Nehemiah says, you are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them and you preserve all of them and the host of heaven worships you. So just to start there, he reminds us of the creation. He reminds us of the lordship and sovereignty of Yahweh and that God is sovereign over history. And then in verse seven, he begins the storyline where he says, you chose Abram and you brought him out verse 8 you found his heart faithful before him Before you and made with him the covenant to give his offspring the land verse 9. I'm just going through to these he's just Praying really the story of Israel that we've been going through in Moses and the prophets and the writings He says you saw the affliction of your people and their cry and brought them through the Red Sea verse 12 By a pillar, a cloud through the wilderness, you brought them. Verse 13, Mount Sinai. You gave them the law. Very important. Look at that. Verse 13. You came down, spoke with them from heaven, gave them right rules and true laws and statutes and commandments. You made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statues and a law by Moses, your servant. Verse 15. That was not enough. God was kind enough not only to reveal his law, he gave them bread. He provided for them, verse 16, the first of at least three times Nehemiah says this, notice, but they and our fathers acted presumptuously. They stiffened their neck. They did not obey the commandments. So thus, Nehemiah is not only bringing the people to confession and repentance, he's also reminding the people of why they went into exile in the first place. And why is that? Because they were disobedient to Moses and the prophets. We're told that verse 19, you and your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud continued to lead them, pillar of fire by night to light. Verse 20, you gave your good spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouth. Verse 22, and you gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner. So they took possession of the land. Verse 23, you multiplied their children as the stars of the heavens. 24, the descendants went in and possessed the land. 25, they captured fortified cities. And verse 25, at the end, so they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in your great goodness. Verse 26, again, number two, nevertheless, they were disobedient and rebelled against you and cast your law behind their back. They killed your prophets. who had warned them in order to turn them back to you, and they committed great blasphemies. Therefore, you gave them into the hand of their enemies. But then God was gracious again. He heard, he delivered according to Mercies, 28b, verse 29, you warned them in order to turn back to your law, to turn back to Moses. Yet again, they acted presumptuously. They did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, which if a person does them, he shall live by them. Verse 30, many years you bore with them, warned them by your spirit through the prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies, you did not make an end of them or forsake them for you are a gracious and merciful God. And then verses 32, now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day. Yet you've been righteous in all that has come upon us, for you've dealt faithfully, and we have acted wickedly. Our kings, our princes, our priests, our fathers have not kept your law, paid attention to your commandments or your warnings that you gave them. And even in their own kingdom, and amid your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you or turn from their wicked works. Behold, we are slaves this day in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. Behold, we are slaves. and its rich yield goes to the kings whom you've set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our livestock as they please, and we are in great distress. And because of all this, we make a firm covenant in writing. On the sealed document are the names of our princes, our Levites, and our priests." And then if you notice in chapter 10, They list all of the names of those who signed the covenant in repentance, in reaffirmation of faith, we might say, that they would keep the covenant in reliance upon God's grace. And if you notice what they particularly promised to do, verse 29, you ready? We enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God's law that was given by Moses, the servant of God. and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our God and His rules and statutes. So Nehemiah is the confession and repentance of all of Israel as it looks back to God's faithfulness throughout history and Israel's unfaithfulness. Knowing that the exile was a death, it was discipline of God and they deserved it. And so the only response is repentance and confession of sin, seeking God to continue to be faithful and actually covenanting with the people that in reliance upon God's grace, they will go back and they will seek to do what God has commanded them to do through Moses. And so you don't want to miss this, that the old covenant writings here in Nehemiah are tying back to this post-exilic people, this people beginning to experience a life back from the dead as they return slowly back to the land. Their leaders are leading them back to trust in Moses, the word of God that has not changed. Okay, let's pray. It's very important to understanding the last part of the writings here. Our Father and our God, we're grateful for your love for us, and we're thankful that you're the faithful God when we fail to keep covenant. You have kept covenant in our place, in our nature, in the person of Jesus Christ, and we exalt you. We thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, Lion of the tribe of Judah, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Thank you that in him you can make an unconditional covenant with sinners. that through faith in him and through receiving his perfect righteousness, we can stand reconciled and with at peace in your presence and you will dwell with us forever. We can be your children adopted as your sons and we can have your Holy Spirit through the mediation of the Lord Jesus so that we might live for you and walk according to the law of Moses. For there's nothing more that's been revealed about your righteousness than what has already been revealed in your Ten Commandments. But there has more been revealed in the one Lord Jesus who helps us by the Spirit to keep your commandments and who writes that law upon our hearts by your grace. So help us as your people to be those who are Spirit-filled law keepers, who do not forget Moses' commands. And more importantly, do not forget the Lord Jesus who has kept the law and who has fulfilled the law in our place and who teaches us to walk according to Moses by keeping the covenant in reliance upon his spirit. So help us by your grace today to understand this last part of the Old Testament and prepare our hearts for the coming of