you
all right, good morning everybody, welcome to Verity Baptist Church
we'll go through a couple quick things in the bulletin
and number one, let's count up
any salvations from this past week
did anybody have any salvations to
report to me, any salvations
I know a lot of people, three, all right
anybody else, any extra
salvations, five, all right
anybody else
all right, well great work everybody
and we do have soul winning obviously this afternoon
at around 2.15 pm, also
this Friday we are having a soul winning marathon
and I'm not sure all of the locations
obviously we'll have one for those that live nearby the church
we're having one in Pampanga
but if you're a group leader
or you'd like to be of certain areas
perhaps in Bulacan, Laguna
Cavite, let me know because we can give you
money to provide for the events, you can do soul
winning in that area, eat lunch together, make it
a time of fellowship and everything, so just
let me know after the service and
this Friday, because it is people
power anniversary from the Edsa Revolution or whatever
and so hey, whether you're voting for
Marcos or not or whatever, because
you know, we're doing soul winning on
Friday, I don't care what your political opinions are, right
but anyways, why about Brother Raffi lead us in another song
sing
so
amen, first scripture reading, please open
your Bibles to the book of Daniel
Daniel chapter 2
second
chapter of the book of Daniel
Daniel chapter 2
and we will
be reading the entire chapter as our
custom
Daniel chapter 2
please say
amen if you're there
amen
Daniel chapter 2 verse 1
and in the second year of the reign of the
Bukat Nizar, the Bukat Nizar dreamed
dreams for which the spirit was
troubled and his sleep breathed from
him. Then the king commanded
to call the magicians and the astrologers and
the sorcerers and the Chaldeans for to show
the king his dreams. So they
came and stood before the king
and the king said unto them, I have
dreamed a dream and my spirit was
troubled to know the dream. Then
spake the Chaldeans to the king and say,
O king, live forever
tell thy servants a dream and we will
show the interpretation.
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, the thing
is gone from me. If you will not
make known unto me the dream with the
interpretation thereof, ye shall
be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made of
dung hill. But if you show the
dream and the interpretation thereof,
you shall receive the gifts and rewards
in great honor. Therefore show
me the dream and the interpretation thereof.
They answered again and said,
Let the king tell his servants a dream
and we will show the interpretation of it.
The king answered and said,
I know certainty that you would gain
the time because you see the thing is
gone from me. But if you will not
make known unto me the dream, there is
but one decree for you. For you
have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before
me till the time you changed.
Therefore tell me the dream and I shall
know that you can show me the interpretation
thereof. The Chaldeans
answered before the king and said,
There is not a man upon the earth that can show the
king's matter. Therefore there is
no king, lord nor ruler
that ask it such things that any magician
or astrologer are Chaldeans.
And it is a rare thing that the king required.
And there is none other that can show
it before the king except the gods
whose dwelling is not with the flesh.
For this cause the king
was angry and very furious and commanded
to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
And a decree went forth that the
wise men should be slain and they sought
Daniel and his fellows to be slain.
Then Daniel answered with counsel
and wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's
guard who had just gone forth to
slay the wise men of Babylon.
He answered and said to Arioch the king's
captain, Why is the
decree so hasty from the king?
Then Arioch made the thing known
to Daniel. Then Daniel
went in and desired of the king that he would
give him time and that he would show
the king the interpretation.
Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known
to Ananias, Michel and his Arias companions.
That they would desire mercies of the god of heaven
concerning the secret
that Daniel and his fellows should not perish
with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Then was a secret revealed
unto Daniel in a night vision.
Then Daniel blessed the god of heaven.
Daniel answered and said,
Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
for wisdom and might are his.
And he changed the times and the seasons
to remove the kings and set up kings.
He giveth wisdom unto the wise
and knowledge to them that no understanding.
He revealeth the deep and secret things,
he knoweth what is in the darkness,
and the light dwelleth with him.
I thank thee and praise thee,
O thou god of my fathers,
who has given me wisdom and might,
and has made known unto me now what you desire
to be, for thou is now made known
unto us a king's matter.
Therefore Daniel went in unto
Arioch, whom the king
had ordained to destroy the wise men
of Babylon.
He went and said thus unto him,
Destroy not the wise men of Babylon,
bring me in before the king, and I will show
unto the king the interpretation.
Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king
in haste, and said thus unto him,
I have found a man of the captives of Judah
that will make known unto the king the interpretation.
The king answered and said to Daniel,
Whose name was Boteh Shazer?
Are thou able to make known unto me the dream
which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?
Daniel answered in the presence of the king
and said, The secret which the king
hath demanded of the king,
The secret which the king hath demanded
cannot the wise men, the astrologers,
the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king.
But there is a god in heaven,
to reveal its secrets, and make
it known to the king that the god is our
what shall be in the latter days.
Thy dream and the visions of thy head
upon thy bed are these.
As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came
into thy mind upon thy bed.
What should come to pass your rapture?
And he that reveals its secrets, make it known
to thee what shall come to pass.
As for me, the secret is not revealed to me
for any wisdom that I have more than any
living, but for their sakes that shall
make known the interpretation to the king,
and that thou mightest know the thoughts
of thy heart. Thou, O king,
sawest and behold a great image.
This great image, whose brightest was
excellent, stood before thee, and the form
thereof was terrible. This image's
head was of fine gold, his breast and
his arms of silver, his belly and his
thighs of brass, his legs of iron,
his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Thou sawest so that a stone was cut up
without hands, which smote the image
upon its feet that were of iron and clay,
and break them to pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass,
the silver, and the gold broke into pieces
together, and became like the shaft of the
summer threshing floors, and the wind
carried them away.
That no place was found for them, and the
stone that smote the image became a great
mountain, and filled the whole earth.
This is the dream, and we will tell the
interpretation thereof before the king.
Thou, O king, are the king of kings,
for the god of heaven hath given thee a
kingdom, power and strength and glory.
And wheresoever the children of men
dwell, the beasts of the field and the
fowls of the heaven hath given into thine
hand hath made a ruler over them all.
Thou art this head of gold.
And after thee shall rise another
kingdom inferior to thee, and
another third kingdom of brass which
shall bear rule over all the earth.
And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as
iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces
of all things, and as iron that breaketh
all these shall break in pieces and bruise.
And whereas thou sawest the feet and
toes part of potter's clay and part of
iron, the kingdom shall be divided,
but there shall be in it of the strength
of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest
the iron mixed with my clay.
And as the toes of the feet were part of
iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom
shall be partly strong and partly broken.
And whereas thou sawest iron mixed
with my clay, they shall mingle
themselves with the seed of men, but they
shall not leave one to another, even
as iron is not mixed with clay.
And in the days of these kings shall the
God of heaven set up a kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed.
