Participants: Pr. David Klinedinst
Series Code: DPR
Program Code: DPR000001A
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00:07 Heavenly Father, Lord we
00:11 come here tonight, from all different walks of life 00:15 Lord but the one thing we have in common, 00:19 we recognize Jesus Christ as our Savior 00:23 Lord you have promised that where two or three people are 00:27 gathered in Your name that you would be present 00:31 So we wanna ask tonight that the same Holy Spirit 00:35 that inspired the authors of scripture would be present here, that you would 00:39 write on our hearts and mids the lesson that you want us to hear this 00:43 evening. Most of all Lord, we pray we want 00:47 to have an experience with Jesus tonight. We want to see Him in the 00:51 center of this prophecy. We want to know that we have 00:55 assurance through Him. So now we pray for Your guidance 00:59 We pray for your understanding, and we ask that you would help us. 01:03 To see light, to see your truth. This we ask 01:07 and pray, in Jesus name, amen. 01:11 It was January 16 of the year 01:15 2009. It was a frigid night 01:19 in northern New Jersey. The temperature had actually 01:23 plummeted to about eight degrees. But despite the cold weather, 01:27 there was a nineteen year old girl who was getting ready to go 01:31 to a party with her three friends. But that night, 01:35 her three friends deceived her. No sooner 01:39 did she get into the car, then they proceeded to drive to 01:43 an isolated part of the county, pull to the side of the road, they 01:47 grabbed their friend by the hair, drug her out of the car, 01:51 and then threw into the nearby woods. Then they drove off 01:55 and abandoned her on what was a bitterly cold night. 01:59 She was left just wearing her dress, a thin jacket, 02:03 and one shoe. For the next hour she walked up and down 02:07 that snowy road desperately looking for help. 02:11 And during that time, five motorists passed her way, none of them 02:14 stopped to help her. Finally there was one man who 02:18 was on his way to work. He saw the condition that she was in, and 02:22 he stopped and drove her to the nearby Inglewood hosiptal, 02:26 and medical center. By the time she got there, 02:30 her feet were already experiencing frostbite. 02:34 Four days later, her friends were charged with 02:38 kidnapping, assault, and conspiracy charges. 02:42 Sources say that were arguing over a man. But whatever the argument 02:46 argument was about, one thing is for sure, this girl was left 02:50 traumatized. She was betrayed and deceived by 02:54 people who were supposed to be her friends. 02:58 And it left her asking the question, "Who can 03:03 I trust?" You see, now what does that have to do with our topic tonight? 03:07 All of us have probably gone through experiences 03:11 in life, that have eroded our trust in people. And sometimes 03:15 that issue of trust can even effect our spiritual life and our 03:19 relationship with God. Because then we begin the question, "Can 03:23 I trust God? Can I really trust 03:27 that the Bible is true? Can I truly believe 03:31 that God is in control of the future?" 03:35 So tonight I want to open up our seminar by sharing with you a prophecy that 03:39 answers all three of those questions. It is a prophecy that answers all three of those questions. 03:43 It is actually found in the book of Daniel Chapter 2. And I would like you to 03:47 turn there in your Bibles. This is one of the most dramatic prophecies 03:51 that you will find in scripture. It covers a span of 03:55 about 2500 years and it predicts the rise and fall 03:59 of four world empires. How many did I say? 04:03 Four. It goes from the time of Babylon and stretches all 04:07 the way to the end of end of time where we are today. 04:11 This prophecy is going to do three things. Number one, 04:15 It is going to show us that we can trust the Bible as 04:19 an inspired word from God. It is going to show us that 04:23 the future is still under God's control. 04:27 And it is going to confirm to us that Jesus is indeed 04:31 coming soon. So I want you to take your Bibles, and by the way you are gonna 04:35 notice in this seminar, a lot of times I will only the reference 04:39 on the screen for you. I will not always spell out the 04:43 verse because I want you to look it up in your own Bibles. 04:47 I believe there is something special when people come together and open up 04:51 the Word of God for themselves, it does something to the 04:55 heart and to the mind. So a lot of times I want you to bring your Bibles with you 04:59 whatever version you have, and I want you to look it up with me 05:03 so that we are studying scripture together. So how many people are in Daniel 2 right now, can I see your 05:07 hands? Alright, Daniel chapter 2, and just as I begin 05:11 to read verse 1, I want to give the background to this chapter, 05:15 so that we can understand this prophecy. You are gonna be 05:19 introduced to a king known as Nebuchadnezzar. 05:23 In history, he came to the throne around 604 05:27 B.C. and was the leader of the Babylonian empire. 