The Times of the Nations

Tonight we find ourselves looking at what the Bible says concerning the nations of the world We're doing this because in 1st Corinthians 10 32, the world is divided into three categories Jews, the Church of God, and the Gentiles Okay, the Gentiles, another name for nations And the world is divided into three groups There they are Jews, the Church of God, and the nations And our design is to look at the times of the nations this evening We've already looked at Israel We have studied Israel up to our point now over the last 15 weeks about what God's going to do with the nation of Israel

If you were here last week you understand the plan that God has for that nation We've already looked at the Church of God We've looked at the rapture of the church We looked at will the church go through tribulation? Why won't they go through tribulation? We've already looked at that And now we're moving on to look at the nations of the world And we're going to do that in several ways We will look at the times of the nations This is the setting that will springboard us into the ruler of the nations And then we'll move from the ruler of the nations to the religion of the nations

There will be a one world ruler There will be a one world religion And then we will look at the war of the nations And from the war of the nations we will look then at the judgment of the nations And then we will look at the earthly kingdom of the Christ Because the King will have returned He will have established his kingdom And we need to understand what this kingdom truly is all about And then we'll ask the question, what now? That's where we're going from this point on until the middle of July when we're done That's where we're going So now you know

But tonight's about the times of the nations Specifically dealing with the Gentile nations And people ask the question, and I've already asked the question over and over again, why is the world in such turmoil? Why is there so much strife? Why is there so much animosity? Why is it mankind cannot get along together? Why is there so much chaos in the world? The answer is simple It's located in the Messianic Psalm, Psalm chapter 2 The most infamous Messianic Psalm It says in verse number 1, why are the nations in an uproar? And the people's devising a vain thing

In other words, why is there so much chaos? And why does everything seem so futile and empty? It says, the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed The reason there is so much strife and turmoil and chaos is simply because the world has rebelled against the Lord God and His anointed, the Messiah of God That's why It's not hard to explain Once they reject God and His Messiah, they thus reject His Word, which He proclaims and is given to us, thus rejecting every solution that God has given to handle the chaos in man's life

In fact, the writer of Isaiah, Isaiah himself, wrote the words of God when he said in verse number 19, Isaiah 57, peace, peace to him who is far and to him who is near, says the Lord, and I will heal him God is offering peace to those who have rebelled against Him Verse 20, but the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet In its waters toss up refuse and mud There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked The wicked man never experiences the peace of God He will live in constant turmoil against God

He will live in constant chaos inwardly as well as outwardly because he has rebelled against the authority of the Lord of the universe As you recall in the book of Acts, the fourth chapter, these first three verses of Psalm 2 were recorded there when those early Christians began to pray about what God had done by causing the kings of the world, particularly Herod, Pilate, the Gentile nations, to come against their Messiah

It's a reiteration of the fact that the world stands in rebellion against God and as long as the world rebels against God there will always be chaos, there will never be peace, there will always be turmoil, there will never be tranquility That's just the way it's going to be But there is coming one who will offer some kind of semblance to peace That person will be herald as a wonderful Messiah because he will be able to do what no one up to this point in all the world has ever done and he will give a semblance of peace for a very brief time, a very brief time

But that peace will soon turn to tragedy and chaos as well And then there will be a war, a great war, the great war of God as the Bible says it and men will die They will be destroyed because the king of the earth will return So there's going to be a war of the nations And yet the Bible is very clear about what is called the times of the nations Tonight I want to cover two things with you The period of that time of the nations and the prophecies about that time of the nations Okay, just two points They're quite lengthy This is the first time you've ever been to our church

You might be a little confused If you've been here for a while, you still might be a little confused And we don't want to confuse you We want you to understand things So we'll try to explain it as concisely and as clearly as possible But you need to understand the times of the Gentiles Because if you don't understand that, then you can't lead you into that one who will come and be the ruler of the Gentiles And then you won't be able to understand that religion that rules the Gentile world When I say Gentiles, I mean the nations of the world

