Take your Bibles and turn with me this morning to Daniel chapter 11. Daniel chapter 11. It's a long chapter. It's in ways a difficult chapter. And so I pray God will give us understanding as we look at it today. Because of time, we're not going to read all the verses. We will be looking at the verses as we go through, but we'll read just some of those verses as we begin. And let's begin with chapter 11, verse 1. Also in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. And now will I show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be richer than all. And by his strength, through his riches, he shall stir up all against the realm of Grisha. And a mighty king shall stand up and shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken, and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up even for others beside those. And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes, and he shall be strong above him, and his dominion shall be a great dominion. And in the end of the years, they joined themselves together for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the power of the arm, neither shall he stand, nor his arm, but she shall be given up, and they that brought her, and he that beget her, and he that strengthened her in these times. But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his estate, which shall come with an army, and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them and shall prevail. Now let's go over to verse 21. I believe this is speaking of Antiochus Epiphanes. and from before him, and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. And after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. Now over to verse 36, speaking of the future Antichrist, I believe. It says, And the king shall do according to his will, and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods And shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished, for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God, for he shall magnify himself above all. And now let's skip down to verse 44, reading the last two verses. But the tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Therefore, he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to take away many, or make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain, yet he shall come to his end and none shall help him. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would give enablement to bring this message, give us clarity of thought as we look through what is now history, But at the time it was written in these verses, it was prophecy. And Lord, part of this is still history when we talk about the Antichrist in the end. So I pray you give enablement to bring the message. May your will be accomplished. May you teach us lessons that we need to learn as Christians. And if there be one here that's not saved, may today be the day that they trust Jesus as their Savior. We pray in His name. Amen. Biblical prophecy is a thorn in the flesh to those who do not believe the Bible. Only a sovereign, all-knowing God could predict the future with accuracy. And so if a person does not believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing God, he will reject the very idea that God would or could reveal with accuracy what is going to happen many years before it actually happens. Therefore, many reject the book of Daniel as a true book of prophecy. They have to admit that there have been four world kingdoms, as Daniel predicted. Babylon, which Daniel was in, but he predicted what was following that. Babylon, then the Medes and the Persians, and then the Greeks, and then the Romans. Everybody knows that's true. But that Daniel could predict these kingdoms before they happened would be impossible in these critics' minds. Therefore they say the book of Daniel was written after the facts were known, making it a book of history, not a book of prophecy. You see, prophecy is history written beforehand, and only God could do that. And they're not willing to give God credit for doing something like that. So when we come to Daniel 11, we find a portion of scripture that gives Bible critics a real headache. Because they rejected this prophecy because it gives so much detail about things that are coming in the future. And they just cannot believe that anyone could do such a thing. But we know that that is possible because with God all things are possible. You see, He knows the beginning before the beginning ever began. He knows the end before it ever gets here, and He knows what's going to follow that end of the universe as we know it with the eternal state. God knows all those things, and we believe that. Therefore, we believe the book of Daniel, and particularly this 11th chapter, which gives so much prophecy. As we look at this passage, I want us to break it down and look at the different people that he talks about. First of all, prophecy concerning Persia. We find that in verses one to two. It says, also I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I stood to confirm and to strengthen him. Now the I there, I believe, is this angel, this certain person, and this is Jesus, I believe, the pre-incarnate Christ. And so he's saying that I stood in the first year of Darius to strengthen Michael, the angel. Now the first year of Darius was, Darius was a king who served under Cyrus. So Cyrus was the beginning king. He served under Cyrus and Cyrus was inclined to be sympathetic to the Jews. And you remember he passed a decree that the Jews could return from his land and go back to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. Now Satan did not like that because Satan doesn't like