[Darris McNeely] We’re all familiar with the fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The little shepherd boy who got bored out in the field. Let me tell you that story, if it’s been some time since any of us may have heard it, because I think there’s a lesson for us.  

It’s basically a fable about a little boy who was a shepherd in the field and he got kind of bored, and he decided to stir things up a bit and cry wolf – that a wolf was coming in to attack his sheep – and so he did. And as he ran to the town – the village – saying, “A wolf is at the door! Wolves are attacking the sheep!” people came to his rescue and ran out to the field only to discover there was no wolf. The little boy just thought it was a hilarious joke and the men trudged back into town. Well, a few days later he got bored again and he did the same thing. “A wolf is coming, a wolf is coming. Help!” He came out. nobody was there.  He repeated this two, three, four times; each time there was no wolf. Finally, they scolded him quite strongly, and said, “Don’t you do this again.” Well, a few days later a pack of wolves actually showed up in the field and began to devour the sheep. Scared, the little boy ran to the village saying, “There’s a wolf devouring my sheep!” But nobody believed him and they didn’t go out. And the wolves devoured all the sheep.  The boy was distraught. There was a moral drawn from the old fable, as we would know it, and certainly, you don’t lie, and you don’t shout fire or wolf when there is nothing there to really be compelling. And that is true. 

I have often thought about that fable as I have grown up in the church, and I’ve looked at the historic tradition of the Church of God to cry aloud and to sound a very strong prophetic note of a time coming upon this world when there will be a great period of danger – a time of tribulation, a period of the Day of the Lord – all in advance of the second coming of Jesus Christ. I have heard that from the very actually first sermon that I ever heard as a 12 year old boy in the Church of God. I stumbled into it with my mother and heard a very, very strong sermon one Sabbath afternoon of just such a nature – that there would be a time of peril coming. All the Scriptures were read – scared the living daylights out of me.

I went back home to my little house in Missouri and crawled in my bed thinking that all of this was going to come marching up our hometown street the next day. It didn’t happen then, but I cut my eyeteeth on that message from the very first day that I stepped foot in the Church of God.  And I’ve thought about it through the years, and I thought about it as I’ve studied it, taught it, preached it, written about it through my more than 5 decades in the Church of God, where we have been a part in the work of the church that had a very strong emphasis on prophecy and a warning witness of what is going to happen to this world, and in this world in the days prior to Christ’s coming.

I’ve often thought about this parable because as the years have gone on, and I have become a man and I have grown older in the church, and seen so many things happen in the Church and in the world, and seen the prophetic message tradition that we have had continue on, but in various ways. And I’ve seen, as people have come and gone, and the years have taken its toll, that some have thought that perhaps the Church cried wolf, because the events have not taken place and Christ is not here. And like the warning that Peter gave in 2 Peter 3, a spirit of scoffing at times has come, and I’ve heard it, even among people who have continued to be a part of the the Church, in terms of a prophetic message, and because the world continues on, and the events have not happened. And yet we continue to talk about it. Sometimes there is this feeling, “Well, why talk about it? It hasn’t happened as we have said, or things have not transpired exactly the way we have always said that it would, and is it true?” And it begins to wear on us. Factor in age and time, factor in the church experiences that we have had, factor in the way the world has gone, and it’s very easy to understand why some might draw a lesson, a bit of the inverse lesson from this fable of the boy who cried wolf and apply it to the church, and say, “Well, have we cried wolf?” because it hasn’t happened yet.

This sermon today is titled We Are Not Crying Wolf.  We have not cried wolf and I want to show you how we have not cried wolf and why the lesson, at least the inverse lesson, from this parable is something we should listen to very carefully – especially when it comes to the warning of God’s word.

Today’s world is a very dangerous place. And while we look for the coming of the Kingdom of God, brethren, we still live among the kingdoms of this world. The day when the Scripture says that the kingdoms of this world will become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ has not yet happened. We wait for that and we know the prophecies and what they are pointing toward.  In the meantime, the kingdoms of this world are moving through a time of monumental change. 

