Daniel 8 - Resolved faith

Transcript (Auto-generated)

Thank you Julie. Thank you Julie for reading our chapter for this morning. Good morning church. It's good to see you here this morning. Welcome if you're joining us online as well before we unpack what it is that we've just read. Would you join me as we pray? Lord God, we thank you for your word revealed to us in Scripture. Lord as we turn our attention to unpack, to understand and to apply what it is that you say to us to our lives. Lord would you soften our hearts, give us ears to hear you and hearts to respond obediently we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This morning we're in the book of Daniel chapter 8. We're continuing in our series through Daniel looking at this idea of resolved faith. And we've said it for the last couple of weeks. I'm going to say it again. Let's remind ourselves when we're talking about resolved faith, we're talking about a faith that is firm in its purpose or intent. It's determined, it's unwavering, it is solid. Weeks ago when we were unpacking Daniel chapter 3, we saw King Nebuchadnezzar say of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three men of God who demonstrated this resolved faith. King Nebuchadnezzar said that they were servants who trusted in God and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any God except their own. Completely surrendered to God alone, not willing to be used for the purposes or the worship of any other false God. We just read through Daniel chapter 8. I wonder how you're going. Last week we turned a corner in this series through Daniel. No longer do we have what we probably relay as the Sunday school stories of Daniel. We move into the visions, the prophetic visions, the dreams. And so I think it's important for us to just take stock this morning. How do you personally engage with prophetic scripture? How do you engage with prophetic scripture? If I had to guess there's probably three camps of people in the room. There's people who, when I say prophetic scripture, get really excited. They go, this is my bread and butter. I'm just really looking forward to pulling this apart, trying to understand every detail, every smallest little minute thing that God has revealed in this vision, in this prophetic word. I'm so looking forward to pulling this apart. There's others who, as we read this, maybe feel a little bit overwhelmed. We started with a ram and then there was a goat and then there's Gabriel. Who's Gabriel? Where, what, how? Daniel, a bit of context please. Maybe you feel a little bit overwhelmed, like you're out of your depth when we look at prophetic scripture. And maybe, even as Julie was reading Daniel chapter eight for us this morning, this prophetic scripture, maybe you're in the third camp, which is just disengaged. It started, you heard Julie say in the third year of the reign of King Bowshazar, and you heard her finish, you heard me start talking, but there really wasn't much in between you and that's too hard. We'll put that away for later. Regardless of which camp you're potentially in, I feel it's important to remind us all this morning, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, all scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. So that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped to do the work that God has called them to do. I wonder church, as we've journeyed through the last seven weeks, as we've looked at resolved faith through Daniel chapter one through to seven, has there ever been a point where you've gone, yeah, I actually, for me and my walk with God, I want to grow a resolved faith. I want a faith like that of Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego. I want to grow a resolved faith. I want to be a servant of God completely surrendered to him and equipped to serve him, not bowing down to any other idol or false God, completely surrendered. If that's you, then this morning we must engage meaningfully, regardless of where we sit as we come to this scripture. I think of Daniel, it would have been pretty overwhelming to have this vision and to have it interpreted by heavenly hosts. And yet there's a key for us as we turn our attention here this morning, verse 15 of Daniel eight, when I Daniel had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. I sought to understand it. And so church, as we meaningfully engage with this, all three camps have a particular danger that we need to be aware of. Okay, maybe you're here this morning, you're really keen, you love the prophetic scripture, you love getting into the nitty gritty. The danger is my warning to you is don't become distracted in the unnecessary details. Don't become distracted, don't go, but the Bible doesn't tell me what color the goat was. Who cares? If it was important, God would have told us. Don't become so focused in on details that don't matter that you miss what God has revealed in this space. Be excited, don't be distracted. If as we approach this morning, you're a little bit overwhelmed, the danger is that we become dizzy. What do I mean by that? We genuinely, we want to read this scripture. We want to read the prophetic scripture. But we don't actually allow ourselves the time to stop and sit with it and unpack it and meaningfully make sense of what is going on here. We just keep reading and trying to gather more and we become dizzy. And finally, if you're in that disengaged camp, maybe you switched off already. Church has a very real danger that our lives will become disconnected from the lives, the will, the purpose that God has for us. And so how do you engage with prophetic scripture? How do you engage with chapter eight of the book of Daniel? Thankfully this morning, we've got potentially one of the easiest