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You might, Deb Kraft, that was
perfectly timed. You might want to get a binder
for this class. Deb told me she loves binders.
So the more I'm getting into this, the more I think, oh, we're
not going to have time for that. So I'm just going to print you
an article about that, or I'll give you a timeline about that.
And there's notes and things. So maybe this is more than you
thought you signed up for. It's kind of more than I thought
I signed up for. But that's OK. And so if you
want, we're always going to have notes for the week. We're going
to have articles, timelines, and a lot of things going on.
So if you want to get something to keep all that together, it
might be a good idea. Also from the previous week,
if you weren't here, I will always have our notes filled in. So
if you weren't here last week and you want our notes from,
well not last week, two weeks ago, we kind of false started
a little bit with our snow day. But if you want the notes from
a previous Sunday that you weren't here, I will always have them
already filled in obviously for you. So you can pick, I will
put these up here. So this was two weeks ago. Also,
you will hopefully be able to find previous messages on Sermon
Audio. So if you write that down, that's
the website that LBC uses. So Sermon Audio, you go to that
website, and then if you just type in Lamar's Bible, you can
find all of these recorded messages from all different speakers that
we have here at LBC. So you can search by the speaker's
name, you can search by a topic, If you really want to hear good
messages about prophecy on there, type in Cecil Yoder, because
there are prophecy messages there. His are better than mine, so
feel free to listen to those instead. My one from two weeks
ago is not yet on the website. They're working on it. Sometimes
it just takes a little longer, but that's where you can find
it if you want to be able to listen to that later. Okay, I
think that's all the housekeeping stuff. Let's pray and we'll get
started. God, we thank you so much for
this day. Thank you for bringing us here together, even though
it's still pretty cold out there and lots of snow drifting. We
had to miss it last week, but just thank you for this warm
building and a place where we can meet together and learn more
about Your word and we thank you so much for the prophecy
that you've given us in your word prophecy that has already
been fulfilled which gives us confidence in you and Trust in
you because we know that you will always keep your promises
and and everything you say that is going to come to pass Has
come to pass so that those things that have not yet come to pass.
We know that they will exactly as your word has has has shown us. So I just pray
that you would help me to speak in a way to communicate clearly
this morning, to communicate only what is true to your word,
that we would learn together and love you more because the
time that we've spent together today and we pray this on your
name. Amen. Okay, we are going to look at two prophecies in
the book of Daniel. They are essentially the same
prophecy, but with different details emphasized. And we're
starting here. We are going to get to Revelation.
Becky, there's some handouts over here if you want to grab them
before I sit down. We're going to be in Daniel.
We're going to be in Ezekiel. We're going to be in some of the Minor
Prophets. We're going to be in the Olivet Discourse. We're going
to spend most of our time in Revelation once we get there.
But we're kind of starting here because a lot of this sets the
stage for revelation and a lot of these prophecies that we're
going to be talking about today, much of them has been fulfilled, but
some is yet to come. So you will need that timeline. That one you definitely want
to bring with you every time. This is the Cecil Yoder special.
This was his timeline. Maybe some of you even have one
folded in your Bible somewhere still. I improved upon it just
a little bit. If that's possible, don't tell
him. I did add this peace treaty here. That wasn't on your original
timeline. So if you have the original,
that's a little bit extra that I added. And we will certainly
get to that at some point. And I will have that up here
and I know you're not going to see that especially on this smaller
screen now But you've got it in front of you so John F. Wolvard in his book Daniel the
key to prophetic revelation He says quote in many respects the
book of Daniel is the most comprehensive prophetic revelation in the Old
Testament and giving the only total view of world history from
Babylon to the second advent of Christ. Daniel provides the
key to the overall interpretation of prophecy. I mean, we could
spend our 20 weeks in Daniel alone. Unfortunately, we don't
have that kind of time, so we're only going to be here a couple
weeks. But his prophecies go into such astonishing detail. Like, the book of Daniel has
more detail in its prophecies than anywhere. So much so that
the critics say that there is no way that Daniel wrote this. It was history. Like he wrote
this as a history book, not as a prophecy book or somebody other
than Daniel wrote it after the fact, because there's no way
you can be that accurate when these events haven't even happened
yet. No one could ever predict the future so accurately, which
I would fully agree with if Daniel were the author. But as we all
know, God is the author. Who is the Alpha the Omega the
first and the last beginning in the end the past is history
or the future is history to him So he of course can give Daniel
all the details he wants So let's set the stage for this book of
Daniel the Jews are God's chosen people and we're going to talk
a lot about the Jews in the coming weeks They had agreed to obey
and follow his law that he had given to the nation through Moses
and God promised blessings for obedience he promised judgments
for disobedience and the Jews while there were many many faithful
Jews as a nation they failed as would any nation of people
and They failed to obey God and so as a result God used some
foreign nations to defeat them and to take them into exile.