In the year 2015, in this period of time, we are still seeing and watching developing events in today’s world that few people understand and realize what they mean, and what is coming upon this world from a historic, as well as a prophetic – biblically prophetic – scenario. For those of us in the church, and for many others who study Bible prophecy, to not leave that out as well, because of our historic tradition and understanding that has developed within us – a biblical world view – we have a very unique world view today that, frankly, should motivate us not to scoff, but to righteousness – to Godly conduct, to continued zeal for God’s way of life – not necessarily for more knowledge about when, or what, or who on the prophetic side of things, but a balanced proper perspective of prophecy – to motivate us to Godly conduct and righteousness and a motivated zeal for the Kingdom of God that motivates us to good works of love, and service and righteousness as Christians and among each other within the Church – all because of that. That is a unique view that we have and it should help us to rise to a Godly standard of conduct that prepares us to rise above our times and reflect the light of the Kingdom of God and the love of the Kingdom of God more fully in our own lives, and in our communities, and in our schools, and at our place of work than ever before.

Today in this sermon, let’s understand how we should look at today’s world in light of what God’s word tells us.  And as we do so, I want to show us, brethren, that we have not been crying wolf through all these decades, nor will we, as we sound a very clear, strong warning, a prophetic warning of the times in which we live and what does lie ahead.

Let me frame this with two principles from Scripture.  If you will, please turn over to Mark 13.  Jesus made two statements in this regard – at least two that I want to bring out. Christ had a lot to say about prophecy. The entire 24th chapter of Matthew is an entire prophetic chapter, as well as Matthew 25. Together they form a unit, but He made two statements that I want to bring up to the fore here in our minds this morning.  Matthew 13, and in verse 32, what Jesus said about that day and that hour:

Matthew 13:32-33,37 He said of that day and that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son but only the Father – speaking of His coming – the timing of His coming.  And so He said, in verse 33, Take heed. Watch and pray. Two words – watch and pray. Believe me again, having growing up in the Church, and been a part of it for all these decades, watching has been something that I had taught to me as a 12-year-old boy and learned to do. And it comes right out of Christ’s statement. But you can’t uncouple it from praying, because that’s what is said here -  watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is.  And he concludes down in verse 37, I say to you, I say to all watch.

So, that’s the first principle – watch and pray. Turn to Luke chapter 12. Christ made another statement at another time that I have drawn a great deal of wisdom from and again – teaching, writing and talking about this subject in recent years. In Luke, chapter 12, He was talking to the Jews who could not understand that in front of them was the Son of God in this Jesus from Nazareth. They couldn’t see it. And He had some strong words to say to them in this episode here in Luke, chapter 12, and He comes down in verse 54, and He tells them:

Luke 12:54-56 – Whenever you see a cloud rising out of the west, you immediately say a shower is coming and so it is. You have the ability to look at the sky and discern that it’s going to rain.  And when you see the south wind blow you say there’s going to be hot weather and there is. Hypocrites! Hypocrites! He had them right there, and He just kind of did a twist on them. He kind of stuck it in. He said, “You hypocrites!” You can discern the face of the sky and of the earth – the weather – what is going to happen day to day – but how is it that you do not discern this time?” 

They couldn’t see that in front of them teaching, performing miracles was God in the flesh.  He had come in the fullness of times to be the Savior, the Messiah, the prophesied Messiah that all of their history and prophecies had pointed to, and they couldn’t see it.  And He said, “You hypocrites, you can tell when it’s going to rain but you don’t know what’s right in front of you.  You can’t discern this time.”

Now, that was their time in the first century. Twenty-one centuries later, we live in a period and a time, and still Christ’s statement applies to us. Can we discern our time – the times in which we live? We don’t need to look at the sky today. We can look at a smartphone. We could look on television if we want, or listen to WLW and the 3 to 4 times an hour they give us a weather update, as to what’s going to happen. But Christ is speaking to something more important in terms of the urgency of our times. And for a disciple – for a member of the Church of God – whatever time it might be – 1945, 1963, or 2015 – this is our time to understand – to discern.  This is what Jesus is telling us. So two points:  Watch and pray, and discern our time – this time – from Jesus’ own words – to keep an eye on the world, is what I draw from this.