05:31 Now the history books tell us, that Nebuchadnezzar was a great 05:35 military leader. he conquered many lands 05:39 and took many people groups captive. And one of the 05:43 nations that he conquered was actually the city of Jerusalem, which he 05:47 laid siege to numerous times. He took many 05:51 of the Jewish people captive, where they lived in exile in Babylon. 05:55 And one of the young men whom he captured was the prophet 05:59 Daniel. Now Daniel stayed faithful to 06:03 God even in this pagan land, and God blessed him with 06:07 talents and with capabilities and eventually Daniel 06:11 became one of the main advisors of King Nebuchadnezzar. 06:15 And one night, God gave Nebuchadnezzar a 06:19 dream or a vision about the future of the world. 06:23 And God used Daniel to give Nebucahdnezzar the 06:27 interpretation. So let us begin and get the background here 06:31 beginning in verse one. Daniel 2:1, 06:35 the Bible says, "Now in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar 06:39 reign, Nebucahdnezzar had" what? 06:43 Oh come on I need to hear you more than that so I know that you're there. Nebuchanezzar had what? 06:47 Dreams. "And his spriti was so troubled, 06:51 that his sleep left him. Then the King gave 06:55 the command to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers, 06:59 and the Chalideans to tell the King his dreams." 07:03 So they came and they stood before the kIng. 07:07 The king said to them, I have had a dream 07:11 and my spirit is anxious to know the dream. 07:15 Now I am gonna stop there before we get too far into it. The Bible tells us 07:19 that one night Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that disturbed him. 07:23 Now in our modern world today, we do not take dreams all that 07:27 seriously. We just figure, I ate too much before I went to bed 07:31 and my stomach just got upset. But in the ancient 07:35 East, dreams were very significant. 07:39 Because for a pagan king, it was believed that perhaps, 07:43 his gods were trying to contact him. 07:47 That maybe the gods were trying to communicate some important peace 07:51 of information, like whether or not he should go to war. 07:55 Or whether there was some sort of intrigue or deception within the palace. 07:59 So when a pagan king had a dream, it was taken 08:03 quite seriously. And what disturbed Nebuchadnezzar 08:07 is he could not remember the details of that dream. now is that 08:11 ever happened to you? Can I see your hands? You know you dream something at night, you know 08:15 it was scary, but the next morning when your wife asks why 08:19 you were flailing around in bed, you could not remember the details. 08:23 That is what happened to Nebuchadnezzar. And so the Bible says 08:27 that he called all of his advisors. You know, astrologers, 08:31 wizards, sorcerers, and he brought them to his throne. 08:35 and he wanted them to tell him the dream. And, 08:39 the interpretation. Now you and I in the 21st Century, 08:43 we would think that is rather strange, for a king to expect 08:47 his advisors to tell him the details of a dream that he 08:51 himself could not even remember. That sounds crazy to us. 08:55 But you have to remember something. Babylon was heavily 08:59 involved in spiritualism and these advisors, these astrologers, 09:03 and sorcerers, they claimed to have special knowledge, 09:07 not available to ordinary men. 09:11 They claimed to be able to know the secrets and mysteries of the universe that they 09:15 could contact the pagan gods and speak with them. 09:19 And let me tell you, they were paid well to do so. 09:23 And so Nebuchadnezzar figured, if the pagan gods gave me a dream 09:27 and if my astrologers can access the 09:31 secrets of the universe, they should be able to tell me what it is 09:35 that I dreamed. And when Nebucahnezzar realized 09:39 that his advisors could not do it, when he realized 09:43 that all these years they had been just lying to him and making things 09:47 up, when he came to the conclusion that he has a bunch of con artists 09:51 on the payroll he is utterly furious. And he puts 09:55 forth a rash decree that all his advisors should be executed. 09:59 You gotta understannd, in a pagan 10:03 kingdom in ancient near east, you don't go through a senate or a house 10:07 of representatives. There is no veto power. What the king says 10:11 goes because he is a dictator. And as the story goes on, 10:15 the Bible tells us that eventually the soldiers went to Daniel 10:19 to execute him. But Daniel made a request, 10:23 to see the king. And he told King Nebuchadnezzar that 10:27 "I know that my God 10:31 the true God of heaven can reveal to you the dream and 10:35 its meaning." He asked the king to give him time 10:39 to go home and to pray. And what does Nebuchadnezzar do. Remember? 10:44 He grants that request. Now folks, 10:48 that is significant. Before we even get to the details of this vision, 10:52 there is also practical lessons in the books of Daniel and Revelation. 