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Collierville First Baptist Church
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Heavenly Father, as we come to this time to open our Bibles and to study,
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I pray that the Holy Spirit would be in control of everything that takes place in this room.
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I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would open our minds and hearts to receive the word of God,
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to apply it to our lives,
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and I pray, Heavenly Father, that each and every one of us would grow spiritually as believers.
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I pray, Father, if there's anyone in this room
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who is not a Christian, who is not a believer,
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I pray tonight the Holy Spirit
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will convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment,
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and bring them to saving faith in Christ alone.
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Lord, we love you. We thank you for those who are joining us by live stream,
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and I pray that they would grab their Bibles, they would open their Bibles,
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and dig in here with us, Lord.
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Thank you for allowing us to teach a portion of the book of Daniel that many people have avoided.
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The Lord not gonna avoid it, but we sure need your help in understanding it, and I sure need your help in teaching it, Lord, so please help me.
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Lord, we love you and thank you for your infinite grace and mercy, and we ask all this in Jesus' name, amen.
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Okay, so take your Bible, turn to Daniel chapter seven.
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Now, a lot of commentators view this chapter
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as the most important chapter in the book of Daniel.
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In fact, one called it the heart of the book of Daniel.
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Another one said it's no exaggeration to say
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that this chapter is one of the most important passages in the entire Old Testament, so why is it so significant?
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Well, number one, Daniel seven marks the literary turning point of the book. We move from historical narratives to prophetic visions.
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The chapter is important because it has an enormous impact
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on our understanding of Jewish apocalyptic literature.
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And number three, it's of extreme significance prophetically.
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Wilford said, and I quote, "As interpreted by conservative expositors,
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"the vision of Daniel provides the most comprehensive "and detailed prophecy of future events "to be found anywhere in the Old Testament." Now, let me just explain this.
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What Daniel is prophesying here,
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what was relevant for 600 BC,
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all the way to the very end of the world.
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To this, I'm telling you, it's relevant to where we are today.
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The prophetic implications are off the charts.
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So the second division of the book begins here in chapter seven.
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And I'd like to make a few general comments to sort of bridge the two together. I think it's important that we bridge
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the narrative section in chapters one through six. Now, of course, in chapter two, there is a lengthy prophetic portion of that chapter.
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But by and large, most of the first half of Daniel is historical narrative.
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So it's important that we bridge the two sections together
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because it's important. Like for instance, chapters one through six
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provide some necessary background material so that we can understand Daniel's credentials for writing this.
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We learned about his nationality. We know that from the historical narrative part that Daniel was a Jewish exile.
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Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar went to Jerusalem in 605 BC and took some of the royal blood, the young people and some of the nobles, young people and brought them back to Babylon and put them in a three year crash course to prepare them to be a part of his kingdom work in Babylon. So we know about his religion, he was Jewish. We know that he would not compromise.
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He and his three friends, Hananiah, Michelle and Azariah or better known maybe to you as Shadrach, Meshach, and Bennego, those four guys dared to be different.
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They worshiped the living God. They worshiped him exclusively. They worshiped him exclusively.
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And their exclusive belief in the living true God, Yahweh, got them in hot water.
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But even when they got in hot water, they didn't try to get out of it. They stayed right in the middle of it and they honored God and God honored them.
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And but what an example.
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Daniel had impeccable character
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and he had amazing wisdom
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that was given to him by the sovereign God. When you study the first six chapters of Daniel,
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you understand the sovereignty of God. Remember we talked about the theme of Daniel is one of the themes is the sovereignty of God.
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God is in control. In fact, in chapter seven through chapter 12, he's still sovereign. Okay?
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And it's very obvious.
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And by the way, in the 21st century, he's still sovereign. By the way, on the day before Jesus comes again, he'll still be sovereign. And when we get to heaven, he'll still be sovereign because he's sovereign. That's one of his attributes, okay?
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So these historical accounts demonstrated the power and sovereignty of the Lord
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and prepared the way for the prophecies in the latter part of the book. Now, I've got a little statement here on top of page two. If Daniel's God was able to deliver from the den of lions and he did, right?
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And delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the furnace of fire,
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he also possesses or possessed the miraculous ability to predict the future, to prophesy about future events.
