Episode Transcript
If you'll take God's precious word and turn to the book of Daniel chapter 7, verse 9, Daniel chapter 7, verse 9.
God willing, we're going to be studying primarily the second half of this verse.
We studied the first half of it last week.
Rarely do we spend two Sundays on one verse, but this verse is very rich, so it necessitated us spending that amount of time.
I'm giving a little bit of time with all the folks walking around.
It's taking a bit for them to get settled, so I'm giving a little bit of time to get settled in.
Number one, so they won't miss anything.
Number two, so you won't be distracted.
And we'll all share in God's Word together.
Daniel chapter 7, verse 9.
All right.
The title of the message this morning is Clothes and Crowns.
Clothes and Crowns.
Now last Sunday we studied again the first part of verse 9. where Daniel saw the thrones of the last godless world empire being cast down, and the throne of Jesus Christ being established on earth in its place.
Daniel said in verse 9, I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit.
Notice how that word ancient there.
Capitalized.
That's because the translators are letting us know that's referring to God, okay?
Particularly God's Son.
And oh, how we long for the day.
Boy, I know I do.
I long for the day when Jesus rules this world and makes everything right.
I tell you, every time November comes around and we have to vote, And I watch these commercials with these radical left-wing Wicked.
I mean, it's not Democrat versus Republican anymore.
It's genuinely good versus evil.
It really is.
And you have to always, at least my entire lifetime, It's never been choosing total good against total bad, but against what's better and what's worse, you know, because none of them are everything that we want them to be.
But we're really living in very bizarre times, very wicked times.
And I'm looking forward to the day when Jesus comes back and rules this world.
Now, in this passage of Scripture, Daniel by the Holy Spirit calls Jesus the ancient of days.
And that may be a little confusing to you.
That word ancient here literally means to be removed.
The removed of days did sit.
The removed or distant of days did sit on his throne.
You see, Jesus is removed, and Jesus is distant from time.
From days.
Days mark time.
Remember, in the creation of the world, when did time begin?
In the beginning.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And then what happened was the time was then given its chronology.
Its chronicles, if you would.
It was chronicled by days.
The evening and the morning were the first of many.
Days, but Jesus is the ancient of days, he is distant and removed from days And I believe the idea here is that the man sitting on this throne didn't rise up like one of the horns did on the beast.
No, the ancient of days, he didn't rise up at all.
For he has been God since man began.
From everlasting to everlasting, the Bible says thou art.
God.
Daniel said it was the ancient of days, look back in your text, whose garment was white as snow.
And so that's the one who sits on the throne, the ancient of days, the one who was. and is and shall forever be our God, our Creator, our Redeemer in one day.
Our king on this earth.
And what about this king on this earth?
He is the one whose garment was white.
As snow.
Now, out of all the things that you could say about our king coming back to sit on the throne, Of all the things that Daniel could have seen, he could have seen lightning bolts, Brother Doug.
He could have seen smoke and fire, like we saw on Mount Sinai.
He could have seen the earth shaking.
He could have seen angels zooming around him.
He could have seen all kinds of things.
But none of those things were mentioned in his vision, what he said he did see.
Was that the ancient of days had a garment that was white as snow?
Now, why would Daniel use this description for Jesus?
Well, it all goes back to why God created man to begin with.
In Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, the Bible says, And God said, Let us make man in Our image, our being the God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the one great triune God, said, Let us make man. in our image, after our likeness, and let them, mankind, have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Now notice those words that God used. image and dominion.
Let us make man in our image.
Let them have dominion.
Man was created to bear God's image while he bore God's authority.
You see that?
Image and dominion go hand in hand.
Man was created to bear the image of God while he bears the authority of God here on earth.
He was created to reign in God's name, in God's authority, right here on earth over all creation.
The Hebrew word translated dominion here is most often translated in the Bible as the word rule.
You know, you were created to rule here on earth.
To rule over all creation.
You know why?
We have really messed that up.
I mean, we've messed it up because of sin.
Tell me if I'm wrong.
You correct me if I'm wrong now.
But because of sin, everybody knows that politics and corruption go hand in hand.
Isn't that not true?
Politics and corruption go hand in hand.
But it wasn't supposed to be that way.
God designed politics and righteousness to go hand in hand.