the king. We pray and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. So what we should do. I think before we read on. is that we understand a few things about structure that I think is helpful. If you remember, we started with the Tanakh, the Moses, Torah, Prophets, the Nevi'im, and the writings, the Ketubim. And we used this guide for helping us to break down the three main parts of the Old Covenant story. What we're headed for is the fulfillment or the consummation. And that, too, has three parts primarily, and the three parts of the New Testament are the Gospel, the Acts, and the Epistles. And they serve in similar ways. The Gospel makes sure that we see the continuity between Moses and the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's especially why Matthew heads off the Gospels. is because Jesus Christ is the one greater than Moses. It's very clear that that's what Matthew wants us to see. Even the Sermon on the Mount is one greater than Jesus Christ who climbs the mountain to preach the Sermon on the Mount, who preaches the fulfillment of the law. The prophets we see fulfilled in Acts. In many of the passages in Acts, we actually see that expansion of the prophets to the nations. You know, it's moving from The message of the book of Acts is moving from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth, and it ends at the ends of the earth in Rome, so that we can understand that Acts is a fulfillment of the prophets. And then the writings are similar to the epistles, and the epistles are commenting or providing a commentary on the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Jesus. And so what we want to see here as we look at the writings today, the Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, the post-exilic or the after the exile writings, the beginning of the resurrection of the dead, so to speak, and the return to the land, we want to see two books as bridges. Two books serve as eschatological, redemptive, historical bridge. And one is Daniel. Daniel, if you remember, ends or gives us an example of how to live in exile that we'll look at more fully in a moment. And it tells us that there's some revelation that has to be closed up. There's some revelation that has to be closed up until the appointed time. What we have then is we have the book of Revelation, very similar to Daniel. And the book of Revelation then tells us that the king has come. There is the consummation of the king. The king rules and reigns on heaven. You start the book of Revelation with the king walking among his churches and addressing where they need to repent and commending them for their good works, if they have any. and then rebuking them or exhorting them in the ways that they need to change. And then Revelation 4 and 5 has that centrality of God and the Lamb on the throne. So everything that Daniel spoke about is seen more clearly in Revelation. That which was told by the angelic messenger to close up in Daniel is now opened up by the Lamb. And so that's the scroll that's opened by the Lamb in Revelation, is the scroll that only one is worthy to open and to fulfill the consummation of history. So the bridge has to be understood through Daniel and Revelation. When we get to the New Testament biblical theology class, well, actually, cycle two will be just focusing on Daniel and Revelation. So what we don't cover today on Daniel, we will cover accompanied by the book of Revelation because they are companion pieces, right? So, what you have in this larger storyline that is concluding in the writings in the Old Covenant in the Jewish canon are the Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. You have the king versus the dragon serpent. And you have the beginning of that destruction of that dragon serpent and all he stands for in these books, the beginning of the end, if you will. that prepares us for the New Testament. Now, we want to go back, I think, before we look very particularly at Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, and Daniel, in light of the big picture, we want to go back and remember the Tanakh structure, the Moses prophet's writing structure, and then compare it with the New Testament structure as a foretaste of what's to come. And what we have that was noted by a great biblical theologian that I think is worth looking at is that in the structure of the Old Testament, you have story or narrative primarily that you find in Moses and in the former prophets. You have this story or prose or narrative being told. And then what we have is we have poetry primarily, poetry as we find in the latter prophets, or Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the Book of the Twelve. We have poetry that then is a commentary on the story so far. This is extremely helpful, I think, if you get this as an overview. And so the poetry then comes as a commentary on what's happened so far, and even what will come, but it serves as a commentary. Then we have poetry again in writings part one, in how to live, Psalms, Proverbs, Job. And so you have poetry. And then we end the canon in the way that it's laid out in the Jewish canon that I think is most helpful, as I've wanted to share with you. You've got a story again. The story ends in, or concludes, if you will, or is to be continued. The story is to be continued in the writings, part two. So when we get to Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, it seems the main reason why the Jewish folks put Daniel in the writings and not the prophets was why? Well, because it continues the story in a way that these books did not. It tells us of what's to come in the future. There's a beginning of revelation, a very specific way that history will unfold until the Messiah comes. And I think that's why Daniel is in the writings. And so to focus it like this, you have kind of a mirror, if you will, in redemptive history. Isn't that neat? So you have story, poetry, commentary. Then you've got poetry, the writings of how to live in light of this. And then the story continues into the New Testament. So this is to be continued. And you have a similar structure that I think is worth noting. So this is to be continued. When you get in the New Testament, you have story in gospel and acts. You have a commentary primarily in the epistles of Paul and Jude and Peter and James, have a commentary on the story. And then you have the conclusion of the story in the book of Revelation. And so this also will be how we look at the New Testament biblical theology class that we will have in the fall. But you can see that there is a similar, if this poetry is primary commentary, which I think it is, then you have this mirror kind of thing going on. Story, story, mirror in the middle, poetry, commentary, poetry. Then you've got story, story, commentary, epistles. And then the revelation, what does it do but sums up the story? It comes to a conclusion. That's why one biblical theologian calls it the capstone of the canon, the