Before we get into Daniel chapter 2, I'm going to say a little bit more about the structure
of the book of Daniel as a whole.
Now we already talked about the fact that Daniel is divided into two halves.
Chapters 1 through 6 are the stories of the book of Daniel, and that's the part of the
book that we're more familiar with.
And then Daniel's chapters 7 through 12 are the prophecies of Daniel, so that's the heavier
prophetic material.
It's a very obvious division, especially because chapters 1 through 6 are in chronological
order, and then we back up and chapters 7 through 12 are in chronological order once
again with one another.
So it's two separate sections, that's pretty obvious.
But there's actually another division in the book of Daniel, and that is one based on language.
You see, the book of Daniel is one of the few books in the Old Testament that's not
written completely in Hebrew.
Part of the book of Daniel is written in Aramaic, or what the Bible calls Syriac.
Look down at your Bible there in Daniel chapter 2 verse 4.
The Bible reads, Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac.
O king, live forever, tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.
So when we get to Daniel chapter 2 verse 4, this is where the original switches from being
in Hebrew to being in what we know as Aramaic, or the Syriac language.
So it says Syriac there in verse 4, and it just switches that language, and it's in Aramaic
all the way until the end of chapter 7.
So the whole rest of chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are all in Aramaic.
And then when it switches back to Hebrew in chapter 8 verse 1 is where the book switches
from talking about Daniel in the third person.
Daniel this, Daniel that, to being I Daniel this, and I Daniel that, then it switches
to a first person narrative, and it's in Hebrew.
So that's another section in the book of Daniel we could say the Aramaic section, or the Syriac
section, which is Daniel chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Now I'm going to show you why this is significant.
First let me just mention that there's one other book in the Old Testament that has a
significant chunk in Aramaic, and that's the book of Ezra, because it has these pronouncements
from these various Persian kings, and it tells us again, you don't have to turn there, but
in Ezra 4-7 it says, and in the days of Artaxerxes wrote Bishlam, Mithradath, Tabeel, and the
rest of their companions unto Artaxerxes king of Persia, and the writing of the letter was
written in the Syrian tongue, and interpreted in the Syrian tongue, and then it goes on
for many, many verses in that language.
So it's called the Syrian tongue in Ezra, it's called Syriac in Daniel, we know it today
in modern times as the Aramaic language.
So what's special about this section of Daniel that's in Aramaic chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
and 7, well, what's interesting is that there's a pattern with what these chapters are about,
and you might have kind of noticed this when you're reading the book of Daniel, how certain
patterns are coming up, but maybe you just didn't quite put your finger on what the exact
pattern was, like similarities between, for example, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego getting
thrown in the fiery furnace, and Daniel getting thrown in the lion's den, it's almost like
history is repeating itself in different ways in the book of Daniel.
So I've got a little visual aid to help you understand how this works.
I've got these little baby blocks here, okay, with the letters of the alphabet on them.
So we've got A, B, and C here, and I think Sam Gipp is going to love this sermon because
he likes to emphasize the fact that my views on Bible prophecy were formed in my childhood,
and so he likes to kind of harp on that.
So here I've got my toys that I'm going to be playing with tonight in the sermon.
But anyway, the way that these chapters work, Daniel 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, is they follow
a pattern that basically goes A, B, C, C, B, A, okay?
And let me kind of show you what I mean by that, okay?
And then I'm going to get the numbers of the chapters out here and put them here.
So basically chapter 2 being A, I'm having to do all this backwards from my perspective,
3 here, and then 4, 5, tell me if I'm making a mistake, people, 6, and 7.
Does it look good?
Those that are in the front and can see it?
Okay, so here's why I say that it goes A, B, C, C, B, A. Stop and think about it.
That's chapter 2 of Daniel about.
It's about four kingdoms that are ultimately wiped out by God's eternal kingdom, right?
That's Daniel chapter 2.
Then Daniel chapter 3 has people standing up for God, being sentenced to death, and
being miraculously delivered, right?
That's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.
Then in chapter 4 we have the king of Babylon being judged for his pride and his doom is
interpreted by Daniel because the dream that spells out his doom is interpreted by Daniel.
Then when we get to chapter 5, what do we have?
Something very similar to chapter 4.
We have again the king of Babylon lifted up with pride, and again his doom is interpreted
by Daniel.
This time it's the handwriting on the wall.
Then when we get to chapter 6, we have again someone standing up for God, being sentenced
to death, and then being miraculously delivered.
Can you see how chapter 6 is like chapter 3?
Then when you get to chapter 7, what do you have?
A prophecy of four kingdoms that are wiped out by God's eternal kingdom.
You can see how these both have the same subject matter, A. These both have the same subject
matter, B. These both have the same subject matter, C.
That's kind of the pattern.
You might have subconsciously noticed that when you're reading the book of Daniel, how
these themes are being repeated, but that's the exact pattern of how it's laid out.
The reason I'm making such a big deal about this is because it's very important to understand
the connection between chapter 2 and chapter 7.
Part of the key to understanding these two chapters is to understand how they go together
because these are the most difficult, obviously, out of these chapters.
It makes sense that these six form this pattern because these are the six chapters that are
in Aramaic, so they form a special section in the book of Daniel.
Now not only that, if we go to the end of the book of Daniel, there's kind of another
similar thing.
I'll just give you this as a bonus here.
