Luke 21:8

Christian, Be Not Deceived!

Transcript:


We are thinking today about the Prince of the Covenant. And this expression, this description of Jesus Christ is found in the 11th chapter of the book of Daniel.
In order to understand the book of Daniel more clearly, you have to bear in mind what Gabriel said to him earlier on in Daniel. In the 10th chapter, Daniel prays very honestly, he's sick, he's not feeling very well, he is given first a vision of Jesus Christ. Then he tells us in verse 10 of Daniel 10, “an hand touched me” [and addressed] the voice addressed him in verse 11, “O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent.”

And he said to me verse 12, “Fear not, Daniel: … thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.” Verse 14, “Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.”
Now this vision is the vision of chapter 8 and 9 and 10. He gets no new vision. So he's given explanation.

Verse 19, “And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me. [20] Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. [21] But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and [there is] none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.” This is probably Gabriel speaking.

In telling Daniel more than once that he, Gabriel, has been sent in response to Daniel's prayer to explain to him the vision that he has already seen. And he keeps on talking.

Chapter 11, verse 1 “Also I in the first year of Darius…” and so on to the end. So chapter 11 is a continuation of chapter 10 and is an explanation of a vision that Daniel did not understand.

And he tells us that in verse 1, 2, and 3 of chapter 10, he didn't understand the vision completely. And the vision that he didn't understand goes back to chapter 8. He got a partially clarifying segment of insight in chapter 9. Then two years later, he is still worried about the meaning of that vision. And he has given a glimpse of Jesus Christ by way of encouragement and strengthening. And then Gabriel says, I have been sent to explain to you that vision more fully.
I hope you've got your Bible here and that you will turn to chapter 8 and then again to chapter 11. And we will compare chapter 8 with chapter 11.

Chapter 8, verse 3 talks about a ram and verse 20 identifies the ram as Medo-Persia.
Daniel 11, 1 and 2, Darius the Mede, 3 Kings of Persia.
So Daniel 8 begins with Medo-Persia.
Daniel 11 begins with Medo-Persia.

Daniel 8, 5, talks about a goat. But verse 21 identifies as Greece.
Daniel 11, verse 3, the end of verse 2, he shall stir up all the nations against the
realm of Grecia.

And then he mentions a mighty king shall stand up, which we shall note in a moment.
Daniel 8, verse 8, Greece shall be very waxed, very great.
The Greek king, 11, 3, will be mighty. Rule over, do according to his will.


He has a great horn and that great horn will be broken. Daniel 8, 8.
Daniel 11, 4, when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken.
Daniel 8, 8 shall be broken, toward the four winds of heaven.
11, 4, the kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven.

Chapter 8, verse 9, talks about a little horn.
And the rest of the chapter, we have a description of what that little horn does.
In chapter 11, verse 14, the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves.

Chapter 8, verse 9, waxed exceeding great toward the south, east and pleasant land.
11, 16, and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed.

8, verse 11, he magnifies himself against the prince of the host.
11, 22, his arms shall overflow, yea the prince of the covenant.

Chapter 8, verse 11, magnify himself against the prince of the host and from him take away
the daily, the place of his sanctuary cast down.
Verse 31 [of chapter 11], he shall take away the daily and shall place the abomination that make it desolate.

Verse 12 of chapter 8, he cast the truth to the ground.
Verse 23 [of chapter 11], he worked deceitfully.

Verse 12 [of chapter 8], he practiced and prospered.
The end of that verse, verse 36 [of chapter 11], shall do according to his will, exalt himself, do marvelous things and prosper, shall prosper until the indignation be accomplished.

8, 13, talks about the transgression of desolation.
Verse 31 [of chapter 11], the end of that verse shall place the abomination that maketh it desolate.

8, 17, at the end of it, the time of the end shall be the vision.
11, 35, yet for a time appointed, verse 40, at the time of the end.

8, 23, transgressors come to the full.
12, 10, the wicked shall do wickedly. 12th chapter, of course, is a continuation of chapter 11.

8, 19, the end of the indignation.
11, 36, shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished.

8, 19, for the time appointed, 11, 27, yet the end shall be at the time appointed.
Verse 35 [of chapter 11], it is yet for a time appointed.

8, 24, mighty but not by his own power.
23 [of chapter 11], work deceitfully, shall come up and shall become strong with a small power, small people.

8, 24, his power shall be mighty, he shall destroy wonderfully.
Verse 44 [of chapter 11], therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy.