So if you have your other timeline, your colored one, that's just
a really basic timeline that I just made. That's one that
we'll probably reference through at different times, because the
Jews, the nation of Israel, is so important to understanding
prophecy. And sometimes it's good to understand
where are we at with the nation of Israel. So in the book of
Daniel, we're in the light green in the timeline. So the nation
of Israel had divided into two kingdoms. It was united under
David and Solomon, but then it was divided. There were 10 northern
tribes, two southern tribes. The northern tribe, which was
called Israel, God used Assyria to come defeat Israel and take
them into captivity. Then, about roughly 100 years
later, Babylon rises to power. And so when Babylon comes to
power, they conquer Assyria. So now all those northern Jews,
the 10 tribes of Israel, are under the Babylonian umbrella.
So maybe you've heard this term, the 10 lost tribes of Israel.
This is where people get this, like Assyria came and they got
the 10 and they took them in the exile, but then we don't
really hear about that anymore. We hear about Babylon. Well,
God doesn't misplace his stuff. There are no 10 lost tribes of
Israel. When Babylon conquers Assyria,
those Northern Jews come under the Babylonian umbrella. Does
that make sense? So then Babylon goes to defeat the southern kingdom,
the southern kingdom called Judah, which consisted of the tribes
Judah and Benjamin. So then all the Jews, all 12
tribes are under the Babylonian umbrella. And then keep that
in mind, because when we get to Medo-Persia, they conquer
Babylon. Guess what? The Jews are under Medo-Persia,
and then they're under Greece, and then they're under Rome,
which is what we're going to talk about today. Babylon is in power at the beginning
of the book of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar is their king. So Nebuchadnezzar
leads Babylon into Israel three different times. He kills people. He takes people into exile. The
last time, he really does a good job of it. He destroys Jerusalem
and really defeats them well and truly, leaving only a few
people there to kind of tend the land, and that's about all
that's left in Israel. One of those times when he brings
back exiles to Babylon, There are four teenage boys included
in one of those groups. Their names are Daniel, Hananiah,
Mishael, and Azariah. The other three are better known
as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These teenage boys are taken
as captives into Babylon, and we read the story in Daniel about
how they rise in the ranks of government until they become
important advisors to King Nebuchadnezzar. And we read in chapter 2, we're
going to be in chapter 2, we read that Nebuchadnezzar has
a disturbing dream. And he wants to know what this
dream means. So he calls in the magicians,
the wise men, the counselors, the advisors that he has from
all these different nations he's conquered and from his own people.
And he wants them to give him not only the interpretation of
the dream, but he wants them to tell him the dream itself. Now maybe he honestly doesn't
remember the dream, like have you ever had a dream and you
wake up and you know it was scary or you know it was intense or
something really sticks with you but you can't, the details
are fuzzy. So it could be that he honestly
doesn't even remember the details of the dream but he just knows
it's important for some reason. Or it could be that he's just
like, you know what, I'm not gonna let you guys just make
up some ridiculous interpretation. If I tell you what the dream
is, you can just kind of fill in the blank and make up what
you want. I want a legit interpretation. Therefore, you tell me the dream
and what it means. Of course, the advisors point
out that this is impossible, which infuriates Nebuchadnezzar,
so much so that he gives orders to execute every wise man in
Babylon, which seems kind of extreme, but Nebuchadnezzar was
not a man known for doing things in moderation. So then Daniel
hears about this. He wasn't in the initial group
to go before Nebuchadnezzar. So he wasn't there when he first
asked for the dream and its interpretation. But Daniel and his friends are
still on the hit list because they fall into this group of
advisors to the king. So Daniel goes to Nebuchadnezzar
and he asks him for more time. It is granted to him. He goes
back to his friends. They pray together. God reveals
the dream. He reveals the interpretation.
They praise God. Daniel goes back to Nebuchadnezzar.
He gives credit where credit is due. And he says, this is
not from me. This is from God Almighty, who
knows all things. So this is where we're going
to pick up the story. We're going to pick it up in Daniel chapter
2, starting at verse 31. You saw, O King, and behold,
a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding
brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.
The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms
of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron,
its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone
was cut out by no human hand and it struck the image on its
feet of iron and clay and broke them to pieces. Then the iron,
the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were
broken in pieces and became like the chaff of the summer threshing
floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace
of them could be found. But the stone that struck the
image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. So
he just tells him the dream. And now he is going to move on
to the interpretation. Verse 26, this is the dream. Now we will tell the king its
interpretation. You, O king, The king of kings, to whom the
God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might and
the glory, and into whose hands he has given, wherever they dwell,
the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of
the heavens, making you rule over them, you are the head of
gold." The head of gold is Babylon, the kingdom of Babylon. Now granted,
Daniel says, and on your chart now, you can fill in the kingdom.