But if we go to the last chapters of Daniel that are the chapters that are in Hebrew,
they follow kind of a similar pattern as well.
So if we take chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11, they follow a pattern that basically goes A-B-B-A.
So it's similar to the other section where it goes A-B-C-C-B-A.
These follow a pattern that goes A-B-B-A.
Did I mess it up?
Let me check it out here.
What did I do wrong?
Oh, 11's wrong.
All right.
Thank you.
There we go.
This is very sophisticated stuff up here.
Other pastors have a little earpiece and a PowerPoint.
We're old-fashioned.
All right.
These blocks are made out of wood, not plastic or foam or some other, you know, cheapo.
This is Melissa and Doug stuff, folks, all right.
This message was brought to you in part by Melissa and Doug.
So disclaimer, Melissa and Doug do not necessarily embrace the prophetic and biblical views of
Pastor Steven Anderson.
So this pattern is similar because basically, what's Daniel Chapter 8 all about?
It's about all the details of the third kingdom, Grecia, and about the abomination of desolation,
right?
That's covered in Chapter 8.
Well, guess what's covered in Chapter 11?
All the details and twists and turns of that kingdom of Grecia and the abomination of desolation
is also covered there.
So that's our A right there.
And then what's Chapter 9 about?
Well, Chapter 9 starts out with what?
David's praying and fasting and mourning before God.
And then he receives an answer from God.
An angel comes and brings him an answer.
Well, guess what happens in Chapter 10?
The exact same thing.
It starts out the chapter.
He's praying.
He's mourning.
He's fasting.
And then an angel comes and brings him the answer.
So we got A, B, B, A. So this is a pattern throughout the Book of Daniel.
So hopefully that helps you a little bit remember the chapters in Daniel and what they
mean and what they're about.
But the thing we want to emphasize, of course, is the connection between Chapter 2 and Chapter
7.
Now, for sake of time tonight, I'm actually just going to skip over verses 1 through 27
because of the fact that verses 1 through 27 in Daniel Chapter 2 are very simple, straightforward.
You can pretty much just read them and take them at face value.
And we already just read them as a church right before the sermon started.
So we're not going to go through all that again because I want to take the time tonight
talking about the matters that need more explanation, which is starting in verse number 28.
So in verse 28, we get into the actual vision itself.
It says in Daniel 2, 28, but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and maketh
known to the king Nebuchadnezzar, 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 hereafter?
And he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee, what shall come to pass?
But as for me, this 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 of 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 brightness
was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible.
So the first thing that we see here is that Daniel is interpreting this dream to Nebuchadnezzar
as being a future prophecy.
These are things that are going to happen in the future.
God is going to show Nebuchadnezzar what is coming.
And this image that he sees, the Bible says his brightness was excellent.
So it's a very bright and shiny image because it's made out of these shiny metals.
And the form thereof was terrible, terrible meaning that it invokes terror.
It is scary.
It's a scary looking image.
Says in verse 32, 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 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 became like the chaff 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.
And of course the we there is Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
That's why he said God revealed this to me for the sake of those who will interpret it.
Why?
Because if they don't interpret it, they're going to get killed.
So for Daniel and his three friends' sake, the interpretation is given that they might
not be killed.
And also because God wants Nebuchadnezzar to know this.
He wants to show these things to Nebuchadnezzar.
That's what the Bible says.
And so he says we will tell the interpretation because he's including his three friends because
the four of them had a prayer meeting earlier in the chapter and asked God to give them
the interpretation.
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 beasts of the field and the fowls of the
heaven hath thee given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all, thou art
this head of gold.
Verse 39.
And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom
of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.
Now one thing I want to point out right away is that these sections of the image, they
represent both a king and a kingdom because he says to Nebuchadnezzar singular thou, which
is a one person pronoun, thou art this head of gold.
So the head of gold represents the person, Nebuchadnezzar, but it also represents the
Babylonian kingdom or Babylonian empire.
That's why the second section he calls a kingdom, another kingdom inferior to thee.
So he's kind of equating the man and the kingdom here.
There's Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire and they both are represented by that
head of gold.
And then of course there's a second kingdom that's inferior.
That is the chest and arms of silver.
And then it says there's going to be a third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over
all the earth, the belly and thighs of brass.
And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces
and subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces
and bruise.
Now who are these four kingdoms?
Well the four kingdoms are all discussed in the book of Daniel and three of them are actually
given to us by name.
Now we know of course the first one is Babylon because he just spells it out, thou art this
head of gold.
The second kingdom are the Medes and the Persians and they're described in great detail or greater
detail in chapters seven and chapter eight and chapter eleven of Daniel.
So they're discussed by name so much it's pretty obvious that it's them, they're the
second kingdom, God spells that out.
The third kingdom is Grecia, which again is great detail in chapters seven, eight and
eleven that show us the identity of this third kingdom.
It's pretty obvious who that is.
Now who is the fourth kingdom?
Well the fourth kingdom is the only kingdom in Daniel that's not mentioned by name.
It's too far off and when God prophesies things far off, he doesn't give you the names of
those places and people because otherwise it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
So he does not spell out the name of the fourth kingdom but there is a clue we could go to
where the fourth kingdom is specifically discussed in Daniel and that is in Daniel chapter nine
verse twenty six if you want to flip over there.
This is a reference to what can be none else than the Roman Empire.