24, 8, 24, he shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
11, 33, and the people shall fall by the sword and flame captivity spoil many days.

25, 8, 25 calls craft to prosper.
11, 32, he shall corrupt by flatteries.

8, 25, he shall magnify himself in his heart.
11, 36, he shall magnify himself above every god.

8, 25, by peace shall he destroy many.
11, 34, by flattery many shall cleave to him.

8, 25, he is against the prince of princes.
8 [should be 11], 36, he is against the god of gods.

8, 25, he shall be broken without hand. The end of that verse.
11, 45, he shall come to his end and none shall help him.

8, 26, the vision is true.
And of course, 10, 1, which starts this, the thing is true.

8, 26, therefore shut up the vision.
12, 4, and 9 shut up the words.

8, 26, the vision is for many days.
10, 14, the vision is for many days.

8, 27, was not understood.
10, 1, it's not understood.

So I think it's no problem to see that the two visions have several points that are common to them. That the characters, symbols, personages, events described in 8, slightly elucidated in 9, more fully explained in 11 and 12 all deal with the same topic, the same great scene or vision. took years for this vision to be explained. Years. Daniel was thinking about it. The ideas were maturing in his mind with the elapsed of many years, they're slowly dawned as he was given more and more insight and inspiration what God was doing for him.

Now, what is taking place in this section of Daniel is the revelation of the great controversy. And let me pause a moment to focus on that. 

I think sometimes we tend to take the concept of the great controversy just as a matter of course. We say the words without getting our minds into gear and so we miss the real thrust of that expression.

If I was to isolate the contributions to theology that have been made by the spirit of prophecy, I would say that was one of the more important revelations.
The great controversy, the tremendous concept can never be minimized of the great controversy.

Practically every week statements that I hear made by Christians send shutters down my spinal cord. And the reason why those statements are made, they are utterly blasphemous is because the great controversy is not comprehended.
Why did God take my baby?
Why did God allow that child to suffer?
Why did God allow this great accident to take place?
Why did God allow the tragedy of the Vietnam War to occur?

This is the great controversy. Light versus darkness, free will versus compulsion.

And if God arbitrarily controlled free will, he would be doing what the devil does. God can't do it and be true to himself. Love can't do it and be true to itself.
Wicked men, wicked angels must be given freedom to do what they want to do until the great controversy ends. We’re in it, it's been going on for thousands of years. It began outside this planet. The field of conflict was transferred to this planet. And the antagonisms and the pressures have been going on ever since.
When God created man, he was well aware of the implications and the consequences of granting to man freedom of choice. It was the most dangerous gift God gave to man, the most dangerous. And yet the most precious. When abused, freedom of will is corrosive and destructive. When controlled and disciplined, it's creative and enables man to become kin to his creator. And love must maintain freedom of choice.

You catch somebody by his throat and you shake his wisdom teeth loose and you tell him, love me or else. That's the way to trigger love? No. If God had caught Adam and Eve by the throat and said, love me. They would have been rag dolls, puppets, no love there, no love whatever.

Love is the principle that maintains ideal relationships. And when God created man, he set up ideal relationships; between himself, his angel, self, mankind, himself, every insect, plant, animal, bird, fish, element in this planet. There are millions of relationships.

When all those relationships are ideal, one note of harmony exists in this whole creation, then the purposes of love will have been accomplished. Sin jars disharmony, breaks that harmonious relationship. And God has selected, because he must be true to himself, He gives to man who alone was subject to freedom of will, the opportunities to choose. And since the fall, those opportunities are clearly before us.

Before the fall, God says, you may freely eat, but this you mustn't. In their innocence, they were not experientially cognizant of the results of disobedience. They had been warned. The story of Lucifer and his angels was vividly described. Consequences of sin discussed with our first parents.

Eve was seduced and Adam went into the sin with his eyes open. Adam was not deceived. And saw immediately the consequences of Eve's sin and decided to spend this life with her rather than eternity without her. And so as in Adam all sinned, the sin that destroys is the sin of choice. Adam chose, realizing with his eyes open, consequences of his act, what he should do.

Now every moment of every hour of every day of every year of every century this conflict is repeated.
Satan is the destroyer, God is the healer.
Satan is the seducer, God is the builder up.
Man in between, chooses, and Satan's greatest fiendish joke, practical joke that he plays is to make men choose to turn his attributes on to God and to blame God for the things that he did.

