Episode Transcript
so glad you've joined us for countdown. Back to the future, this presentation, Egypt and the Book of the Dead. Justice in the balance. You're wondering what on earth is all that about? You know, one of the great needs in our world today is justice. When you think about it, there is a great need for justice in our own country, often because there are many people who should be in jail, for example, who are not there. And there are many people who are in jail who shouldn't be there. Justice has not been done properly or people may have done the best they could, but it didn't turn out really right for the person. Justice is a great need in the world today and it certainly was back in ancient times. You know, one of the great symbols of judgment are the balances. Have you noticed that law courts in some countries, the balances, symbols of judgment, of justice of. I want to take you to ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians, remember, had ingredients for eternity. We talked about this in a previous presentation. One of the ingredients they needed was the heart for the judgment. That's why the heart was put back in the body and then it was going to be used in the judgment. You notice these scenes from the Book of the Dead that are connected with peoples who have just died and they're going to go through to the judgment. You see the scales or the balances here, these were symbols of judgment for the ancient Egyptians. You got the two balance pans. You see, justice was literally in the balance, so to speak. Now this person here is going to be judged and there he is before Anubis the jackal headed God. There is his heart. It's put on one of the balance pans and on the other balance pan, that is the feather of truth. Ma', at, has he been a good person in other words? Well, it seems that most Egyptians must have been great people or good liars because they seem to all get through the judgment okay. But that's certainly not going to be the case. In God's heavenly judgment there will be true justice, justice for everybody in the right sense. Now if you didn't come out in the right side for the ancient Egyptians, the crocodile, he got to have you? Not quite, but that's what he's there to deal with. Those who evidently don't come out so good, I want to take you to ancient Babylon now because the Babylonians had a similar idea that scales were used in their judgment. Remember the Medo Persian army of Cyrus came against the Babylonians during the time of Belshazzar and They besieged Babylon 539 BC, the Medo Persian army is outside the walls and King Belshazzar is having a party. We know that this was true from ancient history. They had a very big celebration at this time of the year in Babylon and they were having this party. And Daniel records it in Daniel chapter five. He says, as the party is in full swing, suddenly a bloodless hand wrote a message on the plaster of the palace wall. And the message said, mene mene tekel ubhasan. Nobody knew what that meant, so eventually they called in Daniel, who had been able to help his grandfather in many years before with that great vision of the great statue, remember? So Daniel comes in and he explains to them what this means. He says, king, this word mane means God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. You've been living in the fast lane, king, and game up. You've had opportunity, but you didn't do anything. He said the word tackle means you've been weighed in the balances, the scales of judgment, and you've been found wanting. You come up on the wrong side, King. And then the last word, Peres, your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians. And that very night, tragically, the king lost his life and Babylon fell to the Medes and the Persians. Amazing when you think about it, the scales, symbols of judgment. Justice needed to be done for this man who had actually been doing things that were not so good in his own country. In Daniel chapter seven, you will recall we saw these four beasts, the lion, the bear, the leopard, and this horrible monster beast with iron teeth and so on. Remember, we saw the little horn. It came up among the ten horns. This was the Antichrist we saw. The Antichrist did terrible things. You remember, what did it do? It was against Christ. That's not good. This little horn was against Christ's people. It was persecuting, trouncing them, killing many people. We saw it was against Christ's laws. It was changing God's laws. Remember, even the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday. Now this deeply distressed Daniel. What did he say? My thoughts greatly troubled me with all that going on to God's people, Christ himself and God's laws. In other words, he's saying there was a need for justice in this situation. So notice what happens next in this amazing vision of Daniel's. 2,500 years ago, the Bible says, I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated, the court was seated and the books, the records were open. Here's a judgment Scene there in heaven's