Now it's not in the context of these four kingdoms.
When he talks about the four kingdoms again he doesn't spell out the name, he doesn't
spell out the identity but at least this shows the Roman Empire being mentioned in the book
of Daniel as significant to Bible prophecy.
Look at Daniel chapter nine verse twenty six and we'll get into this more when I preach
on Daniel chapter nine but it says and after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be
cut off but not for himself.
Now who's the Messiah or the Christ?
Of course this is Jesus.
Messiah means Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Messiah means anointed and we can get that definition from the Bible itself because the
Bible says against the Lord and against his anointed in Psalm two but that's quoted in
the New Testament in the book of Acts as against the Lord and against his Christ.
So we see that anointed Christ and Messiah these three words are all interchangeable
in three different languages.
So what we have here is the Messiah being cut off.
Cut off often in the Bible signifies being killed and so he's cut off but not for himself.
Well guess what that's exactly what happened to Jesus Christ.
He died not for himself but he died for the sins of the whole world.
He died for us.
So he was cut off but not for himself.
What happens next?
The people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the
end thereof shall be with the flood and under the end of the war desolations are determined.
So all we have to do is just ask ourselves well who did that?
Who was it that destroyed Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and made it all desolate?
Who was it that wiped them out?
It was the Romans.
This happened in the year AD 70 where the Romans wiped out Jerusalem, destroyed it and
destroyed the temple itself which was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy where Jesus Christ said
that it was a result of rejecting him.
The punishment would be that their city would be burned and he talked about the fact that
of the temple not one stone would be left upon another and that's exactly what happened
in the year AD 70 when it was destroyed.
So therefore we do have Rome specifically brought up in the book of Daniel.
Now most people that I've talked to that are Baptist and that believe like we do about
most things typically agree that the fourth kingdom is Rome and I think that that's pretty
much the common view amongst evangelical Christians would be that that fourth kingdom is Rome
and here's why it's so obvious besides the fact that Rome is made reference to there
in Daniel 9 26.
The thing that just makes it so obvious is that if we look at the pattern of the first
three kingdoms what do we have?
The Medo-Persian Empire defeated the Babylonian Empire and they took over their kingdom and
then the Greeks defeated them and took over their kingdom.
So all we have to do is just ask ourselves the question who defeated the Greeks and took
over their empire and it's the Romans.
There's no other candidate okay so just following the pattern of what the first three kingdoms
are like why would the fourth kingdom be totally different?
It's obviously following that same pattern as being the direct successor you know the
Persians defeated the Babylonian the Greeks defeat the Persians the Romans defeated the
Greeks it's pretty obvious makes perfect sense it's crystal clear everything fits.
Now one of the things that it describes about this fourth kingdom also is it says if you
look down at your Bible there let me find my place here if you look down at your Bible
there in verse 40 it says and the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron for as much as iron
breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things and as iron that breaketh all these shall
it break in pieces and bruise the question is does that fit the Roman Empire and the
answer is absolutely the Roman Empire was known for being brutal and for being ruthless
and for just crushing their enemies and destroying them and wiping them out so that's a perfect
description of what the Roman Empire was like so it's pretty clear what the four empires
are the four kingdoms are.
Now there are a lot of academics and scholars especially they have the circumcision I might
add who have attempted to make the fourth kingdom be referring to Greece now why would
they want to do that you say you know that doesn't make any sense why would they want
to make the fourth kingdom refer to Greece well I'll tell you exactly why because they
believe that the book of Daniel was written in the second century BC and so they say well
if it's written in the second century BC and because they know they have copies of
it from the second century BC they found evidence of it at least that far back they say well
you know how could it be talking about the Roman Empire when the Roman Empire hadn't
taken over yet well it's prophecy but because they don't believe in God it's funny these
Jewish scholars they don't even believe in the Old Testament God why because if they
believe Moses they believe in Christ that's what Jesus said if you believe not his writings
how should you believe my words if you believe Moses you'd also believe me that's what Jesus
said they don't even believe in their own you listen to these Jews they don't even believe
their own Old Testament scriptures and so it's no surprise that the thought can't even
enter their mind that the book of Daniel could be accurately predicting the rise of the Roman
Empire not only that they don't want to admit the fact that the coming of Jesus Christ is
so significant and that it happened during that fourth kingdom they don't want to acknowledge
that either so they want to make it all about that third kingdom like oh it's already happened
it's over you know is that the Greeks out with the Greeks that was the fourth kingdom
and you know and Tychus Epiphanes so that's it it's over done nothing more to see here
but in order to do that in order to sit there and say well the fourth kingdoms Greece here's
the problem with that you got to have three kingdoms before that so you have a number
problem right so how do they do how do they fix that because it's clear that we have Babylon
we have the Medes and the Persians we have the Greeks and then we have the Romans if
you're gonna move the Greeks into slot number four who's your third kingdom that where's
they do they split the Medes and Persians in half to kind of fix this now this kind
of reminds me of what the Catholics do with the Ten Commandments you know they don't want
you to pay attention to that second commandment thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
why because their whole church is filled with graven images their whole religion of Roman
Catholicism is like heavy on Roman and light on Catholicism right it's all Roman why it's
gods and goddesses carved statues images idols that have been repackaged as the Saints the
Apostles whatever but it's a pagan religion that is filled with idolatry that's why if you walk
into a Catholic Church is just graven images are everywhere molten images are everywhere so they
don't want that to be one of the Ten Commandments thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