And so all of them build one upon the other like building blocks But we're looking at the return of the king We are building toward his return We are looking for what's going to happen when the king finally arrives Until that time, we need to know what's happening with the nations of the world So let me begin by talking to you about the period of the nations, the times of the nations, in three categories First of all, its definition Third, its date of beginning, when it began And its duration, ultimately when it's going to end That would be good to know

Jesus coined the phrase, in terms of his definition, in Luke chapter 21, verse number 24, when he says the times of the Gentiles The word Gentiles is nations He calls it the times of the nations It refers to a segment of time, cut out of eternity, that belongs to the nations It's a specific time, cut out of eternity, that deals with a duration where the nations rule Now, that time of the nations is defined more by the Lord in Luke 21, verse number 24, when he says, Jerusalem, which is symbolic of Israel, shall be trodden down by the Gentiles or by the nations

So we know that the times of the Gentiles is defined by how the Gentiles trodden down Jerusalem, or rule over Jerusalem And we know that it will last at least until the eleventh chapter of Revelation, because John is told about the times of the nations and their ruling during the tribulation So when did it all begin? When did the date of time begin for the ruling of the nations? Now we know that Israel is back in Israel The Jews are back in the land of Israel It doesn't mean, listen carefully, that the times of the nations are over because Israel or the Jews are back in the land of Israel

They're back, but they're not ruling much Okay? The nations still rule in the land of Israel Why? Well, because there was a date it all began And it was around 600, particularly 606 B.C That's when it all began When Israel went into captivity called Babylonian captivity under a king named Nebuchadnezzar For years Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon tried to conquer Jerusalem They could not Why? Because God was there The glory of the Lord presided in Israel

But when God led Israel out of the promised land, out of Egypt to the promised land and fed them, protected them, watched over them, dwelt among them, great things happened But Israel continued to rebel against their God And Jeremiah says, when the sins of the people rose to the nostrils of God, that was it And the times of the nations began when Nebuchadnezzar and his army came into Jerusalem and conquered it and took Israel captive for 70 years That's when it began And as you understand what Ezekiel says, remember in the book of Ezekiel we had the sequence of events

In Ezekiel 10 and 11, the Bible says that the glory of the Lord departed from Israel The presence of God was removed God says that's it No longer will I protect you No longer will I preserve you Oh, you'll still be a nation You'll still be my people, but things are going to change In fact, in Ezekiel chapter 21 verse number 24, the Lord God said, because you have made your iniquity to be remembered in that your transgressions are uncovered so that in all your doings your sins do appear because I say you are come to remembrance You shall be taken with the hand

He says in Ezekiel 21, you can do anything you want to Jerusalem You can fortify the walls You can fortify the cities It makes no difference Your sin appears in all that you do In other words, your life is characterized by sin and I am a holy God And because I am a holy God and are too pure to behold evil, you'll be taken by the hand And sure enough, Nebuchadnezzar came in, plundered the city and took Israel captive The duration of that time lasts from that captivity until the King returns

The times of the Gentiles, the times of the nations began when the glory of the Lord departed from Israel and the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar came in, took Israel captive And the nations have ruled in that land and will do so until, until the return of Jesus Christ our Lord Psalm 2 says it this way He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them Then he will speak to them in his anger and terrify them in his fury But as for me, I have installed my King upon Zion, my holy mountain It goes on to say in verse number nine, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron

Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware Now, therefore, O Kings, show discernment, take warning O judges of the earth Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling Do harm unto the son lest he become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled How blessed are all who take refuge in him God will move in and he will install his King on Mount Zion When he does, the times of the nations will be over That's the period of the nations Now God is so good because he prophesies for us about that period He tells us the characteristics of that period

He tells us about the kingdoms of the world So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Daniel chapter 2 Daniel chapter 2 When you come to Daniel chapter 2, Israel is in Babylon They are taken captive Along with the Israelites is a man by the name of Daniel, a man chosen by God to be used in a unique and precious way Because if you're Israel and you're in captivity, you have one question