temple. Notice what the Bible says further on. But the court shall be seated and they shall take away his. That's the Antichrist dominion to consume and to destroy it forever. In other words, what is Daniel is saying is judgment or justice on the Antichrist. That system deliverance from the Antichrist. Because the word Daniel means God is my judge, God is my deliverer. That's what the word Daniel means, my judge. In Bible times, a judge wasn't someone who sat there and said, you know, go to jail, go straight to jail. A judge was someone who was your deliverer, your savior. Put down the enemies to rescue God's friends. Deliverance from the Antichrist who's been doing terrible things. In other words, justice on the Antichrist. Why? Because Antichrist has been casting down God's law of love. Antichrist has been attacking God's friends. Justice needed to be done. Now we go to the next chapter in the book of Daniel, Chapter eight. Notice what Daniel saw in this chapter. In the third year of King Belshazzar's reign, I, Daniel, had a vision, another vision. In my vision, I saw myself in the citadel of Susa beside the Ulai Canal. Now you will recall Daniel said he was in vision. Now this is said to be the tomb of Daniel in Sus or Shu Susa in Iran. You can actually visit this place today. I've been here two or three times. And you can see the citadel of Susa. This is where Esther lived. This is where evidently Daniel saw himself in vision. An amazing place. But there beside this is this canal, probably the very Ulai Canal where Daniel said I was standing. And as he's standing there in his vision, he saw a war between a ram and a goat. We've noticed this before. We're going to see it again, but get more detail. Now from the book of Daniel, the ram represents Medo, Persia. Remember, the Bible says very clearly the ram which you saw having the two horns, they are the kings of Media and of Persia. Then the goat represented Greece. He was told. The Bible says the male goat is the kingdom of Greece. The large horn that is between its eyes is the first king, that is Alexander the Great, the man who united Greece together. And away they went to fight the Medes and the Persians. Notice what the Bible says. Therefore the male goat, that's Greece, grew very great. But when he became strong, the large horn, the first king, Alexander the Great, represented by that horn when he was broken, when he died in its place, in place of it, four notable ones came up toward the four winds of heaven. As for the broken horn and the four that stood up in its place, four kingdoms shall rise out of that nation, but not with its power. In other words, as we saw when Alexander the Great died here in Babylon, his vast plan, his plans for a vast empire died with him because his generals, Lysimachus, Cassander, Ptolemy and Seleucus, all they did was fought among themselves and divided Greece by 301 BC, exactly as the Bible predicted. That's what I love about this book. My friends, you can always depend on the Bible. Its predictions are reliable. Why? Because God wants us to believe. Remember that he is God and that he's there to help us. Notice what happens when Daniel hears Gabriel talking. Four notable ones, four notable horns came up toward the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them, that's out of one of the four points of the compass, one of the four winds of heaven came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. And it shall cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground. That's God's people. And trampled them. He even exalted himself, says the Bible, as high as the prince of the host. That's a reference to the Messiah. And by him, by this power, the daily sacrifices were taken away and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. He cast down truth to the ground. And he shall also stand up against the prince of princes. Do you see what the Bible is saying here? This little horn, this little horn that Daniel saw, this little horn, who does it represent? It represents the power that toppled the Greeks, and that was ancient Rome. It was the Romans that toppled the Greeks. And notice the actions of the little horn that show us that very clearly. This power went south. That's Egypt, south of Israel, Jerusalem. This power went east into Mesopotamia, where one of the emperors died on a battle campaign. This power went to Israel, the glorious land. We saw that happen when General Pompey marched down into what we call Israel and Palestine in 63 BC. This power was greater than Greece because it was said to be exceedingly great. This power stood against Jesus Christ, the prince of princes. It did that, as we saw when it crucified Christ, nailing him to a cross. It was the Roman soldiers who did that. A Roman governor tried Jesus. Roman soldiers guarded his tomb. This power cast down the sanctuary or the temple. And the Romans did that in 70 AD when they destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. This little horn took away the daily temple services. Because when it destroyed