God designed politics and holiness to go hand in hand.
God designed earth and heaven to go hand in hand and the government Tween both to be one We were created to reign in the holiness of a loving God, but for the past 6,000 years, we have been ruled by the selfishness of sinful man.
That's why they keep wanting to raise your taxes.
That's why they keep wanting to oppress you.
That's why they keep making empty promises.
And that's why people keep making foolish demands.
And now, when these unrighteous thrones, at the end of time, have finally been cast down on this beastly empire that Daniel sees.
Daniel watches into the future when he sees them all finally fall.
And when he does, he sees such a refreshing Exhilarating sight.
He sees the unrighteous thrones cast down, and the God, whom this unrighteous world rejected.
For all those millennia, now sitting on the throne of the world.
And unlike all the men who sat on their thrones before him.
Daniel saw a man sit down whose garment was white as snow.
For the first time in history, we see a garment When Adam and Eve made themselves aprons to clothe themselves with after they sinned, that's the first time we ever see a garment in the history of the world.
The second time we see a garment in the Bible was when God made Adam and Eve suitable clothing to cover them.
And to explain how he would redeem the world when Jesus came from that sin.
So understand this.
Why did Adam and Eve make clothes?
To cover themselves.
Why did God make clothes to cover Adam and Eve?
You see, people don't put clothes on to keep from seeing themselves.
They put clothes on to keep other people from seeing them.
You see, they put clothes on, and you ladies and men did too, but women especially.
Y'all didn't just go grab something.
I promise you, y'all didn't do like this in the closet this morning and say, you know what, I'm just going to pull this out.
You didn't do it, did you?
You carefully selected it, and then you looked all in the mirror, and you may have even asked your husband what he thinks too.
Maybe.
Why?
Because clothing is how we are viewed and known by others.
It is.
And in the Bible, dirty clothes on the outside are symbols of dirty souls on the inside.
We'll say it again.
In the Bible, dirty clothes on the outside are a symbol of dirty souls on the inside.
Vice versa.
Clean clothes on the outside in the Bible are symbols of clean and righteous souls on the inside.
Listen to how the Bible describes the son of Joshua.
Now, this is not the Joshua that succeeded Moses.
And brought the people into the promised land.
This is later on, Joshua, the high priest of Israel.
Listen to how the Bible describes his sin.
And he was a fine man.
But listen to how the Bible describes his sin in Zechariah chapter 3, verses 3 and 4.
It says, now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.
You see that?
Joshua didn't have some tunic on that had mustard stains on it.
The Bible is talking about Joshua's sin.
It's a metaphor.
And it says here: Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel.
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, That angel that is now this is Jesus speaking.
This is the angel of God's presence speaking.
So listen to what Jesus said concerning Joshua.
Take away the filthy garments from him.
And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from me, not the mustard stains, not the grass stains.
Not the dirt and the mud or anything else you may have got on there.
He says, You take away those filthy garments from him, and I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe thee with change of.
Raiment.
When we go to the cross of Jesus Christ, we go with filthy garments.
When we look up to that cross, When we hear the gospel and we look up at that cross, you know what we see?
We see our filth put on him.
And we see him stained with our sin and dying for that sin.
And then we see him with his blood paying that price for our sin and thus putting that sin away. then going to the tomb, then coming out of the grave with no sin at all.
And now, when I believe in Christ as my Saviour, through His death, burial, and resurrection, all of my filthy garments have been put away.
They were put away at the cross.
They were left in the tomb.
And then Jesus came out with the perfect righteousness.
And now, instead of being clothed in my sin, the way I lived in this life, I am now clothed by Jesus' righteousness the way He lived in this life.
That's how the gospel works.
And so Jesus says, here's Joshua the high priest.
I mean, this is the highest muckety-muck there is in religion.
And he's clothed in filthy garments standing before Jesus.
And Jesus says, take those away from him.
Because I'm putting away his sin and giving him a change of raiment.
So you see, that filthy garments was a symbol of a sinful soul.
And when Jesus, the angel of the Lord, caused Joshua's iniquity to pass from him, it was all the same as clothing him with a change of raiment, just like he does us.
The Bible says, he hath clothed me with the robes of righteousness.
So Joshua was the representative of all Israel, being their high priest.
