Good morning. I do have one more announcement, or one announcement. In the past, I've preached flipping back and forth between English and Spanish. And I think that's important to do. So I'm going to do that a little more frequently so that the word is presented and understood. My Spanish is not what my grandmother wanted it to be, so it's a little bit of Spanglish. But I just want you to know I'm not speaking in tongues up here. We believe that the gift of tongues ceased in existence and is no longer in effect. Last time we began Daniel chapter 8 where the prophet Daniel gives us the prophecy of the ram and the goat. By way of review, chapter 8 is a time travel event where God takes Daniel into the future through this vision to show him what is coming. Of course, only God can do that because only God is omniscient, all-knowing, and only God is sovereign. He not only knows what will happen, but he moves events to make his will fulfilled. Sovereignty and omniscience is involved in prophecy. God takes Daniel into the future in this vision to show him what is coming, and Daniel's vision in chapter eight is not unlike the apostle John's vision in the book of Revelation, where God takes John into the future of the end times so that John can personally observe what's coming, and then John records it for us, for future generations, just like Daniel does. Daniel's vision has two dimensions to it. It has fulfilled prophecy and future prophecy. Daniel's vision has two parts, prophecy of the future and prophecy that is already done, that is already history. From Daniel's perspective, it was all future prophecy. All of it would happen after Daniel's day. And from our perspective, it's both fulfilled prophecy and future prophecy. There's history in it, and the history that's in Daniel 8 is prophecy that's already been fulfilled. And then there's future prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled even from our perspective, even from our day. The part that is history proves the reliability of God. Let me say that again. The part of prophecy that is history from our perspective proves that God is trustworthy. It stands as a monument to the reliability of God. Finally, by way of reminder, chapters eight through 12 focus on Israel during the times of the Gentiles. Remember, the times of the Gentiles is that period when Israel, and specifically Jerusalem, will be subject to Gentile powers, and there will be no king sitting on the throne in Jerusalem. We are in the times of the Gentiles even now in the year 2025. Now, it's true that Israel is an independent nation, but they are dependent on Gentile nations, specifically us. And praise God, we support them. And there is no Davidic king sitting on the throne in Jerusalem today. The times of the Gentiles will come to an abrupt And when the Jew of Jews, Jesus Christ, returns to institute his kingdom, which is a Jewish kingdom to which we Gentiles are added. I like that because I'm a Gentile. It's a Jewish kingdom that the Gentiles are added to. Christ will bring his kingdom first for a thousand years on this earth. And then this earth will be destroyed and a new earth and a new heavens will be created. And then the kingdom will go on for all of eternity. The thousand year reign, which is referred to six times in Revelation 20, you can think of that as the front porch. of the kingdom. Chapters 8 through 12 identify Gentile powers as they relate to Israel. That's because Israel is God's timepiece. Prophecy centers around Israel. You want to know where we are on God's clock? Look at Israel. Time is moving inescapably to the day when God will vindicate his name, and he will do it through his people, Israel. Our passage today begins in verse nine, but we'll start with verse one for context, and I'll move quickly through verses one through eight. In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, subsequent to the one which appeared to me previously. You remember in chapter seven, Daniel recounted a dream that he had in the first year of King Belshazzar's reign, and now in chapter eight, he's recounting a vision that he had in the third year of King Belshazzar's reign. This vision, chapter eight, is around 551 B.C., that's the third year of Belshazzar's reign, and this is about 12 years before Belshazzar will be unceremoniously executed by the Persian soldiers who make their way into the palace when Persia takes Babylon. Belshazzar was the last of the Babylonian kings. Keep reading in verse two. Daniel says, I looked in the vision, and while I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam, and I looked in the vision, and I myself was beside the Ulay Canal. Here, Daniel is telling us that God took him into the future, to a future city of Susa, because in the year 551, Susa is not this elegant, majestic capital of the Persians like it is in this vision. In the vision, the city of Susa had become a palace for the kings of Persia, and the Babylonian Empire had been swallowed up by the Persians. The vision is about events that will happen decades, even centuries after chapter eight. And the vision is given in pictures, in symbols, in images, kind of like a picture book that you would open up and you'd read to your kids, and you're not doing that much reading, it's mainly pictures. That's how God teaches us in Daniel 8, like we're his kids. And he's going through the picture book, showing us the pictures, because there's a lot of imagery here. Keep reading in verse 3. Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, the ram, which had two horns, was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with a longer one coming up last. Verse 20 tells us that the ram is Medo-Persia, often just called Persia, and we'll see another animal here in a second. Verse four, I saw the ram budding westward, northward, and southward, and no other beast could stand before him, nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified himself. That's because Persia, as we saw last time, it doesn't mention east. It says northward, westward, southward, but it doesn't say eastward because Persia didn't go to the east. They didn't go to India or Asia. They went west across the Middle East and even to the northern part of the Greek peninsula called Macedonia. This is a prophecy that happens This is a prophecy that is given, in this case, with respect to the Persians, decades before the Persians conquer that area in the Middle East. Keep reading verse four. Actually, excuse me, verse five. While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west. Here's this second animal. the picture of the second animal. Behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground. Verse 21 tells us that this goat is ancient Greece. I love when the Bible interprets itself for us. When the Bible says, here's what this symbol means, then you don't have to piece verses together to understand, because sometimes the Bible just says, the image of the ram, Persia, the image of the goat, Greece, keep reading in verse five. Verse seven, I saw him come beside the ram and he was enraged at him and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns and the ram had no strength to withstand him. So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him and there was none to rescue the ram from his power. Now the vision has skipped in time. not to a matter of decades, to when the Persians would rise to power and conquer Babylon. Now, this vision has skipped in time centuries, over two centuries, to when Greece, which is the male ram here, would conquer Persia, when Alexander the Great, arguably the greatest military mind that has ever existed, although he was an evil man, when Alexander the Great would conquer the world, or at least the known This is what is being referred to here in the text. Keep reading in verse eight. Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly. Alexander became arrogant, like the Persian kings before him had done. 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. After Alexander's untimely young death, he was in his early 30s, After his untimely death, Alexander's kingdom was divided up by his four generals, pictured here as four horns of the goat. In the Bible, a horn is often a symbol of power and strength. An animal's strength is in its horn, be it a ram or a goat. Frequently, in the Bible, a horn means power, like in an animal. Alexander's four generals were named Ptolemy, Seleucus, Cassander, and Lysimachus. And from them would come the four kingdoms, the four successor kingdoms, that were a result of these generals eating up or dividing up Alexander's greater kingdom. This is what those four kingdoms ultimately look like. The ones that come into play for our study today are the green and the orange on this map. Let's see if it actually looks, yeah, kinda orangish. The green and the orange are the ones that are gonna be part of our discussion today. The green is the Seleucid kingdom. coming from the general Seleucus, and the orange is the Ptolemaic kingdom coming from the general Ptolemy. Starting in verse 9, we begin our new passage for today, which speaks of another horn coming out from one of these four. Out of one of them came forth a rather small horn, which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the beautiful land. Now, there's a lot going on here in verse 9, so bear with me. Verse 9 is not the little horn of chapter 7, which comes from the 10-horned beast, that kind of mongrel beast. in chapter 7, that's not this same horn, at least not exactly. This little horn of our verse comes from the male goat in chapter 8 versus the little horn in chapter 7 from the ten-horned beast. What we're getting is two different horns on two different animals that picture the same person. They picture the Antichrist of the end times but in different ways. They reveal different things about the Antichrist. Let me explain what I mean. The little horn of the ten-horned beast in chapter 7 is a prophecy about the kingdom that the Antichrist will come from. He will come from the revived Roman Empire of the end times, which will have ten rulers, ten horns, with Antichrist's horn being the most powerful. This fits with chapter two's dream about the ten-toed metallic man whose toes were made of iron mixed with clay. The iron legs picture ancient Rome, where the 10 toes picture an end times Rome, if you prefer, a Rome 2.0, a revived Roman Empire that will have 10 rulers, which ancient Rome never had. Think of the Book of Daniel, as I said earlier, as this book that's full of images. This