Incorruptible Lord - Daniel 11

Intro: Back in June, my family had the opportunity to go to the beach for a couple days. And it was Titus' first real time getting into the waves a bit...

He loved it, but he took a real beating by the surf... it didn't take much to knock him over...

So the only way he could really be out there enjoying the ocean was by holding onto both of my hands really tight...

You see, the waves weren’t really THAT big… and being much stronger and heavier than a 5-year-old, they didn’t move me at all.

That’s a good picture of our Christian walk in a world full of corruption and brokenness...

Did you ever feel like you were just getting tossed in the waves of the decisions of the corrupt and powerful?

Students, maybe you feel like that in going back to school… a governor or administrator somewhere made a blanket decision and now you have to live with it...

Solanco students, I was on a call this week with your Superintendent… I want you to know, he’s got your best in mind even if his hands are tied by some things… and I’m sure that’s true of LS and the other districts represented.

But maybe you feel like you are at the mercy of a corrupt leader SOMEWHERE who is making decisions from a distance…

Maybe some of you have felt that way in the way your workplace has been affected by the Coronavirus...

I know a lot of people of different races feel that way about corruption within the powerful systems they live in every day.

In an election year, it can feel like rulers are willing to do whatever it takes to get the upper hand… even if it’s not in the best interest of the people… and ESPECIALLY if it’s not in the best interest of God’s people.

And just like Titus holding my hands in the waves, if we aren’t CLINGING to God during these times, we can EASILY be knocked off our feet...

We can EASILY feel like we are drowning in our faith...

Or we can be swept away into the corruption ourselves.

Throughout history, God's people felt this way. The nations raged around them, and they were often stuck in the middle...

Sometimes feeling like they were forgotten and God stopped working…

Sometimes tempted to choose sides out of self-preservation.

But IN REALITY, God was working all of world history together to purify THEM so that they would be a HOLY people and would CLING to HIM ALONE.

That’s what God wants more than anything… that we would learn to turn to HIM and cling to HIM...

That our ULTIMATE ALLEGIANCE would be to HIS indestructible kingdom.

That’s been the heart we’ve been seeking to develop in our study of the book of Daniel...

We are down to the home stretch… the last two chapters this week and next week… Daniel is receiving his final vision of the book…

You’ll remember from last Sunday that Daniel is in his mid-to-late 80s...

He has seen corrupt leaders come and go his ENTIRE life...

He is MOURNING because God’s people were SUPPOSED to be restored to the promised land TWO YEARS ago...

But only a small remnant went back… their hearts were satisfied with the pagan comforts of Babylon...

And only a little bit of progress has been made on rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem… The people were afraid and wanted to preserve their comfort over restoring their worship.

And DANIEL HIMSELF is stuck out on the oustkirts of the Persian empire… on the banks of the Tigris River...

Sidelined from the action… mourning over all that is going on.

And it’s there that he gets an AWESOME vision of the Son of God… and it’s there that angels are ministering to him...

They are about to give him a detailed vision of all that it’s going to take for God to purify his people.

God’s people hadn’t understood God’s consequence of exile...

They were like the kid sitting in time out who thinks it’s their parent’s fault that they are there.

And the chastening… the time-out... needed to continue for a LONG time to come so their hearts could be restored to God.

That’s what the angel is going to describe in chapter 11… what it was going to take for God to purify his people.

We’re going to find out that sometimes it takes a lot of corrupt world powers... inflicting great harm on God’s people… to turn their hearts to him.

We are going to get a glimpse into how God works in human history today… and I pray this is the result in our hearts:

Big Idea: Allow the incorruptible Lord to purify your heart through the corruption of world powers.

Now maybe you’re thinking… did Pastor Ben word that right? Did he really mean to say that the incorruptible Lord PURIFIES his people THROUGH the corruption of other people?

And the answer is yes… that’s exactly what I meant.