10:56 Nebuchadnezzar did for Daniel, something 11:00 he would not even do for his own advisors, he gave Daniel 11:04 extra time, because Nebuchadnezzar knew 11:08 that Daniel was a righteous and trustworthy man. Amen? 11:12 He watched how Daniel conducted himself in daily 11:16 life. He knew he acted with integrity and with 11:20 compassion. he knew something was different about this man 11:24 who followed the God of Heaven. And as a result 11:28 Nebuchadnezzar granted him a favor. Now folks, 11:32 that says something about you and me. As disciples of Jesus Christ, 11:36 the way we live our lives everyday, 11:40 matters. The way I conduct myself in the workplace 11:44 makes a difference. The way I act in my neighborhood 11:48 the way I treat people in my own home is always a witness 11:52 to others for either good or for bad. 11:56 See, when people look at your life or mine obviously they aren't 12:00 gonna see that we are perfect, we make mistakes. But they should see 12:04 something about the character of Jesus Christ in us. 12:08 They should see something that makes the Christian 12:12 attractive to them. Nebuchadnezzar saw that in 12:16 Daniel. That's what God calls his people to do today. 12:20 So Daniel goes home, and he and his three friends 12:24 pray like they have never prayed before. I just find this interesting 12:28 instead of complaining against God, 12:32 instead of saying "Oh God you let Jerusalem be destroyed, my family 12:36 was killed, I have been living in exile for years, I will never be able to go home 12:40 and now you let this happen? Why God!" That is 12:44 what they could've done. But instead of complaing, they 12:48 just kneel down and pray. What would happen 12:52 if when difficulties came into your life 12:56 when I go through hard times, instead of always asking God 13:00 why, and complaining and blaming Him, 13:04 what might happen if I just kneel down and I pray? 13:08 I came into his presence and handed it over to Jesus. 13:12 We may find that God will deliver us 13:16 just as he would eventually deliver Daniel. 13:20 Eventually as they pray, God gives Daniel the same dream that was given to 13:24 Nebuchadnezzar. So now I wanna pick up the prophecy or the story, 13:28 in verse 31 because Daniel is now standing 13:32 before the king and he is describing to the king the vision 13:36 that he saw so let us pick it up in Daniel 2. I 13:40 am gonna start reading in verse 31. The Bible says, 13:44 and this is Daniel speaking, 13:48 You oh king were watching and behold a great 13:52 image, this great image 13:56 whose splendor was excellent stood before you. Its form 14:00 was awesome. This images head was of fine gold 14:04 , its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thigh 14:08 of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of 14:12 iron and partly of clay. Verse 34. You 14:16 watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which 14:20 struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke 14:24 them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, 14:28 the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, 14:32 and they became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. 14:36 The wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found 14:40 and the stone that struck the image became 14:44 a great mountain and it filled 14:48 the entire earth. Now I want to stop there for a second. 14:52 As Daniel is describing this image, Nebucahdnezzar 14:56 must have jumped out of his seat. Daniel was describing 15:00 something similar to what you see on the screen here. Now, obviously 15:04 none of us were there, we don't know what it lookedlike, but according to the Bible's description, 15:08 this is an artist's conception. 15:12 It was an impressive image that caught Nebuchadnezzar's attention immediately. 15:16 It was made of four different metals. A head of gold, 15:20 chest and arms of silver, midsection of bronze, 15:24 legs of iron, and feet part iron part clay. 15:28 And as Nebuchadnezzar watched, a great stone came out of 15:32 the heavens, struck that image in the feet, smashed it into thousands of pieces, 15:36 so that nothing was left. Then, that rock grew as big as whole 15:40 earth. I imagine, that is exactly 15:44 what I dreamed. But now, here is the question. 15:48 What was God trying to tell Nebuchadnezzar? 15:52 What was God trying to reveal 15:56 to the most powerful man in the world. 16:00 And more importantly, what is God trying 16:04 to tell you and me today. 16:08 What we are going to discover is this, Those four metals represent 16:12 four super powers that would rise to world dominance. 16:16 And this prophecy is going to walk us through history from Babylon, 16:20 until the time of Argae. And by the time we finish 16:24 this prophecy, we are going to see that God has been in control 16:28 of the past. And if God is in control of the past, I know 16:32 he is in control of the present. If he is in control of the present, then I can trust 16:36 Him to be in control of the future. And if he is in control 16:40 of the future, that means I can trust him to be in control of my 16:44 life today, with my decisions and the path that he 16:48 wants me to follow. 