Why am I here? If I have a land, it's promised to me through a covenant God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I am longing for a Messiah who will sit on the throne in the city of David in that land, why am I in Babylon? How long will I be here? What's going to happen while I'm here? Is there any hope? Has God failed us? Has God reneged on his promise to us? Has God forgotten his people? Well the answer is no So God will use Daniel in the life of the nation of Israel That they might begin to see the plan of God unfold That's important

Because as you look at the plan, the times of the nations has lasted a really long time But Daniel will unfold to his people Israel what God has for them And that prophecy of the times of the nations will be seen in two visions, one by Nebuchadnezzar and one by Daniel himself And both of them parallel one another as we will see Now you need to follow very carefully Maybe it's difficult for you to take notes Don't take them, just sit and listen Get the CD, listen to it over and over again, it'll all come very clear to you

Because what I'm going to say to you is not just in Daniel, but it's in Revelation as well And God makes it very clear as to the prophecy concerning the times of the nations So when you come to Daniel chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, he has a dream He has a dream But there's a problem He can't remember what the dream is And so he calls the magicians, he calls in the Chaldeans, he calls in all the sorcerers, he calls them all together and he says this, I want you to tell me what my dream was because I forgot my dream

And then I want you to interpret the dream that I have forgotten Well, how are they going to do that? How are they going to figure out what he dreamt when they weren't even there, right? How are they going to know that? And Nebuchadnezzar said this, if you don't do that, I will cut every one of you into pieces and I will demolish your homes, which is really no point anyway because if you're cutting to pieces, who needs a home, right? But that's what he says We're going to cut you to pieces and demolish your homes

And so the Chaldeans were wise enough to come to him and say, okay, no one in the history of man has ever done that That just doesn't happen Nobody knows what somebody else dreams, let alone comes and interprets the dream of something that they had no idea what the dream was about That's never happened before And Nebuchadnezzar became furious He became so angry He said, I've made a covenant Here it is You will all be cut to pieces You better do it and you better do it now Well, the Bible says in Daniel chapter two, that Daniel, okay, was one of the wise men in Babylon

That means that Daniel doesn't come up with the answer He too is going to be cut to pieces So Daniel in verse number 14 replies with discretion and discernment to Ariok, the captain of the king's bodyguard He says, very simple, look, give me just a brief amount of time You give me a brief amount of time and I'll explain to the king his dream and then interpret the dream And so Nebuchadnezzar, I'm sorry, Daniel, verse 17, went to his house, informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the three that had their names changed to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

Those were the three Hebrew wise men along with Daniel And they began to pray That's what I would do if I was them. I would begin to pray too and ask the Lord to have compassion on me so I wasn't cut into pieces And in verse 19, then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision It doesn't tell us what the mystery was, how it was revealed to him It was revealed to him And then he goes to the king He goes to the king and says, I have your answer This is how it begins Verse number 27

Daniel answered before the king and said, as for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king In other words, what you're asking, nobody can do However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in, listen carefully, the latter days The phrase latter days is an eschatological term used over and over again throughout the scripture to talk about the consummation of the ages and the reign of the Messiah That's very important to understand

Daniel comes and says, I'm going to be able to explain to you because the God of heaven has revealed it to me He's going to put the king on a different plane He's going to put the king on a plane that rises above the natural into the realm of the supernatural And God will use this man, Daniel God is so good God gave a dream to Nebuchadnezzar

God caused him to forget the dream so that Daniel would come on the scene, God's man at God's time to be able to interpret a dream that no one else knew about, but God would reveal to Daniel so that the king would understand what was going to happen in the latter days In other words, as you understand the story of prophecy, never miss this point God is sovereign He rules over all He's in complete control of everything, every single thing And so Daniel says, this was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed So now he's going to tell him what his dream was