Now where this great controversy is clearly brought to our notice is in Job chapter 1. Satan comes as a representative of this planet among the representatives, sons of God.

And God asks Satan if you considered my servant Job?
Yes.
He serves me, perfect, upright.
Yes. But what?
Let me take him and he'll curse you.
All right, the Lord says, don't touch him, touch his.

And so Satan goes out and huffs and puffs and starts a tornado.

Every insurance policy that calls a tornado an act of God is a lie. It's not an act of God, it's an act of the devil.

Then he brought a bolt of lightning. Not an act of God, that's an act of the devil.

Then he stirred up the Chaldeans and the Sabians in two campaigns known as Acts of War. Those are not Acts of God, those are Acts of the devil.

And by the time Satan had finished his four attacks, Job had nothing left.
I came into the world naked and naked now. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Now notice the words with which Moses under inspiration closes Job chapter 1. “In all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly.”

Even we hear people charging God foolishly, for things the devil has done. Then they fail where Job succeeded.

And so we see this great controversy all through the Bible. Now as part of this great controversy God selected a people in a place. The people characterized under the heading Abraham and his seed. The place, the promised land.
Various cycles, various adjectives. And glorious holy man.

Satan also selected a people in a place. Just as God's people developed policies and purposes and plans, Satan was ready with his counterfeit. In fact if you care to read the names of the children of Cain and the children of Seth, you will see the names are very close.

God decided to build a city whose builder and maker was God.
Nimrod decided to build a city whose builder and maker was man.

The name of the city of God is Zion Jerusalem.
The name of the city of Nimrod is Babylon or Rome.

Those are the names that they have given in the allegory of the Bible. Babylon, Rome, Zion, Jerusalem. They finally wind up in the last showdown at the end of the book of Revelation.

All through this great controversy, the powers of Satan have been attempting to destroy the people of God. All through the great controversy, attempt after attempt to destroy God's people.

Every age, the seed is terminated. 

Satan knows virtue. He saw the most virtuous son of Jacob, tried to destroy him, sent in on Egypt, tried over and over again to destroy him, but failed. 

When God's people were placed in Canaan land, he tried every opportunity and every tribe he could to destroy those people. From every angle he could attack them, he attacked them. Sometimes they had respite for ten years, five years, sometimes forty years, they had a wonderful time. Just destroy them. They'd come from Egypt, they'd come from Eden, they'd come from Moab, they'd come from Ammon, they'd come from Syria, they'd come from Babylon, they'd come from Persia, and they came from Greece, and they came from Rome, continually trying to destroy. Sometimes well quite succeeding.

So we see destructive forces in these prophecies, all the time destroying, making war against the people of God, making war against the remnant of her seed, making war against the saints of the Most High, setting up an abomination that makes desolate, attacking, fighting, destroying, Satan loves this. This is his great purpose.

And so as we think of the topic of the prince of the covenant revealed here in Daniel 11, you look through that to this idea of the great controversy. And you see while God is aware of these facts, while he's ready to send Jesus Christ to carry out his covenant, his design to support and sustain and help his people, that even the prince of the covenant then becomes a butt and the center of the attack of the powers of evil.

Christ told a story about this, about a man who had a vineyard. He let it out to husbandmen. Every season he’d send for fruit. They wouldn't give it. Last of all he sent his son. The prince, the king's son, they said, this is the heir. Come let us kill him. And the inheritance shall be ours.

What's he going to do? And the people who are listening to him said he's going to send his army. He's going to destroy those murderers and burn up their city. They could see too that there must be one day a day of retribution.

And when the great controversy is carried out, then there will be armies sent who will destroy those murderers who are outside the city because no murderer can get inside the city and he will burn up their city, which is Babylon, which is Rome, and establish forever his city, which is Zion whose builder and maker is God.

Now with this concept of the great controversy in mind, let's see what Daniel is told here in chapter 11.

In the first year of Darius the Mede, I, Daniel, I stood to confirm, Gabriel is saying, to strengthen him. And now I will show you the truth. Behold, there shall stand up three kings of Persia.

Now, Darius started to rule here in Babylonia about the year 538. When he began, we are told in chapter 10 verse 1 of the third year of Cyrus and then in chapter 9 verse 1 the first year of Darius. Cyrus followed Darius.

God is telling him, Daniel as he is thinking about this, that I stood there through Gabriel strengthening the Persian.