book, think of it as God's picture book. And God teaches us through these pictures. First in chapter two we had the picture of the metallic man. Then we have the picture of the great tree in chapter four. And we have the picture of the handwriting on the wall in chapter five. And here we have the picture of the goat Earlier in chapter 7, we had the picture of all these beasts. What God is doing is teaching us prophecy through these pictures. In contrast to the little horn of chapter 7, the little horn of chapter 8 is not about the kingdom that Antichrist will come from. The little horn in chapter eight is about the evil nature and the evil activities of the Antichrist. And again, the Antichrist is in the end days, the end times. We don't have to be worrying about is so-and-so the Antichrist or is so-and-so the Antichrist. If we're here when the Antichrist is here, then we've been left behind. We don't need to worry about that. The rapture of the church is the next event on God's prophetic clock, and when the rapture of the church happens, all believers will be, to use the old Latin word, raptured. That's from 1 Thessalonians 4. For the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another with these words. In that passage where it says the Lord will, we will be caught up together with the Lord in the clouds, we're caught up together, the old Latin is the word rapturo or rapere, and that's where we get our English word rapture. That is the next event on God's prophetic clock. And so all believers will be raptured in that event, and then thereafter, you have this seven-year tribulation, which we will study in Daniel chapter nine. And in that tribulation, you have this horrible time period, and that is when the Antichrist of the end times will arise, so we don't have to get all wrapped around the axle of so-and-so the Antichrist is so-and-so the Antichrist. What's happening in Chapter 8 is we're getting through these pictures, through the picture book, We're getting symbols of the evil nature, we will get in a few moments, symbols of the evil nature and the evil activities of the Antichrist, including his merciless persecution of the Jews. Persecution of Israel is nothing new. It began way, way, way, way, way back in Genesis, and that is because it is through Israel that God blesses the nations, the devil hates, to humanity, and so the devil seeks to extinguish God's blessing, and so the devil seeks to extinguish the vehicle, the people, that are the vehicle through which God blesses all the nations, which is Israel. Although God has temporarily set aside Israel during this age, the church age, her time will come again. In chapter eight, Antichrist is pictured through an evil, evil king. by the name of Antiochus IV, who serves as a type of the Antichrist of the end times. Antiochus prefigures the Antichrist. The end times prophecy about Antichrist is given credibility by God. because God has already fulfilled prophecy about ancient geopolitics. Here's what I mean. What we're about to see in chapter eight is God speaking through pictures, through images, and he's speaking about what's gonna happen in the end times and things that the Antichrist will do in the end times, and what he gives us as credibility, as trustworthiness, that his word in the future will take place, is he gives us prophecy with respect to ancient geopolitics, this nation, that nation, the other nation, that's already been fulfilled from our perspective. And so we can look and we say, well, sure enough. God fulfills His work. We can look back millennia and see that God has fulfilled these prophecies about these ancient nations, and He fulfilled it accurately, fully, completely, and therefore we can have confidence that what He says is actually true. That what He says will come to fruition, including what He says about what will happen in the end times. Geopolitics are prophesied here from Daniel's perspective, not from our perspective, they're just history. But geopolitics are prophesied in Daniel chapter 8. Politics and interaction between nations that no one, no human could have known centuries in advance. Chapter 8 prophesies how Greece will conquer the world, at least the known world, and this probably surprised Daniel because in the 550s BC, when Daniel received this vision, Greece was pretty dinky. I mean, dinky is a technical theological term, by the way. I mean, they're just a minor player. They're just a bunch of city-states that are fighting with each other, Sparta and Athens and Corinth, and these other city-states that are fighting with each other. They're a minor player on the world stage in the 550s BC when Daniel receives this vision. And so it must have surprised Daniel this idea that Greece would conquer the world. It would be over 200 years later that Alexander would rise to power and go east to conquer the Persian Empire and more. Then adding to the wonder of the word of God, chapter eight predicts geopolitics even two centuries beyond that. So almost 400 years after Daniel receives this vision, Antiochus IV will rise to power. The point is that prophecy reveals the reliability, the trustworthiness of God's word. Prophecy reveals the reliability, the trustworthiness of God's word. Let me talk about the word vision. The word