[MUSIC PLAYING]
Would you please turn in your
Bibles to the book of Daniel
chapter 2?
We are doing our series but God.
And this week and next
week, we'll finish that off.
But we're in Daniel chapter 2.
And I brought with me a book
that has been in my library
for a few years.
That's called Predictions
for the Next Millennium.
And these are predictions
by celebrities.
And they predict what will
happen in the next 1,000 years.
These are celebrities,
who are some politicians.
Some are statesmen.
Others are musicians.
Others are actors.
So some of them are not deep.
And some of them
are downright funny.
But some of them
are interesting.
Among the predictions
of what will happen
to us in the next
1,000 years, one
predicts that we'll
have a common language
and a common currency.
Someone else's, a
world government
that will heal the planet,
good luck with that.
And even this one, the
Earth's politicians
will be taking interplanetary
economic lessons
from alien beings, to find out
how to cooperate and operate
a government without
taxing people to death.
Interestingly, that was given
by one of the original cast
members from Star Trek.
I kid you not.
Knowing the future or predicting
the future is big business.
From reading fortune cookies
to reading horoscopes,
people have tried to
create an industry.
And it's no less
than an industry.
It's a $2 billion per year
industry in our country.
In fact, it's triple that for
some unknown reason in Italy.
It's a $6 billion industry.
When I say, industry, it
includes palm reading,
carda mansi, which is
predicting the future using
cards, mediumship, aura
readings, and astrology.
In fact, today has been called
the new era of astrology.
They tell us there
is a resurgence
of astrology among a very
particular group of people.
An age group called millennials.
You know what they are.
And according to
Atlantic Magazine,
it says, "Millennials have
taken astrology and run with it.
They feel that they are the most
stressed out generation of all.
And they're looking
to astrology to cope."
Now, why is it that people have
been so obsessed about knowing
their future?
And I've noticed this for years
among virtually every group
of people.
They want to know what the
future's going to hold.
Why is that?
And I say, all people, I
mean even Christian people.
You want to see seminars sell
out, go to a prophecy seminar.
You want to see books that
sell out, get a prophecy book.
My publishers for
years have begged
me to do a book on prophecy.
Because they know that those
people will buy those books,
knowing the future sells.
And I found a quote
by a psychologist.
That I thought was interesting.
That helps explain it.
He says, "One of the most
powerful influences on fear
is uncertainty.
The less we know, the
more threatened we feel.
Because lack of
knowledge means we
don't know what we need to
know to protect ourselves."
Then he gives an illustration.
He says, picture you're
driving down the road,
on open country road.
You're doing 85 miles an hour.
Let's just forget
speed laws right now.
You're just on the open
road dong 85 miles an hour.
Now, you close your eyes.
You go a half a mile, a mile.
Just the thought of
that terrifies us.
Why?
Because we will not
have what we need
to know in order to survive.
Self-preservation is
such a basic instinct.
That we lack that, when we
can't see where we're going.
So when we drive.
We peer as far down the
road, around that curve
as possibly we can.
So we can get the information,
we need to know to survive.
Knowledge, he says,
knowledge of the future,
even if it's incomplete
knowledge, is power.
And if we don't know.
We get afraid.
But I have a question.
Do you really want
to know your future?
I mean, do you want to know
all the details of what's
going to happen to you
next week, next month,
next year to 10 years from now?
If you found out that
somebody you love
was going to die a horrible
death on a certain day.
Would you want to
know that in advance
and have to live with that?
Probably not.
And so God wisely withholds
such information from us,
so as not to overwhelm us.
But looking at
Daniel chapter 2, I
do want to give you some
certainties about your future.
I'm going to make some basic
statements that are there
for you and your outline.
And you know Daniel chapter
2, it's a long chapter.
There's 49 verses in it.
So we're just going to
highlight a couple of them
to get the gist of it.
But it's a story about
a King, Nebuchadnezzar.
He is the world
ruler at the time.
And the story tells us that he
was wondering about his future.
He knew that he was
going to die one day.
And he wondered what's going
to happen after he dies.
And into the future who's
going to take over my position?
Who's going to rule
the world, et cetera?
And that's the setting
that Daniel the prophet
finds himself in.
So let me make the first
certainty about the future.
And that's pretty basic.
The future is unknown to us.
From a human perspective,
it's impossible to predict
future events.