Now minds go back immediately to the prophecy in Isaiah that described the coming of the Medes in the Persian, that named Cyrus called him my shepherd, who shall fulfill my will, even saying to my city be built, who would dry up the water. So God finds among the Persians, somebody who will do the divine will, helped in the carrying out of the great controversy.

And now I'll show thee the truth. Verse 2, “Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia”.

Now those three kings were Pseudo-Smerdis [(522 B.C.)], Darius Hystaspes [(522-486 B.C.)] and Cambyses [son of Cyrus (530-522 B.C.)]. The orders were Cambyses, Pseudo-Smerdis and Darius.

And then there should be a fourth, and the fourth shall be far richer than they all. Now the fourth one was called Xerxes [Xerxes I (486-465 B.C. – Ahasuerus in the book of Esther).]

These kings we read of in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther cover the Persian period. In Ezra 6 verse 14 we are told the children of Israel build it and prosper, according to the commandment of Cyrus, of Darius and of Artaxerxes. And the last one Xerxes far greater than they all is called the Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther, the great king, very powerful, very prosperous.

Now think of the relationship of these kings to the people of God. First of all they gave permission for the captives to go back. They provided funds to help them return. They were ready to provide soldiers to accompany them on their way.
Do you remember what Nehemiah says? I couldn't accept an armed guard. What sort of trust is this show to my God, Jehovah? He brought us here, he'll take us back, we don't need any soldiers.

But the king at least was ready to help.

Then you see the last one, Xerxes. 
Mordecai was a Jew. Haman the Amalekite, Esther was a Jewess. 
And the Persian king was all tied up with Jews and Jewesses and Amalekites. And he is induced to make a death decree. The allegory of Esther is extremely important if you want to understand it. You read the last chapter of great controversy.

And then one day the swords that are raised against God's people fall as straws. God's people are vindicated and helped in strengthening, given to them to restore and to build Jerusalem, to build a temple of God in Jerusalem. All that had been smashed before in the previous dynasty was now restored.

And as we look in the book of Daniel, chapter 11, it talks about the realm of Grecia in verse 2. “Far richer than they all: and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Grecia.”

Xerxes tried it. He was defeated. But his defeat didn't mark the end of the Persian Empire. But it did mark the end of the interference of the Persian Empire with the Israelites.

So when you get to verse 4, verse 3 rather, “a mighty king shall stand up”. 150 or more years elapsed between the time of Xerxes and that king of Greece that is the mighty king Alexander. During that period Persia made no contribution to the great controversy. Previous monarchs had done so. They had made the decree to restore and build Jerusalem. They had provided the funds. They had provided the escort. They had created the conditions for the establishment of God's people in Palestine again. And then they keep on living and their lives alike, the door on a hinge back and forth.

But the contacts that Xerxes made with Greece led finally to the contact that Greece made with the last Persian king.

And the mighty king verse 4, verse 3, chapter 11 “shall stand up, … shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will”, ties in with the last verse of chapter 2. Last verse of chapter 2 with Grecia, the mighty king then would be the premier king, Alexander the Great, who did according to his will and accomplished his design.

So verses 1, 2 and 3 cover from 538 through the rise of Alexander the Great.
And when he shall stand up, when he reaches his highest pinnacle of exaltation with Alexander the Great, his kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided to the four winds of heaven.

Just like the time when that little horn, that chief horn was broken, four stood up in its place, chapter 8.

So it's the fall of Alexander the Great in his greatest moment of victory. He was destroyed, died an alcoholic.

His four generals, his many generals fought among themselves, till four of them finally survived, divided to the four winds of heaven. Ptolemy, Egypt, Seleucus, Palestine, East, Lysimachus, North, part of the section of Europe, which is now Yugoslavia and the Cassander, the whole of what is today Greece and part West. 
Four stood up, not to his posterity. Wasn't his son. Roxana, his wife was expecting for their child that was later born, didn't receive the kingdom, nor according to his dominion, the vast extent of Alexander's conquests almost immediately shrank, because he went eastward almost as far as the Indus.

“Not to his posterity, nor according to his dominion which he ruled: for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others beside those [Dan. 11:4b]”; that is his immediate posterity.

Now we have studied this so many times, but to read this explanation we say to ourselves, so what? I knew that.

But when you think that by the river Chebar, centuries before his old man Daniel was given a vision, the symbol was a goat with a horn broken in the zenith of his power, and his dominion taken over by four others. You know you look down 260 years and see that ahead. No way of guessing it, this is divine prophecy. Never let it wander dull in your mind. God is telling us wonderful truths. They are impossible of duplication.