Everybody with me so far? Here we go Verse number 31 You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue, that statue, which was large It was massive It was immense and of extraordinary splendor That was, it was bright It was glorious It was shining Was standing in front of you and its appearance was awesome Or in other words, it was terrifying You were scared to death because of the awesome appearance of this image that stood before you

The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet, partly of iron and partly of clay You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them Now let me say very carefully and very concisely at this point, that that's a very important statement That the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, did not crush the head, did not crush the arms and the chest, did not crush the legs, but it crushed the feet of iron and clay

Very important for you to remember that Okay? Then the iron and clay, the bronze and the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found, but the stone that struck the statue became a great nun and filled the whole earth There's your dream There you have it Right there Nutshell Just a couple of verses Bing, bang, bada boom There it is Now what's all that mean? You say, well, you read this and I have no idea what that means Well, the king didn't either

But see, God was going to reveal to Daniel what the dream meant So here it is Verse 36 This was the dream Now we, who's the we? That's Daniel, that's Hananiah, that's Mishael, that's Azariah, and the God of heaven That's all included in the we We shall tell its interpretation before the king You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory, and wherever the sons of men dwell, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has caused you to rule over them all Stop right there

He says very simply, you are the king of the kings He made it clear once and for all that what you have, you have, because God gave it to you And that's important Because sometimes we get a little worried about what's going on in the world, right? But there's no fear Every authority that a king has, he has because God gave it to him Every president that sits in the White House is there because God put him there Every prime minister, whether it's the prime minister of Israel or the prime minister of Canada, they are there because the Lord put them there

Every queen, every king, every prince is given authority because God allowed them to be there So much so that the Bible says in Romans 13 verse number 1, there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God Everybody who rules, whether it's Mussolini, whether it's Hitler, are all ordained by God Please don't miss that Acts 17 26, God has determined the times before appointed and the bounds or the boundaries of their nations, of their habitation God determines everything

So Nebuchadnezzar begins by saying, the God of heaven who has revealed this dream to me is the God who has given you authority and power and dominion over all the beasts of the field, over all the authority that you have It's all been granted to you It's a gift from the king That's how he begins the interpretation of his vision And then he says this, you are the head of gold Now that's important because if we were not told that Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, we would not be able to interpret any of the rest of the image

But because we are told that, we know that Nebuchadnezzar is representative in the image as the head of gold That's pretty simplistic We can understand that because it says right there, you O king, you're the head of gold Now, why gold? Why silver? Why bronze or brass? And why iron? Why is that in the image? God is so precise in his prophecy God is so clear in relaying to us what he wants us to know because gold was important in Babylon

It was so important that Herodotus, who visited Babylon 70 years after its demise, was able to find vessels of gold, streets of gold, walls overlaid in gold all throughout the city of Babylon Truly, it was a golden city Truly, the prophecy is completely accurate Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom, he ruled for 43 years The kingdom lasted 70 years His kingdom lasted as long as Israel was in captivity And the king, king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar represents the head of gold Now, notice this Of the four world empires that we will see this evening, no monarch is mentioned after him Only kingdoms

His was the only absolute monarchy When the king returns, it will be a theocracy God himself will rule on the throne But Nebuchadnezzar is the only king that's named The rest of them are kingdoms They had kings and rulership, but he is the absolute monarch Commentator Leon Wood said this, Nebuchadnezzar was uniquely responsible for Babylon's attaining and maintaining empire status After him, its power diminished rapidly It was far more his kingdom than he was its king The same was not true of any ruler of the succeeding empires

And so, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is represented by the head of gold Now, we move down the image to the next part, the part of the chest and the arms that are represented by silver So, the question comes, which kingdom followed Babylon? The answer are the Medes and the Persians, Medo-Persia Ironically, they followed, but in God's timetable, they're represented by two arms because there were two aspects of that kingdom, the Medes section and the Persian section That's very important to understand when we come to Daniel chapter seven