Now, let's look at verse
1 of Daniel chapter
2, a couple verses down.
And we'll get the setting.
"Now in the second year
of Nebuchadnezzar's reign
Nebuchadnezzar had dreams."
Notice not one, but several,
it's plural, dreams.
"And his spirit was so troubled.
That his sleep left him."
So picture a guy having
a bad night's sleep.
He wakes up.
He's troubled by what
he saw in his dream.
He can't get back to sleep.
He doesn't wake up refreshed.
His sleep left him.
"Then the King gave
the command to call
the magicians, the
astrologers, the sorcerers,
and the Chaldeans to
tell the king his dreams.
So they came and
stood before the king.
And the king said to
them, 'I've had a dream,
and my spirit is anxious
to know the dream.'
So this king named
Nebuchadnezzar
has a weird set of dreams.
And because pizza had
not yet been invented.
We can't blame it on that.
This is from God.
God gives him dreams.
The problem is,
he can't remember
the details of his dream.
There's probably certain
parts of it he could remember.
But he can't remember
all the details.
He can't remember how
it all fits together.
We're just told he had dreams.
And his spirit was troubled.
It's a very strong Hebrew word.
Troubled is pa am, which means
to beat something persistently.
So something was
hammering his thoughts.
While he was lying on
his bed that night.
And he woke up uneasy.
And so he can't remember
what the dream is.
So he tells his wise people to--
wise men of the court, to
tell him what it was he
dreamed and what the
interpretation was.
By the way, we dream.
We're told, every night.
You said, well, I don't
dream every night.
Well, you do.
Recall is a different issue.
But we're told that about 90
minutes after you fall asleep,
you have your first dream
episode and about 90 minutes
thereafter.
So that the average human being
has five dreams per night.
From a scientific standpoint,
the reason we dream
is that the large
cells in your brain
stem spontaneously fire
about every 90 minutes
and sends the stimuli to the
cortex of your brain, which
tries to unjumble and
make sense of that.
Now, that's just a very
naive, simplistic way
of describing it.
But in this case,
Nebuchadnezzar's case,
God was superintending
those cortical stimulations.
He was getting the message
across to this king.
So because the king
happens to have
on his payroll guys who traffic
in dream prognostication.
He calls them all in.
This is their forte.
This is what they do.
Notice in verse 2-- and
we won't take the time
to explain what they all
did apart from the others.
But magicians, astrologers,
sorcerers, and Chaldeans,
let's just say, this was the
cream of the occultic crop,
right.
If anybody can tell dreams,
they should be able to do that.
Dreams and omens
were their forte.
Now, what they tell
the king is this.
Tell us what you dreamed, king.
And then we will tell
you the interpretation.
This king says, no, I
can't remember the details.
You have to tell me what it was
I dreamed and what it means.
And if you don't, I'm going to
cut you up into little pieces
and make your houses a dunghill.
So he's pretty upset
at what he dreamed.
And this doesn't sit
very well with him.
And so in verse 10,
let's just go down there.
"The Chaldeans answered
the king, and said,
'There is not a man on earth
who can tell the king's matter.'
Mark that, they finally admitted
that they can't tell him
what it was he dreamed.
In fact, no person on earth can.
We can't read your mind.
And no person on earth
can predict the future.
We can't do it.
"Therefore-- they
continue, 'no king, lord,
or ruler has ever asked
such things of any magician,
astrologer, or Chaldean."
Nobody on earth can
predict the future.
Solomon in Ecclesiastes 7 said,
when times are good, be happy.
When times are bad, consider
God has made the one as well
as the other.
Therefore, a man cannot discover
anything about his future.
So why is it that
people keep trying?
Why is it that for time
immemorial in every generation,
people will do almost anything
to predict their future?
In ancient times, there
were things called
or people called oracles.
And oracles were like
intermediary interpreters
of the gods to the
human population.
So these people, these
kind of counselor beings
in the ancient
temples, these oracles
would get themselves into
a hypnotic state or a drug
induced state and bring
the message from the gods
to the people.
Of course, when you're
in a drug induced state,
you think you hear
a lot of things.
And they would tell those
things to the people.
Supposedly, the gods were
speaking through them.
And then during the
Roman times, there
was a very interesting way
of predicting the future.
I can only describe it
as prophecy by chicken.
They would put hens in a cage
and put food into the cage.