The first kingdom is Babylon. And he says to Nebuchadnezzar,
you are the head of gold. But Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom
of Babylon are pretty much inseparable. They're almost one in the same.
He was the personification of Babylon. So we know that this
head of gold was the kingdom of Babylon. And the kingdom of
Babylon lasted from about 625 to 539 BC. So this is current events for
Daniel. He's in the kingdom of Babylon.
The head of gold is existing at this point for Daniel. Now
for Daniel, everything more now in this dream is the future.
Though for us, much of it is past. So in the next verse, next 39,
he says, another kingdom inferior to you. shall arise after you."
So this next kingdom that's coming is Medo-Persia. Now Daniel's not going to name
the coming kingdoms. Like I said, it's future for
him, and God didn't reveal the names. But we know, based on
other prophecies, and we're going to see this in Daniel 7 that
we'll compare it to, and we also know from history that this is
what happened the next Kingdom the chest of silvers Medo-Persia
from 539 to about 30 31 BC Also skip down to the lines just
under your chart and Just take note that as you go down the
statue the metals increase in strength So all these metals
become stronger as you go down With the exception of the feet
to symbolize the ability of each successive kingdom to conquer
the previous one. So clearly, the one that conquers
the previous one is stronger. So they are stronger. But Daniel
says, another kingdom inferior to you shall rise after you.
Well, if Medo-Persia was inferior, then how could they have conquered
Babylon? Well, that's kind of explained
in the value of the metal. The metals decrease in value. So obviously gold is worth more
than silver. Silver is more than bronze. Bronze is worth more
than iron. The metals decrease in value to symbolize the lessening
glory. of each successive kingdom. Babylon
was really unparalleled as far as their culture, their architecture,
their wealth, all of these things. It was just an amazing society
that Nebuchadnezzar built. And each conquering kingdom,
even though they were greater in strength, were kind of lesser
in just the glory and the splendor and the majesty that was part
of their empire. So that would be why Daniel described
Medo-Persia as inferior, because their glory was lessening. Okay,
next kingdom, the second part of verse 39. Yet the third kingdom
of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. So we know from
history and other places in the Bible that the size of bronze
Greece Greece will come on to the scene They are going to conquer
Medo-Persia and they will exist from about 30 31 to 146 BC He says That they would rule
over all the earth and that was certainly true because Greece's
territory far exceeded that of the Medo-Persian Empire and And
then verse 40, he goes on to say, and there shall be a fourth
kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters
all things. And like iron that crushes, it
shall break and crush all these. So there's an empire coming stronger
than all the rest. It's going to crush them all.
The iron legs is Rome. Rome came into the picture. At
about 146 BC, conquered Greece. And it was certainly a fitting
medal to describe Rome because the armies of Rome were known
for their iron armor. They were called the Iron Legions
of Rome. And I put a question mark at
the end of the Roman Empire, because it's kind of impossible
to date when the Roman Empire actually ended. Experts in history
just really disagree on how to date that, because it was unique
from all those previous kingdoms in that it was never overthrown.
Nobody ever came in and took over Rome. It just kind of fiddled
out. It kind of crumbled. It sort
of just imploded from the inside. It just changed. Some people
would argue, some historians argue that the Roman Empire never
really ended, but that it just kind of adapted to changing circumstances. And they would even argue that
it kind of even continues today, but just in a different form.
But there's a lot of Roman influence, obviously, still in Europe. Their
infrastructure, their culture, all those things about the Roman
Empire just as it faded, but it's still kind of there. Which
makes things interesting as we come to the feet. Verse 41. And as you saw the feet and toes,
partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided
kingdom. But some of the firmness of iron
shall be in it just as you saw iron mixed with the soft clay.