And the kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the
stone was cut out of the mountains
without hands, and that it break
in pieces the iron, the brass, and the clay,
the silver, and the gold, the great
God hath made known to the king what shall come to
the past hereafter, and the dream is
certain, and the interpretation there
up-shore. Then the king
the bukkadnazar fell upon his face and worshipped
Daniel, and commanded that they should
offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
The king answered unto Daniel, and said,
What truth it is, that your
God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings,
and a revealer of secrets, seeing
thou couldest reveal this secret.
Then the king made Daniel a great man, and
gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler
over the whole province of Babylon, and chief
of the governors over all the wise men of
Babylon. Then Daniel requested
of the king, and he sat Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego over the
appearance of the province of Babylon, but
Daniel sat in the gate of the king.
Blessed be God's word, let us pray.
Lord God, in having we thank the Lord for the
state that you've given to us, I pray that you would bless
the Lord for this day, give us good weather for our soul,
winning and fellowship later on, and I pray that you
would also bless the preacher and the preaching of your
word, Lord, this day. We love you, Jesus, and we pray.
Amen.
Alright, we're here in
Daniel chapter 2. We're going to be finishing up
Daniel 2, and if you remember last week,
I talked about how to learn the deep
and secret things of God, and
the sermon here today, it's like
I'm going to try to make it as simple as possible.
It's deep.
It's complicated. Quite honestly,
there's going to be a lot of information that, you know, you maybe
have never heard. I'd recommend taking notes and
everything, because I'm going to kind of quickly fly
through it and show you a lot of Bible throughout the book of Daniel,
but even though Daniel gives the
interpretation, it's still deep even
after the interpretation, okay?
There's a lot of chapters within Daniel that speak
more about this, a lot of symbolism
and everything like that, so we're going to look at the image
of Nebuchadnezzar here today, so
verse number 31, the Bible reads,
Thou, O king, sawest and behold a
great image. This great image
whose brightness was excellent stood before thee,
and the form thereof was terrible.
So, when the Bible just says
great image, that doesn't mean
it's great as in it's like a good thing
or a beautiful, it just means like it's
powerful, it's big or whatever.
You know, great means more of like
power, okay? And you see this image
and it's a powerful image, the brightness
is excellent, and it says the form
thereof was terrible. Now, the word
terrible in the Bible doesn't
mean like bad, like we would
think in our modern day. The Bible says
God's a terrible God.
Of course, God's not a bad God, right?
But terrible
means striking
terror or fear
within someone. So if the image
is terrible, you look at it, it's
like whoa, and terror
or fear comes upon you, because remember
Nebuchadnezzar has a nightmare because of this
great image, this powerful,
magnificent, bright image
and he's afraid, he has a nightmare,
okay? And it says
this image's head was of fine gold,
his breast and his
arms of silver, his belly
and his thighs of brass,
his legs of iron, his feet
part of iron and part of clay. Now,
in verse number 32, you see it says
his thighs of brass, the next verse is
legs of iron. In our modern day, if
we say leg, we oftentimes mean
all the way down from the foot to the
waist. Biblically speaking, though, your leg
is actually below your knee, and your thigh
is a distinction from your leg. So when it
says leg, this part
and then the thigh, this part, that's why the thigh is
brass and then the leg itself was
iron, it said. And
so there's this distinction being made there.
Then verse 34, thou saw'st till that
a stone was cut out without hands, which
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron
and clay, and break them to pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass,
the silver and the gold, broken to pieces together
and become like the chaff of the summer
threshing floors. And the wind carried
them away that no place was found for them,
and the stone smote the image
and the stone that smote
the image became a
great mountain and filled the whole earth.
So this is the dream.
This is the image that's seen.
Now let's see what is the interpretation
of this. This is the dream
and we'll tell the interpretation thereof
before the king.
One thing to keep in mind is Daniel's
giving an interpretation of this.
Honestly, we can understand this better
than Daniel could, though. Because
modern day stuff, historically,
all these things that have taken place, it actually
sheds light on what Daniel's talking about.
Daniel himself, many times in the
book of Daniel, doesn't really know
everything, right? He
writes certain things and he asks God,
can you help me understand this? I don't
understand it. And then particularly one
time, God said, just seal it up.
It's reserved, basically, for
those that live during the end. We can actually
understand these things better today
than Daniel could himself, because
we look back and we see the pieces
fitting together, whereas Daniel
is preaching about something happening in the future.
You don't necessarily know everything that's
going to take place, okay?
Verse 37,
Thou, O king, art a king of kings,
for the God of heaven hath given thee a
kingdom, power and strength and glory.
And wheresoever the children of men dwell,
the beast of the field and the fowls of the heaven
hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee
ruler over them all, thou art this head of gold.
So the first that
he sees, this head of gold,
that is Nebuchadnezzar, that's the
Babylonian empire. Wherever the animals
are, wherever the birds are,
you control everything.
Basically, Nebuchadnezzar is the ruler
of the world, pretty much,
right? He is by far the most
powerful man in the world,
the Bible's saying. That's very easy
to understand, because Daniel specifically
says, thou art this head
of gold. I don't know how you could misinterpret that,
right? Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian
empire, that's the head of gold,
okay? Then it says
this, and after these shall arise
another kingdom inferior to thee,
and another third kingdom of brass which shall
bear rule over all the earth, and the fourth
kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as
much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueeth
all things, and as iron that breaketh all
these shall it break in pieces and bruise.
So the first kingdom is very obvious.
What we've got to find out is what's the second
kingdom, what's the third kingdom,
and what's the fourth kingdom?
Now here's the thing. If all we had
was Daniel 2 to figure this out,
we wouldn't be able to figure it out.
It doesn't explicitly
tell us. It gives us information
that the second kingdom is going to be
less strong or inferior,
but it doesn't really tell us who the second
kingdom is in Daniel 2 by itself.
Yet this image is repeated
in kind of a different way in the book of
Daniel. Go to Daniel chapter 7,
Daniel 7.
The Bible speaks about rightly dividing
the word of God, and sometimes
people will say, well, you can't just take a verse
by itself and just interpret
it and form your doctrine, which I mean
I agree with. One verse can be taken
out of context. You've got to look at
the passage. You've got to look at the whole
chapter, but one thing people forget is
you don't have to just focus on one
chapter.
Other parts of the Bible
shed light on that chapter
as well. Daniel 2 by
itself, we would not be able to preach
all the things that you're going to hear today.
However, Daniel 7 sheds light on
Daniel 2, and the Bible says comparing
spiritual things with spiritual. So if
you don't understand something in the Bible,
sometimes the answer is in another part of the Bible.
I mean, haven't you come across verses
before and you don't understand what it's
talking about? And then another part of the
Bible, it's just like, oh, okay,
makes perfect sense.