And if the hens ate it
avidly, attacked the food
enthusiastically,
that was a good sign.
It was a good omen.
If they ignored the
food in the cage.
It was a very bad sign.
So it's a very foul
way to tell the future.
As you can see.
[LAUGH]
And there was even an ancient
way called hepatomancy,
which was these oracles
reading livers of animals.
They would kill an
animal, sacrifice,
and take out the trails
and specifically the liver.
And the liver would be on
a plate and kind of jiggle.
Depending on which
way it jiggled--
and I don't know how
many jiggles per minute.
It told them something.
And they would look at that
jiggles and predict the future.
It was crazy stuff
and we laugh at that.
We laugh at that.
However, in the United
States of America,
125 million people
believe in astrology.
And 70 million people read their
horoscopes every single day.
In fact, 7% of them say, they
have changed their behavior
based on their horoscope.
You say, well, that's
a small amount, 7%.
That's 12 million people
in our country every day.
Say, they change their behavior
based upon their horoscope.
What's even more
shocking, according
to the Gallup organization,
the Gallup Poll,
is 10% of people who say they
are evangelical Christians also
believe in astrology
to some degree.
Now, every time I bring
up this stuff, there's
always somebody who will
say, yeah, but what--
I saw this special on TV.
About this person, Nostradamus.
You know, he was amazing.
He predicted the future.
And yeah, you can always find
that crazy National Geographic
special.
And they'll give you
the spooky music.
And they'll pan the
camera this way.
And then they'll say
something he said and isn't
that amazing that happened.
And supposedly,
Nostradamus, who by the way,
was a 1500 French pharmacist.
They say, predicted from
the rise of Adolf Hitler
to the Twin Towers falling
on September 11, 2001.
When you look at what he
actually said, it's so vague.
It's so hazy.
It's so ambiguous.
That retrospectively, you could
make it mean almost anything.
And I've done that.
I've actually looked
at what he said.
Well, that could be
a number of things.
It's not all that great.
But what I remember
back in the 1960s
was a gal who was called
America's most famous psychic.
She was actually in the
50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s.
I think she died in the 90s.
Her name was Jeane Dixon.
And Jeane Dixon was most famous
for supposedly predicting
the assassination of JFK.
That's what launched
here into fame
and got her name in the
newspapers everyday,
Jeane Dixon.
What she actually
said in 1956 was this.
A Democrat will win the
election and die in office.
And people are going, wow.
Well, is that all that amazing?
First of all,
there's a 50% chance
that a Democrat is going
to win the election, right.
Last time I checked, there's
only two main parties, so
either Republican or Democrat.
She predicted a Democrat.
In those days maybe was
even a higher percentage,
since JFK was running
against Richard
Nixon, the incumbent Vice
President for the Republican
Party.
And you know, people
often change parties
from one side to the other.
So maybe even greater than 50%.
But let's say, 50.
In the 1960s, the odds that a
president would die in office
is rated at about 40%.
Because presidents were largely
unprotected in those days.
So let's just grant
her 20% chance
that her prediction
is going to come true.
When you compare that
to biblical prophecy,
that ain't that good.
And you add to that the
fact that Jeane Dixon also
predicted that World War
III would start in 1954.
And it didn't start in 1954.
In fact, it didn't start ever.
And she also predicted that
Jacqueline Kennedy would never
marry again.
When in fact, she did marry
Aristotle Onassis some years
after JFK's death.
So a lot of the things
she said never happened.
So she would be
considered a false prophet
by Old Testament standards.
And it was just very
generic what she predicted.
All of that to say, what
these Chaldeans told the king,
the future is unknown to us.
It's unknown to us from
a human perspective.
Here's the second
certainty though,
though the future
is unknown to us.
The future is well known to God.
And Daniel knew that
down to verse 15.
I'll fill in the blank.
So the king says, OK, you guys,
you tell me what I dreamed
or what it means.
Or I'll cut you in pieces and
make your house an outhouse,
basically.
And they say, well, nobody can
do what you're asking, king.
So the king gives this
command to kill them all.
Part of that group happens to
be Daniel and his three friends.
So Daniel gets wind of it.
In verse 15, "he answered
and said to Arioch
the king's captain, 'Why
is the decree from the king
so urgent?'
And Arioch made the
decision known to Daniel."
Now, watch this, "So Daniel
went in and asked the king
to give him time,
that he might tell
the king the interpretation."