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Listen, you do understand that God knows everything. One of his attributes, he's omniscient. He knows absolutely everything. There's nothing he does not know about the past, the future, the present. He knows everything. He knows everything about you.
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He knows what you think. He knows what you do. He knows the motives of your heart when you do things. He knows everything.
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And we're accountable to him.
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And then the second thing I noted here is far greater stress is placed on predictive prophecy in the latter half of the book.
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Now, in chapter two, I mentioned that there's a pretty significant
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prophetic section there in chapter two. In fact, tonight, you better put your finger at chapter two and your finger at Daniel chapter seven because we're gonna be flipping back and forth a lot.
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Number three, if these visions relate to the future,
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what significance could they have had for the people in Daniel's day? Now think about that.
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Daniel is making prophecies
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about stuff that would happen in the latter days, in our day, and in the days leading up to the coming of Christ.
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And how would that impact the Jewish men and women who would pick this prophetic book up and read it? How could it help them?
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Well, God's messages through his prophet
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were of utmost value to Daniel and his people, for through these prophecies, God assured the Jews that the nation of Israel would endure even when the future of the nation was uncertain.
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We live in a day and time when
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so many people have bought into replacement theology.
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Tucker Carlson has gone nuts.
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He's absolutely gone nuts. He's not the only one.
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So many people that believe that the church has replaced Israel in God's completely through with Israel. God's not through with Israel.
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I mean, how can you read your Bible and come, how can you read Romans chapter 11 and come away with that idea? How can you read the book of Revelation
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where there's 144,000 Jews
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who are selected by the Lord
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to present the gospel across the world in the days of tribulation?
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They are Jewish evangelists, 144,000.
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They're not Jehovah's Witnesses.
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That's heresy, okay?
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In fact, in the book of Revelation, it talks about them coming from the different tribes of Israel.
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So whatever you do, don't fall into the trap
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of listening to this malarkey
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that is related to replacement theology. God is not through with Israel, okay?
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In fact, and just take your Bible, flip back, flip forward just a moment to Zechariah chapter 12.
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Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10.
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Now this is a prophecy that Zechariah recorded that God gave him. God says, "I will pour out on the house of David
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and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication
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so that they will look on me whom they have pierced
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and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a first born."
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Look at this in chapter 13, verse one. "That day of fountain will be opened for the house of David," that's Israel, "and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity." By the way, where is Jesus gonna set up his millennial kingdom? Where's he gonna rule from? Jerusalem.
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So man, there's so much ammunition that you have if you know your Bible that refutes the idea of replacement theology.
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So let's don't even go there, okay?
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So God made clear to the Jewish people through the prophet Daniel
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that Israel would continue to have a place and a purpose in history.
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And through Daniel, he promised that the Messiah, the Jewish Messiah would come, by the way,
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Jesus is Jewish, he was Jewish. He's the Jewish Messiah. He came to save the whole world,
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but he's a Jewish Messiah.
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That their promised Messiah would come and deliver them from spiritual and national bondage and that the Messiah would set up its kingdom and reign over the nations with Israel raised to a place of prominence.
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Eschatological promises of a better world have always encouraged believers in the here and now.
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Now number four on page three,
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a fourth observation regarding the relation of Daniel's two parts,
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chapters one through six and seven through 12,
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is that like the historical accounts in chapters one through six, the visions of chapter seven through 12 are given in chronological sequence.
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Here's the order.
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Chapter seven is the first year of Belshazzar.
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In other words, Daniel got this vision in chapter seven
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before Belshazzar threw his party in chapter five of Daniel.
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He got it before all that happened, before Belshazzar was judged and died at the hands of the Medo-Persians. Chapter eight, he gets this in the third year of Belshazzar.
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And chapter nine, he gets in the first year of Darius the Mede after the Babylonian kingdom is gone,
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and the Medo-Persian empire rises to prominence
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in the first year of Darius the Mede, he gets the vision in chapter nine.
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And then in chapters 10 through 12,
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he gets the vision in the third year of Cyrus,
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the Persian king.
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So the first and second visions that Daniel received
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happened during the Babylonian period, and the third and fourth occurred shortly after the Medo-Persian rule began.