so they want to kind of tuck that away and just make it kind of part of the first commandment
thou shalt have no other gods before me so then they say well these graven images aren't other
gods that were having before Jesus you know so they kind of like just tag that on as just a
suffix of the first commandment but then that leaves them with a problem because the Bible
uses the words Ten Commandments so you got to have ten so now they're left with nine so how
do they get a tenth commandment well they take the commandment thou shalt not covet and they
cut it in half which is just ridiculous so they'll say the ninth commandment is thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's wife and then the tenth commandment is thou shalt not cover anything
else from your neighbor now the reason that that doesn't make any sense if you look up the Ten
Commandments in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy chapter 5 one of them puts the wife even listed
second of what things you're not supposed to cover so it's like they have to really move things
around plus that Commandments quoted in the New Testament as simply just being thou shalt not
covet and Jesus just counts as one commandment and in Romans 13 it's just one commandment just thou
shalt not steal that's not kill that's not commit adultery that's not fair bear false witness and
that's not covet but they have to do that in order to kind of cook the books to make it add up to the
number it's supposed to add up even though they've been skimming off the till and removed one of the
Commandments there and so that's what these Jewish so-called academics and scholars are doing here
because they want to kind of confuse this and I'll tell you why they want to confuse this because the
prophecies in Daniel are some of the most amazing examples of prophecy being accurately fulfilled
where I mean Daniel just spells out this is what's gonna happen and he spells out this is when the
Messiah is gonna come and they don't want to accept that because they think the Messiah is
still coming but if you actually study the book of Daniel the Messiah actually already came before
their city was wiped out and before their temple was destroyed already happened so they want to
really mix up this book of Daniel so they come up with this goofball interpretation that Greece is
the fourth kingdom so then they have to split the Medes and the Persian of the two and this is what
they say well that's the that's the consensus among scholars it's sort of like global warming I mean
the science is settled you know it's it's the consensus among scientists we everybody agrees
with that you know that it's you know the Medes and the Persians are two and three okay let's
just prove that wrong though go to Daniel chapter five not only is that just completely ridiculous
because the Medes and the Persians ruled at the same time not one after the other in that sense
but the Bible is clear here in chapter 5 verse 28 that it happened at the same time look at
Daniel 5 28 thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians so when the Babylonians
are defeated it doesn't just go to the Medes and then later it's gonna go to the Persians and then
later Greece no that's not what it says it's divided guess why it's divided because they're
both ruling at the same time it's divided and given to the Medes and Persians that's why on
the image itself you have the head of gold but then you have the arms of silver why because there
are two arms to this thing there's the Medes and the Persians that's why later when it talks about
the bear representing Persia in Daniel chapter 7 the bear is leaned onto one side one side is
raised higher than the other why because the Persians were more powerful than the Medes and
then when we get into Daniel chapter 8 and the Medo Persian Empire is signified by a ram one
horn of the ram is higher than the other that's the Persian side of that thing but it's crystal
clear that this is considered one Kingdom after the Babylonian Empire we have the Medo Persian
Empire it's one Empire then we have the Grecian Empire then we have the Roman Empire that's the
way it happened folks that's how it played out and so we see the proof right there in Daniel
528 that this other idea is just a cooking of the books to try to make the Bible say something that
it didn't so now that we've identified our four kingdoms Babylon Medo Persia Grecia and Rome I
want to stop and talk about the idea of dual fulfillment in Bible prophecy now it's an
extremely important principle when we're studying the book of Daniel we need to understand the
concept of dual fulfillment now what does that mean that means that when these prophecies are
given there's an immediate application for back then and then there's also a greater future
application that's still coming now this is something that is found all throughout the Bible
literally from Genesis to Revelation it's impossible to ignore because just over and over again we see
examples of this in the Bible where prophecies of the Old Testament have a dual or even triple
or even quadruple fulfillment okay why because they have an application for that generation
back then and then they often have a future application or an end times application and
maybe even for a couple different generations why because there are certain things that repeat
cycles that the world goes through that history goes through that God goes through when he deals
with people now let me just give you some perfect examples of this if we go all the way back to the
book of Genesis for example we have the story where Abraham offers Isaac his son upon the altar
right and the prophetic statement is made before they get to the top of the mountain because Isaac
asked the question you know where is the lamb he says here's the wood here's the fire where's the
lamb and of course this prophetic statement is made by Abraham my son God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering so they went both of them together so Abraham prophesies that God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering but when they get to the top of the mountain and the
angel stops him from offering his son what is actually provided a ram not a lamb a ram why is
that because of the fact there's a dual fulfillment there was an immediate fulfillment of God
providing an animal for the sacrifice but notice how the immediate fulfillment was not exact
because it was a ram instead of a lamb still did the same thing still filled the same void
still accomplished the same purpose but you're left saying well that wasn't exactly how it was
supposed to happen it's supposed to be a lamb provided instead it was a ram why the reason a
ram is provided is because it's being signaled unto us that there's something else coming and
the someone else that was coming was Jesus Christ the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the
world God was actually going to provide Jesus as a lamb for a burnt offering so there's an immediate
carnal fulfillment where there's physically a ram right there and then there's a future spiritual
fulfillment where Jesus is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world so that's what