Now, why is it that
Daniel tells Arioch
to stop the king's edict?
And why does he call
a prayer meeting,
which he does immediately
thereafter with his buddies
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah?
Why does he do that?
Well, in verse 16
it tells us why,
"that he might show the
interpretation to the king."
Stop right there, how
is he going to do that,
if the future is unknown to us?
How is he going to tell
the king what he dreamed
and the interpretation
of the future?
Because Daniel believed it's
possible to know the future,
if God tells you.
If God tells you.
And that's the only caveat.
If God tells you,
which he did, verse 19.
"The secret was revealed to
Daniel in a night vision."
Now, a vision is
different than a dream.
A dream happens in your sleep.
A vision happens
when you're awake.
So Daniel, while he
was awake one night,
saw what the king had seen in
the dream state, powerfully
displayed before
him in a vision.
"So Daniel blessed
the God of heaven.
Daniel answered and said,
'Blessed be the name of God
forever and ever, for
wisdom and might are His.
And he changes the
times and the seasons;
He removes kings
and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the
wise and knowledge to those
who have understanding.
He reveals deep
and secret things.
He knows what is
in the darkness,
and light dwells with Him.
I thank you and praise
you, God of my fathers;
You have given me
wisdom and might,
and have now made known to
me what we asked of You.
You have made known to
us the king's demand.'
God can do that.
You see God has a quality.
He has an attribute.
He has a characteristic
that makes
knowing the future possible.
And that is this.
He knows everything.
And when you know everything,
you know the future.
In Psalm 139 David
said, "LORD, you
have searched me and known me.
You have known my sitting
down and my rising up;
You understand my
thought afar off.
You comprehend my path
and my lying down.
You are acquainted
with all my ways.
There is not a word on my
tongue, but behold, LORD,
You know it altogether."
In other words, even
before I think the thought.
You know what I'm
going to think.
You know my thought afar off.
You know it before I know it.
That's how comprehensive
God's knowledge is.
So God has all knowledge.
The Bible portrays Him
as that, all knowledge.
He is omniscient.
He is the know-it-all God.
And that means,
you can never tell
God something He doesn't know.
Now, I think most
of us believe that.
But even the best we
can ever do to describe
this attribute of God,
because it's so foreign to us.
We kind of walk away
going, I don't get it.
Because God's knowledge is
immediate, comprehensive,
and without deterioration.
None of us can relate to that.
If I were to give you a test
from your high school days.
You'd probably failed.
Because all of
that knowledge you
learned right before the test,
it's gone pretty quickly.
In fact, a lot of us forget
what we did yesterday.
So God's knowledge is
immediate, comprehensive,
without deterioration and
without painstaking research.
You know, for me the
preaching is easy.
It's all the research
that leads up to it.
God doesn't have to
do that. he doesn't
have to move from
one logical premise
to another logical premise
to come up with a conclusion.
God never had to go to school.
God doesn't ever
have to be informed.
God never says, oh
really, or wow, or huh,
or I didn't know that.
He never says those things.
Because His knowledge is
immediate, comprehensive,
without deterioration.
Now, because He knows it all.
He therefore, knows the future.
And that is what
Daniel is banking on.
That is why Daniel
stands before Arioch.
He's not panicking.
He's very poised.
He's very confident
and unruffled.
Because he knows God knows.
And all it is, is a matter
of God revealing it to him.
Now, God exists out of time.
That is, He is not confined
by our space time continuum.
He dwells in the
realm of eternity.
You might call it
the eternal present.
That is why God can
predict the future.
And you'll notice this when
you read the Old Testament.
He often predicts
what hasn't happened
by using past tense verbiage,
as if it has already happened.
Because to Him, it's like
it already has happened.
I'll give you a
little illustration.
Let's say, it's the
4th of July parade.
And I'm there on the curb, right
in the middle of the parade
route.
And so I'm there.
The parade is going by
and the clowns on bicycles
go by, not spooky
clowns, nice clowns.
Happy clowns are waving.
I waved back at the clowns.
The clowns go by.
Now, the mayoral float is still
at the beginning of the parade
route, that hasn't come by yet.
I haven't seen that.
Let's say, one of
you sees me there.
And you come up.
And I say, we'll
just sit right here.
And you can enjoy the parade.
And you go, well,
man, I really want
to see the clowns on bicycles.
I say, well, they've
already gone by.