No matter when we are living, what period of time, and no matter how old we are, no matter what phase of life we’re in, we, as disciples of God, should be keeping one eye on the world, discerning our time and watching – one eye on the Kingdom to come and looking for that, and our hearts on God – having a heart toward God. One eye on the world, one eye on the Kingdom and a heart toward God in our lives and in our daily walk with Him – watching and praying and understanding the times in which we live, because we’re not crying wolf. God doesn’t cry wolf.

Let me take a few minutes to just sketch briefly – very briefly – a look at our world today and through this, then, go into a little bit of very specific biblical teaching. And then to wind up the sermon this morning with a biblical model I think we can follow, with what principles we have of watching and praying and discerning the time. 

Let’s first talk just briefly about the world today. And let me kind of put on my newsman hat, if I will, or my watching and understanding part of this. In the church of God, we have watched three main themes through the years in our writings, broadcasting, preaching and teaching when it comes to our prophetic understanding that we have had handed down through the years – for the last 70 plus years in the Church. And as I summarize it…I get to teach the World News and Prophecy class for the Ambassador Bible College here, which is titled after the old publication we had for 10 or 12 years here in United, World News and Prophecy. I’ve inherited that class for the last two years now and I’ve been teaching it from the perspective that I have. A little bit of what I’m giving you here this morning – that the prophetic themes that we watch matter – and I cover several. 

I want to just mention three of them here today, one being Europe, another being Middle East, and the other being America and the British, or English speaking, peoples – my approach trying to get a young mind today, an eighteen-year-old, or a twenty-four-year-old young person in the church, in our classes, to understand why it is that we’ve paid so much attention to this through the years and written so much about it – why it has been there for a young mind that hasn’t, perhaps, cut their eye-teeth on it, like I did, and some of the rest of us, or is not tuned to world events today. I say basically, “Why does this matter? Why does Europe matter? Why does the Middle East matter?” And I take it from that premise and explain why it does matter, biblically, prophetically and from a current international experience viewpoint today.

So, let me look at, first, just a little bit about Europe, which has been a major area that we have watched. Why does Europe matter? We’ve understood prophecies in the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation, that deal with the events, the nations and the history within the region of continental Europe. And we’ve understood that from that region of the world today, will rise, before Christ’s return, a political power who’s roots go back to ancient Rome, and even further to ancient Babylon – that this power – this political power – will represent a final prophetic revival that will dominate global affairs through a political figure that Revelation titles the beast, and in consort with a religious figure that is called the false prophet, and a religious movement that is also both described in chapter 13 of Revelation. This combined system that is called in Revelation 17 and 18, Babylon the Great, for a brief time will bring about a period of both peace and tribulation upon the world. And it will be a combination of church and state, with roots historically in ancient Rome, and various revivals of the Roman system down through history, and, as I said, back even further into Babylon that will be unlike any previously in history. And it will be Satan’s final effort to nullify the plan of God. We’ve studied this. We’ve proclaimed it. We’ve written about it. We’ve preached on this. The number of articles, booklets and television programs are extensive, and sometimes, they all say about the same thing. And sometimes people say, “We’ve already said that.” Well, yes we have.  And some say, “Well it hasn’t happened,” and some say, “Well it’s not going to happen the way we’ve said it.”  And we’ve cried wolf, perhaps?  And I say, “No, I don’t think we have.” 

Right now Europe has grown to become a massive trade and economic block within the world,
and the current European Union structure of 28 nations is shaky for a number of reasons.  Ukraine is one. What has happened in the Ukraine in the past year is epochal. It’s monumental in that story there. For the first time since 1941, a sovereign border in Europe has been violated by an aggressive power – when Russia went into Ukraine last year. That’s big – that is big!  And it is still unraveling in front of us. And Europe is going through some changes – this current European Union structure – what’s happening there with Greece, Germany with its dominating role, with Islamic terror that has come home to roost in France and in other areas.  Growing anti-Semitism, discrimination and hatred, and acts of violence against Jews are significant events. 