And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay,
so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As
you saw, the iron mixed with the soft clay, so they will mix
with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together,
just as iron does not mix with clay. Okay, the feet. Again, we'll know this from comparing
other things, but the feet represent the revived Roman Empire. And for us, that is still future. You know, like I said, for Daniel,
Medo-Persia and on was future. That's all happened, but for
us, the revived Roman Empire is still to come. So these legs and feet, are they
one kingdom or two? Is Rome and the revived Roman
Empire one kingdom or two? I mean, the Bible certainly portrays
it as one. You could make the argument for
two because they're separated by a big gap in human history
of time, but the continuation of the iron into the feet shows
this undeniable connection to Rome. And you could certainly
make an argument that it's just one kingdom because Rome never
ended and nobody ever conquered it. And it's going to come to
power again. Now, there are lots of speculations
about the nature of this revived Roman Empire. We need to keep
in mind that the information the Bible gives us is not really
very extensive on this kingdom, so we need to be careful that
we don't go beyond what the Word of God tells us. So it's okay
to speculate and kind of think about how this is possible as
long as we know that we're speculating. There's obviously a connection
to the ancient Roman Empire in some way. Maybe it's ancestry,
maybe it's culture, maybe it's the government structure. We
don't really know, so we can't be too dogmatic. Rome was part
of Europe, so it's very reasonable to conclude, and we know from
other prophecies as well, that that geographic area of the world
is going to play a major part in the end times. So that's for
sure. The ancestry of the Antichrist,
I would imagine, is probably European, connected with Rome
in some way. And we also see that this prophecy
passes right over the church age. If you see on your timeline,
we're here even before Daniel's 70 weeks. He's talking here. Did I have that next? I've got
to see. OK. So this revived Roman Empire is here. Do I have a laser
pointer on here? Oh, I do. Does it work on the
screen? Probably not. No, okay, that's okay. So this
is where the revived Roman Empire is going to be. It's during the
time of the Tribulation. Now, could some of it exist even
now? Yes, it could. There could be
things in place already on the stage of the world today that
there are things about this empire that we're already seeing take
shape. Again, we can't speculate too
much, but I would not be surprised at all if the infancy of this
kingdom is already here. But this is when it's going to
come to power is during the tribulation. But we know this kingdom has
not yet happened because nothing in history fulfills its description. J.F. Wohlberg, again, in his
commentary on Daniel, he says, quote, according to Daniel's
prophecy, the ten-toe stage is simultaneous, that is, ten kingdoms
exist side by side and are destroyed by one sudden divine blow. Nothing like this has yet occurred
in history. Quote so the legs there are the
feet of clay and iron it hasn't come yet There's been nothing
like it yet in history. It is future We could also call
this revived Roman Empire the kingdom of the Antichrist The
Antichrist is going to be a man who will be an evil world dictator
Empowered by Satan to rule and wreak havoc upon the entire globe. We're going to talk about him
a lot in the coming weeks and So I won't say too much about
him today. But we also see from the dream. Well, let me say this too. And
you can put this then on your chart across from the 10 toes,
the 10 toes symbolize 10 world leaders. So you can write that
in there. So this coming kingdom of the
Antichrist, this revived Roman Empire, is going to be ushered
in by a coalition of 10 world leaders, likely from nations
in and around Europe, who are going to rule simultaneously. And we see the iron mixed with
the clay. And we've read how those two
elements, they do not adhere very well to each other. So even
though iron is strong, you mix it with clay, it makes it very,
very weak. So there are going to be leaders in this coalition.
Some are strong and some are weak. They will be of unequal strength,
these nations, these kingdoms, these men, these 10. OK. Let's pump the brake for a bit. Maybe you're thinking, now hold
on. You just said that we need to be careful about not going
beyond what's written in scripture. So where do you get the idea
that the 10 toes in the dream are 10 world leaders? Because
I don't see that. And how do you know this is the
kingdom of the Antichrist? Because there's not even an Antichrist
mentioned Well, I'm so glad you observed that. Those are excellent
questions. And if we had only Daniel chapter two, we couldn't
necessarily come to all of those conclusions. But as we talked
about a couple of weeks ago, that we always let interpret,
we always let scripture interpret scripture. We always put passages
beside each other that talk about the same things because we can
learn more details when we put them together and compare. So
we're going to do that. We're going to get to Daniel
chapter 7, which is going to give us more detail. But let's finish
up quickly with Daniel chapter 2 before we turn there, starting
at verse 44. And in the days of those kings,
so there's a hint, what kings? If you're just reading this passage,
you're like, wait, what kings are you talking about? He hasn't
mentioned any kings. The 10 kings, the toes. In the days of those
kings, the days of the revived Roman Empire, the days of the
kingdom of the Antichrist, in those days, in the days of those
kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never
be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It
shall break in pieces all those kingdoms and bring them to an
end, and it shall stand forever. Just as you saw that a stone
was cut from a mountain by no human hand and that it broke
in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the
gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after
this. The dream is certain, its interpretation
sure. The fifth kingdom in the dream
that you can write next to the stone, you could put kingdom
of God, you could put millennial kingdom, You could put Jesus'
kingdom, any of those would fit in there. That fifth kingdom
is the kingdom of God. The stone represents Jesus who
is coming to set up his kingdom on this earth and that's the
kingdom we call the millennial kingdom because it's going to
last for a thousand years. And we'll talk a lot more about
that kingdom in the coming weeks too. Now there are some Who say
that this stone is Jesus, but it represents his first coming
That at his first coming he established the church. He made disciples
So the church is the stone and the church is what conquers all
of these kingdoms This view argues that there is not going to be
a physical earthly kingdom of Jesus on our planet But that
the kingdom exists right now It's a spiritual kingdom that
is in the hearts of of people who trust in Jesus. You know,
I said to my husband as I was studying, I said, you know, some
people think that the kingdom of God is on earth right now. And he looked at me and he said,
I've got to admit, if we're living in the kingdom of God right now,
I'm kind of disappointed. Ain't that the truth? Hopefully
this is not the kingdom of God that we see around us on the
world today. And I would take issue with this
interpretation that the stone is the church and it was Jesus'
first coming. No, it's not. The church doesn't destroy kingdoms
of the earth. The church didn't come instantly
and crush nations and take over governments. I mean, that's what
they wanted Jesus to do, and he said no. The church grows
slowly. I mean, it is a spiritual kingdom
in the hearts of people, but it's not one that takes over
governments and overthrows rulers. That is going to happen. It's
going to be at Jesus' second coming when he sets up his millennial
kingdom here on earth. And just as kind of a side note,
I just thought this was really interesting. I'd never learned
this before when I studied this. Nebuchadnezzar had one of his
chief gods was a god called Bel-Maradoc. Another name for this god was
Shadu Rabu, and that name means great mountain. Nebuchadnezzar had a god who
was named Great Mountain. And I just think that was kind
of fun because God is using a very particular imagery here. And
it's like he's speaking to Nebuchadnezzar in terms that Nebuchadnezzar
is going to understand. He's coming to Nebuchadnezzar where
he's at and speaking his language. And in a way, I think maybe he
was kind of saying, you know what, Nebuchadnezzar, there is
only one Shadu Rabu. There is only one great mountain
God. You don't know him yet, but you
will. And we know from reading Daniel
that Nebuchadnezzar does eventually figure out who the true God is.