But if you go ahead, you
can see what's passed.
Somebody else comes up
and says, man, I hope--
where's the mayoral float?
I want to see the
mayor on the float.
I don't have much time.
I said, well, they're still
at the beginning of the route.
But if you go to the beginning,
you can see the future.
What is the future to me.
Now, let's take
it a step further.
Let's say, we were to
leave the ground level,
get in a helicopter and
get over the parade.
Well, now, we can
see it all at once.
I can see the
clowns on bicycles.
I can see the mayor on
his float and everything
in between at one time.
Daniel knows that God
has this attribute.
So Daniel activates
his faith in God.
Because the God he
knows, knows it all.
And that is what
Daniel is banking on.
Somebody once said, faith
is putting all your eggs
in God's basket and then
counting your blessings
before they hatch.
That's why he says, Arioch,
dude, cool your jets, man,
chill, give me a
little bit of time.
God'll tell me about this stuff.
And I'll tell the king.
So the future is unknown to us.
The future is well known to God.
Let me give you a
third certainty.
The future is made known to us.
Just like it was
made known to Daniel.
Daniel will now make it
know to the king, who
had the dream to begin with.
If you go down to
verse 26, it says,
"The king answered
and said to Daniel,
whose name was Belteshazzar,
'Are you able to make known
to me the dream which I have
seen and its interpretation?'
Daniel answered in the
presence of the king.
And he said, 'The secret
which the king has demanded,
the wise men, the
astrologers, the magicians,
and the soothsayers cannot
declare to the king.'
Verse 28 is the key verse
in our but God series,
in this particular instance.
" 'But there is a God in
heaven who reveals secrets.
He has made known to
King Nebuchadnezzar what
will be in the latter days,
the future, your dream.
And the visions of your head
upon your bed, were these.
As for you, O king, thoughts
came into your mind while
on your bed, about what would
come to pass after this.
and He who reveal secrets has
made known to you what will
be.'
So Daniel stands before
the king and says,
they can't tell you
about your dream.
And I can't tell you
about your dream.
But there is a God
in heaven who can.
And the God in heaven
knows your future.
He's revealed it to me.
And I'm about to tell it to you.
So the future is
made known to us.
Now, here's the
principle, God wants
to make known to you,
to us the future.
Not all of it, as I said,
all the details of it
would be overwhelming,
but parts of it.
He wants to give us a
limited amount of knowledge.
And that's essentially
what biblical prophecy is.
It's God telling us what's
going to happen in the future.
So for example, He told
Israel before it happened,
you're going to go into
captivity in Babylon.
They did.
I'm going to bring you back.
They came back.
He announced that
there would come
one day a ruler, a Messiah, the
mega prophet, the deliverer.
And the prophets told about
his birth, his life, his death,
and his resurrection.
The Bible reveals to us future
judgment is coming one day.
A rapture is coming one day.
A great tribulation
period is coming one day.
Jesus will come
back to the Earth.
That's going to happen one day.
He's going to rule and
reign for 1,000 years.
That's going to happen one day.
There's going to then
be an eternal kingdom
with a new heaven and new earth.
That's going to happen one day.
The future is given
to us revealed by God.
Now, how impressive
is biblical prophecy?
Pretty impressive,
because there are
some accounts where events
and people are spoken
about before they are born.
Some of them are even named
by name hundreds of years
before they existed.
And we're told
what they would do.
And in fact, 1/4 of
the Bible is prophecy.
That's a big chunk.
A fourth of the Bible
is predictive prophecy.
God telling people what's
going to happen in the future.
Now, anybody can
make predictions.
Having those
predictions come true,
that's a whole other level.
I can make all sorts
of predictions.
But having them happen is
quite a different category.
Especially as you add
details to those predictions.
Now, when you make a prediction.
And then you add detail
upon detail, upon detail.
Now, you complicate
the prediction.
And when you complicate the
prediction, you add risk.
And the risk diminishes
the possibility
of it ever being fulfilled.
So you enter a realm called
compound probability.
The more details you add,
the odds of it ever happening
are slim.
So the Jewish
prophets, for example,
predicted about 300 to
330 different layers
of what would happen to this
Messiah who was going to come.
Where he would be born.
As I said, his life, his
death, his resurrection.
Here's a sampling.
They predicted he would
be born of a virgin, that
narrows the population
down quite a bit.