prophecies, prophetic scriptures, to begin with. Why do I say that? Because within this one chapter, we not only have the prophetic vision, but we also have a heavenly interpretation. It's not up for debate. We see the vision, it's recorded, and heavenly hosts tell us what it means. I also say with a fair amount of confidence that it's an easy one to start with because as we read it here in 2026, we have the benefit of hindsight. In fact, we can look through human history and see that this prophecy has been fulfilled and it's been done with amazing accuracy. This prophecy has been tried, tested, and proven in our time. And so we could very truly spend all morning unpacking the details. We could spend all morning looking at all the amazing accuracies of this vision, of how the heavenly host explained it, of how it's actually come to fruition, but we're not going to. What we're going to do is we're going to do a very quick survey so that we have an understanding and then we're going to dig deeper. Very truly in the vision, our first character, the first thing we're introduced to is a ram. And we're told in the interpretation that this ram represents the Medo-Persian Empire. Its two horns present the two kings and one grew up stronger than the other. It overpowered, it had more strength. History shows that to be true. It was great, grew in power, nothing could stand against it until we introduced to the goat, which represents the Greek Empire. And the first ruler, history tells us, is Alexander the Great. The large prominent horn comes and overthrows the ram. And yet at the peak of this greatness, the horn shattered and four horns rise in its place. Very truly, history reveals that this was the case. Alexander the Great became not so great and his four lieutenants, his four generals split the kingdom in four and they ruled. And out of these four generals grew up the little horn. Antiochus the fourth, however you pronounce that last name, it's not his last name, but grew up, grew in power, grew in greatness. History tells us he fiercely persecuted the Jewish people, desecrated the Jerusalem temple and stopped the daily sacrifices. Very truly rose up to oppose God himself. He was a losing battle though. And so we could spend the rest of this morning, I'm packing this in greater detail. I'm going to let you do that this week if that interests you. There's plenty of commentaries that go into immense depth. Just don't become distracted in the details that don't matter. Here's the truth. Here's what we need to highlight this morning. History, our history, the stuff that they teach in schools, history tells us that this vision is accurate and true. Not only accurate and true, but with pinpoint accuracy, the things of that are recorded in chapter eight of Daniel came to fulfillment. So much so with so much accuracy that secular scholars, those who don't believe in Jesus, don't acknowledge God. Secular scholars argue that this chapter of Daniel could not have been written when it claims to have been written. Secular scholars say the accuracy with which this vision highlights what actually happened in human history. It has to have been written after the fact. There's no way that someone could be so accurate to get this so right. And yet it's recorded in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar, roughly 550 BC, roughly 350 years before this vision was fulfilled in human history. And so church, right of the outset here, we have a decision to make. How do you engage with prophetic scripture? Do you lean with the secular historians? Do you go, oh, well, maybe it was written, you know, after the fact and then backdated and maybe. Or do you choose to believe? Do you choose to engage with scriptures being God's word? Very personally, I believe in a God who is all powerful. I believe in a God who is all powerful, has all authority. I believe in a God who very truly knows the beginning and the end. I believe in a God who is outside of time and space. I believe in a God who very truly, by his grace, can reveal what he is doing in his creation, well ahead of time before it does happen. I believe in a God who is sovereign, has control of all things and is still at work in this world. Why? Because it's revealed in scripture. And so church, how are you going to engage with this prophetic vision this morning? Do you believe in a God who is sovereign? If so, this is prophetic scripture. And I'm convinced, here's the truth, okay? I'm convinced that God is sovereign and that he has control over all things. I believe that he is at work in our world. And I'm also convinced that the key to genuinely resolved faith, a faith that is firm and steadfast, unwavering and determined, the key to growing this kind of faith is to genuinely believe the truth that God is sovereign. Because if we think about it, we cannot truly believe that God is sovereign. We cannot truly believe that God is all-powerful, that he has all authority. We cannot believe that God is sovereign and not live in complete surrender to him. We cannot believe that if God created me, God created all that we know to exist. We then cannot surrender entirely to him. We cannot believe in a God who loves us so much that he sent his only son to die in our place and then not surrender our lives, not ask for forgiveness, not repent of our sinfulness. Resolved faith is the result of a genuine belief that God is sovereign, that he alone is all-powerful, that he alone has authority, and that he is in control of all things. When we believe this, we can't help it. There's an inner urge. If we believe that God is all-powerful, all sovereign, then there's a desire to seek him in Scripture, to truly grow deeper in our relationship with him, to spend time in prayer, to be obedient to what he's