capstone of the canon. It makes sense why Revelation would be at the end, because it's the last word on the storyline. The story goes off into heaven, into eternity, with the wedding feast of the Lamb, with all God's people being glorified and enjoying Jesus Christ forever and ever. And so it's where we began in a garden, we end in a holy paradise, where where Adam failed, we have the success and the accomplishment and the glorification of the second Adam and all his people in Revelation. So it all has a literary quality to it that I think we ought to appreciate. And so let's read a couple more scriptures. We're going to read quite a bit of scripture today. And so let's look together now at Chronicles, right at the end of Chronicles. I want to remind you of what we've looked at before, and I think it's worth saying again, is at the end of the book of Chronicles, we have this being told to us in 2 Chronicles 36, verse 22. This is around 538 B.C., all right? So these books, again, take place after the 6th century B.C., after the beginning of the return from exile. Verse 22, now, in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. Keep that in mind for a moment that Jeremiah has basically told us about what was going to happen. Now, people didn't fully see that and understand it, but we're gonna go to Jeremiah in a moment and we'll look at what's meant by that. But just for now, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia. So it was God's sovereign power and kingship that's being revealed here that he is the one who caused Cyrus of Persia to do this. So that Cyrus made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up. And so there you have the last word of the Hebrew canon. which is a word of resurrection. It's a word of hope. It's that the Davidic line will continue and that the Davidic promise of a house and a temple and a throne implied there will be revealed, that God has not forgotten his people. So if I could summarize Ezra and Nehemiah, and I will in a moment when we go over the handout that I gave you today, but just for now, you don't necessarily have to write it down, but if I was going to summarize Ezra and Nehemiah, what they are doing is they are leaders who after the exile are telling the people to prepare for the coming of the king. that the king must still be awaited. They must still wait and watch. And so Ezra begins interpreting them scripture and teaching them back on the way of Moses and begins to be what would be a full-blown called a rabbi in the intertestinal period. He is, if you could, if you would, the first rabbi. So he begins interpreting the scriptures of the Old Testament for the people of God to understand their place in history, that God has not left them, and that they're to get up and, no matter the opposition, they're to be faithful and work. And now, Hemiah is, you rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, you rebuild the walls of Jerusalem to prepare for the coming of the King. do this with hope. So Ezra and Nehemiah are about doing this waiting and watching, so to speak, in preparation for the coming of the king. Chronicles ends by telling us that there's this hope of resurrection. There's this hope of life from the dead. And in Ezra 1, if you look down at your scriptures, We're rooted in this proclamation purposely in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, again, 538 BC, or well, when he actually does the decree is 538 BC, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing. And this is what he said, basically. He said that I'm the sovereign who declares now that the people of God will go back to Jerusalem and they'll build a temple. So Ezra's concerned about how to get them to understand the law of Moses and build the temple. And Nehemiah's concern is to build the walls up of Jerusalem to prepare for the coming of the king. And I will say more about Chronicles in a moment. Let me say a few things about Ezra and Nehemiah, if I could, about The larger theme. If I had to make a larger theme for these writings as the people await the coming of the king, it would be this. Living faithfully in exile. Living faithfully in exile. And you could dot, dot, dot until the coming of the king. But living faithfully in exile until the coming of the king. So Chronicles ends with the genealogy that traces the history back to Adam and to Abraham, showing that God has preserved a remnant, that there's still people who are connected with Adam and Abraham more particularly. Okay, there's still tribes, all right? God has remained faithful. Ezra and Nehemiah picks up on that and teaches how to live faithfully by watching and waiting for the coming of the king. Ezra and Nehemiah are teaching them to watch and wait for the coming of the king. Be busy about what you're doing. And then I leave Daniel for last in just a moment. So, if I was going to summarize Ezra and Nehemiah, I would say there's two very practical pastoral things that we want to remember about living faithfully in exile. And by the way, beloved, what is the take-home for this? What is the take-home pastoral application? Exile, while the end of exile has begun to be over, it is not over yet. It will not be over until you see the Son of Man coming down from heaven with the new Jerusalem to unite heaven and earth. That's the end of exile. That's why Peter, for instance, and other New Testament writers will talk about the elect exiles and the dispersion, and we'll be reminded that we're all still in exile. We're not in the promised land. We won't be. until Jesus returns. So what's the practical take home for the last part of the writings and the last part of the Old Testament? We can learn from them how to be the church in exile. Very, very, very, very particularly. We can learn to be the church in exile. You know why so many people, practically speaking, have a are disappointed by the things that they see around them in the culture, is some people are led to believe that we live in the promised land. And so they see more fully now, say in the last 40 years, that the house of mirrors has fallen. That this house of mirrors that made it look like the world was at peace with the church and all that sort of thing, that that all was a facade. It was a game. It was not true. We should have never thought of ourselves in the promised land. When we stepped off the boat, we should have never preached a sermon on, you know, a city on a hill being America. We just shouldn't have done that. Those were mistakes that were made, that it's easier to look back. We should have said we're continuing our exile in a new land, all right? But we're not going to find the promised land until the new heavens and new earth. So the point is that as long as people have thought about the This being the promised land has led them to be more of a zealot activity, more involved in power and politics and position rather than prayer sometimes. And the truth is, if you live in exile, you learn a great deal