16:52 We can trust Jesus. So let's pick it up now 16:56 as Daniel begins to give us the interpretation of 17:00 the different parts of the image. Now we wanna go to verse 36, 17:04 of Daniel 2. The Bible says, 17:08 This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation. 17:12 You Oh King. 17:16 And who is he talking to? Nebuchadnezzar. 17:20 You oh king are a king of kings. For the God of Heave has 17:24 given you a kingdom, and power, and strength, 17:28 and glory and wherever the children of man dwell, or the beasts of the 17:32 field and the birds of the heavens, he has given them into 17:36 your hand and has made you ruler over them all. 17:40 You are this head. 17:44 Now you see the first thing God wants Nebuchadnezzar to 17:48 understand is that he might be a powerful ruler, 17:52 he might have political dominance, and everyone may 17:56 bow to him, but God wants Nebuchadnezzar to know that the only reason 18:00 he has those things is not because he is a great military leader, 18:04 only because God in his providence allowed it to happen. 18:08 And he wanted Nebuchadnezzar to know that even he will come 18:12 to a time when his life will stand before God. 18:16 Those of us that may have power, or influence and authority, God wants us to realize that 18:20 he wants us to use those things for good. 18:24 To lift other people up and draw them closer to 18:28 the Lord Jesus. God eventually says, you Nebuchadnezzar 18:32 your kingdom of Babylon, you are this head of gold. 18:36 This part is pretty easy to understand, it is not a complex 18:40 one. Clearly God is representing the head of gold as Babylon. 18:44 Now to help us understand another part of this prophecy, 18:48 I gotta share with you a little of Babylon. 18:52 Babylon was the superpower of its day. Rising to power 18:56 somewhere around 605 BC. 19:00 Babylon was considered to be absolutely indestructible 19:04 and invincible. It was believed that Babylon 19:08 woul dnever fall, that it would last forever. 19:12 I want you to notice how this commentary, Daniel and the Revelation 19:16 I want you to notice how the author describes the city of Babylon. The author 19:20 writes, the city of Babylon was laid out in a perfect 19:24 square said to be 60 miles in circumference, 19:28 15 miles on each side, surrounded by a wall 19:32 estimated to have been 200-300 feet high and 19:36 87 feet thick with a moat, or ditch, 19:40 around this and provisions on hand 19:44 for 20 years. Now I want you to think about that 19:48 We are talking about the ancient world here. A city 60 miles 19:52 in circumference at that time was huge. 19:56 That might be a smaller midsized city today. Back then it was one of the 20:00 biggest in the world probably. It goes on to say that they had 20:04 a wall 200-300 feet high, 87 feet thick 20:08 SO if you are gonna conquer Babylon, if Babylon is gonna fall 20:12 you either gotta go through the wall, and you are not going through 87 feet of stone 20:16 or whatever it was. No battering ram would be able to do that. 20:20 You say well maybe they would go up the wall. Possibly, 20:24 but that is gonna be awfully hard when there are archers on top the wall shooting arrows 20:28 down at you and throwing boulders down on your head. That is nearly 20:32 impossible. Now if you wanted to lay siege to Babylon, 20:36 and surround it? That is fine you would cut off their food supply. 20:40 Except for one thing. Babylon had provisions on hand for how long? 20:44 20 years. That means an enemy 20:48 would have to have money enough for their army to surround Babylon 20:52 for 20 years. An utter impossibility. 20:56 I want you to notice what God says. in verse 39 21:00 God says the impossible is 21:04 going to happen. Verse 39 the Bible says, 21:08 "But after you Nebuchadnezzar, 21:12 shall arise another kingdom, 21:16 inferior to yours." Now we are gonna stop 21:20 after that half sentence. I am sure that when Daniel uttered those words, 21:24 Nebuchadnezzar didn't like that. Another kingdom after me? 21:28 And not only did God say that Babylon would fall and another kingdom would come 21:32 what kind of kingdom? 21:36 An inferior kingdom! 21:41 Now I would imagine that the guards, the soldiers, whoever was in the palace at that 21:45 time had heard those words probably in their heart ridiculed and 21:49 scorned Daniel and his God. Like Babylon is gonna fall 21:53 the superpower to a weaker and inferior nation. 21:57 That is what Bible prophecy says. So here's the 22:01 question. If God can be trusted, if 22:05 Bible prophecy is true and accurate, does history tell 22:09 us that Babylon was conquered by an inferior nation. 22:13 All you have to do is open up the history books, and the 22:17 answer is absolutely yes. For those of you who remember 22:21 history class. Tell me, what nation came on to the scene 22:25 and defeated Babylon and rose to worldwide dominance. Remember? 22:29 This is your quúfor tonight. That is right, Medo-Persia. 