the temple, no services could take place. That's what the Bible is telling us. That's what took place. Now, I want you to notice something interesting that we haven't talked about. Did you notice in that great big statue of the various metals that representing Babylon, the head of gold, Medo, Persia, the chest and arms of silver, the belly and the thighs of Greece, Rome was the iron legs. But do you notice, the iron goes right to the end, but now it's divided, but the iron is still there, weak and divided in the feet. You see, that's something very important. The iron monarchy of Rome, part of Rome continues on right down to the very end. Now we need to go to university history. Now the university history of Christianity. You see, Rome had two phases. The Rome of number one, the Caesars, the pagan Roman we call it. That was the first phase of ancient Rome. But there was a second phase. Historians call it Papal Rome. That is where the Church took over from Rome. Notice what we're told by the University of Rome, Professor LaBianca at the University of Rome, he says, to the succession of the Caesars, that means following the succession of the emperors of Rome came the succession of the pontiffs or the bishops of Rome. When Constantine left Rome, he gave his seat to the pontiff. They took over from him. You remember, as we've seen, in 538 A.D. the medieval church of the Dark Ages begins. The bishop of Rome is now going to rule not just as a religious leader, but as a political leader and powerful influence in what we call Western Europe for the next 1260 years. We saw that in a previous presentation. But this power would do something that the pagan Romans had not done. This power, the Bible says, would cast down God's people. Well, the Romans did some of that too, of course, in the first two centuries. But it was going to continue, sadly through the Church. Many godly priests and bishops gave up their life because of their love for God and were killed simply because they translated the Bible and other things, teaching about Jesus from his word. This power, the Bible says, notice what Daniel saw. The little horn which cast down some of the host, that's God's people, and he trampled them. What a tragedy. As we've already seen, somewhere between 5 million to 50 million people in the church perished at the hands of the church. Some rotted in dungeons, tragically. Godly priests, people in the church simply because they wanted to follow God's word. This power, sadly, this little horn cast down truth to the ground. The Bible says, notice what The Bible says here, he cast truth down to the ground. Now, the Romans didn't cast truth down to the ground. But sadly, as time went on, things in the church altered. Remember, teachings came into the church from paganism and certain teachings were pushed aside. You recall, we saw one of the things that happened was they tried to change God's commandments. Nine commandments in the catechism. Remember one of them taken away. People think there's 10, but there's only nine. The change of the Sabbath from Saturday or the seventh day to the first day of the week. This sadly came into the Christian church. This is the same power you see as the little horn in Daniel seven. Two little horns, one in chapter seven, one in chapter eight. Same power that we see the medieval dark age Christian church, God's church. What a tragedy. And that's why God wrote these things in the Bible, to try to bring the church back, back to his word. The Bible says. Then I heard a holy one speaking. How long will be the vision? How long is this going to go on for? What's this? This is a cry for justice. God, when are you going to do something about this? Your truths have been cast to the ground. Your people have been cast to the ground. Sadly, many things have been changed. When are you going to do something? A cry for justice. Now, notice the strange answer to this question. And he said to me, this Holy being for 2,300 days, that's evenings and mornings, then the sanctuary shall be cleansed. What a strange answer to a simple question. How long? What does this mean? Why such a strange answer? And how do we understand it? Well, there are two things we're going to have to get our head around if we're going to understand this. And you will understand it, let me assure you. Number one, what does this time period, the 2,300 days mean? We'll pick that up in another presentation, our next one in fact. And the other thing we need to know, what does it mean? The cleansing of the sanctuary. How do we understand this phrase that's in the book of Daniel? Well, let's begin with this one. The cleansing of the sanctuary. Remember the sanctuary or the temples in the Bible times? These all illustrated how God solves the human sin problem. That's what they're all about. Remember we saw the key players in these temples. Number one were the sacrifices, the animal sacrifices. God's lamb, which takes away the sins of the world was symbolized by these animals. They really couldn't take away sin themselves. It was only as they pointed to the one who was one day going to come God in human flesh who would die for us. The second player which we haven't looked at so far were the priests. These priests in the temple, they were the ones that remember, caught the blood and sprinkled it in front of the curtain and so on in different places. The priest, we haven't looked at that yet. But all of these priests, especially the high priest, they pointed to Jesus, our high priest or our intercessor and mediator. Notice what the Bible says about this, about the priests. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying. This is Paul talking. In the New Testament we have such a high priest. Who's that? Jesus who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the the heavens. A minister of the sanctuary. He says the temple that is the true tabernacle, the real one which the Lord erected and not man. Now Paul gives us more information about this high priest. Notice what he says. I love the way he says it. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus went back to heaven. In other words Jesus, he spells out let us therefore come timidly. Is that what it says? No, that word is boldly let us come confidently to the throne of anger. Is that what it says? No, it's called the throne of grace. Many people think God's an angry grandpa in the sky. But the Bible is clear. God's throne is a throne of grace, of mercy and justice and kindness. He says we can come boldly, we can come confidently to the throne of grace because we have a high priest, we have an intercessor, we have a mediator. What for? Why do we need to come to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy? Now let's just push the pause button right there. Have you done things that have been wrong Sometimes I know I have not proud of them either. But you know what? When we sin and we realize it, we can come boldly to the throne of grace and say, oh God, I've done wrong, forgive me. And God is a merciful and forgiving God. But not just mercy. When we do wrong, notice what else, not just mercy. And he says find grace to help in time of need. Have you ever been in a situation where your tempted to do the wrong thing? You're really, you're just about to give in. Well it says don't give in, call out to me for help. And Jesus, our great high priest, our intercessor in the heavily temple, he sends help to us. So that we don't have to do the wrong thing. That's why the Bible says in the New Testament, my little children. Says John, the same one who wrote the Revelation, this John, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. I don't want you to sin. But he says, if anyone sins, we have an advocate. That's like a lawyer, a mediator, an intercessor with the Father. And who is that? Jesus Christ, the righteous. So, wow, what a. What a tremendous thing. The sanctuary taught the people, the temples taught them. We've got a sacrifice that's Jesus, God in human flesh. Who died? That priest. That points to Jesus, the great high priest, our intercessor, our mediator. Heaven is a friendly place, in other words. Well, how did it work? How did the temple work on a daily basis? First of all, what took place every day? Well, let me explain to you briefly. Sometimes hard for us to get ahead around this, but you must remember this was custom in societies way back then. And God is using some illustrations so that people can understand his great love that he has for all people now. Notice what took place on a daily basis. The priests would bring a lamb in the morning and in the evening, and they would lay their heads, their hands on the animal, and confess on the animal the sins of the whole nation, morning and evening. Then the priest would kill the animal. The blood would be caught and it would be sprinkled on various places, like on the horns of the altar there in the temple. And inside, it would go in there and sprinkle blood before the curtain between the two rooms. This went on day after day. Now, if you had done something bad yourself, imagine you punched someone in the face. That's not a good thing, right? And you realize, wow, I should not have done that. Then what's going to happen? You're going to bring your own animal. You'll bring a little sheep, and you'll lay your hands on that animal and confess your sin of how you punch someone in the face. Then you will take the knife and you will kill the animal. And the priest will catch the blood and sprinkle the blood before the curtain in other places. Now, what was this teaching the people who lived before Jesus came? This was teaching them the costliness of sin. An innocent animal had to die so they could be forgiven. And they were responsible. They killed the animal because of their sin. It was pointing people to the fact that one day an innocent, innocent savior, someone who never did anything wrong, was going to take the sin of the whole world and it was we. Our sins were the reason he went to the cross and died. It was pointing him to that reality. Now, all of this pointed to the ministry of