of wisdom from Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, particularly Daniel. How to advance in the world. how to be holy in the world, and yet how to be separate from the world all at the same time. And that's what we're called to. So let me do a couple of suggestions or a couple of summaries of Ezra and Nehemiah for very practical application. You ready? In Ezra and Nehemiah, we learn the call to build in the face of fierce opposition. The church is to build in the face of fierce opposition. If there's one thing that Ezra and Nehemiah tell us is that we have a dragon serpent enemy that's at work. even with people who wear sheep's clothing, even religious people, maybe more so the religious people. And we've got a call to continue to be built, continue to build the sword and the trowel, as Nehemiah gives us the picture. You're gonna build, and you're gonna have a sword in one hand, a spiritual sword, that is, of the Word. You're gonna have a spiritual sword in one hand, and you're gonna have a spiritual trowel in the other, but you're gonna build in the face of opposition, and you're gonna hope in God's promises. That's the summary practical application of Ezra and Nehemiah. Living in exile calls for you to understand, first, you're in exile, secondly, you've got to build facing fierce opposition. Jesus told us, right? that if the world hates you, it hated me first. He said, in this world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. That's all exilic language. When he said that, when John writes the book of Revelation, John in Revelation 1.9, he says, I, John, a testimony, a martyr, a witness of the Revelation in the Tribulation. He defines the Tribulation as a time from the first and the second coming of Christ, a whole exilic time period that's not quite over. So the Tribulation, Jesus our Lord tells us that That that that or the Apostle Paul when he goes back to strengthen the churches in the book of Acts. It's amazing He goes back in Acts 14 22 It says that he goes back to strengthen the church to tell them through much tribulation You will enter the kingdom and so the Great Tribulation began with the defeat ironically and paradoxically the defeat the definitive defeat of the crushing of the head of the serpent through the cross and That begins the time of tribulation, of great tribulation, where the people of God are assaulted by the evil one, though his time is short, as Revelation teaches us. Now, Chronicles, here's what I would say of Chronicles, very practical application for you in Chronicles, I hope, is that Chronicles is written in such a way that that the emphasis is on, it starts with genealogy and ends with hope, right? And so the purpose of the books of Chronicles is to tell us that God is faithful and to always remember that. So the book of Chronicles would be to say that remember God's faithfulness through the ages. Remember God's faithfulness through history. No accident that Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy. to connect it to Chronicles, the last book of the Old Covenant, that starts with a long genealogy. If you've ever read the Bible, right, and you get to the genealogies, it's a bit overwhelming. It's daunting. But keep reading on. And in your mind, for every name you read, think of the Lamb's Book of Life. That's how you preach it. That's how you think of it in Christ's way and in Christ's way. This is the Lamb's Book of Life here. This is the remnant by God's faithfulness. This is a revelation of a faithful God. And I'm one of the members of this family by grace. So that's how you get the genealogy. And then the genealogy, of course, in the New Testament is taking us back to the very beginning, to Adam, to Abraham, to David. to God himself, all right? So really, Chronicles, I have more in my notes that I could give you, okay? But Chronicles, let's just say this, it's a call to remember that God is covenant Lord and sovereign over history. It's a call to remember that God is always faithful, beloved. It's a call to remember always that God is good. It's a call to remember that when we're weak, he is strong. It's a call to remember we're more than conquerors in him. I'm saying all those things that just mean one thing, God is faithful. All right. Now, Daniel. Daniel. What a book, and what a bridge. Daniel serves, again, as part of the story, because I think it's to be continued, because it moves the narrative along. It's like the first, it's part of, if you could put it this way, if I could put it this way, it's like the first act of the final part. giving us not only an exilic context, an exilic situation, right? But also giving us the story that's going forward from here. All right. So, with Daniel, how would I summarize Daniel? I would summarize Daniel living consecrated lives in the anti-city. Living consecrated lives in the anti-city. living consecrated lives in the anti-city. And there's other things that I would write down for the book of Daniel, very practical application for you. You ready? Daniel has to learn how to worship God in the anti-city, which is where we live too. Daniel has to learn to serve in the anti-city. Daniel has to learn to suffer in the anti-city. Daniel has to learn to live holy life in a godless anti-city culture. In fact, you know, in chapter one of Daniel, remember he's trained in the Babylonian arts, the Magi. He's trained according to the tradition of the Magi, goes to the best Babylonian seminary. And he's able to learn all that the culture in the world, all of its knowledge at that time period, and yet he's able to still submit all of that knowledge to Holy Scripture. and to be faithful, to always be testing it by the word of God. Daniel teaches us how to be a light to God in a godless culture, how to be a witness. It wasn't just a few people who saw that Daniel was a godly man and knew a god who could interpret dreams, just as Joseph before him. It's a call to lead in a holy manner in the anti-city, because Daniel was a leader. He was among the best. that Israel had to offer. And ultimately, it's a call to wait on God. Because there's much of the scriptures that are encouraging to Daniel, but at the end of the day, Daniel's told in chapter 12 that there's going to be a resurrection one day. And he's given hope. But really, when Daniel is being told by the angelic messenger in chapters 8 through 11 of what's going to happen, history's laid out for him in a way that he can understand, but a lot of the fullness of the mystery will not be revealed yet. He's told to close it up, to close it up. But he's comforted by what God has told them so far. Let's look at Daniel. for a moment. In Daniel 10, 19, one of my favorite scriptures for remembering, like having a memory verse for living in the anti-city. Daniel is seeing this great heightened persecution that's coming, and it terrifies him, causes the color to leave his face, and causes him to literally be breathless, you know. It's hard to understand, hard