22:33 Medo-Persia, or some textbooks just call them the Persian empire. They are 22:37 represented by the chest and arms of silver. They 22:41 defeated Babylon and began ruling much 22:45 of the then known world. The question you might have is this, 22:49 if Persia was an inferior kingdom, and they were they were made up of two people, 22:53 the Medes and the Persians. The Persians were a little stronger than the 22:57 Medes, that is why it is called the Persian kingdom. You see well how did they defeat 23:01 Babylon? How did they go over that wall or through it? What happened? 23:05 Well i don't have time to go through all the details tonight, I'll just give you a little 23:09 summary. If you want to read about it, read Daniel 23:13 chapter 5. it tells you it happened. You won't even have to the history books for that. 23:17 But here is what occurred. When Nebuchadnezzar died, his 23:21 grandson or great grandson eventually took over the throne. His name was 23:25 Belteshazzar. Belteshazzar was a very young a 23:29 and foolish king and actually quite arrogant. And so when the 23:33 Medo-Persian army came to attack babylon, the 23:37 do you know what he did? If you were a king and knew an enemy was coming to attack you 23:41 what do you think you would do. prepare your armies! 23:45 He decided, Babylon would never fall he threw a 23:49 party in the city and palace for his soldiers 23:53 and all his subjects. So while the enemy was outside the city, 23:57 this arrogant king is throwing a party. 24:01 So what the Medo-Persian army did is, they cut off 24:05 the river. The Euphrates River goes underneath Babylon 24:09 They cut off the river, got onto the dry river, 24:13 and walked underneath the wall to the other side. 24:17 Normally you wouldn't be able to do that because again archers would be shooting 24:21 at you and throwing boulders down upon you. Where are the Babylonian 24:25 soldiers? They're at a drunken party in the palace 24:29 So they walked right underneath the wall. Well, 24:33 when they came up on the other side, they still had to go through the city 24:37 gates which would always be locked. But because they were in a 24:41 inebriated stupor, someone left the 24:45 city gates unlocked. The medo-persian army, 24:49 marched right into Babylon and even though they were a weaker army, 24:53 and an inferior nation, it wasn't too hard to 24:57 conquer Babylon when all their soldiers are intoxicated 25:01 and that night, Babylon 25:05 fell. Was that by chance 25:09 Was that by circumstance or coincidence? No 25:13 it is because Bible prophecy said it would happen, they would be conquered by 25:17 an inferior nation. That is why we can trust 25:21 what Bible prophecy says. Can you say amen? But we have got to 25:25 move on because we have to eventually get to our day. Now, in the 25:29 second half of verse 39, notice what God says next. 25:33 Verse 39 the second half in the Bible says 25:37 "Then another, a third kingdom of bronze 25:41 which shall rule over all the earth. 25:45 Well, now God is saying that eventually Persia will pass from the scene, and 25:49 they will be conquered by a third kingdom who begins to dominate the world. 25:53 So if Bible prophecy is true, we should be able to see 25:57 that in the history books. Again for those of you who paid attention in 26:01 history class, and by the way i gotta see how honest you are. 26:05 How many of you can say, you know Pastor Dave I have to admit that 26:09 in high school I didn't pay alot of attention in history it was rather 26:13 boring. Would you be honest and raise your hands? 26:17 I've gotta admit, of course I didn't know I was gonna teach 26:22 Bible prophecy one day, but now that I know 26:26 prophecy of the Bible, history is fascinating to me. 26:30 Because I can now see God's overarching hand 26:34 all throughout history. I can see that things did not just happen 26:38 by chance and even when it seems like thigns are spontaneous 26:42 and spiraling out of control, God is still in 26:46 control. I love history now. So you tell me 26:50 what nation conquered Persia and became the next dominant power do you know? 26:54 You got it! The Grecian Empire by Alexander 26:58 the Great. I wanna share with you something about 27:02 Alexander the Great in just a minute here. In the commentary 27:06 Daniel and the Revelation, it says this about the deciding 27:10 battle between Greece and Persia. The author says, 27:14 "Suffice it to say that the deciding point 27:18 was reached on the field of Arbela in 331 BC. where the Grecians, 27:22 though only 1 to 20 in number, 27:26 as compared with the Persians, 27:30 won a decisive victory. 27:34 I don't want you to miss that. When is the last time 27:38 you heard of a nation, outnumbered 20 to 1, 27:42 winning a decisive victory in battle. 27:46 That ius nearly impossible according to human terms. 27:50 But that is exactly what happened in history. Why? 27:54 Is it because Alexander the Great was a wonderful military leader and strategist? 27:58 Oh that may be a little part of it, 28:02 but it is because Bible prophecy said a third kingdom would come 28:06 on the scene and it did. 28:10 That is why God's word can always be trusted. 28:14 Now, the leader of Greece at that time as you know was Alexander 28:18 the great. Now i want to just stop and bring out a practical lesson 28:22 before we go on in this prophecy. Do you know old 28:26 Alexander the Great was when he dominated the world? 