Jesus. Since he's gone back to heaven because he has a sacrifice, his own sacrifice. He's taken, so to speak, into the heavenly temple. There. He's gone back to heaven for us to be our mediator. It's talking about what took place from the cross to when Jesus comes. Now you can see also that the temple is becoming defiled. Why? Because the sin of the people is going on to the animal. And then when the hands are laid on, when the animal is killed, the blood is going and sprinkled into the temple. In other words, sin is being transferred from the individual in. Into God's temple. It's becoming defiled, so to speak, with sin. And so it needed a cleansing spiritually, so to speak. Take that sin out of God's temple. He's not responsible for that, but he's taken it so we can have forgiveness and we can be free. So they had an annual day of cleansing to deal with this. Not a cleansing with fab and omo and whatever stuff you use to clean your clothes. A spiritual taking the sin out. What happened on this day of cleansing that happened just once a year? Well, they took two goats and they cast lots on these goats. The goat that was taken for the Lord's goat was sacrificed. The other goat was left alive for a moment. The goat for the Lord's goat, it was killed and the blood was taken by the priest. And on this one day of the year, just once a year, the priest moved into the second room where the Ark of the Covenant was. This is mentioned in Leviticus 16 and 23. It's interesting to read it. They went into that room where the Ark of the Covenant was and sprinkled blood on that lid, that lid between the two angels or cherubim over on top of the box, because under the box was the Ten Commandments, remember? Which the people had broken, which we've all broken. The blood was sprinkled and atonement was made. The people were brought near to God. This was known as the Day of Atonement. The priest would come out now, symbolically carrying all the sin of the people out of the temple, carrying it. And he would go to that other goat, the one that was alive, and he'd sort of dump it all on that goat. And that goat was taken out of the camp and not allowed to come back again. Sin was taken out of the camp, but it was the blood of the animals that actually took it from the people into the temple. Now God is taking it out and away goes that goat. This day of atonement is what it's called, the day of at one with God. This day of atonement was also a day of cleansing from sin so they could be right with their God. It was regarded by the Jews actually as an annual day of judgment. I'm taking a plane, a flight on a plane from Sydney one day to Vanuatu. I'm sitting up the back of the plane with a man. We got talking and he said, I'm one of six Jews who live in Vanuatu. At that time we talked, he found out that I kept the Sabbath. That sort of surprised him that Christians keep the Sabbath. Well, it's there in the Bible, isn't it? And then he talked about the day of atonement and he said, we Jewish people, we regard the day of atonement as an annual day of judgment. Well, I knew that myself already. I'd understood that. But now he's telling me that himself. You see, this idea of an annual day of judgment is right there in the Bible. Notice what happened on this day. Any person who is not afflicted, who didn't come into this solemn day searching their heart, in other words, in solemn, on that same day shall be cut off from his people, no longer be part of Israel. This was a solemn day to search their hearts. Amazing. Now we can understand what John saw on the island of Patmos, can't we? Even more clearly. John first of all saw that there was a temple in heaven. Notice what John saw. The Bible says the temple of God was opened in in heaven. Heaven is not the temple. There is a temple in heaven. John saw it, but he also saw that heaven's temple needed cleansing. Notice what, what we see in the book of Hebrews. The Bible says, therefore it was necessary that the copies. That means the earthly temples like in Jesus time, that of these things, the copies of the things in the heavens, the copies of the heavenly temple, in other words, should be purified or cleansed with these. He's talking about animal sacrifices in their time, the copies. But he says the heavenly things with better sacrifices. Heaven's temple needs cleansing with better sacrifices. What would that sacrifices be? The very death of the Lord Jesus Christ for you and for me. So this is what it pointed to. There we have it. Heaven's temple needed cleansing. So now we can understand when John on the island of Patmos saw Earth's final events, the final moments of Earth's history that we're living in now. What did he see? He said the nations were angry and your wrath has come. And the time of the dead, that they should be what? They should be judged. In other words, Earth's day of judgment had come. And then what did he see next? The Bible says then on judgment day, in other words, the temple of God was opened in heaven and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple. Remember, the