to know what to do with this. And verse 19 is a very heart key verse for Daniel and for living in the anti-city now, beloved. Oh, chapter 10, verse 19. The angelic message who appeared as a man says to Daniel, Oh, man, greatly loved the courage. And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. That's not just a heart message for Daniel, it's how to live our lives in exile, because we look at the news around us, we see the feeds, they're constantly, they tend to be constantly negative. I mean, there's a scripture verse here and there that we can be thankful for in our feeds, but the truth is, you know, everything around us tells us we're living in the anti-city, and it's just, it's more obvious right now. But nothing's changed. Nothing's new under the sun, beloved. It was the same way in the Rome. It was the same way in Babylon. It was the same way in Assyria. And it was the same way after the fall in the garden. With all respect to Francis Schaeffer, who made the line of despair, meaning the line where things got really bad, he calls it the Enlightenment period. I don't. With all respect to Francis Schaeffer, the line of despair was in Genesis 3 and everything after that. was despairing to some degree. Everything east of Eden is what, beloved, but an anti-city. This world is an anti-city. And it's important for me, I think, to say that to you as we look at Daniel now in a couple of ways. Let's go to Daniel 1. But let me say something that I've been stressing that you get not only implied in Daniel, but throughout the redemptive story and especially in Revelation. Why is it that everybody in Revelation, chapter 17, particularly chapter 18, are rejoicing when it says, Babylon, the Babylon, the great is fallen? Rejoice, Babylon. Because Babylon is always the anti-city. It is the city of man at its height. And there is Israel or the church using it as the same but with progressive revelation, the church of Israel. But Israel possesses the holy city. And Israel church, we are called to live in exile in Babylon until the coming of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21 and 22. And until the coming of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, which is in heaven with Christ, Christ ministers in the temple there, not made with hands. Christ sits at God's right hand in the New Jerusalem there. Christ speaks to us by His Spirit and walks among His lampstand and churches now from New Jerusalem. Very important. Even Old Testament saints, right? Hebrews, remember Hebrews 11, 13 through 16, that that Abraham ultimately didn't have his hope in an earthly city, but in a heavenly one built by God. And so, one thing to remember about reading Daniel, and any of the Old Testament story, and I've mentioned this, I've touched on this, but I want to really expand on it, is Israel is right here in the middle. Israel and the church have been given this privilege of receiving God's revelation through his word and spirit. Israel and the church are the center of God's redemptive activity. Israel and the church are the heirs of God's covenant revelation. They're the heirs of all the good stuff that God is pleased to reveal, all right? But around them is Babylon. And you can talk of Babylon as Assyria. You can talk of Babylon as truly Babel or Babylon. Remember, after the flood, there was the attempt to build the anti-city. Well, that city, though it was frustrated, the people went out and formed different languages that God gave them the ability to do. And what did they do but build anti-cities? They didn't build holy cities. So every city, the Greeks, the Romans, this might get a little offensive, but the Persians. Uh-oh, here it is, the Americans. All right? In every city built on earth, though some are more righteous than others, they are still anti-cities. There's only one holy city, and it is the New Jerusalem that is above. And that's the ultimate exile. That's the ultimate return from exile back to the land is when What was lost in the fall is restored in the reuniting of the heavens and the earth in the New Jerusalem. So whatever your country is a part of, it's still part of Babel or Babylon. It's the anti-city. And so even if you live at a time where there's a great deal of influence from Christianity in history, which we've had the privilege of doing, it's never guaranteed, beloved, not in the anti-city. The only place you will find the doorway to the true heavenly city is through a faithful gospel preaching congregation. that preaches the word and administers the sacrament and upholds discipline. That's where you're going to find the heaven's gate to Jesus Christ. Even, listen, even the Jews who were unbelieving Jews of Jesus's time were part of the anti-city because they did not believe in God's word. People like Simeon and Anna and Joseph and Mary and Jesus and the apostles and Saul after he was converted, they were all part of the heavenly city. That's why in Galatians 4, Paul says that right now the present Jerusalem is really people of the flesh. He says they're children of Hagar. That's offensive. He says, but we believers, Jew and Gentile believers in Christ, are part of the heavenly city that is above us. She is our mother. That's his point. So no matter what country you're a part of here on earth, you've got dual citizenship if you're a Christian, and your utmost devotion must go to your king. I had an awkward thing recently where I was asked on the Lord's Day to sing the national anthem. I've never been so appalled in all my life. If you get this, you realize I can do that six other days, but I can't do it on this day. I have one devotion, and that's to my team. I cannot sing this unless there's special times of war. I cannot sing this on the Lord's Day. We don't give that even thought, though, sometimes, beloved, and I won't go off on a tangent, but there's much to think about with that, is that we are Americans and we're proud to be Americans, but the main drive that we have is to continue to be the church and witness of the church in exile, because if we have enjoyed a few moments in history of Christian influence, that's never been guaranteed to us. So, our first day of worship must be given our whole devotion and our singing the national anthem of the eternity of heaven. Glory be to the Lamb who sits on the throne and to the King. So let's look at a few things with Daniel. The first thing you want to note is in Daniel 1, Daniel's taken to Babylon and he has to learn to distinguish between living this new existence as a noble youth, though he is being taught the ways of the world or the ways of the anti-city or the ways of Babylon. Very important. Very important. And so it's most important to understand that Daniel was there. Now, Daniel's story goes from this time period. You ready? Daniel's story goes from the time of Nebuchadnezzar, all right, all the way to the time of Cyrus. Okay, so Daniel's story is basically the story of how to live in exile until