I continue to watch and try to understand those things. And one of the things I do, as I watch and read, is, I collect books. I read books and I’ve noticed that I’ve collected in recent years a number of books on these themes, that we have historically written and preached about and watched, that I’ve noticed are written by scholars that have no connection with the Church of God – who don’t, perhaps, even certainly, believe in Bible prophecy – who chronical the events in Europe, the Middle East and America. And if you know how to read them and what they’re saying, and if you understand the biblical world view that prophecy and Bible history gives us – everything from the promises to Abraham to the prophecies of Babylon and the various revivals that Daniel and Revelation talk about – for me it’s very easy to see that this renowned scholar from Oxford College in England, or this foreign affairs expert writing here or there, basically, is sketching out from history the very thing that Bible prophecy is talking about. They’re not doing it from that point of view, but the reality is they are affirming what we and others have always understood and taught about these various subjects. And I stand back for a minute and I say, “We weren’t wrong after all.” 

A book that I’ve been recently reading is a book called Flashpoints, by a man named George Freedman. The subtitle is The Emerging Crisis in Europe. And without going into the details, Mr. Freedman, who is an astute foreign affairs analyst, makes the point, as he comes down to the very last sentences of his book, he says that regarding the various flashpoints of potential problems within Europe – and he mentions them all through this recently published book – he basically shows that Europe is still facing, and will encounter terrible choices, like those that other people have faced and will face in the past. They will have to choose between war and peace, and as in the past, they will, at times, choose war. Nothing is ended – for humans, nothing significant is ever over. He surveys the current scene in Europe – and in Ukraine and in other points of Europe – with Germany and all, and he comes to the conclusion that it is inevitable that there will be flash points that will lead to some war and conflict on a larger scale than what we even see in Ukraine right now. 

There have been other books that I’ve read in recent years about the Holy Roman Empire, about the Anglosphere (the English speaking nations), that affirm exactly what we have understood historically, biblically and prophetically. The way I put it when I teach it, that a lot of our readings, and my readings, I try to discern the times.  I try to read material that helps me discern the times which is what Jesus said to do. And in this area of Europe, brethren, we’ve not been crying wolf.  It is a very dangerous period there.

The second area that we have watched quite carefully through the years and have written extensively about is the Middle East. And again, those of us who have been around for a long time understand that. That is one area where we have watched. And when we look at what is taking place right now, there are monumental changes that are taking place and have been for the last 3 to 4 years with the upheavals in various countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq that have begun to reshape the entire Middle Eastern area – that are impacting the state of Israel, and American relations with historic allies in that area. We’ve seen the rise of a militant Islam and Islamic terrorism that seeks to impose its will upon not only the Middle Eastern nations, but upon the West. We’re watching a developing situation that has deep prophetic implications, primarily surrounding the idea that Daniel 11, beginning in verse 45, talks about a figure called the King of the South that will push at another figure called the King of the North, creating a fulfillment and a scenario of events that will lead up to the actual coming of Jesus Christ and the time of the end. That’s kind of a trigger point that we have been watching and writing about and seeking to understand for decades. Our booklet on the subject covers it quite well from a historic and prophetic and biblical point of view and trying to discern there are things that are going on. 

Right in front of us in just a few weeks, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been invited to address a joint session of a House of Congress on March 3.  He is an individual – I tell people – that he’s worth every minute you spend watching or reading what he says, because of all people in the world leadership role today, he seems to have a clear vision of the dangers certainly to his home State of Israel, but to the Middle East and to the world in particular with the Iranian desire to develop a nuclear weapon. And he has been invited to address congress on that very issue. And he’s going to do it and it’s created a political fire-storm here, because the invitation was extended by our Ohio congressman, John Boehner and not the President of the United States.  But Prime Minister Netanyahu says he’s coming to not seek a confrontation, but, because he feels he must speak out on a matter that effects the very survival of his nation, the State of Israel and other countries as well.  He feels that we are at a historic crossroads in that area today, as do many others who look at the Arab world and its fragmentation. The Iranian desire to build a nuclear weapon and what the implications of that would be. Once again, the stage is being set for a King of the South to rise and make a push at the King of the North in a manner that will draw the reaction that we read about – that very long prophecy of Daniel 11 and on that scale. So the Middle East matters and we have not cried wolf in that area.