How did that happen? We know that happened because in Daniel chapter five, we read where Beltshazzar, who was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, ruling in Babylon, had himself a drunken orgy And there was handwriting on the wall And that handwriting on the wall in Daniel chapter five read very simply these words, many, many techo you farson, which means simply this is the interpretation of the message God has numbered your kingdom and he's put it to an end And sure enough, it says in verse number 30, that same night, Beltshazzar, the Chaldean king was slain

So Darius the Mede received the kingdom at the age of 62 So we know that what the Medes and the Persians did was very simple We route the river Euphrates so they could go under the walls of Jerusalem and under the walls of Babylon and take the city and win the battle And they became the second world empire Why silver? Because the Medes and Persian enacted a taxation and they required that all taxes be paid in silver See, God is accurate and precise in the colors or in the metals of the image First there was gold, then there was silver

The gold representing Babylon, the gold and silver, the silver representing the Medes and the Persian, the two arms and the chest Next came the thighs of bronze or the thighs of brass Another kingdom, a third kingdom, and this kingdom shall rule the entire earth Which kingdom is that? Well, that's simply the kingdom of Greece that followed Medo-Persia The kingdom of Greece under the leadership of Alexander the Great swiftly went through and became the leaders of the world powers It was Greece And we have in the book of Daniel exactly how that happened Let me read it to you

Daniel chapter eight reads as follows Verse number five While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath And I saw him come beside the ram, and he was enraged at him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns, and the ram had no strength to withstand him

So he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him, and there was none to rescue the ram from his power Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly, but as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken, and in his place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven That vision simply relays to us exactly how Alexander the Great destroyed the Medes and the Persians Alexander the Great is the one horn The Medes and the Persians have two horns

And upon the destruction he became great, but he became great, and at the age of 32 Alexander died, and there were four generals that rose up after him, but they were not nearly as powerful as Alexander the Great You say to me, how do you know all that? Read on Daniel chapter 8, verse number 20 The ram which you saw with the two horns represents the kings of Media and Persia See? Told you Verse 21, and the shaggy goat represents the kingdom of Greece That's written by Alexander And the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king

And the broken horn and the four horns that arose in its place represent four kingdoms which will arise from his nation, although not with his power There you have it See that? So God interprets division You see, it's like the book of Revelation If you read far enough, and you read long enough, God always tells you what division is And so we know that it was Alexander the Great, who at the age of 32 died, and there were four generals that rose up after him, but none of them were as powerful as Alexander the Great was Question comes, why bronze? W.A

Criswell in his commentary on Daniel says this, it is easy to imagine what an astonishing impression the Greeks must have made on the civilized world Consider the contrast between their soldiers and the soldiers of the Persian army Had you seen a soldier of Media or Persia in the days when they controlled the civilized world, he would have looked like this On his head would have been a soft turban-like covering He would have been clothed with a tunic, with sleeves, and with trousers full and long That would have been the Medo-Persian soldier

But when you saw a Greek soldier, he would have had on his head a helmet of brass, and on his body a breastplate of brass And before him he would be carrying a shield of brass, and a sword of brass And that is why the classic writers of ancient days will refer to the brazen-coated Greeks, brass became a sign and a symbol of Greek conquest and of the Greek empire The brass, the bronze of the image, represents Alexander the Great, Greece, as he would run swiftly through, destroy the Medo-Persian empire and become the ruler We'll see just to our fourth empire And the Bible says this

You with me so far? It's not that difficult, right? Pretty simple Wait and see next Then there will be a fourth king Here's the fourth kingdom Excuse me, a fourth kingdom As strong as iron, inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces And in that you saw the feet and the toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom, but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay

Well, we know that's Rome, because Rome was a divided kingdom, the east and the west And that was the kingdom that followed Alexander the Great, his four generals, in Greece, the Greeks It was the Roman empire, symbolized by the legs of iron So you see the hardness of the metal from the gold to the iron as it progresses downward to show the symbolism of the power and the might of the Roman army That's very important Babylon, their empire lasted 70 years The Medo-Persian empire and the Greek empire lasted around, both of them, 200 years