the return of exile begins, or until the return or resurrection begins when you're able to return back to the land. So that's where Daniel stands in redemptive history, is being in exile from the very beginning. Nebuchadnezzar is the one who takes all the Israelites out into exile to the end where Daniel is, where Cyrus is then making a proclamation that we've read about in Ezra and Nehemiah. So in chapter 2 of Daniel, a very important chapter, chapter 2, if I highlighted the most important chapters of Daniel, it would be these. Chapter 2, chapter 7, and chapter 9 with regard to the New Testament. And while I'll speak a little bit about those today, we'll look at them more fully in the fall. So in chapter 2, we have Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And God reveals this dream to Daniel. Why? Because for the sake of history, for the sake of history, for the sake of revealing. In chapter 2, verse 20, Daniel says, blessed be the name of God forever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you've given me wisdom and might and have made known to me what we ask of you, for you've made known to us the king's matter. So here, Daniel is used by God to interpret dreams, to make those dreams very clearly known. And in the dream, verses 31 and following, Daniel sees the story of the anti-city as a statute. and the story of the anti-city for the next few hundred years. Now that's very, that's quite simple, isn't it? We make it more complicated than it is. But the anti-city is just simply this. Nebuchadnezzar's the head, alright? That's where we're at in Babylon. Then there's the Medes and the Persians, then there's the Greeks, and then there's the Romans. And the Romans are represented by this iron material. They're solid, they're extending. To the ends of the earth, you know in their Empire their strength their power and yet what's going to happen? God in his sovereignty is telling Daniel that the king of heaven appointed this history as part of his purpose and plan That this return of exile should not become as a surprise that they don't go immediately to the Holy City But they have to learn to live in exile like Daniel or to put it another way They have to learn to dare be a Daniel until the coming of the king They have to learn how to live called as leaders, as witnesses, as servants, as worshippers in the Holy City. And the Holy City will have different faces. At one point it will be Babylon herself, then the Medes and the Persians, then the Greeks, and then the Romans, and it will go on. And every nation under heaven until the return of Christ will be part of that, if you will, Roman Empire. Not that Rome continues today, but Rome and what it was symbolically or thematically or theologically in the scriptures is that great kingdom to the ends of the earth. So any kingdom at the ends of the earth that's not the church, that's not believing Israel, is part of the empty city of Babylon. And that's how you interpret Daniel 2. Because listen to what he says in verses 44 and 45, beloved. Very important. And in the days of those kings, speaking of Rome, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. Isn't that wonderful? Nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. Now, beloved, remember the already not yet principle here. When this happens, it begins. It doesn't fully consummate. The consummation begins. And when this happens, it happens with the coming of Jesus Christ. So he says that it shall break in pieces, the Lord Jesus Christ's kingdom. Verse 45, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, that's the deity of Christ, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold, a great God is made known to the king what shall be after this. This dream is certain and its interpretation sure. So what you have, beloved, is what Daniel begins to, or ends with the to be continued at the end of Scripture, is that this king's going to come and sit on his throne and he's going to begin the abolishment and destruction of all competing kingdoms. He's got an issue, not only with the dragon serpent, but the beast. and the false prophet, the dragon serpent that manifests himself through beast, government, powers, people who oppose the Messiah, and through false prophets, people who propagate false religion and cults. And the whore of Babylon, who if the first two don't sink them into hell, she will appeal to their lusts. But she rides on a beast. She rides on a beast. The dragon serpent must be destroyed. The dragon serpent is ruler behind all of these kingdoms. Not in an ultimate sense. Our God is ruler, ultimately. We saw that just then. But the point is, until the end, when we shall see Jesus Christ, the glorious King's holy foot, stamped on that dragon's head. And it looks like, according to Romans 16, 20, that we also get to take part of that in Jesus Christ. that he will soon crush the serpent under your feet, he says to the church. Imagine hearing that as a Roman Christian under persecution. You're going to get to stamp the head of the serpent one day. You've had enough of the beast and his government of oppressiveness or false hopes and dreams to provide for the people of heaven on earth. However, he sells his pitch of making the holy city great again. He is nevertheless not part of the church. I'm trying to offend this morning. All right. All right. Let's be good. But whatever it is, the beast is the power. of whatever anti-government, whatever Babylonish government. The false prophet is the false religions, including Judaism, with all respect to them, because we do want to honor them for their ethnicity, and that it was through that line that glorious Jesus Christ came and the covenants itself. Let's honor him. And the prostitute to take care of the rest of the filth that lies within human hearts. Well, the dragon serpent will be defeated, began to be defeated with the coming of the king. And the coming of the king then, what did he do? But through his death and resurrection and his ascension, he was enthroned over heaven and earth to await the day when he shall be revealed as the king of kings and lord of lords, where every knee will bow and every tongue confess, every government, every leader. Read the last four books, four chapters of the book of Revelation. You'll see what I mean. Fallen? Fallen is Babylon the Great. Fallen are all the antecedents. Fallen are all those who oppose God and His anointed one, according to Psalm 2. I have set my son on Zion's hill. I have decreed this. He will be my king. And he will abolish all others. So the beginning of the abolishment, the beginning of the destruction of all kingdoms has begun. And that's why it's so important, beloved, to live like a Daniel, to dare to be a Daniel in the church today, to be faithful witnesses to truth, to not let the culture set the agenda for the church, but let the church be the church, faithfully preaching, sacrament, prayer, telling the good news of what's to come in all of