vision is an important word in the book of Daniel. It is the word chason in the Hebrew. You find this word 12 times in the book, 9 of which are in our chapter, chapter 8. Chason can mean a vision like this. what I call this time travel event, that God, where God took Daniel into the future, decades and then even centuries into the future, so chason, vision, can have that idea, but vision can also, the Hebrew word chason that's used here, can also have the idea of revelation from God. The Bible teaches that revelation from God is essential to the stability of society. Let me say that again. The revelation from God is essential to the stability of a society. And this is laid out in the scripture. This isn't just me talking. Proverbs 29 verse 18 says this, where there is no chason, where there is no vision, same Hebrew word that is used in Daniel chapter eight that Daniel uses, where there is no vision, meaning no revelation from God, the people are unrestrained. But happy is he who keeps the law. Happy is he who keeps God's law. The Word of God provides self-restraint. Self-restraint is one of the things that is evaporating from our culture. Self-restraint is one of the things that we are seeing just disappear out of our culture because we have rejected the revelation from God. The Word of God provides self-restraint for a people who accept the Word, but refusal to accept it brings lawlessness, and it is therefore no surprise that Paul calls the Antichrist the man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2. The end of Daniel 8, verse 9, uses this phrase, the beautiful land. Do you see that there in verse 9? The beautiful land. This is a reference to Israel, which during the times of the Gentiles is under Gentile control. First under Babylon, then Persia. then Greece, and then after Alexander's generals divided up his kingdom, Israel was under the Ptolemies of Egypt. The arrow here on the map points to the land of Israel, and the orange-ish color represents the kingdom of the Ptolemies, who were actually Greek in descent. The most famous Ptolemy, of course, is the last of the Ptolemaic rulers, a very impressive queen by the name of Cleopatra. who married the Roman Mark Antony. By and large, the Ptolemies gave the Jews freedom. They gave the Israelites freedom, freedom to worship, and freedom from many of the Ptolemaic taxes. Israel had a lot of latitude and flexibility under those rulers. But in 198 BC, at the Battle of Penaeus, the Seleucids would defeat the Ptolemies, and Israel would fall into Seleucid hands, which would mean terrible, terrible news for the Jews. In 175 BC, a vile, evil individual by the name of Antiochus IV, one of the Seleucid kings, would rise to power. And he started out as the small horn here in verse 9 with just a little bit of power, but then he will grow and grow in power. Antiochus was an arrogant man who claimed to be God. Antiochus was an arrogant man who claimed to be God. When he became king, he had coins minted that had his image, along with the Greek words Antiochus Epiphanous. which is often written today as Antiochus Theos Epiphanes. Theos means God in the Greek, and Epiphanes, or we would pronounce it as Epiphanes, comes from the Greek word Epiphaneia, which means to manifest or to appear. The point is Antiochus called himself God Manifest. God visible, in other words, God in the flesh. Sound familiar? Antiochus is a type. Of the anti Christ, the one who is against Christ in the end times. As we will see, he prefigures the Antichrist. Este hombre fue un tipo del anticristo del fin de los tiempos. In Daniel 8, verse 10, we learn more about the power and the evil activities of this small horn. Look at verse 10. It grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. Sometimes the Bible describes the angels as stars or as the host of heaven. But that's not what's happening here. I don't believe that angels are in view in this text here. And the reason I say that is no human ruler is more powerful than the angels. No human ruler can ever trample angels because the order of creation is God, well, God is not part of creation, he's independent of creation, but God created angels, then humans, then animals. That's the hierarchy, angels, humans, then animals. And so angels cannot be in view here because a human king cannot dominate angels, which is what this king is doing here. I love the words of the old pastor, H.C. Leopold. If the world calls those men and women stars who excel in one or another department of human activity, why should not a similar statement be still more appropriate with reference to God's people? That's what's in view here. Not angels, but the Israelites. Because often in the scripture, God uses the stars and the host of heaven to describe the Israelites, like in Genesis 15, 5, when God told Abraham, look up at the sky and see if you can count the stars. that will be your descendants. Your descendants will be innumerable like the stars. And so there, God compares the descendants of Abraham, the first Jew, to the stars, or in Genesis 22, 17, or in Deuteronomy 1, 10, the scripture often uses stars to refer to God's people, the Israelites. Verse 10 is saying that Antiochus Epiphanes will persecute the Jews And history tells us that he did that with cruel, evil