That's Isaiah
chapter 7 verse 14.
That he would be
born in Bethlehem,
Micah chapter 5 verse 2.
They predicted he would be
born into the tribe of Judah,
Genesis 49, 10.
They also predicted
that his ministry
would begin not in Jerusalem,
but up in Galilee, Isaiah 9, 1.
They predicted he
would work miracles,
Isaiah 35 verse 5 and 6.
They also predicted
he would one day
enter into Jerusalem on a
donkey, Zachariah 9 verse 9.
He would be betrayed by a
friend, Psalm 41 verse 9.
He would then be sold for 30
pieces of silver, Zachariah 11,
12.
He would be wounded and
bruised, Isaiah 53 verse 5.
His hands, his feet would be
pierced, Psalm 22 verse 16.
He would be then crucified
with thieves, Isaiah 53, 12.
His garments would be
torn and lots would
be cast to see who owns them.
That's Psalm 22, 18.
His bones would not be
broken, Psalm 34 verse 20.
His side would be pierced,
Zechariah 12 verse 10.
He would be buried in a rich
man's tomb, Isaiah 53 verse 9.
And he would rise from the
dead, Psalm 16 verse 10.
Those are 16 only of
those 300 predictions,
very detailed
predictions of what
would happen to this Messiah.
Now, I think you will agree
these are impossible to arrange
from a human level.
You can't decide in
advance what tribe you're
going to be born into.
Or who your mother's
going to be.
Or where you will
live as a baby.
All those are predicted.
In fact, 100 billion
years isn't enough time
to give us enough chances
for those processes
to ever be fulfilled
without God.
That's why Dan said, but
there is a God in heaven
who knows all these
things and reveal secrets.
So that's Bible prophecy.
You see, Bible prophecy
isn't a good guess.
It's good news to a guessing
world, to give them certainty.
And that is because
in Bible prophecy,
you have multiple
contingencies and features.
Different layers of those
that cannot be known.
They cannot be controlled.
And so you're left
at the end going,
there's only one explanation
for that, divine authorship.
There's really no other way
to explain the Bible's ability
to predict the future.
Unless you see
God as the author.
Because the precision is
undeniable, undeniable.
So the future is unknown to us.
The future is well known to God.
The future is made known to us.
And fourth and finally, the
future makes God known to us.
This is the most
important point.
The reason God
predicts future events
is to make himself
known to people.
So go down to verse 45.
After Daniel tells him
what he saw, what it means,
what's going to
happen after he dies,
all the kingdoms that
are coming, verse 45.
'Inasmuch as you saw that
the stone was cut out
of the mountain without hands,
and that it broke in pieced
the iron, the bronze, the
clay, the silver, the gold--
these are all the
kingdoms that would
come after Nebuchadnezzar.
The great God has made known to
the king what will come to pass
after this.'
Notice what he calls God,
not just a god or my God,
but the great God.
The great God is made only
the capable will come to pass.
And then look what he says,
" 'The dream is certain,
the interpretation is sure.
Then verse 46
Nebuchadnezzar said, cool.
I on purpose misread that.
Nebuchadnezzar did
what anybody would do.
In having a guy tell him
exactly what he dreamed.
Exactly what he was thinking
about before he fell asleep.
And exactly what it means in
terms of future prophecies.
Says, "Nebuchadnezzar
fell on his face,
prostrate before
Daniel and commanded
that they should present an
offering and incense to him.
And the king answered
Daniel, and said,
'Truly your God is the God
of gods, the Lord of kings,
and a revealer of secrets, since
you could reveal this matter.'
That is the reason
for biblical prophecy.
So that people will realize
there is only one God.
There's only one true God.
And that's the God who
can predict the future.
Did you know that God
himself uses prophecy
as his business card?
He does.
He uses prophecy to show that
other world religions are
all a sham, all made up,
all demonic endeavors
that don't add up to anything.
I want you to
listen to Isaiah 41.
This is God speaking.
He says, present your case,
set forth your arguments,
bring in your idols
and have them tell us
what is going to happen,
declare to us things to come,
tell us what the future holds.
So that we may know
that you are gods.
See God is showing off.
He's saying, I can
predict the future.
Can they, can your
idols or false gods?
No, they can't.
Jesus saw prophecy as
basically the same thing,
as a reason to believe,
a reason for faith.