The stone is Jesus. It says it was a stone cut out
of a mountain without hands. That's a reference to divine
origin, that no human was involved in this. It was a virgin birth
when Jesus came. He is God, not of man. But again, this was not his first
coming, but his second coming, when he will set up his kingdom
on the earth. So the second coming of Jesus,
that's where the stone crushes the statue. At the end of the
tribulation, at the end of the Antichrist reign is when he will
come and crush the final kingdom of the earth. And again, when
we let scripture interpret scripture, this is certainly not the only
time when Jesus is symbolized as a stone. And I gave you just
a handful of verses where Jesus is talked about being a stone.
In Genesis, he's called the stone of Israel. In Psalm 118, the
stone the builders rejected. Paul called him the spiritual
stone in the wilderness. Peter called him a living stone.
Both Peter and Paul called Jesus the cornerstone of the church.
Isaiah 36 16 says therefore the Lord God said look I have laid
a stone in Zion a tested stone a precious cornerstone a sure
foundation The one who believes in it will be unshakable. That's
Jesus Matthew 21 44. This is Jesus himself speaking
talking about himself He says the one who falls on this stone
meaning himself the one who falls on Jesus It says will be broken
to pieces meaning it takes some surrender to fall on Jesus, right? We have to admit we're sinners.
It can hurt it can break us a bit to fall on Jesus But that's better
than the alternative on whoever it the stone falls It will scatter
him like dust So if you don't trust Jesus as your Savior, the
stone's going to fall on you and crush you and scatter you
like dust, just like our imagery in this dream. So that is another sound interpretation,
a sound principle of interpretation, that when other places in the
Bible say those same types of things, when it matches up like
that, we can be very confident that this stone is Jesus coming
to defeat the kingdoms of the earth. Okay, now let's look at
a parallel passage, which is Daniel chapter 7. It's basically
the same thing, the same vision of the future, but it gives it
from a different perspective and it adds in a few extra details. Now at this point, Medo-Persia
has conquered Babylon. That has happened. Now Medo-Persia
is in charge. And Daniel is thinking back to
a vision that he had 14 years ago during the rule of Belshazzar
during the time of Babylon. So this is Daniel getting around
to recording that. He had this dream 14 years earlier,
even though the Medes and the Persians are in power right now.
So he is writing about a vision that he himself had. In the first
year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, So back in those days, even though,
because the previous chapter is all about the lion's den,
that all happened to the Medes and Persians. So Daniel's just
thinking back to his dream 14 years earlier. Daniel saw a dream
and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote
down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared
I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven
were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up
out of the sea Different from one another the first was like
a lion and had eagles wings then as I looked its wings were plucked
off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand
on two feet like a man and The mind of a man was given to it. I Okay, so now we're doing a
whole new set of symbols, but they're going to mean the same
thing. So Daniel sees a winged lion. The winged lion was a prominent
symbol in the city of Babylon. This is a city gate that was
excavated from Babylon. It's now on display in Berlin.