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Now, does that make sense to you? You got it?
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Just take a Bible, look back at chapter two just a minute.
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Daniel chapter two,
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it's so important that we keep this in our field of vision.
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Daniel chapter two.
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So Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, remember?
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And none of the experts in Babylon could interpret the dream or tell him what he had dreamed, but Daniel could,
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because God had his hand of favor on Daniel.
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And so Nebuchadnezzar had this vision of this gigantic colossal statue, beautiful statue.
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And if you'll notice here in verse 32 of chapter two, the head of that statue was made of fine gold,
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its breasts in its arms of silver,
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its belly in its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
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You continued looking, Daniel said, until a stone was cut out without hands and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.
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Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. And the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found, but the stone, the stone is who? It's Jesus.
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The stone in this vision is Jesus.
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That the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
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Now, so that's the vision that Nebuchadnezzar had chapter two and we've just read the interpretation that God gave to Daniel to share with Nebuchadnezzar.
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Now, it's important that we understand as we move into chapter seven through 12
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and we start looking at prophecy.
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Symbolism is gonna be very important.
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Now, do you know that God answers your questions in scripture many times? In fact, he does it here in chapter seven
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and I'll point that out to you.
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So symbolism is a key element. Now, symbolism has baffled a lot of people
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who have tried to read Daniel and read the book of Revelation.
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But if we're dutiful in digging into the scripture and not get all haywire with not understanding on the first look, the first glance,
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I believe we can help ourselves a lot to understand predictive prophecy and I believe it will help us as we live out our lives in these last days and I do believe these are the last days.
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Now, usually the meaning of these symbols is explained in the text itself, we'll see that tonight.
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When this is not the case,
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their significance is often found in other scriptures. I was telling Suzanne earlier that the best way to interpret scripture is to use scripture to interpret scripture.
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Okay?
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And so that's a very important principle for interpreting prophecy.
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Elwood points out and I've got in a box here, it will be noticed that in respect to the predicted events which have already occurred,
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the vision finds a literal historical fulfillment.
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Now you take the book of Daniel,
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some of these visions and Nebuchadnezzar's visions in the first part of the book were fulfilled. For instance, when Babylon was destroyed
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and taken over by the Medo-Persian empire, chalk one up, that's a fulfilled prophecy.
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And let me say this to you, if God can fulfill prophecy in the days of Daniel,
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he can fulfill prophecy in our day.
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Do you realize that there has never been a prophecy that God's ever given that has not proven true or will prove true in the future? Okay?
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So he says, it will be noticed that in respect to the predicted events which have already occurred, the vision finds a literal historical fulfillment and the same should be anticipated. Look at this, the same should be anticipated then in respect to the events which lie still in the future.
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Now you take your Bible, we're coming up on Christmas
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and you take your Bible and you look at what Isaiah prophesied about the birth of Christ.
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You look at what Isaiah prophesied in chapter 53 about the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.
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All those things have been true for 2000 years.
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They came true down to the very nitty gritty detail.
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Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and you read Luke chapter one and chapter two and guess what?
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Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin by the name of Mary. She had never been with a man.
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And a virgin gave birth to the Messiah.
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Now you say, well, why are you making this point? Because I want you to understand, I don't want you to get all haywire when it comes to studying prophecy.
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I want you to know that prophetic truth is just as true as the truth you find in the epistles, okay? Just as true.
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God has proven himself over and over and over again.
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He knows the future.
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He knows exactly how it's going to play out.
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God's not up in heaven scratching his head wondering what to do next.
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He's got it all together.
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He's got the whole world in his hand.
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The whole world. If I could sing, I'd sing it, but I can't sing.
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All right.
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So the question is, what does God have in store for this world in our day and in the future?
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I'm gonna tell you, he communicated some stuff to Daniel
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that is as relevant as anything you've ever read in your life.
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Let's look first at the details of Daniel's vision. Look at verse one, chapter seven, verse one.
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In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon,
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Daniel saw a dream and visions. Now, understand that. In the first half of the book, it's always Nebuchadnezzar having these dreams and visions, right?
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In the second half of the book, it's Daniel having these dreams and visions.