28:31 Guess. Yeah he was in his 30s. 28:35 He was about 33 years old when he died. Could you imagine being in control 28:39 of the world in your 30s, being th emost powerful 28:43 man in the world at that time. he had 28:47 everything that you would think a person would want. 28:51 He had power, he had fame, 28:55 he had all the wealth and money he could want, he had 28:59 any pleasure in life that he desired to have. 29:03 You what you discover? He wasn't happy. 29:07 He struggled with need in life 29:11 because some sources of history conjecture 29:15 that Alexander the Great died because he drank himself 29:19 to death. History tells us quite lightly he had 29:23 an alcohol problem. that these other things were not 29:27 giving him a source of joy and happiness, that he had to turn to alcohol 29:31 and alcohol conquered him at the age of 33 29:35 when he had all these things you would think that a person 29:39 would possibly desire. You know what that tells me? 29:43 I can spend all my life 29:47 trying to build my business to fortune 29:51 I can spend my life trying to climb 29:55 the corporate ladder and become powerful, 29:59 I could spend my life trying to build my bank account 30:03 spending 40 hours a week in front of my televison 30:07 and Bible prophecy tells us the only thing that really matters is 30:11 do I have a relationship with Jesus Christ. 30:15 The center of all prophecy. You see when I have Jesus 30:19 as my savior, and I am pointing there because they have the sign there that i 30:23 really like. The center of all prophecy. When you have Jesus Christ, 30:27 as you savior that means that the perfect life that Jesus lived, 30:31 counts for you. that he is willing to give you and I 30:35 His righteousness, and so when God looks 30:39 in the record book of your life, he does not see all your sins 30:43 and mistakes and short comings, he sees the perfect life of Jesus 30:47 that now counts for you. That is why the Bible 30:51 calls Him out substitute. What would it be like, 30:55 to think that God could look at you, 30:59 as though you are perfect. 31:03 That's what it means to have Jesus Christ as a savior. That is 31:07 really the only thing that matters. 31:11 That is why Jesus himself said in Mark 8:36, 31:15 "What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole 31:19 world, yet lose his own soul." 31:23 Eternal life through Jesus, is 31:27 worth more than anything we may try to gain 31:31 in this world. That is what I learned partly from this prophecy 31:35 and from the life of Alexander the Great. Let us move on 31:39 we have got farther to go in this prophecy. Now after Greece, 31:43 in verse 40 God says another kingdom is going to come. 31:47 Now let's begin to pick it up here because in verse 40 things will eventually become 31:51 a little more detailed. Verse 40 the Bible says, 31:55 "and the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as 31:59 iron. In asmuch 32:03 as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, 32:07 and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces 32:11 and crush all the others. 32:15 Now we're gonna pause here for a second. Bible prophecy says 32:19 Greece would fall, a fourth kingdom would come onto the scene, 32:23 God desribes this fourth kingdom, whoever it would be, 32:27 as being strong like iron, and crushing 32:31 everything in its path. So if Bible prophecy 32:35 is true, if God can be trusted, 32:39 that means I should be able to see that in history, and when I look 32:43 back indeed, Greece was conquered by another 32:47 stronger empire. Do you know who that was? 32:51 it was the roman empire. Rome ruled the world 32:55 almost 600 years. I want you to think about that. 32:59 600 years. That is a strong empire. 33:03 And what is amazing to me. They are obviously represented by the legs 33:07 of iron on the statue. 33:11 But if you read the secular history books, many that are written by non-Christians, folk who 33:15 are not believers in God, do know what nickname 33:19 they have given the Roman empire? Take a guess. 33:23 Well I know my wife knows, they have been called 33:27 the iron kingdom. I find it 33:31 astounding that historians who knew nothing of the prophets 33:35 of Daniel 2 have given Rome a nickname 33:39 that perfectly correlates with what God said hundreds of years ago 33:43 and it is true. Rome conquered everything 33:47 in its path. They ruled the world when Jesus walked this earth. 33:51 So here is what we see thus far in this great image 33:55 4 super powers. Babylon, Persia, Greece 33:59 Rome. But now we are at a point 34:03 where the pattern of world history is going to change. 34:07 God is going to utter a prophecy that is rather amazing. Because 34:11 at this point the next verse is going to tell us 34:15 that it is not going to be a fifth world ruling empire that comes. 34:19 Because so far it has been one super power conquering another and ruling 34:23 the world. God says that pattern stops 34:27 after Rome, after the fourth kingdom. And the prophecy is going to reveal 34:31 the fourth kingdom is simply going to divide from within 34:35 into many smaller nations. 