anything that's pro-Israel. He's against the Jewish people, always has been, and always will be. So when you find anti-Semitism coming up in this world, you know the devil's behind it because he hates Satan. And so since Cyrus is inclined to be sympathetic to the Jews, the devil didn't like that at all. So the prince of Persia was there to fight against Michael, the archangel, and the Bible says that Jesus Christ, the one who's speaking here, he said, I came to strengthen Michael. And so he comes to strengthen Michael. Now, Michael is the archangel that stands up for Israel. He has and he is today. So when there's conflict in Israel, you know behind the scenes, the archangel Michael is standing for Israel. There are other evil angels against Israel, but Michael is standing for them. Now, Christ showed Daniel truths about the coming kings in Persian. Look at verse 2. And now will I show thee the truth. That's interesting. I will show thee the truth. What's it gonna show him? Things that Daniel has never experienced. Things that haven't happened yet. Yet God is going to tell Daniel what's gonna happen. I think the Lord God can do that. He knows everything that's going to happen. He knows about your life. If you have something tragic happen in your life tomorrow, you know this as a Christian, God knew about it before it happened. And God will work all things together for good to those that love him. And so he's telling Daniel about what's going to happen. He says, there's three kings that are gonna stand up. And now I will show thee the truth. Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia. And then he mentions the fourth one. We know from history the next three kings were Cambyses from 529 BC to 522, Pseudo-Smyrtas from 522 to 521. He was called Pseudo because he looked like the one who was supposed to reign and he deceived people. When he got in, they called him Pseudo. He wasn't the true thing. And then Darius I, Histapas, from 521 to 486 BC. And then came the fourth. He mentions the fourth here. And he says of the fourth that he was far richer than the others. We know from history that that's Xerxes. Xerxes was the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther. And so Xerxes was far richer than all the others. They didn't know that at this time. He wasn't living, but God said, this is coming. And so when it came, now we look back and say, God knew what he was talking about. God predicted this. And so this man rises up. He stirs up against the realm of the Grecians, it says in verse two. And we know that happened. Xerxes flexed his muscles and thought, I'm going to go against the Greeks. And so he had two million soldiers and a fleet of ships. And so he took those soldiers and those ships and he made an attack against Grecia. But it didn't work. and he wasn't successful. So he went back defeated, and some believe that that's Ahasuerus, and he came back defeated, and that's what happened in the book of Esther. You remember when he called all those concubines in, Vashti rejected him, what he wanted to do, and he called all those virgins in, and they became his concubines, and all the book of Esther. But anyway, that's Ahasuerus, and so, He made this attempt to conquer Greece, but it failed. And then it says in verse 3, that shall rule with great dominion and do according to his will. We know from history that mighty king was the one who followed the Medes and the Persians, that's Alexander the Great. And notice what it says, and when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided toward the four winds. We know that Alexander the Great started off greatly and he conquered 11,000 miles of territory. and he was only 32, 33 years old, and he died unexpectedly. And so that left his kingdom, this world kingdom that he had. So they divided it up between his four soldiers, or four generals. And notice what it says, divided toward the four winds of heaven and not to his posterity. It wasn't divided to his sons, it was divided to his generals. Now, God tells that before it ever happened. Why? Because God knows. And so it's divided between four winds of heaven, not to his posterity, and not according to his dominion, which he ruled. It wasn't according to the power that he had as one man over all this kingdom. It was divided up into four. And then it says, the kingdoms be plucked up, even for others beside those. And then it goes to the next, and it says, and the king of the south shall be strong. and one of his princes, and he shall be strong above him, and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion." Now, this moves on to not only Alexander the Great, but those who followed him. And two of those divisions, those four divisions of Alexander's kingdom became stronger than the others and they were dominant. And so that follows. Then it says concerning the kings of the south and the north. That was those two kingdoms that were very strong after Alexander. The south and the north. The south was Egypt, the north was Syria. And so those became strong and we know that from history. And so it says that in verse 6, after a few years, they made an alliance through marriage. Look at what verse 6 says. This is interesting. And at the end of the years, they shall join themselves together. This is these two kings, Egypt and Syria. For the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement, but she shall not retain the power of his arm, neither shall he stand nor his arm, but she shall be given up and they that brought her and He that beget her and He that strengthen her in these times." Now, you have to remember that nobody knew about this because it hadn't