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So in the first year, Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote the dream down and related the following summary of it. Now, if you wanna know how scripture came to be, there's a perfect example.
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God gave Daniel a dream and a vision.
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And Daniel got up out of bed and he wrote it down.
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And it's in our scripture today.
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So Daniel's first vision occurred several years before the events of chapters five and six in Daniel.
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It was the first year of Belshazzar who reigned as a co-regent with his father, Nebonotus.
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The first year of his reign, look at this, the first year of Belshazzar's reign was around 553 BC.
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Daniel would have been in his mid sixties
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and Belshazzar would have been in his mid thirties.
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The Jews were probably concerned about their future. Wouldn't you think so?
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I mean, listen, the Southern kingdom of Judah was brought wholesale as exiled into the land of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.
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Now, Jeremiah prophesied that they would be there 70 years and they'd go home, they'd go back to Israel.
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But I'm not sure many of them knew that.
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In fact, Daniel, we'll see this, Daniel began to study the book of Jeremiah and he discovered it for himself,
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that the 70 years were about up.
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They were about to go home. Can you imagine what it would have been like for the Jewish people to be living in a foreign land
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where polytheism was rampant, where they worship false gods and there,
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remember this, anytime there's prolific idolatry, there's also prolific immorality. They go together like peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I promise you.
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So the Jewish people were living in this cesspool.
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They were living at a time
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when they didn't know what was gonna happen. They didn't know if they were gonna be there the rest of their lives and die in Babylon or what?
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And I'm gonna tell you what, they needed some hope.
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They needed some hope.
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And this vision was imparted to ensure the Jewish people that they were secure,
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that God had his hand of favor on them and God had a plan.
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To give them, as Jeremiah wrote, a future and hope.
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Now, so that's the chronological part of the detail, but the symbolical part, look at verses two and three. Daniel said, "I was looking in my vision by night
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"and behold, the four winds of heaven "were stirring up the great sea." Now that symbolism, you understand that?
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The four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea
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and four great beasts were coming up from the sea different from one another.
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Now Sinclair Ferguson noted that what we have here is essentially a book of pictures,
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a book of pictures appealing to our senses. We're meant to see, hear and smell these strange beasts that appear throughout this chapter.
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We're meant to be overwhelmed as Daniel was.
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Now, what's the symbolism of the four winds of heaven and the great sea?
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Well, it's a picture of the world's condition.
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Not just in Daniel's day,
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but the world's condition as a whole.
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The great sea often referred to the Mediterranean sea, often.
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And the sea symbolized the peoples or nations of the earth. How do you know that?
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Well, look at Isaiah 57 verse 20. I mentioned a moment ago
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that the greatest commentary on scripture is scripture.
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And if you want to properly interpret things, you have to dig and you have to look at cross references. Look at Isaiah 5720.
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"But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
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"for it cannot be quiet
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"and its waters toss up refuse and mud.
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"The nations of the earth are portrayed as a great sea "of humanity in a constant state of unrest, chaos, "political strife, wars, turmoil and bloodshed." Sounds like today, doesn't it? (Congregation Laughing)
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The number four denotes the four directions of the earth and signifies that the habit created by the storm winds is universal.
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North, south, east and west is universal.
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But notice this.
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It's the four winds of heaven that's stirring up the sea.
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God is stirring up the nations.
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And I believe he's stirring up the nations today. I believe that God has allowed this chaos that we're seeing from New York City to Los Angeles to everywhere we look in the world, there is chaos. And God's stirring things up.
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Look at this, four great beasts coming up out to say, what in the world does that mean?
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What do these four animals from the sea represent? What do they symbolize?
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Well, I want you to look now. I told you that many times we find the answers to these symbols and these enigmas in the scripture that we're even looking at. Look at verse 17.
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Look at verse 15. As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me and the visions in my mind kept alarming me.
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I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So Daniel approached an angel
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and he asked the angel, what does all this mean?
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So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things.
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Now, verse 17, these great beasts, the four great beasts that he just mentioned in the earlier part of the chapter,
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these great beasts which are four in number are four kings
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who will arise from the earth. We got our answer, right?
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Now we know, now we know what the four beasts are. There are four kings that will arise from the earth.