34:39 Let's pick it up in verse 41 I want you to notice what God says here. 34:43 Verse 41. The Bible says, " 34:47 Where as you saw the feet and toes partly of potters 34:51 clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be 34:55 divided. Yet the strength of 34:59 the iron shall be in it just as you saw the iron mixed 35:03 with ceramic clay. And as the toes of the 35:07 feer were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the 35:11 kingdoms shall be partly strong, and partly fragile. 35:15 Or some versions say partly brittle now we are going to stop here. 35:19 God clearly says that this fourth kingdom which woul dbe 35:23 Rome would be divided. That is would not become 35:27 conquered by another superpower, the pattern is going to change. And so 35:31 if Bible prophecy is true, if it is accurate 35:35 if God can be trusted, I should be able to look back 35:39 in history and see if that actually happened, and you discover 35:43 that it did. Rome was not conquered by 35:47 anotehr power. They were invaded by many of the barbaric 35:51 tribes from the north and over the centuries they eventually divided 35:55 into many smaller nations. Some were 35:59 strong, some were weak like clay. 36:03 And over the centuries they became the nations of western Europe 36:07 that we have today. That is the divided Roman empire. 36:11 SOme were strong like iron, some were weak 36:16 like clay. In fact, the traditional date for the fall of 36:20 Rome is 476, but you realize an empire does not fall in a day. 36:24 These things happened many years over a century 36:28 but since 476, these are some of the people 36:32 groups that came out of the dividing of Rome. Now I don't want to go into a lot of detail 36:36 here because I do not want us to miss the main point. For example. 36:40 the Alamanni people group they became the Germans, well guess what country 36:44 they founded. Germany. The Burgundians became the Swiss 36:48 what country did they found? Switzerland. The Anglo-Saxons 36:52 they were the English 36:56 who founded England. So you have all these 37:00 people groups over the centuries that eventually founded the 37:04 divided nations of western europe, that is the time period that 37:08 we live in today. The days of divided nations 37:12 in Western Europe. But then 37:16 God says something astounding in verse 43 37:20 God really sticks his neck out here, and I don't want us 37:24 to miss this. Verse 43, now keep in mind 37:28 God is speaking about the nations of western Europe that 37:32 came out of Rome. Verse 43 the Bible says, " 37:36 As you saw iron mixed with 37:40 ceramic clay, they 37:44 will mingle with the seed of men 37:48 but they will not adhere one to another 37:52 just as iron does not mix with clay. 37:56 " Now if you have the King James Version 38:00 it actually uses the phrase "they shall not cleave one to another" 38:04 Do you realize those seven words, 38:08 they shall not cleave one to another, 38:12 they have stood the test of time for over a thousand years 38:16 because in this prophecy God is saying 38:20 these nations that will come out of rome, that would form the nations of western 38:24 Europe, theyw ould try to mingle with the seed of men 38:28 in other words, they would intermarry, they would try to unite together again. 38:32 And all through the middle ages, this king seeks to amrry 38:36 this queen. This prince hooks up with this princess. They make all the 38:40 different alliances to try to bring Euope back together into one 38:44 world power. But Bible prophecy 38:48 clearly said they shall not 38:52 cleave one to another and 38:56 ever since the fall of rome in 476, that prophecy 39:00 has stood true for almost 1500 years 39:04 In fact there have been many leaders that have tried to defy that 39:08 prophecy I am just gonna show you a few. Cherlemagne 39:12 in the middle ages. He tried to unite Europe, he failed. 39:16 Stalin tried it. He failed. Hiteler 39:20 just a few generations removed from us, he tried it. 39:24 In world war 2 and he failed. 39:28 You know the leader that got the closest was Napoleon. 39:32 During the french revolution if you know anyhting about history 39:36 Napoleon was conquering countrya fter country and 39:40 actually looked like he might defy this prophecy. Now it is said 39:44 that someone once went to Napoleon and 39:48 shared with him what Daniel 2 said 39:52 but Napoleon continued on anyway. But God did something so simple 39:56 as Napoleon's armies marched to battle, 40:00 God sent a few snowflakes 40:04 and those snowflakes diverted Napoleon to 40:08 Waterloo where he met his defeat. 40:12 Is that by chance? Is that an accident? 40:16 Is that just a coincidence? 40:20 No it is because Bible prophecy said they shall not cleave 40:24 one to another.even our world today 40:28 has tried to defy that. Europe ahs a common curreccny. 40:32 The Europian common market, European 40:36 airlines, but the fact remains, they are still seperate nations with separate governments. 