I mean by dual fulfillment and we can go through tons of examples of this I'll just give you a few
just for sake of time but you could literally come up with probably a hundred examples like this if
you studied the Old Testament and just noted every time you saw this another great example is where
Jonah is in the whale's belly you know there's an obvious immediate interpretation of that prophecy
because in Jonah chapter 2 Jonah prophesies and he talks about some things that are clearly
immediate he talks about seaweed being wrapped around his head he talks about being in the in
the deep he's in the water he's swallowed by the well but then he also talks about being in hell
which obviously he wasn't in hell he talks about going down to the bottoms of the mountains which
obviously he didn't do he talks about the earth with her bars being about him forever that didn't
happen but in the New Testament we see the true fulfillment as Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whale's belly so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth the heart of the earth would be the bottoms of the mountains the earth about him out
of the belly of hell his soul was not left in hell so notice there's an immediate carnal
interpretation or just an immediate prophetic view of okay Jonah is literally praying out of
the belly of the whale he's literally got seaweed wrapped around his head but then there's the
future fulfillment of Christ fulfilling that another great example is the day of the Lord how
many times do we read about in Isaiah and other prophets in Isaiah and other prophetic books about
the day of the Lord but you know what it often says about the day the Lord says the day of the
Lord's at hand what does it hand me it's about to happen so there was clearly a day of the Lord
that happened back then there were many day of the Lord's where God would punish his enemies but of
course there's the big day of the Lord coming in the end times when the Sun and moon are darkened
and there's a great earthquake that goes with the opening of the sixth seal in the book of
Revelation so that's the great big final day of the Lord but there were other little day of the
Lord's that happened back then so what is that it's a dual fulfillment there was the fulfillment
back then which was not an exact fulfillment but it was roughly fulfilled and then in the future
it becomes exactly fulfilled exactly the way that God said it would happen another great example of
this is the destruction of Babylon the book of Jeremiah is written at a time when the Babylonian
captivity is just beginning and so at the end of the book of Jeremiah in chapters 50 and 51
God is spelling out the fact that Babylon is going to be destroyed itself you see this is comfort to
the people that are in exile that are being punished by Babylon realizing hey Babylon is
gonna get what's coming to them eventually and it's also a warning to the Babylonians themselves
telling them hey you might be in power now things might be going well now but eventually you're
gonna be wiped out as well so it's a call for them to repent and get right with God as well
but when it comes to the destruction of Babylon prophesied in Jeremiah 50 and 51 which is being
prophesied early on when Babylon's going great he prophesied no no you guys are gonna sink and
never rise again at the end of chapter 51 we have to understand that that was fulfilled because of
the fact that the Medes and the Persians defeated Babylon but it wasn't fulfilled exactly the way
it's described in Jeremiah 50 and 51 there were some things in Jeremiah 50 50 and what that there
were some things in Jeremiah 50 and 51 that just simply didn't happen why because there's another
future fulfillment how do we know that because revelation 18 talks about the destruction of
Babylon as if it's gonna happen in the future why because there's another Babylon it's gonna
be destroyed in the future so Jeremiah 50 and 51 had an immediate fulfillment back then but it
also has a future fulfillment that is parallel with revelation 18 that's why you can put Jeremiah
50 and 51 right next to revelation 18 and there are so many parallels why because a lot of that
stuff in those chapters was not just for them back then a lot of it was pointing to the future
destruction of Babylon see he talks about how Babylon is gonna sink and rise no more and he
says how it'll never be inhabited again but it also talks about how it's gonna happen quickly
right but see the reality of what happened to the historic Babylon is that it was kind of a slow
burn because Babylon continued to be inhabited for hundreds of years after it was defeated but
eventually it became completely empty and for almost 2,000 years now Babylon has been uninhabited
and it's uninhabited right now the literal physical city of Babylon and if you remember
Saddam Hussein tried to go in there and start rebuilding it who remembers that when they were
talking about that during the Gulf War he went in and started rebuilding it but the Gulf War stopped
his plans and so it's abandoned and so to this day it's abandoned nobody lives there so the
prophecy was fulfilled but it wasn't quite exactly the way it said it would happen in Jeremiah 50
and 51 just like the lamb wasn't quite a ram why because there's still a future fulfillment
that's coming that will fulfill Jeremiah 50 and 51 in toto I mean just completely to a T all shall
be fulfilled exactly as it stated so look I could go on all night I'm not just gonna sit here and go
on and on but I'm sure that you could probably think of some other examples in your own mind
of things that have a dual or even triple fulfillment where you're thinking of stuff
that was prophesied in the Old Testament that happened back then but it also had an application
for Jesus and also had an application for even the second coming of Christ so this is not a
concept that's foreign to Scripture it's all over Scripture in fact it's one of the most basic
things of understanding Bible prophecy I mean if you don't believe that Bible prophecies often have
a dual fulfillment you're you know you're not even ready to study Bible prophecy if you can't
even see that basic fact because you're gonna come up with all kinds of wrong ideas because that's
just such a basic teaching so we need to kind of lay that down so when it comes to the fourth
kingdom here's what we need to understand about this fourth kingdom this fourth kingdom has a dual
fulfillment this is the key to understanding this chapter the fourth kingdom has a dual fulfillment
the back then fulfillment was the Roman Empire came along and it was that iron empire that
break in pieces and destroyed and was super powerful but there's going to be a future fourth
kingdom that is going to be an even greater fulfillment of this that's why in Revelation we
see still at that that's why in Revelation we still see it as coming he talks about the the
beast with the seven heads and the ten horns right which is how this fourth kingdom is described in
Daniel 7 as having ten horns so we see that parallel so the fourth kingdom was the Roman
Empire but it also has a future fulfillment in the end times as being a global dictatorship with
