We now come upon our seventh and final sermon in the history of Holy Days. And now since we had an extensive review this morning, just let me do a brief one. Remember from the creation of the world to the time of Moses, God instituted. and God himself instituted it not another one holy day to be kept in the world 2500 years the weekly moral sabbath was kept in the church of God under Moses ceremonial sabbaths were added to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus Christ and we should remember that those saints in those ancient times hearing the prophecy concerning the Messiah and looking at these Living pictures, the sacraments of his shed blood, put their faith in Jesus Christ and were saved. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ said, Moses preached of me in John chapter 5, but all of that was about me. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. It's an amazing thing that those old administration saints as they looked at these sacraments saw Jesus Christ in them and set their faith in Jesus Christ. So indeed in ancient times this was a powerful way of preaching Jesus Christ to come for the salvation of souls. During the Mosaic administration, God not only added ceremonial Sabbaths, but he also revealed his displeasure against humans adding holy days of any kind. So we looked at that. Jeroboam adds holy days that are after his own heart, his own inclination. this of course contrary to Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 8 that we are not to worship God after our own inventing every man what is right in his own eyes but this is condemned, this action by Jeroboam is condemned by God through the word preached by a prophet and through that special judgment, a miracle wrought there the overturning of that altar We also see that God would reveal that no monuments to idolatry are to be kept. Moses destroyed the golden calf. And when holy days are monuments to idolatry, they are not to be kept, but to be taken out of the way. Now with this present administration, the new administration, the ceremonial Sabbaths have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ and are thus taken away. God did grant a space for the Jews while the temple was standing to let go of the old ceremonies. He granted them a space, but these ceremonies were on their way to the grave. So they were not to be imposed upon Gentile converts, and in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem, they were decisively, once for all, taken away. They cannot be observed. But as we saw in the last sermon, the Moral Weekly Sabbath continues. It is founded on moral principles. It is one of the Ten Commandments. And it has not been abrogated by God. Only God would have the authority to change or take away one of His laws. And He has not taken this one away. But we find that the Church was observing a Sabbath day on the first day of the week. So we looked at Acts 20. 1 Corinthians 16 and Revelation chapter 1 so with this survey of the history of holy days we might ask ourselves the question what more is there to do? that pretty much covers the span of the history it seemed good to me to spend a little time with application because as you well know our American calendar is filled with all kinds of different days a great many different kinds of days that come from a great many different sources now of course we can't deal with them all individually so I want to deal with two types under two heads and you should have this in your bulletin one monuments those holy days that are monuments to idolatry are to be taken away and are not to be observed by Christian people and also that those holy days of Roman institution are not to be observed by Christian people so two applications and you will have to largely make the applications to the particular days yourselves but here are the principles that are necessary in order to think through all of these things first, the monuments to idolatry are to be taken down, taken away We've already seen this with Moses in Exodus chapter 32, his destruction of the idol. And of course that holy day wasn't preserved or remembered. Those monuments to idolatry were taken away. We have some very explicit teaching about this. You will remember, and turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 12. These are Moses' last sermons to the people. they're getting ready to cross over Jordan and to go into Palestine in the midst of pagan people and during the conquest they are going to see all kinds of idolatrous forms of worship and relics and so Moses is warning them and preparing them and giving them commandment concerning what they're to do when they find themselves in the midst of these pagan people Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 1 These are the statutes and judgments which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it all the days that ye live upon the land. ye shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the nations which ye shall possess serve their gods upon the high mountains and upon the hills and under every green tree and ye shall overthrow their altars and break their pillars and burn their groves with fire and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods and destroy the names of them out of that place so you see here there You come upon an altar of Baal, you're going to destroy it. You come upon the grove of the Astaroth, you're going to burn it. So that their names might be blotted out from underneath heaven. Now although their names in one sense have been preserved for us in scripture, you might notice that there are not very many worshippers of Baal walking around. Worshippers of the Astaroth, in that sense their names have been blotted out and are no longer had in remembrance. This was a program of destroying their names so that they would no longer be esteemed in the