1. The book of Daniel is a prophetic book and it is also a very practical book.
2. Chapter 12 serves as a kind of appendix to the book of Daniel, and the emphasis is on the coming tribulation.
3. Note the repetition, “at that time,” “a time of trouble,” “at that time” (12:1), “to the time of the end” (12:5), “the end of these wonders” (12:6), “a time, times, and a half” (12:7), “the end of these things” (12:8), “the time of the end” (12:8), “till the end be” and “the end of the days” (12:13).
4. These all have reference to the tribulation, which will begin after the rapture and conclude with the Lord Jesus Christ returning at the battle of Armageddon to defeat the Antichrist.
5. Our Lord said we can expect wars and rumors of war, famines and pestilences, earthquakes divers places, “fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven” (Luke 21:11), and yet Daniel 12:10 says, “Many shall be purified, and made white…”
6. But the rest of this verse is troubling.   The wicked will continue on in their wickedness.

1. THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE WICKED (12:10)
2. THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WICKED (12:10)
3. THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED (12:2)

I. THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE WICKED (12:10).

1. I want to start out by stating that this wicked behaviour we are seeing on every hand is nothing new.  Four thousand years ago God destroyed the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah because of their homosexuality.
2. Three thousand years ago, David said, “As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked” (I Sam. 24:13).
3. However, we are seeing a great increase in wickedness as we draw nearer and nearer to the second coming of Christ.  The apostle Paul said, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come…But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse” (II Tim. 3:1, 13).
4. Just yesterday, in the NY Post, I read an article about some new X-rated, pornographic cell phones!  (Dan. 12:10).
5. Though New Orleans has been utterly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and now is being flooded again from the effects of Hurricane Rita, the wicked are still eager to get back into the sin business.
6. I am talking about the politicians, the strip club crowd, the dope pushers, the gamblers, the pornographers, the practitioners of black magic and voodoo, those who operate whorehouses and nightclubs, and of course the sodomites.
7. Just the other day, New Orleans’s dirty-mouth mayor was encouraging people to come back even though there was no electricity, working sewers, or even clean drinking water.  President Bush tried to dissuade the mayor, and the mayor only backed off when he realized Hurricane Rita was on its way. 
8. Here is a quote from the newspaper, “But the warning (from the federal government) did little to stop thousands of residents from returning to Metairie, where they were greeted by debris-strewn yards and homes without power or working sewers.  Gas stations were open, along with a couple of coffee shops and burger joints. Nagin had asked business owners in the French Quarter, the downtown business district and parts of uptown neighborhoods to return to the city… ‘*#@! yeah, the mayor is right,’ said Saint Jones, owner of Big Daddy's, a Bourbon Street strip club. ‘I have 10 girls here waiting to get back to work. That's 10 girls in a city of 70,000 men right now. If we don't get this city back rolling, it's going to take forever.’”
9. Revelation 22:11 says, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still…”
10. The filthy love their filth.  Down in New Orleans they are in filth up to their knees, drinking their alcohol, smoking their marijuana, reading their pornography, looking for more sin.
11. The Bible says, “The wicked shall do wickedly…” (12:10).
12. God is giving America many warnings.  But like ancient Israel, America will not repent (cf. Amos 4:6-13).

II. THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE WICKED (12:10).

1. Referring to the unregenerate, Ephesians 4:18 and 19 says, “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
2. These Scriptures do not mean all wicked sinners are stupid or uneducated.  It means they have no spiritual understanding.  They lack spiritual discernment.
3. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (I Cor. 2:14).
4. This is why sinners do not understand the new birth.
5. For example, go out soulwinning and ask people if they are born again.
6. The wicked do not understand the things of God – salvation by God’s grace, heaven and hell, the judgment to come, and in the context of the book of Daniel, they do not understand Bible prophecy.
7. First the wicked will not understand; then they cannot understand.  It is the judgment of God upon them.
8. They shut their eyes against the light, and none is so blind as those that will not see.   Matthew Henry rightly said, “Willful sin is the effect of willful ignorance; they will not understand because they are wicked; they hate the light, and come not to the light, because their deeds are evil.”
9. John 3:19 says, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”  
10. Second Corinthians 3:14 says, “But their minds were blinded…” But who has blinded their minds? (Cf. II Cor. 4:3, 4).
11. This is the judgment of God upon the wicked who love their sin and will not let go of their sin.  They refuse to repent. 
12. When I see what is happening around the world, especially in New Orleans (and we saw it right here in NY after 9/11), I am reminded of an old hillbilly song called, “Wreck on the Highway,” based upon a true story in 1937.
13. “I heard the crash on the highway,
    But I didn't hear nobody pray.”
14. I was driving in my van listening to the radio, and I heard a woman talking about Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.  She admitted she had no idea what was going on, but then added, “Maybe it is global warming!”
15. This is a favorite explanation from the worldly crowd.  I can assure you that if she does not get right with God she will go to a place called hell where there will be plenty of “global warming.”

III. THE JUDGMENT OF THE WICKED (12:2).

1. From the earliest pages of the book of Genesis to the final pages of the book of Revelation, the Bible warns of the judgment of the wicked.
2. Psalm 9:17 says, “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”
3. Here in Daniel 12 in verse 2 we read of two resurrections: one is a resurrection “to everlasting life.”  This is the first reference to “everlasting life” in the OT.  It means the very same thing as it does in the NT (cf. John 3:16, 36; 5:24).
4. In other words, this first resurrection is only for those who are saved.  Our Lord referred to this as “the resurrection of life” (John 5:28, 29).
5. But there will be a second resurrection.  Jesus called it “the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:29).  Daniel 12:2 refers to it as the resurrection “to shame and everlasting contempt.”
6. What a startling contrast!  It is either “everlasting life” or “everlasting contempt.” 
7. It is either salvation or damnation.
8. It is either Christ or Antichrist.
9. It is either God or the devil.
10. It is either heaven or hell.
11. Which side are you on?
12. The book of Daniel gives us many details concerning God’s prophetic plan, but the book of Revelation gives us the last word (cf. Rev. 20:5, 6, 11-15).
13. Here we see the final judgment of the wicked (Rev. 20:14, 15; 21:8).

CONCLUSION:

1. Let me conclude with three important features of the coming tribulation.  Daniel 12:10 says, “The wise shall understand.”

1. There will be many catastrophic judgments sent from God (cf. Rev. 6:12-17; 8:7-10, etc.).
2. The wicked will not repent (Rev. 9:20, 21; 16:9-11, 20, 21).
3. God will send the wicked a “strong delusion” (II Thess. 2:8-12).

2. Unsaved friend: you need to repent.  Tomorrow could be too late.