ark of the covenant is only seen on one day of the year. What day? The day of atonement. In other words, the cleansing of the sanctuary. Judgment day. Now think, my friend, for a moment. In Revelation, chapter 13 and 14, we've been noticing this final battle of global worship. This scene. The temple of God opened in heaven and the ark of his covenant scene. This is the beginning of this great battle. In other words, this great battle between the three beasts and the three angels. It occurs during God's judgment time, when God's judgment is to take place. Amazing. Now you see, we can understand what Daniel saw. Now we can understand that phrase. The sanctuary will be cleansed. How do we understand that? Notice for 2,300 days. That's the answer to that problem. Why so long? How long, Lord? For 2,300 days. Then the sanctuary will be cleansed, meaning God's judgment will begin. Justice will come. That little horn has been doing terrible things. This is the same thing as we saw in Daniel 7. The court was seated and the books were open and the Antichrist was judged. God's judgment will begin. In other words, what Daniel saw was. I said, After 2,300 days, then the sanctuary cleanse, meaning the judgment will begin. What do we understand this 2,300 days thing? How do we understand that? Well, you mustn't miss the next presentation. I tell you what, we're going to see a prophecy that you can almost set your watch by. Amazing. So how will God judge the Antichrist? How will that happen? Well, remember, Antichrist system is made up of people. It's not a bunch of buildings. The Antichrist system is made up of people. People, sadly, who have lost their moral compass, meaning they are no longer following God's word as they know they should. People who hold on to known sin and will not let it go. You see, if Christ is not first in our life, then he said, we're against him. He that is not with me said, jesus is against me. And if Christ is not first in our life, my friend, one day you or I will join the Antichrist system. You see, to be against Christ is to be against Christ's people. And if we keep that up, if we go against those who are seeking to follow God's word, one day we will join the Antichrist system. It's just that clear in the Bible. You see, to ignore Christ's commandments is to be against Christ because they're his commandments. And if we keep on ignoring Christ's commandments, one day we too will join the Antichrist system. That can happen to me and it can happen to you and anybody. We will join it. Now, the Bible teaches that all people will be judged. No question about it. This includes professing Christians. How do we know? Paul on at least two occasions said so, and he included himself. Notice what the Bible says. As he wrote to his friends in Corinth, he said, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We. And he's speaking to Christians in Corinth. He said the same thing to the Christians in Rome. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Do you see? This includes professing Christians. Now, what's God going to use to judge our lives, your life and my life in this judgment, Notice what the Bible says. We go back to the book of James in the New Testament, James says, so speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. Now, what is the law of liberty? Well, he's actually just quoted from it in the previous couple of verses. Notice what he says. He says, for he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder. In other words, the Ten Commandments. The law of liberty is the law of the Ten Commandments. Because, you see, it brings us closer to God when we follow them. It helps our relationships with people on Judgment Day. In other words, God is calling the world's attention to these by saying, I saw the temple of God open in heaven and the ark of his covenant, the ark of his Ten Commandments, was seen. Why does God call the world's attention to the Ten Commandments? Aside from the fact that these Ten Commandments show us what God's character is like, what his values are, aside from the fact that they build up our relationships with God and with people. The other reason is this because on Judgment Day, God is going to judge us by these Ten Commandments. This is a very solemn thing to think about. It means I cannot ignore any of God's commandments because I'm going to be judged by them one day when I know what I should do and I don't do it. I'M in serious problems here. We don't want to hold on to no one's sin. We want to let it go. So the Ten Commandments are God's measuring standard in his judgment. And that should be it when you think about it. Because the Ten Commandments are the law of love. They reveal if we really love God and do we really love others. In other words, the judgment measures our love quotient. If I say I love God, I'm going to follow what God says in his commandments. If I say I love people, I'm going to treat them like the commandments. Tell me they measure our love quotient. Do we really love others and God? Now