He held the holiest and the most high position that a man could possibly hold.
On earth, yet he was still a sinner, like every one of us.
The point is, since the beginning of the human race, as much as we have needed one, As much as creation has longed for one, this world has never, ever had a perfect, sinless man to govern it.
Not one time.
And when you think about it, that's really heartbreaking.
We've never known it.
We've never known what it's like.
Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.
But now, finally, after thousands of years of political immorality, War, rebellion, chaos, and corruption in this world.
Daniel looks and he sees the ungodly thrones being cast down. and a king taking his rightful place whose garment was white as snow, not clothed in another man's garment.
But clothed in his own garment himself, a perfect, righteous, holy king Of the world.
Can you imagine what it's going to be like when we have an all-powerful, all-righteous, all-loving, all-knowing king sit down as king of all the earth?
Can you imagine?
I mean, you know what we do right now?
I'll tell you what I do.
When the president makes a decision I like and he signs one of these executive orders, I say, man, that's a good one.
But you know what?
I don't get all happy about it anymore.
Do you know why?
Because I know the next thing that's going to happen is there's going to be some federal judge that comes out and says, nah.
And they'll say, well, let's go up to another judge.
Well, yeah, yeah, you can do that.
Then they send it up to another panel of judges.
Now, now you can't do that.
But one day we're going to have a righteous, holy, perfect, all-wise, all-loving King.
Who's going to tell us how it's going to be, and nobody can overrule what he says, and it will always be right every single time.
That's what Daniel saw.
And I want to tell you, when Daniel wrote down this in the vision, I can almost promise you his hands were doing like this, and he was all giddy about it.
And so when we read about this in the Bible, we need to understand this is our future we're reading about.
And we need to be all giddy about it.
Can you imagine what it's going to be like when Jesus takes full control of earth's government?
I have no words to describe.
How wonderful that day is going to be, but that's what Daniel saw.
The king's garment was white as snow, meaning his Holy, righteous character, his garment had no stain whatsoever.
And not only that, but Daniel said, look back in your text, and the hair of his head like the pure wool.
Again, of all the things Daniel could describe, why is he describing this?
We have to ask ourselves: I understand the garment now, but why the hair?
his head.
Well, as a white garment represents a man's righteous character, so white hair represents a crown of glory and honor.
That's bestowed upon that man.
Proverbs chapter 16, verse 31.
Proverbs chapter 16, verse 31.
The hoary head Is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.
Now, you hearing what that says there?
This is why we get this one-two combination.
Here in the book of Daniel.
The word hoary here, H-O-A-R-Y, this word hoary, it means white.
Like frost, like hoary frost on the ground.
That's one way the Bible uses it.
So now, when we're talking about white hair on a person, sometimes we'll call it silver or we'll call it gray.
But we're talking about the whitest, most silverest hair that could possibly be known.
It says that here that the hoary head Let me read that again.
Is a crown of glory.
Now, when Jesus comes and sits on his throne, he's going to be wearing a crown of glory, not a crown of shame.
It won't be no apology to her when Jesus comes.
I'll tell you that.
You know what I hate, Brother Doug?
I hate, our nation's gotten pathetic.
It's gotta be pathetic.
I hate when I watch the news and there's some maniac with a gun or some maniac with a knife and the police shoot and kill them.
It's like they have to get up and apologize and explain and everyone, well, he was mentally ill.
Well, he was disturbed.
He's killing folks.
And some folks, as Reeves Junkin, our old Highway Patrol firearms instructor, when we learned how to shoot in the Highway Patrol, old Reeves Junkin, that man, he started off this way.
Folks, there's some people out there that just need killing.
That's what he said.
Isn't that right, Brother Shepard?
That's what he told us.
And you've got to get your mind wrapped around that.
Because at some point in time, you have to make that decision to take that life.
When Jesus comes back.
I assure you, he's got that decision already made.
The books are going to be open.
We're going to be reading about that in the future Sunday, going through Daniel.
There's going to be judgment made, there's going to be life taken away.
And there's going to be a crown of glory, not shame, not apology, not trying to fend for ourselves and explain and make excuses for what we do as righteous people.
It's going to be a glorious crown that we're going to, that the USA, USA chance won't hold nothing to this.