But the Roman empire, well, half of it lasted, the west lasted 500 years, and the east lasted until 1432 AD, lasted a long time That's important, as you will see, because what happens next is significant Listen carefully It says in verse number 42, and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay They will combine with one another in the seat of men, but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery

So there's much to do about the toes, the feet Now listen carefully to the next verse And in the days of those kings, what kings? Not Rome So the kings must represent something, and the kings are represented by the 10 different toes And that will all begin to unfold for you in a moment, okay? So we know the toes are represented by kings, okay? We also know, and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom, which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people

It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, and the clay, the silver, the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future, so the dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy In other words, there's going to be a stone cut out of the mountain This is a supernatural stone This supernatural stone became a stumbling stone

That stumbling stone is the stone which by itself was a smitten stone, and that smitten stone became only salvation's stone We know that Genesis tells us that the shepherd of Israel will be a stone We know that Psalm 118 tells us that there's a chief cornerstone We know that Jesus Christ is the rock that was smitten, according to 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 4 So we know that a cut, the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, meaning there was no human instrument involved in the cutting out of the stone, symbolizing the virgin birth of Christ

Say, how do you know all that? Well, we do know this We do know that that stone crushed those kings We do know that, and those kings are representative of the toes of the image that are partly iron and partly clay So we know that whatever kingdom is before the arrival of the Messiah, it's a Roman kingdom But we know it wasn't Rome, the Rome that followed Greece, because there has been no stone cut out to demolish and to destroy Rome In fact, Rome was never really truly destroyed By its own dormancy, by its own internal decay, it went off the scene

Yes, there were different Turks and Vols and Huns who came in and were instrumental in working towards the destruction of that nation But we know that it never was crushed and suddenly fell That's going to happen in the future It has to happen in the future because the kingdom of God crushes the toes, the feet of clay That is significant Why is that? For this simple reason The Bible wants us to be very concise and precise in terms of how it is we interpret what happens So we know that the 10 toes represent 10 kings because they're kings

That means Rome, which is symbolized by the bottom half of that image, must have a 10 nation confederacy And Rome has never had a 10 nation confederacy ruled by 10 kings It will come because the stone crushes the feet where the 10 toes are representative of 10 kings You still with me? Let me make it even more clear Turn to Daniel chapter 7 Daniel chapter 7 gives us another vision, the vision that Daniel had And this vision will clarify the vision that Nebuchadnezzar had, but it will do it in a different way Instead of an image of gold and silver and bronze and iron, they're images of beasts

Okay? And so when you go to Daniel chapter 7, you will note that the parallels are very unique In chapter 2, there are four symbols of kingdoms followed by Messiah's kingdom In Daniel 7, there are four symbols of kingdoms followed by Messiah's kingdom In chapter 2, there is a duality in the second kingdom, the Medo-Persian empire In chapter 7, there's a duality of kingdoms as well We will see In chapter 2, there is a tenfold division of the fourth kingdom In chapter 7, there is a tenfold division of the fourth kingdom In chapter 2, there are 10 toes In chapter 7, there are 10 horns

With me so far? Just trying to show you the parallel between chapter 2 and chapter 7 But there's one distinct difference in chapter 7 There is a little horn that comes He is the key to the fourth kingdom, the Roman kingdom And it shows us the confederacy of that kingdom With that in mind, Daniel 7, verse number 2 says, Daniel said, I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another

Now, why does God give a vision of beasts to Daniel in chapter 7? I will show you in just one moment Stay with me The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked And it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. A human mind also was given to it That simply follows the image of Daniel 2 with the Babylonian kingdom under the rulership of Nebuchadnezzar Even the contemporaries of Daniel wrote of Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar as a king who was like a lion, a king who was one with wings