efficiency. Look at verse 11. It even magnified itself. The horn magnified itself. This king, Antiochus, magnified itself, or himself, to be equal with the commander of the host. That's a reference to God. And it removed the regular sacrifice from him, and the place of his sanctuary, or temple, was thrown down. So Antiochus presented himself as God in the flesh, as God manifested among them, so he forbid the Israelites from offering sacrifices to their God, and he desecrated their temple. Keep reading in verse 12, and on account of transgression, the host will be given over to the horn along with a regular sacrifice, and it will fling truth to the ground and perform its will and prosper. Truth here is probably a reference to the Mosaic Law. Antiochus Epiphanes, Antiochus IV, commanded that copies of the law be burned, so it's the idea of him flinging it to the ground. His objective was to blot out Israel's faith, to turn them into Greeks, to Greekize them, or to use the old word, to Hellenize, the Jews. He banned Sabbath observance, for example. He forbid circumcision. He rededicated the temple, the temple there in Jerusalem, he rededicated it to the Greek god Zeus, and he put up a statue. Can you imagine a statue of Zeus in the Hebrew temple? He sacrificed a pig one of the unclean, super unclean animals under the Mosaic Law. He had a pig, a hog sacrificed there in the temple. He required sacrifices to Greek pagan gods and he had copies of the Mosaic Law burned. In protest, the Jews called him Antiochus the Madman. In the Greek, it's just a one-letter change. Instead of epiphanes, it is epimanes. Epimanes or epimanes means insane or madman, and so they would call him Antiochus Epimanes. Antiochus' persecution ultimately led to the Maccabean Revolt. And the spark that started the Maccabean Revolt was that the king's officers went to a Jewish town not far from Jerusalem to force pagan sacrifices. And so the priest that was there, Mattathias, was instructed by the king's officers to offer one of these pagan sacrifices, and he refused. So one of the other Jewish men there said, I'll do it. And he rises to offer a pagan sacrifice on the altar and Metathias. Says no. So Mattathias strikes him down and kills this Jewish man there on the altar, and there is this big altercation at the scene, so Mattathias has to flee to the hills with his five sons, and they engage in this guerrilla war. And when Mattathias dies, his third son, Judas Maccabeus, continues the war and actually wins the war, reclaims the temple, and because of that, the Jews have a holiday called the Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah. So it's a wonderful, wonderful holiday. Jesus would have celebrated the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, and the evil of this vile king by the name of Antiochus is what brought about that rebellion, the Maccabean Rebellion, and from the Maccabean Rebellion is the festival that exists even to this day, the Festival of Lights. Keep reading in verse 13. Daniel says, then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, how long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply while the transgression causes horror, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled. Now the transgression here probably is the evil of Antiochus. Keep reading in verse 14. He said to me, 2300 evenings and mornings is the time period of Antiochus's desecration of the temple. There are different ways to calculate that. I'm not going to get into that this morning. But the point is, there is this fixed, finite period of time that Antiochus will desecrate the temple. The Antichrist in the end times will also desecrate the temple, the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, when he comes on the wing of abominations, to use the phrase from Daniel 9 that we will study. Jesus calls this the abomination of desolation when the Antichrist desolates the temple. Jesus uses that phrase in Matthew 24. Here's the point. Antiochus prefigures the Antichrist of the end times. Then beginning in verse 15, we get the angelic interpretation of the vision, which is the basis of what I've been presenting to you. All I did was read ahead. Verse 15 reads like this, when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it, and behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man. We don't know who this person is. Is it an angel? Is it the Son of Man from Daniel 7? Is it God? We don't know. What we know is that Daniel doesn't understand the vision like he didn't understand the dream in chapter seven. And so he asks for help to understand it. Even though Daniel has been given the gift of understanding dreams and visions, that was back in chapter one at the end of chapter one. But these he doesn't understand and he needs help to understand them. Verse 16, and I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulay. Remember, Ulay was this canal in the capital city of Susa, the Persian city. And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulay, and he called out and said, Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision. This is the angel Gabriel, and this is the first time in the entire Bible that we see the name of this angel, that we see the name Gabriel. Gabriel means mighty one of