Because the USA has lots of problems.
But the kingdom of God will have none.
The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be what?
Found in the way of righteousness.
So, what do we have here?
We have a king with a hoary head.
In a robe of righteousness.
You see how that works?
And so now that hoary head is a crown of glory.
Y'all ever heard of an old fool?
Y'all ever heard of a dirty old man?
Just because you get old, just because you get gray hair, doesn't mean that gray hair is a crown of glory.
It may just mean that you've kept breathing.
For longer than some other fellow.
But you could be a dirty old man.
You could be a foolish old man.
But right here, we don't have that.
We have that one-two combination.
We have a white head.
With a white robe.
The ancient of days, how much older can you get than eternal?
So this is as white as white can be.
This is a king that preceded all others.
This is a king from whom all life has come.
This is a king that has all the wisdom of the ancient of days.
The white-headed man who has lived a long and righteous life is a crown of glory.
Because it symbolizes that man's faithfulness to God, the wisdom he's gained over the years, and if that be true.
And glorious for men who've lived 60, 70, 80, 90 years on this earth.
And how much more wider. and honorable and glorious is going to be the heir of the ancient of days, who forever was, is, and is to come.
To us, faithful, good, true, righteous, and wise.
Joshua the high priest not only got a clean garment, but he got a new hat for his head too.
So his head would be glorious like Jesus' head.
Isn't that something?
Whatever happens to Jesus happens to us.
That's the beauty of the gospel.
The reason Jesus became a man The reason God took on human flesh and became a man is so that whatever happened to Jesus would happen to us.
Did Jesus sit on his throne?
Yes.
What will we do?
The Bible says we'll rule and reign with him forever.
Did Jesus sit down wearing a white robe?
Yes.
What happens to us?
You read in the book of Revelation?
They're given white robes.
Did Jesus have a hoary white head?
Yes.
What happens here to Joshua?
Not only was he given you clothes, he's given you headdress too.
Zechariah chapter 3, verse 5.
And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head.
Now, his head's properly clothed.
So they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments.
Isn't that something?
Now you got the white garment, you got this fair mitre, and the angel of the Lord said.
Stood by and watched this take place.
Remember, the angel of the Lord is Jesus.
And Jesus said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head if you have your Bible out and you have a pen to underscore that word fair.
It wasn't just a mitre.
It was a fair mitre.
And that word fair in the Chaldean language here, do you know what it means?
Put out in the margin of your Bible.
It means pure.
And bright.
Pure and bright.
Why?
The hoary head is a crown of glory, a crown of purity, a crown of brightness.
And Zechariah, the ancient of days, gave The high priest a clean garment and a clean crown for his head.
And in Daniel's dream, the ancient of days has the purest garment and the purest crown of all.
He sits as king on earth's throne to return.
The righteousness of the God in heaven back to man on earth.
Daniel said, Look back in your text, his throne was like the fiery flame.
His throne was like the fiery flame.
And the church is all about God ruling over his creation.
You remember the reason they crucified Jesus?
Do you remember what crime they charged Jesus with?
And they wrote that crime?
On his cross as the reason that he was crucified.
The Gospel of John chapter 19, verse 19 tells us.
It says, and Pilate wrote a title, that means an accusation.
And put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King.
Of the Jews.
When Jesus came the first time, the world crucified its king.
But when Jesus comes the second time, the king is going to rule the world, and he will be the righteous judge.
And unlike the first time, there won't be an earthly ruler who's going to stop him.
From taking absolute control.
For as Daniel said, Jesus' throne, it's not going to have daffodils.
It's not going to have sweet little cherubs with wings and chubby thighs.
It's not going to have rainbows and or unicorns or anything like that on it.
His throne will be like the fiery flame.
You know what a fiery flame does?
It devours its adversaries.
That's what the Bible says.
Jesus said that he would come.
After the beastly kings persecute the church.
That's what he said whenever he was here.
Before Jesus died and rose again, he explained to his people.
That he would return after the beastly kings persecuted the church.
The Gospel of Luke chapter 21, verse 12.
Luke 21, verse 12.
But before all these.
They shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons.
Being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
That's what's going to happen in the end, folks.
The Christians are going to be arrested.