happened. But God knew about it. God knew all about it. What was this about this daughter and all that it says? Well, Ptolemy II demanded that Antiochus II divorce his wife, Laodice, and her name was Laodice. in order to marry his daughter, Bernice. They were making this alliance, you know, trying to get along as two kingdom, as two powers. But after Ptolemy died two years later, Antiochus took back his former wife, the Odyssey, but she wasn't too happy about that. because history tells us that after he took back his former wife, she had him killed, her husband. She never liked it, you know, that he gave her away for Bernice. So she had him killed and then she had Bernice killed and her baby and also all that came up with her from Egypt. So you see the intrigue there and all that's in a way summarized in verse 6. Then we come to verses 7 through 9. Bernice's brother Ptolemy III became king of Egypt. Well, he didn't like it that the Syrians had done that to his sister, so he defeated the Syrian army, and he put Laodicea, that former wife, to death, and he carried back to Egypt 40,000 talents of silver and 2,500 idols. And he did that. Well, that's summarized in verses 7 through 9. In verse 10, it says later, the Syrian king invaded Egypt, and he defeated Ptolemy III, and retook the Syrian territory taken by Egypt. And so it's back and forth, the king of the north, the king of the south, fighting against each other. Now look at verse 11. and the king of south shall be moved with collar. In other words, he's very angry. And he was very angry, and he went to fight against Antiochus of the king of the north. This is one of the Antiochus, not Antiochus epiphanies. So he went to fight against him. History tells us that Ptolemy had 70,000 infantrymen, he had 5,000 cavalrymen, and notice this, he had 73 elephants. Now, you don't think of elephants in war, but they had 73 elephants. Well, Antiochus, the king of the north, had 72,000 infantry, 6,000 cavalry, and 102 elephants. So it sounds like the king of the north is going to win. But Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, the king of the south, won the battle against Antiochus, and Antiochus lost 10,000 infantry, he lost 300 cavalry, and he lost five elephants. And so Ptolemy then returned home. He went back to the south, back to Egypt. And then we come to verse 13. And it says the king of the north returns. And he gets some rebel Jews to help him, but their whole plan fails. Verse 13, for the king of the north shall return and set forth a multitude greater than the former and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches. And in those times there shall many stand up against the king of the south. Also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision, but they shall fail. The robbers of thy people. Thy people is Israel." And those robbers of Israel were Israelites, Jews, who sided with the king of the north because they didn't want to be subject to Egypt. But it failed, and it did not materialize as they had hoped. Well, God wrote all this in summary form before it ever happened because God knows. Then look at verse 16. Verse 16 says, And we know that Antiochus, after this, he turned his attention to the Middle East and he sort of had free hand to do as he wanted to. And history tells us that he was sympathetic with the Jews for a while just to get them to agree to him. because he was against them really. In verse 17 says, Antiochus tries a treaty with Egypt. and through marriage. Let's read it, verse 17. And he shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom and upright ones with him. Thus shall he do, and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her, but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. Now, that daughter of women in history is somebody you've heard about, but not the one you've heard about. Her name is Cleopatra. But this was Cleopatra I. There were seven Cleopatras. And the most famous one, I believe, is the last one. But this is Cleopatra. And so they make this marriage between Cleopatra to the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt at that time was only about 10 years old. So it was definitely an arrangement to try to get favor. But Cleopatra actually sided with the king of Egypt. And she did not side with her dad, and so she actually moved against him, and so it didn't work. And then verse 18 tells us, after this, shall he turn his face into the aisles, and shall take many. But the prince of his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease. Without his own reproach, he shall cause to turn upon him. Now what happened was Antiochus conquered several Aegean Sea islands and also parts of Asia Minor and even parts of Greece. The Romans who were coming to power did not like that. And so they sent a general after him and he brought him down, defeated him there. So verse 18 sort of summarizes that. Verse 19 tells us that Antiochus returned to Syria and what actually happened in history was he was killed. Look at verse 19. Then shall he turn his face toward the fort of his own land, but he shall stumble and fall and not be found. He goes back defeated. And he goes back to Syria, and history tells us that he was robbing the temple of Elam, and he was caught and killed. Why was he robbing the temple of Elam? Because he had lost all of his treasures through war, and so he was trying to regain that strength that he had, and he was killed. You see, before that ever happened, God knew it. Let's go to today. Before President Trump ever got shot yesterday, God knew it. God knew it was gonna happen. I personally am thankful that he's okay. But God knows