Yes, Daniel by the river Chebar centuries before, looking down, told there were three kings and there would be a mighty king, the last one that would help God's people who would make contact with the Greeks and be destroyed and paved the way 150 years later for the establishment of the Greek Empire. 

And that Greek Empire would streak into the zenith of world, horizon and then in its greatest point be broken, start descending, disintegrating eventually into four parts, not to his posterity, not to his dominion, not to the extent of his conquest. Amazing.

Now there are four divisions, Cassandra to the west, Lysimicus to the north, the Seleucus center and east, Ptolemy over Africa. Now we start fighting. All kinds of intrigues. And God tells us just enough of these intrigues so that we might discern his knowledge of future events.

But what he is telling us is what leads to the conflict with the prince of the covenant. What he's trying to tell us, what leads to the conflict with the prince of the covenant.

Before we look into the history, let's look at this word covenant for a moment.
When I mention it, I can see some folks think, oh, this is a talk on Bible docs. We had to study the old and the new covenant. We never really understood what they were all about.

Because some fellow somewhere told us that the new covenant was actually older than the old.

You know, when I was told that, when I first went to school, Adventist school, I looked at the teacher and I thought he looks intelligent. But I don't think he is. Because language ceases to mean a thing, if the new covenant was actually in existence before the old. You're making a fool of language.

I didn't have the courage then to tell him that because I was questing a grade. But when I did some independent thought, I realized that he had made a sad blunder. For certain reasons that I also saw, so my pity for him was larger than my anger against him.

The Bible talks about two covenants of first and a second. Now which comes first, the first or the second? Obviously the first. The first covenant is also called the old. The second covenant is also called the new. So you get a first covenant that is an old covenant and you get a new covenant with a second covenant. Now there are some other names that are attached to that but let's think about this. What is the old covenant?

The terms of the old covenant are obey and live, disobey and die. There is absolutely nothing the matter whatsoever with the old covenant. It's a beautiful covenant.

There are billions and billions and billions of billions of people living today by the old covenant.

The angel Gabriel has not the slightest problem with the old covenant. Obey and live. He chose to.

Lucifer chose not to disobey and one day you’ve had it.

All the angels that have sinned not, live under the old covenant. We like to think that there are vast planets inhabited by perfect beings. Every one of them lives under the old covenant. Obey and live. At the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the option was given disobey and die. That's the old covenant. Obey and live, disobey and die.

The old covenant is viable for one good simple reason. When God created his creatures he built in an ability to obey. So the old covenant presents no problems to those who have this built in created ability to obey.

Adam had it. Eve had it. They chose not to exercise that ability and so they lost it.
Gabriel had it. Gabriel has it.

All the other angels that didn't sin still have it.
All the other beings that haven’t sinned… The 99 that have not need of repentance. Whatever is meant in that parable. It's great cosmic enlargement. They have no problem whatever with the old covenant.

But now as soon as man fell he couldn't keep that covenant. He lost his ability to do it. He lost the former dominion. He was helpless and impotent. Now the new covenant immediately came into operation.

What are the terms of the new covenant? Obey and live. Obey and live. The old covenant and the new covenant are exactly the same. But the unfallen perfect beings can live under the old covenant by their built in ability. Fallen beings who have lost that built in ability are enabled to obey and live by a graced-in ability. “My grace is sufficient for thee.” [2 Cor 12:9]

The same law is eternal. Heaven and earth will pass away but not one jot or tittle shall fail [Mat 5:18].The law is the will of God. The law is loving reduced to a code. It's codified love.

If you want to know how to love you've got to keep the first four commandments that show your relationship to God. You've got to keep the last six commandments that show your relationship to man. Love God, love man. On these hang all law and prophets.

So you want to know how to be polite. You want to know how to conduct a wedding ceremony you mothers or grandmothers. When you look up a book the book tells you all the do's and don't, of running a fine wedding.

You want to know how to behave. You come out of the prairies with straw sticking out of your hair. You've seen the cows go into their stanchions to eat one butting the other. First time you land in the cafeteria you want to do the same thing too.
Hey what are you doing?

Where did you come from?
Haven't you read the book? and then you become polite and say after you please?
Never saw a cow do that.

An etiquette book is codified politeness. The law of God is codified loving.
You have no idea how to love God until you've mastered the first four commandments.