God. So he came near to me, I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face. Notice Daniel's response. Look at Daniel's response to the angel. It is fear and trembling. This is not Hollywood's presentation of angels, right? It's these kind of la-la beings. They're fluffy and they're so nice. That's not Daniel's response. And in fact, later in the book of Daniel, he'll have the same response of trembling and trepidation in chapter 10, when he trembles at the presence of the angel. Same thing in Luke 1, when Gabriel appears, this is the same Gabriel, when he appears to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist in Luke 1, and the text there says that fear gripped John the Baptist. John the Baptist is in the temple performing a function in the temple, this holy function in the holy temple. And the angel is there. The angel Gabriel is there. And it's as if Zacharias is just frozen in fear. That is the normal response to angels, not this kind of goofy, silly presentation of these creatures, because they are creatures, that you might see in TV shows or in movies. This is serious and Daniel knows it's serious. So serious that he's going to lose consciousness. He's that freaked out by the presence of the angel. Keep reading in verse 17, but he, Gabriel said to me, son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end. Now notice son of man here is not all capitalized. The M is not capitalized. unlike in chapter seven where it says the son of man approached the ancient of days. Son of man is lowercase. Son of man here is a way of emphasizing Daniel's humanity, similar to the way that it is used to refer to the prophet Ezekiel. This is not Christ, who is the son of man from chapter seven. Look at verse 18. Now while he was talking with me, I sank into a deep sleep with my face to the ground. When you study the Hebrew word there, this is the idea of falling unconscious. The presence of this angel is so overwhelming that Daniel, who is an old, seasoned gentleman by now, who's seen many, many things in his life, Daniel faints in the presence of this powerful creature. Keep reading in verse 18, but he touched me and made me stand upright. So the angel has to wake Daniel back up. because he's so overwhelmed. Look at verse 19, he said, behold, I'm gonna let you know what will occur at the final period of the indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end. This is the second time that Gabriel uses the phrase, the time of the end. He's talking about not just the end of Antiochus Epiphanes, who prefigures the Antichrist, but Gabriel is talking about the end of the times of the Gentiles, which coincides with the coming of Christ, who will end the Antichrist. All of these things fit together in terms of a time sequence. The end of the times of the Gentiles is the, so the next thing on God's prophetic clock is the rapture of the church. Shortly thereafter, the seven-year tribulation begins, and at the end of that tribulation, Christ returns. You read about it in Revelation 19. He returns, and the Antichrist is eliminated by Christ. He's cast in the lake of fire. And then Christ ends, that is the end of the times of the Gentiles. And then Christ begins his Jewish kingdom for a thousand years, to which we Gentiles are added. And then his Jewish eternal kingdom in the new Yerushalayim. It doesn't say the new Beijing or the new Houston. The name of the eternal city is the New Jerusalem, because it's a Jewish kingdom to which we Gentiles are added. That's why this phrase, the times of the Gentiles, is important, because we're talking about the completion of the times of the Gentiles, when Jerusalem is underfoot of the Gentiles. which will go all the way through the seven year tribulation and will end at the end of that tribulation when Christ eliminates the Antichrist. Keep reading in verse 20. The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia. So that's our not so hidden clue that when Daniel was talking about the ram early on and the ram gets forgive the pun, rammed by the goat. And the goat runs into the ram and destroys the ram. Earlier in the text we know it's, we're talking about Medo-Persia and Greece. And these are events that will happen over 200 years after Daniel receives the prophecy. Verse 21, the shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king. Alexander is not named specifically here, but that first king of the great Greek empire is Alexander the Great, who conquered the Persian empire. Verse 22, the broken horn and the four horns that arose in his place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power. So Gabriel is interpreting the vision that we saw in the first half of the chapter. And Gabriel is referring here to the four successor kingdoms that came from Alexander's generals. who were not as great. Those kingdoms were not as impressive as Alexander's kingdom. And they were not as great of rulers as Alexander was great in the sense of. the big dog, the impressive ruler, not great in the sense of holy and righteous. So the angel is saying here, Alexander's kingdom is gonna be divided up into four, and those will be four kingdoms that are not gonna be as illustrious and impressive as was Alexander's kingdom, who was the first king. Keep reading in verse 23. In the later period of their rule, of the rule of the four kingdoms, the four kings, In the latter period of their rule, when the transgressors have run their course, a king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue. That's Antiochus Epiphanes, or Antiochus the madman, who prefigures the Antichrist. Verse 24, his power will be mighty, but not by his own power. So Antiochus, like the Antichrist of the end times, as Paul speaks of in 2 Thessalonians 2, 9, they both were satanically energized, empowered by Satan. Antiochus, again, is a type of the Antichrist. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will. He will destroy mighty men and the holy people. The holy people here are the Jews. Antiochus persecuted them brutally, but the Antichrist of the end times, sadly, will make Antiochus' persecution of the Jews look like nothing. because the Antichrist of the end times will have this horrific persecution of Israel, trying to eliminate them, because if there is no Israel, then there is no kingdom to accept the king. There are no people to accept the king, because God brings the kingdom to Israel, because it's a Jewish kingdom that we Gentiles are added to. So the trigger for the return of Christ and for the beginning of the kingdom is that the Jews would accept Christ. If Jews today would accept Christ, the kingdom would be here. That's the trigger. That's the trip wire to when the kingdom will come, because it's a Jewish kingdom that requires the Jews to submit to Christ, to accept Christ, and the vast majority of Jews today do not. Are there exceptions to that? Of course, but the vast majority do not. That will change. at the end of the tribulation when Christ returns and they will accept him once and for all after that period of horrible persecution during the tribulation. Keep reading verse 25. And through his shrewdness, that's Antiochus' shrewdness who is a prefigurement, of the Antichrist in the end times, and through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence, and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many while they are at ease. He will even oppose the prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency. Antiochus opposed God on a regional scale in the Middle East. where the Antichrist will oppose God on a global scale throughout the entire world. He will do this by counterfeiting Christ and directly opposing Christ. This will happen during the seven-year tribulation, which we will study, as I have mentioned, in Daniel 9, where Daniel speaks of this, because it's revealed to him. This phrase, broken without human agency, is a very interesting few words. History tells us that Antiochus died from a disease. No one killed him. No one showed up with a sword and killed Antiochus. He died without human agency. Likewise, Antichrist will be destroyed without human agency. Revelation 19 verse 20, which I alluded to earlier, tells us that Antichrist will be cast into the lake of fire alive. He and the false prophet will be the first two residents of the lake of fire for a thousand years. And then when the thousand years is completed at the end of Revelation 20, all unbelievers will join them along with the devil. Verse 26, the vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been told is true. But keep the vision secret, Gabriel says, for it pertains to many days in the future. This is not a command to keep the vision confidential. It's a command to seal it the way you would seal a scroll. It's the idea of preserving something for future generations to read, like us. Este no es un mandato de mantener la visión confidencial. Es un mandato de guardar la visión para que generaciones en el futuro puedan leerlo como nosotros. Verse 27, then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. Think about that. Daniel receives this vision from God through God's messenger, Gabriel, and he's overwhelmed. He's overwhelmed by God's prophecy, and sadly, many believers today are underwhelmed by God's prophecy. It's either boring or it's just an academic exercise, and sometimes believers even use prophecy to show off so that they can be the smartest guy in the room, which is very, very unseemly, and it is a horrible sight to see, not to mention arrogant and sinful. For Daniel, prophecy burdens him. For Daniel, prophecy impacts his spiritual life, so he confesses his sin and repents before God, which we will see in Daniel chapter 9. I mean, just a few verses from now, in the first few verses of Daniel chapter 9, you see Daniel I mean, Daniel, the prophet Daniel, who's given us all this prophecy, who's this holy man, Daniel confessing his sin earnestly before God, repenting before God. And prophecy burdens Daniel in this regard. What God has spoken that will happen in the future, God's will and prophecy that will happen in the future burdens Daniel, it impacts his life. That's what prophecy should do for all of us. It should draw us to God in humility, knowing that God's word is unstoppable. Knowing that what God has said will happen will absolutely, positively, unequivocally happen without a doubt. The word of God will come to fruition and that should Change us. That should give us a sense of urgency to serve God, to use our time, our talents, our treasure for God's glory