But other parts of the Bible shed more
light on some of the darker things, and
Daniel 2 by itself, it doesn't tell us
everything. Daniel 7
verse 3,
and four great beasts came up from
the sea, diverse one from another.
So notice it says four great beasts.
Remember the image had four parts
that it mentioned, right? So this
image here, these beasts, there's
four different ones. I believe
Daniel 2 and Daniel 7
are parallel, and basically
the same beasts that are mentioned in
Daniel 7 is going to fit with the
image, okay? Verse
number 4, the first was
like a lion and had eagle's wings.
Here's the thing. If I'm correct
on this, then Daniel 7
verse 4 must be talking about who?
Nebuchadnezzar.
Because Nebuchadnezzar is that head
of gold, right?
So let's look at verse 4 of Daniel 7.
Does this fit with King Nebuchadnezzar?
Well, the first was like a lion.
Well, I mean, a lion's the king of the jungle.
Most powerful, right? That's the
terminology the Bible gives for it.
That makes a lot of sense. And it said
it had eagle's wings. You say, what's
significant about eagle's wings? Well,
I mean, we haven't gotten there yet in the Book of Daniel,
but in Daniel 4,
Nebuchadnezzar is basically given the mind
of a beast or of an animal,
and basically he's acting
like a crazy person, and
he's eating grass like an ox,
and it says his nails were
growing and his hair like eagle's
feathers. It specifically mentions
eagle in Daniel 4.
Is it a shock that it mentions
eagle in Daniel 7 verse
4, and also in chapter 4
mentions eagle. And so it says
the first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.
That fits with Nebuchadnezzar.
I beheld till the wings
thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from
the earth and made stand upon
the feet as a man. Well, why would you have
to stand up as a man? Because
a beast's heart was given on to Nebuchadnezzar,
and he was acting like an
animal, right? I mean, if you read Daniel
chapter 4 before, Nebuchadnezzar
acts like an animal, okay?
We're not going to look at that for sake of time,
but basically the Bible says a beast's
heart was given on to him. And when it speaks
of heart, it's not specifically
saying the organ, but basically the mind.
He was acting as an animal,
eating like an animal. I mean,
he wasn't, you know, cutting his nails.
They were growing like birds' claws
and eagle's feathers, and
it's like his hair was growing and everything
like that. And he was acting like an animal,
and here it says in Daniel 7 verse 4,
and made stand upon the feet
as a man, and a man's heart was
given to it. Why is
a man's heart given to it? Because he was acting
like an animal before that, right? I mean,
so there's no question Daniel
7 verse 4 fits
with Nebuchadnezzar. It mentions
eagle. It mentions a man's heart's given
on to it. So with the images
in Daniel 2, the
first one is Nebuchadnezzar.
No question about it. You'd
have to be blind to read Daniel
7 verses 3 and 4 and say it
doesn't fit with Nebuchadnezzar as well. It's
obvious it fits with Nebuchadnezzar.
Now, why are we looking at this? Because we're
using Daniel 7 to shed light on
Daniel chapter 2, okay?
Now,
that's the first kingdom. The
question is, what's the second kingdom?
What it said about the
second kingdom is his breast
and his arms of
silver, okay?
Go to Daniel chapter 8.
Daniel 8.
We'll look at
Daniel 8 chapter 1 because Daniel 8 just
clearly tells us
who it is. And
there's not a huge amount of
dispute about these four different ones,
but I have read things online where they try
to put in like Great Britain and other
empires that have existed into this
listing. It's obvious
what the four are, and we're going to see that
here today, okay?
Daniel 8 verse 20,
and it says this,
the ram which thou sawest having two
horns are the kings
of Media and Persia,
okay? Now, remember in the image
it said his breast and his arms of
silver. Well, we have two arms,
and why that's significant is the
fact that the Medo-Persian
empire was a dual monarchy,
meaning that there was two parts to that empire.
They had joined together. Now, one
side, the Persians were stronger than the
Medes, but they had jointly ruled together
to take power, and this is just historically
known. Everybody knows that, that they were
a dual monarchy, okay?
What it said in Daniel 8 verse 20
is that these two horns mentioned in Daniel
8 are the kings of Media and Persia,
and what we see in the book of Daniel
is that the Medes and the Persians
take over for the
Babylonians, right? When
we get to Daniel 5 in the Bible,
you have Belshazzar and the writing on the wall,
then you get to Daniel chapter 6,
and who's the king? Darius
the Mede, right?
The Medes and the Persians take over
in the book of Daniel. It's very obvious.
Well, the Bible tells us in Daniel 8
verse 20 that this ram with two horns,
it's the kings of Media
and Persia, okay?
Go to Daniel 8 verse 3.
Daniel 8 verse 3.
Now, look, I'm
showing you a lot of deep things here today,
and look, I don't have time to do a 10-hour
seminar to prove beyond
a shadow of a doubt. I mean, I'm saying certain things.
I hope we're going to go home and double-check.
Read those chapters.
Now, you're not going to understand everything, but
I think these four are very obvious
because if you read the book of
Daniel and studied it, it directly
mentions these four, okay?
First are the Babylonians.
Next are the Medes and Persians as a dual
monarchy. This is the second.
Daniel 8 verse 3.
Then I lifted up mine eyes
and saw and behold there stood before the river
a ram which had two horns.
Now, remember, the ram with the two horns are the kings
of Media and Persia.
So if I'm correct on this,
Daniel 8 verse 3 should describe
the Medo-Persian empire
because that's what it's referring to according to
Daniel 8 verse 20.
Here's what it says, and the two horns were high.
Two different horns.
The Medes and the Persians.
But notice this.
But one was higher than the other.
What's that signifying?
One of those empires
or one of those of the Medes and Persians
was stronger or better
or more powerful or higher
than the other.
So you have to look at it and see
well, is that true?
Are they equally the same
or was one bigger than the other one?
Right? Just using a secular example
for those that know basketball.
You go back to the 90s in basketball
and you had the Chicago Bulls.
Well, Michael Jordan was clearly the best player
for the Bulls, right?
And then Scottie Pippen was number two
by everybody's standards.
No question about who was number one, who was number two.
But then you get to the Lakers
like ten years later
with Kobe and Shaq, it's more like
it's a debate people have.
Right?
With the Bulls, there's no question.
What's the same with the Medes and Persians?
When it comes to the Medes and Persians,
Persia was the Michael Jordan, okay?
The Medes were the Scottie Pippen, okay?
Persia was more powerful
and any reading or any understanding
of secular history, you know that
King Cyrus the Great and Xerxes,
these are very famous kings.
Now, when we read the Bible,
you might think of Darius the Me
being really famous, but actually,
he's not that famous in history.
There's actually a Darius in Persia
that was very famous, though.
One of the most famous kings that ever existed.
You can look online, 25 most famous kings.
You're going to see Cyrus.