what aspects of our lives will God examine? What parts of our lives the Bible tells us? The wisest man on earth, Solomon, he said these words. God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it's good or evil or we may hide it from our wife, we may hide it from our children, we may hide it from our husband, we may hide it from the tax department, but we'll never hide anything from God. He sees everything. And that's what Solomon is telling us. But Jesus goes even further. Notice what Jesus said. Every idle word that men may speak, they will give account of it on the day of judgment. That's what Jesus said. In other words, what sort of words do we use? Are they words that lift up or are they words that tear down? Are they honest words? Are they critical words? Are they words where we're judging all the time? What sort of words do we use? We're going to have to face them one day in the judgment. Paul goes even further in his writings. What does he say? He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels. That's the thoughts and the motives of the hearts. You see, because a person might give a million dollars to needy people, not because he cares about needy people, but he wants his name emblazoned everywhere. What a great guy. Or great lady. True? Yes. So God has to judge the motives. Now think of it. God examines in the judgment the record of our words, of our thoughts and motives, and our deeds and our motives. As we say. When you look at that, my friend, seriously, look at that. I'm thinking of myself here. The question we have is, how can we make it through? I mean, my words haven't always been good. My works and my deeds haven't been, and my thoughts and my motives haven't been. So how on earth can we make it through? Well, it's good that we think about this. It's not in the Bible for fun. God wants us to have a reality check. But now we come to the marvelous good news. In spite of all this, God says, I've got a way for you. I've got a way for you to go through the judgment confidently. Notice we go Back to Daniel 7. In Daniel chapter 7, there's that Antichrist. The judgment of the Antichrist. Remember, I watched, says Daniel, till thrones were put in place. The ancient of days was seated, the court was seated, and the books were. The records were opened. What a solemn scene of the judgment. But notice what he sees next. He says, I was watching in the night visions. And I saw in the night visions. And behold one like the Son of man. That's Jesus coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the ancient of days, not coming to this earth, coming into the court scene, coming into the judgment scene. And they brought him near before him. Then to him, to Jesus was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall never pass away. And his kingdom, the one which shall never be destroyed. Notice what he says next. I was watching. I was watching. And the same horn was making war against the saints, God's friends, and prevailing against them until. Until what? Until the ancient of days, there's the judgment scene came and a judgment was made in favor of the saints, God's friends of the most High. And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. Do you see what's going on here? Good news. Mighty good news. Jesus goes into the judgment for his people. He gets the kingdom and he comes out and he gives it to them. What a savior. What a God. Judgment is in favor of God's people because Jesus goes in there for him. You see, my friend, what the Bible is telling us is this. If you and I accept this Jesus in this judgment, he goes into the judgment for you. He goes into the judgment. He stands up for you. This is my child, this is my son. This is my daughter. They've accepted what I did for them on Calvary. He's your advocate, he's your mediator, he's your lawyer. He in the judgment. Notice what the Bible says. But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. He doesn't die. He died once, but rose again, never to die again. He's got an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore he is also able. He has the power, in other words, to save to the Uttermost. Someone once said to save to the guttermost, even the worst of us. Why to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. What a tremendous God we have. That's why the Bible says these words. Marvelous words. For there is one God and one Mediator. That means one lawyer between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to redeem us. But not only is Jesus the lawyer. My friend, in this judgment, Jesus is your judge. The Bible says so. Jesus himself said these words. The Father judges no one. But he has committed all judgment to the Son. Now think of it. In God's judgment, Jesus is both your lawyer and your judge. Imagine if you were in your town and you were taken to the court and the judge was your lawyer. You couldn't lose the case, could you? You see, God is stacking everything in our favor. Our judge is Jesus. Our lawyer is Jesus. But even more marvelous good news. Jesus took your