doing, to join him in the work of the kingdom. But sadly, this type of resolved faith isn't the norm in our society. It's not the norm in our world. In fact, I would argue that it's the exception. Why? Because if we're being honest, we lack resolved faith because we doubt God's sovereignty. We doubt that God very truly does have all authority and power. Very truly, the secular scholars doubt the sovereignty of God. They doubt that there is someone who created everything, someone outside of time and space, someone who can control the events of history and can foretell exactly what's going to happen because he's the one leading it. And so they argue that actually this all has to have been written after the fact because there's no way that anyone could have known that. And if we're being honest, there's times in our lives when we too doubt the sovereignty of God, whether consciously or subconsciously. Let's think about it. Parents, we send our children to schools. And if we're being really honest, there's times when we emphasize for them the fact that their subjects and their grades, their study of these subjects here on earth is more important for their lives than the study of Scripture. For ourselves, we can become so focused in our skills and developing things that will help us here on earth and neglect our own time in Scripture. There's times when we look at our own goals for our own lives. We place our own objectives over obedience to God. We put our own plans before prayer. We put our own success over complete surrender to God. We place our own comfort over being crucified with Christ. Worldly delights over actual discipleship, foolishness over faith. There's times where with head knowledge we go, yeah, God's all powerful, God's in control, but I'm still responsible for making sure I have a successful life, that I have food, that I have shelter, that I have all these things. Scripture tells us that God will provide for all of our needs. And so if God is truly sovereign, if he's all powerful and has authority and is able to do what he says that he will do, then will we trust him to provide for our needs? Or will we trust ourselves to provide for our needs? See, if we start to take things back, we doubt God's sovereignty. Very truly like the ram, like the male goat, like the Medo-Persian Empire and the Greek Empire that followed, we focus on becoming great by our own means. Verse four of chapter eight, I saw the ram charging westward and northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. If we don't believe that God is sovereign, then we need to provide for ourselves. We need to make sure that we're in control of our own lives, that we know where we're going, that we're secure, that we have authority. And so we charge north and west and south and east. We go to all these vain efforts so that we become great in our own eyes. And yet what happened to the ram? The goat came and overpowered the ram. The goat came and had exceeding greatness over through the ram so that nothing could stand beyond it. Nothing could save the ram from the goat. Verse eight tells us, then, the goat became exceedingly great. But when he was strong, the great horn was broken. And instead of it, there came up four conspicuous horns towards the four winds of heaven. See, church, when we doubt God's sovereignty, when we become focused and distracted on creating our own sovereignty, our own false sense of security and power and authority, we start to see each other as opposition. We start to look at the greatness of another person and go, I just need to overpower them because then how much better will I be? How much more secure, how much more amazing, how much more power will I have if I can lord it over them? And yet verse 25 says this, speaking of the small horn that grew exceedingly great. By his cunning, he shall make deceit prosper under his hand. And in his own mind, he shall become great. Without warning, he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the prince of princes. Church, if we're focused on our own greatness here on earth, very truly we are in rebellion against God. We rise up against God himself saying, God, look at me. How amazing, how powerful, how much authority do I have? I don't even need you to provide for me. And he shall even rise up against the prince of princes and he shall be broken. But not by human hand. But not by human hand. Church, here's the truth of the gospel. Here's the truth of this scripture. Here's the truth of this fulfilled vision. God is sovereign. There is no one and nothing as powerful as he is. There is no one and nothing with more authority than he has. There is no one more control in the events of what is going on in our world than God is. From the very beginning, God planned to send Jesus to save us. And the thing about truth is you can deny it all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that it is true. The Bible tells us that there is coming a day when Jesus will return and no one will be able to deny this truth. Every knee will bow. Why? Because God is sovereign. He alone has all power and all authority. And so do you want to grow a resolved faith? In our sinfulness, we're going to be imperfect in this pursuit. There's going to be times where we're going to have to repent because very truly we've doubted God's sovereignty in our lives. We've taken back control. We've built ourselves up and given ourselves power and authority that truly belongs to God. But Church, if we want to grow a resolved faith, very truly we need to believe, genuinely believe this truth that God is sovereign. See, when we genuinely believe something, it changes our actions. If I genuinely believed that I wasn't going to be here tomorrow, my day would look completely different than it