You're probably going to see Darius as well
or at least in the top 50.
But with the Medes, they're not as powerful.
They were powerful, but they're more like
Scottie Pippen, right?
Using a secular example.
So it says one was higher than the other.
Is that true with the Medes and Persians?
It's absolutely true, but it also says
the higher came up last.
Well, what does that mean,
the higher came up last?
What it means is, though Persians
were more powerful than the Medes,
the Medes started earlier
because the higher came up last.
It would be like two trees.
This one starts growing, but the other one
just shoots by it.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
That's what it's saying in Daniel 8, verse 3.
So according to this, if I'm correct,
and this is the Medes and Persians,
the Medes started first, and yet the Persians
outgrew and became more powerful
than the Medes.
Does that fit with secular history?
Here's what it says from this article.
They're credited with founding Iran
as a nation and empire, and established
the first Iranian empire, the largest
of its day, until
Cyrus the Great established
a unified empire of the Medes and Persians,
leading to the Achaemen Empire.
Basically, in secular history, you see
that King Cyrus basically conquered
the Medes, but he actually chose to make
it a dual monarchy rather than just
a solo rule.
He decided that was the wise thing to do.
So what you see is,
according to this article, the Persians
came up last, but they became
more powerful than
the Medes.
Turn your Bible to Daniel 7.
Daniel 7.
When I was a kid, I hated history.
I thought it was the most boring
thing, but I'll be honest, I find
Bible history very interesting, because
it's actually applicable.
When you take a
class in school, sometimes you're
like, what's the purpose of memorizing
this date? I mean, is it really going to
change my life if I memorize what
date this took place or something like that?
And yet, with Bible history, though,
it's actually very applicable when you believe the Bible.
It's written in the Bible. It makes it very interesting.
It's the same reason why a lot of people
hate math classes. They're like,
when am I ever going to use calculus in real life?
And that's largely true.
I don't really use calculus
in real life either, even though I was
a math teacher, right? But with
history, I always found history very boring,
and yet I don't find this boring at all
because it actually applies to
something that actually matters.
Daniel 7, verse 5.
And behold, another beast
because remember, Daniel 7 is the parallel
to Daniel 2. And behold, another
beast a second like to a bear.
So this second one should be the
Medes and Persians if my interpretation
is correct.
A second like to a bear, and it
raised up itself
on one side. It had three ribs in the
mouth of it between the teeth of it, and they said
thus unto it, Arise,
devour much flesh. There's not a lot
of information here in verse 5. When we
get to Daniel 7, we will spend more
time on it. But it does say
it raised itself up on one side.
Isn't that kind of similar to
one horn was higher than the other?
What it's signifying is one side
was stronger than the other. And is
that true with the Medes and Persians?
That's what we see in the Bible, right?
That's what you see in secular history.
Okay? Of course, we have to
be careful with secular history because
it can be wrong. At the same
time, it actually sheds a lot of light on what
we're talking about here today.
Go back to Daniel 2.
Daniel 2.
And so we also see this with
the Medo-Persian Empire.
The Medo-Persian Empire
took over for the Babylonian
Empire. In the Book of Daniel, we see that.
Right? They are the ones
that conquered Babylon, and
they took over, and Babylon was
the most powerful empire. Then
the Medo-Persian Empire were basically the rulers
of the world. King Cyrus was essentially
the ruler of the world
long after Nebuchadnezzar passed away
once they took over.
Daniel 2, verse 39.
And it says in Daniel 2, verse 39,
in another third
kingdom of brass, so we get to the third
kingdom, in another third kingdom of brass,
which shall bear rule over
all the earth. Okay?
What we're seeing is this.
Babylon was more powerful than the Medes
and Persians, and yet
both of them ruled the world.
This third kingdom also rules
the world as well. They rule over
all the earth. What we're looking at are
world empires that have existed. Okay?
And so who is this third kingdom
of brass? We'll go back to
Daniel 7. Daniel 7.
Daniel 7.
Look, some things in the Bible are just
deep things. You know, I try to
make it as simple as possible, but this
is something. I've heard sermons about it.
I've studied it out. You know,
you've got to just take the time to fully grasp
this stuff, and what my hope is
is that, you know what? You keep
this in mind. You take notes. You go home.
You double check things. Or maybe you
re-listen to the sermon, and then the next
time you're reading it, you catch more, and
the things are fitting together. Okay?
But it's just a deep sermon.
We talked about last week how
to learn the deep things of God.
I personally am glad that the Bible
is not just all surface level.
Where basically you understand everything
after one time reading. Because
what's the point of continuing to read if you already understand
everything? The good news
is we don't understand everything.
I mean, I'm giving you highlights from the Book of Daniel.
I'll be honest with you. There's parts
of Daniel I don't understand.
Now, I hope to understand it before I preach
it to you, but there's some parts where I'm like,
I don't understand the symbolism that's being mentioned.
Right? Maybe I just have an ignorance
in some of the world history or something.
There are deep things in the Book of Daniel.
That's just the way it is. Okay?
Daniel 7, verse 6.
So we're looking at the third beast,
and this should line up with the third
kingdom of brass. It should bear
rule over all the earth. Daniel 7, verse 6.
After this I beheld and lo,
another like a leopard, which had upon the back
of it four wings of a fowl.
The beast had also four heads,
and dominion was given to it.
Okay? Now, Daniel 7,
6 in and of itself doesn't really give
us all the details of what this empire
is. It is significant. It mentions
four because what we'll see is this empire
later on in the Book of Daniel we'll see
when it broke apart it fell into four
different, you know, rules
instead of one empire ruling the world.
But go to Daniel 8, and
we'll see exactly who this is
referring to.
Daniel 8, verse 20.
And look, when Daniel's writing
this, this is prophesying
about the future.
It's predicting the future, and it's amazing
how it just lines up history
with what the Bible says.
Daniel 8, verse 20.
The ram which thou sawest having two horns
are the kings of Media in Persia.
So this is the second empire.
Verse 3.
And the rough goat is the king
of Grecia, and the great horn
that is between his eyes is the first king.
Now, the king of Grecia here
mentioned in Daniel 8, verse 21,
you can see from this chapter
it takes over for this ram
with two horns.
So the question is, was there
a king of Grecia that
took over for the Persians and the Medes?
Now, Grecia,
Greece.
The Macedonian Empire,
or just say Greece is a simple way,
technically the Macedonian Empire,
but the king of Grecia.
So is there a famous king from Greece
that took over for the Persians?
I mean, I'm sure everybody's probably heard
of Alexander the Great.
They make a lot of movies and TV shows
about Alexander the Great.
I mean, he is mentioned
as this rough goat that's going to take over.
Right?
And in secular history, I mean, they take over
for the Persians.
They burn down Persepolis, which is the chief city
of the Persians and everything like that.
