for His people. Where there is compromise at a doctrinal level, or at a moral level, or at a spiritual level, weakness and failure follow. Antiochus was able to succeed in pulling some of the church away from God because he appealed to the worldly beliefs and the worldly practices and the worldly habits and the worldly customs that had crept into the church. By smooth words, he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant. So that means that we also need to be on guard and watch areas of easy compromise. But thirdly, there is much encouragement here for those who know God. No matter the plots and plans, no matter the assaults and the attacks of those who hate God and hate the church, God ordains all things to come to pass. He can take every wicked intention and use all of it for the good of His people. for the refinement and the purification of His people. This period that we are hearing about now is often called the 400 years of silence. But God provided His Word to speak into the silence. Even when He no longer sent prophets, He still had these prophecies that people could lean on and understand what was going on. And better than that, God has provided His Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, to speak to us today. There is no silence of God. Jesus speaks to you today in and by His Word, for your salvation and to the praise of His glory. Amen.