The third area that we can look at and talk long and hard about, but I also lecture about with the students, is the English-speaking nations of America, Great Britain. Why do they matter? Why do we pay so much attention to them? It is because of the promises to Abraham and the fulfillment in the modern day of the physical blessings through those peoples and the impact that it has had upon the world of the last 200-250 years, as the bough of Jacob has gone over that well, that Genesis 49 describes, and out to the nations of the world with the same blessings that Joseph had, and were imparted to him by his father Jacob, and prophesied to have an impact upon the world because of the initial promises God made to Abraham, in a physical sense, that have been fulfilled in our modern world. We watch that, and we’ve written about it, and we’ve understood it in a unique way. And it’s not been our own invention. It has gone back…we’re only, perhaps, the latest in 20th or 21st century proponents of understanding that. I think we have taken it to a more biblical understanding at a critical time in the world to help people understand how the world works and why the world is the way that it is. And you and I, as I tell the students, live in a nation in America that is the recipient of those physical blessings God made to Abraham. And the poorest among us are the rich by comparison in the world today.  And it’s not because of our exceptionalism. It’s not because we’re a greater people than anyone else. It’s strictly because of the blessings of God, regardless of all the political rhetoric that hinges around that teaching – Americanism, and waving the flag, and patriotism and everything else that so many of us get caught up in. Sometimes, even in the Church, I notice, a lot of our people allow patriotism, tea-partyism – you know, whatever ism you want to get caught up in – to cloud the truth of the biblical reasons for who and what we are and what is taking place politically – that we can take sides on, if we get misguided at times. But things are changing in America’s role within the world today. And in spite of America being a dominant military and economic power in the world – which it is the dominant power, politically, militarily, and economically, even to this very moment – but things are changing. And we have for many years talked about America losing the pride of its power or the various prophetic implications of sin against God’s law being visited upon us, and it hasn’t happened. Because it hasn’t, people scoff and say, “Well, you’ve cried wolf.”  I’ve had people in this building in years past tell me on articles that we might be writing on this very subject, “Well, we said that 30 years ago and it hasn’t happened yet.”  Okay, right – fair enough – it hasn’t. But it could happen next week, or next year. It could happen overnight and we’re not the only ones that should see that.

There was a recent article that highlighted so much of what’s going on that was in the Wall Street Journal,written my Peggy Noonan. And it happened after a particular Senate hearing where three former Secretaries of State – Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, and George Shultz – along with former high ranking military experts, made certain testimonies before a Senate committee, talking about the problems in the world and America’s lack of engaging properly with a strategic foreign policy approach, which can effectively navigate maintaining America’s  status while dealing with some of the crises that are in Europe, Russia and the Middle East. As Ms. Noonan said in her article, they all seem to be in agreement on these points. These former Secretaries of State and these high ranking military leaders, they all seem to be in agreement on these four points.  Let me mention what she said. 1. We are living through a moment of monumental world change. 2. Old orders are collapsing while any new stability has yet to emerge. And that’s true. 3. When you’re in uncharted waters your boat must be strong. 4. If America attempts to disengage from this dangerous world, it will only make all the turmoil worse. And this is what Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, George Shultz and other defense experts have been saying and made in their testimony. She concluded her article by saying, after this week, with this testimony of these retired generals and former secretaries, she said the message is, awake!  See the world’s facts as they are and make a plan. Awake, see the world’s facts as they are and make a plan. This is Peggy Noonan writing in the Wall Street Journal. So, we don’t have to write, “There’s a wolf at the door.”  We’re not crying wolf, in that sense. We’re crying from a biblical perspective.

What does this mean? Because I know how we are, and I am, and you are, and our lives go on, and we have children to raise and jobs to get back to on Monday or Tuesday, whatever the case may be. We’ve got plans tonight. We’ve got plans tomorrow. We have bills to pay. We’ve got a crisis to deal with. We’ve got trials to overcome. What can you do about it? Well, in one sense, you can’t do anything about the Middle East. You can’t do anything about Russia and Ukraine, and that’s not the point, frankly. For the average person in the street, or for you and I sitting in any congregation of the Church of God today reading our Bibles, trying to understand, trying to figure it all out, and still trying to just make it through each day, or make it to the end of the shift, or retirement, or to whatever is dominating our lives at any given time – just keeping it together for some – listen, I’ve heard all the sermons. I’ve preached them all. I’ve written about it. I know on any given Sabbath for some of you right now, you’d rather be hearing a sermon about love, or hope, or faith.  And I was going to give a sermon today about love to finish out my trilogy that I started.  But I said, “No, this is what I’m going to talk about today.”  I’ll talk about love next time, because there are certain things that need to be said – things that help us keep things in perspective. 