This is where it gets mind-blowing: A God who never sins… a God who is INCORRUPTIBLE… USES the sinful choices of human beings to ACCOMPLISH his ultimate plan...

He USES corruption that is natural to the hearts of sinners to set apart and purify a people for himself...

To paraphrase Joseph in Genesis 50, “What man intends for evil, God intends for good so that many people should be saved.”

We re going to start by just laying the foundation for this reality from the entire chapter… and then we will work toward some specific application about how we can allow this to purify our hearts… so let’s start here:

1) Remember: the incorruptible Lord controls the ultimate outcome of corrupt powers. (v. 1-45)

Your Bibles are open to Daniel 11… Like I said, we are going to work through the entire chapter… this is an incredibly detailed foretelling of what is still in the future for Daniel… but a lot of it is in the past for us…

So as we work through this, I don’t expect you to remember all the details and names and places...

There are about 135 FULFILLED prophecies in this chapter alone… I’ll mention a few so that you can KNOW that God’s word is COMPLETELY trustworthy.

But instead expecting you to get every detail, I want you to walk away with this overwhelming impression that God is in control of corrupt rulers and leaders...

As we work through this, we’re going to see...

5 Types of Corruption that Surround God’s People

Corruption of Strength - The Kings of Persia & Xerxes 1 (v. 1-4)

Look at verse 1… [Read and explain 11:1-2]

The only thing he manages to do is to stir up Greece and make Greece mad.

But one of the things that can be so hard about living in a world with corrupt leaders is how strong they look… how much power they wield...

Like think about how much the President of the United States COULD… if he wanted to… make life legitimately difficult for God’s people...

The dictator of China already does...

The rulers of Iraq and Iran wield genuine strength against anyone who worships the true God.

It may even be the power of someone more close to home… someone with influence in your life… or who seems to have the upper hand against you...

I have to admit that there are times when I look at someone and think, “I’m not comfortable that they have as much power… as much strength in this situation… as they do.”

That can be scary...

But God uses the perceived strength of corrupt rulers to show that he is stronger when he controls them in the end.

Xerxes I is not as strong as he thinks he is… he thinks he can defeat Greece, but he meets his match.

None of these corrupt Persian rulers… as strong as they seem to be… none of them are ultimate.

God was using these corrupt powers and their lust for strength to purify his people.

To make them seek him…

Remember Persia… and then Greece… are the oppressors of Israel…

And God allows them to show their strength so that his people will cry out to him for deliverance.

So Xerxes managed to tick off Greece… and a few generations later, a Grecian king decides to take revenge on Persia.

Look at v. 3 [Read v. 3]

What we are going to see in this next section is...

Corruption of Revenge - Alexander and The Four Kingdoms of Greece (v. 3-12)

Alexander builds a huge kingdom all because he wants to get revenge on Persia…

He ends up taking over all of the Persian Empire, INCLUDING Israel...

And then he dies. [Read v. 4]

Map - Kingdom of the South and Kingdom of the North

Read v. 5-12

“Corruption of Revenge” = This evil that exists in someone’s heart because “I want to take from you what you took from me and more...”

And all the while, Israel is just stuck in the middle.

Illustrate - tug of war around Israel...

Did you ever feel like you were stuck in the middle of someone else’s conflict?

Like they are trying to vindicate themselves and you are the one who has to pay for it?

They are dealing with their issues from the past… and you are the victim of their rage?

That was Israel.

But God was using these corrupt powers and their lust for revenge to purify his people.

It’s like their stuck in the agitator of the washing machine… and it’s knocking all the dirt off.

But not off all of them… their are some Jews who end up giving into the...