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Verse 18, but the saints of the highest one will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever for all ages to come. Don't you know that blessed the Jewish people when they read that? (Congregation Applauding)
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Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast. Now, I'm not gonna get into all that right now because I'm coming back to, I will not finish this chapter tonight.
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I hope you didn't come expecting me to finish this old chapter, I can't do it.
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There's too much introductory material to set the plate for what we're gonna be doing from chapter seven to chapter 12.
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And so we're gonna cover,
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even if we have still a little late, we're gonna cover verses one through eight, okay?
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But I wanted you to see, this is such an important principle.
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When you read the Bible and you don't understand something, look at the cross references.
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Look at the cross references.
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Get you a little pad, write down those cross references, look them up in your Bible and begin to put two and two together, okay?
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That's a principle of interpreting the Bible.
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All right, let's go back up to where we were. So you got four great beasts coming up out of the sea. What do they represent?
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They symbolize four kings and their kingdoms that will arise from the earth.
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You realize, and you just think about this,
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through this prophecy that the living God revealed to Daniel,
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he revealed the four great world empires that would take place on this world from beginning to end.
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There's only four great world empires
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in the history of mankind.
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You got Babylon,
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you got the Medo-Persian empire,
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you got the empire of Greece,
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and you got the empire of Rome.
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So these are the four, these four beasts are symbolic of the same empires that Daniel interpreted for Nebuchadnezzar in chapter two.
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So see, I'm telling you, if you'll take your time,
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go from chapter seven to chapter two. Chapter two is very important to understand these prophecies.
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Okay?
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Now, they are the same empires represented by Nebuchadnezzar statues four parts in chapter two.
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Daniel seven has more information. It's like in Daniel two, you've got these four empires, these four kings, these four empires,
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and it's like it's filtered through so Nebuchadnezzar could understand it. But when you get to chapter seven,
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the filter's gone and you get God's perspective of these four empires, okay?
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God's perspective.
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Now, it's interesting that these kingdoms, these empires, these kings are represented by these beasts coming up out of the sea.
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You know, it's interesting that today,
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America is represented by an eagle,
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England by a lion, Russia by a bear.
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Interesting isn't it? And notice he says they're different from one another. These four kingdoms and these four kings and these four beasts, they're different from one another.
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They were different in size, power, and in many other ways.
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Now, look at the description of Daniel's vision.
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So we've laid out, we have laid out before us the great empires and kingdoms that will make up human history. (Pages Rustling)
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Now, let's look first at the Babylonian empire.
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Daniel chapter two, remember what Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar when Nebuchadnezzar said, "Look, you got to reveal to me not only the interpretation "but you gotta reveal to me the dream that I dreamed.
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"And all of Nebuchadnezzar's right hand astrologers "and soothsayers and cooks,
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"they didn't know what to do with that."
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Here's what they said to King Nebuchadnezzar. Said, "Nobody could do that."
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But Daniel could.
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Daniel got word, remember Nebuchadnezzar had put out a hit on all of the soothsayers and all the astrologers and Caledonians, killing every one of them, including Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Medigah. And Daniel got wind of it and he asked to see the king. And he went in to see the king and said, "If you'll give me just a little bit of time, "I'll give you your dream and I'll interpret it for you." And you know what Daniel did?
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Daniel got his three friends, Meshach, Meshach, Meshach, and Medigah. I prefer their Jewish names, Hananiah, Meshach, and Azariah. And he got them and they had a prayer meeting. And they began to cry out to God, "Oh God, give us the dream and the interpretation."
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And God revealed the dream and the interpretation to Daniel in the night vision.
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And Daniel went to Ariach who was over the bodyguards,
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the police force, whatever you want to call it for Nebuchadnezzar. And he went into Nebuchadnezzar and he revealed the dream and the interpretation.
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And Nebuchadnezzar was blown away.
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Absolutely blown away.
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So look at verse four. The first beast was like a lion
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and had winged the wings of an eagle. Do you realize that if you run down your cross references and you pay attention to scripture in Ezekiel and Jeremiah,
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Nebuchadnezzar and the nation of Babylon were referred to by those animals.
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By a lion and the wings of an eagle.