its, you ready? Joyfulness as well as offensiveness. So then we have Daniel 4 and 5 that really deal with the judgment of God that will come on even the most supreme, powerful rulers. So it's a foretaste of Revelation, chapters 17 and 18, beloved. And then, Daniel, in the lion's den, what does that show us? That God is with us in exile, and that even though we feel like we are under the sentence of death sometimes, that we walk through the flames, as Isaiah 43 says, that he shall be with us, and we will not be burned. That's the language, is that we will come back from death itself. That even you martyr us, you throw us in the lion's den, Whatever you do, Daniel says to him, my God may not save me from this tribulation as it's revealed in the lion's den. But I know this, that my God will be with me and I will see him in all glory and resurrection. He had hope. We have hope, no matter how hard it gets. Dare to be a Daniel. And then very importantly, chapter seven gives us a picture of the king who is to come, beloved. the king who is to come. Listen, let's read verses 9 through 14, and then we'll plug in our handout today. As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, the hair of his head like pure wool. That's the language symbolism of holiness. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. That's the language of Ezekiel, right? A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousand served him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. And I looked in because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. As I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and get over to burn with fire. As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time, which again is a way of saying already, not yet. When the king takes the throne, there is a definitive defeat, but they will continue for a season. The book of Revelation and Daniel uses the time, the times, times and half a time, three and a half years to symbolize the half of seven, which is a complete number. So much more I could say about that. Just I got to leave it right there. I'm going to go off into another tangent and I don't want to do that. So verses 13 and 14, I saw in the night visions and behold, you ready? Here it is with the clouds of heaven. There came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion, and a glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." Now, this passage here is initially fulfilled when? If you were there last Lord's Day for our sermon, when would this have been partially fulfilled? When would it have been fulfilled? In Jesus's exaltation. In Jesus's ascension, he took the right hand of the Father, the place of all authority in heaven on earth. And when I say partial, only because it's not full in this. Then we have other passages in Daniel, but because of time, what I'd like to do is send you my notes on it. I especially have the notes on the 70 weeks of Daniel and how to interpret that, of course, in light of the 70 weeks of Jeremiah. You want to always interpret the Scriptures with Scripture, and so I'll give you what I recommend you think about with regard to the weeks of Daniel and the coming of Jesus Christ. I'll give you that through my notes. How about that? It is important that I read one more scripture from Daniel, though, in Daniel chapter 9. In Daniel chapter 9, let's do verses 24 and following, 24 to 27. Seventy weeks are decreed, and again, that's the language of Jeremiah 29 verse 1, okay? Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness. Let's just leave it at that. You notice, what you want to see that's crystal clear is that that Son of Man, when He takes the throne, that same time period that's prophesied by Daniel, is a time period that is putting an end to sin and transgression. It's a time period when everlasting righteousness will begin to reign, and that happened with the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And again, I'll show you my logic and my biblical work in giving you something in your inbox on interpreting Daniel's 70 weeks. Does that sound good? So, all right, we're about to do the handout. Before we do, let's do our bridge now to the New Testament. You ready? All right. So, how did we get then from Daniel that to be continued? There's a resurrection coming. There's a king coming. There's an end of all sin coming. There's an everlasting righteousness that begins. And Babylon will be destroyed and all that she represents in whatever manifestation And no matter how extensive, no matter how powerful, Babylon's going to go down and the king will reign forever and ever. He will bring in his throne. And what else is Daniel saying to do? He's saying, until then, walk wisely in the exile. The people of God leave behind and prepare for the future. You ready? Holy Scripture, Old Testament. No, we'll do that in the New Testament. All right. So what we're going to do when we get in the New Testament class, we'll look and say, what is it that all of the book of Daniel and these writings left behind in the intertestinal period to prepare the way for the coming of the king? Now you get why Luke, right, uses that whole set up in contrast between King Jesus and Augustus Caesar over the whole world, right? You get it better when you read Luke 2. Now you go. He's giving us understanding from the Old Testament. This is the king who, though born in humble circumstances, is the son of man who will destroy this iron kingdom that's represented by Augustus. And it all makes sense. All right, so let's do our handout where you see king, covenant, and dwelling. All right, so under king for Ezra and Nehemiah. You ready? Build and prepare for the king, no matter the opposition. All right? Some of these we've already said. Build and prepare for the king, no matter the opposition. Chronicles. Remember your history. Remember your history and particularly God's faithfulness to his people. Chronicles under King. Remember your history and remember particularly that God is your king and is faithful. And then Daniel under King. As you live in exile, dare to be a Daniel. Walk in wisdom and look for the king and his kingdom to come. Looking at the king and the kingdom is to come. Covenant under Ezra Nehemiah. The king is coming to redeem his people and fully restore and resurrect his people from exile death. God is faithful. Covenant. The king is coming to redeem his people, fully restore and resurrect his people from exile death. That's what Ezra Nehemiah teaches us. Chronicles covenant. We're God's covenantal people. We're God's covenantal people. He's not forgotten us. We're God's covenantal people. He's not forgotten us. And then covenant with Daniel. The covenant of grace will be consummated in the coming of the king. The covenant of grace will be consummated in the coming of the king, and particularly through his atoning sacrifice of blood. Dwelling. Dwelling, Ezra and Nehemiah, preparing Jerusalem's walls and building the second