Corruption of Allegiance - Antiochus the Great and the Jews (v. 13-19)

read. 13 - Explain that the Multitude includes Philip V of Macedon, but also apostate Jews… read v. 14

Apostate Jews… those who were Jews by birth, but did not have faith in God… take a side because they are tired of being stuck in the middle of this conflict…

They are tired of being subject to corruption… and so they side with another corrupt leader who they think will bail them out… [Read v. 15-19]

But it doesn’t work out for these Jews with misplaced allegiance… He uses them for his own advantage, and then brings destruction on their land.

v. 16 - He shall do as he wills and none shall stand before him. And he shall stand in the glorious land with destruction in his hand.

Nominal Christians of our day… sign on with politicians who will preserve their interests but corrupt their souls...

Those people will not be found to have been faithful in the end.

Don’t turn to corrupt leaders to free you from the choices of other corrupt leaders.

God was using these corrupt powers and their misplaced allegiance to purify his people.

Antiochus the Great dies… and his work in Israel paves the way for the worst of all corrupt leaders…

Antiochus Epiphanes.

Corruption of Deceit - Antiochus Ephiphanes (v. 20-35)

His corruption was seen in deceitful scheme after deceitful scheme.

Do you think we have any deceitful leaders in our government?

It’s election season… I’m not sure anyone is going to tell the whole truth for the next 3 months at least!

But don’t think you are immune to it...

Some of those types of Jews that I mentioned before… Jews by birth but not by faith… fell for Antiochus...

Even some of the “wise” ones stumbled...

But God was using these corrupt powers and their deceitful schemes to purify his people… to weed out those who were not genuinely his through faith… And he will do it until the time of the end.

We are now going to jump from what is history for us to a time that is still in our future...

“The appointed time” it is called here… or “the latter days” or “the time of the end” as it was called in chapter 10...

We are going to the time of the final Anti-Christ… and we are going to see the ultimate corruption…

Corruption of Self-Glory - The Antichrist (v. 36-44)

Read v. 36-37

The Antichrist stands opposed to Christ namely because he believes he is above Christ...

His strength and his heart comes from Satan himself…

And we are going to see that he thinks he can do whatever he wants by his own natural means.

Read v. 38.

Antichrist will think he can buy and bomb his way out of any situation… and it will gain him EXTREME dominion… but it will be his ultimate demise.

Read v. 39-45

He shall come to his end, with none to help him.

We are going to read more about that next week in Dan 12, but if you were reading in our plan this week, you saw the fall of the Antichrist in Revelation 19…

Revelation 19:20 ESV

And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

When we get a big picture of history, we can clearly see that corruption leads to ultimate failure. Every time.

From Xerxes to Alexander to Antiochus the Great to Antiochus Epiphanes to the Antichrist… all of them fell in some way.

And as God’s people find themselves in the middle of that struggle, he is using it all to purify them… and set them apart… and get them ready for his indestructible kingdom.

John Piper says this, “spectacular sins do not just fail to nullify God’s purpose to glorify Christ, they succeed, by God’s unfathomable providence, in making his gracious purpose come to pass. This truth is the steel God offers to put in the spine of his people as they face the worst calamities.” (Spectacular Sins, pg 17)

In other words, corrupt leaders… and their incredible ways of sinning... do not stop God’s plan…

and not only do they not STOP it… God uses them to actually WORK OUT his plan.

And when you get that… it strengthens you to live for him.

Apply: When you see the corruption of world powers, remember that God is working out his plan to the letter.

If you start to feel your heart get restless over who is in charge and how that is affecting God’s people:

Stop. Take a breath. And remember… corrupt leaders have come and gone… but the incorruptible Lord remains the same yesterday, today and forever.

And he’s getting at your heart. He’s working to remove your death grip on the kingdoms of this world so that you will take hold of his indestructible kingdom.

So that you will cling to him as the surf and the waves try to knock you off your feet.

As you face the corrupt powers of this world, he wants you to...

2) Stand firm, take action, and seek purity until God's appointed time. (v. 32, 35)

Stand firm by understanding his plan. (v. 32a)

This week, it was a lot of work to understand what God was putting down in Daniel...