all that. God knows what's gonna happen tomorrow. God knows what's gonna happen the next day. And we can trust the Lord. We don't have to be fearful and just wonder what's gonna happen, afraid everything's gonna go. We need to know that God is in control and God knows what's gonna happen. In verse 20, Antiochus' son, Seleucius IV, reigned. And the Romans required him to pay a thousand talents of tribute each year. And what did he do? History tells us. What did he do to get that money to pay the Romans? He raised taxes. Notice what verse 20 says. And then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom. And history tells us that following this, this guy rose up and he raised taxes to meet the demand from Rome for 1,000 talents a year. Then we go to verse 21. And this comes to who we know as, from history, as Antiochus Epiphanes. Now, Antiochus Epiphanes was Seleucus IV. He was followed by a man by the name of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Now he called himself Antiochus Theos Epiphanes. We mentioned this earlier in the study. And what that meant was God made manifest. He was a very proud man. And he said, I'm like God. I'm God made manifest. But his enemies nicknamed him a different name. They nicknamed him Antiochus Ipmanes. Ipmanes. E-P-I-M-A-N-E-S. And that means madman. So behind the back, you know, They're calling him, he's a madman. Why would they call him that? Because he was. He was a madman. Look at verse 22. And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. Now, who's the prince of the covenant? Well, history tells us that Antiochus had the high priest of Israel demoted. His name was Onias. And Onias was a firm believer in the Lord, and he wanted Israel to continue to follow the covenant of God. But he had a brother by the name of Jason. And his brother did not want that. He wanted Israel to begin to be more like the Greeks, Hellenistic, and to have their culture. And so Antiochus took down Onias and put up Jason. And so Onias was called the Prince of the Covenant. And so that's in verse 22. Then we come to verse 23. He gained power by making a league with Egypt, and after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. You see, Antiochus was not in line to be the king. He did it by flatteries, verse 21 tells us. Deceit and flatteries. He got close to the one who was supposed to be the one to follow. and he actually deceived him, and he gained power. And so through, though he was small in strength, he became strong, as verse 23 says. Then verses 25 through verse 27 talks about Egypt and Syria fighting each other, as they've been doing before. But they're fighting each other. But finally they sit down. History tells us this is true, which God wrote it beforehand, so we know it's true. And look at verse 27. And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table. And history tells us that the king of Egypt and the king of Syria at this time sat down at a peace table. We've seen that before. And they're gonna make peace, but they have ulterior motives. They both know that they're lying. And so God knew this before it ever happened. So if we in the future have the President of the United States and somebody from Israel or somebody from that part over there, the enemies of Israel, they sit down at the peace table, God knows what's in their mind. God knows whether it'll work or not. God knows whether the President of the United States is telling the truth, or the other guy's telling the truth. God knows all about that. Because he says, both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table, but shall not prosper. For yet the end shall be at the time appointed. And so, it's not gonna prosper. And God said it won't, and it didn't. Then we come to verses 28 to 35, and we'll go through this quickly. But 28 to 35 says, then shall he return into his land with great riches, and his heart shall be against the holy covenant. This is Antiochus Epiphanes. He returns with great riches, and his heart's against the children of Israel. He has told them he's for them, but his heart's against them. And at that time, At the time appointed, he shall return and come toward the south, but it shall not be as the former or as the latter. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him, therefore he shall be grieved and return and have indignation against the holy covenant." That's the children of Israel. So shall he do, he shall even return and shall have intelligence with them and forsake the holy covenant. The arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength." We know that Antiochus Epiphanes, remember he substituted the altar of the Lord. He made an altar to Zeus. He sacrificed a pig on it. He did terrible things. And all these verses are telling about what he did. Then what happened was the children of Israel began to rebel against him. And I want to read. Part of what Dr. Wiersbe said on this, it says, on December the 14th, 168 BC, Antiochus desecrated the temple by erecting an altar to Zeus and by offering a pig as a sacrifice. Gabriel calls this, or Jesus, I believe, calls this, the abomination that maketh desolate. The future Antichrist will put his own image in the Jewish temple when he breaks his covenant with the Jews in the middle of the seven-year tribulation period. Antiochus was doing his best not only to exterminate the Jewish people but also to eliminate their religion from the earth. He promised to reward the Jews who followed his orders and there were those who forsook their holy covenant to obey him. This was a time of testing and refining to the Jewish people when they had to decide to obey God their fathers