the Antichrist and so forth and that's all taught in Revelation I don't have to go in I don't have
time to go into all the details of that right now so let's talk about this fourth kingdom now
remember in the vision that Daniel interprets the fourth kingdom is represented by the legs
and feet of iron but you remember the feet are part of iron and part of clay first of all I just
want to make it crystal clear these are not five kingdoms there are only four it's clear that there
are only four sections and when we get to chapter 7 the parallel passage there are only four beasts
representing the four empires so it's just for the the feet are part of the fourth kingdom it's
the legs and feet that make up the fourth kingdom now when we talk about this fourth kingdom that
is of iron and clay it gets destroyed by the stone that's cut out not with hands okay let's
look at that in verse number 45 for as much as thou sawest that the stone 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 the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter and the
dream is certain and the interpretation thereof is sure so how did the gold kingdom end well it
ended because the silver kingdom took over how did the silver kingdom end well the bronze kingdom
took over well how did that kingdom end well the iron kingdom took over how does the iron kingdom
end well it's wiped out by this stone that basically slams into those feet and destroys
them and here's the thing if you have a statue and the feet get blasted obviously the whole thing is
gonna come crashing down because everything's standing on those two feet so that's why when
the stone smites those feet and toes then basically the whole thing comes crashing
down and it talks about in this verse 45 how it break in pieces the iron that's the fourth
kingdom the brass the clay the silver the gold it all gets wiped out right now the stone that
is cut out without hands that destroys this empire of man is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ
because this stone that crashes into the feet is Jesus Christ and his kingdom that replaces that
fourth kingdom is an everlasting kingdom that shall never be destroyed look at verse 44 and
in the days of these kings talking about the ten kings the ten toes of the book of Daniel and it
says in the days 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 for ever so we see here that the stone that's
cut out without hands breaks the feet and then it becomes a great mountain that fills the whole
earth mountains in the Bible often represent kingdoms and he spells it out here that this
mountain is his kingdom that will never be destroyed and if we compared this to Daniel
chapter 7 of course we see the Son of Man come in the clouds and of course he is given a kingdom
that lasts forever so there's no question that the stone here is Jesus when we compare it with
Daniel chapter 7 now why is this important why is this interesting well let's go back to the idea
of dual fulfillment the fourth literal physical kingdom of those days that followed that Greek
Empire was the Roman Empire and who came during the Roman Empire Jesus Christ came and Jesus
Christ spiritually set up this kingdom Jesus Christ came and he did not set up a physical
kingdom he didn't defeat the Romans and and wipe out the physical Roman Empire but he came and
spiritually set up an eternal kingdom he brought in everlasting righteousness Jesus Christ came and
was the Messiah the King of Kings the Lord of Lords and he came during that fourth kingdom
during the Roman Empire but in the future we have the second coming of Christ we know that this same
Jesus which has taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manners you've seen him
going to heaven and when Jesus Christ returns the second time it's not going to be to set up a
spiritual kingdom in our hearts it's going to be to set up a physical kingdom where he will rule
and reign on this earth literally sitting upon the throne of his father David and he will rule
with a rod of iron okay that is going to be the second coming of Jesus Christ so here's how this
works there was the Roman Empire during the Roman Empire came the Lord Jesus Christ spiritually
conquering spiritually defeating death and hell setting up a spiritual kingdom in our hearts but
in the end times there's going to be another fourth kingdom that's described in the book of
Revelation as coming this is your Antichrist and false prophet and all the things that we read
about in Revelation chapter 13 and Revelation chapter 17 and so during that fourth kingdom
revisited or the future fulfillment of that fourth kingdom is when the second coming of Jesus Christ
will happen and that is when he will permanently wipe out these kingdoms and he will destroy them
now when we see the fourth kingdom in the book of Revelation it's an amalgamation of all the
kingdoms and that's why when Christ defeats the Antichrist and his armies he's in a sense
defeating everything that is Babylon he's defeating everything that is Persia everything that is
Greece and Rome symbolically okay so we have coming in the future a new world order a one-world
system one-world government one-world religion one-world monetary system that's all described
in Revelation and obviously I've gone into great detail on these things in the verse by verse
Revelation series I did or in our film after the tribulation or in our recent film Babylon USA and
all these things have been laid out and explained very clearly I don't have time to just give you
all that right now in a sermon on Daniel chapter 2 but there are a few things that we need to
understand about this dual fulfillment that the modern or end times manifestation of this fourth
kingdom is going to be like unto the Roman Empire the Roman Empire was a foreshadowing of it so the
attributes that the Roman Empire had those same attributes will be found in this future new world
order this future Kingdom also some of the attributes of the other kingdoms that preceded
Rome and so just as Rome was ruthless and devoured and break in pieces you know there's gonna be that
type of government that's coming in the future with the new world order so it's not just gonna
be this all this wonderful liberal communist utopia and we can all join together in the United
Nations is so wonderful it's gonna be violent I mean study the book of Revelation peace is gonna
be taken from the earth people are gonna be killing one another that's what's gonna bring
in the new world order violence war famine pestilence disaster that's what's coming according
to the book of Revelation a time of trouble such as was not since the beginning of the world to
this time no nor ever shall be the Bible tells us so let's go into some of the prophecies here
about that fourth kingdom and let's understand some of these things with the idea of dual
fulfillment in mind Bible says in verse 41 because we left off in verse 40 let's pick up in verse 41
and whereas thou saw'st the feet and toes part of pot is clay and part of iron the kingdom shall be
divided but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron for as much as thou saw'st the iron