This happened in history.
Alexander the Great.
Go to Daniel chapter 2.
Daniel chapter 2.
Now, look,
when I say Alexander the Great
and Cyrus the Great,
I'm not saying that they're great.
Because the Bible calls God the great God.
And God is the great king.
I don't believe the Bible ever mentions
any man-made king as being great.
Now, they're powerful,
but it's really a term more so for God.
But technically speaking,
Alexander the Great's the term people give,
and if I just said Alexander,
I mean, you might think it would be like the Alex
from our church or whatever.
It's like, Alexander the Great,
the king of Greece, okay?
Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great,
and so it mentions the first kingdom.
We see the Babylonians very clearly.
The second kingdom that's mentioned
is the Medo-Persian Empire.
It fits with Daniel 2 and Daniel 7
and also Daniel 8.
And then the third one is the king of Grecia.
It's the empire of...
the Macedonian Empire
with Alexander the Great,
and the Greeks took over for the Persians.
So what we see in secular history
is the Medo-Persian Empire
takes over for Babylon.
The Grecian Empire,
the Macedonian Empire,
takes over for the Medes and Persians, right?
Just basic historical fact.
Well, when we're looking at this fourth kingdom,
logic would probably tell me
that whoever the fourth kingdom is
took over for the Grecian Empire.
Doesn't that make sense?
If the second takes over for the first
and the third takes over for the second,
common sense would say
the fourth probably takes over for the third, right?
Notice what it says in
Daniel 2, verse 40.
And we're gonna spend more time on the fourth kingdom
just because the Bible spends more time on it.
Daniel 2, verse 40.
And the fourth kingdom
shall be strong as iron,
for as much as iron breaketh in pieces
and so doeth all things,
and as iron that breaketh all these
shall it break in pieces and bruise.
So, secular history will tell you
that the Medo-Persian Empire
takes over for Babylon,
mentioned in the Bible.
Secular history also says
the Grecian Empire takes over
for the Medo-Persian Empire,
also mentioned in the Bible.
Now, the fourth empire is not
directly mentioned
by name, but it's obvious
when you look at all the information
who it's talking about.
Who's the empire that took over
for the Grecian Empire in secular history
that became the next dominant ruler
after all the dominoes fell?
Because the Grecian Empire falls into four parts,
and eventually one big empire
takes over, which is the same empire
that existed and ruled the world
at the time of Jesus Christ.
Who is that? Roman Empire.
They are the ones that took over
and both history and the Bible
confirm this to be true.
So I would say this, the fourth empire
is the Roman Empire.
Does this fit the description
of the Roman Empire?
What says at the end of Daniel 2, verse 40
shall it break in pieces
and bruise? So what does that mean?
Okay. Well, you know, empires
have been different in time periods.
There's a lot of similarities, but there's also differences.
You look at the Persian Empire,
and we see this in the Bible itself,
but also in secular history
with modern archaeology has confirmed this,
that the Persian Empire
was a very benevolent
and long-suffering
empire.
Meaning, they're actually pretty nice.
King Cyrus? Not a bad guy.
Right? When you read the Bible,
King Cyrus is not a bad guy.
Quite honestly, I mean, if you were here
for the Esler series, I think I'd prove
beyond a shadow of a doubt,
Ahasuerus is not a bad guy.
Who we know nowadays as Xerxes.
Now, I know if you've seen the movie 300,
which I definitely would not recommend,
I mean, Xerxes is like some
weird, creepy
looking guy, like, you know, just
this bald guy. I mean, it's like
he's half man, half woman or something
like that, and he's like this really evil
character or something.
It's like, that's not what I read in the book of
Esther. I actually see a king
that wasn't really that bad.
Right? And so the Persian Empire,
at least when they started, they were pretty
long-suffering, pretty nice, pretty good,
not so evil.
Now, eventually, obviously, they become bad,
which is why I believe they got taken over,
but they're very benevolent. Well, is that
true with the Roman Empire?
No. The Roman Empire
is known historically for being a very
violent empire.
They killed and tortured
a lot of pieces. Well, it kind of
makes sense when it says, shall it break in
pieces and bruise
because they destroyed a lot of people,
they killed a lot of people,
and look, let me help you out.
The Roman Catholic Church is
just coming from that Roman Empire.
It's just time goes by, but look,
the Roman Catholic Church was
a political slash
religious empire.
It wasn't just a church. It was a
political empire. You look at history
at the Popes, these people ruled
the world. They were powerful.
It's not like in our modern day
where Pope Francis, I mean, he's
powerful religiously, but in the
past, they were powerful politically as well.
Go to
Daniel 9.
And we'll go back in a little bit to
Daniel 2, but I'm just going to show you that if you
look at the Bible itself, it doesn't directly
mention the Roman Empire. I think it's
pretty obvious that it's referring to the Roman Empire.
Number one, the Roman Empire
was the next world ruler after the
Grecian Empire, so it just makes
common sense there. They were
very violent. Shall it break in pieces
and bruise? That fits.
Daniel 9, verse 25.
Know therefore and understand that from
the going forth of the commandment to restore and
to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince
shall be seven weeks
and threescore in two weeks the streets
shall be built again and the wall even in
trebleth times. So during the end
times, there's an event known as Daniel's
70th week, right? People have probably
heard that terminology. Where does that come
from? Well, it comes from here.
There's 70 weeks mentioned, but these
70 weeks are not just in a row
because you're seeing here in Daniel 9
the Bible's making a distinction. It
mentions seven weeks. It mentions
threescore in two, which is 62.
That leaves you one
week, which we know is
Daniel's 70th week, and look,
when we get to Daniel 9, I'll explain
these verses in more depth, but this
is where we get Daniel's 70th week,
which is that seven-year period
during the end times that we talk about,
okay? Verse
number 26, and after
threescore in two weeks shall Messiah
be cut off. Now, what
does it mean in the Bible to be cut off?
To be killed?
And so it's speaking about Jesus
Christ the Messiah being cut off,
right? And notice this,
but not for himself.
Now, when Jesus died,
did he die for himself?
No. He died
for us, right? So it's making
mention of, look, throughout the Old Testament
you're seeing symbolism being mentioned
of Jesus Christ. I mean, it all fits together.
It's like a puzzle, but if
you're just reading Daniel 9 by itself, you're not
going to understand everything. Once you see
the Gospels and Jesus Christ, it's like,
okay, that makes perfect sense, right?
He died, but not for himself.
Then it says this,
and the people of the prince that shall come
shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary. So when was it that
Jerusalem was destroyed? Well, it's known
that it happened at 70 AD,
and who's the one who destroyed them?
Rome destroyed them.
Now, the Jews are directly mentioned for
killing Christ, although the Romans definitely
had a part with that. But when it
comes to destroying the city, you're looking at Rome
destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD.