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And so you run it down and it sort of starts making sense. You can identify who this first beast was and what empire represented. Notice this verse four. I kept looking until its wings were plucked
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and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, but the human mind also was given to it. You say, what in the world?
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Well, if you go back to Daniel chapter four
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and you read and study Daniel chapter four,
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guess what happened to Nebuchadnezzar?
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Remember Nebuchadnezzar got the big head.
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He was so full of pride, it was oozing out of every pore of his skin.
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And he's up on the rooftop of his palace and he looks out over the kingdom that he's built and he said, look what I have done. I'm paraphrasing.
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Look what I have done.
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And a voice from heaven announces judgment on him and he's given the mind of a beast.
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And for seven years, for seven years,
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he ate grass like an animal.
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He lost his mind.
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But after the seven years, God restored him, gave him back his royal title
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and God even made him more successful than he was before.
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So when you read, its wings were plucked,
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that's when God judged him and took away a sound mind and gave him a messed up mind.
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That's when he went from eating steak to eating grass.
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And it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. That's when God restored him.
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A human mind also was given to it. That's when God restored his mind.
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See, all of that is right here in the book of Daniel.
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Now, a number of factors demonstrate
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that the lion and the eagle are apt symbols for Babylon.
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Nebuchadnezzar was symbolized as a lion and an eagle elsewhere by biblical writers in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Look at this, archeologists have discovered that statues of winged lions, which are believed to have been representative of the empire have been found in the ruins of Babylon and lions adorned the famous Ishtar gate.
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You see what I'm talking about?
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Now, the rest of the verse symbolizes how God
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brought him back from craziness, okay?
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Now the kingdom, the empire of Babylon lasted about 70 years.
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About 70 years, okay?
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And then the second beast came up. Look at chapter seven, verse five.
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And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear, and it was raised up on one side and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth. And thus they said to it, "Arise, devour, much meat."
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Now, this is the Medo-Persian empire. Now remember in chapter two, this is the exact order that the empires go, okay? First the Babylonian empire, then the Medo-Persian empire, you see the same order here in chapter seven.
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And this in the vision that Nebuchadnezzar had in Daniel chapter two, the Medo-Persian empire was the breast and arms of silver.
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Okay?
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So the bear was a symbol for the Medo-Persian empire because the Medo-Persian empire was big and they were fierce. They were fierce warriors.
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Notice it was raised up on one of its sides.
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Now here again, it's where if you use scripture to interpret scripture, look at Daniel chapter eight, verse three.
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Then I lifted my eyes and looked and behold a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal.
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Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other
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and the longer one coming up last.
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Now you say, but how do we know?
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Look at the interpretation of the vision here in verse 15 of chapter eight. When I, Daniel had seen the vision, I sought to understand it. And behold standing before me was one who looked like a man. And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of the Eli and he called out and said, Gabriel, this man, give this man an understanding of the vision. So the same angel that went to tell Mary that she's gonna have a child, even though she's a virgin
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was sent to give Daniel understanding of this vision. Same angel, look at this.
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So he came near to where I was standing. When he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. And he said to me, son of man, understand that the vision pertains, look at this, to the time of the end.
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I told you that these visions, this prophetic section, these vision, they go all the way from Daniel's day
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to the time when Christ comes
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and the kingdom is established.
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Look at verse 20. Here's what Gabriel said to him. The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the Kings of Media and Persia. There's your answer, okay?
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That's how we know.
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So it was raised up on one of its sides. Remember the vision in chapter eight, you got a ram with two horns and one of the horns is longer, more prolific than the other one, right?
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Well, remember it's the Medo-Persian Empire. So you got Media and Persian together, and the Persian Empire was stronger and more prolific and pronounced than the Empire of Media, okay?
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That makes sense?
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So again, it's a symbol. It's a picture that reveals the truth of these two nations that have come together to form this empire. Now, three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth.
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Well, this could symbolize the insatiable desire for conquest.
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Most scholars suggest that Media, Medo-Persia's three major conquests in their empire was Babylon, Lydia, and Egypt. And so that's what a lot of people believe that the three ribs represent.
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Now understand that these nations, like the Medo-Persian Empire,
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they were fierce warriors.