If you kind of zoom up and maybe you can tell, but that is a lion
with wings on the side of it. The winged lion, In Daniel's
dream is Babylon. Here we go. So now, in your beast,
you can describe your beast, winged lion, in your beast column. And many see this as looking
specifically, again, at Nebuchadnezzar, because it says that his wings
are plucked, he's lifted from the ground, he stands like a
man, a mind is given to him. And if you remember a little
story about Nebuchadnezzar, where he lost his mind for a while and
became a beast, but then God restored him. That could be a
reference to that as well, but again, Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon
go hand in hand, so this is the kingdom of Babylon. Verse 5,
And behold, another beast, a second one like a bear. It was raised
up on one side, it had three ribs in its mouth between its
teeth, and it was told, Arise, devour much flesh. In your column
I would write lopsided bear. And the lopsided bear is Medo-Persia. Medo-Persia was as powerful as
a bear. It came in very strongly, but
obviously it was less majestic, less swift, less glorious as
a lion. A bear is a bulky animal and
Medo-Persia was known for its massive armies. Some Persian
armies had up to two and a half million men, which was an enormous
number. And it says that the bear was
raised up on one side, likely that refers to the lopsided union
of the Persians and the Medes, because the Persians were the
greater group. The Persians were stronger than
the Medes. And it said there were three ribs in its mouth,
and Medo-Persia was known for three major conquests. They conquered
Lydia, they conquered Babylon, and they conquered Egypt. So
most Bible scholars feel that those ribs are a reference to
those three conquests made by the Empire of Medo-Persia. Lydia, Babylon, Egypt. Verse 6. After this I looked
and behold another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on
its back. And the beast had four heads
and dominion was given to it. So we have the four-headed leopard
or the winged four-headed leopard, however you want to describe
it. The winged four-headed leopard was Greece. Greece was known
for its swiftness as we see with the wings I mean a leopard is
already fast, but it also has wings on its back the symbol
of swiftness Alexander the Great conquered more of the well He
conquered all of the civilized world really and he did it with
lightning speed That was unmatched in ancient times. He did it so
fast he was undefeated in battle a leopard is kind of a small
animal and Alexander the Great did all of this with only 35,000
men, which is amazing when I told you how big the armies were of
Medo-Prugia. He did it fast, he did it quick,
even though it was a small group, but he reigned only 13 years. He died at the young age of 32,
and he died with having no clear heir. So when Alexander the Great
died, his kingdom, his empire, was divided among his generals.
Guess how many generals they were divided? It was divided
among four. The four-headed leopard. The
empire went in four different directions under the four generals.
Hey, verse seven. After this I saw in the night
visions and behold a fourth beast terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly
strong. It had great iron teeth. It devoured
and broken pieces and stamped what was left with his feet.
I'm going to stop right there for a minute. So this fourth
terrifying beast is Rome. Again, notice the similarities
in the description of the statue that we find with the iron. When
it was describing the Roman Empire in the statue vision in Daniel
chapter 2, verse 40, it says, iron breaks to pieces, shatters
all things, iron crushes, it breaks, it crushes. Daniel chapter
7, it says, great iron teeth, it devours, it breaks in pieces,
it stamps what's left with its feet. Very similar descriptions. So this is Rome. And now again, we get a little
funky when we get to the next, it's not really a new beast again,
so it's the same beast which kind of shows this continuity.
So starting at kind of the end of verse seven, okay, it was
different from all the beasts that were before it and it had
10 horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up from
among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the
first horns were plucked up by the roots." Skip down. Oh, hold on, I'm not done there.
Plucked it by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the
eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things. Now skip down to
verse 11. I looked then because of the
sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as
I looked, the beast was killed and its body was destroyed and
it was given over to be burned in the fire. As for the rest
of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives
were prolonged for a season and a time. Okay, so this terrifying
beast with horns is how I would write it your little blank there
the terrifying beast with horns is is, again, the revived Roman
Empire, the kingdom of the Antichrist. We see the repetition of the
number 10, the 10 toes, the 10 horns. They represent the same
thing. They represent 10 world leaders who will rule at the
same time in history. I also put there Revelation chapter
13 and 17. We're going to get there eventually.
But those chapters talk also about these 10 leaders who rule
during the kingdom of the Antichrist. Then we see this little horn
that comes up among the ten. This is the very first time in
the entire Bible where the Antichrist is mentioned, and granted it's
just a small reference and you wouldn't know this is who this
is until you know other parts of the Bible, but the little
horn, and you can put that next to the little horn under the
kingdoms, you can just right here put that that is the Antichrist.
The little horn is the Antichrist. Daniel sees the destruction of
this beast in verse 11, but it's not just the Antichrist that
is destroyed there. It says the entire beast is destroyed
and burned. So we're going to see more detail
about what that looks like in Revelation when Jesus conquers
this last kingdom. And in verse 12, notice it said,
the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, but
their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. So I think
a lot of what a lot of scholars think that's saying is that the
Babylonian Empire, the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, even
that Roman Empire, they lived on at least through their descendants.
Even though they were destroyed, there's still always a remnant
of people from each Empire that lives into the next one. So they're
given a season. They're given a time They still
kind of live on in a way But notice it says that this King
when this final beast is destroyed. There's no hope. I mean, he's
completely annihilated There's nothing left of this beast. He
will not get a season. He will not get extended time.