And look, during that time period,
a lot of people thought that the Roman empires
were the Antichrist
because they were very violent.
I mean, they're torturing, they're
killing, and for a thousand
plus years it still happened.
Even several hundred years ago, the Roman Catholic
Church was still torturing people.
You got baptized as a believer,
they would murder you, they would
kill you, because it wasn't just a
religious empire, it was a political
empire, and when a
religion runs a country,
if you disagree with the religion, you get put
to death. That's the way it works.
And it says, and the people of the prince
that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary,
and the end thereof shall be with a flood,
and unto the end of the war desolations are
determined. Now go back to Daniel 2.
Daniel 2.
Now look, if
this is the first time you're hearing
all of this information, it might feel like a bit
of overload. And I'll be honest,
if this is the first time you're hearing this information,
you shouldn't just take for granted what I'm
saying. Because
honestly, when I'm explaining this,
I believe with all my heart I'm correct in what I'm
saying. However, if this was the first
time I was hearing it, I would be like, I need to
double check this stuff, right? How do I know
that everything he's saying is correct? Because it all
sounds good, but that doesn't mean it's
necessarily correct. You should go home and study
this. We're going through the Book of Daniel for
a long time. I mean, hopefully you're reading this,
and you're going to see that this is what
the Bible's talking about. I never
want you to just take my word for things.
I want you to know your Bibles for yourself.
Daniel 2,
verse 41.
And so as I said, we're talking about the Roman
Empire, and notice what it says in Daniel 2, verse 41.
And whereas thou sawest the
feet and toes, part of potter's
clay and part of iron,
the kingdom shall be divided.
So according to
verse 41, if
this is the Roman Empire that it's
referring to, this
kingdom was
divided, right? Because
Daniel's preaching about the future shall
be in the future. We're looking
back. Was the Roman
Empire divided?
Well, the answer to that would be yes.
It was divided into the western
and the eastern portion,
right? Now, the western
empire fell in AD
395, so like
1600, 1700 years ago,
right? 1600 years ago, a long time ago.
But the eastern
part stood until
1453 AD,
which is less than 600
years ago when it fell to the Ottoman Empire.
When you're looking at the eastern part, it's
known as the Byzantine Empire, centered
at Constantinople.
Pretty famous historical events, right?
So was the Roman Empire divided
according to secular history? Yes,
it was. It was divided with
the western and eastern
portion. Now, of course,
when you're looking at stuff in the Bible and
its symbolism, something
might seem to fit, but you've got to double-check
these things, because it might sound good,
but it doesn't necessarily mean it's true. As
I said, go home and double-check this. But the kingdom
was divided.
But there shall be in it of the strength of iron
for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with
miry clay. And so what it says is the kingdom's
divided, yet there's still
strength in that kingdom. And, well, that's true
because the eastern portion
was very strong and powerful and lasted
for a long time. The western
portion, it just kind of fizzled out,
right? So it's partly strong,
partly broken,
right? Part of iron,
part of clay.
I mean, it fits, doesn't it? Right? That's what we're
seeing here, okay?
Now, I do want you to realize
this, though. I believe more time
is spent on the Roman Empire because what
we see is actually a dual
prophecy, okay?
And look, what a dual prophecy
is, is basically when
the Bible speaks about something, and it
maybe has a direct application,
but you can apply certain things
to other events as well.
For example, the book of Joel
talks about the day of the Lord.
Now, is the book of Joel
really talking about the end
times day of the Lord? Well,
sort of.
It's a secondary application because it's
a dual prophecy, but the primary application
is actually the people that were living during that time period,
right? It's known as a dual
prophecy. There's many things in the Bible
where there's a direct application,
but there's also symbolism to another
event. This is not the only time
the Bible does this with the Roman Empire.
Now, in the Bible, you've
got Revelation 17
and Revelation 18 that talk
about the great whore of Babylon,
the mother of harlots,
right? Now, look, this is deep
stuff, right? Those are probably two of the most
confusing chapters in the book of Revelation.
Now, let me say this, that, you
know, when you're reading through Revelation 17 and 18,
I believe with all my heart, Revelation
17 is the Roman Empire,
the Roman Catholic Church, no
question about that. Revelation
18 is not, right?
You say, why would it jump around? Well, I mean,
the same reason why in Daniel
you've got the Roman Empire, but we're gonna see this
actually applies to the end times as well.
The reason why we know Revelation 17
is the Roman Empire is because
of the fact it uses present tense
to describe the
sixth of the world empires.
Now, in this image of Nebuchadnezzar,
Babylon is the first,
but not really, because when you look at the
whole Bible, there was two other empires
that existed before
the Babylonian Empire. In the dream
of Nebuchadnezzar, he's that head of gold,
but the question is, are there two major
empires that existed
before Babylon? Well, the answer
is yes, Egypt and Assyria.
No question when you
read your Bible, it's Egypt and Assyria.
Those are the two that rule the
world, so Babylon would be third,
the Medo-Persian Empire fourth,
fifth is the Grecian Empire, sixth
is the Roman Empire, and it's gonna directly
mention then the seventh
and the eighth, because it uses present tense
to describe the sixth,
and the seventh is gonna come and the
eighth comes out of the seventh.
You say, well, how do you know that's Rome?
Because who was the empire that ruled
when the book of Revelation was written?
What would be the present tense
empire
during the time of the book of Revelation,
or during the time of any of the New Testament?
The Roman Empire.
Rhyming Caesar Augustus made a decree that
the whole world should be taxed.
He ruled the world.
Now, I don't believe they're as powerful as the Grecian
Empire because of the fact they came
from the Grecian Empire.
There's a trajectory of less power
even though Rome lasted for a long time.
So when you're reading Revelation 17,
you read that, the mother
of harlots, it's like, yeah, you got the Roman
Catholic Church and all these Protestant
harlot churches running around. Fits perfectly.
Right? All the colors
that are mentioned, I mean, if you ever look at
pictures online of Revelation 17,
people line it up, it's like Roman
Catholic Church. The scarlet color,
the gold, everything fits
with the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic
Church. But then Revelation
18 is not about the Roman Empire.
Now, are there similarities
between the Roman Empire and
this end times empire? Well, yes,
there's similarities. There's also
differences as well. What I
believe would be that end times empire,
which would be number seven, I believe
it to be the United States of America.
You have to
realize that it has to be
the world's most dominant power
because Egypt
ruled the world, Assyria ruled the world,
Babylon ruled the world, the Medo-Persian
Empire ruled the world, the Grecian Empire
ruled the world, the Roman Empire ruled
the world. Well, if you're asking what
country rules the world right now,
I'm not being ethnocentric
because I'm an American.
America rules the world.
There's no question they're more
powerful than any country, and it's
not even that close. I mean,
I know they make comparisons with China,
and in some ways you can compare.