world. And indeed, most of the idolatries that continue, it wouldn't be a bad thing if they were forgotten altogether and no longer remembered in the history of man. But listen to this, verse 4. Ye shall not do so unto the Lord your God. So this is not primarily a first commandment concern on Moses' part. He's not concerned so much about them worshipping the other gods as looking at those forms of worship practiced by the pagan people and saying, this is attractive or this is wise. Let's bring this into our worship. God couldn't be more clear. Do not imitate them. What do you see them doing? You are not going to do to the Lord your God and God will not be pleased in it. After going through what God Himself does command, He returns to this subject in verse 29 of the same chapter. When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land, Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee, and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. I should point out here Isn't this the most foolish thing that he's warning them about? But they were indeed ensnared. What a ridiculous thing. Their God is giving them victory over all of these peoples and over all of these gods. And these pretended gods that were impotent to deliver their people, well, they're going to appropriate for themselves those forms of worship and pretend to worship Jehovah by means of them. He says you're not going to serve the way that they serve their gods. Verse 31. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God. For every abomination to the Lord which he hateth have they done unto their gods. For even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. But things however I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. So here, Moses is giving his expression of the regulative principle. The things that I've commanded you to do in your worship, do that! You can't subtract from it, you're going to do all of it, but neither can you add to it with these pagan worship practices. These are things that are described here as an abomination to the Lord, and things that he has no pleasure. Indeed, their heathenish darkness was such, and we can miss something of the trajectory here it wasn't the first sons of Noah that went into this kind of idolatry it comes on by degrees to the point that they even reached the point where they would sacrifice their own children to appease the gods so it starts with small things but it ends up with the destruction of your offspring What a wicked thing this is, and how blind they would become by degrees if they didn't separate themselves and destroy these monuments of idolatry. And we should be careful with this. We're all prone to this kind of thing. As Calvin said, the sinful human heart is an idle factory. You just pump them out one right after another. And we always want to approach God on our own terms. We see almost the entire Christian worship has gone after a form of worship that is for their own pleasure and not for the pleasure of God. What pleases me? What's going to work for me? When you ask somebody when they first attended a church, how did you find the church? What is it that you normally hear from people, Christian people? Well, I liked the preaching, but I didn't like such and such. what you like or what you don't like in the worship of God is irrelevant now if you might say that I found this to be according to the word of God and this not this pleasing to the Lord and this not well those are useful thoughts but what you like and what you don't like is absolutely irrelevant in the worship of God and we shouldn't be surprised if initially the holy worship of God is a bit repelling to sinful people. It shouldn't surprise us at all. Well, let us add a second principle here. The monuments for idolatry are to be taken away. We can ask the question, who has the responsibility to remove the monuments of idolatry? Well, this primarily rests with the civil magistrates in the most obvious forms of idolatry, and it's not for every private individual to do it. You remember Paul on Mars Hill. Here he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, the highest office in the church. But he didn't walk around Mars Hill tearing down their idols. It wasn't for him to do so. It was really the responsibility of the civil magistrate. Although Paul does tear them down according to his place in calling. You remember Paul's preaching in Ephesus was so effective in the midst of the people that the worship of Diana was left off. and this greatly upset those that were making idols so according to his place and calling he was doing everything he could to remove idolatry from the people but it was only for the civil magistrate to go in and even by force if necessary take down the monuments of idolatry now remember what we have said about the civil magistrate they are the under kings of the king of kings So Jesus Christ has been invested with all authority in heaven and in earth. That is in the church as well as in all nations. Although he is not recognized as the king of kings, he is such. And they owe Christ their allegiance. Now once we understand that, a lot of this foolish business about the civil magistrate can deal with keeping up the second table of the law, making sure citizens don't rob each other and kill each other and those sorts of things. But he can't do anything with respect to the first table. Well, that's manifest nonsense. Remember the work we did recently in 1 Peter chapter 2 and in Romans chapter 13. The civil magistrate's primary responsibilities are to reward and encourage well-doing and to punish evil doing. Those are his primary responsibilities. But how are you going to define what is right, those things that he is to encourage, and what things are wrong or evil that he is to discourage? Well, by the law of God, of course. And that's all Ten Commandments. It's really a ridiculous thing. I don't know how he got conned into doing this as Christian people. but somehow in the early founding of the United States of America they convinced us to pretend in matters that are really important like politics and economics to pretend as if there's no God and just keep that for your own private business this is a most dangerous path because our government owes allegiance to Jesus Christ and the second Psalm says if they don't render that allegiance if they do not kiss the Son He will crush their legs with a rod of iron and bring them to heal, as it were. It's the most dangerous thing for us to play along with our secular government that there is no God in heaven until we get alone in our prayer closet. Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and he's to be acknowledged as such publicly. So the civil magistrate has the responsibility to punish evildoers. As you look at our larger catechism, it says something that's striking. I think intellectually we'd say that this is true, but you can't hardly find one person in a thousand that believes it. The violations of the first table of the law are actually more evil than violations of the second. To erect an idol, and to worship it, and to encourage other people to do it, is worse than murder. It is soul murder. Worse than taking away somebody's physical life, it's the killing of their soul. See that? Now the divines understood that. So when America set us in this preposterous position, where they say, well the civil magistrate is going to enforce the second table of the law, going to punish evil doers in that realm, but he's not going to punish the most wicked things in our land, which is the worship of false gods, idolatry, the taking of the Lord's name in vain, which happens on about every street corner you pass, and the violation of the Sabbath day. But he has a responsibility to punish these things just the way that the godly kings of Israel did and were so commended by the Lord. Turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 34. the Puritans say this they say that Hezekiah was a none such a faith that there was none such a man as Hezekiah with respect to his faith and belief in God and his trust in God but Josiah there was never such a one who had such a zeal for God and for his worship among the kings after David and we find Josiah exercising this zeal from a very early age in spite of the fact that at this time the Torah has still been lost and he knows very little about Jehovah the God of heaven except what he's received from the hands of the elders as it were so Josiah knows very little this is before the incident when the Torah is rediscovered but here is Josiah's action beginning in verse 1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years and she did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of David his father and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left so I want you to see the divine evaluation because what we're getting ready to see is Josiah is going to tear down idol shrines and he's going to kill people in judgment he's going to kill the priests of Baal he's going to slay them this is pretty tough business and we look at this sort of thing and we think Surely this is overboard, but not in the estimation of the Lord. He has the divine approbation. He declined neither to the right hand nor to the left, but was pleasing to the Lord in his ways. So this is really an exemplification of what made Josiah so pleasing to the Lord. Verse 3. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. And in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and the groves and the carved image and the molten images. and they break down the altars of Baalim and his presence and the images that were on high above them he cut down and the groves and the carved images and the molten images he break in pieces and made dust of them and strode it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them and he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem and so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon even unto Naphtali, with their magics round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. So here we find, with God's approbation, this godly king. Remember, he's not a churchman, he's a king, a civil magistrate who has removed these monuments of idolatry in his land. and civil magistrates in our time will do what is right by encouraging the godly in their worship and by discouraging and punishing those that will worship God by means of idols magistrates should remove idolatrous holy days a different kind of a monument to idolatry but still monuments to idolatry that keeps the names of these false gods in remembrance now you might say Well, Pastor, why do all of this? Because as far as I know, Christians don't keep pagan days, do they? You might find some that would even agree that perhaps the magistrate should remove the idolatrous holy days, but you might be asking, why do I go on like this? I mean, do Christian people really flock after idolatrous holy days? Well, probably not something like Ramadan the worship of that false god Allah and those sorts of things you won't find that but evangelicals do keep the Roman holy days which are monuments to idolatry and plainly you should understand that this was Rome's missionary method because they found the idolatry of the people that they were preaching to difficult to root out They just decided to subsume the idolatry within themselves. This is one of the reasons why you can go down into South America and find Roman Catholics practicing witchcraft. Some of the most spooky people in the world. How is it that they can be like that? Because the Pope has never cared one way or another what your actual beliefs are just as long as you are submissive. but other than that he doesn't care