If you were reading Revelation and Matthew in our reading plan, it was a lot of work to think through all the symbols and understand what they meant...

But if you put the work in, I’ll bet you got strength out...

Because this is God’s word. This is God REVEALING HIMSELF… and REVEALING HIS PLAN…

In our easy-everywhere culture, studying passages like Daniel 11 isn’t popular...

But if we only do what is easy, we will become weak followers of Jesus.

There is a reason why military boot camp is hard… because if it was easy, the soldiers would be weak when it came time for battle.

And we need to remember something that we’ve said often at Oak Hill: “Life is a Battle, not a picnic.”

Daniel 10-12 shows that there are spiritual forces raging around us… there are corrupt leaders those forces are influencing against God’s people...

GOD’S PLAN is not designed to make your life easy… it’s designed to make your heart pure.

We live in a fallen and corrupt world. And we can either give into that corruption, or we can stand firm by knowing God understanding his plan.

And we know that the ultimate plan is that Jesus Christ will save his people as the incorruptible Lord.

When the whole world… including Israel… had their hearts set on corruption...

The incorruptible Lord entered his corrupted creation…

And he did so humbly… in contrast to the pride of corrupt leaders, he went to the outcast and the lowly… the ones who KNEW they were sinners and needed a savior.

And he died on a cross as a spotless sacrifice for their sin...

Every single one of us are corrupt in heart and have turned against God and deserve death.

And our incorruptible Lord died in OUR place.. only to rise again... because the Holy One cannot see corruption.

Corrupt things rot out and die… they don’t last forever...

Only pure things remain.

And it is ONLY in the death and resurrection of Jesus that God’s people can be made pure.

That’s his ultimate plan.

That we would turn from the corruption of this world… and turn to the incorruptible Lord.

And if you’ve never done that… I would URGE you to do that today.

And once we know God through Jesus and understand his plan, we must teach others his plan… remember, God wants to purify a PEOPLE for himself… all his people together…

Take action by instructing others in his wisdom. (v. 32b)

“Stand firm and take action...” What was the action they took? v. 33 - the wise among the people shall make many understand.

People won’t be purified if they don’t understand God’s plan in all of this.

Remember, there was a group that went along with Antiochus Epiphanes because they didn’t get God’s plan.

They thought they needed a human ruler to save them instead of a supernatural Savior.

It’s going to be that way when the Antichrist comes as well...

And it’s the faithful teaching of the wise that God uses to purify his people in those times.

We need every person in this church telling one another… and telling the world… that Jesus is the incorruptible Lord...

That the kingdoms of this world will rise and fall… but he will remain forever...

We need to remind one another that while corrupt leaders use and abuse people, our incorruptible Lord humbled himself to SAVE his people...

We need to teach people that God has a plan that is moving toward an appointed time when Jesus returns and squashes the corrupt leaders of this world and sets up his indestructible kingdom and reigns forever.

Others need to know that! If you know the plan of God… even if you still don’t totally understand Daniel 11...

If you know the plan of God to save sinners through Jesus Christ… you need to instruct others in his wisdom.

Because it is that hope… that vision of the END of God’s plan... that causes us to live with purity NOW.

That leads us to this last point of application:

Seek purity by waiting for the appointed time. (v. 35)

Read v. 35 - Even some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time…

It’s hard for the wise to maintain their perspective… when corruption is all around them...

But in every age, God is using that trial of corruption to refine them…

to draw a clear line in the sand between allegiance to the world, and allegiance to his kingdom.

to draw a line between the corrupt leaders of this world and the incorruptible King who is Jesus.

Some who are in the church will prove they don’t know him because they put their faith in someone or something else...

But those who know him will live with him forever in his indestructible kingdom.

We’ll talk about that more next week… let’s pray.

[Apply: How does understanding God's plan help us stand firm when we see the corruption of this world? What action can you take to help others know God's plan? How is God using world events to refine your faith and allegiance to him?]