There's no comparison,
okay?
Many reasons why they make these
comparisons like as if they're equal is
because America wants to justify in case
they decide to go to war with China, but
there's really no comparison right now.
Now, look, if 20 years go by and
50 years go by, then
maybe somebody else will rise to power
because empires rise, they fall.
I will say, though, English
is becoming more of a dominant language
with each passing year. To me,
it seems like it's definitely America
when you look at Jeremiah and all the
symbolism that's being mentioned, but
if time goes by and another empire
rises, then it could be somebody else,
right?
But what I'm saying is the Book of Revelation
makes this distinction where it talks about
Rome, and yet then it talks about the
end times because there's going to be
a lot of similarities from every world
ruler, okay?
Well, what I'm saying here in Daniel 2
is this, that there is also symbolism
towards this end times empire.
You say, what are you talking about, brother Sucky?
Well, Daniel 2, verse 42,
and as the toes of the
feet were part of iron and part of clay,
so the kingdom shall be
partly strong and partly broken.
Let me ask you a question.
How many toes do most people
have?
Ten. Now, there's exceptions,
right? Goliath is, I mean, some of the
things in the Bible had, usually,
ten toes,
right? Well,
doesn't the Bible mention the ten kings
in the Book of Revelation
during the end times? And
guess what? Of those ten kings, what I
believe is some are going to be very
powerful, very well known, and some are
just kind of part of that committee. Now,
when we're saying king, I don't believe
we're necessarily saying, like, the king
of England, because usually people don't
take on that title now. I think it's more
of a ruler, not necessarily what we'd
say as the king. I mean, a president
would be befitting of a king, would be
very similar, okay? So ten
kings during the end time, so ten
toes, ten kings, I mean, it
fits. Verse 43,
and whereas thou saw'st
iron mixed with miry clay,
they shall mingle themselves with
the seed of men, but they shall not cleave
one to another, even as iron is not mixed
with clay. So iron and clay are both
mentioned, and iron strong, and clay is
so strong. However, it also mentions
that they don't mix together, but what
it said here in verse 43
is, they shall mingle themselves
with the seed of men. What I believe the
symbolism being mentioned is that as
we get to the end times and that
end times empire, what you're going to
see is it's a very intermingled
country. You say, what do you mean?
Here's what I mean. The vast
majority of people in the Philippines are
Filipinos.
They look very similar, from the
same country, same ethnicity.
I mean, if you ever visit the
United States of America,
people are from all over
the world, right?
Now, I grew up in the whitest,
I mean, what's known as the least ethnically
diverse state is West Virginia. The whitest
state is where I grew up in, okay?
But then eventually I moved to California.
California along with Hawaii
are the most diverse. I mean, you go
to California, there's over
a million Filipinos, I think, that live in
California. There's like a million people
from India, a million people from Russia,
millions and millions from Mexico. I mean,
there's people from all over the world.
There's an apartment complex by Verity
Baptist Church in Sacramento. There's
like a hundred doors in the complex
and there's literally 25 countries
represented in those hundred doors.
I don't understand how that happened,
and most of them do not speak English,
at least not the adults. The kids do, but
not the adults. But it's always
entertaining. You knock on that door and
what country do you think they're from?
I mean, literally from Iran,
Uzbekistan, Afghanistan,
Russia, all kinds
of European countries. I mean, literally
people from all over the world.
And literally they answer the door and
you still don't know. It's like, you know,
what language? You're just curious. Like,
what country are you from? Sometimes they
don't understand what you're saying by that,
but you know, you're like, because they're
literally from all over the world. Because
when you go to the United States of America,
now I believe that in the Roman Empire
it was to a degree, because
any world empire is going to have that,
but not like
modern day United States of America.
I mean, when you go,
when you're living in the United States,
especially California and some of those states,
people are from all over the world.
Right? My wife has gotten
people saved in America that
they really didn't speak great English, but they spoke
Tagalog. Because there's a lot of Filipinos
that live there. Right?
The church members in Sacramento,
where Russian is their primary language, they preach
the gospel in Russia, in Russian.
Right? People from Verity Baptist in
Sacramento, people from India. Well, I mean,
in Sacramento, there are a ton of
people from India. This is why I have
a lot of stories about Hindus, because I have preached
the gospel to many Hindus in my life.
And look, those Hindus
are not Americans by
birth. They're from India. Right?
Look, there's people from all over the world.
Well, does this fit with what we see
in Daniel 2? I believe when it says
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men.
Very intermarried, intermingled.
I mean, this is also what it prophesies
in the book of Jeremiah, where it says, you know,
you know, from thy country, the indication
is people are from all over the world.
Daniel 2, verse 44.
And in the days of these kings
shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom
which shall never be destroyed. So, well, the question
is, if this also
applies to the end times, which is what I'm
saying, is it true
that the kings that are being represented
are going to be replaced by a kingdom that God
sets up? Well, yes.
You've got the ten kings. The Antichrist
comes and becomes the ruler
out of the seventh empire. The eighth is of the
seventh. He's the ruler.
And then eventually what happens? Well, you've got
the Lord Jesus Christ ruling and reigning
as the king in the millennial reign.
That's different than when he came
the first time. Jesus didn't come as
a conquering king. But eventually,
he's going to set up a kingdom.
And it says, which shall never be destroyed.
Is that true?
It's true.
Now, of course, we know at the end of the millennial reign
of Christ, the devil's going to round up
people and try to fight against the Lord. But, of course,
he's going to lose again.
And it says this kingdom that God sets up
is never going to be destroyed.
So, I believe it's pretty clear in verse
44 that there's a reference to the end times
because
God did not set up a kingdom 2,000
years ago which shall never
be destroyed.
Now, there are people that
have some crazy views on Revelation
and they'll say, well, the millennial reign is already
happening now.
And kind of the idea is, well, since it's already happening,
the world's going to become more godly with time
because Christ is ruling and reigning. Well, it doesn't
really seem more godly to me
as time goes by. I think you're
misunderstanding some of the symbolism and
parables and things such as that.
But it's going to happen one day
where Christ is going to rule and reign.
Of course, if you know a basic understanding of Revelation
and the end times, the Antichrist
comes midway through Daniel's
70th week and then the abomination
of desolation, 75 days,
and then, of course, Christ returns
the wrath of God and he's going to
basically remove all of the wickedness
and all these people and then he's going to set up
his kingdom. And it says which shall
never be destroyed
and the kingdom shall not be left
to other people. Because here's the thing,
I mean, when you have a ruler or a king,
eventually he dies
and he leaves it to other people.
Right? Nebuchadnezzar was very
powerful, but his relatives
passed down. I don't necessarily
believe Belshazzar is his direct son,
but maybe more like his grandson.