he will just subsume or bring that paganism into himself and the Christ Mass and Easter and Saint Valentine's Day are all just more of the same monuments of pagan days so what do we find the Roman Church did say with the Christ Mass? well they found the Feast of Saturnalia there in late December very difficult to root out with all of its pleasant lights its gift exchanges, its celebrations and parties, so they just subsumed it. We're going to put a new name on it, we're going to replace your Feast of Saturnalia with the Christ Mass, and you're going to celebrate Christ instead, but you can continue with all of these other idolatrous customs and practices. But this missionary method, nothing can be more antithetical than what we just read in Deuteronomy. Thou shalt not do so to the Lord your God. This is not the missionary method. The missionary method of ancient Israel was, we're going in there, we're going to tear all that stuff down, we're going to burn it up with fire and we're going to get rid of it. So that the names of these false gods won't be remembered anymore. That was the missionary method of Rome. Let's just subsume the paganism so we can have more people in submission to ourselves. Well, it was a similar thing with Easter. Interestingly enough, it still has the name of the false goddess on it, the perpetuation of her name. She was the goddess of fertility associated with early spring. And in her worship, of course, they had the rabbits, a symbol of fertility, and even the light coloring of eggs with the revival of springtime and the brightness, the sun has come back. And so they had the coloring of eggs. Rome just subsumes all that stuff. but Moses says thou shalt not do so unto the Lord your God this is not the way that you are going to practice your religion so the magistrates err in not removing these monuments to idolatry but even if the magistrate doesn't we err if we do not remove them according to our several places in calling the way that the apostle Paul did Look there on your sheet, Westminster Larger Catechism 102. These are the duties of the Second Commandment. So there are not only sins under the Second Commandment, things that we are to avoid, but positive duties that we are to do. Westminster Larger Catechism 102. The duties required in the Second Commandment are, and I'll scan down to the bottom, the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship and according to each one's place and calling removing it and all monuments of idolatry so indeed the magistrate ought to just forbid it under the penalty, under censures if it's practiced in this land, we can't do that but according to our several places and callings we should remove it I'm trying to do my part as a minister of the gospel preaching so that these things will be taken down. Heads of household have a responsibility to make sure these things are not practiced in your home or that they would contaminate your children and beguile them. We all have duties to make sure that the monuments of idolatry are taken away. That first bit might be a little bit more obvious. The second one is a little bit more difficult. Second application, the holy days of Roman inventing are not to be observed. Now you might have taken this as a case already proved in the sense that they have preserved the monuments of idolatry and perpetuated them. So of course we have an obligation according to our several places and callings to take them away. That would seem to do everything that was necessary as far as dealing with Rome. But I think more can be said. I'll say something that will sound very odd to you, but I do believe that the Word of God prophesied that Rome would do this very thing as part of its warfare against Jesus Christ and against the Church. And that, for a time, the Church of Jesus Christ would in large measure be beguiled by it and pulled into it before it would finally separate itself out from Roman idolatry. What I'm getting ready to do is difficult, but I don't suspect it will be dull. But this is something that you won't hear very much. Now, I had to make a decision. This could either be a whole new set of sermons that could easily have gone out 15 or 20, or I could try to do it in just the space of a handful of minutes here, and I elected for the latter. Because some of it, I can't answer all of the questions or possible objections. What I'm going to do is sketch out for you a trajectory of handling two passages in particular. And feel free, I'll even reference some commentators to do some further study for yourselves. But I just decided that, well we have two texts basically I want to deal with. And you'll start to see the problem. We're going to be dealing with Daniel chapter 7. which to handle it adequately would have taken at least three sermons but to head off all of the objections would have taken an exposition of the whole second half of the book to handle all of the objections and Revelation chapter 18 which is most convincing in the light of the interpretation of the whole so then if I take three sermons per chapter a half year or something like that to handle this so I'm just suggesting an interpretive trajectory and I'll if you're interested in it You can look at some interpreters that I'll mention. Now first, let me begin with the assertion that the Pope of Rome is the Antichrist. That Antichrist, the man of sin. You should have this in your bulletins. Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 25, Section 6. This is the section of the Church. there is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof but is that Antichrist that man of sin and son of perdition that exalted himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God now you might be thinking we have a lot of people listening on the internet if you're a Westminster confessing Presbyterian you might say I've never heard that before There is a reason for that, and the American amended version, the second half of that has been stricken out. It just simply reads, there is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ, nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof. The end. that business about the Pope being that antichrist that man of sin of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 the son of perdition who exalteth himself above everything that is called God all of that was stricken out in the American amended version probably didn't suit too well with American egalitarianism where we're all basically equal and everybody gets a place at the table and everything else Something of a war cry, isn't it? Here the Westminster divines, the faithful Puritan divines are teaching us that the Pope in Rome is likely the most dangerous enemy that the Church of Jesus Christ will ever face in this world. And it's good that we remember that. We can lose something of the sensibility of it because John Paul, after all, did seem so very harmless and gentle and everything else. But you have to understand that the Roman doctrine has never changed. Do you know that the Pope considers himself doctrinally to be the head of the church in this land? And the head of the civil magistrate in this land? They never recanted that or changed their minds about that. And historically, it's frequently been said in reformed circles that when Rome is in ascendancy, she is a lion, suppressing all that will buck her system, her anti-Christian system. when she is in equality she is a fox and England saw that and suffered under that by flirting with them and leaving papists in their land the gunpowder plot and all of those kinds of things were the fruit of that a fox trying to come back into power but she appears so very meek when she's lost her power as she appears now a lamb during this period in time but her doctrine has not changed and we are still esteemed heretics and still liable to death if we will not repent and repent. She has not changed her mind about that. Now, just with this idea that the Pope is that anti-Christ, you begin to catch something of the sensibility when we talk about her holy days. The dispensationalists have kind of cornered the market on talk about anti-Christ, and so we can use them as a helpful foil. If you went up to a dispensationalist and you said, With this Antichrist that you believe is coming, if he sets up a bunch of holy days and festival days, are you going to participate in those? They would say, of course not. Recoil at that. No, we don't participate in that. Well, the Pope being the biblical and true Antichrist, how is it that we are in bed with our enemy, as it were? He is dangerous to us. He is portrayed in the book of Revelation as a harlot. And very much like a literal harlot, if you think that you can walk down her way and not be beguiled and ensnared and everything else, you are a fool. She has snared and taken many souls down to hell. Brilliant people. People that you would have thought would have been able to see the air of it right off. But it is not so. She is a harlot and a beguiling one. So turn in your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7. In some ways I think that this is the most simple argument concerning the Roman Holy Days. I can't participate in Antichrist's festivals. Antichrist is enemy to the church and destructive historically to all that is called godly. I will not participate and I won't open up myself or my children to be beguiled by the harlotry. I will not do it. But more can be said. As I mentioned earlier, I do believe that the Word of God prophesied that he would do this very thing in his warfare against the Church of God. Now here we pick up in verse 15 of Daniel chapter 7. And let me give you a brief sketch of what we've already seen. You will remember this is that famous vision of the four beasts which represent the four kingdoms. Daniel sees a lion-like beast which represents Babylon. he sees a lopsided bear which represents the nato persian empire he sees a four-headed leopard which represents the Grecian Empire. Leopard because Alexander was so swift in his warfare. Four-headed because after his death his empire was divided up into four under the leadership of his four generals. The two most important for Israel were the Seleucids in the north and the Ptolemies in the south in Egypt who battled back and forth through Palestine in their warfare against each other. We have an extensive history of it in Daniel chapter 11. But there is a fifth kingdom. I think that this is wrong. A lot of times we only focus on the four beasts and the four kingdoms, but there is a fifth kingdom. The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in chapter 2 is presented as this rock cut out of a mountainside without hands, which crushes the feet of these four kingdoms and they come toppling down. That fourth beast is succeeded by the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ so five kingdoms we have in view here and we pick up in verse 15 where Daniel wants an explanation of what he has seen I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body and the visions of my head troubled me I came near unto one of them that stood by and asked him the truth of all this so he told me and made me know the interpretation of the things These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall rise out of the earth. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful. His teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass, which devoured, break in pieces, and stamp the residue with his feet. And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell, even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon the earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. And the tenth horn of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws. And they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion to consume, and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominion shall serve and obey him. Allow me to sketch out for you some of the dominant images here. We can't do all of them. It would take many more sermons, but some of the dominant ones. First, the fourth beast, which is diverse and more terrible than the others, is a picture of the kingdom of Rome. Now, interestingly, as I was looking at the history of interpretation, there are several Puritan commentators that believe that this is the Seleucid Empire. You remember I said that the third, being the leopard, was the Grecian Empire, and it was divided up into four, one of which was the Seleucid Kingdom, the Seleucid kingdom was particularly problematic for Israel because her king Antiochus Epiphanes perverted the worship of God in Jerusalem sacrificing a pig in that place and it took a military revolt under the Maccabees to drive them out so the Seleucids were they're great enemies of that age and so Puritan commentators of note Bishop Richardson in the Westminster Annotations takes that perspective and one of my own favorites Andrew Willett writes extensively defending the notion that this is the Seleucid Kingdom I recently studied through the book of Daniel with an old Puritan commentator by the name of John Mayer And I was more convinced by his reasons that this is Rome than any other that I had read, particularly because of their simplicity. One, he said that the Seleucid Empire has already been comprehended as one of the four heads of the previous beast. In other words, the Greek Empire was divided up into four. One of those heads represents the Seleucid Empire. This fourth kingdom succeeds that, or follows that. So he said this could not be the Seleucid kingdom, but rather the Roman kingdom. The fourth beast is characterized as being more terrible than the others, even eating up all of the earth. Now we might say that Rome was more terrible than Alexander ever was, but the Seleucids were not more terrible than Alexander. They only had a fraction of his power and they certainly didn't grind up all of the earth. They weren't even able to take the Ptolemies in the south or drive out the Maccabees, a little group of guerrilla warriors they couldn't do any of those things so this is not that terrible kingdom and also that this fourth kingdom is succeeded by the kingdom of Jesus Christ Christ appears his first advent in the midst of Rome pagan and he returns at the very least in type as we would say before the millennium in judgment against Rome papal This fourth kingdom is succeeded by the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I was fully convinced in reading with Mayer that this is indeed Rome. The other images are coherent with that. After the fall of pagan Rome, the empire was divided up into always more or less ten kingdoms. Jonathan Edwards in his History of Redemption said you couldn't have portrayed it more perfectly considering many ages will go by but when you look at say the Holy Roman Empire it was always more or less ten kingdoms that Rome had been divided up into but still connected to Rome you have to understand the barbarians didn't want to destroy Rome they wanted to possess it they just didn't have the power, the ability and the learning to possess all of it and so it was always divided up and it is in the midst of these after the fall of pagan Rome that the Roman Catholic Bishop begins to usurp more and more authority for himself. It's the beginning of Papal Rome. He is the little horn that crops up in the midst of the ten others that's different than the others, but we'll talk about this. You want to hold your place in Daniel 7, but turning your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2, As I studied this with John Mayer I was also deeply impressed by the correspondence between Daniel chapter 7 and 2 Thessalonians and what Paul tells the Christian church to expect. All the way back to the 2nd century, early 2nd century, there was a Disciple of Polycarp, who was the disciple of John, who wrote the Apocalypse, by the name of Irenaeus, who set forth this interpretation of a very cryptic passage in Paul. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 7. This is the passage about the man of sin that was to be expected before the end. And he says this, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. So in other words, the papacy, the motions from it were right from the beginning, even during Paul's time. But there was something hindering or in the way, keeping it from coming into its full power. Irenaeus, polycarth disciple of John, said way back in the 2nd century that this was pagan Rome, before pagan Rome fell. And that until pagan Rome did fall, the Antichrist would not be revealed. See, pagan Rome was in the way. A bishop wasn't ever going to be able to usurp a lot of power for himself as long as pagan Rome was persecuting. Because as soon as they would identify a prominent bishop, they'd simply kill him. Kill him if they could. See, so the persecutions of pagan Rome were hindering. They were in the way. And so it is here. You see, it's in the midst of the Ten Kingdoms rising up on the head. of this fourth beast, that this little horn rises up in the midst of them, he is different than they are though he is diverse from the rest, verse 25, he is described as having eyes which speak of his craft and subtlety, you see he is not a man that ruled by military might like the other kings he ruled by his subtlety and by his wit by pulling the wool over people's eyes and by deceiving them And he has a mouth that is described here as speaking great words against the Most High, verse 25. Again, the correspondence with 2 Thessalonians and the man of sin is most striking, verses 