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Now, the Medo-Persian Empire lasted a long time. The Medo-Persian Empire lasted about 200 years. The Babylonian Empire lasted about 70 years. The Medo-Persian Empire lasted about 200 years.
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And then we come verse six. "After this, I kept looking and behold another beast
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coming up out of the same sea like a leopard
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which had on its back four wings of a bird and the beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it."
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Now following the Medo-Persian Empire, Greece dominated the world.
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Who was the leader of Greece? You remember?
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Alexander the Great.
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You read about him in your history books when you went to school, right?
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And he was prophesied about around 600 BC.
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Think about that.
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So Greece dominated the world. Two outstanding characteristics of a leopard are speed and insatiable thirst for blood.
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Look, this leopard had four wings of a bird.
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Now these wings allowed the leopard to increase the speed beyond what he already had.
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It's a fitting description because even if you study history
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and you look at the empire of Greece
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and you look at Alexander the Great,
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man, I'm telling you what, they were lightning quick conquering the world.
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Alexander the Great died at the age of 33.
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He died broken hearted, you know why?
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Because he had no other lands to conquer.
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I mean, they were like a leopard, man. They just flew through the world conquering the world.
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You see the picture here, the symbolism,
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a leopard which real fast, the wings of a bird which increases the speed.
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Alexander the Great invaded Asia Minor in 334 BC and within 10 short years, by the age of 32, he had conquered the entire Medo-Persian empire to the borders of India.
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Now the beast also had four heads.
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Now that's a weird looking beast, isn't it?
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You can see why Daniel was alarmed by these visions, right?
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So you got this leopard, this fierce leopard
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with lightning speed.
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He's got four heads.
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So Daniel prophesied that this one empire
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would ultimately evolve into four kingdoms after Alexander the Great died.
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And by the way, you can look in your history books
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and you can read about these four kingdoms
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that flowed out of Alexander's kingdom of Greece.
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Here they are, Cassander, these are generals in Alexander's army, okay? Cassander took Macedon and Greece.
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Lysimachus took Asia Minor and Trace.
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Seleucus took Syria, Upper Asia, Babylon in the East and Ptolemy took Egypt, Palestine and Arabia.
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That's how Alexander's kingdom of Greece was divided up after he died. Now remember this,
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when it was divided into four parts, it was not near as strong as it was when it was united under Alexander's, the greats great leadership, okay?
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This empire lasted about 180 years, the empire of Greece.
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And then you come to the fourth beast
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that really caused some consternation to Daniel.
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And I think if you just picture
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what I'm about to read to you in your mind, I think you can understand why he was really blown out of the water with this one.
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Daniel chapter seven, verse seven and eight.
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After this, I kept looking.
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I keep seeing that over those three words, I kept looking, I kept looking, I kept looking.
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I thought about this.
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Daniel showed some perseverance.
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I'm afraid that our span of attention is so short that we couldn't have done what Daniel did.
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He kept looking, he kept looking. You see it over and over again in chapter seven.
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After this, I kept looking in the night visions
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and behold, a fourth beast dreadful, dreadful, terrifying,
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terrifying, extremely strong.
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And it had large iron teeth.
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That'd be enough scalar, but Gibi's out of you, wouldn't it?
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Large iron teeth, it devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet.
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It was different from all the beasts that were before it.
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And it had 10 horns.
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While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one came up among them.
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And three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it. And behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boast.
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You say, what in the world?
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Well, I'm not gonna go to the end of the chapter
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because I'm gonna teach that probably next week.
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But it's all explained there at the end of the chapter, chapter seven.
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So this is the Roman Empire, the strongest, fiercest, longest lasting of all the empires, okay?
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The iron teeth symbolized strength and power.
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The beast was extremely strong.
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Rome possessed a power and longevity unlike anything the world had ever known.
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Nations were crushed under the iron boot of the Roman legions.
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Its power was virtually irresistible.
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And the extent of its influence surpassed the other three kingdoms.
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Under the rule of Rome,
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the Lord Jesus was crucified.
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And the Christian church, the early Christian church was persecuted.
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Now this kingdom was prolific for about 500 years.