I mean, he screws up, right?
It's left to other people and it's destroyed.
Alexander the Great dies, it's left
to four different kings, it eventually just kind of
dissolves, right? But when Christ
sets up his millennial reign, it's
never going to be destroyed, it's not going to be
left to other people, okay?
But it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms and it shall
stand forever. No question, verse
44 is fitting with this
end times empire where the
Lord Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning.
So there's got to be a transition from
the Roman Empire to the end
times, okay? Because
it's not like Rome is still in power today.
They have fallen
a long time ago. They're no longer
a major empire in today's world.
Verse number 45.
For as much as thou sawest
the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands,
and that it break in pieces the
iron, the brass, the clay,
the silver, and the gold, and of course
we know that Christ is the rock,
you know, the stone that was cut out of the mountain,
the great God hath made known to the
king what shall come to
pass hereafter, and the dream
is certain in the interpretation thereof sure.
Now it says the dream is certain
in the interpretation thereof sure
because, you know, sometimes God says
Nineveh is going to be destroyed.
But it doesn't get destroyed
because the people actually
turn to God.
What God says is, you know what?
It's certain. There's nothing that's going to
change this. There is no question
that these empires would rise up.
There's also no question that the book of Revelation,
all of those events, they are going to happen.
Just as it
says. Make no mistake
about it, midway through Daniel's
70th week, the Antichrist is going to
declare himself to be God in the
temple of God, and the abomination
of desolation is going to be set up. Nothing
can change that, right?
Now look, I'm not saying we don't have free
will in the actions we do, but I'm just saying
we're headed down that course, and those
certain events, those are for sure.
Those are certain, okay?
Verse 46,
Then the king Nebuchadnezzar
fell upon his face, and notice
this, and worshiped
Daniel. Now notice he doesn't worship
God. He worships
Daniel, right?
It kind of reminds you of when Cornelius
bowed before Peter, and
he worships Peter, and Peter says,
hey, I'm not the first pope.
Stand up. I myself also am a man.
Right?
Well, what we're seeing here is that Nebuchadnezzar
does not yet understand who the true
God is.
I personally think that he's
probably already heard the gospel or snippets
of it, because he had to hear it at some point.
You don't get saved without hearing the gospel.
I think Daniel probably already kind of approached the
subject. Maybe not, though, but
at this point, there's no question
he doesn't understand who the true God is
because he's worshiping a man. He's not worshiping
God. He does not yet
consider the God, the true God,
as his God. I mean, he talks about in
Daniel 3 about how, you
know, you're God, right?
He doesn't attribute it to himself
until Daniel 4,
which is when he has the heart of
a beast for seven years.
Okay?
And it said in verse 47, it also says this
here, it says he worshiped Daniel, verse 46,
and commanded that they should offer an oblation
and sweet odors unto him. So they're basically
worshiping Daniel almost as
if he's like a God-man sort of creature.
The king answered unto Daniel and said,
of a truth it is that your God
is a God of gods.
So it's very
clear he doesn't consider it his God.
I mean, he seems to have this
idea that there's either he believes
in like polytheism or he kind of looks
at it as there's one God represented in
different ways, but it's just like I don't
worship the same God or in the same
way as you do. He says your God
is a God of gods,
and it's like, well, that is true.
The true God compared
to all of these other false gods,
I mean, I just read this morning, their
rock is not as our rock.
I mean, they're false gods.
There's no comparison between Shiva
and the true God. No comparison whatsoever.
And he's right about that, but he's also
indicating that he hasn't made this his
God yet, right?
You can't be saved
if you believe in multiple gods
or if you don't put all of your faith
on the one true God. You can't say, well,
this is true, but also
this. It doesn't work that way.
Your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings
and a revealer of secrets. Seeing now could
reveal the secret.
Then the king made Daniel a great man and gave him
many great gifts and made him ruler over
the whole province of Babylon and chief of the
governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
Then Daniel requested of the king
and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
over the affairs of the province of
Babylon, but Daniel sat in the gate of
the king. Now, one other thing we can see in
verse 49 is the importance of a
good testimony and a good relationship
with your boss because Daniel
does have this, and he says,
Hey, can you make Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego also powerful
in the kingdom? And he gets his friends
put into a position of
influence, right? He requests
of the king, and then the king
puts Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
into a powerful position,
right? So look, Daniel 2, and
I understand this
is complicated.
You say, Brother Stuckey, I don't even understand.
You know, look, as I said recently,
this is how you learn.
It's okay if you don't
understand everything that you hear preached.
Look, I've been in church,
I've heard sermons,
and sometimes I'm just like
way over my head.
Or sometimes you hear things
and I think, man, I need to just take time
to sit home, study this out
for myself, and double check it. I'm not mad
at you if you do that. In fact, I want you to do that.
The Bible says about the Bereans, they were more noble
than those in Thessalonica
and that they received the word with all readiness
of mind and searched the scriptures daily
whether those things were so.
When you hear something preached in church,
there can kind of be a couple reactions.
I've been in church and I've heard things
where I've said, I know that's true.
I already knew 100%.
For example, if I preach a sermon that salvation
is by grace through faith,
hopefully you say, Amen, that's definitely true.
I already know that.
Then there's certain things I've heard preached in church
where I've said, I don't agree with that.
Right? Even if there's somebody
you respect, I've been in a lot of different churches.
Look, if you've read your Bible,
you might hear me say things where you say,
I just have a different opinion.
I've heard a different interpretation of that verse
or of that chapter, and you know what?
I just have a different opinion.
I've been in church where I've heard things preached
or I've listened to sermons online
and I already had an opinion about something
or had already studied something out
and I just said, I have a different opinion.
I'm not saying that makes me right.
I'm just saying, I've heard things in church
and I agree with it.
And then there's other things where you hear it
and it's like, I don't know.
Maybe it's true, maybe it's not.
I haven't put in the time to study it
so I don't know for sure.
Right? So look, if you don't understand everything
in the sermon, I just encourage you,
go home, read Daniel 2, the last 20 verses,
look at it and you can go back
and listen to the sermon and see
and you want, I believe it all fits
just like a glove on a hand.
Babylonian empire, he is that head of gold.
Second, the breast and the arms of silver,
Medo-Persian empire, I mean, it mentions it
later on in the book of Daniel.
As I said before, you don't just take
one chapter to determine stuff
because people try to take Daniel
and just dissect it into like 50 different books in one.
It fits together, right?
The third empire, the Grecian or Macedonian empire,
Alexander the Great, and then the fourth
is the Roman empire. Let's close in on a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us
today and getting to see your word in this topic
and help us just to understand these things
and help us to learn the deep things
and to just always study our Bibles
and continually learn and not give up
or not be intimidated, but just slowly learn,
slowly read, and add on to our knowledge.
God, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
.