You have no idea how to love your fellow men till you've mastered the last six.
When you don't take care of the sixth commandments then you have Vietnam War and the Second World War and the First World War and the Hundred Years War and the Six Thousand Years War. But when you see what love is then there's no more war just like that.

The power of God’s grace coming into the born again Christian empowers him to live under the terms of the new covenant, obey and live.

Now the old covenant said obey and live disobey and die.

In the new covenant Jesus says I'll take your place and die. I'll die in your stead and then I'll give you grace so that you can live.

Now the angel Gabriel doesn't need that covenant, he doesn't need grace. He doesn't need the vicarious death of Jesus Christ for Christ “took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. [Heb 2:16]” He was the substitute.

Now the prince of the covenant is the second person of the blessed Trinity who carried out the details of dying in the place of (vicarious death) and of supplying the power so that now for the Christian to live he lives with two thoughts uppermost in his mind. Appreciation that Jesus Christ has paid the debt and a daily joyous appropriation of the grace of Jesus Christ that enables him to live that perfect obedient submissive life of Christ day by day.

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die [to self] is gain.” [Phl 1:21]
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live” [Gal 2:20] but the life that I now live in the flesh I live by what means? Faith.

Son of God who loved me and gave himself to me. And what does that faith appropriate? Grace. Faith accepts grace, faith accepts the power, faith lives as if the power is there. This is the new covenant.

Now the old covenant was entered into by several people that's what Paul talks about in Galatians chapter four.

He says Abraham entered into the old covenant relationship when he took Hagar.
The Lord has said to Abraham your seed is going to be the one who will bless the world [Gen 22:18].

So Hagar and Sarah had a little conversation, ah Abraham and Sarah had a little conversation and Abraham took Hagar. Said now I can have a son and he did, one from a bondwoman, the other for a free woman.

When Abraham could say I can't do a thing, I am a dead tree, I can bring forth no fruit; and Sarah realized that she was dead. Then God gave them a son, a son of promise. They couldn't earn it. There was no prowess of their own that achieved it. Isaac came as a gift of God. They had lost the built in ability to have children. And Isaac came as the result of a graced-in ability.

13 years before Ishmael had come as the result of built in ability. But the result of built in ability, the natural man after his fall is always leading to perdition.

So anyone who tries to work out his salvation now and all that I can do, all that the Lord wants me to do, I'll do, always ruins it.

There in the fourth chapter of Galatians, Paul says this Hagar corresponds to Sinai.

And at Sinai, the children of Israel entered into the old covenant relationship with God. And they said to the Lord, all that the Lord had said, we will do and be obedient. They couldn't. Less than six weeks they had a golden calf. Now He says this corresponds to Jerusalem which now is.

So there are at least three categories there of the old covenant that men attempted to enter into after the fall and always failed.

So any man that tells me I can do this whenever I want to.
I can quit alcohol whenever I want to.
You can?
I can quit smoking whenever I want to.
Oh yeah?
I can quit lying whenever I want to. Or cussing or gossiping or doing anything else.
You can't.

We'll have to say with the apostle of my own self I can do nothing [Jhn 5:30].
Jesus said that.
The servants have said that.
We must say that.

And so this new covenant relationship is that relationship in which fallen men and women appropriate grace having accepted the death of Jesus Christ and get his power to live his life. A perfect obedience to the divine will. And thus they become saints.

What does Psalm 50 and verse five say?
“Gather my saints together unto me; [they] that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice” [Psa 50:5]. Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus is the prince of the covenant. And through his sacrifice through his gracious power we may become sons and daughters of God part of the royal family a prince of the king's son when we become partakers of the divine nature second Peter one four and become brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ then the will of our father becomes our will; the purpose of the father becomes our purpose; the grace of God given through Jesus Christ empowers us.

And Satan has fought this. He's fought this desperately. and as we follow on in the book of Daniel chapter 11 we see his attempts through the centuries to bring forces to bear to destroy God's people to destroy that remnant that hold up these divine ideals for any to follow who wishes to follow.

Eternal father we thank thee for the vision that we have of Jesus Christ. We thank thee that in spite of the fact that nations rise and fall men who are young grow old and times change thou dost never change and we thank thee that the one humanly obscure man that is come with thyself to comfort and sustain and guide help us to take courage from thy kindliness to trust because of thy compassion and to love thee for thy love we ask for thy glory in thy holy name.
Amen.

Daniel 11 — Part 1                                                                        

By L. Hardinge

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