40:40 Separate leaders, separate laws because God says. 40:44 They will never from a worldwide superpower again. 40:48 This is why i can trust what God's word says. 40:52 But now comes the last part of the parable 40:56 or prophecy, one that to me is the most important 41:00 one. The book of Daniel was written somewhere around 500-600 BC 41:04 This was not written after all these things occurred. 41:08 And if every part of this prophecy has been fulfilled to a T, 41:12 then we know that the last part will be fulfilled 41:16 as well. The last part is this rock that flies out of the heavens. 41:20 Let us read about that in verse 44. 41:24 If you are still with me tonight, can you say amen. Alright verse 44. 41:28 The Bible says, "And in the days of 41:32 these Kings, 41:36 now what is he talking about, 41:40 the Kings the leaders of western europe. That is the period we live in today. 41:44 the God of heaven will 41:48 set up a kingdom which shall never destroyed. And the 41:52 Kingdom shall not be left to other people it shall 41:56 break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms 42:00 and it shall stand forever. And then 42:04 verse 45 end by saying the dream is 42:08 certain. The interpretation is sure. 42:12 See the prophecy says this rock this 42:16 stone that flies out of the heavens, is simply the second coming 42:20 of Jesus Christ. The coming of His Kingdom. 42:24 Because all throughout the Bible even in the old testament Jesus us 42:28 referred to as the rock, the capstone 42:32 the cornerstone, this rock that flies out of heaven 42:36 is reminding us that Jesus Christ is coming soon. 42:41 That all other kingdoms in the world will be obliterated and we can be 42:44 with Jesus forever. Somebody ought to say amen tonight 42:49 because if that part of the prophecy is not fulfilled, you and I have no hope. 42:53 Because I do not know about you, I am happy to be alive but I do not want to live 42:57 in this world forever. I am waiting for Jesus to come and this 43:01 prophecy is telling us, notice, the rock strikes the image where. 43:05 in the feet. THe time period of a divided 43:09 Europe, our time, is telling us taht 43:13 Jesus is coming very very soon. We may not know 43:17 the day or the hour, but prophecy says that it is closer than 43:21 we think. And the point is it is trying to wake us up 43:25 so that we can get close to Jesus and pay 43:29 attention to our relationship with Him. 43:33 Now one honest question we may ask before we close, is someone may ask the question 43:37 well if Rome fell in 476, 43:41 and we have had the dividing Nations of Western Europe around for a long time 43:45 probably a thousand years, why has Jesus waitied 43:49 to come? Why does it seema s though he ahs delayed 43:53 his coming. He could hve come long ago, 43:57 Well i do not claim to have alll the answers but I do think there is a verse in 44:01 the bible that gives us just a little clue. It is 2 Peter 3 44:05 verse 8 and 9. I have that on the screen for you. 44:09 The Bible says but do not forget this one thing dear friends 44:13 that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and 44:17 a thousand years is like a day and verse 9 44:21 says the lord is not slow concerning 44:25 his promise as some count slowness, He is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance. 44:37 You see, the Bible tell us, God is not interested in seeing 44:41 people lost unneccesarily. 44:45 he does not enjoy seeing people perish. So God waits 44:49 as long as he can. So that people will make 44:53 a decison for him. But the truth is 44:57 earth's history is winding down and God 45:01 cannot wait forever. There will comea time 45:05 when probation will close. 45:09 And so I ahve to ask myself a ery serious question. 45:13 Is it possible that God 45:17 is waiting dor you. 45:21 Is it possible that He is waiting for you. 45:25 To make a decision. 45:29 Is it possible that he is waiting for you to accept Him as your savior 45:33 For you or me to take Him 45:37 seriously. 45:41 This invitation ot those that are living at the end of time. Revelation 3 45:45 20 the Bible says, behold I stand at the door 45:49 and knock. if anyone hears my voice 45:53 and opens the door, I will come in to him. 45:57 Friends that is a very intimate picture 46:01 that shows Jesus standing at the door of our heart knocking 46:05 because he wants to come in. 46:09 the only question that remains is do I hear 46:13 the voice of Jesus in my life. Or is the voice 46:17 of Jesus being drowned out by so many other things. 46:21 my business, my sports, 46:25 my pleasures. Because at some point I 46:29 have to decide to open the door 46:33 and to let Him in. The Good thing is Jesus 46:37 never stops knocking until time 46:41 is over. TOnight when you go home I wonder if you might 46:45 pray this prayer in your heart, that in the provacy of your home 46:49 you might say, Lord Jesus I know that you are still in control 46:53 of this world. But Lord I want you to be in control 46:57 of my life tonight I am opening 47:01 my heart to you. He has promised 47:05 he would never leave us nor forsake us. 47:09 Nor would he ever turn a soul away. |
Revised 2018-07-01