John 14, 29, Jesus
said, "And now I
have told you before
it comes to pass,
so that when it does come
to pass, you may believe."
That's the goal.
That you may believe.
That you may trust.
You see Jesus has basically
three credentials that
set him apart from every other
religious system or belief
system.
Number one, his impact upon
history is incomparable.
Number two, his resurrection
from the dead and number three,
fulfilled prophecy,
fulfilled prophecy.
Most religions in the world
will base their beliefs
on the philosophical
postulates of their founders.
The things they said,
words of wisdom,
a lifestyle captured by
disciples and written down.
But of the 25 books that are
out there or there abouts,
about 25 books that
claim to be scripture,
there is something absent
in all of them except one.
That's detailed prophecy,
detailed prophecy.
You won't find it in the Quran.
You won't find it in
the writings of Buddha.
You won't find it in the
writing of Lao Tzu and Taoism
You won't find it in the sayings
of Confucius or the Hindu
Vedas.
Prophesy about the future, of
which God stakes his reputation
on, is found only in the Bible.
So here's God saying,
I know the future.
You don't.
Nobody does.
But I'm in the business
of revealing it to you.
But it's so that I can
reveal myself to you.
I want to make
myself known to you.
I want a relationship with you.
Remember when Paul stood
in Athens on the Areopagus,
on Mars Hill.
And he confronted the
philosophers of Athens.
And he was ingenious.
He said, you know, you
guys are so religious.
You have so many gods.
I was even wandering
through your streets today.
And I found a statue
to an unknown god.
It said, to the unknown god.
So you worship all these gods.
And you've even
made one up called
the-- in case you left somebody
out, this is the unknown god.
And then Paul said,
Him I proclaim to you.
The God you don't know, is
the God that you should know.
And He wants you to know Him.
And he from that point
preached the gospel to them.
God wants to make Himself
known and made Himself
known to Nebuchadnezzar.
And I love it, verse
45, notice Daniel
says, "The dream is certain,
the interpretation is sure."
Do you hear any hesitation
in his voice at all?
He didn't say, did I get
it right, Mr. King, sir?
He said that this is
a done deal, king.
It's certain.
It's sure.
There's a weighty
ring to his speech.
He knows he has heard from God.
And that's what's going
to happen in the future.
So that's why God reveals
Himself in prophecy.
It's not just to
make people aware.
It's to make people adore.
It's not just to inform
people of God's plan.
It's to conform
people to God's plan.
It's not just to
get people to wow.
But to get people to
worship, to surrender,
to submit to His plan.
And by the way, since you don't
know what's ahead in your road.
You can't see around the curves.
God does.
He knows.
And He will be there
to meet you when
those events occur in
your life, to give you
grace to endure them all.
But doesn't it make most sense,
that because we are limited,
and God is unlimited,
we who are limited
would surrender ourselves to
the unlimited being, who wants
to be a part of our lives?
That makes most sense.
Corrie Ten Boom, one
of my favorite people
in modern history was
a Christian believer,
who helped hide Jews
during World War II.
She was caught.
Her family was caught.
Some were killed.
She was put in a
concentration camp
in Nazi concentration camp
and then another concentration
camp.
She almost died.
She was brutally
treated for years.
She said this, "Never be afraid
to entrust an unknown future
into the hands of a known God."
That sums it all up,
never be afraid to trust
an unknown future into
the hands of a known God.
That makes sense.
And if you don't
know this God, He
wants to reveal Himself to
you and to walk with you
and to have a
relationship with you.
Let's pray together.
Father, I love the
book of Daniel.
And I love the prophecies.
And we didn't really do
this chapter justice.
We just basically gave an
overview and skimmed it.
But these principles
are so apparent.
We don't know what's
ahead of our road.
The future is unknown
to us, but not to you.
It's well known to you.
You know every nook and cranny,
every detail, every thought
before we think it.
But you make the
future or limited parts
of the future known to us.
But ultimately, that you might
make yourself known to us.
Lord, I pray that you
will ever reveal yourself
to people this morning.
And that some who have been
resistant to your power,
your control, your
authority in their lives,
would relinquish their own
control to yours this morning.
Some have just wandered
away, walked away.
Something happened in their
past that was spiritual,
but they're not living
a life of surrender
to you in obedience to you.
And they need to come back to
that place of being before you.
As somebody who needs your
help and a willingness
to turn from their past
and turn to the Jesus who
died for their sins.