because God is coming and this will end. This world of rebellion against God will come to an end. And the wise are mindful of that, and the wise orient themselves to the plan of God as a result. Keep reading in verse 27. Although Gabriel explained the vision, Daniel didn't fully understand it. He didn't get it. I mean he understood parts of it, but he didn't fully understand it. It raised all sorts of questions for him. Who would this evil king be almost 400 years after Daniel received the vision? And why would he be hell-bent on persecuting Israel, on persecuting the Jews. When would these events happen? It won't be until Daniel chapter 9 that the prophet learns of the timing of Christ's coming. But even then, he doesn't know of Christ's two comings. He won't know of Christ's two comings. and he won't know of the intervening church age. You see, God has given us all kinds of revelation, all kinds of revelation that Daniel didn't have, that he didn't give to Daniel, that he concealed from Daniel, and from Habakkuk, and from David, and from Moses, and from Hosea, all those Old Testament saints. God said, you don't get to know the things that I'm gonna reveal now for us. And sometimes I fear that we don't fully appreciate the magnitude, the breadth of the revelation of God that he has given us in this age, it is very, very important that we appreciate God's revelation, because we will give an account of what we did with it, whether we served God or not, whether we told people about the Lord, Or not? Were we too embarrassed to tell someone, hey, I'm a follower of Jesus. Let me tell you about Jesus. I mean, are we embarrassed about that? I hope not. I hope not. Now, if you're here without Christ, without hope, and without eternal life, we want you to know that God loves you. God loves you, and in the end, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. God has loved you since eternity passed. The world tells you that you're nothing. The world tells you that you're nothing. You're the product of random evolutionary chance, but God says, you're not nothing, you're everything to me. I love you. I've always loved you. Siempre te he amado desde antes de la fundación del mundo. I've loved you since before the foundation of the world. You must understand how valuable you are to God. And the evidence that you are valuable to God is that God came as a man to pay for your sins. Dios vino a ser un hombre para pagar por tus pecados. Tu eres valeroso. So valuable before God. Please do not be duped by the deception of the world which says that you're an accident. It says that you're nothing, nothing. And so the devil teaches you that so that we will live like we are nothing. So that we will think like we are nothing and we'll just run from this appetite to that appetite, from this lust to that lust. But God says you're everything to me, live like it. God comes as a man to pay for your sins because you are of inestimable value to God. Now salvation comes only by faith in Christ. Salvation viene nomas por fe en Jesucristo. Solamente. Only faith in Christ. Not faith in something else. Not faith in someone else. Not faith in your job. Not faith in your money. Not faith in your power. Not faith in your fun. Not faith in your leisure. Not faith in whatever. Solamente Jesucristo. Faith. Fe en Jesucristo. Solamente. Only Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through him. That's what he said. Nadie viene al padre sino por medio de Jesucristo. Jesus is the one who died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried and raised on the third day. Jesús es el que murió por nuestros pecados, And the evidence that his word is true is that he was raised from the dead. Because if he wasn't raised from the dead, then he's a joke. And we should make fun of him like everybody else. We should mock him like everybody else. You know, the world puts Jesus' name in their cuss words. There will be a reckoning for that. The world puts his name in their cuss words. They mock him. We should mock him too if he's still dead, if his body decomposed to dust or the four winds. But on the other hand, If he sits next to the majesty on high as a man, if he sits next to the father as a man, that's something altogether different. Then we should worship him. Jesús no es muerto. Jesús es vivo. Sentado al lado del padre en el cielo. I'm available afterwards if you'd like to visit about salvage. Estoy disponible si quieres hablar por el plan de salvación. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the opportunity to study it. We thank you for the opportunity to worship you by studying your word. We thank you that you recorded these things for us and did not leave us ignorant of who you are. We thank you that you reached out to us your enemies, sinners by nature, filthy before your righteousness. We thank you that you loved us, and that you were merciful, and that you were kind, and that you were loving. We thank you for these things. We worship you for these things. We praise you for these things. and we appreciate the opportunity to study who you are, to approach you in wonder and awe and fear. We love you for this. And we make this prayer in the name of his majesty, the king of all the kings, Jesus Christ himself, and all of God's people said,