mixed with miry 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 now again if we study revelation 17 you don't have
to turn there for sake of time but in revelation 17 the ten horns are described as being ten kings
who all rule at the same time so it's not a succession of ten kings it's ten kings that all
rule at the same time and these ten kings according to revelation 17 they all agree to give all their
power and strength unto the beast they all agree to relinquish all power to the Antichrist himself
so who are these two kings well I believe that these will be ten world leaders in the end times
sort of like we have today these groups of important world leaders how about the g10 summit
for example and I'm not saying it's those exact ten nations that will be represented but it'll be
something like that in the sense of the ten most important nations or ten regions that are represent
everybody in the world so that basically these ten leaders can hand all the power to one man I
mean how do you have a one-world government you have the individual governments and infrastructures
that are already there and then what do they do they relinquish power to the one-world system it's
just like right now we have our sovereign nation the United States of America doing what relinquishing
power to the United Nations giving them more of our sovereignty giving them more of our authority
letting them make decisions that we normally would be and should be making for ourselves so
this is what we're gonna see in the end times they're gonna be ten great kings or world leaders
that will relinquish their sovereignty relinquish their power all into the hands of one man all to
the Antichrist all to the beast because after all it's an emergency you know that's what they always
do right it's a state of emergency we have to give him some emergency powers hey we got it we
got to all join together and band together right now put aside our differences now the reason that
it describes these ten kings as the ten toes that are part of iron and part of clay it tells us
right here in verse 42 now some people say oh that's because it's part aliens and part humans
and you laugh with that that's actually a pretty popular belief sadly where people just take
things in the book of Daniel and Revelation just twist them so much and they let their sci-fi
imagination and their fantasy novels get the better of them and they just make up these crazy
theories about hybrids that are half demon half human and that's why God had to flood the earth
there you know which is not what the Bible teaches in Genesis it's not what the Bible teaches anywhere
I have to read in and add a lot of things that are not in Scripture oh they say the sons of God
are angels really because the Bible says under which the angels said he at any time thou art my
son this day by begotten thee and again I'll be to him a father and he'll sue me and he shall be
to me a son Hebrews 1 5 states he never said that to the angels at any time oh and that's a whole
nother sermon of itself but the point is people get these crazy ideas look the reason that they're
mingled part of iron and part of clay it tells us it's not because they're part alien and part
human or part demon and part human it's because the kingdom it says in verse 42 is gonna be partly
strong and partly broken so the iron represents strength the clay or pottery represents weakness
I mean something of irons pretty hard to break cast iron but something of clay is pretty easy
to break just shatter it now think about the world that we live in today it's made up of all
these different governments and some governments are way stronger than others and when you look at
the United Nations all these nations come together but some of these governments are really powerful
some of them have powerful militaries like the United States for example but other nations are
just weak you know they're at the table but they don't really have a lot of teeth behind their
demands or concerns or desires I mean they're included because everybody has to be included in
a sense but it's not like they're really a power player so they're kind of the clay kingdoms or
the clay sections so part of the kingdom is going to be strong iron I mean they're going to be able
to just crush opposition the clay governments and the clay nations they're not claymation now clay
nations they're not going to be able to do as much to really crush the people and oppress the
people because they don't have as much power as a government they're a weaker leader okay so that's
what we see here and that makes perfect sense I mean if you're gonna combine the world if you're
gonna take these ten kingdoms and put them all together into one global government obviously
parts of it are gonna be weaker than others obviously parts that are gonna be stronger
than others it's not gonna be uniform as these other kingdoms were so that makes perfect sense
and it says in 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 now again this is where the sci-fi people come in oh yeah you know they're gonna
mingle themselves with the seed of man this is aliens this is the demons are gonna meet with
the humans look that which is born of the flesh is flesh now it's born of the spirit of spirit
Bible says okay and so I'm not even gonna go into that anymore it's ridiculous and I've debunked
that in more sermons than I can count but what this actually saying is pretty clear what is the
seed of men what this is talking about is the physical seed that a man produces this is also
known in the Bible as the seed of copulation okay so man's seed is that which comes from him and
allows him to reproduce right so when the Bible says here they shall mingle themselves with the
seed of men this is referring to people becoming physically and are mingled as in biologically
intermingled so this is basically people of two nationalities intermingling right now we see that
today we see various nationalities intermingling obviously this has gone on throughout all of
history there's never been nations that were just completely intermarried only with themselves you
know all throughout history there's been a mingling look at the children of Israel how long
did it take them to start mingling with the heathen well Abraham himself is marrying Keturah
and then you've got the patriarchs and who's Joseph married to an Egyptian right away you
know you see Judah going out and marrying a Canaanite woman I mean show me one phase in
the history of Israel where they're not intermarrying with other heathen nations
it's always happened there's nothing new under the Sun so don't let people give you this crazy
idea that you know interracial marriage is some new concept wow what a concept it was already
happening thousands of years ago in the Bible it's something that's always gone on it's something
that people have always done and it diversifies the gene pool people act like oh you're gonna
we're all just gonna look like Tiger Woods or something because we're all gonna be mixed you
know we're all just gonna turn into brown people that are just like not quite black not quite white
not quite Asian you know Tiger Woods basically right I don't know what nationality is he who