What do we do about it?  Well, it comes back to do what the Bible tells us to do about it. We watch and we pray. We keep an eye on the world, an eye on the Kingdom, and a heart toward God. We try to understand our times, and then we do what Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, because, again, these things – we’re not diplomats – it’s beyond us. We had a mid-level diplomat come and talk to the students back in September here – addressed some of the staff and students.  A man who works in the State Department, and has been in the Middle East, and an expert on these matters. For he/they can do only so much – the American State Department – and those he works with – and that’s their fulltime job. What can we do in the Church, and you and I, as a Church member? Well, Paul said something here in 1 Thessalonians 5, beginning in verse1, he said:

1Thessalonians 5:1- 9,11 Concerning the times and the seasons brethren, you have no need that I should write to you – there’s that time and seasons again – for you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night – and he’d been just talking about the resurrection in the previous chapter – and the coming of Christ – For when they say, “Peace and safety!” – and if that’s what they discern – and he’s saying by implication – if that’s what you say – then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.  Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day – and of the light – be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love – see there, I’m talking about love today. I am getting that in. Paul does it right in the context of the day of the Lord, watching and being awake – putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation – deeply spiritual pieces of our armor to help us deal with life and everything that gets thrown at us every day in our own little worlds, or what we might view in the bigger world that can scare the daylights out of us. There are certain things that you know, when you turn on the news and see going on, that do frighten us. We wonder, “What’s happening in the world? Where is it going?” And many people, who don’t have the hope that we do, do come apart and get rattled.  But we should have hope, because we have a view that there is a God of history. There is a God who is guiding the course of history – that it’s not just random and He’s guiding our own lives within that purpose toward His Kingdom. And that’s all that is wrapped up in this – For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ….

V-11 - Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing – and be awake and walk in the light.

This is what Paul said and it flows on from what Jesus said, what Peter would later write as well – to be alert, to watch, to pray, to keep an eye on the world, an eye on the Kingdom and a heart for God and His way of life, and never lose sight of that. And do it all in balance. Avoid the extremism that can come with it all. Listen, I, through the years we published World News & Prophecy, we would go out and do World News & Prophecy weekend seminars. We did them across the United States and up in Canada – those of us who were on the staff. And they were always very interesting, because we got to engage with members and other readers of World News & Prophecy – talk about prophetic subjects – and through the years, either as people wrote to us or sometimes would engage us in some of these weekend seminars, I’ve seen all the extremism and the extremist ideas that come with an interest in Bible prophecy – that have been a part of the Church and are out there all over the place. I’ve had people stand in the middle of an aisle at some of these seminars and tell me that the Holocaust of World War II – the 6 million Jews that were gassed by Hitler – was a fiction – a Holocaust denier – and I’m thinking, “Who let you in the door?” But they’re all over. Fortunately, I had just been to Berlin and I had seen, in the middle of Berlin, the German Holocaust Museum, built and dedicated to the Holocaust. And, you know where they built it? Almost right over the bunker in which Hitler committed suicide – right there in the middle of Berlin. Do you think the Germans would do such a thing today if they didn’t know that it was the truth? 

“Go crazy someplace else” is what I tell people when they come to me with stuff like that or other weird prophetic ideas. Avoid the extremism and don’t get caught up. Brethren, we’re not tea-partiers. We’re just not. I’m sorry. Here’s another dirty little secret. We’re not Republicans either. I know right here in Clermont County, that may be heresy for some, because there’s this idea in the Church of God that, if Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, He must be on the right and we must be on the right politically, right? Come on. We’re not. We’re not Democrats. We’re not Libertarians. We’re Christians. We’re disciples of Jesus Christ. That’s our politics.  We’re not followers of this radio guy, this right-wing website. We’re followers of the Bible.  This is what we should be reading. This is what should be forming our ideas and, if you read whoever you read, or follow whatever you follow, whatever book, author, expert, whatever – weigh it, sift it, by this Word. And don’t get caught up in the wackiness that is out there at times in politics, or in ideas that deal with America, and right or wrong. Those are all part of the times, but they become distractions. And frankly, over the decades, as I’ve worked in this and with it within the Church, I see that that, in its own way, leads to people getting turned off to what the Bible does say. And I’m still here believing it as we have received it, and taught it through the years in its basic trunk of the tree form, and know that, “Hey, we weren’t crying wolf!” 