3 and 4 of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. You remember the problem in 2 Thessalonians. A bunch of people had left off working because they thought, well, the Lord is going to return any day now. Paul said, don't do that. You remember I taught you that some things have to happen first. one of the things that has to happen is there has to be a great falling away or apostasy also described by the Apostle Paul in 1st Timothy chapter 4 the first couple of verses this apostasy teaching doctrines of devils that for example the eating of meats and the marriage bed are things to be despised also Roman things but Paul is telling them the apostasy has to come and the man of sin has to be revealed first verse 4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God remember the little horde speaks great things against the most high who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God now this is a very striking description I remember reading the history of redemption with Jonathan Edwards and he talks about this passage and he said if we really believe that history will be the best interpreter of prophecy when it's fulfilled in other words when it's fulfilled we look back on the prophecies and see them in their greatest completeness he said who in the history of the world has ever done this like the Roman Catholic Pope The Pope, as I mentioned earlier, not only claims to be the king of every nation of the earth and the head of the church, multinational, but do you know that he claims for himself the power to effectually damn your soul? Effectually damn your soul, not just like what might happen here ministerially if we excommunicate you, casting you outside the visible church. We make no pretense if somebody is excommunicated that by doing that we can damn your soul. You understand that? But the Roman Catholic Pope says, if I cut you off from the sacraments and put my anathema upon you, I've damaged your soul. He also claims for himself the power to effectually forgive all of your sins with his indulgences. Who has ever in the history of the world exalted himself above everything that is called God, sitting in the midst of the Church of God, like the Roman Catholic Pope? there's never been such a one and he rises up in the back as we said here of Rome pagan Rome also we should note that this little horn was going to abide until the coming of Jesus Christ so it's not just one person but one that is going to continue an office that continues for many ages his dominion will continue until it's taken away by Jesus Christ in verse 26 And I'd have you note again the correspondence with 2 Thessalonians 2, look at verse 7. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders so here is such a one that is also said to abide until such a time as the Lord Jesus returns notice that the mystery of iniquity is at work in Paul's time and that this will continue until the return of Jesus Christ well look at what the little horn does which is my whole purpose for for bringing this up This is actually, to give you a little insight into the pastor's office, is actually the study of this with John Mayer that convinced me that I ought to preach these sermons. Because up to that point I was a little bit unsure in my mind whether I should do it now or do something else. Not that I ever thought it would be bad to do. What does the little horn do? Verse 25, he thinks to change times and laws. Now, I'm not clever enough exegete where I would have gotten this on my own, but what John Mayer said struck me like a thunderclap as I was thinking through preaching these things. He says this, he hath changed times by setting up days of cessation from work to the honor of his imagined saints, and dispenseth with God's laws, and makes decretals as laws. So I thought, oh my goodness, what Mayer is asserting here is that the erection of this system of holy days, which is opposite and contrary to God's system of holy days, was prophesied by Daniel. That Daniel foresaw it. And also, that this is part of God's warfare against the church, and part of the anti-christian warfare against the church. Well then I thought, well that's old John Mayer. Perhaps he's just an old-fashioned sort, so let me look around at some of these other men and see what they say. Well, you've got the magnificent John Trapp, who says this, He shall usurp the power over religion and men's consciences, set up holy days, canonize saints, appoint fasts, order times, etc. And then I looked at Matthew Henry, and he said the same. And I looked at John Gill, and he said the same. And then I looked at Calvin, and Calvin was really interesting because Calvin said something different but still came to the same conclusion. He thought that the horns had to do with Roman emperors, and that this different horn was a Roman emperor. But he said that these emperors are going to overturn all laws, human and divine. In other words, what's being talked about here is the emperors monkeying around in laws, human and divine. and the changing of satin appointed times for things very interesting Calvin disagrees and yet agrees on the point that I'm getting after here as I read Bishop Richardson and Willett who believe that the Little Horn was Antiochus Epiphany so they think this has to do with the Grecian Empire but their interpretation of the changing of the times is the same because Antiochus did this to the Jewish people Not only did he defile their temple, but he also changed their holy days and tried to put a stop to their worship during those times. Erecting his own times, as it were. But look at verse 25 again. I mentioned those interpreters so that you can go and look at them, but it's an amazing thing. And I'll tell you what's most persuasive about this. And I can't do it in one sermon. As you work through these texts, It's the coherence of the