He's done This beast is gone because Jesus is going to fully
defeat this final kingdom. It will live on in no way, shape
or form. Just as the stone destroyed the
statue and the dust blew away, so this beast will be destroyed
and burned. Skip down to verse 15. As for
me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious and the visions
of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who
stood there, he's approaching an angel, and asked him the truth
concerning all this. He told me and made known to
me the interpretation of the things. These four great beasts
are four kings who will arise out of the earth. But the saints
of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom
forever, forever, and ever. I really love that angel's concise
explanation because he's like, oh okay Daniel, well those are
four kingdoms, but you know what? God wins in the end, so don't
worry about it. Like that's kind of what he says.
Like the kingdom is going to go to the most high and the saints
are the most high, so don't worry about those. They're nothing.
Those kingdoms are nothing. Well, Daniel kind of wants a little
more information. If it's not too much trouble for the angel,
you know, can you just tell me a little more? I'd really like
to know a little more. So he says, it goes on in verse 19
and says, I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast,
which was different from all the rest, exceedingly terrifying,
teeth of iron, claws of bronze, devoured and broken pieces, and
its stamp was up with its feet. And about the ten horns that
were on its head and the horn that came up, and before which
three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that
spoke great things and seemed greater than its companions.
As I looked, this horn, the Antichrist, the little horn, made war with
the saints and prevailed over them. Until the Ancient of Days
came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High,
and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. Thus he
said, the angel said, As for the fourth beast, there shall
be a fourth kingdom on the earth, it shall be different from all
the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and it will
trample it down and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns
out of this kingdom, ten kings shall arise, and another shall
arise after them, the Antichrist. And he shall be different from
the former ones, and he shall put down three kings. He shall
speak words against the Most High. He shall wear out the saints
of the Most High. He shall think to change the
times and the law, and they shall be given into his hand for a
time, times, and half a time. There's a lot in there about
the Antichrist, and we're gonna get to that later, so we're not
gonna say a lot about it now. So this little horn, it's described
as a little horn in verse eight, but then in verse 20, it says
it's greater than the other horns. So which is it? Is it the little
horn, or is it greater than the other horns? Well, we get this
picture that it uproots these three. You know, there's 10 world
leaders, and this little horn comes, and three are uprooted.
And I think that's an indication of that's how the Antichrist
is going to come to power. He is going to take over three
of these. He's going to overpower these
men somehow, their nations. And in that way, he will start
as a little horn, but he will grow to power. And that's how
he's going to do it. He's going to establish his authority.
I mean, he doesn't necessarily create this 10-nation coalition,
but he certainly will take it over. the Antichrist is going
to establish his authority by overthrowing three leaders in
this ten nation coalition and Remember there was clay with
the iron. So these three are likely some of the weak some
of those who are represented by the clay They will be weak
leaders. Maybe they have some kind of
a fall from grace. Maybe the the Antichrist has
them assassinated I mean who knows but he's going to take
over and the end result is will be that the Antichrist will grow
so powerful that he will wage war against the people of God
and he will even overpower them for a time. This man will hate Jews. He will hate Christians. He is
going to make Hitler, Stalin, Hamas look like amateurs. when it comes to his persecution
of Jews and of believers. And we will see that more in
our future lessons. We know that he is going to,
especially the last three and a half years right before Jesus
returns, is when this man is going to be at the full height
of his madness, really, and of his power. But that will come
to an end when the Ancient of Days passes judgment in favor
of the saints. He comes and sets up the fifth
and final kingdom that will not be destroyed. So a quick comparison between
these two visions on the back of your sheet. I just want to
kind of make note of why these are two different visions and
why God might have decided to give it to us two different ways.
In Daniel chapter 2, the revelation was given to Nebuchadnezzar and
he was a wicked and heathen king. At least at the time. I do think
Nebuchadnezzar's in heaven and he's going to be a fun dude to
talk to. The revelation was interpreted
by Daniel. And in Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
world history is depicted as a beautiful, imposing image in
the form of a man. So look how great mankind is. Look how great and beautiful
and awesome our kingdoms are. That goes into that fourth point.