judgment and my judgment himself. How does the Bible put it? But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, when we were at our worst. Christ, God in human flesh, died for us. Meaning in our place. Oh, yes. Amazing. Jesus is not just your judgment. Jesus also is your righteousness in the judgment when your name comes up. And none of us know when that may happen. It could be today for you, we don't know. But when it happens, my friend, if your life is in the hand of Jesus, there's nothing to fear. He stands up for you. What an amazing thing. Notice what the Bible says. That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Not imputing that means not crediting or reckoning their trespasses to them. Well, then, who did he credit them to? Notice what Paul says. For he, God the Father, made him God the Son. Jesus, who knew no sin, he never sinned himself to be sin for us. Why? So that we might become. Which means we might be the righteousness of God in. In him. Because we're in Him. That's why Paul wrote these words. There is therefore now no condemnation for those in the judgment. That is, for those who are in Christ Jesus. What an amazing God. My friend. Yes, the judgment is serious. But when you have Jesus, you have everything you need. The Father and Son were great connoisseurs of art. They had an amazing collection of art in their own home. They had some Rembrandts and, you know, one or two. Not too many, but they had some Very fancy stuff. And they loved to watch the art together. The son goes to war in Vietnam, and he's there one day when a man gets shot. And he has to go out to rescue that man. He goes out on the battlefield with the bullets whizzing around, picks up the man, puts him on his shoulder, carries him back, almost get back to the American lines when, wham, a bullet hits him in the head and kills him outright. The father receives the terrible news that his son has been killed. He's devastated. His wife has already died. He's on his own. One day he's there in his home, and he hears a knock on the door and opens the door, and there's a young man standing there with a parcel under his arm. He says, you don't know me, sir, but I'm the man that your son was carrying when he was shot. And I just wanted to come and pay a visit to thank you and to give you a little gift. Man brought him into the house. The young man gave the old man his gift. When he opened it up, there was a beautiful picture of his son. Now, to be sure, it was no Rembrandt, but the look in the eyes, they were the eyes of his son. The father could tell. He took that picture and he put it among the most important pieces of art in his collection. There on the wall, the eyes, the face of his son. Well, eventually the old man died and the estate had to be carved up. So they had an auction. People came from all over the world, all over the country, to buy some of his art. Well, when they got there, they were sitting there and the auctioneer said, folks, we want to begin the auction. But before we begin the whole auction, we have to sell this painting first. This must be sold first. And he pointed to the picture of the sun on the wall. And the people said, give us a break, man. We didn't come for that junk. That's rubbish. Get on with the real thing. No, the old man said in his will, this one has to be sold first. Well, so the auction got underway, but no one would buy the thing. They didn't value it. Eventually, a man up the back, an elderly man up the back, he bid, I'll give you $20. He was one of the workers in the grounds of the estate. That's all he had. Can anyone give me anything more? Said the. Said the auctioneer, no, no, let him have it. They said, so down. Going once, going twice, going three times. That man has the picture of the sun. Great. They said, let's get on with the show. Let's get on with the real stuff. No, folks, said the auctioneer, the auction's over. Because in the will the old man said, whoever gets the Son gets everything. You know, my friends, that's the truth. When you get Jesus, you get the lot. That man, that old man, he got the whole estate. He got all the art and everything because he had the Son. You know, when you have Jesus, when you put your life in his hands, you have the lot. Let's pray together. Oh God, we thank youk. We thank youk that it's such a solemn time as Daniel's talking about the time of God's judgment, we can have confidence if we have the Son, if we have Christ, we have everything. May we put our life in his hands right now in our homes, wherever we are watching. In Jesus name may we say yes. Thank you. Amen. Well, we are so glad you were able to watch this presentation of Countdown Back to the Future. Whatever you do, don't miss the the second part of this presentation. We're going to be looking at the Urgent Voice Countdown to Eternity. Invite a friend, call them on the phone, do whatever it takes to tell them. You must watch this program on three ABN Countdown Back to the Future. The Urgent Voice Countdown to Eternity. We look forward to seeing you then.