knows he's everything right but that's not really true okay because we've already been mixing for a
really long time and you still see that there are still white people there's still black people
there's still Asians and there's still all different nationalities and different types
of people physically we see that all around us okay now the Bible not now obviously some
nationalities have become more mingled than others okay and we see examples throughout history where
sometimes two nations will mingle so much that they become indistinguishable from one another
and we just consider them one group of people now let me give it let me give you a perfect example
this Mexico what's the big difference between the United States and Mexico when it comes to
the American Indians well think about it when the British came over and colonized what is now the
United States they brought their wives and their families with them and of course some of them did
mingle with the natives but most of them did not most of them brought their wives they brought the
kids they kept their own families separate obviously there's mingling that took place
from day one but in general we can look at the 400 year history of the United States and we can
see that there are pretty much white people and Indians right now you go to the Indian reservations
and you see some of them are a lot darker than others why because there's been mingling that's
going on and of course we all have a Cherokee princess in our family tree amen I know I do
but I've got the DNA to prove it that's the difference between me and you you just have
some wild-eyed claim about it well I've got proof okay but you know we've all got that Cherokee
princess it's always a princess a lot of Chiefs maybe not a lot of Indians in that tribe but the
point is that the white man and the Indian by and large retain their own identities to where we can
today look at someone and say this is a white person and look at someone else and say this is
an Indian everybody understand what I'm saying but when we think about Mexico it's not quite
like that because the Spaniards came over and they really intermingled with the American Indians in
Mexico to the point where you have people just that are known as Mexicans because they're and
what is a Mexican it is a mixture of the Spaniards and the Native Americans who were there when they
got there it's become a mingled people and when we go to Mexico today we just see a lot of Mexicans
which is what we would expect to see in Mexico and we see that they are part Indian and part
Spaniard every once in a while you'll see somebody down in Mexico that really has blonde hair and
blue eyes and you can say okay this guy's pretty Spanish but most of it is just mixed okay and if
we go to Spain though and we look around Spain what do we see we see a lot of white people
speaking Spanish but they're Spanish people because Spain is in Europe everybody understand
what I'm saying tonight sorry if I'm being culturally insensitive to anyone tonight I
don't really care about whether that offends you or not it's just I'm just explaining the history
of the world and explaining basics of ethnicity here so basically you know that's a difference
right between the way the United States kind of has its history and the way Mexico's history is
a little bit different in that sense when we see the history of those ethnicities so what the
Bible is saying here when it says in verse 43 and whereas thou saws iron mingled with my reclay
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 what the Bible is saying is that in the end times there's gonna be
a lot of mixing of nationalities but you will still be able to see distinct nationalities you
will see countries coming together and joining unions like for example the European Union but
even though we have a European Union and even though they are connected and even though they're
intermingling with one another we still have what we still have Polish people and Germans and French
people and Spaniards and and just like in America even though there's been a lot of mixing we still
have Native Americans and we have black people white people so there's mixing that goes on and
there's governments that are joining together but you still have nations you see when we get to the
end times the Bible is clear they're gonna be nations because he talks about all nations
they're gonna be various languages because he says all languages all tongues it's that proves
that in the end times there will still be languages everybody's not gonna just only speak
English you know even though that's where we're heading it's not gonna get all the way there
because they're still gonna be languages nations tongues kindreds ethnicities so they're gonna
mingle with the seed of man meaning that not only will the government's join up but they're also be
mixing amongst the people but they're still gonna retain their identities they're not just gonna
become one in the same just one blur of iron and clay just all mixed that can't happen so you have
the clay and you have the iron so that's what that's referring to in verse 43 verse 44 says
and in the days of these kings these ten kings of the ten kingdoms of the ten toes the ten horns and
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 and of course that is Jesus Christ Kingdom set up spiritually
at his first advent and set up physically at his second advent for as much as thou saw us that the
stone 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 the great God have made known to the king what shall come to
pass here after and the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure then the King Nebuchadnezzar
fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel obviously that was not right for him to do that and
command of the nation offer an oblation and sweet odors unto him also not right the King answered
unto Daniel and said of a 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 set
Shadrach Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon but Daniel sat in the gate
of the king so there we made it through this bear of a chapter Daniel chapter two it's a great
chapter though it's very important and it all comes clear when we compare with Revelation but
a little bit of strong meat of the word here if you want to do further study to really understand
this and comprehend this fully the chapter you want to study is Daniel excuse me the chapter you
want to study is Revelation 17 that's what deals with the ten kings and so forth and also of course
you would study revelation 13 let's buy rides and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much
for this great chapter Lord and all the things that we could learn from it and Lord we just pray
that you would just help us as we read our Bibles to study to show ourselves approved not to listen
to cunningly defies fables and strange theories about aliens and so forth Lord help us to focus
on what the text actually says and take the Bible for what it says Lord and compare scripture with
scripture to find the truth in these things and not to be carried about and toss to and
fro with every wind of doctrine and in Jesus name we pray amen