images that gives them their power. So the more time that you spend with this, and seeing the mutual relationship between the images, the more, and particularly in their details, which I cannot do at this time, the more powerful this becomes. But look at verse 25, and just ask yourself the question, when you read it in the text, that he's going to change times and laws, is this a good thing or a bad thing? In the text. this is not portrayed as being a good thing or even a neutral thing this is part of his great wickedness in his warfare against God as it said there speaks great words against the most high part of his warfare against the saints wearing them out and he arrogates to himself to change times and laws so what he does is not good During this time, God has given us one holy day to be observed, and that is the weekly Sabbath. Overturning God's institution concerning holy days is part of His conflict with us, and isn't it a shameful thing that almost the entire church, visible church in the world, is complicit in this wickedness? It's portrayed as a wickedness here! One final thing that we should do, Revelation chapter 18, turn there in your Bible. Again, this would take even more, I'm going to spend less time on this, but this would take even more time to develop. But here we have the destruction of the whore of Babylon as it's described here, which in the book is papal Rome. This is her downfall and her destruction. and a call comes out from heaven to the people of God giving them instruction on what they are to do concerning papal Rome Revelation chapter 18 verse 4 and I heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her my people that you be not partakers of her sins and that you receive not of her plagues so here God is judging this mystical Babylon he tells us to come out and not to participate in her sins lest we become partakers in her judgment now for those of you that know something about the Old Testament you'll recognize the language you see when Israel came out of physical Babylon they were told to come out from the midst of her to be separate and not to touch her unclean things as they were departing Isaiah 52 verse 11, you don't need to turn there, but, Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing, go ye out of the midst of her, be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. So as they're departing out of physical Babylon, they're told not to partake in her idolatries, but to leave with clean hands bearing the holy vessels of the Lord. Now the same call comes out concerning mystical Babylon. Come out from the midst of her, she's getting ready to be destroyed. Do not partake in her idolatries, in her harlotries and in her sins, lest you become a partaker in her judgments. Now, as I was reading David Steele on this point, he made a great observation. He says, what does this imply? except that Protestants have not yet, at the point in history that this call comes, fully separated out. Which is one of the things that I've been trying to hammer on recently in sermons. Rome is still affecting us in a lot of ways. And we need to come out from the midst of her. We don't know how far distant her full judgment might be, but God has already judged her in part with the Reformation. which did so much to break her power, and has given us so much liberty. But as we look around us, observe that Rome is continuing to have her influence, and the Holy Days is just one aspect. Almost all of Christian worship here in this land is governed by Rome's principle of worship, which is, if it's not contrary to the word of God, and we as church leadership think it's expedient to do it, then we do it. It's a Romish principle. And Rome taught it to the Lutherans and to the Anglicans and infected all Protestantism with it. But once upon a time the Reformed understood this. But Rome continues to seduce in a great many way and as we mentioned, as we read Galatians chapter 1, a great many Reformed people are leaving the Reformed faith to go back to Rome because of this false gospel. Well, what is all this business about being a Presbyterian anyway if Rome had it right all along that you really need to have the sacraments in order to have your salvation? It's the Galatian heresy. The heresy of Rome has infected Reformed churches to where the light of the gospel has been put out in some places. Our ancient adversary is still very, very dangerous. Not able to suppress us by the force of arms at this point, but still able to beguile. And again, you have to remember that you're not cut of different cloth. And this requires some humility. Look around you and you see that Rome, Protestantism has followed Rome, followed her harlotries. You're not cut of different material, or a different cloth. You're the same. And so we've got to separate ourselves. In the natural realm, how do we keep ourselves from the strange woman? If you remember the sermons and proverbs. Don't even go down that way. Keep yourself far away from her. Because she is dangerous. And she is seductive. And if you, like a foolish young man, go walking down the way of the harlot, she's going to have you. She's going to ensnare you, and she's going to destroy your soul if she can. Now we don't know what the future may hold, but it does appear in the exposition of the book that Rome will be more dangerous than she is again. And we will have to face her again. But it's time for us to come out of the midst of her and be separate, keep our hands clean for the glory of God so that we don't become a partaker in the fierce judgments of the Lord against her. Let us pray. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at SWRB at SWRB.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N, Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle is adopted by the pathists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.