And the archaeological digs in Babylon had a plethora of them, symbols of lions with wings So that first beast is representative of Nebuchadnezzar who was humiliated His wings were plucked from him He was made to walk like a beast for seven years until God humiliated him and put him back again in his right mind, put him on his two feet It's a symbol of the Babylonian empire And behold another beast, a second one resembling a bear So now you have a lion, a winged lion and a bear And it was raised up on one side

Why was it raised up on one side? Because the Persians were the power in the Medo-Persian empire That's why They were the stronger of the two And three ribs were in its mouth and commentators differ on those three ribs Were those three ribs in its mouth represent, I believe, Babylon, Egypt and Lydia, three enemies of the Medo-Persian empire that were destroyed And it says, between its teeth and thus they said to it, arise, devour much meat And that's exactly what Medo-Persia did After this, I kept looking and behold another one like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird

And the beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it There you had the symbol of a leopard with the four wings symbolizing Alexander and his rule as short as it was And the four generals that would oversee and begin to rule after he died After this, I kept looking in the night vision Behold, a fourth beast, a dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong And it had large iron teeth that devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet And it was different from all the other beasts that were before it

And Rome was completely different than all the other beasts before it And it had, here you go, 10 horns Nebuchadnezzar's image had 10 toes Now it didn't say 10 toes This says the toes, but you know, most feet have five toes on each foot, right? So it'd be 10 toes, which parallel 10 horns While I was contemplating the horns, behold another horn, a little one came up among them And three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it And behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts So what is all that about? Daniel has concerns

He asked questions So God in his sovereignty gives him the answers You ready? Here they are It says in verse 23, thus he said, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms And it will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it That's exactly what Rome did As for the 10 horns out of this kingdom, 10 kings will arise and another will arise after them And he will be different from the previous ones and will subdue three kings So we know the 10 horns are 10 kings

We know that the little horn subdues three of those 10 kings, which then makes the other seven kings automatically subject to the little horn who rules He will speak out against the most high and wear down the saints of the highest one And he will intend to make alterations in times and in law, and they will be given into his hand, listen carefully, for a time, times and half a time In other words, for three and one half years or in for 42 months or for 1260 days So whoever this little horn is, this antichrist, he rules He's given dominion for a short time

Then it says, but the court will sit for judgment and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatest greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints to the highest one His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom and all the minions will serve and obey him At this point, the revelation ended As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself

Daniel has a vision of four beasts, which parallel the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, which he interpreted in Daniel chapter two The difference being is that there are 10 toes on the image and there are 10 horns in this vision We know that from Revelation chapter two, those toes are Kings that are destroyed by the stone that's cut out of the mountain without hands

We know from Daniel seven, that those 10 horns are 10 Kings and they are destroyed under the leadership of the little horn, the antichrist by the Messiah who demolishes them and crushes them and sets up his kingdom, a kingdom that will last forever You with me so far? So why does Daniel get a vision of beasts? Listen to Revelation 13 Revelation 13 He's still in the sand of the seashore Verse one And I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having 10 horns and seven heads And on his horns were 10 diadems and on his heads were blasphemous names And the beast, which I saw was like a leopard

His feet were like those of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion When John saw the vision in Revelation 13, he knew what Daniel saw in Daniel chapter seven, meaning that the beast is the embodiment of the strength and power and swiftness and ferociousness of a lion, a leopard and a bear He embodies all the strength of all the kingdoms that ever existed before him That's why Daniel receives the vision of the beast characters So when John in Revelation chapter 13 sees the vision, he automatically goes back and begins to understand exactly what's happening This is so crucial

Daniel says, when I saw it, I became white as a ghost. I became pale because of the enormity of what's going to take place in the latter days What's our response? Once we read and begin to understand those things Listen to Revelation 17 How much time do I have left? Show me the time so I can make sure I get everything done when I get done Okay Revelation chapter 17 Revelation 17 says this, here was the mind which has wisdom, 17 verse number nine, seven heads or seven mountains on which this woman sits The woman is the harlot, the Babylonian harlot And they are seven kings Five have fallen