And so in recent times, I’ve come down to this in my own thinking.  If Paul says, “Awake” and Christ says, “Watch and pray and discern our times,” and if doing so, as Paul said there in 1 Thessalonians 5, is to increase my faith, increase my hope, and my righteousness in my walk with God, where might I find, I’m thinking recently, what Biblical pattern do I find from either Paul, or Christ? And I think I was led – I hope that God led me there, because it’s His Word – I started thinking, “You know what? The book of Daniel. The figure of Daniel offers a very interesting example of a man who discerned his times – who watched and prayed, who, I think, kept one eye on the world of his day, and another eye on the Kingdom to come and had a heart for God. So, I went back to Daniel again – and I take the students back to Daniel in class fairly frequently to review. 

Daniel, if you go back to chapter 1 of Daniel, you know the broad outline of his story – a young man who is introduced to us, with three other friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego – in the first chapter of Daniel – who are taken captive to Babylon when their nation of Judah falls, finally. After all the prophecies leveled against them, they’re taken captive by Babylon. The temple is destroyed. Everything that they grew up knowing is turned upside down and Daniel and his friends find themselves in Babylon. And they are singled out to become, somewhere middle or high-up, even, in time of the Babylonian state department – civil service – because they are sharp. They are brilliant. They’re young. We come in on Daniel’s story in the prime of his youth. And there in the first story of Daniel, we find that they are not going to compromise when it comes to even a matter of food and the diet. And they proved themselves loyal and faithful to God in the first chapter on something seemingly so insignificant as food. And God is with them. Now, I think there’s an example. Couple that, as well, with if we’re living in an epochal, changing, monumental times of change, as I read to you what the secretaries of defense said, Daniel’s living in a period of great change on the world scene of his day. 
 
You’re not taught this in school – I wasn’t – but you can read it in history when you dig deep enough. There was the fall Judah, finally, and Israel, as an entire concept and a nation, disappearing in that section of the Middle East, and Babylon coming on. The world order of that day was changing and what some historians call a hinge of history. There’s a monumental shifting and a change taking place with Babylon coming on with Nebuchadnezzar and the power that it became, and then, as even Daniel’s prophecy – predictions and interpretations of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream shows – Babylon would be followed by Persia, and then by the greatness of Alexander and his empire, and then finally by that of Rome. And he showed that from that period was beginning a change, not only in the Middle East, but through world history that reached all the way to the time of the coming of Jesus Christ. Daniel stood at the forefront of that and he showed Nebuchadnezzar what was to come. Daniel could discern his time, long before Jesus ever uttered those words as recorded in Luke 12. He could discern the time with God’s help – as God gave him that gift. But he was a sharp person and whatever cuneiform tablets that he had delivered to his doorstep every morning, that gave him the daily news. I think he was reading it. And I think he understood it, because he was seeking to understand the Scriptures. We find him at one point fasting for days on end, trying to understand the prophecy of Jeremiah – what it meant. God gave him the gifts to interpret the dreams, but as you look at Daniel, don’t just focus on those parts – you know, his prophetic part. Realize that he was a man. He was a church kid or whatever – a young man who feared God. He loved God and he walked proudly in that. And that example God used to take him to the heights with the Babylonian period, with the subsequent Persian period, and before multiple rulers. He walked with God into a lion’s den when he would not bow to an image. And you know the story there.

In Daniel 5, when Belshazzar has this great blow-out feast and he brings in all the instruments and the silver and goldware from the temple, and they’re having this Babylonian feast and orgy, and a hand appears on the wall and starts writing, and they get scared, probably, literally, their bowels just let loose, because of what takes place there, and they’re all in their drunken stupor.  And they have to call in Daniel, who is, by this time, an older man. He’s been faithful throughout the stages of his life. And in verse 11, of Daniel 5, here’s what they say about him.