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By the way, it was a divided kingdom also, a divided empire. It had an Eastern branch in Constantinople
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or Istanbul today and Rome.
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Now, the thing about the Roman Empire, it never really went away.
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It never really went away.
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Nobody defeated the Roman Empire.
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It just sort of went into hibernation.
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Now look at me, I'm telling you,
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as we get near the return of Christ, as we move into the tribulation period,
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it's coming out of hibernation.
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The revived Roman Empire. Go back to Daniel two just a minute.
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How am I doing on time?
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Ooh, I got three minutes.
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All right. All right.
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You'll notice in Daniel chapter two, verse 35.
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Did the iron, the clay, the bronze?
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No, no, no, 34, verse 34. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands and it struck the statue where? Where did it?
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On his feet.
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His feet of iron and clay crushed them. Iron and clay do not adhere to each other.
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It's brittle. So get this, Nebuchadnezzar statue
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is increasingly less valuable.
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It's increasingly less strong.
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You start with the head of gold.
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The breast and the arms of silver.
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The belly and the thighs of bronze.
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The legs of iron and the feet of iron mixed with clay.
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And where is Jesus going to start the stone? Where is he going to strike these world empire, this revived Roman empire on his feet, his toes?
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That's brittle and the whole thing is destroyed. All the empires of the world is destroyed and Jesus, the stone, has his kingdom that will last forever and ever and ever. I hope you're a part of his kingdom.
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All right, look.
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Let me see if I can finish this quickly. All right.
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It had 10 horns. Let's look at that just a moment. What do the 10 horns on the head of the beast represent? Well, horns like heads commonly symbolize kings or kingdoms in scripture. Look at Revelation 17, verse 12. Can I have a few extra minutes?
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Thank you, I was gonna take them anyway.
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(Congregation Laughing) In Revelation 17, 12, look at this.
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The 10 horns which you saw, it explains it, right?
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The 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings
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who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with a beast, that's the Antichrist for one hour.
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So we know what the 10 horns are now.
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They represent 10 kings with their own kingdoms
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under the leadership of the Antichrist. Now next week, I'm gonna teach you verse 13 and 14 about the kingdom of God. I'm gonna teach you about the Antichrist next week. I want you to be here next week, okay?
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Since the horns protrude from the fourth beast, these kings and their kingdoms must have a connection with that empire, the Revive Roman Empire.
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We may also observe that just as the beast had 10 horns, the fourth part of the statue in chapter two may be assumed to have had included 10 toes.
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Same picture, see?
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Verse eight, another horn, a little one came up among them and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it. What in the world is this little horn?
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Well, the fourth beast is symbolic of Rome, like I said,
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and this, Daniel predicts that the ruler, the little horn of this coalition will be brilliant. He'll have eyes like a man, it says right here in the scripture, eyes like a man, an arrogant, a mouth speaking, arrogant things,
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and he will conquer three kingdoms or nations that will resist him and thereby gain firm control over the whole empire.
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The picture of this evil future king in these verses concurs with the description of him found in other scripture this week in my quiet time reading through the Bible so I'm in Revelation,
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and I was reading Revelation chapter 13 of the day. If you wanna know about the Antichrist, read Revelation 13.
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It's all about the Antichrist.
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And the thing about it, don't ever forget
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what Daniel revealed to Nebuchadnezzar in his interpretation of the dream, and that is that the stone cut out without hands,
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it's Jesus,
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crushes all the whole statue, all the four empires represented by the statue
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that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream,
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and the stone develops a kingdom that will last forever and ever.
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Oh my goodness.
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Now this little horn is none other than the Antichrist.
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So next week we're gonna dive deeper, deeper into the kingdom of Jesus and the Antichrist, okay?
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So invite people to come with you.
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Let's fill this place up, okay?
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Thank you for being here tonight.
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I gave you something to think about, didn't I?
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You got the notes, go over them, let's pray.
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Heavenly Father, thank you so much.
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For men and women who care enough about learning the scripture,
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that they're willing to come and be taught and to engage their brain and their spirit and their soul. And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would bless them for doing this.
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Lord, help us to understand the spirit
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prophecy, help us to understand it and use it to encourage us in these last days. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, God bless you.