It says world history is described from mankind's or you could write
a Gentile's point of view. Because as we're going to see
in coming weeks, the Gentiles overpower the Jews for a long,
long time. So this is a Gentile view of
history that they are overtaking. They're in control. And it's
filled with glory and splendor. So that's mankind's point of
view. Look how great we are. We're glorious. We're full of
splendor. We're great. Look at us. But
in Daniel chapter 7, these very same kingdoms, the revelation
was given to Daniel, a godly and righteous prophet. We see that his revelation was
interpreted by an angel. We see that world history is
depicted as horrifying evil beasts. And that's because world history
is described from God's point of view. And you could possibly
put in there a Jewish point of view, because the Jews are going
to be trampled under these kingdoms. God's or Jewish point of view,
their kingdoms filled with depravity, immorality, and brutality. So when mankind sees ourselves
as great and glorious and majestic and unbeatable and Unable to
be defeated, God sees wickedness and evil and depravity and brutality,
and that He is going to take care of it in the end. We'll finish real quickly to
read these verses, Daniel chapter 7 verse 26. But the court shall
sit in judgment and his dominion, so talking about the Antichrist,
his dominion will be taken away and will be consumed and destroyed
in the end. And the kingdom and the dominion
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall
be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. You
know, that verse just really got me this week. Because I look
at the world and there's war in the Middle East, Russia's
I mean, there might be war against Russia and NATO, which could
consume Europe. North Korea is shooting missiles. China's looking at Taiwan. I
told my husband the other day, if I was an evil world dictator
right now, I'm making my move in 2024 while we're still under
the Biden administration. Because we're an administration
that's not going to act. I mean, I'm not saying every previous
president has acted the way they should, but he's not going to
do much, I don't think. The world just seems like it's
falling apart. There is so much suffering and
hurt and chaos. And I read this verse that said,
the kingdoms and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms
under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints
of the Most High. He's going to give them to us.
And he's not going to give it to us and say, look at this hot
mess you guys just inherited. Good luck. No, Jesus is going
to be the king. We're going to rule and reign
under him, and he's going to make everything right. I can't
wait. Their kingdom shall be an everlasting
kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them. Here is
the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts
greatly alarmed me. My color changed, but I kept
the matter in my heart. And we are going to skip back
real quickly to some verses that we've passed over. These verses,
they drip of Revelation chapters 4 and 5. And if you're going
to be here for any lesson in our Sunday school, be here for
Revelation 4 and 5. I am so excited to teach those
chapters. They're some of my very favorite
in the whole Bible. It's going to be so good. So be here. So here's
your preview of coming attractions. It's going to be a while till
we get there. But Daniel chapter 7 verse 9 and 10 verse 9 is talking
about the father. As I looked, thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white
as snow, the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was
fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. Issue of fire came
out from before him a thousand thousand served him in ten thousand
times ten thousand stood before him The court stood in judgment
and the books were opened skip to verses 14 13 and 14 This is
about the Sun and behold with the clouds of heaven there came
one like a son of man And He came to the Ancient of Days and
was presented. He came to God the Father and was presented
before Him. And to Him, to Jesus, was given
dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, that all nations,
that all languages shall serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away and His kingdom one that
shall not be destroyed. Be here for Revelation 4 and
5. Ladies, we just got a minute
or two here, but let me just say, there are hard things in
our world right now. And according to Bible prophecy,
there are harder things to come. And we can look around at our
world and we can be tempted to worry. We can be tempted to get
angry. We can be tempted to despair.
We can be tempted to be depressed. And at those times, you need
to stop looking around. And instead, you need to look
up. Because don't be fooled by Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter
7, the fact that the majority of that information focused on
the kingdoms of men. Don't be fooled by that because
they ain't the star of this show. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
even now is in heaven. There is a throne in heaven and
it is occupied. And someday He's coming back. to set up a literal, tangible,
physical kingdom on this planet. And he will rule over a perfect
kingdom that will never fade away. It will never disappear
into the pages of history. It will never be destroyed. It
will endure for all of eternity. And here you thought end times
prophecy was all about doom and gloom. It's about some pretty
glorious stuff. Pre-recoming attractions. So hopefully that happens before
next week. And Pastor Mike informed me yesterday
that we have a missionary speaker during the Sunday school hour
next week, which that's good. Missionaries are good, but that
means... I'm probably going to have about 20 minutes less or
something. And you know how that goes for
me. That does not work for me. So when we're done with the missionary,
get in here because we've got stuff to talk about. We're going
to talk about the rapture. I have in your notes some verses
that you can read to go along with that. If you still need
your book, I need payment first, but I can give you that book.
And if you want, you can read some chapters because the rapture
is about the church. It's really the only part of
prophecy that is about the church. And there are some chapters in
here about the church, the first four chapters. We're not really
going to go through those chapters per se during our Sunday school
lesson. We're not really going to go through them at all because
we're not going to talk about Revelations verses chapters one
through three. But it's a great read. So read
it. It'll go along with it. God we
thank you for this time. Thank you for these ladies Thank
you for your word and that in all of these coming kingdoms
that yours will never fade away That yours will never end that
yours will put an end to all others and it will be great and
glorious and perfect And thank you so much that we get to rule
and reign with you not by our own merit But because you have
saved us through the blood of Jesus Christ, we pray all this
in your name. Amen
Past and Future Kingdoms of the Earth
Series Prophecy 101 - Dougherty
| Sermon ID | 24241634352078 |
| Duration | 57:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Language | English |
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