Our heads are bowed,
our eyes are closed.
This will take just a moment.
If you have yet to surrender
your life to Jesus Christ.
If you are willing to
do that this morning.
Or you need to come back to
him to get your sins forgiven.
If you want to make
sure that when you die,
you'll go to heaven.
If you want no ambiguity.
But you can say, it's
certain, it's sure,
then give your life to Christ.
Come back home to
him, if need be,
if you've wandered from him.
But if you're willing to
surrender your life to Christ
this morning.
I want you to raise
your hand in the air.
I'll keep my eyes open.
And I'll acknowledge your hand.
And I'll pray for you before
we close this service.
That raising your hand,
you're just saying,
Skip, here I am, pray for me.
I need to give my
life to Christ.
And I'm going to
do that right here.
Just raise your hand in the
air, so I can acknowledge that.
I love to pray for you.
I need to know who
I'm praying for.
Raise your hand up in the air
high enough so I can see it.
God bless you, right up here
in the front to my right,
to my left, on the
side, toward the back,
I see your hand
on the left right
there in the middle on my right
and in the back to my right,
in the balcony.
Thank you for that, thank you
for the hand way up there,
my limited eyesight.
I appreciate it, over here in
the family room, thank you.
Lord, it's my prayer then for
these along with all of ours,
that you have revealed your
incomparable power just
through biblical prophecy.
Maybe opened some eyes and
awakened some consciences.
Lord, I pray that now, these
who have raised their hands
would know what it is to enter
into a life of being forgiven
of their past and the freedom
that the gospel brings.
The joy that it brings.
May it be theirs,
in Jesus' name.
Let's all stand to our feet.
We're going to close in a song.
And finally, I'm going
to ask those of you who
raised your hands to do
something that might seem
bold to you or a little
bit uncomfortable,
but please don't
let it be that way.
Because we're doing
this to encourage you.
I want you to get up from
where you're standing,
even if you're in the
balcony, come down the stairs.
We're going to wait for you.
And you come stand
right up here.
Where I'm going to leave
you in a prayer to make
Jesus your Lord and savior.
Jesus called people publicly.
And there's something about
a public stand for Christ
that settles it in
a person's heart.
Trust me when I say that.
So if you're in the family
room, come through the doors.
If you're in the
outside, raise your hand.
Somebody will bring you here.
If you're closer to the
front, please just say,
excuse me, and find the nearest
aisle and stand up here.
I'm going to lead you in a
simple prayer, a surrender
to Jesus Christ.
God bless you, man.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Break every chain, break every
chain, break every chain,
there is power in the
name --good of Jesus.
Awesome.
Awesome.
There is power in
the name of Jesus.
There is power in the name of
Jesus, to break every chain,
break every chain,
break every chain, yeah.
There is power of the
name of Jesus, oh.
We're going to wait
just another moment.
And then we'll pray.
I just want to make sure
that you're included.
That you are given an
opportunity, an opportunity
to enter into God's grace,
means unmerited favor,
undeserved outpouring of favor.
He is willing to forgive
you, give you a do over.
By just you asking
Him to do that
and receiving His son as savior.
Anybody else?
You get up and come.
You say, well, faith
is a private matter,
not in the Bible.
It's a public matter.
Jesus died publicly for me.
The least I can do is
live publicly for him.
Anybody else want to come and
join these who are up front.
Well, those of you who have
come forward, so good to see you
guys.
I'm going to lead
you in a prayer.
I'm going to ask you to say
these words out loud after me,
say them from your heart, OK.
Mean them as you give
your life to the Lord.
Let's pray.
Lord, I give you my life.
Lord, I give you my life.
I know that I'm a sinner.
I know that I'm a sinner.
Please forgive me.
Please forgive me.
I believe that Jesus
died on a cross.
I believe that Jesus
died on a cross.
That he shed his blood for me.
That he shed his blood for me.
That he rose again
from the dead.
That he rose again
from the dead.
I turn from my sin.
I turn from my sin.
I turn to Jesus as my savior.
I turn to Jesus as my savior.
I want to follow him as my Lord.
I want to follow him as my Lord.
Help me.
Help me.
In Jesus' name I pray.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
[APPLAUSE]
We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary
Church.
How will you put the truths
that you learned into action
in your life?
Let us know, email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church.
And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with
a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give.
Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary
Church.