Daniel 5:11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the Spirit of the Holy God....
“There’s a man in your kingdom, Belshazzar. You don’t know him. Your grandfather did – Nebuchadnezzar. You’ve kind of forgotten him. He’s laboring away in this department – this office over here in the building. You’ve never seen him, probably. But in him is the Spirit of the Holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him.” That statement should just make us set up and say, “I want to be like that.” I want that to be said about me. As we keep an eye on the world, an eye on the Kingdom to come, and a heart toward God, I want to be like that – a man in whom is the Spirit of God, where there’s light. Remember in 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says we should be children of light, walking in understanding, not children of the dark. Daniel was a model of that. ...and in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him; and King Nebuchadnezzar your father…made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers.

Daniel nor his friends compromised with Babylon. They walked in the midst of a culture totally alien to God – to what they had been raised in in the nation of Judah. And do you know what?  They did it, as I was saying about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego a couple of weeks in a sermon, they did it knowing that their whole scenario, their whole worldview, their whole system and basis and foundation had been turned upside down. And it could have been very easy for them to say, “Hey, there’s no God,” or “There’s not a God…maybe there is – Marduk is the one – the Babylonian god.  Maybe we ought to do this because our God, and His house, is no longer and we’re no longer a special people, and maybe all these others…there’s something for us to learn. Let’s give it up.” It would have been very easy to do that at any point in their life, beginning with the food served to them in chapter 1, but they choose not to.

It is a deep well of faith, upon which anyone will draw at any given time to maintain faith – belief – and a way of life with God in the midst of whatever adversity and time and challenge is in front of us. We should all be able to be like Daniel, or his friends, or, perhaps, others unnamed in the story, who were also a part of what was a part of what was transported to Babylon among those Jewish captives who didn’t lose their religion – who realized that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all the other prophets did not cry wolf in their day. And that there would be a restoration. And there was something to hope, and even a sliver of hope to hang on to for decades. In the midst of a Babylonian culture, they were faithful, and they discerned their time and they understood it. 

That’s why I say that, for you and I today, if there is an example, perhaps, of an individual that can provide us a very good model of one who kept an eye on the world, who prayed toward God for discernment and understanding, for faith, for hope, for tenacity and could maintain a heart toward God, Daniel, as well as his friends, give us the groundwork for it and ample reason to continue to discern our times, and to seek to understand the times in which we live, what’s happening in our own world, and have it motivate us – not to fanaticism, not to withdrawal, nor to a sceptic, scoffing approach – “Aww, you know, we’ve been saying that for decades and it hasn’t happened yet.” So therefore, the conclusion could be in some minds: “It doesn’t matter what I do. I’m going to compromise tonight. I’m going to do what I want to do here or there.”
That’s not what should happen to us. We have not been crying wolf.

Let me conclude with one passage that I continue to go back to.  It sums it up what I’ve been trying to say here. In 2 Peter 3, Peter was dealing with the same problems within the Church, as he saw it developing in his last years, which is why he wrote 2 Peter and made certain statements that he did here. He talked about scoffers in verse 3 but down in verse 10:

2 Peter 3:10-11, 13 The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up…. He kind of truncates any number of biblical events into one verse here, I think the best way to understand this. And he then turns it, and he says in verse 11 – Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved – all of this will come to pass – what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? What type of person? We should be people of holy conduct and godliness. Prophecy, discerning the times, understanding what’s going to happen should bring us to be a person of faith, in whom dwells light and wisdom and understanding, as it was said of Daniel – godly conduct. That’s what prophecy – that’s what a study of this – should bring us to – not to defeatism, not to negativity, not to a resignation that, “Been there, done that, heard that,” or scoffing that everything’s going to go on just and continue the way it is, or just a resignation that “That’s not for me,” but to let it motivate us to righteousness. Understanding the times as we look for and hasten the coming of the day of God.

V-13 – …we according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

So, we have not been crying wolf through these years.  And if we can remember that, we can then turn our attention to what Jesus said and watch and pray and discern the times.