They're going to be brought before kings and rulers, which means the earthly thrones of this world are going to be trying the Christians of this world.
And it's going to be illegal to be a child of God.
That's the way it's going to get.
But after the devil and his followers wreak all this havoc upon the world and upon the church of Jesus Christ, Jesus said in Luke chapter 21 verse 27, same chapter a few verses down, he said, and then After all that's taken place, after all those thrones, those horns coming up on the beast of this world.
Have persecuted you, arrested you, killed you, brought you before their powers, and condemned you.
After all that, he said, Then shall they see the Son of Man.
Who's that Son of Man?
That's the angel of the Lord there in the book of Zion.
Zechariah, who's the Son of Man?
That is the Lord Jesus Christ coming in a cloud with power and great glory because the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness.
And Jesus Christ, the ancient of days, is going to come back in a cloud, and all the beasts of this world are going to get their eye full of it.
He's going to come back in great glory.
He's going to come back in great power, and there won't be anybody standing in Jesus' way when he comes.
His throne is going to be like a fiery flame devouring anything that gets in his way.
No power on earth will stop the righteousness.
Of his holy army.
When Pharaoh tried to overtake the Jews, you remember that?
And when you look, and that's one of the reasons I wrote the book, Leaving Egypt.
When you watch that exodus out of Egypt and you see the Jews, God's people, Being brought out by God in this incredible power.
There were plagues in Egypt that God poured out on the Egyptians.
It was a contest between two kings.
Between Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and Jesus, the king of all.
That's what it was.
And we saw that played out in the book of Exodus.
And that was a little snapshot in history of how it's going to be at the very end of days.
Except it won't be Pharaoh in Jesus.
It's going to be Satan in Jesus.
It was Satan that operated through Pharaoh back then.
But at the end of days, it's going to be the same old devil, the same old world.
And it's going to be the church of Jesus Christ that's going to be persecuted.
Instead of the Jews persecuted by Pharaoh, it's going to be the church persecuted by the devil and his minions.
And that's why you see plagues again in the book of the Revelation.
It's the same thing being played out, just on a larger scale.
And you know what had to happen?
Judgment had to be made, and great power had to be made, such great power that God opened up a Red Sea to make a way out for his people to escape that persecution.
And bring them to a promised land.
Well, we have a promised land we're going to too.
It's the promise of everlasting life, it's the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, and the king of kings ruling over all the world for all eternity.
That's our promise.
And it is the power of the gospel that's going to open up that sea and let us out.
But do you remember what happened?
When God opened up that sea and made a way for his people to escape, do you know what happened?
Old Pharaoh got on his chariot.
And he got all his soldiers on their chariots, and they went after them to make sure the Jews could not escape.
And do you remember what happened when Pharaoh's chariots got out in that Red Sea?
God caused their wheels to get stuck.
Now, the Jews, they just walked over on dry ground.
But boy, not for Pharaoh.
God made their chariots get stuck.
The wheels specifically, the Bible says, of their chariots got stuck.
And that's why, when we're looking here in the book of Daniel, we see Jesus with the throne.
But we also see him with wheels.
That's why he is not just coming back as king, he's coming back as commander-in-chief.
Of his royal army.
The armies of God.
When you look in the Bible, you'll see all the time the host of the Lord, the host of the Lord.
That literally means the army of the Lord.
And it says here not only that his throne was as a fiery flame, but look what it says.
It says, and his wheels.
As burning fire, his wills.
That means the kingdom of Jesus Christ, when he comes, will be unstoppable.
He will devour his adversaries.
He will purify this world with a fiery flame in all righteousness as he purifies that. which is infected wherever it goes, he will trample it down in righteousness.
And I'm looking forward to that day.
What an amazing vision Daniel is telling us about.
I'm looking forward to getting back into the next verse, the next Lord's Day, aren't you?
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you for teaching us.
Thank you, Father, for giving us the understanding and opening our eyes and using scriptures, Father, to explain your word as your Holy Spirit.
Only can do.
Jesus promised us that when He left, He would send a Comforter that would abide with us forever and He would teach us all things.
And Lord, we thank you, Father.
For teaching us your precious word this morning.
And we look forward to the day when the ancient of days comes again.
In His name we pray.
And bless the food we're about to receive.
Amen.