temple. Well, that's too much. Let's just say the building of the temple, as they were to do, and the building of Jerusalem was to remind them that God was already with them through word. God was already with them through word and spirit. God was with them through word and spirit. He had never, never forsaken his true remnant. And Chronicles, the dwelling, God has not forsaken his people. In time, God will dwell with man in the Lord Jesus, who is part of the genealogy of Chronicles. So the genealogy of Chronicles is fulfilled in the second Adam, the son of Abraham, the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Daniel, dwelling, one like the son of man will come and set up his eternal throne, and he will cause all believers to rise from the dead in resurrection glory. Daniel 12. And what will happen? God will be with us and we will be with glory. It summarizes everything that we see in glory, and God will dwell with his people forever and ever. Amen? That's good news, huh? So this is to be continued in fall 2019 now. But I'll say three final things about Ezra Nehemiah that I'd like you to memorize, you know, the three main points today. They're right here in the middle. So with chronicles, what are you going to do? As one in exile, you're going to remember. You're going to remember your history. your salvation history, and you're going to hope. So, you know, what does that look like? Listen, if you're ever given a sermon where you just learn more about the story, don't think you've missed application. You've actually been given foundational application. You've been given seeds rather than a plant. So just because you don't find out something like how to deal with such and such issue, particularly, you should get that now and then. But if you don't, remember, if you've been taught the story, if some link has come together that's a little better, that's seed that you can use to remember you're in exile and that you have a hope of being part of the story. In Ezra Nehemiah, wait and watch. Wait and watch. And Daniel teaches us to wisely live in exile until the coming of the king, until his return. So I think those three things, if you don't get anything else, those would be the three main points that these books teach us. So beloved, let's focus our eyes here as we close on just thinking that in Ezra Nehemiah, we learned that though the church is greatly opposed, the king comes to establish his eternal temple in his body and he comes to prepare the holy Jerusalem. So when we think of Jesus going back saying, I go to prepare a place for you, think about it now as that's the holy city, that's the new Jerusalem he's preparing. It's what we've been taught in our Old Testament. And then Chronicles, remember, the king, David's greater son, comes to fulfill the Old Testament, consummate all history. And then Daniel, the king, the son of man, comes to proclaim the gospel, take up his eternal throne through death and resurrection. And so let's all finish this year's class by looking at Revelation 5, 9 through 14. Next week, we have a question and answer time. Maybe you'd want to talk about some of these things. Maybe you'd want to talk about the 70 weeks of Daniel. Maybe you want to go back to Moses, talk about something with Moses. Maybe there's something you need clarified. Bring it next week. We'll talk about it. And I'd also have you do that final exam for me. I'd love for you to have that done by next Friday and then share it with me, share it with the class, and then turn it in. I'd love that. I learn a lot from you. There's so many wonderful ways of seeing the truth from different perspectives. Our brother, Dr. Vern Poitras, calls it multi-perspectivalism. I love it. It's the truth in all of its glory and different aspects. So do that for me for next class. And we're going to have question and answer, and we'll go over the final exam together. All right, Revelation 5, 9 through 14. You ready? And they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth from all these nations. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. Be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said Amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped. Let us worship our Father and our God. We're grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that the whole of scripture is about Jesus. It's about your purpose and plan to glorify your son and to glorify your great and holy name and enjoy a people. Thank you that you call us now in Christ by your spirit to glorify you and enjoy you forever, even beginning now. And Lord, we know you're faithful. As we look at Daniel, we realize that though we are surrounded with the anti-city and the anti-culture constantly bombarded with it, we know that we can make a stand and be holy and consecrated as you've called us to. We can dare to be a Daniel. We can dare to learn all that we can about the wealth of knowledge that is available in this present age and yet to always be submitting it to scripture. to know when we can make our pledges of allegiance to our country and when we should not. to know when we are to speak as lights of the world and when we should be silent. Help us in both our words and our deeds. Help us to see that your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and that we're members of it and give us great thrill and joy this day. As we serve you as dual citizens of earth in America, most of us today, and as those who are also, more importantly, citizens of heaven, let our whole devotion be first to you, and then to honoring and respecting other image bearers, particularly those in authority in our country. And we pray, oh God, that you'd help us to see that son of man who has taken the throne, Jesus, our bridegroom, our king, the lover of our souls, our friend, our shepherd. We thank you that you've sat down and you rule and reign over heaven and earth and we want to live for you. We want to adjust our lives to your will and to do what you tell us to do. And we thank you that all of the blood that needed to be shed for our redemption has been shed. that you've made a complete, atoning, propitiatory, substitutionary sacrifice for sinners in our place, and we're grateful for that. We stand upon that solid foundation of redemption in you. We ask that, Holy Spirit, you'd help us that what we've learned in this class together, as we've looked at the storyline, that we would be thrilled that we're part of the story, that we'd be thrilled that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. As the apostles came back rejoicing that the demons were subject to their preaching, we pray that we would take our Lord Jesus' words of wisdom and heed them when he says, don't rejoice that the demons flee life. And we thank you, King, who has fulfilled the covenant and who dwells with us by your Spirit even now. And one day we shall see you face to face and we shall be like you. And we will be forever with you, forever and ever. Amen. Amen.