One is, and the other has not yet come Five have fallen Simply Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece They've all fallen One is, what's that? The revived Roman empire And one has not yet come That's the one that's going to come with the 10 toes or the 10 horns or the 10 kings ruled by one king And the beast which was and is not is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven So the beast is one of the seven, but because the beast fakes his death and his resurrection, as we will see next week, he not only is the seventh king, he's the eighth king Okay

And it says, and he goes to destruction Listen carefully And the 10 horns which you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. 10 kings, not yet, but they're coming Rome has never had a 10 nation confederacy, but they will There will be a revival of the Roman empire It will take place because of the vision of Daniel two, Daniel seven, and what John sees in revelation chapter 17 Having said all that, I'm not a prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet

But if you read your papers and you understood what took place in 2009 at what is called the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Now why they would meet in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a bewilderment to me, but that's where they met It was in response to the global recession and the difficulties in what is happening in the world And this G20 summit is a group of, or a collection of finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's 19 largest economies, including United States, Japan, China, Russia, plus a representative, listen carefully, from the 27 member European union

So the European union has 27 members as of this day And so one representative plus 19 of the largest economies got together because they had to solve and make a framework for a new world order, which prompted the president of our country to say these words in Prague, right after that summit, all nations must come together to build a stronger global regime The British prime minister commented by saying, I think a new world order is emerging with the foundation of new progressive era of international cooperation With the summation being that there must be a worldwide currency

So everybody is on the same page because the human dollar is decreasing rapidly To do so, everybody must buy into a one world currency They said the possibility of that will happen within the next 10 to 15 years But that's not what's interesting What's interesting is this There was an article published in the globalist paper analyzing the C20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania And the recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of the representative body of world leaders would include, listen carefully, whittling down the number of member countries from 20 to a core group of 10

With the possibility of it happening by the year 2012 So I'm not a prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet, but revelation 17 verse number 12 says these 10 Kings receive authority for one hour That phrase one hour can refer to a day, a part of a day, or a literal 60 minute time period So in reality, revelation 1712, you could have 10 Kings who rule the world And in the space of one small hour, the Antichrist will convince them that he will be the ruler of the world And they will submit to him because the King has given them, that is the Antichrist has given them authority

And it says that they will have authority for just one hour, a very brief moment of time That's important And Charles McCracken, who is the Canadian director of friends of Israel says this, he says, the common bond in their relationship with the Antichrist will be their animosity toward God and all who hold to a biblical worldview Ultimately, this 10 leader coalition will join the beast in his audacious attempt to prevent Jesus Christ's return to establish the messianic kingdom Today, people again believe that through global consensus, they can resolve the myriad of issues facing the planet

They are turning toward global governance to prevent environmental disaster, energy shortages, economic instability, unfair trade practices, nuclear annihilation, religious intolerance, terrorism, overpopulation, pandemics, and world hunger The plan to unite the world in a spirit of global cooperation, however, will culminate with the earth subjugated by a demon possessed despot ruling the ultimate totalitarian empire and the dream of a godless utopia with people living together in perfect harmony will morph into the world's worst nightmare

Meaning that the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, the dream that Daniel had is the nightmare of the entire world But there is coming a king who will rule the world with truth and grace because that's who he is Let's pray Father, thank you, Lord, for today, the chance to spend some time in your word and pray that, Lord, our lives would reflect your glory As Daniel would respond with great terror as to what he saw in his vision, where the world was going, and we, Lord, look back and see what's taken place in Babylon, in Medo-Persia, Greece, and, of course, Rome

We know that one day there will be a 10-nation, 10-king, 10-toe, 10-horn confederacy that will be toppled by the Antichrist himself, who will rule and reign for just a short, brief moment of time And you will return You will set up your kingdom and show the entire world who a king really is To that day, Lord, we pray Come quickly, Lord Jesus Come In Jesus' name we pray Amen.