currently is. If I genuinely believed that this stage was about to collapse, I'd probably stand here. If I genuinely believed that the building was going to fall down, I wouldn't be in the building. If I was nice, I'd tell you to get out as well. Right? But you could not genuinely believe these things and still stand there and do that. In the same way, we cannot genuinely believe that God is sovereign and yet doubt his sovereignty. Take back power and control and authority that is rightfully his. To grow a resolved faith is to completely surrender knowing, trusting, believing that God has got it and that he's inviting you and me to join in what he's doing, to work alongside but to trust that he will do it. Very truly, Daniel penned this down because he was told to. But the fulfillment of this prophecy happened 350 years, 390 years after it was written. He didn't understand it fully. We read that in the last verse of chapter 8. He didn't understand it fully. He didn't know why God would reveal this vision to him, what purpose it had. In fact, it troubled him. And yet for you and I today, we see that God is sovereign. We see that God worked through Daniel so that we might see his character revealed today. Resolved faith is grown over time. It's a daily decision to acknowledge God's sovereignty in this world and in our lives. In our sinfulness, we're going to need to repent. There'll be times when we doubt God's sovereignty, repent and give it back to God. But it is possible to grow a resolved faith. Let me close with a genuine real life story. I've got a close friend of mine and for close to a decade now, we've been journeying alongside each other, building each other up in faith. We check in regularly. Hey, how are you young? How do you walk with Jesus going? Are you taking this seriously? I'm going to tell you about eight years ago. Our conversations were very different to how they are now. See, my friend, he's been one of these guys who from a very young age knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life, knew exactly how he was going to do it. He made a plan. He went, this is what I'm doing. This is how I'm doing it. That's going to happen. I'm going to get it done. And to his credit, that's what he did. He made the plan. He put the work in. He got it done. Today, he owns a business, is responsible for the wages, for many different workers, making sure they have food on the table, making sure that things get done. But as he was chasing this dream, we had conversations in those early years, six, eight years ago. How do I do this and yet still remain submitted to God? How do I do this in a way that builds up the kingdom of God? How do I chase this and honor God in all that I do? How do I make sure that I'm a good witness as I go about this? And it was amazing. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were on the phone. He actually called to check in with how I was going. And he goes, Dylan, praise God. We've had all these conversations. There's been times in history where I've tried to cease control. The pressures of business are hardcore. When you're responsible for the wages of people with families, there's pressure there. There's been times when the money going out has been much more than the money coming in. The money coming in has been slow to pay the people going out. Because praise God, we've had a great year. God continues to provide. And I continue to just give it to him. See, over the last eight years, I've been able to journey with this friend. And there's been this desire, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. In everything that happens with this business, let it be for your honor and glory. And as we were on this conversation, he was just praising God for his provision, for the way in which God has grown in and through this business. And he said to me, he goes, Dylan, I don't have any work for July, but I'm not worried because God's been faithful. God will continue to be faithful. I could go back to old habits, freak out, try and call everyone, try and secure work by my own means. But I'm not worried. God's got this. We continued to chat and he missed a phone call in the midst of all that. He was going to hang up on me and answer it, but they hung up too soon. He goes, oh, that's all right. I'll call them back. Anyway, we continued to praise God, thank him for his faithfulness. Anyway, hung up the conversation. I went back to do on what I was doing. And about two minutes later, I get this phone call from him again. I go, oh, pocket doll. Okay. Answer it and go, hey, are you actually there? And he was. He goes, hey, you know that phone call that I just missed? I said, yeah. He goes, well, that was someone wanting to lock in a contract. July's sorted. Two minutes and eight years of each and every day acknowledging God's sovereignty. Eight years of going, I can worry about this. Or I can believe that God is all powerful as authority. I can believe that when he says he will provide for my needs, very truly, he can and will. And so I will seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and leave the rest up to him. Church, take it seriously, grow a resolved faith day by day. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you alone are God. And Lord, we thank you that we are not. Lord, what a mess we would make of this world if we were left to our own selfish, sinful ways. What a mess we've already made as a result of our sin. Lord, we thank you that you are sovereign. Lord, that you are all powerful, ever present, all knowing. Lord, thank you that you've revealed yourself, your character to us in scripture. Would you help us each day to acknowledge who you are, to surrender ourselves to you, and to grow deep in our faith? We pray. In Jesus' name, amen.