and possibly be slain or submit to the pagan Syrian leaders and live as traitors to their faith. According to verse 33 and 35, there was a small group of faithful Jews who opposed the godlessness of Antiochus and trusted God to enable them to fight. This is the Maccabean Revolt, and we know about it from history. A Jewish priest by the name of Mattathias with his five sons gathered an army and were able to fight back. His son Judas, nicknamed Maccabees, the hammerer, was one of the heroes of this revolt. Many Jews laid down their lives for their city, their temple, and their faith, and finally they won. On December the 14th, 165, the temple was purified and the altar dedicated. The Jews celebrate this annually as the Feast of Lights, or Hanukkah. Their enemy Antiochus died in Persia at 163. He was judged insane, and it was no wonder people called him Antiochus Epimenes, that is, a madman. And so that's the end of Antiochus. And so these verses tell us in summary form what we know from history. God knew it because he knew it was going to happen. Then we come to the last part of this passage. And it begins in verse 36. Many conservative Bible scholars believe that this jumps ahead in time to the end time Antichrist. And I believe it does. Partly because there's nothing in here that fits history. What's said about this man doesn't fit somebody that's happened in history like these other verses do. So it's probably referring to the coming Antichrist. And the king should do according to his will. And that means that He just has His will. Nobody really fights against Him much. Some do, but they don't succeed. So He takes charge. He does according to His will. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3 calls Him the man of sin. Another translation says man of lawlessness. In other words, he doesn't care what the law does. He does according to his will. He'll do whatever he wants to. That's the Antichrist. It also says he'll blaspheme the true God. Verse 36 tells us that. He'll exalt himself above God, speaking things against God. And the Antichrist will do that. He will also, in verse 37, he'll not regard the desire of women. Some people have taken that and said that the Antichrist would probably not be married. He don't want anything to do with women. But others say that it probably is not meaning that, but it's probably meaning that the desire of women, Jewish women in those days, was to be the mother of the Messiah. That was the desire of many Jewish women. And so he regards not anything about this. In other words, he does not regard the Messiah, he rejects the Messiah. And so anyway, this is the Antichrist. He'll also magnify himself above all, verse 37 says. He'll magnify himself above all. And 2 Thessalonians tells us that about him. chapter 2 verse 4 and it says this of him who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he is God sit in the temple of God showing himself that he is God and so he just is totally against God and he makes himself out to be God and demands that they worship him he will reward his Verse 38, he'll actually have a God and it says that his God is war, but in his state shall honor the God of forces. And a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver, precious stones and pleasant things. So his God is war. His God is just taking over the world. And that's his desire and what he wants to do. And so that's the Antichrist that's coming. He'll also reward his helpers, looks like in verse 39. It says, and he shall cause them to rule over many and shall divide the land for gain. It seems like those who help this Antichrist, he's going to reward them by giving them dominion over things and also by giving them land. He can do that because he'll own all these things because he's the dictator. He's the ruler of the world. And so this is what he does. And then it says in verse 40 that At that time at the end shall the King of the South push at him and King of the North shall come against him. Now, just what does that mean? Probably means that the King of the South, Egypt, and the King of the North, Syria, they've no friends of Israel. And you remember the Bible tells us that at the first part of that tribulation period, the Antichrist makes a covenant with Israel. And because he's made a covenant with Israel, then if anybody attacks Israel, they're attacking him. And it seems like that this probably is, during this first part of the tribulation period, the king of the north, Syria, the king of the south, Egypt, come against Israel. And if they come against Israel, they come against him. And so he goes to fight against them. and he goes to defend them. And so he goes to the north first, and then he goes to the south second, and that's in verses 41 to 43. And he'll get great riches when he does that. And so this is the king of the end times, the Antichrist. He will also then hear tidings from the east. You've heard this verse, look at it as we read. Verse 41, he shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown, but these shall escape out of his hand, Edom and Moab and the children of Edom. And he shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, over the precious things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Ethians shall be at his feet. But tidings of the east shall out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Therefore he will go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to take away many." Now, scholars have been at different ideas of this, but it seems to me like this is probably a reference to what Ezekiel talks about when he talks about the land of Magog, which is Russia. who will come down against Israel, the first part of the tribulation period. And what will they do? They'll come down to take a spoil and to really clean up Israel, because Israel's at peace. You know, they're not worried about anything. The Antichrist is protecting them, and so they're at peace. And so Russia comes down, and what happens? Ezekiel 38 and 39, I believe it is, tells us that Russia is defeated by God. I mean, without any help from the Israelites, God just destroys them. Well, you can imagine what that does to the Antichrist, because he hears these tidings from the East, and out of the North, it shall trouble him, therefore he go forth with great fear to destroy, and only to take away many, but when he gets there, what's he find out? They're all taken. They've already been killed. God killed them. Now, I don't know because we haven't got there yet what's going to happen, but I just sort of think maybe that the Antichrist will take credit for it. Maybe he'll take credit for the supernatural thing that happened. Anyway, from there he goes, he turns against Israel. We know from the Bible, he turns against Israel, he breaks the covenant, and he turns with vengeance against God's people. But notice verse 45. and he shall plant the tabernacle of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain." I mean, he's king. He's going to rule Israel, and he's going to turn against the children of Israel. But what happens at the end of that last three and a half years? Jesus Christ comes back, Revelation 19. Behold a white horse, and him that sat on it, coming down from heaven, and then these others following him on white horses. And with the sword of his mouth, he'll destroy all those enemies. He'll destroy them. And the Antichrist will come to his end. What's it say? He shall come to his end, and none shall help him. That's the end of the Antichrist. Well, not quite the end, because it says in verse 20 of Revelation 19, he's cast into the lake of fire. So the Antichrist is destroyed, his forces are destroyed, and he's cast into the lake of fire. Now, many years later, somebody else joins him. You know who that is? Satan. Because it says Satan will be released after the 1,000 year reign of Christ. And then he will call many to follow him, but the Lord will destroy him and cast him into the lake of fire. And then it says this in Revelation 20, where the beast and the false prophet are. So the beast, the Antichrist, spends 1,000 years in the lake of fire, just he and the false prophet. And then later, Satan joins him. And then the very sad thing, then joining them are all the people who reject Jesus. You don't want to be on the losing side. And that losing side is all those who fight against God. Now, I know this is a history lesson, and it's a little unusual, but it teaches us this. God knows what's going to happen before it happens. Prophecy is history written beforehand, and God does just that in Daniel chapter 11. It tells us from this passage that God is sovereign. He does as He wills. He knows what he's doing. God's not taken, taken, done in by anybody else. He's not overruled by anybody else. He's not outsmarted by anybody else. God knows what he's doing. And when God lets people go ahead and express themselves, He lets them, you know, rebel against God, God says, I got this. I'm over all, don't be frightened, don't fret, I know what I'm doing, and I will bring it to a conclusion, and I will win. Jesus wins. Also, we learn from this passage that God is true. Back in chapter 10, verse 21, it said this, scriptures of truth. And then in verse two of chapter 11, it says to Daniel, I will show thee the truth. What did he show Daniel? He told him what was coming. He said, it's true. Listen, when God says something, we can believe it. And it's foolish to fight against God because God always tells the truth. So if a person here has never trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, you need to understand, it's true. There is one way to heaven. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If you don't have Jesus, you're without hope. You must have Jesus as your personal savior. That's true. God says it's true that all those who reject him will go to the lake of fire forever and ever and ever. That's true. And so don't think that you're gonna outsmart God because God says, I know what I'm doing. It's foolish to fight against God. It's the wise thing to trust God who knows everything. He knows what the future holds. So the question is, what have you done with Jesus? And I believe Jesus is the one who told all this to Daniel. And he says, Daniel, I'm gonna tell you the truth. Here's what's gonna happen. And then he ends by telling us what's gonna happen because all those things before those verses, last verses have happened, but now he tells us about the antichrist that's coming. and we need to believe it. I ask you today, have you trusted Jesus as your personal Savior? If you have, you're on victory side. As we've learned in Bible camp this week, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Let's pray. Father, thank you today for helping us to see some of the things from this passage. I know, Lord, that they are difficult in a way, and yet we thank you, Lord, that history has proved that what you said was gonna happen, happened. Even concerning certain women that were in the bargaining process, you knew about that before it ever happened. And so we thank you. I pray that you'd help us to live our lives knowing that you know the way, and if we're smart, we'll follow you. If there's anybody here who's not saved, may today be the day of salvation for them. We pray in Jesus' name.